Previewing The 2024-25 Free Agent Class: Second Base
With the regular season winding down, a number of teams (and their fanbases) are already starting to turn their attention towards the offseason. Identifying free agent targets is a big part of that prep work, so it’s worth taking an early look at the players who’ll be available on the open market.
We’ve already looked through a generally weak catching class and a stronger (but older) group at first base. We’ll now turn our attention to second base. A quick note on eligibility: we’re only looking at players who have appeared in the majors this season and are either primary second basemen, utilitymen with 100+ innings at the position, or regulars at other positions who could draw legitimate interest as an everyday second baseman. (Ha-Seong Kim, for instance, has been exclusively a shortstop in ’24 but has more than 1000 innings at second base in his career.)
Potential Regulars
Jose Iglesias (35)
Iglesias has had a wildly unforeseen resurgence this season, OMG-ing his way into the hearts of Mets fans with an eye-popping .337/.381/.459 batting line in 265 plate appearances. Iglesias isn’t going to sustain his outlandish .380 average on balls in play, but his paltry 13.2% strikeout rate underscores that he still has plus bat-to-ball skills. He’s drawn strong ratings for his glovework at both second base and third base this season. The former has been his primary position, but Iglesias has long been a well-regarded defender who can handle either position and likely still soak up some innings at shortstop if needed. Teams are going to be skeptical of his ability to recreate this year’s stunning offensive performance, but he should still have a big league deal waiting for him this winter after such a strong showing.
Ha-Seong Kim (29)
Kim has been at least average at the plate in each of the past three seasons and is a plus defender at any of shortstop, second base or third base. He’ll draw interest as an everyday shortstop this offseason, and that’s probably where he’s most valuable, given the importance of that position. That said, he’s drawn his best marks in Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average at second and is a clear everyday option at the position who could also slide elsewhere on the defensive spectrum as his team’s needs change (as he’s done in San Diego). Kim’s .233/.330/.370 line this season is a step back from last year’s .260/.351/.398, but he’s improved both his strikeout and walk rates for a third straight season and swiped 22 bases in 27 tries. Kim has been out since mid-August due to inflammation in his right shoulder. As long as that doesn’t prove to be a more serious issue, he should still command a notable multi-year deal, given his combination of youth, defensive excellence, plus speed and average (or slightly better) power.
Kim has a mutual option that won’t be picked up by both parties. The Padres can make him a qualifying offer if and when that option is declined.
Gleyber Torres (28)
It’s been a poor year overall for Torres by his standards, but perhaps not to the extent many onlookers realize. Torres had one of the worst months of his career in April, enjoyed a solid May and then slumped again in June, leaving him with dismal overall production through half the season. Since July 1, however, he’s hitting .286/.359/.398 in 302 plate appearances. His April now looks like a clear outlier, and if you mix in his slightly sub-par June and solid May, he’s hit .263/.336/.405 in 510 plate appearances. It’s a far cry from his peak output, but Torres has a track record of above-average offense and is finishing the season on his hottest stretch of the year (.320/.385/.469 in his past 143 plate appearances). He’s posted very poor defensive marks at second base, but he could still net a multi-year offer based on his offensive ceiling and age.
Utility Players/Bench Candidates
Brandon Drury (32)
Drury hit .262/.306/.497 with the Angels in 2023 after signing a two-year deal there. Some clubs might’ve looked to trade him after the team struggled so much in ’23, but the Halos held onto him and have watched the versatile slugger scuffle through one of the worst seasons of his career. He’s hitting just .167/.242/.230 (35 wRC+) in 339 plate appearances. Drury can handle any of second base, third base and first base. He’s dabbled in the outfield corners as well. After this season, he’s likely looking at a very low-cost one-year pact or, likelier, a minor league deal.
Adam Frazier (33)
A former All-Star, Frazier didn’t hit much with the 2022 Mariners or the 2023 Orioles, but the Royals added him on a big league deal in hopes of recapturing some of his previous form. It hasn’t happened. In 289 plate appearances, Frazier has batted .202/.283/.296. Kansas City has used him at second, third and in both outfield corners. Second base is traditionally his best position. He’s likely ticketed for a minor league deal this winter.
Garrett Hampson (30)
Another affordable offseason addition from the Royals, Hampson signed a $2MM deal last winter but has turned in just a .227/.271/.300 slash without a homer in 220 plate appearances. He can run and plays solid defense all over the infield and outfield, but Hampson’s lack of offense will probably limit him to a minor league deal.
Enrique Hernandez (33)
Hernandez keeps finding his way back to the Dodgers, but in his third stint with the team this year, he’s managed only a .219/.272/.362 showing. To his credit, he’s picked up the pace with the bat since the calendar flipped to August, but not enough to save his season. Hernandez is a fine second baseman and has been a lights-out center field defender in his career, but he’s now sitting on a .227/.285/.352 batting line over the past three seasons — in just shy of 1300 plate appearances overall.
Whit Merrifield (36)
“Two-hit Whit” led the big leagues in hits in both 2018 and 2019. He’s thrice led the league in stolen bases and has also put up MLB-leading doubles and triples totals in a pair of seasons. That all feels like a fairly distant memory, as Merrifield’s bat declined over his two seasons with Toronto and bottomed out when he batted .199/.277/.295 in 53 games with the Phillies before being cut loose. He’s rebounded to an extent in Atlanta after signing to fill in for the injured Ozzie Albies; Merrifield owns a .248/.348/.336 line in 161 plate appearances with the Braves. That and his track record could be enough to get him another big league deal this winter, but it’s been awhile since he was a durable All-Star-caliber second baseman. He can also play all three outfield spots and third base.
Amed Rosario (29)
Rosario hit .307/.331/.417 with the Rays before being traded to the Dodgers prior to the deadline. Los Angeles surprised quite a few people by designating Rosario for assignment after just 12 plate appearances. They paid a minimal price to get him in that trade with Tampa Bay though, and Rosario’s production (or lack thereof) since being claimed off waivers by the Reds has made the decision look more sensible. The Reds have given Rosario limited playing time, and he’s managed only a .161/.190/.214 batting line in 21 games/58 plate appearances there. Rosario can handle lefties nicely and hit for an empty average against fellow righties, but he lacks power and grades out poorly all around the diamond. He settled for a $1.5MM deal this past offseason coming off virtually identical rate stats to the ones he’s posted this season.
Tyler Wade (30)
Wade has played six positions for the Padres this season but is on his way to his third straight year of well below-average numbers at the plate. In 149 plate appearances, he’s hitting .229/.299/.252. Wade has homered one time since Opening Day 2021. He’s a solid middle infield defender who’s seen more sparse time at third base and across all three outfield spots. At best, he’ll compete for a bench role somewhere next spring.
Players with 2025 Options
Kyle Farmer (34) — $6.25MM mutual option, $250K buyout
Farmer missed a month this summer with a shoulder strain. He’s pulled his batting line up to nearly league-average after a terrible start to the season, with nearly all of his damage coming against lefties (.277/.342/.466 in 111 plate appearances). Mutual options are virtually never exercised by both parties, however. It was a surprise to see the Twins tender a contract to Farmer and keep him amid payroll cuts last winter. They may try to bring him back at a lower rate in ’25, but this option will be declined.
Wilmer Flores (33) — $3.5MM player option
Flores hit just .206/.277/.317 in 242 plate appearances before undergoing a nonsurgical Tenex procedure on his ailing knee. He’s not going to command more than $3.5MM in free agency this winter, so it’d be a surprise if he didn’t pick his option up.
Brandon Lowe (30) — $10.5MM club option, $1MM buyout
Lowe has had two poor months at the plate (April, September), two roughly months at the plate (May, August) and two blistering months at the plate (June, July) in 2024. It’s been something of a roller coaster overall, but the end result is a .242/.312/.475 batting line with 20 big flies. Even if the Rays are wary of paying Lowe $10.5MM next year, it’s an easy call to pick this up and look for a trade partner. He has an $11.5MM option for 2026 as well.
Jorge Polanco (31) — $12MM club option, $750K buyout
Polanco’s bat has picked up some since a disastrous start to the season, but he’s run out of time to salvage his season. His .206/.290/.343 line is a major surprise for a player who was consistently productive from 2018-23 in Minnesota, when he batted a combined .270/.338/.455 and even ripped 33 homers during the 2021 season. At the time the Mariners acquired Polanco from the Twins, it looked like they were solidifying second base for two seasons, but Polanco’s option now looks likely to be declined.
Miguel Rojas (35) — $5MM club option, $1MM buyout
Rojas will turn 36 in February, but he’s hitting .287/.337/.416 with plus defense at shortstop and the ability to handle either second base or third base as well. For a net $4MM, this is an obvious call for the Dodgers to exercise.
Cubs Claim Enoli Paredes
The Cubs have claimed right-hander Enoli Paredes off waivers from the Brewers, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune on X. The righty had been designated for assignment by Milwaukee last week. The Cubs had a 40-man vacancy after righty Shawn Armstrong was designated for assignment last week and won’t need to make a corresponding move in that regard.
Paredes, 28, started the year with the Brewers on a minor league deal. He kicked things off with a complete lights-out performance in Triple-A. He tossed 20 2/3 innings over 18 appearances for Nashville with a 1.31 earned run average. He walked a fairly high 11% of batters faced but also struck out 41.5% of opponents and kept 56.8% of balls in play on the ground.
He was added to the big league roster in May and has had mixed results since. Forearm inflammation sent him to the injured list for about two months from July to September. Around that, he made 17 appearances for the Brewers with a 1.74 ERA. Though that number looks nice, his 16.7% strikeout rate and 11.9% walk rate were subpar, with his 44.8% ground ball rate around average. A tiny .224 batting average on balls in play and 84% strand rate were helping him out, which is why his 3.55 FIP and 4.95 SIERA aren’t nearly as nice as his SIERA.
The Brewers decided to quit while they were ahead and move on. Since Paredes exhausted his option years while with the Astros earlier in his career, they had to remove him from the 40-man entirely to get him off the active roster.
The Cubs are eliminated from the postseason picture this year and have presumably grabbed Paredes as a long-term play, looking at his early Triple-A results and window of control. He has just over two years of major league service time and still won’t be arbitration eligible by this winter. Though he is out of options, he can be retained for four more seasons if he manages to hang onto his roster spot.
White Sox Claim Ron Marinaccio
Right-hander Ron Marinaccio, who was designated for assignment by the Yankees last week, has been claimed off waivers by the White Sox. Both clubs announced the move, with the Sox adding that Marinaccio has been assigned to Double-A Birmingham. The Double-A regular season is done but the Barons are playing in the Southern League championship this week, whereas the Triple-A Charlotte Knights are done for the year. The Sox had a 40-man roster vacancy after righty Chad Kuhl was designated for assignment recently and won’t need to make a corresponding move in that regard.
Marinaccio got nudged out of the Yankees’ plans but it’s unsurprising that he got picked up by the club with the top waiver priority. Now 29, he made his major league debut in 2022 and it was strong first impression. He logged 44 innings for the Yanks that season, only allowing 2.05 earned runs per nine. His 13.3% walk rate was definitely worrisome but he managed to work around that by striking out 30.9% of batters faced.
His results backed up a little bit from there. He had a 3.99 ERA in 47 1/3 innings last year. He still walked too many guys, a rate of 13.2%, with his strikeout rate slipping slightly to 27.3%. Here in 2024, the Yanks have frequently shuttled him back and forth between the majors and Triple-A. His 23 1/3 big league innings resulted in a 3.86 ERA with a reduced 10.1% walk rate but also a diminished 25.3% strikeout rate. At the Triple-A level, he has 39 2/3 innings with a 2.04 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate.
Those are pretty decent numbers overall but he was getting squeezed from the roster in the Bronx. He had already been optioned five times this season, the maximum amount in an individual campaign. He’s also in his final option season and will be out of options next year.
It was therefore going to be challenging for him to continue hanging onto his roster spot on a competitive Yankee club going forward, so he got pushed out last week when Cody Poteet was ending his rehab assignment and needed to get added back to the 40-man.
But for the White Sox, he’s a sensible flier to take. As the worst club of the modern era, the Sox have plenty of room for guys who have shown promise elsewhere. Marinaccio has just over two years of service time and still won’t have qualified for arbitration this winter. He can be controlled for four seasons beyond the current campaign. If things click in Chicago next year, he can be a long-term part of their bullpen or perhaps become a valuable trade chip.
Cubs Planning To Add Starting Pitcher In Offseason
The Cubs are planning to add an established starting pitcher to their rotation this winter, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. The club has Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad in four spots. Per Mooney’s report, adding one more name into that mix would push guys like Ben Brown, Cade Horton, Jordan Wicks and Hayden Wesneski down the depth chart.
“In one sense, you feel like you’re in a solid position because we have a number of young pitchers (who) have had success in the big leagues,” Manager Craig Counsell is quoted as saying in the piece. “Now with all of them, there’s been injuries. And it’s not a big sample as of yet. But that’s also kind of the nature of pitching. It’s the nature of young pitching. So we’re in a good spot in terms of that area of depth. But as we saw this year, it disappeared quickly.”
The quartet of Imanaga, Steele, Taillon and Assad have been the club’s best starters this year, both in terms of quality and quantity. Each of that group has an ERA of 3.41 or lower at the moment and all of them have tossed between 130 and 175 innings on the season thus far.
But as Counsell alluded to, there were also some challenges. Steele made a couple of trips to the injured list, one for a left hamstring strain and another for left elbow tendinitis. The Cubs had picked up a $16.5MM club option to bring back Kyle Hendricks but that ultimately proved to be a misstep. Hendricks struggled badly enough to get moved to the bullpen. He eventually retook a rotation spot but has a 6.28 ERA for the year overall. Wicks is currently on the IL for the third time this year, having gone on the shelf for a left forearm strain and then two separate stints for right oblique strains. Brown hasn’t pitched since June due to a stress reaction in his neck. Horton last pitched in May, getting shut down with a subscapularis strain and suffering a setback while trying to return the mound.
An argument could be made for rolling into 2025 with the same front four, letting the group of Wicks, Brown, Horton and Wesneski fight for the fifth spot. But with so many issues in 2024, adding some more security makes plenty of sense. None of those four are fully established. Wesneski is the only one with more than 81 big league innings pitched, and his 186 frames have been split between the bullpen and rotation. Wicks, Brown and Wesneski all still have options, meaning they could be stretched out in Triple-A if not needed on the big league staff. Horton isn’t yet on the 40-man and doesn’t need to be protected from the Rule 5 draft until December of 2025.
The Cubs also might not have much else on their winter to-do list. Even if Cody Bellinger eventually opts out, the outfield will still have Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki and Mike Tauchman, with Alexander Canario, Owen Caissie, Kevin Alcántara and Brennen Davis at Triple-A. The infield has Isaac Paredes, Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner and Michael Busch, with Matt Shaw knocking on the door. Miguel Amaya has shown some progress at the plate and Christian Bethancourt can be retained for next year if the Cubs believe in his recent performance. Moises Ballesteros will also be pushing for a job soon.
The bullpen arguably should be a focus but president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer had made it clear he would prefer to not to make free agent splashes there. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, since Hoyer was hired in November of 2020, the club hasn’t given a multi-year deal to any reliever. And of the one-year deals they have given out, the only guy to get more than $5MM was Héctor Neris, who got $9MM.
Unless a change is coming in terms of the approach to bullpen construction, starting pitching is a logical target with the position player group in strong shape. And there should be some powder dry for reinforcements. The club went narrowly over the $237MM competitive balance tax this year, with RosterResource currently pegging their number a bit over $238MM. Next year’s tally is only at $126MM right now. Arbitration raises for guys like Paredes and Steele will certainly add to that number and it will grow significantly if Bellinger decides to stay, but there will still be room for a notable contract.
Hoyer hasn’t played at the top of the market in terms of starting pitching but has given out some mid-market deals. As shown in the MLBTR Contract Tracker again, Imanaga, Taillon and Marcus Stroman have each received guaranteed between $53MM and $71MM, the largest guarantees the Cubs have given to starting pitchers in the Hoyer era.
This winter’s starting pitching class will be topped by guys like Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty and Blake Snell, assuming Snell stays healthy and opts out of his deal. Signing any of those guys would likely require the Cubs to go to a new level of spending, getting into nine-figure territory. If they want to stay in that Stroman/Taillon/Imanaga tier, they’d probably be debating names like Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, Nick Pivetta and others. Hall-of-Fame-bound veterans Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander will be limited to short-term deals since they are both in their 40s and coming off injury-plagued years in 2024.
The trade market will be another option for the Cubs. The White Sox didn’t end up flipping Garrett Crochet at the deadline but could perhaps make him available again in the winter. The Marlins lost almost all their rotation options to injury this year but it’s possible to see them considering deals as the group gets healthier for 2025. Somewhat similarly, the Rays seem to have an abundance of rotation options with Jeffrey Springs, Shane Baz and Drew Rasmussen returned from long absences, with Shane McClanahan to join them next year. Other possibilities will surely emerge as the winter goes on.
It will be an interesting offseason for the Cubs. Their signing of Swanson heading into 2023 seemed to signal a wish to return to contention after a couple of rebuilding years. They had a solid but unspectacular year in 2023, winning 83 games. They may top that here in 2024, currently at 80-76, but will miss the postseason again. Pressure figures to be high for a club that hasn’t made the postseason in a full campaign since 2018, but a lot of good elements are in place and a few finishing touches could perhaps get them over the hump in 2025.
Cardinals Rumors: Front Office, Gibson, Kittredge
It’s been another disappointing season for the Cardinals and their fans — one that has manifested in manners not previously seen at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals announced over the weekend that the season-long attendance clocked in at 2.8 million fans. As Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat points out, that marks the first time since Busch Stadium III opened in 2006 that the Cards have sold fewer than three million tickets in a season.
Jones adds that the Cardinals are expected to host an end-of-season press conference as soon as next Monday, writing that “staffing changes which stretch from the front office to the dugout” are “likely” to be announced. There’s no firm indication yet that president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, general manager Mike Girsch or manager Oli Marmol are on the chopping block, but there’s been ample speculation regarding Mozeliak’s future recently. He’s signed through the 2025 season. Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch opines that it’s time for chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. to make a change and move on from Mozeliak — the longest-tenured baseball ops leader in the NL (and second-longest in the sport, behind Yankees GM Brian Cashman).
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale suggested last week that former Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, whom the Cardinals hired as a senior adviser this past offseason, would have a larger role in baseball operations next year and could even overtake the top spot on the baseball operations hierarchy. Hochman suggests a similar outcome, calling Bloom a natural successor to Mozeliak.
As rumblings of changes up the ladder mount, there are players in the clubhouse hoping for some continuity. Right-hander Kyle Gibson tells the Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold that he hopes the Cardinals pick up his $12MM option for the 2025 season rather than pay the $1MM buyout and send him back to free agency. Gibson could command similar or perhaps even greater earnings on the open market after a season in which he’s pitched 165 2/3 innings of 4.13 ERA ball with a 20.8% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and 44.8% grounder rate. However, Gibson is a Missouri native who starred for the University of Missouri in college and makes his offseason home in the St. Louis area.
Goold lays out that Gibson has not only performed well on the field but taken up a key leadership role in the clubhouse. He’s rarely missed bullpen sessions for young pitchers and has been a mentor for Matthew Liberatore, Andre Pallante and others. The catching corps has cited Gibson as a huge part of the team’s game-planning, even for games he’s not pitching. Readers can check out Goold’s piece for a fascinating self-analysis from Gibson on a mistake he made to Jose Ramirez in his most recent appearance. The breakdown makes it easy to quickly glean the thoughtful approach Gibson takes to his opponents and see how his experience could benefit those around him — particularly younger pitchers and catchers.
The Cardinals have Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz and Erick Fedde all signed through next season. Gibson and fellow righty Lance Lynn have 2025 club options on their contracts. Of the two, Gibson seems likelier to have his option exercised. Keeping Gray, Mikolas, Gibson, Fedde and Matz would give the Cards a veteran quintet on which to lean. In-house names like Pallante, Michael McGreevy, Quinn Mathews and Sem Robberse (among others) would be waiting in the wings should injuries or continued struggles from Mikolas and/or Matz prompt changes.
Like Gibson, righty Andrew Kittredge is open to a St. Louis reunion. The 34-year-old setup man is a pure free agent and doesn’t have an option on his contract, but he tells Goold he would “definitely” be interested in coming back. Though the team’s results haven’t been what the clubhouse hoped, it’s not for any lack of effort in the clubhouse, Kittredge says: “I don’t have anything negative to say about any player in this clubhouse. Everyone comes to play every day, and I like to be a part of teams like that.”
The Cards reportedly plan to approach Kittredge about a re-signing him. The right-hander set a Cardinals franchise record when he secured his 36th hold of the season recently. He’s posted a terrific 2.93 ERA with sharp strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates of 23.2%, 7.2% and 44.4%, respectively. He’s not throwing quite as hard as he did prior to undergoing Tommy John surgery with the Rays, but Kittredge’s 94.7 mph average sinker still has plenty of life, even if it’s down nearly a mile per hour from peak levels.
Pirates Outright Jake Woodford
Sept. 23: Woodford passed through waivers unclaimed and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Indianapolis, per the transaction log at MLB.com.
Sept. 19: The Pirates announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Isaac Mattson. Fellow righty Jake Woodford has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. The 40-man roster remains full.
Woodford was just selected to the roster yesterday and it seems the plan was simply for him to make a spot start as the club plays out the string on the 2024 season. He took the ball against his former club the Cardinals yesterday, tossing 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five hitters and didn’t issue a walk, but he allowed four earned runs on eight hits, including a home run.
The righty was also on Pittsburgh’s roster earlier in the year but without much success. He now has a 7.97 earned run average through 35 innings on the year. That’s surely a bit misleading as his 44.6% strand rate is well below league average, but he’s also not doing himself favors with his 15.6% strikeout rate and 35.2% ground ball rate.
He’s been able to work around the lack of strikeouts in the past. He tossed 116 innings as a swingman for the Cards over 2021 and 2022, posting a 3.26 ERA. He only punched out 15.4% of opponents but also kept the ball on the ground 45.8% of the time. His ERA jumped to 6.23 last year due to a home run spike, which led the Cards to non-tender him.
The Bucs will put him on waivers in the coming days, as they did in late August. At that time, he cleared waivers, elected free agency and then re-signed on a fresh minor league deal. With so little of the 2024 season remaining, it’s possible he goes unclaimed and goes into offseason mode slightly ahead of schedule.
Mattson, 29, will take Woodford’s place and return to the big leagues for the first time since 2021. He made four appearances for the Orioles that year, allowing three earned runs in 4 1/3 innings, which is the total of his major league experience thus far.
He signed a minor league deal with the Pirates coming into 2024 and has had a solid year on the farm. He has thrown 71 innings between Double-A and Triple-A with a 3.17 ERA and 29.8% strikeout rate, though the 12.7% walk rate is on the high side.
He’ll give the Bucs a fresh arm for the bullpen as they finish out the season. He has a couple of options remaining and just a few days of service time, so he can theoretically be retained well into the future, though he would have to hold onto his roster spot throughout the club’s offseason transactions.
Nick Martinez Open To Staying In Cincinnati, Undecided On Opt-Out Clause
Right-hander Nick Martinez is putting the finishing touches on a terrific first season with the Reds, having thus far compiled 134 1/3 innings of 3.22 ERA ball with a 20.8% strikeout rate and superlative 3.3% walk rate. He’s signed through the 2025 season and slated to earn $12MM next season but has the right to opt out of the second season of his two-year, $26MM contract and test free agency for what would be a fourth straight offseason.
The 34-year-old righty recently told MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon that he hasn’t made a decision or spoken with agent Scott Boras about his contract status while simultaneously expressing love for the Reds’ clubhouse and speaking fondly of his time in the organization. Martinez plainly stated that in spite of the opt-out opportunity, his mindset upon signing was that he was going to be in Cincinnati for multiple years. He’s bounced between starting and a variety of bullpen roles and said he’s on board with how he’s been used. He alluded to a “more delicate issue” that needs to be talked about in the offseason — a seeming nod to that looming opt-out provision and the clear reality that he’d be able to easily top the remaining one year and $12MM on his contract if he returned to the open market.
MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently took a lengthy look at Martinez’s opt-out and his ostensible comfort with going year-to-year in free agency as he continually improves his earning power. The 2011 Rangers draftee struggled through four big league seasons (2014-17) before reinventing himself in a breakout run with Japan’s Nippon-Ham Fighters and SoftBank Hawks. Since returning to North American Ball, he’s pitched three seasons between San Diego and Cincinnati, logging a collective 3.36 ERA in 351 innings. Martinez has filled virtually every role possible, working as a starter, closer, setup man, long reliever and bulk reliever behind openers.
A two- or even three-year deal should be available to Martinez this offseason, although the Reds will have some time to ponder a potential multi-year deal to keep the versatile righty from reaching free agency at all. Martinez opined that the Reds have the pieces in place to ascend to playoff contention next year and spoke glowingly about his teammates. He’s a valuable piece of the puzzle as things stand, capable of serving as a fourth or fifth starter behind Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott (all three of whom he specifically mentioned in expressing his optimism about the team’s future) or again operating as a pivotal swingman who can be called upon in any role.
Those three young arms are effectively locked into the top spots in the Cincinnati rotation. Top prospect Rhett Lowder, 26-year-old Graham Ashcraft and 23-year-old Julian Aguiar are among the other candidates for starting roles next season. The Reds could arguably use a veteran arm to help stabilize the rotation outlook, but not every viable starting option would be so amenable to being shuffled between the starting staff and bullpen as Martinez has been in recent years. It does make him a clear fit, even if his numbers are notably better in relief. The question for the Reds will be one of salary, as Martinez has pitched well enough to justifiably seek a raise over the two-year, $26MM terms to which he agreed last winter.
Cincinnati has about $27MM in guarantees on next year’s books, per RosterResource. That doesn’t include Martinez’s option, an $8MM Emilio Pagan player option or a $3.5MM club option on lefty Brent Suter that seems likely to be picked up by the team. The Reds will also have to weigh arbitration raises for Ty France ($6.775MM salary in ’24), Santiago Espinal ($2.725MM), Tyler Stephenson ($2.525MM) and Jake Fraley ($2.15MM), plus first-time arb-eligible players like Lodolo, Ashcraft, Alexis Diaz and Sam Moll.
The Suter option, arbitration raises and a slate of league-minimum players to round out the roster would put the Reds north of $60MM before even considering Martinez or any offseason expenditures. Cincinnati has opened the past two seasons with payrolls ranging from $82-100MM. Martinez could be deemed something of a luxury if ownership wants to keep payroll in that same range, though it’s not yet clear what type of payroll the club is comfortable fielding in 2025. The Reds will also be in the market for at least one veteran bat to upgrade the lineup. Adding to a bullpen could see as many as four relievers reach free agency — Martinez, Pagan, Buck Farmer, Justin Wilson — will also surely be a goal.
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Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast
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The Opener: AL Wild Card, Phillies, Moreno
As the final week of the 2024 regular season kicks off, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. AL Wild Card race tightens:
The American League has put the “wild” in Wild Card this weekend. After months of the Royals and Twins consistently holding the final two Wild Card spots behind the Orioles, things got more interesting over the weekend as the red-hot Tigers knocked Minnesota out of playoff position entirely. Now, Kansas City and Detroit are tied for the last two playoff spots in the AL with identical 82-74 records, with the Twins just one game behind at 81-75. Should things come down to a tiebreaker, the Twins would benefit as they hold the tiebreaker over both Kansas City and Detroit, while the Royals won the tiebreaker over the Tigers.
The Wild Card isn’t limited to AL Central teams, though, and the Mariners notably lurk just one game back of Minnesota at 80-76 though all three Central clubs hold tiebreakers over Seattle. Meanwhile, neither the Red Sox nor the Rays have technically been eliminated at this point, but it would take a miracle for either 78-78 club to squeak into the postseason. Of all the potential Wild Card contenders in the AL, only the Mariners play today as they start a three-game set against the Astros that could either officially eliminate them from the AL West or vault them back into a playoff spot. That series kicks off at 7:10pm local time in Houston tonight, with youngsters Bryce Miller (3.06 ERA) and Hunter Brown (3.57 ERA) set to face off.
2. Phillies could clinch division:
The Phillies lost out on an opportunity to clinch the NL East against their division rival this weekend when they dropped the final two games of their series against the Mets, but that doesn’t have to stop them from clinching in front of the home crowd. The club will start their final regular season home series at 6:40pm local time this evening against the recently-eliminated Cubs, and winning any game in the three-game set would clinch the division. Meanwhile, sweeping Chicago would guarantee for the Phillies that they’ll land a bye through the NL Wild Card series. Their series against the Cubs kicks off tonight with right-hander Aaron Nola (3.54 ERA) on the mound opposite a likely bullpen game for Chicago that’s likely to be started by Nate Pearson (3.13 ERA in Chicago).
3. Moreno undergoing MRI:
The Diamondbacks are set to wrap up their regular season at home this week, hoping to clinch a playoff spot with six games to go against the Giants and Padres. While the reigning NL champs appear likely to make their second consecutive playoff run this October, it’s up in the air who will be behind the plate for them during that run after the club announced (as noted by Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic) that Moreno exited yesterday’s game against the Brewers with left adductor tightness.
Piecoro notes that the injury affects the same side as the groin strain that sent him to the IL for more than a month recently, and D-Backs reporter Jody Jackson notes that Moreno is set to undergo an MRI today. The loss of Moreno for the postseason would be a tough one for Arizona to stomach, as he not only won the Gold Glove for his work behind the plate last year but also has posted a 108 wRC+ in 92 games this season. Glove-first backup Jose Herrera and hot-hitting prospect Adrian Del Castillo (who batted .313/.368/.525 in 87 plate appearances in his first taste of MLB action this summer) would take over catching duties if Moreno misses time.