Mining the News (11/20/24)

American League

Angels

• Kyle Hendricks will start the season in the rotation.

Minasian said Hendricks will start and be part of a rotation that’s also expected to include veteran left-hander Tyler Anderson and right-handers José Soriano and Jack Kochanowicz. They have other internal options, such as lefties Reid Detmers and Sam Aldegheri and right-handers Chase Silseth, Caden Dana, Sam Bachman and George Klassen. The Angels are still looking to add one more starter to that mix, and Minasian wouldn’t rule out bolstering the bullpen as well.

• Zach Neto will likely start the season on the IL after having shoulder surgery.

Los Angeles Angels shortstop Zach Neto could miss the start of the 2025 season after having right shoulder surgery earlier this week.

Neto injured his shoulder in the final week of the season while attempting a stolen base against the White Sox in Chicago. Angels GM Perry Minasian declined to say what the injury was, or what procedure he received.

“There’s a chance he misses some of the start of the season,” Minasian said. “… He’ll miss some time. How much time that is, we’ll see.”

He likely won’t be a full participant in spring training. Minasian declined to say whether the length of his absence could be measured in months. Neto, 23, has become one of the best young shortstops in the game. He posted 5.1 WAR in 2024, clubbing 23 homers, while stealing 30 bases.

Astros

• Zach Dezenzo will not play third base but first base and left field.

Houston’s most major-league-ready infield prospect is Zach Dezenzo, a college shortstop whom Brown acknowledged “has got a little more work to do at third base.” That Dezenzo earned a call-up after just 11 Triple-A games and made the Astros’ Wild Card Series roster signals how highly the organization thinks of him. It’s easy to envision him making a sizable impact on the 2025 Astros — just not at third base.

“Can he get it done? Yes. But if we have Bregman, it will be tough for him to get reps there,” Brown said. “I think more so first base with some potential to play left (field), maybe on certain games if we’re facing a right-handed pitcher. … Or if he comes into camp and he plays well, maybe first base will be his everyday job.”

• Previously, I reported that a left-handed bats was coming for Chas McCormick. Now it seems like Jake Meyers might also get platooned.

“Then, if we can do something to firm up production at first base and get some help in the outfield, maybe with a nice left-handed bat to work out with [Jake] Meyers and [Chas] McCormick, that would be good, as well,” Brown said.

Mariners

• Top prospect, Cole Young, will not start in the majors playing second base. The team is considering using Dylan Moore, Ryan Bliss and/or Josh Rojas to fill the void at second base.

That’s no surprise, even with a void at second base in light of the team declining Jorge Polanco’s $12 million club option last Friday. Young will “likely” begin the year at Triple-A Tacoma, Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said this week at the GM Meetings in San Antonio, putting the 2022 first-round Draft pick one step closer to the Majors after spending all of last year at Double-A Arkansas.

So, with Polanco’s departure and Young needing more seasoning, the Mariners’ plans to address a position that has mostly plagued them since the Robinson Canó era are in flux.

“We have some internal options,” Hollander told MLB.com’s Sonja Chen, pointing to Dylan Moore, Ryan Bliss and Josh Rojas. “And obviously, as we get through the winter and the offseason, we’ll look at the free-agent market, we’ll look at trade market and try and find the right mix of players, whether that’s one player to fill the spot, or a player to mix in with our existing in-house options to help solidify the position.”

Orioles

• The team expects Jorge Mateo to contribute all of next season.

Elias twice brought up Mateo’s name during the interview, in reference to healing players and an infield that’s an extreme low among offseason priorities.

“I think he was an underrated absence for us in the second half,” Elias said. “Whether he’s 100 percent full-go on the very, very first day of spring training is still TBD, but suffice to say, he’s going to have a very full, if not a 162, something close to that season. So, he’s really somebody that we’re able to plan around fully, more or less, in 2025 and that hasn’t changed.”

• Grayson Rodriguez’s lat injury is no longer a concern.

#Orioles GM Mike Elias is optimistic that Grayson Rodriguez will have a normal, full Spring Training. The lat issue is no longer a concern.

— Jake Rill (@JakeDRill) November 15, 2024

• Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells are expected back mid-season.

Rehabs on elbow surgeries for Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells

“We’re expecting a midseason return from those guys in some way, shape or form. I think it’s too early to specify a month, but the surgery went well. Knock on wood, their rehabs are on schedule or better right now and at this time, nothing new to report other than good news with the continued passage of time.”

Royals

• For now, Alec Marsh will be in the rotation with Kris Bubic and Daniel Lynch IV also being considered as starters.

“We’re very comfortable with our starting pitching right now. You’ve got Wacha, [Seth] Lugo, [Cole] Ragans, [Brady] Singer, [Alec] Marsh. Kris Bubic was in the bullpen this past year, but we believe he’s a starter. Daniel Lynch went to the bullpen and did a nice job, but he’s another one who could be a starter. We don’t expect to be in the market for a starter moving forward. We’re going to focus on some other things.”

Twins

• Royce Lewis may move to second base.

Moving Lewis to second base opens up playing time for Lee, Miranda and utilityman Willi Castro. There’s also a belief Lewis could thrive at second base, which would be less taxing on his body than his original position, shortstop, while allowing Lee, a much better defender at third, to stick there.

Last week, Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said the Twins aren’t yet committing to moving Lewis because they don’t know what their roster will look like when spring training opens in a little more than three months. But at the very least, they intend to notify Lewis of the possibility to give him ample time to prepare.

• Jose Miranda and Edouard Julien could platoon at first base with Brooks Lee playing third base.

Jose Miranda (who rebounded nicely from a 2023 season ruined by shoulder surgery) and utilityman Willi Castro (.251/.334/.395 with 21 homers, 47 steals in 282 games with the Twins).

Carlos Santana’s potential departure in free agency and the surprising retirement of injury-plagued former top prospect Alex Kirilloff opens some at-bats at first base, which could be handled by Julien and/or Miranda. Lee, considered a better defender at third base than Lewis, would presumably be in line for the bulk of the playing time at the hot corner if he makes the roster. Lee missed considerable time with injury and struggled in his first taste of the big leagues last year, however, so if he opens the season in Triple-A, that’d leave Miranda and Julien to share the corners early in the season, with Castro (who has extensive outfield experience as well) mixing in all over the field. The Twins also have fast-rising prospect Luke Keaschall to consider; the 2023 second-rounder has played second, third, first and center field in the minors and currently ranks 39th on Baseball America’s ranking of the game’s top 100 prospects.

Yankees

• The manager likes what he saw of second-baseman Caleb Durbin.

Boone also spoke highly of infield prospect Caleb Durbin, who is putting forth an excellent performance in the Arizona Fall League.

“I think he’s a stud, frankly,” Boone said. “Great bat-to-ball [skill], elite ability on the bases as a basestealer and a good defender in the middle of the diamond at second base.”

National League

Cubs

• Cade Horton and Jordan Wicks are no longer dealing with injuries.

First, Jordan Wicks has recovered from his recurrent oblique issue, which it turns out was not entirely to oblique. Via the Sun-Times: “Left-hander Jordan Wicks’ season ended a couple weeks early, when he began feeling discomfort near his oblique. He’d already spent two and a half months on the IL for a strained right oblique. But he and the Cubs were encouraged when imaging showed that his late-season injury was actually a rib issue, which was causing tightness in the area.”

…

The good news is that there is optimism for Horton, 23, to have a normal throwing program this offseason. The Sun-Times reports that Horton is on track to start a throwing progression this offseason, which would seemingly put him in line to have a relatively normal Spring Training. I tend to think his start to the season might be delayed in any case (both as part of a careful ramp up and also because he’s not going to be able to jump to 150 innings next year), but it’s good to hear that things are normal-ish as of this moment.

Diamondbacks

• If Jordan Lawlar gets promoted to the majors, he’ll play every game.

Hazen said he expects Lawlar to be on the MLB team at some point next year, but that may not be Opening Day depending on how the D-backs continue to build this winter.

“I’m really happy he went down to the D.R. and is playing a winter ball and is starting to pick up some of those reps, because I definitely think that will start to close the gap,” Hazen said.

“From an offensive standpoint, consistency standpoint, there’s obviously still room to grow here. He’s still so young. We want to make sure that he’s ready to go when we have him up here. I still don’t think we’re at that stage of his career where putting him on the bench at the major league level does anybody any good. So wherever that opportunity may come, it’s going to come at some point next year.”

Dodgers

• The team believes Bobby Miller’s shoulder bothered him more than he let on.

His season was confusing. Miller struck out 11 over six scoreless innings in his season debut — “I think you saw Bobby’s first outing and you’re like, ‘This guy might compete for the Cy Young,’” Gomes said — and backslid after that. His shoulder began to bark, and his mechanics went along with it. He’d allow seven runs over his next two starts before going on the IL. In the 10 starts upon his return, with a demotion to the minors in between, he had a 9.34 ERA. Opposing hitters had an OPS of 1.014. A pitcher seen as one of the future faces of the organization was an afterthought even as they scrambled for pitching.

“I don’t think he was leading on, he wasn’t talking about it,” Gomes said of Miller’s shoulder, which he says is fully healthy now. “I think it affected him more than he will actually admit. Then coming off of that injury it was just a long time of getting back to his delivery, his different cues. I think a full, healthy offseason talking through some delivery cues, potential adjustments, I think will be something we get into this offseason.”

• Brusdar Graterol will return from an elbow surgery mid-season.

Dodgers right-hander Brusdar Graterol announced today (Spanish-language X post) that he underwent shoulder surgery yesterday, though without a return timeline. The club later announced that Graterol underwent right shoulder labrum surgery and isn’t expected back on the mound until the second half of the 2025 season.

Giants

• The team wants its hitters to trade off power for more contact.

“A lot of it was based on swing decisions and chase rates and I get that: you get good pitches to hit, you’re going to have a better chance to have success and hit the ball hard,” Melvin said in a phone interview. “Exit velocities, swing decisions and (reducing) chase: that was a real priority in the organization. To an extent, that should be a priority anywhere. But if we’re going to be a little more athletic, there has to be a ‘put the ball in play more’ dynamic, especially with two strikes.

“That might mean talking about choking up. It might mean having different types of swings. Everyone wants to get in a good count and get their ‘A’ swing off all the time. But in situational at-bats, it doesn’t always take a 108-mph line drive to get the run in. Sometimes it’s an 80-mph ground ball. It’s got to be case-specific.”

• Also, the team wants to bunt more.

“We’re probably going to bunt more,” said Melvin, who might have been tempted to facepalm last season when he watched minor-league call-ups ranging from Donovan Walton to Fitzgerald to McCray struggle in sacrifice situations. “We’ll do some hit-and-run in certain situations against ground-ball pitchers. Buster has talked about this: ‘Hey look, we want everybody we’re developing to at least know how to sacrifice bunt. Because when you need one run late in the game, it’s prudent we put emphasis on that.’

Mets

• Tyrone Taylor had elbow surgery.

Taylor underwent a umbilical hernia repair on Oct. 30 with Dr. Venkata Evani in Phoenix, and he also had a right elbow loose body removal on Nov. 7 with Dr. James Carr in New York. The average timeline to return from these procedures is approximately two months.

Pirates

• Jared Jones added a curveball.

Four-seam fastball and slider. They’re two of the best pitches on the staff, but if one pitch wasn’t clicking on a particular night, it usually spelled trouble.

That’s why his September was so intriguing. The results were up and down, but he leaned on his curveball more, doubling his usage to 15.7%. The sample size was too small to derive any big takeaways, but it was something he focused on during his rehab assignment the month prior.

“I think the scouting report is fastball-slider, and if it’s anything else, just spit [on it], it’s probably not going to be a strike,” Jones said in September.

• Henry Davis is working on his mechanics.

Davis was prolific at the plate in the Minors (.936 OPS), but struggled in the Majors (.454 OPS) in 2024. He fully recognized his issues and tried making some adjustments in-season, like reverting back to his old mechanics and using a smaller bat. He’s again working on some changes this offseason to try to live up to his offensive potential. While Cherington didn’t share what Davis is tweaking this offseason, being able to catch up to high fastballs and take outside pitches the other way would go a long way for him.