American League

Blue Jays

• George Springer says he’s fine after having a bone spur removed that prevented him from straightening his arm last year.

“I’m in a good spot and I’m very, very happy about it,” Springer said. “It feels good to feel good.”

Following the end of last season, Springer said he stayed in Toronto longer than he normally would have to allow for his concussion symptoms to subside before returning home. Only a short time after, in late October, Springer travelled to see Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas and underwent surgery to remove the bone spur in his elbow that he’d been playing through since at least June.
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The bone spur was large enough that Springer explained he could feel it underneath his skin and, at its worst, he couldn’t hold his arm out straight.

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American League

Angels

• Anthony Rendon is fully healthy.

Rendon is fully healthy after dealing with a right wrist injury last year and is looking to finally put together a full, productive season with the Angels.

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American League

Athletics

• The A’s are loaded at first base with the addition of Jesús Aguilar

For a rebuilding A’s club, Aguilar could, at the very least, provide value as a reliable stopgap at first base until No. 1 prospect Tyler Soderstrom, whose quick ascension through the system saw him finish last season with Triple-A Las Vegas, receives his promotion to Oakland, which could come as early as this season. Seth Brown, Dermis Garcia and Ryan Noda are others expected to be in the mix at first base for the A’s.

Seth Brown was already in danger of losing playing time because of his splits (career .791 OPS vs RHP, .527 OPS vs LHP) but this might cement Brown around 450 PA. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Athletics

• James Kaprielian’s status is unknown and A.J. Puk will be stretched out as a starter.

James Kaprielian’s status for Spring Training is unknown after he underwent shoulder surgery this offseason, and A.J. Puk is going to be stretched out to a starter’s workload this spring.

Puk’s 66 IP last season was the most he’s thrown since his 125 IP back in 2017. I’m guessing 120 IP max for him.

As for pitches, Puk was mainly four-seamer (10% SwStr%, 41% GB%) and slider (19% SwStr%, 33% GB%) last season. He’s thrown other pitch types in the past and will need to revive one in order to navigate a lineup a third time. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• Jared Walsh is expected to be ready by Spring Training.

Walsh had surgery to alleviate thoracic outlet syndrome, but he is also expected to be ready for Spring Training.

Astros

• Michael Brantley should be ready by Spring Training and be the team’s primary DH.

Brantley won’t be able to swing until mid-January, but the Astros believe he’ll be ready when Spring Training begins one month later.

As for his role, the Astros would like to allocate more left-field playing time to Yordan Alvarez, which would shift Brantley into a more prominent DH role. There’d still be a split, but Alvarez is likely slated for more time with his glove. With Brantley back, Jake Meyers and Chas McCormick should split time in center.

While I will have a share or two of Yordan Alvarez, I don’t like the idea of his knees playing a bunch in the outfield. Read the rest of this entry »

• Masataka Yoshida is expected to be posted soon.

The Buffaloes are going to allow Masataka Yoshida to move to MLB via the posting system. https://t.co/zKibIhgc81

— Jason Coskrey (@JCoskrey) November 16, 2022

Last year in Japan, he hit .336/.449/.559 with 21 HR and 4 SB. In 2021, he hit .336/.426/.557 with 21 HR and 0 SB. Read the rest of this entry »

• Here is a nice writeup by Jayson Stark on the possible implications of the rule changes. I can’t post the entire article but I recommend reading it all to get a base understanding of projected changes. There will be a ton more to come on this subject over the Winter.

So here we are, a week or so after baseball announced its three most tide-shifting rule changes in almost half a century — pitch clock, shift limits and bases the size of the tires on your Honda. And now here’s the safest prediction I’ve ever made:

Stuff…will…happen.

American League

Angels

• Jared Walsh got Thoracic Outlet Surgery from an injury he dealt with since his days pitching.

But Walsh struggled offensively, hitting .215/.269/.374 with 15 homers and 44 RBIs in 118 games before being shut down with thoracic outlet syndrome on Aug. 24.

Walsh, who underwent season-ending surgery on Sept. 1, spoke to the media on Friday about his operation and what to expect going forward. Walsh said the injury occurred a few years ago but worsened this season. He believes he might have injured himself pitching when the Angels experimented with him being a two-way player in 2019, saying it caused tightness in his neck and left shoulder. But the good news is that he’s expected to be ready for Spring Training next year.

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American League

Rangers

• Nathaniel Lowe has decided to swing at better pitches.

“Just committing to better pitches,” he said. “Offense as a whole is trending in such a direction where it’s like, such a visual thing, as far as ‘Does my swing look good?’ But the real one true answer is ‘Does your swing produce?’ And if you get good pitches to hit, are you doing what you’re supposed to do with good pitches to hit? I think that I’ve finally found a space where I can just commit to that.

OK, that gives us a place to start. What has Lowe done with pitches in the strike zone? It’s interesting to think back to spring training — remember when he simply wasn’t swinging at any pitches, choosing instead to track them for the first few games of Cactus League play? It felt weird to everyone, including his manager. It turns out that strategy was more like a big cat stalking its prey. Somewhere after Opening Day, Lowe — as he said above — started committing to (see: “swinging at”) better pitches.

His Swing% is up from 45% to 52% and his .855 OPS is a career-best. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• Tucker Davidson has added a changeup.

Davidson threw his slider 35 times, getting seven swings and misses with the pitch, while also throwing his four-seamer 35 times and getting one whiff. But he did locate his four-seamer for seven called strikes to help him get ahead in counts. He also mixed in six changeups, which is a pitch he’s been working on with Wise.

“He had his slider and landed a couple good changeups,” interim manager Phil Nevin said. “He’s really been working on that changeup with Wiser, who is terrific at teaching that pitch. He threw some really good ones today. It’s more of a look [for the hitters] and it’s in their head now.”

José Suarez is working on a second changeup.

Suarez started working on his new changeup earlier this year at the suggestion of Angels pitching coach Matt Wise, who helped Suarez figure out a grip that allows the new changeup to move differently than the old one.

“It helps me a lot because they have two different movements,” Suarez said via interpreter Manny Del Campo. “My old one is more like a fastball, and this one has more movement.”

Added Nevin: “You can throw one for strikes, and the other one’s kind of more of a chase pitch. Good hitters taking the swings that they are off of it — it’s pretty impressive.”

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I’m in a state where I don’t have lineups to review before the weekend but Spring Training is over, all the roster speculation is over. I’m going to go over some pieces of information that could be useful from Spring Training and yesterday’s games.

• First, here are the strikeout minus walk leaders from Spring Training. Besides news of velocity and arsenal changes, I find this information the most useful. It shows that the pitcher is being productive while throwing quite a few innings.

Spring Training leaders in total K-BB. pic.twitter.com/UClP07rsno

— Jeff Zimmerman (@jeffwzimmerman) April 7, 2022

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