James Shields didn’t have his best performance today, but the Padres were still able to top the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Friday, as Corey Brock of MLB.com writes. “I didn’t have the greatest stuff today. I wasn’t locating as well as I wanted to; I was behind in the count all day,” Shields said. In the end, San Diego managed to win 5-4 anyway, thanks to Wil Myers’ three-run homer in the seventh inning. More from the National League West..
- The Giants offered Nelson Cruz a deal worth upwards of $40MM this offseason, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). The Mariners, meanwhile, landed Cruz on a four-year, $57MM contract. Cruz, 35 in July, led the Majors in home runs in 2014 (40) while putting together an excellent .271/.333/.525 batting line.
- Craig Edwards of Fangraphs looked at the Diamondbacks’ decision to promote Yasmany Tomas to the varsity squad this week. Arizona generated a good amount of excitement by promoting Tomas, but their $68MM investment was apparently brought aboard to sit on the bench. As Edwards shows, a difficult numbers crunch led Arizona to promote Tomas rather than Double-A prospects like Brandon Drury and Socrates Brito who are not quite ready for primetime.
- The Dodgers have been kept afloat by young relievers Yimi Garcia and Pedro Baez, as Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles.com writes. The previous regime put emphasis on experience in building the bullpen, but the new front office gave jobs to Baez and Garcia rather than the veterans they had in camp. The Dodgers bounced Dustin McGowan, told Mike Adams (who later retired) that he wouldn’t make the team, and sent Sergio Santos and David Aardsma to Triple-A.
When did Mike Adams retire?
He never accepted his MiL assignment after being outrighted in early April. Writers suggested retirement was his only other option, but I never saw anything official.
Why would you send Tomas up to sit on the bench? I am almost 100% sure the D’backs don’t know what they’re doing…..
Yeah, it’s a pretty awful call honestly. I understand having a lack of options, but don’t take away at bats from a guy who’s supposed to be a key going forward.
Yes very smart to promote Tomas (who was sent down to get regular at bats) so he could sit on the bench.
If they needed a bench bat perhaps they could have claimed Cody Ross.
Thats actually a good point on the Ross thing..
For a while there I didn’t understand the narrative that the Dbacks front office had no idea what they were doing. Then I looked at all of their recent moves. Mind boggling really…
The Dodgers’ approach to the bullpen this year isn’t as much of a break from previous years as it may appear. Going with the best arms out of Spring Training is hardly unusual. With Jansen and League starting the season on the DL, their hand was forced. When these two come back somebody will have to be demoted. Then we can fairly judge whether new FO is really doing something different.