‘‘Twas the night before baseball,
and all through the league,
the pitchers were feeling forearm fatigue.
Opening week really is the most wonderful time of the baseball year.
If you can find just the right angle, watching roster decisions trickle in feels like a magic eye picture slowly morphing into focus.
On the other hand, that leads to days of fuzzy weirdness, like the Rockies demoting Michael Toglia or the Orioles leaving Grayson Rodriguez in the minors. Christopher Morel is not in the major leagues anymore? Did I really see that?
Triston McKenzie’s lat strain pushes Hunter Gaddis into the rotation. Gaddis haddiself a good spring and pitched extremely well in Triple-A last year (0.93 WHIP in 45 innings). Fun pickup, assuming you’re not trying to replace McKenzie with him.
If Gaddis has a bad time, Xzavion Curry made the opening day roster and could get the next shot before we see Gavn Williams or Tanner Bibee. Still, clock’s ticking. Especially if Plesac’s not clicking.
Yankees RHP Jhony Brito inherits the first chance born from Luis Severinos’s arm troubles. He was solid in 70.2 innings at Triple-A last year (1.17 WHIP) and could hold the job for however long they need him. He’s been effective throughout his minor league climb but was never young-for-level or spicy enough to warrant much press.
Keep an eye on Yankees RHP Yohendrys Gomez, a 23-year-old who posted a 2.31 ERA and 1.03 WHP in 11.2 spring innings. He’s about 21 months out from elbow surgery and gaining ground in a hurry. The Yankees are running out of viable options. They might try Deivi Garcia again before going to Gomez, but I think we’ll see him at some point this season.
Atlanta rattled the fantasy world in selecting Orlando Arcia to play shortstop after we heard they were choosing between Vaughn Grissom and Braden Shewmake. On the one hand, it goes to show the value of some of these spring story leaks from people who purport to have inside info. On the other, I was pretty surprised they had doubts about Grissom in the first place. On a third, slightly mutated hand, I’m not surprised they wanted to see Arcia play every day. He’s been good with them, and he was a two-win major league shortstop at age 22.
The Rockies . . . sigh . . . Goodnight Michael Toglia. At least for now. Hello Jurickson Profar and Mike Moustakas. Lead us to the promised land. One nice thing is Elehuris Montero seems to be the starting third baseman. Considering they sent 50 million dollars along with Nolan Arenado to acquire him, it’s hard to give them a whole lot of credit for actually playing him, but still, credit to them for not blasting another Montero-sized hole in their foot.
More credit to the Rockies: Ezequiel Tovar really is going to be their opening day shortstop. Felt more like fiction than reality most of this month, but here we are.
The Profar and Moose signings aren’t bad either, tbh. Toglia could stand to mash Triple-A for a month or so, which is probably about all one should expect from Moose at this point anyway.
Blake Sabol made the Giants opening day roster. Will probably make their opening day lineup. I’ve been sniped on him a couple times this draft season. It’s the worst. Takes me straight to tilt.
I’m awaiting news on the April fate of Giants 2B Brett Wisely, who has been playing centerfield quite a bit this spring. I’ve added him in the Highlander and the CBS NL Only.
Marlins RHP Edward Cabrera won a spot in the rotation and feels like one of the major values of draft season.
A couple relievers I highlighted during the Opportunity Watch made their teams: Astros RHP Ronel Blanco and Rays RHP Kevin Kelly. I like them both but Kelly especially as a dark horse candidate for some saves and clean ratios in deep leagues.
Thanks for reading!
Have a great opening day!
