We Made It! Pitchers & Catchers Reporting to Spring Training This Week

It’s been exactly 15 weeks—or 105 days—since the Texas Rangers recorded the last out of the 2023 World Series. And while we will have to wait another 5 weeks—or 35 days—for real Major League Baseball games that count, let’s rejoice in the spring tradition of grainy videos showing pitchers tossing to catchers, catchers tossing to pitchers, and managers making glowing remarks about their squad.

We made it, baseball fans. By the end of the day on Thursday, pitchers and catchers from all 30 teams will have reported to camp to build up their arm strength and practice fielding bunts, squibbers and line drives off the pitcher’s glove.

Welcome to Spring Training 2024.

The Dodgers and Padres already have full squads in camp because the Dodgers wanted a head start on world domination. Okay, that’s only partially true. LA and San Diego reported early because they will kick off the 2024 MLB regular season with two games in Seoul, South Korea on March 20 and 21.

ESPN will broadcast the games, which will start at 6:05 am EDT—or 3:05 am PDT in the teams’ home markets. I understand that MLB schedules these international games to grow the game worldwide. But scheduling the games at a time when most of America will be asleep or just waking up isn’t ideal. Then again, MLB makes a lot of decisions that aren’t ideal.

The Dodgers, obviously, made the biggest off-season splash—well, splashes to be more precise—by signing by two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the top starting pitcher in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Ohtani will be rehabbing his throwing elbow this season after a second Tommy John surgery and won’t pitch until 2025. But from a grainy video making the rounds earlier this week, it appears that Ohtani is swinging with full force, at least in the cage.

As a Giants fan, every Ohtani home run and Yamamoto strikeout will be a little stab in my heart. I take solace in the possibility of more Clayton Kershaw starts for the Dodgers in the postseason.

The Yankees also made a splash by trading for Juan Soto. If Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton can stay healthy, the addition of Soto should result in a more potent offense in the Bronx. Last season, the Yankees scored only 673 runs—ranked 25th out of 30.

The Orioles finally got their front-line starter by trading for Corbin Burnes. The team will also have new ownership, once MLB owners approve the Angelos family’s deal to sell a majority stake in the team to group led by billionaire (and native Baltimorean) David Rubenstein. And for the third season in a row, the O’s will start the season with the consensus No. 1 prospect in baseball in their organization. In 2022, it was Adley Rutschman; in 2023, it was Gunnar Henderson; this season, it’s Jackson Holliday, son of former major league Matt Holliday.

And that’s about it for big splashes. A few teams improved on the margins this offseason (Diamondbacks, Cardinals), a few teams took a step back (Brewers, Red Sox) and a bunch of teams seem to be running in place.

Perhaps more splashes are on the way?

Spring training opens with the four big name free agents on the sidelines. Blake Snell (the 2023 National League Cy Young Award winner), Jordan Montgomery (postseason pitching hero for the Texas Rangers), Cody Bellinger (the centerfielder who revived his career with a spectacular 2023 season with the Cubs), and Matt Chapman (the defensive whiz at third base) are all still looking for contracts. All are represented by super agent Scott Boras.

Piggy-backing off earlier analysis by MLB Trade Rumors, Molly Knight wrote back in January (for paid subscribers) that, historically, many Boras clients sign huge contracts after spring training has already started. In other words, waiting has, at least historically, not always hurt and sometimes has helped players land lucrative deals—i.e., J.D. Martinez, Bryce Harper.

It remains to be seen how this year’s waiting game will play out for Snell, Montgomery, Bellinger, and Chapman.

Speaking of waiting games . . . . You will not be surprised to learn that even after MLB owners unanimously approved the Athletics move from Oakland to Las Vegas, the team has to yet to obtain the full financing it needs to build its proposed ballpark on the Las Vegas strip; release detailed renderings of said ballpark; or figured out where the team will play during the 2025, 2026, and 2027 seasons.

On that last point, the A’s will reportedly meet with Oakland city officials tomorrow to discuss a potential lease extension at the Coliseum to cover the seasons before the A’s depart for Vegas. On the one hand, a lease extension makes the most sense. On the other hand, it must make city officials sick to their stomach to have to deal with John Fisher and his lackey Dave Kaval.

Still, the city has all the leverage here and should it employ it wisely and often.

Finally, a programming note.

Unlike many MLB teams, I had an active offseason. I took on some new clients for my writing, editing, and communications services. That means I won’t have as much time to devote to baseball or this newsletter this season. I wish writing about baseball put more money in the bank, but it doesn’t. We all know how bleak it is out there for sports journalists. I had to make some tough decisions about what was best for me and my family.

As a result, I won’t be writing and publishing the newsletter on a regular schedule. I’ll try to write at least once a week, but we’ll see how it goes. With that level of uncertainty, I will keep the newsletter free for everyone.