Montreal signed 1B-S Jose Offerman to a minor league deal in late February. Offerman will compete for a bench job in Spring Training and receive a $350,000 salary if he makes the team. Montreal could certainly use a back-up at first base and may have room on the roster. However, one of the reasons the Expos were interested in signing him was that he is willing to play in the minors until they want him in the majors. Consequently unless someone goes down in Spring Training, he's likely to head to AAA when the season starts until a roster spot opens due to injury. The 34-year-old has always displayed strong plate discipline skills, though that has rarely translated into pretty batting averages. He offers little power and has not been a threat on the basepaths for a couple years.

Darron Ingram also signed a minor league deal with the Expos. Cincinnati drafted Ingram out of high school with their 12th round pick of the 1994 draft. After attaining free agency prior to the 2000 season, he spent a season in the Dodgers organization and two with the White Sox. The 26-year-old split last season between AA Birmingham and AAA Charlotte, displaying moderate power potential and a steady walk rate but a poor contact rate. If he can find playing time at AAA and improve his contact rate, he might be able to land a job as a reserve outfielder in a couple years, but I don't see him making an impact on the Expos in 2003.

Meanwhile fellow former contraction candidate Minnesota is preparing for the season with the knowledge that starter Eric Milton will be out for at least the first month of the year. Milton will undergo surgery on his left knee sometime soon. This knee is the same one the 27-year-old had repaired last season after he tore his lateral meniscus. However, the surgery is not expected to be overly invasive, so he should be able to begin rehab in a month and rejoin the team a month after that time.

In Milton's absence, Johan Santana will fill his rotation spot. Santana wouldn't need an injury to open up a rotation spot for him on many other teams. In his 13 starts last season, he compiled an 89:38 K:BB with 58 H and 6 HR allowed in 74.2 IP for a 3.13 ERA. While the walk rate is a bit above target levels, his high strikeout totals helped keep his hit rate low and limit his total baserunners. I suspect the Twins may once again have at least one starter on the disabled list for most of the season, so Santana should be able to hold onto his rotation spot. They could also choose to bump either Kyle Lohse or even Joe Mays to the pen if one of the two is performing worse than Santana while Brad Radke, Rick Reed, and Milton are all simultaneously healthy.

Continuing our theme of teams with names beginning with the letter M, Milwaukee will be without Nick Neugebauer for most and probably all of the season. Neugebauer underwent surgery to repair a frayed rotator cuff at the end of February and isn't scheduled to begin his rehab until sometime between August and November. He could return to the majors in September, but it is more likely he won't rejoin the big league team until next Spring Training. His arm has always been viewed as somewhat delicate so this comes as little surprise given the shoulder problems he complained of last season. Neugebauer underwent surgery to repair a partially torn rotator cuff in September of 2001.

As a part of the procedure, the doctor used anchors to secure his labrum, which could diminish his flexibility and therefore cut the speed of his fastball. A drop in velocity would likely be quite detrimental for Neugebauer, who has yet to establish decent control of his pitches. Due to his control problems, he wasn't expected to break camp in the rotation, so the Brewers do not need to hunt up a replacement starter. Starter Ben Sheets has been experiencing back spasms that have prevented him from pitching in any Spring Training games so far this year, but he is expected to be fine this week. If Milwaukee eventually needs to replace an injured starter, they will likely turn to Matt Kinney.

Last week the Brewers signed OF-R Bernard Gilkey and RHP Tim Crabtree to minor league deals. We chastised the Cubs for signing Gilkey to a minor league deal last year due to his history of multiple DUI problems. Unfortunately, Milwaukee's outfield is sufficiently fragile that he might receive a call-up if he performs well at AAA during the year.

Toronto drafted Crabtree out of Michigan State University in the second round of the 1992 draft and traded him to Texas for catcher Kevin Brown in 1998. After attaining free agency prior to last season, Crabtree signed with the Dodgers. He'd undergone surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in July of 2001 and therefore missed the majority of the 2002 season. He did not receive an invitation to major league camp, so he'll begin the season at AAA. However, prior to his injury he'd demonstrated significant promise as a reliever, so I wouldn't be surprised if the 33-year-old received a call-up this season after gaining notice for a solid performance at AAA.