Former Yankees pitcher and Mets, Astros, Yankees and Mariners pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Sr. is “fighting for his life,” one of his sons, former big-league pitcher Todd Stottlemyre, writes on Facebook (via ESPN). Mel Stottlemyre, 75, announced in 2000 that he had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Stottlemyre was the Mets’ pitching coach for their World Series win in 1986, and the Yankees’ pitching coach for four World Series champion teams. He also won five All-Star berths in 11 seasons in the big leagues. We at MLBTR wish the best to the Stottlemyre family in this difficult time.
Here’s more from the AL East.
- The Yankees and Red Sox could play one another in London as soon as 2018, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald writes. What seems even more likely at this time is that the Red Sox, Yankees and possibly Mets could all play in London at some point over the course of the new five-year CBA. It’s unclear whether a Yankees/Red Sox matchup in particular will occur, and there are significant issues that must be ironed out first, including the problem of lost gate receipts, as well as how to continue to sell Major League Baseball to Europe after such a marquee matchup has already occurred. But presidents of both teams express enthusiasm for the idea. “We would really like to do it,” says Red Sox president Sam Kennedy. “The Yankees have been at the forefront of suggesting that we bring the great game of baseball to London,” writes Yankees president Randy Levine in an email. “Playing the Red Sox in London would be a special and unique event.”
- Edwin Encarnacion‘s departure to Cleveland has many Blue Jays fans upset, with some blaming the team for not finding a way to re-sign Encarnacion and others blaming Encarnacion for seeking too much money early in the process, Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi writes in a fascinating timeline of the negotiations between Encarnacion and the Blue Jays. As had been previously reported, the Jays offered Encarnacion a four-year, $80MM deal in early November; Davidi notes that deal also included a vesting option that would have increased the value of the deal to $100MM. Encarnacion, though, didn’t want to take a deal on the doorstep of free agency (as his agent, Paul Kinzer, admitted earlier this week). As free agency opened, the Jays believed Encarnacion was seeking $100MM and judged from his lack of urgency to move on the Jays’ initial offer that he had another suitor in the $80MM-$100MM range, which wasn’t the case. The Jays thus moved quickly to sign Kendrys Morales, and took their $80MM offer off the table. The two sides remained in touch, but with Morales and Steve Pearce in the fold, the Jays weren’t as strongly motivated to sign Encarnacion, and he ended up with Cleveland.
Wow. Don’t need to face this beast 19 games a years awesome
Yep!!!now only the Baltimore have the power in hr wt Marchado and Davis plus Trumbo if is come back
Me fail English? That’s unpossible!
Harsh, yet hysterical = )
Also I do believe other than the taxes he didn get any respect for the jays front office so he wanted out. To bad for the jay fans
He did not want out at all. To the contrary he wanted to stay. He overplayed his hand.
How do you know that. I don’t think he overplayed his hand at all, when you reach free agency especially at his age (34) you should go get your money. I think the Jay’s acted to quick to try and fill his shoes…and in my opinion he is in a better spot to win. Cleveland is set up to seriously contend for the life of his contract.
Overplayed his hand. Proof that everyone uses NYY, BOS, and LAD to inflate their markets. With the QO, and his age, he was toast. A good steal for CLE.
Fwiw, the reports from the TOR media indicate a return to the Jays was his preferred choice. On what are you basing your opinion that he wanted out?
$80 million is a lot of respect. Did he expect them to blow him too?
Playing a MLB game in London is understandable for a business point of view. But there is very little of a baseball culture in the UK. The Netherlands and Italy are the main European Countries in which the game is played. Holland already has a purpose built stadium; Italy has the better weather. Especially if this would a series before Opening Day like in Japan and Australia recently, London weather is a cancellation waiting to happen.
It’s an English speaking nation and has 60 million people with a decent exchange rate to the dollar. So as you rightfully said it makes sense from a business perspective. Plus it’s super cheap to fly from NL or Italy to London so I suspect many of those fans would travel to see the game. The hotel is gonna cost more than the flight though.
A lack of communication on both sides. I don’t blame EE for wanting to test the market, and the Jays seemed to think they didn’t have a realistic chance of re-signing him. He is an elite bat that makes any lineup better, and we will miss him in TO next summer. That said, Toronto now has an opportunity to add some speed and a left handed bat, but they need to get creative. I hope this works out for both sides, and wish EE good luck next summer. I hope he receives a warm ovation from the TO fans next summer.
With a market full of 1B/DH types I don’t get the impatients of the front office to rush out and sign Morales and a lack of urgency to fill the OF, surely if they missed out on both Edwin and Morales there were plenty of comparable players to Morales, this FO is confusing me, hope it makes sense at the start of the season.
I understand the whole “fearing EE’s market” thing which would lead to the Jays looking at other options, that makes sense to do.
What I don’t understand was the rush to sign Kendrys Morales as the secondary option. Everyone knew there was a glut of similar players on the market, and that some would likely be forced to take lower-cost, short-term deals. Going out and signing Morales so fast for that value and length before having any idea what the market would do because of the glut just seems silly. Had they waited and seen EEs market struggling to build they almost certainly would have been better off.
EE and his agents played chicken and lost. That’s all. EE lost some cash in the game, Indians gained and the blue jays moved on. As they were forced to do. I’d say his agents misjudged, misguided the market
I agree with bigjon
Agreed.
I disagree. The Jays lost their GM for a reason. They intended to go into a quasi-rebuilding phase and never intended to move forward with both Edwing and Bautista on the team (or either.) The Jays were happy to save money and fill the DH spot regardless whether it hurt their playoff chances.
Edwin deserves every dollar he’ll get. He’s a 20 million/year player. Vic Martinez signed for 54 million/3 years and those are his 37-39 seasons. Encarnacion is still 33 and just played a career high 160 games w/702 PAs.
This one is on the Jays top people. They screwed this up and that’s why Anthropolous got out of town. He wasn’t going to watch the team he built fall apart one player at a time.
For every player correctly identified as greedy or overaggressive, there’s 30 players who get that label and don’t deserve it.
The Jays made Edwin the best offer he got all offseason and he turned it down. How you can blame the Jays for that, and especially to act like they never even intended to re-sign him, I don’t know. Maybe they moved on from him too quickly, but they made him a legit offer and they felt he must have a better one in hand already to turn it down, so they moved on. Unfortunate, but these things happen.
I don’t disagree with that, but the Jays were still foolish not to wait until the game was over before acting
It’s almost as if they rushed out and signed Morales as a childish “we don’t even need you so there” move with little mind payed to the actual market at all.
He did not lose…he gets 20mil a yr and he is in a better position to win…Toronto lost by not signing him
Well, he lost a potential 5th year on his deal and didn’t get to go back to the place he wanted to, so yes, he lost too.
I’ve always liked Mark Shapiro. He showed how shrewd he can be by adding Happ and Estrada to a staff that desperately needed help. But we can rationalize all we want about how the Jays lost Encarnacion, but in the end it his job to read the market correctly. He did not. The number three team in attendance lost their prize free agent to a team that was 28th in attendance. It just so happens to be a team that also ended their season. No matter what the reasons this happened… it is very poor optics and he owns it.
But he read the market correctly, that’s why he made EE an offer above market…. but EE turned it down. Who’s fault is that? Was Shapiro supposed to beg?
If he read the market correctly, Encarnacion would be a Blue Jay. Where he failed was by quickly signing Kendrys Morales.
Take a lesson from the Dodgers: Hill, Turner and Jansen all were asking for more money than what the Dodgers were will willing to initially spend. Did they cut bait and sign players that were one-third the talent of those three? No. They were patient and let the market play out and resigned all three.
None of those players rejected their respective offers outright. None of them rebuffed the team and walked away from negotiating, and all of those players made it initially clear they wanted to come back.
EE did the opposite of that. Blue jays made an offer and EE gave a flat no.
Jayceln you make no sense. First Justin Turner. Well what other third baseman was on the market that the Dodgers could sign.
Next Hill. Hill never turned the Dodgers down. They negotiated and made a deal. That is not what EE did.
Now Jansen. He never turned down the Dodgers either. They negotiated.
Shapiro read the market. Made the offer to keep his player without playing games. He did no low ball him. He said here you go. 4 years. $80 million which was still he best offer EE has to this day. EE said no. Toronto told him that was the best deal. So what you do then if you are Shapiro is you cut bait and move on. What you do not so is what you want him to do. Wait around and be “patient” and hope EE comes back later while you lose other options. What you do not do is leave that monster offer on the table and tell EE do not worry it will always be there. What you do not do is bid against yourself!
EE is not a Jay because of EE. Do not blame Shapiro
I do not profess to know the conversations between the Jays front office and the Encarnacion camp. I imagine more will come out in time. But signing Morales makes me sick. There was no lack of other options at first base.
The Morales signing did not stop them from signing EE. A lineup with Morales and EE would work no problem. Essentially Morales was replacing Bautista. He and EE could have split time. Not sure the Pearce signing would have stopped them either. Good luck to EE. Hopefully the Jays can find talent to fit this lineup
Perfectly said by Reflect. Jays had the better offer. Shapiro read the market. EE said no. EE screwed up.
So to say if he read the market correctly EE would be a jay is nonesense. Its EE who misread it. If EE read the market correctly he would be a Jay and at home in that park where he is comfy and has good will and would have another 20 million in guaranteed money.
Bautista is still out there. I bet Jayceln things Shapiro misread that too huh? Was it not Bautista who wanted 5 years at $150.
In fact Shapiro will have done well to get a draft pick for that loser. Bautista has no market
The Jays read the market fairly correct, offered a similar deal to what he took, then got unbelievably impatient and shot them self in the foot with a reactionary move.
Since there were a glut of similar 2nd tier hitters the Jays should have left their offer on the table till he signed and then moved on. EE likely would be a Jay today had they done so.
Instead the Indians got him on the fairly cheap and the Jays are stuck paying Morales a higher value and/or longer length then they probably would have had to if they had just waited till after EE had to settle on the Cle offer
Most Blue Jay fans sucks so their opinion aren’t valid most of the time.
You are a Gòof!
Defending their guy. I get it. I hope the baseball enthusiasm in Toronto will still be alive and well next August, but I am leery. It was however refreshing to see this past season.
The only opinion you proved was not valid is your own.
How dare Encarnacion ask for money! The nerve!
Very un-Canadian of him. He should have been happy with his offer of unlimited donuts and maple syrup!
No one said he had nerve to ask for more. He can ask and he did. He was told no. So EE screwed up. Get over it and deal with it.
As for the other comment, Shapiro never offered donuts. He offered $80 million dollars. $20 million more then EE got. So yes EE should have been happy with it but was not. Yes he could ask for more. He did. Well EE got less. That is EE’s fault. Deal with it.
EE will probably get his ~20 million for that 4th year thru either Cle picking up the option or him hitting the FA market again in 3 years with the 5mm Cle buyout in pocket.
EE didn’t really lose out on anything in the end – the Jays are the only real losers here because they got impatient
it’s vary rare that you can point to a player asking for an amount of money that would hurt a franchise. Owners can afford to pay unfathomable amounts of money because they make even more back. They turn profits with $200 million payrolls. Every year. That’s why the NBA CBA forces owners to pay 51% of basketball-related income to the players. They have a salary floor and if a team doesn’t meet that floor the players all get equally split checks in addition to their salaries.
Whoever “they” is that turns profits with $200 million payrolls does not mean every team can do it. Very few teams are making as much money as you seem to think they are, because $200 million payrolls would push most teams very firmly into the red.
Please bring sox-yankees to london
A prayer for Mel ! A real gentleman.
agreed. prayer here as well.
Coming from a long time Jays fan I believe Edwin deserved to test the market after all the amazing things he’s done. For Shapiro and Atkins to give him the 4yr/80 the day before free agency and said take it or we take it off the table in my mind was very disrespectful. Edwin earned to go to free agency and he sure as hell didn’t deserve to have his old spot filled up 5 days after free agency began. They really slapped Edwin in the face by quickly signing Morales and not even talking about any counter offers with Edwin. Not happy with Mark or Ross at all. This isn’t on Paul Kinzer. He did what every agent would’ve. This is on the idiot Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins. Please come back Anthopoulos.
As much as EE had every right to test free agency, the Blue Jays had every right to walk away and look elsewhere. It’s a free market. Fact of the matter is, the Blue Jays offered EE the best deal – him and his agent critically misread the market, and had to settle for less. It’s a business for all involved, and EE is likely kicking himself for saying no and looking for something that wasn’t there.
It’s a mad world when the team offering 20-40 million more (option) is being seen as the bad guy in this situation.
see yoenis Cespedes
a guy who wanted to return hit FA and took the best offer the team he wanted to return to offered. if Edwin had done this he’d have 4 guaranteed Yeats, more money and based on reports could have reached a 5th year at 20 million. Jays maybe moved quick but the player made the call to play hardball. Shapiro and Atkins are not to blame.
I think it’s reasonable to assume that Toronto was willing to sign EE at their price, but didn’t want to pay more and didn’t want to wait. So they pulled the offer. FWIW, I really doubt they had any real interest in re-signing Bautista, These both might be very sound business decisions although they are unlikely to be better on the field. in 2017 as a result of their moves. Morales doesn’t offer much, Smoak has never been any good.. People thought EE would do better than Toronto’s first bid, so it’s hard to blame his agent for testing the market. 20/20 hindsight is easy, as is rejoicing when a player doesn’t get the money he’s looking for.
The agent misread the market and now edwing has to play in a city he didnt want to be in.
Oh well.
Jays did offer alot of money. They were patient with Edwin. As it became apparent.
The Jays moved on and signed a couple of good veterans with versatility and power.
Edwin should fire his agent.
Jays made the right decision.
Bye bye EE! Good riddance!!
Love to the Stottlemyre family. Mel was the Don Mattingly of his day whose tenure as an NYY All Star bookended WS championships.