Mining the News (2/14/23)

American League

Angels

• Anthony Rendon is fully healthy.

Rendon is fully healthy after dealing with a right wrist injury last year and is looking to finally put together a full, productive season with the Angels.

• One beat writer thinks Carlos Estévez will be the closer…

The Angels were in the market for a closer this offseason and signed Estévez, who had some experience closing during his six years with the Rockies. He has 25 career saves, including 11 in 2021. The Angels believe he has the stuff and the mentality to close, but he hasn’t officially been named the closer.

Right-hander Jimmy Herget is coming off a strong season with the Angels and is expected to get some consideration. The Angels also have veterans Ryan Tepera and Aaron Loup, who have closed out games. So the Halos could mix and match, if necessary.

…and so does another.

Not a lot is different in the Angels’ pen this season. It could still be a weak area. The Angels did add Carlos Estévez from the Rockies in free agency. His fastball velocity sits at 97.5 mph. And his slider should play a lot better outside of the altitude.

It stands to reason he has the best chance to close. That doesn’t mean someone like José Quijada couldn’t get the job. He had a breakout season in 2022 (101 ERA+) and at times was completely untouchable.

There’s also Jimmy Herget. He isn’t the prototypical closer but has funky stuff and was effective last season (162 ERA+).

If there is a closer, it will likely be one of these three players, with Estévez having the best shot. The team might also decide not to have a set closer. But it should become clear in camp.

Mariners

• More reports on Matt Brash pitching out of the bullpen.

The Mariners have already committed to using Matt Brash exclusively in relief for 2023 after toying with a transition back to the rotation, a decision both sides agreed upon based on Brash’s desire to pitch in the World Baseball Classic.

• Sam Haggerty is behind schedule after off-season surgery.

“There are indications” that Mariners utilityman Sam Haggerty had to undergo surgery to fix a grade 2 adductor strain suffered at the end of last season, Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times writes. The team hasn’t officially confirmed Haggerty’s status, and GM Jerry Dipoto that Haggerty is “a little behind” in his offseason work.

Orioles

• Terrin Vavra is taking reps at first base.

Vavra has never played first base in his pro career, but he took grounders there this offseason, knowing the O’s wanted a left-handed-hitting backup to Mountcastle. That could help give Vavra the edge for a spot on the team over non-roster invitees such as Franchy Cordero, Nomar Mazara, Lewin Díaz and Ryan O’Hearn.

I read two such reports on the team wanting a left-handed backup to Mountcastle. I’m not sure why since Mountcastle doesn’t have any platoon issues.

• Austin Voth is out of options, so he must stay on the MLB team or be released.

Voth, who is out of Minor League options, should make the team to serve in a valuable swingman role.

Rangers

• Ezequiel Duran played in the outfield during the Dominican Winter Leagues.

Duran, a former MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospect, was a middle infielder coming up through the Minors for the Yankees and Rangers, but he got outfield reps in the Dominican Winter League and his bat plays well enough to get him plate appearances.

The Rangers don’t have a single bat that sticks out in left field so they seem to be throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks.

Tigers

• Spencer Torkelson is doing something with his swing.

Consider this the great mystery of the Tigers’ offseason. On the final road trip of last season, A.J. Hinch said, “I don’t think it’s time to be delicate,” in regard to the Tigers’ approach to Torkelson over the winter. Flash ahead to last week, and Torkelson was on MLB Network radio talking about getting back to his swing from college. There aren’t any real discernible differences between what Torkelson was doing last year and what he did at Arizona State, but Torkelson alluded to getting “sped up.”

We didn’t see Torkelson make any big midseason mechanical adjustments last year, but he hit .175 against fastballs and .212 on pitches down the middle. Clearly his swing wasn’t working.

The Tigers’ new hitting staff has spent time working with Torkelson and others in Arizona this offseason. But in January, Hinch said this regarding Torkelson: “This isn’t a remake or a rebuild of a swing.”

A lot of Torkelson’s struggles have to be mental at this point. But safe to say everyone is going to be watching his swing under a microscope once he reports to spring training.

I’m no hitting coach, but I’d like to see a little more pronounced load or even a leg kick, anything to get his body moving and more athletic in the box.

• One beat writer thinks Alex Lange will be the closer …

Who do you expect to step up in the bullpen after Gregory Soto and Joe Jiménez were traded away? — Greg M.

Count me as all aboard the Alex Lange hype train. Lange appeared in 71 games and had a 3.41 ERA last season. If you exclude a really poor August when he had a 10.32 ERA, Lange was terrific all year. He generated a 57.8 percent whiff rate with his curveball, making it one of the best swing-and-miss pitches in baseball.

…with some more possibilities in this article.

Alex Lange might be the presumptive favorite to get the bulk of ninth-inning duties. But don’t rule out José Cisnero, Jason Foley, Will Vest and others.

Twins

• The team is hoping Tyler Mahle’s unknown shoulder injury will magically heal with rest.

Mahle only made four starts for Minnesota last season due to mysterious shoulder issues that the Twins seem to be hoping will have subsided with rest.

• Joe Ryan’s slider improved in the second half.

Ryan made some strides with his slider in the second half, and that could be the key to taking a step up into No. 2 starter territory.

I divided up Ryan’s slider into three distinct time frames. Before the All-Star break, after the All-start break until the last four games, and those last four games. The distinct time frames can be seen in this image.

And here are his slider results and comps over each time frame.

Before the All-Star Game

Middle section

Last four games

That middle section when his slider was at 84 mph would be ideal going forward. His overall did struggle during that middle stretch but that was mainly due to a 23% GB% leading to a 2.1 HR/9. He may be someone to stay away from once the weather warms up or in smaller parks because of flyball nature. His HR/9 by month.

Month: HR/9
Apr: 0.8
May: 0.4
Jun: 2.3
Jul: 2.4
Aug: 1.4
Sep: 0.3

White Sox

• Michael Kopech should be ready for the start of the season.

End-of-season right knee surgery for a torn meniscus added the challenge of rehabbing through the offseason, but Kopech arrived in Arizona early to work, and so far the White Sox have maintained he should be ready for the start of the year.

• Romy Gonzalez is set to be the second baseman.

But as it stands, even if it’s Romy Gonzalez’s job to lose, second base is the spot on the diamond where there’s the most opportunity to prove you belong over the next seven weeks in Arizona.

If Gonzalez is playing, he will make it on a few fantasy rosters for his power-speed combo. He is projected for 20 HR and 12 SB over 600 PA. The issue will be he comes with a projected .220 AVG. He has no plate discipline with a 2% BB% and 36% K% last season in 109 PA. Hope for some plate discipline improvement to start the season.

• One of Kendall Graveman or Reynaldo López will most likely be the closer with Liam Hendriks out.

But I’ve been covering baseball for long enough to know that whoever steps in for Hendriks is as much of an old-school baseball story as the Opening Day starter. It will be a daily fascination until Grifol announces it. Whether it’s the experienced and dependable Graveman sliding back an inning, an ascendant Reynaldo López taking the next step in his career, or … well, it seems pretty unlikely that it’s not one of those two to start the season.

Yankees

• DJ LeMahieu may sit more than expected with the new shift rules and his bad toe.

If no moves are made from now until Opening Day, LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres or Josh Donaldson will have to come off the bench, assuming Giancarlo Stanton is healthy and locked into the designated hitter spot. Last season’s Opening Day, it was Torres who came off the bench and Donaldson was the Yankees’ leadoff hitter; that seems like a lifetime ago considering what’s happened since. If the Yankees want to be cautious with LeMahieu’s troublesome toe, playing him at third might be a challenge. With shift restrictions now in place, rangy and quick-footed middle infielders will become more important, which also hurts LeMahieu’s case of starting at second. But when he’s healthy, LeMahieu might be the team’s second-best hitter behind Judge.

National League

Diamondbacks

• The team is most likely to go with a set closer.

Lovullo likes to have a designated closer if possible, and it looks like the D-backs will enter camp with an open competition for the role. Melancon, Kevin Ginkel and Joe Mantiply could be returning candidates, while some newcomers like McGough and Castro will also get looks. Closer competitions are difficult to have during Spring Training because of the lack of true closing situations, so the D-backs will have to evaluate the candidates throwing in other scenarios to determine who will be the guy.

Dodgers

• Ryan Pepiot’s pitches were a mess last season.

That sweeper has settled into more of a traditional slider, one [Ryan Pepiot] spins well and that should provide an option to keep left-handed hitters off the rest of his arsenal. But that slider still got hit hard last year. More importantly, he lost the feel for the changeup.

“It’s his bread and butter,” Rhymes said of the changeup. “(Sometimes) it was good, but I think there were times he was searching for it. I do think the mechanics and just learning himself, just learning the tempo and the rhythm, how to control himself in those big moments — look, it’s hard.

• Trayce Thompson is a center field option.

Trayce Thompson, who started in center during the postseason, is also a viable option.

Marlins

• Jacob Stallings caught every one of Sandy Alcantara’s starts.

Stallings caught every pitch thrown by ace Sandy Alcantara during his National League Cy Young Award campaign, while Fortes linked up with his former Triple-A teammates.

• The team leaning toward Bryan De La Cruz as the left fielder.

Left field is wide open, though comments throughout the offseason seem to lean toward De La Cruz over the likes of Jesús Sánchez, Peyton Burdick and Jerar Encarnacion.

Mets

• Starling Marte’s recovery has been great but he won’t participate in the WBC.

Despite initially expressing a desire to participate, Marte was not included on the Dominican Republic’s WBC roster. He underwent surgery in early November to repair a core muscle injury he sustained in the second half of the season. When asked on Jan. 31 if Marte would be ready for spring training, Mets general manager Billy Eppler said he feels good about where the outfielder is in his recovery, but the team would set a projection for his training once he arrived at Port St. Lucie. One person briefed on the matter indicated that Marte’s recovery is seemingly going well. Eppler didn’t dismiss the idea that Marte might be limited at the start of spring training.

Nationals

• Bryson Stott wore down as the season went on.

Bryson Stott, 2B (25) — His average exit velocities (mph) by month, starting with April: 82.2, 83.5, 87.8, 90.5, 88.6, 85.5. He was gassed by the postseason. Teams fed him fastballs he couldn’t hit. (More than 75 percent of the pitches Stott saw in the postseason were fastballs; he went 1-for-28 on them.) Lessons to learn.

Padres

• Fernando Tatis Jr.’s shoulder may take a while to heal back to where he was, especially since he’s an elite talent.

“Unless you’ve done surgery on a patient already, it’s a first-time surgery,” Nguyen, who has not treated Tatis, added. “You don’t know what their natural anatomy was or their natural ligament status was because it’s all been torn up now. So you kind of have to reestablish that.”

Tatis is five months removed from his shoulder operation. Nguyen said that an average person can expect to fully recover in four to six months. It can take elite athletes months longer to reapproach peak performance, and Tatis also is coming back from a pair of left wrist surgeries — the first to repair a fractured scaphoid bone, the second to replace a screw after doctors did not see enough healing.
…
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he takes some time to get back to that level. That’s natural,” Nguyen said. “That expectation for everybody to hit that hard, without having surgery, is unrealistic. And then imagine adding surgery on top of that; that percentage would drop even more. … When you’re dealing with elite athletes, you’re a finely tuned instrument essentially. And even a little bit can throw you off.

Reds

• Nick Senzel is no longer using a scooter.

And then there’s Nick Senzel, who was on a scooter at RedsFest after foot surgery. In early December, he said he hadn’t walked for months. He’s out of the boot and walking and training, but it’s to be seen just what kind of shape he’s in after not being able to run. And, well, that’s not the only question about Senzel.

• Levi Stoudt, Brandon Williamson, Justin Dunn, and Luis Cessa are competing for the last rotation spot.

Luke Weaver seems to have the inside track for the fourth spot, while the fifth spot is up for grabs.

Two pitchers who have yet to reach the big leagues, Stoudt and Williamson, could also challenge for a rotation spot. Those two, along with Justin Dunn, could benefit from Luis Cessa’s decision to pitch for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic.

Levi Stoudt and Brandon Williamson weren’t on my radar, so here is a bit on each one. Stoudt has been fine with an 8.8 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in the minors. The walks are a little high while throwing a 94 mph fastball with a slider and curve.

As for Williamson, he walks everyone (4.4 BB/9 across on minor league levels) but with a decent number of strikeouts (11.5 K/9). He was in Baseball Ammerica’s 2022 top-100 prospects but took a major step back with his fastball velo down 2 mph and no command.

I don’t like any of the options listed. Maybe I’d give Stoudt the edge.