With just three days remaining until Opening Day, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Phillies to announce Opening Day roster
As clubs all around baseball are making their final roster decisions ahead of Opening Day, Phillies manager Rob Thomson told reporters, including Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, that the club plans to announce the Opening Day roster at some point today. With Matt Strahm starting the fifth game of the season in place of Ranger Suarez, much of the intrigue today seems likely to come down to which players will make the Phillies Opening Day bench. With Darick Hall assured a spot on the roster following Rhys Hoskins’s injury, there are two roster spots available for four players: Kody Clemens, Dalton Guthrie, Scott Kingery, and Jake Cave. The Phillies are also known to be interested in adding a right-handed hitting outfielder, which could boost the chances of Kingery or Guthrie should they not find an external solution.
2. Orioles making final rotation decisions
At the beginning of Spring Training, Orioles brass made clear that top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez could play his way into the Opening Day rotation this season. Now, with Opening Day on the horizon, Rodriguez appears to be one of three finalists for two rotation sots alongside Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells, as noted by The Athletic’s Dan Connolly, who notes that the decision will likely come by the end of the day today. All three have struggled this spring, with ERAs well over 5.00, though Rodriguez’s 7.04 figure is the worst of the bunch. Rodriguez has struck out 26.7% of batters faced this spring while walking 9.9%. While that strikeout rate stands slightly ahead of either of his competitors, Bradish (6.0%) and especially Wells (3.0%) both outshine Rodriguez’s walk rate.
3. Will more Rule 5 picks be returned in the coming days?
Yesterday, two picks in December’s Rule 5 draft were returned to their original clubs: the Mariners returned right-hander Chris Clarke to the Cubs, while the Padres returned left-hander Jose Lopez to the Rays. The Mets returned right-hander Zach Greene to the Yankees earlier this spring, but there are still 12 players who were selected in the major league phase of the draft who could be returned to their original clubs. One of those players, Nick Avila, is not expected to break camp with the White Sox, though the club could still look to make a trade with the Giants in order to keep Avila in the organization.
Kingery gotta make It
He didn’t.
Kingery is probably better off starting the season playing everyday at aaa. He will be the first guy up, as an infield replacement, when an injury occurs. The one thing I don’t like is ( as presently constructed), the Phillies don’t have a defensive replacement for Hall in the late innings. He is worse defensively than Hoskins has been.
So, the Phillies best defensive rostered 1st baseman is Realmuto?
Bohm was not very good filling in last year….Intrigue…?
Harrison could handle it though?
Heard that Hall was better with the glove not worse than Hoskins.
Hall is definitely not good with the glove. I think frustrated Phillies fans just assume Hall is going to be an improvement because Hoskins was so bad, but Hall is really a pinch hitter/DH type as well. I’d say he has a similar glove to Hoskins minus the experience. So it’s not great.
All that being said, while Hoskins’ offense won’t be easy to reproduce, finding a capable 1B s not too difficult, and between Hall, Harrison, Realmuto, Bohm, Sosa and more….I think they’ll be okay.
Also, Schwarber and Castellanos have been taking reps at first. Neither are great fielders, but neither was Hoskins. Phillies have OF options with Cave, Clemens and Guthrie. Luckily, before the injuries, the Phillies had decent depth. .
Sounds like the Orioles should have signed some pitching. You have to pick 2 of 3 for your rotation and all 3 are well north of a 5.00 ERA. Wow!! Not good in that division.
Everyone one who’s ever had a 5 era in spring training has had one during the season
It’s just spring training, you don’t know how they’ll do in the regular season.
The Tigers have two guys (Manning and Wentz) in their rotation who have high ERAs this spring, I’m not that worried.
Sounds like the Orioles should have signed some pitching.
@ Lou W
Cheese and Rice Almighty
Yes, they should have signed someone
It is a question for the Smartest Guy in the Ruem, Elias and Ziggy the Super Computer
PS A Ruem? it is what I have been saying, you fool (Clouseau reference)
Bradish is better than Gibson, Irvin, and Kremer, regardless of what his spring ERA is. He strikes out way more hitters than Irvin and Kremer. And quiet a few more than Gibson as well. He had 8.5 strikeouts per 9 last season. Gibson had 7.7, Irvin 6.4, and Kremer 6.2. And yes, missing bats leads to success. He should be the opening day starter.
All rule 5 returns need to be submitted to, reviewed by, approved by Camden453 because he is smarter than all GMs in baseball. Even though he has to swallow his pride on a daily basis to go to Wendys to be a “culinary engineer”, he is still waiting for the official call from Manfred himself to head up the league-wide scouting and analtyics department.
All of casuals on MLBTRs are rooting for this special keyboard warrior to achieve that pedestal in life he obviously deserves. We all know he will earn the respect and admiration of all the ivy-league trained advanced data modelers, and even get a hat tip or tool from older, leathery skinned area scouts for his masterful skill set.
My favorite part is still when he said he could fix the Pirates. In one year no less. From his couch. By using a video game. That’s how comedy careers are born.
lol. Well done.
Alrighty then, we’re getting down to the wire now! Which team starts with the longest win streak, and vice-versa? Almost impossible to predict, but the Cards could have a hot start and I’ll pick them for 5 wins to start. I’ll go with the Nationals to start slow with 4 losses. Let’s get this season started!
For inquiring minds, the Crew and Braves are tied with 13 wins to start a season, and the unfortunate ‘88 Orioles started that season with 21 losses.
@Kripes Nice pep talk. Play ball!
What are your thoughts on Garland? I think they are trying to work out a trade with LA. Failing that they will keep him.
They don’t need to trade for Varland as long as they keep him on the 40 all season (unless he gets hurt and goes onto the IL). I suppose they could make a trade for him to get out of that scenario to use his options during the season, but Varland has earned his way on with a strong spring. There just aren’t a lot of extra arms and Javy Guerra does not look good enough to be in the Majors yet as a pitcher. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think Counsell is super satisfied with that bullpen. It’ll take some time for him to establish who he likes in various matchups as the season gets going, but I’m sure we’ll see changes after the first few weeks. But yeah, there aren’t a lot of guys with options remaining, so a guy like Guerra better figure things out quickly or face hitting the waiver wire. Once Ashby and Houser get back, things will settle down a bit.
No big deal.
Teams are going to be sending down and calling up players by the 2nd week at the latest.
Phillies return Noah Song yet?
Song will start the season on the il. It’s very likely, at some point he will be returned to the Red Sox.
Die hard O’s fan here and I am 100% fine with leaving Grayson in AAA for a few weeks to fine tune his stuff until he’s eventually needed in the O’s rotation. Knowing Elias, I’m sure he has some metrics on what Grayson needs to do to make the Opening Day roster. Maybe he’s reached those metrics, maybe he hasn’t, although the bullpen injuries to Tate and Givens sure do work in his favor because Wells is flexible enough to work in bulk relief, starting or as a late inning/high leverage option.
Don’t sleep on the O’s rotation this season. It will all come down to health, but they have what could easily be a sneaky good rotation this year.
Can we get an update on rule 5 guys?
The stuff these guys write. Bradish had ONE bad outing – but suddenly he has struggled this spring? He was dominant in his first three, got shelled in his fourth, then came back and threw five innings of one run ball to finish out the spring.
Wells had two bad outings but has finished strong.
You rarely get that kind of detailed analysis from a guy who doesn’t cover the team on a website that covers all 30 clubs.
Bradish was a lock this spring. I think the only real question was G-Rod v. wells. Grayson didn’t pitch well enough to beat him out. Wells sticks for now. I bet he’s our 6-7th inning guy by July though.