Rays Acquire Matthew Hoskins As PTBNL In Kameron Misner Trade
The Rays announced that they have acquired right-hander Matthew Hoskins from the Royals as the player to be named later in the Kameron Misner trade. Tampa flipped Misner to Kansas City for cash or a PTBNL in November. Hoskins wasn’t on the Royals’ 40-man roster, so no corresponding move is required.
Hoskins, 22, was just selected in the 12th round of the 2025 draft. The Royals didn’t have him pitch in affiliated ball after signing him, so he still hasn’t made his professional debut. He had spent the previous three years pitching for the University of Georgia. He gave the Bulldogs 50 2/3 innings with a 6.22 earned run average. His 27.6% strikeout rate was strong but he walked 40 of the 243 batters he faced, a 16.5% clip. He also hit 16 batters and threw six wild pitches.
Baseball America ranked Hoskins the #496 player available in the draft. Given his college numbers, they unsurprisingly noted that he will require some polish and is likely to be a reliever in the long term. But they highlighted that his fastball sits in the upper 90s and can touch triple digits. His slider is his best secondary pitch and he also throws a changeup. The Rays are seemingly betting on the raw stuff and will take on Hoskins as a long-term project.
Photo courtesy of Rich Storry, Imagn Images
Rangers Designate Alexis Díaz For Assignment
The Rangers announced Friday that right-hander Alexis Díaz has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster goes to veteran lefty Jalen Beeks, whose previously reported one-year contract with Texas is now official.
Díaz, 29, signed a major league contract of his own with the Rangers earlier in the winter. The former Reds All-Star is being paid $1MM this year but has struggled immensely in spring training after a discouraging 2025 showing. Díaz has appeared in three official spring games and walked four of the 13 hitters he’s faced. He’s plunked another. Considering he walked 14.1% of his opponents in the majors last year and more than 16% of his Triple-A opponents, continued command problems of this magnitude stand as a notable red flag.
It’s possible that for the Rangers, attempting to pass Díaz through waivers at some point was the plan all along. It’s become increasingly common for teams to sign free agents who have fewer than five years of service time to major league contracts with modest salaries and then pass them through waivers. (Díaz has 3.088 years of service.) Those players aren’t able to retain the remainder of their guaranteed salary upon rejecting an outright assignment. If Díaz goes unclaimed — which seems likely given last year’s struggles and his poor command this spring — he’ll very likely accept an outright assignment and give the Rangers some depth and a reclamation project with which to work at the Triple-A level.
Early in his career, Díaz looked to be following in the footsteps of older brother Edwin Díaz in a march to stardom. He finished fifth in 2022 NL Rookie of the Year voting after pitching 63 2/3 innings with a 3.07 ERA, 10 saves, 13 holds and a gaudy 32.5% strikeout rate. His 12.9% walk rate was an eyesore, but Díaz offset the free passes with a glut of strikeouts. His velocity and strikeout rate have dipped in each subsequent season, however, and Díaz’s struggles reached a tipping point last year.
The Reds optioned Díaz to Triple-A on May 1 after he was rocked for eight runs in his first six innings (during which he walked five men and hit another two). Four weeks later, he was traded to the Dodgers. Los Angeles called him up mid-July and gave him nine innings, during which he was tagged for five more runs. Díaz was designated for assignment in early September and claimed by the Braves, who gave him another 2 2/3 innings during which he served up three more runs. Díaz finished the season with an 8.15 ERA in 17 2/3 big league innings. He logged a 5.61 ERA in 25 1/3 Triple-A frames.
Díaz is a recognizable name with plenty of track record, but at this point he’s more than two full years removed from his last campaign as a high-end reliever (2023). The Rangers can spend the next five days trying to trade him before he has to be put on waivers, though he can be waived at any point in the interim as well. Any team that claims Díaz would be on the hook for that $1MM salary. As previously noted, if Díaz passes through waivers unclaimed, he’ll surely remain in the organization by accepting an outright assignment, as rejecting would mean forfeiting that $1MM guarantee.
Rangers Sign Jalen Beeks
The Rangers announced the signing of lefty reliever Jalen Beeks to a one-year contract. The Frontline client is reportedly guaranteed $1.6MM and can earn an additional $1MM in incentives. He’d receive $75K bonuses at 10 and 15 appearances, $100K for his 20th outing, and $125K each at 25, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 65 games. Texas designated Alexis Díaz for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot.
Beeks finds a guaranteed contract just two weeks from the beginning of the regular season. The southpaw spent the 2025 campaign with the Diamondbacks on a $1.25MM contract. He made 61 appearances, working to a 3.77 earned run average across 57 1/3 innings. There’s a decent chance he would have been traded at the deadline if not for a three-week injured list stint in July due to lower back inflammation.
The 32-year-old wound up finishing the season as one of the rare veteran pieces in Arizona’s bullpen. He allowed only four runs across his final 16 1/3 innings. Beeks’ underlying marks were middle of the road. He had a slightly below-average 20.3% strikeout rate with decent but unexceptional walk and ground-ball marks.
Unlike a lot of lefty relievers, Beeks doesn’t have a great breaking ball. He only used his cutter around 10% of the time last year. Beeks works mostly with a 94-95 mph fastball and an upper 80s changeup that serves as his best swing-and-miss pitch. He doesn’t have extreme platoon splits as a result. Beeks allowed similar slash lines to left-handed (.218/.266/.345) and righty (.190/.285/.339) bats alike last year, though his strikeout rate was quite a bit higher when he had the platoon advantage.
Beeks will have a couple weeks to get ready for the start of the regular season. It’ll be a patched together Texas bullpen for a second straight year. Robert Garcia is their one high-leverage lefty. There’s a decent chance he gets some save opportunities. Tyler Alexander will pitch in a long relief role. Beeks isn’t a pure specialist but can take some left on left matchups in the middle innings.
Garcia, Chris Martin, Cole Winn, Jakob Junis, Beeks and Alexander all seem assured of Opening Day bullpen spots. Diaz signed a one-year deal, but he’s been bombed for eight runs in 1 2/3 innings this spring and was pushed off the roster.
Rule 5 draftee Carter Baumler needs to stick on the MLB team or be waived and offered back to the Orioles. He has only surrendered one unearned run with a 4-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio through 5 2/3 frames. Minor league signees Ryan Brasier and Josh Sborz are also in camp. Sborz has had the much more impressive spring.
As Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports observes, this may also tip the team’s hand on their rotation plans. Left-hander Jacob Latz will be on the big league roster in some capacity. Latz pitched mostly in relief last year but is competing with Kumar Rocker for the fifth starter job. Rocker has the higher pedigree, but Latz was the better pitcher in 2025. There hasn’t been a huge divide between the two this spring.
If the Rangers keep Rocker as the fifth starter, they’d have four left-handers in their projected Opening Day bullpen. Most teams prefer to carry two or three lefty relievers. That could point to Latz having the upper hand in the rotation competition and Rocker beginning the season in Triple-A.
Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News first reported the Rangers and Beeks had agreed to a big league deal. The Associated Press reported the salary and bonuses.
Image courtesy of Rob Schumacher, Imagn Images.
Red Sox Sign Danny Coulombe
The Red Sox announced the signing of lefty reliever Danny Coulombe to a one-year deal. Boston placed utilityman Romy Gonzalez on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. Coulombe, a client of ALIGND Sports Agency, is reportedly guaranteed $1MM.
Coulombe lands a big league contract for his age-36 season. The southpaw is coming off an excellent 2.30 earned run average across 43 innings between the Twins and Rangers. Coulombe punched out an above-average 24.4% of batters faced behind an excellent 13.1% swinging strike rate.
It was the third consecutive sub-3.00 ERA showing for the veteran reliever. Coulombe’s age and lack of velocity have nevertheless limited him to a series of modest one-year contracts. With a fastball that checks in around 90 mph, Coulombe leans most heavily on a mid-80s cutter. It’s a relatively platoon neutral profile, though he was more aggressive in attacking the strike zone against left-handed hitters.
Assuming he’s able to ramp into game shape within the next two weeks, Coulombe will slot into Alex Cora’s middle relief group. Boston was light on left-handed bullpen help in front of Aroldis Chapman. The out-of-options Jovani Morán and trade pickup Tyler Samaniego, who has yet to make his MLB debut, are the other lefty relievers on the 40-man roster. Coulombe should raise the floor over the less established southpaws.
Boston still has up to three bullpen spots for grabs. Morán’s lack of options could give him a leg up on one of those. Rule 5 pick Ryan Watson can’t be optioned but seems a longer shot to break camp after giving up six runs in as many innings this spring.
Gonzalez will be out at least until late May. The Sox announced that the righty-hitting utilityman underwent an arthroscopic debridement procedure on his left shoulder. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that it’s a cleanup surgery that could come with a 2-3 month recovery timeline. Gonzalez should be back midseason to reprise his role as a short side platoon bat.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported Coulombe and the Red Sox had a major league deal. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported the $1MM salary.
Image courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images.
Jay Groome, Nate Webb Sign With American Association’s Kansas City Monarchs
Left-hander Jay Groome and right-hander Nate Webb have signed with the Kansas City Monarchs of the independent American Association. The league itself announced the Groome transaction this week while the Monarchs announced the Webb deal.
Groome, 27, was once a prospect of some note. The Red Sox drafted him 12th overall in 2016 and he initially posted good numbers in the lower levels of the minors. Baseball America ranked him the #43 prospect in the league going into 2017.
His stock dipped from there. He posted a 5.69 earned run average on the farm in 2017 then missed all of 2018 and most of 2019 due to Tommy John surgery. The minor leagues were canceled by COVID-19 in 2020. Despite having a rough time in those years, the Sox still gave him a 40-man spot in November of 2020 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. Groome then had a 4.81 ERA in 2021. He was a bit better in 2022, a season that saw him get flipped from the Red Sox to the Padres in the Eric Hosmer deal. Between the two clubs, he posted a 3.44 ERA in the minors that year.
But there were more speed bumps to come. He struggled badly in 2023, with an 8.55 ERA in Triple-A that year. In the summer of 2024, he was one of four players who received a one-year suspension for betting on major league games while playing in the minor leagues. When his suspension was up in June of 2025, the Padres non-tendered him. Groome is obviously not as enticing as he was a decade ago but he’s only 27, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he can pitch his way back into affiliated ball.
Like Groome, Webb has spent time on a 40-man roster but hasn’t appeared in a big league game. Now 28, he was a 34th round pick of the Royals in 2016. In 2021, he struck out 37.7% of the batters he faced in the minors. Even though he hadn’t yet cracked Double-A, the Royals didn’t want to lose him. They added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2021 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
Unfortunately, he battled some injuries in 2022 and posted an awful 9.99 ERA on the farm that year. The Royals non-tendered him after just one year on the 40-man. He signed a minor league deal with the Pirates but Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2023 season.
He signed a two-year deal with the Orioles for 2024 and 2025 but left Achilles tendon surgery prevented him from pitching in the first year. He was back on the mound in 2025 but his 17.1% walk rate was almost as high as his 17.6% strikeout rate as he posted a 4.70 ERA on the year. Like Groome, he is still a few years shy of his 30th birthday, so a strong showing in indy ball could lead to a return to the affiliated ranks.
Photo courtesy of Gaby Velasquez, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Sign Caleb Freeman To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays have signed right-hander Caleb Freeman to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. Freeman has been assigned to Double-A New Hampshire, so he’ll presumably be heading to minor league camp in spring training.
Freeman, 28, is a reliever who spent his entire career in the White Sox system until recently. He averages around 95 miles per hour with his fastball with a high-80s slider and low-80s curveball. For most of his career, control has been a big problem. Over the 2022 and 2023 minor league seasons, he walked 18.5% of the batters he faced. In the majors, relievers usually walk around 9% of opponents, so he was basically double par.
In 2024, he dialed things in, relatively speaking. His 13.6% walk rate was still high but an improvement. He also struck out a strong 29.3% of opponents, helping him post a 3.92 ERA in Double-A that year. In 2025, he got out to a blazing start. In his first 13 1/3 innings, he had a 1.35 ERA, 33.3% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate. The White Sox tried to ride the hot hand and added him to their big league roster.
He wasn’t able to keep the momentum going from there. He faced 16 big league hitters in five appearances. He only gave out one walk but also only punched out three, allowing two earned runs in the process. In the minors, he posted a 5.30 ERA the rest of the way with an 18.2% strikeout rate and 17.1% walk rate. He was outrighted off the 40-man in June and became a free agent at season’s end.
Freeman won’t have a great shot at a roster spot in the near term. The Jays have a pretty crowded pitching staff. They could have eight viable starters once Shane Bieber is ready to come off the injured list. That will have domino effects into the bullpen with some of their starting options pushed into relief roles. The Jays currently have Rule 5 picks Spencer Miles and Angel Bastardo on the roster.
Even if those two can’t break camp, Toronto still projects for bullpen spots to go to Jeff Hoffman, Tyler Rogers, Louis Varland, Brendon Little, Braydon Fisher, Tommy Nance and Eric Lauer, with Mason Fluharty and Chase Lee also in the mix. Jorge Alcala, Josh Fleming and others are in camp as non-roster invitees. It’s also possible that starter Ricky Tiedemann, who has struggled to stay healthy, ends up in the bullpen as he builds up his workload after missing a lot of time in recent years. Over a long season, injuries are inevitable and opportunities will open up. If Freeman can eventually get a roster spot, he still has options.
Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images
Tigers Select Enmanuel De Jesus, Place Troy Melton On 60-Day IL
The Tigers announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus. Righty Troy Melton, who’s been slowed in camp due to elbow inflammation, was placed on the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Efraín Zavarce of IVC and 107.3 La Mega first reported De Jesus would be added to the 40-man roster. Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reports that De Jesus had been in talks with a team in Asia, so it seems the Tigers had to choose between adding him to the 40-man roster and cutting him loose to sign in NPB, the KBO or the CPBL. Jason Beck of MLB.com adds that there’s been no setback with Melton, but his expected debut had been pushed into May already by this point.
Adding De Jesus to the 40-man roster doesn’t guarantee that he’ll make the major league club on Opening Day. The 29-year-old has only limited major league experience and thus has a full slate of three minor league option years remaining. Now that he’s on the 40-man, however, he’s a clear candidate to break camp with the team or be among the first arms summoned to the majors in the event of an injury.
De Jesus, who pitched briefly with the 2023 Marlins, tossed 6 1/3 shutout innings this spring and held opponents to four hits and a walk with seven strikeouts before joining Venezuela’s team in the World Baseball Classic. He’s started one game in the Classic so far, holding Israel to one run on a pair of hits and no walks with eight punchouts through five terrific innings.
A stint in Asia wouldn’t have been surprising for De Jesus. He’s spent the past two seasons in the Kiwoom Heroes’ rotation in the Korea Baseball Organization, working to a combined 3.81 ERA in 343 innings. He’s fanned 23.8% of his opponents there against a 6.1% walk rate. Detroit scooped him up on a minor league deal and non-roster invite this winter, but it’s common for such deals to have foreign interest clauses that permit the player to ask for his release if an Asian club comes calling with a guaranteed offer. De Jesus seems to have had such a clause this time around, but his strong spring performance both with the Tigers and in the WBC has prompted his current MLB organization to keep him around.
De Jesus could open the season as a swing option on the big league roster, although righty Drew Anderson may have first dibs on that role. Like De Jesus, he’s returning to the majors after a strong run in the KBO — although Anderson’s dominance with the SSG Landers was enough to land him a $7MM guarantee on a major league contract. There’s no room for either Anderson or De Jesus in a Detroit rotation that will feature Tarik Skubal, Framber Valdez, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize and a returning Justin Verlander.
Starters Jackson Jobe (Tommy John surgery last June), Reese Olson (shoulder surgery last month) and Melton are all opening the season on the 60-day IL. In addition to a potential Melton return in late May, Jobe could be back in the season’s second half. Recently optioned Keider Montero had been the top depth option still on the 40-man roster, joining Sawyer Gipson-Long and Ty Madden in that regard. De Jesus provides some more cover and a possible southpaw arm for the bullpen, where Tyler Holton, Brant Hurter and Drew Sommers are the club’s other options on the 40-man roster.
Nationals Sign Zack Littell
The Nationals have formally added a second veteran starter in free agency, announcing the addition of righty Zack Littell on a one-year deal with a mutual option for the 2027 season. Littell, a client of CAA, will reportedly be guaranteed $7MM with another $2.5MM available to him via innings-based incentives. Left-hander Richard Lovelady was designated for assignment to open roster space, per the team.
Littell’s deal reportedly pays him a $3MM salary but also includes a $4MM buyout on that mutual option. Since mutual options are never exercised, that amounts to little more than an accounting measure; the Nats are kicking $4MM of his $7MM commitment to the 2027 books rather than the 2026 books. The contract is also said to contain $100K bonuses for every tenth inning pitched from 100 through 140. Littell can earn $250K for reaching each of 150 and 160 innings, and the deal has $500K bonuses upon reaching 170, 180 and 190 innings.
Heading into the offseason, we ranked Littell 35th among the offseason’s top 50 free agents, predicting a two-year deal. He’ll have to settle for just a one-year pact, and the righty could be on the move again relatively soon if the rebuilding Nationals move him at the trade deadline.
The 30-year-old Littell is a veteran of eight big league seasons but spent most of that time in a bullpen role. In the first five seasons of his MLB career, Littell posted a 4.08 ERA (104 ERA+) with lackluster peripherals in 169 2/3 innings of work. After the 2022 campaign, Littell rode the DFA and waiver carousel throughout the 2022-23 offseason. He eventually wound up with the Red Sox to start the season, but he made just two appearances in the majors before being once again designated for assignment. That led him to the Rays, with whom he managed to transform himself from a fringe member of the 40-man roster into a solid rotation arm.
Upon arriving in Tampa, Littell moved into a swing role for the remainder of the 2023 campaign. He posted a 3.93 ERA with a nearly matching 3.99 FIP in 87 innings split between 14 starts and 12 relief appearances. Littell’s 19.8% strikeout rate in those outings was hardly exciting, but he made up for it with pinpoint command that allowed him to post a 2.5% walk rate and an 8.2% barrel rate.
That control and command style was enough to earn him a full-time rotation job headed into the Rays’ 2024 season, and he rewarded the team with a career year. In 29 starts for the Rays in 2024, Littell posted a 21.5% strikeout rate against a 4.7% walk rate while pitching to a 3.63 ERA (110 ERA+) with a 3.81 FIP. His 156 2/3 innings of work made him just one of just 71 pitchers to throw more than 150 innings that year, and only 15 of those pitchers surrendered fewer runs than Littell.
Littell remained generally effective in terms of run prevention last year, logging a 3.81 ERA (111 ERA+) in a career-high 186 2/3 innings across 32 starts for the Rays and Reds. The bottom-line results were similar, but Littell’s rate stats took worrying steps in the wrong direction. His strikeout rate plummeted to just 17.1%, while his barrel rate jumped to 9.8% as he allowed the second-most homers in all of baseball last season. Perhaps some of that can be explained by Littell pitching his home games at the hitter-friendly Steinbrenner Field and Great American Ballpark, but a 4.40 SIERA suggested that Littell was more of a back-end starter than his results may have indicated.
The result was a soft free agent market for Littell this offseason. A reunion with the Rays once seemed to be on the table, but Tampa Bay instead brought in Steven Matz and Nick Martinez. KSTP’s Darren Wolfson reports that the Twins at least checked in late in the offseason, but weren’t inclined to match the Nationals’ offer.
The Nationals were the ones to ultimately bring Littell into the fold, with some past connections possibly helped complete the deal. New president of baseball operations Paul Toboni formerly worked in the Red Sox front office, new manager Blake Butera spent years managing in Tampa’s farm system, and new pitching coach Simon Matthews was the Reds’ assistant pitching coach in 2025, so all three have direct familiarity with Littell’s work.
D.C. is unlikely to compete for a playoff spot this year as they reboot their rebuilding efforts under Toboni. As such, the team has pursued just short-term and relatively inexpensive veteran signings like Littell and Miles Mikolas, and made another move for the future in trading MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers. The Gore trade diminished an already questionable Washington rotation, so Littell will reinforce a starting five that seems set to include Mikolas and another new signing in Foster Griffin. The last two spots in the rotation figure to go to some combination of Cade Cavalli, Brad Lord, Josiah Gray, Jake Irvin, and Mitchell Parker.
ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan were the first to report the agreement between the two sides. The Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka (multiple links) had the details about the one-year term and mutual option. The Banner’s Andrew Golden first reported the financial guarantee. Jon Heyman of The New York Post and Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic added specifics about the breakdown and incentives.
Inset photo courtesy of Joe Puetz — Imagn Images
Phillies Sign Jesús Luzardo To Extension
March 10: The Phillies have formally announced Luzardo’s extension. According to Dan Gelston of the Associated Press, the $32.5MM club option converts to a $10MM club option if Luzardo spends 130 consecutive days on the injured list.
March 9: The Phillies and left-hander Jesús Luzardo have agreed to an extension, according to various reports. He was previously slated for free agency after 2026. It’s reportedly a five-year pact starting in 2027, which guarantees the Roc Nation Sports client $135MM. There is also a $32.5MM club option, though Luzardo can boost that by $2MM with each top five Cy Young finish, giving him a chance to potentially raise it as high as $42.5MM. He will receive a $1MM assignment bonus each time he is traded until he reaches 10-and-5 rights.
Luzardo, 28, was once one of the top pitching prospects in baseball and he has established himself as a legit big league arm in the past few years. With the Marlins in 2022 and 2023, he made 50 starts and logged 279 innings, allowing 3.48 earned runs per nine. His 7.9% walk rate and 40.1% ground ball rate were close to league average as he struck out a strong 28.7% of batters faced. His four-seamer and sinker both averaged in the upper 90s while he also made good use of a mid-80s changeup and slider.
He had a bit of a dip in 2024. He missed time due to some elbow tightness and also due to a lumbar stress reaction. He only made 12 starts on the year and had a flat 5.00 ERA. The Phils still liked the player enough to take a chance on him going into 2025. They sent prospects Starlyn Caba and Emaarion Boyd to the Marlins in exchange for Luzardo and Paul McIntosh.
The bet paid off, as Luzardo returned to form in 2025. He made 32 starts and threw 183 2/3 innings with a 3.92 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and 42.8% ground ball rate. He also made two postseason appearances with a 2.35 ERA. He finished seventh in National League Cy Young voting.
As mentioned, 2026 was slated to be Luzardo’s final arbitration season before he would become a free agent. He and the Phils avoided arbitration by agreeing to an $11MM salary for this year. He could have played out the campaign and would have been in position for a strong contract if he had another good season. He’s currently 28 years and old, turning 29 in September.
The top free agent deals for starting pitchers have been around $200MM in recent years, with Max Fried, Corbin Burnes and Dylan Cease all getting to that range. Fried got $218MM. The latter two got $210MM, both with notable deferrals.
Luzardo hasn’t quite put up the same kind of results as those guys. Burnes and Fried have posted ERAs under 3.00 pretty regularly. Cease has had a more wobbly ERA but with comparable strikeout and walk rates to Luzardo with greater availability. Luzardo would have been younger than everyone in that group, however. Cease and Burnes signed their deals going into their age-30 seasons, while Fried was going into his age-31 campaign.
Players who sign extensions a year from the open market generally sacrifice a bit of upside in exchange for the security of locking in a deal that is still quite large. Dating back to 2017, the top extension for a pitcher with service time between five and six years was $131MM over seven years for José Berríos.
Like Luzardo, Berríos was going into his age-28 season and would have been a free agent ahead of his age-29 campaign. Berríos was also generally a guy with an ERA in the 3.50 range, though with greater durability. Berríos agreed to his deal before working out a salary for his final arbitration season. When considering the $11MM Luzardo is getting in 2026, he will make $146MM over the next six years.
Waiting until after 2026 to sign could have led to an even greater contract, but it also would have come with risk. In addition to his aforementioned 2024 injuries, Luzardo also missed a few months due to a forearm strain in 2022. A notable injury in 2026 could have led to him heading into the winter with significantly less earning power, so he is taking the proverbial bird in the hand with this deal.
For the Phils, they have not been shy about spending money on starting pitching. Going into the 2020 season, they signed free agent Zack Wheeler via a five-year, $118MM deal. Ahead of the 2023 season, they gave Taijuan Walker $72MM over four years. Going into 2024, they brought back Aaron Nola with a seven-year, $172MM pact. They then extended Wheeler for $126MM over three years. They also recently locked up Cristopher Sánchez, who was still in his pre-arbitration years, with a four-year deal worth $22.5MM.
Going into 2026, Wheeler may start the season on the injured list but could be back fairly early. For the 2026 season, health permitting, the four primary starters will be Wheeler, Nola, Sánchez and Luzardo. The fifth could be Walker but also could be prospect Andrew Painter.
Looking ahead to 2027, Luzardo was slated for free agency and Walker as well. That would have left the Phillies with a core of Wheeler, Nola and Sánchez. Wheeler is signed through 2027 and plans to retire after that. Painter could theoretically fill one spot but he’s a big question mark right now. Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2023 and 2024. He was back on the hill in 2025 but posted a 5.40 ERA in Triple-A.
Rather than waiting until next winter to address the 2027 rotation, they have proactively signed Luzardo to stick around. Since this appears to be a new contract, it shouldn’t impact the 2026 competitive balance tax. Luzardo will still have an $11MM hit this year. For the five years from 2027 to 2031, he’ll have a $27MM hit, the average annual value of his $135MM guarantee for those years.
The long-term books have a lot on them. As far out as 2030, the Phils have Nola, Luzardo, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Trea Turner all signed to deals with CBT hits of over $24MM. RosterResource already projects the club for a CBT number of almost $160MM for that 2030 season, before factoring in arbitration players or any other deals signed between now and then. But the Phils have generally been fine spending on the guys they like as they keep this core going.
For any club who was hoping to make a run at Luzardo next winter, they will have to consider other options. The 2026-27 free agent class already feels a bit light and will now have one fewer marquee name. Tarik Skubal will headline the group of starting pitchers, followed by guys like Freddy Peralta, Kevin Gausman and others. Burnes, Sonny Gray and Tatsuya Imai and others could shake things up by opting out of their deals.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the two sides had agreed to a five-year deal starting in 2027. Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia first reported the $135MM guarantee. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the option details. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported on the assignment bonus. Photos courtesy of Brett Davis, Jonathan Dyer, Imagn Images
Nationals Designate Richard Lovelady For Assignment
The Nationals have designated left-handed reliever Richard Lovelady for assignment, per a club announcement. His roster spot goes to righty Zack Littell, whose previously reported one-year deal with the Nats is now official.
Washington claimed Lovelady off waivers from the Mets back on Jan. 29. He’d signed a split major league deal with the Mets back in October, which the Mets hoped would help him to pass through waivers so he could be stashed in Syracuse as Triple-A depth. That didn’t work out, at least not on their initial attempt, as the Nats quickly scooped him up. Lovelady will now either be traded within the next five days or placed back on waivers, which are a 48-hour process. His DFA will be resolved within a week’s time.
Lovelady has had a solid showing with the Nats so far in camp. He’s allowed a run on four hits and three walks in four innings while fanning seven batters. He allowed 11 runs in 11 2/3 big league innings between the Blue Jays and Mets in 2025 but posted a a terrific 1.66 ERA with a 26.3% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 52.6% ground-ball rate in 38 Triple-A frames.
Lovelady is no stranger to posting strong numbers in the upper minors but running into some MLB struggles. He’s logged 111 MLB frames in his career and posted a 5.35 ERA but thrived with a 2.61 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate in 175 2/3 Triple-A innings across parts of seven seasons. Although Lovelady hasn’t had consistent success in the majors, he did log a solid 4.25 ERA with quality strikeout, walk and grounder rates in 78 1/3 big league frames from 2022-24.
Since he’s out of minor league options, Lovelady couldn’t simply be sent back to Triple-A. The Nats will hope he clears waivers and can be stashed in the upper minors within their system, just as the Mets tried to do. He cleared waivers on several occasions last year but was also selected to a major league roster five different times between Toronto and New York, including that major league deal with the Mets in October. He’s ping-ponged on and off MLB rosters of the Royals, A’s, Cubs, Jays and Mets dating back to 2022, so it’s certainly possible another club with a need for some bullpen depth takes a low-cost flier via waivers or a cash swap.