[Art Deco]

Time for everyone's favorite time of year when we pray nobody gets hurt. Last year we had Tyler Glasnow go down for the first two months of the season and Zack Greinke miss 3 weeks at the start. (With the way Greinke ended up pitching it was probably a good thing).

I'm not going to report on every game, just notable developments.

February 23: Prize pitching prospect Sandy Gaston looked good in his 2-inning start against the regular Baltimore lineup, striking out 3 and Niko Hulszier, an intriguing power bat who played at AA last year, doubled and homered among his 3 hits in an 8-2 win over Baltimore in which no regulars played.

Some vets getting minor league deals of note today: Aaron Nola to the Reds, Johnny Cueto to the Mariners, Matt Carpenter to the Phillies, Mallex Smith to the A's, and Ryne Stanek to the Orioles.

February 25: Triston Casas and Spencer Torkelson homered against MLB pitchers (Dylan Floro & Jharel Cotton) to lead the Rays to a 5-3 win over Oakland, Chris Paddack pitched 3 perfect innings and only threw 25 pitches.

February 26: Big news out of New York, the Mets signed Blake Snell to a 7-year extension (!) for $117.6M.

March 3: Tork hit another HR, this time against his old team the Royals. Got an intriguing trade offer with the Marlins offering prize pitching prospect Asa Lacy but they're asking for SS prospect Jorge Perez, who is the one Dominican prospect I have that actually stands a chance to be another Wander or something approaching Wander.

March 4: Wait long enough and you can get bargains in free agency; the Orioles nabbed Byron Buxton for 1 year at $2.1M. I really didn't have any interest myself but I checked in on him anyway earlier in the process and he was looking for 7-8 years at about $9-10M per. A good pickup for an 80 defender who can hit some with power but of course he's terribly injury-prone.

March 8: Alec Bohm hit 2 HRs today including a walk-off winner in the 9th against Detroit, giving him 4 HR and 11 RBI in 29 AB so far this spring as he's laying claim to the 1B job. Torkelson homered again yesterday, giving him 3 in 20 AB so far.

March 9: Well we won't be seeing Chaz Roe pitch against us for the Jays after all this year, he suffered a torn flexor tendon and is done for the year.

March 10: Jays made a strange trade, sending Anthony Kay, one of the mainstays of their rotation who pitched nearly 200 innings last year with a near-league average ERA, to the Braves for Justin Ellison, a quadruple-A type outfielder. Seems the opposite of what they need.

March 15: Traded 20-year-old minor league shortstop Jorge Perez and 25-year-old starting pitcher Josiah Gray to the Miami Marlins, getting 23-year-old reliever Asa Lacy and 20-year-old minor league shortstop Ian Lewis in return.

Well I pulled the trigger on this, Lacy is too good a pitching prospect to pass up. Miami kind of misused him, bringing him up and down to MLB from AA (and A+ the year before) and used him in relief. He'll be a starter for me, probably starting the year at Durham. Trading Perez is another long-term gamble, and I may get burned here, but you gotta give something to get something. Gray had to go off the 40-man so he was included, and Lewis is a decent prospect himself.

March 17: Happy St. Patrick's Day! It's gonna be tough to send Tork down as he hit his 5th HR of the spring. Everything's going along relatively smoothly so far with a couple of exceptions in the bullpen. First, Gio Gallegos seems to give up runs in every outing and has a 10.50 ERA. Probably nothing but I'd like to see a couple of clean innings from him before the season starts. Feeling better that I picked up Will Smith to close instead of relying on Gallegos. The other issue is Nick Anderson. He sat out a week with a tired arm, came back, and in his second outing back he gave up a 2-run HR then the PbP said the trainer took a look at his elbow but he was OK to stay in. These are ominous signs. I'll give him a couple more innings in spring but it's becoming a matter of concern.

March 19: Well, the exhibition games are over, even though we don't play for another week and a half. This is probably because we're using the 2019 schedule and Seattle and Oakland are playing early games in Japan so OOTP thinks the coming week is regular season for everyone. No serious injuries, although I'm still concerned about Anderson. He pitched in the final preseason game but not all that well.

March 20: Designated P Zack Britton for assignment; released P James Paxton.

I had both of them up on my spring roster but it wouldn't let me send Britton back to Durham so waivers he goes. At least I still have one Zack Britton in the organization. Looking at the projected Durham roster it didn't seem there was a place for Paxton as he'd eat up innings I'd rather have guys with a future pitch. He wasn't very impressive (and got hurt) since picking him up so it looks like he might be done, although someone will probably sign him.

March 22: It's MLB opening day but only for Oakland and Seattle. The Jays signed Mitch Haniger to a 1-year, $5.3M deal. He had 23 HR and 87 RBI with Arizona last year but it came with a .221 average. Not sure what the Jays plans are for him as it seems to be they should be in the market for pitching. OOTP's preseason predictions call for us to win 97 games, 11 better than the second-place Yankees. Here's hoping they're right.

Among free agents still out there, both of the New York closers remain untouched with Edwin Diaz wanting a 1-year, $18M deal and Aroldis Chapman wanting 1 year at $15M. Keeping this in the back of my mind in case Anderson continues to have health/effectiveness issues.

And opening day in Japan saw the defending AL Champion Mariners beat Oakland 11-5. The only HR came from Jarred Kelenic, who along with Mike Brosseau had 3 RBI. Touki Toussaint went 5 2/3 allowing 4 hits and 2 runs for the win, but he walked 7. Jesus Luzardo was torched for 7 runs in 1.1 innings.

March 23: Oakland beat Seattle 5-4 in the second of their two games in Japan with David Fletcher homering and driving in four. Ramon Laureano and Matt Chapman also went deep for the A's. Although he didn't get the win Jameson Tallion, who missed the entire 2022 season due to injury (and whom I forgot Oakland even had), went 6 7 2 2 3 10. Laureano's HR off Colin Poche in the 8th was the game-winner.

March 25: Scratch Diaz off the free agent list as who else but the Dodgers (who seem to be programmed to sign ALL the closers), gave him his 1-year, $18M deal or something close to that. Also among the long list of players put on waivers to start the season was Austin Adams, whom the Reds waived. The way Gallegos has been pitching this spring last year's trade might not turn out to be the greatest for either team.

March 29: Aaaannnnd there goes Chapman, signing a 1-year, $16.6M deal with the Cubs, who interestingly released their closer of last season, Blake Treinen, a couple days before.