Joey Krehbiel Signs With Mexican League’s Guerreros De Oaxaca

The Guerreros de Oaxaca of the Mexican League announced that they have signed right-hander Joey Krehbiel to a contract for the 2026 season.  Krehbiel (who turned 33 in December) elected to become a minor league free agent in November after spending the 2025 season pitching with the Rays’ and Royals’ Triple-A affiliates.

A veteran of four MLB seasons, Krehbiel made his big league debut in the form of a two-game cup of coffee with the Diamondbacks in 2018, then didn’t return to the majors until 2021.  Of his 70 career appearances and 74 career innings, the big majority of that work came in 2022, when Krehbiel posted a 3.70 ERA, 18.4% strikeout rate, and 7.4% walk rate over 56 games and 57 2/3 innings out of the Orioles’ bullpen.  He only pitched in six games with Baltimore in 2023 (posting a 1.80 ERA across five innings), however, as the O’s shuttled him back and forth from Triple-A multiple times and twice designated Krehbiel for assignment and outrighted him over the course of the year.

This marked Krehbiel’s last bit of Major League action, as minor league contracts with the Mariners and Rays over the last two offseasons didn’t result in another call-up.  The Royals also never called the righty up after acquiring him from Tampa in a trade last July.  Krehbiel pitched pretty well with Triple-A Tacoma in 2024 but struggled last year to the tune of a 5.34 ERA over 57 1/3 IP in the Tampa and K.C. farm systems, though that ERA was inflated by some bad batted-ball luck — Krehbiel’s 50% grounder rate was counteracted by a .346 BABIP.

The right-hander will now look to get back on track with the Guerreros in the new environment of Mexican League ball.  Because Mexican League contracts generally have out clauses, some solid work early in the season could get Krehbiel some attention from another MLB team on another minors deal.

Astros Sign Christian Vazquez To Minor League Deal

The Astros announced that catcher Christian Vazquez was signed to a minor league contract.  The deal contains an invitation for Vazquez (an MDR Sports Management client) to attend Houston’s big league Spring Training camp.  Vazquez will presumably head to the Astros’ camp after the World Baseball Classic, as the veteran backstop is playing for Puerto Rico’s team.

This is the second stint for Vazquez in a Houston uniform, after being acquired as a trade deadline pickup during the 2022 season.  Vazquez hit only .250/.278/.308 over 108 plate appearances during the rest of the regular season and then .235/.316/.235 over 19 postseason PA, but he ended up winning a ring as a member of the World Series title team.  Vazquez was also part of some particularly memorable baseball history when he was behind the plate for the Astros’ combined no-hitter in Game 4 of the World Series, which was just the second no-no in Series history and the third in postseason history.

Despite his lackluster numbers at the end of the 2022 campaign, Vazquez still landed a three-year, $30MM free agent deal from Minnesota that offsesason.  Unfortunately for Vazquez and the Twins, the struggles at the plate continued, as he hit just .215/.267/.311 over 884 PA over his three seasons with the team.  While Vazquez was signed more with defense in mind, delivering only a 60 wRC+ eventually slated him into a backup role behind Ryan Jeffers.

The combination of Vazquez’s poor numbers and hefty salary made him difficult to trade, though his name surfaced in a few rumors over the last couple of years.  Minnesota traded a ton of veterans and impending free agents at last year’s deadline, but Vazquez stayed put, as he finished out his entire three-year term with the team.  Perhaps understandably, there wasn’t a lot of buzz about his free agent market, apart from one report from January linking Vazquez to the Astros.

It took more than a month for the two sides to reach an agreement, but Vazquez did indeed end up putting pen to paper with Houston, and he’ll now compete with Cesar Salazar for the backup catching job behind starter Yainer Diaz.  Salazar has all of 36 MLB games on his resume over three seasons with the Astros, plus he is out of minor league options.  Carlos Perez is in camp on another minors deal, and while Perez has appeared in parts of five big league seasons, he hasn’t played in the Show since 2023.

An opening therefore exists for Vazquez to break camp with the Astros as Diaz’s understudy.  The 35-year-old’s bat may not be very productive, but Vazquez remains a strong defender, logging +5 Defensive Runs Saved over 519 innings at catcher in 2025.  Statcast wasn’t quite as favorable in giving Vazquez’s an even 0 in its overall Catching Runs metric, but his blocking and throwing (Vazquez tossed out 14 of 56 base-stealing attempts in 2025) were gauged as above average.

Vazquez’s WBC duties leave him with relatively little time to make an impression in Spring Training, but obviously the Astros have some familiarity with what Vazquez brings to the table.  The fact that the Astros are making this signing indicates they aren’t entirely satisfied with their current backup catching situation, and there’s no risk for the club in committing just a minor league deal to Vazquez to take a look at him in camp.

Rangers Sign Andrew McCutchen To Minor League Deal

March 6: McCutchen passed his physical, and the Rangers have formally announced his signing.

March 5: The Rangers are bringing veteran outfielder Andrew McCutchen aboard on a minor league contract with an invitation to big league camp, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The Aegis Sports client’s base salary would be $1.25MM if he makes the team, per Grant. It can max out around $2.5MM if he makes the roster and hits his full slate of incentives, per Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports.

McCutchen, 39, is years removed from peak form but still turned in a .239/.333/.367 slash (95 wRC+) last year in what now looks like his final season with the Pirates. His .267/.353/.389 output against left-handed pitching was a bit above average, and he knocked lefties around at a heftier .261/.383/.410 clip as recently as 2023.

For the past three years, McCutchen has suited back up for his original club in Pittsburgh, where he was a first-round pick who broke out as a star and eventually won National League MVP honors. The hope for both McCutchen and the Pirates was that he’d return to play out his final seasons where it all began, leading a more competitive Bucs club back to the playoffs in the twilight of his career.

That storybook ending never came to be. Pittsburgh struggled in each of the past three seasons, finishing under .500 each year along the way. The Bucs fired manager Derek Shelton last May and took a more urgent and aggressive approach to building up their offense this winter. Pittsburgh acquired Brandon Lowe via trade and signed free agents Ryan O’Hearn and Marcell Ozuna. They had even bigger targets throughout the winter (e.g. Kyle Schwarber, Josh Naylor, Kazuma Okamoto, Eugenio Suárez). All those pursuits cast doubt on whether there was room for one more go-around with McCutchen on what’d have been a more nostalgic/sentimental reunion. Last month’s signing of Ozuna all but confirmed that the book on the three-year reunion with McCutchen had been closed.

McCutchen now heads to the Rangers in hopes of grabbing a bench spot. His right-handed bat makes for a natural platoon complement alongside designated hitter Joc Pederson. Cutch could also see some time in the outfield corners when Texas faces off against left-handed starters, with Wyatt Langford shifting over to center field in place of lefty-swinging Evan Carter, who has just five hits in 68 career plate appearances against southpaws.

There’s little sense citing McCutchen’s career .289/.387/.514 slash against lefties, since so much of that is influenced by otherworldly production during his MVP peak. However, even over the three seasons in his late-career return to PNC Park, McCutchen hit .244/.353/.392 in 435 plate appearances. That sort of production is more solid than eye-catching, but it’d still mark an upgrade over the awful .225/.290/.363 batting line the Rangers turned in versus left-handed pitching in 2025.

Dodgers Outright Jack Suwinski

The Dodgers sent Jack Suwinski outright to Triple-A Oklahoma City, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. The team had not previously designated Suwinski for assignment, so this drops their 40-man roster tally to 39.

Los Angeles claimed the lefty-hitting outfielder off waivers from Pittsburgh last month. They assumed his $1.25MM salary and an accompanying $1.375MM luxury tax commitment in the process. It always seemed like a depth move. Suwinski is out of minor league options and didn’t have a great chance to break camp with the two-time defending champions.

The Dodgers pay a few million dollars to get him into the organization without occupying a 40-man roster spot. Suwinski showed promise a few seasons ago but hasn’t performed well over the past two years. He hit 26 homers with a .224/.339/.454 slash line for the Pirates in 2023. He has been well below the Mendoza line with an on-base percentage under .300 in the two years since then.

Since the start of ’24, Suwinski carries a .169/.271/.297 mark across 455 plate appearances. He has gone down on strikes at a 30% clip and only combined for 12 home runs. Suwinski had a much more impressive .283/.389/.565 showing in Triple-A last year. That also came with a concerning number of strikeouts, though, and he needed to go through waivers before a team could assign him back to the minors.

Suwinski will remain in big league camp as a non-roster invitee. The Dodgers have Teoscar Hernández, Andy Pages and Kyle Tucker left to right in the outfield. Alex Call has a decent shot to win a bench job as a righty platoon bat, while Ryan Ward and Michael Siani occupy spots at the back of the 40-man roster.

Pirates, Reds Swap Tyler Callihan For Kyle Nicolas

The Pirates announced they’ve traded relief pitcher Kyle Nicolas to the Reds for left fielder/second baseman Tyler Callihan. Both players were on the 40-man roster, so there’s no corresponding move.

It’s a swap of talented but largely unproven players between the NL Central rivals. Nicolas, 27, has the more significant MLB experience of the two. A second-round pick by the Marlins in 2020, he was traded to Pittsburgh as one of two prospects the following year for Gold Glove catcher Jacob Stallings. Nicolas was a starting pitcher at the time but always projected to a bullpen future because of spotty command.

Nicolas debuted as a September call-up in 2023. The Ball State product has opened each of the following two seasons on optional assignment to Triple-A Indianapolis. Nicolas has posted below-average numbers at the MLB level but remains an intriguing depth piece with big stuff.

In 98 MLB innings, Nicolas carries a 4.68 earned run average. He has struck out a league average 22% of opponents while issuing walks at a lofty 12.2% rate. He split his time evenly between the majors and Triple-A last year. While he allowed nearly five earned runs per nine at the MLB level, he posted a 3.79 ERA with an excellent 31% strikeout rate against minor league opposition. Nicolas walked more than 12% of Triple-A opponents and has posted double digit walk rates at almost every stop of his professional career.

The command will probably keep Nicolas in middle relief. He’d have the raw stuff to pitch at the back of a bullpen if he can find a way to throw more strikes. Nicolas sits in the 97-98 mph range with his heater and has a pair of power breaking balls: a 90-91 mph slider and mid-80s curveball.

He also uses his 6’3″ frame to get down the mound and generate a lot of extension, though the long levers have also seemingly held him back from finding consistency in his delivery. Nicolas commanded the ball better down the stretch last season. He walked only 8.4% of opponents while posting a 3.46 ERA in 26 innings after the All-Star Break. It’s a small sample but perhaps something to build off as he tries to earn a permanent bullpen spot.

Nicolas has a little over one year of service time. He’s at least two years away from arbitration and five years from reaching free agency. He has one minor league option remaining, so the Reds can send him to Triple-A Louisville without exposing him to waivers. Nicolas tossed two scoreless innings this spring before joining Team Italy for the World Baseball Classic. (He’s from Ohio but has a family link to Italy that made him eligible to participate.)

Cincinnati doesn’t have a ton of roster flexibility in the bullpen, where six of their relievers cannot be optioned. Graham Ashcraft has options but is a lock to begin the season in the late innings. Unless the Reds move on from Sam Moll, they’d only have one bullpen spot available between Nicolas, Luis MeyConnor Phillips and Zach Maxwell. The latter four pitchers all have big arms but come with strike-throwing questions.

The Pirates subtract from their bullpen depth to take a flier on an intriguing hitter who hasn’t found a position. The 25-year-old Callihan was an overslot third-round signee out of high school in 2019. Scouts have praised the lefty hitter’s offensive aptitude while panning his defense. The Jacksonville native has a career .262/.332/.417 batting line over six minor league seasons.

Callihan’s performance in the low minors was a little inconsistent. He has posted better numbers as he’s climbed the minor league ladder. Callihan hit .271/.345/.413 in Double-A two seasons ago and was out to a .303/.410/.528 start over 24 Triple-A contests last year. The Reds called him up at the end of April.

Unfortunately, Callihan didn’t get a chance to establish himself as a rookie. He suffered a gruesome injury just six days into his big league career.

Callihan was playing left field against the Braves on May 5. Matt Olson hit a line drive that sliced away from him down the left field line. Callihan slid to try to catch the ball and was unable to brace himself before hitting the wall with his outstretched glove hand. The collision broke his arm and forced him to undergo season-ending surgery. (Adding insult to injury, Olson trotted around for an inside-the-park home run because Callihan had touched the ball in fair territory.)

That ended his debut campaign after six at-bats, in which he collected his first career hit and run batted in. Callihan entered Spring Training without any restrictions and has gotten into seven exhibition contests, going 2-9 with a home run.

Baseball America ranked Callihan the #20 prospect in the Cincinnati system over the offseason, while Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs slotted him 29th in the organization. Callihan has improved his plate discipline and has above-average raw power, but his strikeout rate has climbed in the upper minors.

He’s a below-average defender at second base who probably fits better in left field or at first base. There are some similarities to last winter’s Spencer Horwitz pickup in that regard, though Horwitz had a much longer track record of hitting in Triple-A than Callihan does.

Callihan has less than one year of service and has two minor league options remaining. He’ll battle for a bench job in camp but seems likelier to begin the season in Indy. He can factor in as a bat-first utility type throughout the season if he’s hitting well in the minors.

Respective images via Jordan Godfree and Sam Greene, Imagn Images.

Blue Jays Re-Sign Joe Mantiply To Minor League Deal

The Blue Jays announced they’ve re-signed lefty reliever Joe Mantiply to a minor league contract. The ISE Baseball client receives a non-roster invite to MLB camp.

Mantiply finished last season in the Toronto organization. Released by the Diamondbacks in June, he signed a minor league deal with the Jays shortly after the All-Star Break. Mantiply spent a couple weeks building up at the team’s Florida complex before reporting to Triple-A Buffalo. He finished the season with the Bisons, allowing eight runs (six earned) across 15 2/3 innings.

The run prevention was unexceptional, but Mantiply posted a 19:0 strikeout-to-walk ratio against 64 Triple-A opponents. It didn’t get him a big league look. The Jays were impressed enough to bring him back on an NRI after he elected minor league free agency over the offseason.

Mantiply was a surprise All-Star in 2022 — a season in which he posted a 2.85 ERA across a career-high 60 innings. The 35-year-old southpaw has strong command and gets grounders but has below-average velocity. Mantiply averaged 88.4 mph on his sinker last year. He gets good movement on the sinker and his changeup and was a solid middle reliever as recently as 2024. He was knocked around for 17 runs in 9 2/3 MLB frames last year.

The Jays have one of the better rosters in MLB but are light on established left-handed relief. Eric Lauer is set for a multi-inning role. Mason Fluharty is a soft-tossing cutter specialist, while Brendon Little has much bigger raw stuff. Both pitchers can miss bats but aren’t reliably around the strike zone. Ricky Tiedemann could factor into the rotation or relief mix as a rookie, but the oft-injured former top prospect is again battling elbow discomfort early in camp.

Royals Designate Dairon Blanco For Assignment

The Royals announced they’ve designated outfielder Dairon Blanco for assignment. That’s the necessary 40-man roster move to finalize their one-year deal with Starling Marte, which is official.

Blanco has been a depth outfielder in Kansas City for the past four seasons. He played in nearly half the team’s games between 2023-24 but wasn’t much of a factor last year. Blanco got into nine contests and only took eight plate appearances at the major league level. He went 1-6 with a double while stealing three bases in five attempts.

The 32-year-old (33 in April) missed the first six weeks of the season battling Achilles tendinopathy in his right foot. He returned to health in mid-May and spent the majority of the year on optional assignment. The Cuba native batted .253/.332/.405 with eight homers across 294 plate appearances in Triple-A. He stole 32 bags while getting cut down just three times over 77 games.

A right-handed hitter, Blanco has league average numbers (.257/.312/.416) over 285 MLB plate appearances. The Royals have seemingly been skeptical that’d remain the case over a larger sample. Kansas City outfielders had an MLB-worst .225/.285/.348 batting line last season. Although the outfield has been an issue for the better part of a decade, the Royals never gave Blanco much of a starting opportunity.

They had kept him on the big league roster for the second half of 2023 and all of ’24 as a bench piece. Blanco’s top-of-the-scale wheels made him an asset as a pinch runner. He went 55-67 in stolen base tries over that season and a half. Blanco entered 48 games as a pinch runner. No one else in MLB reached even 20 pinch-running appearances over those two full seasons.

Kansas City has five days to trade Blanco or place him on waivers. He still has a pair of minor league options remaining. He’s on the older side for a player whose game is built so much around his legs, as he didn’t depart his home country until he was 23 and made his MLB debut at 29.

Royals Sign Starling Marte

March 2: Kansas City has officially announced Marte’s one-year contract. It’s a $1MM guarantee that comes with another $2MM in bonuses, reports Anne Rogers of MLB.com. Half of that money comes with roster bonuses and the other half through incentives.

February 28: Starling Marte and the Royals have agreed to a one-year, Major League contract.  Financial terms of the agreement aren’t yet known.  The deal will be finalized once Marte passes a physical, and the Royals will have to make another transaction to clear space on their 40-man roster for the Klutch Sports client.

2025 was the last season of Marte’s four-year, $78MM contract with the Mets, and while Marte was hopeful of playing for multiple more years, there hadn’t been any public buzz about his free agent market over the winter.  Now, the 37-year-old has landed with a Kansas City club whose interest in the former two-time All-Star dates back to last winter, when the Royals had some talks with the Mets about a possible trade.

Marte’s tenure in New York was defined by injuries, as he played in only 396 games during his four-year stint.  Groin problems were the source of most of Marte’s issues, as surgery on both his left and right groin muscles following the 2022 season didn’t entirely correct the problem, as the injury resurfaced in 2023.  Marte also missed time due to a neck strain, migraines, and a bone bruise in his right knee, and the Mets responded to Marte’s lower-body injuries by making him essentially a full-time DH in 2025.

Marte still made 12 appearances in the outfield last year, and given the Royals’ need for outfield help, Kansas City could consider giving him slightly more time on the grass in 2026.  After acquiring both the switch-hitting Isaac Collins and the right-handed hitting Lane Thomas this winter, the Royals’ primary outfield looks like Collins in left field, defensive specialist Kyle Isbel in center, and Thomas and lefty-swinging Jac Caglianone perhaps in a platoon situation in right field.  Salvador Perez and top prospect Carter Jensen will handle the catching duties, and whomever isn’t behind the plate will likely get plenty of DH at-bats.

It would add up to another part-time role for Marte, though there’s value in having a veteran bat on the roster.  Caglianone struggled badly in his first exposure to big league pitching in 2025, and Thomas is coming off essentially a lost year due to injuries in 2025.  Thomas’ top season was his 28-homer campaign with the Nationals in 2023, but he has posted just a 98 wRC+ over 1900 plate appearances over the last four seasons.  Collins is also far from a sure thing, as his impressive 2025 rookie season with the Brewers came despite some hard-contact issues that were perhaps obscured by a .326 BABIP.

Marte hasn’t looked like a true top-tier hitter since 2022, but he still managed a respectable .269/.331/.398 slash line and 16 homers over 699 PA during the 2024-25 seasons, translating to a 108 wRC+.  Marte is still making hard contact at an above-average rate, even if his power (and his Statcast metrics on the whole) have fallen off.

Whether or not Marte can maintain even this decent production into his 15th Major League season remains to be seen, of course.  It can be argued that Collins, Thomas, and Marte couldn’t help but be upgrades for K.C. given how little the Royals have gotten from their outfield mix in the last few years, plus Caglianone is still a highly-touted prospect with breakout potential.

Marte’s next contract will surely be worth only a few million dollars in guaranteed money, with probably some bonus clauses built in based on plate appearances.  The Royals’ payroll currently sits at around $149.2MM (as per RosterResource‘s estimates), which represents a modest increase over their $139.8MM figure from 2025.  This tracks with owner John Sherman’s comments from October about the payroll likely staying in the same general range, which naturally left the front office a little limited in what they could do in pursuing needed lineup help.

Reporter Yancen Pujols first broke the news that Marte and the Royals were in contract talks.  MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (multiple links) reported that the deal was in place, and that Marte had inked a guaranteed contract.

Cubs Claim Ben Cowles

The Cubs have brought Ben Cowles back to Wrigleyville, as the team announced that the infielder has been claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays.  In a corresponding move, right-hander Shelby Miller was moved to Chicago’s 60-day injured list.  Miller underwent UCL and flexor surgery last October and will miss the 2026 season.

Miller’s two-year, $2.5MM deal with the Cubs was officially announced on February 15, and Cowles was designated for assignment to create roster space.  The Jays claimed Cowles off the waiver wire, but the infielder now quickly finds himself back in the Cubs organization.  There hadn’t been any indication that Toronto had DFA’ed Cowles, but the Blue Jays needed to open up a spot on their 40-man roster now that Max Scherzer is returning to the team.

A tenth-round pick for the Yankees in the 2021 draft, Cowles first came to Chicago at the 2024 trade deadline, when Cowles was one of two prospects dealt to the Cubs for Mark Leiter Jr.  Cowles was DFA’ed last September and claimed off waivers by the White Sox, but the Cubs brought Cowles back from their local rivals in January on another waiver claim.

Throughout all of these comings and goings, Cowles has yet to make his Major League debut.  The 26-year-old posted decent numbers in the lower minors but has hit only .235/.299/.368 over 536 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.  The lack of offense has surely contributed to Cowles’ apparent status as 40th-man type, though he has speed (70 steals in 92 attempts in the minors) and has plenty of experience as a shortstop, second, and third baseman, plus a couple of cameo appearances in the outfield.

It wouldn’t be a shock to see Cowles again land in DFA limbo the next time the Cubs need to create a 40-man opening, but the team clearly sees some value in the infielder’s skillset.  Whether this translates into any time on the active roster remains to be seen, as Cowles might only get considered for a call-up if an injury arises to an infield regular.

Padres Sign Alex Verdugo To Minor League Deal

The Padres have signed outfielder Alex Verdugo to a minor league contract, the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee reports.  Verdugo has been a free agent since he was released by the Braves last July.

Last offseason, Verdugo didn’t land his Atlanta contract (a one-year, $1.5MM guaranteed deal) until just a week before Opening Day.  He’ll get a little more Spring Training prep time this year, and a chance to try and win himself a job on San Diego’s roster as a backup outfielder.

Verdugo must also be viewing this as an opportunity to turn around his career as he enters his age-30 season.  Formerly an everyday player with the Red Sox and a key piece of the trade package Boston received from the Dodgers in the Mookie Betts deal, Verdugo posted okay but unspectacular numbers (.281/.338/.424 with 43 home runs in 2071 plate appearances, for a 105 wRC+) over five seasons in a Sox uniform.

Over the last two seasons with the Yankees and Braves, however, Verdugo’s production has sharply dropped.  Since Opening Day 2024, Verdugo has a modest 80 wRC+, while hitting .234/.292/.339 with 13 home runs over 834 PA.  In each of those seasons, Verdugo got off to a hot start before badly tailing off.

Those struggles in the Bronx led to Verdugo’s extended stay in free agency last winter, and it took some injuries within the Braves’ outfield mix to allow him to land a Major League contract.  Jurickson Profar‘s PED suspension came a little over a week after Verdugo’s signing, which suddenly created the possibility of an everyday role as Atlanta’s left fielder.  Verdugo voluntarily spent the first few weeks of the regular season at extended Spring Training and in the minors to get himself in proper game condition, but once called up to the Show, he hit .239/.296/.289 over 213 PA.

Once Profar was eligible for reinstatement, the Braves designated Verdugo for assignment and then released him.  No other minor league offers emerged over the remainder of the 2025 season, and there hasn’t been any buzz about Verdugo on the offseason rumor mill until today’s signing.  However, the Padres have apparently long had Verdugo on their radar — Acee writes that San Diego had some trade talks involving Verdugo in the past, and explored signing him last winter.

Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill, and Ramon Laureano are set as the Padres’ starting outfield.  Miguel Andujar will also get some time in the corners, and Gavin Sheets and Nick Castellanos are technically also outfield options but the Padres will likely deploy both at first base and at DH.  Bryce Johnson is a fourth-outfielder type who hasn’t shown much at the plate over parts of four MLB seasons, and the Padres plan to give Sung Mun Song some time in the outfield as they experiment with turning Song into a super-utility type in the majors.

The left-handed hitting Verdugo could spell Laureano (a righty swinger) against some right-handed pitchers, and he has more of a career track record as a hitter than Johnson, though Verdugo is best suited defensively as a corner outfielder.  Since the Padres don’t have a set designated hitter, the team can rotate any number of players through the DH spot in order to give partial rest days to regulars and to help get at-bats for the bench crew.

There’s no risk for the Padres in seeing what Verdugo can do in camp, and the team has been stockpiling a lot of experienced MLB players as they evaluate their bench options.  Ty France, Pablo Reyes, Jose Miranda, Nick Solak, and more are in camp on minor league deals battling it out for 26-man roster spots.

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