It’s tricky business reacting to spring training outcomes. Veterans are working on their game, treating reps like practice, while youngsters and journeymen are striving to make a good impression. That doesn’t negate all the outcomes, of course, but I feel a little silly reading sentences about how a player looks based on a week of half-games, and I feel even sillier writing them. Nonetheless, playing time is up for grabs, and small samples or not, guys are proving themselves worthy (or unworthy) of season-opening opportunities, so we can’t just play ostrich and ignore the new realities revealing themselves.
Rangers OF Wyatt Langford: This spring’s big riser in big money leagues, Langford is pushing up into Top 100 consideration and would lock that in with an announcement that he’ll break camp with the big league club. That announcement isn’t coming anytime soon and may not at all, but he doesn’t belong in Triple-A, and the club could effectively double its chances at hitting a draft bonus if they carry both Langford and Carter into the season. Even if he heads to the minors, he’d be right back up after a couple weeks. The perceived playing time risk in drafting him feels overblown to me. If you listen closely when Langford gets drafted, you can hear someone whispering “My Arrakis. My dune.”
Red Sox OF Ceddanne Rafaela is 5-for-16 with two steals and a long home run to go along with four walks. Reading between the lines, the organization was laying out the red carpet when Alex Cora said Rafaela would be the starting center fielder if he made the team. Hard not to draw some confidence from that. He looks a bit bigger this spring to my eye, but I haven’t read anything to confirm that.
Tigers 2B Colt Keith: The value on this Captain Obvious pick varies from site to site, but no matter where you’re playing, Keith’s new reality as the everyday second baseman in Detroit is not fully reflected in that site’s average draft position or ranking system. When draft season began, Keith was but one of many contenders for time at third base, in the eyes of fantasy sites, but he’s since been anointed the second baseman and signed a long-term contract. Even giving him 117 games and 477 plate appearances, Steamer has him projected for .261 with 14 home runs, which feels light to me in the power department.
Another guy moving up draft boards, Padres OF Jackson Merrill has an angle on the opening day center field job, and if he doesn’t win that, he’s got a fallback spot in left field. AJ Preller is among the most timeline-aggressive prospect promoters in the game. Merrill is slashing .273/.360/.318 through 22 at bats. His contact skills figure to play well early in his career even if he’s not producing much power or speed, but his on base percentage of .326 in 114 games across High-A and Double-A last season doesn’t exactly demand that this guy skip Triple-A entirely. He’ll turn 21 on April 19 and should be pushing to debut around then whether he breaks camp with the club or not.
Merrill is blocking out some sun that would otherwise land on Padres OF Jakob Marsee, who is slashing .294/.435/.412 through 17 at bats. The next time he posts an on base percentage less than .400 will be the first since his.396 as a college sophomore in 2021. He’s a walking Jonah Hill meme.
Nationals OF James Wood has three home runs, six walks, four strikeouts and a .474 batting average through 19 at bats. He’ll play most of this season in the majors. That sentence made me catch my breath a bit. Could be a bumpy ride at times, but it’ll be fun.
I’m less confident in how much time Guardians OF Chase DeLauter will spend in the major league lineup, but I’m more confident in his readiness. He’s got just ten plate appearances through six games but is slashing .444/.500/.889 with one home run. The club would likely prefer to slow-play his arrival if they won’t give him a chance to break camp with the team, which they probably won’t do given he’s logged just six game above High-A, but he looks like a freight train coming to my eyes, and Cleveland could benefit from letting his dominance dictate his timeline.
Giants RHP Mason Black hasn’t pitched his best, posting a 5.40 ERA through five innings across two outings, but the club is scraping the bottom of its pitching-depth barrel after injuries to Sean Hjelle and Tristan Beck. RosterResource has Black inked into the fifth-starter spot right now, and that feels like where he’ll stay unless they land one of the remaining free agent arms.
We’ll cover another round of spring wins on Sunday.
Thanks for reading!
