Spring training was pretty uneventful, with only one injury: Scott Barlow strained his oblique and will miss the first six weeks of the season. We've got a lot of cover in the pen so this won't be a critical blow. One thing I did not realize is that Asa Lacy is out of options, so he's making the team.
As for performances, Spencer Torkelson had a big spring, going 375/438/571 in 56 AB, although he "only" hit 3 HR (and 2 came in the first game of spring training). Heston Kjerstad started hot with 2 HR and 11 RBI in his first 8 games, but finished 0-15. Nothing remarkable on the pitching side to report, most everyone looked sharp with a few hiccups here and there.
TRADE NEWS:
As alluded to in the Hiura trade commentary, Bannon was expendable and he was dealt to the White Sox for a couple of decent prospects. Christidis has 70 current/80 potential stuff and pitched very well as a starter but I could also see him becoming an elite reliever. Kehoe was the Sox' 1st round pick in 2022 and is a CF. Despite our OF glut, most of the good ones are corner guys and we were a bit thin in the middle.
2024 OPENING DAY ROSTER:
C: Keibert Ruiz, Ronaldo Hernandez
1B: Alec Bohm
2B: Vidal Brujan
SS: Wander Franco
3B: Rafael Devers
IF: Triston Casas, Keston Hiura
LF: Nick Schnell
CF: Brandon Marsh
RF: Austin Meadows
OF: Spencer Torkelson
DH: Seth Beer
I want to get Torkelson's bat in there as much as possible, so while he will definitely platoon with Schnell he'll also fill in for Bohm and Beer from time-to-time against righties In fact those four are probably going to get rotated around, and of course Casas figures in too. The one drawback of dealing Yusniel is that I don't have a true backup CF, Schnell will likely be the one to fill in for him as he can fake it there from time-to-time.
SP: Tyler Glasnow, Matt Manning, Max Fried, Chris Paddack, Dustin May
LR: Asa Lacy, Daniel Lynch
MR: Mitch Keller, Aaron Ashby
SU: Jasseel De La Cruz, Jose Alvarado, Nick Anderson
CL: Will Smith
A bit lefty-heavy in the pen (5 vs 3) with us having to keep Lacy, although it could be said he's just taking McClanahan's role. McClanahan will start at Durham with an eye to having him as a starter next year, and Joe Ryan of course was sent to Durham as well.