C.J. Cron appears to be the favorite to claim the Rockies’ open first base job, writes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post as part of a reader mailbag. Signed to a minor-league deal in February, Cron is competing with Josh Fuentes and fellow non-roster invitee Greg Bird. Installing Cron at first would allow Fuentes to see action at multiple corner positions off the bench. That might make it tough to also carry Bird as a lefty bench bat, although Saunders notes there’s a chance all three players make the season-opening active roster, particularly if Brendan Rodgers is forced to start the year on the injured list after straining his hamstring. Cron and Bird would each need to be added to the 40-man roster if they make the team, although Colorado currently has one open 40-man spot.
More from around the sport:
- Athletics left-hander A.J. Puk made his Cactus League debut today. He threw approximately 30 pitches this afternoon and plans to toss around 45 in his next outing, writes Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle. Manager Bob Melvin has mentioned Puk as a potential option for the season-opening rotation if Mike Fiers, suffering from hip inflammation, isn’t ready by the first week of April. It remains to be seen if Puk will have enough time to sufficiently build up strength for the start of the season himself.
- The Brewers placed Mark Mathias on the 60-day injured list yesterday to create roster space for Travis Shaw. It seems Mathias will be on the shelf for significantly longer than that two-month minimum. The utilityman suffered a posterior labrum tear, he told reporters (via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Mathias is awaiting a second opinion on the possibility of rehabbing the injury without surgery; even if he can avoid going under the knife, the 26-year-old says he’s likely looking at a three to four month layoff. Mathias made his MLB debut last season.
- Today’s news that Felix Peña likely won’t be available for Opening Day leaves the Angels’ bullpen down an important arm. After the injury, general manager Perry Minasian acknowledged the club might now go outside the organization to acquire additional relief help, Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic was among those to relay. Free agency still offers a few possibilities, with 32-year-old righty Shane Greene arguably the top arm available. Greene’s market has been rather quiet all offseason, but he continues to throw in anticipation of an opportunity, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).
Come on Angels sign Green
as opposed to Greene
It won’t take too much green to get a Greene… I’ll show myself out
Rimshot!
Mike Fiers….not the hero we deserved, but the hero we needed.
Not really. He benefited from the scandal and then became a taddle tale as soon as he left and couldn’t benefit from it anymore.
@*uckthetbrew35-HA, Bang the trash can louder, WE CAN’T HEAR YOU! Ahahahaha!
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong but, I remember that Mike Fiers carried the Astros the second half of their championship year then had a bad streak the end of the season and was left off the post season roster.
Gary
He helped a lot down the stretch giving the Astros a lot of needed innings. He was on the roster for the ALDS, in fact the picture of him spraying Champaign in the clubhouse with a cigar in his mouth after clinching is pretty much a classic now, he didn’t seem to be struggling with his conscience until he was left off the roster for the WS haha
Go get him Perry!
Will Coors Field turn another decent former Twins player into an MVP caliber player?
You mean like former AL MVP Justin Morneau. I don’t think Coors turned him into an MVP caliber player since he won it 8 years before he went to Coors.
Perhaps he meant Michael Cuddyer
Yes, I meant Cuddyer. I should have clarified. Sorry about that hiflew.
Cuddyer didn’t even come close to winning the MVP in 2013 with the Rockies. His away splits were actually good (,311 AVG, 9 HR, .852 OPS in 264 AB) so he clearly would have had a good season hitting for any team that season.
Cron seems exactly like the kind of guy to go to Coors and club like 45 homers.
or 50
Or 60
Even if Cron plays in 150 games, which I doubt because he is almost always injured. He won’t come close to 40 homers. Now I think his batting average will finally be .270 or higher.
“Approximately 30 pitches” like yes, I am high as I’m reading this but what is “approximately 30 pitches” is that 29 and a miss throw up o the backstop? I need more context
Dude ur smoking some low end grass.
man these comment sections lately are…something else
Or maybe not grass?
@creacher- Listen dude, don’t worry about that now, just keep blazin along, I mean after all that’s really all that matters. Ahahahaha!
You won’t believe how many Rangers’ fans were pissed off that they traded Heiberto for Nate Lowe instead of just signing C.J Cron to an MiLB deal lol.
Nate Lowe is going to have a breakout season for Texas. You’ll be happy you acquired him. Can’t compare his numbers with Cron’s this year because of the Coors Field factor.
a free agent also doesnt cost solid prospects to get
But good free agents cost money to lock up for 3-4 years. Texas is in a rebuild. Signing Cron for 1 year really doesn’t help them. Acquiring Lowe and his 5-6 years of control (and lower salary) fits the Rangers long term plans much better, even if they had to part with prospects to do so. I really liked this move for Texas. I was surprised that Tampa chose to keep Choi over Lowe in the first place. Maybe they like Choi’s full splits at first base when digging a low throw out.
I’m actually an advocate of Nate Lowe, and there’s a little group of Rangers’ fans that like the pickup, but the doubters say that we could’ve given an MiLB deal for similar production. The flaw in their argument is the fact that Lowe still has 5 or 6 years left with us, and Cron would’ve given 2 max (barring an extension).
I do believe that Lowe can put up an ops above .800 with good defense, but he just had to get out of that logjam in Tampa.
Hope AJ Puk can stay healthy like to see what he can actually do in a full season also be cool if Greg Bird made it back from all his injuries got off to such a fast start his rookie year
Poor Greg Bird
Puk was throwing 92-93 mph. Compared to high 90s out of bullpen in 2019. Hopefully he’s building up arm strength otherwise disappointing. A’s have contended last 3 years in spite of waiting on puk injuries, a disappointing top 10 pick pick in austin beck and the Kyler Murray non signing drama. Although beck is 22 and puk still has time to get healthy but you wonder if the accumulation of multiple injuries and surgeries are taking its toll
I’d rather have him throwing in the low 90s now, and building it up. I don’t think we want him going 100% out of the gate and blowing his arm out again! As Melvin said, 93 mph coming out of the hand of someone who is 6’7″ looks a lot different to a batter than 93 out of a six footer’s hand. If AJ can stay healthy, my guess is his velocity will increase. We shall see. Go A’s!
Cron will probably have some ridiculous Mark Reynolds type season for the Rockies. Five teams in five seasons kind of shows how unkind free agency has become to 1B/DH types