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Brewers Decline Mutual Option On Wade Miley

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The Brewers declined their end of a $12MM mutual option on Wade Miley, tweets Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. They’ll pay a $1.5MM buyout to send him back to free agency.

It’s an easy call for the team. He’ll miss a good chunk of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in April. A $12MM salary for Miley would’ve been rich even if he were healthy. The veteran left-hander signed for $8.5MM last winter, taking the form of a $7MM salary and the option buyout. That was after a season in which he turned in a 3.14 ERA over 23 starts. He took the ball just twice this year before his elbow gave out.

Miley has battled injuries in recent years. Elbow and shoulder troubles have hampered him since 2022. When healthy, the 37-year-old (38 next month) has managed strong results despite middling velocity and whiff rates. Miley has posted a sub-4.00 ERA in each of the past three seasons in which he has topped 100 innings.

Assuming he’s going to continue pitching, Miley should land an incentive-laden deal. A minor league contract isn’t out of the question, though it wouldn’t be surprising if he secures a base salary in the $2-4MM range with the ability to tack on earnings based on next year’s workload.

Miley’s option is one of a staggering seven decisions involving the Brewers. Rhys Hoskins holds an $18MM player option. Milwaukee has easy calls to exercise team options on Freddy Peralta and Colin Rea. The Brewers have an option on Devin Williams, who’ll be eligible for arbitration even if they decline it. Frankie Montas, Jakob Junis and Gary Sánchez each have mutual options. They’re all likely to become free agents.

Pirates Claim Tristan Gray

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Infielder Tristan Gray has been claimed off waivers by the Pirates, per an announcement from the Athletics. The A’s also announced that right-hander Austin Adams and infielder Armando Alvarez have been outrighted off the 40-man roster. There was no previous reporting about the three being removed from the roster but it’s a time of year where clubs regularly try to clear roster spots. The A’s tried with these three but the Pirates swooped in to grab Gray.

Gray, 28, was only on the Athletics’ roster for a couple of months, as they claimed him from the Marlins at the end of August. Between those two clubs and the Rays, he has a tiny amount of major league experience, having stepped to the plate 36 times in 17 games. He has a dismal line of .152/.222/.273 though it’s obviously a tiny sample size.

The Bucs are undoubtedly more interested in Gray’s prospect pedigree and minor league numbers. It was actually Pittsburgh that drafted him, selecting him with a 13th-round pick in 2017. His initial stint with the Bucs was short-lived, as he was traded to the Rays in the February 2018 trade that brought Corey Dickerson to Pittsburgh.

He was with the Rays through 2023 but reached free agency after that season and secured a minor league deal with the Marlins. To this point, between his various organizations, he has hit .238/.311/.454 in his minor league career for a 104 wRC+. He is capable of playing all four infield positions.

Gray’s previous tenure in the Pirates’ system predated Ben Cherington being hired as the general manager, but the appeal of grabbing him now is understandable. Gray’s minor league offense has been passable and he can provide the club with depth all around the infield. He is still optionable and doesn’t need to be guaranteed a spot on the active roster.

The Pirates have uncertainty at essentially every infield position. Shortstop Oneil Cruz was recently moved to center field. Third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes has ongoing back problems. First baseman Rowdy Tellez was released late in the 2024 season. Second base was a revolving door this year.

For Adams, this move is effectively an early non-tender. He could have been retained for 2025 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a salary of $1.7MM. This move suggests the A’s weren’t keen at bringing him back at that price.

Adams has regularly posted strong strikeout numbers but often with poor control. He throws his frisbee slider the majority of the time, often missing bats but also missing the strike zone and hitting batters.

He tossed 41 1/3 innings for the A’s this year, allowing 3.92 earned runs per nine. He struck out 27.7% of batters faced but also gave out 23 walks for a 12% clip and hit 13 batters.

Players with at least three years of service time or a previous career outright have the right to elect free agency rather than accept another outright assignment. Adams qualifies on both counts and will likely be officially a free agent soon.

Alvarez, 30, just made his major league debut this year. He was selected by the A’s in June and hit .243/.282/.270 in 39 plate appearances.

His minor league numbers have been better in recent years, as he hit .301/.369/.551 over the 2022-24 seasons for a 127 wRC+. But as a 30-year-old journeyman who just made his MLB debut, the A’s likely didn’t view him as a key building block and bumped him off the roster.

Alvarez doesn’t have three years of service or a previous career outright, but he does have seven years in the minors, so he’ll soon be able to elect minor league free agency.

Burch Smith, Daniel Johnson Elect Free Agency

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The Orioles announced that right-hander Burch Smith and outfielder Daniel Johnson have both elected free agency rather than accept outright assignments. There hadn’t been any reporting about either player being removed from the roster but apparently the O’s quietly passed each through waivers quietly in recent days.

Smith, 34, started the year on a minor league deal with the Rays. He had an upward mobility clause in that deal and triggered it at the end of spring training, getting flipped to the Marlins. He stuck with the Fish through the middle of June before getting released and landing with the O’s.

Between those two clubs, he managed to toss 56 1/3 innings this year, allowing 4.95 earned runs per nine. His 19% strikeout rate was subpar but his 5% walk rate was quite strong and his 43.8% ground ball rate around league average. His 63.2% strand rate was a bit on the unlucky side, which was a factor in his 3.66 FIP and 3.79 SIERA being more than a run better than his ERA.

The O’s could have retained Smith via arbitration for 2025, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $1.6MM salary next year. It appears the O’s didn’t have any intention of doing that, so they put Smith on waivers as an effective early non-tender.

Players with at least three years of service time or a previous career outright have the right to reject further outright assignments and elect free agency. Smith qualifies on both counts and chose to exercise his right.

Some things last a long time but not Johnson’s tenure on the Baltimore roster. He signed a minor league deal with the club in the offseason and had his contract selected on September 21. He got into that day’s game as a pinch runner and later grounded out. He was optioned the next day, making that his only plate appearance of the season.

He has a fairly limited major league track record, also spending some time with Cleveland in 2020 and 2021. He hit 21 home runs in exactly 500 plate appearances at Triple-A this year and slashed .259/.320/.448, but that actually translated to a subpar 97 wRC+ in this year’s inflated offensive environment in the International League.

Johnson still has less than a year of service time and could have been cheaply retained for next year but the O’s decided to move on instead. As a player with a previous career outright, he has the right to reject further outright assignments and exercised that right to return to the open market.

Lucas Giolito Exercises Player Option For 2025

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Red Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito has exercised his $19MM player option for the 2025 season, the team announced. There was little doubt that Giolito would pick up the option after he missed the entire 2024 season due to elbow surgery.

Last winter, Giolito was Boston’s big winter signing. It was a two-year deal with a $38.5MM guarantee, with the righty having the ability to opt-out after the first season.

He had a down year in 2023 and was surely hoping for a bounceback in 2024, which could allow him to return to the open market with more earning power. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow during spring training, as well as a flexor strain, ultimately undergoing internal brace surgery.

After missing the entire 2024 campaign, there was little drama about this decision. Rather than return to free agency, he’ll lock in his $19MM player option and be a part of Boston’s rotation mix for 2025. He might not be ready by Opening Day but should get back on the mound at some point.

The Sox are now losing Nick Pivetta to free agency, leaving them with a rotation core of Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford. They also have guys like Richard Fitts, Cooper Criswell, Quinn Priester and others for the back end. They will likely pursue offseason upgrades but Giolito will be a midseason addition at some point. As will Garrett Whitlock and Chris Murphy, who also underwent elbow surgery early in the ’24 season.

When Giolito returns will be of importance for him and the club, as his deal with the Sox also includes a option for 2026. If he throws fewer than 140 innings in 2025, it’s a $14MM club option. But if he gets over that threshold, it’s a $19MM mutual option. Either way, the buyout is $1.5MM.

If Giolito has a strong bounceback, he will want to get over that line and return to free agency, but he’ll need to stay fairly healthy after his current rehab is over. If he has a decent season but falls shy of the line, he could be a relatively cheap rotation option for the Sox in ’26.

Giolito allowed a massive 41 home runs in 2024, bumping his ERA up to 4.88 even though his 25.7% strikeout rate was still strong and his 9.2% walk rate close to average. From 2019 to 2023, he had a 4.11 ERA, 28.3% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate in almost 800 innings.

White Sox Decline Team Option For Yoán Moncada

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The White Sox will not exercise their $25MM club option for Yoán Moncada’s services in 2025. He will receive a $5MM buyout instead. Francys Romero of BeisbolFR reported the news this afternoon on X.

This has been the expected outcome for a while. Moncada has had some good performances in the majors but the past three seasons have seen him underperform, miss significant time due to injury or both.

Moncada appeared in just 208 games during the 2022-2024 seasons due to various injuries. That includes just 12 games in the ’24 campaign, as a left adductor strain kept him on the injured list for most of the year. Even when he came off the IL, the Sox didn’t play him much, preferring to give that time to younger players who could be part of the next competitive window.

Even when on the field, Moncada hasn’t performed especially well of late. He has hit .236/.291/.387 since the start of 2021 for a wRC+ of 88. With that performance, it’s unsurprising that the Sox would balk at giving Moncada another $20MM to stick around for one more year.

That leaves Moncada as a buy-low bounceback candidate in free agency this winter. He was once a high-profile defector from Cuba and highly-regarded prospect with the Red Sox, heading to Chicago as part of the Chris Sale trade in December of 2016.

It took Moncada a few years but he finally had his long-awaited breakout in 2019, launching 25 home runs and slashing .315/.367/.548 for a wRC+ of 139. When combined with his strong defense, he was worth 5.2 wins above replacement that year, in the eyes of FanGraphs.

Going into 2020, the Sox bet on Moncada by giving him a five-year, $70MM extension which included a club option. He struggled a bit in the shortened 2020 season but bounce back with another strong campaign in 2021. But then, as mentioned, the past three seasons have been very disappointing, leading the Sox to turn down the option today.

Despite the may ups and downs in his journey, Moncada is still relatively young, not turning 30 until May. He will likely find some club willing to make a small bet on his past pedigree, perhaps on a deal loaded with incentives, on account of his many health issues.

The third base free agent market is headlined by Alex Bregman, but most of the other options are bench/utility guys like Paul DeJong, Gio Urshela and Amed Rosario. The trade market could feature Nolan Arenado or Eugenio Suárez, but it’s unclear how available either player is while Arenado’s no-trade clause could complicate matters. Moncada is obviously a risky play right now but also has demonstrated upside.

Orioles Acquire Daz Cameron From Athletics

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The Athletics have traded outfielder Daz Cameron to the Orioles in exchange for cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. This will be Cameron’s second stint in the Orioles organization.

Cameron, the son of All-Star outfielder Mike Cameron, was a highly-regarded prospect in the 2015 draft. The Astros selected him 37th overall but gave him a $4MM signing bonus, a number much closer to the slot value of the fifth overall pick (which Houston used on Kyle Tucker) rather than a competitive balance round selection. Yet, Cameron has never been able to live up to his top-prospect billing. The Astros sent him to the Tigers in 2017 as a part of the trade package for Justin Verlander, and he made his MLB debut with Detroit three years later. Over parts of three seasons with the Tigers, he put up a meager .201/.266/.330 slash line with a 66 wRC+ in 73 games.

After the 2022 season, the Tigers designated Cameron for assignment, and the Orioles scooped him up off of waivers. They quickly removed him from the 40-man roster but kept him in the organization and gave him an invitation to spring training. However, he failed to earn a spot on the roster out of camp and spent the 2023 season with the Triple-A Norfolk Tides, slashing a serviceable .268/.346/.452 with a 98 wRC+ over 110 games. He showed off relatively good plate discipline (21.3% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate) and plus speed (23 stolen bases in 29 attempts), but it wasn’t quite enough to get him back on the 40-man roster.

Cameron posted monster numbers with the Athletics’ Triple-A club this past season, hitting .304/.424/.577 (149 wRC+) with six homers, eight steals and a gaudy 16.4% walk rate in 41 games. He parlayed that into a look in the majors but wasn’t able to capitalize, batting just .200/.258/.329 during his 66 games (186 plate appearances) as an Athletic.

Orioles GM Mike Elias was the Astros’ scouting director when Cameron was selected 37th overall by Houston in 2015 and clearly still thinks well of the player. It seems unlikely that Baltimore would carry the out-of-options Cameron into next season, but the O’s have a habit of making early-offseason depth acquisitions, signing those players to a split contract for the upcoming season and then passing them through waivers. It’s possible they could look to go down a similar path with Cameron, who’d be eligible to reject an assignment in favor of free agency if he ultimately does pass through waivers.

Twins To Decline Option On Manuel Margot

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The Twins have informed outfielder Manuel Margot that they will decline their end of his contract’s $12MM mutual option, reports Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News and SKOR North Radio. He’ll receive a $2MM buyout — paid by the Rays, not the Twins — and become a free agent.

Margot, 30, was traded twice last winter, first going from Tampa Bay to Los Angeles and then from the Dodgers to the Twins. The Rays agreed to pay the buyout on his option as part of that first trade, and the Dodgers picked up all but $4MM of his salary in that second deal sending him to Minnesota. The Twins used Margot as an affordable fourth outfielder, replacing departed free agent Michael A. Taylor, but didn’t get the results for which they’d hoped.

The 2024 season was Margot’s worst as a big leaguer. He hit just .238/.299/.337 (79 wRC+), and his once-elite defensive grades in the outfield continued their decline in the wake of his notable 2022 knee injury. The Twins were down enough on Margot’s glove to only give him 136 innings in center field. Utilitymen Willi Castro and Austin Martin wound up logging more time in center than Margot, despite neither having anywhere near the same level of experience there. But Margot’s range and sprint speed have declined precipitously since he suffered that knee injury; Statcast credited him in the 88th percentile of big leaguers in sprint speed back in 2021 but just the 53rd percentile in 2024.

To Margot’s credit, he held his own against left-handed pitching, batting .269/.322/.391. That’s still a drop from his career marks, however, and his right-handed bat was completely overmatched by fellow righties on the mound — evidenced by a woeful .208/.257/.283 slash in right-on-right matchups.

As it stands, the Twins enter the offseason with Trevor Larnach, Byron Buxton and Matt Wallner as their projected starting outfield. A right-handed hitter who can play center field if (or when) Buxton misses time and spell lefties Larnach and Wallner at other times could be on the front office’s to-do list. Had Margot performed better, re-signing him at a more affordable rate might’ve been more palatable. As it stands, it seems likely the Twins will instead look for an alternative option.

Both Castro and Martin will return in 2025 — barring a trade of Castro as he enters his final season of club control — but neither is considered an especially adept defender in center. Options on the free agent market could include Randal Grichuk, Austin Slater and the aforementioned Taylor, and the trade and waiver markets will feature myriad alternatives as well. As for Margot, he’ll head to the open market for the first time in his career but could very well be limited to minor league offers on heels of a down season.

Rangers Claim Roansy Contreras

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The Rangers have claimed right-hander Roansy Contreras off outright waivers from the Angels, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. The Halos added Contreras, once one of the game’s top pitching prospects, in a cash deal with the Pirates back in May. He’s controllable for another four seasons but is out of minor league options.

Now 24 years old (25 next week), Contreras was the headline prospect the Pirates received in the trade sending Jameson Taillon to the Yankees. At the time of the swap, Contreras was widely regarded among the sport’s 100 best prospects. He showed why with a very solid 2022 season, logging 95 innings of 3.79 ERA ball for the Pirates. His 21.1% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate were both worse than average, but not by a wide measure, and Contreras averaged nearly 96 mph on his heater and was only in his age-22 season at the time. It looked like he was well on his way to locking down a long-term spot in the Pittsburgh rotation.

The 2023 season told a very different story. Contreras was rocked for a 5.91 ERA across his first 11 starts. He lost 1.5 mph off his average fastball and saw his strikeout, walk, home run and ground-ball rates all trend dramatically in the wrong direction. A move to the bullpen didn’t pay dividends. Contreras was shelled for five runs in one-third of an inning in his first relief appearance following his final start of the season. He ultimately yielded 13 runs in 12 big league innings after losing his rotation spot.

Contreras’ 2024 season landed somewhere between his two prior campaigns. He posted a serviceable if unspectacular 4.35 ERA between the Pirates and Angels. His strikeout and walk rates remained worse than average, but he added a two-seamer to his repertoire and bolstered his grounder rate to 44.4% as a result. He still surrendered too much hard contact but did see his average exit velocity and hard-hit rate tick downward a bit from their 2023 levels (particularly following the trade to the Angels).

While Contreras is no lock to make it through the offseason on the Rangers’ 40-man roster — this type of former prospect is often bandied about the league via waivers as clubs spend the offseason months attempting to sneak him through in order to bolster their non-roster depth — he’ll give Texas a back-end rotation option or bullpen option if he indeed stays on the roster until next spring. Pitching injuries and shaky depth proved to be hurdles for the 2024 Rangers as they missed the postseason on the heels of their 2023 World Series win. Adding Contreras (and presumably others in this same mold as the winter wears on) is a first step toward cultivating some additional depth for the 2025 club.

Cardinals Decline Team Options For Gibson, Lynn, Middleton

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12:45 pm: The Cardinals have formally announced their decision to decline all three club options.

12:22 pm: The Cardinals will not pick up their 2025 team options for right-handed pitchers Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, or Keynan Middleton, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The club could have retained Gibson and Lynn for $12MM each, while Middleton’s option was valued at $6MM. Instead, the Cardinals will pay all three pitchers a $1MM buyout and send them back onto the free agent market. They will be eligible to sign with any of the other 29 teams as of Monday.

Earlier this week, The Athletic’s Katie Woo wrote that the team was “not expected” to keep Lynn or Middleton, but the news about Gibson comes as a bit more of a surprise. The durable veteran came exactly as advertised in 2024, giving the Cardinals 30 starts and 169 2/3 innings with a 4.24 ERA and 4.44 SIERA. However, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak told Goold that he is prioritizing “maximum flexibility” this offseason, hence his decision to clear as much money from the books as possible.

Gibson has been one of the most reliable pitchers in the game throughout his career. Dating back to his first full season in 2014, he has made 314 starts. No other pitcher has made as many 300 starts in that time. He has never pitched like an ace, but there is good value in a starter who can consistently pitch a full season’s worth of innings with an ERA close to league average. That’s why Gibson earned a $10MM deal from the Orioles two offseasons ago and a $13MM guarantee from the Cardinals last winter. That’s also why he would have been well worth a net value of $11MM in 2025. It seems as if the Cardinals understand as much but simply prefer to use that money elsewhere. Woo noted they might have picked up Gibson’s option if they felt confident they could offload Miles Mikolas or Steven Matz in a trade. Her report suggests the front office liked Gibson at that $11MM value but ultimately decided they had too much money tied up in other veteran starting pitchers.

Goold mentions that Gibson has “expressed an interest” in returning to St. Louis next season, and for what it’s worth, Mozeliak suggested the team could still consider reunions with all three pitchers. Presumably, however, the Cardinals will wait and see if they can trade any of their other veteran starters before possibly picking up negotiations with Gibson.

Lynn pitched well over the first four months of the 2024 season, bouncing back from a difficult 2023 campaign to produce a respectable 4.06 ERA and 4.47 SIERA across his first 21 starts. Unfortunately, right knee inflammation limited him to just two starts over the final two months of the year. They were both good outings, lowering his full-season ERA to 3.84, but considering Lynn’s age (he’ll turn 38 next year) and his recent history of right knee problems (he missed more than two months after knee surgery in 2022), it’s not hard to see why the Cardinals were wary of bringing him back on an eight-figure salary in 2025.

The 2024 season was a lost year for Middleton, who could not return to the mound after suffering a forearm strain in spring training. He ultimately underwent flexor tendon surgery in June, formally ending his season. With that in mind, the Cardinals’ decision not to pick up his option is the least surprising of the three. It’s possible he’ll be back to full health by next spring, but his value is certainly lower than it was at this time last year. Wherever he signs this offseason, it’s likely to be for significantly less than $6MM.

In addition to Gibson, Lynn, and Middleton, three more Cardinals veterans will be free agents this winter: Paul Goldschmidt, Matt Carpenter, and Andrew Kittredge. Even with a handful of players eligible to earn raises in arbitration and Sonny Gray’s forthcoming $15MM salary bump (the deal he signed last winter was heavily backloaded), RosterResource estimates the Cardinals 2025 payroll to be $147MM, well below their estimated $183MM payroll this past season. If they had chosen to pick up the options on Gibson, Lynn, and Middleton, that would have increased next year’s payroll projection to $174MM.

Randal Grichuk Declines Mutual Option With Diamondbacks

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Outfielder Randal Grichuk has turned down his end of a $6MM mutual option with the Diamondbacks, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. As Ethan Hullihen noted on X, Grichuk will receive a $1.75MM buyout. It’s unclear if the Diamondbacks exercised their half of the option, although it’s now a moot point.

It’s hardly a surprise that Grichuk is electing free agency after the strong 2024 season he put together. The veteran shone as a right-handed platoon bat, producing his best offensive numbers since his rookie campaign in 2015. Over 279 plate appearances, he hit 20 doubles, two triples, and 12 home runs, good for an .875 OPS and a 139 wRC+. And while he excelled against left-handed pitchers, whom he faced in two-thirds of his plate appearances, it helped that he held his own without the platoon advantage. He put up a .913 OPS and 151 wRC+ against lefties and an .801 OPS and 116 wRC+ against righties. It was the first time since 2018 that he produced above-average numbers against same-handed pitchers.

Grichuk did all that on just a $1.5MM salary in 2024. He was also guaranteed a $500K buyout at the end of the season if either he or the Diamondbacks declined his mutual option. He was able to increase that buyout to $1.75MM by reaching 250 plate appearances in 2024, meaning he will need up earning $3.25MM on this deal. Needless to say, the D-backs got a tremendous bargain, and it will most likely take a good deal more money, and perhaps even multiple years, for a team to secure his services this winter. Grichuk could have his sights on something close to the two-year, $13MM deal Hunter Renfroe signed with the Royals last offseason.

To be clear, Grichuk is still a part-time player in his mid-thirties without a particularly strong track record of success. He’s not going to be one of the top free agent bats on the market. Still, there will always be a robust market for productive role players, and there are good reasons to believe Grichuk can maintain his newfound success. For one thing, he drastically improved his plate discipline in 2024, putting up the lowest strikeout rate and highest walk rate of his career. His 47.6% hard-hit rate was also a career-high. Those numbers should be able to convince plenty of teams that Grichuk can be a valuable contributor in 2025.

The Diamondbacks had one of the most productive lineups in the majors this past year, but they’ll surely be in the market for bats again this winter as they look to get back to the playoffs in 2025. In addition to Grichuk, they are going to lose first baseman Christian Walker to free agency. They could also be without Joc Pederson, who has a $14MM mutual option for 2025, and Eugenio Suárez, if they choose not to exercise his $15MM team option.

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