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Latest On Rays’ Stadium Situation

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The Rays’ plans for 2028 and beyond are back up in the air. Over the weekend, owner Stuart Sternberg criticized local officials for postponing bond votes to approve the public financing to construct a new stadium in St. Petersburg’s Gas Plant district. Sternberg alluded to the possibility of relocation when discussing the situation with John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred addressed it at this week’s owners meetings. Asked about the possibility of relocation, Manfred said MLB remains “committed to the fans in Tampa Bay” (link via Mark Feinsand of MLB.com). “I think given all that’s happened in that market, we’re focused on our franchise in Tampa Bay right now,” he added.

That partially walks back Sternberg’s relocation threat, though the team continues to agitate for a quick resolution. Pinellas County officials met on Tuesday afternoon, a few days after Sternberg’s comments. Leading up to the meeting, Rays presidents Brian Auld and Matt Silverman wrote a letter to the county saying that the delays have already “ended an ability for the delivery of the 2028 ballpark” (link via Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times). Auld and Silverman wrote that moving forward with the plan in ’29 “would result in significantly higher costs,” though they concluded by saying they “stand ready to work on a new solution with any and all willing partners to preserve the future of baseball in Tampa Bay.”

That didn’t spur any kind of movement from the county. Officials voted for another postponement on the bonds, pushing that back until at least December 17, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Sam Blum of the Athletic wrote yesterday that some county officials have taken issue with Sternberg’s tactics.

“To be clear, we did not vote to kill the deal, nor should a three-week delay in a 30-plus year commitment be a deal killer to begin with,” the board’s vice chair Brian Scott said at the meeting (per Blum). “That’s just a totally ridiculous statement. The delay was not because of a lack of support for the Rays or our partnership. But it was a necessary due diligence to ensure the best interest of our residents and our taxpayers were met.”

In July, St. Petersburg and Pinellas County each approved the stadium deal that would’ve committed upwards of $300MM in public funding to a $1.3 billion project. They didn’t officially vote on the bonds at that time, however, and the deal was thrown into flux in recent weeks. Hurricanes Helene and Milton have hit the area incredibly hard. Hurricane Milton destroyed the Tropicana Field roof, rendering it unplayable for at least the 2025 season. The city has yet to announce whether it’ll approve the approximate $55.7MM in repair costs necessary to get the Trop into playing condition by ’26. Elections in November also changed the makeup of the county council.

The Rays will play next season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Manfred suggested the end of 2025 could serve as an unofficial deadline for having a long-term plan in place. “It’s one thing to make an interim arrangement for 2025, which we’ve done,” the commissioner stated. “When you get into another year, there’s obviously going to be another interim arrangement unless they get the Trop fixed. I think that second year of an interim arrangement, you need a plan as to how you’re going to get into a permanent facility.”

Trade Candidates To Watch Before Friday’s Non-Tender Deadline

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Friday represents the deadline for teams to tender contracts to players who are under club control. There are always a few notable names who are cut loose as their projected arbitration price tags begin to outpace production. The non-tender deadline can also serve as a catalyst for trades. A player's current team might not want to meet their arbitration salary, but the price isn't so outlandish that they can't find someone else willing to take that on.

Cal Quantrill, Scott Barlow, Luis Urías and Kyle Wright all fell into this bucket at last year's deadline. They'd each had some early-career success that built their arbitration prices, but each was either coming off a mediocre year or (in Wright's case) facing a significant injury absence.

We'll try to identify a few players who could land in the middle ground this week. These aren't the arbitration-eligible players who are most likely to be traded at any point this offseason. Garrett Crochet, Ryan Helsley and Devin Williams all have a decent chance to move over the winter, but none of them is in danger of getting cut. Friday doesn't serve as any kind of deadline to spur a trade for them. Their teams can tender them a contract and trade them weeks or months from now. Players traded this week are usually borderline non-tender candidates. If their teams don't find a trade partner by Friday evening, they could decide to move on entirely. Salary projections are courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. All of these players have five-plus years of service and are down to their final year of club control.

Mike Yastrzemski, Giants ($9.5MM projection)

All four of San Francisco's arb-eligible players could arguably fit on this list. LaMonte Wade Jr., Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval are themselves viable offseason trade candidates. Moving Yastrzemski could be the most urgent decision for president of baseball operations Buster Posey. With a $9.5MM projection, he's the most expensive player in the team's arbitration class and seems the likeliest to be non-tendered if they don't arrange a trade in the next 48 hours.

Yastrzemski is a capable everyday right fielder. After two excellent offensive seasons to begin his career, he has settled in as an average hitter. The lefty-hitting outfielder carries a .225/.311/.431 batting line since the start of the '21 season. This year's .231/.302/.437 slash with 18 homers is on par with that production. Yastrzemski is a solid defensive corner outfielder but isn't an option for more than emergency work in center field. A near-$10MM salary for his age-34 season is neither an albatross nor a bargain. Yastrzemski seemed to be a favorite of former front office head Farhan Zaidi. It's not clear if Posey values him to the same extent, but the Giants are clearly going to reshuffle the lineup in some way this winter.

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Red Sox Agree To Minor League Deals With Seby Zavala, Nate Eaton

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The Red Sox have agreed to minor league deals with catcher Seby Zavala, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Boston is also in agreement on a minor league deal with utilityman Nate Eaton, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Eaton would earn a $780K base salary if selected to the 40-man roster. Both players will be invited to major league spring training.

Zavala, a client of Headline Sports Group, spent the 2024 season in the Mariners organization. Seattle acquired him alongside flamethrowing relief prospect Carlos Vargas in the trade sending Eugenio Suarez to the D-backs. The hope was that Zavala, a terrific defender behind the plate, could hold down the backup job to workhorse catcher Cal Raleigh.

Things didn’t pan out that way, however. The 31-year-old Zavala has never hit much, but last year’s .154/.214/.282 slash (in a tiny sample of 43 plate appearances) was too anemic for the M’s to stomach. Zavala was designated for assignment three different times but opted to stick with the M’s via outright assignment each time. He became a minor league free agent at season’s end.

Zavala has appeared in 194 big league games. He’s a career .205/.271/.342 hitter in that time. He’s shown passable power for his position and also displayed some pop in the minors, but Zavala has punched out in a staggering 35.9% of his 557 big league plate appearances. That lack of contact leaves him with practically no hope of producing at even an average level.

Defensively, it’s another story. Zavala regularly posts elite framing marks and draws above-average grades for his ability to block pitches in the dirt, per Statcast. He posted a below-average caught stealing rate in 2023 but was within one percentage point of league-average in both 2024 and 2022. The Red Sox currently only have two catchers on the 40-man roster: Connor Wong and Mickey Gasper. Adding some experienced depth is a sensible endeavor.

Eaton, 28 next month, is a client of Gaeta Sports Management. He didn’t play in the big leagues this past season but logged 72 games and 178 plate appearances for the Royals from 2022-23. He batted only .201/.266/.283 in that time, but the versatile right-handed hitter has a far better track record in the upper minors. In parts of three seasons in Triple-A Omaha, he’s a .261/.320/.455 hitter with 40 homers and 60 steals in 255 games (1060 plate appearances).

Eaton has played primarily third base in his professional career but has at least 600 innings at each of the three outfield slots in addition to another 350 frames at second base and 60 at shortstop. Statcast credited him with 97th percentile sprint speed in his two big league seasons, measuring him at a blazing 29.6 feet per second.

Boston’s bench should have some spots up for grabs. Utilityman Rob Refsnyder, another right-handed bat, figures to have one spot locked down, and Gasper does as well for the time being, currently profiling as the backup to Wong. Romy Gonzalez, Nick Sogard, Enmanuel Valdez and Vaughn Grissom could all be in the mix for spots as well, but they all have minor league options remaining. Eaton’s versatility could earn him a look in the majors with a big spring or a strong early showing with the Sox’ Triple-A affiliate in Worcester.

Manfred: Sasaki Unlikely To Sign Until 2025

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Roki Sasaki is one of the offseason’s top stories. The Chiba Lotte Marines announced two weeks ago that they’d make the 6’2″ righty, who is widely viewed as the best pitcher in Japan, available to major league clubs via the posting system. While the Marines didn’t specify a timeline for the posting, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed this afternoon that Sasaki is not expected to sign until 2025 (link via Johnny Flores of the Athletic).

That doesn’t come as any kind of surprise. The 23-year-old Sasaki is classified as an amateur free agent — as are all players signing from a foreign league before their 25th birthday. That’s most notable because it caps Sasaki’s signing bonus to a few million dollars, a small fraction of his actual open market value. The amateur status is also relevant to the timing of his signing.

MLB permits teams to sign international amateur free agents at any point between January 15 and December 15. The vast majority of significant deals are inked on January 15. Players signing as teenagers out of Latin America usually reach verbal agreements with teams months or years in advance of the signing period. Those deals are typically finalized as soon as the period opens in mid-January.

As a result, teams have spent most or all of their bonus pools for 2024. Baseball America’s Ben Badler wrote last week that the Dodgers had the most remaining ’24 bonus space at roughly $2.5MM. By contrast, every team has between $5.1MM and $7.6MM in its pool for next year. If Sasaki were to sign before December 15, he’d be limiting himself to a small percentage on a bonus that is already capped. He’s not eligible to sign between December 15 and January 15, so he’ll wait until the opening of next year’s pool.

Of course, that presents a problem for players who have already reached verbal agreements that they expected the teams to finalize on January 15. The amateur bonus pool is hard capped. Teams can trade for bonus allotments to add a couple million dollars to their pools, but there’s a finite amount of money that MLB allows teams to spend. (Players who sign for $10K or less are exempt from the pool, but any prospect of note will sign for much more than that.)

Whichever team signs Sasaki will likely commit most or all of their pool to him. As a major league ready potential ace, he’s far more attractive to teams than even the most well-regarded teenage prospects in the class. The signing team will probably need to renege on verbal agreements with other players, who’d find themselves in flux as they look for other teams that have reached unofficial agreements with targets of their own.

If Sasaki waits into late January or February to sign, teams will need to weigh whether to finalize any commitments to other amateur players — which subtracts from the amount of money they could offer the NPB star. Badler’s piece is worth checking out in full, as he covers the trickle-down impacts that Sasaki’s free agency could have on players and trainers in Latin America. None of those are Sasaki’s concern. They’re unfortunate consequences of the system that was collectively bargained between MLB and the Players Association.

While Sasaki isn’t likely to sign before the middle of January, the posting process could begin earlier than that. A player posted by an NPB team has 45 days to sign with a major league club. The Marines could theoretically post Sasaki anytime from December 2 on to allow him to sign in the ’25 window. They’ll presumably wait at least into the middle of December so as not to force him to sign within a day or two of the opening of the signing period.

Tarik Skubal Wins American League Cy Young Award

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Tarik Skubal has his first Cy Young award. The Baseball Writers Association of America announced that the Tigers ace won the AL Cy Young by a unanimous margin. He received all 30 first-place votes. Kansas City’s Seth Lugo placed runner-up, while Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase rounded out the top three.

Whether Skubal would win the award was never in doubt. The hard-throwing southpaw, who turns 28 today, won the AL’s pitching Triple Crown. He led the Junior Circuit with a 2.39 earned run average across 192 innings. He held the major league lead in wins (18) and strikeouts (228). Skubal was essentially dominant from start to finish, as he didn’t allow an ERA higher than 3.05 in any month. He carried a 2.41 mark into the All-Star Break to earn his first selection to the Midsummer Classic.

Skubal fired 76 innings of 2.37 ERA ball after the Break, serving as the one constant in a Detroit rotation that was patched together after the Jack Flaherty deadline trade. He was the biggest contributor to the Tigers’ Cinderella run to a Wild Card in the second half. He punctuated the regular season with seven scoreless innings in a 2-1 victory over the Rays that more or less ensured Detroit would clinch a playoff spot in the final weekend of the regular season.

This was the first season in which Skubal topped 150 innings. He looked like a budding ace in 2022, when he turned in a 3.52 ERA with huge strikeout numbers across 21 starts. A late-season flexor injury brought that year to a halt. Skubal underwent surgery in August and was out into July ’23. He struck out 102 batters with a 2.80 ERA in 15 starts to close that season. Skubal was a trendy preseason Cy Young pick coming into 2024. He more than lived up to that promise.

Lugo, who turned 35 earlier this week, had the best season of his career. He turned in an even 3.00 ERA across 206 2/3 innings. Only Logan Gilbert threw more innings than Lugo, a former reliever who didn’t move back to the rotation until the ’23 season. The Royals made out incredibly well in the first season of a three-year, $45MM free agent deal. Lugo’s stellar year was a big reason that K.C. snapped a nine-year playoff drought of their own.

Clase had one of the best seasons by a reliever ever. The Guardians’ closer managed a 0.61 ERA across 74 1/3 frames. He locked down 47 saves in 50 attempts. Clase has led the majors in saves in three straight seasons. He anchored an elite Cleveland bullpen that carried the Guardians to an AL Central title. He’s the first reliever since Francisco Rodríguez in 2008 to earn a top three finish in Cy Young balloting.

While Skubal had a monopoly on first-place votes, five pitchers placed second on at least one ballot. In addition to Lugo and Clase, Cole Ragans, Corbin Burnes and Gilbert all picked up a second-place vote. Framber Valdez was the only other pitcher to receive any top three votes. Kirby Yates, Yusei Kikuchi and Cleveland rookie reliever Cade Smith all appeared on one ballot in fourth or fifth place.

Image courtesy of Imagn. Full voter breakdown courtesy of the BBWAA.

Chris Sale Wins National League Cy Young Award

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Braves left-hander Chris Sale has been named the National League Cy Young Award winner for 2024, per an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Zack Wheeler of the Phillies finished in second place with Paul Skenes of the Pirates in third place.

The award is the final cherry on top of a remarkable comeback season for Sale. He had a run from 2010 to 2018 of being one of the best pitchers in the majors, but struggled in 2019 and then was in the injury wilderness for quite a while. Due to various ailments, including Tommy John surgery, he only pitched about 150 innings total from 2020 to 2023.

The Red Sox flipped him to Atlanta almost a year ago, in December of 2023. The move was seen as risky at the time, as Sale was going into his age-35 season and was several years removed from his prime.

On top of that, Atlanta sent Vaughn Grissom to Boston in the deal, a notable prospect who still had years and years of cheap control. In return, they were getting just one year of Sale, though they did sign him to an extension that covered 2024 and 2025 with a club option for 2026. That extended their window of control over him, but at a fairly hefty price point: $38MM for the two guaranteed years plus $18MM for the option.

But so far, the deal has been incredibly lopsided in favor of Atlanta. Grissom was injured for much of 2024 and didn’t perform well while healthy. For Atlanta, most of their key contributors got hurt this year while Sale ironically stayed healthy, in spite of his recent track record.

Sale finished the season having made 29 starts and thrown 177 2/3 innings, allowing 2.38 earned runs per nine. He struck out 32.1% of batters faced, only gave out walks 5.6% of the time and got grounders on 44.8% of balls in play. He won the pitching triple crown by leading the National League in ERA, wins and strikeouts. His tally of 6.4 wins above replacement from FanGraphs was easily the most in the majors this year, with Tarik Skubal of the Tigers second at 5.9 fWAR.

Despite his previous dominance, this is actually Sale’s first time taking home the hardware. Per MLB’s Sarah Langs on X, Sale is the first pitcher to finish top five in Cy Young voting in five straight years, fall outside the top five for five straight years immediately after, followed by a return to the top five. He is also (X links from Langs) the first pitcher to have six previous top five finishes and later win the award, in addition to being one of the five oldest pitchers to win for the first time.

Sale got 26 of the first place votes (full vote tallies from the BBWAA), with the other four going to Wheeler, who logged exactly 200 innings over 32 starts with a 2.57 ERA. Skenes already won Rookie of the Year award earlier this week but this further cements what an amazing season he had. Other pitchers getting votes were Dylan Cease, Shota Imanaga, Logan Webb, Michael King, Hunter Greene, Ryan Helsley, Cristopher Sánchez, Reynaldo López, Sean Manaea and Aaron Nola.

Tigers Sign Jahmai Jones To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have signed infielder/outfielder Jahmai Jones to a minor league deal, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. The ACES client will receive an invite to major league spring training and will make a salary of $810K if he cracks the big league roster.

The 27-year-old Jones was once a notable prospect but he hasn’t yet had an extended big league opportunity, despite generally performing well in the minors. He spent most of 2024 with the Yankees, though in a fairly limited role. They claimed him off waivers from the Brewers in February, but he had exhausted his option years and needed to remain on the roster. The Yanks kept him around for over four months but only gave him 47 plate appearances in that time. He was outrighted off the roster in early August.

Jones now has a poor .198/.257/.278 batting line in his big league career, though in 137 plate appearances scattered across four different seasons. After being outrighted by the Yanks, he produced a robust line of .304/.390/.490 in 34 Triple-A games, leading to a 131 wRC+. This gives him a line of .276/.408/.471 over 564 Triple-A plate appearances in the past two years.

He hasn’t been able to bring that kind of production to the majors yet, but there’s no harm in a minor league deal and he’s a sensible guy to take a shot on. He was a second-round pick of the Angels in 2015 and got some top 100 prospect love in the years after that. Despite the many years that have transpired since then, he is still fairly young and has continued to put up good numbers on the farm.

He would be a fine fit for just about any club on a minor league deal but he could be an especially good fit for the Tigers, since he’s a right-handed hitter who has mostly played second base and the outfield in his career. The Tigers have a lefty swinger at the keystone in Colt Keith while their outfield mix includes lefties Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows and Akil Baddoo. They also have Jace Jung likely to be at third, Trey Sweeney at shortstop and Zach McKinstry in a utility role, each of those three also being left-handed.

Perhaps there’s a path for Jones to serve as a right-handed complement to that group in a multi-positional role. If he eventually cracks the roster, he is out of options but has less than a year of service time, meaning he can be cheaply retained for future seasons as well.

Cubs Acquire Matt Thaiss

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The Angels announced that they have traded catcher Matt Thaiss to the Cubs for cash considerations. The Halos had designated him for assignment last week. The Cubs have designated right-hander Trey Wingenter for assignment to open a roster spot, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune on X.

Thaiss, 30 in May, leaves the Angels for the first time in his professional career. He was a first-round pick of that club in 2016, getting taken 16th overall. He was a catcher in college but the Angels announced him as a corner infielder when they drafted him, clearly more interested in his bat.

As he worked his way up the minor leagues, he did indeed show that his offense could be an asset. He hit .279/.363/.445 for a 117 wRC+ across multiple minor league levels from 2016 to 2019. However, his major league work hasn’t been nearly as impressive. At this point, he has 771 big league plate appearances with a .208/.313/.342 line and 83 wRC+.

That production would be unacceptable for a corner infielder but not bad by backup catcher standards. The Halos often had a crowded mix of guys vying for playing time as the designated hitter or the corner spots over the years, such as Shohei Ohtani, Albert Pujols, Anthony Rendon, Jared Walsh and others. That prompted them to move Thaiss back behind the plate in 2021. Most metrics view Thaiss as a subpar defender back there, perhaps not surprising for a guy who spent several years away from that spot.

Though he’s been a passable backup to Logan O’Hoppe in recent years, the Angels decided to move on. After Travis d’Arnaud was let go by Atlanta, the Halos quickly swooped in and signed him to a two-year deal. That nudged Thaiss down to #3 on the catching chart. Since he’s out of options, they designated him for assignment, which led to today’s deal.

For the Cubs, he’s a sensible landing spot for now, as they have question marks behind the plate. They released Yan Gomes in June, Tomás Nido in August and then outrighted Christian Bethancourt in November. Prior to acquiring Thaiss, Miguel Amaya was the only catcher on their 40-man roster. It was reported back in August that they would be looking for catching help this winter.

Amaya performed well down the stretch for the Cubs but was subpar for the season overall. He’s out of options and not far removed from being a top prospect, so he probably has a decent grip on a roster spot, but he’s far from established as a big leaguer. He has 170 major league games under his belt with a .227/.300/.357 batting line and 87 wRC+.

Perhaps the Cubs envision a platoon arrangement, since Amaya hits from the right side and Thaiss from the left, though Amaya has reverse splits in his short career so far. It’s also possible that the Cubs will sign a more established catcher and try to pass Thaiss through waivers later in the offseason. Danny Jansen, Kyle Higashioka and Carson Kelly are just some of the many backstops available in free agency.

Perhaps Moisés Ballesteros will be a factor as well, as he is considered one of the top 100 prospects in the game and has reached Triple-A. However, he has only 68 games at that level and is still just 21 years old, so keeping him on the farm a little longer is also possible.

Time will tell if the Cubs continue addressing their catching mix throughout the winter, but for now, they’ve taken a flier on a sensible stopgap. For what was surely a small amount of money in baseball terms, they’ve added an experienced catcher with an intriguing past pedigree, without doing anything to block the possibility of other moves down the road.

Wingenter, 31, was just claimed off waivers in August and made five appearances for the Cubs late in the 2024 season. They could have retained him for next season via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $1.4MM salary next year. It seems they didn’t plan on doing that, so they have sent him into DFA limbo today. They will have a few days to see if there’s any trade interest, but he could end up back on waivers or non-tendered later this week. In his 95 1/3 major league innings, he has a 5.66 earned run average, 30.5% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate.

MLB Mailbag: Braves, Padres, Red Sox, Rangers, Reds, Rizzo, Buehler

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This week's mailbag gets into Braves, Padres, and Red Sox offseason possibilities, where Anthony Rizzo and Walker Buehler could land, off-the-wall Reds trade ideas, potential Rangers trade partners, and much more.

Bill asks:

What will Atlanta do this offseason with their shortstop, pitching, catching, and outfield needs?

I don't think the Braves will do anything significant at catcher; they might be content to use Chadwick Tromp as Sean Murphy's backup and see how Drake Baldwin comes along.  If they wanted to limit Murphy's playing time, they would've kept Travis d'Arnaud.

In terms of starting pitchers, the Braves have been linked to Walker Buehler, Nick Pivetta, and Nathan Eovaldi so far.  We'll know by Friday whether they tender a contract to Griffin Canning.  I don't love the Pivetta fit, given that he declined a qualifying offer.

12 days ago, Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tossed out some of these same names and also speculated on Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, Kevin Gausman, and Shane Bieber.  I consider Kikuchi another viable free agent option, as well as Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and a reunion with Charlie Morton.  The Braves could make a play for Garrett Crochet, or try to trade for Fedde, Sonny Gray, Zack Littell, Jesus Luzardo, Luis Castillo, or Jeffrey Springs.  They could sign Jeff Hoffman as a starter, given how well that strategy worked with Reynaldo Lopez.

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White Sox Sign Austin Slater

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The White Sox announced the signing of outfielder Austin Slater to a one-year deal. The Ballengee Group client is reportedly guaranteed $1.75MM and can unlock another $500K in performance bonuses. Slater would receive $50K in his 50th game and $75K apiece at 75 and 100 games. He’ll collect $50K for his 100th, 150th and 200th plate appearance and would earn another $75K each at 250 and 300 trips to the dish.

Slater, 31, was an eighth-round pick by San Francisco out of Stanford during the 2014 draft. The outfielder spent more than a decade in the Giants organization as he made his big league debut in 2017 and remained with the club through last season. In the first three seasons of his career, Slater was a decent but unspectacular fourth outfielder for San Francisco, slashing a combined .254/.335/.368 in 544 total plate appearances during that time. While primarily an outfielder, he also received occasional time at first base and even made token appearances at both second and third base off the Giants’ bench.

The outfielder broke out during the shortened 2020 season, however, with a 150 wRC+ and a .282/.408/.506 slash line in 104 trips to the plate while appearing in 31 of the club’s 60 games. That leap forward offensively earned Slater an expanded role over the next few years, and from 2021 to 2023 he became a regular for the Giants against left-handed pitching. While he was still generally shielded from righties, Slater slashed a respectable .257/.345/.412 in 343 games from 2021 to 2023. That’s good for a respectable 113 wRC+, and across those 838 plate appearances he walked at a 10.5% clip, swatted 24 homers, and swiped 29 bases despite frequent trips to the injured list cutting down on his playing time over the years.

Unfortunately for Slater, his production cratered in 2024. The outfielder hit just .209/.321/.266 (76 wRC+) overall in 212 trips to the plate this year while bouncing between the Giants, Reds, and Orioles. Even more surprisingly, the outfielder actually carried reverse splits this year after years of feasting on left-handed pitching. While he enjoyed a 141 wRC+ against lefties from 2020 to 2023, Slater hit just .188/.310/.231 against them in 142 plate appearances this year. Dismal as that overall production last year was, there is a silver lining in Slater’s performance. Once he arrived in Baltimore on the day of the trade deadline, he looked much more like the player he’s been throughout his career. In 79 plate appearances with the Orioles down the stretch, Slater hit .246/.342/.333 (102 wRC+) overall and posted a 114 wRC+ against southpaws.

That late-season rebound could inspire additional confidence in Slater’s ability to return to form in 2025 and beyond. That appears to be what the White Sox are betting on, and Slater makes plenty of sense for the club as a right-handed platoon option. Veteran lefty bat Andrew Benintendi is entrenched in left field, while the club also employs a host of left-handed youngsters in right field and at DH including Zach DeLoach, Dominic Fletcher, Gavin Sheets, and Oscar Colas. Of that group, only DeLoach (in a sample of just 79 big league PAs) lacks a significant platoon split.

Mixing in Slater against left-handed pitching should be a huge boost for a Sox offense that produced an MLB-worst 74 wRC+ against left-handed pitching last year, even if he merely recreates the production he offered the Orioles rather than bouncing back to the excellent form he showed from 2020 to 2023. While even an excellent short-side platoon bat isn’t going to make the White Sox contenders in 2025 following a 121-loss season this year, Slater was sufficiently attractive as a trade piece this summer to get dealt not once, but twice prior to the deadline. If he can garner that level of interest amid a down season, it’s easy to imagine the White Sox recouping some value for his services next July in the event he bounces back.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported the White Sox were signing Slater to a major league deal. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the $1.75MM base salary and the $500K in incentives. The Associated Press reported the incentive structure.

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