Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports that the Pirates have agreed to acquire outfielder Edward Olivares from the Royals.
The Royals will receive minor league infielder Deivis Nadal in return. The Royals seemed to go out of their way to avoid giving Olivares a real shot at an everyday role in their lineup. Hopefully the move to Pittsburgh will be exactly what he needs to showcase his dynamic blend of power and speed. The 27-year-old outfielder is a career .261/.310/.426 hitter with 24 homers and 15 stolen bases in 771 plate appearances at the big league level. The move will free up a spot for Chris Stratton on the Royals’ 40-man roster.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/edward-olivares/48615
2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
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Re: 2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
RP: Wander Suero
AAA: 6-3, 3.26 ERA, 49 2/3 IP, 53 K, 23 BB, .178 BAA, 1.11 WHIP
Suero served as the closer for Triple-A Oklahoma City for most of ‘23, converting an organization-leading 17 saves and recording his best ERA since 2017. This past season was Suero’s 12th campaign in the Minors. He served as a swingman with the Major League club, receiving multiple callups throughout the season. The Dominican Republic native was signed by Houston on Dec. 7, and will likely fill the same role with his new club.
https://www.mlb.com/news/los-angeles-do ... e-coverage
AAA: 6-3, 3.26 ERA, 49 2/3 IP, 53 K, 23 BB, .178 BAA, 1.11 WHIP
Suero served as the closer for Triple-A Oklahoma City for most of ‘23, converting an organization-leading 17 saves and recording his best ERA since 2017. This past season was Suero’s 12th campaign in the Minors. He served as a swingman with the Major League club, receiving multiple callups throughout the season. The Dominican Republic native was signed by Houston on Dec. 7, and will likely fill the same role with his new club.
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Re: 2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
Fernando Tatis Jr. slid feet-first into second base and, as the throw from catcher Webster Rivas bounced into center field, popped up and ran to third.
Reclining in a seat several rows up from the visiting dugout at Estadio Francisco A. Micheli, Padres manager Mike Shildt waited a few seconds before making a rhetorical observation:
“Fun to watch, isn’t he?”
It is perhaps particularly so here and now.
Tatis is the biggest name in the Dominican Winter League (LIDOM) this year. Starling Marte is set to join Escogido soon. The next-biggest names on Tatis’ Estrellas Orientales team are Robinson Cano, Miguel Sano and Jurickson Profar. Ronald Acuña Jr. played in his native Venezuela this month.
“Because (of) the money,” Fernando Tatis Sr., manager of Estrellas Orientales and the Padres star’s father, opined one afternoon this week. “Money makes you lose the love for this game. If you make the kind of money he is making right now and you are playing in the Dominican, it’s because you love the game. He loves the game.”
The elder Tatis paused before continuing.
“It’s good for him,” he said, “because as a baseball player, you need to be on the field.”
That is the overriding theme of conversations this week with father and son centered around why Tatis is playing in the Dominican for the first time since becoming a major leaguer.
“It brings you back to your roots,” the younger Tatis said Monday before playing in his fifth game for his hometown team. “I feel like myself. Here is where I became a really good baseball player, like where I separated from just having good talent to putting it in play and having results. … Baseball players, if they want to get better, they just need to play baseball.”
This is where he first recalls seeing his father, an 11-year MLB veteran, play. It is where he works under the watch of his father, who remains his most trusted coach. It is where he feels he truly launched his professional career and where he is launching what he believes will be a return to truly being the player he can be.
That Tatis is playing baseball on winter nights, under lights that are not quite bright, in front of crowds that are not yet big, alongside players that are a mix of well before their prime or well past their prime, means his journey back has hit its stride.
“This is the platform to make him ready to play in the big leagues,” the elder Tatis said before a game in San Pedro de Macorís, where he and Junior both grew up and where Senior now manages Estrellas.
Fernando Tatis Jr. lamented being unable to be on the field or even swing a bat or work out while home last winter, as he ramped up for his comeback season after missing all of 2022 due to injury and suspension.
“It was different,” he said this week. “It was hard. I couldn’t work out at full capacity before I got to (spring training). This year, it was just my talent that took over and helped me survive the season.”
So what is next season?
After flashing the big Tatis smile, he said: “It’s talent plus work.”
Tatis got back to work in earnest after a month-and-a-half of catching up on sleep, swimming in water that is practically a fluorescent shade of blue and hiking in mountains thick with palms, plantains and Caoba trees. Tatis began playing later than he initially wanted to, after his father said he was ready — and after the Padres had approved his playing 20 games or so.
Various injuries were the primary reason Tatis had not played here since the 2018-19 LIDOM season, when he sparked Estrellas to their first Dominican championship in 51 years.
That was the winter before he made his big-league debut and in relatively short order became the face of baseball.
This is the winter, he asserts, when he gets back to being the player that got him on the video game cover and in international ad campaigns for major brands.
“I’m going to be way better,” Tatis said. “Way better. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but I’m just gonna tell you for sure I’m getting ready for a long season and I’m putting the work in.”
The Padres need the Tatis who was as powerful and explosive and exciting and dangerous as any player in the major leagues from 2019 through 2021 — when he wasn’t getting hurt and before he got suspended for a failed PED test.
As the organization’s baseball decision makers sat around A.J. Preller’s suite at the Opryland Hotel during the winter meetings earlier this month, pondering the unpleasant task of trading Juan Soto, they mulled the possibilities. They could keep Soto (and his projected $33 million salary) but would have to trade Jake Cronenworth and maybe Ha-Seong Kim and Robert Suarez, among others. But those internal debates inevitably returned to the firm belief that a lineup anchored by Tatis, Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado was a fine foundation from which to start.
For that to be so, Tatis has to be Tatis.
Last year, in essence, was something like practice. And survival. Because he was not the player the Padres need him to be going forward.
“It was a good baseball year overall,” Tatis said. “But I can’t lie to everybody. I cannot say I played winning baseball or good baseball. But what everybody knows I am capable of is just a whole different story.”
Tatis batted .257/.322/.449 in 2023. That was perhaps about all that could have rightfully been expected.
He had surgery in March 2022 fto repair a wrist fracture suffered in an offseason fall of a motorcycle here. His rehab from that surgery was ramping up in mid-August 2022 when, after playing four games for Double-A San Antonio, he was suspended 80 games.
In the wake of that shutdown, Tatis agreed to undergo surgery to repair a labrum tear in his right shoulder. And while recovering from that procedure, he underwent a second wrist surgery. Tatis didn’t start working out until last January. After participating in spring training, while learning a new position, he got 39 plate appearances in Triple-A and made his season debut in the season’s 21st game.
Tatis’ 25 home runs ranked third on the Padres, and his 33 doubles led the team. His .771 OPS, however, was 204 points lower than in 2021 and 194 points off his career mark coming into the season. His 5.5 WAR, according to Baseball-Reference.com, was tied with Soto for eighth in the National League. However, Tatis’ oWAR was a mere 2.8 — 4.5 below his 2021 mark. A chase rate of nearly 36 percent was the highest of his career.
After the season, Fernando Tatis Sr. recalled saying to his son: “It’s not a good year. It’s not a great year. It’s not a bad year. It’s OK. But the talent that you have and the things that you can do on the field, those numbers are not enough.”
Tatis appeared in 141 of the Padres’ 142 games after his suspension was up. But he batted .213/.289/.383 over his final 104 plate appearances and acknowledged in the season’s final week that he was exhausted. Tatis looked forward to resting — and then getting back to playing.
“It has always been for me about swinging the bat more,” he said in September. “That’s what I always do (and) wasn’t able to do (before the season).”
This week, he said of the winter league: “It keeps you in baseball shape. It helps you stay on the fastball and helps you to work on whatever you didn’t have time during the season because you were already in the season. Now you put in the work.”
He is here with his favorite teacher.
“He’s been working to separate,” Fernando Tatis Sr. said. “He’s doing a little thing on the plate to get his hands in the perfect position to hit, slow his body down. Quick hands, slow his feet down a little bit more and stay focused to hit the ball in only one place, not in different places. We’re working on that. And it’s been going well.”
Monday, in his fifth game for Estrellas, Tatis ripped a three-run homer that tied the game in the top of the third inning. Estrellas beat Toros del Este that night, and beat Aguilas Cibaenas the next night to clinch a spot in the 18-game round robin tournament that begins Wednesday and goes to mid-January. The top two teams in that tournament will then play a best-of-nine championship series.
Tatis said he plans to play for Estrellas “as far as we go.” The Padres likely would not be on board with Tatis playing in the Caribbean Series should Estrellas advance to the tournament that runs through Feb. 9, about a week before the Padres’ first official full-squad workout.
Through Thursday, with one game remaining in the regular season, Tatis has walked seven times and is batting .304 (7-for-23) with a home run, a triple, a double and three stolen bases in seven games. He also walked seven times in his first five games.
“Just working on details that I feel like during the season was missing on the hitting part,” he said. “During the season, you’re a little afraid to try stuff. You’re already in the season and you just need results at the time. But now we can come and concentrate on what we thought we could have done better and just be a little bit more disciplined with it.”
Shildt was in the Dominican Republic primarily to see Tatis, watching two games and having dinner at Tatis’ home.
“Everything he went through — under the public microscope — to do as well as he did,” said Shildt, who also visited with new pitchers Jhony Brito and Randy Vásquez while here.
“We have a tendency to live in the past, harp on the past, and we don’t stop and look up and go, ‘Wait a minute, this guy played every day after missing 17 months, (having) three surgeries and performed at a high level … and actually leaned into some of the criticisms and the crowd and some of the things that are really, really hard to face.’ He faced them like an absolute man and a pro. He handled it at a high level, regardless of age. He hasn’t gotten enough credit for it. I’m excited about this year, and I know he is too. It’s gonna be a fun year for him.”
On Monday, Tatis played center field for the first time since joining Estrellas. But a position switch for the National League’s Platinum Glove winner in his first season in right field does not seem to be a real possibility for 2024.
“I’m a right fielder,” he said. “We have talked about it. A.J. gave me permission to play a little bit (of) center, a little bit (of) right. Let’s see how I’m focused later. But right now I’m a right fielder. And I’ve talked to A.J. also about the dimensions of our field, and I feel for me it’s a little bit more important to have a right fielder than a center fielder for Petco Park.”
He is not playing shortstop here, which his father and Estrellas management had proffered as a possibility last month. Tatis speaks only of the outfield for now, though he has in the past said a return to the infield someday is possible.
The elder Fernando Tatis was impressed by his son’s move to the outfield.
“I like it,” he said. “He’s doing great in the outfield. That takes me by surprise. The way he plays in the outfield, that’s unbelievable.”
Still, Tatis’ father leaves no question as to how he feels.
“When you have a shortstop that can cover that kind of ground and up … Junior is an exciting player,” Fernando Tatis Sr. said. “There are two players that keep me awake at nighttime to watch games — Junior and (Reds shortstop) Elly de la Cruz. Elly De La Cruz is gonna be a player that always does something in the game. That is not normal.”
There is time, even if the time is now.
Junior turns 25 on Jan. 2.
“He is still learning,” Fernando Tatis Sr. said. “He is still learning how to hit, how to make situations on the field. He is still learning how to make damage. He is still learning how to go the other way, how to stay inside the ball. Still learning how to play shortstop. He’s still learning. He’s only going to be 25. Can you imagine where he’s gonna be when he’s 28,29,30? If God gives him health, we’re going to have a lot of fun watching him play every day.
“And I told him, your goal this year is you need to have at least 500 at-bats. I don’t care how we’re going to do it, but you have to stay healthy. You have to play smart. You’ve got to be able to help your teammates every single game. No matter what happens, you’ve got to be there for your teammates. You’ve got to work for them. You’ve got to support them. You are the head. You’ve got to push.”
That push has started here.
“I don’t say I have anything to prove,” Tatis said. “But everybody just knows now what I’m capable of. It’s just a matter of I can get back to that level and perform as, you know, everybody is expecting and I am expecting of myself also. …
“The game reminds me every single day. It gives me small glimmers of who I am and what I’m capable of. And it’s just asking me for that little extra work.”
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sp ... n-republic
Reclining in a seat several rows up from the visiting dugout at Estadio Francisco A. Micheli, Padres manager Mike Shildt waited a few seconds before making a rhetorical observation:
“Fun to watch, isn’t he?”
It is perhaps particularly so here and now.
Tatis is the biggest name in the Dominican Winter League (LIDOM) this year. Starling Marte is set to join Escogido soon. The next-biggest names on Tatis’ Estrellas Orientales team are Robinson Cano, Miguel Sano and Jurickson Profar. Ronald Acuña Jr. played in his native Venezuela this month.
“Because (of) the money,” Fernando Tatis Sr., manager of Estrellas Orientales and the Padres star’s father, opined one afternoon this week. “Money makes you lose the love for this game. If you make the kind of money he is making right now and you are playing in the Dominican, it’s because you love the game. He loves the game.”
The elder Tatis paused before continuing.
“It’s good for him,” he said, “because as a baseball player, you need to be on the field.”
That is the overriding theme of conversations this week with father and son centered around why Tatis is playing in the Dominican for the first time since becoming a major leaguer.
“It brings you back to your roots,” the younger Tatis said Monday before playing in his fifth game for his hometown team. “I feel like myself. Here is where I became a really good baseball player, like where I separated from just having good talent to putting it in play and having results. … Baseball players, if they want to get better, they just need to play baseball.”
This is where he first recalls seeing his father, an 11-year MLB veteran, play. It is where he works under the watch of his father, who remains his most trusted coach. It is where he feels he truly launched his professional career and where he is launching what he believes will be a return to truly being the player he can be.
That Tatis is playing baseball on winter nights, under lights that are not quite bright, in front of crowds that are not yet big, alongside players that are a mix of well before their prime or well past their prime, means his journey back has hit its stride.
“This is the platform to make him ready to play in the big leagues,” the elder Tatis said before a game in San Pedro de Macorís, where he and Junior both grew up and where Senior now manages Estrellas.
Fernando Tatis Jr. lamented being unable to be on the field or even swing a bat or work out while home last winter, as he ramped up for his comeback season after missing all of 2022 due to injury and suspension.
“It was different,” he said this week. “It was hard. I couldn’t work out at full capacity before I got to (spring training). This year, it was just my talent that took over and helped me survive the season.”
So what is next season?
After flashing the big Tatis smile, he said: “It’s talent plus work.”
Tatis got back to work in earnest after a month-and-a-half of catching up on sleep, swimming in water that is practically a fluorescent shade of blue and hiking in mountains thick with palms, plantains and Caoba trees. Tatis began playing later than he initially wanted to, after his father said he was ready — and after the Padres had approved his playing 20 games or so.
Various injuries were the primary reason Tatis had not played here since the 2018-19 LIDOM season, when he sparked Estrellas to their first Dominican championship in 51 years.
That was the winter before he made his big-league debut and in relatively short order became the face of baseball.
This is the winter, he asserts, when he gets back to being the player that got him on the video game cover and in international ad campaigns for major brands.
“I’m going to be way better,” Tatis said. “Way better. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but I’m just gonna tell you for sure I’m getting ready for a long season and I’m putting the work in.”
The Padres need the Tatis who was as powerful and explosive and exciting and dangerous as any player in the major leagues from 2019 through 2021 — when he wasn’t getting hurt and before he got suspended for a failed PED test.
As the organization’s baseball decision makers sat around A.J. Preller’s suite at the Opryland Hotel during the winter meetings earlier this month, pondering the unpleasant task of trading Juan Soto, they mulled the possibilities. They could keep Soto (and his projected $33 million salary) but would have to trade Jake Cronenworth and maybe Ha-Seong Kim and Robert Suarez, among others. But those internal debates inevitably returned to the firm belief that a lineup anchored by Tatis, Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado was a fine foundation from which to start.
For that to be so, Tatis has to be Tatis.
Last year, in essence, was something like practice. And survival. Because he was not the player the Padres need him to be going forward.
“It was a good baseball year overall,” Tatis said. “But I can’t lie to everybody. I cannot say I played winning baseball or good baseball. But what everybody knows I am capable of is just a whole different story.”
Tatis batted .257/.322/.449 in 2023. That was perhaps about all that could have rightfully been expected.
He had surgery in March 2022 fto repair a wrist fracture suffered in an offseason fall of a motorcycle here. His rehab from that surgery was ramping up in mid-August 2022 when, after playing four games for Double-A San Antonio, he was suspended 80 games.
In the wake of that shutdown, Tatis agreed to undergo surgery to repair a labrum tear in his right shoulder. And while recovering from that procedure, he underwent a second wrist surgery. Tatis didn’t start working out until last January. After participating in spring training, while learning a new position, he got 39 plate appearances in Triple-A and made his season debut in the season’s 21st game.
Tatis’ 25 home runs ranked third on the Padres, and his 33 doubles led the team. His .771 OPS, however, was 204 points lower than in 2021 and 194 points off his career mark coming into the season. His 5.5 WAR, according to Baseball-Reference.com, was tied with Soto for eighth in the National League. However, Tatis’ oWAR was a mere 2.8 — 4.5 below his 2021 mark. A chase rate of nearly 36 percent was the highest of his career.
After the season, Fernando Tatis Sr. recalled saying to his son: “It’s not a good year. It’s not a great year. It’s not a bad year. It’s OK. But the talent that you have and the things that you can do on the field, those numbers are not enough.”
Tatis appeared in 141 of the Padres’ 142 games after his suspension was up. But he batted .213/.289/.383 over his final 104 plate appearances and acknowledged in the season’s final week that he was exhausted. Tatis looked forward to resting — and then getting back to playing.
“It has always been for me about swinging the bat more,” he said in September. “That’s what I always do (and) wasn’t able to do (before the season).”
This week, he said of the winter league: “It keeps you in baseball shape. It helps you stay on the fastball and helps you to work on whatever you didn’t have time during the season because you were already in the season. Now you put in the work.”
He is here with his favorite teacher.
“He’s been working to separate,” Fernando Tatis Sr. said. “He’s doing a little thing on the plate to get his hands in the perfect position to hit, slow his body down. Quick hands, slow his feet down a little bit more and stay focused to hit the ball in only one place, not in different places. We’re working on that. And it’s been going well.”
Monday, in his fifth game for Estrellas, Tatis ripped a three-run homer that tied the game in the top of the third inning. Estrellas beat Toros del Este that night, and beat Aguilas Cibaenas the next night to clinch a spot in the 18-game round robin tournament that begins Wednesday and goes to mid-January. The top two teams in that tournament will then play a best-of-nine championship series.
Tatis said he plans to play for Estrellas “as far as we go.” The Padres likely would not be on board with Tatis playing in the Caribbean Series should Estrellas advance to the tournament that runs through Feb. 9, about a week before the Padres’ first official full-squad workout.
Through Thursday, with one game remaining in the regular season, Tatis has walked seven times and is batting .304 (7-for-23) with a home run, a triple, a double and three stolen bases in seven games. He also walked seven times in his first five games.
“Just working on details that I feel like during the season was missing on the hitting part,” he said. “During the season, you’re a little afraid to try stuff. You’re already in the season and you just need results at the time. But now we can come and concentrate on what we thought we could have done better and just be a little bit more disciplined with it.”
Shildt was in the Dominican Republic primarily to see Tatis, watching two games and having dinner at Tatis’ home.
“Everything he went through — under the public microscope — to do as well as he did,” said Shildt, who also visited with new pitchers Jhony Brito and Randy Vásquez while here.
“We have a tendency to live in the past, harp on the past, and we don’t stop and look up and go, ‘Wait a minute, this guy played every day after missing 17 months, (having) three surgeries and performed at a high level … and actually leaned into some of the criticisms and the crowd and some of the things that are really, really hard to face.’ He faced them like an absolute man and a pro. He handled it at a high level, regardless of age. He hasn’t gotten enough credit for it. I’m excited about this year, and I know he is too. It’s gonna be a fun year for him.”
On Monday, Tatis played center field for the first time since joining Estrellas. But a position switch for the National League’s Platinum Glove winner in his first season in right field does not seem to be a real possibility for 2024.
“I’m a right fielder,” he said. “We have talked about it. A.J. gave me permission to play a little bit (of) center, a little bit (of) right. Let’s see how I’m focused later. But right now I’m a right fielder. And I’ve talked to A.J. also about the dimensions of our field, and I feel for me it’s a little bit more important to have a right fielder than a center fielder for Petco Park.”
He is not playing shortstop here, which his father and Estrellas management had proffered as a possibility last month. Tatis speaks only of the outfield for now, though he has in the past said a return to the infield someday is possible.
The elder Fernando Tatis was impressed by his son’s move to the outfield.
“I like it,” he said. “He’s doing great in the outfield. That takes me by surprise. The way he plays in the outfield, that’s unbelievable.”
Still, Tatis’ father leaves no question as to how he feels.
“When you have a shortstop that can cover that kind of ground and up … Junior is an exciting player,” Fernando Tatis Sr. said. “There are two players that keep me awake at nighttime to watch games — Junior and (Reds shortstop) Elly de la Cruz. Elly De La Cruz is gonna be a player that always does something in the game. That is not normal.”
There is time, even if the time is now.
Junior turns 25 on Jan. 2.
“He is still learning,” Fernando Tatis Sr. said. “He is still learning how to hit, how to make situations on the field. He is still learning how to make damage. He is still learning how to go the other way, how to stay inside the ball. Still learning how to play shortstop. He’s still learning. He’s only going to be 25. Can you imagine where he’s gonna be when he’s 28,29,30? If God gives him health, we’re going to have a lot of fun watching him play every day.
“And I told him, your goal this year is you need to have at least 500 at-bats. I don’t care how we’re going to do it, but you have to stay healthy. You have to play smart. You’ve got to be able to help your teammates every single game. No matter what happens, you’ve got to be there for your teammates. You’ve got to work for them. You’ve got to support them. You are the head. You’ve got to push.”
That push has started here.
“I don’t say I have anything to prove,” Tatis said. “But everybody just knows now what I’m capable of. It’s just a matter of I can get back to that level and perform as, you know, everybody is expecting and I am expecting of myself also. …
“The game reminds me every single day. It gives me small glimmers of who I am and what I’m capable of. And it’s just asking me for that little extra work.”
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sp ... n-republic
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Re: 2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
Kevin Kiermaier wants to hit for more power.
One thing to watch for? Kiermaier wants to hit for more power, flipping the script after he joked one year ago that his goal was to hit zero home runs and be the best No. 9 hitter in baseball. He believes — and you can see the belief is earnest — that he has another level to unlock.
“I’m as motivated as I’ve ever been right now,” Kiermaier said, leaning in to the camera. “I can never sit still. I’ve got this fire in me.”
https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/mining-the-news-1-10-24/
One thing to watch for? Kiermaier wants to hit for more power, flipping the script after he joked one year ago that his goal was to hit zero home runs and be the best No. 9 hitter in baseball. He believes — and you can see the belief is earnest — that he has another level to unlock.
“I’m as motivated as I’ve ever been right now,” Kiermaier said, leaning in to the camera. “I can never sit still. I’ve got this fire in me.”
https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/mining-the-news-1-10-24/
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Re: 2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
Good news, if it happens!
Alex Cobb (hip) is aiming to start a flat-ground throwing program in the next few days.
The 36-year-old veteran righty remains without a definitive return timetable, but he told the San Francisco Chronicle this week that he will return sooner than anticipated. San Francisco picked up Cobb’s $10 million club option for 2024 as he continues to recovery from last October’s surgery to repair a torn labrum and also remove several bone chips from his left hip. He was excellent in the first half of last season before lingering physical issues torpedoed his numbers down the home stretch. If he’s healthy, he’s a strong back-end rotation stabilizer for fantasy managers and is worthy of a late-round pick this spring in drafts.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/alex-cobb/49238
Alex Cobb (hip) is aiming to start a flat-ground throwing program in the next few days.
The 36-year-old veteran righty remains without a definitive return timetable, but he told the San Francisco Chronicle this week that he will return sooner than anticipated. San Francisco picked up Cobb’s $10 million club option for 2024 as he continues to recovery from last October’s surgery to repair a torn labrum and also remove several bone chips from his left hip. He was excellent in the first half of last season before lingering physical issues torpedoed his numbers down the home stretch. If he’s healthy, he’s a strong back-end rotation stabilizer for fantasy managers and is worthy of a late-round pick this spring in drafts.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/alex-cobb/49238
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Re: 2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
Charlie Morton (finger) is fully healthy entering spring training.
Morton is expected to be a full-go at the outset of spring training after missing last postseason due to right index finger inflammation. The 40-year-old righty remains as reliable as ever from a workload standpoint, having eclipsed 30 starts in each of the last five full seasons since 2018. He’s a late-round rotation stabilizer for fantasy managers entering 2024.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/charlie-morton/48665
Morton is expected to be a full-go at the outset of spring training after missing last postseason due to right index finger inflammation. The 40-year-old righty remains as reliable as ever from a workload standpoint, having eclipsed 30 starts in each of the last five full seasons since 2018. He’s a late-round rotation stabilizer for fantasy managers entering 2024.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/charlie-morton/48665
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Re: 2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
Braxton Garrett is trying to add a changeup … again.
LHP Braxton Garrett
New(ish) pitch: Changeup
Quote: “[My offseason work has been to] keep my same delivery and just sharpen everything, really. … Keep the slider sharp, maybe make a few adjustments with it. And especially the changeup, that’s the pitch I feel like I tell you guys every year I’m working on.”
Adam Ottavino is changing his “cutter-slider pitch”.
Ottavino is always someone who tinkers with his pitches, and this offseason seemed to be no different.
“I’ve been working on my pitches in a number of ways,” Ottavino said. “I do think if I can get a little bit of my velocity back, that will make the rest of my arsenal play up the way I really want it to. So that’s kind of the main indicator. I’m just looking to trend in a little better direction, velocity-wise, when I get there.
“But I have been altering a little bit with my cutter-slider pitch — looking to make it more of a chase pitch, something that I can get swing-and-miss below the zone — and I’m looking to get down to Florida and kind of see the trial-and-error process with actual hitters.”
https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/mining-the-news-2-12-24/
LHP Braxton Garrett
New(ish) pitch: Changeup
Quote: “[My offseason work has been to] keep my same delivery and just sharpen everything, really. … Keep the slider sharp, maybe make a few adjustments with it. And especially the changeup, that’s the pitch I feel like I tell you guys every year I’m working on.”
Adam Ottavino is changing his “cutter-slider pitch”.
Ottavino is always someone who tinkers with his pitches, and this offseason seemed to be no different.
“I’ve been working on my pitches in a number of ways,” Ottavino said. “I do think if I can get a little bit of my velocity back, that will make the rest of my arsenal play up the way I really want it to. So that’s kind of the main indicator. I’m just looking to trend in a little better direction, velocity-wise, when I get there.
“But I have been altering a little bit with my cutter-slider pitch — looking to make it more of a chase pitch, something that I can get swing-and-miss below the zone — and I’m looking to get down to Florida and kind of see the trial-and-error process with actual hitters.”
https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/mining-the-news-2-12-24/
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Padres
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Re: 2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
The aches and pains of fronting an elder rotation ...
Justin Verlander admitted that he had a “hiccup” in the offseason and is “a couple weeks behind” his normal offseason schedule.
The 40-year-old said that he usually stops throwing for a while after the season and when he first picked up the ball and started throwing again his “shoulder didn’t feel so great” so he had to be more diligent about his build up. While he doesn’t appear concerned and stated that he simply is learning to adjust his preparation as he gets older, it’s certainly a situation to monitor given his age and previous injuries. He said it was “too far down the line” to tell if he could miss Opening Day, but we should be on mild alert.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/justin-verlander/48244
Alex Cobb (hip) is at Giants spring training but has not been cleared to throw off a mound yet.
Cobb is coming off offseason hip surgery which removed several bone chips. He claims that his hip feels great, but doctors have not yet cleared him to throw off a mound. He hopes that will come soon and that he can progress to facing live hitters by the end of camp. He will, obviously, not be ready for the start of the season, but if he progresses as he hopes, he should start a rehab assignment not long after training camp ends, which would mean he could return to the Giants before June, if all goes well.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/alex-cobb/49238
Justin Verlander admitted that he had a “hiccup” in the offseason and is “a couple weeks behind” his normal offseason schedule.
The 40-year-old said that he usually stops throwing for a while after the season and when he first picked up the ball and started throwing again his “shoulder didn’t feel so great” so he had to be more diligent about his build up. While he doesn’t appear concerned and stated that he simply is learning to adjust his preparation as he gets older, it’s certainly a situation to monitor given his age and previous injuries. He said it was “too far down the line” to tell if he could miss Opening Day, but we should be on mild alert.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/justin-verlander/48244
Alex Cobb (hip) is at Giants spring training but has not been cleared to throw off a mound yet.
Cobb is coming off offseason hip surgery which removed several bone chips. He claims that his hip feels great, but doctors have not yet cleared him to throw off a mound. He hopes that will come soon and that he can progress to facing live hitters by the end of camp. He will, obviously, not be ready for the start of the season, but if he progresses as he hopes, he should start a rehab assignment not long after training camp ends, which would mean he could return to the Giants before June, if all goes well.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/alex-cobb/49238
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Padres
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- Posts: 4397
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- Location: Wells, Maine
- Name: Jim Berger
Re: 2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
It’s not that J.T. Realmuto was skeptical last November before he stepped into the lab housed at the Carpenter Complex. He just was not sure how much it could help him. He lives on the beach in the offseason, about 20 minutes from the Phillies’ campus, and Realmuto knew this much: He had to close a hole in his swing that pitchers exploited.
So, he started hitting earlier than ever. “It shows how unhappy he was with how things went,” Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long said. Realmuto struck out last season at a higher rate than ever before. He posted his lowest OPS since his rookie year.
He asked the team if he could try its biomechanics lab, which is loaded with high-speed cameras and force plates. The Phillies weren’t going to foist it upon Realmuto. But they were hoping he would consider it.
“With technology,” Realmuto said, “there’s no excuse to not get better.”
This flaw in Realmuto’s swing was no secret last season. It appeared on scouting reports. The Phillies attempted fixes with Realmuto, but they never stuck. At one point last summer, Long told Realmuto to stop looking for the inside pitch, period.
Realmuto couldn’t do that.
“They were pitching me in a lot because I would swing at the ball this far off the plate in,” said Realmuto, as he held his hands more than 6 inches apart. “A lot of it had to do with my setup and being really open. Like, I saw the ball in well. But I couldn’t decipher where the strike zone was because I was starting so open. And by the time I was getting my swing off, my front hip would open up a little bit. So I would be flying open, which caused me to chase more.”
An in-season adjustment is easy to discuss but difficult to implement. For years, Long has wanted Realmuto to quiet his leg kick, which became higher and higher in 2023 as the veteran catcher searched at the plate.
Then, when Realmuto stepped into the lab and saw data that reinforced how his body was working against him, he was curious. Long pulled video from when Realmuto was at his best — different parts of different seasons — and it led to an enlightening discovery.
“My leg lift wasn’t always the same,” Realmuto said, “but my hands were getting to their launching position earlier than I was most of the time last year. So if I could get my hands to where I need to launch, I’d be in a lot better position.
“The higher leg kick was a byproduct of me having to get my hands in a better spot.”
Realmuto is in a race against time, one that he acknowledges but also resists. Catchers are not supposed to age well. When a 32-year-old catcher has one of his worst seasons at the plate, the conclusions are natural. Maybe they are justified.
Realmuto, who turns 33 in March and is signed through 2025, is convinced he uncovered something. So, he’ll look different in the batter’s box in 2024.
“I don’t want to regress with age,” Realmuto said. “I don’t want to be one of the catchers who they’re like, ‘Oh, you know, at 34 or 35, he really fell off. You saw a drastic dip.’ I don’t want to be that guy. I want to be able to play at a very high level as long as I possibly can. So I think this is something that’ll help us.”
Realmuto hit at the lab three times a week in November. He worked with Rob Segedin, a former big-league utilityman who now has one of the fanciest titles in the Phillies organization: director of integrative baseball performance and strategic initiatives. Segedin oversees the burgeoning biomechanics program. The Phillies believe it’s an important development tool; they are among MLB teams leading in this realm.
No one was looking to overhaul Realmuto. He is a golfer — probably the best one in the Phillies’ clubhouse — and he played in the Farmers Insurance Open pro-am at Torrey Pines over the winter. Biomechanic analyses have become the standard in that sport. If he was going to try something, November was the perfect time.
Realmuto took hacks using his old swing for a baseline. He worked with Segedin on more efficient movements. Then, he went to Oklahoma for the holidays. Long provided Rafael Pena, the club’s new assistant hitting coach who happens to live in Oklahoma City during the offseason, with some drills to do with Realmuto. The Phillies and Realmuto had reached a consensus; it just took a winding path to reach it.
“It was outstanding,” Long said. “And I love how it filtered through me and trickled its way through our system.”
In January, when Realmuto returned to the lab, the Phillies took updated measurements of his swing.
“We just put them side by side, looked at the different metrics and how much force I’m driving into the ground,” Realmuto said. “The numbers just kind of spoke for themselves. There’s a way to be more efficient. After a month, it started to feel more and more natural. Now it feels good.”
Realmuto wanted to be clear: This is not a dramatic reinvention.
“My hands are going to fire the same spot they’ve always fired,” he said. “But now they’re just going to get there easier. So my swing isn’t necessarily changing. My setup is going to allow me to get to my swing more often and easier.
“What it’s going to do is allow me to be on time and make better decisions. When I’m struggling, that’s why I’m fighting — being on time. And then when I’m not on time, I make bad swing decisions. That’s what we’re trying to combat.”
J.T. Realmuto posted a career-high strikeout rate (25.6 percent) last season. (Eric Hartline / USA Today)
Until he proves otherwise, pitchers will probably continue to attack him inside.
... As far as Realmuto is concerned, this is not a physical issue. He’s started 130 games at catcher in each of the past two seasons and that is the number he’s targeted again for 2024. There won’t be a debate about this. “He’s in great shape,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “It’s tough to take him out of the lineup.” If Realmuto’s swing adjustments don’t lead to better results, maybe the Phillies reassess. Realmuto seemed to benefit in 2023 whenever he had occasional rest. The Phillies are not convinced that is correlated.
The issues at the plate, in Realmuto’s mind, were born from bad habits that are correctable. His average exit velocity and line-drive rates were all in line with his career norms. He just missed too many pitches.
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“If you’re not able to make adjustments, you’re going to get left in the dust, especially as you get older,” Realmuto said. “Your body changes. Your reaction time changes. So you have to make those adjustments and almost relearn yourself every year of how you’re feeling, how you’re competing, what’s working, what’s not. This game is hard enough. If you’re stubborn in this game, it just gets even harder.”
That extends to the defensive side; Realmuto did not grade well in framing metrics last season. It’s a point of emphasis this spring. Third-base coach Dusty Wathan, who oversees the catchers, is working with Realmuto to be a little more aggressive when receiving certain pitches. It’s harder to frame a pitching staff that throws hard and does not always have good command. But there are specifics Realmuto can refine.
“I mean, if a guy is 28 years old and has a down year, people don’t say he’s aging,” Wathan said. “If a guy is 32 and he has a down year, people say he’s aging. So, why don’t we talk next spring?”
Wathan wasn’t being flippant; there is just confidence in Realmuto that is not reserved for most soon-to-be-33-year-old catchers. “He’s too good of an athlete still,” Long said. “I mean, he’s still running well. His body doesn’t look slow. It looks explosive. His mechanics needed to be. …” Long paused.
“Here’s the way I explain it to him,” Long said. “You’re using all these movements and guess what? You’re still really damn good. Like, one of the best (catchers) in our era that’s been out there hitting-wise. But you’re making it hard — with a very athletic person. So why can’t we make it a little bit easier?”
The message finally stuck. The test is maintaining conviction in the changes throughout the spring. “There will still be some growing pains,” Long said. Realmuto, in the past, hasn’t always had patience with change.
“It feels good right now,” Realmuto said. “Obviously, we’ll see how it feels once I get in a game and you actually have to make decisions.”
Long chides Realmuto about his bullheadedness. “We’re going to ditch it all,” Long said after a few down days earlier this month. Realmuto laughed. In the past, maybe. There is still work to be done.
“We joke about it,” Long said. “But, deep down inside, I think he knows that this is really going to help him.”
https://theathletic.com/5287706/2024/02 ... ed-article
So, he started hitting earlier than ever. “It shows how unhappy he was with how things went,” Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long said. Realmuto struck out last season at a higher rate than ever before. He posted his lowest OPS since his rookie year.
He asked the team if he could try its biomechanics lab, which is loaded with high-speed cameras and force plates. The Phillies weren’t going to foist it upon Realmuto. But they were hoping he would consider it.
“With technology,” Realmuto said, “there’s no excuse to not get better.”
This flaw in Realmuto’s swing was no secret last season. It appeared on scouting reports. The Phillies attempted fixes with Realmuto, but they never stuck. At one point last summer, Long told Realmuto to stop looking for the inside pitch, period.
Realmuto couldn’t do that.
“They were pitching me in a lot because I would swing at the ball this far off the plate in,” said Realmuto, as he held his hands more than 6 inches apart. “A lot of it had to do with my setup and being really open. Like, I saw the ball in well. But I couldn’t decipher where the strike zone was because I was starting so open. And by the time I was getting my swing off, my front hip would open up a little bit. So I would be flying open, which caused me to chase more.”
An in-season adjustment is easy to discuss but difficult to implement. For years, Long has wanted Realmuto to quiet his leg kick, which became higher and higher in 2023 as the veteran catcher searched at the plate.
Then, when Realmuto stepped into the lab and saw data that reinforced how his body was working against him, he was curious. Long pulled video from when Realmuto was at his best — different parts of different seasons — and it led to an enlightening discovery.
“My leg lift wasn’t always the same,” Realmuto said, “but my hands were getting to their launching position earlier than I was most of the time last year. So if I could get my hands to where I need to launch, I’d be in a lot better position.
“The higher leg kick was a byproduct of me having to get my hands in a better spot.”
Realmuto is in a race against time, one that he acknowledges but also resists. Catchers are not supposed to age well. When a 32-year-old catcher has one of his worst seasons at the plate, the conclusions are natural. Maybe they are justified.
Realmuto, who turns 33 in March and is signed through 2025, is convinced he uncovered something. So, he’ll look different in the batter’s box in 2024.
“I don’t want to regress with age,” Realmuto said. “I don’t want to be one of the catchers who they’re like, ‘Oh, you know, at 34 or 35, he really fell off. You saw a drastic dip.’ I don’t want to be that guy. I want to be able to play at a very high level as long as I possibly can. So I think this is something that’ll help us.”
Realmuto hit at the lab three times a week in November. He worked with Rob Segedin, a former big-league utilityman who now has one of the fanciest titles in the Phillies organization: director of integrative baseball performance and strategic initiatives. Segedin oversees the burgeoning biomechanics program. The Phillies believe it’s an important development tool; they are among MLB teams leading in this realm.
No one was looking to overhaul Realmuto. He is a golfer — probably the best one in the Phillies’ clubhouse — and he played in the Farmers Insurance Open pro-am at Torrey Pines over the winter. Biomechanic analyses have become the standard in that sport. If he was going to try something, November was the perfect time.
Realmuto took hacks using his old swing for a baseline. He worked with Segedin on more efficient movements. Then, he went to Oklahoma for the holidays. Long provided Rafael Pena, the club’s new assistant hitting coach who happens to live in Oklahoma City during the offseason, with some drills to do with Realmuto. The Phillies and Realmuto had reached a consensus; it just took a winding path to reach it.
“It was outstanding,” Long said. “And I love how it filtered through me and trickled its way through our system.”
In January, when Realmuto returned to the lab, the Phillies took updated measurements of his swing.
“We just put them side by side, looked at the different metrics and how much force I’m driving into the ground,” Realmuto said. “The numbers just kind of spoke for themselves. There’s a way to be more efficient. After a month, it started to feel more and more natural. Now it feels good.”
Realmuto wanted to be clear: This is not a dramatic reinvention.
“My hands are going to fire the same spot they’ve always fired,” he said. “But now they’re just going to get there easier. So my swing isn’t necessarily changing. My setup is going to allow me to get to my swing more often and easier.
“What it’s going to do is allow me to be on time and make better decisions. When I’m struggling, that’s why I’m fighting — being on time. And then when I’m not on time, I make bad swing decisions. That’s what we’re trying to combat.”
J.T. Realmuto posted a career-high strikeout rate (25.6 percent) last season. (Eric Hartline / USA Today)
Until he proves otherwise, pitchers will probably continue to attack him inside.
... As far as Realmuto is concerned, this is not a physical issue. He’s started 130 games at catcher in each of the past two seasons and that is the number he’s targeted again for 2024. There won’t be a debate about this. “He’s in great shape,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “It’s tough to take him out of the lineup.” If Realmuto’s swing adjustments don’t lead to better results, maybe the Phillies reassess. Realmuto seemed to benefit in 2023 whenever he had occasional rest. The Phillies are not convinced that is correlated.
The issues at the plate, in Realmuto’s mind, were born from bad habits that are correctable. His average exit velocity and line-drive rates were all in line with his career norms. He just missed too many pitches.
Advertisement
“If you’re not able to make adjustments, you’re going to get left in the dust, especially as you get older,” Realmuto said. “Your body changes. Your reaction time changes. So you have to make those adjustments and almost relearn yourself every year of how you’re feeling, how you’re competing, what’s working, what’s not. This game is hard enough. If you’re stubborn in this game, it just gets even harder.”
That extends to the defensive side; Realmuto did not grade well in framing metrics last season. It’s a point of emphasis this spring. Third-base coach Dusty Wathan, who oversees the catchers, is working with Realmuto to be a little more aggressive when receiving certain pitches. It’s harder to frame a pitching staff that throws hard and does not always have good command. But there are specifics Realmuto can refine.
“I mean, if a guy is 28 years old and has a down year, people don’t say he’s aging,” Wathan said. “If a guy is 32 and he has a down year, people say he’s aging. So, why don’t we talk next spring?”
Wathan wasn’t being flippant; there is just confidence in Realmuto that is not reserved for most soon-to-be-33-year-old catchers. “He’s too good of an athlete still,” Long said. “I mean, he’s still running well. His body doesn’t look slow. It looks explosive. His mechanics needed to be. …” Long paused.
“Here’s the way I explain it to him,” Long said. “You’re using all these movements and guess what? You’re still really damn good. Like, one of the best (catchers) in our era that’s been out there hitting-wise. But you’re making it hard — with a very athletic person. So why can’t we make it a little bit easier?”
The message finally stuck. The test is maintaining conviction in the changes throughout the spring. “There will still be some growing pains,” Long said. Realmuto, in the past, hasn’t always had patience with change.
“It feels good right now,” Realmuto said. “Obviously, we’ll see how it feels once I get in a game and you actually have to make decisions.”
Long chides Realmuto about his bullheadedness. “We’re going to ditch it all,” Long said after a few down days earlier this month. Realmuto laughed. In the past, maybe. There is still work to be done.
“We joke about it,” Long said. “But, deep down inside, I think he knows that this is really going to help him.”
https://theathletic.com/5287706/2024/02 ... ed-article
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Padres
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Re: 2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
Tyler Matzek isn’t completely back to being himself yet. But he’s back, and that’s all that matters as he aims to regain the dominance he displayed before missing last year while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Matzek successfully passed another hurdle on Monday, when he made his spring debut against the Orioles. His one-inning stint marked the first time he pitched against opponents since his injury-riddled 2022 season concluded with the revelation he would miss all of '23.
“My body is recovering well, honestly, better than I was expecting,” Matzek said. “I feel really good. I’m happy with it right now.”
That’s really all Braves manager Brian Snitker wanted to hear after watching Matzek pitch a scoreless inning against the Orioles. His fastball velocity was 91-95 miles per hour, and the hit he allowed was a triple that a leaping Jarred Kelenic prevented from clearing the outfield wall.
But this was just the beginning for Matzek, one of the Braves’ top relievers during the 2020 and ’21 seasons.
“You want him to feel good about it and be right,” Snitker said. “It’s going to take him a while to build up. As long as he stays healthy and can make each [Spring Training] appearance, I think everything else will take care of itself. Right now, everything looks really good.”
There’s a chance the Braves will give Matzek a chance to make a few April appearances with Triple-A Gwinnett before putting him on Atlanta’s roster. But the veteran left-hander is going to make more appearances than normal Spring Training. Matzek believes this will give him and the team a chance to know if he would indeed be ready for a regular relief role at the start of the regular season.
“If I continue down this path where I’m bouncing back real well, doing my back-to-back appearances and my three-out-of-fours, there will be no need to slow down the process,” Matzek said. “Starting on the IL was more of an, ‘If I need to,’ which right now, it doesn’t look like it. But if I need to, it’s more important to take two weeks at the start of the season than to take two weeks in the middle of the season because something is flaring up.”
Regardless of whether Matzek is ready for Opening Day, Atlanta is confident he will be an asset within what should be one of the game’s top bullpens.
https://www.mlb.com/news/tyler-matzek-p ... -test-2024
Matzek successfully passed another hurdle on Monday, when he made his spring debut against the Orioles. His one-inning stint marked the first time he pitched against opponents since his injury-riddled 2022 season concluded with the revelation he would miss all of '23.
“My body is recovering well, honestly, better than I was expecting,” Matzek said. “I feel really good. I’m happy with it right now.”
That’s really all Braves manager Brian Snitker wanted to hear after watching Matzek pitch a scoreless inning against the Orioles. His fastball velocity was 91-95 miles per hour, and the hit he allowed was a triple that a leaping Jarred Kelenic prevented from clearing the outfield wall.
But this was just the beginning for Matzek, one of the Braves’ top relievers during the 2020 and ’21 seasons.
“You want him to feel good about it and be right,” Snitker said. “It’s going to take him a while to build up. As long as he stays healthy and can make each [Spring Training] appearance, I think everything else will take care of itself. Right now, everything looks really good.”
There’s a chance the Braves will give Matzek a chance to make a few April appearances with Triple-A Gwinnett before putting him on Atlanta’s roster. But the veteran left-hander is going to make more appearances than normal Spring Training. Matzek believes this will give him and the team a chance to know if he would indeed be ready for a regular relief role at the start of the regular season.
“If I continue down this path where I’m bouncing back real well, doing my back-to-back appearances and my three-out-of-fours, there will be no need to slow down the process,” Matzek said. “Starting on the IL was more of an, ‘If I need to,’ which right now, it doesn’t look like it. But if I need to, it’s more important to take two weeks at the start of the season than to take two weeks in the middle of the season because something is flaring up.”
Regardless of whether Matzek is ready for Opening Day, Atlanta is confident he will be an asset within what should be one of the game’s top bullpens.
https://www.mlb.com/news/tyler-matzek-p ... -test-2024
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Padres
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Re: 2024 Padres non-prospects news and notes
Damn ... here we go again ... these guys are joining Alex Cobb on the season opening IL
Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters Justin Verlander will begin the season on the injured list.
Verlander has been dealing with shoulder soreness this offseason and ultimately the club decided to have him get right before going on the mound for the 2024 regular season. Espada added that Verlander hasn’t had any setbacks, he just needs more time in his build up. The 41-year-old should see a dip in fantasy value in drafts given his unavailability out the gate and should monitor how long he could be out for to start the year.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/justin-verlander/48244
Skip Schumaker said Braxton Garrett is unlikely for the Opening Day roster.
Garrett is still dealing with shoulder soreness from earlier in camp. Even though he is throwing bullpen sessions, he hasn’t progressed to live batting practice. Schumaker added that the 26-year-old feels great, but thinks it’s dangerous to push Garrett. The right-hander pitched a career-high 159 2/3 innings last season with an impressive 156/29 K/BB ratio.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/braxton-garrett/49066
Giants general manager Farhan Zaidi told reporters Alex Cobb (hip) is due back “relatively soon” into the season.
There’s certainly optimism Cobb won’t require a lengthy trip to the injured list to open the season as he continues to work his way back from offseason hip surgery to repair a torn labrum and remove bone chips. The 36-year-old veteran righty was excellent last year on a per-start basis, when healthy, and is still worthy of a speculative stash for fantasy managers in deeper mixed leagues.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/alex-cobb/49238
Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters Justin Verlander will begin the season on the injured list.
Verlander has been dealing with shoulder soreness this offseason and ultimately the club decided to have him get right before going on the mound for the 2024 regular season. Espada added that Verlander hasn’t had any setbacks, he just needs more time in his build up. The 41-year-old should see a dip in fantasy value in drafts given his unavailability out the gate and should monitor how long he could be out for to start the year.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/justin-verlander/48244
Skip Schumaker said Braxton Garrett is unlikely for the Opening Day roster.
Garrett is still dealing with shoulder soreness from earlier in camp. Even though he is throwing bullpen sessions, he hasn’t progressed to live batting practice. Schumaker added that the 26-year-old feels great, but thinks it’s dangerous to push Garrett. The right-hander pitched a career-high 159 2/3 innings last season with an impressive 156/29 K/BB ratio.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/braxton-garrett/49066
Giants general manager Farhan Zaidi told reporters Alex Cobb (hip) is due back “relatively soon” into the season.
There’s certainly optimism Cobb won’t require a lengthy trip to the injured list to open the season as he continues to work his way back from offseason hip surgery to repair a torn labrum and remove bone chips. The 36-year-old veteran righty was excellent last year on a per-start basis, when healthy, and is still worthy of a speculative stash for fantasy managers in deeper mixed leagues.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/alex-cobb/49238
