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Tatsuya Imai To Be Posted November 19th

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TODAY: Imai has officially been posted, as the league informed teams today.  Imai’s posting window opens tomorrow at 7am CT and closes on January 2 at 4pm CT.

NOVEMBER 12: It was reported last week that right-hander Tatsuya Imai would be posted by the Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball. His agent Scott Boras met with members of the media today at the general managers meeting and said the posting will become official on November 19th. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet was among those to pass it along.

Once the posting becomes official, it will open up a 45-day window for Imai and Boras to negotiate will all 30 major league clubs. Technically, they will have until early January to work something out. It’s probably fair to expect a deal to come together before the holidays, when the hot stove activity tends to slow down.

Imai should garner lots of interest based on his results and also his age. His earned run average in Japan has been 2.34 or lower in three straight seasons now, including a 1.92 mark in 2025. His strikeout rate has ticked up from 24.4% in 2023 to 26.3% last year and 27.8% this year. Meanwhile, his walk rate has dropped from 11.4% to 9.8% to 7% in those years.

He is currently 27 years old, turning 28 in May. Teams have shown that they value that youth. Recent deals for young players like Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jung Hoo Lee have surged beyond expectations.

Imai won’t have as much earning power as Yamamoto, who secured $325MM over 12 years. Yamamoto was even younger, having just turned 25 when he was posted, and also had the superior track record of performance. Still, Imai should find lots of interest. MLBTR predicted he could secure a $150MM guarantee on a six-year deal.

The signing team will also owe the Lions a posting fee, on top of the guarantee they give Imai. The Lions will get 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the contract’s next $25MM, and 15% of any money above the $50MM mark. If Imai were to sign a deal matching MLBTR’s $150MM projection, his new team would owe the Lions a $24.375MM posting fee.

The righty has already been connected to the Mets. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported today that the Yankees will be looking at Imai, as well as Lucas Giolito. The Yanks go into 2026 with their rotation in flux. Due to injuries, it projects to be much different later in the year compared to the end of camp. Gerrit Cole is still recovering from last year’s Tommy John surgery and won’t be ready by Opening Day. Carlos Rodón underwent a procedure to remove loose bodies from his left elbow and is expected to start the year on the injured list as well. Clarke Schmidt had internal brace surgery in July and could rejoin the club in the second half.

With those absences, the Yankees project to start the season with Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Luis Gil, Will Warren and Allan Winans in the rotation. Adding to that group would be an understandable target. It’s possible that things get tight later in the year as Cole, Rodón and Schmidt get healthy, but other injuries could also pop up along the way.

Giolito should be a far more affordable addition than Imai. MLBTR predicted him for a two-year, $32MM deal. He was once a borderline ace but hasn’t been at that level in a while. His ERA finished near 5.00 in 2022 and 2023. He missed 2024 due to internal brace surgery. He returned in 2025 and posted a 3.41 ERA but with less impressive stuff under the hood. HIs 19.7% strikeout rate was below league average and well below the 33.7% mark he had back in 2020. He also finished the season back on the IL with an elbow issue, though he says that has now passed.

There are plenty of other starting pitchers the Yankees could consider at different price levels. Presumably, their plans in the rotation will depend upon what they do elsewhere. They have to address their outfield, with Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham having both reached free agency. It’s also possible they look to remake a bullpen that was a source of frustration in 2025.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images.

Diamondbacks Outright Christian Montes De Oca

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The Diamondbacks outrighted reliever Christian Montes De Oca, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. That drops Arizona’s 40-man roster count to 37.

Montes De Oca is a 26-year-old who made his big league debut this past season. Arizona first called him up in May but didn’t get him into a game before optioning him back out. He came back up in early June as the extra pitcher for a doubleheader in Cincinnati. Montes De Oca tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings of mop-up ball, striking out two while issuing a walk.

That ended up being his only MLB appearance of the season. Montes De Oca went on the injured list with elbow inflammation a few days later. The Snakes subsequently announced that he was headed for surgery on a seemingly unrelated lower back injury. Montes De Oca finished the season on the injured list but needed to be reinstated onto the roster at the beginning of the offseason.

Montes De Oca didn’t enter the professional ranks until his age-22 season. He has pitched to a 4.34 earned run average in 186 2/3 innings over parts of four minor league seasons. He has punched out a quarter of opponents against a serviceable 8.1% walk rate. He’ll remain in the system as a non-roster player and figures to get an invite to big league camp if he’s healthy next spring.

Tomorrow evening is the deadline for teams to add players to the 40-man to keep them out of the Rule 5 draft. Mitch Bratt and Kohl Drake — the top two pitching prospects acquired from Texas for Merrill Kelly — will both need to be added to the roster. Dropping Montes De Oca gives them an extra spot in case they want to keep someone like Double-A outfielder Gavin Conticello, Triple-A starter Dylan Ray or former third-round pick Jacob Steinmetz out of the draft.

Mariners Re-Sign Josh Naylor

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The Mariners officially announced they’ve brought back Josh Naylor on a five-year deal. It’s a reported $92.5MM guarantee for the ISE Baseball client.  Naylor will get a $6.5MM signing bonus upfront. He’ll make a $10MM salary in 2026, $16MM in ’27, $18MM in ’28, $20MM in ’29 and $22MM in 2030. The deal also includes a full no-trade clause and has no deferred money.

Naylor becomes the first headline name of the 2025-26 free agent class to land a new contract, just two weeks after the World Series concluded.  It counts as a surprise to see any major free agent sign their next contract this quickly, even before the players who received qualifying offers have made their decisions.  (Naylor was notably not eligible for a QO, since he was traded from the Diamondbacks to the Mariners during the season.)

MLB Trade Rumors ranked Naylor 12th on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents, and the five-year term matches our projection that Naylor would receive a five-year, $90MM deal.  The five-year length of Naylor’s contract also matches the longest free agent deal the Mariners have given out during Jerry Dipoto’s decade in charge of Seattle’s baseball operations department.  The M’s inked Robbie Ray to a five-year, $115MM pact during the 2021-22 offseason, and Ray’s contract and Yusei Kikuchi’s four-year, $56MM deal in January 2019 were the only free agent deals of the Dipoto era to exceed even two years.

There are multiple reasons behind the lack of big free agent strikes.  The Mariners’ infamous 10-year, $240MM deal with Robinson Cano from December 2013 could’ve led to some organizational wariness over blockbuster signings.  Since John Stanton’s ownership group bought the team in 2016, the M’s have only once finished a season with a top-10 payroll, and are only moving back into the middle range of spending league-wide.  There is also “Trader Jerry’s” own personal preference to build rosters via trades rather than free agents, as Dipoto has become known for being very active in negotiating swaps.  Players may have had misgivings about joining a Mariners team that has two just postseason appearances in the last 24 seasons, and hitters in particular weren’t exactly lining up to play in a notoriously pitcher-friendly environment.

With all of this in mind, there was such mutual interest between Naylor and the Mariners that it certainly seemed like the team was very willing to stretch beyond its usual free agent comfort zone.  Dipoto was open in telling the media — including Darragh McDonald on the MLBTR Podcast back in September — that re-signing Naylor was a priority for the organization, and Naylor himself was just as effusive in how much he enjoyed playing in Seattle.

Considering how Naylor performed after arriving in the Pacific Northwest, it’s easy to see why both sides moved quickly on a long-term deal.  Naylor was already enjoying a strong season with the Diamondbacks, but with Arizona falling out of contention, the D’Backs dealt the slugger a week before the trade deadline, landing rookie left-hander Brandyn Garcia and pitching prospect Ashton Izzi.

Naylor proceeded to hit .299/.341/.490 with nine homers and 19 stolen bases (without a single caught stealing) over 210 regular-season plate appearances for the M’s, and he followed that up with a .340/.392/.574 slash line over 51 postseason PA.  Adding this type of pop into the lineup was perhaps the primary reason the Mariners won the AL West, and then outlasted the Tigers in the ALDS before falling just short of the first World Series berth in franchise history in losing the ALCS to the Blue Jays in seven games.

This kind of success made the Mariners want to more or less bring the band back together for 2026, which was no small feat since Naylor, Jorge Polanco, and Eugenio Suarez (among others) were all set for free agency.  Re-signing Naylor is the first major domino to fall, and it now remains to be seen if either Polanco or Suarez can also be retained in the wake of the team’s sizeable commitment in Naylor.  The M’s entered the offseason with approximately $34MM to spend, according to Dipoto’s statements after the playoff run was over, with more money potentially available at the deadline if more in-season reinforcements were required.

For now, the Mariners and their fans can at least enjoy the idea of Naylor suiting up at T-Mobile Park for the next five seasons.  Naylor turns 29 in June, so his contract will run through his age-33 season.  There has been some league-wide hesitancy in recent years about giving major contracts to first base-only players (especially as those players enter their 30s), yet Naylor’s production outside of just his stretch run with the Mariners makes him a solid choice for a five-year investment.

Naylor’s 128 wRC+ in 2025 was a career high, narrowly topping the 127 wRC+ he posted with the Guardians in 2023.  Since emerging as a regular with Cleveland in 2022, Naylor has hit .275/.336/.464 with 88 home runs, translating to a 123 wRC+ and 9.9 fWAR over the last four seasons.  His barrel and hard-hit ball rates are okay but uninspiring, and his walk rate from 2022-25 was below average, so Naylor doesn’t exactly fit the profile of a classic slugging first baseman.

His biggest offensive weapon is his ability to make contact, as Naylor is among the league’s more difficult players to strike out though he is prone to chasing pitches off the plate.  There is also the amusing oddity of Naylor’s 30-for-32 record at stealing bases in 2025, which speaks to his skill as an opportunistic baserunner despite being one of the slowest players in baseball.  Defensively, public metrics are mixed on his glovework.  The Outs Above Average metric has him solidly above average with +12 OAA, while his -6 Defensive Runs Saved paints a less-flattering picture of his work at first base.

Naylor joins Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez as Seattle players locked up through at least the 2029 season, and Rodriguez’s deal could actually extend through 2039 depending on a complicated set of options following the 2029 campaign.  These three All-Star position players, veteran righty Luis Castillo, and a core of homegrown starters (George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller) have become the building blocks of an AL West title team that looks to remain competitive for at least the rest of the decade.

Though many pundits — including three of us at MLBTR — predicted Naylor would re-sign the Mariners, the fact that he has found a new deal so suddenly creates an interesting ripple effect on the rest of the free agent class.  Teams in need of lineup help have one less big bat to consider, and the first base market in particular has now lost a name many teams would’ve considered as perhaps a preferred alternative to Pete Alonso, Munetaka Murakami, or Kazuma Okamoto.  Murakami or Okamoto could be deployed at third base and Cody Bellinger could be viewed as a first baseman or outfielder in equal measure, depending on a suitor’s needs.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Mariners and Naylor were closing in on a five-year deal. Ari Alexander of 7 News Boston had the guarantee landing in the $90-100MM range. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was first on the $92.5MM figure and the absence of deferred money. Robert Murray of FanSided first noted the $6.5MM bonus and the full no-trade clause. Andrew Destin of The Associated Press had the specific salary breakdown.

Inset photo courtesy of Stephen Brashear — Imagn Images

Padres Re-Sign Kyle Hart

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The Padres announced they’ve re-signed Kyle Hart to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2027 season. The Nello Gamberdino client is reportedly guaranteed $1.2MM. He’ll be paid $1MM in 2026 and is guaranteed a $200K buyout on the $2.5MM option. The option price would climb by $250K apiece if Hart reaches 16 and 20 starts next season; it’d jump another $500K at 24, 28 and 32 starts. The buyout price would climb by $100K each at 50, 55 and 60 appearances.

Hart, 33 next week, posted a 5.86 ERA in 43 innings of work for the Padres this past year while splitting time between the rotation and bullpen. The lefty inked a $1.5MM guarantee with San Diego back in February that came with a $5MM club option for the 2026 season that Padres opted to decline earlier this month. That wasn’t necessarily a shock given his lackluster performance; even during his time at Triple-A El Paso, Hart posted a middling 4.10 ERA in 63 2/3 innings of work with a strikeout rate of just 18.5%. 2025 marked his first work in the majors since his 2020 big league debut with the Red Sox, which lasted all of 11 innings.

During the interim, Hart had bounced between various minor league affiliates before heading overseas to pitch for the KBO’s NC Dinos. He made 26 starts for the Dinos in 2024 and pitched exceptionally, with a 2.69 ERA and a 28.8% strikeout rate across 157 innings of work. It was a strong enough season that Hart looked to return to the big leagues and see what he could do at the highest level, but things didn’t work out quite so well last year. Hart is hardly the first player to dominate overseas but struggle to replicate his production stateside, as even 2023 KBO MVP Erick Fedde struggled in the big leagues this past year after enjoying a strong return season with the White Sox and Cardinals in 2024.

Regardless of Hart’s struggles last year, however, it’s understandable that San Diego decided to re-up with the lefty for 2026. The Padres are a team in desperate need of volume when it comes to rotation-capable arms. Dylan Cease and Michael King have both departed the organization for free agency and, while Joe Musgrove is expected back next year from injury, it’s already known that Yu Darvish won’t pitch next year. Musgrove and Nick Pivetta are both quality veterans, but Randy Vasquez, JP Sears, and Matt Waldron are all questionable as quality regulars in a contending rotation. That’s true of Hart as well, of course, but having additional depth behind that group figures to be valuable in order to avoid a situation like the one San Diego faced in 2021 when a lack of pitching depth forced them to turn to displaced veterans like Jake Arrieta and Vince Velasquez as they narrowly missed the playoffs due to a late September collapse.

Signing Hart helps fill out the depth on a budget, but it won’t do much to solve the problem of San Diego needing additional impact in the rotation. The Padres have operated with some financial uncertainty in the years since Peter Seidler’s death, and the recent announcement that ownership intends to explore a sale of the franchise further clouds the club’s financial picture in the short-term. That’s not to say making a splash in free agency and adding a mid-rotation or better arm to the mix is completely out of the question; they did manage to find room in the budget to add Pivetta just last year, after all. That could lead to a creative solution like trying Mason Miller or Adrian Morejon in the rotation as the team’s best option if they hope to add an impact starter with a pursuit of someone at the top of the market like Cease or Framber Valdez seemingly unlikely.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the guarantee, option price/buyout, and maximum value of the escalators. The Associated Press had the specific escalator breakdown. Image courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images.

Yankees Re-Sign Ryan Yarbrough

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The Yankees officially re-signed Ryan Yarbrough to a one-year deal. The Excel Sports Management client is reportedly guaranteed $2.5MM with another $250K available in bonuses. He’d unlock $50K apiece for every ten innings pitched between 75 and 115.

Assuming the deal makes it over the finish line, it’ll be a starkly different offseason experience than Yarbrough had last year, when he lingered on the market until February before catching on with the Blue Jays on a minor league deal. He opted out of that deal just before Opening Day, which led him to a major league contract with the Yankees for the 2025 campaign. It was a decent enough year for the lefty in the Bronx, as he pitched to a 4.36 ERA across 64 innings of work split between eight starts and 11 relief appearances.

That’s roughly league average (94 ERA+) production on the surface, and more advanced metrics are something of a mixed bag but generally support that sentiment. His 5.06 FIP is well below par, but much of that has to do with an inflated home run rate. Yarbrough allowed 13 homers in just 64 innings of work despite an entirely manageable 6.9% barrel rate that was largely in line with his career norms. Yarbrough’s work in New York actually tied a career high (20.8%) for strikeout rate and saw him limit walks to a decent 7.2% clip. His 4.14 SIERA clocks in right around league average, as does his 4.30 xFIP.

While the specifics of the contract aren’t yet clear, re-upping for another year certainly seems to make sense for both sides. Signing this early in the offseason offers Yarbrough a level of certainty he wasn’t afforded last year while allowing the Yankees to build some depth into their rotation mix that will surely prove valuable headed into 2026. While the Yankees have a deep group of starting options with Gerrit Cole expected back from Tommy John surgery early next year plus Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Will Warren and Cam Schlittler, it’s not hard to see why the team could use some additional depth.

Cole and Rodon both won’t be ready for Opening Day, while Clarke Schmidt is unlikely to be a factor until late in the year after his own Tommy John surgery. Gil appears to be healthy but has a lengthy injury history that could make relying on him for 30 starts a tall order as well. With so much uncertainty among that group, the addition of Yarbrough offers a steady veteran to offer roughly average production when filling those gaps. Yarbrough is more than comfortable bouncing between the rotation and bullpen after doing so throughout virtually his entire career, and having him available as a long relief arm could be valuable for a bullpen that figures to be searching for innings help after losing Devin Williams and Luke Weaver.

Whatever the cost of Yarbrough’s contract ends up being, it should serve as no impediment to the Yankees as they look to fill out the rest of their roster. The club has its work cut out for it this winter, as they’ll need to replace Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham, Paul Goldschmidt, and Amed Rosario (along with Williams and Weaver) as they head into free agency on top of whatever other upgrades the club is interested in making to its roster. Given Schmidt’s injury, perhaps even the addition of another starter could be on the table if the team wants to have young pitching to dangle in trade talks or have the luxury of being patient with Cole as he gets his elbow ready for game action next year.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported Yarbrough and the Yankees were closing in on a major league deal. Joel Sherman of The New York Post had the $2.5MM guarantee and $250K in bonuses. The Associated Press reported the bonus details.

Image courtesy of Jesse Johnson, Imagn Images.

Nick Sandlin Elects Free Agency

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November 17: Sandlin has indeed rejected his outright assignment and elected free agency, according to an announcement from the Blue Jays.

November 15: The Blue Jays outrighted Nick Sandlin off the 40-man roster, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction tracker. Sandlin has over three years of service time and will surely elect free agency in the coming days.

It’s effectively an early non-tender of the righty reliever. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Sandlin for a $2MM salary if he were tendered an arbitration contract. That’s not a huge amount, but the Jays soured on his future enough that they didn’t want to lock him into a middle relief role going into next season.

This drops their roster count from 38 to 37. Teams need to decide which eligible prospects they want to keep out of the Rule 5 draft by Tuesday evening. The Jays have an extra spot available than they would have had if they’d waited until Friday’s non-tender deadline to make the cut.

Toronto acquired Sandlin as a secondary piece of last winter’s Andrés Giménez trade. The Southern Mississippi product had pitched to a 3.27 earned run average over parts of four seasons in Cleveland. Sandlin never had great control, but he missed a good number of bats behind a plus slider and a promising splitter. The Jays hoped he could take on a higher-leverage role after being more of a sixth/seventh inning type in a loaded Cleveland bullpen.

Injuries kept that from happening. Sandlin went down three weeks into the season with a lat strain. He returned in mid-June but was shut back down after nine appearances by elbow inflammation. The latter injury ended his year. Sandlin tossed 16 1/3 innings overall. He gave up seven runs (four earned) with 16 strikeouts and eight walks. He recorded five holds and a save but also surrendered three leads.

Sandlin’s stuff was diminished. He averaged career lows on both his slider (78.4 MPH) and four-seam fastball (91.4). While he has never been a flamethrower, his heater was in the 94-95 MPH range during his rookie season and sat between 92-93 last year. Other teams evidently share the Jays’ concerns about the diminished velocity. Sandlin cleared waivers, suggesting no club wanted to take a flier and tender him at that projected $2MM price.

Mariners Acquire Robinson Ortiz From Dodgers

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The Mariners and Dodgers each announced that Seattle has acquired left-hander Robinson Ortiz in exchange for minor league right-hander Tyler Gough.

Neither player has any big league experience, but the trade is likely more about the Dodgers’ desire to clear a spot on their 40-man roster.  Tuesday is the deadline for teams to set their rosters in advance of the Rule 5 Draft, and Friday is the non-tender deadline, making for a very busy upcoming week of roster churning.

Interestingly, it was only 10 days ago that Los Angeles selected Ortiz’s contract to the 40-man roster, but the Dodgers have now changed course and sent Ortiz to Seattle.  L.A. now has 38 places filled on its 40-man, while the Mariners have at least 39 spots addressed and potentially a full 40 depending on when Josh Naylor’s new contract is made official.

Ortiz (who turns 26 in January) had spent his entire pro career in the Dodgers organization prior to today’s trade.  Between the canceled 2020 minor league season and multiple injury problems, Ortiz pitched only 22 2/3 innings over a five-year span covering the 2020-24 seasons, but the 2025 campaign represented some return to relative normalcy.  The southpaw posted a 2.73 ERA and 28.3% strikeout rate over 59 1/3 combined innings at three different minor league levels, with Ortiz making his debuts at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels last year.

A nasty slider/sinker combo has led to a lot of strikeouts for Ortiz, though control has continued to be an issue, as evidenced by his 13.2% walk rate in 2025.  Seattle is notably thin in left-handed pitching, as Gabe Speier currently represents the only lefty slated to be part of the Mariners’ bullpen mix next year.  Ortiz adds a bit more depth in that department, and there appears to be plenty of upside for Ortiz as a relief weapon if he can cut back on the free passes.

Gough was a ninth-round pick for the Mariners in the 2022 draft, and he posted a 4.66 ERA over 125 2/3 innings at A-level Modesto in 2023-24, starting 32 of his 33 career games.  A Tommy John surgery in September 2024 has since kept Gough off the mound, though the usual TJ recovery timeline should put the right-hander in line to be ready for a healthy Spring Training come February.

Cam Devanney To Sign With NPB’s Hanshin Tigers

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Pirates third baseman Cam Devanney is signing with the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball, according to a report from Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Devanney is on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster, which will drop to 38 players once the deal is officially complete.

Devanney, 28, was a 15th-round pick by the Brewers back in 2019 who made his big league debut with the Pirates late in the 2025 season after being acquired from the Royals in this summer’s Adam Frazier trade. At the time of the deal, Devanney was enjoying something of a breakout season for the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate in Omaha. In 69 games, he had slashed .272/.366/.565 with 18 homers and 14 doubles across 288 plate appearances. Devanney was striking out at a 24.3% clip while walking 11.8% of the time.

That was impressive enough that the Pirates decided to trade for him and give him a shot in the majors. He appeared in 14 games for Pittsburgh down the stretch this year, but in those games hit just .139/.184/.167 with a massive 55.3% strikeout rate. That came in a sample size of just 38 plate appearances, of course, but between that work in the majors and a paltry .256/.327/.361 slash line in 34 games with the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis, it was already fair to wonder what Devanney’s future in the Pirates organization might really look like.

Rather than keep him in the fold as a potential up-and-down depth option for next year, the Pirates are instead opting to let Devanney head overseas and try his hand at baseball in Japan. He will join first baseman Bob Seymour and right-hander Roansy Contreras in making the jump from MLB to NPB this winter, and it’s entirely possible more players on the bubble of MLB and the minor leagues could make the jump as well in the coming weeks and months. Signing overseas provides a player in that situation the opportunity to make more money than they would even as a 40-man roster player with a stateside organization while seeing a higher level of competition than Triple-A allows.

As for the Pirates, Devanney’s departure doesn’t move the needle much. He was unlikely to unseat Jared Triolo at the hot corner and, while an addition to the infield could make plenty of sense given the team’s need for additional offensive firepower, any moves made on the dirt this winter won’t be done because of the loss of Devanney. In terms of infield depth, both Tsung-Che Cheng and Enmanuel Valdez are already on the 40-man roster and could easily slide into the bench role Devanney was expected to occupy.

Brewers Sign Eddys Leonard To Minor League Deal

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The Brewers have added infielder Eddys Leonard on a minor league deal, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The pact includes an invitation to spring training.

Leonard will now join his fourth organization in the past four seasons. He spent last year in Atlanta’s minor league system. The Braves signed him in late March after he was released by the Tigers. Leonard elected minor league free agency last week.

The Dodgers signed Leonard as an international free agent in 2017. MLB.com ranked Leonard eighth among LA’s prospects back in 2022. He had posted a massive 145 wRC+ across two minor league levels in 2021.

Los Angeles designated Leonard for assignment midway through the 2023 season. They eventually worked out a trade with Detroit. Leonard slashed .302/.374/.530 in 40 games with Triple-A Toledo. Injuries limited him to 82 games in 2024. Leonard was a slightly above league-average hitter when available that season.

Leonard hit 20 home runs and added 11 steals across 494 plate appearances with Triple-A Gwinnett this past season. He played primarily in the infield with the Stripers, making six starts at first base, 28 starts at second base, 35 starts at third base, and one start at shortstop. He also made 32 starts at DH and one in right field. Leonard mostly played shortstop early in his career, but has bounced around the diamond in recent seasons.

Photo courtesy Junfu Han, Imagn Images

A’s, Joey Meneses Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Athletics are in agreement with first baseman Joey Meneses on a minor league contract, reports Francys Romero. The deal includes an invite to MLB camp, according to Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. The MAS+ client spent this past season in Triple-A in the Mets organization.

Meneses is coming off a .265/.322/.447 line with 11 homers at the top minor league level. He put the ball in play but didn’t walk much and posted average batted ball marks. That wasn’t going to be enough to force his way onto the MLB roster behind Pete Alonso and Mark Vientos. He’ll have a similarly uphill path to a big league job with the A’s. They have Nick Kurtz and Brent Rooker locked into first base and designated hitter, respectively.

The 33-year-old Meneses is likely to head to Triple-A Las Vegas. He’s a career .282/.338/.480 hitter over parts of five Triple-A seasons. Meneses played in the big leagues with the Nationals between 2022-24. He had a huge showing out of nowhere as a 30-year-old rookie, hitting .324 with 13 homers in his first 56 big league contests.

A rebuilding Washington team gave him a full year as a starting first baseman to see if they’d stumbled on a late-career breakout. That didn’t prove to be the case, as Meneses hit .261/.311/.370 in nearly 1000 trips to the plate in 2023-24. The Nationals dropped him from the roster at the beginning of last offseason.

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