NL Notes: Pence, Marlins, Soriano, Tomas, Lopez

Hunter Pence will be out six to eight weeks after a Corey Black fastball broke his arm in yesterday’s Cactus League contest against the Cubs. However, the Giants are expected to look at their in-house options to replace Pence while he is on the shelf, tweets Jim Bowden of ESPN and MLB Network Radio. That’s not necessarily a huge surprise, considering the fact that six to eight weeks could mean that Pence will miss only a few weeks of in-season action. ESPN’s Buster Olney wondered (on Twitter) last night if the Giants might use Buster Posey at first base more, with Brandon Belt sliding into the outfield, given the team’s need for power.

More notes from around the Senior Circuit…

• The Marlins missed out on James Shields and Francisco Rodriguez late in the offseason, but the money that would have been allocated to that pair of arms could be reinvested in trade acquisitions midseason, writes MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. President of baseball operations Michael Hill says that owner Jeffrey Loria has made it “abundantly clear” that he will provide the Marlins’ front office with the resources necessary to make trades, should an area of need arise.
• Frisaro also reports that despite the fact that the Marlins were clearly in the market for a bullpen upgrade (as evidenced by their pursuit of K-Rod), they don’t have interest in free agent right-hander Rafael Soriano.
• Yasmany Tomas has looked comfortable in early auditions at third base, writes Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. He hasn’t been perfect, particularly with his throws, but if Tomas can iron out the kinks at the hot corner, it would keep the D-Backs’ outfield logjam from getting out of hand. As it stands, Arizona has David Peralta, A.J. Pollock, Cody Ross, Ender Inciarte and Mark Trumbo all vying for time, and adding Tomas to that mix would further complicate matters. Regardless, it’s possible, in my eyes, that we see Arizona move one of its outfield options later this spring, although Peralta and Inciarte do have minor league options remaining.
• Fangraphs’ Eno Sarris has some brief video of another highly regarded Cuban inked by the D-Backs this offseason: Yoan Lopez. Sarris captures just a couple of pitches, but his colleague, Kiley McDaniel, provides a more complete breakdown of Lopez in a brief scouting report. Per McDaniel, Lopez has good arm speed on a 92 to 95 mph fastball to go along with an above-average slider and an average changeup. However, the 21-year-old also has some control issues and is likely headed to the minors to begin his career here.