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11 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.

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Blue Jays Outright Paolo Espino

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The Blue Jays have sent right-hander Paolo Espino outright to Triple-A Buffalo, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been designated for assignment a few days ago when the club claimed righty Dillon Tate off waivers. Espino has the right to elect free agency but it’s not yet clear if he’s chosen to do so.

Espino, 37, signed a minor league deal with the Jays in the winter. He was added to the roster about a week into the season and made two long relief appearances at that time. The first one was pretty good, as he tossed two scoreless innings, but the second one saw him allow four earned runs in 2 2/3.

He was optioned to Buffalo after that and wasn’t recalled until months later. He made a spot start on July 31 just after the Jays had traded Yusei Kikuchi, Yimi García, Nate Pearson and Trevor Richards, leaving the pitching staff in a state of flux. Espino ate four innings in that spot start but also allowed four earned runs, increasing his season-long ERA to 8.31 before getting optioned back to Buffalo again.

The Jays have since bolstered their pitching staff by letting Bowden Francis take hold of a rotation spot and have filled their bullpen via various waiver claims and small trades. With expanded September rosters, the odds of them needing a spot starter such as Espino are a bit lower. They also have Jake Bloss, part of their Kikuchi return, in the Buffalo rotation now.

All those factors led to Espino getting nudged off the roster and it’s not too surprising that he didn’t get claimed by another club. He has been a solid innings eater in the past, throwing over 100 innings in both 2022 and 2023 while suiting up for the Nationals in a swing role. But given his age and 5.18 ERA in Triple-A this year, there wouldn’t be too much use for him right now. Clubs in contention will have set their sights higher while the others will be using the next few weeks to evaluate younger arms.

Blue Jays Claim Dillon Tate

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The Blue Jays announced this afternoon that they’ve claimed right-hander Dillon Tate off waivers from the Orioles and optioned him to Triple-A. Right-hander Paolo Espino was designated for assignment to make room for Tate on the 40-man roster.

Tate, 30, was taken by the Rangers as the fourth overall pick in the 2015 draft and was a part of two blockbuster trades before he made his MLB debut. First, he was swapped from Texas to the Bronx in the deal that made Carlos Beltran a Ranger in 2016, and then two years later he was dealt from the Yankees to the Orioles at the 2018 trade deadline as part of the package that sent Zack Britton to New York. Once he joined his third organization, Tate made his big league debut in fairly short order when he debuted with Baltimore during the 2019 season. That first season in the majors did not go especially well, as he pitched to a lackluster 6.43 ERA in 21 innings of work.

After struggling to start his big league career, Tate managed to settle in over the next few years to become a reliable member of the club’s bullpen. From 2020 to 2022, the right-hander pitched to a solid 3.65 ERA with a 3.88 FIP in 141 appearances, becoming a stable middle relief option for Baltimore. That includes a particularly strong performance during the 2022 season, when the Orioles surged back over .500 for the first time since the 2016 season. That year, Tate was excellent with a 3.05 ERA and 3.28 FIP in 73 2/3 innings of work. While he struck out just 20.5% of opponents that year, he made up for that with a walk rate of just 5.5% and an elite 57.4% groundball rate.

Unfortunately, things went off the rails for Tate following that excellent 2022 season. Elbow and forearm issues wiped out the right-hander’s 2023 season in its entirety, and when he returned earlier this year he didn’t appear to be the same pitcher he was in 2022. In 33 1/3 innings with the big league club this year, Tate struggled to a 4.59 ERA and saw his strikeout rate drop to just 15.5% while his groundball rate dropped to a diminished (but still excellent) 50.9% figure. Those lackluster results and shaky peripherals were enough to convince the club to designate Tate for assignment just a few days ago, and now he’ll look to get back on track with the Orioles’ division rival Blue Jays. If Tate’s time in Toronto goes well, they’ll have the opportunity to retain the right-hander for the 2025 season via arbitration.

As for Espino, the 37-year-old righty has spent the 2024 season with the Blue Jays after signing a minor league deal with the club back in December. He’s pitched 8 2/3 innings for the club to brutal results with an 8.31 ERA and 9.06 FIP across three appearances, and his 5.18 ERA in 17 starts at the Triple-A level hasn’t been much better. The veteran hurler sports a 5.12 ERA and 5.06 FIP in 265 2/3 career innings of work spread across parts of six seasons since he made his big league debut back in 2017, and figures to return to Triple-A with Toronto to continue eating innings in the likely event that he clears waivers.

Blue Jays Designate Wes Parsons For Assignment

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The Blue Jays have selected the contract of right-hander Paolo Espino from Triple-A Buffalo and designated right-hander Wes Parsons for assignment in a corresponding move, the team announced Friday.

Parsons, 31, has spent the past two seasons with the Jays after a two-year run in the Korea Baseball Organization. He’s logged just nine innings over three appearances at the MLB level with Toronto dating back to a spot start last October. The results haven’t been pretty. Parsons was tagged for nine runs in four innings against the Rays in that spot start, and this season he’s served up another six runs in five innings of relief. On the whole, he’s yielded 15 runs on 16 hits and five walks with five strikeouts in nine frames for the Jays.

Rough as that showing has been, Parsons pitched decently for the Jays’ Triple-A club in 2023, tossing 81 2/3 frames over 17 starts and recording a 4.52 ERA, 27.6% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate. He was effective for the KBO’s NC Dinos as well, making 32 starts and turning in a 3.68 ERA while striking out more than a quarter of his opponents. In his limited time with Toronto, Parsons has shown five pitches — four-seamer, two-seamer, curveball, slider, changeup — averaging 94.7 mph on his four-seamer and 93.5 mph on his sinker. The right-hander, who’s in his final minor league option year, will either be traded, placed on outright waivers or released within the next week.

Espino, 37, spent the 2020-23 seasons in the Nationals organization, oscillating not only between the big leagues and Triple-A but also between starting and bullpen roles. He pitched 233 innings with the Nats in the majors, working to a 4.91 ERA with a below-average 19.5% strikeout rate but an excellent 5.4% walk rate.

Espino doesn’t throw hard, sitting just 88-89 mph with his fastball, and his extreme fly-ball tendencies could be a tough fit in the American League East. That said, he excelled in spring training, tossing 17 innings with a 2.65 ERA, 36.4% strikeout rate and 3% walk rate. That brilliant showing earned him a look with the Jays, and he can now add some length to their bullpen in the event of a short start or a game getting out of hand.

Blue Jays Reportedly Sign Paolo Espino

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The Blue Jays and right-hander Paolo Espino are in agreement on a contract, according to a report from Jon Heyman of the New York Post. There are no details on the specifics of the deal, though it’s presumably a minor league pact with an invite to major league Spring Training.

Espino, 37 next month, started his professional career all the way back in 2006 when he was drafted by Cleveland in the 10th round of that year’s draft. He first broke into the big leagues more than a decade later with a 6.00 ERA in 24 innings of work split between the Brewers and Rangers during the 2017 season. Espino was then relegated to the minors for the next two seasons before eventually resurfacing with the Nationals during the 2020 season. Though he pitched just six innings for the club during the shortened season, the performance went reasonably well as he posted a 4.50 ERA and 4.02 FIP with seven strikeouts across two appearances.

That cup of coffee with the Nationals in 2020 kicked off a four-year stint in D.C. that saw Espino relied upon as a swingman for the rebuilding club. Espino appeared in 77 games for the Nationals between 2021 and 2022, drawing 38 starts and pitching 223 innings during that time. While his numbers, while unimpressive, were more or less that which would be expected of a club’s #5 or #6 starter: a 4.56 ERA (88 ERA+) and a 4.70 FIP despite a meager 19.5% strikeout rate thanks in large part to a walk rate of just 5.2%.

Things took a turn for the worse for Espino in 2023. The veteran righty pitched just four innings for the big league club this past season, and was lit up for 11 runs on 14 hits and three walks while striking out just three in that limited time on the mound. Though Espino’s 13 starts at the Triple-A level went better as he posted a 4.33 ERA across 60 1/3 innings of work, Espino’s season came to an end in July when the righty was placed on the injured list due to a flexor strain. The end of his time in the Nationals organization came shortly thereafter, as the club placed Espino on release waivers in early August.

Since then, Espino has made nine starts in the Dominican Winter League, pitching to a strong 2.40 ERA in 48 2/3 innings of work while striking out 25.8% of batters faced. That strong performance clearly caught the attention of the Blue Jays, who decided to take a chance on Espino as a depth option headed into the 2024 season. The club appears set in the rotation with a quintet of Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Yusei Kikuchi, Chris Bassitt, and Alek Manoah penciled in while the club prepares for the arrival of top prospect Ricky Tiedemann, but Espino could act as a depth option alongside the likes of Bowden Francis and Wes Parsons or perhaps provide competition for Mitch White as the club’s long relief option out of the bullpen.

Nationals Place Paolo Espino On Release Waivers

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The Nationals announced a series of roster moves today as they reinstated right-hander Trevor Williams from the bereavement list, reinstated catcher Israel Pineda from the 60-day injured list, and optioned him to Double-A. In a corresponding move, right-hander Paolo Espino was placed on unconditional release waivers.

Williams signed a two-year, $13MM deal with the Nationals ahead of the 2023 on the heels of a solid season as a swingman for the Mets last year, when he posted a 3.21 ERA and 3.88 FIP in 89 1/3 innings of work. In a full-time rotation role this season, Williams hasn’t been able to replicate that success, as he’s struggled to a 4.72 ERA and 5.55 FIP in 22 starts. Among pitchers who have recorded at least 100 innings this season, Williams’ 0.4 fWAR ranks ahead of only Michael Kopech of the White Sox and Martin Perez of the Rangers.

While Williams has struggled as a full-time starter this season, the former second round pick has previous success as a rotation piece dating back to 2018, when he posted a 3.11 ERA in 170 1/3 innings of work with the Pirates. He’ll look to get back on track through the remainder of the 2023 campaign with an eye toward 2024, where he figures to continue as a rotation option for Washington alongside the likes of Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Patrick Corbin.

Pineda, 22, has just four games of big league experience under his belt and has missed the entire season to this point due to a fractured ring finger and an oblique strain. He’s ranked as the club’s 23rd best prospect per MLB Pipeline and 17th per Fangraphs. While Pineda could be ready for a longer-team big league role as soon as next season, the Nationals are fairly well set up at the major league level behind the plate with a tandem of youngsters in the form of Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams.

Espino, 36, had been on the 15-day IL since mid-July with a flexor strain. He pitched just four innings with the big league Nationals this season, during which he allowed 11 runs on 14 hits and three walks while striking out three. Prior to his disastrous stint with the club earlier this season, Espino had spent the last two seasons as a fixture of Washington’s pitching staff, throwing 223 innings across 77 appearances (38 starts) to a 4.56 ERA and 4.70 FIP. Going forward, Espino will likely have to look for a new minor league deal as he looks for a new team to rehab his current injury with.

Nationals Select Rico Garcia

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3:55pm: The Nationals have now made it official, announcing Garcia’s selection. In corresponding moves, right-hander Paolo Espino was placed on the 15-day injured list with a flexor strain of his fourth right finger while catcher Israel Pineda was transferred to the 60-day IL. The move for Pineda is simply a formality as he’s already been on the IL all year, much longer than 60 days, meaning he can be reinstated at any point.

8:55am: The Nationals will select the contract of right-hander Rico Garcia from Triple-A Rochester, MLBTR has confirmed. Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post reported this morning that the move was expected to be made today. They’ll need a 40-man roster move to make that official. It’s possible there will be other additions, as Dougherty suggests the team is in a scramble following yesterday’s blowout loss to the Cubs.

The 29-year-old Garcia joined the Nats on a minor league deal just last week after rejecting an outright from the A’s, who’d designated him for assignment. He was tagged for eight runs in 8 2/3 innings during his brief time with Oakland, but Garcia has pitched well in Triple-A this year and continued that trend with the Nats. He’s tossed 2 1/3 shutout frames in Rochester, punching out three hitters along the way.

That drops Garcia to a 2.93 ERA in 27 2/3 innings this season. Dating back to last year, the righty has a 2.60 ERA with a strikeout rate north of 29% against a 13% walk rate in 62 1/3 Triple-A innings. The latter of those two rates is obviously a concern, but Garcia’s results at the top minor league level have been strong nonetheless.

The Nats will be Garcia’s fifth big league team. In addition to the A’s, he’s spent time with the Orioles, Giants and Rockies but never received a lengthy look at the MLB level. He’s tossed just 32 2/3 innings across parts of four seasons, recording a composite 6.29 ERA in those scattered opportunities.

Washington has ample uncertainty in the bullpen, particularly with Hunter Harvey and Carl Edwards Jr. on the injured list at the moment. The trio of Amos Willingham, Paolo Espino and Jose Ferrer was tagged for 14 run in relief of Patrick Corbin yesterday. Kyle Finnegan and Mason Thompson are the lone established relievers in the Nats’ bullpen at the moment, and the former is a trade candidate, given that he’s into his arbitration years and only has two years of club control remaining beyond the current season.

Nationals Select Amos Willingham

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5:05pm: The Nationals have now made this official, selecting Willingham and optioning right-hander Paolo Espino to Triple-A as the corresponding move.

1:20pm: The Nationals are planning to call up right-hander Amos Willingham, reports Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post. The club has an open spot on their 40-man roster but will need a corresponding move to get Willingham onto the active roster.

Willingham, 24, has spent his entire professional career with the Nationals, who selected him in the 17th round of the 2019 draft. He made a brief professional debut in Low-A that year before the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020. Since then, he has been climbing up the minor league ladder, working exclusively as a reliever and seemingly getting better at almost every stop.

He split 2021 between Single-A and High-A, tossing 60 1/3 innings with a 4.92 ERA, 21% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate. He spent all of last year in High-A with a 3.41 ERA over 34 1/3 innings, striking out 27.6% of opponents while walking just 4.8%. He began this year at Double-A and carved up hitters at that level, throwing 10 2/3 scoreless innings with a 35% strikeout rate and 2.5% walk rate. That excellent showing got him bumped to Triple-A, where he finally slowed down a bit, posting a 3.46 ERA through 13 innings with a 20% strikeout rate and 14.5% walk rate.

Despite the relatively tepid Triple-A performance, Willingham has clearly impressed the Washington brass with his ascent in recent years. He’s started getting noticed outside the organization as well, with Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranking him the club’s #25 prospect earlier this month. Longenhagen writes that Willingham’s fastball is “now sitting 94-95 mph with big ride at the top of the zone” and that he can take a step forward if he improves his slider command.

The Nats will give Willingham a shot to see how his stuff plays against big league hitters while giving manager Dave Martinez a fresh arm for the bullpen. When the club starts tonight’s game in Seattle, it will be their 14th day in a row taking the field with two more scheduled against the Mariners before an off-day on Thursday.

Nationals Designate Chad Kuhl For Assignment

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The Nationals announced this evening that the club has designated right-hander Chad Kuhl for assignment. In a corresponding move, Washington has recalled right-hander Paolo Espino.

The move likely brings Kuhl’s tenure with Washington to an end. The 30-year-old veteran joined the Nationals on a minor league deal back in February, and Kuhl managed to crack the club’s Opening Day rotation after youngster Cade Cavalli was sidelined for the 2023 campaign by Tommy John surgery. Unfortunately, Kuhl struggled massively across five starts with the Nationals, posting an 9.41 ERA in 22 innings of work with a FIP of 6.91.

Kuhl was placed on the 15-day IL at the beginning of May after a difficult April with a sprained big toe in his right foot, and returned to the Nationals at the end of May in a multi-inning relief role. The results improved from there, but only slightly, as Kuhl allowed 15 runs (13 earned) in 16 1/3 innings of work out of the bullpen across 11 appearances. While those numbers are slightly inflated by two implosions against the Diamondbacks and Padres during which Kuhl allowed a combined eight runs in just 3 1/3 innings, it’s still easy to see why the Nationals pulled the plug on the veteran hurler.

Prior to his time in DC, Kuhl pitched for the Pirates in five seasons, swinging in and out of the rotation. He was a perfectly serviceable back-of-the-rotation arm during that time, with a 4.44 ERA (95 ERA+) in 439 2/3 innings of work during his time in Pittsburgh. Following his departure from the Pirates, Kuhl signed on with the Rockies on a one-year, $3MM deal that offered him a permanent spot in the Colorado rotation. Kuhl failed to impress with the opportunity, however, delivering a 5.72 ERA and 5.26 FIP across 27 starts with the Rockies.

Going forward, Kuhl seems likely to clear waivers and have the opportunity to choose between accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A with the Nationals or looking to catch on with another club on a minor league deal, though it’s at least theoretically possible that the Nationals could work out a trade with another club interested in Kuhl’s services.

As for Espino, the 36-year-old right-hander has been with the Nationals since 2020, pitching to a 4.56 ERA (88 ERA+) in 229 innings of work with the club split between the rotation and the bullpen. He’s posted similar numbers in Triple-A for the club this season, with an identical 4.56 ERA in 11 starts at the level this season. Espino figures to move back to the bullpen now that he’s with the big league club, as the Nationals stick with a starting five of Josiah Gray, Patrick Corbin, Trevor Williams, MacKenzie Gore, and Jake Irvin.

Nationals Announce Several Roster Cuts

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TODAY: Adams will wait until at least Tuesday to decide on his future, the infielder told Mark Zuckerman and other reporters.  He’ll report to the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate unless another team presents a clear big league opportunity in the coming days.

MARCH 25: With Opening Day now less than a week away, teams around the league are making their final roster decisions. The Nationals announced several such decisions today, with right-hander Paolo Espino and infielder Jeter Downs getting optioned to the minors, while non-roster invitees right-hander Alex Colome, Andres Machado and Wily Peralta were all reassigned to minor league camp. Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com spoke to manager Dave Martinez about the roster configuration, who added that first baseman Matt Adams has been informed that he won’t be making the club.

These moves bring the club’s roster down to 26, which suggests everyone who has not been cut has made the team. However, it seems that is not set in stone, with the Nats staying open to a late waiver claim or perhaps some other player become available by an opt-out. “There’s no set roster right now,” Martinez said. “We still have decisions to make. We probably won’t make any decisions until we go back to D.C.” Several veterans on minor league deals have opt-outs they could trigger this weekend and other players could wind up on waivers as teams make their final roster decisions, so the Nats aren’t carving things in stone. However, the cuts do seem to indicate who won’t be on the club.

Espino, 36, seems like he could be the first one called if the Nats need another starter. With Stephen Strasburg on the shelf for the foreseeable future and Cade Cavalli set to miss the entire season due to Tommy John surgery, the club’s rotation has already taken a couple of hits. It seems like they will start the year with Patrick Corbin, Trevor Williams, Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore and Chad Kuhl as the top five, with Espino staying stretched out in Triple-A.

“I think I’ve done a really good job in spring,” Espino said. “But at the same time, I have options. There’s always a possibility (of getting demoted) having options. I know some of the guys, most of them, don’t have options. It’s just part of the game, part of baseball, and some decisions they have to make. For my part, I’m just going to go where they send me and I’m going to put in the innings I need to do to get the job done. And hopefully be back up soon.”

Of the five aforementioned rotation members, only Gray and Gore can be optioned, but they are two of the club’s top prospects. Getting them big league experience is a priority for the team this year, which seemingly nudged Espino down to the minors. Kuhl is not yet on the 40-man but can opt out of his minor league deal today if he doesn’t get a spot. Espino operated as a swingman for the club last year, posting a 4.84 ERA in 113 1/3 innings. It seems highly likely he’ll get another shot in the big leagues as soon as health or fatigue among the other pitchers warrants it.

Colome and Machado, meanwhile, both seem likely to factor into the Nats bullpen at some point this season, while Peralta could feasibly contribute in either role, given 139 of his 258 career appearances have come as a starter, though the Nationals mostly used him as a reliever during camp. Of course, Colome and Peralta will both have the ability to opt out of their contracts this weekend, should their wish to do so.

With ten seasons under his belt as a big league reliever, Colome is among the more experienced options at Washington’s disposal for their bullpen, but with a 4.82 ERA (92 ERA+) since the start of the 2021 season, it’s easy to wonder if the 34 year old Colome might not reclaim the success he saw from 2016 to 2020, when he posted a 2.62 ERA (163 ERA+) in 274 2/3 innings while racking up 138 saves for the Rays, Mariners, and White Sox.

Machado, 29, has posted a 3.41 ERA (117 ERA+) in 95 innings of work in the big leagues since making his Nationals debut in 2021. That being said, underlying metrics don’t rate the right-hander’s work so highly, with subpar strikeout (18.3%) and walk (9.9%) rates explaining his 4.56 FIP over the past two seasons. Peralta, meanwhile, provides the Nationals with a veteran swing-man who has posted a 4.29 ERA (95 ERA+) in 911 1/3 innings of work over ten seasons in the major leagues.

On the positional side, Downs was among the more highly regarded prospects in baseball in the lead-up to the 2020 season, when he was shipped from Los Angeles to Boston as part of the Mookie Betts deal. Since, then, however, Downs has struggled mightily, with a .661 OPS in 180 games at the Triple-A level. Downs figures to attempt to right the ship in Triple-A with the Nationals to begin the season, and could supplant Ildemaro Vargas as a middle infield option for the big league roster sometime this season if he manages to bounce back.

Adams was a member of the World Series champion 2019 Nationals, though he struggled to a .226/.276/.465 slash line in 111 games that season. A power bat with a high strikeout rate, Adams stood as the primary challenger to Michael Chavis for a role as a pinch hitter off the bench. That role appears to be poised to go to Chavis while Adams, 34, will decide whether or not to try his luck in another organization or stick with the Nationals.

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