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Chris Sale Wins National League Cy Young Award

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Braves left-hander Chris Sale has been named the National League Cy Young Award winner for 2024, per an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Zack Wheeler of the Phillies finished in second place with Paul Skenes of the Pirates in third place.

The award is the final cherry on top of a remarkable comeback season for Sale. He had a run from 2010 to 2018 of being one of the best pitchers in the majors, but struggled in 2019 and then was in the injury wilderness for quite a while. Due to various ailments, including Tommy John surgery, he only pitched about 150 innings total from 2020 to 2023.

The Red Sox flipped him to Atlanta almost a year ago, in December of 2023. The move was seen as risky at the time, as Sale was going into his age-35 season and was several years removed from his prime.

On top of that, Atlanta sent Vaughn Grissom to Boston in the deal, a notable prospect who still had years and years of cheap control. In return, they were getting just one year of Sale, though they did sign him to an extension that covered 2024 and 2025 with a club option for 2026. That extended their window of control over him, but at a fairly hefty price point: $38MM for the two guaranteed years plus $18MM for the option.

But so far, the deal has been incredibly lopsided in favor of Atlanta. Grissom was injured for much of 2024 and didn’t perform well while healthy. For Atlanta, most of their key contributors got hurt this year while Sale ironically stayed healthy, in spite of his recent track record.

Sale finished the season having made 29 starts and thrown 177 2/3 innings, allowing 2.38 earned runs per nine. He struck out 32.1% of batters faced, only gave out walks 5.6% of the time and got grounders on 44.8% of balls in play. He won the pitching triple crown by leading the National League in ERA, wins and strikeouts. His tally of 6.4 wins above replacement from FanGraphs was easily the most in the majors this year, with Tarik Skubal of the Tigers second at 5.9 fWAR.

Despite his previous dominance, this is actually Sale’s first time taking home the hardware. Per MLB’s Sarah Langs on X, Sale is the first pitcher to finish top five in Cy Young voting in five straight years, fall outside the top five for five straight years immediately after, followed by a return to the top five. He is also (X links from Langs) the first pitcher to have six previous top five finishes and later win the award, in addition to being one of the five oldest pitchers to win for the first time.

Sale got 26 of the first place votes (full vote tallies from the BBWAA), with the other four going to Wheeler, who logged exactly 200 innings over 32 starts with a 2.57 ERA. Skenes already won Rookie of the Year award earlier this week but this further cements what an amazing season he had. Other pitchers getting votes were Dylan Cease, Shota Imanaga, Logan Webb, Michael King, Hunter Greene, Ryan Helsley, Cristopher Sánchez, Reynaldo López, Sean Manaea and Aaron Nola.

Tigers Sign Jahmai Jones To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have signed infielder/outfielder Jahmai Jones to a minor league deal, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. The ACES client will receive an invite to major league spring training and will make a salary of $810K if he cracks the big league roster.

The 27-year-old Jones was once a notable prospect but he hasn’t yet had an extended big league opportunity, despite generally performing well in the minors. He spent most of 2024 with the Yankees, though in a fairly limited role. They claimed him off waivers from the Brewers in February, but he had exhausted his option years and needed to remain on the roster. The Yanks kept him around for over four months but only gave him 47 plate appearances in that time. He was outrighted off the roster in early August.

Jones now has a poor .198/.257/.278 batting line in his big league career, though in 137 plate appearances scattered across four different seasons. After being outrighted by the Yanks, he produced a robust line of .304/.390/.490 in 34 Triple-A games, leading to a 131 wRC+. This gives him a line of .276/.408/.471 over 564 Triple-A plate appearances in the past two years.

He hasn’t been able to bring that kind of production to the majors yet, but there’s no harm in a minor league deal and he’s a sensible guy to take a shot on. He was a second-round pick of the Angels in 2015 and got some top 100 prospect love in the years after that. Despite the many years that have transpired since then, he is still fairly young and has continued to put up good numbers on the farm.

He would be a fine fit for just about any club on a minor league deal but he could be an especially good fit for the Tigers, since he’s a right-handed hitter who has mostly played second base and the outfield in his career. The Tigers have a lefty swinger at the keystone in Colt Keith while their outfield mix includes lefties Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows and Akil Baddoo. They also have Jace Jung likely to be at third, Trey Sweeney at shortstop and Zach McKinstry in a utility role, each of those three also being left-handed.

Perhaps there’s a path for Jones to serve as a right-handed complement to that group in a multi-positional role. If he eventually cracks the roster, he is out of options but has less than a year of service time, meaning he can be cheaply retained for future seasons as well.

Cubs Acquire Matt Thaiss

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The Angels announced that they have traded catcher Matt Thaiss to the Cubs for cash considerations. The Halos had designated him for assignment last week. The Cubs have designated right-hander Trey Wingenter for assignment to open a roster spot, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune on X.

Thaiss, 30 in May, leaves the Angels for the first time in his professional career. He was a first-round pick of that club in 2016, getting taken 16th overall. He was a catcher in college but the Angels announced him as a corner infielder when they drafted him, clearly more interested in his bat.

As he worked his way up the minor leagues, he did indeed show that his offense could be an asset. He hit .279/.363/.445 for a 117 wRC+ across multiple minor league levels from 2016 to 2019. However, his major league work hasn’t been nearly as impressive. At this point, he has 771 big league plate appearances with a .208/.313/.342 line and 83 wRC+.

That production would be unacceptable for a corner infielder but not bad by backup catcher standards. The Halos often had a crowded mix of guys vying for playing time as the designated hitter or the corner spots over the years, such as Shohei Ohtani, Albert Pujols, Anthony Rendon, Jared Walsh and others. That prompted them to move Thaiss back behind the plate in 2021. Most metrics view Thaiss as a subpar defender back there, perhaps not surprising for a guy who spent several years away from that spot.

Though he’s been a passable backup to Logan O’Hoppe in recent years, the Angels decided to move on. After Travis d’Arnaud was let go by Atlanta, the Halos quickly swooped in and signed him to a two-year deal. That nudged Thaiss down to #3 on the catching chart. Since he’s out of options, they designated him for assignment, which led to today’s deal.

For the Cubs, he’s a sensible landing spot for now, as they have question marks behind the plate. They released Yan Gomes in June, Tomás Nido in August and then outrighted Christian Bethancourt in November. Prior to acquiring Thaiss, Miguel Amaya was the only catcher on their 40-man roster. It was reported back in August that they would be looking for catching help this winter.

Amaya performed well down the stretch for the Cubs but was subpar for the season overall. He’s out of options and not far removed from being a top prospect, so he probably has a decent grip on a roster spot, but he’s far from established as a big leaguer. He has 170 major league games under his belt with a .227/.300/.357 batting line and 87 wRC+.

Perhaps the Cubs envision a platoon arrangement, since Amaya hits from the right side and Thaiss from the left, though Amaya has reverse splits in his short career so far. It’s also possible that the Cubs will sign a more established catcher and try to pass Thaiss through waivers later in the offseason. Danny Jansen, Kyle Higashioka and Carson Kelly are just some of the many backstops available in free agency.

Perhaps Moisés Ballesteros will be a factor as well, as he is considered one of the top 100 prospects in the game and has reached Triple-A. However, he has only 68 games at that level and is still just 21 years old, so keeping him on the farm a little longer is also possible.

Time will tell if the Cubs continue addressing their catching mix throughout the winter, but for now, they’ve taken a flier on a sensible stopgap. For what was surely a small amount of money in baseball terms, they’ve added an experienced catcher with an intriguing past pedigree, without doing anything to block the possibility of other moves down the road.

Wingenter, 31, was just claimed off waivers in August and made five appearances for the Cubs late in the 2024 season. They could have retained him for next season via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $1.4MM salary next year. It seems they didn’t plan on doing that, so they have sent him into DFA limbo today. They will have a few days to see if there’s any trade interest, but he could end up back on waivers or non-tendered later this week. In his 95 1/3 major league innings, he has a 5.66 earned run average, 30.5% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate.

Sandro Fabian Reportedly Agrees To Three-Year Deal With NPB’s Hiroshima Toyo Carp

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Outfielder Sandro Fabian has reportedly agreed to join the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, per details from Francys Romero and Mike Rodriguez (X links). It’s a three-year pact worth $5.8MM, plus $600K of incentives. Fabian was on the 40-man roster of the Texas Rangers, who have apparently received some release fee from the Carp to let Fabian go, though the exact value of that hasn’t been reported. Once this all becomes official, the Rangers’ 40-man roster count will drop from 39 to 38.

Fabian, 27 in March, was an international signing of the Giants out of the Dominican Republic back in 2014. Baseball America considered him one of the top prospects in that system from 2017 to 2020 as he performed well in the lower levels of the minors, but he struggled more as he climbed the ladder. His prospect stock dimmed and he reached minor league free agency after 2021, having not climbed higher than Double-A.

In each of the past three offseasons, he has signed a minor league deal with the Rangers. He did finally get to make his major league debut late in 2024, getting selected to the roster in the first week of September. He went hitless in five plate appearances over three games.

For the most part, Fabian has been upper level depth for the Rangers. He has taken 1,093 plate appearances in 265 games at the Triple-A level, keeping his strikeout rate down to 15.3% but only walking at a 6.9% clip. In the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League, his .272/.332/.482 batting line over that time translates to a wRC+ of 95.

His grip on his roster spot was likely tenuous and he was probably looking at more time in a minor league depth role if he had stayed in North America. Even if he earned himself a regular big league job, it would have taken him three years to get enough service time to qualify for arbitration. By heading to Japan, he is leaving affiliated ball but jumping to a higher level of earning power far more quickly.

Perhaps that will lead to another MLB opportunity down the road. After three years with the Carp, Fabian will be heading into his age-30 season. If he flourishes overseas, he can look for a new deal that would allow him to return to North American ball.

Athletics, Seth Brown Avoid Arbitration

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The Athletics and first baseman/outfielder Seth Brown have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year contract for the 2025 season, per a club announcement. While the team didn’t announce financial components of the deal, The Associated Press reports that Brown will make a $2.7MM salary.

Brown, 32, looked as though he was no longer in the A’s plans midseason when he was passed through waivers unclaimed. He accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A, so as not to forfeit the remainder of last year’s $2.6MM salary, but Brown caught fire in the minors and hit his way back up to the big leagues in short order.

At the time of his removal from the 40-man roster, Brown was hitting just .189/.251/.306 through 195 plate appearances. He erupted with a .403/.416/.736 slash and seven homers in 77 Triple-A plate appearances, however, and found himself back on the big league roster less than a month later. From the time he returned to the majors through season’s end, Brown hit .271/.312/.448 in a sample of 205 plate appearances that was nearly identical to his early-season struggles.

That proved enough to keep Brown in the team’s plans for at least another year, it seems. The lefty-swinging slugger figures to again split his time between first base and the outfield corners, while Brent Rooker takes the majority of plate appearances at designated hitter. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a $3.8MM salary for Brown in free agency, though deals hammered out prior to the non-tender deadline (known as “pre-tender” deals) often come with salaries south of projections. Teams have more leverage prior to the non-tender deadline and thus will frequently present offers in what’s effectively “take it or leave it” fashion, with the “leave it” option representing a non-tender.

Brown has now had consecutive disappointing seasons at the plate, but he popped 45 homers in 261 games with the A’s from 2021-22. He’s a .225/.289/.426 hitter (102 wRC+) in 1640 plate appearances dating back to the 2021 season.

Rockies Re-Sign Jacob Stallings

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The Rockies announced today that they have re-signed catcher Jacob Stallings to a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2026. Stallings, a Bo McKinnis client, is reportedly guaranteed $2.5MM. He’ll make a $2MM salary next season and is guaranteed at least a $500K buyout on a $2MM mutual option for 2026. The buyout price would increase by $150K if Stallings plays in 80 games at catcher. It’d climb another $150K with Stallings’ 90th catching appearance and $200K if he appears in 100 games behind the plate. Colorado’s 40-man roster is now full.

It’s not a surprise to see the two sides reunite. The Rockies signed Stallings a year ago and he went on to have a solid season. It seems he enjoyed his time at altitude, as it was reported in September that the two sides had mutual interest in a reunion. Though he wanted to come back, he turned down a $1.5MM mutual option for 2025 in favor of a $500K buyout. He was presumably hoping to secure a guarantee larger than the $1MM difference between those two numbers and has indeed done so.

Stallings got into 82 games for the Rox in 2024, stepping to the plate 281 times. He hit nine home runs and drew walks at a solid 9.6% clip. His .263/.357/.453 batting line translated to a 114 wRC+, his best offensive showing in any season in which he took at least 20 plate appearances.

The defensive reviews were a bit more mixed. He had racked up 42 Defensive Runs Saved from 2019 to 2021, the highest of any catcher in the majors for that time frame. But that metric has soured on him, giving him a grade of -15 over the past three seasons, including a -6 grade in 2024. Outlets like Baseball Prospectus and Statcast have considered him to be an excellent blocker in recent years but not so great in terms of framing or controlling the running game.

While Stallings may not be a perfect player, perhaps he’s the right guy for the Rockies and their current circumstances. Drew Romo may be viewed as the club’s long-term solution behind the plate but he’s not quite there yet. Selected 35th overall in the 2020 draft, he is just 23 years old and is still a work in progress. He has made his major league debut but hit poorly in just 16 games.

Perhaps Romo will get a lengthier big league audition in 2025, with the 35-year-old Stallings around as a veteran mentor/backup. Or if Romo is getting more seasoning in Triple-A, a level at which he has less than 100 games of experience, then perhaps Stallings will get more big league playing time. Utility player Hunter Goodman is the third catcher on the roster and he could be a factor if Romo is down on the farm, or perhaps the Rockies could bring in another veteran.

Either way, the club should be playing the long game. They just wrapped up their sixth straight losing season, with more than 100 losses in each of the past two campaigns. There are some positive developments on the roster but they can afford to give Romo some time to get his feet wet and get accustomed to the big leagues. Since player development doesn’t always go in a straight line, it makes sense to have a vet like Stallings around to help the process or simply step in whenever Romo might be more focused on things like training, developing relationships with pitchers or any of the other facets of being a big league catcher.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first reported the salary terms. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the possibility to max out at $3MM, while The Associated Press reported the escalator terms.

MLBTR Podcast: The Rays’ Stadium Plans, Diamond Sports, And Some Offseason Rumors

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • If the Red Sox acquire Garrett Crochet from the White Sox, will they still go after top free agents? (13:15)
  • Could the Reds and Royals line up on a trade involving Jonathan India and Brady Singer or some other Kansas City pitching? (17:25)
  • On the Top 50, none of the writers predicted the Orioles to sign top free agents. Are you underestimating David Rubenstein’s intention to speed up the timeline? (26:05)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Padres Sign Trenton Brooks To Minor League Deal

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The Padres have signed first baseman Trenton Brooks to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He will presumably also receive an invite to major league spring training.

Brooks, 29, has a long minor league track record showing his strong plate discipline. Over the past four years, he took 1,691 plate appearances on the farm with a 13.8% walk rate and 16.4% strikeout rate, both of those being much stronger than average. However, he only hit 55 home runs in that stretch, a fairly light tally for a first baseman. Still, that led to a combined .279/.383/.470 batting line and 119 wRC+ for that stretch.

He was finally able to parlay that into a major league debut in 2024, though he ultimately got a very limited look from the Giants. He was on the 40-man for less than a month, getting into 12 games and slashing just .120/.241/.120 in his 29 plate appearances. He was sent through waivers unclaimed and outrighted off the roster, eventually electing free agency at season’s end.

The Padres have Luis Arráez and Jake Cronenworth as first base options, but Cronenworth might be covering second base if Xander Bogaerts is going to move back to shortstop with Ha-Seong Kim now a free agent. The club doesn’t have an obvious designated hitter at the moment, so there’s room for another bat in the lineup. Arráez is also a speculative trade candidate since he’s entering his final year of club control with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a hefty $14.6MM salary next year, a notable expense for a club with known budgetary limitations.

Brooks can provide the club with some upper level depth at the position and try to force his way back to the majors. If he manages to do so and finds more success this time, he still has a full slate of options and just a handful of service days. That means he can be cheaply retained into the future, which would be appealing for any club but perhaps more so for the Friars as they have had to scale back payroll recently.

Giants Designate Kai-Wei Teng For Assignment

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The Giants announced that they have selected right-handers Carson Seymour and Carson Ragsdale to their 40-man roster, protecting them from being available in the Rule 5 draft. They had one roster vacancy but opened another by designating righty Kai-Wei Teng for assignment.

Teng, 25, signed with the Twins as an international amateur out of Taiwan prior to the 2018 season. He was traded for the Giants the following year in the deal that shipped right-hander Sam Dyson to Minnesota at that year’s trade deadline. Teng slowly climbed the minor league ladder with the Giants, though he did so with generally middling results at each level along the way. Back in March, the righty made his big league debut just after Opening Day. He ultimately made just four multi-inning relief appearances in the majors, however, and struggled badly with a 9.82 ERA in 11 innings of work. Command was the right-hander’s primary issue, as he actually recorded more walks (eight) than strikeouts (seven) during his brief stay on the big league roster.

Teng was optioned back to the minors in mid-April, but unfortunately did not see his numbers improve when he headed to Triple-A. He split his time at the level between the club’s rotation and bullpen, with 13 starts and ten relief appearances. Things did not go well for Teng, however, as he was torched to the tune of a 8.60 ERA across 75 1/3 innings of work. He struck out just 17% of opponents at the level this year while walking 12.3%, leaving him with a strikeout-to-walk ratio that would be untenable for any pitcher. Given Teng’s deep struggles, it’s not necessarily a surprise that the Giants decided to part ways with the righty. San Francisco will now have one week to attempt to trade the righty or place him on waivers, where he would be available for any of the league’s 29 other clubs to claim.

Teng’s departure makes room on the 40-man roster for the additions of Seymour and Ragsdale. Ragsdale, 26, is a starting pitcher who missed the majority of the 2022 and ’23 seasons due to injury but returned strong in 2024. The right-hander began the season with his first taste of upper-minors action at the Double-A level and excelled, pitching to a 3.49 ERA in 67 innings of work across 14 starts. He struck out an excellent 33.1% of opponents faced, though he was held back somewhat by an elevated 11.5% walk rate. Even so, that was more than enough to earn Ragsdale a mid-season call-up to Triple-A. Unfortunately, Triple-A was not quite as forgiving for the right-hander as Double-A. He struggled in 13 appearances (12 starts) at the level with a 5.03 ERA in 53 2/3 innings of work. His walk rate largely held steady at 11%, but his strikeout rate dipped to just 24.1% at the highest level of the minors.

Seymour, meanwhile, won’t turn 26 until next month. The right-hander was acquired by the Giants in the deal that sent Darin Ruf to the Mets and actually struggled through something of a down season at Triple-A this year, as he surrendered a 4.82 ERA in 134 1/3 innings of work. He struck out 22.1% of opponents while walking 10.1%. Prior to his struggles this year, however, Seymour had pitched to strong results in back-to-back seasons. In a 2022 season split between the Mets and Giants organizations, Seymour posted a 3.08 ERA in 111 innings between the Single-A and High-A levels while striking out 29.3% of opponents. The righty posted slightly diminished but still solid numbers in his first full season with the Giants last year at Double-A, as he pitched to a 3.99 ERA in 112 2/3 innings of work with a 24.4% strikeout rate.

Phillies Outright John McMillon

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The Phillies announced that they have selected right-handers Moisés Chace, Mick Abel and Jean Cabrera to their 40-man roster. Fellow righty John McMillon cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. The 40-man roster count is now 39. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN had the Chace move on on X earlier today.

Chace, 22 in June, was an international signing of the Orioles who was flipped to the Phillies a few months ago when the O’s acquired left-hander Gregory Soto. Chace has posted some big strikeout numbers but also given out his fair share of walks during his time in the minors. He has logged 230 1/3 innings thus far with a 4.42 earned run average, 31.6% strikeout rate and 14.5% walk rate.

The control is clearly a work in progress but the Phillies are understandably intrigued by the punchouts. Baseball America currently lists him the #15 prospect in the club’s system, heaping praise on his fastball while noting that he also has a slider, sweeper and a changeup in his repertoire.

He hasn’t yet reached Triple-A and only has four starts at the Double-A level, so he likely won’t be an immediate option for their rotation. However, the Phils didn’t want to take the risk that some other club would try to stash him on their roster next year, so they will protect him from Rule 5 selection today. If he can better harness his arsenal, he will creep into the rotation picture in time.

Currently, the starting mix includes Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suárez, Cristopher Sánchez and Taijuan Walker. Suarez only has one year of club control remaining, which will open one spot. Walker has two years left on his contract but he’s been bumped from the rotation before and the Phils could look into moving him. Wheeler has three years left until he’s slated for free agency. Chace and other prospects like Andrew Painter will look to position themselves to step into those openings when they arrive.

Abel will also be in that mix. He was Philadelphia’s first-round pick from 2020, getting selected 15th overall. Since then, he has posted big strikeout numbers but also given out plenty of walks. He has 375 minor league innings under his belt at this point with a 4.78 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate and 13.3% walk rate. BA still likes him enough to rank him 12th in the system but he’ll obviously need to rein in his stuff if he’s to unlock his potential.

Cabrera, 23, was an international signing out of Venezuela. He has thrown 287 minor league innings thus far with a 3.76 ERA, 25.4% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate. He will eventually be a part of the club’s rotation picture but is more of a long-term play. He has yet to reach Triple-A and has less than 30 innings at the Double-A level.

McMillon, 27 in January, was just claimed off waivers a couple of weeks ago. He has flashed some strikeout stuff but also poor control so far. In 130 2/3 innings in the minors, he has a 4.75 ERA, 35.3% strikeout rate but a 17.8% walk rate. Since this is his first career outright and he has less than three years of service time, he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency, therefore providing the Phils with some non-roster depth.

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