With less a month until pitchers and catchers begin reporting for Spring Training, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. Kittredge to undergo physical:
Last week, the Orioles agreed to a one-year deal with right-hander Andrew Kittredge that guarantees the righty $10MM. According to Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun, Kittredge is set to undergo a physical today. It’s the final box to check before the deal can be made official. Physical exams rarely hold up deals from coming together, though it certainly happens. The Orioles, dating back to prior ownership and front office regimes, have a reputation for altering deals or backing out of them entirely due to concerns regarding a player’s physical. A new front office and owner hasn’t necessarily changed that, as the O’s reportedly backed out of an agreement with right-hander Jeff Hoffman last week due to an issue with his physical, leading Hoffman to sign with the Blue Jays instead. If Kittredge’s physical goes over without issue, the Orioles will need to clear a 40-man roster spot to accommodate his signing.
2. How will the Padres clear salary?
While Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller is typically among the most active executives in the game, things have been extremely quiet for San Diego this winter. They’ve signed zero free agents to major league deals and have remained equally quiet on the trade market. That lack of activity has been caused by a payroll crunch, as reporting has suggested the club hopes to not only duck under the luxury tax in 2025 but also end the offseason with a payroll lower than the $208MM RosterResource currently projects. That’s led to plenty of discussion of both Dylan Cease and Luis Arráez in the rumor mill this winter. Dennis Lin of The Athletic reported over the weekend that the club prefers to hold onto Arraez and has at least entertained interest in closer Robert Suarez. With just a month to go until Spring Training begins and holes to be filled in the club’s outfield and starting rotation, the Padres are likely to put together some creative deals to address those holes and the current payroll predicament.
3. Rangers Winter Caravan begins:
After delays due to inclement weather, the Rangers are set to begin their Winter Caravan later today. The series of 13 fan events run from today until January 29 and are all free to attend. Today’s event is scheduled to run from 6:30pm to 8pm local time at the Audacy Showroom in Dallas and will feature appearances from left-hander Cody Bradford and All-Star second baseman Marcus Semien. The first 225 people in line for the event will be able to get autographs from both players. More information, including a full schedule of the events set to take place throughout the month, can be found here via MLB.com.
For the Padres, all hinges on Sasaki. Get him, then trade Cease for an outfielder/1st base. If not, then Arraez for another l pitcher.
Why hasn’t there been any Red Sox articles today? It’s been over 9 hours! LOL!!
Hats off to the Rangers for their caravan, now THAT is the proper way to treat your fanbase.
Serious question- what’s better about the Rangers caravan vs. other teams? Are you highlighting the free autograph session, I’m guessing? Thanks.
jt – I’m not familiar with all of the MLB team fan events, just a few including my own team’s (I also learned the Braves cancelled theirs).
Here’s what I like about the Rangers caravan:
1) It’s being held in 13 different locations. The Red Sox was in the Fenway area only.
2) It’s being held over 13 days, which makes it easier to attend at least one day. The Red Sox was only one day, last Saturday.
3) It’s FREE to attend. The Red Sox charged $85 for adults, $35 for kids.
4) FREE autographs for the first 225 people each day.
It would be great if MLB required ALL teams to do something similar.
Fever: Since my team, the Woeful White Sox, are not holding a fan fest for the third year in a row because they’re a bunch of cowards who don’t want to face the fan(s), I say let the fans hold a fest. We can maybe get former players with actual MLB ability like Pierzynski, Fisk (who still lives part time in the Chicago area), Abreu, TA and…I guess that’s it. Almost everyone else is dead.
avenger – Did you not read my response the other day? The ChiSox are holding their fanfest on January 24th-25th.
. mlb.com/whitesox/fans/soxfest
@FPG MLB has always sucked at marketing its star players. Outside of that “Japanese player”, the majority of non-sports fans can’t name a single MLB player in my experience. I don’t know why Manfred stopped at Mike Trout when he said he wasn’t interested in being propped up for MLB. Ohtani is focused on the Japanese market so not much incentive for him to do more stateside.
Sasaki week, and it really does feel like San Diego’s offseason hinges on that signing. Whatever happens with him will affect everything else they do.
Hopefully Roki has made his decision already and things get done quickly to wherever he goes.
I’m confused as to why MLBTR is noting the Rangers Caravan. Don’t all teams have these offseason events? What is special about the Rangers one, and why is MLBTR reporting on fan events? Odd.
@just thinkin: The Braves cancelled their Fan Fest due to ongoing construction issues related to the 2025 MLB All Star game. So not “all teams.”
It’s a Caravan, suggesting they take the traditional fan fest on the road to multiple localities. That sounds especially cool to me.
los – The Red Sox actually did something similar many years ago, although on a much smaller scale. It made sense though, if you are going to bill yourself as “New England’s Team” you should have a presence in each of the New England states.
Heck the Celts even used to play regular season games in Hartford.
The Orioles do this too.
just – I enjoy EVERYTHING written about MLB, and wouldn’t mind if they had a paragraph about each team’s annual fan event.
Sure, I’m not sure why they don’t.
Padres learned nothing from their Eric Hosmer debacle.
How is this like Hosmer?
And add to it – like every team doesn’t have a contract in their history they regret!
Long – There are some teams that are giving out a lot of high risk contracts that could best be described as gambling. It really makes you wonder why they are valuing all the wrong things in players.
Signing Strasburg with no insurance was a high-risk gamble. Had he worked out and Patrick Corbin not turn into a pumpkin, I think the Nats would’ve had a very different plan with Bryce Harper and/or Soto.
That’s some great intuition, Fem. Welcome to the party—-pretty sure that nobody, anywhere has projected that contract to get to that level.
Not sure how this commentary fits the posted story, but your words are marked and stellar insight appreciated.
The Dodgers will lead MLB in attendance like always.
Not to minimize the tragedy of what’s happening – baseball isn’t terribly important in the grand scheme of things…but both the Dodgers and Angels’ stadiums don’t appear to be threatened by the fires.
Obviously smoke is a problem, but I can’t imagine that will be an issue when the season starts.
Good for the Rangers, making it bout the fans n FREE @that.
That’s not exactly insightful…I think most people are wondering whether he’ll crack 100
Mark my words: Santander won’t sign for more than 400 million.
@chemfinancing….No, half of LA is not burnt down. Almost all is gone in Palisades and Altadena, however. Hopefully, the fires containment is still maintained in this week’s winds. Please don’t make statements without a little research.
Thank you-you too
Orioles’ health checks are draconian. God help you if your ten million dollar contract is on the line and the doctors at Camden Yards find out you broke a finger in middle school.
@Mike: Seems the O’s made a good call on Hoffman. Braves fan sites are reporting that Atlanta nixed a deal w/Hoffman due to a failed physical before Baltimore did.
Ken Rosenthal and his puppet Dennis Lin keep trying to will the dismantling of the Padres into existence. Ever since he got burned on the Sherzer non-trade he has had nothing but disdain for the Padres. The two of them would love nothing more than for the Padres to return to the team of the previous two decades where they couldn’t even pretend they were trying to be competitive.
The Padres won’t clear payroll. Much like last year the Padres will make trades to fill the holes in the lineup and opportunistically make trades during the season to make the team better.
Why you keep pushing that narrative when there is no evidence that they need or want to cut payroll and in fact all of the executives have said publicly that the team was shooting for a payroll somewhere between 2023 and 2024. They have also said that level of spending is sustainable.
So why do you keep spreading this BS Nick? Just to get clicks? Pathetic.
C’mon dude. Tim’s trying to hire someone to do TikTok content. Articles like these shouldn’t be the least surprising.
Ha ha. Here we go again.
“How dare you report on something I disagree with !”
Magnificent.
And calling the writer by his first name like he knows them personally or something.
Because you have been correct about so many things in the past?
What specifically?