MLB Player News

The 25-year-old hurler inked a two-year, $4.5 million contract in early January after a run as one of the top closers in the Korea Baseball Organization. He struggled in Cactus League action though — posting a 12.46 ERA, 2.31 WHIP and a 5/2 K/BB ratio across 4 1/3 innings. He’ll get an opportunity to pitch out of the big league bullpen soon enough, they just want to get him back on track first.

Nogowski’s major league action came in 2020 and ’21, when he hit .233/.299/.308 in 53 games for the Cardinals and Pirates. It’s funny that his first job is with the Mets, given that he’s best known for trading words with Marcus Stroman and touching off a little brouhaha in a Pirates-Mets game in 2021. A right-handed-hitting first baseman with a history of nice OBPs, the Florida State product didn’t offer quite enough power to stick, but he still far exceeded expectations for a guy drafted in the 34th round in 2012.

This is the countermove for the Gus Varland waiver claim. Adams was thought to be a non-tender candidate two months ago, but the Nationals wanted him back as a reserve catcher option and signed him to a cheap one-year deal. He’ll probably clear waivers and stick around as a potential backup to Keibert Ruiz. He presumably would be squeezed out if Harry Ford makes the team.

Mayza missed much of last season with a lat strain, posting a 2.89 ERA in 9 1/3 innings for the Pirates before the injury and a 4.91 ERA in 7 1/3 innings for the Phillies after being picked up for the stretch run. The 34-year-old lefty has a career 3.87 ERA in 382 relief appearances. He figures to have a difficult time making the Phillies out of spring training.

The Mariners made a mistake last winter in failing to secure starting pitching depth behind their vaunted rotation, but it didn’t wind up hurting them much, as Emerson Hancock and Logan Evans were able to hold their own in their 31 starts. Dunning will add to their alternatives this year after a bumpy 2025 in which he was let go by the Rangers and was limited to 12 relief appearances in the majors. The 31-year-old has a career 4.44 ERA in 102 starts and 34 relief appearances, most of those coming with Texas.

It’s a little surprising McCormick couldn’t get a guaranteed deal, given that there were so few free agent outfielders available capable of handling center field. Still, he has a clear path to a roster spot on the Cubs. McCormick started out strong with the Astros in 2021, putting together three nice years as a semi-regular before struggling and missing times the last two seasons. The 30-year-old is a lifetime .247/.321/.413 hitter, though he’s at .211/.273/.301 in 383 plate appearances since the beginning of 2024. He should be the Cubs’ fourth outfielder, unless Matt Shaw perhaps overtakes him.

Gore’s career 4.19 ERA went mostly unchanged last season, but he did seem to take a step forward with his 27.2% strikeout rate while being held back by one of the game’s worst defenses and, in particular, one of its worst catching situations. Things will get quite a bit better in Texas, which offers the additional perk of boasting one of the game’s toughest ballparks for right-handed hitters to homer in the last two years. If it holds up — and it may not, as Globe Life Field really has been all over the map since opening in 2020 — it’s a particularly good match for a flyball lefty in Gore. He’ll join Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi atop the Rangers rotation, with Jack Leiter as the heavy favorite for the fourth spot and likely Jacob Latz and Kumar Rocker competing for the fifth spot. The Rangers will pay him $5.8 million this year, and he’ll also be under control for 2027 before becoming a free agent.

Fien is on the move a mere six months after the Rangers made him the 12th overall pick in the 2025 draft. He played just 10 games afterwards, batting .220/.267/.341 in Low-A. Prior to the draft, he was often connected with the Red Sox, who picked 15th, making it no surprise that the Nationals, now being run by former Red Sox scouting VP Paul Toboni, targeted him here. Fien isn’t a lock to last at shortstop, but he has an advanced offensive approach that should make him a regular somewhere in the infield a few years from now. He just might not quite offer All-Star-type upside.

The switch-hitting Fitz-Gerald, a teammate of Roman Anthony in high school in Florida, missed the end of last season but impressed with a .318/.423/.542 line in 31 games in Rookie ball. He opened the season sharing time between second, third and short, but the Rangers had committed to him at short just before injury struck. Between 2025 first-rounders Eli Willits and Gavin Fien and 2024 picks Seaver King (10th overall), Luke Dickerson (second round) and Fitz-Gerald, the Nationals are truly loaded with infield prospects, though none figure to contribute this year.

Seemingly a fifth-round steal out of Miami in the 2023 draft, Rosario blossomed in his first year as a pro and looked like someone who might help the Rangers last year until he injured his elbow early in spring training. Expectations then were that he’d undergo surgery, but that didn’t happen for reasons that were never really disclosed. Nationals president Paul Toboni said today that Rosario will finally undergo Tommy John within the next few weeks, which would rule him out for 2026 and likely cost him part of 2027. So, he’s a wild card at this point, but hopefully he’ll reemerge. He was probably one of the game’s top 20 pitching prospects a year ago.

Ortiz, who turns 24 next month, is the one guy the Nationals picked up here with a chance of offering some fantasy value in deep formats this year. The left-handed batter hit .257/.356/.479 with 25 homers between Double- and Triple-A last season, and while about two-thirds of that was Double-A, he actually fared much better in Triple-A (.283/.388/.565 in 41 games). Odds are that he’ll fall a little short of becoming a quality long-term option as a first baseman against right-handers, but time will tell. He should begin this year in Triple-A, but there isn’t much standing in his way if he impresses.