Mega Thread 2024-2025 MLB Hot Stove

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The Washington Nationals announced that they have signed LHP Shinnosuke Ogasawara to a two-year contract last week. He is reportedly guaranteed $3.5 million, comprising a $1.5 million salary in 2025 and a $2 million salary in 2026. The Nationals will pay a $700,000 posting fee to his former team, the Chunichi Dragons. The Nationals designated LHP Joe La Sorsa for assignment.

Ogasawara comes to the US having played in nine seasons in the NPB, with a total of 951 1/3 innings for a 3.62 ERA and an 18.9% strikeout rate.

Left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Nationals agree to a $3.5 million, 2-year contract

Left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara and the Washington Nationals have agreed to a $3.5 million, two-year contract.

apnews.com

 

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The Baltimore Orioles are in agreement with infielder Jorge Mateo on a one-year, $3.55 million contract with a team option for 2026 worth $5.5 million to $6 million, which could increase depending on Mateo's performance in 2025. It is not clear what the buyout would be on the option should the Orioles decline it.

 

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The Toronto Blue Jays are signing RHP Adam Kloffenstein to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. The Blue Jays drafted Kloffenstein in the third round of the 2018 draft and he wound up being traded to the Cardinals in 2023. He was added to the Cardinals' 40 man roster in November 2023 to protect him from the Rule 5 draft and he made his MLB debut with St Louis last year, though he only pitched one inning. The Cardinals non-tendered Kloffenstein in November 2024.

From a certain angle, it looks like Mike Trout has taken up pitching.

 

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Dodgers add closer Kirby Yates, pushing payroll to estimated $379 million: Report

The Dodgers keep adding to their payroll.

sports.yahoo.com

The Dodgers have entered the World Series chaser part of the offseason.

 

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On a personal note, looks like my son is done for the rest of the summer season. Copped a knock to his pinky finger on his non-throwing hand playing volleyball with family before Christmas and it seems like he's hurt the tendon in his finger. If it's torn, then he's out for at least three months which puts the start of the winter season (end of April) at risk. The most innocuous thing ever. He's seeing a surgeon tomorrow.

Plan is that he'll continue pitching training with his summer club (the injury is on his glove hand, so he shouldn't be fielding, and it hurts when he swings a bat) in the hope that he'll be ready to start pre-season training with his winter club in April.

His team was competing way outside of its skill bracket, but he was above average on his team and his teammates are going to be unhappy when they find out that they've lost their two best starters for the rest of the season (another boy on the team injured himself in a freak accident in try-outs before Christmas and is out for another fortnight at minimum).

 

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The San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds are in agreement on a trade that sends LHP Taylor Rogers to the Reds in exchange for non-roster minor league RHP Braxton Roxby. The Giants are sending $6 million to the Reds to partly cover Rogers' 2025 salary. The Reds have a full 40-man roster and also are reportedly in agreement with OF Austin Hays, so they need to open two roster spots to fit Hays and Rogers when their deals become official.

Rogers has pitched 490 2/3 innings since the start of the 2016 season, with a 3.34 ERA over that timespan. He has a 28.2% strikeout rate over that period, a 7% walk rate and a 46.3% groundball rate. Rogers has mostly been used as a set-up man, with 98 holds in his career. He signed a three year contract with the Giants before the start of the 2023 season, and is due $12 million in 2025 (the last year of that deal). He did manage a 2.40 ERA in 2024, but the advanced analytics suggested that he was on the precipice of falling off to an extent, with a career low average speed on his sinker and a falling strikeout rate to a career low 25.7% last season. He managed a strand rate of 81.8% last season, suggesting that he was perhaps more lucky than good, and that translated to a 3.75 FIP and a 3.47 SIERA, both significantly higher than his ERA.

Mark Sheldon (@msheldon.bsky.social)

According to a source, the Reds have acquired LHP Taylor Rogers and cash from the Giants for Minor League RHP Braxton Roxby. Deal pending approval from MLB because Cincinnati is set to receive $6 million from SF to cover half of Rogers' $12 million salary for 2025.

bsky.app

 

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The Tampa Bay Rays are reportedly in agreement with infielder Ha-Seong Kim on a two-year, $29 million contract that contains an opt-out after this year. Kim will be paid $13 million in 2025, with $2 million in incentives available, based on plate appearances and starting after 325 plate appearances. If Kim declines to opt out he will be paid $16 million in 2026. The Rays have a full 40-man roster and must make a corresponding move once Kim's deal becomes official.

Kim's trip through free agency was clouded when he underwent surgery in September 2024 to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder. His agent, Scott Boras, said that Kim would be back on the field by April 2025, but the Padres were less optimistic, suggesting that the earliest they would expect Kim back would be May and it may not be until about the All-Star break that Kim would be back.

 

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The Detroit Tigers are in agreement with RHP Tommy Kahnle on a one-year, $7.75 million contract. Kahnle has been plagued by injuries over the last five years, but when healthy, has often acted as the best set-up man in the league. He has pitched less than 100 innings since the start of the 2020 season, but 83 of those innings have come in the last two seasons. Since 2020, he boasts an ERA of 2.41 with a 28% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate.

Kahnle's best pitch is his changeup and he relies on it almost to the exclusion of his other pitches. Since 2022, he has thrown the changeup almost three-quarters of the time, and that included a stretch of 61 consecutive changeups in the 2024 postseason. Opponents have struggled against the changeup, hitting just .175/.236/.287 in Kahnle's career, and that included .157/.227/.264 in 2024.

After making the deal official, the Tigers have designated RHP Alex Faedo for assignment. Faedo was selected by the Tigers with the 18th selection in the 2017 draft and has pitched in each of the last three seasons. He pitched 57 1/3 innings in 2024 with a 3.61 ERA, a 22.4% strikeout rate and a 11.4% walk rate.

 

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The Pittsburgh Pirates have secured a win in arbitration with their RHP Johan Oviedo. The arbitrator determined that Oviedo should be paid $850,000 for the 2025 season, not the $1.15 million that Oviedo wanted. Oviedo missed the 2024 season with Tommy John surgery, but was on track to be a solid innings-eating starter for the Pirates prior to that injury, having put up a 4.15 ERA in 39 starts over the 2022-2023 season (208 1/3 innings). Of course, the Pirates rotation now looks very different to how it looked when Oviedo was last healthy, with Paul Skenes and Jared Jones having cemented themselves as top of the rotation starters, while Bailey Falter also looked solid in 2024. Oviedo will likely have a head start as the fifth starter in the Pirates rotation behind Skenes, Jones, Mitch Keller and Falter, but needs to show that he can be effective during Spring Training, since the Pirates have a minor league option remaining.

 

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The Los Angeles Dodgers and LHP Alex Vesia are in agreement on a one-year, $2.3 million contract with a club option for 2026. This allows the two sides to avoid arbitration. Vesia had filed for $2.35 million while the Dodgers had proposed $2.05 million. Vesia was the only Dodger that was up for arbitration, so the Dodgers have now avoided the need for any arbitration hearings in 2025.

Vesia will be paid a guaranteed salary of $2.55 million in 2025, with the additional $50,000 guarantee coming on a buyout on a $3.55 million club option for 2026. Vesia has incentives worth a total of $175,000 for 2025.

 

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The Kansas City Royals have moved to strengthen their bullpen by reportedly agreeing to a two-year contract with free agent RHP Carlos Estevez. The deal comes with a club option for 2027. Estevez will receive a guaranteed $22 million from the Royals, which includes a $2 million buyout on an option worth $13 million. The Royals have a full 40-man roster so must make a move once the deal is official.

Estevez spent the first six years of his career in Colorado with the Rockies. He signed a two-year contract with the Angels before the 2023 off-season and then was traded to the Phillies at the 2024 deadline. Between the Angels and Phillies, he pitched 117 1/3 innings with a 3.22 ERA, 26% strikeout rate, and an 8.7% walk rate. Estevez earned the closer role with the Angels and kept it with the Phillies, picking up 57 saves over the last two years. He put up a career best 2.45 ERA in 2024, but his strikeout rate dropped from 25.8% with the Angels to 20.5% with the Phillies.

Estevez joins a bullpen headlined by RHP Lucas Erceg and RHP Hunter Harvey, both of whom the Royals acquired at the 2024 trade deadline. Erceg emerged from the shadow of former teammate Mason Miller to become the Royals closer, putting up a 2.88 ERA in the regular season for the Royals and then pitching to a 3.00 ERA in six postseason appearances. Harvey only had six appearances as a Royal before a back injury put him on the shelf.

 

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Free agent RHP Max Scherzer recently held a workout for interested teams that was reportedly attended by several teams at least, including the Blue Jays, Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, Phillies, Braves, Red Sox and Cubs. The Blue Jays have been linked most prominently with Scherzer through the off-season and they seem to be leading the charge to sign him. The Mets have had some level of interest in bringing Scherzer back to Queens on a one year contract. According to one showcase attendee, Scherzer still has good stuff, but it is not at the Cy Young level of previous seasons.

Scherzer was restricted by a litany of injuries to pitching only 43 1/3 innings in nine starts for the Rangers in 2024. He managed a 3.95 ERA with a 22.6% strikeout rate and a 5.6% walk rate. His fastball slowed from 95 mph to a career-low 92.5 mph and he was more prone to giving up homeruns than in previous years.

Has a frontrunner emerged to sign Scherzer?

For hire: Future Hall of Fame starting pitcher with a track record of excellence, a competitive fire the likes of which few have ever matched and a wealth of postseason experience. On paper, Max Scherzer looks like a player who would help a number of contending teams, so why is

www.mlb.com