The World Baseball Classic is underway, leaving most major league rosters ripe with opportunity. Also with some soft spots. The stats could get weird for a little while here. We’re always taking spring outcomes with a grain of salt anyway, but it can be tough when a guy I like for a breakout like Twins RHP Taj Bradley cruises through four scoreless innings against a Yankees lineup with four regulars.
Mariners 2B Cole Young hit two home runs on Friday, and though I know this will sound like an overreaction, that’s probably enough to cement him as the starter on the opening day.
Yankees RHP Cam Schlittler made his spring debut and looked healthy, cruising through 2.1 innings with four strikeouts and zero earned runs. Seems safe to slide him back up the draft board if you flushed him at all due to hesitations over health.
Tigers RHP Drew Anderson looks great so far, recording ten strikeouts against one walk through 8.1 scoreless innings. His kick change is a legitimate big league wipeout pitch. If he ever breaks into the rotation, I’m adding him everywhere.
Kudos to those of you who bought Reds 2B Matt McLain on the dip. He’s slashing .647/.700/1.412 with four home runs, three walks and one strikeout through 20 plate appearances. The shoulder injuries (torn left labrum and cartilage damage) that sapped his power in 2025 appear to be healed.
Mariners OF Brennen Davis has put Seattle in an odd spot, slashing .476/.500/1.095 with three home runs in 25 plate appearances. It’s a good kind of odd spot, but they paid $6.5 million for Rob Refsnyder this winter and traded for Luke Raley last year. They’d probably have to lose one of those guys to keep Davis, a 26-year-old who hit 17 home runs in just 50 games last season. If I’m working in the Atlanta front office, I’m pounding the table to try and pry Davis away and play him pretty much every day. He’s battled back issues throughout his career and might never be a 150-game guy, but that’s not as big of a deal in today’s game as it might’ve been 20 years ago, especially with the universal designated hitter now open to players who need a break.
The Rockies have a roster battle at the keystone, where Edouard Julien, Ryan Ritter, Adael Amador and Tyler Freeman are all potential opening day starters. Freeman has played all over and might fit best in a utility role. Ritter has hit the whole way up but managed just a 64 wRC+ in 207 plate appearances across 60 games as a rookie. Amador walked (13.5%) more than he struck out (12.7%) as a 22-year-old in 80 Triple-A games last year, slashing .303/.405/.478 with 11 home runs and 20 stolen bases in 29 attempts. He’ll have to run a little less if he can’t bring the success rate up, but you can’t fake those plate skills. However this shakes out in the spring training, he remains the ideal long-term solution. Julien probably entered camp as the front runner, but he’s slashing .167/.231/.167 through 14 plate appearances after having pretty much misplaced his ability to hit a baseball for the last two years. If I have to pick a winner today, I might pick Ritter and his .478 batting average in spring. Oh and I should mention SS Chad Stevens while I’m here. He’s hit well enough on his climb through the minors and could be found money in Coors at age 27.
If they wanted to try something new, the Chicago White Sox could field a lineup of six second basemen. Lenyn Sosa, Chase Meidroth, Luisangel Acuna, Curtis Mead, Tanner Murray and Sam Antonacci have all looked useful this spring. Miguel Vargas and Brooks Baldwin have played second base, too, so even with Antonacci likely ticketed for Triple-A, they could roll out seven players with keystone experience. Acuna could bat left-handed. I actually kinda like all these guys and hope they find a way to play some of them every day.
Giants RHP Trevor McDonald looked like a rotation candidate at some point this winter, but the club added Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser, which might’ve nudged McDonald onto the roster bubble to break camp as a swingman out of the bullpen. With seven strikeouts through six shutout innings across three outings, he’s probably already pitched his way off the bubble unless something goes sideways. Could be a win vulture for our purposes.
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