With Scott Rolen now the 19th third basemen to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Is a Greinke deal close?
Future Hall of Famer Zack Greinke is arguably the best starting pitcher still available on the free agent market at this point, even heading into his age-39 season. Rumors have long percolated about a possible reunion between Greinke and the Royals, who he started his career with and returned to for the 2022 campaign. The Royals are optimistic about their chances of re-signing Greinke, and after shedding more than $6MM via their trades of Michael A. Taylor and Adalberto Mondesi, they could potentially increase their prior offer. The Orioles have reportedly checked in on Greinke as well.
2. Is the Astros’ GM search nearing a conclusion?
Ever since the Astros surprisingly parted ways with GM James Click shortly after the club won the 2022 World Series, Houston’s baseball operations department has been without a GM. That could be on the verge of changing, however. Dana Brown, Bobby Evans, James Harris, and Brad Ausmus are now among the reported finalists after Michael Hill reported removed himself from consideration for the position. Astros owner Jim Crane remains interested in bringing now-former Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns back to Houston, but he’s still under contract with the Brewers as an advisor, placing him more on the periphery of this search.
3. MLBTR Player Chat Today
As we have for the past few days, we’ll be hosting a live chat at 10am CST with a former MLB player in addition to our usual 5pm CST Wednesday chat with MLBTR’s Anthony Franco. Today, we’re excited to welcome former big league catcher Michael McKenry, who played parts of seven Major League seasons as a member of the Rockies, Pirates, and Cardinals. His best seasons came in 2012, when he got into a career-high 88 games for the Pirates and slashed .233/.320/.442 (109 wRC+), and in 2014, when he slashed an impressive .315/.398/.512 (140 wRC+) for the Rockies across 57 games. If you missed yesterday’s chat with right-hander Jacob Turner, you can read the transcript here.
I’ve had a few opportunities to talk to McKenry in the past. He’s an awesome and kind dude.
I’ve watched him on Pirates postgames. His voice isn’t the best for sports reporting but it doesn’t matter because he’s so entertaining.
Love “The Fort” will never forget the look of disbelief when Jerry Meals called Julio Lugo safe at home when he was tagged out 3 feet in front of the plate. Julio knew he was out too. lol!!
Was McKenry the catcher on that play?
I recall McKenry from several NL Central games.
Always like the fellow catchers getting the love!
He was, and in many ways still is, a Pirate fan favorite. Dude played with some serious passion.
Greinke to the A’s. Has an outstanding first half and gets traded to the contending Cardinals for either Graceffo or Liberatore(both top 100 prospects)
All of that will not happen.
I figured. As an avid A’s fan all the way in Ireland I was putting out into the universe in hope more than expectation
Maybe you can get the A’s to move to Ireland, The Big Yo 🙂
As a result of the Clevinger mess, you have to wonder if the White Sox might be interested in Greinke—and if so, would Greinke be interested in the Six?
They should get Greinke, especially since Clevinger is guaranteed to miss time on administrative leave, but lord knows this front office does some dumb things from time to time.
Grienke would be fine for the Orioles, nut why sign Bauer
If any thing, Orioles website hits and comments will skyrocket
@Lefty; agree, I’m fine with Zach in Baltimore as well. A beautiful baseball mind. Entertaining. I’d definitely go to OPACY to watch him pitch … and hit! Love this guy. He has offensive milestones he wants to achieve. Let him have at it!
I truly believe 24, not 23 is launch yr. IMHO Os need one more experienced starter in 23 to bridge to 24. Cheers!
Grienke it is …. hopefully
Grienke to the Orioles would be good. Would provide veteran leadership to a young pitching staff and a young but very good team.
Stros GM search will probably heat up and conclude by start of spring training. Crane said that he wanted to have a GM in place by then. But Stros have already set their spring training roster and plans for spring training. New GM can get acquainted with the team then and if there are any moves left to be made, will make them prior to the start of the season.
Greinke is heading back to KC where he will reach some career milestones as well as reach top ten and top five in almost all meaningful team career categories. By doing such he will fairly low key (which he prefers) obtain both Royals and MLB Hall Fame status.
I’m fine with most of the candidates for Astro GM with the exception of Brad Ausmus. If my memory serves me well, he turned his back on the Astros and Jeff Luhnow when they were looking to pick a manager for the early Astro teams in Luhnow’s tenure. If he didn’t want to come here then he shouldn’t be welcome now. Also, I like Jeff Bagwell during his playing days, and he seems to have Crane’s ear, but he seems to have a lot to sayabout everything going on with the Astros and he needs to back off a bit.
Bagwell is employed by Crane and the Astros and is currently the best person to report to the media.
As a business and entity the Astros must report goings on daily. That’s just the nature of a major sports team in 2023.
Crane and the Astros have identified Jeff as the person to “feed” the media.
If he “backed off” he would not be doing his job.
I’ve wondered if Ausmus regrets turning the Astros down back in 2012, with Bo Porter eventually getting the job. Would Ausmus have made it to 2015, which Porter wasn’t able to do and ultimately lead to Hinch? Obviously the Tiger job was more enticing at the time, but getting in on the ground floor of the teardown, rebuild, and sustained success Houston has had since could have been something special.
If the purpose of KC offloading salaries in disproportionate talent trades is to make more money available to Grieinke, then they should have had a handshake deal in place before, I’m also a bit dubious that ownership couldn’t find a few more bucks in their pockets to invest. If Greinke is asking for eight figures+, then it’s reasonable to ask why a 65 win team would shop there.
“The Fort”! McKenry is an entertaining interview, that should be a fun one.
The Orioles lead baseball when it comes to checking in. It’s pulling the trigger that’s a challenge.
Greinke’s one of my favorite players. Hope he signs somewhere soon.
1. Brad Ausmus was a long time catcher. He had a good arm, Larry Dierker considered him a defensive asset when he was managing the team.
2. Brad Ausmus was well liked in Houston in his playing days. Sure, no one looked forward to him at the plate, that was not what he was there for.
3. Pitchers lived him and swore by him, including Roy Oswalt.
4. When he was a catcher, he kept his own database of hitters and their tendencies that he updated regularly. He was doing his own stat work as a player.
5. He managed a team that he incidentally also played for, but had a GM that never had the term “quality relief pitcher” float through his head. The Tigers were good for the first year or two but they always had too many holes. He also got booted for Maddon in Anaheim and never got much of an opportunity with a poorly run team from the front office, as well as ownership.
6. Ausmus had front office experience as often noted. He has also bounced around a little. Maybe he didn’t want to be in Houston in 2012 because since he retired he worked in San Diego, with a team he had played for, in the area where he and his family lived. Maybe he wanted to ya know, see his family for a few years.
7. His degree is in government, Dartmouth, where he played baseball as well, obviously. His father was a European history professor. He isn’t a dummy.
8. I also think it is possible that this could also be waiting room for Ausmus to take over the dugout after Dusty.
I don’t have a problem with him.