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Cubs Open To Further Bullpen Additions

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The Cubs added a new closer when they formally acquired Ryan Pressly (and $5.5MM) from the Astros in exchange for pitching prospect Juan Bello earlier this morning. That adds a much-needed veteran arm to a group that generally lacked late-inning, high-leverage experience. However, the Cubs “aren’t done” with addressing their bullpen, Bruce Levine reported recently in an appearance on 670 The Score’s Mully & Haugh Show (audio link). Meaghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune and Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic both implied in writing about the Pressly swap that the Cubs would like to add another bullpen arm as well.

Among the pitchers with whom the Cubs have had some talks are Ryne Stanek and David Robertson, Levine noted. Both Stanek and Robertson had previously been reported to be among the Cubs’ targets. Either pitcher would make sense in the current context of the Chicago bullpen. Pressly seems all but certain to slot into the closer’s role after waiving his no-trade clause to approve a deal to a more favorable role with the Cubs. Any forthcoming addition to supplant Pressly would smack of last year’s Josh Hader signing in Houston — one that GM Dana Brown suggested earlier today “fractured” the relationship between him and Pressly to some extent (link via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle).

“Anytime you take a major league player out of a role where they feel comfortable, I think it’s going to fracture your relationship some,” Brown said of signing Hader and pushing Pressly into a setup role. “I think we continued to communicate. He’s a true professional. And I kept it real as a true professional myself. I think there was some frustration, which I totally understand from a competitor. You’re moving a guy at a position who felt like he didn’t deserve to lose his job, because you acquired another elite closer like a Hader.”

With Pressly in line to handle ninth inning duties, barring any major downturn in his performance, a veteran who’s pitched extensively in a setup role would make sense. Robertson, already a former Cub, would be a logical fit. He’s excelled in both a setup and closing capacity in the past. The Cubs have more than $35MM worth of space between their current luxury tax projection (per RosterResource) and the $241MM threshold, so even the likely eight-figure salary Robertson will command should fit comfortably onto the books.

Other setup options of note on the market include Phil Maton, Tommy Kahnle and Andrew Chafin. If the Cubs want to roll the dice on an injury rebound candidate, any of Kendall Graveman, Daniel Bard, Lou Trivino, Keynan Middleton or Drew Smith could be had on affordable deals. Pressly, free agent signee Caleb Thielbar and trade pickup Eli Morgan are the three newcomers to manager Craig Counsell’s bullpen thus far in the offseason. Righty Colin Rea has experience both as a starter and a long reliever and could conceivably fill either role, depending on how the rest of the starting staff holds up.

Dana Brown Discusses Ryan Pressly, Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve

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The Astros have been in the news a lot lately. They traded Ryan Pressly to the Cubs. They reportedly still have the door open a crack for Alex Bregman and, relatedly, have some willingness to move Jose Altuve from second base to left field. General manager Dana Brown addressed those various topics while speaking to the media today, with Chandler Rome of The Athletic among those to report on his comments.

On Pressly, Brown said that the relationship between himself and the reliever “took a slightly different turn” when the club signed Josh Hader going into the 2024 season. “Any time you take a major-league player out of a role where they feel comfortable, it’s going to fracture your relationship some,” Brown said. “I think we continued to communicate. He was a true professional and I kept it real as a true professional myself. Ultimately, I wouldn’t say (the relationship) was the same as (when) we first met, but I think there was some frustration, which I totally understand from a competitor.”

Pressly had been the club’s closer for several years. He racked up 12 saves in the shortened 2020 season and then finished the next three campaigns with between 26 and 33 saves. But the club was looking to bolster the bullpen going into 2024, mostly due to factors unrelated to Pressly. The Astros had lost Héctor Neris, Phil Maton, and Ryne Stanek to free agency and then Kendall Graveman required shoulder surgery that was likely going to keep him out for the entire year.

They decided that the best way to add to the bullpen was to get Hader, signing him to a five-year, $95MM contract. He took over the closing duties in Houston, bumping Pressly to a setup role. It seems Pressly was privately a bit miffed by the change, though he didn’t make any public complaints. He was credited with 25 holds and four saves last year while posting a 3.49 earned run average.

Rumors of a Pressly trade have been floating around all winter. Part of the logic was that the Astros have some desire to avoid the competitive balance tax in 2025, which also provided some motivation for the Kyle Tucker trade. Pressly’s contract pays him $14MM this year, a salary in range of market rates for a solid closer but perhaps a bit high for a setup guy on a club trying to limbo under the tax line.

The complication, from an outside perspective, was Pressly’s 10-and-5 rights. Since he had at least 10 years of service and at least five with the Astros, Pressly had the right to block any trade. Since he’s from Texas, it was fair to wonder how much appetite he had for leaving the Astros, but the reports about the behind-the-scenes discord perhaps shed some light on his decision. By approving a trade to the Cubs, he will get a fresh start and likely get a chance to be a closer again.

For the Astros, they sent $5.5MM to the Cubs in the deal but that still allowed them to clear $8.5MM and duck under the tax, at least for now. Rome adds that Brown is trying to trade Rafael Montero but without getting anywhere. That’s not especially surprising since Montero posted ERAs near 5.00 in each of the past two seasons and has been outrighted off the roster. He is still owed $11.5MM for the final year of his deal, a three-year pact signed in the 2022-23 offseason. At that time, the club had parted ways with GM James Click and had not yet hired Brown. Owner Jim Crane was running the baseball operations department during the interim, a time in which the Astros signed Montero and José Abreu.

It remains to be seen whether the club will stay under the tax line. Recent reporting has suggested that re-signing Bregman is still possible, even though the club has acquired Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker. Those two project as the club’s third and first baseman respectively but the club has apparently considered re-installing Bregman at third, moving Paredes to second and Altuve to left.

Despite those reports, Brown characterized the possibility of re-signing Bregman as a “longshot” last week and continued to downplay the chances today, saying that the plan is something that been the subject of in-house discussions and not something that has been discussed with Bregman’s agent, Scott Boras. “We are definitely having conversations within our front office,” Brown said. “We haven’t reached back out to Boras. At some point, it could turn to that. We’re taking a deep look at what it would look like if we acquired him and how it would look for us financially, does it make sense to do it? I would mostly say it’s all internal conversations as to what we would like to do in terms of Bregman.”

RosterResource currently projects the club’s CBT number as $236MM, just shy of the $241MM base threshold. Signing any player of note would push them back over the line. That’s especially true of Bregman. The Astros have reportedly offered him $156MM over six years, which is an average annual value of $26MM. Rome reported last week that the offer is still on the table, despite the club pivoting to Paredes and Walker, though Brown’s framing of things today suggests their dialogue with Boras has been fairly casual. Bregman has also been connected to clubs like the Tigers, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Cubs but remains unsigned with spring training set to ramp up in about two weeks.

As mentioned, a domino effect of Bregman returning to Houston would be Altuve ending up in left field, though that seems like it could be a factor this year with or without Bregman. “We aren’t taking anything off the table and we’re weighing all options,” Brown said. “We’ll see what it looks like in left field with understanding that he’s going to play some second base or be at second base quite often, depending on what the coaching staff comes up with. But we’re not taking anything off the table in terms of seeing what he looks like in left field.”

Altuve has been almost exclusively a second baseman in his big league career, with six innings at shortstop being his only experience anywhere else. He’s never been regarded as an especially strong defender, but his already-weak metrics have slid even lower of late. Altuve has been worth -82 Defensive Runs Saved over his entire career, with DRS tagging him with a -13 grade or worse in each of the past three seasons.

Moving him to left field is obviously risky on account of his lack of experience out there, though the Crawford Boxes give Daikin Park one of the shallower left fields in the majors, so perhaps it’s easier for the Astros to take such a gamble. Altuve himself recently expressed a willingness to do whatever it takes to bring Bregman back to the club though it’s less clear how he would feel moving to left independent of that.

If Altuve can stick in the outfield, it could help the club out there since that’s a clear weak spot on the roster. The club plans to have Yordan Alvarez spend more time as the designated hitter this year and also traded Tucker. That leaves them with Jake Meyers, Chas McCormick, Taylor Trammell and Mauricio Dubón as their projected group out there. Having Altuve in left without Bregman on the roster could open up second base time for someone like Zach Dezenzo, who has always hit well in the minors but doesn’t currently have a path to regular playing time.

It’s also possible that the club pivots to Jorge Polanco, who is reportedly another free agent the Astros have been in contact with, in addition to Bregman. Polanco is coming off a rough season and just had knee surgery but has a strong pre-2024 track record. The club could consider Polanco in left field as well, though he’s four years younger than Altuve and is a former shortstop.

Polanco is also a switch-hitter, which seems to suit the club’s preferences. In the post-Tucker world, Alvarez is the only lefty projected for regular action as of now. Brown has long said that he would like to add a lefty-swinging outfielder as a way to add balance and reiterated that today, saying that adding a left-handed bat is “sort of a priority.” Adding Polanco and then putting either him or Altuve in left would be an unusual way of accomplishing that but is perhaps more attractive than signing a free agent like Alex Verdugo or Jason Heyward.

There are a lot of moving pieces and they all make the Astros an interesting club to watch in the remainder of the offseason. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in about two weeks.

Orioles Sign Jorge Mateo To Extension

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The Orioles announced this evening that they’ve agreed to a deal with utilityman Jorge Mateo to avoid arbitration. It’s a one-year contract that comes with a club option for 2026. Mateo has five years of service time and would have qualified for free agency next winter, so the deal adds an extra season of team control. The Quality Control Sports client reportedly receives a $3.55MM salary next season. The club option is valued at $5.5MM with another $500K in escalators based on this year’s playing time. The option price would jump by $125K apiece at 460, 480, 500 and 520 plate appearances.

Teams had until January 15 to agree to terms with their arbitration-eligible players. If no deal was in place by then, they needed to exchange filing figures. They were free to continue negotiations beyond that point, though most clubs refuse to discuss straight one-year deals after the exchange deadline. Mateo had filed for a $4MM salary, while the Orioles filed at $3.1MM. They settled at the midpoint, though Mateo concedes a ’26 club option to do so.

The addition of the club option on Mateo’s deal means the Orioles haven’t broken their self-imposed “file and trial” system. Arbitration deals that include an option year cannot be used as precedents in future hearings. It wraps up Baltimore’s arbitration dealings for this winter. The O’s had agreed to terms with their 11 other arbitration-eligible players by January 15. This is the second straight year in which the Orioles reached a late arbitration deal to buy out a free agent season. They took a similar tack with first baseman Ryan O’Hearn last February. That ended up working out for the club, as O’Hearn played well enough for Baltimore to trigger an $8MM option to keep him from hitting the market.

Mateo is headed into his fourth full season with the Orioles. Baltimore grabbed him off waivers from the Padres in the second half of the ’21 campaign. He had a career year in 2022, as he led the American League with 35 stolen bases while posting elite defensive grades at shortstop. There’s been plenty of speculation over the following two years that the Orioles could deal Mateo, who was pushed out of an everyday infield role by Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg and eventually Jackson Holliday. The O’s have opted against making such a move, evidently valuing Mateo’s speed and defensive versatility off the bench more than whatever they might’ve received in a trade.

Over the last two seasons, Mateo has gotten into 177 games. He’s only hitting .222/.267/.363 over that stretch, though he has swiped 45 bases in 52 attempts. Mateo can back up Henderson and Holliday in the middle infield and has the speed to spell Cedric Mullins in center field. Holliday’s early struggles gave Mateo an opportunity to play regularly at the keystone early last year. Unfortunately, his season was cut short in late July. Mateo tore the UCL in his left (non-throwing) elbow when he collided with Henderson while pursuing a slow grounder up the middle. He underwent surgery in late August.

There’s no indication that the injury will affect Mateo’s readiness for the start of next season. Baltimore was confident enough in his health to keep him around. He’ll join Ramón Urías and new backup catcher Gary Sánchez as locks for Brandon Hyde’s bench so long as he’s healthy.

Baltimore’s player payroll now sits around $156MM, according to the RosterResource calculations. Those are almost entirely short-term commitments. Offseason pickup Tyler O’Neill is the only player on a guaranteed deal that stretches beyond next season (and he can opt out after this year). Their only other commitment is a $1MM option buyout for reliever Andrew Kittredge. That opens the possibility that Mateo plays well enough for Baltimore to exercise the option, though they’re unlikely to be hurting for infield talent anytime soon.

Francys Romero first reported Mateo’s $3.55MM salary and the $5.5MM option with $500K in escalators. The Associated Press had the escalator specifics. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Cubs Designate Luis Vazquez For Assignment

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The Cubs announced Tuesday that they’ve designated infielder Luis Vazquez for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to veteran utilityman Jon Berti, whose previously reported one-year deal with the Cubs is now official.

Vazquez, 25, was a 17th-round pick out of Puerto Rico who made his MLB debut with Chicago in 2024. He appeared in 11 games and went 1-for-12 in a total of 14 trips to the plate. The rest of Vazquez’s season was spent in Triple-A, where he slashed .263/.347/.432 (104 wRC+) with the Cubs’ top affiliate in Des Moines. Vazquez has drawn walks at a stout 11.6% clip and fanned at a roughly average 22.5% rate over the past two seasons in Iowa. He’s shown off a bit of pop, swatting 17 homers in 543 plate appearances, and chipped in seven steals in 12 attempts.

Vazquez has played the overwhelming majority of his professional games at shortstop, logging 4929 innings at the position compared to just 268 at second base, 186 at third base, two in right field and one at first base. Baseball America ranked him 16th among Cubs farmhands last winter and praised him as the best defensive shortstop in the system while also lauding an offensive breakout he’d shown in 2023. He didn’t quite sustain his ’23 production this past year but did post slightly better-than-average offensive output in Iowa.

With a quality glove at shortstop, a pair of minor league options remaining and a couple above-average seasons of production in the upper minors in 2023-24, Vazquez could well hold appeal to another club. Chicago will have five days to trade him. If there’s no taker, he’ll be placed on waivers, at which point any other team could claim him. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so within the next week, there’ll be some resolution on the outcome of the slick-fielding shortstop’s DFA.

Twins Notes: Varland, Woods Richardson, Castro

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The Twins entered the 2024 season with high hopes that prospect and Twin Cities native Louie Varland would step up and seize a spot in the rotation. The former 15th-round pick had the look of a late-round steal, having climbed to the No. 88 prospect in the game on FanGraphs’ top-100 rankings after pitching to a 3.06 ERA, 27.3% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate in 126 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in 2022 and notching a 3.81 ERA through 26 frames in his MLB debut late that season. Varland posted a 3.97 ERA with similar strikeout and walk rates in 81 2/3 Triple-A frames in 2023 and then held his own with a 4.63 ERA and continued K-BB rates in his 2023 range.

The 2024 season, however, could scarcely have gone worse for Varland. He lasted four starts in the rotation before being optioned to Triple-A with a 9.18 ERA (17 runs in 16 2/3 innings). Varland had a rollercoaster season in Triple-A, resulting in a 4.75 ERA through 16 starts, though a disproportionate amount of damage came in one start that saw him tagged for a staggering 11 earned runs. (He had a combined 3.67 ERA in his other appearances.) A late look in the majors yielded poor overall results, though Varland did finish with a nice stretch of 7 2/3 innings, wherein he allowed two runs with an 11-to-2 K/BB ratio.

Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that as the Twins gear up for 2025, it appears increasingly likely that Varland will be ticketed for a relief role. The St. Paul native averaged better than 95 mph on his heater last season even when working as a starter; it’s reasonable to expect that velocity to play up in a transition to a shorter role. Varland has posted at least average swinging-strike rates in the upper minors and big leagues as well, so it stands to reason that he could see an uptick in whiffs with a more powerful repertoire.

One reason it’s become easier to move a former rotation hopeful like Varland to the ’pen has been the reemergence of Simeon Woods Richardson. The former top prospect had tumbled down Minnesota’s starting pitching depth chart heading into ’24 after a dismal 2023 showing in Triple-A. But, as Woods Richardson explained in a sitdown with The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman, an offseason and spring training of work with the Twins’ data team and coaching staff brought about a new arm slot that produced more velocity and a new-look slider that broke out as his most effective secondary pitch.

Woods Richardson wore down a bit late in the 2024 season as he pushed to a new career-high level in terms of workload (31 starts, 147 innings), but he finished the season with a 4.17 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate. His four-seamer, which averaged just 90.7 mph in his brief MLB looks in 2022-23, sat at 93.1 mph on the season despite fading over his final six starts (92.1 mph average four-seamer, 6.75 ERA). Woods Richardson, acquired alongside Austin Martin in the trade that sent the final year-plus of control over Jose Berrios to Toronto, now looks like he’ll open the 2025 season locked into the No. 4 spot in Minnesota’s rotation behind Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober.

Development from in-house arms of this nature will be key for the Twins in 2025, as ownership has handcuffed the baseball operations staff all offseason in terms of roster additions, as the Pohlad family explores a sale of the club. The Twins have been active in trade talks but have not yet pieced together a deal of much note. They’ve added some catching depth in small swaps for former top prospect Diego Cartaya and utilityman Mickey Gasper, but top trade candidates like Christian Vazquez and Chris Paddack remain with the club. The Twins still would like to add at first base and pick up a right-handed hitting outfielder, but there’s been no trade of note and not one major league free agent signing thus far, given payroll constraints from ownership. The Twins may not need to cut payroll from its current level, but they also don’t have much (or any) room to raise it without a trade that trims some salary from the books.

With those financial limitations in mind, the front office is considering some time at first base for utilityman Willi Castro, per Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Twenty-six-year-old Jose Miranda, who bounced back from a 2023 season ruined by shoulder surgery to bat .284/.322/.441 last year (115 wRC+) is the top in-house option at the moment. He’s played 698 big league innings there and graded poorly from a defensive standpoint, although the former second baseman/third baseman was largely learning the position on the fly in 2022 when he tallied 595 of those innings; he’d entered that season with all of 225 career minor league innings at the position.

It seems unlikely that Castro would be a regular option at first, given the value of his versatility. He’s a viable backup at shortstop, second base, third base and anywhere in the outfield. Adding first base to that repertoire only further broadens his importance to the club. There’s been some thought that Castro and his own $6.4MM salary could be a candidate to change hands, though doing so would thin out the Twins’ depth at all those positions and remove one of the team’s best baserunners. With Minnesota at least ostensibly not required to slash payroll any further, trading Castro seems like a scenario to which the front office would be heavily opposed.

Red Sox, Abraham Toro Agree To Minor League Contract

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3:29pm: Toro will make $1MM if in the majors, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.

9:50am: The Red Sox and free agent infielder Abraham Toro have agreed to a minor league contract, reports Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base. The Republik Sports client receives an invitation to major league spring training.

Toro, who turned 28 last month, was a well-regarded prospect with the Astros who has at times flashed some of that potential in the majors. He posted a roughly league-average batting line and popped 11 homers in 95 games between Houston and Seattle in 2021 — the same season that saw the ’Stros deal him to the M’s in exchange for reliever Kendall Graveman. Toro appeared in 60 games with Seattle following that trade, walking at a slightly above-average clip and fanning in only 13% of his plate appearances during that age-24 season.

At the time, Toro looked like a potential regular for the Mariners, or at the very least an oft-used and versatile semi-regular. The switch-hitter saw his output crater in 2022, however. Toro batted only .185/.239/.324 in 352 plate appearances with the Mariners. The following offseason, he was traded to the Brewers in return for Jesse Winker and Kolten Wong — a move that didn’t pay 2023 dividends for either team.

Toro hit well in Triple-A for the Brewers but never got a real look in the majors, tallying just 21 plate appearances as a Brewer. Milwaukee flipped him to the A’s in the 2023-24 offseason, netting righty Chad Patrick in return. Toro hit .240/.293/.350 in 364 plate appearances with Oakland before being passed through waivers and electing free agency at the beginning of the current offseason.

While Toro has yet to produce in the big leagues (.220/.285/.353), he’s spent the majority of his time in pitchers’ parks like T-Mobile and the Coliseum. He’s a switch-hitter with a career .305/.396/.486 batting line in parts of five Triple-A seasons, and he has experience at third base, second base and (to a lesser extent) first base.

Toro gives the Red Sox some more depth in the infield as the team continues to face a glaring question at second base. Top prospect Kristian Campbell may eventually claim that spot as his own, but he’s versatile enough to handle shortstop or an outfield spot as well. He also still has only 19 games of Triple-A experience under his belt (though he showed brilliantly there). Other second base options for the Red Sox include David Hamilton, Vaughn Grissom, Romy Gonzalez, non-roster invitee Nate Eaton and top prospect Marcelo Mayer. It’s also feasible that oft-injured Trevor Story could move over to second base, though for now he’s still ticketed for regular work at shortstop.

Poll: The Mariners’ Dilemma In Dealing From The Rotation

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If there’s one standout trait about the Mariners headed in 2025, it’s their elite rotation; Seattle has the most impressive collection of young, cost-controlled starting pitching talent in the majors right now. Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo combined for more than 700 innings of 3.18 ERA baseball in 2024. Gilbert, who turns 28 in May, is the oldest of the group and the quartet has a combined 17 seasons of team control remaining.

That crop of talented young starters is the envy of the rest of the league, but if there’s a second standout trait about the 2025 Mariners it’s their questionable offense. Cal Raleigh is among the best offensive catchers in the game, but the lineup offers little certainty outside of him. Julio Rodriguez has superstar upside but didn’t show it for much of last year as he entered July hitting just .247/.297/.327. Randy Arozarena managed an excellent 11.7% walk rate down the stretch after being traded to the Mariners midseason, but hit just five home runs in 54 games and was worth just 1.9 fWAR overall last year between his time in Seattle and Tampa.

The trio of Raleigh, Rodriguez, and Arozarena all project to be above average hitters in 2025, but the rest of the lineup is well below average. Victor Robles enjoyed a career year after joining the Mariners midseason last year, but his elite performance in Seattle was carried by a .388 BABIP. Between that extreme good fortune with batted ball luck and his career .236/.311/.356 (81 wRC+) slash line prior to joining the Mariners, it’s hard to expect more than league average production from Robles in 2025. Dylan Moore and Luke Raley both posted solid numbers in 2025 but are platoon players who can’t be relied on in everyday roles, while J.P. Crawford, Mitch Haniger, and Mitch Garver were all well below average hitters in 2024.

The club’s only addition to the offense to this point has been Donovan Solano, who posted solid numbers in 2024 but figures to join Moore and Raley as another part-time player. A combination of Moore, Raley, and Solano seem likely to be capable of handling first and second base, but the club’s lineup still has a gaping hole at the hot corner after non-tendering Josh Rojas and declining Jorge Polanco’s club option. MLBTR explored the third base market as it pertains to the Mariners earlier this month, but none of the free agent options that fit their budget and lower-level trade candidates available are particularly inspiring.

The Mariners have been hesitant to trade from their excellent rotation, only reluctantly listening to offers on pricey veteran Luis Castillo and seemingly shutting down discussions regarding their young core of arms entirely. But shopping a cost-controlled, elite starting pitcher could open up new possibilities for the club to add impact talent that wouldn’t have been available otherwise. The Red Sox reportedly dangled an impact youngster in first baseman Triston Casas in exchange for either Miller or Woo earlier this winter, and it’s easy to imagine rotation-needy clubs offering similarly impactful talent in exchange for a young arm of that caliber.

Dangling Gilbert or Kirby would surely land the Mariners an even more enticing package in exchange given their solid track records of front-of-the-rotation work in the majors to this point. The Orioles, for example, have a deep group of positional talent but are in need of an impact starter. It’s not impossible to imagine Baltimore being willing to part with an established young talent like Jordan Westburg as the headliner in a package for someone like Gilbert, perhaps packaged with a less impactful cost-controlled arm like Dean Kremer to ease the blow to Seattle’s rotation.

Turning away from the Orioles, Mark Vientos of the Mets and Matt McLain of the Reds are among the other high-end, cost-controlled third basemen who the Mariners could theoretically seek as a headliner in a package for one of their top starters, though neither is quite as valuable as Westburg. Of course, such deals are easier to propose than actually execute. While a team like Cincinnati packaging McLain with one of their own rotation arms like Nick Lodolo in order to land an elite talent like Gilbert could make sense on paper, the injury history of both players could give the Mariners plenty of pause about giving up one of their most valuable assets for little in the way of certainty and the Reds may be equally hesitant to offer up two established players with All-Star upside in exchange for one.

That’s just one example, of course, but it’s equally difficult to imagine the Mariners lining up on the right trade package for a player as valuable as Gilbert or Kirby with the vast majority of rival clubs. High-end, cost-controlled starting pitching is the single most desirable asset in the sport, and while fans of rival teams have long dreamed of their GM working out a trade with Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto to bring one of the Mariners’ young aces to town they’d surely start feeling queasy about the possibility upon seeing just how much their team would need to part with in order to land such a coveted talent.

If you were in the Mariners’ shoes, how would you approach the situation? Would you take the same course Dipoto has and simply refuse to seriously entertain offers for your elite group of young pitchers, looking to upgrade the team in other ways like by dealing Castillo? Would you listen to offers while holding firm on a high asking price? Or would you compromise on the value of one of your top assets in order to help bolster an offense in desperate need of impact? Have your say in the poll below:

How Should Seattle Handle Its Young Starting Pitching?
Listen to offers, but only trade one if another team makes a huge offer. 59.76% (3,160 votes)
Hold onto the whole group and build around them. 24.94% (1,319 votes)
Shop them aggressively and work out a deal that improves the lineup no matter the cost. 15.30% (809 votes)
Total Votes: 5,288

Marlins Claim Connor Gillispie, Designate Jhonny Pereda

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The Marlins announced that they have claimed right-hander Connor Gillispie off waivers from the Braves. The righty was designated for assignment by Atlanta last week. Catcher Jhonny Pereda has been designated for assignment by the Marlins as the corresponding move. Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase reported the moves prior to the official announcement.

Gillispie, 27, made his major league debut with the Guardians last year in limited fashion. He tossed eight innings over three appearances, allowing two earned runs, striking out eight and walking five. He was non-tendered in November, heading out to free agency without being exposed to waivers. Atlanta signed him to a split deal shortly thereafter but bumped him off the roster when they signed Jurickson Profar.

The major league track record isn’t much to go off, so the clubs in Atlanta and Miami are surely looking more at Gillispie’s minor league performance. Over the past four years, he has thrown 406 innings on the farm with a 4.12 earned run average, 24.1% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate. Gillispie has worked both as a starter and reliever throughout his time in the minors, so he can potentially provide the Marlins with a little extra depth in both areas.

Pereda, 29 in April, also made his major league debut last year. He started the season with the Marlins on a minor league deal and was selected to the big league roster in the middle of April. He lasted on the 40-man through the rest of the year but was mostly on optional assignment. He got 40 major league plate appearances, hitting .231/.250/.231 in those. His minor league numbers have been better, with a combined line of .286/.381/.400 over the past four years, production which translates to a 108 wRC+. Baseball Prospectus has given him decent marks for his minor league work behind the plate.

The Marlins are fairly thin at catcher, with Nick Fortes and Liam Hicks the projected top duo, though prospect Agustín Ramírez could force his way into some playing time this year. The club will have a week to figure out what’s next for Pereda, whether that’s a trade or some fate on waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade talks would have to come together in five days. If Pereda passes through waivers unclaimed, the Fish can keep him around as catching depth without him taking up a roster spot in the short term.

Blue Jays To Sign Adam Kloffenstein To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays and right-hander Adam Kloffenstein have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. The righty will also be in big league camp with the Jays as a non-roster invitee.

Kloffenstein, 24, returns to his original club. The Jays selected him in the third round of the 2018 draft. For the next few years, he was a somewhat notable prospect in Toronto’s system. Baseball America ranked him in the middle parts of the Blue Jays’ top 30 from 2019 to 2022. At the 2023 deadline, the Jays flipped him to the Cardinals as part of the Jordan Hicks trade.

The Cards added Kloffenstein to their 40-man roster last offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. That allowed him to make his major league debut in 2024, though he tossed only one inning. His Triple-A numbers weren’t amazing on the year, as he allowed 4.74 earned runs per nine innings over his 17 starts. His 49% ground ball rate was strong but his 19.4% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate were both subpar.

After that uninspiring year, the Cards decided to move on. Kloffenstein was non-tendered in November, getting sent to free agency without being put on waivers. That allowed him to return to the Jays on this minor league pact.

From 2021 to 2023, Kloffenstein tossed 341 1/3 minor league innings, most of that with the Blue Jays. The results in that time were a bit better than in his 2024 season. His 4.85 ERA still wasn’t especially impressive but his 24% strikeout rate was significantly better than last year’s clip, with comparable amounts of walks and ground balls.

The Jays are plenty familiar with Kloffenstein from his time in the system, so perhaps they believe there’s a way to get him back on track after a challenging season. The Jays have Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and José Berríos locked into three rotation spots. Bowden Francis will probably get a chance to build off his strong finish in 2024. Guys like Yariel Rodríguez, Jake Bloss and Adam Macko are candidates for another spot. The Jays have been looking to upgrade that group this offseason and could push everyone down a peg but Kloffenstein gives them some non-roster depth alongside Eric Lauer. If Kloffenstein eventually gets a roster spot, he still has options and just a single day of service time.

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