This week's mailbag gets into extension possibilities, realignment problems, whether a Ketel Marte trade makes sense, Reid Detmers' future, and much more.
Greg asks:
With a good spring is there a possibility of the Pirates signing Konnor Griffin long-term and starting him on Day 1?
In Baseball America's August update, shortstop Konnor Griffin was ranked as the top prospect in all of baseball. BA wrote, "Griffin has taken off like a meteor this season and his penchant for impact hasn’t slowed down even despite a promotion to High-A. The 19-year-old has made significant strides in allaying concerns about his hit tool and approach, and the rest of his overall game has evaluators buzzing as they envision how his plus power, speed and at least above-average defense at two different positions could come together."
Griffin has mostly played shortstop this year, with the occasional start in center field. He posted a 156 wRC+ in A ball and got even better in High-A with a 169 mark. Though he doesn't turn 20 until next April, Griffin got another promotion to Double-A this past weekend.
Given that Griffin has played one game in Double-A and the Altoona Curve only have 23 more on the schedule, putting him on the Pirates' Opening Day roster next year at age 19 would be aggressive, perhaps to the point of being detrimental. Even Jackson Chourio played 122 games at Double-A and had a brief taste of Triple-A. But let's explore the likelihood of an extension.
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I read Griffin is struggling badly. Hope he can figure things out turn it around.
LOL
If he’s struggling, it’s with something off the field bc he’s certainly not struggling on the field.
.250 average in AA for #1 prospect in baseball I guess is the reasoning. I personally think we need a bigger sample size.
You mean that 4 AB in one game isn’t a big enough sample size???
It’s a joke based on another article here that inexplicably stated that Griffin was “struggling badly” in AA despite having played in just one game.
He has 9 PA in AA. For the season he has a .924 OPS with 16 HR in 474 PA. He is doing exceptionally well..
5 k’s .125 average that’s struggling badly
There will be no realignment until there is expansion.
And Manfred already said no expansion until the Athletics and Rays have their situations finalized. Then again, that man is more politician than anything…
Manfred also said he expects to have two sites named by 2029 so it seems Manfred says a lot of things.
The A’s will be in Vegas by then and with the Rays being sold the expectations by MLB must be that the new owner makes a stadium deal with Tampa Bay (Ybor Harbor seems to be the preferred destination) before their lease at Tropicana Field expires after the 2028 season. Which would put an expansion announcement right in that time line. Personally, i think expansion is inevitable with the NHL/NFL operating with 32 teams and the NBA considering expansion as well MLB isn’t going to be left behind. This is also the longest we’ve gone without expansion in the expansion era as it will be 31 years since the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays played their first games if we do get an announcement by ’29
Lol, still on the Vegas train I see, Rsox?
They are currently building the stadium
I was 16 when the Rockies/Marlins expansion draft took place and I remember it vividly. It was a new concept to me (having been an infant in 1977 during the previous MLB expansion). I followed it closely.
Living about 80 miles West of Nashville, I’d welcome an expansion team there. Being a Braves fan since the mid 80s, I’m fine with the Braves being realigned to a division with the new Nashville team. Much shorter drive to Nashville than Atlanta 😊
Don’t you have a minor league team in Nashville?
“SOUNDS” familiar. I think they just might.
Sure do. Been to lots of Sounds games the last 40 years. They never once played the Braves, though.
They can play the Braves’ minor league affiliate instead.
I feel like Nashville is virtually guaranteed to get one of the teams with Salt Lake City probably getting the other. Geographically they need a southern or “central” team and another western team. I am against Geographical realignment and abolishing the AL/NL in favor of Eastern/Western conferences and instead advocate for 4 four team divisions in each league
How’s this for geographic realignment? I think it makes better sense than the graphic I saw MLB on Fox post recently.
Atlantic: Boston, NYY, NYM, Philly
East: Baltimore, Washington, Cincy, Nashville expansion team
Southeast: Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Charlotte expansion team
Great Lakes: Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, Pittsburgh
Midwest: Minnesota, Milwaukee, CWS, CHC
Plains: St. Louis, KC, Texas, Houston
Southwest: Colorado, Arizona, Vegas, San Diego
Pacific: LAA, LAD, San Francisco, Seattle
AL can have the Atlantic, Great Lakes, Plains, and Southwest divisions
NL can have the East, Southeast, Midwest, and Pacific divisions
NL loses one of their classic franchises (STL) and a big market (PHI), but gains both expansion teams to make up for it.
Every division has all 4 teams in the same time zone except for the East thanks to all the cities near Nashville being in EST and except for the Southwest thanks to Mountain Time.
Most of the game’s famous rivalries are preserved (BOS/NYY, NYM/PHI, LAD/SF, NYM/NYY, CHC/CWS, MIL/CHC, HOU/TX), though regrettably LAD/SD and CHC/STL don’t survive.
In place of some of the good rivalries that die there is potential for compelling new geographical rivalries that historically haven’t ran super deep due to those teams being in different leagues, like STL/KC, BAL/DC, Vegas/SD, It also gives room to expand on existing geographical rivalries that are more intense in other sports but haven’t ran very deep in baseball like MIN/MIL, ATL/Charlotte, CLE/PITT.
Playoff format could essentially stay the same, with 6 teams from each league making it in.
Ugh you don’t put the royals in the same division as the Cardinals the rangers and the Astros!!!
There’s already a minor league team in Nashville.
I thought about doing Colorado instead of Houston, but then one of the Texas teams would have to be paired with Vegas/SD/Arizona and that wouldn’t be ideal either. Sorry, KC.
And yes, there is also a minor league team in Charlotte. I’ve seen both of them. Hasn’t stopped the league from flirting with both cities as expansion sites. I don’t know what that will mean for the Sounds or the Knights, but it seems like it’s only a matter of time before we find out.
There is already a minor league team in Las Vegas. They still allowed the A’s to move there
Great point.
I would move Toronto to the Atlantic/Northeast, Philadelphia to the East and Cincinnati to the Great Lakes but I would swap your Midwest and Great Lakes division names.
Nice work putting this together though. With realignment you’re never going to be able to make everybody happy.
That would be logical placement as well! Would also keep the NE/Atlantic/whatever you’d want to call it division from being overly stacked. Cincy was probably the team I struggled the most with deciding where I wanted to place them because you could make a decent case for several of those regions.
None of the NY, CHI, LA, FL, or even TX teams need to be in the same division. MLB can afford to travel.
It’s not about the league, it’s about the fans. My hunch is that they can use natural geographic rivalries to drive a large increase in fan interest across all media markets, not just the mega-markets.
Go try to buy tickets to a Cubs Cardinals game. You will pay a premium. Do the same for a Cubs-White Sox game. You may pay less than face value.
Try to buy a ticket for a Yankees-Red Sox game. Fuhgeddaboudit! You will have to mortgage your house if both teams are contending. Yankees-Mets? There will be tickets at the box office on game day.
Dodgers-Giants game in LA? Same as Yankees-Red Sox. Dodgers vs Angels? Same as Yankees-Mets game. I walked up to the Big A on the 12th and bought a ticket in section 127 for the game with the Dodgers. People just don’t care that much.
Cross city games are almost like an exhibition. In fact, they used to all be exhibition games until the last few seasons and fans still treat them that way even though the games count now.
Right, but how much of that is because interleague play is historically just a novelty?
I am willing to bet if you put actual playoff implications on the line those rivalries would get real hot, real quick.
West: LAD, LAA, SF, SD, ATH, SEA, COL, SLC/PORT
(North)East: NYY, BOS, PHI, NYM, BAL, WAS, TOR, PIT
South: ATL, MIA, TB, TEX, HOU, NASH, ARZ, KC
Midwest: STL, CHC, CHW, MIL, CIN, CLE, DET, MIN
8 teams in 4 divisions. Best 12 make it to playoffs.
I had trouble with PIT and KC (CLE and CIN) which ones stayed in midwest and which ones had to go somewhere else… I feel like you can’t separate CLE and CIN. And I think KC goes pretty well in south even though separating them from Stl isnt ideal.
Edit: If it was Charlotte instead of Salt Lake/Portland, i’d put CHA in south, move ARZ to west, all evens out.
That’s the other direction you could go. I feel like once we get these two expansion teams it’s either going to have to be super regional divisions of 4 teams, or it’s going to be gigantic all encompassing, or even no divisions. I like the hyper regional idea because I think it will spark a lot of interest out of inter-city rivalries and regional pride. But if they don’t do that, then the next best route might be to just be the AL and the NL with no divisions at all.
I believe it’s a mistake putting the NL and AL teams together as what makes the intercity games special is how few there are. Leave history in place as otherwise the WS would be Eastvvs. West and the best series are the local ones. Not for the country but for those in those area.
How about NO realignment? That’s your answer.
NL (ATL): WSH, PHI, ATL, NYM, MIA, MIL, CIN, PIT
NL (PAC): CHI, STL, COL, HOU, SDP, LAD, SFG, Portland/Vancouver/Salt Lake/San Antonio
AL (ATL): BAL, BOS, NYY, TOR, TBR, CLE, DET, Raleigh/Charlotte/Nashville/Montreal
AL (PAC): CHI, KCR, MIN, TEX, ARI, LAA, LSV, SEA
Only moving 2 teams out of their current League – Arizona & Houston
MLB will want 16 teams in the playoffs once they expand to 32. So, each division winner and the top 12 after that.
This realignment has 5 of the biggest spenders in the East, and none in the Midwest. Unless spending habits change, mediocre teams will make playoffs, while better ones miss. East would surely be fun, though.
What’s wrong with that? Parity of opportunity is a better thing to strive for than trying to force financial parity that doesn’t exist. Let the big spenders duke it out with each other, and give the smaller market teams a reason to exist beyond just being a feeder system for the big markets.
I have to ask a quick question…wouldn’t the National League be losing two “classic franchises”, since you put Pittsburgh in the A.L.? Pittsburgh has actually been in the N.L. longer than St Louis, 1887 and 1892, respectively.
I’m not saying they don’t have cool stuff in their history but would you really want to argue that the Pirates are as valuable a brand as the Dodgers, Cardinals, Cubs, or Giants? I guess that’s more what I meant.
I’m not trying to argue the value of brand vs brand. I was only saying, in my humble opinion, that I thought it sounded wrong to move one of the oldest NL teams to the AL. I guess I’m too much of a traditional thinking person. I liked east and west in each league and NL playing AL teams in the All-Star Game and World Series only. Not as it is now. Its a much more convoluted system and game, which is unfortunate. Anything so they can all make an extra buck. Players no longer have any allegiance to their teams or to their fans. Its only to the almighty dollar, so basically they’re all mercenaries. Sorry to rant. Its not because of or meant to be aimed at you, so please don’t take it that way. Btw, I do like your alignment idea below, about 4 divisions of 4 teams in each league, if it has to be that way. I’m not totally inflexible, I just sound like I am.
No that’s totally reasonable. I don’t think you make bad points. As I’ve said in some other comments I based my thinking around a bunch where I think going to geographically compact, hyper-regional divisions would help reignite ratings and attendance. But you are right it would require some changes that would be jarring and feel quite weird. But, there are no stakes here in the MLBTR comment section so this is a place to think big and boldly!
If changing leagues would help getting Nutting out of Pittsburgh, I would be all for it!!!
There won’t be two East Coast expansion teams. At least one will be on the West Coast. Portland is the most likely, but Oakland is not out of the question. Neither is Sacramento.
Too much history in NL vs AL so likely only be a max of two teams switching leagues and at least one expansion team in each league.
Four 4 team divisions in each league.
Cities with 2 teams, LA/NY/CHI, will have one team in each league. Manfred has already indicated that will be the case.
With 16 teams in each league, MLB will likely go from a 12 team playoff format to 16 teams, 8 in each league.
Those are good points. I chose my two favorite cities from the expansion menu because that made it fun to think about, but in the grand scheme of things, I think you’re right, they wouldn’t do two expansion teams that close to each other, each carved out of the Braves’ market. It’ll probably be Nashville and Portland.
It was fun to dream of something more radical, but realistically it will probably wind up looking like:
AL:
Boston/NYY/Baltimore/Toronto
Cleveland/Detroit/Minnesota/CWS
KC/Colorado/Texas/Houston
Vegas/LAA/Portland/Seattle
NL:
Philly/NYM/Washington/Pittsburgh
Atlanta/Miami/Tampa/Nashville
CHC/Milwaukee/St Loius/Cincy
LAD/SF/SD/Arizona
Much more traditional, with only the Rockies and Rays swapping leagues for the sake of geography, less disruptive to the biggest rivalries (though also less conductive to giving air for new ones).
That seems very reasonable. I like it. Lets put you in change of getting it done.
I do not see any scenario where Steinbrener, Cohen or many of the other owners that share cities or territories agree to be in the same division together having to directly compete in the standings on top of competing for revenue
I don’t think they’d really be competing for revenue though. It’s not like there is a huge unaddressed market for baseball in the Tri State. Most people are entrenched for one team or the other, and there is also a sizeable number of people who will root for both because they are more city-loyal than borough-loyal.
So from that point of view sharing a division could actually be phenomenal for business. The Subway Series is always a big deal, imagine getting to have it 6 times a year and with real stakes on the line. When both teams are good like they are now you would have the whole city buzzing about baseball during a Subway Series weekend. How often does that happen now? That would be great for both franchises, NY, and baseball as a whole.
I’m like 99.9% positive there will not be expansion teams in both Nashville and Charlotte. I can see the league working out an arrangement for one team in territory teams like atl and Stl draw from but never two. Also as a portlander I want a team in my town lol.
If the fee per franchise is 1.5B$+ per team, neither ATL or STL is going to care if they have to give up a little bit of their long reach TV territory.
Though I agree with you, both of those cities are unlikely to get a team, not at least until they go to 36 teams in 20+ years.
What MLB should do is go back to one of the old formats and have the AL and NL be just the AL and NL with all teams in their respective leagues lumped together in the standings or go back to AL East and AL West with NL East and NL West. This constantly attempting to chop the leagues up and create “rivalries” seems to get more and more ludicrous by the year. Add in the stupid rules like ghost runners to start extra innings and the possibility of electric umpires and it just gets worse.
That’s why I think the only sensible way to do divisions is to make them smaller and hyper regional. People in Boston and New York hate each other. People in St. Louis and Chicago hate each other. People in LA and San Fran hate each other. Take advantage of that! No one in Cleveland is even thinking about anyone in Kansas City.
No one cares about divisions in the NBA because they are meaningless. Divisions matter a ton in the NFL – both for the sake of playoff implications but also because they are geographically compact and set up to take advantage of people in major cities disliking the people of the other major cities in their region. That helps drive interest, attendance, and TV views. Baseball should try the same . And if that doesn’t help reinvigorate attendance and ratings, then go back to no divisions at all.
As I said in my reply to you above, if they have to go to 4 divisions in each league, I would hope that they would take your idea and have Colorado and Miami switch leagues. That seems like an excellent idea.
mrkinsm, I like your take on it. Its basically east and west in each league. I’m glad I’m not the only person that sees that as a good way to have the league setup.
It’s just much easier to do. You play 13×7 in own division, 5 or 6×8 in opposite division of current league, and 6×4 inter league (with the opponents rotated out yearly). Each team would play each division 4 series (2 at home and 2 away), play each league opposite division 2 series (1 at home and 1 away), and play 6 games x 4 inter-league opponents. Part of inter-league would include playing a dedicated a dedicated rival 2 series (1 at home and 1 away). Play crosstown rival yearly, other 15 teams in opposite league once every 5 years.
Crosstown Rivals could look something like this: BAL/WSH, BOS/PHI, NYY/NYM, TBR/MIA, TOR/ATL or MON, ATL/TOR or CHA, MIN/MIL, CLE/CIN, DET/PIT, CHI/CHI, KCR/STL, TEX/HOU, SLC or SAT/COL, LSV/SFG, ARI/SDP, LAA/LAD, and SEA/VAN or POR.
Typical of today’s called sports journalism “, always creating crap when there is none. 1 game at double A, and he’s struggling! They might ss well be listening to the goons o. 93.7 the fan.