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Giants Trade Will Kempner To Marlins

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The Marlins announced Wednesday that they’ve acquired minor league right-hander Will Kempner from the Giants in exchange for international bonus pool space. He’s not on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move isn’t necessary. San Francisco also acquired international bonus space when trading catcher/outfielder Blake Sabol to the Red Sox today. Since pool allotments must be traded in increments of $250K, they’ve added at least half a million dollars to their spending power on the international free agent market.

The Giants signed top international prospect Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez for a $3MM bonus earlier today — a sum that represents more than 58% of their entire bonus pool. San Francisco entered the 2025 signing period tied with the Dodgers for the lowest pool in MLB at $5.146MM, due largely to forfeiting $500K when signing both Matt Chapman and Blake Snell last winter after the pair rejected qualifying offers from their former teams.

Kempner, 23, was the Giants’ third-round pick back in 2022. He missed the entire 2024 season due to a broken foot but posted interesting results in 2023. The former Gonzaga starter moved to a relief role with the Giants and pitched to a combined 3.73 ERA and 28.1% strikeout rate across three levels (Class-A, High-A, Double-A). That includes a 2.91 ERA with a huge 32.6% strikeout rate and a 9% walk rate in 34 innings of relief in High-A that season.

Kempner works off a mid-90s sinker and a sweeper, both of which receive plus grades from Baseball America and FanGraphs. BA ranked him among the Giants’ top 30 prospects in both 2023 (No. 26) and 2024 (No. 29). Command is an issue for Kempner, who’s walked 11.2% of his opponents in pro ball and plunked another 3.7% of them.

Even with two plus pitched, allowing 15% of your opponents to reach base without having to put a ball in play isn’t a recipe for success. That said, he’s still barely had one full season of professional coaching, so it’s not exactly surprising that another club is taking an interest in that pair of impressive offerings and hoping to rein in the righty’s command. He’ll likely begin the 2025 season in Double-A, where he’s still only thrown 1 2/3 innings in a 2023 cameo.

Mariners Acquire Blake Hunt, Designate Samad Taylor For Assignment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Giants Trade Blake Sabol To Red Sox

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2:04pm: The teams have announced the moves.

1:48pm: The Red Sox have a deal in place to acquire catcher/outfielder Blake Sabol from the Giants, as first reported by Hunter Noll of Beyond the Monster. Boston will send international bonus pool space back to the Giants. Right-hander Chase Shugart is being designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the Sox’ 40-man roster, Noll adds. San Francisco designated Sabol for assignment last week.

Sabol, 27, was the Giants’ Rule 5 pick out of the Pirates system prior to the 2023 season. He stuck on San Francisco’s roster all year, posting a .235/.301/.394 batting line (91 wRC+) with 13 home runs but an ugly 34% strikeout rate. Sabol’s Rule 5 selection came on the heels of a stout .284/.363/.497 slash between Double-A and Triple-A in 2022. With that big performance and a respectable rookie showing in the big leagues, he looked as though he could have a role on the Giants for several years to come.

That, however, was not to be. Sabol spent nearly the entire 2024 season in Triple-A and struggled considerably. He slashed .246/.340/.388 there — about 15% worse than league-average production. He went 10-for-32 in a tiny cup of big league coffee, bringing his career rate stats to .243/.313/.392 in 382 plate appearances. That wasn’t enough to save his spot on the roster following a regime change in the Giants’ baseball operations staff that has seen former NL MVP Buster Posey take over as the department’s president.

Sabol has caught 458 innings in the majors and played 271 innings of left field. He didn’t grade as a plus defender in either spot, though both positions come with a pretty small sample of playing time. The Giants added a bit of first base to Sabol’s defensive repertoire in 2024. He’s now caught 1843 innings, played 943 innings across all three outfield spots and played 172 innings at first base since being selected by Pittsburgh in the seventh round of the 2019 draft. Sabol has a pair of minor league option years and five seasons of club control remaining.

With the Red Sox, Sabol will compete with Carlos Narvaez — and any additional catching depth brought in by the Sox — to see who’ll serve as the backup to starting catcher Connor Wong in 2025.

For the Giants, adding some extra pool space is notable. San Francisco punted on a combined $1MM of pool space last offseason when they signed Matt Chapman and Blake Snell after they rejected qualifying offers. That left them tied with the archrival Dodgers for the smallest international bonus pool in the game, at $5.146MM. Between this swap and the trade of righty Will Kempner to the Marlins, they’ve added to that pool by at least $500K, as international allotments must be traded in increments of $250K. The Giants spent $3MM — more than 58% of their initial pool — on top international signing Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez earlier today, so the extra dollars will help to offset some of that weighty bonus.

Turning to the 28-year-old Shugart, he made his big league debut with the Sox this past season, yielding four runs on eight hits and three walks with eight strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings of relief. He spent the bulk of the 2024 season in Triple-A Worcester, where he logged a 4.46 earned run average, 25.6% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate in 70 2/3 innings, mostly out of the bullpen.

Shugart was originally selected by the Red Sox in the 12th round of the 2018 draft. He generally posted solid numbers up through the Double-A level before struggling mightily in his first two seasons of Triple-A ball in 2022-23. This past year was the first in which he’s posted solid numbers at the top minor league level. During his brief big league look, he showed a five-pitch mix — four-seamer, cutter, sinker, slider, changeup — and sat 96.1 mph with his heater. He didn’t induce many swings and misses in the big leagues but turned in a solid 11.7% swinging-strike rate in Worcester.

The Red Sox will have five days to trade Shugart. If not traded by then, he’ll need to be placed on waivers, which is a 48-hour process itself. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, the Red Sox can retain him as non-roster depth in Triple-A and invite him to big league camp this spring. Within the next week, he’ll have some form of resolution on his current DFA status.

Nationals Outright Joan Adon

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The Nationals announced Wednesday that right-hander Joan Adon passed through waivers unclaimed after he was designated for assignment last week. He’ll remain with the organization and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester. Washington designated Adon to clear roster space for free agent signee Amed Rosario.

The 26-year-old Adon has logged big league time with the Nats in each of the past four seasons. He’s totaled 132 1/3 innings but sports a 6.66 earned run average in that time. He’s fanned 19% of his opponents, issued walks at an 11.3% clip and kept the ball on the ground at a 45.3% rate. Both those strikeout and walk rates are worse than league-average, but Adon’s grounder rate is a few percentage points above par and he averages about 95 mph on his heater.

Adon has been durable in the upper minors, typically working as a starter, but he’s also gotten some bullpen work in recent seasons as his big league results have been lackluster. Given that he sits nearly 95 mph as a starter when he’s facing lineups multiple times, it’s fair to wonder how high that velocity might trend upward if he were to move to short relief stints.

Adon was out of minor league options, so the Nationals would’ve had to either break camp with him on the Opening Day roster or jettison him from the 40-man by way of trade or DFA at some point during spring training. Now that he’s cleared waivers, he’ll head to big league camp this spring as a non-roster invitee. If he doesn’t pitch his way back into the big league plans, he’ll start the year in Rochester and bide his time while waiting for another opportunity.

Washington’s rotation mix is deeper after signing Michael Soroka and re-signing Trevor Williams. That pair will join MacKenzie Gore, Mitchell Parker, Jake Irvin and DJ Herz — all four of whom delivered some encouraging performances in 2024 (albeit with some late fades as that group surpassed previous career-high workloads). With that group of six starters in the fold and top prospect Cade Cavalli hoping for a healthy 2025 campaign, Adon has been pushed a ways down the depth chart. A full-time look in the ’pen could be interesting, but it’s not yet clear how the Nats will utilize him moving forward.

Padres, J.B. Wendelken Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Padres are in agreement with reliever J.B. Wendelken on a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The right-hander will be in Spring Training as a non-roster invitee.

Wendelken returns to affiliated ball after two seasons in Japan. The 31-year-old turned in excellent results over a pair of years with the Yokohama DeNa BayStars. Wendelken put up a 1.67 earned run average across 86 innings in Nippon Professional Baseball. He struck out 22.2% of batters faced against an 8.8% walk rate.

Before heading to Japan, Wendelken pitched in parts of six big league seasons. He spent the majority of that time with the Athletics. Wendelken worked to a 3.62 ERA over five years in Oakland. He had a tougher time after landing with the Diamondbacks via August ’21 waiver claim. Wendelken allowed nearly five earned runs per nine through 47 2/3 frames in Arizona. The D-Backs outrighted him off their 40-man roster midway through the 2022 campaign.

The Padres have a handful of relievers locked into the Opening Day bullpen. Robert Suarez, Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada are all ticketed for late-inning roles. Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta should be in the middle innings, as the Padres would likely be unable to offload their multi-year deals in trade. Bryan Hoeing and Adrian Morejon will be on the big league roster in some capacity, though it’s not out of the question that they could win rotation jobs in Spring Training. That may only leave one or two middle relief spots up for grabs among the likes of Sean Reynolds, Tom Cosgrove, Stephen Kolek and Wendelken.

White Sox Sign Jonathan Heasley To Minor League Deal

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The White Sox announced that they have signed right-hander Jonathan Heasley to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training. The righty is represented by Icon Sports Management.

Heasley, 28 this month, has some limited big league experience stretched over multiple seasons. He has appeared in each of the past four major league campaigns, throwing a combined 139 innings, allowing 5.89 earned runs per nine. His 14.4% strikeout rate is well south of league average, though his 8.9% walk rate is near par.

Most of that came with the Royals from 2021 to 2023. Last winter, he was acquired by the Orioles and started the 2024 season with that club. The O’s mostly kept him on optional assignment, only giving him four big league appearances on the year. He was designated for assignment and then released in July.

That’s not a terribly impressive body of work, but it’s a fairly small sample and the White Sox are likely focused more on his minor league numbers. In 2021, he tossed 105 1/3 innings over 22 Double-A appearances, 21 of those being starts. He had a 3.33 ERA, 27.7% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate. Over the past three years, he has thrown 164 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level, with his ERA at 5.47 in that time. His 22.4% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate in that stretch were still respectable, but he allowed 30 home runs, pushing more runs across the plate.

Heasley has worked both as a starter and a reliever in his career, so he should be able to provide the Sox with depth in both areas. Their bullpen had a collective ERA of 4.73 last year, which was 28th in the league. The rotation was a bit better, with a 4.62 ERA that ranked 25th, though they traded Erick Fedde at last year’s deadline and Garrett Crochet last month.

The Sox do have a number of intriguing young arms, as one would expect from a rebuilding team, but adding in other arms is a sensible offseason goal. They have signed guys like Martín Pérez and Bryse Wilson, as well as having acquired Cam Booser and Wikelman Gonzalez via trade and Penn Murfee via waivers. Heasley now comes aboard as non-roster depth. If he eventually gets a roster spot, he is out of options but has barely a year of service time.

Red Sox, Robert Stock Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox and right-hander Robert Stock have agreed to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Naranjeros de Hermosillo, the Mexican winter ball team Stock had been playing for, had previously announced that Stock was leaving to conduct physical exams with the Sox.

Stock, 35, has a bit of major league experience. From 2018 to 2021, he tossed 72 2/3 innings over four seasons, suiting up for the Padres, Red Sox, Cubs and Mets. He allowed 4.71 earned runs per nine. His 23.1% strikeout rate was around average and his 49.8% ground ball rate was strong, but he also gave out walks at a high rate of 12.2%. His fastball averaged 96-98 miles per hour in that time.

He hasn’t been in the majors for a few years now but has performed well in other places. He spent 2022 in Korea, posting a 3.60 ERA over 29 starts for the Doosan Bears of the KBO League. That was enough to get him another shot in affiliated ball, as he signed a minor league deal with the Brewers for 2023. But he had an 8.22 ERA in 23 innings and was in Indy Ball by June.

For 2024, he signed with the Tecos de los Dos Laredos of the Mexican League. He made 19 starts and tossed 98 2/3 innings with a 3.38 ERA. As mentioned, he has been playing winter ball with the Naranjeros, posting great numbers there. He tossed 84 1/3 innings over 14 starts for them with a 1.60 ERA.

For the Sox, there’s no harm in bringing him aboard via a minor league deal to see how he looks in camp. He was a reliever for most of his career but has been starting in more recent years, so he should be able to provide the club with non-roster depth in both areas.

Boston projects to have a rotation of Garrett Crochet, Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford and Walker Buehler, with Lucas Giolito returning from his elbow surgery at some point this year as well. There’s lots of talent in there but also plenty of question marks. In the bullpen, they lost Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin to free agency, though they have signed free agents Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson. They are also set to get Liam Hendriks and Garrett Whitlock back from extended absences due to elbow surgeries.

Mariners Acquire Miles Mastrobuoni, Designate Nick Raposo

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The Mariners announced that they have acquired infielder/outfielder Miles Mastrobuoni from the Cubs. The latter club had designated him for assignment last week and now receives cash considerations for his departure. Seattle designated catcher Nick Raposo for assignment to open a roster spot.

Mastrobuoni, 29, has been a part-time big leaguer over the past few years. Over the past three seasons, he has appeared in 119 games and taken 272 plate appearances, mostly with the Cubs but also with the Rays. He has a tepid .219/.279/.263 batting line in that time but has stolen 16 bases in 17 tries while providing defensive versatility. He has spent time at the three infield positions to the left of first base as well as the outfield corners.

As is often the case with a depth player like this, the minor league performance has been better. Over the past three years, he’s had 982 Triple-A plate appearances with 22 home runs, an 18.1% strikeout rate, 12.8% walk rate, .278/.371/.434 slash line and 114 wRC+.

The Mariners have been looking for infield upgrades this winter. They lost Justin Turner to free agency, turned down an option on Jorge Polanco and non-tendered Josh Rojas. That left them with J.P. Crawford at shortstop and no clear answers for the other positions. They have various possible solutions on the roster, including Luke Raley, Dylan Moore, Ryan Bliss, Austin Shenton and others, though strengthening the group has clearly been a goal this winter. The club signed Donovan Solano this week but shouldn’t be done.

Mastrobuoni won’t fix everything but he’s a solid addition to that cluster of potential contributors. He can bounce around to multiple positions and steal a few bases at least. The offense in the majors hasn’t been good yet but the minor league numbers have been better, perhaps suggesting there’s potential for more there. He also has an option remaining, meaning he doesn’t need to be given an active roster spot and can be shuttled between the minors and majors with relative ease.

Raposo, 27 in June, was just claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays last month. He hasn’t yet made his major league debut. He first got a 40-man roster spot from the Cardinals last summer, when both Iván Herrera and Willson Contreras were injured, but never got into a game. He went from the red birds to the blue birds in August when the Jays claimed him off waivers, though Toronto lost him to Seattle a few months later.

In his four years of minor league experience, he has a .241/.321/.387 line and 85 wRC+ in 808 plate appearances. Baseball Prospectus has given him solid marks for his blocking and throwing in the minors. He still has a couple of options and just a handful of days of service time.

The M’s will now have a week to figure out what’s next for Raposo. That could be a trade or Raposo could be put on waivers again. The waiver process takes 48 hours so any trade talks would need to happen in the next five days.

Phillies Sign Joel Kuhnel To Minor League Deal

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The Phillies announced a list of 23 non-roster invitees to major league Spring Training. Reliever Joel Kuhnel is among that group. According to the MLB.com transaction log, the right-hander signed a minor league contract with Philadelphia on December 21. The Phils also brought back infielder Rodolfo Castro shortly after he elected free agency in November and added former Minnesota and Detroit minor leaguer Austin Schulfer.

Kuhnel, 30 next month, was outrighted off the Rays’ 40-man roster at the beginning of the offseason. He made five big league appearances with Tampa Bay after being claimed off waivers in July. Kuhnel tossed eight innings of one-run ball in his limited MLB work. He allowed eight runs (seven earned) over 14 2/3 frames for their Triple-A team in Durham.

A former Reds draftee, Kuhnel has bounced around the league over the past two years. The Phils are his sixth organization since 2022. Kuhnel has pitched in the majors for Cincinnati, Houston and Tampa Bay. He has had Triple-A stints with the Brewers and Blue Jays. He carries a 5.93 earned run average across parts of five big league seasons. He has kept the ball on the ground at a lofty 52% clip but has a well below-average 18.7% strikeout rate. It was a similar story at the Triple-A level last season. Kuhnel’s 17.7% strikeout percentage was unimpressive, but he induced grounders at a huge 57.6% rate.

Castro landed in Philly at the 2023 deadline in a trade with Pittsburgh. The switch-hitting utilityman hit .100 in 14 games down the stretch. He spent the ’24 season in the minors, much of it on the injured list. Castro only appeared in 19 Triple-A games and suffered a season-ending thumb injury in August. The Phillies made the fairly easy call to outright him off the 40-man at season’s end, though they circled back to keep the 25-year-old in the organization.

Schulfer, 29, has yet to reach the majors. The 6’2″ righty reliever has spent parts of three seasons in Triple-A. He owns a 4.62 ERA across 142 1/3 frames at the top minor league level. Schulfer divided last season between the Twins’ and Tigers’ systems. He combined for a 4.94 ERA while striking out a quarter of opponents over 54 2/3 innings, nearly all of which came in Triple-A.

Yankees, Dominic Smith Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees are in agreement with first baseman Dominic Smith on a minor league contract, reports Jack Curry of the YES Network. Presumably the Roc Nation Sports client will get a non-roster invite to MLB camp.

Smith will vie for a big league roster spot for a ninth consecutive season. He has spent more than half that time in New York as a member of the Mets. Smith was a top prospect who posted huge offensive numbers in a limited sample between 2019-20. His bat has markedly tailed off since that point. Smith struggled between 2021-22, leading the Mets to move on. He had a middling .254/.326/.366 showing over a career-high 586 plate appearances with the Nationals the following year.

The 29-year-old divided last season between the Red Sox and Reds. He got a decent amount of run as Boston’s starting first baseman while Triston Casas was injured. Smith hit .237/.317/.390 through 278 plate appearances with the Sox. Boston released him in mid-August when Casas made his return from the injured list. Smith inked a big league contract with Cincinnati shortly thereafter. He only got into nine games, hitting .192 without a home run over 29 trips before the Reds cut him loose. He finished the season with a cumulative .233/.313/.378 slash.

New York signed Paul Goldschmidt to take over as the primary first baseman. They’ve got Giancarlo Stanton penciled in at designated hitter. That gives Smith an uphill battle to cracking the MLB roster out of camp, though Stanton has a lengthy injury history. Ben Rice is on the 40-man roster as a lefty-hitting first baseman, so Smith would probably need to outperform him during Spring Training to have a shot at an Opening Day job.

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