Rangers, Jonah Bride Agree To Minor League Deal
The Rangers are in agreement with infielder Jonah Bride on a minor league contract, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The Paragon Sports International client will be in MLB Spring Training as a non-roster invitee.
Bride reunites with Texas manager Skip Schumaker. Bride had his best season with Schumaker’s Marlins in 2024, when he connected on 11 homers with a .276/.357/.461 batting line. That earned him the Opening Day designated hitter job going into this year. Bride didn’t stick on the roster for long, as he batted .100 without an extra-base hit over his first 12 games and was designated for assignment. Miami flipped him to the Twins for cash a few days later.
The 29-year-old didn’t find any more success in Minnesota. Bride hit .208/.275/.236 in 80 trips to the plate, leading to a second DFA on the year. He went unclaimed on waivers that time around and spent the rest of the season with Triple-A St. Paul. Bride hit well against minor league pitching, batting .281/.423/.453 with an equal number of walks and strikeouts in 43 games. A retooling Minnesota team never had much reason to give him another look, though, and he played out the season in the minors.
Bride is a righty bat who plays mostly on the corner infield. The majority of his experience has come at third base, though he has a decent amount of reps at both positions on the right side. He doesn’t have plus power but has a generally patient plate approach that has led to an impressive .294/.430/.498 slash over four Triple-A seasons. His major league track record (.221/.311/.313 in nearly 700 plate appearances) is limited, but he’s a capable depth piece.
Texas has questions at both corner infield spots with Josh Jung and Jake Burger coming off disappointing seasons that could make them trade candidates. Bride isn’t going be a regular but would have a better chance of nabbing a job as a bench bat if one or both of those players — each of whom also hits from the right side — are dealt this winter.
KBO’s Doosan Bears Sign Daz Cameron
Free agent outfielder Daz Cameron has agreed to a deal with the Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization in South Korea, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The Bears, in announcing the deal, revealed that Cameron will earn $1MM in 2026.
Cameron, 29 in January, was once a notable prospect. The Astros took him 37th overall in 2015. Due to his speed and defensive abilities, he was considered to have a decent floor. The larger question was how much he would provide with the bat to complement his other skills.
Ultimately, a lack of punch on offense has become the story, at least in the majors. Cameron has 472 big league plate appearances spread over five seasons with a 6.6% walk rate and 29.9% strikeout rate. That’s led to a .200/.258/.326 line and 65 wRC+.
Cameron has fared a bit better in the minors, particularly lately. Over the 2024 and 2025 seasons, he stepped to the plate 464 times at the Triple-A level. His 22.2% strikeout rate was far more palatable and his 13.1% walk rate was actually quite strong. He hit a combined .291/.394/.577 for a 146 wRC+.
Despite the strong numbers on the farm, he’s mostly been relegated to a fringe roster position in the majors. He exhausted his final option season in 2022. Since then, he’s bounced on and off 40-man rosters with various clubs. He has occasionally received a bench role but then has been designated for assignment and passed through waivers multiple times. He got a brief run on the Brewers’ roster in 2025 but was outrighted in July. He became a minor league free agent at season’s end.
If Cameron had stayed in North America for the 2026 season, he surely would have been stuck with minor league offers. By heading to Korea, he will presumably lock in a better guaranteed salary and get a nice opportunity to showcase his abilities on a bigger stage. If he succeeds over there, he could perhaps try to return to North America, though staying in the KBO with a nice raise or pursuing opportunities in other Asian leagues would be options as well.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Hanisch, Imagn Images
Blue Jays’ Easton Lucas Granted Release, Expected To Sign Overseas
The Blue Jays announced Tuesday that they’ve placed left-hander Easton Lucas on unconditional release waivers. That drops their 40-man roster count to 37. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reports that Lucas will sign with a foreign team once he clears waivers (presumably in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball or in the Korea Baseball Organization).
Lucas, 29, appeared in six games (five starts) for Toronto this past season. He became a cult hero in April when he rattled off 10 1/3 shutout innings across two starts to begin his Jays tenure — including a game at Fenway Park where he outdueled eventual Cy Young runner-up Garrett Crochet. The good times didn’t last, however. Lucas was torched for eight runs in his next start and wound up surrendering a total of 18 runs in 14 innings following that scoreless stretch.
This was the third season in which Lucas has logged some big league time, though his 24 1/3 frames this year marked a career-high. He’s pitched 42 2/3 innings in the majors and been tagged for an 8.02 earned run average. Lucas has fanned a below-average 19.6% of opponents against a bloated 12.3% walk rate in his limited MLB exposure.
Triple-A has been another story entirely. Lucas has spent parts of three seasons at the top minor league level and, in 162 2/3 innings, pitched to a solid 3.60 ERA. He’s punched out 24.4% of his opponents and logged a more palatable (but still higher-than-average) 10% walk rate. Lucas sits 93-95 mph with his four-seamer and rounds out his four-pitch arsenal with a changeup, slider and more seldom-used cutter.
Blue Jays, Rodolfo Castro Agree To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays are signing infielder Rodolfo Castro to a minor league contract, reports Ari Alexander of 7News. He’ll be in major league camp next spring as a non-roster invitee.
Still just 26 years old (27 in May), Castro played in parts of three big league seasons from 2021-23, with most of that time coming in Pittsburgh. He hit .233/.299/.427 with 11 homers in 278 plate appearances back in ’22, but he’s an overall .219/.282/.380 hitter in 627 turns at the plate. Castro has walked in 8.1% of his major league plate appearances and gone down on strikes at a 27.9% clip. Prior to the 2025 season, Castro had been a switch-hitter who was considerably better as a right-handed hitter (.264/.331/.528) than as a left-handed hitter (.191/.268/.286).
In 2025, Castro dropped switch-hitting and focused on his right-handed swing, hitting .235/.324/.421 with 19 home runs and 18 steals in 133 games for the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate. He’s a career .236/.320/.434 hitter in parts of five seasons at the Triple-A level. Defensively, he has at least 1899 innings of professional experience at each of third base, shortstop and second base. Castro has posted sub-par grades in the middle infield but notched strong grades in his 315 big league innings at the hot corner. During his prospect days, Baseball America labeled him a serviceable defender at all three positions and profiled him as a future bench piece.
That’ll be the role for which Castro vies next spring. The Blue Jays technically have some infield openings right now, but they’ll attempt to bring Bo Bichette back in free agency and plug him into one of the two middle infield slots alongside Andres Gimenez. Addison Barger could play third base or right field, depending on how the rest of the offseason moves shake out. Ernie Clement is an option at any of second base, shortstop or third base. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., of course, is locked in at first base.
The bench is less certain, though the Jays could bring in some veteran help in that regard as well. For now, Davis Schneider and out-of-options Leo Jimenez are penciled into reserve roles. Bringing Bichette back or making a different infield acquisition could push Clement into a utility role, which would leave only one spot for Schneider, Jimenez and any non-roster invitees (assuming backup catcher Tyler Heineman and backup outfielder Myles Straw continue to hold the other spots).
KBO’s Samsung Lions Re-Sign Lewin Diaz, Ariel Jurado
The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they’ve re-signed first baseman Lewin Diaz and right-hander Ariel Jurado to one-year contracts for the 2026 season (link via Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency). Diaz is guaranteed $1.5MM. Jurado is guaranteed $1.6MM. Both players can earn an additional $100K worth of incentives.
It’s a nice birthday present for Diaz, who turned 29 just a few days ago. Once a top prospect within the Twins and Marlins organizations, he wound up bouncing to the Pirates, Orioles, Braves and Nationals organizations before eventually heading overseas. Diaz has appeared in parts of three big league seasons but tallied only 343 plate appearances with a .181/.227/.340 batting line in that time.
Though he never hit in the majors, Diaz carries a solid .258/.340/.479 batting line in parts of three Triple-A seasons. He was very popular on the waiver wire in during the tail end of his run in North America, being claimed off waivers or traded following a DFA five times in the 2022-23 offseason. That’s due in part to his solid Triple-A production and former prospect status, but more so because even amid his MLB struggles at the plate, Diaz remained an elite defensive first baseman. Scouting reports have pegged him as a 70- or even 80-grade defender at the position.
He took that plus glove with him to Daegu, South Korea midway through the 2024 season, and in 2025 Diaz finally unlocked the plus raw power that’s been missing in game settings throughout his pro career in North America. The 6’2″ lefty-swinging slugger absolutely erupted in the KBO, pummeling opposing pitchers with a .314/.381/.644 batting line (165 wRC+) and 50 round-trippers this past season. Diaz walked in 9.6% of his plate appearances and fanned at only a 15.9% rate. His 158 (!!) runs batted in broke the single-season KBO record, and Diaz took home the KBO equivalent of a Gold Glove for his defense at first base.
Diaz will play all of next season at age 29. If he can replicate that mammoth production and continue playing his typical brand of plus-plus defense, a return to the majors in 2027 is possible. Obviously, the KBO is a hitter-friendly setting, but Diaz went above and beyond level of offensive output that most successful MLB-to-KBO transitions enjoy.
As for Jurado, he’ll return for what’s now a fourth season with the KBO and his second with the Lions. The former Rangers top prospect has started 30 games in each of the past three seasons — two with the Kiwoom Heroes and one with the Lions — and pitched to a sterling 2.87 ERA in 571 1/3 innings. He’s fanned a below-average 19.7% of his opponents but also logged a tiny 4.7% walk rate in his three KBO campaigns. Last year’s 197 1/3 innings and 2.60 earned run average were personal bests, and those 197 1/3 frames led all KBO pitchers.
Like Diaz, it’s plausible that Jurado could eventually set his sights on a return to Major League Baseball. He pitched 177 innings with Texas in 2018-19 and four innings with the Mets in 2020, but his short time in the majors was a struggle. In 181 frames, he was tagged for a 5.97 ERA.
Even with those struggles a fourth straight year of this type of production would presumably garner some interest. Jurado isn’t an especially hard thrower and doesn’t miss many bats, so perhaps offers from MLB clubs would be too light to persuade him to uproot himself and move across the globe once again. If he prefers to keep pitching in South Korea, he won’t exactly be hurting for cash. He’s cleared $5MM in earnings overseas with this new contract and won’t even turn 30 until January. He’ll have plenty of opportunity to continue taking home seven-figure salaries in the KBO as long as he continues pitching effectively.
Cubs Sign Phil Maton
The Cubs’ first addition of the offseason will come in the bullpen, as Chicago has agreed to terms with right-hander Phil Maton on a two-year, $14.5MM contract with a club option for a third season. The Paragon Sports International client can pick up another $250K worth of incentives based on innings pitched in each of the two guaranteed seasons on the contract.
Maton receives a $5.5MM salary next season, $6MM in 2027, and is guaranteed a $3MM buyout on the ’28 option — which is valued at $8.5MM. He’d also receive a $250K assignment bonus in the event of a trade and would unlock $125K bonuses at 40 and 50 games apiece in the first two seasons of the deal. Those would climb to $250K at 40 and 50 appearances in 2028 if the option is exercised.
Maton split last season between the Cardinals and Rangers. He joined St. Louis on a one-year, $2MM deal and pitched well for the first half of the season. After 38 1/3 innings of a 2.35 ERA, the Cardinals shipped him to Texas at the trade deadline for minor league pitchers Mason Molina and Skylar Hales. Maton’s ERA rose to 3.52 with his new team, but he upped his strikeout rate to 36.7% and picked up three saves over 23 appearances.
Chicago will be Maton’s eighth team in 10 big-league seasons. He was drafted by the Padres in 2015. Eye-popping strikeout numbers helped the righty zoom through San Diego’s system, and he reached the big leagues by 2017. Maton delivered decent contributions with the Padres in his first two seasons, though he missed time with a lat strain in 2018. After a half-season spent bouncing between the Padres and Triple-A El Paso the following year, Maton was dealt to Cleveland for cash.
Maton flashed the swing-and-miss upside he had shown in the minors for the first time at the big-league level with Cleveland. He posted a 33.3% strikeout rate across 23 games in the shortened 2020 season, then pushed it to 34.3% in the first half of 2021. Maton was on the move again at the 2021 trade deadline, heading with Yainer Diaz to Houston for Myles Straw. The deal turned out to be a big win for the Astros, even before factoring in Diaz’s contributions. Maton compiled a 3.67 ERA across 157 innings with Houston through 2023. He was phenomenal during the 2021 playoffs, allowing just one earned run in 12 games. Maton secured three holds in the postseason that year, including two in the World Series.
Maton hit the open market following the 2023 season and landed in Tampa Bay on a one-year, $6.5MM deal. He struggled with the Rays and ended up getting dealt to the Mets in early July. Maton put together 28 2/3 innings of a 2.51 ERA in New York, but stumbled in the postseason. The veteran was knocked around for six earned runs in 6 1/3 innings in the playoffs, including four home runs.
Velocity isn’t Maton’s strong suit, as his fastball barely cracks 90 mph. The veteran has found success by leading with his curveball and mixing in cutters and sinkers. Maton has used the hook as his primary pitch in two of the last three seasons. He threw it 38.2% of the time last year, and it recorded a healthy +10 run value. Maton’s cutter, curveball, and sweeper all had whiff rates above 32% last season.
Maton has excelled at limiting hard contact at every stop. He’s limited hitters to a 29.9% hard-hit rate for his career. Maton ranked in the 98th percentile or better in hard-hit rate, barrel rate, and average exit velocity last season.
With Brad Keller hitting free agency and Andrew Kittredge traded to Baltimore, Chicago had a clear need for a righty at the backend of the bullpen. Daniel Palencia will likely resume closer duties after battling injuries at the end of last season, but Maton should factor into the late-inning mix alongside Porter Hodge. FanGraphs’ RosterResource tool has the Cubs’ payroll at around $177MM for 2026. The club has been above $200MM the past two seasons, so there could be more room to add in the bullpen. Luke Little and Jordan Wicks don’t have a ton of big-league experience between them, so pursuing a veteran southpaw might make sense.
Bleacher Nation’s Michael Cerami first reported that Maton was signing with the Cubs. Will Sammon of The Athletic reported the length of the deal, and the New York Post’s Jon Heyman first broke the financial terms. The Associated Press reported the salary structure.
Athletics Sign Matt Krook To Minor League Deal
The Athletics have signed left-hander Matt Krook to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Las Vegas for now but will presumably receive an invite to major league camp.
Krook, 31, also signed a minor league pact with the A’s around this time last year. He was added to the 40-man roster in the middle of May but designated for assignment just over a week later. He was claimed by the Guardians but they kept him on optional assignment for the rest of the year, so he never pitched for that club at the big league level. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster at season’s end. Since he had a previous outright in his career, he had the right to elect free agency and did so, which allowed the A’s to circle back to him on this deal.
The southpaw’s major league track record technically includes three separate big league seasons but is still quite limited and unimpressive. He appeared in four games for the 2023 Yankees, one contest with the Orioles last year and three with the A’s this year. In those eight games, he has allowed 15 earned runs in 8 1/3 innings, giving him a 16.20 earned run average in his big league career.
Naturally, his minor league track record is greater in terms of both quantity and quality. Going back to 2023, his first year as a primary reliever, he has thrown 125 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 2.94 ERA. His 16.7% walk rate in that time is way too high but he also punched out 32% of batters faced. That includes 48 innings in 2025 with a 3.19 ERA, 29.8% strikeout rate, 15.6% walk rate and 65.1% ground ball rate. His velocity doesn’t even really touch 90 miles per hour but he has good movement on his pitches, allowing him to miss bats and barrels.
The A’s currently have Hogan Harris and Brady Basso as lefty relievers on their 40-man roster. Jared Shuster was outrighted earlier this month and gives the A’s a non-roster option. Krook now joins Shuster in that category. If Krook eventually gets a roster spot, he is out of options but he’s also cheap and controllable since he has less than a year of big league service time.
Photo courtesy of Dennis Lee, Imagn Images
Cardinals Sign Scott Blewett To Minor League Deal
The Cardinals announced they’ve signed reliever Scott Blewett to a minor league contract. St. Louis also announced a minor league deal with Sem Robberse, whom they non-tendered last week. Both pitchers will be in big league Spring Training as non-roster invitees, though Robberse won’t pitch after undergoing Tommy John surgery in May.
Blewett, 30 in April, logged a career-high 44 1/3 big league innings this past season. The righty divided that between three clubs: the Twins, Braves and Orioles. That included two stints in Baltimore, as the O’s traded him to Atlanta in April and reacquired him two months later. Blewett combined for a 5.48 ERA across 26 appearances. He missed bats on a decent 12.7% of his pitches but was unable to convert that into many strikeouts. Blewett recorded a below-average 18% strikeout rate while walking 9.3% of opponents.
A three-pitch reliever, Blewett leaned on his 84 MPH slider almost half the time. He sits in the 93-94 MPH range with his fastball and has a mid-80s splitter that he mixes in against left-handed batters. Blewett has yet to reach a year of service time but is out of minor league options, which limits teams’ flexibility if he secures a spot on the 40-man roster. He’ll battle for a middle relief spot in camp amidst an inexperienced St. Louis bullpen. If Kyle Leahy wins a rotation job, the Cards would only have three relievers on the 40-man who have one full year of service. JoJo Romero is likely to be traded this offseason, which would leave Riley O’Brien and Ryan Fernandez as their most experienced relievers.
Robberse has yet to reach the big leagues. The 24-year-old was acquired from the Blue Jays at the 2023 deadline in the Jordan Hicks trade. Robberse cracked the 40-man roster that offseason because the Cardinals didn’t want to lose him in the Rule 5 draft. He spent the ’24 season in Triple-A and was optioned back there to begin this year. Robberse underwent surgery a few weeks into the season.
The Cardinals declined to tender him a contract last week. That dropped him from the 40-man roster and sent him to free agency without exposing him to the waiver wire. Teams frequently use the non-tender deadline to clear the back of the roster, often with the hope of re-signing the player to a minor league contract. (The Reds did the same with Carson Spiers, who is also working back from elbow surgery, this afternoon.) Robberse will aim for a second-half return with Triple-A Memphis and look to pitch his way onto the MLB radar before year’s end.
Cardinals Re-Sign Yohel Pozo To Major League Deal
6:57pm: St. Louis officially announced that Pozo has been re-signed on a major league contract. It’s a split deal that pays different rates depending on whether the backstop is on the MLB roster or in Triple-A, according to Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat. This pushes their 40-man roster count to 38.
1:48pm: The Cardinals and catcher Yohel Pozo are in the final stages of agreeing to a new deal for the 2026 season, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Pozo was non-tendered by St. Louis on Friday.
Pozo, 28, logged 67 games with the Cardinals in 2025 and tallied 188 plate appearances — both career-high marks at the MLB level. He hit just .231/.262/.375 in that time, however — well shy of league-average (even relative to other catchers, where offense is lighter than that of the average position). Pozo delivered a handful of clutch pinch-hits, endearing himself to many in the Cardinals fanbase. He’s now a .248/.278/.376 hitter with six home runs in 245 MLB plate appearances.
Pozo hit well with the Cardinals’ top minor league affiliate in Memphis, albeit in a sample of just five games. He’s a career .321/.343/.525 hitter in Triple-A, with a significant portion of his time spent in an extraordinarily hitter-friendly Las Vegas setting (with the Athletics’ Triple-A club). Pozo draws decent grades for his framing and has regularly posted strong caught-stealing rates in the minor leagues.
While Pozo isn’t going to jump to the top of the depth chart anytime soon, he’ll give the Cards some additional depth along with Jimmy Crooks, Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages. Pozo has a full slate of minor league options, so he can be shuttled freely between St. Louis and Memphis without first needing to be exposed to waivers.
Reds Re-Sign Carson Spiers To Minor League Deal
The Reds announced they’ve re-signed righty Carson Spiers to a minor league contract with an invite to big league camp. Spiers will not be able to pitch in Spring Training anyhow, as he’s working back from July elbow surgery that’ll cost him most of the ’26 season.
Spiers was one of three players, along with Will Banfield and Roddery Muñoz, whom the Reds dropped from the roster at last week’s non-tender deadline. Spiers had technically been designated for assignment a few days earlier as Cincinnati created space to add three Rule 5 eligible prospects to the 40-man roster. They waited until the non-tender deadline to resolve the DFA, which meant they didn’t need to expose him to waivers. That’s a common tactic for teams to try to re-sign those players to minor league deals, keeping them in the organization without requiring a 40-man spot.
The 28-year-old Spiers has pitched in each of the past three big league seasons. He’s a depth arm who has started 14 of 29 career outings. Spiers carries a 5.69 earned run average across 117 innings. His 19.3% strikeout percentage and 9.4% swinging strike rate are each middling and he’s had a difficult time keeping the ball in the park. Most of Spiers’ big league experience came in 2024, as shoulder and elbow injuries cost him almost all of last season.
While Spiers has yet to find much in the way of MLB success, he owns a decent 4.08 ERA in almost 400 minor league innings. He has fanned nearly a quarter of opponents against an 8.9% walk rate. Spiers sits around 92 MPH with his four-seam and sinker while using three more pitches (sweeper, cutter and changeup) with regularity. He’ll remain with the organization that initially signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2020 and attempt to pitch his way back onto the roster once he has put the elbow injury behind him.