GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2014 Guardians\u2019 player rep Steven Kwan said the sooner a new executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association is elected, the better.<\/p>\n
Kwan got his wish Wednesday night when Bruce Meyer was appointed interim executive director and Matt Nussbaum interim deputy executive director by the MLBPA Player Board.<\/p>\n
The union was rocked Tuesday when Tony Clark, executive director since 2013, resigned amid rumors of an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, an employee of the union. Federal prosecutors are also investigating the union for questionable financial practices.<\/p>\n
Clark\u2019s resignation left the union in the lurch because the current basic agreement is set to expire on Dec. 1, 2026, which made quick action by the union to replace Clark a necessity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s motivation to get something done quickly,\u201d said Kwan on Wednesday afternoon. \u201cI think it would show that all 1,200 players could get on the same page. It\u2019s tough what happened to Tony, but the union has never been defined by one person, it\u2019s us as a whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be a strong showing if we can all get there. That\u2019s what the meeting tonight is going to be about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyer joined the union\u2019s staff in 2018. He led negotiations on the 2022 and 2020 basic agreements and the 2023 basic agreement for minor league players.<\/p>\n
Kwan said the Guardians held a team meeting about the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool because people are inquisitive about it,\u201d said Kwan. \u201cI tried to flesh out as much stuff as I could provide, but it\u2019s really not that much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kwan said players like Austin Hedges, Shawn Armstrong, David Fry and Bo Naylor have helped him answer questions about the situation.<\/p>\n
Opening day starters <\/p>\n
Left-hander Logan Allen will start against the Reds and fellow lefty Joey Cantillo will start against the Brewers when the Guardians open the Cactus League season on Saturday. Allen will pitch at Goodyear Ballpark, while Cantillo will throw in Maryvale, Ariz., where the Brewers train.<\/p>\n
Manager Stephen Vogt will be in the dugout against the Brewers, while new bench coach Tony Arnerich will stay in Goodyear.<\/p>\n
Captain Nobody<\/p>\n
Vogt was asked if the Guardians should name a captain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, the captain is not a thing in baseball,\u201d said Vogt. \u201cI don\u2019t have any disrespect for anyone who believes otherwise, but our guys gravitate to each other. I think if you took a poll of our locker room, our guys would say, \u2018We go where Josi\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez goes.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cBut they could also say we go where Hedgy (Austin Hedges), Kwanie (Steven Kwan) or David (Fry) go. We have so many great leaders in that room \u2014 to name one a captain is not how our game works. To me Jos\u00e9 is our captain, he\u2019s our best player, (but) to name a captain, to me, is not baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
No worries about Bazzana<\/p>\n
Travis Bazzana will soon be off for Tokyo to join Team Australia for the World Baseball Classic. Would the Guardians\u2019 No. 1 prospect according to MLB.com, be better served by spending his entire first big-league camp with the Guardians?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s missing anything (by missing camp for the WBC),\u201d said Vogt. \u201cWhat a cool opportunity for him to go and play for his country. Travis is going to play a lot. He\u2019s playing in three of the first four (Cactus League) games, along with Stuart Fairchild and Dayan Frias to make sure they get the innings so they\u2019re ready for the WBC.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bazzana and Fairchild (Chinese Taipei) will play in Tokyo. Frias (Colombia) will play in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n
New grip for the slider<\/p>\n
Cantillo worked on a new grip for his slider during the offseason and the Guardians have been pleased with the results.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives him the ability to throw pitches in four different directions,\u201d said Vogt. \u201cJoey\u2019s got the incredible changeup. His fastball has good life at the top of the zone. He has the curveball, but he didn\u2019t have anything boring into a righty or going hard down and away to a lefty. We think the new slider shape will help him against lefties and righties to keep them off the changeup. So far, the slider has been playing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cantillo threw his slider only 9% of the time last season.<\/p>\n
FinallyRule 5 pick Peyton Pallette, who experienced soreness after an early bullpen session, threw another one on Wednesday. Tanner Bibee, Shawn Armstrong and Trevor Stephan were among the pitchers who threw to hitters on Wednesday. B.A.T (Baseball Assistant Team) met with the Guardians on Wednesday morning. B.A.T raises money for those in need in the baseball family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2014 Guardians\u2019 player rep Steven Kwan said the sooner a new executive director of the Major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[2514,5,135,51,2565,538,4,2515],"class_list":{"0":"post-580682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-2514","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-guardians","12":"tag-clevelandguardians","13":"tag-guardians","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-wspix"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116096293060421397","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}