Omar Infante cleared for Opening Day despite battling elbow, shoulder problems all spring

By Drew SilvaMar 30, 2014, 4:32 PM EST
2 Comments

Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star has the update …

Infante also dealt with some right shoulder inflammation early on in camp, but tests were taken on his right arm and came back negative so the Royals will march forward. The 32-year-old second baseman signed a four-year, $30.25 million free agent contract with Kansas City in December after batting .318/.345/.450 with 10 home runs and 51 RBI in 118 games last season for the Tigers. He is expected to bat second this year in the Royals’ lineup, behind Norichika Aoki and in front of Eric Hosmer, Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, and Alcides Escobar. It’s a pretty dangerous offense.

Dodgers, Reds discussing a Yasiel Puig trade

Yasiel Puig
Getty Images
By Craig CalcaterraDec 12, 2018, 9:38 AM EST
Leave a comment

Here’s a rumor from yesterday afternoon that sort of fell through the cracks, but it’s fun enough to think about for a few moments: Ken Rosenthal reports that the Dodgers and Reds have had “multiple” trade discussions involving Yasiel Puig.

Puig is a potential trade candidate, either (a) because he’s “disgruntled,” according to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times last week; or (b) because the Dodgers want to clear salary and roster spots in order to sign a big-name player, according to Rosenthal here. Many people suspect that the Dodgers are going to make a run at Bryce Harper, for example, and if that’s the case they’d no doubt want to open up right field for him.

It seems questionable that any Reds-Dodgers talks would get a ton of traction, especially given that Rosenthal reports that there’s a possibility of the Dodgers taking on Reds pitcher Homer Bailey and the $28 million he’s still owed in order to get some talent back from the Reds in a trade. That would seem to defeat the purpose of unloading Puig’s salary, but this is the sort of things we all talk about now given that the league has, more or less, a defacto salary cap imposed by the Competitive Balance Tax.