Thursday Newsletter time: Minor-league mini-camp planned in Arizona for Texas Rangers' priority players
The camp is scheduled for Feb. 21, less than two weeks before report date minor-league spring training
Major League Baseball dispatched a memo to all 30 MLB teams late last month telling them to not push up the start date of minor-league spring training because of the lockout, and the Texas Rangers have no plans of doing that.
March 5 is report date at the Surprise Recreation Campus.
However, the Rangers are going to hold a mini-camp for their priority minor-leaguers Feb. 21 to get give them a head start. The players participating are already there or would have been asked to come early to serve as just-in-case players for early Cactus League games.
What does priority mean? Top prospects or prospects who have a chance to be in the major leagues late this season or next season.
The group will include the players who spent time in Arizona in December and January mini-camps for hitters and pitchers (Josh Jung, Dustin Harris, Jack Leiter, Cole Winn), and others who could not participate like second baseman Justin Foscue.
Many of the players will likely be invited to big-league camp once it opens. Major-league camps were scheduled to open Tuesday, but that won’t happen because of the lockout.
Hope?
News broke Wednesday night that the owners and union plan to meet Saturday, when the owners will make a new economic proposal to help draw the sides closer to reaching a collective bargaining agreement before they screw up the regular season.
A few reasons to be optimistic here:
1. MLB executives do not like to work on the weekend, so a Saturday of work indicates they must realize the gravity of the situation.
2. A few more of my sources in the sport are quietly saying that the sides aren’t as far apart as everyone is making them out to be. There is no line in the sand, like the salary cap in 1994.
3. Enough players have repeated the company line of “we’re ready to negotiate” that the union has no choice but to quickly make a counter proposal. The PR tide is in their favor now, which doesn’t happen often, and they can’t blow it with a half-hearted offer like the last one they submitted. It might come as soon as Sunday, but it sure would be nice if it was no later than Monday.
Can it all blow up? Of course. Commissioner Rob Manfred is expected to speak to reporters Thursday in Florida at the owners meetings, and a foot-in-the-mouth moment never seems to be too far away from him.
Even if he does provide the wrong soundbite, the sides realizes that their final soft deadline of March 1 is coming quickly. They know it’s time.
ICYMI …
Last week was a busy one at the Newsletter, with T.R.’s Memoirs and the Recliner Nerd playing Armchair GM. There was the standard stuff, too, like Friday on the Farm and the Sunday Read. Did they pass you by, either in real time or in Monday’s newsletter? Don’t worry. Here are the links, in case you missed it.
Examining the 2022 rotation candidates
These two are the most underrated Rangers — Part I. Part II
Start of the inaugural Newsletter prospect rankings
A new special assistant to the GM
Doggy video!
That’s enough fun for one day. Enjoy. See you Friday.
