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Nathan Eovaldi

Rotation Notes: Scherzer, Stroman, Imanaga, Eovaldi

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The Blue Jays will activate Max Scherzer from the 60-day injured list on Wednesday to start Toronto’s game against the Guardians, the team announced.  Scherzer has thrown two Triple-A rehab outings and then tossed 30-40 pitches in a bullpen session today in what seems like the final checkpoint in an extended recovery process from a thumb problem that has plagued the future Hall-of-Famer for over a year.  “My stuff is fine.  I’m trying everything I can to manage this (thumb) and make sure I can recover.  There’s no knowing, just have to get out there,” Scherzer told Sportnet’s Hazel Mae and Shi Davidi.

Scherzer signed a one-year, $15.5MM deal with the Jays this past offseason, but he lasted just three innings before thumb soreness forced him out of his Toronto debut on March 29.  As Scherzer acknowledged, it is anyone’s guess as to whether or not this thumb problem could resurface, and it stands to reason that the Blue Jays will limit Scherzer’s pitch count.  Since the 50-pitch threshold has generally been the tipping point for Scherzer’s thumb, it is a good sign that he threw beyond 50 pitches in both of his rehab starts, topping out at 74 pitches.  Toronto seems likely to explore piggyback or long relief options behind Scherzer on Wednesday and for the foreseeable future, until Scherzer feels comfortable enough to test throwing deeper into games.

Here’s the latest on some other prominent pitchers nearing a return to a big league mound…

  • Marcus Stroman will throw his third and possibly final minor league rehab start on Tuesday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone told MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch and other reporters.  Assuming Stroman gets through that outing (set for roughly 70 pitches) feeling good, Boone said Stroman might then “be in the mix” to be activated from the 60-day IL.  The right-hander made three starts before knee inflammation sent Stroman to the IL in April, and a setback resulted in Stroman being shifted to the 60-day IL as he continued his recovery process.  With Ryan Yarbrough hitting the 15-day IL today, there’s a ready-made opening for Stroman within New York’s rotation.
  • A left hamstring strain has kept Shota Imanaga out of action since the first week of May, but after making three minor league rehab starts, Imanaga will return to the Cubs’ rotation this week.  Manager Craig Counsell shared the news with reporters (including Vinnie Duber of the Chicago Sun-Times), but stopped short of confirming that Imanaga would indeed pitch during the four-game series with the Cardinals that begins on Monday.  The Cubs are still monitoring Matthew Boyd after the southpaw suffered a bruised shoulder in his last start, so there’s a bit of flux in the rotation order until Boyd’s status is confirmed.  Regardless, Imanaga’s return is obviously great news for a Chicago team is leading the NL Central despite operating without Imanaga and Justin Steele for the majority of the season.  Following his spectacular 2024 rookie year, Imanaga has kept it going in 2025 with a 2.82 ERA in 44 2/3 innings and eight starts this season.
  • Nathan Eovaldi hasn’t pitched since May 27 due to right posterior elbow inflammation, but it seems as though he’ll return to the Rangers without a minor league rehab assignment.  Manager Bruce Bochy indicated (to Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News and other reporters) that Eovaldi will be activated from the 15-day IL to start during the Rangers’ upcoming series with the Mariners that begins on Friday.  Though Eovaldi won’t need any rehab starts, he did ramp up in the form of a live batting practice session of over 50 pitches on Saturday.  With Tyler Mahle, Jon Gray, and Cody Bradford all still on the Texas IL, getting staff ace Eovaldi back is an enormous help, as the righty had a sterling 1.56 ERA in his first 69 1/3 innings of the season.

Rangers Place Nathan Eovaldi On Injured List, DFA Tucker Barnhart

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The Rangers are placing right-hander Nathan Eovaldi on the 15-day injured list, according to a report from Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News. Right-hander Codi Heuer is being selected to the big league roster to replace Eovaldi on the pitching staff, while catcher Tucker Barnhart was designated for assignment to make room for Heuer on the 40-man roster. It’s not yet clear who will replace Barnhart on the active roster.

Eovaldi has been utterly dominant in his age-35 campaign, with a 1.56 ERA through 12 starts this year. His last start on May 27 was abbreviated due to fatigue in his right triceps, and his departure from that game was initially labeled as precautionary. Losing him for any amount of time is a brutal blow to an already struggling Rangers club, but the good news is that manager Chris Young told reporters (including McFarland) that this IL stint is still largely out of precaution; Eovaldi isn’t dealing with any structural damage, but the team is just hoping to get the veteran additional time to heal up. His IL stint can be backdated to May 28, meaning that Eovaldi could return as soon as June 12 against the Twins. Eovaldi’s spot in the rotation is expected to be taken by Kumar Rocker, who Young suggested will come off the injured list on Wednesday.

In the short-term, Eovaldi’s spot on the roster will go to Heuer. The right-hander turns 29 next month, but hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2021. He excelled with the White Sox out of the bullpen during his rookie season in 2020 and then was included alongside Nick Madrigal in the trade that sent Craig Kimbrel from the Cubs to the White Sox at the 2021 trade deadline. At the time of the deal, Heuer looked like a future high-leverage arm and posted a solid 3.14 ERA in 28 2/3 innings of work down the stretch for the Cubs.

Unfortunately, Heuer underwent Tommy John surgery in Spring Training of 2022. He missed that entire season, and then missed all of the 2023 season as well when he suffered an elbow fracture while rehabbing from that surgery. The devastating sequence of injuries led the Cubs to non-tender Heuer following the 2023 season. He signed a minor league contract with the Rangers prior to the 2024 season and has remained in the organization ever since. He finally made it back to a professional mound earlier this year and has pitched quite well at Triple-A, with a 3.27 ERA in 22 innings of work to go with a 26.3% strikeout rate. Heuer will now have an opportunity to re-establish himself as a potential late-inning arm in the majors for a Rangers club that could use additional help in the bullpen with top setup man Chris Martin on the shelf.

As for Barnhart, the journeyman catcher is in his 12th season as a big leaguer. After winning two Gold Glove awards in his seven seasons as the primary catcher for the Reds from 2015 to 2021, Barnhart signed with Detroit for the 2022 season and appeared in 94 games but has bounced around the league as a part-time player ever since. After stints with the Cubs and Diamondbacks in 2023 and ’24, Barnhart was serving as a third catcher for the Rangers this year while Kyle Higashioka was getting more regular reps at DH. He made it into just eight games with the club in total, however, and now the Rangers will have one week to either trade Barnhart or attempt to pass him through waivers. If Barnhart clears waivers, he’ll have more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Red Sox Notes: Eovaldi, Zavala, Gambrell

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Nathan Eovaldi started for the Red Sox on Opening Day each year from 2020-22, pitching a combined 16 1/3 innings with a 2.76 ERA. Today, the Red Sox will face their former no. 1 starter on Opening Day, sending their new ace, Garrett Crochet, to the bump against Eovaldi and the Rangers.

Facing Eovaldi is never an enviable task – the right-hander has a winning record and an ERA under 4.00 in each of the past five seasons – but the Red Sox, in particular, probably aren’t thrilled to be meeting up with their old friend this afternoon. After all, they made an effort to re-acquire him this past offseason, and as it turns out, they were the runner-up for his services. According to Rob Bradford of WEEI, six teams showed legitimate interest in signing Eovaldi this winter, but the veteran’s decision ultimately came down to Texas or Boston. However, it’s not known how much money the Red Sox were willing to offer or if their final bid came close to the three-year, $75MM guarantee he landed with the Rangers.

Interestingly, Boston’s trade for Crochet came together less than 24 hours after Eovaldi signed with Texas. That’s not to say the Red Sox wouldn’t have pursued Crochet if they landed Eovaldi, but it’s a possibility worth considering. If that’s true, one could argue that missing out on Eovaldi was the best possible outcome for Craig Breslow and company. Eovaldi is a great pitcher, but Crochet is coming off an All-Star season and already looks like a strong early contender for the AL Cy Young.

Of course, the Red Sox would have been even better off with both Crochet and Eovaldi atop their rotation, especially now that so many of their other starters are on the IL, namely Lucas Giolito, Brayan Bello, and Kutter Crawford. And while the Red Sox surely have high hopes for the free agents starters they added this offseason – Walker Buehler and Patrick Sandoval – Eovaldi would have been a far less risky signing.

In other Red Sox news, catcher Seby Zavala has accepted his outright assignment and will begin the season with the Triple-A WooSox, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. The 31-year-old was informed last week that he would not be making the Opening Day roster. While the minor league deal he signed with Boston in November included an assignment clause that allowed him to seek out an opportunity on another team’s 40-man roster, it appears he was not able to find such an opportunity and has instead reported to Triple-A. A veteran of five big league seasons, Zavala is a plus defender with 183 games of MLB catching experience. He will offer the Red Sox depth behind starting catcher Connor Wong, backup Carlos Narvaez, and Blake Sabol, who has a spot on the 40-man roster but will start the season at Triple-A.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox have released Grant Gambrell, a minor league right-handed starter (h/t to Christopher Smith of MassLive). Gambrell was one of five players Boston received in 2021 as part of the three-team trade that sent Andrew Benintendi to the Royals. The Red Sox initially acquired outfielder Franchy Cordero from Kansas City and right-hander Josh Winckowski from the Mets, while Gambrell was one of three players to be named later, along with fellow righty Luis De La Rosa and outfielder Freddy Valdez. As Smith points out, Winckowski is now the only player from that trade who is still playing in the Red Sox organization. Gambrell had pitched relatively well in Boston’s system over the past two years, putting up a 3.81 ERA and 4.29 FIP in 41 games (39 starts). However, he was never a top prospect, and now 27 years old, the Red Sox have evidently decided he does not fit into their future plans.

Rangers Notes: Rocker, Eovaldi, Langford

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Rangers righty Kumar Rocker made his Spring Training debut today against the Royals. The results weren’t good — he allowed four runs in his inning of work — but that’s inconsequential this early in camp.

As Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News writes, manager Bruce Bochy and GM Chris Young have left open the possibility for Rocker to break camp. That might require an injury elsewhere in the rotation, however, as it seems Rocker enters Spring Training sixth on the depth chart. Texas has a veteran top four: Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle and Jon Gray. The fifth spot could come down to a battle between Rocker and left-hander Cody Bradford — with the latter potentially having the leg up.

“We’re going to see where we come out of camp, where we are from a medical standpoint, who’s healthy, how guys have thrown the ball, but (Rocker is) certainly one that is in our plans,” Young said. “We just can’t tell you exactly how at this point.” The third overall pick in the 2022 draft, Rocker earned a brief debut last September. He started three games, allowing six runs (five earned) through 11 2/3 innings. The 6’5″ righty recorded 14 strikeouts with an excellent 13.3% swinging strike rate. It’s an exceedingly small sample, but he looks capable of missing bats at the highest level.

Rocker averaged 96 MPH on his heater, while opponents had few answers for his slider. The latter pitch may already be one of the game’s top breaking balls. Baseball America graded the slider as a plus-plus offering (70 on the 20-80 scale) while ranking Rocker among their top 20 prospects. The 25-year-old will certainly be a factor at some point this season, though it remains to be seen how the Rangers want to handle his workload. Rocker underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 and has all of 19 professional appearances under his belt. He has tallied fewer than 30 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. Rocker carved up minor league hitters upon returning from the surgery, working to a 1.96 ERA with 55 strikeouts in 36 2/3 frames over 10 appearances.

The 27-year-old Bradford has almost the polar opposite approach. He’s a soft-tossing lefty who relies on a plus changeup and elite command. Despite lacking huge stuff, Bradford turned in a 3.54 ERA with a solid 22.7% strikeout rate over 76 1/3 innings last season. A back injury cost him three months, but he was a quietly productive starter when healthy. Both Rocker and Bradford have minor league options remaining. While Dane Dunning remains on hand as well, he’s likelier to pitch in long relief after a rough ’24 season.

There’s no doubt about Eovaldi’s role. He’ll be back in the top half of the rotation after re-signing on a three-year, $75MM free agent deal. The 13-year MLB veteran has been incredibly consistent, turning in a sub-4.00 ERA in five straight seasons. That hasn’t stopped him from using exhibition play to tinker with his arsenal.

Eovaldi told reporters last week that he has been working on a two-seam fastball throughout the offseason (link via Kennedi Landry of MLB.com). The righty confirmed that he used it a few times in his Spring Training debut on Friday against Kansas City. Brooks Baseball tracked five of his pitches as sinkers (which is the two-seam fastball) over two innings. Eovaldi has had a five-pitch mix for most of his career: four-seam, splitter, cutter, curveball and a slider that he only throws against right-handed hitters. He told Landry and other reporters that he’ll continue to work on the two-seam, which he wants to run up and in against righty batters to keep them off the splitter lower in the zone.

One player who has yet to get his exhibition season underway: second-year left fielder Wyatt Langford. Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports was among those to report last week that Langford was being held back from baseball activities for a few days after being diagnosed with a mild oblique strain. Bochy maintained that the Rangers consider this a minor setback and anticipate that Langford will be ready for Opening Day. He’ll look to build off a solid rookie season in which he hit .253/.325/.415 with 16 homers across 557 plate appearances.

MLBTR Podcast: Winter Meetings Recap

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams and Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Rangers Re-Sign Nathan Eovaldi

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Nathan Eovaldi is headed back to Texas. The Rangers finalized the right-hander’s three-year free agent deal on Thursday evening. It’s reportedly a $75MM guarantee for the ACES client.

The deal includes a $12MM signing bonus that’ll be paid in $6MM in installments after the 2026 and ’27 seasons. Eovaldi’s salaries for the next three years will be $18MM, $25MM and $20MM, respectively. The backloaded contract affords Texas some short-term payroll flexibility. Eovaldi also gets a full no-trade clause.

It’s a somewhat shocking contract for the right-hander in a hot pitching market that has exceeded expectations across the board. Eovaldi is the latest pitcher to beat early offseason projections, and his guarantee significant outpaces the two-year, $44MM pact that MLBTR predicted for the righty as part of our annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list. The fact that the Rangers went to a third year in order to land Eovaldi is particularly noteworthy, as it’s just the third time since 2010 that a pitcher entering his age-35 season or later has landed a guarantee longer than two years according to MLBTR’s Contract Tracker. Rich Hill’s three-year pact with the Dodgers is nearly a decade old at this point, and good a pitcher as Eovaldi is, he’s not a Hall of Fame-caliber talent like Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom before him.

On the other hand, it’s worth pointing out that deGrom’s aforementioned contract was signed just two winters ago by the same Rangers club that has now brought Eovaldi back into the fold. That could suggest that Chris Young’s front office is simply more willing to roll the dice on aging pitchers they believe in compared to other organizations. If that’s the case, it’s certainly understandable that they’d choose Eovaldi to place that bet on. In his first two years with the club, the veteran right-hander provided much-needed stability to the club’s rotation with a 3.72 ERA (110 ERA+) and 3.86 FIP in 54 starts.

While those numbers may not immediately jump of the page, Eovaldi’s underlying metrics suggest he’s still among the better front-of-the-rotation options available this winter even as he starts to age. His 95.6mph average fastball velocity is still strong, and he’s still limiting walks (7.0% with the Rangers) and generating grounders (49.5% groundball rate) at a high clip. Those strong peripherals come in addition to his phenomenal resume in key moments. Eovaldi offered the Rangers a dominant six-start performance in the postseason as he helped lead the Rangers to the first World Series championship in franchise history back in 2023, when he pitched to a 2.95 ERA and struck out 26.8% of opponents in 36 2/3 innings of work to add to an impressive postseason resume from his years with the Red Sox.

It’s that stability the Rangers hope Eovaldi will continue to bring to the front of their rotation going forward. The club has a number of interesting options, ranging from the elite but oft-injured deGrom to exciting but unproven youngsters like Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. With Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney both ticketed for free agency this winter, however, the Rangers were left with zero pitchers who made even 20 starts for the club in 2024. That made adding a stable source of innings a priority for the club, and they’ve now done so by bringing Eovaldi back into the fold where he’ll head a rotation that also figures to feature some combination of deGrom, Rocker, Leiter, Jon Gray, Tyler Mahle, Cody Bradford, and Dane Dunning. It’s possible they’ll continue to add to that rotation mix, as Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported in the aftermath of Eovaldi’s decision that the Rangers hope to add another starter in addition to bullpen help this winter.

Those pursuits could come amid a bit of a budget crunch for the club. Reporting early this offseason suggested that the club could look to duck under the luxury tax threshold this winter. With Eovaldi back in the fold, RosterResource projects the club for a payroll just north of $219MM for tax purposes in 2025. That leaves the club with around $21MM in breathing room before they go over the first threshold, which is set at $241MM. Adding multiple relievers and another starter in free agency could be a tall order with that limited budget room unless the club is willing to deal salary elsewhere, though the trade market could also represent a way to add pitching talent at a lower financial cost.

Turning to the pitching market as a whole, the majority of top free agent starters are off the market at this point. Right-handers Corbin Burnes and Jack Flaherty are still available in terms of potential front-of-the-rotation arms, while mid-rotation pieces Sean Manaea and Nick Pivetta also remain available. Of that quartet, only Flaherty isn’t encumbered by a Qualifying Offer that would force acquiring clubs to forfeit draft capital and international bonus pool money in order to sign him. For clubs looking to avoid signing another club’s qualified free agent such as the Orioles, whiffing on Flaherty (and, in the case of Baltimore specifically, Burnes) would leave them forced to resort to back-end veterans such as Heaney and Jose Quintana or reclamation projects such as Walker Buehler in order to add starting pitching talent.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the Rangers were re-signing Eovaldi. Jeff Passan of ESPN was first with the three-year, $75MM terms. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported that it was a backloaded arrangement with an $18MM salary in year one. Jon Heyman of the New York Post had the specific salary breakdown and the no-trade clause.

Rangers Still Pursuing Reunion With Nathan Eovaldi

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The Rangers continue to pursue a reunion with free agent starter Nathan Eovaldi, GM Chris Young confirmed today at the Winter Meetings. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports that Texas has a meeting scheduled with the right-hander’s representatives on Monday evening.

Eovaldi is one of the better unsigned pitchers in a quick-moving rotation market. Unlike Corbin Burnes and Max Fried, he’ll be limited to a relatively short-term deal. Eovaldi turns 35 in February. That’s an age at which very few free agent pitchers get three years. Using MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, we see that there are only three free agent starters 35 or older who signed for at least three years within the past decade: Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Rich Hill.

MLBTR thus predicted two years at a hefty $22MM average annual value for Eovaldi. The rotation market has been quite strong early on, however, so it’s not out of the question that he gets to three years on a deal that pushes past $60MM total. Even if he’s limited to two years, it’ll very likely cost north of $20MM annually.

It’s not clear whether the Rangers would find that price palatable. They’ve scaled back spending in consecutive winters as they navigate an uncertain future with their in-market television deal. Grant reported in October that Texas was hoping to keep their luxury tax number below next year’s $241MM base threshold. RosterResource calculates the Rangers’ CBT number around $195MM. They’ve got a decent amount of flexibility, but something like $22MM annually for Eovaldi would account for nearly half the gap. Texas needs to acquire multiple relievers as well, and teams generally prefer to leave some payroll space for deadline acquisitions. A club’s luxury tax number isn’t calculated until the end of the season, so salary taken on midseason counts towards it on a prorated basis.

Eovaldi unsurprisingly has broad appeal on the market. He has gotten reported interest from the Orioles, Mets, Braves and Red Sox. He still has above-average velocity and is coming off a 3.80 ERA showing with good strikeout and walk numbers. Eovaldi also has a strong reputation for his performance in the postseason, including a 2.95 ERA over six starts during the Rangers’ 2023 World Series run.

Mets Interested In Eovaldi, Manaea, Pivetta, Flaherty

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The Mets’ offseason has thus far revolved around their pursuit of Juan Soto and their attempts to reload a pitching staff full of free agents.  Sean Manaea and Jose Quintana are on the open market and Luis Severino has already departed to sign a three-year, $67MM deal with the Athletics.  New York has responded by signing Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes to relatively inexpensive contracts, but the team could be looking at further bolstering the rotation with a bigger splash.

Nathan Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, and Jack Flaherty are three of the names the Mets have shown interest in this winter, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon.  Re-signing Manaea is also still a possibility, as Rosenthal/Sammon note that the Mets remain open to a reunion with the left-hander.

Montas signed a two-year, $34MM contract, while the Mets gave Holmes $38MM over a three-year deal.  Given that Eovaldi has a lengthy injury history and is entering his age-35 season, his next contract isn’t likely to surpass three years in length, which fits David Stearns’ preferred method of giving shorter-term contracts to pitchers.  MLBTR projected Eovaldi to land a two-year, $44MM contract, though it is easy to imagine Eovaldi landing more from the Mets or another team considering how many pitchers have already landed higher-than-expected paydays this offseason.

Despite his age, Eovaldi has remained a very solid pitcher, and it was just in 2023 that he posted an All-Star season while helping the Rangers win the World Series.  The 2024 campaign saw Eovaldi deliver a 3.80 ERA and above-average strikeout and walk rates, and his 170 2/3 IP marks the third-highest innings total of his 13 big league seasons.  The right-hander is no stranger to high-pressure championship games in big markets, and seems like a strong fit on a Mets team that has designs on contending for a World Series in 2025.

Flaherty won a ring himself with the Dodgers just this season, capping off a strong bounce-back season that saw him post a 3.17 ERA over 162 combined innings with Los Angeles and Detroit.  The righty is now looking to translate that platform year into a big contract, and since he just turned 29, Flaherty is also younger than Eovaldi, Manaea (33 in February), and Pivetta (32 in February).  However, that also means Flaherty is seeking a longer-term deal, with Rosenthal and Sammon figuring a contract of between four and six years.

MLBTR’s projection split that difference with a five-year, $115MM prediction for Flaherty’s next contract.  It remains to be seen if the Mets would be willing to meet that price, or if Stearns is wary about giving such a deal to a pitcher who battled injuries and ineffectiveness from 2020-23.  This isn’t to say that the Mets president of baseball operations is entirely adverse to longer-term contracts, though Stearns’ chief tactic has been to seek out “the next Flaherty” in the sense of looking for promising arms with bounce-back potential.

Re-signing Manaea is perhaps the most comfortable option given the Mets’ pre-existing familiarity with the veteran left-hander.  There was plenty to like about Manaea’s first season in Queens, and he chose to capitalize on his strong season by opting out of the final year of his contract (worth $13.5MM) with the Mets to pursue a bigger deal in free agency.  Interestingly, Rosenthal and Sammon write that at least one other team interested in Manaea has discussed the possibility of a four-year contract, which would be a bold commitment to a pitcher of Manaea’s age and somewhat inconsistent track record.

The qualifying offer is also a factor in the Mets’ pursuits.  Eovaldi and Flaherty weren’t eligible for the QO and thus no compensation is attached to their services.  Manaea and Pivetta both turned down qualifying offers from the Mets and Red Sox, so their next teams will have to surrender some form of draft or international bonus pool capital in order to sign either pitcher.  This wouldn’t be an obstacle for the Mets in re-signing Manaea since teams don’t have to give up any compensation to re-sign their own player, but signing Pivetta would cost the Mets $1MM in int’l bonus money plus their second- and fifth-highest selections in the 2025 draft.

Boston’s decision to issue Pivetta was seen as a bit of a surprise, and it could be that being attached to a compensation package might dull Pivetta’s market to some extent.  Pivetta is a durable pitcher with quality secondary metrics, yet he was more solid than outstanding over his four-plus seasons with the Red Sox, posting a 4.29 ERA over 633 innings.  This might not be enough of a resume to move the Mets to give up two picks and $1MM from their bonus pool, especially since New York might already be giving away such a bounty if they sign Soto (another qualified free agent).  Signing two QO-rejecting players would cost the Mets $2MM in pool money, as well as their second, third, fifth, and sixth-highest picks in the 2025 draft class, so it doesn’t seem like the Mets would add onto Soto with another qualified free agent.

Orioles Reportedly “Reluctant” To Pursue QO Starters From Other Clubs

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The Orioles made their first major splash on the free agent market this evening when they agreed with outfielder Tyler O’Neill on a three-year deal. That signing addressed their desire to add a right-handed bat to the lineup following the departure of switch-hitting free agent Anthony Santander, who was their best hitter in the outfield against left-handed pitching. The club’s biggest need of the winter remains unaddressed, however: a top-of-the-rotation arm to fill the void left by Corbin Burnes when he elected free agency last month.

While the club has previously been connected to top-of-the-market hurlers including former Braves southpaw Max Fried, a report this afternoon from Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic shed some light on the club’s strategy for this winter’s pitching market by noting that the club is “reluctant” to pursue qualified free agent pitchers from other clubs. That stance would seemingly exclude them from not only the Fried sweepstakes but also the market for Sean Manaea and Nick Pivetta, the latter of whom they were previously connected to this winter.

There’s still a number of interesting free agent starters available this winter who don’t fit that description, led by a reunion with Burnes. Re-signing Burnes wouldn’t cause the Orioles to lose a draft pick beyond the opportunity cost of not receiving the pick after the first round they’d be in line to receive should he land elsewhere, but Rosenthal and Sammon suggested the chances of Burnes returning to Baltimore seem “remote” at this point given the possibility that the winter’s #2 free agent becomes the center of attention for Juan Soto bidders who fail to land the superstar slugger. For the Orioles’ part, GM Mike Elias made clear during an appearance on MLB Network Radio last month that the club would “love” to bring Burnes back into the fold for 2025 and beyond.

Should they find themselves outbid for Burnes, however, he’s far from the only viable option to improve the club’s rotation without forfeiting a draft pick. Rosenthal and Sammon describe both veteran right-hander Nathan Eovaldi and righty Jack Flaherty as more appealing to the Orioles than a pursuit of Fried, Manaea, or Pivetta. Of the two, they report that the Orioles appear to prefer Eovaldi after Flaherty’s disastrous run with Baltimore following the trade deadline back in 2023, where he surrendered a 6.75 ERA in 34 2/3 innings of work before turning things around with the Tigers and Dodgers this past year with a 3.17 ERA and 3.47 FIP in 28 starts.

Eovaldi also figures to be much cheaper than Flaherty this winter; on our annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list, MLBTR predicted a two-year, $41MM contract for the veteran while predicting Flaherty would land $115MM over five years. Rosenthal and Sammon also suggest that Flaherty figures to land a contract in the four- to six-year range this winter, and while they don’t comment on Eovaldi’s expected contract it’s worth noting that deals of that length for a pitcher entering their age-35 season as Eovaldi is are all but unheard of in today’s game, with Jacob deGrom standing out as the notable exception to that rule. Eovaldi’s platform season saw him pitch to a 3.80 ERA and 3.83 FIP in 29 starts that don’t quite match up to Flaherty’s performance, though the veteran does offer a lengthy track record of mid-rotation success that compares favorably to Flaherty’s up-and-down career in terms of on-field results over the past half decade.

It also seems at least plausible that the Orioles could look to get creative as they search for rotation upgrades. Rosenthal and Sammon report that Baltimore was among the clubs that had interest in right-hander Clay Holmes before he signed with the Mets yesterday. While Holmes has been a reliever for the majority of his MLB career, the Mets signed him to pitch in their rotation and Rosenthal and Sammon indicated that Baltimore would’ve done the same had they landed him, though some of his other suitors planned to keep him in the relief role in which he turned in a dominant three-and-a-half year stretch with the Yankees. While it’s currently unclear if the club would consider any other free agent relief arms for a move to the rotation, both Michael Soroka and Jeff Hoffman have received buzz as potential starting pitching options this winter after successful runs in relief in 2024.

Orioles Interested In Nathan Eovaldi

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The Orioles and Atlanta are two of the clubs that are interested in free agent right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, per Jon Morosi of MLB Network (X link). The interest from Atlanta was previously reported.

Eovaldi, 35 in February, is a plausible fit for many clubs in the league. Given his age and injury history, he won’t be able to secure a long-term commitment. But since he’s been a consistently strong performer in recent years, he should still be in demand. MLBTR predicted him for a $44MM guarantee on a two-year deal as part of the annual Top 50 Free Agents post. Perhaps he could get a third year, but he’s not really out of any club’s price range.

Whoever signs Eovaldi will be getting a player with a checkered health history, as he’s undergone two Tommy John surgeries in his career. Many players with that distinction have struggled to continue performing at a high level but Eovaldi has been quite steady of late.

He missed the 2017 season while recovering from that second surgery, was good in 2018 but wobbled a bit in 2019. But he’s made 115 starts over the past five years with a 3.75 earned run average. He didn’t finish any of those seasons with an ERA higher than 3.87. His strikeout rate finished between 22.4% and 26.1% in those campaigns, his walk rate between 3.5% and 8.1%, and his grounder rate between 42% and 51%. Overall, it’s been 654 2/3 innings with a 24% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate and 46.9% ground ball rate.

That kind of performance would upgrade just about any rotation in baseball, so they each should have some level of interest, especially given the cap on Eovaldi’s earning power. The Rangers have interest in bringing him back but he’s also been connected to Atlanta, the Red Sox and now the Orioles. It seems fair to assume that several other clubs are also interested, even in the absence of explicit public reporting.

Baltimore is certainly a logical fit, given their rotation situation. Their 2024 ace Corbin Burnes is now a free agent. Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells are each going to miss at least part of the 2025 season as they recover from UCL surgeries. Trade deadline acquisition Trevor Rogers struggled after being acquired and was quickly demoted to the minor leagues.

The current rotation nucleus consists of Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer. Rogers could jump in there if he gets back on track next year. Albert Suárez just wrapped up a solid year in a swing role, but since he’s a 35-year-old journeyman, the O’s would probably prefer to add some arms and bump him back into that sixth or seventh starter slot. Chayce McDermott and Cade Povich made their major league debuts in 2024 but without fully cementing themselves as viable big leaguers.

In short, the club could certainly do with an upgrade or two. The big question for the O’s is what kind of approach they will take this winter. It’s been almost seven years since the Orioles have given out a multi-year deal to a free agent, as shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker. The last time they did so was a four-year deal for Alex Cobb back in March of 2018. After that, the club went into a lengthy rebuilding process and then was up for sale. David Rubenstein bought the club from the Angelos family, though that sale wasn’t complete until the spring of 2024.

That makes the O’s hard to predict this winter, as it will be the first offseason of the Rubenstein era. There are some signs that greater spending will be possible. The club took on some notable money at the deadline by acquiring Eflin and Seranthony Domínguez. Eflin is making $18MM in 2025 while Dominguez had an $8MM club option that the O’s eventually picked up. A couple of weeks ago, general manager Mike Elias said that “the whole spectrum” of pitching upgrades were being considered. He went on to thank ownership for making all possibilities viable but also cautioned that the O’s wouldn’t be spending money just for the sake of it.

Reading the tea leaves, it seems fair to expect something more aggressive than they’ve done in recent years, though that could come in many forms. Burnes is still available and is lined up to secure a deal well into nine-figure territory. He and Blake Snell were the top two names available but Snell has reportedly agreed to a five-year deal with the Dodgers, a guarantee of $182MM but with deferreals dropping the net present value into the $160-165MM range. Max Fried is also likely to end up with nine digits and Jack Flaherty has a chance to do so as well. The middle market has seen Yusei Kikuchi and Nick Martinez come off the board but it still features Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and others.

RosterResource projects the Orioles for a modest $99MM payroll, with literally nothing on the books for 2026 and beyond. That payroll is already a bit higher than last year’s $93MM Opening Day figure from Cot’s Baseball Contracts, but as mentioned, it’s possible that the new ownership group is willing to push things further. It also wouldn’t be unprecedented for the franchise, as Cot’s had them as high as $164MM in 2017, before their fortunes fell and they spiralled into their aforementioned fallow period.

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