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Royals Sign Carlos Estévez

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The Royals and right-hander Carlos Estévez are in agreement on a two-year deal that comes with a club option for 2027. It’s reportedly a $22MM guarantee for the Premier Talent Sports and Entertainment client, which includes a $2MM buyout on the option valued at $13MM. If the Royals exercise the option, the deal would reach $33MM over three seasons. The Royals designated Braden Shewmake for assignment in a corresponding move.

Estévez, 32, spent the first six seasons of his career with the Rockies. Pitching in Coors Field may have masked his talents, as he generally had good strikeout and walk rates but middling run prevention numbers. From 2019 to 2022, his final four seasons in Colorado, he tossed 214 2/3 innings with a 4.28 earned run average, 23.9% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate.

Getting away from the mountains has been good for his bottom-line numbers. He signed a two-year, $13.5MM deal with the Angels going into 2023, then was traded to the Phillies at the 2024 deadline. Over those two years, he threw 117 1/3 innings with a 3.22 ERA, 26% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate. He has become a bonafide closer in that time as well, racking up 31 saves in 2023 and 26 last year.

His 2024 season was his best yet, in a sense, as his 2.45 ERA was a personal low. However, there was some concern with how he finished. He struck out 25.8% of batters faced with the Angels but just 20.5% of opponents after being flipped to Philadelphia. But that was despite his velocity increasing as the season went along. He also got more ground balls after the deal, with a 25.3% rate as an Angel last year compared to a 43.5% rate with the Phils. In the end, he still managed to have a tidy 2.57 ERA with Philly, racking up six saves.

At the start of the offseason, MLBTR predicted Estévez for a three-year, $27MM deal. It seems the righty has been limited to a slightly lesser guarantee over two years, though he will end up beating that projection if the option is ultimately picked up.

The Royals had a strong rotation last year but their bullpen was less impressive. Their relievers had a collective 4.13 ERA last year, which placed them 20th out of the 30 clubs in the league. They tried to address that at the deadline by adding Lucas Erceg and Hunter Harvey in separate trades. Erceg posted a 2.88 ERA for the club after the deal and then had a 3.00 ERA over six postseason appearances as well. The Harvey acquisition didn’t pay immediate dividends, however, as a back injury limited him to just six appearances as a Royal. He is still under club control for 2025, so the Royals will hope for better health this year.

Though Erceg’s performance made the group look stronger, continuing to add this winter makes sense. That’s especially true with Kris Bubic likely moving to the rotation this year. Time will tell whether they have a preferred closer. As mentioned, Estévez has been closing for the past two years. Erceg recorded 11 saves for the Royals after being acquired, plus three more in the playoffs. Regardless of the roles, Estévez strengthens the relief group overall.

The Royals opened last year with a payroll of $115MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. They are projected by RosterResource to be up to $123MM next year, before accounting for Estévez. They have reportedly been looking for a middle-of-the-order bat. Whether they can find one will likely depend on how much farther they are willing to push the spending.

Estévez received plenty of interest from other clubs this offseason, such as the Reds, Tigers, Cubs, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Yankees. Some of those clubs have since made other moves to address their respective bullpens. For clubs still looking to add relievers, the options have been flying off the board lately. Since the start of January, Chris Martin, Andrew Kittredge, Jeff Hoffman, Caleb Ferguson, Jorge López, A.J. Minter, José Leclerc, Tanner Scott, Paul Sewald, Kirby Yates, Ryne Stanek and Tommy Kahnle have agree to deals of $3MM or more. Ryan Pressly and Taylor Rogers were also traded this week.

Free agency still features players such as David Robertson, Kenley Jansen, Andrew Chafin and others, while guys like Robert Suarez, Ryan Helsley or Camilo Doval might be available on the trading block.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported the Royals and Estévez had a deal. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was first with the two-year guarantee and the third-year club option. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported the $22MM guarantee and the $13MM option value.

J.D. Martinez Planning To Play In 2025

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Designated hitter J.D. Martinez is planning to play in 2025, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. That’s a notable stance for the slugger as he was considering retiring around this time one year ago.

Martinez ended up playing for the Mets in 2024 with a very late signing. The reports of his pact with the Mets emerged on March 21 and the deal became official on March 23. That clearly was a frustrating situation for Martinez, after he hit 33 home runs for the Dodgers in 2023, slashing .271/.321/.572 for a 135 wRC+.

“Here I am, the team’s breaking in five days, and I don’t even have a team yet,” Martinez said in October, just after the Mets had been eliminated from the postseason. “Your brain goes into a weird mode, where you’re like ’Am I playing? Am I not? Am I playing? Am I not? Is this it? Am I retired? … We weren’t asking for anything that, at the time, I feel like other players hadn’t gotten.”

The annoyance was enough for Martinez to consider hanging up his spikes, relaying that he said to a friend: “I think this it. I’m staying home. This is dumb. I’m begging for a job, and I had a .900 OPS last year.”

In the end, he and the Mets got a deal done and he had a decent season. He hit 16 home runs in 495 plate appearances, putting up a .235/.320/.406 batting line and 108 wRC+. Because he missed spring training and then dealt with some general body soreness, he didn’t make his season debut until late April. The late start doesn’t seem to have impacted his performance, as he was actually better in the earlier part of the season. He slashed .263/.349/.457 in the first half and .199/.282/.340 in the second, leading to respective wRC+ tallies of 130 and 79.

Given the irritating nature of his last trip to free agency, he presumably would like to sign a little earlier this time around. Finding a home for an everyday designated hitter is tough these days. Martinez didn’t play the field at all in 2024. His 12 innings in left field in 2023 are the totality of his defensive work over the past three years.

Many clubs have their DH spot clogged up by one key bat already, such as Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, Yordan Alvarez of the Astros, Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies and others. Some clubs like to keep the slot open so that they can rotate various players through, maximizing flexibility and lessening the workloads of certain individuals. Rebuilding teams like the Marlins or White Sox have playing time available in theory, but they might prefer to give at-bats to young players they are evaluating for future roles.

Of the clubs that are still on the hunt for a big bat, Martinez could be competing with his former teammate Pete Alonso, who is still unsigned as well. It’s possible that Alonso’s situation might impact Martinez, with clubs reluctant to sign Martinez until Alonso makes his choice. The Mets, Blue Jays, Giants, Angels, Red Sox and others have been connected to Alonso recently, so perhaps some of those clubs could consider Martinez a fallback in the coming weeks.

Even though Alonso’s market isn’t shaping up as hoped, Martinez will certainly cost far less. Alonso has reportedly turned down an offer from the Mets in the range of $68 to $70MM over three years. Martinez got a one-year, $12MM deal from the Mets for 2024, though in heavily deferred fashion. He was only paid $4.5MM last year with the rest to be paid out via $1.5MM instalments from 2034 to 2038. Now one year older and coming off a worse platform, he’ll likely have less earning power now.

Justin Turner, Rowdy Tellez, Ty France and Anthony Rizzo are some of the other notable hitters that are still unsigned as well. Like Martinez, each of the guys in that group should be limited to one-year offers based on age and/or recent performance.

Brewers, William Contreras Avoid Arbitration

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The Brewers and catcher William Contreras have avoided arbitration, reports Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He and the Brewers have signed a one-year deal with a club option for 2026. Per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, the backstop will make $6MM this year and there’s a $100K buyout on the $12MM option, so he’s guaranteed $6.1MM. He will still be under club control if that club option is eventually turned down.

January 15 was the deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to exchange filing figures. The majority of players agreed to terms with their respective clubs ahead of that deadline but Contreras was one of the 17 that did not. He filed at $6.5MM and the club at $5.6MM. This agreement puts him slightly beyond the midpoint of those two figures. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected the backstop for $7.6MM.

After the filing deadline, teams and players are free to continue negotiating. However, most clubs adopt a “file and trial” policy, meaning that they refuse to negotiate one-year deals after the deadline. It’s quite common to see deals emerge after the deadline but before a hearing, though a club or mutual option will be involved. That’s a technicality since the option means the deal can’t be used as a comparable for future arb cases. That has come to pass in this case.

This is the first of three arbitration chances for Contreras, who is under club control through 2027. His subsequent raises will be based off his base salary in 2025, making this a significant case for player and club. As mentioned, the option is mostly a technicality. Even if the club eventually turns it down, he will still be under club control by the Brewers via arbitration.

Contreras came to the Brewers from Atlanta prior to the 2023 campaign, part of the three-team deal that sent Sean Murphy to Atlanta. In his two seasons in Milwaukee, he has slashed .285/.366/.462 for a wRC+ of 128. His defensive metrics also greatly improved relative to his time in Atlanta. He’s been worth 11.2 wins above replacement over those two campaigns, in the eyes of FanGraphs.

Poll: Should The Phillies Extend J.T. Realmuto?

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Earlier this offseason, reporting out of Philadelphia indicated that Phillies brass are considering reducing the workload of veteran catcher J.T. Realmuto as he enters the final season of his deal with the club, after the first season of Realmuto’s career where he played less than 100 games due to injury. In that same report, there was a suggestion that the club could look to broach the topic of a contract extension with Realmuto ahead of his final year of team control, whether that would ultimately come later in the offseason or once camp opened up for Spring Training.

As January comes to a close, there have been no further reports regarding the state of talks between the sides. That could change quickly, however, given that camp will open in just two weeks. After all, last winter saw plenty of rumors about the possibility of an extension between the Phillies and right-hander Zack Wheeler, but talks did not begin until Spring Training was underway and eventually resolved in early March. Should the Phillies be interested in following a similar timeline with Realmuto, it’s easy to imagine talks starting up in the near future.

Realmuto, 34 in March, was dealt to the Phillies by the division rival Marlins prior to the 2019 season and has been a key cog in the Philadelphia lineup ever since. In 699 games for the club, the veteran has slashed an excellent .266/.331/.463 with a 112 wRC+. That puts Realmuto alongside Salvador Perez and Sean Murphy has one of the better offensive catchers in the past decade, though he falls outside the top tier occupied by Adley Rutschman, William Contreras, Willson Contreras, and Will Smith. Realmuto was at his best during the 2022 season, when he finished seventh in NL MVP voting, won the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards for the catcher position, and became the second catcher in MLB history to post 20 homers and 20 steals in a single season.

The past two seasons have seen Realmuto’s age and heavy workloads begin to catch up with him, however. He’s hit just .258/.315/.442 (105 wRC+) since the start of the 2023 campaign. His 25.2% strikeout rate during that time is higher than ever, and his walk rate has dipped to just 6.5%. Perhaps more importantly, Realmuto has fallen from the upper echelon of defensive catchers in the sport to become below average in terms of both blocking and framing, though he still remains elite when it comes to controlling the running game. While Realmuto has remained productive even amid this recent decline in skills, it’s fair to wonder if the veteran’s downturn in production the past two years could worsen as he enters his mid-30s given the harsh aging curve associated with the catcher position.

On the other hand, Philadelphia’s options without Realmuto in the fold are uninspiring. After a strong year as Realmuto’s backup in 2022, Garrett Stubbs has been one of the worst hitters in the sport the past two seasons with a paltry .206/.287/.271 slash line in 95 games. Youngster Rafael Marchan hit a far more robust .294/.345/.549 (146 wRC+) last year while filling in for Realmuto during his trip to the injured list, but that came in a sample of just 17 games and 56 plate appearances. If Realmuto were to head to free agency after the coming season, the Phillies would need to find an external addition at catcher to fortify that group anyway.

None of those options figure to be a clear upgrade even over the diminished form Realmuto has shown the past two seasons. Danny Jansen, Jose Trevino, and Victor Caratini are among the best catchers expected to be available next winter, but Realmuto’s 105 wRC+ is tied with Caratini for the lead among that group over the past two years and his 4.2 fWAR easily clears the production that trio has put up in timeshare roles. While a big season from Jansen and/or an additional step back from Realmuto could change things, a healthy season from Realmuto with a reduction in his day-to-day workload could improve his numbers and make him more difficult to bring back should he make it to the open market.

How do MLBTR readers feel president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski should handle Realmuto ahead of his final season under contract? Have your say in the poll below:

Should The Phillies Extend J.T. Realmuto This Spring?
No, let him test free agency and put off deciding on the future of the position until after the season. 63.24% (2,955 votes)
Yes, keep him from hitting free agency and lock him down as the starting catcher. 36.76% (1,718 votes)
Total Votes: 4,673

Cardinals Sign Zack Weiss To Minor League Deal

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The Cardinals announced the signing of reliever Zack Weiss to a minor league deal. St. Louis also re-signed righty Victor Santos to a two-year minor league contract. Earlier this week, the Cardinals also announced a non-roster contract with catcher Yohel Pozo.

Weiss is the most notable of the trio. The 32-year-old has pitched in parts of three big league seasons. He tossed a career-high 14 innings between the Red Sox and Angels two seasons ago. Weiss landed with the Twins on a waiver claim last offseason but was outrighted off the 40-man roster without making an MLB appearance. He worked 25 innings with Minnesota’s Triple-A club after clearing waivers. While he posted a middling 5.40 earned run average, he struck out an above-average 26.7% of opposing hitters.

The righty has missed bats in his limited look against MLB competition as well. Weiss has fanned 28% of opponents through 27 1/3 career innings. That has come alongside a lofty 12.7% walk rate, though, contributing to a middling 4.61 ERA. Weiss has allowed 5.37 earned runs per nine in parts of six Triple-A campaigns.

Santos, 24, has yet to reach the major leagues. He was one of two minor league relievers whom the Cards acquired from the Red Sox in what turned out to be the lopsided Tyler O’Neill trade. Santos posted a 5.61 ERA across 77 innings with Triple-A Memphis last year. He’d been pitching in the Dominican Winter League this offseason but seemingly suffered an injury. The Cards announced that he is expected to miss the entire 2025 season, explaining the two-year term of his deal.

Pozo, 27, appeared in 21 MLB games for the Rangers four seasons ago. He hit .284 in 77 plate appearances. Pozo has spent the past two seasons as non-roster depth with the A’s. He hit .324/.335/.538 with 15 homers in an extremely hitter-friendly setting in Triple-A last season. The righty-swinging backstop has one of the most extreme approaches in professional baseball. Among the nearly 1100 minor league hitters who logged at least 300 plate appearances, Pozo had the lowest walk rate (1.9%). His 8.3% strikeout rate was fourth-lowest. No hitter put more balls into play overall.

Orioles Acquire Luis Vazquez, Designate Emmanuel Rivera

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The Cubs have traded infielder Luis Vazquez, whom they designated for assignment earlier in the week, to the Orioles in exchange for cash, the teams announced. Baltimore has designated fellow infielder Emmanuel Rivera for assignment to create space on the 40-man roster.

The 25-year-old Vazquez made his big league debut with the Cubs in 2024, though he only appeared in 11 games and went 1-for-12 in a small sample of 14 plate appearances. He hit .263/.347/.432 in Triple-A, about four percent better than average, by measure of wRC+. That marked his second season with the Cubs’ top affiliate in Iowa. He’s posted slightly better-than-average offense in both seasons there while walking at an 11.6% clip against a 22.5% strikeout rate. In 543 plate appearances in Des Moines, he’s popped 17 homers and gone 7-for-12 in stolen base attempts.

Primarily a shortstop, Vazquez ranked 16th among Cubs farmhands at Baseball America just one year ago. BA touted him as the best defensive infielder in the Cubs’ minor league ranks while praising some offensive strides he began to display after years of light hitting in the lower minors. Vazquez has multiple minor league option years remaining and gives the O’s a utility option who can back up at multiple positions or simply be stashed in Norfolk as a depth piece.

Rivera, 28, joined the O’s as an August waiver claim from the Marlins. He logged 73 plate appearances down the stretch with Baltimore and torched opponents with a .313/.370/.578 batting line and four homers. That type of production was largely out of line with Rivera’s career .244/.306/.369 output, however. He’s long been viewed as a glove-first third baseman with modest power and plodding speed. Defensive metrics soured on his glovework at the hot corner in 2024’s 611 innings, but he has above-average marks in overall in 2005 career innings.

Even with that torrid hot streak following his waiver claim, Rivera looked like a non-tender candidate entering the winter. The O’s instead opted to tender him a contract and sign him to a $1MM salary. That salary could now help him pass through waivers if the O’s don’t find a trade partner in the next five days. Rivera is out of options, so any team that acquires or claims him would need to be willing to carry him on the Opening Day roster or else try to pass him through waivers themselves. If Rivera goes unclaimed, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would mean forfeiting any guaranteed salary; he’d likely accept the assignment and stick with the O’s while hoping for a call to the majors at some point early in the season.

Diamondbacks Sign Garrett Hampson To Minor League Deal

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Utilityman Garrett Hampson has signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks, per an announcement from the team’s Triple-A affiliate, the Reno Aces. Hampson will be a non-roster invitee in spring training with the Snakes next month.

It could be a homecoming for Hampson, a Nevada native who starred at Reno High School before playing college ball at Long Beach State and going to the Rockies in the third round of the 2016 draft. He’s a veteran of seven big league seasons who spent the 2024 campaign in a utility role with Kansas City.

The Royals signed Hampson to a one-year, $2MM contract last winter and plugged him into a bench role. He appeared in 113 games and tallied 231 plate appearances as a Royal, hitting just .230/.275/.300 along the way. That was a notable drop from a solid 2023 showing in Miami, where Hampson hit .276/.349/.380 in a similar sample of playing time with the Marlins.

Hampson is one of the game’s fastest players, ranking in Statcast’s 99th percentile for sprint speed last year as he covered 29.8 feet per second at top speed. He can play second base, shortstop, third base or any of the three outfield spots. He’s drawn average or better marks at all six spots in his career.

However, Hampson has rarely provided much value in the batter’s box; he’s is a lifetime .240/.301/.362 hitter in 1762 plate appearances despite playing a huge portion of his home games at the hitter-friendly Coors Field. By measure of wRC+, his bat has been 38% worse than average in the majors. He’s been better against lefties (.254/.321/.398, 85 wRC+ in his career), and Hampson touts a lifetime .312/.371/.448 slash in 121 Triple-A games.

Right-handed hitters Blaze Alexander, Grae Kessinger and Tim Tawa are the top utility candidates on the D-backs’ 40-man roster at the moment. Alexander didn’t hit all that well in his rookie season (.247/.321/.343), and Tawa has yet to make his MLB debut. Kessinger was acquired from the Astros after being designated for assignment and has a .141/.243/.213 slash in 70 big league plate appearances. Hampson will provide some non-roster competition for manager Torey Lovullo’s bench mix over the course of spring training.

Padres, Michael King Avoid Arbitration

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The Padres announced Friday that they’ve avoided arbitration with right-hander Michael King, coming to terms on a one-year deal with a mutual option for the 2026 season. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that King will be guaranteed $7.75MM, taking the form of a $3MM signing bonus, just a $1MM salary, and a $3.75MM buyout on a $15MM mutual option. King can boost his guarantee to $8MM, as the contract includes a $50K bonus for reaching 20 starts and bonuses of $100K for reaching 25 and 28 starts. The structure of the deal will perhaps free up a bit of 2025 budget for a payroll-crunched Padres club. King and his reps at Excel Sports Management had filed for an $8.8MM salary. The Padres countered at $7.325MM.

While the arrangement nominally extends the window of control over King, mutual options are at best a technicality; they’re almost never picked up by both sides. The player either outperforms the option value and declines in favor of a trip to free agency, or he underperforms and/or sustains an injury that prompts the team to decline and move on. It’s been more than 10 years since two parties agreed to exercise their end of a mutual option (Matt Belisle, Rockies in Nov. 2013).

Still, by including a mutual option on the contract, the Padres technically stick to the near-leaguewide file-and-trial mantra, wherein teams cut off negotiation on one-year deals once salary figures are exchanged. King’s deal is, of course, a one-year contract — but the presence of the option renders it moot for future arbitration negotiations. Even though there’s virtually no chance of the option being exercised, its mere presence means that King’s agreement cannot be used as a comp (for the Padres or for other clubs) when negotiating contracts with players who are comparable in terms of statistics or service time.

King, 29 (30 in May), was acquired from the Yankees as one of five players in last season’s Juan Soto blockbuster with the Yankees. He’d been primarily a reliever prior to his inclusion in that swap, though a terrific nine-start stretch late in the 2023 season had thrust him into the Yankees’ rotation plans. Instead, he had his first full season as a starter in San Diego rather than the Bronx, and the results were outstanding. In a career-high 173 2/3 frames, King turned in a 2.95 ERA with a 27.7% strikeout rate, an 8.7% walk rate and a 40.4% ground-ball rate. He now sports a 2.91 ERA in his past 392 2/3 innings, spanning the 2021-24 seasons.

As a free agent following the season, King’s name has floated around the rumor circuit for a Padres club that has had payroll questions all offseason. San Diego hopes to contend in 2025, so the only way they’d move King (or rotationmate and fellow pending free agent Dylan Cease) would be if the return included an immediate rotation replacement and additional big league-ready talent. Teams in search of rotation help will continue to inquire, as it seems inevitable that the Padres will eventually make some kind trade to free up payroll space and simultaneously plug some roster holes.

Mickey Moniak Wins Arbitration Hearing Versus Angels

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Outfielder Mickey Moniak won his arbitration hearing against the Angels, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. He’ll be paid the $2MM sum at which he and his reps from Wasserman filed rather than the team’s $1.5MM submission.

It’s the first trip through arbitration for Moniak, the No. 1 pick from the 2016 draft. He’s coming off a down showing in 2024 that saw him slash just .219/.266/.380 across a career-high 418 plate appearances. He played all three outfield spots (albeit only seven innings in left field), hit 14 homers (plus 17 doubles and a pair of triples) and swiped eight bags in a dozen attempts.

Moniak had a big year in 2023 — his first full season with the Angels after coming to Anaheim in the Aug. 2022 trade that shipped Noah Syndergaard to the Phillies. He hit .280/.307/.495 (114 wRC+) with 14 long balls in 323 plate appearances for the ’23 Halos, although those results looked dubious and unsustainable at the time. Moniak’s production came in spite of a sky-high 35% strikeout rate and was aided by a similarly bloated .397 average on balls in play. He walked in only 2.8% of his plate appearances and posted the highest swing percentage of any player in MLB (min. 300 plate appearances) but the fifth-worst contact rate. Sure enough, his output at the plate came crashing down in 2024.

Even if that 2023 season was largely smoke and mirrors, the results are in the books, and they surely benefited Moniak in his arbitration case. As such, any future arbitration raises will be based on a larger starting point ($2MM) than would’ve been the case had he lost his hearing ($1.5MM). He’ll be arbitration-eligible twice more and is under club control with the Angels through the 2027 season. He’s ticketed for a bench role in 2025, backing up the outfield trio of Taylor Ward, Mike Trout and Jo Adell.

Moniak was one of three Angels players to exchange arbitration figures with the team earlier this month — and one of 17 total players to do so throughout MLB. The Halos have since avoided arbitration with southpaw Jose Quijada, agreeing to a one-year deal with a 2026 club option. Infielder Luis Rengifo, who filed at $5.95MM to the team’s $5.8MM counter, is the final Angels player whose arbitration case remains unresolved.

Cubs Agree To Minor League Deal With Brad Keller, Finalizing Deal With Brandon Hughes

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The Cubs have agreed to a minor league deal with right-hander Brad Keller, as first reported by Cubs Insider’s Jacob Zanolla. He’ll be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee next month. They’re also finalizing a minor league pact to bring left-handed reliever Brandon Hughes back to the organization, per Patrick Mooney of The Athletic.

Keller, 29, quickly emerged as one of the better Rule 5 picks in recent memory when the Royals plucked him out of the D-backs’ system back in 2017. From 2018-20, he was a productive fixture on Kansas City’s staff, eventually sliding in as a set member of the rotation. In those three seasons, he logged 360 1/3 innings of 3.50 ERA ball with a 16.8% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate. Both those marks were worse than league-average, but Keller posted a strong 52.1% grounder rate and proved adept at dodging hard contact and keeping the ball in the park.

In 2021, Keller’s results deteriorated in a hurry. He still made 26 starts and ate up 133 1/3 innings, but his walk and ground-ball rates checked in at career-worst levels as his ERA spiked to 5.39. His ERA in 2022 was again north of 5.00 in a similar sample of innings. By 2023, Keller’s command issues had elevated to calamitous levels. He issued 45 free passes in 45 1/3 innings, doling out a base on balls to 21.3% of his opponents. He was eventually diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome and underwent season-ending surgery.

In 2024, Keller split the year between the White Sox and Red Sox. He spent the bulk of his season in Triple-A, where he logged a combined 3.28 earned run average, 21.1% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 54.5% grounder rate between the two organizations. His big league work was much rougher. In 41 1/3 frames, Keller was tagged for a 5.44 ERA with a 16.7% strikeout rate. His walk and ground-ball rates were strong, however, respectively landing at 7.6% and 50%.

Hughes, 29, looked on the cusp of breaking out with the 2022 Cubs. He pitched 16 2/3 shutout innings between Double-A and Triple-A before being called to the majors for 57 2/3 innings of 3.12 ERA ball as a rookie. He was too homer-prone, averaging 1.72 round-trippers per nine frames, but by season’s end he was closing down games for the Cubs, tallying eight saves. He fanned a strong 28.5% of opponents against a solid 8.8% walk rate.

Knee troubles tanked Hughes’ 2023 season, as he pitched only 13 2/3 innings with an ERA north of 7.00. His minor league work was no better, as opponents tagged him for 11 runs in just 11 innings. He underwent a debridement procedure in his left knee that June and was on the injured list until September. The Cubs non-tendered him in November, and he signed a minor league deal in Arizona. Hughes made it back to the majors with the Diamondbacks but clearly wasn’t right. He posted an 8.15 ERA in 17 2/3 big league frames, though his 2.03 earned run average in 48 Triple-A innings creates some more reason for optimism.

Both Keller and Hughes will be in the mix as bullpen depth this spring, though Keller could also serve as depth for the starting staff. The Cubs have added Ryan Pressly and Eli Morgan to the ’pen by way of the trade market this winter and also inked free agent southpaw Caleb Thielbar to a big league deal. That trio will join Porter Hodge, Tyson Miller, Nate Pearson, Julian Merryweather and Keegan Thompson as relief candidates. Each of Miller, Merryweather and Thompson is out of minor league options, so they’ll need to make the Opening Day roster or else be traded or designated for assignment (ultimately passing through waivers if they’re to have any chance of being sent to Triple-A). Trevor Richards, Phil Bickford, Ben Heller and Brooks Kriske are among the other veteran arms who’ll be in camp on non-roster deals.

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