All MLB teams had to add back their 60-day IL players to their 40-man roster yesterday. For teams without open 40-man spaces, they had to make room on their rosters. The Washington Nationals made several moves yesterday that began with the Baltimore Orioles announcing they claimed pitcher Thaddeus Ward who the Nats had placed on waivers, and the O’s snatched him up. Also gone are Joey Meneses, Michael Rucker, and Ildemaro Vargas.
The players reinstated from the 60-day IL were: Joan Adon, Cade Cavalli, Josiah Gray, and Mason Thompson. Once Spring Training starts, players can be placed back on the 60-day IL like Gray who is recovering from UCL elbow surgery and will miss most or all of the 2025 season.
Most roster moves were expected — although some were not expected at this time. Technically, the Nationals did not need to clear 40-man spaces with the DFAs, but they did this housecleaning, sooner than later to open up four spots on the roster.
The surprise move was the DFA of Vargas at this time. A popular player and team leader, Vargas was a do-everything utility player who even pitched a couple of times in blow-out games. With Nasim Nunez, Darren Baker, and Jose Tena on the roster, general manager Mike Rizzo and his staff decided to move on from Vargas. The full infield plan is not in focus at this time, and we will see how the infield and bench is configured with those three players, CJ Abrams, Luis García Jr., Trey Lipscomb, Andres Chaparro, and Juan Yepez all on the roster.
While the DFA of Ward seemed inevitable, it was a disappointing move nonetheless. He was a Rule-5 player the Nationals acquired in December of 2022. Ward, as required by Rule-5 guidelines, had to be kept on the active roster during the 2023 season, unless injured. He pitched to a poor 6.37 ERA during his 2023 season, and mostly in “lost cause” appearances (26 games) which kind of made the bullpen feel like Ward didn’t exist. That put extra stress on the rest of the relievers in the 2023 season. Ward pitched the entire 2024 season in Triple-A, and pitched to a 5.64 ERA. He is just another example that Rule-5 drafted pitchers usually do not work out. Of course, the Orioles claimed Ward like they have before with the Nats’ scraps and will try to turn Ward into a useful piece.
The Nats’ current 40-man roster stands at 36-players, 20 pitchers and 16 position players. The team will be making moves to add players to the 40-man roster who are eligible for Rule-5. Expect Robert Hassell III, Andry Lara, and Andrew Alvarez to be added at a minimum. That would ratchet the roster up to 39. Clearly, that won’t leave room for more than one new acquisition via free agency or a trade at this time. Certainly you could expect some more DFA’s to be made or possibly even a trade.
Today is the official start to the General Manager’s meetings in San Antonio, Texas. These meetings are like the soft opening for the Winters Meetings that start after the first week of December in Dallas, Texas. These GM meetings are the first opportunity for agents and teams to begin discussions of free agents and trades.
These are often unpredictable times as far as trades and free agent signings. Usually there isn’t much activity, but you never know when a quick move will get made. The Yan Gomes trade was made in the last week of November of 2018, and Denard Span was acquired in a trade in Nov. 2012. Rizzo has also made some early free agent signings in November like Jeimer Candelario in Nov. 2022, Cesar Hernandez in Nov. 2021, and Kurt Suzuki in Nov. 2018. Of course there were other November transactions too.
Speaking of free agents, MLB Trade Rumors has released their projections and predictions on the dollars and landing spots for the Top-50 free agents and ESPN has done the same. Maybe a pleasant surprise is that they have Juan Soto predicted to get $600 million on a 13-year deal and that is $46.15 million per year if there are no deferrals or backloading to affect the AAV.
By the way, there were 13-players who were all offered the record breaking Qualifying Offer (QO) for a 1-year deal to forego free agency to stay with their current team at $21.05 million.
Here’s the full list of QO’d players:
- Willy Adames, SS, Milwaukee Brewers
- Pete Alonso, 1B, New York Mets
- Alex Bregman, 3B, Houston Astros
- Corbin Burnes, RHP, Baltimore Orioles
- Max Fried, LHP, Atlanta Braves
- Teoscar Hernandez, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers
- Sean Manaea, LHP, New York Mets
- Nick Martinez, RHP, Cincinnati Reds
- Nick Pivetta, RHP, Boston Red Sox
- Anthony Santander, OF, Baltimore Orioles
- Luis Severino, RHP, New York Mets
- Juan Soto, OF, New York Yankees
- Christian Walker, 1B, Arizona Diamondbacks
Some of those players like Hernandez have made it clear they would like to re-sign with their current teams on new deals, it is not expected this year that any player is leaning towards taking the $21.05 million QO.
