Cubs Outright Esteban Quiroz, Jared Young
The Cubs announced that infielders Esteban Quiroz and Jared Young have cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Iowa.
Quiroz, 31 in February, played in the Mexican League for years and didn’t sign with an affiliated ball club until he was almost 26. He spent time in the organizations of the Red Sox, Padres and Rays before coming to the Cubs in the Harold Ramirez trade. He was selected to the big league roster in September and was able to make his MLB debut as the season was winding down. He hit .275/.370/275 for a wRC+ of 95 over 14 games in that brief audition.
Young, 27, was selected by the Cubs in the 15th round of the 2017 draft. Like Quiroz, he was promoted to the big leagues in September and got a brief MLB audition. He got into six games and hit .263/.364/.368 for a wRC+ of 113 in that small sample. He walked in 13.6% of his plate appearances but struck out in 31.8% of them.
Players have the right to reject outrights assignments if they have three years of MLB service time or have previously been outrighted in their career. Since neither player qualifies, they will remain in the Cubs’ organization as depth but without taking up a roster spot.
Ji-Man Choi To Undergo Elbow Surgery, Expected To Be Ready For Spring Training
The Pirates acquired Ji-Man Choi from the Rays in a trade yesterday, slotting him in as their first baseman for 2023. Ben Cherington, the general manager of Choi’s new club, passed along some information about Choi’s health to reporters today. Per Justice delos Santos of MLB.com, Choi will undergo a minor procedure for his right elbow in Korea but is expected to be recovered in time for Spring Training. “Based on the total information we have, we feel good about him going into next year,” Cherington said, per Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic.
delos Santos notes that Choi dealt with an elbow injury during the 2022 season, which was back towards the beginning of the year. He was placed on the IL on May 1, retroactive to April 28, due to loose bodies in his right elbow. He was able to return after a minimum stay on May 8 and avoided the IL for the remainder of the year.
Though Cherington didn’t provide many details, if the procedure is related to loose bodies, it’s likely not a huge concern. Alex Bregman underwent a procedure to remove loose bodies from his elbow in January of 2019 and was still expected to be ready by Opening Day. That indeed came to pass, as Bregman didn’t miss any time in the regular season, getting into 156 games, and went on to have an excellent campaign. Each player and individual injury are unique, of course, but if Choi’s case is at all similar to Bregman’s, he has plenty of lead time to get healthy before next year.
Overall, he hit .233/.341/.388 in 2022 for a wRC+ of 115. He was much better prior to the IL stint, hitting .357/.491/.595 against a .217/.320/.360 line afterwards. It’s possible the arrival of the elbow issues had an impact, though that pre-IL line is just a 15-game sample and the latter section is still above average, producing a wRC+ of 101.
If the procedure helps Choi’s production take a step forward in 2023, the Pirates would surely welcome it. They are not expected to be competitive next year due to their ongoing rebuild and will likely be looking to trade Choi at the deadline since he’s an impending free agent. If he can come back from the offseason with any kind of improvement, it could help them to scoop up an interesting prospect or two when July rolls around.
Dipoto: Mariners Getting Trade Interest In Chris Flexen
With six starters on the Mariners’ roster at the moment, fifth starter candidates Marco Gonzales and Chris Flexen have both emerged as potential trade candidates. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto confirmed at today’s GM Meetings that other clubs were showing interest in Flexen back at the trade deadline and have expressed continued interest in the right-hander throughout this week’s GM Meetings in Las Vegas (Twitter link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times).
Flexen isn’t the only Mariners arm who’s drawn interest; Dipoto told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic that his team is “getting hit constantly, up and down, with our bullpen, our starters.” However, Dipoto also stressed that he doesn’t plan to subtract from his bullpen via trade, but rather hopes to further augment an already strong relief corps.
As things stand, the Mariners have a deep rotation — with six starters for five spots. Luis Castillo, Robbie Ray, Logan Gilbert and George Kirby make up one of the sport’s best rotation quartets, and they’re trailed by a pair of solid fifth starter options in Flexen and longtime Mariner Marco Gonzales. Seattle also has young Matt Brash as a potential option, and while the thinking is that he’s likely bullpen-bound for the foreseeable future, Dipoto told Divish that Brash would head to Spring Training stretched out as a starter and be downshifted into a relief role if the rotation remained healthy and did not undergo any other changes.
Those potential changes, quite likely, are in reference to a possible trade of Flexen and/or Gonzales. While neither is going to front any team’s rotation, both pitchers are serviceable options in the fourth or fifth spot of a starting staff, and both are relatively affordable. Flexen is set to earn $8MM next season after triggering a vesting option on his contract. He’ll only have three-plus years of service time at that point, but MLBTR has confirmed that the two-year deal Flexen signed upon returning from the KBO allows him to become a free agent next winter. As such, he’s a one-year rental.
Since returning from a one-year stint in the KBO, the 28-year-old Flexen has pitched 317 1/3 innings of 3.66 ERA ball for the Mariners. His 16.5% strikeout rate has been well south of league-average, but he’s better than average in terms of walk rate (6.8%) and limiting home runs (1.02 HR/9). Flexen has also averaged better than 5 2/3 innings per start and done a decent job minimizing hard contact.
As for Gonzales, a trade would be tougher to piece together. He’ll turn 31 in February, making him a good bit older than Flexen, and while his $6.5MM salary for the 2023 season is more affordable than that of Flexen, Gonzales is also owed $12MM in 2024. His contract contains a $15MM option for the 2025 season, though that option has no buyout.
Two years at a combined $18.5MM isn’t necessarily egregious for Gonzales, but it’s likely more than he’d fetch in the open market at present. He’s made 67 starts and soaked up 326 1/3 innings with a 4.05 ERA over the past two seasons, but Gonzales has seen his fastball velocity, strikeout rate, walk rate and home run rate all trend in the wrong direction. Metrics like FIP, xFIP and SIERA all peg him about a full run worse than his ERA.
Logically speaking, the Mariners appear to be headed toward some form of move involving one of their two back-of-the-rotation options. Flexen, in particular, would seem appealing given the short term remaining on his contract and more reasonable overall commitment, though that’s only my own speculation.
Moving either player would help the Mariners to scale back a projected $131MM payroll next season (hat tip: Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez), not that they necessarily need to. The team’s franchise-record Opening Day payroll was $158MM back in 2018, and they took their payroll north of $170MM each year from 2016-18 by way of in-season trades (via Cot’s). That should leave ample payroll space regardless of how the team acts with regard to its rotation.
Still, spending a combined $14.5MM in 2023 payroll on a pair of fifth-starter candidates is, obviously, a sub-optimal arrangement. Shedding some or all of that combined salary will only give Dipoto and his staff more flexibility when it comes to offseason pursuits, and it’s possible that Flexen in particular could help net some immediate help for the big league roster (perhaps with some minor league talent being included by Seattle). As far as potential other targets, Dipoto has already acknowledged that he feels NPB ace Kodai Senga could be an “impact” MLB arm, and he mentioned in the aforementioned Rosenthal column that his club could seek a middle infielder and at least one — if not two — corner outfielders this winter.
Hazen: Diamondbacks Have Flexibility For At Least Slight Payroll Bump
The Diamondbacks head into the offseason looking to bolster a roster that showed some promise in the second half. General manager Mike Hazen indicated last month the team was prioritizing adding swing-and-miss to the bullpen and was looking for another right-handed bat, and he suggested this week the front office should have financial breathing room for some additions.
“I think we’re going to have some room to move,” Hazen told reporters at the GM Meetings (link via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). “When we’ve felt like the team has gotten better, (owner Ken Kendrick) has usually given us leeway to maneuver. I think that’s going to be the case to some degree. I don’t know that we’re going to get to levels where we’ve been in the recent past, but I think we’re going to have some flexibility to do some things. I think the talent on our team warrants some additional good players.”
That’s not the resounding promise for a payroll spike for which the fanbase was probably hoping, although it does suggest they’ll be able to dip into free agency for help. Arizona signed only three free agents — Mark Melancon, Ian Kennedy and Zach Davies — to big league contracts last winter, tacking on a modest $12MM on the open market. The Snakes entered the 2022 campaign with a player payroll just under $91MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, their second straight year between $90MM and $96MM.
Before the pandemic-shortened season, Arizona pushed spending north of $120MM in both 2018-19. Hazen’s comments downplay the possibility of getting back to those heights in 2023, but it doesn’t seem out of the question the team could push above $100MM in Opening Day payroll for the first time since 2020.
A relief corps that had the majors lowest strikeout rate figures to be a key priority. Arizona already bought low on a reliever with decent swing-and-miss ability, claiming Cole Sulser off waivers from the Marlins this week. That’s just one of what should be multiple additions, although an already-thin free agent relief market has seen arguably its top two players (Edwin Díaz and Robert Suarez) agree to re-sign with their previous teams. That leaves Taylor Rogers, Rafael Montero, Carlos Estévez, Seth Lugo, Andrew Chafin, Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin among the top arms available, although the D-Backs are sure to look into trades and/or waivers for additional options.
One other key offseason storyline for the D-Backs is whether they’d deal from their stable of upper level outfielders. Arizona has seen Daulton Varsho and Corbin Carroll emerge as key pieces of the future, while Jake McCarthy had a strong 2022 campaign to earn everyday reps. Alek Thomas didn’t hit the ground running at the big league level, but he’s a high-contact center fielder who entered the year as a top prospect. The Snakes could certainly hang onto that depth, but Hazen has spoken on a number of occasions about a willingness to entertain trade offers on members of that group.
The GM reiterated this week that dealing an outfielder is a possibility, but he emphasized he’d only do so in a move that brought back immediate MLB talent. “I’m not trading them for prospects. The prospect trade is out,” Hazen said (via Piecoro). “You can take that off the table. It’ll have to be (an established or major league ready player) and at a caliber for us that we felt like we were equally maintaining (value).”
Hazen pointed out the outfield would have a trickle-down effect on how the team approaches the designated hitter position. He suggested the current outfield depth was likely to spill over to rotating players through the DH spot but acknowledged pursuing a full-fledged DH could be more realistic with a trade that ships away an outfielder. Hazen, a former Red Sox executive, pointed to David Ortiz in suggesting he’s not opposed to having an everyday DH in the right circumstances. The D-Backs certainly aren’t going to find a hitter on the level of the Hall of Fame slugger, but old friend J.D. Martinez is an impact free agent righty bat. Nelson Cruz is coming off a terrible year but could find a big league opportunity, while players like Justin Turner and Evan Longoria could fit as hybrids between a questionable third base position and DH in the desert.
Certainly, Arizona could look to the trade market for their desired right-handed bat as well — perhaps in a deal that sends out one of their lefty-swinging young outfielders. What’s clear is the Diamondbacks aren’t approaching the offseason as a rebuilder or traditional “seller,” however. To that end, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported this week Arizona has no plans to trade Zac Gallen or Merrill Kelly this offseason. Dealing away either of their top two starters — each of whom is controllable through 2025 — never seemed especially likely after Arizona’s somewhat promising end to the season, particularly with the club having a number of unproven options at the back end. Rosenthal suggests the D-Backs would unsurprisingly be open to shedding some of the two years and $37MM remaining on Madison Bumgarner’s contract, although finding another team willing to take a notable chunk of that money probably isn’t happening unless Arizona shoulders an undesirable contract in return.
Blake Treinen Undergoes Shoulder Surgery
The Dodgers announced to reporters, including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, that right-hander Blake Treinen has undergone “right shoulder labrum and rotator cuff repair surgery.” The recovery process is about 10 months, meaning it’s possible Treinen will miss the entire 2023 season.
After a dismal 2019 campaign, Treinen was non-tendered by the A’s and signed a one-year, $10MM deal with the Dodgers for 2020. It was a nice bounceback season for him, as he posted a 3.86 ERA while getting grounders on an incredible 64% of balls in play. The Dodgers were impressed enough to re-sign him for two years and $17.5MM with a 2023 club option worth $8MM.
In 2021, he took his game up a notch. Though his strikeout rate had been just above 20% in 2019 and 2020, he shot it up to 29.7% last year. He still got ground balls at a really strong 52.6% clip, helping his ERA drop down to 1.99. He also got pushed into more high leverage situations, earning seven saves and 32 holds.
2022 hasn’t been as pleasant, unfortunately. He appeared in three games in April before landing on the IL due to shoulder discomfort. He was transferred to the 60-day IL in May but the Dodgers nonetheless agreed to an extension with Treinen shortly thereafter. The extension was for $8MM in 2023, effectively guaranteeing the club option that was already in place. In addition, it came with a new club option for 2024, with a value somewhere between $1MM and $7MM. Where it falls in that range will depend upon Treinen’s health and other factors over the course of the deal.
Treinen did return to the hill this year, making a couple of appearances in September before returning to the IL. He was activated for the NLDS and made one postseason appearance, though he must have been using the last bits of strength his shoulder had. It was reported a couple of days ago that surgery seemed to be likely, and it has now indeed come to pass.
This is surely a disappointing development for Treinen personally but also for the Dodger club that took a gamble on him six months ago. They will now be on the hook for $8MM next year and that is quite likely to be a sunk cost. The 10-month recovery window makes it possible Treinen returns very late next year but he will have to rebuild strength and effectiveness after a long layoff. That makes it tough to count on him for anything. The exact calculus that goes into determining the final value of the 2024 option isn’t known, though Treinen’s upcoming extended absence will likely result in it finishing in the low end of that $1-7MM range. The club will surely make their decision based on how his health responds between now and one year from now. Treinen is currently 34 and will be turning 36 in June of 2024.
Chris Bassitt To Decline Qualifying Offer
Right-hander Chris Bassitt was one of 14 players to receive a qualifying offer ahead of yesterday’s deadline, getting the one-year, $19.65MM offer from the Mets. However, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that Bassitt will turn that down and seek a multi-year deal.
Bassitt, 34 in February, wasn’t as much of a slam-dunk case to reject the QO as superstars like Aaron Judge or Jacob deGrom. Nevertheless, it never seemed especially likely that he would accept it either. Over the past four years, he has established himself as a consistently effective hurler.
Since the start of 2019, he’s thrown 546 innings with a 3.31 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 44.3% ground ball rate. His 9.3 fWAR in that time is 32nd among all pitchers in baseball. He might not be an ace, but he’s a solid and reliable pitcher that would upgrade just about any rotation in the league. Starting pitching is always in high demand and Bassitt figures to garner plenty of interest in the weeks and months to come.
He’s a bit of an unusual case in that he didn’t really establish himself until he was 30 and now reaches free agency with his 34th birthday coming up during Spring Training. Going through the arbitration system, he got his salary as high as $8.65MM in 2022, plus a $150K buyout on the mutual option he eventually turned down. That means that a $19.65MM salary would be more than double his previous career high. However, this is likely his greatest chance at long-term security, given his strong multi-year platform. Taking the QO and returning to free agency a year from now would mean that he’s one year older, which would dampen his offers, and there’s always the chance of some kind of injury limiting his market at that point. Even with the QO attached, MLBTR predicts he can earn effectively the value of the QO but with a longer commitment, $60MM over three years.
There’s nothing preventing he and the Mets from reuniting on a new contract, though the Mets will now be competing with the 29 other teams. Should Bassitt ultimately sign elsewhere this winter, the Mets will be entitled to draft pick compensation. Since the Mets paid the competitive balance tax in 2022, their compensatory pick gets bumped to after the fourth round. Under this scenario, the team signing Bassitt will also be subject to forfeiting at least one draft pick, with the exact nature of the penalty dependant upon if that team paid the CBT or received revenue sharing.
Dodgers Close To Re-Signing Clayton Kershaw
November 11: Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the deal is actually close to $20MM.
November 10: Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers are nearing an agreement on a one-year deal, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Earlier today, the Dodgers decided against issuing Kershaw a qualifying offer, but it’ll be a moot point anyway now, with the 34-year-old set to return to LA for a 16th season. Mike DiGiovanna adds that the deal will be “close” to the $17MM deal Kershaw signed last winter.
While his days of utter dominance may be behind him, Kershaw turned in another elite season in 2022, throwing 126 1/3 innings of 2.28 ERA ball. For the second-straight season, injuries limited Kershaw to 22 starts, and he made two separate trips to the IL this season with lower back problems. When healthy though, he was very effective posting a 27.8% strikeout rate alongside his usual immaculate walk rates. While his fastball velocity is down considerably since his prime, Kershaw has shown his incredible skill to be able to alter his usage and lean more heavily on his slider to maintain his highly successful numbers as he’s aged.
It’s hard to imagine Kershaw in any other uniform but Dodger blue, and while there’s often been reports of possibly looking to return to his hometown of Dallas and sign for the Rangers, it’s no real surprise to see him staying in LA. By doing so he’ll move closer to ticking off more milestones along his Hall of Fame career. His 12 pitching wins in 2022 take him to 197 in his career, so he’ll certainly notch up win number 200 next season. While pitching wins are largely irrelevant when assessing a player’s ability, it is a notable milestone and one to take a tremendous amount of pride in, and Kershaw will be just the fourth active pitcher to reach 200 behind Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke and Max Scherzer. He’s also 193 strikeouts shy of 3,000. That mark is less likely to be reached in 2023, given Kershaw hasn’t reached 190 in a season since posting 202 in 2017.
The milestones are just reward for a player who has been a mainstay atop some dominant Dodger rotations decade or so. Drafted seventh overall out of high school in 2006, Kershaw would make his Dodgers debut as a 20-year-old in 2008. Just a year later Kershaw would begin a staggering run of dominance in which he’d post ten-straight seasons with a sub-3 ERA. In fact, his rookie year was the only year he posted an ERA over four, and there were only two other seasons where it was over three. It was between 2011-17 that Kershaw was at his absolute best though. During that period he won three Cy Young awards (and never finished outside the top-five), one MVP, led the league in ERA in five times, and posted one 300 strikeout campaign.
The rotation was set to be an area of focus for the Dodgers this winter as Tyler Anderson, Andrew Heaney and Kershaw all headed for free agency, with Anderson the only one to receive a qualifying offer. Kershaw will slot back in alongside Walker Buehler, Julio Urias and Tony Gonsolin to form the core of a very strong rotation. Dustin May, Ryan Pepiot are both internal candidates to fill out the rotation, but it’s more likely the Dodgers seek another arm to solidify the backend. That decision may well be made for them in fact, as there’s at least a decent chance that Anderson opts to accept the qualifying offer and return to the Dodgers on a one year, $19.65MM deal.
Top 50 MLB Free Agents Chat Transcript
Our Top 50 free agents list is a massive undertaking every year. This year, Steve Adams led the effort, with assistance and tons of deliberation from Anthony Franco, Darragh McDonald, and me. Would you like? This morning, Steve, Anthony, and I held a live chat to give readers a chance to yell at us about our contract and/or team predictions! Click here to read the transcript!
Also, you can enter our free agent prediction contest up until Wednesday at 11pm central time.
Mets Have Interest In Andrew Heaney, Michael Conforto
Free agency is officially underway, and with the Mets staring down multiple holes in the rotation, bullpen and lineup, they’ll be among the sport’s more active teams again this winter. A pair of early targets for the team include left-hander Andrew Heaney, per Newsday’s Tim Healey, and old friend Michael Conforto, per Will Sammon of The Athletic.
The interest in Heaney is sensible on many levels. First and foremost, the Mets currently face the possibility of losing Jacob deGrom, Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker to free agency. Heaney certainly isn’t going to offset a potential deGrom loss, but the Mets figure to cast a wide net in sifting through starting pitching options, as it’s unlikely that they’ll come to a middle ground and re-sign all three of their rotation free agents. Secondly, GM Billy Eppler knows Heaney quite well, having spent the 2015-20 seasons as the Angels’ general manager; Heaney, while originally acquired when Jerry Dipoto was the Halos’ GM, was with the Angels for all six of those seasons.
Beyond the sheer need in the rotation and the familiarity with the pitcher and person in Heaney, his 2022 breakout with the Dodgers was nothing short of remarkable. A pair of shoulder troubles limited him to 72 2/3 innings, and that’s a concern for any pitcher but especially one with Heaney’s lengthy injury history. However, when he was able to take the mound, the 31-year-old southpaw worked to a tidy 3.10 ERA with the second-best strikeout rate (35.5%) and best swinging-strike rate (16.8%) of the 188 pitchers who tossed at least 70 frames in 2022.
Heaney’s emergence came on the heels of the Dodgers scrapping nearly his entire arsenal. Heaney continued throwing a four-seamer he debuted in 2021 — he’d previously used a sinker as his primary heater — but dumped his changeup and curveball in favor of a new slider that proved to be an absolute knockout offering. Heaney was almost all four-seamers and sliders in 2022, with the lone exception being a 5% usage rate on the aforementioned changeup (which he once threw at a 23% clip).
As for Conforto, a reunion makes some sense — though only if the Mets lose Brandon Nimmo to another club (or feel that his early asking price is simply beyond the pale). The longtime Mets slugger had a down season (by his standards) in 2021, though he still checked in as a slightly above-average offensive contributor. Unfazed by the dip in production, Conforto rejected a qualifying offer in search of a multi-year deal but found a frosty market before suffering a shoulder injury that required surgery and ultimately kept him out of action for the entire 2022 season.
Ostensibly, that would set the table for a one-year, make-good deal wherever he signs, but agent Scott Boras has already suggested that Conforto is likely to target a two-year deal with an opt-out — similar to the structure that Carlos Rodon had with the Giants in 2022 (presumably at a decidedly lower total than Rodon’s $44MM). Whether such an offer materializes can’t be known so early in a months-long free agent period.
Signing Conforto would likely mean sliding Starling Marte over to center and bidding farewell to Nimmo, or perhaps committing to Conforto in more of a DH role. The latter scenario might not appeal to a 29-year-old who’s looking to reestablish himself as a credible all-around player, however, and it seems unlikely the Mets would jump the market to sign any outfielder who’d push Marte to center before having a full grasp on Nimmo’s situation.
Payroll shouldn’t be much of an issue for a Mets club that topped $280MM in 2022 and approached $300MM in luxury-tax obligations. Still, it’s worth noting that entering the market, the team projects to a payroll of about $238MM, per Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez, with a bit less than $249MM on the luxury ledger. Finding a taker for Dominic Smith or Darin Ruf (or simply non-tendering the former) could slightly drop those figures, but the Mets are already deep into luxury territory and figure to have little qualms about surpassing the newly implemented fourth tier of penalization for a second straight year.
The Opener: Relief Market, Kershaw, Yoshida
As the offseason continues to roll along, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on throughout the day today:
1. Implications Of Diaz, Suarez Deals
The relief market has moved quickly in the early going of this offseason, with perhaps the top two options, Edwin Diaz and Robert Suarez, already off the market. Both relievers re-signed with the Mets and Padres, respectively, but the more notable piece of these signings is the contracts they both managed to secure. In signing a five-year, $102MM contract, Diaz became the first reliever to receive a $100MM guarantee or an AAV of $20MM, though given his superlative platform season (1.31 ERA/0.90 FIP), there was never any doubt that he would get paid handsomely. Suarez, while a top relief arm in this offseason’s class in his own right, pales in comparison to Diaz, with a 2.27 ERA and 3.32 FIP in 47 2/3 innings in 2022, his first major league season after playing the first six years of his career in Japan. Despite his lack of major-league experience and the fact that he’ll play 2023 at the age of 32, Suarez still managed to receive a five year, $46MM deal. While the AAV is about in line with what most would have expected, San Diego’s decision to sign Suarez to a deal that guarantees him money through his age-36 season certainly registers as a surprise, particularly given that there’s also an opt-out in the deal. With perhaps the two best relievers off the market, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the relief market plays out from here. Kenley Jansen, Rafael Montero, and Taylor Rogers represent some of the top options still available, and while they were projected for just two or three year deals in MLBTR’s Top 50 list yesterday, it’s reasonable to wonder if the Suarez deal indicates the relief market may be stronger than had previously been expected.
2. Kershaw, Dodgers Close To Deal
Reports last night indicated that the Dodgers were close to re-signing longtime ace Clayton Kershaw to another one-year contract similar to the one he received last offseason, and it’s possible said contract could be agreed upon as soon as today. This deal comes as no surprise, as Kershaw had previously mentioned that he was likely to continue playing in 2023, and despite rumors last year that he may sign with his hometown Texas Rangers, the more widely held expectation has been that if Kershaw is playing anywhere next season, it will be in Los Angeles. Should the Kershaw deal become official, the Dodgers will have additional security in their rotation headed into the meat of the offseason. Tyler Anderson (to whom the Dodgers extended a qualifying offer yesterday) and Andrew Heaney joined Kershaw in free agency after the 2022 season, leaving the club in need of more arms. Still, it’s reasonable to expect L.A. to continue searching for rotation help even with Kershaw returning for next year, particularly given his increasingly frequent trips to the injured list in recent years.
3. Masataka Yoshida Garnering Interest
It was reported last week that Nippon Professional Baseball star Masataka Yoshida may be posted by his team, the Japan Series champion Orix Buffaloes, and rumors have only grown since then. In particular, the folks at the New York Post seem confident not only that Yoshida will indeed be posted — Joel Sherman suggests such a move is expected to come next month — but that he will find considerable interest from MLB clubs. Sherman notes that Yoshida “is going to draw a lot of interest”, while Jon Heyman indicates that the Yankees, in particular, may be interested in Yoshida, whether or not they manage to re-sign Aaron Judge. Heyman notes that Yoshida’s lefty bat could help bring balance to a Yankees lineup that’s heavily right-handed, and stands to become even more so should they not re-sign first baseman Anthony Rizzo. Should Yoshida be posted, he would join the corner outfield market as one of the younger, more intriguing options behind Judge. Speculatively speaking, teams such as the Blue Jays, Rangers, and Mariners are among the many who could have interest in Yoshida.