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Yankees Designate Oscar González For Assignment

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The Yankees officially announced their signing of right-hander Marcus Stroman, with outfielder Oscar González designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

González, 26, has only been a Yankee since early December, when they claimed him off waivers from the Guardians. The outfielder burst onto the scene with Cleveland in 2022, hitting 11 home runs in 382 plate appearances. His 3.9% walk rate was quite low but he hit .296/.327/.461 overall for a wRC+ of 125. He also became a fan favorite by using the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song as his walk-up music and also hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 15th inning of Game 2 of the Wild Card series, which broke a scoreless tie and clinched the series for the Guardians.

Unfortunately, 2023 was a disaster for González. His offense fell off precipitously and he spent most of his time on optionable assignment in Triple-A. In his 180 major league plate appearances, his walk rate fell even lower to 2.8% while his strikeouts increased, leading to a paltry line of .214/.239/.312. His work in Triple-A led to a nicer line of .287/.323/.496, but that still translated to a subpar wRC+ of 98.

Since he’s considered a poor defender and doesn’t steal a lot of bases, González really needs to hit to provide value. There’s clearly some power there but poor plate discipline as well. He has swung at 49.1% of pitches outside the strike zone in his career, the highest rate among MLB hitters with at least 550 plate appearances over the past two seasons. In 2,734 minor league plate appearances, he has walked in just 109 of them, a 4% rate.

He is still young and has a couple of option years remaining, so a club could keep him in Triple-A as a depth piece while seeing if his approach improves. The Yanks likely had such a plan in mind when they claimed him, but they have since changed their outfield significantly by trading for Juan Soto, Trent Grisham and Alex Verdugo. Those moves have seemingly pushed González down the depth chart and off the roster.

The Yanks will now have a week to trade González or pass him through waivers. If he were to go unclaimed, he could stick with the club as non-roster depth, but some other club around the league might take a shot on him.

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The Opener: Injuries, Relief Market, Rodriguez

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As the MLB offseason continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Are more injury announcements on the horizon?

With Spring Training less than a month away, Astros right-hander Kendall Graveman joined Rangers ace Max Scherzer as one of the first players to be announced as undergoing a surprise surgery that will impact their availability for the 2024. While Scherzer is expected to return to the mound sometime this summer after undergoing back surgery last month, Graveman is poised to miss the entire 2024 season on the heels of his recent shoulder surgery. Both veterans serve as a reminder that players will occasionally discover unexpected injury concerns as they ramp back up in preparation for the season over the weeks leading up to pitchers and catchers reporting in February.

While the Astros appear unlikely to change course following the Graveman news, unexpected injury announcements of this sort can at times serve as a catalyst for a sudden development on the free agent market as the club looks for a back-up plan to its injured player. With just 28 days until Spring Training, are there any other players who won’t make it to camp this year?

2. When will the relief market begin to heat up?

The market for relief pitching has largely stayed stagnant this winter, with two of the biggest signings (namely Jordan Hicks and Reynaldo Lopez) expected to compete for roles in their new club’s starting rotation. With that being said, plenty of demand for relief helps still remains as the Astros, Cardinals, and Cubs all remain heavily involved in the hunt for bullpen additions. While each of those clubs appear to be on the lookout for relief help more generally, both the Rangers and Yankees were specifically name-checked as potential frontrunners for right-hander Hector Neris over the weekend. Other teams that could be on the periphery of the relief market are the Dodgers, Angels, and Orioles, each of whom were connected to veteran righty Ryan Brasier earlier this month. Will the recent smoke percolating over the bullpen market lead to a signing in the coming days?

3. Is Rodriguez close to a deal?

The Blue Jays have been tied to a number of major players this winter, ranging from Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto to Cody Bellinger and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, though they’ve either come up short or seemingly backed away from the market’s top players in every instance in favor of lower-level additions like Kevin Kiermaier and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. That trend may be continuing on the starting pitching side of things, as reports indicated yesterday that the club is “optimistic” about their chances of signing Cuban right-hander Yariel Rodriguez. Rodriguez did not pitch with an affiliated league in 2023 as he worked to be declared an MLB free agent and most recently pitched to a 1.15 ERA in 54 2/3 NPB innings back in 2022.

It’s the second such report in that vein in as many months, as Toronto was said to have “taken the lead” in the hunt for Rodriguez’s services a few weeks ago. The addition of Rodriguez to the club’s pitching staff would likely give right-hander Alek Manoah competition for the club’s fifth starter spot this spring, and add a potentially strong late-inning reliever to the back of a Toronto bullpen that recently lost Jordan Hicks in the event that Manoah maintains his hold on the role. Will the club be able to get the deal done after missing on most of its targets earlier this winter?

Craig Breslow Discusses Red Sox’s Outfield, Rotation

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The Red Sox are open to adding another right-handed hitter to their outfield mix, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow tells Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe. To that end, Abraham reports that Boston remains in contact with free agent outfielder Adam Duvall’s camp.

Duvall had a solid, if volatile, 2023 season. Signed to a one-year, $7MM contract over the offseason, he was arguably the best hitter in MLB for the first couple weeks. Duvall ran a .455/.514/1.030 line over his first 37 plate appearances before fracturing a bone in his left wrist while diving for a fly ball. The injury cost him two months.

He was mired in an extended slump upon coming off the injured list, limping to a .175/.253/.313 showing through the All-Star Break. Duvall found his stride again coming out of the Break, raking at a .293/.349/.654 clip through the end of August. The year ended on a dismal note, as he struck out in over 40% of his plate appearances while hitting .149/.177/.324 from September 1 on.

Despite the extreme peaks and valleys, Duvall’s overall offensive production was well better than average. He hit 21 homers with a .247/.303/.531 slash in 353 plate appearances. Boston’s decision to give him nearly 500 innings in center field predictably didn’t work out well, as he rated between three and five runs below average by Statcast and Defensive Runs Saved. Duvall has been a plus defender in left field throughout the course of his career though. Between the strong corner outfield defense and 30-homer upside, he’s a valuable player despite high strikeout totals and subpar on-base marks.

The Angels are the only other team that has been publicly linked to Duvall this offseason. At age 35, it seems likely he’ll sign another one-year pact, although there’s an outside chance he lands a second guaranteed season.

Breslow wasn’t with the Sox when they signed Duvall last January. Yet the front office has sought right-handed power in the outfield throughout his first offseason at the helm. Boston already swung a trade for Tyler O’Neill. They were linked to Teoscar Hernández before he signed a one-year, $23.5MM pillow contract with the Dodgers. Duvall would be significantly cheaper.

Even as the Sox pursued Hernández, they’d pointed to the rotation as their biggest priority. Boston took a rebound flier on Lucas Giolito. Not long thereafter, they subtracted Chris Sale in the trade to add Vaughn Grissom from the Braves. While Giolito seems a safer bet than Sale to log a full workload, the pair of moves leaves the Sox with the same number of starters they had at the beginning of the winter.

Breslow told Abraham the current rotation consists of four pitchers: Giolito, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford and Nick Pivetta. That’d leave Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck and Josh Winckowski competing for the final spot. Offseason acquisitions Cooper Criswell and Max Castillo are among the depth options on the 40-man roster.

Of course, that’s not necessarily the mix they’ll take to Spring Training. Breslow conceded their efforts to add rotation help have thus far “been a challenge” but said they’re “still engaged in conversations with free agents and teams via trade.” The Sox have been loosely tied to top arms Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery (more so the latter) during the offseason, but more recent reports indicated they were looking at the next tiers down. With mid-level arms like Shota Imanaga and Marcus Stroman recently coming off the board, the free agent supply is dwindling beyond Snell and Montgomery.

That hints at payroll questions that have hung over the offseason. The Sox opened the 2023 season with a player payroll in the $181MM range, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. That ranked 12th in the majors, their first time outside the top 10 this century. Roster Resource projects their 2024 payroll in a similar range, a little under $178MM. They’re almost $40MM away from next year’s base luxury tax threshold.

An offseason headlined by Giolito and trade pickups of Grissom and O’Neill presumably isn’t what many in the fanbase envisioned. That’s especially true after team chairman Tom Werner vowed in early November the organization would go “full throttle” to put their two straight last place finishes behind them.

Werner walked that phrasing back in a conversation with Sean McAdam of MassLive this afternoon. “Maybe that wasn’t the most artful way of saying what I wanted to say, which is that we’re going to be pressing all levers to improve the team,” he said. “In the end, nobody’s happy with our performance the last few years. Some years, we go after somebody who is about to be a free agent, or was a free agent, as it pertains to Trevor Story or Raffy Devers.”

After noting the organization made an unsuccessful run at Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Werner added the Sox “certainly aren’t happy with the current roster as it was at the end of last year, so if I was going to say it again, I would say that we’re going to be pressing all levers and weren’t going to be happy with just one (method) — that includes free agency, trades or talent from Triple and Double A. … In the end, we don’t have a line in terms of our payroll that we look at as much as trusting that Craig is going to deliver on his assurance that we’re going to be competitive.“

Cardinals Notes: TV Deal, Bullpen, Edman

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Cardinals officials met with reporters to close the organization’s Winter Warm-Up on Monday. The team’s local broadcasting contract was among the topics.

Owner Bill DeWitt Jr. confirmed the Cardinals would receive their full rights fees for 2024, per their contract with Bally Sports Midwest (link via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). The Cardinals are among 12 teams affected by the ongoing Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy. Even as MLB and the broadcasting conglomerate continue discussions about renegotiating some of the deals, St. Louis has been assured they’ll be paid in full next season.

That doesn’t provide any kind of certainty beyond 2024. There’s a real possibility Diamond ceases operation of all the Bally Sports RSNs after next season. In that case, the teams will need to find a new means of in-market broadcasting. DeWitt suggested the Cards were considering a handful of different paths. One option would be a partnership with the NHL’s Blues for a shared channel. The club could also create a standalone channel of its own or partner with some of the other MLB teams that will likely be dropped by Bally after the ’24 campaign.

However they handle their post-’24 broadcasts, they’ll have one more season at their negotiated rights fees. Goold reports that number to be around $73MM (potentially more depending on inflation adjustments). DeWitt said the Cardinals approached the 2023-24 offseason without any spending restrictions tied to the rights fees as they operated on the assumption they’d be paid at least 80% of their contract for next season.

St. Louis is on track for a similar payroll as they had a season ago. Roster Resource projects their 2024 spending around $178MM. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, they opened the ’23 campaign in the $177MM range. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak indicated last weekend there was still some room to add this offseason, even if team president Bill DeWitt III has downplayed the chance of any huge splashes.

The middle relief corps stands as perhaps the team’s top remaining priority. After the Cardinals dealt Richie Palacios to the Rays for Andrew Kittredge, Katie Woo of the Athletic writes they’re likely to continue searching for free agent bullpen help. Previous reports have linked the team to Ryan Brasier and Phil Maton, each of whom remains unsigned.

Also in attendance on Monday was center fielder/middle infielder Tommy Edman. The switch-hitter discussed his rehab from October’s arthroscopic wrist procedure. He noted he hasn’t yet been cleared to make contact when he swings a bat. He’s likely to be delayed on the hitting side in camp but said he’s “very confident” he’ll be at full strength by the start of the season (Post-Dispatch link via Goold).

Edman also discussed his contract situation as he prepares for a potential arbitration hearing. He’s one of 22 arbitration-eligible players in MLB — and the only Cardinal — who didn’t reach a settlement before last Thursday’s deadline to exchange filing figures. Edman’s camp filed for a $6.95MM salary, while the team countered at $6.5MM. Like most clubs, St. Louis takes the “file-and-trial” approach and won’t continue negations on a one-year salary past the filing deadline.

Even “file-and-trial” teams are typically willing to discuss multi-year pacts after exchanging figures, however. Edman said he hasn’t heard anything about a multi-year deal to this point but suggested he expects there to be some discussion between the team and his representatives before the hearing. Edman has between four and five years of service time. A two-year deal would allow the sides to avoid a hearing without affecting his free agent trajectory.

Cubs Continuing Search For Bullpen Help

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Bolstering the relief corps is “a focus” for the Cubs, writes Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. They’ve shown interest in Guardians’ closer Emmanuel Clase, Levine adds.

Almost every team probably has some degree of interest in Clase. He has led MLB in saves and games finished in each of the last two seasons. The 25-year-old righty has made the All-Star Game in consecutive years. He has essentially been an elite reliever from the time Cleveland was able to put him on the mound.

Cleveland acquired Clase in what turned out to be a very lopsided trade sending former Cy Young winner Corey Kluber to the Rangers during the 2019-20 offseason. His tenure with the club couldn’t have begun much worse, as Clase was suspended for the shortened season after a failed PED test. Once he took the Progressive Field mound, he was dominant. The fireballing righty turned in a 1.29 ERA over 69 2/3 frames as a rookie.

The Guardians signed Clase to a $20MM extension the following April. He responded with a 1.36 ERA over a league-leading 77 appearances. Clase’s numbers took a step back last season, as he allowed 3.22 earned runs per nine. After running a 27.5% strikeout rate between 2021-22, he fanned a slightly below-average 21.2% of hitters last year. Ground-ball rates that had sat north of 60% in each of his first two years in Cleveland dropped, albeit to a still excellent 55% clip.

Even if Clase wasn’t quite as dominant last season, he’s still one of the best relievers in the game. His primary pitch, his cutter, averages more than 99 MPH. He’s one of the sport’s top ground-ball pitchers and rarely issues free passes.

The contract only adds to the appeal. Clase will make just $2.5MM next season. He’s due respective $4.5MM and $6MM salaries in 2025-26. The deal contains $10.5MM club options (with $2MM buyouts) covering 2027-28, although he’s likely to escalate the value of those options to $13MM apiece. He’d also receive a $1MM assignment bonus in the event of a trade. That’s nevertheless affordable enough to comfortably fit in the budget for any team, including the Guardians, at least for the next three seasons.

That seemingly makes it a long shot Cleveland pulls the trigger on a deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported shortly before the Winter Meetings the Guardians were open to offers, however. They’d presumably only do so for a package built around multiple top prospects given Clase’s ceiling and five years of club control.

Clase is one of a number of possibilities. Top free agent reliever Josh Hader remains unsigned. So does Robert Stephenson, arguably the top righty reliever in this year’s class (and a player in whom the Cubs have shown interest). Hector Neris and Phil Maton are solid middle relief options.

A run at anyone in that group would require a pivot from the Cubs’ general approach to the relief corps. Chicago has shied away from notable free agent investments since their signing of Craig Kimbrel. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the Cubs haven’t guaranteed more than one year or $5MM to a free agent bullpen arm over the past five offseasons.

Hoyer spoke generally about that reluctance to commit top dollar in the relief corps. “The elite, elite closer, the leverage they pitch in can make a difference,” he said (via Levine). “But the bullpen performances are the most volatile on the baseball field. … The pen is a higher volatility and aggression area. So you want to put your dollars to use in the areas you are most certain about.”

That could point to a preference to add to the group via trade if possible. The bullpen and third base are potential targets a month from Spring Training. At least week’s Cubs Convention, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer downplayed the chances of signing another starter after the four-year deal for Shota Imanaga (link via Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic).

Hoyer and skipper Craig Counsell have each suggested trade pickup Michael Busch could address their first base vacancy (link from Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times). If the Cubs are content with Christopher Morel at designated hitter and the combination of Mike Tauchman and Pete Crow-Armstrong to handle center field, that leaves the hot corner and bullpen as the biggest areas of concern.

Mariners, Ty Buttrey Agree To Minor League Deal

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Reliever Ty Buttrey agreed to a deal with the Mariners, he announced this afternoon (on X). It’s presumably a minor league contract with a Spring Training invite.

Buttrey, 31 in March, is looking to get back to the majors for the first time since 2020. The former fourth-round draftee pitched in the big leagues each year between 2018-20. Buttrey made 115 appearances for the Angels, allowing fewer than four earned runs per nine innings in each of his first two seasons. He struggled during the shortened season, posting a 5.81 ERA in 26 1/3 frames.

On the eve of the 2021 campaign, Buttrey announced he was stepping away from baseball. He sat out that season but made his return in ’22. The righty spent that year in Triple-A with the Halos, losing his spot on the 40-man roster midseason. He signed a minor league pact with the Astros for 2023.

Buttrey opened the season on the minor league injured list. He missed three months before being reinstated on June 30. He went on to make 14 appearances with Houston’s Triple-A team. Buttrey allowed 11 runs in 13 2/3 innings, largely thanks to the 13 walks he issued. That understandably wasn’t sufficient to get him a big league look, leading the Astros to release him at the beginning of August.

While Buttrey hasn’t found much success in the last couple years, there’s no risk for the Mariners in taking a look at him in camp. During his first couple seasons with the Halos, he looked like an above-average MLB reliever. Between 2018-19, Buttrey struck out 27.4% of opponents with a 3.86 ERA in 88 2/3 innings while sitting in the 96-97 MPH range with his fastball. He’ll likely open next season at Triple-A Tacoma as bullpen depth. Seattle also added righty Joey Krehbiel on a minor league pact this afternoon and has signed similar deals with Cory Abbott, Jhonathan Diaz, Kirby Snead, Brett de Geus and Tyson Miller over the offseason.

Blue Jays Reportedly Optimistic About Signing Yariel Rodríguez

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The Blue Jays are optimistic about landing right-hander Yariel Rodríguez, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. That meshes with reporting last month from Enrique Rojas of ESPN, who said that the Jays had “taken the lead” in the righty’s market. Per today’s report from Rosenthal, immigration issues have prevented the deal from being made official. It’s unclear what exactly those issues are or when they are expected to be resolved.

Rodríguez, 27 in March, started his career in his home country of Cuba. He pitched in the Cuban National Series starting in the 2015-16 season when he was just 18 years of age. He eventually pitched in 91 games in that league, starting 72 of them, posting a combined earned run average of 3.30 over 464 1/3 innings.

He joined the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball for the 2020 season, though that club kept him in a relief role. His three NPB seasons resulted in 175 1/3 innings with a 3.03 ERA. He struck out 25.4% of batters faced while walking 10.4%. In 2022, he seemed to find a new gear, with a 1.15 ERA in 54 2/3 innings, striking out 27.5% of opponents while walking just 8.3%.

He pitched for Cuba in the 2023 World Baseball Classic and then didn’t return to Japan. While he was able to secure his release from the Dragons and be declared a free agent by Major League Baseball, he wasn’t able to pitch in official games last year after the WBC.

He has received widespread interest this offseason, with some clubs viewing him as capable of returning to a starting role. At the start of the offseason, MLBTR predicted he could secure a four-year, $32MM contract. That’s roughly in the same ballpark as a couple of other pitchers who are possibly moving from the bullpen to a rotation. Reynaldo López signed with Atlanta for three years and $30MM while Jordan Hicks landed with the Giants for $44MM over four. Both of those pitchers have been effective relievers in recent years but will try to get stretched out as starters this spring.

The appeal of Rodríguez would likely be similar. If he turns out to be a viable starter, it would be a boon for the club that signs him, with a relief role serving as an acceptable fallback plan. Rodríguez might be a bit of a long-term project as a starter after missing out on the 2023 season, making a sudden jump to a full-time starter’s workload a tall ask.

The Jays already have four fifths of this year’s rotation spoken for, with Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi all returning from last year’s club. The fifth spot is more open, with Hyun Jin Ryu now a free agent. Alek Manoah was a Cy Young candidate as recently as 2022 but it’s unclear how much faith the club has in him right now. The 2023 season saw him struggle and get optioned to the minors twice, which seemed to sour the relationship between him and the club. He may still be the favorite for the final rotation job but his name has also appeared in plenty of trade rumors this offseason. Prospect Ricky Tiedemann reached Triple-A last year and could be nearing his major league debut but was only able to log 44 innings on the year due to injury, plus another 18 in the Arizona Fall League. Mitch White and Bowden Francis could be in the mix as well but neither has a lengthy major league track record.

It’s plausible that Rodriguez could factor into that competition and log some innings in 2024. Kikuchi is slated for free agency after the upcoming campaign, Bassitt after 2025 and Gausman after 2026, which leaves future rotation innings for the Jays to fill. There’s also long-term uncertainty in the bullpen, where Yimi García and Trevor Richards are slated for free agency after 2024. Meanwhile, each of Jordan Romano, Erik Swanson, Chad Green, Tim Mayza and Génesis Cabrera are slated for the open market after 2025.

The Jays have had a somewhat quiet offseason thus far, in terms of completed deals. They’ve been connected to big names like Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Yoshinobu Yamamoto but their most notable moves thus far have been to sign utility player Isiah Kiner-Falefa and re-sign outfielder Kevin Kiermaier. Roster Resource estimates the club’s payroll is at $221MM, just a bit above last year’s $215MM, with their competitive balance tax figure at $231MM.

The club’s CEO/president Mark Shapiro had previously indicated this year’s payroll would likely be similar to last year’s. Signing Rodríguez and/or some bats to upgrade the lineup would require them to push the payroll a little farther than it already is while also nudging them past the $237MM base threshold of the CBT. The Jays paid the tax for the first time last year and their base tax rate would jump from 20% to 30% as a second-time payor.

Giants Acquire Cooper Hummel From Mets

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The Mets announced that they have traded catcher/outfielder Cooper Hummel to the Giants in exchange for cash considerations. The Mets had designated him for assignment last week. MLB Transactions Daily reported that the Giants were acquiring Hummel prior to the official announcement. The Giants will now have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move when they make their signing of Jordan Hicks official.

Hummel, 29, has received 227 major league plate appearances thus far in his career, spending time with the 2022 Diamondbacks and 2023 Mariners. He has drawn walks at a 11% clip but has also been struck out in 32.2% of those trips to the plate, leading to a batting line of .166/.264/.286. His offense has been much better at Triple-A. In 977 appearances at that level over the past three years, he has paired a 17.3% walk rate with a 21.2% strikeout rate. His .288/.420/.492 slash line in that time translates to a wRC+ of 132.

That kind of Triple-A production is surely enticing, as is Hummel’s defensive versatility. In the major leagues, he’s mostly split his time between catcher and left field, with a little bit of work in right field as well. He’s also played those three positions in the minors, along with a decent amount of time at first base and some brief looks at third base. He also still has an option year remaining and can be kept in the minors if the Giants don’t have a spot for him on the active roster.

The Giants already showed an affinity for this type of player when they utilized catcher/outfielder Blake Sabol on their club last year. Sabol struck out in 34% of his plate appearances but still managed to hit .235/.301/.394 for a wRC+ of 92, splitting his time almost evenly between catcher and left field. He was under Rule 5 restraints in 2023 but the club has now obtained his full rights and can option him going forward.

Patrick Bailey figures to be the primary catcher while Tom Murphy was signed to be the backup. Murphy is generally considered to be on the bat-first side of things and also has significant health concerns, having never surpassed 325 plate appearances in any big league season. Perhaps one of Sabol or Hummel could secure a job as a utility player that takes on part-time catching duties and allows Murphy to spend some time as the designated hitter. But since each of them are optionable, they could also be in Triple-A as depth until their services are required. The club also has Joey Bart in its catching mix but he is now out of options and may get squeezed from the roster at some point.

Jung Hoo Lee, Michael Conforto and Mike Yastrzemski project as the everyday outfielders with Austin Slater likely to be in a fourth outfielder role. Wilmer Flores and Murphy will perhaps get the lion’s share of DH time. Outfielders like Heliot Ramos and Luis Matos are also on the 40-man roster but have options and could get regular playing time in the minors while Hummel and/or Sabol serve in bench jobs at the big league level. Since Hummel has spent a bit of time at the infield corners, an injury to either LaMonte Wade Jr. or J.D. Davis could also open up some playing time for him.

Brown: Graveman Injury Does Not Intensify Astros’ Bullpen Pursuit

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The Astros were already facing the loss of relievers Hector Neris, Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek via free agency, and they’ll now also be without righty Kendall Graveman for the 2024 season after he underwent shoulder surgery. The team announced Graveman’s operation earlier today, declining to delve into specifics, but subtracting him from the ’pen equation leaves Ryan Pressly, Bryan Abreu and rebound hopeful Rafael Montero as the only Houston relievers with even three years of MLB service. The vast majority of Houston’s bullpen options have under one year of MLB service time.

“We’ve been focused on the (bullpen) anyway, this doesn’t intensify it,” general manager Dana Brown tells Chandler Rome of The Athletic. “We just may have to get one more body or one of our guys internally will step up.” Brown made similar comments to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com, telling him that the Astros have some in-house relief options “that we really feel good about,” though the GM also conceded that he’s still in the market to bring in an additional bullpen arm from outside the organization.

The free agent market for relievers has dried up over the past couple months. As MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows, there have been 34 relief pitchers signed to Major League contracts this winter. None have signed with Houston. Brown acknowledged to Rome that he’d had talks with the representatives for all of Neris, Maton and Stanek but wouldn’t specify much beyond the fact that he’s “more in the ballpark” with one of Neris/Maton than the other. Rome reported last week that the Astros haven’t pursued Maton aggressively, and he doubled down on that in today’s report.

While many of the top relievers are already off the board, there are still plenty of experienced names from which to choose if Houston is intent on adding a free agent. The ’Stros almost certainly aren’t going to spend at the necessary levels to add top-tier names like Josh Hader and Robert Stephenson, but more affordable options still on the market include Ryan Brasier, John Brebbia, Michael Fulmer, Mychal Givens, Adam Ottavino and Wandy Peralta — to name just a few.

“If we can go get one more [reliever] and use some of the candidates in-house, we feel like we’ll be good,” Brown replied when asked by McTaggart about adding another bullpen arm.

One of the primary questions for the ’Stros will be one of finances. To this point, the only free agent they’ve signed to a big league deal this winter is backup catcher Victor Caratini. That signing placed Houston within $1MM of the $237MM luxury-tax threshold, per Roster Resource. Owner Jim Crane hasn’t publicly declared any mandate to remain shy of that barrier, but the Astros’ lack of activity this winter, coupled with trade rumblings regarding some of their more prominent but expensive players (e.g. Framber Valdez) have combined to fuel speculation about a desire to avoid paying the tax. Houston has crossed the tax threshold only once under Crane’s ownership.

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