MLB Player News

Rooker smacked his 20th homer in the fifth with a two-run shot off Kevin Gausman. He also doubled for the 22nd time, and that two-bagger drove in a run to up his RBI total to 54. Rooker will be on display in the Home Run Derby, but there’s still one more game before that event to add to his impressive totals.

Marino reported that “Jonah Tong’s name briefly came up in talks with the Brewers about Freddy Peralta before the Mets quickly ended that discussion.” The Mets then rejected a follow-up offer that was Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams for Peralta. Given that Peralta is a free agent at the end of the upcoming season, it makes sense that the Mets may not want to deal one of their top prospect who could have multiple years of value; however, it feels likely that some team will be willing to do that to acquire Peralta.

Rosenthal reports that Tucker’s decision to sign with the Dodgers was “a boiling point” for owners, who are also upset about the Mets’ deal with Bo Bichette. Rosenthal suggests that “the Dodgers and Mets might be the only teams that will try to stand in the way of a cap.” The Dodgers project to have a payroll over $400 million again in 2026, but only three other teams are likely to have a payroll over $300 million, which highlights the disparity that many are worried about. Nothing is confirmed yet, but it seems painstakingly clear that we are headed for another MLB lockout.

The deal was reported last week and is now official. Suárez is a groundball-heavy pitcher with tremendous control, which is a profile that should age well. Obviously, the team will hope to get his fastball velocity trending back up, but Suárez should fit nicely alongside Garrett Crochet and Sonny Gray at the top of a rotation with both talent and experience. It remains to be seen what the Red Sox will now do with their rotation, which appears to have far more candidates than it has free spaces.

The Twins just claimed Bruján off waivers from the Braves last week, but he will now be waived to make room for Tristan Gray, who was acquired from the Red Sox this morning. Gray is a superior defender to Bruján and potentially fits better as a utility infielder.

At the Cardinals’ Winter Warm-Up, Graceffo mentioned that he will be moving to the bullpen full-time and has been focusing on being more intentional with his attack plan since he no longer needs to plan for five or more innings of work. One of those changes has been adding a kick-change that will help make him less fastball-dominant. It will be interesting to see how the new role and pitch impact his success. Graceffo is just 25 years old and the Cardinals don’t have many established starting options, so there’s a chance he could pitch himself back into the rotation.

The Red Sox needed to free up a 40-man roster spot to sign Ranger Suarez, so they will swap Gray for yet another catching prospect. Baez was the Twins’ 12th-round pick in 2022 and hit .278/.371/.423 in 96 games between High-A and Double-A in 2025 with eight home runs and 54 RBI. The 24-year-old has a good approach at the plate with solid pull-side power and played all over the field at Arizona State, which gives him a little bit more value.

The Red Sox acquired Gray from the Rays in November, but they now need a 40-man roster spot to sign Ranger Suarez officially, so Gray will land in Minnesota. The 29-year-old is a good defender at multiple infield positions, but hit .207/.264/.369 in 122 plate appearances over three seasons with the Rays. He may fulfill the role in Minnesota that Willi Castro left behind, but he won’t bring near the same offensive value.

Robert has been largely ineffective the last two years and has quite the injury history, but he’s 28, he’s a legit center fielder and he has a career 111 OPS+. This is definitely worth a shot for the Mets, who will be responsible for paying $22 million for one year or $40 million for two. They’ll presumably handle him better than a White Sox organization that mostly expected position players to play through injury. Tyrone Taylor had topped the Mets’ depth chart in center, but now he’ll serve as the fourth outfielder he’s meant to be. He’ll presumably be on the short side of a platoon with Brett Baty in left initially, assuming the Carson Benge now starts off in Triple-A. With Acuña, who was out of options, departing, Ronny Mauricio seems poised for a utility role.

This doesn’t seem like a sufficient return, but the White Sox obviously didn’t want to pay Robert $20 million this year. Acuña sort of held his own as a 23-year-old in the majors last season, hitting .234/.293/.274 in 193 plate appearances. He’s intriguing defensively at several key positions, he runs very well, he has decent plate discipline and he’s not entirely absent of power. It seems like a utility profile, but given that he’s just turning 24 in March, there’s some hope for him as a regular, perhaps in center field. He’ll probably battle Derek Hill, Tristan Peters and Everson Pereira for that spot in spring training. Pauley, a 2025 12th-rounder out of Harvard, allowed one run in four innings in his pro debut last season.

The Mets will take on Robert’s $20 million salary for 2026 and his $2 million buyout of his 2027 club option, also worth $20 million. In return, they’re getting a center fielder with plenty of upside, but one who has a .660 OPS while spending about one-third of the last two seasons on the IL. We’d still do this all day long if we were the Mets. Acuña is out of options and seems more like a very good utilityman than a solid regular. Pauley was the Mets’ 12th-round pick last year. That the White Sox would invest in Munetaka Murakami only to cheap out like this is a prime reason things need to change there.