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Thomas Hatch Signs With KBO’s Doosan Bears

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The Korea Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears have signed right-hander Thomas Hatch, per a team announcement (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO). The 30-year-old will earn $1MM in 2025, paid out as a $200K signing bonus and an $800K salary.

A third-round pick by the Cubs in the 2016 draft, Hatch was shipped to Toronto in the 2019 trade that brought right-hander David Phelps to Chicago. Hatch subsequently made his big league debut with the Blue Jays just a year later during the shortened 2020 season and impressed in his first taste of big league action with a 2.73 ERA in 26 1/3 innings of work. Solid as that top-level run prevention figure was, however, there were some potential red flags under the hood including an 11.9% walk rate and a rather pedestrian 4.14 FIP.

Given those concerning peripherals, it wasn’t necessarily a shock when the wheels came off for Hatch a bit during the 2021 season. The right-hander pitched just 14 innings in the majors with a 10.93 ERA over the next two years as he walked eight batters and struck out 12. In spite of those struggles, he continued to post decent numbers with Triple-A Buffalo and earned a more extensive opportunity in the majors during the 2023 season. It went reasonably well for the right-hander, as he posted a solid 4.08 ERA across 28 2/3 innings of work with the Blue Jays and Pirates. Looking under the hood, Hatch’s performance came with a strong 52.3% groundball rate and a respectable 20.2% strikeout rate while his walk rate dipped to a still elevated but more manageable 9.3%.

Those promising peripherals and improved results got the attention of the Hiroshima Carp of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, who signed him to a one-year deal last offseason. That first foray into overseas baseball didn’t go especially well for Hatch, as he was relegated to the Carp’s Western League affiliate for most of the season after struggling with the Central League club. While he dominated in 72 1/3 Western League innings to the tune of a 2.36 ERA, Hatch was torched in the Central League with a 7.36 ERA in 22 innings across five appearances. Those struggles were evidently enough for Hiroshima to part ways with Hatch this winter, leading him to head to South Korea to sign with the Bears. In the KBO, Hatch will lock down a larger salary than he would’ve been able to find in stateside ball and hope to re-establish himself as a pitcher, potentially opening the door to a more lucrative return to either NPB or MLB play in the future.

Pirates Sign Yerry Rodriguez To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates have signed right-hander Yerry Rodriguez to a minor league deal, according to a report from Ari Alexander of KPRC2. Alexander adds that Rodriguez’s deal comes with an invite to big league Spring Training.

Rodriguez, 27, has found playing time in the majors in each of the last three seasons. After spending the earlier years of his minor league career as a starting pitcher, a brutal stint at the Triple-A level in 2021 caused him to move to relief, and he posted a solid 4.27 ERA at the level in 2022. Despite that decent figure, he walked an elevated 11.9% of batters faced, though he fanned a solid 27.2% of opponents to make up somewhat for his wildness. Rodriguez’s decent results at the highest level of the minors prompted a call-up to the major leagues, though his first cup of coffee in the majors lasted just one scoreless inning.

The right-hander then began to shuttle between the majors and minors more regularly in 2023, though unfortunately his results took a turn for the worse at both levels. At Triple-A, Rodriguez’s ERA ballooned up to 5.03 though his strikeout (29%) and walk (12%) rates held more less steady relative to the previous year. His results in the majors were nothing short of disastrous, however, as the righty was shelled to the tune of a 7.90 ERA as he surrendered 20 hits and six walks in just 13 2/3 innings of work. Even his strikeout rate dipped to just 22.7%, which while solid enough is not nearly high enough to justify Rodriguez’s wildness.

Those difficulties in 2023 left Rodriguez to enter 2024 in a precarious position. Unfortunately, he didn’t manage to make much of a case for himself with the Rangers this year as he once again struggled in both the major and minor leagues. With the big league club, Rodriguez posted a 6.88 ERA in 17 innings of work this year while walking (11) nearly as many batters as he struck out (12). Meanwhile, his numbers for Triple-A Round Rock were even nearly as bad as he surrendered a 6.08 ERA in 13 1/3 innings. While he struck out an impressive 33.3% of opponents faced, that wasn’t enough to counterbalance a massive 15.2% walk rate.

Rodriguez’s struggled ultimately led the Rangers to ship him to the Blue Jays in late June of this year. With the Jays, Rodriguez found some success at Triple-A in a small sample size as he posted a 1.35 ERA in 6 2/3 frames, but his control problems remained as he walked a whopping nine batters while striking out ten. Those solid results did not translate over to the majors, however, as the right-hander was torched to the tune of a 15.43 ERA in four appearances in the majors for Toronto this year as he surrendered nine hits (including two homers) in just 4 2/3 innings. That led the club to designate him for assignment back in September, leaving him to be outrighted to the minors and eventually elect free agency.

Now that he’s signed on with Pittsburgh, he’ll figure to enter Spring Training with a chance to earn a spot in the Pirates bullpen to open the season. While he’s struggled in terms of results at both the major and minor league levels in recent years, the right-hander does have youth on his side having just celebrated his 27th birthday. What’s more, the righty still possesses high-end stuff including a 96.8mph average on his fastball. If the Pirates can help him work out his serious problems with command, it’s not hard to imagine him being a viable reliever for the club in 2025.

Yankees Sign Pablo Reyes To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees have signed veteran utility man Pablo Reyes to a minor league deal, per a report from Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News. The infielder will presumably receive an invite to big league Spring Training in a few months.

Reyes, 31, made his big league debut with the Pirates back in 2018. That 18-game cup of coffee in the majors went quite well for him, as he slashed an impressive .293/.349/.483 in 63 trips to the plate down the stretch that September. That strong performance earned him a larger role with the club as part of the club’s Opening Day roster, but he struggled badly and found himself optioned to the minors for much of the summer as he ultimately slashed just .203/.274/.322 in 71 games. A PED suspension wiped out Reyes’s 2020 season, but he resurfaced as a member of the Brewers in 2021. He spent two years as a depth piece for Milwaukee, shuttling between Triple-A and the club’s bench, and hit a middling .258/.330/.344 (84 wRC+) in 103 trips to the plate with the club.

He elected free agency following the 2022 season and initially signed on with the Athletics on a minor league pact for the 2023 season. He ultimately did not make it to Oakland, however, failing to crack the club’s Opening Day roster before being shipped to the Red Sox in mid-May. He was quickly selected to the big league roster in Boston, and his time with the Red Sox proved to be the most productive of his big league career. Reyes appeared in 64 games for the Red Sox last year, slashing a roughly league average .287/.339/.377 in 185 trips to the plate.

That was a sufficiently strong performance that Boston decided to bring Reyes back for the 2024 campaign, but things took a turn for the worse this year as he posted a paltry 27 wRC+ in the first month of the year before being designated for assignment by the Red Sox in late April. Reyes was outrighted to the minors initially but quickly found himself on the move again as he was dealt to the Mets the following month. Reyes only made one appearance in Queens as a pinch runner without stepping up to the plate, but he did slash a strong .300/.385/.504 in 68 Triple-A games between his two clubs’ affiliates in Worcester and Syracuse.

Now, Reyes will enter 2025 looking to crack a Yankees bench mix that current figures to feature Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza, DJ LeMahieu, Jon Berti, and Jorbit Vivas. While Reyes offers little in the way of offense, he does provide value in the form of quality baserunning and the positional flexibility to play everywhere on the diamond except behind the plate. Should Reyes find himself on the outside looking in of the club’s Opening Day roster next year, he could be a valuable source of non-roster depth for a club that currently projects to feature a bench without many optionable players.

Brewers, Deivi García Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Brewers and right-hander Deivi García have agreed to a minor league deal, per Jeff Passan of ESPN on X. The Rep 1 Baseball client will receive an invite to spring training, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com on X.

García, 26 in May, will be a reclamation project for the Brewers as he is a former top prospect who hasn’t lived up to the hype yet. To this point in his career, he has thrown 71 2/3 innings in the majors, allowing 5.02 earned runs per nine. His 20.4% strikeout rate, 10.3% walk rate and 34.1% ground ball are all a bit worse than average. The White Sox passed him through waivers unclaimed in May, which allowed him to elect free agency earlier this month.

The recent minor league results haven’t been nice either. He has thrown 260 2/3 innings on the farm over the past four years with a 6.35 ERA. His 24.4% strikeout rate in that stretch hasn’t been bad but his 13.6% walk rate is quite rough. That time frame includes 51 Triple-A innings in 2024 with a 6.18 ERA. He did strike out 27.4% of hitters at that level this year but also walked 11.9%.

The Brewers will be tasked with getting the proverbial train back on the tracks. From 2016 to 2019, as García was a prospect with the Yankees, he threw 293 2/3 minor league innings while climbing the ladder towards the majors. In that time, he had a 3.37 ERA, 34.5% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate. Baseball America considered him one of the top 100 prospects in the league in both 2020 and 2021, before his poor results at the major league level lowered his stock. He burned his final option year in 2023 and went to the White Sox via waivers towards the end of that season.

Milwaukee has had some good results lately in terms of helping wayward pitchers. Tobias Myers went into 2024 as a faded prospect with no major league experience but went on to toss 138 innings this past year with an ERA of 3.00. Colin Rea just had a couple of solid seasons with the Crew after spending a few years abroad. Frankie Montas had a 19% strikeout rate with the Reds before being traded to the Brewers and then went on to punch out 28.7% of opponents after the deal.

Garcia has undoubtedly struggled in recent years but he is still fairly young and was a hyped-up prospect a few years back. If the Brewers can find a way to get him right, he is out of options but has less than a year of service time, meaning he can be cheaply retained well into the future.

Rays Designate Austin Shenton For Assignment

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The Rays have added left-handers Joe Rock and Ian Seymour to their 40-man roster, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (X links), protecting them from being selected in the upcoming Rule 5 draft.  Tomorrow at 5pm Central is the deadline for players eligible for that draft to be protected by being selected to a club’s roster. The Rays had one 40-man vacancy and opened another by designating infielder Austin Shenton for assignment. The club also avoided arbitration with right-hander Cole Sulser by signing him to a deal for 2025, though the terms of his deal haven’t yet been publicly reported.

Rock, 24, was a competitive balance round pick of the Rockies in 2021 but came to the Rays as part of the March 2024 trade that sent infielder/outfielder Greg Jones to Colorado. Rock’s first season in his new organization went fairly well, as he tossed 139 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 4.58 earned run average, 21.6% strikeout rate, 5.7% walk rate and 45.3% ground ball rate.

Seymour, 26 next month, was a second-round pick of the Rays in 2020 with generally strong results since then. He has a 2.50 ERA in 259 1/3 innings over the past four years, pairing a 31% strikeout rate with an 8.6% walk rate. That includes 145 1/3 innings split between Double-A and Triple-A in 2024, with Seymour posting a 2.35 ERA this year while striking out 28.1% of opponents and only giving out free passes at a 7.1% clip.

Given the strong results from both pitchers, the Rays decided they didn’t want any rival clubs plucking them away, so both southpaws get roster spots today. While that’s surely exciting for both of them, the flip side is that it’s bad news for Shenton.

Turning 27 in January, Shenton was drafted by the Mariners in 2019 but came to the Rays in the July 2021 trade that sent Diego Castillo the other way. In the upper minors and the majors, Shenton has generally shown a “three true outcomes” approach. He has taken 1,168 plate appearances in the minors over the past three years with 57 home runs, a 14.6% walk rate and a 28.6% strikeout rate. All that has led to a .276/.387/.522 line and 135 wRC+. In a small sample of 50 big league plate appearances, he has a 16% walk rate, 28% strikeout rate, .214/.340/.405 line and 120 wRC+.

There are some intriguing numbers in there but Shenton also has some flags. For one, health has been an issue, with 2023 being the only year of his career in which he played more than 102 games. His defense is also not a standout tool. While he can play both infield corners, his work at third isn’t well regarded. If he’s more of a first base only guy in the long term, that will put more pressure on his bat. While he has often been able to perform offensively, it will be challenging to keep it up in the majors with his strikeout tendencies.

Those flags have nudged him off the Rays’ roster but his positive qualities could get him a chance somewhere else. He still has a couple of option seasons and just a few days of service time, meaning he could be a cheap depth option for some other club willing to give him a roster spot, either via a trade or a waiver claim. DFA limbo can last a week but the waiver process lasts 48 hours, meaning the Rays will have five days to explore trades.

As mentioned, all clubs will be adding players to their rosters between now and tomorrow evening for Rule 5 protection, so perhaps roster spots will be at a premium and make it harder for one of the 29 other teams to take a shot on Shenton.

As for Sulser, 35 in March, he was acquired from the Mets in a July cash deal. He went on to toss 11 2/3 scoreless innings for the Rays after that deal despite subpar strikeout and walk rates of 18.6% and 14% respectively. He now has 149 career innings with a 3.74 ERA, 25.3% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for a $1MM salary next year, not much above the $760K league minimum. It’s unclear how much he will make in 2025 but more information will likely be forthcoming as the offseason progresses.

Mariners Re-Sign Casey Lawrence To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners and right-hander Casey Lawrence have reunited on a minor league deal, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The Big League Management Company client will presumably receive an invite to major league spring training in a few months.

Lawrence, 37, signed a minor league deal with the M’s going into last year as well. He provided the club with some non-roster depth, making 29 starts and logging 165 Triple-A innings with a 5.95 earned run average in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His 14.9% strikeout rate was subpar but his 6.6% walk rate was strong and he got grounders at a solid 44.1% clip.

That’s wasn’t enough to get Lawrence called to the major leagues, so he reached minor league free agency recently, but he’ll now return to the M’s and give them an experienced depth arm. Lawrence has pitched in parts of four different major league seasons, suiting up for the Blue Jays, Mariners and Cardinals. In that time, he has a 6.75 ERA in 124 innings.

The Mariners have a strong rotation if everyone is healthy, though that’s not something a club can count on. Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller each made at least 30 starts in 2024 with no one in that group having an ERA higher than 3.64. Bryan Woo had some injuries but still managed to give the club 22 starts with a 2.89 ERA.

The M’s also have Emerson Hancock on hand, though his upper-level results haven’t inspired much confidence. He has just a 16.7% strikeout rate at the Triple-A level and just a 14.3% clip against major league hitters. Jhonathan Díaz and Blas Castano are also on the 40-man roster but Díaz has just 45 major league innings under his belt while Castano has none.

In short, while the M’s do have a strong rotation, the options beyond the top five aren’t as impressive. While many fans of rival clubs have speculated about plucking a starter from Seattle, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto recently referred to that as the club’s “Plan Z“, perhaps a reflection of the thin depth. Less injury luck in 2025 could make that an issue as the season goes along, but Lawrence will give them another arm to potentially call upon.

Mets Sign Justin Hagenman To Major League Contract

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3:50pm: Hagenman’s deal is a split contract, per Will Sammon of The Athletic on X. He’ll make $850K in the majors and $225K in the minors.

3:05pm: The Mets announced that they have signed right-hander Justin Hagenman to a major league contract. He had just elected minor league free agency earlier this month. The club’s 40-man roster count jumps to 34.

Hagenman, 28, cracks a major league roster for the first time. He was drafted by the Dodgers back in 2018 but when to the Red Sox as part of the 2023 deadline trade that sent Enrique Hernández to Los Angeles. The Sox never added Hagenman to their roster, so he qualified for minor league free agency after 2024 as a player with seven seasons of minor league experience. However, the Mets apparently saw enough to give him a 40-man spot today.

Over the past four years, Hagenman has thrown 302 2/3 innings on the farm with a 4.19 earned run average, 25.7% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. He has primarily been a reliever in his career but served more of a swingman role in 2024 without his rate stats changing much. He tossed 91 2/3 Triple-A innings this past year with a 4.91 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. The home run ball seemed to be an issue, as he allowed 21 this year, a rate of 21.4% per flyball.

The Mets need plenty of help on the pitching staff. Each of Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, Luis Severino, Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino, Ryne Stanek, Phil Maton, Joey Lucchesi and Drew Smith became free agents at the end of 2024, opening a few holes in both the rotation and bullpen. Hagenman gives the club some depth for both and can theoretically do so for quite some time. Since this is his first time on a big league roster, he still has a full slate of options and no big league service time.

Diamondbacks Promote Shaun Larkin To Third Base Coach

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The Diamondbacks are promoting farm director Shaun Larkin to the major league staff as the third base coach, per Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. He will replace Tony Perezchica, who departed last month to take the third base job with the Astros.

Larkin, 45, played for Cleveland in the minors from 2002 to 2007, topping out at Triple-A without getting the call to the majors. Torey Lovullo coached and managed in the minor league system of that club during that time, later winding his way to managing the Diamondbacks. Larkin eventually pivoted to the non-playing portion of his career, spending eight years working with the Dodgers as a coach and coordinator in the minor leagues.

The Snakes plucked him away a year ago, hiring him as director of player development and reuniting him with Lovullo. It seems he and the organization have a good relationship, based on today’s news. “He’s always told us he wanted to get on the field,” Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen says, per Piecoro. “This has always been sort of the long-term plan. When T.P. left, this seemed like the right time, the right fit, to match everything up.”

Piecoro adds that Larkin was a candidate for a job in the Cardinals front office last month, prior to Perezchica’s departure, but Larkin ended up staying with the Diamondbacks and will now get to join a big league coaching staff.

Larkin’s previous job will be taken by Chris Slivka, who was his assistant this past year. “He’s got really good leadership skills and he’s got great relationships in the clubhouse,” Hazen says of Slivka. “This was always the long-term plan to have Chris be in a position to take over for Lark. It came a little quicker than we thought, but he’s ready for it. He’ll be great.” Piecoro notes that the 31-year-old Slivka started with the D’Backs as an intern nine years ago, moving to scouting and analyst roles in the years since.

Sean Manaea To Reject Qualifying Offer

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Left-hander Sean Manaea will reject the $21.05MM qualifying offer that was extended to him by the Mets, per Alden González of ESPN (X link). The southpaw was one of 13 players who received a qualifying offer this year, with the deadline for decisions tomorrow at 3pm Central.

As noted by González, the news doesn’t come as a surprise, as Manaea never really seemed like a candidate to accept the offer. He has a lengthy track record of major league success, with an earned run average of 4.00 in almost 1200 innings, and is coming off one of his best seasons.

Manaea signed with the Mets last offseason, a two-year deal with a $28MM guarantee but an opt-out midway through. The lefty would make $14.5MM in 2024 and then have to decide whether or not to walk away from a $13.5MM salary for 2025.

He eventually made 32 starts for the Mets in his age-32 season, logging 181 2/3 innings with a 3.47 ERA. As noted by MLBTR’s Steve Adams earlier this month, Manaea had altered his arm slot and pregame workout midseason, which seemingly made him even stronger as the year went along. Over his last 20 starts, he posted a 3.05 ERA while pairing a 26% strikeout rate with an 8% walk rate. He also made four postseason starts with the Mets as they pushed as far as game six of the NLCS.

That strong performance made it an easy decision for Manaea to opt-out and return to free agency in search of a larger guarantee. It also wasn’t tough for the Mets to issue the QO, knowing that Manaea could reject it and still have plenty of suitors in free agency. MLBTR predicted Manaea for a $60MM deal over three years, even with the QO attached.

The Mets will now be in line to receive modest compensation if Manaea eventually signs with another club. As competitive balance tax payors, they will receive a pick after the fourth round of the upcoming draft. The signing club will also be subject to a penalty, though the specifics of that will depend upon whether the signing club was a tax payor or revenue sharing recipient.

Braves Select Rolddy Munoz

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The Braves announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Rolddy Munoz to the 40-man roster. In doing so, they’ll protect Munoz from next month’s Rule 5 Draft. The deadline to protect players from Rule 5 eligibility is tomorrow evening. Atlanta’s 40-man roster is now up to 39 players.

Munoz, 25 in April, split the 2024 season between High-A and Double-A. His twin brother, Roddery Munoz, was once in Atlanta’s minor league system as well and made his big league debut with the Marlins in 2024. Roddery bounced from the Braves to the Nats to the Pirates to the Marlins via waivers before that debut. He’s since been claimed by the Cardinals and is currently on the 40-man roster in St. Louis.

Rolddy Munoz, meanwhile, has yet to make his big league debut but is now one step closer to doing so after joining the 40-man roster. He logged a combined 4.24 ERA in 51 innings between High-A and Double-A last year, spending more time and enjoying more success at the more advanced of those two levels. Rolddy Munoz fanned a hefty 34.6% of his opponents overall, though his combined 10.1% walk rate was about 1.5 percentage points higher than average.

FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked Rolddy Munoz 18th among Atlanta prospects last summer, noting that he has one of the best sliders in all of minor league baseball: a bat-missing 85-89 mph breaker with incredible movement. He sits upper-90s with his heater and can touch triple digits but has below-average command of the pitch, which has “ineffective movement,” per Longenhagen. Munoz figures to head to Triple-A Gwinnett early in the 2025 season and could have a chance at breaking into the majors next year.

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