Reds, Alex Young Agree To Minor League Contract
The Reds are bringing back left-handed reliever Alex Young on a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The Wasserman client gets a non-roster invite to MLB camp.
Young was a productive member of the Cincinnati bullpen in 2023. He made a career-high 63 appearances and worked to a 3.86 earned run average through 53 2/3 innings. That was a strong return on a small investment, as Young had inked a minor league contract the preceding offseason. He held his roster spot into July before Cincinnati flipped him to the Giants for outfielder Austin Slater. It didn’t wind up being a significant move for either team. Slater appeared in eight games before the Reds dealt him to the Orioles. Young didn’t pitch in the majors for San Francisco, who lost him on waivers to the Mets within two weeks.
The 31-year-old southpaw pitched 13 times for New York. He allowed five runs across 13 2/3 innings. New York opted not to tender him a contract in November, sending him back to free agency in the process. Young didn’t find a major league roster spot but made a strong enough impression during his previous stint in Cincinnati that the Reds will give him a look in Spring Training.
Cincinnati has a pair of left-handers locked into Terry Francona’s bullpen: Sam Moll and Brent Suter. Young and Reiver Sanmartin are among their non-roster options from the left side. Veteran righty Bryan Shaw, a longtime Francona favorite, will also be in camp as a non-roster invitee. The Reds could have two or three middle relief spots for up grabs. Alexis Díaz, Emilio Pagán, Tony Santillan, Moll and Suter will all be in the Opening Day bullpen if healthy.
Pirates Designate Tristan Gray For Assignment
The Pirates designated infielder Tristan Gray for assignment, the team informed reporters (including Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Pittsburgh had not officially added Andrew McCutchen to their 40-man roster until this evening, so they needed to open a spot. McCutchen re-signed on a $5MM deal last month.
Pittsburgh claimed Gray off waivers from the A’s in the first few days of the offseason. The 28-year-old had spent a couple months on the A’s, as they’d only claimed him from the Marlins at the end of August. Gray has suited up for both those teams and had a brief stint on the Rays in 2023. Despite playing for a trio of clubs, he has just 17 games of MLB experience. He has hit .152 with one homer in 36 plate appearances.
The lefty-hitting Gray has a much more extensive minor league track record. The Rice product has taken nearly 1800 trips to the dish across four Triple-A seasons. Gray has hit .238/.306/.472 with 90 home runs in 443 games at the top minor league level. Strikeouts have kept him from getting an extended MLB look, as he has fanned in nearly 30% of his Triple-A plate appearances.
Gray has some power and a decent amount of defensive versatility. He has upwards of 1000 minor league frames at each of shortstop, second base and third base. Gray has just over 900 professional innings at first base as well. He has mostly played the corner infield in his limited big league time. He’s likely to end up on waivers again this week. Gray has been outrighted once in his career, so he’d have the ability to elect minor league free agency if he goes unclaimed.
Blue Jays Designate Brandon Eisert For Assignment
The Blue Jays announced that they’ve designated lefty reliever Brandon Eisert for assignment. That opens a spot on the 40-man roster for Anthony Santander, who has officially signed his five-year free agent deal.
Eisert, who turned 27 yesterday, made his major league debut last season. He came out of the bullpen for three appearances, allowing three runs across 6 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out a pair. The Oregon State product spent the rest of the year with Triple-A Buffalo, where he turned in a 3.86 earned run average through 53 2/3 innings. He fanned an excellent 29.1% of batters faced against a 9.3% walk rate.
That was Eisert’s third consecutive season working mostly in Triple-A. He doesn’t have much else to prove there. Eisert has posted a cumulative 3.83 ERA through 183 1/3 innings. He has missed bats in all three years and owns a career 28.6% strikeout rate at the top minor league level. He pairs that with league average walk and ground-ball numbers.
Despite his solid minor league results, Eisert got only the briefest of looks in the Toronto bullpen. The Jays had the worst relief group in the American League last season. The front office seemingly didn’t expect Eisert’s arsenal to play at the MLB level, though. He doesn’t have prototypical power stuff. His fastball averaged 91.2 MPH in the majors and sat around 90 MPH in Triple-A. He threw the fastball around half the time while mixing in a slider and changeup during his minor league work.
Eisert’s upper minors track record and ability to throw multiple innings out of the bullpen could get him some attention. The Jays have five days to trade him or place him on waivers, which are a 48-hour process. Eisert still has two minor league options, meaning another team that is willing to carry him on the 40-man roster could bounce him between the majors and Triple-A for a while.
Braves, Chasen Shreve Agree To Minor League Deal
The Braves are in agreement with lefty reliever Chasen Shreve on a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The CAA client will be in camp as a non-roster invitee and would lock in a $1.3MM base salary if he makes the big league roster.
Shreve, a former Atlanta draftee who debuted with 15 appearances for the club in 2014, made one MLB appearance as a member of the Rockies last season. He tossed a scoreless inning. That extended the veteran southpaw’s streak to 11 consecutive years logging some major league action. Shreve spent most of the ’23 season in the big leagues. He combined for 50 appearances between the Tigers and Reds, working to a 4.63 ERA across 44 2/3 frames.
While his big league appearance came with Colorado, Shreve played for a trio of Triple-A affiliates last year. He spent time in the Rangers, Yankees and Rox systems. Shreve turned in a cumulative 2.62 earned run average across 34 1/3 innings at the top minor league level. He fanned a strong 26.7% of opponents against a slightly higher than average 9.2% walk percentage. He got swinging strikes at a near-14% clip.
The results were good, but Shreve doesn’t have the velocity that teams prefer to stockpile in the bullpen. His fastball averaged 90 MPH in Triple-A last season. He averaged 89.4 MPH during his only major league appearance. He leans frequently on his slider and splitter to compensate for the fringe velocity. Shreve has neutral platoon splits over his career, so he’s not a great fit for lefty specialist work.
That’s not an issue for an Atlanta team that’ll have Aaron Bummer and Dylan Lee in the late innings. Angel Perdomo is out of options and will need to stick on the MLB roster or be made available to other teams. Depending on whether they carry Perdomo and keep Rule 5 pick Anderson Pilar, Atlanta could have two or three middle relief spots up for grabs in camp.
Giants, Joey Lucchesi Agree To Minor League Deal
The Giants and left-hander Joey Lucchesi have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The CAA Sports client gets an invite to big league camp and will make $1.5MM if he makes it to the majors.
Lucchesi, 32 in June, has spent the past few years as a depth arm for the Mets. Acquired from the Padres in the three-team January 2021 trade that sent Joe Musgrove from Pittsburgh to San Diego, Lucchesi went on to toss 38 1/3 innings for the Mets that year. He allowed 4.46 earned runs per nine but with strong strikeout and walk rates of 26.1% and 7% respectively.
Tommy John surgery in June put him out of action for the second half and he didn’t make it back to the majors in 2022. For the past two years, the lefty has mostly been kept in the minors, only getting into nine big league contests in 2023 and just two last year. His 57 innings in those 11 starts resulted in a 3.32 ERA but less impressive numbers under the hood, as his 16.2% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate were both subpar. He also tossed 204 2/3 innings in the minors over the past two years with a 4.57 ERA, 19.3% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate. After two years of fairly middling results, and Lucchesi exhausting his final option year, the Mets decided to move on. He was outrighted off the roster at the end of last season and elected free agency.
For the Giants, there’s no real harm in bringing him aboard on a minor league pact to see if the lefty can get things back on track. He once looked like a solid rotation option for the Padres, logging 293 2/3 innings over the 2018 and 2019 seasons with a 4.14 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 46% ground ball rate. He spent most of 2020 in the minors but put up fairly similar numbers in 2021 before his surgery.
The Giants have a good rotation on paper, though with plenty of uncertainty behind Logan Webb. Both Robbie Ray and Justin Verlander will be looking to bounce back after injuries prevented them from contributing much in 2024. Kyle Harrison has posted some solid numbers thus far but is still below 160 career innings in the majors. Jordan Hicks will once again be trying to carve out a rotation role after seemingly running out of gas last year.
The club also has some depth options, with guys like Landen Roupp, Hayden Birdsong, Mason Black and others on the roster, but Lucchesi will add to that depth in a non-roster capacity. If he gets back to the majors, he is out of options, but he has less than five years of service time. That means he could theoretically be retained via arbitration for 2026 if he’s holding a roster spot at the end of the upcoming season.
Rangers Sign Chad Wallach To Minors Contract
The Rangers have signed catcher Chad Wallach to a minor league split contract, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports. Wallach will receive an invitation to Texas’ big league Spring Training camp.
The veteran backstop spent the last three seasons in the Angels organization, re-signing with the Halos in each of the last two winters. After seeing some action in every MLB campaign from 2017-23, Wallach didn’t get any time in the Show last year, as he hit .247/.337/.430 over 335 plate appearances with Triple-A Salt Lake. Logan O’Hoppe and Matt Thaiss stayed healthy and handled all of the catching duties for Los Angeles last season, so there was never any reason for Wallach to receive a call-up.
As he enters his age-34 season, Wallach now heads into a new environment with the Rangers, though his path to playing time isn’t much clearer. Jonah Heim and Kyle Higashioka are set to be the Rangers’ top catching duo, and Tucker Barnhart was also inked to a minor league contract. It could be that Texas simply wants as many backstops in camp as possible, but should Barnhart opt out of his deal to pursue another opportunity elsewhere, Wallach might be viewed as the likelier candidate to actually stay in the organization as an experienced catcher for the Triple-A affiliate.
Wallach has hit .198/.263/.328 with five home runs over 443 career plate appearances during his seven MLB seasons. A backup for much of his career with the Reds, Marlins, and Angels, he received his most playing time in 2023, when a spate of injuries to the Halos’ catching corps allowed Wallach to amass 172 PA over 65 games.
Padres Sign Niko Goodrum To Minor League Deal
The Padres have signed utility player Niko Goodrum to a minor league deal, according to the transactions log on his MLB.com profile page. The deal presumably includes an invite to big league Spring Training. MadFriars first reported the transaction earlier this week.
Goodrum, 33 next month, has participated in parts of seven MLB seasons to this point. A second-round pick by the Twins in 2010 who made his big league debut in Minnesota back in 2017, Goodrum was cut from the club’s 40-man roster and wound up signing a minor league deal with the division rival Tigers during the 2017-18 offseason. The deal proved to be quite a coup for Detroit, as Goodrum went on to become a solid utility man for the club over the next four seasons. From 2018 to 2021, Goodrum hit a decent .232/.306/.401 (90 wRC+) in 376 games. He collected 6.3 fWAR during that time while mixing in at all three outfield spots in addition to first base, second base, third base, and even shortstop.
Unfortunately, Goodrum’s performance began to tail off in his later years with Detroit, and he hit just .203/.282/.350 in his final 504 trips to the plate with the club. That led the Tigers to outright him off their 40-man roster during the 2021-22 offseason, allowing him to return to free agency. Goodrum hasn’t found consistent work in the majors since departing Detroit, though he’s remained involved in stateside ball throughout the past three years. He spent the 2022 campaign in the Astros organization but was limited to just 35 games between the major and minor leagues due to injuries. The 2023 season saw Goodrum join the Red Sox organization and hit quite well over 65 games with Triple-A Worcester. That earned him an opportunity in South Korea’s KBO league during the second half and he hit .295/.373/.387 in 50 games with the Lotte Giants.
Goodrum returned to stateside ball in 2024 and bounced between five different organizations throughout the year. Goodrum initially signed back with the Twins on a minor league deal during the 2023-24 offseason, but after not making the club’s 40-man roster he was traded to the Rays and provided with a roster spot in Tampa. Throughout the year, Goodrum bounced between the Rays, Angels, and Pirates on the waiver wire before ultimately clearing waivers and electing free agency, where he signed a minor league deal with the Orioles. Goodrum failed to hit at the big league level in 2024 with a slash line of just .103/.188/.103 in the majors, albeit in a sample size of just 33 plate appearances. Goodrum’s Triple-A numbers were far stronger, as he slashed .284/.375/.460 in 243 trips to the plate across 60 games for the Rays’, Angels’, and Orioles’ affiliates.
Now, Goodrum is moving on to his sixth organization of the past calendar year in San Diego. The Padres are facing a significant budget crunch this winter and are severely lacking in positional depth after losing Jurickson Profar, Ha-Seong Kim, Donovan Solano, and David Peralta to free agency. While Goodrum is hardly an impactful bat even in his best years, the veteran utility man’s versatility could be a major asset to the Padres off the bench this year if they enter the season without more reliable solutions to their lackluster outfield mix.
Royals Sign Harold Castro To Minor League Contract
The Royals announced that utilityman Harold Castro was signed to a minor league contract. The 31-year-old Castro will get an invitation to Kansas City’s big league spring camp.
Castro is no stranger to the AL Central, as he spent his entire pro career (and his first five MLB seasons) with the Tigers before joining the Rockies on a minor league deal prior to the 2023 season. He appeared in 99 games with Colorado after his contract was selected to the active roster, but Castro spent the 2024 season outside of affiliated baseball, instead suiting up with the Toros de Tijuana of the Mexican League.
Castro hit .320/.366/.447 over 363 plate appearances and 84 games with Tijuana, and he followed up that strong performance with even bigger numbers in the Venezuelan Winter League. This was enough to get the Royals’ attention for a camp invite, and the left-handed hitting Castro will now compete for a job on the K.C. bench.
Despite his short-lived nickname of “Hittin’ Harold” during his time in Detroit, Castro has a modest .278/.303/.366 slash line over 1485 career plate appearances at the MLB level. His career minor league numbers aren’t much better, though it is worth noting that Castro hasn’t played in the affiliated minor leagues since the 2019 season. What he does bring to the table is defensive versatility, as Castro has played at every position except catcher during his time in the big leagues, with quite a bit of experience in particular at all four infield spots.
Kansas City, if anything, might have more than infield depth already, given how one of Jonathan India or Michael Massey could find themselves in left field when they aren’t at second base or designated hitter. The Royals also recently signed Cavan Biggio to a minors deal, so both Castro and Biggio figure to be competing for the same roster spot as a left-handed hitting utilityman. Incumbent third baseman Maikel Garcia swings from the right side and hasn’t produced much at the plate, so third base stands as a logical platoon area for Castro (or Biggio) to carve out a niche for playing time.
Twins Sign Anthony Misiewicz To Minor League Deal
The Twins have signed left-hander Anthony Misiewicz to a minor league contract, Darren Wolfson of SKOR North reports. Misiewicz will receive an invitation to Minnesota’s Major League spring camp.
A veteran of each of the last five MLB seasons, Misiewicz just barely extended that streak this past year when he appeared in a single game (tossing one relief inning) for the Yankees on June 19. He was soon sent back to Triple-A after that cup of coffee in the Show, and was ultimately designated for assignment and outrighted off New York’s 40-man roster in September.
Over what was essentially a full season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Misiewicz posted a 3.90 ERA with eight homers allowed over 55 1/3 relief innings. That trouble with the long ball obscured some pretty strong peripherals like a 29% strikeout rate and a 7.6% walk rate. Misiewicz had a wide gap in his splits at Triple-A, as he dominated left-handed batters while struggling badly against righty swingers.
Misiewicz has a 4.67 ERA over 115 2/3 career innings in the majors, with most of that work coming with the Mariners from 2020-22. He’ll provide the Twins with at least another experienced arm to evaluate in camp, and his chances of making the roster could be helped by Minnesota’s lack of left-handed depth. Kody Funderburk and minor league starter Brent Headrick are currently the only left-handed pitchers on the Twins’ 40-man roster.
Braves Sign Curt Casali To Minors Deal
The Braves have signed catcher Curt Casali to a minor league contract, Just Baseball Media’s Aram Leighton reports. Atlanta is Casali’s 11th different organization over his 14 professional seasons.
The last eleven of those seasons have come in the big leagues, with Casali amassing 543 career games with the Rays, Mariners, and two separate stints apiece with the Reds and Giants. Most recently, Casali suited up 41 times for San Francisco last season, stepping in as the primary backup catcher after Tom Murphy was lost for the season due to a knee injury.
Casali has mostly worked in a backup or part-time capacity, appearing in as many as 84 games twice (2016 with the Rays and 2019 with the Reds) in his career. His most productive overall stretch came with Cincinnati from 2018-2020, when he hit .260/.345/.440 in 485 plate appearances while working in what was more or less a timeshare with Tucker Barnhart behind the plate. Casali’s offensive numbers have tailed off significantly since, and he had only a .194/.293/.250 slash line in 125 PA with the Giants last season.
His glovework also took a downturn in 2024, as Statcast rated his blocking, framing, and caught-stealing numbers all below average. This could be a sign of age catching up to Casali as he enters his age-36 season, but he has a solid reputation as a defensive catcher who works well with pitchers.
Atlanta declined its $8MM club option on Travis d’Arnaud, and the longtime Braves backstop then signed with the Angels in one of the offseason’s more significant early moves. Sean Murphy will look to rebound from a down year as the Braves’ starting catcher and Chadwick Tromp is penciled in as the backup, though Casali and Sandy Leon are two well-traveled veterans who will provide some competition in Spring Training. The other name to watch here is Drake Baldwin, as the top prospect hit well in 334 PA with Triple-A Gwinnett last season and is expected to make his MLB debut at some point in 2025.