Mining the American League Managers

Matt Marton-Imagn Images

The following are excerpts from the managers’ press conferences from the Winter Meetings.

• With the new automated strike zone, the exact height of hitters will be needed.

Q. Do you have any other early team-wide strategies you’re thinking about when it comes to using it?

A.J. HINCH: I’ve spent some time talking to our P.D. group and even some of the players who have gone up and down. Right now we’re locked in on measurements and making sure that we have everybody in camp at the time in which they’re going to make those measurements get done. And we’ll adapt accordingly.

I think, similar to the replay, the subtle little adjustments that everybody’s had to make around some new rules. It will fall into a good rhythm and a good understanding of the — I think the first month will probably be the hardest month.

I wonder which hitters will shrink the most.

American League

Angels

• No relevant options (Kurt Suzuki said the word “options” nine times during the interview).

Astros

• After some earlier reports of Yordan Alvarez playing more outfield, he will be the team’s primary DH.

Q. How vital is a healthy Alvarez to your team next year? He swung the bat so well when he came back before the knee injury and seemed he carried you at some points. Getting him for a full season, what would that —

JOE ESPADA: I think that’s going to be one of our goals is how we keep Yordan Alvarez healthy. Obviously the DH, it’s something that I’m going to focus and really try to get him to spend most of his season there. We do have some depth in our organization, in our team. We can move some guys around.

But keeping Jordan healthy, I think DHing will be a good spot for him. Obviously he can also play some right. But keeping Yordan in the lineup for a long number of games is crucial to us.

• The manager is still undecided on what position Jose Altuve will play.

Q. Your intention to keep Yordan at DH primarily, what’s that mean for left field and how does Altuve fit into that? He played so many different positions last year. How do you view Altuve and left field?

JOE ESPADA: We’re having those conversations right now because I think Altuve showed that he could play some left. But also one of my goals is to keep Altuve in the lineup and how to keep Altuve healthy to play a big amount of games.

Q. Understanding the roster can still change, is it a viable possibility that Altuve can go in this season as the primary second baseman, is that something you would consider?

JOE ESPADA: I’m considering that. Obviously we know that’s his prime — he’s played that position for a long period of time. So, yes, he will play some second base.

But again, I want to have conversations with Altuve. I want Altuve to be 100 percent entering Spring Training, and he’s getting there. And once we get there, I’ll sit down with Altuve like I do every offseason and we’ll discuss how we’re going to move forward.

Athletics

• Some of the minor league arms the team is considering are Gage Jump, Kade Morris, Braden Nett, Henry Baez, Jamie Arnold, and Steven Echavarria.

Q. Talking to David yesterday, obviously about needs this offseason and looking at areas of improving. Kind of points to pitching as maybe an area you’re looking at. Obviously you had a nice finish to the last year with a group of pitchers you felt good about. How do you feel — what maybe needs to happen for, I guess, the next step you guys are trying to take 2026, improvements that can help to get to the goal you want to get to?

MARK KOTSAY: …

And I think we’re in a position here now where the young, talented pitchers are in a very similar kind of spot. They may be a little bit younger than what our group was, if you look at and identify the guys that we’ve looked to be impactful pitchers in our future, which Gage Jump and Arnold and Echavarria, and we’ve got Morales in the big leagues. You’ve got kids like Morris, Nett, Baez.

• Reading between the lines here, it sounds like Denzel Clarke will start in center field and will keep the job as long as he performs.

Q. You mentioned the young core, and obviously Wilson and Kurtz have been outstanding, Rooker and Butler and everything. One of the things I’m wondering is Denzel Clarke is amazing defensively, but where do you see him playing next year or so?

MARK KOTSAY: The goal has always been out in center field. The unfortunate injury which led to him not being able to kind of come back and play in, what we want to say is a sufficient amount of games to evaluate his future.
…
But for us, Denzel solidified an area on the defensive side that we were really lacking to start the season. And it showed. It impacted games. For me, Denzel can be that same player if we can get him on the field for 140 games and let him go out and control center field. The offensive side is, to me, a bonus. We saw flashes and the athleticism is in there. He was making some great adjustments at the plate.

Blue Jays

• Anthony Santander’s shoulder is “feeling normal”.

Q. How’s [Santander’s] shoulder?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Shoulder is good. Back is good. He’s just feeling normal. I was just texting with him last week and a couple days ago. Finally feels normal, so that’s a good thing. Just get him in here and have a normal Spring Training hopefully. The notorious low starter that he is, hopefully we can speed the process up and hit the ground running.

• Cody Ponce 폰세 will be a starter.

Q. What’s your read on Cody Ponce and what he brings and how he fits?… Going to be a starter?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Definitely going to be a starter.

Guardians

• David Fry will catch and play in the field this upcoming season.

Q. David Fry, last year was a very trying year for him with rehabbing with the face. What are your expectations for him next year, how he slots into all this?

STEPHEN VOGT: I’m just excited that David is going to be healthy. Obviously avoided a big scare there at the end of the year. That was a scary moment. So thankfully he’s okay.

David healthy, him being able to catch and play the field a little bit too probably, it just adds a completely different dynamic to our team. I think it’s going to alleviate a lot of the pressure he was putting on himself to only produce at the plate for really over a year. You think about the second half of ’24, he could only really DH as well.

David having a full winter, healthy, completed the rehab, it’s going to be really exciting to be able to use him the way his skill set is intended to.

• Brayan Rocchio will be the team’s shortstop, and Gabriel Arias will play all around the diamond.

Q. With the middle of the diamond, what do you want to see from Arias and — or will you keep Arias at short and will you keep Rocchio at second base? Is that how the season is going to — Spring Training will open?

STEPHEN VOGT: I would imagine it would open similar to that. You’re going to see Bryan play a lot of shortstop at Spring Training as well and Gabby probably play a little bit elsewhere just to be ready for it. But with the way those two played up the middle and the way they finished the season strong, it would be hard to not pencil those two guys in there playing shortstop and second base.

We also have a number of players that are going to be competing for spots. We’re going to have a lot of competition in camp both position-wise and pitching. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Mariners

• No fantasy-relevant quotes.

Orioles

• Ryan Helsley will be the closer.

Q. There’s obviously still plenty more moves to be made, but how do you envision Ryan Hellsley fitting into your back-end plans? Is he someone you see as a closer or are you open to the kind of high-leverage role, multiple innings, that kind of thing?

CRAIG ALBERNAZ: For the regular season, yeah, he’s going to be our closer. I think for someone like that, it’s tough to put guys like that into like different spots in the game in the regular season, because now those guys, they’re going to pitch 200 innings.

Rangers

• Sounds like Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford will split time in center field to keep both healthy.

Q. You get Nimmo. You’re hoping to have Carter healthy all year. What have you thought about how you align that outfield?

SKIP SCHUMAKER: There’s been conversation with the front office and our coaching staff. I can’t tell you exactly what it’s going to look like. There’s definitely been conversation with Wyatt in center field. There’s definitely been conversation with Nimmo on both corners. Obviously Carter can play an elite center field.

So we’re trying to figure all of that out right now and trying to keep guys healthy on the field every day as well. I think Wyatt can play all three outfield positions, and I think he can win a Gold Glove in all three outfield positions. I think he’s that elite.

I also think Carter is a Gold Glove center fielder. Do I think he can play the corners? Absolutely. I know that Brandon’s played a lot of left field. We’ve talked about him playing in right field as well. He’s open to both. But trying to get these guys healthy, on the field and productive for 150-plus is the most ideal situation for us. Trying to figure out how we can do that with Carter is a big thing for us. And I don’t know if everyone has the answers right now to keep him healthy the entire year, but I know he’s absolutely trying to do everything he can this offseason to prove that he is that guy that can hit righties and lefties and an everyday player and back to where he was in 2023.

• Even Carter will get a chance to prove he can hit lefties.

Q. Back to Evan, do you just have to rip the Band-Aid off and let him play every day? Or is it something you’d be selective, like it’s lefties for him?

SKIP SCHUMAKER: My opinion, in this league, you earn your stripes. So I think you have to give them opportunity to earn your stripes. So I think there’s elite lefties, ace type of lefties in the league that are challenging for lefties and righties. And then there’s some lefties that we feel really comfortable letting them hit against, whether it’s a starter or middle reliever.

But I think you earn your at-bats in this league. Nothing’s given, and I think he understands that, and I think he’s out there to prove that he can play against lefties. But, again, you have to give him a little bit of an opportunity to do that to produce.

• Josh Smith, Ezequiel Duran, and Cody Freeman will get a shot at the second base job.

Q. What is your early evaluation of the second base situation to this point?

SKIP SCHUMAKER: …

I think Smith is in the mix, obviously. I think he’s going to have a really good shot at it. I think Duran is going to have a shot at it. Freeman is going to have a shot at it. So we have internal options, there’s no doubt.
Now, is it a platoon? Is it an everyday situation? I don’t know really what it looks like yet. But I do think we have a lot of options there. It’s going to be fun to see in spring how they come in in the offseason and who really is hungry for that position and doesn’t want to let it go.

Rays

• Griffin Jax will remain in the bullpen.

Q. The last couple years the Twins had considered making Griffin Jax a starter. What about his mix makes that a possibility?

KEVIN CASH: The mix is pretty simple. He’s got four or five quality pitches. You can dream a little bit on how does that play out over six innings as opposed to one inning? I know we’ve had some conversation, but we really like Jax in our bullpen. It is dominant, electric stuff.

• Garrett Cleavinger, Griffin Jax, and Manny Rodriguez were mentioned as the team’s potential closers.

Q. How do you see the bullpen shaking out post Fairbanks functioning as a traditional closer?

KEVIN CASH: I think try to keep it as fluid as possible. We’ve got guys that have certainly closer stuff, closer mentality and have closed games between, you said it, Cleav, Jax, Manny Rodriguez. I don’t want to leave anybody out. But there are guys that pitch with a lot of confidence at the back end of games.

No mention of Edwin Uceta.

Red Sox

• Kristian Campbell, David Hamilton, and Romy Gonzalez were mentioned as second base options.

Q. Second base, there’s still plenty to be added and worked around but like as the team currently stands, where do you see that position going?

ALEX CORA: We’ll see what happens in the upcoming weeks. But we’ve got some good players that can play the position. Kristian is back home playing. He’ll play more outfield than second base. I don’t know if he’s going to play second base at all or first. We’ve just got to get him going offensively.

Hami, obviously the athlete we like. Offensively last year was a tough one for him because of the situation. It’s not easy to be a utility guy. But defensively he’s one of the best out there.

So we’ll see where we’re at starting in Fort Myers but we’ve got some capable guys. Getting Romy healthy is very important. He was a little banged up — I think you guys saw it in the playoffs — with his shoulder. He’s another guy that can play the position.

• The team hopes Ceddanne Rafaela will be more physical and handle a full season.

Q. Now that Rafael has a Gold Glove to go with his talented center, how do you view the infield option for him versus like you did last year letting him ride in center?

ALEX CORA: We’ll see what the roster is. The good thing about him, he can do it. He can play second. He can play short. But he’s elite in center field. He should have won the Platinum Glove. But that’s kind of like a weird thing, right, the fans vote for that. With all respect to the fans.

But offensively, I think we need more. The last two years, August, September, we know he swings. We know he chases, but he goes up. And we have challenged him physically, and he tries to gain weight. It’s hard for him. I would love to eat the way he eats and not gain weight. For him, it’s a challenge. Hopefully he can gain some pounds in the offseason and get stronger so he can sustain his physicality throughout the season.

You saw it. He got tired at the end offensively. It’s on us, it’s on him to get better in that aspect, but the player we love.

Royals

• Carter Jensen could eventually be the starting catcher half the time.

Q. When you had Fermin as well as Salvi, it was almost 50/50 by the time he left. Do you hope that one day Carter can get to that point? Does he have to work his way up there?

MATT QUATRARO: Sure, yes, I do hope so and will work your way up to it. It can be on the fly, too. We don’t have to start out and say we’re going to force these many games. But if he swings the bat well and he’s handling himself behind the plate, there’s no reason — you guys know Salvi better than anybody. He just wants to win. So whatever best combination of players out there is going to help us win he’ll be on board with that.

• Jonathan India has the inside track to starting and leading off.

Q. Does that include [India]? Does he have to earn his at-bats?

MATT QUATRARO: He’ll have an inside track to play on a regular basis. That’s why we acquired him because we really value the on-base and the lead-off ability and the neutrality of the splits and all those things. You come in the season thinking about him as an everyday player.

Q. What went wrong with him this year in terms of what –

MATT QUATRARO: I think we have to shoulder a lot of that blame. Early in the year we tried to play him in left, at third, things he’d never done before, transitioning to a new organization, just the general comfort of being out of his routines. And then asking him to do it at a new position.

And I think the new ballpark, all those things. You talked to him, he wasn’t happy with the quality of his at-bats. He knew he was popping too many balls up. It wasn’t that he was trying to hit homers, he just couldn’t get out of that swing funk. But more than anything, I would attribute a lot of that to the fact that he was trying to learn two new positions in Spring Training and went into a first year with a new organization out of his comfort zone.

• Luinder Avila (moving back to the rotation), Steven Zobac, Ben Kudrna, Steven Cruz, and Jonathan Bowlan are being considered as the next guys up for any rotation holes.

Q. With the success of Noah Cameron coming up to help you, what are some prospects you’re looking at to help your team when stuff happens?

MATT QUATRARO: It’s exciting. Hopefully we have healthy year from Luinder Avila, Steven Zobac, Ben Kudrna. Those guys on the pitching side, two of those were added to the 40-man this year. Luinder made his debut last year, pitched out of the bullpen as well.

On the pitching side, those are the few names that jump out. We had a healthy Steven Cruz, Jonathan Bowlan back up. So those guys that had either had a little bit of big league time or had just been added to the roster.

Q. Do you see Avila as a starter?

MATT QUATRARO: I do. He’s the kind of guy you need for some depth. And depending what happens throughout the rest of the offseason and the spring, he’s obviously shown the ability to get righties and lefties out. I think that was a great experience for him pitching out of the pen, but that’s the kind of guy early on, especially early in the season, is a good guy to have as a starter.

Tigers

• Gleyber Torres is being considered for the second or third spot in the lineup.

Q. Speaking about the injury to Torres, do you expect a more competitive season since he won’t be playing through pain anymore? How excited are you to see him fully healthy when the season starts?

A.J. HINCH: I think he’s capable of a lot of things. I think the key is going to be health for him. He had a good season in its own right. I think the tale of the two seasons, pretty easy to identify — when he got hurt and how much it was bothering him through the end of the year.

Obviously we believe in him and he’s going to — he’s already asked me where he’s going to hit in the lineup. He wants to hit second or third, obviously.

Twins

• Luke Keaschall does not have a defined defensive spot.

Q. With Luke Keaschall, have you talked about whether he’ll play defensively?

DEREK SHELTON: Yeah, defensively I think we’re still having those conversations. We love the flexibility. The main thing right now is to make sure that the arm is in a good spot. But the fact that he has flexibility to move around the diamond is something that’s really important for us, but I don’t think we’ve locked in specifically of what we’re doing.

White Sox

• Brooks Baldwin will get a long look in centerfield.

Q. As it stands with the outfield, if Opening Day were tomorrow, Brooks Baldwin, but as the depth chart fills in, do you see someone who can handle regular outfield duties or a matter of see who comes into the roster and then plug in whatever gaps necessary?

WILL VENABLE: That’s a good question. It’s a bit of a trap with Brooks because he’s so versatile you can say, okay, you can slot him into spots that need help. But I do prefer him in the outfield. I think that he did a nice job especially in center field. Still working on some things in the corners.

But I think he’s somebody that would go in, knowing that he’s versatile and keeping his defensive versatility at the forefront, finding him some consistency I think would be important too.

Baldwin started in 11 of his last 18 games in centerfield.

Yankees

• Trent Grisham played through a hamstring injury mid-season.

Q. What did you make of Trent’s defense this past season because the metrics were not very good?

AARON BOONE: I thought definitely better than that. The defensive metrics, I think, sometimes — like in my head, I think back to a couple balls in Sacramento where the wind was kind of weird and some balls get blown a certain way. And those kill an outfielder from — whether it’s defensive runs saved or whatever it may be. There was a month in the middle of the season or the later part where he was playing with a hamstring, so he probably didn’t get to three or four balls that he normally gets to. Those things really ding you.