After last year’s injury filled disaster, the Flyers main priority this Spring is to try to get out of the preseason with as many of their players healthy as possible. Steven Best’s recent injury setback was unfortunate, but the team already expected Best to miss a large chunk of the season. The team has said they will try to limit injury exposure to many of their starters, especially early in the Spring.
2. Confirm the Starting Rotation
Last season, the team left Spring Training with a group of 5 starters in their rotation, but one of them, Josh Clark, was replaced after early struggles, and never returned to the big league rotation again during the season. He has been told that he will be given an opportunity in the preseason to get some starts and see how it goes. He will join 5 other pitchers in the Spring rotation. The other players are last season’s best pitcher Andres Gonzales, the man who replaced Clark last year and turned in a performance that earned him a contract extension, John Rasmussen III, one of last year’s big free agent signings, Buwono Mainaky, and two southpaws acquired via trade this offseason, Carl Vincent and Togukawa Yamashita.
3. Figuring out the Bullpen
The bullpen was not good in 2057. We have discussed that multiple times. One of the major goals of the front office was to make sure that the bullpen would be better in 2058. They didn’t go out and spend a ton of money on the bullpen, but they did bring in a lot of players to compete for spots in this year’s pen. It will be interesting to see who breaks camp with the team, who ends up in the team’s minor league system, and who is released.
4. Settle on a Starting Catcher
There are at least three, and maybe four players currently battling for playing time behind the plate. It seems fairly likely there will be some kind of a platoon since they have a left handed hitting option in Hiba Majilawa.
5. Determining who will back up the starting position players
Outside of the catcher position, the starters are pretty well set at this point, with some platoon situations that might possibility need to be clarified a bit. There are several decisions that need to be made about who will be backing those players up, Will it be Mick Scorrvs. Lao Kum as the right handed centerfielder, or will Kyuichi Mori take on that role despite being a less accomplished defender at the position? We know Andy Bishop will be a backup middle infielder, but will the team decide to keep defense first utility infielder Jesus Diaz over the less versatile but more offensively minded Tom Bates? Or will they possibly keep both and have one less pitcher in the bullpen?
6. Looking for Breakout Prospects
Will there be anyone who forces the team to make an unexpected difficult decision? Will any of the younger players invited to camp make such a good impression that the team decides they need to make room for them? I tend to believe that even if that happens, that player will not start the year in the Brewster. It seems much more likely they would not be brought up unless and injury paved the way for them to get significant playing time. That was what lead to Andy Bishop having his strong rookie campaign in 2057. Things like that are impossible to predict and the Flyers are definitely hoping for better injury luck this year than they had last year.