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Chase DeLauter Undergoes Core Muscle Surgery

By Darragh McDonald | March 4, 2025 at 1:25pm CDT

The Guardians announced that outfield prospect Chase DeLauter underwent surgery to address a core muscle/sports hernia injury this morning. As part of the announcement, the club relayed that similar cases have required players about eight to twelve weeks to return to play.

DeLauter, 23, is one of the club’s top prospects. The 16th overall pick from the 2022 draft, he has 406 minor league plate appearances under his belt thus far, having hit .317/.387/.517 in those for a 147 wRC+.

He isn’t yet on the club’s 40-man roster but he came into camp as a non-roster invitee. That technically put him in the competition for an Opening Day job, though that was always going to be a bit of a long shot. While he’s had strong results in terms of quality, injuries have stood in the way of quantity.

He was once projected as a potential top ten pick in the draft but a foot injury created some concern and caused him to fall to 16th. Recurring foot injuries have held him back since then, with DeLauter getting into just 57 minor league games in 2023 and 39 games in 2024.

Though his numbers have been good and he does have six Triple-A games on his track record already, the Guardians were likely planning to have him get more reps in a minor league environment to start 2025. That plan will now have to be delayed, as DeLauter should be on the shelf into May or June.

Given that injuries have already prevented him from building a notable workload, it’s less than ideal that this season is starting with yet another setback. Though if DeLauter is able to return in eight to twelve weeks, he would still have time to set a new career high in terms of games played in a professional season.

Once he gets healthy and into form, there could be a path to big league playing time in the Cleveland outfield. Steven Kwan and Lane Thomas should have left and center field spoken for, respectively, though Thomas is an impending free agent after 2025. Right field, DeLauter’s likely future position, will be handled by some combination of Will Brennan, Jhonkensy Noel and Johnathan Rodríguez. Both Noel and Rodríguez just debuted in the majors last year. Brennan has a bit more experience but with subpar offense and questionable defense.

In the long run, the Guards are surely still hoping for DeLauter to take up a job in that outfield mix, though he will ideally show some extended health at some point. For now, it’s yet another roadblock but hopefully one he can overcome in a few weeks/months. Even if he doesn’t push for a major league debut during the 2025 season, he’ll need to be added to the 40-man in December to be protected from the Rule 5 draft.

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Cleveland Guardians Chase DeLauter

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MLBTR Chat Transcript

By Steve Adams | March 4, 2025 at 12:59pm CDT

Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.

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MLBTR Chats

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Job Posting: Baseball Research Analyst At Boras Corporation

By Steve Adams | March 4, 2025 at 11:11am CDT

From time to time, as a service to our readers, MLB Trade Rumors will post job opportunities of possible interest that are brought to our attention. MLBTR has no affiliation with the hiring entity and no role in the hiring process.

Position: Baseball Research Analyst — Full-time
Location: Newport Beach, CA

Description:
The Boras Corporation has an immediate opening for a creative, well-organized team player with a genuine interest in a career in baseball. You will be working in an office-based setting with others responsible for handling a variety of research, statistical and analytical needs. The ideal candidate will have personal experience in a team-sports environment combined with ability to present complex information in a visual presentation.

Minimum qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university (or sufficient relevant experience)
  • Prior baseball or team sports experience
  • Proficient in presentations, visual graphics, and Microsoft Excel
  • Outstanding communication, analytical, and organizational skills
  • Able to operate under short deadlines in a fast-paced environment
  • Salary range: $68,700 to $80,000

To apply:

Please send an email with the subject “Open BC Position” to borascorpcandidate@gmail.com by the end of Sunday, March 16, 2025.

Emails should include a PDF of your resume. Please, no cover letters. Additionally, the body of the email should contain the following, in this order:

  • Your full contact information
  • How you obtained this listing
  • Any details about athletic experience

Emails that do not contain all of this information will not be considered.

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Industry Job Openings

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Mets, Royals Discussed Starling Marte Earlier This Offseason

By Steve Adams | March 4, 2025 at 10:46am CDT

The Royals showed interest in Starling Marte earlier in the offseason, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Those talks obviously didn’t produce a deal, but Sherman adds that Kansas City hasn’t completely closed the door on the possibility. There’s no indication talks are active, but it’s nevertheless notable that the Royals are still interested to an extent. It shows that Kansas City is still weighing options to bring in an outfield bat and that they perhaps have some financial flexibility even with a player payroll that’s nearly $20MM north of last year’s spending levels.

Of course, the Royals wouldn’t be taking on the entirety of Marte’s salary in a trade. The 36-year-old is entering the final season of a four-year, $78MM contract and is owed $19.5MM in 2025. Coming off a pedestrian .269/.327/.388 batting line (104 wRC+), Marte is no longer productive enough for another team to have interest in taking on the full freight of his salary. The Mets have reportedly been willing to pay down a portion of that $19.5MM.

Health is another factor to consider. Marte missed the final seven weeks of the 2023 season with a groin strain and was out for nearly two months last summer due to a bone bruise in his right knee. He’s been hobbled by ongoing discomfort in that same knee this spring and has yet to appear in a game. Manager Carlos Mendoza did suggest yesterday that Marte could get into a game within the next few days (link via Newsday’s Tim Healey), but presumably any team looking into the possibility of acquiring him would want to see the veteran outfielder get into a few games to demonstrate that he’s healthy enough to be considered likely for Opening Day.

The Royals’ interest in Marte makes some sense on paper. They’ve been looking for an outfield bat for much of the offseason and have come up empty. The Royals have looked into various trade targets and reportedly made offers to free agents Anthony Santander and Jurickson Profar, who instead signed with the Blue Jays and Braves, respectively. Last year’s primary outfield of MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel and Hunter Renfroe was among the least-productive outfield groups in all of MLB. The Royals plan to give trade acquisition Jonathan India and infielder Michael Massey some work in left field this season, but the broad outfield outlook remains bleak if they can’t get a long-awaited Melendez breakout and/or a return to form for the veteran Renfroe.

When the two sides talked earlier in the offseason, per Sherman, the Mets expressed interest in Royals relievers Hunter Harvey and Angel Zerpa. Kansas City understandably didn’t have interest in moving a quality reliever to buy low on an expensive veteran in his mid-30s.

Unless the Mets are willing to take on the second season of a two-year deal for Chris Stratton, who hasn’t panned out as hoped in K.C., it’s hard to envision them prying a member of the Royals’ bullpen away in a Marte swap. Harvey was excellent for much of the 2024 season but struggled in July before landing on the injured list with what proved to be a season-ending back issue in August. He’s being paid $3.7MM this year in his final season of club control. Zerpa isn’t even arb-eligible yet and is controllable through 2028. He posted a 3.86 ERA with a 20.5% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and massive 58.4% grounder rate in 2024. Both are in line to play notable roles for manager Matt Quatraro.

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Kansas City Royals New York Mets Angel Zerpa Hunter Harvey Starling Marte

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The Opener: Brewers, Sasaki, MLBTR Chat

By Nick Deeds | March 4, 2025 at 8:34am CDT

As Spring Training continues, here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye on today:

1. Brewers 40-man move, MRI results on the way:

The Brewers added a veteran arm to their rotation yesterday when they agreed to a one-year deal with southpaw Jose Quintana. That signing will require a corresponding 40-man roster move before it can become official. The Brewers don’t have an obvious candidate for a trip to the 60-day injured list at the moment, though an exact timetable for southpaw DL Hall, who’s dealing with a lat injury, remains uncertain. At the time of the injury, manager Pat Murphy said Hall would be shut down from throwing for several weeks. There’s been no firm update since, but that comment came nearly three weeks ago already. If Hall can resume throwing in the next week or two, he presumably wouldn’t need a two-month absence to begin the regular season.

The Brewers do have another injury situation to monitor, as lefty Aaron Ashby suffered an oblique injury during his start yesterday. He’s undergoing imaging to determine the severity of the issue. Initial tests suggested that Ashby’s injury is unlikely to require a months-long absence, but the Brewers could wait until they have more information about the southpaw’s timetable before designating a player for assignment to open a roster spot for Quintana.

2. Sasaki to make spring debut:

Among the many impact free agents signed this winter, perhaps none will have a spring debut more eagerly anticipated than right-hander Roki Sasaki. The 23-year-old phenom came over to MLB this winter after four dominant seasons with NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines and eventually signed on with the Dodgers near the end of his posting window. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including MLB.com’s Sonja Chen) last week that Sasaki would make his first appearance today, though he won’t start the game. Rather, Sasaki is expected to follow behind starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the Dodgers square off with the Reds. The game, which is scheduled for 6:05pm local time, will see the Reds send top prospect Chase Petty to the mound opposite Yamamoto. Petty, a former first-round pick, came to Cincinnati in the 2022 trade that shipped Sonny Gray to the Twins.

3. MLBTR Chat today:

The first regular season games of the year are just two weeks away, though a handful of of MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents remain unsigned and some clubs still have more work to do before the start of the season. Whether you have a trade proposal in the back of your mind or questions about an upcoming camp battle this spring, MLBTR’s Steve Adams will be here to answer your questions during a live chat scheduled for 1pm CT. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.

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The Opener

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Orioles, Nationals Announce Resolution Of MASN Dispute

By Steve Adams | March 3, 2025 at 11:58pm CDT

The Orioles and Nationals announced Monday morning that their yearslong dispute regarding television rights fees from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) has reached a final resolution.

Per this morning’s press release, MASN and the Nationals have come to terms on a one-year agreement for the team’s 2025 television broadcasts. The Nats are free to explore alternative broadcast opportunities for the 2026 season and beyond. Further, this morning’s announcement plainly lays out that “all disputes related to past media rights between the Nationals, Orioles, and MASN have been resolved, and all litigation will be dismissed.”

The dispute between the two franchises spans nearly two decades, dating back to the network’s establishment in 2005. While MASN is technically co-owned by the Orioles and Nationals, the Baltimore franchise has had the controlling stake in the network since the network was established in 2005.

As part of the then-Expos’ relocation to Washington D.C., the franchise agreed to tie its television rights to the newly created MASN, with the Orioles controlling the majority stake of the network. That split was gradually set to become more balanced over the years, with the O’s currently holding about a three-to-one stake in the network. The arrangement was brokered as compensation for the Expos/Nationals franchise moving into the Orioles’ geographic territory. The two parties have never seen eye to eye on how rights fees should be divided, leading to multiple rounds of litigation over the past decade-plus. Under the relocation agreement, the Nationals have been barred from selling their broadcast rights to another regional network. That’s no longer the case.

That ugly legal battle and the fiscal uncertainty inherently tied to negotiations loomed large over the sale process for both the Nationals and the Orioles. The Angelos family eventually came to terms on a $1.725 billion sale of the Orioles to a group led by Baltimore native and billionaire David Rubenstein anyhow. The Lerner family, who own the Nationals, explored a sale of the team for more than a year but never came to terms with a potential buyer. Uncertainty regarding the team’s broadcast future was reportedly an impediment in the Lerner family’s sale efforts — understandably so.

The MASN saga has been a constant subplot for both franchises for the better part of two decades. There have been legal battles throughout. The first seven years saw the Nats’ television rights locked in at a fixed rate that they’ve since called heavily favorable to the Orioles. Subsequent rights fees were to be brokered between the two parties in five-year periods. None has proceeded smoothly.

The 2012-16  period was still wrapped up in litigation as recently as 2023. An arbitration panel ruled in favor of the Nationals as they sought unpaid rights fees for those seasons, but various waves of negotiations and an eventual elevation of the case to the New York Court of Appeals continually delayed the process. The two teams also went to court over rights distributions for the 2017-21 seasons. As of this January, the Nats had filed a motion with the Supreme Court of New York asking that the court confirm a ruling from MLB’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee that the Orioles owed an additional $320MM in fees for the 2022-26 seasons. In essence, the two teams have been in a standstill over the exact amount of television rights to be paid out for more than a decade.

Today’s announcement serves as a watershed moment for both organizations, as messy and near-interminable legal proceedings will no longer be required to continue in perpetuity. Both will have more direct control over their payroll and more understanding of their long-term financial security. Arguments as to whether the MASN arrangement was “fair” to either party or as to which side ultimately came away in the more favorable position will persist among onlookers — particularly as further details surrounding this resolution come to light — but the end result will be greater autonomy over broadcast revenues for both parties moving forward.

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Baltimore Orioles Newsstand Washington Nationals

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Aaron Ashby Headed For Imaging On Oblique Strain

By Anthony Franco | March 3, 2025 at 11:15pm CDT

Brewers left-hander Aaron Ashby departed today’s Spring Training start in the second inning due to injury. After the game, manager Pat Murphy told Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the southpaw suffered an oblique strain. Murphy indicated that early tests suggest the injury will not necessitate a months-long absence. However, a firm timetable won’t be known until Ashby goes for further testing tomorrow.

It’s a setback in the 26-year-old’s efforts to secure a rotation spot. Ashby was probably ticketed for the bullpen following the team’s agreement with Jose Quintana on a $4.25MM free agent deal. Quintana can slot behind Freddy Peralta and alongside Nestor Cortes, Tobias Myers and Aaron Civale in the Opening Day rotation. Ashby may have been the top depth arm in the event that anyone else suffered a Spring Training injury.  The Brewers don’t expect Brandon Woodruff to be ready for Opening Day after he lost the 2024 season to shoulder surgery. DL Hall suffered a lat strain last month and will be down for several weeks.

Any kind of significant oblique issue would ensure Ashby begins the season on the injured list as well. That’d leave swingman Tyler Alexander as the only healthy depth starter on the 40-man roster who has more than a few weeks of major league service. Inexperienced pitchers Carlos Rodriguez, Chad Patrick, Logan Henderson and Elvin Rodriguez are on the 40-man. Bruce Zimmermann and Thomas Pannone are in camp as non-roster invitees.

Even if he didn’t crack the rotation, a healthy Ashby would probably begin the season in the bullpen. He impressed in a multi-inning relief role last year. Ashby turned in a 2.86 earned run average across 28 1/3 innings. He fanned 27.7% of opponents while getting ground-balls at a massive 58.6% clip. His lone playoff appearance was a disaster — he allowed all five baserunners to reach in his outing in the Wild Card Series against the Mets — but his MLB regular season numbers were strong. Few pitchers have the ability to get both whiffs and grounders at the rates that he can.

That upside convinced the Brewers to sign the former fourth-round pick to a $20.5MM extension three years ago. While he continues to flash a significant ceiling, he has yet to find consistency. That’s mostly on account of injury. Ashby battled shoulder problems almost immediately after signing the extension in July 2022. He underwent an arthroscopic shoulder procedure the following April that cost him the entire ’23 season. He returned to health last season but could not find the strike zone with any kind of regularity while working as a starter in Triple-A.

Ashby was torched for more than eight earned runs per nine across 84 minor league frames, largely because of an untenable 17.4% walk rate. He started 14 of his 25 appearances. His strong finish at the MLB level came in 1-2 inning stints out of the bullpen. Ashby’s long-term future might well be in relief, but Murphy said at the start of the offseason that Milwaukee wasn’t willing to abandon hope of him sticking as a starter.

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Milwaukee Brewers Aaron Ashby

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Nationals Pursuing Stadium Naming Rights Deal

By Anthony Franco | March 3, 2025 at 9:52pm CDT

In January, the Nationals began processes to sell the naming rights to their stadium and find a sponsor for jersey patches, reports Brett Night of Forbes. Chief revenue officer Mike Carney told Night that the team is hopeful to announce those partnerships midseason.

Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post wrote last August about the Nats’ desire to reach those agreements. She noted at the time that the Nationals were the only team that had neither a stadium rights deal nor jersey sponsorships.

The change is only really relevant to fans in the sense that it could impact the team’s spending habits. Forbes estimates that the deals — which will be negotiated separately, likely with different sponsors — could come with upwards of $20MM in additional revenues annually. Carney loosely alluded to that possibly having an effect on payroll. “We want to be that brand that is a consistent winner year in and year out, and this is going to help to do that,” he told Night.

The Nats have never had a ballpark naming rights agreement. The venue has been known as Nationals Park since its opening in 2008. The Nationals are one of eight teams that doesn’t have a corporate sponsor for its stadium. The Dodgers, Angels, Red Sox, Cubs, Yankees, Orioles and Royals are the others. That doesn’t include the A’s (Sutter Health Park) and Rays (George M. Steinbrenner Field), who are in temporary homes for at least the upcoming season.

While the process has been ongoing since January, the Forbes report comes the same day as the Nationals finally settled their longstanding battle with the Orioles over the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. The Washington organization can pursue its own in-market broadcasting opportunities after the 2025 season. That should position them to lock in a more reliable television revenue stream for ’26 and beyond.

The Nationals pushed their competitive balance tax payrolls into the $200MM range each season between 2017-19, according to the Cot’s Baseball Contracts estimates. They’ve dramatically cut spending since winning the World Series six years ago. That coincided with an unsuccessful attempt by the Lerner family to sell the franchise in 2022-23. It has overlapped with a five-year rebuild that saw the team trade Juan Soto, Trea Turner and Max Scherzer in blockbusters to restock the farm system. Between the returns in those trades and the selection of Dylan Crews with the second overall pick in 2023, the Nats have built an encouraging core.

It doesn’t seem they feel that relatively young group is quite ready to take the next step. They shied away from anything more than affordable two-year commitments this offseason. Their estimated $137MM luxury tax payroll (via RosterResource) isn’t meaningfully different from last year’s $140.6MM year-end mark. Owner Mark Lerner justified the relatively quiet winter by opining that the team was probably still a season away from being a true contender.

“When (GM Mike Rizzo) calls me in and says, ‘We really need to think about it,’ for next winter, we’ll talk about it,” Lerner said last month. “Right now, he doesn’t think — and I agree with him: There’s no point in getting a superstar and paying him hundreds of millions of dollars to win two or three more games. You’ve got to wait until — like Jayson [Werth]. Jayson was right on the cusp of [the team] being really good, and it took us to the next level. That’s the ideal situation.“

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Washington Nationals

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Adam Duvall Seeking $3MM+ In Free Agency

By Anthony Franco | March 3, 2025 at 7:42pm CDT

Adam Duvall remains unsigned a few weeks into Spring Training. That was also the case last offseason. It wasn’t until March 14 that the veteran outfielder inked a $3MM contract with the Braves.

Duvall is evidently seeking a similar or better deal this time around. Joel Sherman of The New York Post reports that the 36-year-old has informed teams that he intends to retire unless he’s guaranteed at least $3MM. To that end, Sherman writes that Duvall declined an offer from the Royals that would’ve come with a $1MM guarantee and another $1MM in performance bonuses.

A $3MM contract isn’t much by major league standards, but Duvall is coming off a much worse season than he was when he signed for that amount last spring. The right-handed hitter had a personal-worst .182/.245/.323 batting line over 330 plate appearances. The Braves kept him on the roster all season but dramatically curtailed his playing time as the year progressed. Duvall started 61 games before the All-Star Break but was in the opening lineup on only 13 occasions in the season’s second half. Atlanta left him off their Wild Card roster.

That’s in marked contrast to his productive 2023 campaign while a member of the Red Sox. Duvall popped 21 homers with a .247/.303/.531 slash through 353 trips to the plate two seasons back. While his strikeout and walk numbers were more or less unchanged year over year, his ground-ball rate jumped by 11 percentage points. Duvall’s average exit velocity ticked down by almost two miles per hour. That unsurprisingly impacted his power production, as he managed only 11 homers in nearly as much playing time as he’d had with Boston.

To his credit, Duvall remained productive in a platoon capacity. He hit .252/.341/.514 with eight of his home runs in 123 plate appearances against left-handers last year. His numbers against righties (.143/.188/.219 with three homers in 207 PAs) were unplayable, but he could perhaps contribute if used more selectively. Kansas City was evidently willing to give him a major league roster spot for that role, presumably as a platoon partner for lefty-swinging left fielder MJ Melendez. Their offer wasn’t to his liking, however.

Duvall has played in parts of 11 MLB seasons. He has a little less than nine years of big league service time. Baseball Reference has calculated his career earnings just north of $27MM. While it’s easy to understand teams’ reluctance to match or top last year’s salary after the season he just had, Duvall has banked a lot of money and seems not to be interested in playing for marginally more than the $760K league minimum at this stage of his career.

Brandon Belt seemingly took a similar approach last winter (when he was coming off a much better season than Duvall is). He reportedly declined an incentive-laden offer from the Mets and wound up sitting out the season. Belt hasn’t made an official retirement announcement, but there was nothing to suggest that he was seeking opportunities this offseason. Anthony Rizzo recently told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal that while he wants to continue his career, he has rebuffed interest from teams that “want (him) to play for basically league minimum.” Rizzo, who said he’s concerned that taking what he considers to be an offer below his value could contribute to a precedent that hinders other veteran players, remains a free agent.

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Kansas City Royals Adam Duvall

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Mike Moustakas To Retire

By Darragh McDonald | March 3, 2025 at 5:40pm CDT

The Royals announced that they will have a ceremony on May 31st to honor Mike Moustakas as he retires as a Royal. Presumably, he will sign a ceremonial one-day contract to retire with the club with whom he spent most of his career.

Mike MoustakasMoustakas, now 36, was selected second overall in the 2007 draft. Taken out of Chatsworth High School, Moustakas was one of several high-profile draft picks that the Royals made as part of an aggressive rebuild. In an era prior to the draft lottery, the Royals had nine straight losing seasons from 2004 to 2012, with at least 100 losses in the first three of those seasons. That allowed them to have an desirable draft position for a long stretch of time, getting guys like Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, Moustakas and others in that span.

The hope was that this aggressive rebuild would allow them to build a stockpile of young talent that could eventually slingshot them to future success. Since Moustakas was drafted as an 18-year-old, it took him a few years to get to the majors, debuting in 2011.

He didn’t hit the ground running. By the end of the 2014 campaign, Moustakas had stepped to the plate 1,993 times at the club’s regular third baseman. However, he had hit just .236/.290/.379 in that time for a wRC+ of 82. Though it was taking “Moose” some time to fully acclimate to big league pitching, the club’s fortunes had turned around as hoped. They had made it to the playoffs in 2014 and progressed all the way to the World Series, though they lost a seventh-game heartbreaker to the Giants. Moustakas clubbed five homers in 15 games during that postseason run.

From there, he did find sustained success. Moustakas hit 22 home runs in 2015 and slashed .284/.348/.470 for a wRC+ of 123, easily his best offensive performance to that point. The Royals returned to the postseason and got the job done this time. Moustakas only hit .215/.257/.277 in the 2015 playoffs but the Royals made it back to the World Series, this time defeating the Mets in five games.

Over 2016 and 2017, Moustakas continued to perform as a solid big leaguer. He hit a combined .267/.312/.517 over those two seasons, which translated to a 113 wRC+, though the Royals fell from their heights. They were exactly .500 in 2016 and then finished 80-82 the following year.

Moustakas reached free agency going into 2018 and rejected a $17.4MM qualifying offer with the expectation of finding a robust market. MLBTR predicted he could secure a five-year, $85MM deal that winter. Unfortunately, he didn’t find the interest he was hoping for and lingered on the market unsigned into March. He and the Royals eventually reunited on a one-year, $6.5MM deal, far less than the QO he turned down.

In 2018, he had another solid but not outstanding season, split with the Brewers after a midseason trade. He hit .251/.315/.459 between the two clubs for a 105 wRC+. MLBTR made a far more modest prediction of $16MM over two years going into the next offseason. He returned to the Brewers on a one-year deal but with a slightly better average annual value of $10MM. Milwaukee planned to move Moustakas from third base to second base in deference to Travis Shaw.

With the Brewers that year, his second base defense was graded as close to average, adding some nice versatility to his profile. He hit 35 home runs that year, though his batting average and on-base abilities continued to be less impressive. His .254/.329/.516 batting line translated to a 113 wRC+. MLBTR felt he still had enough juice to get a two-year, $20MM deal but the new position seemed to unlock an extra gear for his earning power. The Reds, who had Joey Votto at first base and Eugenio Suárez at the corners, gave Moustakas a four-year, $64MM deal with the plan to install him at the keystone.

In the shortened 2020 season, Moustakas had another decent campaign. He hit eight home runs and slashed .230/.331/.468 for a wRC+ of 105. That helped the Reds to make the playoffs, their only postseason appearance of the past decade, but they were quickly dispatched without scoring a run in a two-game sweep at the hands of Atlanta.

His production tailed off from there and never really recovered. He put up a line of .227/.291/.372 from 2021 onwards as various injuries limited his ability to take the field. He played less than 80 games in both 2021 and 2022, getting designated for assignment after the latter of those two seasons. He was released and signed with the Rockies. He got into 47 games with them and seemed to be bouncing back, hitting .270/.360/.435, before getting flipped to the Angels. But he then hit just .236/.256/.371 in 65 games for the Halos. Going into 2024, he signed a minor league deal with the White Sox but hit .195/.283/.317 during the spring and was released at the end of camp.

Though he didn’t start or end his career with a bang, he had a strong run for a few years as an above-average player. Overall, he got into 1,427 major league games and stepped to the plate 5,577 times. He hit .247/.307/.431 for a 96 wRC+ and generated 15.1 wins above replacement, per the calculations of FanGraphs. He hit 215 home runs, scored 595 times and drove in 683. From 2015 to 2020, he slashed .262/.326/.490 for a 113 wRC+ and tallied 12.2 fWAR. He made three All-Star clubs in there and won a World Series ring. We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Moustakas on his career and wish him the best in whatever comes next.

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Cincinnati Reds Colorado Rockies Kansas City Royals Los Angeles Angels Milwaukee Brewers Mike Moustakas Retirement

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