MLB Prospect Watch

Making Moves - Stutes, Valaika, Lawrie, Mariners

• With temporary closer Jose Contrares headed to the DL, the Phillies have called up reliever Mike Stutes, reports Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer.  Stutes will not close for the Phillies, but the 24-year-old righty who almost made the team out of spring training will joined what has become a depleted bullpen in which late innings are now up for grabs.
• The Reds have promoted INF prospect Chris Valaika to the majors to take the injured Scott Rolen's place on the 25-man roster, according to John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
• Despite a rash of injuries at the big league level, the Blue Jays will not be promoting 3B prospect Brett Lawrie to fill any of their current vacancies, says Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com.
• The Seattle Mariners have sent down reliever Josh Lueke and OF Carlos Peguero, reports Larry Stone of The Seattle Times.  Lueke has struggled at the big league level, and Peguero was only in Seattle temporarily to fill in for Justin Smoak while Smoak was away on bereavement leave.  Replacing Lueke in the Mariners bullpen, however, will be fellow prospect Dan Cortes.

 

Position Battles - Pineda, Cousins, Monterop, Adcock, Trumbo, Stutes

• In a long-expected move, the Mariners have officially announced that Michael Pineda will open the season in their starting rotation, reports Robert Emrich of MiLB.com.
• Scott Cousins will open the season as a part of the Marlins bench, says Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post.
• Neither Jesus Montero nor Austin Romine were able to secure the Yankees back-up catcher job, as the team optioned the former to Triple-A and the latter to Double-A to start the season, reports Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News.
• The Royals have confirmed that Nathan Adcock will begin the season in their major league bullpen, according to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.
• Mark Trumbo will break camp with the Angels, but despite his torrid spring and the team's vacancy at first base, Trumbo will not necessarily play every day, says Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times.
• Mike Stutes was sent down to minor league camp almost two weeks ago, but he will head north with the Phillies and still has a chance to make their Opening Day roster, reports Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

 

Roster Cuts - Phillies, Blue Jays, Mets, Marlins

• The Phillies optioned Vance Worley to Triple-A and re-assigned Mike Stutes to minor league camp, but both should return to Philly at some point this season, says Matt Gelb of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
• Zach Stewart was one of thee players re-assigned to minor league camp by the Blue Jays, reports Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com.
• Dillon Gee, who was throught to be in contention for a spot in the Mets rotation, was optioned to Triple-A, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
• The Marlins re-assigned Kyle Skipworth and Tom Koehler to minor league camp, says Joe Frisaro of MLB.com.

 

Big Day of Cuts - Harper, Rizzo, Pomeranz

Saturday saw a number of teams make significant roster cut downs as all teams approach the March 15th roster cut-down deadline (the last date a team has to assign an injured player to a minor league club - meaning that if a player is still in camp after that date and gets injured, the team can't send him to the minors, which is a risk teams are rarely willing to take for a few extra spring at-bats).  

Among the most notable moves was the Nationals re-assignment of Bryce Harper to Class-A Hagerstown, tweets Bill Ladson of MLB.com.  The move itself is not surprising, as it had already been reported that Harper was slated to begin his first full season in the South Atlantic League, but it does bring an end to an impressive two-week stretch from the 18-year-old Harper, who this time next year, could be legitimately competing for a roster spot.

As always, you can keep up-to-date on all the prospects who were in big league camp, and who still remain, on our spring training prospect page, Below is a list of the other prospects who were sent away from big league camp on Saturday:

• The Kansas City Royals re-assigned LHP's Chris Dwyer, John Lamb, and Will Smith to minor league camp, reports Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.  None of the three were on the 40-man roster.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates optioned RHP Bryan Morris to Triple-A and re-assigned LHP Rudy Owens to minor league camp, reports Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com.
• The Philadelphia Phillies optioned RHP Justin De Fratus, 2B Harold Garcia, 1B Matt Rizzotti and RHP J.C. Ramirez to Double-A and re-assigned Michael Schwimer to minor league camp, reports David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News.  Surviving the cuts for now, however, was reliever Mike Stutes.
• The San Diego Padres optioned RHP Simon Castro to Triple-A and re-assigned 1B Anthony Rizzo and 3B James Darnell to minor league camp, reports Corey Brock of MLB.com.
• The Baltimore Orioles optioned RHP's Brandon Erbe and Chorye Spoone to Triple-A and re-assigned catcher Caleb Joseph to minor league camp, reports Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com.
• The Cleveland Indians have optioned RHP Corey Kluber to Triple-A and have re-assigned RHP Nick Hagadone, LHP Drew Pomeranz, RHP Hector Rondon, LHP Kelvin de la Cruz, and RHP Bryce Stowell to minor league camp, reports Jordan Bastain of MLB.com.
• The Tampa Bay Rays optioned LHP Alex Torres to Triple-A, says RaysProspects.com.
• The Seattle Mariners have optioned 3B Alex Liddi and OF Carlos Peguero to Triple-A and OF Johermyn Chavez to Double-A, reports Larry Stone of The Seattle Times.
• The Boston Red Sox optioned RHP Stolmy Pimentel and SS Oscar Tejada to Double-A, and have re-assigned RHP Alex Wilson, C's Ryan Lavarnway and Tim Federowicz, and OF Che-Hsuan Lin to minor league camp, reports Ian Browne of MLB.com.

 

Making Moves - Lawrie, Royals, D-Backs, Phillies

• Brett Lawrie has officially been shifted across the diamond to third base and the Blue Jays plan on keeping him there as long as he can handle it defensively, reports Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com.
• Two players in Royals minor league camp, Wil Myers and Christian Colon, have already dealt with positional issues in their short professional careers.  Myers is shifting to the outfield, and while he may see some time in center field as he learns the ropes, his long-term future is undoubtedly in right field, says Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.  Colon, on the other hand, is staying put for the time being.  Drafted as a short stop, Colon's path to the majors became blocked this off-season when the team acquired Alcides Escobar, but the team is going to keep Colon at short stop as an insurance plan in case Escobar doesn't pan out in the majors before shifting him to second base to play along side Escobar in the majors.
• For the second year in a row, the Arizona Diamondbacks will have a positional logjam with two of their top prospects, third basemen Bobby Borchering and Matt Davidson, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.
• With a number of strong arms in their system and a veteran-laden big league rotation, the Phillies have taken to filling their bullpen needs by converting a number of their minor league pitchers from starting to relief roles, including some that are in camp this year like Mike Stutes and Justin De Fratus, notes Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer.