January 2: The Phillies signed Austin Hendrick to a 7/168 deal to return to Philadelphia. The former Cleveland slugger was traded there by Philly in 2026 after they had originally drafted him in 2020. He'll take the place of former Ray Judson Fabian, who is a free agent.
January 4: After spending the last couple of years in Kansas City, former Rays reliever Daniel Espino signed a 1-year, $7.2M deal with the White Sox where he'll presumably be their closer.
January 5: Speaking of former Rays relievers, Evan Godwin is now one after spending the last 6 1/2 seasons with us. He's taking his five rings to Cleveland on a 1-year, $2.6M deal. We could have afforded it and he was still good last year, but it was time to move on.
January 7: Former Rays farmhand Matthew Liberatore signed a 3/27.5 deal with the Mets. He's been an adequate starter for several years, nothing special but a good back-of-the-rotation guy.
In the big news of the day, the Hall of Fame voting came in and nobody was elected this year. Joe Mauer came agonizingly close at 74.5% in his 9th year on the ballot, one would think he'd make it over the top next time in his final year. A couple of first-timers had big shares, with Jacob deGrom getting 70.2% and Craig Kimbrel 69.3%. (I voted for deGrom but not Kimbrel). Among holdovers, Joey Votto is up to 65.2% on his 4th ballot and Giancarlo Stanton 53.1% on his 2nd.
January 10: Pesky leadoff hitter
non pareil Enrique Bradfield got paid today, signing a 7/102 deal with Oakland. Bradfield gave us fits over the years with Boston, and then did again last season with Detroit in the playoffs.
January 15: The Tigers signed a former Ray reliever who spent the last couple of years at Durham, Romulo Canelon for a 1-year, $2.16M deal. UPDATE (1/21): They waived him, guess the AI forgot to add him to the 40-man roster.
January 18: Speaking of former Rays, Dustin May stayed in the NL East with a 4/59.2 contract with Philadelphia.
January 31: Longtime Dodgers star Cody Bellinger signed a 3/17.9 deal with Philadelphia, a pretty good bargain for the Phillies. Bellinger has been injury-prone and has only played about 2/3 of each of the last two seasons with LA, but he's produced 6.1 WAR combined over those two years so he should more than earn the deal.
Usurpers!
Time for a trade:
There really wasn't going to be any room for Danny Ceja, so he was dealt along with top SS prospect Ramon Ruiz to the Cardinals with the key being Dutch 3B prospect Kjeld Visser:
We really needed a top-quality 3B prospect in the pipeline ready to take over in a few years when Bobby Witt Jr's contract (or body) runs out. I like that at 19 he's already a 50 3B. And Ruiz was a little more expendable thanks to the Jeff Baez acquisition to keep us well-stocked at SS in the minors. And Gomez is a decent power-hitting OF prospect who was a supplemental 1st round pick in 2030. Johnson was a throw-in to get the deal done, he doesn't look to have that much of a future.
March 6: An old friend is on the move as the Phillies dealt Jasseel De La Cruz to St. Louis for a minor league reliever.
March 12: A couple of former Rays outfielders found new homes as Spencer Torkelson signed a 3/41 deal with the Giants and Judson Fabian went for 2/34 to the Cubs.
March 14: I usually don't report on Spring Training games but the Rays won their opener against the Angels 15-0, with Rodolfo Rivas drilling 2 HR and 5 RBI to go with homers from Dayle Jenkins, Bobby Witt Jr and Ricky Widmar.
March 17: The Mets signed a couple of interesting players to minor league contracts: longtime former Rays 2B Vidal Brujan and OF Dylan Carlson, both of whom spent time with the Angels last year.
March 18: Our first spring training injury and it's a significant one: Dane Ayers will be out a month with chronic back soreness. We have an open 40-man spot after trading Danny Ceja and we may either sign a veteran FA middle infielder or add Melvin Gutierrez to the roster. Gutierrez has been Durham's regular SS the past couple years and isn't much of a hitter but he's a 75 defender.
March 27: Signed IFs Xavier Edwards and Austin Martin to minor league contracts; invited both to Spring Training.
We need some middle infield depth and who better than our old friend Xavier Edwards as well as Martin. Both are off their mid-late 20s (age and calendar year) peaks but will help out at Durham.