Mining the News (1/3/25)

• MLB.com had all its teams submit one player who could contribute in 2025. Solid list.

• 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.

American League

Astros

• Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes will hit in the top-five lineup spots.

Both Walker and Paredes are expected to hit within the top five spots in Houston’s batting order, according to Brown. The bullish general manager maintained he “(feels) strongly we’re going to be picked to win the division” even after trading Tucker and walking away from negotiations with Bregman.

• Josh Hader is looking to make several offseason changes to his arsenal.

When Hader talks about being simpler to the plate, he means trying to limit his movements before his windup. He believes there are times when other teams might have picked up on some subtle things in which he was perhaps tipping his pitches.

“Not really with my mechanics, but just the initial coming set,” he said. “That’s where a lot of things can be picked up by hitters, when you’re coming set. You tend to do certain things on certain pitches. Just trying to limit any tell that I could.”

Hader is also working on making his changeup a bigger part of his arsenal. He threw 1,166 pitches last season in the regular season — 834 sinkers, 320 sliders and 12 changeups, including 11 to right-handed hitters. Oakland’s Shea Langeliers hit the pitch for a homer on May 26. The 12 homers Hader allowed were the second-most in his career (15 in 2019).

Red Sox

• Lucas Giolito is ready to throw a full season.

“I’m going to be ready for a full Spring Training and a full season,” Giolito told WEEI’s Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast. “I find it funny when I see stuff online saying that I’ll be coming back in June. I don’t know where that came from. I have no idea. … Everything’s going great. I look forward to a full year.”

Tigers

• Gleyber Torres will play second base with Colt Keith playing first base. There are no plans to move Keith back to third base.

Harris confirmed the Tigers will play Torres at second base. Colt Keith will move to first base. Harris indicated that Keith could return to the keystone in future years but noted that “for 2025, our best team has Gleyber at second base and Colt at first base.” Keith spent the entire ’24 campaign at second base, where he logged nearly 1100 innings as a rookie.
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That was the youngster’s first full season as a second baseman. Keith was drafted as a third baseman and continued playing the hot corner until midway through the ’23 campaign. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press wrote this morning that the Tigers weren’t willing to move Keith back to third base because of concerns about a prior labrum injury in his throwing shoulder.

Twins

• Royce Lewis’s struggles last season were fatigued-based…

Lewis has thought a lot about what contributed to his struggles. The 1.7 mph dip in average bat speed from his June hot streak to August suggested fatigue played a role. But Lewis thinks the longest slump of his career stemmed from a number of factors.

“Between all that losing, long season catching up to the body and also just some swing mechanical stuff that, like, gets lost when you get tired like that,” Lewis said. “You try to find other ways in your body. Our body adapts to things and is trying to find a way to get to positions I needed to get to to hit the baseball and it was creating a bad habit. … When you figure things out at the highest level, that’s what makes you better. So I think it’s motivating. I’m really excited for this year because of the ending there.”

… so he now has a more focused off-season routine.

He likes how good he feels. He’s been recovering better since he and the Twins altered his physical program in the middle of the season, which helped him to appear in 58 of the team’s final 61 games.

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One of the areas he and the Twins focused on was movement quality, which has led to remote work sessions this offseason with former Twins employee Jennifer Reiner-Marcello. Lewis previously worked with Reiner-Marcello when he rehabbed his torn ACL.

Coupled with better eating habits in preparation for his Jan. 13 wedding, Lewis feels leaner. He’s always prioritized having a good diet, but now he’s eating less, too.

White Sox

• Edgar Quero dealt with a back issue last season.

Quero’s offseason work is taking place in Arizona, where he’ll meet up with Korey Lee — another member of the White Sox catching quartet — at some point in January to get a true start on 2025 preparation. Quero also feels healthy after battling through back issues at the end of the ’24 season.

Yankees

• Spencer Jones won’t be promoted this year according to the GM.

Cashman added on Wednesday that Jones likely won’t be in the majors this year. He worked through some mechanical adjustments this year that have not clicked for him just yet, having struck out 200 times in Double A. Currently, Jones is not close to being a factor for the Yankees.

National League

Brewers

• Caleb Durbin plans on playing either second or third base next season.

Durbin fits because of his recent emphasis on defensive versatility, which means he’ll help to give Murphy and the Brewers an array of options as they decide how to replace free-agent shortstop Willy Adames. If they slide over Platinum Glove Award-winning second baseman Brice Turang, Durbin can play some second base. Or, if they opt to leave Turang put because of his success at second and move third baseman Joey Ortiz instead, Durbin has experience at third. Murphy said he wants to see Durbin play both spots during Spring Training before making any decisions.

Cardinals

• Nolan Gorman is working on some “swing changes”.

Gorman has been working on swing changes with new hitting coach Brant Brown most of the offseason, and he is poised to bounce back.

Diamondbacks

• Jordan Lawlar might play second or third base in the majors instead of his regular shortstop.

The D-backs’ confidence in Lawlar was reflected in their decision to DFA shortstop Nick Ahmed in September 2023 in place of Lawlar, who made his big league debut in the midst of a heated pennant race. Ranked as the No. 9 prospect in baseball, Lawlar played winter ball to make up for the at-bats that he lost after injuries limited him to just 85 in 2024. Arizona still believes in Lawlar, and if he is healthy you can expect to see him in the big leagues. It might not be at shortstop — Lawlar also played second and third in the Dominican Republic this winter — but they will want him in the lineup.

Dodgers

• Dalton Rushing will primarily be a catcher. Andy Pages will be the backup outfielder with James Outman headed to the minors.

Any word on Dalton Rushing’s potential role with the team? How about for Andy Pages & James Outman? —Mark S.

I asked Brandon Gomes a version of this question on the last day of the Winter Meetings. The plan to start the season is to use Rushing primarily as a catcher, with some time out in the outfield as Rushing’s workload permits. They still see him as someone who can stick behind the plate long-term (which lines up with public evaluations), even though he largely was a left fielder to end last season.

Rushing technically is on the corner-outfield depth chart with some unsettled spots in front of him.
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Of this trio, Andy Pages is the most likely to be on the Opening Day roster. Whether it’s as an everyday guy in a corner or as a fourth-outfielder type remains to be seen. Pages’ arm profiles best in right field, and he showed last season that he can at least hit left-handed pitching. That’s valuable.

Outman has been the Dodgers’ Opening Day center fielder each of the past two seasons, but the same concerns that kept him from being considered a top prospect for much of his time in the minors have crept up on him. His path to the roster right now is likely as a platoon bat with good defense and enough pop to put up a solid line against right-handed pitching. He has minor-league options remaining, though, and should serve as depth if the Dodgers beef up their outfield as expected.

• Clayton Kershaw won’t sign with the team until players can be put on the 60-day IL, which is when pitchers and catchers report.

Because there doesn’t really need to be any. Kershaw has already said he will be back with the Dodgers no matter what, and there’s no benefit to having him occupy a 40-man roster spot before players can be placed on the 60-day injured list (which Kershaw surely will be after knee and toe surgeries).

Mets

• Jonathan Pintaro and Luis Moreno are two pitching prospects with a chance to contribute in 2025.

Which prospect, outside of the obvious ones, has a legit chance to impact the 2025 Mets? — J.P. J.

Based on conversations with evaluators holding strong knowledge of the Mets’ farm system, I’ll offer two right-handed pitchers: Jonathan Pintaro and Luis Moreno.

The Mets picked up Pintaro last year out of the Pioneer League. He’s 27, so he quickly worked his way from High-A Brooklyn to Double-A Binghamton to Triple-A Syracuse. Across the three levels, he had a 2.68 ERA in 74 innings (four with Syracuse, 34 with Binghamton). He ended his year pitching in the Arizona Fall League.

Moreno, 25, spent most of 2024 with Binghamton, where he had a 4.27 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 103 1/3 innings. He has impressed scouts this winter; while pitching in the Dominican Republic, he has a 1.83 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings.

Nationals

• Trevor Williams says he will be in the rotation.

Trevor Williams, in a Zoom call with Nats reporters, says he's been told he'll be a starter entering 2025. Also said: "We're keeping the door open for second base/shortstop."

— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) January 2, 2025

Phillies

• Jesús Luzardo feels 100% healthy.

Jesús Luzardo’s 2024 season in Miami ended after just 12 starts due to a stress reaction in his lower back.

But that issue is behind him, according to Luzardo.

“I feel 100 percent,” Luzardo said on a Zoom call with reporters Monday. “I’ve felt 100 percent the whole offseason. Yeah, last year definitely the back was the root issue and the problem. And now that we’ve got that all figured out, thankfully, everything is back to normal.”

Andrew Painter will pitch in the majors in “July-ish”.

“We’re going to push the innings back,” Dombrowski said. “I don’t think it’s going to change. Andrew understands the plan. We think it’s a good plan. He’ll build up at some point through the minors. … We’re going to save a lot of his innings until we get to July-ish for the big-league level.”

• One of either Max Kepler or Brandon Marsh will not be in a platoon …

“If you start going around the club,” Dombrowski said, “it’s hard to platoon everywhere.”

Dombrowski rattled off names. There’s two catchers, the four regular infielders plus Edmundo Sosa as the top reserve. Kyle Schwarber is the designated hitter. Nick Castellanos and Brandon Marsh are in the outfield. That’s 11 with Kepler and Johan Rojas makes 12. The last man, to Dombrowski, is someone who can play on the infield.

So Kepler or Marsh has to take down everyday time in the outfield.

This is where the Phillies have left the door open to various scenarios. They can seek to platoon one of the lefty-hitting outfielders. They just don’t have to decide which one.

… but if Kepler requires one, Weston Wilson will likely partner with him.

Dombrowski makes it clear that Kepler won’t just be the strong side of a platoon in Philadelphia. However, the POBO identifies the righty-batting Weston Wilson as someone who could occasionally cover for Kepler with a tough lefty on the mound. Johan Rojas is another righty-batting outfielder on the roster, but he’ll most likely be busy covering for center fielder Brandon Marsh, another lefty-batting outfielder with poor platoon splits.

• Joe Ross will be a rotation consideration if a spot opens up.

The Ross and Luzardo deals both came together so quickly that there was a brief time at the end of last week when Dombrowski believed Ross would be the club’s fifth starter. Veteran right-hander Taijuan Walker will have to earn a role after his rocky 2024 season.

“We were looking for somebody else to take the fifth spot and have the flexibility to go into the rotation or into the bullpen, which would fit the Joe Ross description,” Dombrowski said. “But then when we talked about Luzardo’s scenario and he was available, it just, for us, we talked about trying to get our team better in any way we possibly can.”