Well we made it through Spring Training without any real injuries, with only Gil Wayne's shoulder bursitis so we'll count ourselves lucky (for now). The starters all pitched well but Jordan Diaz had a horrible spring so hopefully that doesn't carry over to the regular season (thankfully we have other closing options like Connors and Kawase). So here is the Opening Day roster:
C-Corpus, Quintana*
1B-Rivas, Harms
2B-Hardaway
SS-Widmar
3B-Angeac
IF-Ayers
OF-Clark, O.Rodriguez*, Buitrago*, Jenkins, de Jesus
SP-Aparicio, Sachais, Ortega, Schultz, Soranno
MR-Medina, Siqueiros, Hicks, Sirna
SU-Connors, Kawase*, Wherry
CL-J.Diaz
*rookies
The plan is to semi-platoon Buitrago and Rodriguez in center (actually Jenkins will slide to center and Buitrago will play RF when he plays) although Rodriguez will play against righties too since I don't want him getting only like 180 AB. I don't see a path to meaningful PT for Harms and if something happens to Ayers (or Hardaway/Widmar/Angeac), he'll go down for an infielder. But we'll get him in from time to time and I'm sure he prefers to it to a third season at Durham where he's already hit .350 twice. Moves to get down to 26:
April 3: Waived P Brad Ballmann and IF Melvin Guiterrez and designated them for assignment.
Had to drop these two, who were out of options, hopefully they clear and go to Durham. The scouts diminished Ballmann's stuff and control this spring although he didn't pitch that badly.
The preseason predictions (Spoiler: We're supposed to be pretty good), notice all the former Rays projected for big years in the NL (and some in the AL too):
Surprised to see the Yankees this down, although they did make some questionable offseason moves like trading away Vlad Jr. for minor leaguers.