It seems Giants outfielder Hunter Pence has yet to fully resolve his future. As Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle writes, the veteran suggests he’s focused on appreciating the remainder of the 2018 season — the final campaign under his current contract. The 35-year-old indicates that he’s not yet sure of his outlook for 2019, but does tell Schulman that he “want[s] to play next year.” It certainly has not been Pence’s finest effort on the field, however, putting his future in doubt even if he prefers to give it another go. After struggling last year, Pence has fallen even further. Through 213 plate appearances, he owns only a .215/.254/.315 slash with three home runs. With his rough 2017 as a backdrop, it’s questionable at best that he’ll receive MLB offers this coming offseason.
Here’s more from the National League:
- The Mets anticipate that Tim Tebow will be back for a third season with the organization in 2019, as Tim Healey of Newsday reports. The former NFL QB has been sidelined since the middle of the summer owing to a broken hamate bone, but otherwise ended things on a high note with a strong run at the plate. Of course, his overall line — .273/.336/.399 with six home runs and 103 strikeouts in 298 plate appearances — was not overly impressive for a 31-year-old corner outfielder at Double-A. But it’s actually quite the accomplishment given how things appeared at the outset of the experiment, and it’ll be interesting to see how Tebow performs next year at Triple-A. “I’d be surprised if he didn’t want to continue,” said assistant GM John Ricco.
- Mets righty Zack Wheeler has had an incredibly exciting bounceback campaign, so much so that it may need to end early due to his accumulation of innings. As Aaron Bracy of the Associated Press writes (via Newsday), the club is considering putting Wheeler on ice the rest of the way rather than having him take back to the mound. Manager Mickey Callaway says it’s a matter of the Mets “want[ing] to make sure we’re taking care of the player.” Wheeler is now 99 innings past the 86 1/3 he compiled in 2017, a season in which he was still not at full health. With nothing left for Wheeler to prove or for the team to accomplish in the 2018 season, it stands to reason that caution is warranted. Wheeler, after all, now looks to be a key piece — or trade asset — after working to a 3.31 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9.
- The Dodgers have their own pitching comeback tale of sorts, as southpaw Hyun-Jin Ryu has been impressive when he has been available. As Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports, the veteran hurler says he’s not taking anything for granted after several injury-riddled campaigns. Indeed, even after making 24 starts last year, he was unable to participate in the postseason. Through 70 1/3 frames over 13 outings in 2018, however, the lefty owns an excellent 2.18 ERA with 10.0 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9. He just throttled the Rockies in a key divisional tilt and now looks to be an important part of the late-season L.A. pitching mix. It’s opportune timing both for the team and the player. Ryu is slated to enter free agency this winter, where he’ll be a risky but intriguing option.
I came here for Tebow. Unleash Tim Tebow It’s time.
In 2,000 plate appearances, you’d really think Pence could hit more than 3 home runs.
Yeah. I also thought there was something wrong with that number haha
3 in 213 is worrying enough!
Doesn’t Pence still live in Houston during the offseason? Maybe he could continue to play… for the Sugar Land Skeeters.
Comon pence
Hang it up
You make enough money already
Enjoy life
You not good anymore
This is a fantastic piece of poetry. Bravo!
is that a Haiku?
Jeff, why isn’t this story appearing in the Giants feed? None of the Giants related news has shown up in that feed in 4 weeks.
Do you mean the twitter feed?
Too bad; been a long time admirer of “UnderPants”……but that train hasn’t only left the station, it’s off the rails and completely fubar…..but what the heck, he made big money and done good….probably would make a heck of a coach, if he wants it…..
Captain Underpants is about to transition into adult diapers, at least when it comes to his MLB career.
Can’t wait for Tebow in the MLB
Going to be a long wait. He is just not very good at baseball. Just like he was not very good as a football player.
Really hope pence retires and stays on with the giants as a coach or broadcaster, like javy Lopez and affeldt or Eli whiteside. He’d make a hell of a coach. That’s my best case scenario anyway
Hopefully he wouldn’t be teaching anyone how to throw a ball or swing a bat. He would be great at teaching people how to hustle though.
I’m ready for tebow time in the MLB
doesnt it seem like thats going to happen now? they keep promoting the guy! he will be in the big leagues at some point, mark my words
Hunter Pence MVP candidate next year?!!! Wouldn’t surprise me! One hell of a ball player, but should probably try the latter and retire. No one player likes to walk away on a bad note, so no surprise he gets signed next year to a minor league deal, with spring training invite.
Ryu has looked very good. Saw him from behind the plate a few weeks ago and his cutter in particular is very troubled on hitters. Last night he also located extremely well. Also starting to look confident.
Ryu is one of the most under-the-radar pitchers in the game. He’s had his share of hurt, and of course playing in a western timezone doesn’t help his recognition factor, but the numbers speak for themselves.
This is a sports site. Political opinions are neither wanted or desired by viewers.
Hear, hear. Take the politics somewhere else!
Thank you
No kidding. We all have opinions… but I think a lot of us like sports because it gets *away* from all that. There is some unavoidable bleed-over effect here and there on some topics, especially with some of the stuff going on in the NFL. But, some people just can’t get through the day without seeing everything through their party line acolyte lens. That’s the stuff that bugs me. Democrat this, Republican that.
There are going to be some posts with gray areas, but this isn’t one of them.
I have tried to remove all the partisan bickering.
You can delete whatever comments you want, just
please, don’t ever get rid of your comment section. MLB.com joins the latest list :/
I understand deleting personal insults (there were alot) just wish you deleted the initial instigator post first, to prevent this headache if you’re going to eliminate the topic.
Thank you for keeping it only about baseball.
learning experience for all.
Which comment is that? I think I removed anything that goes afield of the post.
That’s part of the problem. Once delicate topics get discussed, everyone wants to run away with their fingers in their ears
You should have at least left the sensible comments. I understand removing inflammatory ones or overtly racist ones, but the whole thread??
Yes it’s a sports site. No I dont wanna come here to talk politics. But occassionally the 2 need to mix when it can be done in a sane manner
Dont take our opinions away from us. It’s hard enough for certain subsets of community to voice theirs
The one that started it all making the ill-fated comparison ;-) It was first direct response to my 1st post and started the 80+ comments that got deleted…
Things got heated, for sure, and think it’s stupid topics, but you waited, let it drag out long, then saw 80%of the thread off-topic… because of that one comment — and deleted almost every post. Why let the 2nd post of this thread instigate 80 replies in what became ~90% political, racial discussion of most divisive polarizing topic(s) ever.
The 2nd comment of this thread, made the comparison set the tone. I think most of us completely disagreed with it, you let us argue against it, then you deleted it when you saw how personal issues were… Race… Politics…
In the long run, I agree deleting was most likely beneficial, but post I’m talking about compared Tebow to someone…. Why let all the replies follow.
Thank you Jeff.
Go Tim Go, God Bless!!!!
Did MLBTR delete some comments from earlier today?
Most likely. Probably more to follow.
One can hope
Yes. This forum is for discussing the actual posts that we publish.
To be honest, I applaud the decisions of MLB.com, ESPN.com, RAB and other sites that have eliminated their comments sections. Even when I began following this site many years ago, I found the comments sectionm to be thoughtful and somewhat nuanced. I have certainly seen it degraded in the last couple years into the kind of personal insults, putdowns, people cheering for players who get injured, etc. Comments sections, eventually, turn into lowest common denominator conversations, and that’s unfortunate.
Eliminating the ability to comment wouldn’t really bother me, although I do comment here frequently. I just think moderation is so hard, especially with the vast majority of commenters who are anonymous.
I do think eliminating anonymity would clean up the comments section immensely, but I have no idea how that would be possible; but when people have to back up their insults by using their real names I find it lessens the insults and eliminates a lot of the trolls.
ESPN changed to Facebook integration, to limit their trolls, but it didn’t really help. People started making fun of people’s appearance, education, college (if showed) occupation (example “Retired” “unemployed”) whatever info they gave. Personal insults… got more personal. Had another fb to comment there. Honestly… Many, many times were attacks against ESPN or their authors. The only good posts worth reading were the ones arranged “most liked” feature wish u’d add lol
Yeah, that was a terrible idea by ESPN to link to Facebook. Like I said, I don’t know how you eliminate anonymity but I honestly believe I might be the only person who comments here regularly who uses his real name, and that’s troubling to me.
My speculation why espn removed it, they were sick of getting attacked their own articles
RAB removed theirs brcause 1000+ comments on most articles, made impossible to moderate (Disqus isnt perfect) Breaking point according to them was RAB staff got threatened. Unlike ESPN, however, RAB kept previous article comments; something I greatly respect them for, instead of purging them off the internet.
I think MLB.com case…temporary. remember they used to use Disqus, then livefyre, then their own system. For some strange reason, not all their articles are comment enabled, and all the ones that are, now have 0 comments. It’s weird, they deleted all the comments, while still using the same comment system lol
Hmm, I didn’t know that about RAB; I knew about the sheer number of comments, especially during a Red Sox game, but I didn’t know about the RAB staff being threatened. ESPN also eliminated their chats at some point; it may just be they want to do short-form news stories like the Score or something, rather than be an interactive model. I’m sure the constant criticism of their writers or articles may have been a factor, but I remember looking at the comments section on ESPN occasionally and, man, it was a dumpster fire.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments. This is an issue we are struggling with and your observations are appreciated.
MLB.com is biggest mystery. every single comment. Gone. Yet still Keep same system. Might mean getting ready to remove or.. upgrade?
I read those the least, but still be sad if another took a hit Lol. Go MLB.com! go!
I sense this is unnecessary sarcasm irrelevant to this conversation.
@norcalblue to quote one your prev. posts:
“lighten up man….”
They really did go off the deep end on this one. Thank you for getting rid of the nonsense. Back to what really matters on this sight, Baseball.
Ryu needs another 1 year deal in L.A. His health has been disastrous hence the one year pact.
Pence is going back to the Phillies.