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Team Facebook/Twitter/RSS

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If you prefer your MLBTR fix limited to only your favorite team, we've got you covered.  Below are links to our team Facebook, Twitter, and RSS pages and feeds.

AL East

AL Central

AL West

NL East

NL Central

NL West

Transactions only: Twitter / RSS

How To Use MLBTR

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An explanation of the many ways to enjoy MLB Trade Rumors:

  • If the main site doesn't load perfectly on your cell phone, try the more mobile-friendly mlbtraderumors.mobi.  It's a simple page that shows you just the headlines and lets you click through to what you want to read.
  • If you're an iPhone user, be sure to pick up our app for the latest news and rumors. MLBTR just introduced an Android app as well.
  • If you want only the hard news in the form of transactions, our transactions page is the ticket.  You can also get only the transactions via Twitter or RSS. 
  • To return to the main page at any time, just click on the title or the Home button on the navigation bar below the title. 
  • The navigation bar will cover many of your needs.  Use the About dropdown to learn about this site or any of its writers. 
  • The Contact button takes you to a page where you can write an email message to the MLBTR writers.  If you have a link to a rumor we've missed, please send it in through the Contact page!  Also use the Contact page to inquire about advertising on MLBTR.
  • The Archives dropdown shows you 15 months worth.  If you need to go back further, click on Site Map at the very bottom of the page.  Site Map also lists out every MLBTR post category, including players, teams, and features.
  • The Tools dropdown takes you to a number of different places. The MLBTR Widget allows website owners to easily add a constantly updated box with all of MLBTR's headlines to their sites.
  • Also under the tools tab is our Transaction Tracker, which enables you to search about anything and everything to do with baseball trades, signings and extensions. 
  • Under the tools tab, you'll find a link to our Forums, a message board community of MLBTR readers with over 9,100 members.  You can discuss any baseball-related topic on the Forums, and start your own thread too.
  • MLBTR's Agency Database lets you know which agencies represent which players. It's searchable by team, agency or player, so be sure to check it out.
  • Feeds By Team is a very useful dropdown.  Hover over it to see all 30 teams.  Click on the team name to bring up a page of every post containing information about that team, with the latest on top.  These are the same pages you'll find if you go to the Rumors By Team section on the sidebar and select A's Rumors, Angels Rumors, etc.  
  • Also under the Feeds By Team dropdown, you'll find RSS and Twitter buttons.  Those links allow you to follow a single team's rumors via RSS or Twitter.  Did you know we have a separate Twitter account for each of the 30 teams?  For example you can follow @mlbtrtigers, where you would get the latest Tigers updates.
  • You can also follow Tim Dierkes on Twitter for more MLBTR content.
  • On the far right of the Navigation bar, you'll see buttons for Twitter, Facebook, and RSS.  MLBTR has over 255,000 Twitter followers, over 70,000 Facebook fans, and over 53,000 RSS subscribers.  Sign up for these and you'll be the first to receive all of our posts.
  • Be sure to check out your favorite team's MLBTR page on Facebook so you can receive and comment on the latest rumors.
  • On to the sidebar.  It begins with a list of our Top Stories, which our writers update any time major hard news occurs.  Go here for a quick update on the most important stories.  Below that is the site's Search Box, where you can type in any player's name and get the latest on him. 
  • MLBTR Features has all kinds of goodies, including our free agent lists.  Many of the MLBTR Features are constantly updated by our writers, so be assured that our free agent lists are always fresh. 
  • Below Features you've got headlines for all the Recent Posts, in case you'd rather not scroll to see all the headlines.  Then there's a box for our Mailing List, where you can sign up to receive a daily email containing MLBTR's posts.  Use this option if you don't need the news as soon as possible.
  • Next we have Featured Posts, where you'll find original work from MLBTR writers we consider noteworthy. 
  • There's also a contact form in case you need to reach MLBTR.

Veterans On Minors Deals In Line For $100K Bonus

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To entice veterans into signing minor league contracts, teams will often dangle opt-out clauses. These clauses allow players to push the eject button on their deals if they are not on the big league roster by a certain date.  However, the collective bargaining agreement makes such deals mandatory for players who meet certain requirements.

Last season, there were more than 30 players, known as "Article XX(B) free agents," who qualified for these agreements and signed minor league deals.  The 2012 list, as broken down by our own Mark Polishuk, included some prominent names like Vicente Padilla, Omar Vizquel, Jason Isringhausen, Juan Pierre, and Jeff Francis.  

Matt Eddy of Baseball America compiled a list of this year's group of Article XX(B) free agents.  So who qualifies for this designation?  Any player who had a Major League contract expire at the end of the previous season and with at least six years of Major League service time who signs a minor league deal.  Then, the team must make a decision about that player's fate by five days before Opening Day.  The player has to be placed on the 25-man roster, released outright, or given a $100K bonus if sent down to the minors.  If the player is sent to the minor leagues, he'll also have an opt-out date of June 1st that will allow him to bail if he is not on the varsity squad by that stage. 

As Eddy notes, 16 of last year's Article XX(B) free agents made an Opening Day roster, 11 were cut loose prior to the deadline, two began the year in Triple-A (Francis and Aaron Cook), and two others (Russell Branyan and Corey Patterson) re-worked their contracts so that they could sign straight minor league pacts. 

Here's a look at the 33 veterans on minor league deals who could be free to find new jobs or $100K richer before Opening Day.  Players who also appeared on last year's list are denoted with an asterisk..

Diamondbacks: Rod Barajas

Red Sox: Lyle Overbay

Reds: Miguel Olivo

Indians: Matt Capps, Jason Giambi, Daisuke Matsuzaka

Rockies: Miguel Batista*

Royals: Endy Chavez, Xavier Nady*, George Sherrill

Angels: Bill Hall

Dodgers: Mark Lowe

Marlins: Austin Kearns, Casey Kotchman, Chad Qualls

Mets: Tim Byrdak, Pedro Feliciano, LaTroy Hawkins

Yankees: Matt Diaz, Juan Rivera

Phillies: Aaron Cook*

Pirates: Brandon Inge, Jose Contreras, Jonathan Sanchez

Padres: Freddy Garcia

Giants: Chad Gaudin, Ramon Ramirez

Rays: Juan Carlos Oviedo, Jamey Wright*

Rangers: Jeff Baker, Yoshinori Tateyama

Nationals: Chris Young, Chris Snyder

MLBTR’s Extension Tracker

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Teams and players often agree to contract extensions during the spring, after the top free agents have signed and arbitration cases have been resolved. Extensions are all about comparables, especially when it comes to arbitration eligible players. Coming up with the relevant position, salary and service time data would have been a serious obstacle for most observers until MLBTR introduced an Extension Tracker.

The tracker shows all contract extensions, whether they cover the player's arbitration years, free agent years, or both. All the extensions are listed by date, and our filter button allows you to change the date range. You can also filter by any combination of team, position, guaranteed years, amount in millions, number of options, service time, super two status, and agency. The service time filtering allows you to choose one or both boundaries of a range. Service time is denoted as years.days, so 4.148 means four years and 148 days. The player name is hyperlinked to MLBTR's post on the story of the extension.

For example, if you wanted to put Chris Sale’s recent extension in context, you could search for all of the starting pitchers with two-plus years of service time who signed five-year deals of $25MM or more since 2008. That search turns up many similar deals, since Sale’s deal fits within a pre-established template for pitcher contracts.

The extension tracker can be found under the Tools menu in the navigation bar up top, along with our, Arbitration Tracker, Agency Database and Transaction Tracker. MLBTR also has iPhone/iPad and Android apps.

Regular MLBTR Features

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If you're a regular MLBTR reader, you'll be familiar with our chats, our Week In Review posts and Zach Links' Baseball Blogs Weigh In feature. Here's some more detail on when you'll see our weekly features and exactly what to expect from them:

  • MLBTR Chats - Join me every Wednesday at 2pm CDT to chat about the latest trades, signings and rumblings around the Major Leagues.
  • Baseball Blogs Weigh In - Every Friday, Zach Links directs you to some of the best writing on baseball blogs around the web. Whether it's opinion, stats or something else entirely, you can connect to the best of the blogosphere once a week on MLBTR. If you want to send Zach a post of yours, reach him at: zachbbwi@gmail.com.
  • Week In Review - It's remarkable how much happens in seven days. Every Sunday night, MLBTR summarizes the week's biggest stories in our Week In Review posts.
  • MLBTR Originals - Edward Creech gathers all our original analysis and reporting in one place every Sunday night.

Commenting Policy

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MLBTR is increasing efforts to enforce our commenting policy.  The goal is to raise the level of discourse in the comments, part of which involves eliminating inappropriate language and insults.

Comments of this nature are not allowed:

  • Attacks or insults towards other commenters, the post author, journalists, teams, players, or agents
  • Inappropriate language, including swearing and related censor bypass attempts, lewdness, insults, and crude terms for body parts, bodily functions, and physical acts.  Overall, we don’t want any language that a parent would not want their kid to see.
  • Juvenile comments or extensive use of text message-type spelling
  • Writing comments in all or mostly caps
  • Spam-type links or self-promotion.  Please submit to our weekly Baseball Blogs Weigh In feature if you have a website or blog.  Currently, permissible links in the comments are limited to MLB.com, Cot’s Baseball Contracts, FanGraphs, Baseball-Reference, Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America, and MLB Trade Rumors.  Comments linking to other sites will be deleted.
  • Comments about how you're sick of this topic or it's not newsworthy
  • No inappropriate avatars or images are allowed
  • Please limit comments to approximately 200 words
  • Anything else we deem bad for business may be removed.
  • Corrections for errors made in our posts are welcome and appreciated; please be cordial in doing so.

If you see comments that violate our policy, please flag them and/or contact us.  Bans may be handed out liberally by our moderators, without second chances or warnings.  Remaining civil is not that difficult, though, and most commenters have no problems doing so as well as helping rein each other in.  We at MLBTR are grateful for long-time commenters and readers, though this policy applies equally regardless of tenure.  This policy is always available at the bottom of the site, and will be re-posted monthly.

Teams With Open 40-Man Roster Spots

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Teams looking for reinforcements can turn to the waiver wire as Opening Day approaches. Each club faces tough roster decisions at the end of Spring Training, and talented out of options players are sometimes available on waivers as teams try to sneak them through to the minor leagues.

The Braves (three open spots), Angels (one open spot), Phillies (one open spot), Nationals (one open spot), Cardinals (one open spot) and Giants (one open spot) are the MLB teams that presently have open 40-man spots, according to MLBDepthCharts.com. These clubs are well-positioned to claim someone should an intriguing player be placed on waivers. They could also offer free agents Major League deals without having to cut another player (if they have enough money and projected 25-man roster space).

The Braves are known to be seeking a left-handed bench bat, and could consider options on waivers in the next month or so. The Nationals could be looking for left-handed relief, depending on how their internal options perform this spring.

Keep in mind that many of the 24 teams with full 40-man rosters will create roster space by moving a player to the 60-day disabled list or by releasing, outrighting or designating for assignment a rostered player. For context, eight players were claimed on waivers during the week leading up to Opening Day in 2012.

Notable Transactions From March 2012

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Most clubs have addressed their significant roster questions by the time players report to Spring Training, but there are always moves to be made.  We know that we're likely to see at least one significant move go down as Kyle Lohse remains on the open market, but what else can we expect this month?  Let's take a look back at notable transactions made last March with help from our handy Transaction Tracker… 

Service Time Considerations For Top Prospects

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Timing the debuts of top prospects is essential for MLB teams. No club wants to expose a player to top competition before he's ready, but keeping a player in the minors when he could be contributing at the big league level is hardly appealing either. It's a balancing act.

Though a player's development generally determines his timeline to the Major Leagues, service time is undeniably a consideration. MLB teams can obtain an extra year of control from a player by delaying his debut and they can decrease his chances of qualifying for an additional year of arbitration with enough patience.

Heavily-hyped prospects often have carefully-timed debuts, and Baseball America's recently-released list of the game's top 100 prospects features those currently generating the most buzz. Of the 100 players on the list, 36 project to arrive in the Major Leagues in 2013, according to Baseball America. The chart below presents two key dates for each prospect who might make an impact this coming season.

First, there's the approximate date on which the team can call the player up while keeping him under control for an extra year — through 2019. Next, there's the approximate date on which the team can call the player up without setting him up for super two status and a fourth trip through arbitration.

Service Time Considerations '13

In many cases — Hyun-Jin Ryu comes to mind — service time will not affect teams’ decisions. But keep this list in mind if you’re wondering why Wil Myers is still at Triple-A Durham midway through the first month of the season.

This service time explanation is a modified version of a piece initially published at MLB Trade Rumors one year ago.

The Oldest $100MM Players

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Even as massive contracts become more and more common, baseball's first $100MM player remains the oldest person to obtain a nine-figure deal. Kevin Brown signed the first $100MM contract in baseball history after the 1998 season, a year in which the 33-year-old logged 257 innings, struck out 257 opponents and posted a 2.38 ERA. It led to a $105MM guarantee from the Dodgers, the first of its kind in MLB.

It’s been 14 years since Brown finalized his record deal — long enough for teams to hand out 40 more $100MM deals. In the last calendar year alone nine players have signed nine-figure deals. Many have surpassed Brown's $105MM guarantee, but none of them have been older than 33.

Here's the complete, updated list of $100MM players sorted by age, courtesy of MLBTR’s Transaction Tracker (the list includes free agent signings and extensions, but does not include posting fees for Japanese players):

  • Kevin Brown, 33, signed a seven-year, $105MM deal on 12/12/1998.
  • Alex Rodriguez, 32, signed a ten-year, $275MM deal on 12/13/2007.
  • Cliff Lee, 32, signed a five-year, $120MM deal on 12/13/2010.
  • Albert Pujols, 31, signed a ten-year, $240MM deal on 12/08/2011.
  • Jayson Werth, 31, signed a seven-year, $126MM deal on 12/05/2010.
  • Josh Hamilton, 31, signed a five-year, $125MM deal on 12/15/2012.
  • Alfonso Soriano, 30, signed an eight-year, $136MM deal on 11/20/2006.
  • Ryan Howard, 30, signed a five-year, $125MM extension on 4/26/2010.
  • Jason Giambi, 30, signed a seven-year, $120MM deal on 12/18/2001.
  • Ken Griffey Jr., 30, signed a nine-year, $116.5MM deal on 2/11/2000.
  • Carlos Lee, 30, signed a six-year, $100MM deal on 11/24/2006.
  • Zack Greinke, 29, signed a six-year, $147MM deal on 12/09/2012.
  • Carl Crawford, 29, signed a seven-year, $142MM deal on 12/8/2010.
  • David Wright, 29, signed an eight-year, $138MM deal on 12/04/2012.
  • Matt Holliday, 29, signed a seven-year, $120MM deal on 1/7/2010.
  • Joey Votto, 28, signed a ten-year, $225MM deal on 04/02/2012.
  • Mark Teixeira, 28, signed an eight-year, $180MM deal on 1/6/2009.
  • C.C. Sabathia, 28, signed a seven-year, $161MM deal on 12/20/2008 (revised as a 31-year-old on 10/31/2011). 
  • Manny Ramirez, 28, signed an eight-year, $160MM deal on 12/19/2000.
  • Adrian Gonzalez, 28, signed a seven-year, $154MM deal on 4/15/2011.
  • Cole Hamels, 28, signed a six-year, $144MM deal on 07/25/2012.
  • Johan Santana, 28, signed a six-year, $137.5MM deal on 2/2/2008.
  • Vernon Wells, 28, signed a seven-year, $126MM deal on 12/20/2006.
  • Barry Zito, 28, signed a seven-year, $126MM deal on 12/29/2006.
  • Mike Hampton, 28, signed an eight-year, $121MM deal on 12/12/2000.
  • Jose Reyes, 28, signed a six-year, $106MM deal on 12/04/2011.
  • Prince Fielder, 27, signed a nine-year, $214MM deal on 1/24/2012.
  • Matt Kemp, 27, signed an eight-year, $160MM deal on 11/14/2011.
  • Todd Helton, 27, signed a nine-year, $141.5MM deal on 3/1/2001.
  • Carlos Beltran, 27, signed a seven-year, $119MM deal on 1/13/2005.
  • Matt Cain, 27, signed a five-year, $112.5MM deal on 04/02/2012.
  • Ryan Braun, 27, signed a five-year, $105MM deal on 4/21/2011.
  • Ryan Zimmerman, 27, signed a six-year, $100MM deal on 2/26/2012.
  • Evan Longoria, 27, signed a six-year, $100MM deal on 11/26/2012.
  • Derek Jeter, 26, signed a ten-year, $189MM deal on 2/1/2001.
  • Joe Mauer, 26, signed an eight-year, $184MM deal on 3/21/2010.
  • Felix Hernandez, 26, signed a seven-year, $175MM deal on 02/07/2013.
  • Troy Tulowitzki, 26, signed a six-year, $119MM deal on 11/30/2010.
  • Alex Rodriguez, 25, signed a ten-year, $252MM deal on 12/1/2000.
  • Miguel Cabrera, 24, signed an eight-year, $152.3MM deal on 3/24/2008.
  • Albert Pujols, 24, signed a seven-year, $100MM deal on 2/19/2004.

It's also worth noting that $100MM contracts have been evenly split between extensions and free agent contracts. Since the beginning of the 2009-10 offseason, however there have been 14 $100MM extensions against just nine $100MM free agent signings.

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