The Current Roster

By Jason Wojciechowski on April 12, 2015 at 5:18 PM

This gives my current sense, as of the date above, with prior versions archived below, of my understanding of the current roster: who fits where, what the lineups are, etc. etc. (In the offseason, this is more guesswork than empirical.)

Josh Reddick is back on the squad and it seems that Mark Canha is ... a full-time player? I don't even know. I guess if you're fine with his defense in left field, you'd rather have him, even against righties, than Eric Sogard. It just raises the question of what Sogard's purpose is. He's not going to play against lefties, so if you're going to play Canha over him against righties I'd just have kept Tyler Ladendorf on the roster instead and platooned Reddick. Without Ladendorf, Reddick's a full-timer. (I fully realize that my original thought when Reddick came back is that Ladendorf would be optioned, but that was based on a platoon situation for Sogard.)

The fun thing about having multiposition players, by the way, is that Ike Davis now appears to be platooning with Cody Ross.

Starters

Position v. LHP v. RHP
C Josh Phegley Stephen Vogt
1B Mark Canha Ike Davis
2B Ben Zobrist Ben Zobrist
SS Marcus Semien Marcus Semien
3B Brett Lawrie Brett Lawrie
LF Cody Ross Mark Canha
CF Craig Gentry Sam Fuld
RF Josh Reddick Josh Reddick
DH Billy Butler Billy Butler

Backups

Player Role
Eric Sogard Utility infielder. Sometime starter against RHP?

Starting rotation

Mythical slot Pitcher
1 Sonny Gray
2 Scott Kazmir
3 Jesse Hahn
4 Kendall Graveman
5 Drew Pomeranz

Relief

Player Role
Tyler Clippard Closer
Eric O'Flaherty Eighth inning
Dan Otero Seventh inning / groundball specialist
R.J. Alvarez Middle
Fernando Abad Middle / lefty specialist?
Evan Scribner Middle / mopup
Jesse Chavez Long

15-day disabled list

Player Position Date of return Effect of return
Sean Doolittle RP May? Top half of the bullpen down a slot; Alvarez to Triple-A
Coco Crisp LF ~June 1st DFA Ross or Fuld
Jarrod Parker SP June? Pomeranz to Triple-A

60-day disabled list

Player Position Date of return Effect of return
Taylor Thompson RP ??? DFA Chad Smith
A.J. Griffin SP June? Graveman to Triple-A; DFA de la Rosa

Minor leagues

Player Position Role
Sean Nolin SP Sixth starter (probably seventh behind Chavez)
Chris Bassitt SP Seventh starter (probably eighth)
Arnold Leon SP Eighth starter (probably ninth)
Raul Alcantara SP July 2015 return from Tommy John?
Ryan Cook RP Eighth bullpen man, assuming he gets his shit together
Eury de la Rosa RP Ninth bullpen man
Chad Smith RP Tenth bullpen man
Nate Freiman 1B Platoon 1B if Canha doesn't hit
Rangel Ravelo 1B Prospect
Renato Nunez 3B Prospect
Tyler Ladendorf UT First man up for any injury
Billy Burns OF Fifth outfielder

Prior Versions

April 7, 2015
April 6, 2015
April 2, 2015
March 27, 2015
March 24, 2015
March 4, 2015
February 28, 2015
February 26, 2015
January 31, 2015