The Giants have informed 38-year-old shortstop Jimmy Rollins that he won’t make their roster, Andrew Baggarly of the East Bay Times was among those to report. San Francisco is now awaiting word on whether the longtime Phillie and 2007 NL MVP will accept a minor league assignment, per manager Bruce Bochy, but Baggarly notes that Rollins has a Thursday opt-out in his contract. This could conceivably be the end of the line for Rollins, who posted subpar seasons with the Dodgers and White Sox over the past two years. Chicago released him last June after a 41-game stint on the South Side, and he went on to ink a minors pact with the Giants in December.
More from the West divisions:
- Angels utilityman Dustin Ackley will not opt out of his minor league deal, reports Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). The former star prospect will instead go to Triple-A. Ackley, 29, is still recovering from the shoulder surgery he underwent as a Yankee last June; consequently, he hasn’t played the field this spring.
- The Diamondbacks optioned Ketel Marte to Triple-A on Tuesday, meaning they’re primed to divide shortstop between Nick Ahmed and Chris Owings. Manager Torey Lovullo isn’t sure which of the two will get the lion’s share of playing time at short, though “he sort of intimated” Owings will be in the lineup everyday at various positions, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter links). Since debuting in 2013, Owings has seen action at both middle infield spots and center field.
- It’s clear that the Dodgers will go with right-hander Brandon McCarthy over southpaw Alex Wood for the fifth spot in their rotation, writes Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. Wood seems resigned to the idea that he’s headed to the bullpen, observes Plunkett. While the 26-year-old Wood isn’t thrilled, he’s staying upbeat. “If I were anywhere else, I don’t think we’d be having this discussion,” he said. “You can look at it as the glass being half empty or glass half full. It’s one of those things where I’m excited because this is the best team I’ve ever been on. Whatever they want me to do, that’s where we’ll go.” Wood isn’t new to the bullpen, having totaled 35 of 112 career appearances as a reliever, and he could return to the rotation if the injury bug once again bites McCarthy. For now, it appears McCarthy will slot in behind Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill and Hyun-jin Ryu.
- Mariners reliever Shae Simmons is progressing in his recovery from the forearm strain he suffered March 11, relays Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. An MRI on Tuesday confirmed no ligament damage, but the righty will still go at least a few more days without throwing. As Dutton notes, the 26-year-old Simmons missed almost all of the previous two seasons with the Braves while recovering from Tommy John surgery, so the latest development is an encouraging one.
Jimmy Rollins needs to retire, he can’t stay productive everyday, he’s in the late stage of his career.
Jimmy hasn’t been productive in many years, with the lone exception being at the bank that he makes deposits.
He was in the late stages of his career when he first went out to LA. Everything else since is retirement mode with the image that he was capable of being a productive player.
Maybe the Mets can sign him to a cheap deal. Mix him with Reyes and Tebow and you have the beginnings of an after the game show that can bring a few extra fans to go to citifield
LA Dodgers 2017 World Champs!!!
Hey Sam. You said the same thing in 2016…2015…2014…2013…
When were you born?
No….I didn’t. They weren’t ready…NOW there ready! Good time to be a Dodger fan!
They will blow it in the postseason
Haha yeah right. You guys have the king choker in Kershaw. Doyers can’t even get past the first round of the play offs. I guess it’s always good to dream. Go Giants!!!!!!! I’ll say it before you do. Yes you win the division, but Giants win the World Series. I’ll take the World Series over the division any day.
Can’t get out of the first round?You didn’t watch much baseball last year did you? If you did you might have noticed they went to the NLCS, and Kershaw got them there. Better luck next time.
You right you guys lost. Not really better luck next time to me as much as it is to you and your dodgers. And I’m sorry if you didn’t catch the sarcasm but I forget how you have to be 100 percent exact on this site.
But hey at least you guys made it one year out of how many into the NLCS.
Kershaws had like 3 bad innings in the playoffs. They beat the Nationals last year, and the Giants are most likely not going to win the World Series. The only thing worse than a homer is a homer who doesn’t even know what they’re talking about.
This guy must be stuck in 2014. Last year the dodgers made it past the first round while the giants blew a 5-2 lead in the 9th. This is 2017 , your titles from 7 , 5, and 3 years ago have no meaning now. This isn’t don mattinglys dodgers anymore.
No not stuck in 2014 or any other year. I am a Giants fan and will be every year until they leave or I die. Which means anytime the dodgers don’t win a Series or have the highest payroll and still lose I will be here putting two cents in. But I guess I didn’t get the memo that you are not allowed to do that here and that only serious fact based conversations were saved for this site. Must be tough to be a Doyer fan and so uptight that your team can’t live up to expectations. What expectations you ask. Well when you have the one of the highest payrolls people expect championships. If you don’t get it. The season is considered a failure. But good luck Doyers.
Is saying doyers supposed to be a chirp or something?
I feel like you just watch ESPN and assume things. If you actually followed how the dodgers do things you would see they dont spend frivolously. Freidman is trying to lower the payroll and avoiding big free agents. Even after greinke had his best season ever the dodgers had their price and did not budge. Giant fans cite spending money on homegrown players, then call out the dodgers who pay kershaw 30 million a year. This double standard is pitiful. Its also hilarious how you think doyers is some kind of insult
Good point, I never knew that appearing in the WS was more important than winning a division title!
Any fan knows that anything can happen in the playoffs. The right team can get hot at the right time in the playoffs and go all the way.
Hey Sam, you wouldn’t want to take a little bet on that would you, there are two teams in NL that are better, not to mention 3 in AL
Anything can happen in the playoffs, you just have to get there. And having the best pitcher in the planet sure helps a lot.
I’m guessing the Astros are 1 of your 3 teams better than the Dodgers. Well the Astros are not if that’s what your saying. The Dodgers have a way better pitching staff, unless Mcullers can stay healthy the Astros don’t even have an ace as I don’t think Kuechell is all that good. And I’ll say Houston may have a better lineup but there also playing in Texas where the ball flys more. So I’m pretty sure you were saying the Astros are better than the Dodgers, and I completely disagree. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think the Astros are the best team in the AL west.
Astros are probably the best team in the AL West by default.
I’m a Giants fan and have loved watching my team win 3 over the last 7 years while the boys down south implode when it matters most. BUT, the law of averages is in the Dodgers favor to break that drought soon. They have spent and spent and spent like none other so eventually it will happen for them. It will be funny if it doesn’t tho. With all that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Giants win another one before LA does. The window is closing and it won’t be long before we are in semi or full reload. Can’t buy our way in like LA.
The Giants have ran some pretty significant payrolls for a number of years.
nowhere close to the dodgers
this year
giants: $167,961,111
dodgers: $238,268,328
that is a significant difference, next year a lot of payroll falls off too with cain off the books and cueto opting out (assuming he hits the free market) which puts the team in the 115 ish range.
and this year is the highest giants payroll to date I believe.
If you have an issue with how much the Dodgers spend compared to the Giants, you should take it up with Giants’ ownership. According to Forbes, the Giants had the highest operating income in all of MLB. If the Giants choose not to fill roster holes due to player cost they have no one to blame but themselves.
I think you miss the point that Giants win with out the spending. Only a few teams have had the highest payroll in MLB and won the World Series. It does not seem like he’s bitching as much as he’s proving buying the most expensive team does not generate into a championship.
Just because you’re not the highest payroll doesn’t mean you don’t spend. The Giants have had an opening day top 10 payroll in each of the past 8 seasons and top 5 several times.
the issue is that the dodgers essentially use the fact that they are owned by an investment group to cheat, the operating salary is sitting close to 190mm which is already high but they have over the past few years used the unlimited funding to get bonus picks/players/int’l slots/trades on salary dumps and cash trades
So using the resources you have is cheating and shady? Its not their fault the braves were willing to be foolish and trade peraza for olivera. Its called being smart. If you think its shady then you must think the NBA and NHL who have salary dump trades all the time is cheating too
The last line shows how ignorant SOME giants fans are. Buy your way in??? what does that even mean. The dodgers are trying to develop a young core to have sustained success. But somehow the giants spending doesn’t count? what about the 300 million spent on free agents since the end of 2015 by SF?. Some people dont have a clue what they are talking about. Ethier , crawford and gonzalez all come off the book for LA in the next 2 years. That is 60 million coming off the payroll and it is not going to be replaced in free agency
see my above comment for the numbers – as well the dodgers have shadily purchased draft picks and international pool spending that have padded their farm system – you will note also that the 300 million includes an opt out for cueto which is actually a 110 million spending over a 5 and 2 year contract for 2 starters. which is a third of what the dodgers spent on kershaw alone
Shadily purchasing draft picks? How is that taking on ryan webb to acquire the 74th pick in the draft shady? Josh sbortz is definitively not the reason for the dodgers strong farm system. They spent over the limit for international players last year and got penalized for it that’s not shady at all, many teams do that. Sounds like you are just making excuse.Dodgers have hit on many draft picks recently seager, bellinger, verdugo, buehler, de leon just to name a few. The Dodgers have been much better at drafting as of late. 2015 and 2014 the dodgers first round pick was better then the giants even though the dodgers picked several spots lower. The dodgers front office does a good job developing young talent. It has nothing to do with being “shady”
Lol shady? You mean like every other team
The best pitcher in an entire generation will cost you the most money.
People who make this argument got both sides covered. If a team spends a lot and wins, they say “they bought a title.” If they spend a lot and don’t win, they can say “see, you can’t buy a title.”
You Dodgers fans are so insecure about the team spending that you don’t want anybody to point it out. And yes, we love to talk trash about it. There is a reason LA holds the title of highest payroll ever. It may be going down now but that is because LA spent a fortune buying players, flipping them to other teams for prospects, paying players NOT to play for them, etc. I’d respect you more if you pointed out that it’s lead to a kind-of homegrown team in the making but you don’t. The Giants have a top 5 payroll for certain. But you should already know that most of it is to retain homegrown players with a few high price free agents in the mix too. When a team has a good run they plug holes year after year to keep it going. I’d say LA is no different but #1 that ring isn’t there quite yet, #2 the money spent on international drafts and free agency with LA is insane. Once all those prospects are all playing I think this argument might even out.
If you want to be fair, both clubs spend ridiculously. To you, they might be the big bad Dodgers and you’re the feel good story taking them down. To the rest of the league, you guys are pretty much the exact same. How many teams could afford to buy Cueto, samardzija, pence, melancon all while paying Matt Cain 20 million dollars?
Very well said. It’s like when Red Sox fans complain about how much money the Yankees spend. Any team in the top 5 payrolls are able to hold onto any homegrown player they choose and still have enough left over to fill remaining holes with capable free agents. It’s a far cry from how the Rays or A’s have to run their orgs.
This guy has no clue how baseball works. The Dodgers have had 2 different front offices recently. That is why there was so much roster turnover. But its ok. Draft chris stratton ahed of marcus stroman, then complain the dodgers spend too much while the giants cant ever have a good farm system
The Giants rarely have a highly rated farm, but that is different from having a farm system devoid of impact talent. Keep in mind, Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Posey, Panik, Belt, and Crawford (among others) are all products of that farm system.
Those are the ebs and flows of baseball if I’m not mistaken Bum, Lincecum, Posey were all products of bad teams. And you tip your hat, because of their terrific drafts. The Giants are the Giants and have been one of the best run organizations over this decade. The Dodgers well we had to deal with McCourt and yeah….That being said major impact talent isn’t immediately on the way for the Giants, but that’s a byproduct of their recent success and trying to win. That being said the pieces they do have on the way are solid. So I’m not sure you can try to correlate impact talent without mentioning those were all top 10 draft picks.
The Dodgers though are finally seeing their solid draft pieces/int signings bubbling to the top. It’s easy to bash the Dodgers payroll, but that is a byproduct of the complete mess created by McCourt. Thanks MLB for putting someone in place to suppress big market contracts. I don’t think I heard many complaints from rival MLB fans during the McCourt era. But now there’s outrage over payroll. A majority of it is an attempt to get from under terrible inherited contracts. There is 100M plus coming off the books over the next two years with high upside talent at AAA. Two of the OKC three should see time at the MLB level. A majority of that talent obtained due to tremendous drafting. This isn’t the terribly run franchise anymore. I hate the Giants, because they’re the Giants, but I definitely do respect what they’ve done. That being said this team has so much talent it’s going to be a fun year for Dodger fans.
*Those three were all top 10 draft picks.
Fellas I love the “my team” banter…1 week to go…PLAYBALL!
By the way, a few Giants players won a championship at Dodger stadium before the Dodgers did. Lol
Probably a wise choice by Ackley.
Alex Wood saying this is the best team he’s ever played for is a stretch.. 2013 braves were a 96 win team and pitching was really good.
The 2013 braves pitching cant have been that good. Their counter to kershaw in the NLDS was kris medlin.
Rooting for Shae, from my hometown
I’d like to see Jimmy get a shot with Oakland. I can understand he wants to keep playing for the love of the game, but he appears to be getting past the usefulness stage. Has to be hard when your mind wants it and your body can’t do what it once could.
I became a Giants fan at age 10 in 1967. I had to wait 22 yrs before they went to a World Series in 1989 but they lost. Then at age 45 I watched them lose again in 2002.
Imagine the 10 year old who became a dodger fan in 1989. He’s almost 40 and his team hasn’t won NOR lost a World Series. Almost 30 yrs of watching the Giants get into the World Series and his team staying home in late October. It’s gotta be tough. Cut those Dodger fans some slack. Light a candle or something. I feel ur pain. But I only endured it for 22 years. 28 yrs! That’s gotta hurt