Royals ship Matthew Lugo to Triple-A

The 27-year-old Young passed his physical, and the $23 million deal, which buys out his first and potentially his second year of free agency, is now official. Young would have been eligible for arbitration for the first time after hitting .252/.318/.390 with 10 homers and 18 steals in 471 plate appearances last season. That’s twice as many homers as he had in 1,006 career plate appearances coming into the year, and that he’s improved his bat speed and technique some suggests it’s no fluke. He probably won’t gain too much more offensively, but he figures to remain an excellent defender for the length of the deal.

Ramos has regressed since reaching Triple-A at age 22 in 2024; he had a .755 OPS in the White Sox system that season, but he fell to .705 in 2025 and .646 with the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate last season. He’s still pretty young, having played last season at age 24, but he doesn’t have much else working in his favor right now.

All three are left-handed hitters, but unfortunately for a Phillies team that would like to have a power bat to put in between Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, there just aren’t any right-handed equivalents out there. The Phillies apparently see Sato as a right fielder if they do sign him. They have third base open, and Sato has considerably more experience at the hot corner than in the outfield. Still, the popular consensus seems to be that he’d be more helpful as an outfielder.

Following one year in Japan, Espada got into one game with the Orioles each of the last two seasons, throwing a total of four scoreless innings. He had a 2.77 ERA and a 49/27 K/BB in 48 2/3 innings for Triple-A Norfolk last season.

They’ve also checked in on Alex Vesia and Tim Hill, according to The Athletic’s Will Sammon. Raley, 38, had a 1.96 ERA in 45 appearances for the Mets before being traded to Philadelphia at the deadline. There, the double agent gave up four homers posted a 7.94 ERA in 11 1/3 innings and then was left off the Wild Card roster.

After getting off to a tough start with the Mets, the 38-year-old Kimbrel was decent in stints with the Rays (3.86 ERA in 18 2/3 innings) and Royals (3.65 ERA in 12 1/3 innings) last season. That he has just one save the last two years means his dream of getting to 500 is dead; he’s currently 59 away. He’s just doing it for the love of the game at this point.

Toronto’s payroll has doubled over the last five years, jumping into the top five in the league the last two. The Jays will need to go far higher still to land Skubal, but they did gain some room with the long-term deals of Kevin Gausman and George Springer now off the books. Skubal is also currently slated to meet with the Mets, Dodgers and Padres.

Martin originally intended to retire following the 2025 season, but he opted to re-sign with the Rangers for his age-40 campaign, which turned out to be a bust. Martin battled shoulder issues and had a 9.00 ERA in 14 innings before being released in August and finishing the year out of the league. Martin often had issues staying healthy, didn’t make his MLB debut until his age-28 season in 2014, spent 2016 and ’17 in Japan, but he wound up making 434 major league appearances with a 3.53 ERA and a 409/55 K/BB ratio. He never walked more than eight batters in a season, and in fact, both of his seasons with eight walks had three of those being intentional. Martin also had a 1.88 ERA in 16 postseason appearances and helped the Braves win the World Series in 2021. His 3.3 percent walk rate is the lowest among all pitchers to throw 400 innings since 1920.

Atkins would not commit to Miles being a member of the rotation or bullpen, but it’s noteworthy that he mentioned growing Miles’ workload after the 26-year-old pitched 95 2/3 innings this season. It would seem that the only real way to grow that workload would be a move to the rotation. Miles posted a 2.73 ERA and 1.10 WHIP across his innings this season, but that came with just a nine percent swinging strike rate and a 17.6 percent strikeout-minus-walk ratio. He has a four-pitch mix that would work in the rotation, but his strikeout rate was much higher against righties, so he may need to tweak some of his approach if he’s going to be a meaningful fantasy starter.

Jeffers was extended a qualifying offer at the beginning of the month, but the Twins would like to bring Jeffers back on a multi-year deal. The team is “allowing Jeffers to see what else is out there” on the free agent market, but they hope to be able to match or beat what he is offered. While the Twins would like to bring Jeffers back, it’s hard to see them giving him too many years after they selected Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey with the third pick in the 2026 draft and then used their second-round pick on Carson Tinney. The Twins also acquired catching prospects Eduardo Tait and Enrique Jimenez at the 2025 trade deadline, so they have plenty of catching prospects in their pipeline.