This article is Rhett Bollinger projecting Angels’ opening day lineup.
So it begins: Nestor Cortes is out of the World Baseball Classic after tweaking his hamstring. Stay safe out there guys! By “tweaked” they mean a grade 2 strain. Kyle Freeland of the Rockies will replace Cortes on Team USA.
The ghost runner rule is here to stay for better or worse. It doesn’t seem to have done the Angels any favors from what I can recall. The Astros claimed reliever Matt Gage off waivers from the Blue Jays. The Tigers signed Matt Wisler to a minor league deal. I can’t remember if we already linked about this. The Reds and Guardians swapped outfielders. Will Benson went to Cincinnati while Justin Boyd went to Cleveland. Fangraphs has a ton of job postings around baseball right now if you are interested in that sort of thing.
Ted Lerner, owner of the Nationals, passed away at the age of 97.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi