Sixto Sanchez Elects Free Agency
9:21PM: Sanchez has chosen to become a free agent, Azout reports (X link).
5:26PM: The Marlins have taken Sixto Sánchez off the roster. Miami announced that the former top pitching prospect went unclaimed on waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Jacksonville. Sánchez has the requisite service time to become a minor league free agent, though the Fish didn’t announce that he has already done so. Miami also outrighted left-hander Josh Simpson and selected the contract of righty Luarbert Arias.
Sánchez was the centerpiece of the J.T. Realmuto trade return. The 6’0″ righty was regarded as perhaps the best pitching prospect in MLB at the time. Sánchez never came close to meeting those lofty expectations. Shoulder injuries have largely derailed his career, as Sánchez has lost huge chunks of time to the IL over the past half-decade. He didn’t throw a single MLB pitch between 2021-23. Sánchez returned to log 35 2/3 innings in a swing role this season, but he surrendered more than six earned runs per nine. Shoulder inflammation ended his season in early June.
Simpson, 27, has yet to make his MLB debut. He had been on the 40-man roster since the end of the 2022 season. Simpson lost most of this season to an ulnar nerve injury that required surgery. He allowed 14 runs (11 earned) across 16 innings between three minor league levels. He’s also likely headed to minor league free agency.
Arias, 23, would have joined them on the open market if the Fish didn’t put him on the 40-man roster. The Venezuelan-born righty had a nice year in a late-inning role for Jacksonville. Arias posted a 3.04 earned run average through 68 innings. He fanned upwards of a quarter of opponents against a 9.3% walk rate. He’s a pure reliever who can compete for a spot in a wide open bullpen as he tries to earn his first big league call.
Isaac Azout of Fish on First first reported that Miami outrighted Sánchez off the roster.
Blue Jays Claim Michael Petersen, Outright Genesis Cabrera
The Blue Jays announced they’ve claimed reliever Michael Petersen from the Marlins. Toronto outrighted Génesis Cabrera and Luis Frías off the 40-man roster. Both players elected free agency. Toronto also designated righty Emmanuel Ramírez for assignment.
Petersen is on the move for the second time in a few months. Miami grabbed the right-hander off waivers from the Dodgers in September. He allowed four runs across 5 2/3 innings to finish the year. Petersen had made 11 appearances with the Dodgers. He closed his debut campaign with a 5.95 earned run average through 19 2/3 innings.
The 30-year-old Petersen had much better numbers in 33 innings at the Triple-A level. He posted a 1.64 ERA while striking out a massive 35.2% of opponents. The native of the United Kingdom still has a couple options remaining, so he’ll serve as a bullpen depth piece if the Jays keep him on the 40-man roster.
Cabrera’s tenure in Toronto ends after a season and a half. The Jays acquired the southpaw from the Cardinals midway through the ’23 season. Cabrera pitched well down the stretch and returned for a second season. The results were solid enough, as he posted a 3.59 ERA while logging 62 2/3 relief innings. Cabrera had a subpar 18.5% strikeout rate and walked nearly 11% of his opponents, though. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for a $2.5MM salary if tendered a contract for his final arbitration year. The Jays evidently weren’t willing to pay that price given Cabrera’s shaky K/BB profile.
Toronto grabbed Frías off waivers from the Diamondbacks late in the year. The 6’3″ righty was blown up for eight runs in 3 1/3 frames. He has a 7.38 ERA over 58 big league appearances. Frías was a reasonably well-regarded prospect who throws in the mid-90s, but he hasn’t shown any kind of strike-throwing consistency in the majors.
Ramírez, 30, was another late-season waiver acquisition. He came over from Miami in early September. Ramírez didn’t make an appearance for the Jays after allowing a near-7.00 ERA over 15 games for the Fish. He’ll presumably find himself on waivers in the next few days.
Jacob Stallings Declines Mutual Option With Rockies
The Major League Baseball Players Association announced a list of 30 players who reached free agency today after having their option decisions resolved, and Rockies catcher Jacob Stallings was included among them. Colorado hasn’t announced a decision regarding Stallings’ mutual option, but MLBTR has learned that he declined his end of the option. Mutual options typically require the player to decide first, and that was the case in this instance. He’ll receive a $500K buyout and head back to the open market.
Stallings, 34, hit well in Colorado this season, turning in a .263/.357/.453 slash (114 wRC+) with a career-best nine homers in 281 plate appearances. Given that his mutual option was valued at a modest $1.5MM (with that $500K buyout), he surely feels he can top the net $1MM in free agency. The two sides have held mutual interest in a reunion for next season but have not yet come to terms on a new contract.
The 2024 season was Stallings’ first in Colorado. He’d spent the prior two campaigns in Miami and the first six years of his big league career in Pittsburgh. He won a Gold Glove with the Pirates in 2021 and was for a couple seasons regarded as one of the sport’s premier defensive backstops. His defensive grades have dwindled in recent years, due in no small part to a stark downturn in his framing grades. Stallings’ caught-stealing rates dropped off in his two years with Miami, but he was roughly league-average in that regard with the Rox (21% to the league-average 20%). Statcast rates him as one of the best in the sport when it comes to blocking balls in the dirt, listing him fourth out of 66 qualified catchers.
Stallings has posted solid offensive numbers in three of the past five seasons, with his two years in Miami standing as the exception. He draws plenty of walks (9.6% this past season) and strikes out at a roughly league-average rate (23.1%). That profile, coupled with his age, isn’t necessarily going to land him a lucrative long-term pact, but Stallings should find a one-year deal at a higher rate than last year’s $2MM base salary and could feasibly find some two-year offers. It’s a generally thin free agent class for catching help, with Danny Jansen, Carson Kelly and Kyle Higashioka standing as his primary competition on the open market.
As previously noted, the Rockies themselves figure to be among his suitors. Top prospect Drew Romo got his first taste of the majors in 2024 but hit poorly in a sample of 53 plate appearances. Romo had a solid offensive showing in Triple-A but only recently turned 23 and could require some more seasoning in the upper minors. Colorado also has utilityman Hunter Goodman as an option behind the plate, but he spent more time in the outfield than behind the plate and didn’t hit well either in his 224 plate appearances. There are no other catchers on the Rockies’ 40-man roster, so it stands to reason that whether it’s Stallings or another veteran, they’ll be on the hunt for some depth between now and spring training.
Mitch Haniger Exercises Player Option
Mitch Haniger bypassed the opportunity to opt out of the final year of his contract with the Mariners, MLBTR has confirmed. The outfielder returns to Seattle on a $15.5MM salary.
There wasn’t much doubt about this decision. Haniger is coming off a second straight down year. He hit .208/.286/.334 across 423 plate appearances. That’s similar production to the middling .209/.266/.365 slash he posted during his first season with the Giants. Haniger had been an above-average hitter over the five years preceding his $43.5MM free agent deal with San Francisco.
Seattle reacquired Haniger last winter alongside Anthony DeSclafani in a deal that sent Robbie Ray to the Giants. Neither side got much out of that trade in the first season. Ray was inconsistent over seven starts and bypassed the chance to opt out of the $50MM remaining on his deal. The M’s did manage to flip DeSclafani as part of the Jorge Polanco trade with Minnesota, but Polanco underperformed while DeSclafani blew out and never pitched for the Twins.
Assuming the Mariners keep Haniger on the roster through the offseason, he’ll compete for a spot in Dan Wilson’s corner outfield/DH rotation. Seattle has Randy Arozarena locked into left field. Victor Robles is the favorite for playing time in right, but he can move into a fourth outfield capacity if the M’s add a bigger bat. Luke Raley should get a decent chunk of playing time at DH, especially if the Mariners acquire a first baseman via free agency or trade.
Clayton Kershaw Declines Player Option
The MLB Players Association announced that Clayton Kershaw has become a free agent. That indicates he declined his $10MM player option with the Dodgers.
Kershaw has said on a few occasions that he plans to stay in Los Angeles. He announced at the World Series parade that he would be a “Dodger for life.” It stands to reason that the future Hall of Famer plans to renegotiate a new contract with the team, but he needed to decide by this evening whether to exercise the option.
In all likelihood, this is simply a move that’ll buy the sides time to hammer out a new incentive-laden deal. Kershaw’s last contract was heavily stocked with incentives as he returned from shoulder surgery. While he’s not battling anything quite that serious this time around, he is set to undergo surgeries on his left knee and left big toe. Kershaw and the club may want to evaluate his recovery before settling on some kind of incentive package for his next contract.
That also affords an extra bit of flexibility from a roster perspective. Kershaw would have counted against the 40-man roster all winter had he exercised the option. He won’t count against the roster for as long as he’s a free agent. That’ll allow the Dodgers to somewhat unofficially operate with an extra spot for a while.
Once Kershaw returns to L.A., he’ll rejoin a rotation that could lose both Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler to free agency. The Dodgers have Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May among their in-house rotation options. As is the case each winter, it’s a group loaded with talent but plenty of durability questions. The Dodgers should be heavily involved for starting pitching.
Angels Select Scott Kingery, Release Kenny Rosenberg
The Angels added recently acquired infielder Scott Kingery to their 40-man roster. The Halos released left-hander Kenny Rosenberg in a corresponding move.
Los Angeles acquired Kingery from Philadelphia over the weekend. They would not have done so if they weren’t planning to add him to the roster, as the infielder would otherwise have reached minor league free agency today. The 30-year-old former top prospect has only appeared in one big league game since 2021. He’s coming off a decent showing with Philadelphia’s top affiliate in Lehigh Valley, hitting .268/.318/.488 with 25 homers and stolen bases apiece.
Rosenberg, a 29-year-old swingman, has pitched in 17 MLB contests across the last three years. He owns a 4.66 earned run average. The Cal State Northridge product had a decent year with Triple-A Salt Lake, working to a 4.21 ERA through 115 1/3 innings in the Pacific Coast League. He punched out 21.5% of opponents against a tidy 7.8% walk percentage.
Yankees Outright Duke Ellis
The Yankees announced that outfielder Duke Ellis went unclaimed on waivers. He neither has the requisite service time nor the previous outright necessary to become a minor league free agent.
Ellis, a Texas product, is a speedster who bounced around as a depth option. He played with the White Sox and Yankees this season and also spent time in the Seattle and Mets systems. Ellis got into 11 regular seasons games, mostly as a pinch runner. He collected his first big league hit in five at-bats. The Yankees gave him one more pinch-running appearance in October.
The 26-year-old will remain with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and should be in camp next spring as a non-roster invitee. Ellis has a middling .237/.323/.337 batting line in his minor league career, but his speed and ability to play all three outfield spots give him a chance to crack the roster as a fifth outfielder.
Joey Meneses, Ildemaro Vargas, Michael Rucker Elect Free Agency After Nationals’ Outrights
The Nationals announced that first baseman Joey Meneses, utilityman Ildemaro Vargas, and right-hander Michael Rucker are all free agents after clearing waivers and being outrighted off Washington’s 40-man roster. Meneses was eligible for minor league free agency, while Vargas (due to service time) and Rucker (a past outright assignment) were each eligible to elect free agency and chose to exercise that right. The moves clear some space on the Nationals’ roster for Josiah Gray, Cade Cavalli, Mason Thompson, and Joan Adon, who were all reinstated from the 60-day injured list.
Vargas was projected for a $1.8MM salary in his third and final year of arbitration eligibility, and with a non-tender likely looming, Vargas will now get an early start on the free agent market. The 33-year-old Vargas signed a minor league deal with Washington midway through the 2022 season and ended up hitting .257/.302/.354 over 785 plate appearances and 234 games in a Nats uniform. Most of Vargas’ playing time came at third base, but he spent a substantial amount of time at both middle infield positions and also chipped in for a few games as a first baseman, corner outfielder, and even a mop-up pitcher in blowouts.
Meneses also broke in with the Nationals (and in MLB in general) during the 2022 season, as he stepped in as Washington’s regular first baseman once Josh Bell was traded to the Padres as part of the Juan Soto deal. After bouncing around the minors and playing in Mexico and Japan during his long pro career, Meneses made the most of his big league debut by hitting .324/.367/.563 with 13 homers over 240 PA during the remainder of the 2022 campaign.
The magic of that unexpected breakout didn’t last, however, as Meneses had an unspectacular .275/.321/.401 slash line in 657 PA in 2023 as the Nationals’ regular DH. This translated to a sub-replacement level -0.2 fWAR, and the number sunk to -1.0 fWAR when Meneses hit only .231/.291/.302 in 313 PA this season. Juan Yepez and rookie Andres Chaparro look to be covering Washington’s first base situation for now, though the Nats are expected to make a play for a bigger-hitting first baseman this offseason.
Rucker’s run in the Nationals’ organization was brief, as he was only selected off waivers from the Phillies in September and he didn’t see any big league action. Rucker hasn’t pitched in the Show since 2023, and he was limited to 30 2/3 minor league innings with Philadelphia and Washington in 2024 due to a lengthy IL stint because of an arterial vasospasm in his pitching hand.
All of Rucker’s MLB experience came with the Cubs from 2021-23, when he posted a 4.96 ERA in 123 1/3 innings out of Chicago’s bullpen. The home run ball gave Rucker a lot of issues, though his career 3.94 SIERA, 22.6% strikeout rate, and 9.4% walk rate are all palatable. Assuming that Rucker is now fully healthy, he’ll likely land a minor league deal with a team in need of pitching depth.
Mariners Select Blas Castano
The Mariners announced they’ve added righty Blas Castano to their 40-man roster. As a player with parts of seven seasons in the minors, he would’ve otherwise qualified for minor league free agency.
Castano gets a 40-man spot for the first time in his career at age 26. The Dominican Republic native spent six seasons in the Yankee system before joining the Mariners on a minor league deal in August ’23. Seattle can keep him in the minors for the foreseeable future, as Castano has a full slate of option years. They’d need to run him through waivers to take him back off the 40-man roster.
Seattle was impressed enough with Castano’s 2024 season to not allow him to get away. The 5’10” righty split the year between the top two minor league levels. He threw 125 1/3 innings of 4.38 ERA ball, striking out 20% of opponents against an 8% walk rate. They’re not dominant numbers, though he fared better in Double-A before moving up to the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Frankie Montas Declines Mutual Option; Brewers Outright Bryse Wilson, Jake Bauers
The Brewers announced a set of roster moves today, including the news that Frankie Montas declined his end of a $20MM mutual option for the 2025 season. Montas (who will be 32 on Opening Day) will instead take a $2MM buyout and enter free agency. Milwaukee also outrighted right-hander Bryse Wilson and first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers off the 40-man roster, and both players will head to free agency as well.
The one-year contract Montas signed with the Reds last winter broke down as a $14MM guarantee for 2024, and then the $2MM buyout on the $20MM mutual option. It should be noted that mutual options are almost never triggered by both sides, so Montas’ decision to decline the option in the wake of his so-so season shouldn’t be seen as a surprise, as the Brewers surely would’ve passed on their end of the option anyway.
A labrum surgery in February 2023 ended up costing Montas all but 1 1/3 innings of the 2023 season, as he made it back to pitch in the second-last game of the Yankees’ regular-season schedule. Despite that lost year, the right-hander’s past track record of success as a starter with the Athletics still allowed Montas to land a healthy one-year guarantee in free agency, though his attempt at a bounce-back season delivered mixed results.
Montas posted a 4.84 ERA over 150 2/3 combined innings with the Reds and Brewers, as Milwaukee picked up Montas in an intra-division trade at the deadline. The righty’s strikeout rate shot upwards after the trade and his SIERA improved by almost a full run, even though Montas’ 4.55 ERA with the Brew Crew wasn’t a huge upgrade over the 5.01 ERA he posted in Cincinnati.
For the full season, Montas’ 22.6% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate, 27.7% chase rate, and hard-contact metrics were all below the league average. Some rust was perhaps expected since Montas missed basically all of 2023, and the fact that he returned to pitch 150 2/3 innings is perhaps the most important stat in the eyes of some evaluators. Teams will always have a need for starters who can eat innings, and Montas’ uptick in performance after joining the Brewers could be viewed as a sign that he might still be able to get closer to his old form now that he is further removed from his surgery.
Bauers was projected to earn $2.3MM in his second year of arbitration eligibility, and Wilson $1.5MM in his first trip through the arb process. Both were expected to be non-tendered, so today’s moves gives the pair an early jump on the free agent market in advance of the November 22 non-tender deadline.
Acquired from the Yankees in a trade last November, Bauers hit .199/.301/.361 with 12 homers over 346 plate appearances in what looks to be his lone season in Milwaukee. Bauers primarily played in a timeshare at first base with Rhys Hoskins, while also getting some action in at both corner outfield positions. Hoskins exercised his player option and will return to the Brewers in 2025, with Tyler Black probably now penciled in to at least assume the left-handed hitting side of the first base timeshare, leaving Bauers an obvious odd man out.
Wilson had a 4.04 ERA, 18.6% strikeout rate, and seven percent walk rate over 104 2/3 innings in 2024, and he worked in a variety of roles as a starter, reliever, and bulk pitcher behind an opener. Working in a pure relief role with the Brewers in 2023, Wilson had a 2.58 ERA in 76 2/3 frames over 53 appearances.
Between Wilson’s solid bottom-line results, the low arbitration price tag, and the remaining years of team control, Milwaukee’s decision to move on from the 26-year-old seems curious at first, though Wilson’s underwhelming peripherals provide the answer. Wilson’s .253 BABIP helped offset his lack of strikeout punch, and his 4.33 SIERA over his two seasons with the Brewers was substantially higher than his 3.42 ERA. The Brewers could potentially look to re-sign Wilson to a new contract, though it seems like the Crew might want a higher-upside arm for its pitching depth chart.