As Yankees righty Luis Severino gets some unwelcome news on his birthday, here’s the latest from around the AL East…
- Ron Roenicke was Jonathan Lucroy’s manager with the Brewers for over four seasons, and with Roenicke now serving as the Red Sox interim manager, he was the motivating factor in convincing Jonathan Lucroy to sign with Boston. “He called me and he wanted me to come. It was a big one,” Lucroy told reporters, including MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo and MLB.com’s Ian Browne. “He’s like, you’ll get an opportunity to come here and make the team. Right now, that’s all you can ask for with a guy in my position.” Lucroy signed a minor league contract with the Sox after a pretty quiet stint in free agency, as Cotillo notes that Lucroy “negotiated with a few clubs who backed out of deals at the last minute.” This isn’t to say that Lucroy is surprised at how his trip through the free agent market went, given his struggles over the last three seasons: “Analytically, I’ve been terrible. Seriously. I’m not trying to make excuses. I’m not surprised I didn’t get a big league offer.” Now, Lucroy is reunited with his old skipper and will compete with Kevin Plawecki for the backup catching position.
- The Rays are known for cycling different players through a position rather than having a set everyday starter, and MLB.com’s Juan Toribio examines how the club will juggle its many third base options. Yandy Diaz, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, Joey Wendle, Daniel Robertson, Nate Lowe, and Mike Brosseau could all factor into Tampa Bay’s choices at the hot corner, while also being rotated around to other positions on the diamond. Diaz is expected to get the majority of playing time, while Tsutsugo’s readiness at third base is perhaps the biggest wild card in the mix, as he hasn’t played the position since 2014 as a member of the Yokohama BayStars.
- The Blue Jays face some interesting decisions with their bench mix, as the Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm observes that slugger Rowdy Tellez might not make the Opening Day roster. Since minor league signing Joe Panik “is almost a sure bet to be included on the roster” as a utilityman and outfielders Derek Fisher and Anthony Alford are both out of options, this trio might have the advantage over Tellez, who is defensively limited to only first base. Tellez has shown some strong power (25 homers, .475 slugging percentage) over 482 MLB plate appearances, though is somewhat one-dimensional at the plate, as evidenced by his .241 career average and .299 OBP. Fisher and Alford will both need to perform well this spring to block Tellez, however, and Chisholm notes that Brandon Drury also isn’t a lock for the roster, as the Blue Jays could opt to cut Drury and just go with Panik as the primary utility player. Since Drury was an arbitration-eligible player, releasing him before Opening Day would leave the Jays on the hook for just a small portion of his $2.05MM salary. If Drury was released, Chisholm speculates Toronto could potentially put those savings towards signing another veteran player who might become available as teams trim their rosters in advance of the season opener.
Drury just hasn’t looked good since coming to the AL. I think Toronto has given him a long enough look.
Might as well follow suit with the Yankees and trade him away.
Trade him for what? The Yankees took a net negative on him in trades, what exactly is TOR gonna get? Some orange slices for the seventh inning stretch?
Surprises me how few teams seem to have their prospects and young players learn multiple positions. Obviously it’s not for all prospects l, but your fringe bench guys? Adds a ton of value if you can find a hidden secret of a position in a players arsenal
Lucroy is probably better than Plawecki, but neither will play more than a couple games per week. Think Vazquez has now figured things out with the bat and is signed for 3 more years at an outstanding price.
Barring injury,neither will play more than a couple games per week. There fixed it unless you have a crystal ball, none of us know how the season will play out.
I’d take Plawecki over Lucroy right now. No doubt about it.
Indeed. Lucroy might be a nice comeback story in camp but he is toast.
They plugged Vasquez in the field playing various positions to reduce the wear and tear on him last year. Maybe they’ll do that again.
Thats true. He even got reps at second base lol
No one is better than the Brockstar, n I can’t forgive them for letting him leave Boston
It’s called “depth”.
Rays should trade Franco and Honeywell and a lesser prospect for Suarez from reds. He’s locked up for next 5 seasons for a little more than 10 mil per season- fits their budget and they have a ss already. Let suarez be that big bat in the middle of their lineup they need !
Reds would jump on opportunity to have future SS locked up while having plenty of talent to replace Suarez at third w moose senzel and India
Rays are not trading Wander
If he’s as good as advertised- you get him for 4 years and then have to trade him….plus he’s 18. Far from a proven talent. Windows open for rays- might as well go all in.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rays lock up Franco a month or so after he’s called up. That’s what they do. Although not a sure thing, he’s as close as anyone right now.
lol no chance the Rays deal the game’s best prospect.
I wouldn’t even trade franco for Suarez alone
Exactly. And that’s not even considering the hefty Suarez’s contract.
Let me guess Les Reds fan lol.
Franco + Honey….maybe for trout + adell but think I’d still rather just keep Franco.
Exactly. If the Angels called the Rays today and said we’ll trade you Mike Trout and his contract straight up for Wander Franco, the Rays would say no. To be fair, the Angels would also say no if the Rays called and asked for Trout straight up for Franco.
Sure thing! Why don’t we throw in Morton, Meadows, and McKay, too? Franco and Honeywell might not work out so bet-hedging is a great idea.
Wander Franco 80 future value! You know, I was Reds fan pre-1998…
There might, and I stress might, be 5 players in all of MLB that the Rays would trade straight up for Wander. Truthfully, I’m struggling to come up with even one off of the top of my head.
The potential value of his 6.5 team controlled seasons is extremely valuable to any team but even more so to the budget conscious Rays. Obviously all prospects come with the potential to not live up to expectations, but Franco is on another level compared to even other #1 overall prospects. To give you an idea of the expectations, FG just gave him an 80 FV. That means they believe he will be a 7+ WAR/season, top 5 in all of baseball type of player. All teams would struggle to give up that potential, but for the Rays it’s virtually impossible.
There are exactly zero players for which the Rays FO trade Wander Franco right now.
There is probably no advantage trade for Wander Franco at this time, However if he falters or can’t play with some minor injury. We should would consider Fernando Tatis + top 50 pitching prospect , Tim Anderson+top 50 pitching prospect and especially Adley Rutschman and a top 50 pitching prospect. The Rays are stacked with Infielders and high end infield prospects. There are trades that make sense with Franco ! When or was there ever a time the Rays had a GREAT catcher! Rutschman is looking like a super stud!
What an idiotic trade that would be for Tampa Bay!!!
Whatever you’re smoking must be top grade man! Because you sir are out of your mind…Wander is almost as close to untouchable as I’ve ever seen from a prospect.
1) because he has so much hype and
2) he’s in an organization that spends about as much money on their players as a WNBA team does…he’s not going anywhere until he’s close to being a FA
Derek Fisher for Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini. One starts a no hitter then blows out his shoulder, one catches a ball with his face, and one goes from normal to giving up 5 runs on 3 homers without recording an out. One of the strangest trades this past year.
It was one of them there classic lose-lose trades lol.
Jays probably lose less on the trade, as Fisher still has a chance to make it as a starter. Good tools, good minor league numbers, just can’t seem to pull it together in the majors.
Fisher is unlikely to be a starter but he should be in the mix. Gurriel, Grichuk, Hernandez are the top 3 but Alford and Fisher should get looks along with Davis and McKinney to some degree.
lol, so true!
yankees should trade for marisnick.
random thoughts? also why would the Mets deal Marisnick especially to the Yankees?
if they don’t want to roster him and get a good enough return. (like a trade between any two teams, really)
one barged into the other in cannonball style?
Astros fan will tell you Lucroy ran into Jake who was clearly trying to avoid contact.
haha!
I feel like the Yanks are gonna stay away from ex-Astro hitters for a while…
Marisnik was the leading cheater with over 22% of his pitches had trash can bangs. I wouldn’t want him on my team.
Rays position players are excellent this year along with Righty-Lefty platoons everywhere.
They should try and use Tellez and/or Alford to acquire a bullpen upgrade.
I could see the Phillies taking a chance on the upside of Drury if he’s released. At the very least he’d be a nice bench bat.
Come to Quark’s , Quarks is fun. Come right now. Don’t walk …. run!
I think everyone had a guy or two who could just play anything and be good at it. Tampa Bay drafts and develops all of those guys. As a result, they have starting caliber depth at every position but with a minimum of players needed.
The Blue Jays keep guys on the roster because they are out of options too often. If the player isn’t good enough to make the team, then get rid of him, whether or not he has options or not. Alford should not be kept on the roster just because he is out of options. If he can’t hit major league hitting, which is a serious possibility because he couldn’t hit AAA pitching consistently, then he should be DFa’d. The Jays have plenty of mediocre outfielders in their system and a couple that can bring exactly what Alford brings to the table, speed & defense.
He also has very limited MLB experience. His hamate injury should be considered with his poor performance from last year. He improved a lot on the back half of the season. It seems like they want to give him a look at the MLB level before letting him go. He burned a lot of option years without much of any chances
I’ve watched Alford for 3 seasons in the minors and he simply isn’t a good hitter. He will be ice cold for two months, then hot for one, then cold again for a month and then hot for a couple weeks. There is zero consistency to his hitting. His peaks and valleys are far too extreme. There is no reason to think he will hit in the majors. He is overhyped because of his athletic ability. He is a great athlete, not a good hitter
I don’t think there is much realistic expectations on him at this point. But he has always profiled more as a good defensive player, with 20 double and 20 SB potential and good obp. So as a CF with leadoff potential. However again at this point it’s more of a pot committed situation. You might as well give him a little try in a year that means very little.
Alford’s minor league experience was underwhelming which is why he has limited MLB experience in the first place. Had he performed he’d be giving a starting role. He didn’t earn it with his play in the minors and he hasn’t figured out CF which is why Davis plays CF more than Alford does.
Three reasons why I would keep Alford; he’s a RH bat, he’s very fast and Fisher has no right to be higher in the pecking order.
Fisher’s minor league numbers are good thanks to being in the PCL. He was such a mess last season that a release was warranted. It’s too bad Tellez has to be the one to take the bus ride to Buffalo for Fisher.
Drury being a RH bat keeps him on the team. Shaw can’t hit lefties.
Fisher performed like he belonged in another profession last year in Toronto. Big, strong, fast, can’t play. Hopefully he saw a therapist. He’s not short on talent. But, playing in the PCL will inflate your offensive production quite a bit.
Unless Panik somehow learned to play shortstop there is no reason to give him a major league roster spot as of February 20.
Except Panik is the veteran presence and backup infielder that this team needs.
They need a backup shortstop. Not a second baseman who’s had an OPS under .700 three of the last four years. The veteran to get is not Joe Panik.
Panik has struggled offensively the past two seasons. Why should he be a lock to earn a roster spot? He should have to earn it. His recent production doesn’t warrant being a lock
Agreed 100% Eric.
The front office literally said that Panik would be guaranteed a roster spot berring injury or some other issue.
And that is a problem when you guarantee guys who haven’t done enough to be given a roster spot. Panik, as of Feb 21, doesn’t deserve it.