In roughly one month, pitchers and catchers will start reporting to spring coaching camps throughout Arizona and Florida. There are nonetheless lots — A LOT — of free brokers who need to signal between at times. Twenty-seven of our high 50 free brokers stay unsigned. Right here now are Sunday’s scorching range rumors.
The Blue Jays have been “quietly monitoring” the market on reigning NL Cy Younger winner Blake Snell, experiences USA In the present day. A number of different golf equipment stay within the hunt for the left-hander and are ready to see whether or not his worth drops between now and spring coaching. We ranked Snell because the sixth-best free agent accessible this offseason. He’s the top-ranked unsigned pitcher.
On paper, rotation assist wouldn’t seem like a precedence for Toronto. They’ve a official ace (Kevin Gausman), three different high quality starters (Chris Bassitt, José Berríos, Yusei Kikuchi), and so far as reclamation undertaking No. 5 starters go, Alek Manoah is healthier than most. That mentioned, there is no such thing as a such factor as an excessive amount of pitching, and signing Snell would enable the Blue Jays to extra simply commerce a starter (in a vendor’s market, no much less) for a much-needed bat.
Rangers, Yankees rising as frontrunners for Neris
The Yankees and World Collection champion Rangers are rising because the frontrunners for righty reliever Hector Neris, according to MLB.com. Neris is likely one of the recreation’s nice workhorses, averaging 70 appearances within the final seven 162-game seasons. We ranked Neris because the Twenty sixth-best free agent accessible this offseason. Solely Josh Hader ranks larger amongst unsigned relievers.
Pretty much as good as he was in 2023, there are some purple flags with Neris. His common fastball dipped from 94.3 mph in 2022 to 93.0 mph in 2023, and the whiff charge on his trademark splitter dipped from an otherworldly 52.4% to a nonetheless excellent 42.2%. Given his age (34) and his workload, it is honest to wonder if all these excessive leverage innings have taken a toll, and Neris is coming into his decline.
Angels contemplating Hernández
The Angels are contemplating free-agent utility man Enrique Hernández, experiences The Athletic. The Halos ranked sixteenth in runs final yr and haven’t but added any main league bats after dropping reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani, not that changing Ohtani is straightforward (and even potential). We didn’t rank Hernández amongst our high 50 free brokers.
Hernández, 32, has been a nicely beneath common hitter the final two years, although he can nonetheless do harm towards lefties, and he can play nearly any place. At this level in his profession, he isn’t an on a regular basis participant. Hernández is usually a high quality utility man for a contending group, nevertheless. The query is are the Angels actually contenders? Current historical past suggests no.
