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Yankees Re-Sign Michael Arias To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees are bringing back right-hander Michael Arias on a minor league deal, according to his MLB.com transactions log. New York acquired the reliever in a trade with the Cubs last offseason after Chicago designated him for assignment.

Arias put together a strong season across several minor league levels in the Yankees’ system, posting a 2.73 ERA with a 27.1% strikeout rate. While he began the year in the Florida Complex League, the righty didn’t pile up stats against overmatched competition. Arias did his best work at Double-A, pushing his strikeout rate over 30% and limiting hitters to a .205 batting average.

Control is always going to be the question with Arias. He compiled his “best” walk rate this past season, but it was still an unsatisfying 12.8% mark. Arias has racked up 152 walks over 211 2/3 professional innings. The struggles with walks make sense, given Arias was drafted as a shortstop and converted to pitching in 2021.

Toronto signed Arias as an international free agent in 2018. He was released before appearing with the team and latched on with the Cubs in 2021. Arias worked primarily as a starter through 2023, reaching High-A. He began the 2024 campaign as a reliever in Double-A. He recorded 24 innings with a solid 3.75 ERA at that level, then moved up to Triple-A. Arias scuffled to a 5.45 ERA over 33 appearances with Iowa. He walked 36 opposing hitters in 36 1/3 innings. Chicago DFAed Arias in January.

The infielder-turned-reliever is still only 24 years old. His relative lack of pitching experience suggests there’s still time to clean up the control problems. FanGraphs ranked Arias at 11th in the Cubs’ farm system at the end of the 2024 season. MLB.com had him at 14th in 2024. Arias’ strikeout numbers and three-pitch arsenal could allow him to function as an effective multi-inning reliever in the early Jonathan Loaisiga mold. He’ll have to take a big step forward in the command department to become a major-league asset, though.

Photo courtesy of Dave Nelson, Imagn Images

Marlins Re-Sign Tyler Zuber To Minor League Deal

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Right-hander Tyler Zuber is heading back to the Marlins on a minor league deal, according to the transaction log on his MLB.com profile page. Zuber was outrighted off the 40-man roster in early November. Since he had been outrighted before in his career, he had the option to elect free agency, which he exercised.

Miami grabbed Zuber off waivers from the Mets in early July. He gave up two runs over two innings in his lone appearance with New York. Zuber spent a month at Triple-A when he first joined the Marlins organization. He was recalled in August, but struggled to an 11.70 ERA over nine appearances. As has been the case for much of his career, Zuber posted solid strikeout numbers while struggling with control. He also gave up three home runs in 10 innings, which is especially treacherous for a pitcher with walk issues.

Zuber made some arsenal tweaks in his limited MLB action this past season. He led with the sweeper for the first time in his career, while adding a sinker and changeup. The sweeper’s overall usage didn’t change much from 2024, rising from 32% to 34.3%, but it jumped ahead of the four-seamer as Zuber’s most-used pitch. The veteran had thrown his fastball at least 42.7% of the time in his previous three major league seasons, before using it just 27.8% of the time in 2025. Zuber’s strike rate reached a career-best 64.9%, so perhaps the adjusted mix helped him be in the zone more often.

Kansas City took Zuber in the sixth round of the 2017 draft. He ripped through the Royals’ minor league system, recording a strikeout rate above 30% in each of his first three professional seasons. Zuber worked in a late-inning role at the majority of his minor-league stops, earning 18 saves across two levels in 2018 and 21 saves between High-A and Double-A in 2019.

Zuber debuted with the Royals in the shortened 2020 season. He notched an elite 30.3% strikeout rate in his first taste of the highest level, but it came with a massive 20.2% walk rate. Opposing batters hit just .192 against Zuber, yet the frequent free passes led to a FIP and SIERA over 5.00. Zuber made a career-high 31 appearances out of the Kansas City bullpen in 2021. He scuffled to a 6.26 ERA with less than a strikeout per inning and a bloated 13.8% walk rate.

A shoulder injury cost Zuber the entire 2022 season. He was claimed off waivers by the Diamondbacks ahead of the 2023 campaign. After a season at Triple-A Reno, he landed with Cleveland on a minor league deal. The Guardians cut him loose before the season started, and Zuber ended up with Tampa Bay midway through the year. He pitched in two games with the Rays before heading to the Mets in a trade for reliever Paul Gervase.

Photo courtesy of Bob DeChiara, Imagn Images

Angels Re-Sign Gustavo Campero To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have re-signed outfielder Gustavo Campero to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Campero’s MLB.com profile page.

Campero, 28, signed with the Yankees out of Colombia back in 2017. He was selected by the Angels in the minor league phase of the 2020 Rule 5 Draft and joined the organization for the 2021 season. He’s played for the Angels exclusively in the half decade since then, gradually climbing the minor league ladder before reaching the majors for a brief cup of coffee in 2024. Campero has served as a reserve outfielder for the Angels in each of the past two seasons, hitting .202/.272/.346 across 41 games and 114 plate appearances, but was non-tendered by Anaheim earlier this month.

He now returns to the club on a minor league pact as a non-roster depth piece. Following the trade that sent Taylor Ward to Baltimore in exchange for Grayson Rodriguez, the Angels lack much certainty in their outfield. Jo Adell, Jorge Soler, and Mike Trout appear likely to split the outfield corners and DH between themselves next year, but that leaves a hole in center that would likely be filled by Bryce Teodosio and Kyren Paris if the season began today. An external addition seems likely, with players like Cody Bellinger and Cedric Mullins standing out as obvious fits in free agency, but the team would likely remain thin on outfield depth even after making that sort of addition.

That’s because Soler and Trout both battled injuries throughout the 2025 season and have checkered injury histories that make it hard to pencil either one in for anything close to 162 games next year. Adell, for his part, hasn’t faced significant injury woes over the years but just enjoyed his first above average season by wRC+ in 2025. That leaves the possibility of regression on the table, and having more outfield depth could help the Angels protect against both a step back from Adell and injuries to Soler and Trout.

Campero figures to be part of that depth, though the career .311/.394/.440 hitter across two seasons at Triple-A has not yet proven himself a capable hitter at the big league level. While pieces like Campero and Teodosio are decent enough depth options, it seems sensible to expect the Angels to continue searching for additional depth for their outfield mix as the winter progresses. That could come with a particular focus on left-handed bats; Campero and Teodosio are both switch-hitters, but Adell, Trout, and Soler are all right-handed bats and could certainly use a left-handed complement in the outfield.

Pirates Re-Sign Beau Burrows To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates have signed right-hander Beau Burrows to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Burrows’s MLB.com profile page. Burrows had already spent the 2025 season in the organization on a minor league deal.

Burrows, 29, last pitched in the majors back in 2021. A first-round pick by the Tigers in the 2015 draft, Burrows was a one-time top 100 prospect in the sport who made his big league debut during the shortened 2020 season. The right-hander has just 11 MLB appearances on his resume between the 2020 and ’21 seasons. He posted an 8.64 ERA in six appearances for the Tigers at the big league level before being plucked off waivers from the Twins in 2021 and turning in a 12.54 ERA across 9 1/3 frames for Minnesota. Burrows has identical 12.5% strikeout and walk rates for his career and has allowed eight home runs in 17 2/3 career innings of work.

It’s an ugly big league resume, brief as it may be. Burrows hasn’t appeared in the majors since, but spent the next few years shuffling between various minor league systems. He pitched for the Dodgers’, Braves’, and Phillies’ Triple-A affiliates between 2022 and ’24 before he found himself released by the Phillies in June of 2024. He caught on in the independent American Association for the remainder of the 2024 campaign but struggled even at that level, leaving him with an uncertain path as 2025 began. Burrows managed to find an opportunity in the Mexcian League and signed on with the Tecos de los Dos Laredos for the 2025 campaign.

Burrows didn’t perform especially well in the Mexican League, but scouts at the time suggested that his velocity and quality curveball caught the attention of MLB clubs. That was enough to get Burrows a path back into affiliated ball, and he signed a minor league deal with the Pirates back in May. He pitched to a 2.94 ERA in 49 innings of work across four levels of the minors for Pittsburgh. While he struggled in his 16 appearances at Triple-A late in the season, he was utterly dominant at Double-A with a 0.44 ERA and a 28.4% strikeout rate. Now, Burrows is set to rejoin the Pirates and continue the development work he spent 2025 in the organization working on.

Burrows’s first task in 2026 will surely be to finally conquer the Triple-A level, where he’s posted a career 6.10 ERA. If the 29-year-old can show some mastery over the highest level of the minors this year, it wouldn’t be a shock if the Pirates found a way to get him back into the big leagues for the first time in half a decade given how good he looked throughout the lower levels of the minors this year, as well as the tantalizing ability scouts felt Burrows flashed during his time in the Mexican League earlier this year. Joe La Sorsa, Noah Murdock, and Michael Darrell-Hicks are among the other non-roster relief arms the Pirates have in the organization at Triple-A headed into next year.

Red Sox Sign Vinny Capra To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox have signed infielder Vinny Capra to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Capra’s MLB.com profile page.

Capra, 29, has played in the majors in parts of four seasons since making his big league debut back in 2022. A 20th-round pick by the Blue Jays in the 2018 draft, Capra climbed the minor league ladder until he made an eight-game cameo in Toronto throughout the 2022 campaign. He was non-tendered shortly thereafter, and while he re-signed with Toronto on a minor league deal he was traded to Pittsburgh in exchange for catcher Tyler Heineman in April of the 2023 campaign. Capra has been riding the waiver wire ever since, with brief stints in the majors and longer track records at Triple-A for each of the Pirates, Brewers, and White Sox organizations.

He spent the 2025 campaign with Milwaukee, Chicago, and the White Sox Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte. This season was by far Capra’s largest opportunity in the majors, as he appeared in 47 MLB games with 105 trips to the plate between the Brewers and White Sox after topping out at nine games and 21 trips to the plate across his three previous years as a big leaguer. Unfortunately, Capra didn’t do much with the opportunity as he hit just .125/.157/.177 in that time, with a 23.8% strikeout rate against a microscopic 2.9% walk rate and just three extra-base hits.

It wasn’t exactly a strong impression, but Capra’s ability to capably handle second and third base as well as shortstop and even occasional work in the outfield still makes him a solid depth piece for virtually any team on a minor league deal like this one. While he’s yet to break through in the majors, his numbers at Triple-A are quite respectable, including a .286/.384/.440 slash line with Charlotte this year. That lifted his career line at Triple-A to .272/.368/.389 across 257 games.

For the Red Sox, Capra is unlikely to be much of a consideration for a big league bench job headed into Spring Training. The team seems likely to add at least one infielder, whether that be a reunion with Alex Bregman or the addition of a new bat like Kazuma Okamoto. That new addition will likely join Trevor Story and Marcelo Mayer as regulars on the infield, with players like Kristian Campbell, David Hamilton, Romy Gonzalez, Nate Eaton, Vaughn Grissom, Nick Sogard and Tristan Gray all also in the mix for time on the infield among players on the club’s 40-man roster. If injuries or a 40-man roster crunch thin out that group, perhaps then Capra could enter Spring Training in competition for a bench spot alongside players like Gray, Sogard, Grissom, and Eaton.

Mariners To Re-Sign Casey Lawrence To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners and right-hander Casey Lawrence have reunited on a minor league deal, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. Presumably, the veteran righty will also receive an invite to big league camp in spring training.

Lawrence, 38, has been in the game for well over a decade now but has never been much more than a depth arm. He has appeared in five different big league seasons but has appeared in just 65 games with a 6.42 earned run average.

He and the Mariners have a relationship that seems to work for both parties. He bounced on and off the Seattle roster throughout the 2025 season, getting added whenever the club needed a fresh arm to absorb some innings and spare the rest of the staff. Since he is out of options, he would then be designated for assignment. One time, he was claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays and was with that club briefly. But for the most part, he would clear waivers, elect free agency and then sign a new minor league deal with the M’s.

By the end of the year, he had been designated for assignment six times, once by the Jays and five times by the Mariners. Around all those transactions, he tossed 17 2/3 innings over six appearances with a 4.08 ERA.

It would be understandable to feel that Lawrence was getting jerked around but it seems he understood the situation, given his career trajectory. “I think I’m used to kind of the movement of it,” Lawrence said to Tim Booth of The Seattle Times in April. “And I think it’s one of those things where you understand your role in the team and you’re willing to do whatever is going to help the team. Right now, it’s kind of doing this.”

Lawrence never got enough big league time to qualify for arbitration, so his career earnings are surely less than many of his peers. By accepting this role late in his career, he can at least bank some sporadic hits of major league salary before he hangs up his spikes. He told Booth that he plans to get into a player development or front office role but he wants to keep playing while he still can.

The Mariners have a strong rotation consisting of Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller. They have Logan Evans and others as depth options. Prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje could be in Triple-A at some point in 2026. Lawrence will likely be used for emergency mop up work for situations where the staff is gassed due to injuries or playing a series of extra innings games in short succession.

Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images

Giants To Sign Sam Hentges

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The Giants and left-hander Sam Hentges have agreed to a one-year deal worth $1.4MM, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Giants have an open 40-man spot and won’t need to make a corresponding move when the deal becomes official. The southpaw is represented by Warner Sports Management.

It’s a buy-low wild card move for the Giants. Hentges was a solid bullpen piece for the Guardians a few years ago but he hasn’t been healthy for a while. Over the 2022 and 2023 campaigns, Hentges tossed 114 1/3 innings for Cleveland, allowing 2.91 earned runs per nine. His 7.9% walk rate was just barely better than average while his 27.4% strikeout rate and 60.1% ground ball rate were both very strong. He gradually moved up to high leverage work, earning 23 holds over that span.

In 2024, he kept things going for a while, posting a 3.04 ERA over another 23 2/3 innings. However, he hit the injured list in July due to some inflammation in his throwing shoulder. He required surgery in September, a procedure which came with a recovery timeline of 12 to 14 months.

Though he was likely to going miss most or all of 2025, the Guards still kept him around. He was still under club control through 2027, so there was still a potential long-term payoff. He had qualified for arbitration ahead of 2024 as a Super Two player and made $1.1625MM in his first of four arb seasons. The Guards gave him a slight bump to $1.337MM in 2025. Even if he couldn’t manage a late-season return to health, he would still have two further seasons of control.

In 2025, not only did he not make it back to the majors, but he didn’t even begin a rehab assignment. In September, he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. That procedure comes with a recovery timeline of three to four months. That means he should be healthy by the spring but the Guards decided to move on. They non-tendered Hentges last week, sending him to free agency.

The Giants have swooped in and will sign Hentges, giving him a slight raise over last year, even though he missed the whole season. San Francisco non-tendered Joey Lucchesi last week but currently has Erik Miller, Matt Gage and Reiver Sanmartin as lefties in their bullpen. Hentges is obviously a big unknown, having missed a season and a half at this point. But if he can get back to health, he could be the best southpaw in the bunch.

If he does get back on track, he would be a bargain at a salary barely above the league minimum, which will be $780K next year. He is out of options but could be retained via arbitration for the 2027 season if things go especially well next year.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

Tigers Re-Sign Tanner Rainey To Minor League Contract

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The Tigers have re-signed right-hander Tanner Rainey to a minor league contract, according to Rainey’s MLB.com profile page.  Rainey returns to Motown a week after he was designated for assignment, and then cut loose at the non-tender deadline.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected that Rainey would earn $1.6MM in arbitration, so the non-tender allowed the Tigers to save some money and still bring the righty back on a non-guaranteed deal.  The terms of Rainey’s minor league pact aren’t known, but if he is selected to Detroit’s active roster, his guaranteed salary will probably clock in south of that $1.6MM estimate.

The 2025 season was a rough one for Rainey, who posted an 11.17 ERA over 9 2/3 innings and 13 appearances for the Pirates and Tigers.  Signed to a minor league deal by Pittsburgh last winter, his stint with the Bucs ended up being two stints, as he re-signed with the team again in June after he elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment.  The Pirates released Rainey entirely in July, and he caught on with the Tigers shortly thereafter and spent much of his time at Triple-A Toledo, save for two games in the bigs.

Rainey (who turns 33 on Christmas Day) is a veteran of eight MLB seasons, and was a solid member of the Nationals’ bullpen earlier in his career.  Control problems plagued Rainey even in his better years, and his production has gone totally south since he missed almost all of the 2023 season recovering from a Tommy John surgery.  His 2024 season saw him post a 4.76 ERA, an uncharacteristically low 19% strikeout rate, and an ungainly 12.6% walk rate across 51 relief innings for Washington, and he showed even less during his brief time in the Show in 2025.

The right-hander’s Triple-A numbers provide some hope for optimism, as Rainey had a 2.88 ERA and 32% strikeout rate over 40 2/3 innings for the Tigers’ and Pirates’ top affiliates in 2025.  Those numbers did come alongside an outsized 13.6% walk rate, but Detroit clearly saw enough in Rainey’s performance to warrant a new contract.  There’s no risk for the Tigers in bringing Rainey to camp and letting him compete for a bullpen job, and he could end up being a hidden gem if he can recapture any of his pre-surgery form.

Caleb Boushley Signs With KBO’s KT Wiz

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The KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization announced this week that they’ve signed former Brewers, Twins and Rangers righty Caleb Boushley to a one-year contract. He’ll be guaranteed $900K on the contract and can pick up an additional $100K via incentives.

Boushley, who turned 32 in October, has pitched in parts of three big league seasons, totaling 49 2/3 innings. He has an ugly 5.80 ERA to show for it despite generally solid rate stats. Boushley’s 21.1% strikeout rate is only about one percentage point shy of average, and his 8.1% walk rate is lower than the league average. He’s also yielded only 1.09 homers per nine innings pitched. However, Boushley has been dogged by a sky-high .367 average on balls in play, which has contributed to a 62% strand rate that’s more than 10 percentage points lower than the MLB average. Metrics like SIERA (3.95) and FIP (4.03) feel Boushley has pitched far better than his more rudimentary earned run average would suggest.

In parts of six Triple-A seasons, Boushley has totaled 512 innings with a 4.61 ERA. As in the majors, he’s displayed a lower-than-average strikeout rate but better-than-average command. Boushley has generally been a durable source of Triple-A innings. Though he spent most of the 2025 season in the Rangers’ bullpen, the lanky 6’3″, 190-pound Boushley averaged 25 starts and 130 innings per season from 2021-24, despite spending a portion of that time (2023-24) shuttling between the majors and minors.

This will be Boushley’s first work overseas and will easily be the largest guaranteed payday in what’ll be ten professional seasons. Boushley was a 33rd-round pick by the Padres out of Division-II University of Wisconsin La Crosse back in 2017. He signed for just $1,000 out of the draft. After years of middling minor league pay and shuffling back and forth between the majors and Triple-A, he’ll take home a salary that tops the MLB minimum by $120K and land a chance at the first seven-figure salary of his career (if he can max out his incentives package).

Rockies, Parker Mushinski Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rockies have agreed to a minor league contract with left-handed reliever Parker Mushinski, reports Kevin Henry of the Denver Gazette. The Ballengee Group client will be in camp next spring as a non-roster invitee.

Mushinski, 30, has spent parts of three seasons in the majors — all of them as a member of the Astros. He’s pitched 33 big league frames and worked to a 5.45 ERA with a 17.4% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 45.2% ground-ball rate. Mushinski has done a nice job avoiding hard contact overall (average 88.4 mph exit velocity, 35.2% hard-hit rate), but much of the hard contact he’s allowed has been of the maximum-damage variety, especially against righties. He’s faced 83 right-handed opponents in the majors and served up five home runs.

Houston originally selected Mushinski out of Texas Tech in the seventh round of the 2017 draft. He spent his entire career in the Astros organization until this past season. Mushinski became a minor league free agent following the 2024 campaign and signed a minor league deal with the Guardians. The 6’0″, 225-pound southpaw spent last year in Triple-A Columbus, tossing 50 innings of 3.78 ERA ball. Mushinski fanned almost 30% of his opponents there but also walked nearly 15% of the batters he faced. In parts of five Triple-A seasons, Mushinski has a 3.71 ERA in 179 2/3 innings pitched.

Signing with the Rockies is a double-edged sword for any pitcher. On the one hand, the utter dearth of established big league arms on the staff creates plenty of opportunity, particularly for a non-roster player hoping to secure a bullpen spot. On the other hand, winning that roster spot means pitching home games at altitude and at the notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field.

Mushinski becomes the second left-handed relief addition for Colorado in the past week. The Rox, under new president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta, acquired lefty Brennan Bernardino from the Red Sox last week. Bernardino, unlike Mushinski, is already on the 40-man roster. However, he’s the only established lefty reliever the Rockies have on the 40-man roster. Luis Peralta and Welinton Herrera are both on the 40-man, but Peralta has a 6.03 ERA in 31 MLB frames and Herrera has yet to pitch above Double-A.

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