The fact that the club is looking to make a number of additions is fairly sensible. Last year, they traded away their co-aces Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at the deadline. At the end of the season, Carlos Carrasco became a free agent and David Peterson underwent hip surgery that will keep him out of action until the middle of next year.

That leaves the rotation with Kodai Senga and José Quintana in two spots, with Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi and José Butto options for the back end. Megill had a 4.70 earned run average in 2023 but with subpar strikeout and walk rates of 18.5% and 10.2%, respectively. Lucchesi had a strong 2.89 ERA in his nine starts but with just a 16.4% strikeout rate, likely helped by a strand rate of 80.1%. Butto has just 46 innings of major league work and he just posted a 5.93 ERA at Triple-A in 2023.

Given the state of things, it’s understandable that the club will be looking to bring in multiple arms in order to improve the rotation for 2024. Exactly how aggressive they will be is an open question. The club had the highest payroll in baseball history in 2023 but that didn’t work out and it seems 2024 might be something of a transitional year. It’s tough to know exactly what it looks like for owner Steve Cohen to take a step back from record-setting spending, as that could still lead to the club forking out plenty of money. Agent Scott Boras was asked about this and phrased it thusly: “When you have the bigger jet, and you say you’re going slower, you’re still going faster,” Boras said, per Will Sammon of The Athletic.

That perhaps suggests the club is still indicating a certain level of aggression in its conversations with player agents, but the comments from Stearns also imply they might be happy to spread money around to various mid-level guys as opposed to targeting aces. At the top of the free agent market, pitchers like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Aaron Nola and Jordan Montgomery are likely to land nine-figure deals. There should also be sizeable eight-figure deals available to pitchers like Sonny Gray, Eduardo Rodriguez and Shota Imanaga. Then there will be guys like Luis Severino, Frankie Montas and Hyun Jin Ryu that should be attainable on low-cost bounceback deals. Time will tell how the Mets plan to assess these options but making a long-term investment would make sense even if they are pumping the brakes a bit. Quintana has just one year left on his deal and most of the club’s top prospects are position players, meaning there’s even more rotation uncertainty in the long term.

Stearns was also asked about first baseman Pete Alonso, per Sammon, and reiterated his previous position that he doesn’t expect a preseason trade. “I think I do not anticipate him getting traded,” Stearns said. “I don’t draw lines in the sand. And I’m never gonna say never. But I absolutely think it’s fair that I don’t anticipate him being traded.” Alonso is going into his final arbitration season before reaching free agency, so the club will have to pick a lane at some point. But with a good deal of uncertainty about the 2024 club, it seems they are leaning towards holding. If the club has another poor season in 2024, they could always pivot to a deadline deal.

Another option would be to pursue an extension. It doesn’t sound like anything is imminent there but it also doesn’t seem like the lines of communication are dead. “When it comes to the Polar Bear, we’re not in contract hibernation,” Boras said. He added that he follows the instructions given to him by his clients and Alonso has told him to listen to whatever the Mets have to say.

Sammon also rounds up a few other bits of Mets’ news from a busy week in the baseball world, including the fact that pitching coach Jeremy Hefner is going to stay on as pitching coach. With the club adding a new manager in Carlos Mendoza, it wasn’t known if he would then bring in someone from the outside for that job but Hefner will apparently stick around. Meanwhile, the club won’t hire a general manager this winter. Billy Eppler was going to be in that role before stepping aside amid an investigation into the club’s misuse of the injured list. Front offices are generally composed of dozens of decision makers, from assistant GMs to vice-presidents and so on, meaning the lack of someone with that specific GM title won’t mean much with Stearns the primary decision maker.

Turning back to the roster, neither outfielder Starling Marte nor infielder/outfielder Jeff McNeil are expected to require offseason surgery. Marte had groin surgery last offseason and never seemed to be fully healthy in 2023, finishing the year on the injured list due to ongoing issues with his groin. McNeil, meanwhile, was diagnosed with a partially torn UCL in his left elbow. He throws with his right arm anyway but it appears both he and Marte are making good progress and can perhaps return without going under the knife this winter. As for designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach, the club is still undecided on whether or not they will tender him a contract for 2024. The non-tender deadline is November 17, giving them just over a week to pick a path with him. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Vogelbach for a salary of $2.6MM.

Speaking to members of the media on Thursday (including Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia), president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said that re-signing Nola is a priority and he hopes to retain the former Cy Young finalist. Nola, for his part, told reporters on Tuesday (including Matt Breen of The Philadelphia Inquirer), “I hope I’m back, for sure.” Thus, there seems to be mutual interest in keeping the right-hander in Philadelphia for the long haul.

However, a deal still has to get done, and both sides have acknowledged that it might not happen. Dombrowski says he will pivot to other front-line starters on the open market if he can’t come to an agreement with Nola, while the 30-year-old starter was more cryptic, simply admitting that he doesn’t know “what the future holds.” The two sides reached an impasse in extension talks last winter, with the ace reportedly seeking a much longer deal that the team was willing to offer.

Dombrowski also expressed a vague desire to keep Wheeler beyond the terms of his current contract, although he would not reveal if extension negotiations were part of his offseason plan.

In other news from the NL East…

• Earlier this month, Billy Eppler stepped down from his role as general manager of the Mets amidst an investigation into his misuse of the injured list and injury rehab assignments. His departure from the organization came as quite a surprise, since most were expecting him to stay on as GM under new president of baseball operations David Stearns. Now, however, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that Eppler would have been fired had he not resigned, and thus, he will be paid for the two years remaining on his guaranteed contract. Sherman notes that the inquiry is still ongoing, and it is unlikely MLB will announce a ruling before the end of the World Series. Given the scope of the investigation, it’s not hard to understand why the team chose to part ways with Eppler; Stearns has a busy enough offseason ahead of him as it is.
• Sticking with the Mets, Martino reports that other teams are “under the impression” that Mets coaches are essentially available for hire, given the likelihood that a new manager will come in and clean house. Indeed, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner is already drawing interest from at least one other club, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post. However, Hefner prefers to wait and see if he fits into the team’s future plans (in other words, if the new manager wants to keep him on) before he takes an interview with another club. Hefner, who played for the Mets from 2012-13, has already survived two managerial hirings in his four years as the pitching coach, so it makes sense that he isn’t ready to pack his bags just yet.
• Back to the Phillies, the team has announced that bullpen coach Dave Lundquist will not return for the 2024 season. Lundquist, 50, has been with the organization since 2018, starting as the pitching coach for Triple-A Lehigh Valley before becoming assistant pitching coach and then bullpen coach for the major league team. The bullpen has become a legitimate strength under his guidance, going from one of the worst in the league to one of the best in just three seasons. The Phillies are also parting ways with assistant hitting coach Jason Camilli, who joined the staff in 2022 after spending 15 years as a minor league hitting coach with the Nationals, Diamondbacks, and Reds organizations.

A former Mets pitcher, Hefner has quickly risen through the coaching ranks after wrapping up his playing career following the 2016 season. Initially hired as a scout by the Twins heading into 2017, he made the jump to bullpen coach by 2019. He spent just one year working in that capacity for Minnesota before returning to his former big league organization as pitching coach over the 2019-20 offseason.

That hiring was overseen by former GM Brodie Van Wagenen and manager Luis Rojas, and the Mets overhauled both their front office and coaching staff not long after. Van Wagenen was dismissed following the 2020 season, while Rojas was fired and replaced by Buck Showalter last winter. Despite the leadership turnover, the Mets have remained steadfast in their belief in Hefner. He retained his position throughout the duration of his initial two-year guarantee, and the Mets exercised an option on his services for 2022 last October.

Puma writes that the Mets were concerned Hefner could both draw interest from other big league clubs and college programs this offseason. The notion of an MLB pitching coach leaving to take a collegiate coaching position may surprise some onlookers, but the Twins were dealt a midseason blow this summer when pitching coach Wes Johnson resigned to take the same role with LSU. Puma suggests that a chance to return closer to his native Oklahoma could’ve been appealing to Hefner, but he and the New York organization are apparently on the verge of continuing their relationship.

The Mets have been an above-average pitching team since Hefner took over, ranking 11th in cumulative ERA (3.93) and second in strikeout rate (25.7%) since the start of the 2020 campaign. No team topped New York’s 26.3% strikeout percentage this past season, while only the Dodgers, Astros and Yankees allowed fewer runs. As with any coach, Hefner isn’t solely responsible for the club’s results. He’s certainly had the fortune of working with a number of talented pitchers — Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Edwin Díaz among them. Yet it’s also clear Hefner’s a respected pitching mind within the industry, and it’s no surprise the Mets prioritized keeping him around given the team’s success on the mound.

Puma adds that most of Showalter’s staff is expected to return in 2023, although he suggests there could be a few changes. Showalter himself is certain to be back after leading the club to 101 wins during the first season of a reported three-year contract.

“I’m extremely excited to continue working with this group and build on the systems and practices we’ve implemented,” Hefner said in a statement within today’s press release. “I saw a lot of development from the rotation and bullpen and am very optimistic for even more success from the pitching staff moving forward.”

There will be plenty of turnover within the Mets’ dugout even if Hefner’s return provides a small bit of continuity. Manager Luis Rojas was dismissed after two seasons at the helm — and has reportedly already interviewed for San Diego’s managerial vacancy — and the Mets have already informed the majority of the staff that it is free to pursue other opportunities. Bench coach Dave Jauss, first base coach Tony Tarasco, third base coach Gary DiSarcina, bullpen coach Ricky Bones, Major League field coordinator/catching coach Brian Schneider, and assistant pitching coach Jeremy Accardo are all counted among that group.

Hefner, however, has seemingly done enough to convince team president Sandy Alderson and owner Steve Cohen that he can be a key part of the organization’s future. It’s not yet clear who’ll ultimately be overseeing either the baseball operations staff or the dugout in 2022, as New York is on the hunt for both a president of baseball operations and a replacement for Rojas, but Hefner will continue working in a critical role with whoever is hired to fill those vacancies.

“Jeremy has done an outstanding job of working with the entire pitching staff and they’ve all benefitted from his leadership and expertise,” Alderson said in a statement of his own. “He has blended analytics with his knowledge to provide players with tools for individual and team success.”

The 2021 season was hardly a banner year for the Mets in any capacity, but the pitching staff was generally its strongest point — even in the wake of myriad injuries. Teams judge coaches and managers on far more than just the baseline results, of course, but the performance of the team’s staff was still likely a critical point in Hefner’s favor.

The Mets received only 92 innings from ace Jacob deGrom and saw only two pitchers — Marcus Stroman and Taijuan Walker — top 100 innings at all. Despite the injury issues, however, the club ranked ninth in the Majors with a 3.90 ERA, seventh with a matching 3.90 SIERA and sixth with a 16.9 K-BB%.

Hefner, who briefly pitched for the Mets in 2012-13, will now return for a third season as the team’s pitching coach. He joined the Twins organization as an advance scout not long after his playing career wrapped up, helping to develop game plans and devise defensive shifts with Minnesota pitchers. The Twins tabbed him as their assistant pitching coach in 2019, and after one season in that role, the Mets scooped him up and named him pitching coach for the 2020 season.

The manner in which Hefner collaborates with the eventual hires in the front office and throughout the remainder of the coaching staff will determine how long he’ll hold his current role, but it’s telling that he is, to this point, the only staff member whom the Mets have made sure to retain into next season.

Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner will also remain but perhaps not in his current position, as Hefner “and the Mets are discussing his future role.”  Hitting coach Hugh Quattlebaum and assistant hitting coach Kevin Howard will be staying in the organization but will be reassigned to the minor leagues, as Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News reports that Howard will return to his former job as the director of player development.

Considering the Mets have already moved on from Luis Rojas as manager, it isn’t surprising that the club would also look for a clean slate with its coaching corps, thus giving the new manager some opportunity to hand-pick his own staff.  As Martino notes, the Mets coaches were something of “a patchwork group that represented remnants of previous regimes,” which perhaps isn’t surprising given how many managerial and front office changes the Mets have made just in the last few years.

Aaron Nola and Rhys Hoskins stand out as recent success stories from Philadelphia’s player pipeline, but apart from that duo, the Phillies have struggled to find consistent contributions from within the organizations.  Highly-touted youngsters like Alec Bohm, Scott Kingery, Mickey Moniak, and Adam Haseley have yet to make much of an impact at the big league level, and Gelb notes that the Phils have been lacking a streamlined approach throughout the organization — there appears to be “a disconnect between what was taught below and preached in the majors.”  The Phillies are already making changes in the player development department and are on the lookout for a new hitting coach, though it remains to be seen if the team can figure out this “disconnect” while still addressing their 2022 needs and being competitive next season.

More from around the NL East…

• J.D. Davis will undergo surgery Tuesday to fix a torn ligament in his left hand.  The Mets infielder played in only 73 games this season due to four separate trips to the injured list related to his hand injury, and Davis told The New York Daily News’ Deesha Thosar and other reporters that he expects to have a normal offseason after his surgery, so he should be ready for Spring Training.  As to whether or not he’ll be at the Mets’ camp is another question, as after a year of trade rumors, Davis said his “gut feeling” is that he “could be out of here” and headed to another team.  “It’s kind of 50/50, kind of a flip of the coin,” Davis said.  “I know there’s going to be plenty of changes up and down from the front office all the way down to here….But there’s a possibility that I could come back. I love New York.  I love the fans.”
• As Davis mentioned, the Mets will be undergoing many changes, including a possible overhaul of the coaching staff that could include manager Luis Rojas.  Of all the coaches, The New York Post’s Mike Puma (Twitter link) believes pitching coach Jeremy Hefner is the likeliest to remain in Queens.  2021 is the last guaranteed year of Hefner’s original two-year contract, but the Mets hold a club option on Hefner’s services for next season.
• The Nationals definitively won’t be making a change at pitching coach, as manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman) on Saturday that Jim Hickey for a second season on Washington’s staff.  Other changes could be forthcoming to the coaching corps, however, and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo told Zuckerman and company today that the Nationals are “certainly going to make some changes in the player development and scouting ranks.”  The idea is that “ten or 12 years with the same staff shows the cohesion, and then when you make some nice tweaks to get a new set of eyes and some new ideas is never a bad thing,” Rizzo said.

Meinhold was promoted to assistant pitching coach in January, working under pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. He also retained the minor league coordinator role he’d held for a little more than a year previously. Meinhold has a background in integrating data into pitching development, and Thosar notes he’d recently been under consideration for a high-ranking player development position with another club.

Hefner was hired as pitching coach over the 2019-20 offseason, an addition that predated the current front office structure and the hiring of manager Luis Rojas. His contract is set to expire at the end of the season, reports Andy Martino of SNY, but the former big league hurler remains highly-regarded in the organization.

The club also recently engaged in some discussions with Driveline Baseball founder and former Reds’ director of pitching Kyle Boddy, reports Michael Mayer of Metsmerized. However, Martino adds that those discussions aren’t expected to result in Boddy landing a position with New York.

Meulens has spent the last two seasons as the Giants bench coach, and the previous eight years as the club’s hitting coach.  That long stint in San Francisco included a brief period working with Mets manager Carlos Beltran, who played for the Giants over the last two months of the 2011 season.  The 52-year-old Meulens has long been considered as a potential manager himself, and was seen as a potential heir apparent to Bruce Bochy, though Meulens wasn’t hired after being interviewed by the Giants this fall.  Meulens also reportedly came close to joining the Marlins’ coaching staff this offseason, though he will now work in New York for the second time in his professional career — Meulens’ first five seasons as a player were spent with the Yankees from 1989-1993.

DeFrancesco has managed the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate for the last two seasons, and also interviewed for the big league managerial job before Beltran was hired.  DeFrancesco has spent the majority of his 28 seasons as a coach and manager at the minor league level, though he also worked as the Athletics’ third base coach in 2008 and briefly served as the Astros’ interim manager in 2012.

Beyond the new hires and Jeremy Accardo’s promotion from pitching strategist to assistant pitching coach, the rest of New York’s staff will return to their roles from the 2019 season.  The returning group includes hitting coach Chili Davis, assistant hitting coach Tom Slater, third base coach Gary DiSarcina, quality control coach Luis Rojas, and bullpen coach Ricky Bones.

NOVEMBER 26: Twins assistant pitching coach Jeremy Hefner “is the Mets’ choice” to be their new pitching coach, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets. SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that the deal isn’t quite yet finalized but could be by next week. If and when a deal is complete, Hefner will replace interim pitching coach Phil Regan, who stepped up when the club parted ways with veteran coach Dave Eiland back in June.

Hefner, still just 33 years old, pitched for the Mets as recently as 2012-13 but called his playing career quits after a 2016 run with the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate. He joined the Twins the following season as an advance scout. Hefner held that role for two seasons in Minnesota, helping to establish game plans for pitchers, devise defensive shifts and also use his experience as a recently retired player to best boil down data from the team’s analytics department for the players and coaching staff. Minnesota made Hefner its assistant pitching coach for the 2019 campaign, and that marks his lone season of experience on a Major League coaching staff to date.

Still, Hefner has been viewed as a rising star in the coaching ranks since latching on with the Twins and will seemingly get his first look at a top coaching spot with the only team for which he ever pitched at the MLB level. Hefner’s embracing of newer data and his recent experience as a player has become an increasingly desirable skill set for clubs both in terms of managerial and coaching searches.

Assuming the agreement does indeed go through, Hefner will be the second member of the Twins coaching staff to be hired away by another club this winter. Hitting coach James Rowson has already been plucked away by Miami, and it’s still possible that bench coach Derek Shelton could be hired as the next manager of the Pirates. Minnesota elevated an internal replacement, Edgar Varela, for Rowson yesterday.

MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo writes that the Mets plan to formally announce their new-look coaching staff all at once — perhaps sometime next week.

SUNDAY:  The Mets have interviewed A’s minor league pitching coordinator Gil Patterson for their pitching coach position, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney. It isn’t clear from the report, however, when Patterson’s interview took place or if he remains in the running.

Patterson recently wrapped up the fourth year of his third separate stint working with A’s farmhands. From 2013-15, he held a similar role with the Yankees, with whom he pitched his only ten MLB games in 1977. Patterson didn’t have a lengthy MLB playing career, but he’s worked in assorted pitching development roles over the past three decades. In addition to his time with the A’s and Yankees, Patterson has coached for the Diamondbacks and Blue Jays in his career, logging three seasons (2002-04) as Toronto’s pitching coach.

Patterson becomes the fourth known candidate for the Mets’ pitching coach job. Brewers’ bullpen coach Steve Karsay, Twins’ assistant pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, and University of Michigan pitching coach Chris Fetter have previously been tied to the role. In other Mets’ news, the club seems likely to bring in veteran coach Hensley Meulens as Carlos Beltrán’s bench coach.

• A Willson Contreras trade won’t do the Cubs any favors in 2020, but it’s more preferable than moving any of the team’s other star players, opines Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic. Some rival organizations believe Chicago will indeed make that move this offseason, and there would surely be ample interest in the 27-year-old catcher if the Cubs put him on the market. Contreras is one of baseball’s best offensive catchers, and the Cubs maintain that he’ll improve as a pitch framer, although as Sharma notes, he continues to rate near the bottom of the league in that category. Parting ways with a franchise catcher isn’t ideal, but the Cubs do at least have a strong internal replacement available in Víctor Caratini. The same can’t be said for shortstop, third base, or first base, so a trade of Javier Báez, Kris Bryant, or Anthony Rizzo is tougher to envision. The Cubs don’t have to trade any of those players, Sharma points out, although ownership seems unlikely to green-light a major payroll increase and the MLB pitching staff and minor-league system both need augmenting.
• Nationals outfield prospect Nick Banks put together a solid showing in the Arizona Fall League. He credits some of that success to Ken Joyce, a hitting coach in the Yankees organization, with whom Banks worked in the AFL, reports Byron Kerr of MASN. A fourth-round draft choice by Washington out of Texas A&M in 2016, Banks hit well across two levels, reaching Double-A Harrisburg this season. He’s never been regarded as a top prospect (topping out as Washington’s #31 prospect after 2016, per Baseball America), although perhaps his solid 2019 season and postseason mechanical work with Joyce will turn some heads in the organization. The 24-year-old will be Rule V eligible if he’s not added to Washington’s 40-man roster by November 20.
• The Mets are set to interview Twins assistant pitching coach Jeremy Hefner for their top pitching coach position. Their interest in bringing him on staff isn’t new, as SNY’s Andy Martino (via Twitter) reports that New York offered him an interview for bullpen coach last offseason. The former Mets’ pitcher was then already locked into his position with Minnesota, but he’ll sit down with New York brass this time around for an opportunity to lead the entire pitching staff.

This 50-game stint comprised Hefner’s entire Major League tenure, as his career was derailed by a pair of Tommy John surgeries.  After pitching in the Cardinals’ minor league system in 2016, he decided to hang up his cleats and pursue a post-playing career as an advance scout for Minnesota.  After two years in that role, he became an assistant pitching coach for the Twins in 2019.

Hefner is only 33 years old, almost 49 full years younger than Phil Regan, who worked as the Mets’ interim pitching coach after Dave Eiland was fired in mid-June.  Hefner’s youth and knowledge of analytics make him a “conduit” of a coach, in Carig’s words, able to relate to players as a virtual peer in terms of age and recent playing experience, which helps in presenting analytical information in an easily digestible fashion.

One veteran voice who won’t be in the Mets dugout is Terry Collins, as Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that the former manager isn’t a candidate to be the club’s new bench coach.  There was speculation last week that Collins could serve as an experienced right hand to first-time manager Carlos Beltran, though Collins will instead remain in his current role as a special assistant within the Mets organization.

Taken together, these additions represent the first outside hire under new manager Rocco Baldelli, though the team will still need to add a third base coach and a first base coach. Hitting coaches James Rowson and Rudy Hernandez were retained, and bench coach Derek Shelton will likely be back after finishing as the runner-up to both Baldell in Minnesota and Chris Woodward in Texas.

Prior to his time with the Razorbacks, Johnson was the pitching coach at Mississippi State and Dallas Baptist University. Otherwise, though, his resume doesn’t look like that of a typical MLB pitching coach. The out-of-the-box hire for the Twins comes on the heels of just a one-year tenure for recently dismissed pitching coach Garvin Alston (formerly the Athletics’ bullpen coach).

A look through some of the recent draftees who’ve come from Johnson’s programs at Arkansas, Mississippi State and Dallas Baptist includes Orioles 2018 third-rounder Blaine Knight, Yankees 2017 third-rounder Trevor Stephan, Cardinals righty Dakota Hudson, Mets righty Drew Smith and Yankees right-hander Chance Adams.

As for Hefner, the former MLB hurler will be changing roles within the organization. He’s also something of an unusual hire, as a 32-year-old who was pitching professionally as recently as 2016. As Wetmore explains, Hefner previously performed pitching-related advanced scouting and video work with the Twins.

More from the division…

• Despite a pause in their sell-off, the White Sox remain open for business, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Indeed, as GM Rick Hahn told MLBTR in February, the club would have preferred to have made four more deals at this point. But that doesn’t mean the team is ready to deal just to move salary, and some rival officials think the Sox are setting unrealistic price tags on their remaining veterans. “I think our asks are commensurate with what we are willing to give up,” Hahn tells Sherman, while noting the team is still open to deal. Sherman also looks at how Jerry Reinsdorf came around to the idea of selling, with the veteran owner finally agreeing that the organization’s best shot at capturing another title would come through a rebuild.
• While it’s still early in camp, the results from right-hander Anibal Sanchez haven’t been encouraging, as Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes. Sanchez, along with expensive veterans Mike Pelfrey and Mark Lowe, have all been knocked around thus far, and Fenech notes that it’s difficult to imagine a team with postseason aspirations breaking camp with all three on the roster. Sanchez, who has allowed 11 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, is owed $16MM this coming season plus a $5MM buyout on his 2018 option. Pelfrey’s struggles have been similar (eight runs in six frames), and he’s set to earn $8MM in the second season of a two-year deal. Lowe is set to earn $5.5MM and has surrendered three runs in his 3 2/3 innings, albeit with a more encouraging 5-to-1 K/BB ratio. Obviously any spring stats — especially those accumulated through March 10 — should be taken with a large grain of salt, but none of that trio performed well in 2016, either.
• The Indians’ payroll will surpass $100MM for the first time this year, writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post, who notes that the lack of holes on a roster with a still-limited payroll — Cleveland’s projected $124MM payroll will rank in the bottom half of the league — is fairly remarkable. Cleveland is trying to determine who will claim the final spot in the bullpen, who will serve as a utility infielder and who will claim the remaining reserve outfield role, but beyond that the roster is largely set. General manager Mike Chernoff noted to Sherman that his team typically wouldn’t be able to pursue a marquee name like Edwin Encarnacion, “…but having cost controllable guys allowed one big guy.”
• Michael Brantley will play in a five-inning simulated game — his third simulated contest of the week, writes Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The Indians still don’t know exactly what they can expect of Brantley, though Hoynes spoke to manager Terry Francona quite a bit about Brantley’s progress and the team’s hopes. As Francona observed to Hoynes, if Brantley is able to return to his former self — a big if — Cleveland will have effectively added two dynamic middle-of-the-order bats to an already imposing lineup.

• The Marlins have signed righty Dylan Axelrod, lefty Troy Patton, and shortstop Robert Andino. Axelrod has seen MLB action in each of the last five seasons, but has seen his opportunities dwindle and owns only a 5.27 career ERA in 228 2/3 frames. Patton has had success at times in the bigs — he was a solid contributor to the Orioles from 2011-13 — and threw 30 1/3 innings of 2.37 ERA pitching last year at Triple-A. As for Andino, he’ll return to the organization with which he cracked the majors after spending last season in independent ball.
• Outfielder Alex Castellanos is heading to the Rockies, per Eddy. The 29-year-old has seen only minimal MLB time, despite solid numbers at Triple-A. He played briefly last year for Japan’s Yomiuri Giants.
• The Cardinals signed righty Jeremy Hefner, who is working his way back after Tommy John surgery. Hefner threw 224 1/3 frames for the Mets, with a 4.65 ERA, over 2012-13.
• Joining the Diamondbacks are righties Matt Buschmann and Jose Cisnero. Buschmann, 31, spent time with three organizations last year and has yet to crack the majors. Still just 26, Cisnero has made it to the bigs with the Astros but threw at Double-A last year in the Reds organization, continuing to show an ability to miss bats but also a predilection to miss the zone.
• The White Sox inked right-hander Josh Wall. Wall has made 15 major league appearances in past seasons. Heading into his age-29 campaign, the reliever will be looking for a chance to pick up some more MLB frames after throwing sixty innings of 2.70 ERA ball last year at Triple-A, with 10.4 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9.