Captain Trout relishes setting up Team USA
Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout thought long and hard about it, and nearly played in the World Baseball Classic in 2017, and then spent the next five years kicking himself for not playing on Team USA’s gold medal team.
“Last WBC, I was on the fence of doing it or not doing and when I decided not to do it,” he said. “Watching the games, it looked like they were having so much fun, making the plays and winning. That’s what I regretted.
“I should have been out there.”
This time, he’s all-in, captain of Team USA, and boldly declares it’s WBC gold medal or bust.
“That’s the whole reason I signed up, trying to win this thing,”said Trout, who’s playing in the WBC for the first time in his 13-year career. “There is nothing else. Anything else is a failure.”
Team USA is the defending champion of the tournament, and Trout made sure that he wants an encore, busily recruiting players, with his first call to Bryce Harper. Harper can’t play as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, but the U.S. squad is a Who’s Who of baseball’s greatest American players with former MVPs Mookie Betts, Paul Goldschmidt and Clayton Kershaw on the team.
Their greatest competition for a repeat could be coming from Japan, which could have its greatest collection of pitching talent in the tournament’s history, led by Trout’s teammate, Shohei Ohtani.
“I get a front-row seat every time he pitches,” Trout said. “It’s pretty nasty. Every person I talk to that faces him says they don’t want to be in the box. It’s going to be interesting. He’s one of my good friends, so it’s going to be fun.”
Oh, and the trash talk has already started with Ohtani telling Trout that he’s not even the best player on the Japanese team.
“There’s no way,” Trout said, laughing, “that there’s somebody better.”
Around the basepaths
❚ Dana Brown, Atlanta’s vice president of scouting, has emerged as the clear front-runner to become the Astros’ next general manager.
Brown, 55, who has been with Atlanta the past four years, is one of the game’s shrewdest talent evaluators. He has been responsible for Atlanta’s fabulous draft success, recently selecting outfielder Michael Harris and starter Spencer Strider, who finished 1-2 in last year’s NL Rookie of the Year voting.
Brown would become baseball’s lone Black GM and join vice president Ken Williams of the Chicago White Sox as the only Black executives in charge of baseball operations.
❚ There was no one happier than the White Sox with the news that the Minnesota Twins traded batting champion Luis Arraez to the Miami Marlins for starter Pablo Lopez and two prospects.
Arraez was a White Sox killer last year, hitting .373 with a 1.273 OPS against them, and he has a career .327 batting average against the White Sox.
While the Twins were ecstatic with their return, including infield prospect Jose Salas, several scouts and executives believe the trade could hurt the Twins’ chances to win the AL Central this year.
The Twins badly need Byron Buxton to stay healthy to take over the leadoff spot.
❚ Free agent first baseman Yuli Gurriel is expected to sign with the Marlins on a one-year contract even after the trade for Arraez, but no deal had been consummated at press time. The Astros offered a contract to bring him back in a reserve role, but Gurriel, 36, still wants to be a full-time player.
❚ While it’s wonderful that the Chicago Cubs honored Mark Grace and Shawon Dunston by electing them to their Hall of Fame, it’s a travesty that Sammy Sosa isn’t in the Cubs Hall of Fame.
The Cubs say they still want him to apologize for allegedly using PEDs, even though an admission could bring charges of perjury considering he testified under oath to Congress that he never used PEDs.
Barry Bonds still is idolized in San Francisco.
Mark McGwire is adored in St. Louis.
And yet Sosa is shunned by the Cubs.
❚ Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, who was part of the Contemporary Era Committee, on electing Fred McGriff and passing on the likes of Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro and Roger Clemens:
“He (McGriff) followed the rules and integrity and played the game the right way. Integrity is on the seal of the Baseball Hall of Fame.”
❚ Now that the Toronto Blue Jays are spending $300 million for a face lift of Rogers Centre, it’s time to reward them with the 2025 All-Star Game, or at least in 2027. The Blue Jays have hosted only one All-Star Game, and that was 32 years ago in 1991.
❚ MLB’s new umpire crews include Adrian Johnson and Alan Porter becoming only the second and third Black crew chiefs in baseball history.
“I was very happy,” said Kerwin Danley, MLB’s first Black crew chief. “Hopefully I paved the road for others.”
❚ The White Sox, who picked second baseman Nick Madrigal in the first round of the 2018 draft and traded him to the Cubs in 2021 for veteran closer Craig Kimbrel, now have a chance to get him back.
The Cubs no longer have room for Madrigal in the starting lineup after signing shortstop Dansby Swanson and shifting Nico Hoerner to second base, and guess who desperately needs a second baseman? Yep, the White Sox.
❚ The Marlins now will be starting a second baseman at third base in Jean Segura; a second baseman at shortstop in Joey Wendle; a first baseman at second base in Luis Arraez; and a second baseman in center field in Jazz Chisholm.
❚ In the past two offseasons, eight shortstops have signed free agent contracts worth a grand total of $1.737 billion:
Corey Seager (10 years, $325 million).
Trea Turner (11 years, $300 million).
Xander Bogaerts (11 years, $280 million).
Carlos Correa (six years, $200 million).
Dansby Swanson (seven years, $177 million).
Marcus Semien (seven years, $175 million).
Javier Baez (six years, $140 million).
Trevor Story (six years, $140 million).
❚ You want a feel-good story in the WBC? Red Sox minor league reliever Rio Gomez will be pitching for Team Colombia. Rio is the son of the late Pedro Gomez, the beloved ESPN reporter who died two years ago.
❚ The Yankees’ trade for starter Frankie Montas at last year’s deadline is looking worse by the day. They sent four prospects to Oakland for Montas and reliever Lou Trivino, but Montas has been a bust. He went 1-3 with a 6.35 ERA in eight starts with the Yankees before he was shut down with shoulder inflammation, and now he is expected to miss at least the first month of the season with shoulder woes.
Their top trade target was Cincinnati Reds ace Luis Castillo, and they put Jasson Dominguez in their trade proposal but refused to include prized shortstop prospect Anthony Volpe.
The Yankees’ loss was the Seattle Mariners’ gain, with Castillo now their ace.
❚ The Yankees once again stayed out of the marquee shortstop market and are now a year closer to seeing if their evaluations that Volpe or Oswald Peraza will be everyday shortstops in 2023 or will again turn to veteran Isiah KinerFalefa.
Meanwhile, the Yankees continue to let teams know that third baseman Josh Donaldson (who is owed $29 million) and outfielder Aaron Hicks (owed $30.5 million) are still very much available as they’re willing to eat part of the contracts.
❚ Hard to believe the Dodgers let nine players walk in free agency, earning $462.5 million, while signing six free agents for just $45.4 million, as ESPN pointed out.
Their $296.6 million payroll has been cut to about $235 million this season.
❚ Joe McEwing, who was drafted in the 28th round by the Cardinals in 1998 and was a mentee of legendary infield coach George Kissell, is honored to now be the Cardinals bench coach.
“There’s not a day that I go through where I don’t think about that man,” McEwing said of Kissell at the Cardinals’ Winter Warmup event. “As a teacher, as a mentor, as a friend. I feel like he’s on my shoulder when I’m teaching, and it’s like, ‘Oh, OK,’ you know. It’s every word that he expressed to me or expressed to others that I learned from, and it’s just the passing down of generation to generation.”
❚ MLB says 46% of the current 40-man roster players have first-hand experience with the pitch clock.
❚ Hard to believe Atlanta spent less money in free agency this winter than any other team in the majors, just $1.4 million on outfielder Jordan Luplow.
Of course, they did trade for All-Star catcher Sean Murphy and promptly signed him to a six-year, $73 million contract.
❚ Aroldis Chapman went from earning $16 million a year to $3.75 million in his new deal with the Kansas City Royals.
The Royals are banking on him having a good first half so they can trade him.
❚ The Baltimore Orioles are the first team in 20 years to have consecutive No. 1 prospects from the same draft since Baseball America began its rankings in 1990. Catcher Adley Rutschman was the first-round pick in the 2019 draft and infielder Gunnar Henderson was the second pick in the draft. The Orioles have a major league high eight players listed among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects.
❚ There were six teams that wound up paying a luxury tax with their payrolls last season, led once again by the Dodgers with a $32.4 million bill. The others: Mets ($30.8 million), Yankees ($9.7 million), Phillies ($2.9 million), Padres ($1.5 million) and Red Sox ($1.2 million).
❚ Just in case the Red Sox front office had any questions about how their fan base feels about their moves this winter, boos echoed from the rafters at their Winter Weekend, directed at owner John Henry and GM Chaim Bloom.
They remain furious over letting Xander Bogaerts walk away and may never get over trading away Mookie Betts.
The Red Sox, who continue to seek patience from their fan base while waiting for their prospects to arrive, will have one of the oldest teams in baseball once again, with a projected pitching staff averaging 31.8, according to the Boston Herald. They also are expected to have an everyday lineup averaging at least 29 years of age.
❚ Well, Detroit Tigers catcher Eric Haase isn’t shy about his views of the pitch clock this season, telling Detroit reporters: “I really don’t understand the need for it, honestly. A couple of years ago, they wanted us to take more time between innings to make sure we got the commercials going and everything. Now, they’re trying to speed it up. I just don’t think the game needs it. We’re growing revenues every single year. There’s no shortage of fans. There’s no shortage of young fans at the games. I just don’t see the need for it.”
❚ Fabulous story from Al Leiter, who was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame, on being traded to the Mets in 1998 as part of the Marlins’ fire sale.
“Dave Dombrowski (the Marlins GM at the time) called me the day before the trade,” Leiter said, “and said, ‘I’m not promising you anything, but I have comparable prospect offers and I’m wondering if you had a preference.’ He said, ‘I’ve got an offer from the St. Louis Cardinals, and I’ve got an offer from the New York Mets.
“I said, ‘Dave, are you kidding?’ Then I go through the whole thing, ‘I was a Mets fan, I grew up in New Jersey, and that’d be amazing.’ ”
A day later, Leiter was traded to the Mets.
“I couldn’t have been more grateful for Dave Dombrowski to do such a thing,” he said, “to call and reach out to a player.”
❚ Quote of the Week: Arraez, the new Marlins second baseman, when asked what he will miss most about leaving Minnesota: “The cold. I started liking the cold when playing my first time in Minnesota. The cold is really good for watching movies with my family.”