Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Astros Sign Christian Walker

By | at

December 23: The Astros have officially announced Walker’s signing. According to Chandler Rome of The Athletic, the deal includes a limited no-trade clause and will pay Walker an even $20MM annually per season.

December 20: A new-look Astros club will have a new first baseman in 2025, as the team has reportedly agreed to terms on a three-year, $60MM contract with free agent Christian Walker. The CAA client’s deal is still pending a physical.

Walker’s deal with Houston seems to shut the door on the possibility of a reunion with Alex Bregman. Houston recently acquired Isaac Paredes from the Cubs as part of the trade sending Kyle Tucker to Chicago, and while Paredes could’ve played first base with Bregman in the fold, he’ll be slotted in at third base with Walker now on board. Similarly, this effectively eliminates any chances of Nolan Arenado landing in Houston — an outcome that was all but at the finish line before Arenado invoked his no-trade clause to nix the deal.

Walker, 34 in March, has been a target of the Astros for some time now, dating back to the trade deadline when was reportedly at the top of their wishlist. A deal didn’t get done then, obviously, but Houston still has a need at first base after their three-year deal with Jose Abreu almost immediately imploded on them. Houston first basemen — led by Abreu and Jon Singleton — turned in an awful .226/.291/.360 batting line on the season in 2024. Walker, meanwhile, hit .251/.335/.468 — almost an exact match for the .253/.333/.464 line he carries through 3171 plate appearances dating back to the 2019 season.

On top of his quality results at the plate, Walker has emerged as arguably the premier defensive first baseman in MLB. He’s won three straight Gold Glove Awards in the National League and leads all first basemen in Defensive Runs Saved (33) and Outs Above Average (39) over the past three seasons. Matt Olson (27) and Carlos Santana (20) are second in those respective metrics. Walker’s defensive excellence at his position has essentially been unmatched.

Both Walker and the recently acquired Paredes are strong fits for the Astros, given the short left field porch at the newly renamed Daikin Park. That’s more true of Paredes, who’s one of the game’s most dead-pull and prominent fly-ball hitters. Walker has more of an all-fields approach, but when isolating his splits on pulled batted balls, he ranks 15th among qualified hitters in fly-ball rate (32.2%). Put more simply, Walker may spray the ball around a bit more than Paredes, but when he does pull the ball, he lifts it far more often than the vast majority of big league hitters. For a right-handed hitter with plenty of pop in his bat, that should play quite nicely with a 314-foot left field porch.

It’s been a bull market for free agents this offseason, and Walker had accordingly been hoping to land a four-year deal. He’ll “settle” for a year less than that on a deal that aligns with early expectations. His three-year, $60MM deal is an exact match for our predicted contract back on MLBTR’s annual ranking of the offseason’s top 50 free agents.

The $20MM annual salary on the contract puts the Astros north of the luxury tax threshold for what would be a second straight season. RosterResource now projects them at $244MM of luxury obligations — $3MM north of the $241MM tier-one threshold for the coming season. Their bottom-line payroll will depend on how that $60MM is divided over the three years of the deal, but if it’s evenly distributed, Houston would be just over $225MM in terms of actual player salary. (The luxury tax is calculated separately and based on the average annual value of all the team’s contracts.)

It’s still possible the Astros could duck back under the tax threshold. They’re reportedly telling teams they don’t intend to trade top starter Framber Valdez, but they’ve been exploring the trade market for reliever Ryan Pressly, who’s set to earn $14MM in 2025. More speculatively, they could also gauge interest in backup catcher Victor Caratini and his $6MM salary, then turn that role over to Cesar Salazar, who hit well in Triple-A and the majors this past season.

Dropping back under the tax line, however, doesn’t appear to be any kind of mandate. Owner Jim Crane said earlier in the winter that he “had the wherewithal” to cross that line and match his 2024 levels of spending if the right scenario presented itself. At the time, few envisioned that would entail trading Tucker and letting Bregman walk, but the Astros have been averse to the types of long-term megadeals both players — Tucker in particular — are expected to command. Houston hasn’t given out a contract longer than Yordan Alvarez’s six-year, $115MM contract or Jose Altuve’s six-year, $157.5MM extension under Crane’s ownership, the latter also being the largest guarantee in franchise history.

As a result, the Astros will give out their second three-year deal to a mid-30s first baseman in the past three years. Houston signed the aforementioned Abreu to a $58.5MM deal in the 2022-23 offseason and will still be paying Abreu $19.5MM this coming season after releasing him at the contract’s halfway point. That deal was negotiated by Crane himself and senior advisor Jeff Bagwell, as it came in the lull between the team’s dismissal of former GM James Click and the hiring of current GM Dana Brown. Astros fans may feel some trepidation about another multi-year deal for a first baseman well past his 30th birthday, though it bears mentioning that Abreu was 36 in year one of his contract; Walker will be 36 in the final season of this deal.

Walker declined a $21.05MM qualifying offer from the D-backs at the end of the season. As such, he’ll cost the Astros their second- and fifth-highest picks in the 2025 draft, as well as $1MM of space from their league-allotted bonus pool for international amateur free agency. That’s the steepest penalty possible for signing a qualified free agent, but the Astros find themselves in that tier as a result of exceeding the luxury tax threshold in 2024. The fact that they exceeded the tax threshold also means they’d only receive a compensatory pick after the fourth round in the now-likely event that Bregman signs elsewhere.

As for the D-backs, they’ll receive a comp pick after the first round, because Walker’s agreement is for more than $50MM guaranteed. It’ll be a nice parting gift, but Walker’s production will be tough to replicate with in-house options. Former top-10 draft pick Pavin Smith hit well in 158 plate appearances last season, but that was his first big league success in parts of five seasons and came in a small sample. The Snakes can hope for a similar late-bloomer trajectory to the one taken by Walker, but odds are against that. They could look to affordable alternatives in free agency (e.g. Carlos Santana, Justin Turner, a Josh Bell reunion) or sift through a deep trade market of first base options that includes Yandy Diaz, Josh Naylor, Nathaniel Lowe and perhaps Triston Casas (though the asking price on Casas would be extreme and surely cost the D-backs some coveted young pitching).

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that the two sides were in advanced talks and closing in on a deal. Jim Bowden of The Athletic and MLB Network Radio reported that an agreement was in place, pending physical. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported the terms.

Pirates Re-Sign Andrew McCutchen

By | at

1:12pm: The Pirates have officially announced the deal.

9:05am: The Pirates are in agreement with veteran outfielder Andrew McCutchen, per the team’s social media account. The deal came together this morning. MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Andrew Destin were the first to report the terms of the contract: it’s a one-year deal that guarantees McCutchen $5MM.

McCutchen, 38, returns to Pittsburgh for his 12th season with the club and 17th season in the majors. Selected by the Pirates eleventh overall in the 2005 draft, McCutchen debuted with the club in 2009 and quickly established himself as a franchise player. He was the face of the Pirates throughout the 2010s until he was traded to the Giants prior to the 2018 season, and enjoyed an otherworldly five-year run in Pittsburgh where he slashed .302/.396/.509 (151 wRC+) en route to an MVP award, four Silver Sluggers, a Gold Glove, and five All-Star appearances.

In his five seasons away from the Pirates, McCutchen was no longer the impactful bat he was at his peak but nonetheless remained a solid, steadying presence in the lineup for the Giants, Yankees, Phillies, and Brewers. In 549 games for those clubs from 2018 to 2022, McCutchen hit a respectable .242/.343/.423 with a 110 wRC+. While he lacked the consistent power and high batting averages of his days in Pittsburgh, the veteran still provided value by getting on base at a strong clip thanks to a fantastic 12.7% walk rate during that span.

After the first below-average offensive season of his career with Milwaukee in 2022, he returned to Pittsburgh on a one-year, $5MM contract prior to 2023. He’s since signed identical contracts in the 2023-24 and now the 2024-25 offseasons, and the year-to-year arrangement seems to be working out quite well for both sides as the Pirates inch closer to a return to contention for the first time since McCutchen’s first stint with the team came to an end. Meanwhile, McCutchen has continued to age gracefully with solid production as the club’s regular DH over the past two seasons. His overall numbers in that time are remarkably similar to the five years he spent playing for other clubs, as he’s hit .243/.352/.403 with a wRC+ of 110. Since returning home to Pittsburgh, McCutchen has also reached a number of impressive career milestones including 2,000 hits, 1,000 walks, and 300 home runs.

Looking ahead to 2025, McCutchen figures to provide the Pirates with his typical steady production at DH. It’s the club’s second major move of the offseason after swapping Luis Ortiz to the Guardians in order to land Spencer Horwitz. McCutchen and Horwitz by themselves aren’t likely to dramatically alter an offense that finished third from the bottom in wRC+ with a figure of 86 that bested only the Rockies and White Sox, but there’s reason to believe the club plans to make additional moves as the offseason continues. Previous reports have connected the club to the corner outfield and bullpen markets this winter, and plenty of interesting players remain available in free agency and on the trade market at those positions. While the Pirates are hardly ever particularly big spenders, the club’s $79MM payroll projection for 2025 from RosterResource is $8MM below the club’s 2024 payroll, suggesting that there’s at least some room for additional moves even after bringing back McCutchen.

Red Sox Sign Patrick Sandoval

By | at

The Red Sox announced the signing of lefty Patrick Sandoval to a two-year free agent deal. The Wasserman client is reportedly guaranteed $18.25MM. He’ll make $5.5MM in 2025 and $12.75MMM in 2026. Boston’s 40-man roster is now full. Sandoval is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery, performed in June. He’ll miss at least the first half of the 2025 season, if not a bit more, but could be a late-season option in Boston and should be a member of their 2026 rotation.

Sandoval’s two-year guarantee makes the Angels’ decision to non-tender him and his $5.9MM projected salary (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) look all the more dubious. Even if Sandoval had missed all of the 2025 season, he’d have been in line to merely repeat that $5.9MM salary — a total of $11.8MM. There’s no way he would’ve secured a nearly $6.5MM raise on that projected 2025 salary heading into the 2026 season.

The Angels presumably shopped Sandoval around prior to cutting him loose, and market circumstances have changed since that time. Still, recent two-year deals for Tommy John rehabbers on similar timelines (e.g. Tyler Mahle, German Marquez) show that there could eventually have been trade interest in the lefty, but the Halos instead opted for immediate salary flexibility. Perhaps that made it easier for them to sign Yusei Kikuchi on a three-year pact, but Sandoval’s deal with the Red Sox shows that he’d very likely have had at least modest trade value had the Halos tendered him a contract and continued to explore the market for his services.

Though his exact timetable for a return to a big league mound can’t be known this far along in the rehab process, Sandoval is a quality arm who’ll slot into the middle of the Boston rotation whenever he’s cleared. Just days prior to his injury, I took a look at the statistical similarities between Sandoval and another lefty — popular trade target Jesus Luzardo. Dating back to 2021, Sandoval carries a 3.80 ERA with roughly average strikeout numbers (22.6%) and somewhat heavy 10.2% walk rate.

Sandoval’s command isn’t great and never has been, but that number is skewed a bit by an 11.3% mark from 2023 that looks like a clear outlier. Sandoval posted a 9.3% walk rate in 2021, 2022 and 2024. It’s still not good, but it’s only about one percentage point north of league average. He sits 93-94 mph with his four-seamer and sinker alike, complementing those fastballs with a slider that misses bats and a changeup that helps him keep righties at bay. He does still carry a notable platoon split, but right-handed hitters haven’t exactly crushed him (.263/.344/.391) and lefties practically shouldn’t bother swinging (.195/.274/.324).

Sandoval isn’t a star but has proven himself to be a capable third or fourth starter, even in a contending rotation. He’ll obviously open the season on the injured list but will eventually give Boston another arm to join a starting mix that includes Garrett Crochet, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Brayan Bello and, at some point, Lucas Giolito. Like Sandoval, Giolito is on the mend from UCL surgery, but his was performed last March so he should be back a few months sooner. Garrett Whitlock gives the Sox another potential rotation arm who’s on the mend from a Tommy John procedure, though he could factor into either the ’pen or the rotation.

The Red Sox could very well add another starting pitcher. They’ve been tied to Corbin Burnes on the free agent market and have also reportedly looked into the availability of Mariners righty Luis Castillo and Padres righty Dylan Cease. With several arms on the mend from surgery and a number of starters with only one full season of rotation experience under their belts (Crochet, Houck, Crawford, Bello), another arm feels prudent — even if it’s not a front-of-the-rotation type.

With Sandoval now in tow, RosterResource projects the Red Sox for a $155MM payroll and about $191MM worth of luxury tax obligations. They’re nowhere close to the $241MM tax threshold, thanks in no small part to going the trade route for their first impactful rotation addition of the winter (Crochet). That leaves ample opportunity for the Sox to bring in another arm and continue to poke around the markets for Alex Bregman, Teoscar Hernandez and other high-profile targets.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Red Sox and Sandoval had agreed to a two-year, $18.25MM contract. The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier had the salary breakdown.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Sets Spring Training Deadline For Extension Talks With Blue Jays

By | at

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is eligible for free agency after the 2025 season, and his future is undoubtedly the biggest looming question hanging over the Blue Jays as they prepare for what might be their final year of control over the All-Star first baseman.  GM Ross Atkins said at season’s end that the Jays would be looking to start extension talks this winter, and Guerrero himself confirmed these negotiations were taking place in a recent interview with Abriendo Sports (hat tip to Z101’s Hector Gomez and Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith).

Guerrero reiterated that he has interest in staying in Toronto, and is “ready to go” in signing an extension if the Jays meet his asking price.  However, “what they offered me is not even close to what I’m looking for,” Guerrero said, noting that Toronto’s most recent offer was worth around $340MM.  Notably, this offer came after Juan Soto signed his 15-year, $765MM deal with the Mets, and completely reset the market for superstar players.

Only limited time may be available to close the gap that exists between the two sides, as Guerrero said that he has let the front office know that he will cease negotiations after the first full day of the Jays’ Spring Training camp.   It is a bit of an unusual self-imposed deadline date, as most players set Opening Day as their unofficial endpoint for reaching an extension.  Obviously an extension can happen at any point before a player enters free agency, yet players generally prefer to keep focused only on baseball once the season begins, and thus contract talks are usually limited to the offseason.

It isn’t uncommon for some deals, of course, to be announced a few days or weeks into April, if talks are on the proverbial five-yard line by Opening Day and just a few final details needed to be confirmed.  Likewise, Guerrero probably isn’t going to end all talks in late February if he and the Jays have worked out most aspects of a very lucrative (and therefore rather complex) extension.  That said, reducing the remaining negotiation window to roughly two months is a pretty public way of increasing the pressure on Toronto’s front office.

This is purely speculation on my part, but the earlier “deadline” could also be Guerrero’s way of leaving the door open for a trade.  If an extension can’t be worked out before Spring Training properly begins and the Blue Jays feel Guerrero won’t re-sign next winter, the Jays could pivot and try to trade Guerrero for some longer-term assets prior to Opening Day.  To be clear, if Toronto spends the rest of its offseason adding talent to take another run at contention in 2025, it would seem far more likely that the Jays just keep Guerrero to keep their roster as strong as possible in what might be something of a final run for the Guerrero/Bo Bichette core.

The length of the $340MM offer wasn’t specified, but a ten-year, $340MM pact produces “only” an average annual value of $34MM per season, which ranks tied for the 15th-highest AAV in baseball history.  Nine years and $340MM is a $37.77MM AAV that ranks as the seventh-highest all-time, topped only by the most recent deals signed by Soto, Shohei Ohtani, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Zack Wheeler, and Aaron Judge.  An eight-year, $340MM pact equals $42.5MM in AAV, putting Guerrero behind only Soto, Ohtani, Scherzer, and Verlander.

Guerrero doesn’t turn 26 until March, however, so an eight-year deal only runs through his age-33 season.  Even a ten-year deal brings Guerrero through just his age-35 campaign, and a longer-term deal in the $340MM range only lowers the AAV to an even greater extent.  It isn’t necessarily clear what Guerrero is looking for in terms of contract length, but in terms of pure dollars, it is easy to see why he would balk at an offer worth slightly more than half of what Soto (who is also entering his age-26 season) received from New York.

From the Blue Jays’ perspective, the gap in production between Soto and Guerrero would justify a gap in earnings, though it isn’t quite as large a divide as one might imagine.  Soto’s huge 2024 campaign with the Yankees boosted his asking price through the ceiling, but looking just at his first six MLB seasons, Soto hit .284/.421/.524 with 160 home runs in 3375 plate appearances, with a 154 wRC+ and 28.2 fWAR.

Through his first six MLB seasons, Guerrero has hit .288/.363/.500 in 3540 PA, with the exact same total of 160 homers, and a 137 wRC+ and 17 fWAR.  For both players, their value is largely derived from their bat, as public defensive and baserunning metrics paint Guerrero and Soto as well below average in both departments.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal recently discussed what it might take to extend Guerrero, and floated the idea of a contract of somewhere between $500MM-$600MM.  Assuming no deferred money would be involved, this would make Guerrero the second-highest paid player in baseball history, behind only Soto.  “Excessive as it might sound to the average fan…keep in mind, the Jays would need to pay a premium for preventing Guerrero from testing the market.  And if they lose him, their already disgruntled fan base might revolt,” Rosenthal writes.

The latter point is another over-arching element of the Guerrero talks, as perhaps no executives in baseball are on as much of a hot seat as Atkins and team president Mark Shapiro.  While the Blue Jays came out of a rebuild to reach the playoffs in 2020, 2022, 2023, the club didn’t win even a single game during those trips to the postseason, and Toronto’s nosedive to a 74-88 record in 2024 could be a sign that the Jays’ competitive window could already be closed.

Toronto’s ardent pursuits of both Ohtani last offseason and Soto this winter indicated that ownership was prepared to go the distance in bidding on top-flight talent, though it remains to be seen if the Jays view Guerrero quite in the same tier those other two superstars.  It was just a year ago that Guerrero was coming off an underwhelming 118 wRC+ in 2023, and there were questions about whether Guerrero was even worth any kind of long-term investment.  For comparison’s sake, Soto’s “worst” full season as calculated by wRC+ was his 2019 campaign, when he posted a 143 wRC+ in 659 PA while also catching fire in the postseason to help the Nationals win the World Series.

Viewing Guerrero in relation to Soto specifically is a comp that Guerrero’s reps at the Prime Agency would likely welcome, as it keeps Guerrero even subconsciously linked to Soto’s elite salary tier.  Rafael Devers’ ten-year, $313.5MM extension with the Red Sox is also frequently mentioned as a Guerrero comp, as Devers was also entering his age-26 season.  Guerrero has some statistical edge (Devers had a 123 wRC+ in his first six seasons prior to his extension) and thus an argument to earn more than Devers got from Boston, but perhaps the Blue Jays’ $340MM-ish number reflects the idea of Guerrero as only slightly better than Devers.

It could also be, of course, that the Jays are willing to pay well above $340MM, but offered that figure as an early gauge on Guerrero’s asking price in the wake of Soto’s contract.  Plenty of time still exists for the two sides to eventually match up on an acceptable extension, and it could be that Guerrero backs off his early-spring deadline if some progress has been made, even if a new deal isn’t exactly imminent.

Tigers Sign Jordan Balazovic To Minors Contract

By | at

The Tigers have signed right-hander Jordan Balazovic to a minor league deal, according to Just Baseball Media’s Aram Leighton.  Balazovic returns to North American baseball after a brief stint with the Doosan Bears of the KBO League, as Balazovic signed with the Bears after he was released by the Twins last July.

A fifth-round pick for Minnesota in the 2016 draft, Balazovic earned some looks at the back of top-100 prospect lists during his climb up the ladder of the Twins’ farm system.  However, most of his success happened in the lower rungs of the ladder, as Balazovic has a 6.35 ERA in 151 2/3 career innings of Triple-A ball.  Despite those struggles, the Twins gave him a look at the big league level in 2023, and Balazovic posted a 4.44 ERA, 15.7% strikeout rate, and 11.1% walk rate across his first 24 1/3 innings in the Show.

The Twins opted to designate Balazovic for assignment last February and then released him, though he was quickly re-signed to another minor league contract.  More struggles at Triple-A led to Balazovic being released again so he could pursue his opportunity in South Korea, and Balazovic had a 4.26 ERA and a strong 27.6% strikeout rate in 57 innings with the Bears, starting 11 of his 12 games.

Balazovic still had an 11.2% walk rate with the Bears, which is a bit higher than his 9.01% career walk rate in the minors.  His control worsened as Balazovic faced higher levels of competition in the minors, while his strikeout and grounder rates were generally pretty solid, albeit with some variance within the small sample sizes of bouncing to different minor league levels.

Balazovic is only 26, so there’s logic in the Tigers taking a flier on a former notable prospect to see if another change of scenery helps the right-hander unlock any potential.  Detroit has also signed the likes of Matt Gage, Brendan White, and Ryan Miller to minors deals in recent days, as the Tigers are lining up some depth arms to evaluate in spring camp.  These types of signings are common practice for any team, of course, and won’t preclude Detroit from taking a run at bigger-name bullpen options like reported target Kirby Yates.

Nationals Acquire Nathaniel Lowe

By | at

The Nationals and Rangers have swung a one-for-one trade that will see first baseman Nathaniel Lowe head to Washington in exchange for left-hander Robert Garcia.  ESPN’s Jeff Passan (multiple links) was the first to report the deal, which has now been officially announced by both teams.

Lowe will change teams via trade for the second time in his career, as it was just over four years ago that Lowe was dealt from the Rays to the Rangers as part of a six-player swap.  The Rays’ first base depth had left Lowe struggling for playing time in his first two MLB seasons, but he immediately found a regular job once Texas installed him as its everyday first baseman.  Lowe has played in 615 of a possible 648 regular-season games in his four seasons with the Rangers, while hitting .274/.359/.432 with 78 homers in 2576 plate appearances.

Between his 123 wRC+ over those four seasons and increasingly strong defensive metrics, Lowe has been worth 10.6 fWAR during his Rangers tenure.  It isn’t superstar production and the left-handed hitting Lowe has naturally been more consistent against right-handed pitching, but he has at worst been a steady regular, with hints of a higher ceiling of production.  Lowe hit .302/.358/.492 with 27 homers over 645 PA in 2022, though a .363 BABIP may have helped contribute to that career year.

Despite Lowe’s very solid play, there had been some whispers that the Rangers could be looking to clear some room at first base.  The recently-acquired Jake Burger figures to get a good chunk of the first base at-bats now that Lowe is off the roster, with Josh Smith, Justin Foscue, or Ezequiel Duran also in the running for playing time depending on how the Rangers opt to arrange their infield.  Josh Jung is slated to be the regular third baseman but Burger, Smith, or Duran could also be used at the hot corner based on matchups.

Lowe’s increasing arbitration price tag was also surely a factor in the Rangers’ decision.  Now entering his second arb-eligible year, Lowe was projected to earn $10.7MM for the 2025 season.  It is hardly an ungainly sum for a Gold Glove-winning first baseman with Lowe’s offensive production, but since Lowe turns 30 in July, Texas might’ve been considering the longer-term question of whether or not Lowe was a candidate for a contract extension.

Today’s trade answers that question, and gaining more flexibility at a premium position allows the Rangers to both see what they have in internal options, or to potentially keep first base open for a bigger free agent or trade target down the road.  Or, such a bat could still come this offseason, as Texas now has an even greater need for left-handed hitting depth after dealing Lowe.

It was no secret that the Nationals were looking to upgrade at first base this winter, as such free agents as Christian Walker and Paul Goldschmidt were on Washington’s radar.  Walker signed with the Astros and Goldschmidt joined the Yankees just within the last week, which quite possibly prompted the Nats to complete this trade as the first-base market continues to quickly thin out.

The Lowe deal is the clearest sign yet that the Nationals are ready to end their rebuild after five straight losing seasons.  The Nats’ youth movement has led to CJ Abrams, James Wood, Dylan Crews, and Luis Garcia Jr. becoming parts of the everyday lineup, but plenty more offensive help was still required for a team that finished near the back of the pack in several major offensive categories.

In adding Lowe, the Nationals now have a player still in his prime who can bring a veteran voice and championship experience to the clubhouse, in addition to what Lowe can provide on the field.  There is even a slightly hometown-hero aspect to the trade, as Lowe was born a few hours’ down the road from D.C. in Norfolk, Virginia.

The Nats have plenty of payroll space available, so Lowe’s salaries aren’t any kind of concern for the team.  Addressing first base by trading for Lowe instead of, say, spending much more in salary and draft capital to sign a Walker or a Pete Alonso allows president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo to still keep his financial powder dry for other big moves this winter or (perhaps more likely) next offseason or potentially at the trade deadline.  Rizzo and team ownership might prefer to give it one more season to see what they really have in their young core before really putting the pedal down in a full-fledged run towards contention.  In this scenario, Lowe is already under control if 2026 is really the Nationals “go for it” kind of year.

Garcia’s role in the deal shouldn’t be overlooked, as the Nationals now have an even greater need for relief pitching after dealing away a southpaw who showed plenty of promise in his first two Major League seasons.  Washington claimed Garcia off waivers from the Marlins in August 2023, and the lefty has a 4.03 ERA, 28.6% strikeout rate, 46.6% grounder rate, and 7.4% walk rate over 91 2/3 career relief innings.

Fifty-nine and two-thirds of those frames came last season, as Garcia posted a misleading 4.22 ERA that was inflated by some bad luck.  Garcia had a .329 BABIP and a very low 57.2% strand rate, and his 2.71 SIERA is perhaps a better reflection of just how solid Garcia’s performance was in 2024.  The left-hander doesn’t bring much in the way of velocity, but his fastball is used primarily to set up his excellent changeup, which was quietly one of the more effective changeups thrown by any pitcher in baseball.

With a swath of above-average Statcast metrics, Garcia will provide a huge boost to the Texas bullpen if he can replicate those numbers on his new club.  Garcia joins Jacob Webb and Hoby Milner as recent new additions to a relief corps that was destined to undergo an overhaul with Kirby Yates, Jose Leclerc, and David Robertson all entering free agency.  Since this trio is still unsigned, the Rangers could seek out reunions with any of their own free agents, but naturally it makes sense to fortify the pen with other longer-term arms like Garcia.  The left-hander turns 29 in June but is arb-controlled through the 2029 season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Red Sox Sign Austin Adams To Minors Contract

By | at

The Red Sox have signed right-hander Austin Adams to a minor league deal, KPRC’s Ari Alexander reports.  Adams will receive an invite to Boston’s big league spring camp, and his contract contains over $1.5MM in bonuses based on appearances at the MLB level.

Should Adams indeed cash in on those bonuses, it should bring his salary fairly close to the $1.7MM that MLBTR projected as his arbitration salary in 2025, though the Athletics outrighted him at season’s end in what was essentially an early non-tender.  Though $1.7MM isn’t a big sum even for the A’s, Adams’ 12% walk rate was on the high side, even though he had a 3.92 ERA and 27.7% strikeout rate over 41 1/3 innings out of the Athletics’ bullpen.

These numbers are pretty close to a match to the 4.10 ERA, 31.6% strikeout rate, and 13.9% walk rate Adams has posted in his 155 2/3 innings in the Show.  His control problems also manifested themselves in a league-leading 24 batters hit by pitches in 2021.

Adams has appeared in each of the last eight Major League seasons, ranging from cups of coffee (two appearances in each of the 2018 and 2022) to larger workloads, like this past season in Oakland or his career high of 52 2/3 innings with the 2021 Padres.  Adams has seen action with five different teams at the big league level, including a three-year stint in San Diego from 2020-22 that was shortened by a flexor tendon surgery that cost him almost all of the 2022 campaign.

The Sox will become the latest team to see if they can fix the 33-year-old’s control and get his slider-heavy arsenal to deliver more consistent results at the big league level.  Adams’ strikeout potential is clearly evident, and even beyond the hidden-gem potential, he can bring some value to Boston’s bullpen even if he only replicates his overall decent 2024 results.  At the cost of just a minor league contract, there’s no risk for the Red Sox in letting Adams compete for a job in spring camp.

Wil Myers Ends Playing Career

By | at

Wil Myers has decided to call it a career after 11 big league seasons, the longtime Padres first baseman/outfielder told MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell.  While Myers stressed that he wouldn’t ever “officially” retire, he made his decision in June 2023 after he’d been released by the Reds and was dealing with some shoulder problems.

“I had a great career.  I loved what I did.  I made a lot of great friends.  I have no regrets,” Myers said.  “If you had told me the day I was drafted that this would be your career, I would’ve taken it in a heartbeat.  I loved what I did, and now it’s just kind of onto the next chapter of life.”

Myers, who just recently turned 34, will hang up his glove after an even 1100 career games with the Rays, Padres, and Reds from 2013-23.  Myers hit .252/.326/.437 with 156 home runs over 4290 plate appearances, good for a 107 wRC+ during his time in the Show.  He spent the majority of his time in the field as a first baseman and right fielder, but also with a big chunk of time at the other two outfield positions and some time at third base (primarily in 2018, when the Padres had several first base/outfield types they were trying to fit into the lineup).

A third-round pick for the Royals in the 2009 draft, Myers quickly became one of baseball’s most highly-touted prospects, and made headlines before his MLB career even began due to his involvement in a blockbuster trade.  In December 2012, the Royals sent Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery, and third-base prospect Patrick Leonard to Tampa Bay in exchange for James Shields, Wade Davis, and Elliot Johnson.  Kansas City’s farm system was viewed as deep enough that it could afford to move even a top prospect like Myers in exchange for win-now help, and the decision paid off — K.C. won the AL pennant in both 2014 and 2015, and Davis was one of the relief aces of the Royals’ 2015 World Series title team.

For the Rays, the deal paid some immediate dividends, as Myers won AL Rookie of the Year honors in 2013 on the strength of 13 homers and a .293/.354/.478 slash line over 373 plate appearances.  However, Myers then battled wrist injuries and the sophomore slump in 2014, leading to his involvement in an even bigger trade.  The Rays, Padres, and Nationals combined on a mammoth three-team, 11-player deal that is perhaps best remembered today as the swap that brought Trea Turner to Washington (and thus setting the table for the Nats’ 2019 World Series championship).

From Myers’ perspective, the deal kicked off an eight-year run in San Diego that was overall a success, albeit with plenty of ups and downs.  Much of his time with the Padres is viewed through the lens of the six-year, $83MM extension he signed prior to the 2017 season, which at the time was the largest contract in San Diego franchise history.  The big salary inevitably led to higher expectations that Myers didn’t entirely fulfill, as injuries and a propensity for strikeouts limited Myers’ production.

That said, Myers still had plenty of notable performances over the length of the deal.  Myers was an All-Star in 2016, hit 30 homers during the 2017 season, and was one of the best hitters in baseball during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.  That 2020 campaign was particularly notable since the Padres earned a wild card berth, marking San Diego’s first postseason appearance since 2006 and the official end of the team’s lengthy rebuild.  Ironically, Myers’ contract made him difficult to trade amidst the Padres’ other cost-cutting moves, and as a result, Myers ended up being “the one player on hand for the entirety of the franchise’s turnaround,” Cassavell writes.

As the 2022 season rolled along, Myers became a part-time player and was again hampered by injuries, so it was no surprise when the Padres declined their $20MM club option on Myers’ services for the 2023 season.  A free agent for the first time in his career, Myers landed in Cincinnati on a one-year deal worth $7.5MM in guaranteed money, but he hit only .189/.257/.283 in 141 PA over what will end up as his final season in the majors.

MLBTR congratulates Myers on a fine career and we wish him all the best in his post-playing endeavors.

Cubs Sign Carlos Pérez To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Cubs have signed veteran catcher Carlos Pérez to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Pérez’s MLB.com profile page. The deal presumably includes an invite to MLB Spring Training.

Pérez, 34, should not be confused with his younger brother and fellow catcher Carlos Pérez, who is currently a free agent but played parts of two MLB seasons with the White Sox. The elder Pérez signed with the Blue Jays out of Venezuela before making his pro debut in 2008 and has spent parts of five seasons in the majors since then. A well-regarded defensive catcher, Pérez made his big league debut with the Angels back in 2015 but slashed just .224/.267/.332 (64 wRC+) in 595 plate appearances across 184 games and three seasons in Anaheim. Pérez split the 2018 season between the Braves and Rangers but made it into just 28 games while posting a ghastly -4 wRC+ in 75 trips to the plate.

After that lackluster showing in 2018, Pérez shuffled between the Orioles, A’s, and Rockies systems over the years before finally resurfacing in the majors last year at the age of 32. The 2023 campaign was arguably the best of Pérez’s career as he served as Oakland’s primary backup behind Shea Langeliers. His .226/.293/.357 slash line in 68 games for the A’s was well below league average (83 wRC+) overall but roughly on par with the expectations associated with a typical big league backup. Pérez returned to the A’s on a minor league deal last winter but did not ultimately crack the club’s big league roster this year despite hitting quite well at Triple-A. In 112 games with the club’s Las Vegas affiliate, Pérez slashed a strong .260/.344/.544 with 27 homers and 27 doubles. Those numbers are inflated by the offense-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League, but even when adjusted for that environment are still good for a 114 wRC+ at the level.

Pérez elected minor league free agency last month in search of greener pastures, which he seems to have found in Chicago. The Cubs appear mostly set at the big league level with a catching tandem of Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya, but it’s possible that Pérez could be the next man up in the event of an injury, earning a big league opportunity similar to the ones Christian Bethancourt and Tomás Nido got with the club last year. From Chicago’s perspective, meanwhile, Pérez offers a non-roster depth option behind the plate who can also serve as a mentor to young pitchers at the Triple-A level like Cade Horton as well as the club’s top catching prospect, Moisés Ballesteros. Ballesteros reached Triple-A at just 20 years old last year on the power of his exciting bat, but his defensive skills are questionable and it’s not yet clear whether he’ll be able to stick behind the plate in the majors.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top