Diamondbacks Sign Ketel Marte To Extension
The Diamondbacks announced a new seven-year contract with star second baseman Ketel Marte. It’s a reported $116.5MM guarantee that comes with $64MM in new money. Marte, who had already been under contract for three seasons, is now signed through 2031. He can opt out of the deal after the 2030 season, when there’ll be at least $11.5MM remaining. There are also $33MM in escalators and performance bonuses for the QC Sports client. Marte receives a five-team no-trade clause, though that’ll become moot when he gets 10-and-5 rights early in the 2026 season.
The contract takes effect this year and breaks down as follows: $14MM in 2025 ($5MM of which is deferred), $15MM in ’26, $12MM in ’27, $20MM in ’28, and $22MMM per season between 2029-30. Each top-three MVP finish would boost the following year’s salary by $3MM; it’d go up by $2MM if he finishes between fourth and seventh in MVP voting. The deal also includes $2.5MM annually from 2026-31 in plate appearance incentives.
The news surely comes as a delight to fans in Arizona. The face of the Diamondbacks franchise first flashed superstar potential back in 2019, when he was an All-Star and finished fourth in NL MVP voting after slashing .329/.389/.592 (150 wRC+) in 144 games. In the years since then, he’s generally been an above-average player but not necessarily a superstar, slashing .275/.347/.462 with a wRC+ of 118 from 2020 to 2023. That narrative changed in 2024, however, as Marte rediscovered his MVP-caliber form during his age-30 season with a phenomenal .292/.372/.560 (151 wRC+) slash line that earned Marte his first career Silver Slugger award, a second All-Star appearance, and a third place finish in MVP voting behind Shohei Ohtani and Francisco Lindor.
That’s the sort of elite production that makes for a phenomenal building block, so it’s not exactly a surprise that Arizona brass were interested in extending Marte’s stay with the club and making him a Diamondback for life. The club has often been aggressive about extending its top players under Mike Hazen, with this latest deal for Marte standing as the tenth extension agreed upon since he took over baseball operations in fall of 2016. It’s also the fourth of 2025, joining agreements the club reached with shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, reliever Justin Martinez, and right-hander Brandon Pfaadt.
More notably, it’s also the third extension of Marte’s career. His first came back in 2018 when he was a pre-arbitration player. The switch-hitter was guaranteed $24MM by that first deal, which ran through the end of his expected team control window but also afforded the Diamondbacks two option years on what otherwise would’ve been Marte’s first two years of free agency. Marte’s second deal came about just before the 2022 season began, ahead of his final year before those options would’ve kicked in. That deal overwrote those two option years and guaranteed Marte $76MM for the 2023-27 seasons, and also included a club option for 2028.
The second deal ended up covering just two seasons, as it has now already been overwritten to extend Marte’s stay in Arizona through at least 2030, with a player option that could push the deal into 2031. Given the fact that Marte was already under team control through the end of his age-34 season, it’s at least somewhat surprising that the Diamondbacks would decide to commit to their second baseman’s mid-30s this far ahead of time. After all, the club very easily could’ve waited to see how Marte would perform over the next two or three seasons before opening discussions with Marte prior to the 2028 season, when they would likely exercise their club option over his services.
With that being said, the deal not only extends Arizona’s years of control over their star, but also restructures his existing contract. Marte was slated to earn $50.8MM over the next three seasons on his existing contract. That number drops to just $41MM with his new deal, saving the club nearly $10MM over the next three seasons and $5MM in 2025 alone. That also does not factor in the $46MM in deferred money in the deal, which cuts down the amount of money owed to Marte in the short-term even further.
That the Diamondbacks would seek a restructured deal with Marte in order to save a bit of money in the short-term is understandable considering that the team is deep into uncharted financial waters. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the club opened the 2025 season with a payroll of nearly $187MM. That’s an increase of $24MM over 2024, which was already the highest payroll in franchise history by more than $30MM. The club’s aggressiveness this winter in adding Corbin Burnes and swinging a trade for Josh Naylor was certainly admirable, but it’s long appeared likely that the Diamondbacks were likely stretching the limits of owner Ken Kendrick’s comfort zone.
If Arizona is facing the upper limits of its baseball operations budget, that could also explain the club’s reported insistence on suitors for struggling southpaw Jordan Montgomery eating at least $13MM of his $25MM salary for 2025 in trade talks as well as the club falling short in its pursuit of a top-flight closer this winter. Perhaps this restructured deal with Marte will offer them a bit more breathing room to work with at the trade deadline during an important 2025 season. After the current campaign, Montgomery and Naylor are slated to be joined by Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, and Eugenio Suarez in departing for free agency. That’s a lot of significant players who will need to be re-signed or replaced to avoid a step back in 2026, and it’s possible today’s restructuring of Marte’s deal could help the club fill those upcoming holes as well.
Mike Rodriguez first reported last night that the D-Backs and Marte were working on a new nine-figure contract. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic was first on the $116.5MM guarantee, the $46MM in deferrals, the 2031 player option, and the salary structure. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers had the $11.5MM option value and the $149.5MM maximum after escalators. Piecoro had the escalator specifics.
Image courtesy of Imagn Images.
Red Sox Sign Kristian Campbell To Eight-Year Extension
The Red Sox announced that they have signed prospect Kristian Campbell to an eight-year contract extension which runs from 2025 to 2032 with club options for 2033 and 2034. It is reportedly a $60MM guarantee which breaks down as follows: Campbell, a Beverly Hills Sports Council client, gets a $2MM signing bonus and a $1MM salary this year. He will then make $2MM, $3MM, $4MM, $6MM, $9MM, $13MM and $16MM in the next seven seasons. The first club option is valued at $19MM and has a $4MM buyout, then the second option is worth $21MM. There are also escalators based on awards voting and All-Star selections. The Sox are buying out two of Campbell’s free agent seasons with the options allowing them to extend their window by two more years after that.
Campbell’s stock has been shooting up for quite a while now. The Sox selected him with the 132nd overall pick in 2023, giving him a signing bonus of just under $500K. He played 22 minor league games just after that signing with a strong .309/.440/.471 line.
His success continued in his first full season. Last year, he vaulted from Single-A to Double-A and Triple-A, hitting a combined .330/.439/.558. That production led to a wRC+ of 180. He drew walks in 14.3% of his plate appearances while only striking out 19.9% of the time. He also stole 24 bases while lining up defensively at second base, third base, shortstop and in the outfield.
That huge season shot him up prospect lists heading into 2025. Each of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, FanGraphs and Keith Law of The Athletic had Campbell among the top ten prospects in the entire league this winter.
That also got Campbell in line to make the majors this year, with second base eventually emerging as the best path. The outfield is already fairly crowded, with Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu in there now. Roman Anthony will join that group at some point soon. Then there’s Masataka Yoshida, who largely slotted in as the designated hitter last year. But with the Sox going with Alex Bregman at third and Rafael Devers as the DH, there’s no room for Yoshida in there. Bregman could perhaps opt-out after this year but the Sox could have Marcelo Mayer take over that spot, since Trevor Story has shortstop spoken for.
There are lots of moving pieces but Campbell nonetheless got the second base job to start the year. He actually had a fairly tepid spring showing but the club showed faith in him and he has hit .375/.500/.688 in his first five big league contests.
Though he has made his major league debut, this is effectively comparable to pre-debut extensions. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the benchmark for a guy with no service time is Jackson Chourio‘s eight-year, $82MM extension from just over a year ago. That topped the previous record, which was $50MM for Luis Robert Jr., a deal that’s a few years in the past. Campbell got past Robert but didn’t quite get to Chourio’s level but that’s fairly understandable. Campbell is turning 23 in June while Chourio was just about to turn 20 years old in March of last year, with that difference giving Chourio some extra earning power.
It’s perhaps not an accident that the club waited until after Opening Day to get this deal done. It was reported last March that players who sign pre-debut extensions, like Chourio, aren’t eligible for the prospect promotion incentive. To discourage service time manipulation, the current collective bargaining agreement put measures in place to encourage teams to carry top prospects on Opening Day rosters. One of those measures is that top prospects who are called up early enough to earn a full service year can earn their clubs an extra draft pick via awards voting.
Campbell came into this year as a consensus top prospect and cracked the Opening Day roster. That means he can earn the Sox an extra pick by winning Rookie of the Year or finishing top three in MVP voting during his pre-arb years. That would have come off the table if this contract were signed prior to the start of the season but is still in play for Boston now that they’ve waited a few days into the campaign.
For Campbell, it’s easy to see why he preferred to lock up this kind of money earlier in his career. As mentioned, he wasn’t a huge name going into the draft. While some players can earn multiple millions on their signing bonuses, Campbell was limited to under $500K. Even though he cracked this year’s Opening Day roster, he wasn’t going to qualify for arbitration until after 2027. This deal allows him to put some life-changing money in the bank ahead of schedule.
Even the top prospects will sometimes struggle in the big leagues and Campbell was a sort of surprise surger last year. If he hits any speed bumps in the coming years, he is financially secure. He is potentially limited himself in the future, though. If the two options are picked up, he won’t hit free agency until he’s going into his age-33 season.
For the Sox, they clearly believe the future is bright and have gained some cost certainty and control over essentially Campbell’s entire prime. Should he continue to thrive on the field in the coming years, he’ll be a relative bargain. Even when he’s making eight-figure salaries in the later years of the deal, that’s still well below what top players get on the open market.
It’s the second significant extension they’ve given out in recent days. They inked left-hander Garrett Crochet to a $170MM deal earlier this week. That was a different animal as Crochet is far closer to free agency and more established as a big leaguer.
Another key difference between the two is that Crochet’s deal doesn’t start until 2026 and therefore doesn’t impact Boston’s competitive balance tax number here in 2025, but the Campbell deal does. RosterResource calculates the club’s CBT number at $249MM, beyond the $241MM base threshold. Back in February, president Sam Kennedy said the club was already over the line and planned to stay there.
Christopher Smith of MassLive first relayed the $60MM guarantee. Julian McWilliams of CBS Sports first reported the option values. Alex Speier of The Boston Globe, reported the full annual breakdown and escalators.
Photos courtesy of Kevin Jairaj and Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images
Padres Sign Jackson Merrill To Nine-Year Extension
The Padres announced that they have signed star outfielder Jackson Merrill to a nine-year contract extension that runs through 2034 with a club option for 2035. Reportedly, it guarantees the star $135MM. Merrill was previously slated to reach free agency after 2029, so this extends the club’s window of control by at least five years. The outfielder is represented by KHG Sports Management.
The salary breaks down as follows: $10MM signing bonus, $1MM in 2026, $6MM in ’27, $8MM in ’28, $10MM in ’29, $20MM annually between 2030-34. There are $30MM in plate appearance escalators that can push his salary earnings to $165MM. Each time Merrill gets to 500 plate appearances in a season, he adds $1MM to his future salaries for the 2030-2034 seasons. The deal can max out at $204MM and includes a $30MM club option for a tenth season that can be converted to a player option. The club option becomes a player option with a top five finish in MVP voting, while a top ten finish is also an escalator.
Merrill’s breakout was a stunningly impressive part of the 2024 season. It didn’t completely come out of nowhere, as Merrill was a first-round pick, selected 27th overall in 2021. He was one of the top prospects in baseball during his time in the minors. However, by the end of the 2023 season, his experience was still limited. He was drafted out of high school, meaning he had not played college ball. His minor league track record consisted of just 200 games. None of those were at the Triple-A level and only 46 were at Double-A. He wouldn’t celebrate his 21st birthday until April 19th of 2024.
On top of his youth and inexperience, the Padres were asking him to make a major defensive shift. He had primarily been a shortstop in the minors but the Friars had Ha-Seong Kim and Xander Bogaerts in their middle infield. In center field, Trent Grisham‘s bat had fallen off and the Padres sent him to the Yankees as part of the Juan Soto deal. The Padres tried Merrill there in the spring, liked the results and gave him the job.
In spite of his talents, it would have been understandable if there were some growing pains for a guy so young and learning a premium defensive position on the fly. But no such pains were evident, as Merrill flourished. He hit 24 home runs for the Padres last year. His 4% walk rate was low but he also kept his strikeouts down to a 17% clip. His .292/.326/.500 batting line translated to a 130 wRC+, indicating he was 30% better than league average. He stole 16 bases in 19 tries. Defensive Runs Saved considered him to be league average in center, no small feat given the circumstances. Even more impressively, he was credited with 11 Outs Above Average, a mark that put him in the top ten of center fielders last year.
The overall package was very strong. FanGraphs credited him with 5.3 wins above replacement and Baseball Reference 4.4. That would have made him a slam-dunk Rookie of the Year in many seasons, but Merrill was up against Paul Skenes and his incredible debut. Merrill got seven out of 30 first-place votes and finished second to Skenes in National League ROY voting. He also finished ninth in the NL Most Valuable Player vote.
Kim departed via free agency after 2024 and the Padres could have considered moving Merrill back to shortstop this year, though president of baseball operations A.J. Preller quickly shot that down in October. The move to center field had gone so smoothly that they didn’t want to mess with it. The 2025 season could hardly have started better. Merrill has a line of .400/.435/.600 through six games as the Padres are undefeated.
The Padres clearly love Merrill. That’s why they nabbed him with a first-round pick and promoted him so quickly. They also reportedly discussed an extension with him prior to his debut, showing tremendous faith in him before he had even proved himself in the majors.
After that breakout, they probably wished they had got something done ahead of time, as he only increased his earning potential last year. Broadly speaking, extension prices go up as guys get further into their arbitration years and closer to free agency. We can only guess what number it would have taken to get a deal done a year ago. The Padres have had plenty of financial pressures in recent years but Merrill’s price would likely only go up over time, so now is better than later.
In terms of pre-arbitration extensions, Merrill comes in a bit below the top guarantees but on a shorter deal that will still allow him to hit free agency with a lot of earning power. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the top guarantees for pre-arb extensions are for Fernando Tatis Jr., Bobby Witt Jr. and Julio Rodríguez. Tatis got $340MM but on a 14-year deal that essentially bought out his entire career. Witt got a guarantee of $288.8MM on an 11-year pact but he seems likely to opt out after seven years with with $148.8MM banked. Rodríguez got a $210MM guarantee over 12 years but with a complicated club/player option structure that could see him depart after seven seasons.
Merrill’s guarantee comes in a bit below that tier of players but on a shorter deal. The final guaranteed year of this pact will be his age-31 season, meaning he will still have a chance to secure another notable guarantee in the future via free agency. The option could keep him in San Diego another year but he also has a decent shot at converting it to a player option. As mentioned, he already finished ninth in MVP voting in his rookie season, so getting into the top five isn’t far-fetched. He has a decent shot of pushing up his salary earnings via those escalators. He also gets to bank huge money ahead of schedule, as he previously wasn’t slated to qualify for arbitration until after 2026.
For the Padres, they have had a budget crunch in recent years but they love their guys. Over the past five years, this is the sixth extension worth at least $80MM that they have put on the books, the others having gone to Tatis, Manny Machado, Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish and Jake Cronenworth.
Since this deal starts in 2026, it won’t affect the club’s competitive balance tax number in 2025. The specific annual breakdown hasn’t been publicly reported but early-career extensions often involve gradually escalating salaries. Musgrove’s deal is done after 2027. Nick Pivetta can opt out of his deal after 2026 or 2027. Robert Suarez can opt out of his pact after 2025. Luis Arráez, Dylan Cease and Michael King are each making notable salaries and are slated for free agency after this year. Though the budget has clearly been tight recently, the Friars evidently felt that they had enough wiggle room in the future to make this work.
It still amounts to a large pile of future commitments. Between Merrill, Bogaerts, Tatis and Machado, they have four mega contracts on the books through at least 2033. In recent years, with the collapse of their TV deal, that’s led to some budget crunches. The front office has had to get creative, including trading away Soto. They got huge value from a $1MM investment in Jurickson Profar last year, though that now looks suspect in the wake of his recent PED suspension. This winter, they took similar low-cost fliers on players like Kyle Hart and Jason Heyward, as well as a back-loaded deal for Pivetta.
Perhaps more such maneuverings are in the club’s future, as they seem content to run an imbalanced payroll with heavily-paid stars while they look for upside plays elsewhere. For fans, that means they can look forward to watching the Merrill/Tatis/Machado/Bogaerts core for close to another decade, while the supporting characters might rotate. For Merrill, thanks to his quick ascent to the majors, he was able to put nine figures in the bank while still having a chance to hit the open market in his early 30s.
Robert Murray of Fansided first reported that the two sides were in agreement on a nine-year deal with a $135MM guarantee and $30MM club/player option that could max out at $204MM. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported that it started in 2026. Dennis Lin of The Athletic reported the presence of the $30MM in plate appearance escalators that could bump the overall salary payout to $165MM. MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald reported the specifics on those escalators. Russell Dorsey of Yahoo reported the $10MM signing bonus, that the club option becomes a player option with a top five finish in MVP voting, and that a top ten finish is also an escalator. Heyman reported the salary breakdown.
Photos courtesy of Orlando Ramirez and Denis Poroy, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Release Zach Pop
The Blue Jays released reliever Zach Pop after designating him for assignment last week, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Assuming he clears release waivers, he’ll become a free agent.
Pop lost his 40-man roster spot as part of the Opening Day shuffle. Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling noted in mid-March that Pop had come down with elbow inflammation during Spring Training and would have begun the regular season on the injured list. Injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, so the DFA meant he’d be released unless the Jays found a trade partner.
The Canadian-born righty joined the Jays at the 2022 deadline in a trade with Miami. He turned in a 1.89 ERA in 17 appearances down the stretch. While he made a strong first impression, Pop has struggled over the last two years. He gave up 11 runs in 13 2/3 innings in 2023 and was tagged for a 5.59 ERA over a career-high 58 appearances last season. Pop got ground-balls at a strong 54.6% clip but only managed a 15.8% strikeout rate. When opponents were able to elevate the ball, they found success. He surrendered nine homers in 48 1/3 frames — a rate of 1.68 longballs per nine innings.
Pop had made seven Spring Training appearances before the elbow issue. He allowed five runs (four earned) across 6 2/3 innings despite eight strikeouts. He wasn’t expected to face a long-term absence, as imaging didn’t reveal any structural issues. He should find interest on a minor league deal once he’s healthy.
Twins Outright Randy Dobnak
The Twins sent righty Randy Dobnak outright to Triple-A St. Paul after he went unclaimed on waivers, relays Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star-Tribune. As expected, Dobnak will accept the assignment and report to the minors.
Minnesota has shuttled Dobnak on and off the 40-man roster a few times over the past couple years. They can comfortably do so because of his contract. Dobnak signed a $9.25MM extension back in 2021. He’s playing on a $3MM salary and is guaranteed a $1MM buyout on a ’26 club option. Another team would need to assume that contract to claim him off waivers. As a player with less than five years of service time, Dobnak would need to forfeit the salary to decline the outright assignment in favor or free agency.
Neither situation is likely, so the Twins can continuously outright him off the roster when they want to send him to Triple-A. Dobnak has made one big league appearance this year. He worked 5 1/3 innings of mop-up relief, allowing only one run on two hits and a pair of walks. He pitched in five MLB games last season, his first big league work since 2021. Dobnak spent the rest of the season working out of the St. Paul rotation. He posted a 4.25 ERA with a solid 22.7% strikeout rate across 28 appearances. He’ll stick around as non-roster rotation or long relief depth.
Hector Neris Elects Free Agency
Veteran reliever Héctor Neris elected free agency, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’d been designated for assignment by the Braves on Monday.
Neris broke camp with Atlanta after signing a minor league contract in early March. He didn’t have much of a leash, though, as they moved on after two appearances. Opposing hitters went 5-7 with a walk, a home run, and a strikeout. Neris had made all of three appearances during Spring Training, so it was a very brief Braves tenure.
The 35-year-old righty has topped 50 innings in each of the last five full seasons. He’d been a productive setup man with the Phillies and Astros for most of that stretch. Neris fired 68 1/3 frames of 1.71 ERA ball as recently as 2023, but he had a shaky ’24 season. He signed a $9MM deal with the Cubs and operated as Chicago’s closer for a good portion of the year.
Neris went 17-22 in save opportunities while walking more than 13% of batters faced. The Cubs released him in August. He returned to Houston to close the season, and while he threw a lot more strikes, he gave up four home runs in 16 appearances. Neris finished the year with a combined 4.10 ERA through 59 1/3 innings. He fanned a little less than a quarter of opponents against a 10.8% walk percentage. Between that and his slow start to 2025, he’ll likely be limited to minor league offers.
Dodgers Acquire Esteury Ruiz
The Athletics announced that they have traded outfielder Esteury Ruiz to the Dodgers for right-hander Carlos Duran. Prior to that official announcement, Alden González of ESPN reported that Ruiz was headed to the Dodgers. The outfielder was designated for assignment by the Athletics a few days ago. The Dodgers will option him to Triple-A. Right-hander Kyle Hurt has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Hurt required Tommy John surgery in July and won’t be an option until later in the season.
Ruiz, now 26, long been known for his wheels but has always had questions about his bat. He burst onto the major league scene with the A’s in 2023, topping the American League by stealing 67 bases. At the plate, he slashed .254/.309/.345 for a wRC+ of 85. Despite his speed, his glovework received mixed reviews. He was credited with two Outs Above Average but -20 Defensive Runs Saved.
The stolen bases weren’t enough to get buy-in from the A’s. They optioned him to the minors early in 2024. He was recalled but then suffered a strained left wrist which kept him on the IL for months. He also underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in September. He was in camp with the A’s this spring but was optioned in mid-March and bumped off the 40-man when they claimed left-hander Angel Perdomo off waivers this past weekend.
The minor league offense has been better in recent years. Dating back to the start of 2022, Ruiz has a line of .337/.444/.535 on the farm. However, most of that was in his breakout 2022 season. He was in the majors in 2023 and mostly hurt in 2024. His minor league production was more middling prior to that. He slashed a combined .247/.318/.391 from 2017 to 2021 across various minor league levels for a 97 wRC+.
It’s been up-and-down overall. His huge 2022 showing got him a lot of attention. The Padres traded him to the Brewers that year as part of the infamous Josh Hader deal. Milwaukee then flipped Ruiz to the A’s as part of the three-team Sean Murphy trade. The A’s clearly were making a big bet on Ruiz at that time but apparently soured on him after his middling offensive performance in 2023 and then injury-marred 2024.
For the Dodgers, they effectively had a 40-man roster spot open due to Hurt’s surgery. There’s little harm in bringing Ruiz aboard to see how he looks after last year’s injuries. Even if the bat doesn’t come around, he could perhaps prove to be useful as a pinch-running specialist. Any offensive developments would be a nice bonus.
Duran, 23, has been working as a starter in the minor leagues with some decent numbers but health concerns. Despite primarily working as a starter in the minors, he’s never topped 81 innings in a season.
In March of last year, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked him the #22 prospect in the Dodgers’ system, noting that Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2023 and he also had some shoulder troubles on his track record. He returned to the mound last year and gradually built up to toss 53 1/3 innings across 19 starts. He had a 3.71 earned run average, 29.4% strikeout rate and 12.9% walk rate. He reached Triple-A in the process and will give the A’s some non-roster pitching depth at the upper levels.
Photo courtesy of Kelley L Cox, Imagn Images.
Phillies Re-Sign Buddy Kennedy To Minor League Deal
Infielder Buddy Kennedy is sticking with the Phillies after being designated for assignment last week. The Phils announced that he went unclaimed on waivers. Kennedy elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment but promptly re-signed with Philadelphia on a minor league contract. He’ll head to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Kennedy landed in Philadelphia last June in a DFA trade with the Tigers. He appeared eight times in the big leagues, going 2-11 with a couple walks. Kennedy played very well with the IronPigs, hitting .294/.400/.500 with 10 homers and nearly as many walks as strikeouts across 67 games. He held his 40-man roster spot all winter but entered a crucial Spring Training. Kennedy is out of options, so he needed to break camp or go on waivers.
The 26-year-old’s spring numbers weren’t good. Kennedy hit .150 over 22 exhibition games. He connected on three homers with a solid 10:12 walk-to-strikeout ratio, but he only managed six hits in 40 at-bats. The Phils opted for Edmundo Sosa and Kody Clemens, each of whom was also out of options, as their backup infielders.
No other team was willing to carry Kennedy on the major league roster. This is his second career outright, which gave him the ability to elect free agency. He chose that path but only to rework his deal with the Phils. It’s relatively common for players to do that, as it’s possible the new contract contains a different minor league salary or opt-out chances that he would not have gotten had he simply accepted the outright assignment. The former fifth-round pick returns to Triple-A, where he has a .281/.392/.435 slash in 300 career games.
Angels Trade Michael Petersen To Braves
The Braves and Angels announced a trade sending reliever Michael Petersen to Atlanta for cash considerations. The Halos had designated the righty for assignment yesterday when they acquired Jake Eder from the White Sox. Atlanta optioned Petersen to Triple-A Gwinnett. They already had an opening on the 40-man roster after placing Jurickson Profar on the restricted list following his PED suspension.
Petersen, 30, has kicked around the league over the past few months. He made his big league debut with the Dodgers last summer. Petersen pitched 11 times with L.A. before they lost him on waivers to Miami. He made five appearances with the Marlins before the end of the season. Miami waived him at the beginning of the offseason. Petersen went to the Blue Jays and then the Angels on offseason waiver acquisitions.
The Halos had optioned him to Triple-A to begin the year. Petersen pitched once for their affiliate, allowing two runs in 1 1/3 innings. He had good numbers at that level a season ago. Petersen fanned more than 35% of opponents while working to a 1.64 ERA across 33 innings for the Dodgers’ top affiliate. That didn’t translate into much MLB success, as he gave up 14 runs over his first 19 2/3 big league frames. He recorded 14 strikeouts while issuing 11 walks.
Atlanta had a free roster spot after the Profar suspension. Petersen is in his second of three option years, so the Braves can keep him in Triple-A for a while if he holds his 40-man spot. This is the fifth trade the Braves and Angels have made since the start of the offseason and their third deal of the past two weeks. Atlanta traded Angel Perdomo to the Angels in mid-March, and the teams lined up on the Ian Anderson/José Suarez swap a few days later.
Padres Outright Tyler Wade
The Padres announced that Tyler Wade was outrighted to Triple-A El Paso after going unclaimed on waivers. As a player with five years of major league service, Wade could have declined the minor league assignment while retaining his $900K salary. It seems he’s comfortable enough with the organization to report to Triple-A instead of pursuing other opportunities.
San Diego designated Wade and Eguy Rosario, both of whom are out of minor league options, for assignment on Opening Day. Teams have seven days to resolve DFA limbo. Waivers take 48 hours, so teams have five days after a DFA to line up a trade. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller said the team was trying to find a trade partner on Rosario, but he’d presumably end up on waivers tomorrow if they don’t make a trade this evening. Wade hit waivers more quickly, as he was less likely to get an MLB roster spot from another team.
The lefty-hitting Wade held a spot on San Diego’s big league roster for all of 2024. He appeared in 90 games, hitting .217/.285/.239 without a home run through 156 plate appearances. It’s an incredibly light bat, but Wade is a plus runner who can play anywhere aside from catcher. The Padres guaranteed him $900K on a deal with a $1MM club option to buy out his final arbitration season. That gave him a decent chance to win another bench job entering Spring Training, but he was jumped on the depth chart in camp.
Wade had a poor spring, hitting .209 with one homer in 19 games. San Diego brought in Jose Iglesias on a minor league contract with a $3MM base salary that made him a strong candidate to win the backup shortstop job. Iglesias, Yuli Gurriel and Gavin Sheets all made the roster as minor league signees. Brandon Lockridge had a great Spring Training to take the fourth outfield role. Lockridge runs very well himself, so he can replace Wade as Mike Shildt’s top pinch-running option.
The lack of flexibility on the bench obstructs Wade’s path back to the big leagues. He’s versatile enough to serve as injury insurance or an alternative if Iglesias isn’t performing well.