Mining the News (1/30/23)

American League

Athletics

• Paul Blackburn and James Kaprielian should be ready for the start of Spring Training.

Forst said Paul Blackburn and James Kaprielian have progressed well in their rehab and he expects both to have already thrown off a mound by the start of Spring Training: "I think it’s reasonable to expect both guys to be ready to go.”

— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) January 27, 2023

Guardians

• Josh Naylor did not play at 100% last season.

Naylor missed the rest of the season and started the first couple weeks of 2022 in Triple-A to ease into game action. He had been cleared by doctors to play again, but the road to recovery during the previous nine months was so grueling that he wasn’t at 100 percent, and he and the team knew that.

Rays

• Pete Fairbanks is a “dominant reliever that you want to use at the end of games” according this his general manager.

“Pete has really shown that he can be a dominant force in our bullpen, a dominant reliever that you want to use at the end of games,” general manager Peter Bendix said. “Pitching and defense, and especially our bullpen, has been a strength of ours, and [we] hope that it will stay that way and envision Pete being a really big part of that moving forward.”

Tigers

• The third base situation remains unclear but Nick Maton is the clear favorite.

There is Nick Maton, perhaps the early favorite to win the gig. Acquired in the Gregory Soto trade with the Phillies, Maton can play multiple infield spots and had a 138 OPS+ in 85 MLB plate appearances last season. Fellow trade acquisition Matt Vierling — likely more of an outfielder — will also see some time on the infield in spring training.
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Either way, the Tigers are likely to use a bevy of platoons, searching for any small matchup advantage on a daily basis. Might even be fun to watch Hinch manage this roster.

Twins

• Alex Kirilloff is “hoping” for a “normal” Spring Training.

Alex Kirilloff started swinging in early January and says he's taking 50-60 swings a day now. Says he's on track with what the doctors wanted to see.

Says he's hoping for "mostly a normal" Spring Training, but the aim is obviously the most possible healthy regular season games.

— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) January 28, 2023

Yankees

• DJ LeMahieu is making progress with his foot rehab.

DJ LeMahieu continues to make progress in his recovery from a foot fracture, and based on the infielder’s offseason workouts, “it looks like there was never a problem,” Yankees hitting coach Dillon Lawson said. Though LeMahieu has yet to face live pitching, Lawson told the New York Post’s Dan Martin that the infielder is “able to do everything he needs to do, whether [the pitch] is inside, outside, up or down,” whereas when LeMahieu was battling his injury late last season, “sometimes when he came out there for batting practice, he’d have to come off his back side and couldn’t really rotate into the ball.”.

• Kyle Higashioka plans on continuing to flatten his swing and making more contact.

I made some adjustments to my swing to be a little more direct to the ball and hit some more line drives and not try to put the ball in the air 100 percent of the time. That combined with every single time, every game or week or month of experience you get in the big leagues, you get smarter and a better idea of how guys are going to pitch you. Being able to use that experience, plus a slightly different and more contact-oriented approach I think is going to help me. … I was trying to recreate a feeling that I had in years past, but a lot of times it’s about trying to figure out what works for you now instead of trying to go back to what you used to do. If you look at my stance, it’s pretty drastically different from the second half to what it was at the start of the season.

The changes can be seen in the second half when he raised his slugging percentage from .546 to .801.

The flat swing is probably for the best with a 50% percentile ranking on his max Exit Velocity. The Yankees noticed and liked the change as seen by his September playing time bump.

Month: Games
Apr: 13
May: 12
Jun: 13
Jul: 11
Aug: 10
Sep: 17

With a recent NFBC ADP of 605, he is worth a late dart in deep formats.

National League

Brewers

• Brian Anderson doesn’t notice any pain in his shoulder.

An incentive-laden deal makes sense for a 29-year-old who delivered a .349 on-base percentage and a 113 wRC+ for the Marlins from 2017-20, but struggled with injuries in each of the past two seasons before he was non-tendered by Miami this winter. Anderson’s chief concern has been an injury to his left (non-throwing) shoulder, which has impacted his swing.

But Anderson indicated he’s healthy again — “I’m working out, I’m full go, I don’t even notice my shoulder anymore,” he said — and his throwing shoulder has been just fine all along.

Diamondbacks

• Nick Ahmed is improving from shoulder surgery. He dealt with shoulder pain for three seasons.

More than six months removed from shoulder surgery, shortstop Nick Ahmed is hitting and throwing at Salt River Fields, preparing for the start of spring training. His healthy return could mean an upgrade of sorts for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“I’m just really excited to have a full range of motion and not feel pain when I throw and hit every day,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed had been bothered by the shoulder for parts of three seasons. He had season-ending surgery in June to address a labrum tear and two bone spurs and a “clean up” of his bursa and rotator cuff tendon.

Dodgers

• Some position clarity is set with Max Muncy at third, Gavin Lux at short, Miguel Vargas at second, and Chris Taylor in the outfield.

Andrew Friedman #Dodgers told us that if he had to guess now he sees Muncy at 3B Lux at SS Vargas at 2B Taylor in OF…Rojas utility…but team has a lot of positional flexibility and open to competition @MLBNetworkRadio @FantasyAlarm

— Jim Bowden⚾️🏈 (@JimBowdenGM) January 29, 2023

There is still talk that Lux might be in a shortstop platoon with Miguel Rojas.

Keeping Lux at shortstop, especially against right-handed pitching, and adding Rojas to handle lefties gives the Dodgers their desired positional flexibility in order to maximize matchups. It allows Chris Taylor to stay in the outfield, a position of need for the club, and it keeps Miguel Vargas and Max Muncy relevant at second and third base, respectively.

Mets

• Brett Baty will focus on playing third base.

Before what should be a critical season, Mets prospect Brett Baty arrived at Port St. Lucie last week looking to get a head start on spring training work. Mets general manager Billy Eppler previously told The Athletic that Baty’s focus will primarily be on third base. Though Eduardo Escobar projects to be the Mets’ starting third baseman, Baty lingers as an option because of his offensive tools. He needs to be more consistent defensively. But being proactive this spring in his own development conveys the right message.

Pirates

• Ji Hwan Bae will have a single-position focus in Spring Training.

Although Bae was developed as a middle infielder, management believes he’s athletic enough to handle an outfield spot if necessary. (And if Reynolds were traded, it would become necessary one minute afterward.) I’m hearing the plan during spring training is to narrow Bae’s focus to one area — it could be something as specific as center field or as general as middle-infield roles — by the middle of March, and go from there.