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Young: Rangers Will Prioritize Pitching, Explore Reunions With Eovaldi, Heaney

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The Rangers went from the top of the MLB mountain to missing the playoffs in the span of one season, due in no small part to an offense that sputtered throughout the season. Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim were among the regulars who struggled at the plate, while Texas was plagued by injuries to Corey Seager, Josh Jung and Evan Carter, among others. As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News points out, the Rangers floundered against four-seam fastballs in particular.

Be that as it may, president of baseball operations Chris Young’s end-of-season press conference struck an optimistic tone regarding the in-house hitters the Rangers currently possess. “The biggest remedy, in my opinion, is improving the guys we currently have,” Young said (via Grant). The recently extended Rangers baseball ops leader called internal improvements to the lineup a “heavy priority” heading into next season.

With regard to outside additions, those will come more on the pitching side of the roster. MLB.com’s Kennedi Landri writes that Young specifically mentioned that he’d like to retain impending free agents Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney. Eovaldi triggered a $20MM player option this season when he reached a combined 300 innings between 2023-24, but he’s widely expected to decline that in favor of a return to the market (barring a hypothetical extension from his current club). Heaney exercised a player option following the 2023 season and returned to make 31 solid starts in this year’s rotation.

“As far as Evo and Andrew go, those are priorities for us,” said Young. “We love those guys. They helped us win a World Series. We would love to bring those guys back, and we’re going to explore every way we can to make that happen.”

Entering the 2025 season, Texas won’t be short on rotation options. Jacob deGrom should be the Opening Day starter now that he’s recovered from Tommy John surgery, though counting on him for a full slate of 30-plus starts doesn’t feel realistic when he hasn’t reached that total since 2019. He’ll be joined by Jon Gray, Tyler Mahle (also in his first full season post-Tommy John) and some combination of Dane Dunning, Cody Bradford, Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. With deGrom and Mahle both facing workload concerns and the bulk of the team’s other options yet to pitch a full season in a big league rotation, it’s understandable that the Rangers feel it not just prudent but pivotal to fortify the starting staff.

Reunions with Eovaldi and/or Heaney won’t come cheaply, however. Eovaldi’s two-year, $34MM deal proved to be a bargain, even as incentives ballooned his guarantee to a total of $38.5MM over his two years. He signed that deal coming off an injury-shortened year with the Red Sox, who’d issued him a qualifying offer and thus tied him to draft pick compensation. Now healthy and unencumbered by the weight of a QO, he should be able to top that $34MM guarantee even though he’s two years older than during his last trip to the open market.

Heaney, similarly, was coming off a season of just 72 2/3 innings with the Dodgers. He hasn’t looked as dominant in Texas as he did during that abbreviated run with L.A., but he just gave the Rangers a combined 307 1/3 innings of 4.22 ERA ball with more promising strikeout and walk rates of 23.2% and 7.6%, respectively. He could find another two-year deal in the market, and it’s possible that would come with a larger guarantee than the $25MM term on his last pact.

The extent to which Texas will be able to spend in free agency is not yet clear. RosterResource pegs them with about $148MM worth of 2025 commitments, and that’s not including arbitration raises for Dunning, Heim, Sborz, Nathaniel Lowe and Leody Taveras — a group that MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects for a combined $25.5MM. Add in a slate of league-minimum players, and Texas is looking at around $185MM in total projected salary for next year’s 26-man roster. That’s $40MM shy of where they opened the 2024 season, so there’s clearly some room to spend, but that $40MM could dry up quickly if the Rangers are intent not only on adding at least one starter, but also on replacing effectively their entire late-inning relief corps.

To say Texas is likely to be active in the bullpen market would be putting things mildly. Kirby Yates, David Robertson, Jose Leclerc and Jose Urena — their top four relievers by innings pitched — are all free agents. Deadline acquisition Andrew Chafin has a $6.5MM club option ($500K buyout) that is not a lock to be exercised. Robertson has a $7MM mutual option ($1.5MM buyout) and will very likely decline his end of it. Yates, Robertson, Leclerc, Chafin and Josh Sborz — who missed most of the season due to shoulder problems — were the team’s go-to options in high-leverage spots.

Young didn’t comment on what level of increase will or won’t be possible. He plans to meet with majority owner Ray Davis in the near future to outline a spending plan. While Young avoided any firm declarations on payroll, he spoke about uncertainty regarding the team’s endeavors to create a proprietary regional sports network and pledged to build a “very good roster with whatever resources we have.”

On the surface, that’s a far cry from his Aug. 2021 comments wherein he pledged to be “very active” in free agency — and then followed through with blockbuster signings of Seager and Marcus Semien. More context on the Rangers’ potential spending figures to come to light as the onset of free agency draws nearer, but given the team’s current financial obligations and needs up and down the pitching staff, it’s hardly a shock that Young is prioritizing arms and hoping to see a talented core of hitters rebound at the plate next season.

Diamond Sports Group Planning To Cut Ties With 11 MLB Clubs

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Diamond Sports Group said in court today that it plans to broadcast just one MLB club next year, the Braves, per reporting from Evan Drellich of The Athletic. The company, which owns the Bally Sports Networks, also had deals with the Reds, Tigers, Royals, Angels, Marlins, Cardinals, Rays but plans on walking away from those. As Drellich notes, as part of the company’s ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, they can accept and reject contracts though the measures have to be approved by the court. The Brewers, Guardians, Twins and Rangers had one-year deals with Diamond for 2024. Those 11 clubs will now have to renegotiate new deals with Diamond or find other broadcasting arrangements.

Drellich provides some more specifics on X, noting that it’s more complicated than Diamond simply abandoning these 11 clubs, but that seems to be the company’s goal regardless. Alden González of ESPN adds some more details, noting that a confirmation hearing has been set for November 14 and 15 in Houston. The Marlins and Diamond have mutual interest in working out a new deal, per a report from Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. The Angels are working on a new deal with Diamond, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

Per Drellich, league representatives said they were “sandbagged” by the news. “We have no information about what is being done,” said Jim Bromley, lawyer for MLB. “We’ve had no opportunity to review and now we’re in front of the court and being asked to make our comments.”

The ongoing financial situation of Diamond Sports Group has been a significant part of baseball’s economic landscape for a long time and this could prove to be a major development as part of that narrative. Largely due to cord cutting, the regional sports network model has been gradually collapsing in recent history. In the 2022-23 offseason, reports emerged that Diamond was in rough shape financially and the company filed for bankruptcy before the 2023 MLB season began.

They dropped their contracts with the Padres and Diamondbacks during that 2023 campaign. It threatened to do the same with the Guardians, Twins and Rangers for 2024 but ultimately renegotiated lower fees with those clubs and continued those broadcasts through this year. Now it seems like the company is continuing down this path but with an even more aggressive severing of their existing ties to Major League Baseball.

This is bound to have short-term effects on clubs and players. These contracts have been sources of significant revenue for clubs, as MLBTR covered earlier this year. The 11 teams that Diamond plans to cut ties with were previously receiving between $33MM (Brewers) and $125MM (Angels) on an annual basis. Per reporting in April, the Padres were set to receive about $60MM in 2023 before their deal with Diamond collapsed. The league reportedly covered about 80% of those fees last year but didn’t plan to do so in 2024 and beyond.

Uncertainty around broadcast revenue seemingly played a major role in the 2023-24 offseason, which was disappointing for players. Teams like the Padres, Rangers, Twins and others were either cutting payroll or not increasing it as much as had previously been expected, with the TV situation often being used as justification. This appeared to play a role in various free agents not finding markets as strong as they had anticipated and many of them lingered unsigned into the early months of 2024 and/or signed for deals well below projections. It seems fair to expect that similar narratives could emerge in the coming winter.

Per González, a company source says that Diamond is still hoping to sign new deals with the 11 clubs being cut out today. However, that would presumably involve reduce fee payments, such as those received by the Guardians, Twins and Rangers this year. As mentioned up top, the Marlins and Angels seem to expect to continue their relationship with Diamond/Bally in 2025, though negotiating new deals may take some time.

In the long-term picture, MLB might be happy to be further cutting ties with Diamond. They have continually expressed skepticism about the company’s plans to stay afloat. Diamond has tried various methods of refinancing, including signing a streaming deal with Amazon, but the league hasn’t seemed convinced that any of the company’s plans would lead to long-term stability.

As mentioned, the league has already started selling some games to fans in direct-to-customer fashion. Commissioner Rob Manfred has aspirations of marketing a digital streaming package consisting of several MLB teams, which fans could watch without blackout restrictions. MLB.TV already exists and allows fans to watch most games, but the RSN deals lead to certain teams being blacked out in the areas covered by those deals.

Having less commitment with Diamond going forward will increase the viability of that streaming plan over the years to come. However, as mentioned, less TV revenue figures to have a sizeable impact on the short-term economics of the game. This will lead to ripple effects throughout the upcoming offseason and will likely be worrisome for certain players hitting the open market in the coming weeks. New deals could be negotiated between now and the 2025 season, which could put some money back on the table, though likely less than in previous years.

There is also the matter of the fan experience, as there were times in 2024 where the Braves were not available on TV to some customers during a dispute between Bally’s and Comcast. For fans of these 11 clubs today, they will have to keep an eye on the proceedings to determine if their favorite club will still be accessed in the ways they are accustomed to or if they will have to switch to some new broadcast model.

Marlins Will Not Retain Any Of 2024 Coaching Staff

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1:20pm: Also among the cuts were head athletic trainer Lee Meyer and strength & conditioning coach Brendan Verner, per Mish and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. None of the coaches being dismissed were under contract for the 2025 season, per the report. Still, an overhaul of this magnitude is borderline unprecedented in recent big league history.

11:40am: The Marlins are gutting their coaching staff, as Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald reports that the entire staff has been informed it will not return for the 2025 season. Mish notes that there are a couple “exceptions” who have been told there’s some interest in a reunion, but even that’s dependent on the hiring of the incoming manager and any preferences that person may have. Specifically, Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reports that bench coach Luis Urueta and first base/outfield coach Jon Jay have been told there’s interest in a reunion, pending the managerial search. Both will be free to pursue other opportunities in the meantime, however.

All of this aligns with a report last night from Isaac Azout of Fish On First, who tweeted that the Marlins’ firings were being described to him as a “blood bath” that extended to the coaching staff, clubhouse attendants, performance staff and more.

Manager Skip Schumaker already departed the organization over the weekend. His impending exit was one of the worst-kept secrets around the league. The former big league utilityman and Cardinals bench coach was hired by former Marlins GM Kim Ng and won NL Manager of the Year honors last season in his rookie effort. His original two-year contract included an option for the 2025 season. However, after the Marlins hired Rays GM Peter Bendix as their new president of baseball operations, prompting Ng to walk away from the organization. Schumaker reportedly voiced frustration with the club’s direction — understandably so, given last year’s playoff berth — and management agreed to void the 2025 club option on his deal in order to allow him to explore new opportunities.

In addition to Urueta and Jay, today’s news presumably indicates that hitting coach John Mabry, assistant hitting coaches Bill Mueller and Jason Hart, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., third base coach Griffin Benedict, infield coach Jody Reed, bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda, bullpen coordinator Rob Flippo and field coordinator Rod Barajas will all be at the very least free to pursue other opportunities, if not dismissed outright.

Among the group, Stottlemyre figures to be a particularly hot commodity on the coaching market. He’s spent a dozen years on big league coaching staffs, serving as both a pitching coach and bullpen coach in addition to prior stints as a minor league pitching coordinator. He’s worked with the D-backs and Mariners organizations in the past but has spent the past seven years as the pitching coach in Miami, building a strong reputation along the way.

While the Marlins have regularly been a doormat in the NL East — with the exception of the 2020 and 2023 seasons — a strong core of touted young pitching has been a hallmark of the team in recent years. Stottlemyre alone isn’t to credit for that, of course, but his influence on the staff and the organization’s pitching development as a whole is clear. Cepeda, it should be noted, has been in lockstep with Stottlemyre throughout his time in the organization. He was hired as the Marlins’ bullpen coach back in 2019. The two have worked alongside one another for seven years.

That’s not to say others on the staff won’t be coveted free agents in their own right. Urueta spent 15 years in the D-backs system, rose to their bench coach under Torey Lovullo, and has interviewed for MLB managerial posts in the past. Mabry and Mueller, in addition to lengthy big league careers, have extensive coaching backgrounds across multiple organizations. Barajas, who also had a lengthy big league career, has served as the bench coach and interim manager of the Padres and has interviewed for various managerial posts in recent years (in addition to several years as a minor league manager in San Diego’s system). Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat speculates that Jay could wind up a target of the Cardinals, for whom he played six MLB seasons — though Jay could also join Schumaker wherever he lands his next managerial assignment.

Broadly speaking, the Miami coaching staff can hardly be faulted for the disastrous record this season. Bendix spent most of the 2023-24 offseason focused on reshaping the baseball operations department and did little to augment the actual Marlins roster. Injuries waylaid much of the pitching staff, and when Miami opened the season with a significant losing streak, the front office wasted little time in waving the white flag. Luis Arraez was traded to San Diego in early May, signaling exactly what type of direction the new baseball ops staff would be taking. No manager or coaching staff could’ve spun the ’24 Marlins into a contender, and other clubs will surely be cognizant of that as they show interest in a wave of newly available coaching talent.

Twins Part Ways With Four Coaches

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Oct. 2: In addition to Popkins, the Twins announced that assistant hitting coaches Rudy Hernandez and Derek Shoman will not return to the staff next season. Infield coach/assistant bench coach Tony Diaz also will not return to next year’s staff. The rest of the group is expected to return.

Oct. 1: The Twins have informed hitting coach David Popkins that he won’t back next season, per a report from Dan Hayes of The Athletic. His contract just ended with the conclusion of the 2024 season and will not be renewed.

Popkins has been the club’s hitting coach for the past three years, getting hired prior to the 2022 campaign. The first of those seasons saw the club finish 78-84, though that wasn’t really on the offense. The club hit a collective .248/.317/.401 for a wRC+ of 106, 10th best in the majors. 2023 was more successful, as the club went 87-75 and won the American League Central. Their hitters collectively slashed .243/.326/.428 for a 108 wRC+, tied for sixth in the majors.

For a long time, it seemed like 2024 was going to be another successful campaign for the Twins. They were in playoff position for most of the season but collapsed at the end, going 9-18 in the month of September and missing out on the postseason.

The team was still strong at the plate overall this year, with a line of .246/.315/.411 and a 107 wRC+ that was ninth in the league. That includes a dismal .218/.285/.338 line and 78 wRC+ in September as the club’s season slipped away from them.

It’s always tough to separate the influence of a coach from the performances of the players. Over the course of the three years where Popkins has been the hitting coach, most of the results have been good, though the most recent stretch of play obviously leaves a bad taste. Whether one wants to blame Popkins or not would be a matter of debate. Key players like Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler and others missed significant time with injuries this year and were either off the field or perhaps not playing at 100% health during the September swoon. Regardless, it seems the club has decided to go in a different direction for 2025.

Ross Atkins Will Return As Blue Jays’ General Manager In 2025

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11:00am: Atkins revealed during his own media availability that bench coach and offensive coordinator Don Mattingly will no longer oversee the team’s offense; he’ll fill a “more traditional” bench coach role. Between the change in Mattingly’s role and the reported firing of hitting coach Guillermo Martinez — which Atkins confirmed — the team will conduct an external search to bring in new voice to oversee the team’s offense.

10:15am: Blue Jays team president Mark Shapiro is currently meeting with the media on the heels of a season he described as a “bitter disappointment” and announced that Ross Atkins will return as the team’s general manager for the 2025 season. “There won’t be a change with Ross,” said Shapiro. (Readers can watch the live press conference via Sportsnet.) The 2024 season was Atkins’ ninth season as Toronto’s general manager after spending 14 seasons as an integral part of Cleveland’s player development department. He signed a five-year contract extension covering the 2022-26 seasons back in April of 2021.

This past season was indeed a disaster for the Jays, who finished out the season at 74-88 — last place in the American League East. The Blue Jays made a spirited run at Shohei Ohtani in free agency last offseason but added primarily complementary pieces after he signed a ten-year deal with the Dodgers. The Toronto front office inked Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Yariel Rodriguez to multi-year contracts, also adding veterans Justin Turner and Kevin Kiermaier on one-year deals (Kiermaier’s second one-year pact with the Jays).

Depth proved to be an Achilles heel for the Jays as injuries mounted. Bo Bichette endured multiple IL stints and was limited to half a season’s worth of uncharacteristically feeble production at the plate. Alek Manoah underwent UCL surgery. Closer Jordan Romano pitched just 13 2/3 rough innings before undergoing arthroscopic elbow surgery. Top prospects Orelvis Martinez (PED suspension) and Ricky Tiedemann (Tommy John surgery) had lost seasons. Meanwhile, key veterans like Kiermaier, George Springer, Danny Jansen, Erik Swanson, Tim Mayza and others turned in performances that were not commensurate with their prior standards. The Jays turned to a host of in-house stopgaps but, particularly in the bullpen, were unable to piece together a serviceable performance.

The end result saw Jansen, Kiner-Falefa, Yusei Kikuchi, Yimi Garcia and Nate Pearson all traded away in deadline swaps for younger talent. The Jays were universally praised for a strong return on Kikuchi, an impending free agent. However, that’s at best a silver lining when considering the team entered the 2024 campaign looking to build on last year’s Wild Card berth into the playoffs and was viewed as a legitimate contender in a deep AL East division.

Heading into the 2025 season, it’ll be incumbent upon Shapiro and Atkins to engineer an immediate turnaround, lest the calls for changes in leadership grow even louder. Asked about the club’s payroll outlook for the ’25 campaign, Shapiro demurred, calling it “early” to ask such a question and suggesting that next month’s GM Meetings or even December’s Winter Meetings would be a time at which he could offer a clearer answer. For now, the club’s president merely suggested he didn’t anticipate player payroll rising or decreasing in a significant manner.

If that’s indeed the case, Atkins will have his work cut out for him. The Jays entered the 2024 season with a club-record $225MM Opening Day payroll. RosterResource currently pegs them for just shy of $125MM in 2025 commitments, not including an arbitration class projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to cost more than $61MM in total. Add in a slate of league-minimum players to round out the roster, and the Jays are at just over $194MM. There are some likely non-tenders in this offseason’s class of arbitration-eligible players, but the group is headlined by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and his projected $29.6MM salary, with notable paydays projected for Romano ($7.75MM), Daulton Varsho ($7.7MM) and Alejandro Kirk ($4.1MM) as well.

Asked multiple times about Guerrero’s future, Shapiro generally sidestepped the question. The slugger is entering his final season of club control before potentially becoming one of the most coveted free agents in recent memory. Manager John Schneider recently touted Guerrero as a generational talent. Asked today whether he agreed with that assessment, Shapiro questioned the definition of what constitutes a generational player and suggested that it’s tough to say right now, noting that Guerrero has the “potential” to become such a player but implying that such a label can’t be placed on him this early in his career.

Atkins spoke more directly on the matter of Guerrero’s future, suggesting that ownership will provide the support to make long-term commitments to both Guerrero and Bichette. That doesn’t guarantee an extension for either player will happen, of course, and Atkins noted that it’s “difficult” to construct a contract of such magnitude for even one player — let alone two players. Still, he voiced confidence that the Jays can support long-term deals for both and still have the resources needed to build a competitive roster around what would presumably be a pair of substantial contracts.

With regard to the forthcoming offseason, Atkins spoke generally about the need to be “more aggressive” with external additions to the roster than the Blue Jays were this past offseason, specifically in the bullpen. He also called adding a power bat “low-hanging fruit” but also noted that it’s not as simple as adding a pure slugger, citing a need to look at contact ability, on-base skills, and strengths against specific pitch types.

Asked whether the aforementioned Rodriguez and Bowden Francis have pitched well enough to solidify their spots in the rotation next season, Atkins praised both pitchers for the job they did in the season’s second half. The Jays will be in the market for both depth and “impact” starting pitching, per Atkins, but with Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, Rodriguez and Francis all in the fold, the GM said he feels fortunate to not feel a dire need to be in the market for a top free-agent starter.

The manner in which the Jays will pursue upgrades was left fairly open-ended. Both Atkins and Shapiro spoke favorably of the 13 young players Toronto acquired at this season’s trade deadline. Atkins acknowledged that while many of those players are viewed as potential near-term contributors, that influx of talent into the system also opens the door for potential trades involving some of those same prospects. The Blue Jays will explore both the free agent and trade markets as they look to revamp the roster, but it’s clear from both men’s comments today that the club does not plan to take any kind of step back and will endeavor to put a playoff contender on the field next year. That much has been reported at various points since the deadline, but today’s on-record commitment to such an approach from the team’s top two decision-makers is nevertheless notable.

MLBTR Podcast: Buster Posey Takes Over In SF And The Cardinals’ Succession Plan

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

  • The Giants firing president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and giving the job to Buster Posey (1:15)
  • The Cardinals will replace president of baseball operations John Mozeliak with Chaim Bloom after 2025 (15:05)

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

The Opener: AL Wild Card Matchups, NL Wild Card Matchups

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With another full day of postseason baseball on the docket, here are the four games to watch this afternoon and evening:

1. Astros vs. Tigers:

The first game of the day kicks off at 1:32pm CT in Houston, where the Tigers (1-0) will send Tyler Holton to the mound as an opener against the Astros (0-1) and their Game 2 starter Hunter Brown. Holton has quietly been one of the most effective multi-inning relievers in the game over the past two years, pitching to a 2.15 ERA and 3.55 SIERA in 179 2/3 innings. Reese Olson (3.53 ERA, 3.93 SIERA in 22 starts) is a likely option to come in and pitch multiple innings after Holton as this surprising Tigers team looks to advance to the ALDS. Alternatively, Detroit could be trying to save Olson for a potential Game 3 (or Game 1 of the ALDS).

Brown is enjoying a breakout sophomore season, with a 3.49 ERA and 3.74 SIERA in 170 innings pitched. He has been especially successful in the second half, with a 2.26 ERA in 12 starts since the All-Star break. After ace Framber Valdez couldn’t get the job done on Tuesday, the responsibility of keeping Houston’s ALCS streak alive falls on Brown’s shoulders. The Astros have appeared in the past seven consecutive American League Championship Series.

2. Orioles vs. Royals:

Game 2 between the Orioles (0-1) and Royals (1-0) starts at 3:38pm CT, with Kansas City’s Seth Lugo taking on Baltimore’s Zach Eflin. The Orioles came into the series as the clear favorites, but the Royals hung on to win 1-0 in an incredible Game 1 pitchers’ duel between Cole Ragans and Corbin Burnes.

The second game of the series could make for another pitchers’ duel between Lugo and Eflin. Lugo is coming off a regular season for which he will surely receive Cy Young votes (3.00 ERA, 3.94 SIERA in 28 starts). Eflin hasn’t been quite as sharp all year (3.59 ERA, 3.97 SIERA in 28 starts), but his underlying numbers are similar to Lugo’s, and he looked excellent over the final two months of the season (2.37 ERA in eight starts). Considering how poorly the Royals’ offense performed in September, Eflin should also have the easier lineup to face as he strives to keep his team alive and snap the Orioles’ postseason losing streak at nine games.

3. Brewers vs. Mets:

The NL slate begins in the evening with Game 2 of the Brewers-Mets series starting at 6:38pm CT. The Brewers (0-1) will send Frankie Montas to the mound at American Family Field. Milwaukee has not won a postseason series since 2018, and the Brewers have never won so much as a single game in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the Mets (1-0) will send Sean Manaea to the hill hoping to pull off a sweep. The Mets have not won a postseason series since 2015 when they won the NL pennant. Although Milwaukee has home-field advantage, New York has an edge when it comes to the pitching matchup. Manaea is coming off arguably the best season of his career (3.47 ERA, 3.97 SIERA in 32 starts), while Montas hasn’t been nearly as impressive (4.84 ERA, 4.38 SIERA in 30 starts).

4. Padres vs. Braves:

The final game of the evening begins at 7:38pm CT, with the Braves (0-1) sending Max Fried (3.25 ERA, 3.61 SIERA in 29 starts) to the bump against Joe Musgrove (3.88 ERA, 3.62 SIERA in 19 starts) of the Padres (1-0). While Fried has had the better season, Musgrove has been dominant since his return from the IL in August (2.15 ERA, 3.01 SIERA in nine starts). Working in Fried’s favor, however, is the fact that he is left-handed; the Padres have a .689 OPS against southpaws this season, much worse than their .764 OPS against righties.

Interestingly, this is the only Wild Card Series in which the higher-seeded team won the first game.

Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2025

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Matt Swartz has created a model to project salaries for arbitration eligible players, which we’ve been publishing at MLB Trade Rumors for 14 years.

In the baseball industry, teams and agents determine arbitration salaries by identifying comparable players. To project the entire arbitration class in this way would take a massive amount of time and effort. So, Matt has developed an algorithm to project arbitration salaries that looks at the player’s playing time, position, role, and performance statistics while accounting for inflation. The performance of comparable players matters, but our system is not directly selecting individual comps for each individual player.

As a disclaimer, it should be emphasized that our projections are not to be used as a scorecard for the agent and team on an individual player level. A player doing better or worse than our projection isn’t indicative of anything. Our arbitration projections are created as a tool for our readers to get a general idea of a team’s payroll situation.

The service time figures included are not official.  Also, there is not yet an established Super Two cutoff, which delineates which players with between two and three years of service qualify for early arbitration. That could lead to a few late entrants being added to the list. It’s also worth noting that contracts signed prior to the non-tender deadline aren’t generally considered to be normal arbitration comparables; contracts signed prior to that deadline can be skewed by light offers that are presented to borderline non-tender candidates in take-it-or-leave-it fashion (with “leave it,” in such instances, being a non-tender). That’s not universal to all pre-tender deals but is frequently applicable.

One other note: it’s increasingly common for teams to negotiate one-year deals with club options or mutual options covering an additional arbitration season. We’ve noted all of the players who have an option for the 2025 season under the terms of a prior agreement. If the team buys out that option, the player does not become a free agent. He simply is paid whatever buyout (if any) was agreed upon under the terms of the prior agreement and heads back through the arbitration process again this winter.

If you find MLBTR’s arbitration projections useful, please consider supporting us with a subscription.  Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers received early access to these arbitration projections, and the subscription also includes the best research tools you can get without actually working for an MLB team: our contract tracker, and our agency database.

The projections:

Angels (12)

Astros (10)

Athletics (5)

Blue Jays (10)

Braves (6)

Brewers (10)

Cardinals (6)

Cubs (14)

Diamondbacks (8)

Dodgers (9)

Giants (4)

Guardians (9)

Marlins (6)

Mariners (12)

Mets (8)

Nationals (9)

Orioles (15)

Padres (8)

Phillies (9)

Pirates (9)

Rangers (5)

Rays (12)

Red Sox (3)

Reds (10)

Rockies (10)

Royals (10)

Tigers (11)

Twins (13)

White Sox (9)

Yankees (10)

Kendrick, Hazen Discuss Jordan Montgomery Signing

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The Diamondbacks came up just shy of the postseason. Arizona missed out on the final Wild Card spot via tiebreaker after the Mets and Braves split Monday’s doubleheader to each punch their ticket. In the immediate aftermath of that disappointment, the club’s owner provided a scathing criticism of one of the team’s biggest offseason moves.

Owner Ken Kendrick appeared on The Burns & Gambo Show on Monday afternoon. Asked about the team’s late free agent pickup of Jordan Montgomery, the owner both took responsibility for the signing while not holding back with an indictment of the southpaw’s performance.

“If anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you’re talking to the guy that should be blamed,” Kendrick said (starting around the 12:45 mark). “Because I brought it to (the front office’s) attention. I pushed for it. They agreed to it. It wasn’t in our game plan. … And looking back, in hindsight, a horrible decision to have invested that money in a guy that performed as poorly as he did. It’s our biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint. And I’m the perpetrator of that.”

It’s the kind of public criticism that an owner rarely levels at a player who remains on the roster. Montgomery’s $25MM deal contained a vesting player option for the upcoming season. That was initially valued at $20MM and the veteran pushed that to $22.5MM by reaching 18 starts. He’s certainly not going to walk away from that sum after this season, so he’ll at least go into the offseason on the Arizona roster.

Montgomery’s 2024 campaign was very underwhelming. He allowed a 6.23 earned run average through 117 innings while striking out a career-low 15.6% of batters faced. Montgomery had an ERA above 5.00 in every month from May onward. He lost his spot in the rotation late in the year when Ryne Nelson outperformed him for the fifth starter job. Montgomery stepped back into the rotation with Nelson on the injured list in the season’s final couple weeks. He allowed three runs without completing five innings in either of his final two starts — games which Arizona dropped in Colorado and Milwaukee respectively.

Kendrick certainly isn’t alone in being frustrated with Montgomery’s performance. It’s nevertheless surprising to see an owner publicly call a free agent signing “a horrible decision” while that player is still on the team.

General manager Mike Hazen conducted his annual end-of-season press conference on Tuesday. As one would expect, the GM took a more diplomatic tone when asked about Kendrick’s statement. Hazen began by stating that as the leader of baseball operations, he is “ultimately responsible to say no … or yes to a lot of things” (relayed on X by Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports). The GM called the Montgomery signing “a group process” before stating that he expects better results in 2025. “Whatever myriad of factors went into this year … it didn’t work out. It didn’t work out, but I also think next year is going to look a lot different,” Hazen concluded.

The GM’s comments are far more typical in these kinds of situations. Even if the Montgomery signing was driven by ownership, Hazen isn’t likely to take a public jab at Kendrick. One can debate how sincerely Hazen expects Montgomery to rebound, though it’s hard to imagine he won’t improve to some extent. Before this season, the 6’6″ lefty had been one of the more consistent pitchers in MLB. He posted a sub-4.00 ERA with 30+ starts in each year from 2021-23. Montgomery’s late signing deprived him of a normal Spring Training.

In August, Montgomery opined that former agent Scott Boras “kind of butchered” his free agency. That’s presumably a reference both to the one-year guarantee that fell well shy of expectations and his late landing in the desert. Montgomery changed his representation within weeks of signing with Arizona.

Kendrick’s comments figure to further speculation that the D-Backs could try to trade Montgomery this offseason. That’d probably have a goal for the front office in either case. They’re not going to find anyone willing to take on his entire salary, but the Snakes could try to explore an undesirable contract swap of some kind. Arizona goes into the offseason with a projected rotation of Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nelson. That’s a talented group on paper, but only Gallen and Nelson performed up to expectations late in the year. Pfaadt posted an ERA near 6.00 after the All-Star Break, while Rodriguez and Kelly battled shoulder injuries and didn’t pitch at their typical level during the playoff push.

34 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

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