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Nick Gordon

Royals Release Nick Gordon

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The Royals have released infielder/outfielder Nick Gordon, who’d been with their Triple-A affiliate in Omaha, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. He’s free to explore opportunities with other teams.

Gordon, 29, has spent time with the Triple-A affiliates for both the Orioles and Royals already in 2025. Kansas City acquired him from Baltimore in exchange for cash early in the season. He’s tallied 20 games on the whole and turned in a .270/.333/.333 batting line with an 8.7% walk rate and 31.9% strikeout rate in 69 trips to the plate.

Selected with the No. 5 overall pick by the Twins back in 2014, Gordon hasn’t lived up to his prospect status but has seen action in parts of four MLB seasons — including a particularly solid 2022 run with Minnesota (.272/.316/.427 in 443 plate appearances). That solid year has been an outlier in his big league career, however. Gordon carries a lifetime .243/.283/.386 batting line in the majors and hit just .227/.258/.369 in 275 plate appearances with the Marlins last year.

Gordon was originally a shortstop but has greatly expanded his defensive profile as his professional career has progressed. He’s now seen significant time at shortstop, second base and across all three outfield spots. He was near-exclusively an outfielder in Miami last season, logging only 15 innings at second base. Though shortstop was his original position, it’s now generally regarded as his worst; he’s played only 4 1/3 innings there — majors and minors combined — since Opening Day 2023.

Royals Acquire Nick Gordon

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1:27PM: The Orioles will receive cash considerations in return, MLB.com’s Anne Rogers reports.

12:28PM: The Royals have acquired Nick Gordon from the Orioles, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports.  Baltimore’s end of the trade return isn’t yet known.  Gordon signed a minor league deal with the O’s last winter, and he’ll now join the team that his father Tom pitched with from 1988-95.

Drafted fifth overall by the Twins in 2014, Gordon is a known commodity to the Royals from his 243 games with Minnesota across the 2021-23 seasons.  It seemed like Gordon was breaking through when he hit .272/.316/.427 over 443 plate appearances for the Twins while playing all over the diamond in a super-sub role, but a fractured shin limited him to 34 MLB games in 2023.  Minnesota then dealt Gordon to the Marlins in February 2024, and Gordon hit only .227/.258/.369 over 95 games and 275 PA with Miami, playing mostly as a left fielder.

This tenure in South Beach ended when the Marlins outrighted Gordon off their 40-man roster last August, and he spent the rest of the season in Triple-A.  He elected minor league free agency in October and landed with Baltimore, though his chances of making the Opening Day roster always seemed rather slim, given the number of infield options the Orioles already had available.

Gordon will now get a fresh start in Kansas City, and perhaps be in a slightly better position for a big league call-up.  The Royals have other MLB-experienced players as Harold Castro and Jordan Groshans at Triple-A, though the likes of Nick Loftin, Joey Wiemer, or Drew Waters (who have also seen time in the majors) are already on the 40-man roster.  The fact that the Royals went out and got Gordon, however, indicates that the team wasn’t entirely satisfied with its roster depth, plus Gordon adds some more left-handed hitting to the mix.

Orioles Sign Nick Gordon To Minors Contract

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The Orioles announced that utilityman Nick Gordon has been signed to a minor league contract.  Gordon hit the open market after electing to become a minor league free agent after the season, following an outright off the Marlins’ roster in August.

Injuries and some struggles in the upper minors kept Gordon from making his MLB debut until 2021 and his age-25 season, but as recently as the 2022 season, Gordon hit .272/.316/.427 with nine homers over 443 plate appearances and 136 games with the Twins.  While not the heights expected of Gordon as the fifth overall pick of the 2014 draft, it seemed like he’d found a nice niche for himself as a multi-positional weapon, as he saw a lot of playing time in left field, center field, and both middle infield spots that season.

In 2023, however, Gordon got off to a slow start and then fractured his shin on a foul ball in May.  He played in a few Triple-A games in September but the injury ended his Major League season after 34 games and a .503 OPS over 93 PA.

This ended up also being the end of Gordon’s tenure in Minnesota, as the Twins dealt him to the Marlins last February for lefty Steven Okert.  The change of scenery didn’t help Gordon, as he hit .227/.258/.369 over 275 PA and 95 games, playing primarily in left field with some time in center and at second base.  With the Marlins wanting to give more playing time to younger players down the stretch, Gordon was designated for assignment and then outrighted in August.

The Orioles might also have some interest in seeing if Gordon can be a late bloomer at age 29, similar to how the O’s struck gold in revitalizing Ryan O’Hearn’s career in 2023.  However, it is more likely Baltimore views Gordon as more of a depth signing to add some veteran experience to the minor league ranks, as the Orioles are already deep in left-handed hitting outfielders and middle infielders.

10 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

Outfielders

Pitchers

Marlins Outright Nick Gordon

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Infielder/outfielder Nick Gordon has been sent outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.

Gordon, 28, is a former first-round pick and top 100 prospect with some major league success on his track record. But the fact that no club was willing to claim him off waivers demonstrates how much his stock has fallen lately.

His best major league season was 2022, when he got into 138 games for the Twins. He hit .272/.316/.427 for a wRC+ of 111 while stealing six bases and bouncing around the diamond, playing the three infield spots to the left of first base as well as the outfield.

But then he put up a dismal line of .176/.185/.319 in 2023 before fracturing his tibia by fouling a ball off himself, which ended his season in mid-May. He was traded to the Marlins coming into 2024 and bounced back a bit, but not much. He slashed .227/.258/.369 on the year before getting cut from the roster this week.

Despite his former prospect pedigree and defensive versatility, he’s now out of options and has a .244/.283/.386 batting line in over 1,000 major league plate appearances, which translates to a wRC+ of 86. Any club could have nabbed him off waivers but they all passed.

Gordon has more than three years of major league service time, which gives him the right to reject this outright assignment and elect free agency. But since he has less than five years of service, he would have to forfeit what’s left of his salary in order to do so. He’s making $900K this year, leaving roughly $246K left to be paid out. Rather than leave that on the table, he might report to Jacksonville and provide the Marlins with some non-roster depth.

Marlins Designate Nick Gordon For Assignment

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The Marlins are designating utilityman Nick Gordon for assignment, reports Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. Miami picked up Gordon in an offseason trade sending reliever Steven Okert to the Twins. He’s out of minor league options and thus wasn’t eligible to be sent down without first passing through waivers — which is where he’ll head now that he’s been DFA’ed and the trade deadline has passed. Miami has since announced the trade and formally added weekend waiver claim Derek Hill to its active roster.

Gordon, 28, has primarily played left field for the Fish this season but has also logged 16 games in center and another six at second base. The former No. 5 overall pick has swatted eight homers — one shy of his career-high — but carries a generally tepid .227/.258/.369 batting line in 275 plate appearances. This season’s 24.4% strikeout rate is higher than the 22.7% mark he carried into the season and miles above the 11.8% mark he showed in 93 plate appearances with Minnesota during the 2023 season.

Originally drafted as a shortstop, Gordon never saw much run at the position by the time he reached the majors in 2021. The Twins only gave him 155 innings there from ’21-’23, and the Marlins haven’t played him there for even one inning. Minnesota broke Gordon in primarily as a center fielder and second baseman, giving him ample reps at the former spot during IL stints for oft-injured center fielder Byron Buxton.

Though Gordon hasn’t lived up to that draft billing, back in 2022 he looked to have carved out a nice role as a heavily used bench/utility piece for manager Rocco Baldelli in Minnesota. He hit .272/.316/.427 (111 wRC+) with nine homers, 28 doubles, four triples and six steals in 443 plate appearances — all while splitting his time between center field, left field and the three non-first-base infield spots. Gordon got out to an awful start in 2023, however, and compounded that sluggish beginning of the year with a major injury when he fractured his tibia upon fouling a ball into his leg. That proved to be a season-ender, and he’s not yet returned to form following the offseason trade that shipped him to Miami.

The Marlins gave Gordon a decent look in the outfield but are turning things over to a younger contingent following their deadline dealings. They acquired corner outfielder Kyle Stowers from the Orioles in their trade of Trevor Rogers, and Stowers will likely step into Gordon’s slot as the primary left fielder. (Infield prospect Connor Norby, acquired alongside Stowers, could also get a look in left field if the Marlins don’t view the bat-first Norby as a long-term option at second base.) Post-deadline waiver claims of center fielders Hill and Cristian Pache further squeezed Gordon out of the picture, it seems.

Both Pache and Hill are now on the active roster. Gordon will be placed on outright waivers or released in the coming days. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment to the minors if he clears, but doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of this season’s $900K salary, so he’ll very likely head to Jacksonville if he’s not claimed by another club.

Marlins, Twins Trade Nick Gordon For Steven Okert

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The Marlins and Twins have agreed to a deal that will send infielder/outfielder Nick Gordon to Miami in exchange for left-hander Steven Okert.  FanSided’s Robert Murray (X link) was the first to report Gordon was being traded to the Fish, while the Miami Herald’s Craig Mish reported (via X) that Okert was heading to Minnesota.

Gordon was the fifth overall pick of the 2014 draft, and a top prospect for much of his time in the Twins’ farm system even though his star began to dim due to injuries and struggles in the upper minors.  With a career .248/.298/.361 slash line over 829 career Triple-A plate appearances, Gordon still made his MLB debut in 2021 appearing in 73 games for the Twins, and then took on a larger role with 443 PA over 136 games in 2022.  Gordon earned that extra playing time by hitting .272/.316/.427 during the 2022 campaign, and his ability to play multiple positions made him a particularly valuable asset on a Minnesota team that beset by injuries.

Unfortunately, the injury bug again came for Gordon himself last year, as he fractured his right shin after fouling a ball off himself on May 17.  This ended his MLB season after only 34 games, and Gordon made it back for six Triple-A games in September but wasn’t ready to return to the active roster before the end of the regular season.  Gordon had been off to a tough start even before his injury, hitting only .176/.185/.319 in 93 PA.

The trade comes just a day after the results of Gordon’s arbitration hearing, and the panel sided with the Twins by deciding on a $900K salary for Gordon in 2024, rather than his desired figure of $1.25MM.  Gordon is heading into his age-28 season but is still arb-controlled through the 2027 campaign as per his Super Two status.  Okert offers only a bit less control, as was arb-eligible for the first of three times this winter and avoided arbitration by agreeing with the Marlins on a $1,062,500 salary for the 2024 season.

It was a little over a year ago that the Twins and Marlins lined up on the blockbuster four-player swap that sent Luis Arraez to Miami and Pablo Lopez to Minnesota.  Today’s move isn’t nearly as high-profile, yet it does mark the fifth transaction between the two franchises within the last 13 months, as the Twins’ comfort level with Miami’s front office has continued even now that Peter Bendix has taken over from Kim Ng as the head of the Marlins’ baseball ops department.

Gordon has spent most of his time in the majors as a second baseman, center fielder, and right fielder, with a handful of appearances at shortstop, third base, and right field.  The public defensive metrics haven’t been wowed by Gordon’s glovework at any of his positions, yet his sheer versatility makes him an interesting asset on Miami’s roster.  Gordon isn’t likely to be answer to the Marlins’ needs at shortstop, though if Jon Berti ends up getting the bulk of playing time at short, Gordon might fill Berti’s old role as the chief utility option.

As Anthony Franco recently observed in a piece for MLBTR’s Front Office subscribers, the Marlins entered the offseason with quite a bit of left-handed relief depth, between Okert, Tanner Scott, A.J. Puk, and Andrew Nardi.  Scott didn’t seem likely to be moved given his role as Miami’s projected closer, and unlike Okert, Scott and Puk both have minor league options remaining.  Since Gordon is also out of options, this one-for-one swap helps both teams address some needs at the cost of a potentially expendable player.

A veteran of six MLB seasons with the Giants and Marlins, Okert posted a 2.89 ERA over 87 1/3 relief innings for Miami in 2021-22, with the aid of a .224 BABIP.  Some course correction arrived in 2023, as Okert had a .295 BABIP and a 4.45 ERA over 58 2/3 frames, and a pretty mixed bag of peripherals.  Okert’s strikeout and hard-hit ball rates were both well above average, but his walk and barrel rates were both below the league average.  The 32-year-old Okert is also an extreme fly ball pitcher, so his effectiveness has tended to hinge on how well he fares at keeping the ball in the park.

On the plus side, Okert has good numbers against both left-handed and right-handed batters, and he has been a workhorse with 124 appearances over the last two seasons.  He’ll now join Caleb Thielbar as the top southpaw options in Minnesota’s very solid relief corps, and rookie Kody Funderburk provides another interesting left-handed arm who could be shuttled back and forth from Triple-A as circumstances dictate.

Between payroll cuts and concerns over their TV contract, the Twins’ offseason has only started to kick into high gear over the last couple of weeks.  Minnesota has now dealt both Jorge Polanco and Gordon in an effort to upgrade its pitching depth at the expense of a somewhat crowded group of position players, particularly within the infield.  Even without Gordon, Willi Castro and Kyle Farmer can pick up the utilityman slack on the Twins’ roster, and top prospects Austin Martin and Brooks Lee are both expected to make their MLB debuts in 2024.

Nick Gordon Loses Arbitration Hearing Against Twins

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Utilityman Nick Gordon has lost his arbitration hearing against the Twins, according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. He’ll receive a $900K salary in 2024 after filing at $1.25MM. MLBTR Contributor Matt Swartz projected Gordon for a $1MM salary in arbitration this winter, though arbiters have to pick between the numbers filed by player and team and cannot choose a midpoint figure.

Gordon, 28, qualified for arbitration for the first time in his career this offseason as a Super Two player. The top 22% of players with between two and three years of service time are given Super Two status, which grants them an additional year of arbitration eligibility. The 28-year-old’s first trip through arbitration this winter comes on the heels of a lost season in 2023 where Gordon did not appear in the majors after May 17 due to a fractured shin he sustained after fouling a ball off his leg during that day’s game against the Dodgers. Gordon struggled to a .176/.185/.319 slash line during his 34-game stint with the club last season, though he had begun to heat up somewhat with an .805 OPS and six extra base hits in his previous 15 games entering the day of the injury.

The lost season in 2023 belies the breakout season Gordon enjoyed in 2022. After being selected fifth overall in the 2014 draft, Gordon was a mainstay on top prospect lists for several years but stalled out at the Triple-A level in 2018, where he’d remain until getting his first crack at a major league role in 2021. While Gordon’s numbers in a bench role that season were hardly eye-opening, he nonetheless entered the 2022 campaign as a member of the club’s Opening Day roster. Gordon opened the season as a part-time player who mainly played left and center field, but eventually grew into more of a regular role with the club after slashing .302/.348/.535 across a 31-game stretch from late May until early July.

After that hot stretch, Gordon fell back to Earth a bit as he slashed a decent .266/.315/.425 the rest of the way. Those solid numbers coincided with a noticeable bump in playing time; while Gordon started just 55 of the club’s 94 contests prior to the All Star break, he drew 58 starts across the 69 regular season games the club played following the break. Altogether, Gordon stepped to the plate 443 times in 2022 while appearing at every position on the diamond except for first base and catcher. In doing so, the switch-hitter slashed a respectable .272/.316/.427 that was good for a 111 wRC+.

Turning back to the coming campaign, the Twins will enjoy some short-term savings on Gordon’s 2024 salary, while the utilityman will face somewhat reduced earning power in future trips through arbitration due to the lower starting point being used as a base for raises in future trips through arbitration, which he is slated to go through three more times before he’s schedule to hit free agency following the 2027 season. Updates on Gordon’s health were relatively few and far between throughout the 2023 campaign after he was placed on the 60-day injured list back in May, but he figures to be ready for Spring Training and enter the season on the club’s bench alongside the likes of Kyle Farmer and Willi Castro.

Gordon’s hearing was the only one scheduled for the Twins this winter, though six more cases are slated to be heard around the league next week. Of course, some of the players and clubs remaining could agree to a deal to avoid a hearing entirely, as Adolis Garcia and Jonathan India did earlier this week with the Rangers and Reds, respectively. While most clubs operate under a “file and trial” system where they don’t hold contract discussions after last month’s deadline to file salary figures for the 2024 campaign, that moratorium on negotiations typically doesn’t apply to multi-year deals like the two-year pacts India and Garcia both signed. Players have enjoyed some considerable collective success to this point in the process, winning seven of the ten hearings that have taken place to this point.

Requested Salary Figures For 22 Players Who Didn’t Reach Agreements By Arbitration-Filing Deadline

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Today was the deadline for teams and players eligible for arbitration to exchange salary figures for the 2024 season ahead of possible arbitration hearings. And, as usual, the vast majority of eligible players worked out deals for 2024 (and, in some cases, beyond) before the deadline this afternoon. While these agreements are all listed in MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker, unfinished business remains around the league. 22 players have not yet settled on a salary for the 2024 and are therefore at risk of having their salaries determined by an arbiter. That number is down considerably from last season, when 33 players exchanged figures. Of note, this list does not include Brewers right-hander Devin Williams. While the sides exchanged figures earlier this evening, they managed to avoid arbitration after the deadline had passed.

This year, arbitration hearings will begin on January 29th and run through February 16th, two days after pitchers and catchers are due to report for Spring Training. While there’s nothing stopping teams and players from settling to avoid arbitration between now and their hearing, the majority of clubs employ a “file and trial” approach to arbitration hearings, stopping negotiations prior to the formal exchange of figures in order to put additional pressure on players to agree to a deal early. While this approach generally puts a moratorium on discussion of one-year deals, teams are typically still willing to discuss multi-year pacts beyond today’s deadline.

Below are the 22 players who have yet to reach an agreement regarding their 2024 salaries, as well as the players’ requested salaries and the counteroffers issued by clubs. The league tends to pay close attention to arbitration salaries because outliers can serve as precedent going forward, raising the bar both for individual players and players as a whole in the future. That reality incentivizes teams to strictly stick to a “file and trial” approach in arbitration and risk a tense hearing between club and player rather than bridge even fairly minimal gaps between club and player salary figures.

[RELATED: Arbitration projections from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz]

14 of the league’s 30 clubs have at least one case that has yet to be settled. The Orioles have the most cases that have yet to be settled, with five players on track for a hearing against the club. That being said, it’s worth noting that Baltimore has a massive, 17-player class of arbitration-eligible players, so it’s hardly a surprise that they wound up exchanging figures with an elevated number of players. Toronto first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. submitted the highest salary figure among all players headed for a hearing at $19.9MM, while the Rangers and outfielder Adolis Garcia narrowly top Guerrero and the Blue Jays for the largest gap between figures, with $1.9MM separating Garcia’s request of $6.9MM from the Rangers’ $5MM counteroffer.

The total list, which will be updated as settlements are reached and the results of hearings are made available…

Twins Transfer Nick Gordon To 60-Day Injured List

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The Twins announced this morning they’ve transferred utilityman Nick Gordon from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. The move clears a spot on the 40-man roster for Royce Lewis, who has been reinstated from the 60-day IL. Minnesota also confirmed they’ve activated Max Kepler from the 10-day IL and optioned both Matt Wallner and Kyle Garlick to Triple-A St. Paul to clear active roster space.

Gordon fractured his right shin a little less than two weeks ago. The left-handed hitter fouled a ball off his leg during a loss to the Dodgers. Minnesota hasn’t provided specifics on the 27-year-old’s recovery timetable, but it’s now official he’s in for a lengthy absence. The transfer backdates to May 19, the date of Gordon’s initial IL placement. Nevertheless, it ensures he won’t be able to return until the third week of July at the earliest.

It has been a tough season for the former fifth overall pick. Gordon is hitting .176/.185/.319 over 34 games. Even before the leg injury, it had marked a disappointing follow-up to a solid .272/.316/.427 showing over a career-high 443 plate appearances last year.

Lewis officially returns one year to the day since his last MLB action. The former first overall pick tore the ACL in his right knee for the second time in as many seasons last May. The injuries have kept him to just 12 big league games to date, but the 23-year-old certainly still has time to emerge as a key contributor for Minnesota.

Dan Hayes of the Athletic chatted with Lewis and his mother Cindy about the physical and mental challenges associated with near-consecutive year-long rehab processes. Lewis has shown no signs of rust on a rehab stint with St. Paul, hitting .333/.371/.727 with four homers in 35 trips to the plate. He’s expected to log a decent amount of action on the left side of the infield. Carlos Correa is day-to-day with plantar fasciitis, while third baseman José Miranda struggled enough that the Twins optioned him a few weeks ago. Kyle Farmer has taken the bulk of third base reps since Miranda’s demotion.

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