June 2025 - Baseball Wiretap

Kodai Senga recently informed the New York Mets that he prefers to remain with the organization rather than be traded, according to league sources. The starting pitcher wants to reestablish himself after making just one start in 2024 due to injuries. Despite his preference, the Mets may still trade Senga as they pursue rotation upgrades this offseason.

Multiple teams have shown trade interest in Senga, as reported by The Athletic earlier this month. The 32-year-old right-hander has a limited no-trade clause allowing him to block deals to 10 franchises. His contract is considered reasonable at $28 million combined over the next two seasons with a club option for 2028.

Senga struggled in the second half of last season, posting a 6.56 ERA over eight starts before accepting a demotion to Triple-A Syracuse. He finished with a 3.00 ERA across three seasons and placed in the top 10 for Cy Young Award voting as a rookie in 2023. His performance remains difficult to project given recent injuries and mechanical concerns.

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said after last season it would be foolish to expect Senga to make 30 starts. The club is actively pursuing a top-of-the-rotation starter this offseason. League sources indicated at the GM Meetings that the Mets are more likely to add one starter rather than two.

The projected rotation includes Nolan McLean, Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, David Peterson and Senga. Brandon Sproat, Jonah Tong and Christian Scott remain intriguing candidates as well. Adding another starter would reduce the team's dependence on Senga compared to his role entering 2025.

Some clubs view Senga as an interesting buy-low candidate in a pitching market with limited free agent options. The availability of other trade targets like Detroit's Tarik Skubal and Milwaukee's Freddy Peralta remains uncertain. Senga's desire to stay is notable given the personnel changes during his tenure, including managerial, front office and pitching coach transitions since arriving from Japan.

Closer Ryan Helsley and the Baltimore Orioles are in agreement on a two-year contract that includes an opt-out after the first season, sources told ESPN, continuing the remaking of Baltimore's beleaguered pitching staff with one of the most sought-after relievers on the free agent market.

While multiple teams sought to sign Helsley as a starter, the 31-year-old right-hander chose to remain in the role that made him a two-time All-Star and will hand him the ninth inning for the Orioles while retaining the ability to reach the open market after 2026.

Aaron Judge walked slowly from first base toward the dugout, turning his head just long enough to watch what must have seemed like a re-run: another October, and another visiting team wearing blue, celebrating atop the Yankee Stadium mound.
It was the Blue Jays, with Cody Bellinger swinging through the final pitch of the American League Division Series. The previous year, it had been the Dodgers ending the World Series. These are the mountains that Judge and the Yankees must climb to claim a championship.

“When I signed back with the Yankees in ’23, I wanted to finish a job here and bring back a World Series,” Judge said. “We’re still on that mission.”
So what now? Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said fans should enter Spring Training with a realistic belief that their team can win a title. He felt that way, and so did Aaron Boone, who thought the 2025 club was his strongest yet.

The San Francisco Giants' decision to hire Tony Vitello as manager represents an unprecedented break from baseball tradition. Vitello becomes the first person in MLB history to jump directly from college baseball to a major-league dugout without any professional experience as a player, coach, scout or intern.

The move has sparked debate across baseball about the divide between college and professional baseball. Former manager Joe Maddon called the hire "insulting" to coaches paying their dues in the minor leagues. College baseball figures, however, view it as long-overdue validation of their expertise.

Baseball has maintained a deeper cultural barrier between college and professional ranks than other major sports. While coaches transition freely between college and pros in football and basketball, baseball's sprawling minor-league system has created a separate development path that rarely intersects with the college game.

"It used to be that the big-leaguers wouldn't listen to you unless you were a big-leaguer," longtime Florida Atlantic baseball coach John McCormack said.

The closest comparison is Brewers manager Pat Murphy, who spent over 20 years in college baseball. But Murphy worked a decade as a minor-league manager and MLB coach before winning consecutive Manager of the Year awards in Milwaukee, making Vitello's direct jump truly unprecedented.

Analytically minded front offices have begun looking for talent in unusual places over the past decade. This trend has led to coaches from independent training facilities and biomechanical laboratories joining MLB organizations, especially in player development roles. Vitello represents the next evolution of that approach.

Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey is betting Vitello can overcome skepticism through his personality and track record. Vitello transformed Tennessee into a powerhouse, reaching three College World Series and winning a national championship in 2024. His teams played a style resembling modern MLB, defined by power and velocity.

"There has been a propensity to look at pro coaches and just assume that they must be better, more sophisticated," said Wake Forest athletic director John Currie, who hired Vitello at Tennessee in 2017.

J.P. Arencibia, a retired MLB catcher who worked under Vitello, acknowledged the challenge ahead for the new Giants manager.

"In the pros, you're going to be having guys making $20-30 million, and essentially they can tell you to go pound sand," Arencibia said. "So you've got to win people over."

The Astros have the final pieces of their coaching staff in place for next season after hiring Ethan Katz as an assistant pitching coach and Tim Cossins as catching instructor on Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Angels and third baseman Anthony Rendon are in talks about buying out the final year of his seven-year, $245 million contract, a source told ESPN on Wednesday. Rendon, who missed the entire 2025 season recovering from hip surgery, is expected to retire if a buyout is finalized.

Rendon is owed $38 million in 2026. The expectation is that Rendon will defer at least part of that money, giving the Angels more financial flexibility to address roster needs this offseason.

Rendon appeared in just 205 of 810 games over the past five seasons due to injuries. If the buyout is finalized, he will have played in only a quarter of the Angels' games during the life of his deal while compiling 3.7 FanGraphs wins above replacement.

The Angels signed Rendon in December 2019 after he starred for the World Series champion Washington Nationals. Agent Scott Boras represents Rendon in the buyout negotiations.

Rendon looked like his usual self during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Over the next four years, he slashed just .231/.329/.336 while battling injuries to his groin, knee, hamstring, shin, oblique, back, wrists and hips.

The Angels announced February 12, 2025, that Rendon would undergo hip surgery and miss the entire season. He spent the year rehabbing near his home in Houston away from the team.

From 2016 to 2019, only nine position players produced more fWAR than Rendon. He slashed .299/.384/.528 during that four-year stretch with the Nationals.

His final season in Washington saw him finish third in National League MVP voting with a career-high 1.010 OPS, 34 home runs and a major-league-leading 126 RBIs. His performance helped the Nationals win their first franchise title.

Rendon's last home run with the Angels occurred July 1, 2023. He never played in more than 58 games in a season with Los Angeles.

The Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to a seven-year, $210 million contract with free agent right-hander Dylan Cease, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan on Wednesday. The deal, pending a physical, adds a proven front-line starter to a Blue Jays rotation coming off a World Series appearance.

Cease, 29, has made at least 32 starts in each of the past five seasons and ranks fourth among all pitchers in WAR during that span. The move strengthens Toronto's rotation after the team lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a seven-game World Series.

From 2021 to 2025, Cease led the majors in strikeouts with 1,106 while working as a full-time starter. However, he also topped baseball in walks (361) and wild pitches (51) during that period.

The right-hander's performance has fluctuated significantly season to season. In 2022 and 2024, he finished second and fourth in Cy Young voting while posting a combined 28-19 record with a 2.84 ERA. In 2023 and 2025, his numbers declined to 15-21 with a 4.57 ERA.

Cease features a fastball-heavy approach from a high arm slot, throwing at least 80% fastballs and sliders to both right- and left-handed hitters. His slider regressed in 2025, with opponents slugging .374 against the pitch after it ranked as baseball's most valuable by runs above average in 2024.

Despite the slider's decline, Cease posted a career-best 29.8% strikeout rate in 2025 and a 3.56 fielding independent pitching score, slightly better than his 2021-2024 average.

Cease declined the Padres' $22.025 million qualifying offer by the November 18 deadline. San Diego will receive a compensatory draft pick after the fourth round as a result of his departure.

Originally drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2014, Cease was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 2017 alongside Eloy Jimenez for Jose Quintana. The San Diego Padres acquired him in March 2024 for a package of prospects.

After cutting him loose last week, the Tampa Bay Rays signed outfielder Jake Fraley to a one-year, $3 million contract on Tuesday.

Fraley can earn $400,000 in roster bonuses: $100,000 each for 85, 115, 145 and 175 active days on the major league roster.

The Toronto Blue Jays' contact-driven path to the World Series has sparked debate across MLB about whether their high batting average style can be replicated by other franchises. The Blue Jays led the American League in both batting average and contact rate at 80.6 percent during their 20-win improvement from 74 victories to the championship series.

Toronto's success has prompted teams like the Detroit Tigers to publicly prioritize contact heading into 2026. Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said his organization needs to "make more contact" and "move the baseball more in the big leagues."

However, multiple executives told The Athletic they question how replicable Toronto's formula truly is. Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro cautioned against reactive team building based on a single season's narrative.

"By the time they react to it, it's probably too late," Shapiro said.

High-contact productive hitters have become increasingly rare as power dominated the sport. In 2015, 82 hitters posted contact rates over 80 percent, but that number dropped to 53 by 2025.

Only 24 players last season posted both a contact rate above 80 percent and a wRC+ above 110. The Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers ranked among just seven teams with multiple players meeting those thresholds, while 11 teams had none.

"It's finding the players to do it," Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. "That's sort of the secret. They're not always easy to find."

The Brewers joined Toronto as MLB's other contact-rate leader during the regular season. Both teams featured players like Ernie Clement, Sal Frelick and Caleb Durbin who ranked among baseball's most difficult hitters to strike out.

Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner acknowledged his team seeks more balance after striking out the third-most in baseball while leading MLB in home runs. Toronto led all postseason teams in batting average but also in on-base percentage and home runs.

"You can't simply be a slugging home run team," Steinbrenner said.

Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins emphasized contact wasn't a planned identity but one piece of Toronto's offensive puzzle. The team ranked top-five in contact rate in 2023 and 2024 but failed to make the playoffs until balancing contact with improved power in 2025.

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes received a record $3,436,343 from this year's pre-arbitration bonus pool, raising his two-year total to $5,588,400 under the initiative to direct more money to top younger players.

A 23-year-old right-hander who debuted in May 2024, Skenes had an $875,000 salary in the major leagues after earning $564,946 in pay last year. He won't be eligible for salary arbitration until after the 2026 season.

Skenes, who has won the National Cy Young award each of the past two seasons, had a 1.97 ERA with 216 strikeouts last season.