Major League Baseball’s regular season will begin in less than a month, but this wonky, at times sluggish offseason means that there’s still plenty of Hot Stove business to attend to — and, in turn, rumors to keep track of. Each weekday, we’ll be doing just that, bringing you the latest news, rumors and reports from around MLB. Wednesday’s edition features plenty of interesting items, from the Red Sox talking extension with Brayan Bello, the Yankees not yet approaching Gleyber Torres or Clay Holmes and the Mariners weighing one more lineup upgrade.
MLB rumor roundup: Wednesday, February 21
Yankees yet to approach Holmes, Torres about extensions
While Juan Soto is the biggest pending free agent for the New York Yankees, he’s certainly not the only one. But New York has not yet engaged either reliever Clay Holmes or second baseman Gleyber Torres in extension talks ahead of their respective walk years, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. (Torres, for his part, told reporters on Wednesday that he wants to be a “Yankee for life,” per Pete Caldera of the Bergen Record.)
Holmes, 30, is entering his third full season with the Yankees after spending much of the previous two as the team’s closer. In 153 appearances to date, he’s compiled a 2.50 ERA (167 ERA+) and a 3.62 strikeout-to-walk ratio, collecting 44 saves the last two years and earning an All-Star nod in 2022. Torres, meanwhile, feels like he’s been a in pinstripes forever, but he just turned 27 in December. He may not have hit the stratospheric heights fans hoped for after his sensational debut in the Bronx, but he’s settled in as an above-average infielder, with a career 115 OPS+ and two All-Star appearances.
Should both players be allowed to hit free agency, they’d both rank fairly highly in what’s shaping up to be a star-studded class next winter — Torres likely in the 10-15 range, Holmes a bit lower. It’s worth noting that the Yankees often allow their top free agents to hit the open market before then reaching new agreements in free agency, and a lack of momentum in late February isn’t worth reading too far into. But the team does have several middle-infield prospects who could take Torres’ place at second base, and New York has made a habit of going with a developmental approach in the bullpen in recent years — Holmes was a Pirates castoff before the Yankees turned him into a star, and it wouldn’t surprise if they decided to try to find the next Holmes rather than pay market price for the genuine article.
Bello, Red Sox engaged in extension talks
Vibes have been … less than stellar for Boston so far in spring training, but here’s some good news: The Red Sox and right-hander Brayan Bello appear to be making progress toward a long-term extension, the pitcher told Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com.
Long one of the team’s most promising pitching prospects, Bello, 24, had a promising first full season in the Majors. He started 28 times and amassed a 4.24 ERA (107 ERA+) on the back of a plus changeup. He’s among the the only sure things Boston has in its rotation at the moment, and while he won’t hit arbitration for another two years — a long-term deal is far from urgent here — locking him up now would buy some good will while making it likely that the Red Sox receive a big-time discount relative to Bello’s market value.
Mariners weighing Chapman signing
Seattle is currently slated to have five new names in its Opening Day lineup this year. But none of the five — Jorge Polanco, Mitch Garver, Mitch Haniger, Luke Raley, Luis Urias — project as the sort of impact bat that this Mariners team desperately needs next to Julio Rodriguez. The team is considering changing that, at least if one report is to be believed: Per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, the Mariners have had internal conversations about free-agent third baseman Matt Chapman.
It’s unclear if those talks have progressed to the point where they’ve engaged with Chapman’s camp in recent days, but Seattle has a hole at third base and some money to spend. Whether a front office/ownership group that have been reticent to hand out large contracts will buck that trend, however, remains to be seen. GM Justin Hollander, for his part, is trying to temper expectations.
“You never know. I think this group of players that we have — our 40-man roster as is — we may add on the margins. We may add in a more significant way, but I would expect it’s probably more on the margins than a real significant way based on where we’re at,” Hollander told reporters Wednesday, including MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer.
Granted, there is a caveat there about a more significant move, but it’s hard to see Seattle going big here after an offseason that largely felt like spinning their wheels.
