In a discussion with Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star, outgoing Royals owner David Glass reflects on his 20 years spent spearheading a Major League team, touching on a wide variety of subjects ranging from regrets, financial challenges, and the next chapter for the Royals. Glass offers some insight into the factors that led him to seek out John Sherman as the next Royals owner, including a desire to ensure the franchise remains in Kansas City. He speaks about the ups and downs of the last two decades, a time that saw the franchise emerge from some of its darkest moments to claim a World Series victory. He shares regrets and memories, as well as his philosophy for operating a small-market team. Finally, Glass gives a glimpse into his decision to forgo a bidding process, instead specifically targeting Sherman to take over the team in his wake, with the hope that the new ownership regime will keep the organization “basically intact.”
Let’s turn to other nuggets from the American League…
- Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks, still recovering from elbow issues, has begun to throw from 90 feet, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. When we last heard from Hicks, a second opinion recommended several more weeks of rest after suffering a setback in early September. At this time, Hicks and the Yankees are still optimistic that he won’t require Tommy John surgery, though that’s not guarantee—he’s due for another evaluation shortly. However, the timeline has all but confirmed that Hicks won’t be ready to return at any point in the postseason.
- Though there has been some clamoring for the Chris Davis era in Baltimore to end, Orioles general manager Mike Elias expects the 33-year-old to be back with the team in spring training 2020, tweets Dan Connolly of The Athletic. While Davis’s dreadful performance has certainly not earned him a spot in the team’s future plans, the reality remains that the ex-slugger is under contract for three more years, a span in which he’ll earn another $69MM. While internal options like Trey Mancini or minor-leaguer Ryan Mountcastle might make more sense, it appears that the club is committed to reforming its highest-paid player.
- While there still isn’t a concrete timetable for the Twins’ Max Kepler to return to the lineup, he’s set to dial up his workload in the coming days, according to La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune. Kepler, who hasn’t made a plate appearance for Minnesota since September 14, has been dealing with somewhat nebulous shoulder and back issues for months. One of the most productive hitters in the Minnesota lineup, it feels imperative that Kepler is available for postseason play. While the precise timetable remains unknown, it seems that ramping up his swings and hitting off a high-velocity machine is a step in the right direction.
Davis just hit a home run, so obviously he’s turned it around.
Lol
How long did he go started the season without a hit? Like seriously… I think it was like 0-69
0-55
But 69 hitless PAs
Oh wow he hit a whole HR !! compared to a horrible season ? Garbage
The joke went over somebody’s head.
Haha salty bunch around here today.
Suspicious.
Plz kep were gonna need you
So with no Hick nor Tauchmann I guess the Yanks will go with either…
Judge/Gardner/Stanton with Voit or EE at DH and DJ at 1B
or
Judge/Gardner/Frazier (or Maybin) with Stanton or Voit at DH and DJ at 1B.
On a side note, Gardner refuses to go silently into that good night. I think the Yanks almost have to bring him back on another 1 year deal despite the crowded OF/DH situation. Good defense, clubhouse leader, still draws walks and near 30 homers? And his power is a byproduct of YS as he’s hit more homeruns on the road and has a better slash-line away from home too.
I agree completely
YS?
yankee stadium
Thanks!
I’m slow!
He stopped banging his bat on the roof, but he still cries about the strike zone. What a weenie.
@melchez Who cares? Most of these umps do a horrible job consistently calling balls and strikes. Gardner is far from the only mlb player to do that. But I guess now that he’s having a good season and proves to be worth his 1/$8 mil you have to find something to complain about. Have at it.
Hey, keep protecting your childish yankee player. Could be worse… he could be German. Or that lefty reliever from the pirates? If he were a Yankee, you would defend him.
You’ve reached a new level of trolling.
@melchez
@lowereastsider
Crying his old tired song, Melch is a mooch attaching to articles and posts with his non stop anti Yankee rant.
He had no choice growing up in Queens as his father beat, “Let’s Go Mets” into his head and he listened to Ralph Kinernwhen daddy
Ralph Kiner when daddy put him in the corner.
Go back to Flushing mindless Melch. You offer nothing to this board. We’re not sorry that you don’t have any friends.
I bet the GM doesn’t even see Chris Davis’ actual face when he sees him. All he sees is a $ sign with 69 mil after it. Everyday he’s gotta be tempted to “Tonya Harding” him and collect the insurance money. Just have someone target his knees and sprinkle crack around his body. Make the cops think it’s drug related.
I don’t know what kind of presence he is with the kids but judging by the dugout confrontation it might be wise to just cut him and moving fwd.
Mike Elias isn’t paying his salary so I highly doubt that. Having a dead roster spot is stupid but on a 60 win team that’s more concerned about stockpiling minor league talent I’m not sure it’s a crippling move.
Dang, that’s so cold. All he sees is dollar signs?
@melchez Same look in his eye that Cashman has whenever Ellsbury shows up in the locker room.
Doh. Oh no you didnt.
That’s why Ellsbury doesn’t show up in the locker room. If this were the Mets it would be a free soap opera.
I’m not sure about Davis. Every O’s game I watch, I see him talking/encouraging young pitchers, trying to talk sense to Villar (that must be a lot of fun), and being pretty vocal in the dugout. We all know it’s easy to be the All-American nice guy with that 69M, but, instead, he could be like Chris Sale and David Price, who spend their days yawning in the Sox dugout.
Davis stinks; no doubt. But ya gotta pay him anyway. Mountcastle probably isn’t ready defensively (if he ever will be), so you use Boom Boom at 1B, and DH Davis. At least for the first half of 2020.
Davis has done nothing to deserve playing time over Renato Nunez. If he’s again going to be carried on the team he needs to be utilized exactly like he has been in the second half as a part time player. Preferably less playing time. Price and Sale still perform at an above average level. There’s no reason to keep Davis around from a competitive standpoint. He’s redundant and clearly a worse option than Nunez or Mancini. It’s ownership not wanting to eat all the cash and let him walk away.
wow, so villar is the “nonsensical” one despite outplaying literally everyone on that terrible team….
Villar has made more than his fair share of mental errors. Whether it’s a base running lapse or a defensive lapse. Anyone who consistently watches ALE baseball is probably aware of that. The orioles couldn’t find anyone to give up a lotto ticket for him at the deadline. (Though even w the mental mistakes, I do think he would’ve been an upgrade to a couple teams playoff benches)Not every bad play shows up in the score book as an E at the end of the night.
No one thinks Davis has any stat value at all. But if he’s not keeping a prospect down, and you have to pay him, he doesn’t seem like a bad guy to have around.
Re Villar, I’m a bit surprised they couldn’t get a lotto ticket either. It would have been an upgrade for 2019 in a lot of places. But while his stats scream 8-10M in arbitration, I don’t think anyone is that simple minded to give it to him in 2020. When you look in the dictionary under “second division player”, you see his picture.
Villar often plays out of control, making questionable decisions on the basepaths and nonchalant defensive miscues. Davis, for all his faults (and he has a lot of them) has been the consummate professions save for one hot August evening. He has taken his reduction in playing time like a man, still encouraging his teammates and by all accounts still trying to figure out how he forgot how to hit a baseball consistently.
Rangers hometown fan here (I remember when Crush Davis was actually good). He has a rep as a great clubhouse guy. Unfortunately, though, he has always had trouble managing the strike zone and defensive shifting has only magnified his woes. imo Baltimore needs to forget about the money owed and ask themselves, “Which us more likely: Davis turns it around … or handing 1B over to someone else allows them to blossom and sets our rebuild forward?” I think the second option is far more likely, but nobody ever accused the Orioles front office and ownership of being wise.
“ex-slugger”
so harsh, haha
Just have Gardner do another cycle of roids and sign him to a one year 10 mil
I don’t think it’s roids. His swing has evolved over the seasons. He used to have a much more exaggerated stance with his bat in a funky angle at like 6:30 on a clock, and he had this powerful but unwieldy tomahawk swing, His swing this year is far smoother, the way he holds his bat is far more traditional, even if his stance is similar to what its been historically. Couple that with a few other factors: 1) The Juiced Ball, increasing nearly everybody’s home run totals by probably anywhere from 5 to 15 extra dingers. 2) Yankees are re-training all of their hitters to become power hitters by lifting the ball with their swings and leaning into whatever their strong angles are. 3) He’s not the same kind of player he was a few years ago and he’s given himself and the team has given him permission to hit for power rather than try to get on base for steals and setting up RBI opportunities for other batters. 4) He probably didn’t try to hit for power when he was younger and now that is his goal at the plate, so he’s adjusted his approach to account for that and this is the result. 5) Despite the obvious fact that he was never supposed to provide power on earlier rosters, I think his mindset and the team’s mindset changed this year for a bunch of reasons, one being that steals aren’t valued like they once were. It’s now not worth the risk of the potential out in most situations, also why there isn’t as much bunting as there used to be, so he isn’t expected simply to get on base, but to produce the run himself- hence the home runs.
The game has evolved for better or for worse into an all-or-nothing approach. It has become all about batted ball profiles. Nobody is trying to beat defensive shifts. As for Gardner, he has definitely change his game and deserves another contract.
Hey Trillionaire-Louie is hurting as he lost his job. He mouthed off at his job in the Bronx and his coworkers beat him for being a fowl mouthed Mets fan.
Gardners post season stats 2019 2-15
Cashman? Same look in his eye?!!? Cashman looks like a formaldehyde accident gone horribly wrong, so its not a look. Just the Ellsbury contract? Lets look at the Stanton acquisition too. Perhaps it was Cashman who took pictures of A-Roids on the crapper on the 58th floor trying extortion to get more revenue for next season. Little hint…..pay a lot for conditioning coaches. Its a problem when 1 team endures this much.
Hey Trump—are those black eyes left over from Fred beating you or has Wifey continued to whip you for your indiscretions?
Stanton deal barely cost anything when you factor in the Sterlin Castro contract. Lol don’t think Stanton isn’t opting out next year and getting more money. FYI the marlins paid a full year of his salary also
I just want to see the Yankees sign all their guys to appropriate long term deals and put the issue to bed. They aren’t flipping guys like Judge or Sanchez, even with their extended periods on the IL. They sure as heck are not going to even entertain the idea of trading Gleyber Torres for anything, no matter what the offer. Bottom line is there’s no reason not to sign guys to extensions unless the front office and training staff are worried they’ll burn out from some underlying persistent physical issue or they’re secretly juicing in a way that will get them caught etc. like how they flipped Jesus Montero for Pineda when it was apparent there were issues behind the scenes, even if it wasn’t obvious in-game on television. Montero was the future of their offense and then he came up and issues became apparent so he got flipped rather than even try to keep developing him. So if they’ve got all these guys who wind up on the IL for a third or more of every season, but they don’t trade them and they don’t truly move on to another guy, regardless of ‘Next Man Up’ (Bird being quietly removed to the same degree as Ellsbury and obviously usurped completely and for good by Voit and literally anybody else at the major league level notwithstanding) then I don’t see any other option than to sign them to long term middle ground player fair but team friendly deals. To my mind, at this point the only thing guys like Judge, Sanchez, Torres, etc. would really fight for in their contracts would be no-trade clauses or limited trade clauses. The money seems like it should be an obvious pro-rated expectation of what they’d earn on the open market minus a ‘home town discount’ and minus ‘there is no way you play in 160 games or give us 600 bats a season’ money. So if they’d all command $35M for 162 games, pay them like they’re worth $25M a season, guarantee it, make it a half decade with a couple cheaper years tacked on the front and back ends and call it a day. It’ll be virtually a career length pact with all of them and it won’t break the bank and it won’t get us stuck with too many years. 9 years/$200M for Judge, 9 years/$140M for Sanchez, 13 years/$350M for Torres, make the middle years expensive and make the front and back end years cheap and they’ll prove to be budget efficient and cost effective. Oh and give Gardner 1 year/$18.5M, as that covers the difference on the option that was turned down and will take him to the equivalent of 6 years/$78M or $13M per season from his long term extension that expired last season, which is what he should have been paid this year and probably would’ve been signed to on a one year extension next year had his option been picked up and the year played out as it has.
I know some folks argue to let most of these guys go through arbitration and sign their FA deal somewhere else or get signed to an extension and traded or get traded before any arbitration years for maximum value on younger pre-arbitration studs and some guys want to let Gardner walk or hope he retires, but why? Why does every team have to re-load constantly? Why is it just about prospects nowadays despite the guys getting 5 year $160M deals and 4 year/$100M deals, etc through their mid-30’s and most aren’t completely albatrosses even if few live up to the price tags. Guys stay healthier and more productive longer nowadays.
All logic aside, I love seeing the same guys playing each other. I don’t mind the occasional blockbuster trade, especially if it proves a shrewd strategic move that changes the course of the club. But I like rooting for the guys in the uniforms as much as the uniform itself. As much as I love Gio Urshela, say, I lament not seeing Miggy Andujar in back to back seasons and I wonder what his future holds. BTW Gio Urshela is in a prolonged slump 0 for 14 or 15 and only a couple hits in his last 20 or so at bats since the IL, etc. and Tauchman was slumping when he went on the IL. Point is starters, stars and long term inhabitants of key starter positions get to where they are and stay there for a reason. I’ll take a steady Edwin Encarnacion or a steady Aaron Hicks over a streaking and peaking quadruple-A guy who comes and goes in a few weeks, or the group of prospect studs in their rookie or second year seasons coalescing into a formidable team that folks don’t mind seeing blown up as they get expensive, only to have to hope that team gets lucky with the next round of prospects. How often do the A’s make it into the post season, or even scrape at the World Series? The reliance on prospects and the concern about extensions seems like it has a happy middle ground solution. Stop signing single players to $30+M per season contracts and stop avoiding paying other guys $15-25M a season to stick around in favor of $550k players or guys making less than $45M over their years of arbitration.
I really love what the Dodgers are doing and I think that needs to be the new model. Short term extensions of 3 to 5 seasons, with rising, peaking and falling salaries season to season, with a few robust earning years in the middle surrounded by affordable salaries on the front and back ends or the contract ends before it gets old and problematic.
Yankees can’t get their guys on Aaron Hicks level deals, but I don’t think anybody is gonna be asking for Chris Sale/Mookie Betts money either. I hope I am right.
You have obviously thought this through but some players don’t (with their agents advocating) against signing pre-arbitration extensions. The Yankees also have a policy of no in-season contract negotiations that makes things more difficult. In the huge media market that is New York, star players like Judge, Torres, and Severino are going get huge corporate endorsement deals that outclass their current respective baseball salaries. That mitigates a lot of risk of going year-by-year.
I understand what you’re saying. I think it’s very smart of the Yankees to wait between seasons to talk contracts. I also know they tend to get contract talks out of the way as quickly as possible during the off season (like with Happ, Sabathia and Gardner) and I know they extend guys when they view them as potential franchise cornerstones and I know they like bringing guys back whom they traded for if the trade worked out (Happ, Headley, Chapman, Bobby Abreu, etc.) or they pay guys in their final year of arbitration, knowing the relationship is probably over (like how they gave Phil Hughes over $7M his final year of arb and his numbers did not indicate that was his value at all, but the Yanks didn’t extend him either) or they pay guys well on one year pillow contracts ($12-13M for Youkilis, Holliday, etc. in the twilight of their careers, even DJ LeMahieu’s 2 year/$24M counts as a pillow contract for a player they viewed as a temporary roster member until their long term prospects improved/healed, etc.)
All of this is to say they are by no means cheap and they are by no means unwilling to spend to get the best available guys to win with. But most of these examples are 1 year deals or cheap deals relative to what that position can command for a FA for veteran players making one last cash grab knowing their peak earning and performing years are behind them, they’re high priced but short term off the bench veterans now.
This isn’t that. None of these guys are truly still developing, unless they suddenly all turn into annually dependable 145 games/475 PA per year .385 OBP, 55 HR 150 RBI players. That probably won’t happen, but they probably will all hit for average and provide a dependable 30-45 HR’s a season, 70-130 RBI’s and so on.
I also realize how individualized these contracts are. Posada was around as long as Jeter and never got Jeter deals or money as it should have been. Ditto Bernie Williams and so on. I can see how Torres could be way more valuable over the same number of years and more than Judge or Sanchez and their contracts should reflect that. I also get why there is no problem going year to year. It might save the Yanks in the end. Like what if they had locked Betances into a 7 year/$77M deal or something. during arbitration last off season? How would that look now? Look at Hicks…. Did they know Severino was gonna be injured an entire season or was a risk and so did Severino?
Seems that with the exception of Torres, unlike Jeter, these players can be cornerstones and super stars and win championships for the Yankees for years to come but will not rack up the sheer numbers the way any player would if they stayed healthy for a long time. These guys aren’t Cal Ripken, Jr.’s but they can be a bunch of modern day Adrian Beltre types. If he was always a 26 to 36 HR threat and was consistently paid around $15M a season for his FA years, seems like the modern day equivalent to that would be about $23M. I dunno… I know the Yankees have Florial and others in the wings, I just want to see this overall roster of guys stick around and I know that they will want that contract/salary/job security of a long term deal and I know some club will give them whatever it takes in the end, when the opportunity theoretically arises in 3 years.
I grew up watching Jeter, Pettitte, Posada, Williams, Mariano Rivera, to a lesser extent guys like Paul O’Neill, Tino Martinez, A-Rod… I’ll ignore the memorable quadruple-A duds. Every team has a few guys they keep trotting out on the 40-man roster for a few seasons who never quite justifies playing at the major league level.
Point is, that is not these guys. Whatever holes Judge, Sanchez or Torres have in their games, those holes are small enough that they’re worth the strengths these guy all possess. I even love Voit and hope he gets signed long term (though I imagine a contract for him would be very cheap, like 5 years/$35M and he can opt out into arbitration if he wants) and I only feel this way because I don’t think the Yankees could possibly replace these guys with better players and I don’t think there is any team that would match up in trades with the Yankees at this point and I don’t think the franchise or the fanbase has the stomach to reload any time soon. Gary Sanchez has been a stud prospect for years and years now. Judge wasn’t as highly touted but they knew he had an incredible ceiling, even if he never recreates his rookie campaign. Torres is a generational talent that people knew about before he was a Yankee and I wonder, if he was a Cubbie, would he be extended by now? I know it doesn’t matter. I know it’s fine and within the rules to go year to year. I know the Yankees don’t like to pay their guys too handsomely in arbitration.
I just think this is a special group. They might cross the finish line every season with 40+ games missed a piece, all kinds of nagging injuries and roster fluctuations, but when they are healthy they all produce in a way that cannot be replaced by many players on any other roster, aside from individual players posting near god-like numbers regardless of the team they’re on, such as Trout and Rendon and I think they will combine for World Series appearances galore, if not titles.
If they all stuck around 9 more seasons as a whole group, I could see 4-5 championships. I also think they’d all care so much about being Yankee lifers and they’d all take so much heed of guys like Pujols, Miggy Cabrera and Dustin Pedroia that the team and players will be careful about contracts. I could go on but I’ll shut up here.
No need to sign them yet. They have multiple years left of control.
@fits65 sorry about your fixation on the Flintstones. Speaking of Chris Davis and the O’s with the Yankees problems…Chris Davis might not hit anymore, but at least Davis doesn’t need a Jew boy in the stands steal an out for a homerun like Derek Cheater
@TrumpCard Dude….Jew boy? Really? But then again, that name.
@TrumpCard…Make America great..err…racist again. Your thought process is my greatest fear for our country.
Are the mods sleeping, or does their ignorance allow for an anti Semitic comment from a blatant racist?
Good riddance Mr Glass. yes you took us to the World series twice but all those years you didn’t field a competitive team will be what I remember. each and every year you made money off the team and now you’re making a profit of 900 million selling. Why didn’t you invest more each year? Because you’re cheap and only cared about the bottom line. Hopefully a new owner will care about winning also.
Davis is toast, the Orioles are going to release him after continuing to reduce his playing time to the point that they won’t play him.
There is absolutely zero chance of that with the amount of money they owe him
If he keeps playing like he has these last two years, then yeah It’ll happen.
Again, there is no chance they pay him 23 million a year to play some where else for free or pay him that much to not play
Here’s an idea to chew on since the topic of bad Orioles contracts were discussed: Trade proposal..
NYM acquire SP- Cobb for Cespedes
BAL can dump all of the $29.5M owed to Ces in one year playing him as a DH and still save some money. Mets take on the 2yrs-$30M owed to Cobb to fill a rotation spot, recycle the money owed to Ces, and don’t have to pay $29.5 in one year.. $15 this year and $15M the next. Just a thought..