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East Notes: Pomeranz, Glover, Freicer

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Red Sox lefty Drew Pomeranz could attempt to throw two innings of live batting practice next week, writes Scott Lauber of ESPN. That would be a notable progression in his rehab back from a flexor strain, though it’s not yet clear whether he’ll be ready to take the mound for his first start of the season (Lauber notes that this would be either April 1st or April 2nd). Pomeranz is set to become a free agent following this season, and he’ll certainly want to avoid any injury-related question marks as he hits free agency amidst a  free agent pitching class that could potentially include Clayton Kershaw and fellow Red Sox left-hander David Price.

Elsewhere along the Atlantic shoreline…

  • There’s no timetable for Koda Glover to begin throwing again, Jamal Collier writes in his latest inbox column for MLB.com. Collier adds that all signs point to Glover being out of the bullpen mix to start the 2018 season. The 24-year-old right-hander was expected by many to emerge as a closer option for the Nationals last season, but injuries cut his season short, and his 5.12 ERA across 19 1/3 innings doesn’t look pretty. However, his 4.25 K/BB ratio stands out as excellent; the Nats are surely hoping he can return soon to deliver on his potential.
  • Frecier Perez, the Yankees’ No. 9 prospect, is now represented by The Legacy Agency, Robert Murray of FanRag Sports tweets. The towering 6’8″ right-hander has risen rapidly across the Bombers’ prospect list thanks to his projectable frame and ability to consistently throw 100 MPH. Perez is 21 years old and was signed in 2014 out of the Dominican Republic for just $10K. Current Yankees scout Dan Giese spoke highly of Perez earlier this winter, citing his ability to throw strikes and feel for his change-up as reasons for optimism. He spent most of last season at Low-A Charleston.

AL East Notes: Tulo, Orioles, Reynolds, Walker, Lind

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It doesn’t look like Troy Tulowitzki will be in the Blue Jays’ lineup on Opening Day, as manager John Gibbons told reporters (including Sportsnet.ca’s Arden Zwelling) today.  “I don’t expect he’ll be ready. But he’s moving in the right direction,” Gibbons said, referring to Tulowitzki’s rehab from a severe ankle injury suffered last July.  Toronto made a point of acquiring infield depth this winter given the lengthy injury histories of both Tulowitzki and Devon Travis this winter, and thus Yangervis Solarte or Aledmys Diaz are now the top shortstop candidates with Tulowitzki likely to miss at least some time at the start of the season.

Here’s some more from around the AL East…

  • The Orioles are “intrigued” by Neil Walker and some in the organization see him as a potential bargain signing, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko writes.  Walker has been linked to teams like the Royals, Yankees, Mets, Brewers, Angels, and Pirates over the course of the winter, though with many of those teams addressing their second base needs in other ways, Walker is still looking for a new home as we enter March.  The O’s have Jonathan Schoop locked in at the keystone, of course, though Walker could be an intriguing add as a third baseman.  Tim Beckham is currently slated to get the bulk of action at the hot corner, though Beckham is unproven as an everyday player and the Orioles might prefer using him in a super-utility role.  If Walker was signed, the two players could form a third base platoon, as the switch-hitting Walker has struggled against left-handed pitching during his career.
  • Walker is just one of the names that could still be considerations for the Orioles given the vast number of notable players still available in free agency.  Kubatko notes that the O’s have had some internal discussions about Mark Reynolds simply “because, well, he’s out there,” despite Baltimore’s current depth at first base and designated hitter.
  • Newly-signed Yankees first baseman Adam Lind was one of the many veterans caught up in the offseason free agent freeze, as he tells NJ.com’s Randy Miller that his only two offers of the entire winter (both minor league offers) came within the last week.  A big asking price didn’t seem to be an issue (“I was just looking for a J-O-B,” Lind said) but the veteran was clearly frustrated at the lack of interest given his strong .303/.362/.512 slash line over 301 plate appearances with the Nationals last season.  “I talked to my wife about it.  I told her, ’What’s the point of doing well?’  What if I hit .280 this year? I probably won’t even get a big-league invite next year,” Lind said.  “You think you’re a good player and then to have no one value you….it’s tough.”

AL East Notes: Swisher, Gomez, Orioles

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Although the always-energetic Nick Swisher never made it back to the majors after signing a minors pact with the Yankees in 2016, he’ll end up contributing to the team in a different way. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com writes in the second half of a piece for MLB.com. “Swish” will now serve as a special advisor to GM Brian Cashman. Though the terms of that job are typically pretty broad, Cashman envisions Swisher spending a lot of his time with minor leaguers in the organization. “He had a huge impact on that crew in Scranton when he was playing with [Aaron] Judge, [Greg] Bird, [Gary] Sanchez and all those guys,” said Cashman. “He brought the joy of playing the game on a daily basis, and it was infectious throughout that locker room. The opportunity to bring him into the fold and sprinkle him throughout our farm system was attractive.” On the field, Swisher was a .249/.351/.447 lifetime hitter; his playing career came to an abrupt end after a pair of rough seasons spent with the Indians and Braves from 2014-2015.

Other items out of the AL East…

  • Rays outfielder Carlos Gomez is being met with a lot of excitement from his new teammates, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. In particular, Denard Span says that, “you’d rather have him on your team than playing against him. Because he’s a headache when you’re playing against him.” There are a lot of reasons for that, Topkin writes. Gomez likes to “mix it up” with bat flips and sometimes even instigates brawls. He’s also the type to play hard in every moment of every game, according to new teammate Kevin Kiermaier. “He’s a guy who just loves baseball,” says Kiermaier. “Every time he takes the field, it doesn’t matter if you’re up eight runs or down eight, he’s going to go and play with that intensity.” One of the most interesting points Topkin makes about Gomez is that he can be a little bit misunderstood. Although he appears animated and aggressive, Rays reliever Sergio Romo describes him as someone who “always means well” and that some of the things he’s done have simply taken the wrong way on occasion. Gomez is set to replace the recently-traded Steven Souza Jr. in the Rays’ outfield this season.
  • Looking for a bit of insight into how players are cut from major league spring training camp? Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun helps shed some light on the subject by way of some words from Orioles manager Buck Showalter. Notably, Showalter is committed to spending time meeting with players prior to cuts. “I’m not going to rush through anything,” he said. “I want to hear from them as much as I want to tell them [some things], because I don’t want a month or two or three months to pass, and all of a sudden our success depends on them being able to come up and do something and we didn’t have those proper conversations.” Showalter also believes player feedback is an equally important part of those conversations.

Yankees Sign Adam Lind To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees announced on Friday that they’ve signed free-agent first baseman/outfielder Adam Lind to a minor league deal with an invite to Major League Spring Training. Lind, who is represented by ISE Baseball, would earn $2MM in the majors with $650K in possible incentives, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter).

The contract also includes a pair of opt-out opportunities — on March 22nd and June 1st — which will allow Lind to test the open market if he is not added to the MLB roster. The Yankees view the contract as an “insurance policy,” Cashman adds, so it sounds as if the opt-out clauses could well come into play.

Lind, 34, is coming off a strong season with the Nationals in which he slashed a hearty .303/.362/.512 with 14 homers in 301 plate appearances. That marked a nice rebound effort from a down season with the Mariners in 2016 and served as evidence that Lind is still plenty capable of contributing at the big league level. That he had to settle for a minor league pact this offseason speaks to the manner in which corner bats have been devalued throughout the league as a whole; Lind has posted an OPS+ of 123 or better in four of the past five seasons, batting a combined .282/.348/.473 through 2142 plate appearances in that time.

Of course, Lind is not without his limitations. He’s logged a disastrous .217/.263/.329 slash against left-handed pitchers over the course of 12-year MLB career and is largely limited to first base on the defensive spectrum. The Nats did trot him out to left field for 197 innings last season, though that marked his first work on the outfield grass since 2010, and he unsurprisingly did not rate well there.

It’s possible that Lind will simply spend camp with the Yankees before finding a better opportunity late in Spring Training. New York, after all, doesn’t have much of an opening for him with Greg Bird healthy and expected to man first base on a daily basis in 2018. Tyler Austin is on hand as a backup option for Bird and figures to make the team in a bench capacity as well, though he does have a minor league option remaining. Still, given Lind’s success in 2017 it would hardly come as a surprise if he landed with a club looking to deepen its bench later this month or perhaps finds a greater role in the wake of an injury elsewhere.

AL East Notes: Walker, Rays, Red Sox

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Neil Walker tells Billy Witz of the New York Times that his camp held fairly extensive talks with the Yankees before they acquired Brandon Drury (all links to Twitter). Walker said he and his agents felt that they were “fairly close” to hammering out a deal with the Yanks, who instead swung a trade to bring in Drury for added infield depth. The 32-year-old switch-hitter felt the Yankees were a strong fit, as he knows the rigors of playing in the New York media market and was “certainly willing” to bounce around the infield and play multiple positions.  Walker was hoping for a multi-year deal with the Yankees, though, and suggests that the team ultimately “decided to hang onto money for midseason,” when they could be in the market for adding veterans via trade.

More from the division…

  • The Rays have taken plenty of heat for their offseason moves, though Travis Sawchick of Fangraphs observes one common thread among the hitters they’ve let go: a susceptibility to whiffs against four-seam fastballs. Corey Dickerson swung through more four-seamers than anyone in Major League Baseball last season by a wide margin, Sawchik notes, while Steven Souza was third on that list and Logan Morrison tied for seventh. Sawchik also notes that each of the three had declines in the season’s second half (though Morrison maintained above-average production). Replacements such as Carlos Gomez and especially C.J. Cron had fewer struggles against the fastball, he adds. Sawchik has written in the past about how the Tampa Bay organization emphasizes utilizing elevated fastballs as a weapon more than most other clubs, so perhaps that trend applies to both sides of the ball.
  • The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier runs through some troubling numbers for the Red Sox’ offense from 2017, observing that the team’s lineup was startlingly ineffective in hitters’ counts. Boston took an abnormally passive approach at the plate last season, per Speier, and while they were among the game’s more productive clubs in 0-2, 1-2 and 2-2 counts, they ranked in the bottom third of baseball in 3-1, 2-0, 2-1, 1-0, 0-0, 1-1 and 0-1 counts (by measure of OPS). The Red Sox ranked last in the American League in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage in 0-0 counts, he adds. Speier spoke at length with principal owner John Henry about the trends, which did not go unnoticed by ownership or the front office and may have played a notable role in the organization’s coaching overhaul. Notably, Speier adds that new skipper Alex Cora saw his Astros pounce on the first pitch with regularity and with great success in 2017.

Injury Notes: Gurriel, Frazier, Gausman, Stroman, Thornburg, Eaton

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The Astros have shipped first baseman Yuli Gurriel to Houston so his injured hand can be evaluated, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic reports (Twitter link). At this point, the situation is more or less a mystery, with no real indication how the issue arose or just what the club is concerned about. Clearly, though, the team’s training staff has found cause to get a closer look from a specialist.

Here’s more on some injury situations from around the game:

  • Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier has been diagnosed with a concussion, tweets MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. Frazier made a leaping catch in yesterday’s Grapefruit League game against the Pirates and stumbled a bit before falling backwards and hitting his head against the base of the left-field wall (video link). Manager Aaron Boone said Frazier will be down for “a few days” and acknowledged the seemingly optimistic nature of that timeline. Frazier is far from a lock to make the Opening Day roster in New York with Brett Gardner, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge and Jacoby Ellsbury all on the roster, but he remains a key potential long-term piece for the Yanks.
  • It seems that Orioles righty Kevin Gausman has largely shaken off a home-plate collision yesterday, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes. The young starter, who is a key factor in the team’s hopes for the coming season, says he “feel[s] pretty good” on the whole despite slamming into Tigers youngster Jeimer Candelario. For the time being, at least, Gausman is expected to take the ball for his next scheduled spring outing.
  • The outlook is at least a bit more worrisome for Blue Jays righty Marcus Stroman. Per MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm, shoulder inflammation is holding Stroman back. Though he has already been cleared by an MRI of structural concerns, Stroman will rest up in hopes of moving past a problem that has evidently been going on for a few weeks. The key Jays hurler says he’s hoping to be fully ramped up for “the very beginning of the start of the season,” even if it’s not Opening Day, though surely the organization will proceed with caution.
  • The Red Sox will welcome reliever Tyler Thornburg back to the hill for the first time since he underwent surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome, Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reports on Twitter. A bullpen session is just one of many steps back, of course, and Thornburg still has some hurdles to clear. He has yet to pitch competitively for the Boston organization (excepting brief spring action last year) since coming over in a trade in advance of the 2017 season.
  • Indications are that Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton is largely progressing well after a long layoff for a torn ACL. As Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com writes, though, Eaton has yet to appear in game action. That appears to be less a reflection of Eaton’s surgically repaired joint than it is a planned effort to build him up deliberately. “We’re going to take it and be methodical and do it right for the first time and make sure I’m overcooked, so to speak, before I go out there.” While it’s surely tempting to max out Eaton’s reps after a lost season, skipper Davey Martinez emphasized the primary goal is to have Eaton at full speed come Opening Day.
  • The rival Mets are reporting shoulder and back soreness for Yoenis Cespedes and Jacob deGrom, respectively, but those don’t seem to be real concerns at this point, as MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports. However, the New York organization is likely to hold back first baseman Dominic Smith for a while after he was diagnosed with a strained quad. He already seemed to face a difficult task of cracking the Opening Day roster, so this setback is not likely to help the cause. (New reliever Anthony Swarzak just left his relief appearance with an apparent calf injury, as Mike Puma of the New York Post was among those to tweet, though details are sparse at this time.)

Quick Hits: FA Starters, Mikolas, Cubs, MLBPA Camp, Ethier

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Yankees manager Aaron Boone suggested Sunday that they won’t sign either Lance Lynn or Alex Cobb, yet the team has “maintained contact with Lynn throughout the offseason,” Jon Morosi of MLB.com writes. The Yankees are monitoring the top available starters in general, according to Morosi, who hears that the Brewers, Phillies, Rangers, Orioles and Nationals are doing the same. The Angels, meanwhile, are open to signing the best free agent reliever, Greg Holland, if the price is right, per Morosi. The Halos’ bullpen has seemingly taken a step back since last year ended, having lost Yusmeiro Petit and Bud Norris to free agency and added only Jim Johnson. While Holland would help make up for those exits, he’s presumably not going to sign for cheap, and inking the qualifying offer recipient would cost the Angels their second-highest draft pick this year and $500K in international spending room.

More from around baseball:

  • The NL Central rival Cubs were among the suitors the Cardinals beat out over the winter for the services of right-hander Miles Mikolas, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Mikolas, a former Padre and Ranger, joined the Redbirds on a two-year, $15.5MM deal after a tremendous run in Japan from 2015-17. The fact that the Cardinals’ spring training base is in Jupiter, Fla., Mikolas’ hometown, helped them win the derby, according to Goold. The 29-year-old Mikolas is now all but guaranteed a spot in the Cards’ rotation, along with Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha Adam Wainwright and Luke Weaver. The Cubs, on the other hand, made out well anyway, ending up with Yu Darvish and Tyler Chatwood to replace the departed Jake Arrieta and John Lackey.
  • It seems we’re finally about to get a glimpse inside the secretive free agent camp in Bradenton, Fla., per Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston. The unsigned players at the camp will play a game against a Japanese minor league team on Tuesday, and the media may be allowed in, Drellich reports (Twitter link).
  • Free agent outfielder Andre Ethier told MLB Network Radio on Sunday that he’s not ready to call it a career at the age of 35. “You fight so hard to keep this uniform on,” Ethier said (via Twitter). “You don’t know when the last day is going to be. I really feel it, I believe it, I can still step in and have a productive major league at-bat.” Ethier hasn’t drawn any reported interest since the Dodgers declined his option in November, which came on the heels of a second straight injury-plagued season. The last time he was healthy, in 2015, Ethier slashed an excellent .294/.366/.486 over 445 plate appearances. He has collected just 64 PAs since then, though.
  • The right foot injury Mariners first baseman Dan Vogelbach suffered Friday isn’t serious, Greg Johns of MLB.com relays (Twitter link). An MRI revealed “a bad bruise” that will shelve Vogelbach for three to four days, which will temporarily leave Mike Ford as the only healthy first baseman on the M’s 40-man roster.

Aaron Boone: Lance Lynn, Alex Cobb “Aren’t Really In Play” For Yankees

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During their quest to acquire starting pitching in recent months, the Yankees have been connected to a litany of potential trade and free agent targets. The list includes right-handers Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb, who rank as two of the best free agents remaining in this year’s class. It doesn’t appear either will end up with the Yankees, though, if we’re to believe manager Aaron Boone.

“At this point I don’t see those guys as realistic options,” Boone said Sunday (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). “It’s my understanding that those guys aren’t really in play for us.”

With the Yankees poised to stay under the $197MM luxury tax threshold and having anywhere from $10MM to $15MM left to spend, Lynn or Cobb would likely be a tight fit for the club’s budget (MLBTR predicted $14MM per annum for Lynn and $12MM a year for Cobb at the outset of the offseason). Although things haven’t gone according to plan for either pitcher since the market opened, they still seem likely to reel in contracts worth somewhere in the $10MM to 15MM-per-year vicinity. Further, because Lynn and Cobb rejected qualifying offers at the start of the offseason, signing either would cost the Yankees two 2018 draft picks (their second- and fifth-highest selections) and $1MM in international bonus pool space.

Even if they’re truly not in the mix for Lynn or Cobb, the Yankees still have the financial wiggle room to make some sort of move(s) – particularly after addressing third base this week with the acquisition of the inexpensive Brandon Drury. However, general manager Brian Cashman may not feel any urgency to upgrade over the Yankees’ current starting five.

New York’s on track to begin the year with Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray, CC Sabathia and Jordan Montgomery, the same rotation that helped the club to 91 regular-season wins and a berth in the ALCS in 2017. There are some question marks with each – arguably more in terms of workload and/or durability than performance – but if the quintet doesn’t deliver as hoped during the season, the Yankees could bolster their rotation via trade. That’s exactly what they did last year when they picked up Gray from Oakland in July.

AL East Notes: Drury, JDM, Rasmus, Travis

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While Brandon Drury may be the favorite, at present, to open the season as the Yankees’ third baseman, GM Brian Cashman made clear in speaking with the New York Post’s George A. King III that there will still be a competition for that spot. “Nothing has been handed to anybody, so the competition will play its way out,” said Cashman. “…You have horses coming into races as favorites and I think the experience that Drury has along with his abilities should give him a leg up going into this process. But we will wait and see what it looks like and how it plays out.” Miguel Andujar will still be given a chance to win the job this spring, per the GM, who also notes that the team still views Andujar as a player who will have a major long-term role with the Yankees. Both Cashman and new skipper Aaron Boone suggested that they’ll focus on third base as Drury’s primary position for now. Drury spent most of the 2017 season playing second base in Arizona, but the hot corner is his natural position.

More from the division…

  • While J.D. Martinez is expected to be the Red Sox’ primary designated hitter, the team did tell him during negotiations that he’ll see some time in the outfield, per Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston. Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley and Mookie Betts will obviously still shoulder the bulk of that workload, but Drellich notes that first-year manager Alex Cora wants to keep that group as fresh as possible. Drellich also reports that the Red Sox were not initially willing to give Martinez an opt-out provision after both the second and third year of the contract. The year-two opt-out was a particularly crucial tipping point in negotiations, he adds, and seemingly one that may have pushed the deal across the finish line.
  • Colby Rasmus, who signed a minor league contract with the Orioles yesterday, candidly spoke to the Baltimore media about his decision to step away from baseball last season while on the disabled list with the Rays (links via MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko and the Baltimore Sun’s Eduardo A. Encina). Rasmus and his wife were expecting their third child at the time, and the outfielder ultimately prioritized spending time with his young family above all else last season. The 31-year-old Rasmus has suggested in the past that he may not play into his late- or even mid-30s, but he felt pulled back to baseball this offseason as he began working out. “I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel, so I got back to working out and mentally I feel good,” said Rasmus. ” I feel like I still have a little bit left to give to the game and show the game some respect and go out in a good way.”
  • Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis missed the final 100 games of the 2017 season following knee surgery, but he’s healthy and participating in a full slate of baseball drills thus far in Spring Training, writes Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. “You watch him move around, and if you didn’t know he’d had an injury, you wouldn’t think anything of it,” said manager John Gibbons. “Really, he looks that good.” Travis only just began running in January but has worked his way up to being able to go full speed, though he implies that he’s tempering the aggression of his workouts rather than pushing himself unnecessarily at this point. Injuries have limited Travis to 213 games over the first three seasons of his big league career.

Angels Acquire Jabari Blash

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The Angels announced today that they’ve acquired outfielder Jabari Blash from the Yankees in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. In a corresponding move, the Angels have placed right-hander Alex Meyer on the 60-day disabled list. Blash was designated for assignment yesterday when the Yankees acquired Brandon Drury. Meyer was never likely to pitch in 2018 after undergoing shoulder surgery last September.

Blash, 28, has long boasted impressive power in the minors but hasn’t put that together in the Majors. Blash logged a career-high 195 plate appearances with the Padres this past season, hitting .213/.333/.341 with five homers and six doubles but an alarming 66 strikeouts in that time (33.8 percent). While he’s limited to the outfield corners, Blash has strong on-base skills to go along with his considerable power, as evidenced by his career .258/.381/.571 batting line and 65 homers through 235 games at the Triple-A level.

The Halos already have Chris Young on hand as a fourth outfield option, and Blash isn’t an ideal fit for that role anyhow, given his lack of prowess in center field. He could stick as an additional source of pop off the bench, though Blash also has a pair of minor league options remaining, so it seems likelier that he’ll head to Triple-A Salt Lake to open the season.

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