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Tyler Jay Elects Free Agency

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The Mariners announced Tuesday that left-hander Tyler Jay, who was designated for assignment last week, went unclaimed on outright waivers. He’s elected free agency in lieu of an outright assignment to the minors. Seattle had claimed Jay off waivers from the Brewers earlier this month.

Selected with the No. 6 overall pick by the Twins back in 2015, Jay was viewed as a polished college arm who could move quickly as a reliever but also had a chance to start. He ranked as one of the Twins’ top prospects — and one of the top prospects in the sport — following that lofty selection, but repeated injury troubles derailed his once-promising trajectory. Jay dealt with continued shoulder and neck injuries throughout his time in the Twins’ system; Jay was at one point evaluated for symptoms believed to be related to thoracic outlet syndrome but wound up avoiding surgery.

Jay was out of affiliated ball entirely and pitching for the Joliet Slammers of the independent Frontier League when he caught the Mets’ attention and landed a minor league deal several years later, in 2023. The Mets gave him his big league debut in 2024 at 30 years old. He wound up splitting time between the Mets and Brewers, allowing four earned runs on nine hits and six walks with six punchouts in 7 2/3 innings of work.

While it was far from a dominant debut showing, Jay pitched quite well in the minors. In 56 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level this past season, the lefty notched a tidy 3.02 ERA with a 20.9% strikeout rate and very sharp 5.1% walk rate. He also kept the ball on the ground at a strong 47.3% clip and averaged just 0.64 homers per nine innings pitched.

Jay doesn’t throw especially hard, sitting just over 92 mph with his heater, but it was a nice season in the upper minors for a former top pick who seems to have put a good deal of the health troubles that plagued him early in his professional career behind him. He’ll now head to the market and look to latch on as a depth option for a club, likely one with a more pressing need for left-handed bullpen help (or at least fewer candidates to fill said need) than the Mariners have.

Mariners Acquire Will Klein, Designate Tyler Jay For Assignment

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The Mariners have acquired right-hander Will Klein from the Athletics, according to announcements from both clubs. The latter club had designated him for assignment last week. The A’s get international bonus pool space in return, though the exact amount wasn’t specified. The M’s designated left-hander Tyler Jay for assignment as the corresponding move.

Klein, 25, was traded from the Royals to the A’s as part of last summer’s deadline trade that sent Lucas Erceg to Kansas City. Klein has a sliver of major league experience to this point, having tossed 7 1/3 innings between the two clubs last year, allowing nine earned runs.

That means he currently sports an ugly 11.05 earned run average in the bigs, but it’s a tiny sample of work and he averaged 97 miles per hour on his fastball. In general, his pitching on the farm has resulted in heaps of strikeouts and walks. He has thrown 221 1/3 innings across various minor league levels, with a 5.16 ERA, 30.4% strikeout rate and 16.4% walk rate.

Given the poor control, Klein is probably considered something of a project. He still has a couple of options remaining, so the M’s can plug him in as depth while they see if he can rein in his arsenal a bit more.

Jay, 31 in April, was just claimed off waivers from the Brewers earlier this month. He has had a somewhat unique baseball journey, as he was the sixth overall pick in 2015 but various injuries derailed his career. He actually just debuted in the majors last year, almost a decade after being drafted. He tossed 7 2/3 innings between the Mets and Brewers, allowing four earned runs.

It’s hard to glean much from that sample but Jay also tossed 56 2/3 minor league innings last year between those two clubs with a 3.02 ERA. His 20.9% strikeout rate was subpar but he kept walks down to a 5.1% rate and got grounders on 47.3% of balls in play.

The M’s were intrigued enough to grab Jay off waivers but have now bumped him off the roster. He’ll be in DFA limbo for a week at most, waiting to see what comes next, whether that’s a trade or some fate back on the wire. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any potential trade talks would have to come together in the next five days. He still has options and just a few days of service time, so any acquiring club could perhaps deploy him as a cheap depth arm with roster flexibility.

While it’s not great for the A’s to have already lost one of the three players they got for Erceg, they at least are getting some pool space out of this deal. As mentioned, the exact amount wasn’t reported, but pool space can only be traded in $250K increments. The A’s will get a bump of at least that much, which they can use to add some more talent to their system.

Alex Bregman, Tigers Reportedly At “Standstill”

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Spring training is now just a few weeks away but many free agents are still unsigned, with Alex Bregman arguably being the most notable. The Tigers are one club that have been connected to him but Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reports that talks are “at a standstill.”

At the start of the offseason, MLBTR ranked Bregman the #3 free agent of the winter, behind Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes. Soto and Burnes are both now signed, leaving Bregman as the top guy still out there. We predicted a seven-year, $182MM deal that ended up being sort of a midpoint for Bregman’s negotiations earlier in the offseason. The Astros reportedly offered Bregman $156MM over six years, though the third baseman was trying to get to $200MM.

Rather than meet in the middle, Houston walked away. They lined up a deal with the Cardinals for Nolan Arenado, though Arenado used his no-trade clause to quash that. Instead, they acquired Isaac Paredes from the Cubs and signed Christian Walker to take over at first base. Since then, Bregman has been connected to clubs like the Tigers, Blue Jays, Red Sox and others, but without much apparent momentum.

The Cubs reportedly sniffed around the possibility of a short-term deal for Bregman but agent Scott Boras said last week that Bregman wasn’t considering that path. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer also recently downplayed the possibility of the Cubs getting involved. “I think likely,” Hoyer said at Cubs Convention a few days ago, when asked if the Cubs’ third baseman is already in the organization. “Certainly, we’ll look to supplement. Infield is an area we’re focused on (for the bench), but I think the likelihood is yes.”

Matt Shaw is perhaps the best solution there but he has not yet made his major league debut. There’s no guarantee he will hit the ground running in 2025, so there’s an argument for adding someone established, but it seems the Cubs are trying to be more opportunistic than aggressive in Bregman’s market.

It makes for something of a staring contest with the 2025 season approaching. It was around this time last year that Boras started pivoting to short-term deals for Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery. Boras has apparently made that turn with client Pete Alonso, as Alonso’s camp reportedly pitched a three-year deal to the Mets recently.

But with Bregman still holding out hope for a longer deal, it seems to be leading to the general sluggishness of the third base market. The Tigers have had a fairly quiet offseason, with one-year deals for Alex Cobb and Gleyber Torres being their primary moves so far. They have Jace Jung and Matt Vierling as potential in-house options at the hot corner, so they have a bit of leverage to wait out Bregman.

With Vierling also capable of playing the outfield, Jung seems like the logical choice for third base right now. He struck out in 30.9% of his plate appearances last year but that was a small-sample debut of 94 plate appearances. He didn’t have those kind of strikeout rates in the minors and still managed to draw a lot of walks while making his major league debut. Like with Shaw, there’s no guarantee that he can take the job and run with it but the Tigers might feel they have enough cover to not go crazy on a Bregman deal.

As long as Bregman stays out there, it seems to be preventing other dominoes from falling. The Cardinals came into the winter looking to do something of a reset but they haven’t been able to execute it yet, which seems to be at least partially because Arenado wanted clarity on Bregman’s situation before he’d commit to being traded. That has left St. Louis in a sort of holding pattern where they might just keep Arenado and other veterans into the start of the 2025 season.

Daniel Kramer of MLB.com also reports that the Bregman situation is leaving the Mariners playing a waiting game. While the M’s are not in on Bregman, they are impacted by the situation nonetheless. Kramer writes that the M’s “believe they’re positioned to make a notable move before Spring Training” but are holding on to see if a Bregman deal sparks movement elsewhere, since upgrading at third is on their to-do list.

Seattle has been fairly quiet this winter, with their signing of infielder Donovan Solano to a one-year, $3.5MM deal being their most notable move. Kramer reports that the M’s don’t plan to deploy him at second and he will be in the mix for playing time at first base more than anywhere else. That perhaps suggests Solano will be platooning with Luke Raley, since Solano is better against lefties and Raley the opposite.

For third base, Kramer floats various possible scenarios that could come to pass as the offseason progresses. He mentions that the Red Sox could land Bregman, which could perhaps make someone like Triston Casas more available. Casas doesn’t play third but it could perhaps lead to Solano moving across the diamond for more time over there. Kramer also floats the possibility of the Tigers signing Bregman and making Jung available, or a similar situation with someone on the Blue Jays like Orelvis Martínez or Addison Barger. It’s also possible that infielders like Luis Arráez of the Padres or Willi Castro of the Twins become more available once Bregman is off the board.

Until then, the Mariners are left laying in the cut, though they have explored other options. They had talks with the Cubs about Nico Hoerner and Bellinger, though the Hoerner deal seemed to become less likely when Paredes was sent to Houston in the Kyle Tucker deal. Perhaps the Hoerner trade talks could be revisited if Bregman ends up a Cub, which is perhaps another reason for the M’s to wait. The Bellinger connection was reported earlier in the offseason.

Another path the M’s considered, according to Kramer, was getting Nathaniel Lowe from the Rangers. However, it seems Texas didn’t feel great about dealing Lowe within their division, which led to him being dealt to the Nationals instead.

For now, it all feels like the part of the standoff where everyone has their hand by their holster, waiting for movement. It’s possible that bodies start dropping once someone flinches, but it’s a staredown for the time being.

Mariners Outright Samad Taylor

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The Mariners announced Tuesday that infielder/outfielder Samad Taylor, whom they designated for assignment last week, passed through waivers unclaimed and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma. He’ll remain with the organization and presumably head to major league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.

Seattle acquired Taylor, now 26, just under one calendar year ago. He’d been designated for assignment by Kansas City, and the M’s scooped him up by trading a player to be named later (eventually announced as Natanael Garabitos) to the Royals in return.

Taylor appeared in only three games for the Mariners this past season, going 2-for-5 in that time. He spent the vast majority of the season in Tacoma, where he posted a .262/.352/.380 slash in 136 games and 599 plate appearances. Taylor’s 11.4% walk rate and hefty 50 stolen bases are both plenty appealing, but he posted bottom-of-the-scale batted-ball metrics: an 86.1 mph average exit velocity and 26.6% hard-hit rate in Tacoma. He also fanned in 26% of his plate appearances.

Defensively, Taylor has played primarily second base in his career, though has has experience at shortstop, third base and all three outfield slots. The Mariners will surely be happy to stash that versatility, blistering speed and patient approach at the plate in the upper minors as non-roster depth.

Andrew Knapp Announces Retirement

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Longtime major league catcher Andrew Knapp announced his retirement as a player on his Instagram page. “I completely dedicated my life to the game, and the game blessed me with so much,” he said. “Baseball has given me relationships that I will have for the rest of my life. It has taught be how to fail and how to persevere. It has taught me how to be confident but humble. It has taught me that people will remember you more because of what kind of person you are rather than what kind of player you were.” He then goes on to thank the many people that helped him along the way, including his agent, his teammates and particularly his family members.

Knapp, now 33, was once a notable prospect. The son of minor leaguer Mike Knapp, the younger Knapp showed enough promise at a young age to get drafted by the Athletics out of high school, selected in the 41st round in 2010. But Knapp decided to attend Berkeley instead, becoming a full-time catcher who hit from both sides of the plate. That led to the Phillies taking him in the second round of the 2013 draft and signing Knapp with a bonus of just over $1MM.

His development was slowed somewhat by Tommy John surgery, which he required late in 2013, but he still put up strong offensive numbers. He slashed .280/.355/.435 in 1,173 minor league plate appearances from 2013 to 2015, production that led to a wRC+ of 132. That offense, especially as a switch-hitter, gave Knapp some prospect helium. Going into 2016, Baseball America gave him a spot at the back of their top 100, putting him at #96.

Unfortunately, his major league offense never quite matched his production on the farm. He showed a bit of potential in his 2017 debut, producing a line of .257/.368/.368. His 27.5% strikeout rate was a bit high but he also drew walks at a strong clip of 15.2%. The overall production led to a wRC+ of 94, a bit below average overall but decent for a catcher.

He couldn’t maintain that level of performance, however. He got into at least 33 games for the Phils in five straight seasons from 2017 to 2021 but produced a combined line of .214/.314/.322 over that time, leading to a 72 wRC+. His 11.9% walk rate was a solid mark but his 31.7% strikeout rate was quite high. That includes a huge .278/.404/.444 showing in 2020, though that was a small sample of 89 plate appearances and he crashed back to earth with a .152/.215/.214 line in 2021.

Knapp’s glovework was never especially well regarded, with outlets like Baseball Prospectus and Statcast giving him negative grades for his framing, blocking and throwing. As a prospect, it was hoped that his offense could compensate for that, though it didn’t quite come to pass.

The Phils decided to move on after that rough showing from Knapp in 2021, outrighting him off the roster, which kicked off the journeyman phase of his career. He signed a minor league deal with the Reds going into 2022 but didn’t make the club out of camp. That led to him joining the Pirates, Mariners and Giants, though he only got into 16 major league games between those three teams that year. In 2023, minor league deals with the Tigers and Astros didn’t lead back to the big leagues. In 2024, he was with the Rangers on a minor league through the end of June. After being released, he got a major league deal with the Giants, but he was designated for assignment less than a week later after getting into three games. He was outrighted off the roster and elected free agency at season’s end.

Knapp has now decided to hang up his spikes and move onto the next phase of his life. His retirement statement didn’t lay out his career plans, though he has previously expressed a desire to become a manager someday, so perhaps he could start making moves on that trajectory now. He retires with 158 hits in 756 at-bats, including 31 doubles, four triples and 13 home runs. He scored 83 runs and drove in 66. We at MLBTR congratulate Knapp on carving out a major league career and wish him the best on whatever comes next.

Mariners, Shintaro Fujinami Agree To Minor League Deal

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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.

Mariners Outright Nick Raposo

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The Mariners have announced that catcher Nick Raposo has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Tacoma. He had been designated for assignment earlier in the week when the club acquired infielder Miles Mastrobuoni.

Raposo, 27 in June, still hasn’t made his major league debut. The Cardinals added him to their roster in June of last year when both Willson Contreras and Iván Herrera were injured. But Raposo never got into a game and was later put on waivers, getting claimed by the Blue Jays in August. He was kept on optional assignment for the rest of the year and the Jays put him back on waivers in December, with the M’s putting in a claim at that time.

He has a combined batting line of .241/.321/.387 over his four minor league seasons. That production translates to a wRC+ of 85, indicating he’s been 15% below average overall. Catchers normally come in about 10% below the league-wide mean, so that’s not bad production for a backstop. Baseball Prospectus has given him solid marks for his defense.

The M’s have a clear #1 catcher in Cal Raleigh, with Mitch Garver likely to be the backup. They recently acquired Blake Hunt to add some depth and now Raposo will be sticking around to give them some more depth in a non-roster capacity.

Mariners Outright Austin Kitchen

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The Mariners announced Thursday that left-hander Austin Kitchen, whom they’d designated for assignment in order to open roster space for newly signed Donovan Solano, went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma.

Kitchen, 27, was a September waiver claim out of the Marlins organization. He didn’t pitch in a big league game with the Mariners following that claim but did log his first seven MLB frames with Miami last year. That brief cameo didn’t go well, as Kitchen was tagged for 11 earned runs in that time.

Kitchen posted a more encouraging 3.78 earned run average in 52 1/3 frames of Triple-A work between three organizations (Rockies, Marlins, Mariners). The southpaw averages just 90.7 mph on his fastball and doesn’t miss many bats, but he posted a hearty 55.1% grounder rate in the minors last year and has a lengthy history of keeping the ball on the ground at plus rates. He’s also shown generally good command, walking only 6.5% of his opponents in four minor league seasons.

Now that Kitchen has cleared waivers, he’ll remain in the organization as minor league depth. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so if the Mariners select him back to the big league roster, he can be optioned freely without needing to return to waivers. Seattle has a trio of left-handed relief options already on the 40-man roster: Tayler Saucedo, Gabe Speier and recent waiver claim Tyler Jay.

Mariners Acquire Blake Hunt, Designate Samad Taylor For Assignment

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The Orioles have traded catcher Blake Hunt to the Mariners in exchange for cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. The O’s had designated Hunt for assignment earlier this week. The M’s designated infielder/outfielder Samad Taylor for assignment as a corresponding move.

Hunt, 26, was with the Mariners at this time last year. Seattle acquired him from the Rays in November of 2023 but was flipped to the Orioles in May of 2024. It seems their positive feelings towards Hunt didn’t fade, as they have taken the chance to bring him back.

It’s a bet on a bounceback, as Hunt’s prospect pedigree has faded. He performed well in the lower levels of the minors, then in the Padres’ system, which gave him enough helium to be one of four players acquired by the Rays in the December 2020 Blake Snell deal. Shortly after that swap, FanGraphs ranked Hunt just outside the top 100 as part of their 2021 prospect rankings.

Since then, Hunt’s minor league performance has been up and down. He slashed .225/.301/.369 over 2021 and 2022 for a wRC+ of 80, then came back a bit in 2023 with a .256/.331/.484 line and 106 wRC+. But between the M’s and the O’s last year, he had a combined .218/.273/.364 line and 60 wRC+.

Despite the inconsistent performance, the M’s seem to still like the idea of Hunt as a depth catcher. He still has a couple of options and can be kept in Triple-A until needed. The club currently projects to have Cal Raleigh as its primary catcher, with Mitch Garver second on the depth chart. Nick Raposo was on the roster until he got the DFA treatment yesterday. Prospect Harry Ford could be in the mix this year but still hasn’t made his Triple-A debut.

To add that catching depth, the M’s are sacrificing a bit of depth elsewhere. Taylor, 26, has bounced around the diamond in his professional career. He’s played all three outfield spots and the three infield positions to the left of first base.

His big league experience is limited, as he’s only appeared in 34 games. 31 of those were with the 2023 Royals and then three with the M’s last year. He has a tepid line of .215/.288/.277 in his 74 major league plate appearances.

As one would expect, his minor league numbers are better, though he’s coming off a down year in that regard. From 2021 to 2023, he slashed .287/.385/.468 for a wRC+ of 125 and also stole 96 bases in 119 tries. Last year, he hit .262/.352/.380 in 599 Triple-A plate appearances for an 88 wRC+, though he did steal another 50 bags.

The Mariners will now have a week to figure out what’s next for Taylor, whether that’s a trade or some fate on waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so a trade would need to come together in the next five days. Taylor still has a minor league option and less than a year of service time, so he should appeal to clubs as a depth option due to his speed, defensive versatility and flashes of offensive potential.

MLBTR Podcast: The Jeff Hoffman Situation, Justin Verlander, And The Marlins’ Rotation

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

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