The house in Bratenahl, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, had special meaning for Carlos Santana and his wife, Brittany. It was the first home Santana, a native of the Dominican Republic, purchased in the United States, back in 2012 after he signed his first multi-year deal. All four of the Santanas’ children were born in the Cleveland area.
Sentiment, though, goes only so far.
Last Monday, thinking he would never play in Cleveland again, Santana instructed a realtor to put the house on the market. A buyer quickly emerged. On Thursday, Santana signed papers completing the sale. And on Friday, as luck would have it, guess who called for the first time?
The Guardians, of course.
Santana, 38, played for Cleveland from 2010 to ‘17, and again in 2019 and ‘20. That night, he met in his Tampa apartment with his agent, Ulises Cabrera of Octagon, until 2 a.m., weighing final offers. The Seattle Mariners, Santana’s team in 2022, sought to reunite with him virtually the entire offseason, and were pushing for a resolution. Santana said both New York teams, Detroit and Arizona also were in the mix, while San Diego and Texas had asked him to wait.
The Mariners, according to sources briefed on the discussions, offered Santana a one-year deal with a player option for a second season, an extraordinary bid for a first baseman entering his age-39 season. But even though Santana’s home in Bratenahl was gone, he could not stay away.
On Saturday morning, he flew to Cleveland to retrieve some personal belongings from the house. Later that day, he agreed to a one-year, $12 million contract with the Guardians, turning down more guaranteed money from the Mariners, according to a source. His return to Cleveland only became possible when the Guardians recognized they could trade first baseman Josh Naylor to the Diamondbacks, a deal that transpired the same day.
“I cannot believe it,” Santana said. “It’s crazy.”
The 2025 season will be Santana’s 16th in the majors. He is coming off a year in which he produced a .749 OPS with the Minnesota Twins, his highest since 2019, and won his first Gold Glove. If he passes his physical on Monday, his $12 million salary will more than double the $5.25 million he earned last season. His deal also includes $1 million in incentives.
The Mariners, Santana said, were his initial priority. Seattle star Julio Rodríguez is one of his best friends, and pushed for him to return. But Santana first joined the Cleveland organization at the 2008 deadline, in a trade from the Los Angeles Dodgers for third baseman Casey Blake. He is beloved in both the clubhouse and community, and it is not out of the question he will one day enter the team’s Hall of Fame.
“I’m so happy coming back,” Santana said. “Cleveland has my respect. The fan base is one of the best. The coaching staff, they know me. Sandy Alomar, I’ve known him for a long time. I know (top executives) Chris (Antonetti) and Mike Chernoff. I know the owner, (Paul) Dolan. I have very good relationships with everyone in the office, in the organization. They love me, and I love it. I’m very excited.”
Santana’s family lives mostly in Kansas City, where he played in 2021-22. He also keeps a residence in Tampa so he can train in the winter. Yet for more than a decade, he held onto the house in Bratenahl, declining to sell it even after signing a three-year, $60 million free-agent contract with the Philadelphia Phillies in Dec. 2017.
A year later, the Phillies dealt him to the Mariners, and 10 days after that the Mariners sent him back to Cleveland. That, too, was a wild story. Santana had been planing to rent the Ohio home to his good friend, Edwin Encarnación – until Seattle and Cleveland traded them for each other.
Now Santana needs to find a new place in Cleveland, but compared to his final 24 hours as a free agent, that task will be relatively simple. His whirlwind through the open market, following his spin through the housing market, ended in a place he never thought he would never again call home.
Explaining the Guardians’ latest moves
Both teams that reached the American League Championship Series will open the season with new first and second basemen. The New York Yankees are simply replacing departing free agents. The Guardians’ moves were more jarring, but typical of the roster roulette low-revenue teams play.
The trade of Andrés Giménez to the Toronto Blue Jays enabled the Guardians to escape the remaining five years and $96.5 million on the second baseman’s contract. The trade of Naylor to the Arizona Diamondbacks, in combination with the Santana agreement, left the Guardians with a similar one-year financial commitment at first base, plus right-hander Slade Cecconi and the No. 72 overall pick in the 2025 draft. Cleveland now holds the 27th, 66th, 70th and 72nd selections.
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Naylor, 27, is 11 years younger than Santana, and almost certainly would have departed as a free agent at the end of the 2025 season. Santana, thanks in part to his Gold Glove defense, produced the higher fWAR last season (3.0-2.3). As one of the team’s most beloved players in recent memory, he again will be a strong presence in the clubhouse, if less emotional than Naylor.
Cecconi, 25, was the 33rd overall pick out of the University of Miami in the 2020 draft, but has yet to establish himself in the majors, finishing last season with a 6.66 ERA in 77 innings. The Guardians are not sure whether he will start or relieve but believe he might benefit from working with their pitching group and competing in better pitchers’ parks than he did at Triple-A Reno and in Arizona. According to Statcast’s Park Factor, Chase Field was the second-most run-friendly environment in the majors last season, behind only Coors Field.
The Guardians have spent much of their offseason adding pitching, previously re-signing free-agent right-hander Shane Bieber to a two-year, $26 million contract, and acquiring righty Luis L. Ortiz as well as pitching prospects Josh Hartle and Michael Kennedy for infielder Spencer Horwitz. They also traded relievers Eli Morgan to the Chicago Cubs and Nick Sandlin to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Marlins flirting with CBA trouble
In early December, Evan Drellich and I detailed how the A’s need to add significant payroll this winter or else risk a grievance from the Major League Baseball Players Association. The Miami Marlins, who continued to tear down their roster Sunday with their trade of left-hander Jesús Luzardo to the Philadelphia Phillies, are treading on perhaps even more perilous ground.
Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement requires teams to carry a luxury-tax payroll more than one and a half times the amount they receive from local revenue sharing. A club in violation doesn’t automatically receive punishment but puts itself at greater risk of penalty if the union files a grievance.
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The Marlins, like the A’s, are expected to be among the highest revenue-sharing recipients next year at roughly $70 million, if not more. Using that $70 million estimate, the Marlins’ luxury-tax payroll by the end of the season would need to be $105 million. Per FanGraphs, they currently are at $83 million. The A’s, following their additions of right-hander Luis Severino, lefty Jeffrey Springs and third baseman Gio Urshela, are at $90 million.
What’s amazing about the Marlins’ luxury-tax number is that approximately 45 percent of it is unrelated to their current roster. Two players no longer on the team’s 40-man, outfielder Avisaíl García and righty Woo-Suk Go, account for $15.25 million. Through 2027, the Marlins also are getting hit with a $3 million annual charge as part of their Giancarlo Stanton trade with the New York Yankees. And, like all teams, they are charged $17.5 million for player benefits and $1.67 million for their share of the pre-arbitration bonus pool.
Since the deadline, the Marlins have traded Luzardo, closer Tanner Scott, infielders Jake Burger, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Josh Bell, left-hander Trevor Rogers, outfielder Bryan De La Cruz and relievers A.J. Puk, JT Chargois and Huascar Brazoban. The next to go, provided he makes a strong recovery from Tommy John surgery in the first half, should be right-hander Sandy Alcántara, whose 2025 salary is $17.3 million.
Wouldn’t it be something if the Marlins had to keep Alcántara because their luxury-tax payroll was too low? The average annual value of Alcántara’s five-year contract — the number used for luxury-tax calculations — is $11.2 million. Shedding the prorated portion of that amount at the deadline would drop the team’s luxury-tax number by roughly another $3.7 million.
Can’t wait to see how the Marlins raise payroll, with owner Bruce Sherman kicking and screaming. Like the A’s, they have little choice but to spend.
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The Sandoval deal: A record of sorts
Patrick Sandoval had a 3.53 ERA from 2021-23 before posting a 5.08 ERA in 16 starts this year.(Robert Edwards / Imagn Images)
While no official records are kept, left-hander Patrick Sandoval’s two-year, $18.25 million deal with the Boston Red Sox is believed to be the largest guarantee ever awarded to a player who was non-tendered.
The Milwaukee Brewers retained righty Brandon Woodruff on a two-year, $17.5 million contract prior to 2024. The Chicago Cubs signed first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger to a one-year, $17.5 million deal — the highest AAV for a non-tender — prior to 2023.
With salaries for starting pitchers soaring, the curious part of the Los Angeles Angels’ decision to part with Sandoval is that they could have retained him over the next two seasons for perhaps $6 million less than he ended up getting from the Red Sox.
Sandoval, 28, projected to earn $5.9 million in arbitration in 2025, per MLB Trade Rumors. He is not expected to return from Tommy John surgery before the second half, so his raise in 2026 would have been minimal.
Perhaps Angels owner Arte Moreno didn’t want to pay a player who was hurt, something he has done regularly with Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon at higher salaries. Perhaps Moreno and general manager Perry Minasian are hellbent on winning this upcoming season and wanted to use the $6 million for other pursuits.
The Angels tried to trade Sandoval before the non-tender deadline, according to a rival executive who spoke with them. But the industry effectively called their bluff, daring them to offer Sandoval a contract. They did not.
Rangers bullpen: A work in progress
Slowly but surely, the Texas Rangers are rebuilding their bullpen.
Four of the Rangers’ six most frequently used relievers last season — David Robertson, José Leclerc, Kirby Yates and José Ureña — are free agents, as is Andrew Chafin, who arrived at the deadline. The team has responded by signing free-agent left-hander Hoby Milner to a one-year, $2.5 million contract, righty Jacob Webb to a one-year, $1.25 million deal and — in a move that could prove to be a steal — acquiring lefty Robert Garcia from the Washington Nationals on Sunday for first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.
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Garcia, 28, finished with a 4.22 ERA in 59 2/3 innings last season, but his 29.9 percent strikeout rate and 6.4 percent walk rate contributed to a much lower expected ERA — 2.53, according to Statcast. He has five years of club control remaining as opposed to two for Lowe, who is projected to earn $10.7 million in arbitration this season with another raise coming through the process in 2026.
Re-signing Yates remains a priority for the Rangers. The team quickly identified a left-handed hitter to replace Lowe, reaching an agreement Sunday with free agent designated hitter Joc Pederson, according to league sources briefed on the discussions.
Around the horn
• Is it possible the availability of St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado is clogging the market for free agent Alex Bregman?
The Cardinals, in their negotiations with the Houston Astros on an Arenado trade, were willing to include $5 million per season, leaving the Astros with approximately a three-year, $49 million commitment, sources briefed on the talks told The Athletic’s Katie Woo. Deferrals would have further lowered the present-day value of the Astros’ obligation if Arenado had not blocked the deal.
Arenado, who will play next season at 34, is three years older than Bregman. His OPS the past three seasons has dropped from .891 to .774 to .719. Bregman’s has fallen from .820 to .804 to .768. A team could bet on Arenado bouncing back, rationalizing he would be a better gamble than Bregman at a guarantee that could approach or exceed $200 million.
• A rival executive makes a good point about the Red Sox potentially pursuing either Bregman or Arenado:
If the Sox wish to move Rafael Devers off third base, why bother pursuing an external option when numerous internal options are available, or soon will be?
Those options include Trevor Story, who is under contract through 2027, as well as two prospects — Marcelo Mayer, who could wind up at shortstop or third; and Kristian Campbell, who seems more likely to land at second.
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Of course, prospects are prospects, and Bregman, in particular, brings a special leadership intangible. But the Sox ranked ninth in the majors in runs last season. Their greater need remains pitching.
• First baseman Christian Walker, in moving from Chase Field to Houston’s renamed Daikin Park, is leaving the second-most run-friendly environment last season for the seventh.
Walker is so consistent, it shouldn’t affect him. His OPS+ the past three seasons was 25 percent above league average, 22 percent above and 21 percent above.
(Top photo of Carlos Santana with Cleveland in 2020: Ron Schwane/Getty Images)
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