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Padres, Yuli Gurriel Agree To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | February 17, 2025 at 6:48pm CDT

The Padres are in agreement with veteran first baseman Yuli Gurriel on a minor league deal. Francys Romero first reported that the sides were making progress on a contract. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports that the Mato Sports Management client gets a non-roster invite to MLB camp and would secure a $1.25MM base salary if he cracks the big league roster. There’s an additional $1MM in performance bonuses.

It’s a solid landing spot for the former batting champ, who is going into his age-41 season. The Friars have an opening at designated hitter. Skipper Mike Shildt said last week that he intended to use Luis Arraez as his primary first baseman while keeping Jake Cronenworth at second base. That more or less leaves DH up for grabs. 24-year-old outfielder Tirso Ornelas would probably be the choice if San Diego opts for a player who is already on the 40-man roster.

They’ll probably go with a non-roster invitee, though, considering Ornelas has yet to reach the majors. Gurriel joins former White Sox first baseman Gavin Sheets in camp. Outfielder Oscar Gonzalez and utility infielder Mike Brosseau also landed camp invites from San Diego. Gurriel is the most accomplished of the group, though his production has dropped sharply over the past three seasons. He’s a two-time World Series champion from his seven-year run in Houston. Gurriel won a Gold Glove and the aforementioned batting title in 2021, which stands as his most recent productive season.

Gurriel stumbled to a .242/.288/.360 slash during his final year with the Astros. He posted similar production over 329 plate appearances for the Marlins in 2023. Gurriel barely played in the majors last year. He spent the bulk of the season in Triple-A with Atlanta before catching on with the Royals as a September call-up. The righty hitter turned in a .241/.338/.296 showing across 18 games with Kansas City. He appeared six more times in the playoffs, hitting .190 in 21 at-bats.

While Gurriel hasn’t produced against major league pitching in a decent amount of time, he had a strong year in Triple-A. He slashed .292/.378/.485 with nearly as many walks as strikeouts across 75 games for Atlanta’s top affiliate. He still has excellent pure contact skills.

Under the collective bargaining agreement, MLB free agents who sign minor league deals more than 10 days before Opening Day have three guaranteed opt-out opportunities: five days before Opening Day, May 1, and June 1. Gurriel qualifies, since he has six-plus years of MLB service time and finished last season on K.C.’s big league roster. He can head back to the open market at the end of camp if the Padres decide not to carry him on the Opening Day roster.

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San Diego Padres Transactions Yuli Gurriel

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Angels Outright Kelvin Cáceres

By Darragh McDonald | February 17, 2025 at 5:05pm CDT

The Angels announced that right-hander Kelvin Cáceres has been sent outright to Triple-A Salt Lake. That indicates he went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week when the club claimed fellow righty Michael Petersen.

Cáceres, 25, has spent his entire career with the Angels. An international signing out of the Dominican Republic, he was added to the roster late in 2023 and got to make a very brief big league debut. He got into two games, recording four outs, with one strikeout, two walks, two hits and one earned run allowed.

Last year was a lost season for him. He was optioned to the minors during spring training and landed on the minor league injured list to start the year with a lat strain. The Angels recalled him in May and placed him on the big league 60-day IL, in order to open a roster spot to claim Niko Goodrum off waivers. Caceres stayed on the IL for the rest of the year.

Across several minor league levels in 2023, he tossed 54 2/3 relief innings with a 4.12 ERA. His 34.8% strikeout rate was massive but he also gave out walks at a 13.1% clip. Some clubs may have been intrigued by the strikeouts but those free passes were concerning and his health is a question mark after missing an entire season.

This is his first career outright and he has less than three years of service time. That means he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency. As such, he’ll stick with the Angels as some non-roster depth for their pitching staff. The Angels didn’t state whether or not Caceres has received a non-roster invite to big league camp, but it’s possible he pops up in a few spring games regardless, since even those without NRIs often get brought along to fill in.

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Los Angeles Angels Transactions Kelvin Caceres

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Red Sox Sign Trayce Thompson To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | February 17, 2025 at 2:50pm CDT

The Red Sox announced Monday that they’ve signed outfielder Trayce Thompson to a minor league contract. The Wasserman client will join their big league camp for the remainder of spring training.

Thompson has appeared in parts of seven major league seasons and, in 1058 plate appearances, has batted .212/.300/.411. The former second-round pick and brother of NBA star Klay Thompson has suited up for the White Sox, Dodgers, A’s, Cubs and Padres over the years. He split the 2024 season between the Triple-A affiliates for the Cubs and Mets, hitting a combined .233/.315/.471 (98 wRC+) in 432 trips to the plate.

The 33-year-old Thompson (34 next month) comes to the Red Sox with at least 600 big league innings in all three outfield spots. His once-plus speed has dipped closer to average, but he gives them a potential right-handed bat to pair with a left-leaning outfield that includes Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu and Masataka Yoshida (though Yoshida will primarily serve as a designated hitter). Thompson, however, has reverse splits in his career and has generally handled right-handed opponents better than he’s handled lefties. That trend held up in Triple-A last season, when he hit .237/.314/.495 against fellow righties but only .218/.317/.391 versus lefties.

Boston’s outfield mix already includes defensive standout Ceddanne Rafaela and backup Rob Refsnyder, both of whom bat from the right side. Top prospects Roman Anthony (left-handed) and Kristian Campbell (right-handed) could force their way into the mix, too — as could prospect Jhostynxon Garcia who, unlike Anthony and Campbell, is already on the 40-man roster. Garcia bats from the right side of the dish as well.

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White Sox Claim Owen White

By Darragh McDonald | February 17, 2025 at 1:45pm CDT

The White Sox have claimed right-hander Owen White off waivers from the Yankees, according to announcements from both clubs. The latter club had designated him for assignment last week. The Sox moved left-hander Ky Bush to the 60-day injured list as the corresponding move. It was reported last week that Bush would require Tommy John surgery, so he’ll spend the entire 2025 season on the IL.

White, 25, is a logical pickup for the White Sox. He has had rough results for the past two years but was a top 100 prospect before that. The Sox aren’t expecting to be good anytime soon, with their 2024 season being historically bad. Of the 30 clubs in the league, they are the one best positioned to take a flier and hope for a bounceback. White also has one option year remaining, so he can be kept in Triple-A throughout 2025 as the club gets a close-up look at him.

Drafted by the Rangers with the 55th overall pick in 2018, White’s debut was delayed for a while. Tommy John surgery prevented him from pitching in 2019 and then the minor leagues were wiped out by the pandemic in 2020. But despite that lengthy layoff, he went on to put up some eye-popping numbers once on the hill. Over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, he logged 115 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.42 earned run average. He had a strong 7.5% walk rate and a massive 34.1% strikeout rate.

Going into 2023, he was a consensus top 100 prospect, with Baseball America giving him the #59 spot. The Rangers added him to their 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. But as alluded to earlier, his results have tapered off significantly since then.

He has made his major league debut, which surely wasn’t what he dreamed of. In seven big league frames to this point, he has allowed 13 earned runs, giving him an ugly 16.71 ERA at the moment. His minor league numbers haven’t been great either. He threw 151 1/3 innings for Triple-A Round Rock over 2023 and 2024 with a 5.41 ERA. The Express play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but he also didn’t impress with his 17.4% strikeout rate nor his 11.7% walk rate.

The Rangers did get experimental with White midway through 2024, giving him a shot at a relief role. In his final 13 Triple-A appearances on the year, he logged 18 frames from the bullpen. His 5.50 ERA still wasn’t impressive but he did strike out 25.6% of batters faced in that time.

That wasn’t enough for him to hang onto his roster spot. He was designated for assignment in December and traded to the Reds for cash. He was designated for assignment again in late January and put on waivers, with the Sox passing at that time. Given their record last year, they have top waiver priority, but he was claimed by the Yankees. But since then, the 60-day IL has opened up, which gave Chicago a bit more flexibility to make an addition such as this.

The Sox can bring White into camp and see how things go. Perhaps he can get back on track as a starter or find new life with a move to a relief role. As mentioned, they don’t need to give him a spot on the active roster this year. He still has less than a year of service time, so they could cheaply control him for years to come if things click while he’s on the roster.

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Chicago White Sox New York Yankees Transactions Ky Bush Owen White

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Blue Jays Sign Jacob Barnes To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | February 17, 2025 at 1:04pm CDT

The Blue Jays announced that they have signed right-hander Jacob Barnes to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training. The righty is represented by the VaynerSports agency.

Barnes, 35 in April, is a veteran journeyman. He has suited up for nine clubs in his career, including a previous stint with the Blue Jays in 2021. Between the Mets and Jays that year, he tossed 28 2/3 innings with a 6.28 earned run average. He struck out 25.8% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.6% clip. Those were pretty decent rate states but he allowed seven home run in that time, which pushed some extra runs across. That’s why SIERA, a metric that normalizes home run rate, gave him a 3.67 mark that year.

His strikeout rate has dipped in recent years but he’s coming off a decent campaign regardless. He tossed 66 innings for the Nats in 2024 with a 4.36 ERA. He only struck out 19.9% of batters faced but his 7.2% walk rate was good and his 6.4% barrel rate was below the 7% league average. That was his third straight season with a barrel rate better than par. However, his 89% average exit velocity and 41.6% hard hit rate were a bit worse than league averages.

When combined with some work for the Tigers, Yankees and Cardinals, Barnes tossed 102 big league innings over the past three campaigns with a 4.85 ERA, 17.2% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate.

The bullpen was a big factor in Toronto’s disappointing 2024 season, as their relievers had a collective 4.82 ERA that was better than just the Rockies. The club has made a number of changes to the group going into this year. They outrighted Génesis Cabrera and non-tendered Jordan Romano, with both of those guys having signed elsewhere. They acquired Nick Sandlin from the Guardians and signed free agents Jeff Hoffman and Yimi García.

They also added some veteran non-roster depth by signing Richard Lovelady and Amir Garrett. Those two might have a bit of an edge over Barnes since they are left-handed. The Jays have three lefty relievers on the 40-man in Brendon Little, Josh Walker and Easton Lucas but no one in that trio has even one year of big league service time. Regardless, Barnes will report to camp and try to earn a spot on the club.

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Toronto Blue Jays Transactions Jacob Barnes

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Yankees Sign Rob Zastryzny To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | February 17, 2025 at 10:52am CDT

The Yankees announced Monday morning that they’ve signed left-handed reliever Rob Zastryzny to a minor league deal and invited him to join their major league camp. Zastryzny was designated for assignment by the Cubs last week and outrighted after he went unclaimed on waivers. However, the veteran southpaw had the right to reject that assignment in favor of free agency. The Cubs never formally announced that he did so, but this morning’s announcement from the Yankees makes it clear that’s how things played out.

Zastryzny, 32, has pitched in parts of six big league seasons and tallied nearly two full years of MLB service. He tossed 7 2/3 innings with the 2024 Brewers and allowed only one run four hits and a walk with five strikeouts. He’s also seen big league time with the Cubs, Mets, Angels and Pirates, combining for a 4.30 earned run average in 67 innings.

Zastryzny has fanned 18.2% of his opponents against a 10.5% walk rate. His 44.8% ground-ball rate is only a couple ticks better than average, but he’s excelled when it comes to keeping the ball in the yard, limiting opponents to an average of just 0.40 homers per nine frames. Lefties have been particularly inept against him, batting just .189/.319/.232 in 113 plate appearances. Conversely, righties have torched the 6’3″ southpaw at a .311/.372/.447 clip. Zastryzny posted a 3.03 ERA in Triple-A last season and carries a career 4.69 mark in parts of eight seasons at that level (409 innings).

The Yankees’ only left-hander in the bullpen at the moment is Tim Hill, who re-signed in the Bronx on a one-year deal earlier this month. Zastryzny joins fellow veteran Tyler Matzek as a seasoned non-roster invitee in camp. He’ll compete for a spot alongside Hill in the ’pen, though there are enough notable unsigned veterans that it’s possible the Yankees could still bring someone in on a guaranteed deal.

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Diamondbacks Designate Seth Martinez For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | February 17, 2025 at 10:35am CDT

The Diamondbacks announced that right-hander Seth Martinez has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move for their signing of fellow righty Kendall Graveman, which is now official.

Martinez, 30, has never suited up for the Snakes. He was just claimed off waivers from the Astros in November, shortly after the World Series. He lasted on the roster through most of the winter but has been nudged off today.

All of his major league experience has been with Houston thus far. He was added to that club’s roster late in 2021 and spent several years as a fringe member of the bullpen, getting optioned to the minors 12 times since getting that roster spot.

Around those trips on the shuttle, he tossed 137 1/3 major league innings for the Astros, allowing 3.93 earned runs per nine. His 20.7% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 39.6% ground ball rate to this point are all close to average but a bit worse than the mean. He also tossed 105 minor league innings over the past four years with more intriguing numbers. He had a 2.66 ERA in that work, along with a 31.5% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate.

He exhausted his final option year in 2024, which means he’ll be less valuable from a roster flexibility standpoint going forward. That likely played a role in the Astros bumping him off their roster. The Diamondbacks were presumably intrigued enough by his minor league strikeouts to claim him and hang onto him for a while but he’s been squeezed off a roster yet again.

Martinez will now be in DFA limbo for a maximum of seven days. He will likely be put back on waivers, which is a 48-hour process, so the Diamondbacks could explore trade interest for the next five days. If any club acquired Martinez, he has a bit more than two years of service time, meaning he still hasn’t qualified for arbitration and can be theoretically controlled for four seasons. However, his aforementioned out-of-options status will give him a bit of a challenge in sticking somewhere.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Transactions Kendall Graveman Seth Martinez

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Diamondbacks Sign Kendall Graveman

By Steve Adams | February 17, 2025 at 10:14am CDT

February 17: The Graveman signing is now official, with righty Seth Martinez designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

February 14: The Diamondbacks are reportedly in agreement with veteran reliever Kendall Graveman on a one-year, $1.35MM deal. The signing is still pending a physical. Graveman, a client of Sports One Athlete Management, will earn $1.25MM this season and has a $100K buyout on a $5MM mutual option for the 2026 season. The deal includes another $1.95MM in performance bonuses. Arizona will need to create a 40-man roster spot when the deal is finalized.

Graveman, 34, missed the 2024 season while recovering from shoulder surgery but had a strong run between the Mariners, Astros and White Sox across the three prior seasons. The former starter moved to a relief role late in the 2020 season after returning from Tommy John surgery and found fast success in a high-leverage role. From 2021-23, Graveman pitched 187 1/3 innings with a 2.74 ERA, 51 holds, 24 saves, a 24.5% strikeout rate and a 10.4% walk rate.

Though last season was lost to shoulder troubles, Graveman was cleared to begin throwing late last summer. He progressed through a normal offseason throwing and conditioning program and is ready for spring training.

When he’s been healthy, Graveman has relied upon a power sinker sitting north of 96 mph, pairing that offering with an upper-80s slider and a lesser-used changeup that sits 89-90 mph. That heavy sinker has allowed him to consistently post ground-ball rates comfortably north of 50%. The right-hander lost a bit of life on all those pitches in 2023 and saw his command erode considerably in the season’s second half, following a trade from the White Sox back to the Astros.

It’s possible shoulder issues contributed to both those red flags, of course. It’ll be telling how he looks early in camp and early in the season. If Graveman is back to 96-98 mph with his sinker and can get his walk rate back down to the 9% range — it was at 12.4% in 2023 — he’ll be a formidable piece in what should be a strong Diamondbacks bullpen.

D-backs general manager Mike Hazen has been open about his desire to add a closer this offseason. While Graveman may not be handed the role out of the gate, he adds a talented and experienced option for manager Torey Lovullo to consider. If he can get back to 2021-23 form, it’s easy to see Graveman factoring into the ninth inning. Prior to this agreement, the Snakes appeared likely to lean on some combination of A.J. Puk, Justin Martinez and Kevin Ginkel in save opportunities.

The addition of Graveman pushes the Diamondbacks’ payroll a bit north of $195MM, per RosterResource. That’s a franchise-record mark by a wide margin, shattering the previous highwater mark of $163MM, set just last year. Prior to the 2024 season, the D-backs had never opened the season higher than $132MM. They’ve been heavily involved in both the trade and free agent markets in each of the past two offseasons, however, with no bigger strike coming than the club-record $210MM investment in newly signed ace Corbin Burnes.

Since Graveman only bumps the payroll by $600K over a league-minimum player, it’s at least feasible that the D-backs could remain engaged in the market for additional bullpen help. David Robertson and Kyle Finnegan both remain unsigned and have ample closing experience. Craig Kimbrel and Hector Neris are both still out there as well and looking to rebound from shaky 2024 campaigns, while Daniel Bard is an even more extreme rebound candidate as he looks to rebound from flexor tendon surgery that cost him all of the 2024 campaign with his 40th birthday looming in June. The trade market presents additional possibilities, of course, but Hazen said just yesterday that any forthcoming bullpen acquisitions would likely be made via free agency.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers first reported the D-Backs and Graveman had a one-year deal. MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert was first with the $1.35MM guarantee. Rogers reported the maximum $3.3MM value after incentives, while Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reported the mutual option/buyout.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Transactions Kendall Graveman Seth Martinez

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Padres Sign Nick Pivetta

By Anthony Franco | February 17, 2025 at 9:05am CDT

Feb. 17: Pivetta passed his physical and has reported to Padres camp. The team has formally announced his four-year contract.

Feb. 12: The Padres are reportedly in agreement with Nick Pivetta on a backloaded four-year, $55MM deal. The CAA client receives a $3MM signing bonus and a $1MM salary for the upcoming season. He’s guaranteed $19MM, $14MM, and $18MM salaries over the following three seasons and can opt out after the contract after the second and third years. While the salary structure helps the Padres navigate short-term payroll constraints, the $13.75MM average annual value counts evenly against the team’s luxury tax calculation. The deal is pending a physical and has not been officially announced by the Padres, who have two openings on their 40-man roster.

Pivetta, who’ll celebrate his 32rd birthday on Friday, was the best unsigned starting pitcher. He had declined a $21.05MM qualifying offer from the Red Sox at the beginning of the offseason. That was a bit of a surprising decision that presumably played a role in holding up his market into Spring Training. He finds a multi-year deal with a much greater overall guarantee than he would have received had he accepted the QO, though he’s taking a notable pay cut for the upcoming season in the process.

The 6’5″ righty debuted with the Phillies in 2017. He struggled for most of his four-year tenure in Philadelphia. A 2020 deadline trade sending him to Boston turned his career around. Pivetta has been a mid-rotation workhorse over the last four years. He ranks 23rd in MLB with 623 innings since the start of the 2021 season. He owns a cumulative 4.33 earned run average and has allowed an ERA between 4.04 and 4.56 in each season.

Pivetta was a fixture in Alex Cora’s rotation over his first two seasons in Boston. He remained in that role early in the ’23 campaign, but the Sox kicked him to the bullpen in the middle of May. Pivetta was sitting on a 6.30 ERA over his first eight starts of the season. He had a fantastic turnaround in a long relief capacity. Pivetta allowed 1.98 earned runs per nine with an exceptional 36.9% strikeout rate over his first 17 relief appearances. Boston gradually stretched him back out to a rotation workload as the season progressed, putting him back in the starting five entering last season.

A flexor strain in his elbow sent him to the injured list in early April. That was remarkably the first non-virus IL stint of his nearly seven-year MLB career. Pivetta returned no worse for wear a month later and stayed heathy from May onwards. He wound up taking the ball 27 times and worked to a 4.14 ERA across 145 2/3 innings.

Pivetta’s run prevention numbers are those of a league average starter. That alone would be a significant boost to a San Diego rotation that needs reliable back-end innings. Pivetta’s strikeout and walk profile has been more intriguing than the bottom line results. He punched out 28.9% of opposing hitters against a modest 6.1% walk rate last season. That was the third season of the past four years in which he has posted a well above-average strikeout rate.

However, the swing-and-miss ability has been somewhat undercut by longstanding issues keeping the ball in the park. Pivetta has allowed a higher than average home run rate in every season of his MLB career. He gives up a lot of hard contact. While Statcast’s park factors grade Fenway Park as one of the sport’s most hitter-friendly venues overall, it has played around neutral for home runs over the past few seasons. Petco Park has been around average for home runs as well, though it broadly plays more favorably for pitchers.

Pivetta slots fourth on Mike Shildt’s rotation depth chart for the moment. He’s behind Dylan Cease, Michael King and Yu Darvish in what had been a very top-heavy rotation. It’s a lot more balanced now, as Pivetta can provide innings that San Diego lost when Joe Musgrove underwent Tommy John surgery last fall. That’d leave one spot up for grabs among the likes of Randy Vásquez, Matt Waldron and potential reliever conversion candidates Bryan Hoeing and Stephen Kolek.

That’d only be the case if there are no other moves before Opening Day. The Padres have been hamstrung all offseason by payroll restrictions. It’s the second straight winter in which the front office has had limited financial leeway. They’ve inked a trio of cheap one-year deals to plug holes at catcher and left field. They signed Elias Díaz for $3.5MM to start behind the plate while bringing in Connor Joe and Jason Heyward for a left field platoon at a combined $2MM cost.

Pivetta won’t make much more than that in year one. The bigger ramifications are from a luxury tax perspective. The Padres snuck below the tax line in 2024. They’ve seemingly preferred to do so again this offseason. The Padres had projected narrowly above this year’s $241MM base threshold. Pivetta pushes them close to the second tax tier. RosterResource calculates their tax number around $258MM. The actual fees are relatively small. They’re taxed at a 20% rate on spending between $241MM and $261MM. They’ll pay a $2.75MM tax on the Pivetta deal and are currently lined up for about $3.4MM in taxes overall.

While ownership may simply be willing to live with that relatively small tax bill, the front office could consider payroll-clearing trades in the coming weeks. Cease, who has a $13.75MM tax number himself for his final arbitration season, has been in trade rumors all offseason. King ($7.75MM) has been the subject of lesser trade chatter, while Robert Suarez and Luis Arraez have also been speculated about. Trading Cease or King would again raise questions about the rotation’s stability, though any such deal would almost certainly include at least one affordable MLB rotation piece in the return package.

The money isn’t the only cost for San Diego. They’ll surrender their second-round pick (#64 overall) in the upcoming draft, as well as $500K from their 2026 bonus pool for international amateurs, because Pivetta had declined the qualifying offer. The Red Sox get a compensation pick in the ’25 draft, which will land 77th overall.

Pivetta winds up being the only free agent starter of this offseason to sign a four-year deal. Michael Wacha, Yusei Kikuchi, Sean Manaea, Nathan Eovaldi and Luis Severino each signed for three years but pulled higher annual values. All but Wacha landed a larger overall guarantee. Severino and Manaea had also declined qualifying offers, while Wacha would have received one had he not re-signed with Kansas City just before QO decisions were due. Pivetta will collect $23MM over the next two seasons. His opt-out decisions will come when there are two years at $32MM and (if he doesn’t take the first out) one year at $18MM remaining.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan was first to report the signing and the salary breakdown. Image courtesy of Imagn.

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NPB’s Tokyo Yakult Swallows Sign Pedro Avila

By Mark Polishuk | February 16, 2025 at 11:23pm CDT

The Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball have signed right-hander Pedro Avila, according to multiple reports out of Japan.  Avila elected free agency in January rather than accept an outright assignment to the Guardians’ Triple-A team.

After posting a 2.70 ERA over the small sample size of 13 1/3 big league innings with the Padres from 2019-22, Avila received a larger role in the form of 50 1/3 frames in 2023.  An excellent 58.8% grounder rate and a solid 24.5% strikeout rate helped Avila overcome a middling 11.4% walk rate, but a shaky start early in the 2024 season led the Padres to designate the righty for assignment in April.

The Guardians picked Avila up in a cash transaction a few days after, and Avila went on to become a workhorse within the elite Cleveland bullpen.  Beyond logging 74 2/3 innings over 50 appearances, Avila also had a 3.25 ERA during his time with the Guards, though his K% slightly declined from 2023 and his grounder rate dropped to 45% (though he also cut back on the walks).  He added to that solid performance with four shutout innings in the playoffs, and he was the winning pitcher in Cleveland’s only victory of the ALCS, a 7-5 walkoff over the Yankees in Game 3.

Such production would normally have given Avila a clear ticket to a roster spot on most teams, but he is out of minor league options, and the Guardians are so deep in relief pitching that Avila became expendable.  As it turned out, the Guards designated Avila to create roster space when they signed another reliever, former Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald.

Avila’s out-of-options status might have left him in a crunch when trying to break camp with another MLB team this spring, so he’ll now head to Japan for more of a guaranteed role with the Swallows.  This is the first time the 28-year-old Avila has pitched professionally outside of affiliated baseball, apart from five stints in the Venezuelan Winter League.

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    Braves Sign Charlie Morton

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    Recent

    Pete Alonso To Opt Out Of Mets Contract, Enter Free Agency

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