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Phillies To Non-Tender Austin Hays

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The Phillies have informed outfielder Austin Hays that they will not tender him a contract before tonight’s deadline, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports. He’ll immediately become a free agent without having to first clear waivers. He’d been projected for a $6.4MM salary by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.

Hays, 29, spent his entire career with the Orioles before being traded to the Phils in exchange for Seranthony Dominguez and Cristian Pache a few days before the 2024 trade deadline. The Phillies hoped that Hays, who’d battled injuries in the season’s first half, could rebound with better health and solidify their outfield mix down the stretch. That’s not how things played out, however. Hays suffered a strained hamstring a couple weeks after the trade and only briefly returned before hitting the shelf with a kidney infection that took a significant toll on his body. He only took 80 plate appearances with Philadelphia and batted just .256/.275/.397 in that small sample.

All told, Hays endured three IL stints in 2024, missing time with that kidney infection, hamstring strain and a calf strain that shelved him for three weeks from late April to mid-May. His combined .255/.303/.396 slash between the two clubs was arguably the worst production of his big league career.

While injuries clearly hampered Hays’ 2024 campaign, he’s still only a season removed from an All-Star season. Hays turned in a nice .275/.325/.444 slash with 16 home runs and quality glovework in left field as recently as 2023. He’s long been the type of player who thrives in platoon settings and merely holds his own against same-handed opponents, but paired with his defensive acumen that’s enough for him to have been a solid regular in Baltimore. Hays is a lifetime .277/.331/.469 hitter against lefties (120 wRC+) and a .254/.304/.415 hitter against fellow righties (99 wRC+).

Teams seeking a low-cost, right-handed bat to plug into their outfield mix figure to have interest in Hays. Many non-tendered players ultimately sign minor league deals, but Hays was a notable enough contributor with the O’s from 2021-23 that he ought to find a one-year deal in free agency, presumably a price south of his projected arbitration salary.

The Phillies, meanwhile, were already known to be in the market for outfield help. Hays was a likely non-tender candidate for some time now, though they opted not to make the move before today — presumably gauging the market for potential trade partners. Philadelphia’s outfield includes Brandon Marsh, Johan Rojas and Nick Castellanos, but the Phils are interested in adding a bat to the outfield and either going with a Marsh/Rojas platoon in the other spot or giving Marsh a larger role if he can handle lefties better than in the past. The Phillies are planning to meet with Juan Soto and will surely be connected to a variety of other targets both on the open market and trade market.

Mets Sign Jakson Reetz To Minor League Deal

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The Mets announced Friday that they’ve signed catcher Jakson Reetz to a minor league deal. He’s been invited to major league spring training. Reetz is a client of Warner Sports Management.

Reetz, 28, spent the 2024 season in the Giants organization. He appeared in only six big league games, homering once in 15 plate appearances, but spent the majority of his season in Triple-A. That marked his second straight year with the Giants’ top affiliate in Sacramento. He slashed .254/.368/.431 with five round-trippers and 20 doubles in 58 games/235 plate appearances.

A third-round pick by the Nationals back in 2014, Reetz once ranked among Washington’s top 10-20 prospects but has settled into journeyman status. He’s played for four different organizations in the past four years, spending time with the Nats, Royals, Brewers, Giants and now the Mets. Reetz popped 22 homers in just 63 games for the Brewers’ Double-A affiliate in 2022, but he sports a more tepid .241/.338/.467 slash in parts of four Triple-A seasons.

The Mets currently have Francisco Alvarez and non-tender candidate Luis Torrens atop their catching depth chart. Former first-round pick Kevin Parada has seen his stock drop since being drafted 11th overall out of Georgia Tech in 2022, as he’s yet to show any offensive production above the High-A level. Parada spent the 2024 season in Double-A and hit just .214/.304/.359 in 114 games — only a moderate improvement over the .185/.250/.389 slash he posted in 60 plate appearances there late in the 2023 season.

Reetz will add some experienced catching depth to compete for a backup role in spring training or to serve as a depth option in Triple-A. If he indeed heads to Syracuse, he could be the next man up in the event of an injury on the MLB staff, so the Mets don’t feel obligated to rush Parada when his development is clearly still a work in progress. With such little certainty beyond Alvarez, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Mets add further catching depth throughout the offseason.

Nationals Avoid Arbitration With Mason Thompson

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The Nationals announced they’ve avoided arbitration with reliever Mason Thompson. The team did not reveal salary terms. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected him for an $800K salary that is marginally above the $760K league minimum.

Thomspon, who turns 27 in February, underwent Tommy John surgery early in Spring Training. He obviously missed the entire season but could return relatively early in 2025. A former Padres draftee, Thompson went to the Nats at the 2021 deadline in the trade that sent veteran reliever Daniel Hudson to San Diego. Thompson made 102 appearances for Washington between 2021-23. He posted a 4.57 earned run average with a middling 17.8% strikeout rate.

This was the first of the righty’s three seasons of arbitration eligibility. Washington had a nine-player arbitration class before waiving Ildemaro Vargas. Catcher Riley Adams and relievers Derek Law and Tanner Rainey are potential non-tender candidates before tomorrow evening’s deadline.

Mets Agree To Minor League Deals With Joey Meneses, Hobie Harris

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The Mets are in agreement with first baseman Joey Meneses and reliever Hobie Harris on minor league deals. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported (X link) the Meneses deal, while MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reported the Harris addition (on X). Meneses is a client of the MAS+ Agency; Harris is represented by Gaeta Sports Management.

Both players are former Nationals. The 32-year-old Meneses spent two and a half seasons in Washington. He had a monster showing in a limited sample as a rookie in 2022, hitting .324/.367/.563 in 56 games. The rebuilding Nats gave him two seasons to see if he could build off that surprising debut, but he hasn’t maintained anything near that form. Meneses was a roughly league average hitter in ’23, turning in a .275/.321/.401 slash with 13 homers over 154 contests. His numbers declined sharply again this year, as he finished with a .231/.291/.302 mark and a trio of home runs across 313 plate appearances.

The Nats waived Meneses at season’s end. He elected minor league free agency after going unclaimed. He’ll need to earn his way back to the big leagues. Meneses will battle for a job as a right-handed bench bat. Mark Vientos will lock down one corner infield spot. That could come at first base if the Mets allow Pete Alonso to walk. Vientos could move back to the hot corner if the Mets re-sign Alonso. Jesse Winker also hit free agency, so there could be a path to some at-bats at designated hitter depending on how the offseason plays out.

Harris, 31, has limited big league experience. He pitched in 16 games for the Nats in 2023, allowing 12 runs over 19 1/3 innings. Harris issued 13 walks and managed just nine strikeouts in that brief stint. The Pittsburgh product pitched in Triple-A with the Twins this past season. He allowed nearly seven earned runs per nine through 54 1/3 innings. Harris has struggled in the upper minors in consecutive years. He can run his fastball into the 94-95 MPH range and missed bats on an impressive 14.6% of his offerings this year, though. That was enough for the Mets to bring him aboard as minor league bullpen depth.

Guardians, Triston McKenzie Avoid Arbitration

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The Guardians and right-hander Triston McKenzie have agreed to a deal to avoid arbitration, reports Robert Murray of FanSided on X. The Octagon client will make a salary of $1.95MM in 2025.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected McKenzie for a salary of $2.4MM next year, but he’ll actually come up shy of that number. That’s usually the case for deals agreed to at this part of the calendar.

Friday evening is the deadline for clubs to decide whether or not to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players. The two sides will still have plenty of time to negotiate the figures but clubs sometimes offer “take it or leave it” style deals ahead of the deadline for players that are borderline cases to be tendered in the first place. Such “pre-tender” deals often come in below projections, as the club is essentially telling the player to take a lower salary or else be non-tendered and sent into free agency.

It’s a remarkable position for McKenzie to be in, considering how things looked just two years ago. By the end of the 2022 season, he had thrown 344 2/3 innings with a 3.68 earned run average. He had struck out 27% of batters faced while giving out walks just 8.1% of the time. With the Guardians having a tremendous reputation for finding and developing starting pitching, it seemed as though they had found yet another rotation building block.

But McKenzie has had a rough time since then. He was injured for much of 2023, first due to a right teres major strain. He came off the IL and made a pair of starts but went right back on the shelf, that time due to a sprain in the ulnar collateral ligament of his throwing elbow. He opted for non-surgical rehab and was able to come back for two more starts late in the year.

Any hopes for a bounceback in 2024 were quickly dashed. His velocity was down and he clearly wasn’t in a good space mentally. While he wasn’t in pain, he did say in mid-April that the possibility of re-injuring himself was weighing on his mind. He was optioned to the minors in June after having made 16 starts with a 5.11 ERA. His 21.8% strikeout rate and 14.4% walk rate were both far worse than his previous work. He posted a 5.23 ERA at the Triple-A the rest of the way with roughly similar strikeout and walk rates of 23.5% and 13.9% respectively.

Despite the strong form he showed earlier in his career, the injury-wrecked season followed by a dismal performance in 2024 made McKenzie a non-tender candidate, but the two sides will instead reunite. It’s an understandable gambit for the Guards to take. Even for a lower-spending club like them, $1.95MM is almost nothing by MLB standards. If McKenzie can bounce back at all in 2025, he’d be well worth that price. They would also be able to retain him via arbitration again in 2026, so there could be a further payoff if McKenzie can put his recent rough stretch in the past.

McKenzie is now out of options, so the club won’t be able to easily send him to Triple-A again if that bounceback doesn’t come. But given their current roster, there could be a path for him to stick around. Their rotation is in rough shape, an unusual position for the club to be in. Apart from Tanner Bibee, there’s not much they can bank on. Ben Lively had a good year but is a journeyman who’s about to turn 33. Gavin Williams was hurt for much of 2024 and finished with a 4.86 ERA. Joey Cantillo has less than 40 innings in the majors and a track record of terrible control in the minors. Logan Allen had a 5.73 ERA for the year.

Offseason moves could reshape that rotation but McKenzie could earn a role in there if he looks good in the spring. Or perhaps a bullpen move would be an option, as McKenzie’s last three Triple-A appearances in 2024 were in relief. Either way, it’s a modest bet for the club to make with a decent chance at a nice payout. For McKenzie, he can put a bit more money in the bank while staying in familiar environs and not have to spend his winter sweating about finding a new job.

Rangers Sign Caleb Boushley To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers have signed right-hander Caleb Boushley to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Round Rock for now but will presumably receive an invite to major league spring training.

Boushley, 31, has a small amount of major league experience. He made one appearance for the Brewers last year and two for the Twins this year. He has thrown 6 1/3 innings in the big leagues, allowing three earned runs.

He has naturally had a larger body of work in the minors. Over the past three years, he has made 80 Triple-A appearances, including 77 starts. In his 397 1/3 frames, he has a 4.55 earned run average, 18.4% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate.

He was outrighted off the Twins’ roster in September and was able to elect free agency at season’s end, which has led to this deal with Texas. The Rangers have plenty of rotation uncertainty, having recently lost Nathan Eovaldi, Andrew Heaney, Max Scherzer and José Ureña to free agency. They have interest in bringing back some guys from that group but they are reportedly planning to duck under the competitive balance tax next year, which could lead to some budgetary constraints this winter.

On paper, the current rotation includes Jacob deGrom, Tyler Mahle, Jon Gray, Cody Bradford, Dane Dunning, Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter and others, though there are plenty of question marks in that group. deGrom and Mahle returned from Tommy John surgery in 2024 but each of them made just three major league starts this year. Gray and Bradford missed decent chunks of the 2024 season as well. Dunning has been deployed as more of a depth/swing guy and could be a non-tender candidate. Rocker and Leiter each have less than 40 innings of major league experience.

Boushley will give the club a bit of non-roster depth. Even if he doesn’t earn a job out of camp, the Rangers might need a spot start or long reliever as the season goes along. Should Boushley get on the 40-man roster at some point, he still has options and could be freely moved to Round Rock and back, though a player can only be optioned five times in one season.

Twins Re-Sign Scott Blewett, Yunior Severino To Minor League Deals

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The Twins have signed right-hander Scott Blewett and first baseman Yunior Severino to minor league deals, according to the club’s transactions tracker at MLB.com. Both players were just outrighted by the Twins a couple of weeks ago before electing free agency. They’ll rejoin the organization as depth options now.

This is the second straight offseason Blewett, 28, has signed a minor league deal with Minnesota. He pitched well both in Triple-A and in the majors for the Twins last season. He logged a 3.79 ERA in 54 2/3 frames with the Twins’ Triple-A club St. Paul, fanning 22.7% of his opponents against a tidy 7.1% walk rate. When the Twins summoned the former Royals hurler to the big leagues, he responded with 20 1/3 innings of 1.77 ERA ball. Blewett’s strikeout and walk rates were more pedestrian than that sparkling ERA, and metrics like FIP (4.00) and SIERA (4.05) felt he had a fair bit of good fortune, largely coming in the form of a 90.5% strand rate he’s not likely to sustain.

The 25-year-old Severino once ranked among the Twins’ top 10 prospects but has seen his stock drop as pronounced contact issues have persisted. He socked 35 homers between Double-A and Triple-A as recently as 2023 but fanned in nearly a third of his plate appearances that year. He dropped that strikeout rate to a still-alarming 27.8% in Triple-A this year but also saw his power output decline along with his strikeout rate; he hit just 21 homers while his ISO (slugging minus batting average) plummeted from .274 to .180.

In addition to the contact concerns, Severino is also a player without a clear defensive home. The former middle infielder has slid down the defensive spectrum as he’s filled out. He’s now primarily a first baseman and not considered to be a strong defender there. He’s also a below-average runner. Still, there’s clearly impressive raw power in Severino’s bat, and he’ll get another look in Triple-A at a time when the Twins’ first base situation is in flux. Carlos Santana became a free agent at season’s end, and former top prospect Alex Kirilloff surprisingly retired at just 26 years of age following a pair of wrist surgeries, a major shoulder surgery and a back injury that have resulted in him spending more time on the injured list than on active rosters in the past four seasons.

Red Sox Agree To Minor League Deals With Seby Zavala, Nate Eaton

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The Red Sox have agreed to minor league deals with catcher Seby Zavala, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Boston is also in agreement on a minor league deal with utilityman Nate Eaton, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Eaton would earn a $780K base salary if selected to the 40-man roster. Both players will be invited to major league spring training.

Zavala, a client of Headline Sports Group, spent the 2024 season in the Mariners organization. Seattle acquired him alongside flamethrowing relief prospect Carlos Vargas in the trade sending Eugenio Suarez to the D-backs. The hope was that Zavala, a terrific defender behind the plate, could hold down the backup job to workhorse catcher Cal Raleigh.

Things didn’t pan out that way, however. The 31-year-old Zavala has never hit much, but last year’s .154/.214/.282 slash (in a tiny sample of 43 plate appearances) was too anemic for the M’s to stomach. Zavala was designated for assignment three different times but opted to stick with the M’s via outright assignment each time. He became a minor league free agent at season’s end.

Zavala has appeared in 194 big league games. He’s a career .205/.271/.342 hitter in that time. He’s shown passable power for his position and also displayed some pop in the minors, but Zavala has punched out in a staggering 35.9% of his 557 big league plate appearances. That lack of contact leaves him with practically no hope of producing at even an average level.

Defensively, it’s another story. Zavala regularly posts elite framing marks and draws above-average grades for his ability to block pitches in the dirt, per Statcast. He posted a below-average caught stealing rate in 2023 but was within one percentage point of league-average in both 2024 and 2022. The Red Sox currently only have two catchers on the 40-man roster: Connor Wong and Mickey Gasper. Adding some experienced depth is a sensible endeavor.

Eaton, 28 next month, is a client of Gaeta Sports Management. He didn’t play in the big leagues this past season but logged 72 games and 178 plate appearances for the Royals from 2022-23. He batted only .201/.266/.283 in that time, but the versatile right-handed hitter has a far better track record in the upper minors. In parts of three seasons in Triple-A Omaha, he’s a .261/.320/.455 hitter with 40 homers and 60 steals in 255 games (1060 plate appearances).

Eaton has played primarily third base in his professional career but has at least 600 innings at each of the three outfield slots in addition to another 350 frames at second base and 60 at shortstop. Statcast credited him with 97th percentile sprint speed in his two big league seasons, measuring him at a blazing 29.6 feet per second.

Boston’s bench should have some spots up for grabs. Utilityman Rob Refsnyder, another right-handed bat, figures to have one spot locked down, and Gasper does as well for the time being, currently profiling as the backup to Wong. Romy Gonzalez, Nick Sogard, Enmanuel Valdez and Vaughn Grissom could all be in the mix for spots as well, but they all have minor league options remaining. Eaton’s versatility could earn him a look in the majors with a big spring or a strong early showing with the Sox’ Triple-A affiliate in Worcester.

Tigers Sign Jahmai Jones To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have signed infielder/outfielder Jahmai Jones to a minor league deal, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. The ACES client will receive an invite to major league spring training and will make a salary of $810K if he cracks the big league roster.

The 27-year-old Jones was once a notable prospect but he hasn’t yet had an extended big league opportunity, despite generally performing well in the minors. He spent most of 2024 with the Yankees, though in a fairly limited role. They claimed him off waivers from the Brewers in February, but he had exhausted his option years and needed to remain on the roster. The Yanks kept him around for over four months but only gave him 47 plate appearances in that time. He was outrighted off the roster in early August.

Jones now has a poor .198/.257/.278 batting line in his big league career, though in 137 plate appearances scattered across four different seasons. After being outrighted by the Yanks, he produced a robust line of .304/.390/.490 in 34 Triple-A games, leading to a 131 wRC+. This gives him a line of .276/.408/.471 over 564 Triple-A plate appearances in the past two years.

He hasn’t been able to bring that kind of production to the majors yet, but there’s no harm in a minor league deal and he’s a sensible guy to take a shot on. He was a second-round pick of the Angels in 2015 and got some top 100 prospect love in the years after that. Despite the many years that have transpired since then, he is still fairly young and has continued to put up good numbers on the farm.

He would be a fine fit for just about any club on a minor league deal but he could be an especially good fit for the Tigers, since he’s a right-handed hitter who has mostly played second base and the outfield in his career. The Tigers have a lefty swinger at the keystone in Colt Keith while their outfield mix includes lefties Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows and Akil Baddoo. They also have Jace Jung likely to be at third, Trey Sweeney at shortstop and Zach McKinstry in a utility role, each of those three also being left-handed.

Perhaps there’s a path for Jones to serve as a right-handed complement to that group in a multi-positional role. If he eventually cracks the roster, he is out of options but has less than a year of service time, meaning he can be cheaply retained for future seasons as well.

Cubs Acquire Matt Thaiss

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The Angels announced that they have traded catcher Matt Thaiss to the Cubs for cash considerations. The Halos had designated him for assignment last week. The Cubs have designated right-hander Trey Wingenter for assignment to open a roster spot, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune on X.

Thaiss, 30 in May, leaves the Angels for the first time in his professional career. He was a first-round pick of that club in 2016, getting taken 16th overall. He was a catcher in college but the Angels announced him as a corner infielder when they drafted him, clearly more interested in his bat.

As he worked his way up the minor leagues, he did indeed show that his offense could be an asset. He hit .279/.363/.445 for a 117 wRC+ across multiple minor league levels from 2016 to 2019. However, his major league work hasn’t been nearly as impressive. At this point, he has 771 big league plate appearances with a .208/.313/.342 line and 83 wRC+.

That production would be unacceptable for a corner infielder but not bad by backup catcher standards. The Halos often had a crowded mix of guys vying for playing time as the designated hitter or the corner spots over the years, such as Shohei Ohtani, Albert Pujols, Anthony Rendon, Jared Walsh and others. That prompted them to move Thaiss back behind the plate in 2021. Most metrics view Thaiss as a subpar defender back there, perhaps not surprising for a guy who spent several years away from that spot.

Though he’s been a passable backup to Logan O’Hoppe in recent years, the Angels decided to move on. After Travis d’Arnaud was let go by Atlanta, the Halos quickly swooped in and signed him to a two-year deal. That nudged Thaiss down to #3 on the catching chart. Since he’s out of options, they designated him for assignment, which led to today’s deal.

For the Cubs, he’s a sensible landing spot for now, as they have question marks behind the plate. They released Yan Gomes in June, Tomás Nido in August and then outrighted Christian Bethancourt in November. Prior to acquiring Thaiss, Miguel Amaya was the only catcher on their 40-man roster. It was reported back in August that they would be looking for catching help this winter.

Amaya performed well down the stretch for the Cubs but was subpar for the season overall. He’s out of options and not far removed from being a top prospect, so he probably has a decent grip on a roster spot, but he’s far from established as a big leaguer. He has 170 major league games under his belt with a .227/.300/.357 batting line and 87 wRC+.

Perhaps the Cubs envision a platoon arrangement, since Amaya hits from the right side and Thaiss from the left, though Amaya has reverse splits in his short career so far. It’s also possible that the Cubs will sign a more established catcher and try to pass Thaiss through waivers later in the offseason. Danny Jansen, Kyle Higashioka and Carson Kelly are just some of the many backstops available in free agency.

Perhaps Moisés Ballesteros will be a factor as well, as he is considered one of the top 100 prospects in the game and has reached Triple-A. However, he has only 68 games at that level and is still just 21 years old, so keeping him on the farm a little longer is also possible.

Time will tell if the Cubs continue addressing their catching mix throughout the winter, but for now, they’ve taken a flier on a sensible stopgap. For what was surely a small amount of money in baseball terms, they’ve added an experienced catcher with an intriguing past pedigree, without doing anything to block the possibility of other moves down the road.

Wingenter, 31, was just claimed off waivers in August and made five appearances for the Cubs late in the 2024 season. They could have retained him for next season via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $1.4MM salary next year. It seems they didn’t plan on doing that, so they have sent him into DFA limbo today. They will have a few days to see if there’s any trade interest, but he could end up back on waivers or non-tendered later this week. In his 95 1/3 major league innings, he has a 5.66 earned run average, 30.5% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate.

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