Los Angeles

Dodgers

The deal presumably includes an invitation to spring training, whenever that might be. The 29-year-old is a few years removed from a 15-homer, 17-steal rookie campaign, but didn’t end up appearing in the majors this past season. He’s merely emergency organizational depth at this stage of his career.

The Mets tried to make Cairo more expensive to poach off waivers, offering him a financial bump last week in hopes of keeping rival organizations at bay. The gambit didn’t work this time. The 25-year-old heads to Los Angeles as organizational infield depth after hitting .230/.381/.300 with four homers and 25 steals in 525 plate appearances over 130 games at the Triple-A level between the Mets and Phillies this past season.

Bates finished his playing career in the Dodgers system in 2024 and then immediately went into coaching in the organization, eventually becoming the major league team’s co-hitting coach in 2023. According to MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes, the Dodgers offered him a multiyear contract to continue in the role, but no deal got done.

Hernández signed a three-year, $66 million contract last offseason and hit .267/.334/.425 in 125 games with 16 home runs, 64 RBI, and a 27.5 percent strikeout rate. His defense has also declined over the last three seasons, which makes it difficult for the Dodgers to field a lineup with him and Shohei Ohtani, who is also in the lineup as a strict DH.

This will be the case for many free agents, who will look to lock in multi-year contracts before a new collective bargaining agreement may change the financial landscape of the league. Skubal is likely the number one option on the market, and Passan reports that the Dodgers, Mets, and Cubs are all highly interested in the left-hander, but that the Cubs “are skeptical that they will be willing to compete at the sort of dollars Skubal is expected to get.”

Baldelli cited family considerations in making the decision. The former Twins manager is currently serving as a special assistant in the Dodgers front office.

The Dodgers expect that it’ll be about nine months before Rushing is ready to return as a catcher, putting him in play for the second half of next season. He’ll be able to hit well before that, but unless something goes wrong for Shohei Ohtani, it seems unlikely that the Dodgers will bring him back as a bench bat before he’s ready to catch.

Klein is expected to be ready for spring training after having a bone chip removed and a spur shaved down. The 26-year-old righty had a 3.67 ERA in 41 2/3 innings before missing the final two months of the season.

Avoiding the full Tommy John would likely allow Rushing to resume hitting in spring training and catching during the first half of the season. The Dodgers can plug in Hunter Feduccia as Will Smith’s backup while Rushing rehabs, but they might want to try to do better.

Ohtani is slated to resume pitching next year, though Friedman acknowledged that the Dodgers might try something a little different in an effort to get him through the year as a two-way player. Ohtani had a 1.79 ERA in 85 2/3 innings over 14 starts in the first half of this year before knee and biceps injuries limited him to DHing the rest of the way.