The first full squad workout was yesterday, so spring training is fully underway. There’s an actual game tomorrow, although the Jays don’t play until Saturday.
In Dunedin, the only actual news is bad: Adam Macko suffered an injury in a bullpen session and will probably need surgery to repair the meniscus in his left knee. Last year, most players getting that surgery missed about two months per Baseball Prospectus’ invaluable IL Ledger tool. It’s a tough break for Macko, who both set a career high for innings last season and posted some of his best results while making it to AAA. The Slovak-Canadian was part of the trade return for Teoscar Hernandez two years ago. He’s had some struggles with injuries in his career and his command comes and goes, but he has solid stuff and could have a role as a depth starter or bullpen lefty as soon as this season if his rehab goes well.
The broader baseball media reactions to the failure to extend Vlad are in and basically all scathing. Ken Rosenthal exemplifies the tone:
It doesn’t get more positive from there. I don’t have much else to say about it, there’s really only so much comment you can have on something that didn’t happen.
Kevin Gausman’s apparently put on weight this offseason, with the goal of holding up better through the long season. As he notes, for someone who lives in Baton Rouge it shouldn’t be especially hard. There’s a reason LSU football’s lines tend to be robust. But it’s apparently not his natural tendency, so he’s entering 2025 with the goal of weighing over 200lbs all season.
As someone who’s the same age as Gaus, I want to get on the record that that’s why I put on weight this winter too. Blogging really takes a toll, you know, and I want to be someone whose prose is just as mediocre in September as it is in March. It has nothing to do with my favourite Thai place moving to a new location a block from my apartment, totally performance focused.
Anyway, that’s really it from a quiet day on the Blue Jays front. That’s probably for the best, the only likely news out of this part of camp is injuries. If Macko is the major casualty of the pitcher ramp-up we’ll have to consider it a lucky year. It’s the season when I’m really looking forward to even the fake baseball of the first couple weeks of spring games.