MLB Player News

Aoyagi will have a 45-day window to negotiate a contract with big-league teams. The 30-year-old side-winding righty posted a 3.69 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and 35/21 K/BB ratio across 61 innings last year in the Pacific League. Given his underwhelming strikeout totals, he’s unlikely to make an impact for fantasy purposes. He’ll likely have to settle for a minor league contract, if he’s set on coming over from Japan.

“Wherever we can get his bat in the lineup, that’s what we’re going to try to do. And we want to find a spot for him where he can be productive for the Padres, and there’s a lot of different places that I think he can fit,” newly-minted Padres skipper Craig Stammen told reporters earlier this week. He also floated the possibility of Song seeing time in the outfield, a notable wrinkle given that the 29-year-old spent most of the past few seasons in Korea at third base. The 29-year-old appears primed for a versatile super-utility role, which modestly boosts his fantasy appeal — particularly in deeper mixed leagues. He’s a challenging hitter to forecast for fantasy purposes but projecting double-digit homers and steals doesn’t seem outlandish.

Higgins is merely emergency organizational catching depth for the Reds entering his age 32 campaign. The well-traveled backstop has spent the past two seasons at Triple-A Louisville and hasn’t appeared in the majors since the 2022 campaign when he got into 74 games for the Cubs. He adds some additional insurance behind Tyler Stephenson and Jose Trevino.

Cabrera heads to Philadelphia to compete for a bullpen spot in spring training after being jettisoned from the Twins’ 40-man roster last month. The 29-year-old southpaw spent time with four different teams this past season, including the Mets, Cubs, Pirates and Twins, posting an underwhelming 6.54 ERA — 6.56 FIP — and 35/18 K/BB ratio across 42 2/3 innings over 42 2/3 innings this past season. He’s made 312 appearances in the big leagues dating back to 2019.

San Francisco’s front office continues throwing metaphorical darts at various left-handed relief options in the hopes that one of them pans out in spring training. Margevicius last appeared in the majors during the 2021 season, which is a half-decade ago at this juncture, and holds a lackluster 6.12 ERA — 5.12 FIP — across 110 1/3 innings over 32 appearances (22 starts) since 2019. He recorded a respectable 3.89 ERA — 3.60 FIP — and 22 percent strikeout rate across 74 innings at the Triple-A level this past season.

Bleday was very good for the Athletics back 2024, hitting .243/.324/.437 as their primary center fielder, but that’s the only real success he’s enjoyed in four seasons as a major leaguer. Overall, the 28-year-old former top-five pick has come in at .215/.307/.394 in 1,527 plate appearances. He figures to compete with Will Benson for one spot on Cincinnati’s roster. In a best-case scenario, he could be a starter against righties, but he’d have to earn it and there isn’t much reason to think he will.

The 6-foot-4, 285-pound Baker has appeared in 73 games for the Cardinals over the last three seasons, hitting .206/.317/.338 with four homers in 189 plate appearances. He’s batting .250/.347/.508 with 104 homers in 414 career games in Triple-A, which is where he’ll probably open up next season. With his power and ample walk rate, it still seems possible that he could contribute on the short side of a platoon in the majors, but he might be running out of chances.

The 30-year-old Kolozsvary has played in 11 major league games: 10 with the Reds in 2022 and one with the Orioles in 2023. He’s spent the last two years in the Red Sox system, missing big chunks of both seasons due to injury. Overall, he’s played in 121 Triple-A games over parts of five seasons, hitting .194/.209/.338 in 407 plate appearances. He’ll enter camp no higher than fourth on the Phillies’ catching depth chart.

If you’ve heard of Braswell, it’s probably from seeing him at third base on LSU’s College World Series-winning club over the summer. He went undrafted after hitting just .189/.309/.270 as a Senior, but he’s trying his hand at pitching for the first time since making seven relief appearances as a Freshman at South Carolina in 2022. It’s unclear at the moment whether the Royals will develop him as a starter or as a reliever.

Couldn’t have saved this until tomorrow, eh? Soderstrom looked like trade bait after Nick Kurtz pushed him off first base, but he adapted to left field much better than anyone would have expected and it seems like he’ll be just fine there for the long term. He also broke through offensively in hitting .276/.346/.474 at age 23, and while the ballpark switch helped there, he actually fared better in road games than at home (.837 OPS to .804). Soderstrom would have been eligible for arbitration for the first time after next season and free agency following 2029. Passan says the new deal could make out at $131 million over eight years.

Chavis opened last season by hitting .291/.350/.547 with 13 homers in 63 games for the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, which led to some Japanese interest. However, upon joining Chunichi in July, he hit just .171/.267/.352 in 38 games. The 30-year-old is a lifetime .238/.283/.401 hitter in 1,186 major league plate appearances, the last of which came with the Nationals in 2023.