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Full teams have reported on spring training, work is well underway and the first games will start in a few days. Here are seven things we can’t wait to see as the sport intensifies for the start of the 2021 season.
AFTER: Taijuan Walker to get new number, out of respect for Mr. Met
The Jarred Kelenic Show
Remember how Mariners president and CEO – sorry, former president and CEO – Kevin Mather said the club had already decided they weren’t going to launch Kelenic with the big club on the day of the opening because Kelenic had the audacity not to sign for the long term. team work contract? And then how general manager Jerry DiPoto said he was crazy to talk about the serving time of a guy who had only played 21 games over Double-A, conveniently ignoring the rave reviews the player from 21 years old received on the alternative site of the club while minors were closed in 2020?
Yeah. The spotlight is on Kelenic, and the former Mets first-round pick – he was key en route to Seattle in the deal that sent Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to New York – is eager to show it all. the world why he was very willing to bet on. himself, and why Baseball America and MLB.com rank him as the fourth prospect in all of baseball.
The sleeves end like magic
Three strikeouts per set are no longer a hard and fast rule, at least at the start of spring practice games. Managers will have the option of completing an inning earlier if a pitcher has already pitched 20 or more pitches and there is no reliever ready to enter the inning. It’s going to be weird to see a heat end with, say, an RBI double that leaves runners second and third. But that’s the rule through the matches on March 13. After that, the rules of baseball will be in effect.
Shohei Ohtani launches again
If you follow writers or Angels fans or really national baseball folks, you know that on Wednesday afternoon Ohtani told reporters he hit 97 mph on the radar gun during his work session that day – the. Any sort of reasonable expectation of what he can do on his return to the mound flew out the window at over 97 mph. It was easy to forget his electrifying talent, what with the injuries – he missed 2019 after Tommy John’s surgery and was limited to just two starts in 2020 due to good forearm tension – and the Angels struggle to make it to the playoffs during his time. with the club. But if he rolls 97 and starts hitting like he did his first two years in the greats? It could be a very fun spring in the camp of angels.
Albert Pujols’ final spring (probably)
Speaking of Camp des Anges, it’s the last hurray of spring with the future Hall of Famer club Albert Pujols. He is likely to retire after 2021 – his 41-year season – but if he chooses to continue his career after his current contract expires at the end of the season, that doesn’t appear to be with the Angels. So let’s take advantage of this spring. He’s not what he once was, and he hasn’t been for a long time. But he can still put a load in the ball, he still works as hard as ever and watching him play, it’s still watching a future Cooperstown inductee play baseball, and it’s not so bad.
Ke’Bryan Hayes and Hope
For now, he is still best known as the son of Charlie Hayes, the longtime Big League infielder who won the 1996 Yankees World Series Championship final. But, wow, Hayes was brilliant in his first foray into big league baseball; in 24 games in the pandemic-cut season, Hayes reached 0.376 with a base percentage of 0.442 and 202 OPS +. He finished sixth in the NL Rookie of the Year poll, mainly because he only played 24 games, but his bWAR – 1.9 – was higher than any of the other nine rookies who received votes. . Not many people noticed because the Pirates were rotten, of course, and the 2021 campaign doesn’t promise to be much better. But Hayes? He’s the guy that Pirates fans can watch this spring and get excited about.
Hunter Greene, on the mound
Who’s ready to see the No.2 pick in the 2017 MLB Draft on the mound in a baseball game that counts in the standings (hey, the spring practice standings are still in the standings, folks)? All fans of the Reds and all fans of the future of the game, this is it. Greene made 21 starts in the Cincinnati organization – dropping 95 in 72 2/3 innings – before Tommy John’s surgery sidelined him for the final two months of 2018 and the entire 2019 season. spent the summer of 2020 working on the club’s alternate site, but those games weren’t televised or open to the public, so when he makes his first spring appearance for the Reds this spring, it will be his first time in 2 1/2 years since Cincinnati fans will have the chance to watch the great right-hander take the mound. Greene is still only 21.
New faces, new places. Thanks, trades!
Francisco Lindor showed up at Mets camp Thursday morning in the same jacket worn by Prince Akeem, the unforgettable Eddie Murphy’s character from the classic Coming to America movie. Nolan Arenado showed up at the Cardinals camp dressed, finally, in red. Yu Darvish adds a power arm to a rotation for a San Diego team with World Series aspirations. Their new fan bases couldn’t be more in love with these guys. I have to feel for the Cleveland, Colorado, and Chicago fans, though.
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