Joey Rickard!
I wanted to sneak his name in there right off the bat because so much has been decided in the last few days that, frankly, no one gives a second thought to the little Rule 5 pick beating out the international flop that is Hyun Soo Kim.
I mean, Rickard has some low-end Rotisserie appeal because he can steal bases (five in 26 games this spring after 23 in 117 games in the minors last season), but he's not the hitter his .390 batting average and 1.047 OPS this spring would have you believe and should be valued on about the same level as, say, Rajai Davis.
Fortunately, with Wednesday's deluge of headlines, most of the big decisions are now decided. Phillies and Rays closer are two notable exceptions, but in both cases, the lack of decision is itself a decision. A by-committee approach to saves is likely to begin the season.
Speaking of saves ...
1. Closer encounters of three kinds
Yep, three major events reshaped the closer landscape Wednesday. The most notable was the Blue Jays' decision, despite having hinted at the contrary all spring, to keep Roberto Osuna in the role rather than anoint newly acquired Drew Storen.
Perhaps Osuna's recent admission that he doesn't want to transition to a starting role has something to do with it. Storen would have been fine as the closer, but Osuna could be great for a first-division ballclub. I mean, he already was. Just look at his numbers last season, when he spent only three months in the role:
Yup. He's good. Already, I'm compelled to rank him as a top 12 reliever.
Andrew Miller figured to rate that highly during the 30 games Aroldis Chapman will miss because of a suspension. Now, Dellin Betances will.
Miller suffered a chip fracture in his non-throwing wrist after taking a liner off it Wednesday, and though his exact timetable isn't known, a DL stint is probable.
Right arm or not, he's going to want to let that recover, right? He says he doesn't want to miss time, but it's not really his choice.
Betances, of course, is arguably as good as both Chapman and Miller (what a bullpen the Yankees will have when they get everyone back), so he's must-own for at least the first month.
Though it's not official, Jake McGee appears to have won the Rockies closer role by default. Jason Motte, his primary competition, has a strained shoulder and will begin the year on the DL.
It shouldn't have been a competition anyway given that no reliever with at least 100 innings over the last two years tops McGee in all three of ERA, WHIP and strikeouts per nine innings, but then again, closing for the Rockies, saves may be hard to come by.
2. Short Story
Less than 24 hours after the Rockies declared Trevor Story their starting shortstop for opening day, Jose Reyes, the man he's replacing, saw a potentially significant change to his timetable.
The charges against him for his domestic incident this offseason will reportedly be dropped, so MLB's decision to put him on paid leave until the end of his legal proceedings will in all likelihood also end.
He still faces a suspension considering Chapman got 30 games for his domestic incident where no charges were filed. but even if Reyes gets somewhere in that neighborhood, the timetable will be shorter than we initially thought, which gives Story -- he of the .354 batting average, six home runs and 1.280 OPS in 18 games this spring -- less time to gain a foothold.
Reyes is owed mega millions over the next two years and saw an uptick in production while playing in Coors Field late last year, so you have to assume the Rockies will go back to him unless Story is playing out of his mind. It doesn't mean Story won't be a serviceable fill-in for the first month, but he's less of a sleeper today while Reyes himself appears to be well worth stashing.
3. Nicasio changes the script
The Pirates signed Juan Nicasio this offseason intending to make him a long reliever/swingman type, but he was so dominant this spring that they had no choice but to award him a rotation spot over 38-year-old retread Ryan Vogelsong. And so that's what they did Wednesday.
In all, Nicasio has recorded 24 strikeouts in 15 innings while allowing no runs on 10 hits and five walks. Here was his eye-opening performance March 16, when he struck out 10 Orioles over four innings:
Certainly, pitching Ray Searage's track record with reclamation projects -- from A.J. Burnett to Francisco Liriano to Edinson Volquez to J.A. Happ -- gives some legitimacy to Nicasio's performance, as does his mid-90s fastball and reportedly improved slider, but remember: Zach McAllister and Kendall Graveman were the supposed pitching breakthroughs of last spring, and neither amounted to much in Fantasy.
Nicasio is a justifiable pickup in any format, but I wouldn't call him must-add outside of Head-to-Head points leagues, where his relief pitcher eligibility is so important.
4. Sour Bauer
And just like that, Trevor Bauer is the odd man out in a competition that most of us didn't even know was a competition until a few days ago. And judging by the two victors' numbers compared to his this spring, it may not have been a competition in the first place:
If the three enter on equal footing, how does Bauer lose, right? It seems crazy that his role would even be up for grabs considering he was a staple in the Indians rotation last year and is presumed to be the most talented of the three.
Apparently, Anderson's average fastball velocity is up and his secondary pitches have improved this spring -- and the Indians are encouraged by that -- but he did average just 4.3 strikeouts per nine innings in his 15 starts last year. Tomlin averaged 7.8 per nine in his 10 starts, but he's a soft tosser who's so vulnerable to home runs that the chances of him helping in ERA are pretty slim. WHIP, being the control artist he is, is another matter.
I think it's only a matter of time before Bauer returns to the starting rotation, not that he needs to be stashed outside of AL-only leagues in the meantime.
5. Oh yeah, games still happened
While what happens on the field this time of year couldn't be any less interesting now that the battles are all but decided, there were two pitching performances of note Wednesday.
Drew Smyly struck out seven over four no-hit innings to give him this line this spring:
He was plagued by a torn labrum in his shoulder last season but was strong after returning in mid-August and has a 2.52 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings in his 19 starts with the Rays over the last two years. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite breakout picks.
Meanwhile, Shane Greene celebrated his rise to the fifth starter role with his most dominant spring outing yet:
That's nine strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings. He allowed no runs on three hits with one walk to bring his final spring line to this:
He was also plagued by injury last year -- an artery issue in his right hand that caused numbness in his fingers -- and more and more, it looks like it impacted his performance. Remember: He was kind of a sleeper at this time last year after averaging 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings in a brief showing for the Yankees in 2014, so he's a must-own in AL-only leagues and worth monitoring across the board.
