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Latest On Bronson Arroyo

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SATURDAY 10:55am: GM Mike Rizzo says Arroyo has partial tears in his rotator cuff tendon and there is inflammation in the area, MASN’s Dan Kolko reports (all Twitter links). Arroyo will be shut down for ten days to two weeks, at which point he’ll begin a program to strengthen his shoulder. The rehab process could take four to six weeks.

FRIDAY 8:33pm: The Nationals have told reporters, including MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman (Twitter link), that tonight’s reports regarding Arroyo are “not consistent” with their findings. Nats brass, Arroyo and the club’s medical staff will have a meeting tomorrow.

7:17pm: The initial results of an MRI on Bronson Arroyo’s shoulder were, somewhat incredibly, misread by the doctor that evaluated him, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter). Arroyo does not have a tear of the rotator cuff in right shoulder, as he was initially told, but rather is suffering from bursa sac inflammation. Arroyo will be shut down for seven to 10 days, but he does not have the career-threatening injury he believed himself to be facing just yesterday. Notably, James Wagner of the Washington Post tweets that the first diagnosis came from a non-baseball doctor, so it was not the Nationals’ medical staff that provided the faulty results.

Earlier this week, MLB Network’s Peter Gammons reported that Arroyo had a tear in his labrum, and Arroyo himself spoke to reporters the following day to reveal that he’d been told the tear was actually in his rotator cuff. The veteran right-hander was said to be weighing whether to undergo surgery and rehab for another comeback attempt or call it a career.

The injury still seems to hinder Arroyo’s chances of making the Nationals’ Opening Day rotation, as another seven to 10 days without throwing would mean he can return to throwing with another seven to 10 days of Spring Training to get back up to speed. However, the very fact that Arroyo is not facing a devastating injury is a breath of fresh air. The well-liked and well-respected Arroyo has been hoping to break camp with the Nats and return to a Major League mound for the first time since the summer of 2014, when he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and required Tommy John surgery.

Prior to that injury, Arroyo was baseball’s most durable starter. From 2005-13, Arroyo pitched in 300 games and averaged 211 innings per season, falling shy of the 200-inning milestone just one time, when he tossed 199 innings in 2011. Arroyo was not only durable, but effective, as he worked to a 4.10 ERA in that span despite pitching at the hitter friendly Great American Ball Park and despite the fact that many of those frames came during a much higher-scoring time period.

Bronson Arroyo Has Torn Rotator Cuff

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10:50am: The tear is in Arroyo’s rotator cuff, not his labrum, the pitcher himself told reporters (Twitter link via Zuckerman). Arroyo described the tear as “significant” and said that while he’s waiting for further evaluation, “It’s not looking real good.” Via James Wagner of the Washington Post (on Twitter), Arroyo says he will decide whether to rehab the shoulder or retire within the next couple of days.

MARCH 17, 9:15am: The Nationals told reporters this morning, including Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com, that reports of the labrum tear are “premature,” and they’re waiting for an MRI from the D-backs to compare the results to yesterday’s test (links to Zuckerman on Twitter). Zuckerman further notes, though, that Arroyo was seen hugging teammates in the clubhouse and that “everyone seems to sense what the likely result” of the situation is. Said manager Dusty Baker: “We don’t have to make a rash decision on anything. I think we owe him that as a man and as a professional.”

MARCH 16: Right-hander Bronson Arroyo, who is in camp with the Nationals on a minor league contract and has been vying for the fifth spot in their rotation, has an “80 percent tear” of the labrum in his right shoulder, tweets MLB Network’s Peter Gammons. Earlier today, it was reported that Arroyo would be scratched from his upcoming start due to shoulder soreness, but the severity of the injury will end Arroyo’s comeback attempt with the Nationals, Gammons notes.

Arroyo chose a minor league deal with the Nats (and his former skipper Dusty Baker) this winter over a return to Cincinnati on a minor league pact. The veteran innings eater had been hoping to make it back to the Majors for the first time since 2014 after missing the 2015 campaign while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Arroyo had long been known for his durability prior to signing a two-year pact with the D-backs spanning those 2014-15 seasons, but he underwent Tommy John after tearing his UCL three months into his first season with Arizona. He didn’t pitch in 2015, though his salary was included in a couple of trades to help balance out the financial element of said deals.

Arroyo could certainly look to rehab from the injury, but the possibility also has to be raised that this latest setback could bring to an end what has been a long and fruitful career in the big leagues. Earlier this spring, the 39-year-old told Tyler Kepner of the New York Times that he hoped to pitch beyond the 2016 campaign, but he also added, “If I don’t make it out of this camp and this arm just won’t go, I’m completely satisfied with what I’ve done in the game.”

From the team’s vantage point, the loss of Arroyo means that right-handers Joe Ross and Tanner Roark are likely to fill out the rotation behind Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez. Top prospect Lucas Giolito figures to challenge for a rotation spot of his own at some point over the course of the season as well.

Injury Notes: Ryu, McCullers, Lorenzen, Arroyo, Weaver, Wieters

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Dodgers lefty Hyun-jin Ryu will likely not be able to get up to speed in time to participate in any spring action, manager Dave Roberts tells reporters, including Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter). Ryu had hoped to make his way back to big league action by May, but the skipper says that timetable is now “unrealistic.” Needless to say, the Dodgers were hoping that Ryu’s shoulder would respond better, and he represents one of several notable question marks for the big-budget club.

Here are some more notes on some injury situations around the game:

  • Exciting young Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. will open the year on the DL, manager A.J. Hinch said today, as Richard Justice of MLB.com was among those to tweet. He, too, has dealt with shoulder issues, though hopefully not as severe as those that drove Ryu to surgery. Houston has options to step in, including Doug Fister, Scott Feldman, and Mike Fiers, and will surely be cautious in handling the 22-year-old, who upped his career-high annual innings tally by over fifty frames last season.
  • The Reds are hopeful that one of their young hurlers, Michael Lorenzen, can stave off Tommy John surgery after an MRI revealed a mild UCL sprain, Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Lorenzen will need to rest and almost certainly won’t open the season in the rotation, but it seems that he was rather fortunate not to find a more significant injury after experiencing soreness for some time this spring.
  • Nationals right-hander Bronson Arroyo was scratched from his start today with shoulder soreness, as James Wagner of the Washington Post reports. For now, the 39-year-old will rest and see how it responds, but any absence certainly puts a dent in his hopes of beating out Tanner Roark and Joe Ross for a rotation gig. Arroyo, who signed a minor-league deal full of incentives if he makes the majors, had some work done in his shoulder when he was out for Tommy John surgery, according to skipper Dusty Baker.
  • Meanwhile, Angels righty Jered Weaver dismissed any thought that he wouldn’t be prepared to open the year, as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports. Recent medical evaluations don’t seem to offer many clues as to the reason for his precipitous velocity decline. Manager Mike Scioscia wasn’t quite as conclusive as the righty as to his availability out of camp, stressing that the organization was taking things one step at a time, but did suggest that Weaver will have every opportunity to try to perform on the hill.
  • Orioles catcher Matt Wieters seems to be clear of any structural concerns in his right elbow, as MLB.com’s Britt Ghiroli reports. In an update to that story, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com notes that Dr. James Andrews concurred with the organization’s doctors. For now, then, Wieters will work on eliminating any discomfort before getting back to work behind the dish.

NL Notes: Cueto, Jennings, Pirates

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Giants starter Johnny Cueto was hit in the head on a Billy Burns liner on the first pitch of his outing Monday night, according to various reporters, including the San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman. Cueto stayed in the game and pitched three innings, but was checked by team doctors after pitching and will head to the hospital in accordance with team protocol (Twitter links). One would think the Giants would have removed Cueto from the game after the incident if they had considered the issue serious (acknowledging, of course, that pro sports teams have at times underestimated the impact of potential concussions). There would have been no reason for the Giants to keep Cueto in a Spring Training game if they had any indication he was hurt. Still, the situation bears monitoring. Here’s more from around the NL.

  • The grievance filed by the Marlins against the Nationals regarding former Marlins GM and manager Dan Jennings was settled in favor of the Nationals, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes. The Nationals are paying Jennings $115K to be a special assistant to GM Mike Rizzo. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported yesterday that the Marlins took issue with that salary because they owed Jennings $1.5MM based on his previous contract with them, minus his salary in his new position. The Marlins thought the Nats’ $115K salary was too low given Jennings’ responsibilities, and that they were therefore on the hook for too much of his remaining salary. Via Janes, though, the disagreement has been resolved. “It’€™s an old grievance, and it has been settled,” says Rizzo.
  • Pirates GM Neal Huntington is excited about his organization’s Triple-A rotation, Stephen A. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The Bucs today optioned top prospects Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon to Triple-A Indianapolis and reassigned fellow starters Chad Kuhl, Steven Brault and Trevor Williams. (They also optioned outfielder Harold Ramirez and reassigned catcher Reese McGuire and lefty Kelvin Marte.) Of those starting pitchers, Glasnow and Taillon are the headliners, but Kuhl, Brault and Williams are all prospects in their own right. All could wind up pitching at Indianapolis this year (although perhaps not right away, as Nesbitt notes, since the Bucs might need to preserve a spot there for a depth starter like Kyle Lobstein or Wilfredo Boscan.) “The future is bright,” says Huntington. “You run Taillon, Glasnow, Kuhl, Brault and Williams out in one setting — that’s a very exciting group. … Each one of them brings something that’s very, very intriguing. Now you put that group of five together, it bodes well for our future.” Kuhl is a sinkerballer who pitched well for Double-A Altoona last season. Brault, a lefty, excelled at Class A+ and Double-A after arriving last winter in the trade that sent Travis Snider to Baltimore. And Williams is a recent arrival who the Bucs acquired from the Marlins when pitching guru Jim Benedict headed to Miami.

NL East Notes: Jennings, Ozuna, Wright, Flores

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The Marlins have filed a grievance over the $100K salary that the Nationals are allegedly paying former Miami GM/manager Dan Jennings, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports.  Jennings joined the Washington front office as a special assistant to GM Mike Rizzo in January after being fired by Miami after the season.  Jennings still had three years and $5.8MM remaining on his Marlins contract, including $1.5MM for 2016, and Miami owes Jennings the difference between that $1.5MM figure and his new salary for the 2016 season.  The Marlins aren’t pleased about still being on the hook for $1.4MM and they claim their NL East rival is paying Jennings “well below a salary commensurate with his responsibilities,” Jackson writes.

Here’s some more from around the NL East…

  • Marcell Ozuna is looking at 2016 as “a fresh start” and he’s happy to still be with the Marlins, the outfielder told Andre C. Fernandez of the Miami Herald.  Ozuna was widely assumed to be on his way out of Miami after a tough season and a reported personality clash with owner Jeffrey Loria, though a trade never came to fruition and he’s still slated to be the Marlins’ regular center fielder.  Manager Don Mattingly noted that many players struggle to adjust in their second seasons in the bigs, and that “almost every club was calling us about [Ozuna]…because people see he’s that kind of talent.”
  • Almost all of Wilmer Flores’ spring action has come at third base, leading Newsday’s David Lennon to wonder if the Mets have even more concerns about David Wright’s health.  The veteran third baseman is scheduled to make his spring debut in a minor league game on Monday with an eye towards joining the Mets later in the week.  The club was originally planning to limit Wright to around 130 games in order to manage his spinal stenosis, though Wright said last month that “you can’t have a plan” given the condition’s unpredictability.  Flores has played only 27 games at third in the bigs and just one in the last two seasons, so the extra time could merely be the Mets’ way of getting him re-acclimated for an increased workload at the position.  If Flores ends up spending more time than expected at third, Lennon notes, that will leave New York thin on backup options around the infield.
  • In other NL East news from earlier today on MLBTR, the Mets are looking for a backup catcher and the Nationals have a June 15th deadline to decide on GM Mike Rizzo’s two-year contract option.

Nationals Have June 15 Deadline On Mike Rizzo’s Two-Year Contract Option

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The Nationals’ club option on GM/president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo actually covers both the 2017 and 2018 seasons, and the team has a June 15 deadline to decide whether or not to exercise its two-year option and keep Rizzo in the fold, The Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga reports.  Svrluga reported in November that the Nats held options on Rizzo’s services for both 2017 and 2018 (the GM was previously thought to only have a 2017 option), though with the news that both options have to be picked up at once, it creates an interesting new wrinkle in the Nationals’ eventual decision.

It’s fairly unusual to see a two-year option, though as that second Svrluga link illustrates, Nationals upper management tends to approach decisions different than most ownership groups (with no small amount of controversy involved).  Still, when Rizzo signed his contract extension in August 2013, all signs pointed to Rizzo remaining atop Washington’s baseball ops pyramid for years to come.  It was only a year ago that Rizzo seemed to have as much job security as any executive in baseball — the Nats were coming off two postseason appearances in three years and were seen as World Series favorites for 2015.

Unfortunately for both Rizzo and the Nationals, they finished with just a 83-79 record in a season marred by injuries to key stars, down seasons by regulars and the ugly dugout choking incident between Jonathan Papelbon and Bryce Harper.  Manager Matt Williams was fired and replaced by Dusty Baker, though that hiring wasn’t without its own bit of drama since the Nats previously seemed ready to hire Bud Black before he rejected a lowball contract offer.

While Rizzo kept his job for 2016, “his situation can be considered tenuous,” Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post wrote in November.  It’s fair to say that Rizzo was already facing pressure heading into the last guaranteed year of his contract, though this deadline set just two and a half months into the season adds a few more degrees to his hot seat.  If the Nats get off to a slow start, that could be enough for ownership to decide that a front office shakeup is necessary rather than make another two-year commitment to Rizzo on June 15.  It’s also possible, Svrluga opines, that Rizzo and the team could re-negotiate a new contract this spring.  Svrluga doubts the Nats would simply let the June 15 deadline pass and allow Rizzo to be a lame duck for the rest of the season, as that would be an awkward situation for all parties.

NL East Notes: Freeman, Strasburg, Harper, Turner, Mejia

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Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman left today’s spring action with a right wrist issue, as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Such a potentially minor occurrence might not warrant mention for most players, but Freeman missed significant time last year owing to issues in the same area, and he was proceeding cautiously as he ramps up for the 2016 season. (Indeed, as O’Brien has previously written, Freeman has long dealt with difficulties in his right wrist and hand.) For now, it’s only a situation to monitor, but there’s obviously added concern in his case.

Here’s more on Freeman and some other interesting players in the NL East:

  • Of course, Freeman was the topic of plenty of trade speculation this winter as the Braves continued to tweak their player assets — at least until GM John Coppolella made as clear as possible that Freeman wouldn’t be going anywhere. ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark explores the big lefty’s interesting offseason, reporting that Atlanta may have been closer to moving Freeman at one point than the organization has been willing to acknowledge. Coppolella denies that anything ever seriously progressed, while acknowledging that there was outside interest (which, of course, is no surprise). Freeman himself said he heard a lot of the chatter, but was eventually put to ease by the front office. And Coppolella explains that the first bagger is the organization’s “rock.” You’ll want to read the whole piece for the full story, as it is full of interesting content.
  • Nationals GM Mike Rizzo had some interesting comments today in an interview with MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (audio link). He said that righty Stephen Strasburg “could be a long-term fit” in DC and suggested that the organization would seek to explore a new deal with the pending free agent. While “health is obviously a big factor with him,” said Rizzo, it seems clear that the Nats at least have interest in seeing what an extension (or, potentially, a free agent deal) would look like. The club GM and president also talked about star Bryce Harper’s long-term status, saying that the “money part of it … is going to be extreme and complicated” while noting that he feels the Nationals have done a good job of selling Harper on the organization as a fit down the line.
  • Rizzo also talked more Nationals matters on the podcast of ESPN.com’s Buster Olney. In addition to providing some more thoughts about Strasburg and Harper, more from an on-field than a contractual perspective, Rizzo spoke at length about top shortstop prospect Trea Turner. The Nats’ head baseball decisionmaker wouldn’t commit to an Opening Day roster job for the youngster, but also didn’t rule it out, and emphasized that Turner is “not far away from the big leagues” while crediting him not only with 80-grade speed, but also outstanding maturity. As for the deal that brought him to DC, Rizzo tipped his cap to the scouts who helped to identify Turner and Joe Ross as targets within the Padres organization. He explained further: “[W]hen they showed interest in Steven Souza … we made it clear that, you know, we had to have these two players in the trade or we wouldn’t be interested in moving Souza.” The Nats were able to “get[] involved in a three-team trade later in the process” — the Rays, of course, being the organization that ultimately ended up with Souza — to land a return that has looked quite promising ever since the deal was struck.
  • Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia spoke again with the media today, emphasizing — as he said recently — that he was not using any banned substances when he was tagged with his second and third positive tests, as Laura Albanese of Newsday reports (Twitter links). While he acknowledged his initial suspension was valid, he “framed it as an accident,” by Albanese’s characterization. Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com notes on Twitter that it appears Mejia’s lifetime ban was never formally appealed, so there may be some possibility that he could still have a chance at contesting the decision. As Nathaniel Vinton of the New York Daily News reports, it appears Mejia will attempt to do just that, though it should be noted there could well be procedural hurdles. For its part, the league issued a strong statement rejecting Mejia’s claims of a conspiracy against him, calling the righty a “repeated user of banned performance-enhancing substances” who is doing nothing more than “hiring aggressive lawyers and making wild, unsupported allegations about the conduct of others in an effort to clear their names.” Newsday’s David Lennon was among those to tweet the full statement.

NL East Notes: Amaro, Asche, Altherr, Span, Braves

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Former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr., now the Red Sox’ first base coach, discussed the perception that his regime in Philadelphia was well behind the curve in terms of analytics in an interview with David Laurila of Fangraphs. Amaro makes the claim that while his club may not have been as progressive as some of the most aggressive adopters of statistical analysis, the Phillies may also have been more up to speed than they let on. “You can’t ever deny the numbers,” said Amaro.“That’s true for every GM and every baseball person, regardless of whether you’re ‘old school’ or ‘new school.’ … I’ve always believed in analytics. I just didn’t make it all public (in Philadelphia). I thought it was more of a competitive advantage for me to keep our thought-process about analytics closer to the vest. … I didn’t think it was anybody’s business but our own as to how we evaluated.” That is, of course, a fairly bold claim to make, especially in the face of years of stories to the contrary, which highlighted the Phillies’ adherence to more traditional means of evaluation. Amaro goes on to discuss the balance between data and scouting as well as new data from Statcast and evaluating players at different age levels. Regardless of whether one believes his initial claims (and I’d expect that most will not), the issue the comments raise is interesting, as there certainly could be some value to keeping operational methodology close to the vest for a big league organization. The interview is well worth taking a few minutes to read.

Here’s more from the NL East…

  • Cody Asche is in danger of opening the season on the Phillies’ disabled list, writes Ryan Lawrence of PhillyVoice.com. The former third base prospect, who converted to the outfield last year to accommodate Maikel Franco, was originally shut down two weeks ago due to an oblique issue, and an MRI conducted on Wednesday showed little progress. Asche is battling a Grade 1 strain in his right oblique, and manager Pete Mackanin says that the 25-year-old is still not cleared to hit. Aaron Altherr’s unfortunate injury — he’ll miss up to six months following wrist surgery — seemed to have created a window for Asche to get some more playing time, but his own health problems could now stand in the way of that. As a result, Lawrence notes, Rule 5 pick Tyler Goeddel’s chances of sticking with the club become even stronger.
  • Phillies GM Matt Klentak implied to MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki that it’s unlikely he’ll look outside the organization to replace Altherr. “We owe it to the guys in camp to give them that chance to fill that spot,” said Klentak. “We’ll survey the market. If there’s something out there, we’ll explore it, but we feel pretty good about the guys we have here.” As Zolecki notes, the Phillies do have top priority on the waiver wire, so they could add an outfielder late in camp if one becomes available in that manner. In addition to Goeddel, the Phillies have Odubel Herrera, Peter Bourjos Darnell Sweeney and Darin Ruf as 40-man options, with veteran David Lough in camp as a non-roster invitee.
  • Denard Span, who signed a three-year, $31MM contract with the Giants this offseason, spoke fondly of his time with the Nationals to James Wagner of the Washington Post in a recent interview. Within, the 31-year-old Span reveals that he and former agent Joe Urbon of CAA Sports approached the Nationals about a potential extension back in 2014, but the team wasn’t interested at the time. Despite the fact that his interest was spurned, Span had nothing but glowing things to say about the organization. It’s not necessarily a surprise that the Nats weren’t keen on a long-term deal, as Bryce Harper is a fixture in the outfield, Jayson Werth is locked up through 2017, and the team undoubtedly hoped at the time (and still hopes) that Michael A. Taylor can shift into the center field slot as a more cost-effective long-term option.
  • Braves general manager John Coppolella tells MLB.com’s Mark Bowman that he’s not ruling out Major League debuts for top outfield prospect Mallex Smith or shortstops Dansby Swanson and Ozhaino Albies in 2016. “They have all been very impressive, and I don’t think they could have shown any better than they have,” said Coppolella of the trio’s first week of Grapefruit League action. Coppolella went on to say that service time implications (i.e. delaying a player’s free agency) won’t be a factor for him if a player deems that he is ready for MLB action in 2016. “You can always sign young guys to long-term deals,” said the GM. “Sometimes, when you bring up prospects early, they’re more willing to sign long-term because they know you didn’t hold them hostage or try to manipulate them in any way.”

NL East Notes: Harvey, Fernandez, Hernandez, Braves, Rivero

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While the Mets have made clear they don’t have any ongoing extension talks with their starters, and there isn’t a ton of pressure given their extended existing control, Joel Sherman of the New York Post suggests that it may be worth at least exploring some chatter with Matt Harvey. Both the prized righty and his agent, Scott Boras, have suggested they’d be willing to engage in dialogue. Harvey, 26, is earning $4.33MM in his first of three seasons of arbitration eligibility. Sherman suggests that buying the remaining two arb years at about $29MM and adding three free agent seasons at $30MM a pop might be a fair valuation. While that seems to be a pretty fair suggestion for an outstanding 3+ starter, even in spite of his recent Tommy John surgery, from my perspective it’s somewhat difficult to imagine Harvey and Boras jumping at $119MM over five years. Such a deal would take Harvey though his age-32 season, meaning he’d hit the market at about the same stage as James Shields did last winter. It’s also far from clear that New York would be interested in such a scenario, of course, and Sherman makes very clear that any such concept is something of a longshot.

Here’s more from the NL East:

  • Marlins ace Jose Fernandez, who is currently on track to hit the market with Harvey and a host of other premium players, is working on decreasing his reliance on his big fastball, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports. The hope is that Fernandez will not only be able to improve — a scary proposition for opponents — but will reduce the load on his recently-repaired elbow. “We want to see him continue to pitch and continue to develop his weapons, where he’s not having to have the mentality that I’ve got to strike everybody out,” explained new manager Don Mattingly. “There’s nothing wrong with having guy hit a ground ball early in the count. … We think pitching that way keeps him healthy for a long time. It’s good for him. It’s good for us. It’s good for everybody.”
  • Interestingly, the recent Tommy John research of MLBTR contributor Bradley Woodrum showed that the volume of what he classifies as “hard pitches” can have significant predictive power of future UCL replacements. Fernandez is the biggest name to land among the ten pitchers with the highest statistical TJ risk this year, per Woodrum’s research, which certainly suggests that thoughtful handling is warranted.
  • Presumed Phillies closer David Hernandez is dealing with some “issues” with his right elbow, manager Pete Mackanin told reporters including Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The skipper himself didn’t seem entirely sure of what difficulties Hernandez was having. Meanwhile, the righty says he isn’t injured and is simply trying not to overburden himself having missed a lot of camp time in recent springs, as MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki tweets.
  • In Braves camp, Cuban veteran Hector Olivera is still working to refine his hitting mechanics, as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, with the team seeing signs of improvement. The first impressions of youngster Ozzie Albies have been universally positive, O’Brien adds, who may be pushing up his big league timeline (although not all the way to Opening Day this year) with his performance. Meanwhile, Atlanta may seek to utilize Jace Peterson in more of a utility role this season, O’Brien adds.
  • James Wagner of the Washington Post has an interesting feature on Nationals lefty Felipe Rivero, who came over as one of two minor leaguers to accompany Jose Lobaton in the deal that sent Nate Karns to the Rays. The fireballing southpaw has focused on strengthening his arm, and hopes that touching 100 mph last year will become a more common occurrence. While he says he “was thinking too much before” in a starter’s role, Rivero now feels settled in as a pen man. “Last season,” he said, “I’d imagine that, even if I was facing Barry Bonds, I’d get him out. Or when I threw against the league’s best batters, I didn’t think about the Mets or whoever. It’s me versus you. If I strike you out, I strike you out. If you make contact, you make contact. That’s it.” Wagner notes that Rivero could factor into the team’s future closer considerations, and the 24-year-old says he’d welcome such an opportunity.

Quick Hits: Cubs, Cahill, Davis, Judge

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Yesterday, we heard about several Cubs free agent signees who took less money to play in Chicago. Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter) illuminates a few of the teams that missed out. We know the Orioles were in on Dexter Fowler as well as the Nationals and Cardinals interest in Jason Heyward. Ben Zobrist turned down better offers from the Nationals and Mets while Trevor Cahill declined to join the Pirates on a stronger offer. Of course, the details of those hypothetical deals are unknown. For example, the Nationals probably made heavy use of deferred money in their offers, reducing the present day value of their proposals. Heyman also has some contract details for reserve clause signees (on Twitter).

Here’s more from around the league:

  • The Pirates offer to Cahill was to pitch as a starter, writes Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun Times. However, rumors of a two-year offer may have been exaggerated. Cahill himself claims to be unaware of any two-year proposals. In my opinion, Cahill was smart to remain in Chicago as a reliever. His skill set plays particularly well out of the bullpen and could set up a strong multi-year offer in free agency next winter.
  • New Athletics outfielder Khris Davis is happy with his new ball club, writes Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The former Brewer saw the writing on the wall when Milwaukee dealt away several veterans in the last calendar year. Davis, originally picked in the 2009 draft, was the second-to-last player from that draft class with the club. The Brewers still have Scooter Gennett penciled in to play second base.
  • When Yankees prospects Aaron Judge and Jorge Mateo homered earlier today, they offered a glimpse of the future, writes Wallace Matthews of ESPN. The pair rank first and second in the Yankees farm system. Judge, 23, has a shot to contribute to the club in 2016 while Mateo, 20,  is a little way off. Judge is a power hitting outfielder who hit 20 home runs in 540 plate appearances last season.  Mateo is a speedy shortstop with 82 stolen bases in 2015 (500 plate appearances).
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