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Diamondbacks Sign Kendall Graveman

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February 17: The Graveman signing is now official, with righty Seth Martinez designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

February 14: The Diamondbacks are reportedly in agreement with veteran reliever Kendall Graveman on a one-year, $1.35MM deal. The signing is still pending a physical. Graveman, a client of Sports One Athlete Management, will earn $1.25MM this season and has a $100K buyout on a $5MM mutual option for the 2026 season. The deal includes another $1.95MM in performance bonuses. Arizona will need to create a 40-man roster spot when the deal is finalized.

Graveman, 34, missed the 2024 season while recovering from shoulder surgery but had a strong run between the Mariners, Astros and White Sox across the three prior seasons. The former starter moved to a relief role late in the 2020 season after returning from Tommy John surgery and found fast success in a high-leverage role. From 2021-23, Graveman pitched 187 1/3 innings with a 2.74 ERA, 51 holds, 24 saves, a 24.5% strikeout rate and a 10.4% walk rate.

Though last season was lost to shoulder troubles, Graveman was cleared to begin throwing late last summer. He progressed through a normal offseason throwing and conditioning program and is ready for spring training.

When he’s been healthy, Graveman has relied upon a power sinker sitting north of 96 mph, pairing that offering with an upper-80s slider and a lesser-used changeup that sits 89-90 mph. That heavy sinker has allowed him to consistently post ground-ball rates comfortably north of 50%. The right-hander lost a bit of life on all those pitches in 2023 and saw his command erode considerably in the season’s second half, following a trade from the White Sox back to the Astros.

It’s possible shoulder issues contributed to both those red flags, of course. It’ll be telling how he looks early in camp and early in the season. If Graveman is back to 96-98 mph with his sinker and can get his walk rate back down to the 9% range — it was at 12.4% in 2023 — he’ll be a formidable piece in what should be a strong Diamondbacks bullpen.

D-backs general manager Mike Hazen has been open about his desire to add a closer this offseason. While Graveman may not be handed the role out of the gate, he adds a talented and experienced option for manager Torey Lovullo to consider. If he can get back to 2021-23 form, it’s easy to see Graveman factoring into the ninth inning. Prior to this agreement, the Snakes appeared likely to lean on some combination of A.J. Puk, Justin Martinez and Kevin Ginkel in save opportunities.

The addition of Graveman pushes the Diamondbacks’ payroll a bit north of $195MM, per RosterResource. That’s a franchise-record mark by a wide margin, shattering the previous highwater mark of $163MM, set just last year. Prior to the 2024 season, the D-backs had never opened the season higher than $132MM. They’ve been heavily involved in both the trade and free agent markets in each of the past two offseasons, however, with no bigger strike coming than the club-record $210MM investment in newly signed ace Corbin Burnes.

Since Graveman only bumps the payroll by $600K over a league-minimum player, it’s at least feasible that the D-backs could remain engaged in the market for additional bullpen help. David Robertson and Kyle Finnegan both remain unsigned and have ample closing experience. Craig Kimbrel and Hector Neris are both still out there as well and looking to rebound from shaky 2024 campaigns, while Daniel Bard is an even more extreme rebound candidate as he looks to rebound from flexor tendon surgery that cost him all of the 2024 campaign with his 40th birthday looming in June. The trade market presents additional possibilities, of course, but Hazen said just yesterday that any forthcoming bullpen acquisitions would likely be made via free agency.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers first reported the D-Backs and Graveman had a one-year deal. MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert was first with the $1.35MM guarantee. Rogers reported the maximum $3.3MM value after incentives, while Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reported the mutual option/buyout.

Mike Trout Moving To Right Field

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Angels star Mike Trout met with the team yesterday to discuss his health outlook and potential means of keeping him healthier moving forward. The longtime center fielder now tells reporters that he’ll be shifting to right field in an effort to keep him on the field with more regularity (link via ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez).

Trout’s talents are obvious but his health, or lack thereof, has been the primary focus of his recent career. In the eight seasons from 2012 to 2019, Trout was a fixture for the Angels as their primary center fielder. He never played fewer than 114 games, got into at least 134 games in seven of those eight campaigns and got to 157 contests in four of them. He then played in 53 of the club’s 60 games in the shortened 2020 season.

But he was limited to just 36 games in 2021 by a right calf strain. He played more regularly the following year, but was still capped at 119 contests by back problems. A left hamate fracture was the primary culprit in 2023, with Trout getting into 82 games. Last year, he twice suffered a tear of his left meniscus and only got into 29 games. His production has still been very strong when on the field, but trying to keep him there more often is an obvious goal for the club.

In addition to those mounting injuries, Trout is now 33 years old and will turn 34 in August. His contract runs through 2030 and he therefore still has six seasons to get through, at a premium salary, before it runs its course. Center field is a more taxing position than either of the corners, so moving Trout over to right will detract from his value somewhat but ideally be better for his long-term health than staying up the middle.

The Angels have Taylor Ward in left field and Jorge Soler slated to be their primary designated hitter. With Trout now set to be the regular in right, they will have a question mark in center. With Trout having missed so much time in recent years, Mickey Moniak has gotten plenty of run there with good defensive metrics. He logged 445 innings up the middle in 2023 and then 800 last year. Combined with his previous center field work with the Phillies, he now has 1,465 2/3 innings at the position in his career with three Defensive Runs Saved and eight Outs Above Average.

The bigger question is what we will provide offensively. He seemed to have something of a breakout in 2023, hitting 14 home runs in 323 plate appearances, leading to a .280/.307/.495 batting line and 114 wRC+. However, there were some yellow flags in there. His 2.8% walk rate and 35% strikeout rate were both awful marks and his production seemed to be floating on top of a .397 batting average on balls in play.

Regression seemed to be likely and indeed came to pass in 2024. Though Moniak improved his walk and strikeout rates to 5% and 27.3% respectively, those were still subpar numbers. He hit another 14 home runs, but in a larger sample of 418 plate appearances. His BABIP fell to .272, far closer to the league average, which was .291 last year. His .219/.266/.380 line led to a 79 wRC+.

Moniak has 84th percentile sprint speed and those aforementioned strong grades for his glovework. That perhaps gives him a decent floor, at least capable of running down fly balls and stealing a few bases. There is perhaps a bit of upside with the bat but there’s also a chance that he’s a hole in the bottom of the lineup. The 32.% career strikeout rate is obviously a concern. Zack Gelof was the only qualified hitter to be above that in 2024. It is perhaps encouraging that Moniak has been striking out less over time. From 2021 to the present, his strikeout rate has gone from 43.2% to 39.3%, 35% and 27.3%, though even that last number is still rough.

Another option on the roster is Jo Adell, though there is perhaps even more concern with him than with Moniak. He has hit .211/.268/.381 in his career for a 78 wRC+, striking out 32.2% of the time. That includes a .207/.280/.402 line and 90 wRC+ in 2024, though with some nicer numbers under the hood. He hit 20 home runs last year and got his strikeout rate down to 27.9%. His .244 BABIP was below average and lower than his previous marks, despite decent Statcast data.

Perhaps he deserved better and there’s an offensive breakout on tap for him, though whether he can handle center field defensively is another question, as he has just 122 big league innings there. He has 3 DRS while OAA considers him to have been league average, but it’s hard to read too much into such a small sample of playing time.

It’s also possible that a platoon will form, since Moniak hits from the left side and Adell the right. Moniak has a dismal .176/.210/.244 line against lefties in his career but a more respectable .239/.282/.428 mark and 93 wRC+ against righties. Adell’s career splits aren’t massive but he was noticeably better against lefties in 2024. He only struck out 20% of the time against southpaws while slashing .245/.295/.582 for a 138 wRC+, in spite of a .232 BABIP. Against righties, he struck out 30.3% of the time and hit .195/.275/.345 for a wRC+ of 76.

They do have a notable center field prospect in Nelson Rada, though he is currently 19 years old and struggled at Double-A last year. In the short term, they could bolster the group by bringing in a veteran such as Kevin Pillar, who was with them last year and is currently unsigned.

Perhaps the Angels cane make it work but it’s an area of uncertainty on a roster that has a few of them. Anthony Rendon is slated to miss significant time yet again, leaving the Angels relying on another oft-injured player at third in Yoán Moncada. Shortstop Zach Neto is recovering from shoulder surgery and might start the season on the injured list. The rotation is currently relying on veteran soft-tossers like Kyle Hendricks and Tyler Anderson.

But those things were mostly true even before today’s news, which is a sensible one for the long run. Ideally, this development means that Trout will spend less time on the injured list and more time on the field, which will be good for both the Angels and baseball fans in general.

A’s, Mark Kotsay Agree To Extension

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9:52am: The A’s announced Kotsay’s extension.

9:42am: The A’s and manager Mark Kotsay have agreed to a three-year contract extension, reports Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. The new contract spans the 2026-28 seasons and gives the A’s a club option over the 2029 campaign. The A’s exercised a 2025 club option on Kotsay back in November, but he was unsigned beyond the current season prior to this new agreement.

Kotsay, 49, has helmed the A’s since 2022 and was the team’s bench coach and quality control coach for the five prior seasons. He also spent four seasons of 17-year major league career in green and gold — including perhaps the best season of his career, in 2004, when he hit .314/.370/.459 as the Athletics’ everyday center fielder.

Though Kotsay’s managerial record is an ugly 179-307, win-loss records rarely tell the full tale of a manager’s success (or lack thereof). That’s all the more true of a rebuilding club. The A’s have made virtually no effort to field a competitive roster throughout Kotsay’s tenure. The focus has been on culling payroll, acquiring/developing young players and, from a bigger picture standpoint, finalizing the relocation process that’s currently landed them in West Sacramento. The idea is to move to Las Vegas for the 2028 season, which would be Kotsay’s final guaranteed year on the current contract.

Expectations for Kotsay will rise during his second contract with the club. The A’s have spent more on the 2025 roster than at any point in recent seasons, due in part to foster interest with a new temporary fanbase in Sacramento but more so due to the threat of having their status as a revenue-sharing recipient revoked for the second time in the past decade. The A’s have signed Luis Severino, Jose Leclerc, Gio Urshela, T.J. McFarland and apparently Luis Urias in free agency, and they swung a trade to bring left-hander Jeffrey Springs over from Tampa Bay as well. Those acquisitions, plus a five-year extension for slugger Brent Rooker, have added $162MM in new long-term money to the team’s books, including more than $45MM for the upcoming 2025 season.

While the Athletics’ roughly $74MM payroll and $106MM luxury-tax number still sit at or near the bottom of the league overall, it’s still a small uptick from recent seasons; from 2022-24, the A’s ran payrolls between $50-65MM and never reached even an $85MM CBT number.

The new additions will join a burgeoning core of interesting young hitters. The late-blooming Rooker is the Athletics’ lineup cornerstone, but outfielders JJ Bleday and Lawrence Butler have blossomed at the plate, while prospects Jacob Wilson, Zack Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom have shown varying flashes of upside at shortstop, second base and first base, respectively. Shea Langeliers doesn’t get on base much, but his 29 homers in 2024 were second among all major league catchers, trailing only division-rival Cal Raleigh (34) up in Seattle. On the pitching side of things, lefty JP Sears looks like a solid innings eater at the very least, while closer Mason Miller has emerged as one of the game’s premier bullpen arms.

The A’s won’t enter the 2025 season as a favorite in the AL West by any stretch of the word, but they’re in a better position that any point since their latest rebuild kicked off — even though the slate of trades shipping out Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, Chris Bassitt, A.J. Puk, Lou Trivino and others hasn’t actually yielded many of the club’s current core contributors. (Langeliers came over in the Olson swap; Bleday was acquired for Puk.)

For the time being, the focus in West Sacramento will largely be on coaxing further development from Butler, Bleday, Wilson, Gelof, Soderstrom and looming first baseman of the future Nick Kurtz. Before long, however, the A’s will likely be expected to take a legitimate step forward — particularly if payroll continues to rise ahead of the planned move to the Las Vegas Strip. Ownership has clearly determined that Kotsay is the right person to spearhead those efforts and that such continuity will yield similar gains to the ones enjoyed in 2024, when the A’s improved by 19 games over their 2023 record due largely to improvements from players already in house.

Padres Sign Nick Pivetta

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Feb. 17: Pivetta passed his physical and has reported to Padres camp. The team has formally announced his four-year contract.

Feb. 12: The Padres are reportedly in agreement with Nick Pivetta on a backloaded four-year, $55MM deal. The CAA client receives a $3MM signing bonus and a $1MM salary for the upcoming season. He’s guaranteed $19MM, $14MM, and $18MM salaries over the following three seasons and can opt out after the contract after the second and third years. While the salary structure helps the Padres navigate short-term payroll constraints, the $13.75MM average annual value counts evenly against the team’s luxury tax calculation. The deal is pending a physical and has not been officially announced by the Padres, who have two openings on their 40-man roster.

Pivetta, who’ll celebrate his 32rd birthday on Friday, was the best unsigned starting pitcher. He had declined a $21.05MM qualifying offer from the Red Sox at the beginning of the offseason. That was a bit of a surprising decision that presumably played a role in holding up his market into Spring Training. He finds a multi-year deal with a much greater overall guarantee than he would have received had he accepted the QO, though he’s taking a notable pay cut for the upcoming season in the process.

The 6’5″ righty debuted with the Phillies in 2017. He struggled for most of his four-year tenure in Philadelphia. A 2020 deadline trade sending him to Boston turned his career around. Pivetta has been a mid-rotation workhorse over the last four years. He ranks 23rd in MLB with 623 innings since the start of the 2021 season. He owns a cumulative 4.33 earned run average and has allowed an ERA between 4.04 and 4.56 in each season.

Pivetta was a fixture in Alex Cora’s rotation over his first two seasons in Boston. He remained in that role early in the ’23 campaign, but the Sox kicked him to the bullpen in the middle of May. Pivetta was sitting on a 6.30 ERA over his first eight starts of the season. He had a fantastic turnaround in a long relief capacity. Pivetta allowed 1.98 earned runs per nine with an exceptional 36.9% strikeout rate over his first 17 relief appearances. Boston gradually stretched him back out to a rotation workload as the season progressed, putting him back in the starting five entering last season.

A flexor strain in his elbow sent him to the injured list in early April. That was remarkably the first non-virus IL stint of his nearly seven-year MLB career. Pivetta returned no worse for wear a month later and stayed heathy from May onwards. He wound up taking the ball 27 times and worked to a 4.14 ERA across 145 2/3 innings.

Pivetta’s run prevention numbers are those of a league average starter. That alone would be a significant boost to a San Diego rotation that needs reliable back-end innings. Pivetta’s strikeout and walk profile has been more intriguing than the bottom line results. He punched out 28.9% of opposing hitters against a modest 6.1% walk rate last season. That was the third season of the past four years in which he has posted a well above-average strikeout rate.

However, the swing-and-miss ability has been somewhat undercut by longstanding issues keeping the ball in the park. Pivetta has allowed a higher than average home run rate in every season of his MLB career. He gives up a lot of hard contact. While Statcast’s park factors grade Fenway Park as one of the sport’s most hitter-friendly venues overall, it has played around neutral for home runs over the past few seasons. Petco Park has been around average for home runs as well, though it broadly plays more favorably for pitchers.

Pivetta slots fourth on Mike Shildt’s rotation depth chart for the moment. He’s behind Dylan Cease, Michael King and Yu Darvish in what had been a very top-heavy rotation. It’s a lot more balanced now, as Pivetta can provide innings that San Diego lost when Joe Musgrove underwent Tommy John surgery last fall. That’d leave one spot up for grabs among the likes of Randy Vásquez, Matt Waldron and potential reliever conversion candidates Bryan Hoeing and Stephen Kolek.

That’d only be the case if there are no other moves before Opening Day. The Padres have been hamstrung all offseason by payroll restrictions. It’s the second straight winter in which the front office has had limited financial leeway. They’ve inked a trio of cheap one-year deals to plug holes at catcher and left field. They signed Elias Díaz for $3.5MM to start behind the plate while bringing in Connor Joe and Jason Heyward for a left field platoon at a combined $2MM cost.

Pivetta won’t make much more than that in year one. The bigger ramifications are from a luxury tax perspective. The Padres snuck below the tax line in 2024. They’ve seemingly preferred to do so again this offseason. The Padres had projected narrowly above this year’s $241MM base threshold. Pivetta pushes them close to the second tax tier. RosterResource calculates their tax number around $258MM. The actual fees are relatively small. They’re taxed at a 20% rate on spending between $241MM and $261MM. They’ll pay a $2.75MM tax on the Pivetta deal and are currently lined up for about $3.4MM in taxes overall.

While ownership may simply be willing to live with that relatively small tax bill, the front office could consider payroll-clearing trades in the coming weeks. Cease, who has a $13.75MM tax number himself for his final arbitration season, has been in trade rumors all offseason. King ($7.75MM) has been the subject of lesser trade chatter, while Robert Suarez and Luis Arraez have also been speculated about. Trading Cease or King would again raise questions about the rotation’s stability, though any such deal would almost certainly include at least one affordable MLB rotation piece in the return package.

The money isn’t the only cost for San Diego. They’ll surrender their second-round pick (#64 overall) in the upcoming draft, as well as $500K from their 2026 bonus pool for international amateurs, because Pivetta had declined the qualifying offer. The Red Sox get a compensation pick in the ’25 draft, which will land 77th overall.

Pivetta winds up being the only free agent starter of this offseason to sign a four-year deal. Michael Wacha, Yusei Kikuchi, Sean Manaea, Nathan Eovaldi and Luis Severino each signed for three years but pulled higher annual values. All but Wacha landed a larger overall guarantee. Severino and Manaea had also declined qualifying offers, while Wacha would have received one had he not re-signed with Kansas City just before QO decisions were due. Pivetta will collect $23MM over the next two seasons. His opt-out decisions will come when there are two years at $32MM and (if he doesn’t take the first out) one year at $18MM remaining.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan was first to report the signing and the salary breakdown. Image courtesy of Imagn.

Giancarlo Stanton Behind In Camp Due To Elbow Soreness

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Feb. 17: Stanton tells reporters that the pain level he’s currently experiencing is “very high” in both elbows, adding that it’s been three to four weeks since he swung a bat (via MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch). Both Stanton and Boone compared the issue to tennis elbow, with Stanton noting that there’s some degree of tendon tearing in each elbow that’d be at risk for surgery if he were to “blow it up” by “overdoing” it while dealing with the injury (via Greg Joyce of the New York Post). However, that’s not a concern at this time, Stanton emphasized.

Feb. 16: Yankees position players reported to camp today ahead of their first full-squad workout tomorrow, and the injury updates have already begun to creep in. Manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner) today that both veteran slugger Giancarlo Stanton and center fielder Trent Grisham are behind in camp due to injuries. Stanton is suffering from soreness in both elbows, while Grisham is dealing with a hamstring issue. Grisham’s injury appears to be of relatively little concern, as MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch notes that he’s already resumed baseball activities and is running at near full strength again. Stanton’s issue, however, appears to be more serious. Hoch relays that Boone was noncommittal about Stanton’s timeline when asked if the issue could impact the slugger’s availability for Opening Day.

“I don’t know,” Boone said (as relayed by Hoch). “I’m not going to put any timeline on it. We’re just going to be smart about it.”

Stanton’s health has been tricky for the Yankees to navigate over the years, but the fact that his latest ailment is an upper body issue is worth noting. The 35-year-old has made a number of trips to the injured list over his seven years in a Yankees uniform, but all but one of those IL stints have been due to lower half issues pertaining to his hamstrings, calves, or knees. The lone exception to that was a biceps strain that sidelined him early in the 2019 season, which ultimately cost him six weeks of the regular season.

Losing Stanton to start the year would be a frustrating development for a Yankees lineup that already lost Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres in free agency. While the additions of Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger to the lineup should be improvements over the difficult seasons Alex Verdugo and Anthony Rizzo had last year, the club is currently set to rely on internal options in the form of Jasson Dominguez, Oswaldo Cabrera, and DJ LeMahieu to fill in the holes in left field and at third base. The loss of Stanton would serve to further thin out the club’s lineup card.

The club’s internal options seem unlikely to offer anything close to the solid .233/.298/.475 (116 wRC+) that Stanton posted in 2024, but outfield prospect Everson Pereira is healthy entering Spring Training after having his 2024 campaign cut short by UCL surgery. Pereira has a solid .287/.365/.530 slash line in 75 career games at the Triple-A level but struggled in a 27-game cup of coffee at the big league level in 2023. Another option could be first baseman/catcher Ben Rice, a bat-first prospect who was called up to fill in for Rizzo at first base last year but has returned to catching over the offseason and figures to compete for the club’s back-up catcher spot behind Austin Wells.

The Opener: Vlad, Trout, Means, Full-Squad Workouts

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As spring training rolls along, here are four things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:

1. Vlad’s extension window closing:

Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a free agent following the season, has set a report-date deadline in extension talks with the Blue Jays. Guerrero and the rest of the Jays’ position players will arrive in camp tomorrow. That leaves Monday as the final full day for the two parties to work out a long-term deal. While it’s always possible a long-term arrangement will come together in the wee hours of the morning or in the eleventh hour tomorrow as Guerrero arrives at camp, the Jays will surely spend the day trying to bridge any gaps with their lineup cornerstone. Guerrero, 25, agreed to a $28.5MM deal to avoid arbitration in his final season of eligibility. He’s coming off a massive .323/.396/.544 batting line (165 wRC+), the third 30-homer of output of the past four seasons, and a career-low 13.8% strikeout rate. Toronto put forth an offer in the $340MM range earlier this winter, which would be in the same vein as Fernando Tatis’ 14-year deal in San Diego, but that didn’t get a deal across the finish line.

2. Trout addresses the media:

As noted by Sam Blum of The Athletic, Angels manager Ron Washington spoke to reporters yesterday and revealed that he met with Mike Trout and the club’s front office to discuss their plans for the club’s outfield alignment this year and how best to keep Trout healthy this season. Washington didn’t reveal the contents of those discussions, but Trout is expected to do so when he addresses the media today. The possibility of moving Trout, now 33, out of center field and getting him playing time either at an outfield corner or as a DH has long been bandied about as a way to keep the future Hall of Famer healthy.

After standing out as the best player in the sport throughout most of the 2010s, Trout has appeared in just 266 games total over the past four seasons due to a variety of injury woes. He’s remained elite when healthy during that time, slashing .276/.376/.575 with 40-homer pop, but after playing more than 82 games just once in the past five seasons it seems prudent to consider changes that could keep Trout healthy. Of course, the presence of Jorge Soler as the club’s likely regular DH for the 2025 and ’26 seasons could complicate efforts to get Trout off his feet more regularly.

3. Means, Guardians nearing deal?

Longtime Orioles southpaw John Means is among the more interesting free agent starters left on the market given his career 3.68 ERA and status as a former All-Star and Rookie of the Year finalist. As attractive as he looks as a potential rotation addition on paper, he comes with substantial risk. The lefty underwent the second Tommy John surgery of his career back in June, and it’s uncertain whether he’ll be able to contribute to an acquiring club in 2025. Those question marks don’t seem to have deterred a Guardians club that often struggled to fill out its rotation mix last year, however. The sides have reportedly had “advanced” talks about a deal, and further details — or perhaps even a contract announcement — could be coming down the pipe in the near future.

4. Full-squad workouts begin for most teams:

After the Cubs and Dodgers hosted their first full-squad workouts over the weekend, the majority of clubs are doing the same today. In Florida’s Grapefruit League, the Red Sox, Tigers, Marlins, Twins, Mets, Yankees, Phillies, Pirates, Cardinals, and Rays are all poised to begin full-squad workouts today. Meanwhile, Arizona’s Cactus League plays host to nine teams that will start their full-squad workouts today: the Diamondbacks, Athletics, White Sox, Reds, Royals, Angels, Padres, Giants, and Rangers. For many teams the start of full-squad workouts doubles as the scheduled report date for position players, though some clubs such as the Yankees set their report date earlier than that. A number of the offseason’s notable free agent signings are set to participate in their first workouts (and, perhaps, first media availability) of the spring, including Juan Soto and Willy Adames.

NPB’s Tokyo Yakult Swallows Sign Pedro Avila

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The Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball have signed right-hander Pedro Avila, according to multiple reports out of Japan.  Avila elected free agency in January rather than accept an outright assignment to the Guardians’ Triple-A team.

After posting a 2.70 ERA over the small sample size of 13 1/3 big league innings with the Padres from 2019-22, Avila received a larger role in the form of 50 1/3 frames in 2023.  An excellent 58.8% grounder rate and a solid 24.5% strikeout rate helped Avila overcome a middling 11.4% walk rate, but a shaky start early in the 2024 season led the Padres to designate the righty for assignment in April.

The Guardians picked Avila up in a cash transaction a few days after, and Avila went on to become a workhorse within the elite Cleveland bullpen.  Beyond logging 74 2/3 innings over 50 appearances, Avila also had a 3.25 ERA during his time with the Guards, though his K% slightly declined from 2023 and his grounder rate dropped to 45% (though he also cut back on the walks).  He added to that solid performance with four shutout innings in the playoffs, and he was the winning pitcher in Cleveland’s only victory of the ALCS, a 7-5 walkoff over the Yankees in Game 3.

Such production would normally have given Avila a clear ticket to a roster spot on most teams, but he is out of minor league options, and the Guardians are so deep in relief pitching that Avila became expendable.  As it turned out, the Guards designated Avila to create roster space when they signed another reliever, former Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald.

Avila’s out-of-options status might have left him in a crunch when trying to break camp with another MLB team this spring, so he’ll now head to Japan for more of a guaranteed role with the Swallows.  This is the first time the 28-year-old Avila has pitched professionally outside of affiliated baseball, apart from five stints in the Venezuelan Winter League.

Rangers Notes: Gray, Martin, Garcia

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Last weekend, reports surfaced that the Rangers had some “internal discussions” about moving Jon Gray from the rotation to the closer’s role, in a creative way to address both their need for a closer and an on-paper surplus of starting pitchers.  However, it doesn’t appear as though the concept advanced beyond the speculative phase, as both manager Bruce Bochy and president of baseball operations Chris Young told reporters (including Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News) that they both viewed Gray as assuming his usual starter role this season.

Gray said that he also hadn’t been approached about the idea, even if he was broadly open to closing if it meant helping the team.  But, he also set some lofty targets for his 2025 season, saying that he was “looking to eat a lot of innings.  I’d hopefully like to get to that 200-strikeout mark.  That would be cool.  The swing-and-miss and strikeout rate is something I really want to improve and I think it’s headed in the right direction.”

Gray’s career high in strikeouts is 185, set back in his first full MLB season in 2016 when the righty was still with the Rockies.  His personal best for innings is 172 1/3 frames in the 2018 season, and he has topped the 150-inning threshold in four of his 10 big league seasons.  Most recently, Gray tossed 102 2/3 innings last year, as he twice hit the injured list due to groin strains, and he underwent season-ending surgery in early September to remove a neuroma on the middle toe of his right foot.

“I’m happy with the way the surgery went and had a really good offseason,” Gray said, noting that the neuroma had been bothering him for almost a year, and likely contributed to his groin problems.  The injuries clearly hampered Gray’s performance, as he posted a 4.47 ERA and the lowest full-season strikeout rate (19.6%) of his career.

Beyond his natural competitive spirit in rebounding from a down year, Gray has even more incentive to bounce back since he is set to hit free agency next winter.  Gray is in the final season of the four-year, $56MM deal he signed with Texas during the 2021-22 offseason, and there was some speculation that the Rangers could look to trade Gray this winter in order to clear some money off the books.  No such deal happened, and thus the 33-year-old Gray is now looking for a nice platform year as he approaches the open market once more.

If Gray isn’t the closer or another reliever isn’t brought into the fold, Chris Martin looks like the favorite for saves, assuming that Texas even sticks with a set ninth-inning option.  Bochy told MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry and other reporters that “it can be by committee…So by no means are we getting locked in on any roles right now.  I think we’re going to stay flexible with that.”

To this end, Bochy said he hasn’t talked to Martin specifically about working in a closing capacity, but the skipper feels his relievers are “fine with not having a defined role.  They’re used to it, including Chris….They all have great attitudes.  They’re like, ’Hey, we’re there to get outs and use us where you need us to help win a ballgame.’ And that’s how that works.”

Martin has amassed only 14 saves over his nine MLB seasons, though he pointed out to Landry that he had 22 saves over his two seasons in Japan with the Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2016-17.  Getting some sustained run as a closer might be a fun way for Martin to wind up his career, but he plans to take the same approach no matter how he is utilized out of the Rangers’ bullpen.

“With closing, you still gotta get three outs,” Martin said.  “It’s just the last three of the game, so it can be a little more nerve wracking, but I’ve been around a bit now and I understand it’s just another three outs, whatever the run situation is.”

Robert Garcia is another newly-acquired reliever ticketed for high-leverage innings, as the Rangers acquired Garcia from the Nationals in return for Nathaniel Lowe in December.  The left-hander has yet to properly kick off his first Spring Training with his new team, however, due to some nerve irritation in his forearm.  The issue doesn’t seem too serious, as Bochy told Landry that Garcia is slated to throw his first bullpen session of the spring on Tuesday.

Starling Marte Discusses Trade Talks, Bench Role

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Reports surfaced back in December that the Mets were looking into the possibility of a Starling Marte trade, and were willing to eat some of Marte’s $19.5MM salary.  The Athletic’s Will Sammon reported today that the Mets “did not come especially close to” moving Marte, though some teams did check in about the possibility and some discussions took place.

Marte shared his own take on the process with Sammon, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, and other reporters today at the Mets’ spring camp, revealing that the team was in contact with him about trade possibilities.  “They spoke to me before the [Juan Soto] signing, and then after the signing, they reiterated that they would try to move me,” Marte said.  “They were very clear, very honest with me up front.  They obviously want the best for this team, but also the best for my future.  They were really helpful, and they were really transparent about the situation.”

The Mets have yet to tell Marte whether or not a trade might still happen, Sammon writes, though the possibility looks increasingly less likely now that Spring Training is underway.  As a result, Marte is penciled in for part-time duty at best, slated to mostly work as a backup outfielder and as the team’s DH whenever a left-handed starter is on the mound.  Marte has offered to also chip in as a center fielder, even if he has played just three games at the position in the last three seasons, and with Jose Siri and Tyrone Taylor seemingly having things covered up the middle.

Regardless, Marte’s willingness to return to his old position underscores his desire to help the Mets win, even if he’s receiving less playing time than usual.

“Whenever you’re with a team for the amount of time I’ve been with the team, you get comfortable, you don’t want to get traded because you’ve created relationships with the staff, the players, everybody around here,” Marte said.  “But at the same time, any baseball player would love to play every single day because that’s how a player gets reps, gets better day in and day out.  But at the same time, I’m here and I’m going to do the best I can do.”

While his four-year, $78MM contract is (incredibly) barely a tenth of Soto’s megadeal, it wasn’t long ago that Marte was a prized free agent contract in his own right, joining the Mets in the 2021-22 offseason.  He delivered an All-Star performance in the first year of that deal, even if a fractured finger prematurely ended his regular season and hampered him during the Mets’ playoff run.  The finger issue proved to be a harbinger for the next two seasons, as Marte battled a number of different health issues and played in 180 of a possible 324 games, while hitting .258/.314/.357 with 12 home runs in 711 plate appearances.

Most of those struggles were focused into the 2023 season, as Marte had a more respectable 104 wRC+ in 370 PA in 2024.  As DiComo noted, Marte had some pretty sharp splits last season with the bulk of his production coming against southpaws, so a more specialized role against mostly left-handed pitching could help Marte become an impact bat even in a limited capacity.

Of course, Marte might well earn himself more at-bats the better he hits, or he could get more playing time if injuries strike any of New York’s other outfielders.  To that end, Brandon Nimmo dealt with plantar fasciitis in his left foot for much of the 2024 season, and he told Sammon and Tim Britton that he received a PRP injection to deal with the problem over the offseason.

The early returns in camp are promising, as Nimmo estimated he was moving at 91 percent of his top speed during a running drill on Friday.  The plan is to ramp up relatively slowly during the spring, with Nimmo again planning to wait until the first week of March to start playing in games.  If all goes as expected, Nimmo felt he should be ready for Opening Day.

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