(1)So we are getting down to it. The "it", in this case, is the opening day 26 man roster. The way I see it is assuming no other injuries pop up that require DL/IL placements, that 23 spots are taken and we are looking for 3 players, backup catcher and two relievers. Today Touki Toussaint was sent down to the minor league camp and David Fry was told he wouldn't make the team, following the same conversation a day or two ago with Micah Pries.
Assuming no more injuries pop up, we still have 4 spots on the 26-man roster that have not been decided: backup catcher, second utility man and the last two reliever spots.
We have 3 ways to open spots on the 40-man without losing a real prospect: DFA Jason Bilous, DFA Bryan Lavastida (still can't believe I am saying that) and put George Valera on the 60-day DL.
One of those spots likely goes to Cam Gallagher. One is likely going to go to Tim Herrin by default.
That leaves 3 spots.
Until today I honestly thought David Fry had a chance to make the 26-man roster. Everything (comments Antonetti made over the weekend, Freeman's struggles this spring, lack of an emergency catcher) made me think Fry had a chance. So we have two choices now, Freeman or bring in someone else in a trade or a waiver claim. Bringing in someone else's castoff seems unappealing so it looks like all these moves and conversations have left us with Freeman as the utility guy.
As far as the two relievers it looks more and more like one will belong to Tim Herrin.
The other is up in the air. Gaddis seems like the most reasonable option but Antonetti's comments over the weekend made me wonder. Nick Mikolajchak's and Andrw Misiaszek's injuries take them out of the running and so we are left with Michael Kelly or Luis Oviedo. Kelly is the obvious choice using the logic that the Guardians used last year: keep a single reliever on your roster who you could DFA without batting an eye. I don't believe Oviedo, Cade Smith or either Mikolajchak or Misiaszak, if either was healthy, is someone you would want to consider fungible when Hentges comes back or, when we bring Battenfield back up. Kelly, you could. Making Kelly my choice at the moment for that last reliever spot.
(2) I hope Gimenez comes back unscathed from the WBC. When he took a throw at second on a double in the US game and went down, I saw him grabbing at his right knee while lying on his back. Maybe it was nothing but it's something to at least watch out for.
(3) Very few reports out of the minor league camp so far. I did notice when I was down there that Justin Campbell, our #12 prospect, was participating in all drills but not throwing. Maybe just spring training soreness but having reports from minor league spring training on who's healthy and who's not would be good information to have instead of just finding out that information after team assignments are made.
(4) More in the next couple of days on the the toughest nut to crack in rating prospects: how do you evaluate DS/ACL prospects from last year on where they fit into our prospect rankings.
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