So we’re a little more than halfway through spring training. In two weeks the season will officially kick off so frontrunners are emerging and some young players are being sent down to the minors to start the season. Here’s a look at some of the latest spring training battles based on some of the news to emerge this past week.

New York Yankees Infield

Nothing like beating a dead horse for the fourth straight week, right? The talk of the Yankees second and third base jobs has been wildly popular in this piece since we started covering position battles a few weeks back. The good news is that fantasy baseball owners now have some clarity on one of those battles. Earlier this week the Yankees announced they would be optioning top prospect Gleyber Torres to the minor leagues to start the year. Is this somewhat surprising? Sure because there’s a lot of hype around him and it seemed like a no-brainer he would be the starting second basemen from 2018 until the end of time. But let’s remember he is still just 21 and still pretty raw. On top of that he’s still recovering from Tommy John surgery.

What’s left at second base for the Yankees? Well Neil Walker was recently signed to the team and will make his debut on Friday. But at the same time Tyler Wade has had a very solid spring hitting .321 (9-for-28) with a pair of doubles and a stolen base. He has, however, been picked off three times. Brandon Drury continues to surprise the Yankees. He’s hitting .300 (9-for-30) with a home run and three doubles. So while there is still a position battle going on at second (don’t write off Ronald Torreyes just yet either), the front runner at the start of the spring is now out of the race. But don’t count him out just yet. He could easily come up later this season after getting more experience at the position in the minors.

Los Angeles Dodgers Catcher

Yasmani Grandal finished as a top 12 catcher last season. With the catcher position, that may not be saying much due to the position scarcity. He slashed .247/.308/.459 with 22 home runs last year. But the strikeout rate went up and the walk rate went down. Neither Grandal nor Austin Barnes have had particularly stellar springs and Grandal is probably still the favorite for the job. He only has six hits so far this spring, but three of them have been home runs. Barnes is 2-for-20, but he offers the upside of multi-position eligibility as he can also slot in at second base. His spring performance shouldn’t sway you from drafting him. He’s still a pretty good hitter. He may not have Grandal’s power, but he displays more plate discipline. In 2017 he slashed .289/.408/.486 so he’s worth targeting in points leagues because of his 14.9% walk rate. Barnes is a former top prospect that’s simply a little late to the big league party. Grandal will likely log a majority of the starts behind the plate, but this could probably help Barnes’s season if he can play more at second base. He has position eligibility at two of the most shallow spots in fantasy baseball. He’s quite the commodity.

Los Angeles Dodgers Rotation

Might as well stick with the Dodgers for the next position battle. For the record Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill, Alex Wood, and Kenta Maeda are in no danger of losing their jobs. This pertains mostly to the battle for the last spot in the rotation. Hyun-Jin Ryu started his tenure with the Dodgers very well. Between 2013 and 2014 he went 28-15 in those two years logging 344 innings of work and posting BB/9 rates below 3.00 and HR/9 rates below 1.00 each year. Unfortunately injuries have certainly derailed him quite a bit since then. Last year he did have a 3.77 ERA, also had a 4.74 FIP.  Those rates mentioned earlier? Well In 2016 he had a BB/9 of 3.86 and a HR/9 of 1.93 and in 2017 those numbers were 3.20 and 1.56 respectively. He’s clearly not the same player. Currently the Dodgers do have one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball with Walker Buehler. Buehler has a very good fastball (mid-90’s velocity) and a nice slider and curveball. He does need to improve his changeup and get good enough velocity separation from the fastball. But the Dodgers may opt to be careful to with their 23-year-old righty. It’s likely he starts out of the bullpen or even starts the year in the minors. Organizations are doing more and more to protect their young pitchers so unfortunately Ryu likely starts the 2018 season as the Dodgers fifth starter. However, keep an eye on Buehler as he could have an impact later this season if/when Ryu gets hurt.

St. Louis Cardinals Closer

Luke Gregerson, the Cardinals early season top closing candidate, has unfortunately suffered a minor oblique injury that could sideline him for the rest of spring training. However, don’t write him off just yet. The injury comes at a bad time for Gregerson, who turns 34 in a couple months. After logging ten straight seasons with 55 innings of work out of the bullpen he seemed like a reliable arm that has done well enough to avoid injury. For now, if you’re looking to stash a reliever in deeper leagues that could log some saves should the injury hamper Gregerson a little longer, then Dominic Leone is the guy to grab. In 2017 with the Blue Jays, Leone logged 70.1 innings of work with a 2.56 ERA, 10.36 K/9, and 0.77 HR/9. John Mozeliak, the Cardinals president of baseball operations, even went so far as to say that if the season started today then Leone would be the closer. Keep in mind that they do expect Gregerson to be ready for the start of the season. If the injury does get worse it wouldn’t be entirely too surprising to see the Cardinals express interest in Greg Holland who is oddly still a free agent. But given that they seem content with their bullpen (and the fact that the Braves and Diamondbacks have checked in on Holland) don’t expect St. Louis to sign him unless they’re absolutely desperate.

Cleveland Indians Rotation

When healthy the Indians have one of the best rotations in baseball. A few weeks back the fourth and fifth spots behind Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and Trevor Bauer were up for grabs. Josh Tomlin, Mike Clevinger, and Danny Salazar were all competing for those two spots and regrettably Mike Clevinger was predicted as the odd man out as painful as it was to say. Well the good news is that it looks like Tomlin and Clevinger will be in the starting rotation to start the season. The bad news is that it looks like Danny Salazar will once again be sidelined with an injury. This is frustrating because Indians fans and fantasy baseball players are always playing the “what if” game with Salazar. Since his big league debut back in 2013 he has just one season with more than 140 innings of work. It sucks because everyone knows about his strikeout potential. For now a sore shoulder will keep him sidelined to start 2018.

This is obviously good news for Tomlin and Clevinger. While Tomlin doesn’t have much fantasy upside, Clevinger is certainly worth targeting as he really came on strong late last year. Also, Trevor Bauer should be shooting up everyone’s draft boards. Bauer recently commented that he’s been using his full arsenal of pitches more and this included a new slider that has proven to be very effective. Most recently in a spring training outing against the Rangers he struck out eight over five innings. Definitely consider Bauer as a pitcher with a high ceiling heading into 2018.

Texas Rangers Outfield

This hasn’t been a notorious position battle by any means, but there was some news to come out of Texas this week that offers some clarity to start the season. First off, nobody’s taking away Nomar Mazara’s job in right field. You’d like to see better plate discipline to get the strikeout rate down a bit, but the Rangers certainly won’t complain about his 20+ home run upside. Additionally the Rangers optioned Willie Calhoun to the minor leagues to work on his defense. Calhoun was a big prospect that came over from the Dodgers in the Yu Darvish deal. His natural position is second base, but with Rougned Odor not relinquishing that job the Rangers are trying to move Calhoun to the outfield, but he does need to work on his defense so he won’t start 2018 with the big league club. This leaves Ryan Rua, Drew Robinson, and Jurickson Profar to work as a platoon in left field with Profar also getting some work in the infield. This is great news for Delino DeShields. DeShields was in no real danger of losing his job, but he’ll also head into 2018 as the leadoff man. This presents more plate appearances hitting at the top of the order. DeShields, in 120 games last season, had 29 steals. If he can get the strikeouts down and improve his on-base percentage he could potentially steal 50 bases in 2018. He should be a late-round outfield target for fantasy baseball players in five-outfielder leagues seeking a cheap source for steals.

San Diego Padres Left Field

With the acquisition of Eric Hosmer in the offseason, the Padres had to move some pieces around. They moved All-Star first baseman Wil Myers to right field, which meant there would be a battle for the left field starting job between Jose Pirela and Hunter Renfroe. Pirela has emerged as the frontrunner. So far this spring he’s hitting .467 (14-for-30) with two home runs, a triple, three doubles, and a stolen base. The best part of this position battle is that both guys will probably get regular playing time with Pirela likely logging quite a few games at second base. Renfroe is also having a pretty nice spring as he’s hitting .250 (10-for-40) with three home runs and four doubles. The Padres have a very underrated offense heading into this season and there are some nice late round values that could pay off nicely for your fantasy team.

Atlanta Braves Rotation

Luiz Gohara’s injury could not have come at a worse time. He had already missed a portion of the spring with a strained groin and now he’s dealing with an ankle injury. So this presents opportunities for other names. Julio Teheran, Brandon McCarthy, Mike Foltynewicz, and Sean Newcomb figure to be the regular names in the rotation to start the season. McCarthy seems healthy which has dogged him most of his career, Folty is a hard-throwing righty that looks to have made solid improvements, and Newcomb looked phenomenal in his last start against the Phillies throwing 4.2 perfect innings and striking out six. The Gohara injury certainly opens the door for guys like Scott Kazmir, Max Fried, Lucas Sims, Aaron Blair, and Matt Wisler. While Gohara likely starts the season on the disabled list he should re-enter the rotation when healthy and he could finish as a top 40 starting pitcher. For now, keep an eye on who wins the fifth starting job. They may be worth some consideration in NL-only leagues, but you could just as easily find them on waivers.