The Braves are in an unfavorable position headed into the offseason. John Coppolella has already resigned due to a breach of MLB’s rules regarding the international players market, leaving a dark cloud hovering over the organization and rumors swirling as to whether or not John Hart will remain with the organization. Braves beat reporter Mark Bowman of MLB.com writes about some of the inconveniences the organization faces due to this uncertainty. Because the Braves don’t know who will be “steering the ship”, as Bowman puts it, the club cannot yet decide on its direction for the upcoming winter. Decisions such as R.A. Dickey’s contract option and potential trades to clear a spot for top prospect Ronald Acuna are floating in baseball operations limbo. In the meantime, director of player personnel Perry Minasian and assistant general manager Adam Fisher have scrambled to learn as much as they can about the club’s assets and needs, having been with the organization for just one month. The club will hope for answers on Hart’s future in Atlanta sooner rather than later in order to gain clarity on the club’s direction for the offseason.
More news from around the National League…
- The Cubs have dismissed longtime pitching coach Chris Bosio, according to a tweet from Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Robert Murray of FanRag sports later confirmed the news. Bosio had been the club’s pitching coach since 2012, including earning a World Series ring with the club just last season after guiding the Cubs pitching staff to a 3.15 team ERA. Murray names Jim Hickey as a potential candidate to fill Bosio’s role.
- Earlier today, Nightengale also tweeted that the Giants dismissed pitching coach Dave Righetti, shifting him to a role in the front office. Murray was able to confirm the reassignment of Righetti through his own sources. Righetti had been the pitching coach in San Francisco for 17 years, making him the longest-tenured pitching coach in major league baseball before his reassignment, as well as the longest-tenured pitching coach in all of Giants history. Murray notes that the club’s 4.50 ERA in 2017 can’t all be blamed on Righetti; ace Madison Bumgarner missed a large portion of the season due to a shoulder injury sustained in a dirt bike accident. According to a later tweet by Jon Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, Righetti will serve as a special assistant to GM Bobby Evans. Shea also adds that bullpen coach Mark Gardner will also be shifted to a special assignment role in the front office, while assistant hitting coach Steve Decker will take on a special assistant role in baseball operations.
Bosio will find another job very soon. He was great with the Cubs staff right up to the collapse from the bullpen in the playoffs. There is a good chance that whoever picks up Bosio, would have a great chance of signing Arrieta. Looking at STL to push for both.
I wonder what the Braves could get from the Cubs for Tehran or Folty
Probably not much. Can’t see why the Braves would want to trade Teheran this off-season after his miserable year
Teheran was good on the road but was not good at home. If he doesn’t pitch in SunTrust Stadium, he’ll still provide his new club very good numbers.
Which is exactly why a team would want to buy low on him. Nobody is going to give the Braves what they want for him. They’ll try to use his bad stats against them, and then the Braves will come back with, “Well, he was really good on the road.” Unfortunately for them, it doesn’t work that way.
“Teheran is an Ace !”
–Braves fans, 2015-16
Yeah I could see them not dealing Julio but I would think Folty could bring something good back.
Anybody think that the Yanks would be interested in Kemp to play the role Holiday played this year for them if the Braves picked up some salary and or added a prospect ??? Or maybe Boston to DH ???
And is Bmore a realistic destination for Markakis ???
Not happening. Yankees are getting under the limit this year and next year signing multiple top Free Agents. Kemp’s contract will be off the books by the time they are willing to buy off contracts again
I doubt the Yankees actually sign any top free agents next year.. If Hicks has another season like this one their OF will be Frazier, Hicks, and Judge. Frazier was the big return for Miller and I doubt they acquired him to be a 4th OF. Plus, they have McKinney, Cave, and Florial coming up. Their IF is already set with Didi, Castro, Bird, and more than likely Torres. (With Solak and Andujar not far away.) Sanchez is their catcher. Plus, their rotation will have Severino, Gray, Montgomery, and 1-2 of Adams, Sheffield, Abreu and Acevedo. Their bullpen will have Green, Betacnces (unless he is traded), Chapman plus they have 4-5 decent pitching prospects not mentioned above.. I could see them possibly chasing Kershaw, Bumgarner, or Keuchel if they are available but they just don’t have a need for Harper or Donaldson.. They are a stacked young team and have built themselves up nicely from within. All of the Harper to the Yankees for $400 million are rumors probably started by Scott Boras himself.. Look for them to sign an aging hitter as a veteran presence (most likely just resigning Gardner unless he falls off a cliff next year) and someone like Andrew Miller.. Especially, if they land Ohtani this offseason..
They should be perrinial contenders for the next few years with the final graduations of their talented farm coming in 2019.. Somebody will pay Machado and Harper handsomly but I seriously doubt it will be the Yankees.. Hopefully, as more and more big contracts come of the books ticket prices will go down and I will be able to take my boy to more than 2 games a year..
Thanks for the novel doctor. Jesus Christ shorten up A bit ! Your opinion is not that important
@Hudsoto Then don’t bother reading it if you have difficulty getting past more than one paragraph, it’s quite a simple equation. Furthermore, there’s no need to use Jesus Christ’s name in vain either, and lastly, your opinion is “not that important”.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news. A NY team isn’t lowering ticket prices. At least not until they tank the season and need people to show up for a mediocre product.
What are you saying, you moron? Youre the one that got offended by someones post being too long
Foltynewicz I could see bringing something back, because he’s cheap, has some team control, and has decent stuff, but it’s worth noting that he’s been below-average every year of his career at preventing runs and he still issues a few too many walks. I’m sure there are teams that still like him, but you would have to project a breakout that doesn’t really seem like it’s coming to see him as anything more than a back-end starter
The Cubbies have no farm left.
As a Cubs fan, I find this great news.
There is then no chance anyone will waste any time or effort poaching any Cubs players in any section of the Rule 5 Draft.
Also cool, because the Cubs had a Player named Player Of The Week in the Arizona League in the first week of the season.
As of right now, they don’t need a farm system. They’re an excellent team that has a chance to win a championship, every year, for at least the next 6-8 years. They’re extremely young, extremely cheap (even though a few of them will have to be given some nice contracts over the years), and they’re positioned perfectly. From here on out, most of the help will be traded for or bought.
Sounds like Evans was able to convince Larry Baer that the team’s hitting and pitching problems had nothing to do with the players Evans counted on, but rather the coaching. What a joke. So why does Hensley Muelens still have a job?
He doesn’t. They don’t mention it here for some reason but he was reassigned as well.
Giants bigwigs gotta blame someone for the team’s collapse; it certainly can’t be an unwillingness to SPEND. Sometimes, it’s not how much money or how many stars, it’s just the ability to perform as a team. Evans and Sabean won’t blame themselves for saddling the team with overpaid, under performing,aging, while curtailing the minor league talent as a result of trades in a vain attempt to make “one more run”. Well, now that the wheels have fallen off, it’s not the players cause they are making a mint, it’s not team executives cause they are flawless, so it MUST be the coaches that are no good. Starters under performed = fire the Pitching Coach!. Bullpen sucked = Fire the Bullpen Coach!!. (Most) Hitters failed to deliver in the clutch = Fire the Asst Hitting Coach!!!I agree with the comment on Muelens. Perhaps it’s as simple as Righetti and/or Gardner getting interest from Jeter in Miami and they are both tired of the travel associated with their on field positions.
I agree 100%. Giants have always hit badly and for some reason they never blamed Muelens. Players would come from other teams and suddenly hit badly, and you can’t blame all of that on the ballpark. It is certainly time for Muelens to go and it seems like SF are doing this.
Muelens needed to go a long time ago, but Righetti is as solid a coach as they come and we all know that.
There were rumors before the season even started that Righetti was thinking about retiring after this year so I think this isnt a “blame the coach” type of reassignment, just the right time for him to change his lifestyle and stay home all season.
If only someone would take bam bam to be their manager
I agree 100% @liamsfg I’m really surprised by the pitching coach move. I’m hoping it is just him wanting a change of lifestyle. SF really had/have poor pitching depth.
Also agree with @wiggysf, I figured the only way SF would ever make that change is if he was hired as a manager somewhere. Hopefully the rumors are true and Bam Bam is gone.
I’m thinking Hickey gets the Cubs job and reunites with Madden.
I was thinking the same thing, hickey, Dave Martinez and maddon. It be the whole rays coaching staff again
Hickey seems the obvious choice and his availability may be the main reason for Bosio’s dismissal or part of it.
I am guessing Bosio to KC. Hickey to Cubs. Mike Maddux to Cardinal unless he gets Nats manging job
Cubs should’ve held onto Bosio. He did some great things every year but this one.
As for Arrieta he will just go to highest bidder without regard to the pitching coach in my opinion
Agreed, he wasn’t coming back to Chicago either way.
Honest question here. How do you evaluate a pitching coach? I always see reporters talk about team ERA and not much else. Is that really the best way to judge a pitching coach?
I’d say it’s mostly what the players and other coaches have to say about him. If he puts up good pitching numbers for the team and is generally well liked by the org (personality wise), then that’s a good pouch coach.
Fit with the manager is also big. Like-mindedness.
Ding, ding.
A sensational question, that applies for managers, as well.
Trading Acuna would be the best bet for the Braves. His value is crazy high right now. He could easily lead a package to get a guaranteed impact pitcher. Yes, he might turn into a superstar, but right now he could get a far more sure thing like a Marcus Stroman or Jacob DeGrom. .This time last year Acuna was barely on the radar. It could just as quickly reverse next year.
Trading Acuna would probably mean the Braves are in win now mode. I feel their MLB roster is not deep enough to contend in 2018 even with the addition of a big starter
The reason Acuna was barely on the radar last year is most likely because A) Judging by the 100k signing bonus he got, he was a relative unknown and B) Last year, his first full season of professional ball, he got injured and only played 40ish games. Acuna has been one of, if not the youngest player in every stop of the minors, and he has absolutely dominated the competition. In 3 minor league seasons, he has a slash line of .310/.378/.488 while being, on average, 4 years younger than the competition
That is crazy we are keeping Acuna. I wanna see if Kemp is moveable. I think Markakis gets moved and Kemp is here for 2 more years with Riley taking over in LF
Kemp wouldn’t be moveable if you pushed him down a hill. He’d be gone if he was. We all keep saying Kemp/Markakis will be moved, but I’ll believe it when I see it. I think a platoon will happen a lot sooner, unless ATL and the ghost GM don’t mind eating 75% of either deals.
I think Markakis can be moved I could see Oriole’s or Twins but def some of that contract would have to be eaten
1) That’s a horrible idea.
2) DeGrom is a much better pitcher than Stroman. Seeing as he’s going to be 30 next year though, I wouldn’t be too thrilled about trading Acuna for him. If they wanted to trade him for an impact pitcher, they should’ve tried to move him for Sale last offseason.
How can the Braves trade anyone, without a GM and without knowing who is going to even be in the FO a week or a month from now?
I think the Cubs just didn’t want to be on the hook for the cost of his knee replacement surgery! 🙂
Lackey retires then takes the Cubs job has pitching coach
That’s a good one!
When you don’t fire the manager, you fire the coaches. I would guess that Madden had some say in Bosio’s firing since he probably wanted Hickey. What was Bochy’s stance on his coaches? It is also rumored that Wotus is gone. These are coaches that have been with Bochy during three world championships and I doubt he was calling for their heads.
Coaching had very little to do with the demise of the Giants last year. It was the inability of the front office to recognize the weaknesses and do nothing about it last off season. For example, the front office convinced themselves the bullpen issue would be solved signing a closer. Strickland, Law, Kontos, Osich and Okert were all bad. Once again, they are kidding themselves by assuming they will contend with a few tweaks and new coaches.
Correct me if I’m wrong but with Righetti out, is Balsley with the Padres now the longest tenured pitching coach in MLB?
Maddon is putting the blame on Bosio? Ha! Figures! Douche!
Maddon is the best manager the Cubs ever had Bruce the Douche
Maddon is not a good coach! Sorry to break it to you !