Cactus League report: Is this the year Chicago becomes SoxTown? And David Ross is ‘very optimistic’ about fans returning to Wrigley Field.

Kansas City Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, a career .251 hitter over five seasons, has a 100-1 chance to win the American League Most Valuable Player award, according to Oddschecker.com. Those may seem like long odds, but considering hardly anyone knows who Mondesi is, they’re incredibly low. “The love for Adalberto Mondesi is confusing to me,” an Oddschecker spokesman told the Kansas City Star. “He’s never won any kind of award and he’s never even put together a 3-WAR season. For him to win the MVP award would be an all-time shocker. Yet bettors seem to love him.” … A fan poll by The Athletic on the preferred new nickname for the Cleveland Indians is down to two finalists: Guardians and Commodores. Guardians stems from some art deco sculptures called the Guardians of Traffic, while Commodores apparently relates to a naval officer and not the band. … The Seattle Mariners are still doing damage control after the caustic comments of former President Kevin Mather, who insulted several players. “We are very open with our players and urge them to be the same. And if they want to be angry, they should be, frankly. They should be insulted,” general manager Jerry Dipoto said. “But at the same time, they are collectively driven toward what we’re trying to do here as a team.”