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AL East Notes: Hosmer, Pham, Castro, Peralta, Espinal

By Nick Deeds | October 2, 2022 at 2:17pm CDT

Eric Hosmer will be activated from the injured list tomorrow, according to Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe. Hosmer has been out since late August with lower back inflammation.

It’s been a curious season for Hosmer. Dogged by trade rumors for years, the first baseman was initially reported to be part of the deadline blockbuster between the Padres and the Nationals where San Diego acquired Juan Soto and Josh Bell. Hosmer refused to waive his no-trade rights, however, and so the Padres pivoted, sending Luke Voit to Washington as part of the Soto package and instead moving Hosmer, Corey Rosier, and Max Ferguson to Boston in exchange for Jay Groome.

Hosmer played just 12 games for the Red Sox before heading to the injured list. In those games, he slashed a meager .225/.311/.300, though his season line of .267/.333/.381 is good for a 104 wRC+, his best mark in a full season since his 2017 walk year with the Royals. Though Hosmer’s contract, which will pay him $13 million a year for the 2023-2025 seasons, has an opt-out after this season, it’s extremely unlikely to be exercised. As such, Hosmer is expected to compete with Bobby Dalbec and top prospect Triston Casas for playing time at first base going forward, though with J.D. Martinez slated to hit free agency after this season, it’s possible Hosmer could see some time at DH as well.

Additional notes from around the AL East…

Red Sox outfielder Tommy Pham’s mutual option for the 2023, previously reported as $6 million, is a $12 million option, per MassLive’s Christopher Smith. Like any mutual option, it remains exceedingly unlikely to be exercised. The Red Sox acquired Pham from the Reds at the trade deadline earlier this season in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. It’s been a disappointing season at the plate for Pham, as he’s slashed just .241/.316/.381 in 611 plate appearances between Cincinnati and Boston.
The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner reports that Yankees reliever Miguel Castro is expected to be activated from the injured list tomorrow. The right-hander has posted a 4.00 ERA with a 3.75 FIP in 27 innings this season. Castro has been out with a right shoulder strain since July. As he’s coming off the 60-day injured list, a 40-man roster spot will be necessary to activate Castro. That spot could come from Matt Carpenter, who was transferred to the 60-day IL himself earlier today. Additionally, Kirschner relays that lefty Wandy Peralta will not pitch again during the regular season this year, instead heading to Somerset to prepare for the postseason while the Yankees travel to Texas for their final regular season series against the Rangers. Peralta was placed on the 15-day injured list in September with left thoracic spine tightness.
Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi reports that Blue Jays infielder Santiago Espinal will take live batting practice on Tuesday, and could be activated from the injured list shortly thereafter as Toronto gears up for the postseason. Espinal has slashed .267/.322/.370 in 491 plate appearances this season, but was placed on the injured list with a left oblique strain in September. While Espinal is expected to be ready for the postseason, how much playing time he’ll have available to him is an open question. Espinal has primarily played second base this season, but fellow second basemen Whit Merrifield has posted an .865 OPS since the start of September. That being said, both players have the positional versatility to share a lineup if interim manager John Schneider so desires.

Diamondbacks Place Emmanuel Rivera On The Injured List, Select Jake Hager

By Nick Deeds | October 2, 2022 at 1:25pm CDT

2:13 PM: The Diamondbacks have announced that Rivera has been transferred to the 60-day injured list. Their 40-man roster stands at 40.

1:25 PM: The Diamondbacks have announced that Infielder Emmanuel Rivera has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a fractured left wrist. In a corresponding move, Infielder Jake Hager’s contract has been selected from Triple-A Reno. The club will need to open a 40-man spot for Hager, but with the season winding down, they could easily transfer Rivera or another injured player to the 60-day injured list.

This marks the end of the season for Rivera, who was acquired by Arizona from the Royals in exchange right-hander Luke Weaver at the trade deadline earlier this season. Rivera’s season line of .233/.292/.409 has improved slightly since his arrival in Arizona, where he has slashed .227/.304/.424 in 148 plate appearances while primarily playing third base. Rivera, 26, isn’t slated to hit free agency until after the 2027 season, so he is likely to remain part of the Diamondbacks infield mix in the coming years.

As for Hager, the 2022 season has been spent mostly at the Triple-A level, where he has slashed .261/.342/.391 in 72 games. Hager previously joined the big league team in late May, playing shortstop, third base, and second base and slashing .240/.345/.280 in 28 games before being optioned back to Triple-A in early July. In August, Hager was designated for assignment and assigned outright to Reno.

Giants Place Logan Webb On 15-Day Injured List

By Mark Polishuk | October 2, 2022 at 1:10pm CDT

Oct. 2: The Giants officially announced Webb’s IL placement, along with Junis being optioned to Triple-A Sacramento. Hjelle was recalled to take one active roster spot, with righty Luis Ortiz recalled to take the other.

Oct. 1: Logan Webb was scheduled to make his final start of the 2022 season on Sunday, but the Giants will instead be placing the right-hander on the 15-day injured list, manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic). Webb is dealing with stiffness in his lower back, so the Giants will make the precautionary move and recall another pitcher for what will now be a bullpen game against the Diamondbacks. Righty Sean Hjelle might get the quick recall, as Hjelle was just optioned to Triple-A today when Jarlin Garcia was activated off the paternity list.

The IL placement will end Webb’s season after 32 starts and 192 1/3 innings, with that innings total ranking 11th among all pitchers entering today’s action. After emerging as a quality starter for San Francisco in 2021, Webb has continued that strong work this year, posting a 2.90 ERA, 56.7% grounder rate, and an above-average 6.2% walk rate. While his strikeout numbers dropped off considerably (20.7%, after a 26.5 K& in 2021) and Webb continued to allow a lot of hard contact, he was able to avoid severe damage by keeping the ball on the ground. Webb allowed only 11 home runs over his 192 1/3 frames, and had an impressive 5.5% barrel rate.

Webb doesn’t turn 26 years old until November, and he will be entering the arbitration process for the first time this offseason. Though Webb is under control through the 2025 season, it stands to reason that the Giants’ front office might have some talks with Webb’s camp about a multi-year contract extension this winter, in order to officially lock him up as a key piece of the rotation both now and for the future.

In fact, Webb currently projects as the ace of the 2023 staff since Carlos Rodon is a free agent. San Francisco has Webb, Alex Cobb, Jakob Junis, Anthony DeSclafani, and Alex Wood lined up as next year’s rotation, but at least one more arm figures to be added — DeSclafani missed almost the whole season due to ankle problems, while Wood struggled and missed the end of the season due to a shoulder injury.

Mariners Promote Justin Hollander To General Manager

By Nick Deeds | October 2, 2022 at 12:42pm CDT

The Mariners announced today that Justin Hollander has been promoted to executive vice president & general manager of baseball operations. Hollander had previously been serving in the Mariners front office as vice president & assistant general manager of baseball operations, and has been with the organization since September 2016. Prior to that, Hollander spent nine seasons as a member of the Angels front office. Hollander’s promotion comes a year after Jerry Dipoto was promoted from GM to president of baseball operations. Dipoto will continue to lead Seattle’s front office in that role.

With this promotion, Seattle has ensured that Hollander will remain with the organization going into next season. Front office executives don’t typically interview for lateral moves from one organization to the other, so the only way for an opposing club to pry Hollander away from the Mariners would be by offering him the opportunity to take the lead role in their organization’s baseball operations infrastructure. The Tigers, Royals, and Rangers have all fired high profile front office officials this season and could potentially be among the teams looking for external additions to their front office this offseason.

Hollander’s promotion comes at the end of a very successful 2022 regular season for Seattle. In addition to clinching a playoff berth and ending the longest postseason drought across the four major North American professional sports, the Mariners have signed likely 2022 AL Rookie of the Year Julio Rodriguez to an extension that should keep him in Seattle for most of his career and both traded for and extended All Star right-hander Luis Castillo.

The Mariners currently hold the second AL wild card spot and, if postseason positioning doesn’t shift in the coming days, will be playing the three-game wild card series in Toronto against the Blue Jays.

Yankees Select Chi Chi González, Designate Jacob Barnes

By Darragh McDonald | October 2, 2022 at 10:50am CDT

The Yankees announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game, selecting right-hander Chi Chi González to the active roster while designating fellow right-hander Jacob Barnes for assignment. Additionally, infielder/outfielder Matt Carpenter was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

González, 30, has bounced around quite a bit this year. He signed a minor league deal with the Twins in March and briefly cracked the big league roster. After getting designated for assignment, he was claimed by the Brewers and spent just under a month with them before getting designated again. He signed a minors deal with the Tigers but opted out of it without getting a call to the big leagues, then signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in late August. Through all of that, he’s thrown 18 1/3 innings at the big league level with a 6.87 ERA. He’s fared much better in the minors, throwing 80 1/3 innings with a 4.03 ERA, 20.8% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate.

As for Barnes, 32, he’s had a fairly similar season to González, getting brief tenures on various rosters around the league. He signed a minor league deal with the Tigers in the winter, cracking the Opening Day roster but getting designated in June. He then signed a minors deal with the Mariners and joined their roster but was designated again without making an appearance. He went back to the Tigers but was released and signed with the Yanks at the same time as González. He was selected to New York’s roster just yesterday and pitched 1 2/3 innings of mop-up duty while they were beating the Orioles 8-0. He’s thrown 22 1/3 total MLB innings this year with a 5.64 ERA but, similar to González, has been more impressive on the farm. In 18 minor league innings this year, he has an ERA of 2.00, along with a 32.9% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate. Since he’s out of options, the club had to designate him for assignment in order to get a fresh arm onto the roster.

As for Carpenter, this move is mostly a formality. He will be ineligible to return until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which was August 9, meaning he can return October 8. The Yanks already secured a bye through the first playoff round and will be playing in the ALDS beginning October 11. It was recently reported that the club plans to get him some at-bats with Double-A Somerset before returning to the big league club. Prior to fracturing his foot, he was having a comeback season for the ages, hitting 15 home runs in 47 games and slashing .305/.412/.727. The club will have the next week or so to decide if he’s healthy enough to earn a spot on their postseason roster.

Central Notes: Cabrera, Hicks, Alzolay

By Darragh McDonald | October 2, 2022 at 10:19am CDT

Tigers veteran Miguel Cabrera will turn 40 years old in April, shortly after beginning the final guaranteed season of the mega extension he signed back in 2014. Though he’s not quite the hitter he was back then, he’s still going to be a part of Detroit’s plans next season. “We expect Miggy to be here,” manager A.J. Hinch tells Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. “We expect him to do his part in the offseason to prepare himself to be healthy and be productive and be the icon that he is.”

As noted by McCosky, Cabrera’s 2022 got off to a nice start, as he kept his batting average above .300 into July. However, he has slumped badly since then while dealing with various nagging injuries, currently sitting on a batting line of .251/.299/.315 for the year. That production amounts to a wRC+ of 76, or 24% below league average, which is well below Cabrera’s previous low of 92 from 2017.

Going into the season, it seemed as though Cabrera was on the verge of being nudged out of the club’s plans, as they spent aggressively in the offseason to try to compete in 2022. With the promotion of first base prospect Spencer Torkelson, it was fair to wonder if an awkward situation was approaching with the club trying to compete and Miggy standing in the way. Instead, Torkelson and the Tigers both fell way shy of expectations, with the youngster hitting just .197/.281/.301 so far this year and club sporting a record of 64-93.

The fact that Cabrera is still owed $32MM next year doesn’t mean he is immune from being cut from the team if he continues to underperform. Just last year, the Angels designated Albert Pujols for assignment in May while he was playing out the final year of his contract at a $30MM salary. Both Hinch and new president of baseball operations Scott Harris voiced their support for Cabrera being a part of the 2023 club, though how much of a role he gets to play is likely to be determined.

Some more notes from the Central divisions…

The Cardinals are planning to reinstate right-hander Jordan Hicks from the injured list for their final regular season series, which begins tomorrow in Pittsburgh, according to MLB.com. Hicks went on the IL on September 17, retroactive to September 15, due to right arm fatigue. He has long tantalized fans with his triple-digit velocity but also been frequently set back by command issues and injuries. This season, he’s made 34 appearances and has a 4.92 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate, 57.5% ground ball rate but a 13.6% walk rate. The Cards have already clinched the NL Central and can use their final games to assess the condition of Hicks’s arm before they begin a series against whichever team winds up in the final Wild Card spot.
Cubs right-hander Adbert Alzolay seemed to be a potential rotation building block last year, appearing in 26 games with 21 of those being starts, logging 125 2/3 innings with a 4.58 ERA. However, this year, a shoulder strain landed him on the injured list to begin the season and he only made his season debut a couple of weeks ago. This mostly lost season has resulted in several pitchers surpassing him on the depth chart and perhaps leading to a move to the bullpen. Alzolay discussed this possibility with Patrick Mooney of The Athletic and seems fine with it. “If my role is best out of the bullpen, being a long guy, being a guy that can throw in the eighth or close a game or whatever, I feel like I have the weapons to do that,” Alzolay says. “You won’t have me every five days there, but you can have me every two or three days. I can go and throw three or four innings, or I can go and throw one inning late in the game. So I feel like there are a lot more options there, and then that allows the team to go and be aggressive during the offseason.” The Cubs’ 2023 rotation will likely consist of Marcus Stroman, Kyle Hendricks and Justin Steele, with Keegan Thompson, Hayden Wesneski, Javier Assad, Adrian Sampson and Caleb Kilian having put themselves into consideration to varying degrees. With all of those options, and perhaps some offseason additions, it makes sense for Alzolay and the team to consider new ways for him to be a contributing member of the staff.

Twins Promote Simeon Woods Richardson

By Anthony Franco | October 2, 2022 at 9:10am CDT

Oct. 2: The Twins have officially selected the contract of Woods Richardson, per Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com. Right-hander Ronny Henriquez was optioned to open a spot on the active roster, while catcher Sandy Leon was transferred to the 60-day injured list to create room on the 40-man. Leon’s transfer is a mere formality, as it was previously announced that his season had been ended by knee surgery.

Sep. 30: The Twins are planning to promote pitching prospect Simeon Woods Richardson to the majors before the end of the season, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). Minnesota added Woods Richardson to their taxi squad this afternoon. It’s unclear specifically when he’ll be activated, but Park points out the club has yet to name a starting pitcher for Sunday afternoon’s matchup with the Tigers.

Assuming he’s indeed added to the major league roster, the right-hander will get an opportunity to make his big league debut in the coming days. A second-round pick of the Mets out of a Texas high school in 2018, Woods Richardson has been a well-regarded young arm since entering the professional ranks. He spent around a year in the New York system before he was dealt to the Blue Jays alongside Anthony Kay in the 2019 trade that sent Marcus Stroman to Queens.

Woods Richardson finished that season with the Jays’ High-A affiliate, and he cracked the back half of Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list the ensuing winter. After not logging any game action in 2020 due to the cancelation of the minor leagues, he was assigned to Double-A to begin the ’21 campaign. Still seen by many evaluators as one of the better minor league arms in the game, Woods Richardson soon found himself involved in a huge trade for the second time in his career. At last year’s deadline, Toronto shipped him alongside infield prospect Austin Martin to Minnesota in exchange for José Berríos.

Amidst the pair of high-profile trades, Woods Richardson’s prospect stock has dipped a bit in recent years. He fell off BA’s top 100 entering the 2022 season, but he nevertheless entered the year ranked eighth in a solid Minnesota system. He checks in sixth in the organization on the outlet’s most recent update, with praise for a four-pitch arsenal headlined by a low-mid 90s fastball and a potential plus changeup.

Woods Richardson has generally had an impressive 2022 campaign. He began the year with Double-A Wichita, making 16 appearances before getting a bump to Triple-A St. Paul in mid-August. He started another seven games for the Saints and performed well at both stops. Between the top two affiliates, the 22-year-old pitched to a 2.77 ERA across 107 1/3 innings. He’s struck out an impressive 27% of opponents while limiting walks to a manageable 8.5% rate.

That solid showing against upper level hitters earns Woods Richardson a brief major league cameo. He’d have needed to be added to the 40-man roster at the end of the season regardless to keep him from being taken in the Rule 5 draft, and the Twins have a number of players who can simply move to the 60-day injured list to clear a 40-man spot for the season’s final week.

Woods Richardson will be in the mix for a rotation spot next season. Minnesota is set to open the year with Tyler Mahle, Joe Ryan, Sonny Gray, a hopefully healthy Kenta Maeda and Bailey Ober in the starting five. With Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy each likely to depart in free agency, Woods Richardson should join Josh Winder, Louie Varland and any external additions in battling for additional looks.

Report: Tony La Russa Expected To Announce Retirement On Monday

By Darragh McDonald | October 2, 2022 at 8:35am CDT

White Sox manager Tony La Russa is expected to announce his retirement tomorrow, according to a report from Bob Nightengale of USA Today. La Russa, who turns 78 years old on Tuesday, has been absent from the team since late August due to a medical issue.

La Russa had previously retired from managing in 2011 after having spent more than 30 years as a skipper for the White Sox, Athletics and Cardinals, beginning in 1979. Then after a decade out of the manager’s chair, the White Sox made the stunning decision to bring him back for the 2021 season.

His first season out of retirement went very well, with the Sox going 93-69 last year and capturing the AL Central division title. However, it’s been a sharp downward turn here in 2022, with the club currently sporting a record of 78-80 and well out of playoff contention. La Russa faced some sharp criticism earlier this year with some bizarre managerial decisions, perhaps the most infamous example being his decision to issue an intentional walk to Trea Turner despite Turner behind in the count 1-2. In the left-on-left matchup La Russa desired, Max Muncy hit a three-run home run off Bennett Sousa, enhancing the frustration of fans and the scrutiny on La Russa’s decision making.

It was reported in June that La Russa was given a three-year contract when hired, meaning his deal runs through 2023. However, it seems that his health issues will prevent him from honoring the final season. He stepped away from the team after missing their August 30 game due to an undisclosed medical issue, related to his heart. Nightengale’s report from today says that La Russa had his pacemaker repaired at that time and has now been advised to not return to a managerial position. The report says La Russa is likely to stick with the organization in some kind of special assistant role that presumably won’t involve as much work on a day-to-day basis.

For the White Sox, they will now have to add a managerial search to their offseason to-do list. One option would be to simply retain Miguel Cairo, who took over on an interim basis when La Russa departed just over a month ago. As noted by Nightengale, the club went 13-6 over his first few weeks at the helm but slumped badly since. They followed up that stretch with an eight-game losing streak, helping them go 2-9 over their last 11 and 15-15 overall since Cairo took over.

However, if they decide to look outside the organization, they would be the sixth out of the 30 MLB clubs looking to fill a vacancy. Don Mattingly and the Marlins recently announced that they would be mutually parting ways after this season, while the Blue Jays, Phillies, Angels and Rangers all fired their managers midseason. It’s possible some of those clubs might forgo a lengthy search in favour of retaining their interim manager, with the Blue Jays reportedly leaning that way with John Schneider.

Angels, Shohei Ohtani Avoid Arbitration With One-Year, $30MM Contract For 2023

By Mark Polishuk | October 1, 2022 at 10:06pm CDT

The Angels and Shohei Ohtani have avoided perhaps the most unique arbitration case in baseball history by agreeing to a one-year, $30MM pact for the 2023 season. Ohtani is still scheduled to reach free agency following the 2023 campaign. Ohtani is represented by CAA Sports.

The two-way star becomes the 20th player in baseball to receive a $30MM average annual value on a contract, and that $30MM figure also establishes two other notable thresholds. Ohtani will now receive the largest salary ever for an arbitration-eligible player, and he also gets the biggest year-to-year raise for an arb-eligible player, after he earned $5.5MM this season. That $5.5MM salary was established in an earlier extension that avoided arbitration, as Ohtani and the Angels agreed to a two-year, $8.5MM contract in February 2021 that covered the first two of his three arb-eligible years.

At the time of that deal, Ohtani has pitched only 1 2/3 total innings over the 2019-20 seasons, due to a Tommy John surgery and then a flexor strain. He was also coming off a mediocre year at the plate, hitting only .190/.291/.366 over 175 plate appearances during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Though Ohtani was hardly the only player to struggle under the unusual circumstances of the 2020 campaign, there was speculation that his 2018 rookie season might have been his peak, and that Ohtani would be better served by choosing either hitting or pitching.

Instead, Ohtani bounce back with two of the most extraordinary seasons in baseball history. Since Opening Day 2021, Ohtani has hit .267/.366/.560 with 80 home runs over 1282 plate appearances, while also posting a 2.72 ERA and an array of dazzling secondary metrics over 291 1/3 innings. After winning AL MVP honors in 2021, it looks as if Ohtani will be at worst a second-place finisher in this year’s MVP race (due to Aaron Judge’s all-timer of a season), and he’ll also earn a good chunk of votes in the AL Cy Young Award race.

With this in mind, it can certainly be argued that $30MM is still a bargain from the Angels’ perspective, considering that Ohtani would earn hefty salaries if he was “only” an All-Star hitter or “only” an All-Star pitcher. It would’ve been fascinating to see what arbitration figures the Angels and Ohtani’s camp would’ve submitted in this unprecedented scenario, but this agreement sidesteps that possibility.

Los Angeles now has three players earning at least $30MM in 2023, as Ohtani joins Mike Trout ($35.45MM) and Anthony Rendon ($38MM). In practical terms, it doesn’t change much for the Angels’ payroll situation, as the team naturally figured it would be paying Ohtani some type of gigantic salary in his final arb-eligible year. In pure dollars and cents, it doesn’t actually represent much different from the Angels’ 2022 payroll, as the since-released Justin Upton was earning $28MM in the final year of his contract with the club.

Ohtani’s future beyond 2023 remains a mystery, as he’ll be heading into free agency presumably still in his prime both on the mound and at the plate. Though Ohtani turns 29 in July, his two-way ability might still land him the biggest contract in baseball history, topping the $365MM in new money given to Mookie Betts in his extension with the Dodgers prior to the 2020 season.

In reaching an agreement with Ohtani now, the Angels front office gets one big question mark settled heading into what might be one of the most uncertain offseasons in franchise history. Owner Arte Moreno is looking into a possible sale, and with this situation lingering over the organization, it isn’t clear how aggressive GM Perry Minasian will be allowed to be in upgrading the roster. The Halos are struggling through their seventh consecutive losing season, so while a teardown isn’t out of the question, it is also possible Moreno might order a final push to try and return to the postseason one final time under his ownership.

Until there’s more clarity with the potential sale, it is hard to gauge what will happen with Ohtani in Anaheim. Given that Ohtani has already expressed his displeasure with losing, it seems hard to believe that he would agree to an extension unless he was satisfied that the team was heading in the right direction — even if a new owner does take over within 7-8, their influence might not be apparent in the short window of time before Ohtani can test the open market. A new owner might bring a new willingness to exceed the luxury tax threshold, and thus it wouldn’t necessarily be an obstacle in adding a massive Ohtani deal worth more than $40MM (at least) in AAV on top of the long-term Trout and Rendon contracts.

A trade also can’t be ruled out, though it seems like the least likely scenario considering that Moreno vetoed any possibility that Ohtani would be swapped prior to the last trade deadline. As noted by The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya, establishing Ohtani’s 2023 price tag early gives any interested trade partners more time to plan offers, yet not having Ohtani on the roster could also impact purchasing interest for any potential new owners. From a practical baseball sense, it is also hard to gauge what exactly an Ohtani trade would look like, considering his elite two-way talent but also just one remaining year of control.

AL Notes: Nevin, Angels, Strahm, Red Sox, Twins

By Mark Polishuk | October 1, 2022 at 9:29pm CDT

Angels interim manager Phil Nevin told reporters (including The Athletic’s Sam Blum) that he hasn’t yet had any talks with the front office about remaining in the job for the 2023 season. Nevin moved from third base coach to the interim skipper’s role after Joe Maddon was fired in June, and the Angels have a 44-57 record under Nevin’s stewardship, though between injuries and some imperfect roster construction, it can be argued that Nevin hasn’t had much to work with in trying to get the Halos on track.

The manager’s job is one of many questions facing the Angels this offseason, with the franchise’s possible sale acting as the overhanging influence on every decision. There has been some speculation that this uncertainty could benefit Nevin’s chances, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal has written that the Angels could prefer to just retain Nevin rather than sign another manager to a multi-year contract this winter (thus leaving a new owner with that deal on the books, when that owner might naturally prefer to make their own choice at skipper). The front office’s lack of contact with Nevin might not necessarily be a sign that he isn’t a candidate, as GM Perry Minasian and owner Arte Moreno might just be waiting until the offseason to conduct a proper search.

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