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Archives for January 2025

Padres Hire Scott Servais For Special Assistant Role

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The Padres have hired Scott Servais as a special assistant in their baseball operations and player development departments, The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reports.  It represents Servais’ first job since he was fired as the Mariners’ manager back in August.

While Servais is best known for his nine seasons as Seattle’s manager and his 11-year playing career, Servais also has a lot of front-office experience.  His Mariners tenure was preceded by four seasons as the Angels’ assistant GM, and was the Rangers’ assistant of player development from 2006-10.  As Lin notes, Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller also worked in the Texas front office when Servais was there, plus Preller interviewed Servais as a managerial candidate during the 2015-16 offseason before Servais took the job in Seattle.

Servais said in August that he hoped to keep managing in the future, though his name apparently wasn’t linked to any of the managerial vacancies that arose this past fall.  This position in San Diego doesn’t necessarily change Servais’ goal of getting back into a big league dugout, as it allows him to stay connected to the game in another capacity.

Servais went 680-642 as the Mariners’ skipper, and ended the franchise’s decades-long playoff drought by leading the 2022 M’s to a wild card berth.  That year’s Mariners team then beat the Blue Jays in the Wild Card Series before falling to the Astros in the ALDS.  With expectations now raised, the Mariners fell short of the playoffs despite winning 88 games in 2023, and the 2024 squad had a tough midseason collapse that saw the M’s fritter away a ten-game lead in the AL West.  Seattle was an even 64-64 at the time of Servais’ firing, and rebounded for a 21-13 record down the stretch under new manager Dan Wilson.

Lin also reports that former first baseman Matt Adams is expected to be part of the coaching staff for the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate in El Paso.  A veteran of 10 MLB seasons, Adams officially announced the end of his playing career in September, and mentioned in his retirement statement that he was looking to “seek out opportunities in coaching.”

Anthony Santander, Jack Flaherty Reportedly Open To Short-Term Offers

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As the offseason’s free agent market has developed and with Spring Training looming just over the horizon next month, a report from Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic this evening suggests that some of the major free agents still available are weighing the possibility of turning towards short-term deals with high average annual values, as the so-called “Boras Four” of Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, and Jordan Montgomery did last winter after not finding the long-term pacts they were hoping for in free agency.

Per Rosenthal and Sammon, outfielder Anthony Santander and right-hander Jack Flaherty are both now open to considering that sort of deal. Sammon also confirmed previous reports that indicated the camp of first baseman Pete Alonso had made an three-year offer to the Mets that includes multiple opt-outs, though it remains unclear if he’s open to similar short-term offers from other clubs at this point.

It’s a notable update to the market of all three players. Both Santander and Flaherty were reportedly looking for five-year deals that could have reached into the range of nine figures. Santander in particular reportedly has a contract offer on the table from the Blue Jays as of last week, though given the fact that he’s now open to exploring short-term deals it seems as though that offer may not have been one the switch-hitter was interested in accepting. It’s easy to imagine the possibility of getting a high-end free agent on a short-term deal opens up the market for these players, or perhaps convincing teams already connected to the players to become more serious about their pursuits.

As one example, Flaherty has previously been connected to the Cubs but there’s been some suggestion that Chicago (who signed Bellinger to a short-term, opt-out heavy deal just last winter) has reservations regarding the right-hander’s asking price. The Tigers, meanwhile, have been connected to both Flaherty and Santander but have remained opportunistic in free agency, locking down one-year deals with Gleyber Torres and Alex Cobb to improve their roster without making long-term commitments. Either of these clubs could theoretically be enticed to step up their efforts if their target is now open to considering a short-term deal.

While shorter-term deals can be attractive to teams as a way to mitigate risk associated with a particular free agent, they can still come with complications. While the deals Snell and Chapman signed in San Francisco last winter were clear successes for both sides, with Snell dominating down the stretch in a Giants uniform before signing a lucrative deal in L.A. back in November while Chapman had a resurgent season and extended with the club long-term, not all deals of this variety work out quite so well. Montgomery’s deal with Arizona quickly turned out to be a disaster as the left-hander endured the worst season of his career, got demoted to the bullpen, and has been shopped as a potential salary dump by the Diamondbacks this winter. Bellinger, meanwhile, posted a solid but unspectacular season in Chicago that led the Cubs to dump his salary in a trade with the Yankees last month in order to create an opening in the lineup for the addition of a more impactful bat than Kyle Tucker.

Even with those potential downsides, it’s easy to see why clubs could prefer a short-term deal rather than one that puts them on the hook for a player’s decline phase. After all, the Cubs were still able to shed the vast majority of the money owed to Bellinger in trade even after a pedestrian 2024 season, and the Diamondbacks could end up doing the same even after Montgomery’s disastrous campaign. Swinging those deals would be far more difficult if either player were on lengthy deals with larger overall guarantees, even if the AAV of those deals would likely be lower.

For the players, this sort of approach comes with both pros and cons. There is of course risk involved that injury or poor performance leads to them hitting the market with less value than they had in their initial trip through free agency. In the case of Flaherty, who is currently unencumbered by a Qualifying Offer, taking a short-term deal comes with a bit of extra risk given that even a wildly successful season could end up not leading to the sort of lucrative long-term deal he’s hoping for given the fact that he could be tagged with a QO in a future offseason. For a player already tagged with a QO like Santander, however, signing a short-term deal and hitting free agency after another strong season could provide an even larger boost to his value by allowing him to re-enter free agency unencumbered in the future.

While a willingness to consider short-term, high-AAV offers should open the market up for these players to an extent, that shouldn’t be taken to mean that a massive shakeup is guaranteed. Those high annual salaries figure to be an obstacle for clubs in or on the cusp of luxury tax territory as well as those dealing with budget crunches. As one example, Rosenthal and Sammon suggest that Alonso could look to seek a deal that offers an average annual value of $31.1MM in order to land the AAV record for first basemen. While that appears to be speculative on the part of the pair and they go on to suggest deferred money that would lower the net present value to be involved, even an AAV in the $25MM to $30MM range is the sort of figure that the majority of small-market clubs and even big spenders deep into luxury tax territory could be even less willing to stomach than a somewhat longer-term deal with a lower annual salary.

Twins Among Teams Interested In Nick Anderson

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Right-hander Nick Anderson is garnering interest from multiple teams, according to a report from Ari Alexander of KPRC2. Alexander adds that Anderson is scheduled to hold a workout for at least ten teams on January 23. Meanwhile, Darren Wolfson of KSTP 5 reports that the Twins will be among the teams in attendance for Anderson’s workout.

Anderson, 35, made his MLB debut with the Marlins back in 2019 but was traded to the Rays shortly thereafter. Upon arriving in Tampa, Anderson’s career started to take off as he posted a sterling 1.85 ERA in 43 2/3 innings of work with a 2.42 FIP and an eye-popping 42.5% strikeout rate. Unfortunately, those fantastic rate stats came in just 43 2/3 innings of work across the 2019, ’20, and ’21 seasons. Elbow issues limited him to just six innings in 2021 and kept him from pitching at the big league level in 2022, leading the Rays to cut him loose.

Since then, he’s pitched for the Braves and Royals at the big league level. His time in Atlanta went fairly well; while his 25.5% strikeout rate was clearly a step back from his peak years in Tampa, he nonetheless managed a 3.06 ERA and 3.09 FIP in 35 1/3 innings of work. Anderson’s stop in Kansas City, however, was not quite as strong. The right-hander’s strikeout rate dipped to just 19% while his walk rate crept up to 9.8% after sitting at a much stronger 6.4% the year prior. While Anderson posted the best hard-hit and barrel rates of his career with the Royals, the on-field results just weren’t there and he was cut from the roster back in July after posting a 4.04 ERA and 5.07 FIP in 35 2/3 innings of work.

Since parting ways with the Royals, Anderson briefly pitched in both the Dodgers and Orioles organizations on minor league deals but did not make it to the big league level. He ended the season on the minor league injured list, though early in the offseason Baltimore expressed at least some level of interest in reuniting with Anderson this winter. It’s unclear whether or not such a reunion would come on a minor league deal, however, as Alexander has indicated that clubs have expressed interest in Anderson on a one-year deal, implying he should be able to land a major league contract.

As for the Twins, Anderson could certainly make some sense for the club. After a down season in 2024 and given his checkered injury history, the right-hander isn’t likely to secure a massive guarantee on the free agent market at this point. That’s surely good news for Minnesota, as the club is in a position where they appear more likely to cut payroll than add significant salary. The Twins’ bullpen was decent in 2024, with a 3.65 FIP that actually ranked fifth in baseball, but their actual run prevention left something to be desired as their 4.12 ERA ranked 19th in the majors. The only major contributor to last year’s bullpen the club has parted ways with so far is southpaw Caleb Thielbar, but reinforcing the bullpen is rarely a bad idea and bringing Anderson into the fold could deepen the club’s bullpen and allow them to utilize middle relief options like Justin Topa and Jorge Alcalá more judiciously.

Triston Casas Discusses Trade Rumors

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First baseman Triston Casas’s name has been the subject of plenty of trade rumors this winter, even as chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has roundly insisted that Casas is not being shopped. With the Red Sox apparently involved in the markets for both Alex Bregman and Nolan Arenado, however, it’s not hard to see how adding another bat to the infield could spell the end of Casas’s time in Boston.

For his part, the soon-to-be 25-year-old slugger isn’t letting the noise get to him. As noted by Christopher Smith of MassLive, Casas acknowledged the possibility that he could be dealt if the right offer were to come along, adding that for the right package it could be in the “best interest” of the organization to move him or any player. Casas added that he’s been assured by the organization that there’s no substance behind rumors that he’s on the trading block before making clear that the rumors swirling around him this winter don’t bother him.

“I love Boston,” Casas said, as relayed by Smith. “I love everything about it and they’ve welcomed me with open arms since my first first professional day. So it would be great to play here as long as possible. I love the fans and they welcome me generously all the time. So I would love to play the rest of my career here. But if it’s elsewhere, I just feel like March 28, no matter where it’s at, I’m going to be playing major league games. So just focus on that.”

While he adds that he tries not to let the trade rumors “get to his head,” he reiterated his love for Boston and desire to stay in the organization long-term. That affirmation comes nearly a year after reported extension talks between the two sides, though those discussions ultimately did not lead to a deal. It appears there’s been no recent discussions about an extension, either, as Casas told reporters (including Rob Bradford of WEEI) today while appearing at the club’s Fenway Fest event that the sides have not talked about an extension since last winter.

Even setting aside the trade rumors, it’s not necessarily a shock that Casas and the Red Sox haven’t talked extension in the aftermath of the 2024 campaign. After all, last year was a difficult one for Casas. He spent much of the season on the injured list due to torn cartilage in his ribcage and when healthy enough to take the field slashed just .241/.337/.462 while striking out at a concerning 31.7% clip.

That production was still good for a 119 wRC+ overall, but that’s a step back from the 130 he posted in 2023. After an injury-marred down season that exposed a potential red flag in the form of an increased strikeout rate, the Red Sox are surely hoping to gather more information about both Casas and their outlook around the diamond before committing to him long-term. Meanwhile, Casas surely is hoping to quell any doubts caused by 2024 with a full, healthy season before he signs a long-term deal.

Turning back to the possibility of the Red Sox pursuing Bregman or Arenado, the connection between those pursuits and the possibility of a Casas trade hinges on the possibility of installing either of those additions at third base, causing incumbent third baseman Rafael Devers to move to first base. Manager Alex Cora discussed the possibility of moving Devers off the hot corner at Fenway Fest today, as noted by Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. According to Cora, the club has not yet discussed a change of positions with Devers and that they would discuss the possibility with him before they get to the point of adding a new third baseman to the lineup. That generally tracks with the comments made by Breslow last month, which indicated the club has no current plans to move Devers off third base.

Cubs, Yankees Among Teams Interested In Brooks Raley

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Left-hander Brooks Raley is drawing interest from clubs as he continues rehabbing from Tommy John surgery over the summer, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic. The Cubs and Yankees are among the clubs to have reached out and some teams have discussed multi-year arrangements with Raley, though it’s not clear if the Cubs and Yankees are among the teams to have expressed multi-year interest.

Raley, 36, made his big league debut with the Cubs back in 2012 but totaled just 38 1/3 innings of work before departing stateside ball for South Korea back in 2015. He spent several years pitching in the KBO before resurfacing in the majors during the 2020 season as a middle relief option. He enjoyed a late-career breakout in Tampa back in 2022, however, and since then has been nothing short of excellent when healthy enough to take the mound with a 2.58 ERA (153 ERA+), a 3.13 FIP, and a 27.3% strikeout rate over the past three years with the Rays and Mets.

Dominant as he’s been in recent years, a player on the wrong side of 35 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery comes with plenty of question marks. That might make the idea of a multi-year deal seem somewhat surprising, but in some ways it could actually help the acquiring club more reliably secure a return on their investment. After all, Raley figures to only be available for the second half in 2025 and some players need time to shake off the rust following a long layoff like the one Raley is currently experiencing. Given that, a deal that pays Raley a relatively low salary for 2025 but comes with a second guaranteed year at a higher rate could make sense for both sides by guaranteeing Raley a longer-term opportunity coming off surgery while affording the club some protection against Raley struggling in his initial return from surgery before righting the ship and returning to form later on.

Looking at the teams being connected to Raley, it’s fairly easy to see why he’d be of interest to them. The Cubs have been in the market for relief help all winter. While the club already signed Caleb Thielbar as a left-handed option for their bullpen last month, that likely wouldn’t preclude them from adding a player like Raley because he is both more of a bonafide late-inning arm than Thielbar and wouldn’t factor into the club’s Opening Day roster due to his rehab timeline. Chicago has shown a willingness to sign rehabbing players in the past, as well. They were involved in Liam Hendriks’ market last winter and previously signed players like Kendall Graveman and Drew Smyly while they were rehabbing.

The Yankees, meanwhile, have already added Devin Williams to replace Clay Holmes in the ninth inning, giving them a strong one-two punch at the back of the bullpen with Luke Weaver set for an eighth-inning role. One place where the club’s bullpen could stand to be upgraded, however, is from the left side. Southpaw Tim Hill pitched well for the Yanks in 2024 but is currently a free agent. While Raley wouldn’t be available for at least the first half of the season, the club currently has no left-handed relievers on their 40-man roster and could be forced to use a reverse-splits righty like Mark Leiter Jr. against tough left-handed relievers in 2025 without an external addition.

Giants Designate Blake Sabol For Assignment

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The Giants announced this evening that they’ve designated catcher/outfielder Blake Sabol for assignment. The move clears a roster spot for the signing of Justin Verlander, which has now been made official.

Sabol, who just celebrated his 27th birthday earlier this week, was a seventh-round pick by the Pirates back in 2019 who was plucked from the organization by San Francisco during the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. That locked Sabol into an Opening Day roster spot with the Giants for 2023, and he performed admirably for a player with just 25 games of Triple-A experience under his belt. While splitting time between catcher and left field in 2023, Sabol hit a respectable .235/.301/.394 (91 wRC+) in 344 trips to the plate.

Once the Giants were able to option him to the minors in 2024, however, Sabol was quickly shuttled back to Triple-A and only made a brief cameo in the majors last year. He hit well in those 11 games, however, with a .313/.421/.375 slash line in 38 trips to the plate while helping cover for a Patrick Bailey during a trip to the concussion-related injured list. When in the minors, Sabol struggled offensively with just a .246/.340/.388 slash line at Triple-A that was good for a wRC+ of just 85.

That lackluster performance at Triple-A seemingly made Sabol expendable as a catching depth option in the eyes of president of baseball operations Buster Posey and the Giants’ front office. The club recently claimed catcher Sam Huff off waivers from the Rangers, which may have made Sabol’s presence on the 40-man roster even less necessary. Huff is out of minor league options and can’t be sent to the minors without clearing waivers but can still provide the club with depth behind Bailey and Tom Murphy throughout Spring Training or even be carried on the roster as a third catcher.

Going forward, the Giants will have one week to either work out a trade involving Sabol or expose him to waivers. As an optionable catching depth option, it would hardly be a surprise to see a catching-needy club take the opportunity to pluck Sabol off waivers in hopes of helping him rediscover something closer to the offensive form he showed in 2023, which would make him a roughly average offensive catcher in the majors. If Sabol were to pass through waivers unclaimed, the Giants would have the option of keeping him in the fold as a non-roster depth option for the 2025 season.

Garrett Crochet Discusses Extension Talks With Red Sox

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Newly-acquired Red Sox lefty Garrett Crochet was in attendance for today’s Fenway Fest event in Boston, and he spoke to reporters (include Chris Cotillo of MassLive) about the state of extension talks between Red Sox brass and Crochet’s own camp. The comments come on the heels of reporting earlier this week that suggested the sides had begun preliminary discussions about a longer-term deal.

“There have been conversations with my agent and the front office, just kind of getting a feel for one another,” Crochet said, as relayed by Cotillo. “Staying in Boston long-term is something that has a lot of merit in my mind and something I think would be awesome. In the meantime, I’m just focusing on spring and getting ready for the upcoming season, trying to stay focused one day at a time. When something’s presented, then we’ll attack it.”

Crochet, 25, enjoyed a breakout season with the White Sox last year as he moved from a relief role into the rotation. He made the most of the opportunity, pitching to a solid 3.58 ERA in 146 innings of work with a 2.69 FIP and an eye-popping 35.1% strikeout rate. That dominant performance on a team that broke the all-time MLB loss record made a trade nearly inevitable, and Boston pounced on the opportunity during the Winter Meetings last month and shipped a package headlined by catching prospect Kyle Teel and outfield prospect Braden Montgomery to Chicago in exchange for Crochet’s services.

The southpaw immediately adds a clear #1 starter to the front of the Red Sox rotation, but with a young core of talent reaching the major leagues and knocking on the door at Triple-A, locking up Crochet beyond his remaining two years of control would make plenty of sense for Boston. Crochet is clearly open to such an arrangement, and his comments today only served to confirm the lefty’s interest in locking in a longer-term guarantee. It’s hardly a surprise that Crochet would be open to listening on extension talks. He’s suffered through a number of injury-marred seasons already in his career, and that elevated injury risk surely makes a long-term guarantee more attractive.

To that end, he made clear prior to the trade deadline last summer that if he was going to go over his established innings limit to pitch in the 2024 postseason after a midseason trade, he would want to get an extension worked out prior to a deal coming together. Of course, no deal was ultimately made and now Crochet is in Boston. It’s unclear exactly what sort of deal either Crochet or the Red Sox are angling for at this point, though one noteworthy reference point is a report from ESPN’s Jeff Passan over the summer that suggested Crochet was seeking a nine-figure deal at the time.

Crochet wasn’t the only Red Sox player to discuss the state of extension talks today, as top prospects Roman Anthony and Kristian Campbell both spoke to WEEI today and revealed that neither has been approached by the Red Sox about the possibility of a pre-debut extension. That’s not necessarily a major shock, given that pre-debut extensions are generally quite rare. They’ve become more common in recent years, however, as evidenced by both Jackson Chourio of the Brewers and Colt Keith of the Tigers signing deals of that sort last offseason alone.

The Red Sox would surely love to lock up either Anthony or Campbell beyond their current windows of control. Anthony is rated by Baseball America as the #1 prospect in all of baseball, while Campbell isn’t ranked too far behind at #24. Both figure to make their big league debuts in 2025, though the exact timing of those debuts remains up in the air. There’s been some speculation that Campbell, in particular, could be in the conversation for an Opening Day roster spot should he manage to win the second base job away from David Hamilton and Vaughn Grissom in Spring Training this spring, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone if both youngsters are in the majors by the time the first half of the 2025 season comes to a close.

While there’s certainly value from a player’s perspective in locking in a major payday before they so much as take their first big league at-bat, they also typically come with much lower price tags relative to extensions signed as soon as during a player’s pre-arb years as a big leaguer. Chourio’s extension with the Brewers guaranteed him a record-setting $82MM last winter, but that pales in comparison to the nine-figure deals secured by players like Julio Rodriguez and Bobby Witt Jr. once they had already established themselves as star-caliber big leaguers. That said, pre-debut extensions aren’t without risk for the team either; even elite prospects can go on to struggle in the majors, with Jon Singleton of the Astros and Scott Kingery of the Phillies standing out as examples of players who signed pre-debut extensions and then went on to provide their clubs with little value over the life of those deals.

Given that, it’s perhaps not surprising for the sides to have not yet engaged in extension talks. Anthony and Campbell may well both prefer to bet on themselves early in their careers as they eye either a more lucrative extension down the line or free agency once their time under team control comes to a close. On the other hand, the Red Sox may prefer to see how Anthony, Campbell, and other top prospects like Marcelo Mayer develop before making extension offers as they have over the years with players like Brayan Bello, Garrett Whitlock, Rafael Devers, and Xander Bogaerts.

Pirates To Sign Dodgers-Committed Int’l Prospect Darell Morel

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Dominican shortstop prospect Darell Morel had been set to sign with the Dodgers once the 2025 international signing period opened on January 15, but Baseball America’s Ben Badler reports that Morel will now be signing with the Pirates for a bonus worth close to $1.8MM.  This represents roughly twice the amount of money Morel would’ve received from Los Angeles.

There isn’t anything improper about such a transaction, as none of these signings are official until pen is put to paper on January 15.  That said, teams, prospects, and the prospects’ unofficial advisors/trainers known as “buscones” often have these deals lined up far in advance of a player’s eligibility year.  The 2025 class features players who are at least 16 years old or will be turning 16 prior to September 1, yet many prospects are regularly linked to teams as early as age 13 or 14.

What makes the 2025 international signing class so unusual is the presence of Roki Sasaki, whose move from Nippon Professional Baseball to the big leagues at age 23 qualifies him as a member of the int’l market.  Waiting until age 25 would’ve allowed Sasaki to qualify as a free agent (within the boundaries of the MLB/NPB posting system) and thus put him in line for what likely would’ve been a hefty nine-figure contract a la Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but Sasaki has opted to bet on himself and get an early start to his big league career.

Sasaki is such a hugely sought-after prospect that it is expected that his future Major League team will surrender its entire international bonus pool to sign him.  It should be noted that money is obviously not the chief factor for Sasaki in picking his MLB franchise, but since this bonus will represent all of his official MLB earnings for the time being, it stands to reason that he will look to score a big payday within the constraints of the bonus pool system.

Since Sasaki won’t sign until after January 15, it has created quite the ripple effect on the international class as a whole.  As Badler puts it, “at least half a dozen teams that think they are still in the running to sign Sasaki.  That means at least 20 percent of the league has their 2025 international signing class in limbo.”

Morel isn’t considered one of the elite members of the 2025 class, as MLB Pipeline doesn’t have the shortstop listed within its top-50 ranking of the year’s top international prospects.  Yet because the Dodgers are viewed as one of the top candidates to sign Sasaki, Morel had no guarantee that his pre-arranged deal with L.A. would be honored, so he opted to sign with the Pirates instead.  Naturally, it probably also helped that Pittsburgh was willing to add $900K or so to Morel’s bonus figure.

It isn’t specified if the Pirates walked away from some deals of its own in order to sign Morel, or if they had enough leftover space in their own int’l bonus pool to fit Morel under their $6,908,600 pool limit.  Badler notes that some clubs left some money open within their pools specifically to capitalize on some prospects who might become available due to the Sasaki-related uncertainty.  “Some clubs are already scouting committed players with other teams,” Badler writes, with the trainers in turn taking the unusual step of getting their players ready for a fresh round of tryouts.

Some players have already received offers from other teams, so for the Dodgers and the other six clubs who have reportedly met with Sasaki in person, their continued interest in Sasaki represents a potential red flag for those seven teams’ 2025 international commitments.  The “worst-case scenario” for a team, as Badler notes, would be that “they hold off on their signings in the hopes of landing Sasaki, their top commits bolt elsewhere after Jan. 15, only for Sasaki to sign with a different team anyway.”  That could leave a few unlucky clubs without Sasaki, without much of their 2025 int’l pool, and with some damaged relationships amidst the buscone community for future dealings.

While the trainers might view 2025 as a unique circumstance due to the Sasaki situation, even if the door isn’t closed completely with certain teams who renege on handshake deals, it can’t help those teams’ chances of signing any star prospects these trainers might be handling in the future.  The biggest impact, of course, is on the 2025 prospects themselves, some of whom will find themselves without the life-changing bonus money their families have been counting on for years.  Some prospects like Morel will be fortunate enough to land larger bonuses, yet a significant number of teenage prospects will see their careers and lives altered in the fallout.

Nationals Sign Jorge Lopez

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The Nationals have signed right-hander Jorge Lopez, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Lopez will receive $3MM in guaranteed money in the one-year contract, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports, plus some more money is available in incentives. The Nats have officially announced the signing, and also announced that right-hander Amos Willingham was designated for assignment to create roster space for Lopez.

Lopez, 32 next month, spent the first several years of his big league career as a below-average swingman. He made his big league debut with the Brewers back in 2015, and in parts of six seasons with Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Baltimore he posted a 6.04 ERA (76 ERA+) with a 5.15 FIP in 102 appearances, 58 of which were starts. After posting ERAs north of six in three consecutive seasons as a swingman from 2019 to 2021, the Orioles converted Lopez to short relief full-time ahead of the 2022 season.

From there, his career has taken a major step forward. His breakout began with a sterling 1.68 ERA in the first half while collecting 19 saves as their closer. He was traded to the Twins ahead of that summer’s trade deadline and faded somewhat down the stretch, but still finished the season with an excellent 2.54 ERA (155 ERA+) and 3.42 FIP in 71 innings of work. While his 10.4% walk rate left something to be desired, he combined it with a solid 24.2% strikeout rate and a fantastic 57.8% groundball rate, giving him strong peripherals that suggested he could have a future in the late innings.

Unfortunately, Lopez was unable to recreate that excellent 2022 season the following year. He took a massive step back in 2023 while spending time on the injured list for mental health reasons, and when he was on the mound he pitched to a 5.95 ERA in 59 innings of work. Nonetheless, Lopez managed to latch on with the Mets last year on a big league deal. His tenure in Queens was brief, as while he posted decent middle relief numbers (including a 3.76 ERA in 26 1/3 innings of work) he was designated for assignment in late May following a controversy regarding a post-game interview where he seemingly referred to the Mets as the “worst team” in the league, though in the aftermath of the incident it appeared that Lopez had actually referred to himself as the “worst teammate” in the league.

That rocky exit from the Mets, in conjunction with his difficult 2023 season, left Lopez to catch on with the Cubs on a minor league deal. He made the most of the opportunity, however, and looked every bit like the dominant late-inning arm he had been for the Orioles in 2022. In 26 2/3 innings of work for Chicago last year, Lopez posted an excellent 2.03 ERA. He struck out 29.2% of his opponents during that stretch with a walk rate of just 7.5%, and his 59.1% groundball rate was nothing short of elite. Taking that fantastic work on the north side together with his time in Queens paints a picture of Lopez as an intriguing, if somewhat risky, late-inning option as he posted a 2.89 ERA and 3.94 FIP in 53 innings of work with a 23% strikeout rate and 51% groundball rate.

Lopez is now headed to the Nationals, where he appears likely to be tasked with the closer role barring another external addition. That role had belonged to Kyle Finnegan in recent years, but the club non-tendered him back in November due to his rapidly escalating price in arbitration. Finnegan was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for an $8.6MM salary in 2025, and Lopez is signing in D.C. for just over a third of that amount after posting better rate numbers than Finnegan did in 2024.

The addition of Lopez brings the Nationals’ payroll up to a projected $110MM for 2025 according to RosterResource. That’s $20MM below the club’s 2024 payroll, meaning they should have room for further upgrades to the roster should opportunities arise in trade or on the free agent market. That said, it’s already been a fairly busy winter for the Nationals. Lopez joins rotation additions Trevor Williams and Michael Soroka on the pitching staff, while Josh Bell and Nathaniel Lowe were brought in to bolster the club’s lineup. There’s still room for improvement, however, particularly in the bullpen and at third base.

As for Willingham, the right-hander has been and up-and-down reliever for the Nationals over the past two seasons. To this point in his career, he’s posted a 7.11 ERA in 25 1/3 innings of work at the major league level with just one appearance for Washington in 2024. He posted a decent 3.69 ERA for Triple-A Rochester last year, however, and it’s not impossible to imagine a rival club having some interest in Willingham as optionable relief depth. Going forward, the Nationals will have one week to either work out a trade involving the right-hander or try to put him through waivers. If he clears waivers unclaimed, the Nationals will have the opportunity to outright him to the minor leagues as a non-roster depth option.

Felix Mantilla Passes Away

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Eleven-year MLB veteran Felix Mantilla passed away on Friday at age 90.  Mantilla appeared in 969 games with the Braves, Mets, Red Sox, and Astros from 1956-66, playing primarily as a second baseman, but with a lot of time spent at third base and shortstop plus all three outfield positions.

Though Mantilla never played for the Brewers, the organization paid tribute to Mantilla by recognizing him as “an iconic figure…who was an inspiration to all of us in the Milwaukee baseball community.  We will forever remember Felix for his time with the Milwaukee Braves, but even more for the impact he had on thousands of children through the Felix Mantilla Little League.”

One of the first Puerto Rican players to break through in Major League Baseball, Mantilla was signed by the then-Boston Braves during the 1951-52 offseason and made his MLB debut in 1956 once the franchise had moved to Milwaukee.  He was primarily a middle infielder during his six seasons with the Braves but bounced around to multiple positions in his role as a bench player.

Mantilla won a World Series ring for his role on the 1957 championship team, and while Mantilla contributed only a walk over 11 plate appearances in the Fall Classic, his one run scored was of vital importance.  Entering the 10th inning of Game Four as a pinch-runner, Mantilla scored the game-tying run just before Eddie Matthews’ two-run walkoff home run.

The Mets selected Mantilla away from the Braves as part of the expansion draft, which meant that Mantilla (playing an everyday role for the first time in his career) was part of the infamous 1962 Mets team that went 40-120-1 in the franchise’s inaugural season.  He was traded to the Red Sox after that lone season in New York, which sparked the most successful run of Mantilla’s career — he hit .287/.369/.474 with 54 homers over 1297 plate appearances with Boston from 1963-65.  Thirty of those home runs came in 1964, and the 1965 season saw Mantilla make the All-Star team for the only time in his career.

Despite this success, Mantilla was traded to the Astros after the 1965 campaign, and his numbers drastically dropped off in the move from Fenway Park to the pitcher-friendly Astrodome.  He never played another professional game after the 1966 season, as an Achilles injury that required surgery seemed to curtail his playing career at age 31.

Mantilla finished his career with a .261/.329/.403 slash line and 89 home runs over 3029 plate appearances.  He is a member of the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball Hall of Fame, and as noted in the Brewers’ memorial, Mantilla has had a lasting legacy in Milwaukee as the namesake of a Little League program since 1973.

We at MLB Trade Rumors express our condolences to Mantilla’s family, friends, and loved ones.

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