Let’s take a look at a few spring roster battles out of the NL East to round out the evening …
- Like most organizations, the Phillies have several opt-out dates approaching — particularly in their relief corps. As MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki writes, the Phils face potential decisions on Edward Mujica (Saturday) and Ernesto Frieri (next Thursday) in short order, with Andrew Bailey (May 1) and James Russell (June 1) to follow. Mujica seems destined for a big league job, says Zolecki, while it’s not clear that Frieri will make it onto the active roster after rough results thus far.
- Members of Braves brass like Jeff Francoeur as a right-handed bench bat, which means the club could elect to give him its last outfield spot over Nick Swisher and Emilio Bonifacio, according to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Braves brought Swisher to camp with the hope that he’d show well enough to entice another team to trade for him. While Swisher has hit .294/.429/.382 in 34 at-bats, a deal hasn’t come along. Thus, the Braves could ultimately eat the 12-year veteran’s entire $15MM salary in order to get rid of him. Bonifacio, who’s due a much more palatable $1.25MM this year, is potentially movable. If not, the Braves will have an easier time eating his contract than Swisher’s.
- Elsewhere, Mike Foltynewicz is favored to beat out Williams Perez and Manny Banuelos for the Braves’ fifth starter spot, per O’Brien. Regardless, the Braves won’t need a fifth starter until April 12, so they might start the season with an eight-man bullpen. That would ostensibly bode well, at least temporarily, for the out-of-options Jose Ramirez and Rule 5 pick Dan Winkler.
- MLB.com’s Mark Bowman agrees that Foltynewicz is making a strong case for a rotation slot with the Braves. He has recovered quicker than expected from a scary bout with a blood clot. Meanwhile, John Gant has remained in the running longer than might have been expected. Per Bowman, the 23-year-old, who came over in last year’s Juan Uribe/Kelly Johnson swap with the division-rival Mets, may be in line behind Foltynewicz and Jhoulys Chacin.
- Meanwhile, the Braves will be looking around for southpaw relievers as players begin to shake loose from other organizations, Bowman suggests. Ian Krol has underwhelmed and doesn’t seem likely to take a roster spot, leaving Alex Torres as perhaps the only southpaw currently in camp who’ll be on the Opening Day roster. One internal option that could re-enter the picture, he adds, is Hunter Cervenka, who has already been shipped down to minor league camp.
Connor Byrne contributed to this post.
Can MLB TRADE RUMORS please do something to inhibit the spam or trolling of bigpapi4ever? It frustrates and inhibits the normally civil and pleasant experience in the comment section. I bid you good day.
Whats worse one post by him thats uninformed or 200 people mocking or complaining about it???? Simple fix is to stop feeding it and be less petty.
One post? You must not be a regular.. Nearly every post. that is before his 9pm bedtime. But if you believe everyone can ignore his posts, lets see that happen. Advocate your tactic, which has been said before and proven to be ineffective. When it doesn’t work I expect you to be frustrated enough to ask for some moderation.
He hasn’t broke any commenting rules. Sure he might be a homer, but who cares. It’s really not near as bad as you guys are making it out to be. It’s only one or two comments a post, it’s not like he’s filling up pages with comments. A lot of really sensitive people here.
What fills up the pages is everyone wanting to have the most smart-alecky response to him. Tiresome.
He hasn’t even commented here, and you just responded to him. It is getting excessive. Many times there are more comments about him and his post than the actual article.
I agree. It’s the people that talk about him that’s the bigger problem. He seems to be a kid who really likes his team and wants to talk baseball. He’s uninformed on things, but he’s being made out to be a bigger problem than he is in reality.
I mean, really, who SHOULD care if he calls the team “my Sox,” makes some uneducated trade proposals and thinks the world of his team’s players? He’s harmless and it’s easy to skip over his posts since he usually only makes a comment or two about most articles.
Just be the adult and skip over his comment if you don’t like it.
Ignore the troll and he/she will go away. Otherwise, you’re playing right into his/her hands.
Trolling about how annoying a troll is. That’s rich.
Yeah, he’s annoying, but is this your first day on the Internet or what? You’re going to have to read comments you don’t like.
Spinning everything into being about “my Sox” is irritating, but frankly it’s more annoying to me to read forty people hijacking the thread complaining about it. It’s troll behavior for people to be falling over themselves to be the first one to cry about it… even pre-empting him and complaining before he shows up.
at least you caught the satirical part of trolling before the troll showed up
Phillies and Pirates both have some interesting opt out decisions to make. Lots of potential upside in their minor league signings.
Makes no sense for the Braves to keep Frenchy and eat Swisher’s contract. You’re going to suck regardless so might as well make him earn some of his money.
Suck? Braves are going 160-2
And see! Bigpapi also inspires imitators.
This was obviously a joke you know…
Your sarcasm detector is flawed
The two losses are for when the umpires incorrectly call a fly ball an infield fly rule
Frenchy still has potential for the full season over Swish. I would hate then eating so much and think they should honestly hold onto Swish, move Boni.
Actually from a marketing perspective it makes perfect sense. This is going to be a rough season for fans of the Braves. Frenchy still is popular among the more casual fanbase. Swisher doesn’t have that going for him.
He is just a low cost option to pander to fans. For the Braves that alone makes him worth his contract and roster spot. There’s no hope of Swisher being worth either.
The good things is, CLE is still on the hook for near half of Swish’s contract.
Get rid of Swisher is a primadonna.
I think the link for Jose Ramirez is wrong
What about Carlos Torres? He should make that team, but he’s an NRI. Has the experience to help that club – no doubt.
Should be an interesting week for the Braves. Lots of guys still in camp have a chance to break including several NRI’s.
Last year, Williams Perez, after a debut third of inning out of the pen which did not go well – quickly settled down and showed a lot of what it takes – great presence – fun to watch – pitching outstanding until he got hit with line drive setting him back. After a stint on the DL, he came back (maybe before he was ready) and wasn’t close to the same for a month. However, his last five starts, he got back on the outstanding roll he was on earlier. He did what he was asked to do. This spring 7 inn 1.29 era.
Now, I know the Braves have a lot of pitching talent in the wings and Perez likely won’t be in the starting rotation in a year or two.
But right now, based on his last five starts and work in spring, he has done enough to earn a starting spot. He unfortunately may make the same mistake people like David Hale made. He showed Fredi G he could adapt and pitch out of the bullpen. Alex Wood showed he couldn’t and they just traded him instead of letting his career die in the pen. After initially looking good from the BP, Hale was jacked around from starting to BP to “stretching out to start” and back to the BP etc – he was never the same. Fredi G admitting in the past he misused his pen was a gross understatement. FG‘s BP, unless you are the golden-child reliever like Kimbrell, can be a death sentence for a young starting pitcher.
So my advice to Williams is, if they put you in the pen, pitch awful. There are some smart folks out there who know what you have done. They will trade for you and you can get on with your career.
It would also be interesting to find out why we are going through this debate over who will be the closer after Vizcaino clearly won the job last year. It’s a shame he has to go through that debate. If I am Arodys, I couldn’t wait to become a FA and get out of Atlanta. A team where the manager plays favorites and how you perform has a lot less to do with where you end up than they would have you believe.
Smart Move! Get Swisher as far away from your club as possible… If you decide to do it! Bonifacio can play anywhere on the diamond! He might not make it either, but he is going to end up on somebody’s 25 man roster.
I saw Williams Perez pitch a game like an ace last year. One guy in my fantasy lg. picked him up and swore by him. I only seen the kid once… But he looked awesome to me….