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Padres Notes: Free Agents, Myers, Diaz

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One year after he went through free agency, Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer discussed his experience and the team’s intriguing pursuit of some new big-ticket items, as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Public reports can capture elements of what’s going on behind the scenes, he says, “but at the end of the day you really just don’t know” until the ink dries. While he wasn’t able to help with an understanding of where the Friars stand in their pursuit of Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, Hosmer did call it “exciting” and “motivating” to hear of the club’s efforts. “It just shows where this organization is at,” he said. “Where we’re at in the process right now, we’re trying to win baseball games.”

More from San Diego …

  • Wil Myers is once again changing positions, this time heading to Padres camp as a left fielder, writes Dennis Lin of The Athletic (subscription required). San Diego has put Myers on a defensive roller coaster since acquiring him, as he’s shifted from right field to center field, to first base, to left field, to third base and now back to left field. Myers expressed a comfort level he found in left field, and Lin spoke to first base coach Skip Schumaker and manager Andy Green about the now-28-year-old Myers’ work in the outfield. Schumaker praised Myers’ speed and ability to cut off balls headed down the line, preventing some extra bases, while Green more generally praised his ability to take to the new position. Myers rated quite well in left in a tiny sample of innings (+4 DRS, +3.4 UZR in 268 innings).
  • Of course, Myers’s future with the Padres is still somewhat up in the air, Lin notes. The presence of Hunter Renfroe, Franmil Reyes, Franchy Cordero, Manuel Margot and Travis Jankowski in addition to Myers gives the Friars a glut of outfield options. Myers’s salary will jump to $20MM beginning next season. If the team manages to land Machado or Harper, it may increase the pressure to trim other salary commitments.
  • The Padres will be without reliever Miguel Diaz for the first month of the season, as the right-hander sustained a lateral meniscus tear while throwing a bullpen session over the weekend, reports Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). He’s slated to undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair the injury. Diaz, 24, has struggled through 60 1/3 innings with the Padres over the past two seasons, but he turned in a 2.35 ERA with better than a strikeout per inning and a 56.4 percent ground-ball rate in 65 innings of Double-A ball last year. Diaz has a pair of minor league options remaining, so he wasn’t a lock to make the team’s Opening Day bullpen anyhow. He’ll likely be a factor at some point in the 2019 campaign, though.

Latest On Padres’ Pursuit Of Rotation Upgrade

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7:03pm: The San Diego organization has held some talks regarding Kluber as well as Blue Jays righty Marcus Stroman, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). But while “the Padres could still add a starting pitcher for 2019,” he says, “it won’t be one of those two.”

Needless to say, that’s a rather forthright rebuke of the earlier reporting this evening, which had characterized the Padres as active and strong pursuers of Kluber.

3:59pm: The Padres are among the teams discussing a trade for two-time AL Cy Young winner Corey Kluber with the Indians, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Morosi further tweets that several other NL clubs — the Dodgers, Reds, Phillies and Brewers — are also involved in Kluber talks to varying degrees. San Diego, he notes, is not believed to be any sort of favorite at the moment.

However, the Padres do have a number of interesting young, MLB-ready pieces to include in a potential Kluber deal. Any of center fielder Manuel Margot, right fielder Hunter Renfroe or catcher Austin Hedges could potentially be involved in a Kluber swap, per Morosi, although it’s difficult to see how any of that trio would headline a package for for a pitcher as accomplished as Kluber.

Margot and Hedges are quality defenders, though neither has hit in the Majors yet and both have already topped two years of big league service (meaning they have four years of control remaining). Renfroe has demonstrated significant power and is controlled for another five seasons but walked at just a 6.8 percent clip last season and barely kept his on-base percentage north of .300. Furthermore, Morosi suggests that the Padres would be reluctant to include either of their top two prospects — shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. and lefty MacKenzie Gore — in a trade. Presumably, then, San Diego would need to include additional MLB-ready talent and deal from its next tier of prospects in order to make the best offer for Kluber, who can be controlled for another three seasons at a total of $52.5MM (with the final two of those seasons coming in the form of club options).

Kluber, of course, was originally a Padres farmhand after being selected in the fourth round of the 2007 draft. The Padres, under a previous regime and not the current A.J. Preller-led front office, shipped Kluber to Cleveland in a three-team swap that sent Jake Westbrook to St. Louis and Ryan Ludwick to San Diego. Kluber, at the time, wasn’t even considered a top prospect but nonetheless flourished in his new environs, blossoming into a bona fide ace and one of the very best pitchers of the past decade.

The Indians have won three straight division championships and made a World Series appearance along the way, but they’ve seen their payroll inflate to levels that are beyond ownership’s comfort threshold along the way. President of baseball ops Chris Antonetti, GM Mike Chernoff and the rest of the staff have already cut payroll by trading Edwin Encarnacion, Yonder Alonso and Yan Gomes, though the Indians also took back Carlos Santana in that Encarnacion trade, which lessened the overall financial relief they received in that trio of trades. It’s not clear whether ownership has given a mandate to further reduce payroll, but it’s evident that Antonetti, Chernoff & Co. at the very least remain open to moving a top-tier starter in an effort to add multiple, controllable and affordable pieces to the big league roster.

Padres Activate Franchy Cordero, Place Manuel Margot On 10-Day DL

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The Padres have announced that outfielder Franchy Cordero has been activated from the disabled list and will lead off and play center field in today’s day game at Coors Field. He’ll take the place of Manuel Margot, who is going on the DL with bruised ribs.

Cordero, 23, has been on the 40-man roster since late in 2016, so no further roster maneuvers will be required to facilitate his arrival. The toolsy youngster entered the season rated tenth by MLB.com among the prospects in a deep San Diego farm system.

This will be the second attempt at the big leagues for Cordero, who received a thirty-game run last year. He’ll obviously need to improve upon the .276 OBP he carried in that short sample. Despite his less-than-excellent first look at the majors, Cordero posted a big 2017 season at Triple-A, with a .326/.369/.603 batting line and 17 home runs in 419 plate appearances, and is off to a hot start there again this year. (He had technically opened the season on the MLB disabled list and was playing on a rehab assignment.)

Meanwhile, Margot is set for an early-season respite after taking a pitch to the chest. He was already cleared of any fractures, so it seems likely this’ll be a relatively short stay. Margot has struggled to post just seven hits through his first 49 plate appearances, only two of which have gone for extra bases. The organization will surely exercise patience, though, with a player who is already a premium asset in the field. Margot showed a fair bit of promise last year, when he slashed .263/.313/.409 with 13 home runs and 17 steals in his 529 plate appearances.

Padres Place Manuel Margot On DL, Promote Franchy Cordero

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The Padres have announced that they’ve placed outfielder Manuel Margot on the 10-day DL, retroactive to Thursday, with a strained calf. To take his place on the active roster, they’ve recalled fellow outfielder Franchy Cordero from Triple-A El Paso.

The Margot move is somewhat expected — Margot’s calf injury was already known, and he was wearing a walking boot yesterday. The center fielder was batting .259/.305/.389 in what figured to be his first full big-league season.

As disappointing as it must be for the Padres to lose a high-upside 22-year-old outfielder for awhile, though, the Cordero move is interesting in its own right. Cordero is also 22, and he was batting .289/.349/.520 for Triple-A El Paso — good numbers even after considering that El Paso is a great place for hitters. He played in 2015 at Class A Fort Wayne, but the Padres moved him aggressively through their system in 2016 as he batted .290/.344/.450 across three levels, demonstrating good contact ability and burgeoning extra-base power. He earned a 40-man roster spot in November.

Cordero’s most significant downside at the plate currently seems to be strikeouts — he’s had 59 of them in 190 plate appearances so far this season, although that might be somewhat understandable given his youth. MLB.com rates Cordero the No. 23 prospect in a strong Padres system, praising his raw power and his defense in center field.

NL West Notes: Kazmir, Segedin, Arroyo, Margot, Bettis, Wall

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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says that starting pitcher Scott Kazmir’s velocity is up to 90-92 MPH as he rehabs his injured hip, Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times tweets. That’s close to Kazmir’s typical regular-season velocity, which has sat in the low 90s over the past several seasons. It’s still unclear when Kazmir will return to the team, however. The hip has been an ongoing problem for Kazmir, as has his velocity, which was well below 90 MPH at various points in Spring Training. He has not yet pitched in the Majors or minors this season. As long as their other pitchers remain healthy, though, the Dodgers should be able to get by without him — they have Clayton Kershaw, Alex Wood, Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill and Brandon McCarthy already available and Hyun-Jin Ryu and Julio Urias waiting in the wings. Here’s more from the NL West.

  • Dodgers corner infielder Rob Segedin is set to have wrist surgery on Wednesday and will miss four to six weeks, MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick tweets. Segedin was hurt while batting as he was rehabbing an earlier injury to his toe. The 28-year-old was one of Triple-A Oklahoma City’s top hitters last year, and he was off to a good start before succumbing to injury last month, batting .324/.342/.541 in 38 plate appearances. He’s also collected 87 big-league plate appearances over the last two seasons.
  • With Giants rookie Christian Arroyo going through an extended lull at the plate, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that it’s plausible to imagine him being optioned. With Aaron Hill and Conor Gillaspie both nearing returns from injury, and some alternatives on hand at Triple-A, San Francisco may have little choice but to see if it can get more production elsewhere — while letting Arroyo iron out the kinks back at Sacramento. As SB Nation’s Grant Brisbee further writes, the move makes all the more sense when considering the fact that Eduardo Nunez’s glove likely doesn’t belong in left field.
  • The Padres have placed young center fielder Manuel Margot in a walking boot as a precautionary measure, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Margot’s calf issue is likely to send him to the 10-day DL, it seems, though the team is waiting to make a final decision. Through exactly 200 plate appearances on the year, Margot is hitting .259/.305/.389 with four home runs and five stolen bases (albeit in ten attempts).
  • Rockies starting pitcher Chad Bettis sees pitching in the big leagues this season as a “realistic goal” as he continues to recover from testicular cancer, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes. “The way I see it, it’s going to happen,” Bettis says. “At what point in time during the season I would be coming back is all kind of up in the air. But it’s something that I’m going to be pushing to get to.” Bettis had surgery during the offseason but learned in Spring Training that the cancer had returned, weeks before his wife gave birth to his first child. Since then, he’s had several rounds of chemotherapy, although those ended earlier this month. Now, he’s working on throwing at 75 feet and doing cardiovascular work. There’s still no date for his return, however, and he’s watched the Rockies’ strong start from the sidelines. “[I]t’s hard,” he says. “I so wish that I was a part of it.”
  • Rockies prospect Forrest Wall, who had moved from second base to the outfield this year, is slated to miss the rest of the season after suffering a dislocated left shoulder, Vince Lara-Cinisomo of Baseball America writes. The 21-year-old needs surgery, bringing an end to what had been a promising campaign. Taken 35th overall in the 2014 draft, Wall had struggled in 2016. But he was slashing a robust .299/.361/.471 through 98 plate appearances at High-A at the time of his injury.

NL Notes: Cardinals, Padres, Phillies

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The Cardinals were aggressive in trying to sign Cuban outfield prospect Luis Robert, but general manager John Mozeliak sensed the 19-year-old would end up elsewhere, writes Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com. Robert proved Mozeliak correct when he agreed to sign with the White Sox on Saturday. Ultimately, St. Louis wasn’t up to paying north of $50 million, including a 100 percent overage tax, for Robert. “When you’re looking at the overall investment, it’s real and historically there are not too many players that sign for that many dollars,” said Mozeliak. “It’s really hard to justify those types of dollars for any player with a lack of a proven track record. No matter how you try to equate the Cuban league or his international experience, it’s very hard to calibrate what that means to here.”

More from two other National League cities:

  • While the Padres would gain an extra year of control over outfielders Manuel Margot and Hunter Renfroe if they’re demoted to the minors for a couple weeks, the team doesn’t plan to send either rookie down, sources informed Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The rebuilding Padres are pleased with the progress the two have made at the major league level, a high-ranking team official told Lin. “We started them here for a reason,” the official noted. “We think they’re ready to contribute and be part of what we’re doing.”
  • Phillies right-hander Vince Velasquez continued a disappointing season with another rough outing Saturday, and he suggested afterward that he wouldn’t resist a move to the bullpen. Asked if he feared losing his rotation spot, the hard-throwing Velasquez said (via Todd Zolecki of MLB.com): “Is it a fear? No, it’s not a fear. If it’s a way to help the team in the bullpen, then so be it. But do I think about that going out there? No.” There’s no indication that Velasquez will lose his starting role, though his struggles have nonetheless been alarming. After a highly promising 2016, his first in Philly, the 24-year-old has pitched to a bloated ERA (5.98) over 43 2/3 innings and seen his strikeout and walk rates trend in the wrong direction. Velasquez attributes his issues to “a lack of commitment, a lack of concentration, just a lack of everything” and believes he’s putting too much pressure on himself.
  • It seemed possible on Friday that righty Jered Weaver’s 2/3-inning, seven-earned run debacle against Arizona would go down as his last outing with the Padres, but they’re not ready to move on quite yet. Instead of cutting ties with Weaver, the club placed him on the disabled list Saturday with left hip inflammation. Manager Andy Green indicated the 34-year-old will be out longer than 10 days (per Ryan Posner of MLB.com), saying: “He’s been battling and hasn’t been at full health, and it’s something for the last couple years he’s battled. He just doesn’t feel like he has the freedom to pitch the way he can pitch.” The Padres have lost all nine of the soft-tossing Weaver’s starts, in which he has logged a 7.44 ERA (with an even worse 7.99 FIP) and averaged fewer than five innings per appearance. Since Padres chairman Ron Fowler revealed May 10 that Weaver’s on a short leash, the ex-Angel has given up 15 earned runs in 9 2/3 frames.

NL West Notes: Padres, Rollins, Ethier

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Here’s the latest from the NL West…

  • Service time considerations could play a role in the Padres’ Opening Day roster decisions on Luis Perdomo and Manuel Margot on the Opening Day roster, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes.  Perdomo, a Rule 5 Draft pick last offseason, clocked a full year of MLB service time in 2016, posting a 5.71 ERA, 6.4 K/9, 2.28 K/BB rate and a whopping 59% grounder rate over 146 2/3 innings.  Margot, one of the game’s top prospects, had a 12-day cup of coffee in the bigs last season.  Keeping both Perdomo and Margot in the minors for a few weeks to begin 2017 would allow the Padres to gain an extra year of control over both players.  In Margot’s case, the extra minor league seasoning could be necessary since Margot has missed the last two weeks of camp with a knee injury.
  • Jimmy Rollins is off to a slow start in the Giants’ camp, with just three hits in his first 26 at-bats for an ungainly .113 average.  Despite the lack of production thus far, the veteran infielder tells Andrew Baggarly of the Bay Area News Group that he isn’t yet feeling a crunch to perform given his non-roster status.  “I’d love to start driving some balls.  But pressure?  No, it’s not pressure.  You start doing that, then you’re really starting to go the wrong way,” Rollins said.  As Baggarly notes, Rollins’ performance is somewhat difficult to evaluate since he appeared in only 41 games last season and none after June 8, so “the Giants must determine whether Rollins’ lack of results is due to diminished skills or whether he’s a veteran who needs a little extra time to regain his stroke.”  Rollins gave no hints as to how he would proceed in his career if he didn’t make the Opening Day roster.
  • Andre Ethier will undergo an MRI on his back on Monday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register).  Ethier has been bothered by lower back stiffness over the last two weeks and, since this is an unfamiliar injury for the veteran outfielder, Roberts said the club will “take it slow” in giving Ethier time to recover.  Ethier played just 16 games last season due to a broken leg, and he is entering his last guaranteed year under contract with L.A.  He needs at least 550 plate appearances for his $17.5MM option to vest for 2018, and while that much playing time may have been questionable anyway given the crowded Dodgers outfield, a significant back injury would certainly put it out of reach.

Padres Promote Margot, Renfroe, Hedges, Asuaje

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With the Triple-A postseason now complete, the Padres announced late Tuesday night that they have promoted top outfield prospects Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot as well as catcher Austin Hedges, second baseman Carlos Asuaje and lefties Buddy Baumann and Jose Torres in a final wave of September call-ups. Of the bunch, Renfroe and Margot rank firmly within the game’s top 100 prospects, while Asuaje ranks as one of the Padres’ best prospects after coming to San Diego alongside Margot in the Craig Kimbrel blockbuster. Hedges, meanwhile, is a former top 100 prospect in his own right that saw his rookie status expire while struggling in the Majors last season but enjoyed a monstrous season in Triple-A this year.

Manuel Margot

Starting with Margot, the 21-year-old center fielder currently ranks 16th, 20th, 27th and 39th on the respective midseason top prospect lists compiled by Baseball Prospectus, ESPN’s Keith Law, MLB.com and Baseball America. Margot was one of the headliners of the Padres’ return for Kimbrel and demonstrated many of the reasons that he’s so well-regarded with a strong 2016 season in which he batted .304/.351/.426 with six homers, 21 doubles, 12 triples and 30 stolen bases in 566 plate appearances at the Triple-A level despite being more than five years younger than the league’s average age.

Scouting reports peg Margot as a plus defensive center fielder due to his above-average speed and strong reads, and it should be mentioned that he racked up 18 outfield assists in Triple-A this year. His hit tool draws strong reviews as well, with the only real questions regarding his skill set centering around his power (or potential lack thereof). Even if he’s not a big threat in terms of clearing the fences, though, Margot profiles as a regular that works the count, hits for average, gets on base, steals bases and plays quality defense.

Hunter Renfroe

Renfroe, meanwhile, ranked 41st on MLB.com’s list, 43rd on BP’s and 66th on BA’s. The 24-year-old was the No. 13 overall pick back in 2013, and while his arrival to the Majors took longer than some might’ve anticipated, he’s hit quite well in parts of two seasons with Triple-A, slashing a combined .310/.339/.568 with 36 homers in 154 games. Those numbers, of course, are aided somewhat by the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, and it’d be encouraging to see Renfroe walk in more than four percent of his Triple-A plate appearances. But, his 20.5 percent strikeout rate isn’t through the roof, and the reports on him laud his raw power and bat speed as well as his arm strength in right field (where he fell just shy of Margot with 17 outfield assists this season). Even if his discipline never improves, Renfroe could be an power-oriented regular with an OBP in the low .300s and solid defense in right field.

Turning to Asuaje, MLB.com rates him 20th among San Diego farmhands and praises his contact skills, hand-eye coordination and gap power/line-drive stroke. Asuaje is listed at 5’9″ and 160 pounds, so the odds of him ever hitting for much power, especially playing his home games at Petco Park, are fairly long. though MLB.com’s report on him does mention his “surprising” pop and give him a chance to crack double digits in homers. The 24-year-old Asuaje was brilliant with El Paso this season, hitting .321/.378/.473 with nine homers, 32 doubles and 11 triples.  He’ll be in the mix for the second base job in 2017, and even if he loses out to breakout slugger Ryan Schimpf or a returning Cory Spangenberg, Asuaje could crack the roster as a utility player. He’s appeared at third base, left field and (briefly) shortstop throughout his minor league tenure and could help the Friars at a number of positions.

Hedges didn’t receive the call-up that many (myself included) were anticipating earlier this season due largely to the fact that Derek Norris played himself out of a potential trade by hitting just .183/.253/.320. With Norris and the out-of-options Christian Bethancourt serving as manager Andy Green’s primary receivers in the bigs, the Padres left Hedges at El Paso to continue to hone his offensive skills, and he delivered in a big way, hitting .326/.353/.597 with 21 homers. That’s a critical development for a player who has long been touted for standout defense but had previously struggled to hit. Hedges batted a woeful .168/.215/.248 in 152 MLB PAs last season, and the .225/.272/.314 slash he compiled in 133 career games at the Double-A level was concerning as well. Now, with such an impressive 2016 season in his back pocket, it’s easy to envision the Padres finding a way to clear a roster spot for him in 2017.

Neither Baumann nor Torres ranks among San Diego’s top minor leaguers, but both had strong minor league seasons. Baumann posted a 3.14 ERA with a 31-to-12 K/BB ratio in 28 2/3 innings, and the 28-year-old will return to the Padres for a third stint this year. Torres, just 22, split the 2016 campaign across three minor league levels after beginning in Class-A Advanced and compiled a 2.24 ERA with 8.8 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 64 1/3 innings of relief.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NL Notes: Wright, deGrom, Matz, Kang, Padres Prospects

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A trip to the doctor resulted in generally positive news for Mets third baseman David Wright, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports. Wright’s surgically-repaired neck is said to be healing as hoped, though Wright will not even be able to do full-scale workouts until next spring. Still, it seems that he and the team have reason to hope that he’ll be able to attempt a comeback for 2017.

  • Meanwhile, the Mets are considering an interesting way of working injured starters Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz back into the major league mix, as MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo was among those to report. If both are ready to pitch, but not handle a full starter’s workload, then the pair could work in tandem in a single outing, skipper Terry Collins suggested. With wins at a premium, that ought to represent a potent one-two punch, especially since the righty/lefty combo would be hard to match up against.
  • It doesn’t appear as if the investigation into sexual assault allegations against Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang is progressing much, as Andrew Goldstein of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The Chicago police who are looking into the claims say that they are not having success in making contact with the woman who says she was assaulted by the Korean star. At this time, though, it appears that it still remains an open matter. The police “are seeking clarification on several items to corroborate the allegations made,” police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has stated that the league will not take action on the matter until the investigation has progressed.
  • Four significant Padres prospects have notably yet to receive major league promotions this year, as Jason Martinez of MLBTR and Roster Resource recently explored. The organization has preferred to keep those players together for the Triple-A playoffs, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell writes, with manager Andy Green saying that more call-ups are expected once the PCL campaign has wrapped up. Catcher Austin Hedges seems to be an easy call now that a promotion won’t cost the team a year of control, as he’s already on the 40-man and the team just lost Christian Bethancourt. Manuel Margot is also on the 40-man, but the team may wish to watch his service time. Meanwhile, a bump for outfielder Hunter Renfroe and/or infielder Carlos Asuaje could make sense since both need roster spots this winter for Rule 5 protection.

Padres Notes: Ross, Trades, Fowler

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The Padres have placed righty Tyson Ross on the 15-day DL (retroactive to April 5) with right shoulder inflammation, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell tweets. Via the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Dennis Lin (on Twitter), Ross noticed his shoulder felt unusual during his first bullpen session after starting on Opening Day. Ross is optimistic he’ll return after missing the minimum amount of time. Clearly, the loss of Ross (who produced a 3.26 ERA, 9.7 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 as one of the few bright spots in a rough Padres season in 2015) would be a blow to the Padres, particularly given that Ross is eligible for free agency after 2017 and could be traded at some point. Right now, however, there’s no indication the injury is serious. Manager Andy Green characterized the move as precautionary (tweet).

Here’s more from San Diego:

  • The Padres may have missed their window to cash in on most of their trade assets, Keith Law tells Buster Olney on the Baseball Tonight podcast (33:30 minute mark). While Law praised top prospect Manuel Margot for his solid tools and excellent baseball IQ, the rest of the farm system is rather bleak. Law believes Ross may be the only player on the major league roster who could fetch a franchise changing prospect. Derek Norris could return some value, but his shaky defense hurts his trade value. Similarly, other trade candidates aren’t likely to bring much in return. Of course, the podcast was recorded prior to Ross being placed on the disabled list. Law highlighted the long injury histories of Ross and Andrew Cashner which could come back to bite the Padres at any time.
  • Executive Ron Fowler has a difficult job on his hands convincing local fans that the front office has a plan, writes Bill Shaiken of the LA Times. After a disappointing 2015, the club seemingly went backwards over the winter with Justin Upton gone and Craig Kimbrel traded to Boston. The team appears to be feigning contention while planning a rebuild. This just one year after they spent a bushel of prospects and dollars in an attempt to compete in the NL West. Fowler admits the club was caught a little flat footed when the Dodgers started spending money like the Yankees on steroids. Their big spending rivals have the Friars looking for other ways to sneak into contention.

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