Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Pirates, Martín Pérez Agree To One-Year Deal

By | at

The Pirates and left-hander Martín Pérez are in agreement on a contract, pending a physical, per a report from Robert Murray of FanSided. It will be a one-year, $8MM deal, per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Pérez, 33 in April, had a career year in 2022 but couldn’t keep it going into the following campaign. Last year, he made 32 starts for the Rangers and logged 196 1/3 innings with a 2.89 earned run average. His 20.6% strikeout rate was a bit below league average but his 8.4% walk rate was solid and his 51.4% ground ball rate was strong. He was also quite good at missing barrels and limiting hard contact that year.

He likely benefitted from a high strand rate of 77% and a low 6.5% rate of fly balls leaving the yard, which is why his 3.27 FIP and 4.08 SIERA were a bit less impressive. But it was a strong season nonetheless, with his 4.0 wins above replacement from FanGraphs and 5.0 from Baseball Reference both career highs by wide margins. The Rangers had enough faith in that performance to issue Pérez a $19.65MM qualifying offer, which he accepted.

Unfortunately, the regression gods came for him in 2023, with Pérez struggling enough to get moved to the bullpen in August after the Rangers acquired Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery at the trade deadline. At that point, Pérez had an ERA of 4.98, with his strikeout rate having dropped to 14.4% and his grounder rate down to 41%. He pitched reasonably well out of the bullpen over the final two months of the season, eventually dropping his ERA to 4.45, but it was obviously not the season the Rangers envisioned at that price point.

The Pirates will be paying him less than half of what he made last year and likely won’t be expecting anything like that 2022 campaign, as it stands out as a clear outlier. But even if they get the solid back-end guy that Pérez has been for the rest of his career, that will be an upgrade for their rotation. From 2012 to 2021, Pérez threw 1,102 2/3 innings with a 4.71 ERA. He didn’t get many strikeouts but limited his walks to around league average and got grounders on almost half of balls in play.

The Pittsburgh starting rotation had an ERA of 4.88 in 2023 as the stability was quite low. Mitch Keller and Johan Oviedo each made 32 starts, but Oviedo won’t be an option for 2024 due to Tommy John surgery. Rich Hill made 22 starts for the club but then went to the Padres at the deadline and is now a free agent. 12 other hurlers made at least one start for the Bucs for the year.

The club later added Marco Gonzales from Atlanta, who had just acquired him from Seattle as salary ballast in the Jarred Kelenic trade. Between Gonzales and Pérez, the club has added a couple of soft-tossing veteran lefties to hopefully eat some innings and stabilize the situation while perhaps turning into trade chips by the deadline, as was the case with Hill this year and José Quintana the year prior. Those two vets and Keller should take three rotation spots, leaving a couple of roles available for less-proven guys like Bailey Falter, Luis Ortiz, Roansy Contreras, Quinn Priester, Jackson Wolf or Kyle Nicolas, with this year’s first overall pick Paul Skenes perhaps not too far off.

This deal brings Pittsburgh’s payroll up to $66MM, per Roster Resource. General manager Ben Cherington has previously indicated that next year’s payroll could be an increase over their $73MM figure from Opening Day 2023.

Royals Sign Michael Wacha

By | at

December 18: The Royals have now officially announced the deal.

December 15: The Royals’ active offseason is continuing, as Kansas City has agreed to terms with free agent righty Michael Wacha, per a report from Robert Murray of FanSided. It’s a two-year, $32MM contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan adds. The second season is a player option, so Wacha will have the opportunity to opt back into free agency next winter. The contract pays the CAA client an even $16MM in each season, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, and Anne Rogers of MLB.com tweets that Wacha can earn an additional $500K via incentives in each season of the deal.

It’s the second notable free-agent pickup of the day for the Royals, who also agreed to a two-year $13MM deal with Hunter Renfroe earlier this morning. Kansas City has also added righty Seth Lugo on a three-year, $45MM pact that contains an opt-out after the second season. Wacha and Lugo, who were teammates with the Padres in 2023, will join a Royals rotation that includes Cole Ragans, Brady Singer and Jordan Lyles. Depth options include Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic (recovering from Tommy John surgery), Max Castillo, Alec Marsh and Jonathan Heasley, among others.

Wacha’s two-year, $32MM deal matches the exact terms of a two-year club option that the Padres declined earlier this offseason. The inclusion of an opt-out provision and some modest incentives makes this a stronger deal for the righty, however. Kansas City will be Wacha’s sixth team in six years, as his trips to free agency have routinely resulted in either a one-year pact (Mets, Rays, Red Sox) or a multi-year deal with options and/or opt-out opportunities (Padres).

Over the past two seasons, between the Red Sox and Padres, Wacha has posted a combined 3.27 ERA with a 21.3% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 37.7% ground-ball rate. Despite being more of a fly-ball pitcher, he’s allowed a manageable 1.14 homers per nine frames. Pitching his home games at the spacious Kauffman Stadium should help him continue to avoid the long ball at an acceptable rate despite his pronounced fly-ball tendencies.

In those two seasons, Wacha has changed up his pitch selection, reducing his reliance on a four-seamer while increasing the usage rates on his sinker and changeup. He threw both pitches at a career-high rate in 2022 and then set a new career-high in usage again in 2023. While the more frequent sinker usage hasn’t shown up in Wacha’s ground-ball rates, he’s posted improved batted-ball metrics; last year’s 88.1 mph average exit velocity and 35.4% hard-hit rate were both lower than the league averages of 89 mph and 39.2%, respectively. That’s helped Wacha to offset his slightly below-average strikeout rate.

The number of innings that the Royals can expect from Wacha is perhaps the biggest question mark surrounding him. Wacha has been placed on the injured list nine times in his big league career, with five of those IL placements stemming from shoulder troubles (including a six-week absence in the 2023 season). Wacha has also had IL stints for oblique, hamstring, knee and intercostal strains. While the shoulder is an obvious concern, Wacha did manage a solid 3.88 ERA in 48 2/3 innings after returning from this past season’s shoulder issue. He closed out the year with a pair of particularly impressive outings, tossing consecutive seven-inning gems (two total runs allowed on nine hits and two walks with 13 strikeouts).

With Wacha, Renfroe, Lugo, Will Smith, Chris Stratton and Garrett Hampson all signing major league deals in Kansas City this month, the Royals have committed $105MM in total free-agent dollars in a span of just over two weeks. It’s unlikely all of those dollars will end up being paid out, as each of Wacha, Renfroe, Stratton and Lugo received player options/opt-outs within their respective contracts. Still, it’s a hefty slate of investments by Kansas City’s standards — one that’s added an additional $47MM in payroll to the team’s 2024 roster (a net $45.75MM, when factoring in that Taylor Clarke and his $1.25MM salary were traded to the Brewers to make roster space for Lugo).

The relatively heavy investment in free-agent arms represents something of an acknowledgement from the Kansas City front office that its previous efforts to rebuild a homegrown rotation with a heavy focus on college arms in the draft simply hasn’t panned out. Singer, Lynch, Bubic, Marsh, Jackson Kowar and Asa Lacy were at one point focal components of the Royals’ hopes for the future, but only Singer remains locked into the rotation but is in need of a bounceback campaign after he was unable to carry his 2022 breakout into the 2023 season. Kowar was traded to the Braves for injured starter Kyle Wright (who’ll miss all of 2024). Lacy has yet to reach the Majors. Lynch and Marsh haven’t established themselves. Bubic showed some promise before tearing his left ulnar collateral ligament and undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Kansas City’s new-look rotation should represent a massive improvement over last year’s group, which pitched to a combined 5.12 ERA, ranking 27th in the big leagues. Gone from that mix are Brad Keller, Ryan Yarbrough and (at least for now) Zack Greinke. Other key names in 2023, Lynch most prominently, have been pushed down the depth chart. It’s not yet clear what lies ahead for the Royals and Greinke. The future Hall of Famer spent the past two seasons back with his original organization and at least ostensibly seemed poised to close out his career there. It’s possible the two parties still come to terms on another one-year pact, as Greinke is preparing to pitch in 2024, but that would likely push Lyles to the bullpen (or perhaps prompt the Royals to explore a potential trade of the veteran innings eater).

Orioles, Maryland Approve New Lease Agreement

By | at

The Orioles and the state of Maryland have approved a new lease agreement, as reported by multiple outlets and announced by the O’s. “The Baltimore Orioles have agreed to a partnership with the State of Maryland, Governor Wes Moore, and the Maryland Stadium Authority that will keep the Orioles at Camden Yards for thirty years,” the statement begins. It goes on to feature comments from John Angelos, chair and managing partner of the club, as well as Maryland Governor Wes Moore and others. Danielle Allentuck of the Baltimore Banner relayed the full press release for those interested.

Though the club announced they are staying at Camden for 30 years, they are currently only committed for 15, with Pamela Wood of the Baltimore Banner and Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball relaying some of the details. If the club and the state can agree to a development plan for the surrounding area in the next four years, then the lease can be expanded from 15 to 30 years.

The new deal comes just in the nick of time, as the previous lease was set to expire at the end of the year. Back in February, the O’s had a chance to extend the lease for another five years but decided not to do so. The hope was that they could work out a longer deal that would allow them to take advantage of a new Maryland law and borrow $600MM for stadium upgrades. In August, it was reported that Angelos was trying to leverage the stadium negotiations into acquiring public land. He reportedly envisioned developing a mixed-use area with commercial and retail spaces, emulating to The Battery and Truist Park where the Braves play in Georgia.

In September, Angelos and Gov. Moore announced a new 30-year lease between the club and the state, though this was actually misleading. Reporting from the next day revealed that they had merely signed a memorandum of understanding, which was legally non-binding. The talks seemed to hit a speed bump when it was reported that private equity mogel David Rubenstein was in talks to acquire the club, causing State senator Bill Ferguson to express some concern with the agreement. This new deal will keep the club in Baltimore while kicking those development negotiations down the road for another four years. The new agreement was reported on Friday and approved today by the Maryland Stadium Authority and then by the Board of Public Works.

The Orioles have until December 31 of 2027 to win approval for a ground lease and development plan for an area that is believed to include the B&O Warehouse, the vacant Camden Station building and an adjacent parking area between the Warehouse and train tracks. If they don’t get those approved, they can continue with the 30-year agreement or switch to a 15-year pact. The 30-year pact also has four extensions of five years available, meaning the club could potentially stay for 50 years as part of this deal. If the ground lease and development plan are approved, it’s possible to change the terms of the 30-year agreement. The O’s and the stadium authority can now start accessing the $600MM in taxpayer-financed bonds that state lawmakers have authorized for major upgrades to the stadium.

Many details of the full agreement have not been publicly revealed and more will surely come out over time.

Giants Claim Devin Sweet From Athletics

By | at

The Giants have claimed right-hander Devin Sweet off waivers from the Athletics, per Grant Brisbee of The Athletic.

Sweet, 27, was an undrafted free agent but continued to raise his stock in the minors with good results, largely based on the success of his changeup. In 2023, he started at Double-A in the Mariners’ system and got selected to the big league roster in mid-July. At that point, he had a 1.54 earned run average in 35 innings over 27 appearances. He struck out 34.6% of opponents while walking just 5.9% of them, getting onto the back end of top 30 prospects lists at both Baseball America and FanGraphs.

His first bits of experience at the major league level didn’t go well. He tossed two innings for the Mariners and then 6 2/3 for the A’s after a waiver claim. He allowed a combined 10 earned runs in that time, meaning his career ERA is currently 10.38, though in an obviously tiny sample.

The A’s agreed to a deal with Trevor Gott last week and needed to open a roster spot for him. It appears they tried to pass Sweet through waivers but the Giants swooped in to make an interception, using one of their three roster spots, with this move taking their 40-man count to 38.

Sweet still has a couple of options, so he won’t be guaranteed an active roster spot in San Francisco. He can provide his new club with some roster flexibility as a depth add for their bullpen. He has just 47 days of major league service time, meaning he can be a long-term piece for the Giants as long as he continues to justify his spot on the 40-man.

Diamondbacks Claim Collin Snider

By | at

The D-backs announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-hander Collin Snider off waivers from the Royals, who designated him for assignment last week. Arizona’s 40-man roster is now at capacity.

The 28-year-old Snider has seen action in the Majors in each of the past two seasons with the Royals, totaling 54 2/3 innings in that time. He’s struggled with a 5.93 ERA, 13.4% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate in that time. Snider, however, averages 95.7 mph on his sinker and has piled up grounders at a 51.9% clip in his young MLB career. He has a minor league option remaining as well, so the D-backs can shuttle him between Phoenix and Triple-A Reno in 2024 — if he lasts on the 40-man roster long enough to make it into the season, of course.

Snider walked more batters than he struck out in 20 1/3 MLB frames with K.C. this past season, but he also excelled in minimizing hard contact. The right-hander yielded a dismal 86.6 mph average exit velocity, and his 28.2% opponents’ hard-hit rate is nothing shy of excellent. It’s all small-sample theater, given Snider’s relative lack of MLB experience, but the Snakes surely don’t mind adding an optionable righty with some MLB experience and a power sinker to their stash of bullpen options for the upcoming 2024 campaign.

Mets Acquire Yohan Ramirez

By | at

The Mets announced Monday that they’ve acquired right-hander Yohan Ramirez from the White Sox in exchange for cash. Ramirez was designated for assignment by the ChiSox last week.

Ramirez appeared in just five games for the White Sox, who acquired him from the Pirates via an early-September waiver claim. He yielded four runs in four innings with the South Siders but had pitched to a solid 3.67 ERA with a 20% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate in 34 1/3 innings.

Now 28 years old, Ramirez made his big league debut with the Mariners in 2020 and has appeared in every MLB season since. He’s totaled 124 innings of 3.99 ERA ball as a big leaguer, striking out 23.2% of his opponents against a 12.5% walk rate that’s well north of the league average. Ramirez was a fly-ball pitcher early in his career but switched from a four-seamer to a two-seamer in 2022 and has since been a pronounced ground-ball arm (54.1%).

Scouting reports on Ramirez from his prospect days praised his stuff across the board but noted that he lacked command. That’s played out through much of his big league tenure to date, but the pieces for a quality reliever are clearly present. He’s out of minor league options, so the Mets will have to either carry Ramirez on the Opening Day roster or else trade him, release him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers prior to the end of spring training.

Nationals Sign Spenser Watkins

By | at

Dec. 18: It’s a minor league deal for Watkins, tweets Andrew Golden of the Washington Post. He’ll vie for a roster spot in camp next spring.

Dec. 17: The Nationals have signed right-hander Spenser Watkins, as revealed by Watkins himself in a statement on X (via the account of his agency, Gaeta Sports Management).  Reports from earlier this week suggested that Watkins was close to a deal with a KBO League team, yet as Watkins explained in his statement, he chose to stay in the United States due to the upcoming birth of his daughter in January.

Watkins, 31, pitched in only Major League game in 2023, allowing five runs over 4 1/3 innings in a start for the Athletics on August 15.  The rest of his season was spent at the Triple-A level, with Watkins delivering a 7.86 ERA over 71 combined innings for the top affiliates of the A’s, Astros, and Orioles.

A 30th-round pick for the Tigers in the 2014 draft, Watkins didn’t make his MLB debut until 2021, when he had caught on with the Orioles on a free agent deal.  The right-hander posted an 8.07 ERA over 54 2/3 frames for Baltimore that season, and then a 4.70 ERA in 105 1/3 innings in 2022.  All in all, that translates to a 5.97 ERA in 164 1/3 career innings for Watkins in the Show, as well as a 13.9% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate.

Working as a starter in 31 of his 40 MLB games and in 122 of his 149 career minor league games, Watkins projects as a depth arm at the Triple-A level.  The Nationals are known to be looking for pitching this winter, and while the team will keep looking for more proven upgrades, depth arms like Watkins are a useful commodity to eat innings.

Angels Reportedly Sign Tayron Guerrero To Minor League Deal

By | at

Right-hander Tayron Guerrero has signed a minor league deal with the Angels, reports Francys Romero.

Guerrero, 33 in January, has 106 innings of major league experience but hasn’t appeared in the bigs since 2019. He signed a minor league deal with the Reds going into 2023 but was released in June after posting a dreadful 11.51 earned run average in 22 2/3 innings. That’s a small sample of work and the ERA was surely inflated by unlucky numbers in terms of batting average on balls in play and runners stranded, but he also walked more batters than he struck out.

After being released, he caught on with the Diablos Rojos del Mexico of the Mexican League. He posted a 1.17 ERA there, but in an even smaller sample of 7 2/3 innings. He then joined Naranjeros de Hermosillo for some winter ball in Mexico. He has a 1.10 ERA in 16 1/3 innings for that club, striking out 26 of the 65 batters he has faced while walking 7, respective rates of 40% and 10.8%. Romero relays that Guerrero hit 101.6 mph on the radar gun.

That velocity has long been an enticing part of the package with Guerrero but he hasn’t always been able to harness it. He walked 13.6% of batters faced in his brief major league tenure and 18.8% of Triple-A hitters when with the Reds in 2023. He has been in better form since being released and heading to Mexico, as he didn’t issue any walks for the Diablos and then had a reasonable rate with the Naranjeros.

For the Angels, there’s no risk in bringing him aboard via a minor league deal and seeing what his control looks like early in the year. If everything is clicking, perhaps Guerrero can earn his way onto a roster spot, though he is now out of options and can’t be sent back down to the minors without being exposed to waivers.

Gomes: Dodgers Seek Additional Starting Pitching

By | at

The Dodgers added a playoff-caliber arm to their staff when acquiring Tyler Glasnow from the Rays, but they’re still searching for more starting pitching, general manager Brandon Gomes told reporters Monday (via Fabian Aradaya of The Athletic).

That shouldn’t come as any real surprise. Los Angeles included a member of its rotation, right-hander Ryan Pepiot, in the package to acquire Glasnow from Tampa Bay, so they didn’t really add to their depth at all in the swap. Glasnow also has a lengthy injury history, with last season’s 120 frames representing a career-high. While the Dodgers surely feel he’s an upgrade on a per-inning basis, they also can’t simply bank on Glasnow making 30 starts and occupying a workhorse role atop the rotation.

As it stands, the L.A. rotation would feature Glasnow, Walker Buehler (who’ll be on an innings limit in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery), Bobby Miller and Emmet Sheehan. Candidates for the fifth spot include Michael Grove, Gavin Stone, Ryan Yarbrough and prospects Nick Frasso and Landon Knack.

There have already been indications that the Dodgers would continue to be active in the starting pitching market, albeit none as concrete as an on-record declaration from the team’s general manager. The Dodgers have been a prominent participant in the bidding for NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and they’ve also reportedly shown interest in trading for White Sox righty Dylan Cease. Other rumored targets have included free agent righties Lucas Giolito and Seth Lugo (who’s since signed with the Royals). A reunion with Clayton Kershaw remains eminently plausible, although Kershaw wouldn’t be available to pitch until next summer at the earliest.

The Dodgers are less than $2MM from the second luxury tax threshold, per Roster Resource’s projections, although their actual bottom-line payroll clocks in under $200MM thanks to deferred money not only in the Shohei Ohtani contract but also the significant deferrals in the Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman deals. As a third-time luxury payor, they’ll effectively be taxed at a 62% clip for the next $20MM they spend and a 95% clip for the $20MM after that, and 110% for any money spent thereafter.

Yamamoto’s lingering presence in free agency has continued to hold up other aspects of the market, though he’ll have to sign a deal by early January — and reports have suggested he could look to finalize a deal before Christmas. Once he’s made a decision, pitchers like Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Shota Imanaga, Marcus Stroman and Giolito could accelerate. Similarly, the White Sox (Cease) and Guardians (Shane Bieber) could increase their efforts to trade prominent starters of their own, knowing that the teams who missed on Yamamoto will be motivated to find alternate options elsewhere.

Braves Release Matt Carpenter

By | at

The Braves have released veteran infielder/designated hitter Matt Carpenter, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. Atlanta acquired Carpenter a few days ago, taking on $4MM of this year’s $5.5MM salary (and the associated luxury tax hit) as a means of effectively purchasing left-handed reliever Ray Kerr from the Padres.

While the Braves had hoped to trade Carpenter in similar fashion to Marco Gonzales, Evan White and Max Stassi (all of whom they acquired and quickly dealt away in salary-driven swaps), it seems they weren’t able to find a taker for Carpenter even at that rate. He’ll now be a free agent who’ll cost a new team only the league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster — the Braves and Padres will remain on the hook for the rest of his salary.

Carpenter, 38, had a brilliant bounceback season with the Yankees in 2022 when he slashed .305/.412/.727 with 15 home runs in just 154 trips to the plate. A broken foot ended his season, but that eye-popping resurgence was still enough to land him a two-year, $12MM deal with the Padres last offseason.

Unfortunately for the Padres and Carpenter alike, his 2023 campaign looked more like the 2020-21 version of Carpenter who’d looked to be on the decline. In 237 plate appearances with the Friars last year, Carpenter hit just .176/.322/.319. He still walked at a massive 17.3% clip, but Carpenter’s strikeout rate spiked as his exit velocity and hard-hit rate trended in the other direction. The former Cardinals star’s newfound focus on elevating the ball at career-high levels served him well in 2022, but he perhaps took that too far in ’23, lifting 10 harmless pop-ups in his tiny sample of plate appearances. Given his huge walk and strikeout rates, Carpenter only put 125 balls in play last year — 10 of which were effectively automatic outs.

Now that he’s a free agent and can be signed on a league-minimum MLB deal or even on a minor league deal and spring training invite, Carpenter should draw interest from teams seeking left-handed bats. A return to that Herculean production from the summer of 2022 might not be plausible, but there’d be little to no risk for a new club trying to catch lightning in a bottle in the same manner as the 2022 Yankees did.

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

hide arrows scroll to top