As the second weekend of the 2023 season begins, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Brewers Vs Cardinals Today
A particularly noteworthy match-up is set to occur this evening, with the Cardinals headed to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers at 7:10pm CT tonight. The Cardinals have opened the season 2-4 despite being the preseason favorites for the NL Central, allowing the Brewers, the expected second-best team in the division, to pull ahead in the early going of the division race with a 5-1 record. Jack Flaherty is set to take the mound for the Cardinals against Brewers co-ace Brandon Woodruff. Flaherty, who’s attempting to make it through his first healthy season since 2019, struggled with his control in his first start of the season, walking seven Blue Jays and hitting a batter, but he nonetheless managed to walk away with the win after five no-hit innings of work.
While Flaherty’s performance will certainly be of interest, perhaps the biggest storyline of the game to keep an eye on is whether or not Cardinals outfielder Tyler O’Neill will play following the drama between him and manager Oli Marmol. Marmol benched O’Neill in Wednesday’s game against the Braves after he was thrown out at home plate by Ronald Acuna Jr. in Tuesday’s game, with Marmol indicating to the media that O’Neill’s perceived lack of hustle could preclude him from more playing time than just Wednesday’s game.
2. Florial DFA to come due this weekend:
Last week, the Yankees designated outfielder Estevan Florial for assignment in order to make room for righty Colten Brewer on the 40-man roster. While Florial has mostly struggled in brief cups of coffee in the big leagues since first coming up in 2020, posting a .579 OPS in that time, he’s only managed to get into 30 big league games in his career to this point. With a career .793 OPS in the minors and 125 stolen bases in 580 minor league games, Florial certainly seems likely to draw attention from the other 29 big league clubs, making a trade or waiver claim the most likely conclusion to his DFA. If he does manage to pass through waivers unclaimed, however, the Yankees can send Florial outright to Triple-A.
3. Will lingering free agents find a home?
Yesterday, MLBTR’s Anthony Franco took a look at the most notable free agents remaining on the board a week into the 2023 season. The list ranges from players who went unsigned all offseason, such as Miguel Sano and Mike Minor, to more recent additions to the pool, such as Leury Garcia and Darin Ruf. Two areas of free agency that could be worth keeping an eye on in particular are first base, where the Phillies may be without not only Rhys Hoskins but also his replacement, Darick Hall, for the time being, and starting pitching, where clubs are always looking for depth and teams such as the Yankees, Mets, and Braves have already seen multiple members of their rotations hit the injured list this season.
In an alternate universe the Yanks pull Florial back and waive Hicks.
It is kind of crazy the Yankees would hold onto Hicks (and IFK for that matter) and let Florial go.
I actually prefer IKF over Florial and even had no problem keeping Hicks over him too. But didn’t expect Hicks to be the 26th man on the roster. If that was the plan then I would have rather kept Florial.
Your statement confuses me, you have no problem keeping Hicks over Florial but didn’t expect him to be on the 26 man roster? What does that even mean? Where did you expect Hicks to be? In the cloud?
The 26th man on the roster i.e. behind IKF on the depth chart
Thanks for not clarifying up your statement what so ever.
Why do you care if he’s the 24,25 or 26th man?
I prefer IKF over Florial due to his ability to play CF and infield UTIL. Hicks can still draw walks despite his inadequacies which Florial can’t. JD is being JD right now so DJL may need to play more 3B. Who also knows what is to make of Bader whenever he comes back. Keeping IKF affords the team to rest/DH guys like Judge and Stanton.
Because I expected him to get 4th OF’er playing time at least but they chose IKF over him. If they are going to give IKF ab’s over him then I would rather have had Florial’s speed and defense not getting at bats and avoid the clown show going on with Hicks.
Is it a clown show I agree. Hicks has already asked twice publicly to be traded (more likely released) in the past year.
Oh ok got ya.
Unless Hicks’ bat rebounded, which so far it has not, I didn’t expect him to play much because his defense in center has been very good.
I’ve always been a fan of “weaponizing” the bench. If your defense is weak, have a defensive specialist, have a guy like Nick Madrigal who can make contact so if it’s late and you have a guy on third you have that skill, a speed guy, especially now with the extra inning rules. Ideally, have a guy that can wear multiple hats (speed and defense)
The Yankees would be in good shape to hold a speed guy because they have so many people capable of wearing so many hats.
In an alternate universe George is still alive and Cashman is fired long before he can give Hicks that horrendous extension in the first place
Florial can play a very good defensive CF in MLB. There’s a shortage of quality defensive CF’s (Jazz is thus far a disaster playing CF with the Marlins – gets fooled by the spin on the ball coming out, takes bad routes to balls, etc. He’s an infielder, and it’s not easy to adjust to the OF, especially CF where the ball comes straight at you instead of a corner where the field initially sees the ball from an angle).
If the Phillies can find a playing time for Cristian Pache, a team can find one for Estevan Florial. It may also work out well if he can get with another teams batting coaches.
For the Marlins specifically who do you take off the roster to carry Florial? Granted Jazz could move to SS so that would make Wendle expendable, do you think Florial hits enough to play everday?
Rsox;
You answered your own question…..
Have you watched Berti play SS? And Wendle has always been a 2B-3B that can play some SS in a pinch (I love watching him play).
Good organizations put players at their natural positions. The Marlins experiment is already a disaster (I read late in ST that was the case, and now have seen it in games). Jazz should really be at 2B; Wendle really should be at 3B; and Segura also at 2B. Putting Jazz at SS is better than him playing CF, but he’s not really a SS either.
Sure, Florial would make that team much better in CF even if he hit .220 /. 280 (other teams could use him). But the Marlins also need a bona fide MLB SS as well.
That GM is awful.
Interestingly the Marlins have a “bona-fide MLB SS” at AAA. I don’t know what to make Ng and we don’t know how many decisions are hers or ownership directed but the Marlins do seem to be pulling things out of their—hat, rather than having an actual plan
51% he passes through.
51%+ he doesn’t and gets traded for nobody noteworthy.
The central is a two team race between the Brewers and Cubs, with Chicago obviously being the better team. The cardinals are cellar dwellers without their usual injury excuses. The only players missing on that overhyped team are the one hit wonder Nootbar and the geriatric pitcher who tops out in the low 80’s. Tyler should be begging for a trade out of that disaster of a mismanaged team.
With the change in MLBs scheduling this year…the NL central cant beat up the pirates and reds as much. Any team that stays around .500 probably wins the division. Might even have a below .500 team make the playoffs from this awful division.
Oh no both teams won’t play the Pirates an extra 6 times and instead will get the A’s and Royals.
The Brewers couldn’t beat the Pirates last year! Maybe a good thing it’s 6 less games.
Easy to point to the garbage teams….they also plays the likes of the astros, guardians, yanks, blue jays, rays…..but that doesn’t fit your narrative i suppose.
@idosteroids Imagine thinking a competitive team isn’t competitive just because their division has a bad team or two. That “bad” team absolutely destroyed and swept a 350 million payroll team, including crushing one of their prized Aces. The Brewers and Cardinals are both going to be fine, but I can guarantee you whoever wins the division will be over 500. Likely only the division winner makes it, but when you have the Braves playing the way they do, the Mets, Dodgers and Padres spending the way they do, and the Phillies in the mix, that’s not a surprise.
I hope you’re being facetious so early in the morning. I’m as happy as anyone with the season starting the way it has, but if you’ve been watching baseball even for a few seasons you’d know that the Cards don’t just lie down. It’s a long season, and even though Marmol opened up a can of worms, he isn’t likely to lose the team this early. Stupid move, and he’ll pay for it, but there is too much firepower on that team to think they’ll be in the basement very long.
They don’t lie down during the season. They save their nap time until the playoffs.
1-9 in their last 10 postseason games. Might as well make a pillow out of the stadium bunting.
Making the playoffs the last 4 seasons in a row is still a lot better recent performance than most teams.
You are one of the most unbelievably ignorant commenters here. You think the Cubs will win the division?! Laughable!
Unlike the cardinals, I won’t settle for second place. If I’m not the most ignorant, I have work to do.
You’re definitely in the top 5. Kudos to you for your dedication to trolling.
I don’t disagree with your 1st and second placement in the NL central. But the Cardinals will finish 3rd. Maybe second, but will certainly miss the playoffs. There is no pitching, we knew that going into the season so they have to rely on out scoring the oppenents. The lack of a rotation will burn out the bullpen so that can’t be counted on as a strength either. Outside of Goldschmidt, Arenado and Contreras the entire offense is suspect. There % of hits coming from ground balls isn’t sustainable.now there is already friction in the clubhouse. The more they lose early on, the more friction will heat up the club house and things are destined to implode.
Despite the bad start, the starting pitching will be fine if they stay healthy. Mikolas is still a #1-#2 starter, Montgomery a #2-#3, Flaherty a #1-#4, Matz a #4-#5, and Wainwright when he gets back a #3-#4, while Woodford, Hudson, Liberatore, Thompson, and Pallante offer very good depth.
Meanwhile, the offense looks great, as in addition to those three All-Stars, O’Neill, Donovan, Gorman, and Walker have also started out strong, Carlson and Burleson are doing better when they play, and Nootbaar will be back soon.
Wow, way to overreact to 6 games against heavy contenders, 2 of which were still wins!
Also, Nootbaar is a pretty good player, and Wainwright still pitches pretty well despite topping out in the low 90s (not the low 80s).
Besides, even if you think the Brewers are better than the Cardinals, the Cubs are still obviosly just a 3rd place team not likely to finish above .500 at this point.
I’ll take the Brewers winning the Central. To say the Cards won’t be there at the end of the season this early with that lineup? Come on man. Cards have more reason to think they would win the division then Cubs. It’s to early to believe this outcome based on 1 week in to season. We’re already seeing players drop for season or 6+ weeks. Trades will happen that fixes a team down the stretch. Teams will add top prospects potentially by the end of this week that changes the team outlook. Gl and play ball.
Hehe, what a nut bag. The Cardinals haven’t finished in last place since 1918. Delusional little Cubbie.
Actually, there’s one exception to that. The Cardinals have finished in last place only once since 1918, that other time being 1990.
That’s like saying “He weighs 400lbs, no wait, 399”.
The Card fans were doing just fine with their reasonable comments til you showed up with that worn out Cub hater nonsense. Gloat when you win a playoff series. Til then, get some new material.
A lot of teams would go 2-4 playing Toronto and Atlanta back to back. Starting pitching is the problem not Tyler O’Neill. It’s a long way to 162 but we are set up for failure if the leader doesn’t lead. I’ve always been told you measure a leader by how many follow.
I hope the conflict stays unresolved. I got a ton of Team O’Neil/Team Marmol shirts to sell outside the stadium during the next homestand.
I think that situation will resolve itself pretty quickly. I agree with everything Marmol said, I just don’t agree with taking it public. In this case, O’Neill wasn’t hustling. There could be several explanations for that, and I agree that historically, O’Neill has been a scrappy player. Each person will probably concede their wrongdoing, and life will go on.
I’m looking forward to the Brewers series. These are the games that matter most. I’m not at all surprised by the Brewers’ strong start. I said all offseason people are sleeping on them.
Interesting there haven’t been any public trade rumors between the Phillies and Cardinals for the latter’s surplus of 1B replacements. Perhaps the Cards like that depth.
The Phillies don’t have an overage of the only thing the Cardinals need -pitching. They have a backlog of players everywhere else. The Cardinals will hold all their trade candidates until a solid starting pitcher becomes available.
If the Phillies could find a three team trade that results in a pitcher coming to St. Louis, that could work.
But they do. Their top 3 prospects are all pitchers, one of which is arguably the top pitching prospect in the game. All three also could be up and big contributors in the second half. But they believe they are a WS contender, so they are not going to deal MLB or near MLB ready pitching. More importantly, what 1B depth do the cardinals have? Luken Baker?
Liberatore Is the only pitcher ready and he’s not an upgrade to what the Cardinals have in their rotation now. Also Winn is the Cardinals top prospect not yet on the active roster.
2 of the 3 Phillie prospects are injured.
Sorry, I didn’t realize you meant the Phillies. The Cardinals don’t want pitching prospects at this time. They need MLB pitchers.
You missed the point by a wide margin. Painter will be up for the second half run. Abel may be coming as well. That will bump pitchers out of the Phillies rotation. So there are MLB pitchers. But again, they aren’t available because Philly will use them in the bullpen and reserve befor they trade any of them this year because they believe they have another run in them. If they don’t, it would take until the trade deadline and maybe they deal Nola for a heavy prospect paackage. The Cardinals can’t wait they long and they don’t have the pieces to deal, or more accurately they won’t move the pieces it would take. I don’t think the Phil’s would have much interest in Yepez or Burleson either.
While the Cardinals do have a surplus of position players, not that many actually play 1B on more than rare occasions. Beyond Goldschmidt and Donovan, who aren’t going anywhere, only Yepez can really be considered a 1B and not a very good one.
Would the Phillies be interested in yet another poor fielding corner bat, and even if they are, who could they give the Cardinals in return who would be useful to them?
Yepez has played first and so has Burleson. Yepez is a better first baseman than outfielder.
Yeah, I was thinking Yepez and Burleson could be upgrades on what the Phillies now have. Yepez did rather well last year. Of course, Burleson now seems to more playing time for the time being. Yepez can’t be happy with his role now.