Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don't use Spotify or Apple for podcasts. This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss...

The Tigers agreed to a minor league contract with reliever Dugan Darnell, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction tracker. Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press reports that Darnell will receive a non-roster invite to MLB camp. He'd make a little more than the $780K league minimum if he cracks the big league roster. Although Darnell will be with the club in camp, he's not going to see any game action.

Albies burst into MLB in very exciting fashion, putting up nearly 10 fWAR in his first 1,630 PAs from 2017-2019 (that's a pace north of 3.5 fWAR/600). His skillset across those years wasn't very consistent (great defense in 2018, great hitting in 2019), and that inconsistency has marked the rest of his career. He had standout years in 2021 and 2023, while dealing with injuries and just being kinda meh in 2020, 2022, and 2024.

Davidson, 30 in March, pitched in the majors from 2020 to 2024. He logged 129 2/3 innings for the Braves, Angels, Royals and Orioles, allowing 5.76 earned runs per nine. He had better minor league numbers in that span, tossing 219 Triple-A frames with a 3.86 ERA, striking out 24.5% of batters faced against an 8% walk rate while also getting grounders on about half the balls in play he allowed.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Cleveland Guardians traded Justin Bruihl to the St. Louis Cardinals for cash considerations. The Cardinals designated Zak Kent for assignment in a subsequent move. If you're keeping track, this is the second time Bruihl has been traded, as the Blue Jays sent him to the Guardians, also for cash considerations. Bruihl has also been designated for assignment by both the Blue Jays and Guardians.

Yates gives the Angels yet another veteran reliever with some closing experience who's in need of a rebound - in his case, ahead of what'll be his age-39 season. The Halos will hope to finally get a full workload out of Robert Stephenson in the final season of his three-year, $33MM contract. They've also signed former Jays closer Jordan Romano and veteran reliever Drew Pomeranz to low-cost, one-year contracts this offseason as well.

The Tigers and Rays announced a trade that sends outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy to Tampa Bay for cash considerations. Detroit had designated him for assignment before the holiday DFA freeze when they officially re-signed reliever Kyle Finnegan.

"First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to the entire @dodgers organization for everything over the past year. The memories and relationships I built there will stay with me forever," Carlson wrote on Instagram. "That said, I'm thrilled to announce that I've signed with the @astros! Thank you to everyone who has supported me and helped make this opportunity possible."

"Well, look, Framber's still out there," Brown said. "We don't know how that's going to play out. But we know that we had to get some starting pitching. So, we've been able to acquire three starters because we know Framber is still on the market. Us getting Mike Burrows is big, and Ryan Weiss, that was also big. So, we added those three guys."

The Blue Jays have completely upgraded their pitching staff from what they had as a starting point last season to what they will have on Opening Day in 2026. Getting Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce were moves that were highly touted, as well as having Shane Bieber exercise his 2026 option. Meantime, the addition of Tyler Rogers to the bullpen address their need to have pitchers who are better at limiting home runs and walks in high leverage situations.

Astros manager Joe Espada and GM Dana Brown are entering the final seasons of their respective contracts. It'll be Espada's third season in the role and Brown's fourth year running baseball operations. Many clubs prefer not to have their manager and front office heads on lame duck contracts. Astros owner Jim Crane has been more willing to do that than most of his counterparts, and it appears that both Brown and Espada may need to work on expiring deals in 2026.

It's a bit surprising to see Pop command a big league deal. He bounced around during the 2025 season. He opened the year with the Blue Jays but was released shortly after Opening Day. Pop got to the big leagues for four appearances with the Mariners and pitched one time as a member of the Mets. He allowed 12 runs (11 earned) in just 6 2/3 MLB innings. That pushed his career earned run average to 4.88 over 162 1/3 frames spanning five seasons.

Arroyo, 31 in May, was once a notable prospect but he hasn't been able to do much with scattered big league opportunities. In seven seasons from 2017 to 2023, he appeared in 295 games split between the Giants, Rays, Guardians and Red Sox. In his 992 plate appearances, his 21.7% strikeout rate was decent but he only walked 5.1% of the time and hit just 24 home runs. That led to a combined .252/.299/.394 line and 86 wRC+.

The Phillies are likely to have a regular outfield of Adolis García in right, Justin Crawford in center and Brandon Marsh in left. Nick Castellanos is still on the roster but reporting throughout the winter has indicated the Phils are planning to move on from him before the season starts. That could be via a trade but he won't have a ton of value due to his declining performance and $20MM left on the final year of his contract.

I was going to have a "What will Bryce Elder do in 2026?" post for today, but life got in the way, so suffice to say, the first few days of 2026 have not been all too different from 2025 for me. But, things can change, and there's a lot of year to go. So, a completely fluffy, relatively meaningless daily question to kick off the first full week of the year: how much better is this year going to be than last?

Dodgers Dugout Live: was a guest on the podcast and he spoke about tweaking his mechanics and lifting like crazy during rehab. He doesn't really look like the lead picture above anymore as a result. Specifically, Ryan mentioned that he's sitting 98-100 MPH in live at-bats now (would be up 2-3 ticks) and that he added a new pitch that he says gives him seven. Said pitch will remain a secret until he presumably busts it out in Spring Training, so that's something to watch for.

"I probably averaged, like, 14 points a game," Betts said. "I almost averaged a double-double. So I really controlled the game. I'm not out there - I'm nowhere near a star, by no means. Like, I can control the offense. I'm not gonna lose it. I won't win it, but I will put it in the man's hands that will win it. I guarantee you that. So if you need it, I'll do all the dirty work, and I got you."

The 32-year-old sidearmer is looking to rebound from three straight injury-marred seasons. A Tommy John surgery entirely wiped out Effross' 2023 campaign, and a back surgery during that TJ rehab period kept Effross out of any game action until June 2024, and he ended up tossing 35 1/3 minor league innings that season as well as 3 1/3 MLB frames with the Yankees. During Spring Training 2025, Effross then suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain that led to three more months on the shelf, and he amassed only 10 2/3 innings for New York while being frequently shuffled up and down from the minors.

Saucedo, 32, made his big league debut as a member of the Blue Jays back in 2021 but got the majority of his work over the years with the Mariners after Seattle picked him up off waivers prior to the 2023 season. Saucedo proved to be a viable middle relief arm for the Mariners across two seasons, pitching to a 3.54 ERA in 86 1/3 innings of work with a 21.7% strikeout rate against a walk rate of 11.0%.