Angels owner shuts door on Holliday, weighs Bay - MLB

Angels owner Arte Moreno gave the Los Angeles Times a bunch of quotes that illustrate where his team stands entering free agency.
*Reaffirming GM Tony Reagins’ quotes from a couple of days ago, Moreno said there will be no pursuit of free agent Matt Holliday:
“He is not going to be an Angel. We are not looking at Holliday at all.”
Moreno also made it pretty clear that free agent Vladimir Guerrero wasn’t in the team’s plans, but that Jason Bay, who reportedly turned down an offer from the Red Sox, might be.
*Moreno claimed the team is currently looking at $101 million in commitments for 2010, leaving the Angels not far short of their $113 million output from last season.
Guerrero, John Lackey and Chone Figgins are all off the books, but the Angels are currently at $76 million for next year anyway and it seems they’re currently accounting for $25 million in arbitration raises. Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders, Erick Aybar, Howie Kendrick and Jeff Mathis are all eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter, and Mike Napoli and Maicer Izturis are all due raises. $22 million-$24 million looks like a reasonable estimate for what they’ll earn.
So, that’s $100 million. Add in $4 million more for free agent Darren Oliver or a similar replacement. If the Angels want to stay in the $120 million range, then they’re only going to be able to sign one player from the group of Bay, Lackey and Figgins.
The fact that the team is spending $22 million on Gary Matthews Jr., Scot Shields and the already forgotten Justin Speier doesn’t help matters.
*Moreno did suggest that the Angels could save money by turning third base over to Brandon Wood:
“Eventually, Brandon is going to get his 600, 800, 1,000 at-bats. He’s done everything he can in our minor league system. He’s been a very patient guy. … I can’t tell you he’ll be guaranteed a job. He’s one of the players that’s earned an opportunity to try to win a job.”
Given the Angels lack of payroll flexibility, it seems pretty likely that Wood will be in the lineup on Opening Day.

PITTSBURGH — Oneil Cruz slowly made his way on crutches across the Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse on Saturday toward a locker replete with a massive walking boot that the towering shortstop still uses to protect the left ankle he broke during an awkward slide home in early April.

The days when he’ll need to rely on the crutches are numbered. Ditto for the walking boot. The 24-year-old’s recovery remains on track, meaning he could return sometime late this summer barring any setbacks.

Given the way Cruz’s left leg rolled up underneath him as he collided with Chicago White Sox catcher Seby Zavala in the sixth inning of what became a 1-0 victory, Cruz will take it. He had surgery the next day and the team optimistically said it expected him to miss four months, a timeline it has not deviated from as his rehab reaches the halfway point.

“You never want to get hurt, obviously, but that’s part of the game and it happens to me,” Cruz said through a translator. “I’m just going to take it the way it is and get better as soon as possible.”

The Pirates have found a way to remain in contention in the NL Central even without their leadoff hitter and one of the more physically intriguing young players in the majors, one prone to testing the limits of StatCast. Pittsburgh entered play on Saturday at 29-27, a half-game back of Milwaukee for first place in a division where no one has been able to run away and hide.

The club has used a handful of players at short to fill in for Cruz, from Rodolfo Castro to Tucupita Marcano to Ji Hwan Bae to Chris Owings. None of them possess Cruz’s unique mix of size, power and speed. Yet they’ve been solid enough to help soften what could have been a devastating early blow to a club that is trying to climb back into relevance following consecutive 100-loss seasons.

Cruz has leaned on his wife and his children to help ease the mental sting of the first major injury of his still-young career. Watching longtime teammates Castro and Marcano – who came up through the minors with Cruz – have some level of success has helped. The duo is hitting a combined .264 with eight home runs and 28 RBIs.

“Every time I see them doing well, it makes me happy,” Cruz said.

Still, they understand they are placeholders for Cruz, who was poised to take a significant step forward following a tantalizing rookie season in which both highlights that quickly went viral on social media – and strikeouts – were plentiful. He worked seven walks in his nine games of the season, showing the kind of patience at the plate that was difficult to come by in 2022.

Cruz believes he is poised to come back stronger than he was when he went down, and the Pirates have been adamant that the hope is he returns this season no matter where the team is in the standings whenever he comes off the 60-day injured list.

While he’s eager to get back he’s also not trying to force things, saying several times he will stick to the recommendations of the medical staff. He has remained engaged, not missing a game of Pittsburgh’s somewhat uneven – the Pirates started on a 20-8 tear followed by an 8-18 skid through May – but overall promising start.

There are also no concerns – at least at this point – about any sort of lingering memories of the slide that derailed his season haunting him during his rehab.

“I should be good when I get out there because when I go out there I understand I’m not going to hesitate,” Cruz said. “I’m just going to go out there and do my best.”

Cruz’s appearance at PNC on Saturday coincided with the team giving out thousands of bobbleheads in his likeness.

Asked if the trinkets bear at least a passing resemblance to him, Cruz laughed.

“They did real good,” he joked. “Ugly, like me.”