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Erik Neander Discusses Offseason Plans, Rays Payroll

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Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander recently held his end of season press conference, where he indicated that the club figures to prioritize improving behind the plate after an 80-82 season that saw them stave off elimination from postseason contention until the final week of September despite engaging in a major sell-off prior to the trade deadline. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times relayed some of Neander’s comments from the end of season presser, where he discusses the decision to sell over the summer and the club’s future headed into 2025.

When discussing his decision to sell off key, controllable pieces like outfielder Randy Arozarena and third baseman Isaac Paredes at this summer’s trade deadline, Neander readily acknowledge the possibility that the club may have been able to cobble together enough extra wins to sneak into the postseason had they decided against selling. With that being said, Neander offered a major sign for optimism headed into the coming winter: After cutting more than a third of the club’s expected payroll commitments for 2025 off the books over the summer (with Topkin suggesting that $45MM in 2025 dollars came off the books prior to the deadline), the Rays now have a healthy amount of financial flexibility with which to operate this winter.

It’s a major change from just last offseason, when the club had to part ways with expensive veterans Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot in order to get payroll within the club’s small market budget. This winter, not only is a similar cost-cutting sell off not necessary, but Topkin suggests the club will have some room to make additions this winter. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Tampa’s 12-man arbitration class to make a combined $25.6MM in 2025. Even if Tampa retains each of those players and exercises Brandon Lowe’s $10.5MM club option for next year, RosterResource suggests that would leave them with just under $75MM on the books for next year. That’s $14MM below the club’s 2024 mark, $4MM below where the club ended up in 2023, and $11MM below their 2022 figure.

That should be more than enough payroll flexibility for the Rays to address their stated priority this winter of improving behind the plate. Ben Rortvedt figures to remain in place as a member of the catching tandem after a decent season where he posted a wRC+ of 87 while playing solid but unspectacular defense behind the plate. Finding a right-handed catcher to complement the lefty swinging Rortvedt, though Topkin cautions that the club is likely to focus on short-term solutions behind the plate given their belief in youngster Dom Keegan. The 24-year-old was selected by the Rays in the fourth round of the 2022 draft and since then has made it to Double-A, here he hit an impressive .285/.371/.435 in 104 games this year.

Topkin notes that with Keegan set to begin the 2025 campaign in Triple-A and the possibility of him emerging as an option behind the plate as soon as this season, Neander and his front office seemingly view Keegan as a potential long-term answer behind the plate. A good middle ground for the club could be pursuing an older catcher who might be more open to a one-year deal such as Elias Diaz or Kyle Higashioka. The addition of either player would provide the club with a solid platoon partner for Rortvedt while not blocking Keegan in the longer term.

Aside from upgrading behind the plate, Topkin adds that Neander plans to look for ways to address the club’s lackluster offense. The club’s 95 wRC+ was good for just 23rd in the majors this year, and their offensive flaws were further exposed by the fact that the team scored just 604 runs this year, less than any club except the historically bad White Sox. While that dearth of runs seems to suggest that the club ought to look to make significant changes to the offense, Neander actually suggested that he hopes the club can improve its offense internally.

There’s some logic to that, as offensive stalwart Yandy Diaz got off to a cold start in 2024 before heating up and rebounding with a strong second half, while Christopher Morel struggled badly in his first half-season of work away from Chicago after being dealt by the Cubs in the Paredes trade. More typical seasons from Diaz and Morel, as well as a strong first 162-game campaign from exciting youngster Junior Caminero, could boost the club’s offense in a hurry. Even so, however, it’s easy to imagine the club benefit a great deal from an external upgrade to the lineup at a position such as shortstop, where both Jose Caballero and Taylor Walls clocked in well below league average this year.

Moreno: Angels Plan To Compete, Increase Payroll In 2025

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The first post-Shohei Ohtani season of Angels baseball was a difficult one for fans, as the Halos finished dead last in a weak AL West division with a 63-99 record that just barely kept them from posting the first 100-loss season in franchise history.

With Ohtani no longer in the fold and the team just having finished up its worst season yet, speculation regarding a potential rebuild as swirled around the team but owner Arte Moreno put any such rumors to bed during a phone interview with Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register earlier today. During the interview, Moreno made clear that the goal he’s laying out for the organization is to contend for a playoff spot in 2025. It’s a lofty goal considering the fact that only the lowly White Sox finished with fewer wins than Anaheim this season, but Moreno added that payroll is “going to go up” to accommodate his dreams of contention next year.

With that being said, it doesn’t appear a major increase in payroll is expected. After payroll dropped significant from 2023 to 2024, Moreno now suggests that the club’s budget for 2025 figures to fall somewhere in between the (per RosterResource) $176MM the team put forward this year and the $215MM the club spent during Ohtani’s final season with the organization. It’s not exactly clear where Moreno’s target payroll lands in between those two figures, but the Angels should have some room to maneuver this winter regardless. After all, the club’s 2025 books have just over $109MM in guaranteed contracts for 2025. That doesn’t include salaries for the Halos’ rather large arbitration class, but even if each player is tendered a contract in line with the projections by MLBTR Contributor Matt Swartz they’d still be sitting at a tidy $147MM for 2025, or nearly $30MM below last year’s payroll.

That could leave the club with as much as $50MM in payroll flexibility, should Moreno cap the club’s payroll just below $200MM. What’s more, Moreno also suggested that this offseason’s payroll increase should be sustainable for the club, though he cautioned that if payroll were to creep back to 2023 levels in the future it would have to face similar cuts to what it did last winter, with Moreno indicating that the budget for 2023 wasn’t sustainable.

“It’s just an automatic loss,” Moreno said of the club’s $215MM payroll in 2023, as relayed by Fletcher. “If I start piling up (financial) losses, then the next year I’m going to cut.”

Of course, even a relatively hefty financial investment is unlikely to drag the Angels out of the basement of the AL without significant internal improvements to their core group of players. The biggest boost would surely come from a healthy and effective season for Mike Trout, the club’s future Hall of Famer who has never been anything less than elite with the bat but has been limited to just 266 games over the past four seasons. A healthy season from Trout, even if he is no longer the perennial 8-win player he was at his peak, would be a game changer for the club’s offense. So too would steps forward from the club’s young core, including catcher Logan O’Hoppe, first baseman Nolan Schanuel, shortstop Zach Neto, and southpaw Reid Detmers.

2024 was a mixed bag for the quartet overall, with Detmers struggling badly throughout the year to the point that he spent most of the season in Triple-A while Neto enjoyed a breakout season that saw him combine 30 stolen bases with a 114 wRC+ as he locked down the the shortstop position for the Angels. Meanwhile, O’Hoppe and Schanuel both posted perfectly solid seasons, though with only average offense from both players and a step backward defensively from O’Hoppe there’s still plenty of room for both youngster to improve next year.

With Luis Rengifo and Taylor Ward among the other complementary pieces set to return to the club next year, it seems likely the Angels’ major obstacle this season will be patching up a pitching staff that ranked bottom five in the majors this year with a 4.57 ERA and ahead of only the lowly Rockies with a 4.68 FIP. Veteran lefty Tyler Anderson turned in a solid mid-rotation performance this year (3.81 ERA in 31 starts) and Detmers’s combination of strong pedigree and past success leave him likely to earn another shot as a starter next year, but a lackluster 2024 performance from Griffin Canning and midseason elbow surgery for lefty Patrick Sandoval both leave the club with few solid answers in the rotation for 2025.

The Angels have been notoriously hesitant to shop at the top of the starting pitching market throughout Moreno’s tenure as owner, so it would be a shock to see the club pursue a top arm such as Max Fried or Corbin Burnes this winter. Even so, playing in the mid-tier of free agency this winter could help the club add more certainty to its rotation with options like Luis Severino, Nathan Eovaldi, Sean Manaea, and former Angel Andrew Heaney among those expected to be available.

Mariners Chairman John Stanton On Jerry Dipoto, Payroll, Broadcasting Deals

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The Mariners have won at least 85 games in each of the last four seasons, but the club’s wild card berth and subsequent ALDS appearance in 2022 marks Seattle’s only trip to the playoffs in that stretch.  This year’s squad won 85 games on the heels of the sport’s best pitching staff, but the Mariners’ lineup struggled badly for much of the season, leading to another year without any October baseball.

Amidst increasing fan unrest over this lack of success, team chairman/CEO John Stanton preached patience, as Stanton said in an interview with MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer.  “I am as disappointed as any fan we have that this team hasn’t been in the playoffs in two years,” Stanton said.  “I believe we’re making progress.  I can certainly understand why fans are frustrated when they hear me say that, but I believe that we are on track to have a team that consistently wins over a long period of time.  I intend this team to win, have a winning record every season, be in the playoffs most seasons, and we will win a World Series.”

In regards to this quest for Seattle’s first baseball championship, Stanton confirmed a Seattle Times report from last month which stated that Jerry Dipoto will continue as the top decision-maker in the front office.  Stanton didn’t provide specifics on Dipoto’s contract status, or any hints about how many more years remain on the extension Dipoto signed in September 2021.  As Kramer notes, it would appear as though Dipoto is still working under that previous contract and hasn’t signed a new deal, given that the Mariners made public announcements when Dipoto inked his previous two extensions with the team.

“I believe in Jerry, and Jerry is going to continue to lead our baseball organization into the future as the president of baseball operations — and I believe passionately that he is the right guy to do that,” Stanton said.

Another Seattle Times report (again from Ryan Divish and Adam Jude) earlier this week stated the Mariners would have a higher payroll next season, even if such an increase wasn’t expected to be enough for the M’s to accommodate a major free agent signing.  According to RosterResource, the Mariners finished 2024 with a payroll of roughly $144.8MM, and have a little under $95MM on the books for 2025, though that latter figure doesn’t account for the projected salaries owed to Seattle’s large arbitration class of 12 players.  This might not leave the M’s too far beneath the $144.8MM figure based on internal salaries alone, let alone the necessary upgrades that will be needed to the roster, particularly on the hitting side.

While Stanton said the payroll would indeed be on the rise, he unsurprisingly declined to state exactly how much extra Dipoto’s front office would have available to spend this winter.  “I think our draft, develop and trade philosophy certainly doesn’t preclude free agents,” Stanton said, though Dipoto has only signed two free agents (Robbie Ray and Mitch Garver) to multi-year contracts during his nine seasons as Seattle’s top baseball exec.

“I think Jerry’s done an extraordinary job of trading….He’s been prolific in doing that, and very effective in doing that,” Stanton said.  “And I think that that is an important part of that philosophy.  And if you’re effective in trading, it seems to me that that means you don’t have to do free agency deals in the same numbers.”

The Mariners’ takeover of ROOT Sports regional sports network was seen as the chief reason for the club’s relative lack of spending last winter, and while Stanton said this was a “misconception,” he later added that the Mariners’ broadcast situation is “not going to be nearly the concern that it was this past year.”

Stanton said the M’s haven’t yet decided on their broadcasting plans for 2025, as while the Mariners aren’t one of the teams tied up in contracts with the Diamond Sports Group and Bally Sports Networks, DSG’s ongoing bankruptcy process is still a chief factor in how the Mariners will choose to proceed with their own programming going forward.  In terms of deciding to continue with ROOT Sports or to perhaps turn to MLB itself to broadcast Mariners games, the result of the DSG case “will allow us to know what other teams are doing, and that will give us some sense as to what it is that MLB would have to sell, basically,” Stanton said.  “If there are a lot of teams involved, then they’ve got an ability to deliver to distributors, such as the cable companies, a broader set of markets, and therefore something more valuable to those distributors.”

In the broader sense, Stanton noted that Seattle is “roughly the 15th-largest market in baseball.  We’re pretty much smack dab in the middle in terms of the size of the market, and that means that we’re about average in our ability to generate revenue and to do those things.  I think, to me, the word that we use a lot — and our objective — is to have a sustainable franchise over a long period of time.”

Stanton also spoke publicly for the first time about the Mariners’ firing of manager Scott Servais in August, which the chairman described as “a gut-wrenching, difficult decision” on Dipoto’s part.  Servais’ dismissal and the subsequent hiring of Dan Wilson as the new manager came after “a very long series of conversations.  I asked Jerry questions as to why he wanted to make the change, with respect to Scott, why he wanted to bring Dan in, and I was certainly satisfied by his thinking on it.”

Servais also infamously learned of his firing from a news update before he heard from Dipoto or Stanton, which Stanton expressed “deep regret” over, “and that is a source of frustration for everyone in this building.”  Stanton implied that he didn’t know where the leak came from, but “I am highly confident it didn’t come from within this building or from our ownership group, because I know there was a very small circle of people who are aware of it, and I have a high level of confidence that those people did not say anything.”

Division Series Roster Notes: Padres, Dodgers, Phillies, Yankees, Tigers

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We’ve already covered some notable roster additions for the Guardians and Mets as the Division Series begins, and the Royals are sticking with the same 26 players used in the Wild Card Series against the Orioles.  Now that all eight teams in the LDS rounds have revealed their rosters, here are the details…

  • The Padres made two changes from their NLDS roster, adding left-hander Martin Perez and right-hander Alek Jacob and removing Joe Musgrove and infielder Nick Ahmed.  Musgrove was obviously out due to his impending Tommy John surgery, while replacing Ahmed with a pitcher gives San Diego 13 pitchers to go with 13 position players.  Perez is one of five southpaws on San Diego’s roster, as ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez (X link) was among those who noted that the Padres are guarding themselves as best they can against Shohei Ohtani and other powerful left-handed Dodgers bats.
  • The Dodgers will go with an even mix of 13 batters and 13 pitchers, and rookie Edgardo Henriquez has made the list of available arms.  Henriquez only made his MLB debut on September 24 and he has played in just three games as a big leaguer, but Los Angeles will give the hard-throwing righty a look in October to add some velocity to the bullpen.  It’s probably safe to assume that Henriquez wouldn’t have made the cut if the Dodgers weren’t ravaged by pitching injuries, yet the rookie also got the nod over veteran Joe Kelly, who had an inconsistent year but was pitching well after returning from the IL in mid-September.  On the position player side, L.A. didn’t include either Kevin Kiermaier or James Outman, so Andy Pages will be the only true backup outfielder along with utilitymen Enrique Hernandez and Chris Taylor in the bench mix.
  • The Phillies will use 14 position players and 12 pitchers in their NLDS matchup with the Mets, with left-hander Kolby Allard joining the relief corps.  Allard has worked as something of a swingman throughout his career, and this ability of covering multiple innings earned Allard the spot, as manager Rob Thomson told MLB.com’s Paul Casella and other reporters.  “He’s going to probably give us the most length if we get into an extra-inning game….so I just wanted as much length as we could get,” Thomson said.  Utilityman Weston Wilson also got the Phils’ last bench spot, as Casella observes that Wilson brings more positional versatility than outfielder Cal Stevenson.
  • The Yankees went heavier on position players (15) than pitchers (11) for their ALDS roster against the Royals.  Anthony Rizzo is missing the series due to two broken fingers and DJ LeMahieu wasn’t yet activated from the injured list, but New York still has plenty of room on its bench, including pinch-running specialist Duke Ellis.  The Yankees appear to be loading up on bats to take on the Royals’ tough rotation and more porous bullpen, which left right-hander Marcus Stroman off the ALDS roster as the odd man out of the starting staff.
  • The Tigers made just one change from their Wild Card Series roster, as rookie righty Keider Montero has been included in place of Casey Mize.  Montero posted a 4.76 ERA over 98 1/3 innings in his first Major League season, starting 16 of 19 games.  This doesn’t necessarily mean Montero will start against the Guardians in the ALDS, however, as Detroit’s pitching staff (apart from ace Tarik Skubal) is very malleable in terms of specific roles.

Guardians Activate Alex Cobb For ALDS Roster

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The Guardians released their 26-man roster for the AL Division Series this morning, and veteran right-hander Alex Cobb was included after being activated from the 15-day injured list.  Cobb has pitched in just one MLB game since August 14 due to a pair of IL stints — first due to a fractured fingernail, and now this latest stint due to blisters on his right hand.

It has been an injury-plagued season overall for Cobb, as he has only three total starts and he didn’t make his season debut until August 9.  Cobb had hip surgery last October, and his recovery from that surgery was delayed by both some shoulder soreness and then some earlier blister issues.  As it turned out, Cobb’s final year with the Giants didn’t even involve one last trip to the mound in a San Francisco uniform, as the Giants dealt the veteran starter to the Guardians at the trade deadline.

Cleveland felt confident enough in Cobb’s status to swing the trade despite his lack of action during the season, and his subsequent pair of trips to the IL haven’t exactly calmed any doubts about his health.  However, the Guards were able to win the AL Central even with Cobb providing limited help, and for what it’s worth, he did pitch well (2.76 ERA in 16 1/3 innings) over his three starts with his new club.

An impactful October performance would certainly help Cobb make a true mark on his new team, though it remains to be seen exactly how the Guardians might deploy Cobb in the ALDS.  Tanner Bibee is the scheduled starter for Game 1 and Matthew Boyd is the likeliest candidate to start Game 2, though the Guards could go in many directions given the uncertain nature of their rotation.  Considering how Cobb is just returning from the IL, his innings could be limited if he does get a start, or Cleveland might even use him as a bulk pitcher (behind an opener) or perhaps in a piggyback capacity.  The Guardians are hoping to get as much as they can out of their starters and then rely on their elite bullpen.

Here is Cleveland’s full 26-man roster for its ALDS matchup against the Tigers.  Cobb, Bibee, Gavin Williams, Emmanuel Clase, Hunter Gaddis, Cade Smith, Eli Morgan, and Andrew Walters are the right-handed pitchers, and Boyd, Tim Herrin, Joey Cantillo, and Erik Sabrowski are the four southpaws on the roster.  The list of position players consists of catchers Bo Naylor and Austin Hedges, utilityman David Fry, infielders Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, Andres Gimenez, Brayan Rocchio, Daniel Schneemann, and Kyle Manzardo, and outfielders Steven Kwan, Lane Thomas, Jhonkensy Noel, Will Brennan, and Tyler Freeman.

Kodai Senga To Start NLDS Game One For Mets

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TODAY: The Mets made Senga’s return official when announcing their NLDS roster this morning.  Senga was activated from the 60-day IL and Megill was also added to the 26-man roster that will face the Phillies.  Right-handers Huascar Brazoban and Max Kranick were removed from the Wild Card Series roster to make room for Senga and Megill, and Blackburn was moved to the 60-day IL in the corresponding 40-man move for Senga.

OCTOBER 4: The Mets are facing off against the Phillies in the National League Division Series, with the first game set for Saturday afternoon. Manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters today that right-hander Kodai Senga will start that first game for the Mets. Mike Puma of The New York Post was among those to relay the news on X.

The Mets have received close to nothing from Senga this year. He suffered a capsule strain in his throwing shoulder in Spring Training, which kept him on the injured list for months. He was reinstated off the injured list and made his season debut on July 26, but was removed from that game after 5 1/3 innings due to a calf strain and went right back on the IL. He tried to return late in the regular season but was slowed by some triceps soreness.

That lack of production from Senga was a blow to the Mets. He made his major league debut in 2023 and tossed 166 1/3 innings with a 2.98 earned run average. His 11.1% walk rate was on the high side but he struck out 29.1% of batters faced and got grounders at a 44.7% clip. Despite that, the Mets managed to squeak into the postseason and then defeat the Brewers in the Wild Card series while Senga remained on the IL.

Yesterday, Will Sammon of Athletic reported that the Mets were considering Senga for their NLDS roster. Now it seems that the righty will not only get a roster spot but will take the ball to get the series started.

The question will be what the Mets can expect from Senga after so much time off. Per Sammon’s report, he recently threw a 25-pitch bullpen session but will probably be limited to a short outing, so perhaps this will be Senga acting more as an opener than a true starter in the classically understood sense. “We’ll see,” Mendoza said today when asked about how long Senga can go, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com on X. “We’re going to let it play out.”

The Mets have had to get creative with their pitching staff lately. Two of their games against Atlanta in the final week of the regular season were delayed by Hurricane Helene. While 28 of the 30 clubs in the league had the day off on Monday, those two clubs had to play a double-header as each still needed a victory to get into the playoffs. The Mets won the first game in an 8-7 thriller, using Tylor Megill as the starter and then four relievers, including closer Edwin Díaz throwing 40 pitchers as he got the final five outs.

With their playoff spot secured, they used Joey Lucchesi and two relievers to get through the second game of the twin bill, but then they had to start their series in Milwaukee the very next day. Luis Severino started the first game, Sean Manaea the second and Jose Quintana the third. To get through last night’s game, Díaz threw another 39 pitches while again getting five outs and starter David Peterson also tossed an inning of relief.

None of the club’s front three of Severino, Manaea or Quintana would be available on regular rest for Saturday’s first game against Philadelphia. Megill would be an option to take some bulk innings, but he was left off the Wild Card roster since he wasn’t going to be available for those contests. If both Senga and Megill are to be added, the Mets would have to open two spots by leaving off a couple of guys that were present of the Wild Card round. Peterson could perhaps be another option for bulk innings, as he tossed seven innings as recently as September 29.

The full roster decisions don’t have to be publicly announced until Saturday morning. Senga is on the 60-day IL and will need to be added back onto the 40-man roster, but the Mets could easily open a spot by transferring Paul Blackburn or Dedniel Núñez onto the 60-day IL. The Phillies have announced that Zack Wheeler will start game one, followed by Cristopher Sánchez in game two.

GM David Forst: Athletics Aim To Raise Payroll, Retain Coaching Staff

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While the Athletics’ move from Oakland to Sacramento will naturally dominate the headlines this season, general manager David Forst will have his hands full just with the normal trappings of the baseball offseason.  Forst told reporters (including radio broadcaster Jessica Kleinschmidt and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser) that the team plans to spend more on payroll than it did in 2024, and that the A’s are hopeful of bringing back the entire coaching staff for their first season in Sacramento.

As per RosterResource, the A’s spent roughly $63.1MM on payroll last season, easily the lowest in baseball.  Forst’s front office also has an entirely clean payroll slate heading into 2025, as the A’s don’t have a single dollar officially committed to any player for the coming season.  The Athletics have five impending free agents, five players eligible for salary arbitration (to the tune of a projected $13.8MM if all are tendered contracts), and the rest of the roster is still in their pre-arb years.

In theory, this gives Forst some flexibility in upgrading a team that showed some promise last season.  While the A’s were only 69-93, this at least represented a sizeable improvement from the club’s 112-loss performance in 2023.  Moreover, the Athletics seemed to turn a corner around midseason, as they were 39-37 from July 1 onward.  Between slugger Brent Rooker, flame-throwing closer Mason Miller, breakout outfielder Lawrence Butler, and others, the Athletics’ latest rebuild has already developed some interesting pieces of a new core.  Both Rooker and Zack Gelof are quoted in Slusser’s piece as having an eye towards contending as early as next season.

Of course, given the Athletics’ usual reluctance to spend, we should probably wait and see if owner John Fisher will indeed approve even a modest payroll increase.  This winter in particular carries the X-factor of how the Athletics’ revenues will be impacted by the move to Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, a Triple-A stadium (home of the Giants’ top minor league affiliate) with a total capacity of just over 14,000.  As Slusser notes, there are still plenty of details about the move that team officials themselves aren’t yet certain.  Forst believed Sutter Health Park would continue to have an artificial playing surface during the Athletics’ tenure, though no renovation work has started on the field itself in preparation for 2025.

The other challenge facing Forst this offseason is how exactly he’ll be able to lure desirable players to join the A’s, even if more money is available to spend.  “We do have to sell it, and I’d be lying if I told you I knew what the answers will be on the other side,” Forst said.  While the younger talent on the roster might be attractive to free agents under normal circumstances, the fact remains that many players might not have interest in joining a franchise that will be spending at least its next three seasons in a minor league ballpark.  It seems likely that the A’s will again be limited to signing players to one-year contracts, with an eye towards flipping those players at the trade deadline if the team isn’t in contention.

As for the coaching staff, some turnover might develop if other teams step forward with job offers or promotions for any A’s coaches.  Slusser also suggests that the Athletics might not stand in the way if rival clubs had interest in manager Mark Kotsay, which would be an interesting wrinkle to both the team’s rebuilding plans and to any possible managerial vacancies around the league.

Kotsay is only 179-307 over three seasons as the Athletics’ skipper, though the poor record doesn’t fairly access his managerial ability given how little Kotsay has had to work with on a rebuilding roster, not to mention the added tumult of the franchise’s planned move.  Kotsay is under contract just through the 2025 season, and it is perhaps worth noting that the A’s let previous manager Bob Melvin go to the Padres when Melvin also had a year remaining on his contract.

“As far as the potential for losing [Kotsay], those things are out of my control right now,” Forst said.  “He absolutely deserves to be considered by anyone who has a managerial opening, but he’s under contract here and wants to be here. And there’s no one I would rather have managing this team.”

Nine 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.

Catchers

Infielders

Pitchers

Joe Musgrove To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Padres right-hander Joe Musgrove has suffered damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow and will undergo Tommy John surgery, per general manager A.J. Preller. Alden González of ESPN was among those to relay the announcement on X. The club hasn’t provided a timeline but Musgrove is sure to miss the entire 2025 season, given that recovery from Tommy John surgery generally takes 14 months or longer.

The news isn’t totally surprising, as Musgrove has been battling elbow issues all year, but it’s still rough for the righty and the club. By the end of May he was already on the injured list for the second time this year, both of those stints due to right elbow inflammation. In early June, it was reported that he had a bone spur in that elbow, which eventually kept him out of action until August.

He had struggled earlier in the season but finished strong. By the time of that second IL stint, he had made ten starts but with a 5.66 earned run average in that time. After returning in August, he posted a 2.15 ERA in seven starts down the stretch. He struck out 29.1% of opponents and walked 4.1% in that stretch run.

It seemed he was in strong form and set to be a key part of the club’s postseason staff. After Michael King shoved in the first game of the club’s Wild Card series against Atlanta, Musgrove was given the ball for the second contest. He struck out four opponents without issuing a walk through 3 2/3 innings but then departed the game with members of the training staff, having thrown just 44 pitches. The Friars later announced his issue as elbow tightness.

The Padres managed to win that game and move on to face the Dodgers in the Division Series, but manager Mike Shildt announced earlier today that Musgrove wouldn’t be appearing in the series. Shildt stopped short of making any declarations beyond that, but it’s now clear that Musgrove’s injury will impact far more than just the NLDS.

In the short term, the Padres will try to navigate the postseason without Musgrove. They have King, Dylan Cease and Yu Darvish as their best rotation options, with Martín Pérez and Matt Waldron also possibilities to contribute.

They will also have to get through the entire 2025 season without Musgrove, which should make starting pitching an offseason priority again. Darvish is still under contract while both King and Cease can be retained via arbitration for one more season before they are slated to reach free agency after 2025. Pérez is an impending free agent but Waldron is still in his pre-arbitration years.

Cease, King, Darvish and Waldron is a decent foursome but the club will presumably look to bolster that group. A lack of starting pitching depth was a notable storyline going into last winter, which prompted the club to target that in the Juan Soto trade. When they flipped Soto to the Yankees, they brought back King, Jhony Brito, Randy Vásquez and Drew Thorpe, with Thorpe later flipped to the White Sox as part of the deal to get Cease.

Brito was mostly used in relief this year. Vásquez made 20 starts but with a 4.87 ERA and tepid 14.4% strikeout rate. He also struggled badly in the minors, posting an 8.21 ERA in Triple-A. Perhaps someone like Adrián Morejón could be stretched out after his solid year in the bullpen, but there would be risk with his notable injury history.

Budgetary concerns were a notable factor for the Padres last winter as well. The club’s streaming deal with Diamond Sports Group had collapsed in 2023, forcing MLB to take over the broadcast as the club received less revenue in that department. That led to the Padres dealing Soto and ducking under the competitive balance tax.

RosterResource pegs San Diego’s 2025 CBT number at $184MM, well south of next year’s $241MM base threshold. However, that number doesn’t account for contracts for arbitration-eligible players. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects San Diego’s eight-player class for a total of $46.7MM. A few non-tenders could drop that number but most of it is going to core players like King, Cease and Luis Arráez, so the Padres are probably more accurately slated to be in the $230MM range before making any offseason moves.

Preller will have to address the departures of impending free agents like Ha-Seong Kim, Jurickson Profar, Donovan Solano and Kyle Higashioka. If the budget is tight again, he might have to get creative in the winter, which wouldn’t be unusual for him. He is one of baseball’s most active decision makers and is seemingly always involved in all free agent and trade talks. With this news, he will have one more item on his to-do list. Musgrove is under contract through 2027 and is making $20MM annually as part of the five-year, $100MM extension he and the club signed in 2022.

Rays Likely To Explore Catching Market

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The Rays dropped to fourth place in the AL East, finishing the season at 80-82. After missing the postseason for the first time since 2018, Tampa Bay baseball operations president Erik Neander spoke Friday about the need for more offense. He specifically pointed to catcher as an area where the club must improve.

“We’ve got to find a way to get more output out of that position than what we got this year,” Neander said (link via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). “We’ve got to find a way to be better back there, without question, and that’ll be a priority in terms of where our mental energy goes throughout this winter.”

While that’s not quite a definitive declaration the Rays will add from outside the organization, it’s clear they’ll examine the market. Tampa Bay had one of the lightest-hitting catching groups in the majors. The Rays got a .194/.272/.291 batting line out of the position. Only the White Sox had a lower batting average. Tampa Bay was 24th in on-base percentage and 28th (better than just the White Sox and Marlins) in slugging.

The Rays opened the season with René Pinto as their starter. That didn’t last long. Tampa Bay optioned Pinto after 19 games. He spent most of the year in Triple-A, where he hit .191 with a .257 on-base mark. Ben Rortvedt, whom the Rays acquired from the Yankees on the eve of Opening Day, ended up taking the majority of the playing time. The lefty hitter turned in a middling .228/.317/.303 slash over 328 plate appearances. Tampa Bay had Alex Jackson backing Rortvedt up from early May until designating him for assignment in September. Jackson hit .122 in a career-high 58 games. September call-up Logan Driscoll also struggled in his limited MLB work.

Like most clubs, the Rays have generally prioritized defense at the position. Rortvedt graded reasonably well as a receiver. Statcast credited him with better than average framing and blocking metrics. He also showed strong pop times, although his 16.2% caught stealing rate was subpar. Rortvedt presumably showed enough to hold an offseason roster spot. He’s out of minor league options, so the Rays would need to keep him in the majors or make him available to other teams to open the season. Driscoll still has a full slate of options and seems likely to start next season in the minors.

Jackson already elected minor league free agency after clearing waivers last month. Pinto remains on the 40-man roster but may have a tenuous hold on that spot. He’ll be out of options next season. It’s unlikely the team runs things back with a tandem of Rortvedt and Pinto; the latter might find himself on waivers at some point this winter.

The free agent catching class is light at the top. That’s not a huge issue for the Rays, who probably wouldn’t have made a huge splash even if the market were stronger. There are a handful of right-handed hitting backstops who should be available on one- or two-year deals. Kyle Higashioka, Carson Kelly, Danny Jansen, Jacob Stallings (whose deal with Colorado contains a mutual option) and Elias Díaz are among the top options. Anyone from that group could be a realistic target to share time with the lefty-hitting Rortvedt. Each should at least provide more offense than Jackson managed in that role.

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