MLB free agency: Braves sign Jurickson Profar to 3-year, $42 million deal; Dodgers add another reliever in Kirby Yates

Amid an offseason of uncertainty for the franchise due to the damage done to Tropicana Field by Hurricane Milton, the Rays have quietly gone about their business in hopes of upgrading a roster coming off the franchise’s worst finish since 2017.

This deal addresses an obvious short-term need in a similar fashion to the one-year pact with backstop Danny Jansen inked earlier this offseason. While Junior Caminero appears primed to seize the third-base job, shortstop projected as a position of weakness for the Rays. Taylor Walls is a tremendous defender but an abysmal hitter, and Jose Caballero profiles better in a utility role than as an every-day shortstop. The 21-year-old Carson Williams is one of baseball’s top overall prospects and spent all of 2024 at Double-A, but his strikeout issues suggest he might still be a year or two away from being ready to contribute in the big leagues. Kim represents an ideal bridge to Williams, whether he ends up opting out after 2025 or sticks around for both years of his deal.

A fantastic glove in his own right, Kim offers similar defensive upside to Walls and far greater upside with the bat. The unknown with Kim — and surely the reason the 29-year-old had to settle for a deal much lower than what many projected — is how he’ll bounce back from shoulder surgery, which cut his 2024 season short. Walls and Caballero will likely continue to cover short to open the season, but the hope is that Kim can return in May and upgrade the position in a meaningful way. It’s a sensible landing spot for Kim and a nice upside play for a Rays franchise whose limited budget generally precludes them pursuing free agents capable of 4-plus WAR seasons.

The Detroit Tigers and right-handed pitcher Tommy Kahnle are in agreement on a one-year, $7.75 million deal, per multiple reports. Kahnle spent the previous two seasons with the New York Yankees, posting a 2.38 ERA with 94 strikeouts in 83 1/3 innings pitched.

The former Texas Rangers closer has agreed to a one-year, $13 million contract with an additional $1 million in incentives for games played, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.

The Dodgers are now on track for a $379 million payroll, per Fangraphs' estimate, which would be the largest payroll in MLB history. The 110% CBT surcharge would mean this deal is more like a $27.3 million deal for them.

Yates is coming off one of the best seasons by a reliever in 2024, with a 1.17 ERA that ranked behind only Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase for the best mark among relievers.

The Houston Astros stuck a deal on Sunday to send closer Ryan Pressly to the Chicago Cubs. Pressly waived his no-trade clause in order to make the deal happen.

The 36-year-old held a 3.49 ERA in 56 2/3 innings last season with the Astros. The longtime veteran earned two All-Star nods during his seven-year run in Houston, with the most recent coming in 2021.

On the news that the Astros have reengaged with Alex Bregman, second baseman Jose Altuve was asked how he would help bring the longtime third baseman back to Houston.

"For Alex, I'll do whatever," Altuve said. That reportedly includes moving to the outfield and allowing Isaac Paredes, who was acquired in the Kyle Tucker trade with the Cubs, to take his spot at second base.

Alex Bregman's career with the Astros appeared to be over after Houston signed free-agent first baseman Christian Walker. However, with Bregman's market apparently stalled, the Astros have resumed talks with the third baseman, who has played all nine of his MLB seasons with Houston, The Athletic reports.

Bregman has reportedly attracted interest from the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Tigers. But his rumored pursuit of a contract in the five-year, $200 million range has apparently been an obstacle, as it was with the Astros.

Houston made a six-year, $156 million offer to Bregman, and that deal is still available, according to reports.

Bregman batted .260 with a .768 OPS, 26 home runs, 30 doubles and 75 RBI in 634 plate appearances last season for the Astros.

Traditionally one of the more active teams each winter, Atlanta had been eerily quiet this offseason coming off its seventh consecutive trip to October. The Braves were one of just a handful of teams that had yet to sign a free agent to a guaranteed big-league deal this winter, but they finally got on the board with the addition of Profar on a three-year deal worth $42 million.

The Padres — with whom Profar starred in his breakout 2024 season — have also yet to sign a major-league free agent this winter, and they surely would’ve loved a reunion with Profar. But San Diego’s ongoing ownership dispute and bloated payroll apparently made retaining Profar difficult. Instead, he joins a Braves team that had an unsettled left-field depth chart that projected to feature the largely unproven Jarred Kelenic and recent signee Bryan De La Cruz in a platoon of sorts. Now that duo can cover right field until Ronald Acuña Jr. returns from ACL injury, at which point Acuña should join Profar and center fielder Michael Harris II to form one of the more dangerous outfield trios in the National League.

The switch-hitting Profar and his excellent on-base skills will provide some much-needed balance to a Braves lineup that severely underwhelmed in 2024. While Profar’s plate discipline has always been stellar, it was a notable uptick in power production supported by huge strides in his batted-ball quality that fueled his 2024 breakout that he has now parlayed into an eight-figure deal. Although he’ll no longer be a main character in the Dodgers-Padres rivalry, Profar could continue to play a key role for a team hoping to dethrone the champs in 2025.

Outfielder Jurickson Profar has signed a three-year, $42 million deal with the Atlanta Braves, the team announced Thursday.

According to the Braves, Profar, who was No. 15 on Yahoo Sports' Top 50 MLB free agent list, will earn $12 million in 2025 and $15 million in 2026 and 2027.

Last season with the San Diego Padres, Profar posted a career year, batting .280, hitting 24 home runs and driving in 85 runs with 10 stolen bases. Among National League left fielders, his 4.3 fWAR was highest, and he was above the 90th percentile in expected wOBA (.364) and expected batting average (.283). He was also the sixth-best hitter by wRC+ in the NL.

The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated their latest talent coup on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, officially introducing Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki as a member of the team.

After statements from Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, Sasaki introduced himself through an interpreter before facing questions from media for the first time as a Dodger.

The primary question concerned the influence of fellow Japanese Dodgers stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on his decision.

Read the full story here.

The Toronto Blue Jays had to do something.

After futile runs at multiple top free agents — Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes and Roki Sasaki all spurned Canada’s team this winter — the Jays found themselves in a position of desperation. Their roster, though capable of competing in 2025, remained incomplete and undermanned, particularly on offense. And with two of the club’s franchise cornerstones, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, just a year from free agency, the future was growing increasingly hazy. The pressure, for this franchise without a postseason win since 2016, had reached a fever pitch.

But on Monday, the Jays gave themselves some breathing room and a much-needed injection of power, with the club reportedly agreeing to terms with slugging outfielder Anthony Santander on a five-year contract. It’s an inevitable, obvious pairing between a team sorely lacking in pop and a free agent with immense juice.

Read the full column here.

After signing Tanner Scott, the reigning World Series champs are looking to add Kirby Yates to their bullpen.

Hope is a dangerous beast.

Or, in other words: Roki Sasaki is a Los Angeles Dodger, and few in the baseball industry are particularly surprised.

The 23-year-old Japanese hurler, one of the most promising talents in the nation’s storied baseball history, announced Friday on Instagram that he agreed to a deal with the defending World Series champs. For Dodgers fans, it’s cause for celebration. For the rest of the league, it’s a disappointing conclusion to a fascinating free agency and another reason to gripe and groan about the growing might of MLB’s new evil empire.

Frustration, from the fan bases and front offices that missed out, is justifiable and understandable. So, too, is the decision Sasaki made for himself.

Read the full story here.

It was just 15 months ago that the Los Angeles Dodgers crashed out of the NLDS at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Swept by a division rival that had won 16 fewer games than the Dodgers in the regular season, it was another maddening early exit from October for a franchise that had become all too familiar with such a feeling. Despite repeatedly assembling rosters seemingly fit for a championship run, Los Angeles kept coming up short.

Although the calendar would suggest otherwise, that abrupt, embarrassing elimination against Arizona now feels like a distant memory. Since that NLDS loss, which president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman deemed “an organizational failure,” the Dodgers have achieved an extraordinary amount of organizational success. Their latest triumph: the signing of 23-year-old Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki, a generationally gifted pitcher whose unique free agency became one of the biggest hot stove storylines MLB has seen in quite some time.

Many organizations coveted Sasaki, whose status as an international amateur made him available for a fraction of what he would’ve been worth had he waited until he turned 25 and come to MLB as a full-fledged free agent. This was not a player for whom the Dodgers could simply flex their financial muscles and outbid the competition; this was a matter of recruiting and selling a vision of a place where a young pitcher can maximize his big-league dreams. Ultimately — thanks in large part to the past year, in which the franchise supercharged its roster to new heights, won the World Series and cemented its reputation as a developmental powerhouse — the Dodgers offer a compelling pitch by those standards as well. And so, sure enough, Sasaki chose Los Angeles as the home for the first chapter of his highly anticipated major-league career.

Read the full story here.

Roki Sasaki was expected by many to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers. They were right.

The flame-throwing right-hander from Japan agreed to a deal with the Dodgers on Friday, according to a post on his Instagram account.

The Dodgers beat out basically all of MLB for Sasaki, who met with several teams to evaluate what they could bring to the table beyond money. The Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays were reported to be the finalists, with the Dodgers and Padres seen as the co-favorites for most of the process.

After receiving the signing bonus, Sasaki will have the same status as any other MLB rookie once he makes his debut, going through pre-arbitration and arbitration years before he hits free agency after six years of MLB service time.

Meanwhile, Sasaki's NPB team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, will receive a posting fee worth 20% of the signing bonus. In four seasons with the Marines, Sasaki posted a 2.02 ERA and 0.883 WHIP with 524 strikeouts in 414 2/3 innings.

Read more here.

The 31-year-old Leclerc has pitched eight seasons in MLB, all with the Texas Rangers. In 2024, he made 64 appearances, striking out 89 batters and recording a 4.32 ERA and 1.32 WHIP in 66 2/3 innings pitched.

One of the most highly anticipated and unique free agencies in Major League Baseball history is nearing its conclusion in the next week or so. Roki Sasaki, a 23-year-old, right-handed pitcher whose generational talent has been revered in his native Japan since he was a teenager, will soon decide where he will begin his big-league career.

A process that began in earnest when his NPB team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, posted him on Dec. 10 has gradually unfolded over the past month, with the entire baseball industry eagerly awaiting his decision and the potential fallout. With his window to sign officially opening Wednesday and extending through Jan. 23, Sasaki has reportedly narrowed the field to three finalists: the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays.

If you haven’t been tracking each and every plot point of Sasaki’s free agency along the way, don’t fret — it’s not too late to get caught up and prepare for his entrance into the MLB universe as one of the most intriguing characters of the upcoming season.

Here’s everything you need to know about how we got to this point and how things might transpire from here.

The Roki Sasaki sweepstakes is down to just three teams. The Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays are the three finalists to land the Japanese star once the international signing period opens on Wednesday. According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, we should have his decision shortly.

López had an eventful 2024 season, as he was DFA'd by the New York Mets after he was ejected from a game and threw his glove into the crowd.

He moved on to the Chicago Cubs and had a solid finish to the 2024 season, recording a 2.03 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 26 2/3 innings pitched with the Cubs.

The molasses-slow reliever market got some movement Friday, as former Philadelphia Phillies reliever Jeff Hoffman signed a three-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. The deal is reportedly worth $33 million, with $6 million in incentives.

Hoffman was drafted by the Blue Jays and then traded as one of the prospects in the Troy Tulowitzki deal in 2015. He has moved around since then, finding success in the Phillies' bullpen, with a 2.28 ERA in 118 1/3 innings across two seasons.