Mining the News (1/18/24)

American League

Angels

• Nolan Schanuel is trying to get all buff because chicks dig the long ball.

Schanuel said he has been lifting weights and hitting in the cages four times a week this offseason in an effort to get stronger and develop more power. His average exit velocity was 85.4 mph, below the MLB average of 89 mph, per Baseball Savant. Schanuel also said he has been working on his speed. He ranked in the 36th percentile in sprint speed.

“That’s what this offseason was about for me,” Schanuel said. “I got my time in the big leagues, so now it’s about what I need to work on. I need to work on getting faster and unlocking that power with a wood bat. Just little things like that. But my time in the big leagues taught me what I need to get better at.”

Astros

• Alex Bregman is in the best shape of his life.

“Physically I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life, mechanically with my swing, and being able to hit in the offseason for the first time in maybe four years has been amazing,” he said. “In the [2022] World Series, I broke my finger and had to rehab that. The year before, I had a hand injury. Just being able to hit for the first time in the offseason since the 2019 season has been awesome.”

So how in the hell was he prepping every other season?

Red Sox

• The current rotation consists of Lucas Giolito, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, and Nick Pivetta.

Breslow told Abraham the current rotation consists of four pitchers: Giolito, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford and Nick Pivetta. That’d leave Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck and Josh Winckowski competing for the final spot.

Royals

• Vinnie Pasquantino dealt with a shoulder injury since 2022.

The Royals believe their lineup will look a lot different with Pasquantino back in the middle offering his unique power-patience combination. In 61 games last year, Pasquantino had a slash line of .247/.324/.437 with a 103 wRC+, an 11.9% strikeout rate and a 9.6% walk rate. He was hindered by the shoulder injury, but he is healthy now for the first time since his shoulder became an issue in 2022.

The shoulder didn’t seem to affect his production. Before the injury in 2022, he hit .263/.350/.434 with 8 HR in 200 PA. Since the injury, he hit .278/.357/.450 with 11 HR in 351 PA.

Tigers

• Akil Baddoo dealt with a strained quad and that’s why he didn’t run as much.

Baddoo had only 14 stolen bases last year despite a sprint speed that ranked in the 91st percentile among MLB players. He was caught stealing only three times. It’s important, though, to consider Baddoo was nursing a right quad strain last summer, and the Tigers were conservative with him on the bases for a good chunk of time.

Six of his steals came in the final month of the season, a sign that Baddoo could be running a lot more next year. The bigger question, though, is whether there will be a role for Baddoo on this team. It might take an injury to open a spot for him this time around.

• Casey Mize is back to throwing his splitter.

Mize’s splitter was a wipeout pitch in college, but became his fourth pitch in Detroit in 2020 and ‘21. Opponents hit .313 off it in ‘20 despite a 28 percent whiff rate; he improved to a .203 average off it in 2021 despite a 21.9 percent whiff rate and a 31.6 percent hard-hit rate. It had well-above-average drop plus above-average horizontal movement and an even lower spin rate (1,103 rpm in 2021) than what Maeda (1,406) or Miller (1,581) produce.

“Casey is still throwing a split,” Harris said in November. “I hope that his split is really nasty when he shows up in Lakeland this year. It certainly was when he was throwing [bullpen sessions] at the end of [last season].

Yankees

• Austin Wells started laying off breaking balls.

Before Wells’ nice run, opposing pitchers were starting him off with breaking balls, as he was known to chase those pitches while falling behind in the count. By late September, however, he learned to be patient and was consistently getting on base.

“Once I was able to figure that out — at least a little bit — I was able to click and be a little more patient, and I got a lot more pitches to hit,” Wells said via telephone. “[The Yankees] gave me the confidence to go out there in that last month and … be successful. Having the information that we get from the hitting department, [the team] showed me the numbers and made me tighten up my zone — get my pitch that I’m looking to hit.”

National League

Cardinals

• Nolan Gorman is using stretching and nutrition to help deal with his back pain.

Meanwhile, his closest friend on the Cardinals, lefty slugger Nolan Gorman, has aggressively sought to change his nutrition in hopes of it lessening the back pain that might be the only thing standing between him and a 40-home run season.
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In addition to learning a variety of new stretching exercises this offseason, Gorman has even cleaned up his nutrition in hopes that it will lower the levels of inflammation in his body. Fix the issues with the back and Gorman could soon be on a collision course with superstardom.

“As far as body-wise, core stability, mobility and flexibility — things to help with the back — I’ve even done different nutrition stuff to help with inflammation,” Gorman said. “It’s been a good offseason for me, and I’m excited to get to spring.”

Cubs

• General Manager Carter Hawkins says the team will find a way to play Christopher Morel.

“If you have a bat that will play in the major leagues, we will find a spot for you to play in the major leagues,” Hawkins said. “If (Morel) can step up in any of those (different positions), his bat is going to be something that just forces us to pencil him in the lineup. Worst case, he’s a DH a lot. Best case, he’s playing great defense for us. He certainly has the athleticism, the hands, the ability to do it. There’s an opportunity for him to be a great all-around player.”

Dodgers

• While I noted last time about James Outman being a platoon risk, this is the first mention of Max Muncy being at risk.

While James Outman is expected to be the everyday center fielder, he struggled against lefties last season (.665 OPS). Both Margot and Taylor have experience in center field, and I could see configurations where both are in the lineup along with Hernández against lefty starters (with Margot in center and Taylor in right, or vice versa). Max Muncy also had a severe platoon split a year ago, so maybe Taylor helps out part of a semi-platoon at third base.

Muncy hasn’t shown any career splits with a .807 OPS against lefties and a .830 OPS against righties. This past season, he he hit a .642 OPS against lefties and .881 vs RHP.

Phillies

• Dave Dombrowski continues to reiterate that Johan Rojas will be their center fielder.

“Not outfield,” Dombrowski said then. “When we talked about outfield, we said [we’d] keep an open mind, but we also are in a position with [Johan] Rojas where we’re really not trying to block his path to the big leagues.”

That thinking has not changed, Dombrowski reiterated this week.

If an opportunity presents itself, yes, the Phillies will act on it. But the plan is to have Nick Castellanos in right field, Brandon Marsh in left and Rojas in center, an alignment that worked well late in the 2023 regular season.