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Today’s Tidbits: Spring Schedule Out, Pitcher’s New Number

photo: Will Vragovic/Tampa Bay Rays

With players heading to camp this weekend, Major League Baseball has raced to cobble together Spring Training schedules for all 30 teams that will allow them to get their work in while also limiting the travel for teams.

The Rays released their 19-game schedule Friday afternoon, which starts March 18 in Fort Myers against the Boston Red Sox.  The first of nine Grapefruit League games at Charlotte Sports Park is the following day against the Atlanta Braves, and the spring will wrap up April 6 at Tropicana Field against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times pointed out that it looks like pitcher Shane McClanahan has changed his number from 62 to 18.

McClanahan had been assigned the number since being added to the 40-man roster, but had worn the number 8 in college at USF and through his time in the minor leagues.

Meanwhile, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com says the Boston Red Sox may not be satisfied with poaching just one pitcher from last year’s American League champions, and are now eyeballing another Rays hurler: right-hander Collin McHugh.

McHugh signed with Boston in 2020, but opted out of the season and did not play for the Red Sox before coming to Tampa Bay.

A couple of interesting tidbits have been revealed in the new collective bargaining agreement:

  • Along with the rule that a player can only be optioned to the minors a total of five times in a season (known coloquially as the “Louis Head Rule”), Jayson Stark of The Athletic points out that the CBA also prevents a team from claiming a player off waivers twice in a year unless all other teams pass on him.  Stark references how catcher/first baseman Jacob Nottingham was bounced between the Mariners and Blue Jays four times last year.
  • Also the CBA lays out tours or games to be held in Mexico, Asia, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, London, and Paris over the length of the agreement.

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