Shintaro Fujinami

36 Veteran Players With Looming Opt-Out Dates

By Steve Adams | March 20, 2025 at 2:23pm CDT

The 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement implemented a new series of uniform opt-out dates for players who qualified as free agents under Article XX(b) of said agreement and sign a minor league deal in free agency. More specifically, that designation falls on players with six-plus years of MLB service time who finished the preceding season on a major league roster or injured list. Some contracts for players coming over from a foreign professional league like Nippon Professional Baseball or the Korea Baseball Organization will also have language written into their contracts allowing them to qualify as an XX(b) free agent despite a lack of six years of service.

The three uniform opt-out dates on those contracts land five days before Opening Day, on May 1 and on June 1. With the regular season set to kick off next week, any Article XX(b) free agents who are in camp on minor league contracts will have the opportunity to opt out on Saturday, March 22. A player triggering one of these out clauses gives his current club 48 hours to either add him to the 40-man roster or let him become a free agent.

There are other ways to secure opt-outs in contracts, of course. Many players who don’t qualify for XX(b) designation will still have opt-out opportunities negotiated into their minor league deals in free agency.

The following is a list of 36 players who are in camp as non-roster invitees and will be able to opt out this weekend. Most were XX(b) free agents, but there are a handful of names who didn’t meet that requirement but had outs negotiated into their respective deals nonetheless. This is not a comprehensive list of all players with opt-out opportunities this weekend.

All spring stats referenced are accurate through the completion of games played Wednesday, March 19.

Astros: LHP Jalen Beeks

Beeks, 31, was a relatively late sign (March 7) who’s since tossed three spring frames — including two scoreless innings just yesterday. He logged a 4.50 ERA in 70 innings between the Rockies and Pirates last season. He struggled to miss bats last year but typically runs strong strikeout rates. Dating back to 2020, Beeks carries a 4.16 ERA in 192 2/3 innings. In Josh Hader, Bryan King and Bennett Sousa, the Astros already have three lefty relievers on the 40-man. Another veteran non-roster invitee, Steven Okert, has rattled off 8 2/3 shutout spring innings with a 14-to-2 K/BB ratio. Beeks might have long odds of cracking the roster.

Blue Jays: RHP Jacob Barnes, LHP Ryan Yarbrough

The 34-year-old Barnes logged a 4.36 ERA in a career-high 66 big league innings last season. He posted an ERA north of 5.00 in each of the five preceding seasons (a total of 115 1/3 frames). He’s been tagged for four runs in 5 1/3 innings this spring.

Yarbrough, 33, had a terrific run with the Jays to close out the 2024 season. Joining Toronto in a deadline swap sending Kevin Kiermaier to the Dodgers, the veteran southpaw posted a 2.01 ERA in 31 1/3 innings. He’s a soft-tosser, sitting just 86.5 mph with his heater, but Yarbrough can pitch multiple innings in relief and has a decent track record even beyond last year’s overall 3.19 earned run average (4.21 ERA in 768 MLB innings). He’s allowed three runs with and 8-to-1 K/BB ratio in 6 2/3 innings in camp.

Braves: RHP Buck Farmer, RHP Hector Neris

Farmer was already reassigned to minor league camp on Sunday, so there’d seem to be a good chance of him taking his out. The 34-year-old turned in a terrific 3.04 ERA in 71 innings for the Reds last year but was probably hampered by his age, pedestrian velocity and subpar command in free agency. With a 3.68 ERA in 193 innings over the past three seasons in Cincinnati, he should find an opportunity somewhere — even if it’s not in Atlanta.

Neris is still in Braves camp. He signed well into camp and thus has only pitched one official inning so far, which was scoreless. (Neris is pitching today as well.) He’s looking to bounce back from a 4.10 ERA and a particularly poor performance in save opportunities last year. Prior to his nondescript 2024, Neris rattled off a 3.03 ERA in 208 innings from 2021-23 between Philly and Houston, saving 17 games and collecting 67 holds along the way.

Brewers: 1B/OF Mark Canha, OF Manuel Margot

He’s had a brutal spring, but the 36-year-old Canha has been an above-average hitter every year since 2018, by measure of wRC+. He’s just 2-for-23 in Brewers camp, but he’s slugged a homer and walked as often as he’s fanned (four times apiece). Milwaukee has Rhys Hoskins at first base, but Canha could chip in at DH and offer a right-handed complement to lefty outfielders Sal Frelick and Garrett Mitchell.

Margot hasn’t hit well in a tiny sample of 35 spring plate appearances, but he’s outproduced Canha with a .250/.314/.375 slash. He’s coming off a dismal .238/.289/.337 showing in Minnesota, however, and hasn’t been the plus defender he was prior to a major 2022 knee injury. Like Canha, he could complement Frelick and Mitchell as a righty-swinging outfielder, but Canha has been the far more productive bat in recent seasons.

Cubs: RHP Chris Flexen

The Cubs reassigned Flexen to minor league camp after just 3 2/3 innings this spring. He was hit hard on the other side of town with the White Sox in 2024, though Flexen quietly righted the ship after an awful start. He posted a 5.69 ERA through nine starts but logged a 4.62 mark over his final 21 trips to the mound, including a tidy 3.52 earned run average across 46 innings in his last eight starts. Flexen may not bounce back to his 2021-22 numbers in Seattle, but he’s a durable fifth starter if nothing else.

Diamondbacks: INF/OF Garrett Hampson, RHP Scott McGough

The D-backs don’t really have a backup shortstop while Blaze Alexander is sidelined with an oblique strain, which seems to bode well for Hampson. He’s hitting .235/.333/.324 in camp and can play three infield spots and three outfield positions. He had a bleak .230/.275/.300 performance in Kansas City last year but was a league-average hitter for the Marlins as recently as 2023.

McGough was reassigned to minor league camp yesterday after serving up six runs in 4 2/3 innings of spring work. That wasn’t the follow-up to last year’s gruesome 7.44 ERA for which the 35-year-old righty or the team had hoped.

Giants: C Max Stassi, RHP Lou Trivino

Stassi is battling Sam Huff, who’s on the 40-man, for the backup catcher’s role while Tom Murphy is injured. The 34-year-old Stassi is hitting .300/.364/.700 with a pair of homers in 22 spring plate appearances. He’s a plus defender with a scattershot track record at the plate.

Trivino hasn’t pitched since 2022 due to Tommy John surgery and a separate shoulder issue. He also hasn’t allowed a run in 8 1/3 spring innings. (9-to-4 K/BB ratio). Trivino’s scoreless Cactus League showing, his pre-injury track record and his familiarity with skipper Bob Melvin — his manager in Oakland — all seem to give him a real chance to win a spot.

Mariners: RHP Shintaro Fujinami, RHP Trevor Gott, 1B Rowdy Tellez

Fujinami’s command has never been good, and he’s walked more batters (seven) than he’s struck out (four) through 5 2/3 spring innings. He’s also plunked a pair of batters. He’s looking to bounce back from an injury-ruined 2024 season but might have to take his first steps toward doing so in Triple-A.

Tellez has had a big camp and looks like he could have a real chance to make the club in a part-time DH/first base role, as explored more yesterday. Gott is on the mend from Tommy John surgery performed last March and won’t pitch until midseason. He’s unlikely to opt out.

Mets: RHP Jose Ureña

Ureña was torched for seven runs in his first 1 1/3 spring innings after signing with the Mets on Feb. 27. He bounced back by striking out all three opponents he faced in an inning this past weekend, but he hasn’t helped himself otherwise. Ureña’s 3.80 ERA in 109 innings with Texas last year was his first sub-5.00 ERA since 2017-18 in Miami.

Padres: 1B Yuli Gurriel, INF Jose Iglesias

Both veterans have a legitimate chance to make the club. Gurriel has had a productive spring (.296/.321/.519) at nearly 41 years of age, while Iglesias is out to a 5-for-18 start since signing in mid-March. Gurriel could split time at first and DH, lessening the need to use Luis Arraez in the field. Iglesias could see frequent work at second base, shifting Jake Cronenworth to first base and pushing Arraez to DH. The Padres probably wouldn’t have put a hefty (relative to most minor league deals) $3MM base salary on Iglesias’ deal if they didn’t see a real path to him making the roster.

Pirates: LHP Ryan Borucki

Borucki was great for the Pirates in 2023 and struggled through 11 innings during an injury-marred 2024 season. The 30-year-old southpaw has allowed one run in eight spring innings. His five walks are a bit much, but he’s also fanned 11 of his 33 opponents.

Rangers: SS Nick Ahmed, RHP David Buchanan, RHP Jesse Chavez, OF Kevin Pillar, RHP Hunter Strickland

Ahmed has more homers in 28 spring plate appearances than he had in 228 plate appearances in 2024 or 210 plate appearances in 2023. He’s popped three round-trippers already and slashed .286/.310/.607. With a crowded infield and versatile backups like Josh Smith and Ezequiel Duran, Ahmed might still have a hard time cracking the roster.

None of the three pitchers listed here has performed well in limited work. Buchanan had a nice run as a starter in the KBO in the four preceding seasons, while Chavez has been a mainstay in the Atlanta bullpen for much of the past few years. Strickland had a nice 2024 in Anaheim but signed very late and retired only one of the five batters he faced during his long spring outing.

Pillar may have the best chance of the bunch to make the team. He’s hitting .273/.333/.394 in 39 plate appearances. Outfielders Wyatt Langford and Adolis Garcia have been banged up this spring, so some extra outfield depth could make sense.

Rays: DH/OF Eloy Jimenez

Jimenez homered for the second time yesterday, boosting his Grapefruit line to .263/.300/.447. He’s coming off a dreadful season in 2024, but from 2019-23 the former top prospect raked at a .275/.324/.487 pace, including a 31-homer rookie campaign (admittedly, in the juiced-ball 2019 season). Durability has been a bigger factor than productivity. If the Rays can get Jimenez to elevate the ball more, he could be a bargain; he’s still only 28.

Red Sox: LHP Matt Moore, RHP Adam Ottavino

Moore signed on Feb. 20 and has only gotten into two spring games so far, totaling two innings. Ottavino has pitched four innings but allowed five runs. He’s walked five and tossed a pair of wild pitches in that time. Both pitchers have long MLB track records, but they’re both coming off lackluster seasons.

Reds: LHP Wade Miley

Miley underwent Tommy John surgery early last season and contemplated retirement upon learning his prognosis. He wanted to return to one of his former NL Central clubs in free agency, and the Reds clearly offered a more compelling minor league deal than the Brewers. He’s not going to be a realistic option until late May, and it seems unlikely he’d opt out while his rehab is still ongoing.

Rockies: RHP Jake Woodford

Woodford isn’t an Article XX(b) free agent, but MLBTR has learned that he still has a March 22 opt-out. He made his fourth appearance of Rockies camp yesterday, tossing 2 2/3 innings with an earned run. Woodford has allowed seven runs on 11 hits and three walks with five punchouts and a nice 47.2% grounder rate in 10 2/3 frames this spring. He has experience as a starter and reliever. The righty doesn’t miss many bats but keeps the ball on the ground and has good command. He’s a fifth starter/swingman who’s out of minor league options.

Royals: C Luke Maile, RHP Ross Stripling

Maile is a glove-first backup who’s had a nice spring at the plate but has done so on a team with a healthy Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin. His path to a roster spot doesn’t look great. Speculatively, his former Reds club, which just lost Tyler Stephenson to begin the year, would make sense if they plan to add an outside catcher. Maile’s .214/.294/.329 performance over the past three seasons is light, but he’s already familiar with the bulk of Cincinnati’s staff. He’s a fine backup or No. 3 catcher for any club, Kansas City included.

Stripling notched a 3.01 ERA in 124 innings for the 2022 Blue Jays, but it’s been rough waters since. He was rocked for a 5.68 ERA across the past two seasons, spending time with both Bay Area clubs, and has been tagged for 11 runs on 14 hits — four of them homers — with just two strikeouts in six spring frames. He’ll likely need a strong Triple-A showing, be it with the Royals or another club, to pitch his way back to the majors.

Tigers: LHP Andrew Chafin

Chafin surprisingly commanded only a minor league deal this offseason and has struggled to begin his third stint with the Tigers. He’s been tagged for eight runs in four spring innings, walking six batters along the way. It’s a rough look, but the affable southpaw notched a 3.51 ERA in 56 1/3 MLB frames last year and touts a 3.12 mark across the past four seasons combined.

White Sox: RHP Mike Clevinger, INF Brandon Drury, OF Travis Jankowski

The ChiSox signed Clevinger for a third time late this spring and are trying him in the bullpen. He’s responded with four shutout innings, allowing only one hit and no walks while fanning six hitters. His 2025 White Sox reunion is out to a much better start than his 2024 reunion, wherein he was limited to only 16 innings with a 6.75 ERA thanks to elbow and neck troubles.

Drury could hardly be doing more to secure a spot with the Pale Hose. He’s decimated Cactus League pitching at a .410/.439/.821 pace, slugging three homers and seven doubles in only 41 plate appearances. He’s coming off a terrible 2024 showing with the Angels but hit .263/.313/.493 from 2021-23. It’d be a surprise if the Sox didn’t keep him.

Jankowski started the spring with the Cubs, was granted his release and signed with the Sox. The hits haven’t been dropping, but he has six walks in 25 plate appearances. The White Sox already have Michael A. Taylor in a fourth outfield role. Andrew Benintendi, who missed three-plus weeks with a fractured hand, was back in the lineup yesterday, making Jankowski something of a long shot.

Yankees: RHP Carlos Carrasco

With a nice spring showing and several injuries in the Yankees’ rotation, Carrasco looks to have a good chance at making the roster. Jack Curry of the YES Network already reported it’s “likely” Carrasco will be added this weekend. Carrasco has a 1.69 ERA with 15 strikeouts and seven walks (plus four hit batters) in 16 spring innings. He tossed five shutout frames yesterday.

Salary Details For Several Minor League Deals

By Steve Adams | February 26, 2025 at 12:32pm CDT

Every offseason, the primary focus for baseball fans is on trades and free agent activity. Naturally, major league free agent signings garner the majority of the attention and generate the most buzz. Minor league signees come with less fanfare, typically with good reason. They tend to be older veterans who are looking to extend their playing careers or perhaps younger names looking to rebound from an injury or a disappointing showing the prior season (sometimes the prior few seasons).

As spring training progresses, we’re seeing an uptick in minor league signings. Free agents who’ve lingered on the market and felt their leverage in negotiations dry up begin to concede and accept non-guaranteed pacts to get to camp in hopes of winning a roster spot.

Salary details for minor league signees isn’t as prominently reported on as it is for players signing guaranteed big league deals. The Associated Press just published a list of free agent signings throughout the winter, including within salary details for a handful of (mostly) recent minor league signings. Many of the salaries reported by the AP were already known and reflected here at MLBTR, but the report does include more than two dozen previously unreported base salaries for players on minor league deals. Here’s a quick rundown (player salary links point back to prior MLBTR posts detailing that minor league signing):

Blue Jays: Jacob Barnes, RHP, $1.4MM | Ryan Yarbrough, LHP, $2MM

Braves: Curt Casali, C, $1.25MM | Buck Farmer, RHP, $1MM

Brewers: Manuel Margot, OF, $1.3MM | Mark Canha, 1B/OF, $1.4MM

Cubs: Brooks Kriske, RHP, $900K | Travis Jankowski, OF, $1.25MM | Chris Flexen, RHP, $1.5MM

Diamondbacks: Garrett Hampson, INF/OF, $1.5MM | Scott McGough, RHP, $1.25MM

Dodgers: Luis Garcia, RHP, $1.5MM

Giants: Lou Trivino, RHP, $1.5MM

Mariners: Shintaro Fujinami, RHP, $1.3MM | Trevor Gott, RHP, $1.35MM

Padres: Yuli Gurriel, 1B, $1.35MM ($100K higher than initially reported)

Rangers: Nick Ahmed, SS, $1.25MM | Jesse Chavez, RHP, $1.25MM | David Buchanan, RHP, $1.375MM | Kevin Pillar, OF, $1MM

Red Sox: Matt Moore, LHP, $2MM

Royals: Luke Maile, C, $2MM | Ross Stripling, RHP, $1.75MM

White Sox: Brandon Drury, INF/OF, $2MM | Mike Clevinger, RHP, $1.5MM

A few things bear emphasizing. First, this is clearly not a comprehensive list of minor league signings throughout the league — nor is it even a comprehensive list of the listed teams’ non-roster invitees to camp. Secondly, many of these sums are of little consequence to the team. They’re not even guaranteed, after all, and even if a player makes the Opening Day roster and earns the full slate of his minor league salary, most of these salaries aren’t going to carry significant payroll ramifications.

That’s not true across the board, though. For instance, the Rangers are fully intent on remaining under the $241MM luxury tax threshold. At present, RosterResource projects them at $235.7MM of luxury obligations. Opting to select the contract of Buchanan or Chavez rather than allocating those innings to pre-arbitration players who’s being paid at league-minimum levels (or a few thousand dollars north of it) would inch the Rangers’ CBT number forward. They’re not going to hit the tax line even in if they wind up adding multiple NRIs to the actual roster, but selecting their contracts will further narrow the resources president of baseball ops Chris Young will have at his disposal for midseason dealings.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, are effectively seated right at the tax threshold. RosterResource has them with $241.4MM of luxury considerations. Team president Sam Kennedy said after signing Alex Bregman that he expects his team will be a CBT payor in 2025. As things stand, the Sox could duck back under that threshold, but selecting the contract of Moore, Adam Ottavino (also $2MM) or another prominent NRI would further signal ownership’s willingness to return to luxury tax status for the first time since 2022.

There’s probably no getting back under the tax line for the Blue Jays, who currently have a $273.3MM CBT number. However, the front office would presumably like to avoid reaching $281MM in tax obligations, as that’s the point at which Toronto’s top pick in the 2026 draft would be dropped by ten spots. In-season trades will have more of an effect on their tax number than decisions on NRIs like Barnes, Yarbrough, Eric Lauer and others, but it bears mentioning that the Blue Jays are around $8MM shy of what many clubs consider to be the most detrimental impact of straying to deep into CBT waters.

Mariners, Shintaro Fujinami Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | January 17, 2025 at 2:40pm CDT

The Mariners have agreed to a minor league deal with hard-throwing righty Shintaro Fujinami, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network. The Boras Corporation client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.

Fujinami, 31 in April, came over from Japan in 2023 when he signed a one-year deal with the A’s. After a calamitous start to his big league career in the former Oakland rotation, he moved to the bullpen and wound up settling in nicely. His season-long ERA never really recovered from being routed for 24 runs in his first 15 MLB innings, but Fujinami cruised to a 3.32 ERA, 25.6% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate over his final 21 2/3 innings before being traded to the Orioles — and he did so while averaging an eye-popping 99.5 mph on his heater and posting a mammoth 15% swinging-strike rate.

Fujinami got out to a fine start with the O’s post-trade, logging a 3.76 ERA with big strikeout totals in his first 26 1/3 innings. He was roughed up for five runs in his final 3 1/3 innings, spanning five appearances, and finished his time in Baltimore with a pedestrian 4.85 ERA. Still, the underlying numbers looked intriguing.

The Mets took notice of those under-the-hood numbers and inked Fujinami to a one-year contract last winter. He was expected to have a spot in the team’s bullpen but was limited in spring training by shoulder troubles. He began on the season on the injured list and rehabbed in the minors before being recalled in early May to move to the 60-day injured list (and open a 40-man spot) due to what was termed a shoulder strain. Fujinami was shelved until late June.

In 24 1/3 innings upon being reinstated in the minors, Fujinami posted a 1.85 ERA and 29-to-12 K/BB ratio. He did so with a 97.3 mph average fastball that was more than two full miles per hour shy of his 2023 mark, however, and he wilted in the season’s final weeks, yielding eight runs in his final 4 1/3 frames of minor league ball.

Fujinami revealed back in October that he planned to play winter ball on the heels of that injury-wrecked year. The aim was to catch on with another big league club, and he’s now done just that after thriving in the Puerto Rican Winter League. In 20 2/3 innings with los Gigantes de Carolina, Fujinami boasts a 3.05 ERA, 26.7% strikeout rate and 12.2% walk rate. Command remains an issue, but the right-hander’s blistering fastball, ability to miss bats and generally strong winter showing will earn him another opportunity to return to the majors.

The Mariners have a track record of finding hidden gems on the bullpen market and will hope Fujinami can be their latest rags-to-riches success story. Seattle’s bullpen is anchored by star righty Andrés Muñoz, and he’ll have Collin Snider, Trent Thornton, Gregory Santos and Tayler Saucedo in his setup corps. Options to fill out the bullpen include Gabe Speier, Eduard Bazardo, Carlos Vargas, Troy Taylor, Cody Bolton and waiver pickups Tyler Jay and Hagen Danner, among others. The M’s also have powerhouse reliever Matt Brash on the mend from last May’s Tommy John surgery, and they could get a look at Jackson Kowar early in the season as well; he underwent his own Tommy John procedure late last March.

12 Players Elect Free Agency

By Mark Polishuk and Nick Deeds | November 3, 2024 at 8:17am CDT

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 or MLB.com logs unless otherwise stated.

Infielders

Jose Barrero (Rangers)*
Bobby Dalbec (Red Sox)*
Kevin Smith (Yankees)
Jamie Westbrook (Red Sox)*

Pitchers

David Buchanan (Reds)
Shintaro Fujinami (Mets)
Brad Keller (Red Sox)*
Josh Maciejewski (Yankees)
Darren McCaughan (Marlins)
Anthony Misiewicz (Yankees)
Nick Ramirez (Dodgers)
Naoyuki Uwasawa (Red Sox)

* Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported that Dalbec, Westbrook, and Keller have elected free agency. Francys Romero reported that Barrero has elected free agency.

Shintaro Fujinami To Play Winter Ball, Plans To Pursue MLB Opportunity

By Steve Adams | October 16, 2024 at 10:47am CDT

Right-hander Shintaro Fujinami is planning to play in the Puerto Rican Winter League this offseason as he looks to demonstrate his health for interested clubs, he revealed in an interview with Japanese news outlet Sponichi. He hopes to continue playing in the United States for the 2025 season.

Fujinami’s one-year, $3.35MM deal with the Mets for the 2024 season was derailed by injuries. The hard-throwing 30-year-old (31 in April) was expected to have a place in New York’s bullpen but landed on the injured list in spring training due to shoulder troubles and never wound up pitching in the majors. He pitched four scoreless rehab innings between Rookie ball, Class-A and Double-A but was hit hard in 32 frames with the Mets’ Triple-A club. In those 32 frames, he yielded a 6.68 ERA and walked just over 22% of his opponents. Fujinami still sat at a hearty 97.3 mph with his heater and fanned 25.7% of his opponents, but that velocity was down from the prior season and his command was a disaster even relative to his own shaky standards.

Many Mets fans raised an eyebrow at the time of the Fujinami signing. A big league deal for a reliever coming off a combined 7.18 ERA in 79 innings between the A’s and Orioles in 2023 indeed looked curious absent more context. But that ghastly earned run average was skewed by a woeful run of four starts with the A’s to begin his big league career. Fujinami pitched just 15 innings in Oakland’s rotation but yielded 24 runs on 19 hits and 12 walks. He was dropped to the bullpen and, after a rough start in that role as well, found his groove.

Over his final 51 1/3 innings of the 2023 campaign, Fujinami posted a far more palatable 4.21 ERA. That’s still hardly an eye-catching mark, but that earned run average was accompanied by a 25.5% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate — vast improvements from his earlier work. He also averaged a blazing 99.2 mph on his heater during that stretch and coupled that with a sharp 12.7% swinging-strike rate. Fujinami was showing an ability to miss bats both off the plate and in the zone and, at times, looking flat-out dominant (as can be seen in GIF form, courtesy of the indispensable Rob Friedman). A modest one-year deal for a then 29-year-old righty who was once a top pick and prospect alongside Shohei Ohtani in NPB seemed perfectly sensible, particularly for a deep-pocketed club like the Mets.

This time around, a big league deal seems less likely (though not impossible, depending how he looks in Puerto Rico). He’ll be showcasing his health in hopes of generating interest among big league clubs. If he looks healthy and regains some the roughly two miles per hour he lost off his heater in the wake of that shoulder injury with the Mets, he could land an invite to spring training next year and compete for a job in a big league bullpen. MLB clubs are constantly drawn to power arms of this nature, so a non-guaranteed deal should be there if Fujinami is healthy and shows some semblance of improved command.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/30/24

By Nick Deeds | July 30, 2024 at 11:45pm CDT

Catching up on some minor transactions from around the league…

Guardians right-hander Spencer Howard has elected free agency after being designated for assignment last week. The right-hander was acquired by Cleveland in a trade with the Giants earlier this month after he had been DFA’d in San Francisco. A second-round pick by the Phillies in the 2017 draft and a former consensus top-40 prospect in the game, Howard has struggled badly at the big league level throughout his career. In parts of five seasons with the Phillies, Rangers, Giants, and Guardians, the righty sports a 7.00 ERA in 144 innings of work with a 5.63 FIP and a 19.9% strikeout rate. In recent seasons, his struggles in the majors have extended to his time at Triple-A, where he now sports a career 4.83 ERA in 143 1/3 frames.
Pirates left-hander Josh Fleming elected free agency after being designated for assignment last week. Fleming signed a split contract with the club back in February and was outrighted off the club’s roster in May, though he was selected back to the roster last month. Though he struggled in his first stint with the Pirates, he’s looked quite good in 12 1/3 innings of work since returning to the big leagues with a 1.46 ERA, though he’s only notched four strikeouts in that time. Still, teams on the hunt for lefty bullpen depth could consider turning to Fleming on the back of that solid recent work and his strong 58.4% career groundball rate.
Red Sox right-hander Alex Speas was outrighted to Triple-A after being designated for assignment to make room for catcher Danny Jansen on the club’s 40-man roster. Speas, 26, never appeared at the big league level for Boston after being claimed off waivers from the Astros late last month. Since making his MLB debut with the Rangers last year, the right-hander has just four big league appearances under his belt over which he owns a 9.00 ERA and matching 30% strikeout and walk rates. He’s struggled badly at the Triple-A level for four different organizations this year with a collective 11.47 ERA in 24 1/3 innings of work between the Astros, A’s, White Sox, and Red Sox affiliates.
Mets right-hander Shintaro Fujinami was outrighted to Triple-A after being designated for assignment to make room for the return of Kodai Senga from the injured list last week. Fujinami boasted impressive strikeout rates in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball but paired that high-octane stuff with control issues. He signed with the A’s during the 2022-23 offseason but struggled badly with them as he pitched to an 8.57 ERA with a 13% walk rate. His 4.85 ERA and 4.13 FIP with the Orioles were more palatable, leading the Mets to sign him to a one-year deal, but he’s struggled to a 10.95 ERA at the Triple-A level this year without pitching in the majors.

Mets Designate Adrian Houser, Shintaro Fujinami For Assignment

By Steve Adams and Darragh McDonald | July 26, 2024 at 11:24am CDT

The Mets announced a series of roster moves Friday, designating righties Adrian Houser and Shintaro Fujinami for assignment in order to open roster space for the return of Kodai Senga and the recall of righty Eric Orze from Triple-A Syracuse. (Fujinami was technically reinstated from the injured list prior to his DFA.) The Mets also placed righty Dedniel Núñez on the 15-day injured list due to a right pronator strain.

Houser, now 31, was acquired from the Brewers in the offseason alongside outfielder Tyrone Taylor. David Stearns had just been installed as the Mets’ new president of baseball operations and was familiar with both players from his time in Milwaukee.

The righty was coming off five fairly solid seasons with the Brewers, primarily as a starter. From 2019 to 2023, Houser had made 120 appearances for Milwaukee with 97 of those being starts. In his 523 2/3 innings, he allowed 4.04 earned runs per nine. His 19.2% strikeout rate was subpar but his 9.1% walk rate was close to average and he kept the ball on the ground at a strong clip of 52.5%.

It was hoped that he could serve a similar back-end role in the rotation in Queens but that didn’t go according to plan. Houser made six starts through early May but had an 8.16 ERA in those and got bumped to the bullpen. Since losing his rotation spot, his results have looked similar to his old self. In his last 40 2/3 innings, he has a 4.20 ERA, 16.9% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and 50.8% ground ball rate.

Despite his results evening out, he has been squeezed off the Mets’ roster, perhaps not coincidentally just before the trade deadline. The Mets started the season with Senga and David Peterson on the injured list but both are now back on the roster. Though Christian Scott is now on the IL with a sprain of his UCL, the rotation mix now includes Senga, Peterson, Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, Jose Quintana and Tylor Megill with José Buttó in the big league bullpen.

Houser was largely blocked from getting another rotation gig there but perhaps he could be of interest to another club in need of starting pitching. Houser won’t be as exciting as aces like Garrett Crochet or Tarik Skubal but there are clubs who arguably just need solid back-end innings, such as the Guardians, Astros, Padres, Atlanta or Houser’s former club in Milwaukee. He is making $5.05MM this year, with roughly $1.7MM still to be paid out. He’s on pace for free agency at season’s end.

Fujinami, 30, put up huge strikeout numbers in Japan but also with worrying control problems. Those trends continued last year, his first in North America, split between the Athletics and Orioles. In 79 innings, he struck out 23.2% of batters faced but also gave out walks at a 13.2% clip. His 7.18 ERA last year was gruesome but likely not indicative of his true talents as he only stranded 53.4% of runners, with his 4.61 FIP and 4.60 SIERA finishing in nicer shape.

The Mets took a shot on him by signing him to a one-year, $3.35MM deal in the offseason but he hasn’t yet pitched for them. He began the year on optional assignment, getting recalled in mid-May to be placed on the injured list with a shoulder strain. He began a rehab assignment a couple of weeks ago but the Mets evidently didn’t want to make room for him on their roster.

The results prior to hitting the IL were very bad, as Fujinami had a 14.09 ERA in 7 2/3 innings. Since starting his rehabbing assignment, things have been better, with a 3.12 ERA in 8 2/3 innings, but evidently not impressive enough for the Mets to want to hang on to him.

The club will now have until the trade deadline to explore trades of either player. Houser could perhaps entice clubs based on his track record while Fujinami has some theoretical upside via his potent but wild arsenal. If the Mets can unload either player, they would likely save more money than any other club would take on. As a third-time competitive balance tax payor, they are paying a 110% tax on all spending over the top tier. Though Fujinami is only owed about $1.16MM at this point, the Mets could save more than double that amount when factoring in the taxes.

Mets Release Omar Narvaez, Jorge Lopez

By Steve Adams | June 5, 2024 at 1:01pm CDT

The Mets announced Wednesday that they’ve released veteran catcher Omar Narvaez and right-hander Jorge Lopez. Both were designated for assignment last week, and both are now free agents. New York also selected the contract of catcher Joe Hudson from Triple-A Syracuse, moving righty Shintaro Fujinami to the 60-day injured list to open a roster spot. Hudson is a candidate to serve as an extra player for the Mets’ London Series against the Phillies, where each team will be granted a 27th player.

The 32-year-old Narvaez is playing out the second season of a two-year, $15MM contract he signed in the 2022-23 offseason. He had the right to opt out of said contract following the 2023 season, but after a .211/.283/.297 showing in his first year with the club, he unsurprisingly passed on that opportunity. He’s struggled even more in 2024, hitting just .154/.191/.185 in 69 trips to the plate.

Though his run with the Mets was dismal, Narvaez was a quality regular for several years leading up to that deal. From 2018-22, he slashed .254/.337/.397 between the White Sox, Mariners and Brewers — even landing an All-Star nod with the ’21 Brewers. Milwaukee also worked with Narvaez to dramatically improve his glovework — specifically his framing skills — improving upon the below-average grades he drew during his time with Seattle and Chicago.

Any team in need of some catching help could take a flier on Narvaez and would owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Mets still owe him, but they’re on the hook for the bulk of his $8MM salary regardless. The Marlins and Cubs have had the game’s worst production behind the plate this season, and while Narvaez himself has had an extremely rough go of it, his track record might be appealing to them or another club with suspect backstops.

Lopez’s time with the Mets ended in controversial fashion. The right-hander, showing ample frustration after a poor outing, angrily lobbed his glove into the stands as he walked off the field. After the game, when asked about his actions, the Puerto Rican-born righty said he did not regret his actions and offered a candid assessment. Lopez, speaking his second language without an interpreter by his side, has stressed that he intended to state that he had been “the worst —-ing teammate” in MLB (presumably due to that outburst). But it was difficult in the moment to discern whether he’d said “worst teammate” or called the Mets the “worst team,” and when asked to clarify, he suggested both (again, without an interpreter/translator at his side).

The situation was further muddied by Lopez telling the media that he hadn’t spoken to Mets management about the issue, when he in fact had discussed it with manager Carlos Mendoza. The Mets wound up designating Lopez for assignment. In the hours after the incident, it came to light that he’s also been dealing with significant personal distress. His young son is on a transplant list and awaiting a donor. Add in that Lopez has previously spent time on the injured list due to anxiety issues, and it becomes clear that there’s far more at play than simply losing his temper and some mistaken words.

As with Narvaez, any club can now sign Lopez and owe him only the prorated minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. The manner in which his Mets tenure drew to a close will likely impact his market, but while not excusing his actions, it’s also easy to look at the situation from personal/human standpoint and understand why things may have unraveled for the 31-year-old righty.

Lopez pitched fairly well with the Mets, logging 26 1/3 innings of 3.76 ERA ball. A sub-par 17.1% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate both lead fielding-independent metrics to take a more bearish view of his work, however (4.65 FIP, 4.46 SIERA). Lopez had a breakout 2022 showing with the Orioles and Twins but followed that up with a sub-par 2023 campaign spent mostly in Minnesota.

After a brilliant start to the season in which he was unscored upon into May, Lopez hit a rough patch and wound up taking some time away from the Twins due to his anxiety. He expressed gratitude to the team for allowing him to focus on his mental health upon his return to the club. Unfortunately, his results following the break were still sub-par, and the Twins wound up flipping him to the Marlins in a deadline deal sending Dylan Floro back to Minnesota.

Taken in totality, the last three seasons from Lopez have yielded solid, if inconsistent results. He’s pitched 156 1/3 innings and logged a 4.03 ERA with a 20.7% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and 51.2% grounder rate. Lopez’s strikeouts and ground-ball tendencies have trended downward since 2022, however, as has the velocity on his power sinker — which at at 97.8 mph in ’22 but averaged 95.4 mph with the Mets this season. Whatever comes next for the right-hander, the hope beyond the baseball field is that his son finds the donor he needs and that Lopez continues to prioritize his mental health.

Turning to the journeyman Hudson, this will be the 33-year-old’s first time on a big league roster since the 2020 season. He’s appeared in 18 big league games and taken 33 plate appearances, going 5-for-30 with a double, two walks, six strikeouts and a sacrifice in that time. The former sixth-round pick has been with nine organizations in his professional career, including brief MLB stints with the Mariners, Angels and Cardinals. In 19 games with the Syracuse Mets this season, he’s hitting .222/.364/.444 with three home runs and three doubles.

NL East Notes: Sanchez, Marsh, Alvarez, Fujinami, Fletcher

By Mark Polishuk | June 2, 2024 at 10:11pm CDT

The Marlins placed right-hander Sixto Sanchez on the 15-day injured list today (retroactive to June 1), with right-hander Emmanuel Ramirez was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move. Sanchez is dealing with inflammation in his throwing shoulder, and something seemed awry when his velocity was significantly down in his start against the Rangers on Friday.

Given how multiple shoulder surgeries (amidst other injuries) kept Sanchez from just a single inning of minor league ball from 2021-23, it isn’t a good sign that the former top prospect is again dealing with any type of shoulder problem, even if some inflammation or soreness might be expected given Sanchez’s long layoff. The righty made his return to the big leagues this season and has a 6.06 ERA over 35 2/3 innings for Miami, starting seven of his 14 appearances. While Sanchez has always been more of a grounder specialist than a strikeout artist, Sanchez has struck out only 10.5% of batters faced this season.

Mets Sign Shintaro Fujinami

By Steve Adams | February 14, 2024 at 11:05am CDT

Feb. 14: The Mets formally announced the signing of Fujinami. The team waited to make the deal official, as the corresponding roster is transferring infielder Ronny Mauricio, who’s recovering from an ACL tear, to the 60-day injured list. Players can’t be placed on the 60-day IL until spring training opens.

Feb. 2: The Mets have agreed to a deal with free-agent righty Shintaro Fujinami, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’ll earn at a $3.35MM rate in the majors on the one-year pact and can unlock an additional $850K worth of incentives. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the contract does not contain any language preventing Fujinami from being optioned to the minors. Fujinami is represented by the Boras Corporation.

Fujinami, 29, was a high school rival of Shohei Ohtani and entered Nippon Professional Baseball, Japan’s top professional league, at the same point as the two-way phenom. Early in his NPB career, Fujinami looked the part of a burgeoning phenom himself. He went right from the NPB draft into the Hanshin Tigers’ rotation, pitching to a 2.75 ERA in 137 1/3 frames as a 19-year-old rookie. He turned in a sub-3.00 ERA in each of his first four seasons in NPB and was named an All-Star each year along the way.

Fujinami’s star faded beginning in his age-23 campaign. He’d already been showing some command struggles the year prior, and was controversially left in a game to toss a stunning 161 pitches in a single start — one that began with him surrendering five runs in his first three innings of work. The extent to which that contributed to his decline can’t be known, but Fujinami battled injuries and poor command for much of his remaining time in NPB. The Tigers sent him down to their minor league club on multiple occasions and shuffled him between the rotation and bullpen at various points as well.

In 2022, Fujinami had a resurgence. The hard-throwing righty made 10 starts and six relief appearances with the Tigers’ top team, pitching to a 3.38 ERA in 66 2/3 innings. He fanned 23.6% of his opponents and, most crucially, turned in a career-low 7.6% walk rate. That was not only the best mark of Fujinami’s career but the first time since 2016 he’s posted a walk rate under 10%.

That led to a one-year, $3.25MM deal with the Athletics last year. Fujinami’s MLB career started out in catastrophic fashion. He was absolutely shelled in four starts with Oakland (14.40 ERA) before moving to the bullpen and continuing to struggle, surrendering 15 runs in his next 12 1/3 innings of relief.

Things took a quick turn, however. Fujinami reined in his command beginning in early June, and for nearly two months leading into the trade deadline turned in a 3.18 ERA with a 24-to-9 K/BB ratio in 22 2/3 frames — all while averaging better than 99 mph on his fastball. The turnaround prompted the Orioles to send minor league righty Easton Lucas to the A’s in order to acquire Fujinami in a deadline swap. The 6’6″ righty didn’t quite sustain his recent run of strong results but didn’t regress to his disastrous early-season results, either. He tossed 30 innings with a 4.85 ERA as an Oriole, striking out a quarter of his opponents against an 11.9% walk rate.

Setting aside that miserable start to the year, Fujinami closed out his MLB rookie campaign with 48 innings of 3.94 ERA ball. He struck out 25.6% of opponents, walked 10.6% of them, yielded just a .206 opponents’ batting average, kept the ball on the ground at a 43.5% clip and averaged a massive 99.1 mph on his fastball in that time. That type of production would be plenty commensurate with a one-year deal at this price point — if not more — though there’s certainly some risk, given the tall righty’s first two months in 2023.

By guaranteeing Fujinami a 40-man roster spot and a not-insignificant $3.35MM, the Mets are placing a bet that he can at least sustain the performance he showed from June onward — if not improve upon it. There’s something to be said for a pitcher transitioning to a new league and new culture when making the jump from a foreign professional league to MLB, but the extent of Fujinami’s early struggles was nevertheless alarming. If the final four months of his performance are more representative of his abilities, however, he could make for a nice addition to a radically overhauled Mets bullpen.

New York has re-signed Adam Ottavino but also brought in newcomers Jorge Lopez, Michael Tonkin and Austin Adams — none of whom can be optioned without first clearing waivers. The Mets are also reportedly close to a deal with veteran lefty Jake Diekman, and SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that the team is still optimistic his deal will be completed. Given the mounting slate of bullpen additions, it’s quite possible the Mets try to pass someone like Tonkin or Adams through waivers; neither has five years of MLB service, and the salary agreed to on each player’s big league deal could help them clear waivers and head to Triple-A as depth options.

The Mets are set to pay the luxury tax for a third consecutive season in 2024 and are already well into the fourth and final tier of penalty levels. Any dollars spent at this point come with a 110% tax, meaning the Fujinami pact will cost them $7.035MM after taxes. If he unlocks the full $850K incentive package, that’d cost an additional $1.785MM after taxes, although getting to that point would very likely mean he’s pitched well enough to be worth that amount and then some. The Mets will need to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Fujinami and likely for Diekman (assuming that deal is indeed completed), so additional transactions should be on the horizon within the next few days.

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