Mining the News (2/22/25)

• The MLB.com writers put together an article on the prospects who might contribute the most in the majors. For example, here is the write-up on Bubba Chandler.

Pirates: Bubba Chandler, RHP (MLB No. 15)
Chandler served notice at the end of last year at Triple-A with a 1.83 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, .183 BAA and 12.4 K/9 rate over seven starts for Indianapolis, and it wouldn’t have been surprising to have seen him up last year to help out had the Pirates hung around the playoff race. It remains to be seen if the club will be willing to bring him north on Opening Day, but the fact that they didn’t get the extra PPI Draft pick from Paul Skenes winning Rookie of the Year because they didn’t bring him up right away and he ended up being awarded a full season of service time anyway will be enough of a lesson learned.

American League

Angels

• Luis Rengifo will practice at all three outfield positions.

It’s a reason why Rengifo will also see some action in the outfield this spring, including center field with Mike Trout moving over to right.
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Washington said he prefers Rengifo at third, but he believes he can handle second, if needed, especially if Moncada stays healthy and locks down third base.

“Third base is a reaction type position,” Washington said. “In the middle, you got to do a little thinking, and you got to know exactly what’s going on. And he showed that when he has to just react, he’s better. But we’re certainly not against him being at second base.”

Athletics

• Jacob Wilson윌슨 added 15 pounds.

Wilson understood the assignment. The A’s No. 1 prospect/No. 31 prospect in baseball (per MLB Pipeline) reported to Spring Training looking noticeably thicker after adding about 15 pounds to his 6-foot-2 frame.

“He definitely looks a little more physical,” manager Mark Kotsay said of Wilson. “A lot of times, you talk to young players going into their first offseason and you never know if they’re going to buy in or understand the benefits of what you’re trying to tell them. But he took that to heart.”

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“I’m feeling a lot stronger,” Wilson said. “Especially now starting baseball activities and starting to hit BP, I’m really starting to feel the difference from last year to this year. Everything is feeling good right now. I just have to keep continuing the program and get stronger.”

Blue Jays

• The leadoff spot will not be set this season.

Schneider expects he’ll “mix and match” in the leadoff spot this season depending on the opposition and pitching matchups. That list, at least as of Wednesday, included Springer, Bo Bichette, Will Wagner and Andres Gimenez.

“There’s a handful of guys who can do it and we’re just going to try to maximize (it) each night,” Schneider said.

Guardians

• Slade Cecconi has cleaned up his mechanics and developed a couple new fastballs.

Cecconi has a lively fastball that’s been torched (.329 average, .582 slugging percentage last season) by big league batters.

“We’ve cleaned up some mechanics,” Cecconi said. “I’ve also developed a couple new pitches — different versions of the fastball, one that goes left and one that goes right. It should be fun and open up some stuff.”

Mariners

• Mitch Haniger will not be the everyday designated hitter.

Asked specifically about Haniger’s fit, Mariners manager Dan Wilson said: “There are a lot of question marks. We haven’t even gotten to a game yet, so it’s hard to know how it’s all going to play out. But certainly, his ability to swing the bat, his experience in the league, all that plays.”

Dipoto also suggested that the DH spot could be used as a hybrid day for everyday players, pointing to Raleigh, Arozarena, Luke Raley and Donovan Solano to get them off their feet but still keep them in the lineup.

Orioles

• The team wants to be more aggressive on the bases.

Hyde hopes that Colton Cowser, who stole nine bases in 13 attempts, and Jackson Holliday, who was successful in each of his four attempts, will be more aggressive.

“It’s going to be an emphasis in this camp, let’s get them more comfortable on the bases and working on their jumps in games and getting them more aggressive,” Hyde said. “I think as a young player, you don’t want to make a mistake and so playing on the conservative side is more natural and more normal, especially when you’re playing close games, trying to win every game. It’s harder on a good team that’s trying to get to the postseason than it is with our teams in ’19, ’20 and ’21 where we could run just to be aggressive.

• Top prospect, Brandon Young, has been working on his slider and changeup.

Young’s best pitches are his fastball and curveball, but he has two other offerings he’s been working on improving for the past year-plus, including over the offseason.

“Tinkering with slider and changeup, specifically,” Young said. “Just trying to refine my pitches, make them a little more sharper. Maybe just command them a little better.”

• Ramón Laureano is likely to platoon with Cedric Mullins in centerfield.

Laureano can play all three outfield positions.

“He’s going to play all three in spring,” Hyde said. “You never know what’s going to happen, so you need guys to be versatile and not surprise guys during the season.”

Laureano enjoys playing center, and could play against left-handers when the Orioles sit left-hand hitting Cedric Mullins.

“I’ll play anywhere, so whatever the team needs, whatever lineup they put out there,” Laureano said. “However they need me, I’ll be there, really. I’m a big fan of Cedric’s. He’s a tremendous centerfielder for sure.”

• More bunts.

Hyde wants to see his club run more this season and try to bunt for hits.

Rangers

• Adolis García cleaned up his swing and dealt with injuries in 2024.

Most evident this spring is the swing adjustment that García has debuted. He is working to remove an early loop at the top of his swing and, generally, tighten things up.

“Quieter,” manager Bruce Bochy said when asked to describe the new swing. “Not a lot of movement. Not a lot of length — with his stride or with the swing itself. Staying behind the ball is being quieter. Corey [Seager], for example, he’s a quiet hitter. He is pretty direct to the ball.

“[García] is shorter with everything. Just more direct to the ball. He’s not trying to lift it so much. That’s what I’ve noticed in the early part of spring. He’s so strong, he doesn’t have to get long [and] try to hit home runs. I’m sure he wants to hit those home runs — that’s who he is — but it’s all about hitting it hard. If he hits it hard, it’s going to go out.”
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Injuries that occurred late in 2023 not only forced him to miss games early last spring, but bothered him throughout the year — though it’s something he never used as an excuse.

“Watching him run the bases, you can see a different spring in his legs,” Bochy said. “The knee has bothered him at times, even in 2023, but not to the point where it was in ’24. He’s worked hard on building that up. He says he doesn’t feel anything now, and we want to make sure we keep it that way by taking care of him, too.

Rays

• Curtis Mead added 20 pounds.

Mead said he needed to get “a bit more physical,” to come in bigger and stronger than last year. He took it to heart, packed on about 20 pounds and reported to Spring Training — where he’s competing for a bench spot on the Opening Day roster — ready to recapture the form he showed as a consensus Top 100 prospect.

Red Sox

• Rafael Devers is still not doing team workouts.

noted this a few times but I think it’s been lost in the shuffle: Devers has been doing separate infield and cage work as he builds up his shoulder program after last year’s shoulder injuries. They expect him starting regular workouts next week but something to keep an eye on https://t.co/ze3OSwWZAI

— Jen McCaffrey (@jcmccaffrey) February 19, 2025

• Masataka Yoshida will play some outfield (Util-only in most leagues) and might not be healthy by Opening Day.

Yoshida, now entering his third season in Major League Baseball after coming over from Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, will see time in the outfield this year, according to manager Alex Cora.

“[Yoshida] is going to be part of the picture,” Cora said Tuesday. “We’ve just got to get him going. Last year, he was a DH. This year, we need him to play defense. It’s a different season.”
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When asked if he thinks he’ll be ready for Opening Day, Yoshida said, “[I’m] just trying to get more reps. Trying to get myself ready for Opening Day. That’s the plan. Trying to get more playing time, more at-bats, just doing everything I can to get myself ready.”

• Ceddanne Rafaela will use a new batting stance to hit lefties.

Next, Rafaela will continue using an altered batting stance, lowering his hands so that he’s connected with his front leg with a small leg kick helping his timing.

“We need him to hit against lefties — that’s important — and we need him to get on base because if he gets on base, we can put pressure on the opposition,” Cora said.

For his career, Rafaela has a 35% K% and a .610 OPS against lefties.

Royals

• Daniel Lynch IV did NOT work on any pitch design this offseason.

For the first time maybe in his career, he did not work on any sort of pitch design. Instead, his focus was on efficiency in his delivery and with his command.

“The idea is that the more you do something, the better you’re going to get at it,” Lynch said. “But if you’re not doing the same thing all the time, if you keep constantly changing ideas, it’s going to be really hard to get down to what you’re actually doing.”

• MJ Melendez cleaned up his swing.

The leg kick is much smaller and the hands are back toward his shoulder, almost giving the bat a flatter position as the batter gears up. The stance is still athletic but more balanced. The movements, overall, are simplified.

It’s not a complete swing overhaul for MJ Melendez, but it sure looks different this spring.

• Jonathan India and Michael Massey will split time in the outfield.

The plan right now is to have India spend three days working in the outfield, then three days in the infield. Massey will be on the opposite schedule. That’s for drill work in the mornings specifically, and it might change once the game schedule is mapped out.

Tigers

• Casey Mize wants to bring back his splitter and is working on another slider.

Here now trying to reassert himself as a staple in the Tigers rotation, Mize is again making adjustments to his arsenal, searching for perfection. That quest starts with returning to the pitch that got him here.

“I haven’t used (the splitter) as much, to be honest,” Mize said. “I think I need to get back to using it a lot. That will go hand-in-hand with becoming more comfortable with it.”

The splitter has always been a source of great intrigue. When he was coming out of Auburn, the stigma that sometimes surrounds splitters created questions. Would Mize’s best pitch also be his tragic flaw? The assertion that splitters lead to arm injuries is more theory than fact. Mize has undergone Tommy John surgery and also had a separate back procedure. Throughout his big-league career, though, a splitter that was supposed to be a plus-plus pitch has generated only meager results. For the duration of Mize’s time in the big leagues, the splitter has a total run value of minus-3.

“I think as my body has changed and the way that I move on the mound, that pitch has just changed coming out of my hand,” Mize said.

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Now Mize is toying with three different versions of the slider. One is the traditional pitch he threw last season. Another is bigger, more of a sweeper designed to induce chase. Another is a pitch with more depth, perhaps a weapon that could steal strikes early in counts.

• Jackson Jobe changed his curveball and added a sinker. Also, his fastball is sitting at 98 mph after sitting at 97 mph last season.

The work began. Jobe tweaked his breaking ball and settled on something closer to a traditional curveball. He also added a two-seam to pair with his harder slider. “The idea behind the curveball is just to have more of a north-south approach, work off the four-seam that I’m throwing 40-plus percent of the time,” Jobe said.
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Over at Jobe’s locker, the young right-hander stood tall. His shoulders look broader every day. His confidence is growing, too. His fastball averaged 98 mph. Jobe shrugged. “Which I’ll take right now,” he said.

Twins

• Carlos Correa is not dealing with any foot pain.

According to Correa, the pain in his heel didn’t go away until last month. It was more than getting treatment, too: He had to strengthen other areas near the heel.

Yankees

• Austin Wells will not play in Spring Training for a bit to get some extra rest.

Now in his first spring as the Yankees’ starting catcher, Austin Wells has stood in as a batter for numerous sessions this week, though the backstop has yet to swing at a pitch. Wells said he has been hitting off high-velocity machines, but he’s “just not ready yet” against live pitching.

Wells is participating in all catching drills and said there is no injury issue, but after Wells played in a career-high 115 games last season, manager Aaron Boone said he intends to keep Wells out of Grapefruit League games until late February or early March.

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“The amount of games he played in the second half, at times he was a little banged up, but overall, [Wells was] pretty good,” Boone said. “Having a little bit of a shorter offseason, I think he’s in a great spot. He’s doing everything he needs to be ready. I’ve kind of told him, ‘I want to slow-play a little bit, so let’s move accordingly.’”

• DJ LeMahieu has the “inside track” to getting the starting third base job.

Publicly, the Yankees are indicating that LeMahieu has the inside track to start on Opening Day. Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner has $30 million reasons to hope LeMahieu secures the position.

National League

Cardinals

• Masyn Winn wants to steal 30 bags.

Winn, of course, wants more and wants it all. He worked during the offseason with a track coach who might help him hit his goal of “30 bags” stolen in 2025.

• Willson Contreras beefed up to hit for more power.

Whereas Contreras used to arrive to camp at 235 pounds to maintain his flexibility behind the plate, he’s bulked up to 247 pounds this spring with the intention of mashing more balls for a Cardinals team that desperately needs power and RBI production. For now, Contreras is reveling in the excitement of being able to put on muscle, transitioning to a new position and potentially hitting more long balls.

“I have plenty of time to do everything now,” said Contreras, who noted that he will no longer be burdened by studying opposing scouting reports and working with his own team’s pitchers. “Reflecting as a first baseman is totally different, and I feel relaxed and confident. One of the biggest keys to being a good hitter is having time to reflect on an at-bat or watch video to make adjustments. Now I can talk about hitting, and it feels relaxing to have time to talk to other hitters and ask them questions.”

Diamondbacks

• Pavin Smith (vs RHP) and Randal Grichuk (vs LHP) will form a DH platoon.

“I think Pavin raked against righties last year. I would like to see Pavin strangle that spot,” Hazen said of the DH role last week. “I think there’s every indication he should go out and hit righties.

“He controls the strike zone as well as anybody we have on our team. He clearly has the power that he’s moving into a little bit here. I don’t think that’s who he is as a baseball player. I think he’s a really good hitter and gets on base and espouses a lot of the qualities we believe in that lead to offensive production.”

Arizona’s designated hitter platoon was a major win last year. They paired Pederson with outfielder Randal Grichuk to support one of the best statistical DH situations in MLB, ranking third with a .891 OPS.

Grichuk is back and expected to fill a similar role facing lefties.

• Pavin Smith might play some first base. In some formats, he is outfield only.

“I envision [Smith] getting some reps at first base. I love what I’ve seen over there so far,” Lovullo said. “I like active infielders. Typically, you see the big bopper at first base that doesn’t move well. That’s not the case here for the Diamondbacks. We need guys to go out and perform at every position defensively.”

Lovullo also credited Naylor with his defensive intensity in camp, so they will compete for playing time with the glove in an otherwise strong infield.

Dodgers

• Roki Sasaki is improving his slider to have a solid third pitch.

Sasaki threw two innings, allowing a pair of line-drive hits but otherwise keeping the ball on the ground. The 23-year-old right-hander threw mostly fastballs and splitters but also mixed in some sliders, a pitch that is considered more of a work in progress for him.
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With Sasaki still working to develop his slider, there has been some question of whether he needs to add another solid pitch in order to succeed as a Major League starter. The Dodgers are interested in continuing to build up Sasaki’s arsenal, but their first priority is helping him acclimate to life in the big leagues before focusing on making adjustments.

Giants

• Enny Romero destroyed his competition in LIDOM and is sitting 93-94, hitting 97.

Romero was hands down the best pitcher in LIDOM — a performance that seemingly came out of nowhere. The globetrotting 34-year-old hadn’t appeared in the major leagues since 2018, and even more remarkably, he hadn’t pitched in any full-season league since he spent 2022 with Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan. He missed 2023 with a shoulder issue that cropped up when he was in spring training with SSG Landers in Korea. (He’s a globetrotter, all right.) Then he missed all of last year with three fractured vertebrae after taking a fall on the tile floor of his kitchen one day before he was set to report to Tijuana in the Mexican League. This past June, his longtime LIDOM team, Escogido, traded him to Águilas almost as an afterthought. It turned into a heist of a deal. Romero was named LIDOM’s pitcher of the year after he went 6-1 with a 1.24 ERA in 10 starts for Águilas. He led the league in strikeouts and faced 201 batters without allowing a home run.
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“Any lefty right now, we’ll sit up and take notice,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said of Romero, who was throwing 88 mph in his bullpen sessions but ramped up to 93-94 mph once he had a hitter in the box. “He has as much a shot as anybody else.”
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“He was the key pitcher for us,” Encarnacion said of Romero through Spanish interpreter Erwin Higueros. “He was dealing, throwing 97 mph and working the corners. The main thing is he stayed healthy all season. I was very happy for him to come here, especially having another teammate from Águilas. We’re very good friends and we get along very well.”

• Jerar Encarnacion will play some first base and outfield.

Encarnacion’s at-bat quality has been as impressive as his hard contact. In 35 games with the Giants last season, he posted an average exit velocity of 95 mph. The only MLB hitters (minimum 50 batted-ball events) who hit the ball consistently harder were Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and Oneil Cruz.

“He can not only swing the bat for power in our ballpark, but can DH and play some first and play some outfield,” Melvin said. “We’re going to take a hard look at him. He impressed us last year.”

• Landen Roupp is trying to add a cutter.

Roupp is hoping the normal ramp-up will give him a chance to round out his arsenal heading into his second year with the Giants. He’s focusing on getting more comfortable with his four-seam fastball and changeup and is also working on a new cutter to help keep left-handed hitters in check moving forward.

Marlins

• The GM singled out Matt Mervis, Griffin Conine, Kyle Stowers, and Eric Wagaman as potential breakouts.

When speaking to possible breakout candidates, president of baseball operations Peter Bendix singled out Mervis, Griffin Conine, Kyle Stowers and Eric Wagaman. Somewhat older players with plenty of Minor League success but limited Major League experience and production, could they take that next step? That quartet will get every opportunity to do so with the 2025 Marlins.

• Connor Norby is flattening his bat path.

When Norby wasn’t working on his defense, he was cleaning up his bat path — being a bit flatter and creating more length in the zone.

Mets

• Francisco Alvarez is trying to NOT pull the ball as much.

The facility’s leaders get cagey about specifics when it comes to what players work on, so some of the changes won’t be completely known until Alvarez takes more swings in front of cameras. But Alvarez said that at Maven he worked on his stance, use of hands and lower-body movements with his swing. Barnes and Chavez support players who work with other hitting coaches during the offseason and stay on the same page.

Alvarez had a tendency to “spin out” and step more toward third base with his swing as opposed to stepping more toward the middle. Over the winter, Alvarez tried to be more direct. The hope is that he improves his plate coverage and better handles inside pitches, hitting more of them up the middle. Essentially, Alvarez got “pull-happy” at times and his offseason work was designed to help cut down on that.

“I think I can put the ball in the air more, hit the ball to the opposite way more,” Alvarez said. “I’m very powerful; I don’t have to pull every pitch. Really, I just wanted to take the time to get better.”

Nationals

• James Wood could DH some as he returns from injury.

There is a possibility Wood could DH when Spring Training games begin this weekend. To get in his at-bats without running, he also could face Minor League pitchers in their camp. In the meantime, he will diligently follow his training program.

“[I am doing] a whole bunch of lower-half stuff, getting my mind to trust getting into those positions,” Wood said. “Because there’s nothing really wrong. The achiness, my knee, that’s what the pain is — my knee telling me to stop, to chill out a little bit. So it’s not like tricking my mind, but it’s getting that reaction out and just having my mind trust, ‘It’s OK, nothing’s wrong, I can do all this stuff fine.’

“We’re getting there. It’s feeling better every day.”

• Jose A. Ferrer, Jorge López, or Derek Law could be the closer.

“I think we’ve got several guys who have experience doing it,” Rizzo said. “We don’t have a proven commodity at that position, but if the season started today, we would have a guy that we would say would be our ninth-inning guy. I don’t know who it is yet. It could be [Jose A.] Ferrer. It could be [Jorge] López. [Derek] Law could have some leverage innings. And it could come from somebody that we haven’t thought about yet.”

Padres

• Luis Arraez doesn’t feel any pain in his thumb.

“I got jammed yesterday, and I didn’t feel anything,” Arraez said. “That’s a good sign. … I feel like I got a new thumb.”

Last season, as Arraez rolled to a third straight batting title, he consistently downplayed the nature of that injury. On Wednesday, he finally acknowledged its impact. The injury had altered his swing in a semi-significant way. If the thumb barked each time he got jammed, it negated his ability to work inside the baseball.

“It affected me a lot, because I use my hands a lot,” Arraez said. “I stay inside-out. But I couldn’t use it last year. This year … I don’t feel anything in my thumb. Good sign. I think it’s a lot of problems [for] the pitchers this year.”

Phillies

• Brandon Marsh changed his stance to hit more lefties.

It’s spring training, so it must be time for another debate about whether Marsh can produce enough against lefties to merit everyday playing time. Thomson said Marsh will have as many at-bats as possible this spring against lefties. Would he like to see this conversation end?

“Absolutely,” Thomson said. “I’m tired of talking about it.”

There is one way to reach a conclusion: Play Marsh for a few months against righties and lefties. See what happens. Go from there.

“You could,” Thomson said. “But we’ll see. I mean, I’m not going to commit to anything right now.”

For now, the Phillies are optimistic about Marsh’s work. (This is not the first time they’ve said this.) Marsh, after Aug. 1, hit .269/.367/.500 in 31 plate appearances against lefties. He hit .154/.220/.173 in 59 plate appearances during the first four months of 2024. There were real adjustments, Thomson said, which included Marsh adopting an all-fields approach versus lefties a la Kyle Schwarber.

• Alec Bohm struggled with a hand injury at the end of last season.

“Do we know the answer? I don’t know,” Bohm said. “The game’s hard. Sometimes you struggle. I struggled at the wrong time.”

He battled a left-hand injury late in the season, which put him on the 10-day injured list. It likely contributed to his second-half struggles.

“When I started hitting again in the offseason, I realized that it hurt worse than I thought it had hurt,” he said. “But I was out there playing, so I feel like if I’m out there playing, it’s not like I can’t do anything. But at the same time, I’m sure a stronger left hand would have helped somewhere maybe. But it is what it is. Everybody’s banged up, we played 162 games, guys are banged up.”

Pirates

• Jared Jones added a two-seam fastball.

“Last year, he came into camp with the anxiety of trying to make the club and where he was at and finding his footing,” Shelton said. “Now, it’s a situation where he’s working on his repertoire, adding the two-seamer, being able to use pitches.”

Wait, a two-seamer? That’s new.

The two-seamer was an offseason project for Jones, and it should be debuted in games soon. Jones’ four-seamer gets plenty of vertical break (averaging 17.1 inches without factoring in gravity) and this would move in the other direction.

“I just want something that runs,” Jones said. “If it’s good, yeah, [I’ll use it]. If it’s not, there’s no point.

Reds

• Graham Ashcraft is hitting 97 mph and has no limitations.

Put in a brace for six weeks, Ashcraft missed the rest of the season while rehabbing in Arizona. He was able to resume throwing and ramp back up to pitch in an instructional league game in October.

“My velo was back up,” he said. “I was up to 97 [mph] with just fastballs. They were like, ‘You’re good to go. Go have a normal offseason.'”

Working without limitations, Ashcraft wants to show he can be a consistent big league starter.

“There’s been a lot of injuries that have fallen in with one another back-to-back and just hindered me from being 100 percent and doing what I can do,” Ashcraft said. “I feel like this spring, I have come in as healthy as I possibly can and in the best shape I possibly can. I feel like if I keep doing what I’m doing, it’s going to show up. They’ll make the best decision for the team.”

Rockies

• Michael Toglia “quickened his mindset”.

When the Rockies sent Toglia down, he didn’t overhaul his swing. He quickened his mindset.

“I thought shorter in my mind,” he said. “I wanted to be concise with my plans — plan for the at-bat and how I was going to get better each day. That didn’t necessarily mean taking 150 swings or 500 ground balls in early work.”

• Jacob Stallings will be the primary catcher.

#Rockies will give a bulk of the starts at catcher to Jacob Stallings. After that, it will be a camp battle between Drew Romo, Hunter Goodman and Austin Nola.

Might manager Bud Black carry three catchers for Opening Day?

No.

— Patrick Lyons (@PatrickDLyons) February 18, 2025