{"id":528148,"date":"2026-01-19T20:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T20:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/528148\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T20:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T20:46:17","slug":"several-teams-showing-interest-in-miguel-andujar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/528148\/","title":{"rendered":"Several Teams Showing Interest In Miguel Andujar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Free agent infielder\/outfielder Miguel Andujar<\/a> is drawing widespread interest, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a>, with the Rangers, Padres, Cardinals, Reds, Cubs and Athletics listed as some of the clubs in the mix.<\/p>\n

Andujar, 31 in March, is coming off his best season in years. He missed a little over a month due to an oblique strain but got into 94 games, split between the A\u2019s and Reds after a deadline trade. He generally puts the ball in play a lot, avoiding both strikeouts and walks, and that continued to be the case last year. In his 341 plate appearances, his 5% walk rate was quite low but he was also only struck out at a 14.4% clip.<\/p>\n

He produced a .318\/.352\/.470 batting line, production which translated to a wRC+ of 125, or 25% better than league average. There was likely a bit of good luck in there, as his .348 batting average on balls in play was quite high, but it would have been a good showing even with neutral luck. He slashed .277\/.315\/.399 over 2023 and 2024 for a wRC+ of 103, with a decreased .306 BABIP in that stretch.<\/p>\n

Andujar hits from the right side and has strong platoon splits. For his career, he has a .297\/.332\/.475 line and 121 wRC+ against lefties, compared to a .275\/.307\/.427 line and 101 wRC+ without the platoon advantage. It was even more extreme last year, as Andujar had a .389\/.409\/.578 line and 171 wRC+ against southpaws. Against righties, he held his own with a .290\/.331\/.429 line and 108 wRC+.<\/p>\n

Defensively, he doesn\u2019t play a premium position but does provide some versatility, as he lined up at the four corner spots last year. He doesn\u2019t get great marks anywhere but the ability to move around is helpful when a club is looking to play matchups.<\/p>\n

Andujar can therefore be of theoretical use to any club with a lefty in a corner somewhere.\u00a0The A\u2019s employed Andujar in 2024 and part of 2025 and could do so again. They have Nick Kurtz<\/a> at first with the outfield corners manned by Tyler Soderstrom<\/a> and Lawrence Butler<\/a>. They could potentially be more competitive in 2026 but could also trade Andujar at the deadline again. Last year, they were able to get pitching prospect Kenya Huggins<\/a> from the Reds.<\/p>\n

The Rangers project to have Brandon Nimmo<\/a> in left. Evan Carter<\/a> is another lefty, with notable struggles against southpaws, and projects to be the club\u2019s center fielder. There has been some suggestion that Wyatt Langford<\/a> could take some center field playing time, which could make room for a righty bat in a corner. Joc Pederson<\/a> projects to be the designated hitter. He is coming off a poor season but has crushed righties and flailed against lefties in his career.<\/p>\n

Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom recently said<\/a> the Cards have room for a righty-hitting outfielder. The club projects to have lefty Lars Nootbaar<\/a> in one corner, with Alec Burleson<\/a> at first base and Nolan Gorman<\/a> possibly getting lots of playing time at third. The Cards are rebuilding but Andujar could help the club protect their current players and then perhaps be traded at the deadline, just as he was last year.<\/p>\n

The Reds just had Andujar for the final two months of the 2025 season and could once again slot him in. They traded Gavin Lux<\/a> to the Rays but project to have lefty JJ Bleday<\/a> in one outfield corner.\u00a0The Cubs have Michael Busch<\/a> at first base and Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros<\/a> is probably the favorite to take over the designated hitter spot. The Padres project to have some combination of Jake Cronenworth<\/a>, Sung Mun Song<\/a> and Gavin Sheets<\/a> covering first base, second base and designated hitter.<\/p>\n

Andujar isn\u2019t likely to command too much on the open market as a short-side platoon player. Guys like Austin Hays<\/a> and Randal Grichuk<\/a> are somewhat comparable players who each got one-year, $5MM deals last offseason. Rob Refsnyder<\/a> just got $6.3MM from the Mariners on a one-year deal last month.<\/p>\n

Hays and Grichuk are out there again now, alongside Andujar. Other similar players in this market include Austin Slater<\/a>, Tommy Pham<\/a>, Starling Marte<\/a> and Chas McCormick<\/a>. There\u2019s also Harrison Bader<\/a>, though he should be a tier above this group. Since he is a strong defender in center, he is a viable everyday player and may be able to secure himself a two-year deal.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Jeff Hanisch, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Free agent infielder\/outfielder Miguel Andujar is drawing widespread interest, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4808,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-528148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-miguel-andujar","10":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115923726176575824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}