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Carlos Carrasco Plans To Continue Pitching

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Carlos Carrasco was in attendance this evening as Venezuelan countryman Salvador Perez was honored as MLB’s Roberto Clemente Award winner. Carrasco told reporters that he has begun his offseason training regimen and hopes to pitch for two more seasons (X link via Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com).

The veteran right-hander turns 38 in March. Pitching two more seasons would take him near his 40th birthday. Carrasco elected minor league free agency after the Guardians were eliminated from the AL Championship Series. He’d have gotten to the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series anyhow since he has well over six years of MLB service.

Carrasco is almost certainly looking at a minor league deal for the second straight offseason. The longtime Cleveland hurler rejoined the organization on a non-roster contract in January. He broke camp and locked in a $2MM base salary. Carrasco held a rotation spot for the majority of the season, making 21 starts and tossing 103 2/3 innings. That was enough to land him third on the team in workload, though his results weren’t impressive. Carrasco allowed 5.64 earned runs per nine with a middling 19.9% strikeout percentage. The Guardians ran him through outright waivers in September.

That marks consecutive subpar showings for the 15-year veteran. Carrasco also scuffled during his third and final season as a member of the Mets. Opponents tagged him for a 6.80 ERA over 90 innings in 2023. He owns a 6.18 ERA across 41 starts over the last two seasons. Carrasco still throws strikes and gets ground-balls at decent rates, but declining velocity has cost him whiffs and led to trouble keeping the ball in the park.

Will Venable, Craig Albernaz Reportedly Finalists For Marlins Manager

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Rangers associate manager Will Venable and Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz are finalists for the Marlins’ managerial vacancy, report Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. It seems the search will come down to one of those two. Mish notes in a separate post (on X) that he’s “not aware” of other finalists, though he leaves the door slightly open for the possibility of a mystery candidate emerging.

If it is indeed down to Venable and Albernaz, they’ll settle on Skip Schumaker’s replacement shortly. (An announcement may not come in the next few days, as MLB discourages teams from releasing significant news on days with a postseason game.) The Herald reports that both Albernaz and Venable are flying to Miami for in-person meetings with owner Bruce Sherman after conducting Zoom interviews for the first round. Jon Heyman of the New York Post tweets that Venable’s latest interview is occurring today.

Venable and Albernaz have been two of the hottest names in this year’s managerial cycle. They’ve both gotten consideration from the White Sox in their search. Venable has interviewed for the Chicago position. It’s not clear if Albernaz has had a formal sit-down with Sox brass or is simply on their list of potential hires.

Neither has major league managerial experience. Venable might have gotten an MLB job by now if he hadn’t taken himself out of consideration in previous offseasons. The former outfielder has a fair amount of experience as the #2 on a coaching staff. He spent two seasons as Alex Cora’s bench coach in Boston and has logged the last two years as an associate manager under Bruce Bochy in Arlington. The 42-year-old, a Princeton product, also logged three years on the Cubs’ staff after ending his playing career in 2016.

Albernaz, 41, did not reach the big leagues as a player. He has less experience than Venable in the coaching ranks as well. He joined the Giants as bullpen and catching coach during the 2019-20 offseason. After four seasons in San Francisco, he made the jump to bench coach for first-year skipper Stephen Vogt in Cleveland.

While Albernaz only has one year in a bench coach role, he’s a known commodity for Miami baseball operations president Peter Bendix and assistant GM Gabe Kapler. Albernaz was a minor league player and coach in the Rays’ organization while Bendix was Tampa Bay’s general manager. His four years with the Giants coincided with Kapler’s managerial tenure.

In other staffing news, MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola reports (on X) that Miami has hired Joe Migliaccio as director of hitting. Migliaccio, who had been with the Yankees as a hitting coordinator, will work in the player development department and oversee the team’s offensive performance at multiple levels. He is not going to be the MLB hitting coach. That role has yet to be filled and will probably wait until the managerial decision. Miami parted ways with Schumaker’s entire staff, including hitting coach John Mabry.

Mets, Chris Devenski Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Mets and right-hander Chris Devenski are in agreement on a minor league deal, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com on X. The righty also receives a camp invite and will be competing for a job in next year’s spring training.

Devenski, 34 in November, has had an up-and-down career but is coming off a rough campaign. The Rays signed him to a one-year deal with a $1.1MM guarantee after getting a good look at him late in 2023. After being cut loose by the Angels, the Rays signed Devenski at the end of August last year. He posted a 2.08 earned run average over his nine appearances in Tampa so they decided to bring him back.

While the Rays are known for their savvy under-the-radar pickups, this one didn’t work out. Devenski tossed 26 2/3 innings for the Rays in 2024 but with a 6.75 ERA. His 19.7% strikeout rate, 11.5% walk rate and 25% ground ball rate were all below league averages. He missed about a month from late April to late May, going on the injured list due to right knee tendinitis. He was designated for assignment and released at the end of June.

He was then signed by the Mariners and spent the final months of 2024 with Triple-A Tacoma. He was able to finish his 2024 with a strong showing there in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, throwing 23 innings with a 2.35 ERA, 33.3% strikeout rate, 10.8% walk rate and 43.1% ground ball rate.

The Mets are presumably intrigued by that performance with Tacoma, though the veteran’s longer track record may play a role as well. He had a dominant showing with the Astros to start his career, tossing 189 innings over 2016 and 2017 with a 2.38 ERA, 28.2% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate.

But as mentioned, his career has been up-and-down, and those highs were followed with some serious lows. Over 2018 and 2019, he tossed another 116 1/3 innings for Houston but with an ERA of 4.56 in that time. His 6.9% walk rate was still good but his strikeout rate dipped to 24.9%. Elbow soreness limited him to just four appearances in 2020 and he eventually required Tommy John surgery in 2021. His attempts to get back on the mound in 2022 and 2023 were largely unsuccessful before his aforementioned stint with the Rays late last year.

Devenski has a 6.46 ERA since the start of 2020 but was injured for a lot of that. He showed some promise with the Rays late last year and with the Rainiers more recently. There’s no real risk for the Mets on a minor league deal, so they’ll take a look at what Devenski has come spring.

President of baseball operations David Stearns did plenty of tinkering with the bullpen this year. He gave one-year deals to Adam Ottavino, Jake Diekman, Shintaro Fujinami, Jorge López, Michael Tonkin and Austin Adams last winter as well as several minor league deals. As the season progressed, many of those guys ended up losing their roster spots while guys like Phil Maton, Huascar Brazobán, Ryne Stanek and others were acquired from other clubs. Ottavino and Stanek are now about to hit free agency with Maton likely joining them if the Mets turn down his club option. The 2024 Mets were only eliminated about a week ago and the World Series is still ongoing, but the club has already made one move to provide some bullpen depth for next year.

Reds Designate Brandon Leibrandt, Amed Rosario For Assignment

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The Reds announced that infielders Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Matt McLain have been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. To open 40-man roster spots for those two, they designated left-hander Brandon Leibrandt and infielder Amed Rosario for assignment. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer relays on X that the moves were necessary because McLain and Encarnacion-Strand are technically on rehab assignments in the Arizona Fall League and they reached their maximum rehab time, therefore needing to retake spots on the 40-man roster.

The Reds suffered a large number of significant injuries in 2024, with McLain and Encarnacion-Strand two of the biggest losses. McLain underwent left labrum surgery in March and was hoping to come back around August. But he suffered a stress reaction in his rib cage while trying to make his way back and ended up missing the entire season.

Encarnacion-Strand played 29 games but may have been playing hurt as he put up a dismal .190/.220/.293 line in that time. He was hit by a pitch on his hand in April and an X-ray revealed an old fracture that CES couldn’t figure out how he suffered. He went on the IL in May with a right ulnar styloid fracture and eventually underwent surgery in June. That procedure came with a three-month timeline and he wasn’t able to return in the remainder of the regular season.

Both players missed significant time in 2024 but apparently got healthy as the season was ending, so the Reds sent both to the Glendale Desert Dogs of the Arizona Fall League to get some reps before the winter sets in. The Dogs played their first game on October 8 and rehab assignments come with a 20-day maximum for position players. It seems that MLB views their time in the AFL as a rehab assignment, so they had to be reinstated from the 60-day IL today with their rehab window closing.

The moves are largely technicalities, as both players would need to be reinstated from the injured soon regardless. There’s no injured list from five days after the World Series until spring training begins, so all players on the 60-day IL need to be reinstated soon anyway. This rehab formality just forced the Reds to do it slightly ahead of schedule.

Of the two players they bumped off, Rosario was slated to be off the roster soon anyway. He signed a one-year deal with the Rays for 2024, eventually getting traded to the Dodgers before landing with the Reds via waivers. There’s no reason for any club to claim him now, as 28 of the 30 clubs are eliminated. He wouldn’t be postseason eligible with the Yankees or Dodgers since it’s after the September 1 cutoff date. As a veteran with more than six years of service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment. He’ll soon hit free agency, a few days earlier than anticipated.

Leibrandt, 32 in December, could have been retained for next year as he has less than a year of service time but seemingly wasn’t in Cincinnati’s plans. He signed a minor league deal with the club in May and got added to the roster at the end of August. He stuck on the 40-man for the final month of the season but was mostly on optional assignment. He only got into two major league games this year, allowing seven earned runs in 6 1/3 innings.

He was fairly serviceable in the minors this year, with a 4.41 ERA in 17 Triple-A starts. He had a 22.7% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate. However, he was pitching independent leagues last year and at the start of 2024. As a journeyman sliding towards his mid 30s, he was surely viewed as a temporary option on the club’s roster this year as they dealt with numerous pitching injuries.

As a player with a previous career outright, he has the right to elect free agency as opposed to accepting another outright assignment. Most clubs are facing roster crunches in the coming days, so he’ll presumably clear waivers and return to the open market shortly.

Skip Schumaker, Daniel Descalso Out Of Running In White Sox’ Managerial Search

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11:18am: ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reports that Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso is also out of the running in Chicago.

11:05am: Former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, who won National League Manager of the Year honors with Miami in 2023, is no longer being considered by the White Sox in their ongoing managerial search, per Jim Margalus and James Fegan of Sox Machine.

It’s not clear whether Schumaker removed his own name from consideration or whether the Sox moved on, either due to fit or asking price. Regardless, the report largely eliminates the possibility of Schumaker leading a new dugout in 2025. His former Marlins club and the Reds (who hired Terry Francona earlier this month) marked the only other managerial vacancies of the offseason (barring an unexpected late decision from another club or a surprise shakeup in the Bronx or L.A. following the World Series).

Even without an immediate managerial opening that makes sense for Schumaker, he’ll have no trouble finding work if he’s open to other roles. He served as a bench coach in St. Louis prior to being hired in Miami, and he’s also held the titles of associate manager and first base coach with the Padres. Schumaker would surely have his pick of coaching roles as teams round out their staffs ahead of the 2025 season, and given his baseball acumen and the manner in which he’s regarded as a coveted managerial prospect, it stands to reason that there are clubs that would welcome the opportunity to add Schumaker in a player development or baseball operations capacity while he bides his time and waits for an appealing managerial opportunity to surface.

Schumaker’s subtraction from the Sox’ list of candidates leaves Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz, Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann, Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso, Rangers associate manager Will Venable, former Angels manager Phil Nevin and current interim manager Grady Sizemore as the current list of known candidates still in the running for the position. Rangers bench coach Donnie Ecker was removed from consideration last week, while Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough and Padres special assistant A.J. Ellis were taken off the list over the weekend. Tigers bench coach George Lombard is also out of the running as of last night.

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast

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On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.

The World Series will be done within a week, meaning the offseason fun is about to begin. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the winter or anything else baseball related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The Opener: World Series, Judge, White Sox

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As the World Series continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. World Series Game 3:

The Dodgers won both of their home games over the weekend, but after a travel day yesterday the series will resume this evening on the Yankees’ home turf at 8:08pm local time. Right-hander Clarke Schmidt will be on the mound for New York after posting an impressive 2.85 ERA in a season shortened to just 16 starts by injury. In the postseason so far, Schmidt has drawn two starts and sports a 3.86 ERA with six strikeouts and three walks in 9 1/3 innings of work.

His opponent this evening will be Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler, who struggled to a 5.38 ERA in 16 regular season starts this year and was shelled for six runs in five frames during his NLDS start against the Padres. Despite that shaky track record this year, Buehler did manage to put up four scoreless innings while striking out six in Game 3 of the NLCS against the Mets. On offense, meanwhile, the Dodgers are currently expecting to have star slugger Shohei Ohtani back in the lineup after a shoulder injury Saturday night gave baseball fans a scare.

2. Can Judge break out of his slump before it’s too late?

With the question of Ohtani’s status likely answered, the other likely MVP winner in the series is facing his own set of questions. Aaron Judge has struggled to a meager .105/.280/.325 slash in 50 plate appearances across 11 postseason games this year. Any hitter can have a tough stretch in a sample that small, of course, and Judge even had two separate 11-game stretches not dissimilar to this one back in April alone. His slump has deepened even more since the World Series began, however, as he’s struck out six times in nine trips to the plate over the last two games while collecting just one hit. Can Judge get back to his dominant regular season form in time to help the Yankees fight back from their current 0-2 deficit?

3. Is the White Sox managerial search heating up?

This weekend saw some noticeable movement on the managerial front in Chicago. Three candidates were noted to be out of the running for the White Sox vacancy yesterday, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggested last night that the Sox were taking a “hard look” at Rangers associate manager Will Venable for the role. Heyman cautioned that there was no indication that an agreement was close just yet, but the report nonetheless adds to the sense of movement that’s begun to surround the search for the South Siders’ next manager. Other candidates who are not yet known to have been eliminated from the running include current interim skipper Grady Sizemore, Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz, former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, former Angels skipper Phil Nevin, Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann and Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso.

Dodgers Expected To Be In On Juan Soto’s Free Agent Market

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The Dodgers’ focus on Juan Soto is currently directed towards figuring how to get the slugger out during the remainder of the World Series, but once the offseason begins, the club could be looking to add Soto to its own lineup.  The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports that the Dodgers are interested in Soto and will start more of a full-fledged pursuit “if he’s interested” if coming to Los Angeles.

As Heyman notes, the Dodgers’ deep pockets have allowed them to at least check in on virtually every major free agent in recent years, so if anything, it would be unusual if L.A. didn’t have Soto on its offseason wish list.  The Dodgers are also one of the few teams that can reasonably meet Soto’s asking price, which is widely expected to be the most upfront guaranteed money ever given to a baseball player.  The “upfront” caveat is necessary since Shohei Ohtani’s $700MM deal is so heavily deferred that the contract is worth around $437.8MM in present value, and Soto’s next deal is expected to surpass the $500MM mark.

According to RosterResource, the Dodgers already have roughly $257.2MM committed to their 2025 payroll, as well as a $253.1MM estimate on their luxury tax number.  The latter again puts the Dodgers over the tax threshold ($241MM) for next season, and naturally adding Soto for a minimum of a $50MM average annual value would put the club over the highest tax penalty tier of $301MM.  Since Los Angeles has already been a tax-paying team for the last four seasons, crossing the $301MM threshold would more than double the size of the team’s tax on any overages beyond the $241MM mark.

Of course, the luxury tax has clearly not been a major concern for the Dodgers in their pursuit of top-tier talent.  With Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Will Smith signed through the rest of the decade and Freddie Freeman and Tyler Glasnow both signed through at least 2027, the Dodgers won’t be ducking under the tax line any time soon, and the financial penalty is offset by the simple fact that the team is a revenue-generating juggernaut.

There are plenty of obvious reasons why Soto would have his own interest in joining a perennial contender like the Dodgers, though geography continues to be the lingering question surrounding Soto’s impending free agency.  While Soto and Padres owner Peter Seidler made some headway in extension talks prior to Seidler’s passing a year ago, Heyman repeats the long-held belief that Soto would prefer to play on an East Coast team, all things being equal.  This could make the Yankees or Mets the favorites to sign him this winter, as the two New York teams can better fit Soto’s preferences of both location and contract.

While the Yankees and Mets alone could generate a nice bidding war, Soto and agent Scott Boras would certainly have a vested interest in keeping other teams in the hunt, be it the Dodgers or other potential suitors like the Giants, Blue Jays, or Nationals.  If the Dodgers perceive that Soto’s interest in coming to L.A. is fairly limited, the team could easily move onto any number of other options on the free agent market.

For instance, re-signing Teoscar Hernandez would be much less expensive than signing Soto, and Hernandez is already a known quantity in Los Angeles and a big offensive force in his own right.  Heyman also figures the Dodgers will look to add another big pitcher to its injury-ravaged rotation, even though Ohtani, Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, and others are expected to be healthy by Opening day.

Latest On White Sox Managerial Search

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Reports from earlier today removed a couple of names from consideration as the next White Sox manager, though the team’s search continues to be seemingly pretty fluid.  Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz is a new name in the mix according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post (links to X), while interim manager Grady Sizemore is still in the running and Tigers bench coach George Lombard is also no longer a candidate.

Since the White Sox and Marlins are the only teams currently looking for a new skipper, many of the same candidates are appearing in both searches, with Albernaz’s name the latest crossover.  Albernaz has already interviewed in Miami and is considered one of the favorites for the position, as he has previous working relationships with both president of baseball operations Peter Bendix and assistant GM Gabe Kapler.

Like the White Sox, however, it isn’t yet entirely clear how close the Marlins might be to making an actual hire, or if any other candidates might still emerge.  Lombard and Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough both interviewed with Miami and are apparently still under consideration for that job, even if Chicago is moving in another direction.

Albernaz (who turns 42 later this week) just completed his first season in Cleveland, after working as the Giants’ bullpen/catching coach over the 2019-22 seasons.  This makes him a known quantity to White Sox pitching advisor Brian Bannister, who was San Francisco’s director of pitching for the last three of Albernaz’s seasons in the Bay Area.  The Giants job marked Albernaz’s first role on a big league coaching staff, as he spent the previous five seasons as a manager, coach, and coordinator in the Rays’ farm system.

The 2024 season was also Sizemore’s first time on a Major League staff, and his first pro coaching job at any level.  After Pedro Grifol was fired in August, Sizemore was something of a surprise choice as Chicago’s interim manager, and he led the team to a 13-32 record in the final stretch of what ended up as a singularly disastrous 121-loss season.  GM Chris Getz said Sizemore would continue to be a candidate within the team’s search for a full-time bench boss, but Sizemore’s coaching contract runs through the 2025 season, so he might well be back anyway in some capacity if he isn’t retained as manager.

The list of known candidates still in the running for the White Sox position include Sizemore, Albernaz, former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, former Angels manager Phil Nevin, Rangers associate manager Will Venable, Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann, and Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso.

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