In the Dominican, Jung-Ho Kang continues to show rust from the time off this regular season. He went 0-for-3 on Thursday night with three strikeouts. It seems easy to blame the time off for his struggles, but he was keeping in shape during the season in case he got his visa, plus he had 22 days of preseason workouts with his Dominican team, which included some exhibition games. There is also the drop in talent between MLB and the Dominican to consider.
Kang is hitting .127/.205/.206 through 18 games. His OPS is the worst among players with enough plate appearances to qualify for league leaders, sitting 149 points below the second worst player. He also leads the league with 24 strikeouts.
Edwin Espinal had a rare off-day this winter, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout. That gave him a .346/.443/.423 slash line through 17 games.
Starling Marte played center field for the second time and went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. He’s now hitting .107/.133/.214 through his first 30 plate appearances.
Pablo Reyes went 1-for-5 with a single, which gives him a .224 average through 49 at-bats.
Anderson Feliz went 1-for-4 with a run scored, giving him a .345 average through 29 at-bats.
In Mexico from late Wednesday night, Carlos Munoz went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. On Thursday night, he went 1-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and an RBI single. He also scored a run. Munoz is hitting .303 through 24 games, with three doubles, a triple, a home run and nine walks.
If you missed it from yesterday, Jose Osuna should be playing in Venezuela in about a week and he has a plan for his playing time at third base. Elias Diaz is about two weeks away from playing.
