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Transactions

Rays Sign Jake Brentz To Minor League Deal

By Nick Deeds | December 15, 2024 at 10:17pm CDT

The Rays have signed left-hander Jake Brentz to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on his MLB.com player profile page. The deal presumably includes an invite to big league Spring Training.

Brentz, 30, was an 11th-round pick by the Blue Jays back in 2013. He was subsequently traded to the Mariners and Pirates early in his minor league career before being released by Pittsburgh in 2019 after struggling at the Triple-A level. The Royals took a chance on the southpaw and signed him to a minor league deal, though he only got 5 1/3 innings of work in for the club at Double-A before the end of the season arrived. His first full season as a Royal was further delayed by the cancelled minor league season in 2020, but the remained firmly in the Royals’ orbit as a player pitching at their alternate site during the 60-game MLB season.

He found enough success between his time at the alternate site and the subsequent Spring Training that he earned a spot in the Royals’ Opening Day bullpen despite not having thrown a pitch at Triple-A as a member of the organization. That didn’t stop Brentz from making a strong first impression in the majors, however, as he pitched to a solid 3.66 ERA in 64 innings of work across 72 games as the Royals’ top left relief option. The lefty’s 13.3% walk rate held him back from becoming a truly elite relief option, but the combination of a 27.3% strikeout rate, a 49% groundball rate, and a 97mph heater from the left side all made Brentz, then 26, an extremely intriguing bullpen option who figured to be a fixture of the Royals relief corps for years to come.

Unfortunately, that didn’t come to pass. Instead, Brentz managed just 5 1/3 brutal innings in 2022 where he surrendered 15 runs (14 earned) while walking ten and striking out just nine. Given that disastrous performance, it was hardly a shock when Brentz eventually required UCL reconstruction surgery later in the season. Brentz’s predicament led the Royals to non-tender him in November, but they eventually re-signed him to a two-year deal big league deal that guaranteed him $1.9MM. Unfortunately, Brentz saw his 2023 wiped out by a combination of rehabbing from the previous year’s elbow surgery and a subsequent lat strain.

Brentz was slowed further in his return this year by a hamstring strain in March and looked extremely rusty when he finally made it back to the mound. In 30 innings of work between Double- and Triple-A this year, Brentz posted a brutal 11.40 ERA in 30 innings. He struck out just 18% of opponents while walking an eye-popping 29% and hitting another 7.9% of opponents with pitches. That complete loss of control made it no surprise when the Royals opted to designate Brentz for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot, and he eventually elected free agency following the season in search of opportunities elsewhere.

He’s now found one with the Rays, who are widely considered to be among the very best organizations in baseball for pitcher development. The fit between the two sides is somewhat obvious, as Brentz will have the opportunity to get his career back on track in a development-focused organization while the Rays will have the opportunity to help a once-excellent lefty with obvious potential what made him such an exciting rookie for the Royals back in 2021.

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Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Jake Brentz

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Pirates Sign Nick Solak To Minor League Deal

By Nick Deeds | December 15, 2024 at 9:28pm CDT

The Pirates have signed infielder/outfielder Nick Solak to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on his MLB.com player profile page. The deal presumably includes an invite to big league Spring Training.

Solak, 30 next month, was a second-round pick by the Yankees back in 2016 but has rarely stayed in one organization for more than a few seasons at a time to this point in his career. The journeyman was traded from New York to Tampa in the three-team swap that brought Brandon Drury to the Bronx prior to the 2018 season, and then was flipped to the Rangers by the Rays in a deal that proved to be something of a coup for Tampa as they landed right-hander Pete Fairbanks.

While Fairbanks went on to become a dominant righty for the Rays, Solak made his big league debut for the Rangers in 2019. It was an impressive cup of coffee, and he hit .293/.393/.491 (126 wRC+) in 135 plate appearances for the club. The strong showing earned him a more regular role with Texas over the next two seasons, but Solak generally looked somewhat over-matched at the plate during that time with a lackluster .218/.350/.357 (88 wRC+) slash line in 744 combined trips to the plate. That led to Solak spending the majority of the 2022 season in the minor leagues before a season-ending foot fracture took him out of the picture for the remainder of the year.

At the start of the 2022-23 offseason, Solak was traded from the Rangers to the Reds in a cash deal. While he remained with the Reds throughout the offseason, he was designated for assignment by the club once it became apparent that he wouldn’t make their Opening Day roster. That led Solak to ride the transactional carousel all throughout the 2023 campaign. He briefly played for the Mariners, White Sox, Braves, and Tigers over this time, leaving him to be part of six MLB organizations in a single calendar year through a series of trades and waiver claims. Eventually, Solak finally cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by Detroit in August and elected free agency last winter.

Solak signed on with the Mariners on a minor league deal back in January, and while he didn’t make it onto the big league club he enjoyed a solid season at Triple-A Tacoma. In 90 games for the club, he slashed a respectable .311/.406/.446 with an impressive 15.3% strikeout rate. Even in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League, that performance was good for a wRC+ 20% better than league average. Solak re-entered the open market earlier this offseason and has now found a new home with the Pirates, for whom he can offer some valuable positional depth capable of playing all over the diamond. For a club that sported the league’s third-weakest offense in 2024, a versatile bat like Solak that has had flashed of MLB success in the past could be an attractive bench option or non-roster depth piece headed into the 2025 campaign.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Transactions Nick Solak

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Rangers Sign Michael Plassmeyer To Minor League Deal

By Nick Deeds | December 15, 2024 at 8:28pm CDT

The Rangers have signed left-hander Michael Plassmeyer to a minor league deal, according to the transactions section of the southpaw’s MLB.com profile page. The deal presumably includes an invite to big league Spring Training.

The 28-year-old southpaw was a fourth-round pick by Seattle in the 2018 draft. He didn’t stick in a Mariners uniform for long, however, as he was swapped to the Rays as part of the five-player deal that sent Mike Zunino to Seattle early in the 2018-19 offseason. Plassmeyer’s 2019 season with the Rays was an extremely impressive one, as he dominated with a 1.91 ERA in 132 innings of work across three levels of the minors and ultimately reached Triple-A towards the end of his first professional season. That incredible progress through the minor leagues was stunted by the cancelled minor league season in 2020, however, and before Plassmeyer could follow up on his breakout campaign the Rays shipped him to San Francisco in a deal for right-hander Matt Wisler.

While Plassmeyer had looked good in the early days of the 2021 season at Double-A with the Rays, things took a turn for the worse once he was traded to the Giants. He struggled in 16 appearances at the Double-A level with a 5.08 ERA in 79 2/3 innings of work, and those struggles in the San Francisco farm system continued into the 2022 season as the lefty posted a 7.38 ERA in 11 appearances at the Triple-A level in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League. Plassmeyer’s troubles finally came to an end when he was traded for the third time in his career, leading to him ending up in a Phillies uniform. At Triple-A with the Phils, Plassmeyer impressed down the stretch with a 2.41 ERA in 82 innings of work across 16 starts. That performance earned him a big league call-up late in the 2022 season, and the lefty made the most of it with a solid 3.68 ERA in 7 1/3 innings of work across two appearances.

Unfortunately for Plassmeyer, the lefty struggled early in the 2023 season with injuries. Even when healthy enough to take the mound, he struggled to a 5.05 ERA in 16 appearances at Triple-A. His second cup of coffee in the majors also didn’t go as well as the first, as Plassmeyer allowed ten runs (nine earned) on eight hits and three hit batsmen while striking out just four in 3 2/3 innings of work. After being designated for assignment in Philly and electing minor league free agency, Plassmeyer moved across the state to sign a minor league deal with Pittsburgh. 2024 was another tough season for Plassmeyer, who spent the entire season at Triple-A and struggled to a 7.93 ERA in 70 1/3 innings of work. His 26.7% strikeout rate was solid enough, and his 4.0% walk rate rate was nothing short of excellent.

The lefty’s 4.14 FIP suggests he may have been the victim of bad luck in 2024, and a look under the hood shows why: his .421 BABIP was incredibly high, and his 53.8% strand rate is almost unbelievably low. The Rangers are surely hoping Plassmeyer will post numbers more in line with his solid peripherals in 2025, which would make him a solid depth option from the left side for either the rotation or as a multi-inning relief option depending on the needs of the club.

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Texas Rangers Transactions Michael Plassmeyer

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Mariners Sign Drew Pomeranz To Minor League Deal

By Nick Deeds | December 15, 2024 at 7:24pm CDT

The Mariners and veteran left-hander Drew Pomeranz are in agreement on a minor league deal, as previously reported by Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The deal presumably includes an invite to major league Spring Training.

Pomeranz, 36, is a veteran of 11 MLB seasons but hasn’t throw a pitch in the majors since 2021. The lefty was generally a solid player who swung between the back of the rotation and bullpen in the early part of his career, often garnering solid results in relief but lackluster numbers in the rotation. Across the first eight seasons of his MLB career, Pomeranz pitched to a 3.92 ERA (110 ERA+) with a 4.14 FIP in 710 innings of work split between 122 starts and 74 relief appearances. The start of the 2019 season was more of the same for Pomeranz, as he struggled in a swing role with the Giants. He posted a 5.68 ERA ERA with a 5.24 FIP in 77 2/3 innings of work.

Those lackluster numbers led San Francisco to deal the lefty to Milwaukee at that year’s trade deadline, and Milwaukee decided to move Pomeranz to the bullpen full-time, converting him into a high leverage relief arm. The lefty looked like a totally different player down the stretch in 2019, dominating to the tune of a 2.39 ERA with a 2.68 FIP with an eye-popping 45% strikeout rate. That stellar performance earned Pomeranz plenty of interest in free agency that winter, and prior to the 2020 season he signed with the Padres on a four-year deal worth $34MM that ran through the 2020-23 seasons. Pomeranz continued to dominate when healthy enough to take the mound for San Diego, with an incredible 1.62 ERA and 2.75 FIP to go with a 33.7% strikeout rate during the life of that contract.

Unfortunately for Pomeranz, however, he managed just 44 1/3 innings of work over the life of the contract due to shoulder, forearm, and elbow injuries. After not pitching in the majors during the 2022 or ’23 seasons, Pomeranz returned to the free agent market and caught on with the Angels and Dodgers on minor league deals but was unable to crack either L.A. roster. Eventually he earned a big league opportunity with the Giants in May, but lasted just a few days on the club’s roster before being designated for assignment without making an appearance. In total, he made just eight appearances at Triple-A for the Dodgers this past season, struggling to a 6.00 ERA but flashing an excellent 37.8% strikeout rate.

That big strikeout stuff clearly caught the attention of the Mariners, who have now picked him up as a no-risk flier who could still contribute to the club’s late-inning mix if he can finally get healthy enough to make it back to the majors. The Mariners have an impressive bullpen mix that includes Andres Munoz, Matt Brash, Collin Snider, and Gregory Santos but lacks a true back-end option from the left-hand side.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Drew Pomeranz

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Masahiro Tanaka To Sign With NPB’s Yomiuri Giants

By Nick Deeds | December 15, 2024 at 6:18pm CDT

Veteran right-hander Masahiro Tanaka has reached an agreement with the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball, per a report from Yahoo Japan (h/t to Yakyu Cosmopolitan). The terms of the deal are not yet clear, but it appears he’ll be joining a new NPB team for the first time in his lengthy career.

Tanaka, 36, has enjoyed a long and successful career between NPB and MLB. He made his debut with the Rakuten Golden Eagles at the age of 18 back in 2007, and after seven dominant seasons in NPB was posted for MLB clubs prior to the 2014 season. The right-hander instantly became one of the most sought-after players on the free agent market before eventually signing with the Yankees on a seven-year, $155MM deal. In 20 starts with New York during his first season in the majors, Tanaka posted an excellent 2.77 ERA (138 ERA+) with a 3.04 FIP en route to an All-Star appearance and a fifth-place finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting.

Impressive as that debut season in the big leagues was, Tanaka eventually settled in as more of a solid mid-rotation arm with the Yankees than as a true ace. In his seven seasons with the club, the right-hander pitched to a 3.74 ERA (114 ERA+) with a 3.91 FIP in 1054 1/3 innings as a big leaguer. He made his second and final MLB All-Star appearance in 2019, and pitched to a solid 3.33 ERA in 54 postseason innings for the Yankees during his tenure with the club. His final year with the Yankees was abbreviated due to the 60-game pandemic-shortened campaign that took place in 2020, but Tanaka look solid in ten starts with a 3.56 ERA in 48 innings of work that stood as his best mark since 2016.

When he hit the free agent market ahead of his age-32 season, Tanaka was among the most well-regarded pitchers in the class. MLBTR ranked Tanaka as the #10 free agent in the class on that year’s edition of our Top 50 MLB Free Agents list, and the righty appeared to be a lock to remain in the majors as a quality mid-rotation veteran. As free agency played out, however, the Yankees turned their attention to retaining second baseman DJ LeMahieu. While Tanaka garnered at least some interest from other MLB clubs, he ultimately headed back home to Japan to pitch for Rakuten once again. At the time, Tanaka noted that his preference if he returned to Japan was a return to the Golden Eagles, though he also suggested he would be open to a deal with the Yomiuri Giants.

As it happens, it now appears he’ll be playing for the Giants after all, albeit only after a four-year pit stop with his original team. Tanaka’s second stint with Rakuten did not go quite as well as his first. He pitched to a 3.73 ERA in 463 innings of work in Pacific League play over the past four seasons, though he struck out just 17.5% of opponents in that time. That’s a far cry from the 27.8% clip he struck out opponents at for the Golden Eagles back in 2011, and it’s even several steps back from the career 23.1% strikeout rate that Tanaka posted during his seven seasons in the majors.

Despite those declining numbers, it appears that Yomiuri is willing to take a chance on the right-hander as their own longtime veteran, Tomoyuki Sugano, explores a possible jump to the major leagues. Tanaka made just one start for Rakuten’s Pacific League team in 2024, but he’s surely hoping to make more than that next season with his new club. The right-hander has gathered 197 career wins between NPB and MLB play to this point in his career, leaving him just three wins shy of a major milestone.

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Nippon Professional Baseball Transactions

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Pirates Acquire Enmanuel Valdez

By Mark Polishuk | December 15, 2024 at 10:35am CDT

The Pirates and Red Sox announced a trade that will see infielder Enmanuel Valdez head to Pittsburgh in exchange for right-hander Joe Vogatsky.  Valdez was designated for assignment by Boston earlier this week.

Valdez has appeared in 125 big league games since making his MLB debut with the Sox during the 2023 season.  A solid .266/.311/.453 slash in 149 plate appearances made a good first impression for Valdez in his rookie year, but he didn’t fare well with more playing time this past year, hitting only .214/.270/.363 in 223 plate appearances.

Of the whopping 11 players who were part of Boston’s revolving door at second base in 2024, Valdez had the most playing time, with 56 starts and 65 total appearances at the keystone.  Pittsburgh’s second-base situation is also far from settled, with Nick Gonzales penciled into a starting role for now, and Nick Yorke and Jared Triolo also fighting for at-bats.  Valdez is the only left-handed hitter among these other righty options, which could give him an opening for a platoon role.

Valdez figures to be part of this mix, though he has a smattering of MLB experience at third base, shortstop, and left field, and he has played all over the diamond in the minors.  This versatility will help Valdez’s chances of winning a job out of Spring Training, and his ability to handle third base might be particularly useful if Ke’Bryan Hayes continues to be bothered by back injuries.  Valdez has a minor league option year remaining, giving the Pirates the ability to use him as minor league depth if the 26-man roster is full.

Vogatsky (who turns 23 later this month) was a 19th-round pick for the Pirates in last summer’s amateur draft, and the right-hander has yet to begin his pro career.  A product of James Madison University, Vogatsky worked exclusively as a reliever in his last two college years, with much better results than his first two NCAA seasons.  This role change likely got Vogatsky drafted, and it seems likely that he’ll stick in the bullpen going forward.

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Boston Red Sox Pittsburgh Pirates Transactions Enmanuel Valdez

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NPB’s Chunichi Dragons Sign Kyle Muller

By Mark Polishuk | December 15, 2024 at 7:46am CDT

The Chunichi Dragons have signed left-hander Kyle Muller, according to multiple reports out of Japan.  Muller elected free agency after he was outrighted off the Athletics’ 40-man roster at the end of the season, and he’ll now explore a new chapter of his career in Nippon Professional Baseball.

A second-round pick for the Braves in the 2016 draft, Muller was a regular on Baseball Prospectus’ top-100 prospect lists during his time in Atlanta’s farm system, though his numbers in the minors were more solid than dominant.  Muller made his MLB debut in 2021 and posted a 5.14 ERA across 12 games and 49 innings with Atlanta in 2021-22 before the Braves sent him to the A’s as part of the three-team trade in December 2022 that saw Sean Murphy wind up in Atlanta.

Given a greater opportunity to start in Oakland, Muller posted a rough 7.60 ERA in 77 innings in 2023, losing his rotation job in the wake of his struggles.  The southpaw was used only as a reliever in 2024 and posted a 4.01 ERA and five percent walk rate over 49 1/3 innings, with the improved control a big step forward given how walks had been a major issue for Muller in his previous big league work.  Never much of a strikeout pitcher, Muller’s 17.8% strikeout rate in 2024 almost exactly matched his 17.9% career mark.

Since Muller is out of minor league options, the Athletics had to designate him for assignment and then outright him a first time in August.  The lack of option years will be an obstacle for Muller going forward in terms of North American baseball, and if perhaps faced with a 2025 season spent bouncing around DFA limbo and the waiver wire, pitching for the Dragons on a guaranteed deal probably carried extra appeal.  Muller is still only 27, so there’s plenty of time for a potential return to the majors if he pitches well in NPB.

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Nippon Professional Baseball Transactions Kyle Muller

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Athletics Acquire Jeffrey Springs In Multi-Player Trade With Rays

By Mark Polishuk | December 14, 2024 at 11:00pm CDT

The Athletics and Rays have announced a multi-player trade that will see left-handers Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez head to West Sacramento.  In return, the Rays will receive right-hander Joe Boyle, the Athletics’ pick in Competitive Balance Round A of the 2025 draft, and two minor league players in righty Jacob Watters and first baseman/outfielder Will Simpson.

Considering how deep the Rays are in rotation options, Springs was viewed as a logical trade candidate this winter, as he was about to enter the more expensive portion of the backloaded four-year, $31MM extension he signed with Tampa in January 2023.  Springs is owed $10.5MM in each of the next two seasons, and there is a $15MM club option on his services for 2027 that can be bought out for $750K.

For the first two years and $9.25MM on that extension, the Rays only 49 innings of work from Springs, albeit with a 2.39 ERA.  A Tommy John surgery in April 2023 shelved Springs for the majority of the last two seasons, and he returned to the mound last July to post a 3.27 ERA over seven starts and 33 innings before he was shut down in early September due to fatigue in his throwing elbow.  It’s hard to gain much data from a small sample size, but Springs still had above-average strikeout and walk rate, and if anything might’ve gotten better bottom-line results if it wasn’t for a .330 BABIP.

Prior to the injury, Springs seemed like yet another success story for Tampa Bay’s pitching development system.  A 30th-round draft pick for the Rangers in the 2015 draft, Springs showed only a few flashes of quality over his first three MLB seasons while posting a 5.42 ERA in 84 2/3 innings with Texas and Boston.  Dealt from the Red Sox to the Rays in a relatively under-the-radar trade in February 2021, Springs emerged to post a 3.43 ERA in 44 2/3 bullpen innings for Tampa during the 2021 season, and he then had even better results after transitioning into a starting role in 2022.  The breakout year saw Springs deliver a 2.46 ERA in 135 1/3 innings (as well as a 26.2% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate) as Springs finally seemed to avoid the home run problems that plagued most of his career.

Springs was able to cash in on his big season with a life-changing contract extension, but his long injury layoff turned him into an odd man out of the Rays’ rotation.  Shane McClanahan, Ryan Pepiot, Taj Bradley, Shane Baz, Zack Littell, and Drew Rasmussen are all lined up to get starts in 2025, not to mention whatever other young starters could emerge from Tampa’s ever-loaded farm system.  With Springs’ price tag rising, many figured that the Rays would move his salary to a pitching-needy team with payroll space to spare.

If the idea of the Athletics being a “team with payroll space to spare” is still surprising to consider, the 32-year-old Springs is now the second splurge the A’s have made on their rotation this winter, after having already signed Luis Severino to a three-year, $67MM deal.  Adding Springs’ contract brings the A’s a step closer to the minimum $105MM luxury tax figure required to continue qualifying as a revenue-sharing team, and to avoid a grievance from the players’ union.  RosterResource estimates the Athletics’ current tax number at roughly $88.55MM, assuming the trade is completed.

Ulterior motive notwithstanding, trading for Springs is also a solid baseball move for an A’s team in need of rotation help.  Severino and Springs are big upgrades to a rotation that struggled badly last season, and the newcomers now stand as the top two members of the starting five that includes JP Sears, Mitch Spence, and Joey Estes.

More pitching moves can’t be ruled out, since the Athletics still have a ways to go before hitting that $105MM figure.  Severino notwithstanding, it can’t be an easy sell for the A’s to convince free agents to pitch in a minor league ballpark in West Sacramento, so trading for players (perhaps on unwanted contracts) has long seemed like a more logical move for the Athletics to both add payroll and bolster their roster at the same time.

Lopez shouldn’t be ruled out as part of the Athletics’ pitching situation in 2025, as the southpaw has already amassed 22 2/3 MLB innings with the Rays over the last two seasons.  A 26th-round pick for the Giants in the 2018 draft, Lopez missed all of 2022 recovering from a Tommy John surgery, but he has a 2.99 ERA across 337 2/3 career minor league innings.  That includes a 3.54 ERA, 27% strikeout rate, and 12.87% walk rate in 168 innings of Triple-A ball, with Lopez starting 37 of 39 games for the Rays’ top affiliate.

Despite a lack of velocity, Lopez has been able to miss quite a few bats, though this ability hasn’t manifested itself in his brief time in the majors.  It could be that Lopez might’ve gotten more big league looks if he’d simply been on a team that didn’t have Tampa Bay’s pitching depth, and a fresh opportunity now presents itself for Lopez with this trade.  Lopez (who turns 27 in March) figures to be part of the fifth starter competition in camp but will probably begin the year at Triple-A, acting as one of the first depth options in the event of an injury to a rotation member.

Turning to the Rays’ end of the trade, the inclusion of the Comp-A pick is particularly interesting, and it might speak to the league-wide interest in Springs’ services.  The Competitive Balance Rounds are bonus rounds within the draft that award picks to 15 teams within the bottom 10 in market size and revenue, as determined by the league’s formula that factors in revenue, winning percentage and market score.  The CBR picks are the only draft selections that are eligible to be traded, and while such trades tend to be rare, we’ve seen these picks involved in some prominent trades over the years.  The Comp-A round takes place just before the start of the second round, and while the exact placement of the traded pick has yet to be determined, last year’s Comp-A picks were selections #34-39 in the 2024 draft order.

It is no small thing for a team to deal such a pick, especially when building through the draft is of particular importance to a low-spending team like the A’s.  Still, getting at least two years of control over Springs was apparently worth the cost, as with the club option, the Athletics could have Springs for the entirety of their three-year stint in Sacramento before their planned new ballpark in Las Vegas is ready for Opening Day 2028.

As for the other parts of the trade package, Boyle brings a Major League-ready arm to the Rays’ pitching mix.  Debuting with a 1.69 ERA in three starts and 16 innings in 2023, Boyle had a 6.42 ERA in 47 2/3 innings this past season, missing about a month of action with a back strain and spending the bulk of the year at Triple-A.

The 25-year-old is something of a classic case of a hard-throwing (97.7mph average fastball velocity in the majors) pitcher who can’t harness his stuff, as Boyle has posted elevated walk totals in the minors and during his 2024 stint in the Show.  Fixing these control problems will determine whether or not Boyle can stick in the big leagues as a reliever or back-end starter, and given the Rays’ history of fixing pitchers, nobody would be surprised if Boyle ends up figuring it out in Tampa just as Springs and many other hurlers have done over the years.  Boyle has two minor league options remaining, giving the Rays more flexibility in using him as a fresh arm to shuttle back and forth between Triple-A and the active roster.

Baseball America ranked Simpson 16th on their ranking of the Athletics’ top 30 prospects back in April, while MLB Pipeline has Simpson 28th in their evaluation of the team’s system.  A 15th-round pick in the 2023 draft, Simpson has crushed minor league pitching in his two pro seasons and made it to the Double-A level for 18 games in 2024.  Simpson has shown some good pop in his bat and he has a good approach at the plate — scouts like his “analytical aptitude,” as BA’s scouting report puts it, with the idea that Simpson can still unlock more as he explores more ways to upgrade his hitting.  Defensively, Pipeline is more bullish on the idea of Simpson as a serviceable first baseman or corner outfielder, while Baseball America is more down on his glovework in general.

Watters was a fourth-round pick for the A’s in the 2022 draft, and he has a 5.86 ERA, 21.9% strikeout rate, and an inflated 13.73% walk rate in 152 pro innings.  Almost all of this experience is at the high-A level, though Watters skipped Double-A to make one spot appearance in Triple-A ball last season.  Working as both a starter and reliever, Watters’ numbers have been decidedly better out of the pen, so that might be the 23-year-old’s eventual career path.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan (multiple links) reported the trade and all of the players and picks involved except for Lopez, whose involvement wasn’t revealed until the deal was officially announced. 

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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Athletics Newsstand Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Jacob Lopez Jeffrey Springs Joe Boyle Will Simpson

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Patrick Wisdom To Sign With KBO’s Kia Tigers

By Nick Deeds | December 14, 2024 at 10:54pm CDT

Infielder Patrick Wisdom has reached an agreement with the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization, as noted by Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. Yoo notes that the deal is currently pending a physical. The Naranjeros de Hermosillo, for whom Wisdom had been playing in the Mexican Pacific Winter League, announced earlier today that they’ve removed Wisdom from their roster in deference to the wishes of his new club after the sides agreed to a deal.

Wisdom, 33, was a first-round pick by St. Louis back in 2012 but but didn’t make his big league debut until 2018. After making it into just 43 games across three seasons in the majors with the Cardinals, Rangers, and Cubs, he settled into a regular role with Chicago during the 2021 season. As a 29-year-old rookie that year, Wisdom took over the everyday third base job from outgoing star Kris Bryant and performed admirably in the role. He hit .231/.305/.518 (117 wRC+) despite an eye-popping 40.8% strikeout rate thanks to 28 homers in just 375 trips to the plate and earned himself a fourth-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

That success Wisdom found in his rookie season suggested he might have a future in the majors if he managed to cut down on the strikeouts a bit, and he did that over the next two seasons. In 2022 and ’23, Wisdom hit a combined .206/.295/.453 (108 wRC+) with a 35.2% strikeout rate and 48 homers in 836 trips to the plate. By the end of the 2023 season, Wisdom had generally ceded his everyday role in the lineup to a combination of Nick Madrigal, Christopher Morel, and deadline addition Jeimer Candelario, and he headed into the 2024 season projecting as a bench bat for Chicago.

His time on the bench with the Cubs did not go especially well, as Wisdom posted his worst season since getting an extended look in the majors back in 2021. He stepped up to the plate 174 times in 75 games with Chicago this year and hit just .171/.237/.392 (75 wRC+). While his strikeout rate ticked down to “just” 33.9%, Wisdom struggled to generate his trademark power with just eight home runs this year, and his walk rate suffered as he took a free base just 5.7% of the time. That steep decline in production in conjunction with Wisdom’s ever-shrinking role on the team led the Cubs to non-tender him last month, at which point he joined the free agent market.

Now, it appears he’ll head overseas to test his abilities in KBO league play, which is notoriously devoid of high-end power hitters. Former big league Matt Davidson led the league with 46 home runs last year and sported a high-power, strikeout-heavy profile similar to Wisdom during his time in the majors, so it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that Wisdom winds up doing quite well for himself as part of a Tigers offense that already led the KBO league in slugging percentage this past season.

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Peter Lambert To Sign With NPB’s Yakult Swallows

By Nick Deeds | December 14, 2024 at 6:52pm CDT

Right-hander Peter Lambert is poised to sign with the Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball on a one-year deal, according to a report from Nikkan Sports (Japanese language link). The report suggests that Lambert would earn a $1.6MM salary in 2025 if the deal is completed.

Lambert, 28 in April, was a second-round pick by the Rockies back in 2015. The right-hander made his MLB debut during the 2019 season and ultimately started 19 games for the Rockies that year, though the results left much to be desired as he struggled to a 7.25 ERA with a 5.97 FIP. Those figures were lackluster even for Coors Field in an offense-heavy environment as signaled by his 146 ERA- and 129 FIP- that suggest he was 46% and 29% worse than league average, respectively, by those metrics. Lambert struck out just 13.6% of his opponents in that rookie season while walking 8.6%.

That wound up being Lambert’s only big league exposure for quite some time, as he did not pitch during the shortened 2020 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery that July. He returned to the big league mound near the end of September in 2021, but struggled badly in 5 2/3 innings before missing almost the entire 2022 season due to forearm and elbow issues. Finally healthy in 2023, Lambert returned to the mound and looked a bit better with a 5.36 ERA (108 ERA-) and a 5.44 FIP (119 FIP-) that were a bit closer to average. Lambert pitched 87 1/3 innings split between the rotation and the bullpen for Colorado that year with a career-best 18.9% strikeout rate and a 7.5 walk rate.

That was enough to put him in the conversation for a rotation spot with the Rockies to open the 2024 campaign, though he ultimately lost out on that role to Dakota Hudson. Lambert pitched almost exclusively out of the bullpen this past year but took a bit of a step back, with a 5.72 ERA (123 ERA-) in 61 1/3 innings of work. With that being said, the right-hander’s 4.54 FIP (106 FIP-) was nearly league average as he got a better handle on his long-standing home run issues, allowing him to post playable numbers despite a career-worst 10.4% walk rate and a still-lackluster 17.9% strikeout rate.

Lambert was outrighted off of Colorado’s roster back in October and subsequently elected free agency. That’s now led Lambert to explore options overseas, and should his deal with the Swallows become official he’d earn the opportunity to attempt to re-establish himself as a pitcher in Japan while on a far more lucrative contract than he’d have found in the majors, where he’d surely have been limited to only minor league deals. Still a few years from his 30th birthday, there remains plenty of time for Lambert to figure things out overseas and attempt a comeback in the big leagues like many pitchers (such as Miles Mikolas and Matt Moore) have done in the past.

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Nippon Professional Baseball Transactions Peter Lambert

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