Andrew Bailey and Chris Coghlan, the rookies of the year in their respective leagues last season, did not attend spring training with major league contracts or with major league roster spots. Nor did 8 of the 15 other rookies who received votes in the Baseball Writers Association election.

Ten of the top17 rookies were non-roster invitees to their teams’ spring training camps. They were part of the largest group of players ever to receive non-roster invitations to spring training.

In 2009, teams issued spring invitations to 580 non-roster players, according to the commissioner’s office. One-third of those players, 195, wound up playing at least one game in the majors. Brewers catcher Carlos Corporan, Angels’ reliever Fernando Rodriguez and Red Sox reliever Billy Traber each played in one game last season. Many non-roster players, including Bailey and Coghlan, did much better.

That group included the Pirates’ Garrett Jones and Andrew McCutchen, the Rangers’ Elvis Andrus, Gordon Beckham and Scott Podsednik of the White Sox, Nick Green of the Red Sox, the Reds’ Laynce Nix, the Diamondbacks’ Gerardo Parra and Ryan Roberts, the Cardinals’ Colby Rasmus and Joe Thurston, the Giants’ Juan Uribe and a couple of catchers, the Orioles’ Matt Wieters and the Mets’ Omir Santos.

In addition there were pitchers Tommy Hanson and Kris Medlen of the Braves, the Angels’ Matt Palmer, the Padres’ Kevin Correia, the Rangers’ Derek Holland, Daniel Bard of the Red Sox, the Giants’ Brandon Medders, the Rays’ Randy Choate, the Nationals’ Jordan Zimmerman, Chris Jakubauskas and Sean White of the Mariners, the Marlins’ Sean West and the Oakland four – Bailey, Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill and Vin Mazzaro.

This spring a near-record 577 players are in camps throughout Florida and Arizona with non-roster invitations.

Some players are invited because of contractual obligations. As an inducement to get a draft choice to sign, a club can offer an early appearance at the major league camp. Some players are invited because they are top prospects and teams want them to get accustomed to major league spring training. Or teams simply want to see how the prospects will perform under those circumstances.

Some players are signed to minor league contracts with promise of invitations because there was no more room on the 40-man roster. Some are invited because they have been major leaguers and teams think there’s an outside chance they could win a job or at least be a Class AAA player in the minors.

And then there are those who are non-roster because they don’t have to be put on the 40-man roster yet. If they win major league jobs in spring training, they can be added to the 40-man roster by the start of the season.

That’s what happened last spring with a quartet of Athletics’ pitchers – Bailey, who became the team’s closer, and three starters who started virtually half (79) of Oakland’s games – Anderson (at left), Cahill and Mazzaro, though Mazzaro’s elevation to the majors came two months into the season.

“We didn’t need to create roster spots for them just to be in spring training,” Billy Beane, the Oakland general manager, said. “If they make the team, you create a spot. If they don’t, there’s no need for a spot.”

Those pitchers were not in camp by accident. The Athletics thought they knew what they had and were giving Bailey, Anderson, Cahill and Mazzaro every chance to make the team. All were in their early 20s, and three of them had been selected in the 2005 and 2006 drafts while Anderson had been part of the Dan Haren trade with Arizona.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of choices,” Beane said. “We felt they were the future of our club but we didn’t know it was the immediate future of the team. We went in with an  open mind.”

Beane acknowledged that the pitchers had the kind of growing pains young pitchers are expected to experience, but he noted that “Anderson and Cahill were 21 years old and won in double digits with a team that came in last.”

The left-handed Anderson had an 11-11 record and 4.06 earned run average in 30 starts, Cahill 10-13 and 4.63 in 32 starts and Mazzaro 4-9 and 5.32 in 17 starts. Bailey, at 24 the oldest, had a 6-3 record, 1.84 e.r.a. and 26 saves in 68 appearances.

Other non-roster pitchers flourished, none more than Hanson of Atlanta. A 22-year-old right-hander with three years in the minors, Hanson has an 11-4 record and 2.89 e.r.a. in 21 starts. He started his first game June 7, which means he was one of the players teams leave in the minors until they have missed enough major league service time that the team is saved a year of salary arbitration and free agency.

Hanson was a non-roster player because the Braves didn’t have to put him on the roster for spring training. The Angels didn’t have to open a roster spot either for Palmer because they signed the 30-year-old right-hander as a minor league free agent. In his seven-year professional career, Palmer had started three games for the Giants. With the Angels, he started 13 games and relieved in 27 others, gaining an 11-2 record with a 3.93 e.r.a.

 

FINALLY, A PLUS FOR THE PIRATES

From start to finish, no two hitters emerged from their non-roster spring status more impressively than a pair of Pirates. First baseman-outfielder Garrett  Jones and center fielder Andrew McCutchen were two bright spots in an otherwise typically dismal Pittsburgh season, the major league record 17^th consecutive losing season.

Jones, at age 28, was well on his way to becoming a career minor leaguer, having spent nearly all of his 10 professional seasons in the minors, the period of exception being a 31-game stretch in 2007 with the Twins.

A 14^th-round draft choice of the Braves in 1999, Jones joined the Pirates as a minor league free agent. Accruing more time in the minors, Jones was summoned to the majors when the Pirates traded Eric Hinske to the Yankees June 30. 

Jones proceeded to start 82 games (29 at first, 53 in the outfield) and hit .293 with 21 home runs and 44 runs batted in. He had a .567 slugging percentage and .372 on-base percentage, an impressive combination totaling .939.

“Our scouts identified him as a guy who was stuck behind some pretty good players,” Neal Huntington, the Pirates’ general manager, said of Jones’ signing. Huntington mentioned Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer as Jones’ roadblocks. “We were fortunate to sign him as a free agent and he had a fine spring, but he was behind Eric Hinske. But Garrett continued to open our eyes and we found a spot for him.”

A full-fledged member of the roster this spring, Jones is assured of an everyday job, either at first or in right. Huntington said if Jeff Clement, whom the Pirates obtained in the Jack Wilson trade last July, is ready to play first, Jones will play right. If he isn’t, Jones will play first with Ryan Church or Brandon Moss in right.

McCutchen will be the center fielder following an outstanding two-thirds of a season in which he batted .286, drove in 54 runs in 108 games and had a .471 slugging percentage and .365 on-base. The Pirates promoted the 22-year-old McCutchen June 4 when they traded Nate McLouth to Atlanta.

“Andrew was a case where he was a prospect on the rise,” Huntington said. “There was no need to put him on the 40-man roster to protect him. He continued to develop in spring training and exceeded our expectations.”

The Rangers had their own pair of non-roster players, but there was a direct connection between Elvis Andrus and Omar Vizquel. Andrus, whom the Rangers acquired from Atlanta in the Mark Teixeira trade in July 2007, didn’t have to be on the roster. Vizquel, a 20-year major leaguer, was signed to a minor league contract.

General manager Jon Daniels said he was 99 percent certain that Andrus would be their shortstop, but he signed Vizquel as a safety net.

“In case he faltered,” Daniels said, “we wanted someone to back him up and Omar was perfect.” The Rangers didn’t try to mask their intentions with Vizquel. “I talked to Adam Katz, his agent, and Ron Washington talked to Omar. We told them we expect Elvis to be the guy, but he could struggle and if he did Omar would get more playing time.”

Andrus, only 20 when the season began, started 140 games and batted .267. He was second among American League shortstops to Orlando Cabrera in total chances. Vizquel, who turned 43 a few weeks into the season, started the 22 games Andrus didn’t.

“My only disappointment,” Daniels said, “was we weren’t able to bring Omar back.” Vizquel, again a free agent, signed with the White Sox, and this time he is in camp as a member of their roster.

Nick Green is in the Dodgers’ camp as an invitee, which means Dodgers infielders should be careful. Green was in the Red Sox camp as an invitee a year ago and wound up as the starting shortstop.

“We brought him in to provide some depth for our major league middle infield,” general manager Theo Epstein said. “We thought that he was a guy who would likely go to Triple A and be the first to call up. As it turned out, one shortstop had surgery in spring training and one at the start of the season.”

Julio Lugo had a knee operation during spring training. Jed Lowrie had wrist surgery the   first week of the season. Green was the beneficiary of their misfortune, starting 74 games at short, more than any of the other shortstops started. Green had not played in the majors at all in 2008.

“You look to see who fits best in your organization, who might be available,” Epstein said, discussing the way he looks for bench players.

The Cardinals had a pair of non-roster players make their team and contribute significantly, but Colby Rasmus and Joe Thurston weren’t as dynamic as Jones and McCutchen. Rasmus started 114 games in the outfield, played in 147 and batted .251 and drove in 52 runs. Thurston filled in mostly at third base, batting .225 in 124 games.

“Colby was a top-rate prospect who had suffered some injuries,” John Mozeliak, the Cardinals’ general manager, said. “so we didn’t need to put him on the roster until he made the club. If he hadn’t made the club in spring training, we would not have started the clock. Thurston was a traditional six-year minor league free agent coming off a fairly robust winter ball. We gave him an opportunity, and he took advantage of it. He had been a top-rate player in the Dodger system but never grabbed hold of a major league career.”

However, as helpful as Thurston was to the Cardinals at times last year, he didn’t grab hold of a career with them either. Thurston, in fact, is no longer with the Cardinals. They outrighted him to the minors last November, and he became a free agent. He signed with the Braves and now is – what else? – a non-roster invitee to spring training with them.

 

PINIELLA DOESN’T GO TWEET

I have known Lou Piniella since he was traded to the Yankees in 1974. We have always had a good relationship, and with rare exception I have always enjoyed talking to him. When he was a veteran member of the Yankees, he was the player one or two other writers and I would seek out before the last game heading into the All-Star break to get a state of the Yankees assessment.

Now I have found a new reason to like Lou. There was a delightful story from the Associated Press last week about the plans of Ozzie Guillen, the White Sox manager, to set up a Twitter account. The A.P. reporter dutifully asked Piniella, Chicago’s other manager, if he planned to follow Guillen and open a Twitter account of his own.

“What is Twitter?” Piniella asked. After being informed of how it works, Piniella said, “Ozzie … he needs more space than that.” But the 66-year-old grandfather has no plans to get involved in social networking.

“First of all, I don’t know how to Twitter,” he said. “Second of all, I’m not going to learn how to Twitter. Look, I’ve heard of Facebook. Actually, it’s on my phone; I see it once in a while.”

“But I’m really not a Facebook or Twitter guy, you know?” he added. “I’m a prime rib and baked potato guy.”

Manny Ramirez told Los Angeles reporters earlier this week that this would be his last season with the Dodgers. At the same time a revealing document showed up in the court that is hearing the nasty divorce case of the team’ owners, Jamie and Frank McCourt.

Wait a minute. Maybe I should reword that sentence. Maybe it should read the nasty divorce case of Frank McCourt, the Dodgers’ owner, against his wife Jamie because Frank says he owns the Dodgers and Jamie doesn’t. Whatever. Let’s not detract from the important issue here. That is Ramirez’s mindset.

Manny didn’t say why he plans to leave the Dodgers when his contract with them expires after the coming season. Maybe he didn’t want to say. But maybe he wants to leave them because he is distraught at the prospect of the McCourts breaking up. Don’t snicker. Manny, at his advancing age, has become a sensitive guy. All right, go head and snicker.

At the rate the McCourts are going, they won’t be long for the Dodgers either. This promises to be one of the nastiest of nasty divorces. Whether or not Frank McCourt is upheld as the sole owner, he faces a difficult, if not impossible, task of being able to operate the team.

From the day he/they bought the Dodgers, the McCourts’ financial ability to maintain a functional operation over time has come under question. Toss in a divorce settlement or court judgment, and that ability will most likely be even more severely tested, McCourt’s insistence that life will proceed smoothly to the contrary.

Every situation is different, but the closest case for comparison is only 90 miles south of Chavez Ravine. When John Moores, owner of the San Diego Padres, and wife Becky headed for divorce, Moores set about laying the groundwork for the sale of the team. He negotiated a deal with Jeff Moorad, player agent turned club executive, under which he sold 30 percent of the team to a group headed by Moorad on the way to the Moorad group gaining majority control.

Moores didn’t want to sell the Padres any more than McCourt would want to sell the Dodgers, but he eschewed false bravado and faced reality.

The Dodgers’ lack of off-season activity would make a pretty good exhibit A to support the theory that they are ailing financially. They made no substantive free-agent moves other than re-signing Vicente Padilla, they traded Juan Pierre and they opted not to re-sign Randy Wolf, Orlando Hudson and Jim Thome.

Their list of players invited to spring training was filled with out-of-work veterans like Alfredo Amezaga, Nick Green, Angel Berroa, Doug Mientkiewicz, Brian Giles, Jeff Weaver, Ramon Ortiz and Russ Ortiz.

I asked Ned Colletti, the general manager, if his off-season efforts had been affected by the divorce.

“I think they have been affected somewhat by the economy; that’s played a huge role,” Colletti said. “No matter what industry people are in, the economy has made them think twice about doing things. While some companies have continued to operate like it’s five years ago, others have not.”

What effect might the divorce have on the Dodgers? “I wouldn’t want to speculate,” he said.

Colletti, a good man, who worked his way up from public relations to general manager, is in an unenviable position. He is responsible for producing a contending team every year, but he and the rest of baseball and Dodger fandom recently got a glimpse of the future, and it didn’t look encouraging.

The Los Angeles Times reported that a document filed by Jamie McCourt in the divorce case disclosed that the team plans to cut its payroll from last season’s $132 million to $107 million this season despite an expected rise in revenue.

The Dodgers, in fact, the document showed, plan to continue reducing player payroll as a percentage of revenues each year while revenues increase from $295 million last year to $529 million in 2018. The plan, the document showed, is to lower the percentage of revenue spent on player compensation from 42 percent in 2007 and 2008 to 25 percent by 2013, where it would stay through 2018. 

The Dodgers, the Tines said, did not dispute the accuracy of the document.

If Ramirez holds to his word and leaves the Dodgers as a free agent after this season, he will help them reduce the payroll, given that they are paying him $45 million in the two-year contract, though much of it is deferred.

Even if Ramirez reached the end of the season and said “only kidding,” the Dodgers could ignore him as a free agent and force him to walk away. But what if he had the type of monster season of which he is capable and the fans demanded the Dodgers re-sign him?

Maybe Manny has scrutinized the landscape and concluded that there aren’t many teams that would pay him the wage to which he has become accustomed ($20 million a year the last 10 years). Or rather it would have been his agent Scott Boras who did the scrutinizing.

Perhaps Manny’s spring declaration was part of a Boras ploy. Lull the Dodgers into thinking Ramirez didn’t want to play for them and get then nervous enough to re-sign him. Boras has been suspected of producing similar ploys, including one with Ramirez to induce the Red Sox to trade him to the Dodgers in 2008.

Boras has steadfastly denied pulling any such tactics out of his arsenal of agentry tricks, but one would not expect him to admit that he had.  

Whatever the case, Ramirez doesn’t expect to be around when the McCourt divorce becomes final and the status of the Dodgers is fully known. For Ramirez to jump ship when it is foundering is not surprising, not at all. That would be Manny being Manny.

On the other hand, don’t expect the Dodgers’ payroll to sink anywhere near 25 percent of revenues. Although Commissioner Bud Selig has not commented publicly on the McCourt mess, he would seriously frown on the 25 percent level.

The total industry payroll averages 51 percent of total revenue. The ideal number in the commissioner’s mind is 50 percent, but he can live with 51.  He has shown teams that spending above 50 or 51 percent leads to financial losses and spending below it leads to losses on the field.

Selig can’t order teams to be at the 50-51 percent level, but he has potent persuasive power. It comes with the territory.

When spring training began a year ago, there was no question that the most stunning development of the off-season had been the New York Yankees’ $423.5 million expenditure for three free agents – CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira. With spring training under way, one team gets the nod for the most stunning development of this year’s off-season, and the expenditure wasn’t anywhere near that of the Yankees.

It was the Cincinnati Reds and their signing of Aroldis Chapman for $30.25 million.

A Cuban defector, Chapman was pursued by the usual suspects, but it was the Reds, most often a non-player in these games, who nabbed him. That is simply mind-boggling. How did the Reds pull it off? “That’s a good question,” Walt Jocketty, their general manager, said.

The Reds signed Chapman on Jan. 11, the date on which Jocketty began working for the Reds two years earlier. Having worked in a variety of front office jobs, including 13 years as the St. Louis Cardinals’ general manager, Jocketty was familiar with the Reds’ free-agent history.

Chapman is a left-handed pitcher who defected from the Cuban national team during a tournament in the Netherlands last July. He will turn 22 on the last day of this month.

Having attracted attention in last year’s World Baseball Classic, Chapman instantly became the top priority on the lists of scouts from many teams.

“Our scouts had been following him since the World Baseball Classic,” Jocketty said. “When he defected in July our guys followed him some more. We didn’t get an opportunity to see him as much as we might see other free agents, but we saw him enough where our guy liked him a lot.”

Just before Christmas, Chapman’s agents held a workout for interested parties in Houston. Jerry Walker, a longtime Jocketty aide, and other Reds scouts, attended the session and, Jocketty said, “they all liked him a lot.”

If history was a guide, it was about this time that the Reds would have been expected to drop out of the race. About half a dozen other teams were avidly interested, and that was usually the signal for the Reds to abandon pursuit.

“We started talking about what it would cost,” Jocketty acknowledged, “and I said ‘gee, I don’t know that we can do this.’ But I talked to ownership about it. I showed our reports to Bob Castellini and he got excited. We got into it and felt it was important for the long term of this organization.”

The Reds thought so highly of Chapman that they were willing to give him a six-year contract (the sixth year as a player option) where other teams wouldn’t go beyond five years.

“We felt this guy provided a commodity that’s hard to find,” Jocketty said. “He’s a young kid with a much above average fastball, 95 to 98, and he tops 100 at times. He’s sound mechanically. We went for it.”

Jocketty, who built the Cardinals’ 2006 World Series winner, said that he dreamed of a pitching rotation with Chapman, Johnny Cueto, Edinson Volquez, Homer Bailey and Mike Leake. Cueto, Volquez (at 26 the oldest) and Bailey are incumbent members of the rotation, and Leake was the team’s No. 1 draft choice last year.

“I’ve always been of the philosophy that pitching wins championships,” Jocketty said.

The general manager called Chapman’s signing both exciting and a risk. But so far Chapman has received rave reviews within the organization.

“We sent him to Arizona to work with Bryan Price, our pitching coach, and he was excited,” Jocketty said. “Tony Fossas is one of our minor league pitching coaches, and we appointed him his guardian. Fossas was amazed what a great athlete he was and how quickly he picked up what he was showing him. He’s thrilled at his overall makeup and approach.”

The signing has made an impact on the Reds’ fans, too.

“I was on our caravan for four, five days,” Jocketty said, “and the fans were very excited about it. Their reaction was ‘wow, the Reds did this.’ Nobody even knew we were in on it. One guy said it shows you’re trying something different.”

It’s different, all right. The Reds’ free-agent history is filled with names like Francisco Cordero, David Weathers, Mike Stanton, Scott Hatteberg, Jerry Hairston, Alex Gonzalez, Willy Taveras, Mike Lincoln and Arthur Rhodes.

The Reds and their fans will find Chapman even more exciting if he is deemed ready to pitch in the major leagues this year.

“We’ll know more in a couple weeks after we get him in games,” Jocketty said. “His command needs improvement. It would be great if he could start the season with us, but I don’t expect it. The worst thing we can do is rush this guy.”

 

FREE AGENT FORMULA DOUBLES PAY

The Aroldis Chapman signing comes at a perfect time to demonstrate the difference between a free agent and a drafted player.   Chapman was a free agent because when he defected from Cuba, he didn’t go to the United States but instead became a resident of Andorra.

As an Andorran, Chapman was not subject to the June draft but was free to sign with any team. His contract with the Reds is worth a guaranteed $30.25 million for six years, the sixth at his option for a $5 million salary. Chapman will have five days after the 2014 World Series to pick up the option.

The contract also includes a $16.25 signing bonus, which will be paid over 11 years, $1.5 million at his signing, $1.5 million each succeeding Nov. 1 for four years and $1.25 million each Nov. l for the next seven years.

Compare that contract with the one Stephen Strasburg, also a pitcher, signed with the Washington Nationals last August as the No. 1 pick in last June’s draft. Considered one of the most talented players ever to be in the draft, he signed a four-year contract for $15.1 million, including a $7.5 million signing bonus paid in three installments last year, this year and next year.

Scott Boras was Strasburg’s agent but not even he was good enough to overcome the system that makes a drafted player worth half as much as a comparable player who is a free agent.

 

STARTERS IN NEW HOMES

An early look at projected starting pitching rotations shows that 13 teams traded for or signed pitchers to upgrade their rotations or maintain the level of last year’s rotation. 

The most interesting to watch, as I have previously observed, will be the Philadelphia Phillies’ rotation swap of Cliff Lee for Roy Halladay. The Phillies will not get a do-over here so they have to hope that Halladay will give them significantly more than Lee might have. Lee, on the other hand, is a significant upgrade for Seattle.

Like the Phillies, Texas swapped starters, trading Kevin Millwood (at left) to Baltimore and signing Rich Harden as a free agent. On the surface, it would seem to be an economic swap, but the figures say otherwise.

Millwood has a $12 million salary for this season, after which he can be a free agent. The Rangers guaranteed Harden $7.5 million for a year plus an option year, but they also gave the Orioles $3 million to help pay Millwood’s salary.

On balance the Rangers are saving $1.5 million. That doesn’t seem to be much of a savings, but maybe the departing owner, Tom Hicks, is looking to save any millions he can on the hundreds of millions that he owes the banks. And maybe it was a trade for the ages. Harden is 7 years younger than Millwood.

The Angels of Anaheim also swapped starters, but their decision seemed to be based on money. They didn’t want to give John Lackey the kind of contract he got from Boston – $82.5 million for five years. They were more comfortable paying Joel Pineiro $16 million for two years.

Milwaukee and Arizona each added two starters. The Brewers did it via free agency, signing Randy Wolf and Doug Davis, who started for the Brewers for three years in a previous tenure. The Diamondbacks traded for their two new starters, getting Ian Kennedy from the Yankees and Edwin Jackson from the Tigers in the three-way Curtis Granderson deal.

Detroit wound up with a new starter in that deal, Max Scherzer.

Four other pitchers signed their way into rotations – Jon Garland in San Diego, Bret Myers in Houston, Jason Marquis in Washington and Ben Sheets in Oakland

One of the more interesting aspects of those developments is that two of the pitchers, Marquis and Pineiro, expressed a desire to play in New York for the Mets. Despite the Mets’ glaring need for starters, though, they didn’t return the interest. They didn’t like Marquis enough to sign him, and by the time they got around to being serious on Pineiro, he was gone.

 

SLIGHTLY USED STARTERS

Three other pitchers will be start-of-the-season new, if slightly used, to their 2010 rotations. They were traded to their teams last season and had in-season auditions, not that they needed them.

Jake Peavy (at right) started three games for the White Sox and won all three with a 1.35 earned run average and only 7.65 baseruuners allowed per nine innings.

Scott Kazmir started six games for the Angels, emerging with a 2-2 record, 1.73 e.r.a. and 9.66 baserunners per nine innings.

And then there was Carl Pavano, who started 12 games for Minnesota and compiled a 5-4 record and 4.64 e.r.a.