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Angels Select Walbert Ureña

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The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Walbert Ureña. He’s now on the 40-man roster and ineligible to be selected by another club in next month’s Rule 5 Draft. His addition bumps the Angels’ 40-man roster count up to 35 players.

Ureña, 21, signed as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic back in 2021 and just split the 2025 season between Anaheim’s Double-A (135 1/3 innings) and Triple-A (5 2/3 innings) affiliates. He pitched to a combined 4.34 ERA in his 141 innings, fanning 20.7% of his opponents against a 12.1% walk rate. He sits mid-90s with a hard sinker that can climb as high as 100 mph. That power offering helped him post a superlative 57.6% ground-ball rate in the minors this year.

As things stand, this is the Angels’ lone 40-man addition of the day. Nothing is stopping them from making further moves to protect additional players, but the bulk of the top-ranked prospects in their thin farm system are either already on the 40-man roster or aren’t eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 Draft until 2026 or 2027. Righties Joel Hurtado and Samy Natera Jr. are notable exceptions, though both are coming off so-so seasons in the minors; Hurtado posted a bleak 15.5% strikeout rate as a 24-year-old in Double-A, while Natera walked 17% of his opponents out of the bullpen between Double-A and Triple-A.

Astros Designate Ramon Urias For Assignment

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The Astros announced they’ve designated infielder Ramón Urías for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to pitching prospect Miguel Ullola, who has been selected to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. Their roster remains at capacity.

Houston acquired Urías from the Orioles at this past summer’s trade deadline. It initially seemed he’d be the fill-in third baseman after the Isaac Paredes injury. The Astros pulled off the shocking Carlos Correa deal a day later, pushing Urías into more of a second/third base hybrid role. He didn’t perform especially well. He hit .223/.267/.372 with 28 strikeouts in 101 trips to the plate after the trade.

That will end up being his only work in an Astros uniform. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Urías for a $4.4MM salary in his final year of arbitration. Houston wasn’t going to pay that amount coming off the rough finish. They can technically spend the next three days trying to find a trade partner, but it’s likelier they’ll simply non-tender him on Friday. He’d become a free agent at that point.

While his Astros tenure was a disappointment, Urías had been a capable role player for the Orioles for the past few seasons. He won a Gold Glove at third base in 2022, though his defensive grades in every other season have been right around average. Urías was also essentially an average hitter throughout his time in Baltimore. He batted .259/.324/.404 in a little more than 500 games over parts of six seasons with the Orioles. He’s been serviceable against pitchers of either handedness and can play any non-shortstop position on the dirt.

Urías should be able to command a major league contract if he’s non-tendered. It’d surely be a one-year deal but he could find a $3-4MM guarantee to work as a right-handed infielder off the bench. Houston will ideally find a lefty bat to fit that role, as their lineup already skews very heavily to the right side. They’ll need to decide whether to tender righty-hitting utilityman Mauricio Dubón (projected at $5.8MM) or start from scratch with their infield depth.

Ullola appears to be the only prospect whom the Astros were concerned would get taken in next month’s Rule 5 draft. The 23-year-old righty spent the entire ’25 season working out of the Triple-A rotation. He managed a solid 3.88 earned run average across 113 2/3 innings in the Pacific Coast League. Ullola fanned 27% of opponents but walked nearly 16% of batters faced. He has never thrown strikes at a tenable rate in the minors, which presumably points toward a long-term bullpen future. Ullola’s fastball sits around 94 MPH in his work as a starter, so he could be a solid power arm with significant bat-missing upside if the Astros move him to relief.

Trent Grisham To Accept Qualifying Offer

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Outfielder Trent Grisham is accepting his $22.025MM qualifying offer and will return to the Yankees in 2026, reports ESPN’s Jorge Castillo. Players who accept a QO are considered free agent signings and are thus ineligible to be traded prior to the following June 15 unless they consent to the move.

It’s at least a modest surprise, as Grisham is coming off a breakout year at the plate which saw him club a career-high 34 home runs. He slashed .235/.348/.464, thanks in no small part to a career-best 14.1% walk rate and a 23.6% strikeout rate that stood as the second-lowest in his career. Between that production, the fact that Grisham only just turned 29 earlier this month, and a thin outfield market in free agency, the stars seemed to align for him to pursue a weighty multi-year contract this winter.

Instead, Grisham returns to the site of his breakout and will hold down a key role in an outfield that’s also currently slated to include Jasson Dominguez and Aaron Judge. The Yankees are interested in re-signing Cody Bellinger, have been linked to Kyle Tucker and also have DH Giancarlo Stanton at least loosely in the outfield mix. (He played 132 outfield innings in 2025.)

Grisham’s return muddies the waters a bit, but GM Brian Cashman said recently that even if he accepted, it wouldn’t impact the team’s pursuit of a new deal with Bellinger (link via the New York Post’s Greg Joyce). The Yankees wouldn’t have made the QO to Grisham if they believed his acceptance was a roadblock to bringing back Bellinger or signing Tucker. They’re surely glad to have him back. Even though his defensive grades took an unexpected downturn in ’25, he has the best defensive track record in center of the Yankees’ in-house options.

While Grisham could have looked to cash in this winter, he’ll instead take a hefty one-year payday in what amounts to a bet on himself. Though he’s a left-handed bat, his power output was hardly a product of Yankee Stadium’s short right field porch. In fact, Grisham hit just .195/.326/.376 at home this season, compared to .254/.364/.506 on the road. If he can replicate this year’s huge power production, he could hit the market next offseason on the back of consecutive plus seasons at the plate and without the encumbrance of a qualifying offer. A big enough showing this year could realistically position Grisham for a $100MM+ contract — particularly if his defensive grades rebound, too.

The looming potential for a work stoppage is one other wrinkle to consider, but if anything, today’s glut of QO decisions suggests that players aren’t necessarily going to shy away from short-term deals that put them on the open market next year — at least not en masse. Grisham is one of four players to accept the QO, joining Gleyber Torres, Shota Imanaga and Brandon Woodruff in that regard. In a vacuum, any one of the four accepting his QO wouldn’t be considered a major surprise — but all four accepting in the same offseason is downright atypical. This marks the first time since the inception of the qualifying offer that more than three players have accepted a QO.

With Grisham back in the fold, the Yankees’ projected payroll for the upcoming season jumps to about $263MM, per RosterResource. They’ll now have about $286MM of luxury tax obligations, placing them just over the third penalty line. That means that the Yankees’ top pick in the 2027 draft will drop by 10 places, unless they’re able to sneak their luxury count back under $284MM. Given the wide swath of offseason dealings that’s likely still on the table for Cashman & Co., that doesn’t seem to be a very likely outcome. In all likelihood, the Yankees will wind up in the top CBT penalty tier, just as they’ve done in each of the past three seasons.

Turning to the rest of the league, Grisham’s early removal from the free agent market — to a team that didn’t clearly need to retain him, no less — subtracts arguably the top center field option from the market. Bellinger, of course, can still play center but barely did so in 2025. Most teams probably consider him more of a corner outfielder/first baseman who can play occasional center field. Harrison Bader and Cedric Mullins are the two most notable options still on the market, though the former has been more of a part-time player and the latter is looking to bounce back from an awful 2025 showing. The market was light on center fielders to begin with and is even more so now, so teams looking for help at the position might be more inclined to turn to the trade market to address that deficiency.

Gleyber Torres To Accept Qualifying Offer

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Infielder Gleyber Torres is going to accept the qualifying offer from the Tigers. Jon Heyman of The New York Post was among those to report the news. Torres will return to Detroit on a one-year deal worth $22.025MM.

Once Torres received the QO, it seemed like there was a decent chance of him accepting it, which is why we predicted he would do so as part of our Top 50 Free Agents list. Torres was a free agent a year ago. He reportedly received some kind of multi-year offer from the Angels but rejected it since he wanted to play for a contending club. The financial details of that offer from the Halos aren’t known. He eventually settled for a one-year, $15MM pact with Detroit.

He didn’t meaningfully increase his earning power during the 2025 season. He slashed .256/.358/.387 for a wRC+ of 113. That was better than his 2024 season, when he hit .257/.330/.378 for a 105 wRC+, but close to his career numbers. He now has a .264/.337/.433 line and 114 wRC+ for his career.

That 2025 production came in lopsided fashion. He had a .281/.387/.425 line in the first half but just a .223/.320/.339 showing in the second, leading to respective wRC+ figures of 131 and 88. He underwent sports hernia surgery after the season and said he had been playing through the injury for months, staying on the field because the club was in a playoff race. Presumably, that accounts for the reduced production.

Theoretically, getting back to full health could perhaps help him return to that first-half form when he was a substantially better hitter, but he’s also going into the offseason hurt. He isn’t expected to be hampered into next season and the Tigers felt good enough about his chances in 2026 to give him a bit of a raise. Perhaps some clubs out there were willing to pay him a bit more but they also would have been subject to penalties on account of the QO. We at MLBTR were considering predicting Torres for something like $40MM over three years before he received the QO.

Torres hasn’t played a position other than second base in over three years, so he’ll return to the keystone in Detroit for another year. Per RosterResource, they are now slated for a payroll of $146MM next year. That’s a bit shy of their year-end payroll in 2025, which was $155MM. It’s unknown how much they are willing to spend next year. They are a speculative fit for third baseman Alex Bregman but seem likely to focus on pitching pursuits.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Shota Imanaga To Accept Cubs’ Qualifying Offer

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Shota Imanaga will be returning to the Cubs, as The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney reports that the left-hander has accepted the team’s one-year, $22.025MM qualifying offer.  The surprising decision means that Imanaga stays put after his time in Wrigleyville seemed to be over, following a series of declined contract options on the part of the Cubs and Imanaga himself.

The four-year, $53MM deal that Imanaga signed with Chicago in January 2024 guaranteed Imanaga $23MM over the first two seasons, and this offseason presented both sides with decisions.  The Cubs had to decide whether or not to exercise a three-year option on Imanaga’s services that would’ve paid him $57.75MM over the 2026-28 seasons, and the team decided to decline.  Imanaga then had a $15.25MM player option for just 2026 that he also declined, even though exercising that option would’ve then created a $42.5MM club option for the Cubs for next winter covering the 2027-28 seasons that (if declined) would’ve created a $15.25MM player option for Imanaga for 2027.

The Cubs issued Imanaga the qualifying offer to ensure some compensation if Imanaga signed elsewhere, yet as it turned out, Imanaga will indeed take a one-year pact to remain, with roughly $7MM added beyond the price of his player option.  He would’ve locked in at least $30.5MM for himself by exercising his player option and generating that other player option for next winter, so he is currently leaving $8.475MM on the table given how this rather complicated situation turned out.

A 2026 season more in line with Imanaga’s impressive 2024 rookie campaign will easily land a multi-year contract worth far more than $8.475MM next winter, even though the lefty turns 33 in September.  He’ll be able to re-enter next year’s free agent market without the QO compensation attached to his services.  This removes one obstacle for Imanaga in free agency next winter, but more consistency on the mound will be the deciding factor.

Imanaga posted a 3.73 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate, and an elite 4.6% walk rate over 144 2/3 innings for Chicago this season.  Apart from his great control and the solid bottom-line ERA, the rest of Imanaga’s peripherals were almost all well below the league average.  The problems included a lot of hard and high-impact contact, as only three pitchers allowed more home runs than Imanaga’s 31 big flies in 2025.

A hamstring strain cost Imanaga most of May and June, but he still managed a 2.40 ERA over his first 75 innings of the year before things started to turn in the second half.  Twenty of Imanaga’s 31 home runs allowed came during his last 69 2/3 innings of the season, resulting in a 5.17 ERA.  Things didn’t get any better in the playoffs, as the southpaw posted an 8.10 ERA and gave up three more homers in 6 2/3 frames of postseason work.

These issues with the long ball were also apparent in Imanaga’s 2024 season, if not to the same extreme level.  He also allowed less hard contact and had a solid 25.1% strikeout rate, while delivering a 2.91 ERA over 173 1/3 innings.  This excellent debut season earned Imanaga a fourth-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting, a fifth-place finish in Cy Young Award voting, and his first All-Star nod.

Given how well Imanaga was seemingly adjusting to the big leagues over his first season and a half, it seemed like a lock that the Cubs were going to exercise their options to keep Imanaga in the fold through 2028.  However, his rough finish to the season seemingly changed the Cubs’ mind about such a substantial commitment.

Likewise, Imanaga and his reps at Octagon could’ve been concerned over how the market would react to his homer-heavy final 69 2/3 innings.  MLB Trade Rumors ranked Imanaga 22nd on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents and projected him for a three-year, $45MM deal, but Imanaga and his reps at Octagon might have viewed the qualifying offer as an impediment to an acceptable contract.  If Imanaga was going to have to settle for a short-term “prove it” type of deal anyway, accepting the QO allows him to aim for a bounce-back season in a familiar environment, and for a bigger one-year average annual value.

Returning to the Cubs also allows Imanaga to play for a team that should again be playoff contenders.  Starting pitching should still continue to be a need for Chicago even with Imanaga back, but at least one box has now been checked off of the team’s rotation plans.  Imanaga joins Matthew Boyd, Cade Horton, Jameson Taillon, and Colin Rea in the projected starting five, with Justin Steele theoretically able to return from a UCL revision surgery relatively early in the 2026 campaign.  Javier Assad and Ben Brown are also on hand, but the Cubs will want to bolster this group with at least one more reliable starter, given how the team didn’t trust its depth (including Imanaga) during the postseason.

Inset photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski — Imagn Images

Nationals Select Three Players To 40-Man Roster

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The Nationals announced that they have selected the contracts of three players. They are outfielder Christian Franklin, left-hander Jake Bennett and right-hander Riley Cornelio. All three are now protected from being selected in next month’s Rule 5 draft. The club’s 40-man roster count climbs from 34 to 37.

Franklin, 26 this month, was just acquired from the Cubs in the deadline deal which sent Michael Soroka to Chicago. A fourth-round pick from the 2021 draft, Franklin is generally considered good at a lot of things without a standout tool.

Between the Nats and Cubs, he spent all of 2025 at the Triple-A level, stepping to the plate 535 times in total. His 15% walk rate and 20.6% strikeout rate were both above average, though he hit only 12 home runs. His .272/.390/.427 batting line translated to a 118 wRC+, indicating he was 18% above league average. He played all three outfield spots and stole 19 bases. He’s not really considered a top prospect but he has shown enough to get a 40-man spot. He’ll look to work his way into the Washington outfield mix, a group that currently includes James Wood, Jacob Young, Robert Hassell III, Dylan Crews, Daylen Lile and others.

Bennett, 25 next month, was Washington’s second-round pick in 2022. He was taken 45th overall and secured a signing bonus of over $1.7MM. He has since been climbing the ladder, although Tommy John surgery in 2023 led to him missing the 2024 season. Here in 2025, he got back on track by logging 75 1/3 innings over 19 appearances, 18 of those officially being starts. He allowed just 2.27 earned runs per nine with a 21.5% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 47.3% ground ball rate. He just appeared in the Arizona Fall League and added another 20 innings.

Baseball America recently ranked Bennett the #6 prospect in Washington’s system. He hasn’t yet appeared at the Triple-A level but his final ten appearances in 2025 were at Double-A, so bumping up to the top minor league rung should be on the table next year. The Nats don’t have a ton of established arms in the rotation and might even subtract from the group by dealing MacKenzie Gore this offseason. Since they may be rebuilding for another year or two, Bennett could push his way into a major league audition at some point in the near future.

Cornelio, 26 in June, was a seventh-round pick from 2022. In 2025, he climbed from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A. In the process, he threw 134 1/3 innings with a 3.28 ERA, 24.8% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 37.6% ground ball rate. A few months ago, FanGraphs ranked him #36 in the system, projecting him to end up as a reliever in the long run. The Nats now have three option years, so they could keep trying him as a starter for a while or perhaps move him to the bullpen if they agree that’s where his future lies.

Photo courtesy of Lily Smith, Imagn Images.

Brandon Woodruff Accepts Qualifying Offer

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Brandon Woodruff has accepted the one-year, $22.025MM qualifying offer from the Brewers. The team confirmed that he’ll back for another season after an excellent but injury-shortened 2025 campaign.

Woodruff is one of four players who’ll opt for the strong one-year salary over exploring the market for a multi-year deal. Trent Grisham, Shota Imanaga and Gleyber Torres also accepted the QO. Woodruff and Grisham are the most surprising, as it was expected that they’d each command multi-year deals despite being attached to draft compensation.

Those players have had the past two weeks to survey the market. Perhaps they didn’t find the level of robust interest for which they’d hoped. It’s also possible that they preferred to stay with their current teams and are hopeful of using the QO as a springboard to hammering out an extension later in the offseason. That could be the case with Woodruff, a career-long Brewer who is headed into the eighth full season of his career.

A two-time All-Star, Woodruff has been among the best pitchers in MLB for most of that time. He has posted a sub-4.00 ERA in each season aside from his eight-start rookie year. Woodruff has allowed 3.10 earned runs per nine in 142 career appearances. He finished top five in Cy Young balloting in 2021 and posted a combined 2.82 ERA in 38 starts between 2022-23.

Woodruff missed a good chunk of the latter season with shoulder inflammation. That proved an unfortunate precursor to a few years of arm woes. Woodruff made it back in the second half of the ’23 season, but he revealed at the end of the year that he was headed for a capsule repair in his throwing shoulder. That immediately wiped out his 2024 campaign.

Milwaukee declined to tender him a one-year arbitration contract with the lost year looming, but the sides circled back on a two-year deal that guaranteed $17.5MM. Woodruff indeed missed the entire first season and started this year on the injured list as well. He had a couple fluky setbacks on his minor league assignment. An ankle tweak in May and a comebacker off his throwing elbow in June kept him off the big league roster until the week before the All-Star Break.

Woodruff made his long awaited return in the second week of July. He could not have pitched much better despite the layoff. He reeled off 64 2/3 innings of 3.20 ERA ball over 12 outings. Woodruff picked up quality starts in half those appearances while striking out 32.3% of opposing hitters against a 5.4% walk rate. Among starters with 50+ innings pitched, he ranked fifth in strikeout percentage and had the fourth-highest difference between his strikeout and walk numbers.

Excellent as that performance was, he didn’t look quite the same as he had before the surgery. His 93 MPH average fastball speed was down a couple ticks from the 95-96 MPH range at which he worked in 2023. It didn’t impact his production but is perhaps a slight red flag. More concerning was the possibility of Woodruff’s shoulder not holding up for the entire season. That came true at the worst possible time, as he was shut down just before the start of the postseason after suffering a moderate lat strain during a between starts bullpen session.

The Brewers made it to the NL Championship Series in his absence. Woodruff was not able to make it back and had reportedly not resumed throwing, so he almost certainly would have been unavailable if they’d gotten to the World Series. The Brewers were confident enough in next season’s health outlook to make the qualifying offer. Woodruff returns as the second-highest paid player on the roster after Christian Yelich, who’ll make $26MM per season ($4MM deferred annually) for another three years.

Under the CBA, accepting the qualifying offer is akin to signing a major league free agent contract. That means Woodruff cannot be traded without his consent until June 15, 2026. The Brewers would not have made the QO if they weren’t willing to have him take up a significant chunk of the payroll, even if the front office believed he’d probably decline and find a multi-year contract elsewhere. Woodruff will be back as one of the top two starters in Pat Murphy’s rotation. He cannot be tagged with another QO in his career and will hit free agency unencumbered by draft compensation after next season, barring an extension. He’ll be entering his age-34 campaign.

While Woodruff isn’t getting traded, this could impact the front office’s decision on Freddy Peralta. He’s headed into the final year of his contract on a bargain $8MM salary. The Brewers would have no shortage of suitors if they made Peralta available. President of baseball operations Matt Arnold said last week that they’ll consider offers out of due diligence but certainly weren’t eager to deal him.

Milwaukee has $68.525MM committed to Yelich, Woodruff, Peralta, Jackson Chourio and Aaron Ashby. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects their arbitration class to cost around $32MM. They’re at roughly $100MM before accounting for another $10-12MM in minimum salaried players to fill out the roster. They opened this season with a player payroll around $115MM, and they paid $16MM in option buyouts for Woodruff, Jose Quintana and Rhys Hoskins at the beginning of the offseason.

The Brewers should have some extra money in the coffers after their NLCS run. It’s hard to imagine they would’ve made the QO if Woodruff accepting would really strain them financially. Still, his return could give them more freedom to entertain offers on Peralta now that they know they’ll have at least one veteran anchor atop the staff either way.

If Peralta stays, he and Woodruff will be co-aces for another season. Quinn Priester and Jacob Misiorowski are going to be in the middle of the rotation. Chad Patrick, Logan Henderson, Tobias Myers and Robert Gasser could battle for spots at the back end. The Brewers tend to add a cheap free agent starter or swingman at the tail end of the offseason, so a smaller depth pickup could still be on the way.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that Woodruff was accepting. Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images.

Red Sox Designate Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Winckowski For Assignment

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The Red Sox announced that first baseman Nathaniel Lowe has been designated for assignment. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported the move shortly before the official announcement. That opens a 40-man spot for Tristan Gray, who has been acquired from the Rays. The Sox are also designating right-hander Josh Winckowski for assignment, reports Ari Alexander of 7 News. That will open another 40-man spot, presumably for Boston to add someone ahead of today’s Rule 5 protection deadline.

The moves are effectively early non-tenders. Friday afternoon is the deadline for teams to decide whether or not to tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible and pre-arb players. But as mentioned, today is the deadline for adding players to the 40-man in order to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. By cutting these two players now, the Sox have made space for adding Gray and someone else in the coming hours.

Nathaniel Lowe | Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY SportsIt’s not a surprise that Boston isn’t bringing Lowe back. He was a midseason desperation addition. The Sox lost Triston Casas to injury early in the season, leaving a hole at first base. They had been patching that over with guys like Romy González and Abraham Toro. Lowe became available in August when the Nationals released him. He has a good overall track record but was having a bad season. The Sox were able to grab him for essentially nothing to bolster their first base group down the stretch.

The Sox also could have kept Lowe for 2026 via arbitration but it never seemed likely they would do so. He qualified for Super Two status going into 2023, giving him four arb passes instead of the usual three. He had already raised his salary to $10.3MM in 2025. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for a $13.5MM salary in 2026, which will be his age-30 season. The Sox presumably had no intention of paying that after Lowe hit .228/.307/.381 for a 91 wRC+ this year. They have Casas potentially coming back in 2026 and they could also pursue external additions.

Technically, Boston has some time to try to trade Lowe but other teams presumably aren’t keen on him at that $13.5MM price point either. He will likely stay in DFA limbo until Friday and then be non-tendered, becoming a free agent.

Once he’s officially on the open market, he will be an interesting bounceback candidate. As mentioned, his 2025 season wasn’t good, but he was a solid everyday first baseman for the Rangers for many years. From 2021 to 2024, he got into at least 140 games in four straight seasons, including at least 157 in the first three. He launched between 16 and 27 home runs in each of those. He also had a walk rate of 12.5% or higher in three of the four. He had a combined .274/.359/.432 slash line and 124 wRC+ for that span. FanGraphs credited him with 10.8 wins above replacement.

That strong performance helped the Rangers win the 2023 World Series and also pushed Lowe’s salary up into eight-figure territory. Those factors combined with his down year to make him a clear non-tender candidate.

Based on his track record, some club should give Lowe a big deal at some point, though at a lesser price point than his projected arbitration salary. He will jump into a first base market that has already seen Josh Naylor come off the board. Pete Alonso, Ryan O’Hearn, Luis Arráez and others are still out there, while Christian Walker and Willson Contreras are potential trade candidates.

Winckowski, 28 in June, has spent the past few years working in a swing role for the Sox. He has logged 242 1/3 innings over 21 starts and 100 relief appearances, allowing 4.20 earned runs per nine. His 18.2% strikeout rate is subpar but his his 8.3% walk rate is around average and his 51.6% ground ball rate quite strong.

He only logged 11 2/3 innings in the majors in 2025. He spent most of the first half on optional assignment in the minors. In June, the Sox called him up and put him on the big league 60-day injured list due to a a flexor strain in his right elbow. That allowed them to open a 40-man roster spot. Winckowski stayed on the IL for the rest of the year, collecting service time along the way. The IL goes away five days after the World Series, so he retook a 40-man spot at that time.

His current health status is unknown but he was going to be on the roster bubble regardless. He exhausted his final option season in 2025. He also pushed his service time just over the three-year mark, therefore qualifying for arbitration. He is projected for a salary of $800K next year. That’s barely above the league minimum, which will be $780K next year. But for a guy who was hurt for most of 2025 and can’t be easily sent to the minors anymore, the Sox aren’t keen to pay him at that level.

While he’s in DFA limbo, they could try to trade him elsewhere. He can be controlled for another three seasons and is relatively cheap. But it’s also possible he gets non-tendered alongside Lowe on Friday and ends up a free agent.

Photos courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Kevin Jairaj, Eric Canha, Imagn Images

Rays Release Forrest Whitley To Pursue NPB Opportunity

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The Rays announced that they’ve released former top prospect Forrest Whitley to pursue an opportunity in Japan. Tampa Bay had selected him onto the 40-man roster a couple weeks ago to avoid losing him to minor league free agency. When the former first-round pick evidently found a better job overseas, the Rays were willing to let him depart.

Tampa Bay’s release of Whitley and trade of infielder Tristan Gray to Boston clears a couple spots on the 40-man roster. That’s down to 38 as this evening’s deadline to keep eligible prospects out of the Rule 5 draft approaches. It’s likely there are a few more cuts on the horizon for a Tampa Bay team that tends to churn the back of the roster and relies heavily on its farm system.

Whitley was once arguably the most talented pitching prospect in the sport. The Astros viewed the 6’7″ righty as a potential ace as he dominated up through the Double-A level. A failed drug test for a banned stimulant in 2018 was the first setback, and Whitley then suffered through multiple seasons ruined by injuries and underwhelming performance. That included Tommy John surgery in 2021 and a significant lat strain in ’23. Whitley could never find much of a rhythm when he was healthy enough to pitch in Triple-A.

He eventually exhausted his minor league options (even with Houston granted a fourth year) before he’d had much of a look at the big league level. He began this past season on the injured list. The Astros carried him on the MLB roster once he returned but designated him for assignment when he pitched terribly over his first 7 1/3 innings. The Rays acquired him in a cash trade but placed him on waivers after five underwhelming appearances. He cleared and finished the season as a non-roster player in Triple-A.

The final few months of the ’25 season were Whitley’s most promising in years. He fired 55 1/3 innings of 2.60 ERA ball while striking out 30.4% of opponents out of Durham’s rotation. Whitley’s heater averaged around 95 MPH and he leaned more heavily on his cutter and changeup while pulling back the usage of his sinker and curveball. It was encouraging enough for the Rays to keep him out of minor league free agency, but his out-of-options status meant he still would have needed to impress the club in Spring Training or risk heading back into DFA limbo.

Whitley is headed into his age-28 season and presumably has a rotation opportunity lined up in Japan. He has the power stuff and prospect pedigree to be one of the highest-upside NPB returnees a couple seasons from now if he carries over the form he showed in Durham. Doing so would come with a far higher earning ceiling than he was likely to find domestically. He’ll not only lock in a guaranteed contract for 2026, but he’d be able to return to MLB with the benefit of open market bidding if things go well in Japan. Whitley has yet to reach one year of MLB service time and would not have qualified for MLB free agency until his age-34 season even if he’d finally clicked at the big league level.

Red Sox Trade Luis Guerrero To Rays

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The Red Sox and Rays have swapped right-hander Luis Guerrero and infielder Tristan Gray, per announcements from both clubs. Boston recently designated Guerrero for assignment and passed him through waivers unclaimed. The Red Sox designated first baseman Nate Lowe for assignment to open a 40-man spot for Gray.

Tampa Bay could have just claimed Guerrero off waivers but seemingly didn’t want to commit a 40-man roster spot to the hard-throwing but command-challenged righty. The 25-year-old has posted a strong 2.63 ERA in 27 1/3 innings for the Red Sox over the past two seasons and averages a potent 96.9 mph on his heater. However, he ended the season on the injured list due to an elbow issue and has regularly displayed alarming command (or lack thereof) both in the majors and upper minors.

Guerrero has walked nearly 15% of his major league opponents against a tepid 17.6% strikeout rate. He carries a 3.89 ERA in three Triple-A seasons but has walked or plunked a colossal 17.4% of his Triple-A opponents. That includes a walk rate just under 19% in 2025.

At times, Guerrero has posted gaudy strikeout and swinging-strike rates. The velocity is impressive, and he has a pair of minor league options remaining. That makes him an intriguing roll of the dice for Tampa Bay, but his health and troubling lack of command make him more of a project than a sure thing — small-sample major league ERA notwithstanding.

Guerrero would hardly be the first live-armed prospect to land in Tampa Bay and flourish, of course, and there ought to be ample opportunity in Kevin Cash’s bullpen. The Rays declined their $11MM club option on longtime closer Pete Fairbanks, making him a free agent. Holdovers include Edwin Uceta, Griffin Jax, Garrett Cleavinger, Bryan Baker and Mason Montgomery, but there’s plenty of innings for Guerrero (and others) to claim if he can impress in spring training or in the early portion of the Triple-A season.

As for Gray, he’s a 29-year-old with limited MLB experience across parts of three seasons. He tallied 86 plate appearances with the Rays in 2025 and hit .231/.282/.410 with three homers and five doubles. Gray walked at a 7% clip and fanned at a 22.1% rate in his 30 games with Tampa Bay. He split the bulk of his season between the Triple-A affiliate of the White Sox, slashing .270/.333/.472 in 282 turns at the plate.

Gray is a left-handed hitter with considerable experience at all four infield positions. He’s played more second, short and third than first base but still has 938 innings even as a first baseman. He also has a minor league option remaining. He’ll go on Boston’s 40-man roster as a depth piece who can be stashed in Triple-A Worcester, though he’s not a lock to make it through the offseason on the 40-man roster. Guerrero will be in camp with the Rays as a non-roster invitee and head to Triple-A Durham if he doesn’t make the club next spring.

MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo first reported that Guerrero had been traded to Tampa Bay.

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