After a long winter, with hopefully only a few more weeks of cold weather, Major League Baseball is beginning. Pitchers and catchers report first, followed by position players.
Namely, Chicago Cubs pitchers and catchers report February 13, and position players report on the 18th. One of the biggest things of spring training is seeing potential prospects that may make the roster out of spring training, or even get called up during the year. Some of the Cubs’ biggest prospects are shortstop Javier Baez, third baseman Kris Bryant, outfielders Albert Almora and Jorge Soler, and C.J. Edwards, who came over in the Matt Garza trade.
The top prospect in baseball is Byron Buxton, who played for the Cedar Rapids Kernels last season and has a chance to make the Twins’ roster this year. Most starting pitchers or position players won’t play a full game until two weeks or so before the regular season starts.
The off-season will soon be over but that won’t stop potential trade rumors of big name players, including David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays, Jeff Samardzija of the Cubs, Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins, and Danny Espinosa of the Washington Nationals.
All these players, except for Espinosa, are candidates for trade because they can’t reach a contract extension with their current team, and the teams are worried about losing them to free agency. The teams want to get something valuable for them rather than a first or second round compensation draft pick.
