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Rays Unlikely To Move Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe

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The Rays entered the offseason likely to shed some payroll via trades of veteran players — a frequent reality for the budget-crunched Tampa Bay club — which prompted many (MLBTR included) to speculate on the possibility of trading infielders Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe. The Rays are teeming with young infield options, and both players are set to earn eight-figure salaries in 2025. However, teams that have spoken to the Rays about Diaz and Lowe have been given the impression that Tampa Bay is likely to hold onto both players for the start of the upcoming season, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. More broadly, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic implies that the Rays aren’t keen on subtracting from the offense at all between now and Opening Day.

Tampa Bay has indeed shed some notable salary this winter, but it’s come in the form of trades and non-tenders. Left-hander Jeffrey Springs and his $10.5MM salary in each of the next two seasons went to the A’s in exchange for flamethrowing righty Joe Boyle, a pair of minor leaguers, and the Athletics’ Competitive Balance selection in the upcoming 2025 draft. Jose Siri (projected $2.3MM salary) was traded to the Mets in exchange for reliever Eric Orze. Nearly $10MM of additional projected salary was shed when the team non-tendered outfielder Dylan Carlson and lefties Colin Poche, Tyler Alexander and Richard Lovelady.

That collection of cost-cutting maneuvers trimmed $22-23MM from next year’s books. The only salary of note the Rays have added in place of those departures is the $8.5MM guaranteed to catcher Danny Jansen, who signed with Tampa Bay in mid-December. RosterResource currently projects the Rays for a $76MM payroll and about $104MM of luxury obligations — down from last year’s respective marks of $89MM and $115MM.

One of the motivations behind freeing up payroll space with trades of veterans would be to afford more at-bats to young players with little left to prove in Triple-A (e.g. Jonathan Aranda, Curtis Mead) while also creating flexibility to bring in other free agents of note. Circumstances well beyond the Rays’ control have hobbled any such efforts, however. The damage wrought on Tropicana Field by Hurricane Milton both left the Rays facing even more financial uncertainty than usual and also made it harder to lure free agents. The Rays will play their 2025 home games at a minor league facility — Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field, the Class-A home of the Yankees — which is going to reduce interest for plenty of players on the open market.

The Rays scored the second-fewest runs in MLB last year, with their collective 604 mark leading only the White Sox. Tampa Bay ranked 27th in the majors in batting average (.230), 24th in on-base percentage (.302), 29th in slugging percentage (.366) and 28th in home runs (147). Viewed through that lens, subtracting one or both of Diaz (.281/.341/.414, 120 wRC+) and Lowe (.244/.311/.473, 123 wRC+) would feel counterproductive — at least in a vacuum.

However, the Rays habitually trade quality players as their salaries rise and their club control dwindles. Their willingness to engage in such frequent roster churn and their ability to successfully identify quality long-term contributors in the return for such trades has become a hallmark of the organization’s success and led to near-perennial contention in a stacked AL East — despite bottom-of-the-barrel payroll numbers. Diaz is earning $10MM this coming season and has a $12MM club option (no buyout) in 2026. Lowe will be paid $10.5MM this year and has an $11.5MM club option in 2026 ($500K buyout). Both are free agents in the 2026-27 offseason.

The dwindling club control on both players will make them prime trade candidates this summer if things don’t go well for the Rays or if Tampa Bay feels their production can be replaced by turning their respective positions over to younger options. The Rays aren’t the type of club to be shy about dealing solid contributors from the roster even in the midst of contending seasons.

With regard to the 2025 roster, however, the hope will ostensibly be for inexperienced players like Aranda and third baseman Junior Caminero to make strides at the plate, while other young players like Josh Lowe and Christopher Morel hopefully rebound at the dish. Both had strong showings in 2023 before wilting in 2024. Adding Jansen should be an upgrade to a catching corps that produced disastrous results at the plate in 2024 — even if the longtime Blue Jays backstop can’t recover from his own 2024 struggles with the bat. Jansen hit just .206/.308/.348 in 328 plate appearances last year, but even that would be an upgrade over the woeful .194/.272/.291 output from Tampa Bay backstops in 2024. And, if Jansen can rediscover the .237/.317/.487 form he displayed from 2021-23, it’d be a massive boon for the Rays.

Time will tell just how the Rays’ offense recovers — or fails to recover — from last year’s doldrums. Trades can never be expressly ruled out for a club like the Rays, but for the time being, it seems they’ll hang onto the veteran bats they have and reassess their trade candidacy this summer. Others on the roster (e.g. Pete Fairbanks, Zack Littell) have also come up in trade rumblings this winter, but there’s been some recent cold water thrown on that pair being available as well.

Nationals Sign Amed Rosario

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The Nationals announced Wednesday that they’ve signed infielder Amed Rosario to a one-year contract. Right-hander Joan Adon was designated for assignment to make space on the roster. Rosario will earn $2MM on the deal, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’s represented by Octagon.

Rosario, 29, was a solid regular in Cleveland from 2021-22, serving as the Guardians’ everyday shortstop and posting a combined .282/.316/.406 batting line (106 wRC+) with terrific baserunning but subpar defense at his position.

In 2023, however, Rosario fell into a prolonged slump and was eventually designated for assignment and traded to the Dodgers, for whom he filled a utility role down the stretch. He signed on with the Rays on a $1.5MM deal to hold down a similar multi-position role in 2024 before again being traded to the Dodgers at the deadline. His second stint in L.A. lasted only days, however, as he was designated for assignment and landed with the Reds thereafter.

Over the past two seasons, Rosario has still managed to hit .270 thanks to his speed and bat-to-ball skills, but it’s been a hollow batting average accompanied by paltry marks in on-base percentage (.305) and slugging percentage (.379). He’s essentially been a singles hitter who does most of his damage against lefties while contributing shaky defense at multiple positions. Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have both panned his work at shortstop for some time, and he’s since dabbled at second base, third base and in all three outfield positions. Second base is the only position at which he’s drawn passable grades by measure of those two public metrics.

Though it’s been a lackluster couple years for Rosario all around, he still possesses plus speed (91st percentile of MLB players, per Statcast) and showed improved life on his throws last year (72nd percentile arm strength). He draws poor grades for his range despite that footspeed. Rosario has fanned in 19.3% of his plate appearances since 2023 — right in line with his career 19.6% mark. He’s all but allergic to drawing a walk, evidenced by a career 4.3% rate and a career-low 2.6% mark in 2024. However, he makes enough contact and runs so well that he’s capable of sustaining quality batting averages at the very least.

With the Nats, Rosario again figures to slide into a utility role. Washington has Luis Garcia Jr. at second base and CJ Abrams at shortstop. Rosario could factor into the competition at third base, where Jose Tena and Trey Lipscomb are also in the mix for the Opening Day job. However, prospects Brady House and Cayden Wallace are both in the upper minors. House, a former first-round pick and consensus top-100 prospect, hit well in Double-A last year but struggled in his first exposure to Triple-A pitching. Wallace, acquired at the deadline in the trade sending Hunter Harvey to the Royals, topped out in Double-A and is a bit further behind House in his minor league progression. With a strong start to the season, either could plausibly find his way to the majors and earn a look at the hot corner.

It’s also plausible that Rosario could be deployed in a straightforward platoon with Garcia. He’s a career .298/.337/.460 hitter against southpaws compared to Garcia’s lifetime .250/.269/.356 slash against lefties. Garcia has been far better against righties, hitting .277/.313/.428 in his career — including a personal-best .288/.326/.469 during last year’s breakout season.

Washington’s signing of Rosario will come at the expense of the 26-year-old Adon, who’s pitched for the Nats in each of the past four seasons. A 2016 international signee out of the Dominican Republic, Adon has logged 132 1/3 innings in the majors but never found consistency; he carries a career 6.66 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate, 11.3% walk rate and 45.3% ground-ball rate. He ranked as highly as No. 7 among Nationals’ prospects back in 2022, per Baseball America.

Adon averages nearly 95 mph on his heater and has been a durable rotation member in the upper minors, but he’s never replicated the strong 2019 season that put him on the prospect map in the first place. He’s had some work as a reliever in the minors recently, and he has enough velocity as a starter to create some intrigue about how he’d work as a power-armed bullpen piece. Command has been a consistent issue for the big righty, however, and he’s out of minor league options — meaning the Nats would’ve had to carry him on the Opening Day roster or else designate him for assignment a few months from now anyway.

Washington will have five days to trade Adon. At that point, he’d need to be placed on waivers (a 48-hour process). If he clears, he could be retained as non-roster depth. Within a week’s time, he’ll know the outcome of today’s DFA.

Royals Re-Sign Michael Lorenzen

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Jan. 8: Lorenzen has passed his physical, and the Royals have formally announced his new contract. Their 40-man roster is now up to 39 players.

Jan. 6: The Royals and Michael Lorenzen are reportedly in agreement on a one-year, $7MM contract. The deal, which is pending a physical, comes with a $5.5MM salary for next season. There’s a $12MM mutual option for 2026 that would come with a $1.5MM buyout if the Royals decline their end of the option. The contract also contains $1MM in performance bonuses for the CAA client.

Lorenzen heads back to Kansas City after finishing the ’24 campaign with the Royals. Kansas City acquired him from the Rangers in a deadline deal that sent reliever Walter Pennington to Texas. Lorenzen made a strong first impression, turning in a 1.57 ERA across 28 2/3 innings while starting six of his seven outings.

That capped off one of the better seasons of his decade-long MLB career. Lorenzen finished the year with a combined 3.31 earned run average over 130 1/3 innings. He started all but two of his 26 appearances. It was the third straight solid year since Lorenzen moved to the rotation. He’d turned in a 4.24 ERA over 18 starts for the Angels in 2022 and combined for a 4.18 mark in 153 innings between the Tigers and Phillies in ’23.

In each of those seasons, Lorenzen has found bottom line success despite an unimpressive strikeout and walk profile. That was particularly true last year. His 18.1% strikeout percentage and 11.2% walk rate are a few points worse than the respective league averages. Lorenzen has missed bats on fewer than 10% of his pitches in consecutive seasons. Last year’s 9.1% swinging strike rate was his lowest mark since 2018.

Lorenzen nevertheless carries a 3.90 ERA across nearly 400 innings over the last three seasons. While he has outperformed his peripherals in each season, teams seemingly remain skeptical about his chances of doing so yet again. Lorenzen has been limited to one-year contracts with base salaries below eight figures in each of the last four offseasons. He reportedly sought a two-year deal last winter. Lorenzen lingered in free agency deep into Spring Training before heading to Arlington on a modest $4.5MM guarantee with $2.5MM in performance bonuses.

The 33-year-old jumped on a deal earlier in the winter this time around. Lorenzen earns a slight pay bump relative to last season. He’ll also get the benefit of sticking with the same organization with which he ended the previous year. This is the first time since Lorenzen’s early-career run in the Cincinnati bullpen that he’ll stick with the same team over an offseason.

Kansas City lost some mid-rotation stability when they swapped Brady Singer for Jonathan India early in the offseason. That vacated a rotation spot for Kyle Wright, who is coming back from shoulder surgery that cost him the entire 2024 season. Lorenzen could compete with Wright and Alec Marsh for the fifth rotation spot behind Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Kris Bubic. Skipper Matt Quatraro could also turn to a six-man rotation or keep Lorenzen in long relief with the flexibility to move back into the rotation as injuries arise or workload management necessitates.

Previous reporting had indicated that Lorenzen, who had a bit of outfield experience with Cincinnati early in his career, could sign with a non-contender to take some at-bats. The idea would’ve been to reach the 20 games as a hitter necessary to qualify as a two-way player. That would’ve meant he would not have counted against a team’s 13-pitcher limit. There is no indication that the Royals — a team that made the Division Series last year and certainly intends to reach the playoffs again — is planning to do that.

Lorenzen’s salary brings the Royals’ payroll to roughly $121MM, according to the RosterResource calculations. They’d been around last year’s spending level before this signing, their first MLB contract since they re-signed Wacha shortly before free agency officially opened. It’s not clear how much room remains in the budget. Kansas City has reportedly looked for a middle-of-the-order bat after acquiring India to hit atop the lineup. Corner outfield and bullpen help are the biggest needs on paper.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Royals and Lorenzen had agreed to a one-year, $7MM deal that included a $12MM mutual option. Anne Rogers of MLB.com reported the salary and the option buyout. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic was first to mention the $1MM in bonuses. Image courtesy of Imagn.

Joc Pederson’s Contract Allows Rangers To Override Opt-Out By Exercising 2027 Option

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The Rangers’ two-year, $37MM deal with slugger Joc Pederson was agreed to late last month and announced shortly before the New Year, but it seems full details of the arrangement weren’t made clear at the time. It’s already known that Pederson’s deal contains a mutual option for 2027 and that he can opt out of his contract following the 2025 season. However, the Associated Press reports that the Rangers can override Pederson’s opt-out by exercising that mutual option a year in advance. The contract also contains a no-trade clause, per the AP.

Effectively, if Pederson signals his intent to opt out, the Rangers can veto his return to the open market by agreeing to commit another two years and $37MM. It could become an even pricier commitment for Texas, though, as Pederson’s contract contains escalators that would boost his 2026-27 salaries up to $21.5MM in the event that he wins a Silver Slugger or is named to the All-MLB team (first or second team) at season’s end. That’d mean committing two years and $43MM to Pederson in order to override the opt-out. Paired with his $5.5MM signing bonus and $13MM salary in 2025, Pederson’s contract can max out at a hefty $61.5MM over three years if he turns in a big enough season.

Pederson, 33 in April, has never won a Silver Slugger Award or earned All-MLB honors (dating back to the inception of the All-MLB teams in 2019). He certainly has enough pop in his bat to do so, but his long-running struggles against left-handed pitching have both weighed down his rate stats and likely kept him from accumulating the playing time to mash his way into consideration. Pederson is just a .210/.300/.330 hitter in his career against southpaws, compared to a .246/.349/.494 output against righties. The D-backs afforded him only 42 plate appearances against lefties last year (.219/.405/.344), but Pederson decimated righties with a .281/.392/.531 showing.

Even absent the escalators, the revelations of a no-trade clause and the team’s ability to override Pederson’s opt-out provision are plenty notable on their own. Texas, after all, was willing to commit a guaranteed two years and $37MM to Pederson this offseason. If he performs to expectations, they’ll essentially have the option to make that same commitment for his age-34 and age-35 seasons, which would lock the slugger in as a Ranger through 2027.

It’s also worth pointing out that there’s no scenario where Pederson can opt out and receive a qualifying offer from the team; Pederson already received (and accepted) a qualifying offer from the Giants following his All-Star 2022 season. Players can only receive one qualifying offer in their career. As such, if Pederson triggers his opt-out in November, the Rangers’ choices will be to extend him for another two years or to let him return to the open market with no compensation for his potential departure.

The Opener: Giants, Extensions, DFA Limbo

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With the offseason back in full swing after the holidays, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:

1. Giants 40-man roster move incoming:

Yesterday, the Giants reportedly brought future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander into the fold on a one-year deal. The club is rolling the dice on a return to form for Verlander after the first truly poor season of the right-hander’s career; Verlander mustered only a 5.48 ERA with a 4.78 FIP across 17 starts with the Astros last year. There’s certainly risk involved in expecting Verlander, who is more than four years older than San Francisco’s new president of baseball operations Buster Posey, to turn back the clock even by just a year or two. However, the 2022 AL Cy Young Award winner pitched like a starter that belonged in the front half of a playoff rotation as recently as 2023, and it’s hard to bet against Verlander’s pedigree.

Before Verlander can get to work with San Francisco, he’ll need to be officially added to the 40-man roster. That could happen as soon as today, and when it does the Giants will need to clear a roster spot. The most common way for clubs to do this is by simply designating a player for assignment, though occasionally clubs will work out a trade to clear that 40-man spot.

2. Are more extensions on the way?

Yesterday, the Rays hammered out an extension with right-hander Drew Rasmussen. The deal, which guarantees Rasmussen $8.5MM, covers his final two years of arbitration and includes a club option for the 2027 season — what would’ve been his first free-agent season. It’s a deal that was surely helped along by the impending deadline for players and teams to exchange figures ahead of arbitration hearings. The majority of arbitration-level players typically agree to deals before that deadline in order to a hearing, which makes the days leading up to that deadline a natural time for clubs to discuss longer-term extensions with players. With that deadline set to arrive tomorrow, it’s possible — if not likely — that we’ll see other extensions over the next day and a half. At the very least, there should be some early one-year agreements today.

3. Players in DFA Limbo:

We’re officially one week into 2025, which means that players who were designated for assignment while the MLB league offices were closed for the holidays should finally reach their long-awaited conclusion (though it’s worth noting that the rules surrounding the holiday freeze for players in DFA limbo are fairly nebulous in nature). It’s a situation that currently applies to three players: infielder Braden Shewmake, who was DFA’d by the White Sox on New Year’s Day; righty Hagen Danner*, who was designated by the Blue Jays back on Dec. 20; and left-hander Bailey Horn, who was DFA’d by the Tigers over the holidays to make room for the Gleyber Torres signing. At this point, the window for these players to be traded appears to have passed. Each figures to have already been exposed to waivers. The next step in the process for is to either clear waivers, providing their clubs the opportunity to outright them to the minors as non-roster depth, or be claimed by a new club and retain a 40-man roster spot in another organization.

*We initially and mistakenly omitted Danner from the original list of players in limbo. 

Rays Sign Drew Rasmussen To Extension

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The Rays finalized a two-year extension with right-hander Drew Rasmussen on Tuesday afternoon. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client is guaranteed $8.5MM for what would have been his final two arbitration years. The deal includes a 2027 club option that has a base value of $8MM.

He will receive a $500K signing bonus, a $2MM salary next season, and a $5.5MM salary in 2026. The option comes with a $500K buyout. Various escalators could increase the option value by another $12MM. The price could increase anywhere between $1.5MM and $6MM based on Rasmussen’s health over the next two seasons. He could unlock another $6MM based on his start totals in 2026: $500,000 for eight starts, $750,000 for 12, $1MM each for 16 and 20, $1.25MM for 24 and $1.5MM for 28.

Ramussen, 29, missed the bulk of the 2023-24 seasons recovering from an internal brace procedure to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. That surgery tamped down his workload in both seasons as well as his expected price tag in arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a modest $2MM salary for the talented righty in the upcoming season. By virtue of his salary and that signing bonus, he’ll top that sum under this new multi-year arrangement while also sacrificing a year of free agency to lock in some immediate earnings.

It’s an understandable trade-off for Rasmussen, who didn’t get a full look in a big league rotation until his age-26 season (2022) and has since missed ample time due to injury. A sixth-round pick of the Brewers back in 2018, Rasmussen signed for just a $135K bonus and didn’t make his big league debut until 2020. In total, he’s earned under $4MM in his career thus far.

Rasmussen was traded from Milwaukee to Tampa Bay in the 2021 deal that sent Willy Adames to the Brewers. He was sharp down then stretch in a hybrid role for Tampa Bay but had a full-fledged breakout in 2022, That season, Rasmussen pitched a career-high 146 innings and turned in a 2.84 earned run average with a slightly below-average 21.4% strikeout rate against a terrific 5.3% walk rate. He kept the ball on the ground at a strong 46.6% clip. Rasmussen averaged 95.5 mph on his heater, deftly avoided hard contact and recorded a 12.1% swinging-strike rate that suggested more punchouts could be in the tank down the road.

That indeed looked to be the case early in 2023, too. Rasmussen notched an even better 2.62 ERA but saw his strikeout rate spike to 26.6%. He maintained plus command (6.2%) and also saw his ground-ball rate surge to 52.6% — an increase of six percentage points over the prior season. For a span of 36 starts from 2022-23, Rasmussen pitched like a genuine No. 1 or 2 starter — a clear playoff arm who could pitch near the front of any rotation.

Injuries, however, had other ideas for the talented righty. The Rays announced on July 8, 2023 that Rasmussen would require surgery. He wound up missing 13 months of action, returning to a big league mound on Aug. 7 of this past season. The Rays used him primarily as a reliever. He “started” four games but did so throwing only two innings apiece and working as an opener. The results, however, were excellent. In 28 2/3 frames, Rasmussen posted a 2.83 ERA, 30.2% strikeout rate, 5.2% walk rate and 53.3% grounder rate.

The plan now is for Rasmussen to return to the rotation. He’ll join Shane McClanahan (returning from Tommy John surgery), Ryan Pepiot, Taj Bradley, Shane Baz and Zack Littell in a very talented mix of arms. Each of McClanahan, Rasmussen and Baz could face some form of workload limitations, as Baz has yet to pitch a full season since returning from his own ligament surgery in 2022 — though he did pitch 118 2/3 innings combined between Triple-A and the majors in 2024.

For the Rays, there’s little to no impact on their 2025 budget. Rasmussen will only earn a nominal $500K more than his projected arbitration price, thanks to that signing bonus. They’ll also lock in the right-hander’s 2026 salary, gaining some cost certainty. It’s possible that Rasmussen could’ve outpaced that $5.5MM salary in arbitration with a big year, but likely not by much, given the low platform from which he’d be starting. The concession for locking in that ’26 salary is giving up a would-be free-agent season — his age-31 year. So long as he’s healthy, that option will pay him at least $8MM, though with good health there’s a good chance it’ll be a fair bit higher.

While it’s not quite to the same scale as the Rays’ extension with former ace Tyler Glasnow, there are some parallels here. Tampa Bay is putting down some guaranteed money on a talented but oft-injured righty. Glasnow’s $25MM salary in the final season of his own extension was guaranteed, whereas Rasmussen will have to remain healthy to push close to that number. Still, it’s a potentially weighty salary by the Rays’ standards, and one that could render Rasmussen a trade candidate down the road. The extension gives the Rays some extra control over a potential frontline arm but also a viable trade candidate down the road. It’s perhaps cynical to point out the manner in which an extension boosts a player’s trade value in the immediate aftermath of the agreement, but the Rays have a track record of operating in this manner.

For the time being, Rasmussen will head into the season as a locked-in member of a deep and talented rotation. The Rays haven’t done much to improve their middling lineup — though Danny Jansen provides a potential notable upgrade behind the plate. Rather, they’ll apparently hope for big strides from ballyhooed third baseman Junior Caminero and rebounds from Josh Lowe and Christopher Morel, both of whom experienced notable drops at the plate following very productive 2023 campaigns.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported that the Rays and Rasmussen were nearing a two-year, $8.5MM extension with an $8MM option for 2027. Topkin reported the presence of escalators in the option, which The Associated Press specified.

Reds Hire Simon Mathews As Assistant Pitching Coach

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The Reds informed reporters (including Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that they’ve hired Simon Mathews as assistant pitching coach. That is expected to round out Terry Francona’s first staff in Cincinnati.

Mathews, 29, pitched at Georgetown and Temple. He spent three years pitching in the Angels system before moving into coaching. Mathews has worked for the Reds since 2021, including the last two seasons as the organization’s assistant coordinator of rehabilitation and pitching initiatives. This is his first MLB coaching assignment.

He’ll work as an assistant under seventh-year pitching coach Derek Johnson. Cincinnati lost their previous assistant pitching coach, Alon Leichman, who took the same position with the Marlins last month.

Bob Veale Passes Away

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Two-time All-Star Bob Veale passed away, the Pirates announced on Tuesday. He was 89.

Veale, a Birmingham native, signed with the Pirates out of college in 1958. He spent parts of five seasons in the minors before cracking the big league roster in ’62. Veale worked mostly out of the bullpen during his first full major league season the following year. He turned in a 1.04 ERA across 77 2/3 innings to get a full-time rotation role heading into 1964.

The 6’6″ southpaw had a dominant first season as a starter. He started 38 of 40 games and worked to a 2.74 ERA over 279 2/3 innings. Veale won 18 games and led the majors with 250 strikeouts. He maintained a similar pace for the next few seasons. Veale made consecutive All-Star teams in 1965 and ’66. He struck out a career-best 276 hitters while turning in a 2.84 ERA with a 17-12 record in 1965. He won another 16 games while recording 229 strikeouts across 268 1/3 innings the following year.

Veale was among the top handful of pitchers over that three-season stretch. He ranked sixth in the majors — trailing only Hall of Famers Don Drysdale, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, Juan Marichal and Bob Gibson — in innings between 1964-66. Koufax was the only pitcher to strike out more hitters. Veale ranked in the top 15 in earned run average among pitchers with at least 400 innings.

While he didn’t quite maintain that pace into his early 30s, Veale remained a productive pitcher throughout the decade. He topped 200 innings with a sub-4.00 ERA in each season between 1967-70. Veale turned in a 2.05 earned run average — his best mark as a starter — across 245 1/3 frames in 1968. That was the 10th-best mark in MLB (minimum 150 innings) even in the so-called Year of the Pitcher. Veale never had great command — he led the National League in walks in four of the five seasons between ’64 and ’68 — but he had some of the game’s best swing-and-miss stuff during his heyday.

Veale’s production dropped sharply in 1971. He was moved to the bullpen and allowed nearly seven earned runs per nine. While it wasn’t a good season individually, the Bucs knocked off the Orioles in a seven-game World Series. Veale made one playoff appearance, giving up a run in two-thirds of an inning. Pittsburgh released him the following year. Veale signed with the Red Sox and worked out of the Boston ’pen through 1974 before retiring. He’d work as a pitching coach in the Braves and Yankees farm systems after his playing days.

Over an MLB run that spanned parts of 13 seasons, Veale threw 1926 innings. He finished with a 3.07 earned run average while striking out more than 1700 hitters. His 1652 punchouts in a Pittsburgh uniform rank him second in franchise history, trailing only his former teammate Bob Friend. Veale won 120 games and picked up 21 saves during his late-career run as a reliever. MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.

Sale Of Twins Could Be Reached By Opening Day

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In October, Twins owner Joe Pohlad announced that his family was exploring a sale of the franchise. The Pohlad family has owned the Twins for 40 years, so the sale process set the stage for a monumental change for the organization. That could seemingly move quickly.

Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that there’s robust interest from potential buyers. Hayes suggests that a sale agreement could be in place as soon as Opening Day. He notes that MLB has already begun vetting interested parties and will drill down on certain candidates as the process nears its conclusion.

The identities of most of those suitors are unknown. Bloomberg reported last month that Justin and Mat Ishbia, owners of the Phoenix franchises in the NBA and WNBA, were interested in the Twins. While Mat Ishbia is the majority owner of the basketball teams, Justin Ishbia would get the bulk of the ownership stake in the Twins if the family submits the winning bid.

They’re clearly facing some level of competition. One family that does not seem to be in the mix: the Wilfs, owners of the NFL’s Vikings. Mark Wilf tells Ben Goessling of the Minnesota Star-Tribune that they “have (their) hands full with the Vikings, in a good way.” Wilf acknowledged that he’d “always discuss those things” when an opportunity like the Twins presented itself but downplayed the idea of getting involved in the bidding.

In any case, Hayes reports that the Pohlads are planning to sell the franchise in full to whomever ends up as the purchaser. A new ownership group would assume control as soon as the sale is approved by Major League Baseball, which requires a 75% vote from the league’s other ownership groups. That should eventually impact the spending capacity available to the front office, but it’s not likely to affect this offseason. Minnesota has done nothing in free agency and has signaled that they’re working with little financial margin unless they shed money in trade.

The most recent franchise to be sold was the Orioles, which a David Rubenstein-led group bought from the Angelos family for $1.725 billion last January. Forbes valued the Twins at $1.46 billion last year. The Pohlad family paid $44 million to purchase the franchise in 1984.

Padres, Luis Patino Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Padres have re-signed Luis Patiño to a minor league contract, as reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. Mad Friars first reported the agreement last month.

Patiño, 25, underwent Tommy John surgery in April and missed the entire ’24 season. San Diego kept him on the 60-day injured list during the season and opted not to tender him a contract in November. Patiño’s projected $800K arbitration salary was barely above the MLB minimum. San Diego didn’t want to keep him on the 40-man all winter, though, so they sent him to free agency. They succeeded in bringing him back without dedicating a roster spot.

The timing of the surgery means that Patiño is unlikely to be ready for game action until at least the halfway point next season. He’ll be able to build into shape at various minor league levels before presumably heading to Triple-A El Paso. The Colombian-born righty has a 5.12 ERA across 123 Triple-A frames. He has appeared in parts of four MLB seasons between the Padres, Rays and White Sox. Patiño carries a 5.02 ERA over 136 1/3 major league innings. He owns a 20.2% strikeout rate and has issued walks to 11.4% of opponents.

While Patiño has yet to find sustained success at either the major league or Triple-A level, he was once considered one of the sport’s most talented pitching prospects. He was arguably the headliner of the four-player package that San Diego sent to the Rays for Blake Snell. The Friars brought Patiño back via waivers last offseason. He is out of options, so if the Padres call him up once he gets healthy, they’d need to keep him in the majors or expose him to waivers.

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