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Brewers Outright Eric Lauer

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Left-hander Eric Lauer has passed through waivers unclaimed and been outrighted by the Brewers to Triple-A Nashville, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Lauer has more than three years of service time, which gives him the right to reject this outright and elect free agency.

Lauer, now 28, once seemed like a solid part of the pitching staff in Milwaukee. Over 2021 and 2022, he tossed 277 1/3 innings for the Brewers with a 3.47 earned run average. He stuck out 23.8% of batters faced in that time while issuing walks at a 8.7% clip.

He and the club agreed to an arbitration salary of $5.075MM for 2023 and he opened the year in the club’s rotation. Unfortunately, he struggled to get on track this year, posting a 5.48 ERA through his first nine appearances. He landed on the injured list in late May due to an impingement in his non-throwing shoulder and the club optioned him to the minors once he was healthy enough to be activated. His 5.04 ERA in the minors this year wasn’t much better but he got recalled at the end of September to make an appearance after the club had already clinched the division. He allowed eight earned runs in four innings, ballooning his ERA for the season to 6.56.

Lauer could have been retained for 2024 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a slight raise to a salary of $5.2MM next year. But after his poor results in 2023 and the fact that he’ll be out of options next year, it seems the Brewers weren’t willing to have him back at that price point.

Assuming Lauer elects free agency, he will head to the open market and be free to pursue contracts will all 30 clubs. His frustrating 2023 season will obviously hurt him but he can point to his strong results in the two previous campaigns as he looks for his next gig.

Rockies Outright Ryan Rolison

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The Rockies announced that left-hander Ryan Rolison has been outrighted off their major league roster, indicating he passed through waivers unclaimed. He will stick in the organization without occupying a spot on the 40-man roster.

Rolison, now 26, was the club’s first-round pick in the 2018 draft, getting selected 22nd overall. But he hasn’t been able to deliver much on that promise so far, mostly due to injuries. The minor leagues were wiped out by the pandemic in 2020 and Rolison was then limited to just 16 starts in 2021, missing over two months due to an appendectomy. Nonetheless, the Rockies added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2021 to prevent him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft.

In 2022, the Rockies placed Rolison on the 60-day injured list in April due to a shoulder strain and he missed that entire season, eventually undergoing surgery in June. Since he was on the major league injured list, he collected a full year of service time despite not making his major league debut. He wasn’t fully healthy at the start of the 2023 campaign and was on the 60-day injured list to begin the campaign, but was reinstated and optioned at the end of May. But shoulder issues quickly resurfaced and he was placed on the 60-day IL again in July, not returning to action in the second half. There’s no IL in the offseason, so Rolison was on the verge of needing to be added back to the roster, but the club has outrighted him instead.

The current state of his shoulder isn’t known but he only made four appearances in the minors this year, tossing just 11 innings. The combination of the pandemic year, the appendectomy and the shoulder issues has resulted in Rolison throwing just 82 2/3 over the past four years combined. Despite his pedigree as a former first-rounder, it’s not surprising that none of the 30 clubs is currently willing to give him a roster spot, given all the ongoing uncertainty around his health.

If he can get past the shoulder issues in the future, he should be able to earn his way back into the plans in Colorado. The Rockies have very little certainty on their pitching staff right now and could easily fit him back onto the roster if he shows any hope of getting back on track.

The Rockies are currently slated to start the offseason with a 40-man roster count of 35, though future transactions could obviously alter that.

Wander Suero Elects Free Agency

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Reliever Wander Suero has elected free agency after being outrighted by the Dodgers, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. There’d been no prior indication Suero was on waivers. The move clears a spot on the 40-man roster.

Los Angeles inked Suero to a minor league contract last offseason. He’d spend the majority of the season with their Triple-A team in Oklahoma City. The 32-year-old righty pitched in 47 games for OKC, working to a 3.26 ERA through 49 2/3 innings. That was the eighth-best run prevention mark among the 127 pitchers to surpass 40 innings in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

Suero fanned just under 26% of opposing hitters in Triple-A, although he also handed out free passes at an alarming 11.2% clip. The Dodgers selected him onto the big league roster twice. He pitched eight innings of seven-run ball, punching out nine while walking five. He leaned mostly on a cutter that averaged 90.6 MPH during his abbreviated MLB look.

This was Suero’s first major league work in two years. He pitched for the Nationals from 2018-21, logging a career-high 71 1/3 innings for the 2019 World Series team. He posted slightly above-average strikeout and walk numbers during his time in Washington. Suero managed a sub-4.00 ERA in two of his first three seasons before a homer spike in 2021 led to a 6.33 ERA in 42 2/3 frames.

Suero has over three years of MLB service and would have been eligible for arbitration. While his projected $900K salary wasn’t significant, he always seemed in jeopardy of losing his spot on the 40-man roster. He’s likely to sign another minor league deal this offseason.

Reds Re-Sign Luke Maile

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The Reds have re-signed catcher Luke Maile to a one-year contract with a club option for 2025, the team announced. Maile is guaranteed $3.5MM on the new deal (per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com).

Maile, now 32, was signed by the Reds a little less than a year ago, inking a one-year deal with a $1.175MM guarantee in November. The club also nabbed Curt Casali in the same offseason, hoping that a three-catcher system would keep Tyler Stephenson healthy all year by allowing him to spend some time at first base and designated hitter.

That plan worked insofar as Stephenson stayed healthy enough to play 142 games compared to just 50 in 2022, though his production didn’t cooperate. Stephenson had hit a strong .319/.372/.482 in 2022 but fell to .243/.317/.378 in 2023, his wRC+ going from 135 to 85.

Maile’s offensive production was fairly similar this year, as he hit .235/.308/.391 in his 199 plate appearances, but he brought a strong defensive reputation to the club. Defensive Runs Saved has never tagged him with a negative number and his +1 this year pushed his career tally to +22. Pitch framing metrics have soured on him a bit in recent years but he still has positive grades there for his career as a whole. He rated as above-average on Statcast’s blocking leaderboard and throwing leaderboard this year.

Perhaps more importantly than the metrics, it seems Maile was a good fit on the club, a key trait for catchers as they need to have a working relationship with everyone on the pitching staff. “He was great with all of our guys,” Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall said today, as relayed by Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. “Staff loved him, players loved him. He was a really good fit. He’s a tremendous guy.” Krall added: “He’s a guy our pitchers were comfortable with, our coaches were comfortable with,” he said. “We loved having him this year. It was a pretty easy decision.”

Maile was set to become a free agent in a couple of weeks but it seems the club liked him enough to prevent that from happening. The $3.5MM guarantee is roughly triple what he got at this time a year ago but is still a perfectly reasonable salary for a solid backup catcher.

The catching options on the free agent market aren’t amazing and the Reds have bigger needs on the roster, particularly the pitching staff, so their best seems to be to give Stephenson a chance to get back on track in 2024. He will qualify for arbitration for the first time but will still be affordable and have the potential upside he has shown previously.

Both Maile and Casali were set to become free agents, the latter having a 2024 mutual options with the Reds. Mutual options are rarely picked up by both sides and Casali hit a dismal .175/.290/.200 in 2023. It seems fair to expect the club will move on from him and go with the Stephenson-Maile pairing next year.

There is still the possibility that they add a third catcher to keep Stephenson fresh again, though that plan will be a little more challenging next year. The club graduated a large number of position player prospects in 2023, which means their first base and designated hitter slots are far more crowded now compared to a year ago. Even if Joey Votto isn’t back next year, they will likely have Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Spencer Steer taking time at first, with Elly De La Cruz and Noelvi Marte perhaps squeezed into DH duty by the presence of Matt McLain and Jonathan India in the middle infield. This squeeze already affected Stephenson in 2023, as he got plenty of starts at DH in the first half of the season but just one after July 6.

Nationals Outright Blake Rutherford, Michael Chavis

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The Nationals have taken a trio of players off the 40-man roster. Infielder Michael Chavis, outfielder Blake Rutherford and reliever Hobie Harris all cleared outright waivers, according to Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com (X link). Rutherford and Chavis have elected minor league free agency, as is their right as players who have been outrighted multiple times in their careers.

Chavis signed a minor league pact with the Nats last offseason. He made the Opening Day roster and ultimately in 48 games as a depth infielder. Over 96 plate appearances, the former highly-regarded Red Sox prospect hit .242/.281/.341 with a pair of home runs. He struck out at a 34.4% clip.

The 28-year-old has appeared in parts of five seasons at the highest level. He logged 129 games with the Pirates a year ago, his heaviest workload to date. Chavis is a career .238/.283/.401 hitter in a little under 1200 trips to the dish. He can play any of first, second or third base. He would have been eligible for arbitration had the Nats kept him on the roster. Now that he’s back on the open market, he could find minor league interest this winter.

Rutherford is a former Yankees first-round draftee who reached the big leagues this past season. The lefty-swinging outfielder had hit .336/.393/.571 in 74 games between Washington’s top two affiliates after singing an offseason minor league deal. The 26-year-old was selected to the majors for the first time in early August. He got into 16 games, hitting .171/.194/.171 across 36 plate appearances.

Harris is also a one-time Yankee draft choice who debuted with Washington in 2023. The 30-year-old righty pitched in 16 games, allowing 12 runs (11 earned) through 19 1/3 innings. He walked 13 while striking out nine. Harris had a 5.57 ERA while striking out 15.2% of batters faced across 32 1/3 frames at Triple-A Rochester. This is his first career outright, but he has sufficient minor league service time to become a free agent at the start of the offseason.

Washington needed to clear three 40-man spots within five days of the end of the World Series to clear space for players returning from the 60-day injured list. They’ll go into the winter with the roster at capacity.

Reds Outright Ben Lively

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Right-handed pitcher Ben Lively has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A, the Reds announced on Wednesday. He does not have the necessary service time to reject the outright assignment immediately, but he will have the opportunity to elect minor league free agency following the conclusion of the World Series.

Lively is the sixth player the Reds have outrighted this offseason, following Vladimir Gutierrez, Alan Busenitz, Justin Dunn, Brett Kennedy, and Connor Overton. However, he is the most noteworthy of the outright decisions, having played a significant role for the major league club in 2023. The 31-year-old ranked sixth on the team with 88 2/3 innings pitched. Appearing in his first MLB season since 2019, Lively pitched in 19 games (12 starts), posting a poor 5.38 ERA but a more respectable 4.33 SIERA.

After three seasons in the KBO, Lively returned to MLB in 2022 on a minor-league deal with the Reds – the team that first drafted him back in 2014. He spent the season at Triple-A and re-upped with Cincinnati the following winter. Finally, in mid-May 2023, more than four years since he last threw a pitch in the majors, Lively had his contract selected by the big league team. Unfortunately, a couple of stints on the injured list interrupted his comeback season, and as evidenced by his inflated ERA, the righty never quite found his groove.

While his 2023 stat line isn’t overly impressive, Lively proved he can still eat innings at the major league level. On top of that, a few of his underlying metrics (3.16 K/BB, 4.42 xFIP) suggest he might be capable of a little more. Thus, he should have some suitors this winter, although he may have to settle for another minor league deal.

Orioles Sign Nate Webb To Two-Year Minor League Deal

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The Orioles have inked right-hander Nate Webb to a two-year minor league contract, per Robert Murray of FanSided. The deal reportedly includes an invite to Spring Training.

A 34th-round pick by the Royals back in 2016, Webb last pitched competitively in 2022, struggling to a 9.99 ERA in 33 1/3 innings split primarily between the Double-A and Triple-A levels with a worrisome 15.2% walk rate against a strikeout rate of 21.9%. Webb fared better in the Arizona Fall League that offseason, striking out six across 5 2/3 scoreless innings of work.

Webb was non-tendered by the Royals in November but signed on with the Pirates on a minor league deal shortly thereafter. Unfortunately for Webb, his entire 2023 campaign was wiped out after he underwent Tommy John surgery during Spring Training. Prior to his difficult 2022 season and subsequent surgery, he made his full-season pro debut in 2021 and had a solid season with a 3.94 ERA in 59 1/3 innings of work between the Single-A and High-A levels. He sported strong peripherals that year, including a 37.7% strikeout rate and a walk rate of just 8.9%.

Looking ahead, Webb will have the chance to prove his health with the Orioles this spring and headed into the season. When he’s healthy, the 26-year-old figures give the Orioles a depth option for their bullpen at the Triple-A level next season. Righties Joey Krehbiel and Mike Baumann and lefty Nick Vespi make up the club’s relief depth currently on the 40-man roster.

Mariners Outright Brian O’Keefe

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TODAY: Brian O’Keefe has cleared waivers, the Mariners announced. The 30-year-old backstop has been sent outright to the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers. While he does not have the necessary service time to reject an outright assignment, O’Keefe will have the chance to elect minor league free agency this offseason.

OCTOBER 13: The Mariners announced that they have designated catcher Brian O’Keefe for assignment. His roster spot will go to right-hander Kaleb Ort, who was previously-reported to have been claimed off waivers from the Red Sox.

O’Keefe, 30, signed a minor league deal with the club in the offseason and was selected to the roster in August when Tom Murphy landed on the injured list with a thumb sprain. He got into just eight games before heading to the paternity list and was optioned to the minors when he returned. In 91 Triple-A games this year, he hit .238/.328/.504, which translated to a wRC+ of 93 in the potent offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League.

The M’s will now put him on waivers in the coming days. He still has options and just a limited amount of service time, which could appeal to any club looking for catching depth. If he were to clear, he wouldn’t have the right to reject an outright assignment right away but would qualify for minor league free agency five days after the World Series.

21 Players Elect Free Agency

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With the offseason quickly approaching, a number of players elect minor league free agency on a regular basis. Separate from MLB free agents, who reach free agency five days after the World Series by accumulating six years of service time in the big leagues, eligible minor league players can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season comes to a close. Each of these players were outrighted off of their organization’s 40-man roster at some point during the season and either have been outrighted previously in their career or have the service time necessary to reach free agency since they were not added back to their former club’s rosters. For these players, reaching free agency is the expected outcome, and there will surely be more in the coming weeks. Here at MLBTR, we’ll provide occasional updates as players continue to elect minor league free agency.

Here is the next batch, courtesy of the transaction tracker at MiLB.com:

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Pitchers

Angels Outright Six Players

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The Angels have outrighted first baseman Jared Walsh, outfielder Brett Phillips, catcher Chad Wallach, right-handers Jaime Barria and Carson Fulmer, and left-hander Jhonathan Diaz, per MLB.com’s Transactions page. It had not previously been announced that the group were designated for assignment, but each player evidently cleared waivers. Walsh, Phillips, Wallach, Barria, and Fulmer will each now have the opportunity to elect free agency and hit the open market this offseason.

Walsh, 30, is perhaps the most noteworthy of the group. A 39th-round pick by the Angels in the 2015 draft, Walsh made it to the majors in 2019 and broke out in a big way during the shortened 2020 season, slashing an incredible .293/.324/.646 with nine home runs in just 108 trips to the plate. He followed up that breakout campaign with a strong 2021 as the club’s regular first baseman. In 144 games that year, Walsh hit .277/.340/.509 with 29 homers in his first full season of big league action en route to his first career All Star appearance. Unfortunately, things went down hill for Walsh from there. The slugger has struggled with neurological issues in recent years and struggled to be an effective big leaguer as a result, slashing just .197/.258/.355 in 157 games across the past two seasons. Deep as Walsh’s struggles have been in recent years, if he can prove himself to be healthy it’s certainly feasible that a club with a need at first base could give him a look thanks to his significant success in the relatively recent past.

Phillips, 29, made his big league debut with the Brewers during the 2017 season, slashing a solid .276/.351/.448 in 98 trips to the plate for the club. That said, Phillips’s true calling card is his outfield defense, which has allowed him to appear in the majors for each of the past seven seasons of his career despite only posting a better-than-average slash line in 2021 besides his debut season. Though he’s slashed a paltry .187/.272/.347 for his career including an abysmal .152/.230/.269 line the past two seasons, Phillips has managed to bounce between the Brewers, Royals, Rays, Orioles, and Angels throughout his career and could enter free agency as a solid, glove-first depth piece for interested clubs, though it’s possible he’ll have to settle for a minor league deal.

Wallach, 31, made is MLB debut in 2017 and since then has bounced around the major and minor leagues as a depth option behind the plate, with previous major league stints in Cincinnati and Miami as well as Anaheim. 2023 was the journeyman’s first extended big league opportunity thanks to injuries to the club’s typical catching corps of Logan O’Hoppe and Max Stassi, and Wallach performed passably in the role with solid framing numbers and 70 wRC+ that placed him 49th among 69 catchers with at least 100 big league plate appearances this season. Wallach figures to once again receive interest as a potential depth piece for clubs in need of additional catching options this offseason.

Barria, 27, made his MLB debut in 2018 and has spent his entire career with the Angels to this point. His rookie season was an impressive one, as he posted a 3.41 ERA that was 23% better than league average by ERA+ in 26 starts, though his 4.58 FIP left something to be desired. Barria struggled in a swing role in 2019 before bouncing back with a 3.62 ERA and matching 3.65 FIP in 32 1/3 innings of work during the shortened 2020 season. That set off what has become a trend of Barria alternating between struggles and success every other season; while he posted excellent numbers in 2022 with a 2.61 ERA as a multi-inning reliever, he struggled in 2021 and especially the 2023 campaign, during which he posted a 5.68 ERA and 6.07 FIP across 82 1/3 innings of work. Still, given Barria’s relative youth and previous success, it seems like a reasonable bet that he’ll find interest in his services this offseason.

Fulmer, who was selected eighth overall by the White Sox in the 2015 draft, struggled to a 6.41 ERA and 5.93 FIP across 130 2/3 innings for the first six seasons of his big league career while bouncing between the White Sox, Tigers, Orioles, and Reds organizations. After a solid season at the Triple-A level for Fulmer with the Dodgers in 2022, he signed on in Anaheim and return to the big leagues late in the year. He pitched fairly well in ten innings of work, striking out six while posting a 2.70 ERA across three appearances. The 29-year-old figures to once again receive interest from clubs this offseason, though it seems likely he’ll once again be limited to minor league offers.

Diaz, meanwhile, will remain in the Angels organization as a player with less than three years service time who’s just received the first outright assignment of his career. The 27-year-old lefty made his big league debut in Anaheim back in 2021, and has posted a 4.84 ERA with a 4.83 FIP across 35 1/3 innings of work in the big leagues split across the last three seasons. Diaz sports identical 14.4% strikeout and walk rates for his big league career thanks to a brutal 2023 campaign that saw him walk seven batters in seven innings while striking out just four and posting a 10.29 ERA. He’ll remain a decent left-handed depth option for the Angels going forward.

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