Projecting the Dodgers and the National League West

A light amount of Dodgers and Major League Baseball news and notes for a Monday morning.

Dodgers news

• Juan Toribio at MLB.com answered Dodgers questions less than a week before opening day.
• Mike Axisa at CBS Sports wrote, “Spring training is full of lies, but these numbers mean something,” but among his handful of spring stats that matter was Cody Bellinger’s strikeout-filled, stance-tinkering March.
• Staffers at the Southern California News Group made MLB season predictions on Sunday, and all five picked the Dodgers to win the National League West.
• For what it’s worth, projections at Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs are also high on the Dodgers, each tabbing Los Angeles for the best record in MLB this year.
• The Associated Press broadly previewed the National League West last week, with a summary of all five teams heading into the season.
• Former Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis had his jersey number retired at Austin Peay over the weekend

MLB news

• The Padres on Sunday morning traded for Sean Manaea, who then pitched against his old team, the A’s in a spring training game. Gaslamp Ball has more on the move.
• San Diego manager Bob Melvin on Sunday also said that pitcher Mike Clevinger is likely to begin the season on the injured list with a knee soreness.
• Carlos Beltran in an interview with YES Network said the 2017 Astros World Series title — in his final season as a player — was “stained” by the team’s sign-stealing scandal, after which Beltran was fired from his newly-hired role as Mets manager. In the interview, Beltran said, “Looking back now, yes, we did cross the line.”