7:59 AM EDT, Fri March 29, 2024
Pinstripe Alley

NYY News: Soto feeling right at home

Photo by Tim Warner/ Soto feels right at home with the Yankees and knows what he wants from free agent contract; Cole officially placed on 60-day IL; Top pitching prospect Hampton shut down with UCL sprain ESPN | David Schoenfield: The Yankees completed a thrilling come from behind 5-4 victory over the Astros on Opening Day in no small part thanks to Juan Soto, who had an RBI single, two walks, and threw out the tying run at the plate in the ninth. Ahead of first pitch, manager Aaron Boone shared that Soto is already feeling “at home” in his new clubhouse,...

AZ Snake Pit

Series Preview #1: Diamondbacks vs. Rockies

Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post The trip back to the World Series begins NOW The Diamondbacks have had an incredible off season, arguably the best since they signed a certain left-handed hall of famer. With the addition of Jordon Montgomery, they added three of the top fifteen free agents, and strengthened a team that was already play off proven. Even with the injuries they are already facing, this is a strong team and will compete against the best in the league. On the other hand, you have the Rockies. They went 59-103 last season and in response did......

Amazin Avenue

An updated vibe check on the 2024 Mets

Rich Storry-USA TODAY Sports How are we feeling about the 2024 Mets now that the season is about to start? Back in mid-February, we collected our feelings about the 2024 Mets and put them in a post. But with spring training in the books, Opening Day just about upon us, Kodai Senga starting the year on the injured list, and J.D. Martinez signed and coming soon as the team’s regular DH, we thought we’d take our collective baseball temperature again. Allison McCague In the February vibe check, I lamented how many free agents who could help the Mets remained unsigned...

Royals Review

Royals Review Roundtable: The 2024 season

Photo by Julio Aguilar/ Our writers discuss the off-season and expectations for this year. After one of the busier off-seasons in recent Royals history, the 2024 regular season is finally here! The Royals spent over $100 million on free agents, adding infielder Adam Frazier and Garrett Hampson, outfielder Hunter Renfroe, starting pitchers Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, and relievers Will Smith and Chris Stratton, as well as trading for relievers Nick Anderson and John Schreiber. But all that was overshadowed by a long-term deal for star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., giving...

Camden Chat

Orioles position preview: Outfield

Photo by Scott Taetsch/ There hasn’t been nearly as much change here as anticipated, and that might be a good thing for 2024. Heading into the offseason, many speculated that changes could be coming to the Orioles’ outfield. The old guard of Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays, and Anthony Santander was getting more expensive and inching closer to free agency. Meanwhile, a batch of talented youngsters appeared ready to burst onto the big league scene and take on everyday roles. Maybe it was time to pass the torch. Instead, O’s GM Mike Elias stood firm. Rather than...

AZ Snake Pit

Surveying the Diamondbacks landscape after the Jordan Montgomery signing

Photo by Harry How/ That was unexpected. There had been rumblings about the D-backs being among the suitors for the services of Jordan Montgomery. But with the team payroll already at an all-time high, these seemed to be implausible rumors. I mean, MLB Trade Rumors had him the #6 free agent on the market this winter, projecting a six year, $150 million contract for the Scott Boras client. But like other Boras clients, the market was badly misjudged by the agent, and the pitcher remained unemployed. Now, two days before Opening Day, Montgomery has become the last...

AZ Snake Pit

Snake Bytes 3/27: The Diamondbacks Did a Thing

Photo by Christian Petersen/ Who had the Diamondbacks signing three of the top 15 free agents from this winter? Diamondbacks News Diamondbacks to Sign Jordan MontgomeryTo address the issues created by the losses of Eduardo Rodriguez and Paul Sewald, the Arizona Diamondbacks went big, signing one of the best pitchers in this year’s free agent market to a short-term deal. Left-hander, Jordan Montgomery will slot into the Arizona rotation for the 2024 season and can vest a player option by making just 10 starts. The overall cost could max out around two years and $50...

Amazin Avenue

Alex Ramirez needs more time

Photo by Jared Blais/MLB Photos via The speedy outfielder looks to improve his bat in 2024. Before the Mets sent most of their tradable players elsewhere at the 2023 trade deadline, Alex Ramirez was a much more important piece in the Mets’ system. An international free agent who got a $2.05 million signing bonus, Ramirez is an athletic, speedy outfield prospect who has not played above Single-A Brooklyn. He’s also very, very young. Having just turned 21, Ramirez is still very much a work in progress, and very much an unknown. After an impressive 2022 season, split...

Bleed Cubbie Blue

Outside The Confines: Play Ball!

Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Jordan Montgomery is a Snake at last. Decisions are made concerning who makes the Opening Day rosters. Looking ahead to the 2024 season and other news from MLB. I’m not going to have any Shohei Ohtani links today. I think we’ve covered that story well enough in other pieces on this site. If you have read something that you really think the rest of us should take a look at, feel free to share it with us in the comments. Free agent lefty Jordan Montgomery has signed a one-year, $25 million deal with the Diamondbacks. There is...

www.thegoodphight.com

2024 season preview: Analysis of offseason moves across the National League East

Chris Sale is one of the bigger names to join the East in 2024 | Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports Not a lot of marquee additions to the division this year The Phillies haven’t had the most exciting offseason, mostly concentrating on retaining or extending their own players rather than bringing in new players via free agency or the trade market. If you were frustrated by that lack of action and were concerned that their division rivals have been busy closing the gap between them - or in the case of the Braves, widening the gap (in the regular season, at least) - I have...

www.ocregister.com

Dodgers’ Will Smith agrees to multi-year contract extension

The catcher, whose deal could be as long as 10 years, had one more year of arbitration eligibility left and could've become a free agent after the 2025 season

DRaysBay

Tampa Bay Rays 2024 Spring Training Leaders

Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via It was a Spring to remember for some; for others a Spring to forget After six grueling agonizingly long weeks, Spring Training is mercifully over. The highly anticipated yet quickly yawn inducing schedule of about 30 exhibition games has reached its conclusion with the Rays and Tigers playing to a 3-3 tie on Tuesday afternoon. All of the meaningless statistics that will forever grace analytical websites will be the only thing to actually show that any games were played. Random minor league free agents, the occasional top...

NESN.com

Revisiting Potential Red Sox Direction After Jordan Montgomery Decision

The Boston Red Sox entered the offseason with the potential to spend big on free-agent pitchers to upgrade the rotation and set up the chance for contention in 2024. The lone addition ended up being Lucas Giolito, who had previously been as durable as any starter in the league before suffering a season-ending elbow injury. […]

New York Post

Jordan Montgomery agrees to contract with Diamondbacks to end long free agency

Jordan Montgomery has finally finally found a new home — and it's not New York.

Over the Monster

OTM Open Thread 3/27: It is Wednesday

Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/ Baseball returns tomorrow (barely) Happy Wednesday. Well, after months of speculation and countless MLB insiders projecting Jordan Montgomery to the Red Sox the last big name pitcher on the market has signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks. For potentially a one-year deal. Free-agent left-hander Jordan Montgomery in agreement with Diamondbacks, pending physical. Deal will pay him $25M this season, includes vesting player option for second year. First with agreement: @JeffPassan— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 27,...

Pinstripe Alley

Yankees news: Monty makes his move

Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Judge to make children’s show appearance; Monty signs with D-backs; Gonzalez fractures orbital bone; Johnson the photographer; Yanks rotation looks average without Cole ESPN | Jeff Passan: The final big free agent domino has fallen. Former Yankees southpaw Jordan Montgomery has reportedly signed a one-year, $25 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks that includes a second-year player option for $20 million if he makes at least 10 starts in 2024. There are escalators for the value of the option based on how much he exceeds that...

Lone Star Ball

Initial minor league rosters announced

Photo by Ric Tapia/Icon Sportswire via The Rangers have released the initial rosters for their four full season minor league affiliates The Texas Rangers have announced the minor league rosters for the start of 2024 for their full season affiliates. The AAA roster includes both the Duffys — Matt and Danny — even though Matt opted out of his deal a few days ago. Other free agent NRIs who are listed with Round Rock include Andrew Knapp, Chasen Shreve, Jesus Tinoco, Shane Greene, Adrian Sampson, Blake Taylor, Sandro Fabian, Derek Hill and Elier Hernandez. Grant...

MASN: School of Roch

Kemp settles in with new team, reunited with Irvin

Infielder Tony Kemp didn’t have a team to play for Sunday and decided to join a close friend at a baby shower in Indiana. Hang out for a while. Take his mind away from being in professional limbo after the Reds granted his release and put him back on the free agent market.Kemp was headed to the party destination when his agent called to notify him of the Orioles’ interest, that the sides had engaged in talks. A deal seemed imminent.“Once we heard about it, we were pretty excited,” he said.The Orioles have signed Kemp to a major league contract that pays $1 million, and he’s at this...

Bluebird Banter

Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-Man: Yosver Zulueta

Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/ Yosver Zulueta is a 26-year-old right-handed pitcher from Cuba (and the last on our run through the 40-man roster until they make some changes in the next couple of days). He signed as an international free agent and received $1,000,000 from the Jays in 2019. In November 2022, he was added to the Jays' 40-man roster. Zulueta is missing much of the playing time we would like to see when judging a player. Soon after signing with the Jays, he missed playing time after needing Tommy John surgery. Then, there was the cancelled minor league season due...

Royals Review

What to know about Royals Opening Day

Photo by LG Patterson/MLB Photos via Baseball begins Thursday! Baseball season is back and Royals fans have reason to be hopeful for the first time in several years with a legit MVP candidate in Bobby Witt Jr., a Cy Young Award candidate in Cole Ragans, and one of the bigger spending sprees in free agency this off-season. The Royals will begin the 2024 season on Thursday, March 28 at 3:10 CT against the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium. Here’s what you need to know about Opening Day. Team Workout First, there will be a team workout open to the public at Kauffman...

New York Post

Ranking MLB’s top 10 potential 2024-25 free agents

The Post predicts who the 10 biggest contracts next offseason will go to.

Amazin Avenue

Grading the Mets’ J.D. Martinez signing

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Yet another one-year deal with upside that fills a clear hole on the roster. In a move that will almost certainly serve as the capstone to the Mets’ offseason, the team signed J.D. Martinez to a 1-year, $12M deal. Martinez, 36, was one of a handful of high-quality free agents left out in the cold until this point of the offseason despite a strong 2023 showing with the Dodgers. The contract he finally settled for comes with significant deferrals; Martinez will make only $4.5M in 2024, with the remaining $7.5M deferred until...

Pinstripe Alley

2024 Preview: Nationals

Photo by Rich Storry/ The Nats look to improve as they battle in a tough NL East. The fates have not been too kind to the Nationals ever since they won the 2019 World Series over the Astros. They understandably reupped with the MVP of that series, Stephen Strasburg, but he’s only thrown just over 30 combined innings in the several years since. They lost another one of the stars of that team in free agency in Anthony Rendon, even though letting him go has been the right move. Patrick Corbin undoubtedly helped them to that title, but he’s been one of the worst...

Pinstripe Alley

NYY News: Gil vs. Warren

Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via It’s down to Luis Gil and Will Warren for the final rotation spot; the Mexico trip roster; an interview with Austin Wells; NY free agents with most at stake in 2024 NJ.com | Max Goodman: Ever since the injury to Gerrit Cole’s elbow was revealed, the biggest story at the Yankees spring training facility has been the competition for the fifth spot in the starting rotation. Although a slew of arms had been in the running, it seems to have become a two-horse race with just a few days to go: Luis Gil, the young starter who has...

Bluebird Banter

Happy Birthday: Dustin McGowan and Dirk Hayhurst

Photo by Abelimages/ Two of my favourites have birthdays today. Dustin McGowan turns 42 today. Dustin was a first-round pick back in 2000, 33rd overall. Although not the Blue Jays’ first first-round pick, we had the number 18 pick that year, and we chose Miguel Negron, an outfielder who never made the majors, having a career line of .263/.326/.358 in 1019 minor league games. Dustin was a supplemental pick for the loss of free agent Graeme Lloyd. Dustin was doing well in the minors until needing Tommy John surgery early in the 2003 season. The Jays called Dustin up at...

Pinstripe Alley

2024 Preview: Rangers

Photo by Christian Petersen/ The defending World Series champs look to run it back in the West. We, as fans of baseball, should be happy about what the Texas Rangers did in 2023. Over the few seasons leading up to their World Series win, they were not exactly in the traditional win-now position, but there were good players available in free agency, so they paid some money, and guess what? Those very same players helped lead them to the franchise’s first World Series victory in just a few seasons. The Rangers roster in 2024 is mostly the same as the one that hoisted...

MASN: Mark Zuckerman

Wood, Crews, House among cuts; Davies is released

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals moved a step closer to finalizing their Opening Day roster this afternoon, cutting nine players from big league camp, including top prospects James Wood, Dylan Crews and Brady House.Wood, Crews and House were reassigned to minor league camp, along with lefties Richard Bleier and Joe La Sorsa; infielder Juan Yepez, outfielder Robert Hassell III and catcher Israel Pineda. Zach Davies was granted his unconditional release, making the veteran right-hander a free agent and seemingly keeping the Nats’ rotation intact heading into the season.The demotions of...

MLB.com FastCast: Tigers sign Josh Harrison - 2/20/19

The baseball world's attention focuses on Bryce Harper's free agency, plus Josh Harrison agrees to a one-year deal with the Tigers About Major League Baseball: Major League Baseball (MLB) is the most historic professional sports league in the United Stat

Adam Pellerin and Nick Cafardo break down Red Sox Spring Training

NESN's Adam Pellerin and Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo analyze Matt Barnes as a closer, Craig Kimbrel's future and what moves the Red Sox could make with different free agents around the MLB.

MLB.com FastCast: Angels sign closer Allen - 1/18/19

The Angels add free-agent closer Cody Allen, Avisail Garcia officially joins the Rays, plus the Manny Machado rumor mill keeps churning About Major League Baseball: Major League Baseball (MLB) is the most historic professional sports league in the United