Primal Cuts, Finalized

Who Is Bubbling Up From the Top?

Mar 26, 2025

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A NEWS TICKER

A baseball steak comes from the center part of the sirloin. The steak looks like a baseball to a contact hitter, or a steak knife, hence the name.

Here are some notes from today’s news. I’m sure I missed something juicy. I’m going for two short ones tomorrow and Friday, but if the interest is great enough we’ll go longer on Friday.

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Kyren Paris, a speedy middle infielder with severe contact issues has made the Angels Opening Day roster. He made more contact than ever before in his 59 plate appearances in the majors last year, good for him, and hit .118. Ouchie! He’s likely in the majors only until Zach Neto returns from the IL, expected by mid-April, but if he gets some chances he will steal some bases. That may be a reason to pick him up in the endgame, especially if you have Neto. A classic handcuff.

Ryan Bliss has won the second base job in Seattle. He stole 50 bases last year in Triple-A and has a good enough defensive rep he might hold onto the job even if he isn’t a big offensive threat. In Triple-A he showed he could take some walks, which ups his profile and should give him more chances to steal, though he took a more aggressive approach in Spring Training this year and walked less and made more contact than he did in the majors last year. $6

Cool story out in Anaheim, where Ryan Johnson wins the major league bullpen job without appearing in a minor league game. The Angels appear to be committed to rapid promotions of their youngster, and Johnson had a 10:1 K:BB ratio in 11 innings in camp. He’ll be in low leverage situations to start the season, but if he does the job the only thing that won’t happen is him pushing aside Kenley Jansen if KJ is doing the job.

Threatening to become a totally Angels team blog, Halo Happenings anyone? Tim Anderson makes the roster out of camp, and the team signed Nicky Lopez to a major league contract. So, they have Kevin Newman, plus Paris, Lopez, and Anderson on the roster for the infield, and Zach Neto and Yoan Moncada not ready. This should be a fluid situation all season long. So fluid, and not on the thumb, that a few hours later the team says Moncada is playing Opening Day against his old team, the White Sox. What are the odds he’ll be healthy for game two?

Eno Sarris, in the Athletic yesterday, wrote about why he expects Hayden Wesneski to be one of the big surprises this year. I wrote last week about how Wesneski moving to Houston could make a difference, but Eno puts it more succinctly:

The Astros helped Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole get better. They produced Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier and Luis Garcia off of tiny signing bonuses. Last year, Hunter Brown busted out under their tutelage. Could Hayden Wesneski be another name on the wall in Houston?

Why not?

The Brewers have given Jake Bauers a spot on their OD roster. He had a good camp and serves as insurance/respite for Rhys Hoskins and Christian Yelich, which could mean few at bats or many depending on how his betters’ seasons go.

Zach Dezenzo has made the Astros after having a great spring, though there’s no obvious way for him to get at bats.

The Tigers called Ryan Kreidler back up to the big club because they need a center fielder. Kreidler did play one game in center last year. He’s had a good spring, but last year he struck out nearly 30 percent of the time in Triple-A with scant power. The Tigers are desperate, and I bet Manuel Margot ends up playing more CF than Kreidler.

The second opinion on Jared Jones’ elbow is in, and he’s going to give it six weeks and see how it is. Maybe he’ll be able to pitch, maybe he’ll pitch brilliantly, but more likely he’ll have to pack it in and have surgery. That’s me saying that, not the Pirates or their doctors, but the bottom line here is if there’s any chance he’ll be able to pitch this year there is no cost to waiting until May to see how he is. Will Carroll put it nicely in his excellent Under the Knife newsletter:

The Pirates have sufficiently locked the info down on what this is that “six weeks” isn’t enough to really narrow it down much. Nerve? Flexor? Bone bruise? Face it, six weeks is the beige paint of the sports med world. It’s everywhere because it’s non-offensive and easy to paint over. It might as well be primer. Six weeks is easy to adjust, up or down, or to say, “things changed.”

Unless he really heals, whether he has the surgery now or in six weeks doesn’t matter, he’ll be looking at a 2027 return. If the cost is low enough and your league uses IL slots there’s some chance he’ll have some value this year, but think endgame, not mid-rounds.

Brett Baty is the Mets second baseman, at least until Jeff McNeil comes back. He’s had an amazing camp after three tough years frittering away his prospect status. A good camp doesn't mean he’s out of the woods, but he’s a nice post-hype bet this year.

Another Hayden, Hayden Senger, joins the Mets as backup catcher to Luis Torrens while Francisco Alvarez rehabs. Senger improved his contact hitting last year by becoming more aggressive, but he’s not a power hitter and will probably have no fantasy value.

He only had 15 Spring Training plate appearances, but Rafael Devers has been named the Red Sox DH starting tomorrow. Since he didn’t play in the field at all during camp that seems like the best approach, though there are a number of moving parts here. How badly is Devers hindered by his bad shoulder? How quickly will Kristian Campbell establish himself as a major league hitter? Will Trevor Story get healthy? How far away is Marcelo Meyer? And what about Masataka Yoshida? Of all of these Devers’ ability to hit is No. 1, but it could be a crazy summer for the beantowners.

I figured Shane Smith would work out of the White Sox pen this year as a Rule 5 pickup because why not? But now he joins the team’s rotation to start the season, sending Bryse Wilson, a former hot prospect a ways back, to the bullpen. Smith has worked as a starter some and reliever too since his recovery from TJ, and he’s got decent stuff if not knockout control and command. So, for a team going nowhere, it’s worth a shot to see what he’s got. He’s only pitched 6.7 innings in five relief appearances in Triple-A, so he could hit the wall quickly. Or maybe he’ll succeed. It has happened.

The White Sox sent down Justin Anderson after he failed to wow during camp. He’ll get a chance to work things out, and the odds increase that Mike Clevinger is going to end up closing for the team. I don’t want to oversell this but Dennis Eckersley was a similar age when he moved into the pen (though he’d had a much more illustrious career up to that point as a starter).

Time to send this out. See you tomorrow!

HOUSEKEEPING

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