Category: Baseball

For the first time in three years, there will be a change in the Dodgers coaching staff for 2027, as hitting coach Aaron Bates won’t return. Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors was first to report the coaching change, which was also reported by Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times, Jack Harris of the California Post, and others.

“The Dodgers offered Bates a multiyear contract to stay, but the two sides couldn’t agree to terms,” Dierkes wrote.

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman in his season-ending press conference at Dodger Stadium on October 21 was asked if there would be any coaching changes this offseason.

“I expect status quo,” Friedman said. “We’re still working through some things, but expect status quo.”

Bates, 42, was on the Dodgers major league coaching staff during the last eight seasons, including the last four as hitting coach along with Robert Van Scoyoc. Bates from 2019-22 held a dual role as assistant hitting coach on the major league staff and director of hitting for the minor league system.

As a player, Bates was a third-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2006 out of North Carolina State, and he played in five games in the majors for Boston in 2009. The corner outfielder and first baseman played for nine seasons in the minors, ending with 11 games for Double-A Chattanooga in the Dodgers’ system in 2014.

Bates was in the Dodgers organization for 13 years, including 12 years as a coach. Before joining the major league staff he was hitting coach in the Arizona Complex League in 2015 and 2016, then Class-A Great Lakes in 2017, before shifting to assistant hitting coordinator for the Dodgers minors.

Back-to-back Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal is a free agent this winter and will likely fetch the richest contract for a pitcher in Major League Baseball history, a mark currently held by the Los Angeles Dodgers' $325 million pact with Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Skubal, who turns 30 on Nov. 20, won the 2024 and 2025 AL Cy Young Awards with the Detroit Tigers and was traded to the Dodgers this summer with the Tigers anticipating they wouldn't be able to afford their homegrown lefty come winter.

Yamamoto's 12-year deal with the Dodgers upon his arrival from Japan broke the record set by Gerrit Cole, who agreed to a nine-year, $324 million contract with the New York Yankees prior to the 2020 season. Cole's deal was signed just days after Stephen Strasburg's $245 million contract temporarily was the largest in baseball history.

The biggest contract for a left-handed pitcher belongs to the New York Yankees' Max Fried, who signed an eight-year deal with the Yankees after the 2024 season.

With Skubal set to make history, here's a look at the biggest contracts for pitchers through the years:

Biggest MLB contracts for pitchers

1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers — $325 million (12 years, 2024-2035)
2. Gerrit Cole, Yankees – $324 million (9 years, 2020-2028)
3. Stephen Strasburg, Nationals – $245 million (7 years, 2020-2026)
4. Max Fried, Yankees – $218 million (8 years, 2025-2032)
5. David Price, Red Sox – $217 million (7 years, 2016-2022)
6. Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers – $215 million (7 years, 2014-2020 extension)
7. Corbin Burnes, Diamondbacks – $210 million (6 years, 2025-2030)
8. Dylan Cease, Blue Jays – $210 million (7 years, 2026-2032)
9. Max Scherzer, Nationals – $210 million (7 years, 2015-2021)
10. Zack Greinke, Diamondbacks – $206.5 million (6 years, 2016-2021)
11. Jacob DeGrom, Rangers – $185 million (5 years, 2023-2027)
12. Blake Snell, Dodgers – $182 million (5 years, 2025-2029)
13. Justin Verlander, Tigers – $180 million (7 years, 2013-2019 extension)
14. Felix Hernandez, Mariners – $175 million (7 years, 2013-2019 extension)
15. Stephen Strasburg, Nationals – $175 million (7 years, 2017-2023 extension ... *** opted out after 2019)
16. Aaron Nola, Phillies – $172 million (7 years, 2024-2031)
17. Garrett Crochet, Red Sox – $170 million (6 years, 2026-2031 extension)
18. Carlos Rodon, Yankees – $162 million (6 years, 2023-2028)
19. Masahiro Tanaka, Yankees – $155 million (7 years, 2014-2020)
20. Jon Lester, Cubs – $155 million (6 years, 2015-2020

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The 20 biggest MLB contracts for pitchers with Tarik Skubal set to shatter record

As Matt laid out yesterday, there sure are a lot of rumors involving the Red Sox and shortstops, despite the fact that Franklin Arias is a shortstop with nothing left to prove in AAA. So what does that say about how the Sox view Arias? Maybe it doesn’t say anything than that they’re doing their due diligence. But here’s what the current dean of the Red Sox beat says about it in his offseason preview piece: “Some in the organization view Arias as almost untouchable. In a poor positional free agent class, however, the Sox are unlikely to keep Arias off-limits in trade talks, but they’d only consider dealing him for a star with multiple years of control.” (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)

Meanwhile, another Red Sox beat reporter thinks a big trade isn’t that likely this offseason. “Breslow has gone down the trade road a lot in his three previous offseasons as chief baseball officer. With the prospect haul that was sent to the Orioles for Adley Rutschman, this could be the year free agency is the option Breslow explores the most. Randy Arozarena, to me, would be the perfect fit in the middle of the batting order.” (Ian Browne, MLB.com) 

Amidst the relatively disappointing start of the “Big Three Era” (remember when it was briefly the “Big Four”?) it’s understandable that many fans harbor some scepticism about prospects like Arias. But it’s hardly time to close the book on Roman Anthony, who, through all the injuries, still showed plenty of signs of future stardom in 2026. (Brian Murphy, MLB.com)

Hopefully a full offseason of rest is enough for Anthony to put his wrist injuries behind him. If so, maybe he’ll appear on the list of Silver Slugger finalists next year. As it stands the Sox landed two players on that list: Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu, neither of whom has won the award before. (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)

But will Anthony, Contreras, and Abreu get any help in the lineup? Here’s a look at a few free agent names who might be a good fit for the Sox, starting with Seiya Suzuki. (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)

The Sox did actually make a significant signing yesterday, though not of the player personnel variety. Shelley Duncan, who, like Chad Tracy, has spent years as a AAA manager, has been added to Tracy’s big league coaching staff. (Sean McAdam, Chris Cotillo, MassLive)

The offseason just started, but the Nats are already busy inking players to extensions. After extending Cade Cavalli at the end of the season, Paul Toboni gave Jacob Young a 4-year $23 million deal that has an option for a 5th year. The Nats center fielder took a big leap offensively, and now they are betting on Young to maintain that level.

Before 2026, Young was a defensive specialist, who offered little to no value with the bat. In 2025, he posted an OPS of just .583 and hit just two homers. Young was an elite defender, but that can only take you so far. We are seeing that now with Nasim Nunez. You have to be at least a respectable offensive player.

After 2025, Young knew that he needed to change things. He went to Driveline and worked on changing his swing path. Young was hitting ground balls at a 56.5% clip in 2024 and 2025. Even with his elite speed, you cannot make a living on infield hits unless you are Chandler Simpson.

Young was a very different hitter in 2026 though. He hit .252 with a .708 OPS and socked a career high 10 homers. Those offensive numbers will not knock your socks off, but for a defense first player, those stats are more than good enough. The power was the biggest surprise for most people. Young hitting homers was a novelty before this year, but in 2026, he got to double digits.

You have to give Young a ton of credit for putting in the work, but you also have to credit the Nats hitting coaches and the folks at Driveline. That ground ball rate went from 56.5% to 39.4%, which is a drastic decrease. His batted ball profile totally changed, and it made him a much better hitter.

To the extension itself, the deal is structured a lot like the one that was given out to Cade Cavalli. The Nats are buying out all of Young’s arbitration years and one of his free agent years. There is also an option to buy out a further free agent year at the end of the deal. That was the exact same structure as the Cavalli deal.

Credit to Talk Nats for being on this first and Andrew Lang for getting the structure of the deal. Clearly, this is an extension strategy Paul Toboni likes to use. It makes a lot of sense as well, as it is good for the player and the team. For the player, it gives them security and a chance to get back on the free agent market at a reasonable age.

Meanwhile, the team locks up the player for what should be their best years at a reasonable rate. Usually, a player’s best seasons are those arbitration years and their first couple free agent years. This structure allows the Nats to control the player for those years while not committing to them deep into their 30’s.

I wonder if there are other players who would be interested in that kind of deal. Daylen Lile is further away from free agency than Cavalli or Young, but I can see the Nats approaching him with a similar concept. For stars like James Wood and CJ Abrams, both sides would probably prefer a longer term and bigger money deal though.

Getting this done early sends a message that Young is part of the team’s plans and will not be traded. Young may get traded during the lifespan of this deal, but it will not be anytime soon. That makes things interesting for a guy like Dylan Crews.

We will dive into this further, but after this move, I wonder about his future. I am sure teams will start calling the Nats to sniff around on him. Overall, this is a solid deal for the player and the team. It makes sense for both sides. Jacob Young gets to secure generational wealth, while the team locks him up for the prime of his career.

In a surprise shakeup of the Dodgers coaching staff, hitting coach Aaron Bates and the team are parting ways, as confirmed by a person with knowledge of the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said after the season that he expected “status quo” for the coaching staff. But, as MLB Trade Rumors first reported, negotiations on a new contract for Bates eventually reached an impasse.

The rest of the Dodgers coaching staff is expected to return next year, according to people with knowledge of the matter but not authorized to speak publicly.

Bates spent 12 years in the Dodgers organization, including four as a co-hitting coach with Robert Van Scoyoc, and four as an assistant hitting coach. Before joining the major-league staff, Bates served as a minor-league hitting director and coach.

Read more:Shaikin: Mark Walter says he won’t sell the Dodgers, but his plans keep changing

The Dodgers’ search to replace Bates begins during a unique offseason. When the current CBA expires on Dec. 1, MLB team owners are expected to impose a lockout, during which teams will be restricted from communicating with players. So, if the Dodgers want their new hitting coach to meet with hitters or contribute to their offseason hitting plans, they will have to finalize the hire or promotion in the next few weeks.

The team’s star-studded but aging offense ranked second in weighted runs created-plus (111) — a comprehensive offensive stat that adjusts for ballpark factors — in the majors last season, behind only the Cubs. But the Dodgers are working to diagnose two straight years of a July and August dip in offensive production.

This postseason, the Dodgers hit .195 as a team and went five for 43 with runners in scoring position.

“Obviously throughout the latter part of the year, it was stuff we were talking about and trying to put our finger on,” Friedman said last month. “And in a lot of ways, it’s a little bit of a game of whack-a-mole, where it can be one thing for some period of time, and then it’s something else, and then it’s something else. Sometimes it’s noise, and sometimes it’s real. And what’s important for us is to be able to sift out the noise and isolate what’s real and what things we can improve upon. We’ll spend a lot of time really focusing on that in the offseason.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

For a couple of months there, it seemed like the Atlanta Braves had pulled off a coup of a deal, with Dominic Smith seeming primed to put up one of his best seasons since the pandemic. It didn’t turn out that way, but Smith still ended up finding himself right in the thick of it when it came to Atlanta and the Postseason.

So let’s get right into how things went for Dominic Smith here in Atlanta during the 2026 season. How did he go from being one of the hottest hitters on the team to essentially being planted on the bench to suddenly being in the lineup in a win-or-go-home situation? Let’s get into it.

How Acquired

The Braves and Dominic Smith initially agreed on a minor league deal back in February of 2026. Once it became clear that Smith had done enough in Spring Training to make the ballclub on the Opening Day roster, the Braves signed both him and Kyle Farmer to split contracts for the 2026 season. Smith’s version of the split deal paid him $1.25 million in the majors, and the majors were where he spent his entire season.

What were the expectations?

As a non-roster invite to spring training, the expectations were pretty low. Even when he made the roster, it was clear that he was here as a bench option that could do some work as the DH, potentially get some time in the outfield and serve as the “Break Glass in Case of Emergency” option to play first base if Matt Olson either got hurt or replaced by a clone who believed that it was time for a day off.

With that being said, there was some hope that Smith could provide some production off the bench. He did finish with a .325 wOBA and 111 wRC+ over 225 plate appearances and 63 games with the San Francisco Giants in 2025, so it wasn’t like his bat was just completely gone. Atlanta was hoping that he’d be able to tap into that vein of form while wearing a Braves uniform.

Still, even that decent-ish performance was undercut by a much worse xwOBA (.306), as well as the fact that Smith hadn’t hit at all since the shortened 2020 season. To wit, he had a .300 wOBA, .316 xwOBA, and -0.6 fWAR in over 1,760 PAs from 2021-2025. He was projected to be barely above replacement level in 2026, which made it kind of a concern that the Braves were heading into the 2026 season with Smith holding a roster spot. Those concerns were immediately allayed, and then un-allayed over the long arc of the season.

2026 Results

At the end of the day, this ended up being a bit of an underwhelming season for Dominic Smith. He played in 108 games (his most since 2023) and reached 300 plate appearances for the first time since 2024. He ended up with a slash line of .253/.311/.383 with a .304 wOBA (that was very close to his .301 xwOBA), .130 Isolated Power, 9 home runs and 91 wRC+.

Smith did get plenty of reps as the DH throughout the season, but that came to a halt once September rolled around. He (famously) received only 13 plate appearances during the month of September before not just making the NL Wild Card Series roster, but actually starting in the deciding game as well. Despite the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments concerning Walt Weiss’s decision to give Smith a start in the decisive Game 3 of the series (despite him ending Game 2 by leaving his bat on his shoulders), Smith ended up delivering a couple of hits in the series clincher in order to validate the decision on a what-ended-up-happening basis.

Outside of that performance in the Wild Card Series and early on in the season (which we will get into), this was by no means a spectacular season for Dominic Smith. It was certainly fun at times but there’s a reason why he ended up finishing the season underwater in fWAR at -0.5.

He didn’t strike out a ton, he didn’t whiff a ton either, though when he did hit the ball, decent contact was far from a given with a career-worst xwOBACON. Unfortunately, the big impact from Dominic’s bat was hard to find throughout the course of the season and those big moments that we all wanted to see (and got a little used to) during the early portion of the season were few and far in between.

Probably the biggest indictment of his season from a big picture perspective is that after he started slumping, the Braves had no alternatives other than to keep playing him, which is how they committed a half-season to a guy notably below replacement.

What went right?

Hoo boy, those first two months from Dominic Smith were fantastic and chockfull of some vintage Big Dominic Smith Moments at the plate. Up until May 31, Smith hit .325/.356/.496 with a wOBA of .367, an xwOBA of .369, 133 wRC+, five homers and 25 RBI. A 133 wRC+ for the whole season would’ve made Smith one of the top six DHs in all of baseball according to that metric in particular, and it would’ve made for a career year for Smith. Things were even crazier in April, as he managed a wOBA and xwOBA near .400 in his first 70ish PAs of the year.

He got off to just about as good (and dramatic) of a start as you could get in the 2026 season, as he hit a walk-off grand slam on March 28 against the Royals in order to complete a come-from-behind victory where Atlanta went into that frame down 2-0. Absolutely wild stuff — especially when you consider that this was his debut for the Braves!

Smith then came up with another big hit on April 14 against the Marlins, which is when he turned a 5-3 deficit in the bottom of the eighth inning into a 6-5 lead with one swing of the bat on a bases-clearing double. That wasn’t the biggest hit of the year for the Braves, but it definitely was for Smith, and it placed into the top-five teamwide.

He had a three-hit game on April 10 against Cleveland, the aforementioned April 14 game was of the three-hit variety as well, he racked up four knocks on May 12 against the Cubs and then he capped off his two-month heater with three hits against the Reds on May 29. That time when it felt like Smith was rarely missing the chances he took was a really wonderful time, wasn’t it?

How did Smith do it? It wasn’t anything all that strange or unusual. He was hitting the ball hard in the air. Smith has always been somewhat of an oddity — a big guy with prodigious raw power who employs a slow, slap-oriented swing, but he leaned into that somewhat less during the first two months. It was still a slow swing oriented to contact most of the time, and he actually swung hard more often after May ended, but he just so happened to connect on his powerful swings in a helpful way over those two months. Part of it, though, was that similar to his teammates, Smith was much more in swing mode, especially early in the count, in April and May. He then got very passive, and it seemed like his ability to do damage went right along with it.

What went wrong?

When June rolled around, the entire Atlanta offense got frigid-cold at the plate, and this included Dom Smith. In fact, Smith never really recovered from that team-wide dip in form during June — from June 1 until the end of the regular season, Smith hit .192/.275/.288 with a .254 wOBA (.248 xwOBA), an Isolated Power number of just .096, four homers and 57 wRC+. The magic was well and truly gone and it got to a point where Smith was basically benched for much of the final month of the season.

Remember how I mentioned all of those multi-hit games for Dominic Smith early on in the season? Well, from August 1 until the regular season concluded, Dom had a grand total of six (6) hits. Five of those hits occurred during the month of August and the sixth one came after the Braves had clinched the division. The fact that he did come up with those two hits in Game 3 of the Wild Card series was a bit miraculous considering how little game action he was getting up until that point.

As noted above, Smith actually started swinging noticeably harder after his early success. But, he became so passive it was almost a joke — he swung at over 70 percent of strikes in April and May, and that rate just kept declining, such that by September, he was barely swinging at 50 percent of the strikes he saw. Combine that with the fact that despite him swinging harder, his contact was much poorer, and you have “how to ruin a great start in four months.”

Credit to Smith for continuing to do the work behind the scenes, but also when you take his level of production from June onwards into consideration along with the team itself starting to get its full complement of players back from injury, it makes sense why Smith didn’t get too much action down the stretch.

Smith’s worst game of the year was… unique… which is fitting for his season as a whole. On July 5, well after he had shed any semblance of offensive competence, the Braves hosted his old team, the Mets. Smith hit into a double play to stifle a Braves rally (they had already scored three runs) in the first, and then made a couple of outs later in the game as the Braves trailed by a couple of runs. But then, the ninth happened, and things got wild for Smith and company. The Braves were getting blown out, 10-3, at the start of the frame, thanks to Carlos Carrasco being allowed to turn a 5-3 deficit into a 10-3 nightmare. But, Smith singled as the second batter in the bottom of the inning, and a Drake Baldwin grand slam and a bunch of other stuff later, the Braves were down 10-9, with both the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, with Smith coming up for the second time in the inning. He got ahead 2-0. He took a strike. He tried to capitalize on a fastball above the zone, but couldn’t catch up to it. Devin Williams followed with a changeup around shin-high, and Smith missed that, too. Game over. It feels like April-May Smith would’ve transformed that into another Big Dom Smith Moment, but alas, he did not.

As a minor note: Smith had a bizarre 5 PA-based line in the playoffs. His slash line was .400/.400/.400, because he struck out three times and managed two weak singles. It’s hard to know what the Braves were expecting, but in a weird way, that feels about right.

2027 Outlook

Well, Smith is a free agent and as of right now, it doesn’t seem likely that there will be a reunion in the cards. Again, he rarely saw the field towards the end of the season and that’s not the type of thing that would indicate that a team would be interested in keeping a relationship going. Surely there will be more Big Dominic Smith Moments in the future, but they likely won’t come with the Braves.

Still, Smith’s a left-handed bat and he’s got two months of proof that he could very well perform at a high level if he can figure out a way to harness it long-term. Maybe not deciding to watch half the strikes you see go by is a starting point in that endeavor. That should be enough to ensure that an organization will give him a shot in spring Training, so we definitely haven’t seen the last of Dominic Smith in the big leagues. It just appears likely that he’ll be an “old friend” rather than a returning player.

All that said, he’s projected to be replacement level or just barely above it at this point (and given 2026, it makes sense), so if a team does add him and use him, it’ll be for vibes and/or a lack of other options, kind of like the Braves in 2026.

One of the expected casualties of the upcoming lockout is the certainty of the timing of the salary arbitration process heading into the 2027 season.

Had this been a normal offseason, the exchange date for salary arbitration would have been Friday, January 8 based on the current collective bargaining agreement, or perhaps more likely Thursday, January 7, as the MLB office moved that date up a day in each of the last few years. The exchange date tends to be a soft deadline of sorts, by which deals get done. The Dodgers reached deals with all four of their arbitration-eligible players by January 8, 2026, for instance. In the first dozen offseasons with Andrew Friedman at the helm of the front office, the Dodgers have signed 83 of 91 arbitration-eligible players (92 percent) by the exchange date.

But with MLB owners set to lock out the players once the CBA expires on 8:59 p.m. PT on December 1, there’s no reason to think any sort of deal will be done by January. That puts arbitration in limbo, but something that will get completed, eventually.

In 2022, the CBA was agreed to on March 10, spring training was truncated, and opening day was pushed back a week. The arbitration exchange date was moved to March 22, during spring training. The Dodgers reached agreements with all three related players — Trea Turner for $21 million, Julio Urías for $8 million, and Caleb Ferguson for $762,500 as he recovered from Tommy John surgery.

But for players who exchanged salaries in March, their arbitration hearings were set for June, during the season. How it worked was a player would be paid at the salary the team filed (the lower number) to start the season, and if a hearing was won by the player they’d get back pay to make up the difference for the first few months.

Aaron Judge, for instance, filed at $21 million that year while the New York Yankees filed at $17 million. They reached agreement on June 24, just ahead of a potential arbitration hearing, for $19 million. Judge also negotiated a $250,000 bonus if he won American League MVP, and cashed that bonus in November.

That’s the lens through which to look at the players eligible for salary arbitration this winter. There are six such Dodgers.

In our initial offseason roster breakdown in October, we used the 2027 arbitration projections from MLB Trade Rumors, developed by Matt Swartz. But let’s widen our perspective just a bit, adding projections from both Jeff Euston of Cot’s Baseball Contracts and Zach Cioffi at Just Baseball.

We’ll dig deeper into each individual player in January, but this is a broad overview for now. A lot can happen between now and then, either through trades or the November 20 tender deadline.

Jake Cousins still has an option year remaining, but hasn’t pitched in the majors since June 2025 Tommy John surgery. Brock Stewart is out of options with a lengthy injury history, having been sidelined for 95 of the 162 regular season games last year on his three different IL stints, but he’s been quite effective in the months he’s been healthy.

“I’ve been hurt a lot so I always try to take things one day at a time,” Stewart told True Blue LA in September.

Andy Pages is eligible for salary arbitration for the first time as a Super Two player, among the top 22 percent in service time among players with at least two but not yet three years of major league service time. He’s coming off an All-Star season and was among the top three finishers for a National League Gold Glove in center field, and is projected to make some real money.

We’ll dig deeper into Pages in January, including a potential contract extension outlook with four arbitration-eligible years coming. But for now, here are a few comparable Super Two players from the last two offseasons at roughly his salary level, thanks to the folks atMLB Trade Rumors and Cot’s Contracts.

The Arizona Cardinals made their trade of Jacoby Brissett official today, moving the veteran journeyman quarterback to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for draft picks.

The compensation is interesting.

Brissett and a fifth round pick are going to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange the Cardinals are getting a fourth round pick this year and an additional seventh in 2028.

The Cardinals also covered $2.7 million in Brissett salary to get him off the roster after he demanded a trade on Monday after being benched on Sunday.

Having to pay extra salary and send a fifth back with him to get him off the roster though was probably what was needed. Brissett missed all offseason, came in out of shape and way behind, causing the offense to look really anemic most of the season.

Impressive for the Cardinals to set up their new coach with that during the offseason.

Hopefully the Cardinals offense can find its footing and Brissett can find a new start with the Ravens.

The Dodgers are parting ways with co-hitting coach Aaron Bates this offseason, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the California Post, marking an unexpected shake-up to a coaching staff the club had been planning to keep intact this winter.

Bates, 42, had been in the Dodgers’ organization for 12 years, first as a minor-league hitting coach before being promoted to the big-league staff in 2019 in an assistant hitting coach role. He was promoted again before the 2023 season to co-hitting coach alongside Robert Van Scoyoc, playing a key role in the club’s back-to-back World Series championships in 2024 and 2025.

At the start of the offseason, the Dodgers had been hoping to bring back their entire coaching staff, including Bates.

Last month, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said the team was “still working through things” with some of their coaches but expected the staff to remain “status quo.”

However, Bates and the Dodgers could not come to an agreement on a new multi-year contract to keep him in the organization, as MLB Trade Rumors first reported.

Van Scoyoc, meanwhile, is still expected to return next season, according to a source.

A former third-round draft pick as a player who briefly appeared in the majors with the Boston Red Sox during the 2009 season, Bates had climbed his way up the Dodgers’ organizational coaching ladder over the last dozen years. He was their rookie-ball hitting coach in 2015, their single-A hitting coach in 2016, their high-A hitting coach in 2017 and then their assistant minor-league hitting coordinator in 2018.

Since joining the Dodgers’ big-league staff, he had been part of all three of their recent World Series championships. He was promoted from assistant MLB hitting coach to his current role after Brant Brown left the organization following the 2022 campaign.

Under Bates and Van Scoyoc (who has been in his role since 2019), the Dodgers have boasted some of the most productive offensive numbers in the majors, leading the league in scoring, batting average and OPS over the last four seasons.

However, they have also endured extended second-half slumps each of the past two years, and struggled to find consistency in each of their last two postseasons.

In 2025, they won the World Series despite a .203 team batting average in their seven-game Fall Classic against the Toronto Blue Jays.

This October, they were smothered in the National League Championship Series by the Milwaukee Brewers, hitting only .185 in a four-game sweep.

In each of the last two years, Bates has also twice been forced to temporarily step away from the team because of health issues.

It was not immediately clear how wide a net the Dodgers might cast in attempting to fill Bates’ void, but they do have some potential internal candidates.

Game planning and communication coach JT Watkins has received rave reviews from players for his work with the offense in recent seasons. Triple-A hitting coach Dylan Nasiatka and Double-A hitting coach Blake Gailen have also helped develop several top prospects who figure to get opportunities in the majors over the next couple years.

The St. Louis Cardinals officially named Rob Cerfolio the new general manager on Friday, Nov. 6, a promotion for the 34-year-old who has been an assistant GM in the organization since 2024 under president Chaim Bloom.

Cerfolio previously worked in Cleveland's front office from 2015-2024, rising to the organization's director of player development.

“Since joining the Cardinals two years ago, Cerf has spearheaded tremendous progress in our player development efforts from top to bottom, and in the advancement of our performance group and its integration within our entire organization,” said Bloom in a statement.

"He is relentless in his desire to move us forward, and is invested in relationships with both new hires and longtime staff alike. I’m excited to partner with him in his new role as we work to set the standard for the industry in every area of baseball operations.”

St. Louis missed the playoffs for the fourth season in a row but the team had a major youth movement in 2026 led by rookie infielder JJ Wetherholt and outfielder Jordan Walker.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: St. Louis Cardinals announce team's new general manager

After the 2018 season, the Yankees’ pitching staff looked thin. Young ace Luis Severino gave them a top-flight starter atop the rotation, and Masahiro Tanaka was a more-than-capable No. 3 starter with a tendency of stepping up in big spots, but Sonny Gray and Domingo Germán were disasters while CC Sabathia and J.A. Happ were on the wrong side of 45. Compared to the Boston Red Sox — led by Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, and David Price — and the three-headed monster of Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Dallas Keuchel in Houston, it was clear that the Bombers had a lot of catching up to do in the arms race.

To that end, the Yankees opened the 2018-2019 offseason by swinging a deal for James Paxton, sending a package centered on top pitching prospect Justus Sheffield to the Seattle Mariners.

James Alston Paxton
Born: November 6, 1988 (Richmond, British Columbia, Canada)
Yankees Tenure: 2019-20

Born and raised in British Columbia, Paxton made a name for himself on the Canadian youth baseball circuit, ultimately helping to lead Team Canada to a bronze medal at the 2006 World Junior Baseball Championship. Following his high school career, the Big Maple took his talents to the United States, joining the University of Kentucky. Between his performance with the Wildcats (first as a reliever, then as a starter) and with the summer Alaska Baseball League, he quickly found himself on the radar of Major League ballclubs.

After a junior year in which he struck out 115 batters in 78.1 innings, he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays with the 37th overall pick of the 2009 draft (the compensation Toronto received when the Yankees signed A.J. Burnett). Unfortunately, they were unable to come a deal, and Paxton opted to return to Kentucky for his senior year… that is, until the Blue Jays told the media that they had been negotiating with Scott Boras, not with Paxton’s family. Back in the pre-NIL days, hiring an agent changed your status from an amateur to a pro, and he was declared ineligible; an attempt to sue in order to be reinstated led nowhere, and eventually, Paxton withdrew from Kentucky to begin his professional career.

Paxton spent the 2010 season with the Grand Prairie AirHogs, an American Association team which allowed him to retain draft eligibility. On the back of a solid, albeit unspectacular, performance there, he was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the fourth round of the 2010 draft. After a lengthy negotiation, he finally put pen to paper in March 2011, and began what would be a rapid ascent through the minor leagues. He reached Double-A by the end of 2011, received an invitation to spring training in 2012, and finally made his Major League debut on September 7, 2013.

Thanks to a strong cup of coffee in 2013, Paxton began the 2014 season in the Seattle rotation, where he would spend the next five seasons. Unfortunately, he fell into a rather predictable pattern. When healthy, he was one of the league’s premier pitchers: his 13.2 fWAR from 2014 to 2018 ranked 26th out of the 88 starters who went at least 550 innings, and his 18.8 K-BB% ranked 14th — just one-tenth of a percentage point behind Cole and three-tenths behind Tanaka. And on May 8, 2018, he became just the second Canadian-born pitcher to throw a no-hitter in baseball history — a testament to his ability.

However, Paxton was hardly healthy for a full season: he made more than 20 starts just twice in that span, having hit the IL with a lat strain in 2014, a strained tendon in his finger in 2015, a forearm strain and a pec strain in 2017, and back inflammation and a forearm strain in 2018.

When the Yankees acquired Paxton that winter, they gambled that his ability on the mound would be worth the risk of his lengthy injury history. In 2019, that was absolutely the case. In the year where pretty much every member of the Yankees spent time on the injured list, the oft-injured pitcher put together the healthiest season of his career, making 29 starts and spending just a few weeks of May on the shelf.

Despite a nasty tendency to surrender home runs in the first inning, Paxton anchored the Yankees rotation, and when the Yankees needed him most in October, he delivered. Getting the ball with the team down 3-1 in the ALCS and having dropped three consecutive games, Paxton shook off two less-than-stellar postseason starts to shut down the Astros lineup, striking out nine and allowing just one run in six innings to send the series back to Houston. Sure, things didn’t get any better from there, but that’s another story (and not any of Paxton’s fault, either).

As good as things went for Paxton in 2019, however, that’s how bad 2020 went. On February 5th, he underwent lumbar surgery, which would have sidelined him for 3-4 months if the season hadn’t been delayed because of the pandemic. Although he made it back in time for the late-July Opening Day, he put together the worst season of his career, posting a 6.64 ERA in 20.1 innings across five starts before hitting the shelf again, this time with a left flexor tendon strain — perhaps the reason for the diminished velocity that made him suddenly very hittable.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Yankees opted to let Paxton walk in free agency, and he returned to the Seattle Mariners on a one-year deal. After just 1.1 innings, though, he left the game with an elbow injury, and later that week, it was announced that he needed Tommy John surgery.

A free agent again that winter, Paxton returned to the AL East joining the Red Sox on a one-year deal with a two-year club option and a one-year player option. A lat tear ended his attempt at a comeback in 2022, prompting Boston to reject the club option and Paxton to accept the player option. Due to a right hamstring strain, he began the 2023 season on the IL, and finally, on May 12, 2023, he made his Boston debut. Over the next two months, he pitched well, posting a 3.34 ERA in 13 starts in his first bit of extended action since 2020. Boston floated Paxton at the deadline, but ultimately held onto him in an attempt to make a bid for a Wild Card spot after a dominant July. That would turn out to be a mistake for everyone involved: a mediocre August and terrible October sent the Red Sox to the basement of the AL East, and Paxton battled inconsistency before being shut down with knee inflammation at the start of September.

Paxton signed with the Dodgers on a one-year deal in January 2024, a contract that was originally $11 million but reworked and lowered to $7 million with playing-time incentives due to unspecified health issues. He made 18 starts for Los Angeles, helping them deal with a rash of injuries to the rotation, before being surprisingly and unceremoniously designated for assignment to make room for River Ryan and Clayton Kershaw on the active and 40-man rosters, respectively. The Red Sox claimed him off waivers, and after three starts, he suffered a calf tear that ended his season.

The Big Maple retired from Major League Baseball after the 2024 season, but that wouldn’t be the last time we saw him on a mound. Paxton accepted the invitation to pitch for Team Canada during the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Working out of the bullpen, he touched 97 mph on his fastball in two appearances, including 2.2 scoreless frames against Cuba to advance out of the group stage. Despite potential interest from pro teams, Paxton has reiterated that he will remain retired. Aside from spending time with his family, he is in the process of completing the business degree he abandoned at the University of Kentucky when he was declared ineligible more than 15 years ago; after that, he intends to pursue a Master’s degree in sports psychology.

Happy birthday to James Paxton!

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

Bobby Witt Jr. is an AL MVP finalist, and the Kansas City Royals have two other Silver Slugger finalists in Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone, which is a pretty good problem to have in November. Jacob Milham and Jeremy Greco look at what helps and hurts Witt’s case, and argue about how the outfield and utility finalists got picked in the first place.

The winter work starts with a new hitting coach, a former Giants hand with Kansas City-area ties. Then Jeremy and Jacob shop the free-agent market using FanGraphs’ crowdsourced contract estimates, weighing starters and relievers like Kris Bubic and Shane Bieber against contract length, injury risk, and qualifying offers. The question is where the Royals can find value without overpaying.

Down on the farm, Angeibel Gomez, Zion Rose, and Justin Lamkin are headed to the Arizona Fall League’s Fall Stars Game, and the hosts break down what stands out about each. They also run through the minor-league free agents walking out the door, including Alec Marsh landing with the White Sox, and who might be worth adding as depth.

If you want a full lap around the Royals’ offseason in one sitting, press play, then tell us who you would sign first.

Need your Royals fix? Head to royalsreview.com for news, analysis, and to engage with Royals fans around the world! Follow us online:

BlueSky
– Jeremy Greco: @hokius.fromthehawkseye.com
– Jacob Milham: @jacobmilhkc.bsky.social

Twitter / X
– Podcast: @RoyalRundownPod

When the Phillies signed Brian Keller on May 18, it didn’t make much of a splash. After all he was a 32-year-old who had never pitched in the majors and spent the past couple of years rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

After spending the early part of his career in the minor league systems of the Yankees and Red Sox, Keller signed with the Hanshin Tigers of the NPB league in Japan before the 2023 season. But before he could pitch a single inning for them, he suffered an elbow injury that would take him out of action for multiple years.

Finally confident his arm was ready to handle professional innings again, Keller tried out with the Phillies in May, and they must have liked what they saw because they signed him to a minor league contract.

Keller impressed at AAA, with a 2.24 ERA in nine starts. When the Phillies found themselves in need of a “bulk” pitcher for one game, he finally got the call to make his major league debut. On July 25th, in a game against the Yankees, Keller was called upon to start the third inning. He pitched three innings, giving up one run.

He was returned to Lehigh Valley afterwards, and whatever success he had experienced before his promotion was gone. He might have been the worst pitcher in the Lehigh Valley rotation down the stretch, which is saying a lot.

What went right

His first AAA stint was very good. He had a 2.24 ERA with 38 strikeouts and 11 walks in 36.1 innings. As for his brief major league tenure, one run in three innings certainly isn’t the worst showing by a Phillies pitcher this year.

Most importantly, after years of injury and toil across multiple continents, he was finally able to make it to the big leagues, which is a success in itself.

What went wrong

Basically, everything after his major league outing. His strikeout to walk ratio went haywire, as he struck out 16 and walked 18 while giving up 41 runs in 30.1 innings. He was so bad that when the Phillies were in desperate need for someone to pitch a few innings, he wasn’t even a consideration.

The future

Keller is 32 years old and a free agent, so the Phillies would be justified in choosing to move in another direction. But it’s possible that his collapse in the later part of the year was mostly due to this being his first year pitching competitively after three years of injury and rehab and his arm was just tired. The Phillies might look at his early success and feel like there’s something to work with there. I could see them offering him a minor league invite to camp.

Final grade: C-

He gave them three non-horrible innings in the majors, but it would have been nice if he could have been an option later in the season.

Happy Friday everyone!

The Athletics’ new-look front office continues to take shape. Yesterday, the team officially introduced its new general manager, Cam Castro.

The 36-year-old spent the past eight years with the Milwaukee Brewers, working his way up from Single-A pitching coach to the Brewers’ senior vice president of player development and performance. Castro’s extensive background in pitching development is a big reason why Athletics President of Baseball Operations Taylor Smith brought him aboard to help turn the A’s from rebuilders to contenders.

If the A’s want to return to the playoffs, they must fix their league-worst pitching staff. Jack Perkins, Jacob Lopez and Gage Jump are three starting pitchers who, with the right coaching, could elevate their ability next season. That trio will likely be joined by offseason additions acquired through trades and/or free agent signings.

Additional help may come from within the organization. The A’s top pitching prospect, left-hander Jamie Arnold, is on track to make his major league debut in 2027 as long as he stays healthy and avoids performance regression. Speaking of regression, the Green and Gold would greatly benefit if Castro and the new pitching coach can help talented right-hander Luis Morales regain his form after he struggled to retire hitters this year. 

While Morales and Arnold remain with the team, a group of other minor leaguers declared free agency.

The majority of these players provided organizational depth. However, several of them received playing time with the Athletics due to the club’s injury crises during the second half of the season.

Robert Puason stands out as a highly touted multimillion international signee who failed to translate his tools into consistent production. Although the A’s have remained active in the international market—signing youth prospects from Latin America, South America and the Far East, it hasn’t panned out so well. Yoenis Céspedes remain the most recent signee to significantly impact the club.

Castro and Smith both previously worked with clubs who have found great success in scouting and developing foreign players. How can these two executives ensure the Athletics generate more of a return in investment on the international market? Which minor league free agents should the A’s resign and who should they let go to pursue other opportunities? Lastly, which MLB free agent do you want the team to target first?

A’s Coverage

• New GM Castro, POBO Smith give glimpse into vision for A’s
• Athletics Hire Cam Castro As General Manager
• Taylor Smith’s Improbable Quest: A Quality SP
• A’s trade RHP prospect to Red Sox for outfielder Eaton
• Three A’s Officially Elect Free Agency
• 28 A’s Minor Leaguers Choose Free Agency
• A’s prospect who was ‘born to hit’ bringing big smiles, intangibles to Fall League
• After standout year, No. 7 prospect Taylor could factor into A’s ‘27 plans
• Q&A: Smith discusses his new role as youngest head of baseball ops in MLB
• Taylor Smith’s Improbable Quest: A Quality SP
• Why A’s Bringing Back Sonny Gray Could Make Sense
• Optics vs. Infrastructure: Taylor Smith’s First Dilemma
• Athletics Hire Taylor Smith As Next President of Baseball Operations
• Realistic Shea Langeliers trade offers the Yankees, Cubs and Reds can make
• A’s Max Muncy Undergoes Knee Debridement
• The five biggest questions facing the A’s this offseason
• Inside the A’s State-of-the-Art Las Vegas Ballpark
• Temporary plaza at Athletics ballpark weighed as funding remains uncertain
• How technology will shape fan experiences at the A’s Las Vegas ballpark
• Pitching prospect Huggins growing his game with the help of this A’s Hall of Famer
• ’Be a sponge’: No. 19 prospect leads A’s Fall League group with do-it-all mentality
• A’s LHP prospect Richardson shows off health and resiliency during Fall League homecoming
• Get the best of Athletics Nation on the new SB Nation app

MLB News & Interest:

• MLB GM meetings FAQ: Here’s what fans need to know ahead of the baseball gathering
• MLB increases cap and floor in latest proposal, sets 2028 target
• Here are the 2026 Silver Slugger Award finalists
• Pujols, Ensberg to interview for Astros manager opening (sources)
• Angels Yet To Begin Interviewing GM Candidates While Awaiting Sale Approval
• Guardians’ Clase, Ortiz described as ‘cheaters’ at pitch-rigging trial
• Hot Stove rumors: Gunnar, Mets, Rasmussen, Marte
• What to expect from Japanese superstar Sato in the Majors
• Phillies Likely To Pursue Left-Handed Setup Man
• Team-by-team breakdown of every free agent
• Top 40 MLB free agents: Tarik Skubal headlines class light on star power
• 10 free agents who raised their stock in 2026
• UPDATED 2027-28 MLB Free Agents
• Former MLB star Mark Teixeira wins U.S. House seat in Texas
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X

Everyone, please welcome Castro to the Athletics!

Sign of the future! It will be interesting to see what the Las Vegas ballpark looks like when it’s fully built.

Not a bad idea. However, the A’s new front office will find it difficult to entice talented, experienced free-agent pitchers to sign with the club because of the Sacramento factor and the team’s five consecutive losing seasons.

Hello everyone and happy Friday!

Let’s get to all of the updates from around baseball you may have missed.

In Mariners news…

• Randy Arozarena was named a finalist for a Silver Slugger award.
• Ryan Blake explained why he’s skeptical of new Mariners manager Jason Kanzler.
• Kanzler talked about why he’s so excited to manage the M’s and Julio in particular.

Around the league…

• Former big leaguer Shelley Duncan is joining the Red Sox coaching staff.
• The Mets have hired Johnny Washington as their co-hitting coach.
• Former Angels GM Perry Minasian has returned to the Braves to serve as a senior advisor to the amateur scouting department.
• Five retired umpires are suing Major League Baseball alleging that they were short-changed in their retirement packages.
• Dan Szymborski graded the on-field postseason managerial decision-making of Brewers skipper Pat Murphy.
• Mario Delgado Genzor at Baseball Prospectus wonders if Major League Baseball could still thrive without an annual amateur draft. ($)