The imminent return of Michael Conforto could force one of his deserving Mets teammates out of a job, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com writes. Specifically, leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo (who reached base four times on opening day) could end up being displaced to the bench, as the Mets also have Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce at the outfield corners. Nimmo, who was the club’s first-round selection in 2011, leapfrogged Juan Lagares on the depth chart with a fantastic spring. However, he doesn’t carry the upside of Conforto or the track record of Bruce or Cespedes. DiComo adds that the Mets are not considering shifting Bruce to first base, as the club seems content with Adrian Gonzalez at that position for the time being. For his part, Nimmo isn’t thinking about the outfield crunch at this time. “When Conforto comes back, we’ll deal with that,” he said. “But as far as right now, I’m just going to try to be me, and be the best me I can.”
Other items from the NL’s eastern teams…
- In other Mets news, Anthony Swarzak left today’s game with an apparent injury. Said injury was later described as a “sore oblique”, and he’s considered day-to-day for the time being (h/t Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). For Swarzak’s part, he’s “not panicking” about the soreness and is hoping it’ll disappear tomorrow.
- After being hit by a pitch on the wrist in yesterday’s 17-inning marathon, Marlins outfielder Garrett Cooper was replaced by fellow outfielder Cameron Maybin. After the game, the club described the injury as a “wrist contusion”, writes MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. It’s good news for Miami to hear that Cooper’s wrist isn’t broken, but he’s day-to-day for the time being, and it’s unclear when he’ll return to the lineup. “I took the sleeve off, and it was pretty purple,” Cooper said of the injury. “No fracture. Just day-to-day right now. I can move it around. Just a little swollen.”
- The Braves currently have three catchers on the roster, but manager Brian Snitker says that one of them could give way to right-hander Anibal Sanchez soon. David O’Brien of the Atlantla Journal-Constitution writes that while Sanchez has been tabbed for the fifth spot in the rotation (when necessary) for some time, the club may add him sooner than that in case they need to deploy him as a reliever. Sanchez pitched to a horrific 5.67 ERA across 415 2/3 innings across his last three seasons with the Tigers, though his strikeout (8.14 K/9) and walk (2.84) ratios remained generally good during that time.
Benching Nimmo in favor of Agon is laughable from a contending team. Put your best guys out there day in and day out, he’s clearly deserving of that. Just move Bruce to first.
I agree that Nino should play but I’d give Gonzalez a chance to bounce back first.
How you gonna play Nimmo if you let gonzo bounce back? Gotta go with the future. If Nimmo can play you have to play him.
I’m convinced that AGon is toast, then again I’ve eaten my words on that before with other players. He simply hasn’t looked good all last year and spring of this year.
That is only if Bruce is better than Gonzalez, which is not a given. Bruce is just not that good…. His OBP is a drag on the line up
That would be SUCH a Mets move. I hate it. Nimmo deserves to play, as does Bruce….not do much AGon.
The Braves article may just be a few days old, but it is already terribly out of date and lost it’s relevance. Flowers was injured the first game of the season in his first atbat causing him to be placed on the DL. Suzuki was plunked in the hand last night injuring his hammate bone area (and may also need to go on the DL). Thankfully the Braves did carry Chris Stewart to start the season, but now it is very possible that they will seek to add another receiver to the 25 man roster.
In a hilarious twist of fate (thank you instant news cycles), your post is already out of date and lost its relevance… Suzuki’s xray came back negative and will return next week. Just a bad bruise. Now its just the shocking news that Akeel Morris has been DFA’d..
Yep, I saw that Suzuki is thankfully better than expected. I’m glad it wasn’t worse.
I guess it was still relevant enough because the Braves acquired Carlos Perez to help with the catching depth.
Big Garrett Cooper fan, didn’t even know he was OF.
Get better soon!!
You root for other teams players and belittle the pinstripes.
He was in pinstripes and did well his little time here.
2017 stats: .326/.333/.488 (5 doubles, 1 triple) in 45 PA
After his hamstring injury, Yankees sent him down and never brought him up.
He was criticized for hitting in the hitter-friendly PCL: .366 with 17 homers and 82 RBI in just 75 games with Brewers Triple-A, before trade to NYY.
Yankees traded him for INT bonus, and King to try sign Ohtani, but there was jam too many 1B.
Carl, you never add anything, other than belittling me, and your posts are usually attacks in response to mine. Give it a rest.
wish MLBTR would take notice.
xabial,don’t let it get to you. Cooper is a AAAA though and the Yanks have far better options. Wish these injuries would stop.
“You root for other teams (sic) players . . . “
Xabial roots for players he likes regardless of affiliation. Not sure why this presents a problem for you.
Yea,but you’ve got to admit he takes this stuff way to seriously. There’s one guy I’ve seen still demanding he apologize to Tyler Wade. The worst thing for him to do is threaten them like last month with the whole BP thing.
“The worst thing for him to do is threaten them like last month with the whole BP thing.”
Afraid you have lost me there. Could you ‘dumb it down’ a bit? “BP” is batting practice, Baseball Prospectus or something else?
“ . . . you’ve got to admit he takes this stuff way too seriously.”
This is xabial you’re referring to, am I correct? I’m just not getting all that you’re trying to say here. Toss me a clue, perhaps?
I don’t have a problem with xabial, btw. He’s here to talk about baseball, rather than trying to advance some personal agenda. Occasionally he says something so silly that it requires a correction, and I do my part. But I have yet to see him say anything mean spirited, not even in response to an attack. That counts for something, even if it is not my own approach.
You can have a decent discussion/argument with xabial as he has the ability to disagree without being disagreeable. I note that after I busted his chops several months ago for posting his opinions without any statistical backup he has become much better at proving what he says. Haven’t seen him say anything about rating in a couple of weeks. We’re good.
Yea I was talking about xabial taking things to serious..down votes for one. BP-stands for Bipolar and I forget who it was that accused him of it but they went back and forth with xabial outnumbering the other guys posts 3-1. The threatening I spoke of was..warning people and hoping “MLBTR would take notice”.
“BP stands for Bipolar and I forget who it was who accused him . . . “
Right. Got it. Wasn’t that “bruinsfan94” or “bravesfan” with a number or something similar? I’ve seen him around since and left a calling card, iirc. And agreed. As I believe I wrote at the time, it isn’t good policy to announce one’s intentions. Folks’ll find out soon enough.
“The threatening I spoke of was…warning people and hoping “MLBTR would take notice.”
Well, someone must have taken notice of something as a large chunk of that thread—including comments of mine and possibly yours—were deleted. But that’s about the extent of the “help” he or we should expect from site admins. Even if they decided to nuke some particularly noxious troll for dogging x, he’d be back five minutes later with a new account.
Much better to learn how to defend oneself from attack than count on others to do so for you. It also looks a lot better. Site admins here want to spend their time writing about baseball not getting involved in petty squabbles among us peasants. In all my years as a contentious figure who regularly attracts trolls and abuse I’ve never asked for anyone’s help and can’t imagine doing so. Brother x might want to try that on for size for a bit and see if it works for him.
Sanchez has been HORRIBLE for 3 years! What changed?
Is he someone’s brother in law?
It’s like Bullets (AA) coming in was part of the punishment for the international signings. He is adding to the misery and destruction. One healthy sorry catcher and nine equally sorry bullpen pitchers. But wait; Teheran and Folty are the two pitchers with negative WAR! AA raised his leg on the Braves as he crossed the plate.
That is only if Bruce is better than Gonzalez, which is not a given. Bruce is just not that good.
González is not the issue. The real obstacle is Lagares who could bring back something of value if he can just hit about 250. But you need to play him and see if his value can increase.