Howie Kendrick has been so impressive with the Dodgers in the early stages of the 2015 season that the team is very likely interested in discussing a long-term deal with Kendrick’s agents at Reynolds Sports Management, writes ESPN’s Buster Olney in his daily blog (ESPN Insider subscription required). As Olney explains, the team likely envisions Corey Seager manning shortstop in the long-term, and Hector Olivera could hold down the fort at third base, with Kendrick returning to the keystone on a multi-year pact. I’d note, however, that there are many who believe that Seager will eventually need to play third base, and in that scenario, Olivera would slide over to second base, so the fit isn’t exactly perfect.
Here’s more from the NL West…
- The D-Backs’ handling of Yasmany Tomas has many pundits scratching their heads, but manager Chip Hale tells MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert that he thinks being eased into the lineup will be beneficial to Tomas in the long run. “People are having a hard time believing it because he’s not getting at-bats every day, which is hard,” said Hale. “But he’s doing [work] offensively with our hitting coaches and then the strength coach; they’re really working hard to get him to where we think he needs to be to be an everyday player.” Tomas has the same translator, Ariel Preto, that worked with Yoenis Cespedes in 2012, when Hale was the Athletics’ bench coach, giving the two experience in helping a Cuban player acclimate to the Majors. Hale explained how difficult the transition became for Cespedes that year when he was thrown directly into the starting lineup, adding that he hopes the handling of Tomas will avoid that.
- Interestingly, Hale’s comments don’t line up very well with those made by Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart on a recent MLB Network Radio appearance (Twitter link). Stewart said that the most important thing for Tomas is to get at-bats and play regularly at third base, adding that his contract will not determine whether or not he’s in the Majors.
- Rockies players spoke favorably to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post about the tougher attitude and culture around the team as well as the front office’s emphasis on making tough decisions to improve the immediate on-field product. The Rox cut Jhoulys Chacin in Spring Training, for example, despite his long tenure with the team and status as a clubhouse favorite. Left-hander Rex Brothers was sent to Triple-A despite his big league experience, Adam Ottavino seized the closer’s role almost immediately, and manager Walt Weiss has requested and been provided with significant input from the analytics department to drastically increase the amount of infield shifting in Colorado. The change starts with new GM Jeff Bridich, according to Corey Dickerson, who spoke highly of Bridich’s knowledge of players. “There is no messing around, not with this group,” Carlos Gonzalez told Saunders. “We are here to win now. We are not here to be patient.”
Am I the only one who found the translator for Tomas and Cespedes fact to be very random and out of place?
Corey Seager is kinda tall to play SS for the long term. The only 6’4 SS i can remember was Ripken, and even he had to move after a while. I’d think that Olivera would profile better at SS, with Seager at 3B and Howie/Guerrero at 2B for the long term.
Ripken didn’t move off of SS until he was 36 years old. If Seager can handle SS for even a third of that time, you leave him there.
The media has been pushing to move Seager for the last year. Friedman watched him play this past spring, and said he has the hands and ability to play SS. He’s not going anywhere.
Troy Tulowitzki is 6’3″, Brandon Crawford 6’2″, and they’re both listed at the same 215 as Seager (per BB-Ref, anyway). That said, they’re definitely exceptions, and I take the evaluators who peg Seager at 3B long-term at their word.
Wasnt Jeter 6’4?
6’3
ah ok
Bogaerts is 6’3′, so is Manny Machado, Ian Desmond, Tulo. Jeter, ARod and others. Top defensive SS Andrelton Simmons is 6’2″. Baseball Prospectus notes SS are getting taller/bigger and says 1/3 of starting SS are 6’2″ or bigger. Seager needs to be judged on his athletic ability not size. Olivera has not even arrived in the USA and needs to be fully assessed – he may or may not be able to handle SS. Guerrero is currently only seen as back up at 3B, having failed last year at 2B. Kendrick is by far the best option for the next 3-5 years for the Dodgers at 2B. I think a pure defensive SS who can hit might be a better choice than Seager, a pure hitter who can play SS, but Dodgers do not have a quality defensive SS who can hit – only Barney and Arruebarrena are quality defenders but have not shown they can hit at the MLB level
I don’t think Olivera would be a very good SS, otherwise he probably would’ve played there in the past. Seager is young enough, and athletic enough to where he should be able to play SS for at least three years even with his size. If they sign Kendrick long-term, I’d say Seager will be playing SS for a long time, unless he is a bust.
No scout thinks Seager can stay at SS long-term, but it seems as though he’s decent enough for it for a few years. You’re correct, though, in that he would be tied with Cal as the tallest shortstop in major league history, unless you count Mike Morse’s days at short. Dodgers seem to have a cluster of guys at the same end of the defensive spectrum now – Kendrick can only play 2nd because of his arm, Guerrero can’t really play any defensive position, they have Erisbel Arrebuerena (however that’s spelled), Seager, Uribe, Rollins, Olivera – that’s a lot of middle infielders. I know that stuff usually shakes out, but still…
Have you spoken with all of them? Does Andrew Friedman have a say? Look at that roster construction! Doesn’t seem like Friedman and/or Zaidi have a plan.
Nope. Just read a lot of McDaniel, BA, Keith Law, etc. Lots of scouting reports. If you’re a scout who feels otherwise, that’s okay. Scouts can differ on opinion, and what is Friedman going to say? “This guy can’t play shortstop”? No front-office personnel would ever bad-mouth his own player.
I haven’t spoken with Mr. Friedman. I don’t know ALL the things he’s said. But I do know what he DID – when other people in the organization were pushing to move Seager to 3B, he told people in the organization that Seager could play SS, and made sure young Mr. Seager started the season at Tulsa playing SS (currently hitting .500).
All the people you noted above are not working for a major league franchise. Why is that?
That’s the classic appeal to authority; all of them have worked at times for major league franchises. Money or quality of life is probably better doing what they’re doing now. Obviously the Dodgers want Seager to stay at short if he can, but that body type, typically, doesn’t stay at short. But they may as well try, right? A shortstop who can hit like he can is pretty rare, but a shortstop who is 6’4 is even rarer.
Please help me out here……
What exactly does the ” the classic appeal to authority” mean?
It’s just a rhetorical argument; the idea that because a guy doesn’t currently work in a major-league office he can have no opinion on a prospect. It’s like arguing that because I didn’t play major-league baseball I can’t have an opinion on major-league baseball players.
Oh, so what you’re saying is that someone that has an opinion that differs from another’s is entitled to it. Let me “wrap my head around that”.
No, it is that one doesn’t have to be an expert or employed in the field to have an opinion about something. I’m not a musician but I love Bob Dylan, for example.
Oh – it keeps changing……
If I were to say that you’re never wrong and always right, would that end this?
No, I’m wrong often; that’s the great thing about opinions. They aren’t facts. Let’s take the Bob Dylan example; although I’m not a musician, I wrote a music column for 4 years for a daily newspaper(This was a long time ago, when local reviewers still existed). I reviewed a Dylan show in Indianapolis (the review is on Dylan’s website). I liked the show, but a lot of other reviews hated it. Neither of us is right or wrong; opinions are just opinions. The great thing is that we get to choose which opinions we agree with and which ones we don’t. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and everyone is entitled to disagree. That’s the genesis of human discourse.
Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? 😉
Who cares what the scouts say? The Dodgers apparently don’t agree or they’d be playing him at 3B in the minors now. Which they are not. The signs that the Dodgers are trying to convert him are zero.
I like the DBacks and have for a few years. People dumped on Towers, but the reality is that he brought in a lot of very good, young, position players. The new administration has been left a nice foundation to start with.
Dave Stewart has to understand that he is a GM, and with the instantaneous electronic media, he has to be careful of the comments he makes. Lamb is playing a stellar 3B and hitting over .400. Of course no one expects that to continue. But he is a very good looking young player. Not quite sure where Tomas fits. Agree with the need for him to work with their fitness people. He appears terribly out of shape, and in the games I’ve seen he’s primarily hit to RF as he doesn’t appear to have the strength to pull the ball.
It does come across that Stewart wants the big signing to replace Lamb.
Yes. A few teams have FO’s that do things like that – put players they bring in on trades and free agent signings ahead of players they’ve inherited as well as lower level draft choices that come up through the system. I won’t mention the teams, but suffice to say, they seldom make the playoffs. That is not a healthy situation, and if it continues then Mr. La Russa is going to have to sit down behind closed doors with some people. The object is to win. To do that the organization has to put the best players on the field. Doesn’t matter who gets the credit.
I’m not sure Stewart has a plan right now. Rostering Tomas and Trumbo, which are basically DH/LF guys, with O’Brien looking like the exact same guy in AAA, is an odd bit of roster construction for a team without a DH or a 1B slot. Lamb is probably a better player now than Tomas and Stewart seems to want to replace him; he’s playing contracts over talent which is a bad approach to take.
Yes…..
When a new President and/or GM take over a franchise in October/November, they have to have their roster set perfectly by seasons opening, else they don’t have a plan.
Like Friedman/Zaidi in LA. What are Crawford and Eithier doing on that roster? Look at all the inf’s. And what kind of bullpen is that? They had 4-5 months to work things out. And how about Preller in San Diego? What sort of infield has he rostered?
True. Padres infield isn’t very good, unless Alonso is going to have a breakout season or Solarte is better than I think. I suppose Preller spent all his money on the outfield (although Myers is really cheap and Kemp isn’t costing the Padres anything this year), along with Shields and Kimbrel. I don’t really understand why the Dodgers don’t just release Ethier; Crawford is still useful. Diamondbacks should be playing Lamb every day and trying to trade Trumbo, but Stewart has publicly said they won’t trade Trumbo, which seems counter-productive.
In the games I’ve seen, Crawford has butchered it – particularly in the OF. As for Preller taking the Yankees approach in building a roster while not having their funds, let’s see how his roster looks in 3 years – particularly since he’s traded off all of his minor league depth.
Nevertheless, the point remains – a new administration (President/GM) can no more fill out their roster perfectly then they do their FO and scouting/development staff in 4-5 months. It’s takes years for people they are interested in to become available. In fact – and I know this is hard to believe – there are franchises with existing Presidents/GM’s that are not satisfied with every person employed under them, but they are living with it……just like every other business with more then 3 people in it in America.
The Padres have always been so bad at drafting and developing their prospects that I imagine Preller came in and said “really? These are our prospects” and decided to start over. I’ve only watched the Dodgers a couple times this season so I’ll take your word on Crawford. Seems to be hitting okay. Ethier is a known quantity, both offensively and defensively, and it’s just not a good one. I am surprised, after Jansen got hurt, that the Dodgers couldn’t find a few more useful relievers. Hasn’t hurt them so far.
Yes, that’s probably what Preller said. Of course, FO’s from the Braves, Rays and Nationals liked those guys, but what do they know?
The fact remains, the Dodgers and Padres rosters are not perfect (as you admit above), so I do not understand – 1) why anyone thinks their President/GM have a plan, and 2) why you are not pointing that out since both the Dodgers and Padres meet your criteria for not having a plan, you do not criticize them.
Well, winning makes criticism harder, right? The Royals didn’t have a perfect team last season but almost won a World series. Dodgers are are winning right now, but having 9 infielders, no bullpen, and starting some no-name in the 5th starter spot are glaring issues for a team with a 200 million-dollar payroll.
As far as the Padres prospects traded away, maybe some of them will pan out. Fried is hurt, Wisler looks like a solid #3 starter, Turner might be a star. But the Padres previous administration had a terrible record of drafting and developing talent. Preller and Logan White may have wanted to start with a clean slate.
You mean there are rosters out there that aren’t perfect? Hummm……
Must mean that no one has a “plan”.
I think the plan in Los Angeles is to acquire premium and near-premium talent up and down the 25-man roster. Have options and back up plans that don’t miss too much of a beat and use their financial dominance to ensure that.
Very good!
Dodgers are also trying to get younger and bring the payroll down.
I’d guess the DBacks have a direction as well, but teams don’t hold press conferences about that sort of thing. Fans have to do forensic stuff when they see what moves are made.
The Diamondbacks are following the ‘Big and Strong Right Handed Hitters’ model. Trumbo in the outfield is a lol, moving Lamb off of 3B to accommodate iron-hands Tomas is going to be hilarious too.
If Stewart doesn’t like Lamb, I’d love for the Angels to take him off their hands. The kid can play, and has an awesome glove. Give them Freese, sell Stewart on his veteran savvy and that one playoff run.
If they need to move Lamb off 3B for Tomas, why would they take on Freese and his salary?
It was a comment made in jest. I wasn’t actually proposing a deal, but I was saying I would love to get Lamb on the Halos, therefore leaving Freese as excess.
It made me laugh.
What’s funny is Olney makes it seem like Howie performing at a high rate is surprising. The guy has been playing at this level for the past 6 years.
Kendricks an absolute amazing player, especially love his production for a 2B. Am I wrong to say, other than catcher, that 2B might be the hardest position to find good offence?
I think SS is harder than 2B and possibly catcher as well if you compare today’s players.
The worst-hitting positions in 2014 were catcher and SS. Catchers batted a cumulative 245/309/380 and shortstops hit 255/310/368. second basemen hit 256/313/373, so not too far behind.
Cant always just take the league average for that statistic. There might be 5 really good hitters at 2B being better than the SS’s, that bring up the average. I was more looking at the number of players rather than the average of the league
Does that include back up catchers, because that would significantly lower the average triple slash line?
It includes all players who had an at-bat as a catcher. So yes.
That seriously hurts the catchers then. Most of the backup catchers can’t hit at all.
Well, it’s just numbers. Numbers don’t lie. Backup catchers have just never been good; it’s a hard position.
Adding backup catchers makes the catcher pool too large then. It skews the numbers towards the middle infielders.
Well, backup infielders are included too. 2B and SS actually had many more ABs than catchers last season.
Yeah, but I think backup infielders get less playing time. And for the AB’s argument, that’s mostly due to lineup composition and the placement of backup catchers in lineups.
Olivera is a major wildcard right now, so I don’t think you can pencil him in anywhere yet.
Why is he a major wild card?
They spent a ton of money on him. It’s a matter of when he takes over a position on the big club, not if.
You shouldn’t avoid a long term deal just because you have some options in the minors, teams have learned that in the past.
If Kendrick is a good fit and will stay for the right price, they should do it.
You can always trade, guys always get hurt, guys fail to live up to expectations, even vets.
It’s good to have the talent if you can keep it
The price won’t be an issue if the fit is right, his performance and role on the team being far more important than how much they pay him.
The talk of Seager’s future being at 3B started the day he was drafted. Since then the Dodgers have played him nowhere but at SS. Yet the rumors of him playing 3B not only don’t stop they don’t slow down. Not getting it.
Friedman’s plan thus far has been collecting versatile depth on and off the 40 man. The middle infield is their deepest area and getting a 1st round pick for Howie walking is a lock. 3 out of Seager, Erisbel, Kike Hernandez, Darwin Barney, Darnell Sweeney, Alex Guerrero, Hector Olivera, and Justin Turner should be able to fill the 2B,SS,3B spots. I just can’t see them shelling out big $ with so much available depth. The bench has guys like Turner and Guerrero at the bottom of the depth chart, who crush every opportunity given to them. Though if Howie finishes the season like he’s started it than you give him all he wants. His current OPS+ of 213 should decline closer to his 109 career average by seasons end. Austin Barnes could also end up at 2B/3B if he can’t handle catcher. The options are dizzying in LA.