The Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues are winding down. The 2015 Major League Baseball season approaches. We said baseball! Can you taste it?
Yet with less than two weeks remaining in the exhibition slate, some of the spring’s most hotly contested position battles linger, unresolved. And there’s no guarantee they’ll be resolved once the games count; a few could stay fluid well into the regular season.
Still, someone’s going to get the Opening Day nod at all nine positions for all 30 teams. It’s simple math, people.
In many cases, it’s obvious by now who that someone will be. In other cases, it’s clear as pine tar, even with the calendar nudging toward April.
Let’s examine a handful of those ongoing diamond auditions, break down the competition and pick winners based on the best available evidence and a dash of gut feeling.
What follows isn’t an exhaustive list; we’re leaving off fifth-starter skirmishes and focusing on position players. Even then, these aren’t the only competitions going on around the league.
But they are among the most interesting, either because of the names involved, the potential impact to the team in question or both.
OK, enough preamble—on to the battles.