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Braves, Jose Azocar Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Braves are in agreement with José Azocar on a minor league contract, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The fleet-footed outfielder will be in camp as a non-roster invitee.

Azocar had a brief stint on Atlanta’s MLB roster this year. He signed a big league deal on May 30 and spent a little over two weeks on Brian Snitker’s bench. He was limited to two appearances, both as a late-game substitute, and flew out in his only at-bat. The Venezuela native also got into 12 games with the Mets earlier in the year. He made five starts and went 5-18 (all singles) with a pair of walks and a stolen base.

Aside from his couple weeks on Atlanta’s bench, Azocar spent the rest of the year in the Mets organization. He returned to New York on a minor league contract after the Braves cut him loose in mid-June. He played out the season at Triple-A Syracuse, batting .241/.314/.352 in just under 300 plate appearances. Azocar stole 17 bases in the minors but had his third consecutive below-average offensive season. He owns a .276/.318/.416 line over parts of five Triple-A campaigns and is a career .244/.290/.319 hitter in 418 MLB plate appearances.

Azocar isn’t going to provide much at the plate, but he’s a plus-plus runner who can play all three outfield positions. Defensive Runs Saved has rated him as an average defender in a little more than 1000 career innings. Statcast’s Outs Above Average is a little more bullish, grading him four runs above par. Most of the defensive value comes from his 2022 rookie season in San Diego, when he appeared in a career-high 98 games.

Atlanta has four established outfielders in Ronald Acuña Jr., Michael Harris II, Mike Yastrzemski and Jurickson Profar. They have a few out-of-options players (Mauricio Dubón, Eli White and Vidal Bruján) who could provide some speed off the bench if they make the team. Bruján’s split contract makes him a candidate to run through waivers at some point, but Azocar would remain sixth on the outfield depth chart. He’s unlikely to break camp barring an injury to someone ahead of him during Spring Training. It’s likely he’ll head to Triple-A Gwinnett to start the season.

Angels To Sign Kirby Yates

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2:13pm: Yates is guaranteed $5MM, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

1:17pm: The Angels have agreed to a one-year contract with free agent reliever Kirby Yates, reports Ari Alexander of 7News. The right-hander’s agreement is still pending a physical. Yates is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Yates gives the Angels yet another veteran reliever with some closing experience who’s in need of a rebound — in his case, ahead of what’ll be his age-39 season. The Halos will hope to finally get a full workload out of Robert Stephenson in the final season of his three-year, $33MM contract. They’ve also signed former Jays closer Jordan Romano and veteran reliever Drew Pomeranz to low-cost, one-year contracts this offseason as well.

If healthy — a major caveat, given the injury history in question here — Yates could be the best of the bunch. The two-time All-Star led the NL with 41 saves back in 2019 and has twice posted full seasons with an ERA shy of 1.20, including as recently as the 2024 season with Texas.

Since an age-30 breakout with the Padres, the late-blooming Yates has pitched 355 innings with a 2.84 earned run average, 97 saves, 65 holds and only 13 blown save opportunities. He’s fanned a whopping 35.1% of his opponents along the way (backed by a huge 15.7% swinging-strike rate) and walked 9.6% of the batters he’s faced. Coincidentally enough, the Angels were the team from which the Padres claimed Yates off waivers. They’d picked Yates up themselves via waivers the prior October. He pitched only one inning as an Angel and was tagged for two runs.

Yates now returns for a second stint with the Angels. The signing reunites him with veteran pitching coach Mike Maddux, who was Yates’ pitching coach with the ’24 Rangers. Yates saved 33 games and posted an immaculate 1.17 ERA with a 36% strikeout rate that season.

That performance was enough to land him a hearty $13MM guarantee on a one-year deal with the Dodgers. But while Yates landed the first World Series ring of his career, the marriage didn’t go particularly well. He was thrice placed on the injured list — twice for hamstring strains and once due to a lower back injury — and pitched only 41 1/3 innings. The veteran righty’s 5.23 earned run average was one of the worst marks of his career, and his 92.8 mph average four-seam velocity was his lowest since 2013. Yates still punched out an excellent 29.6% of his opponents, but he was doomed by home runs, yielding an average of 1.96 round-trippers per nine frames.

While Yates has typically been excellent when healthy, he’s had his share of injuries. He pitched only 4 1/3 innings in 2020 due to bone spurs in his elbow. He signed with the Blue Jays in free agency that offseason but never pitched an inning for Toronto. He required Tommy John surgery at the end of spring training. From 2020-22, Yates pitched only 11 1/3 innings in the majors.

The Angels will bet on Yates’ track record and hope for better help. Between Yates, Stephenson, Romano and Pomeranz, they certainly aren’t lacking talent at the back end of the bullpen — but there’s a clear lack of consistency and durability. They’ll hope to add flamethrower Ben Joyce to that mix at some point this season, though his timetable for a return from last May’s surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder remains murky.

It’s not entirely clear where the Yates signing takes the Angels’ payroll. RosterResource projected them for a payroll around $172MM this morning, but that was before the Angels and Anthony Rendon agreed to defer the payment of the final year and $38MM on his contract for a reported three to five seasons. Details surrounding that still-fresh arrangement have yet to surface in full, but it’s clear that the Angels are quite a bit south of the roughly $206MM payroll figure at which they ended the 2025 campaign.

Yankees Re-Sign Amed Rosario

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Dec. 30: The team has now formally announced Rosario’s new contract.

Dec. 13: The Yankees are re-signing infielder Amed Rosario to a one-year contract.  The deal pays Rosario $2.5MM in salary, plus another $225K is available in incentive bonuses.  Rosario is represented by Octagon.

Acquired from the Nationals at the trade deadline, Rosario hit .303/.303/.485 over 33 plate appearances and 16 games for New York, and his playing time was further limited by a 10-day injured list stint due to a left SC joint sprain.  Still, Rosario lived up to expectations by chipping in at second base, third base, and in right field, while providing the Yankees with a productive right-handed hitting bat.

That righty-swinging balance is a plus within a New York lineup that is heavy in left-handed batters, and having Rosario back will give the Yankees some platoon flexibility with either Ryan McMahon at third base or even Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second base.  McMahon is a superb defender but a much lesser hitter than Chisholm, so Rosario will probably get most of his playing time spelling McMahon at least against southpaws.

Once regarded as one of baseball’s top prospects during his time in the Mets’ farm system, Rosario posted some okay offensive numbers as a regular with the Mets and Guardians.  His overall effectiveness was limited by a lack of walks, struggles against right-handed pitching, and subpar defending at the shortstop position.

Though he is only entering his age-30 season, Rosario now looks to have settled into a role as a part-time player who can fill in at multiple positions, though he doesn’t provide much defensive value anywhere.  His biggest plus is his ability to hit southpaws, as Rosario has a career .298/.336/.464 slash line in 1196 PA against left-handed pitching.

The Yankees clearly liked what they saw in Rosario last year, and after bouncing around to six different teams since the start of the 2023 season, Rosario probably appreciates some stability in returning to the Bronx for a full season in the pinstripes.  He receives a slight raise over the $2MM deal he received from Washington last winter.

With Rosario back in the fold, the Yankees have brought some experienced depth back into the infield mix.  Anthony Volpe will miss the start of the season recovering from shoulder surgery, so if Jose Caballero ends up getting a lot of the shortstop time in Volpe’s absence, Rosario’s presence helps fill the utility void on New York’s bench.  Brendan Donovan is another versatile player known to be on the Yankees’ trade radar, plus the club has also been more loosely linked to All-Star Bo Bichette, in what would be an even more seismic shake-up of the Bronx infield.

Jack Curry of YES Network was the first to report that Rosario was re-signing with the Yankees on a one-year deal.  Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported Rosario’s $2.5MM salary, and ESPN’s Jorge Castillo added the news about the incentive bonuses.

Padres Sign Blake Hunt To Minor League Deal

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The Padres have signed catcher Blake Hunt to a minor league deal, as noted in the transactions tracker on Hunt’s MLB.com profile page. Hunt’s deal was first reported by MadFriars earlier this month.

Hunt, 27, was a second-round pick by the Padres back in 2017. He was a piece of the Blake Snell trade during the 2020-21 offseason and spent several years climbing up the Rays’ minor league system. Hunt hit quite well for the Rays’ Double- and Triple-A affiliates in 2023, slashing a combined .256/.331/.484 with 12 homers in 67 games, but ultimately was not added to the club’s 40-man roster during the 2023-24 offseason with minor league free agency looming. That led the Rays to deal Hunt to the Mariners, who did add him to their 40-man roster and were willing to give up minor league catcher Tatem Levins in order to do so.

After making the jump to Seattle, Hunt hit extremely well in the first month of the season at Triple-A with a .293/.372/.533 slash line in 24 games. That was a strong enough performance that the Orioles decided to take a chance on him and acquired him from Seattle in the deal that sent Mike Baumann to the Mariners in May 2024. He was called up to the majors in July of 2024 but did not make his big league debut before being designated for assignment by Baltimore. He remained with the Orioles through the end of the year in the minor leagues but hit just .179/.219/.278 across 42 games with the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk.

During the 2024-25 offseason, the Mariners re-acquired Hunt and stashed him at the minor league level as depth behind their big league duo of Cal Raleigh and Mitch Garver. Raleigh, of course, went on to have an MVP-caliber season in 2025 as he broke the single season record for home runs by a catcher. That left little room for Hunt to make it to the majors this past year, but his minor league slash line did manage to recover after a tough year in Baltimore. Across 62 games this year, Hunt slashed .272/.368/.452. That slash line is inflated due to the offensive environment in the Pacific Coast League, where Seattle’s Tacoma affiliate plays, but Hunt’s performance was still good for an above-average 108 wRC+.

After the 2025 campaign, Hunt became a minor league free agent and hit the market as an intriguing, bat-first depth option for a catching-needy club. He’s now found a home back with his first professional organization and figures to be the top depth option with Triple-A El Paso headed into 2026. The Padres have a fairly weak catching tandem as things stand, as Freddy Fermin profiles best as a part-time player while Luis Campusano figures to serve as the club’s backup at the moment after getting just 27 plate appearances at the big league level last year. That leaves a fairly open path for Hunt to force his way onto the MLB roster and perhaps make his big league debut after years of sitting on the cusp of doing so. If the Padres don’t make further additions behind the plate, it’s easy to imagine Hunt challenging Campusano for the job of backing up Fermin this spring with longtime top prospect Ethan Salas still likely to be years away from his own big league debut.

D-Backs Re-Sign John Curtiss To Minor League Deal

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The Diamondbacks re-signed reliever John Curtiss to a minor league contract last week (link via Arizona Sports). The righty will presumably get a non-roster invitation to Spring Training.

Curtiss returns to the desert for a second season. He’d elected free agency when the D-Backs waived him at the beginning of the offseason. The 32-year-old spent the second half of the year on the MLB roster. Arizona selected his minor league contract at the end of June. Curtiss went on to toss 36 2/3 innings of 3.93 ERA ball. He picked up three holds and even secured a late-season save, his first in the big leagues since 2020.

That marked Curtiss’ heaviest MLB workload in four years. Although the results were solid enough, he only managed a 17% strikeout rate with a 9% swinging strike mark. His fastball sat in the 94 MPH range and he leaned on a low-90s cutter as his main secondary pitch.

Curtiss was miscast for some of the high-leverage spots in which the Diamondbacks were forced to use him late in the season. He has a decent path to winning a middle relief role if he pitches well during camp. A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez will be on the injured list. They’ve yet to make any MLB additions to a bullpen that needs at least two new leverage arms. They’ve brought in Isaiah Campbell and Junior Fernández on minor league deals this winter.

Dodgers Trade Esteury Ruiz To Marlins

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8:48pm: The teams officially announced the trade, and Miami confirmed that Wagaman has been designated for assignment.

6:47pm: The Dodgers are trading outfielder Esteury Ruiz to the Marlins for minor league pitcher Adriano Marrero, reports Francys Romero. Miami reportedly plans to designate first baseman Eric Wagaman for assignment in a corresponding move. This drops L.A.’s roster count to 39.

Ruiz is best known for stealing an AL-leading 67 bases as a member of the Athletics in 2023. That’s the only season in which he has appeared in even 30 games at the big league level. Ruiz batted .254/.309/.345 with five home runs in 497 trips to the plate. He only walked at a 4% clip and, despite showing his plus speed on the bases, graded poorly as a center fielder.

It clearly wasn’t what the A’s had in mind when they chose Ruiz over William Contreras as the centerpiece of their return in the three-team Sean Murphy trade the previous offseason. He spent most of the ’24 season in Triple-A and underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee at year’s end. The A’s cut bait this past April, designating Ruiz for assignment and trading him to Los Angeles.

The 26-year-old has only taken 88 trips to the dish at the MLB level over the past two seasons. He’s coming off a big year in Triple-A, where he hit .303/.411/.514 while going 62-73 in stolen base tries. Ruiz has shown a more patient plate approach against minor league pitching than he did during his big league run a few seasons back.

Miami preferred Ruiz to Dane Myers, another righty-hitting backup outfielder whom the Marlins traded to Cincinnati last week. Myers is a superior defensive option in center but doesn’t have Ruiz’s upside as a base stealer. Ruiz is three years younger and has better career Triple-A numbers, as he owns a .315/.418/.505 line with an 18% strikeout rate at the top minor league level. Myers has fanned in 23% of his Triple-A plate appearances and owns a .295/.380/.440 mark in 98 games. Ruiz has played in more hitter-friendly settings, but the youth and superior contact skills make him a more intriguing depth piece. Both players are entering their final minor league option year.

The Dodgers making a roster-clearing move will fuel speculation as to whether they have anything imminently planned on the free agent or trade front. To this point, there hasn’t been any indication that Los Angeles has any kind of pending move lined up. DFA limbo is frozen between Christmas and New Year’s Day, so this presumably isn’t a move to accommodate a waiver claim.

Whether they have any follow-up moves on the horizon, the Dodgers add a lottery ticket arm to the farm system. Marrero is an 18-year-old righty out of Cuba. He pitched this year in the Dominican Summer League. Marrero wasn’t ranked among Miami’s top 30 prospects but signed for a decent $350K bonus. In September, Baseball America’s Ben Badler credited the 6’3″ hurler with a three-pitch mix (low-90s sinker, sweeper, and changeup) that gets promising lateral movement. BA ranked Marrero among the 20 most intriguing pitching prospects in this year’s amateur signing class.

Marlins Designate Eric Wagaman For Assignment

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The Marlins are designating first baseman Eric Wagaman for assignment, reports Kevin Barral of Fish On First. That’ll open the 40-man roster spot to accommodate the acquisition of outfielder Esteury Ruiz when that trade is finalized.

Wagaman, 28, signed with Miami on a split contract last winter after being non-tendered by the Angels. He wound up starting more than half the club’s games at first base. The right-handed hitter held an MLB roster spot all year and tallied 514 plate appearances. His .250/.296/.378 slash line with nine home runs wasn’t enough to cut it as an everyday player at a bat-first position. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each rated him as a little worse than replacement level.

First base was probably Miami’s biggest weakness entering the offseason. One can argue that’s still the case, though it seems they’re planning to give Christopher Morel the job after signing him to a $2MM free agent contract. Morel is coming off two consecutive replacement level seasons himself. He’s a better athlete with flashier tools than Wagaman brings to the table, though, and he has a couple 20-homer seasons on his résumé.

Wagaman has better bat-to-ball skills but limited power potential. He has some flexibility in that he can play all four corner spots, though his middling speed and arm strength make him a fringe defender. Wagaman probably fits best as a bench bat who can do some damage in favorable platoon settings. He hit .283/.321/.462 with five homers, 14 doubles, and a triple in 184 plate appearances against left-handed pitching this year. Miami’s first base/DH mix with Morel, Agustín Ramírez and Heriberto Hernández already skewed right-handed.

A team that is heavier on left-handed bats could take a flier on Wagaman via small trade or waiver claim. He still has a full slate of minor league options and won’t be eligible for arbitration for at least two years. Teams ordinarily have five days after a DFA to trade a player or place them on waivers. The clock is frozen between Christmas and New Year’s Day, so Wagaman probably won’t learn where he’ll end up until the second week of January. He would not have the service time to refuse an outright assignment if he goes unclaimed on waivers.

Athletics Sign Tyler Soderstrom To Seven-Year Extension

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Dec. 29: The Athletics have formally announced the extension.

Dec. 25: The Athletics aren’t taking the holiday off. They’re in agreement with outfielder Tyler Soderstrom on a seven-year, $86MM extension, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Passan adds that there’s a club option for 2033 and escalators that could push the contract value by another $45MM if the option is exercised. The deal buys out at least three free agent years and potentially a fourth, keeping him under club control through his age-31 season. Soderstrom is represented by Paragon Sports International.

Soderstrom becomes the latest core offensive piece whom the A’s lock up on a long-term deal. They extended Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler on respective $60MM and $65.5MM guarantees last winter. Soderstrom tops those by a decent margin, becoming the largest contract in club history in the process. Their three-year, $67MM free agent deal with Luis Severino had previously been that high-water mark.

[Related: Largest Contract in Franchise History for Each MLB Team]

The lefty-hitting Soderstrom was a first-round pick in 2020. He’d been an excellent offensive player dating back to high school. The biggest question was where he’d fit on the other side of the ball. While Soderstrom was drafted as a catcher, most scouts felt he’d need to move off the position. That has essentially been borne out, as his only 15 MLB starts behind the dish came during his 2023 rookie season. The fallback for poor defensive catchers is generally first base, and that’s indeed where Soderstrom spent the early part of his big league tenure.

Soderstrom struggled over a 45-game sample as a rookie. His .233/.315/.429 slash across 213 plate appearances in 2024 was a significant step forward but hadn’t yet put him alongside Rooker, Butler and Shea Langeliers as clear members of the A’s core. Soderstrom entered this year with a little pressure in the form of 2024 fourth overall pick Nick Kurtz, a college first baseman who was expected to hit his way to the majors very quickly.

While Kurtz would do just that, Soderstrom’s breakout ’25 campaign ensured the A’s couldn’t afford to take him out of the lineup either. The 24-year-old was one of the league’s best hitters in the first few weeks of the season. He connected on nine home runs with a .284/.349/.560 slash before the end of April. Soderstrom was tied for fourth in MLB (behind only Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh and Eugenio Suárez) in homers through the season’s first month. By the time Kurtz forced his way to the majors on April 21, Soderstrom was locked into the middle of Mark Kotsay’s batting order.

That presented the A’s with a positional dilemma. Rooker is an everyday designated hitter. The 6’5″, 240-pound Kurtz wasn’t going to be able to play anywhere other than first base. Despite his catching/first base background, Soderstrom is a solid athlete and average runner. The A’s threw him into left field on the fly even though he’d had no professional experience there. They presumably expected to live with some defensive growing pains to keep his bat in the lineup.

Soderstrom dramatically exceeded those expectations. He graded 10 runs better than an average left fielder by measure of Defensive Runs Saved. Statcast graded his range five plays above average. Soderstrom ended the season as a Gold Glove finalist at a position he’d never played five months earlier. He joins Butler as core outfield pieces, ideally in a corner tandem flanking defensive specialist Denzel Clarke in center.

The increased defensive responsibility didn’t impact Soderstrom’s rhythm at the plate. He scuffled between May and June but rebounded with a .305/.359/.530 showing over the season’s final four months. Soderstrom finished with an overall .276/.346/.474 batting line while ranking fourth on the team with 25 homers. He improved his contact rate by six percentage points and held his own against same-handed pitching (.270/.315/.423) while teeing off on righties (.278/.356/.491). The  breakout also wasn’t a product of the A’s playing half their games at the hitter-friendly Sutter Heath Park. Soderstrom had an OPS north of .800 both at home and on the road.

As recently as this past summer, there was speculation about the A’s potentially swapping Soderstrom for a controllable starting pitcher. The extension firmly takes that off the table and ensures he’ll remain alongside Kurtz, Rooker, Butler and Jacob Wilson in an excellent offensive corps. The first three are signed through at least 2029. Kurtz and Wilson are under team control for five seasons. Langeliers has another two seasons of arbitration eligibility.

Soderstrom was already under club control for four seasons. He was a year closer to free agency than Butler was at the time of his extension, which explains why the price was a little more than $20MM higher. Soderstrom tops the $57.5MM guarantee which Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia received in the same service class, but that deal only extended K.C.’s control window by two seasons.

The A’s backloaded the Rooker and Butler extensions, with the highest salaries corresponding to their planned move to Las Vegas in 2028. The salary breakdown on Soderstrom’s deal hasn’t yet been reported. The A’s had a projected payroll around $87MM before today, as calculated by RosterResource. That’s $12MM above where they opened the ’25 season. General manager David Forst told MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos last week that the team was looking to upgrade a rotation that ranked 27th in ERA and 25th in strikeout percentage.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images.

Mitch White, Guillermo Heredia Re-Sign With KBO’s SSG Landers

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The SSG Landers have re-signed a pair of former MLB players for the 2026 KBO season: right-hander Mitch White and outfielder Guillermo Heredia. White joined the Landers last year, while Heredia has been on the team since the 2023 campaign. Dan Kurtz of MyKBO relayed the news in English earlier today. White is represented by Apex Baseball, while Heredia is represented by PRIME.

White, 31, appeared in 71 games over five MLB seasons, pitching for the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Giants, and Brewers. While he bounced between the bullpen and the rotation in MLB and Triple-A, he took on a full-time starting role in his first KBO season. Averaging 5 2/3 innings per start, he pitched to a 2.87 ERA and 3.44 FIP, striking out 24.4% of batters he faced and walking just 7.8%. For context, the league-average ERA in the KBO this past season was 4.31, while the league-average strikeout and walk rates were 19.7% and 9.1%, respectively. White also induced groundballs on 54% of balls in plays and limited his opponents to only nine home runs on the season.

Heredia, soon to be 35, has been one of the KBO’s premier contact hitters over the past three years. He led the league in batting average in 2024 and ’25 (min. 400 PA) and ranked fifth in ’23. While he isn’t known for his power, he’s a safe bet for double-digit home runs, and his overall offensive output (per wRC+) has been at least 34% better than league average in all three of his seasons with the Landers. Prior to his KBO career, the veteran outfielder played in seven MLB seasons, bouncing between the Mariners, Rays, Pirates, Mets, and Braves.

White and Heredia join new signings Drew VerHagen and Shota Takeda as the four foreign players on the Landers’ 2026 roster. VerHagen, a veteran of both MLB and NPB, signed with the team earlier this month, essentially replacing fellow right-hander Drew Anderson. Himself a former MLB and NPB pitcher, Anderson parlayed an excellent 2025 campaign with the Landers into a one-year, $7MM guarantee from the Detroit Tigers. Takeda, another right-handed pitcher, spent the first 14 years of his professional career with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks organization, though Tommy John surgery kept him from pitching for the NPB club in 2024 or ’25.

Orioles Re-Sign Zach Eflin

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The Orioles have reunited with Zach Eflin on a one-year, $10MM deal with a mutual option for the 2027 season.  The team has officially announced the signing, and designated outfielder Will Robertson for assignment in a corresponding move to create room on the 40-man roster.  Eflin is represented by O’Connell Sports Management.

The $10MM guarantee breaks down as a $5MM salary, a $3MM signing bonus, and then a $2MM buyout on the mutual option.  As a reminder, mutual options are virtually never exercised by both parties, so Eflin’s deal is for all intents and purposes just a one-year pact.  There is some significant bonus money involved, as both Eflin’s buyout and option will increase by $1MM if he makes at least 15 starts, then by $1.5MM if he makes at 20 starts, and one final increase of $2.5MM if he hits the 25-start threshold.  The mutual option’s buyout can therefore max out at $7MM.

Baltimore has been linked to several top-tier free agent pitchers this winter, and the O’s also just swung a notable trade to land a hurler with frontline potential in Shane Baz.  The 32-year-old Eflin might settle into the back of the rotation, especially given his uncertain injury status.  Eflin underwent a back surgery in August that came with a rather broad recovery timeline of 4-8 months, so the fact that he has now signed a contract after four months perhaps hints that his rehab is going smoothly.

The Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich hears from a source that the Orioles are hoping Eflin can “make his season debut early in the year,” with his ramp-up process starting “early in Spring Training.”  Once Eflin is ready, he’ll slot in as the fourth or fifth starter in a projected rotation that includes Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, and Baz.  Tyler Wells had a line on a rotation spot but might move into a bullpen or swingman role once Eflin returns.  Albert Suarez is another swingman candidate, plus Cade Povich, Chayce McDermott, and Brandon Young are further rotation depth options in the upper minors.

If Baltimore still wanted to make a splash by signing or trading for more of a proven ace, the Eflin signing likely isn’t an obstacle.  Given how many injuries the Orioles rotation suffered in 2025, it is no surprise that the team wants as much depth as possible to both cover innings and deliver quality results going forward.

Eflin’s own injury woes contributed to the Orioles’ health problems, as lat and back injuries resulted in three separate stints on the injured list for the righty last year.  Eflin was limited to just 71 1/3 innings over 14 starts, and he struggled to a 5.93 ERA and a 16.2% strikeout rate.  The righty’s 4.2% walk rate was still excellent, however, and since a lot of the damage off Eflin came via a spike in his homer rate, his 4.49 SIERA was more respectable than his real-world ERA.

This isn’t the first time Eflin was plagued by injuries, as persistent knee issues bothered the right-hander earlier in his career with the Phillies, though he posted solid results when healthy.  In what counted as a significant outlay for the low-budget Rays, Tampa Bay inked Eflin to a three-year, $40MM contract during the 2022-23 offseason, and he ended up delivering the highest two innings totals of his career over the first two seasons of the deal — 177 2/3 IP in 2023, 165 1/3 IP in 2024.

The durability was backed up by a 3.54 ERA, 3.5% walk rate, and 23.1% strikeout rate over those 343 innings, though Eflin’s K% dropped off considerably from 26.5% in 2023 to 19.6% in 2024.  Since the Rays are always looking to trim the budget and reload with younger talent, Tampa dealt Eflin to the Orioles at the 2024 deadline, with the O’s absorbing all of the money remaining on Eflin’s $11MM salary for the 2024 season and his $18MM salary for 2025.  While his 2025 campaign was a wash, Eflin did pitch well down the stretch for the Orioles in 2024 to help the team reach the postseason.

Tampa Bay was the only team publicly linked to Eflin’s market this winter, but he’ll now instead return to one of his other former teams in his attempt at a rebound season.  The Orioles know better than any other club about the right-hander’s health situation, and the upside is obvious if Eflin can return to his old form.  At the time of his season-ending surgery, Eflin was also quite vocal about his desire to return to Batlimore in free agency, and now his wish has come true.

Eflin’s $10MM commitment brings the Orioles’ 2026 payroll up to roughly $147.3MM, as per RosterResource.  Since the O’s finished the 2025 campaign with a payroll of approximately $160.1MM, there’s still more room to spend for a team that already made one of the winter’s blockbuster signings in the Pete Alonso contract.  Baltimore could further spend on a free agent starter like Ranger Suarez or Framber Valdez, or perhaps again tip into its minor league depth for another significant trade.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale was the first to break the news on Eflin’s one-year pact with the Orioles.  The New York Post’s Jon Heyman had the $10MM guaranteed, and Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner reported the detail of the mutual option.  FanSided’s Robert Murray had the salary breakdown and the information about the bonus structure.

Inset photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher — Imagn Images

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