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Elieser Hernández, Austin Dean Re-Sign With KBO’s LG Twins

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The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization are bringing back right-hander Elieser Hernández and first baseman Austin Dean for 2025. Per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (X link), Hernández will make $1.3MM while Dean will get $1.7MM.

Hernández, 30 in May, was a midseason replacement for the Twins. Once a potential rotation building block with the Marlins, he missed significant time due to injuries, including the entire 2023 season. He returned in 2024 to get limited looks with the Dodgers and Brewers before heading overseas to join the Twins in late July.

He went on to log 47 innings for them over 11 appearances, including nine starts. He allowed 4.02 earned runs per nine with a 28.2% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate and 51.2% ground ball rate. Yoo adds that Hernandez also tossed 11 scoreless innings in the postseason. The club clearly liked what they saw and will bring Hernández back for another season.

For Dean, 31, this will be his third season as a Twin. He played in parts of five MLB seasons from 2018 to 2022 but never got more than a part-time role. He has found a regular gig in Korea and has made the most of it. He hit 23 home runs last year and slashed .313/.376/.515, then followed that up with 32 home runs and a .319/.384/.573 line in 2024.

The MLB minimum salary is going to be $760K next year, so both players have gotten themselves up into a higher level of earning power, and likely with some extra job security as well. For the Twins, they also signed right-hander Yonny Chirinos this week, so this fills their quota of foreign-born players. Each KBO team is allowed three such players, with a maximum of two pitchers.

Diamondbacks Re-Sign Jose Castillo To Minor League Deal

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The D-Backs are bringing back lefty reliever José Castillo on a minor league deal, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase (X link). Castillo, a client of OL Baseball Group, will get a non-roster invite to MLB camp.

Castillo sticks in the organization for a second season. He spent last year with the Snakes’ top affiliate in Reno. He missed the first half of the year to injury and was limited to 21 appearances. He tossed 20 2/3 innings of 4.35 ERA ball in a very tough park for pitchers. Castillo fanned a decent 24.4% of opponents against an 8.1% walk rate. His fastball averaged 94.3 MPH, a tick below the level he showed with the Padres in 2023.

That generally solid performance wasn’t enough to get a big league look with the Snakes a year ago. Still, Castillo sufficiently impressed the front office to get another non-roster invite. While he didn’t reach the majors last year, he pitched in parts of four seasons with San Diego. The Venezuelan-born southpaw has a 4.24 ERA in 40 1/3 big league innings.

A.J. Puk, Joe Mantiply and Kyle Nelson are the three lefty relievers on Arizona’s 40-man roster. Tommy Henry and Blake Walston could work in long relief or as rotation depth. Puk will pitch in high leverage spots, while the soft-tossing Mantiply has been a steady contributor in the middle innings. Nelson missed almost all of last season after undergoing surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome, so he could find himself on the roster bubble in Spring Training. Andrew Saalfrank will be an option midway through the season. He’ll remain on the restricted list into June after being issued a one-year suspension for betting on MLB games while he was in the low minors.

Blue Jays, Michael Stefanic Agree To Minor League Deal

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Infielder Michael Stefanic and the Blue Jays are in agreement on a minor league deal. Stefanic’s agent Nate Heisler of Klutch Sports relayed the news on X while Stefanic himself took to Instagram to thank the Angels, their fans and his former colleagues for his time with that club, in addition to expressing his excitement about his new opportunity.

Stefanic, 29 in February, was an undrafted free agent back in 2018. The Angels signed him at that time and he started to garner attention as a minor leaguer due to his plate discipline and multi-positional abilities, though a clear lack of power. In 2021, he took 554 trips to the plate in the minors, walking in 9.4% of them while only striking out 13.9% of the time.

His home run total spiked to 17 that year, even though he had only hit three over the 2018 and 2019 seasons combined. Perhaps that was due to him getting up to the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but his .336/.408/.493 line that year still translated to a 132 wRC+, indicating he was 32% better than league average.

Baseball America ranked him the #22 prospect in the Angels’ system going into 2022 and he went on to make his major league debut that year. He has been sent to the plate 264 times over the past three big league seasons, walking in 8.7% of those while striking out just 15.2% of the time. But he hasn’t yet hit a home run, leading to a fairly empty slash line of .232/.317/.275 and 72 wRC+. He has continued to hit in the minors, however, with a combined line of .349/.444/.456 and 133 wRC+ over the past three years.

That wasn’t enough to get him much run at the major league level and he exhausted his final option year in 2024. The Angels passed him through waivers and outrighted him last month, but Toronto will give him a non-roster gig. Stefanic has also played every position on the diamond except for center field and catcher in his professional career, perhaps giving him a shot at carving at a utility or bench role.

The Jays have plenty of uncertainty in their position player group at present. First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and shortstop Bo Bichette are both a year away from free agency. Right fielder George Springer is now 35 years old and has just two years left on his deal. Second base, third base and left field are fairly open. Players like Spencer Horwitz, Ernie Clement, Will Wagner, Nathan Lukes, Leo Jiménez, Davis Schneider, Jonatan Clase, Orelvis Martínez, Addison Barger, Joey Loperfido and Steward Berroa are all on the 40-man roster but Clement and Schneider are the only ones of thar group with more than 112 games of MLB experience.

If Stefanic can earn his way onto the roster, he is out of options but he has just a bit more than a year of service time, meaning he can be cheaply retained beyond 2025 if he has a roster spot at season’s end.

KBO’s LG Twins Sign Yonny Chirinos

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The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed right-hander Yonny Chirinos, per Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net and Jiheon Pae (X link). It had previously been reported by XSportsNews reporter Kim Geun-han and relayed by Kurtz (X link). The righty will earn $1MM in 2025, in the form of a $200K signing bonus and $800K salary.

Chirinos, 31, once seemed like a potential rotation building block for the Rays. Over the 2018 and 2019 seasons, he tossed 223 innings, allowing 3.71 earned runs per nine. He struck out 21% of batters faced, walked just 5.9% of opponents and kept the ball on the ground at a 43.5% clip.

But elbow troubles became the story for a few years and he hasn’t been able to get back on track since. He only made three major league appearances in 2020, requiring Tommy John surgery in August of that year. He missed the entire 2021 campaign while recovering. While trying to get back from that procedure, he was further delayed by an elbow fracture. He wasn’t activated off the IL until September of 2022, over two years after going under the knife, making two appearances at the end of that season.

He’s been back on the mound for the past two years but hasn’t been able to get back to his previous level of performance. He has a 5.63 ERA in 115 innings over the two most recent big league seasons, with his strikeout rate at just 15.3% in that time. He had to settle for a minor league deal with the Marlins going into 2024 and was only on their roster for about a month from the middle of June to the middle of July.

Had Chirinos stayed in North America, he surely would have been limited to another minor league deal somewhere. Even if he made it back onto a major league roster in 2025, he likely would have been limited to a salary somewhere around the $760K league minimum.

By heading overseas, he has unlocked a bit more money and presumably a bit more job security. If he can make the most of his opportunity with the Twins, perhaps he can take another crack at North American ball down the line.

Angels Sign Yusei Kikuchi

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The Angeles officially announced the signing of Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year deal on Wednesday afternoon. Kikuchi, a client of the Boras Corporation, is guaranteed $63MM. He’ll make even $21MM salaries over the contract.

Kikuchi, 33, spent nine seasons pitching for NPB’s Seibu Lions before he was posted for major league clubs prior to his age-28 campaign during the 2018-19 offseason. The lefty landed with the Mariners on a complex contract that guaranteed the southpaw $56MM over four years, with the fourth year being a $13MM player option that the Mariners could preempt by picking up a four-year club option worth $66MM.

Complicated as that contract was, however, Kikuchi’s time in Seattle was both disappointing and straightforward. The lefty struggled over his first two seasons in the majors, posting a lackluster 5.39 ERA and 5.17 FIP between the 2019 and ’20 seasons.

He managed to turn things around a bit in 2021, however, with a 4.41 ERA (96 ERA+) and a 4.61 FIP. While those numbers hardly jump off the page, Kikuchi was an All-Star in 2021 and looked dominant at times, with a 2.33 ERA and a 27.5% strikeout rate in an 11-start stretch from late April to early July. Kikuchi took a gamble and entered free agency despite his uneven season. That decision wound up paying off, as he would eventually sign with the Blue Jays on a three-year, $36MM contract. His time in Toronto started off much like his stay in Seattle, as he struggled badly in 2022 to the tune of a 5.19 ERA and 5.62 FIP in 100 2/3 innings of work split between the bullpen and rotation.

The lefty finally figured things out at the age of 32 last season, however, and showed off the consistent, mid-rotation production both the Mariners and Jays had dreamed on when signing him. In 32 starts for Toronto in 2023, Kikuchi pitched to a solid 3.86 ERA with a 25.9% strikeout rate against a 6.9% walk rate. That solid campaign seemed to tee the lefty up for another steady season in 2024, though he once again faced a number of ups and downs. Kikuchi’s time in Toronto this year saw him drastically underperform his underlying metrics, as he pitched to a lackluster 4.75 ERA despite his 26.2% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate both being improvements over the previous season. Despite that ugly ERA, the lefty had a 3.66 FIP, 3.51 SIERA, and 3.43 xFIP during his 22 starts with the Blue Jays this year.

Those exciting peripherals surely helped convince the Astros to package youngsters Jake Bloss, Joey Loperfido, and Will Wagner in a trade with the Jays that brought Kikuchi to Houston for the stretch run. That was a hefty price to pay for a rental, but the lefty made good on his price tag with ten dazzling starts for the Astros following the trade deadline. He racked up 60 innings of 2.70 ERA ball, struck out a whopping 31.8% of opponents while walking just 5.9%, and improved his overall season numbers to a league average 4.05 ERA with a 3.46 FIP that was good for the 16th-best mark among all qualified big leaguers this year, sandwiched comfortably between top free agent starters Max Fried (3.33) and Jack Flaherty (3.48).

Now, the Angels are betting on those excellent peripherals just as their division rivals in Houston did over the summer. Amidst a busy November where they’ve already struck early to land Jorge Soler, Travis d’Arnaud, Kevin Newman, and Kyle Hendricks via trade and free agency, the club has now gone out of its typical comfort zone to sign Kikuchi to the largest guarantee the Angels have given a free agent starter since right-hander C.J. Wilson’s five-year, $77.5MM deal in 2011. Kikuchi is just the second starter the club has signed to a multi-year pact since then, joining future rotation-mate Tyler Anderson. Kikuchi, Anderson, and Hendricks figure to create a veteran nucleus for Anaheim’s starting staff next year that could help to take pressure of younger arms such as Reid Detmers, Chase Silseth, and Jack Kochanowicz.

While Kikuchi’s up-and-down performance may cause his new deal to raise some eyebrows, the pact is right in line with the $60MM over three years that MLBTR predicted for the lefty on our annual Top 50 MLB free agents list. Kikuchi ranked 12th overall and 6th among starters on that list, placing him firmly behind top-of-the-class arms like Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, and Fried but in a similar conversation as fellow southpaw Sean Manaea among the better mid-tier options on the market. Notably, Kikuchi was unencumbered by a Qualifying Offer after being rendered ineligible by the midseason trade that shipped him to Houston. That surely made him more attractive to an Angels club that has relied heavily on the draft in recent years while fast-tracking players such as Nolan Schanuel, Zach Neto, and Ben Joyce to the majors.

Prior to signing with Anaheim this morning, Kikuchi had been connected to the Cubs in free agency as the club seemingly plans to focus on the mid-tier of the starting pitching market this winter with a preference towards hurlers not encumbered by a QO. The Braves and Rangers are among the other teams rumored to be shopping in a similar tier of the market, and any team that missed out on Kikuchi should still have a few options at their disposal this winter. Flaherty, Nathan Eovaldi, Matthew Boyd, and Andrew Heaney are among the pitchers remaining unencumbered by the QO expected to land multi-year deals, and interesting one-year options such as Walker Buehler and Max Scherzer also remain on the table.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported the terms.

Mets Sign Genesis Cabrera To Minor League Deal

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The Mets announced Wednesday that they’ve signed left-handed reliever Genesis Cabrera to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training.

Cabrera, 28, has spent his career to date with the Cardinals and Blue Jays. The hard-throwing southpaw turned in 62 2/3 innings of 3.59 ERA for Toronto in 2024 but did so with a below-average 18.5% strikeout rate and bloated 10.7% walk rate. Command has consistently been an issue for Cabrera, who’s never walked fewer than 10% of his opponents in a single season.

Even with clear sub-par command, however, Cabrera has typically remained effective. He carries a 3.89 ERA in 275 2/3 big league innings and has often found himself in leverage spots, compiling 67 holds and five saves to this point. His 2024 season in Toronto featured a career-low average velocity on his four-seamer (95.9 mph), though his 96 mph average sinker was up slightly from his 2022-23 levels (but down from a 97.7 mph peak). Last year’s strikeout rate was the second-worst of his career.

The track record and velocity with Cabrera are both intriguing, even if his command has always been poor and his 2024 had some notable red flags. There’s no risk for the Mets to bring him to camp as a non-roster player and see if he pitches his way into a bullpen spot. At the moment, the only left-handed reliever on the Mets’ 40-man roster is Danny Young, so there’s certainly room to add some depth and possibly some additional certainty in that regard as the offseason progresses.

KBO Signings: Heredia, Naile, Reyes

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A trio of former big leaguers re-signed with teams in the Korea Baseball Organization this week.

  • Outfielder Guillermo Heredia re-signed with the SSG Landers (X link via Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net) on a $1.6MM deal with another $200K in incentives. It’ll be the third KBO season for the Cuban-born outfielder. Heredia, who suited up for five MLB teams during a seven-year run, is coming off a .360/.399/.538 line with 21 homers and 31 doubles. He owns a .343/.393/.502 slash over two seasons in Korea. Heredia’s most recent big league experience came as a depth outfielder for the Braves in 2022. The Landers signed Mitch White and re-upped Drew Anderson earlier this month, so the Heredia deal finalizes their trio of foreign players to open next season.
  • The Kia Tigers retained righty James Naile on a $1.6MM deal with $200K in incentives, tweets Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. The 31-year-old hurler is headed into his second KBO season. His first year could hardly have gone better. As Yoo notes, Naile won the league’s ERA title with a 2.53 mark across 149 1/3 innings on a Tigers team that went on to win the Korean Series title. Naile missed time late in the season when he was hit in the jaw by a comebacker, but he made it back in time for the championship series. A former 20th round pick out of UAB, Naile made 17 appearances with the Cardinals between 2022-23. The Tigers signed righty Adam Oller earlier this offseason. They’ve yet to announce whether they’ll re-sign outfielder Socrates Brito, who has spent the past three seasons there and is coming off a .310/.359/.516 showing.
  • Outfielder Victor Reyes is returning to the Lotte Giants on a $1MM deal with $250K in incentives (X link via Kurtz). The switch-hitting center fielder had a .352/.394/.511 slash with 40 doubles and 15 longballs in his first season with Lotte. Reyes, 30, appeared in parts of five seasons with the Tigers during his stint in the majors. He played nearly 400 games for Detroit between 2018-22, hitting .264/.294/.379 in almost 1300 plate appearances. The Giants still have two spots available for foreign players, both of which can be used on pitching. Charlie Barnes and Aaron Wilkerson held those positions in 2024, though the team has yet to announce whether either pitcher will be back next season.

Brewers Sign Jared Oliva, Jon Duplantier To Minor League Deals

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The Brewers are signing outfielder Jared Oliva and right-hander Jon Duplantier to minor league contracts, tweets Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Both players will get non-roster invitations to big league camp.

Oliva, who turns 29 tomorrow, got a brief big league look with the Pirates. The Arizona product appeared in 26 games for the Bucs between 2020-21. He hit .179/.220/.214 in that minimal sample. He spent the ’23 season in Triple-A with the Angels, struggling to a .261/.348/.423 slash in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. Oliva dropped back a level this year, as he spent the season in Double-A after signing a minor league contract with the Mariners.

The righty-swinging Oliva posted good numbers in the Texas League. He turned in a robust .294/.378/.463 slash while going 37-40 in stolen base attempts. He’s quite a bit older than the average Double-A player, but he showed enough to earn a camp invite from Milwaukee. Oliva can play all three outfield positions and could open next season with Triple-A Nashville.

Duplantier has also been out of the majors for a few years. He earned some Top 100 fanfare during his prospect days in the Diamondbacks’ system. Duplantier has yet to find any major league success, however. The 6’4″ hurler owns a 6.70 earned run average across 49 2/3 big league innings. He last suited up at the MLB level in 2021.

The Rice product split the ’24 campaign between the Mets’ and Dodgers’ systems, along with four starts in the independent American Association. He started seven of 23 appearances in the upper minors, turning in a 4.20 ERA with a strong 27.4% strikeout rate but a massive 16.1% walk percentage over 55 2/3 innings.

Giants, Max Stassi Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Giants agreed to a minor league contract with Max Stassi, as first reported by Just Baseball’s Aram Leighton (on X) and subsequently reflected on the catcher’s MLB.com transaction log. It’s likely the Wasserman client will get a non-roster invite to big league camp.

Stassi hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2022. He started the ’23 season on the injured list with a left hip problem and was eventually transferred to the restricted list as he attended to a family matter. (The Stassis later announced that their son was born prematurely and spent weeks in intensive care.) He was traded twice last offseason, going from the Angels to the Braves to the White Sox in a chain of salary-driven moves.

The Sox intended to give Stassi a look as their backup catcher, but he reaggravated his hip injury and underwent season-ending surgery in June. Chicago paid a $500K buyout in lieu of a $7.5MM option, ending his White Sox tenure without any games. The consecutive lost seasons made it apparent he’d need to accept a minor league contract.

Stassi’s most recent healthy season was a disappointment. He hit .180/.267/.303 across 375 plate appearances in 2022. The two preceding years were far more impressive. Stassi combined for a .250/.333/.452 slash between 2020-21. He rated as an above-average receiver and looked like a late-blooming #1 catcher. The Halos signed Stassi to a $17.5MM extension in Spring Training 2022, though his numbers fell off almost immediately thereafter.

Patrick Bailey is locked in as San Francisco’s starting catcher. The backup job could be up for grabs. Tom Murphy had an injury-ruined season in year one of a two-year free agent deal. Blake Sabol is also on the 40-man roster but carries a questionable defensive profile.

Jake Cave Signs With KBO’s Doosan Bears

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The Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization announced this week that they’ve signed outfielder/first baseman Jake Cave to a one-year, $1MM contract (hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Cave, a client of the Ballengee Group, will head overseas for the first time in his career and earn the maximum salary for a first-year foreign player in the KBO.

A veteran of seven big league seasons, Cave spent the 2024 season with the Rockies and hit .251/.290/.396 with seven home runs in 346 plate appearances. The Rockies passed Cave through waivers following the season, and he elected free agency once he went unclaimed.

Cave, 32 next month, has spent the bulk of his career with the Twins but was also with the Phillies in 2023 and the Rox this past season. Overall, he’s a lifetime .236/.292/.400 hitter in the majors (85 wRC+). Contact, or a lack thereof, has been a notable issue for him. Cave has fanned in 30.8% of his career plate appearances. He does have a knack for making decent contact when he puts the ball in play, with nearly 25% of his career batted balls being line drives. That’s several percentage points north of league-average, but his lack of contact offsets that penchant for solid contact.

Cave has logged more than 1000 big league innings at each of the three outfield spots. The Phillies also gave him 122 innings at first base in 2023. He spent a good bit of time in center field with Minnesota early in his career but has worked primarily in the corners in recent seasons, drawing solid grades for his glovework. Statcast credits him with above-average sprint speed and above-average arm strength in the outfield, ranking him in the 60th and 61st percentile of MLB players this past season, respectively.

As Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency points out, Cave will round out the Bears’ international signings for the year. KBO clubs are permitted to carry three foreign players, and Doosan already signed pitchers Cole Irvin and Thomas Hatch earlier in the offseason.

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