AL East rumors & news: De la Rosa, Bradley, Wang, Lohse

With spring training and the World Baseball Classice under way, teh teams of the AL East are busy evaluating their teams and make a few final moves to prepare for the surprisingly wide-open battle for the division title.

No Majors for You

The Red Sox have a number of exciting young prospects in their system right now, but this week we heard that two of them will not get a shot at the majors out of camp this year.

Rubby de la Rosa is impressing people this spring. However, Boston wants him to continue his development as a starter and they won’t consider using him out of the bullpen to start the season. The flame-throwing righty will land in AA or AAA after camp breaks.

Similarly, Jackie Bradley is a long shot to join Boston this April. The 2011 draft pick has wowed just about everyone with his glove in center and he is hitting an unreal .533/.588/.600 in camp so far (no, that is not a typo), but like de la Rosa, the 22 year old Bradley needs to play everyday and he won’t get the chance to do that with Jacoby Ellsbury and Shane Victorino around.

On Wang Watch

The World Baseball Classic has earned the reputation for helping to launch Japan’s best pitchers on to the American scene, but after a handful of games, the attention has turned from Japanese ace Masahiro Tanaka to Chinese Taipei’s top starter, the ex-Yankee Chien-Ming Wang.

The Yankees are interested in bringing back Wang to give them some extra pitching depth. Starter Phil Hughes is struggling with a back injury right now and Michael Pineda’s return date is still uncertain.

Despite their need for starters, the Yankees are not pursuing Kyle Lohse, the top free agent hurler still on the market. The Yankees are sticking to their guns about payroll reduction and signing Lohse would certainly be a step in the wrong direction in that respect.

New Birds Landing

The Orioles signed Cuban prospect Henry Urrutia last summer, but thanks to the complexities of the defection process, the outfielder has just made it into the country from Hiati this week.

The Blue Jays picked up ex-Red Sox prospect Lars Anderson on waivers from the White Sox. The former top prospect has been shuffled around on paper this off-season after being dealt by the Red Sox last summer for Indian’s knuckleball prospect Steven Wright. He was a member of the Indians, Reds and White Sox this winter before landing in Toronto.