Braves To Place Spencer Strider On Injured List
Braves righty Spencer Strider is going to start the season on the injured list due to an oblique strain, manager Walt Weiss announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Mark Bowman of MLB.com). The team hasn’t provided a formal timeline, but even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for around a month.
Strider, 27, last pitched a full season in 2023. He made only two starts in 2024 before requiring UCL surgery that would sideline him into the 2025 campaign. The rehab from that surgery, combined with a hamstring strain, limited Strider to 23 starts last year. He pitched 125 1/3 innings but worked with diminished velocity and overall stuff, leading to a 4.45 ERA and rate stats that were markedly worse than their pre-injury levels.
The hope had been for a healthier Strider to bounce back closer to his brilliant 2022-23 form. Instead, he’ll be the latest addition to a list of key players who are unavailable to begin the year. It’s been a nightmare spring for Atlanta. The Braves have lost righties Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep for months following surgeries to remove loose bodies from their elbows. Left-hander Joey Wentz tore his ACL and is out for the season. Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim suffered a hand injury in a fall before even reporting to camp and will be out for more than a month to begin the year. Left fielder/designated hitter Jurickson Profar was suspended for the entire season following a second positive PED test.
Atlanta’s lack of pitching depth has been a story throughout camp. With Strider headed to the injured list, the Braves will open the season with Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez and Grant Holmes as their top three starters. Lopez pitched only once last year due to shoulder surgery. Holmes suffered a UCL tear last summer and rehabbed it without surgery.
Plans beyond that top trio are murky for the time being. Right-hander Bryce Elder and left-hander José Suarez are out of minor league options and will presumably both make the roster, though either could be bound for the bullpen. Bowman calls Suarez a “likely” starter to begin the season and adds that the club could consider selecting the contract of non-roster veteran Martín Pérez, who’d previously been informed he was not making the club. Right-hander Didier Fuentes is still ticketed for the bullpen, Weiss tells Bowman.
It’s a paper-thin rotation group at this point, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos make some form of addition to further stockpile some depth. There ought to be several veterans opting out of/being released from minor league deals in the final days of camp, and arms of varying quality will be designated for assignment due to the annual Opening Day roster crunch.
Braves Sign Dominic Smith, Kyle Farmer To Split Contracts
The Braves announced that Dominic Smith and Kyle Farmer have been signed to Major League split contracts for the 2026 season. The two veterans were already in camp on minor league deals, but as Article XX(B) free agents, Smith and Farmer had the ability to opt out of their contracts five days before Opening Day if they weren’t added to the Braves’ 40-man roster.
These new deals mean that Smith and Farmer will be breaking camp with the club. The Braves have two open spots on their 40-man roster, so they can easily accommodate officially selecting Smith and Farmer closer to the team’s first game. Both players are out of minor league options and the Braves would have to designate either for assignment and then sweat out any waiver claims before sending either to the minors, plus Smith and Farmer have enough MLB service time to just reject a minor league assignment anyway.
It seemed like the two veterans were both somewhat long shots to make Atlanta’s roster, yet some opportunity was created when Jurickson Profar was issued a season-long PED suspension, and Ha-Seong Kim suffered a torn finger tendon that will keep him out until at least the start of May. The door may now be open for Smith to earn some at-bats as a left-handed hitting option for the DH spot, even if his usual first base spot is obviously filled by Matt Olson on an everyday basis. Smith has played in just one Major League game as an outfielder over the last four seasons, but he could get some occasional backup work if Ronald Acuna Jr. or Mike Yastrzemski needs a rest day.
For Farmer, Mauricio Dubon taking over the shortstop role in Kim’s absence means the Braves are short some versatile infield depth. Jorge Mateo and Brett Wisely are also competing for bench jobs and Eli White is expected to be the primary backup outfielder, and both Wisely and White are also out of minor league options.
Martin Perez is another minor league signing in Atlanta’s camp, and MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that Perez has been told he isn’t making the team. However, the veteran southpaw will forego his first Article XX(B) opt-out clause and remain in the organization as a Triple-A depth farm.
Poll: Who Will Be The Braves’ Fifth Starter?
The Atlanta rotation has had a rough go of it this spring. Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep both hit the injured list before Spring Training games even began, and now they’ve been followed by the loss of lefty Joey Wentz to a season-ending ACL tear. The timelines for Waldrep and Schwellenbach aren’t yet clear, but they figure to miss significant time following surgeries to remove loose bodies from their elbows. (Schwellenbach is already on the 60-day IL.) That leaves the Braves with a lot of uncertainty in the rotation. Grant Holmes and Reynaldo Lopez are coming off injury-marred 2025 seasons, but they’ll be relied on for mid-rotation innings behind Chris Sale and Spencer Strider.
There’s still one rotation spot open. Wentz was in position to make a play for that spot and had a decent spring showing: two runs, three hits, four walks, one hit batter, six punchouts in 5 2/3 innings (3.18 ERA). His injury opens the competition up to a larger group.
The on-paper favorite is likely to be right-hander Bryce Elder, who made 28 starts for the Braves last year. Elder is still just 27 years old and was an All-Star back in 2023 thanks to a big first half, but in his past 52 starts he’s posted a 5.63 ERA with a below-average 18.4% strikeout rate against an 8.3% walk rate. Metrics like SIERA (4.56) and FIP (4.76) have been a bit better kinder, but Elder is approaching 300 innings with an ERA north of 5.50 over the past two and a half calendar years.
Elder’s status as the presumptive favorite is more about incumbency, being on the 40-man roster and being out of minor league options. He hasn’t made a strong case this spring, turning in a lackluster 6.48 ERA in three starts. That leaves the door wide open for someone else to grab the job.
Left-hander José Suarez is also out of minor league options and on the 40-man roster. He has an uneven big league track record but pitched well between 61 2/3 minor league innings and 19 1/3 major league frames for Atlanta last winter. He’s allowed four runs in 6 2/3 spring innings. Suarez gave the Angels 207 1/3 innings of 3.86 ERA ball in 2021-22 before being tagged for a 6.91 ERA in 86 innings across a pair of injury-marred seasons in 2023-24.
The most prominent non-roster veteran in camp is southpaw Martín Pérez. The lefty has allowed only one run in five spring innings and is coming off a season where he posted decent numbers (3.54 ERA, 4.24 FIP) in 56 innings for the White Sox. Flexor and shoulder injuries shortened his 2025 season, and the days of Pérez’s blip of All-Star-caliber work with the Rangers (2.89 ERA, 3.9 fWAR in 2022) are likely behind him. Still, he has the potential to be an effective back-end starter.
Those aren’t the only options for the role. Veteran Carlos Carrasco is in camp, but after posting a 9.88 ERA in three starts for Atlanta last season and allowing nine runs on 11 hits in 6 1/3 spring innings this year, he seems unlikely to be the top choice. Didier Fuentes made his MLB debut last year and has tossed four scoreless innings this spring, but he won’t celebrate his 21st birthday until June and might be better served with more time in the minors. Top pitching prospect JR Ritchie enjoyed a strong season at Triple-A last year and has looked good so far this spring (3.38 ERA in eight innings). He’s not yet on the 40-man roster.
Another possibility that can’t be entirely ruled out is an external addition. Lucas Giolito remains available and seems like an obvious fit — despite an apparent lack of interest on Atlanta’s part thus far. Other veterans like Tyler Anderson and Patrick Corbin remain unsigned, too. Any of those pitchers could be added to the mix with the intent of them eventually taking over the fifth starter job, but the team would likely need to trade for a player that’s already been pitching for another club in order to add someone who will immediately be ready to join the rotation at the start of the season. A free agent like Giolito would surely need to get work in at extended Spring Training at this point.
How do MLBTR readers think the Braves will round out their rotation? Will they give the job to Elder and hope for better results than last year? Will they go with a young prospect like Fuentes or Ritchie, or perhaps a veteran like Pérez or Carrasco? Perhaps they’ll eschew all those options for an external addition? Vote now in the poll below:
Who will be the Braves' fifth starter this year?
Braves, Martín Pérez Agree To Minor League Deal
The Braves and left-hander Martín Pérez have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The Octagon client will presumably be in major league camp in spring training.
Pérez, 35 in April, is coming off a mostly lost season due to injury. He signed a one-year, $5MM pact with the White Sox to serve as a veteran innings eater on the rebuilding club. That didn’t work out as the southpaw was on the injured list by mid-April for inflammation in his throwing elbow. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with a flexor strain and it was questionable whether he would make it back from the IL.
The veteran did eventually come back in August but landed back on the IL in September due to a shoulder strain. Around the IL stints, he gave the White Sox 56 innings with a 3.54 earned run average, 19.3% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate and 39% ground ball rate.
For most of his career, Pérez has been a finesse lefty. His fastball has never averaged more than 94.2 miles per hour and has usually been a tick or two below that. He was in the 91-92 mph range in 2023 and 2024. He dropped down below 90 in 2025 but the injuries may have played a part in that. He has a six-pitch mix with a four-seamer, sinker, cutter, slider, curveball and changeup.
He has mostly been able to provide passable results. In his 1,631 2/3 career innings, he has a 4.41 ERA despite striking out just 16.3% of batters faced. His 8.3% walk rate is around average and his 48.4% ground ball rate is a few ticks better than par. He managed to get his ERA down to 2.89 with the Rangers in 2022, and parlayed that into a $19.65MM qualifying offer for 2023, which he accepted. But that campaign looks like a clear outlier, as he was back in the 4.50 ERA range for the next two seasons.
Atlanta has a good rotation on paper but with question marks all throughout the group. Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo López, Hurston Waldrep and Grant Holmes are likely the top six options right now. Sale won a Cy Young in 2024 but has generally been pretty injury prone in the seasons around that and will turn 37 soon. Schwellenbach missed the final three months of 2025 due to an elbow fracture. Strider missed most of 2024 due to ulnar collateral ligament surgery and posted a 4.45 ERA in his return last year. Shoulder surgery limited López to one start last year. Waldrep had a strong 2025 but still has fewer than 65 big league innings under his belt. Holmes has a partially torn UCL and is trying non-surgical rehab but will be a question mark until he ramps up in camp.
Given all that uncertainty, depth will be important. Bryce Elder is on the roster but posted an ERA north of 5.00 in each of the past two seasons. Prospect Didier Fuentes was rushed to the majors in 2025 and looked overmatched, allowing 20 earned runs in 13 innings.
Atlanta was connected to free agents Lucas Giolito and Chris Bassitt earlier this week, so perhaps a significant move will be forthcoming soon. For now, Pérez gives them a bit of extra depth without taking up a roster spot. He’ll look to pitch his way onto the roster. His chances of succeeding will naturally depend on his own performance but also on the team-wide health situation as things develop in the coming months.
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
Martín Pérez Declines Mutual Option With White Sox
The White Sox announced that left-hander Martín Pérez has declined his end of a $10MM mutual option for 2026. He will take a $1.5MM buyout and return to free agency. The Sox also announced that they triggered their club option on outfielder Luis Robert Jr., a decision that was previously reported.
Pérez, 35 in April, is coming off a mostly lost season. He signed with the Sox in January, a $5MM guarantee in the form of a $3.5MM salary for 2025 plus the aforementioned buyout on the mutual option. He made just four starts before elbow inflammation put him on the injured list. He was diagnosed with a flexor strain and didn’t return to the club until August. He finished the year with a 3.54 earned run average in 56 innings.
Given that he’s now one year older and is coming off a less impressive walk year, he should have less earning power compared to last offseason. That makes it somewhat surprising that he is turning down his end of the option. Perhaps he figured the club was going to turn him down anyway, so he proactively walked away and therefore avoided the awkward situation in which he would trigger his end but then be rejected by the team.
He will now return to free agency and look for his next opportunity. His 19.3% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate in 2025 weren’t especially impressive but he’s never been a huge strikeout guy. He at least finished the season healthy and could get another deal to serve as a veteran back-end guy in 2026.
The White Sox currently project to have a fairly inexperienced rotation. Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Grant Taylor, Yoendrys Gómez and Jonathan Cannon are some of the best options currently on the roster but no one in that group has more than 256 big league innings. Perhaps the Sox and Pérez could reunite but both parties will now be able to explore alternatives.
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
White Sox Place Martin Perez On IL Due To Shoulder Strain
The White Sox have placed veteran lefty Martin Perez on the 15-day injured list due to a shoulder strain, the team announced. The injury ends Perez’s season. Left-handed reliever Cam Booser is up from Triple-A Charlotte to take his spot on the roster.
Perez, 34, exited his last start early and clearly knew something was amiss. He delivered a pitch to Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday and quickly called for time before motioning for assistance from the training staff (video link). He looked directly at his shoulder, shook his head in frustration while handing the ball to manager Will Venable, and immediately departed with trainer James Kruk.
It’s been a frustrating year for the well-traveled Perez. He signed a one-year, $5MM deal with Chicago over the winter and has pitched quite well when healthy — but that’s an unusually notable caveat with Perez in 2025. The typically durable southpaw suffered a flexor strain during his fourth start of the season and was out for nearly four months. He returned in mid-August only to incur this shoulder injury in just his seventh start back on the bump.
Perez’s 2025 season will draw to a close with a solid 3.54 ERA — but in a relatively small sample of just 56 innings. It’s the fewest innings Perez has pitched in a season since 2014, when he underwent Tommy John surgery. He’s pitched in at least 26 games every full season since 2019 and also made a full slate of 12 starts in the shortened 2020 campaign. He’s been bumped to the bullpen amid a rough patch a couple of times — both with the ’21 Red Sox and the ’23 Rangers — but outside of a three-week absence due to a 2024 groin strain and a quick placement on the Covid list in 2021, this year’s pair of IL placements are Perez’s first since 2018.
The White Sox haven’t specified how long Perez will be sidelined, but ending the season with a shoulder strain after missing four months due to a flexor strain isn’t how any pitcher wants to head back into free agency. There’s a $10MM mutual option on Perez’s contract, but even if he were healthy, it’s been more than a decade since both sides of a mutual option were exercised in MLB. The Sox will pay Perez a $1.5MM buyout and he’ll become a free agent in November. The type of contract he signs will hinge heavily on the severity of his shoulder strain, which to this point remains an unknown.
White Sox Designate Jared Shuster For Assignment
The White Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve reinstated lefty Martin Perez from the 60-day injured list. Triple-A lefty Jared Shuster was designated for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster. Reliever Cam Booser was optioned to Triple-A to open a spot on the active roster.
Perez has been out since April 18 due to a flexor strain. He pitched quite well through his first four starts (3.15 ERA in 20 innings) but wasn’t healthy enough to develop into a potential trade deadline chip, as the rebuilding White Sox probably hoped when signing him to a one-year, $5MM contract over the winter.
Perez pitched a combined 6 2/3 innings over a pair of minor league rehab starts and will now at least get the opportunity to eat some innings for the Sox down the stretch — all while looking to showcase his health for interested clubs in the offseason. Perez’s deal contains a mutual option, but it’s been more than a decade since both ends of a mutual option was exercised by team and player alike. He’s all but certain to become a free agent again in November.
Shuster, 27, was a first-round pick of the Braves back in 2020 (No. 25 overall). He came to the South Side by way of the 2023 Aaron Bummer swap — a deal that netted the Sox five players but was more of a volume play wherein Chicago picked up several former top prospects in hopes of turning a couple of them around. It hasn’t panned out. Braden Shewmake, Michael Soroka and Nicky Lopez have all since been cut loose. With Shuster now designated for assignment and perhaps on his way out the door, 25-year-old righty Riley Gowens is the most promising remnant of that return. He’s posted a 4.05 ERA through 100 innings in his second go-around at the Double-A level and is not ranked among the system’s 30 best prospects.
In his two seasons with the ChiSox, Shuster has made 51 appearances — all but six of them out of the bullpen — and pitched a combined 89 innings with a 4.96 earned run average. He’s fanned only 16.9% of his opponents and turned in a 9.4% walk rate. Both, particularly the strikeout rate, are worse than league average.
Shuster has been up and down this season. Between his frequent shuttling from Chicago to Charlotte (where the Sox’ Triple-A club plays) and a 15-day IL stint due to blisters on his pitching hand, he’s pitched just 22 1/3 innings in Triple-A and 15 1/3 frames in the majors. His minor league work this year has also been lackluster, evidenced by a 6.04 ERA. Shuster’s 19.8% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate in Charlotte are at least moderately more encouraging than his MLB rate stats, but he’s also averaged two homers per nine innings pitched in Triple-A this year.
Shuster will be out of minor league options next year, so he was always a long shot to stick on the roster into next year’s camp. With the trade deadline behind us, he’ll be placed on waivers within the next five days. Shuster hasn’t been outrighted in the past and doesn’t have three years of MLB service, so if he goes unclaimed he’ll stick with the White Sox via an outright assignment to Charlotte.
White Sox Notes: Cannon, Alexander, Perez, Robert
The White Sox optioned starter Jonathan Cannon to Triple-A Charlotte this afternoon. They recalled Wikelman González and will work with a nine-man bullpen for the time being.
Aside from a three-week injured list stint in June, Cannon has held a spot in Chicago’s rotation all season. The former third-round pick has struggled to a 5.34 ERA with below-average peripherals in 19 appearances. Cannon’s 17.7% strikeout rate and 1.69 home runs per nine innings are both concerning. He has hit a particularly rough stretch of late, giving up 18 earned runs on six longballs over his past three starts.
Cannon, a second-year player, entered the season as one of the more experienced pitchers in a very young rotation. He made 23 appearances as a rookie. Cannon turned in a 4.49 ERA with a 17.4% strikeout rate during his debut campaign. If he spends at least 20 days in the minors, this will be his second of three option years.
Scott Merkin of MLB.com writes that Tyler Alexander will take the bulk work when Cannon’s turn through the rotation comes up next week against the Tigers. Alexander has worked in multi-inning relief since signing with Chicago in early June. He has turned in a 2.89 ERA across 37 1/3 innings. Alexander has gotten up to 3-4 innings out of the bullpen. He’ll slot behind Shane Smith, Aaron Civale, Sean Burke and Davis Martin in Will Venable’s rotation.
It might not be long before Martín Pérez rejoins the group. The veteran southpaw tossed four innings and 58 pitches in a rehab start with Double-A Birmingham this evening. That was his second rehab start as he works back from elbow inflammation that sidelined him in April. Pérez had made four starts before the injury, posting a 3.15 ERA while striking out 22% of batters faced. A return in the next couple weeks would allow him to make five or six more appearances before he heads back to free agency.
Meanwhile, GM Chris Getz spoke with reporters on Friday about the team’s decision not to trade Luis Robert Jr. (link via Vinnie Duber of The Chicago Sun-Times). The general manager talked about a desire to build around up-the-middle talent, also highlighting catchers Edgar Quero and Kyle Teel and a potential middle infield pairing of Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth.
Getz included Robert in that group. “We are excited about having Luis Robert in the White Sox organization. … When he’s playing well, the team is seemingly playing well and we are getting wins,” he said. “He’s a guy we like having in this organization, and we are planning on having him as part of the future.” None of that comes as a surprise after they elected to hold him beyond the deadline. Robert had started the season terribly, at least against right-handed pitching, but has mashed at a .365/.435/.554 clip since the beginning of July.
While that wasn’t enough to convince other teams that he’d found his star form, it has seemingly pushed the Sox into planning to exercise their $20MM club option. That could change if Robert slumps in the final six weeks, but not trading him wouldn’t make sense if the Sox don’t think there’s a good chance he’ll play well enough to be worth the option price. They could shop him again in the offseason or carry him into next season with the continued hope that he’ll play well enough to rebuild his trade value. His contract contains an additional $20MM team option for 2027.
Looking Ahead To Club Options: AL Central
MLBTR continues our division by division look at next year’s team/mutual option class with the AL Central. Virtually all of the mutual options will be bought out by one side. Generally, if the team is willing to retain the player at the option price, the player will decline his end in search of a better free agent deal.
Previous installments: player options/opt-outs, NL West, AL West, NL Central
Chicago White Sox
- Martín Pérez, LHP ($10MM mutual option, $1.5MM buyout)
Pérez signed a $5MM free agent deal to serve as the veteran presence in a very young White Sox rotation. Chicago hoped he’d pitch well enough in the first half to net a lottery ticket prospect at the deadline. Pérez was reasonably effective through his first three starts, but he came out of his fourth outing with forearm discomfort. A flexor strain diagnosis immediately sent him to the 60-day injured list. He’s expected to avoid surgery but will miss almost the entire season. A deadline trade is off the table, and he’ll be bought out at season’s end.
- Luis Robert Jr., CF ($20MM club option, $2MM buyout)
As recently as a few months ago, Robert’s $20MM club option looked like excellent value, as did the matching option for 2026. He was a down-ballot MVP performer in 2023, when he hit .264/.315/.542 with 38 homers while playing plus center field defense. The ’24 campaign was a struggle. Robert missed nearly two months early in the season with a hip flexor strain and was unproductive when healthy. He hit .224/.278/.379 with 14 homers in 100 games. Chicago held him into this year rather than sell low in an offseason trade.
That put a lot of pressure on Robert to hit early in the year. An excellent few months could make him one of the top position players available at the deadline. A terrible start might tank what remained of his trade value. The early returns are disastrous: .138/.255/.238 with 30 strikeouts in 96 plate appearances. There’s still time for a turnaround, but Robert may be following in the footsteps of Tim Anderson and Eloy Jiménez — players whose once team-friendly extensions soured to the point that they were traded for meager returns and/or bought out.
Cleveland Guardians
- John Means, LHP ($6MM club option, no buyout)
Means underwent UCL surgery last June. That was his second such procedure within the past three years. He’d undergone Tommy John surgery in 2022 and had only just returned before his elbow gave out again. The Guardians took a $1MM flier in free agency. The deal includes a $6MM team option for next season. Means is hoping to return to the mound in August or September. His late-season form will determine whether Cleveland wants to keep him around next year.
If the Guardians exercise the option, Means could unlock up to $2.5MM in performance bonuses. He’d earn $75K apiece at 20, 30, 40 and 50 innings pitched next year. That climbs to $100K each for 60, 70, 80 and 90 frames; $125K at 100, 110, 120 and 130 innings; and $150K apiece for 140 and 150 frames.
- Paul Sewald, RHP ($10MM mutual option, $1MM buyout)
Sewald had a pair of above-average seasons as Seattle’s closer between 2022-23. His production started to trend down after a ’23 deadline deal that sent him to Arizona. Sewald remained generally productive through the Snakes’ surprising World Series run that year. Last season was his worst since his 2021 breakout. He allowed a 4.31 ERA with declining velocity through 39 2/3 innings. The Guardians surprisingly guaranteed him $7MM to deepen an already excellent bullpen. The veteran righty has punched out 13 hitters through 10 1/3 frames, but he has already surrendered three homers while averaging just 90.2 MPH on his fastball.
Detroit Tigers
- John Brebbia, RHP ($4MM club option, $500K buyout)
Detroit added Brebbia on a $2.75MM contract early in Spring Training. It was a roll of the dice on the veteran righty’s intriguing swing-and-miss rates. Brebbia had allowed nearly six earned runs per nine innings last season (mostly with the White Sox), but he punched out nearly 28% of opposing hitters. Things have reversed early in his Detroit tenure. Brebbia has only allowed two runs (one earned) over his first nine innings. His 8.8% swinging strike rate is well below average, though, and he’s given out eight free passes — five walks and three hit batters.
Brebbia is working in low-leverage situations that suggest he’s towards the bottom of the bullpen depth chart. He’ll need to turn around his underlying numbers to pitch his way into more meaningful spots and, eventually, to convince the front office to exercise the option.
Brebbia could push the option price by another $4MM based on his performance this year. It’d climb by $500K at 65 appearances, $1MM apiece at 45 and 50 games finished, and by $2MM for 55 games finished. The maximum escalator value is capped at $4MM, so the appearance threshold would essentially be nullified if Brebbia finishes 55 games and pushes the option value to $8MM based on that criteria alone. He has finished six of eight appearances so far.
- José Urquidy, RHP ($4MM club option, no buyout)
Urquidy’s situation is similar to that of Means. The former Astros righty required Tommy John surgery last June. Houston waived him at the end of the season. He reunited with A.J. Hinch in Detroit on a $1MM contract. Urquidy won’t be an option until the final few weeks of the season in a best case scenario. Detroit can gauge his progress to determine whether they want to retain him at a $4MM base value. Urquidy could tack on another $3MM if the Tigers exercise the option: $150K each at four and seven starts next year; $300K apiece for 10, 13, 16 and 19 starts; and $500K each at 22, 25 and 28 starts.
Kansas City Royals
- Michael Lorenzen, RHP ($12MM mutual option, $1.5M buyout if team declines its end)
Kansas City brought Lorenzen back on a $7MM free agent deal. He’s playing on a $5.5MM salary and would collect a $1.5MM buyout on a $12MM mutual option assuming the Royals decline their end. He grabbed a season-opening rotation spot with both Alec Marsh and Kyle Wright on the shelf. Lorenzen has had a customary start to the season. He carried a 4.57 ERA with a below-average 17.7% strikeout rate into this evening’s appearance against the Rockies. He’s through five scoreless innings against Colorado at the time of this writing.
- Salvador Perez, C ($13.5MM club option, $2MM buyout)
Perez is making $22MM in the final season of the four-year extension that he signed in March 2021. At the time, it was the largest contract in organizational history. (Bobby Witt Jr. has since shattered that record.) Perez is a franchise stalwart, of course, but it was still surprising to see the Royals guarantee him $82MM for his age 32-35 seasons — especially given the heavy workloads he’d taken throughout his career.
The nine-time All-Star has rewarded the team’s faith. He led the majors with 48 homers and 121 RBI in 2021, though he was already under contract for that season anyhow. He combined for a .261/.307/.447 slash over the first three seasons of the extension. Perez eclipsed 20 home runs in each, and he won the AL Silver Slugger Award behind the dish with a .271/.330/.456 showing during last year’s playoff season.
Perez has started this season more slowly. He entered today’s doubleheader with a .185/.235/.293 line, though he has picked up four doubles over two games against Colorado pitching. If this continues all season, the Royals could face a tough decision, but the safer bet right now is that Kansas City will exercise the option. It’s tough to imagine Perez playing anywhere else.
Minnesota Twins
- Harrison Bader, CF ($10MM mutual option, $1.5MM buyout)
Minnesota added Bader on a $6.25MM contract amidst a quiet offseason. They’ve preferred to have a capable right-handed hitting fourth outfielder who can reduce Byron Buxton’s workload in center field while complementing their lefty-hitting corner bats. Bader has started 18 of the team’s first 25 games. He’s hitting .230/.319/.393 with a trio of home runs through 69 plate appearances. It’s an early improvement over last year’s .236/.284/.373 showing, but it’s unlikely the Twins would exercise their end of a $10MM option.
The bigger factor might be Bader’s semi-regular playing time. He could push the buyout price as high as $3MM based on this season’s plate appearance total. It has a $1.5MM base value and would climb by $200K at 400, 425 and 450 plate appearances, then by $450K at 475 and 500.
Note: Justin Topa’s arbitration contract contains a $2MM club option or a $225K buyout for next season. He’d remain eligible for arbitration if the team declines the option, as he will not have reached six years of service time.
Martín Pérez To Miss Majority Of 2025 Season
5:25pm: Perez has been diagnosed with a flexor strain, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com.
3:15pm: White Sox left-hander Martín Pérez is on the injured list with inflammation in his throwing elbow and it doesn’t appear he will be coming back soon. Jesse Rogers of ESPN reports that the southpaw won’t require Tommy John surgery but his season is effectively done regardless, though he could be throwing again in September.
The lefty departed Friday’s game after just three innings and the Sox placed him on the 15-day IL the next day. The club didn’t provide any updates about how long they expected him to be out of action, but they quickly moved him to the 60-day IL yesterday when they added Bobby Dalbec to the roster. That at least indicated they didn’t expect him back within a couple of months, but it now seems he’ll be out longer than that and may not return this year at all.
That’s obviously unfortunate for both Pérez and the Sox. The two sides agreed to a one-year, $5MM pact in the offseason. With the Sox having lost 121 games last year, the plan was presumably to have Pérez act as a stabilizing veteran presence in the rotation for at least a few months. If he pitched well into July, he would have been traded to a contender for prospects, giving him a chance to potentially play meaningful games while the Sox would add young talent to help in their rebuild.
That’s all off the table now. Pérez made just four starts before landing on the shelf and it’s possible he won’t get a chance to add to that. Even if he does make it back in September, that would only give him a chance to make a start or two. In that scenario, the Sox might prefer to give the ball to young pitchers they are hoping to evaluate before the winter sets in.
For now, the rotation on the South Side consists of Sean Burke, Jonathan Cannon, Davis Martin and Shane Smith. A fifth starter will be needed at some point to replace Pérez. Jairo Iriarte, Nick Nastrini and Owen White are each on the 40-man and pitching in Triple-A so far this year. Justin Dunn is a non-roster depth arm with big league experience, also in Triple-A at the moment. Some pitchers recently designated for assignment by other clubs include Triston McKenzie and Yoendrys Gómez and Michael Fulmer.
Photo courtesy of Eric Canha, Imagn Images