All-NRI Team 2013

As of today, workouts should have commenced at every team's spring training camps, signaling the official first day of spring, a full month before the traditional pagan-revered spring equinox. 30 facilities in Arizona and Florida are filled to the brim with pitchers and catchers and position players getting themselves in tip top shape in preparation for the long-awaited baseball season. And although I've made it my personal mission to document the inner workings of each team's 40-man roster, there will be a lot more than 1,200 athletes reporting in total.

When certain second-tier players are signed to minor league deals, those deals often include invitations to big league spring training. Add to those the prospects that GMs think could benefit from some seasoning, and you have the non-roster invitees (or NRI's). I did some digging and compiled a lineup made up of the top NRI's across the majors. To clarify, these are the players who scored the most points in the majors last year. I'm not on top of the track records of every team's minor league signings (at least not yet) nor do I know enough about their farm systems to judge the players who need a scouting report to be evaluated.

Let's mix things up from my earlier lineups and start with the rotation. 13-year veteran Freddy Garcia struggled to the tune of a 5.20 ERA for the Yankees last year, but nevertheless gave them some important innings, including for the first time from out of the bullpen. He'll compete for a spot in an already-crowded Padres rotation mix that will hopefully see some better luck in terms of injuries this year - the Friars ended last season with five starters on the DL. Erik Bedard also suffered through a 5+ ERA season while helping the Pirates in their quest for their first winning season in more than a decade, but looks pretty well poised to spend a significant amount of time in a disturbingly weak Houston rotation. Aaron Laffey didn't do anything tremendous for Toronto last year, but he's a good fallback option for a Mets team that has a lot riding on the injury comebacks of Johan Santana and Shaun Marcum. Samuel Deduno had a decent rookie season with Minnesota, but a decline later in the year was the cause for the Twins to bring him back on just a minor league deal. And finally, it's unlikely that Aaron Cook will get any significant time as No. 7 or 8 on a very talented Phillies pitching staff.

Before moving onto the bullpen, there are a few high-profile starters who scored in the negative last year, but whose name recognition merits their inclusion as honorable mentions: Jonathan Sanchez will try to catch on with the Pirates, Daisuke Matsuzaka signed with the Indians, Jair Jurrjens is now with the Orioles, and Nick Blackburn is still owed $5.5 million by Minnesota as part of an extension he signed in 2010. It's unusual to see a legit ninth inning presence on this list, but Matt Capps has three years of closing under his belt, but will have to battle to contribute to Cleveland's setup corps behind Chris Perez. While I could see a decent bullpen forming of the guys listed above, it's more interesting to mention the veterans who didn't make the team: LaTroy Hawkins, Chad Qualls (another three-team player) and Kevin Gregg will try to break camp with the Mets, Marlins, and Dodgers, respectively.

Of the various former high-profile veteran catchers signed to minor league deals this winter, Rod Barajas, who returns to the team that first signed him, is not only the top performer from last year, but also the best bet to catch on with a big league deal. Miguel Montero is an elite catcher (#5 on MLB.com's positional chart), but he's never played more than 141 games and the only backup the Diamondbacks have on their roster is Wil Nieves. No. 2 on the depth chart Miguel Olivo could fit in nicely to a mediocre Reds catching mix that includes former prospect Devin Mesoraco and backup caliber Ryan Hanigan. Honorable Mentions: Jesus Flores, who logged significant time with the Nationals for the first time since 2008 while Wilson Ramos was dealing with fallout from his harrowing kidnapping ordeal, but wasn't needed when Washington acquired Kurt Suzuki at the trade deadline, should provide backup or the Dodgers behind A.J. Ellis and Tim Federowicz. Yorvit Torrealba (one of just four players to spend time with three different teams this season) will compete with Ramon Hernandez for the Rockies' backup catcher job. Humberto Quintero could spend some early-season time with the Phillies while Carlos Ruiz serves his suspension.

This team's top overall scorer Casey Kotchman was once a top 10 prospect, but now he's been bouncing around at the clip of seven teams in the last six years. For the Marlins, he'll light the fire under Logan Morrison, who is moving from left field to first base where his balky knee shouldn't give him as much trouble. Yuniesky Betancourt, somewhat of a fan favorite when he played shortstop for Seattle, picked up the rest of the infield positions last year with Kansas City - which are good tools to have, given the injuries that so often befall the Phillies' infield. After 12 years with the Tigers, Brandon Inge became expendable with Miguel Cabrera's move across the diamond to the hot corner. After being cut loose by Detroit, he was picked up by the A's and delivered some memorable walk-off hits while filling in until Josh Donaldson was ready to take the job. He'll be blocked in Pittsburgh by Pedro Alvarez, but he should provide a solid veteran presence off the bench. Cody Ransom had an interesting journey last year: he started with Arizona, then was claimed off waivers by Milwaukee, only to be claimed right back a couple months later. He should ride the bench with the Padres next year backing up Chase Headley and Everth Cabrera on the left side of their infield.

In another story of a player returning to his original team, Juan Rivera is all but a lock to make the Yankees as a fourth outfielder/backup first baseman, a role he played for the Dodgers last year. Speaking of the Dodgers, center fielder Tony Gwynn is the only player in this starting lineup to be returning to his same 2012 team as an NRI. But despite all their high-profile additions, Gwynn might be needed to fill some early-season outfield holes as Matt Kemp and Carl Crawford recover from their various injuries. Brian Bogusevic might have been the league's least-deserving starting outfielder in 2012, so it makes sense that he would move from one 100-loss team to another, where he joins a Cubs reserve outfield mix that includes Tony Campana and Scott Hairston. Shelley Duncan played some left field with the Indians last year, but will be looking to provide a right-handed compliment to Luke Scott in the Rays' DH mix.

Nothing that exciting to say about the bench, except that Jeff Baker and Scott Moore are more utility type players than they appear on paper. As far as honorable mentions, I could see Jayson Nix landing the same utility infield role with the Yankees as he had last season. Barring an abysmal spring, Rick Ankiel is basically a lock to win a starting job with the Astros, since I've scoured their 40 man roster for weeks now, and I still can't find three major league caliber outfielders. Likewise, Bryan Petersen and Austin Kearns are good bets to return to the Marlins as bench outfielders.

Spring Training games officially start next Thursday with the Red Sox playing a pair of split squad games. To say I can't wait for actual real-life baseball to start could be the understatement of the off-season.