Morning Rundown: Nationals sign reliever, Garrett Cooper to Braves, International signing period starts this week
Nationals sign reliever, International signing period begins this week
The Washington Nationals signed free-agent right handed pitcher Jorge Lopez to a one-year, $3 million contract over the weekend.
Lopez, 31, posted a 2-3 record with four saves while also putting up a 2.89 ERA in 2024, splitting time with the Mets and Cubs.
His best season came in 2022 where he collected 23 saves and posted a 2.54 ERA in 71 innings pitched while playing for the Orioles and Twins.
It’s been a busy offseason for the Nationals, signing free agents Trevor Williams and Josh Bell while also trading for Nathaniel Lowe.
Garrett Cooper signed a minor-league deal with the Atlanta Braves on Sunday. It was quite the fall for Cooper over the course of the past year. He hit 17 home runs in 2023 with Miami and San Diego, but then played in just 36 games this past season and hit just .206/.267/.299.
He’s always had some swing and miss issues, which has hurt his overall value. Even the year he hit 17 home runs, he posted a wRC+ of 94 and a fWAR of 0.4.
The International signing period begins on Wednesday, January 15. The Pirates have a bonus pool amount of $6,908,600, and as of now there appears to be two notable names they will sign when things open up.
Johan De Los Santos is the brother of current Pirates’ prospect Yordany De Los Santos, and it appears he will be commanding a seven-figure signing bonus.
Another emerged on Saturday, as a trickle down of the Dodgers’ pursuit of Roki Sasaki. To try and build the best offer for the top player available, teams will have to go back on some of the agreements they have had in place, making some players available again.
One such player was Darell Morel, who will now sign with the Pirates after having a verbal agreement with the Dodgers.
He’s a 6’5” left-handed hitting shortstop will also get a signing bonus in the seven figures.
Here’s a video exclusively brought to the site by John Dreker.
A bit of an update on the site, we are looking for have our initial Top 25 prospects in the system for the 2025 season up around the first week of February.
Like last year, we will have some tie-in articles throughout the week to build up to the release.
We’ve basically finalized the list at this point, aside from potential last mintue tinkering, but I am currently writing up reports on each of the players we currently have in the top 25.
I tried to line up this year’s release to go along with last year’s so that the people who signed up for a paid membership will have it renewed around the same time.
Of course, if you aren’t a paid member, you can sign up today to get access to all our premium content, including player write-ups for our Top 25 prospects, player features, and video break downs.
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BA on Morel, who's now #20 on their list, which is based on expected bonus:
"Morell was expected to sign with the Dodgers for a little under $1 million, but with Roki Sasaki’s decision putting things on hold for several teams, the Pirates swooped in late and now are set to sign Morell for close to $1.8 million. Morell has grown into a 6-foot-5, lanky lefthanded power hitter. He can launch balls out of the park deep to his pull side and still has plenty of space to fill out his extremely projectable, broad-shouldered frame, giving him the potential for at least plus raw power that could be a 70 on the 20-80 scouting scale. Some scouts liked Morel’s hitting ability, though others thought he was still learning to recognize spin and that his long limbs lead to some swing-and-miss, but there’s big power upside if he’s able to keep that in check. Morel is a tick above-average runner, but with his size and long actions he could ultimately shift from shortstop to third base or potentially the outfield."
Pirates re-signed C Abrahan Gutierrez. Also signed OF Bryce Johnson and RHP Burch Smith to MiL deals.