Blue Jays Acquire Chase Lee
The Tigers have traded right-hander Chase Lee to the Blue Jays in exchange for minor league lefty Johan Simon, according to announcements from both clubs. This move is likely to open a 40-man spot for the Tigers to make their signing of Kyle Finnegan official. The Jays had a 40-man vacancy but Lee takes up the final spot. Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic first reported that Lee was headed to the Jays while Mitch Bannon of The Athletic first mentioned Simon as the return.
Lee, 27, doesn’t throw especially hard but is able to deceive batters with his sidearm delivery. Originally a draft pick of the Rangers, he was traded to the Tigers as part of the 2024 deadline deal which sent Andrew Chafin the other way.
In 204 2/3 minor league innings, Lee has allowed 4.13 earned runs pere nine, with a fairly average 8% walk rate but a strong 30.9% strikeout rate. The Tigers called him up to make his major league debut in 2025. He gave them 37 1/3 innings with a 4.10 ERA. His four-seam fastball only averaged 89.2 miles per hour while he also threw a sinker, slider and changeup. He struck out 24.3% of opponents while limiting walks to a 6.1% clip.
For the Jays, Lee adds some extra bullpen depth. He still has options and can therefore be sent to Triple-A Buffalo and back throughout the year. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet recently wrote a piece about how the Jays appear to be prioritizing different arm angles, so it’s possible they are particularly attracted to Lee’s sidearming abilities. He has less than a year of service time and is therefore years away from qualifying for arbitration and even further from free agency. If he’s able to carve out a meaningful role in the big leagues, he could be a long-term piece for the Jays.
To get Lee, the Jays are giving up Simon, an international signing out of the Dominican Republic. In 2025, he began at Single-A and then climbed to High-A and Double-A. Across those three levels, he tossed 71 relief innings with a 3.42 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and a massive 64% ground ball rate.
For the Tigers, they had a 40-man roster crunch and needed to lose someone. With this deal, they’ve lost a bit of immediate depth but replaced Lee with a non-roster arm who is only slightly farther away from the majors.
Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images
Nationals, Josiah Gray Avoid Arbitration
The Nationals announced that they have signed a one-year deal with right-hander Josiah Gray to avoid arbitration. Gray will make $1.35MM in 2026, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. That’s the same salary Gray made in 2025 while recovering from elbow surgery.
Gray will celebrate his 28th birthday in a little over a week. Once a notable prospect with the Dodgers, he came over to the Nationals in the 2021 deadline deal which sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to Los Angeles. That deal hasn’t worked out especially well for the Nats so far. Gray and catcher Keibert Ruiz were hoped to be major building blocks in Washington but Ruiz has struggled to cement himself as a viable big league catcher. Gerardo Carrillo and Donovan Casey, the other two guys acquired in that deal, are no longer with the Nats.
As for Gray, he has had some decent but not overwhelming results for Washington. He made 28 starts for the Nats in 2022 but with an unimpressive 5.02 earned run average. He dropped his ERA to 3.91 in 2023 but with less impressive numbers under the hood. His 20.5% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate were both subpar. It seems a fairly high 80.4% strand rate helped him keep runs off the board. His 4.93 FIP and 5.08 SIERA were less bullish than his ERA.
He has mostly been on the shelf since then. He made just two starts in 2024 before landing on the injured list due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow. He began a rehab assignment in June but then was shut down with renewed discomfort. He required Tommy John surgery in July. He finished that year on the IL and eclipsed three years of service time in the process. That qualified him for arbitration for the first time going into 2025. He and the Nats agreed to a $1.35MM salary to avoid arbitration.
Gray spent the year rehabbing. He made three brief rehab starts in September, getting stretched out enough to throw 2 2/3 innings in the final outing, but he didn’t get back to the big league club. The way the arb system works, player salaries almost never go down. For guys who miss an entire season, they usually see their salaries hold steady. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected that would happen with Gray and it has.
Much has changed since Gray has been out. The rebuild effort stalled out to the point that president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were both fired in July. They have since been replaced by Paul Toboni and Blake Butera respectively.
It’s unclear when the front office plans to return to contention but Gray is now down to two years of club control. His teammate MacKenzie Gore is also two years from free agency and has been in plenty of trade rumors. Infielder CJ Abrams has also been in trade rumors despite being controlled for three more seasons. If Gray has a strong first half in 2026, it’s possible he will also be in a lot of trade talk this summer as well.
Photo courtesy of Reggie Hildred, Imagn Images
Sean Reynolds To Sign With NPB’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars
Former Padres right-hander Sean Reynolds is signing with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. It’ll be the first overseas stint for the Ballengee Group client.
Reynolds, 27, was non-tendered by the Padres last month. He pitched parts of two seasons with the Friars after coming over alongside first baseman/outfielder Garrett Cooper in the trade that sent lefty Ryan Weathers back to the Marlins. Reynolds was outstanding in a small sample with the ’24 Padres, yielding only one run while piling up 21 punchouts in 11 innings (42.9% strikeout rate). He was hit hard in 2025, however, surrendering 16 runs on 20 hits and 17 walks in 27 frames. The resulting 5.33 ERA was an eyesore, and Reynolds saw his massive 2024 strikeout rate quite literally halved (21.4%).
Health may have played some role in Reynolds’ 2025 struggles. He opened the year on the shelf due to a stress reaction in his right foot and was promptly tagged for five runs in only 1 2/3 innings upon returning from the injured list. Reynolds then settled in with a tidy 2.14 earned run average over his next 21 frames before being optioned to Triple-A El Paso. He pitched well for the Chihuahuas for the next couple months and was recalled in September — only to be tagged for six runs (with nine walks) in his final 4 1/3 big league innings.
Reynolds has been a pure reliever throughout his professional career and will presumably be used in that same role over in Japan. The righty sat 96 mph with his four-seamer this past season and coupled the pitch with a slider clocking in at an average of 86.1 mph. He won’t turn 28 until April, so with a strong year or two pitching in Asia, there’s potential for him to eventual return to North American ball.
White Sox Claim Ryan Rolison
The White Sox announced that they have claimed left-hander Ryan Rolison off waivers from the Braves. Atlanta designated him for assignment this week as the corresponding move for their signing of right-hander Robert Suarez. The Sox had multiple 40-man vacancies and didn’t need to make a corresponding move.
Rolison, 28, was once a notable prospect with the Rockies. Colorado selected him 22nd overall in 2018, but then his path to the majors proved to be winding. The minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic and then Rolison was held back by injuries, most notably shoulder troubles. He didn’t pitch much from 2021 to 2023, missing the entirety of the 2022 campaign.
He finally got to the majors in 2025 but wasn’t able to put up good numbers. He tossed 42 1/3 innings for the Rockies this year but allowed 7.02 earned runs per nine. His 47.9% ground ball rate was above average but his 13% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate were subpar.
He had more intriguing numbers in the minors. In the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, he tossed 29 2/3 innings with a 3.34 ERA, 25.2% strikeout rate, 7.1% walk rate and 48.8% ground ball rate.
Despite that solid work for the Isotopes, the Rockies decided to move on. He was designated for assignment last month. Atlanta acquired him in a cash deal but he eventually got squeezed off their roster a few weeks later by further moves.
For the White Sox, it’s a sensible flier. They improved a bit in 2025 but nonetheless lost 102 games and are clearly still in rebuilding mode. That’s not ideal but the upside is that they are better positioned than other clubs to take chances on unproven guys. Rolison also still has an option year remaining, so he could be sent to Triple-A and back throughout the season. He has less than three years of service time, meaning he could be controlled through 2029 if he breaks out in Chicago.
Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Sign Michael Soroka
December 12th: The Diamondbacks made it official today, announcing they signed Soroka to a one-year deal with a mutual option. Fellow righty Bryce Jarvis has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.
December 8th: The Diamondbacks and free agent right-hander Michael Soroka are in agreement on a one-year deal that will reportedly pay the ISE Baseball client a guaranteed $7.5MM. Soroka can tack on an additional $2MM worth of incentives. The deal is pending a physical. Once complete, he’ll be penciled into the team’s rotation.
Soroka, still just 28 years old, is already signing the second free-agent contract of his career. He inked a one-year, $9MM deal with the Nats last offseason after an uneven year with the White Sox, wherein he struggled immensely as a starting pitcher before posting huge numbers as a reliever down the stretch. Washington plugged Soroka back into a starting role in 2025, eventually flipping him to the Cubs at the trade deadline. Soroka posted a middling 4.52 ERA in 89 2/3 innings (17 starts, six relief appearances) but continued to intrigue with sharp rate stats: 25.1% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate, 44.1% ground-ball rate.
Arizona is in need of help both in the rotation and in the bullpen, so even though Soroka is bound for the starting staff, he could be a fallback in the bullpen if the initial plan doesn’t work out. For now, he’ll join the trio of Ryne Nelson, Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt as one of manager Torey Lovullo’s starters.
It still wasn’t that long ago that Soroka looked like one of the game’s most promising young arms. The 2015 first-round pick ranked as one of baseball’s top prospects prior to his debut with Atlanta, and the first two seasons of his career more than justified that billing. In 200 1/3 innings from his late-2018 callup through the end of the 2019 season, Soroka pitched to a sparkling 2.79 earned run average. His 20% strikeout rate was below-average, but he compensated for that with an excellent 5.9% walk rate, a 50.2% grounder rate and plenty of weak contact.
Injuries decimated the next several years of Soroka’s career and eventually pushed him out of the Braves’ plans. He’s twice torn his Achilles tendon and also missed time due to multiple shoulder injuries and a biceps strain. Soroka hasn’t reached even 100 innings in a major league season since that outstanding 2018-19 run; in fact, he’s pitched only 215 1/3 big league innings total since that time — just 15 more than he pitched in that initial MLB run.
Soroka will be one of multiple additions in general manager Mike Hazen’s rotation. The D-backs entered the offseason in dire need of pitching depth. Of the aforementioned trio of starters, only Nelson (3.39 ERA, 154 innings) posted quality bottom-line results last year. Both Rodriguez and Pfaadt posted ERAs north of 5.00, though each (Pfaadt in particular) was viewed more favorably by fielding-independent metrics.
Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick has already indicated that payroll will decline after last year’s mark topped $200MM for the first time in franchise history. However, he’s also made clear that the team is fully intent on striving to contend despite that reduction. It’s not clear exactly where the ultimate budget lies, but Hazen and his staff should have plenty of spending room even with the budget scaling down. The addition of Soroka pushes next year’s projected payroll to just over $151MM, per RosterResource.
Arizona has also been looking into a reunion with righty Merrill Kelly, whom they traded to the Rangers in July ahead of his free agent departure this offseason. There’s mutual interest there, though Kelly’s annual salary will likely more than double what Soroka just commanded. Pete Fairbanks is a known target on the bullpen side of things, though he’s surely just one of many. The D-backs are also at least hearing out other clubs who inquire on star second baseman Ketel Marte, though a trade is seen as unlikely, and they’re listening to offers on lefty-swinging outfielders Alek Thomas and Jake McCarthy.
Suffice it to say, it’ll be a busy few days for the D-backs in Orlando at this week’s Winter Meetings, though it’s unlikely the check off every item on their to-do list before MLB’s premier offseason event concludes.
Jesse Rogers and Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the one-year agreement between the two parties. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic first reported the salary terms, incentives and Soroka’s role.
Dodgers Claim Michael Siani
The Dodgers announced that they have claimed outfielder Michael Siani off waivers from the Braves. Atlanta designated him for assignment when they signed Mike Yastrzemski earlier this week. The Dodgers had a couple of 40-man roster vacancies. This move technically brings them to 39 but Edwin Díaz will take the final spot once his signing becomes official.
Siani, 26, is a glove-first depth outfielder. He has appeared in the past four major league seasons, spending time with the Reds and Cardinals. He was sent to the plate 383 times in that span. His 6.3% walk rate and 27.9% strikeout rate thus far in his career are both subpar figures. His .221/.277/.270 batting line is well below average. His minor league numbers aren’t much better. He has a .217/.329/.337 line on the farm over the past three years.
But he has been able to provide value elsewhere. He has stolen 21 bases in 26 attempts. He has logged 1,014 innings on the grass, playing all three spots, but mostly in center. He has been credited with 17 Outs Above Average in that time and seven Defensive Runs Saved.
Siani still has an option, meaning he can be send to Triple-A without being exposed to waivers. Regardless, the Cards put him on the wire at the end of the 2025 season. Atlanta scooped him up but he lasted barely a month on their roster.
The Dodgers have some fluidity in their outfield group. On paper, they have Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages in two spots. There have been some trade rumblings around Hernández but general manager Brandon Gomes has pushed back on those. Pages had a good regular season but struggled in the playoffs and lost playing time. Tommy Edman could be involved but he’s recovering from ankle surgery right now and might be needed at second base. Hyeseong Kim is another multi-positional guy who could get some outfield time. Alex Call is in the mix.
Siani jumps into a depth group that also consists of Ryan Ward and Esteury Ruiz, all three of whom have options. Siani could be sent to Triple-A with those two but he could also carve out a bench role as a defensive specialist and pinch runner. He has less than two years of service time, meaning he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration and can theoretically be retained for several years if the Dodgers find him useful.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Braves Sign Robert Suarez
The Braves further solidified the back of their bullpen Thursday, announcing the signing of former Padres closer Robert Suarez on a three-year, $45MM contract. Suarez, a client of Primo Sports Group, became a free agent at season’s end when he opted out of the final two years and $16MM on his five-year contract with San Diego. He’ll be paid $13MM in 2026 and $16MM in both 2027 and 2028, per the team. There are reportedly no deferrals in the contract. Atlanta designated lefty Ryan Rolison for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster (more on that move here).
The 34-year-old Suarez (35 in March) went directly from Mexico to Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball late last decade and, after establishing himself as one of the top relievers in NPB, has broken out as a top-tier reliever in the majors. Originally signed on a two-year deal with the Padres, he opted out after one year and inked a five-year, $46MM extension that afforded him another opt-out provision after the third year, which he took last month.
Now Atlanta-bound, Suarez has consistently posted quality numbers in high-leverage spots for the Friars. Dating back to his 2022 MLB debut, he’s posted a 2.91 ERA with a 26.5% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate in 210 innings. Suarez sits just under 99 mph with his four-seamer and complements the pitch with a changeup that got great results in ’22-’23 but has been hit hard the past two seasons. It hasn’t led to poor results, however, because Suarez’s fastball and sinker both grade out as dominant offerings.
Suarez joins right-hander Raisel Iglesias, who re-upped on a one-year, $16MM contract earlier in the offseason, to form a potent one-two punch at the back of new manager Walt Weiss’ bullpen. Notably, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Iglesias will continue to serve as the closer in Atlanta. Suarez will operate as his primary setup man (and, of course, can handle save opportunities in the event that Iglesias is unavailable or suffers an injury). Setup work is nothing new for Suarez, who in 2022 helped set up for Taylor Rogers and in 2023 was a key setup arm for Josh Hader.
On the surface, a three-year, $45MM contract for a high-end reliever feels fairly well in line with contractual norms around the game. However, Suarez’s camp did quite well to get him the third guaranteed year. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, this is the first deal of three or more years for a 35-year-old (or older) reliever since Will Harris signed for $24MM with the Nationals prior to the 2020 season. Before that, you’d have to go all the way back to Ryan Madson‘s three-year pact with the A’s back in 2015 to find another example of a bullpen arm being paid for this long of a term at Suarez’s age.
Adding Suarez brings Atlanta’s 2026 payroll up to about $241MM. RosterResource estimates that the team is carrying more than $236MM worth of luxury-tax considerations, which places them within $8MM of the 2026 season’s $244MM first-tier luxury threshold. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has already checked several items off his winter to-do list, though Atlanta still figures to be open to additions at shortstop, on the bench and/or on the pitching staff. That said, re-signing Iglesias, acquiring utilityman Mauricio Dubon and bringing in both Suarez and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski (on a two-year, $23MM deal) has removed some of the urgency to make further additions.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the agreement and the terms of the contract. The Athletic’s Will Sammon first reported the year-to-year breakdown.
Elvin Rodriguez Signs With KBO’s Lotte Giants
Free agent right-hander Elvin Rodriguez has signed with the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization, the team announced. He’ll receive $1MM for the 2026 campaign. Lotte also announced the re-signing of outfielder Victor Reyes at $1.4MM and the signing of right-hander Jeremy Beasley for $1MM.
Rodriguez, 27, spent the 2023-24 seasons with the Yakult Swallows in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, parlaying that into a big league deal with the Brewers last winter. He wound up pitching 19 2/3 innings in the majors between Milwaukee and Baltimore but was tagged for 20 runs in that time. The 2025 season was Rodriguez’s second with at least some MLB work. He also briefly appeared with Detroit back in 2022. He’s surrendered 55 runs in 52 2/3 MLB frames but notched a sub-2.00 ERA in 45 1/3 innings as a reliever during his 2024 season in NPB.
Reyes, another former Tiger, is entering his third season with the KBO’s Giants. The 31-year-old has slashed .339/.390/.493 in 1275 plate appearances without missing a game during his first two KBO campaigns. Reyes previously played in parts of five seasons with Detroit from 2018-22, hitting a combined .264/.294/.379 in a nearly identical sample of plate appearances (1280) to his KBO workload thus far. While he didn’t carve out a role as a big league regular, this year’s deal with Lotte brings him up to $3.35MM worth of guaranteed earnings during his three years in South Korea (not including some incentives that he’s surely unlocked along the way).
Beasley, 30, pitched in the majors with the D-backs and Blue Jays from 2020-22, tossing a combined 24 2/3 innings with a 5.84 ERA. The right-hander has a solid track record in Triple-A and has spent the past three seasons pitching for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He’s pitched to a 2.82 ERA in his three seasons with Hanshin but spent the bulk of this past season with the Tigers’ farm club. As with Rodriguez and Reyes, Beasley never really found his footing in the majors but has carved out a nice living pitching professionally overseas. He’s still young enough that an eventual MLB comeback can’t be entirely ruled out, but he’ll need to take a step forward after last year’s rocky showing in Japan.
Pirates Re-Sign Ronny Simon To Minor League Deal
The Pirates brought back Ronny Simon on a minor league contract, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. Pittsburgh had non-tendered the rookie at the end of the season to drop him from their 40-man roster. He’ll presumably receive a non-roster invite to MLB Spring Training.
Simon is only 25 but has already been part of five organizations. He was traded twice as a prospect (once from the Cubs to Arizona, then from the D-Backs to the Rays) but didn’t get to the highest level until he signed a minor league deal with the Marlins last offseason. Simon had a 19-game look with Miami that was unfortunately most notable for a game in which he committed three errors at second base. That proved to be his final one with the Marlins, who designated him for assignment a couple days later.
Pittsburgh grabbed Simon off waivers and optioned him to Triple-A. He hit .284/.381/.436 across 248 minor league plate appearances to earn his way back to the majors in the middle of August. Simon got into eight games over the next two weeks before dislocating his left shoulder. That ended his season. The Bucs didn’t want to carry him on the 40-man roster all winter, so they took advantage of the non-tender deadline to drop him without putting him on waivers. Teams will often circle back to see if that player is open to a new minor league contract, as Simon was in this case.
The 5’8″ Simon hasn’t done much in a very limited body of work at the big league level. He’s a switch-hitter who owns a .287/.371/.436 batting line in nearly 1000 career Triple-A plate appearances. Simon came up primarily as an infielder and was still playing on the dirt with the Marlins. Pittsburgh has announced him as an outfielder in their press releases and only used him in the corner outfield or at designated hitter both in Triple-A and MLB.
Brewers Sign Greg Jones To Minor League Deal
The Brewers announced today that infielder/outfielder Greg Jones has been signed to a minor league deal. The Ballengee Group client also receives an invite to major league camp in spring training. Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was among those to pass along the details.
Jones, 28 in March, has a very limited major league track record. He appeared in three games with the White Sox this year and six games with the Rockies the previous season. He has one hit in eight plate appearances but the one hit was a homer.
The Brewers have presumably brought him aboard because of his minor league track record. His offensive chops aren’t amazing but he has speed and defensive versatility. From 2021 to 2024, he stole at least 24 bases in the minors each year, including 46 steals in the final of those four seasons. He was on the minor league injured list for most of 2025 and only got into 21 contests on the farm but stole 12 bags in those. Defensively, he has experience at both middle infield positions and the three outfield slots.
As mentioned, the offense hasn’t been as impressive. The switch-hitter has 784 minor league plate appearances over the past three years. He struck out in 37% of those and produced a combined line of .250/.332/.428, which translates to an 87 wRC+.
Jones will come into camp and try to earn his way onto the roster. Since he can hit from both sides of the plate, bounce around the diamond and steal a base, he has the makings of a solid bench player. If he gets a spot, he is out of options but has just a few days of service time, meaning he’s years away from qualifying for arbitration and even farther away from free agency.
Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images