My sunglasses, sun tan lotion and Starbucks card are locked, loaded and ready for a spring training tour of all the major league camps. But I also have my annual list of relevant issues to keep in mind during my spring training visits.
Here’s a quick glance at the biggest questions marks going into spring training.
1. Will the Indians’ trio of Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar and Michael Brantley all return to form?
After winning 94 regular-season games and 10 postseason games, the 2016 American League champs made it all the way to the 10th inning of Game 7 of the World Series before falling to the Chicago Cubs. Believe it or not, this year’s version of the Indians has a chance to be even better, and not just because this offseason they signed the AL RBI leader Edwin Encarnacion as a free agent. Instead, it’s because three key players will be coming back from injuries and are expected to be 100 percent by Opening Day.
Brantley hit .327/.385/.506 in 2014 with 45 doubles, 20 home runs and 97 RBIs. He also stole 23 bases and won a Silver Slugger award while finishing third in MVP voting. He followed that up in 2015 by leading the league in doubles while hitting 15 homers and stealing 15 bags to go along with a .310/.379/.489 slash line. But this past year, coming back from shoulder surgery, he played in only 11 games. So if Brantley returns to his 2014 or 2015 form, watch out for Cleveland’s lineup.
On the mound, Salazar was a candidate to start the All-Star Game for the AL last season as he went 10-3 with a 2.75 ERA in the first half. However, injuries in the second half of the season led to his going 1-3 with a 7.44 ERA in eight starts. The Indians are hoping his first-half performance will be the full-season story this year. Carrasco was 7-4 through July last year with a 2.48 ERA before injuries slowed him down. As with Salazar, the Indians hope he will be completely healthy this spring.
If Brantley, Salazar and Carrasco are all healthy, the Indians might just become the team to beat in 2017. During spring training, all eyes will be on this trio at Goodyear Ballpark in Arizona.
2. Is Albert Almora Jr. ready to take over in center field for the best team in baseball?
The Chicago Cubs lost center fielder Dexter Fowler in free agency to the St. Louis Cardinals when the Cards signed him to a five-year, $82 million contract. The Cubs are now ready to give Almora the opportunity to either win that job in center outright or be in some type of platoon with newly signed free agent Jon Jay.
Almora was team president Theo Epstein’s first first-round pick with Chicago back in 2012 when the Cubs took him sixth overall, ahead of players like David Dahl, Addison Russell, Lucas Giolito and Corey Seager. Almora’s defensive skills are elite, but his bat has been slow to develop. His career minor league OBP was a mere .322, and he has never hit 10 home runs or stolen more than 10 bases in any of his five minor league seasons.
If Almora’s bat isn’t ready, will skipper Joe Maddon go with a platoon of Almora and Jay? Or will he consider moving Jason Heyward to center field, play Ben Zobrist in right field and let Javier Baez be the everyday second baseman? It’s hard to imagine Almora playing ahead of either Zobrist or Baez, but that’s the Cubs’ plan heading into the spring. I look forward to seeing how this one plays out.
3. Will someone emerge in the Nationals' bullpen?
The Nationals’ primary offseason goal was simple: acquire an impact closer. They tried hard to land Aroldis Chapman, but he really wanted to return to the New York Yankees -- and did. Washington made the highest bid for free agent Kenley Jansen, but at his wedding, after being close to accepting their offer, he and his new wife pivoted and decided he would take less money for the opportunity to return to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Nats made a bid to retain Mark Melancon, but the San Francisco Giants outbid the industry, signing him to a four-year, $62 million deal. The Nationals kicked the tires on Greg Holland before he landed in Colorado.
All of this has left Washington scrambling trying to trade for closers like David Robertson of the White Sox and Alex Colome of the Rays. Publicly, the Nationals are telling people they are confident Shawn Kelley can be their closer. Someone else could emerge internally, like Blake Treinen or Koda Glover.
However, with the Nationals being a legitimate World Series contender and their window getting smaller every year, it’s hard to believe they won’t go out and trade for a proven closer during spring training. In the meantime, I look forward to monitoring their bullpen at their new spring training home in West Palm Beach, Florida.
4. How many Mets starters will actually be ready for Opening Day?
One of the toughest predictions to make this spring will be who will win the National League East between the defending division champion Nationals and the New York Mets.
The Mets' key will be the health of their starting rotation. If Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz are all healthy and pitching to potential, I would pick the Mets to unseat the Nationals. However, if one, two or even three of them aren’t able to come back and pitch to their established levels of elite performance, the Nats will be more likely to repeat.
Any prediction of how the Mets will look from Opening Day onward will rely on how those four starters throw the ball in late March.
5. How will comeback candidates look in spring training games?
Baseball has never been loaded with more potential Comeback Player of the Year candidates entering spring training.
The Cubs are hoping that Jason Heyward will be a candidate after a disastrous 2016 season that saw him hit just .230 with seven home runs after signing an eight-year, $184 million deal. He spent the whole offseason revamping his swing, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results in Arizona.
A.J. Pollock of the Arizona Diamondbacks was one of the best all-around players in baseball in 2015 when he slashed .315/.367/.498 with 20 home runs and 39 stolen bases. However, an elbow injury last year led to surgery, limiting him to just 12 games. He’s healthy again, and Arizona can only hope he returns to his ’15 form.
The Boston Red Sox are hoping that Pablo Sandoval’s shoulder has healed and his weight loss will help him return to his 2011-12 form with the San Francisco Giants when he appeared in back-to-back All-Star Games. The Red Sox need him to pick up some of the slack from the left side of the plate because of David Ortiz’s retirement.
On the mound, the St. Louis Cardinals are hoping that Adam Wainwright is not in decline and that his 4.62 ERA last season can drop to the sub-3.00 level, where it's been most of his career.
6. Will Jose Quintana get traded? And if so, where?
The Chicago White Sox have been listening to offers for Quintana this entire offseason and remain willing to move him if they can get a prospect package somewhere between what they got in their Chris Sale and Adam Eaton deals with the Red Sox and Nationals, respectively. The White Sox don’t have a timetable for when they have to trade him, but as Opening Day nears and teams find out which pitchers either need to go on the disabled list, could be in decline or just no longer have their normal stuff, that’s when the White Sox will get their best trade offers.
Teams such as the Astros, Rangers, Pirates, Rockies and Yankees are expected to be in the mix. Only one thing is certain: Until he’s traded, he’ll be part of everyone’s spring training conversation.
7. Will Matt Wieters ever sign? And if so, where?
Wieters is a former All-Star and one of only five catchers in the game who can throw out 35 percent of opposing baserunners, drive in 65 runs and hit 17-22 home runs and -- most importantly -- develop young pitchers like the ones he helped in Baltimore. However, the catchers' market is flat, and some teams don’t completely trust his surgically repaired right elbow even though it looks completely healthy.
Wieters can be a difference-maker on potential contenders such as the Nationals or the Rockies, or even with rebuilding teams like the Diamondbacks and Angels. He might have to sign a one-year “pillow” deal to prove his value, health and consistency one more time. When he does sign, that team will be that much better in a league with a scarcity at that position.