Jhoulys Chacin has pitched well for the Braves in his Spring Training outings and, perhaps most importantly for the righty, his troublesome shoulder is feeling good. “When I signed, my mindset was just to come to Spring Training as strong as I could be and to just pitch the only way I know how to pitch….I just want to go through all of this year and the rest of my career with my shoulder strong,” Chacin tells MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. It would be a nice bargain for Atlanta if Chacin returned to the form he showed when he was a healthy and productive member of the Rockies staff, as Chacin is only signed to a minor league deal. Here’s some more from around baseball…
- “Nothing has materialized” for Justin Morneau this offseason, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes, though the veteran first baseman isn’t announcing his retirement. Morneau said in November that he was adamant about continuing his career after working to come back from concussion and neck issues, though those same injuries limited him to just 49 games in 2015. Health questions notwithstanding, Morneau did hit .316/.363/.487 with 20 homers in 732 PA over the last two seasons and he won the NL batting title in 2014, so it’s rather surprising that his market has been almost entirely quiet. The Indians were the only club known to have interest and they went with Mike Napoli instead due to Napoli’s right-handed bat. Morneau is the last member of MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents still looking for a new team.
- Also from Cafardo, he notes that Red Sox right-hander Steven Wright is out of options and “a few teams are watching Wright’s camp with great anticipation.” Wright, a knuckleballer, could still make Boston’s big league roster as a reliever or possibly as the team’s fifth starter if Eduardo Rodriguez is not healthy to start the year.
- Dexter Fowler spoke to Peter Gammons of GammonsDaily.com about the surprising turn of events that saw the outfielder re-sign with the Cubs. Despite media reports that had Fowler all but officially signed with the Orioles, Fowler said he and Baltimore “never really were close” to an agreement. “They wanted me to pay them what they said the draft choice I was costing them was valued at. They wanted me to pay them for the pick. So we said, OK, then give me an opt-out after one year, and they said that’s something they won’t do,” Fowler said. Casey Close, Fowler’s agent, also commented on the situation last month and had some harsh words for both the Orioles and the media.
- Also from Gammons, he notes that it isn’t the Cardinals’ style to make rash moves, so the club is likely to be cautious in gauging their response to Jhonny Peralta’s injury absence. St. Louis was linked to Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed earlier today, though Gammons thinks Arizona wouldn’t settle for anything less than a top minor leaguer like righty Luke Weaver (ranked by Baseball America as the Cards’ fourth-best prospect).
- Matthew Bowman is “more likely than not” to make the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster as a reliever, Adam Rubin of ESPN.com writes. Bowman was plucked off of the Mets’ roster in December’s Rule 5 draft. The 24-year-old has pitched mostly as a starter in his minor league career and it would be somewhat of a surprise to see him pass several veteran options to lock down a bullpen job. As a Rule 5 pick, of course, Bowman has to stay on the St. Louis 25-man roster all season or else be offered back to the Mets.
Hold on a moment – the Orioles wanted Fowler to PAY THEM in order to be signed to a contract? Is that even legal per the current CBA?
I’m sure it’s not a literal translation.
Fowler wouldn’t have had to literally write a check to the Orioles in the amount of whatever the draft pick would be. They were probably trying to get him to agree to a contract that was worth whatever they thought Fowler was worth minus whatever the draft pick was worth. So if they thought he was worth 2 years at $12 million a year and the draft pick was worth $3 million. They probably offered him 2 years at $10.5 million a year. That’s what I got out of it. I could be wrong though.
Yeah, he obviously worded that horribly, probably in a concerted effort to make the Orioles look bad.
I understood what he meant in terms of subtracting dollar value from his contract.. It still baffles me that this even happens. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
This whole thing is just weird
I would imagine the Orioles told him they would have to reduce the value of his contract by the value of the pick. They were probably explicit with something that many teams probably take into account for non-first tier QO-d free agents
Unless there’s an injury, I can’t really see any team signing morneau
Unless there’s a pitching injury, I highly doubt Bowman makes the team. The Cardinals have all 5 starters and 6 relievers pretty much guaranteed rosters spots, and the last bullpen spot is likely to go to Tyler Lyons, a talented lefty swingman with quality Major League experience who’s out of options. The Cards would probably prefer to keep Lyons in the organization than Bowman.
I completely agree. Right now, I have the Cards’ rotation as: Wainwright, Martinez, Wacha, Leake and Garcia. Bowman might be considered a starter, but I would think Lyons, Cooney and Gonzales are all above him in the pecking order.
I have the bullpen as: Lyons, Walden, Maness, Broxton, Oh, Seigrist and Rosenthal. He *may* bump Lyons from the group, but Lyons is a starter and offers the team a second lefty in the ‘pen. And I would think Sam Tuivailala is the “next guy up” to fill a spot on the roster. The kid is scary good.
I liked Bowman as a Met. I don’t understand why the Mets left him unprotected.
Thank the lord that Peter Angelos does not own my Red Sox, the O’s are a laughing stock. The only thing the O’s might win his year is a slow pitch softball beer league.
I’m glad Angelos hasn’t given horrible contracts out either. Enjoy Sandoval. Also most wins in the AL since 2012 as compared to finishing last 3 of the last 4 years. The past 2 when they were the “favorites” to go to the World Series. Not very far removed from 8 and a half decades on crying about curses. I would be careful who I labeled a “laughing stock.” I remember when Red Sox fans weren’t the most obnoxious fans in baseball.
Red Sox fans the most obnoxious fans in baseball? Uhm….have you met Cubs fans?
One can only imagine how insufferable Cubs fans will become if they actually win. Probably something similar to Red Sox or Yankees fans.
I’m a Cubs fan and I can’t stand half of them. Actually it’s more like the majority of them.
The worst fans in baseball
1. Yankees
2. Red Sox
3. Cardinal
Then everyone else.
Cubs fans would jump to #1 if they ever won a WS again, but come on….it’s the Cubs.
Cardinals as 3rd worst fans?
Yeah right? They have some of the most respectful fans in the game.
You have 0 credibility now.
You really can’t rank teams’ fans like that. Every fan base has an uninformed group that overvalues their own players. The guy above does not represent the views of every Red Sox fan, just as I don’t agree with some of the Cub fans who have already anointed us as the World Series champions for the next 10 years. There’s too many people to generalize based on a few trolls
My two cents… there’s a high rate of fanboy-ism with Cards fans. What I mean by that is lots of anti-Cubs and anti-Reds partisan trolling that has nothing to do with the game.
they do have some of the best fans in the game
unfortunately they also have a lot of really stuck up fans, a lot of trolls, and an awful lot of ‘fans’ who think that because they’re essentially the Yankees of the National league they have the right to talk down to everybody else
with the hacking scandal and the aftermath of the heyward signing, the ugly side of Cardinals fandom showed itself i a pretty prominent way
Cardinals fans know they are the “best fans” which makes them some of the worst fans.
I don’t get there being ZERO interest in Morneau.
It’s perplexing that nobody has taken a chance with Morneau. Seems like the Astros should have checked in at least. Maybe the Braves could look to add him once Freeman gets shut down with wrist issues.
I agree on the Braves point. Braves have for the last few years been a “rebuild your stock” team and spelling Freeman to ease off his wrist would be a great idea.
Braves wouldn’t unless they got rid of swish first
do you really see Swisher making it past spring training?
I’m assuming Morneau having zero interest in his services means that teams aren’t interested at his current asking price. Were he willing to say play for around the $500k league minimum, or to even accept a minor league deal with incentives I’d have to imagine plenty of interest would materialize. It’s likely he’s holding out for an amount he feels a former MVP and NL Batting Champion deserves, which for an injury prone guy in his mid to late 30’s – post PEDs – just isn’t likely.
Well said…
Well, that would make sense if Napoli didn’t get $7m and Jaso didn’t get 2/$8m. It’s not like there isn’t a market for retread 1B/DH types.
Justin needs to keep working out and getting reps in somewhere (college etc) and wait for that phone call. It will come when someone gets hurt. Would look good in Yankee pinstripes.
Add to their washed up team! I’ve not seen too many people look good in Pinstripes!
Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Ford, Mattingly, Bernie, Posada, Rivera, Pettitte, Jeter. For a team with 27 titles – statistically 25% or one out of every four … They had to have a few players rocking the pinstripes. There’s a reason pretty much the numbers 1 – 45 are all retired. They’ll soon need to start sewing on triple digits for spring training.
don’t forget about Castanza…
For all the rep the Yanks have of stealing other team’s players, they sure got their fair share of mileage out of a home grown core of Jeter, Posada, Williams, Rivera, Pettitte…
how many of them are home grown?
I don’t understand how the Indians went after Napoli vs Morneau. This blows my mind.
it was a lefty vs righty decision.
I haven’t read all the comments so I apologize if someone already mentioned this but why didn’t the Pirates look into Morneau? He’s got to be better than Jaso! 5 home runs and .286 BA? And that’s to split time with a guy who hit .235 with 5 dingers as well? I get that it’s not all about the long ball but I’d like to believe that with Walker and Alvarez gone, they’d like to recoup some of that power. Id also assume Morneau could have been had for cheap as well with an incentive laden contract. As a kicker, he played in Pittsburgh already, too. I’d like to trust the front office but Jaso has played like 5 MLB innings at first, Morneau has to be a better choice.
I have almost no concerns about Jaso’s bat. He has always demonstrated excellent OBP skills with decent OPS as well. Jaso hits opposite handed pitching well and will do well as a role player. I don’t think the Pirates have any plans to play him every day. His glove work at first however is unknown and therefore a concern.
I agree and as a Pirates fan I support Jaso. He will not play everyday. A platoon with Morse (and Freese as well-another guy that hasn’t played first) is the scenario they’re going to go with. I agree his getting on base skills are there, but I think some replacement of the power lost would be ideal, as well. And the fact that Morneau is a first baseman is a plus as well. I like Jaso just would have liked Morneau better
I have a feeling that Morneau was, and is, asking for significantly more money than Jaso. When you also factor in splitting time with Morse, I’m not sure how appealing that situation was to Morneau, either. In all honesty, between Jaso, Morse, Freese and Jason Rogers, the Bucs might end up being better off. No one is talking about Rogers, but I thought he was a great acquisition and could end up stealing a lot of playing time at 1B if he earns the chance. I really liked his bat as a Brewer.
Morneau doesn’t have any power either. He hasn’t hit more than 20 HR in a season since 2008, and that includes 2 seasons at Coors Field. Not to mention, Morneau flopped in his first stint as a Pirate and would be much more expensive than Jaso..
At least one person directly involved in the whole Fowler-to-the-Orioles debacle is lying. I can’t say who because I wasn’t there but it’s crystal clear that at least one person has outright lied to the media. Fowler was in phone contact with Adam Jones who reported that Fowler was on his way to Sarasota to join the O’s while Fowler was on his way to join the Cubs in Arizona. The Orioles have stated very clearly that nobody was getting an opt-out clause from them for the time being. Casey Close went on a rant that he’s never seen a team do what the O’s have done but hasn’t explicitly stated what his problem with them was — it seems to be he had a problem with leaking information but it’s not certain. I can’t wait for this story to eventually be told six months or a few years from now — I’m pretty confident the story will tell us a lot about all the players involved.
Why people are so drawn to drama is beyond me. Unless rules were broken there is no reason we need to revisit this a week let alone six months from now.
Fowler and Close are lying. He also told Rizzo he was leaving on top of his conversation with jones. I really could care less about him going back to the Cubs. But his agents rant was pathetic. Even if someone in the Orioles FO said something to the media that wasn’t entirely accurate, it doesn’t change the fact that this is a tactic that agents have made a career out of. Using the media to create a market for their client. It also doesn’t change the fact that Fowler was telling people he was going to the Orioles. There is zero doubt who is lying in this situation.
It makes me wonder if Fowler introduced the Orioles to the discussion or did the writers in Chicago ask the question.
I know for a fact that Morneau could have come back much earlier last year, but he was scared because of the concussion symptoms. I’m not surprised teams haven’t looked at him. They know that if he gets any more of the symptoms then he probably isn’t coming back.