Evan Longoria made his spring training debut today at designated hitter, but it might be some time until he’s regularly taking grounders at third. He’s working his way back from plantar fasciitis, per MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado (via Twitter). This is an injury that has plagued Longoria in the past, and it does have a tendency to linger. The Giants have no reason to rush Longoria, who hit .254/.297/.425 in 2020. The Giants built up their infield depth this winter. Tommy La Stella is the most likely to see time at third while Longoria is out with Donovan Solano staying at the keystone. If the injury lingers, San Francisco could also use the opportunity to get extra at-bats for Wilmer Flores.
- Luis Urias will be out for a day or two with a hamstring injury, but it’s “very minor” and unlikely to affect his playing time beyond the next couple of days, per the Athletic’s Will Sammon (via Twitter). Urias is looking to take advantage of an opportunity to win the everyday shortstop job in Milwaukee. The Brewers are clearly comfortable playing Orlando Arcia and Travis Shaw on the left side of the infield, but they’d like to see Urias in one of those spots. Arcia has been moved around this spring for the first time in his career in an effort to give Urias more training at short.
- Forrest Whitley is again having a tough spring. His arrival in camp was initially delayed because of coronavirus intake protocols, and now he’s dealing with a sore arm, writes MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. Whitley has struggled to get healthy and produce as expected for a top prospect, but there is still hope that he will establish himself at some point in 2021. He is on the Astros’ 40-man roster now, and while the stakes seem high for 2021, Whitley is still only 23 years old.
To this day I still have no idea how the Rays managed to get themselves out of that payroll commitment.
It really is remarkable. Longo wasn’t even coming off of a strong year or anything when they managed to unload him. They really lucked out on that one.
SF lucked out in getting out from Melancon’s deal, though obviously no where nearly offsetting. Surprised at how well that worked out for both sides: ATL/SF.
They had to pay 14m to SF over the life of Longo’s contract, and had to take back 14M owed to Denard Span. BUT they got a more-than-decent half-year out of Span before they off-loaded him to Seattle.
They did pretty well; still saved abut 22M, for Longo who frankly is at the point of being “meh”.
Exactly. I don’t think it was that bad a trade for the Giants. They got $28 million shaved off the contract essentially by unloading Span and the Rays $14 million.
The Giants were desperate for a solution at third. It’s not like they were grooming the position for a guy coming up either. I like having him there for some pop and defense.
Would it have been better if Longo played like he was 28 again? Well, yeah…
While I don’t think the trade was necessary, it’s easy to feign some sort of disgust about it from Giants fans.
Zero of the prospects the Giants gave up in the deal panned out. Arroyo has been on 2 different teams since the deal, and will likely be cut next time the Red Sox need a roster spot.
If the Giants were strapped for cash and contending for a title, yeah, the deal made no sense. But to put a playable person at 3B who also sells some merchandise, why not?
Knocking the Longoria trade seems easy, but it wasn’t even one of Evans’ bottom 5 moves.
Longoria came to the Gints as a 32 year old on the downside. As a Gint, Longoria has not been the all-star, MVP candidate that he was for the Rays. He has been at or near MLB average with the Gints. No surprise to anyone that pays attention but that is primarily why he is viewed as a disappointment by Gints fans. Gints usually need to overpay since hitters don’t like the big dimensions of the ballpark. Sometimes it works out, but usually not…
Well we know why Billy Evans and Brian Sabean are no longer running the show there.
Bobby Evans.
Yes, Bobby Evans was thrown under the bus. U do realize the GM/President of Baseball Ops titles have been around longer than Farhan in SF? Tell me again what was Bobby Evan’s title?
Evans was the one in charge of roster moves, for the most part. He was responsible for the McCutchen and Longoria trades.
One could make the argument that Evans was under some sort of mandate from ownership to put talent on the field that sells tickets, but Evans had a history of these type of moves.
From giving up Luis Castillo for Casey McGehee (that sentence alone should be the reason a GM gets fired) to the free agent deals to Cueto and Samardzija, Evans’ tenure was a disaster.
There’s no defense of his time, even if everyone else around him was also not doing well.
And how did Tampa ever think they could have afforded Longoria’s deal?
The Rays look at players & their surplus value. Longo started to decline at the plate & once he had surgery on his hamstring he also lost a step on the base paths.
Just like the trades of their SPs (if they don’t get hurt like Cobb) they will trade them before they lose that player’s surplus value. They get back players/prospects that they really like & they have many years of club control.
@14yearoldbaseballfanatic
‘ For every salesman there is a sucker’
Bobby Evans. Lol…….Dude was a BUFFOON.
At the time the Rays signed him it seemed to be a steal but when things went sour they worked a miracle and moved him. They know when to hold em and when to fold em
Giants are set if Longo and Belt need to miss a little time at the beginning of the season. La Stella at third, solano at second, and Wilmer at first. Assuming they all stay healthy. Not super impressive but it could be worse!
Spencer99 –
I don’t understand this comment. Are you hoping that Belt, probably your best hitter, misses time to begin the season? And how is a LaStella-Solano-Wimer combo considered being “set”? I’m confused
I’m not confused as to how you are confused. It must happen to you a lot as you obviously did not read the comment. Nowhere did I say anything about hoping they miss time. “If longo and belt need to miss a little time”. Secondly, it’s being set because all three of those guys would be regulars on most other teams. Thanks for asking!
I believe his argument was that the team has the depth to start serviceable major league players in the unfortunate event that they start the season with half their starting infield on the injured list.
It was expressing optimism in the face of a disappointing situation.
And Vosler might get some reps at 3b too if LaStella plays some 2b or 1b.
With the way Vosler is hitting in Spring Training, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up making the team out of Spring.
Between him and Darin Ruf, they’ve got added depth as well.
Whitley has the same feeling to me as Brent Honeywell. I hope he can recover a little bit quicker than Honeywell, but they both hit a brick wall right before they were MLB ready. They both still look nasty though, so hopefully we get to see them compete someday.
i wouldnt put him anywhere near the Honeywell level yet. He hasnt pitched in years now
I was thinking of Lucas Giolito. Was a bust for a while until it finally clicked for him.
Belt will probably miss the beginning of the season given heel injury. If Belt is out, LaStella or Vosler could be the left handed platoon pieces at both first or third. Vosler is hitting the ball in spring training.
@KCJ Brandon Belt. Lol Talk about underachievers. Big corner guy with an approach at the plate of a NCAA Womans soft ball player.
In a league w/ big 1B/ corner guys like Freeman, Bellinger , Rizzo, Goldschmidt, Alonso , Bell, Hoskins………His comps vs counterpart NL 1B’s are a joke
i dunno, if not for that contract i dont think he’d be as panned as he is. lots of solid 1B but also loads of mediocre ones
Yeah I don’t really blame the Rockies for passing on DJL. He was a slap hitting, great defender at 2B and only had one season with an OPS+ above 100. Not too many people would have foreseen the offensive explosion he would have in NYY.
He has great plate vision and has been a victim of Oracle(formerly AT&T) Park
I can understand you putting Goldschmidt, Freeman and Rizzo. The others make no sense.
Bellinger hasn’t been a primary 1B for a while now, and his WAR will be factored in as a CF, which gives him a boost (as it should).
He’s on par with Hoskins, and definitely better than Josh Bell.
And he’s certainly lightyears better than the schlup that convinced AJ Preller to dish out 144M two seasons of negative WAR baseball.
I don’t think SD fans get to criticize first basemen for another 4 seasons.
Forest Whitley is starting to fall into that Brendan Rogers area for me. He’s still young and it feels like he’s been a prospect forever. He hasn’t done great lately, but he also hasn’t really been given a shot to prove himself in the big yet.
Confidence in Rodgers helped kick off the demise of the Rockies. The presence of him and MacMahon resulted in LeMahieu not being re-signed. They then go off to that 3-12 start in 2019 and have been a non-factor ever since. One of the worst front-office decisions in recent years by any team. And now they have McMahon penciled in to replace Arenado. A couple of stars replaced by slow-developing prospects.
to be fair, hindsight says 29 teams were wrong on DJ, and I dont think having faith in Rodgers back then was that crazy.
A s I recall, they thought LeMahieu would be replaced internally.
The departure of DJ LeMahieu had more to do with COL wanting to keep Nolan Arenado as well as LeMahieu wanting to explore the market himself. Arenado got his contract then immediately “feels disrespected…” and wanted out of COL. Reminded me of when Scott Rolen wanted out of STL.
LeMahieu had one season of above average offense with Colorado… 2016 (130 wRC+).He was a 91 wRC+ hitter in Colorado.
Now, part of that has to do with park factors, which is a very imperfect science, but it wasn’t like LeMahieu was putting up 2019/2020 numbers in Colorado.
Believing the guy you picked in the top 10 would end up replacing him wasn’t that crazy at the time.
Forest Whitley is already in the category with Brendan Rodgers and Carter Kieboom. These guys were all at one time thought to be elite prospects. They all look like they will be total busts. A couple of years ago Whitley was being touted like he was a lock to be an all-time great. He hasn’t been impressive even when he was supposed to be healthy.
I thought two years ago that Forrest Whitley would be similar to Todd Van Poppel. The greatest prospect who never was.
Yes the Gnats are a show!
Is it time to officially declare last winter’s Brewers-Padres trade a bust for the Brewers? Davies has been more useful than the ailing Lauer. If the Brewers still had Grisham., they could have spent the money used to sign Bradley differently.
Urias still has all his upside. Shame the Brewers seem hell-bent on using him on the left-side of the infield. He really doesn’t have the arm for it. They (or whoever) need to put him at 2nd base and leave him there.
The Brewers can re-sign Zach Davies next offseason if they miss him so much.
What about Grisham the 2020 Gold Glover?
*almost platinum glove
Agreed, Cey Hey. That was a trade I hated at the time, but it has been amazing for us. At worst, Grisham is an above-average center fielder. Davies was great for us last year and helped bring in Darvish. Urias(and I’m rooting for him) just hasn’t shown an ability to hit. And Lauer has never been great.
Arcia will get the majority of time at short, and Urias will be a utility player/soft platoon at third. Maybe they’ll move Arcia to third and play Urias at short some, but Arcia is the better defender there.