Marinaccio, 29, hasn’t appeared in a big league game for the Sox. He was claimed off waivers from the Yankees with about a week remaining in the 2024 season, but was kept on optional assignment. He has held onto his roster spot for the past four months but has now been nudged off.

The righty was generally a high-strikeout and low-control guy for the Yanks. He tossed 91 1/3 innings over the 2022 and 2023 seasons, allowing 3.05 earned runs per nine. He struck out 29% of batters faced but also gave out walks at a 13.2% clip. In 2024, he got his walk rate down to 10.1% but his strikeout rate also fell to 25.3% as he posted a 3.86 ERA.

Overall, Marinaccio has a 3.22 ERA in 114 2/3 innings, with a 28.2% strikeout rate and 12.6% walk rate. It’s generally been fairly similar in the minors. Over the past four years, Marinaccio has thrown 132 innings on the farm with a 2.86 ERA, 33.5% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate.

The control is clearly an issue but Marinaccio is likely to draw interest based on the strikeouts. He also still has an option remaining and barely two years of service time, meaning he still hasn’t qualified for arbitration and can be sent to the minors fairly freely for another year. The Sox will have a week of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next for the righty, though the waiver process takes 48 hours, meaning any trade talks would need to come together in the next five days.

January 8: The White Sox and left-hander Martín Pérez are in agreement on a deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. It’s a one-year, $5MM deal, per José F. Rivera of ESPN. That comes in the form of a $3.5MM salary and a $1.5MM buyout on a $10MM mutual option for 2026, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The deal is pending a physical for the Octagon client. The Sox have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move once this deal becomes official. Their Josh Rojas deal is also still not official, so the club now needs to open two spots.

Pérez, 34 in April, is a soft-tossing veteran innings eater. He split last year between the Pirates and Padres, making 26 starts and logging 135 frames. He allowed 4.53 earned runs per nine innings, striking out 18.1% of batters faced, issuing walks at an 8.3% clip and getting grounders on 44.4% of balls in play. He averaged 91.3 miles per hour with his four-seam fastball.

Those stats are pretty close to his career numbers. Dating back to his 2012 debut, he has thrown 1,575 2/3 innings with a 4.44 ERA, 16.2% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 48.7% ground ball rate. His fastball velocity was naturally higher when he was younger, but not by much. His highest four-seam velocity in a season was 94.2 mph, back in 2019.

He did end the 2024 season on a high note. He posted a 5.20 ERA with the Bucs before being traded to the Padres at the deadline, then went on to allow 3.46 earned runs per nine after the deal. His 20.3% strikeout rate after the trade was a few ticks higher than the 16.9% rate he had with Pittsburgh. He changed up his pitch mix a bit, throwing more changeups and curveballs with the Friars, while reducing his usage of cutters and sliders.

That’s somewhat encouraging but Pérez has previously flashed better results without sustaining them. He posted a 2.89 ERA over 32 starts for the Rangers in 2022, which prompted Texas to issue him a $19.65MM qualifying offer for 2023. The southpaw accepted that but then his ERA normalized to 4.45 that year. As mentioned, he held pretty steady in 2024, with a 4.53 ERA.

It’s not the most exciting profile but he’s a sensible fit for the South Side of Chicago. The White Sox had a poor rotation last year and it’s in worse shape now. They traded Erick Fedde to the Cardinals and the deadline and then flipped Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox last month. Chris Flexen reached free agency at season’s end. That means that Jonathan Cannon is the only guy still on the roster who made more than ten starts for the Sox last year.

Pérez has made at least 26 appearances in five straight full seasons. in 2024, he went on the injured list due to a left groin muscle strain but was back in less than a month. That was his most significant IL stint since 2018. While no pitcher is guaranteed to stay healthy, Pérez is perhaps one of the safer bets to take the ball when it’s his turn, even if the results are more passable than outstanding.

Given the uncertainty in the club’s rotation, it’s a logical pick up. The Sox also added Bryse Wilson earlier this offseason, another move designed to bolster a group fairly lacking in experience. The final three spots are up for grabs, with Cannon, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Drew Thorpe, Nick Nastrini, Jairo Iriarte, Jake Eder, Wikelman Gonzalez, Ky Bush and Juan Carela around to battle for opportunities. Prospects Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith aren’t yet on the roster but could push into the mix during the season.

Apart from Pérez and Wilson, no one in that cluster of rotation options has even one year of major league service time. The Sox can use Pérez as a veteran anchor, at least for a few months. If he’s pitching well, he could be flipped to a contending club at the deadline, just as he was last year. That would then open up second-half starts for whichever young pitcher has earned them.

• The Padres made two changes from their NLDS roster, adding left-hander Martin Perez and right-hander Alek Jacob and removing Joe Musgrove and infielder Nick Ahmed.  Musgrove was obviously out due to his impending Tommy John surgery, while replacing Ahmed with a pitcher gives San Diego 13 pitchers to go with 13 position players.  Perez is one of five southpaws on San Diego’s roster, as ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez (X link) was among those who noted that the Padres are guarding themselves as best they can against Shohei Ohtani and other powerful left-handed Dodgers bats.
• The Dodgers will go with an even mix of 13 batters and 13 pitchers, and rookie Edgardo Henriquez has made the list of available arms.  Henriquez only made his MLB debut on September 24 and he has played in just three games as a big leaguer, but Los Angeles will give the hard-throwing righty a look in October to add some velocity to the bullpen.  It’s probably safe to assume that Henriquez wouldn’t have made the cut if the Dodgers weren’t ravaged by pitching injuries, yet the rookie also got the nod over veteran Joe Kelly, who had an inconsistent year but was pitching well after returning from the IL in mid-September.  On the position player side, L.A. didn’t include either Kevin Kiermaier or James Outman, so Andy Pages will be the only true backup outfielder along with utilitymen Enrique Hernandez and Chris Taylor in the bench mix.
• The Phillies will use 14 position players and 12 pitchers in their NLDS matchup with the Mets, with left-hander Kolby Allard joining the relief corps.  Allard has worked as something of a swingman throughout his career, and this ability of covering multiple innings earned Allard the spot, as manager Rob Thomson told MLB.com’s Paul Casella and other reporters.  “He’s going to probably give us the most length if we get into an extra-inning game….so I just wanted as much length as we could get,” Thomson said.  Utilityman Weston Wilson also got the Phils’ last bench spot, as Casella observes that Wilson brings more positional versatility than outfielder Cal Stevenson.
• The Yankees went heavier on position players (15) than pitchers (11) for their ALDS roster against the Royals.  Anthony Rizzo is missing the series due to two broken fingers and DJ LeMahieu wasn’t yet activated from the injured list, but New York still has plenty of room on its bench, including pinch-running specialist Duke Ellis.  The Yankees appear to be loading up on bats to take on the Royals’ tough rotation and more porous bullpen, which left right-hander Marcus Stroman off the ALDS roster as the odd man out of the starting staff.
• The Tigers made just one change from their Wild Card Series roster, as rookie righty Keider Montero has been included in place of Casey Mize.  Montero posted a 4.76 ERA over 98 1/3 innings in his first Major League season, starting 16 of 19 games.  This doesn’t necessarily mean Montero will start against the Guardians in the ALDS, however, as Detroit’s pitching staff (apart from ace Tarik Skubal) is very malleable in terms of specific roles.

Davis is out of options, so a DFA was the only manner of pulling him from the MLB bullpen. The 31-year-old southpaw made seven low-leverage appearances over the past month. He allowed eight runs (seven earned) across seven innings, walking five with six strikeouts.

That was the first MLB work in two years for Davis, who combined for 56 frames of 5.79 ERA ball between the Red Sox and Twins in 2022. While his recent body of work against big league hitters hasn’t been especially impressive, he had a nice showing for El Paso early this year. Over 29 innings in the Pacific Coast League, he turned in a 3.10 earned run average. Davis fanned nearly 30% of batters faced in Triple-A, albeit with an elevated 12.9% walk rate.

With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, San Diego’s only option is to put Davis on waivers (though it’s unlikely they’d have found a trade partner regardless). He has a previous career outright that gives him the ability to decline an assignment back to Triple-A, so he’ll likely become a free agent assuming he clears waivers.

4:59PM: The Padres have landed left-hander Martin Perez in a trade with the Pirates, according to reporter Francys Romero (links to X).  Left-handed pitching prospect Ronaldys Jimenez will head to Pittsburgh in exchange.

There were some pre-deadline rumblings that the Bucs could deal from their relative pitching surplus, and Pittsburgh ended up moving Quinn Priester to the Red Sox and now Perez to San Diego, albeit for more projectionable players than players that could help the Pirates win immediately.  There is also a financial element to the Perez trade, as the Padres will receive some money from the Pirates to cover a portion of the roughly $2.5MM remaining of Perez’s $8MM salary for the season.

After signing that one-year, $8MM pact last offseason, there was always an expectation that the Pirates would look to flip Perez at the deadline in some fashion.  The veteran southpaw didn’t help his market by posting a 5.20 ERA in 83 innings, and he also spent a month on the injured list recovering from a groin strain.  Perez’s Statcast page has a troubling amount of blue ink, with a set of below-average metrics in every category except grounder rate.

The 33-year-old Perez does bring plenty of experience and an ability to eat innings, which is no small matter for a San Diego rotation that is currently relying heavily on a lot of younger arms behind ace Dylan Cease.  With Joe Musgrove still on the IL and Yu Darvish away from the team dealing with a family matter, the trio of Michael King, Randy Vasquez, and Matt Waldron have all been logging a lot of innings, leading the Padres to explore for some rotation help.  The bulk of San Diego’s deadline moves focused on the bullpen, so while bolstering the relief corps does aid the rotation in a more indirect fashion, the Perez trade brings on a veteran arm to cover some starts down the stretch.

The 18-year-old Jimenez was an international signing for the Padres in 2023, and he has started his pro career this year with three starts for the Padres’ Dominican Summer League squad, delivering a 1.50 ERA in six innings of work.  Jimenez is a lottery ticket-type of prospect for the Pirates to develop over the long term, which the club probably counts as a good result from its investment in Perez.

Pérez exited his Sunday start after three innings. The 33-year-old appeared to tweak something while covering first base on a third-inning grounder (video link). While he finished out the frame, he was replaced in the fourth inning. Bart also departed yesterday’s contest early, but the severity of his injury — or even a formal diagnosis — has not yet been provided by the team.

Pittsburgh signed Pérez to a one-year, $8MM contract in the offseason, hoping he could provide some veteran stability at the back of a rotation they were expecting to rely heavily on Mitch Keller, Jared Jones and Paul Skenes. Through his first 11 starts, he’s more or less been that. Pérez has pitched to a pedestrian 4.71 ERA with an 18% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate in 57 1/3 innings. That number is still skewed to an extent by one nightmare outing that saw Pérez shellacked for nine runs at the hands of the Brewers. His combined ERA in 10 other starts sits at a far more palatable 3.61 mark.

While the veteran is on the shelf, the Bucs will still have that trio of Skenes, Jones and Keller to anchor the rotation, with Bailey Falter alongside them as well. They will likely need to find a fifth starter at some point, but they should have some time to figure that out. They were off yesterday and will be off again on Thursday and Monday. That means they could theoretically keep those four guys on regular rest through the first week of June without need of another starter.

Whether they wait until then or decide to bring up another arm sooner, they have some options. Quinn Priester and Daulton Jefferies are each on the 40-man roster and currently on optional assignment. They also have some non-roster guys with major league experience, including Domingo Germán and Wily Peralta.

Behind the plate, Bart’s injury gives the Bucs three catchers on the IL, as Jason Delay and Endy Rodríguez were already on the shelf. Rodríguez is out for the year due to UCL surgery while Delay underwent knee surgery earlier this year. Delay recently started a rehab assignment but has only played two games as part of that so far.

The Bucs have Yasmani Grandal on the roster and could have perhaps recalled Henry Davis to join him. Davis was optioned after hitting just .162/.280/.206 in the big leagues but has slashed .297/.444/.672 at Triple-A since being sent down. That latter line has come in a small sample of just 18 games and perhaps the club wants him to keep getting regular playing time away from the bright lights of the show. It’s also possible that Delay will be ready shortly and they didn’t want to promote Davis just for a few days. Another explanation is just that Koch happened to be available, as Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review relays on X that Koch was on the taxi squad.

Whatever the logic, the result is that Koch will get to the big leagues for the first time. The 27-year-old was drafted back in 2018 and has been climbing the minor league ladder since then. He has never really been on the radar of prospect evaluators and has hit just .203/.284/.322 in his minor league career. That includes a line of .167/.211/.259 in Triple-A this year while striking out in 42.4% of his plate appearances.

Despite the lackluster offense, Koch was the primary backstop of Skenes when the two were both at Triple-A, as relayed by Alex Stumpf of MLB.com on X. Stumpf then theorizes that the two could perhaps work together tomorrow, when Skenes is scheduled to start. Whatever the plan is, Koch will be making his major league debut as soon as skipper Derek Shelton sends him onto the field.

“Big picture, we’re tracking volume and work volume for every pitcher on the team, no matter who they are,” Cherington told the Pirates beat over the weekend. He went on to add that while he understands Skenes’ workload management will get more attention because of his status as a recent No. 1 overall pick and top-10 prospect in the sport, the Pirates “look at it for every pitcher and it’s a part of the decision-making in terms of again, trying to win a game and also what happens after the game and getting them ready for the next start.”

Skenes joins a staff also including Jones, Priester, Mitch Keller, Martin Perez and Bailey Falter. Veteran lefty Marco Gonzales, currently out with a forearm strain, could factor in once healthy as well — though there’s no current timetable for his return. He’s still in the midst of a weekslong shutdown, though surgery was not a consideration as of late April.

Just how long the Buccos will stick to a six-person staff isn’t presently known. Health will be a prominent factor, as an injury anywhere in the current sextet could simply prompt a move to a more traditional five-man arrangement. The schedule also plays a role. Shelton pointed to a pair of days off in four-day span late this month that could throw a wrench into the six-man plan, noting that the team will “re-evaluate” at that point.

That certainly doesn’t sound like the six-man pivot will be permanent, but it’s of some note that the Pirates are comfortable and perhaps even prefer to use such an alignment when navigating lengthy stretches with little to no time off. Pirates fans will want to check out Gorman’s piece for more extensive quotes from both Cherington and Shelton, as well as some of the pitchers who are in the group. Perez, for instance, explained his rationale for preferring a more conventional five-man setup, while Falter noted that he “loves” the extra day of rest and provided his own explanation.

The other domino effect of Skenes’ big league arrival was the likely departure of a pitcher who once represented the same type of “future building-block” hope that Skenes does now. Certainly, Roansy Contreras was never regarded as well as Skenes is at the moment, but he was the headliner of the trade that sent righty Jameson Taillon to the Yankees.

Contreras was considered one of the game’s 100 best prospects at the time and held his own quite nicely through his first season-plus. In 2021-22, he gave the Bucs 98 innings of 3.67 ERA ball with slightly worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates — all before celebrating his 23rd birthday. The makings of a solid mid-rotation arm looked to be there.

However, Contreras has fallen into a swift decline, losing velocity and watching his strikeout rate drop despite a move to short relief. He’s been tagged for a 6.17 ERA since Opening Day 2023, fanning just under 19% of opponents against a rough 10.6% walk rate. He’s out of minor league options. The Pirates bit the bullet and designated him for assignment to open a 40-man spot for Skenes.

Cherington discussed the difficult decision to do so in an interview with Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Cherington said following the DFA that the Pirates still believe Contreras can be “a good big leaguer.” The Pirates gave Contreras as much time as they felt they could, however, and Cherington noted that the “alternative moves we could have made to open up that spot were not going to be best for the team” in the short-term.

That’s a notable departure from the type of rebuilding mindset that has been prominent throughout much of Cherington’s tenure. He was hired following the dismissal of longtime GM Neal Huntington as the Pirates looked to a new voice to rebuild the organization from the ground up.

The Bucs still aren’t a division powerhouse by any means, but they’re five and a half games out in the Central and have the makings of an interesting rotation with Skenes, Jones, Keller and Priester all having risen through the system. Bats like Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz and Ke’Bryan Hayes offer some optimism. Ownership may not have given the green light to spend much in the past couple offseasons — Reynolds’ extension notwithstanding — but it seems clear the Pirates are focusing on the here-and-now far more than in the past. It’s easy to argue that an earlier call to the big leagues for Skenes would’ve aligned more with that mentality, but on the same token it’s also fair to point out that the Bucs have typically waited until a player would be past Super Two status before calling up their top prospects. That definitely is not the case with Skenes.

Mackey suggests that another club is likely to trade for Contreras or at least claim him off waivers. I’m inclined to agree. A change of scenery wouldn’t surprise many and seems the likeliest outcome. That, however, also leaves the Bucs with little to show for their trade of Taillon. Mackey runs through several trades that have panned out that way, pointing out that while trades of Joe Musgrove and Jose Quintana have worked out reasonably well (I’d add Adam Frazier, who netted Jack Suwinski), Pittsburgh has come up empty on several notable swaps (Taillon, Starling Marte, Clay Holmes, Josh Bell).

For a front office with perennial payroll restrictions from ownership, converting on trades of big leaguers is exponentially more important. The Pirates surely hope that they won’t be in a position to be trading players away this summer, but if they are, they’ll need to improve over their recent track record.

“If there are things we can do to make the team better, we’re gonna stay on that,” Cherington tells Mackey. “No guarantee those things happen. We’re mostly focused on the guys who are here.”

The Pirates have three slam-dunk members of their Opening Day rotation: Mitch Keller, Martin Perez and Marco Gonzales. Keller, who recently signed a five-year contract extension, will get the Opening Day nod. There are still a pair of open rotation jobs, however, and Cherington suggested there are six or seven options vying for those two opportunities.

The names currently competing include a mix of young prospects, rebound candidates coming off a down 2023 showing, and veterans hoping to win a spot. While the Pirates have already informed 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick Paul Skenes that he won’t make the Opening Day roster, fellow top prospect Jared Jones (No. 74 on Baseball America’s top 100 list) is firmly in the mix. Jones may not have the same ceiling as Skenes, but Skenes pitched just 6 2/3 innings last year following the draft. Jones, on the other hand, logged a combined 3.85 ERA, 27.6% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate in 126 1/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A in ’23. He’s pitched 4 2/3 shutout innings in camp.

Jones, 22, was specifically called out by manager Derek Shelton as a candidate for a spot in the Opening Day rotation (X link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com). He’d need to be added to the 40-man roster, which could potentially work against him. That’s not true of Roansy Contreras, Quinn Priester, Luis Ortiz, Bailey Falter and Kyle Nicolas, each of whom is on the 40-man roster. (Lefty Jackson Wolf is as well, but the Pirates already optioned him to Double-A in their first wave of spring cuts).

Contreras and Falter have the most experience of the bunch. Both are looking to rebound from ugly 2023 showings. Contreras looked like a potential rotation staple as recently as 2022, when he pitched 95 innings of 3.79 ERA ball with passable, if unspectacular, strikeout and walk rates (21.1%, 9.6%). However, he lost more than a mile off his heater in ’23 and took a step back in virtually every rate category of note. He’s still only 24 years old and is just two years removed from being a top-100 prospect himself, so there’s ample time for him to figure things out. He’s out of minor league options, meaning he’ll make the roster one way or another — be it in the rotation or in the bullpen. Pirates fans will want to check out Mackey’s piece in full, as it more fully details some of the gains Contreras has shown thus far in camp.

Falter was acquired at the 2022 trade deadline in a swap sending utilityman Rodolfo Castro to the Phillies. The 26-year-old was never as touted a prospect as Contreras was, but the two followed relatively similar arcs otherwise: brief MLB debut in 2021, solid back-of-the-rotation results in 2022, poor showing in 2023. Falter tossed 84 innings with a 3.86 ERA as the Phillies’ fifth starter in ’22, fanning 21.2% of his opponents against an exceptional 4.9% walk rate. Like Contreras, he saw his strikeout, walk, swinging-strike and home run rates all back up in 2023 as he finished out the season with a 5.36 ERA in 80 2/3 frames. Also like Contreras, he’s out of minor league options and will need to make the roster or else be traded or exposed to waivers.

Priester, Ortiz and Nicolas all have minor league options remaining and have all made their big league debuts (in quite brief fashion, for Nicolas). They all ranked within the organization’s top 15 prospects at Baseball America as recently as 2023. Priester and Ortiz both drew top-100 fanfare prior to their debuts. None of the three has established himself on the roster, however. Priester has the best minor league numbers of the group but has been hit harder than Ortiz in the big leagues. Ortiz throws the hardest but has displayed shakier command than Priester. Nicolas still hasn’t had much success above Double-A, so he seems likely ticketed for Triple-A Indianapolis to begin the year, particularly since he’s already been hit hard in camp.

The Bucs also have a pair of veterans who could compete for a job. Lefty Josh Fleming is on the 40-man roster after signing a split deal late in the winter. He’s out of options and can’t be sent down, but he’s spent the bulk of his MLB career as a swingman with the Rays and could be headed for a similar spot in Pittsburgh. Righty Chase Anderson is in camp on a non-roster deal. The 36-year-old hasn’t posted a sub-5.00 ERA in the big leagues since being traded by the Brewers following the 2019 season but has shown decently in Triple-A while bouncing around the league since then.

Kranick, 26, made 11 MLB appearances (nine starts) between 2021-22. The 6’3″ hurler worked to a 5.56 ERA with a middling 17.9% strikeout percentage and a 10.9% walk rate in 43 2/3 innings. Kranick underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2022, an unfortunately timed procedure that essentially cost him a year and a half.

The Bucs reinstated the Scranton, PA native from the injured list on September 1. They optioned him to Triple-A Indianapolis. He spent the remainder of the year there, allowing five runs over 16 1/3 frames. Kranick struck out 12 and walked six in that limited time.

Pittsburgh will trade Kranick or put him on waivers within the next week. While he has never been a high-strikeout pitcher, he owns a 3.55 ERA over parts of seven seasons in the minors. Kranick has been a plus strike-thrower on the farm, walking 6.2% of opponents in his minor league career. He’ll be out of options in 2024, however, so a team would have to carry him on the MLB roster or again designate him for assignment if they acquire him from Pittsburgh.

Pérez, 33 in April, had a career year in 2022 but couldn’t keep it going into the following campaign. Last year, he made 32 starts for the Rangers and logged 196 1/3 innings with a 2.89 earned run average. His 20.6% strikeout rate was a bit below league average but his 8.4% walk rate was solid and his 51.4% ground ball rate was strong. He was also quite good at missing barrels and limiting hard contact that year.

He likely benefitted from a high strand rate of 77% and a low 6.5% rate of fly balls leaving the yard, which is why his 3.27 FIP and 4.08 SIERA were a bit less impressive. But it was a strong season nonetheless, with his 4.0 wins above replacement from FanGraphs and 5.0 from Baseball Reference both career highs by wide margins. The Rangers had enough faith in that performance to issue Pérez a $19.65MM qualifying offer, which he accepted.

Unfortunately, the regression gods came for him in 2023, with Pérez struggling enough to get moved to the bullpen in August after the Rangers acquired Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery at the trade deadline. At that point, Pérez had an ERA of 4.98, with his strikeout rate having dropped to 14.4% and his grounder rate down to 41%. He pitched reasonably well out of the bullpen over the final two months of the season, eventually dropping his ERA to 4.45, but it was obviously not the season the Rangers envisioned at that price point.

The Pirates will be paying him less than half of what he made last year and likely won’t be expecting anything like that 2022 campaign, as it stands out as a clear outlier. But even if they get the solid back-end guy that Pérez has been for the rest of his career, that will be an upgrade for their rotation. From 2012 to 2021, Pérez threw 1,102 2/3 innings with a 4.71 ERA. He didn’t get many strikeouts but limited his walks to around league average and got grounders on almost half of balls in play.

The Pittsburgh starting rotation had an ERA of 4.88 in 2023 as the stability was quite low. Mitch Keller and Johan Oviedo each made 32 starts, but Oviedo won’t be an option for 2024 due to Tommy John surgery. Rich Hill made 22 starts for the club but then went to the Padres at the deadline and is now a free agent. 12 other hurlers made at least one start for the Bucs for the year.

The club later added Marco Gonzales from Atlanta, who had just acquired him from Seattle as salary ballast in the Jarred Kelenic trade. Between Gonzales and Pérez, the club has added a couple of soft-tossing veteran lefties to hopefully eat some innings and stabilize the situation while perhaps turning into trade chips by the deadline, as was the case with Hill this year and José Quintana the year prior. Those two vets and Keller should take three rotation spots, leaving a couple of roles available for less-proven guys like Bailey Falter, Luis Ortiz, Roansy Contreras, Quinn Priester, Jackson Wolf or Kyle Nicolas, with this year’s first overall pick Paul Skenes perhaps not too far off.

This deal brings Pittsburgh’s payroll up to $66MM, per Roster Resource. General manager Ben Cherington has previously indicated that next year’s payroll could be an increase over their $73MM figure from Opening Day 2023.

The decision to move Perez into a relief role was sensible at the time. The veteran southpaw made 20 starts for Texas earlier this year but had limped to a 4.98 ERA in 108 1/3 innings in that role — a far cry from 2022’s stellar 2.89 ERA in 32 starts (196 1/3 innings). The bullpen move has helped Perez get back on track; in 13 relief appearances, he’s logged 28 innings of 2.57 ERA ball with a 19-to-6 K/BB ratio and an enormous 65.9% ground-ball rate. That includes a particularly strong stretch over his past nine appearances, where he’s allowed just two runs in 15 2/3 innings while sporting a 15-to-3 K/BB mark.

Right-hander Jon Gray lasted just 2 1/3 innings yesterday before giving way to Perez, who came on to toss 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief and earn his tenth win of the season in the process. Perez tossed 64 pitches, allowed three hits and a walk, and punched out five batters in that nearly spotless performance. It was a much-needed respite for a Rangers bullpen that had been tasked with covering 23 innings in the team’s past six games.

Southpaw Jordan Montgomery is locked in as the Rangers’ top starter now that Max Scherzer’s regular season is likely over due to a strained teres major. Nathan Eovaldi is still building back up from a lengthy IL stint due to a forearm strain. He pitched five innings in his most recent outing — his longest since originally hitting the IL back in July. Dane Dunning and Gray have also been making regular starts, although Gray has hit a wall of late, yielding 13 runs in 13 2/3 frames over his past four starts combined. Rookie left-hander Cody Bradford made a start earlier this week — his seventh of the year but his first since late July — and was tagged for six runs in three innings.

Texas also has veteran starter Andrew Heaney as an option to start down the stretch, but there’s financial motivation for them to keep him in the bullpen role to which he was recently shifted. The second season of Heaney’s two-year, $25MM contract is a player option valued at $13MM, but that would jump to a $20MM value if he pitches 150 innings in 2023. He’s currently at 138 1/3 innings on the year, and keeping him in a relief role will likely keep that player option at the lower of those two values.

Perez’s return to the rotation will come at a pivotal time in the game’s most tightly contested division. The Rangers and Mariners are tied with identical 84-68 records, both sitting just a half game behind the division-leading Astros. Beyond that, Texas and Seattle play seven of their final ten games this season against one another, making every start of critical importance. If Perez indeed makes another start or two and helps push the Rangers into the postseason, he’d be an option to take the ball in a playoff start as well.

A strong finish to the year in a return to a starting role would also bode well for Perez this offseason, when he’ll once again be a free agent. His work out of the ’pen has improved his season line to a 4.49 in 136 1/3 innings. This season’s 15% strikeout rate is down considerably from last year’s 20.6% mark, and it’s a similar story with his ground-ball rate (51.4% in 2022; 45.6% in 2023). That said, if Perez can close out the year on a high note and perhaps show well in the postseason, he’ll have a decent case as a back-of-the-rotation innings eater who should command interest from clubs in need of innings.

Pérez, 32, has a long track of being a serviceable major league pitcher. By the end of the 2021 season, he had tossed 1102 2/3 innings, allowing 4.71 earned runs per nine innings. His 15.3% strikeout rate was well below average, but his 8.3% walk rate and 49.2% ground ball were both solid enough to allow him to be of use.

For 2022, he signed a one-year, $4MM deal with the Rangers and went on to have a career year. He made 32 starts and posted a 2.89 ERA over 196 1/3 innings, getting his strikeout rate up to a career high of 20.6% while still limiting walks and grounders. That earned him a well-deserved raise, as the Rangers issued him a $19.65MM qualifying offer, which he accepted.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to build off that late-career breakout. His strikeout bump has vanished, as his 14.4% rate this year is low even by his standards. The walk rate is still solid at 8.6% but he’s only getting grounders at a 41% clip, a huge drop from last year’s 51.4% rate. His ERA on the year is 4.98, with only five qualified pitchers worse than him in that department this year. It’s also been trending in a bad direction, as he had a 2.41 ERA at the end of April but a 6.15 mark since the start of May.

With those results, it’s not shocking that he’s been nudged out of the starting mix. This is a road he has travelled down before, as the Red Sox bumped him to the bullpen in 2021, though he was able to get back on track with the aforementioned breakout in 2022. Perhaps he will do so again at some point but the Texas rotation will now seem to consist of Scherzer, Montgomery, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney and Dane Dunning.

Dunning started the year in the bullpen but jumped into the rotation when Jacob deGrom landed on the injured list, later to require Tommy John surgery. In 16 starts since the start of May, Dunning has a 3.43 ERA. His 17.6% strikeout rate in that time isn’t especially impressive but he’s higher than Pérez in that department while also walking just 6.7% of hitters and keeping the ball on the ground at a 44.9% clip.

It seems those strong results will allow him to keep his starting gig, at least for the time being. As Bochy mentioned, the club could mix things up again in the months to come, though the group could get a bit more crowded. Bochy expects the club to have Eovaldi back after a minimum IL stint, per Kennedi Landry of MLB.com, which will make it harder both for Pérez to get back in the mix and for Dunning to keep his spot. Perhaps Eovaldi’s return would see Dunning hold his spot and Heaney get bumped to the bullpen since the latter has a lackluster 4.36 ERA on the season. But he has been trending better of late, with a 2.95 mark in his last four outings.

Of course, the final few months could also see some plot twists that change all of this, best laid plans and whatnot. The AL West is shaping up to be a fascinating race to watch in the final months, as the Rangers made their aforementioned rotation additions while the Astros got Justin Verlander and the Angels nabbed Lucas Giolito. The Rangers will undoubtedly be making whatever moves they feel give them the best shot at success in the weeks to come, with the large salary of Pérez not enough to keep him from the bullpen. He’ll return to the open market this winter while Dunning will qualify for arbitration for the first time.

Without further ado…

Angels

• Glenn Albanese Jr.
• Jaime Barria
• Gustavo Campero
• Alan Carter
• Jhonathan Diaz
• Carlos Estevez
• David Fletcher
• Jake Kalish
• D’Shawn Knowles
• Shohei Ohtani
• Jose Quijada
• Luis Rengifo
• Gerardo Reyes
• Patrick Sandoval
• Mike Trout
• Gio Urshela
• Cesar Valdez
• Zack Weiss
• Aaron Whitefield

Astros

• Bryan Abreu
• Jose Altuve
• Ronel Blanco
• Luis Garcia
• Colton Gordon
• Cristian Javier
• Martin Maldonado
• Rafael Montero
• Hector Neris
• Jeremy Pena
• Ryan Pressly
• Andre Scrubb
• Kyle Tucker
• Jose Urquidy
• Derek West

Athletics

• Denzel Clarke
• Jordan Diaz
• Jake Fishman
• Zack Gelof
• James Gonzalez
• Adrian Martinez
• Joshwan Wright

Blue Jays

• Jose Berrios
• Jiorgeny Casimiri
• Yimi Garcia
• Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
• Spencer Horwitz
• Alejandro Kirk
• Otto Lopez
• Damiano Palmegiani

Braves

• Ronald Acuna Jr.
• Luis De Avila
• Roel Ramirez
• Alan Rangel
• Eddie Rosario
• Chadwick Tromp

Brewers

• Willy Adames
• Sal Frelick
• Alex Hall
• Matt Hardy
• Joel Payamps
• Rowdy Tellez
• Abraham Toro
• Luis Urias
• Michele Vassalotti
• Devin Williams

Cardinals

• Nolan Arenado
• Genesis Cabrera
• Tommy Edman
• Giovanny Gallegos
• Paul Goldschmidt
• Ivan Herrera
• Matt Koperniak
• Noah Mendlinger
• Oscar Mercado
• Miles Mikolas
• Lars Nootbaar
• Tyler O’Neill
• JoJo Romero
• Adam Wainwright
• Guillermo Zuniga

Cubs

• Javier Assad
• Owen Caissie
• Danis Correa
• Ben DeLuzio
• Roenis Elias
• Miles Mastrobuoni
• Matt Mervis
• B.J. Murray Jr.
• Vinny Nittoli
• Fabian Pertuz
• Liam Spence
• Seiya Suzuki
• Marcus Stroman
• Pedro Strop
• Nelson Velazquez
• Jared Young

Diamondbacks

• Dominic Fletcher
• Jakob Goldfarb
• Gunnar Groen
• Merrill Kelly
• Ketel Marte
• Eric Mendez
• Dominic Miroglio
• Emmanuel Rivera
• Jacob Steinmetz
• Mitchell Stumpo
• Alek Thomas

Dodgers

• Austin Barnes
• Mookie Betts
• Freddie Freeman
• Clayton Kershaw
• Adam Kolarek
• Miguel Rojas
• Will Smith
• Trayce Thompson
• Julio Urias

Giants

• Jonathan Bermudez
• Camilo Doval
• Joey Marciano
• Joc Pederson

Guardians

• Enyel De Los Santos
• Dayan Frias
• Andres Gimenez
• Bo Naylor
• Richie Palacios
• Cal Quantrill
• Cade Smith
• Meibrys Viloria
• Josh Wolf

Marlins

• Sandy Alcantara
• Luis Arraez
• Johnny Cueto
• Jesus Luzardo
• Anthony Maldonado
• Jean Segura

Mariners

• Matt Brash
• Diego Castillo
• Matt Festa
• Harry Ford
• Teoscar Hernandez
• Milkar Perez
• Julio Rodriguez
• Eugenio Suarez
• Blake Townsend

Mets

• Pete Alonso
• Jonathan Arauz
• Edwin Diaz
• Eduardo Escobar
• Dominic Hamel
• Elieser Hernandez
• Francisco Lindor
• Jeff McNeil
• Omar Narvaez
• Cam Opp
• Adam Ottavino
• Jose Quintana
• Brooks Raley
• Claudio Scotti

Nationals

• Alberto Baldonado
• Paolo Espino
• Lucius Fox
• Alberto Guerrero
• Joey Meneses
• Erasmo Ramirez

Orioles

• Daniel Federman
• Darwinzon Hernandez
• Dean Kremer
• Cedric Mullins
• Anthony Santander
• Rodney Theophile

Padres

• Xander Bogaerts
• Nabil Crismatt
• Nelson Cruz
• Jarryd Dale
• Yu Darvish
• Jose Espada
• Ruben Galindo
• Luis Garcia
• Ha-Seong Kim
• Manny Machado
• Nick Martinez
• Evan Mendoza
• Juan Soto
• Brett Sullivan
• Julio Teheran

Phillies

• Jose Alvarado
• Erubiel Armenta
• Malik Binns
• Jaydenn Estanista
• Vito Friscia
• Brian Marconi
• J.T. Realmuto
• Kyle Schwarber
• Noah Skirrow
• Gregory Soto
• Garrett Stubbs
• Ranger Suarez
• Trea Turner
• Taijuan Walker
• Rixon Wingrove

Pirates

• David Bednar
• Tsung-Che Cheng
• Roansy Contreras
• Alessandro Ercolani
• Santiago Florez
• Jarlin Garcia
• Antwone Kelly
• Josh Palacios
• Jeffrey Passantino
• Tahnaj Thomas
• Duane Underwood Jr.
• Chavez Young
• Rob Zastryzny

Rangers

• Mitch Bratt
• Jose Leclerc
• Martin Perez

Rays

• Jason Adam
• Jonathan Aranda
• Randy Arozarena
• Christian Bethancourt
• Trevor Brigden
• Wander Franco
• Andrew Gross
• Joe LaSorsa
• Francisco Mejia
• Isaac Paredes
• Harold Ramirez
• Graham Spraker

Red Sox

• Jorge Alfaro
• Richard Bleier
• Rafael Devers
• Jarren Duran
• Ian Gibaut
• Rio Gomez
• Norwith Gudino
• Enrique Hernandez
• Nick Pivetta
• Henry Ramos
• Alex Verdugo
• Masataka Yoshida

Reds

• Donovan Benoit
• Silvino Bracho
• Luis Cessa
• Fernando Cruz
• Alexis Diaz
• Arij Fransen
• Kyle Glogoski
• Tayron Guerrero
• Evan Kravetz
• Nicolo Pinazzi
• Reiver Sanmartin
• Vin Timpanelli

Rockies

• Daniel Bard
• Jake Bird
• Yonathan Daza
• Elias Diaz
• Kyle Freeland
• Justin Lawrence
• German Marquez
• Michael Petersen
• Alan Trejo

Royals

• Max Castillo
• Robbie Glendinning
• Carlos Hernandez
• Nicky Lopez
• MJ Melendez
• Vinnie Pasquantino
• Salvador Perez
• Brady Singer
• Bobby Witt Jr.
• Angel Zerpa

Tigers

• Javier Baez
• Miguel Cabrera
• Chavez Fernander
• Andy Ibanez
• Jack O’Loughlin
• Jacob Robson
• Eduardo Rodriguez
• Jonathan Schoop
• John Valente

Twins

• Jose De Leon
• Edouard Julien
• Jorge Lopez
• Pablo Lopez
• Carlos Luna
• Jose Miranda
• Jovani Moran
• Emilio Pagan
• Christian Vazquez

White Sox

• Tim Anderson
• Kendall Graveman
• Eloy Jimenez
• Lance Lynn
• Yoan Moncada
• Nicholas Padilla
• Luis Robert
• Jose Ruiz

Yankees

• Indigo Diaz
• Kyle Higashioka
• Jonathan Loaisiga
• Gleyber Torres

None of the news is all that surprising, aside from perhaps Anderson’s early multi-year strike with the Halos. Perez and Pederson were two of the three most likely candidates to take the QO. That the Giants tagged Pederson at all was a move few saw coming, and most believed he’d indeed take the QO once it was put forth.

None of Judge, Turner, Bogaerts, Swanson, deGrom, Rodon, Nimmo, Bassitt or Contreras likely gave much thought to the possibility. Eovaldi and Rizzo were more borderline candidates, but the latter quickly returns to the Yankees on a multi-year deal that’ll pay him around the QO rate over two guaranteed seasons. Eovaldi has yet to sign, but he’ll presumably continue to search for a longer-term contract after taking advantage of the five days to scour the market.

The clubs that saw a free agent decline a qualifying offer now stand to receive draft compensation if that player signs elsewhere. The value of the compensatory pick depends on a team’s status as a revenue sharing recipient and/or whether they paid the luxury tax in 2022. That’s also true of the draft choices and potentially international signing bonus space a team would have to forfeit to sign a qualified free agent from another team.

MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes broke down the forfeiture each team would have to surrender to sign a qualified free agent earlier this month. MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk looked at the compensation each club would receive if one of these players signed elsewhere.

Pérez, 32, was once a highly-touted prospect with Texas, considered one of the top 100 youngsters in the sport by Baseball America five years running from 2009 to 2013. It was the last of those five years that he seemingly arrived at the major league level, posting a 3.62 ERA over 20 starts and 124 1/3 innings.

However, since then, he struggled to live up to his potential, continuing to get opportunities but serving as more of a back-end innings-eater type. In the eight seasons from 2014 to 2021, his ERA was never lower than 4.38, a stretch that included some modest free agent contracts, all for just a single year. For 2019, he signed with the Twins for $4MM, followed by joining the Red Sox for $6MM in 2020 and re-signing with Boston for $4.5MM in 2021.

That pattern followed into 2022, with Pérez returning to the Rangers on a one-year, $4MM deal. Since the club was handing out mega deals to the likes of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, the Pérez move was largely left in the shadows. However, he emerged into the spotlight by having the best season of his career at the age of 31. He made 32 starts and tossed 196 1/3 innings while posting a 2.89 ERA.

His 20.6% strikeout rate was a career high but only by a hair, and it was still below league average. He mostly excelled by keeping the ball on the ground and in the park. His 51.4% ground ball rate was about eight points better than last year and his highest since 2016. His 6.5% HR/FB rate was almost 1o points better than last year and the best of his career in a full season’s work.

Advanced metrics are somewhat skeptical that 2.89 ERA was earned or is sustainable, since they all pegged him to be a bit worse. However, his 3.27 FIP, 3.59 xERA and 4.08 SIERA are still solid numbers and a great fit for a Rangers rotation that has lacked stability for quite some time.

As the 2022 season was winding down, reports emerged that there was mutual interest in a reunion between Pérez and the Rangers. They were apparently discussing multi-year deals recently, presumably with lower annual salaries, but couldn’t get anything done prior to last week’s QO offer deadline. The club decided he was worth this year’s $19.65MM QO price tag and extended it last week. That would have entitled them to draft pick compensation if the southpaw had signed elsewhere, but that’s a moot point now that he’s returned. It’s still possible a multi-year arrangement could be worked out, with that new deal replacing the QO. Such a scenario played out three years ago when Jose Abreu accepted a $17.8MM QO but then subsequently agreed to a three-year $50MM extension. But for now, Pérez has guaranteed himself a nice payday that’s almost five times what he made in 2021.

With Pérez now officially back for 2023, the Rangers’ rotation looks stronger than it did just a few days ago, as the club also acquired Jake Odorizzi in a trade with Atlanta last week. Those two should be slotted next to Jon Gray for next year. Dane Dunning could be a candidate for the back end if he recovers from hip surgery in time for the start of the season. That gives them a decent group but one that is lacking in front-of-the-rotation potential. The club seems to be aware of that, however, as general manager Chris Young is considering a run at some of the top free agent starting pitchers in order to add an ace into the mix.

Whether they can do that will likely depend upon the payroll, with Pérez now adding $19.65MM to the ledger. That puts them around $141MM in spending for next year, in the estimation of Roster Resource. That basically puts them even with last year’s Opening Day figure, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, though Young has already indicated payroll will go up and they have been as high as $165MM in the past. If the rotation can move from a weakness to a strength next year, it could help the club see better results than their 68-94 record in 2022.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.