Astros OF Cam Smith has officially made the opening day roster after a slow speculative leak broke that news across a couple days. Wasn’t rocket surgery. Smith is making the Houston brass look pretty good given the context, and he’s earned it on the field. Fun story to follow. I suppose there’s a chance he can slump his way back to the minors, but I’m betting against that, envisioning something like .265 with 25-ish home runs.
Cubs RHP Ben Brown will be the team’s fifth starter while Javier Assad recovers from an oblique injury. If he’s anywhere close to the level he pitched at last year (3.58 ERA, 1.08 WHIP) he’ll hold a spot as long as he’s healthy. Wrigley is a nice place to pitch most days, and the Cubs should be good on both sides of the ball this season.
There’s no easy remedy for the melancholy of seeing Rockies OF Zac Veen get sent back to the infinite sadness of Colorado’s minor league system. He might just as easily be the starting left fielder by June. Cheers to Nick Martini and all that, but he’s not exactly a long term option at 34 years old. Sean Bouchard has a 157 wRC+ this spring. Jordan Beck has a 93 wRC+ with a 34.7 percent strikeout rate. Hunter Goodman is on another planet (239 wRC+). They’ve already played Tyler Freeman in the outfield with Kyle Farmer at second base, so that’s on the table, too. I’ve seen people penciling Martini into a pile of at bats, but the Rockies have a lot of options, is all I’m trying to say.
Blue Jays OF Alan Roden (aka ‘The Thinker’ around these parts) made the team on Sunday, and while the story coming out of Toronto says Myles Straw will be the center fielder until Dalton Varsho returns, I’m betting on the Blue Jays to find room for Roden’s bat more often than not, and he’s been playing a little center field in spring training.
Athletics SS Max Muncy will make the team and presumably play just about every day as the second or third baseman. I like his chances to hit. Here’s what I said in the Athletics top ten:
“It’s not the loudest tool box you’ve ever heard clattering around the worksite that is wherever this team will be playing in four years, but Muncy might be able to get the job done at the keystone. He’s been playing against older players since he entered the league out of high school, so there’s probably a little more than meets the eye in his 6’0” 180 lb frame. In 50 Triple-A games this year, he slashed .277/.374/.491 with eight home runs and four stolen bases.”
I thought the Pirates might consider RHP Carmen Mlodzinski for the closer role given his elite ability to avoid the barrel (99th percentile), but they’ve put him in the rotation instead, and I think he’ll be pretty good there. He got off to a rough start last year but posted 2.20 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in 45 innings from May 31 through season’s end. That’s in relief of course, and his stuff might back up a bit as he gets stretched out, but I’m intrigued.
Mets 2B Brett Baty closes out the spring with a slash line of .353/.441/.745 with four home runs and more walks (8) than strikeouts (6). Jeff McNeil’s injury offers a convenient way to get Baty into the lineup and find out if the gains will hold in the regular season.
Thanks for reading!
