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Cubs Notes: Berry, Wilken

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The Cubs’ transformation corresponded with improvements in their infrastructure, Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal writes. When owner Tom Ricketts arrived in 2009, the Cubs were keeping up with trade rumors by having a staffer find articles on the Internet and then print them out for executives. Much of the staff worked in trailers in the parking lot at Wrigley Field. They’ve since developed their own computer database and moved their staff to a building near the ballpark. As Costa notes, many of the Cubs’ improvements were far from revolutionary compared to what other teams were doing, but they were great leaps forward from where the Cubs had been. Here’s more out of Chicago.

  • The Cubs have announced their NLCS roster, which includes outfielder Quintin Berry in place of infielder Addison Russell (who has a hamstring strain). Berry had been on their Wild Card roster, but he hasn’t on their roster for the NLDS. The 30-year-old Berry has become something of a postseason specialist. He only has 342 career regular-season plate appearances, 330 of those coming with the Tigers in 2012, but once he appears in a game with the Cubs, he’ll have played in the postseason with three different teams, also including the 2012 Tigers and 2013 Red Sox. The reason, of course, is his speed: Berry has 27 stolen bases and has been caught just once in his big-league career, and he swiped 35 bases in the minors this year. The Cubs signed Berry to a minor-league deal in August.
  • Cubs special assistant Tim Wilken is leaving the team for a new job with the Diamondbacks, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reports. Before being promoted, Wilken had served as the Cubs’ amateur and professional scouting director, and Gonzales notes he played roles in the signings of Josh Donaldson, Jeff Samardzija, Andrew Cashner, Josh Harrison, DJ LeMahieu, Javier Baez and Darwin Barney. Before joining the Cubs, Wilken had worked with the Blue Jays and Rays.

Week In Review: 10/10/15 – 10/16/15

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Here’s a look back at this week at MLBTR.

Claims

Designated For Assignment

Outrights

Offseason Outlook: Milwaukee Brewers

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After a 68-94 season, new Brewers GM David Stearns and newly minted assistant GM Matt Arnold (formerly of the Rays) will be tasked with continuing the team’s rebuild.

Guaranteed Contracts

Arbitration Eligible Players (service time in parentheses; projections by MLB Trade Rumors)

Contract Options

Free Agents

Stearns, who the Brewers hired last month, is 30, has an Ivy League background and was previously an assistant GM with the analytically-savvy Astros, so it certainly seems like he’ll be a new-school GM. And if he were to trade most of the rest of his veterans and go with a young, inexpensive roster, just as Jeff Luhnow did in Houston, that wouldn’t be surprising.

In fact, if he did, he would only be continuing what the Brewers have already started. Many of their key in-season moves in 2015 (in which they dealt free-agents-to-be Gerardo Parra, Aramis Ramirez and Jonathan Broxton to new teams) merely acknowledged that they weren’t contenders that year, but the trade of Carlos Gomez (who was signed through 2016) and Mike Fiers (controllable through 2019) to the Astros before Stearns’ hire strongly suggested they were already rebuilding. Which, of course, made sense. The Brewers’ season had gone horribly to that point, their competition in the NL Central was fierce, and there wasn’t reason to think things would get much better in the short term.

If Stearns were to pursue a full-scale rebuild, then, it would simply continue a process that began last summer, as he suggested last week. “The Brewers’ organization really began that transitional period in the middle of this year,” said Stearns. “When [owner] Jim Crane bought the Astros and Jeff Luhnow took over … [t]hey were starting from scratch. I don’t see us as starting from scratch.”

USATSI_8606052_154513410_lowresStearns’ biggest deals to continue to rebuild the team don’t need to happen this offseason, but if they do, his top trade chip will be catcher Jonathan Lucroy. The 29-year-old is coming off a down season marked by a broken toe and concussion issues, but he was a viable MVP candidate in 2014 thanks to not only his offense but his work with the Brewers’ pitchers. Additionally, he’s signed to a very team-friendly contract that will pay him just $9.25MM in the next two seasons combined. Last year, Lucroy wanted to discuss another extension with the Brewers, but the team said no, presumably wanting to take advantage of his very favorable existing contract and avoid signing him further into his thirties.

While the Brewers have also previously sounded reluctant to deal Lucroy, and Stearns himself recently described Lucroy as a reason to expect the Brewers to improve in 2016, Stearns seems likely to try to get something for his asset at some point. The question is whether Stearns wants to gamble on Lucroy restoring his trade value by staying healthy for the first few months of the season. Keeping Lucroy around for a few months would also allow the Brewers to play much of the 2016 season with one of their most marketable players still in tow. If they do elect to deal him this winter, though, the Nationals, Angels, Twins and perhaps Braves (who reportedly would have interest in Lucroy if he were available) could be potential trade partners.

There are a few additional veterans the Brewers could deal. First baseman Adam Lind, whose $8MM option the Brewers will likely exercise, remains a plus hitter signed to a reasonable contract; he should be able to bring back a decent prospect or two. The Pirates would be a good fit if the two teams can agree to a trade within the NL Central, and the Mariners might also be a possibility. The Brewers could also get good value for relievers Francisco Rodriguez and Will Smith. K-Rod is still just 33 and was quietly terrific last season, and Smith was one of baseball’s best lefty relievers, dominating batters on both sides of the plate and posting a ridiculous 12.9 strikeouts per nine innings. If the Brewers don’t get offers they like, they could also wait and trade either pitcher in July.

The only two other Brewers signed to significant contracts are Ryan Braun and Matt Garza. Braun did hit .285/.356/.498 in a resurgent 2015 season, but his contract (which was signed all the way back in 2011 but hasn’t even technically kicked in yet) is arguably already a problem due to the length of the commitment, his age (32 in November) and lack of defensive value. Since he’s still productive, the Brewers could conceivably trade him, but they might have to pay a significant portion of his contract or take on another big contract to do so. That’s probably an option worth pursuing, given the possibility that Braun could decline in the next couple years and become even trickier to trade.

Garza, meanwhile, is coming off a miserable 5.63 ERA season in which he left the team early after being removed from the rotation, and his peripheral numbers suggest only a modest rebound is in store. As MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy pointed out in a recent edition of the MLBTR Podcast, the Brewers still owe Garza $25MM, which means he’ll likely be back with the team in 2016. And besides Smith, the Brewers don’t have any arbitration-eligible players with much value, either — Wily Peralta and Jean Segura are both coming off mediocre seasons.

Many key players from the Brewers’ last winning team — Gomez, Fiers, Ramirez, Yovani Gallardo, Kyle Lohse, Zach Duke — are now gone, and others have torpedoed their trade value with disappointing performances. For Stearns, the Brewers’ relative lack of trade assets might actually be a blessing, at least in some respects. Perhaps the most important thing a GM can do in his first few months on the job is evaluate the organization he’s inherited, and right now, Stearns needs make sure he has the right coaches, scouts and front office personnel, and that he’s deploying them effectively. That process has already begun; the Brewers announced last week that they’re only keeping manager Craig Counsell, hitting coach Darnell Coles and third base coach Ed Sedar from their 2015 coaching staff, and earlier today the hiring of Arnold as AGM was announced.

With that in mind, then, Stearns’ offseason might not be that tumultuous, at least not from a player-acquisition standpoint. The Brewers already have young, or at least controllable, players at many positions, and they can use 2016 to find out which are likely to be helpful in the long term. A few, like left fielder Khris Davis and starting pitchers Jimmy Nelson and Taylor Jungmann, have already proven their value to the club. Davis quietly hit 27 homers in 440 plate appearances last year, and Nelson and Jungmann were among the Brewers’ best starting pitchers. Jungmann’s emergence was a pleasant surprise, given his sometimes underwhelming performances in the minors.

Elsewhere, Domingo Santana, one of the key acquisitions in the Gomez trade, will receive chances in the outfield, alongside Davis. Braun will occupy the other spot if the Brewers aren’t able to trade him. Eating some of his contract, dealing him in a Matt Kemp-style trade, and acquiring someone like Austin Jackson or Rajai Davis to play center field on a short-term basis might be a neat trick, though. Santana isn’t really a center fielder, so clearing space for him in a corner and getting a better defender to play in center would help the Brewers’ pitching staff. Dealing Braun would be franchise-changing from a branding perspective, of course, but it seems likely to happen at some point.

If the Brewers do deal Lind, their infield could feature some combination of Jason Rogers, Scooter Gennett, Segura, Luis Sardinas and Elian Herrera. The 27-year-old Rogers performed well as a rookie in 2015, while Gennett, Segura and Sardinas all struggled to varying degrees. Top prospect Orlando Arcia could make an impact at some point in 2016, however, potentially solidifying the shortstop position. In the meantime, the addition of a veteran could help stabilize the Brewers’ infield — Kelly Johnson, who bats left-handed and can play first, second and third, might be a good fit at a reasonable price. Assuming Lind is dealt, the Brewers could also acquire someone like Justin Morneau to platoon with Rogers.

Nelson, Jungmann and Garza will likely be back in the rotation, along with some combination of Ariel Pena, recent trade acquisition Zach Davies and Peralta. Several other young pitchers, including Jorge Lopez, Josh Hader and Adrian Houser, could also find playing time. That might be enough arms to get Milwaukee through the season, but but perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to acquire an innings eater to fill out the rotation anyway. Perhaps they could also sign a pitcher with the aim of trading him for extra talent at the deadline and replacing him with Lopez, Hader or Houser.

In the bullpen, even if the Brewers do trade Rodriguez and/or Smith, there will still be a fair number of interesting arms in Jeremy Jeffress, Corey Knebel, Michael Blazek, Tyler Thornburg and Yhonathan Barrios. It’s possible that the Brewers could add to that group, particularly if Smith is traded. Smith’s departure would leave the Brewers bullpen very heavily right-handed, and the team could look to the outside for lefty relief help or consider retaining the left-handed Cesar Jimenez.

The keys with any of these additions ought to be to supplement existing talent rather than blocking it. Players like Davis and Johnson would help the Brewers keep costs down, but they would also be helpful because of their versatility. Davis, for example, could easily move into a fourth-outfielder role if, say, top prospect Brett Phillips were to get off to a hot start at Triple-A and earn big-league playing time. (Davis or Jackson might also have trade value in July if that scenario were to unfold.) And Johnson could move to one of any number of positions, switching positions if one of the Brewers’ younger infielders proved he deserved regular playing time.

Of course, we’ve assumed here that it’s obvious what course Stearns will follow. Maybe it isn’t. Padres GM A.J. Preller, for example, had a scouting and player-development background and inherited an organization that, like the Brewers today, was a losing team with an improving farm system. Rather than building around that farm system, he dealt many of his top prospects in a surprising (and ultimately ill-advised) attempt to contend. Perhaps, then, Stearns has something unexpected up his sleeve, despite the Brewers’ situation and his own background in Houston. That would be a shock, however — it makes little sense to stop trading now that the Gomez/Fiers deal is done, and the Brewers finished a full 29 games behind the third-place finisher in the NL Central last year. The Padres’ attempt at contention sort of made sense in the right light, but for the Brewers, a radical deviation from their presumed plans would just seem crazy. There’s little left for Stearns to do, then, but to continue what the team started before he arrived.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Offseason Outlook: Cincinnati Reds

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The Reds might not have been certain they’d contend in 2015, but they probably didn’t expect their season to go quite as badly as it did. While the Reds’ struggles this year (and particularly down the stretch) were hard to watch, there’s a kind of freedom in knowing for sure that you’re bad. This offseason, we’ll see what the Reds do with that freedom.

Guaranteed Contracts

  • Joey Votto, 1B: $199MM through 2023 (including buyout of 2024 club option)
  • Homer Bailey, SP: $86MM through 2019 (including buyout of 2020 mutual option)
  • Brandon Phillips, 2B: $27MM through 2017
  • Devin Mesoraco, C: $25.1MM through 2018
  • Raisel Iglesias, SP: $22MM through 2020 (includes $1.5MM of signing bonus to be paid in November 2016)
  • Jay Bruce, OF: $13.5MM through 2016 (including buyout of 2017 club option)
  • Todd Frazier, 3B: $7.5MM through 2016 (eligible for arbitration for 2017 season)

Arbitration Eligible Players (Service time in parentheses; projections by MLB Trade Rumors)

Contract Options

Free Agents

The Reds’ 98-loss 2015 season didn’t come completely out of nowhere. In 2014, the Reds finished with just a 76-86 record. They had a well-compensated core, and most of their rotation was set for free agency following the 2015 season. In response, they made some moves to reduce payroll and look ahead, dealing Mat Latos to the Marlins and Alfredo Simon to the Tigers. But those moves were relatively small and tentative, and the Reds waited to make some bigger moves this summer with their trades of Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake. Now, with a sketchy big-league roster, little short-term payroll space, and incredibly tough divisional competition, there’s no obvious way for the Reds to contend next year, and little to do but to keep rebuilding.

But the best reason for the Reds to continue their rebuild (a label GM Walt Jocketty doesn’t like, but that already accurately describes what they’re doing) is that they do have good assets to trade, beginning with Todd Frazier and Aroldis Chapman. Frazier is signed to a reasonable deal through 2016, after which he’ll be arbitration eligible for one more season. He’ll be 30 in February, so it’s unlikely he’ll be part of the next good Reds team. Given his exceptional power (35 home runs in 2015) and strong defense, he should attract a ton of interest, even though he faded badly down the stretch. The Reds should expect to get a nice return for him, including at least one top 100-type prospect. There aren’t many recent offseason trades involving players of Frazier’s talent with two years of service time remaining, but suffice it to say that Frazier’s value ought to be significant. The Angels or perhaps a surprise team like the Indians or White Sox could make sense as trade partners.

USATSI_8767494_154513410_lowresAs for Chapman, closers with one year of service time remaining are traded quite frequently, but Chapman is so blindingly great that his value is should be closer to that of, say, a no. 2-type starter than a closer. The Mariners and other teams could be possible trade partners, and the Diamondbacks have shown interest in the past. The Reds should have little trouble finding a market, although their path to a trade could be complicated, if only slightly, by the availability of excellent relievers like Craig Kimbrel and Darren O’Day through either trade or free agency. If the Reds can’t find an offer they like, perhaps they could really roll the dice and try to use Chapman as a starter, hoping to market him as an ace in July, but that might be overly ambitious, since he’s already more valuable than most starters anyway.

The Reds also ought to consider trading Brandon Phillips if there are any takers (and if he’ll accept a trade — he has ten-and-five rights). Phillips is coming off a solid 2.6-fWAR season, but at 34, he might not have many good years left. The Yankees, Angels, Orioles, Royals and White Sox could all be potential trade partners.

The Braves’ trade of Kimbrel to the Padres illustrates one approach the Reds could take to dealing Frazier or Chapman. The Braves used Kimbrel, in part, to clear future salary, getting rid of Melvin Upton Jr.’s contract in the deal. The Reds could take a similar approach by packaging Frazier along with Homer Bailey, who has four expensive years remaining on his contract and won’t be back until at least next summer after having Tommy John surgery last May. That would give the Reds greater payroll flexibility, which should come in handy next time they’re ready to contend.

Then again, that would be selling low on Bailey, who is only 29 and seems likely to recover. And while the Reds have about $82MM already on the books for 2016, that number drops to about $67MM in 2017, with about a third of that going to Joey Votto. Two of the Reds’ highest-paid players in 2015, Votto and Phillips, performed well. Another, Jay Bruce, can become a free agent after 2016 if the Reds let him. (Bruce might have been a more interesting trade candidate this winter if he’d hit better than .226/.294/.434 in 2015; perhaps the Reds could get the most value for him by waiting and hoping he gets off to a good start next season.) And two more, Bailey and Devin Mesoraco, ought to recover from their injuries and eventually provide value. Beyond Frazier, Chapman and Phillips, then, the Reds need not be in any rush to trade their veterans until they get the right offers.

Assuming the Reds do consider trading Frazier, Chapman, Phillips and perhaps others, they could pursue any number of player types in return. The only positions where the Reds appear relatively set for the medium-term future are catcher (Mesoraco), first base (Votto) and center field (Billy Hamilton, whose running and fielding give him plenty of value despite a second consecutive disappointing season at the plate). That’s not to say there aren’t other potentially helpful players, just that none of them are obviously set at any one position. Left fielder Adam Duvall, for example, hit reasonably well for the Reds after they acquired him in the Mike Leake trade, but he’s 27; playing him every day need not be a priority. And Eugenio Suarez hits well enough to play somewhere, although he might not be a shortstop in the long term.

There’s even less certainty in the rotation. The team did well to add Brandon Finnegan and John Lamb when it traded Cueto, but the Reds’ all-rookie rotation did the team few favors down the stretch. Anthony DeSclafani and Raisel Iglesias look set to contribute in 2016, but beyond that, the Reds have a lot of sorting out to do with Finnegan, Lamb, Keyvius Sampson, David Holmberg, Josh Smith, Michael Lorenzen, Jon Moscot and, eventually, top prospect Robert Stephenson. Given the attrition rates of young pitchers, and the fact that some of their existing talent looks a bit fringy, the Reds could easily stand to add more pitching in upcoming trades.

Of course, while the Reds’ most obvious course of action at this point is to trade veterans for young players, they still have to put a team on the field in 2016. They can use a starting pitcher to soak up 150 innings — a cheap deal for someone like Bud Norris, Kyle Kendrick or former Reds Aaron Harang or Simon might make sense. They could also sign a buy-low pitcher like Doug Fister and hope he regains enough value to land good talent at the deadline.

Bullpen help will also likely be a priority, given the possible departures of Chapman and Manny Parra. If Chapman heads elsewhere, the team could probably move J.J. Hoover or Jumbo Diaz into the closer’s role, and it shouldn’t spend heavily on a closer. Bringing back Burke Badenhop at an effective cost of $2.5MM ($4MM minus a $1.5MM buyout) might make sense for the Reds, and Badenhop could pick up his end of the option, since he would sacrifice the buyout if he rejected it. And either re-signing Parra or adding a Neal Cotts lefty type would also help, particularly if the Reds are committed to using Finnegan as a starter.

The Reds could also pursue position players, but it’s difficult to say what type of player they might be interested in until we see which position players they trade, if any, and whether anyone from those trades can step in right away. They’re set to lose two bench players in Brayan Pena and Skip Schumaker (whose option they shouldn’t exercise), but they likely won’t miss either one. Tucker Barnhart is a decent replacement for Pena, and Schumaker was a drain on the Reds both offensively and defensively, especially now that he’s more of a poor defensive corner outfielder than a poor defensive second baseman.

The key question for the Reds, then, is exactly how far they want their rebuilding effort to go. Of all the veterans the Reds could trade, the most intriguing one might be Votto, who seems likely to stay. Votto has full no-trade protection, and his enormous contract would make trading him a logistical headache, but let’s consider what dealing him might do for the organization. Votto just finished an exceptional .314/.459/.541 season that might have been the best of his career. However, he’s already 32, and as great as he is now, the Reds’ $199MM commitment to him through his age-39 season borders on the absurd, and his value might never be higher. Votto’s contract is highly likely to go south at some point. He’s clearly underpaid right now, and probably also will be next year, but he likely won’t be by the time the Reds are ready to contend.

So what should the Reds do? The fantasy-baseball answer is that they should trade him, but it’s obviously rare for teams to trade excellent players they still control for nine more years. Surely, the Reds might argue, there’s a way to build for the future without trading a star who can still be with the team for almost a decade more. Players like Votto are hard to find, and even in a rebuilding year, he’ll have value for the Reds, in that he’s a popular homegrown player who would make an otherwise young team worth watching. An aggressive executive like Billy Beane or Jeff Luhnow would surely consider trading Votto, assuming he were to waive his no-trade clause. But it’s unclear whether Jocketty, who hasn’t rebuilt a team recently, might take a similar path.

In any case, the Reds will spend the 2016 season regrouping, and if they end up grabbing headlines this offseason, it will probably be because of who they’re trading away, not who they’re getting. In early October, the Reds announced that they would keep manager Bryan Price for next season, despite the team’s struggles this year. And why not? Price was already under contract, and as long as the Reds believed him capable of nurturing their younger players, there was little point in replacing him. Maybe if they were a bit closer to turning a corner, they would have given a new manager a chance. As it stands, maybe they want to wait until their rebuild is a little further along before they make a change.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Dan Jennings To Return As Marlins’ GM

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OCT. 9: Jennings will return to his previous role as general manager, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. An announcement could come anytime between Sunday and Tuesday of the coming week, he adds. Jennings is under contract with the Marlins for three more seasons.

OCT. 6: The Marlins have announced that Jennings will not return as the manager, as Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports (all links to Twitter).

Club president David Samson explained that Jennings is the general manager as he is a “signed member” of the front office. Though president of baseball ops Michael Hill seemingly indicated that Jennings had yet to decide whether to continue that arrangement, Samson said that “there’s no decision for him to make.”

OCt. 4, 8:28pm: A pair of tweets from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale suggests Jennings might return to the Marlins’ front office, but not in the GM position. The Marlins could make Berger GM, with Jeff McAvoy as assistant GM, Arnold as player personnel director and David Keller as pro scouting director. Jennings would then occupy some other position. Frisaro, meanwhile, writes (via Twitter) that the Marlins are planning to establish an analytics department and that Arnold could head it.

8:08pm: The Phillies have granted the Marlins permission to interview bench coach Larry Bowa for their manager position, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com writes. Bowa is expected to interview on Monday, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweets. Bo Porter and Manny Acta have already interviewed for the job. In addition, Frisaro reports that Dan Jennings, who posted a 55-69 record as the team’s manager following the firing of Mike Redmond earlier this season, is expected to return to the Marlins’ GM job.

As of yesterday, Jennings was still deciding whether to accept a return to the Marlins’ front office. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports reported that the team’s front office would undergo changes, with assistant GM Mike Berger taking over something resembling a GM position. The Marlins also recently interviewed Rays director of player personnel Matt Arnold about a front office position. It has lately appeared that Jennings’ power in the organization was somewhat diminished. If Jennings does return to the GM position, it’s not clear how the Marlins will manage their decision-making process given the presence Jennings, Berger and other front-office voices.

Bowa, 69, was previously the manager of the Padres and Phillies. He led the Phillies to a 337-308 record from 2001 through 2004 and won the NL Manager of the Year award in 2001. He also served as a base coach for the Yankees and Dodgers and as an analyst for ESPN and the MLB Network before rejoining the Phillies organization in 2014.

Angels Name Billy Eppler GM

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11:59pm: The Angels have officially announced the hiring of Eppler, who receives a four-year contract to become the team’s GM. Eppler will report directly to owner Arte Moreno and, according to the team’s release, will “oversee all aspects of the club’s baseball operations.”

7:12pm: The Angels will announce tomorrow that Yankees assistant general manager Billy Eppler will be their next GM, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Eppler will replace Jerry Dipoto, who resigned in July.

The Angels were, of course, eliminated from playoff contention today, so they won’t be playing the Yankees in the AL Wild Card game. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal noted yesterday that the possibility of an Angels/Yankees matchup might be one reason the Angels were waiting to officially hire a top Yankees executive.

The Angels had been connected to a number of other candidates, including Dodgers executive Josh Byrnes (who had reportedly been the other top candidate), Red Sox assistant GM (and now GM) Mike Hazen, Blue Jays assistant Tony La Cava, Indians VP of player personnel Ross Atkins, Rangers assistant Thad Levine, Mariners farm director Chris Gwynn, and internal candidates Hal Morris, Matt Klentak and Scott Servais. Several reports, however, had previously named Eppler as the front-runner.

Eppler worked as a scout in the Rockies organization before being hired by the Yankees in 2004. In 2005, the Yankees promoted him to director of pro scouting, and he became assistant GM following the 2011 season. He had long been considered a future GM, and he interviewed for the Angels job in 2011 before it was ultimately awarded to Dipoto. Last year he interviewed for the Padres GM position, and he was also a potential candidate for the Diamondbacks job that went to Dave Stewart, although he declined to formally interview for that position. Eppler is a native of San Diego.

Eppler, 40, is generally regarded as likely to be statistically savvy, although he also has a scouting background, and it’s difficult to tell how a GM might make decisions until he or she actually becomes a GM. “He checks all the boxes,” Brian Cashman said of Eppler last year. “He’s got the analytics side checked off, he’s got the administrative side checked off and he’s got the scouting side checked off. He’s got the leadership side checked off because he’s a great communicator.”

Eppler will inherit a situation in Los Angeles that is in some ways envious and some ways not. Tension between Dipoto and manager Mike Scioscia led to Dipoto’s departure, and the fact that Scioscia remained while Dipoto left suggests that Eppler will have to find a way to work with Scioscia, regardless of any differences that might arise. Owner Arte Moreno has a reputation for being heavily involved with baseball decisions. Also, the Angels don’t have a particularly strong farm system.

On the other hand, he Angels won 85 games this season and have a relatively strong talent base led by one of the one or two best players in baseball in Mike Trout. That’s a rare starting point for an incoming GM. Eppler will also have access to a big budget, as Moreno has rarely been shy about spending on top-tier free agents.

Red Sox Notes: Dombrowski, Farrell, Lovullo, Baird

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Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski’s career in the game began with an independent study project in college, Tim Britton of the Providence Journal writes. Dombrowski’s project was about general managers in baseball, and he sent big-league GMs questionnaires, receiving replies from around half. That led to a meeting with then-White Sox GM Roland Hemond, who later hired Dombrowski. After several years with the White Sox, Dombrowski headed from Chicago to Montreal, where he ultimately became general manager at the young age of 31. Here’s more out of Boston.

  • As the Sox announced this morning, John Farrell will return to his post as manager of the Red Sox in 2016. Torey Lovullo, who managed the Red Sox to a 28-20 record while Farrell went through chemotherapy, will also return as bench coach and will not pursue other managerial possibilities. Dombrowski says (via Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe on Twitter) that Lovullo’s compensation will be above average for a bench coach. Via Alex Speier of the Globe (Twitter links), Farrell’s next three to six months could be difficult as he recovers. By retaining Lovullo, the Red Sox have given themselves a backup plan for Farrell while also limiting his stress as he gets healthy.
  • Dombrowski will keep vice president of player personnel Allard Baird, a holdover from Ben Cherington’s staff, on board, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com writes. One of the former Royals general manager’s key duties with the Red Sox has been helping with international signings. Baird joins Farrell, Mike Hazen, pro scouting director Gus Quattlebaum, and director of amateur scouting Jared Banner, all of whom Dombrowski has elected to retain.
  • Of course, many of the players will be back too, and Nick Cafardo of the Globe writes that one key to the Sox’ 2016 season will be getting better performances from disappointing, highly paid players like Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, Rick Porcello and perhaps Allen Craig and Rusney Castillo. For Ramirez and Sandoval, that will begin with maintaining appropriate body weights. “You can’t discard somebody who’s making a guaranteed contact that’s worth a lot of money, so you have to be more patient and let them play,” says Lovullo.

Mike Scioscia Not Yet Commenting On Opt-Out

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Now that the season is over, Angels manager Mike Scioscia can exercise an opt-out in his ten-year contract, but he isn’t saying whether he’ll do so, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes. “I’m going to see,” Scioscia said. “I’m not going to comment on anything.”

Of course, the Angels’ season ended today, so that Scioscia would receive a question about this matter today isn’t surprising, and it’s not necessarily meaningful that he’s not yet willing to commit to an answer. MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reported last week that Scioscia was expected to remain in his position, and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets tonight that Scioscia will not exercise his opt-out.

Still, Scioscia’s situation is worth noting, given the news this evening that the Angels plan to hire Billy Eppler as their GM. The Angels’ previous GM, Jerry Dipoto, departed in July after clashing with Scioscia. As Fletcher notes, Eppler likely wouldn’t have the authority to fire Scioscia, but perhaps it’s possible Scioscia might not want to work with a new GM.

Scioscia has three years left on the ten-year, $50MM contract to which he agreed prior to the 2009 season. He will be paid $6MM in each of the next three seasons. Scioscia has managed the Angels for 16 seasons, posting a 1416-1176 overall record and winning the World Series in 2002.

2016 MLB Draft Order

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Now that the regular season is over, here’s a preliminary look at the 2016 MLB Draft order. This order will change as teams make decisions about extending qualifying offers and signing players who reject such offers.

Teams are given draft picks based on the reverse order of their 2015 records. If two teams have the same record, the team with the worse 2014 record gets the higher pick.

The first ten picks in next year’s draft will be protected, which leaves the Mariners as the first team on the outside looking in. The Mariners’ 76-86 record is the same as that of the White Sox, but the White Sox receive the last protected pick because they had a worse record in 2014. A team with a protected pick keeps that pick and only forfeits its next-best pick if it signs a free agent who has rejected a qualifying offer, which means that, for example, the White Sox won’t be penalized as heavily as the Mariners for signing a top-tier free agent this offseason.

1. Phillies 63-99
2. Reds 64-98
3. Braves 67-95
4. Rockies 68-94
5. Brewers 68-94
6. Athletics 68-94
7. Marlins 71-91
8. Padres 74-88
9. Tigers 74-88
10. White Sox 76-86
11. Mariners 76-86
12. Red Sox 78-84
13. Diamondbacks 79-83
14. Rays 80-82
15. Orioles 81-81
16. Indians 81-80
17. Twins 83-79
18. Nationals 83-79
19. Giants 84-78
20. Angels 85-77
21. Astros 86-76
22. Yankees 87-75
23. Rangers 88-74
24. Mets 90-72
25. Dodgers 92-70
26. Blue Jays 93-69
27. Royals 95-67
28. Cubs 97-65
29. Pirates 98-64
30. Cardinals 100-62

All of the first 29 picks in last year’s draft signed, so there won’t be any compensation picks in the first 30. However, the Dodgers will get the no. 36 pick for failing to sign Kyle Funkhouser, the Blue Jays will get the no. 57 pick for second-rounder Brady Singer, the Orioles will receive the no. 69 pick for second-rounder Jonathan Hughes, and the Twins will get the no. 74 pick for failing to sign Comp Round B pick Kyle Cody.

In addition, the 2016 Competitive Balance Lottery awarded a series of picks after the first and second rounds of next year’s draft. The Reds, Athletics, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Braves (via the Marlins) and Pirates, respectively, will have selections in Comp Round A after the first round, while the Padres, Indians, Twins, Brewers, Orioles and Rays have picks in Comp Round B following the second round. The exact spots of those picks are currently unknown due to uncertainties regarding the qualifying offer process, although Comp Round A picks generally begin in the mid-30s and Comp Round B picks begin at around no. 70.

Padres To Hire New Manager To Replace Pat Murphy

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The Padres have formally announced that interim manager Pat Murphy will not return to the team as manager next season, and that they’ll look for a new manager to take his place. The decision was widely expected, with a report last night indicating that the team was already considering Triple-A manager and former Padres star Phil Nevin for the position.

Following a splashy offseason, the Padres got off to a disappointing 32-33 start and fired longtime manager Bud Black. Murphy took over in June and didn’t fare any better, going 42-54 as the team fell further out of contention. 2015 was Murphy’s first season as a big-league manager. Previously, he’d served as a head coach at Notre Dame and Arizona State before joining the Padres organization in 2010 and serving for several years as a manager in the minors.

It’s currently unclear whether Murphy will stay with the organization in some capacity. If he doesn’t, the Brewers might well have interest in him — as Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel notes (Twitter links), new Brewers manager Craig Counsell tried to hire Murphy earlier this season.

GM A.J. Preller will now have the opportunity to hire a manager for the first time. The Padres finished 74-88 after Preller traded away a number of top prospects to remake them last winter, and now they face the departures of Justin Upton and Ian Kennedy. One would think that the Padres manager position would not be a highly desirable one at this point, except insofar as any of the 30 managerial positions are desirable.

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