Orioles catcher Matt Wieters left today’s game with a sore elbow, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. X-Rays taken this afternoon did not reveal any obvious problems, and the club won’t take an MRI at this time. Manager Buck Showalter downplayed the injury and characterized it as normal spring soreness for a catcher. Wieters’ elbow is always going to generate added concern given the Tommy John surgery that he came back from last season. Since an MRI is designed to see soft tissue damage, we can expect the club to proceed to that step if Wieters doesn’t respond positively to rest. Caleb Joseph is Baltimore’s primary backup catcher.
- An injury to Blue Jays reliever Aaron Loup could open the door for Randy Choate, writes Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com. Choate signed a minor league deal with the Jays just yesterday, ostensibly with the understanding that the injury to Loup would improve his odds of making the club. Choate, 40, is one of the original poster children of the lefty-specialist movement. Over his career, he’s held fellow southpaws to a .193/.274/.273 line while recording 9.37 K/9 and 2.60 BB/9. Against righties, he’s scuffled with 4.97 K/9, 5.84 BB/9, and a .304/.414/.416 line allowed. For a more nuanced look at the entire Toronto bullpen picture, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca has the details.
- Jays reliever David Aardsma can opt out of his minor league contract at the end of May, tweets Nicholson-Smith. The former Mariners closer last experienced major league success back in 2010. In 2015, the now 34-year-old pitched to a 4.70 ERA with 10.27 K/9 and 4.11 BB/9 in 30 innings for the Braves. His slider continues to be a plus pitch although he’s lost about three mph off his fastball since his prime.
- Rays shortstop Brad Miller is struggling with his throwing accuracy this spring, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. His errant throws could unleash a cascade of roster moves. The club could begin to more seriously consider internal alternatives at shortstop. James Loney’s sure-handedness at first base could give him starts over offseason acquisition Logan Morrison. With Corey Dickerson on the roster, one of Morrison or Loney may be redundant and thus difficult to roster. The logjam could also be solved by trading an outfielder.
LoMo’s fit is on a NL team where he can PH and play emergency 1b/corner OF only when needed. His 4m salary is too high to entice NL teams to take on however and give anything up, even take on in a waiver deal, Tampa would have to pay some of that deal and should have never acquired him when they already had the even worse Loney under contract and owed almost 10m in 2016.
LoMo would be a perfect NL PH.. He is patient at the plate and has nice LH power, a younger Giambi, only paid what Giambi was getting.. 1-1..5m a year, not the 4m the Rays knew good and well LoMo was due via arbitration.
Wieters’ situation will certainly give Boston hesitation about moving a catcher. I’m sure a lot of people are going to be monitoring Christian Vazquez’ progress on an hourly basis for months to come.