The Spring Signal, February 25th
Out of the blizzard we are back!
I had to dig myself out of 14” of snow and brave 40+ hours of no electricity to write this, but I am alive! Through the trials and tribulations, I realized how much I depend on baseball to keep me occupied through an entire day. Living like the Amish is not for me. Anyways lets catch up on some baseball.
Trevor Rogers
Rogers continued to look great in Spring Training in today’s second start. Not a ton of whiffs, but held the Rays to one hit and no walks. The velocity difference between his sweeper and his fastball is insane.
As Jon has constantly said, buy Trevor Rogers at his current ADP. Although people are starting to realize his value this deep in drafts. Shoutout to whoever snagged him at pick 199! Read Jon's latest sentiments about Rogers here.
Ryan Weathers
Someone who did have a lot of whiffs? Ryan Weathers.
Dude was pumping 99 mph on the heater in his first start. Weathers is an interesting fantasy player. He will certainly begin the season in the rotation, but once Cole, Rodon, and Schmidt come back, will Ryan be pushed to the pen? What if he’s pitching so well they can’t? I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there. His price has been getting steeper recently.
He also showed up in the STRAIN GAME post, which is alarming, but the upside is absurd with Weathers, so it might be worth a shot.
Trey Yesavage
The Blue Jays will implement a strict innings limit due to the intense workload last season. In 2025, Trey had 98 minor league innings and 14 regular-season major league innings. In the postseason, Trey racked up another 27 innings to bring his total in 2025 to 139 IP. During the 2024 collegiate season, he pitched a total of 93 innings. So it’s not like it was a terribly huge jump… I guess they were much more stressful innings in 2025. Anyways, they are slow working him in Spring Training to help keep his 2026 healthy.
Tink Hence
Interesting bullpen note: The Cardinals are shifting 23-year-old prospect Tink Hence to prep for a bullpen role, announced today by manager Oliver Marmol. Due to poor health, they feel as if this shift will be beneficial to Tink. That is a great bullpen name, too. This should work out well for them. There is no doubt. Hence has big strikeout stuff; can he control it? The walks are an issue for him. Check out these minor league numbers.
Our very own Tim Kanak comp’d Tink to Dylan Cease and loves him. Listen to the Cardinals prospect show here. The arsenal is interesting, nothing too overpowering. I also recommend watching this YouTube video. He has a super deceptive delivery that could play well in the pen. Especially if he’s going all out and can hit upper 90s with the fastball and command his changeup. It’s a long shot, but definitely possible to see this guy in the pen this year if the Cards are out of the playoff race. I can see them selling off some of the pieces, like Jojo Romero or Riley O’Brien, at the deadline. Which would subsequently make room for someone like Tink.
INJURIES
Troy Melton
Troy is dealing with arm soreness, per manager AJ Hinch. That is unfortunate, as Melton had a chance of breaking camp in the rotation. It was a long shot, and it was more likely he would be in the bullpen as the sixth starter if needed. In 46 innings last season, Melton posted an 8.3% BB% while maintaining a WHIP of 1.01; that is impressive.
JP Crawford
M’s manager, Dan Wilson, said JP is managing a shoulder issue, but is expected to make his Cactus League debut next week. I wouldn’t be too concerned with this news since JP is a veteran and his role is guaranteed. Probably just slow working into baseball activity.
Aidan Miller
Per Todd Zolecki, the Phillies are being careful and sidelining Aidan with a sore back. Miller was not going to break camp with the Phils anyway unless there was a significant injury to one of the current infielders.
Chandler Simpson
Not all news in the injury column is bad news. As we reported a few days ago, Chandler was dealing with a tight hamstring. Well, good news, Chandler is tentatively scheduled to start playing in Grapefruit League games tomorrow! Hopefully, Simpson did not rush his rehab and is fully healthy; otherwise, he is useless in fantasy without his blazing speed.
Merrill Kelly
Back to the bad news. Kelly was scratched from starting a few days ago due to back discomfort. Well, they are unable to diagnose the cause of the discomfort and will more than likely miss Opening Day. Merrill is 37 years young. I personally have faded Merrill this drafting season due to his aging arm; there was going to be regression regardless.
Chase DeLauter
A late scratch from todays lineup. Per Tim Stebbins, DeLauter is dealing with lower-body soreness from “heavy on-field activity to open camp”. That is not a great sign, since we are only a couple of weeks into the first camp workouts. Can he make it an entire 162? Using the MLB Data Warehouse transaction tracker, we can see that DeLauter has made 7 trips to the IL during his minor league career from 2024 to now.
That’ll do it for tonight!