The Angels aren’t sure whether third baseman and top winter acquisition Anthony Rendon will be ready when they open their season Friday, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com relays. Rendon, a former Nationals star whom the Angels signed to a seven-year, $245MM contract in free agency, has been dealing with oblique soreness since last week. If he’s not able to take the field in a few days, the Angels are expected to use David Fletcher and Matt Thaiss at the hot corner, per Bollinger. The Angels’ infield could also be missing Luis Rengifo, who Bollinger writes stands a “strong chance” of sitting out the opener on account of hamstring soreness.
- Astros second baseman Jose Altuve left the team’s preseason game against the Royals on Tuesday with a left leg contusion, Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports. There’s now some question as to whether the former MVP will be healthy enough to go when the Astros’ season starts. “We’re hopeful he’ll be ready on Friday,” manager Dusty Baker said. “We’ll analyze him tomorrow and see where he is in the morning. Usually the day after that, you’re pretty sore.”
- “It’s going to be a while” before left-hander Cole Hamels debuts in 2020, Braves manager Brian Snitker said Tuesday (via Mark Bowman of MLB.com). Hamels dealt with shoulder inflammation during spring training and has recently battled triceps tendinitis, thereby preventing him from facing live hitters over the past several months. Considering how short this season will be, the Braves may have trouble getting much bang for their buck out of Hamels. They inked the longtime workhorse to a one-year, $18MM contract over the winter. That guarantee turned into approximately a prorated $7MM when the season went from 162 games to 60.
- Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who has been fighting rib and back issues, seems to be progressing. Manager David Ross said Tuesday (via Jordan Bastian of MLB.com) that it “looks like all thumbs up from today” in regards to Rizzo. He’s slated to start the team’s exhibition game against Minnesota on Wednesday. Meanwhile, southpaw Jose Quintana – who underwent surgery on his left thumb three weeks ago – issued an encouraging update on his status (per Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune), saying he’s not feeling any pain. It remains unclear when he’ll be able to take the mound this season, though.
- Orioles left-hander John Means will miss Opening Day because of arm fatigue, Joe Trezza of MLB.com tweets. As a result, offseason minor league signing and fellow southpaw Tommy Milone will start the Orioles’ opener against Boston on Friday. It’s not known when Means will be able to debut in 2020, but the Orioles are surely hoping it will be sooner than later. The 27-year-old Means was one of the few bright spots on Baltimore’s talent-deprived roster last season, after all, as he logged a 3.60 ERA/4.41 FIP with 7.03 K/9 and 2.21 BB/9 across 155 innings.
A minor league signing as your opening day starter is just brutal
It’s the Orioles they don’t care about winning
Who will start for the Red Sox? They collected some minor league signees recently as well.
Gruß,
BSHH
Eovaldi
As awful as starting Tommy Millone on opening day is, I’m pretty much used to bad starting pitching in Baltimore. I’m sure my fellow O’s fans remember the opening days that were started by stalwarts like Sidney Ponson and Rodrigo Lopez.
W/ a 40 million dollar payroll starting Millone opening day is about on par w/ the Sox’s 200 million dollar payroll starting Eovaldi.
With that said, the Orioles have been a very good opening day team this century. 15-5 in those games. The season typically slides downhill thereafter.
I’m old enough to remember when the Orioles didn’t start a bad pitcher for about 15 straight years.
Unfortunately that’s been quite some time now. After Mussina, there hasn’t been much in the way of a consistent frontline SP.
Chris Tillman may be the best Orioles starting pitcher of the 21st century. Yikes.
But he is a 9 year veteran
Even though it wasn’t intentional the Royals pitchers hit the Cheatin Asstros 3 times yesterday and tripped up Altuve after he crossed home plate this his injury. Wouldn’t of happened if he had slid. Makes me proud that karma is catching up to these dirtbag cheaters.
How do you know it wasn’t intentional?
I saw 2 of them (Altuve, Bregman) – both with bases loaded, they were offspeed pitches that barely grazed the arm and jersey of both guys. Not exactly retribution.
Wait until the Astros play the Dodgers/Yankees and you decide if its intentional.
Astros won’t play the Yankees until possibly the playoffs, and unlikely that the Yankees would throw at Astros players in a playoff game. Wait until 2021 though.
Both teams are sign stealers when Houston plays NY..
The Yankees and Astros are favored to meet again in the ALCS. While the winner most likely will face the Dodgers in the WS.
When were the yankees caught stealing signs ?
I’m calling BS on that one, they had every intention of hitting the Astros batters. I hope it gets to the point that the league will be forced to automatically eject any pitcher who hits an Astros player.
Tommy Milone, OD starter.
yikes, must really suck to be an O’s fan
In a season where they’re only going to play against teams from the East, it’s tough to see them reaching 10 wins. The Marlins might be the only team they have a real shot to compete against. They’ve got some decent young prospects on the way though, and are probably going to win the Kumar Rocker draft sweepstakes- so it isn’t all bad news in Baltimore.
I’ll bet just about anything that the Orioles win 15 games. 10 games is the equivalent a 27 game winner over a full 162.
Go with God, Kumar. You deserve better than BAL. Hopefully not another victim in the graveyard of top pitching talent that never pans out in Charm City.
Nope. The more losses the better, closer to that 1/1 and Kumar Mania.
I know the Orioles will probably be in position to draft Rocker, but the two best reasons to watch the Orioles: Gary Thorne in the broadcast booth and Trey Mancini on the field will not be there this year. It cannot get much worse.
It’ll get worse. With Means out, Milone is their best starter.
Gleyber Torres playing them as many times as he does – will be fun if he can break last year’s streak of, what, 13 HR vs. BAL alone…? whoa. Gary Thorne’s calls of all those are hilarious.
The very best reason to watch this season would have been the brilliant Jim Palmer in the booth. He won’t be on air this year either. Between losing Palmer, Thorne, Mancini and now John Means with a dead arm, a rough season is off to a horrendous start before it has even begun.
This is what a rebuild looks like. Doesn’t look pretty during the early parts.
I know. This is what a page on MLBTR looks like when it talks about a rebuilding team. Reading comments up and down these pages you’d almost get the idea that nobody knows the Orioles are rebuilding and that the Orioles being terrible is completely inexplicable, but most of them know.
I think we fans just like to talk about how bad a team is regardless of the reasons. We even talk that way about GOOD teams. I’ve read numerous times how the Dodgers suck because they haven’t won a world series during their current run.
I hope they do something in the new CBA to punish teams that tank to get better draft picks. Maybe a lottery similar to the NBA where all non playoff teams are involved but only the top 4 spots are chosen and the rest in reverse order in number of wins…
Too many big expensive names being hurt for having all that time off and really only been practicing the last couple weeks. Something to keep an eye on. Peeps can be “hurt” for this short season and basically get their money without doing much work and it will be glossed over.
I don’t mind the Braves taking it in the shorts, but I hate the idea that Hamels’ career is winding down this way. Lots of great careers end with these piecemeal injuries and it’s just sad for someone with his talent and resume, especially when it’s happening in a season that’s this dysfunctional.
Why the Rage against the Braves? Prejudice towards their fans or is it actually the team?
Let’s just get this season over with already.
Much to the chagrin of all those who love to hate the Astros, they announced that Altuve will be in the starting lineup on opening day. The future Hall of Famer is just fine!!!