Players Still Not Active Before Opening Day Still Hoping to Make ‘The Show’

While spring training is a good time to catch some of the game’s top prospects that are in major league camp and, even some Tim Tebow. It is also a time to find former All-Stars and forgotten about veterans who are hanging on for one last shot. Here are a dozen of the more interesting blasts from the past still clinging for one last shot to make The Show even though the odds may be stacked squarely against them.

Joe Nathan

As recently as 2013, Nathan saved 43 games and made an All-Star team while pitching for Texas. But after Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery in 2015, the veteran righty threw 6 1/3 innings in just 10 major league games last season for the Cubs and Giants — the team that drafted Nathan way back in 1995 as a shortstop.

All these years later, the 42-year old currently sits eighth all-time with 377 saves and he’s a six-time All-Star. He’s also looking for another chance after latching on with the Washington Nationals on a minor league deal. 

Jimmy Rollins

Of the 65 players taken in the first two rounds of the 1996 amateur draft, two men remain active: Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey and 38-year old Rollins. The aging veteran slashed .224/.287/.351 (78 OPS+) for the Dodgers and White Sox over the past two seasons and failed to catch on with another team after Chicago released him in June. The former MVP did, however, receive a call from TBS, who hired him as a postseason analyst.

Bronson Arroyo

Despite not appearing in a big league game since 2014, Arroyo asked his old team for one more chance to prove he can still pitch and the Reds were willing to give it a try. The 40-year old has been through Tommy John elbow surgery and a shoulder surgery since he last pitched for Cincinnati in 2013. But after 15 big league seasons and 145 victories, Arroyo is determined to give it one last shot.

Willy Mo Pena

Carlos Quentin

Willy Mo Pena and Carlos Quentin are back in the game? What year is it? After failing to make the Twins roster out of camp last season, Quentin asked for his release rather than taking a spot at the Triple-A level. That brought an end to his most recent comeback attempt, but it seems he’s giving it one last shot after agreeing to a minor league deal with the Red Sox. 

Quentin, who was named an All-Star in 2008 and 2011, did not receive an invite to Major League camp. 

Michael Morse

After two forgettable seasons with the Marlins and Pirates, 34-year old Michael Morse is back with the San Francisco Giants. Back in 2014, he cranked 16 homers in 131 games and became a postseason hero with the go-ahead RBI in Game 7 of the World Series. The Pirates released Morse two weeks into the 2016 season, and no one else picked him up. He figured his career was over.

Morse started doing some broadcast work for CBS Radio and the MLB Network, but he’s back wearing a uniform thanks to a chance encounter with San Francisco general manger Bobby Evans at Hunter Pence’s wedding in November.

Brandon League

The veteran reliever is somehow still only 33-years old and he’s one of 22 non-roster invitees in Kansas City camp. League, a 2001 second round pick of the Blue Jays, hasn’t pitched professional since 2015, or in the big leagues since 2014, after struggling with shoulder ailments. He picked up 74 saves in his career and has totaled a 3.65 ERA across parts of 11 seasons with the Blue Jays, Mariners and Dodgers.

Micah Owings

Although Owings hasn’t seen big league action since 2012, the 34-year old showed enough last year during a stint with the York Revolution of the Atlantic League to draw a call from Seattle’s general manager Jerry Dipoto, who goes back with Owings dating back to the time both were with Arizona.

After missing most of 2014 and all of 2015 with arm issues, Owings tossed 106 2/3 frames for York last season, recording a 4.30 ERA. 

Ryan Vogelsong

Vogelsong missed more than two months after taking a Jordan Lyles fastball off his face last May, but he was back throwing off a mound within two weeks. His finished with a 4.81 ERA for the Pirates last year and settled on a minor-league contract with the Minnesota Twins. He is competing for a job in the Twins’ rotation, but a role as a long man seems more likely.

The 39-year old journeyman’s career path includes Tommy John surgery in 2001, three seasons in Japan (2007-09) and two World Series rings with the San Francisco Giants.

Neal Cotts

The 2016 campaign saw the veteran lefty sign a slew of minor league deals, but he never made it back to the Majors despite solid results at the Triple-A level, where he pitched for the Angels, Rangers and Yankees affiliates.

Email Steven Simineri at ssimineri@fordham.edu and follow him on Twitter @SSimineri