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The Milwaukee Brewers bolstered their outfield depth Thursday via a trade.

The team announced on Twitter it acquired outfielder Rymer Liriano from the San Diego Padres in exchange for minor league pitcher Trevor Seidenberger. The Brewers designated outfielder Shane Peterson for assignment as well.

Chris Mitchell of FanGraphs noted the Padres recently designated Liriano for assignment to make room on the roster for Alexei Ramirez. Steve Adams of MLBTradeRumors.com pointed out Liriano underwent Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2013 campaign, although he did play for the Padres in 2014.

The outfield prospect appeared in 38 games at the major league level in 2014 and hit .220 with one home run, six RBI and four stolen bases. He flashed some speed on the basepaths and in the field, but he also struck out 39 times.

The lack of contact follows a scouting report Mitchell offered that said Liriano struck out in 24 percent of his at-bats in Triple-A last season and has suffered the same fate in more than 20 percent of his total plate appearances throughout his entire minor league career.

However, Mitchell also mentioned the outfielder’s versatile tool set with power, speed and a strong arm and said “relatively few prospects have such a strong and diverse collection of skills. Furthermore, he’s parlayed those tools into some nice numbers in the high minors. He hit .291/.375/.466 with nearly 40 steals between Double-A and Triple-A in the past two seasons.” 

Dayn Perry of CBS Sports added, “I’d definitely take a flyer [sic] on Rymer Liriano.”

MLB.com provided a video highlighting Liriano’s talent before the 2015 season:

As for Seidenberger, MLB.com did not rate him as one of Milwaukee’s top 30 prospects heading into 2015. According to MiLB.com, the southpaw posted a mediocre 4.07 ERA in 48.2 innings pitched of minor league ball in 2015. The 23-year-old is yet to pitch above the Double-A level and likely needs more seasoning before he is ready to contribute for a major league roster.

Liriano is the headliner in this trade, especially since he is only 24 years old. MLB.com rated the outfielder as the 13th-best prospect in San Diego’s system before the 2015 season even after the surgery that cost him 2013.

Liriano posted solid numbers in Triple-A in recent years and is a low-risk, high-reward addition for a Brewers team looking to rebuild in a daunting division over the course of the next few seasons.

If he finally delivers on his versatile skill set at the major league level, Liriano can develop into an everyday starter in the near future.

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The Tampa Bay Rays plugged a major hole in their outfield Thursday, acquiring Corey Dickerson and third baseman Kevin Padlo from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for pitchers Jake McGee and German Marquez, the Rockies announced.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports first reported the news.

Rosenthal spoke about the financial impact the move will have on the Rays:

“A hitter like him … often times is hard to come by. Too much to pass up in this case,” said Rays team president Matthew Silverman to reporters. 

Dickerson, 26, hit .304/.333/.536 with 10 home runs and 31 RBI in 65 games played last season. He suffered rib and foot injuries that cost him most of the year.

McGee, 29, went 1-2 with a 2.41 ERA and 0.94 WHIP. He had six saves and 19 holds, emerging as a reliable late-inning option leading up to closer Brad Boxberger.

On nearly every level, this is a curious move from Colorado’s perspective. Dickerson is a promising young talent who has come into his own when healthy over the last two seasons.

FanGraphs‘ formula graded him at 2.6 wins above replacement in 2014, and he likely would have come close to matching that in 2015 had he stayed on the field. The Rockies also retained team control on Dickerson until at least 2020, so their reasoning for moving him now is a little dubious.

From an internal perspective, the justification will be that Colorado had a logjam in the outfield. The issue was it was a self-created one. The Rockies signed 28-year-old Gerardo Parra to a three-year contract earlier this month. Parra has put up a combined 0.5 FanGraphs WAR over the last two seasons—the same number Dickerson contributed in 65 games last year.

While Parra was brilliant in his final full season with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2013, the logistics here don’t really add up. The Rockies will be paying more for Parra over the balance of his deal than they would Dickerson, who many would argue is the better player. At the very least, they’re a rebuilding team that added three years in age without upgrading from a skill perspective.

Doing so based on a package based around McGee is the ultimate sell-low. McGee is a fine middle reliever, but that’s what he is. He’s almost exclusively a fastball pitcher and will make $4.8 million next season before again hitting arbitration. The Rockies aren’t anywhere near competing in the NL West either, so bolstering their mid-innings relief is unlikely to make much of a dent next season.

Good luck sorting this one out from Colorado’s perspective. As for the Rays, this is a poaching of a promising young talent at a position of need for minimal cost.

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter

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Doug Fister is fresh off arguably the most difficult season of his career, and he is ready to change directions.

Rather than re-sign with the Washington Nationals, Fister inked a deal with the Houston Astros on Thursday, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow confirmed.

Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish reported Fister signed a one-year, $7 million deal in Houston. Cotillo added the deal could reach $12 million with performance bonuses.

Fister totaled 25 appearances and 15 starts for the Nationals in 2015 and posted a 4.19 ERA, 1.40 WHIP and 63 strikeouts in 103 innings. It was a far cry from his dominant 2014 season with Washington when he tallied a sparkling 2.41 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and 98 strikeouts in 164 innings and finished eighth in the National League Cy Young race.

Fister had the sixth-best ERA among starters in all of baseball in 2014 but finished with a career-worst ERA and WHIP during his lackluster 2015 season that largely mirrored the Nationals’ disappointing campaign as a whole.

The Nats moved Fister to the bullpen in August even though he only had four major league relief appearances on his resume before the switch. While he did notch his first career save in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, he wasn’t the same pitcher Nationals fans saw the previous year.

Fister also dealt with a right forearm injury in the first half of the campaign and didn’t pitch from May 14 to June 18.

Despite the move to the bullpen, Fister believed he would be a starter again at some point in his career, per Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post:

I don’t feel like right now in my career I’m forced to be a bullpen member for the rest of my career. I still think I have a starting role somewhere, whether it’s here or somewhere else. I still have that capability. That’s still in my heart that I can go out there and get guys out. But I know now I can adjust, I can be a member of the bullpen and be ready to pitch on a day-to-day basis.

Fister‘s team-first approach and willingness to move to the pen in a contract year at least deserve recognition, as Washington struggled throughout the second half to stay in playoff contention.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports ranked Fister as the 45th-best free agent available this offseason but did recognize there was some rebuilding to be done: “Started 2015 thinking a good season could mean a $100 million deal. Ended it in the Nationals’ bullpen. Nobody could use a value-building one-year deal more than Fister.”

Fister will be 32 years old in the 2016 campaign and is coming off the worst statistical season of his career, dealing with health concerns and suffering a drop in performance. The risk factor involved with a new contract for an aging veteran like that likely impacted the offers or interest Fister generated this offseason.

However, the right-hander was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball not long ago. Perhaps a change in scenery will help him tap into the dominance he once demonstrated on the mound.

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With just about three weeks to go before pitchers and catchers begin reporting to spring training, the baseball season draws ever closer. Yet a number of notable free agents remain unsigned, which—you’d think—would lead to a flurry of activity in the days ahead.

Yet the rumor mill has remained silent in regard to many of those players. Whether it’s because teams are at their payroll limits or choosing to hold onto some disposable income for later, when injuries could require them to make a substantial addition, there’s not much cash available for those free agents.

Could one of those free agents wind up taking a small-market deal with a small-market club? Does a contender value a catcher as highly as it does a front-of-the-rotation arm? Can a team find a taker for a high-priced veteran who is past his prime?

We’ll tackle all of that and more in this week’s edition of Fact or Fiction.

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As we get ready for the start of spring training in less than a month, now is the time that top prospect lists are unveiled around the baseball world.

Prospects are generally ranked on a team-by-team basis to show how each farm system stacks up and then on a league-wide basis to give an idea of how the top young players in the minor leagues compare as they make their way toward the majors.

However, we’re going to do something a little different here.

We’ve taken the No. 1 prospect for each MLB team and ranked them 1-30, as we compare the cream of the crop from each farm system around the league.

Note: All prospect rankings referenced in the following article are in reference to the 2015 Baseball America Prospect Handbook, unless otherwise indicated.

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Of ESPN’s first 10 announced Sunday Night Baseball telecasts for 2016, five feature either the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. Three feature the Yankees and the Red Sox.

You can’t blame the television guys, even if neither of those teams has won a playoff game in the past two years. ESPN shows the teams they know you’ll watch, and no matter how much some of you complain, plenty of you watch.

But here’s the other thing: This could be the year when Yankees-Red Sox games are actually worth watching again.

It’s not 2003-04. It probably won’t ever be like that again, with the Yankees and Red Sox meeting in back-to-back years in two of the most memorable American League Championship Series ever.

But it shouldn’t be 2014-15, either. It shouldn’t be a last-place Red Sox team facing a Yankees team that seemed happy just to stay in the race all summer. It shouldn’t be empty seats in both ballparks, an atmosphere more fit for Miami Marlins vs. Tampa Bay Rays than Yankees vs. Red Sox.

Instead, it could well end up with the Yankees and Red Sox at the top of the American League East (in one order or the other) for the first time since 2009, but the 12th time since 1995.

For the sake of everyone watching all of those Sunday night games, that’s not a bad thing.

It’s hardly guaranteed. The Red Sox are the division’s most improved team this winter, but they still have their issues (Hanley Ramirez). The Yankees worked the trade market well, but they still have their issues, too (Alex Rodriguez).

And while the defending AL East champion Toronto Blue Jays lost David Price to the Red Sox, they’ll in effect swap two months of Price for a full season of Marcus Stroman. Also, as former general manager Alex Anthopoulos pointed out to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, the Blue Jays’ big second half was in part based on an improved defense that will return in 2016.

“I think they can win the division,” Anthopoulos told Cafardo.

I think they can, too. But if two teams are going to finish in front of them, the Yankees and Red Sox could well be the two.

The Baltimore Orioles did a nice job keeping most of their team together, but it’s a team that finished .500 in 2015 and still hasn’t effectively replaced Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis. And the one free agent they didn’t keep this winter, left-hander Wei-Yin Chen, leaves their rotation looking thin.

The Tampa Bay Rays talked about trading one of their starters this winter, but as of now they still haven’t. So they have the best rotation in the division but still have a badly overmatched lineup. They may have overachieved to finish 80-82 last year.

Meanwhile, Dave Dombrowski had almost a dream first winter as Red Sox president, adding not only Price, but also closer Craig Kimbrel, setup man Carson Smith and outfielder Chris Young. If he’d been able to rid the Sox of their Hanley Ramirez mistake, it really would have been a dream.

By adding Price, the Red Sox acknowledged their 2015 plan of building a rotation without a true ace was a mistake. Price should help make all of the other starters better, just as he once did with the Rays and just as he did when he arrived in Toronto late last July.

That should help the Sox take advantage of an offense that scored the fourth-most runs in the major leagues last year, and of a defense that was much improved once they moved Ramirez out of left field and turned to talented youngsters Rusney Castillo, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts in the outfield. The bullpen, also an issue in 2015, should be transformed by adding Kimbrel, still one of the game’s best closers, and the hard-throwing Smith.

The Yankees, as Scott Miller pointed out in his fine offseason review this week on Bleacher Report, are one of just five teams that haven’t signed a single major league free agent. But general manager Brian Cashman stuck to his plan to make them younger and more athletic, trading for second baseman Starlin Castro, outfielder Aaron Hicks and closer Aroldis Chapman.

The Chapman-Andrew Miller-Dellin Betances back end of the bullpen will be fun to watch, just by itself. And even if Castro doesn’t prove to be this year’s version of Didi Gregorius (a young player the Yankees picked up at the right time), he still should be a significant improvement at a position where the Yankees got little production in 2015.

Even though they finished nine games ahead of the Red Sox in 2015, the Yankees are more at risk of big disappointment this summer. Every pitcher in their starting rotation has an issue of some kind, and much of their 2015 offensive revival was based on A-Rod (who will be 41 in July), Mark Teixeira (who will be 36 in April) and Carlos Beltran (who will be 39 in April). Chapman makes the bullpen more exciting, but the Yankees traded away Justin Wilson and Adam Warren.

As Joel Sherman wrote last November in the New York Post, the Yankees’ recent strategy has been focused much more on the future than on 2016. Owner Hal Steinbrenner didn’t exactly order an austerity plan, but he has said the big spending will need to wait until the contracts of Rodriguez, Teixeira, Beltran and CC Sabathia run out over the next couple of years.

The Red Sox tried the semi-austerity thing, but after three last-place finishes in four years, they went after Dombrowski and gave him the backing to go after Price. Perhaps the Yankees, despite no postseason wins since 2012, didn’t feel the same need.

Realistically, neither of these teams is the Evil Empire anymore. The American League Central is a stronger division overall than the East, and it’s the Kansas City Royals who are the two-time defending AL champions.

The Royals, incidentally, will appear in just one of those 10 announced Sunday night games on ESPN, when they host the New York Mets in an Opening Night World Series encore. Apparently the Yankees and Red Sox weren’t available.

You’ll see them soon enough. This year, it might even be worth watching.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Though the Major League Baseball offseason is nearing its end, it’s only been three months since the completion of the 2015 World Series. There’s a long way to go until the next one.

But in the name of what-the-heckery and might-as-wellery, we’re going to turn our attention to the 2016 World Series anyway.

With spring training just a couple of weeks away, we have a solid idea of where teams stand going into 2016. And with that being the case, we can pick out the top 10 World Series contenders.

The list ahead includes five American League clubs and five National League clubs. In picking them, we weighed not only how well teams are constructed for the regular season, but also for the postseason. It’s a different animal—one with a tendency to sniff out fatal flaws.

We’ll look at some honorable mentions before getting into the top 10. Step into the box whenever you’re ready.

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Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli could become a free agent following the 2016 season, and there are already rumors regarding his contract status.

Continue for updates.

Cervelli Would Reportedly Consider Skipping Free Agency for Pittsburgh Extension

Wednesday, Jan. 27  

According to Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Cervelli “is waiting for the club to begin dialogue regarding a contract extension” and would be open to remaining with the team.

The Pirates and Cervelli already avoided arbitration this offseason with a one-year deal, and he is set to make $3.5 million in 2016, per Spotrac. Sawchik added more context to the situation:

Even though Cervelli is only nine months away from free agency and is expected to rival Baltimore’s Matt Wieters as the top catcher available next winter, Cervelli would consider foregoing the open market if the Pirates offered a three-year extension offer worth roughly $13 million per season, according to a source.

The Pirates acquired Cervelli via trade from the New York Yankees in exchange for relief pitcher Justin Wilson before the 2015 campaign. It didn’t draw many headlines at the time because Cervelli was largely a backup catcher, but he turned in a career season for the Pirates and helped replace Russell Martin, who signed with the Toronto Blue Jays during the offseason.

Cervelli hit .295 with career highs in home runs (seven) and RBI (43). He also played 130 games, which was a dramatic increase over his previous career high of 93 in 2010. He was perhaps most valuable behind the plate and actually led all major league catchers in runs saved above average with his pitch framing, per StatCorner.com.

It was a far cry from the catcher who only appeared in 69 total games during the prior three seasons for the Yankees because of various injuries.

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington commented on any potential contract negotiations, per Sawchik:

We do not discuss negotiations — potential or active — publicly. We like Cervelli a lot and would welcome the chance to have him remain a Pirate in the event we are able to find a contract that makes sense for both the player and club.

We are also fortunate to have two quality catching prospects that are near major league ready in case we are not able to reach common financial ground.

Those prospects—Reese McGuire and Elias Diaz—add another layer to any possible Cervelli extension. According to MLB.com, McGuire was the No. 6 Pirates prospect and Diaz was No. 14 prospect before the 2015 season.

Their presence makes this an interesting choice for the Pirates. On the one hand, if Cervelli—who will turn 30 before the 2016 season—can stay healthy and continue to produce like he did in 2015, he would likely be worth the extension. However, that would also theoretically block the path to the majors for the next couple of years for McGuire and Diaz (at least as regular catchers) and perhaps stunt their growth.

Pittsburgh also has to take into account the injury risk given Cervelli’s track record, even though he did stay healthy and produce in 2015.

The Pirates are in a loaded National League Central and made the playoffs last season alongside the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals partially because of Cervelli’s consistency. Now they have to decide whether he is worth keeping around for the foreseeable future.

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Free-agent outfielder Dexter Fowler is being coveted by multiple teams but may not have to leave the Windy City—even if he changes teams.

Continue for updates.

Cubs, White Sox Reportedly Most Interested in Fowler

Wednesday, Jan. 27   

Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago reported Wednesday on both clubs who are most keen to acquire Fowler—or in the Cubs’ case, retain him.

“The Cubs are still the most likely landing spot for Fowler,” said one baseball executive to Levine. “He should have taken the Cubs’ qualifying offer and moved into the free-agent class of 2017.”

Fowler was a dynamic offensive threat in 2015 as a member of the Cubs with 17 home runs and 46 RBI to go with 29 doubles, eight triples and 20 stolen bases.

The Cubs boast a talented young core but could use a more veteran player in Fowler who still has plenty of speed to be an asset in the outfield and can catalyze a loaded lineup.

But the White Sox could weaken their city rival by landing Fowler and may be willing to pay a greater price. At some point the Cubs will have to pay all their supremely gifted young stars, and their adversaries from the South Side don’t exactly have that problem as of now.

Plus, the American League’s Chicago club badly needs a spark on offense after ranking 28th in scoring this past season. The Sox had the 14th-best team ERA in baseball and were third in quality starts but couldn’t scrounge out better than a 76-86 overall record due to lack of run support.

Manager Robin Ventura’s bunch also stole the seventh-fewest bases in the league. Fowler could at least pose a threat on the basepaths—provided he can cut down slightly on his strikeout rate, as he was fanned 154 times in 2015.

If winning is Fowler’s primary objective, though, returning to the Cubs may be his best bet. ESPN’s Buster Olney reported as recently as December the New York Mets were considering Fowler, though that was before Yoenis Cespedes decided to return to the Big Apple.

No matter which of the three teams he decides among, Fowler will be playing in a big market and, odds are, have a real chance at a championship with either the Mets or Cubs. Should he opt for the White Sox, though, he’ll likely make more money and be able to have a greater individual impact on the franchise.

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After two months of uncertainty, the New York Mets and outfielder Yoenis Cespedes reunited when the former All-Star signed a three-year deal on Tuesday worth $75 million to help the defending National League Champions get over that final hurdle.    

With a fresh new contract in hand, members of the Mets front office and Cespedes, along with his agent, met the media on Wednesday to discuss everything about what the deal means for both parties. 

Mets general manager Sandy Alderson summed up perfectly what Cespedes’ return does for the franchise, per the team’s official Twitter account:

Alderson also talked about the immediate future for the Mets with Cespedes, per Marc Carig of Newsday:

The present is crucial for the Mets, who have a starting rotation good enough to win a World Series. Groups like Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz and the returning Zack Wheeler don’t come along often, so it’s imperative to strike while the iron is hot. 

The Mets have other questions, involving lineup depth and relief pitching before closer Jeurys Familia, so keeping a player who hit a career-high 35 homers last year and is just 30 years old keeps them in the running in a National League East that figures to be competitive in 2016 with the Washington Nationals on the rise. 

Another interesting comment about Cespedes’ deal from Alderson involved the public relations discussion, per Carig:

It’s no secret the Mets’ ownership has had financial problems stemming from Fred Wilpon’s investment in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, so there was uncertainty if it had enough money available to retain Cespedes. 

Yet Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon noted how Cespedes’ deal will look to other potential free agents, per Carig:

Everyone around MLB saw where the Mets were last summer before they made the deal for Cespedes—unable to score runs and floundering around .500 with one of the league’s most dominant pitching staffs being wasted.

Ownership signed off on the blockbuster trade with Detroit at the trade deadline, the offense led the NL in runs scored after the All-Star break and the Mets won their first NL pennant since 2000. It wasn’t all Cespedes’ doing, as Michael Conforto was called up and David Wright returned from injuries, but the power-hitting outfielder certainly helped the middle of the order. 

Cespedes’ agent, Brodie Van Wagenen, took the battle for his client directly to the Mets and Alderson, per Carig:

Both sides came out on the winning end in this deal. The Mets get the PR boost of retaining arguably their best position player for 2016, while Cespedes will make $27.5 million next season and has the ability to opt out after the year to get a lucrative long-term deal with a much weaker free-agent class. 

However, Van Wagenen did try to sell the deal as one Cespedes believes is going to last longer than one season, per the Mets’ official Twitter account:

One interesting wrinkle that developed late in Cespedes’ negotiations with teams this offseason was Washington’s presence.

Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported the Nationals offered Cespedes $110 million. Peter Gammons of GammonsDaily.com did note that Washington’s offer to Cespedes wasn’t that good, with deferrals paying out the money for 15 years. 

Wilpon told reporters, per Carig, that Washington’s involvement did not impact how the Mets approached Cespedes. 

Whether Wilpon is being entirely truthful or not, it’s irrelevant to what matters for Cespedes and the Mets now. Both parties got what they wanted from this offseason, and the team will enter 2016 as one of the favorites to win the National League. 

There are a lot of great teams in the NL right now, with the Nationals, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks all looking formidable. 

The Mets dwarf everyone in starting pitching impact and depth, with Cespedes giving them the cleanup hitter they badly need to hit for power. It’s an exciting time to be a fan entering an MLB season in New York for the first time in years. 

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