MLB

We are now just a week from the start of the 2015 MLB season, but there is still a lot of work to do as teams make their final and, generally, most difficult decisions to trim their rosters down to 25 players.

That roster crunch always makes for at least a few surprises.

Whether it's an unexpected non-roster invitee forcing his way onto a team, a deserving player winding up on the outside looking in, a late-spring trade or the outright release of an established veteran, a lot can happen before teams pack up and head north.

This is the magical time of year when all 30 MLB teams stand on an even playing field, entering the new season with a fresh slate and an endless array of optimism.

Let's fix that.

Sure, anything is possible. After all, the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals clashed in the World Series with a combined plus-78 run differential during the regular season. The Seattle Mariners, who boasted MLB's sixth-best scoring margin at plus-80, missed the postseason.

Former Seattle Mariners pitching prospect Victor Sanchez died Saturday due to injuries suffered in a boating accident in February that resulted in a fractured skull after a boat propellor hit him in the head.

Even though the 2015 Chicago Cubs baseball season is just a week away, the hot topic of discussion lately has not been the state of the team; rather, it has been the fate of the historic Wrigley Field.

Chairman Tom Ricketts has already announced that the ballpark will not be ready for Opening Day, and renovations could take an extra year to complete.

It looks like Mike Trout is ready for Opening Day.

Along with putting up some very impressive numbers at the plate during spring training, the Los Angeles Angels star has also been showing off his skills in center field.

In top of the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, Alex Guerrero hit a deep shot to center. Trout kept his eye on the ball and made a great play at the wall, robbing Guerrero of a potential extra-base hit.

It's not always easy to be optimistic for 2015 when your team finished the previous season with the worst record in MLB.

However, the Arizona Diamondbacks are not a typical last-place-caliber team. With most of the team returning strong, along with several key offseason acquisitions, anything less than an improvement from 2014 would be a disappointment.

Here are three reasons why the D-Backs should be optimistic as the 2015 season rapidly approaches.

Opening Day of the 2015 Major League Baseball season is inching closer. In turn, teams are inching closer to "completing" their 25-man rosters.

Yes, the quotation marks on "completing" are necessary. Because while a complete roster technically means a roster without holes, every team is going to break camp with at least one notable hole on its roster.

But some holes will be more notable than most, and those are the ones we're here to talk about.

One of the hottest topics of this spring training centers around Kris Bryant, the Chicago Cubs' uber-prospect who is blowing up and lapping the field with nine home runs during the exhibition season so far.

The crack of the bat, the pop of the ball meeting leather and roster cuts—they're all an indelible part of spring.

While the first two elicit nostalgia, the last one is an undeniable bummer. Writing for Fox Sports, former major league hurler C.J. Nitkowski describes the agony of the annual ritual:

Carlos Gonzalez's career has been plagued by injuries, and the issue is already cropping up ahead of the 2015 season.

Continue for updates.

Gonzalez Leaves Game with Knee Soreness

Friday, March 27

According to Nick Groke of The Denver Post, Gonzalez left the Colorado Rockies' spring training game late Friday night with soreness in his left knee: