Mining the News (12/13/24)

American League

Angels

• Scott Kingery and Kevin Newman are being considered at third base.

Minasian mentioned Luis Rengifo and new additions Scott Kingery and Kevin Newman as players who can also handle third base. But he wouldn’t rule out adding a full-time third baseman via trade or free agency.

Rays

• Drew Rasmussen will prepare as a starter.

LHP Jeffrey Springs: Right-hander Drew Rasmussen is preparing to come into camp as a starter after returning from the injured list as a two-inning reliever down the stretch last season. That gives the Rays seven qualified starting options — Shane McClanahan, Springs, Rasmussen, Zack Littell, Shane Baz, Ryan Pepiot and Taj Bradley — plus depth options like Jacob Waguespack, Jacob Lopez, Joe Rock (No. 22 prospect) and Ian Seymour (No. 17 prospect).

Red Sox

• Garrett Whitlock will remain in the bullpen.

Breslow also continued to suggest Garrett Whitlock, who’s recovering from an internal bracing procedure, will be in the bullpen mix.

“He was very successful in a multi-inning leverage role, to the point that he was a real weapon that Alex (Cora) could deploy,” Breslow said. “I think for a lot of reasons, beginning with health and managing workload, that could make sense in ’25.”

Royals

• Jonathan India and Michael Massey will take some outfield reps.

Quatraro: “Just talking to Jonathan a few times, he tells me he gets reps at second, short, third all offseason. He said he got some reps last spring in the outfield. We’ve talked about Massey in-season last year, whether he could possibly go to left if that helps his back [injury history]. All those things are still up in the air.”

• Daniel Lynch IV will come into Spring Training as a starter.

We’ll also stretch out [Daniel] Lynch [IV] and see where that goes. But you also have to fortify the bullpen, too. We’re lucky that we have some guys that can do either.”

Tigers

• Colt Keith and Justyn-Henry Malloy will get some first base reps with Jake Rogers and Dillon Dingler being the catchers.

Some #Tigers news:

– Colt Keith/Justyn-Henry Malloy will take ground balls at first base to add to defensive versatility, but Keith won't play third base.

– Jake Rogers/Dillon Dingler on track to be Opening Day catchers.

— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) December 10, 2024

• Jace Jung had wrist surgery.

3B/2B Jace Jung (right wrist arthroscopy)
Expected return: Spring Training
Jung underwent a procedure on Oct. 24 to address lingering right wrist inflammation. He has initiated a hitting progression and is expected to be fully recovered in time for Spring Training, according to the team. (Last updated: Dec. 9)

• Jackson Jobe will be in the rotation but not to start the season.

The Tigers are planning for Jackson Jobe to be in their rotation at some point next season, but they’re not dead set on Jobe making the team out of camp. “We think he’s gonna be in our rotation at some point,” Harris said. “We just can’t confidently say that we know when until we see how he looks in spring training and how the rest of the starters look.”

Yankees

• Caleb Durbin will start at second base unless there are more roster additions.

At the same time, Brian Cashman also said Caleb Durbin is the " odds-on favorite" at 2B, though future moves could impact how the #Yankees align their infield.

Aaron Boone said Jasson Domínguez is ready to be an MLB center fielder, but that doesn't mean he won't face… https://t.co/UX8FkJYR4e

— Gary Phillips (@GaryHPhillips) December 10, 2024

• Jasson Domínguez will get the “opportunity” to be the starting centerfielder.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that he believes Domínguez, who returned from Tommy John surgery and an oblique strain to play in 18 big league games this past season, is ready to become a starting center fielder in the Majors.

“He’s certainly put himself in a position to be in consideration for anything,” Boone said. “You look at it right now, and he’s probably in there. Again, I love the person and what I believe he can be as a player, but he’s also very young and very inexperienced at this point. So we’ll see how it all shakes out.”

Cashman said that he is not ready to anoint Domínguez, who turns 22 in February, as the starting center fielder. However, that opportunity was not available late in the 2024 season, when the Yanks instead tried “The Martian” in left field, a position with which he was largely unfamiliar.

National League

Braves

• The team thinks highly of Hurston Waldrep

As teams that have inquired with the Braves have learned, top pitching prospect Hurston Waldrep, Atlanta’s first-round pick in 2023, is off-limits.

• The plan is to have Grant Holmes in the rotation.

“We’ve definitely talked about it at length,” Anthpoulos, the Braves’ general manager and president of baseball operations, said of adding a starter. “Definitely something we’d like to do. We’d also like to find out about Grant Holmes. We’re going to need more than five starters regardless. So, they’re going to have their opportunities. But we really liked what we saw out of Grant Holmes at the end of the year. He’s out of (minor-league) options. But we liked what we saw out of (him in) the rotation.

“You’d love to, in a perfect world, have six, seven, eight guys and feel really good about it. We have a lot of young arms, but you never know who’s going to take a step forward. Strider did a few years ago. Schwellenbach this past year. Ian Anderson a few years ago. Kyle Wright a few years ago. So, we’ve had a pretty good story (with young starting pitchers) the last few years. I don’t know that you can expect that each year.”

Anthopoulos added, “Grant Holmes will be stretched out in spring, and we’d like to find out what he can do, because we do think there’s significant upside there, if he can get a starting spot. But again, that won’t stop us from either trading for or signing a starter. And also when Strider comes back, hopefully, the top three guys are ready to go and they’ve had no health issues. So we still think the rotation has a chance to be a strength, especially when Strider comes back, assuming health for the other three.”

Brewers

• Christian Yelich is recovering from back surgery but has yet to swing a bat.

Christian Yelich is full speed ahead in his comeback from back surgery.

“He’s on track,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said on Monday. “Not doing baseball [activities] yet, but he’s on track.”

Yelich, the 2018 NL MVP Award winner and ’19 runner-up, was in the midst of a renaissance last season, with a spot in the All-Star Game starting lineup to go with a .910 OPS, when he was sidelined by a painful back injury that required surgery in August. Yelich and the Brewers hope the procedure — a microdiscectomy — can relieve the symptoms that have bothered him for years.

Yelich has yet to swing a bat, and that will offer a significant test for a wiry hitter whose extreme torque is at the heart of his success, but Yelich is well underway with what GM Matt Arnold referred to as functional baseball movements.

Cardinals

• The team wants to give Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker a full season of plate appearances.

As of now, the focus of the reset will be on giving former top prospects and young key players the opportunity to play. Nolan Gorman is someone the team would like to see get close to 600 at-bats next year, Mozeliak said as an example. Seeing what Jordan Walker can do in a full year in the outfield — without a looming threat of being sent down to the minors — will be a focus.

Cubs

• Dansby Swanson had offseason surgery to repair a hernia he played through.

Hoyer acknowledged that Swanson didn't reveal he'd been playing through sports hernia (leading to Oct surgery) until shortly after season."We were surprised, candidly, which is fine. That’s his personality. He was going to play but clearly he was feeling something and he wanted to get it fixed.”

— Jordan Bastian (@bastianmlb.bsky.social) 2024-12-10T00:23:36.004Z

Hoyer said Swanson's strong second half (.281/.352/.443 slash line + elite defense) masked the fact that shortstop was playing through a hernia."He kind of kept it to himself. He played through it. But, yeah, he had the surgery early enough, it shouldn't impact Spring Training at all."

— Jordan Bastian (@bastianmlb.bsky.social) 2024-12-10T00:25:49.655Z

Diamondbacks

• The team is looking to add an experienced closer.

But Hazen also watched the pen struggle a bit down the stretch last year, possibly from being worn down. So he would like to give manager Torey Lovullo some additional options down there for games in which Arizona has the lead.

“Every year, we just play a lot of close, winning games, which is great, but that takes a toll on the bullpen,” Hazen said.

So, Hazen was asked, would you be looking to acquire someone with closing experience?

“Yes,” Hazen said. “Clearly Puk and J-Mart can do it. They have the talent to do it. They will get, I’m guessing, save opportunities. I think adding somebody into that mix that can pitch behind them at times is something we’re shooting for. I don’t know if that’s what’s going to end up happening. We may end up going in a different direction depending on what we can actually do. I’m going to try not to force feed that too much. There should be opportunity for us to at least see what that could bring.”

Dodgers

• Shohei Ohtani won’t start in the Tokyo series …

RHP/DH Shohei Ohtani (right elbow surgery; left shoulder surgery)
Expected return: 2025
Ohtani has been making steady progress with his throwing over the past several months, but he was not available to pitch during the postseason. Ohtani also underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a left labrum tear on Nov. 5, and the team expects him to be ready for Spring Training 2025. While he should be ready for Opening Day as a hitter, it is “unlikely” that Ohtani will be ready to open the season in the Dodgers’ rotation, the club reaffirmed at the Winter Meetings.

… but when he does start, he will also DH those days.

“Early-season games are very important, but we feel like if we can get him to a position where he is peaking toward the end of the season, that is the ideal scenario,” Gomes said. “But there are guys that throw a lot of innings early on, so I think so much of it is just seeing how he goes. He’s obviously one of one right now. … He just has a higher workload from the hitting side, too, so we just have to figure out how to balance that all properly.”

As of now, the Dodgers anticipate Ohtani to be able to DH in games where he starts on the mound. Ohtani did so for the first time in his Major League career in April 2021, and he has mostly pulled double duty on his start days since.

When he debuted in 2018, Ohtani’s hitting and pitching workloads were more closely managed as the two-way superstar adjusted to life in the Major Leagues. Now, when fully healthy, Ohtani is accustomed to doing both on the same day — and there’s no expectation that that won’t be the case next year.

Giants

• Tyler Fitzgerald will move over and play second base.

Posey also sees Tyler Fitzgerald as the Giants’ second baseman as things stand now. He’s talked to him about that already.

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) December 9, 2024

Mets

• Clay Holmes will be tried as a starter.

The Mets do not intend to use Holmes as a reliever. Instead, they will convert him to the rotation, banking on his ability to use a three-pitch mix multiple times through a batting order. After losing Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana to free agency after the season, the club has now replaced two of those rotation spots with Frankie Montas (two years, $34 million) and Holmes.

• Paul Blackburn might not be ready for Opening Day after having back surgery.

The operation, which carries a typical recovery timeline of 4-5 months, had the potential to affect Blackburn’s readiness for Opening Day. But he was recovering well as of a Dec. 9 update and should have what president of baseball operations David Stearns called “a relatively normal Spring Training.” Blackburn figures to compete for a rotation job this spring, or at least serve as a high-level depth option.

Phillies

• Jordan Romano’s fastball hit the mid-90s.

Romano said he threw a bullpen session last week and reached the mid-90s with his fastball.

“I was really, really excited about that,” Romano said. “Everything felt great. So that was the box I checked.”

Not good so far. He averaged 96.8 mph for his career, and last season, he sat at 96.5 mph.

Pirates

• David Bednar is not penciled in as the closer.

Another franchise face with perhaps a less-than-cemented role is David Bednar. The two-time All-Star was moved out of the closer role for the final month of the season, and while the early parts of his offseason work have been encouraging, Shelton opted not to declare him the closer Monday.

“If I’m going to bet on anybody bouncing back, I’m betting on David Bednar bouncing back,” Shelton said. “He started the year, it was abrupted. Shorter Spring Training, kind of was behind the 8-ball a little bit. Had some really good stretches where he threw the ball well, just wasn’t consistent.

“I’m betting on David Bednar bouncing back and having a good year. To pencil in anybody right now, I’m not doing that because I want to make sure we get to Spring Training, but I’m really happy that he’s with us.”

• Bryan Reynolds will take some reps at first base.

It’s way too soon to pencil Reynolds into first base — Cherington reiterated he is an outfielder during his media availability — but there’s a case to be made for exploring the move. Reynolds was an All-Star at the dish this past season, but struggled in the field, finishing with -12 fielding runs, according to Baseball Savant, which put him in the bottom 1% of position-players. The free agent and trade markets are a bit more robust for outfielders than first basemen, too.

Reds

• The manager views Nick Martinez as a rotation piece.

Francona viewed Martinez as a likely rotation fixture for 2025.

“I think we would certainly like for that to happen,” Francona said. “The season has a way of playing itself out, and we don’t need to make the rotation or the batting order now because we don’t know what our team is going to be, but I think we would like it. The way he finished was pretty damn good.”