Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Brian Navarreto

Five Marlins Players Elect Free Agency

By | at

TODAY: Tinoco, Zuber, Bellozo, Tarnok, and Navarreto each elected free agency, according to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy (multiple links).

NOV. 5: The Marlins announced that five players have been outrighted off the 40-man roster. They are right-handers Jesús Tinoco, Tyler Zuber, Valente Bellozo and Freddy Tarnok, as well as catcher Brian Navarreto.

There had been no previous indication that the Marlins had designated these players for assignment or put them on waivers. However, roster cleanouts like this are expected at this time of year. The 60-day injured list goes away five days after the World Series, meaning several players need to retake 40-man roster spots. The Marlins opened space with these five moves. They also lost Troy Johnston to the Rockies and George Soriano to the Orioles via waiver claims today.

Tinoco, 31 in April, seemed to have a breakout with the Marlins last year. He gave them 40 2/3 innings with a 3.32 earned run average, 25.9% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate and 46.7% ground ball rate.

He couldn’t keep it going in 2025, however. He made 20 appearances with diminished velocity, a diminished strikeout rate and a 5.12 ERA before landing on the injured list in June due to a forearm strain. He underwent flexor surgery in August and is slated to miss most of the 2026 season. The Fish could have held him through the winter and put him on the 60-day injured list in spring training but he’s been squeezed off the roster now.

He has previously been outrighted in his career and therefore has the right to elect free agency. Presumably, he will do so. Given his injury timeline, he may not find interest until he makes more progress in his recovery.

Zuber, 31 in June, was claimed off waivers the Mets in July. Not long after, he landed on the IL due to a lat strain and finished the season there. He has 64 2/3 big league innings with a 6.26 ERA, 24.7% strikeout rate and 15.2% walk rate. His current health status is unclear but he’s out of options and would have had a hard time holding a roster spot even if he were healthy. He has a previous career outright and therefore has the right to elect free agency.

Bellozo, 26 in January, has been a swingman for the Marlins in recent years. He has made 45 appearances since the start of 2024, 19 of those being starts, logging 150 innings. His 15.2% strikeout rate is fairly low but his 4.20 ERA isn’t bad. That seems to be thanks to a fortunate .267 batting average on balls in play and 79.6% strand rate. His 5.44 FIP and 5.08 SIERA suggest he would have a hard time maintaining that ERA going forward. He doesn’t have a previous career outright or three years of service time but should qualify for seven-year minor league free agency.

Tarnok, 27 this month, signed a minor league deal with the Fish last offseason. He was added to the roster in June but was mostly kept in the minors, only appearing in five big league games. He pitched 68 2/3 Triple-A innings this year with a 3.28 ERA. His 26.3% strikeout rate was good but he also walked 11.2% of batters faced. He has a previous career outright and will have the right to elect free agency.

Navarreto, 31 in December, signed a minor league deal with the Fish coming into the year. He was added to the roster in September to give them a third catcher, alongside Agustín Ramírez and Liam Hicks. He put up a strong .286/.267/.643 line in a small sample of 15 plate appearances down the stretch. His Triple-A games resulted in a more tepid .229/.301/.392 line. He has a previous career outright and therefore has the right to elect free agency.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

Marlins Place Edward Cabrera On IL With Right Elbow Sprain

By | at

With rosters expanding from 26 to 28 today, the Marlins announced a series of roster moves. They have selected catcher Brian Navarreto and right-hander Luarbert Árias to the roster, in addition to recalling righty Michael Petersen. To open a third roster spot, righty Edward Cabrera has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right elbow sprain. To open 40-man spots for Navarreto and Arias, righties Anthony Bender and Tyler Zuber have been transferred to the 60-day IL. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com reported many of these moves prior to the official announcement.

It’s unclear how serious Cabrera’s injury is but it’s an ominous development. An issue with a pitcher’s throwing elbow is always somewhat worrisome and Cabrera has a notable injury history. Shoulder problems kept him under 100 innings in both 2023 and 2024. He had a minor elbow issue in July of this year but managed to avoid the IL at that time.

On the whole, it’s been an exciting breakout season for Cabrera. He has always had the stuff to get strikeouts and ground balls but control has been a problem and the aforementioned injuries also prevented him from building to a full starter’s workload. He came into 2025 with 294 career innings, a 4.32 earned run average, 26% strikeout rate, 48.6% ground ball rate but a 13.3% walk rate. Here in 2025, he has tossed 128 2/3 innings while reducing his walk rate all the way to 7.7%. His strikeout and ground ball rates have stayed strong at 25.8% and 46.4%, respectively. Put it all together and his ERA has come in at 3.57.

Cabrera is still controlled for three seasons beyond this one and has established himself as a legit big league starter. That’s huge for the Marlins though the elbow injury could obviously put a damper on that if it’s serious.

Navarreto, 30, gets back to the big leagues for the first time in years. His major league track record consists of just two games back in 2020. He has been with the Marlins this year on a minor league deal and has slashed .229/.301/.392 in Triple-A. The Fish have Agustín Ramírez and Liam Hicks on the roster but Ramírez will occasionally serve as the designated hitter and Hicks plays a bit of first base. Navarreto can give the club a bit of cover at the catcher position, allowing them to put both Ramírez and Hicks in the lineup while still having a safety net.

Árias, 24, got to make his major league debut with the Marlins earlier this year. He was added to the 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. However, he has struggled badly this year, with a 11 earned runs allowed in his first nine big league innings. He also hasn’t been great in the minors, with a 4.74 ERA, 11.5% strikeout rate and 15% walk rate.

The Marlins were able to pass him through waivers in June but have added him back to the roster today. He still has a full slate of options and doesn’t need to stick on the active roster. Last year, he tossed 68 Triple-A innings with a 3.04 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate and 9.3% walk rate. The Marlins would obviously love to figure out a way to get him back to that kind of performance.

Bender was already reported to have suffered a season-ending leg injury, so his transfer to the 60-day IL is no surprise. As for Zuber, he landed on the 15-day IL a couple of days ago due to a lat strain. His current status is unclear but this transfer indicates the Marlins don’t expect him back this season.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

Marlins Sign Sandy Leon To Minors Contract

By | at

JANUARY 4: Leon’s deal comes with a $1.25MM base salary if he makes the MLB roster, with additional incentives available, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).

JANUARY 3: The Marlins have signed catcher Sandy Leon to a minor league deal.  The contract contains an invitation for Leon to attend Miami’s big league Spring Training camp.  In addition to Leon, the Marlins also officially announced six other players (infielder Eddy Alvarez, catcher Brian Navarreto, and right-handers Zach Thompson, Alexander Guillen, Anthony Bender, and Luis Madero) received spring invites on minor league contracts.

A veteran of nine big league seasons, Leon is best known for his five seasons with the Red Sox from 2015-19, a stint that saw him collect a World Series ring in 2018 and unexpectedly step up as an offensive threat (.845 OPS in 283 plate appearances) in 2016.  That 2016 campaign stands out as a big outlier amidst Leon’s overall career numbers, however, as he has a .216/.284/.327 slash line over 1379 career PA.

Leon didn’t even reach that modest level of production in 2020, as he hit .136/.296/.242 in 81 PA with the Indians.  It’s pretty clear Miami isn’t signing Leon for his bat, but rather his well-documented defensive skill — Leon is well-respected as a game-caller and he was an above-average pitch-framer in both 2018 and 2019.  Leon also has some impressive caught-stealing numbers over his career, though those totals have dipped over the last two years.

The signings of both Leon and Navarreto add some depth to a Marlins catching mix that consists of Jorge Alfaro and Chad Wallach.  Alfaro is coming off a tough season at the plate, but as a former top prospect, he’ll be given plenty more chances to firmly establish himself as a regular backstop.  Wallach is another defense-first catcher, so with Leon now in the mix, Wallach will need a solid showing in Spring Training to retain his job on the active roster.

Navarreto is back in Miami after making his MLB debut with the team last season, appearing in two games.  Originally a sixth-round pick for the Twins in the 2013 draft, Navarreto has hit .214/.264/.307 over 1753 career PA in the minors (in the Twins and Yankees farm systems) without ever reaching Triple-A ball.  He signed a minor league deal with the Marlins last winter but naturally never appeared in the minors due to the cancellation of the minor league season.

Alvarez is the only other member of the group to appear in the majors, as he hit .189/.268/.216 for the Marlins last season in the first 41 Major League plate appearances of his career.  Alvarez’s MLB debut made headlines, as the former Olympic silver medal-winning speed skater became the first former Olympian (in a sport besides baseball, of course) to appear in the majors since the legendary Jim Thorpe.  Beginning his career as an undrafted free agent, Alvarez has hit .278/.375/.413 with 40 homers over 2430 minor league PA, working mostly as a shortstop but also playing a significant amount of second and third base.

Minor MLB Transactions: 9/3/20

By | at

The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Marlins have outrighted hurler Brett Eibner and catcher Brian Navarreto to their alternate training site, per a team announcement. The 31-year-old Eibner, formerly an outfielder with the Royals, Athletics and Dodgers from 2016-17, reinvented himself as a pitcher and signed with the Marlins a month ago. The right-hander’s time with Miami hasn’t gone well, though, as he made two appearances and allowed three earned runs on four walks and two hits before the team designated him for assignment Aug. 29. The Marlins designated Navarreto, 25, on the same day as Eibner. Navarreto made his big league debut with the Marlins this year and went 2-for-5 in two appearances prior to his DFA.

Marlins Sign Ryan Lavarnway, Josh A. Smith

By | at

The Marlins announced a series of nine minor league signings on Wednesday, each of which contains an invitation to Major League Spring Training. In addition to confirming their previously reported signing of former All-Star Matt Kemp (more on that here), the Miami organization will bring two former big leaguers to camp: catcher Ryan Lavarnway and right-hander Josh A. Smith. Rounding out the list of non-roster invitees are catchers Brian Navarreto, Santiago Chavez and BJ Lopez; infielders Gosuke Katoh and Christian Lopes; and right-hander Aaron Northcraft.

Lavarnway, 32, has appeared in the Majors in eight of the past nine seasons — 2016 being the lone exception — but never tallied more than 166 plate appearances in a single MLB campaign. He’s a career .211/.270/.343 hitter in 445 trips to the plate at the big league level, and he owns a lifetime .272/.364/.426 batting line in 2055 Triple-A plate appearances spread across nine seasons. Lavarnway boasts a 31 percent caught-stealing rate in Triple-A but has struggled more in the Majors (20 percent).

Lavarnway has typically hovered around average in terms of pitch-framing in the upper minors (with the 2018 season being a notable outlier that saw him rate rather poorly). Miami has Jorge Alfaro and Chad Wallach on the 40-man roster but was thin at catcher beyond that, so the quartet of Lavarnway, Navarreto, Chavez and Lopez will add an influx of depth at the position.

Smith, also 32, pitched in 31 innings for the Red Sox in 2019 and has compiled 158 1/3 frames in the Majors between the Reds, A’s and Red Sox dating back to 2015. He has a career 5.40 ERA and a near-identical 5.37 FIP with averages of 7.5 K/9, 4.0 BB/9 and 1.65 HR/9 to go along with a 40.6 percent ground-ball rate.

The overall profile on Smith isn’t particularly appealing at first glance, but his curveball may have caught the attention of the Marlins. Smith ramped up the usage of his hook to a career-high 23.1 percent in 2019 and logged a career-high 12.1 percent overall swinging-strike rate (15.3 percent on the curve). Statcast pegged the spin rate on Smith’s curve in the 95th percentile among MLB hurlers, so perhaps the Marlins will look to more aggressively utilize that offering in hopes of coaxing better results out of the journeyman 32-year-old.

Yankees Acquire Brian Navarreto From Twins

By | at

The Yankees have acquired minor league catcher Brian Navarreto from the Twins in exchange for cash considerations, as first reported by Mariana Guzman (Twitter links). He’ll give the club some depth with Gary Sanchez on the injured list.

Obviously, this minor swap isn’t of the magnitude that most fans would hope with Major League Baseball’s trade deadline just around the corner, but adding some low-cost depth to help cover current injury troubles is a logical course of action for the Yankees. For the Twins, they have multiple minor league catchers ahead of Navarreto on the organizational depth chart.

Navarreto, 24, was Minnesota’s sixth-round pick back in 2012. He’s a quintessential glove-first backstop, as evidenced by a whopping 47 percent caught-stealing rate and consistently strong framing marks in his minor league career. He’s enjoyed a modest bump in power this season but has been a poor hitter overall — both in 2019 and throughout his minor league tenure. Navarreto is a lifetime .215/.265/.308 hitter in the minor leagues, including a lackluster .177/.229/.331 slash (five home runs, five doubles) in 140 plate appearances at the Double-A level this season.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top