Astros Considering Peter Woodfork For GM Position
The Astros are considering Peter Woodfork for their open general manager position, according to Ken Rosenthal and Jake Kaplan of The Athletic (Twitter link). Woodfork currently works in the commissioner’s office as senior VP of baseball operations.
Woodfork previously served as assistant GM of the Diamondbacks. MLBTR’s Ben Nicholson-Smith profiled him as a candidate to run a baseball ops department back in 2011. Whether and when he’ll interview are not yet known.
We’ve only heard of one other candidate to this point: Bobby Evans, former Giants GM. These aren’t super-youthful, up-and-coming types with outsider perspectives. They’re respected, well-established executives. That’s hardly surprising, under the circumstances.
Taking over the Houston ops outfit is a massive opportunity that comes with great responsibility. It’s easy enough to envision success on the field with little more than a few tweaks. The roster is loaded with stars. But there are some payroll challenges and tough decisions soon to come. And the backdrop here — the sign-stealing scandal that engulfed the organization and cost former GM Jeff Luhnow his job — obviously can’t be ignored.
Owner Jim Crane fired Luhnow after a league investigation determined that the executive had overseen a culture that enabled that unfortunate cheating episode to occur. At the same time, of course, Luhnow had pioneered an aggressive and savvy approach that helped the organization secure a World Series title in 2017 and nearly add another in the just-completed season.
Astros Interview Mark Kotsay For Manager
The Astros interviewed A’s quality control coach Mark Kotsay last week as part of their ongoing search for A.J. Hinch’s replacement, reports Brian McTaggart of MLB.com (via Twitter). Kotsay becomes the ninth known candidate in Houston’s wide-ranging managerial search.
Kotsay also drew consideration from the Giants and Pirates for their vacancies earlier in the offseason, but he ultimately lost out to Gabe Kapler and Derek Shelton, respectively. He has no MLB managerial expereience, but he’s worked in the Padres’ front office and on the Pads’ and A’s coaching staffs since retiring as a player in 2013.
Kotsay joins Joe Espada, Eduardo Pérez and Will Venable as potential first-time managers to sit down with Houston. The Astros have also interviewed former MLB skippers Brad Ausmus, Dusty Baker, Jeff Banister, John Gibbons and Buck Showalter.
Teams That Gained Or Lost Draft Picks Via Qualifying Offer Free Agents
Now that Marcell Ozuna has signed, all 10 of the players who were issued a one-year, $17.8MM qualifying offer in November have settled on teams for the 2020 season. Of that group, two (Jose Abreu of the White Sox and Jake Odorizzi of the Twins) accepted their qualifying offers and returned to their clubs — Abreu, in fact, topped off his QO by signing a contract extension that will run through the 2022 season. Stephen Strasburg also isn’t changing uniforms, as the longtime Nationals ace rejected the club’s qualifying offer but eventually re-signed with Washington on a seven-year, $245MM deal.
That leaves us with seven QO players who will be playing on new teams in 2020, and as such, the draft compensation attached to those seven players has also now been allotted. Under the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the same compensation was handed out to all six teams who lost those players, as the entire sextet fell under the same financial criteria. The Mets, Cardinals, Braves, Giants, Nationals, and Astros all aren’t revenue-sharing recipients, nor did they exceed the luxury tax threshold in 2019, so all six teams will receive a compensatory draft pick between Competitive Balance Round B and the third round of the 2020 draft.
Here is how the so-called “Compensation Round” breaks down. The order of the picks is determined by worst record-to-best record from the 2019 season.
68. Giants (for Madison Bumgarner)
69. Giants (for Will Smith)
70. Mets (for Zack Wheeler)
71. Cardinals (for Marcell Ozuna)
72. Nationals (for Anthony Rendon)
73. Braves (for Josh Donaldson)
74. Astros (for Gerrit Cole)
San Francisco now possesses five of the first 87 picks in next June’s draft. With the Giants still in the NL wild card race last summer, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi opted to hang onto Bumgarner and Smith rather than trade either player, a decision that led to some criticism since San Francisco was widely considered to be closer to rebuilding than truly contending. The critics’ judgement grew even harsher after the Giants went 22-32 record in August and September and fell well short of the postseason. Still, given that teams were reluctant to part with top-flight young talent for even controllable players (let alone rentals like Bumgarner and Smith) at the trade deadline, Zaidi clearly felt that the two picks he could recoup from the qualifying offer process were more valuable than anything offered for the two Giants pitchers last July.
It’s worth noting that the 74th overall pick will be Houston’s first selection of the 2020 draft, after the Astros lost both their first- and second-highest selections in both 2020 and 2021 as part of their punishment for the sign-stealing scandal. Since the Red Sox are also under league investigation for their own alleged use of electronics to steal opponents’ signs in 2018, Boston could also potentially lose at least one pick in this year’s draft, so we can’t yet say that the 2020 draft order is finalized. Of course, the order could be further muddled if more trades occur involving picks from the two Competitive Balance Draft rounds, which are the only types of draft picks that can be traded. We’ve already seen the Rays and Cardinals swap their picks in Rounds A and B as part of the multi-player trade that sent Jose Martinez and Randy Arozarena to Tampa Bay earlier this month.
Let’s now look at the six teams who signed the seven QO-rejecting free agents, and see what those clubs had to give up in order to make the signings.
Yankees, for signing Gerrit Cole: Since New York exceeded the luxury tax threshold in 2019, they gave up their second- and fifth-round picks in the 2020 draft (a.k.a. their second- and fifth-highest selections). The Yankees also gave up $1MM in funds from their international signing bonus pool.
Diamondbacks, for signing Madison Bumgarner: As a team that didn’t exceed the luxury tax threshold and was a revenue-sharing recipient, the D’Backs had to give up their third-highest draft choice to sign Bumgarner. This ended up being Arizona’s second-round selection — the team’s first two picks are their first-rounder (18th overall) and their pick in Competitive Balance Round A (33rd overall).
Twins, for signing Josh Donaldson: Minnesota also received revenue-sharing and didn’t exceed the luxury tax threshold, so signing Donaldson put the Twins in position to give up their third-highest draft selection. However, the Twins are actually giving up their fourth-highest pick in the 2020 draft, which is their third-round selection. The Twins’ actual third selection is their pick in Competitive Balance Round B, but those picks aren’t eligible to be forfeited as compensation for QO free agent signings.
Angels, for signing Anthony Rendon: Since the Halos didn’t receive revenue-sharing funds and also didn’t pay any luxury tax money, they had to give up their second-highest draft pick (their second-rounder) and $500K in international bonus funds to sign Rendon.
Phillies, for signing Zack Wheeler: The Phillies surrendered their second-highest selection (their second-round pick) and $500K of their international bonus pool, since they were another team that didn’t exceed the luxury tax line and didn’t receive revenue-sharing money.
Braves, for signing Will Smith and Marcell Ozuna: The dual signings put Atlanta in line for a dual penalty. The Braves didn’t exceed the luxury tax threshold and also didn’t receive revenue-sharing money, so they gave up their second-highest draft pick (their second-rounder) and $500K of international bonus money for Smith. In landing Ozuna, the Braves then had to also forfeit their third-round pick (their third-highest selection) and another $500K from their international bonus pool.
Losing two draft picks and $1MM in international pool money isn’t nothing, though these particular sanctions had less impact on the Braves than on other teams, which undoubtedly influenced their decisions. First of all, the compensatory pick Atlanta received for Donaldson is higher in the draft order than their third-round pick, so the net loss is only a second-round pick. Secondly, the Braves’ movement in the international market is still limited by the punishment handed out by Major League Baseball in November 2017 for Atlanta’s past international signing violations. Part of that punishment included the Braves’ pool for the 2020-21 international market being reduced by 50 percent — being so handcuffed in the international market anyway, the Braves probably felt $1MM in pool money was no great loss.
Astros Interviewed Bobby Evans For GM Job
The Astros have interviewed former Giants general manager Bobby Evans for their own vacant GM post, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Evans is the first name to have emerged in Houston’s hunt for its next top executive.
The Astros, of course, are in need of replacements for both deposed GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch. While we’ve had plenty of news to follow along with the managerial search, things have been mostly quiet on the GM front. It makes sense, given that spring training is just around the corner and, well, beginning the spring with no manager would be quite the bold move. However, hiring a manager before a GM is not an ideal scenario; it’s increasingly necessary that executives up and down the organization are on the same page. That’s created a tricky situation for owner Jim Crane, who placed himself in charge of the team’s baseball operations in the interim.
Evans worked in the Giants organization beginning in 1994, serving as the team’s vice president of baseball operations during the franchise’s dynastic run of success from 2010-2014. He earned a promotion to general manager prior to the 2015 season, a post that he held for nearly four seasons until he was fired in September of 2018. Interestingly, as the Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome notes, Evans’ San Francisco tenure largely coincided with Dusty Baker’s stint as the Giants’ skipper from 1993-2002. Baker, of course, has been named as a candidate in the Astros’ managerial search.
That connection, if it’s anything meaningful, could serve to quell some of the tension that could arise between a manager who’s been hired before his GM. Of course, it has been nearly two decades since the two worked together, so that history may wind up being irrelevant anyway.
Free Agent Spending By Team: American League
As we covered earlier this week, almost all of the prominent free agents in this year’s class have already exited the board. Because of that, we’ll see more and more minor league signings and fewer and fewer major league deals in the weeks leading up to the start of the regular season. This has been an aggressive offseason in terms of spending, though. To this point, which teams have handed out the most guaranteed money via the open market? We’ll examine both leagues, but let’s begin with the AL (reminder: This exercise excludes trades, club options, extensions, waiver claims and Rule 5 selections)…
Yankees: $336.5MM on two players (Gerrit Cole and Brett Gardner; top 50 MLBTR signings: two)
Angels: $260.85MM on three players (Anthony Rendon, Julio Teheran and Jason Castro; top 50 signings: three)
White Sox: $196.5MM on six players (Yasmani Grandal, Jose Abreu, Dallas Keuchel, Edwin Encarnacion, Steve Cishek and Gio Gonzalez; top 50 signings: five)
Twins: $151.8MM on eight players (Josh Donaldson, Michael Pineda, Jake Odorizzi, Homer Bailey, Sergio Romo, Alex Avila, Rich Hill and Tyler Clippard; top 50 signings: four)
Blue Jays: $114.35MM on four players (Hyun-Jin Ryu, Tanner Roark, Shun Yamaguchi and Travis Shaw; top 50 signings: two)
Rangers: $62.25MM on five players (Kyle Gibson, Jordan Lyles, Robinson Chirinos, Joely Rodriguez and Todd Frazier; top 50 signings: two)
Tigers: $17.8MM on four players (C.J. Cron, Jonathan Schoop, Austin Romine and Ivan Nova; top 50 signings: one)
Astros: $15.65MM on three players (Joe Smith, Martin Maldonado and Dustin Garneau; top 50 signings: zero)
Rays: $12MM on one player (Yoshitomo Tsutsugo; top 50 signings: zero)
Red Sox: $9.9MM on three players (Martin Perez, Jose Peraza and Kevin Plawecki; top 50 signings: zero)
Athletics: $7.5MM on one player (Jake Diekman; top 50 signings: zero)
Royals: $6.95MM on two players (Alex Gordon and Maikel Franco; top 50 signings: zero)
Indians: $6.25MM on one player (Cesar Hernandez; top 50 signings: zero)
Orioles: $3MM on one player (Jose Iglesias; top 50 signings: zero)
Mariners: $2.95MM on two players (Kendall Graveman and Carl Edwards Jr.; top 50 signings: zero)
Astros To Interview Brad Ausmus
The Astros have added to the list of candidates for their surprise managerial opening. Brad Ausmus is in Houston presently to take an interview with the club, Mark Berman of FOX 26 was among those to report on Twitter.
Ausmus had two stints with the Astros during his playing career, accounting for ten of his 18 seasons in the majors. He has gone on to manage the Tigers and the Angels, though neither stint has turned out as hoped.
The Halos decided to move on from Ausmus after just one season, putting him into limbo for the 2020 campaign. Ausmus sat down with the Padres earlier in the offseason to discuss their opening, but did not get that gig and wasn’t prominently connected to any others.
Ausmus joins a long list of known candidates that includes quite a few other experienced skippers and some others who’d be managing for the first time. In the former camp are Dusty Baker, Jeff Banister, Buck Showalter, and John Gibbons. Candidates without prior MLB managerial experience include Joe Espada, Eduardo Perez, and Will Venable.
Astros To Interview Jeff Banister
Former Rangers manager Jeff Banister could be returning to a dugout in Texas. The Astros will interview Banister for their managerial vacancy this week, Mark Berman of Fox 26 reports.
Houston represents familiar stomping grounds for the 56-year-old Banister, who attended the University of Houston. More recently, he managed the Rangers to a 325-313 record with two AL West championships and a pair of playoff berths from 2015-18. The Rangers went in another direction during the last of those seasons, in which they struggled to a 64-88 mark on Banister’s watch. But Banister stayed in the majors last year as a special assistant in Pittsburgh’s front office.
For the Astros, who have moved quickly to replace the fired A.J. Hinch, Banister’s the latest experienced manager to garner interest from the club. The Astros have already interviewed or will meet with Buck Showalter, Dusty Baker and John Gibbons. Cubs third base coach Will Venable and broadcaster Eduardo Perez have also drawn their attention.
Astros To Interview Eduardo Perez For Managerial Vacancy
The Astros are interested in former big leaguer Eduardo Perez as they seek a new manager to replace the recently fired A.J. Hinch, reports Andy Martino of SNY.tv (Twitter link). Perez will interview tomorrow, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter).
Perez, 50, should be plenty familiar with the organization after serving as former manager Bo Porter’s bench coach during the 2013 season. He was lined up to serve as Houston’s first base coach in 2014 but ultimately opted to step away from that role, citing a desire to spend more time with family. He also spent two years as the hitting coach in Miami (2011-12) and has managed in the Puerto Rican Winter League in addition to managing Team Colombia in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
Beyond his coaching experience and his 13-year MLB career (1993-2006), Perez is of course well-known for his time as a host and analyst on ESPN and for MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM. It’s been more than five years since he suited up in a big league dugout, although he’s been a popular managerial candidate over the past couple of offseasons. The Blue Jays interviewed Perez before hiring Charlie Montoyo last winter, and Perez was reportedly the runner-up when the Mets hired Carlos Beltran back in November. Like Hinch and Alex Cora, Beltran was ousted from a managerial job following his role in the 2017 sign-stealing scandal.
Among the other candidates for the Astros’ opening are veteran skippers Buck Showalter, John Gibbons and Dusty Baker. Cubs coach Will Venable, too, is reportedly set to interview.
Latest On Dusty Baker
JANUARY 19: To this point, neither the Mets nor the Red Sox have reached out to Baker to discuss their respective positions, he tells reporters, including Brian McTaggart of MLB.com (Twitter link). Baker will interview for the Astros’ managerial job tomorrow.
JANUARY 17: The Mets find themselves in need of a new manager after first-timer Carlos Beltran stepped down this week. Now in their second offseason search for a skipper, the Mets are considering veteran Dusty Baker for the role, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports.
The interest in Baker represents a change in direction for the Mets, as he wasn’t among their candidates before they hired Beltran in November. However, as Puma notes, Baker could act as “a calming influence” for an organization sailing through tempestuous waters in the wake of Beltran’s sudden exit over the Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal. And although a World Series has eluded him, Baker would still be one of the most accomplished Mets hires ever, having managed the Giants, Cubs, Reds and Nationals to a combined 1,863-1,636 record with nine playoff berths from 1993-2017.
Since Beltran stepped down Thursday, Baker’s the second reported possibility to arise for the Mets, who are also considering Luis Rojas, their quality control coach. Rojas was among several candidates the Mets interviewed before hiring Beltran, so it stands to reason those who haven’t gotten managerial jobs since then could also be in the mix.
Latest On Astros Managerial, GM Vacancies
There hasn’t been much scuttlebutt in terms of the Astros’ GM vacancy – but a number of names have been floated for their next manager. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale observes that the current known pool of candidates leans heavily toward veteran, respected leaders (Dusty Baker, Buck Showalter, John Gibbons), while MLB Network insider Jon Heyman succinctly recaps what makes this hiring situation so very unique. The front office executives left behind in Houston would likely lean towards a more contemporary approach, given their heavily analytical approach, but with spring training not that far off, owner Jim Crane made the decision to hire his next field manager personally. Bringing in a field manager before the next general manager is not the ideal process, writes The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan, but little about the Astros’ current situation is.
- Cubs third base coach Will Venable is the exception to Nightengale’s observation. When asked today at the Cubs Convention if he’d be leaving, Venable said plainly, “No, I’m not.” This, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun Times (via Twitter) and many others in attendance – though Venable did walk back the absolute denial a little bit later in the day (covered in depth by The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma here). Sitting bench coach Joe Espada has also been speculated about, though given the circumstances, an outside hire seems like the prohibitive favorite. For what it’s worth, MLBTR readers settled this issue just two days ago, electing Buck Showalter as the best choice with 34% of the vote.
- Now a few days removed from the release of the Commissioner’s verdict on the sign-stealing scandal, most Houston Astros players have avoided public comment. Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman did speak to the media today, expressing empathy for A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow, while denying any use of wearable tech, per MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. The Commissioner’s report found no evidence of wearable tech utilized by Astros players in 2019. Still, The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan writes, the organizational response (or lack thereof) from players on the whole misses an appropriate measure of contrition. As players participated in the Astros’ FanFest today, Kaplan describes a couple of scenes wherein the organization’s PR staff attempted to mollify any discussion of the scandal by pairing stars of the team under fire – Bregman and Altuve, namely – with youngsters like Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez, and Abraham Toro, who were not yet with the club in 2017.