At the halfway point of the Cactus League in Arizona and the Grapefruit League in Florida, an abundance of story lines have emerged that will have regular-season ramifications. Here are the main points to know down the stretch of 2019 MLB spring training.
Kershaw won’t be ready for Opening Day. After taking the ball on eight consecutive Opening Days for the Dodgers, it appears to be the dawn of a new pitching era in Los Angeles. Clayton Kershaw hasn’t thrown a bullpen session since Feb. 20 due to shoulder soreness, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the inflammation is likely to keep the southpaw from being able to build up his endurance to be ready for the opener against Arizona on March 28.
Though Roberts noted the southpaw is he’s still going to need a handful of starts in spring training. While Kershaw returns to full strength, it’s likely Los Angeles will tab 24-year-old right-hander Walker Buehler — who dominated the Rockies with six-plus innings of shutout ball in last season’s NL West tiebreaker game — for the No. 1 spot in the rotation.
Baseball’s top prospect will begin in Triple-A. The unanimous top prospect in all of baseball continues to wow fans this spring, as Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — the son of Hall of Fame outfielder Vladimir Guerrero — is 3-for-12 with a couple of doubles through four spring games. That includes a double off the wall on Monday against the Yankees with a smooth, one-handed swing that epitomized the third baseman’s raw power and finesse.
Guerrero Jr. played 30 games with Triple-A Buffalo in 2018, hitting .336 with six homers. He then impressed in the Arizona Fall League, batting .351, while looking like Toronto’s franchise player of the future. But even though the 19-year-old is clearly ready for his MLB debut, general manager Ross Atkins has said “there’s no firm timeline” for when the prospect suits up for the Blue Jays. Read: Toronto fully intends to by keeping him in the minors until mid-April, and thus pushing back his free agency a year as Guerrero Jr. won’t be able to accrue a full year of service time this season.
Tulo impressing early with Yankees. He has only played in three games, but former Rockies shortstop is making The 34-year-old signed with New York for the big-league minimum this offseason after being released by the Blue Jays with $38 million still owed, and he homered in his first at-bat of the spring against Toronto, which, was “the team that basically told me I couldn’t play anymore.”
Whether Tulowitzki — who hadn’t played since July 2017 coming into spring — can stay healthy for an entire season remains to be seen. He has spent extended time on the disabled list in 10 of his 12 major league seasons. For now, as New York waits for Didi Gregorius to get healthy again following Tommy John surgery, Tulowitzki looks like a huge bargain for the Yankees at shortstop and at the dish.
update from Port St. Lucie. After spending last season in Double-A Binghamton, where he hit .273 with six home runs and 36 RBIs, the Heisman Trophy winner and former Broncos quarterback recorded his first hits of the spring Monday with a pair of singles against the Red Sox in Grapefruit League action. He’s now 2-for-9 through four games played, and as a non-roster invitee to camp, the outfielder is projected to begin 2019 with Triple-A Syracuse.
Too-early projections for Mike Trout. It took the whole offseason for the top free agents in baseball to sign, with Manny Machado (10 years/$300 million with the Padres) and Bryce Harper (13-years/$330 million with the Phillies) foreseeably setting the floor for when the game’s best player, Angels outfielder Mike Trout, hits the market after the 2020 season.
The 27-year-old with a 64.3 career WAR and 240 homers will likely demand an astronomical contract, even at 29, for a deal in the vicinity of 10-plus years and a half-billion dollars Who’s the early leading frontrunner for him? As Harper explained at his introductory presser in Philadelphia, “There’s another guy in about two years that comes off the books … We’ll see what happens with that.”
