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Class Action Status Approved In Minimum Wage Case Against MLB

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Minor league ballplayers received a big win today when they were granted class action status in their suit against Major League Baseball, per J.J. Cooper of Baseball America. The Supreme Court ruling on Monday denied MLB’s appeal to a previous ruling that granted class action status to a group of 29 players currently suing Major League Baseball for violation of minimum wage laws. Were MLB’s appeal granted, players would have had to individually bring their cases against MLB. For these players, most of whom were never able to reap the benefits of a full-scale major league salary, individual lawsuits simply wouldn’t be financially viable – certainly not against a financial giant like Major League Baseball.

Instead, the floodgates are open and we can expect a great number of players to join those currently named in the suit. Cooper suggests the number of parties could grow to include potentially every minor league player that participated in the system since February 7, 2009. Said Cooper, “It potentially includes almost every affiliated minor league baseball player of the past decade. With more than 6,000 players participating in minor league baseball in a normal year, the number of eligible players could be measured in tens of thousands.”

The case now expects to move forward sometime in 2021, writes The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. Drellich provides a quote from lead attorney – a former minor-leaguer himself – Garrett Broshuis, who explains the violation of minimum wage laws as viewed by the players: “…it’s important to keep in mind that these players are workers and just like all other workers across the country, they deserve to have the benefits of our minimum wage laws. And it’s important for players to be able to band together and pursue that collectively. And so this case is a recognition that the players have the right to do that, and hopefully sometime soon players will be treated with the respect that they deserve and will at some point finally be paid wages that will allow them to live at levels above the poverty level.”

The state of Minor League Baseball remains entirely in flux since the expiration of the agreement between MLB and MiLB last week. Major League Baseball is expected to bring minor league teams under the MLB umbrella, eliminating 40-some teams in the process. Monday’s ruling represents a significant point of negotiation as MLB works with those owners of minor league clubs to come to some kind of accord prior to next season. Owners are saddled with significant time sensitivity, since their stadiums are their greatest revenue assets, and without a minor-league schedule, their hands are tied in terms of seeking out alternative or supplemental revenue opportunities. Especially after a season lost due to the pandemic, those minor league owners are in a difficult negotiating position.

Both Cooper and Drellich provided this statement from Major League Baseball: “While Major League Baseball does not comment on ongoing litigation, MLB remains focused on modernizing its player development system to enhance the Minor League experience for players, including providing them with renovated facilities, reduced travel and improved daily working conditions. MLB has long planned to increase Minor League player salaries as part of our next agreement with Minor League clubs, and announced earlier this year that Minor League players would be receiving salary increases ranging from 38 percent to 72 percent for the 2021 season.”

Diamondbacks Will Retain Coaching Staff For 2021

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The Arizona Diamondbacks are bringing back their coaching staff intact for the 2021 season, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.

After remaining surprisingly competitive throughout the 2019 season, the Diamondbacks entered 2020 as a dark horse contender in the National League. The season went about as poorly as possible for Arizona, who finished 25-35, last place in the NL West. They ended with the second-worst record in the National League, better only than the 19-41 Pirates. Still, manager Torey Lovullo and those in the organization are not letting themselves be swayed by the bizarre circumstances of a 60-game season. It would not be uncommon, of course, for a team in their situation to make some changes on the coaching staff, even if ownership were intent on retaining the manager. Credit the Diamondbacks for their show of faith in this group. Arizona’s coaching staff will now get at least another season to prove the anomalous nature of their 60-game stretch in 2020.

The starting pitching presented particularly poorly over the first half as Robbie Ray, Madison Bumgarner, and Luke Weaver each got off to poor starts. Their struggles were untenable over a full campaign, and positive regression was sure to come had it been a normal season. Of course, how much of a return-to-form to expect is difficult to gauge. Bumgarner, for example, entered the 2020 campaign without ever yielding an ERA or FIP over 3.99. The 31-year-old free agent prize nevertheless posted a 8.53 ERA over his first 7 starts while opposing hitters slashed .319/.392/.689.

A pair of spotless 5-inning outings to finish the year somewhat salvaged his campaign, though Bumgarner still finished with a highly uncharacteristic 6.48 ERA/7.18 FIP. Though his final two outings didn’t accomplish much in terms of lessening the eyesore of his 2020 season, they did lend some credence to the idea that significant positive regression was in the offing has the season continued to its usual length.

Regarding the true talent level for this group, Piecoro provides a quote from General Manager Mike Hazen, who said, “My mindset going (into the offseason) is I feel like we have a good baseball team. I feel like we have a good baseball team that did not — and as a group, for whatever reason — we didn’t come out on the end of making the playoffs. That still doesn’t take away from what I feel like is the talent base of the roster and we need to make sure we maintain some focus on that and not overreact in the other direction.”

Marlins Set Rotation For First Three Games Of NLDS

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The Marlins are preparing to kick off their NLDS against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday. This series is non-conventional for a postseason set in that the best-of-five will play out over 5 consecutive days (and of course, because it’s being played in a playoff bubble at a neutral site during a pandemic).

No days off means there will be less of the starters-in-relief that has come to define many recent postseasons, including last year when Nationals’ manager Dave Martinez used each of Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, and Patrick Corbin out of the bullpen en route to winning the World Series. But there’s still potential for lots of in-series finagling of pitching staffs depending on how the first couple of games play out. For Atlanta, that could mean a bullpen day for game four. Max Fried, Ian Anderson, and Kyle Wright will take the hill for the first three games, and odds are they’d bring Fried back on short rest for a potential winner-take-all game five.

The potential to return on short rest for a deciding game five makes the selection of the game one starter all the more important . The Marlins will start Sandy Alcantara in the series opener, followed by Pablo López in game two and rookie phenom Sixto Sánchez in game three, tweets Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. The Marlins young trio have a real opportunity to add to their pandemic-truncated resumes. Alcantara and López won’t be arbitration eligible until after 2021, so there’s time to build a more comprehensive portfolio before entering the arbitration process. Still, every extra start does help considering the half a season or more lost due to the pandemic. The 25-year-old Alcantara, for example, was only able to make 7 regular season starts because of time spent on the COVID-19 injured list. He added one successful postseason start to that total already, and by starting game one of the NLDS, he could add another pair should the series go the distance.

Sánchez, with just 7 regular season starts to his name, isn’t scheduled to enter arbitration until after the 2023 season. He’ll be pushed back a day after 5 spotless innings against the Cubs in game two of the Wild Card series. Sánchez came out hot against the Cubs, routinely hitting triple-digits in the first couple of innings. His velocity dropped to the 94-to-97 mph range by the fifth inning. A game two start would have put him on track for a regular four days of rest. This way gets the 22-year-old an extra day off after a high-intensity outing at Wrigley Field.

López will take the hill for Wednesday’s game two instead. His last start came all the way back on September 24th. That gives him 12 days off between starts. That last outing also happened to come against these very Braves, one of three times he opposed Freddie Freeman and company during the regular season. The Marlins went 2-1 in those games, though the loss on September 9th was easily López’s roughest (and shortest) outing of the season. He managed just 1 2/3 innings while serving up 4 hits, 4 walks, and 7 earned runs. The 24-year-old went 5 scoreless, striking out 6 while yielding just 2 hits and 2 walks in his final start of the year at Atlanta.

In a vacuum, any of the three would be legitimate options to open the series, but manager Don Mattingly wasn’t troubled by his decision about who to start in game one. Per MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro, Mattingly said, “Obviously, Sandy’s easy. He’s been our guy, kind of our No. 1.”

Yankees Name Deivi Garcia Game Two Starter

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21-year-old Deivi Garcia will get the nod in game two of the ALCS on Tuesday night, per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch and others (via Twitter). Amazingly, Garcia will be the youngest pitcher to start a playoff game in Yankees’ postseason history and the 5th-youngest in AL postseason history, per ESPN’s Marly Rivera and ESPN Stats Info (via Twitter).

It’s a bold stroke for manager Aaron Boone. Garcia made just 6 starts during the regular season in his first taste of big league action. Garcia held his own, going 3-2 with a 4.98 ERA/4.15 FIP and 8.7 K/9 to 1.6 BB/9. His command was particularly impressive, never having limited free passes at such a stringent rate at any point in his minor league career when it’s typical for young players to struggle more with their command upon promotion to the bigs. Garcia’s 5’9″ stature and electric stuff has drawn comparisons to Pedro Martinez early in his career, and while that’s quite a lofty comparison at this stage, he certainly looks more and more like a player with cult potential in New York.

Over the small sample of major league innings we’ve seen thus far, Garcia averages a 91.9 mph four-seamer that serves as the bedrock offering in his arsenal, throwing it about 60% of the time, often up. The Dominican righty utilizes a 80.6 mph change-up away against lefties while mixing in a breaking ball about 12.5% of the time. Against right-handed batters, he goes to a slider/curveball combo more frequently, giving equal love to the slider and curve for a total usage rate of about 33%. He was the Yankees #1 prospect coming into the season.

It will be interesting to see how Boone chooses to manage Garcia. He could easily plan to pull the rookie after one or (likely at-most) two turns through the Rays lineup, though he’ll be helped by the fact that Rays hitters have not seen him in-game before. Boone has a number of long relievers he can call on to piggyback with Garcia if he so chooses. Luis Cessa, Jonathan Loaisiga, Jordan Montgomery, Nick Nelson, and Michael King all have experience starting in the minor leagues. Montgomery might be the most-likely go-to, both because of his relatively strong season (3.87 FIP across 10 starts, 44 innings), but also because the southpaw might see platoon advantages, depending on how long Garcia goes and how aggressive the Rays are with their substitutions. The Rays tend to be fairly aggressive with pinch-hitters, even early in games, so platoon advantage alone likely won’t dictate much of the Yankees’ thinking early in the contest.

Masahiro Tanaka, then, will get the start in game three. The veteran weathered a tough outing in game two against Cleveland in the Wild Card round. Tanaka survived just four innings, walking three, yielding 5 hits, and 6 earned runs. The Yankees, of course, ultimately rallied to win the game and seal the series. Tanaka threw 77 pitches, and given the 6 full days he’ll have off between starts, he should be more than ready for Wednesday’s game three.

Freddie Freeman On Potential Extension

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Longtime Braves star Freddie Freeman may win the NL MVP this year, but the first baseman isn’t signed beyond next season. As a result, the World Series-contending Braves will soon have to decide how far they’ll go to keep him in the fold. There’s mutual interest in a new deal, though, Freeman revealed Monday (via David O’Brien of The Athletic).

Freeman, whose eight-year, $135MM extension is nearing an end, said that he’d “love to stay” in Atlanta, and he believes general manager Alex Anthopoulos is aware of that. “We’ll see how it goes. But this team is built to win for a long time and I know that. It’s going to be a good ride. Hopefully I can be a part of it,” Freeman added.

A 2007 second-round pick, Freeman has turned into one of the most accomplished players in Braves history. The 31-year-old is a four-time All-Star who has slashed .295/.383/.509 with 240 home runs and 38 fWAR over 5,965 plate appearances. He turned in a career-best .341/.462/.640 line with 13 HRs and an NL-leading 3.4 fWAR across 262 PA in 2020 en route to what could be an MVP-winning season.

Regardless of whether Freeman takes home hardware in the coming months, he looks as if he’s in line for a second contract worth at least $100MM. Speculatively, Freeman could push for a similar pact to the five-year, $130MM extension Paul Goldschmidt signed with the Cardinals before 2019.

Rhys Hoskins Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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The Phillies announced that first baseman Rhys Hoskins underwent a successful Tommy John surgery to repair a torn UCL in his left elbow last week. He’s expected to be sidelined for four to six months.

It’s an unfortunate development for the 27-year-old. Recovery from this procedure isn’t as severe for a position player as it would be for a pitcher, but both player and team were surely hoping he wouldn’t need to go under the knife.

Before going down with the forearm injury that ended his season, Hoskins had a strong year at the plate. He hit .245/.384/.503 over 185 plate appearances, a marked improvement in the on-base and power departments over his 2019 campaign. He’s also in line for a substantial raise, as he’ll go through the arbitration process for the first time this winter. As a middle-of-the-order fixture, Hoskins should remain quite a bargain from a contractual standpoint.

The four-to-six month timetable opens up the possibility Hoskins won’t be available out of the gate next season. It’d take his coming in at the early end of that recovery timetable to have an uninterrupted spring training. As far as recent precedents go, Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks underwent the same procedure last October and would not have been ready to return until June. Notably, however, Hicks’ procedure was on his throwing arm (Hoskins’ is not) and initially called for a more significant eight-to-ten month recovery timeline.

Theo Epstein Discusses Cubs’ Future

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The Cubs’ season came to an abrupt end last week, when the Marlins swept the NL Central winners in the teams’ first-round series. Despite generally strong regular-season play, the North Siders have now failed to advance to a National League Division Series in each of the past three seasons. President of baseball operations Theo Epstein discussed the organization’s outlook in an end-of-season chat with reporters this morning.

Having not quite lived up to lofty expectations in recent years, Epstein acknowledged some change this offseason “is warranted and necessary” (via Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Tribune). There’s seeming room for improvement on both sides of the ball. On the whole, Cubs’ hitters slashed just .220/.318/.387, resulting in a 91 wRC+ that ranked 21st out of the league’s 30 teams. Among everyday players, only Ian Happ and Jason Heyward performed up to or exceeded expectations. Anthony Rizzo was decent but didn’t play at his established levels, while Kris Bryant and Javier Báez scuffled through miserable seasons.

On the pitching side, Yu Darvish again cemented himself as a bona fide ace, with Kyle Hendricks continuing to shine as the #2 option. The rest of the rotation is uncertain, with José Quintana, Jon Lester and Tyler Chatwood all ticketed for free agency. 25-year-old Adbert Alzolay has the inside track on a rotation spot, Epstein confirmed (via Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune), but he admitted the front office will have to look outside the organization for additional pitching help. Whether the Cubs could make any high-priced additions isn’t clear, as Epstein said the franchise is facing a high amount of financial uncertainty in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic (Gonzales link), as is more or less true of all 30 clubs.

Being open to some changes on the roster is hardly the same as desiring massive turnover; GM Jed Hoyer made similar comments last November, but the organization had a generally quiet 2019-20 offseason. The existing core is clearly capable of making another run in the NL Central, assuming the pitching staff is bolstered in some fashion. It remains to be seen if the conditions for a more drastic shakeup present themselves.

The 46-year-old Epstein also addressed his personal future. His contract expires after the 2021 season, and he’s reportedly planning to meet one-on-one with chairman Tom Ricketts in the coming days. Epstein confirmed he’ll sit down with ownership but downplayed the meeting’s significance, calling it a customary end-of-year process. “My expectation is that I’ll be here (next season),” he told reporters (including Jordan Bastian of MLB.com).

That said, Epstein hinted at the possibility that 2021 could be his final year in Chicago. When asked about the prospect of an extension, he noted that changes after a long time spent in one place could be beneficial for both employees and the organization (via Gonzales). As Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com points out (Twitter link), that’s in line with an increasing expectation Epstein might depart at the end of his deal.

If that were to happen, Hoyer would seem an obvious candidate to take over baseball operations. Long-term front office uncertainty aside, Epstein says he’s currently “as invested in the Chicago Cubs as I was at any point in the last nine years,” (Rogers link).

Yankees Announce ALDS Roster

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The Yankees have set their 28-man roster for this week’s ALDS matchup against the divison-winning Rays. Here’s how it all breaks down:

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

New York makes just one change relative to their first-round roster. With the series length expanding from three to a potential five games, the Yankees added King as a multi-inning relief option for manager Aaron Boone.

In his place, catcher Erik Kratz was removed from the active roster. The veteran backstop will head to the alternate player pool, which also includes Miguel Andújar, Rob Brantly, Ryan Buchter, Matt Duffy, Thairo Estrada, Brooks Kriske, Tyler Lyons, Jordy Mercer, James Paxton (out with a flexor strain), Clarke Schmidt and Miguel Yajure.

Austin Meadows Active For ALDS

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The Rays released their 28-man roster for their ALDS matchup with the Yankees. Here’s the full breakdown:

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Most notably, Meadows returns to the roster after missing Tampa Bay’s first-round sweep of the Blue Jays. (However, he’s not in the starting lineup for the series opener). Out since September 17 with an oblique strain, Meadows will attempt to get his season on track for the stretch run. Perhaps the Rays’ best player a season ago, the 25-year-old slumped to a .205/.296/.371 line over 152 plate appearances in 2020. An early-season bout with COVID-19 certainly didn’t start him off on the best footing, although he’ll have a chance to right the ship in the postseason. First baseman Nate Lowe, who was available in the Rays’ opening series, was removed from the active roster to accompany Meadows’ return.

Tampa Bay will run with the same 13-man pitching staff they used against Toronto. That presents another opportunity for the flamethrowing McLanahan to make his MLB debut. The highly-regarded prospect was added to the roster entering the postseason to lengthen the bullpen for manager Kevin Cash, but he didn’t appear in the first round.

Athletics Announce ALDS Roster

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The Athletics have finalized their 28-man roster for this week’s showdown with the division-rival Astros. Here’s how things shake out:

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Like their opponents, the A’s will add a reliever to their ALDS roster at the expense of an infielder. The hard-throwing Weems is on the team, while rookie Vimael Machin will be left off for this series.

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