Andrew Bailey and Chris Coghlan, the rookies of the year in their respective leagues last season, did not attend spring training with major league contracts or with major league roster spots. Nor did 8 of the 15 other rookies who received votes in the Baseball Writers Association election.

Ten of the top 17 rookies were non-roster invitees to their teams’ spring training camps. They were part of the largest group of players ever to receive non-roster invitations to spring training.

In 2009, teams issued spring invitations to 580 non-roster players, according to the commissioner’s office. One-third of those players, 195, wound up playing at least one game in the majors.

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Manny Ramirez told Los Angeles reporters earlier this week that this would be his last season with the Dodgers. At the same time a revealing document showed up in the court that is hearing the nasty divorce case of the team’ owners, Jamie and Frank McCourt.

Wait a minute. Maybe I should reword that sentence. Maybe it should read the nasty divorce case of Frank McCourt, the Dodgers’ owner, against his wife Jamie because Frank says he owns the Dodgers and Jamie doesn’t. Whatever. Let’s not detract from the important issue here. That is Ramirez’s mindset.

Manny didn’t say why he plans to leave the Dodgers when his contract with them expires after the coming season. Maybe he didn’t want to say. But maybe he wants to leave them because he is distraught at the prospect of the McCourts breaking up. Don’t snicker. Manny, at his advancing age, has become a sensitive guy. All right, go head and snicker.

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When spring training began a year ago, there was no question that the most stunning development of the off-season had been the New York Yankees’ $423.5 million expenditure for three free agents – CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira. With spring training under way, one team gets the nod for the most stunning development of this year’s off-season, and the expenditure wasn’t anywhere near that of the Yankees.

It was the Cincinnati Reds and their signing of Aroldis Chapman for $30.25 million.

A Cuban defector, Chapman was pursued by the usual suspects, but it was the Reds, most often a non-player in these games, who nabbed him. That is simply mind-boggling. How did the Reds pull it off?

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