Spring Training Lineup Takeaways - Week 2 Lineup Trends

March 14, 2021

Mike Kurland takes a deep look at early fantasy baseball risers and fallers based on Spring Training lineup trends, highlighting strong and weak platoons, and players who may benefit from lineup slot.

Welcome back RotoBallers! We are entering week three of Spring Training already, and with that came a lot of things we saw in week two. But of course, my week one review also still has very relevant information as well.

Just a reminder, in my Lineup Takeaways series we are focusing 100% on lineups, news and quotes - strictly about lineups and notable trends worth discussing - for everyone to follow along and watch for with me.

Before week three of Spring Training action starts, let's dive into week two and what we may have found out.

Word On The Street

This is where I put any quotes and relevant news I find in regards to lineups. This will vary from article to article and if you want to see more notable quotes, check out last week's article here.

Boston Red Sox

An overall outlook on the lineup:

“One thing for sure, we’re not going to have a set lineup,” manager Alex Cora said. “We’re going to have moving parts the whole season. … There are certain days that we’re going to be very, very athletic and other days that we’re going to be hitting the ball out of the ballpark.”

Cora believes Hernández could thrive hunting fastballs in that leadoff spot. Hernández is also a good baserunner, which is something Cora wants to emphasize ahead of his more traditional run producers.

“We’ll see how Kiké handles the leadoff spot up there,” Cora said. “I want Kiké to be aggressive, you know. I want Kiké to hunt fastballs and do damage early on. That’s why I’m going to challenge him and see where it takes us.”

If not Hernańdez, Cora has said Alex Verdugo could reprise his leadoff role. However, as of now Verdugo is viewed as a top two hitter

“The way I see it, Alex is going to lead off or hit second,” Cora said.

The grass is green, the sky is blue and, J.D. Martinez will hit middle of the order 

“We’ll hit J.D. in the middle of the lineup and go from there,” Cora said.

About Bobby Dalbec:

“Usually, the bottom part of the lineup, it’s hard to score runs, right?” Cora said. “There’s gonna be some guys down there that with one swing, they can change the game.”

Toronto Blue Jays

An article covered the recent lineups we have seen essentially saying Springer is locked into the leadoff role and Bichette and Semein will hit second or third and alternate between those spots. It went on to discuss when Tellez is in the lineup, he will hit towards the middle. Montoya made a comment in regards to the Thursday lineup (which is where most of this conversation surrounded).

“I liked it the moment I wrote it down,” Montoyo said of that Thursday group. “The lineup was probably one of the best lineups I’ve written down since I’ve been here.”

There is a lot being said about the potential fallout of the lineup. Read the full article here.

Texas Rangers

Isiah Kiner-Falefa seems to be the potential leadoff man.

“If he keeps swinging like he has, he has to stay there,” Woodward said of Kiner-Falefa, who walked to lead off the game and has four walks this spring.

“He’s seeing the most pitches of anybody we have. And that’s not typically what we expect from him. When he swings, he’s hitting the ball hard and he’s also seeing a lot of pitches. Those two things don’t always go hand-in-hand. It shows he’s controlling the strike zone, both hitting the ball hard when he swings and not missing pitches.”

In regards to Leody Taveras leading off, Woodward said:

“He’s got to earn his way back up there. The at-bat quality hasn’t been what we’d like to see.”

Seattle Mariners

This has been a trend of late worth noting. Both Haniger and Moore have seen reps at the top of the lineup over the last week.

Houston Astros

This is also something worth noting as we have seen Straw lead off plenty but we have also seen Correa sneakily leading off a bit as well.

Through two weeks:

Carlos Correa - has led off three games so far this Spring Training and batting .267/.353/.267

Myles Straw has led off six games and has hit .421/.421/.579 with a stolen base.

Sure, it isn't announced yet, but I would guess it is Straw with the early lead in this race.

Lineup Trends to Monitor

The idea here is to go through the lineups through the week and take away notable lineup and playing time trends and discuss what is not only obvious but worth making note of and monitoring as we move into week two of lineups. Not every team has something to discuss so if a team is skipped, just know it was purposefully.

NL East

Miami Marlins

• We have a good idea of how this lineup will role out. The big question is how playing time will be handled between Jesus Aguilar, Garrett Cooper and Adam Duvall.

Is there a chance Cooper takes the job from Duvall?

Atlanta Braves

• They may have showed their hand with this lineup. It has "Opening Day" written all over it.

Philadelphia Phillies

• It appears that a top five of Andrew McCutchen/ Rhys Hoskins/ Bryce Harper/ Didi Gregorius/ Jean Segura - This is without J.T. Realmuto.

New York Mets

• Another team that showed their hand.

Take out Almora and insert Dominic Smith into the OF and move Brandon Nimmo to CF. But the order is what the focus is on and we could very well see this happening early and often in 2021.

NL Central

St. Louis Cardinals

• Tommy Edman, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado are locked into the top four of this lineup
• Dylan Carlson continues finding himself towards the bottom third of the lineup and that could stick until he starts hitting. As of now through 18 at-bats, Carlson has just four hits, six strikeouts and hitting .222/.300/.222.

Milwaukee Brewers

• Jackie Bradley Jr. finally made his Spring Training debut but we have yet to see how that will affect the lineup.
• Travis Shaw seems poised to be the starting third baseman and bat 5th.
• Avisail Garcia has consistently hit inside the top four. With Lorenzo Cain's status up in the air he should be in line to play every day. Not to mention he is crushing the ball so far.

Pittsburgh Pirates

• With Kevin Newman out with injury and Adam Frazier returning, we have essentially seen Frazier take over leading off and Erik Gonzalez primarily play shortstop now while hitting in the bottom third of the lineup. We could see Newman return to fight for that spot.

Chicago Cubs

• We saw a lineup with all the big names in it and Javier Baez fell to sixth. Now, we need to see this occur more but the trends of Baez hitting around fifth in the lineup has been a consistent occurrence this Spring Training.

NL West

San Diego Padres

• Trent Grisham appears to be in the driver's seat as the everyday leadoff man. However, he did run into a bit of an injury (Grade 1 Hamstring Strain).
• Jake Cronenworth might just be the favorite to be playing second base most days. In the eight games he has played, seven have been from second base and we see Ha-Seong Kim move around and Jurickson Profar primarily play in the outfield. He is currently filling in for the injured Grisham.

Los Angeles Dodgers

• Gavin Lux can be earning the second base job and making Chris Taylor fall back into his previous role of a utility player. Although, Taylor has outperformed him on offense so far. Also, we need to see what happens when Bellinger returns.

Gavin Lux: 7 Games - 6 at 2B and 1 at SS

Chris Taylor: 6 Games - 2x 3B/ 2x 2B/ 2x CF

Colorado Rockies

• Brendan Rodgers just left with injury and could completely alter playing time and such. We have a good idea of the top four being (in some order) Raimel Tapia, Ryan McMahon, Trevor Story and Charlie Blackmon

Arizona Diamondbacks

• Maybe it is because of injury or maybe they just want to see what he can do, but Josh Rojas has played a ton and against both LHP and RHP. He typically sticks towards the top of the lineup as well. We just need to see how the playing time is when both Nick Amed and Kole Calhoun return.

AL East

Boston Red Sox

• We have no had two-straight days of Alex Verdugo & Xander Bogaerts batting second and third and now we see Kike Hernandez leading off. Cora has expressed how much he likes Kike there. This is very much a thing.

Toronto Blue Jays

• The Blue Jays will have moving parts but the top three should be a combination of: George Springer, Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette.
• Followed by a four-through-six most days of Teoscar Hernandez, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
• This leaves Cavan Biggio towards the bottom third of the lineup and seventh has been the spot we have seen him in of late.

Baltimore Orioles

• We may not know all the specifics of the lineup but it appears it is Cedric Mullins in the driver's seat for the starting CF job and leadoff spot as well. Mullins and Austin Hays have now played in two lineups together and in both of those lineups Mullins is the one who both held onto the leadoff spot and play CF while Hays played a corner outfield spot and hit elsewhere in the lineup.

AL Central

Minnesota Twins

• We still see Kepler at the top of the lineup even against LHP. We have not seen a full lineup yet.

Cleveland Indians

• It might be a bit early to assume, but Andres Gimenez can potentially hit second in this lineup. We have seen a couple of realistic lineups out in two of the last three days. Both of those lineups (littered with known Opening Day starters) had Gimenez in the 2-spot.

Chicago White Sox

• This lineup is intriguing to follow

• The questions are piling up. Will Vaughn break camp? Will Grandal's lingering knee injury get in the way? Was Grandal just getting reps or actually a candidate to hit second? If not him, is it Luis Robert's job as hes been consistently seeing time at the top of the lineup? Keep an eye on this team.

Kansas City Royals

• We saw  our first version of a lineup with Adalberto Mondesi among the typical top five hitters and we saw Mondesi slot third in this lineup. Here is that lineup:

AL West

Oakland Athletics

• A chance that Elvis Andrus hits at the top of the lineup but it also said we could see Mark Canha at the top as well (which we have seen a lot of lately). But it is far from a done deal. This would lead Ramon Laureano on the outside looking in as he could slot into the five-spot.

Seattle Mariners

• Jared Kelenic could make a return to Spring Training but it might just be too late for him to break camp with the big league club.
• We have seen Dylan Moore and Mitch Haniger get reps at the top of the lineup. J.P. Crawford could still be the leadoff guy but it could be a short leash.

Texas Rangers

• Besides hinting at keeping Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the top of the lineup, it feels as though we are far from an answer in terms of what to expect in Texas.
• Although I have yet to see any mention of a competition between Nate Lowe and Ronald Guzman for the first base job. We have seen Guzman playing the OF as well, but with it being such a crowded situation, Guzman taking time away from Lowe at 1B is very possible.

Los Angeles Angels

• We finally got a glimpse of Jared Walsh batting in an lineup with the big names and he hit third. This was with Shohei Ohtani out so with Ohtani in, we could see him bat fifth. It is still a prime spot in the lineup regardless.

Houston Astros

• Myles Straw and Carlos Correa are fighting for the leadoff spot.
• Yordan Alvarez should be playing in Spring Training games soon while Alex Bregman is lagging behind. Opening Day can start to become a question if he does not get into games soon.

Position Battles to Watch

These positions seem up for grabs as I monitor the lineups and maybe we will get clarity in week two. 

Shortstop for the Reds

• Kyle Farmer
• Dee Strange-Gordon
• Kyle Holder
• Jose Garcia 

Second Base for the Marlins

• Jazz Chisholm
• Isan Diaz 

Jon Heyman weighs in on this one.

Centerfield for the Phillies

• Odubel Herrera 
• Scott Kingery
• Roman Quinn

So far, it is said that it is Herrera in the lead.

Second Base for the Cubs

• David Bote
• Nico Hoerner
• Eric Sogard

Centerfield for the Orioles

• Cedric Mullins
• Austin Hays

This feels like Mullins job to lose at this point.

Shortstop for the Indians

• Amed Rosario
• Andres Gimenez

We may be getting clarity on the situation.

To see the full Spring Training Lineup Tracker to follow along and keep track of the lineups and my notes, simply click here.

This will redirect you to the chart and you can bookmark it if you'd like to follow along with my notes daily. We have added sortable spring training stats as tabs as well. Be sure to be on the look out for the weekly article getting more in depth as well.

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