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Spring training position battles to keep an eye on
Every spring training brings significant position battles that could prove to be the difference for teams during the regular season. The competition often brings out the best in players and gives teams an idea what even the guys who lose the competitions in the spring can contribute during the season.
Here are 26 important position battles early in spring training.
More must-reads:
- Ten MLB players who are turning heads in spring training
- Winners and losers from first week of spring training
- The 'Active 20-home run MLB seasons' quiz
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TODAY'S BEST
Red Sox hold key advantage in race for postseason berth
After putting together a highly successful road trip through the Bronx and Baltimore, the Boston Red Sox will now employ one of their top advantages of the 2025 season. Heading into Friday's home series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates (with pitching prospect Payton Tolle set to make his MLB debut against National League Cy Young Award favorite Paul Skenes), the Red Sox just finished a portion of their schedule where they played 14 of 19 games away from Fenway Park. That includes the just-completed road trip, during which the Red Sox went 7-1 against the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles. With a road-heavy schedule behind them, Boston will settle into the comforts of Fenway Park for most of the next month. Beginning on Friday, only 12 of the Red Sox's 27 remaining games will be played on the road. That's great news for a Boston team that has been among MLB's best at home this season, posting a 41-25 record. The Red Sox's September schedule includes a trio of key home series against the Cleveland Guardians, Yankees and a three-game set with the Detroit Tigers that closes out the regular season. Depending on how the rest of the season unfolds, that final series could not only be pivotal for Boston's postseason chances but also be a potential preview of an American League matchup in October. Before a mid-August series against the Orioles in Boston, Red Sox manager Alex Cora spoke on several issues. Still, he mentioned his team's solid play at home this season as a change from previous years. "What we've been talking about the whole time, we have to be better at home. We have to, and that's what makes it great and we're doing that," Cora said. "Every day you come here, we're excited about it. There were a few times over the last three years that we weren't good here at Fenway Park. We're enjoying it." Cora went on to explain that the presence of third baseman Alex Bregman (now with Boston after signing as a free agent) and shortstop Trevor Story (fully recovered from injuries that saw him play in just 26 games last season) in the middle of the order was making a big difference in their success. Last season, the Red Sox were 38-43 at Fenway Park, so this year's home record is a big reason why Boston is back in the playoff chase. Simply put, the Red Sox's road to the postseason runs through Fenway Park. If Boston can keep up their winning ways at home, it bodes well for what October could bring.
Jerry Jones again proves he shouldn't be making decisions for Cowboys
When it comes to major decisions for the Dallas Cowboys it is always going to be Jerry Jones' way or the highway. The problem with that philosophy, however, is that the Jerry Jones way has proven to be a failure for more than 30 years. It's long past time for him to give up control of the team and hire a real general manager to fix the mess he keeps creating. All of that is back on the front-burner again following Thursday's conclusion of the Micah Parsons saga, with the All-Pro superstar getting traded to the Green Bay Packers for defensive tackle Kenny Clark and two first-round picks. In a vacuum, it's not a terrible return. Clark is a legitimate starter on the defensive line -- and a very good player -- and two first-round picks are always going to have some value. But professional sports does not exist in a vacuum. There is always more context at play, and the context here is that an in-his-prime superstar (Parsons), that is one of the biggest game-changers in the league, and a player that was trying to make it work in Dallas, is now playing for somebody else because Jones could not get out of his own way. From the very beginning Jones bungled this contract negotiation, doing the one thing he does best — making himself and Cowboys drama the focal point, and what is best for the team a secondary matter. It's the Jerry Jones way. And it's a losing way. This situation did not have to end up the way it did. There was a perfectly reasonable outcome that would have seen Parsons remain in Dallas throughout the prime of his career and continue to be a focal point of its defense. All it would have taken was a common sense approach and an owner whose concern for the organization outweighed their ego. Every major negotiation with the Cowboys ends up getting drawn out into chaos. It's all part of Jerry's desire to keep him and his team at the top of the headlines. It usually results in him having to pay a player more money than he otherwise would have. And even that may not be a problem for Jerry because he gets to talk about how he negotiated and paid out this huge contract. This time, however, the plan finally burned him. If you want to reach, or if you want to carry Jones' water for him, you might be able to put together a somewhat coherent argument as to how this can work out. Maybe those two first-round picks will pan out in the future. Maybe Clark is a great fit in the middle of Dallas' defensive line. Maybe. Maybe, maybe, maybe. The more maybe's you throw in, the more likely it is they are not going to all pan out. Clark is good, but he's not Parsons. He is not as disruptive, he is not as good and he is going to be 30 years old this season while Parsons is still only 26. Two first-round picks looks good on paper, but the Packers are a pretty good team — and will be even better with Parsons — and those picks will likely be in the back half of the first-round. You hope to find a good player with at least one of them, if not both. The odds that either one is as good as Parsons are long. Since winning their last Super Bowl during the 1995 season the Cowboys have consistently been one of the NFL's most mediocre franchises. Never truly awful, but never good. They will make the playoffs semi-regularly, but never go anywhere. They have the longest NFC Championship game drought in the conference. They never get close to the Super Bowl and have not been bonafide contenders in literal decades. A sane owner would look at those results and would have fired multiple general managers for that run. Jones has no one to fire because he is the general manager. And he likes the way he is doing things. The problem is it doesn't work. It hasn't worked. And it won't work. History has proven that.
Cowboys land three-time Pro Bowler in Micah Parsons trade
It may be no consolation to Dallas Cowboys fans, but their team did land an outstanding defensive player as part of the stunning blockbuster that sent Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday. The Cowboys have traded Parsons to the Packers in exchange for a pair of first-round draft picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark. While Clark is nowhere near the same caliber player as Parsons, he has been one of the top players at his position in the NFL for several years now. Clark spent nine seasons with the Packers after they drafted him in the first round out of UCLA in 2016. He became a full-time starter in 2017 and has started every game in which he has played since. Clark started all 17 games for Green Bay the past three seasons and has missed just one game in the last four years. He had a career-high 7.5 sacks and nine tackles for loss in 2023, which is when he made his third and most recent Pro Bowl. The 6-foot-3, 314-pound tackle also made the Pro Bowl in 2019 and 2021. Almost all Cowboys fans would have preferred for their team to work out a long-term extension with Parsons. The tension between the two sides simply escalated to the point where a divorce became the most viable option. If the Cowboys felt they had no choice but to trade Parsons, they at least seem to have maximized the return. The future first-round picks will give them flexibility to build through trades and/or the draft. It should also soften the blow — even if only slightly — that they landed a 29-year-old player who has played like an elite defensive tackle throughout much of his career.
Report reveals Cowboys’ final contract offer to Micah Parsons
Micah Parsons may not have wanted to leave the Dallas Cowboys, but it sounds like the star pass-rusher has secured himself a significant raise by doing so. Parsons was traded to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday in a stunning blockbuster deal. As part of the agreement, the Packers signed him to a 4-year, $188 million contract extension. The deal includes $136 million guaranteed. Parsons is now the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history in terms of both average annual salary and total guarantees. The $47 million average annual value on his new contract dwarfs the $41 million per year T.J. Watt got from the Pittsburgh Steelers and $40 million Myles Garrett got from the Cleveland Browns earlier this offseason. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, the Cowboys’ final offer to Parsons was for around the same annual salary as Watt and Garrett — $41 million or so per year. “Jerry Jones said when they had their negotiations with Micah Parsons they got to what he thought was an agreement, which was about $41 million or a little less per year in new money. He thought they were done,” Rapoport said. “The agents wanted to keep going. The Packers kept going. It is $47 million per year in new money on the extension. Micah Parsons’ agents did right by him. That is a $6 million-plus difference.” Jerry Jones has said publicly that he had a handshake agreement with Parsons in April but that Parsons’ agent torpedoed the deal. If that is true, that would mean Parsons had an offer for $40-41 million per year before both Watt and Garrett signed their deals, which would have reset the market. It would now be an understatement to say that Parsons reset the market with the Packers. Jones has gone into damage control mode by making some laughable claims about the trade, but there is no question Parsons is the big winner in the deal.
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