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Angels, Dakota Hudson Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Angels and right-hander Dakota Hudson have agreed to a minor league deal, per Aram Leighton of Just Baseball (X link). The righty will presumably receive an invite to big league spring training as well.

Hudson, 30, is coming off a rough season. He signed a one-year deal with the Rockies with a $1.5MM guarantee but wasn’t able to give the club much in return for that investment. He made 18 starts and threw 89 innings but allowed 6.17 earned runs per nine. He struck out just 12.1% of batters faced, giving out walks at a higher rate of 12.4%. His 52.3% ground ball rate was typically strong for him but it wasn’t enough for him to cling to a job even in the injury-marred Colorado rotation.

In July, Hudson was designated for assignment and sent through waivers unclaimed. He was later added back to the roster in August but quickly wound up on the injured list due to elbow inflammation and finished the season there. He was outrighted off the roster again in October and elected free agency.

Once upon a time, Hudson seemed like a solid rotation option for the Cardinals. Over the 2019 and 2020 seasons, he tossed 213 2/3 innings with a 3.24 ERA, 18.4% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate and 56.9% ground ball rate. But Tommy John surgery wiped out most of his 2021 season and he hasn’t been able to bounce back since. His 221 innings in the 2022-23 seasons resulted in a 4.64 ERA with his strikeout rate falling to 12.9%. His 52.5% ground ball in that time was still above league average but a drop from his own previous track record.

For the Angels, rotation depth has been an ongoing issue for years. 2024 was no exception, as the club’s starters posted a collective 4.97 ERA, which was better than only the Marlins and Rockies. They subtracted from their group by sending Griffin Canning to Atlanta in the Jorge Soler deal. Patrick Sandoval was also non-tendered after requiring elbow surgery in the summer.

This offseason, they have signed Yusei Kikuchi and Kyle Hendricks, adding to a group that also includes José Soriano and Tyler Anderson. The roster also features Reid Detmers, Chase Silseth, Caden Dana, Sam Aldegheri, Jack Kochanowicz and others but Hudson will give them a bit of non-roster depth and try to get back on track after a few challenging years.

Roki Sasaki Officially Posted For MLB Clubs

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Right-hander Roki Sasaki has been officially posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, per Jon Morosi of MLB Network (X link) and Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (X link). That opens a 45-day window for Sasaki and his representatives to talk to MLB clubs, meaning he will need to have a deal in place by January 23 or else he will return to the Marines.

Since Sasaki is under 25 years old, having just turned 23, he is considered an amateur under MLB rules. As such, he must be signed as part of the international bonus pool system. The 2024 international signing period ends on December 15 and the 2025 period starts on January 15. All reporting has suggested that Sasaki will wait to sign until the new period starts up and each club gets a fresh pool of spending money, so he seems destined to sign somewhere between January 15 and 23rd, though the talks can now officially begin.

It seems to be a lock that Sasaki will be coming to the majors next year, the only question is who he will play for. Money won’t be the primary factor, as each club will be able to offer a roughly similar signing bonus. As laid out by Ben Badler of Baseball America, each club has a bonus pool in the $5-8MM range. Teams can trade for more pool money but can’t increase their initial allotment by more than 60%.

If money were Sasaki’s motivation, he would have waited another two years to make this move. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was posted after his 25th birthday and was able to secure a $325MM guarantee from the Dodgers, but Sasaki has insisted on making the move now because he presumably just wants to test his mettle at the world’s top level as soon as possible.

He also surely knows that he will eventually be rewarded as long as he keeps pitching well. Shohei Ohtani also came to the majors as an amateur and had to settle for a small bonus with the Angels, but he flourished and eventually got his big paycheck from the Dodgers once he accrued six years of big league service time.

Given those parameters, Sasaki will likely be deciding his new club based on other factors. It has been suggested by some observers that the Dodgers are a favorite, given that the franchise has had success in general but also especially with pitchers. It’s also possible that the presence of Ohtani and Yamamoto might be nice for Sasaki as he makes the move to a new country and new culture. Some have also suggested the Padres as a strong contender since Sasaki reportedly has a strong relationship with Yu Darvish and might prefer to be in a market away from Ohtani and Yamamoto, giving him a greater chance to step into a spotlight and parlay that into sponsorships opportunities while his direct earning power is relatively low. He may have other preferences based on geography or a team’s competitive outlook, though those can only be guessed.

No club can be officially ruled out, however, given the cheap sticker price and Sasaki’s quality as a pitcher. He has allowed only 2.10 earned runs per nine innings over his NPB career, striking out 32.7% of batters faced while only giving out walks 5.7% of the time. There are some slight workload concerns since Sasaki has had some injuries and never thrown 130 innings in a season, but any club would still love to take a chance on him for the small price of a few million dollars.

Whoever ultimately lands Sasaki, it could lead to domino effects that impact other clubs. MLB teams generally commit their bonus pools years in advance via verbal agreements. Players in countries like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela aren’t allowed to sign until they are 16 years old but they often have handshake deals worked out with clubs years in advance. Whichever club agrees to sign Sasaki, even for a bonus of just a few million, might have to renege on a few of those verbal agreements. That would be an awful situation for those players but could lead to them suddenly becoming available for other clubs. That could create further domino effects if some clubs then back out of their own verbal agreements in order to pivot to the newly available players.

At Baseball America, Badler recently took a look at the chaos that could ensue as the Sasaki situation plays out. That will have to wait, as it likely won’t be known for over a month which team Sasaki will choose.

Dodgers, Teoscar Hernández Reportedly Facing Gap In Negotiations

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The Dodgers and outfielder Teoscar Hernández have interest in a reunion after a successful season together but no deal has come together yet. Alden González of ESPN reports that the two sides have been negotiating for weeks but have been “unable to bridge the gap.”

Hernández, now 32, was a free agent a year ago on the heels of a down season. After hitting .283/.333/.519 with the Blue Jays over the 2020-22 seasons for a 132 wRC+, he was traded to the Mariners prior to the 2023 season and went on to hit .258/.305/.435 for a 106 wRC+. Seattle let him hit the open market without a qualifying offer and Hernández ended up lingering unsigned into January. He did receive a two-year, $28MM offer from the Red Sox but decided to bet on himself by signing a one-year deal with the Dodgers which paid him $23.5MM, though with deferrals.

The move worked out well for both sides. Hernández put up a line of .272/.339/.501 and a 134 wRC+ this year, back on his previous pace, making his lone season in Seattle look like a blip. He also hit well in 16 postseason games as the Dodgers went on to win the World Series. While celebrating that title, he openly expressed his desire to return to the Dodgers.

Last month, Jeff Passan of ESPN wrote that Hernández could be one of the first big names to sign this winter, but that hasn’t come to pass. Given that Hernández had a frustrating stint in free agency last time, it would make sense for him to desire a quick resolution this time around. But given his stronger platform year, he would naturally want fair market value and wasn’t just going to accept any deal put in front of him.

The path back to Los Angeles may have become a little foggier recently. The Dodgers just signed Michael Conforto yesterday, adding another corner outfielder to the roster. The club reportedly still has interest in Hernández even with Conforto in the mix but it may decrease their urgency. Their current outfield projection would likely see Conforto in one corner, Tommy Edman in center and Andy Pages in another corner, with James Outman around as depth and prospect Dalton Rushing lurking in Triple-A. Edman can also play the middle infield but the Dodgers are seemingly set there with Mookie Betts, Miguel Rojas and Gavin Lux. Using the designated hitter spot isn’t an option with Shohei Ohtani there nearly every day.

Conforto, Outman and Rushing are all lefties, so perhaps there’s room for Hernández in a platoon role, but he’s surely looking for more than that. After his strong bounceback season in 2024, MLBTR predicted he could land a three-year, $60MM deal.

The gap between the Dodgers and Hernández could perhaps open the door for other suitors to come in. The Juan Soto frenzy just came to an end, with the Mets ending up in the winner’s circle. The Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays were reportedly the finalists, so those clubs could now look to alternatives and all three have been connected to Hernández. The free agent outfield market also still features Anthony Santander, Jurickson Profar, Max Kepler and others, though Soto, Conforto and Tyler O’Neill have come off the board in recent days. The trade market could feature Cody Bellinger, Lane Thomas, Wilyer Abreu and others.

If Hernández ends up elsewhere, the Dodgers will receive compensation since he rejected a qualifying offer from them. Since the Dodgers paid the competitive balance tax last year, they would only receive modest compensation, a pick after the fourth round of the upcoming draft. The signing team would be subject to penalties, though the exact nature of the forfeitures would depend if that club paid the competitive balance tax in 2024 or is a revenue sharing recipient.

Guardians To Re-Sign Shane Bieber

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Right-hander Shane Bieber is coming back to the Guardians. He and the club have reportedly agreed to a deal with a $10MM salary in 2025, with a $16MM player option for 2026 that comes with a $4MM buyout. That makes it a $26MM guarantee over two years but Bieber can potentially return to free agency after banking $14MM in year one. He reportedly turned down more money with other clubs in order to return to Cleveland. The righty is represented by Rosenhaus Sports Representation.

Bieber, 30 in May, returns to the only organization he’s ever known. The contract is a reflection of his current status, as he underwent Tommy John surgery in April, meaning he will miss at least part of the upcoming season. This deal affords him the chance to return to the mound in 2025 and establish his health. If his performance can return anywhere near his previously elite levels, he can decide to return to the open market. Though if he hits any kind of setback or doesn’t quite bounce back immediately, he can bank the extra $12MM and stick around another year.

Whether he can indeed get back in form is the big question. Bieber’s ceiling is well established, as he won the American League Cy Young award in 2020. He dominated the shortened season, making 12 starts that year with a 1.63 earned run average. He struck out 41.1% of batters faced, walked 7.1% of opponents and got grounders at a 48.4% rate.

But things have mostly gone downhill since then, even before the surgery. In 2021, his numbers dipped, which wasn’t exactly unexpected as maintaining his 2020 stats over a full season would have been almost impossible. His 3.17 ERA and 33.1% strikeout rate were both off of his previous season but still strong numbers. He missed about three months due to a right shoulder subscapularis strain.

In 2022, he stayed healthy enough to make 31 starts and log 200 innings with a 2.88 ERA, but with more concerning signs elsewhere. He averaged just 91.3 miles per hour on his fastball that year, after mostly being in the 93-94 range in prior years. His strikeout rate also dipped to 25%, still a bit above league average but a drop for him personally. In 2023, he missed time due to right elbow inflammation, which seems in hindsight like a precursor to his surgery. He did make 21 starts on the year but with a 3.80 ERA, 20.1% strikeout rate and similar velocity to the year prior.

Going into 2024, his name was in plenty of trade rumors. The Guardians often trade players as their salary grows and they get closer to free agency, doing so with players like Francisco Lindor, Carlos Carrasco and Corey Kluber somewhat recently. In hindsight, perhaps the Guards should have pulled the trigger on a deal, but maybe they didn’t receive substantial offers on the heels of all the red flags in 2022 and 2023.

For a brief moment, hanging onto Bieber seemed like a brilliant move. He made two starts at the beginning of 2024, tossing six shutout innings in each of them and recording 20 strikeouts in those 12 innings. His velocity came back slightly, with his fastball averaging 92.3 mph in his first start of the year. But it dipped to 91.6 mph in the second start and the news of his surgery dropped before he could make a third.

Now he’ll be looking to come back from the lengthy Tommy John recovery process, as well as the concerning seasons that preceded the operation. It’s now been a long time since Bieber had his best stuff over a full season, arguably since 2019. The shortened 2020 season was obviously outside of his control but all but one season since then has seen him miss significant time. In the one season where he stayed on the mound, his stuff was clearly diminished.

All that makes this an interesting gamble for the Guardians, as this is a fairly notable expenditure for them. They don’t generally spend much in free agency, particularly on the pitching side. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, in the last 15 years, this is the first time they’ve given a pitcher more than $7MM. That’s partially a testament to their ability to develop their own pitching but they’ve also only given four position players a larger guarantee than this in that time.

Per RosterResource, the Guards are now projected for a payroll of $107MM next year, already more than what they spent in 2024. They could perhaps drop that by trading someone like Josh Naylor or Lane Thomas but this Bieber deal is a decent chunk of the budget either way.

It’s a risky proposition for those parameters. Given that recovery from Tommy John surgery normally takes 14 months or longer, the Guards might only get half a season or so from Bieber in 2025. If he hits a setback of any kind, it could be less than that. Even if he is back on a big league mound by June, it’s no guarantee that he’ll be in good form.

The upside play is that Bieber comes back to something resembling an ace. The Guards install him into their second half rotation and then, ideally, as a key piece of their postseason rotation. At that point, he would decline his player option and they could issue him a qualifying offer, which will probably be in the $22MM range. Assuming he declines that and goes out looking for a major deal, they would recoup draft pick compensation.

On the other end of the spectrum are the scenarios where Bieber isn’t quite fully healthy or simply isn’t as good as he was before, in which case he sticks around for another year at an even higher salary than in 2025.

It’s a risk the Guardians are willing to take, which is perhaps due to the respect that the organization has for him, but it’s also perhaps a reflection of the current rotation situation. The Guardians managed to win the Central in 2024, but the Bieber-less rotation was the weakest part of the roster. They struggled to find viable solutions there for much of the year, finding success on the backs of a decent offense and elite bullpen.

Pitchers like Carlos Carrasco, Triston McKenzie, Gavin Williams and Logan Allen either struggled or were injured or both. Tanner Bibee was the club’s only starter who has consistently healthy and performing well all year long. Matthew Boyd was an excellent midseason addition, coming in after recovering from his own Tommy John surgery, but he became a free agent at season’s end and has a deal in place with the Cubs.

Next year’s Opening Day rotation for Cleveland currently consists of Bibee and many question marks. Guys like Williams, McKenzie and Allen are still in the mix but coming off those aforementioned difficulties. Journeyman Ben Lively is on the roster, as are fairly unproven guys like Joey Cantillo and Doug Nikhazy. The Guards probably have more to do in upgrading that group but they will hope that Bieber can charge in like a proverbial white knight at some point in the middle of 2025 to save the day.

The aforementioned Boyd gives a rough template of what Bieber and the Guards will be hoping for next year. Boyd posted a 2.72 ERA in eight starts down the stretch and then had three more good outings in the postseason. That was enough to get him a two-year, $29MM deal, but Bieber has a path to earning far more than that. Boyd is going into his age-34 season whereas Bieber will be going into his age-31 campaign in 2026. Boyd’s injury track record is also more extensive than Bieber’s and Bieber has the more impressive early career numbers.

As such, with a strong finish in 2025, Bieber could position himself to earn far more than Boyd just did, joining 2025-26 free agent starters such as Dylan Cease,  Zach Eflin, Zac Gallen, Michael King, Seth Lugo, and Framber Valdez. Though that’s just one of many potential scenarios in front of him and the Guardians in the year to come.

Buster Olney of ESPN (X link) first reported that the two sides were in agreement. Robert Murray of FanSided (X link) first relayed that it was a one-year deal plus a player option. Jeff Passan of ESPN (X link) first had the dollar figures. Jon Heyman of The New York Post (X link) first relayed that Bieber had larger offers elsewhere.

Mariners Notes: Bellinger, Hoerner, Payroll

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The Mariners have been connected to a couple of Cubs recently, with recent rumors that they had discussed both infielder Nico Hoerner and first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times took a look at those talks and some other Mariner topics ahead of next week’s Winter Meetings.

Both players are sensible targets for the Mariners, who have infield vacancies and have been trying to cure their strikeout woes for a while. The club’s hitters were punched out at a 25.9% clip in 2023, with only the Twins having a higher rate that season. The M’s moved on from players like Teoscar Hernández, Eugenio Suárez and Jarred Kelenic in an attempt to improve this but the plan backfired. New additions like Mitch Garver, Mitch Haniger and Jorge Polanco all struggled with strikeouts themselves, so the M’s actually saw the team-wide rate jump to 26.8% in 2024, tied with the Rockies for the highest in the majors.

Hoerner has only been punched out in 12% of his plate appearances thus far. Bellinger has a higher career strikeout rate of 21.1% but he’s finished each of the past two seasons at 15.6%. Beyond the contact stuff, both players could also fit Seattle’s need for infielders. They turned down a club option on Polanco and non-tendered Josh Rojas. They traded Ty France last year and Justin Turner became a free agent at season’s end.

They are reportedly looking to add at both corners, supplementing shortstop J.P. Crawford. At second base, they are reportedly content enough with using Dylan Moore and Ryan Bliss until prospect Cole Young forces his way into the picture.

Luke Raley could be part of the first base solution, though he struggles against lefties and would need to be platooned. He could also be moved to outfield if the M’s add an everyday first baseman. They have interest in re-signing Turner or reuniting with old friend Carlos Santana, but it makes sense that they would consider Bellinger with the Cubs reportedly determined to move either him or Seiya Suzuki and free up their position player mix.

However, pre Jude’s report, the financial components of a Bellinger trade are a factor. The Mariners are reportedly planning to increase payroll next year, but not by much. Jude pegs their spending range at $150-155MM and says they have about $15MM of room at the moment. Cot’s Baseball Contracts pegged the club’s Opening Day payroll at $140MM last year, so that range tracks as a modest bump. RosterResource currently projects the club for a $146MM payroll next year, which seems to be just a tad higher than what Jude is suggesting.

Bellinger’s current contract wouldn’t fit into those parameters. He’s slated to make $27.5MM this year and then will have to decide between a $5MM buyout or a $25MM salary for 2026. As such, Jude suggests that the Mariners would have to include Haniger or Garver in the deal to balance out the money a bit. The Cubs wouldn’t have much interest in Haniger, since they already have an outfield surplus. On top of that, he’s coming off a poor season and is going to make $15.5MM next year.

Garver is a better fit for the Cubs since his primary defensive position is catcher, a spot they are looking to upgrade. However, he’s been injured quite often and become more of a designated hitter over time. He’s also coming off a rough campaign and will make $11.5MM next year, plus a $1MM buyout on a 2026 mutual option.

Perhaps the contract situation will stand in the way of a deal coming together. There’s also Bellinger’s inconsistency and opt-out situation to consider. After some rough seasons where Bellinger was seemingly held back by injuries, he had a nice bounceback in 2023. He hit 26 home runs, slashed .307/.356/.525 and stole 20 bases, leading FanGraphs to credit him with 4.4 wins above replacement. But he couldn’t repeat that in 2024, producing a .266/.325/.426 line while stealing just nine bases and spending less time in center field due to the emergence of Pete Crow-Armstrong. His fWAR tally was just 2.2 this year, half of the prior year despite playing in the same number of games.

Bellinger declined to trigger an opt-out in his contract at the end of that middling season but has another opt-out next year. That makes him a tricky gamble for any acquiring club. The best case scenario is that you get him back in good form and he leaves after year one, but even that scenario costs $32.5MM. The downside is that he doesn’t get back to that level and sticks around as an overpaid part of the 2026 roster.

As for Hoerner, it was recently reported that the Mariners had discussed him with the Cubs, but it wasn’t clear how interested they were. Today, Jude says the M’s “covet” Hoerner, so it seems the interest is real from Seattle’s end.

He would be an interesting fit as he is mostly a glove-first player. He has hit .278/.338/.381 in his career for a 102 wRC+. But thanks to his excellent defense and baserunning, he was been worth roughly 4-5 fWAR in each of the past three seasons.

He came up as a shortstop but has been mostly playing second base in deference to Dansby Swanson. He’s generally perceived as capable of returning to shortstop on another club, but the Mariners already have Crawford. Unless the M’s have designs on moving Crawford, then it seems they view Hoerner as a good option to help with their uncertainty at third or perhaps second base.

In terms of salary, Hoerner is going to make $11.5MM next year and $12MM in 2026. That makes him a far better financial fit than Bellinger. Per Jude, the Cubs are looking for MLB-ready help whereas the Mariners would rather surrender prospects. There has been a lot of trade speculation around the Seattle rotation since it’s so strong but the depth is actually not great and president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto has said that surrendering a big league starter is “Plan Z”.

Orioles Outright Thaddeus Ward

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The Orioles announced that right-hander Thaddeus Ward has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. There was no previous reporting that he had been removed from the 40-man roster, so this move drops their count to 37.

Ward, 28 in January, has never pitched for the Orioles. He was just claimed off waivers from the Nationals at the start of November but has now been bumped from his roster spot just over a month later.

Once upon a time, he was a notable prospect in the Red Sox’ system but he was left unprotected in the 2022 Rule 5 draft. The Nats grabbed him and kept him on the roster for the entire 2023 season. He didn’t pitch especially well, posting a 6.37 earned run average in his 26 relief appearances, but the Nationals likely didn’t care much. They were rebuilding that year and were presumably happy to obtain Ward’s full rights, even if it meant suffering through that subpar performance.

With his Rule 5 restrictions gone in 2024, the Nats were able to send him to the minors, but the numbers were again uninspiring. He made 28 Triple-A starts this year with a 5.64 ERA. His 19.3% strikeout rate and 17% walk rate were both a few ticks away from average. As mentioned, they put him on waivers, which is when Baltimore grabbed him.

The O’s are surely hoping to get Ward back to the form he showed prior to his Rule 5 selection. Way back in 2019, he threw 126 1/3 innings across 25 minor league starts, split between Single-A and High-A. He had a 2.14 ERA that year, striking out 29.9% of batters while giving out walks at a 10.9% clip. The minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020 and then Ward didn’t pitch much in 2021 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He was back on the mound in 2022 and able to toss 51 1/3 innings with a 2.28 ERA, mostly in Double-A.

That was enough for the Nats to take a shot on him but, as mentioned, the past two years with that club didn’t go especially well. The O’s clearly have some belief in him, as they’ve grabbed him off waivers and now bumped him into a non-roster depth role. If he can get back on track and earn his way back onto the roster, he still has two option years and exactly one year of service time.

Cubs To Hire Jose Javier As First Base Coach

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The Cubs are going to be adding Jose Javier to their coaching staff, per a report from Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. He will take over as first base coach, replacing Mike Napoli, who was let go at the end of the 2024 season.

Javier, 32, has spent most of his adult life in the Yankees’ system. As a player, he was in their minor leagues from 2010 to 2015 but never reached higher than the Single-A level. When his playing days ended, he moved into coaching, sticking with the Yankees and working in their minor league system.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell has been overhauling his coaching staff for next year. Early in October, the club parted ways with Napoli, assistant hitting coach Jim Adduci and bullpen coach Darren Holmes, then also parted with third base coach Willie Harris a few days later. All but Holmes were with the Cubs prior to Counsell being hired going into the 2024 season. Assistant pitching coach Daniel Moskos was later poached by the Marlins to be their pitching coach.

Casey Jacobson was promoted to replace Moskos. Quintin Berry is reportedly taking over at third for the Cubs and now Javier will take up a spot across the diamond from him. The club hasn’t yet announced its full coaching staff and it hasn’t been publicly reported who will take the remaining vacancies.

Mets Acquire Sean Harney From Rays

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The Rays announced that they have sent minor league right-hander Sean Harney to the Mets in exchange for international bonus pool money. The exact amount of bonus pool space heading to the Rays hasn’t yet been reported, but Will Sammon of The Athletic (X link) reports that this it’s part of the 2024 pool.

Under baseball’s international bonus pool system, each team has a hard-capped limit on how much they can spend on international amateurs each year. Broadly speaking, the big-spending teams get smaller pools and the smaller-market clubs gets more. Teams that don’t receive revenue sharing can also have their pool size reduced by signing players who rejected qualifying offers. A team is allowed to increase the size of its pool via trade, though they can only go to 60% beyond their initial allotment.

That pool space is normally used to sign teenagers out of countries like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, but this winter as a more notable player in the mix: Japanese hurler Roki Sasaki. Since he is going to be posted ahead of his 25th birthday, having just turned 23, he will be considered an amateur. Therefore, he will need to be signed within the international bonus system. That’s been a key storyline this winter so many fans might immediately connect this deal to Sasaki, but this trade is unrelated. It doesn’t signal that the Mets are uninterested in signing Sasaki nor that the Rays feel they have a shot at him. Sasaki has not yet been posted and all reports have suggested he will be available as part of the 2025 international signing period.

Speculatively speaking, it’s possible that the Mets didn’t use all of their 2024 pool money because they were waiting to see exactly when Sasaki would be posted. If he were available in the 2024 period, it would be good to have a bit of powder dry for that, but that won’t be happening. The 2024 international spending period ends very soon, on December 15, with the 2025 international period starting up on January 15 of next year.

With just a few days left to use that pool space, it seems the Mets didn’t have any plans for it and would rather have Harney. The Rays, meanwhile, must have some sort of idea for a late international signing. It’s unclear what those plans are but they seemingly felt like giving up Harney was worth it for that extra pool space, which they only have a few days to make use of.

Harney, 26, was selected by the Rays in the eighth round of the 2022 draft. Since then, he has been working his way up the minor league ladder, mostly in relief but with a few starts. He has thrown 124 2/3 innings on the farm, not having reached the Triple-A level yet. He has allowed 3.90 earned runs per nine innings, striking out 24% of batters faced while walking 8.5%.

John Mozeliak Discusses Cardinals’ Offseason Plans

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Getting a clear picture of the Cardinals’ plans for 2025 has been a bit of a moving target. Multiple reports over the past months indicated the club was looking at a sort of reset year, lowering the payroll as they pivot towards a focus on player development. As such, it seemed fair to expect that a number of veteran players on the roster would be available in trade. In recent weeks, that expectation has been softened, something that president of baseball operations John Mozeliak discussed with Katie Woo of The Athletic this week.

“We have every intention of fielding a good baseball team,” Mozeliak said. “It’s going to have a different profile, but we still have a lot of belief that some of our younger players will take that next step forward. We’re excited about what we have. Now, it is Dec. 5, and things can happen and things can change. But we’re still going into (next season) with optimism that it’ll be a fun baseball team to watch.”

It seems the plan is to walk a bit of a fine line. The Cards are definitely planning to take their foot of the gas pedal a bit, though maybe not to the degree that was initially expected. All signs point to the club spending a bit less on the 2025 roster, but they might just do that by being less aggressive. RosterResource already projects the club about $35MM below last year’s payroll, so the Cards could just avoid signings as opposed to actively looking to move players with notable contracts.

As of a few weeks ago, it seemed fair to expect players like Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, Ryan Helsley and others would be available. Helsley is an excellent reliever but is one year away from free agency, making it logical for them to explore trades. The other three are in their mid-30s and making eight-figure salaries. They all have no-trade protection but it was assumed by some that they would prefer to be traded to a competitor, rather than sticking out a rebuilding process.

But it was reported last month that Contreras actually wanted to stay in St. Louis and didn’t want to waive his no-trade clause. Since one of the goals of the 2025 season is for the club to evaluate players including catchers Iván Herrera and Pedro Pagés, Contreras will be moved to first base to replace free agent Paul Goldschmidt. Though the reporting was a bit less explicit with Gray, it seems he also had a desire to stay with the Cards next year.

Recent reporting has also suggested that they will hold onto Helsley. They could eventually trade him at the deadline but there is some risk there. Helsley could get hurt or put up less impressive numbers in the first half of 2025. Holding onto him now also prevents the acquiring team from making a qualifying offer after 2025, potentially reducing his trade value.

All in all, it seems the plan is to do something in between rebuilding and full-throated contending. The Cards are going to give playing time to some less proven players and hope for some internal developments. Woo lists Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, Alec Burleson, Pagés and Herrera as players who should get long auditions in 2025. That’s notable for Gorman as he seemed to fall out of favor this past year, getting optioned to the minors with Mozeliak seemingly delivering a harsh assessment of his situation at that time.

“Obviously, it’s a game of production up here and at some point, you’ve got to consistently produce, or we have to find someone who can,” Mozeliak said in August. “I mean, that’s what it ultimately comes down to, and these are hard messages to hear. It can be frustrating, but this is what ends up defining you. With our offensive struggles this year, I think you can strictly look at the inability for consistent performance, day in and day out.”

It seems much has changed since that comment, as Mozeliak now tells Woo that they’re hoping for Gorman to get 600 at-bats next year. He seemed to break out in 2023 with 27 home runs and a strong 11.4% walk rate, working around a high strikeout rate of 31.9%. But his walk rate fell to 8.5% in 2024 as his strikeout rate climbed even higher to 37.6%, leading to his aforementioned optioning to the minors.

The Cards have a few of these talented but unproven players and it seems the plan is to give them a chance to step forward. Walker also had a strong 2023 but fell off in 2024. Burleson had a nice breakout in 2024 that he’ll try to maintain. Nootbaar has been limited by injuries and still hasn’t played 120 games in a season. Pagés and Herrera have been stuck in backup duty behind Contreras.

The overarching plan then is to proverbially throw these players into the deep end and see how well they swim. The Cards believe that, with some success from that group and others, they could potentially compete in 2025. That mentality is leading them to hold onto players like Helsley for now and see how things go. Depending on how the players and the team perform in the first half of 2025 could then determine next steps.

The big remaining unknown seems to be Arenado, who seems to be more open to waiving his no-trade clause than Contreras or Gray, but he hasn’t demanded a trade and the Cardinals don’t seem hellbent on moving him. Whether he returns to St. Louis in 2025 could perhaps depend on what kind of offers are put on the table for him. On top of that, players like Erick Fedde, Steven Matz and Miles Mikolas are impending free agents. The club may be open to trading them depending on the offers, but like Helsley, they could also be retained as the club tries to see if contending in 2025 is possible.

Angels Re-Sign Bryce Teodosio To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have re-signed outfielder Bryce Teodosio to a minor league deal, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake for now but will presumably receive an invite to big league spring training.

Teodosio, 26 in June, got a brief stint on the club’s roster as the 2024 campaign was winding down. He was selected a week into September and got into five big league games for the club, striking out five times and getting one single in his 12 plate appearances. He then suffered a right middle finger fracture and landed on the injured list for the final weeks of the season. The Halos non-tendered him last month, sending him to free agency without being exposed to waivers, allowing them to quickly bring him back via this deal.

An undrafted free agent in 2021, Teodosio was signed by the Halos at that time and climbed their minor league ladder. He hasn’t done much to impress with his bat, slashing .229/.312/.358 in the minors over the past three years for a wRC+ of 76. However, he has shown an ability to steal bases, swiping 28 in 2022, 16 last year and 40 this year. He has also lined up at all three outfield spots. During his brief stint in the majors, Statcast put his sprint speed in the 98th percentile.

The Angels currently have Mike Trout and Taylor Ward as their two most established outfielders, both of whom are fairly injury prone. Trout has played more than 82 games in a season just once since 2019 and hasn’t topped 140 games since 2016. Ward just played 156 games in 2024 but that was his first time getting beyond 135 and just his second time in triple digits. Beyond that, players like Jo Adell and Mickey Moniak have spotty track records in terms of performance.

If the Halos need to call upon their outfield depth this year, Teodosio can perhaps carve out a bench role. The lack of offense doesn’t make him a great fit for regular playing time but his wheels could allow him to contribute as a pinch runner or defensive replacement.

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