With the start of Spring Training just over a month away, it’s looking more and more possible that longtime right fielder Jay Bruce will still be in a Reds uniform when camp opens. Bruce has been one of several veteran players the club has explored trading this winter.

Pitching coach Carl Willis joined the Red Sox in the middle of a weekend series in Toronto last May and got right to work. There was little time for pleasantries, or even a chance to get to know the individual members of the pitching staff he was hired to lead.

After a slow start to the New Year, Major League executives picked up the pace in recent days. With roughly one month until Spring Training, fantasy owners will need to keep close tabs on the key transactions from recent days.

Eight weeks into his job as Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts has become familiar with his new front office, his new coaching staff and his new role. On Thursday, Roberts will get to know his biggest challenge. He’s meeting with Yasiel Puig.

6ix Gods.

This free-agent season has made run prevention the big-ticket item. Run creation is still waiting, in some prominent cases, for its turn at bat.

Each addition the Marlins make now dramatically reduces the chances they are looking to subtract from the core of their roster. After a mostly quiet offseason, Miami made its big splash this week, agreeing to terms with free-agent lefty Wei-Yin Chen, and signing All-Star second baseman Dee Gordon to a five-year contract. The two moves increase the probability that the club is not intending to trade either Jose Fernandez or Marcell Ozuna.

The Players Trust poker tournament wasn’t the only potentially lucrative event on the mind of baseball players on Wednesday at the MGM Grand Hotel. There was that nationwide Powerball craze, too.

Jordan Schafer the outfielder will also be Jordan Schafer the pitcher when he tries to make the Dodgers as a non-roster invitee this spring. The club has not confirmed the signing.

A ballpark filled with nachos, perhaps?

Out on the baseball field, they’re the directors, the producers, the actors and the screenwriters.

Yes, it’s a long season in baseball. But for players who can’t wait to get back on the field, it’s a long offseason, too.

Mitch Geller is a marketing executive in Los Angeles who knows less about poker than he does about baseball. But there he was at the MGM Grand Hotel on the Vegas strip on Wednesday night, winning the jerseys off the backs of real life Major League Baseball players.

Luis Arroyo, a left-handed pitcher who helped the Yankees win the 1961 World Series, died Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. He was 88.

Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, Marlins president Michael Hill and A’s president Billy Beane have flown under the radar.

On Tuesday, the Commissioner’s Office and the Players Association sent a memo to clubs stating that the parties had agreed to jointly subsidize a Spanish-language translator program, an initiative that was championed by big league veteran Carlos Beltran.

When discussing the Pirates’ rotation, general manager Neal Huntington has often praised Gerrit Cole and Francisco Liriano as a dynamic one-two punch few clubs can match. Beyond that, he has said the Bucs are banking on improvements from Jon Niese and Ryan Vogelsong — and a more consistent year from Jeff Locke.