On the heels of some early morning news, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Outfield uncertainty in Atlanta:
Yesterday, the Braves received some tough news when their biggest offseason addition, outfielder Jurickson Profar, was suspended for 80 games after testing positive for PEDs. The 32-year-old will miss the remainder of the first half and be ineligible for the postseason this year due to the suspension. The news leaves the Braves scrambling to fill out an outfield that looked solid entering the year. Ronald Acuna Jr. is still about a month away from returning to action after last year’s torn ACL, which has left Jarred Kelenic to handle right field on an everyday basis. With Kelenic in right, Bryan De La Cuz and recent waiver claim Stuart Fairchild appear most likely to be tasked with handling left field for the time being, though the club did sign outfielder Alex Verdugo late last month and could lean on him once he gets up to speed after missing most of Spring Training.
2. Extension season in Boston:
The other big news yesterday was a report that the Red Sox and left-hander Garrett Crochet have reached an agreement on a six-year extension that guarantees the southpaw $170MM. The news came as something of a shock after the sides reportedly tabled extension talks when the start of the season came and went without an agreement, but Crochet will now put pen to paper on an agreement a week after the regular season begins. The Red Sox have not yet officially announced Crochet’s extension, though that can be expected to happen in relatively short order. With Crochet locked up long-term, the question remains if any other key pieces of the club’s future will land long-term deals of their own. In particular, eyes will be on second baseman Kristian Campbell after reports over the weekend indicated that Campbell’s camp and the Red Sox are deep into discussions regarding an extension for the well-regarded prospect.
3. Harrington, Smith to debut today:
The morning began with some news on the prospect front, as the Pirates are poised to select the contract of right-hander Thomas Harrington ahead of his big league debut against the Rays later today. The 23-year-old is set to take on righty Shane Baz in Tampa at 7:05pm local time this evening, but he’s not the only player scheduled to make his big league debut today. On the south side of Chicago, right-hander Shane Smith is poised to debut against the Twins at 6:40pm local time this evening. The club’s pick in December’s Rule 5 draft is just a few days shy of his 25th birthday and will celebrate by making his first big league start opposite Minnesota right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson, a former consensus top-100 prospect who pitched to a 4.17 ERA and 4.12 FIP in 28 starts for the Twins last year.
I guess it’s a good thing we have dry powder to make moves….
W/the way things are going for our Braves, we’re probably going to find out that “dry powder’ is some sort of banned illegal substance………………..
Chris Sale for Vaughn Grissom and Masataka Yoshida with $8m a year for 2 years kicked in…
:p
Couldn’t help myself LOL
Profar didn’t have a good season due to roids last year, his career best seasons have come with the San Diego padres. He’s a product of the San Diego clubhouse, he bonds well with everyone there, hence why he can only preform well there.
Or maybe it was from the steroids – ever think of that?
Wouldn’t he have been busted in San Diego too if that was the case?….I personally don’t hate on guys and Ped suspensions, these days a lot of them are from obscure ingredients in Supplements. Not saying right or wrong, just not as malicious as we like to make it out to be.
@Braveshomer..”Wouldnt he..busted San Diego.. don’t hate on guys… obscure ingredients”…I just got a couple of new bridges and some State Parks for sale. You seem like a man of good taste, “wisdom” and discretion, so I’m sure you’ll be interested.
Do I actually own these bridges and state parks? Of course I do; I mean I wouldn’t be offering to sell you a bridge or State park if I didn’t own them would I?
The loss of Lopez might hurt more than Profar.
@mlbfan, what does this even mean? I’m not sure your joke is as funny as you thought it would be lol…And besides, players Juice to hit the ball further and harder. MLB juiced the ball so it would get hit further and harder. At the end of the day what was the difference?
@the
Or its common sense, go look at his stats with the padres compared to any other year.
Why would he only take roids playing with San Diego?
be for real dude.
He’s had one above average season in his career, last year. I just do not see why the Braves can not void the remainder of his contract. He did not know he was taking it, why was he the only Padre to fail. One of our problems is we have been replacing players with castoffs from other teams. Let’s face it, the winner of most World Series is the team that gets hot at the right time.
@oler
profar has 4 and a half seasons of above average ball.
“Profar didn’t..His career best seasons..San Diego Padres”….Profar’s PED dealer clearly resides and only does business in the San Diego/LA area.
Russ – Look at his stats again. His previously best season was 2018 with the Rangers, but again last year was far far better than any other.
Perhaps his fellow Curaçaoan BFF did the same thing in the minors to secure a massive contract with the Red Sox last year.
I get it.
He “bonds well” with Tatis..
Interesting Atlanta had the same thing going on with Ramon Lauriano, another fringe player who needs a boost to perform at the major league level.
What is the connection b/w a 2021 PED violation from Laureano in OAK and the 67 games he played as a Brave in 2024? Profar has been a Brave for 5 games. 5. Games. He’s a BINO. Sure, create a culture where guys excel and there’s some that think it’s because of roids. Jesse Chavez, go pee in a cup.
Nevermind Jesse, just go on home.
@old
Ramon and profar are completely different players, and Ramon is the best out of the two, Ramon has a 13 career WAR compared to profars around 8 career WAR.
ramon has dealt with a good amount of injuries as well, he hasn’t played close to a full season after 2021.
I like Profar, and his swing was massively redone going into 2024. But getting caught with an injectable masking agent seems pretty cut-and-dry. Not going to start hating a guy I cheered for two days ago, though. I think he will hit well (not 2024 levels) when he returns and be a league-average+ LFer.
I’d wager doping is much, much more prevalent than we’ll ever know; it doesn’t bother me. I’d even be for it if it helped curtail pitching injuries. Makes more sense to me than just throwing arms into the grinder.
straight – I totally agree.
Again, if these players have a chance to get out of poverty and earn multi-millions by simply cheating ….. they are gonna do it, most of us would.
And when these guys who get caught claim “I passed other tests” it’s usually one of two reasons:
1) For various reasons they didn’t juice every year of their professional career.
2) Something went wrong with what they used to mask.
Yeah, there’s so much incentive to dope, I don’t really fault anyone for it, but I understand why those playing clean would be upset. I also have Bonds as my GOAT, so there’s that too.
“scrambling to fill out an outfield that looked solid entering the year.”
Did it though?
Harris and Acuna are good at two of the spots (though Acuna’s not available at the moment) But Profar was always a wild card who was likely to disappoint, Kelenic has never really gotten going, and Verdugo was signed too late to be helpful early, and even when ready, is still just Verdugo.
To me, the Braves outfield always felt like it could be a problem, even before the suspension.
Verdugo was probably signed because the Braves knew in some capacity that Profar might get suspended.
Profar’s suspension is without pay. Does anyone know if the money he doesn’t receive for 80 games counts against the Luxury Tax?
To be honest the more likely scenario is the braves signed Verdugo because of the ridiculously cheap price, that he was willing to drop down to the minors to start the season, and because they didn’t have complete confidence in their outfield situation.
Profar was always a wild card due to his previous lack of production. Verdugo was a depth move made at a cheap price. Even without the suspension, signing Verdugo made sense.
Gwynning posted yesterday that Profar’s suspended money does still count against the Luxury Tax. Think he’s correct on that.
I’ve heard a lot about Shane Smith. It will be interesting to see how he does in the Bigs.
Those magical Yankee bats are working for ballplayers who don’t wear pinstripes. Elly de la Cruz of Cincy got 7 RBI last night using a Yankee bat.
Also, noticed Carson Kelly of the Cubs hitting for the cycle in the Athletics’ home opener? First time anyone has hit for the cycle in March — and the first Cub to hit for the cycle since 1993.
Impressive for a Catcher to leg out a triple, especially in a minor league ballpark. If we learned anything about how the A’s new home will play its they are going to need lots of relievers
The Braves are an absolute mess.
I am a Phils fan, but relax…it is really early. The Braves have too good of a team and should find their way back into the race at some point.
Of course, if my Phils were 0-6 with the residual drama, I would be thoroughly panicked.
Thanks, must say you are a good person. I would not do the same for you if this was happening to the Phillies. The Phillies have a good team, the Braves have lost some players but instead of replacing them with major leaguers, we have dropped to Triple A and castoffs from other teams. The one player we signed cheated last year
We are all prone to a bit of schadenfreude at times. ; )
@Carver: They’re “only” 0-5.
Sorry – I was time traveling this morning…forgot that no one else saw tonight’s late game..
Doesn’t help that they started on the road against two of baseball’s best teams. Still 157 games to right the ship….
The link is to a different Thomas Harrington.
Anyone who thinks profar wouldn’t have been tested while having a career year is being ignorant, I have no skin in the game but this is just silly.
Hw said he was tested eight times in 2024, so someone suspected something.
Everyone gets tested in spring. Either he thought he was getting away with something all along or didn’t pass the dumb a** test.
I have no sympathy for juicers, probably because I was in the minors during that era where they turned a blind eye. A lot of those guys have some serious health issues now in their old age.
I also have no sympathy, but like you said if he was tested eight times last year he must have been clean then…
I think it’d be funny if MLBTR dropped an April Fool’s post or 2.
Something somewhat plausible, but unlikely, such as Mike Trout getting traded to the Phillies.
Especially following the Luka Doncic trade, I feel like it’d be so much easier to trick people.
But then again, it’d be difficult to risk potentially sacrificing journalistic integrity for idiots that don’t realize it’s a joke
The Braves could test 2-3 prospects before Acuna returns, refining their farm system’s valuation without public scrutiny.