Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Minnesota certainly has to do something about its bullpen. The 2025 club fell back in the standings in the summer, which prompted the front office to get into seller mode. They leaned hard into selling from the relief corps. Controllable arms Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland and Brock Stewart were all sent packing, alongside rental arm Danny Coulombe. That left the Twins with a hodgepodge bullpen for the stretch run, consisting of waiver claimees and veteran journeymen.

Framber Valdez, 32, SP, 3.8, 18.8: Valdez was impressively consistent for the Astros and should be able to choose between several multi-year offers. His age works against a long-term deal, but Sportrac estimated his AAV at $33.3 million, easily the highest among free-agent pitchers. Ranger Suárez, 30, SP, 4.7, 18.1: The left-handed Suárez is younger than most other free-agent starters and is coming off an excellent season. He has a 1.48 ERA over 11 postseason appearances.

Jiménez began last season with the Tampa Bay Rays, playing 40 games with Triple-A Durham before suffering an injury. He hit .278/.335/.397 with three home runs before he was placed on the injured list with Achilles tendinitis in the middle of May. He was released in July before joining the Blue Jays in August. He only got into six games before the season came to an end and he hit .167 with Triple-A Buffalo.

The Twins have hired recently retired outfielder Michael A. Taylor as an outfield instructor, per Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He won't be a member of the big league coaching staff but will be in camp for several weeks this spring and will visit the Twins' minor league affiliates to work with their up-and-coming outfielders throughout the 2026 season. Taylor, 34, retired following the 2025 season.

He has appeared in six World Baseball Classic games in his career, three in 2023 and another three in 2017. Freeman has recorded four singles and a walk across 21 at-bats with two RBI and three runs scored, giving him a .190/.227/.190 slash line. Canada has yet to advance to the quarterfinals in their five years of participating. With Freeman on the club, they went 2-2 in 2023 and 0-3 in 2017 to be eliminated both years.

Ketel Marte is officially off the market, but even if the Diamondbacks aren't swinging a big trade this winter they still have plenty of work to do. The team's biggest move of the offseason has been reuniting with Merrill Kelly in free agency. They've also signed right-hander Michael Soroka and catcher James McCann to one-year deals while shipping lefty Kyle Backhus and outfielder Jake McCarthy out in trades. Those relatively small moves aren't the end of the team's offseason maneuvers, as general manager Mike Hazen told reports (including Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports) that he would like to bolster the pitching staff and also add "a couple of bats" to the offense.

The Braves resigned Tyler Kinley yesterday to a slightly smaller deal with an option for 2027. Tyler was a bright spot for Atlanta last year, posting a 0.72/2.74/4.37 line over 25 innings. That works out to a 17 ERA-, 68 FIP-, and 106 xFIP-. He was very good during the last two months after being acquired from Colorado, and definitely slayed the HR/FB monster. It makes me curious if the Braves at bullpen now.

In the summer of 2019, the Blue Jays selected the Oakville, Ontario native out of Abbey Park High School in the third round, as he was the first Canadian to go off the board at that year's draft. Brown had a strong abbreviated debut, slashing .222/.444/.356 in the 14 games he played after the draft. Like all minor leaguers, Brown didn't play in the minor leagues in 2020, because there were no minor leagues.

Entering 2017, the core of the team was getting old. José Bautista was 36, Russell Martin was 34, Josh Donaldson was 31, Troy Tulowitzki was 32, Kendry Morales, who was Edwin Encarnación's replacement, was 34. On the pitching side of things, Marco Estrada, J.A. Happ, and Francisco Liriano were 33 and 34. Their two promising pitchers, Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman, were still in the mid-20s.

The Rangers announced that Anthony Veneziano has been released from his minor league contract so that the southpaw can pursue an opportunity with an Asian team. Veneziano only just signed with Texas about four weeks ago, though as per the norm with non-roster players, the Rangers aren't going to stand in the way if Veneziano is given a guaranteed offer from a foreign club.

Madrigal spent the entire 2025 season on the injured list. He'd signed a $1.35MM free agent deal with the Mets to compete for a utility job. Madrigal broke his left shoulder when he stumbled while fielding a ground ball during Spring Training. He underwent surgery and was immediately ruled out for the year. The Mets dropped him from the roster at the beginning of the offseason.

Last season's numbers were, however, a step back from the 154 wRC+ and 7.9 fWAR Henderson delivered in 2024. Henderson missed most of Spring Training and the first week of regular-season action recovering from an intercostal strain, but the shortstop revealed Thursday that he also spent about " three-quarters of the year " dealing with a heretofore unknown shoulder impingement.

The Reds and right-hander Brady Singer are in agreement on a $12.75MM salary for the 2026 campaign, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. It's the final year of arbitration for Singer, who is set to hit free agency next offseason. The contract is slightly above MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz's projection of $11.9MM. Singer is represented by Excel Sports Management. Cincinnati acquired Singer in a November 2024 trade that sent Jonathan India and Joey Wiemer to Kansas City.

Okamoto is another addition to an already very strong Blue Jays infield, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ernie Clement, Addison Barger, and Andrés Giménez. Okamoto is primarily a corner infielder, but he is also capable of playing the outfield. During his introductory press conference on Tuesday, both Okamoto and Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins alluded to Okamoto taking on a utility role with the Blue Jays.

The left-handed hitting veteran has been suspended for 80 games after testing positive for the banned substance Epitrenbolone, which violates Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. With this suspension, should Kepler sign with a team this offseason, he will miss the first 80 games as well as be ineligible for the postseason. Should Kepler go unsigned this winter, the suspension does not start on Opening Day; it begins when he signs with a new team, should that happen post Opening Day.

It's worth noting, too, that the Mets are deep in both top prospects and young big leaguers that could be marketed to other clubs. Their farm system is generally regarded as one of the ten best in the game. Following this year's draft and trade deadline, Baseball America ranked the Mets' system ninth in the game. MLB.com ranked it seventh.

Arbitration filing deadline: Today is a big day on MLB's offseason calendar, as Thursday marks the deadline for teams and players to exchange figures ahead of salary arbitration. Most of those cases will end in the two parties settling on a salary to avoid arbitration, but any team that still has unsigned players after today will be scheduled for a hearing in front of a three-person arbitration panel.