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Braves Re-Sign Brian Moran To Minor League Deal

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The Braves have signed left-hander Brian Moran to a minors contract earlier this month, as per Moran’s MLB.com profile page.  The southpaw elected to become a minor league free agent at the end of the season.

This is the third straight winter Moran has inked a minors pact with Atlanta, though this tenure has yet to result in any playing time at the MLB level.  Moran posted a 3.21 ERA, 28.3% strikeout rate, and 9.8% walk rate over 47 2/3 innings with Triple-A Gwinnett in 2023, but dropped back to a 5.91 ERA and 22.9K% in 45 2/3 innings last year, albeit with an improved 7.6% walk rate.  Looking at other advanced metrics, Moran benefited from an 84.8% strand rate in 2023 but had a .373 BABIP in 2024.

Now entering his age-36 season, Moran seems to be viewed by the Braves as a useful veteran depth arm, even if the club hasn’t been compelled to give him another look on the active roster.  Cracking the bullpen could again be difficult for Moran since Dylan Lee, Aaron Bummer, Angel Perdomo, and Dylan Dodd are all left-handers projected to be part of the relief corps, plus Atlanta recently brought another southpaw in Kolton Ingram into the fold on a minor league deal.

Moran last appeared in the majors in 2022, pitching just a third of an inning in cup-of-coffee fashion with the Angels.  Moran has a 7.94 ERA in 11 1/3 innings over 18 career games in the big leagues, primarily with the Marlins and Blue Jays during the 2019-20 seasons.  A seventh-round pick for the Mariners in the 2009 draft, Moran has bounced around the league to multiple organizations, including another stint in Atlanta’s minor league system back in 2016.

Pirates Sign Darick Hall To Minors Contract

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The Pirates have signed first baseman Darick Hall to a minor league deal, as revealed by Hall on his Instagram page earlier this week.  Hall elected minor league free agency at season’s end, after the Phillies outrighted him off their 40-man roster back in August.

A 14th-round pick for the Phillies in the 2016 draft, Hall showed plenty of pop during his time in the minors, including a .253/.342/.458 slash line and 76 homers over 1735 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.  Big production in the 2022 season in particular earned Hall his first trip to the big leagues, and he continued to impress by hitting .250/.282/.522 with nine homers in 142 PA.

Unfortunately, a thumb surgery cost him over two and a half months of the 2023 season, and Hall hit only .167/.196/.241 over 56 Major League PA while spending most of the year at Triple-A Lehigh Valley.  Hall last appeared in the big leagues on July 20, 2023, as he spent the entirety of the 2024 season in the minors.  Hall hit only .236/.320/.387 over 488 PA for Lehigh Valley last year, so he didn’t do much to force the issue in earning himself another look on Philadelphia’s roster.

It also didn’t help Hall that, as a first base-only player at this stage of his career, the Phillies never had much of a place to play him.  Between Rhys Hoskins, Bryce Harper, and Kyle Schwarber, the Phils had most of the first base and DH at-bats spoken for, leaving Hall without much of an opening unless someone was injured.  (The Phillies only called Hall up to the majors in 2022 after Harper was sidelined by a fractured thumb.)

After spending his entire pro career in Philadelphia, Hall will now head across Pennsylvania to join the Bucs, though he’ll again find himself lower on the depth chart.  Andrew McCutchen will continue to garner most of the DH at-bats and the newly-acquired Spencer Horwitz is slated to be the Pirates’ regular first baseman.  Horwitz and Hall are both left-handed hitters so that will limit platoon opportunities, though Hall might find a niche if McCutchen is spelled against the occasional righty starter.

Hall has played a handful of games as a left fielder in winter ball, but he has made only one career minor league appearance in the outfield, so it doesn’t seem likely that the Pirates will use him anywhere beyond first base.  Hall is out of minor league options, so if he did stick with the Buccos beyond Spring Training, Pittsburgh would have to put him through waivers again if the club wanted to send him to the minors.

Details On Mariners/Red Sox Trade Talks

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The Mariners and Red Sox have been linked together in trade rumors for the better part of a year, including reports from earlier this winter that Seattle turned down Boston’s offer of Triston Casas for either Bryan Woo or Bryce Miller.  Another intriguing deal involving Casas was at least discussed between the two sides, as MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports that the Sox weren’t willing to agree to a deal that would’ve seen Casas swapped in exchange for Luis Castillo.  The Red Sox were only open to such a trade if Masataka Yoshida was included along with Casas.

Yoshida signed a five-year, $90MM deal with the Red Sox in December 2022, back when Chaim Bloom was still Boston’s chief baseball officer.  The contract greatly exceeded what Yoshida was expected to land in his entry into North American baseball, and once Craig Breslow took over Boston’s front office last winter, it didn’t take long before Yoshida’s name began to surface in trade rumors.  Yoshida is still owed $54MM over the final three seasons of that deal, plus he underwent shoulder surgery in October, though he is expected to be recovered in time for Opening Day.

Since Yoshida’s contract has become the central talking point of his MLB career, his salary tends to obscure the fact that he has posted decent numbers over his two seasons in the Show.  Yoshida has hit .285/.343/.433 and 25 home runs over 1001 plate appearances, translating to a 112 wRC+.  That production has ticked upwards against right-handed pitching, as the lefty-swinging Yoshida naturally has better splits against righties (.810 OPS in 749 PA) than lefties (252 PA).  Known for being a very disciplined hitter during his time in Japan, Yoshida has been one of baseball’s toughest batters to strike out during his time with the Red Sox.

For all of Yoshida’s contact, however, he hasn’t delivered much in the way of hard contact or power numbers.  He has also posted subpar walk rates, and public defensive metrics didn’t like his glovework over 713 1/3 innings as a left fielder in 2023.  The Red Sox responded to the fielding struggles by limiting Yoshida almost exclusively to DH duty in 2024, a decision that reportedly didn’t please the 31-year-old.

Since the Mariners could use a left-handed bat and basically hitting help of any kind, Yoshida might have some appeal on paper to Seattle.  That said, Randy Arozarena is set to play left field and Mitch Haniger is already slated to take on the bulk of DH at-bats, so Yoshida would again likely be limited to a platoon DH role in the Mariners’ lineup.  It is also easy to imagine what the M’s had little to no interest in taking Yoshida’s contract off Boston’s hands, as reports have indicated that the Mariners might only be open to moving Castillo in order to clear his salary from the books.

Castillo is owed $68.25MM in guaranteed money from 2025-27, plus a $25MM vesting option for 2028 that becomes guaranteed based on health, and if Castillo tosses at least 180 innings during the 2027 season.  Trading Castillo and taking back Yoshida would represent only $39.25MM of savings for the Mariners’ payroll, which the M’s probably didn’t view as worthwhile even with the bigger benefit of obtaining a controllable young slugger like Casas.  Seattle president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto has publicly stated that trading from the rotation is a “Plan Z” option given how much the Mariners value their elite pitching staff, and if the M’s did budge on moving a starter, taking back an unwanted contract as salary offset is surely not on Dipoto’s radar.

It seems increasingly clear that the Sox are ready to move on from Yoshida, yet naturally it will be tricky in getting another team to absorb anything more than a fraction of his $54MM remaining salary.  Attaching Casas or another young player to Yoshida in a trade package would be a significant sweetener, even it could also be viewed as something of a waste of a trade asset to give up young talent as part of a salary dump.  While $54MM obviously isn’t a drop in the bucket, Yoshida’s contract isn’t all that onerous for a big-market club and a traditional big spender like the Red Sox, plus their estimated $212MM luxury tax number for 2025 is well under the $241MM tax threshold.

That said, the Red Sox have also exceeded the tax line just once in the last five years, as ownership has made a clear mandate to scale back the team’s spending.  This hasn’t stopped Breslow from making some significant moves, though Boston’s pitching acquisitions this winter (i.e. trading for Garrett Crochet and signing Walker Buehler and Patrick Sandoval) came with a pretty limited financial cost.  The Sox have also been linked to such major free agent names as Juan Soto, Max Fried, Corbin Burnes, Teoscar Hernandez, even if those players ultimately ended up signing elsewhere.

The Mariners and Red Sox have been seen as natural trade partners, as Seattle’s pitching depth and need for hitting dovetails with Boston’s rotation needs and surplus of position players.  Considering the quality of the Mariners’ arms, it is safe to guess the Sox would still be open to adding a Seattle starter if an acceptable deal could be lined up, but the two clubs have been unable to find a match after at least a year of on-and-off trade talks.

Padres Re-Sign Logan Gillaspie To Minors Deal

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The Padres signed right-hander Logan Gillaspie to a minor league contract earlier this month, as initially reported by the Mad Friars website.  The 27-year-old Gillaspie will return for his second season with the organization, after the Padres non-tendered him in November to create 40-man roster space.

Gillaspie had a 4.10 ERA over 26 1/3 innings and 28 appearances for the Orioles in 2022-23 before the Red Sox claimed him off waivers in September 2023.  This stint in Boston didn’t result in any big league playing time and didn’t last long in general, as San Diego picked him up in another waiver claim just two months later.  The Padres optioned Gillaspie back and forth from Triple-A the maximum five times, and the shuffle of assignments might have impacted his performance — Gillaspie had a 7.15 ERA in 11 1/3 innings over nine appearances with San Diego.

On the plus side, Gillaspie had a 3.77 ERA, 21.5% strikeout rate, and 9.7% walk rate across 45 1/3 innings with Triple-A El Paso.  These decent numbers look even better within the context of the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, and they represent a step up from Gillaspie’s Triple-A performances in 2022-23.  That said, Gillaspie’s strikeout numbers have ticked downwards over the last two seasons while he has allowed a few more walks.

Gillaspie is out of minor league options, so if the Padres were to select his contract to the active roster next season, the team would have to try and sneak him through waivers in order to send him back to Triple-A.  This could leave Gillaspie in another form of roster limbo if his 2025 campaign ends up being a flurry of DFAs and outright assignments, but for now, he’ll continue to operate as minor league bullpen depth in the Padres’ system.

Tigers Sign Gleyber Torres

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The Tigers announced Friday that they’ve signed free agent infielder Gleyber Torres to a one-year, $15MM contract. Torres, an Octagon client, is expected to be Detroit’s regular second baseman in the upcoming season. The Tigers, one of the rare teams to publicly disclose contract terms themselves, added that Torres’ contract has a one-time, $500K assignment bonus (in the event that he’s traded to another club).

Torres, who turned 28 earlier this month, has spent his entire big league career to date in Yankee pinstripes. The once-vaunted top prospect looked like a breakout star in 2019 when he socked 38 home runs in just 144 games, but Torres wound up settling in as a solid regular at second base rather than the superstar shortstop he appeared to be on the cusp of becoming in ’19. Since that stellar 2019 campaign — which came in MLB’s juiced-ball season — Torres has slashed .261/.332/.411. That’s about 9% better than average, by measure of wRC+ (which weights for home park and league run-scoring environment in a given season).

The 2024 season was shaping up to be a career-worst showing for Torres at the halfway point. Through his first 80 games, he turned in an anemic .215/.294/.333 slash (81 wRC+) with a 23.9% strikeout rate that was well north of the 19.3% mark he’d posted over the prior five seasons. Torres righted the ship in late June, however, and rebounding to the tune of a .298/.365/.421 slash with a much-improved 17.3% strikeout rate down the stretch.

It’s perhaps possible that Torres could’ve landed a multi-year deal at a lower rate, but given his age and track record, it’s not a shock to see him take a pure one-year pillow deal. MLBTR predicted back in November that he’d ink a two-year deal with an opt-out, as the priority for him always seemed likely to be getting back to the market next winter. The demand seemingly wasn’t there to push to that range, however, and Torres will head to Comerica Park as an eminently reasonable one-year roll of the proverbial dice. With a strong enough showing, he’ll have the added benefit of being a potential qualifying offer candidate for the Tigers next offseason.

Torres steps into a Detroit infield that’s lacking in any real certainty. Colt Keith, who hit .285/.330/.429 in 445 plate appearances after a terrible start to his rookie season, appears to be the only other infield lock. He played second base in 2024 but has experience at the hot corner as well. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press writes, however, that the organization prefers not to play Keith at third due to some injury concern regarding his right shoulder. Keith has taken reps at first base, and while he’s yet to play there in a professional game, he could get further work there this spring in the event of a potential position shift.

Meanwhile, Javier Baez is signed for three more seasons at $24MM per year, but he’s played himself out of a starting role and will eventually be a release candidate if he can’t rebound to at least some extent (though the Tigers have suggested this winter that they still see a role for Baez in ’25). Former top pick Spencer Torkelson belted 32 homers in 2023 but flailed through an ugly 2024 campaign and has yet to establish himself as a viable big league regular. Trey Sweeney showed a big league-ready glove at shortstop but didn’t hit in 36 big league games during last year’s second-half debut. Top prospect Jace Jung drew heaps of walks (16%) in 94 plate appearances late last season but is probably ticketed for Triple-A work or (speculatively speaking) some exposure to left field. Matt Vierling could factor in at the hot corner as well, though he can play in the outfield, too.

The glut of infield options, even with many of them unproven, gives the Tigers some flexibility with regard to how they handle the rest of the offseason. Young players like Sweeney and particularly Jung would command considerable trade interest. Torkelson stands as a viable change-of-scenery candidate, especially if the Tigers indeed plan to give Keith a prominent role at first base. Torkelson could still factor into the first base/DH mix, but he’s hardly a lock to do so after hitting .221/.300/.392 through his first 361 big league games.

The Tigers have been connected to free agent third baseman Alex Bregman, though that’d be a considerably larger signing than they’ve made at any point under current president of baseball operations Scott Harris. Some of the link there is surely due to the presence of former Astros skipper A.J. Hinch in the Detroit dugout. Petzold reported earlier in the week that Bregman has become more of a priority for the Tigers as the offseason has worn on, but the addition of Torres clouds the infield mix a bit more. A fit could still come together, particularly if the Tigers are keen on moving someone like Jung in a deal for rotation help.

In terms of payroll, there’s no reason to think the Tigers can’t make another prominent addition after adding Torres. They entered the offseason with only Baez, Keith and Kenta Maeda on guaranteed deals for the upcoming season. Torres and fellow free agent pickup Alex Cobb have pushed the team to a projected a $109MM payroll, per RosterResource’s projections. That’s nowhere near the team’s franchise-record $200MM payroll from 2017. And while that level of spending came under the ownership of the late Mike Ilitch, even Ilitch’s son, Chris, has authorized payrolls as high as $135MM in recent seasons (2022).

Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported that Torres had agreed to a deal with the Tigers. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers first reported the terms and that Torres was expected to be the Tigers’ starting second baseman.

Tigers, Dietrich Enns Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Tigers agreed to a minor league contract with left-hander Dietrich Enns. The 33-year-old southpaw announced the news on social media last week.

Enns is trying to work his way back to the majors for the first time since 2021. He tossed 22 1/3 innings across nine relief appearances for Tampa Bay that season. Enns turned in a 2.82 earned run average in that limited sample. That caught the attention of the Seibu Lions in Japan. Seibu finalized a deal to purchase his contract. Enns spent two seasons there, combining for a 3.62 ERA through 176 1/3 innings at the NPB level.

The Central Michigan product changed countries but stayed in Asia for the ’24 season. Enns signed with the Korea Baseball Organization’s LG Twins. He started 30 times and logged 167 1/3 frames of 4.19 ERA ball. Enns struck out 22% of opponents against a 7% walk rate. After the season, the Twins brought in Yonny Chirinos and re-signed Elieser Hernández to serve as their foreign-born pitchers for 2025.

Enns figures to open the season with Triple-A Toledo. He can start or work in long relief on a Detroit staff that’ll place a premium on flexibility. A.J. Hinch used plenty of openers and bulk relievers behind Tarik Skubal this past season. That’ll presumably continue in the final two rotation spots after Skubal, Reese Olson and Alex Cobb.

Tigers Moving Colt Keith To First Base

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Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris met with reporters this afternoon, shortly after the team finalized its one-year deal with Gleyber Torres. The team provided video of the 16-minute media session.

Harris confirmed the Tigers will play Torres at second base. Colt Keith will move to first base. Harris indicated that Keith could return to the keystone in future years but noted that “for 2025, our best team has Gleyber at second base and Colt at first base.” Keith spent the entire ’24 campaign at second base, where he logged nearly 1100 innings as a rookie.

Keith’s defensive grades were mixed. Statcast rated him as a slightly above-average second baseman. Defensive Runs Saved was a lot less enthusiastic, estimating he was eight runs below par. Scouting reports on the 6’2″, 211-pound infielder have pegged him as a bat-first player. Keith may be a capable defender at the keystone but wasn’t likely to develop into a Gold Glove winner.

That was the youngster’s first full season as a second baseman. Keith was drafted as a third baseman and continued playing the hot corner until midway through the ’23 campaign. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press wrote this morning that the Tigers weren’t willing to move Keith back to third base because of concerns about a prior labrum injury in his throwing shoulder.

Keith’s bat guarantees him a spot in the starting lineup. The lefty hitter had a .260/.309/.380 slash with 13 homers. Those numbers are weighed down by a terrible first few weeks. Keith had a .154/.222/.165 showing through the end of April. He hit .282/.328/.426 in 457 plate appearances from the start of May onward. Keith managed solid production against pitchers of either handedness. He should be in the lineup against almost all right-handed pitchers. Skipper A.J. Hinch could shield him from a few lefties, but the Tigers are unlikely to relegate Keith to a strict platoon role.

If the Tigers aren’t willing to play Keith on the left side of the infield, the Torres deal essentially forced him to first base. Torres has been a full-time second baseman since the Yankees moved him off shortstop in 2022. The Nationals showed interest in moving him to third base. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported last night — before Torres signed with Detroit — that the infielder rebuffed Washington because he didn’t want to change positions.

Between the infield shakeup and some early offseason chatter about the Tigers potentially pursuing a veteran first baseman, it’s fair to wonder if former first overall pick Spencer Torkelson still has a role on the roster. Unsurprisingly, Harris suggested publicly that remains the case. Detroit’s front office leader said he spoke with Torkelson before the Tigers announced the Torres signing. “My message to Tork was: ’if you have a big offseason and a big spring training, there’s a role for you on this team.’ This team needs more right-handed power and we’ve seen Tork do that in the past,” Harris said.

The Tigers have sought right-handed hitting since the start of the offseason. Torres addresses that to some extent, though he’s more a solid hitter than a great one. His 38-homer showing from 2019 looks like a clear outlier. Torres respectively hit 24 and 25 homers in 2022 and ’23. That dropped to 15 round-trippers this year, in part because of an ice cold April in which he didn’t hit a single home run.

Torkelson connected on 31 homers with a .233/.313/.446 slash line in 2023. A strong second half provided optimism coming into this year. Instead, he stumbled to a .219/.295/.374 mark with 10 homers through 92 games — struggles that led the Tigers to option Torkelson to Triple-A Toledo for a stretch. A change-of-scenery trade still seems a distinct possibility.

Kerry Carpenter should get the bulk of playing time at designated hitter. The lefty-swinging Carpenter will be in the lineup at either DH or in the corner outfield against all righty pitching. He’ll probably be shielded from left-handers, but carrying Torkelson as a short-side platoon bat with limited defensive value isn’t a great use of a roster spot. Harris said today that the Tigers don’t view Torkelson as a candidate for any reps at third base or in the corner outfield, though he opined that “with the DH plate appearances and opportunity at first base, there are still plenty of plate appearances for him.”

Justyn-Henry Malloy, a righty hitter, is also in the DH/first base mix. Malloy has been a high-OBP bat in the minors. He hit just .203/.291/.366 with eight homers in 71 MLB games as a rookie. He still has a full slate of minor league options, but he’s another hitter without a clear defensive fit and a limited major league track record.

The Tigers are one of a handful of teams that has been recently linked to the top unsigned position player, Alex Bregman. While the Torres signing doesn’t directly impact third base, it deepens the infield more generally. Harris declined comment on Bregman, as the CBA prohibits team personnel from saying whether they’re in or out on specific free agents.

He indicated there’ll be more moves on the horizon while suggesting he’s encouraged by how the roster is shaping up. “The roster isn’t done yet. It’s not even 2025 yet. There’s still some time in the offseason to fully flesh out our roster. But when I stare at our group right now, this is the deepest we’ve ever been — on both sides of the ball,” Harris said.

Since signing Alex Cobb, the Tigers have downplayed their desire for another starting pitcher. The exception is their pursuit of NPB star Roki Sasaki, who’ll be limited to a signing bonus below $10MM because of his status as an international amateur. Harris said that the Tigers have presented an initial presentation to Sasaki’s representatives at Wasserman. He indicated that the Tigers are awaiting a response from Sasaki’s camp as to whether they’ll get an in-person meeting after the holidays.

Agent Joel Wolfe suggested at the Winter Meetings that Sasaki, who took preliminary meetings with a handful of teams last week, would begin narrowing the field after returning to Japan for the holiday. The Tigers don’t seem a likely landing spot for Sasaki, but they’d certainly welcome an opportunity to make a pitch to the 23-year-old righty.

Phillies Sign Guillo Zuniga, Nabil Crismatt To Minor League Deals

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The Phillies signed relievers Nabil Crismatt and Guillo Zuñiga to minor league contracts earlier this month. Both deals are reflected on the team’s transaction log at MLB.com and the players’ respective social media accounts.

Both pitchers logged limited major league action in 2024. Crismatt, who turned 30 on Wednesday, made five appearances for the Dodgers early in the year. He spent the remainder of the season in Triple-A, which he divided between three organizations. Crismatt pitched in the minors between Los Angeles, San Diego and Texas. He had a tough showing in the Pacific Coast League, allowing 5.81 earned runs per nine through 79 innings. Crismatt struck out a slightly below-average 20.7% of batters faced against a decent 7.5% walk rate.

The Colombian-born hurler has struggled over six Triple-A seasons. His major league track record is quite a bit better. Crismatt owns a 3.71 earned run average through parts of five MLB campaigns. Most of that production came during a strong two-year run in San Diego between 2021-22. He has logged 20 major league innings over the past two seasons.

Zuñiga, 26, debuted with two appearances for the Cardinals in 2023. St. Louis dealt him to the Angels in a cash deal in February. Zuñiga made 15 appearances for the Halos. He tossed 17 2/3 innings, allowing 10 runs with 12 strikeouts and eight walks. Zuñiga pitched 26 innings at the Triple-A level, where he turned in a 5.19 ERA with a well below-average 14.3% strikeout rate. The Angels designated him for assignment when they acquired Travis d’Arnaud and released him a few days later.

This year’s drop in strikeouts marked a bizarre change from the bulk of Zuñiga’s minor league career. He’d fanned a quarter of batters faced over 29 appearances in Triple-A during the ’23 season. His strikeout rate frequently pushed 30% during his time in the low minors. Zuñiga averaged 97 MPH with his four-seam fastball this year and sat just under 99 MPH during his limited MLB stint with the Cardinals in 2023.

Mets Sign Sean Manaea

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On Friday evening, the Mets officially announced the signing of left-hander Sean Manaea to a three-year deal. The Boras Corporation client receives a $75MM guarantee. The deal reportedly contains $23.25MM in deferred money, which will be paid between 2035-44. New York had multiple open roster spots, so no further move was necessary.

Manaea, 33 in February, is now poised to sign with the Mets for the second consecutive offseason. In the first week of January earlier this year, the southpaw landed with New York on a two-year deal that guaranteed him $28MM and included an opt-out following the 2024 campaign. It was the second winter in a row that saw Manaea sign a two-year deal with an opt out after he signed with the Giants on a $25MM guarantee during the 2022-23 offseason.

That first contract in San Francisco was inked on the heels of a brutal 2022 season in San Diego that saw Manaea struggle to a 4.96 ERA (76 ERA+) with a 4.53 FIP in 158 innings of work. His time with the Giants went better than that; while his 4.44 ERA (94 ERA+) was still below average but he nonetheless entered the offseason boasting much stronger peripherals (3.91 FIP, 3.83 SIERA) and a solid run of starts down the stretch that September where he posted a 2.25 ERA and 3.21 FIP.

The Mets clearly believed that portended better days in Manaea’s future, and it certainly did. The lefty emerged as a quality mid-rotation option for New York in 2024 as he posted a 3.47 ERA (114 ERA+) with a 3.83 FIP in a career-high 181 2/3 innings of work across 32 starts. With a career year in the books ahead of his third consecutive trip to free agency, it seemed as though Manaea was looking for longer-term security. The Mets opted to tag the lefty with the Qualifying Offer at the outset of the winter, but it was hardly a surprise when Manaea rejected that one-year, $21.05MM offer and entered the open market anyway. After all, the lefty came into the winter ranked by MLBTR as the #10 free agent available on our annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list and the #5 starter behind only Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, Max Fried, and Jack Flaherty.

Early in the offseason, the fact that Manaea was encumbered by the QO led a number of clubs that likely would’ve had interest in a mid-rotation veteran like him to turn towards alternative options. The Angels, Dodgers, and Cubs turned in the early days of the offseason to unencumbered free agents like Yusei Kikuchi, Snell, and Matthew Boyd rather than delve into the markets of qualified free agents like Manaea, Nick Pivetta, or Luis Severino.

That’s not a consideration for the Mets, however, as reuniting with Manaea only costs the hypothetical draft pick they would’ve received had he signed elsewhere. That’s allowed Manaea to land a healthy guarantee despite a fairly small list of teams connected to him this winter: his three-year, $75MM deal exceeds the three-year, $60MM guarantee MLBTR predicted for him at the outset of the offseason but that’s hardly a surprise given that virtually every starting pitcher’s contract has exceeded expectations. Additionally, it’s of course possible that the deferred money in Manaea’s deal drops the net present value closer to MLBTR’s prediction.

For New York, a reunion with Manaea serves as a likely capstone on the club’s efforts to reconstruct its starting rotation after he, Severino, and Jose Quintana all hit the open market last month. The club added Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes to their rotation mix earlier this winter, but that duo offers little stability given Montas’s struggles in 2025 and the fact that Holmes last started a game in the majors back in 2018. Manaea provides that much-needed stability while slotting towards the front of a rotation that also includes talented right-hander Kodai Senga and young southpaw David Peterson.

With depth options like Paul Blackburn, Tylor Megill, and Griffin Canning all in the wings to help cover for potential injuries, it would hardly be a surprise if Manaea’s return wrapped up the team’s rotation additions for the winter. That doesn’t mean the club is done entirely, however. Even with a hefty 2025 payroll that RosterResource estimates will land just shy of $280MM as things stand, that still leaves $56MM of room to work with before the Mets match their 2024 figure. That should leave plenty of room for the Mets to sign a corner infield bat to pair with Mark Vientos, whether that ends up being a reunion with Pete Alonso or an alternative option such as Alex Bregman and perhaps bolster other areas of the roster such as the bullpen or the bench.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Mets and Manaea had agreed to a three-year, $75MM deal. Will Sammon of the Athletic reported that the deal included $23.25MM in deferred money to be paid between 2035-44. Image courtesy of Imagn.

Red Sox, Noah Davis Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Noah Davis last week. The former Colorado pitcher announced the news on social media on Saturday.

Davis has pitched in the majors in each of the last three seasons. That included a career-high nine outings for the Rockies this year. Davis tossed 20 1/3 innings of 5.85 ERA ball with a below-average 15.6% strikeout rate. The 6’2″ righty owns a 7.71 earned run average across 51 1/3 frames in his major league career. He has started six of 18 appearances.

The UC Santa Barbara product has also worked in a swing role at the Triple-A level. Davis has started 23 of 34 outings for the Rockies’ top minor league team. He has a 5.06 ERA across 133 1/3 innings in the Pacific Coast League. Davis has fanned just under 20% of batters faced against a higher than average 11.3% walk percentage.

While the numbers aren’t especially impressive at either stop, Davis has had the misfortune of pitching in difficult environments. He averaged nearly 94 MPH on his sinker in a multi-inning role for the Rox. That hasn’t resulted in huge swinging strike or ground-ball numbers. The Red Sox will try to translate that repertoire into more consistent results in a new setting.

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