Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Padres Rumors

Padres Finalize Coaching Staff

By | at

The Padres announced their 2025 coaching staff on Friday evening. The most notable development is that Brian Esposito has been named bench coach. San Diego operated without a bench coach during Mike Shildt’s first year at the helm.

Esposito, 45, had already taken some of the traditional bench coach responsibilities. His prior title had been game strategy assistant. He’ll continue to work as one of Shildt’s top lieutenants. A former catcher who appeared in three MLB games amidst a 13-year professional playing career, Esposito has worked in the San Diego organization for the past three years.

The rest of the staff is as follows: pitching coach Ruben Niebla, hitting coach Victor Rodriguez, third base coach/infield instructor Tim Leiper, first base coach/outfield instructor David Macias, assistant hitting coaches Pat O’Sullivan and Mike McCoy, game planning assistant Peter Summerville, bullpen catcher Heberto Andrade, and coaching assistant Morgan Burkhart. Niebla, one of the game’s most respected pitching voices, inked a multi-year extension last month.

Aside from Esposito’s title change, there’s only one adjustment. Former field coordinator Ryan Barba is no longer on the coaching staff. AJ Cassavell of MLB.com writes that Barba is expected to remain with the organization in the player development department.

Padres Re-Sign Mason McCoy To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Padres are bringing infielder Mason McCoy back on a minor league contract, reports Russell Dorsey of Yahoo! Sports (X link). The Republik Sports client will be in major league camp as a non-roster invitee.

A glove-first utilityman, McCoy returns for his second season with San Diego. He signed a minor league deal last winter, not long after being outrighted off Toronto’s 40-man roster. The former sixth-round pick had made his big league debut with six games as a late-inning substitute for the Blue Jays in 2023. He got a slightly longer look in San Diego after being called up in late August.

McCoy made 19 appearances for the Padres. He tallied 57 plate appearances, hitting .204/.278/.245 with a pair of doubles. McCoy got 16 starts at shortstop as a result of Ha-Seong Kim’s shoulder injury. Back inflammation sent McCoy to the injured list himself at the end of the season. The Padres opted not to tender him a contract at year’s end. That took him off the 40-man roster, but he made a strong enough impression that San Diego circled back with a minor league offer.

The righty-swinging McCoy had a modest .260/.329/.382 batting line over 432 plate appearances for Triple-A El Paso this year. He’s a .239/.318/.400 hitter across parts of four Triple-A seasons. McCoy swiped 25 bases while spending the majority of his time at shortstop. He can play anywhere on the dirt and has limited experience in left and center field. He’s likely to open the season in the minors but could get an MLB look if injuries push the Padres to add another utility option to a bench that already includes Tyler Wade.

What Should The Padres Do With Luis Arraez?

By | at

One year removed from an offseason that saw the Padres radically alter the direction of their franchise by paring down on payroll and trading superstar Juan Soto to the Yankees, San Diego once again finds itself in something of a financial pickle. The club is expected to maintain its payroll level from 2024 headed into 2025; according to RosterResource, that’s a budget of $169MM and a luxury tax payroll that falls below the first threshold (which sits at $241MM in 2025). Getting to that level of payroll may be easier said than done, however, as the Padres are currently projected for a payroll just under $210MM in 2025 with a luxury tax payroll of $244M, just above the first threshold.

That leaves the club likely looking to pare down payroll by around $40MM this winter, and they’ll surely be hoping to make additions to the team in spite of those cuts. The Padres will need to add at least one starter to pair with a trio of Dylan Cease, Michael King, and Yu Darvish this winter, and the departure of Jurickson Profar leaves a void in left field, not to mention the losses of role players David Peralta and Donovan Solano weakening the club’s lineup at DH and on the bench. Of course, any players the club parts ways with to reduce payroll will surely create new holes that need to be filled, leaving A.J. Preller and the club’s front office in a bit of a pickle.

One avenue the Padres could use to reduce payroll this year runs through Luis Arraez. The club acquired the 27-year-old back in May, and he generally played fairly well during his time in San Diego this year with a .318/.346/.398 slash line that was good for a 111 wRC+ and earned him the third consecutive batting title of his career. A contact savant who has managed to reduce his already impressive 10% strikeout rate from 2021 to 7.1% in 2022, 5.4% in 2023, and 4.3% this past year, Arraez struck out an unbelievable 3.4% of the time during his time with the Padres. As an above-average hitter who is more reliable than anyone else in the game when it comes to putting the bat on the ball, it’s easy to see why Arraez has been attractive enough to clubs that both the Marlins and Padres have given up significant packages to land him in recent years.

That preternatural knack for contact is held back by Arraez’s lackluster plate discipline causing his walk rate to decline steadily alongside his strikeout rate over the years and a complete lack of power, however. Both of those flaws were on full display in 2024, as Arraez walked at a 3.6% clip with an ISO of .078, which both ranked third from the bottom among qualified major league hitters. While it’s possible that the thumb injury Arraez played through this year before undergoing surgery in October could have impacted him in the power department, but even his career-high .115 ISO with the Marlins last year landed just outside the bottom ten among qualified hitters. Between those flaws in his hitting profile and his lackluster defense that largely limited him to first base and DH with the Padres, it’s also easy to see why both the Twins and Marlins were willing to part ways with him on the trade market in recent years.

Could Arraez be dealt for the third year in a row this winter? Doing so is perhaps the simplest path to slashing a significant chunk of payroll for the Padres. Cease and King are both projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for hefty arbitration salaries, but neither reaches the $14.6MM figure Arraez is currently penciled in for. Clearing that money off the books would drop the Padres’ payroll to around $195MM. While San Diego would then need to replace Arraez at first base headed into next year, a number of bats at the position including former Padres Josh Bell, Ty France, and Anthony Rizzo figure to be available for a relative bargain this winter, meaning it should be fairly easy for the club to replace Arraez in the lineup and still come out $10-12MM ahead, not to mention that the return for Arraez’s services could help to plug holes in the rotation or outfield. Those motivations behind a potential deal were enough to land Arraez the 17th spot on MLBTR’s Top 35 offseason trade candidates list.

With that being said, a trade of Arraez isn’t the only option at the Padres’ disposal as they look for ways to pare down payroll. He’s already indicated this winter that he would be open to an extension with the club this winter as he stares down his final year under team control before free agency, and the Padres have regularly worked out contracts that offer the club additional financial flexibility in the short-term and the player additional security in the long term in the past. That includes deals that comes together just before a player is due to reach free agency, such as the extensions they’ve offered to Darvish and Manny Machado in recent years.

If Arraez were amenable to it, it’s easy to imagine the Padres back-loading the deal to reduce his 2025 salary significantly and/or offering a lower AAV over a longer term in order to duck under the luxury tax threshold. As one example, a six-year deal worth $60MM would come with an AAV of just $10MM, allowing the club to shave ~$4.6MM of its expected luxury tax bill for 2025. Meanwhile, if the deal was structured such that Arraez made just $5MM in the first year of the deal followed by $11MM salaries over the rest of the contract, that would offer the Padres nearly $10MM in savings on their 2025 payroll as compared to his arbitration salary- a figure not that different than what they’d save by trading him and replacing him with a low-cost veteran.

Those numbers are purely hypothetical, of course, and it’s certainly possible Arraez would not want to lock into a deal with such a relatively low annual salary without first seeing what’s available to him on the open market. That’s not the only flaw in the plan of extending Arraez, either; while a deal with a similar structure to the one mentioned above would be a major help in solving San Diego’s immediate payroll concerns for 2025, in a longer-term view it simply kicks the can down the road to next season when Arraez’s salary would shoot up by $6MM and could leave the club in the same financial jam they find themselves in now.

If you were in the Padres’ shoes, would you look to deal Arraez elsewhere this winter and replace him at first base, attempt to extend him long-term, or simply play out the season and cut payroll elsewhere? Have your say in the poll below!

Padres Sign Oscar González To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Padres have signed outfielder Oscar González to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A El Paso for now but will presumably receive an invite to major league spring training.

González, 27, seemed to have a breakout with the Guardians in 2022. He made his major league debut that year and hit 11 home runs in 91 games. His 3.9% walk rate was less than half of league average but his 19.6% strikeout rate was solid and the homers helped propel him to a .296/.327/.461 batting line and 123 wRC+. He also became a fan favorite by using the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song as his walk-up music and hitting a walk-off, series clinching home run to break a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 15th against the Rays in the Wild Card round (YouTube link from MLB).

But his performance dipped in 2023. His strikeout rate climbed to 25.6% and his walk rate fell even further to 2.8%. He hit just two home runs in 54 games and slashed .214/.239/.312 for a wRC+ of 48. He’s not considered a strong defender, so a lack of offense like that made it impossible for him to provide any value.

The Guardians put him on waivers after that season, with the Yankees claiming him, though the Yanks later passed him through waivers unclaimed prior to the 2024 campaign. González went on to have a decent year in Triple-A, around a few stints on the injured list. He got into 78 games and hit eight home runs. His 20.3% strikeout rate and 4.9% walk rate were similar to his big league campaign in 2022. He hit .294/.333/.469 for the RailRiders for a 106 wRC+.

That wasn’t enough to get him back to the majors, as the Yankees had an outfield mix consisting of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, Trent Grisham and Jasson Domínguez for much of the year. González was able to elect free agency at season’s end and now has a new opportunity with the Padres.

For the Friars, they just lost Jurickson Profar and David Peralta to free agency. They have Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. in two outfield spots but left field is fairly open at the moment. Tirso Ornelas, Eguy Rosario and Brandon Lockridge are on the 40-man roster but each of those three guys has less than 50 games of major league experience.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Padres and Profar reunite, given the mutual affection between them, but it’s possible he has priced himself out of San Diego. He is coming off a tremendous season and could look to cash in, while the club has had ongoing financial concerns in recent years.

Whether the Padres can upgrade left field this winter or not, González will give them a bit of non-roster depth. He hasn’t yet accrued enough service time to reach arbitration, so he’d be a cheap option for them if he can earn his way onto the roster. He also still has options, meaning he would have some roster flexibility if he gets a spot.

Nolan Arenado Reportedly Willing To Move To First Base

By | at

Third baseman Nolan Arenado is a logical trade candidate with the Cardinals planning a reset year. As the Cards assess the interest, Katie Woo of The Athletic reports that Arenado is willing to move to first base with a new club, or at least play the hot corner less often.

Arenado has long voiced a desire to compete, which is what spurred his trade from Colorado to St. Louis years ago. He also declined an opportunity to opt-out of his contract after 2022, seemingly content with the Cardinals’ status as perennial contenders. But their performance has sagged in recent years, causing them to pivot to a focus on player development and less on immediate contention, at least for 2025 but perhaps longer.

With that near-term future outlook, it makes sense to consider trading some players that aren’t part of the long-term plans. Arenado is turning 34 years old in April and has three years left on his contract, so there’s logic to the club making him available. He has a no-trade clause but it makes sense that he would have some openness to waiving it, given his desire to compete and win. Woo reports that Arenado has not demanded a trade but was receptive to the idea when president of baseball operations John Mozeliak discussed it with him.

It’s not uncommon for players to be willing to change positions in order to expand their possible landing spots. This offseason, free agents like third baseman Alex Bregman and shortstop Willy Adames are reportedly willing to move to other infield spots. Both are strong defenders at their positions, but it’s a sensible tactic in keeping one’s market as wide open as possible.

With Arenado, it makes a little bit less sense. Over the past couple of years, his offense has declined but he has still been a valuable player thanks to his third base defense. He has slashed .269/.320/.426 over the two most recent campaigns, offense that translates to a 104 wRC+, barely above league average. However, FanGraphs has still calculated him as being worth about three wins above replacement in each those seasons (2.7 in 2023 and 3.1 in 2024), thanks to his strong glovework.

Arenado has never played a position other than third, though he probably wouldn’t have much trouble moving across the diamond since first base is generally considered a less demanding position. But that would also deprive him of his best asset at this point in his career, unless his bat can rebound in a big way.

His willingness to move could perhaps be a factor if a club already had an excellent third baseman, with Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat (Bluesky link) speculating that the Padres are one such club. That team has Manny Machado, a strong third baseman in his own right, entrenched at third base as a franchise cornerstone. He is under contract for almost another decade, through 2033.

They have a bit less certainty at first base. Jake Cronenworth and Luis Arráez got most of the playing time there in 2024 but both are capable of playing second base. The Padres had Xander Bogaerts at the keystone for much of 2024 but he moved back to shortstop when Ha-Seong Kim got injured, and Kim is now a free agent. Arráez is also not a great defender, at secord or first base, so perhaps he would best fit in the designated hitter slot.

Theoretically, it’s possible that the club could have an infield of Machado, Bogaerts, Cronenworth and Arenado from left to right, with Arráez in the DH spot. From time to time, Machado could get a breather as the DH, with Arenado moving to third and Arráez playing first.

There are also other reasons why the fit could make sense, as Arenado previously played for Padres manager Mike Shildt when Shildt was skipper in St. Louis. Arenado is also a Southern California native. That has often led to rumors of him eventually being traded to the Dodgers, but the fit there is a bit trickier. The Dodgers have Shohei Ohtani taking up the DH spot, Freddie Freeman at first and Max Muncy at third. Theoretically, they could acquire Arenado and trade Muncy, though it’s unclear if they have any desire to do so. Muncy’s defense is a bit behind Arenado’s but he’s been better at the plate lately, having slashed .218/.342/.481 over the past two years for a 124 wRC+.

It would perhaps be simpler for the Padres to just acquire a first baseman and for Arenado to go to a club with a gap at third base. The Red Sox are reportedly thinking of moving Rafael Devers to first and could replace him at the hot corner by acquiring Arenado. Teams like the Blue Jays, Mariners, Astros, Nationals, Brewers, Tigers, Mets and Phillies have been connected to free agents like Bregman or Adames, or are at least speculative fits for a new third baseman. Arenado’s no-trade clause means that he would get to determine whether or not he goes to those clubs and it’s unknown how he would feel about them in terms of their ability to contend or how much their respective geographic locations would matter to him.

On top of all that, the Cardinals will have to assess what other clubs are willing to offer in return. Though the Cards are planning to run a lower payroll in 2025, they don’t really need to move Arenado’s contract in order to accomplish that. RosterResource already projects them to be about $35MM lower than they were in 2024, so cost savings shouldn’t be the priority here. To that end, Woo reports that they won’t move Arenado just to move him or dump salary.

A trade would presumably only come together if the Cardinals feel they are getting something of value in return. Perhaps they could eat some the remainder of Arenado’s contract in order to line up on a deal. He is owed $74MM over the next three seasons though some of that money is deferred and the Rockies are also still on the hook for $5MM this coming season. In addition to adding some young talent in the trade, the Cards could also use their reset year to give Arenado’s playing time to players like Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker, Thomas Saggese or others.

For a team like the Padres, like they might prefer the Cardinals to eat some money, since their payroll has been such an issue in recent years. They dialed back spending after 2023, dealing Juan Soto to the Yankees, and avoided the competitive balance tax. Going into 2025, RosterResource projects their payroll to be about $40MM above 2024 levels before making any significant offseason moves, with their CBT a bit over the line already as well. On the other hand, they have traded away a lot of prospects in recent years and might not want to further deplete their farm just to awkwardly wedge Arenado into their infield mix.

Woo’s reporting also adds that no deal is close to being completed, but she adds that things could pick up at the Winter Meetings, which take place from December 8 to 11.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 11/22/24

By | at

The deadline for teams to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players is tonight at 7pm CT. Throughout the day, we’ll surely see a handful of arb-eligible players agree to terms with their clubs to avoid a hearing.

These so-called “pre-tender deals” usually, although not always, involve players who were borderline non-tender candidates. Rather than run the risk of being cut loose, they can look to sign in the lead-up to the deadline. Those salaries often come in a little below projections, since these players tend to have less leverage because of the uncertainty about whether they’ll be offered a contract at all.

Under the 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement, players who sign to avoid an arbitration hearing are guaranteed full termination pay. That’s a change from prior CBAs, when teams could release an arb-eligible player before the season began and would only owe a prorated portion of the contract. This was done to incentivize teams and players to get deals done without going to a hearing.

All salary projections in this post come via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. This post will be updated throughout the day/evening as deals are announced and/or reported.

  • The Mets announced that they have agreed to a one-year contract with right-hander Sean Reid-Foley, though salary figures have not yet been reported. He was projected for a $900K salary next year after posting a 1.66 ERA but in just 21 2/3 innings due to injury.
  • The Rangers announced they avoided arbitration with right-hander Josh Sborz, who was projected for a $1.3MM salary next year. He’ll come in just shy of that at $1.1MM, per Jeff Wilson of Rangers Today (X link). He underwent a shoulder debridement procedure recently, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (X link) and will likely miss the first two or three months of 2025.
  • The Tigers and infielder Andy Ibanez have agreed to a salary of $1.4MM next year, per Francys Romero (X link). That’s a shade below his $1.5MM projection. Ibanez hit .241/.295/.357 in 99 games for the Tigers in 2024.
  • The Guardians avoided arbitration with right-hander Ben Lively, per Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com (X link). He’ll make $2.25MM next year, below his $3.2MM projection. Lively had a 3.81 ERA in 151 innings for the Guards this year.
  • The Cubs and right-hander Julian Merryweather have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a salary of $1.225MM, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN (X link). That’s just shy of his $1.3MM projection. Merryweather had a 6.60 ERA in 2024 but was injured most of the time and only made 15 appearances. He had a solid 3.38 ERA the year prior in 72 innings. The Cubs also agreed to terms with catcher Matt Thaiss and righty Keegan Thompson, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune (X link), though salary figures have not yet been reported.
  • The Blue Jays got a deal done with right-hander Erik Swanson, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet on X. The righty was projected for $3.2MM next year but will make a smidge less than that, with Keegan Matheson of MLB.com (X link) relaying that Swanson will make $3MM. He had a 5.03 ERA in 2024 but was at 2.97 the year prior and also finished this year strong, with a 2.55 ERA in the second half.
  • The Yankees reached agreement with center fielder Trent Grisham on a $5MM salary, reports Jorge Castillo of ESPN (on X). The deal contains another $250K in incentives. The two-time Gold Glove winner had been projected at $5.7MM. Grisham had an underwhelming .190/.290/.385 showing during his first season in the Bronx. The Yankees will nevertheless keep him around for his final year of arbitration, presumably in a fourth outfield capacity. The Yankees also announced that they have a deal with righty JT Brubaker, though figures haven’t been reported. He was projected for a salary of $2.275MM, the same figure he made in 2023 and 2024, two seasons he missed while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
  • The Rockies reached deals with outfielder Sam Hilliard and lefty reliever Lucas Gilbreath, Feinsand reports (on X). Hilliard gets $1MM, while Gilbreath signed for $785K. Both figures come in shy of the respective $1.7MM and $900K projections. Hilliard popped 10 home runs over 58 games as a depth outfielder. Gilbreath only made three appearances after missing the entire ’23 season to Tommy John surgery. He posted a 4.19 ERA across 43 innings two years ago.

Earlier Agreements

  • The Dodgers and right-hander Tony Gonsolin have agreed to a $5.4MM salary for 2025, per Robert Murray of FanSided (X link), an exact match for his projection. He had signed a two-year, $6.65MM deal to cover the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He made 20 starts for the Dodgers in the first year of that pact but he missed all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery.
  • The Guardians and Sam Hentges have agreed to a $1.337MM deal, according to Robert Murray of FanSided. That’s right in line with his projected $1.4MM salary. The left-hander has been an effective reliever for Cleveland over the past three seasons (2.93 ERA, 2.82 SIERA, 138 IP), but he missed the latter half of 2024 with a shoulder injury. After undergoing surgery in September, he will miss the entire 2025 season.
  • The Orioles and infielder Emmanuel Rivera agreed to a $1MM deal, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. He’d been projected at $1.4MM. He hit .238/.312/.343 this year.
  • Right-hander Brock Stewart and the Twins agreed to a one-year deal worth $870K, MLBTR has learned. He’d been projected at $800K. Stewart, who missed much of the season due to injury, can earn another $30K via incentives. He’s been lights-out for the Twins when healthy over the past two seasons (2.28 ERA, 33.5 K%, 10.8 BB%). Minnesota and righty Michael Tonkin also agreed to a $1MM deal, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’d been projected at $1.5MM. The Twins later announced that they had reached deals with Stewart, Tonkin and righty Justin Topa. Hewas projected for $1.3MM next year but will come in just shy of that in terms of guarantee. Per Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune (Bluesky link), it’s a $1.225MM guarantee in the form of a $1MM salary and then a $225K buyout on a $2MM club option for 2026.
  • The Padres and Tyler Wade agreed to a one-year deal worth $900K, Heyman tweets. There’s a club option for an additional season. Wade, who hit .217/.285/.239 in 2024, was projected for that same $900K figure.
  • Infielder Santiago Espinal and the Reds settled on a one-year deal at $2.4MM, Heyman tweets. That’s well shy of his $4MM projection and actually represents a slight pay cut after Espinal hit .246/.295/.356 for Cincinnati.
  • The Rangers and righty Dane Dunning agreed to a one-year deal worth $2.66MM, Heyman reports. It’s a 19% cut after Dunning struggled to a 5.31 ERA in 95 innings this past season. He was projected at $4.4MM.
  • The Giants and right-hander Austin Warren agreed to terms on a one-year deal, reports Justice de los Santos of the San Jose Mercury News. He missed most of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery but returned late with 10 2/3 innings of two-run ball out of the bullpen.
  • The Brewers announced that they’ve signed catcher/outfielder Eric Haase to a one-year deal for the upcoming season. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reports that the deal guarantees Haase $1.35MM with the chance to earn more via incentives. He’d been projected for a $1.8MM salary. Haase will fill the backup catcher role in Milwaukee next season. He’s controllable through the 2027 season.
  • The Dodgers and right-hander Dustin May settled at $2.135MM, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic (X link). That’s the exact same salary he had in 2024. May will be looking to bounce back after spending all of this year on the injured list.
  • The Phillies and right-hander José Ruiz settled at $1.225MM, per Robert Murray of FanSided (X link). That’s slightly above his $1.2MM projection. The righty can also unlock a $20K bonus for pitching in 30 games and $25K for pitching in 40. He made 52 appearances for the Phils in 2024 with a 3.71 ERA. Philadelphia also announced agreement with backup catcher Garrett Stubbs on a one-year deal. The Phils did not reveal the salary figure. Stubbs hit .207 in 54 games this year.
  • The Tigers and infielder/outfielder Zach McKinstry agreed to a $1.65MM salary for 2025, per Robert Murray of FanSided (hat tip to Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press on X). That’s slightly ahead of his $1.3MM projection. He hit .215/.277/.337 this year while stealing 16 bases and playing each position except or first base and catcher,

National League Non-Tenders: 11/22/24

By | at

The deadline to tender a contract to arbitration-eligible players is tonight at 7pm CT. Here’s a rundown of the players on National League teams that have been non-tendered today. This post will be updated as more decisions are revealed. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for all players eligible for arbitration last month. All players who are non-tendered before this evening’s deadline go directly into free agency, where they’re eligible to sign with any of MLB’s 30 clubs.

Onto the transactions…

  • The Braves non-tendered outfielder Ramón Laureano, left-hander Ray Kerr, as well as right-handers Griffin Canning, Huascar Ynoa and Royber Salinas, which you can read more about here.
  • The Brewers parted ways with lefty reliever Hoby Milner, who’d been projected at $2.7MM for his final arbitration season. The typically reliable southpaw was tagged for a 4.73 ERA in 64 2/3 innings this year.
  • The Cardinals have non-tendered right-hander Adam Kloffenstein, per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat (Bluesky link). The righty only just made his major league debut in 2024 and was not yet arb-eligible. He immediately becomes a free agent without being exposed to waivers.
  • The Cubs have non-tendered infielder Nick Madrigal, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN (X link). Madrigal has hit .251/.304/.312 for a 76 wRC+ over the last three seasons with the Cubs and was projected for a $1.9MM salary next year. Chicago also announced they non-tendered outfielder Mike Tauchman, which comes as a bit of a surprise after he reached base at a .357 clip this year. Patrick Wisdom, Adbert Alzolay, Brennen Davis and Trey Wingenter — all of whom were designated for assignment earlier this week — were also dropped.
  • The Diamondbacks non-tendered lefty reliever Brandon Hughes, per a club announcement. The 28-year-old southpaw allowed 16 runs over 17 2/3 big league innings this year. He wasn’t eligible for arbitration but would’ve occupied a 40-man roster spot if offered a contract.
  • The Dodgers are non-tendering right-hander Brent Honeywell Jr. and left-hander Zach Logue, per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (X link). Both pitchers are still in their pre-arbitration years, so this was more about the Dodgers sending them to free agency without exposing them to waivers, as opposed to cost cutting. Perhaps the club will look to re-sign them on minor league deals.
  • The Giants only made two non-tenders, parting with lefty Ethan Small and righty Kai-Wei Teng. Teng had been designated for assignment earlier in the week. Small, who was in his pre-arbitration years, spent the season in the minors or on the injured list.
  • The Marlins had zero non-tenders. They offered contracts to everyone on the 40-man roster.
  • The Mets dropped a trio of players from the 40-man roster: relievers Grant Hartwig and Alex Young and outfield prospect Alex Ramirez. Young was the only member of that group who’d been eligible for arbitration. The southpaw pitched well in a depth role, but the Mets didn’t want to keep him around at a $1.4MM projection. Hartwig made four appearances this year, while the 21-year-old Ramirez (a former top prospect) had a .210/.291/.299 showing in Double-A.
  • The Nationals announced that they have non-tendered right-hander Kyle Finnegan and Tanner Rainey, which you can read more about here.
  • The Padres dropped four players from the roster: righties Luis Patino and Logan Gillaspie, outfielder Bryce Johnson and infielder Mason McCoy. Patino, who underwent Tommy John surgery last summer, was the only member of the group who’d been eligible for arbitration. The other three cuts are simply about roster maintenance. The Padres could try to bring anyone from that group back on minor league deals.
  • The Phillies will not be tendering a contract to outfielder Austin Hays, which MLBTR covered earlier today.
  • The Pirates are expected to non-tender first baseman/outfielder Connor Joe and outfielder Bryan De La Cruz, per Alex Stumpf of MLB.com (Bluesky link). They are also non-tendering right-hander Hunter Stratton, per Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (X link). Joe was projected for a salary of $3.2MM next year and De La Cruz $4MM. Stratton had not yet qualified for arbitration. Joe has been around league average at the plate in his career but doing more damage against lefties. De La Cruz has hit .253/.297/.407 in his career for a wRC+ of 90. Startton had a 3.58 ERA this year but his season was ended by knee surgery, giving him an uncertain path forward.
  • The Reds have non-tendered right-hander Ian Gibaut, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Bluesky link). The righty was projected for a salary of $800K. He spent the vast majority of 2024 on the injured list due to arm trouble and only made two appearances on the season.
  • The Rockies moved on from starter Cal Quantrill and second baseman Brendan Rodgers, which MLBTR covered here.

Padres Sign Trenton Brooks To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Padres have signed first baseman Trenton Brooks to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He will presumably also receive an invite to major league spring training.

Brooks, 29, has a long minor league track record showing his strong plate discipline. Over the past four years, he took 1,691 plate appearances on the farm with a 13.8% walk rate and 16.4% strikeout rate, both of those being much stronger than average. However, he only hit 55 home runs in that stretch, a fairly light tally for a first baseman. Still, that led to a combined .279/.383/.470 batting line and 119 wRC+ for that stretch.

He was finally able to parlay that into a major league debut in 2024, though he ultimately got a very limited look from the Giants. He was on the 40-man for less than a month, getting into 12 games and slashing just .120/.241/.120 in his 29 plate appearances. He was sent through waivers unclaimed and outrighted off the roster, eventually electing free agency at season’s end.

The Padres have Luis Arráez and Jake Cronenworth as first base options, but Cronenworth might be covering second base if Xander Bogaerts is going to move back to shortstop with Ha-Seong Kim now a free agent. The club doesn’t have an obvious designated hitter at the moment, so there’s room for another bat in the lineup. Arráez is also a speculative trade candidate since he’s entering his final year of club control with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a hefty $14.6MM salary next year, a notable expense for a club with known budgetary limitations.

Brooks can provide the club with some upper level depth at the position and try to force his way back to the majors. If he manages to do so and finds more success this time, he still has a full slate of options and just a handful of service days. That means he can be cheaply retained into the future, which would be appealing for any club but perhaps more so for the Friars as they have had to scale back payroll recently.

Padres Select Three Players To 40-Man Roster

By | at

The Padres announced this evening that they’ve selected left-hander Omar Cruz as well as right-handers Henry Baez and Ryan Bergert to their 40-man roster ahead of today’s Rule 5 Draft protection deadline. No corresponding moves were necessary, and San Diego’s 40-man currently stands at 37 players.

Cruz, 25, signed with the Padres out of Mexico prior to the 2018 season and was actually traded to the Pirates as part of the Joe Musgrove trade in January of 2021. He returned to the Padres organization last winter, however, when the club selected him in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft. Now, he’s been added to the club’s roster to protect him from this year’s draft on the heels of a solid season split between the Double- and Triple-A levels. Cruz was used primarily out of the bullpen in 2024 and looked good at Double-A with a 3.59 ERA and an eye-popping 35.4% strikeout rate in 47 2/3 innings. That earned him a promotion to Triple-A partway through the season, and while his ERA crept up to 4.42 in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League he still struck out a solid 28.7% of opponents, though that was hampered by a 13.8% walk rate.

Baez, 22, signed with San Diego out of the Dominican Republic and made his pro debut in 2021. Baez has primarily pitched out of the rotation during his career and returned to High-A to open the 2024 season after struggling badly in four late-season starts at the level last year. Things turned around in a big way this year, however, as he pitched to an excellent 2.95 ERA in 17 starts with the club’s Fort Wayne affiliate while striking out 24.8% of opponents. That success continued even following a promotion to Double-A midseason, as the right-hander posted a 3.06 ERA in nine starts down the stretch in his first taste of the upper minors. With that being said, that stretch of starts did come with a concerning drop in strikeout rate as he punched out just 15.1% of opponents in 50 innings against a 7.4% walk rate.

Bergert, 24, is perhaps the club’s most surprising addition as his most impressive season actually came in 2023 rather than this year. Last season, the right-hander pitched to an excellent 2.73 ERA in 105 2/3 innings of work split between the High-A and Double-A levels, including a 2.86 ERA and a 28.8% strikeout rate with the club’s San Antonio affiliate. That impressive debut did not translate over to 2024, however, as Bergert surrendered a 4.78 ERA in 98 innings across 23 starts in a repeat of the level this year as his strikeout rate dipped to just 20.9%. He struggled in the Arizona Fall League this year as well, surrendering 16 runs (12 earned) in 14 2/3 innings of work across five starts.

Paul Skenes Wins National League Rookie Of The Year, Earns Full Year Of Service Time

By | at

Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes has been voted the National League Rookie of the Year for 2024, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. Outfielder Jackson Merrill of the Padres finished second while outfielder Jackson Chourio of the Brewers finished third. The Pirates will not earn a PPI bonus pick from this result but Skenes will earn himself a full year of service time despite his late call-up.

Skenes, now 22, has made a quick rise to being one of the top pitchers in the sport. As of a year and a half ago, he was still pitching for Louisiana State University. The Pirates selected him with the first overall pick in the 2023 draft, with many viewing him as about as close to MLB-ready as a draft pick could be.

The Bucs let him get his feet wet as a professional, putting him into five minor league games late in 2023, but never letting him throw more than two innings in any of those. There was some speculation that he could crack the Opening Day roster in 2024 but the Pirates decided to build him up slowly. He was started in Triple-A but with his outings mostly kept around three or four innings.

Despite the kid gloves, Skenes proved it was time to break free, posting a 0.99 earned run average in those minor league outings. That got him promoted to the majors in May, less than a year after being drafted.

His relatively young age and lack of professional experience were easily overwhelmed by his incredible talent. Flashing a triple-digit fastball, a devastating “splinker” and several other pitches in his arsenal, Skenes went on to toss 133 innings over 23 big league starts. In that time, he had a 1.96 ERA, 33.1% strikeout rate, 6.2% walk rate and 51.3% ground ball rate. He produced 4.3 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs, placing him tenth among all pitchers in the majors this year, despite tossing fewer innings than everyone ahead of him.

The timing of his call-up and this victory are both noteworthy. The collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players features measures designed to encourage top prospects being promoted, the prospect promotion incentive, and also to disincentivize service time manipulation. If a player is on certain top 100 prospect lists and is promoted early enough in the season to earn a full service year, that player can earn his club a bonus draft pick depending on awards voting. On the flip side, if such a player is not promoted early enough to get a full year but managed to finish top two in Rookie of the Year voting regardless, that player earns himself a full year of service retroactively.

Had Skenes been promoted earlier in the year, this award would have netted the Bucs an extra draft pick. But since he was held down into May, they were not eligible to receive that pick. Skenes, on the other hand, will now have a full year of service time. That is significant for him as he is now slated to reach free agency after the 2029 season, his age-27 campaign. Under previous collective bargaining agreements, his free agency would have been one year further into the future.

Merrill was eligible to net the Padres a PPI bonus pick and likely would have done so in any other year. He just had the misfortune of competing against Skenes in the voting. Per the BBWAA, each of the 30 votes had Skenes and Merrill in the top two, 23 of them putting Skenes first and seven of them going for Merrill.

The fact that it was even close indicates how impressive Merrill was this year. A shortstop prospect with no Triple-A experience, Merrill moved to center field just this year to help the Padres fill a vacancy at that spot and hit the ground running. He got into 156 games for the Friars, hitting 24 home runs, stealing 16 bases, slashing .292/.326/.500 and getting strong grades for his glovework.

There was a case that Merrill deserved the award more than Skenes since his performance was over a full season, and clearly a handful of voters did lean that way, but ultimately not enough to get Merrill over the line. Despite the incredibly impressive performance, he comes up just shy of getting the trophy while the Padres come up just shy of getting a bonus draft pick.

The third place votes were split between just two players, as Chourio got 26 of them and Shota Imanaga of the Cubs got the other four. Chourio hit 21 home runs and stole 22 bases, slashing .275/.327/.464 while providing solid outfield defense. Imanaga tossed 173 1/3 innings over 29 starts for the Cubs with a 2.91 ERA. In many other years, those two players could have won the award, but they were instead relegated to nabbing a few third-place votes due to the stunning seasons of Skenes and Merrill. Players like Masyn Winn and Joey Ortiz also had excellent seasons but couldn’t even get any votes due to how strong the competition was in the National League this year.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top