The Phillies have been full of surprises, from sitting Odubel Herrera on Opening Day to starting Andrew Knapp over Jorge Alfaro their first two games to benching Nick Williams in three straight games after batting him third on Opening Day. I’m good with all of this, though. I prefer Knapp to Alfaro both offensively and defensively, and in my catcher rankings, I had Knapp 26th and Alfaro 38th even though I expected Alfaro to get most of the playing time initially. I’m also really skeptical about Williams, who I had 122nd in the outfield. At this rate, he’s going to wind up back in the minors soon. It’s great news for Aaron Altherr, who rates as a solid pickup in mixed leagues while playing regularly.
As for Herrera, there’s nothing wrong with sending him a message after he reportedly showed up to camp overweight. The last thing the Phillies want to do is give up on him, but he probably needs to be challenged to play up to his full potential. He’s been a quality regular since the day he entered the league in 2015, but at the same time, he was a better player as a rookie than he was in year three. The Phillies should sit him when he seems disinterested. It’d be a bad idea for mixed leaguers to drop him, but benching him until he warms up would be fine.
American League notes
- Aaron Hicks (intercostal) lasted one day in the regular season before landing on the disabled list for the ninth time since arriving in the majors in 2013. The injuries are a big reason why I wasn’t particularly high on him despite last year’s breakthrough and his status as a regular hitting in the middle of one of the game’s most potent lineups (he was my No. 47 outfielder). With Jacoby Ellsbury (oblique) and Clint Frazier (concussion) also on the shelf, the Yankees turned to Billy McKinney in the outfield, only to place him on the DL after two games with a shoulder injury. Now the Yankees have Miguel Andujar up to DH for a spell. The OBP probably isn’t yet there to make Andujar a real asset for the Yankees, but his power gives him mixed-league potential if he can win regular playing time. That’s likely still a ways off, though.
- The Yankees also picked up Trayce Thompson off waivers from the Dodgers on Tuesday. I assumed he would be long gone before the Yankees’ waiver priority; Thompson was injured and ineffective last year, but he has a 103 OPS+ in 407 at-bats as a major leaguer and he’s solid defensively. That the Royals claimed Abraham Almonte and let Thompson go is truly baffling. Unfortunately, Thompson probably isn’t looking at enough playing time in New York to amass much in the way of AL-only value. He could be on the move again once Hicks and Ellsbury are back.
- No one but a diehard fan of one of the two teams is choosing to watch a Royals-Tigers matchup unless it’s the only game going, but that was the case on Tuesday afternoon. Besides all of the bad offense on display, it’s rather striking how old these two rebuilding clubs are. Of the 18 position players starting, there’s only one guy -- Nicholas Castellanos -- one can safely say will be starting for a team five years from now. Miguel Cabrera will be 40 at that point. Mike Moustakas and Whit Merrifield might still be starters at 34, though I wouldn’t want to bet on it. I’m not very high on Jeimer Candelario as a long-term prospect, though I could be proven wrong there. I still think Jorge Soler might be the second-best long-term pick of the entire group, but then he might find himself as a DH in Japan if things don’t come together for him this season. The Royals still don’t seem interested in giving him the benefit of the doubt.
- Encouraging for the Royals is that Kelvin Herrera has looked a lot more like he did two years ago after last year’s forearm issues. Still, I’ll be hesitant to push him too far up in the closer rankings; a free agent at season’s end, he’s very likely to be traded and it might be to a team that would use him as a setup man.
- The Rangers were already short an outfielder when they lost Delino DeShields Jr. to a fractured hamate bone last week. Really, the entire organization seemed ill-prepared to deal with any challenges this season. Now they’ll probably have to give Jurickson Profar some outfield time after refusing to do so this spring. He should be starting in left over Ryan Rua, who wouldn’t seem to have much of anything of offer a major league team (Willie Calhoun should be starting over both, but that’s a month away from happening). Drew Robinson will play center in place of DeShields, giving him a fair amount of AL-only value for a spell.
- With a couple of off days and a pair of games in NL parks, the Mariners didn’t have a lot to lose by putting Nelson Cruz on the 10-day DL to take care of his minor ankle sprain. Daniel Vogelbach will pick up some extra at-bats in his place next week.
- It doesn’t bode well for the Angels rotation that Matt Shoemaker has followed Andrew Heaney (shoulder) to the DL with another forearm strain. The club called up Parker Bridwell in his place, but I’d much prefer to see what Nick Tropeano could do in Shoemaker’s spot. Tropeano, back from Tommy John surgery, was rather impressive this spring and struck out 68 in 68 1/3 innings as a starter in 2016. He’ll be an interesting sleeper when his time comes.
- Blake Parker notched the Angels first save of the year, but he gave up a run in the process. On Monday, he came into a 7-3 game in the ninth and was pulled after allowing a run, setting up a save for Keynan Middleton. Parker struggled this spring, too, and while I think he’ll be fine, his status as the Angels’ closer is awfully shaky at the moment. With Cam Bedrosian pitching earlier in games and not really impressing himself, Middleton would seem to be worth a flier. Middleton did a rather nice job as a rookie last year, posting a 63/18 K/BB to go along with his 3.86 ERA in 58 1/3 innings.
National League notes
- Oh no, Kenley Jansen. Through two outings, he’s had more homers allowed (two) than swings and misses (one). His velocity was down his first time out, and though it came back some Monday, he still didn’t have much movement on his cutter. Jansen says he’s completely fine physically, and there’s no reason not to believe him. If it’s all mechanical, and it probably is, his problems could go away in an instant. I’m still nervous; what he brought to the mound Monday just wasn’t major league quality stuff. But I’d hold and hope for the best rather than sell low.
- If Jansen does end up needing to be replaced for a spell, Josh Fields would seem to be about as good of a choice as any to fill in as the Dodgers’ closer. I like Scott Alexander as the team’s second-best reliever, but he’s been wild and it’s best to have him available to play matchups with anyway. I think Fields and Tony Cingrani would be the favorites for saves initially.
- St. Louis and Anaheim had long been the two most likely destinations for Greg Holland, and he finally caved in and took a one-year deal from the Cardinals last week, ending all the speculation over whether Luke Gregerson, Dominic Leone or maybe even Jordan Hicks would wind up as the team’s closer. It’s great news for those who drafted Holland even as he lacked a team at the end of the spring; he’s expected to be ready to pitch next week and he should find himself closing not long afterwards.
- Jedd Gyorko’s DL stint due to a hamstring strain temporarily solves the Cardinals’ infield crunch that saw both Gyorko (who had the second-highest WAR on the team last year) and Kolten Wong sit out two of the team’s first four games. Obviously, Wong is the primary beneficiary, since Jose Martinez is getting treated as a regular regardless. Wong is coming off a very good offensive season in which he posted a .376 OBP (the 11 intentional walks helped there). He clearly deserves to start, at least against righties. However, since the Cardinals are treating him as a part-timer and hitting him at the bottom of the order, there wouldn’t seem to be any fantasy value to be found here when everyone is healthy.
- Is Gregory Polanco a best-shape-of-his-life guy gone good? The early results are very encouraging, as he’s followed a strong spring by collecting a homer, three doubles and six walks in four regular-season games. Those six walks are one more than he had over 36 games in the second half of last year. Like many, I thought Polanco was destined for big things last year, but he struggled to make any sort of hard contact early and spent much of the season fighting injuries. Now that he’s healthy and seemingly stronger than ever before, one wonders just what his ceiling could be. 28-30 homers seems realistic, but the batting average needs to follow; his high mark in four seasons is .258. I still don’t see why he can’t hit at least .280 or so. I had him ranked 18th among outfielders at the end of the spring, and he could steadily move up from there.
- Joe Musgrove was a surprise addition to the Pirates’ disabled list on Monday because of a muscle strain in the shoulder that limited him this spring. Unfortunately, it’ll be Steven Brault, not Tyler Glasnow, taking his rotation spot for now. Brault is fine; he can be a serviceable fifth starter for a major league team. But, obviously, I’m much more interested in Glasnow’s upside. He fared well in his first relief appearances, throwing two scoreless innings while pitching at 94-98 mph.
- Trea Turner hitting sixth for the Nationals was quite the nasty surprise. If I had projected him to bat sixth all season long, he’d be a second-round pick in my projections, which is a far cry from the No. 2 player overall. There are two faint silver linings. As a No. 6 hitter, he should be especially aggressive when it comes to stealing bases in a way he wouldn’t have been with Bryce Harper up at the plate. The other is that if you’re going to hit sixth in an NL lineup, Washington’s is definitely the one in which to do it. Still, batting sixth means 10 percent fewer plate appearances than batting second, which hurts a bunch. It might be temporary, but we’ll see. As annoying as it is for fantasy purposes that Turner is hitting sixth, it’s not necessarily a bad tactic for the Nationals. I’ve always liked the idea of batting basestealers lower in the order, where the hitters behind them are more likely to hit singles than doubles and homers and caught stealings aren’t quite as costly.
- A.J. Cole couldn’t have left the door any more wide open for Jeremy Hellickson than by allowing 10 runs in 3 2/3 innings in his season debut Tuesday. Hellickson makes for a fine pickup in NL-only leagues.
- After repeatedly bypassing him in previous seasons, the Giants made the right call in selecting Hunter Strickland as their interim closer with Mark Melancon (forearm) landing on the disabled list. Melancon is expected back in a couple of weeks, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone if Strickland ends up leading the Giants in saves this year.
- I’m pleased to see the Reds treating Jesse Winker as much more than a fourth outfielder. It’s definitely bad news for Adam Duvall, who would have been out of the lineup for the second time in four games Monday if not for Scott Schebler suffering a minor hand injury. Duvall hit 64 homers the last two years and he has a homer and five RBI in four games this year, but it might be that he’ll lose too much playing time to be of use in mixed leagues.
- The Cubs were set to face their third lefty in six games before Tuesday’s game was rained out. Interesting is that Ian Happ was out of the lineup for all three of those games, while fellow lefties Kyle Schwarber and Jason Heyward were each in the lineup for two of the three games. I’m fond of Happ the player, but he was getting a little over hyped for fantasy purposes this spring.
- The Marlins are probably going to be rotating from player to player with little rhyme or reason all year, but it was still odd to see them bench Cameron Maybin the first two games in favor of Garrett Cooper and then, just a few days later, sit the right-handed Cooper against back-to-back lefties on Monday and Tuesday. Another surprise: Derek Dietrich, a career .235/.308/.357 hitter versus southpaws, has started and hit second against all four lefties the Marlins have faced. And one more: Tomas Telis, who was expected to be the primary backup to the injured J.T. Realmuto behind the plate, hasn’t started any of the Marlins’ six games with Realmuto out, as the team has preferred the defense of Chad Wallach and Bryan Holliday. None of this really matters much at all, but the Marlins are going to be a mess all year.
- He’s no Ronald Acuna, but Preston Tucker has ample power and would be a pretty interesting fantasy outfielder if he could establish himself as a regular for the Braves. Of course, his time in the lineup is expected to end when Acuna arrives in a week or two, but if the Braves can find a taker for Nick Markakis later on, Tucker could get an extended look and post fine HR and RBI numbers batting behind Freddie Freeman.
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