The Spring Signal: Hamates and Determining Roles
Injury news continues to break and teams begin to fill roles
Well, the start of Spring Training has not lacked injury news, especially in the hamate bone dept. If you had asked me 3 days ago, I would have told you it was in your leg or ankle. Good thing I am not a doctor. There’s plenty of other news not involving hamates that we should dive into, thankfully!
Corbin Carroll
Hamate bone victim #2 is none other than Corbin Carroll of the Diamondbacks. Although it is in his right non-throwing hand. Unfortunately, Carroll will miss representing the USA at the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Like Lindor, Carroll is in jeopardy of missing Opening Day but is not expected to miss much time, if any. These injuries typically require a 4-6 week recovery.
Please check out this super interesting study I found regarding the bounce-back potential for these kinds of injuries. They conclude “there is no significant change in WAR or isolated power when pre- and post-injury are compared”.
Everyone fears that the power will regress and take longer to come around, which, according to this article, it shouldn’t. Time heals all things.
The only weird thing I find about this whole situation is that someone posted a video of Corbin doing plyo drills against a building yesterday, a day before this news broke. Which I guess is fine? Since the injury is to his non-throwing arm, who knows? Watch here.
Jackson Holliday
Hamate bone victim #3, the worst of them all. Jackson is expected to begin the season on the IL and broke the hamate bone in his right throwing hand. Mike Elias broke the news this morning that Holliday was taking part in live BP and was hit in the hand last Friday, February 7th. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, Feb. 12th. It was said that surgeons are actually going to remove the broken hamate bone itself and refill the hole with what I do not know.
Good to know, nothing will go back at all. He will never have another broken hamate bone in his right hand again. I am sick of saying hamate bone, so everyone should be more careful this Spring and beyond.
Jordan Westburg and Others in O’s Camp
Another large blow to the Orioles’ infield comes in the form of Jordan Westburg suffering a right oblique strain in early February. But he is expected to return for opening day. In fact, he was running around today!
Credit to @AllBannerSports on X for the video. Awesome stuff.
There was good news in O’s camp. Zach Eflin is expected to be fully healthy for camp and is throwing bullpen sessions. He is expected to be in the rotation to begin the year. Tyler Wells is also being stretched out as a starter to toss his hat in the ring to join the rotation.
Aaron Boone kicks off Yank’s Camp
Yankees manager Aaron Boone kicked off the 2026 Spring Training meeting with the media today. No new injuries to report, aside from the ones we already knew about. In fact, he said we could see Gerrit Cole pitch in Grapefruit League games. The good news kept coming: it was then stated Ben Rice will receive regular reps vs. LHP, no platoon town for Rice, and to top it all off with the cherry on top, Giancarlo Stanton has no restrictions this Spring and is a full go.
Also important to note - Brian Cashman is dripped out.
Closer roles finding shape
Well, as we are on day two of Spring Signal, we already have a closer job confirmed and another battle to keep an eye on.
First, Craig Counsell declared Daniel Palencia as their closer going into the 2026 season. In fact, @MLBBruceLevine had this to say about Palencia.
“Daniel has learned to be more calm and confident after some failure last year.”
I found it fascinating during my playing days how many mental health resources were available to players. I spent a week at the Pirates’ Spring Training facility in December of 2016 and met with the mental health coaches and therapy resources. Extremely interesting stuff. You know what Yogi said, baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical.
Palencia has amazing stuff, but would struggle with command. Leaving fastballs right over the plate to get smoked. If he can control his emotions and command, this might be the next Edwin Diaz.
In other news, Texas will have a mixed-closer situation as of right now, according to new skipper Skip Schumaker (say that 10 times fast). Chris Martin and Robert Garcia are the favorites to see save opportunities. Martin is about as tried and true as they come. He doesn’t walk guys and gets enough strikeouts to get the job done. He will be 40 this year, over the hill!
Robert Garcia, 10 years younger, will also dip into the saves bucket with a three-pitch mix. With a 25.5% K%, he can certainly strike guys out, but there is something else under the hood, more exciting and potentially alarming.
The Texas infield lost Marcus Semien, a sure glove at second base. With a groundball rate of 63%, Garcia is going to rely on this infield defense heavily. As of right now, Josh H. Smith is slated to fill the second base hole. This squad has big shoes to fill. The 2025 Rangers committed the fewest errors in baseball.
Lastly, new Padres manager Craig Stammen named Mason Miller the closer for the Pads. This is not breaking or shocking news to anyone. The chatter to make him a starter at the beginning of the offseason was just nonsense.
Chris Bassitt
To cap off the day, Mike Elias makes more news, signing starting pitcher Chris Bassitt to a 1-year, $18.5 million deal. This rounds out the O’s rotation to have some much-needed depth. There is a bonus of 500k if he is able to complete 27 starts, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Bassitt’s best ability is availability. This is something the O’s desperately need.
In terms of fantasy, Bassitt has always been a streaming target of mine in good matchups for points leagues. This will not change; he is no stranger to the tough competition in the AL East.
‘Tis the time of year of the flurry of videos on X of players hitting home runs off pitchers in live BP. As they are fun to watch, don’t forget the 9th commandment of fantasy baseball.
