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Cody Bellinger Exercises Player Option With Cubs For 2025 Season

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Cody Bellinger has exercised his $27.5MM player option for the 2025 season, according to ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan (X link).  Bellinger’s three-year, $80MM deal with the Cubs last winter included opt-outs after both the 2024 and 2025 seasons, but Bellinger will pass on the first opt-out (and $2.5MM buyout) in order to remain in Chicago for at least one more year.

Bellinger also earned $27.5MM in the first year of his contract, so he’ll have a $25MM decision waiting for him with next year’s opt-out.  With $5MM attached to that opt-out, Bellinger has now guaranteed himself $60MM of that initial $80MM payday, and could potentially be in line for another long-term contract if he delivers a big 2025 season.

Of course, Bellinger thought that his big 2023 season might’ve set him up for a lucrative long-term contract last winter, yet he ended up rejoining the Cubs for that three-year pact.  Similar option-heavy shorter-term deals were also in the cards for other notable Scott Boras clients like Blake Snell, Matt Chapman, and Jordan Montgomery, leading the quartet to be known as the “Boras Four” as their trips through free agency dragged deep into Spring Training.

Bellinger signed near the end of February so he still had the benefit of most of spring camp, though injuries were probably the bigger reason why the former NL MVP’s performance dropped off from 2023.  A fractured right rib and a fractured left middle finger resulted in a couple of relatively brief trips to the injured list, though Bellinger hit a modest .266/.325/.426 with 18 home runs over 569 plate appearances.

While his 109 wRC+ was still above the league average, it also wasn’t the kind of standout platform year that would’ve made Bellinger a lock to top the remaining salary on his Cubs contract.  As a result, Bellinger was still reportedly unclear about his opt-out decision as late as September 20, and he has now chosen perhaps the slightly more cautious move of just sticking in Wrigleyville for another season.

There’s plenty of logic in Bellinger’s decision, beyond the obvious appeal of a $27.5MM payday.  After being a free agent in each of the last two offseasons, a quiet winter with his 2025 destination already established surely had some appeal for Bellinger.  He has also been vocal about how much he has enjoyed playing for the Cubs, so he’ll now stay in a familiar and welcome environment of the Friendly Confines.

From the Cubs’ perspective, they now have a pretty big salary on their books for 2025.  Of course, a one-year outlay for a player with Bellinger’s upside isn’t exactly a bad outcome, and obviously it was an outcome the front office has planned for given the three-year contract.  With Pete Crow-Armstrong now establishing himself in center field, Bellinger will probably be the Cubs’ primary right fielder next season, with Seiya Suzuki perhaps getting the bulk of DH duty.  Bellinger’s ability to also play center field and first base adds to his versatility, and gives manager Craig Counsell some flexibility in figuring out his daily lineups.

As per RosterResource, the Cubs’ projected payroll for next year up to roughly $183.5MM, factoring in Bellinger staying and Drew Smyly leaving after Chicago declined their end of the veteran pitcher’s mutual option.  This leaves the Cubs with plenty of spending space before they get up to the $241MM luxury tax threshold, provided the threshold is any sort of real barrier for ownership.  The Cubs didn’t pay the tax in any of the 2021-23 seasons but may have just barely crossed the threshold this season, depending on the league’s final calculations.

Braves Sign Reynaldo López, Aaron Bummer To New Contracts

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The Braves announced today that they have signed both right-hander Reynaldo López and left-hander Aaron Bummer to new contracts. They also selected right-hander Domingo Gonzalez to the roster.

López will make $30MM over the next three years: $8MM in 2025, $14MM in 2026 and $8MM in 2027. On his previous deal, he was set to make $11MM in ’25 and ’26 with an $8MM club option and $4MM buyout for ’27. This deal effectively guarantees that club option ahead of time while allowing Atlanta to move some of his money from the ’25 ledger to the ’26 ledger.

Bummer’s deal had two club options for ’25 and ’26, both valued at $7.25MM with $1.25MM buyouts. Per today’s announcement, he is now guaranteed $13MM over the next two years: $3.5MM in ’25 and $9.5MM in ’26. That’s slightly less than the $14.5MM he could have made if both options were eventually picked up but he gets the security of having it locked in now, staving off any chance of an injury or a decline in performance hurting his future earning power. In this instance as well, the club moves some money from ’25 to ’26.

Before the offseason has really even begun in earnest, Atlanta’s payroll and competitive balance tax situation have already been a clear focus. Almost as soon as trades were allowed to happen, outfielder/designated hitter Jorge Soler was flipped to the Angels, essentially as a salary dump. Atlanta got right-hander Griffin Canning in return but it seems their primary motivation was to get rid of the two years and $26MM left on Soler’s deal. Now, a couple of days later, they announced these reworked deals. In both cases, the goal was seemingly to give Atlanta a bit more spending power in the upcoming offseason.

According to RosterResource, Atlanta is currently slated to have a payroll of $191MM and a CBT number of $210MM. The latter is higher because it’s calculated based on a contract’s average annual value rather than what the club is set to actually pay in 2025. The club has signed some backloaded extensions, which leads some players to have a higher CBT hit than their current salary.

The club finished 2024 with a payroll of $232MM and $277MM. Looking ahead to 2025, there’s some breathing room relative to last year’s numbers, but triggering options on Marcell Ozuna ($16MM), Travis d’Arnaud ($8MM) and Luke Jackson ($7MM) will eat up some of that. The club also has plenty on its offseason to-do list, with Max Fried and Charlie Morton now free agents, opening up two holes in the rotation. The club might consider upgrading on Orlando Arcia at shortstop, Sean Murphy at catcher or Jarred Kelenic in the outfield.

In the case of López, his new deal won’t impact his CBT hit. He signed a three-year, $30MM deal with Atlanta last winter, a deal that came with a $10MM luxury tax calculation. This new deal also has him slated to make $30MM over the next three years, keeping the CBT hit the same.

In terms of pure dollars, he is now guaranteed $4MM extra than previously, with that club option locked in. If he should suffer an injury or a decline in performance between now and then, he has prevented the club from going with the buyout. In exchange, the club gets a small increase in spending power this winter by moving $3MM of his salary ahead by a year. His return to a starting role was a big success this year as he posted a 1.99 earned run average in 135 2/3 innings.

With Bummer, the club clearly wanted to keep him around but worked out some details that they liked better than those options. This will actually increase his CBT hit relative to 2024, but by a bit less than if they had just picked up the option.

Atlanta acquired Bummer a year ago when he still had one guaranteed season left on his deal with the White Sox. Per the rules of the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players union, a player’s CBT hit is recalculated at the time of a trade. Bummer was set to make a $5.5MM salary in 2024 and $1.25MM buyout on the option, so his CBT hit was $6.75MM in 2024. He had a strong season, posting a 3.58 ERA out of Atlanta’s bullpen this year.

If Atlanta had picked up the ’25 option, his CBT hit would have jumped to $8.5MM, when factoring in the $7.25MM salary and the $1.25MM buyout on the ’26 option. Instead, Atlanta has locked him in at $13MM for the next two years, reducing his CBT hit to $6.5MM. They also backloaded the salary so that they have more money to spend on the ’25 club. For him, he’s potentially leaving a small amount of money on the table, as he could have eventually made $14.5MM if both options were triggered. But he now has more guaranteed up front, so he’s protected against a big surgery or some other unfortunate developments cropping up between now and his second option decision.

Perhaps Atlanta expects to have a bit less of a payroll crunch a year from now. Ozuna’s contract will be done after 2025, as will that of Raisel Iglesias. They have ’26 club options for players like Chris Sale, Pierce Johnson, Ozzie Albies, David Fletcher and Arcia that they could walk away from, depending on each player’s health and performance between now and then. RR currently pegs Atlanta for a $137MM payroll and $136MM for CBT purposes in 2026. However, those numbers will eventually climb based on the options and players who qualify for arbitration, as well as with any multi-year deals the club gives out this winter.

Gonzalez, 25, was originally signed by the Pirates but Atlanta nabbed him in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. Players who have played parts of seven years in the minors, including the cancelled 2020 season, can qualify for minor league free agency. That was about to be the case for Gonzalez but Atlanta wanted to keep him around, so they’ve added him to the roster today.

He was in a swingman role when in the Pirates’ system but Atlanta has had him working primarily in relief since they grabbed him. He has posted huge strikeout totals but also given out a high number of walks. He spent all of last year in Double-A, posting a 4.19 ERA in 53 2/3 innings. He struck out 30.5% of batters faced while giving out free passes at a 13.3% rate. This year, he split his time between Double-A and Triple-A. He had a 2.91 ERA in 52 2/3 innings, increasing his strikeout rate to 38.8% while decreasing the walks to 10.3%. Those strong results will get him onto a major league roster for the first time and he should compete for a role in Atlanta’s bullpen next year.

Anderson Espinoza Re-Signs With NPB’s Orix Buffaloes

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Right-hander Anderson Espinoza has re-signed with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball on a two-year deal worth roughly $6MM, according to a report from Swing Completo’s Victor Briceno (h/t to Yakyu Cosmopolitan). 2025 will be Espinoza’s second year with the Buffaloes in NPB.

Espinoza, 26, made his pro debut with the Red Sox back in 2015 after signing as an international free agent out of Venezuela. He quickly emerged as one of the league’s top up-and-coming pitching talents as he was consistently rated as a top-20 prospect in the sport, and was traded from Boston to San Diego in the Drew Pomeranz trade back in 2016. Unfortunately, Espinoza promptly fell victim to the injury bug and did not throw another pitch in the minor leagues for four years due to multiple Tommy John surgeries and the cancelled 2020 minor league season.

In 2021, Espinoza finally made his way back to the minor league mound and was traded to the Cubs in a deal that sent Jake Marisnick to the Padres. Espinoza struggled badly at the minor league level during his time in the Cubs organization, posting ERAs north of 5.00 at every stop on his journey, but that didn’t stop the rebuilding club from giving Espinoza his first look in the big leagues during the 2022 season, seven years after he first threw a professional pitch. That cup of coffee saw him pitch to a 5.40 ERA in 18 1/3 multi-inning relief appearances, though he was eventually cut from the club’s roster and headed to minor league free agency the following offseason.

2023 saw Espinoza return to the Padres organization on a minor league deal, and he moved back into the rotation after his stint in the bullpen with Chicago. Espinoza’s results at Triple-A El Paso were ugly, as he struggled to a 6.15 ERA in 131 2/3 innings of work that was well below average even for the inflated offensive environment found in the Pacific Coast League. He struck out just 19.3% of opponents while walking 12%, and he once again headed into free agency last winter with his future uncertain.

That led Espinoza to take a deal with the Buffaloes back in January, and his move overseas could hardly have gone better. In 22 Pacific League starts for the club this year, Espinoza was utterly dominant with a 2.63 ERA in 133 2/3 innings of work. The right-hander’s 20.5% strikeout rate wasn’t especially extraordinary, but he managed to cut his walk rate to a much more manageable just 8.7% while averaging just over six innings per start during his time in NPB this year.

That’s likely a strong enough performance that Espinoza, who is still just 26 years old, could have received some level of interest in stateside ball this winter. Rather than pursue a minor league deal in MLB, however, the right-hander instead took the Buffaloes up on their offer to return on a deal that not only provides him multi-year security for the first time in his career but also figures to pay him more handsomely than any offers on this side of the pond  would have. With that being said, if Espinoza can continue to put up strong numbers in Japan over the next two years it’s not hard to imagine him then considering a move back to MLB as a number of pitchers who went overseas such as Miles Mikolas and Erick Fedde have done in the past.

Dodgers To Exercise Club Option On Miguel Rojas

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The Dodgers are picking up their $5MM club option for the services of shortstop Miguel Rojas in 2025, as reported by KPRC2’s Ari Alexander. The option came with a $1MM buyout, meaning that L.A. is committing a net $4MM to bring Rojas back into the fold.

The move hardly comes as a surprise given Rojas’s strong performance this year. The 35-year-old veteran delivered one of the strongest offensive seasons of his career in 2024, slashing .283/.387/.410 with a wRC+ of 111 in 337 trips to the plate this year. Rojas began the season in a bench role behind middle infield duo Mookie Betts and Gavin Lux, but a hand fracture suffered by Betts in June provided the opportunity for Rojas to step back into the daily lineup. Rojas was subsequently hampered by forearm and groin issues throughout the season and into the playoffs but nonetheless managed to hit a respectable .286/.343/.392 while providing strong defense at shortstop in his final 62 games of the regular season.

By picking up Rojas’s option, the Dodgers maintain the flexibility to utilize him as their primary shortstop headed into 2025. With that being said, that role appears to be far from guaranteed to the veteran even after a strong season this year. After all, Rojas will play all of next year at 36 years old and the injury woes that plagued him in 2024 don’t appear to be going away; Rojas has already acknowledged that he’ll need to undergo surgery this winter due to a partially torn adductor muscle in his groin and a sports hernia. It’s not yet clear if Rojas will have enough time to rehab and get ready for the season in time for Opening Day next March, but even if he does it would hardly be a surprise if the Dodgers decided to push Rojas into a part-time role as they look for ways to improve this winter.

Perhaps the most straight forward way to do that would be acquiring a shortstop. Willy Adames is the top shortstop available in free agency this winter, and Ha-Seong Kim could be another potential upgrade over Rojas at the position depending on how his recovery from shoulder surgery goes. Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette stands out as a plausible trade candidate, though his down 2024 season makes him somewhat unlikely to move this winter. Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner has shortstop experience and saw his name floated in trade rumors late in the year, but his recent flexor tendon surgery may put an end to that possibility.

Adding a shortstop isn’t the only way the Dodgers could upgrade at the position over Rojas, however. The club dealt for versatile switch-hitter Tommy Edman at this summer’s trade deadline, and Edman offers quality defense all over the diamond, including at shortstop. Edman figures to handle center field for the Dodgers in 2025 as things currently stand, but it’s possible that the Dodgers could go out and acquire a center fielder like Chas McCormick, Cedric Mullins, or even Luis Robert Jr. this winter on the trade market who would then push Edman back onto the infield.

If Rojas were to be moved back into a bench role by the club’s moves this winter, it would leave them with valuable infield depth capable of covering not only shortstop but also second and third base effectively while helping to balance out a heavily left-handed infield. Of course, it’s also possible the club simply sticks with Rojas at shortstop, relying on Edman to serve as depth at the position with Andy Pages and James Outman among the internal options who could step into center field on days Edman shifts over to shortstop. Such a plan could allow the club to be more aggressive in filling their vacancy in left field and bolstering a pitching staff that was once again wracked with injuries this year.

David Robertson Declines Mutual Option With Rangers

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Veteran right-hander David Robertson is declining his side of the mutual option he holds with the Rangers, as noted by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Robertson forgoes a $7MM salary in 2025 in favor of a $1.5MM buyout and the ability to test free agency.

Robertson, 39, returns to the open market on the heels of another solid season. He served as the top set-up man for closer Kirby Yates in Texas this season, pitching to a strong 3.00 ERA with 2.65 FIP in 72 innings of work. While the veteran will pitch next year at age 40, he’s shown no signs of slowing down with a 33.4% strikeout rate this year that was his best since 2017. While his 9.1% walk rate was somewhat elevated, it’s a couple of ticks below his 2023 mark and well below the mark he posted in 2022, the campaign that helped to revive his career after three mostly lost seasons due to injuries.

That dominance likely made the decision to head to the open market a fairly easy decision for the veteran as it’s hard to imagine him not beating the $5.5MM he left on the table this winter. While he’s likely to be limited to one-year guarantees due to his age, Robertson’s long track record of success in his nearly two decades as a big leaguer, his ample closing experience, and his ability to strike batters out at elite levels should all earn him a lucrative one-year deal in free agency this winter with a club in need of bullpen help. Virtually every team in the league tends to look for bullpen upgrades over the winter, and the short-term guarantee Robertson figures to command should make him of interest to contenders and rebuilding clubs alike, as even a deadline seller could shop Robertson next summer. That’s a situation Robertson is quite familiar with, as he found himself dealt at the trade deadline in both 2022 and ’23 when the Cubs and Mets shipped him off to the Phillies and Marlins, respectively.

For the Rangers, the departure of Robertson highlights the club’s own needs in the bullpen this winter as he joined Yates and Leclerc in heading to free agency. It’s not hard to imagine the club reuniting with one or more of those players at some point this winter, but with the club expected to try and duck under the luxury tax this winter it’s also possible Chris Young’s front office will instead look for cheaper ways to augment their relief mix such as their recent move to claim Roansy Contreras off waivers from the Angels. Robertson, Leclerc, and Yates combined to make more than $20MM in 2024, after all, and clearing that money off the books while adding relievers on lower-cost deals could go a long way towards helping the Rangers avoid the rising penalties associated with spending into tax territory multiple times in a row. They’ll sure need some established help in the bullpen, however, as the club’s bullpen finished bottom-five in the majors overall this year even in spite of standout performances from Robertson and Yates.

Dodgers Exercise Club Option On Austin Barnes

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The Dodgers have exercised their club option on the services of catcher Austin Barnes for the 2025 season. Barnes will earn $3.5MM in 2025.

Barnes, 35 in December, was a ninth-round pick by the Marlins back in 2011 but has spent his entire big league career with the Dodgers. The veteran first debuted with the club back in 2015 and has now spent parts of ten seasons with L.A. in the majors. While he’s never been an everyday player and only received the lion’s share of playing time behind the plate in 2019 (when he shared duties with veteran Russell Martin and rookie Will Smith), Barnes has proven to be a sturdy and reliable backup catcher for the club throughout his career and has even become something of a personal catcher for franchise legend Clayton Kershaw in recent years.

With Smith under contract for the next decade after signing a ten-year extension back in March, he’s set to remain the club’s starting option behind the plate for the foreseeable future. The Dodgers also have a number of interesting catching prospects in the upper minors including Diego Cartaya and Dalton Rushing. With a number of intriguing internal options at the position, it may come across as something of a shock that the club would pay $3.5MM to retain an aging catcher who has hit just .217/.289/.270 (61 wRC+) over the past two seasons. Surprising as that may seem, however, the veteran remains a fairly well-regarded defender behind the plate with +2 Defensive Runs Saved in just 54 games this year.

For a Dodgers club that routinely runs payrolls at or near the top of the league, $3.5MM is an insignificant price to pay to retain a longtime member of the organization who works well with a franchise icon and offers a reliable, steady option in a year where the club could consider giving those aforementioned youngsters some opportunities to catch at the big league level. It would’ve been a surprise if the Dodgers were willing to commit to either Cartaya or Rushing as Smith’s primary backup on Opening Day of 2025 when neither has so much as a single plate appearance in the majors, and retaining Barnes allows the club to ease those prospects into life at the big league level and give them whatever time they may need at Triple-A to polish their skills and prepare for the big leagues.

Two more option decisions will need to be made over the coming days involving the Dodgers: the team will need to decide whether to bring shortstop Miguel Rojas back on a $5MM option ($1MM buyout), and Kershaw will need to decide whether he wishes to exercise his $10MM player option or head back into free agency (where he’s already indicated he would look to re-sign in Los Angeles).

GM David Forst: A’s Focused On Trades, Upgrading MLB Roster

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While the Athletics’ rebuild isn’t over, it does appear that the club has moved out of purely a selling phase as the 2024-25 offseason begins (and the team’s temporary tenure in Sacramento begins).  A’s general manager David Forst told The San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea that his front office has already at least touched base with every team except the Dodgers and Yankees, and that “any trade activity we’re discussing is about improving the major league team in 2025, not about trading major league players for prospects.”

This isn’t exactly a new stance, as Forst said in July prior to the trade deadline that the A’s were somewhat putting the brakes on moving any established trade chips.  While this could have been construed as some gamesmanship to get rival suitors to up their bids, the Athletics ended up keeping such notables as Brent Rooker, Mason Miller, and JJ Bleday, despite significant interest from other teams.  The A’s did trade Paul Blackburn (arbitration-controlled through 2025) to the Mets and a longer-term asset in Lucas Erceg to the Royals, though Erceg’s team control through the 2029 season is somewhat undermined by the fact that he is already 29 years old.

While the Athletics had a 69-93 record in 2024, things seemingly started to click for the team’s young core as the season developed.  After a brutal 37-61 record in the first half, the A’s had an even 32-32 mark after the All-Star break, and even delivered a 29-21 mark over the months of July and August.  Rooker was one of the better hitters in the entire league, and Bleday, Lawrence Butler, and Shea Langeliers all showed some intriguing potential elsewhere in the lineup.

The weak links were pretty obvious, as Shea writes that the Athletics’ offseason wish list includes upgrading a porous defense, a starting pitching staff that was one of the worst in baseball, and some help at third base.  A whopping 10 players suited up at the hot corner for the A’s over the course over the 2024 season, but this revolving door combined for a sub-replacement -0.6 bWAR (ranking 28th of 30 teams in third-base production).

As always, Forst will be limited in what he can spend on any new players, though how much the A’s might spend on free agents in general is still up in the air due to the uncertainty surrounding their relocation.  “We have to be active in the trade market until we get a clear sense of how free agents are going to view the possibility of coming to Sacramento.  That’s been the impetus for our reaching out to clubs ahead of free agency starting,” Forst said.

With this in mind, the A’s might well be one of the more aggressive teams in the early stages of free agency, with Forst and company perhaps being keen on acquiring any non-tender candidates or unwelcome contracts that other teams have on their books.  The Athletics have roughly $35.5MM on the books for 2025 (according to RosterResource) though none of that money is actually guaranteed, so some trades or non-tenders of their own could reduce that number.  This gives the A’s some relative flexibility in terms of payroll space, as Forst has said the club is prepared to spend beyond its $63.1MM payroll from 2024.

Robbie Ray Declines Opt-Out Clause In Giants Contract

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Left-hander Robbie Ray has declined the opt-out clause in his contract, meaning that he’ll remain with the Giants for both the 2025 and 2026 seasons.  ESPN’s Jeff Passan (X link) was the first to report the news.  The five-year, $115MM pact Ray signed with the Mariners prior to the 2022 season was slightly backloaded, and thus Ray will earn $25MM in each of the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

It’s not terribly surprising that Ray is taking the proverbial bird in the hand here. He underwent ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, commonly known as Tommy John surgery, and a flexor tendon repair in May of 2023. While recovering from that operation, the Mariners traded him to the Giants.

Ray was able to get back on the mound with San Francisco in 2024, but made seven starts with an unimpressive 4.70 earned run average before spending the month of September on the injured list due to a left hamstring strain.

Pitchers with injury question marks can still get paid but Ray would be hard-pressed to find more than $50MM on the open market. Carlos Rodón had plenty of injury absences in his early career but was able to secure a two-year, $44MM deal from the Giants going into 2022. However, Rodón had just made 24 starts for the White Sox in 2021 with a 2.37 ERA and was going into his age-29 season. Ray, on the other hand, is now 33 years old and has made eight starts over the past two years with a 5.03 ERA.

Taking all that into consideration, Ray’s best financial move was to keep this guarantee. He’ll return to the Giants next year and hopefully get back on track. While it’s probably unrealistic to expect him to get back to his Cy Young winning form from 2021, getting even part of the way back there would be nice. The year that he earned that hardware, he made 32 starts for the Blue Jays with a 2.84 ERA, 32.1% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate.

One Giant starter is departing, as Blake Snell has opted out of his deal. Next year’s rotation in San Francisco projects to include Ray, Logan Webb and Kyle Harrison. Perhaps Jordan Hicks will get another shot at starting or maybe he’ll be back in the bullpen. Guys like Landen Roupp, Keaton Winn, Tristan Beck, Hayden Birdsong and others would also be in the mix.

If the club looks to bolster that group, the free agent market will be headlined by guys like Snell, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty and plenty of others. The trade market should feature Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray and more.

Brewers Decline Mutual Option On Gary Sanchez

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The Brewers declined their end of Gary Sanchez’s $11MM mutual option for the 2025 season, Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (X link).  Sanchez will now take a $4MM buyout and return to free agency for the fourth time in the last two years.

Initially a one-year, $7MM deal contract, Sanchez’s deal with the Brewers ended up being a one-year, $3MM guarantee with a mutual option worth $11MM.  The size of the buyout was conditional based on whether or not Sanchez missed time due to a wrist-related injury, but that didn’t prove to be an issue, so he unlocked the maximum $4MM on the buyout, allowing him to land that $7MM in salary after all.

The restructured deal came about after the Brewers had some concerns with the state of Sanchez’s wrist after it was fractured in September 2023.  Sanchez did miss a month due to a calf strain, and he otherwise hit .220/.307/.392 with 11 homers over 280 plate appearances and 89 games.

Sanchez’s presence allowed William Contreras to get a good dose of extra playing time at the DH spot, thus allowing him some partial rest while keeping his bat in Milwaukee’s lineup.  The Brewers are likely to explore a similar plan for the coming season, if perhaps not necessarily with Sanchez in the backup catcher role.  A reunion shouldn’t be ruled out, however, if the Brewers were generally satisfied with Sanchez’s work, or if perhaps they simply aren’t enamored with any other catching options on the open market.

From Sanchez’s perspective, this particular scenario with Milwaukee would allow him essentially the same amount of playing time as he would in a normal platoon situation elsewhere, with the bonus of playing for a perpetual contender.  Now entering his age-32 season, Sanchez should get some attention from other teams due to the ever-churning nature of the catching market, even if his heyday as an All-Star with the Yankees is now increasingly in the rearview mirror.  Sanchez did rebound to hit 19 homers in 2023 with the Padres, though brought little else to the offensive table apart from that power.

Ha-Seong Kim Declines Mutual Option With Padres; Wandy Peralta Declines Opt-Out

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Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim declined his end of an $8MM mutual option for the 2025 season, and he’ll now take a $2MM buyout and enter free agency, The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reports (X link).  Left-hander Wandy Peralta will be staying in San Diego for at least one more season, as Peralta will pass on his opt-out clause and remain in the four-year, $16.5MM deal he signed with the Padres last winter.

Neither decision registers as a surprise. Kim has hit .250/.336/.385 over the past three years for a wRC+ of 106, indicating he has been 6% above league average at the plate in that time. He also stole 72 bases in that stretch and provided above-average defense at shortstop, second base and third base.

His situation is a bit complicated by the fact that he underwent right labrum surgery not too long ago. His return timetable is a bit unclear but it has been suggested he is likely to miss at least part of the start of the 2025 season.

Even with that injury situation, it’s understandable that he would walk away from his mutual option at a net $6MM price point. Players coming back from injury can often still have notable earning power. Michael Conforto secured a two-year, $36MM deal from the Giants after missing an entire season. Rhys Hoskins got two years and $34MM from the Brewers after his own missed campaign. Both players had the ability to opt out after one season, though neither eventually did so.

The situations aren’t entirely analogous. Both Conforto and Hoskins were expected to be healthy in the first seasons of their deals, which won’t be the case with Kim. Perhaps that puts his earning power a bit below those two, but it still makes it sensible for him to turn down his option today. Whether he can get a two-year deal with an opt-out or a more straightforward one-year pillow deal, he should be able to get past the $6MM he’s leaving on the table today.

For the Padres, they will now have to figure out what to do at shortstop. When Kim was hurt late in the year, they moved Xander Bogaerts from second to short. It’s unclear whether they would want to do that for the long term as they just decided a year ago to have Bogaerts take on the less-demanding second base spot. Jackson Merrill came up as a shortstop before getting moved to center field for 2024. He could switch back but performed so well in center that the club might decide to keep him there.

The free agent market is headlined by Willy Adames but the Padres have some payroll limitations and probably aren’t the most logical landing spot for him. The trade market could feature Bo Bichette but it’s unclear if the Blue Jays will make him available.

As for Peralta, he signed with the Padres last winter on a four-year deal with a $16.5MM guarantee and opt-outs after each season. He went on to have a pretty mediocre season, despite a respectable 3.99 earned run average. His 52.9% ground ball rate was still above league average but his worst in a full season since 2019. His strikeout rate fell to 13.6% this year after being in the 18-23% range in the previous five years.

It it weren’t for a fairly low .233 batting average on balls in play, he would have allowed more runs to score. His 5.46 FIP and 4.57 SIERA disagree on how bad things were under the hood but both suggest the ERA is misleading. After that performance, he’ll stick with the Padres and hope for a better season, with the chance of returning to free agency again a year from now.

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