If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the rest of the spring or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

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“Two years ago, I had kind of a weird year with the concussion,” Rizzo conceded to The Athletic. “Then last year, I was hurt twice. My power numbers dropped. I’m surprised, but not like crazy surprised just because I’m a realist in the game and you’re getting older. The fact that teams want you to play for basically league minimum. I’m like, you guys are crazy. You’re almost trying to ruin the market for the next guy.”

Rizzo nevertheless made clear that he wants to keep playing. “I’m going to train until the season starts and even well into the season and see what happens,” the three-time All-Star said. However, he acknowledged that the market hasn’t been kind to aging hitters. “I think I have a lot to give to the game still. But at the same time, if teams are not going to want to pay a few million dollars for veterans, I’ve seen it the last 10 years of my career. It’s what happens to the older guys. They kind of get squeezed,” Rizzo told Rosenthal and Kuty. “You’ve seen it happen more and more. I’m not naive to it. It could be it.”

As Rizzo acknowledged, his past couple seasons have been impacted by myriad health issues. Initially acquired by the Yankees at the 2021 trade deadline, he re-signed on a two-year, $40MM deal after the ’22 campaign. That deal didn’t work out in large part because of injuries. Rizzo had been out to a nice start to the ’23 season. He injured his head in a collision at first base with Fernando Tatis Jr. in late May. Rizzo’s production tanked thereafter until the Yankees put him on the injured list in early August with post-concussion syndrome that they traced back to that collision. That ended his season.

The 14-year big league veteran returned last season. He got out to a slow start, hitting .224/.289/.341 across 291 plate appearances into the middle of June. Another freak injury resulted in an extended absence. Rizzo collided with Boston pitcher Brennan Bernardino at first base while trying to beat out a grounder. He broke a bone in his right arm on the fall and was immediately shelved into September. Rizzo returned for a few weeks, but he suffered another tough break when Pittsburgh reliever Ryan Borucki hit him with a pitch. That broke two fingers on his right hand. Rizzo missed the Division Series but returned for the ALCS and World Series. He reached base at an excellent .421 clip, though he only recorded one extra-base hit (a double) in 38 playoff plate appearances.

New York bought out Rizzo for $6MM in lieu of a $17MM club option, an easy call after the past couple seasons. There haven’t been any teams publicly linked to him over the past few months. MLBTR’s Steve Adams identified a few speculative fits for Rizzo and some other unsigned hitters in a post for Front Office subscribers this afternoon.

Spring training is ramping up but there’s still offseason business to discuss. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the rest of the winter or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training this week, but there’s still offseason business to attend to. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the rest of the winter or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

García signed a four-year, $53MM free agent deal with the Marlins over the 2021-22 offseason. That was a complete misfire on the part of Miami’s front office. García hit .217/.260/.322 in 153 games over two and a half seasons. Miami released him last June, a little more than halfway through the contract. He had hit .240/.255/.380 over 18 games in 2024.

The Marlins still owe García a decent chunk of money. He’ll collect a $12MM salary this year and will be paid a $5MM option buyout at season’s end. Sandy Alcantara’s $17MM salary is Miami’s only bigger commitment. García would have been limited to minor league offers if he were healthy. If his recovery goes as planned, he could pursue a non-roster invite to Spring Training in 2026. He’d be entering his age-35 season.

News of the Hoberg situation first came out in June, as covered by MLBTR at the time. MLB released a statement at that time saying that the league had started investigating Hoberg during spring training and that discipline was warranted. Hoberg decided to appeal.

Per today’s statement, commissioner Rob Manfred has upheld the decision, “following an appeal process in accordance with its Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Major League Baseball Umpires Association (MLBUA).”

“MLB immediately opened an investigation in February 2024,” the statement reads, “upon receiving information from a licensed sports betting operator that Hoberg had opened a sports betting account in his own name and that the personal electronic device associated with this account was also associated with the legal sports betting account of an individual not covered by MLB’s policies (Individual A) who had bet on baseball. Hoberg was subsequently removed from Spring Training and made inactive for the 2024 Championship Season pending completion of the investigatory process.”

Per the statement, Hoberg has “adamantly denied betting on baseball directly or indirectly (i.e., through his friend), and the data provided by the sportsbooks does not show any baseball bets from his own electronic devices.” It goes on to state that the league “found no evidence that Hoberg or anyone else took any action to manipulate the outcomes of any games, and an analysis of the betting data did not show any discernible patterns indicative of an integrity risk.”

Per Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com, none of the bets placed from Hoberg’s devices were on baseball. However, the friend’s device bet on baseball 141 times, including eight games that Hoberg worked. “The investigation found no pattern to indicate Hoberg’s calls were influenced by the bets, none of which were profitable,” per Castrovince.

Jesse Rogers of ESPN provides some more details on the arrangement between Hoberg and his friend, who met at a poker tournament in 2014 and became friends. In 2019, online sports betting became legal in Iowa, where Hoberg lives. The friend opened legal accounts with two sportsbooks and Hoberg “asked his friend to place non-baseball sports bets for him using the accounts to do so.” Later, “the friend gave Hoberg the username and password to his accounts so that Hoberg could place bets directly by logging into the accounts using Hoberg’s own devices on occasions when his friend was not in Iowa and, therefore, not able to place the bets for Hoberg.” The two friends communicated via the app Telegram and kept logs of their gambling activity in there, later settling debts in cash when they saw each other in person. After being contacted by MLB, the friend deleted Telegram threads with Hoberg, and Hoberg deleted his own Telegram account. MLB was not able to retrieve those messages.

MLB’s statement goes on to state that Michael Hill, senior vice president of on-field operations, determined that Hoberg demonstrated poor judgement and could not be trusted to “maintain the integrity of the international game of baseball.” Hoberg was notified on May 31, 2024 that he would be fired. He appealed the decision to Manfred, though the CBA with the umpires calls for the involvement of a mutually agreed upon “Neutral Factfinder” who would look into the events in question. Per the statement, Manfred is to give “due regard” to the findings of this factfinder but “is not bound by them and can make an independent judgment that is final, binding and not subject to the grievance procedure or challenge in any other forum.”

A statement from Manfred was included in the release from the league: “The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules governing sports betting conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans. An extensive investigation revealed no evidence that Mr. Hoberg placed bets on baseball directly or that he or anyone else manipulated games in any way. However, his extremely poor judgment in sharing betting accounts with a professional poker player he had reason to believe bet on baseball and who did, in fact, bet on baseball from the shared accounts, combined with his deletion of messages, creates at minimum the appearance of impropriety that warrants imposing the most severe discipline. Therefore, there is just cause to uphold Mr. Hoberg’s termination for failing to conform to high standards of personal conduct and to maintain the integrity of the game of baseball.”

Hoberg also released a statement today, with Evan Drellich of The Athletic among those to relay it to the public. “I take full responsibility for the errors in judgment that are outlined in today’s statement,” Hoberg says. “Those errors will always be a source of shame and embarrassment to me. Major League Baseball umpires are held to a high standard of personal conduct, and my own conduct fell short of that standard. That said, to be clear, I have never and would never bet on baseball in any way, shape, or form. I have never provided, and would never provide, information to anyone for the purpose of betting on baseball. Upholding the integrity of the game has always been of the utmost importance to me. I apologize to Major League Baseball and the entire baseball community for my mistakes. I vow to learn from them and to be a better version of myself moving forward.”

Hoberg can apply for reinstatement but not until the start of 2026 spring training.

There have been five in-season trades so far in 2024/25, and several more are sure to follow in the coming days. In ’23/24, there were a total of 27 in-season trades, with 18 officially completed on deadline day alone. This year could be just as action-packed!

There is no shortage of clubs who will be looking to improve their chances of making a deep playoff run, including top spenders like the Suns and Bucks. Teams with aging stars like the Warriors and Lakers are typically worth monitoring as well (both have already completed trades in ‘24/25).

Five-time All-NBA forward Jimmy Butler is the most accomplished player currently available on the trade market, but he’s not the only former All-Star, as De’Aaron Fox, Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, Khris Middleton, Bradley Beal and Brandon Ingram have also popped up in trade rumors. Given that most of those players are on maximum-salary contracts, there’s a chance that some of them could be traded for each other.

For the latest updates on those stories and many more, bookmark Hoops Rumors today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter/X and Bluesky.

For much of his career, Lynn was as bankable a source of 30-plus starts as the game had to offer. He did miss the 2016 season due to Tommy John surgery, but in every other 162-game season from 2012-21, he averaged 31 starts. His 13 starts in the shortened 2020 season led Major League Baseball. Outside of that one major arm injury, Lynn was the consummate workhorse.

Knee injuries began to dog the right-hander in 2021, however. He hit the injured list at the end of August that year and wound up making “only” 28 starts with 157 innings pitched as a result. The following April, he underwent surgery to repair a torn tendon in his knee. He was limited to 21 starts in 2022 but still notched a solid 3.99 ERA in 121 2/3 frames after returning in mid-June. Lynn again made 32 starts and topped 180 innings in 2023 — albeit with poor results (5.73 ERA). His 2024 campaign, however, saw him hit the injured list on two different occasions owing to inflammation in that surgically repaired right knee.

Over the past three seasons, Lynn has pitched 422 1/3 innings. He’s averaged 25.333 starts per season. Lynn posted sub-4.00 ERAs in 2022 and 2024, but his rocky 2023 campaign balloons his earned run average in that three-year span to a much rougher 4.71. His strikeout rate and velocity have declined incrementally in that three-year period, although even his 2024 levels (21.3 K%, 92.3 mph average four-seamer) are still passable.

A move to the bullpen for Lynn could be intriguing for a number of reasons. He’s long been an extreme fastball pitcher — the rare arm who can succeed with minimal secondary offerings. Since 2017, Lynn has thrown a curveball for 7% of his offerings and his changeup at a 4.3% clip with an even less-used slider (1.4%). The rest of his pitches have been four-seamers (45.3%), sinkers (22.5%) and cutters (19.5%) — all ranging from 88.5 mph (cutter) to 93.4 mph (four-seamer).

A move to the ’pen would presumably bump Lynn’s heater back upward. He’s never been a true flamethrower but did average a career-high 94.6 mph on his four-seamer back in 2019. Relievers generally have an easier time getting by with a two-pitch arsenal; Lynn could feasibly rely on a four-seamer/cutter combo working out of the bullpen. They’ve been his two most effective pitches, on a rate basis, throughout his career.

There’s no guarantee Lynn signs as a pure reliever, of course. His 2024 season yielded solid results even when pitching as a starter. The volume wasn’t there, but he logged a 3.84 ERA in his 23 starts. The Cardinals generally limited him to five frames per outing, though; he only recorded an out in the sixth inning or later in seven of his 23 trips to the mound. A team looking for an effective five-and-dive starter at the back of the rotation could still bring Lynn into the fold, but at a time when reliever-to-starter conversions are en vogue, he’s an interesting candidate to try the opposite approach.

It’s not known which clubs have looked into Lynn as a possible closer, though speculatively speaking, a budget-crunched club like the Rangers — who already know Lynn well — would be an intriguing fit. The D-backs are still seeking a closer but are already running a club-record payroll after their shock signing of Corbin Burnes.

Rosenthal adds that there are clubs interested in Lynn in his more traditional rotation role. He’d be a relatively low-cost option for teams hoping to pile up some affordable innings. The Padres, Brewers and A’s all speculatively fit that billing. But at the very least, Lynn sounds open to the idea of pitching in a late-game role. He described his reaction to his agent’s initial presentation of the concept: “I went, ‘Oooooh. Is the second act, the final act of my career, closing games?’ It sounds fun.”

A team signing Graveman would be betting on a bounceback. He was a solid starter earlier in his career but missed the 2019 season recovering from Tommy John surgery and converted to a relief role after that. He had a strong run prior to his most recent injury. From 2021-22, he threw 121 innings for the Mariners, Astros and White Sox, allowing 2.53 earned runs per nine. He struck out 25% of batters faced, gave out walks to 9.1% of opponents and generated grounders on a hefty 54.3% of batted balls.

His 2023 was a bit uneven. Starting the year with the White Sox, his 10.8% walk rate with Chicago was a bit elevated, but not alarmingly so. He pitched to a 3.48 ERA with the Sox, tallied eight saves and eight holds, and punched out a roughly average 22.6% of batters faced. After getting dealt back to the Astros in exchange for catcher Korey Lee, he walked 16.7% of opponents down the stretch. His 25% strikeout rate and 2.42 ERA were both sharp, but the command was clearly lacking. Beyond the uncharacteristically high number of free passes, his ground ball rate was only 38.7%, a big drop from the previous seasons.

The Astros left him off their ALDS roster due to some right shoulder discomfort. In January of 2024, it was announced that he required surgery on the shoulder and would likely miss the entire season. In hindsight, perhaps that injury explains some of this 2023 struggles, as the velocity on all his pitches dropped relative to 2022.

Graveman is now 34 years old. He missed all of last year and didn’t post his best numbers the year prior. There’s certainly risk in signing a pitcher in this position, but it could turn into a nice upside play if he’s able to stay healthy and get back to his previous form.

The last time Graveman was a free agent, in the 2021-22 offseason, he signed a three-year, $24MM deal with the White Sox. Based on what has happened over the past couple of years, he’ll surely be limited to something far less this time around — likely a low-cost one-year deal with incentives based on innings pitched (and possibly games finished).

The relief market has picked up significantly this month. The Cubs and Reds acquired Ryan Pressly and Taylor Rogers, respectively, in trades over the past week. Six different free agent relievers have signed eight-figure deals in the past few weeks: Tanner Scott, Jeff Hoffman, A.J. Minter, Kirby Yates, Andrew Kittredge and José Leclerc. Another six relievers signed in the $3-8MM range: Tommy Kahnle, Paul Sewald, Chris Martin, Ryne Stanek, Caleb Ferguson and Jorge López.

Pitchers like Kenley Jansen, David Robertson, Kyle Finnegan and others are still out there but likely to earn notable salaries, to varying degrees. Others, including Robert Suarez, Ryan Helsley and Camilo Doval, could be available in trade, though acquiring any one of them would require giving up young talent and/or taking on money. Graveman represents a more affordable alternative — one with far less certainty than the bulk of available arms but also a good bit more upside than most of the relievers who’ve yet to sign. In total, from 2021-23, he posted a 2.74 ERA with 51 holds, 24 saves, a 24.5% strikeout rate, a 10.4% walk rate and a 48.9% grounder rate.

Last week, we put the call out for questions but ended up having a lengthy discussion about salary cap proposals and didn’t get to any. Apologies for that. We should be able to make for time for listener questions this week, depending on how much news breaks in the next little bit.

Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training in just a few weeks, but there’s still plenty of offseason business to attend to. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the rest of the winter or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

None of those came after May 4. Matzek began the year in the Braves’ bullpen. Opponents tagged him for 11 runs over 10 innings. Atlanta placed him on the injured list with elbow inflammation during the first week of May. Matzek remained on the shelf for more than three months. Atlanta dealt him to the Giants as a salary offset in the Jorge Soler deadline acquisition.

San Francisco released Matzek rather than plug him into the MLB bullpen when he was healthy. Atlanta circled back to re-sign the 34-year-old lefty to a minor league deal. Matzek pitched four times with Triple-A Gwinnett and didn’t earn a call up. He qualified for minor league free agency at season’s end.

Elbow issues have derailed Matzek in consecutive seasons. He underwent Tommy John surgery during Atlanta’s postseason run in 2022. That cost him the entire ’23 campaign. Between his age and the injuries, he’ll likely be limited to minor league offers. If Matzek’s stuff looks sharp in his showcase, he should find interest from teams as a depth option. He had a strong three-year run with Atlanta between 2020-22. Matzek combined for a 2.92 earned run average while striking out more than 27% of batters faced in 135 2/3 innings over that stretch.

Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training in just a few weeks, but there’s still plenty of offseason business to attend to. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the rest of the winter or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Thompson has not officially announced his retirement from baseball, though he posted a social media video of himself throwing a football inside the South Alabama facility with the caption “we back y’all!” Thompson, a Mobile native, was a quarterback in high school. (Stephenson notes that he was teammates with future South Alabama receiver Jalen Tolbert, who has spent the last three years with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.) He passed on a baseball commitment to the University of Alabama to sign with the Rangers as a first-round pick in 2017. The toolsy outfielder received a signing bonus just north of $2MM.

The righty-hitting Thompson drew praise from scouts for his athleticism and bat speed. The longstanding question was whether he’d make enough contact to be more than a fourth or fifth outfielder. Thompson never really managed to do so. He fanned in 32% of his 259 MLB plate appearances over the past three years. He bounced around the league via waivers last winter. The Reds succeeded in outrighting him off the 40-man roster in May. Thompson hit .232/.264/.289 with a 28.5% strikeout rate over 57 Double-A games. He qualified for minor league free agency at season’s end.

If Thompson fully moves on from baseball, he’ll finish with a .232/.273/.295 slash line in 109 games between Texas and Cincinnati. He was an asset on the bases, stealing 27 bags in 32 attempts.

Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training in about a month, but there’s still plenty of offseason business to attend to. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the rest of the winter or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Verlander tossed only 90 1/3 innings last season, and he didn’t make his 2024 debut until April 19 after a shoulder problem limited him during Spring Training.  That relatively minor issue was overshadowed by a neck injury in June that ended up sidelining him for over two and a half months, and Verlander then struggled to an 8.10 ERA in 33 1/3 frames after being activated from the injured list in August.  Discussing his health situation with reporters in late September, Verlander said “I think I came back from the neck injury a little fast….I want to be an asset for this team.  And to do that, I needed to be able to pitch and find out where I’m at.  Obviously, the results have not been good.  But there’s nothing you can do besides trying to pitch.”

The good news is that Verlander is now “in great shape,” according to Morosi, as the future Hall-of-Famer heads into his age-42 season.  Verlander has a well-earned reputation as a workhorse over his outstanding career, yet inevitably, more health issues have developed as he has gotten older.  Verlander missed virtually all of the 2020-21 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery, he missed a couple of weeks during the 2022 season due to a calf injury, and a teres major strain kept him on the shelf for over the first month of the 2023 season.

The latter two of those injuries, to be fair, didn’t keep Verlander from tossing 337 1/3 total innings in 2022-23, plus 38 1/3 more frames in the playoffs.  His 2022 season in particular saw the righty deliver one of his best seasons, as he posted a 1.75 ERA while leading Houston to a World Series championship.  Verlander took a slight step backwards in 2023 but still had a 3.22 ERA in 162 1/3 combined innings with the Mets and Astros.

Even at age 42, Verlander has plenty of upside, as he has shown that he can still be an effective arm as long as he is healthy.  Obviously his health status is more of a question mark considering what happened in 2024, yet on paper, even serious neck soreness probably isn’t as big of a red flag to teams as something like an elbow or shoulder injury.  It probably isn’t a surprise that Verlander’s market has started to heat up as we get later into the offseason, and teams have had more time to both evaluate his medicals and to monitor the pitching market as a whole after several other free agents and trade targets have come off the board.

Morosi didn’t cite any specific teams that were considering Verlander, though any number of clubs could be a fit due to the ever-present need for pitching.  It can be assumed that Verlander is prioritizing joining contending teams, and Morosi’s suggestion that Baltimore could be a fit might no longer apply, as Morosi’s report was filed before the Orioles announced their one-year deal with Charlie Morton.  The Astros are the only team known to have interest in Verlander’s services, as GM Dana Brown said in November that he’d “had conversations” with Verlander’s agent.