Mining the News (3/5/25)

American League

Angels

• In an article about shortstop replacements for Zach Neto, there was no mention of Luis Rengifo.

Neto remains ahead of schedule after undergoing shoulder surgery in early November but hasn’t been cleared to throw across the diamond or hit live pitching just yet. With Neto out, the Angels will have to turn to an internal option at shortstop to begin the season. Washington said he didn’t know whether Neto would miss a week or a month, but he didn’t expect him to be out too long.

Astros

• Luis Garcia touched 90 mph after sitting at 93 mph the last time he was in the majors.

RHP Luis Garcia
Injury: Tommy John surgery
Expected return: After Opening Day 2025
Status: Garcia touched 90 mph while throwing in the bullpen Feb. 27 and is close to facing hitters. (updated Feb. 28)

• Brendan Rodgers is trying to increase his launch angle.

During the offseason, Rodgers began tweaking his swing searching for an increased launch angle. In his brief time with the Astros, Rodgers says his new coaches have encouraged him to continue that pursuit.

“I’m really focused on what they’re having me try to think about and feel in the swing,” Rodgers said. “I’m really starting to understand how my body works, and how it can work a little bit better — be less forceful with my hands and really just kind of swinging with my back hip and trusting that I have time to hit heaters and I have time to hit sliders.”

Athletics

• Zack Gelof altered his batting stance.

For 2025, the goal for Gelof is to get back to that consistency at the plate from his rookie year.

Working closely with director of hitting Darren Bush this spring, he is working on making some adjustments at the plate. Gelof did not want to get into specifics about the changes he is working on, though a quick study of his at-bats from last year to this spring will show that he has altered his stance a bit. His hand positioning is now slightly farther away from his body, which should help give his swing a clearer path to the ball.

Rangers

• Jacob deGrom will get four Spring Training starts and will be at the back end of the team’s rotation in order to take advantage of built off days early on.

At the time, Bochy said deGrom looked like himself and the coaching staff was confident he would be able to build up his innings for the start of the regular season. That confidence hasn’t appeared to waver, but the Rangers are focused on keeping their ace healthy.

“That’s just how it’s shaping up,” Bochy told reporters on Monday. “We decided to go ahead and give him the back end of the rotation. He’s gonna get around four starts here [in Arizona], we’ll get him up to around five innings and he’ll slot in the back end.”

• For the team’s closer, the manager is considering Robert Garcia …

Manager Bruce Bochy has said that Garcia is one of the main arms in the mix for the closer role among a fully rebuilt bullpen. Garcia doesn’t let those specifics bother him.

… and Chris Martin …

Martin has at least one save in every season since 2018, and he had four in his first stint with the Rangers in 2019. Martin has a career 9.27 K/9 and a 1.17 BB/9, which could prove trustworthy at the end of games.

“He’s one of our guys who will be helping use get the last few outs,” Bochy said “Strike-thrower. He attacks the hitters well. That’s his strength, with good stuff. He’s had a ton of success in high-leverage situations.”

… and Marc Church.

Church, who missed most of the 2024 season with a right shoulder strain, touched 99 mph in his appearance on Feb 27. He is expected to pitch again Monday.

“He’s got the stuff to be a high-leverage reliever,” Bochy said. “He has the velocity. It’s jumping on you. I see him having that role sometime down the road here. It could be when we break camp. This is how good we think he can be.”

Yankees

• The manager is considering Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza, and Pablo Reyes for the open third base job.

That leaves a few options for manager Aaron Boone. There’s Oswaldo Cabrera, the super-utility man who played every position other than catcher and center field for the club last year, including 74 games at third base.

There’s Oswald Peraza, an infield Swiss Army knife in his own right. The Venezuelan appeared in four games for the Yankees last season, spending the majority of 2024 with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

There’s also , who logged games at all four infield positions last year with the Red Sox and Mets.

Boone said all three are in the mix. The sports cliche of “next man up” is an apropos way to describe the situation with LeMahieu injured.

National League

Cubs

• Cade Horton’s fastball is sitting at 95 to 97 mph after sitting at 94 mph last season.

So far so good on the spring for Horton, even as the Cubs are clearly going to be very careful with him. He’s reportedly been sitting 95-97 mph with the fastball in BP, and the curveball and change still seem to be possible future pitches for him (keep in mind that the slider remains elite)

Mets

• Pete Alonso is working on his swing.

From a technical standpoint, Alonso learned the importance of his hips as a power source, New York Mets co-hitting coach Eric Chavez said. Essentially, he grasped Alonso now has his hips set in the right position at the beginning of his swing. He’s able to hold them there. He’s able to fire them when he wants to. And he’s firing them in the right direction.

In simpler language, Chavez says Alonso has “actually learned how to hit.” Alonso figured out what he does well and why he does it. Alonso studied video to pinpoint the issue. Then he worked out at Diesel Optimization in Tampa for refinement. Chavez called Alonso’s work in the offseason “a tremendous job.”

• Kodai Senga is intentionally throwing his sinker at a lower velocity.

That velocity spread was not by design and should not be permanent. Senga purposely threw the two-seamer slower, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said, because he’s trying to get a feel for it. Following a few inauspicious test runs in the bullpen, Senga flashed more movement with the sinker in Monday’s game than at any point this spring.

“It’s a new pitch that he isn’t quite fully confident in, so he’s trying to get his hand in the right spot,” Hefner said, estimating that Senga’s two-seamer could eventually come in a tick or two less than his four-seam fastball.

Phillies

• Johan Rojas is flattening his swing.

Rojas, who has a minor shoulder injury that has limited his action to designated hitter this spring, has applied some swing adjustments. His bat path is flatter. He’s used the whole field; he smacked a two-strike pitch to the opposite field for a run-scoring single in the spring opener. He has continued to think that way at the plate.

“That’s something we’ve been working on,” Rojas said through a team interpreter. “Let the ball travel where it needs to be. The two-strike approach is let the ball come to you and just hit it where it needs to go.”

• Ranger Suárez will have a limited workload to start the season.

Suárez has been throwing bullpen sessions and facing hitters in live batting practices. The Phillies won’t say it, but they have put Suárez on a more gradual buildup with the goal of better managing him in the season’s first two months.