Archives for February 2021

A team-by-team look at the American League West entering spring training, including key players each club acquired and lost, and dates of the first workout for pitchers and catchers, and the full squad:

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Oakland Athletics

Manager: Bob Melvin (11th season).

2020: 36-24, first place, lost to Houston in Division Series.

Training Town: Mesa, Arizona.

Park: Hohokam Stadium.

First Workout: Feb. 17/22.

He’s Here: SS Elvis Andrus, C Aramis Garcia, LHP Cole Irvin, LHP Nik Turley, INF Jed Lowrie.

He’s Outta Here: SS Marcus Semien, RHP Liam Hendriks, OF Khris Davis, 2B Tommy La Stella, OF Robbie Grossman, RHP Yusmeiro Petit, RHP Joakim Soria, LHP T.J. McFarland, 3B Jake Lamb, LHP Mike Minor.

Going campin’: After winning their first division title in seven years, the A’s took some serious hits this offseason with Semien leaving to sign a one-year deal in Toronto after not getting a qualifying offer from Oakland and star closer Hendriks signing with the White Sox. The A’s acquired Andrus to replace Semien at shortstop but the 32-year-old batted just .194 in limited time last season. There are still plenty of key pieces in Oakland led by 3B Matt Chapman and 1B Matt Olson, along with a young rotation anchored by Frankie Montas, Sean Manaea and Jesús Luzardo. A.J. Puk is coming off shoulder surgery but also could contribute. The A’s have not yet determined whether they will allow fans at their spring training games.

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Houston Astros

Manager: Dusty Baker (second season).

2020: 29-31, second place, lost to Rays in AL Championship Series.

Training Town: West Palm Beach, Florida.

Park: The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches

First Workout: Feb. 18/22.

He’s Here: C Jason Castro, RHP Pedro Báez, RHP Ryne Stanek, RHP Steve Cishek, OF Steven Souza Jr.

He’s Outta Here: CF George Springer, OF Josh Reddick, RHP Roberto Osuna, RHP Chris Devenski, RHP Brad Peacock, LHP Cionel Perez, RHP Cy Sneed.

Going campin’: The Astros finished the pandemic-shortened regular season with a losing record but heated up in October and came within a win of reaching the World Series for the third time in four years. They relied on a bevy of talented young pitchers to carry them in a season when ace Justin Verlander made just one start. Those young starters, led by Lance McCullers Jr., Jose Urquidy and Cristian Javier, will have to take another step forward this season with Verlander out all year after undergoing Tommy John surgery. They’ll also have a huge hole in their lineup after leadoff hitter and center fielder Springer signed a six-year, $150 million contract with the Blue Jays after spending his first seven major league seasons in Houston. The Astros brought back veteran outfielder Michael Brantley, who signed a two-year deal to stay with the team, and their offense should get a boost with the return of designated hitter Yordan Alvarez. The 2019 AL Rookie of the Year is expected to be healthy after missing all but two games last season after being diagnosed with COVID-19 before having knee surgery. His return should help make up for the loss of Springer’s production in a lineup that also features 3B Alex Bregman, 2B Jose Altuve and SS Carlos Correa, who powered the offense in the playoffs with six homers and 17 RBIs. The Astros will welcome a limited number of fans to spring training games but have not released details on how many will be allowed in the ballpark.

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Seattle Mariners

Manager: Scott Servais (sixth season).

2020: 27-33, third place.

Training Town: Peoria, Arizona.

Park: Peoria Sports Complex.

First Workout: Feb. 18/23.

He’s Here: RHP Rafael Montero, RHP Keynan Middleton, RHP Chris Flexen, OF Mitch Haniger, OF Jarred Kelenic, RHP Logan Gilbert.

He’s Outta Here: INF/OF Tim Lopes, INF/OF Dee Strange-Gordon, OF Mallex Smith, RHP Yoshihisa Hirano, RHP Carl Edwards Jr.

Going campin’: The next phase of the rebuild begins this season and it could be the most important. After a shortened 2020 season, the Mariners need a full year to take account of whether their young prospects are on the cusp of becoming regular starters in the majors or if the timeline of hoping to contend in 2022 needs to be adjusted. Kyle Lewis seems on the verge of stardom after winning the AL Rookie of the Year award. He highlights a talented group of outfielders that should be bolstered by the return of Mitch Haniger. J.P. Crawford and Evan White won Gold Gloves on the infield, but 3B Kyle Seager should be watched as he enters the final year of his contract. Seattle’s most pressing questions entering spring training are at 2B and in the back of the rotation. Two bigger questions long term are top prospects Kelenic and Gilbert and whether either one will start the season in the majors, or if Seattle will play the service-time game and delay their arrivals until closer to midseason.

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Los Angeles Angels

Manager: Joe Maddon (second season).

2020: 26-34, fourth place.

Training Town: Tempe, Arizona.

Park: Tempe Diablo Stadium.

First Workout: Feb. 17/22.

He’s Here: GM Perry Minasian, OF Dexter Fowler, SS José Iglesias, RHP Raisel Iglesias, LHP José Quintana, RHP Alex Cobb, C Kurt Suzuki, LHP Alex Claudio, RHP Aaron Slegers, OF Juan Lagares, INF-OF Phil Gosselin.

He’s Outta Here: GM Billy Eppler, SS Andrelton Simmons, RHP Hansel Robles, RHP Julio Teherán, RHP Keynan Middleton, RHP Cam Bedrosian, RHP Noé Ramirez, RHP Matt Andriese.

Going campin’: The big-budget Angels believe they’ve got the talent and stability to end their streaks of five straight losing seasons — the franchise’s longest skid since the 1970s — and six consecutive non-playoff campaigns. With much of the AL West rebuilding or rebooting, the timing could be right for the Halos to get Mike Trout’s first playoff victory. Coming off a bumpy year by his peerless standards, Trout is back along with 3B Anthony Rendon for their first full season together. Rendon picked up steam after a rocky start in LA, as did the rest of the irrepressible Maddon’s first team in Anaheim. Starting pitching was the Angels’ biggest problem, but new GM Minasian addressed it only by acquiring Quintana and Cobb instead of bigger-name targets. Starting with new closer Iglesias, Minasian is also overhauling the awful bullpen in a project that’s likely to continue into the season. While they’re talented enough to win now, this also is a transition year for the Angels, with only four players under contract past 2021 — including Shohei Ohtani, who will be a two-way player again after a rough 2020. This is also a probable farewell season for 41-year-old Albert Pujols, the oldest player in the majors as he hits the final summer of his 10-year contract with a fraction of his prime effectiveness. Fifth in major league history with 662 homers, Pujols needs 34 to catch Alex Rodriguez for fourth, but he hasn’t reached that mark since 2015.

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Texas Rangers

Manager: Chris Woodward (third season).

2020: 22-38, fifth place.

Training Town: Surprise, Arizona.

Park: Surprise Stadium.

First Workout: Feb. 17/22.

He’s Here: RHP Kohei Arihara, LF David Dahl, DH/OF Khris Davis, CF Delino DeShields, RHP Dane Dunning, 1B Nate Lowe, RHP Mike Foltynewicz, C Jonah Heim, INF Charlie Culberson.

He’s Outta Here: SS Elvis Andrus, RHP Jesse Chavez, LF Shin-Soo Choo, INF Derek Dietrich, RHP Corey Kluber, RHP Lance Lynn, C Jeff Mathis, RHP Rafael Montero, INF/OF Danny Santana.

Going campin’: The rebuilding Rangers traded the lone player left from their only two World Series appearances a decade ago, sending the 32-year-old Andrus to division rival Oakland this month. Texas had already made it clear that Isiah Kiner-Falefa would go to spring training as its top shortstop over Andrus, whose 12 seasons as the starter included the 2010 and 2011 AL championship teams. Kiner-Falefa won a Gold Glove at 3B last season, but the 25-year-old Hawaiian is a natural shortstop. There could also be a change at second base. Nick Solak will compete with long-struggling Rougned Odor (.167 last season), who is no longer guaranteed a starting job even while owed $24 million over two more seasons. Joey Gallo, an All-Star in his injury-shortened 2019 season, won a Gold Glove in right field last year, but hit only .181 with 79 strikeouts and 10 homers in 57 games. Dahl was an NL All-Star with Colorado in 2019, and slugger Davis came over from the A’s in the Andrus deal. Veteran RHPs Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles, who were a combined 3-12 last season, are the top starters remaining after the offseason departures of Lynn (trade) and Kluber (free agency). Innings-eating Arihara, a former rookie of the year in Japan, signed for two years, and Foltynewicz one year. Dunning, obtained from the White Sox for Lynn, is among several youngsters competing for a rotation spot.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell slightly last week to 793,000, evidence that job cuts remain high despite a substantial decline in new confirmed viral infections.

Last week’s total declined from 812,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That figure was revised higher from the previously reported 779,000. The numbers point to a still-elevated number of layoffs. Before the virus erupted in the United States in March, weekly applications for jobless aid had never topped 700,000, even during the Great Recession.

The job market had shown tentative improvement last summer but then slowed through the fall and in the past two months has essentially stalled. In December and January combined, employers cut 178,000 jobs. Nearly 10 million jobs remain lost to the pandemic.

Thursday’s government report also showed a sizable rise in the total number of Americans who are receiving jobless aid, including through extended benefit programs — a sign that long-term unemployment may be growing. All told, 20.4 million people were receiving benefits in the week that ended Jan. 23, the latest period for which data are available. That’s up sharply from 17.8 million from the week before. Part of that increase likely reflects the processing of a rush of claims after the extension of two federal aid programs just after Christmas.

In January, the unemployment rate fell to 6.3% from 6.7%, mostly because more people found jobs. But it also declined because many people who had lost jobs stopped looking for one. The government doesn’t count people as unemployed unless they’re actively seeking work.

The job market’s persistent weakness is fueling President Joe Biden’s push for a $1.9 trillion economic rescue package. Biden’s proposal would extend, through August, two federal unemployment benefit programs that are set to expire in mid-March. His proposal would also raise the federal unemployment benefit to $400 a week from the current $300.

Some economists, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, have raised concerns that such a huge spending package would risk igniting inflation by fueling a burst of consumer spending later this year as the virus is gradually brought under control.

Yet on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell underscored the Fed’s focus on the struggling job market and said he thought that any worrisome surge in inflation would be unlikely. If it did arise, Powell said, the Fed has the financial tools it needs to quell inflation. For now, inflation remains below the Fed’s target rate.

“We are still very far from a strong labor market whose benefits are broadly shared,” Powell said.

A driving force behind the Biden administration’s push for more aid is the impending expiration of the extended jobless benefits in barely more than a month. More than 11 million people would lose benefits as a result, according to a report by the Century Foundation. Unlike the previous expiration of extended unemployment aid, which occurred on Dec. 26, the cut-off would be phased in between March 14 and April 11.

The job market won’t likely be close to fully recovered by then. Many economists expect a burst of growth and hiring later this year after vaccines are more widely administered, especially if Congress provides significantly more aid to households, small businesses and states and cities. But that isn’t likely for many months.

Once vaccinations become more widely distributed and administered in the coming months, economists expect growth and hiring to pick up, particularly if Congress provides significantly more financial aid to households, small businesses and states and cities.

“Additional fiscal stimulus and broader vaccine diffusion will eventually allow the labor market to heal,” Oxford Economics said in a note Thursday. “But as the January employment data showed, current conditions are still quite weak and declines in new jobless claims are likely to occur only gradually in the near term.”

Research issued Thursday by the JPMorgan Chase Institute found that supplemental unemployment payments, like the $600 a week that the federal government provided from April through July, helped maintain spending for the unemployed and didn’t appear to reduce their willingness to take jobs.

More than half the recipients who received the extra $600 returned to work before the benefit had expired, the study found. And the likelihood of recipients finding a job didn’t increase when the aid did expire. The report estimates that every dollar of additional benefits boosted spending by unemployed families by between 29 and 43 cents.

About 4 million people who are out of work have stopped searching for jobs and so aren’t even counted as unemployed. Powell said that if these people were counted among the officially jobless, the unemployment rate would be nearly 10%.

In his remarks to the Economic Club of New York, the Fed chair also highlighted the uneven nature of the layoffs in this pandemic. Job losses among the highest-earning one-quarter of Americans have been just 4%, while job losses among the poorest one-quarter have been “a staggering 17%,” Powell said.

Layoffs have also fallen disproportionately on Black workers. In December, 18% of people who sought unemployment aid were black, even though African Americans make up 13.5% of the workforce, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. By contrast, nearly 50% of the applicants were white, even though 77% of workers are white.

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Another day of choppy trading on Wall Street left the major U.S. stock indexes nearly flat Thursday, even as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite hit all-time highs.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% after wobbling between small gains and losses up until the final minutes of trading. Technology stocks led the gainers after two relatively weak days, almost single-handedly outweighing losses by energy stocks, banks and companies that rely on consumer spending.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose to 1.16% from 1.15% late Wednesday after being as high as 1.20% earlier this week.

Wall Street continued to digest solid corporate earnings and updates on a decline of new virus cases. The latest government report on jobless claims, though, reaffirmed that employment remains a weak spot in the economy as vaccine distribution ramps up in the hopes of eventually ending the pandemic and its impact.

While the number of unemployment claims fell slightly, they remain well above historic levels.

“Even though (claims) are a bit better, they’re still elevated, and this is a concern because we need to get people back to work,” said Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capital Advisors.

The S&P 500 rose 6.50 points to 3,916.38, eclipsing the index’s last record high set Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 7.10 points, or less than 0.1%, to 31,430.70 a day after setting a new record high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 53.24 points, or 0.4%, to 14,025.77. Its previous all-time high was Tuesday.

Small company stocks, which have been strong gainers on hopes for an economic recovery by the second half of this year, notched gains. The Russell 2000 index added 2.88 points, or 0.1%, to 2,285.32. The index is up 15.7% so far this year, while the S&P 500 is up 4.3%.

The action has been mostly muted on Wall Street this week following a string of record highs for the major stock indexes. Investors are still looking for more government aid to help bolster the struggling economy as vaccine distribution progresses and the number of new virus cases continues falling. Democrats in Congress are working on a potential $1.9 trillion relief package that would include direct payments to people and more jobless aid as unemployment remains stubbornly high.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell slightly last week to 793,000. The job market had shown tentative improvement last summer but slowed through the fall and in the past two months. Nearly 10 million jobs still remain lost to the pandemic.

Companies continued reporting mostly solid earnings Thursday, adding to a surprisingly good earnings season. Kraft Heinz climbed 4.9% and Zillow Group jumped 17.8% after beating Wall Street’s fourth-quarter profit forecasts.

The pandemic and business shutdowns are still hurting many companies and crimping their financial results. Molson Coors fell 9.1% for the biggest decline in the S&P 500 after its profits fell short of expectations because business shutdowns in Europe hurt sales.

Elsewhere in the market, shares of online dating service operator Bumble soared 63.5% on their first day of trading. And cannabis stocks fell broadly a day after surging amid a buying spree fueled partly by members of the same online forum that hyped GameStop and other beaten-down companies in recent weeks.

Aphria and Tilray, Canadian cannabis companies that agreed to combine in December, fell 35.8% and 49.7%, respectively. So far this year, Aphria has more than doubled, while Tilray has nearly quadrupled in value. Sundial Growers fared better, recovering from an early slide to gain 3.1%. It’s price has increased more than six-fold this year.

Shares of Mastercard rose 2.6% after the payment processing company said it would start integrating cyber currencies into its payment network, allowing people to potentially transfer currencies like Bitcoin from customer to merchant. Bitcoin also rose on the announcement, gaining more than 4%, according to the online currency brokerage Coinbase.

President Joe Biden held his first conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Although there wasn’t any indication of a major change in U.S. trade policy, businesses are hoping for a less combative approach to trade policy between the world’s two biggest economies than during the Trump administration. Technology companies were among some of the hardest hit companies by tough trade policies during the previous administration.

Many markets in Asia were closed for the Lunar New Year and other holidays. Markets in Europe ended mixed.

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