Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager has been named the game’s best prospect in preseason top-100 and top-101 prospect rankings from MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus. Seager still qualifies for the lists since he retained his rookie eligibility by only making 113 plate appearances for L.A. last season, though he made a big first impression by hitting .337/.425/.561 in his initial taste of the big leagues. Twins center fielder Byron Buxton and Nationals righty Lucas Giolito are ranked second and third on both lists, and overall, the National League dominates the upper echelon of both rankings. Ten of MLB.com’s top 13 prospects are all from NL teams, while 10 of BP’s top 14 youngsters all hail from the senior circuit. Here are some more items from around the National League…
- The details of Yoenis Cespedes’ return to the Mets were detailed by COO Jeff Wilpon, GM Sandy Alderson and agent Brodie Van Wagenen in a conference call with reporters (including Mike Puma of the New York Post) earlier this week. Negotiations quickly picked up steam within about a week’s time, though such important contractual details as Cespedes’ opt-out clause after the first year were agreed upon early in the process.
- Van Wagenen also discussed his Cespedes’ free agency in a Friday interview with Jim Duquette and Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (all links to Twitter). He was in active talks with not just the Mets, but four other teams on the day that Cespedes agreed to re-sign with New York. In regards to the deal’s structure and the opt-out clause, “it was less about looking toward next year and more about being able to control where he was going to be,” Van Wagenen said.
- As the calendar turns to February, the Rockies have yet to make any additions to their shaky rotation, the Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders writes. GM Jeff Bridich stressed that the club expects internal upgrades in the form of better health from Jorge De La Rosa, Tyler Chatwood and Jordan Lyles. As to the club’s rumored pursuit of Yovani Gallardo, Bridich described those reports as “fairly overblown.”
- Multiple Nationals players tell James Wagner of the Washington Post that they don’t anticipate any clubhouse issues with Jonathan Papelbon in the wake of his infamous dugout skirmish with Bryce Harper last season. A larger issue, Wagner notes, might be whether the D.C. fans are as forgiving — it’s not hard to see Papelbon receive his share of boos in the early stages of the season, especially if his performance struggles.
The Rockies are the worst run organization in sports. It’s a ton of fun to be their fan.
I see your Rockies and add you an Arizona Coyotes franchise
The Rockies should conpletely blow it up,
Trade Cargo, Blackmon, McGee, Arenado, DJ, Hundley, Paulson, DeLaRosa and anyone else of value for pitching
They arent going to have trouble attracting hitters
Trading arenado would be a stupid idea. He is who they should rebuild the team around, if they can trade CarGo, Reyes, De La Rosa, Paulson, chatwood and lyles which may be tough to do then they have a rebuild but unloading all of that will be hard because of the home road splits and injury history for all of those players
Other than CarGo and Blackmon – they don’t really have many others with MLB-experience with a whole lot of value, unless I’m missing something. CIN received substantially less after being involved in a now-cleared domestic disturbance case. Reyes has not been cleared, MLB has not ruled, and at least through preliminary details, he might be in some legal trouble, so why would a team want to give up something to get involved with, unless COL wants to pay to make him go away?
Build around Arenado. He’s cheap and an offensive and defensive superfreak. COL has a good headstart with some pitching, though they could use more. Would like to see them trade CarGo though after a decent 1st half.
The blowup needs to start with the Monforts.
Papelbon is going to get a nasty welcome when he first appears at Nats Park. The fan base has had a whole winter to stew over the debacle of last season, and the most enduring image of that was Papelbon choking Harper. I think most fans will just be shocked that he’s back at all.
Two things could happen to the Nats this year about Papelbum, neither of them good.
1. He gets booed almost continuously.
2. The fans boycott the Nats until he is gone.
I am taking the year off if he is still there in ST.
Ted’s right, there will be boos galore, because fans were denied their immediate reactions by the suspension, Papelbum’s no-trade clause probably screwed the team’s chances to trade him worse than his reputation or salary.
Why is it all on papelbon ? He called out Harper for slacking then Harper challenged paplebon I know he was the aggressor but Harper’s no angel
The choking incident really didn’t have anything to do with Harper slacking. If you actually watched it, he wasn’t.
It was all because a few before that, Papelbon drilled someone intentionally, Harper was asked about it and wasn’t thrilled because he knew he would be the one paying for Papelbon’s stupidity. Harper was standing up against this dumb idea that pitchers should throw at hitters. I think that sounds pretty mature to me.
Nah, it’s all on the 1 inning reliever who called out the MVP.
Honestly, I’m quite shocked Spencer Adams didn’t appear on either of those prospect rankings. Kid was amazing last season and I was expecting somewhere in the 90’s at minimum. If he repeats his performance he should easily be in the top 50 range by mid-season
The problem with Papelbon is not who he is–he’s always been a mouthy ego-maniac–and it’s not his on the field performance–he’s still very good–but that the Nationals traded for him in the first place–which messed up Storen’s head unnecessarily. Now, they have an expensive contract that they can’t get decent value on, they have traded Storen, and they will have to see this out. Don’t expect Papelbon to change. As for Harper–I would say the same thing. Maybe he is arrogant and disliked. The difference, in this incredibly big-bucks world of baseball, is that Harper is a low-cost 23 year old superstar who is coming off a 9.9 bWAR season. All those people who want someone to take a swipe at the supposed smirk on Harper’s face? Would you take Brett Gardner is a trade for him? I’m sure the Yankees would through in a few bucks to equalize the salaries. Brett Gardner is a very nice guy.