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White Sox Designate Bennett Sousa For Assignment

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The White Sox announced Monday that they’ve designated lefty Bennett Sousa for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to Elvis Andrus, whose previously reported one-year, $3MM deal with the team is now official.

Sousa, 27, made his big league debut in 2022 but struggled to an 8.31 ERA, yielding 19 runs on 25 hits and 10 walks with 12 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. He’s posted sub-4.00 ERAs with big strikeout numbers and strong ground-ball rates in the upper minors over the past few seasons, but he’s also battled command issues more often than not. Sousa did post a tiny 5.3% walk rate in 22 2/3 innings of Triple-A work in 2021, but that number ballooned to 10.3% in a comparable sample this past season.

Sousa has a pair of minor league option years remaining, which could appeal to other clubs in need of some left-handed bullpen depth. He also averaged a solid 94.3 mph on his heater in the big leagues last year, and his 11.7% swinging-strike rate (and history of missing bats in the minors) suggests there could be improvement on the horizon for a dismal 12.5% strikeout rate.

The White Sox will have a week to trade Sousa, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.

White Sox Sign Elvis Andrus

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Feb. 20: The White Sox have announced the signing and confirmed the one-year, $3MM terms of the deal.

Feb. 19: The White Sox have signed infielder Elvis Andrus to a one-year contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link).  The contract will become official when Andrus passes a physical, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale adds that Andrus will earn a $3MM salary.  Andrus is represented by the Boras Corporation.

Andrus returns to the south side of Chicago after hitting .271/.309/.464 over 191 plate appearances with the White Sox last season.  Released by the A’s in August, the Sox quickly inked Andrus as a shortstop replacement for Tim Anderson, who ended up missing the rest of the season due to a torn hand ligament.  While only over a small sample size, Andrus’ performance with the Sox marked his best offensive surge in years, as the veteran had struggled at the plate during the end of his tenure with the Rangers and for much of his two seasons in Oakland.

With Anderson now back and healthy, the White Sox will use Andrus as their regular second baseman.  This is the first position change of Andrus’ 14-year MLB career, as he has exclusively played shortstop (with a handful of DH games) over his 1947 Major League games.  Andrus has made exactly one professional appearance as a second baseman, and it happened way back in his first pro season of 2005 with the Braves’ rookie ball affiliate.

Lack of experience notwithstanding, there probably isn’t much doubt that Andrus can handle the new position, given that he was still posting quality defensive numbers (as per the UZR/150 and Outs Above Average metrics) as a shortstop as recently as 2022.  It is certainly possible that Andrus’ glovework will be even better at an ostensibly easier position, which gives the White Sox a defensive boost heading into a season with new anti-shift rules coming into play.

The signing addresses a problem position for the Sox that has lingered all offseason.  Chicago signed Hanser Alberto, Erik Gonzalez, and Nate Mondou to minor league contracts, yet neither represented any real upgrade to a second base position that generated only 0.3 bWAR for the White Sox over the entire 2022 season.  With Andrus now in the fold, longtime utilityman Leury Garcia can now used in his usual multi-position role, and more inexperienced options like Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa can now compete for bench jobs or get more seasoning in the minor leagues.

The $3MM outlay for Andrus bumps Chicago’s payroll to roughly $189.1MM, as per Roster Resource.  This is a little less than the approximately $193MM the White Sox spent last season, though GM Rick Hahn indicated back in November that the club was planning to have around the same payroll as it did in 2022.  Some reports suggested that the Sox would even try to cut payroll down to around $180MM, though that plan may have been abandoned in light of rising free agent costs and a relative lack of league-wide action on the trade market.  If the Sox were in contention at midseason, owner Jerry Reinsdorf could possibly okay another payroll bump for a trade deadline addition, even if it’s probably safe to assume that a real spending splurge isn’t coming.

The Angels and Red Sox were the only teams publicly known to have interest in Andrus this winter, with Boston emerging in the wake of Trevor Story’s internal-brace surgery on his right elbow.  There was obviously a lot of action on the shortstop market this offseason, but once the big names of Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa, and Dansby Swanson all signed their contracts, remaining teams with shortstop needs seemed more willing to test out internal options rather than pursue a veteran like Andrus.  Becoming a second baseman might reflect the reality of the market for Andrus, or he might’ve just preferred an everyday role at a new position (and in a familiar environment) rather than remain a shortstop on a new team, but in more of a part-time capacity.

NL Notes: Marte, Stephenson, Dodgers, Taillon

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Starling Marte underwent core surgery in November, and the outfielder talked with reporters (including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) today about the somewhat unexpected nature of that procedure.  Marte ended up requiring surgery on both sides of his groin, providing an unwelcome answer to he’d been bothered by leg and lower-body problems for a big portion of the 2022 season.  Marte played through quad and groin soreness but didn’t go on the injured list until he suffered a fractured finger in September, sidelining him until the playoffs.

Despite all the injuries, Marte’s first Mets season was a success, as he hit .292/.347/.468 with 16 homers over 505 plate appearances.  Both Marte and manager Buck Showalter indicated that the veteran outfielder will be ramped up somewhat slowly in the early days of Spring Training, yet Marte is expected to be ready to roll for the Opening Day lineup.

More from around the National League…

  • Pirates reliever Robert Stephenson is suffering from some right arm discomfort, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Jason Mackey tweets.  It seems to be a precautionary slowdown at this point, and Stephenson threw as recently as Saturday.  Heading into his first full season with the Pirates, Stephenson had a 3.38 ERA and a whopping 36% strikeout rate over 13 1/3 innings after the Bucs claimed him off waivers from the Rockies in late August.  Assuming that this arm issue isn’t overly serious, Stephenson is an interesting high-leverage bullpen arm for Pittsburgh, given that he posted good results in 2019 (with Cincinnati) and 2021 (with Colorado).
  • Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya and other reporters that J.D. Martinez will be the club’s designated hitter “99.9 percent of the time,” though Martinez isn’t necessarily expected to play all 162 games.  This plan differs from the Dodgers’ rotational use of the DH spot last season, and in particular, Will Smith will be slated for more full rest days with Martinez on board, as Los Angeles often used Smith at DH on days when he wasn’t catching.  As productive a bat as Smith has been, he might be even better with a bit more rest, and ideally Martinez’s offense would further enhance the Dodgers’ lineup punch.
  • Jameson Taillon is on a new team and he is now learning a new pitch, as the Cubs right-hander has started to work on a sweeping slider.  As Taillon tells The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma, he was one of the relatively few Yankees pitchers who didn’t use the “whirly,” as his 2020-21 offseason was spent recovering from Tommy John surgery and adjusting after being traded from the Pirates, and Taillon’s 2021-22 offseason work was hampered by the lockout and recovery from ankle surgery.  “This year, healthy offseason, I signed on the earlier end, got familiar with the pitching coaches and I’m comfortable with my delivery.  So I feel like it’s the perfect storm for being able to tinker a little bit,” Taillon said.  The righty inked a four-year, $68MM free agent deal with Chicago in early December.

Read The Transcript Of Our Live Chat Hosted By Former MLB Scout Tim Kissner

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Today’s chat guest, Tim Kissner, has 22 years of experience as an MLB scout.

Tim was born in Homer, Alaska, and grew up in Juneau.  He played baseball at Mendocino Community College and Oregon State and has a masters degree from Eastern Oregon State College.

Kissner began his MLB career as a part-time scout with the Phillies in 1999.  After a few years with the Indians, Kissner moved back to the Phillies, eventually serving as the team’s Pacific Rim coordinator.  Kissner spent time as the Cubs’ West Coast crosschecker, then joined the Mariners as director of international scouting.  Kissner’s next step was as a special assignment scout with the Mets.  He finished his MLB career back with the Phillies.

In terms of amateur scouting, Kissner signed players such as Travis d’Arnaud, Kyle Kendrick, Vance Worley, Scott Mathieson, Andrew Carpenter, Anthony Gose, and Justin De Fratus.  Tim’s Latin American signings include big leaguers Julio Rodriguez, Freddy Peralta, Luis Rengifo, Enyel De Los Santos, and Guillermo Heredia, as well as top prospect Noelvi Marte.  By Tim’s count, the Mariners traded more than 20 of the players he signed there.

Deciding it was time for something new after a career spent scouting all around the world, Tim returned home to become a police officer in Juneau about a year ago.  Tim chatted today with MLBTR readers for nearly two hours, sharing Julio Rodriguez stories, many aspects of the scouting profession, and much more.  Click here to read the transcript.

The Opener: Position Players Report, Press Conference, Live Chat

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With just a few short days until Spring Training games begin, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Official report date for position players:

Today marks the official position player report date for 18 clubs. Many of those organizations will be having their first full team workouts of the spring today, and as was the case on official report dates for pitchers, there’s a chance that as players continue reporting to camp, as of yet unknown injuries reveal themselves. Of course, many players report to camp early, so several position players have been in camp for days or even weeks ahead of the official report date. The twelve clubs that don’t have their official report date for position players today have them tomorrow. Spring Training games begin later this week.

2. Cohen Press Conference

Per Tim Healey of Newsday Sports, Mets owner Steve Cohen will be holding a press conference this morning. Cohen made waves throughout the baseball world this winter as he was seemingly unbothered by the so-called “Cohen Tax” threshold of the luxury tax, blowing past the $293MM threshold in building a 2023 club with a payroll of nearly $374MM for luxury tax purposes, per RosterResource. Cohen’s willingness to spend far beyond what other owners have been willing to spend in the past appears to have been a factor in the creation of the league’s new “economic reform committee”, which has the stated goal of looking at ways to reduce revenue disparity between clubs, but could be a precursor to owners making an effort to institute a salary cap in the future.

3. MLBTR Chat with former scout Tim Kissner:

MLBTR occasionally hosts live chats where former players and other people from around the game of baseball take questions from readers. Today, we’re excited to be hosting Tim Kissner, a former scout with over two decades of experience in MLB. Kissner has been a member of the Guardians, Phillies, Cubs, and Mariners organizations during his career, and signed current big leaguers Travis d’Arnaud and perhaps most notably, Julio Rodriguez, during his time in the game. Be sure to tune in to the live chat at 10am CT to ask any questions you might have for Kissner and his wealth of experience.

John Henry Discusses Payroll, Offseason, “False Narrative” Around Red Sox

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Red Sox principal owner John Henry addressed several topics related to his team in e-mails with The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey and The Boston Sports Journal’s Sean McAdam, and in both Q&A responses, Henry pushed back against criticisms of the club’s offseason.

“There’s been a false narrative that we somehow stopped spending — completely unsupported by the facts — that we no longer sign free agents, that we are uninterested in or incapable of winning despite our track record….I don’t think anyone realizes there are 30 teams in these sports every year that are all doing everything they can to win,” Henry wrote in his response to McAdam.  “In a particular year some clubs are criticized because they aren’t ’going for it’ when they are going every single thing they can short of destroying their futures to win. You always have to keep an eye on the future.  And every team (maybe not the Mets) has a budget.  It’s so easy to fall as we did in 2022 to mediocrity.  We needed to make changes but we haven’t lost our way.”

In regards to Boston’s own budget, Henry told McCaffrey that the Red Sox weren’t going to increase spending into the $300MM range as response to how teams have operated this winter.  The Mets’ whopping $355MM projected payroll leads baseball, and the Yankees and Padres have also opened the checkbook to a large extent this winter, even if both teams are wary of hitting particular luxury-tax penalty tiers.

It has been a busy winter at Fenway Park, with a long list of notable players (i.e. Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill) departing in free agency.  Bloom has been quite active in adding replacements, with such players as Masataka Yoshida, Justin Turner, Kenley Jansen, Chris Martin, Corey Kluber, Adam Duvall, Adalberto Mondesi, and Joely Rodriguez among the notable names brought aboard in signings or trades.  In addition, the Red Sox also locked up a cornerstone piece in signing Rafael Devers to a massive extension that will keep the slugger in Beantown through the 2033 season.

Naturally, Henry pointed to the Devers deal as proof that the Red Sox were still open to extending their in-house stars, as well as making long-term commitments to players into their late 30’s.  “Clubs, fans, media can all wish players had fewer options and that clubs had unlimited budgets, but players — including those you most want to extend — are often going end up going to free agency,” Henry wrote to McAdam.  “Clubs need depth.  Every MLB club faces these issues and it isn’t something we enjoy.  I hated losing Xander as much as anyone on the planet, but players going to free agency isn’t a new phenomenon.  We are faced with difficult choices each offseason.”

With an estimated payroll of just under $193MM, the Red Sox are hardly pinching pennies, and yet that total represents a significant drop from their 2022 year-end payroll of around $221MM.  Boston’s luxury tax number is now down to roughly $217.8MM, under the $233MM threshold and also a reduction after the Red Sox just barely surpassed the tax line in 2022.  The front office’s decision to stay over the tax line last season drew plenty of criticism, as the Red Sox didn’t make the playoffs, and their status as Competitive Balance Tax payors cost them in terms of draft compensation for Bogaerts and Eovaldi.  Because the duo rejected qualifying offers, the Red Sox would’ve received compensatory picks sitting 61st and 62nd overall in the 2023 draft order.  Instead, those picks are 119th and 120th overall.

Henry also used the “false narrative” terminology in his response to McCaffrey, saying that Bogaerts’ decision to sign with the Padres was one of “the biggest factors” in some of the discontent expressed by Red Sox Nation.  In response to the widely-publicized incident of Henry, president Sam Kennedy, and chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom being booed during the team’s Winter Weekend fan event, Henry seemed to imply that media negativity exaggerated the situation, rhetorically asking “did anyone report the standing ovation at the end?”

With all this in mind, Henry didn’t address or seemingly didn’t recognize the chief criticism most Boston fans have about the team’s offseason — not a lack of spending per se, but rather the nature of that spending.  Rather than pursue another major name to replace Bogaerts, the Red Sox instead spread their money around to multiple veteran players on short-term contracts.  The biggest deal to a new player went to Yoshida (an unknown quantity against MLB competition), and the size of Yoshida’s contract also drew surprised responses from multiple rival executives.

Time will soon tell if Bloom’s strategy has paid off, and obviously a lot of fan criticism will diminish if the Sox get back into contention in 2023.  Henry wrote in both e-mails that “no one was happy with” with the team’s 78-84 record last year left, including ownership.

Going into the new season, Henry feels “we are in much better shape than we were after 2021,” when the Red Sox advanced to the ALCS.  That year marked the one winning season of Bloom’s three-year tenure as chief baseball officer, but when asked by McAdam about Bloom’s job performance, Henry noted that “baseball operations is more than one person….So a better question is: how is the organization doing?”

“As I said, we haven’t gotten the kind of results you would have expected for the amount of resources deployed over the last four years with the exception of 2021.  We’ve been building depth, but we saw little depth last year in the major leagues.  You should see some depth this year and improvement.  We have had setbacks with injuries already this season, but we expect to be competitive.  We are at a different stage than the Yankees are, than Toronto this season….It will be interesting.”

Orioles CEO John Angelos Discusses Camden Lease, Ownership, Payroll, Extensions

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Orioles CEO/chairman John Angelos met with reporters (including The Baltimore Sun’s Nathan Ruiz and Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com) today to discuss a wide range of topics regarding the franchise, its offseason moves, and the bigger-picture question of the Orioles’ long-term future in Baltimore.

To the latter subject, Angelos reiterated his family’s commitment to the ownership of the Orioles, saying “I would say that there’s not a plan to change the principal ownership or the managing partnership and there would be no reason to.”  While a new minority owner might be brought into the ownership group, Angelos noted that such a move wouldn’t necessarily be unusual, given that some of the original investors in the group “have transitioned out” in the 30 years since Peter Angelos (John’s father) first brought the franchise and become majority owner.

“It would be nice if we could attract strategic people who care about Baltimore, who care about the way we’re doing this now, who care about the example Camden Yards set and want to be part of it,” Angelos said.  “That’s not necessary or a requisite, but we’re open to it.  We have no plan to change or transition out of what we have today.”

Some of the questions surrounding the Orioles’ ownership situation were raised by a lawsuit filled by Louis Angelos (John’s brother), who raised the possibility that John and his mother Georgia could possibly sell the team, or move the Orioles to Tennessee.  Earlier this month, Louis’ lawsuit and the countersuit from Georgia Angelos were dropped, bringing an apparent end to a legal dispute.  Unsurprisingly, John didn’t get into specifics about the lawsuits, other than to say “those things are distractions, and it’s unfortunate whenever they arise, but all good things going forward now.”

Angelos noted his longstanding commitment to Baltimore and his desire to finalize a new, longer-term lease for the Orioles at Camden Yards.  The current lease is up after the 2023 season, since the O’s passed on their opportunity on February 1 to trigger a five-year lease extension.

Despite this ticking clock, Angelos has confidence that a new deal will be reached, saying that “the actual facility use agreement, renewing a 30-year-old document, that’s really a minor sidelight” to the Orioles’ larger plans for a more fully developed stadium-village type of project, given that Camden Yards is right next to M&T Bank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.  The ideal would be a thriving downtown area that provides value to the city, state, and the franchise beyond just gamedays.

“I have no doubt that we will relatively rapidly move towards the renewal of the public-private partnership and I would be very disappointed if I’m not able to work with the governor and his team…to make that happen in the next six months. I’d love to have that as an All-Star break gift for everybody, really,” Angelos said.  “There’s just no there there other than we’re going to get that done.  That’s always been one of the things I committed to and I have no intention of not seeing that happen.  I know the governor and his folks are just as keen on it as we are.”

Making reference to himself as “here for the long haul” with the franchise, Angelos used the same terminology to describe GM Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde, implying some security with the contracts of both men.  While specifics weren’t mentioned, Angelos said Elias and Hyde’s current deals aren’t “expiring in a year or two years or anything like that.”

Since the Orioles usually don’t publicize contract terms, not much is known about the nature of either agreement.  For instance, Hyde initially signed a three-year deal as manager in December 2018, but he also inked an extension during the 2020-21 offseason — a fact that wasn’t reported until September 2021.  Elias was hired a month before Hyde, and while terms were never released about the GM’s contract, it is fair to speculate that he might have gotten a relatively lengthy deal (say, four years) considering the wide scope of the rebuild project the Orioles were on the verge of entering.  That said, Angelos’ comments hint that Elias might have signed an extension in the interim, keeping him in Baltimore through at least the 2025 season.

Locking up Elias and Hyde certainly seems like a no-brainer move given the progress the Orioles made in 2022.  The first three seasons of the Elias/Hyde rebuild resulted in non-competitive seasons, but the O’s were a very respectable 83-79 last season.  Star rookie Adley Rutschman has already established himself as a quality player, and Rutschman might be just the first of several top prospects the Orioles can hope can make a quick impact at the MLB level.

However, the immediate follow-up to this breakout season has been modest, since the O’s have had a relatively quiet offseason.  According to Roster Resource, the Orioles’ projected $63.4MM payroll for 2023 is essentially the same as their year-end figure from 2022, since Chris Davis finally came off the team’s books following last season.

Angelos didn’t close the door on increased spending in the future, saying “Could payroll be double or triple what it is?  Or could it be over 100 million?  Yeah.  We’re not there yet.  We have a very young team that’s overachieved and overperformed because of the great work of our baseball folks.”

“Payroll, I think there’s a range there that Mike and his team have to determine.  Do I have a role in that?  Really only to make sure their recommendations are properly funded.  We’re probably not going to have or is any other middle or small-market team going to have the payroll of the Mets or the Dodgers or even the Red Sox, certainly not the Yankees.  That’s not an Oriole thing.  That’s a small or middle-market team in this economic system.”

Citing other teams with notably lower payrolls, Angelos mentioned that the Guardians, Brewers, and Rays are teams that the O’s would like to emulate, since “we’re aiming for sustained success, and I think what you see in a place like Tampa, they have had sustained success….I would be disappointed if we’re not the next Tampa, which means being sustainably competitive and relevant.”

This might not be welcome news for Baltimore fans, who would certainly like to see their team become a regular contender but with the flexibility to spend at a much higher level than the Rays.  The Orioles’ spending fluctuated when Peter Angelos had day-to-day control over the team, though the O’s had top-10 payrolls as recently as 2016 and 2017.

Astros Notes: Altuve, Gage, McCullers

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Dana Brown’s first few weeks with the Astros has already seen the new general manager sign Cristian Javier to a five-year, $64MM contract extension, and more long-term deals seem to be on Brown’s radar in the near future.  Jose Altuve was one of several players cited by Brown as extension candidates, with the new GM making the particular point that the longtime second baseman “should be in Houston for life.”  This is music to Altuve’s ears, who told MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart and other reporters that “it’s really good to hear that” from Brown.  “I hope to retire here, so I think we’re on the same page.”

Altuve has become a franchise icon over his 12 seasons with Houston, and has already signed one big-money extension with the club — a seven-year, $163.5MM deal that runs through the 2024 season.  A new contract could overwrite the last year or two of that previous deal, of course, or the Astros might simply look to tack a few more seasons onto Altuve’s existing pact.  2025 is Altuve’s age-35 season, yet there isn’t any sign of slowing down, considering that Altuve’s 164 wRC+ in 2022 was the best of his career.

More from the defending World Series champs….

  • The Astros claimed Matt Gage off waivers from the Blue Jays earlier this week, and Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi adds some interesting details behind the transaction.  Gage will receive a split contract with a $770K salary in the majors and $170K in the minors, and the Astros included a $125K signing bonus.  The bonus was included in order to convince Gage to join the team, because Gage had the right to reject Houston’s claim and test free agency since the Jays placed him on release waivers rather than standard outright waivers.  Before offering the signing bonus, Brown first had to contact the league office to confirm that the unusual tactic was allowed in release waiver situations.
  • Manager Dusty Baker gave a positive update on Lance McCullers Jr. yesterday following the news that the righty had been temporarily shut down due to arm soreness.  Baker and Brown made similar statements today to FOX 26’s Mark Berman (Twitter links) and other reporters, with Brown noting that he is “not alarmed at all” by the “day-to-day” nature of McCullers’ issue.

AL Notes: Twins, LeMahieu, Means

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Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey told reporters, including Dan Hayes of The Athletic, that right-handed prospect Jordan Balazovic will miss the start of Spring Training due to a broken jaw stemming from “an altercation away from the field.” A source with the team indicated to Hayes that Balazovic suffered the injury following a verbal altercation last Saturday, though Balazovic did not retaliate physically. Balazovic underwent surgery and is currently unavailable, though he could begin to play catch in seven to 10 days.

Balazovic came into the 2022 season viewed as a consensus top 100 prospect but struggled mightily with injuries and ineffectiveness last year. He was out until May 1 last year with a knee injury and then struggled to a 7.68 ERA in 72 2/3 minor league innings last year while pitching almost exclusively at the Triple-A level. Now it appears his 2023 is off to a rocky start of its own. Fortunately for Minnesota, the club has an impressive amount of starting pitching depth, with Pablo Lopez, Tyler Mahle, Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Kenta Maeda, and Bailey Ober all capable big league starters even with Chris Paddack set to spend most of the 2023 season on the injured list.

Elsewhere around the AL…

  • Sticking with the Twins, center fielder Byron Buxton and first baseman Alex Kirilloff are both in places the club is comfortable with health-wise at this point in the spring, according to Hayes. Buxton is fully recovered from last year’s knee surgery and is playing without limitations, while Kirilloff, Falvey notes, is behind most other hitters as the organization plans on taking things slowly with him following his second wrist surgery, which Hayes notes was particularly intensive. Both figure to be part of the Twins Opening Day lineup if healthy, though the Twins acquired Michael A. Taylor earlier this offseason in part as insurance in center if Buxton continues to struggle to stay healthy, while rumors of the clubs interest in a veteran, right-handed complement to Kirilloff at first base have percolated throughout the offseason.
  • Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu talked with reporters this morning, including Erik Boland of Newsday Sports and Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. LeMahieu noted that he is at “100 percent” as he enters camp this spring, able to play with no limitations. In addition, LeMahieu says he’s excited to play in a utility role for the Yankees this season. With Anthony Rizzo at first base and Gleyber Torres at second, while Oswald Peraza, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa all expected to mix and match at shortstop and with Josh Donaldson at third base, at least until top prospect Anthony Volpe is ready to contribute, LeMahieu figures to pick up playing time at each of first base, second base, and third base this season. LeMahieu played second base almost exclusively prior to signing with the Yankees ahead of the 2019 season, but since then has moved around the infield more often, racking up 872 innings of work at first base and 1,171 innings at third base in a Yankees uniform.
  • While Orioles left-hander John Means won’t factor into the Baltimore Opening Day rotation, he certainly seems to be on the right track to have an impact on the club at some point this season. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told reporters, including Roch Kubatko of MASN, that means will begin throwing off a half mound sometime in the coming week. Means has had the look of a solid mid-rotation starter since taking on a full-time role in 2019, pitching to a 3.72 ERA (124 ERA+) in 353 1/3 innings over that time while earning an All Star appearance and finishing second in AL Rookie of the Year voting for his 2019 season, where he posted a 3.60 ERA (131 ERA+) in 155 innings of work. Whenever Means is ready to return, he’ll be a welcome addition to a rotation that saw Kyle Gibson replace outgoing veteran righty Jordan Lyles and added lefty Cole Irvin in a trade with Oakland this offseason.

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