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AL Central Notes: Gomes, Sano, Royals, Fulmer

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The return of catcher Yan Gomes to the Indians’ roster looks to have hit a snag, as Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Gomes was hit on the right wrist by a pitch in the fifth inning of his final rehab game at Double-A Akron last night. Hoynes further reports that Gomes will receive an MRI today to determine the extent of the damage done, though the team won’t have definitive results on the testing until tomorrow (links to Twitter). If he’s unable to return, the Indians will continue to rely on Roberto Perez and veteran Chris Gimenez behind the dish. That pairing has produced little in the way of offensive value on the season as a whole, but Perez’s bat has caught fire since late August; he’s slashing .306/.358/.531 with a pair of homers, three doubles and a triple in his past 55 plate appearances.

More from the AL Central…

  • Twins slugger Miguel Sano won’t travel with the team to New York and will instead undergo testing on his ailing back in Minneapolis, according to Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Sano took some swings in the batting cage yesterday, but Berardino writes that the cage work “didn’t go well,” adding that there’s no certainty that Sano will be able to return to the lineup before the end of the 2016 season. The loss of Sano can’t hurt the Twins much more in terms of their overall performance, as Minnesota is currently poised to land the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s draft after a disastrous 2016 campaign, but Sano remains a work in progress at the hot corner, so the remaining 16 games could prove beneficial from a development standpoint.
  • The struggles of Joakim Soria could make the bullpen an offseason priority for the Royals, writes Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star. Soria’s 4.19 ERA is the worst mark of his career, and the seven blown saves he’s suffered this season are also a career-worst. Manager Ned Yost attributes much of his team’s 2016 struggle to the fact that, “we’re not the same bullpen we were last year.” Indeed, Yost noted that the club knew what it could expect on a nightly basis from the likes of Greg Holland, Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera. The 2016 season is another story entirely. Holland underwent Tommy John surgery late last year and had to be non-tendered, while Davis has missed time on the DL due to a pair of forearm injuries and Luke Hochevar has been shut down due to thoracic outlet syndrome. The signing of Soria was supposed to deepen the ’pen, but the right-hander’s return to the Royals organization has gone poorly, making his three-year, $25MM contract look even more questionable than it did at the time of the signing.
  • The Tigers are knowingly taking a risk with right-hander Michael Fulmer, writes Tony Paul of the Detroit News. Tigers management had hoped to cap Fulmer’s innings at 160 this season, but he’ll pass that mark in tomorrow’s start and figures to surpass it by a considerable amount when all is said and done — especially if the Tigers can secure a postseason berth. However, as Paul points out, the Tigers would be in no position to even compete for a postseason spot at this juncture were it not for Fulmer’s remarkable breakout. Manager Brad Ausmus spoke to Paul about the handling of the Rookie of the Year front-runner, acknowledging the risk but also highlighting that the protection of young arms is at best an inexact science. “Guys are getting Tommy John surgeries at an unbelievable rate, even with the protection,” said Ausmus. “…The 25-percent (innings bump), maybe there’s proof out there that it protects pitchers. I haven’t seen it.”

Multiple Candidates Have Declined To Interview With Twins

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“Multiple GM types” have failed to reciprocate interest shown in them by the Twins, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). Passan goes on to suggest that while the job and president of baseball operations title are appealing, there could be some reluctance due to the fact that overhauling the organization’s infrastructure is no small task.

We’ve already heard recently that Alex Anthopoulos turned down a chance at consideration. And Passan says the same held true of former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington, who joined the Blue Jays earlier today in a position of less authority than he theoretically could have obtained in Minnesota. La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune first reported that Cherington declined Minnesota’s request for an interview and cited “personal reasons” for doing so. Per Neal’s report, Twins brass nonetheless chatted with Cherington and “picked his brain” on some potential candidates.

Athletics GM David Forst, too, has “declined interest,” according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter). Forst only recently moved into the general manager seat in Oakland, with Billy Beane moving up to the president of baseball operations role, though Beane seemingly remains very active in running the Athletics’ operations department.

The Twins are dangling an opportunity to achieve the president of baseball operations title, which in theory at least adds to the allure of the position. And the club has gobs of young talent, even if some of it hasn’t panned out thus far at the Major League level. The opportunity seemingly exists for the president-to-be to handpick a general manager, too, though owner Jim Pohlad has made clear that manager Paul Molitor will be retained, and there have been suggestions that interim GM Rob Antony will remain with the organization in some capacity. Antony, long the assistant GM under Terry Ryan and Bill Smith, is reportedly under contract through next season.

It certainly doesn’t seem as if Minnesota has failed to attract any appealing candidates as their front office search gets underway in earnest. The organization already sat down with Royals AGM J.J. Picollo and may be headed for a chat with highly-regarded Cubs exec Jason McLeod as well.

Twins Eyeing Royals’ J.J. Picollo In Front Office Search

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5:42pm: Minnesota actually already sat down with Picollo, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press reports. The meeting occurred when the Royals were in town, and took place with the blessing of K.C. GM Dayton Moore.

2:13pm: The Twins intend to interview Royals vice president/assistant general manager J.J. Picollo in their search for a new president of baseball operations, reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. Picollo has been mentioned in speculation prior to this point, but this appears to be the first definitive link between the two sides. It’s unknown if the Twins have received permission to conduct the interview just yet, but Heyman calls it a “given” that permission will be granted. Indeed, the Royals have given Picollo permission to pursue previous GM openings, most recently with the Phillies — an opening for which he was a reported finalist before Philadelphia’s hiring of Matt Klentak last offseason.

Picollo joined the Royals back in 2006 as the team’s director of player development and has steadily risen through the ranks in the Kansas City organization. He also spent seven years in the Braves’ player development ranks, rising from area scouting supervisor to assistant director of player development to director of minor league operations. General manager Dayton Moore, unsurprisingly, would not comment to Heyman on the possibility of one of his top lieutenants interviewing for the Twins’ vacancy, with Moore instead simply stating that Picollo is a “tremendous leader” and a “big part of our success.” The George Mason University grad, who was drafted three times and had a brief career in the Yankees’ minor league ranks in the early 90s, has long been heralded as a candidate to run his own baseball operations department someday.

Picollo joins Cubs senior vice president of player development Jason McLeod among known candidates for the Twins’ top baseball ops position. Last night, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that the Twins have already begun conducting interviews and have shown an inclination for an analytically inclined leader, though they’re not ruling out the possibility of hiring someone with a more traditional scouting background. The Twins are also reportedly interested in Cubs assistant GM Shiraz Rehman and Cubs pro scouting director Jared Porter.

Latest On Twins’ Front Office Search

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The Twins have already advanced through a large portion of the process for filling their front office openings, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press reports. Minnesota is looking for a replacement for displaced GM Terry Ryan, whose chair has been occupied on an interim basis by long-time club executive Rob Antony.

In conjunction with an executive search firm, the club has already nearly wrapped up formulating a list of first-round interview candidates, per the report. And the organization has conducted multiple interviews with prospective front office personnel, according to owner Jim Pohlad, which has included sit-downs both in Minnesota and elsewhere.

The goal appears to be to find an analytical-savvy baseball operations leader, Berardino says, though the club also has not dismissed the idea of hiring someone with a scouting background or a track record as a general manager. As we’ve heard previously, the organization is hoping to hire a president of baseball operations who will, in turn, hire a general manager.

Earlier tonight, we learned that the Twins have formally requested permission to interview Cubs exec Jason McLeod. Indeed, the focus on the Chicago organization seems to be multi-faceted. Berardino says that Minnesota hopes to find a “Theo Epstein-type” president and is looking at other members of the staff that helped build what is arguably the league’s best major league roster. We’ve heard previously of interest in assistant GM Shiraz Rehman, and the latest report adds that Cubs pro scouting director Jared Porter is “firmly on the Twins radar” as well.

Twins Eyeing Cubs Front Office In Executive Search

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SEPTEMBER 12: The Twins have now requested permission to speak with McLeod, GM Jed Hoyer told reporters including Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter links). Hoyer suggested that it is all but a foregone conclusion that McLeod will eventually depart to take over another baseball ops department, though of course it remains to be seen whether there’ll be a match with Minnesota.

SEPTEMBER 7, 9:50pm: Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that the Twins haven’t approached the Cubs about speaking to either McLeod or Rehman about a front office role. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the Twins don’t have interest in the pair of execs. Thus far, there’s been no indication that the Twins have progressed beyond compiling a list of potential candidates, let alone conducting interviews.

Rehman downplayed the reported interest when speaking to Wittenmyer, calling it “flattering” but stressing that he, like the rest of the Cubs’ front office, is focused on bringing a championship to Chicago.

12:50pm: The Twins are “looking closely” at some members of the Cubs front office as they continue their own executive search, Jon Morosi of MLB Network tweets. Specifically, Minnesota has interest in Jason McLeod and Shiraz Rehman, per the report.

We heard yesterday that Minnesota is considering former Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos for the post of president of baseball operations. [Editor’s Note: Anthopoulos has since said he is not interested in pursuing the position at this time.] The club is set to institute a two-tier arrangement, hiring a PBOp who will in turn hire a GM.

It is not immediately clear how the Cubs’ executives fit into this still-developing picture. Both of these still-youthful executives obviously carry wide industry respect, but neither has yet been tasked with final decisionmaking authority over an operations department.

McLeod, the senior VP of player development and amateur scouting, has previously drawn consideration for GM gigs but has seemingly been committed first to his work in Chicago. “I really want to be here when we win,” he said back in 2014 after declining a chance to interview for the Padres’ GM opening. “Being a GM is something I still really hope to do in the future, but right now I felt this is where I want to be.”

Rehman is an assistant general manager who has long-standing ties to top Cubs executives Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer dating back to their time with the Red Sox. He worked with the Diamondbacks before coming to Chicago. For more about his background in Arizona — under a regime that prioritized statistical analysis — check out this 2009 interview from David Laurila.

It’s worth noting that the expectation is that no Cubs personnel will change organizations while the season is ongoing, per 1500 ESPN’s Darren Wolfson (via Twitter). That wouldn’t appear to remove any of that club’s executives from consideration for this or other openings that may arise, but it could impact the timing somewhat.

Cafardo’s Latest: Sox, Dozier, Votto, Jays, Puig, Braun

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Here are the latest rumblings from the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo, who’s looking ahead to the offseason:

  • The Red Sox will be in the market for a big bat to replace retiring designated hitter David Ortiz, which could lead them to pursue free agents-to-be Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, Carlos Beltran, Mark Trumbo and Mike Napoli. Boston is quite familiar with all of those players – Encarnacion, Bautista and Trumbo are currently in its division, while Beltran was in the AL East until the Yankees traded him to Texas in July. Napoli, who’s in the midst of a bounce-back year in Cleveland, is the only member of the group with past Red Sox experience. The soon-to-be 35-year-old was with Boston from 2013-15 and was a key part of its latest World Series-winning team in his first season with the club.
  • If the Twins shop slugging second baseman Brian Dozier during the winter, they’ll likely want front-line pitching in return, per Cafardo. Dozier, who is one home run shy of joining Rogers Hornsby, Ryne Sandberg and Davey Johnson as the only second basemen to hit 40 in a season, is on an eminently affordable contract over the next two seasons. The 29-year-old power and speed threat is owed a combined $15MM through the 2018 campaign.
  • Even though the Blue Jays have undergone a regime change since they tried to acquire first baseman Joey Votto from the Reds last summer, talks could restart if Toronto loses both Encarnacion and Bautista in free agency. Cincinnati would also have to eat some of the $192MM left on Votto’s contract to make a deal possible, according to Cafardo. Votto, a Toronto native, is enjoying yet another brilliant season, having slashed .315/.433/.525 with 23 homers in 589 plate appearances.
  • While the White Sox will listen to teams’ proposals for left-handed ace Chris Sale after the season, a deal seems unlikely. “The odds of getting what we feel we need to get are slim. That’s why I think Chris will be with us in 2017,” a White Sox source told Cafardo. That jibes with an earlier report from FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman, who relayed that White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf doesn’t want to move Sale.
  • The Brewers and Dodgers are likely to revisit talks centering on outfielders Ryan Braun and Yasiel Puig in the offseason, a Dodgers source told Cafardo. Los Angeles placed Puig on revocable waivers in August, and the Brewers won the claim. The teams then discussed him and Braun, but a deal didn’t come to fruition.

Twins Place Trevor Plouffe On DL

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The Twins have placed third baseman Trevor Plouffe on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Wednesday, with a left oblique strain, the team announced. It’s unknown if Plouffe will return this year, but given the limited amount of games left, the Twins’ last-place status, and the length of time it takes to recover from oblique injuries, a 2016 comeback seems unlikely.

If Plouffe’s season is over, it’s possible his tenure with the Twins is, too. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams wrote Wednesday, the Twins have a glut of other options in the infield and outfield, which could make Plouffe a non-tender or trade candidate during the offseason.

Plouffe, 30, has endured his worst season since he started garnering significant playing time in 2011, having batted .260/.303/.420 in 344 plate appearances and accounted for one of the majors’ worst fWAR totals (minus-0.4). Nevertheless, he’ll still receive a raise over this year’s $7.25MM salary in his first trip through arbitration during the winter. It’s conceivable neither Minnesota nor anyone else will want to pay Plouffe in the neighborhood of $8MM off such a poor season, which could lead the Twins to cut bait.

Regardless of what the future holds for Plouffe, this has been a year to forget for a player who had been a steady contributor in recent seasons. Aside from his subpar numbers and current oblique issue, he was on the shelf for nearly three weeks from April to May with an intercostal strain – something he’s also dealing with now – and missed time in July with a cracked rib.

Alex Anthopoulos Says He’s No Longer A Candidate For Twins Job

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SATURDAY: Anthopoulos has told colleagues that the timing is poor for him to take a top baseball operations job elsewhere, Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press writes. That means he won’t be taking a new job with the Twins. The Dodgers exec recently had his family join him in the Los Angeles area, and his two young children are recently started school.

TUESDAY: Alex Anthopoulos is a “confirmed candidate” to take over the Twins’ soon-to-be-created position of president of baseball operations, Jon Morosi of MLB Network reports on Twitter. He becomes the first potential front office candidate clearly linked to the organization.

Minnesota has reportedly begun a search to add both a PBOp as well as a general manager, adopting some form of the two-tiered front office structure that has become popular around the league. The team has been relying upon Rob Antony as interim GM after parting ways with Terry Ryan earlier this year.

The 39-year-old Anthopoulos is best known for his turn as the GM of the Blue Jays from late 2009 through 2015. After putting together a postseason club last year — the organization’s first berth 1993 — he ended up parting ways with the club in a surprising series of events.

Toronto hired Mark Shapiro as president, reportedly promising him final authority over baseball decisionmaking. While the Jays attempted to retain Anthopoulos, offering him a five-year deal that he could have opted out of after a single season, he declined to continue with the new leadership and somewhat-altered parameters of his role.

Since that time, Anthopoulos has been working for the Dodgers as a Vice President, joining several other prominent former top baseball operations personnel in the Los Angeles front office. At the time of his hiring, Anthopoulos expressed interest in a long-term gig there — while also noting that he’d be intrigued by the idea of running his own shop again.

AL Central Notes: Verlander, Molitor, May, Milone, Salazar, Cain

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In his latest column, Yahoo’s Jeff Passan chronicles Justin Verlander’s return to prominence as one of the game’s most dominant pitchers. Passan spoke to a very candid Verlander, who explained that during the 2014 season — the worst of his career — he felt pain in his shoulder through virtually every pitch he delivered. However, as Passan notes, Verlander was keenly aware of the expectations that came along with signing a $180MM contract and was resolved to pitch so long as he was physically capable. Verlander admitted to Passan that for awhile, baseball was no longer fun for him. The Detroit ace walked Passan through his recovery, beginning with recovery from surgery to repair a torn abdominal muscle (which was, perhaps the root of all of his problems, as his mechanics were drastically altered to compensate). As Passan points out, Verlander’s velocity is sitting around 93 mph, and he’s now throwing his slider harder than in the past as a means of differentiating it from his curve. The result is one of the finest stretches of Verlander’s career: a 2.09 ERA and a 102-to-19 K/BB ratio over his past 90 1/3 innings that has firmly inserted Verlander into the mix for the AL Cy Young Award.

More from the AL Central…

  • Manager Paul Molitor has given the Twins every indication that he intends to return in 2017, tweets Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. While that in and of itself may not be overly newsworthy — owner Jim Pohlad has gone on record as stating that he wants Molitor to remain the team’s skipper even after hiring a new president of baseball ops — Walters does report that Molitor is slated to earn $2.5MM in the final season of the three-year deal he signed with Minnesota prior to the 2015 campaign.
  • Earlier today, the Twins activated righty Trevor May and lefty Tommy Milone from the DL, per a club announcement. The 26-year-old May has had an interesting season, racking up 12.5 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9 but compiling only a 4.89 ERA in his 42 1/3 innings. Milone, meanwhile, seems headed for a non-tender barring a stirring performance over the last several weeks of the year. He has posted a rough 5.68 earned run average in his 65 frames thus far.
  • The Indians pulled Danny Salazar from tonight’s contest due to forearm tightness, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian was among those to tweet. The club emphasized that it was a precautionary move, but this isn’t the first time this year that forearm/elbow issues have sidelined the prized righty. He declined to speak to reporters after the game, Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer tweets, with manager Terry Francona saying that the team hopes to “know more tomorrow when he comes to the park.” Salazar lasted only four frames in his latest outing, and hasn’t reached six innings in a start since mid-July. The 26-year-old did manage to rack up 11 strikeouts in his prior appearance, but it has been quite an uneven second half for a pitcher who could be a key part of the club’s hopeful postseason run. Entering his first year of arbitration eligibility — he’ll qualify as a Super Two — Salazar has thrown 137 1/3 innings of 3.87 ERA ball, with 161 strikeouts but also 63 walks on his ledger.
  • Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain was back in the lineup this evening after sitting out several contests due to a sprained hand, as Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star reports (Twitter links). It “doesn’t feel good” to swing, said Cain, who nevertheless managed to reach three times on a hit and two walks. Per skipper Ned Yost, the club will keep running Cain out so long as he can tolerate playing, with hopes that his glove, legs, and savvy at the plate will make up for any limitations with the bat. Asked by MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan (Twitter link) whether he had caused any further damage by playing with the injury, Cain offered a somewhat resigned response: “It’s already torn. So I don’t know if it made it worse, unless I get another MRI.”

Poll: Trevor Plouffe’s Future In Minnesota

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Twins corner infielder/designated hitter Trevor Plouffe exited last night’s game with an oblique injury, and tests have revealed the 30-year-old to have both an oblique strain and an intercostal strain, as MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger tweets. Plouffe hopes to return before the end of the season, but Bollinger notes that it’s unlikely that Plouffe will have enough time to recover. Oblique injuries tend to linger for at least a month, and with a pair of strains, it seems quite possible that what has been an injury-riddled season for Plouffe will come to a close.

The greater question that should be asked, at this juncture, is whether Plouffe has played his final game as a member of the Twins. The former first-round pick (20th overall, 2004) was an oft-speculated trade candidate last winter thanks to the emergence of Miguel Sano and the signing of Korean slugger Byung Ho Park, but the Twins elected to hang onto Plouffe and try Sano in right field — an experiment that yielded dreadful results. The 6’4″, 260-pound Sano perhaps unsurprisingly graded out very poorly in right field (-8 DRS, -2.6 UZR in 312 innings) and was ultimately moved back to third base when Plouffe suffered a fractured rib that cost him six months of the season.

With Sano now seeing reps at third base and DH, Plouffe has rotated between third base (when Sano is DHing), first base and DH himself since returning from the disabled list. However, next season will present the Twins — who will be headed by a new front office regime — with a similar logjam, as Sano, Plouffe, Park and Joe Mauer will all be back in the mix. (For those wondering about the possibility, Mauer cannot return to catching given his concussion history.) With Byron Buxton, Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario likely handling regular outfield duties in 2017, there’s no obvious corner opening to move one of those pieces this time around.

Further complicating matters for Plouffe is that he’s endured his worst season since 2013. In addition to the current pair of muscle strains and the aforementioned rib fracture, Plouffe also missed nearly three weeks in late April/early May with another intercostal strain. Plouffe established himself as an average defender with a slightly above-average bat in 2014-15 when he hit .251/.317/.429 with 36 homers in 1214 plate appearances — good for a combined 5.9 fWAR and 6.5 rWAR. However, he was hitting just .252/.283/.399 at the time he landed on the DL in July due to the rib fracture. Plouffe has been hot since coming back (.277/.345/.465, five homers in 26 games), which has boosted his overall line to .260/.303/.420, but much of the 2016 season has been a struggle for him at the plate.

Plouffe will be arbitration-eligible for the final time this winter, and though he’s been slowed by injuries and hasn’t had his most productive year, he’ll still receive a raise this year’s $7.25MM salary. A salary in the $8-9MM range isn’t outlandish for a healthy Plouffe, but it may also be more than the Twins wish to pay him given the state of their roster, as currently constructed. Certainly, Plouffe could garner trade interest from clubs looking for short-term upgrades at the corner infield spots, though there’s also the possibility that a new president of baseball operations decides to cut bait simply by non-tendering him. Alternatively, the Twins could elect to move other pieces and keep Plouffe around for what will be his final season before hitting the free agent market.

With a number of avenues that the new-look front office could pursue, let’s open this one up for some crowd-sourcing (link to poll for Trade Rumors mobile app users)…

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