December 20: Cleveland has officially announced the addition of Armstrong. The right-hander will earn $4MM in 2026, reports Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. The deal also includes an $8MM mutual option for 2027, with a $1.5MM buyout. Left-hander Justin Bruihl was designated for assignment to clear space on the 40-man for Armstrong.
December 18: The Guardians and right-hander Shawn Armstrong have agreed to a deal, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The ISE Baseball client will be guaranteed $5.5MM on a one-year pact with a mutual option. The Guards have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to make this deal official.
Armstrong returns to his original organization. He was drafted by Cleveland back in 2011 and pitched for them in the majors from 2015 to 2017. In the almost decade since then, he has spent time with the Mariners, Orioles, Rays, Marlins, Cardinals, Cubs and Rangers.
Despite that nomadic journey, his performance has been fairly steady in some respects. His earned run average has wobbled from year to year, but that’s not unusual for relief pitchers, who pitch a small number of innings annually and can have ERA swings from a few bad games. From 2019 to 2025, Armstrong tossed at least 36 innings in each full season with at least 52 frames in five out of six. His strikeout rate finished between 22% and 27% in each of those. His walk rate has finished below 9.2% in six straight seasons.
Put it all together and Armstrong has thrown 363 1/3 innings since the start of 2019 with a 3.96 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. Despite that fairly solid trajectory, he settled for a modest $1.25MM deal with the Rangers for the 2025 season.
Texas was surely pleased with that investment. Armstrong averaged about 94 miles per hour on both his four-seamer and sinker while also mixing in a cutter, slider and curveball. He tossed 74 innings on the year with a 2.31 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate. His .196 batting average on balls in play and 76.3% strand rate were unsustainably fortunate but his 3.07 FIP and 3.36 SIERA suggest he would have fared well even with neutral luck. He saved nine games and registered 12 holds for the Rangers.
Armstrong has parlayed that into a new deal worth more than four times his last one, the biggest payday of the 35-year-old’s career. The Guardians had a strong bullpen in 2025, as their collective 3.44 ERA was third in the majors behind only the Padres and Red Sox. They are down one key member, as Emmanuel Clase is under investigation for a gambling scandal and may never pitch in the majors again.
The Guards don’t usually have tons of money to throw around but have been busy augmenting their bullpen with minor moves. They have signed Colin Holderman and Connor Brogdon to big league deals. They acquired Justin Bruihl from the Blue Jays and selected Peyton Pallette from the White Sox in the Rule 5 draft. Those new arms will add to a group which includes incumbents Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and others.
Photo courtesy of William Purnell, Imagn Images
Brian Cashman still asleep
I’m sure he’ll wake up when Bellinger’s agent calls back.
*Snore*
Busy with the Japanese players. Guaranteed. Deadline looming.
Where would said Japanese players play?
Imai is a starting pitcher and probably the one Cashman covets most, but both Okamoto and Murakami can play 1st/3rd and can toggle with Rice/McMahon easily.
Half the season at Yankee stadium , other half in other stadiums. But to be a lot less flippant the “posting deadline” will clarify both the market for pitchers and set a baseline for Bichette and Bregman deals as both major imports play 3B/1B.
None of the Japanese players make much sense for them.
The bats are 1B/DH types where they have Rice and Stanton already. I guess they could go from all glove McMahon to no glove at 3B, but it’s not clearly an upgrade and they took on a lot of money in McMahon.
The rotation is more foreseeable given the injury uncertainty, but when Cole and Rodon are healthy they have a strong and expensive top 3 with solid options for 4-7. Spending big on a 4th starter seems pretty unlikely.
They should be all in on landing Tucker or Bellinger.
Okamoto moreso than Murakami does make sense due to being a very good defender at both positions. Both Rice and McMahon won’t play those positions daily. Rice will toggle with Wells, too, and McMahon doesn’t do enough offensively to have play every day. He was already displaced during the playoffs. I like Ryan, but gotta be realistic about what he can do.
I’m less worried about not landing Bellinger or Tucker tbh because I still want to give Jasson a shot and I’m eager to see if Jones can be something. If either of them are signed, I’m not complaining, just saying.
Very soild year, 159 era+ 1.5 war. Looks like a good signing for 5.5 million.
This is B.S. @ the Rangers if that contract is correct.. 🙄🙄🙄🙄☕️☕️🙄
Rangers should be in on Fairbanks, they need an actual Closer as they basically didn’t have one last season
The Blue Jays are on Fairbanks, same as Tucker and Bichette. Not sure if they can get all three. Not sure Rangres can get Fairbanks though
I like the pickup for Cleveland. Armstrong, Brogdon, Holderman, they’ve made some nice bullpen additions
Rangers bullpen is cooked. The Guardians have snagged one of the few quality relievers left
Meanwhile the Rangers are telling their fans they expect to compete for a spot in the playoffs. In 21 and 22 offseason they were spending big with the message of we want to win the World Series.
Sell the team Ray
Rangers fan here,
Kill me now. Please.
Well, the Astros aren’t doing anything. So you’re not cooked in the AL West if the other fans are like the Rangers are better than the Astros.
The Astro’s are no longer the king of the AL west. That’s the mariners. But It seems like we’re just gonna be dollar bin shopping at Walmart
I know the Astros aren’t the “king”, but our health made their job easier.
Seattle is head and shoulders the best team in the division while having the best farm system. The A’s are going to continue to get better. The dumpster fire in LA is trying. Rangers and Astros are battling for mediocrity. I’d rather see Texas completely tear it down vs this garbage.
Sad times
idk how good the future is for texas, but id like to at least try one or two more times before evo, degrom, and seager get too old to do anything
I agree but the man signing the checks doesn’t. All three of those guys deserve to go somewhere that is trying to win.
It’s hard to understand why the Rangers weren’t in on this, if necessary at the expense of Chris Martin who is incredibly brittle.
This is embarrassing as a Rangers fan. No reason we shouldn’t have signed him
There must be something odd in his peripherals for him to slip to $5.5/1. This was one of the most unhittable relievers in baseball last year.
There’s been plenty of bad to go along with the good
ERA by year:
2019 – 5.74
2020 – 1.80
2021 – 6.75
2022 – 4.38
2023 – 1.28
2024 – 4.86
2025 – 2.31
Volatility of RPs and age – entering his 35th year, sadly in all sports ageism is an open reality.
He’s a much safer bet than 39 year old Chris Martin with a t-Rex arm is.
I don’t get it. I give a ton of runway to Chris Young but this is bs
Cleveland keeps spending to finish off the bullpen.. They wouldn’t have to spend this much if Clase didn’t get into trouble. They are about finished for this winter….nah just kidding. They still have X-mas wishes for a MajorLeague OF who can hit RH (not just bat RH) and a 1B who can both hit and field.
Take Ryan Mountcastle for PTBNL
We already have Christian Walker. No thanks to Mountcastle.
Houston does, not Cleveland.
Mountcastle is okay for CLE especially as PTBNL trade.
They filled the bullpen for almost the same amount as it would have cost them for clase
@westcasey
I’m sure you mean “who can hit LH”…and as you indicate, not all RHH can. Certainly CLE has plenty who can’t hit anyone, but most of our RHH can’t even give us the virtue of solid platoon splits. I think David Fry will prove to be an exception.
yes. hit LHP. BatRH . I am not sold on Fry, and would peddle him, especially pretending he could C2 some where
How soon they forget Fry’s homer he hit to win the 2024 ALDS and the homer he hit in extras to win Game 3 of the 2024 ALCS and his .869 OPS in postseason play.
That dollar figure seems low. Based on his performance last year and how much other relievers have signed for I would have thought 2 years 14 million or 1 year 8 million.
He’s had two seasons with WAR 1+ if he has another exemplary year then the higher AAV should be available to him imo
Yeah I get that but his numbers were borderline elite last year. Just thought basically every team in baseball would be willing to offer 5 million, figured one would offer around 8. Wanted the A’s to sign him and just figured it would take more than that number. Probably would have for the A’s
Vogt said he wanted a few new bullpen arms this offseason and he wasn’t kidding. That’s now five external relievers they’ve added to the 40 man roster and it’s not even Christmas yet.
Obviously they won’t all break camp (and most of them can’t be sent down so there’s a lack of flexibility there), but I don’t mind the approach of throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. The back end of their bullpen should still be fine but the middle innings needed some depth.
Oh, they can be sent down, and some have money already attached to them so I expect most of them would make it to Columbus without much problem. And if one or two get nabbed, it will still be OK.
This could be a very good signing. Nice to bring him back to the organization he started with. Now can we find someone who can hit?
Who to drop? Petey Halpin? Did adding Kahlil Watson make him expendable? Hmmm. Or a reliever.
I want it to be Arias but they won’t give up on him after only 4 years and 1,000 PAs at the ML level…
Mr Mustard, yes I kinda hoped for Arias too. Great fielder but just can’t see him improving on those swing decisions. I hoped to see Rocchio at SS and 2B in 2026 dedicated to Brito and Bazzana, even some Schneemann plus Angel or Brito/whoever vs lhp. We shall see.
It’s Colonel Mustard. Probably.
I would guess it’s Aleman coming off a rough year in AAA.
Short of that, I don’t see them moving on from Halpin and especially not Watson so recently after protecting him. Rodriguez is the most obvious example of a AAAA hitter that I’ve ever seen, but he’s also their only right handed hitting outfielder so I’d be surprised if it’s him.
Vogt talked about Aleman at the Winter Meeting, got excited about his 14K per 9 stuff. I think he’s another project, along with Espino. Hard to say with relievers. I hope Espino keeps progressing, loved watching him. Festa seemed serviceable but then again so did Avila last year and he got dumped. They know what they’re looking for. This is where they shine.
Can’t move Johnathan Rodriguez unless or until they bring in a lefty masher like Austin Hays. Depends on if they want to spend 6-8 million. I’d like to see Rodriguez get a full on opportunity to handle lefty duties. He got squeezed last year. Decisions, decisions…
Johnathan Rodriguez isn’t getting “squeezed,” it’s just that he hasn’t come close to demonstrating he can hit enough at the major league level to overcome his stupendously lousy defense and well below average running. Add in his poor launch angle and major league pitchers have little problem dealing with him. Can’t blame the organization for keeping him around though, given what veteran platoon alternatives (like Rob Refsnyder) cost these days.
He came off two straight onslaughts of AAA LH pitching, a 1.022 ops year then 1.143 but Cleveland made Santana their 12 million dollar offensive acquisition and his best attribute is hitting LHP — which he didn’t last year, 646 ops in 148 PA. Then Manzardo hit way above his usual self in early match ups with Cole Ragans etc putting ballast in his sails but sucked the rest of the way (.671 ops in 95 PA). Fry came back too early from injury and limped to a .597 ops in 120 PA, Noel got 86 and a .535 ops. J Rodriguez ended up with a .769 ops in 55 scattered PAs.in his role. A bit of a squeeze given the results I thought.
Yes, yer right Rodriguez is a lousy defender, worse than his early advertising, that hurts his value. He hits too many worm burners and he got off to an atrocious start, pressing, topping more than usual but that’s the thing with marginal role guys like him, use them right or lose them forever. It’s no big loss if they can find a Refsnyder (who I doubt is leaving Boston) but until such time hang on. Guards have a sea of LHHs.
I would say Justin Bruihl to get him through waivers
Nailed it
Hey I got something right once.I must be a real fan now. 🙂
Championship caliber signing… Yay
He is terrible, never has a clean inning
Yeah, I kind of dismiss that comment considering he had a WHIP that starts with zero point eight…
I kind of hope he is the closer to let Cade Smith move back to a use him as the high leverage non 9th inning guy.
Completely agree. Having a guy like Cade wait around to protect a 2 or 3 run lead that may never get to the 9th inning is ridiculous. You have a talent like him, use him as a gunslinger when the game is truly on the line.
Closing is so overrated. Any halfway decent major league pitcher can come into a clean inning and get three outs before two or three runs score. Why are the “toughest three outs in baseball” not equally tough for the hitters in that situation? So ridiculously overhyped.
Teams are slowly waking up to the idea of using your best relievers in the best matchups, which change game to game. 7th inning, one run game and it’s 2-4 coming up, use your best reliever. The idea of letting your number 3 handle the most important inning of the game is dumb and has always been so.
Good deal. Why Armstrong doesn’t command Finnegan money is beyond me when his stats the past 3 years are better. I’d take Armstrong over Finnegan, especially at this price.
I wouldn’t have felt that way, perhaps, until I recently read a write-up on Shawn’s new sweeper. It was virtually unhittable last year. No doubt there was some good fortune in Armstrong’s season (nobody can hold hitters to a .196 BABIP for long) but even if he “regresses” to underlying metrics, he’ll still be a highly useful component of the bullpen (and quite an inspiration to all the other guys out there who’ve banged around baseball like he has).
Finnegan has been a closer for the past what 5 seasons
And? He’d be a middle reliever on better teams.
I heard he has a strong arm.