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Latest On Oakland Stadium Dispute

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Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle reports new details in the ongoing litigation taking place between Alameda County and the city of Oakland (link). To recap, Alameda County engaged in negotiations with both the city of Oakland and the Oakland A’s organization in an attempt to offload its share of the Oakland Coliseum and the Oakland Arena. With the stipulation that the city would pay upfront, Alameda County offered to sell its share of debt to Oakland for $78MM back in February–that offer was ignored on Oakland’s part.

Interestingly, though, the plot thickened from there: as Ravani characterizes it, that “snub” prompted Alameda officials to pivot to the Athletics, to whom they offered to sell their debt for $85MM. This time, however, the county would allow the A’s seven years to pay off the sum–with the very important caveat that the A’s would have to remain in Oakland. “The A’s were able to spread their terms out … whereas the county wanted us to pay it all up front,” Oakland Councilman Loren Taylor says in Ravani’s article, “From my perspective, we still need to have a conversation about the same terms that the A’s were given.”

The city and county are currently embroiled in a lawsuit intended to block the county from selling its stadium stake to the A’s, which has put something in a wrench in the team’s plans to develop a new stadium project. This state of affairs caused commissioner Rob Manfred to comment that he was “very concerned” at the litigation and the overall lack of “concrete progress” toward a new playing site for Oakland. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff later indicated to KTVU that Manfred has proposed the possibility of relocation to Las Vegas, with the Chronicle also relaying a similar suggestion on the part of Manfred.

NL Notes: Showalter, Ozuna, Moustakas

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For those inclined to believe that Buck Showalter is the perfect man for the Phillies managerial opening, Dan Connolly of The Athletic has a small dose of historical cool water at the ready. In a piece entitled “Buck Showalter is the perfect fit for the Phillies, but there’s potential for a nightmarish ending“, Connolly paints a fine brushstroke portrait of what life in Philadelphia might be like with the veteran Showalter behind the team’s reins. While there are major pros to a potential Showalter hire in Connolly’s mind (including the skipper’s comfort working with stars and his facility with in-game strategy), the reporter draws an interesting parallel to the power dynamics that were present in Baltimore during Showalter’s time there. When he managed the Orioles, Showalter was known to meet with owner Peter Angelos on a frequent basis, which might have led to a strained–or, at least, compromised–hierarchy with Showalter’s titular boss in Dan Duquette. The Phillies, of course, have an owner in John Middleton who appears to be more actively involved than most, with Connolly going so far as to opine that Middleton is “running [the] show” in Philadelphia. How a Middleton-Showalter pairing might affect the position of Philadelphia GM Matt Klentak is a rumination worthy of a quiet Tuesday morning.

More notes from around the NL on the heels of an 8-1 Nationals victory in Game 3 of the NLCS…

  • Speaking of that 8-1 ballgame from Monday evening: Mark Saxon of The Athletic feels like it might have seen outfielder Marcell Ozuna finally write himself out of the Cardinals plans moving forward (link). Saxon zooms in on a third-inning fielding gaffe committed by Ozuna last night that ultimately opened the gates on a four-run Nats frame, with the writer labeling the outfielder as “the fulcrum of another embarrassing night in this series of embarrassments for the Cardinals”. The play in question saw Ozuna in go into a pop-up slide in left field in an attempt to catch a flare off the bat of Anthony Rendon, with the ball ultimately popping out of the outfielder’s glove when his butt hit the ground. Though Saxon cites some Statcast data indicating that the ball should have been caught, manager Mike Schildt struck a supportive tone: “It’s not an easy play any time you have to leave your feet and go a distance and slide,” Shildt said. “It’s a play that he’s clearly capable of making, but it’s not a play you absolutely expect somebody to make.” It may be the result of a Game 3 hangover, but Saxon isn’t similarly convinced–in the writer’s mind, it isn’t likely Ozuna will be back with the Cards in 2020. Saxon cites Ozuna’s fundamental lapses, the club’s $138.7MM commitment to just nine players next season, and the looming presence of outfielder Dylan Carlson as factors in what he expects to be Ozuna’s impending free agent departure.
  • “I don’t think it’s particularly controversial that I’d love to have both of them back,” said Brewers decision-maker David Stearns in regard to Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas, in an article from Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (link). Both players are expected to decline their halves of mutual options for 2020, with McCalvy relaying that Moustakas’ agent, Scott Boras, described the latter’s $3 million buyout as a “formality”. There is no quote from Boras provided in the article, but, if true, it would indicate with certainty that the 31-year-old Moustakas is preparing to reenter a free agent market that has been notoriously unkind to him in recent years. Moustakas, who has hit 101 home runs over the last three seasons with a 110 combined wRC+, lingered long in the 2018 soup line before receiving a $6.5MM one-year pact with the Royals; 2019 saw him again settle for a one-year deal amounting to $10MM (after accounting for the “formality” of that buyout). This winter should provide a third attempt at the multi-year apple for Moustakas.

 

Nationals Notes: Hudson, Anibal

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The Nationals achieved a 2-0 series lead over the Cardinals in the NLCS on Saturday, with the last out of their 3-1 victory being recorded by pitcher Daniel Hudson. It also marked the culmination of a whirlwind week for the righty Hudson, who caught a fair amount of flack for missing the team’s Game 1 matchup–despite the fact that his absence was a result of the birth of his third daughter.  The modest firestorm surrounding Hudson’s prioritization of family values was, perhaps as much as anything, a reflection of how quickly social media can convert molehills into mountains in this day and age.

Hudson, at least, isn’t losing perspective on the situation, as he demonstrated to Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic (link). “I went from not having a job on March 21st to this huge national conversation on family values going into the playoffs,” Hudson explained to Ghiroli. “Life comes at you fast. Man, I don’t know how that happened and how I became the face for whatever conversation was going on.” Although it’s tempting for many to view ballplayers as mercenaries singularly focused on winning games, Hudson’s comments provide a reminder that the men of Major League Baseball are, first and foremost, men–with all of the same personal issues and considerations that the rest of us workaday humans also experience. We at MLBTR, for one, extend sincere congratulations to Hudson’s family on the birth of their new baby girl Millie. After settling for a $1.5MM guarantee from the Blue Jays last year, Hudson will hit the open market this offseason after pitching to a 2.47 ERA across 73 innings in 2019; it stands to reason that he should be able to secure a new guarantee that will leave plenty left over for diaper money.

More from the buzzing environment surrounding D.C.’s team…

  • In another Ghiroli piece, the unique career of Anibal Sanchez is appreciated in the afterglow of his dominant Game 1 NLCS showing (link). As Ghiroli points out, Sanchez has operated in familiar territory in 2019–as the often-overlooked “fourth starter” operating behind a trio of fearsome frontline aces. During his time in Detroit, Sanchez was something of an afterthought in the shadow of three guys named Verlander, Price, and Scherzer, and he’s taken a similar position in D.C. as the elder statesman of a staff featuring Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, and Max Scherzer (again). If Sanchez was feeling bashful about not receiving shine in the leadup to this postseason, he didn’t show it on Friday: in a rousing performance that saw him deploy pitches anywhere from 66 to 93 mph, Sanchez became the first pitcher in LCS history to throw at least 7 2/3 innings and not allow more than one walk and a hit. Interestingly, Ghiroli notes that the pitcher nearly retired in the winter of 2018, even going so far as to tell his agent that he would hang up his spikes if he didn’t receive a contract offer by his birthday on Feb 27–the Twins eventually came calling with just a few days to spare, and the Nationals of 2019 are thankful that the rest might end up being postseason history.

 

The Ian Desmond Problem

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After a 2019 season that saw things go entirely sideways in Denver, changes figure to be afoot for the Rockies this offseason. Despite returning most of a roster that managed a postseason berth in 2018, Bud Black’s club whimpered to a 71-91 record this past season and likely would have ended up in the NL West cellar had it not been for a circumspective second-half collapse on the part of the rival Padres.

Nick Groke of The Athletic, for one, is already musing on potential changes that GM Jeff Bridich could make in an effort to get the club back in contention for 2020 (link). Specifically, Groke points out several players who could be on the “hot seat” this winter, given the club’s current 40-man roster squeeze. Five players currently on the club’s 60-day injured list–Brendan Rodgers, Scott Oberg, Jon Gray, Tyler Anderson and Chad Bettis–will need to be moved off the IL this offseason, necessitating at least five impending roster decisions for Bridich. Groke identifies pitcher Jeff Hoffman as the man that should fall firmly into his club’s roster trimming crosshairs, as his age (26) and near-complete lack of production (6.11 ERA in 209.1 career innings) render his former top-50 prospect status little more than a wistful memory. Groke names ten other players as possible roster casualties, although Bridich signee Ian Desmond–who has produced a cumulative -1.7 fWAR in three Colorado seasons after agreeing to a 5-year/$70MM deal in 2016–is conspicuously absent from his list.

Desmond has two years and $25MM in guarantees remaining on his deal (the pact includes a $15MM option for 2022 which is attached to a $2MM buyout), but it may be time to wonder if the club should swallow bravely and push the ’eject’ button on the ill-fated Desmond deal. While it would be enticing to believe that the former shortstop could be on the brink of a turnaround, there would be little hard evidence to support such a case: his .304 BABIP in three Colorado seasons is only marginally below his .321 career marker, and his 2019 XWOBA of .309 was right in line with his WOBA of .317; moreover, Desmond is 34 years old, and his troubles at the plate are really only the beginning of his performance problems.

When Desmond came to the Rockies in 2017, he was a distinct shortstop/centerfielder hybrid who, despite something of an inconsistent offensive track record, offered somewhat stable value on the bases and in the field. As you might expect for a player reaching his mid-thirties, much of that athletically dependent ability has appeared to abandon Desmond. 2019 marked the first time since 2012 that the native Floridian recorded a negative baserunning metric (-1.7 BSR), while his work in the Rockies outfield was generally a horrorshow. A move back to centerfield produced a -19 DRS mark in 2019 for Desmond, with UZR also generally thumbing its nose at his up-the-middle efforts (-7.2 UZR in 2019 at CF).

Admittedly, metrics indicated a roughly average performance for Desmond in 300-plus innings in left field, but can the club continue to justify running out an average-fielding corner outfielder with negative basepath value and a bat that has been markedly below-average in his three years in Colorado? After all, Desmond’s combined 80 wRC+ during his three years in purple and black is, in itself, indicative of a player who probably should not be long for a major league roster. Add in the other limitations to Desmond’s current game, and the patina of “veteran leadership” falls short of explaining his prospective inclusion on Colorado’s 2020 roster.

It is exceedingly rare to see club’s simply cut bait on $25MM in financial commitment. Still, when winning takes precedent, there is a recent parallel for weighting on-field results over balance sheet concerns. The Red Sox–though operating in an entirely different financial habitat than the Rockies–have continued to pay handsomely for the services of outfielder Rusney Castillo; all they’ve asked of Castillo in return is that he kindly provide those services to the Red Sox of Pawtucket, rather than Boston. Point being: when a pennant-seeking organization recognizes a player can’t play up to his contract, they do whatever it takes to sidestep a sunk cost fallacy. If the Rockies plan on contending in the next two seasons, they might be well served to begin their offseason roster trimming with a rather painful decision, rather than paring away mid-20’s players who may yet have their best baseball ahead of them.

AL Notes: Yankees, Astros, Red Sox

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Ken Davidoff of The New York Post spoke with a Rays official in the wake of the team’s close-but-not-quite battle with the mighty Houston Astros, and the Tampa employee believes his team’s ALDS strategy could end up changing the shape of the postseason. “We gave the Yankees a blueprint for how to pitch them,” the official told Davidoff (link).

There’s certainly some merit to that takeaway. Although the Astros have been expected to steamroll their way to the Fall Classic for most of the year (Fangraphs’ playoff odds have tabbed Houston with a 30 percent-or-better chance to win the championship for much of the season), the Rays came awfully close to taking them down within the first round of the playoffs, in part via a bullpen-heavy mix-and-match pitching strategy. As Davidoff points out, just one Rays pitcher–starter Charlie Morton–threw long enough to qualify for a decision in the ALDS, with manager Kevin Cash calling on 11 separate pitchers to tame the wild Astros offense. Houston’s offense mustered just a .700 OPS in the divisional round against this all-hands-on-deck approach, and will now square off with a Yankees team that, for what it’s worth, notched a competent 4.08 collective bullpen ERA in 2019 (good for 9th in MLB). However, Tampa’s approach, it should be noted, may have had something to do with the fact that Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, two of their frontline starters, were forced to work in limited capacity; the Yankees should be able to sport a more traditional look with their James Paxton/Luis Severino/Masahiro Tanaka starting triumvirate, although Severino’s own 2019 injury considerations could preclude an early dip into the pen by manager Aaron Boone.

  • After reassigning Dana LeVangie to their scouting department, the Red Sox are in search of a new pitching coach. As Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe opines, that’s a search that could have great import for the club moving forward, as the Sox will be on to their fourth pitching coach in the last six seasons in 2020 (link). It’s also a hiring search that carries far more nuance than it might have in previous eras, as modern pitching coaches are expected to blend data and biomechanical considerations with the more traditional soft skills involved with instruction–and that’s before accounting for a coach’s personal baseball-playing background. As Abraham notes, the Twins hired Wes Johnson to be their main source of pitching instruction in 2018, despite Johnson’s complete lack of professional playing experience. The club’s ultimate selection should give some indication of the philosophical leanings of Boston’s current, interim leadership group, which includes assistant GM Eddie Romero; the new coach’s ability to reign in the talents of David Price and Chris Sale should go a long way toward finally bringing some stability to the Boston pitching post.

Report: Angels Employee Named In Skaggs Drug Case

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The tragic passing of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs cast a pall over much of the 2019 MLB season, as fans, teammates, and team employees struggled to make sense of the promising player’s untimely end. Unfortunately, today’s report from ESPN’s T.J. Quinn indicates that the federal investigation into Skaggs’ death is foreshadowing troubling new developments (link).

According to Quinn’s report, an Angels public relations employee named Eric Kay allegedly told federal investigators that he provided Skaggs with oxycodone for several years. Apparently, Kay admitted that two Angels officials were made aware of Skaggs’ drug use “long before his death”, and provided Drug Enforcement Administration agents with the names of five other players who he believed were using opiates while they were Angels. Quinn cites “two sources familiar with the investigation” as the basis for this report.

Kay is accused of also telling investigators that his provision of drugs to Skaggs was part of a longstanding arrangement between the two men, in which Kay would acquire drugs for both he and Skaggs, with Skaggs covering the costs involved. Kay’s attorney, a man named Michael Molfetta, confirmed to Quinn the details of Kay’s statements, which were given in separate meetings with DEA agents in Dallas and Los Angeles in late September.

Unfortunately, this report seems to ally with allegations made by Tyler Skaggs’ family in the immediate aftermath of his death. In late August, the family issued a statement that read: “We were shocked to learn that [Skaggs’s death] may involve an employee of the Los Angeles Angels. We will not rest until we learn the truth about how Tyler came into possession of these narcotics, including who supplied them.”

If the details of Quinn’s report are verified over time, then the family’s statement may have been the first missive in a saga that could have far-reaching implications. We have already heard that Major League Baseball and the player’s union are considering new wrinkles in the league’s drug policy, including efforts to prevent opioid-related tragedies like Skaggs’ passing. It remains to be seen what consequences the Los Angeles organization could face if, as alleged in Quinn’s report, team officials were aware of Skaggs’ illicit drug use. Back in late August, an MLB spokesperson indicated to Bill Shaikin of the LA Times that the league planned to look into the family’s allegations of team involvement.

Kay is said to have worked as the Director of Communications for the Angels for several years; he is currently in outpatient treatment for substance abuse and has been placed on paid leave from the Angels, according to Quinn’s report.

Skaggs was found dead on Jul 1 in a Dallas-area hotel room, with “alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone intoxication with terminal aspiration of gastric contents” cited as the cause of death by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office. He was 27 years old at the time of his death.

Quick Hits: Maxwell, Lorenzen, Bauer, Manfred

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Former Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell is a player known more for his ideological stances than for his performance on the diamond, but that hasn’t stopped the backstop from turning a few heads while playing in Mexico this season. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser can be counted as one who has taken the time to notice Maxwell’s torrid production south of the border, as the veteran scribe profiled the catcher’s attempts to resurrect a career impacted, in part, by his decision to kneel during the national anthem in 2017 (link). The now-28-year-old Maxwell hit .325 with 25 homers in 2019 while playing for the Acereros de Monclova, a team that also featured fellow former Athletic Chris Carter. But, as Slusser points out, it’s far from clear if Maxwell’s foreign success will be enough to entice teams to overlook the “political baggage” (Slusser’s words) associated with him.

“People say you have to be stand-up citizens, but guys who are taking steroids come back and they still have jobs,” Maxwell said to Slusser in regard to his current lack of stateside of employment. “Guys who beat their wives are back like nothing happened.” While Maxwell had a few other expletive-laced thoughts on the subject of perceived double standards within the business of sport, he did also admit to some mistakes over a brief MLB career that saw him hit .240/.314/.347 (83 wRC+) over 127 games. “I accept I had an attitude,” Maxwell said, “and I could have changed it and I didn’t; I accept responsibility for that.” Maxwell, in addition to his anthem protest, also gained notoriety for a 2017 arrest for aggravated assault.

More notes from around the game, as the Nats and Cards do battle in the NLCS…

  • While any news involving Maxwell is likely to inspire some commenting forum debate, our second item comes with far less controversy. In a piece for The Cincinnati Enquirer, Bobby Nightengale profiles Reds hurler Michael Lorenzen’s offseason quest to add velo to his already-fearsome fastball (link). Notably, Lorenzen is planning to seek the tutelage of recently new teammate Trevor Bauer. “We’re talking about making my delivery more efficient where I’m actually able to throw harder with less effort,” Lorenzen said of his discussions with Bauer to this point. “That’s a real thing if you understand human anatomy and human movement. It’s a real thing. With my strength numbers and my power numbers and my movement quality, I should be throwing harder.” As Nightengale points out, Lorenzen already averaged 97.2 mph on his heater this past season en route to notching a 2.92 ERA across 83.1 innings out of the Cincy pen. If Bauer is able to replicate the success he had working with former Indians teammate Mike Clevinger–who added several ticks to his fastball under Bauer’s instruction–the Reds may find themselves with a truly terrifying late-inning option in the Orange County-bred Lorenzen.
  • Evan Drellich of The Athletic published a thoughtful and well-researched piece that touched on MLB’s so-called attendance problem, which the writer positions as a possible consequence of broader societal moves toward online–and not in-person–leisure activities (link). MLB attendance was 68,494,752 in 2019, down 1.7 percent from the 2018 season, but Drellich points to the year-over-year growth of MLB At Bat and MLB.tv as signs that the league is growing in ways that may not be evident when looking at attendance data alone. Commissioner Rob Manfred is inclined to agree with this line of thinking: “We try to think about engagement with the game,” Manfred told Drellich. “We sell different things. We sell a live product…We sell a broadcast product…We try to look broader than just attendance.” Drellich’s piece also features extensive data regarding the league’s deployment of social science polling data in their concerted effort to engage Gen Z fans–very heady stuff, for those so inclined.

Latest On Gabe Kapler

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While the Padres, Cubs, Mets, Pirates, Angels, Giants, and Royals get a head start on the hiring process in their search for new managers, the Phillies organization has remained notably outside the fray. Although the job security of manager Gabe Kapler has been a hot topic in the greater Pennsylvania area since he assumed managerial duties in Philadelphia in 2018, the former outfielder still finds himself under the club’s employ as of Oct. 7. However, judging from today’s rumblings from The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Matt Breen, Phillies owner John Middleton could soon be arriving at a conclusion in regard to Kapler’s future–or lack thereof–with his franchise (link).

According to a source cited by Breen, Middleton has been seeking input from Phillies players as he attempts to determine whether Kapler is the right man to lead the clubhouse in 2020. Breen relays that the Philadelphia owner has spent the last week-plus since the regular season ended in evaluation mode vis a vis Kapler’s performance, and it appears the skipper’s job status will depend in part on whether the private comments of his players sync up with their public message of support mounted in the season’s final month.

Breen includes several of those season-end quotes, including catcher J.T. Realmuto’s unequivocal endorsement, in which the All-Star said that Kapler is “a guy that this clubhouse really respects”. Similarly, franchise cornerstone Bryce Harper was supportive of Kapler following the season’s final day, saying the club’s disappointing .500 finish was “not his fault”. If Philly’s key players are indeed firmly in the Kapler camp, it may be that Middleton’s prolonged evaluation is meant, more than anything, to merely turn up the heat on the manager’s bench seat for 2020.

If Middleton does ultimately decide to part ways with Kapler, the club may end up playing catch-up in the recruitment of top managerial candidates. To this point, we have already heard reports indicating that Joe Maddon to the Angels is an increasing probability, and Joe Girardi’s affinity (or, at least, interest) in the Mets posting is also well known.

Players On Remaining Playoff Teams Who’ll Soon Be Free Agents

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In a rare treat for baseball fans, Monday will feature four separate divisional-round games–and four teams playing to save themselves from elimination. With the Astros up 2-0 on the Rays, the Yankees up 2-0 on the Twins, the Dodgers up 2-1 on the Nationals, and the Braves up 2-1 on the Cardinals, Monday could see a host of players heading home for the offseason.

With the ALDS and NLDS reaching what may be an apex of action tonight, it seems a good time to give readers a comprehensive list of which players featured in tonight’s games will be hitting the open market this winter. While postseason performance doesn’t always foreshadow the giant swings in financial fortune that some expect, a player’s impending free agency does, at least, add an intriguing bit of context to the spectacle of October. The following list includes players active for NLDS and ALDS action; for a comprehensive list of all 2019-20 MLB free agents, see our list here.

If you see any notable errors or omissions, please contact us.

Catchers

Jason Castro (33)
Francisco Cervelli (34)
Robinson Chirinos (36)
Travis d’Arnaud (31)
Tyler Flowers (34) — $6MM club option with a $2MM buyout
Yan Gomes (32) — $9MM club option with a $1MM buyout
Martin Maldonado (33)
Russell Martin (37)
Brian McCann (36)
Austin Romine (31)
Matt Wieters (34)

First Basemen

Matt Adams (31) — $4MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout
David Freese (37)
Ryan Zimmerman (35) — $18MM club option with a $2MM buyout
Howie Kendrick (36)

Second Basemen

Brian Dozier (33)
Howie Kendrick (36)
Jonathan Schoop (28)
Eric Sogard (34)

Shortstops

Didi Gregorius (30)
Adeiny Hechavarria (31)
Eric Sogard (34)

Third Basemen

Asdrubal Cabrera (34)
Josh Donaldson (34)
David Freese (37)
Anthony Rendon (30)
Eric Sogard (34)

Left Fielders

Brett Gardner (36)
Marcell Ozuna (29)
Gerardo Parra (33)

Center Fielders

Brett Gardner (36)
Billy Hamilton (29) — $7.5MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout
Cameron Maybin (33)

Right Fielders

Adam Eaton (31) — $9.5MM club option with a $1.5MM buyout
Avisail Garcia (29)
Nick Markakis (36) — $6MM club option with a $2MM buyout
Gerardo Parra (33)

Designated Hitters

Nelson Cruz (39) — $12MM club option with a $300K buyout
Edwin Encarnacion (37) — $20MM club option with a $5MM buyout
Avisail Garcia (29)

Starting Pitchers

Gerrit Cole (29)
Kyle Gibson (32)
Rich Hill (40)
Dallas Keuchel (32)
Wade Miley (33)
Jake Odorizzi (30)
Hyun-Jin Ryu (33)
Stephen Strasburg (31) — can opt out of remaining four years and $100MM
Julio Teheran (29) — $12MM club option with a $1MM buyout
Adam Wainwright (38)

Right-Handed Relievers

Will Harris (35)
Daniel Hudson (32)
Kenley Jansen (32) — can opt out of remaining two years and $38MM
Fernando Rodney (43)
Sergio Romo (37)
Hector Rondon (32)
Joe Smith (36)
Josh Tomlin (35)

Left-Handed Relievers

Aroldis Chapman (32) — can opt out of remaining two years and $30MM
Sean Doolittle (33) — $6.5MM club option with a $500K buyout

Inactive / Injured Players

Dellin Betances (32)
Jerry Blevins (36)
Tony Cingrani (30)
Jedd Gyorko (31)
Jeremy Hellickson (33)
Chris Martin (34)
Collin McHugh (33)
Martín Perez (28)
Michael Pineda (30)
Anthony Swarzak (34)
Jonny Venters (35)
Michael Wacha (28)

 

AL Notes: Adell, Etch, Mookie

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A quick word of update on Angels outfielder Jo Adell, who has been turning heads in the Arizona Fall League–which isn’t to say that eyes weren’t already trained on him to begin with. After a 2019 season that saw Adell hit .289/.359/.475 with ten home runs across three levels and 341 plate appearances, the Kentucky native entered AFL play last month as MLB Pipeline’s 5th-ranked prospect in the game. As Kyle Glaser of Baseball America points out this morning, Adell is bolstering that pedigree with his most recent performance for the Mesa Solar Sox (link).

The 20-year-old Adell, who was selected 10th overall by Los Angeles in the 2017 draft, went 7-for-17 in AFL play last week with a home run and a balanced 5-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Adell reached as high as Triple-A in the Los Angeles system in 2019, although the team may want to see him improve upon the production he posted there in a small sample of 130+ plate appearances (to say nothing of the potential service time considerations involving a prospective star such as Adell). With outfielder Kole Calhoun a possibility to move on in free agency, there does figure, at least, to be some MLB opportunity for the youngster in 2020 when GM Billy Eppler deems him ready.

More from around the AL this Monday morning…

  • A sad note of remembrance in recognition of the passing of Orioles organizational fixture Andy Etchebarren, who died this weekend at age 76. Etchebarren, an All-Star in his rookie season of 1966, was an important part of Baltimore’s mid-century dynasty. Perhaps most notably, the backstop helped catch, along with Elrod Hendricks, the Orioles’ four 20-game winners of 1971; it’s probably not un-noteworthy that the man known as “Etch” was also the last man to ever record an at-bat against Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax. After his playing career, as noted in a post from MASN’s Roch Kubatko (link), Etchebarren carved out a nice career for himself as a coach in the Baltimore pipeline, including stints as manager of the club’s Triple-A and Double-A affiliates, and time spent as the bench coach for former manager Davey Johnson.
  • The site has already thoroughly explored the ongoing contract outlook for Red Sox superstar Mookie Betts. To recap, the club’s forthcoming CBT trapeze act, Betts’ impending arbitrational raise, and the player’s apparent ambivalence to signing an extension with the team have all coalesced to the point where the near-unthinkable–a trade involving the near-peerless Betts–may be a consideration this offseason. One factor that won’t figure into Betts status for 2020? Organizational tension. As noted in a piece from Chris Cotillo of Masslive.com, the four executives* in charge of Sox operations in the wake of the Dave Dombrowski firing–including assistant GM Eddie Romero–are not holding Betts’ businesslike approach to negotiation against him (link). “I think he’s doing what’s in the best interest of Mookie and I think that’s what athletes should do,” Romero told Cotillo. “Every situation of these is case-by-case. Mookie has been the one who has sacrificed his body and has put in the work. He has the right to decide what he wants to do.” In addition to Romero, team president Sam Kennedy and chairman Tom Werner both comment in Cotillo’s piece on their faith in Betts as both a person and a player, and Romero goes as far as to say that the player has “earned” the right to hit free agency. While this dialogue could just be seen as an encouraging bit of rationality in the front office realm, it is fair to wonder, for those reading tea leaves, whether such a congenial atmosphere could be foreshadowing to an amicable parting of ways between player and team.

*An earlier version of this post mistakenly referred to “four men” running the baseball operations department, when in fact the group of four executives is made up of one woman (Raquel Ferreira) and three men (Eddie Romero, Zack Scott, and Brian O’Halloran). We regret the error.

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