MLB Spring Training 2015: Mid-Spring Breakdown of Every Key Position Battle
We've reached more or less the middle of Major League Baseball's spring season, and that means the spring training position battles being waged are halfway over.
And that means it's time to see who's still standing.
We're going to focus on 10 of the more high-profile battles going on in spring training. In doing so, we'll take a look at which players were slated to be involved in each battle, how they're performing and whether there have been any unforeseen complications.
We'll go in order of how dramatic the position battles have become. Step into the box whenever you're ready.
Seattle Mariners Shortstop
1 of 10
At the start of the spring, the battle for the Mariners' starting shortstop gig figured to be one of the more hotly contested competitions of the spring.
And it was for a while there. But thanks to the injury bug, it's already over.
The battle was to feature Brad Miller and Chris Taylor, who both came into camp with something to prove. Miller was looking to get back on track after a rough year (.653 OPS) that eventually saw him split time with Taylor. For Taylor's part, he was looking to prove that neither his .692 OPS nor his solid defense last season was a fluke.
He was on track to do just that, as Taylor was hitting .421 with a 1.292 OPS through eight games. But then he broke his right wrist. That's going to knock him out until at least late April, giving Miller the shortstop gig by default.
Not that Miller couldn't have earned it, mind you. He's also having a hell of a spring, hitting .350 with a 1.208 OPS through nine games. What he's doing is reminiscent of when he hit .410 with a 1.314 OPS last spring.
If there's a bright side for Taylor, it's that Miller's spring production in 2014 didn't carry over into the regular season. Taylor is down for the count now, but he could be looming behind Miller again in no time.
Los Angeles Dodgers Center Field
2 of 10
When the Los Angeles Dodgers traded Matt Kemp to the San Diego Padres, it seemed partially designed to clear the way for top prospect Joc Pederson in center field.
The Dodgers declined to hand the position to him on a silver platter, though. Their stance was that Pederson would have to earn the center field gig by beating out Andre Ethier.
So far, this has not been a problem. On the heels of season in which he OPS'd 1.017 with 33 homers and 30 steals at Triple-A, Pederson is hitting .429 with a 1.217 OPS in 12 spring games. He's also played some nifty defense in center field.
Ethier, meanwhile, is hitting .192 with a .481 OPS without sparkling defense in center field. So, not surprisingly, the Dodgers are now singing a bit of a different tune.
"We haven't made any decision on who's going to be where," said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, via Eric Stephen of True Blue LA, "but we do like the way things are going for Joc."
Things are probably going to stay this way. Spring training though it may be, the Dodgers are seeing exactly what they wanted to see out of Pederson and seeing, well, nothing at all out of Ethier. Expect him to be backing up an outfield of Carl Crawford, Pederson and Yasiel Puig on Opening Day.
New York Yankees Closer
3 of 10
There are several closer battles going on this spring, but none features as much combined firepower as the New York Yankees' closer battle.
It's fire-balling lefty Andrew Miller against flame-throwing right-hander Dellin Betances. Both pack power fastballs and knee-buckling breaking balls, and they're both coming off stupendous seasons.
So far this spring, however, Miller has been just a little bit better. He and Betances have both made four appearances, but Miller owns a 2.25 ERA and 5-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio to Betances' 4.50 ERA and 4-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
But more important is how Betances hasn't passed the eye test this spring. He hasn't been able to find his curveball, and he hasn't been blowing hitters away with his fastball like he was through 2014.
Fortunately for Betances, his skipper isn't in a hurry to make a call on who's going to be closing for him.
"I won't make that decision until really late, because to me, that's not one of my pressing decisions," Joe Girardi told Adam Berry of MLB.com.
That gives Betances time to recapture the stuff that made him so dominant in 2014. But if he doesn't do that, it wouldn't be the least bit surprising if he begins the season as a setup man for Miller.
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Chicago Cubs Third Base
4 of 10
When the Chicago Cubs traded Luis Valbuena over the winter, all that was standing in top prospect Kris Bryant's way at third base was Mike Olt. You know, he of the .604 OPS in 2014.
That looked like an open invitation for Bryant to earn the job with a hot spring. And to this end, he's held up his end of the bargain with an OPS of 1.804 and six home runs in nine games.
But in doing so, Bryant seemingly hasn't created a job for himself. He's really only created drama.
Despite his hot spring, the Cubs are still refusing to promise Bryant anything. Even in the face of agent Scott Boras' remarks to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports about Bryant belonging in Chicago right away, everything points toward Bryant starting the season in the minors.
It's not hard to read the Cubs' intentions. As much as they'd probably prefer to have Bryant at third on Opening Day, they have too much to gain by holding him back and delaying his free agency to 2021.
And fortunately for them, the Cubs can sell it as a keen baseball decision. Club boss Theo Epstein made a point to Rosenthal that Bryant hasn't impressed the team with his defense, and it's not as if Olt is having a poor spring. He has a .958 OPS of his own and has also been steadier on defense.
It's safe to assume the Cubs are tempted to disregard service-time issues and put Bryant on the Opening Day roster. But if the current status quo holds, expect the third base job to go to Olt.
Chicago Cubs Second Base
5 of 10
While the battle for the Cubs' hot corner gig is a battle more in spirit than reality, the same can't be said of the battle for the Cubs' second base gig. It's legit.
And right now, it's also kind of a mess.
Javier Baez, one of baseball's top prospects heading into 2014, seemed to be the favorite coming into camp. But general manager Jed Hoyer warned in January that Baez would have to earn his playing time. That mission isn't going so well, as Baez is hitting only .115 with a .346 OPS in nine games.
Unfortunately for Baez, Arismendy Alcantara and Tommy La Stella are having no trouble outhitting him. Alcantara is hitting .250 with a .630 OPS, and La Stella is doing even better to the tune of a .292 average and .704 OPS. Right now, either of them looks like a better option than Baez.
And the situation may stay that way. If Baez continues to struggle to such an extreme degree after debuting to a .551 OPS and a 41.5 strikeout percentage last season, it's possible that the Cubs will take advice from David Schoenfield of ESPN.com and send him back to the minors.
That gives Baez a couple of weeks to get his act together. No pressure, man.
Pittsburgh Pirates Shortstop
6 of 10
The Pittsburgh Pirates' shortstop depth chart went from not interesting at all to very interesting when they signed Jung Ho Kang. He OPS'd 1.198 with 40 home runs in Korea in 2014 and immediately expressed confidence that he could outplay Jordy Mercer to earn Pittsburgh's starting gig.
That didn't sound like too tall of a task. Mercer is a solid defender, but he's nothing special at the plate. He hit only .255 with a .693 OPS in 2014, and he needed a huge platoon split against left-handers to do it.
And so far this spring, Kang has made good on his confidence.
...to an extent. Though Kang certainly passes the eye test, the only reason his .150 average and .611 OPS look good is because Mercer is hitting only .130 with a .435 OPS. Neither is really dominating the competition offensively.
That may not bode well for Kang, truth be told. The initial word was that the Pirates saw Kang more as infield depth than a starter at shortstop. That perception was probably only going to change if he hit enough this spring to overrule Mercer's status as a decent two-way shortstop.
So the way things stand now, Kang is more likely to begin his season lurking in the background than starting at shortstop. If he wants the job, he'll probably have to catch fire.
St. Louis Cardinals No. 5 Starter
7 of 10
Virtually every team has a competition for its No. 5 starter going on. What makes the St. Louis Cardinals' fifth starter competition stand out, however, is that it's actually interesting.
Entering camp, the top candidate was Carlos Martinez, who is best known for his mid- to high-90s fastball and wicked slider. If he could make his talent translate to results, the job was likely going to be his.
To this end, things could be going better. Martinez's first two starts went really well, but he got rocked in his third. So though his 6.75 ERA is misleading, it works as an indicator that he may not be over the consistency issues that dogged him in 2013 and 2014.
Which is good news for top prospect Marco Gonzales. The 23-year-old left-hander owns a 0.84 ERA in three starts, with only six hits allowed in 10.2 innings. Not surprisingly, he has his skipper's attention.
"To me, Marco Gonzales is a completely different pitcher than he was a year ago," Mike Matheny told Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "That just shows his aptitude as much as anything, and his ability...now, he's got more weapons. He's able to pull off some really good pitches in tough counts. He's not as predictable."
Gonzales' dominant spring hardly puts Martinez out of the running for the fifth starter spot, especially knowing that he's only had one bad start. But if more follow while Gonzales continues to dominate, it wouldn't be shocking to see him open in the rotation and Martinez open in the bullpen.
Toronto Blue Jays Closer and Fifth Starter
8 of 10
So yeah, we're cheating a little bit by including two competitions here. But we do so because we have no choice. Toronto's closer competition and fifth starter competition seem joined at the hip.
At the start of the spring, Aaron Sanchez figured to battle fellow top prospect Daniel Norris and veteran right-hander Marco Estrada for the fifth spot in Toronto's rotation. Unless he was needed in the closer role, that is, as Brett Cecil hardly had a vise grip on the job.
But things look a little different now. Marcus Stroman's torn ACL opened up an extra spot in Toronto's rotation, and Cecil has been sidelined by a sore left shoulder. These injuries are making it that much harder for the Blue Jays to put the right pieces in the right places.
Complicating matters even further is that Sanchez hasn't impressed, striking out only four and racking up a 4.70 ERA in three starts. But while the Blue Jays could use that as an excuse to put him in the bullpen, that would mean trusting a rotation spot to Estrada despite his 9.39 ERA and .343 average against.
It's no wonder Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun went asking around whether a fifth starter or a closer is more important. Both are legit question marks for the Blue Jays, and right now, it looks like neither is going to be solved with an easy answer.
Oakland A's Rotation
9 of 10
Heading into spring training, we knew that the Oakland A's had Sonny Gray and Scott Kazmir atop their rotation. A few weeks later, we know that Gray will be starting on Opening Day.
But apart from that, the A's are still figuring things out.
For the last three spots of their rotation, the A's are picking from a group of candidates that includes Jesse Hahn, Jesse Chavez, Drew Pomeranz, Kendall Graveman, Sean Nolin, Chris Bassitt and even old friend Barry Zito. That's a lot of bodies to sift through, and an article from ESPN.com's Christina Kahrl gives the impression that even the A's aren't sure what to do.
There do appear to be some favorites, however.
After pitching to a 3.07 ERA in San Diego last year, Hahn looks like a good bet to open the season in Oakland's rotation. On that note, Chavez pitched to a 3.44 ERA as a starter last year. Meanwhile, Graveman owns a 0.93 ERA this spring, and Pomeranz has a 2.00 ERA with a 15-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Beyond Gray and Kazmir, a trio of Hahn, Chavez and Graveman sounds reasonable. But with a couple of weeks still to go and plenty of other candidates in the mix, such a trio is far from set in stone. This particular competition is probably going to go down to the wire.
Boston Red Sox Outfield
10 of 10
After having too few outfielders in 2014, the Boston Red Sox were set to enter their 2015 spring training with too many outfielders. The word from The Boston Globe's Peter Abraham was that they preferred to go with Hanley Ramirez in left, Rusney Castillo in center and Mookie Betts in right, but even that trio didn't seem set in stone.
And it turns out it wasn't. Red Sox skipper John Farrell raised a lot of eyebrows when he declared at the outset of spring training that Shane Victorino would be his starting right fielder if he proved to be healthy. With Ramirez locked in to left field, that seemed to make center field the only job up for grabs.
But things have gotten even trickier since then. Though it's an obvious bright side that Betts has made it clear he deserves to start, with a .448 average and 1.207 OPS in nine games, Castillo has been sidelined with an oblique strain, and Victorino has hit .077 with a .404 OPS in only six games.
Victorino likely still has a leg up on Castillo, but that could change if Castillo catches fire in his return from his injury. Meanwhile, Allen Craig and Daniel Nava are OPS'ing better than .800.
All told, Ramirez and Betts seem to be locks to start in Boston's Opening Day outfield. Who will be the third starter and how it affects Betts' position, however, remains to be seen.
Note: Spring stats courtesy of MLB.com and are current through Wednesday, March 18. All other stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.
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