White Sox third baseman Todd Frazier is currently wearing a splint as he recovers from a sprained finger in his left hand, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (all Twitter links). Frazier first felt pain in his hand late in the season and experienced the issue again when he began his offseason workouts recently. He’s already had one MRI on the issue which appears to have checked out well, as Rosenthal adds that Frazier is expected to be ready for Spring Training. The injury hasn’t had any impact on the White Sox’ ability to trade Frazier this winter, per Rosenthal. It’ll be worth keeping in mind this spring and early in the season, though, as any lingering effects could impact Frazier’s performance and trade value as the year progresses.
A few more notes out of the AL Central…
- Tigers GM Al Avila told reporters, including Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press, that Victor Martinez played much of the 2016 season with a small hernia that he had surgically repaired in October. Fenech writes that the umbilical hernia repair was less significant than the sports hernia/core muscle surgery that many players undergo each season, adding that Martinez was back at full strength just a couple weeks after the surgery. Avila stressed that V-Mart is 100 percent healthy, noting that the slugger is planning to play for Team Venezuela in this year’s World Baseball Classic. Martinez is owed $18MM in each of the next two seasons — his age-38 and age-39 campaigns.
- The Indians are “scouring” the market and keeping an eye out for relievers, utility options and corner bats even after inking Austin Jackson to a minor league deal yesterday, Rosenthal tweets. Cleveland’s payroll is already at franchise-record level, and the 25-man roster looks to be largely rounded out, though there could be room on the fringes (e.g. the final bench spot or the final slot in the bullpen).
- Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press spoke to Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey about switch-hitting outfielder/DH Robbie Grossman, who opened last season with the Indians in Triple-A but opted out in April to sign a deal with the Twins. Grossman went on to slash .280/.386/.443 in 389 plate appearances with Minnesota and was especially productive against left-handed pitching. Falvey, of course, was an assistant GM with Cleveland last year and offered praise for Grossman’s abilities as well as a hint about his role on the 2017 Twins. “We didn’t quite have the spot for him at the major league level, but I’m really happy about what panned out for him,” said Falvey. “…Robbie’s a guy that clearly, from the right side of the plate, has a chance to do some damage — real damage.” Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler figure to see the bulk of playing time in left and right field, but both are left-handed bats that struggled against left-handed pitching last season, which could lead to a platoon arrangement of sorts in 2017.
Grossman is a train wreck in the outfield. Vargas, Park, Grossman…too many middling RH DH options for MN.
You forgot about Mauer.
I know he’s not a RH but same position as the others
Kind of hoping the Indians would try to get Pagan.
If Pagan agreed to a minors deal like Jackson did, I’d like to see the two battle it out in Spring Training for the 4th OF spot.
You are referring to Angel Pagan, …. right? You must be thinking of a different Pagan if you believe he’s headed for a minor league contract. The guy’s 35 but still a productive player who’ll get a major league deal for a lot more $ than AJax will get. If you’re looking to see similar value “fighting it out” with Jackson, you might as well resign Michael Bourn.
I thought he meant one of the Stonehenge Pagans. But they’re not good in the field; they all have hands of stone….
Yes great idea to get him.
Yessir, thatd be nice.
“… but he’s no Todd Frazier” – Hawk
Wasn’t this about KB too?
Yep
Victor Martinez is a hitting machine. He will bat .320, hit 25 HRs and have 98 RBI in 2017. You heard it hear first.
IAre Marq Trestman, Fred Hoiberg & Robin Ventura the same person? All god awful coaches whose presence resulted in rebuilds for their respective organizations. Four painful years of Ventura then straight to a rebuild. Disgusting. A good coach would have gotten much more out of some seemingly talented teams on paper. Too bad Frazier won’t be around if n when ChiSox are ready to compete again. Angels are awful let’s see about bringing Mike Scoscia over in 2019
Why do you want Mike Scoscia?
+1 If you want your team to succeed, then leave Mike Scoscia out.
Ventura is awful, but those sox teams were built with stars and scrubs, which really does take a good amount of luck to work out
You have fallen for the hype. The White Sox are not rebuilding. They traded away 2 players who they deemed disruptive or bad influences. They got a good return for them too. But this does not a rebuild make.
Did you really just say Adam Eaton was a bad influence?
Personally no, however he came out against KW during the Adam LaRoche incident and later had issues with Todd Frazier. So you can draw your own conclusion as to how management might have viewed him. Just remember, he and Sale are the only two who have been traded.
Yet. They’ve been actively shopping everyone who’s not a rookie or prospect, though. No sense doing that if it isn’t a full rebuild. They just haven’t found deals they like well enough yet.
Whenever you trade your 2 best players for prospects, you are rebuilding.
True, per the definition of rebuilding any time you try to improve something you are rebuilding. However in the context of the term most commonly associated with MLB, I don’t think what the Sox have done up to this point would be considered a rebuild by the vast majority. Many would say it was a good start, but they were expecting more.
It would be interesting to see how the majority feel..
If the White Sox were to make no other trades, would you consider this a rebuild?
The Reason I hate Jerry Reinsdorf is he spent 50 million to bring in Wade who can’t play more than 28 min and can’t play 2 games In a row …. Rondo who there going to release …. And Lopez who gets a double double every few Games ……….. If he had kept the Same White Sox team and added Enconarcion to DH and Cespedes to play LF for 50mill how would ppl be looking at the White Sox right now
Reinsdorf might be the worst owner in sports. Bottom 5. He’s loyal to an extreme fault which ultimately means he’s extremely disloyal to the fan base. He needs to kick the bucket for the bulls and sox to have any sustained success.
They’d still suck. They can’t afford those contracts. They’re not a large market team, their fan base is similar to the size of the As or the expos
Of all the prospects that Neil Huntingdon has traded over the years, except for Brock Holt, Robbie Grossman is probably the guy who has become the best MLB player. And he’s a fringe bench bat.
So you’re saying I should be worried about McGuire and Ramirez?
I never paid much attention to Ramirez due to the lack of opportunity in the Pirates OF with the current 3 plus Meadows. Perhaps he was just blocked.
But, the Pirates did sour on McGuire’s bat and realized he probably wasn’t going to be a starting catcher.
They think he’ll be more Chris Stewart than Matt Wieters.
I think Dilson Herrera will end up being the best one. He was traded to the Mets for Marlon Byrd, and has since been moved to the Reds, awaiting Brandon Phillips to GTFO
He might very well be, but…wasn’t the Byrd trade in 2013?
Dudes been a prospect (and traded twice) for a long, long time. The Mets traded for Walker instead of giving him the job. Traded him for an OF they didn’t need.
So, I’m not sure I buy into the label on him.
And Byrd did everything you could want a lower level rental player to do. I liked the deal then, I’m OK with it now.
Twins are built to lose. No team speed and pitchers that can’t strike hitters out. Looks like another loooong season for Twins fans.
Surprisingly, after being in charge for less than 5 months, Falvey has been unable to completely rebuild the entire franchise and fix the chronic K/9 problem that has plagued the Twins for 15 years
no team speed? dozier has speed 15-20 sb danny santana has lots of speed and they have one if not the fastest player in baseball with buxton
As far as Buxton goes, speed doesn’t do much good if you aren’t getting on base.
true but after he got called back up the end of august he got onbase at over .350
As any fan, we want to see the players representing our team succeed. We see guys that are lucky to get a handful of at-bats in their career and forget about them. As an Astros fan, I always wanted Rob to succeed, more than others. I have no explanation, but goddamn I was really pulling for him, more than for Martinez (raking in Detroit), Carter (Trogdooooor!), and Wallace.
I think the Indians are neck n neck with the Cubs for the the most well rounded, complete team in baseball. Too bad they play in differently leagues, it would be great baseball to watch those two duke it out over a long season series
The Indians are good, but I think the Red Sox are better, especially after getting Sale, with Benintendi coming up, and with JBJ, Betts, and Bogaerts getting more experience. I think the Indians got hot at the right time last year, especially with their pitching.
If the Indians had Salzar or Carrasco at the end they would of won the World Series
You don’t know that. They couldn’t have done any better than tomlin or Merritt in the ALDS/ALCS. They could’ve easily been like price and choke and they wouldn’t have even made the World Series
Maybe. You don’t know how they would have pitched. Still doesn’t negate the point about them getting hot at the right time. It was the best WS I’ve ever seen, but I don’t think one stretch of baseball, even playoff baseball, is enough to lay claim to being the best team the following year, especially when one team improves significantly and the other does very little.