Spring training opens with turmoil, many moves to make
The Boston Red Sox plan to print 5,000 copies of their media guide during the last week of February. Their opening-day roster could include several players who won’t make the deadline.
Perhaps 100 free agents still seek contracts as the start of spring training workouts on Feb. 14 draws near, a group that includes J.D. Martinez, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Jake Arrieta and Yu Darvish.
In a historically slow market, players and management are feuding publicly about riches and rules, and teams seemingly are seeking bargains like shoppers awaiting a closeout.
“Some guys feel like they’re worth a little more than maybe what they’re being offered,” AllStar outfielder Andrew McCutchen said ahead of his first spring training since Pittsburgh traded him to San Francisco. “It’s just all about being fair.”
As soon as the Houston Astros won their first World Series title last November , attention turned toward 2018 and the start of stretching in Scottsdale, catching in Clearwater and bunting in Bradenton. But there will be two camps in Bradenton—in addition to the Pirates, based there for the 50th consecutive year, the Major League Baseball Players Association is setting up a free-agent workout facility at the nearby IMG Academy
while players wait for the market to thaw.
Job-seekers include pitchers Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn; reliever Greg Holland; infielder Eduardo Nunez; outfielders Carlos Gomez and Carlos Gonzalez; and catcher Jonathan Lucroy.
“There are always going to be some big names available at the beginning of spring training, but there’s an exorbitant number this year,” New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said.
With Cincinnati, Detroit, Miami, Oakland, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay in the early stage of rebuild mode, and Atlanta, the Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia starting to emerge, it appears about one-third of the 30 teams have little chance for this year’s 10 playoff berths. For their fans, hope and faith are emotions going into opening day on March 29.
Union head Tony Clark labels this offseason a “race to the bottom.” Seattle gen- eral manager Jerry Dipoto thinks more clubs may be competing for the top 2019 draft pick than for this year’s title.
“There is an element or a percentage of the league that’s not particularly into signing players that might help them win, but prefer the go the other route,” he said. “You have a number of teams that have through the course of the last few years built up to what we have now referenced as super- team status. They may not need to fill those holes, which leaves a team in the middle, let’s call it eight to 12 teams, of which we are one, who are surfing through the markets.”
And many of the perennial big spenders are cutting back, too. The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees want to get under the $197 million luxury tax threshold, putting them in better position for a free-agent class next fall that could include Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Josh Donaldson and Clayton Kershaw.
The Yankees did make the splashiest move of the offseason, acquiring big league home run champion Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins when former New York captain Derek Jeter took over as Miami’s chief executive and started a payroll purge.
After losing to the Astros in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series, New York fired manager Joe Girardi and replaced him with Aaron Boone, who has never managed or coached at any level. Other new managers include the Mets’ Mickey Callaway , Boston’s Alex Cora , Detroit’s Ron Gardenhire , Philadelphia’s Gabe Kapler and Washington’s Dave Martinez.
They may or may not have to maneuver pitch clocks and new limits on mound visits—negotiations with the players’ union continue. But a new generation drenched in analytics clearly is comfortable schmoozing about spin rates and launch angles, perfect for Ivy League-GMs and their ever-expanding staffs of programmers. A half-century after the Yankees were led by the M&M boys, the hot area of baseball is R&D.