MLB Player News

Semien was pulled from Thursday’s contest after fouling a ball off of his left foot. The good news, is that he doesn’t appear to be dealing with any fractures and didn’t land on the injured list on Friday. He’s considered day-to-day. Ezequiel Duran will start in his place at second base on Friday evening and will bat eighth against Guardians’ right-hander Slade Cecconi.

He can make an extra $1.5 million in bonuses, according to the New York Post’s Jon Heyman. When he wasn’t on the IL with shoulder and groin injuries, Harvey threw 10 2/3 scoreless innings for the Royals last season, though his velocity was down about two mph. He has a career 3.11 ERA in 185 innings since debuting with the Orioles in 2019. He’ll probably be helpful in a setup role when healthy.

The sixth overall pick in the 2018 draft, Kelenic was a consensus top-10 prospect five years ago, but he’s hit just .211/.282/.376 in 1,488 major league plate appearances with the Mariners and Braves. He spent most of last year in Triple-A and further drove down his stock by batting .213/.286/.309 with four homers in 95 games for Gwinnett. He’s still only 26, and there’s always the chance he could take a step forward. However, it’s hard to find much reason for optimism at this point.

The 31-year-old Hernandez, a slider specialist with an 89-92 mph fastball, has a 7.06 ERA in 21 2/3 major league innings with the Padres and Astros. He’ll compete for a spot in the A’s bullpen during spring training.

Things have been trending in the wrong direction for Azocar, who had 216 plate appearances in the majors as a rookie in 2022, but just 102, 79 and 21 the last three seasons. Overall, he’s hit .244/.290/.319 in 228 games, two of which actually came with the Braves last summer in between stints in the Mets organization. He seems destined to be Triple-A insurance for Atlanta.

Marte is still available in trade talks at the moment, but Hazen might shut down things soon if no one steps up with the offer the D-backs want. “But this isn’t going to continue to linger,” he said. “We need to focus our offseason. Again, my gut this whole time was that [a trade of Marte] wasn’t going to happen, and I think it seems likely that that’s the case and we want to focus on other things we need to do.” The Red Sox, Rays and Tigers are among the teams to have asked about Marte, who is entering the second year of a seven-year, $116.5 million extension.

Rendon, coming off hip surgery, was due $38 million in the final season of a seven-year, $245 million contract. The buyout figures to allow him to collect all that money over a longer period of time, and in return, Rendon won’t have to show up to spring training for rehab and pretend that he wants to play. Rendon will finish his Angels tenure with a .242/.348/.369 line in 257 games played.

There’s a new favorite to close for the Angels, who lost out on a bid to re-sign Kenley Jansen. It’ll be Yates’ second stint with the team, though you could have blinked and missed the first; he made one appearance and gave up two runs for the Halos in 2017. Yates struggled to a 5.23 ERA while dealing with injuries with the Dodgers last season, but he still struck out 52 in 41 1/3 innings. He had a 1.17 ERA and 33 saves for the Rangers in 2024. The deal is worth $5 million, according to the New York Post’s Jon Heyman.

Rosario, who agreed to the deal over two weeks ago, is again signing very cheap at $2.5 million, but at least that’s $500,000 more than last year. He made $7.8 million in his final year of arbitration in 2023 and now a total of $5 million the three subsequent years. Rosario wound up hitting .276/.309/.436 in 191 plate appearances for the Nationals and Yankees last season. That was good for a 109 OPS+, the best mark of his career. The Yankees will likely primarily use him to spell corner infielders Ben Rice and Ryan McMahon against lefties. He’ll also be an option at shortstop while Anthony Volpe is out, but José Caballero figures to be the main guy there.

Ruiz led the AL in steals with 67 for the A’s in 2023, but he’s spent most of the last two years in the minors, hitting .303/.412/.511 in Triple-A last season. He’s a career .241/.296/.343 hitter in 621 major league plate appearances, and for all his speed, he’s just not a very good outfielder. Using a bench spot on him as an occasional starter against left-handers and a pinch-runner isn’t the worst idea, but he’d have offer a lotmore utility if he were a quality defender somewhere.

The Dodgers are getting a little something for a player they probably were going to DFA at some point. Marrero was signed by the Marlins as a 17-year-old last winter and had a 3.82 ERA and a 35/12 K/BB in 33 innings as a starter in the Dominican Summer League.