Anthony Franco
- Good afternoon everyone, hope you're doing well!
- Going to stay around an hour on this one to buy some time for free agent/outlook work. Let's get rolling
Lance
- Do you expect the Padres to be super active for any big moves?
Anthony Franco
- They should be in on the top rotation trade candidates (Gore, Ryan, etc.). Not as easy to do now that they've traded De Vries but they've consistently found a way to make those kinds of trades work
- Guessing the free agent approach will be more of what we've seen the last two years. Quiet early in the offseason and try to find ways to creatively structure deals for guys who fall through. Rotation is the priority -- though I could see there being enough uncertainty on King that he kind of falls back into their laps on some sort of opt-out deal -- but they could also be in for another bat
- If it's February and Alonso still hasn't signed, could they jump in?
Drake
- If Roki Sasaki continues to look as good as he does out of the pen do the Dodgers consider making the move permanent?
Anthony Franco
- Nah. Maybe he struggles again as a starter next year and they think about it, but they need to give him another chance to start going into '26
David
- Now that the Mets have moved on from most of their coaches, do you have thoughts in targets for pitching and hit? Hefner was well regarded but my word, so many walks and full counts! Thank you!
Anthony Franco
- Feels to me like Hefner fell on the sword for the front office getting too cute with the pitching moves over the offseason, but that's life as a coach. The upcoming rotation class isn't great but I have to imagine they'll be more engaged at the top than they were last winter after things fell apart the way they did
- You can put Tatsuya Imai with every big-market team but he's a potential mid-rotation guy who's uncommonly young for a free agent starter. Shane Bieber's only 30, rock solid, and at least won't come with draft compensation
607179
- Have you any sense of why Oneil Cruz had the year he had? Is he fixable?
Anthony Franco
- Some of it is batted ball stuff that'll normalize. He hits the ball so hard that I can't see him having a .262 average on balls in play again
- Always going to be a ton of strikeouts but I still feel alright about him as an above-average hitter moving forward. Don't think he's long for center field, though, and the whole package adds up to a pretty good player who's super frustrating because you feel he should be more given how freakishly talented he is
ml25ad
- Lots of different directions that the Cards can go in the offseason. But if they do look to balance out their position player side of bats with so many LH's, what kind of return do you think each of Donovan, Burleson, Nootbaar, and Gorman could net?
Anthony Franco
- They'd all have value, probably in the order you mentioned them. Donovan would bring back a lot, probably a little better than the return Miami got from the Yankees for Jazz
- That was a weird one because Agustin Ramirez was a Top 100 caliber prospect for teams that thought he could catch and not especially valuable for those that didn't. But we can assume Miami was in the former camp (doesn't look promising), and the Cardinals should be able to get someone they value as a top 50-75 overall prospect for two years of Donovan as well
Hopeless Reds Fan
- Am I wrong to think that this would be a perfect offseason for the Reds to trade Hunter Greene for a haul that could bring them back a mlb bat and a couple of really nice prospects? With Abbott, Lodolo, Singer, Burns, Lowder, Williamson, Petty, etc... this may be the time?
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Jarred Kelenic, Three Others Elect Free Agency
October 2nd: Kelenic, Díaz, Dunning and Williams have officially elected free agency, according to David O’Brien of The Athletic.
October 1st: The Braves have begun offseason roster housekeeping. Atlanta announced they’ve outrighted five players — outfielder Jarred Kelenic, right-handers Alexis Díaz and Dane Dunning, catcher Sandy León, and utility player Luke Williams — off the 40-man roster. They’ll all be minor league free agents in the next couple weeks.
Atlanta had 11 players finish the season on the 60-day injured list. They’ll all need to be activated or placed on waivers within five days of the end of the World Series. This clears five spots, and three more will open when Raisel Iglesias, Marcell Ozuna and Charlie Morton reach free agency. Ha-Seong Kim will need to decide on his $16MM player option. They’ll need to drop at least two more players (three if Kim doesn’t opt out) within the next few weeks.
These were all relatively easy cuts, though it marks an unceremonious end to Kelenic’s disappointing time in Atlanta. The Braves took a lot of dead money off Seattle’s books to acquire the former top prospect during the 2023-24 offseason. He hit .231/.286/.393 with a near-30% strikeout rate across 449 plate appearances in 2024.
Atlanta signed Jurickson Profar to replace him as the starting left fielder. With Ronald Acuña Jr. rehabbing ACL surgery and Profar getting suspended for a failed PED test, Kelenic had another shot early in the season. He batted .167 and played his way off the MLB roster by the third week of April. Kelenic’s only MLB appearance after that was as a pinch runner on July 30.
Things were equally bleak in Triple-A. The 25-year-old hit .213/.286/.309 with only four homers while striking out at a 27.6% clip with Gwinnett. Kelenic has never found sustained MLB success but had reliably hit Triple-A pitching until this year. As a former sixth overall pick, he’ll get minor league offers, but it’d be a surprise if he commands a major league contract.
The Braves grabbed Díaz off waivers from the Dodgers in early September. They had roster space to burn and wanted a look at a former All-Star closer who had recorded 28 saves with Cincinnati just last season. Díaz had an uphill path to a 2026 bullpen spot and certainly didn’t do much to convince the Braves to keep him around. He walked five batters and gave up five runs (four earned) in 2 2/3 innings. Díaz had a nightmare season between three teams, giving up 17 runs over 17 2/3 big league frames. He also struggled to a 5.61 ERA across 25 2/3 Triple-A innings.
Díaz made $4.5MM this year in his first trip through arbitration. He would’ve made something close to or matching that if he were tendered a contract. That’s an easy pass for the team coming off the season he had. Díaz has never had strong command, and his velocity and strikeouts have dipped since his excellent first two MLB campaigns. The 29-year-old could also be in minor league deal territory.
The Braves acquired Dunning from the Rangers in July. It was a salary dump for Texas and one of a number of buy-low fliers that Atlanta took as members of their pitching staff kept dropping to injuries. Dunning was an up-and-down reliever for the Braves and gave up 12 earned runs in 10 innings. León, a longtime third or fourth catcher, finished the season on the MLB roster after Sean Murphy underwent hip surgery. He appeared in five games and went 1-12. Williams got into 45 contests as the last man off the bench and designated position player pitcher in blowouts. He hit .129 and owns a career .212/.270/.280 slash over 349 plate appearances.
Rockies Expected To Consider Thad Levine In Front Office Search
The Rockies officially parted ways with general manager Bill Schmidt this morning, finalizing what had become an expected decision after one of the worst seasons in MLB history. The Rox have already announced they’ll go outside the organization for their next baseball operations leader.
That alone is a change for a franchise that has promoted from within for its past two GM hires. Jeff Bridich and Schmidt had each been longtime members of the Colorado front office before ascending to the top of the staff. The Rockies will go in a different direction on the heels of their first three 100-loss seasons in franchise history. Yet given owner Dick Monfort’s reputation for loyalty that arguably tips into insularity, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the next GM has some history with the organization.
Schmidt’s ouster immediately sparked speculation about former Twins’ general manager Thad Levine, who had worked in the Colorado front office between 1999-2005. Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post listed him among five potential candidates for the position this morning. While that was a largely speculative tie, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi also suggested this evening that the Rockies are likely to consider Levine.
Despite holding the GM title in Minnesota, the 53-year-old Levine has never led a baseball operations department. He worked as the #2 executive under chief baseball officer/president of baseball operations Derek Falvey for eight seasons. He stepped down at the beginning of the 2024-25 offseason. Before that, Levine had spent over a decade as an assistant GM with Texas under Jon Daniels.
Levine’s name has come up in plenty of front office searches over the years, including with the Rockies in 2021 before Schmidt had been tabbed as the permanent general manager. He did not work in baseball operations this past offseason, but Morosi reports that he’d have interest in the Colorado GM job.
Marlins Notes: Alcantara, First Base, Garrett, Meyer
The Marlins improbably remained alive in the Wild Card race into the season’s final week. While that was enabled largely by the Mets’ collapse, Miami finished just four games under .500 after a 100-loss season in 2024. President of baseball operations Peter Bendix spoke with reporters on Wednesday as he enters his third offseason.
Bendix’s biggest decision is whether to trade Sandy Alcantara. The Marlins held onto the former Cy Young winner at the deadline. Alcantara hadn’t found a groove in his first few months back from Tommy John surgery, and the Fish preferred not to sell low. He looked a lot sharper down the stretch, turning in a 3.70 ERA with a 23.1% strikeout rate in his final 10 starts. He tied for fourth in the majors with 65 2/3 innings pitched after the deadline. Everyone else in the top five had the benefit of an extra start.
The Fish will get calls from teams intrigued by Alcantara’s strong finish. Bendix dodged a question about whether he expected the two-time All-Star to remain in South Florida headed into next season. “I’m not going to speculate on any individual player,” he said (relayed by Isaac Azout of Fish On First). “We’re always looking for ways to improve our club and I’m going to stay as disciplined as possible in doing that.”
It’s the kind of generality that most executives express publicly when asked about specific players. It’s not an especially surprising response, though it does contrast with the club’s approach from last offseason. The Marlins had reportedly informed Alcantara by August that he wouldn’t be moved. Bendix more or less confirmed that publicly during the winter, saying in December that he was “really excited to see him pitch on Opening Day.” A trade this winter seems more plausible now that he’s healthy even if the Fish are closer to contention than they were 12 months ago.
Alcantara is headed into the final guaranteed season of the extension he signed over the 2021-22 offseason. He’ll make $17MM and is guaranteed at least a $2MM buyout on a $21MM club option for ’27. If a deadline trade would’ve been mostly about salary relief, an offseason deal could net a legitimate prospect return. Alcantara finished with an underwhelming 5.36 ERA overall, yet he’d very likely command more than $19MM if he were a free agent this offseason.
Walker Buehler, for instance, pulled $21.05MM coming off a 5.38 ERA in fewer innings because of his pre-injury track record and two good appearances during the World Series. Alex Cobb got a $15MM deal at age 36 after making five combined starts between the regular season and playoffs. If Alcantara carries his second half form into next year, the extra year of control via the club option would also be a bargain.
While payroll is always a consideration for the Marlins, the front office shouldn’t be under financial pressure to deal Alcantara. He’s the only player on the roster making a salary of much significance. They’ll pay Avisaíl García a final $5MM buyout to end that disastrous free agent deal. They owe the Yankees $10MM annually for the next three seasons as part of the Giancarlo Stanton trade. That’s all in terms of guaranteed commitments. They have a lot of arbitration-eligible players — Anthony Bender, Braxton Garrett, Edward Cabrera, Ryan Weathers, Andrew Nardi, Calvin Faucher and Max Meyer — but none who are going to break the bank individually.
Miami did almost nothing in free agency during Bendix’s first two seasons at the helm. They signed three players to major league deals (Tim Anderson, Cal Quantrill and Eric Wagaman) for a combined $8.7MM in guarantees. It’s clear they’ll do more than that this winter. FanDuel Sports Network Florida & Sun’s Craig Mish indicated over the weekend that they’ll likely pursue a late-inning reliever. Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald echoes that sentiment and writes that they’ll try to bring in a free agent offensive upgrade as well.
The Marlins had a middle-of-the-pack offense this past season. They ranked 16th in runs and finished between 11th and 20th in all three slash stats. They were light on power, finishing above only the Padres, Cardinals and Pirates in home runs. Playing at loanDepot Park doesn’t do their hitters many favors, but they were tied for 22nd in road home runs. Kyle Stowers and Agustín Ramírez were their only 20-homer bats.
Miami didn’t get much production out of first base or designated hitter. They’ll probably want to keep at-bats available at the latter position for Ramírez, whose defensive numbers as a rookie catcher were terrible. They should upgrade on Wagaman and Troy Johnston at first base. It’d be a surprise if they made a serious push for Pete Alonso or Josh Naylor, but a mid-level target like Ryan O’Hearn could be within the range of outcomes.
Paul Goldschmidt and Rhys Hoskins will be available on one-year deals and still have a higher floor than the in-house options. The Astros could look to offload part of the Christian Walker contract, while players like Spencer Steer or Triston Casas could be sell-low candidates. It’s not entirely out of the question that the A’s could consider swapping Tyler Soderstrom for a controllable starting pitcher. Maybe there’s a match with a Miami team that has a lot of talented, affordable arms. Almost all of them come with some kind of durability questions, though the Fish finished the season with an impressive front four of Alcantara, Cabrera, Weathers and Eury Pérez.
Garrett missed the entire season after undergoing UCL surgery in January. Meyer suffered a labrum tear in his left hip and went under the knife in June. Bendix told Jackson and other reporters that both pitchers are expected to be ready by the start of Spring Training.
Chaim Bloom Discusses Marmol, GM, Arenado, Gray
Chaim Bloom was officially introduced as Cardinals president of baseball operations at a press conference on Tuesday morning. He takes control at a time when multiple reports have suggested they’re moving to a rebuild that’ll put Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and others back in trade rumors.
While Bloom pointedly avoided the term “rebuild,” his meeting with the media did little to dispel the overall notion. “We have talent here. We have more talent coming, and we have some of the makings of that core, but we need more. Our top priority will be to build our talent base for the long term,” he told reporters (link via Katie Woo of The Athletic). “That may mean hard decisions and short-term sacrifices, but to get where we want to go, we can’t take shortcuts — and we won’t.” Bloom subsequently added that while they’ll “hunt moves and decisions that allow (them to win) right now,” the focus will be on the long term if they need “to choose between short-term gratification and our bigger goal of contending consistently.”
None of that comes as a surprise. Arenado, Gray and Contreras have all confirmed they’d spoken to Bloom late in the season and understood where the organization was going. That’s the impetus for all three players saying they’re willing to consider waiving their no-trade clauses in the right circumstances (though Contreras said he’d still prefer to stay and be a veteran mentor).
Oliver Marmol will continue to oversee things in the dugout. Bloom confirmed the manager will be back for a fifth season (relayed by Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Marmol is under contract through the end of next season. Bloom indicated there haven’t been any extension talks to date but didn’t dismiss the possibility of having those conversations at some point.
There’s also an uncertain timeline on the club’s GM hire. Former general manager Michael Girsch was reassigned to vice president of special projects last offseason — a move that came in conjunction with the team’s announcement that Bloom would replace John Mozeliak as baseball operations president going into 2026. Bloom will eventually hire his own top lieutenant with the GM title but indicated that might not happen this offseason (via Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat).
Of course, most of the focus will be on the team’s expected roster turnover. The Cardinals will be motivated to try to trade Arenado, who is signed for two more seasons. They’re on the hook for $22MM of next season’s $27MM salary (though another $6MM of that is deferred) and his entire $15MM deal for 2027. They’d need to pay down the bulk of the money given Arenado’s declining offensive production. Bloom spoke of a general openness to kicking in cash in the right trades but definitively shot down the idea that they might simply release Arenado if no trade presented itself.
St. Louis would also need to eat some money on Gray. That’s less an indictment on the right-hander’s performance than a reflection of his contract structure. His three-year, $75MM free agent deal was heavily backloaded. Gray will make $35MM next season and is guaranteed a $5MM buyout on a $30MM option for 2027. It’s a $40MM commitment for one year, the kind of salary that has been reserved for late-career aces who were still performing at Cy Young levels (e.g. Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Zack Wheeler).
Gray remains a very good pitcher but isn’t at that level. Assuming the Cardinals are willing to eat some of the money, there’d be plenty of teams intrigued by the idea of adding Gray to the rotation. The three-time All-Star has already acknowledged he’s willing to think about waiving his no-trade clause. Bloom said the front office will “see what’s out there, and if there’s something that could make sense for us that furthers our goals that he also wants to do, then we’ll explore” trade possibilities (via Woo).
However, he contrasted Gray’s situation with Arenado’s and implied that the Cardinals are a little less motivated to trade the former. “With Sonny, the situation is a bit different in that we do have a clear fit for him here,” Bloom said. Even in a non-competitive year, the Cardinals will need some level of veteran presence in the rotation. They’re not going to keep Gray for that reason alone, but they’ll already have ample opportunity for pitchers like Matthew Liberatore, Michael McGreevy and Kyle Leahy to stake claims to rotation spots. The Cards aren’t going to be major players in free agency, but Bloom said they’ll be in the market for pitching depth in both the starting staff and the bullpen.
Padres Select Martin Maldonado
The Padres selected Martín Maldonado back onto the 40-man roster on Tuesday morning. That was required to carry him as the backup catcher for their Wild Card Series against the Cubs. Reliever Jason Adam, who is out for the season with a quad injury, was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Maldonado was in the organization on a minor league deal after being released from the MLB roster in August.
Backup catcher Elias Díaz tweaked his left oblique over the weekend and was evidently unavailable. Luis Campusano was the only other option on the 40-man roster who could back up Freddy Fermin. The Padres are carrying Campusano on the Wild Card series roster as well, but he hasn’t caught a single major league inning all season. Maldonado hasn’t been in the majors since the trade deadline but at least had built something of a rapport with the pitching staff when he and Díaz were the catching duo earlier in the year.
Fermin caught Nick Pivetta in today’s Game 1 loss. Díaz had worked behind the plate as Pivetta’s personal catcher for the entire season and would surely have been the Game 1 starter if healthy. Unless he suffers an injury, Fermin will play tomorrow and what the Padres hope is a necessary Game 3. Dylan Cease starts against a Cubs’ bullpen game tomorrow. San Diego has Yu Darvish lined up if the series goes to a decider. The Cubs have not announced plans for that potential outing.
Maldonado, who hit .204/.245/.327 and hasn’t played a game since July 30, is a contingency plan. The 15-year MLB veteran and 2022 World Series champion appeared in 65 postseason contests with the Astros between 2018-23.
Luke Keaschall To Undergo Thumb Surgery
Sept. 30: Keaschall will indeed undergo thumb surgery tomorrow, per Dan Hayes of the Athletic. He is expected to be ready for spring training.
Sept. 24: Twins rookie infielder Luke Keaschall is weighing surgery to address a left thumb injury, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Dan Hayes of The Athletic and Matthew Leach of MLB.com). That decision will be made after Keaschall visits a specialist next week.
Keaschall jammed his thumb diving into second base on a steal during last night’s win in Texas. He exited the game and went for imaging this morning. The Twins haven’t officially placed him on the injured list, but there’s no reason to have him playing through pain for their final few games against the Rangers and Phillies. Ryan Fitzgerald drew into the lineup at second base tonight.
The 23-year-old Keaschall is one of Minnesota’s most promising players. A second-round pick in 2023, Keaschall hit at every minor league stop. The Twins called him up in the middle of April. He got out to a strong start to his MLB career when a Kyle Hendricks pitch broke his right arm in his seventh game. Keaschall was out of action until early August, at which point the team had fallen out of contention and sold off much of the roster.
Keaschall picked up where he left off once he returned from the forearm injury. He slashed .294/.359/.436 with four homers and 11 doubles over his final 181 plate appearances. The righty hitter struck out in fewer than 15% of his trips, continuing the plus contact ability he’d shown against minor league pitching. Keaschall didn’t post huge exit velocities, but he has shown an impressive understanding of the strike zone for any hitter, especially a rookie.
That should be enough to have a hold on the Opening Day second base job. The Twins will presumably provide more specifics on his recovery timeline and offseason plan once he makes the official decision on whether to undergo surgery. Keaschall’s promotion came a little too late in the season for him to get a full service year. Minnesota controls him for six seasons after this one.
Report: NPB’s Hanshin Tigers Considering Potential Posting Of Hiroto Saiki
The Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball are weighing whether to make their ace, Hiroto Saiki, available to MLB teams via the posting system, according to a Japanese-language report from Yahoo! Japan. The report notes that the 26-year-old Saiki (27 in November) has previously expressed a desire to pitch in MLB by his late 20s. The Tigers have not made any announcements, and it is not guaranteed that a posting — even if one does eventually occur — would happen this offseason.
NPB players do not qualify for international free agency until they’ve reached nine years of service time. (They can reach domestic free agency and sign with a different NPB team after eight years.) In order to make the move to MLB before reaching the nine-year service mark, players require their NPB team to make them available through the posting system. That ensures the NPB club financial compensation tied to the player’s MLB contract. The Japanese team needs to weigh that against the roster hit that comes with losing the player.
Saiki has pitched in parts of seven NPB seasons but wasn’t fully established at the top level until 2023. He’s reportedly still four years away from international free agent eligibility. The Tigers could wait another offseason or two to post him. Different NPB teams have varying levels of willingness to honor players’ posting interest. Some teams more highly value the reputational boost that could come with that.
There’s also a financial benefit to posting a star player while he’s in his mid-late 20s. They’re likelier to command a long-term deal with a larger guarantee that raises the proportional fee that the MLB signing team owes to the NPB club. The posting fee is calculated as 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM, and 15% of spending above $50MM. Saiki is old enough (older than 24) and has enough professional experience that his contract would not be capped by MLB’s amateur bonus pool restrictions the way that Roki Sasaki’s was last winter.
Saiki, a 6’2″ right-hander, is coming off his third consecutive season with a sub-2.00 earned run average in Japan’s extremely pitcher-friendly league. He tallied 157 innings of 1.55 ERA ball across 24 starts. That run prevention isn’t matched by huge swing-and-miss stuff. Saiki’s 19.2% strikeout rate is an almost exact match for the Central League average and a few points below the typical MLB mark. Former big league depth pitchers Jon Duplantier (1.39 ERA, 32.4% strikeout rate) and Anthony Kay (1.76 ERA, 21.5% strikeout rate) have posted similar or stronger rate metrics to those that Saiki has turned in this season.
Still, that doesn’t mean Saiki wouldn’t draw plenty of attention from MLB evaluators if he were available within the next year or two. He faced the Dodgers in an exhibition start at the Tokyo Dome in mid-March. Saiki fired five scoreless innings of one-hit ball while recording seven punchouts (including fanning Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman). His fastball sat in the low-to-mid 90s and he showed a swing-and-miss splitter that landed around 85 mph. Saiki’s mid-70s curveball was a clear third pitch. After the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts opined that the righty showed “major league stuff” (via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic).
Regardless of Hanshin’s decision on Saiki, there’ll be a few intriguing NPB players who make the jump this offseason. Slugging corner infielder Munetaka Murakami and back-end starter Kona Takahashi will be posted. It’s expected that infielder Kazuma Okamoto and right-hander Tatsuya Imai could also be available. NPB teams generally don’t make postings official until early December, so it’s possible there’ll be a few other candidates who emerge over the next couple months.
Torey Lovullo Will Return As D-Backs’ Manager In 2026
The Diamondbacks are bringing back manager Torey Lovullo for what’ll be his 10th season, as first reported by Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. Lovullo was already under contract for one more year after signing an extension shortly after the team won the National League pennant in 2023.
While the Diamondbacks aren’t making a managerial change, it seems they’ll keep Lovullo in a lame duck setup. John Gambadoro of 98.7 FM reports that the 60-year-old Lovullo is not expected to sign an extension this offseason. Teams generally shy away from having managers and top front office personnel on expiring deals, but it seems leadership in Arizona is content with that arrangement heading into 2026.
The D-Backs have come up short of the playoffs in each of the two seasons following their league championship. Last year’s team won 89 games and finished on the outside on the final day of the season. They backed up to an 80-82 finish that placed fourth in the NL West this year. The Mets’ collapse helped keep the Diamondbacks mathematically alive into the final weekend, but they finished with their first losing season since 2022.
They’ve dramatically ramped up spending in each of the last two winters. They’ve focused most of their free agent activity on the rotation. None of the deals for Corbin Burnes, Eduardo Rodriguez or Jordan Montgomery have worked out. All three pitchers have been some combination of ineffective or injured. The Snakes signed each of Ketel Marte, Brandon Pfaadt, Geraldo Perdomo and Justin Martinez to extensions last winter.
With all that mind, owner Ken Kendrick told Gambadoro on Sunday that he’d “never been more disappointed in a season than this one because (their) expectations were so high.” Kendrick expanded on that comment during an appearance on the Burns & Gambo show this afternoon, saying it’s rooted largely in the injuries that wrecked the pitching staff. Losing Burnes to Tommy John surgery was the biggest blow, but the Snakes were also left with a patchwork bullpen for four-plus months by season-ending injuries to Martinez and A.J. Puk.
The Diamondbacks sold impending free agents Merrill Kelly, Eugenio Suárez, Josh Naylor, Shelby Miller and Randal Grichuk at the deadline. It’s to their credit that they didn’t phone in their last two months. The Snakes went 29-24 after the deadline. It ended in disappointing fashion with a five-game losing streak, but they improbably remained on the postseason periphery with a bullpen comprising mostly rookies or journeymen depth pickups.
Lovullo came under some fire in the middle of August when reports emerged that some players were frustrated with Marte for taking too many games off. The manager defended his star second baseman, who subsequently apologized for missing the first few games of the second half after returning to the Dominican Republic following the All-Star Break. Marte later said he was upset upon learning that his home in Arizona had been burglarized while he was attending the All-Star festivities. D-Backs’ ownership and the front office are evidently confident that Lovullo handled the situation well enough to not lose the clubhouse.
General manager Mike Hazen is also headed into his tenth season. Lovullo had worked with Hazen with the Red Sox and followed him to the desert not long after the GM’s hiring. The D-Backs have made two postseason berths in their nine seasons. They won 93 games and were bounced in the Division Series in 2017. The ’23 NL championship season is their only other playoff berth during that stretch. The D-Backs have a .490 regular season win percentage under Lovullo.
Phillies To Activate Trea Turner
September 27: Turner will be activated for tomorrow’s regular season finale, Thomson said this evening (via Lochlahn March of The Philadelphia Inquirer). He’ll be back in the starting lineup at shortstop to get some defensive work. The Phillies are locked into the #2 seed and will play one of the Dodgers, Reds or Mets in the Division Series.
September 25: Trea Turner has been sidelined since he strained his right hamstring on September 7. The Phillies have maintained for the past three weeks that they believe their star shortstop would be ready for the postseason. Manager Rob Thomson confirmed Thursday that’ll be the case, and the Phillies haven’t closed the door on Turner returning for their final regular season game or two (link via Matt Gelb of The Athletic).
“We want to make sure he’s 100 percent,” Thomson said of Turner’s chance of returning this weekend. “We know he’s going to be there for the playoffs. I think the work he’s done here has been very good. His timing is pretty good. … We’d like him to play, but is it super important? No. Not really. As long as he’s healthy.”
Philly has secured a first-round bye. They’re technically still in the running for the #1 seed, but that’s a long shot. They’d need to sweep Minnesota this weekend while relying on the Reds to sweep the Brewers. Activating Turner from the injured list would be about getting him a few tune-up plate appearances before the playoffs.
While the team’s success is obviously the top consideration, a return this weekend could aid him in a couple statistical categories. Turner is hitting .305, which puts him on track to win the second batting title of his career. Nico Hoerner was the only other qualified NL hitter above .300 entering play today, but he went 0-4 to drop to .299.
Turner may hang onto the batting title by default, but he’d probably need to come back if he’s to hold his league lead in hits. He’s still atop the Senior Circuit with 179 knocks, but Luis Arraez (176) and Hoerner (175) have pulled close behind while he’s been out. Turner has an outside shot to lead the majors in hits if he comes back tomorrow or Saturday. Bo Bichette, who is out with a knee sprain until the start of the postseason, has an MLB-high 181 hits. Bobby Witt Jr. pulled even with Turner for second place in a three-hit performance today. Turner led the majors in hits in consecutive seasons from 2020-21.
The three-time All-Star acknowledged that he’d like to win the batting title but noted to Gelb and other reporters that “the postseason is more important.” Turner has progressed to various baseball activities. He’s hitting against Phils’ minor league arms, fielding grounders, and running. Harrison Bader has moved to the top of the lineup in Turner’s absence. Bryson Stott was playing shortstop for a while but slid back to second base with Edmundo Sosa coming back from his own injury yesterday.
The Division Series begin next Saturday, October 4. Assuming the Phillies wind up as the #2 seed, they’ll line up for a potential first-round matchup with the defending champions. The Dodgers clinched the NL West and the third seed with a win today. They’d square off against the #2 if they defeat whichever of the Mets, Reds or Diamondbacks secures the last spot in the Wild Card round.
