Catchers’ mitts are popping and soon pitchers’ fielding practice will dominate the agendas in Arizona and Florida.
Spring training has started and, with it, so has the countless pictures of men playing catch with palm trees swaying in the distance.
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It’s a new MLB year and a new slate of storylines will follow. Here are five that baseball fans and reporters will be watching this spring.
Some guy hitting BP homers for the Dodgers
It’s hard to compare Shohei Ohtani’s coupling with the Los Angeles Dodgers to anything in recent memory in baseball. Maybe Alex Rodriguez to the New York Yankees in 2004?
Ohtani is the game’s biggest star. He is now playing for the sport’s glitter and glam team in the Dodgers. He is the pride of baseball-crazy Japan and has a near-unprecedented ability to throw and hit with dominance at the highest rung of the ladder, although elbow surgery has limited him to hitting-only in 2024.
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Even that is an intriguing storyline. Will Ohtani, the reigning American League MVP, be a better hitter now that he won’t be pitching in 2024? Or will that lack of a distraction once a week throw off his rhythm and routine? Could rehabbing the elbow interfere with his hitting mechanics?
The first dispatch from Camelback Ranch in Arizona was that Ohtani homered on 10 of his first 21 batting practice swings. The fact that reporters are counting each of his BP cuts in February shows that there is some next-level obsession surrounding Ohtani and the Dodgers. Get used to it.
What do the Baltimore Orioles do now?
Since the Orioles landed ace Corbin Burnes at the beginning of the month, the AL East champions appeared to be the team to beat in the division again. Suddenly, though, those expectations are tempered with Thursday’s news that right-hander Kyle Bradish, who finished fourth in the 2023 AL Cy Young voting, will begin the season on the Injured List with a strained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
The Orioles are hoping to avoid elbow ligament surgery with Bradish, who has received a platelet-rich-plasma injection and should soon begin a throwing progression. Maybe this is a minor setback and Bradish is ready to go in April or May.
But a UCL issue is often a precursor to Tommy John surgery, which would sideline the 27-year-old for a year to 18 months. The Orioles are now in that limbo where avoiding surgery is the preferred outcome but delaying the inevitable could cost them two seasons of Bradish’s prime. Right now, they’re hoping the injection and rehab help Bradish return sooner rather than later.
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Making matters worse is that lefty John Means, who had Tommy John surgery in April 2022 and returned to make four starts at the end of the season, is about a month behind his expected timeline this month, meaning, he, too, may not be ready for Opening Day.
That would leave Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer in the rotation with several others, including Tyler Wells and Cole Irvin, competing to round out the starting five.
Unless, that is, general manager Mike Elias jumps back into the free-agent pool or trade market. With an ownership change not yet approved, the club likely won’t be pursuing the top starters remaining, but maybe Elias rekindles previous trade talks or sifts through what is left in the second tier of starters, such as Michael Lorenzen, Mike Clevinger or Hyun Jin Ryu.
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Elias is a not a knee-jerk type, and he’s been looking for pitching depth all offseason anyway, so it will be interesting to see if that level spikes with the Bradish news.
Where does Blake Snell land?
There are still a surprising number of quality players still looking for jobs including former MVP Cody Bellinger and 2023 postseason hero Jordan Montgomery. But the biggest difference-maker still available is 2023 NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell.
Whomever eventually lands Snell will improve dramatically. If Snell ends up with the New York Yankees, then they are the AL East favorites again (especially with the Orioles’ potential loss of Bradish). If Snell becomes a San Francisco Giant, then they have taken a step closer to the Dodgers. If he’s a Mariner, Seattle leapfrogs the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros.
Despite high walk totals and an injury history, Snell remains one of baseball’s most dominating and accomplished starters. He is a bona fide ace, something most clubs don’t have.
Once Snell signs, the storyline shifts to whether any potential disruption in his routine due to a late start will affect him this spring.
Who starts the season healthy in the toss-up NL Central?
The AL East is the best division, top to bottom. The NL East and AL West have intense, top-of- standings rivalries and the NL West is filled with intrigue, outside of Colorado, anyway.
But the NL Central is the crapshoot. Besides the Pittsburgh Pirates, who again are rebuilding, any of the other four teams could win the division. Conversely, all four could also fight the Pirates for the basement (the St. Louis Cardinals won that battle last year).
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It’s that much of a toss-up. The Brewers won the Central by nine games last year, but they’ve traded Burnes and allowed the injured Brandon Woodruff to leave. The Cardinals were an embarrassment last year, but signed a trio of veteran starters, led by Sonny Gray, and have an offense that still features Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt.
The Cincinnati Reds have a scary young team that should only improve, and the Chicago Cubs took a step in the right direction in 2023 and should be better under new skipper Craig Counsell, especially if they re-sign Bellinger.
This might simply be a case of which of these teams can stay healthy the longest. And that starts in spring training, where one key injury could derail a season’s worth of playoff hopes.
What’s the buzz at Camp Melvin?
In retrospect, the best move of the 2022-23 offseason was the Texas Rangers’ hiring of veteran skipper Bruce Bochy, whose steady hand helped lead the franchise to its first World Series title.
There were several managerial changes this winter, including Counsell leaving his post in Milwaukee for the rival Cubs.
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The switch that most interests me, however, is in California, where Bob Melvin, a three-time manager of the year, returns to the Bay area, but this time as the Giants skipper.
Melvin, 62, is probably best known for his 11 seasons with the continually undermanned Oakland Athletics, whom he led to six winning campaigns. He left for supposed greener pastures in San Diego, where dysfunction, talent and high payrolls are seemingly intertwined.
Padres general manager A.J. Preller let Melvin out of the final year of his contract, without any trade compensation required, so he could join the Giants.
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Melvin is an interesting mix of data-utilization and old-school experience and is considered one of the more astute in-game managers of his generation. He has worked well with young teams in the past, and he’ll have plenty of youth to lead in San Francisco. But the Giants also have a legitimate ace in Logan Webb and made a big offseason splash with the signings of Korean center fielder Jung Hoo Lee (six years, $113 million) and designated hitter Jorge Soler (three years, $42 million).
No one would be surprised if Melvin can spark a Bochy-esque rise in San Francisco this year. And it all starts with getting the team on one page this spring.