MLB Player News

The surprise here is that all three are ranked outside MLB Pipeline’s top 30 in Detroit’s system at the moment. They’ll all be guarded from selection in next month’s Rule 5 Draft.

Sato has also been linked to the Phillies, Diamondbacks, and Mets, among others. The 27-year-old figures to move into the outfield as an MLB player, which could work for the Rangers given the injuries to Evan Carter, who had surgery this offseason. Sammon points out that “to create the payroll flexibility for Sato, the Rangers almost certainly would need to move one of their high-salaried players,” so there are a few hurdles in the way of making this happen.

DeLuca is under team control for three more seasons and is coming off a year where he hit .266/.300/.429 with 11 home runs and 17 steals. He is also a strong defender in center field, but he has battled injuries in his career and has never had more than 370 plate appearances in a season. Mesa Jr. broke out for the Rays in the second half this season, is younger, and hits left-handed, which gives him a leg up in the competition with DeLuca.

Nimmala came over from the Blue Jays at the trade deadline as part of a trade for Jose Soriano. He hit .263/.372/.492 with 16 home runs and seven steals in 89 games, split between both organizations, and began the year in Single-A for the Blue Jays before playing 23 games at High-A and 27 at Double-A prior to the trade. The 21-year-old is now thriving in the Arizona Fall League, but the Angels have Zach Neto entrenched at shortstop in MLB. Mozeliak also preached patience when talking about Nimmala, suggesting that the Angels have previously been too quick to promote their prospects. If the new front office listens, that might mean that we don’t see Nimmala at the MLB level until sometime over the summer.

He was also All-MLB First Team DH, and he’s the clear favorite to be named AL MVP on Thursday. We hope he cleared a shelf. His NL counterpart for the Hank Aaron Award was Pete Crow-Armstrong, while Zack Wheeler got NL Comeback Player of the year.

After taking a one-year deal with a mutual option from the Cardinals last winter, May seems in better position to command a two- or three-year pact this time around. He certainly wasn’t great in posting a 4.70 ERA for the Brewers and Cardinals, but he was able to stay healthy and make 31 starts and his velocity and strikeout rate both ticked up.

Hill, who turns 37 in February, generates grounders as well as anyone in the league, but he is coming off a season in which his ERA jumped to 4.60 and his strikeout rate fell to a career-low 10.4 percent. The Yankees didn’t even include him on their ALDS roster for the series against the Rays. He will come fairly cheap, though.

“I think there’s an emphasis (for Adames) to really structure his workouts to increase his athletic movements,” Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey said. “The way I’m thinking is less bulky muscle mass and a little bit more -- still explosive -- but twitchy and helping with the range.” That’s probably the right call for the Giants; they need Adames’ defense to bounce back even more than they do his offense. It probably doesn’t bode well for Adames making another run at 30 homers, though.

Bohm probably makes more sense as a first baseman on a lesser team than for whatever the Yankees might have in mind here. He doesn’t work as a third baseman on a team that wants to improve defensively, and while he’d probably be fine as a platoon starter at first base against lefties, it seems doubtful that he’ll need to settle for that kind of role just yet.

Cristopher Sánchez finished second, a mere one point ahead of Chris Sale. Sánchez got six more second-place votes than Sale (17-11), but only three voters listed Sale lower than third, compared to seven for Sánchez. Behind Sánchez at 99 points and Sale at 98 were Yoshinobu Yamamoto at 63 points and Jesús Luzardo at 34. Mason Miller (four fifth-place votes) and Eduardo Rodriguez (two fifth-place votes) were the only other pitchers named on ballots. Misiorowski joins Rollie Fingers (1981), Pete Vukovich (1982) and Corbin Burnes (2021) as Brewers to win the Cy Young Award. Fingers and Vukovich, though, got the AL version of the award before the Brewers switched leagues in 1988.

Miller was an easy call here after posting a 1.67 ERA and striking out a whopping 129 batters on his way to tying for the NL lead with 38 saves. Jhoan Duran was the runnerup for the inaugural edition of the award, placing second on 24 ballots and third on the rest. Trevor Megill barely topped Adrian Morejon for third place, beating him 66 points to 64 even though Morejon had more second place (4-2) and third-place votes (12-11). Alas, five voters couldn’t overlook his lack of saves and left him off their ballots entirely. Raisel Iglesias was a distant fifth at 17 points.