Predicting Outcomes for the Biggest Upcoming Spring Training Storylines
"It's the fans that need spring training. You gotta get 'em interested. Wake 'em up and let 'em know that their season is coming, the good times are gonna roll."
It's true, Harry, we do need spring training. After three long, soggy months, baseball is almost back. Baseball!
Make no mistake, though: the players need it, too. Once pitchers and catchers report, it'll be a few short weeks until the games start to matter for real.
There are position battles to be won, young talent to be vetted, free agents left unsigned. In other words, intrigue aplenty.
Certainly we won't hit on every enticing storyline. But here are five narratives that will shape the trajectory of contending clubs or the league as a whole, mini-dramas that demand attention as Opening Day draws near.
Let the good times roll.
Can Didi Gregorius Fill Derek Jeter's Cleats?
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No one can become the next Derek Jeter. But Didi Gregorius had better damn well try.
The 24-year-old is tasked with replacing one of the most beloved middle infielders of his generation, a rare talent and indelible personality who embodied the effortless Yankee Way for better than a decade.
It seems like an impossible task. And in all likelihood, Gregorius, who New York acquired in a three-team trade on Dec. 5, won't live up to it.
Add a .226/.290/.363 slash line in 2014, and it's easy to imagine the Bronx faithful preemptively hanging their heads.
Still, don't count out the slick-fielding Gregorius entirely or assume Jeter's heir is doomed from the start.
Prediction: Gregorius will flash the leather and hit just enough to ease Yankees fans' Jeter withdrawal—for now.
Will the New-Look Marlins Mesh?
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If you sign him, they will come—that's the philosophy underpinning the massive, MLB-record contract the Miami Marlins just handed Giancarlo Stanton. Lock up the young superstar—possibly the best pure power hitter of his generation—and build a winner around him.
To that end, Miami revamped its roster with free agent slugger Michael Morse and trade acquisitions like speedy second baseman Dee Gordon and right-handed starter Mat Latos.
But the Fish's biggest addition could be 2013 National League Rookie of the Year Jose Fernandez, who posted a 2.44 ERA in 51.2 innings last year and is due back from Tommy John surgery in June or July, per the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson.
Then there's the health of Stanton himself, who hasn't played an inning since getting nailed in the face by a pitch on Sept. 11.
Prediction: Stanton will be back on top in 2015. But until (and if) Fernandez returns, the Marlins will swim erratically.
Will Tim Lincecum Get Sent to the Pen?
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Almost every team deals with fifth-starter battles in spring training. But not every battle features a two-time Cy Young-winner set to earn $18 million.
If Matt Cain, who underwent elbow and ankle surgery, starts 2015 on the shelf it'll be a moot point.
But assuming Cain is healthy and assuming recently signed Ryan Vogelsong gets a starting gig, Lincecum could be the odd man out.
Lincecum/Vogelsong would've been a laughable comparison just a few years ago—the untouchable ace versus the improbable journeyman.
Now, after another erratic campaign, Lincecum looks like the seventh-best starter on the Giants' depth chart, after Madison Bumgarner, Cain, Tim Hudson, Jake Peavy, Vogelsong and Yusmeiro Petit.
Could he be the arm with the most impressive resume relegated to the pen in 2015?
Prediction: One of Giants' projected starters (Cain, Peavy or Vogelsong) will struggle with either health or performance, and Lincecum will begin the season in the rotation for the defending champs...for better or worse.
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Will Kris Bryant Make the Cubs' Opening Day Roster?
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The Chicago Cubs are brimming with two things this spring: optimism and questions.
On the one hand, the historically hapless Cubbies are the sexy pick to exceed expectations and win the NL Central, with the help of a young core and offseason imports like ace left-hander Jon Lester.
On the other hand, Chicago still has plenty to sort out.
Like, say, the fate of third baseman Kris Bryant, largely regarded as a stud of the (near) future but a player the Cubs may stash in Triple-A to start the season.
The 23-year-old doesn't have much left to prove after crushing a combined 43 home runs with 110 RBI in the minors last year.
The Cubs could gain a financial advantage by holding Bryant back and delaying his arbitration clock, but if you listen to the team's brass they acknowledge the kid's immediate value.
"He's very talented," skipper Joe Maddon told Tony Andracki of CSN Chicago. "Truthfully, we'll just wait to see how it all plays out in camp. But of course, he's a huge part of our future."
Prediction: Bryant will force the Cubs' hand with a red-hot spring and win the starting third base job on Opening Day.
Who Will Sign Yoan Moncada?
5 of 5The waiting game continues with Yoan Moncada.
That's thanks to a complex dance between MLB and the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control, which for now dictates when and how the 19-year-old Cuban phenom can sign.
As of Friday, Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan reports the league was instructing teams not to sign Cuban players while it waited for "guidance" from the U.S. government.
Assuming this bureaucratic mess gets sorted out at some point soon, the question remains: Who will ink Moncada, a switch-hitting infielder deemed a five-tool talent by multiple scouts?
Prediction: The New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, among other deep-pocketed suitors, reportedly have interest in Moncada.
Mark down New York as the favorites, as Baseball America's Ben Badler convincingly argued back in November:
"The Yankees have the money to beat anyone’s offer. They’re willing to invest in international talent, whether it’s unprecedented spending on Latin American amateurs or $175 million for Masahiro Tanaka. When you line up all the evidence, if the Yankees truly want Moncada, they’re going to be tough to beat.
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