Though we are months away from the 2025 baseball season, MLB teams are still looking to improve their standing. Ray takes a look at a few of the players whose names have been discussed in the media over the past week. Guys coming back from injury. Players in free agency. Talk about the glove. Even a retirement made the news. A little bit of this and that.
Sounds like Willy Adames will have a new home in 2025.
The 29 year old is coming off his most productive season as he certainly had the proverbial contract drive going .251-32-112-93-21, and effort that produced career bests in the final four categories. He’s gone 31-98-83 in two of three seasons, though he had just 30 career steals entering 2024.
A catcher signs…
Detroit Tigers’ Kenta Maeda will get ‘every opportunity’ to win job in starting rotation… that was the headline in the Detroit Free Press recently. “He’s going to compete for a spot in our rotation,” president of baseball operations Scott Harris said. “We have a lot of starters that are coming to camp expecting to compete for a job. Kenta at his best will have every opportunity to earn a job in our rotation.” Maeda had an insanely high ERA of 6.09 last year with a carer low K-rate of just under 20 percent. The article further details how his velocity was down early, but rebounded late in the year. He’s gonna train a bit differently this offseason to try and recapture some of his previous glory and it wasn’t long ago that he was an effective spot starter in mixed leagues (Maeda is 36, but he had a 1.14 WHIP entering last season and posted a mark of 1.17 in 2023).
Jasson Dominguez update.
Where he plays and what his role is on Opening Day depends on what the Yankees do this offseason, primarily whether or not they are able to bring back Juan Soto. Still just 21 years old, Jasson was limited in his return from injury last year to 18 big league games and 54 in the minors where he hit over .300 with 11 homers an 16 steals. A 20/20 threat to begin his career if playing daily, Dominguez has the look of being an impact player even if his star has diminished slightly from a couple of years back.
Fielding matters too… right?
More on the glove.
Finally, a link to a list of all the winners in 2024.
Alex Kirilloff – retired at 26 years of age. After years of injury, years of being beat down physically, he simply said that his passion for the game was gone. The 15th pick in the 2016 Entry Draft, he was a can’t miss kid who was a top-10 overall prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline in 2019. With a hit tool of 65-70, the only question most talent evaluators had about him was whether he would hit .290 with 15 homers or .290 with 25. His work in the minors was stellar as he slashed an impressive .324/.380/.524 over 337 games, but alas, his body could never hold up. In the end he appeared in four big-league seasons appearing in 249 games covering 884 PA. He ends his career, barring a change of heart at some point, slashing .248/.309/.412 with 27 homers.
Royce Lewis might need a new glove in 2025 (it is so weird to write that). Lewis, drafted as a shortstop, has transitioned to third base, partly to help keep his bat in the lineup. Offseason reporting now suggests that his new home might be – second base. Lewis was against the idea late in 2024 as he didn’t feel comfortable at the spot, but might that change with an offseason to work on it? The move to second would also allow Brooks Lee a shot to be the every day third baseman with Carlos Correa obviously playing short. Here is president Derek Falvey. “We would just want to make sure he’s as prepped as possible to play and he indicated even at the end of the season if he was prepped and planned for what that’s going to look like, it’s really important. Some of that will depend on the personnel that we acquire, don’t acquire, how it all shakes out. But we want him to stay open-minded to that.” We shall see, but dual position eligibility might be on the horizon.
HEAT… HIT
Matt McLain, who missed 2024 after having shoulder surgery, is hitting the ball pretty well in the AFL. It is just 11 games, and he has a whopping 19 punchouts in 41 at-bats so it’s not all rosy, but he’s socked six extra base hits including four ding-dongs. Can’t forget about him on draft day 2025 after his tremendous half season in 2023 for the Reds when he went .290-16-50-65-14 in 89 games.
Shane McLanahan is said to be ready to rock and roll and to be ready for the start of Spring Training. Coming back from TJ surgery in September of 2023, he last threw a big league pitch that year as his K-rate dropped almost five percent, while his walk rate climbed almost three percent, from 2022. In fact, he didn’t throw an officially pitch anywhere in 2024 so it remains to be seen what the Rays will do with his workload, and what his exact level of performance will be. Immediately returning to dominance will he?
Joe Ryan was sent to the 60-day IL with a righty shoulder issue, a Grade 2 teres major strain. Here’s president Derek Falvey. “Reports on him have been nothing but positive, kind of exactly what we expect for this to recover,” Falvey said. “So that’s good news.” At this point, the expectation is that he will be fully healthy for the start of the season. Ryan was terrific when healthy in 2024 with a 3.60 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 147 punchouts over 135 innings, though he continues to be plagued by the homer from start to start (though his 1.27 HR/9 rate was below the 1.50 mark he posted his first three campaigns).
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