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Jesse Chavez Elects Free Agency

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The Braves announced that reliever Jesse Chavez elected free agency after being designated for assignment on Tuesday. He cleared outright waivers and retested the market rather than accept the assignment to Triple-A.

This was the expected outcome, though there’s a decent chance Atlanta will look to bring the 41-year-old righty back on a new minor league contract. He signed his most recent minor league deal with the Braves on March 23, two days after he was released by the Rangers. Atlanta called him up on Monday but squeezed him off the roster after one game. Chavez tossed 41 pitches to get through two innings of mop-up work. He would not have been available for at least a day or two, so Atlanta swapped him out for Zach Thompson to add some length to the bullpen.

Over the past four years, the Braves signed Chavez to four separate contracts, claimed him off waivers once, and traded for him once. He has provided Atlanta 186 2/3 innings of 2.56 ERA ball while striking out a quarter of batters faced between those various stints. Chavez hasn’t had anywhere near that level of success anywhere else. He has also spent time in the Angels, Cubs, White Sox and Rangers organizations (at least during Spring Training) in recent years, but he has continually circled back to the Braves.

It would not be a surprise if that continued. It’s common for players to decline an outright assignment before re-signing with that team. (Phillies infielder Buddy Kennedy took that approach on Tuesday.) That allows the player to renegotiate opt-out or upward mobility provisions that may not have been in the previous deal.

Braves Acquire Jason Delay

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The Pirates and Braves announced a trade sending catcher Jason Delay to Atlanta for cash. Pittsburgh had designated him for assignment on Tuesday. Atlanta optioned Delay to Double-A Columbus and transferred Reynaldo López to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot. Pittsburgh also optioned infielder Ji-Hwan Bae to Triple-A Indianapolis to make room on the active roster for Alexander Canario, who has reported to the team.

Delay had been with the Pirates since they drafted him in the fourth round in 2017. The Vanderbilt product cracked the big league roster for the first time in 2022. He worked as Pittsburgh’s backup catcher for good chunks of the 2022-23 seasons, combining for 127 MLB appearances. He only got into seven big league games last year and had been in Triple-A to begin this year.

The 30-year-old Delay owns a .231/.295/.315 batting line with two home runs across 373 career plate appearances. He’s a .239/.310/.338 hitter over parts of seven minor league seasons. Delay isn’t going to provide much offensively, but he has slightly above-average pitch framing grades and a strong reputation for his work with pitching staffs. He has yet to qualify for arbitration and has a couple minor league options remaining, so the Braves add him for minimal cost.

Delay is the fourth catcher on Atlanta’s 40-man roster. Drake Baldwin and Chadwick Tromp are dividing the MLB playing time while Sean Murphy is on the injured list. Murphy is at Triple-A Gwinnett on a rehab stint after breaking a rib early in Spring Training. He could return from the IL by the end of next week. Baldwin, one of the sport’s top catching prospects, will probably be optioned back to Gwinnett at that point. If they want to keep Baldwin on the MLB roster, they’d need to designate the out-of-options Tromp for assignment.

The Braves essentially had a free 40-man spot because of the López injury. The righty was placed on the 15-day IL earlier this week with shoulder inflammation. The Braves announced that he’ll undergo an arthroscopic procedure to confirm there’s no structural damage. Even in the best case scenario, he didn’t have much chance of coming back within the next two months. He’s officially out until at least the end of May but seems unlikely to return until the second half of the season at the earliest.

Mariners To Select Luis F. Castillo

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The Mariners plan to select right-hander Luis F. Castillo to start tomorrow evening’s game against the Giants, the club informed reporters (including Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). As Jude notes, it’ll be the second straight Mariners game started by a Luis Castillo. Seattle’s veteran right-hander of the same name tossed seven innings in yesterday’s win over Detroit.

Luis F. Castillo will be making his first major league start. The 30-year-old has three MLB relief appearances under his belt. Those came with the 2022 Tigers, for whom he tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Detroit sent him through outright waivers at the end of that season. Castillo signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball the following offseason.

After turning in a 3.12 ERA across 49 innings for the Marines, Castillo moved to the Orix Buffaloes. He fired 94 1/3 innings of 2.96 ERA ball despite a pedestrian 19.6% strikeout rate. Castillo showed fantastic control, though, walking fewer than 5% of batters faced for the second consecutive season. The Dominican-born pitcher returned to the affiliated ranks last offseason, joining the Mariners on a minor league contract in January.

Castillo pitched five innings of three-run ball across three appearances in Spring Training. He worked 5 2/3 frames in his first Triple-A start on Sunday, allowing one run on two hits and a pair of walks. Seattle will bring him up for at least a spot start as the fifth spot in their rotation comes around. Emerson Hancock got that job out of Spring Training because of the George Kirby injury, but the former sixth overall pick couldn’t escape the first inning in his season debut. Seattle optioned him out a few days later.

The Mariners announced this afternoon that they reinstated Jorge Polanco from the paternity list. They optioned Leo Rivas and swingman Jhonathan Díaz to Triple-A Tacoma. Castillo will take Díaz’s active roster spot. The 40-man roster is at capacity, so they’ll need to make another move in that regard tomorrow.

Padres Select Oscar González, Outright Eguy Rosario

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The Padres announced that outfielder Oscar González has been selected to the 40-man roster and optioned to Triple-A El Paso. To open a 40-man spot, right-hander Jhony Brito was transferred to the 60-day injured list. The Friars also announced that infielder Eguy Rosario, who was designated for assignment a week ago, cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A El Paso.

González, 27, signed a minor league deal with the Padres in the offseason. When he didn’t make the Opening Day roster, it was reported that he had an in-season opt-out at some point. That’s presumably why he is being added to the roster but kept in El Paso today. The club doesn’t have a spot on the active roster for him but also doesn’t want him to get away. He’ll give them some optionable depth for now.

He has shown a bit of pop but also with pretty rough plate discipline. He made a splash with the Guardians in 2022, hitting 11 home runs in just 382 plate appearances, plus another clutch home run in the playoffs. But his 3.9% walk rate was very low and dropped to 2.8% the following year. He has also only drawn walks in 4.7% of his minor league plate appearances since the cancelled 2020 season.

When his results tapered off in 2023, the Guardians optioned him to the minors several times and put him on waivers at season’s end. He was claimed by the Yankees but passed through waivers shortly thereafter. He spent 2024 in the Yankees’ minor league system, hitting eight home runs in 78 Triple-A games. He didn’t get called to the majors and was able to elect free agency at the end of the year, which led him to the Friars.

He had a huge .400/.431/.564 showing in the spring but with a .500 batting average on balls in play in that small sample. In four games with El Paso thus far, he has two home runs but a .167 batting average and no walks. It’s a flawed profile but the Padres are perhaps intrigued by the power potential, at least enough to give him a 40-man spot for now.

They have Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. locked into the center and right field positions respectively. The left field and designated hitter spots are more open, currently featuring a rotating cast that includes Jason Heyward, Brandon Lockridge, Gavin Sheets and Yuli Gurriel. Lockridge isn’t fully established as a big leaguer while the other three have been fairly inconsistent in recent years. If any of them struggle or get hurt, the Padres could turn to Tirso Ornelas, Connor Joe or González, who are each on the 40-man.

The reason they had a 40-man spot to work with is that they evidently don’t expect Brito back anytime soon. He started the year on the 15-day IL due to a right forearm strain. The club hasn’t provided any updates on his status but this transfer means he can’t be reinstated until late May at the earliest.

As for Rosario, it’s a bit of a surprise to see him go unclaimed. He is out of options, meaning he would have needed an active roster spot with any claiming club, but his numbers have been decent. His major league work comes in a sample of just 100 plate appearances but he has a solid .245/.283/.500 line in those. He has slashed .279/.363/.493 for a 115 wRC+ in the minor leagues since the cancelled 2020 season. Defensively, he has experience at all four infield spots and right field.

President of baseball operations suggested recently that the Padres would find a trade partner for Rosario. “Eguy’s a big league player,” Preller said. “…He’s going to get an opportunity to go elsewhere and play in the big leagues I would think immediately, and we’ll try to add some value through a trade here in the next week.” But not only did the Padres not line up a trade. No club was even willing to grab Rosario off the wire.

He’ll therefore stick with the Padres as non-roster depth. Since this is his first career outright assignment and he has less than three years of big league service time, he does not have the right to elect free agency.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Cooper Hummel Elects Free Agency

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The Astros announced that utility player Cooper Hummel has cleared waivers and elected free agency. Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 relayed the news prior to the official announcement. Houston had designated Hummel for assignment a week ago as they set their Opening Day roster. Since he had a previous career outright, he had the right to reject another such assignment and has exercised that right.

Hummel, 30, will now head to the open market and assess his options. The fact that he cleared waivers means that no club was willing to give him a 40-man roster spot, perhaps a reflection of his out-of-options status.

He should be able to find offers on minor league deals. He has only hit .159/.255/.275 in his major league career, though in a fairly small sample of 235 plate appearances spread across three seasons. His minor league work has been greater in quality and quantity. Since the start of 2021, he has stepped to the plate 1,419 times at the Triple-A level. He drew a walk in 17.5% of those appearances while only striking out 20.9% of the time. His .285/.419/.480 combined line translates to a 130 wRC+. He hit .316/.435/.447 in spring action before the Astros cut him loose.

In addition to those interesting offensive numbers, he provides value on the basepaths and defensively versatility. He racked up double-digit stolen base totals in each of the past two years. In terms of his glovework, he has done plenty of work behind the plate and also lined up at the four corner spots.

He didn’t crouch behind the plate last year and hasn’t played third since 2021, but the overall package is still intriguing. The offense has always been strong in the minors and he looked good in camp recently. He can play first base and the outfield corners and perhaps there’s a club willing to put him back in the catcher position. If he clicks somewhere and gets back to the majors, he is out of options but his service time count is barely over the one-year line, meaning he can be cheaply retained beyond this season if he earns and holds a roster spot.

Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Imagn Images

Mets Sign Jon Singleton, Niko Goodrum To Minor League Deals

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April 3: Per Robert Murray of FanSided, Marte’s deal is a two-year pact. That could suggest that he’s unlikely to pitch much in 2025 as he recovers from his shoulder surgery.

April 2: The Mets announced today that they’ve signed first baseman Jon Singleton and infielder Niko Goodrum to minor league deals. Additionally, the club has signed right-hander Jose Marte to a minor league deal according to the transactions tracker on Marte’s MLB.com profile page.

Singleton, 33, served as the Astros regular first baseman last year after the club parted ways with Jose Abreu early in the 2024 season. Drafted in the eighth round of the 2009 draft by the Phillies, Singleton was shipped to Houston in the Hunter Pence trade and eventually became a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport with the Astros. The club signed Singleton to a pre-debut extension that guaranteed him $10MM over five years during his debut season back in 2014. The deal was viewed as a coup for the Astros at the time, but Singleton unfortunately hit just .171/.290/.331 over two seasons with the Astros before toiling in the minor leagues for a few years and eventually being released in 2018.

At first, it seemed likely that Singleton’s release marked the end of his baseball career. However, the first baseman resurfaced during his age-29 season with a strong showing in the Mexican League and got enough attention that he signed with the Brewers on a minor league deal for the 2022 season. He hit reasonably well at Triple-A for the club and posted even stronger numbers the following season, earning him a call-up back to the majors. He hit just .103/.188/.138 in 11 games for the Brewers, but upon being released signed with the Astros and hit a more respectable (though still subpar) .194/.301/.324 in 25 games for the club.

That performance was enough to earn Singleton his aforementioned shot at the regular first base job in 2024, and he actually started to hit for the first time in his career last year when given that opportunity. In 405 trips to the plate across 119 games, Singleton slashed .234/.321/.386. That slightly better than league average production was enough to convince the Astros to keep Singleton on the roster throughout the offseason, though not enough to stop them from signing Christian Walker to take over regular first base duties. When Singleton hit just .171/.239/.195 in Spring Training, however, Houston had seen enough and decided to cut bait.

Goodrum, meanwhile, has been part of seven MLB seasons so far in his career. The Twins’ second-rounder back in 2010, he made his big league debut in Minnesota back in 2017 but was cut from the club’s roster and ended up signing with the Tigers on a minor league deal that offseason. He went on to put up solid numbers with Detroit over the next four seasons, hitting hit a decent .232/.306/.401 (90 wRC+) in 376 games from 2018 to 2021. His production tapered off in 2020 and 2021, however, as he hit just .203/.282/.350 (75 wRC+) in those final two years in Detroit before he was outrighted off the Tigers’ roster.

In the years since leaving Detroit, Goodrum has appeared in just 28 total MLB games, hitting a paltry .111/.169/.139 in 78 plate appearances between the Astros, Rays, and Angels. When not in the majors, he’s bounced between the Red Sox, Pirates, Orioles, and Padres organizations and even had a brief stint in the KBO league where he slashed .295/.373/.387 in 50 games for the Lotte Giants. San Diego was Goodrum’s most recent stop, and the 33-year-old actually hit quite well in Spring Training as he slashed .278/.519/.444 in 14 games. That solid showing wasn’t enough to earn a roster spot with the Padres, however, and Goodrum returned to free agency where he’s now caught on with the Mets.

As for Marte, the right-hander signed with the Giants out of the Dominican Republic as an amateur and made his pro debut back in 2016. He was traded to the Angels in the deal that sent southpaw Tony Watson to San Francisco a couple of years later, however, and eventually went on to make his big league debut with Anaheim during the 2021 season. Marte was shuttled between Triple-A and the majors over the next four seasons, and his results from 2021 to 2023 were nothing short of disastrous as he posted an 8.14 ERA and 7.61 FIP in 24 1/3 innings of work with more walks (28) than strikeouts (27).

Things seemed to click for Marte in 2024, however, as he pitched to a 2.22 ERA in 28 1/3 innings in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League while striking out 28.4% of opponents and walking a more manageable 11.2%. That success translated to the big leagues, as he posted a 2.33 ERA in 19 1/3 innings, though he only struck out 17.5% of his opponents while walking 12.5%. His season was cut short by a viral infection and shoulder surgery, however, and he found himself outrighted off the Angels’ 40-man roster at the end of the year.

With all three now set to join the Mets at Triple-A, each figures to fill a depth role for the club going forward. Singleton is locked behind Pete Alonso and Jesse Winker on the first base/DH depth chart, but it wouldn’t be a shock to see him be the next man up behind Winker as a left-handed part-time option in the case of injury. Goodrum, meanwhile, is a versatile bench piece who can play virtually anywhere on the diamond except for catcher. That’s a particularly useful skillset for the Mets while the versatile Jeff McNeil is on the injured list. As for Marte, it’s unclear whether the righty is recovered from shoulder surgery at this point, but when he returns he could be an interesting, high-upside bullpen option for the Mets at some point this year.

White Sox To Sign Joshua Palacios To Minor League Deal

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The White Sox are signing outfielder Joshua Palacios to a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Ballengee Group client elected free agency earlier this week after being outrighted by the Pirates.

Palacios, 29, has bounced around the majors in the past few years. He has suited up for the Blue Jays, Nationals and Pirates in the four most recent big league seasons. Broadly speaking, he has hit well in the minors without finding success in the majors.

He has been sent to the plate 433 times thus far in his big league career, with a .230/.286/.364 line in those. That translates to a wRC+ of 75, indicating he’s been 25% below league average overall. He also took 781 minor league plate appearances in that 2021-24 span with a .303/.387/.484 line and 131 wRC+.

The gap between his major and minor league numbers has led to him frequently being sent to the farm and back. He exhausted his final option year in 2024 and is now out of options, which got him squeezed off Pittsburgh’s 40-man.

If he puts together another good minor league showing with the White Sox, they should be able to give him some big league playing time later in the year. Their outfield mix currently consists of Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Benintendi, Travis Jankowski, Austin Slater and Michael A. Taylor. All of those players should be available in midseason trade talks, as they all have fairly narrow windows of control on a White Sox team that isn’t expecting to compete in the near term.

Assuming some of those players do indeed get traded in the coming months, the White Sox have a bunch of guys who could pick up some of the playing time. Greg Jones is on the 40-man roster but currently on optional assignment. Guys like Dominic Fletcher, Corey Julks, Oscar Colás and Zach DeLoach have been bumped from the 40-man but are still in the system as non-roster depth. Palacios will join that latter group of guys and will try to earn his way back to the majors.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

Diamondbacks Sign Ketel Marte To Extension

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The Diamondbacks announced a new seven-year contract with star second baseman Ketel Marte. It’s a reported $116.5MM guarantee that comes with $64MM in new money. Marte, who had already been under contract for three seasons, is now signed through 2031. He can opt out of the deal after the 2030 season, when there’ll be at least $11.5MM remaining. There are also $33MM in escalators and performance bonuses for the QC Sports client. Marte receives a five-team no-trade clause, though that’ll become moot when he gets 10-and-5 rights early in the 2026 season.

The contract takes effect this year and breaks down as follows: $14MM in 2025 ($5MM of which is deferred), $15MM in ’26, $12MM in ’27, $20MM in ’28, and $22MMM per season between 2029-30. Each top-three MVP finish would boost the following year’s salary by $3MM; it’d go up by $2MM if he finishes between fourth and seventh in MVP voting. The deal also includes $2.5MM annually from 2026-31 in plate appearance incentives.

The news surely comes as a delight to fans in Arizona. The face of the Diamondbacks franchise first flashed superstar potential back in 2019, when he was an All-Star and finished fourth in NL MVP voting after slashing .329/.389/.592 (150 wRC+) in 144 games. In the years since then, he’s generally been an above-average player but not necessarily a superstar, slashing .275/.347/.462 with a wRC+ of 118 from 2020 to 2023. That narrative changed in 2024, however, as Marte rediscovered his MVP-caliber form during his age-30 season with a phenomenal .292/.372/.560 (151 wRC+) slash line that earned Marte his first career Silver Slugger award, a second All-Star appearance, and a third place finish in MVP voting behind Shohei Ohtani and Francisco Lindor.

That’s the sort of elite production that makes for a phenomenal building block, so it’s not exactly a surprise that Arizona brass were interested in extending Marte’s stay with the club and making him a Diamondback for life. The club has often been aggressive about extending its top players under Mike Hazen, with this latest deal for Marte standing as the tenth extension agreed upon since he took over baseball operations in fall of 2016. It’s also the fourth of 2025, joining agreements the club reached with shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, reliever Justin Martinez, and right-hander Brandon Pfaadt.

More notably, it’s also the third extension of Marte’s career. His first came back in 2018 when he was a pre-arbitration player. The switch-hitter was guaranteed $24MM by that first deal, which ran through the end of his expected team control window but also afforded the Diamondbacks two option years on what otherwise would’ve been Marte’s first two years of free agency. Marte’s second deal came about just before the 2022 season began, ahead of his final year before those options would’ve kicked in. That deal overwrote those two option years and guaranteed Marte $76MM for the 2023-27 seasons, and also included a club option for 2028.

The second deal ended up covering just two seasons, as it has now already been overwritten to extend Marte’s stay in Arizona through at least 2030, with a player option that could push the deal into 2031. Given the fact that Marte was already under team control through the end of his age-34 season, it’s at least somewhat surprising that the Diamondbacks would decide to commit to their second baseman’s mid-30s this far ahead of time. After all, the club very easily could’ve waited to see how Marte would perform over the next two or three seasons before opening discussions with Marte prior to the 2028 season, when they would likely exercise their club option over his services.

With that being said, the deal not only extends Arizona’s years of control over their star, but also restructures his existing contract. Marte was slated to earn $50.8MM over the next three seasons on his existing contract. That number drops to just $41MM with his new deal, saving the club nearly $10MM over the next three seasons and $5MM in 2025 alone. That also does not factor in the $46MM in deferred money in the deal, which cuts down the amount of money owed to Marte in the short-term even further.

That the Diamondbacks would seek a restructured deal with Marte in order to save a bit of money in the short-term is understandable considering that the team is deep into uncharted financial waters. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the club opened the 2025 season with a payroll of nearly $187MM. That’s an increase of $24MM over 2024, which was already the highest payroll in franchise history by more than $30MM. The club’s aggressiveness this winter in adding Corbin Burnes and swinging a trade for Josh Naylor was certainly admirable, but it’s long appeared likely that the Diamondbacks were likely stretching the limits of owner Ken Kendrick’s comfort zone.

If Arizona is facing the upper limits of its baseball operations budget, that could also explain the club’s reported insistence on suitors for struggling southpaw Jordan Montgomery eating at least $13MM of his $25MM salary for 2025 in trade talks as well as the club falling short in its pursuit of a top-flight closer this winter. Perhaps this restructured deal with Marte will offer them a bit more breathing room to work with at the trade deadline during an important 2025 season. After the current campaign, Montgomery and Naylor are slated to be joined by Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, and Eugenio Suarez in departing for free agency. That’s a lot of significant players who will need to be re-signed or replaced to avoid a step back in 2026, and it’s possible today’s restructuring of Marte’s deal could help the club fill those upcoming holes as well.

Mike Rodriguez first reported last night that the D-Backs and Marte were working on a new nine-figure contract. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic was first on the $116.5MM guarantee, the $46MM in deferrals, the 2031 player option, and the salary structure. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers had the $11.5MM option value and the $149.5MM maximum after escalators. Piecoro had the escalator specifics.

Image courtesy of Imagn Images.

Red Sox Sign Kristian Campbell To Eight-Year Extension

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The Red Sox announced that they have signed prospect Kristian Campbell to an eight-year contract extension which runs from 2025 to 2032 with club options for 2033 and 2034. It is reportedly a $60MM guarantee which breaks down as follows: Campbell, a Beverly Hills Sports Council client, gets a $2MM signing bonus and a $1MM salary this year. He will then make $2MM, $3MM, $4MM, $6MM, $9MM, $13MM and $16MM in the next seven seasons. The first club option is valued at $19MM and has a $4MM buyout, then the second option is worth $21MM. There are also escalators based on awards voting and All-Star selections. The Sox are buying out two of Campbell’s free agent seasons with the options allowing them to extend their window by two more years after that.

Campbell’s stock has been shooting up for quite a while now. The Sox selected him with the 132nd overall pick in 2023, giving him a signing bonus of just under $500K. He played 22 minor league games just after that signing with a strong .309/.440/.471 line.

His success continued in his first full season. Last year, he vaulted from Single-A to Double-A and Triple-A, hitting a combined .330/.439/.558. That production led to a wRC+ of 180. He drew walks in 14.3% of his plate appearances while only striking out 19.9% of the time. He also stole 24 bases while lining up defensively at second base, third base, shortstop and in the outfield.

That huge season shot him up prospect lists heading into 2025. Each of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, FanGraphs and Keith Law of The Athletic had Campbell among the top ten prospects in the entire league this winter.

That also got Campbell in line to make the majors this year, with second base eventually emerging as the best path. The outfield is already fairly crowded, with Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu in there now. Roman Anthony will join that group at some point soon. Then there’s Masataka Yoshida, who largely slotted in as the designated hitter last year. But with the Sox going with Alex Bregman at third and Rafael Devers as the DH, there’s no room for Yoshida in there. Bregman could perhaps opt-out after this year but the Sox could have Marcelo Mayer take over that spot, since Trevor Story has shortstop spoken for.

There are lots of moving pieces but Campbell nonetheless got the second base job to start the year. He actually had a fairly tepid spring showing but the club showed faith in him and he has hit .375/.500/.688 in his first five big league contests.

Though he has made his major league debut, this is effectively comparable to pre-debut extensions. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the benchmark for a guy with no service time is Jackson Chourio’s eight-year, $82MM extension from just over a year ago. That topped the previous record, which was $50MM for Luis Robert Jr., a deal that’s a few years in the past. Campbell got past Robert but didn’t quite get to Chourio’s level but that’s fairly understandable. Campbell is turning 23 in June while Chourio was just about to turn 20 years old in March of last year, with that difference giving Chourio some extra earning power.

It’s perhaps not an accident that the club waited until after Opening Day to get this deal done. It was reported last March that players who sign pre-debut extensions, like Chourio, aren’t eligible for the prospect promotion incentive. To discourage service time manipulation, the current collective bargaining agreement put measures in place to encourage teams to carry top prospects on Opening Day rosters. One of those measures is that top prospects who are called up early enough to earn a full service year can earn their clubs an extra draft pick via awards voting.

Campbell came into this year as a consensus top prospect and cracked the Opening Day roster. That means he can earn the Sox an extra pick by winning Rookie of the Year or finishing top three in MVP voting during his pre-arb years. That would have come off the table if this contract were signed prior to the start of the season but is still in play for Boston now that they’ve waited a few days into the campaign.

For Campbell, it’s easy to see why he preferred to lock up this kind of money earlier in his career. As mentioned, he wasn’t a huge name going into the draft. While some players can earn multiple millions on their signing bonuses, Campbell was limited to under $500K. Even though he cracked this year’s Opening Day roster, he wasn’t going to qualify for arbitration until after 2027. This deal allows him to put some life-changing money in the bank ahead of schedule.

Even the top prospects will sometimes struggle in the big leagues and Campbell was a sort of surprise surger last year. If he hits any speed bumps in the coming years, he is financially secure. He is potentially limited himself in the future, though. If the two options are picked up, he won’t hit free agency until he’s going into his age-33 season.

For the Sox, they clearly believe the future is bright and have gained some cost certainty and control over essentially Campbell’s entire prime. Should he continue to thrive on the field in the coming years, he’ll be a relative bargain. Even when he’s making eight-figure salaries in the later years of the deal, that’s still well below what top players get on the open market.

It’s the second significant extension they’ve given out in recent days. They inked left-hander Garrett Crochet to a $170MM deal earlier this week. That was a different animal as Crochet is far closer to free agency and more established as a big leaguer.

Another key difference between the two is that Crochet’s deal doesn’t start until 2026 and therefore doesn’t impact Boston’s competitive balance tax number here in 2025, but the Campbell deal does. RosterResource calculates the club’s CBT number at $249MM, beyond the $241MM base threshold. Back in February, president Sam Kennedy said the club was already over the line and planned to stay there.

Christopher Smith of MassLive first relayed the $60MM guarantee. Julian McWilliams of CBS Sports first reported the option values. Alex Speier of The Boston Globe, reported the full annual breakdown and escalators.

Photos courtesy of Kevin Jairaj and Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Padres Sign Jackson Merrill To Nine-Year Extension

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The Padres announced that they have signed star outfielder Jackson Merrill to a nine-year contract extension that runs through 2034 with a club option for 2035. Reportedly, it guarantees the star $135MM. Merrill was previously slated to reach free agency after 2029, so this extends the club’s window of control by at least five years. The outfielder is represented by KHG Sports Management.

The salary breaks down as follows: $10MM signing bonus, $1MM in 2026, $6MM in ’27, $8MM in ’28, $10MM in ’29, $20MM annually between 2030-34. There are $30MM in plate appearance escalators that can push his salary earnings to $165MM. Each time Merrill gets to 500 plate appearances in a season, he adds $1MM to his future salaries for the 2030-2034 seasons. The deal can max out at $204MM and includes a $30MM club option for a tenth season that can be converted to a player option. The club option becomes a player option with a top five finish in MVP voting, while a top ten finish is also an escalator.

Merrill’s breakout was a stunningly impressive part of the 2024 season. It didn’t completely come out of nowhere, as Merrill was a first-round pick, selected 27th overall in 2021. He was one of the top prospects in baseball during his time in the minors. However, by the end of the 2023 season, his experience was still limited. He was drafted out of high school, meaning he had not played college ball. His minor league track record consisted of just 200 games. None of those were at the Triple-A level and only 46 were at Double-A. He wouldn’t celebrate his 21st birthday until April 19th of 2024.

On top of his youth and inexperience, the Padres were asking him to make a major defensive shift. He had primarily been a shortstop in the minors but the Friars had Ha-Seong Kim and Xander Bogaerts in their middle infield. In center field, Trent Grisham’s bat had fallen off and the Padres sent him to the Yankees as part of the Juan Soto deal. The Padres tried Merrill there in the spring, liked the results and gave him the job.

In spite of his talents, it would have been understandable if there were some growing pains for a guy so young and learning a premium defensive position on the fly. But no such pains were evident, as Merrill flourished. He hit 24 home runs for the Padres last year. His 4% walk rate was low but he also kept his strikeouts down to a 17% clip. His .292/.326/.500 batting line translated to a 130 wRC+, indicating he was 30% better than league average. He stole 16 bases in 19 tries. Defensive Runs Saved considered him to be league average in center, no small feat given the circumstances. Even more impressively, he was credited with 11 Outs Above Average, a mark that put him in the top ten of center fielders last year.

The overall package was very strong. FanGraphs credited him with 5.3 wins above replacement and Baseball Reference 4.4. That would have made him a slam-dunk Rookie of the Year in many seasons, but Merrill was up against Paul Skenes and his incredible debut. Merrill got seven out of 30 first-place votes and finished second to Skenes in National League ROY voting. He also finished ninth in the NL Most Valuable Player vote.

Kim departed via free agency after 2024 and the Padres could have considered moving Merrill back to shortstop this year, though president of baseball operations A.J. Preller quickly shot that down in October. The move to center field had gone so smoothly that they didn’t want to mess with it. The 2025 season could hardly have started better. Merrill has a line of .400/.435/.600 through six games as the Padres are undefeated.

The Padres clearly love Merrill. That’s why they nabbed him with a first-round pick and promoted him so quickly. They also reportedly discussed an extension with him prior to his debut, showing tremendous faith in him before he had even proved himself in the majors.

After that breakout, they probably wished they had got something done ahead of time, as he only increased his earning potential last year. Broadly speaking, extension prices go up as guys get further into their arbitration years and closer to free agency. We can only guess what number it would have taken to get a deal done a year ago. The Padres have had plenty of financial pressures in recent years but Merrill’s price would likely only go up over time, so now is better than later.

In terms of pre-arbitration extensions, Merrill comes in a bit below the top guarantees but on a shorter deal that will still allow him to hit free agency with a lot of earning power. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the top guarantees for pre-arb extensions are for Fernando Tatis Jr., Bobby Witt Jr. and Julio Rodríguez. Tatis got $340MM but on a 14-year deal that essentially bought out his entire career. Witt got a guarantee of $288.8MM on an 11-year pact but he seems likely to opt out after seven years with with $148.8MM banked. Rodríguez got a $210MM guarantee over 12 years but with a complicated club/player option structure that could see him depart after seven seasons.

Merrill’s guarantee comes in a bit below that tier of players but on a shorter deal. The final guaranteed year of this pact will be his age-31 season, meaning he will still have a chance to secure another notable guarantee in the future via free agency. The option could keep him in San Diego another year but he also has a decent shot at converting it to a player option. As mentioned, he already finished ninth in MVP voting in his rookie season, so getting into the top five isn’t far-fetched. He has a decent shot of pushing up his salary earnings via those escalators. He also gets to bank huge money ahead of schedule, as he previously wasn’t slated to qualify for arbitration until after 2026.

For the Padres, they have had a budget crunch in recent years but they love their guys. Over the past five years, this is the sixth extension worth at least $80MM that they have put on the books, the others having gone to Tatis, Manny Machado, Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish and Jake Cronenworth.

Since this deal starts in 2026, it won’t affect the club’s competitive balance tax number in 2025. The specific annual breakdown hasn’t been publicly reported but early-career extensions often involve gradually escalating salaries. Musgrove’s deal is done after 2027. Nick Pivetta can opt out of his deal after 2026 or 2027. Robert Suarez can opt out of his pact after 2025. Luis Arráez, Dylan Cease and Michael King are each making notable salaries and are slated for free agency after this year. Though the budget has clearly been tight recently, the Friars evidently felt that they had enough wiggle room in the future to make this work.

It still amounts to a large pile of future commitments. Between Merrill, Bogaerts, Tatis and Machado, they have four mega contracts on the books through at least 2033. In recent years, with the collapse of their TV deal, that’s led to some budget crunches. The front office has had to get creative, including trading away Soto. They got huge value from a $1MM investment in Jurickson Profar last year, though that now looks suspect in the wake of his recent PED suspension. This winter, they took similar low-cost fliers on players like Kyle Hart and Jason Heyward, as well as a back-loaded deal for Pivetta.

Perhaps more such maneuverings are in the club’s future, as they seem content to run an imbalanced payroll with heavily-paid stars while they look for upside plays elsewhere. For fans, that means they can look forward to watching the Merrill/Tatis/Machado/Bogaerts core for close to another decade, while the supporting characters might rotate. For Merrill, thanks to his quick ascent to the majors, he was able to put nine figures in the bank while still having a chance to hit the open market in his early 30s.

Robert Murray of Fansided first reported that the two sides were in agreement on a nine-year deal with a $135MM guarantee and $30MM club/player option that could max out at $204MM. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported that it started in 2026. Dennis Lin of The Athletic reported the presence of the $30MM in plate appearance escalators that could bump the overall salary payout to $165MM. MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald reported the specifics on those escalators. Russell Dorsey of Yahoo reported the $10MM signing bonus, that the club option becomes a player option with a top five finish in MVP voting, and that a top ten finish is also an escalator. Heyman reported the salary breakdown.

Photos courtesy of Orlando Ramirez and Denis Poroy, Imagn Images

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