Heyman’s Latest: Britton, Escobar, Desmond, Votto, Phillips, D-Backs
In addition to speaking with Orioles manager Buck Showalter about his decision not to deploy ace reliever Zach Britton in the Wild Card game, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag covers a number of notable topics in his most recent column. Among the highlights with a transactional component:
- Unsurprisingly, the Royals will exercise a club option over shortstop Alcides Escobar. It’s just $6.5MM (with a $500K buyout otherwise), and the club doesn’t seem willing yet to trust the job to prospect Raul Mondesi. Still the 29-year-old owns an anemic .259/.293/.335 batting line over the last two seasons; even with his typically strong defense and baserunning included, he has been a below-average regular. Escobar will have plenty to play for with free agency looming.
- It’s even less surprising to hear that the Rangers intend to make a qualifying offer to Ian Desmond, the shortstop-turned-center fielder. Texas remains very high on Desmond despite his fall-off down the stretch, says Heyman, and it seems plausible to imagine a reunion. The $17.2MM QO also appears to be the right move from a market perspective, as Desmond ought to be able to command a strong multi-year deal even after turning it down.
- We’ve heard chatter in the past about prior talks between the Blue Jays and Reds regarding first baseman Joey Votto, and Heyman discusses it further in a separate piece. There’s nothing brewing at present, but Toronto has made clear they’d like to be involved if Cincinnati undertakes any chatter on a player who may be the best hitter in the National League. Reds GM Dick Williams tells Heyman that he’s not looking to shop the superstar and also hasn’t been told that Votto (who possesses full no-trade rights) wants to depart. Even if there is mutual interest, of course, there’s the matter of sorting out the cash and prospects — which will likely be a tall order.
- Williams also tells Heyman that he believes the Reds took positive steps at the major league level in 2016, suggesting that the organization is happy to hang onto a highly popular and productive player despite his massive salary. The situation may be somewhat different with regard to second baseman Brandon Phillips, though, with Heyman writing that the team intends to find a way to get Jose Peraza into the lineup quite a bit. They’ll “make this clear” to Phillips, he says, though it isn’t known whether the veteran will be amenable to waiving his own no-trade protection after demanding an extension to do so in the past. The 35-year-old is down to the final year of his deal, though, after turning in a solid-but-unspectacular .291/.320/.416 batting line. Though metrics soured a bit on his glove, Phillips has a long history of strong defensive work. A $14MM tab on a one-year commitment is hardly unworkable, though hypothetically interested organizations may ask Cinci to kick in some cash.
- Heyman also tackled the Diamondbacks‘ front office search. Reported interest in Nationals president and GM Mike Rizzo seems likely to be a non-starter. “I don’t think there’s anything to it,” said Washington owner Mark Lerner, who called it “a totally fabricated story.” The floating of interest in Rizzo could hint that Arizona has its eyes on an exec with experience running a baseball operations department, Heyman suggests, with the team perhaps hoping to return immediately to competitiveness rather than undertaking a rebuild. A general manager with another team suggests that he thinks the D-Backs will need to guarantee a five-year term to draw a strong candidate, given the frequency of front-office turnover in Arizona.
Diamondbacks Expected To Seek Permission To Interview Mike Rizzo
The Diamonbacks intend to ask the Nationals for permission to speak with executive Mike Rizzo about their open front office position, according to ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden. Any request, it seems, would come after the Nats’ postseason run wraps up.
Arizona has Rizzo “at the top of their list” of candidates to run the team’s baseball operations department, per the report. It seems that he would be considered for a president of baseball operations title. The long-time Nationals GM, who spent seven years at the helm of the Snakes’ scouting department before going to DC, declined comment and said that he’s “focused on winning this series [against the Dodgers] and nothing else.”
It’s certainly difficult to imagine Washington having much interest in making their top baseball decisionmaker available just months after picking up an option to keep him around through 2018. Rizzo has overseen the organization’s rise to a perennial contender, with his rosters having taken NL East titles in three of the last five years — driven not only by strong draft results but also a series of heists on the trade market.
Rizzo, 55, has been in D.C. since 2006 and has held the GM seat since 2009. Importantly, also, he was named president of baseball operations back in 2013, so Arizona wouldn’t be in a position to give him a promotion. (The organization just gave president/CEO Derrick Hall a new long-term deal of his own.)
Given all the considerations noted above, perhaps the only way for Rizzo to end up in Arizona is if he and the Nationals’ top brass are more interested in parting ways than is known publicly. There have been whispers about Rizzo’s status in the past, and the organization was somewhat slow to pick up his option. Certainly, the club would be in position to demand a significant player asset in return if things were to progress. And Rizzo would no doubt have the leverage to command a big contract from the wayward D-Backs.
At this point, of course, that’s all speculation. Arizona has been tied to a rather wide variety of potential executive candidates already. Rays AGM Chaim Bloom and Dodgers VP Alex Anthopoulos have reportedly declined requests for an interview. The Diamondbacks are also said to have interest in Royals AGM J.J. Piccolo, Dodgers senior adviser Ned Colletti, MLB senior VPs Kim Ng and Peter Woodfork, and Brewers VP of scouting Ray Montgomery, while also considering a promotion for current team executives Bryan Minniti and Mike Bell.
Royals’ J.J. Picollo Believed To Be Candidate For D’Backs GM Job; Rays’ Chaim Bloom Declines Interview
2:23pm: Bloom has turned down an opportunity to interview with the Diamondbacks, reports Piecoro. Dodgers executive Alex Anthopoulos did the same earlier this week, FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman relayed Saturday.
9:58am: Rays VP of baseball operations Chaim Bloom and Royals’ assistant GM J.J. Picollo are believed to be candidates for the Diamondbacks’ general manager position, league sources tell Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The two executives join a lengthy list of names previously linked to the D’Backs job, including Ned Colletti, Kim Ng, Ray Montgomery, Peter Woodfork and internal candidates Bryan Minniti and Mike Bell.
Both Bloom and Picollo have been connected to multiple front office openings in recent years, even getting consideration for the same job on more than one occasion. Both were interviewed for the Twins GM job just last month, and both were contenders to become the Phillies’ new general manager last offseason before the team hired Matt Klentak. (Picollo was an early favorite for the Philadelphia job, though it was Bloom who ended up making the Phillies’ final three list of candidates for the position, along with Klentak and A’s assistant GM Dan Kantrovitz.) Bloom was also interviewed by the Brewers last offseason before they hired David Stearns as their new general manager.
Unlike the other known candidates, Bloom and Picollo don’t have any previous connection with the D’Backs themselves or other NL West teams, so they would bring a fresh perspective to Arizona’s baseball operations department. Bloom has spent his entire 11-year career in baseball with Tampa Bay, while Picollo has spent the last decade in the Royals’ front office and the previous seven years working for the Braves. Both are also younger executives (Picollo is 45 years old and Bloom is just 33) and thought to be more analytically-minded, which would also represent a change in direction for the D’Backs. The previous front office, led by Tony La Russa and since-fired GM Dave Stewart, was rather openly old-school in their approach, with an analytics department headed by a first-time baseball ops hire.
Dodgers Notes: Greinke, Payroll, Free Agents
Jon Heyman’s latest column for FanRag Sports takes a look at the Dodgers’ summer trade talks and how the club is positioning itself for the future…
- The Dodgers were known to have had brief talks with the Diamondbacks about a possible Zack Greinke trade this summer, and Heyman reports that the Dodgers offered to cover roughly $25MM of the $34.4MM average annual value owed to Greinke through the 2021 season. D’Backs ownership didn’t want to retain any of Greinke’s contract and rejected the offer, saying the Dodgers “had plenty of money” to afford all of the right-hander’s massive future salary commitments.
- While Los Angeles obviously hasn’t been shy on spending in recent years, Heyman notes that the club “might have stricter limits on term that you’d think.” For instance, the Dodgers were only willing to offer Greinke five years (for $155MM) in free agency last winter, and some in the organization even felt that was a “stretch.” The Dodgers even floated a two-year offer to Greinke with a very high AAV of close to $40MM per season.
- With the Dodgers’ concerns about term length in mind, there are some mixed signals about how far the team is willing to go to re-sign its top free agents this winter, such as Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner, Rich Hill and Josh Reddick. While L.A. will “at least try” to retain all of them, at least one or two of the players could sign elsewhere. One rival official believes the Dodgers might let all of their own free agents walk, though later reasoned that Jansen is perhaps too important to the Dodgers’ bullpen to let go.
- Speaking of Dodgers’ spending, some in the front office believe there’s a chance the team could manage to get below the $189MM luxury tax threshold in the near future. The Dodgers have so many impressive prospects on the horizon that an influx of cheap, controllable young talent would allow the club to eschew the higher-priced names that ballooned their payroll to over $300MM in recent years. Heyman notes, however, that the Dodgers have already trimmed spending (by their standards) from that record high, with a 2016 Opening Day payroll of just under $250MM. It’s also possible that the luxury tax limit will be raised from $189MM in the new collective bargaining agreement, so Los Angeles and other big-market teams would have a bit more spending flexibility. Needless to say, getting under the luxury tax limit just once would provide massive financial savings for the Dodgers.
Alex Anthopoulos Turns Down Diamondbacks
The Diamondbacks contacted Dodgers vice president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos about their vacant general manager position, but the 39-year-old told Arizona he’s not interested, reports FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman. Anthopoulos is content in Los Angeles, per Heyman, who notes that the former Blue Jays GM’s two young children just started school in the area.
Anthopoulos previously spurned the Twins, who wanted to meet with him regarding their open president of baseball operations position, so his decision to reject the Diamondbacks isn’t necessarily a shot at them as much as a desire to remain in LA. Regardless, Heyman doesn’t expect the D-backs to have difficulty finding a successor to Dave Stewart. Although multiple executives across baseball have expressed concerns about Arizona’s recent lack of front office stability, someone with interest in the position told Heyman that it’s “BS,” noting that “only 30 of these jobs” exist.
Since the Diamondbacks parted with Stewart on Monday, ex-Dodgers GM Ned Colletti, MLB senior vice president Kim Ng, fellow league executive Peter Woodfork, and Brewers VP of scouting Ray Montgomery have all emerged as outside candidates to replace him. In-house options include assistant GM Bryan Minniti and farm director Mike Bell.
Ned Colletti Reportedly A Candidate In Diamondbacks’ GM Search
Former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti is on the Diamondbacks’ list of potential GM candidates, reports J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group.
The 62-year-old Colletti served as GM in Los Angeles from 2005-14 before giving way to current president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman at the end of the 2014 campaign. The Dodgers retained Colletti as a senior advisor to team president/CEO Stan Kasten, but he no longer plays a role in the decision-making process when it comes to baseball operations. Hoornstra adds that whoever is ultimately hired will not report to Tony La Russa — a sentiment that meshes with previous reports which have indicated that La Russa will no longer be calling the shots in the Arizona front office even if has not been let go by the team.
The Dodgers reached the postseason in six of Colletti’s nine seasons as general manager, and he was the GM for a number of critical trades, free-agent signings and extensions that still impact today’s iteration of the Dodgers. Most notably, Colletti helped orchestrate the blockbuster trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto from Boston to L.A. in exchange for James Loney, Ivan De Jesus, Allen Webster and Rubby De La Rosa back in 2012. He also signed Zack Greinke to a six-year, $147MM contract with an opt-out clause after the third season (which Greinke exercised, netting the Dodgers a 2015 first-round pick after rejecting a QO) and worked out extensions for Andre Ethier (five years, $85MM) and Clayton Kershaw (seven years, $215MM with a third-year opt-out). Colletti also acquired Manny Ramirez in 2008 — arguably the most successful half-season rental in recent history — and re-signed him to a two-year, $45MM deal that proved less successful. Los Angeles’ two-year, $36.2MM deal for Andruw Jones late in his career also proved to be a significant misstep.
On the international front, Colletti gave the approval on a number of expensive signings that yielded no return for the Dodgers, including Erisbel Arruebarrena and Alex Guerrero, though the team’s signing of Yasiel Puig to a seven-year, $42MM contract has to be deemed a success even if Puig’s performance never returns to its 2013-14 heights. And, the signings of Hiroki Kuroda out of Japan and Hyun-Jin Ryu out of Korea both provided tremendous value to the pitching staff, though Ryu’s contributions have been cut short due to shoulder problems that have sidelined him for nearly all of the 2015-16 seasons after two terrific years in 2013-14.
Colletti is one of six names that has been linked to the D-backs since the season ended, as reports have indicated that league executives Kim Ng and Peter Woodfork (a former D-backs assistant GM) are in the mix, as is Brewers VP of scouting Ray Montgomery (a former D-backs exec himself). Internal candidates reportedly include assistant GM Bryan Minniti and farm director Mike Bell.
Kim Ng, Four Others Among D-Backs GM Candidates
The Diamondbacks appear to have compiled at least a preliminary list of potential general manager candidates to take over for the departing Dave Stewart, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). In addition to a quartet of men with ties to the organization, MLB senior VP Kim Ng is under consideration, per the report.
Ng has long been discussed as a front office target for organizations, and has interviewed for top baseball ops positions on several occasions. A former assistant GM with the Dodgers, Ng would become the game’s first-ever female general manager if she is hired for this or another open job.
Additionally, Arizona is looking at current AGM Bryan Minniti and farm director Mike Bell — as has previously been reported. Minniti just completed his second season in that role for the D-Backs after previously serving in a similar capacity with the Nationals. Bell has held his post with Arizona for six seasons.
Former D-Backs’ scouting guru and current Brewers vice president of scouting Ray Montgomery is also under consideration, as is former Arizona AGM Peter Woodfork, who currently works with Ng in the league office. Montgomery went to Milwaukee before the team brought in David Stearns as its GM, a post for which he was also considered. And Woodfork, who has also spent time with the Red Sox, was a part of the Diamondbacks for five years before returning to MLB in March of 2011. MLBTR highlighted his GM candidacy back in 2011.
It is not immediately apparent how complete this list of candidates is, and certainly it wouldn’t be surprising to see it grow. After all, the team only parted ways with Stewart on Monday.
Latest On Diamondbacks’ Front Office Situation
Change is afoot in Arizona, as the Diamondbacks have already parted ways with GM Dave Stewart, VP DeJon Watson, and manager Chip Hale. Chief baseball officer Tony La Russa, who oversaw all of the baseball operations department, will no longer carry that mantle moving forward.
Assistant GM Bryan Minniti will seemingly take the reins on an interim basis, MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert reports, though he has not been given any official nod — even temporarily — as of yet. Though his own role remains unsettled, La Russa may also be involved in handling the early offseason decisionmaking while the front office search ramps up.
Minniti, who joined the Arizona front office after a stint with the Nationals, is also likely to receive consideration for the full-time job, per the report. (He has long been considered a potential GM, as former MLBTR scribe Ben Nicholson-Smith explored way back in 2011.) Likewise, farm director Mike Bell may be viewed as a candidate as the D-Backs’ upper management group assesses its options.
In terms of external possibilities, we haven’t heard any names as of yet, and the organization has suggested it intends to remain quiet on the matter. But many around the game are wondering whether the Diamondbacks will struggle to attract some candidates owing to their frequent front office turnover and recent turmoil, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports.
While various executives with rival teams gave Piecoro different indications about how big a concern they’d have with joining the Arizona organization, some were clear that its reputation is not strong. One unnamed exec who has been considered as a GM target told Piecoro that, while running the D-Backs’ baseball ops would hold “surface” appeal, “from everything I hear about some of the dysfunction up there, to be quite candid, I would have zero interest.” Another wondered whether the club would need to give out a lengthy guarantee to entice a quality candidate to “mov[e] your family for that level of insecurity, juxtaposed to the security that some of us have” in current positions with rival teams.
Latest On Diamondbacks’ Front Office
With chief strategy officer Tony La Russa losing his hold on the Diamondbacks’ baseball department and Dave Stewart now out as general manager, the club is set for its fourth regime change in six-plus years. That lack of stability has some executives around the majors wary of working for the organization, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.
“Do they give the next person a six-year contract and come hell or high water they’re not going to fire them?” one rival exec asked Piecoro. “Or have they demonstrated this is how they do business and if things don’t work out in 24 -36 months they’ll make more changes? Moving your family for that level of insecurity, juxtaposed to the security that some of us have — that’s a tough sell to the family.”
One potential GM candidate whose name has come up in other teams’ searches informed Piecoro his interest in taking over the Diamondbacks would be “zero” because of “some of the dysfunction up there.” Other executives Piecoro spoke to are also leery of the job, with some expressing concern over the personalities of owner Ken Kendrick and CEO Derrick Hall. The latter signed an eight-year contract extension in August, so any new hire(s) will have to coexist with him and Kendrick for the long haul. Despite that, Hall doesn’t expect the team to have difficulty finding executives willing to take the helm in Arizona.
In regards to GM jobs, Hall said Monday, “There’s only 30 of these. And they’re special jobs and there are a lot of qualified people out there who are looking for that opportunity. We’re hoping the next person is in that role for a long time and that will be expressed.”
Another rival executive backed Kendrick and Hall, saying, “Listen, you have to be skeptical with that amount of turnover. But absolutely, 100 percent, you can win there with those guys.”
In a move that could perhaps help scare off potential hires, Diamondbacks ownership reportedly blocked a trade that would have sent struggling right-hander Shelby Miller to Miami over the summer. Nevertheless, Hall is content with the organization’s decision-making structure.
“It’s very common with all 30 clubs, where if you’re going to have a large decision to make, a very big decision, an impactful decision, it’s going to go all the way up the flagpole and everybody is going to weigh in, whether it is the owner of any ballclub – the owner, president, GM, all opinions are going to be weighed at that time,” said Hall. “It’s a matter of allowing people to do their jobs but also weighing in when there’s a matter of extreme importance, which I think is not uncommon anywhere.”
Stewart didn’t speak negatively of either Kendrick or Hall after his dismissal. However, Stewart did reveal that he and Kendrick “were oil and water” in terms of their personalities. On whether the franchise was too quick to ax Stewart after hiring him in September 2014, Kendrick offered, “Since Dave Stewart was hired two years ago, there have been 16 general managers hired. Sixteeen. What does that tell you? It’s a tough business” (Twitter link via Piecoro).
Stewart’s successor could be someone with past Diamondbacks experience, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, who points to Brewers scouting director Ray Montgomery as a “natural strong candidate” (Twitter link). The 47-year-old Montgomery was previously the D-backs’ scouting director from 2010-14.
Dave Stewart Discusses End Of Tenure With D-Backs
The Diamondbacks ousted Dave Stewart from the GM seat yesterday, bringing his tenure to an end after just two years. Stewart discussed his feelings on the matter with Bob Nightengale of USA Today, who described the scene yesterday as chief baseball officer Tony La Russa informed his long-time friend that he’d no longer be with the organization.
That order, of course, came from above La Russa’s head, with managing partner Ken Kendrick and president/CEO Derrick Hall deciding it was time to move on. La Russa’s own fate remains to be determined, but he won’t control the organization’s baseball operations any longer.
Stewart expressed little in the way of regret, explaining that he believes he ought to have been retained but also that he will land on his feet. After all, the long-time big league hurler has compiled a rather varied resume following his playing times. Most recently, before heading to Arizona, he served as a player agent.
“Quite frankly,” said Stewart, “I’ve got better things to do.” Just what those things will be isn’t clear yet. “I just got to figure out what to do next,” said Stewart, “but really, I’ll be just fine.”
What Stewart won’t be doing is airing grievances against the Arizona organization. While he acknowledges that he was “angry” when he left the Blue Jays organization 15 years ago after being passed over for an open GM seat, Stewart says that he’s “not angry this time.” Instead, he said, it’s “almost a relief.” And though he and Kendrick “were oil and water,” Stewart says that was just a reflection of personality differences; he does not “have anything bad to say about” the D-Backs owner.
As for the state of the roster and farm that he leaves behind, Stewart expressed optimism. “This team will be back,” he said. “They’re not far away at all.” Asserting that he stands by his work at the helm of the baseball ops department, Stewart suggested that it may take some time for the fruits of his labor to become obvious to the rest of the game. “You may not know it for a couple of years,” he said, “but you will.’’