Dodgers Exercise Club Option On Austin Barnes
The Dodgers have exercised their club option on the services of catcher Austin Barnes for the 2025 season. Barnes will earn $3.5MM in 2025.
Barnes, 35 in December, was a ninth-round pick by the Marlins back in 2011 but has spent his entire big league career with the Dodgers. The veteran first debuted with the club back in 2015 and has now spent parts of ten seasons with L.A. in the majors. While he’s never been an everyday player and only received the lion’s share of playing time behind the plate in 2019 (when he shared duties with veteran Russell Martin and rookie Will Smith), Barnes has proven to be a sturdy and reliable backup catcher for the club throughout his career and has even become something of a personal catcher for franchise legend Clayton Kershaw in recent years.
With Smith under contract for the next decade after signing a ten-year extension back in March, he’s set to remain the club’s starting option behind the plate for the foreseeable future. The Dodgers also have a number of interesting catching prospects in the upper minors including Diego Cartaya and Dalton Rushing. With a number of intriguing internal options at the position, it may come across as something of a shock that the club would pay $3.5MM to retain an aging catcher who has hit just .217/.289/.270 (61 wRC+) over the past two seasons. Surprising as that may seem, however, the veteran remains a fairly well-regarded defender behind the plate with +2 Defensive Runs Saved in just 54 games this year.
For a Dodgers club that routinely runs payrolls at or near the top of the league, $3.5MM is an insignificant price to pay to retain a longtime member of the organization who works well with a franchise icon and offers a reliable, steady option in a year where the club could consider giving those aforementioned youngsters some opportunities to catch at the big league level. It would’ve been a surprise if the Dodgers were willing to commit to either Cartaya or Rushing as Smith’s primary backup on Opening Day of 2025 when neither has so much as a single plate appearance in the majors, and retaining Barnes allows the club to ease those prospects into life at the big league level and give them whatever time they may need at Triple-A to polish their skills and prepare for the big leagues.
Two more option decisions will need to be made over the coming days involving the Dodgers: the team will need to decide whether to bring shortstop Miguel Rojas back on a $5MM option ($1MM buyout), and Kershaw will need to decide whether he wishes to exercise his $10MM player option or head back into free agency (where he’s already indicated he would look to re-sign in Los Angeles).
GM David Forst: A’s Focused On Trades, Upgrading MLB Roster
While the Athletics’ rebuild isn’t over, it does appear that the club has moved out of purely a selling phase as the 2024-25 offseason begins (and the team’s temporary tenure in Sacramento begins). A’s general manager David Forst told The San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea that his front office has already at least touched base with every team except the Dodgers and Yankees, and that “any trade activity we’re discussing is about improving the major league team in 2025, not about trading major league players for prospects.”
This isn’t exactly a new stance, as Forst said in July prior to the trade deadline that the A’s were somewhat putting the brakes on moving any established trade chips. While this could have been construed as some gamesmanship to get rival suitors to up their bids, the Athletics ended up keeping such notables as Brent Rooker, Mason Miller, and JJ Bleday, despite significant interest from other teams. The A’s did trade Paul Blackburn (arbitration-controlled through 2025) to the Mets and a longer-term asset in Lucas Erceg to the Royals, though Erceg’s team control through the 2029 season is somewhat undermined by the fact that he is already 29 years old.
While the Athletics had a 69-93 record in 2024, things seemingly started to click for the team’s young core as the season developed. After a brutal 37-61 record in the first half, the A’s had an even 32-32 mark after the All-Star break, and even delivered a 29-21 mark over the months of July and August. Rooker was one of the better hitters in the entire league, and Bleday, Lawrence Butler, and Shea Langeliers all showed some intriguing potential elsewhere in the lineup.
The weak links were pretty obvious, as Shea writes that the Athletics’ offseason wish list includes upgrading a porous defense, a starting pitching staff that was one of the worst in baseball, and some help at third base. A whopping 10 players suited up at the hot corner for the A’s over the course over the 2024 season, but this revolving door combined for a sub-replacement -0.6 bWAR (ranking 28th of 30 teams in third-base production).
As always, Forst will be limited in what he can spend on any new players, though how much the A’s might spend on free agents in general is still up in the air due to the uncertainty surrounding their relocation. “We have to be active in the trade market until we get a clear sense of how free agents are going to view the possibility of coming to Sacramento. That’s been the impetus for our reaching out to clubs ahead of free agency starting,” Forst said.
With this in mind, the A’s might well be one of the more aggressive teams in the early stages of free agency, with Forst and company perhaps being keen on acquiring any non-tender candidates or unwelcome contracts that other teams have on their books. The Athletics have roughly $35.5MM on the books for 2025 (according to RosterResource) though none of that money is actually guaranteed, so some trades or non-tenders of their own could reduce that number. This gives the A’s some relative flexibility in terms of payroll space, as Forst has said the club is prepared to spend beyond its $63.1MM payroll from 2024.
Robbie Ray Declines Opt-Out Clause In Giants Contract
Left-hander Robbie Ray has declined the opt-out clause in his contract, meaning that he’ll remain with the Giants for both the 2025 and 2026 seasons. ESPN’s Jeff Passan (X link) was the first to report the news. The five-year, $115MM pact Ray signed with the Mariners prior to the 2022 season was slightly backloaded, and thus Ray will earn $25MM in each of the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
It’s not terribly surprising that Ray is taking the proverbial bird in the hand here. He underwent ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, commonly known as Tommy John surgery, and a flexor tendon repair in May of 2023. While recovering from that operation, the Mariners traded him to the Giants.
Ray was able to get back on the mound with San Francisco in 2024, but made seven starts with an unimpressive 4.70 earned run average before spending the month of September on the injured list due to a left hamstring strain.
Pitchers with injury question marks can still get paid but Ray would be hard-pressed to find more than $50MM on the open market. Carlos Rodón had plenty of injury absences in his early career but was able to secure a two-year, $44MM deal from the Giants going into 2022. However, Rodón had just made 24 starts for the White Sox in 2021 with a 2.37 ERA and was going into his age-29 season. Ray, on the other hand, is now 33 years old and has made eight starts over the past two years with a 5.03 ERA.
Taking all that into consideration, Ray’s best financial move was to keep this guarantee. He’ll return to the Giants next year and hopefully get back on track. While it’s probably unrealistic to expect him to get back to his Cy Young winning form from 2021, getting even part of the way back there would be nice. The year that he earned that hardware, he made 32 starts for the Blue Jays with a 2.84 ERA, 32.1% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate.
One Giant starter is departing, as Blake Snell has opted out of his deal. Next year’s rotation in San Francisco projects to include Ray, Logan Webb and Kyle Harrison. Perhaps Jordan Hicks will get another shot at starting or maybe he’ll be back in the bullpen. Guys like Landen Roupp, Keaton Winn, Tristan Beck, Hayden Birdsong and others would also be in the mix.
If the club looks to bolster that group, the free agent market will be headlined by guys like Snell, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty and plenty of others. The trade market should feature Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray and more.
Brewers Decline Mutual Option On Gary Sanchez
The Brewers declined their end of Gary Sanchez‘s $11MM mutual option for the 2025 season, Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (X link). Sanchez will now take a $4MM buyout and return to free agency for the fourth time in the last two years.
Initially a one-year, $7MM deal contract, Sanchez’s deal with the Brewers ended up being a one-year, $3MM guarantee with a mutual option worth $11MM. The size of the buyout was conditional based on whether or not Sanchez missed time due to a wrist-related injury, but that didn’t prove to be an issue, so he unlocked the maximum $4MM on the buyout, allowing him to land that $7MM in salary after all.
The restructured deal came about after the Brewers had some concerns with the state of Sanchez’s wrist after it was fractured in September 2023. Sanchez did miss a month due to a calf strain, and he otherwise hit .220/.307/.392 with 11 homers over 280 plate appearances and 89 games.
Sanchez’s presence allowed William Contreras to get a good dose of extra playing time at the DH spot, thus allowing him some partial rest while keeping his bat in Milwaukee’s lineup. The Brewers are likely to explore a similar plan for the coming season, if perhaps not necessarily with Sanchez in the backup catcher role. A reunion shouldn’t be ruled out, however, if the Brewers were generally satisfied with Sanchez’s work, or if perhaps they simply aren’t enamored with any other catching options on the open market.
From Sanchez’s perspective, this particular scenario with Milwaukee would allow him essentially the same amount of playing time as he would in a normal platoon situation elsewhere, with the bonus of playing for a perpetual contender. Now entering his age-32 season, Sanchez should get some attention from other teams due to the ever-churning nature of the catching market, even if his heyday as an All-Star with the Yankees is now increasingly in the rearview mirror. Sanchez did rebound to hit 19 homers in 2023 with the Padres, though brought little else to the offensive table apart from that power.
Ha-Seong Kim Declines Mutual Option With Padres; Wandy Peralta Declines Opt-Out
Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim declined his end of an $8MM mutual option for the 2025 season, and he’ll now take a $2MM buyout and enter free agency, The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reports (X link). Left-hander Wandy Peralta will be staying in San Diego for at least one more season, as Peralta will pass on his opt-out clause and remain in the four-year, $16.5MM deal he signed with the Padres last winter.
Neither decision registers as a surprise. Kim has hit .250/.336/.385 over the past three years for a wRC+ of 106, indicating he has been 6% above league average at the plate in that time. He also stole 72 bases in that stretch and provided above-average defense at shortstop, second base and third base.
His situation is a bit complicated by the fact that he underwent right labrum surgery not too long ago. His return timetable is a bit unclear but it has been suggested he is likely to miss at least part of the start of the 2025 season.
Even with that injury situation, it’s understandable that he would walk away from his mutual option at a net $6MM price point. Players coming back from injury can often still have notable earning power. Michael Conforto secured a two-year, $36MM deal from the Giants after missing an entire season. Rhys Hoskins got two years and $34MM from the Brewers after his own missed campaign. Both players had the ability to opt out after one season, though neither eventually did so.
The situations aren’t entirely analogous. Both Conforto and Hoskins were expected to be healthy in the first seasons of their deals, which won’t be the case with Kim. Perhaps that puts his earning power a bit below those two, but it still makes it sensible for him to turn down his option today. Whether he can get a two-year deal with an opt-out or a more straightforward one-year pillow deal, he should be able to get past the $6MM he’s leaving on the table today.
For the Padres, they will now have to figure out what to do at shortstop. When Kim was hurt late in the year, they moved Xander Bogaerts from second to short. It’s unclear whether they would want to do that for the long term as they just decided a year ago to have Bogaerts take on the less-demanding second base spot. Jackson Merrill came up as a shortstop before getting moved to center field for 2024. He could switch back but performed so well in center that the club might decide to keep him there.
The free agent market is headlined by Willy Adames but the Padres have some payroll limitations and probably aren’t the most logical landing spot for him. The trade market could feature Bo Bichette but it’s unclear if the Blue Jays will make him available.
As for Peralta, he signed with the Padres last winter on a four-year deal with a $16.5MM guarantee and opt-outs after each season. He went on to have a pretty mediocre season, despite a respectable 3.99 earned run average. His 52.9% ground ball rate was still above league average but his worst in a full season since 2019. His strikeout rate fell to 13.6% this year after being in the 18-23% range in the previous five years.
It it weren’t for a fairly low .233 batting average on balls in play, he would have allowed more runs to score. His 5.46 FIP and 4.57 SIERA disagree on how bad things were under the hood but both suggest the ERA is misleading. After that performance, he’ll stick with the Padres and hope for a better season, with the chance of returning to free agency again a year from now.
Rockies Acquire Owen Miller From Brewers
The Rockies acquired utilityman Owen Miller from the Brewers for cash considerations, Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (X link).
Miller is a veteran of four MLB seasons, playing with Cleveland in 2021-22 and then with Milwaukee for the last two seasons. After playing in 280 games across his first three seasons, he had only 14 games in the Show in 2024, with a .407 OPS to show from 27 plate appearances. The Brewers designated him for assignment and then outrighted Miller off the 40-man roster back in July.
With only a .239/.287/.345 slash line to show for his 1015 career PA in the big leagues, Miller’s defensive versatility has been far more of a calling card than his bat. Miller has made at least one appearance at every position except catcher and center field, though the large bulk of his playing time has come at first and second base.
Miller is now out of minor league options, thus limiting his usefulness to the Brewers and perhaps to the Rockies or other teams going forward as he vies to remain on a Major League roster. There’s no risk for Colorado in acquiring a veteran depth piece who can help at multiple positions, especially if Brendan Rodgers is traded and the Rox have an increased need in the infield.
Brewers Place Colin Rea On Waivers
The Brewers have placed right-hander Colin Rea on waivers, MLBTR has learned. He’s available for any club to claim. Rea has a $5.5MM club option for the upcoming season with a $1MM buyout.
It’s a surprising move, given the affordable nature of Rea’s option and the solid work he’s given to them over the past two seasons. The veteran righty has given Milwaukee 292 1/3 innings of 4.40 ERA ball since 2023, taking the ball 58 times and starting 49 games. Rea hasn’t been a top-of-the-rotation arm but has been a stabilizing presence amid myriad injuries and considerable turnover in the Brewers’ rotation. He’d have become a free agent if Milwaukee declined his buyout, but they’ll instead make a rather glaring cost-cutting move of waiving him to try to save that $1MM buyout in the event that another team claims him.
Any team in need of rotation help or perhaps an affordable swingman will now have the opportunity to claim Rea at the $5.5MM price point of his 2025 option. If he goes unclaimed, Milwaukee will seemingly pay that $1MM buyout, at which point Rea will become a free agent who’s able to sign with any club.
Given that he’s coming off a season that saw him pitch 167 2/3 innings with a 4.29 ERA, 18.9% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate, Rea should hold appeal to clubs seeking help at the back of the rotation — particularly lower-payroll clubs that have doubts over their ability to buy a comparable arm in free agency. One way or another, Rea will likely land on his feet, but it’s a tough pill to swallow for the righty, as he now has no say over choosing his next destination unless he surprisingly goes unclaimed and is subsequently bought out.
As a reminder, offseason waiver priority is based on the reverse standings from the 2024 season and is not league-specific. The White Sox will have first crack at claiming Rea, followed by the Rockies, Marlins, Angels, A’s, etc.
Wilmer Flores Exercises Player Option To Remain With Giants
Wilmer Flores has exercised his $3.5MM player option for the 2025 season, the Giants announced. Flores signed a three-year, $16.5MM extension with the Giants in September 2022 that allowed him to opt out of the 2025 season, and the club would’ve then had an $8.5MM club option to decide on if Flores did opt out.
Of course, this all became a moot point due to an injury-marred 2024 season for the veteran infielder. Flores was bothered by knee problems all year, resulting in a pair of trips to the injured list and a season-ending Tenex procedure in early August. Flores concluded his 12th Major League season with an ugly .206/.277/.318 slash line over 242 plate appearances, and a sub-replacement level -0.7 fWAR in 71 games.
It made Flores’ decision to exercise his option a pretty easy call, and the $3.5MM salary is low enough that it wouldn’t be a surprise if San Francisco chose to move on from the 33-year-old entirely in the form of a release. A trade also isn’t out of the question if another team views Flores as a bounce-back candidate, or the Giants themselves might see Flores as a useful player to keep around if they feel he’ll return to form when healthy.
After all, it was just a season ago that Flores hit .284/.355/.509 with 23 homers for San Francisco during 454 PA during the 2023 campaign. Flores’ ability to play first, second, and third base and his traditionally strong numbers against left-handed pitching made him a valuable member of the Giants’ platoon mix prior to this past season. The Giants have been rumored to be in the mix for a bigger upgrade at first base, but if such help isn’t acquired, the team could fall back on a Flores/LaMonte Wade Jr. platoon at the cold corner.
Brewers To Exercise Club Option On Freddy Peralta
The Brewers will exercise their $8MM club option on right-hander Freddy Peralta, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’ll be back in 2025, and his contract contains another $8MM option for the 2026 season.
One of the most obvious calls in this offseason’s entire slate of option decisions, Peralta’s future was never in doubt. The 28-year-old righty has been a fixture in Milwaukee’s rotation since 2021 and has logged a sub-4.00 ERA in four straight seasons now. His 2024 campaign included a career-high 173 2/3 innings, during which time Peralta pitched to a 3.68 ERA with a 27.6% strikeout rate and a 9.4% walk rate.
Peralta will return in 2025 as one of Milwaukee’s top starters. He’ll be joined in the rotation by a returning Brandon Woodruff, who missed 2024 following last year’s shoulder surgery. Aaron Civale is controllable for one final season but stands as a viable trade candidate. The Brewers also hold an affordable 2025 option on righty Colin Rea, and breakout right-hander Tobias Myers will be back next season as well. Lefties Aaron Ashby and DL Hall are both in the mix for rotation work as well.
D’Backs Exercise Option On Kelly, Decline Option On McGough; Pederson Declines Mutual Option
The Diamondbacks will be exercising their $7MM club option on Merrill Kelly for the 2025 season, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The team will also be declining their end of a $4MM mutual option on right-hander Scott McGough, as McGough will head into free agency with a $750K buyout. He’ll be joined by Joc Pederson, who took a $3MM buyout after declining his end of a $14MM mutual option for the 2025 campaign.
All three decisions were expected, even with Kelly missing over half of the season due to a teres major strain. The right-hander was limited to 73 2/3 innings over 13 starts, with a 4.03 ERA and some pretty unimpressive Statcast numbers, save for a solid 6.3% walk rate.
Assuming good health for Kelly next year, however, the $6MM decision (there was a $1MM buyout attached) was still an easy one for Arizona to make, given how well he has generally pitched over his six seasons in a Diamondbacks uniform. Kelly didn’t make his MLB debut until age 30, after the D’Backs signed him to return to North America after a successful four-season run in the KBO League. Over the course of two separate contracts with Arizona, Kelly has now earned $37.5MM over a seven-year span since returning from South Korea.
The D’Backs were hoping for more reclamation success when they signed McGough to a two-year, $6.25MM deal in the 2022-23 offseason, as McGough had pitched well over four seasons with the Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball. Unfortunately, McGough posted a 4.73 ERA in 70 1/3 innings out of Arizona’s bullpen in 2023, and then a 7.44 ERA in 32 2/3 frames this season. The right-hander’s home run and walk rates were constant issues, while McGough’s strikeout rate also plummeted from 28.6% in 2023 to just 16.7% this season.
Pederson almost exclusively faced right-handed pitching this season, and was utilized only as a designated hitter. Albeit within this limited scope, Pederson enjoyed a monster year, hitting .275/.393/.515 with 23 homers over 449 plate appearances. Among all position-player free agents, only six posted a higher fWAR than Pederson’s 3.0 mark in 2024, and only Juan Soto had a higher wRC+ than Pederson’s 151.
While Pederson resisted being a full-time platoon player or DH earlier in his career, embracing his specialist role has obvious upside, and could lead to another nice payday as he enters his age-33 season. No shortage of teams could use Pederson’s power, and a return to the D’Backs is certainly a possibility given how well the veteran slugger performed in his first season in Arizona. Randal Grichuk also declined his end of a mutual option, leaving the Diamondbacks without both pieces of their unofficial lefty-righty platoon. Depending on the asking prices, the D’Backs could perhaps look to re-sign one of Pederson or Grichuk, and then look another complementary bat to fill the other side of the virtual platoon.