Rangers Aiming To Drop Beneath Luxury Tax Threshold In 2025
The Rangers spent lavishly in free agency following the opening of their new stadium, inking Corey Seager (10 years, $325MM), Marcus Semien (seven years, $175MM), Jacob deGrom (five years, $185MM) to mega contracts. They also took on notable salary in trades (Max Scherzer, Jordan Montgomery) and doled out more modest but nevertheless notable guarantees for Jon Gray (four years, $56MM), Nathan Eovaldi (two years, $34MM) and Andrew Heaney (two years, $28MM), among others. Generally speaking, they were rewarded. Texas won the 2023 World Series — the first in franchise history.
The sheer magnitude of those expenditures added up, however, resulting in the Rangers paying the luxury tax both in 2023 and 2024. Texas has spent aggressively at times in the past, but not to this extent. As they face the potential of a third straight season as a luxury tax payor, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes that one of owner Ray Davis’ top priorities this winter — perhaps even his No. 1 priority — is to duck under the $241MM luxury threshold in order to reset the team’s penalty level.
For those unfamiliar or simply in need of a refresher, the luxury tax is calculated based on the combined average annual salaries of the players on a team’s roster (plus player benefits and a mandatory payment into the league’s pre-arbitration bonus pool). The tax threshold climbs every season — at predetermined levels stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement — and carries escalating penalties for teams that cross the tax barrier in consecutive seasons.
First-time offenders pay a 20% tax on the first $20MM by which they exceed the threshold. They’re then taxed at a 32% rate for the next $20MM. If they cross into the third tier of penalty, that results in a 62.5% tax on the next $20MM and sees the team’s top pick in the following year’s draft dropped by 10 spots. Exceeding the tax threshold by more than $60MM results in being taxed at 80% or any dollars spent thereafter.
That’s just for first-time offenders, however. Each of those penalty levels increases by at least 10% for a team that crosses the tax line in a second season. For a club crossing the tax threshold in a third straight year, the penalties become more burdensome: 50% for the first $20MM, 62% for the next $20MM, 95% for the next $20MM (plus the same draft pick penalty) and 110% for any dollars thereafter. That’s the set of potential penalties the Rangers would be facing if they cross the tax line again in 2025.
To this point, the Rangers’ penalties they’ve paid have been light, relatively speaking. They paid just $1.8MM for their first year of penalty in 2023. This year’s total has not yet been determined, but RosterResource estimates they were a bit more than $13MM north of 2024’s first-tier threshold of $237MM. At a 30% tax hit as a second-time payor, they’d be looking at roughly $4MM in penalties based on that number.
In theory, the 50% tax isn’t all that daunting, so long as the club only modestly exceeds the threshold once again. But the Rangers have quite a bit of work to do this winter, with as many as 10 players reaching free agency — pending option decisions on Nathan Eovaldi ($20MM player option), David Robertson ($7MM mutual option) and Andrew Chafin ($6.5MM club option). Eovaldi is all but certain to decline his option, as he can command something close to (perhaps even above) that same salary on a multi-year deal. Robertson will turn down his end of that mutual option after a strong season. Chafin’s is a borderline call, but if Texas wants to be conscious about its spending levels, that will probably be bought out for $500K.
At present, RosterResource projects nearly $189MM of luxury commitments already in place for the 2025 season — $52MM shy of next year’s $241MM threshold. That ostensibly leaves a fair bit of wiggle room — at least until considering the fact that the Rangers are losing three starters (Eovaldi, Scherzer, Heaney), their three top relievers (Robertson, Kirby Yates, Jose Leclerc) and several role players. They’ll not only need to remake a significant portion of the pitching staff but also look for ways to augment an offense that was among the game’s best in ’23 before growing stagnant in ’24.
Young has already called re-signing Eovaldi and/or Heaney “a priority” this offseason. Eovaldi, in particular, would eat up a significant portion of the funds available to the club this offseason. In a separate mailbag column, Grant suggests that if another team were interested in taking on the remaining year and $13MM of Jon Gray’s contract, the Rangers would pursue such an opportunity and could conceivably reallocate some of those funds to a reunion with Eovaldi.
Gray has performed reasonably well since signing in Texas but has been injured each season and watched his strikeout rate drop in consecutive years. The 32-year-old righty (33 next month) made only 19 starts this season and pitched to a serviceable 4.47 ERA with a 19.6% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 40.1% ground-ball rate. In three seasons with Texas, the hard-throwing former No. 3 overall pick carries a 4.16 ERA in 387 1/3 innings. His contract is hardly an albatross, but there also isn’t much (if any) surplus value on the deal.
Speculatively speaking, the Rangers could look to free up money in other ways if they feel crunched. Righty Dane Dunning‘s projected $4.4MM salary (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) makes him a potential non-tender or trade candidate after a rough season. Leody Taveras ($4.3MM projection) also had a tough year and could be moved with younger outfielders Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter both in the majors now (and hopefully healthier in 2025). Nathaniel Lowe‘s $10.7MM projection isn’t unreasonable, but Texas could hypothetically move him and turn first base over to a prospect like Justin Foscue or Dustin Harris (or a cheaper first base option in free agency, such as Carlos Santana). It’d be hard to sell low on Adolis Garcia coming off a down season, and Grant suggests such a scenario isn’t likely.
Any of those trades would only open further holes, though the Rangers have the type of MLB-ready young players (Langford, Carter, Foscue, Harris) to try to address them internally. They also have some young arms on which they could lean in the rotation — Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter — but Leiter struggled in 2024 and Rocker will be on an innings limit in 2025 as he continues working back from Tommy John surgery. The need in the bullpen is arguably more acute, and the in-house options aren’t exactly plentiful.
It’ll be a challenging offseason for president of baseball operations Chris Young. The Rangers should have some money to spend, but the number of holes are as daunting as they are surprising for a team that’s just 12 months removed from hoisting a World Series trophy.
Dodgers Notes: Rojas, Vesia, Graterol, Kelly, Ohtani
With the start of the World Series less than 24 hours away, the Dodgers are in the process of finalizing their roster as they attempt to win their first championship in a full season since 1988. Manager Dave Roberts spoke to reporters (including Bob Nightengale of USA Today) during today’s scheduled workout day about some of the final roster decisions being made, including the fact that veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas is “likely” to make the final roster.
Rojas, 35, was left off the club’s NLCS roster amid concerns about the adductor strain and sports hernia that have bothered him since late in the regular season. Rojas was only able to play in three of the club’s five games during the NLDS against the Padres and ultimately went two-for-eight at the plate with two singles during that time. During the regular season, however, Rojas emerged as one of the club’s steadiest performances after taking over shortstop for Mookie Betts when he was sidelined by a hand fracture back in June. The veteran posted a solid 111 wRC+ overall this year during the regular season as he hit .283/.337/.410 in 337 trips to the plate for the Dodgers.
Entering this series, Rojas provides the Dodgers with additional depth off the bench that could be helpful as they juggle not only Rojas’s lingering injury woes but also those of first baseman Freddie Freeman and any other positional injuries that could crop up throughout the series. Rojas is the club’s best option at shortstop defensively, though Tommy Edman held down the position quite well during the NLCS and Enrique Hernandez‘s .863 OPS this postseason likely warrants consideration for at least some playing time as well.
It seems likely all three players will be in the lineup at up-the-middle positions against southpaws, though Andy Pages and Chris Taylor both enjoyed solid NLCS performances as well. The bigger question could be whether the Dodgers stick with a trio of Edman, Rojas, and Hernandez against right-handers or bench one of Rojas or Hernandez in favor of lefty-swinging second baseman Gavin Lux, who struggled during the NLCS but collected five hits (including a home run) during the division series against San Diego.
Roberts sounded less certain about the status of relievers Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol, though seemed optimistic when he told reporters (including Nightengale) that both players are “trending in the right direction” to make the roster themselves. The addition of a pair of high leverage arms like Vesia and Graterol would significantly deepen the Dodgers’ bullpen, though said relief corps did just fine against the Mets with Michael Kopech, Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, and Daniel Hudson mixing and matching during the late innings.
Vesia, in particular, would add a lefty reliever to that mix who could help to combat key Yankees hitters like Juan Soto and Anthony Rizzo who bat from the left side. The 28-year-old was left off the club’s NLCS roster as he nursed an intercostal injury but enjoyed a breakout season this year as he pitched to a sparkling 1.76 ERA (219 ERA+) in 66 1/3 innings of work during the regular season while striking out a whopping 33.1% of his opponents. Graterol, meanwhile, missed virtually the entire 2024 campaign with injuries but has been a fixture of L.A.’s late inning mix for years now, including a dominant 2023 season where he posted a 1.20 ERA (359 ERA+) in 68 appearances. If Vesia and Graterol prove to be healthy enough to make the roster, youngsters Edgardo Henriquez and Ben Casparius could be the odd men out.
One reliever who Roberts said won’t be on the club’s World Series roster (as relayed by Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic) is right-hander Joe Kelly, who has not yet appeared on the club’s postseason rosters after struggling to a 4.78 ERA and 4.57 FIP in 32 innings of work this year. Kelly, 36, has been battling a right shoulder injury but according to Roberts could be available later in the World Series as an injury replacement if necessary.
Even less likely to pitch in the World Series than Kelly is two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, who has been limited to just hitting in his first year with the Dodgers but resumed a throwing program earlier this year. Roberts shut down any suggestion that Ohtani could appear out of the bullpen at any point during the series today, telling reporters (including Dylan Hernandez of The Los Angeles Times) that there is “no possibility” of Ohtani pitching against the Yankees during the Fall Classic. Of course, Ohtani delivered a 50-50 season that’s likely to earn him his third career MVP trophy and so far boasts a .286/.434/.500 slash line during the playoffs, so he’s still providing the Dodgers with plenty of value even without throwing a single pitch.
Avisail Garcia Undergoes Back Surgery
Outfielder Avisail Garcia underwent surgery to treat both a fracture and a disc issue in his lower back today, according to a report from The New York Post’s Jon Heyman. A timetable for his recovery was not provided.
The news comes just a few months after the Marlins decided to release the veteran outfielder partway through the third season of his four-year, $53MM deal with the club. It became clear almost immediately that the deal was a mistake on the part of the Marlins as Garcia’s first season in Miami saw him hit a paltry .224/.266/.317 (61 wRC+) in 380 trips to the plate. He spent nearly two months on the IL due to hamstring issues near the end of that year, and a combination of back and hamstring issues limited the veteran to just 169 trips to the plate over the next two seasons prior to his release.
Garcia had struggled badly throughout his limited time on the field over the past two seasons, as well. In those aforementioned 169 plate appearances, he struck out at a 30.8% clip while slashing just .203/.246/.335 (53 wRC+). Those ghastly numbers were certainly more than enough justification for the Marlins to move on from the veteran and dedicate his playing time to young players. With that being said, news of Garcia’s surgery provides an interesting bit of context to his deep struggles with the Marlins—particularly given the fact that he missed three months due to a back injury in 2023.
Given the amount of time Garcia spent on the IL during his tenure in Miami, it’s not hard to imagine his back and hamstring issues played a large role in his sudden decline. After all, the outfielder was coming off a strong platform season where he posted a 115 wRC+ and slugged 29 homers for the Brewers. On top of that, Garcia had a track record of solid production dating back half a decade at that point. After generally being a below average hitter early in his career, from 2017 to 2021 Garcia slashed .278/.335/.464 (113 wRC+) while oscillating between being roughly league average and above average with the bat depending on the year.
Garcia did not sign with another club this year following Miami’s decision to part ways with him, but it’s possible that news of his back surgery could lead to interest from clubs who wonder if he might be able to regain some of his old form if he’s now properly healthy. That’s likely a long-shot to come to pass with Garcia staring own his age-34 season after three straight unproductive campaigns, but it’s still feasible to imagine a club taking a no-risk minor league flier on him this offseason. If Garcia were to make an MLB roster next year, his new club would only be on the hook for a pro-rated portion of the big league minimum while the Marlins pay out his $12MM salary for 2025.
Angels Outright Six Players
The Angels began the process of clearing space on their 40-man roster today, sending six players outright to Triple-A Salt Lake: right-handed pitchers Carson Fulmer, Andrew Wantz, and José Marte, and infielders Charles Leblanc, Jack López, and Michael Stefanic. Evidently, all six players were designated for assignment and cleared waivers earlier this week. They will be eligible to elect free agency and seek new opportunities in free agency this winter.
Fulmer, 30, made 37 appearances, including eight starts, for the Angels in 2024, pitching to a 4.15 ERA and 4.39 SIERA over 86 2/3 innings. It was the most productive season of his career, which began in 2016 with the White Sox and took him to the Tigers, Orioles, Reds, Dodgers, and Mariners before he signed a minor league deal with the Angels in 2023. While his moderate success this year was promising, the former first-round pick has a career 5.38 ERA and 4.92 SIERA in 227 1/3 frames. He offers versatility as both a bullpen arm and a serviceable spot starter, though his splits aren’t much different whether he’s pitching out of the rotation or the bullpen.
Wantz, 29, was attempting to stretch back out as a starter in 2024 after several years as a bullpen arm. However, the initial results were poor in spring training and at Triple-A. Then, he managed to make just one appearance for the big league club before he landed on the IL with an elbow injury, which ultimately required surgery. It is not clear what, exactly, the surgery was, though it was not a Tommy John procedure. The Angels originally hoped Wantz would be ready to return next spring, but according to MLB.com, he suffered a setback in his recovery and it is unclear when (or if) he will be able to pitch in 2025. Prior to this past season, he had a 3.85 ERA and 3.93 SIERA over 117 innings pitched with the Angels between 2021-23.
Marte, 28, also finished the 2024 season on the IL. He pitched well for the Angels over 14 appearances, tossing 19 1/3 innings with a 2.33 ERA, and he made another 25 appearances with a 2.22 ERA at Triple-A. Unfortunately, a viral infection forced him to the IL in August. To make matters worse, he felt pain in his shoulder while attempting to return from the infection and ultimately underwent shoulder surgery in September. It’s unclear if he will be ready to pitch again by next spring. Despite his impressive ERA this past season, Marte has a career 5.56 ERA and 5.64 SIERA in 43 2/3 innings of big league work. His 4.46 ERA in 74 2/3 innings at Triple-A isn’t much more inspiring.
Leblanc, 28, made his MLB debut with the Marlins in 2022. He performed reasonably well, slashing .263/.320/.404 with four home runs over 48 games but was outrighted over the offseason. Despite continuing to produce solid numbers at Triple-A (.807 OPS), he failed to make it back to the majors the following year. He inked a minor league pact with the Angels last November and appeared in a handful of games for the big league club in August and September, putting up an impressive .869 OPS in 28 trips to the plate. Leblanc split his playing time between all three bases in 2024, though he also has a bit of experience in left field. He still has minor league options remaining and can offer a team some defensive versatility and righty pop off the bench.
López, 31, made his way back to the majors with the Angels for the first time in nearly three years. After several seasons in the Royals minor league system and a brief stint in the Braves organization, he debuted with the Red Sox in 2021. He went 2-for-13 over seven games. The infielder spent the 2022 season at Triple-A for the Tigers before joining the Angels in 2023 and finally making it back to the big leagues in August 2024. He appeared in 27 games, splitting his time between second base and shortstop while slashing .254/.286/.343 (.629 OPS). López also has minor league options remaining, and his biggest asset is his ability to play shortstop.
Finally, Stefanic, 28, appeared in 40 games for the Angels this past season, largely at second base. He continued to tear the cover off the ball at Triple-A, which he has done for the past several years, but failed to make an impact at the MLB level. He slashed .218/.301/.255, and, unfortunately, his first big league home run continues to elude him. Stefanic has played 90 games for the Angels since his debut in 2022 and has yet to hit a single home run. He will be out of minor league options in 2025.
Pirates Sign Yohan Ramírez To Minor League Deal
The Pirates have signed right-hander Yohan Ramírez to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He will presumably receive an invitation to major league spring training.
Ramírez, 29, returns to the Pirates, one of several teams he has pitched for in his career. The righty has logged 169 innings over the past five seasons with a 4.58 earned run average, suiting up for the Mariners, Guardians, White Sox, Mets, Orioles, Dodgers and Red Sox, in addition to his time as a Pirate.
When his career started, he was on the wild side. He has reined things in more recently, but has sacrificed a few strikeouts in the process. Over the 2020 and 2021 campaigns, he struck out 29.3% of batters faced but also gave out free passes at a 15.3% clip. Since then, he has only punched out 20.3% of opponents but reduced his walk rate to 9.8%.
Ramírez spent most of 2023 with the Bucs but went to the White Sox via waivers in September of that year. He was out of options going into 2024, which led a very nomadic season. He bounced to the Mets, O’s, back to the Mets, then to the Dodgers and Red Sox via small trades or waiver claims. Boston passed him through waivers in August and Ramírez elected free agency a few weeks ago.
Around all those transactions, he tossed 45 innings in 2024 with a 6.20 ERA but average-ish strikeout and walk rates of 21.6% and 8.2%. His .346 batting average on balls in play and 59.4% strand rate were both on the unlucky side, which is why ERA estimators such as his 4.26 FIP and 3.84 SIERA paint a rosier picture than his actual ERA.
The Bucs are about to lose Aroldis Chapman, Jalen Beeks and Ryan Borucki to free agency, so they’ll quickly add a bit of non-roster bullpen depth by bringing back a familiar face. Ramírez still has less than three years of service time and can theoretically be retained for multiple seasons, but his out-of-options status will make it hard for him to hang onto a roster spot if he gets one.
Braves Hire Tim Hyers As Hitting Coach
The Braves announced that Tim Hyers has been hired as a hitting coach for their major league staff. He replaces Kevin Seitzer, who was fired two weeks ago. Hyers had been the hitting coach of the Rangers, so that club will now have a vacancy to fill on their staff.
Hyers, now 53, is a Georgia native. He was born in Atlanta and attended Newton County High School before being selected by the Blue Jays in the 1990 draft. He went on to play in the majors from 1994 to 1999, suiting up for the Padres, Tigers and Marlins. He moved into coaching and scouting after his playing days. He got a job as assistant hitting coach with the Dodgers for the 2016 season.
He has since served as hitting coach for two clubs, winning World Series rings with both of them. He was hired by the Red Sox going into 2018, with Boston winning the title in his first year. He was hired by the Rangers going into 2022, with the Rangers hoisting the trophy in the second of his three seasons there.
It’s always tough to separate player performance from coaching contributions, but Hyers has been around a lot of success lately. He will now take that to his hometown team, something that he is surely excited about. Per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News on X, Hyers still lives in the Atlanta area.
While it’s a nice homecoming for Hyers, the Rangers will now have to embark on a search for his replacement as they look to bounce back from a disappointing 2024 season. In a column at the Dallas Morning News, Grant says the club will look to make a new hire, even though they still have bench coach/offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker on the staff.
Reds Hire Chris Valaika As Hitting Coach
The Reds announced today that Chris Valaika has been hired as director of hitting and major league hitting coach. He had previously been with the Guardians as that club’s hitting coach but will now move to the other side of Ohio.
Valaika, 39, was originally a third-round draft pick of the Reds back in 2006. He played in the majors from 2010 to 2014, for the Reds, Marlins and Cubs, and then pivoted to coaching after his playing days. He started in the minor league system of the Cubs, eventually working his way up to the major league staff with that club. He was hired by the Guardians going into 2022, working under then-manager Terry Francona.
Francona stepped away after 2023 to focus on his health, with Stephen Vogt taking over as Cleveland’s skipper. Francona is ready to return to a managerial role, as it was reported earlier this month than he’ll be leading the Reds starting with the 2025 season, replacing David Bell.
A few days after Francona’s hiring became public, it was reported that Cincinnati was moving on from hitting coach Joel McKeithan as well as assistant hitting coaches Terry Bradshaw and Tim LaMonte. One of those positions has now been filled with a familiar face for Francona.
In 2022, the Guardians hit .254/.316/.383 for a wRC+ of 100. That indicates they were exactly league average, though their 18.2% strikeout rate was the lowest in the majors by a notable margin, with the Astros second at 19.5%. The Cleveland offense dipped a bit in 2023, with a .250/.313/.381 line and 91 wRC+, but again with the best strikeout rate in the league. Here in 2024, they dropped to fifth-lowest in terms of strikeout rate but added some more power, getting to a .238/.307/.395 line and 100 wRC+ as they pushed as far as the ALCS.
It’s always difficult to separate the contributions of a coach from the performances of the players on the team, but Francona presumably had a good relationship with Valaika during their two years together, as he has now plucked him away and brought him to Cincinnati.
Offseason Outlook: New York Mets
What was supposed to be a transitional year for the Mets turned into a Cinderella campaign. They got stronger as the season went along and snuck into the playoffs, eventually reaching the NLCS. Now, they are set to lose a huge batch of players to free agency. That gives them plenty of holes to fill but a massive amount of spending capacity, meaning just about anything is possible this winter.
Guaranteed Contracts
- Francisco Lindor, SS: $224MM through 2031 ($5MM deferred annually)
- Brandon Nimmo, OF: $121.5MM through 2030
- Edwin Díaz, RHP: $55.5MM through 2027 (includes buy-out on '28 club option; Diaz can opt-out after '25; some money deferred)
- Kodai Senga, RHP: $42MM through 2027 (deal includes conditional opt-out after '25 and conditional club option for '28)
- Jeff McNeil, IF/OF: $33.5MM through 2026 (includes buyout on '27 club option)
- Starling Marte, OF: $19.5MM through 2025
Option Decisions
- Sean Manaea, LHP: $13.5MM player option
- Phil Maton, RHP $7.75MM club option with $250K buyout
Total 2025 commitments (assuming Manaea opts out and Maton is bought out): $119.25MM
Total future commitments (assuming Manaea opts out and Maton is bought out): $496.25MM
Arbitration-Eligible Players (projections via Matt Swartz)
- Paul Blackburn (5.018): $4.4MM
- Luis Torrens (4.105): $1.1MM
- Tyrone Taylor (4.093): $2.9MM
- David Peterson (4.089): $4.4MM
- Alex Young (4.085): $1.4MM
- DJ Stewart (3.144): $1.7MM
- Sean Reid-Foley (3.133): $900K
- Tylor Megill (3.031): $2.1MM
Non-tender candidates: Blackburn, Torrens, Young, Stewart, Reid-Foley
Free Agents
- Pete Alonso, Jose Quintana, Luis Severino, Harrison Bader, J.D. Martinez, Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino, Ryne Stanek, Drew Smith, Jesse Winker, Jose Iglesias
David Stearns was hired to be the president of baseball operations just as the 2023 season was winding down. That was a disappointing year for the Mets, as they had raised hopes with a strong 2022 season and then spent big in the offseason. But things fell apart and they ended up selling at the 2023 deadline, including sending out future Hall of Famers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.
Scherzer indicated to reporters that he agreed to be traded to the Rangers because he was told that 2024 would be "a kind of transitory year" for the Mets. The first offseason under Stearns seemed to reflect that, as the Mets backed away from the massive spending sprees that characterized previous winters. They did sign ten free agents, but nine of them were one-year deals and the only exception was the two-year deal for Sean Manaea, which came with an opt-out after year one.
The Mets got out to a rough start in 2024, losing their first five games. They had a record of 24-33 at the end of May. But everything turned around from there, as they went 65-40 in the final four months of the season, nabbing a Wild Card spot and going on a nice postseason run. Now the questions are about what's next.
Since the club gave so many short-term deals recently, a huge chunk of their roster is now heading to free agency. There's also some dead money coming off the books. The Scherzer and Verlander pacts are now done, as is their four-year James McCann deal. (He played the final two seasons of that pact in Baltimore, with the Mets covering most of the salary.) Stearns will have plenty of work to do in the next few months, but he should have a massive amount of spending capacity available to him.
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The Opener: World Series, NPB, KBO, Rays
With the start of the World Series just a day away, here are three things to keep an eye around baseball today:
1. World Series Workout Day:
While the World Series isn’t set to start until tomorrow, both the Dodgers and Yankees will be at Dodger Stadium today as they get in their final team workouts before the series begins. Managers Dave Roberts and Aaron Boone as well as Game 1 starters Jack Flaherty and Gerrit Cole are expected to speak to the media today, and the managers’ respective comments could be illuminating regarding the availability of certain key players.
As things currently stand, the Dodgers expect veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman to be back in the lineup for Game 1 tomorrow. What’s as of now unclear is if he’ll be joined by shortstop Miguel Rojas, who was left off the club’s NLCS roster due to an adductor strain, or if relievers Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol will be ready to rejoin the bullpen. The Yankees, meanwhile, have fewer key injuries of note in play for the World Series but are hoping to roster southpaw Nestor Cortes despite him having suffered a flexor strain towards the end of the regular season. Cortes had a throwing session earlier this week and indeed expects to be on the roster despite the risk of a larger injury. The left-hander gave reporters quite the quote in signaling his willingness to put his health on the line to help his team in the Fall Classic (X link via Newsday’s Erik Boland): “If I have a ring and then a year off of baseball, then so be it.”
2. News from Asia’s top leagues:
While the current focus is obviously on the looming World Series and the start of the offseason for 28 other clubs, we’ve had a few reminders this week already that this time of year also tends to bring notable news from overseas. The Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced this week that they’ll post left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara for MLB teams to bid on, and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters announced just yesterday that they’ve re-signed former big league slugger Franmil Reyes for an additional year after a huge 2024 season that saw him hit .290/.348/.564 with 25 homers in just 368 plate appearances.
The days and weeks ahead figure to bring similar items of interest. All eyes are on 22-year-old phenom Roki Sasaki, he of the career 2.02 ERA with the NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines, and whether he’ll be posted. At last check, the Marines’ GM said the club was still talking the situation over with Sasaki and had not yet made a decision (X link via Yakyu Cosmopolitan). Over in the Korea Baseball Organization, 25-year-old Kiwoom Heroes infielder Hyeseong Kim is widely expected to be posted for MLB clubs after hitting .326/.383/.458 — his fourth straight season hitting at least .304 with at least a .372 on-base percentage.
A few other names will surely pop up. It’s commonplace for an unexpected name or two to surface this time of year and land on MLB radars. There are a handful of former big leaguers who’ve played well overseas and could signal their intent to return to North American ball (or re-sign, as Reyes did). And, once the Korean Series and Japan Series have reached their conclusions, we’ll surely start to see some former big leaguers sign in the KBO or in NPB.
3. Where will the Rays open the 2025 season?
After Hurricane Milton devastated the Tampa Bay area, the Rays’ Tropicana Field has been left with severe damage, including much of the roof being torn off. The damage is so great that the Rays almost certainly won’t be able to open the season at the stadium, and with a new stadium already set to be built for the 2028 season questions remain as to whether or not the local government has interest in financing the repair of a stadium that’s scheduled for demolition in just three short years. Commissioner Rob Manfred has expressed a desire to keep the Rays in their current market for the years leading up to the new stadium’s construction, while potential temporary relocation options such as Montreal and Durham have seemingly taken themselves off the table. Further details are sure to unfold as the team continues to assess the damage at the Trop and explore alternate scenarios.
MLBTR Podcast: The World Series, The White Sox Reportedly For Sale, And Tropicana Field
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 Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The upcoming World Series (0:30)
- White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf reportedly talking about selling the team (4:35)
- The hurricane damage to Tropicana Field and the complicated situation the Rays are in (18:10)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Should the Guardians trade Josh Naylor and what would the return look like? (27:05)
- What would a Masyn Winn or Alec Burleson extension look like? Could the Cardinals still hammer out a deal even with the current budget constraints? (35:00)
- What do you think the Red Sox will do this winter? (42:05)
Check out our past episodes!
- Changes In Minnesota, Cubs’ Prospect Depth, And Possibilities For The O’s – listen here
- Previewing FA Starting Pitchers, TV Deals, And Potential Spending Teams – listen here
- Buster Posey Takes Over In SF And The Cardinals’ Succession Plan – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!