Major League Baseball is dealing with several employment issues not relating to big league players. As Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com reported yesterday, MLB owners voted in January to permit teams the authority to take away pension plans from any employees that do not wear a uniform. (The effect would be prospective only.) MLB COO Rob Manfred noted that the vote does not require such a course of action and said no team has cut pension benefits, while asserting defined contribution plans are a reasonable alternative retirement structure. Though Rubin reports that some clubs appear primed to make reductions, Manfred disputed that it was inevitable. Meanwhile, as Wendy Thurm of Fangraphs details, MLB is now defending multiple lawsuits filed by interns, volunteers, and, most recently, minor league ballplayers.
Here are some notes from the National League …
- After today's trade for catcher Jose Lobaton and a pair of prospects, Nationals GM Mike Rizzo explained his reasoning, Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post was among those to report. RIzzo said that Lobaton "fit the criteria we were looking for" due to his switch-hitting abilities and solid pitch-framing ratings, the latter of which Rizzo labeled "key" to the deal. "Switch hitting is certainly a bonus," said Rizzo. "Our statistical analysis people rank all the catchers in baseball, and he ranks very well in the framing." Rizzo said that he was particularly high on Felipe Rivero, indicating that he felt like he took the place of fellow 22-year-old southpaw Robbie Ray, who was shipped out in the Doug Fister deal. The Washington GM labeled Rivero a "huge-upside left-handed starter."
- The Pirates' inability to reel back A.J. Burnett is based, at root, in a decision not to allocate all of the club's free payroll space to one arm, writes Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Though Pittsburgh ultimately made a $12MM offer to Burnett, the club went into the off-season hoping to spread approximately $17MM to $19MM among multiple acquisitions, and came close to landing both Josh Johnson and James Loney. That explains much of the team's decision not to make Burnett a qualifying offer, says Sawchik, though he opines that the offer likely would have been declined. "It's always easy to look in hindsight," said GM Neal Huntington. "If [Burnett had] accepted the offer it would have had a significant impact on what we could have done. … It would have affected our approach on the first base market, the right field market, and bullpen market. If we had [a] crystal ball and seen this is the way it would play out maybe things are different."
- Even after inking Burnett to a $16MM deal that reportedly pushes the Phillies player contract tab right up to (if not over) the $189MM luxury tax line, GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said today that the club's payroll remains flexible, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
- Philadelphia reliever Antonio Bastardo will look to return from a 50-game PED suspension last year arising out of the Biogenesis scandal. In addition to expressing contrition today, he said that he faced a 100-game ban had he appealed, tweets Nightengale.
- Reds GM Walt Jocketty explained how his club came to claim Cubs righty Brett Marshall off of waivers, as MLB.com's Mark Sheldon reports. "I talked to him and he sounded like a good kid," said Jocketty. "We had good reports on him. He had one of the best changeups in the Yankees organization. He's a sinkerballer with a good slider. He's got a couple of options left."
It amazes me how much pitch framing has entered into the conversation. You would think that it wouldn’t have as large an effect on MLB umpires as executives, scouts and writers are making it out to be recently.
My totally amateur opinion on the matter, as someone who has caught for ~15 years in totally amateur baseball and read somewhat on the topic, is that there is little an umpire can do not to be “fooled,” if you will, by framing. Read about and watch the stuff that guys like Lucroy do: it’s all about being quiet, maintaining a certain body position, etc., that changes the perception of the ump relative to what he sees from other catchers on similar pitches.
The guys that do it well are extremely subtle, and really do make borderline pitches look more like strikes to those peering over their shoulders. Nearly as importantly, perhaps, they don’t try to make bad pitches look like strikes. It is highly dependent upon the particular pitcher, umpire, and individual batter, over the course of a game. The best receivers create an overall effect of honestly presenting pitches, but then shade some slightly in their own favor, and it adds up over a season.
Regarding pensions. Sad actually, while players get millions and millions that they could never spend all the support people making 40K are at risk to lose their pensions. If this is to save more money to give to players the next step is layoffs. Who will wash the players clothes and carry their bags….Then the union will bitch because the players are inconvenienced.
One wonders why MLB needs to take away pensions from ordinary working people. I had no idea that the league was in such financial distress.
No money for pension for those at the bottom of the heirarchy because the one on top are getting paid millions. Selig’s salary alone was $22mil. Now that he will finally retire, do you think his pension would be taken away as well?
Pleased the Pirates signed LHP Yao-Hsun Yang to a minor league contract and invited him to Spring Training.