It’s still the pitching, stupid.

A quick addendum to the earlier article about potential starting pitching targets: I asked Jon Daniels if—after the acquisitions of Doug Fister and Mike Minor—any position players were starting to creep up the priority list. Despite recent rumors that the Rangers might be interested in Carlos Santana, Daniels said that pitching was still the first, second, and third concern.

“It’s still mostly pitching,” Daniels began. “One of our objectives this offseason is—for those who are working for it and are deserving of it—to give our young position players an opportunity to go out and play. They’re not all going to be on the Opening Day roster, and it’s not going to be a day one thing for everybody, but unless it’s a really ideal fit, we’d like to give a few of our guys that shot. Our mindset has been to build out our pitching staff with a priority on strike-throwers, makeup, good values, flexibility on the club (financially). On the position player side, it has been to prioritize giving our guys every opportunity.”

“I got around these guys at the mini-camp, and one: they’re a really talented group. Two: they’re working hard. And three: they believe—not just in themselves, they believe in each other. They like the group together, and they’ve come up together. In some cases, they’ve already had opportunities, and in other cases, it’s– I don’t want to say now-or-never, but now’s the time, we feel like. So, unless it’s a spot we don’t really have filled, and that’s why I’ve been focusing on defense in certain areas, because there are certain spots where we’re a little more offensive than defensive. So if we do add a position player, it’s more likely to be someone that complements the group that way (defensively).”

I asked if Ronald Guzman was part of the group he was talking about. Daniels didn’t show his cards, but did compliment Guzman, saying this: “I think he’s in the conversation. I think there are some guys that have already gotten there, gotten their feet wet and showed some things, and Guzy’s just behind that group, but he had a great year at AAA. He can really hit, and he can really defend at first. He’s on the roster, and in a good position to help us this year as the opportunity comes up.”

Of course, if Guzman played first, Gallo would shift to left field, and Mazara would go to right, and Choo would play DH, and Calhoun would… well, it won’t be second base: he told us last week that the team has told him he will exclusively be playing outfield. And even if he did supplant Rougned Odor, it’s worth noting that every one of the players listed in this paragraph bats left-handed. Daniels is aware of that. “Yeah, if we could balance that out, we could. Ultimately, we lean too heavily left-side, but as we work through things, I think you go Pitching Staff… Defense… Our Left-Handedness probably falls behind those in the priority list.”

Carlos Santana, it should be noted, is a switch-hitter.