Votto makes good first impression on Blue Jays with HR
Joey Votto sure knows how to make an instant impression, going deep on the first pitch he faced as a member of his hometown Toronto Blue Jays.
The veteran first baseman lined a 392-foot homer to left-center off Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler in the first inning Sunday in Clearwater, Florida, in his inaugural spring training game with Toronto.
Granted, there was some debate about whether the ball actually went out, and Votto momentarily stopped at second base. But the umpires ruled it was a homer and he continued on his way to home.
A chance to go home is what led Votto to Toronto in the first place; he agreed to a minor league contract with the Blue Jays this month after spending 17 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds.
The 40-year-old Votto became a free agent last fall after the end of a $251.5 million, 12-year contract with the Reds, the team that selected him in the second round of the 2002 amateur draft out of Richview Collegiate Institute in Toronto.
A six-time All-Star and the 2010 NL MVP, Votto has a .294 average with 356 homers, 1,144 RBIs and a .409 on-base percentage in 2,056 games. Cincinnati declined his $20 million option for 2024.
Alonso contract
Signing New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso to a long-term contract before the end of the season appears to be a remote possibility, owner Steve Cohen implied in a lengthy media session Sunday, his first of spring training.
“At this point, for Pete, it's best for him to go and have a great year and not be distracted,” Cohen said.
Alonso has a $20.5 million, one-year contract and can become a free agent after the World Series.
Alonso, who turns 30 in December, was the 2019 NL Rookie of the Year and is a three-time All-Star. Over his five seasons with the Mets, he's hit .251 with 192 homers and 498 RBIs.
The Toronto Blue Jays' Joey Votto circles the bases after hitting a home run off Philadelpia's Zack Wheeler.
Scott Boras is Alonso's agent and Boras generally prefers his clients use their free agent rights to maximize value.
Yankees' LeMahieu avoids serious injury
The New York Yankees may have caught a break on the injury front. X-rays on the right foot of leadoff hitter DJ LeMahieu came back clean. Although sore, LeMahieu remains day to day after fouling a ball off his foot this weekend.
The banged-up Yankees recently learned that ace Gerrit Cole won't throw for three to four weeks due to nerve irritation and edema in his throwing elbow.
Slugger Aaron Judge is dealing with an abdomen injury. He hit off a tee, did soft toss and took batting practice against a pitching machine in an indoor cage Sunday. Judge hasn't taken batting practice on the infield or played in a game since a week ago when he struck out in both at-bats against Atlanta.
The Stowers show
Kyle Stowers homered in each of his three at-bats for Baltimore in a split-squad game against Detroit. He connected for a solo shot in the second inning, a two-run drive in the fourth and another solo shot in the seventh.
It was the first threehomer game in spring training since 2018.
Stowers is making a strong case for the Orioles' openingday roster. He's batting .297 with seven homers and 13 RBIs in spring training.
Hunter Strickland emerged from his brief “retirement” to put himself in a solid position to resume his big league career.
Strickland, a 35-year-old righthander who didn't pitch in the majors last season, has not allowed a run in 7 1/3 innings with the Angels this spring. Perhaps more significantly, he has not issued a walk, while striking out nine.
“He's been pounding the strike zone,” manager Ron Washington said. “That's exactly what we've been talking about, what we want everybody else to do.”
Strike-throwing has been such an emphasis in camp that the Angels have been posting a sheet listing the all the pitchers' strike-throwing performance on the first pitch and on 1-and-1 counts. As of the last update, Strickland had thrown a first-pitch strike 88% of the time and he was at 100% on 1-1 pitches.
Washington stopped short of saying that the numbers gave Strickland a leg up on winning a spot in the Angels' opening day bullpen.
“He's been having a good spring,” Washington said. “We'll see how it shakes out when we start to make a decision.”
The Angels appear to have six of the eight bullpen spots locked, with righthanded closer Carlos Estévez at the top. Right-handers Luis Garcia, Adam Cimber and José Cisnero, and left-handers Matt Moore and José Suarez are all safely on the roster.
Right-hander Robert Stephenson's shoulder injury has likely opened up another spot. That could go to righthander José Soriano, who has been working as a starter but could easily drop back to the bullpen if that's what the Angels decide.
After that, Strickland is one of four candidates for the final one or two spots. He's joined by right-handers Guillo Zuñiga and Ben Joyce and lefthander Drew Pomeranz. Strickland and Pomeranz are both in camp on minor league deals, while Zuñiga and Joyce are already on the 40-man roster.
Although there's more to the decision than spring training numbers, statistically none of the four has performed better than Strickland.
“I feel great,” Strickland said on Sunday. I feel incredible. I think last year was a blessing, to be honest. I went home and it was a really good reset for me. I thought I was done playing. I made peace with it. But there was still a little fire burning in there. We put in the work and here we are.”
Strickland first reached the big leagues with the San Francisco Giants in 2014, pitching in October to help the Giants to a World Series title. He had a 2.91 ERA over parts of five seasons with the Giants before beginning a nomadic journey around the big leagues.
From 2019-22, Strickland pitched
Pitcher Hunter Strickland has not allowed a run in 7 1/3 innings this spring and has put himself in position to win a spot in the Angels bullpen.
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for seven teams in the majors, including a forgettable nine-game stint with the Angels in 2021. The Cincinnati Reds sent him to Triple-A to start the 2023 season, and he was released after 11 innings. No one else picked up Strickland, so he was at home with his family, pondering the end of his career.
After he decided he wanted to keep playing, the Angels gave him a shot.
Now, Strickland has seen enough not to count on anything regarding his position on the roster.
“I knew coming into it this was a tough bullpen to break,” he said. “There's a lot of talent here that's already got their foot in. I think healthy competition is a good thing. I'm just coming in here, day to day, taking it one at a time and see how it plays out.” STEPHENSON UPDATE >> Stephenson said Sunday that his shoulder isn't feeling better yet, although he remains hopeful that it's not a major injury.
“Unfortunately, it's still more of the same,” he said. “It's frustrating. It's just been kind of nagging for a lot longer than anybody wanted for the majority of the spring.”
Stephenson said an MRI showed just some inflammation and an impingement.
“Nothing serious anyone was overly concerned about,” he said.
A week ago, Stephenson said he was feeling better, and he was holding out hope of being ready for Opening Day.
“It would feel good for a couple days and then I'd jump back on the mound and we'd kind of go back a little bit,” he said. “Every time I felt I was making progress, we'd go backwards a little bit.”
The Angels signed Stephenson to a three-year, $33-million contract — the largest deal they gave to anyone this winter — but he now seems certain to start the year on the injured list.
“My main focus is once I get back