Mega Thread 2024-2025 MLB Hot Stove

One of the players signed by the Dodgers in their off-season splurge of cash, Korean infielder Hyeseong Kim, may find himself playing centre field for the Dodgers at some point during the season. Kim has generally played second base through his professional career, with some appearances sprinkled in at shortstop, the corner outfield positions and at third base.

The Dodgers are likely to pencil in switch-hitting Tommy Edman to be their every-day centre fielder, but his splits against left handed pitching are much better than against right handed pitching. Alternatives to Edman to play centre, such as Enrique Hernandez, Chris Taylor and Andy Pages, are all right-handed, while James Outman has dropped down the pecking order after a relatively poor 2024. This gives Kim the opportunity to impress the Dodgers at centre field against right-handed pitching.

Dodgers’ Bobby Miller: ‘It could have been a lot worse’

The right-hander, who suffered a concussion when he was hit in the head by a line drive on Thursday, remains in concussion protocol but suffered no fracture.
www.ocregister.com
 
The Milwaukee Brewers have signed veteran utility player Mark Canha to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. Canha turned 36 last week, and is looking to make a major league roster for his 11th season in the big leagues. Canha was drafted by the Marlins in 2010 but did not make his MLB debut until he was with the Oakland Athletics in 2015. Canha spent seven seasons in Oakland and was a key contributor on the team between 2018-2021, hitting .249/.366/.441 (126 wRC+) while playing all three outfield positions.

Canha signed a two-year, $26.5 million contract with the New York Mets when he hit free agency, and he was a solid contributor on the 2021 team that won 101 regular season games. But as he aged, his production with the bat started to decline, and he was traded by the Mets at the deadline in 2023. He played outfield and first base, and also acted as the Brewers' designated hitter, slashing .287/.373/.427 with a 120 wRC+ across the last 50 games of the 2023 season to help the Brewers with the NL Central.

The Brewers inherited a $11.5 million club option over Canha for 2024, but they traded him to Detroit in order to avoid paying the $2 million buyout. The Tigers then exercised the option but he fell down the depth chart in Detroit and was eventually traded to the Giants last season. He hit .244/.344/.346 (102 wRC+) in 2024, with only seven homeruns for the season, but he still excels at finding a way to get on base.

 
The Detroit Tigers announced that they have signed LHP Andrew Chafin to a minor league contract with a non-roster invitation to Spring Training. Chafin has previously pitched for the Tigers in two separate stints, including in 2022, when he posted 2.83 ERA. In 2024, he put up a 3.16 ERA in 37 innings before the Tigers traded him to the Rangers at the deadline.

Chafin's profile as a pitcher has evolved over time. Between 2014-2022, Chafin pitched 400 2/3 innings in the majors with a 3.23 ERA, 25.2% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and a 50.9% ground ball rate. However, since the start of the 2023 season, Chafin started using his slider more often and reduced the number of fastballs thrown. That pushed his ERA up to 4.10, but also increased his strikeout rate to 28.3% and reduced his groundball rate to 37.2%.

 
The Cleveland Guardians announced on Monday that their owner, Larry Dolan, has died at the age of 94. Dolan acquired the Guardians in 2000 for $323 million, and served as their control person through 2013, when his son Paul took over that responsibility.

Cleveland Guardians owner Larry Dolan passes away at 94

CLEVELAND, OH – The Cleveland Guardians are saddened to announce the passing of Lawrence J. Dolan, owner of the Cleveland Guardians. He was 94 years old. “Cleveland sadly lost one of their own last night,” said Bob DiBiasio, Guardians SVP/Public Affairs. “Mr. Dolan invested his entire life in...
www.mlb.com
 
The Seattle Mariners have agreed to a minor league contract with RHP Garrett Hill, who had elected minor league free agency in November 2024. Hill, a reliever, had pitched for the Tigers between 2022-2023, putting up 60 1/3 innings across 17 appearances in 2022, with a 4.03 ERA. In 2023, he pitched 15 2/3 innings in the majors with an ERA above 9 and as many walks as strikeouts. He was dropped from the Tigers' 40-man roster after the season, but re-signed with Detroit on a minor league contract. He started the season on the IL and was reinstated in late May and assigned to Double-A Erie. He achieved a strikeout rate of just under 33% at Double-A, and was promoted to Triple-A a few months later, but struggled with the higher level of competition.
 
The New York Mets have acquired OF Alexander Canario from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for cash considerations, according to announcements from both teams. The Mets put Nick Madrigal on the 60-day IL to create a 40-man roster spot for Canario, who was bumped off the Cubs roster when they signed Justin Turner last week. Canario is out of options, so he will need to break camp with the major league roster of the Mets or he will be made available to other teams via trade or waivers.

Canario was acquired by the Cubs from the Giants along side pitcher Caleb Kilian in the 2021 trade deadline deal that sent Kris Bryant to the Giants. Canario was ranked among the Cubs' top 15 prospects entering both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, but was dropped to 26th by Baseball America this off-season. Unfortunately, Canario is done in by his defence, with Baseball America profiling him as a player with above average arm strength but below average range at the corner outfield spot, suggesting that he probably profiles as a bench bat. With Kyle Tucker and Ian Happ in the corners and Seiya Suzuki line up for most of the work at DH, Canario was up against it to stay with the Cubs.

He will be in a similar situation in New York, with the Mets having to fit OF Juan Soto, OF Brandon Nimmo, OF Tyrone Taylor, OF Jose Siri and OF Starling Marte on their 40-man roster, while Jesse Winker is likely to be their full-time designated hitter.

It is possible that Canario will take the role that was expected to be taken by Madrigal before he fractured his left shoulder in a Spring Training game.

 
Bazzana just took the first pitch he saw in his third at bat in today's Spring Training game against the Brewers to dead centre for a 3-run homerun. It's only Spring Training, but it was a beautiful swing. He's 1-1 with a HR, 3 RBI and two walks.

It'll be a massive surprise if he breaks camp with the Guardians' active roster, but he keeps that up, he'll zoom through the minors.
 
Still kind of amazed and so happy that Australia has produced a MLB Pick 1. Given the lack of Baseball popularity in Australia, the odds were stacked against even a 1st round pick coming from Australia.
 
The Detroit Tigers have agreed to a minor league contract with LHP Thomas Szapucki. Szapucki has been assigned to minor league camp in the hope that he can return to form after losing the last two seasons to injury. Szapucki was a highly regarded pitching prospect with the Mets and made his MLB debut for them in 2021, with 3 2/3 innings that resulted in six earned runs. He was sent to the minors to work on a few things and came back up to the majors in 2022, but was destroyed to the tune of nine earned runs in 1 1/3 innings and was traded to the Giants (along side J.D. Davis) in exchange for Darin Ruf.

Szapucki enjoyed better success in San Francisco, pitching 13 2/3 innings for the Giants for a 1.98 ERA with 29.6% strikeout rate and a 7.4% walk rate. But he started experiencing arm discomfort in 2023 Spring Training and was put on the IL. He underwent surgery by May 2023 to alleviate thoracic outlet syndrome and did not pitch at any level in 2023. He only managed one inning in 2024 before he was shut down with shoulder problems.

Detroit Tigers sign ex-prospect whose career was derailed by injuries

Lefty Thomas Szapucki pitched for the Giants under current Tigers president Scott Harris.
www.mlive.com
 
The Washington Nationals are in agreement with RHP Kyle Finnegan on a major league contract that will pay Finnegan a guaranteed $6 million. The Nationals have a full 40-man roster so must make a move to fit Finnegan on the roster.

Finnegan has pitched for the Nationals across the last five seasons, making 291 appearances since 2019 for a combined 3.56 ERA. He struck out 23.5% of batters faced, walked batters at a 9.5% rate and induced groundballs on 47.5% of balls in play. Finnegan was promoted to the job of closer by the Nationals and earned 11 saves in 2021 and in 2022, increased that to 28 saves in 2023 and 38 saves in 2024.

Finnegan was up for arbitration during the off-season but the Nationals gambled on non-tendering him rather than going to arbitration. Some of the more advanced metrics have not been too kind to Finnegan, with his strikeout rate dropping since 2022 (going from 26.1% in 2022 down to approximately 22% in each of the last two seasons). Finnegan also had a tale of two halves in 2024, putting up a 2.45 ERA and 26.1% strikeout rate in the first half of the season, but then being torched to the tune of a 5.79 ERA in the second half, with a 16.4% strikeout rate.

Finnegan did draw interest from other clubs, but it appears that Finnegan would prefer to return to the known situation rather than start over with a new club, and the Nationals likely ended up saving about $3 million based on projected salary through arbitration (Finnegan was predicted to make $8.1 million in arbitration had the Nationals not non-tendered him).

Finnegan will join RHP Jorge Lopez, RHP Lucas Sims, RHP Derek Law and RHP Colin Poche in the Nationals bullpen (though the latter signed on a minor league deal and will need to earn his way onto the major league roster). All of these pitchers are with the Nationals on one-year contracts only, so could well be trade targets by mid-season if the Nationals season is not going well.



 
The San Diego Padres have signed LHP Wes Benjamin to a minor league contract with a non-roster invitation to Spring Training. Benjamin has already reported to camp.

Benjamin has spent the last three seasons in the KBO, pitching for the KT Wiz (who coincidentally played an exhibition game against the Melbourne Aces last Friday night). Benjamin managed a 3.74 ERA in just over 400 innings in the KBO, but his ERA climbed in each season, with Benjamin putting up a 4.63 ERA in his last season of work in Korea. Benjamin did manage to record over 150 strikeouts in each of his three seasons in Korea.

Benjamin came to professional baseball via the 2014 MLB draft, when he was selected in the fifth round by the Rangers. He managed to make 21 big league appearances (mostly in low-leverage relief scenarios) between 2020-2021, but was tagged for an ERA of almost seven across 45 innings. Benjamin last pitched in the US in the White Sox farm system in 2022, before moving to Korea in the middle of the season.

 
RPCB said:
Still kind of amazed and so happy that Australia has produced a MLB Pick 1. Given the lack of Baseball popularity in Australia, the odds were stacked against even a 1st round pick coming from Australia.
Click to expand...

You can see Bazzana's homerun swing on reddit here.
 
Dixie Flatline said:
You can see Bazzana's homerun swing on reddit here.
Click to expand...


I have a soft spot for the Guardians after the 2016 World Series, I am happy for both Cleveland and that Travis is playing for them.
 
RPCB said:
I have a soft spot for the guardians after the 2016 World Series, I am happy for both Cleveland and that Travis is playing for them.
Click to expand...

I considered walking away from the Athletics after they left Oakland and following the Guardians, partly due to Bazzana and also because Stephen Vogt is a former A's player. At this stage, I'm likely to stick with the Athletics because of the promising crop of players they have coming through (Rooker is a late bloomer, but I'm excited about Butler and Nick Kurtz, as well as Osvaldo Bido and of course Mason Miller), but Jose Ramirez is probably my favourite non-Athletic player (especially after Shohei went to the Dodgers) and I'd like to see the Guardians do well under Vogt.
 
The Miami Marlins announced that they have claimed RHP Brett de Geus off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Marlins have designated RHP Seth Martinez for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. de Geus was acquired by the Pirates from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash in January, but was forced off their roster when the Pirates signed LHP Andrew Heaney.

de Geus has previously pitched for the Mariners, Marlins and Blue Jays in 2024, with a combined 7.48 ERA across 61 1/3 innings. He induced groundballs at a reasonable 52.5% rate but only struck out batters at a 16.6% rate and walked batters at 10%.

de Geus has some pretty filthy stuff, though, as he averages 96.4 mph on his sinker and 98 mph on his four seamer, while he also has a knuckle curve, cutter and splitter in his arsenal. de Geus has options so is not guaranteed a roster spot.

 
OF Andrew Benintendi has been ruled out for 4-6 weeks with a fracture in his right hand after being hit by a pitch during a Spring Training game. That rules him out of the rest of Spring Training and he'll have to undertake a rehab assignment before he's ready to play.

 
As noted previously, the Pirates have signed LHP Andrew Heaney to a one-year contract. He is guaranteed $5.25 million, and now some information has emerged regarding the incentives that he could earn this sesaon. According to reports, Heaney can start to earn bonuses of $50,000 at 120 innings pitched, $100,000 for 130 innings and then $150,000 for 140, 150, 160 and 170 innings, so he could earn up to $750,000 if he reaches all those thresholds, which would get him to $6 million for the season.

 
As noted earlier this week, the Washington Nationals signed RHP Kyle Finnegan to a major league contract and needed to make a roster move to add him to the 40-man roster.



The Nationals announced subsequently that they have designated OF Stone Garrett for assignment to create that roster spot.

Garrett has played in parts of three major league seasons for the Nationals and Diamondbacks, with a career .276/.341/.492 slashline, which equates to a wRC+ of 125. However, that has been propped up by a BABIP of .369, which is not sustainable in the long run, and he also struck out at a 30.2% rate.

Garrett only received six big league plate appearances last season, spending the rest of the season in Triple-A, where he hit .249/.348/.333 as he worked his way back from surgery performed on his lower left leg in August 2023 to repair fractures in his fibula and ankle that he suffered when he crashed into an outfield wall at Yankee Stadium.

Garrett has shown an ability to hit left-handed pitching hard, putting up .279/.333/.541 in his career against left handed pitching, though this was sustained by a .362 BABIP. However, the ISO of .262 against left handed pitching will likely earn him some interest around the league as a bench bat. The Nationals now have five days to trade Garrett and if he is not traded, he must go on outright waivers and await his fate.
 
The Seattle Mariners announce that they have claimed RHP Seth Martinez off waivers from the Miami Marlins. The Mariners have put RHP Jackson Kowar on the 60-day IL to create a roster spot for Martinez, who joins his fourth organisation this off-season after spending his first four MLB seasons with the Astros. Martinez is out of minor league options, so either needs to stick on the 40-man roster or be bumped off. Martinez has played in 111 major league games for the Astros, pitching a total of 137 1/3 innings, usually as a multi-inning reliever. He owns a career 3.93 ERA, but saw his strikeout rate plummet from 23.1% in 2023 to 16.2% in 2024, which hastened his departure from Houston.

Kowar underwent Tommy John surgery about 12 months ago, so is expected to miss the opening part of the 2025 season while he continues his rehab. He won't be available to play for the Mariners until late May 2025 at the earliest given his placement on the 60-day IL.

 
The Milwaukee Brewers have hired former Mets GM Billy Eppler as a special adviser, according to reports. His formal title will be "Special Advisor, Scouting and Baseball Operations". Eppler returns to baseball after being put on the ineligible list just over 12 months ago due to improper usage of the Injured List placements, including the deliberate fabrication of injuries, while with the Mets. He was set to be demoted by Steve Cohen when Cohen hired former Brewers GM David Stearns to run baseball operations for the Mets, but ended up out of baseball for 12 months due to the suspension by the MLB (which expired at the end of the 2024 World Series).

Eppler isn't the first GM to have played funny buggers with the IL, as some players have openly admitted in the past to being put on the IL while not actually being injured. The clubs can also skirt the rules by announcing more nebulous diagnoses, such as soreness or fatigue, in order to give a struggling player an opportunity to reset while clearing their roster spot for a contributing player for a period of time. Such practices are technically in violation of the rules, but the MLB has not strictly enforced them until Eppler became the focus of an investigation by the MLB in 2023.

Eppler's duties in his new role with the Brewers are not yet clear, but if they are consistent with his formal title with the Brewers, then they would seem to be aligned with his work history with the Mets, Angels and Yankees since 2005. As GM, Eppler has a losing record (508-524) and only made the playoffs once in his time as GM with the Angels and Mets.

 
The Colorado Rockies will lose a piece out of their bullpen for the season, with RHP Jeff Criswell set to undergo Tommy John surgery that will cost him the entirety of the 2025 season and part of the 2026 season, according to a team announcement. Criswell was acquired by the Rockies from the Athletics in December 2022 that saw RHP Chad Smith go in the opposite direction to Oakland. Criswell came to the Rockies as a starting pitcher but was converted into a reliever after struggling with the starting role in Triple-A in 2023. Although his return was not fantastic in Triple-A as a reliever (6.24 ERA in 57 2/3 innings), the Rockies saw enough to give him a shot at the big time and he responded with a 2.75 ERA in 19 2/3 innings in the big leagues, bolstered by a 31% strikeout rate. However, Criswell had been prone to giving up homeruns, having allowed over two homeruns per nine innings in the minors, and giving up four homeruns in his time in the majors.
 
According to reports, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is currently considering a petition filed by the family of Pete Rose to have him posthumously reinstated from the ineligible list. The petition was filed on 8 January after discussions between Rose's daughter, Fawn, the family's legal representatives, and the commissioner's office that occurred on 17 December 2024. The timing of the report is notable given that President Trump posted on social media that he will sign a posthumous pardon for Rose in the coming weeks for the conviction rendered to Rose on tax evasion charges back in 1990.

The pardon would not affect Rose's status on the ineligible list, given that Rose was put on the list in 1989 after it was determined that Rose had bet on baseball, including games in which his team was participating, during his time as manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Rose eventually admitted to gambling on baseball as a manager in 2004, but continued to deny that he bet on baseball while an active player.

Not long after Rose was put on the ineligible list, the Hall of Fame announced that any player suspended from the MLB for life is ineligible to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Accordingly, Rose has never been on a ballot despite having Hall of Fame-worthy numbers (career .303/.375/.409 hitter with the most hits in history and a 79.5 bWAR).

Manfred has reportedly taken the view that placement on the permanently ineligible list is a punishment that ends on the death of the player, so it seems possible that Rose would be reinstated from the ineligible list at some point in the future. However, Manfred has also made it clear that he has no jurisdiction over whether the Hall of Fame would consider Rose for election if he comes off the ineligible list in the future.

Sources: Manfred reviewing bid to reinstate Rose

Commissioner Rob Manfred is considering a petition filed on Jan. 8 by Pete Rose's family to have MLB's all-time hit leader posthumously removed from baseball's ineligible list, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN Saturday.
www.espn.com

Trump Says He Will Posthumously Pardon the Baseball Star Pete Rose

President Trump also repeated his call for Rose, who was banned from the sport for gambling, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
www.nytimes.com

Manfred: Rose's Hall eligibility a separate issue

The Official Site of Major League Baseball
www.mlb.com
 
The Colorado Rockies have reportedly put RHP Justin Lawrence on waivers, without designating him for assignment. Since Lawrence has not been designated for assignment, he is free to continue working out with the Rockies and pitching in Spring Training games until the waiver process has been completed. However, the process is irrevocable, so he will be on a new team if claimed off waivers.

Lawrence has experience across parts of four MLB seasons with the Rockies. He made his MLB debut with Colorado in 2021, and it was not until 2023 that he broke out, when he managed a 3.72 ERA in 75 innings of work while picking up 11 saves for the Rockies. When factoring in that he played his home games at the offence-friendly Coors Field, he put up a 134 ERA+ for the 2023 season, suggesting that he was well above average as a pitcher.

However, Lawrence regressed significantly last season, putting up a 6.49 ERA in 59 2/3 innings, while his walk rate ballooned to 11.8% and his strikeout rate fell to 16.1%. Just four pitchers in the majors had a lower K-BB% than Lawrence, and given the offence-friendly nature of Coors Field that punishes pitchers by inflating BABIP and compressing strand rate, Lawrence managed just a 5.63 FIP, a 6.25 xERA and a 4.73 SIERA.

While Spring Training is not a reliable indicator of future performance, Lawrence notably has struggled so far this pre-season, with three walks and two hit batters against two strikeouts in three innings of work in Spring.

If Lawrence gets through waivers unclaimed, he will remain with the Rockies and could be outrighted off their 40-man roster and put in the minors for depth.

 
The New York Yankees lost OF Juan Soto in free agency last off season and they will be without another slugger, DH Giancarlo Stanton, to start this season, after the Yankees announced that Stanton will begin the season on the IL due to recurring elbow issues in both arms. Stanton has not swung a bat in almost two months due to the issues and received PRP injections in both elbows to try to cure the concerns. Stanton will return to Yankees Spring Training but no timetable for his return to playing has been set at this stage.

Stanton is still due to earn $96 million on the 13 year, $325 million contract he signed with the Marlins back in November 2014, although the Yankees are only required to cover $66 million under the terms of the trade that sent Stanton from Miami to New York in December 2017.

The issue that Stanton and the Yankees will need to manage is that he is essentially a full-time designated hitter at this point in his career, as a litany of leg-related injuries have robbed him of the ability to play in the outfield. Accordingly, Stanton's value to the Yankees is entirely derived from his bat, and he has hit .241/.323/.483 with 162 home runs in 2,776 plate appearances since joining the Yankees. He tends to run hot and cold, with periods of play where he looks like the most dangerous hitter on the planet to someone who barely knows what a bat looks like.

Stanton had a good season with the bat in 2024, hitting .233/.298/.475 with 27 home runs in 459 plate appearances, which translated to a 116 wRC+, notwithstanding the low average and low on base percentage. He then was one of the Yankees best hitters in the postseason, hitting .273/.339/.709 with seven home runs across the postseason, including an ALCS MVP award in the Yankees' five game elimination of the Guardians.

The absence of Stanton from the lineup might be good news for Ben Rice, who filled in for an injured Anthony Rizzo at first base last year and looked like he might be squeezed off the active roster when the Yankees signed Paul Goldschmidt earlier this off-season. Aaron Boone might choose to rotate a number of veterans through the designated hitter role to give them rest days, in which case Rice might find himself playing first base. However, it is also reported that the Yankees have had some discussions with free agent J.D. Martinez, who would have no problems settling in as designated hitter if signed down the track.
 
The Pittsburgh Pirates have successfully claimed RHP Justin Lawrence off waivers from the Colorado Rockies, after the Rockies put Lawrence on waivers over the weekend. Lawrence agreed to a $975,000 salary with Colorado to avoid arbitration, and the Pirates will inherit that deal in the hope that Lawrence can rebound to the form that he showed in 2023 when he saved 11 games and put up 11 holds with a 3.72 ERA. Lawrence's 2023 season was aided by a 48.5% ground-ball rate for the Rockies (an important metric given that fly balls tend to fly in the high altitude of Coors Field), with an average of 95.4mph on his sinker and 83.8 mph on his slider. However, Lawrence lost velocity on both of his main pitches in 2024 and his strikerate fell from 24% to 16.1% in 2024, and his walk rate of 11% in 2023 climbed to 11.8% in 2024.

Like many pitchers, Lawrence has been victimised by playing home games at Coors Field, with a combined ERA of 6.69 in 2023-2024 at Coors Field and 2.98 ERA on the road. The Pirates will hope that the away splits are the true reflection of Lawrence's ability as a late inning reliever.

Lawrence is out of options so is a virtual lock to make the Opening Day roster for the Pirates, unless he suffers an injury. He will need to earn a spot in high leverage situations with the Pirates, with the Pirates hoping that closer David Bednar can return from a poor 2024, while Colin Holderman, Dennis Santana and Carmen Mlodzinski are all likely to play a role in setting up.



To create a roster spot for Lawrence, the Pirates put RHP Johan Oviedo on the 60-day IL. Oviedo underwent Tommy John surgery in November 2023 and missed all of 2024, but it was assumed that Oviedo would be back pitching in 2025 and nothing from the Pirates suggested he would be unavailable to pitch. According to the Pirates manager, Derek Shelton, Oviedo has gone on the IL to deal with a "lat issue" that arose during a recent bullpen session.

This weakens the options for the Pirates with respect to their starting pitching. RHP Paul Skenes, RHP Jared Jones and RHP Mitch Keller are locked in to the top three slots in the rotation, while recently signed LHP Andrew Heaney figures to take on the fourth starter role. Oviedo and LHP Bailey Falter were competing for the fifth spot in the rotation (or were going to be the fifth and sixth starters, depending if the Pirates mimicked other teams and decided to go to a six-man rotation).

 

Mega Thread 2024-2025 MLB Hot Stove


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