Mets To Sign Anthony Gose, Luis Ortiz To Minor League Deals
The Mets have minor league deals in place with left-hander Anthony Gose and right-hander Luis Ortiz, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Both pitchers also receive invites to major league spring training.
Gose, 34, spent many years as a position player in the majors but didn’t find much success and converted to the mound. In that role, he has intrigued with some high velocity and strikeout potential but has also shown control issues.
He tossed 27 2/3 innings for the Guardians over 2021 and 2022, allowing 3.90 earned runs per nine. He averaged 97.6 miles per hour on his fastball and struck out 31.9% of batters faced but also gave out free passes at a 13.8% clip. Tommy John surgery wiped out his entire 2023 season. He returned to the mound in 2024 but only got into three big league games. He tossed 44 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level with a 3.22 ERA, 30.7% strikeout rate and 14.1% walk rate.
Gose is clearly a bit of a project, despite his age. He’s only really been pitching for a few years and the big surgery layoff put things on pause for a while. A 34-year-old with ongoing control problems might be considered a lost cause but Gose is perhaps a special case due to his unusual trajectory. If he can harness his stuff a bit better, there’s intriguing potential there. He has less than four years of service time and can be retained beyond 2025 if he has a roster spot at season’s end, though he is out of options.
Ortiz, 29, is not to be confused with the Luis Ortiz who was recently traded from the Pirates to the Guardians. This Ortiz has pitched for the Orioles and Giants before spending the past two years with the Phillies. He has tossed 34 innings over five different MLB seasons with a 4.76 ERA, 16.3% strikeout rate, 10.5% walk rate and 48.6% ground ball rate.
He only made one big league appearance in 2024 and only five in the minors. He missed time due to ankle and shoulder injuries before undergoing Tommy John surgery in July. He will therefore miss most or perhaps all of the 2025 campaign. From 2021 to 2023, he tossed 155 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 4.58 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate. If he eventually gets a roster spot, he still has one option season and less than two years of service time.
Reds, Bryan Shaw Agree To Minor League Deal
The Reds have agreed to a minor league deal with free agent reliever Bryan Shaw, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Shaw, a client of CAA, will reunite with former Cleveland skipper Terry Francona in Cincinnati and head to major league camp in spring training, where he’ll compete for a bullpen spot.
The 37-year-old Shaw has pitched in the majors in each of the past 14 seasons, albeit only for four innings with the 2024 White Sox. He spent roughly half that time pitching for Francona in Cleveland, where Shaw enjoyed a stretch as one of the American League’s most durable and effective setup men.
From 2013-17, Shaw piled up 358 1/3 innings of 3.11 ERA ball with a 22.5% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. He tallied a hefty 110 holds along the way — the third-most in all of Major League Baseball in that five-year span (trailing the since-retired Tony Watson and Tyler Clippard).
Shaw parlayed that run of excellence into a three-year deal with the Rockies, but as with so many pitchers at Coors Field, things didn’t pan out. Shaw posted an ERA north of 5.00 in each of his two seasons with Colorado before being cut loose. He had a brief cameo with the Mariners during the shortened 2020 campaign but didn’t pitch well there, either.
In the four years since, Shaw has had an up-and-down run but has been serviceable on the whole. He’s pitched 185 1/3 frames dating back to Opening Day 2021 and sports a 4.37 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate. He spent most of the 2024 season with the Angels’ Triple-A club, posting a 4.14 ERA in 41 1/3 innings.
The Reds have several bullpen spots already spoken for. Alexis Diaz, Fernando Cruz, Emilio Pagan, Sam Moll, Brent Suter and Tony Santillan are all likely to open the season on the active roster, health permitting. Roansy Contreras, claimed off waivers earlier this week, will need to make the Opening Day roster or else be traded or passed through waivers prior to Opening Day. Cincinnati will likely make some additional non-roster pickups at the very least, but Shaw is a clear favorite of Francona’s, which could give him an inside track on a bullpen job if he shows well during spring training.
Orioles Re-Sign Matt Bowman To Minor League Deal
The Orioles have re-signed right-hander Matt Bowman to a minor league deal with an invite to big league spring training, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The righty will make $1.1MM if in the majors and will also have the chance to unlock incentives valued at $400K.
Bowman, 34 in May, just finished a nomadic season. He pitched for four clubs this year: the Twins, Diamondbacks, Mariners and Orioles, with Baltimore being his final stop. He signed a minor league deal with the O’s in August and was added to the roster shortly thereafter. He tossed 15 1/3 innings with Baltimore down the stretch, allowing 3.45 earned runs per nine. The O’s outrighted him off the roster at season’s end and Bowman elected free agency.
When combined with his other stops, he tallied 30 2/3 innings on the year with a 4.40 ERA, 18.2% strikeout rate, 9.8% walk rate and 44.1% ground ball rate. Keeping the ball on the ground has been Bowman’s best attribute in his career. Dating back to his 2016 debut, he has 216 big league innings with a 4.17 ERA. His 19% strikeout rate is a bit below average but his 8.3% walk rate is fine and he has kept the ball on the ground at a 54.6% clip.
The bulk of that came work from 2016 to 2019, before Bowman missed the 2020 to 2022 seasons due to injuries, with rehab from Tommy John surgery being the main culprit. He was healthy in 2023 but spent most of the year in Triple-A, getting into just three big league contests. As mentioned, he bounced around quite a bit this year but managed to get his largest chunk of big league work in quite a while.
He’ll give the O’s a bit of non-roster depth for their relief group. If he gets added to the roster at any point, he’ll make a salary a bit above league minimum, which will be $760K next year. He is out of options, which is part of the reason why he bounced around so much this past season. He has less than five years of service time, so he can theoretically be retained for 2026 via arbitration if he has a roster spot at season’s end.
Braves Acquire Davis Daniel
The Braves have acquired right-hander Davis Daniel from the Angels, per announcements from both clubs. The Halos designated Daniel for assignment earlier this week. Left-hander Mitch Farris heads the other way.
Daniel, 28 in June, has a small amount of major league experience thus far. Between last year and this year, he has tossed 42 2/3 innings for the Angels, allowing 5.06 earned runs per nine. His 8.1% walk rate is right around average but his 19.9% strikeout rate and 39.1% ground ball rate are both a few ticks worse than par.
Atlanta is probably more interested in the Triple-A season that Daniel just had. He made 21 starts and one relief appearance at the Sale Lake Bees, logging 118 innings. His 5.42 ERA in that time is obviously not impressive, but the Bees play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. Daniel struck out 23.3% of batters faced and only gave out walks at a 6.5% clip. His 4.41 FIP was almost exactly a run better than his ERA.
Daniel still has an option remaining, so he can give Atlanta a bit of extra rotation depth without taking up an active roster spot. Atlanta projects to have a rotation fronted by Chris Sale, Reynaldo López and Spencer Schwellenbach. They will eventually get Spencer Strider back into that mix at some point, once he’s recovered from his April internal brace surgery. Until then, options for the back end include Grant Holmes, Ian Anderson, AJ Smith-Shawver, Hurston Waldrep, Bryce Elder and others. Daniel will jump into that group, who will presumably battle each other for positions on the depth chart.
Farris, 24 in February, was selected by Atlanta in the 14th round of the 2023 draft. Since then, he has thrown 124 2/3 innings over 21 starts and nine relief appearances in the minors. In that time, he has a 2.96 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate. He spent most of 2024 at High-A and will backfill some of the pitching depth that the Angels just lost by cutting Daniel from the roster. Farris isn’t Rule 5 eligible until December of 2026, so he won’t need a roster spot for quite a while.
Nick Nelson Signs With NPB’s Hanshin Tigers
Right-hander Nick Nelson has signed with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, per an announcement from Beverly Hills Sports Council, his agency. It’s a one-year deal worth $1MM plus incentives. Phillies Tailgate reported last week that the two sides were in negotiations.
Nelson, 29, pitched in each of the past five major league seasons but without sustained success. He logged 114 1/3 innings for the Yankees and Phillies, allowing 5.20 earned runs per nine. His 23.1% strikeout rate and 42.6% ground ball rate were both close to average but he gave out walks at a high rate of 12.9%.
As is often the case with players heading overseas, the minor league numbers are a bit more interesting. A starter for most of his minor league career, he worked primarily in relief in 2021. He tossed 52 Triple-A innings that year with a 3.81 ERA, 26.3% strikeout rate, 12.3% walk rate and 53.6% ground ball rate.
In 2022, he was kept in the majors, tossing 68 2/3 innings with a 4.85 ERA. The Phils tried stretching him out in 2023, which didn’t go especially well. He made 20 Triple-A starts but with a 4.35 ERA, 17.7% strikeout rate, 9.9% walk rate and 49.3% ground ball rate. A return to a primary relief role in 2024 didn’t immediately get him back on track, as he threw 54 1/3 Triple-A innings this year with a 6.13 ERA, 18% strikeout rate, 11% walk rate and 41.6% ground ball rate.
Nelson exhausted his final option year in 2024. The Phillies outrighted him off their 40-man twice late in the year, once in August and once in September. He didn’t have a roster spot at season’s end and elected free agency.
Had he stayed in North America for the 2025 season, he likely would have been looking at minor league deals, having to fight for a roster spot. By heading to Japan and joining the Tigers, he locks in a nice payday above the MLB league minimum, which will be $760K next year. If he takes advantage of his new opportunity, he could parlay that into a raise with the Tigers or perhaps attempt a return to North American ball down the line, following the path of guys like Miles Mikolas and Colin Rea.
Orioles, Jordyn Adams Agree To Minor League Deal
The Orioles and outfielder Jordyn Adams are in agreement on a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The CAA client and former top prospect will head to major league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.
Adams, who turned 25 in October, was selected by the Angels with the No. 17 overall draft pick back in 2018. At the time, he was viewed as one of the best athletes in the entire draft class — a two-sport high school star who’d committed to play both football (as a wide receiver) and baseball at North Carolina. Pre-draft scouting reports touted Adams’ 80-grade speed (on the 20-80 scale) and a projectable frame that carried the potential to grow into more power.
While the speed has been on full display in the minors throughout his career — he’s gone 144-for-176 (82%) in stolen base attempts — Adams has yet to hit much at any stop. He’s a career .252/.333/.377 hitter in 2425 minor league plate appearances and, in 78 big league trips to the plate, mustered only a .176/.205/.216 slash with a 35.9% strikeout rate.
The speed is legitimate, as Statcast ranked him in the 98th percentile of big leaguers with a blazing sprint speed of 29.7 ft/sec. Even as he tumbled down the Angels’ prospect rankings at Baseball America, from No. 3 in 2020 to No. 23 this past season, BA called him a plus defender in center who “tracks fly-balls like a wide receiver” while showing elite closing speed.
In almost every other sense of the word, Adams is a project for the Orioles. However, he’s heading into only his age-25 season. He’s also joining an Orioles organization that has been far more successful than the Angels (and than most of the league, for that matter) when it comes to developing young position players. Adams may not ever be a star, but if the O’s can coax a bit more out of his bat, his speed and defense give him a path to at least being a viable fourth outfielder. Encouragingly, the righty-hitting speedster does have an OPS well north of .800 against lefties over the past three seasons in the minors.
Nationals Sign Michael Soroka
The Nationals announced that they have signed right-hander Michael Soroka to a one-year deal, which reportedly comes with a $9MM salary. The club had 40-man vacancies and didn’t need to make a corresponding move. The ISE Baseball client will reportedly be used as a starter.
Soroka, 27, came into the offseason as one of the more interesting free agents available. He found success as a starting pitcher in his early 20s, back in 2019, but missed most of the 2020 to 2023 seasons due to injuries. In 2024, he struggled badly as a starter but then got moved to a bullpen role and finished the season in very strong fashion. It could have been argued that he earned himself another shot at a rotation job or that he found a role that worked for him and should continue as a reliever, though it seems he will take another shot at being a starter next year.
Prior to his 2019 breakout, Soroka was already a name to watch. He was a first-round pick of Atlanta in 2015 and found himself on top 100 prospect lists as he climbed through the minors. He debuted with five starts in 2018 and then fully cemented himself as a big leaguer in 2019, making 29 starts and logging 174 2/3 innings while allowing 2.68 earned runs per nine. His 20.3% strikeout rate was just below average but his 5.8% walk rate and 51.2% ground ball rate were both notably better than par.
That was Soroka’s age-21 season, so it seemed Atlanta had a rotation building block for years to come. Unfortunately, the baseball gods had a miserable fate in store for Soroka’s next chapter. In his third start of the shortened 2020 season, he had to be helped off the field with a leg injury, later revealed to be a torn right achilles tendon which required surgery. In 2021, he missed some time due to shoulder inflammation and later required another surgery on his achilles. He got back on the mound in 2022 and pitched in the minors, though that season was ended due to elbow soreness. In 2023, he was frequently shuttled between Triple-A and the majors and finished the season on the IL due to forearm inflammation.
After those four years in the injury wilderness, Atlanta seemingly didn’t have much faith in Soroka bouncing back. He was flipped to the White Sox in November, part of a five-for-one trade that saw Atlanta flip multiple spare parts for Aaron Bummer in a roster clearout move.
Unlike Atlanta, Chicago was aggressively rebuilding and had more bandwidth for being patient with Soroka, hoping for a bounceback. It didn’t materialize at first. Soroka started the season with nine starts but had a 6.39 ERA in those. His 46.9% grounder rate was strong but his matching strikeout and walk rates of 12.4% were both bad.
The last of those starts was on May 12. Soroka was moved to the bullpen at that point, which is when things became very interesting. He tossed 36 innings out of the bullpen in the remainder of the season with a 2.75 ERA. His 13% walk rate was oddly high and his grounder rate was just 26.5% but he managed to punch out 39% of batter’s faced.
That came with a significant change in his pitch mix. In those nine starts, he threw 22.5% four-seamers, 30.8% sinkers, 31.9% sliders and 14.7% changeups. After moving to the bullpen, he pushed towards a fastball/slider mix, with 43.2% of his pitches being the former and 41.6% the latter. His sinker and changeup rates dropped to 10.9% and 4.3%, respectively. Despite limiting his arsenal, he was effective against hitters on both sides of the plate. Righties hit just .197/.306/.296 against Soroka the reliever while lefties mustered only a .179/.299/.286 line.
Given the amount of success he had in that relief role, it might be tempting to suggest that he should stay there, but there are also counterarguments. For one thing, despite the many twists and turns in his career, Soroka is still young. He is currently 27 and won’t turn 28 until August. He might not want to give up on the possibility of being a starter just yet.
Furthermore, teams these days don’t tend to view relief success as any kind of reason to not try a guy in a starting role. In recent years, bullpen-to-rotation conversions have become all the rage, with guys like Seth Lugo, Michael King, Garrett Crochet, Reynaldo López, Jeffrey Springs and others making the move successfully. It doesn’t always work out, with A.J. Puk being one example, but even then the downside is pretty harmless as the pitcher just lands as a viable reliever as a fallback.
The Nats should be able to give Soroka a chance to earn a rotation job, at least for a while. They have some intriguing arms but most of them are fairly lacking in experience. The quartet of MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz all had decent results in 2024, with each posting an ERA of 4.41 or lower. However, Gore’s 372 2/3 career innings are the most of the bunch. Irvin is at 308 while Parker and Herz just debuted in 2024 and are below 200. Josiah Gray had UCL surgery in July and won’t be a factor until late in the 2025 season, if at all. Cade Cavalli missed all of 2023 and 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery and it’s unknown what kind of workload he can take on next year.
Washington can give Soroka a rotation gig to start the year and see how things go. If he struggles out of the gate, they can push him to the bullpen and give those starts to one of the younger pitchers. But if things go well, he can be very valuable for the Nats. If they are able to emerge from their ongoing rebuild, he can be a part of that, but he could be a midseason trade candidate even if the club isn’t ready for that step yet. Even if he’s pushed to a relief role, he could still be an interesting deadline trade candidate.
It’s also theoretically possible that he pitches his way into consideration for a qualifying offer at season’s end, as even mid-rotation or back-end guys like Nick Pivetta, Luis Severino and Nick Martinez got QOs this year. In that scenario, Soroka could stay with the Nats all year and help them make a contending push while also providing some future value at the end of the year, though that will be a concern for another day.
At the start of the offseason, MLBTR predicted Soroka for a two-year deal worth $14MM. He has settled for a lesser guarantee but on a stronger annual value, with the chance to return to the open market a year from now. For him personally, that could be a lucrative bet, as it’s possible he will have much more earning power at the end of the 2025 season.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that the Nats and Soroka were in agreement. Robert Murray of FanSided reported that it was a one-year deal worth $9MM.
Rangers Sign Alan Trejo To Minor League Contract
The Rangers announced the signing of infielder Alan Trejo to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite. Texas also re-signed catcher Cooper Johnson and added reliever Nolan Hoffman as non-roster invitees.
Of that trio, Trejo is the only one with MLB experience. The righty-hitting utilityman has suited up for the Rockies in each of the last four seasons. He has hit .228/.276/.334 across 469 plate appearances in the big leagues. Colorado cut him loose in June. Trejo landed a minor league contract with the Dodgers. He finished the year with Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he hit .265/.346/.408 with six homers across 241 plate appearances.
Trejo isn’t going to provide much offensive upside. He can play anywhere on the infield, though, with solid grades for his second base defense in particular. He should open next season at Triple-A Round Rock. Trejo is out of options, so the Rangers would need to keep him on the MLB roster or run him through waivers if they call him up at any point.
Johnson is a 26-year-old catcher who played this year with Texas’ Double-A affiliate. The Ole Miss product hit .235/.355/.474 with 14 home runs in the Texas League. Hoffman, a 27-year-old righty, has pitched in the Seattle and Baltimore systems. He spent the ’24 campaign in Triple-A with the Orioles. Hoffman pitched to a 3.88 ERA while striking out 28% of opponents across 58 innings.
Diamondbacks, Cristian Pache Agree To Minor League Deal
The D-backs and outfielder Cristian Pache have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. Pache, a client of MVP Sports Group, will head to spring training as a non-roster invitee and compete for a bench job.
The 26-year-old Pache split the 2024 season between the Phillies, Orioles and Marlins. A lights-out defender with an anemic bat, Pache posted a combined .200/.273/.279 batting line with an alarming 35% strikeout rate in 183 plate appearances on the season. He’s out of minor league options, so none of those clubs ever had the chance to send Pache down for additional work.
Once one of the game’s top prospects with the Braves, Pache was always regarded as an elite defender whose future would hinge on whether the bat would come around. That’s still yet to happen. He’s seen 610 plate appearances between the Braves, A’s, Phillies, Orioles and Marlins but managed only a .181/.243/.275 line (46 wRC+). Injuries have perhaps contributed — he had both elbow and knee surgery in 2023 — but that alone can’t explain away the extent of his struggles in the majors.
Though he’s never shown that he can hit in the majors — or even all that much in Triple-A — Pache has posted superlative defensive grades. Scouts and defensive metrics agree that he’s sensational in the field, evidenced by career marks of 12 Defensive Runs Saved and 17 Outs Above Average in just 1503 big league innings.
Pache’s glove alone would make him a sensible enough depth pickup for any team, particularly on a minor league deal like this one. He fits the D-backs better than most, however, as he offers a right-handed complement to Jake McCarthy, Alek Thomas and Corbin Carroll. Pache can play any of the three outfield spots, and while he’s not really a true platoon option, his career .230/.299/.370 (87 wRC+) against lefties at least makes him playable when there’s a southpaw on the bump.
The D-backs have drawn trade interest in outfielders like McCarthy and Thomas, though it seems unlikely there’s any correlation at play. Rather, the Snakes likely pounced on the opportunity to bring in a plus-plus defender who could complement their existing outfield nicely and do so at a negligible cost without any real risk.
Brewers, Bruce Zimmermann Agree To Minor League Deal
The Brewers have agreed to a minor league deal with left-hander Bruce Zimmermann, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The Ballengee client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee this coming spring.
Zimmermann, 29, has appeared in parts of four seasons. All four of those came with the Baltimore native’s hometown club. From 2020-23, he pitched 158 1/3 frames for the Orioles, mostly out of the rotation, posting a 5.57 ERA along the way. He regularly showed plus command (career 5.2% walk rate), but Zimmermann’s 89-91 mph fastball proved too hittable and led to troubles keeping the ball in the park (2.27 HR/9).
While Zimmermann’s big league results have clearly been sub-par, he’s logged a more palatable 4.20 ERA in 306 1/3 innings across parts of five Triple-A seasons. Despite the lack of velocity, he’s punched out a solid 22.8% of his opponent at that level and coupled that with a similarly sound 8% walk rate. The 2024 season was the first since 2019 in which Zimmermann did not appear in the majors. He pitched 80 minor league innings with a 4.16 ERA on the year, splitting his time between the rotation and bullpen.
Zimmermann will give the Brewers some more affordable rotation depth behind the projected starting five of Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff, Nestor Cortes, Aaron Civale and Tobias Myers. Southpaws Aaron Ashby and DL Hall are both on the 40-man roster and could get looks in the ‘pen or as starters.
Other rotation candidates include Carlos Rodriguez, Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick, though the latter two have yet to actually make their MLB debuts. Top pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski had a nice season between Double-A and Triple-A last year, and 2022 second-rounder should be in line for his MLB debut at some point during the 2025 campaign. Milwaukee has been on the hunt for extra rotation stability this offseason but doesn’t have much money to work with as they work toward that goal.
The Brewers picked up a plug-and-play mid-rotation arm, Cortes, in the trade sending closer Devin Williams to the Yankees, but they’re still likely to be in the mix for some more low-cost arms.