With the regular season now officially underway, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Yamamoto to debut in Game 2:
The first game of the regular season is still ongoing in Seoul, where Shohei Ohtani is making his Dodgers regular season debut and where left-hander Yuki Matsui has already made his MLB debut with the Padres. Game 2 of the series will once again begin at 5:05am CT tomorrow morning, and will be broadcasted nationally on ESPN in addition to streaming on MLB.TV. Game 2 of the series will begin with the MLB debut of right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed the largest contract for a pure starting pitcher ever back in December. In his debut, the 25-year-old phenom will take on veteran righty Joe Musgrove, who pitched to a strong 3.05 ERA last season despite being limited to just 17 starts by shoulder and toe injuries.
2. Rodriguez dealing with lat issue:
The Diamondbacks left yesterday’s game against the Cubs facing a major injury scare as left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez exited his start in discomfort after just one inning of work. As relayed by Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports, manager Torey Lovullo indicated to reporters after the game that Rodriguez had departed due to lat tightness. Lovullo initially indicated that his level of concern regarding Rodriguez’s health was “minimal,” though he acknowledged that the severity of the issue would become clearer today.
The reigning NL champions’ most noteworthy offseason addition, Rodriguez signed with the club on a four-year deal back in December on the heels of an excellent 2023 season with the Tigers that saw him pitch to a 3.30 ERA with a 3.66 FIP in 152 2/3 innings of work. Entering the 2024 season, Rodriguez figures to slot into the club’s rotation between right-handers Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, with Brandon Pfaadt and Ryne Nelson likely bringing up the rear. Should Rodriguez’s lat problem prove serious enough to a require a trip to the injured list to open the season, Arizona would likely turn to Tommy Henry or Bryce Jarvis to fill in for the southpaw in the club’s rotation.
3. Will the pitching market stay hot post-Snell?
Now that the Giants have announced their two-year deal with southpaw Blake Snell, the top remaining free agent starter is officially off the market. It’s the second major pitching in the past week, joined by San Diego pulling off a surprise blockbuster trade with the White Sox to land right-hander Dylan Cease. Left-hander Jordan Montgomery and right-handers Michael Lorenzen and Mike Clevinger are all still looking for teams. Rumors from earlier this month suggested that Montgomery was searching for a seven-year deal in free agency, while Lorenzen was searching for a two-year deal and Clevinger’s agent recently suggested his client was angling for a one-year pact.
Montgomery has long been tied to the Red Sox, while Lorenzen has been connected to the White Sox in the past and the club’s interest may have grown in the wake of the Cease deal. Meanwhile, the Yankees have been connected to both Montgomery and Lorenzen and are also known to be looking for starting pitching. The Astros are now indicating that they aren’t “actively pursuing” a rotation addition in spite of their recent pursuit of Snell, but it would hardly be a shock to see either them or the Marlins make a play for one of the remaining starters given the injury woes that have faced both clubs this spring.
Brasier!!! Brasier!!! Brasier!!
Would putting Clevinger in the pen make sense for a team with RP needs? Would he let em?
Doubt he would sign to be a bullpen guy. He shouldn’t have to based on the on-field performance
He can’t stay healthy though. Maybe a move to the bullpen would be beneficial.
Any qualified clubhouse attendants, or anyone who can tie a good knot in leather laces, should contact the Padres. There may be an opening.
…or a player who understands the importance of and pays attention to the condition of tools of his trade…
More specifically a player in the first year of a 7-year extension who is playing 1B by default.
If pitchers keep going down at this rate, we’re going to be seeing beer league junkballers starting MLB games by the All Star break.
Can’t wait!
Mansfield cackles. A 12 second pitch clock, I want to 8njure all the pitchers. Hehehe!!
Nice start for the Dodgers. Onward to their 162-0 season.
All they need is 161 more glove webbings to fail…
Clevinger is looking for a team in a state that doesn’t extradite for DV… [eyeroll]
That should be an Error on Grisham and not a hit for whoever hit the groundball
$80 million and you can’t be bothered to have a working glove? Inexcusable.
Grisham? It was Cronenworth, Grisham is the Yankees 4th OF now.
It was in fact ruled an error, Lux was not awarded a hit.
It was Cronenworth. Thanks for pointing that out.
I didn’t have faith that the scorekeepers would rule it correctly and assumed they just gave Lux (thank you for pointing that out as well) a hit Faith in humanity restored
Poor Grisham can’t even catch a break 1000s of miles away.
I wish the Angels would bring in Clevinger, anything to get Tylor Anderson out of the starting rotation.
Stop buying gloves at the local swap meet
Five bucks at Kobey’s vice $250 at Dick’s.
Plus tax.
Croney made his choice.
The Dodgers may have won, but they need to get their RISP together or they won’t be going 162-0 as many predicted.
@JimmyOctober
It’s the first game of the season and they held the Padres to 2 runs and came back in the 7th. They’re just getting the rust off right now and still won. No real chance that they win 162 games but so far, the offense is working well and it was only day 1.
They flew to Korea to play in front of 16k!
Which is about twice as many as they would have had if they opened in Oakland.
Should have played in Japan though. Can’t imagine the crowd in Tokyo Dome if they play in there after Ohtani signing for 700M and Yamamoto for 325M.
Also, would be fun if Japanese actress Satomi Ishihara comes and throw the ceremonial first pitch. Girl is a big baseball fan and always trying to imitate famous pitcher wind up.
Here’s she is imitating Hideo Nomo
youtu.be/cH6ShHwohTA?si=2dINPHhxU1Fm0xHm
Thank you for the link niel.marshall! How fun seeing someone doing a good famous pitcher imitation. I know nothing about her acting career, but the young actress certainly has an admirable respect for baseball. Bet she could also do Luis Tiant and Fernando Valenzuela if she wanted to!!
Opening in Japan is planned for next season I believe.
God I wish yall were more specific in the title… The Mariners fan in me was stressing out.
Hope Rodriguez is ok. He would be a big loss for the Dbacks if he’s out any length of time. Nelson and Henry would both need to take a big step forward in the SP4 and 5 slots.
Iowa corn fields and now Korea!
Why play in Korea?
MLB footprint not big enough?
Wait til Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk buy teams and want to play a series on the Moon!
Will MLB cover all of those costs?
Baseball is an entertainment industry. No footprint is ever big enough.
Because baseball is huge there and mlb needs their pitchers.
Watched Bo Bichette field a ball hit by Jackson Holliday, threw a weak one, Holliday was safe. Called a base hit. Cronenworth fields a ball this morning that goes through his first base mitt, error.
Scoring flaws. Cronenworth play should be an 0-0. Bo made what should have been an error. IMO.
Holliday was out, although Bo’s slow play and weak throw opened the door for an umpire miscall.
Lord it seems umps have missed a lot of calls. But, that Bo play should have been an error not a hit.
A lot of the umps for spring training tend to be minor league umps. Also no replay probably hurts the quality of the calls as well.
Still that hustle sealed him making the team. Every championship team needs that rookie energy.
I wouldn’t want it ruled a hit either because it was a fielded ball. Maybe some catch-all like “scorer’s indifference”?
By playing in Korea, MLB is probably laying down a foundation for future expansion. Walter O’Malley needed Horace Stoneham to move to SF so that the other National League owners would be more willing to tolerate the higher travel costs. Undoubtedly, Tokyo could support an MLB franchise but it’s too far and too costly for just a single series. Seoul is a relatively close 700 miles from Tokyo and shares the same time zone. The population of Seoul is 10 million so attendance shouldn’t be a problem.
That’s probably why they played in London too.
Not.
@Jack Dawkins I’ll have the drugs you are having
Be careful with that stuff, it can affect your brain.
Yeah this is not going to happen. I could see a kbo and nbl merger before that.
I think even just a few years ago guys like Lorenzen or Clevenger would have been real attractive to non-contenders hoping that they could eat bulk innings and possibly flip them for a B level prospect at the deadline.
With teams hanging on to meaningful prospects so tightly there’s not really motivation to grab these guys anymore. They’d only get cash or an organizational guy if there was any interest at all.
I think non contenders probably see more value now in running out marginal MLB pitchers with arbitration eligiblity. Cheaper to hire and if somehow they unlock some competence they can flip them for a bigger return.
The lowered bar to contend as 40% of teams make the playoffs is a contributing factor. More teams on the cusp are going to evaluate by the trade deadline to save some money.