2022 MLB spring training - news and notes

Red(s)HawksFan

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Hendu for Kutch

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The Ohtani rule is an interesting one. I'm sure I might be missing something, but has there ever been another rule that realistically only affects/benefits one player in the entire league?
I wonder what happens if he's hurt during the game? Does the replacement pitcher become the new DH by default? Or does he get two subs?
 

Ale Xander

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Are the Royals deep on the bench/DH?

would love to see them try this with Greinke
 

Rice4HOF

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I wonder what happens if he's hurt during the game? Does the replacement pitcher become the new DH by default? Or does he get two subs?
I am assuming that once he’s no longer pitching, he’s in the lineup spot as the DH. If he gets injured (or even if not) they can pinch hit for him with anyone on the bench.
 

Hank Scorpio

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What happens now if the DH moves into a defensive position (like if the Red Sox put JDM into LF in the fifth inning due to an injury)? It used to be that the team would lose the DH, and the pitcher would have to bat. I remember going to a game in 1996 where this happened and Clemens lined a single up the middle.

Is this rule still in place?
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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What happens now if the DH moves into a defensive position (like if the Red Sox put JDM into LF in the fifth inning due to an injury)? It used to be that the team would lose the DH, and the pitcher would have to bat. I remember going to a game in 1996 where this happened and Clemens lined a single up the middle.

Is this rule still in place?
Seems to be. That would be a newsworthy change if they made it, but I haven't seen anything mention it so I assume it's still the same.
 

donutogre

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Red(s)HawksFan

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It seems really odd to me to bring back the extra innings ghost runner, but just for this season. Maybe they just want to continue to evaluate it before making it permanent? I was under the impression it was gone, so this is definitely a bummer to me.
Since it was done for this season only and in concert with expanding April rosters, I think it's entirely about protecting pitching staffs after the short spring training. Much for the same reason it was initially introduced in the COVID shortened 2020 season.
 

donutogre

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Since it was done for this season only and in concert with expanding April rosters, I think it's entirely about protecting pitching staffs after the short spring training. Much for the same reason it was initially introduced in the COVID shortened 2020 season.
Oh, of course. That does make sense, thanks.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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What happens now if the DH moves into a defensive position (like if the Red Sox put JDM into LF in the fifth inning due to an injury)? It used to be that the team would lose the DH, and the pitcher would have to bat. I remember going to a game in 1996 where this happened and Clemens lined a single up the middle.

Is this rule still in place?
But in this case you're talking about the DH being Ohtani, so if Ohtani were moved from pitcher to say RF your question is would the pitcher have to bat? This seems like it would just be a double switch where the new pitcher would take the RF spot in the lineup. No idea whether they can substitute in a new DH for them.
 

Rice4HOF

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But in this case you're talking about the DH being Ohtani, so if Ohtani were moved from pitcher to say RF your question is would the pitcher have to bat? This seems like it would just be a double switch where the new pitcher would take the RF spot in the lineup. No idea whether they can substitute in a new DH for them.
No. If Ohtani is the SP and bats for himself, if he goes and plays OF, they will have lost the DH for the rest of the game and the pitchers will need to bat for themselves. If Ohtani moved from P to RF then it is a double switch, and the new pitcher takes the RF spot in the lineup like you said.

Think of it this way: there are 9 positions in the batting lineup. When Ohtani pitches, he is effectively occupying the DH lineup spot. When a reliever comes in, Sho can continue to bat in the DH spot in the batting order, and is treated like a regular DH. If he goes to OF it’s no different than JDM moving from DH to LF and you now lost the DH for rest of the game.
 

simplicio

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Pretty astonishing. He missed a third of the season to other injury last year, but if the real culprit is the shoulder dislocation/surgery from his botched celebration in the '20 NLCS and he hasn't been able to recover from it, that would be a sad way to cut a career short.
 

Yelling At Clouds

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Padres fans should be watching that in terror - didn’t Tatis similarly injure his shoulder (and he’s now got the broken wrist on top of it)?
 

simplicio

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Padres fans should be watching that in terror - didn’t Tatis similarly injure his shoulder (and he’s now got the broken wrist on top of it)?
Tatis had (multiple) shoulder subluxations, which are partial dislocations. Bellinger has also dislocated his shoulder multiple times, but I don't see reference to subluxation in those so I assume it was fully dislocated. I'm no doctor but I assume that's worse, plus there's the possibility that surgery complicated things further.
 

LogansDad

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Diamondbacks and Ketel Marte quietly agreed to a pretty team friendly 5 year, $76M contract. His K rate went up a little last season, but he still hit 30 doubles and 14 home runs in only 90 games. It likely won't be until at least the third year of the deal before the team can even think about competing (they had two more team option on his previous deal that got ripped up for this one), so hopefully he can stay healthy until then. He's a pretty awesome player on a really bad team, but it's nice to see them lock him up for a pretty decent term. He will be 33 when this contract expires, so assuming health he could also be in for one more modest pay day, as well.
 

jon abbey

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Diamondbacks and Ketel Marte quietly agreed to a pretty team friendly 5 year, $76M contract. His K rate went up a little last season, but he still hit 30 doubles and 14 home runs in only 90 games. It likely won't be until at least the third year of the deal before the team can even think about competing (they had two more team option on his previous deal that got ripped up for this one), so hopefully he can stay healthy until then. He's a pretty awesome player on a really bad team, but it's nice to see them lock him up for a pretty decent term. He will be 33 when this contract expires, so assuming health he could also be in for one more modest pay day, as well.
I think the number is low because his defense seems to be declining fast, he mostly plays CF now and was -15 DRS last year, one of the worst handful of fielders according to that at any position last year.

http://www.fieldingbible.com/DRSLeaderboard
 

LogansDad

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I think the number is low because his defense seems to be declining fast, he mostly plays CF now and was -15 DRS last year, one of the worst handful of fielders according to that at any position last year.

http://www.fieldingbible.com/DRSLeaderboard
That's fair, but I expect them to move him back to second base this season, too, though Varsho, Luplow and MCarthy seem like an underwhelming combination in CF. I think a lot of this season depends on if they decide Alek Thomas is ready, which would really be a big boost to the team as a whole, though expecting a 21 year old to seamlessly step in is probably asking a lot of him.
 

Just a bit outside

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That's fair, but I expect them to move him back to second base this season, too, though Varsho, Luplow and MCarthy seem like an underwhelming combination in CF. I think a lot of this season depends on if they decide Alek Thomas is ready, which would really be a big boost to the team as a whole, though expecting a 21 year old to seamlessly step in is probably asking a lot of him.
They already said Marte is moving back to second full time for this season.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Interesting that they had to already Crochet's season was iffy as they completed the Kimbrel trade.
 

grimshaw

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And he has an opt out after the season. He could probably opt out even if he comes back mid-August and easily clear 25 mill per.
It's not at all a problem contract wise. Aside from .. you know losing a lot more games.

Hopefully he's back before long. The Mets are hard to root for, but he is one of the biggest draws in the sport.