MLB Player News

Abreu agreed to a one-year, $16 million contract with the White Sox on Friday, avoiding arbitration, Bruce Levine of 670TheScore.com reports.

For the first time in five seasons in affiliated baseball, Abreu fell short of 25 homers and 100 RBI, but he still put together a nice season and will be rewarded with a $3 million pay increase in his final year of arbitration. Abreu is set to remain the primary first baseman in 2019 with Yonder Alonso expected to see most of his time at DH, and projects to remain the three hole hitter.

Dalbec was invited to major-league spring training Thursday.

The 23-year-old broke out in the power department last year, bashing 32 home runs and 35 doubles in 543 plate appearances between High-A Salem and Double-A Portland. He'll now get a chance to strut his stuff in big-league camp during spring training, though it's unlikely he'll break camp with Boston. He only has 124 plate appearances at Double-A to his name and could use some more seasoning against upper-level pitching in order to cut down on the 32.4 percent strikeout rate he posted last season.

Voit will be the Yankees' starter at first base unless Greg Bird beats him out, Jack Curry of YES Network reports.

Going purely off the two players' prospect hype, it may have made sense for the Yankees to give Bird one more shot, but the team's decision is certainly in line with the pair's recent performance. Bird hit just .199/.286/.386 in 82 games last year and hasn't posted an above-average batting line since 2015. Voit hit an incredible .333/.405/.689 in 39 games after heading to the Yankees last season. That line was well above expectations, but he can fall quite far and still outperform Bird this season.

McBride reached a minor-league agreement with Philadelphia on Friday which includes an invitation to spring training.

McBride was in the same exact position a year ago and wound up spending the entire season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He slashed .242/.333/.479 with 10 home runs and 26 RBI, solid numbers but nothing worthy of a promotion. Expect to see him back with the IronPigs in 2019.

Duenez returned to the Royals on a minor-league contract Monday.

Duenez has topped out at Double-A over the last three seasons, hitting .282/.357/.463 in 80 games for Northwest Arkansas last season. He doesn't have any standout tools, so he'll have to take a jump forward to project as anything more than a backup, but he's still just 22, so such a jump can't be completely ruled out.

Santana was traded from Seattle to Cleveland in exchange for Edwin Encarnacion on Thursday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. The Indians also dealt Yandy Diaz and a player to be named later to Tampa Bay for Jake Bauers, per Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times.

Santana was recently dealt to Seattle last week after spending the past season in Philadelphia. The first baseman hit just .229/.352/.414 with 24 home runs and 86 RBI in 161 games for the Phillies, and like the rest of the team, struggled down the final stretch in September. Prior to his brief stint in Philadelphia, Santana had played his entire career in Cleveland. Outside of a dip in batting average and slugging percentage, there were some inspiring signs from Santana's 2018 campaign, including a career-best 13.7 percent strikeout rate and 16.2 percent walk rate, which was his highest since 2015. Look for Santana to see some time alongside Yonder Alonso at first base to go along with a primary role as the Indians' designated hitter, though Bauers figures to be in the mix at both positions, and in the outfield as well.

The Indians traded Diaz to the Rays on Thursday as part of a three-team deal with the Mariners, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports.

According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Rays view Diaz as an upgrade both offensively and defensively over Jake Bauers, who heads to Cleveland in the deal. Diaz still has yet to get to much in-game power, but he puts bat to ball with consistency, and don't put it past the Rays and their analytics team to unlock something in the power department. He will likely see time at both first and third in 2019.

Bour agreed to a one-year, $2.5 million contract with the Angels on Wednesday, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports.

Bour split time with the Marlins and Phillies in 2018, slashing a combined .227/.341/.404 with 20 homers across 141 games. He posted an .819 OPS against right-handed pitching in 2018 -- compared to his .570 mark against southpaws -- so he seems like a strong candidate to settle into the strong side of a platoon at first base with Albert Pujols.

The Diamondbacks traded Goldschmidt to the Cardinals on Wednesday in exchange for Luke Weaver, Carson Kelly, Andrew Young and a 2019 Competitive Balance Round B draft pick, Jon Heyman of FancredSports.com reports.

Talks between the two clubs quickly escalated Wednesday afternoon, and a deal has been struck to send the perennial All-Star to St. Louis. Goldschmidt will immediately provide a strong middle-of-the-order bat to the Cardinals after slashing .290/.389/.533 with 33 home runs and 83 RBI last season, which is all the more impressive considering he was barely above the Mendoza Line at the end of May.

Cooper (wrist) is hopeful that he'll be healthy by spring training, but is yet to resume any "functional activity," according to President of Baseball Operations Michael Hill, Wells Dusenbury of The Sun Sentinel reports.

Cooper underwent surgery on his right wrist tendon in late August after hitting the disabled list with a sprain in July. The 27-year-old still has a few months to get back into the swing of things, though his availability this spring is vital in securing an Opening Day roster spot. In just 14 games with the big-league team last year, he went 7-for-33 with two RBI.