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Archives for March 2025

Braves Sign Jesse Chavez To Minor League Deal

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Fans in Atlanta have been reunited with an old friend today, as veteran right-hander Jesse Chavez signed with the Braves on a minor league deal this morning as relayed by David O’Brien of The Athletic. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that Chavez is in the mix for a spot on the club’s Opening Day roster, with the final spot on the club’s pitching staff seemingly likely to come down to either him or youngster AJ Smith-Shawver.

Chavez, 41, will now have the opportunity to suit up for the Braves in a fifth consecutive big league season. The journeyman reliever was drafted by the Cubs in the 39th round of the 2001 draft but did not sign, only to then be drafted in the 42nd round of the 2002 draft by the Rangers. He kicked off his career in the majors with the Pirates back in 2008 at the age of 24, and since then he’s pitched for nine clubs across 17 big league seasons. The veteran journeyman struggled a great deal early in his career, with a 5.99 ERA in his first 156 big league outings, but he improved with time to become a roughly average middle relief arm in his early to mid 30s with a 4.18 ERA in 755 2/3 innings of work from 2013 to 2020.

The righty’s most notable step forward, however, came in Atlanta. More than a decade after he made his Braves debut (he made 28 appearances for the club back in 2010), Chavez returned to Georgia in 2021 and dominated to the tune of a 2.14 ERA in 33 2/3 innings of work with an even better 2.01 FIP. He went on to pitch 6 1/3 scoreless innings during the club’s run to the World Series, and since then he’s remained a fixture of Atlanta’s pitching staff even as stints with the Cubs, White Sox, and Angels have either seen him depart the organization without making a big league appearance or struggle in a brief stint at the big league level. All of those forays into other organizations have ended in him returning to Atlanta, and it appears this winter’s minor league deal with the Rangers was no different as the veteran was released on Friday prior to his reunion with Atlanta.

Now that he’s back with the Braves organization, it would hardly be a surprise to see him return to the big league roster given that he’s posted a sterling 2.53 ERA over the past four seasons while pitching in the club’s uniform. To crack the Opening Day roster, the veteran will need to beat out Smith-Shawver. The 22-year-old has looked quite good this spring, with a 3.94 ERA and a 28.2% strikeout rate in 16 innings of work. Those big strikeout numbers have gotten the attention of the club’s brass and appear to have even entered him into the conversation for starts alongside Grant Holmes and Ian Anderson behind the club’s regular starters Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Reynaldo Lopez. Chavez won’t be in the mix for starts, but if the club opts to round out its rotation with Anderson and Holmes he could slide into a long relief role with the club as Smith-Shawver heads to Triple-A.

Rockies To Release Jake Woodford

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According to a report from MLBTR’s Steve Adams yesterday evening, right-hander Jake Woodford has opted out of his minor league deal with the Rockies and Colorado is expected to grant the righty his release so that he can pursue other opportunities.

Woodford, 28, was a first rounder selected by the Cardinals in 2015 but did not make his big league debut until 2020. The right-hander’s first stint in the majors left something to be desired, as he struggled to a 5.57 ERA across 21 frames, but he remained an up-and-down swingman for the club for four seasons in total. Woodford managed to get some solid results for the Cardinals from 2021-22, as he pitched to a 3.26 ERA (121 ERA+) with a 3.93 FIP in 116 innings of work. He struck out just 15.4% of opponents faced during that time against a 7.5% walk rate, though he made up for his lack of strikeout stuff and pinpoint command in part thanks to a strong 45.8% groundball rate.

The righty’s shaky peripherals proved to be a problem for him during the 2023 campaign, however, as he posted a lackluster 6.23 ERA with a 6.61 FIP over 47 2/3 innings of work. His strikeout rate dipped to 13.1%, his walk rate ballooned to 9.1%, and even his excellent 51.2% groundball rate wasn’t enough to make up for the excessive free passes and minimal punchouts. Woodford’s considerable struggles with the Cardinals led the club to non-tender him last winter, though he eventually caught on with the White Sox on a minor league deal.

Unfortunately, 2024 did not go much better for Woodford than 2023 had. The right-hander made two spot starts on the south side of Chicago but was torched for 15 hits and ten runs in 8 1/3 innings of work before being designated for assignment. He cleared waivers and elected free agency before eventually catching on with the Pirates on a minor league deal and making it back to the majors shortly after the trade deadline. The right-hander ended up making seven appearances (five starts) for Pittsburgh, and while he struggled once again to a 7.09 ERA his peripheral numbers improved somewhat. His strikeout rate ticked back up to 15.7% while he held opponents to a minuscule 3.3% walk rate, though those improvements came at the cost of a groundball rate that sat at just 38.9%.

Woodford was eventually outrighted off the Pirates’ roster late last season and went on to elect minor league free agency, where he landed with the Rockies on a minor league deal. Colorado intended to give Woodford a look as a potential starter, though he did not make the club’s rotation out of camp after struggling to a 5.25 ERA in 12 spring innings of work. Despite that lackluster performance, it’s not hard to imagine a club short on rotation depth taking a chance on Woodford and seeing what he can do for them at the Triple-A level on a minor league deal. After all, many pitching-needy clubs could find interest in his solid career 45.1% groundball rate, and his ability to shuffle between the rotation and bullpen as needed offers flexibility.

Guardians, Rockies Swap Nolan Jones, Tyler Freeman

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The Guardians and Rockies have reached a deal that sent outfielder Nolan Jones to Cleveland in exchange for infielder/outfielder Tyler Freeman, according to a report from Thomas Harding of MLB.com. The deal has subsequently been announced.

The deal represents a homecoming for Jones, who was a second-round pick by Cleveland in 2016 and made his MLB debut with the club in 2022 before being traded to Colorado in a deal that brought back Juan Brito in November of that year. Jones went on to finish fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting that year as he posted 3.8 fWAR/4.3 bWAR for the Rockies, slugging 20 homers and swiping 20 bases while splitting time between the outfield corners and first base. In all, Jones slashed .297/.389/.542 that season, which even in the inflated offensive environment Coors Field provides was good for an excellent 137 wRC+. Meanwhile, Brito has yet to make his big league debut for the Guardians but posted a strong .256/.365/.443 line in 144 games at Triple-A for the club last year.

As impressive as Jones’s first year in Colorado was, however, he suffered a significant sophomore slump in his second year with the club. Back issues limited him to just 79 games, and when he was healthy enough to take the field he was ineffective with a lackluster .227/.321/.320 slash line. While a downturn in production should have always been expected relative to his 2023 campaign given Jones’s unbelievable .400 BABIP that year, Jones’s lost power production was something of a shock. After barreling up a whopping 15.7% of his batted balls in 2023, that number cratered to just 5.9% last year despite his overall rate of hard hit batted balls increasing from 40.9% to 44.4%. That came primarily from a massive spike in groundball rate, as Jones hit 52.7% of his batted balls on the ground last year, ten points higher than the year prior. That left him to club just three homers last year and enter his age-27 campaign with plenty of questions about what his production would look like this year.

Those questions will now be answered back in Cleveland, where Jones now appears likely to have the opportunity to lock down the club’s regular right field job, which to this point appeared likely to be filled by Will Brennan. Jones offers more proven upside than Brennan, 27, who posted roughly league average offensive numbers in a platoon role with the Guardians last year. Brennan, unlike Jones, has options remaining and can be sent to Triple-A as depth for the coming season. Should he replace Brennan on the roster, Jones could share time in right field with right-handed slugger Jhonkensy Noel if the Guardians want to spell him against left-handed pitchers, though Johnathan Rodriguez is another option on the 40-man roster.

As for the Rockies, they’ll be parting with Jones to bring in Freeman, a versatile utility bat with the ability to play quality defense all over the diamond but minimal offensive potential. A career 83 wRC+ hitter who slashed .209/.305/.321 (84 wRC+) in 118 games with the Guardians last year, Freeman spent the majority of his time in center field but also got brief looks at shortstop, third base, and second base throughout the season. With Brenton Doyle locked in as the everyday center fielder in Colorado, it seems likely that Freeman will be tasked with a more regular return to the dirt in 2025. While a utility role off the bench could be in Freeman’s future given the presence of Ezequiel Tovar at shortstop and Ryan McMahon at third base, an injury to Thairo Estrada earlier this week opened up regular playing time at the keystone for at least the start of the season. Given that, it seems likely that Freeman will either serve as the Rockies’ regular second baseman or split time with veteran utility man Kyle Farmer at the position while Estrada recovers from the broken wrist that figures to sideline him for four to eight weeks.

Freeman was projected to be part of the Guardians’ bench mix come Opening Day, likely serving as a backup center field option behind Lane Thomas as well as a potential platoon partner for either Brennan or Kyle Manzardo. It’s possible a more regular outfielder like Rodriguez or Angel Martinez could be asked to take on that role, but one potentially intriguing candidate to join the club’s roster would be Brito himself. Brito is mostly an infielder with the vast majority of his time in the minors spent at second base, but he got a look in right field last year and could be an intriguing addition to the club’s bench mix as long as they believe in Lane Thomas as a legitimate everyday option in center field.

Guardians Extend Tanner Bibee

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The Guardians have signed Tanner Bibee to a five-year contract extension that includes a club option for the 2030 season, according to MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins.  The Athletic’s Zack Meisel (multiple links) reports that Bibee will receive at least $48MM in guaranteed money.  As per Meisel, the contract breaks down as a $2MM signing bonus and a $3MM salary this season, $4MM in 2026, $7MM in 2027, $10MM in 2028, $21MM in 2029, and then Cleveland holds a $21MM club option for 2030 with a $1MM buyout.

Bibee just turned 26 earlier this month, so he gets a late birthday present in the form of a life-changing contract.  Bibee has exactly two years of MLB service time, and his $48MM deal ranks as the third-most money ever given to a pitcher with between two years and two years and 171 days of service time.  The 2025 season was Bibee’s final pre-arbitration year, so the extension covers all three of his arb-eligible years and at least one of his free agent years.

A fifth-round pick out of Cal State Fullerton in the 2021 draft, Bibee quickly became the latest quality arm to emerge from Cleveland’s pitching development factory.  Bibee attracted top-100 prospect attention entering the 2023 season, and he immediately delivered on that potential by posting a 2.98 ERA in 142 innings with the Guardians.  That performance earned him a second-place finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting, and subsequently a full year of service time, as per the rules of the league’s Prospect Promotion Incentive plan.

There was no sophomore slump in the follow-up, as Bibee had a 3.47 ERA in 173 2/3 frames last season, with improved strikeout and walk rates from his rookie year.  Bibee also got his first turn on the postseason stage, with a 3.45 ERA in 15 2/3 innings during the Guards’ run to the ALCS.  Perhaps the only minor red flag was that Bibee (an average velocity pitcher) saw his fastball drop off rather drastically in effectiveness from 2023 to 2024, but that was balanced out by his cutter becoming an even more effective pitch.

Bibee becomes the latest in a decades-long line of quality players the Cleveland organization has signed to early-career extensions.  Identifying and locking up talent has been perhaps the key plank of the team’s success over the years, given how the smaller-market Guardians rarely sign their players to secondary contracts or big free agent deals.  Jose Ramirez is a rare example of a Guardians player who did ink a second extension to remain in the Cleve, and Ramirez and Bibee are now the only Guards players signed to guaranteed money beyond the 2026 season.  The Guardians do have some control over Emmanuel Clase and Trevor Stephan in the form of club options covering their 2027 and 2028 seasons, as per the terms of their own extensions.

If Ramirez is the cornerstone of the position-player mix, Bibee now has a similar status as the key figure of the Guardians’ rotation for the remainder of the decade.  Bibee already stepped up as a pillar of stability in what was an uncharacteristically so-so year for the Cleveland rotation as a whole, and he’ll look to again be the ace of a staff that includes Ben Lively, Logan Allen, Gavin Williams, and new arrival Luis Ortiz.  Longtime ace Shane Bieber re-signed with the Guards in December and is expected to return around midseason once he fully recovers from Tommy John surgery.

Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images

Drew Thorpe To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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The White Sox announced that right-hander Drew Thorpe will undergo a Tommy John surgery.  Dr. Keith Meister will perform the procedure, and Thorpe will miss the next 13-15 months in recovery.

The news caps off a brutal stretch of health struggles for the 24-year-old righty.  Thorpe’s rookie season was cut short by a flexor strain in early August, and he underwent a surgery in early September to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow.  The recovery process didn’t go entirely smoothly, as Thorpe got a cortisone shot in January to help overcome some lingering discomfort from the procedure.  Thorpe then had a slow ramp-up during Spring Training and didn’t make his first in-game appearance until a minor league appearance on Thursday, but then that outing was cut short when he left with elbow discomfort.

A second-round pick for the Yankees in the 2022 draft, Thorpe quickly emerged as a well-regarded prospect, and he has already been part of two major trades in his young career.  New York included Thorpe as one of the five players sent to the Padres last offseason as part of the Juan Soto trade, and San Diego then flipped Thorpe (and three other players) to the White Sox a few months later in the deal that brought Dylan Cease to the Friars’ rotation.

After that tumultuous offseason, Thorpe looked to settle in as a major piece of Chicago’s rebuilding efforts, and he looked great over 11 starts at the Double-A level.  The Sox then decided to call Thorpe straight up to the Show without a stop at Triple-A, and Thorpe perhaps understandably struggled in posting a 5.48 ERA over 44 1/3 innings against MLB hitters.

His next big league start now won’t come until at least midway through the 2026 season, as Thorpe and the White Sox will lose over a full year of important developmental time.  Even if Thorpe had started the year at Triple-A, a good showing in the minors would’ve surely gotten him back to the majors in due course, with an eye towards fully establishing himself as a part of the future on the South Side.  If there’s any silver lining for Thorpe, it is the fact that spending the year on the big league version of the 60-day injured list will bank him a full year of Major League service time.

The White Sox obviously weren’t expected to contend this season, but losing Thorpe is still a tough blow to the rotation.  Manager Will Venable announced earlier this week that Rule 5 Draft pick Shane Smith would break camp with the team, and step into the rotation spot left open by Thorpe’s absence.  Sean Burke, Jonathan Cannon, Davis Martin, and veteran Martin Perez around out the rest of the projected starting five.

Thorpe is the fourth Sox pitcher to require a TJ surgery in the last two months, as the injury bug has taken a big bite out of the team’s ranks of young pitchers.  Prelander Berroa, Ky Bush, and 40-man roster member Juan Carela will all be sidelined into the 2026 season after undergoing the procedure.

Brewers Release Manuel Margot, Option Caleb Durbin

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The Brewers announced a series of roster moves earlier today as they optioned infielders Caleb Durbin and Tyler Black to minor league camp and released outfielder Manuel Margot. In addition, Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that non-roster invitee Jake Bauers has an upward mobility clause in his contract and that the Brewers are “close” to a decision on whether to roster him themselves or offer teams around the league the opportunity to do so.

The decision to option both Durbin and Black to the minors is a surprising one, as both had been in the conversation for playing time at third base. Durbin came to the Brewers this winter alongside Nestor Cortes as part of the Devin Williams trade, while Black was the club’s first-round pick back in 2021 and made his big league debut last year. With both Durbin and Black now ticketed for Triple-A to open the season, it appears duties at the hot corner will fall to a platoon of Vinny Capra and Oliver Dunn, with Dunn getting the lion’s share of playing time.

While Black has just 49 plate appearances at the MLB level and Durbin has yet to make his big league debut, neither of the club’s alternatives at the hot corner have substantial big league experience either. Dunn appeared in 41 games for the Brewers in his rookie year last season, slashing a lackluster .221/.282/.316 in 104 trips to the plate. Capra, meanwhile, has bounced between the Blue Jays, Pirates, and Brewers while appearing in each of the last three MLB seasons but has just 20 games and 37 plate appearances total at the big league level under his belt, with a career .156/.250/.219 slash line in that time.

Turning to Margot, the 30-year-old experienced the worst season of his career with the Twins last year as he hit just .238/.289/.337 while splitting time primarily between the outfield corners. That lackluster production led him to sign a minor league deal with the Brewers last month, though it appears his .250/.314/.375 slash line in 35 trips to the plate this spring wasn’t enough to convince Milwaukee to carry him on the roster entering the year, even after the loss of Blake Perkins to the injured list. With Margot no longer in the fold, the job of fifth outfielder behind Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich, Garrett Mitchell, and Sal Frelick appears likely to fall to infielder/outfielder Isaac Collins. Collins, 27, made his big league debut with the Brewers last year and hit just .118/.211/.118 in 11 games with the club. He posted strong numbers at the Triple-A level, however, and has flashed the versatility in the minors to not only play both outfield corners but also handle both second and even third base. That versatility should allow Collins to offer depth to the Brewers both in the outfield and at the hot corner as the season begins.

As for Bauers, it seems likely that the Brewers will keep the first baseman in the fold given that, as noted by Hogg, the club now has just 13 healthy position players in camp after optioning Durbin and Black to the minor leagues today. It’s at least plausible that the club could make an external addition, but said addition could just as easily bump a player like Collins or Capra off the roster. If Bauers does break camp with the Brewers, he’ll do so on the heels of a 2024 season where he appeared in 116 games for Milwaukee, though he struggled to a lackluster .199/.301/.361 slash line in 346 trips to the plate as he did so. Despite those pedestrian numbers, Bauers still offers the Brewers a lefty bat off the bench and a complement to the right-handed hitting Rhys Hoskins at first base, which could be particularly useful if Hoskins doesn’t bounce back from his own down 2024 campaign this year.

Padres Designate Brett Sullivan, Select Mason McCoy

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The Padres announced this evening that they’ve designated catcher Brett Sullivan for assignment. Sullivan’s departure from the 40-man roster makes room for the club to select the contract of shortstop Mason McCoy.

Sullivan, 31, had a fairly unusual path to the big leagues. Selected by the Rays in the 17th round of the 2015 draft, Sullivan languished in Tampa’s minor league system for years before reaching minor league free agency prior to the 2022 season. At that point, he was signed to a major league deal by the Brewers to serve as catching depth for the club. His tenure in Milwaukee was short-lived, however, as he was included not long after in the trade that shipped Victor Caratini from the Padres to the Brewers. Now with the Padres, Sullivan remained on the club’s 40-man roster but was optioned to the minors for the entire 2022 season before he eventually made his big league debut in early 2023 as a fill-in option for Luis Campusano.

Since then, Sullivan has appeared in 40 games at the big league level across two seasons. In 103 career trips to the plate, Sullivan hasn’t exactly impressed with a slash line of just .206/.243/.299 (49 wRC+). That’s a far cry from his work at Triple-A, where he’s a career .272/.344/.453 hitter, but he makes up for it somewhat with a reputation for solid skills behind the plate despite the metrics suggesting he’s below average at both pitch framing and controlling the running game. Going forward, the Padres will have one week to trade Sullivan or attempt to pass him through waivers. If he clears waivers successfully, the Padres will have the opportunity to outright him to the minor leagues as non-roster depth.

Replacing Sullivan on the 40-man roster is McCoy, who the Padres non-tendered over the winter before re-signing him to a minor league deal not long after. Just over a week from his 30th birthday, McCoy has just 25 games at the big league level under his belt between the Blue Jays and Padres over the past two seasons. The Majority of that work came in San Diego last year, where he hit a paltry .204/.278/.245 in 57 trips to the plate across 19 games. While that’s a sample of just 19 games, McCoy’s modest .239/.318/.400 career numbers at Triple-A do little to suggest much offensive potential at the big league level, although he did manage to swipe 25 bases in the minor leagues last year. McCoy’s base stealing abilities and strong work with the glove at shortstop could make him a viable reserve infielder for the Padres this year, though he has fierce competition for that role in the form of non-roster veteran Jose Iglesias.

Pirates Designate Joshua Palacios, Option Henry Davis

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The Pirates have announced a number of roster moves, which were first reported by Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. The club has selected the contract of right-hander Hunter Stratton, and in a corresponding move designated outfielder Joshua Palacios for assignment. The club has also optioned catcher Henry Davis, infielder Nick Yorke, and outfielder Billy Cook to Triple-A.

Stratton, 28, was non-tendered by the Pirates back in November but signed a minor league deal with the club not long afterwards. Now, he’s set to suit up for his third season in Pittsburgh after posting solid numbers with the club out of the bullpen last year. In 49 2/3 innings of work during his MLB career, Stratton has posted a 3.26 ERA with a 3.61 FIP, striking out 21% of his opponents while walking just 4.9%. That impressive command seems to have been enough to earn the right-hander a spot in the big league bullpen to open the 2025 season, though the righty does have options remaining so he could at least theoretically be squeezed off the roster and sent to Triple-A in favor of another arm.

Making room for Stratton on the 40-man is Palacios, a fourth-round pick by the Blue Jays back in 2016. He made his debut with Toronto in 2021 but made it into just 13 games with the club before being claimed off waivers by the Nationals the following year. He appeared in 29 games for D.C. but was eventually outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster only to be plucked out of the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft by the Pirates later that year. Making his Pirates debut in 2023, Palacios got his first significant big league opportunity but was unable to do much with it, hitting a lackluster .239/.279/.413 in 91 games for the Pirates where he split time between all three outfield spots.

Palacios ended up appearing in just 23 games for Pittsburgh last year, and though they carried him on their 40-man roster throughout the offseason he appears to have been squeezed off the club’s roster by Jack Suwinski. The Pirates will now have one week to either trade Palacios or place him on waivers, where he can be claimed by any club. As a career .230/.286/.364 (75 wRC+) hitter with no options remaining, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Palacios pass through waivers successfully. If he does so, he’ll have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment and test free agency.

As for the options, Davis is the most notable name. Things haven’t gone well for the 25-year-old since he was selected first overall in the 2021 draft, as to this point in his big league career he’s hit just .191/.283/.307 in 99 big league games while struggling defensively both in the outfield and behind the plate. For the time being the Pirates appear committed to Davis’s development as a catcher, and he’ll now continue to wait for an opportunity at Triple-A as the club relies on a tandem of Joey Bart and Endy Rodriguez at the dish to open the 2025 campaign.

Looking beyond Davis, Nick Yorke has remained in camp as a possible alternative to Nick Gonzales at second base, though Gonzales has always appeared to be the favorite for the job after the former seventh-overall pick’s solid .270/.311/.398 showing in 94 games for the Pirates last year. Cook, meanwhile was in the competition to fill in for Spencer Horwitz at first base while Horwitz rehabs wrist surgery he underwent last month, though that job now appears likely to go to non-roster invitee DJ Stewart after the 31-year-old slashed a solid .270/.357/.486 in 17 games this spring.

Rangers Release Nick Ahmed, Re-Sign Hunter Strickland To Minors Deal

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The Rangers announced this evening that they’ve released shortstop Nick Ahmed. In addition, they’ve re-signed right-hander Hunter Strickland to a minor league deal after Strickland was himself released by the club yesterday. The news comes not long after president of baseball operations Chris Young told reporters (including MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry) that a group of eight non-roster veterans had been informed they would not be making the Opening Day roster. Aside from Ahmed, that list includes Adrian Houser, JT Chargois, Joe Barlow, David Buchanan, Tucker Barnhart, Chad Wallach, and Matt Festa. While the specific contract situations aren’t known for all of those players, Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports writes that the Rangers won’t block any non-roster invitee from pursuing a big league opportunity elsewhere should they so desire.

So far, Ahmed appears to be the only player in that group to take the Rangers up on that and seek his release. The 35-year-old veteran spent the first ten seasons of his career in Arizona, winning two Gold Glove awards during that time and serving mostly as a capable glove-first option at shortstop for the Diamondbacks. Ahmed began to struggle with injuries and ineffectiveness later in his tenure with the club, however, and appeared in just 89 games with a .216/.258/.332 (58 wRC+) slash line in 264 trips to the plate between the 2022 and ’23 seasons. That led Ahmed to hit the open market for the first time in his career last winter, and he ultimately spent the 2024 campaign bouncing around the other contending NL West clubs with 52 games in San Francisco, 17 with the Dodgers, and two as a Padre.

Ahmed’s numbers at the plate last year were once again lackluster, as he hit a paltry .229/.267/.295 overall with a 59 wRC+, though he provided steady defense in L.A. and San Diego amid injuries to incumbent shortstops Mookie Betts and Ha-Seong Kim. If a club suffers an injury at shortstop, it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine him finding a role with a big league club as a glove-first placeholder, though it’s also possible he’ll simply search for a minor league opportunity with a club that’s less settled at shortstop than the Rangers, for whom Corey Seager is entrenched as an everyday player.

As for Strickland, the veteran of ten MLB seasons has had an up-and-down career. The righty debuted in 2014 with the Giants and dominated out of the bullpen with a 2.64 ERA and 3.15 FIP over his first four years in the big leagues, but things took a turn for the worse after that. In three seasons split between the Giants, Mets, Mariners, and Nationals, Strickland posted a brutal 4.68 ERA and 4.92 FIP, both well below league average figures. He enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in 2021, pitching to a solid 2.61 ERA across 57 appearances for the Rays, Angels, and Brewers, but struggled for the Reds in 2022 and did not pitch in the majors the following year. He returned to the big leagues for Anaheim last year and posted a solid enough 3.31 ERA, though his 4.45 FIP and issues with the long ball (ten homers allowed in 73 1/3 innings) both left much to be desired. Now that he’s back in the fold, he’ll stick with the Rangers as a non-roster depth option headed into the season.

As for the other players besides Ahmed told they will not be making the team today, the most notable among those is Houser, who appeared to be in the mix for the club’s rotation after injuries sidelined Cody Bradford and Jon Gray. The club signed Patrick Corbin to a big league deal so he could serve as rotation depth, but with Corbin not expected to be ready for Opening Day the exclusion of Houser from the big league rotation would seemingly leave the final two rotation jobs behind Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom, and Tyler Mahle for youngsters Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker despite uneven spring performances from both former first-round picks.

Vinnie Pasquantino Exits Game With Hamstring Strain

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Fans in Kansas City are awaiting news on the status of their first baseman after Vinnie Pasquantino exited today’s game with what the Royals announced as a right hamstring strain. The club added that Pasquantino will continue to be evaluated, and MLB.com’s Anne Rogers adds the club expects to know more tomorrow about the severity of the issue, including whether or not the slugger will miss time due to the issue. For his part, Pasquantino told reporters (including Rogers) this evening that he feels “fine.”

“I don’t want to put any timeframe on it, but I don’t think – my gut tells me it’s not going to affect anything,” Pasquantino said, as  “But my gut is not the medical staff. So we’ll get it evaluated tomorrow and we’ll see.”

While it’s certainly feasible that the issue proves to be mild enough that Pasquantino doesn’t miss significant time, it’s somewhat difficult to imagine him being back in the lineup in time for Opening Day, which is just five days away. Even a relatively mild strain could be cause for a short stint on the injured list, though if Pasquantino manages to avoid the IL it wouldn’t be the first time he’s successfully defied the conventional wisdom when it comes to recovery time. The first baseman suffered a broken thumb in the final days of August last year and was slated to miss between six and eight weeks, but wound up coming back just a month later to participate in the club’s Wild Card series against the Orioles.

Of course, getting back in time for Opening Day is not as significant as making it back onto the field for the Royals’ first playoff appearance since their 2015 World Series championship was last year. With a long season ahead, it would hardly be a surprise if the Royals decided to proceed cautiously with one of their top hitters. A career .267/.335/.445 (114 wRC+) hitter who posted a 108 wRC+ last year, only AL MVP runner-up Bobby Witt Jr. and veteran slugger Salvador Perez were more valuable for Kansas City last year at the plate than Pasquantino.

Fortunately, the club is better equipped to handle an injury of this sort now that it was last year. Adding Jonathan India to the club’s offense should offer another solidly above-average bat to contribute on a regular basis and extend the lineup even if Pasquantino misses time, and the club coincidentally added veteran Mark Canha in a trade with the Brewers just yesterday. While Canha appeared likely to be tasked with shoring up the club’s outfield depth entering the season, if Pasquantino misses time the 36-year-old should be able to slide into the first base job fairly seamlessly and provide at least average production at the position while Pasquantino recovers. An injured list stint for Pasquantino could also open the door for out-of-options first baseman Nick Pratto, a lefty-swinging former top prospect who seemed unlikely to break camp with the club, to fill in and either platoon with Canha or at least spell him on days the Royals would like to utilize him in the outfield.

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