The big news in today’s line-up sits right at the top, where Corbin Carroll is back in the line-up. It’s an amazingly quick return, just one month and a day after he suffered the injury on a swing during live batting practice on February 10. Given that when we looked at previous hamate-afflicted players, the average amount of time missed was almost twice as much, at 61 days, this is remarkably quick. In fact, it’s quicker than any of the players in our (admittedly fairly small) sample from the past five years. It being spring training may be a factor: this could be the equivalent of a rehab assignment. It’s good to see him, regardless; let’s just hope he is not being rushed back.
Ryne Nelson gets the start, and after him we can expect to see RHP Thomas Hatch, RHP Kevin Ginkel, RHP Ryan Thompson and LHP Philip Abner. It will be Nelson’s third start of spring: the other two lasted for a total of 4.2 innings, allowing two runs on three hits, with an impressive 6:0 K:BB ratio so far. With the news that Zac Gallen is going to be the Opening Day starter (I’ll be writing that up next), the next question is where Nelson is going to slot into the rotation. My instinct is it’ll be just behind Gallen, but we’ll see. Out of the bullpen, Ginkel and Thompson are the names to watch, as they look to establish dominance among our relief corps.