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Dodgers Trade Diego Cartaya To Twins

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The Twins have acquired former top catching prospect Diego Cartaya from the Dodgers in exchange for minor league right-hander Jose Vasquez, per announcements from both clubs. Cartaya was designated for assignment earlier in the week. Minnesota had an open 40-man roster spot, and their roster is now full.

As recently as two years ago, Cartaya was a consensus top-20 prospect in the entire sport. He’s still just 23 years old, but the Venezuelan-born backstop’s offensive development has stalled out in the upper minors. Back in 2022, Cartaya slashed a combined .254/.389/.503 with 22 homers and a 14.3% walk rate across two Class-A levels. He’s followed that with lackluster performances in both Double-A (.204/.303/.379 in two seasons) and Triple-A (.208/.293/.350 in 208 plate appearances last year).

Though his bat hasn’t progressed, scouting reports in recent seasons have praised improved glovework from the 6’3″, 219-pound Cartaya. Both Baseball America and MLB.com noted in their 2024 midseason reports on Cartaya that he made notable gains with his framing, receiving and blocking. He’d already been touted for plus arm strength, though shaky accuracy has led to a roughly average 20% caught-stealing rate in his five minor league seasons.

If nothing else, the tools are there for Cartaya to be a solid defender behind the plate and a patient, OBP-focused hitter in the batter’s box. He did turn in a solid .247/.370/.377 slash against lefties last year, though that came in just 92 plate appearances and he struggled immensely versus southpaws in a similar sample a year prior. Cartaya still has one minor league option year remaining, so the Twins can send him to Triple-A to begin the season without needing to pass him through waivers.

The Twins already have an above-average starter in Ryan Jeffers and a pricey, glove-first backup in Christian Vazquez. Catcher Jair Camargo and catcher/first baseman Mickey Gasper (acquired from the Red Sox last month) are both on the 40-man roster as well. Minnesota has been hopeful of trading Vazquez and a portion of his $10MM salary as they seek to scale back payroll. There could well be a market if they’re willing to eat around half that sum, and the addition of Cartaya creates some further depth in the event that they do indeed move Vazquez (or, more surprisingly, listen to offers on Jeffers).

In return for Cartaya, the Dodgers will pick up a project right-hander. Vasquez, listed at 6’4″ and a 200 pounds, signed with the Twins out of the Dominican Republic as part of their 2022 international class. He’s spent the past two years — his age-18 and age-19 seasons — pitching for Minnesota’s affiliate in the Dominican Summer League. The bottom-line results aren’t much to look at, as Vasquez has been tagged for a 8.05 ERA in 57 innings. Part of that was a sky-high ERA north of 11.00 in 2023, however. He pitched to a more palatable 4.99 mark in 30 2/3 frames this past season.

Command was a major issue for Vasquez in ’23, evidenced by a ghastly 21.9% walk rate. He made major strides in 2024, however, cutting that mark in half (10.7%) while nearly doubling his strikeout rate from 17.8% to 32.1%. He was a bit older than the average DSL player last year and figures to head to one of the Dodgers’ full-season affiliates in 2025. There’s some obvious bat-missing potential for the lanky right-hander, but he’ll need to make further gains with his command and find a way to get left-handed opponents out. Vasquez held righties to an awful .203/.309/.290 output in 2024 but was scorched for a .314/.407/.392 line against southpaws.

D-backs, Pavin Smith Avoid Arbitration

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The Diamondbacks avoided arbitration with first baseman/outfielder Pavin Smith by agreeing to a one-year, $1.5MM deal, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’d been projected for a $1.6MM salary by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.

Smith, 29 next month, was selected with the No. 7 pick by Arizona back in 2017. He’s not lived up to that lofty billing but did enjoy a breakout showing in the big leagues this past season, mashing at a .270/.348/.547 clip. That stout production came in a fairly small sample of 158 trips to the plate, but it was supported by career-best batted ball metrics; Smith averaged a hearty 90.2 mph off the bat and put 44% off his batted balls in play at 95 mph or more.

Smith also drew a free pass in an excellent 11.4% of his plate appearances and fanned in a lower-than-average 19.4% of his trips to the plate. As with his quality of contact, that plate discipline holds up with a look under the hood. Only seven percent of hitters in baseball (min. 150 plate appearances) chased pitches off the plate at a lower rate than Smith last season (20.1%). Only 14% of players in that same set made contact at a better rate than Smith’s 90.5% when swinging at pitches within the strike zone. Put more simply, Smith showed keen knowledge of the strike zone and very, very rarely missed when attacking a ball over the plate. That type of discipline and bat-to-ball prowess is hard to fluke your way into over even a sample as limited as his 2024 showing.

This marks Smith’s first offseason of arbitration eligibility and his first time earning noticeably north of the league minimum. He’s out of minor league options, so Smith is a veritable lock to make the Opening Day roster, barring injury.

Smith won’t be entrusted with regular time at first base even after the Snakes lost Christian Walker to free agency, as Arizona quickly pivoted and acquired Josh Naylor to man the position. However, he should log ample time at designated hitter now that Joc Pederson has also left the club for a two-year deal in Texas, and he’d presumably be the primary alternative at first base should Naylor incur an injury or simply require a breather. Smith can also rotate into either left or right field in the event of an injury or day off for Corbin Carroll, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and/or Jake McCarthy. Smith is a career .226/.289/.310 hitter against lefties and thus isn’t likely to see much action against southpaws, but he’s a .249/.333/.427 hitter against righties — including a huge .282/.356/.564 showing this past season. He’s controllable through the 2027 season.

Angels, Brock Burke Avoid Arbitration

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The Angels avoided arbitration with lefty reliever Brock Burke on a $1.15MM deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Burke had been projected at $1.2MM by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.

Los Angeles grabbed the 28-year-old southpaw off waivers from Texas in August. Burke pitched well down the stretch, working to a 3.54 ERA while striking out more than 30% of opponents across 20 1/3 innings. It was a dramatic turnaround. Burke had allowed more than a run per inning over 13 appearances with the Rangers earlier in the year.

The terrible early-season production left Burke with a middling 5.82 earned run average on the year. He showed enough in his six weeks with the Angels to get another opportunity. Burke is arguably the top lefty in a bullpen that should also include José Quijada and potentially Rule 5 pick Garrett McDaniels. He’ll be eligible for arbitration once more next offseason.

A’s Sign Brent Rooker To Five-Year Extension

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The A’s have officially announced a five-year contract extension with designated hitter Brent Rooker. The deal includes a club/vesting option for 2030. Rooker, a client of The Bledsoe Agency, is reportedly guaranteed $60MM. The option’s base value is $22MM and could push as high as $30MM based on his MVP finishes. Rooker had been under arbitration control for three seasons, so the deal buys out at least two free agent years.

Rooker receives a $10MM signing bonus and a $2MM salary for the upcoming season. He’ll make $6MM in 2026, $12MM in ’27, $13MM in ’28 and $17MM in ’29. The $22MM option would vest if Rooker reaches 500 plate appearances in 2029 or combines for 900 PAs between 2028-29. He’d also unlock the option with two top 10 MVP finishes between 2027-29. Finishing in the top 10 in MVP balloting in any of the next five years could escalate the option value.

It’s another significant investment in what has been a huge offseason by A’s standards. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, Rooker becomes the first A’s player to sign a five-year deal since the club extended starting pitcher Trevor Cahill for $30.5MM in 2011. It’s the team’s second investment for $60MM+ this winter. Last month, they added Luis Severino on a three-year, $67MM free agent deal that represented the largest contract in franchise history.

Rooker securing such a contract would have been impossible to envision two years ago. He landed with the A’s on a waiver claim early in the 2022-23 offseason. Rooker was a 28-year-old DH/corner outfielder who had bounced between the Twins, Padres and Royals without getting much of a look at any stop. As a former top 35 overall draft pick who had hit well in the minors, he was a sensible waiver target. The A’s certainly didn’t envision it working out this well, though.

The righty-swinging Rooker has become not only one of the most successful waiver claims in recent memory but one of baseball’s best hitters. He popped 30 home runs in 526 plate appearances to earn an All-Star selection in 2023. While he was snubbed from the Midsummer Classic last season, Rooker took another major step forward. He connected on 39 homers, 26 doubles and a pair of triples with a massive .293/.365/.562 batting line across 614 plate appearances.

Rooker finished tied for fifth (alongside José Ramírez and Marcell Ozuna) in home runs. Only Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Anthony Santander and Juan Soto hit more. Among hitters with at least 500 PAs, Rooker ranked in the top 20 in all three slash stats. He finished sixth in slugging — trailing Judge, Ohtani, Bobby Witt Jr., Soto, and Yordan Alvarez.

It’s now two seasons of borderline elite offensive production. Rooker has a .272/.348/.528 slash through more than 1100 plate appearances in an A’s uniform. He’s in the top 15 in slugging percentage and ranks ninth in homers since the start of the ’23 campaign. He’s a middle-of-the-order presence.

There is a decent amount of swing-and-miss to his game. Rooker has fanned in more than 30% of his plate appearances with the A’s. Last year’s production was driven in part by a .362 average on balls in play that’ll be difficult to maintain. Rooker makes a ton of hard contact, though, so he’s probably in line for a modest BABIP regression rather than a huge drop-off.

The ball-in-play normalization happened at the end of last season. Rooker carried an unsustainable .390 BABIP into the All-Star Break. That dropped to .333 in the second half. To his credit, Rooker compensated by cutting his strikeout rate to a much more manageable 24.1% clip during that stretch. It remains to be seen whether he’ll maintain that level of contact, but it’s an encouraging development that presumably affirmed the front office’s confidence in his hitting acumen.

Even if he doesn’t hit .290 while pushing 40 home runs on an annual basis, Rooker should remain an impact bat. The A’s have made clear they envisioned him as the long-term anchor of their lineup. The team reportedly took him off the market in advance of last summer’s trade deadline. They had no interest in allowing trade rumors to rekindle during the offseason. GM David Forst declared within a week of the offseason beginning that the A’s weren’t dealing Rooker. They’re doubling down by committing to him through at least the 2029 season.

Rooker surpassed three years of major league service last season. He was entering his first of three arbitration seasons. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a $5.1MM salary for next year. Rooker will reportedly receive $30MM over what would have been his arbitration window. That leaves an average of $15MM annually for the two free agent seasons. It’s not quite a front-loaded contract, but it appears Rooker will make a little more in the next couple years than he would have had he gone through the arbitration process.

The team makes that tradeoff for the chance to keep him at below-market rates during the 2028-29 seasons — which are scheduled to be their first two years in Las Vegas. The A’s didn’t have any money guaranteed beyond 2027. Severino and recent trade pickup Jeffrey Springs were their only players signed past next season.

The A’s revenue sharing status has been a significant storyline this offseason. Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported last month that the team could need to push its competitive balance tax payroll to roughly $105MM to avoid an MLBPA grievance. Teams are required to spend revenue sharing money on the on-field product.

Extending Rooker will push their tax number up, though it’s not by a huge amount. The contract comes with a $12MM average annual value. The AAV is the number used for tax purposes, so it wouldn’t matter how the salaries are distributed. Rooker had already been expected to make around $5MM next season. This adds roughly $7MM to the team’s tax number, which will check in around $97MM (as calculated by RosterResource).

The tax number isn’t finalized until the end of the year, so the remainder of the A’s offseason and in-season activity can push that further. Tax considerations are relevant but are far from the only reason for the A’s to make this deal. If they were solely concerned about pushing next season’s CBT number, they could have signed a handful of mid-tier free agents to one-year contracts.

Rooker turned 30 in November. A five-year commitment runs through his age-34 season. There’s some risk in a five-year deal for a player in his 30s who doesn’t provide much defensive value. Yet if Rooker continues hitting at anywhere near this level, his arbitration price tag would have climbed quickly anyhow. He could have put himself in position for an AAV in the $20-25MM range once he hit free agency, a number that the A’s may have been disinclined to match.

At the same time, it’s easy to see the appeal for Rooker of locking in the security. It wasn’t that long ago that he looked like a fringe roster player. He wouldn’t have gotten to free agency until his age-33 season, when a three- or four-year deal might’ve been the ceiling. Sacrificing a little bit of long-term earning upside to avoid injury risk over the next couple seasons is understandable.

This should also solidify Rooker’s spot in what looks to be an up-and-coming A’s lineup. Lawrence Butler, Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom, Shea Langeliers, JJ Bleday and rebound candidate Zack Gelof have promise as an offensive core. Last summer’s fourth overall pick Nick Kurtz could move quickly as a polished college hitter. The A’s still need a lot to break right to contend in 2025, but things are starting to come into focus. Soderstrom and Kurtz fit best at first base, so perhaps there’ll be a logjam down the line with Rooker locked in at designated hitter. That’d be a good problem to have if both young first basemen reach their offensive ceilings and Rooker continues to hit at an All-Star level.

Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported that the A’s and Rooker were in agreement on a five-year, $60MM deal with a vesting option that could get to $30MM. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the option’s base was $22MM and that Rooker would make $30MM over the first three seasons. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the salary breakdown and the vesting provisions.

Image courtesy of Imagn.

Astros, Luis Garcia Avoid Arbitration

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The Astros and right-hander Luis Garcia have avoided arbitration, per the Associated Press. The righty will make a salary of $1.875MM in 2025. That’s the same salary he made in 2024, a year he missed while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

The arbitration system operates in such a way that salaries almost never go down. As such, it’s fairly common for a player to miss an entire season and then see his salary hold steady into the next year.

Tomorrow is the deadline for players and teams to exchange salary figures, so a large number of arb-eligible players should have their salaries finalized in the next 24 hours or so. Those who don’t reach agreements will be slated for arbitration hearings in the coming weeks. With Garcia now settled, the Astros still have an arb class consisting of Framber Valdez, Mauricio Dubón, Bryan Abreu, Chas McCormick, Isaac Paredes, Jake Meyers and Jeremy Pena.

Garcia has a career earned run average of 3.61 in his 352 innings, mostly as a starter, though he has been on ice for quite a while now. He had his surgery in May of 2023 and attempted to return to the mound last summer, though he had some trouble recovering between outings during his rehab assignment and was eventually shut down. In a recent mailbag, Chandler Rome of The Athletic suggested it may not be likely that he’s ready for Opening Day of 2025.

As spring training ramps up next month, it’s possible that there will be more clarity on his status, though the Astros have a notorious reputation for obfuscating when it comes to the health of their players. Whenever Garcia gets back on the mound, he should slot into a rotation mix alongside Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco, Spencer Arrighetti and Hayden Wesneski. Like Garcia, pitchers like Lance McCullers Jr., J.P. France and Cristian Javier will be looking to come back from surgeries this year.

Angels Sign Connor Brogdon To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have signed right-hander Connor Brogdon to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake for now but will presumably receive an invite to big league spring training.

Brogdon, 30 this month, had a solid run with the Phillies earlier in his career but has faced some significant challenges more recently. From 2020 to 2022, he logged 113 innings for Philadelphia, allowing 3.42 earned runs per nine. He struck out 25.1% of batters faced while only giving out walks at a 7.3% clip. He was trusted enough to earn three saves and 16 holds in that time.

But things started to trend down in 2023. He posted a 4.03 ERA in 29 innings that year, though the underlying numbers were more concerning. His walk rate ticked up to 10.2% while he was only punching out 20.5% of opponents. The Phillies optioned him in June and he had a 5.46 ERA in Triple-A the rest of the way.

2024 was then mostly a lost season due to injuries. He was designated for assignment by the Phils in April and claimed by the Dodgers, with the latter club putting him on the injured list a few days later due to plantar fasciitis. He started up a few rehab assignments throughout the year but didn’t come off the IL until the season was over, getting outrighted off the roster in November and electing free agency.

It’s obviously been a rough couple of years but perhaps the persistent foot problems offer some explanation. If Brogdon can put those behind him and get back to his previous form, he would be a nice find, especially on a no-risk minor league deal. He showed some promise during his rehab assignments last year, throwing 13 innings with a 3.21 ERA, 34.4% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate. If he can earn his way into a roster spot, he is out of options but he has less than four years of major league service time, meaning he can be retained beyond 2025 via arbitration if he’s holding a roster spot at season’s end.

Rays Sign Joey Krehbiel To Minor League Deal

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The Rays have signed Joey Krehbiel to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The right-hander is represented by Loren Pincus.

Krehbiel, 32, didn’t crack the majors in 2024. He signed a minor league deal with the Mariners about this time last year. He went on to throw 58 innings over 54 appearances for their Triple-A club, allowing 3.26 earned runs per nine. His 22.8% strikeout rate, 10.4% walk rate and 44.9% ground ball rate were all within a point or two of typical averages.

He does have 74 innings of major league experience, most of that coming as an Oriole in 2022, though he also spent time with the Diamondbacks and Rays prior to joining Baltimore. He has a 3.65 ERA in his big league career with an 18.4% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and 42.8% ground ball rate.

His previous stint with the Rays was in 2021, signing a minor league deal going into that year as well. His minor league work that year was arguably his most impressive performance in recent years. He tossed 43 Triple-A innings with a 4.19 ERA, 29.5% strikeout rate and 5.1% walk rate. That got him a brief stint on the major league roster in September, before he went the Orioles on waivers. Baltimore kept him around for a while, though he lost his roster spot during the 2023 season, which led to his minor league deal with the Mariners.

The Rays are obviously familiar with Krehbiel and got some decent results out of him a few years ago, so the two sides have reunited. If he can earn his way onto the roster, he still has an option, which is surely attractive for a team like the Rays as they frequently churn pitchers through the roster. Krehbiel also has less than two years of service time, so he could be cheaply retained beyond this year if he’s holding a roster spot at season’s end.

White Sox Designate Jacob Amaya For Assignment

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The White Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve designated infielder Jacob Amaya for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to newly signed infielder Josh Rojas, whose previously reported one-year deal has now been formally announced by the club.

Amaya, 26, was just claimed off waivers by the White Sox in August. He got into 23 games for the club after that, slashing .179/.225/.194 in his 71 plate appearances. He exhausted his final option year in 2024, meaning he was going to be challenged to hang onto a roster spot through the season, so he’s been nudged off today. The Sox will now have a week to figure out what’s next with Amaya, whether that’s a trade or putting him on waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any potential deals would have to take place in the next five days.

Amaya was once a prospect of some note with both the Dodgers and the Marlins, as Baseball America ranked him as a top 30 prospect in one of those organizations in each year from 2019 to 2024. He has been considered a fairly well-rounded player, with solid defense at shortstop and the capability to play second or third base as well.

Offensively, he has generally had good strikeout and walk rates but has struggled to do significant damage at the upper levels. He has stepped to the plate 1,219 times at the Triple-A level over the past three years. His 12.4% walk rate and 21.4% strikeout rate in that time are both a bit better than average but his combined .246/.342/.380 batting line translates to a wRC+ of just 84. That indicates he’s been 16% below league average on the whole.

The profile has been enough to attract interest around the league. He was traded from the Dodgers to the Marlins a few years ago, then bounced to the Astros and White Sox in 2024. Perhaps there’s still some intrigue from clubs but his out-of-options status will make it harder for any team to carry him on the roster during the season. It’s possible some club with an open roster spot will put in a claim and try to pass him through waivers later on, or maybe the White Sox will be the club to pass him through and keep him as non-roster depth.

Mariners Claim Hagen Danner

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The Mariners announced that they have claimed right-hander Hagen Danner off waivers from the Blue Jays. The latter club had designated him for assignment last month. DFA limbo normally only lasts a week but that clock is paused during the holidays. Seattle’s 40-man roster count is now 39.

Danner, 26, has a fairly limited track record as a pitcher. That’s due to his unusual trajectory, as well as some injuries. He was drafted by the Jays as a catcher in 2017 but struggled at the plate and moved to the mound in recent years. His first professional season as a pitcher was 2021, a year in which he tossed 35 2/3 innings at the High-A level, allowing 2.02 earned runs per nine. He struck out 29.4% of batters faced while limiting walks to an 8.4% clip.

Although he had only been on the mound for that one season as a minor leaguer, he was already Rule 5 eligible on account of the years he spent behind the plate. But the Jays didn’t want him to get away at that time and gave him a spot on the 40-man.

He spent most of 2022 on the injured list, only making four Double-A appearances. He was healthy again in 2023, tossing 39 1/3 innings across multiple levels, with a 3.66 ERA, 35.7% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate. He also made his major league debut, although he only tossed a third of an inning before an oblique strain sent him to the IL for about six weeks to finish the year. In 2024, he spent another two months on the minor league injured list but managed to toss 35 1/3 innings on the year with a 3.06 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate.

Perhaps that big drop in his strikeout rate prompted the Jays to move on, though the Mariners are intrigued enough to give him a shot. Danner is still a fairly unknown quantity at this point, with barely 100 professional innings under his belt, but he still has an option year left. Seattle can get a close-up look at him and see how things play out. He can serve as optionable depth for one more year and, if things break right, be cheaply retained into the future since he has just a handful of service days.

White Sox Sign Josh Rojas

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January 8: The White Sox officially announced the deal today, and that Rojas will make $3.5MM this year.

January 2: The White Sox are in agreement with infielder Josh Rojas on a one-year deal, according to a report from Scott Merkin of MLB.com. The financial terms of the deal are not yet known.

Rojas, 31 in June, was non-tendered by the Mariners back in November. It was an outcome few would have expected early in the 2024 season. Rojas had been a key piece of the trade that sent closer Paul Sewald to Arizona at the 2023 trade deadline and had hit a respectable .272/.321/.400 (105 wRC+) down the stretch with the Mariners. He followed that up with a torrid start to the 2024 campaign as well, hitting .318/.408/.530 (175 wRC+) through the end of April. Unfortunately for Rojas, the wheels came off completely from there. The rest of the way, Rojas hit a paltry .208/.285/.301 (75 wRC+), including a brutal .184/.265/.272 (62 wRC+) slash line over the season’s final two months while the Mariners slipped out of the playoff picture.

That tough offensive season was enough for the Mariners to decide against tendering him a contract for the 2025 season MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected would’ve earned Rojas $4.3MM. Even so, a weak free agent market for infielders made Rojas immediately one of the more intriguing lower-level free agent options available on this winter’s market. While Rojas has generally been an average to slightly below-average hitter in the majors since becoming a full-time player in Arizona back in 2021, he’s an versatile fielder who has posted excellent defensive numbers in each of the past two seasons. Since the start of the 2023 campaign, Rojas has +8 Outs Above Average at second base and +6 OAA at third base. Defensive Runs Saved is slightly less bullish on Rojas but still rates him as an above average fielder overall, with +2 DRS at second and +5 at third over the last two years. Rojas also has experience at shortstop and in the outfield corners at the big league level, though without the same impressive metrics backing his performance up.

That positional versatility, plus defense, and history as a league-average hitter was enough to make Rojas a sought after role player for a handful of teams this winter, including the Cubs. While the north side’s reportedly “serious” interest in Rojas likely involved him taking a part-time role backing up Nico Hoerner and top prospect Matt Shaw at second and third base, he should have a clearer path to regular reps on the south side of town. The club currently projects to utilize some combination of Miguel Vargas, Lenyn Sosa, Jacob Amaya, and Brooks Baldwin between shortstop, second base, and third base in 2025. While Vargas seems ticketed for everyday starts as a recent top-100 prospect who was the centerpiece of the return Chicago received for Michael Kopech, Tommy Pham, and Erick Fedde last summer, Rojas should be able to capture regular reps at whichever of second or third base Vargas doesn’t end up playing.

That should be particularly true against right-handed pitching, as Rojas sports a significant platoon split and hit just .133/.224/.133 against southpaws last year. It’s possible the White Sox will afford him the opportunity to prove he can hit lefties while in the thick of a rebuild, though perhaps they’ll simply platoon him with a right-handed infielder like Sosa in order to maximize his numbers ahead of what’s sure to be another fire sale at the trade deadline this year. For the White Sox, the addition of Rojas provides some stability to an infield mix that was in desperate need of attention this winter and a potential midseason trade chip. Meanwhile, Rojas will have the opportunity to be a regular with the club and could play his way into a role with a contender down the stretch.

With Rojas off the market, a handful of interesting infielders remain available in free agency for teams in need of help on the dirt. Whit Merrifield, Donovan Solano, and Cavan Biggio are among the players available who could provide versatility in a part-time or bench role, while Jorge Polanco, Paul DeJong, and Jose Iglesias are among a handful of potential regulars available in the lower tiers of free agency. One other wild card on the infield market is Hyeseong Kim, who was posted by the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes last month and is available for MLB clubs to sign until tomorrow afternoon.

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