The Yankees have spoken with veteran Royals outfielder Raul Ibanez about their hitting coach position, George A. King III of the New York Post writes. Since Ibanez was still technically a Royal during the team’s World Series run (although he was not on their active roster), the Yankees waited until late this week to contact him. The 42-year-old Ibanez has an excellent clubhouse reputation, although, obviously, he has never been a professional hitting coach. The Yankees have interviewed Chili Davis (who ended up in Boston) and Dave Magadan (who returned to the Rangers). Here are more notes from the East divisions.
- The Phillies’ pair of deals involving current Giants star Hunter Pence turned out horribly, Ryan Lawrence of the Daily News writes. Jarred Cosart is already contributing in the big leagues, and Jon Singleton and Domingo Santana, who joined Cosart in heading to Houston when the Phillies acquired Pence, are both promising. Meanwhile, little remains of the Phillies’ haul when they sent Pence to San Francisco — catcher Tommy Joseph has struggled to stay healthy, while pitcher Seth Rosin, who will be 26 next week, was demoted to Double-A at one point this summer.
- The Marlins appear likely to exercise their option on catcher Jeff Mathis, writes MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. The 31-year-old Mathis has never hit well (he batted just .200/.263/.274 last season), but he’s competent defensively and he’s cheap, at just $1.5MM for 2015. If the Marlins do in fact pick up his option, he’ll spend another season as Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s backup.
Ibanez would have hit like 15 hr in the world series alone. That was a mistake.
The Phillies FO is a train wreck….. the current obligations to players in decline should be looked upon as proof. Sadly the talent pool is not robust either. RAJr and his group have to be replaced. If you’re a Phillies fan, speak loud and often about dissatisfaction with FO performance. The Mets & Marlins will continue to improve…. Nats will be again very solid. Braves need a new Manager, but he seems to be Cox’s man.
100 losses 2015 for the Phils
Agreed, to an extent. I do think RAJ is to blame but this is not ALL on him. Big market teams get sucked into that death trap of signing talented–especially home-grown talented–players to contracts that they KNOW will not be valuable at the end…but, they lock up these players for their prime years, fans are happy, and these big spenders have the money to absorb large salaries for declining players at the end of the deals. Hey, im not crazy about this philosophy, but its the way it is when you are a top-5 market. Pujols, Hamilton, A-Rod, Tex, Fielder…these are contracts that you can put with Ryan Howard’s in terms of the dissatisfaction that will exist when these guys arent producing at the end of their deals. Contracts to Jimmy and Chase? I have zero problem with those because our farm is weak and there aren’t too many FA guys at those positions that I would rather have (considering costs & performance). Howard is the big issue now, in 2014-2015-2016, but Phillies fans forget how happy we were when Howard was signed to the extension. Attendance was booming, great baseball environment, competitive team, a then-powerful slugger at 1B, and most importantly we could afford a large contract and unfortunately pay for the decline years.
Obviously I don’t love the Howard contract, but it was also better than waiting and potentially giving him a Fielder/Pujols deal. The bigger issue to me (and most fans IMO) is that their current attitude is one they should have had 2 years ago.
Signing Howard to his extension in 2010 is one thing, but failing to move Lee 2 deadlines ago when everyone but the front office saw what the Phillies future was and failing to move anyone at this deadline was disastrous. The lack of these moves has set them back at least 2 additional seasons. We could be in the 2nd or 3rd year of a rebuild, but instead we haven’t even started it.
Playing Monday Morning QB is easy, but anyone with even a little baseball knowledge saw how this thing was going to look 2 years ago. It’s a shame for the players and the fanbase that the front office is apparently the last to see this.
That doesn’t deflect the fact that these were very bad deals. You’re just saying that a FO can waste money and not worry. Imagine what could be if the Phils put more of their budget on developing within the organization. Drafting / Acquiring young talent is where teams are successful. Royals were example 2014. Cardinals, Rays, A’s, Pirates, Orioles all teams that have spent wisely and drafted well.
“These” weren’t bad deals, Howard’s was a bad deal. I’m not justifying the philosophy of running a franchise with monopoly money but I’m just saying that it seems to happen that way. The mid-market teams that you mentioned have become that way out of necessity and have made intelligent FA signings and drafted and developed well. Three of those teams have been horrendously bad for the last twenty-plus years though, so the fact that they made the post-season this year should not lead you to assume that they are successful examples of this strategy. The Royals and Pirates couldn’t have been drafting and developing THAT well if they haven’t reached the post season in my lifetime.
I get the strong feeling that major changes are afoot. With David Montgomery out of the picture on his medical leave, I believe Pat Gillick is going to make the necessary moves to clean house and he’ll take whatever hits come. I am almost certain that Montgomery didn’t have the stomach to blow out Amaro and is going to hang that on Gillick if it ever happens. I can’t explain why, but it’s clear to just about everyone else in the game that Amaro is in over his head and doesn’t have what it takes to succeed as GM in Philly.
I like the idea of Ibanez as the hitting coach. He made a good impression on the Yankees and the fans. On the surface, this would be a good hire. Although, I am a little curious if Hinske will be retained by Maddon, maybe he will end up available again.