Indians ace Corey Kluber has earned $3.5MM of a possible $4MM in contract escalators, according to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com (via Twitter). All that remains is an all-but-certain top-10 finish in this year’s Cy Young award voting to raise Kluber’s salary in 2019 from $13MM to the full $17MM. His contract options in 2020 and 2021 will increase to $17.5MM and $18MM respectively. Despite a disappointing loss to Justin Verlander and the Astros in the ALDS, Kluber put together another stellar campaign in 2018. He won twenty games for the first time, going 20-7 with a 2.89 ERA in 215 innings. Kluber’s run of dominance began in his age-28 season, and he’s been one of baseball’s true number-one starters in the five years since (2.84 FIP, 152 ERA+ over that time). He more than earned his pay raise, but it does make an already-tight financial situation even tighter for Cleveland this offseason as they try to fill holes in their lineup and rebuild their bullpen around July acquisition Brad Hand.
Some notes from the Senior Circuit’s central division…
- Encouraging news for Reds fans from Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer, as 2017 number two overall pick Hunter Greene rehabs his elbow at the Reds’ Spring Training complex in Arizona. Greene sprained the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow – and though injuries to this ligament often result in Tommy John surgery – Greene elected the non-surgical route and is progressing as planned. Before ending his season in July, the 6’4″ right-hander was 3-7 with a 4.48 ERA in 18 starts at Class-A Dayton. Advanced metrics paint a more impressive picture for the 19-year-old flamethrower — 11.72 K/9, 3.29 FIP, 3.13 xFIP. Greene hopes to get back to hitting triple digits when he resumes throwing in December or January.
- Cubs players seemed unclear in exit interviews about the organization’s hitting philosophy. Theo Epstein, Joe Maddon and whoever replaces Chili Davis as Maddon’s hitting coach will strive for greater harmony in organizational messaging about their offensive strategy moving forward, but the track record isn’t great writes the Athletic’s Patrick Mooney as he reviews Chicago’s hitting coaches since 2013 – a list that will be one name longer by Opening Day 2019. Current Phillies hitting coach John Mallee survived the longest, a three-year stretch that included the 2016 World Series and ended after the 2017 season. Some names Mooney suggests the Cubs could consider include current assistant hitting coach Andy Haines, former assistant hitting coach Eric Hinske (who worked under Mallee for three seasons) and former special assistant in player development Anthony Iapoce, who spent last season as the Rangers’ hitting coach.
Cubs players unsure of hitting approach, its Theos throw Chili under the bus approach, since nobody was jumping on board to fire Maddon.
“Maddon” always has to think he’s the smartest guy in the league. Play the players in the same place and stop trying to prove something. Rizzo is not a leadoff hitter, Heyward is not a CF, and Bryant is definitely not an OF. Maybe some of these injuries are coming from the mad geniuses way of doing things.
He does do some off the cuff managing but overall is a good leader. Other teams would line up for Maddon if he was available. Theo has just made it a priority to take the attention of himself with 1st Maddon talk then firing of Chili. Chili had nothing to do with the poor choice of dollars spent. Heyward as bad as he has been, was much better this year, Baez had best year of his career to date, he cant be held responsible for an injury that plagued Bryant all year. He could be blamed for Contreras disappearance this year and Rizzo admiring every flyball he hits even if it doesn’t get out of the infield. Theo take some responsibility for your decisions.
Hey Fas-Billy Martin was a good leader with different tactics. Madden has burnt out this team with all of his moves.
Baseball is not about analytics and trickery. I look forward to the day when many of these farce defensive shifts go away because:
-it’s become all about launch angle and homeruns.
-strike outs are the opposite consequence.
-great rallies have disappeared.
-most games are boring.
The game is changing. It morphs naturally, as it always has. Defensive shifts exist because they work and thus are a natural progression of the game. If batters adjust and improve their ability to hit to all fields, perhaps the game will eventually reorient itself and they will slowly dissapear. Shame you find most games boring, but I enjoy the game in whatever unfettered state it exists in.
You are correct but not sure if shifts are going anywhere anytime soon
They won 95 games with a seriously depleted lineup. Burnt out….find a more logical argument.
Wrong.
Maddon* and yes, baseball is about analytics
Until the NL get a DH we are a little better than most maybe if when any team from the AL play a National league team we play by AL rule – tired of seeing pitchers bat and it going to be a advantage this year for the AL . Push Theo be the man if not make the ugly trades and take the heat
That’s not gonna happen. It would be awful for the NL to get a dh
I don’t ever recall non-fans of a team being so fervent in their desire for a manager (or GM) to be fired. Very interesting
Non-fans want them out because the Cubs are better now than ever and there’s still a wide open window for another WS. Arguments against Maddon/Epstein are insane given the facts: most reg season wins in all of MLB since beginning of 2015; most post-season wins in all of MLB since 2015; 4 straight yrs. in playoffs.
Yeah, they deserve to get canned.
Nobody thinks Maddon should be fired, read post, this was Theos attempt to defer attention from him. Having an open checkbook in both Chicago and Boston does not make you a viable GM. How many playoff wins they have this year? We are all only as good as our last day.
My comment was a reply to Slevlins but a lot of commenters on here have said that Maddon should be fired, I was responding to the general sentiment from non Cub fans on here and was making a statement about that.
Plenty of GMs have “open checkbooks” and do not win WS, especially as quickly as Theo did.
Lol so you evaluate executives and managers based only on their most recent playoff performance? Save that kind of reactionary BS for sports talk radio
I want Maddon to leave as a Huge Cub Fan. It doesn’t matter who the coaching staff is filled with but rather the instruction coming from management. You want a team to swing for the fences then you will have to accept strikeouts with greater power numbers. Need a coach that will sharpen fundamental skills, not a scape goat when managerial philosophy falls flat. The manager is responsible for what the team does on the field. The GM is responsible for building that team. Maddon is the constant above the excuses with only continued diminished results…Look at what he did in Tampa–Mirroring what is going on in Chicago except this team won in 2016 and will be on the outside looking in as the playoffs roll around 2019
What he did in TB like having the team consistently playing over their heads? Yeah I think I’ll take that in Chicago.
Fundamentally the Cubs have been very good during his tenure. Baserunning, fielding, etc.
He is not a hitting coach and never has been. That is not where his strengths lie. The Cubs brought in a new hitting coach this year and it didn’t work out. I support bringing someone else in and trying another approach. Good managers don’t just become terrible overnight and I really don’t believe that he lost the clubhouse.
Don’t need to make Madden a scapegoat, just try to add some pitching and try it again next year
Well you’re a simpleton… thing more
There’s your answer people! Fasbal1 lets us know that Theo Epstein is not a “viable GM”. He is 100% correct!
Theo is the PBO. Hoyer is a GM.
Lmao at ignorant posts!
@johnrealtime—-or the Cubs can score one more run in any of the 12 innings of the wild card game and they could still be playing. It’s amazing that after years and years of not even sniffing the playoffs that winning 95 games is a waste of a season. Just amazing that people have to find things to complain about….I’m guessing that most of these posts are not being done by six year olds that think this run is what it has always been.
We need Maddon if we don’t have a DH but then the honey moon is very much over . I like many know it’s time for a DH , to move toward a DH NL team got a great DH already on every team with so much youth coming up team can use a DH Sorry Bumgarder,Arretta, and about 5-7 more pitchers that can hit .. hey they can still bunt if game calls for it ..
Maddon is Tony Larussa Jr.
Maddon is great but he doesn’t hold a candle to LaRussa
That’s why hes Larussa Jr.
Why does he have to play all the players in the same place? Because they did it that way in the 70’s? He has versatile players. Why not use that. Its called managing. Not being the smartest guy in the league but being the smartest guy for his team. If for example he had the roster of teams that did not have flexibility he would have to play them on the same position.
So genius Baez was at second. Last year Russell was out a few months. So Baez should not have moved to SS?? Huh?
Baez was an all star at second this year. Russell suspended. Baez has to stay at second? Huh? Murphy was also available but Baez was at second? Hhm Cubs picked up Murphy anyway and the smartest manager in the league moved Baez to SS.
Yea why use your versatile roster to play. Best match ups and try to win when you can just leave them all in one place and lose?
Cubs won the world series in 2016 because the smartest manager in the league did NOT leave his players in one position all year. Rather he managed the roster, managed his team to the championship!!
Very true—-and as a fact–the Houston Astros–the team that won the world series last year and are still playing this year—-the lineup that Hinch used the most this year—-was used FIVE times. FIVE.
I agree with you 100%, JKB. However, it’s easy to see why the Cubs have been so good the last for years…..by my count I think they have 214,539 managers that ALL know what they are doing.
“Theo throwing Chili under the bus” is becoming an annoying scapegoat narrative for people unhappy with Maddon. Not a supporter of Maddon, but the approach Chili instructs in the new game just doesn’t work. Look at the step off from 2016 to 2017 with the Red Sox. It just happens, but he’s bound to be held accountable for not adapting
Scumbag
Nationals manager and cubs hitting coach are biggest revolving doors in coaching MLB, surprised Davey hasn’t been canned yet
Here is one idea.These are grown a$$ men how about they take responsibility for themselves. They are the ones that failed and they plain didnt work hard enough.In the end yes you got to be confident but Cubs got a little full of themselves and someone forgot to tell the Brewers to lay down to the mighty Cubs. I’m not saying the Cubs are a bad team , they are very good but in the end they let it get away and the Brewers earned it. They aren’t the only team or players that failed but you guys get paid millions to play a game suck it up buttercup put big boy pants on and look in the mirror.
Stubby66 needs to find Epstein’s 70 minute season review from last week! Never seen a guy step up and take FULL accountability for an organization and results like Theo did.
Very impressive and something no other Pres/GM has done. (Cards? Giants? Rockies? DBacks? Wash?)
I’m sorry if I sounded like I was calling Theo out. I was putting the blame on the players themselves now a days it is always blame everyone instead of looking in mirror
Here is another – tell the manager he doesn’t always have to act like the smartest guy in the room. Encourage the team to take batting practice like every other team in the league. Maybe that would help them hit better. Who knows?
Also, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with consistency in the lineup/field.
true..
Priggs89
You make no sense. So Maddon does not have the Cubs take batting practice huh? Or is it more like once in awhile he says take a break? Not the same thing.
Oh by the way ever hear of Kris Bryant? Oh he kept going on the DL. He then changed his batting stroke since he said all the batting practice wore his shoulder out.
Maddon suggested LESS then. Less can be more so it appear Maddon is thr smartest guy in the room or for sure at a minimum smarter than you.
Tell the Astros that there is nothing wrong with consistency…their most used exact lineup was done FIVE times. The Red Sox—EIGHT.
When Joe Maddon had Dexter Fowler—he seemed to lead off all the time. Dexter Fowler isn’t there anymore. Maddon played a much more set lineup in 2016—-and there were still some that complained the Heyward was in the lineup. You can’t have it both ways.
I’m sure Theo, Jed, and Joe are much more comfortable with any lineup that helps lead to 90+ wins a year.
Wrong.
They don’t get paid millions to play a game. They get paid millions to entertain us fans of the game. They are no different then movie stars, tv stars or musicians. I can’t stand hearing about how much money they make all of that is irrelevant.
Any athlete in any sport has obviously had immense work ethic at their craft at one time or another for them to have gotten as far as they have so to judge their failures on not working hard enough is just stupid.
Unless somebody on this site is a ceo or business owner or top of their industry in any way can have a judgement on somebody’s work ethic because unless you are at that pinnacle than your work ethic must be below the standards that you complain about the athletes having.
Take money out of all the equations they get paid as entertainers not as athletes. Just like if you don’t like a particular actor on a show you don’t watch the show. Just like if you don’t like the music of a certain musician you change the station or don’t buy an album. But to judge somebody on how much money they make doing what they do just sounds like you are a hater because you hate the fact they have a skill set that allows them to make that money and you are jealous of it. Can’t take that argument at all serious clown.
Stubby66 do you follow the team? Whats your point? That Davis should be retained or the coach does not matter?
My point was players need to take more accountability on what they do. Yes I get you need to listen to coaches but at the same time the player knows themselves the most .
Have you ever played behind 9-year old little league? Professional baseball is far beyond “listening to coaches”. They’re adults working….not playing.
Yes I get that and while everyone in baseball is talking about how players are to be worried about launch angle there is one guy who doesn’t believe in and goes with what is comfortable( Yelich). While yes players should listen to coaches and practice basics but same time they gotta believe in themselves too along with taking accountability for themselves.
Stubby66 you are correct they need to take more responsibility for themselves
If so many teams want Maddon maybe they could trade him for a hitting coach. I would like to see their top home run hitter (Baez) bat 4th and the guy with the 2nd most (Schwarber) bat 3rd so they wouldn’t be anxious to pitch around him. I like old fashioned baseball, not “numerology”. I would also like to see a more consistent line up and …. David Ross as manager.
How about Joe Girardi?
Sure—Girardi—because his jewelry box is full of rings with all those flags waving in New York.
To be fair he had championship caliber teams from 08-12. Then 13 and 14 had garbage teams (and still somehow was in a playoff hunt until late September) and then 15 and 16 and 17 overachieved. Girardi is an underrated manager
Same number as Maddon bro!!!
If you’re going to throw out lineup desires, let’s see your full lineup. I’m curious where you put Bryant and Rizzo
Bryant 2nd, Rizzo 5th.
Rizzo has a higher OBP, SLG than Schwarber and had 1 less HR last year and 2 more the year before. Rizzo also strikes out a minuscule amount for a power hitter. I really don’t see how you have him 5th and Schwarber 3rd. KS was much improved this year but he was not great.
Why would the Cubs trade Maddon for a hitting coach. And yea many teams would love to have Maddon a future hall of fame manager and any many teams would trade their hitting coach for him but why in the world would the Cubs get rid of Joe Maddon? Oh because he took his pitcher out before the starter went 7 innings? Haha ok.
HOF? I don’t see it. Not yet anyway.
That’s called recency bias
Indeed
So David Ross can manage better than Joe Maddon right now because …. hhhmm why??
Oh and Maddon did have Baez hitting 4th. Why would Schwarber bat third??? So he can strike out?
Usually your best overall hitter bats third and that is not Schwarber by any means
Lol no
How about hitting coach are stupid.
I’m not positive who was most responsible for firing Chili Davis. The Cubs basically cleaned house with their coaching staff last offseason shortly after Joe Maddon claimed all would be back.
The Cubs have had a few hitting coaches since Theo Epstein assumed the helm. I believe that Maddon needs to be held accountable for many of the problems with an under-achieving and inconsistent offense during the past two seasons. It might help if he quit playing musical chairs with his batting order and actually assigned roles for his hitters. Having sluggers like Kyle Schwarber, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo hitting in the top two slots of the batting order is nonsense, particularly in the NL with the starting pitcher preceding them for the better half of each game. I also didn’t care much for Ben Zobrist becoming the Cubs primary cleanup hitter in 2017 when he is best suited in the #2 hole.
The manager needs to keep their sluggers in the middle portion of the lineup, find or settle on a leadoff hitter and quit moving everybody around so much. I also am not a fan of the starting pitcher hitting in the 8th spot to accommodate a slugger hitting higher up in the order. Maddon implemented this tactic in 2015, abandoned it when the Cubs won the World Series in 2016 and has revisited it more often than not in the past two seasons which has seen their overall production decline considering the talent on hand.
The funny thing about the pitcher hitting 8th shows that there is no benefit mathematically hitting 8th or 9th. It’s more shock value than anything. The lead off position has been an issue since Fowler left, no one has fit in this spot. Many of the hitting woes would be fixed with a good lead off man.
Genius Joe should bat his pitcher 7th, hell 6th!
How could you possibly prove such a statement when only Joe Maddon implements such a strategy on a regular basis in MLB? Any sample size you would use would be ridiculously small and also has to factor in the other players in the lineup which is anything but static with Maddon’s knack for moving everyone around so much.
I also have to laugh at Maddon’s documented use of time each day figuring out his lineups based on all this so-called advanced analytic data he has available to him. He basically has a team chock full of younger hitters with very little experience and numbers at the highest level but somehow can justify putting each in a particular (usually different) spot based on that days starting pitcher along with some other factors.
It seems that “Genius” Joe might want to consider assigning roles based on his players abilities and track records throughout their entire careers including at the amateur and minor league levels. I’d venture to say that a slugger like Kris Bryant has been accustomed to batting third or 4th most of his life but Maddon seems to have this notion that he needs to reinvent the game somehow and make him the teams regular #2 hitter more often than not. Regardless of Bryant’s generally stellar numbers one thing is for certain. His RBI production has not been matching those stats in the 2-hole like it would if he had more opportunities at #3 or #4.
Maddon also cannot help but micro-manage the veteran hitters he does have on board who do have a track record in MLB. Prior to signing their FA deals with the Cubs, statistics and hitting tools suggested that Ben Zobrist might be more useful as a #2 hitter while Jason Heyward was more adept at hitting further down in the batting order. Yet Maddon thought Heyward would make an ideal #2 batter when he arrived in time for the 2016 season and he has yet to regain his prior hitting mojo with the Braves and Cardinals ever since. This was lunacy considering that Zobrist had just helped the Royals win a World Series in 2015 by exclusively batting second after he was acquired by the Royals at mid-season. It was even more puzzling since Maddon actually had managed Zobrist for the bulk of his career in Tampa. WTF!
Maddon’s daily micro-managing of his batting order based primarily on advanced analytics, to say nothing of his penchant for wearing out a bullpen could be construed as a self-fulfilling prophecy, at least in his own legendary mind.
Maddon is not the only manager that bats pitcher 8th, Larussa started all this years ago and many have followed suit, there is no statistical advantage to either position with regards to the pitcher. If there was they would have all moved them up
Maddon wasn’t the first but he has utilized this approach far more than any other manager. How many World Series titles did LaRussa win by having his starting pitchers bat 8th on a regular basis? Maddon’s one ring came when he mostly abandoned that philosophy in 2016.
I’m also still waiting for your documentation or proof that states a pitcher hitting 8th is as advantageous as batting 9th. If this were so, why has it not been the norm in the game’s long history when the DH wasn’t even an option in MLB until the AL implemented it in 1973? The primary reasoning for enacting the DH was because as a general pitchers suck at hitting and the game might benefit with more offense.
There is no statistical advantage for pitcher batting 8th or 9th
I read that in the exit interviews most players said they were confused or unclear on the organization’s hitting philosophy. That means the message wasn’t being communicated well enough…and that’s on Chili.
Davis himself admitted that he wasn’t “meshing” with some hitters and there was some disconnect.
Sounds pretty simple to me. Just as in any other business, if you’re a manager and are not being received clearly by your team, it signals time for a change.
Cubs can have Mallee back. The Phillies went from .250/.315/.409 in ’17 to .234/.314/.393 with a 25% team K rate (103 more K’s than last year). They did manage 88 more BB’s and 12 more HR’s while scoring 13 fewer runs. Maybe a trade of Maddon for Kapler and Mallee. Better hurry though before the feces hits the fan over the Dodger’s international signings while Kap was there. /s
Tribe will most likely have Allen and Miller money off the books, probably Chisenhall and Brantley, too.
Then next year EE and Kipnis money goes bye bye. Hopefully the youngsters coming up will be ready by then, and they’ll still have great starting pitching.
Arbitration kicks quite a few salaries up so the payroll will likely increase this offseason.
Did you happen to hear/read that Bruce Drennan talking about possibly looking at trading Kluber this offseason?
That would suck, but might work out depending on the haul. Knowing they weren’t going anywhere in the playoffs it’s too bad they didn’t lose the division and become sellers at the deadline. Could you imagine what they could’ve gotten selling off pieces like him at the deadline?
I would love for an organization strip down all the sabermetric geeks and give a true old school baseball man full run of said organization. Live thru the slim years it takes to buil it up and then let them dominate in baseball like Belicek has in football. That’s the problem with baseball these nerdy gms decided they needed to be the face of franchises and feel the need to be the stars of the team. Theo finally building a winner in Boston blew up his ego and now having won with the Cubs he thinks he is a god now. Some of the analytics he’ll even majority of the analytics may be good but it comes a time in everything when things become to much. Who is the player that is now in coaching or front offices that was a perennial star while playing that even associates with analytics. Give me a baseball guy all day these nerds are ruining the game.
Lmao…someone is screaming at the little kids from his rocking chair on the porch.
Has nothing to do with age so much I am 41 hardly too old for the analytic world. My problem is I don’t see the success in it. When everyone is doing it how is it a successful concept ? I would like an old school guy to come in to go againts it all somewhere. Be something different and see if he can be successful but it would take time to bring in his guys, develop his players and this day and age of immediate results won’t allow that.
I understand the way sp doesn’t go more than 6 innings or so anymore. A lot of pitchers never develop a 3rd pitch and have the ability to be a weapon in a short stretch. I am ok with that but all the nonsense switching lineups around doesn’t make sense to me. Best hitters batting 2nd all the focus on HR, situational hitting not being important, strikeouts being equal to any other out. It’s all nonsense to me and I don’t see the drastic change in the game since the 60’s, 70’s or 90’s that tell me this way is the right way.
I am not saying these concepts don’t work for certain teams but why is it old school concepts can’t work anymore ?
Anybody can find a stat or invent a stat to fit their ajenda tax accountant been adjusting numbers since the beginning of taxes doesn’t mean it’s right wrong or indiffrent.
My itch is taking out a player who is on a role for any reason. You don’t see Yelich being removed because you have a left handed pitcher. Once a player is hot and has momentum at the plate, keep him in. Tells me he’s seeing the ball and confidence.imho.
Maddon and Larussa are similar managers, they play a hunch, which at times make them look like smartest man alive, and other times having fans scratching there head as to why they made that decision.
Dave Magadan
Ben Zobrist would be an excellent hitting coach!
The AL isn’t the Senior Circuit. The NL is.
Now hate to bust everyone’s bubble on this thread but the problem is plain and simple. Look at the rosters of the four remaining teams. Three for sure Astro’s Red Sox Brewers and maybe Dodgers all have better talent on the roster then Cubs. So that’s on Theo and Jed not Maddon. However Maddon is and always has been the smartest guy in the room.
Good post….
With the possible exception of the Astros, those 4 teams do not have better talent on their rosters than the Cubs. So, that’s on Maddon…
Hopefully cubs go back to swinging away. Take the K’s with the HR’s. Realistically Machado & Harper will sign 400MM deals, but I bet both get opt outs after 3-4 years. Cubs should spend the money to deepen lineup. Even cubs 2016 lineup isn’t as deep as RSox, Stros, Yankees of this year and arguably dodgers, brewers. New TV contract coming shortly and they can flex their financial muscles.
Indians get 20-7, 2.89 ERA, 215 IP out of Kluber for $17 mill. Reds get 1-14, 6.09 ERA, 106 IP out of Bailey for $21 mill. What a deal. One club wins their division, the other wins last place again in theirs.
i love the hate when people worry about what salary players make. Every fan knows the risk when free agents get signed sometimes teams get burnt sometimes they don’t. But either way I would much rather see a player get paid for terrible years over the money staying in an owners pocket. It’s not like his salary would come back to you so why do you care how much money he makes. Worry bout how much money you make and figure out how to make more. Stop hating on another man for what he got and worry about getting what you want.
Maybe if you had any talent you could make $21 million because regardless to what his record is, was or ever will be he is still better at what he does than you are at what you do or you would be making the money he makes. Clown
If your a reds fan u wish the money went to a player who produced. Salary Cap! Heard of that? I’m not a reds fan but you make no sense at all, people care about the team not the man. And they want the teams money spent for production. It was a bad investment for the team if you can comprehend that in baseball sense.
Hire Paul Molitor as hitting coach, and you have a candidate to replace Maddon once he leaves / is fired.
As a Cubs fan I wish we could rip up Hayward’s and Darvish’s contracts right now today. I hate to say it but I also think the cubs should sign Machado and shop Bryant and keep him at 3rd for the future. Bryant’s getting slower and he will have to play the outfield one day and I truly think his best has came and gone. He will produce still but not at the same level and him rejecting multiple contract offers and having to deal with Boras is a big red flag. Just think we could have had Chris Sale for schwarber and be in the playoffs today. I think the timing is right and shop him this spring training. He’s more about himself than the team and he doesn’t show any love for the cubs, he’s just putting in his time and we have our super star Baez. Let’s get Machado and package Bryant and Hayward for a all star who wants to play in Chicago. When u see Sale pitching in the World Series remember the white Sox wated schwarber for sale. But we gave up the current #3 rated prospect for Quintana. Drives me nuts.
Good God…