Category: Sports News

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza spoke following Thursday’s workouts in Port St. Lucie…

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On Bichette’s transition to the hot corner

With Bo Bichette making the move to third base this season, he was among a number of Mets position players who arrived to camp early this week. 

Mendoza is encouraged by that because it allows the coaching staff to get even more hands-on work with their new infielder, as was the case on Thursday.  

While both sides like what they’ve seen in the early going, there are still some things Bichette has to adjust to moving off of shortstop. 

The biggest aspect, Mendoza explained, is getting used to the timing at third base. 

“Those are some of the things, besides angles and things like that,” the skipper said. “It’s just the feel for the game clock and understanding the ball is going to get on you quicker at times, and you have more time than what you think.

“The other one is the double play -- you have to be quicker getting rid of the ball, you have to give the second baseman a chance -- those are some of the conversations we’re having, and I’m glad he’s early so we can get that out of the way.”

Bichette said both Mendoza and bench coach Kai Correa have been very helpful. 

He feels the biggest hurdle in the transition will be working into game action, but he’s excited for the opportunity to go out and get more comfortable this spring. 

What Mendy needs to see from Benge

Carson Benge has a massive opportunity in front of him this spring. 

The Mets have emphasized all offseason that they want to give the youngster every chance to crack the big-league roster out of camp. 

To accomplish that, Mendoza is simply looking for him to be himself. 

“The conversation I’ve already had with him was just go out there and be yourself,” he said. “I know there’s a lot of noise, and you’re going to get a real opportunity here, but don’t try to go out there and do too much.

“Understanding that you’re going to 0-for at times, you’re probably going to drop a fly ball, especially with the high sky and windy conditions -- but don’t let nothing bother you, I want you to be yourself out there.”

Mendoza has only seen him in BP and live AB’s, but so far he’s been encouraged.

“A lot of the things we’ve been getting from player development,” he said. “The fact that he’s here since Day 1 that the complex opened back in January. So far a quiet guy, observant, and I think he’s just learning from a lot of the guys that are around him right now.”

Bryan Hudson to compete for spot

Mendoza said that the Mets picked up the towering left-hander in a trade with the Brewers earlier this week because they feel he has the ability to help this bullpen.

"A couple of years ago, he had a pretty good year, he was effective for the Brewers," the skipper explained. "Last year, he had some ups-and-downs, but he's going to get an opportunity and we'll see how it goes."

Hudson had a 4.80 ERA and 1.86 WHIP in 15 innings with the Brewers and White Sox last season.

The year before that, his first in the majors, he pitched to a stellar 1.73 ERA across 43 appearances (62 IP).

If the southpaw can return to that form, it would be a nice boost for the Mets' bullpen that is expected to be without veteran A.J. Minter until at least May as he recovers from season-ending lat surgery. 

Senga's encouraging bullpen session

Mendoza likes the intensity he saw in Kodai Senga's bullpen session Thursday in PSL. 

Senga touched 92 mph, which the manager indicated is not normal for him at this point, in a good way.

"He's usually a guy who is thinking of his mechanics and things like that," he said. "Today, he got behind the baseball pretty good and used all of his pitches. It's just good to see him healthy and throwing like that this early -- we need him, we're counting on him, and we believe in him."

A healthy and dominant Senga would go a long way towards helping the Mets' rotation bounceback. 

Shohei Ohtani’s clearly been pumping iron and inhaling protein this offseason.

The Dodgers superstar showed up to Los Angeles’ spring training workouts in Arizona this week looking noticeably bigger.

In one photo of the two-way star that’s been circulating on social media, he looks like he’s added several inches to his upper torso.

It’s so evident, some have quipped about how he’s obviously not skipping any chest days.

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Of course, Ohtani’s never been little by any means. The 6-foot-3 designated hitter and pitcher was listed at 210 pounds by the Dodgers last season.

It, though, sure seems like he’s packed on a few more lbs to that frame heading into 2026 — a scary sight for MLB teams who’ve been trying to slow down the four-time league MVP for years.

Today we look atthe Cubs’ veteran right-handed starter.

Jameson Lee Taillon was born in Lakeland, Florida, 34 years ago. He was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2010 June Amateur Draft, going to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he toiled for four years, recorded 29 wins against 24 losses, and looked every bit of a decent young pitcher after getting to The Show.

He was traded to the Yankees, where he went 22-11, with a meh year and a really good year before he was signed by the Cubs. He’s now 82-60, 3.87 after three years on the North Side, where he’s been a serviceable rotation arm, possibly the most dependable on the squad. He’s been relatively good each year in Chicago, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t have another year in his arm. He’s in the 1,000+ career strikeout club and can slot into any spot in the rotation.

His lifetime 15.4 bWAR (18.8 fWAR) in 11 years attests to his abilities. He’s also been to the postseason twice, with middling results.

He doesn’t walk very many batters. He also doesn’t strike out a lot of them. He doesn’t allow a lot of hits. He’s one of those guys that pitches to contact and lets the defense work. That plays in Chicago, where the defense never rests.

Projections have him generally around .500, 9-9 or so. 7K/9, 2.0+ BB/9, which isn’t bad. I suspect he’ll win a couple more games than that with relative health. Your guess is as good as anyone’s.

For the third consecutive entry into the free agency series, another elite left-handed reliever is due to be covered. For better or for worse, the Yankees made another splash in the offseason following the 2018 season from a free agent class that featured far more generational talent than the usual crop.

Zack Britton, in all fairness, was not all that far removed from one of the great pitching performances in modern baseball history. The perception of his deal may not be entirely fair, as it wouldn’t be right to compare his overall value to someone like Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, but on the whole, Britton was quite good for the Yankees. Big-money deals on relief pitching can feel like a letdown when there are A-list free agents available on the market, but Britton was elite for a long stretch, some of which the Yankees were able to enjoy.

Zack Britton
Signing Date: January 11, 2019
Contract: Three years, $39 million

Britton, a 6-foot-1 left-hander, was originally drafted in the third round of the 2006 amateur draft by the Orioles. He would remain with that organization for over a decade, and see a level of success at times that few other pitchers in the history of the sport enjoyed.

He initially came up as a starter, pitching over 150 innings across 28 starts in his 2011 rookie campaign. Over the next couple of seasons, he was only able to make 11 and seven starts for Baltimore, respectively. Unfortunately for the O’s and their lefty, it was an unconvincing stretch on the bump, as he managed an ERA approaching five across those three years.

For the 2014 season, Britton was moved to the bullpen. As a result, he almost instantly became one of baseball’s most dominant forces on the mound. He pitched in a career-high 71 games, racked up 37 saves, and managed a stingy 1.65 ERA in over 75 innings of work for Baltimore. A year later, he was just as good in the closer role for the Birds, earning his first All-Star nod in the process. In 2016, his third season coming out of the bullpen, Britton established himself fully as one of the most dominant pitchers on the planet. He had a similar workload, 67 innings across 69 innings of work, but he reached an entirely different level after already pitching incredibly well over the last couple of seasons.

In 2016, the 0.54 ERA he posted still stands as the lowest figure by a pitcher in MLB history among all to ever throw at least 50 innings in one season. That is no small feat, and it earned him another All-Star selection, as well as a fourth-place finish in the Cy Young voting (in a weaker year for candidates, he may have had a legitimate case for the award). Britton was perfect in save opportunities, closing down all 47 chances that Buck Showalter gave him. It would take some squinting, but there is an avenue where you could call that season one of the great pitching performances in baseball history.

It’s just a shame that Showalter’s outdated thoughts on closer usage meant that Britton inexplicably didn’t throw a single pitch during Baltimore’s Wild Card Game loss to the Blue Jays. Held out for a save opportunity that never came, he could only watch as Edwin Encarnación took Ubaldo Jiménez deep to walk it off in the 11th.

Lol… #falseadvertisinghttps://t.co/OoQNz9zS87

— Zack Britton (@zbritton) October 15, 2016

Britton missed some time in 2017, and was not quite at the same level in his 39.1 innings, though he was still very solid. The following season was mostly the same for Britton with Baltimore in the first half, and he was eventually sent to the Yankees in a rental trade that saw New York deal three prospects but none of particular note. He worked 25 games with the Yankees that season, maintaining a sub-3 ERA in 25 innings, a nice note to hit free agency on.

It was an offseason that carried a lot of hope and potential for plenty of clubs, with the likes of Harper, Machado, and Patrick Corbin headlining the free agent class. They were all players that could have made good fits with the Yankees, though they clearly went a different direction. Instead of any of the top-shelf names, the Yankees re-signed J.A. Happ, made a savvy move in picking up DJ LeMahieu, and in January of 2019, re-upped the services of Zack Britton.

It was a three-year deal, with Britton making $13 million per season, a lot of money for a reliever, surely, but nothing franchise-altering. In his first full season with the club, Britton did his part in making it look like a great deal. The lefty pitched over 60 innings, boasting a 1.91 ERA in a high-leverage role in what was one of his best seasons in terms of results. He even did his part in the postseason that year, when the Yankees came to within a game of the World Series. He allowed just one run on two hits across eight innings of work that October.

Although that was his age-31 season, Britton was still in the midst of his prime, and showed minimal signs of slowing down on the mound. Unfortunately for him and the Yankees, however, that year would be his last real chance at a full season of work.

Britton was even better for the shortened 2020 season, but obvious circumstances limited him to just 19 innings of work, albeit very good ones. It was the next season, unfortunately, that his career began to hit the wall. The injury bug had come to bite the Yankees left-hander, as he missed much of that season with injuries in his throwing elbow and his hamstring. His abbreviated work was not up to standards that year either, as he pitched to the tune of an ERA and FIP well north of five, and wrapped up the season with salt in the wound, as he needed Tommy John surgery in September of that year.

A club option was kicked in following the 2020 season, meaning that Britton would remain with the Yankees through 2022, despite the injury trouble. More than a year after his initial shelving, Britton returned for the Yankees in September of ‘22. After three abysmal appearances on the mound, he left a late-season game against his old team, the Orioles, with more elbow discomfort. Surely disappointed in the turn his baseball life had taken, that would be the final action of Britton’s career in the major leagues. He sat out 2023 and then officially retired that November.

Britton’s contract is a difficult one to assess on the whole. Relief pitcher contracts can get funky in general, and he was actually very good for two of the planned three years of their agreement. Despite that, it feels as though his tenure is surrounded by so much disappointment. His career unfortunately ended with a bit of a whimper, and his signing came at a time when fans likely expected a lot more aggression out of the club in terms of spending.

However fair all of that may be, it still feels reasonable to recognize how good of a pitcher Britton was. From 2014-20, Britton’s 1.84 ERA was a distant best in baseball, and the Yankees were able to enjoy two-and-a-half years of that dominant stretch. It may have been an underwhelming deal in the bigger picture, but it’s also hard to deny the value of the signing at the time, and what Britton provided at his best for the Yankees.

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See more of the “50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agent Signings in 50 Years” series here.

The Kansas City Royals were active in making moves toward the beginning of the offseason. They acquired some key pieces via trades. Nick Mears, Isaac Collins, Matt Strahm. They also signed Lane Thomas.

Now, comparatively speaking, the rest of the division did not do a whole lot. The Twins and White Sox are tanking and not trying to do anything ambitious this season. The Guardians are pretty much running it back with who they had last season. Jose Ramirez and friends, some would say.

The only real contender that has also made some moves is the Tigers. They got Tarik Skubal back after a historic arbitration case. They signed Framber Valdez to a huge three-year contract, and they signed former ace Justin Verlander.

So, the Tigers are trying to somewhat copy the Royals’ strategy and win games with amazing pitching. Skubal and Valdez is one heck of a 1-2 punch. Their offense might be a little better than the Royals right now, too.

PECOTA seems to like the Royals, for what that’s worth. But that was before Detroit made their big moves.

But what do you think? Have the Royals done enough this offseason to win the division? Is there something else you are hoping or wanting them to do?

As we close out our preseason baseball content, we’ve compiled a list of the top-10 players entering the 2026 season. The season officially starts this weekend, so let’s get right into it so we can enjoy some baseball!

1. Sean Yamaguchi, 3B, Nevada

Yamaguchi’s freshman campaign in 2025 was one of the most impressive debut seasons in the conference. He hit .324 with 13 home runs, 13 doubles, and 50 RBIs, tying a Mountain West freshman home run record while immediately establishing himself as a middle-of-the-order force.

Beyond the bat, Yamaguchi showed advanced defensive instincts at third base, handling the hot corner with confidence well beyond his age. Entering his sophomore season, he has star upside written all over him and could very easily push him to the top even more.

2. Carson Lane, RHP, UNLV

Lane enters 2026 as the Mountain West’s premier arm after a workhorse 2025 season for UNLV. The right-hander finished 6–4 with a 4.23 ERA, logging 78.2 innings and striking out 85 batters, consistently pitching deep into games in a Rebels rotation that leaned heavily on his durability.

Lane’s ability to hold velocity, limit damage, and compete through traffic elevated his value beyond raw numbers. With another offseason of development and a clear role as UNLV’s Friday-night starter, Lane enters 2026 as the conference’s most trusted ace and a legitimate Pitcher of the Year frontrunner.

3. Khalil Walker, OF, New Mexico

Walker was one of the most dangerous offensive players in the conference during 2025, finishing the season just under .400 at the plate while catalyzing New Mexico’s nation-leading offense. His ability to square up pitches consistently and reach base at an elite rate made him a constant problem for opposing pitchers.

Add in his speed and defensive range in the outfield, and Walker’s all-around game puts him firmly among the Mountain West’s elite. If New Mexico stays in the conference title picture again, Walker will be a major reason why.

4. Jayce Dobie, UTL, Nevada

Dobie’s versatility and production make him one of the most valuable players in the Mountain West entering 2026. At the plate in 2025, he hit .339 with 15 doubles, seven home runs and 36 RBIs, providing consistent offense regardless of where he was slotted in the lineup.

What separates Dobie from others is his two-way ability. He also contributed on the mound, finishing 2–2 with 37 strikeouts in 43 innings, giving Nevada the flexibility few teams can match. His senior season projects as another high-impact year on both sides of the ball.

5. Akili Carris, 3B, New Mexico

Carris emerged as one of the most impactful bats in the Mountain West during New Mexico’s explosive 2025 season, carving out a key role in one of the nation’s most productive offenses. The infielder finished the year hitting .341, piling up 13 doubles, consistent extra-base damage, and finishing near the top of the Lobos’ lineup in both runs scored and on-base percentage. His ability to consistently barrel the baseball made him a constant threat in conference play.

What elevates Carris into the top tier entering 2026 is how well his skill set fits New Mexico’s offensive identity. He combines plate discipline with gap power, rarely giving away at-bats, and forces pitchers to work deep counts. Defensively, he brings athleticism and range to the infield, rounding out a complete profile. With another year of experience and a lineup built to score in bunches, Carris enters 2026 as one of the most dangerous and reliable position players in the Mountain West.

6. Griffen Sotomayor, 1B, Fresno State

Sotomayor emerged as a cornerstone of Fresno State’s offense in 2025, batting .330 with 16 doubles, seven home runs and 41 RBIs while posting a slugging percentage north of .500. His ability to drive the baseball to all fields made him a true middle-order threat for the Bulldogs.

As a senior, Sotomayor enters 2026 as one of the conference’s top run producers and a stabilizing presence at first base. His power-plus-contact profile gives Fresno State one of the safest offensive bets in the league.

7. Max Hartman, OF, Washington State

Hartman quietly put together one of the most efficient offensive seasons in the Mountain West in 2025, hitting approximately .360 with a .430+ on-base percentage while consistently producing extra-base hits. His disciplined approach allowed him to impact games without forcing the issue.

Defensively sound and offensively consistent, Hartman gives Washington State a veteran bat capable of anchoring a lineup. Entering his senior season, he profiles as one of the conference’s most reliable outfielders.

8. Alex Fernandes, OF, San Jose State

Fernandes was a model of consistency in 2025, finishing the season hitting .361 with a .447 on-base percentage while serving as one of San Jose State’s most dependable offensive options. His ability to grind at-bats and drive the gaps made him a key piece of the Spartans’ lineup.

Entering 2026, Fernandes brings senior leadership, defensive stability, and a proven bat to a San Jose State team with conference aspirations. He may not be flashy, but his production speaks loudly.

9. Tyler Albanese, RHP, San Jose State

Albanese took a major step forward in 2025, emerging as one of the most reliable arms in the Mountain West. The right-hander finished the season 4–3 with a 2.97 ERA across 39.1 innings, consistently limiting damage and giving San Jose State quality outings in both starting and high-leverage relief roles. His ability to throw strikes and change speeds allowed him to neutralize some of the league’s better offenses. He’s a big, physical RHP with a low-mid 90s heater with two quality breakers. 

What makes Albanese especially valuable entering 2026 is his versatility. He proved capable of handling multiple roles, whether bridging innings out of the bullpen or stepping into bigger spots when needed. With another year of development and a clear role in the Spartans’ pitching plans, Albanese enters the season as one of the conference’s most dependable arms and a key piece for a San Jose State team with postseason aspirations.

10. Karsen Waslefsky, SS, New Mexico

Waslefsky was a key part of the Lobos’ offense that hit .337 last year, as he batted .298 on the season with an .828 OPS, scoring 32 runs on 42 hits while driving in 31. He finished the season with six doubles, one triple and five homers.

Defensively, his fielding percentage was at .959 with 47 putouts and 116 assists on 170 opportunities with just seven errors. As a senior shortstop, his glove and experienced bat will be integral to a Lobo squad hoping to build on its prolific run production.

Honorable mentions: Billy Ham (DH, Nevada), Junhyuk Kwon (INF, Nevada), Jake McCoy (OF, San Jose State), Alessandro Castro( P, Nevada), Tyler Patrick (P, Fresno State)

It has to be said, the bonus months of baseball in Arizona are definitely a plus. When the rest of the country is still digging itself out of snow-drifts, the state becomes a mecca for all the MLB teams in the Western half of the country. It’s like having an All-Star Game in your backyard. Then, at the end of the year, we get the Arizona Fall League, a showcase for some of the best prospects from all thirty teams. But spring training is not all sunshine and roses…

What do you enjoy most and least about spring training?

I think it’s a delight when it starts, simply because we’ve been starved of baseball for months. Simply seeing the players wandering about, stretching and taking ground balls is a joy, especially if you’ve been spending your time not giving a damn about the NFL, NBA or… whatever that other league is. But speaking personally, there’s a point – well before the end of the Cactus League schedule – where I’ve had enough of games where even the starting position players only go five innings, and by the end, your score-card resembles the first draft of Peter Jackson’s next trilogy. Then there’s the potential for meaningless baseball leading to very meaningful injury…

So, whether you live in Arizona or not, tell us what you feel about spring training!

The Twins have acquired left-handed reliever Anthony Banda from the Dodgers in exchange for international bonus pool space. Banda was designated for assignment by the Dodgers earlier this week, essentially meaning the Twins gave the Dodgers a bit of cash to jump the waiver line. RHP Jackson Kowar, picked up off the waiver wire last week, was DFA’d to make room on the 40-man roster. The minor trade was reported by Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune.

Over the past two seasons in LA, Banda has a 3.14 ERA/4.52 FIP with 111 strikeouts in 114.2 innings. The FIP is quite a bit higher due to his walk rate, which was one of the worst in MLB among relievers last season. Like most lefties, he’s significantly better against left-handed batters and will likely be deployed as more of a true lefty-specialist. Fellow left-hander Kody Funderburk actually struggles more against lefties, making him and Banda a good pair in the middle innings for the Twins.

Banda will make a very modest $1.625M in 2026 and is controllable next season as well via arbitration. I would expect the Twins to still be pretty active on the waiver and trade market over the next two months as they look to beef up their bullpen. They have three solid left-handed options now with Banda, Funderburk, and Taylor Rogers, but could still use a more established right-handed reliever to go with Cole Sands and Justin Topa.

What are your thoughts on Banda? Can the Twins help get his walk rate under control and make him a more effective reliever?

Chase Lee is a 27-year-old, side-arm, right-handed reliever we picked up in trade from the Tigers in December. The Tigers needed a spot on the 40-man roster. And I had totally forgotten he was on the 40-man. I think this is the first one I totally forgot about. I’m not sure if this is true, but I’ve always felt that side-arm pitchers can continue to be effective into their late-30s.

The Jays sent Johan Simon to the Tigers, a 24-year-old left-handed pitcher who spent most of 2025 with Vancouver. He throws a 94 MPH fastball and gets a lot of ground balls. He had a 3.42 ERA across three levels last year. Not a big prospect but could make it as a lefty reliever.

Lee has two option years left, which gives him more value to the Jays. He pitched in 32 games as a reliever for the Tigers, with a 4.10 ERA, 9 walks, 36 strikeouts in 37.1 innings with 7 home runs against. Batters hit .239/.291/.478 against him. Statcast says he averaged 89.1 on his fastball.

He throws a sinker, sweeper, 4-seem and an occasion change up.

He also had 32 innings in Toledo with a 6.75 ERA in 32 innings, with 38 strikeouts, 10 walks and 4 home runs.

FanGraphs had Lee at #29 on their top 39 Tigers’ prospect list (39 seems a strange number). They said:

Lee, who came to Detroit from Texas in the Andrew Chafin deal, is a pretty standard sinker/slider sidearmer who has posted strikeout rates up around 30% his entire minor league career while maintaining a below-average walk rate. He doesn’t have precise fastball control — he lives in the zone, but not always on the edge of it — and that might be a problem against big leaguers when you’re only sitting 88. But both Lee’s sinker and slider live in the bottom of the zone consistently enough to consider him a high-probability up/down look reliever.

Bless You Boys had him #37 on their list:

Lee is a sidearm reliever who rarely tops 91 mph, but his mix of fastball types and sweeper-slider combination makes him a tricky at-bat, especially for right-handed hitters. The Rangers certainly thought so when they spent the second pick of the sixth round of the 2021 draft on the reliever out of Alabama. He racked up a ton of strikeouts in their farm system and limited home runs, but trouble with walks kept him from breaking through at the major league level.

Against right-handers, Lee will also use a heavy volume of sweepers. Against lefties he’ll mix his slider in almost as much as the sweeper. The sweeper is typically around 80-81 mph, with a lot of horizontal movement out of that low, side arm slot. Right-handers are consistently seeing the sweeper start in their hot zones, beginning their swing, and then flailing as the pitch bends all the way across the strike zone to be buried down and away. He’s racked up a solid but unspectacular whiff rate of 28.3 percent with it at the Triple-A level going back to the beginning of the 2024 season. The slider has more depth and is typically 84 mph. He uses it a little more when he needs to throw something that’s a change of pace for a strike.

As Lee is likely to be used as right-handed hitter specialist for the most part at the major league level, it’s the sinker-sweeper combination that you’re likely to see most from him. However, the slider and fourseamer give him extra weapons to work with against lefties, and he’s handled them pretty well too. He’s just more home run prone against southpaws and not the guy you want facing Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in an outing, as an extreme example.

For the Jays, I think a lot of his value is the arm angle and the options. You can see the arm angle here:

Steamer thinks he’ll pitch 30 games, 30 innings, with a 3.92 ERA, 29 Ks, and 10 walks.

People who closely follow the Brewers have been wondering: when is William Contreras’ arbitration hearing? In January, the two sides were separated by $1.35 million and did not come to an agreement. We’ve been waiting for news since then, especially in the last two weeks, as the remaining arbitration cases have been heard.

Well, Contreras and the Brewers did not require a hearing, after all. They’ve agreed to a one-year deal with a club option for 2027. While terms haven’t yet been disclosed, that’s similar to the 1+1 deal he signed before the 2025 season. Contreras made $6.1 million in 2025, but the Brewers declined their 2026 club option (reportedly worth $12 million), instead preferring to negotiate his arbitration salary again. That move saved them a few million dollars, as Contreras filed at $9.9 million and the Brewers countered at $8.55 million.

We have signed catcher William Contreras to a 1-year contract with a club option for 2027, avoiding arbitration pic.twitter.com/ZLAioygzHf

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) February 12, 2026

Whether the Brewers decline Contreras’ option after this season or choose to pick it up, they’ll still have his rights through the 2027 season.

We’ll update this article when we hear the terms of Contreras’s contract. His was the last outstanding case, and all Brewers currently on the team are now signed.

Update: Jon Heyman has the terms:

William Contreras and Brewers settled, avoiding a hearing. Here’s the deal:

$9,400,000 – 2026

Club option 2027 for $14,500,000

Awards Bonuses

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 12, 2026

So, depending if Contreras doesn’t reach any of those mysterious Awards Bonuses, the Brewers will have saved $2.6 million by declining the club option for 2026.

The Dodgers found a new home for Anthony Banda, trading the veteran left-handed reliever to the Minnesota Twins on Thursday for international bonus pool space, the teams announced.

The amount of bonus pool space traded is reportedly $500,000, per Francys Romero. By rule, teams can trade space in increments of $250,000 unless trading the entirety of its remaining bonus pool space.

Banda was designated for assignment on Friday when the Dodgers claimed catcher Ben Rortvedt off waivers, a product of a crowded bullpen depth chart that also includes fellow left-handers Alex Vesia, Tanner Scott, Jack Dreyer, and possibly Justin Wrobleski.

Acquired in a minor league trade from the Guardians in the 2024 season, Banda put up a 3.14 ERA and 3.46 xERA with 111 strikeouts and 40 unintentional walks in 114 2/3 innings. The southpaw held left-handed batters to hit just .182/.259/.261 with a 26.1-percent strikeout rate.

Banda was a reliable workhorse in his two years in the Dodgers bullpen. He didn’t join the team in 2024 until May 19, but from then through the end of 2025 Banda led the Dodgers by appearing in 119 games, four more than Alex Vesia and tied for 15th-most in baseball during that time. Banda also appeared in 17 of the Dodgers’ 33 postseason games over the last two years.

“The way I look at it is, whoever is in the bullpen, whoever’s name is called, they’re going to be ready to take on whatever they need to do. That’s kind of the environment they’ve created down there,” Banda said late in 2024. “I focus on feeling good every single day, being ready, and if my number is called, then just go out and do my job and be ready for the next day.”

Banda had the best two seasons of his career in Los Angeles. Now entering his 15th professional season, the 32-year-old is onto his 12th major league organization with the Twins.

With four years, 135 days of major league service time, Banda was eligible for salary arbitration for a second time this offseason. He avoided a hearing in January with a one-year deal worth $1.625 million.