Padres: Jake Cronenworth Working Through a Love-Hate Relationship with First Base Glove
Valentine's Day is a day to show love for that special someone in your life. If you don't have a special someone — and we have no idea whether Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth does or not — at least show love to your baseball equipment.
Cronenworth has been working out at first base in preparation for the 2023 season, as the addition of Xander Bogaerts likely shifts Ha-Seong Kim to second base and Cronenworth over to first. He's played some first base, but just 45 games in his career and never regularly. So this spring, his main objective will be to get comfortable over at first.
On Valentine's Day, he wasn't overly comfortable, and he wasn't afraid to blame it on his glove. (NSFW content warning.)
Luckily, it looks like it was just a temporary spat, the kind of quarrel that would suggest a longer relationship than Cronenworth and his first baseman's mitt actually have. By Wednesday, they seemed to have made up.
Cronenworth is coming off his worst season, but he was still well above-average offensively and provided solid defense at second base, making his second straight All-Star team. He started four games at first base and moved there defensively later in the game 16 other times, with all 20 appearances coming prior to the trade deadline (i.e., during the Hosmer Years).
In 2023, though, first base is all Jake's, so he's going to need to develop a really meaningful relationship with that mitt over the next six weeks. Come late March, those throws are going to count.