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2023 Spring Training Thoughts

Spring Training began yesterday with pitchers and catchers reporting to West Palm Beach and a crap-ton of non-roster invites to the major-league camp (Take a look – frequent commenter SaoMagnifico breaks ’em all down).

OK, fine – it’s “only” 27, which even a MASN Commenter might notice is about the size of a regular-season roster. They may have trouble figuring out that’s 67 players “fighting” for 26 jobs.

In theory, I should be excited. An MLB-worst 55-107 team ought to have plenty of openings. But experience tells me that the best we might see is a repeat of 2019 when technically-still-a-prospect Victor Robles and Jake Noll made the Opening Day roster.

(Yeah, I know… we just can’t seem to escape 2019, much like the Gen-X anthem 1985.)

This spring it seems to be that still-a-prospect Cade Cavalli and the other Jake (Alu) might be the functional equivalents. Maybe Matt Cronin or José Ferrer will sneak in there, but GM Mike Rizzo always seems to give preference to a veteran over a rookie.

Overnight, MASN released its Spring Training Schedule, which screws both Baltimore and Washington fans with just four (4) of 30-plus games. I’d say equally, but at least three of the four of the Nats games are on a Friday or a Saturday and two are at night:

  • March 11 vs. NYM, 7:05 p.m.
  • March 18 vs. MIA, 1:05 p.m.
  • March 24 vs. StL, 6:05 p.m.
  • March 28 vs. NYY, 12:05 p.m.

As per usual, I’ll do writeups for 2-3 weeks so long as it seems appropriate (or at least minimally gratuitous). This usually ends up being around St. Patrick’s Day.

Then, thanks to AAA extending its slate to 150 games, we’ll start up the day after MLB does with Rochester hosting Lehigh Valley on Friday, March 31st. The giveaway? A toboggan hat and a guarantee of at least 50 degrees.

Six days later, the FredNats open at home while the Sens and Blue Rocks open on the road.

Away we’ll go for the 13th season of coverage (14th if you want to count 2020).

20 Commments

  1. Yes, I share the concern that they’ve brought in a lot of aging/aged stiffs instead of really opening the door for some internal opportunities. That said, there ain’t a heck of a lot of internal upper-minors quality, which loyal readers here know too well.

    One seemingly blocked is a favorite of this site, Jake Alu. Time will tell how much of a legit opportunity he gets. One suspects that he would have to have an incredible spring, a la Jake Noll in 2019, to get any serious consideration for a roster spot.

    The pitchers among “our guys” seemingly with the best chance would be Cronin and Brzykcy. It would be good to see Carrillo pull things together and stay healthy, particularly since they seem to have finally decided to let him be a reliever.

    Also pulling for “old-timers” from here, Tetreault and Evan Lee, to bounce back well from injury. Both were outrighted off the 40-man, as was true old-timer Yadiel Hernandez.

    1. It’s instructive to note that there is a significant difference between the Two Jakes. Noll in 2019 truly had a classic “False Spring,” as there was little in his minor-league stats to support that he was ready for a leap to the majors. Alu has had much more success in the upper minors than Noll had. It isn’t long-sustained success, but it does seem to be legit.

  2. Speaking of “our” guys – nice writeup on Daryl Thompson in the Wall St Journal today. He was an 8th round draft pick of the Expos out of La Plata HS in MD. Pitched in 2003-2006 in Expos/Nats Low A (Vermont Lake Monsters & Savannah Sand Gnats) before being traded to Cincy in the Felipe Lopez/Austin Kearns trade.
    Still pitches in Indy League – Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.

    1. Larry Daryl and Daryl Bob Newhart
      The news about Manny Machado
      Thinking about opt out raises this question
      What time frame along the rebuild path does the Nats GM under new ownership in 2025 or 2026? Add a marque stud to take the leadership horns and top spot in Stadium entrance to boost ticket and beer vending sales ?

  4. I noticed someone wearing jersey #86 Frisbie. He is not listed on the coaches roster. Does anyone know who he is?

    1. I don’t find a current player, majors or minors, named Frisbie at all on Baseball-Reference. Possibly part of the developmental staff? But wouldn’t it be great to say that they’re taking a flyer on Frisbie? (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)

  5. One fellow who technically has graduated from being one of our guys, even though he’s just approaching his age-24 season, is Joan Adon. Someone should be arrested for what they did to that kid last year, as it was criminal. Can they rewind things now and actually teach him how to pitch? He’s built like a horse and throws sustained 95, but time will tell whether they’ve done mortal damage to the kid’s career.

  7. Per Mark Zuckerman this morning, Rizzo confirmed that Brady House has been moved to 3B permanently and is healthy and fully participating in camp. I guess the only real news flash there is Rizzo actually commenting on the health of a farmhand. Seriously, though, I’m glad they’re settling early on a position. Kieboom got jerked around for years. Of course part of that was the possibility that Rendon might re-sign.

    1. That’s smart news. He was never going to stick at SS and it seemed the f.o. was just indulging him.

      Let’s hope he can stay healthy.

      1. I don’t know that it was the kid’s insistence. Baseball has this current hang-up about every young player being either a SS or CF. (The Nats add their own corollary that every young pitcher should be a starter.) There’s a lot of ink wasted every draft season about whether guys can stick at SS or CF. It also seems to enhance potential trade value, so teams even keep guys built like James Wood in CF.

        Wood was never going to stay in CF, just as a guy built like a House was never going to stay at SS, and that’s just fine. You always hear that a team should draft the “best player available,” not a whole team of center fielders and shortstops.

  8. Could we see Elvis in camp ? Ty ty ty in Presley drawl
    Elvis Andrus a late signeee to help out Abrams and Garcia ?

  9. I’m in the minority in that I think that the team is to be commended for bringing along Alu at a decent pace, and developing a 24th round pick into a prospect. He legit played his way to AAA last year, and the numbers that he put up there were very good. In less than half of a season (59 games). Ironically, it may be a better sign for him if he starts the season at AAA. That would mean that the team wants him paying every day and being ready to go if someone gets injured/flops. A best case scenario for the organization would be that Candelario rebounds, hits his way into a deadline deal flip, and Alu moves up at that time to finish the season in DC at 3b.

    1. Actually I think most of us here agreed with the way the Nats handled Alu. He earned the moniker Jake ‘no respect’ Alu because until a month or two ago he had never made any prospect lists, none.

      Following someone like him is why us minor league seamheads do this, thanks to Luke.

    2. Echoing Mark, I wish the Nationals handled every prospect like Jake Alu! He had an unexceptional 2019 and remained in Low A, but as soon as he demonstrated something close to a mastery of a level, he got a promotion within about 50 games, both in 2021 and 2022.

      While indeed the Nats did get more aggressive with promotions in 2022, there’s still always a batch of players that were unfairly overlooked. We’ve talked ad nauseum about Frizzell, but there’s also Omar Meregildo, who hit a respectable .255/.348/.473 in his THIRD season in A+, and it took JDLR a very long time (156 games) to get his promotion to Wilmington.

      Fortunately, these guys are the exception now, whereas even as recently as 2021, the Nats’ approach to player development and promotions was obviously an after thought.

  10. I will confess to a high level of curiosity about Alu, but still very moderate expectations. The Candelario signing seems a lot more like lack of trust in Kieboom than it does in Alu.

    That big thing that can be said for Alu is that at least he’s had demonstrable on-field success, unlike other prospects who are ranked due to projections and how they look in a uniform. If Hassell hits 20 homers this year across AA and AAA like Alu did in 2022, we’ll be doing cartwheels.

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