• After a solid season in Korea, Kyle Hart 하트 is looking to sign with an MLB team.
The Astros, Brewers, Orioles, Twins, and Yankees are among the teams that have shown interest in free agent southpaw Kyle Hart, according to The Athletic’s Will Sammon and Katie Woo. Earlier this month, FanSided’s Robert Murray indicated that a whopping 18 teams had at least checked in on Hart’s services as he looks to return to North American baseball after a tremendous year with the NC Dinos of the Korean Baseball Organization.
Hart posted a 2.69 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate, and six percent walk rate over 157 innings and 26 starts with the Dinos, winning the Dong-won Choi Award (the KBO League’s answer to the Cy Young Award). Hart’s best pitch is his slider, but according to Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen, Hart used that slider less as a primary offering and more as a chase pitch to put batters away. Longenhagen isn’t sure how Hart’s arsenal of this plus slider but only a 90mph fastball and an okay changeup will translate back in the big leagues, and thus Hart is projected as a fifth or sixth starter even if Fangraphs ranked him 48th on their list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents.
The 2025 edition of The Process is now available. Like last year, only the appendix will have new studies and research. I wrote several studies with additional contributions from Jenny Butler, Patrick Davitt, Bryan Fitzgerald, Jake Maish, Carlos Marcano, Roger Strong, and Adam Warner. Read the rest of this entry »
Note: I started writing these and then stopped away from a while. The ADP changed quite a bit so the last three aren’t in perfect order with some arms now between them.
Brown said Smith will split time at third base, first base and right field. He is prone to moving prospects quickly through Houston’s system — and promised to repeat the process with Smith, provided his offense continues to progress. “Whichever position he’s playing the best, we’ll put him in that position as he moves up,” Brown said.
Q. When the guys return from injury, what do you think of your starting rotation at that point? Would you like another pitcher? How do you feel about your starters right now?
JOE ESPADA: Right now obviously I feel really good about Valdez. We’ve got Hunter Brown and Arrighetti and Ronel Blanco. We’ve got a couple of young pitchers that will fit right in if we have to. Gordon is a really nice fit we just put on the 40-man roster who threw the ball really well. Gusto is another guy we’ve had conversation about. He’ll be ready to contribute at the Major League level.
Again, we’re having conversations. Because I think you need more than just five or six guys. So that’s one area that we’ll be spending quite a lot of time here in the next couple of weeks talking about how can we improve our pitching depth.
Minasian mentioned Luis Rengifo and new additions Scott Kingery and Kevin Newman as players who can also handle third base. But he wouldn’t rule out adding a full-time third baseman via trade or free agency.
• Korea’s Hye-seong Kim 김혜성 and Japan’s Koyo Aoyagi have been posted.
Per Kiwoom Heroes. The negotiating period will open at 8 a.m. ET Dec. 5, and close at 5 p.m. ET Jan. 3.
I guess MLB will let teams know at noon ET Wednesday, Dec. 4, after all. (Since it's late at night in ET no3 and league and teams wouldn't be working at this hour) https://t.co/KVZULgdJN7
Frustrated by knee trouble that last season limited him to 117 1/3 innings, his lowest total for a full campaign excluding the 2016 season he missed while recovering from Tommy John surgery, Lynn adjusted his training regimen. In a phone interview Wednesday, the 6-foot-5 right-hander said he has lost 20 pounds, dropping from 280 to 260.
Melton split last season between Double-A Corpus Christi (58 games) and Triple-A Sugar Land (47 games) and slashed .253/.310/.426 with 15 homers and 30 stolen bases. His numbers were a tad better at Double-A, which is to be expected, posting a .748 OPS with Corpus Christi and .719 with Sugar Land. He spent time at all three outfield spots last season but played most in center field.
“Melton’s another guy that could be a big piece for us,” Brown said last month. “He’s a really good defensive outfielder with power. He has a chance to make an impact.”
