Playing Fact or Fiction with All of MLB's Hottest Spring Training Buzz
The countdown to Opening Day has shifted from weeks to days, and with it, teams have shifted their focus from making wholesale changes to tweaking their respective rosters.
Whether it's fiddling with the back end of their rotation—and no, I don't mean that general managers are standing on the field playing a baseball-bat-turned-fiddle—filling the last open spot in the bullpen or figuring out which spring training upstart is worthy of a bench spot, most teams know which 25 players they'll head into the regular season with.
That said, there's plenty of rumor and speculation as to just how those last-minute decisions will play out.
Has a former top prospect forced his way into a team's Opening Day rotation? Will teams look to the free-agent scrap heap to fill holes created by injury? We'll cover all of that and more in this week's edition of Fact or Fiction.
The MLBPA Owes Mike Olt an Apology
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The predictable overreaction to Kris Bryant's demotion reached new levels of insanity thanks to Tony Clark and the MLB Players Association. Here's the statement, in case you missed it, courtesy of the organization's official Twitter account:
"Today is a bad day for baseball. We all know that if Kris Bryant were a combination of the greatest Players to play our great game, and perhaps he will be before it's all said and done, the Cubs still would have made the decision they made today. This decision, and other similar decisions made by clubs will be addressed in litigation, bargaining or both.
"
Funny, I don't see anything in that statement, or anywhere on the association's Twitter feed, congratulating Mike Olt—an actual MLBPA member—on making Chicago's 25-man roster as the team's starting third baseman. Bryant, yet to make his MLB debut, is not a member.
In fact, the association has gone on record in recent years to clarify that minor league players aren't its concern. "We don't represent them and have no obligation (to)," said Gene Orza, the association's now-retired former attorney, to Slate's Lily Rothman back in 2012.
As for the vague threat of litigation, what's the argument? That the collective bargaining agreement it agreed to is violating the rights of a person it doesn't represent? That sounds more like a Saturday Night Live skit featuring the late Phil Hartman's unfrozen cave man lawyer than an actual court case.
Verdict: Fact
An apology is in order, as the union put the interests of a non-member ahead of one of its own.
Of course, that apology will never come because to do so would require an explanation of the statement, and nobody is going to admit what we all know—that the union's stance, just like that of the Cubs, has nothing to do with baseball and everything to do with money.
San Diego Will Trade Another Reliever Before Opening Day
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Shortly after San Diego traded southpaw Alex Torres to the New York Mets, Dennis Lin of U-T San Diego tweeted that the club was still "active in trade discussions" involving a number of their relievers.
Torres, along with 34-year-old right-hander Dale Thayer, is out of minor league options, which could be a reason why the Padres were willing to part with the lefty and could follow suit with Thayer.
But the team also has depth from which to deal, with the offseason additions of Shawn Kelley (expected to break camp with the club) and Brandon Maurer (who is not) perhaps making some holdovers from last year expendable.
One name that could be of interest to other teams is 27-year-old Odrisamer Despaigne, who projects to be the team's long reliever in 2015 but was solid in 16 starts last year, pitching to a 3.36 ERA and 1.22 WHIP.
Verdict: Fiction
Unless a team is willing to blow the Padres away with an offer—a scenario that's highly unlikely this close to Opening Day—there's no reason for the team to continue subtracting pieces from what, potentially, could once again be one of baseball's best bullpens.
Archie Bradley Will Crack Arizona's Opening Day Rotation
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All Archie Bradley wants to do is pitch for the Arizona Diamondbacks, even if that means opening the season in the bullpen. "For me it's just about making this club any way that I can and helping them win," he told MLB.com's Steve Gilbert earlier this week, "and if it's out of the pen that's fine with me."
But after tossing six innings of one-hit, shutout ball against Cincinnati on Wednesday, the 22-year-old righty is forcing the team to consider whether he'd be a better fit in the rotation.
"We've named our five, but he's pushed the envelope all the way down to the last possible chance he had," manager Chip Hale told Zach Buchanan of The Arizona Republic. "He's looked great. We'll have to sit down and evaluate everything."
Currently, Arizona's Opening Day rotation is set to include Chase Anderson, Trevor Cahill, Josh Collmenter, Rubby De La Rosa and Jeremy Hellickson. Of that group, Anderson, Collmenter and Hellickson are all locks, leaving two spots potentially open for Bradley to slide into.
There's certainly an argument to be made that Arizona would be better off keeping the rotation intact and using Bradley out of the bullpen, especially when you consider that he's open to such a scenario. But there's also a strong case to be made that doing so would be foolish.
"There are arguments against the Diamondbacks using this method. For one, they would be burning a year of control on one of their top young pitchers in a role in which he might accumulate only 60 or 70 innings of work," Buchanan's fellow Arizona Republic scribe Nick Piecoro writes. "Moreover, they'd be doing it in a season in which they are not expected to contend."
Verdict: Fact
Arizona has been there, done that with Cahill as a starter, and De La Rosa lacks a quality third pitch in his arsenal, which screams "reliever!" to anyone paying attention, so the idea of Bradley replacing one of them in the rotation isn't all that far-fetched.
With 2015 looking like something of a transitional year for the D-Backs, they have nothing to lose by giving Bradley a chance to stick in the rotation and get some much-needed experience in the big leagues.
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Oakland Will Sign a Free-Agent Outfielder
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Coco Crisp needs surgery to remove bone chips and a bone spur in his right elbow, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, and will be out of action for up to two months. And with Josh Reddick expected to begin the season on the disabled list as he deals with an oblique strain, speculation has run rampant that Oakland will sign a free agent to fill one of its spots on the roster.
There's no shortage of available outfield options, with players like Ryan Ludwick, Nate Schierholtz and Dayan Viciedo (pictured) all unsigned heading into the regular season, while a number of teams—the Dodgers and Padres chief among them—have surplus outfielders who could be available in a trade.
Verdict: Fiction
It's not as if Oakland is without internal options to fill the holes created by those injuries. Craig Gentry will fill in for Crisp in center field, with the speedy Billy Burns backing him up, while the versatile Ben Zobrist will slide from second base to right field in Reddick's absence.
Sure, it's not an ideal scenario—going with a platoon of Eric Sogard and Tyler Ladendorf at second base leaves much to be desired—but it's only temporary. Adding another body to the mix simply doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the A's at this point.
Rafael Soriano Will Sign Before Opening Day
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Despite the fact that a number of teams need to bolster their bullpens, veteran reliever Rafael Soriano has yet to find one that's willing to give him a shot.
The 35-year-old was phenomenal over the first half of the 2014 season with Washington, pitching to a 0.97 ERA and 0.81 WHIP while converting all but two of his 24 save chances. But it all fell apart after the All-Star break, with Soriano posting a 6.48 ERA and 1.60 WHIP while blowing five saves in 15 attempts.
He's been most recently linked to Minnesota, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN, but the team's interest was overstated in early reports. Were he to hold a workout for interested clubs (presumably at the Boras Sports Training Institute in Miami), a team source told LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune that Minnesota "might" watch him throw.
Verdict: Fiction
There's no reason to believe Soriano will be trotting out of a major league bullpen anytime soon.
Whether it's Soriano holding out for a chance to close (he still believes he's capable of doing just that, as he told The Washington Post's James Wagner at the end of last season) or his agent, Scott Boras, holding him out for a bigger payday, Team Soriano clearly misread the market for his services this offseason.
Unless otherwise noted, all spring training statistics courtesy of MLB.com and are current through games of April 1. All other statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs.
Hit me up on Twitter to talk all things baseball: @RickWeinerBR
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