Spring Training winners and losers for February 27
Yesterday’s spring training action saw a couple of pitching prospects live up to form, and a veteran first baseman showing signs of life.
A couple of hotshot young pitching prospects looked very much like what they are – hotshot young pitching prospects – during Thursday’s spring training action. The Dodgers’ Tony Gonsolin and the Athletics’ A.J. Puk both enhanced their hopes of winning spots in their teams’ regular season rotations.
Here are the winners and losers from Thursday’s spring play.
Loser: Legacies
There is no finer current illustration of the legacy concept than the Toronto Blue Jays. They have a son at third base (Vlad Guerrero Jr.), a son at shortstop (Bo Bichette), a son at second base (Cavan Biggio) and a younger sibling at DH (Lourdes Gurriel ).
Facing the Twins Thursday, however, all that legacy power came to naught…literally. In the Twins-Jays 3-3 tie, Guerrero, Bichette, Biggio and Gurriel delivered a collective 0-for-9 with two strikeouts.
Nearly a week into training, Biggio now leads the Toronto legacies in batting average, but at only .286. Guerrero is at .250, Bichette at .091 and Gurriel is looking for his first base hit. Collectively, they are giving bloodlines a bad name.
Losers: Pittsburgh Pirates offense (cont.)
In this space yesterday, the woeful nature of the Pirates spring offense was taken notice of. The new day brought no change. In a 13-0 beatdown at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles Thursday, the Pirates offense delivered merely three singles and one double.
The core of the projected Pirate offense – Kevin Newman, Bryan Reynolds, Josh Bell and Gregory Polanco – is now a cumulative 2-for-28. The Pirates are 0-6.
Winner: Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles first baseman
Is it too much to hope for a Davis comeback in 2020? Through 2022, the Orioles have $69 million worth of guaranteed reasons to live in that hope.
In Baltimore’s 13-0 rout of the Pirates, Davis ramped up a solid first-week performance. His two hits included a home run to left-center and a base hit, running his early spring batting average to .800.
Granted, he did it against a Pirate team that is only nominally playing major league ball. Still any suggestion of a Davis return to form after four straight seasons of godawful performance would be looked on in Baltimore as the equivalent of found money. Which, considering his salary, is precisely what it would be.
Winner: Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, Tampa Bay Rays outfielder
Tsutsogo is a 28-year-old free agent signee from Japan to whom the Rays gave $12 million over two seasons. The question, as it often is with Japanese League free agent signings: Is he the next Ichiro Suzuki or the next Kosuke Fukudome?
In the DH slot against Detroit Thursday, Tsutsogo tilted the needle at least a bit toward Ichiro. He singled home a run in the first, then doubled another run home in the fifth. Tsutsogo is now 4-for-7. His hits helped the Rays to a 6-3 victory.
Winner: Logan Forsythe, Philadelphia Phillies infield
Non-roster invitees need love, too. Forsythe, a veteran who signed a non-roster deal with the Phils this winter, is being carried as the team’s fourth option at third base and first base. Unless you think the Phillies are going to carry four third basemen this summer, that’s not much of an endorsement.
It does, however, mean there’s a chance … and on Thursday Forsythe ran with it. Playing second base, Forsythe grounded a second inning single, added a walk and then doubled to lead off the sixth. In his first seven spring plate appearances, he has four hits, including a double and a home run.
Winner: A.J. Puk, Oakland Athletics pitcher
Puk made his second spring start Thursday and picked right up where he left off last Saturday. Getting the start in Oakland’s 5-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies, he retired the side in the first inning on two strikeouts. In the second, Puk did allow a ground single, but again held the Rockies scoreless.
A candidate for one of Oakland’s rotation spots, Puk’s ERA will sit on a 0.00 ERA in anticipation of his third start next week.
Winner: Tony Gonsolin, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher
The touted Dodger rookie became the first Cactus League pitcher to go 2-0. Facing Cleveland, he retired six of the seven batters he faced, three of them on strikeouts.
In his three innings of work to date, Gonsolin has a .100 batting average against and a 0.30 WHIP. Even within the highly competitive ranks of Dodgers pitchers, that’s making a statement.
Loser: Jorge Soler, Kansas City Royals outfielder
Last year Soler hit a league-high 48 home runs and fulfilled the potential everyone had seen in him since his 2014 arrival from Cuba.
This spring has so far amounted to a return to Soler’s bad old days. He’s batting .167, and against the Brewers Thursday he went hitless in two more at bats.
Even worse were the situations in which Soler came up short. He batted in the first inning with one out and runners at first and second and managed nothing better than an easy fly ball to center. Then in the fifth, Soler came up with two out and runners on first and third. His second fly out to center killed the rally.
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Loser: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels designated hitter
As with Soler, the problem for Ohtani was in part what he did and in part when he did it. In the first inning, with Mike Trout at first base and two out, Ohtani fanned. In the fourth, after Anthony Rendon led off with a base hit, Ohtani came up and whiffed again.
Those misses became more noticeable when the Padres walked off with a 1-0 victory.
Ohtani’s four official spring at bats to date include zero base hits and three strikeouts.
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Loser: Reds outfield options
The Cincinnati Reds poured a lot of winter resources into beefing up their outfield offense. The steps included the signings of free agent Nick Castellanos and Japanese free agent Shogo Akiyama, both of whom are expected to compete with touted rookie Aristides Aquino for playing time.
Two of those options shared center stage during Cincy’s 8-0 victory over Arizona Thursday, but neither one enjoyed the experience. Leading off and playing center field, Akiyama went hitless (with a strikeout) in his three at bats.
Aquino, in the lineup as the DH, did precisely the same. Aquino remains hitless in six official spring at bats, while Akiyama is 2-for-9.