While the first full week of 2022 remains light on the type of transactional news baseball fans are usually accustomed, there has been no shortage of big news on deals of a different kind. There’s potential for that trend to continue, as Michael Silverman of the Boston Globe reports the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate, the Worcester Red Sox, is being eyed as an acquisition target by sports and entertainment company Endeavor. The Beverly Hills-based company is no stranger to minor league acquisitions, having scooped up ten minor league affiliates at the end of last year. Silverman notes that a $50MM bid by Endeavor for the Red Sox affiliate has seemingly already been rejected. That said, ownership groups are permitted to own up to 24 minor league teams at a time, meaning Endeavor has plenty of room to continue its pursuit of the Worcester outfit and add several other affiliates to its portfolio.
Some other minor league notes from around the league:
- Per Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the Phillies have hired former big-league shortstop and 1992 AL Rookie of the Year Pat Listach as the bench coach for their High-A affiliate, the Jersey Shore BlueClaws. Listach played in parts of six seasons with the Brewers and Astros and has been a part of multiple major league coaching staffs, including with the Nationals, Cubs, and Astros, and has held minor league roles with the Cubs, Dodgers, and Mariners. Most recently, he served as the manager of the Mexican League’s Acereros de Monclova, whom he led to the playoffs in 2019 and 2021.
- On Thursday, the Tigers unveiled their new-look set of minor league coaching staffs. Included among the new faces in Detroit’s ranks are 2016 World Series-winning coach Gary Jones, taking over as Triple-A manager, and former Tigers third baseman Gabe Alvarez, hired as the organization’s new Double-A manager. Chris McCosky of The Detroit News helpfully compiled the full list of Detroit’s development personnel changes here.
Real question… if the season gets postponed due to MLBPA lock out, does that apply to MiLB? Would non MLBPA players be able to play for non MLB teams?
The minors would play
I was going to ask the same thing, Chip. Wouldn’t that mean MLB players who still have options could play in the minors? Even someone who clearly has a starting position on the major league roster? What about the early free agents that signed minor league deals but have only been in the majors for years? They can play at Triple-A, right? If so we may get be seeing a a lot of Triple-A teams with players in the roster who would never normally be there. I know Darren O’Day signed a minor league deal. He hasn’t played in the minors for about a decade. Will he play in the minors if a deal isn’t done in time? What about someone like Vlad, Jr.? He’s not on a strictly major league contract yet is he? I would say Wander Franco but I think his extension is probably strictly major league. I would think if they hadn’t extended him they could play him in the minors, too. Clarification on this subject would be great if anyone knows whether major leaguers with minor league options can play in the minors during the lockout.
No cause they are on the forty man
According to MLB.com Darren O’Day is not on a 40-man roster.
I was referring to your main question being about optionable players…
Darren is eligible for MiLB play due to him ending the season not on a forty man or ML IL IIRC.
O’Day didn’t finish the season on the Yankees injured list?
“WooSox” sounds like a baseball team that Ric Flair owns
PawSox > WooSox
While I admit the “woo” part of WooSox leave something to be desired I’m still absolutely thrilled Worcester finally has a professional team.
Sorry to dump on the great state of Rhode Island but Pawtucket, RI is an awful city to live in. Worcester has gone through a complete overhaul the past 15+ years and has become a great, ‘young’ city to live in. The move to Worcester made all the sense in the world for the Red Sox. The players were thrilled to get out of Pawtucket too, but I do agree that Paw-Sox has a much better ring to it than Woo-Sox does. That’s really the only advantage.
I haven’t been to Polar Park yet but McCoy stadium was a time capsule gem of a ballpark. Loved going to games there.
Too each their own, Worcester is pretty awful as well. Pawtucket had a great plan to revitalize the downtown district centered around a new McCoy stadium but city and state officials really dropped the ball. The sense is that team officials weren’t really negotiating in good faith either. Just a mess on everyone’s part. It’s a shame RI no longer has a team. Woosox is cringey to say and the mascot is pretty bad
Would have guessed Listach could have secured something further up the ladder than High-A.
Anyone know whether he has any strong ties to the Phillies FO and/or the NJ / PA / MD region?
Could someone explain to me why Pat Listach won ROY in 1992 over Kenny Lofton and Dave Fleming? I looked over the stats and nothing supports him over the other two. No disrespect to Pat Listach, I’m just honestly confused.
Why did Rafael Palmeiro win a gold glove in 1999 when he played 128 games as DH?
Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense.
I can let that fly but only a little…. In truth, Rafael Palmiero was an outstanding defensive 1B.
Brandon Webb pitched a good bit better than Dontrelle Willis in 2003, but they gave it to Willis. I’m seldom surprised about how little the writers know about baseball.
As much as writers won’t admit it, partly it has to do with who you’re playing for. If a team is getting more attention then it follows a player will as well. Remember in 2003 the Marlins won the WS, so I’d imagine that despite what writers would have said that would have had an impact.
Besides the Palmeiro gold glove joke I’ve always pointed to the 2005 Cy Young award. Bartolo Colon won the award pretty much on the strength of getting 21 wins and massive run support from the Angels. . Never mind the fact that Johan Santana had him beat in pretty much every other category.
Why are you criticizing the writers for Palmeiro’s Gold Glove? The voting was done by managers and coaches. Facts matter.
Bologna. You know that’s not true….. that’s just wishful thinking. I had no idea you were that naive. Gee…..now I don’t feel so alone.
Dontrelle likely won because of wins. That was still the era that wins were king for awards. Not that voting is all that much better now, people will probably look at the NL awards from 2021 and question how they worked out the way they did. Seems writers just go off vibes when voting for these awards.
It’s been that way since the beginning. One of the most absurd was in 1966 when Tommy Helms was voted NL rookie of the year while Don Sutton didn’t get a single vote.
pure guess from me:
both guys were somewhat close in numbers, so maybe some voters used record as a tiebreaker (indians weren’t good in 92, but the brewers were shockingly in the pennant race until about 2 weeks left in the season).
again, just a guess, but it’s happened in other votes before (usually not rookie of the year, though).
listach did also get 8 points for mvp, so that also might have tiny bit to do with it.
Shockingly? With that rotation, the skies the limit And I’m a Cubs fan.
That same year Eckersley won the AL MVP over Kirby Puckett lol oof
Those people must be idiots. The Woosox are principally owned by former Red Sox executives and they just built a brand new stadium. They’ll sell to John Henry/FSG before they sell to some clown in Cali. They should have done some research before they even made a “bid”. No matter who they are or who they want to be, JH/FSG has more money than they do….
Sure, if you don’t consider the fact that he owned 100% of the Marlins for the 4 years preceding FSG’s purchase of the Sox
FSG didn’t purchase the Sox. FSG was created at some point after the purchase to control the portfolio of sports/racing franchises.
Liverpool/Penguins golazzo?
Correct….I believe the the Ted Sox were technically purchased by “Fenway Sports Ventures”…..then later FSG was formed or morphed or whatever they do
Technically he was a clown from Florida. And he bought a MLB team. They own at least one other MiLB affiliate if not 2. Lucky Luccino isn’t selling the WooSox to anybody but his buddy JH. It’s staying in the “family “. Bet the house on this.
I was thinking the same thing
Anyone know why the comments were turned off for the nyt purchase story?
Word on the street is they closed it because the New York Times are close to acquiring MLBTR…
Wait, only word on that was from me. Oh well.
Yeah, just a guess, but the comments started getting very political…
What are owners of a minor league franchise responsible for? Are they responsible for all non-40 man salaries, along with player benefits, travel costs, etc? Do they share any gate revenue or ad revenue with the parent club? If this organization buys the Woo Sox, it definitely would not include the new stadium as that was built that last season and cost over $100M to build. I wonder if the city of Worcester owns the stadium or if it privately owned (or owned by the Red Sox). It seems very confusing as to what minor league affiliate owners truly own; how much revenue they get to keep and more importantly, what expenses are they responsible for? For example, if the Red Sox were to sign a veteran pitcher to a $1M guaranteed AAA contract but he’s not part of the 40 man roster, would the minor league owners be responsible for paying that salary? If so, I assume they have the final say in signing that player…very confusing.
A few years ago Listach was frequently getting mentioned as a MLB managerial candidate. Now he’s a class A bench coach. What happened?
He was the manager of a Mexican League team and led them to a championship game… but despite also getting to the playoffs in ‘21 he was let go. Really curious as to what’s going through MLB team’s heads about him.
Have the Tigers made a wholesale change for the good or turned the franchise on its way into a full regression?
Anyone know what happen to Mike Rabelo?
Never mind the Mike Rabelo inquiry. He’s 3B coach PIT.
I wonder who’ll be the Tiger’s first base coach….
The tigers will wait in respect to Bartee
The Tigers have made some excellent front office and minor league moves this off season.
This team will contend very soon.
Also May spend more$$ after the lockout
Chris didn’t hire the Superfife.
It has been a terrible off-season and so far, have failed to make any significant hires or changes to management.
So far, the off-season is a fail.
2 players who hit above .270 and they have people convinced we are contending. Really?
They have failed to hire the ONE PERSON who is telling the truth.
That says something about the culture that is running the Detroit Tigers.
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