As Spring Training continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Spring Breakout begins:
Spring Breakout, MLB’s new prospect showcase event, begins today with a pair of exhibition games. The Rangers will take on the Reds at 5:05pm CT, while the Orioles will square off against the Pirates at 6:05pm CT. Pittsburgh is the only club to have already announced its starter for the game, as they’ll turn to the game’s best pitching prospect in right-hander Paul Skenes. He’ll face an Orioles roster stacked with offensive prospect talent, including No. 1 overall prospect Jackson Holliday, corner infielder Coby Mayo, and catcher Samuel Basallo. Pittsburgh’s offense, meanwhile, will be led by infielder Termarr Johnson, the club’s first-round pick from the 2022 draft.
Cincinnati is one of two teams to participate in multiple games for the exhibition. That leaves uncertainty as to whether or not the club’s 2023 first-round pick, right-hander Rhett Lowder, will make an appearance in this evening’s game. Meanwhile, the Rangers’ pitching corps features the likes of right-handers Brock Porter, Jack Leiter and Owen White. On offense, the Reds’ sole top-100 talent (per MLB.com) on the roster is shortstop Edwin Arroyo. The Rangers’ hitters will be headlined by young shortstop Sebastian Walcott, with both Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford remaining in big league camp to prepare for the regular season. MLB.com has each club’s full roster and details on how to watch tonight’s games at the following links: Rangers, Reds, Orioles, Pirates.
2. Marlins’ injury troubles continue:
The Marlins are already likely to be without left-hander Braxton Garrett ahead of Opening Day due to shoulder soreness, and a shoulder impingement is putting righty Edward Cabrera’s availability in doubt as well. Now, Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald relays that right-handed youngster Eury Perez is the latest Miami starter facing questions about his readiness for the start of the season two weeks from today. Perez was removed from his start yesterday after just 14 pitches due to discomfort stemming from a broken fingernail he’s dealt with in recent weeks.
While comments from Perez and manager Skip Schumaker seem to indicate the club doesn’t believe Perez’s fingernail is a long-term concern, the 20-year-old’s ability to build up his pitch count has been limited by that minor issue. If Cabrera, Perez, and Garrett all begin the season on the shelf, it would be a tough turn of events for the Marlins as their typically strong pitching corps would be depleted, even if only for a short period of time. Lefties Jesus Luzardo, A.J. Puk, Trevor Rogers, and Ryan Weathers would all figure to be part of the club’s Opening Day rotation, with the fifth spot potentially going to non-roster veteran Yonny Chirinos or swingman Bryan Hoeing.
3. Will the Cease trade cause movement on the starting pitching market?
One of the offseason’s longest-standing storylines came to an end last night as the White Sox dealt right-hander Dylan Cease to the Padres in exchange for a prospect package headlined by right-hander Drew Thorpe, whom San Diego had acquired as part of the Juan Soto package back in December. The Padres were far from the only suitor for Cease’s services, however, as both the Yankees and Rangers had also been involved in the Cease bidding in recent days. That New York and Texas clearly remain in the market for starting pitching is notable given the fact that they’ve been the most frequently rumored potential suitors for the two remaining front-of-the-rotation arms on the market in Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, respectively. Could Cease finally finding a new home spur activity for the offseason’s two remaining top-tier free agents?
Can’t see the interest from the Yanks and Rangers leading to any further FA moves from them, since both their issues before was with the financial cost of adding guys rather than need. That still applies now, and Cease was only being considered probably since he’s not making nearly as much as what Montgomery or Snell would cost.
galer: Agree. I don’t think any team was waiting until Cease was traded before signing Monty and Snell. The other teams know how easily Getz can be taken. Cease might have been second choice for teams like the Rangers and Yankees, but definitely not their first choice.
avenger, if “other teams know how easily Getz can be taken,” why didn’t one of them end up with Cease months ago?
The Rangers probably not. The Yankees, if Cole is going to see Dr. Neal for what is a third opinion than thats a bit ominous. They’re aren’t going to compete in a stacked AL East without Cole with as thin as their pitching depth is already. Snell or Montgomery would at least help to keep them afloat
Surprised you didn’t mention Lorenzen, who the Sox reached out to the other day. They won’t do this, but I think I’d rather see them give a Chapman/Bellinger type of deal to Montgomery, who also does not cost a draft pick, so they can have a lefty to flip in the summer or hold onto and give a QO to, if he were to opt out.
This was mentioned in the article outlining the trade.
Problem with that is that it’s been said even recently that Montgomery’s hold up with the Red Sox has been that he’s still seeking a 7 year deal. Snell is the one who’s been said to more likely be willing to do a shorter, high AAV deal.
It’s looking like Langford could make the Rangers opening day roster. But he’d have to be the DH, and you hate to do that with such a young guy.
You could rotate your starting OF with the DH spot and get him in the field pretty consistently still.
Also, with Taveras being better against righties than lefties, it gives you the option to work a platoon somewhere: Taveras to bench, Langford to OF, another right handed hitter in the lineup somewhere, and give a guy a half day off and DH him.
Preller took white Sox to the cleaners ! How many better prospects did Getz pass on before settling on drew thrope ?
My thought exactly BW.
Those breakout games are a great idea ! Perfect timing. I’m excited to watch !
Quantity over quality prospects usually doesn’t work out as well but we shall see
If you cant get a top 20 prospect you might as well go with quantity. After the top 20 prospects, everyone else in the top 100 has roughly the same chance of being a successful major league player. There is very little talent drop off from the 21-100 on the top 100 prospect lists.
I don’t agree with that. 1/2 of mlbs top 20 look like busts or have almost no pro experience
Statistically half of the top 20 will be busts which is a significantly lower rate than the rest of the top 100. Prospects 21-100 will bust way more than half the time.
Marlins pitcher to miss entire season over ingrown hair.
Red,
Have you tried throwing 95+ mph or snapped off a wicked breaking ball with a cracked fingernail? And then tried doing it another 80-90 times in a couple of hours?
We won’t know who won the White Sox trade for years. Only loser today is big wiffa.
Was the Cease cloud secretly holding up the end of the FA SP market? Hmmm…it’s actually quite possible since he was one of the only ones seriously dangled. Yes, there’s still money and tax issues out there, but also teams with big needs, so something has to give.
Florida had good SP out on the trade front too, but their own rash if injuries makes me think they’ll stay put for now.
Best pitcher in the world??
satire, I believe
I’ve been rooting x nyy since ’75 so i watched Montgomery since his debut in 2018 and i believe that he should lower his demand since he’s at the most a 3-4 starter. 3X55-60 is reasonable. Imagine Don Larsen with his ’56 WS heroics asking for the kind of $$$ Boras is asking.
Smell – With plenty of innuendo included.
arguably my favorite part of that post
so much for the Spring Breakout game that was supposed to be televised on MLB.com
It was scheduled for 7 pm and it’s not happening
Oscar, this guy is throlling all over mlbtr, so don’t bother, though i think Bauer should be pitching, i blv mlb is sending a strong message to any kind of the actions that TB was involved in, no matter if he got into a trap and has not been indicted, the message is strong and don’t believe he’s going to pitch on an mlb team for the time being
Feel like the Angels and Snell and the Red Sox and Montgomery are both in staring matches with each other respectively.
He will keep waiting.
Guys like Lorenzen will sign before the guys asking for crazy money.
Those fuys will have to get realistic before it happens, probably after the season starts and they are still on the outside looking in. Then I fully expect a long ramp up or an injury to happen because they are out of baseball shape.
Yea you hear all along the White Sox wanted a heavy return on Cease. No disrespect to the young men they received but is that the heaviest return anyone offered. You would think they would have gotten more
Considering the names we know they asked about that were explicitly not being included (guys like Spencer Jones and Coby Mayo), this is probably the best offer they’ve gotten all offseason. Seems like the real big names were never in the cards for him, at least not this offseason.
Yes-the best prospect to move this offseason was Thorpe to SD in the Soto trade and Thorpe again for Cease. Clubs understandably spent money rather than key prospects this winter no matter what WSox asked or Milw w/Burnes or Marlins with Luzardo.
The deep pocket teams can pay for talent/outspend mistakes rather than sacrifice top shelf prospects in trade.
Mid and small market clubs concluded they need to tighten its grip on prospects even more b/c the cost of even deeply flawed FA pitchers especially is high. They don’t want to make that a habit.
Boras’s two should give up on long-term deals this off-season. They should take three-year deals with two opt-outs. Monty should go to be with his fiancee in Boston. Snell should go home to Seattle.
That’s a lot of “shoulds.” But Boras looks out for Boras, so the point is well taken.
I kind of hope Snell and Montgomery continue to linger on the open market. I don’t want future free agents pulling the same stunt and taking some of the luster off the hot stove season.
Boras was trying to use the sun’s energy to heat your meal. In the middle of the winter.
The Cease trade shouldn’t have any effect on the FA market. Teams have for the most moved on. Many with needs either can’t afford the top remaining FA’s or they have no room in their budget and those with room in their budget may not be ready or unwilling to add a expensive arm.. Unfortunately, fans over react and want the big add even if that’s not a good idea in the long run,
Sixto
sanchez is certainly a candidate to start. He can go three and then four innings in his last two spring games, readying himself for five innings in his major league start. Five innings is about all the Marlins get out of their starters for the first month.
He’s certainly an option again. Avg’d 97 MPH in his most recent appearance. Increasing in velocity on each turn.
Trevor is waiting for you in his sex dungeon. Get going, chap.
Hypothetically, what’s stopping a team from rolling out an entire roster of prospects for the season? They are all baseball players, how much worse can a top 30 prospect be than a guy like a Joey Gallo, Austin Hedges, Javy Baez, etc?
Obviously the pitchers will need to watch their innings, so just give them breaks or call up/down other guys as needed. Team will be absolute dirt cheap and you can either lock up the good ones or keep trading the for more prospects until you find the right mix.
Yeah, why not? There are some teams—like the Pirates—who are moving towards a completely home grown roster. I like and salute that. A couple years ago when they lost 100 games, why not just play the entire group of prospects.
The answer is that there are varying degrees of readiness whether in a physical, mental or psychological sense, of course. I’d wonder how many guys are “ruined” by coming up too early
I’m going to point to a guy like Roansy Contreras here, possibly not a good example but it serves the point
Young man comes up, has a few appearances where he hits upper 90’s on the gun and excels, then has a couple where he gets rocked and is now dogged by control problems like yesterday and self confidence problems
But the Pirates starters of the future like Skenes, Jones, Solometo, Chandler et al provide a great deal of hope when put together with the core that’s already here in the field
I like their lineup right now maybe more than when they were a playoff team. They have real power from quite a few players and potential to improve. I hope some of these guys pan out, seems like they never to, hitters or pitchers. They need to develop these guys properly. I am actually a fan of players coming up when they are younger, around 22-33. Seems like the best of the best are up then if not earlier. I just want so badly for them to finally get a young superstar type like their own version of Acuna/Tatis/J-Rod, etc.
Watching Skenes tonight and having seen Jones this spring, they seem to have the makings of a nice pitching staff. I agree with you. Their player development department has been sorely lacking for a number of years now but there is no doubt they finally are turning the corner
Maybe Cruz will turn out to be the generational player you make note of here. Maybe Termarr when he gets here.
I’m not quite at your point of liking this team more than their most recent playoff team or the teams that were led by Bonds, Bonilla and VanSlyke for that very reason. As we sit right now, we have hopes where the seasons ahead are concerned, but no one has shown himself to be that feared run producer or home run threat. I like their line up, too, but there’s work to be done
“Meanwhile” has to come at the start of the sentence—it can’t come in the middle, separated by two commas. How do you get this wrong and then get it right later in the article, Deeds? Proofread your work.