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Read The Transcript Of Our Chat With Hall Of Famer Chipper Jones

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This is a big one.  Chipper Jones needs no introduction; you can simply read his Hall of Fame plaque.  Chipper is one of the best switch-hitters of all time.  Drafted first overall in 1990, he was the offensive centerpiece of the Braves dynasty in the 90s and early 2000s mainly as the team’s third baseman.  Chipper’s first full season was 1995, when the Braves won the World Series and he finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting.  His accomplishments are too numerous to list, but Jones was the 1999 NL MVP and received votes in 12 other seasons.  He hit 30 home runs in six separate seasons, including 45 in ’99.  He also reached the century mark in RBI nine times.  Even as he battled injuries later in his career, Jones’ production stayed strong, and he won the 2008 batting title by hitting .364 at age 36.

Jones finished his career with a .303/.401/.529 line, hitting 468 home runs in his 19-year career.  He became a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2018.  We were honored to host Chipper today for a live chat.  Click here to read the transcript.  You can follow Chipper on Twitter @RealCJ10.

If you’re a current or former MLB player who would like to do a chat with MLBTR readers, reach out through our contact form!  We’ve also had requests for a chat with a former MLB general manager, if there are any out there who would be interested.

New York Times To Purchase The Athletic

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4:05pm: As previously expected, the deal has been announced following the close of the stock market. A press release by the New York Times Company confirms that it has reached a deal to acquire The Athletic (as well as the purchase price of $550MM) and announces an expected closing of the deal in the first quarter of 2022.

Though she makes clear that The Athletic’s ample subscriber base played a major role in the Times’ attraction to the San Francisco-based sports outlet, Meredith Kopit Levien, the New York Times Company’s president and CEO, suggests in the statement that The Athletic will be given relative free reign, describing it as a “complement to” the Times and “a subsidiary of The Times Company” that will “continue to operate separately.” The Athletic’s founders, Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann, will remain on board following the acquisition, though each will now report to Times Company executive David Perpich, who will be named The Athletic’s publisher.

Though the role is multi-faceted and varies from organization to organization, a publisher broadly sets the editorial and commercial direction for a publication, particularly with regard to big-picture decisions like target markets, forms of content, and the scope and nature of advertising. Perpich previously served as president and general manager for Wirecutter, another New York Times subsidiary, and is the first cousin of Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger. Perpich’s precise role in the future of The Athletic remains, at this point, unclear.

1:36pm: In a deal likely to shake up the sports media landscape, the New York Times Company (the parent company and publisher of the New York Times) has agreed to a $550MM deal to purchase subscription sports news service The Athletic (first reported by Jessica Toonkel of The Information). As of early Thursday afternoon, neither The Athletic nor the Times has announced the deal, though Sara Fischer of Axios reports that the deal is expected to be announced after the stock market closes for the day.

How (if at all) the deal will affect The Athletic’s coverage or subscription model remains to be seen, but Toonkel suggests that the deal may have been motivated by the site’s hefty subscriber base. Indeed, the acquisition of The Athletic’s more than one million subscribers (a threshold it crossed in September 2020) will go a long way towards meeting the Times’ stated goal of reaching 10 million subscribers by 2025; as of September 2021, it reported 8.3 million digital and print subscribers. Though some overlap in the publications’ subscriber bases certainly exists, the deal will move the Times a good deal closer to its target.

Previous reporting suggests that The Athletic had been in discussions with a number of media outfits since at least early 2021. In addition to the New York Times, the site had engaged in talks with politics-focused news site Axios (per Fischer) as well as sports betting behemoths DraftKings and FanDuel (per Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel of The Information), though it’s not entirely clear which of these negotiations culminated in an offer.

Since launching in 2016, The Athletic has pioneered a new model in the sports media landscape, offering a subscription-based service dedicated to what it has called “smarter coverage for die-hard fans” through a combination of day-to-day beat reporting (traditionally the province of local newspapers) alongside the sort of long-form analysis, original reporting, and social commentary more commonly found in national magazines. The site also benefited from a broader decline in print media, which has seen many local papers cut staff (including in sports sections) and others shut their doors entirely. At present, The Athletic has devoted coverage for 40 US cities, seven Canadian cities, and the United Kingdom.

On one hand, the backing of one of the world’s most powerful news organizations could offer The Athletic further coverage resources to add to its stable of experienced reporters. On the other, the potential imposition of new leadership (Fischer reports that founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann will stay on, though they’ll now at least notionally report to the Times’ board of directors) could impact the thrust of the site’s coverage in any number of possible directions. Until either organization confirms the deal or releases a statement regarding the future plans for the site, any further analysis of the deal’s implications would be wholly speculative, but it does represent a significant consolidation in digital sports media — a long-established trend across the digital media landscape.

Cameron Maybin Announces Retirement

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Longtime major league outfielder Cameron Maybin announced his retirement this evening. The 34-year-old appeared in fifteen major league seasons, suiting up with ten different clubs between 2007-21. He spent the bulk of that time — four seasons apiece — with the Padres and Marlins.

“I’ve played this game since I was 4 years old,” Maybin wrote as part of his announcement, the full text of which is available on Twitter. “Three decades later, my love for baseball is only matched by the love I have for the family that’s supported me every step of the way. … Although my journey as a professional baseball player ends here with the announcement of my retirement, my work in this game is just getting started. I’m excited for what lies ahead, including my work with the Players Alliance in our effort to provide access and opportunity for the next generation of Black ballplayers.”

Maybin was a first-round pick back in 2005, selected tenth overall by the Detroit Tigers. At just 19 years old, Maybin made quick work of his minor league competition and drew praise from a number of publications. Baseball America regularly ranked the speedy outfielder among the top ten prospects in the game, doing so from 2007 until he exhausted prospect eligibility in 2009.

Though he made his Major League debut for the Tigers in 2007, a franchise-altering trade sent Maybin, along with a young Andrew Miller and others, to the Marlins for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. Irregular playing time but continued minor league dominance made Maybin a target of another trade just a few years later, when the Padres acquired him to be their starting center fielder for relievers Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica.

San Diego took well to their new center fielder, as Maybin broke out with a 40-steal, 103 OPS+ showing in his first year on the West Coast. That performance, combined with Maybin’s stellar glove up the middle, resulted in a 5-year $25MM extension before the 2012 season. Before the contract’s expiration, Maybin was dealt in yet another high-profile trade. In this deal, new Padres general manager A.J. Preller made his presence felt by acquiring closer Craig Kimbrel in an Opening Day-beating deal with the Braves.

After a year in Atlanta, Maybin bounced around between eight teams, providing clubs with speed and modest offense in the outfield and off the bench. During this stretch, Maybin had a resurgent year when he reunited with the Tigers in 2016, sporting a 118 OPS+ in 94 games. He pushed his offense to new heights in 2019, with a strong .285/.364/.494 (127 OPS+) showing in 82 games for an injury-ravaged Yankees team.

Maybin was set to look for 2022 opportunities as a veteran depth option for clubs. Instead, he’ll eschew a complicated free agent market and retire a career .254/.323/.374 hitter with 187 steals.

MLBTR congratulates Maybin on an excellent career, and wishes him the best of luck with his Players Alliance endeavors and elsewhere.

Kyle Seager Announces Retirement

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Kyle Seager has announced his retirement, according to a statement relayed by his wife on Twitter. He had the rare honor of spending his entire career with one organization, having been drafted by the Seattle Mariners and staying with them until reaching free agency at the end of the 2021 season.

Seager, 34, began his career as a third-round pick of the Mariners in 2009, climbing through the minors to make his MLB debut in 2011, getting into 53 games that year. In 2012, he had a breakout year that saw him hit 20 home runs in 155 games, slashing .259/.316/.423. In combination with his solid third base defense, he was worth 3.8 fWAR that year.

From that point on, he essentially took over and made himself a fixture at the hot corner in Seattle, playing at least 154 games for the Mariners for seven straight seasons from 2012 to 2018. A hand injury limited him to 106 games in 2019, but that would prove to be his only significant absence, as he played all 60 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign and then 159 games in 2021.

Kyle SeagerAfter a 2014 season in which Seager hit 25 homers, was selected to the All-Star game and won a Gold Glove, he and the Mariners agreed to a contract extension worth $100MM over seven years. That contract, which just concluded a few months ago, kept him a Mariner for life.

Over his 11 seasons, Seager played 1,480 games, notching 1,395 hits, 309 doubles and 242 home runs. His overall career slash line was .251/.321/.442. He was worth 34.8 wins above replacement in the estimation of FanGraphs, with Baseball Reference putting him at 36.9. A model of consistency, Seager produced at least 1.5 fWAR for ten straight seasons, from 2012 to 2021, hitting at least 20 home runs in each of those seasons, except for the shortened 2020 campaign. Despite his reliable durability, power production and defense, the Mariners were never able to build a postseason-worthy team around him, having not been to the postseason since 2001.

In 2021, the final year of his career, Seager set career highs in home runs and runs batted in, with 35 and 101, respectively. His slash line on the year was .212/.285/.438. Going into the offseason, MLBTR predicted that he could have earned himself a new contract worth $24MM over two years. Instead, he will hang up his spikes and enter the next chapter of his life.

Seager addressed his retirement with Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times this afternoon. The third baseman said he’d decided to retire by the end of the season, a year that ended with an emotional farewell from the fans at T-Mobile Park after the Mariners had been eliminated from playoff contention. “I knew if we got eliminated that would be the last time I played baseball. I knew it was my last at-bats, I knew it was my last ground balls, my last innings,” Seager texted Divish. “All those thoughts were in my head. I had so many emotions going on that day. My family being out for the pregame pitch was magical. I got very emotional very early in the day!”

Seager went on to tell Divish he’d been contemplating retirement as far back as Spring Training and said the ongoing lockout and labor uncertainty played no role in his decision. “It honestly was an easy decision. As much as I love baseball, it was time. I’m ready to be home with my family. I’ll miss a lot of people and aspects of the game, but I am ready to start the next chapter of my life.” Mariners fans in particular will want to check out Divish’s full piece, which also contains quotes from Seager on his appreciation for the Seattle fanbase as well as interest he’d received from other teams this winter after the M’s bought out his club option for 2022.

The MLBTR team would like to extend a heartfelt congratulations to Kyle for an incredible career and wish him the best of luck in whatever comes next.

Latest On Cubs’ Interest In Carlos Correa

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There’s no more impactful player remaining on the open market than Carlos Correa. MLBTR’s top free agent entering the offseason, Correa was content to sit out the pre-lockout frenzy. The star shortstop is in position to land easily the biggest deal of the post-lockout period whenever the transactions freeze comes to an end. It stands to reason he and his representatives will try to top the ten-year, $325MM deal Corey Seager landed with the Rangers last month.

Reports have linked Correa to a few teams this winter, with some perhaps unexpected suitors hopping into the mix. The incumbent Astros, Cubs, Braves, Tigers, Red Sox, Dodgers and Yankees were all linked to the two-time All-Star in some capacity. To what extent those clubs will reengage with Correa coming out of the lockout remains to be seen. The Tigers have already landed Javier Báez on a nine-figure deal. The Astros might be reluctant to go beyond six guaranteed years, and multiple reports have indicated the Yankees are content to rely on a stopgap pick-up at shortstop with a pair of well-regarded prospects (Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe) not far away from MLB readiness.

The Cubs’ reported entrance into the Correa bidding also registered as something of a surprise, given their recent spending habits. Chicago has kicked off an organizational reboot over the past few months, dropping player payroll from 2019’s franchise-record $203MM outlay (estimate via Cot’s Baseball Contracts). Early in the offseason, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer cautioned against the possibility of “winning” the offseason and expressed a desire to spend opportunistically. None of that portended an earnest pursuit of the market’s top free agent.

To their credit, the Cubs’ early offseason approach has already been fairly active. Chicago claimed Wade Miley off waivers from the Reds, taking on a $10MM salary in the process. They signed Yan Gomes to a two-year, $13MM guarantee. And in their biggest splash of the offseason to date, Chicago landed Marcus Stroman on a three-year, $71MM deal that contains an opt-out possibility after the 2023 campaign.

The Cubs’ first couple months of activity at least suggests it’s not a full rebuild, a sentiment Hoyer has expressed on a few occasions. The major league roster still looks short of immediate contention, but it also doesn’t seem the Cubs are hoping to idle near the bottom of the National League for the next few years in hopes of collecting high draft choices. Even if 2022 proves to be a down year, the front office could have their sights set on being competitive within the season or two thereafter.

There’s a case to be made for the Cubs to make a strong run at Correa, who just turned 27 in September. He’ll still be in his prime whenever the team is better prepared to contend, and one need look no further than the Rangers’ signing of Seager as an example of a current non-contender jumping early to sign an impact player to a long-term deal. A Correa mega-deal would be in a different financial stratosphere than any of the Cubs’ moves this winter, though, and it remains to be seen if the organization’s willing to make that level of commitment.

The Cubs apparently continue to have some amount of interest in that possibility. Bruce Levine of 670 The Score hears the organization may be willing to meet the $30MM+ in annual salary that Correa’s likely to command. However, he hears that the Cubs could balk at an especially long-term commitment, writing that “they’d rather not go 10 years in length.” Whether the reluctance to offer a decade’s worth of guarantees is a matter of preference or a firm organizational mandate isn’t clear, nor is the length of a proposal the front office would be more comfortable putting forth.

If the Cubs prove completely unwilling to go to ten years, it’d be difficult for Correa to top Seager’s $325MM guarantee in Chicago. Even over a nine-year term, getting to $325MM would require a $36.11MM average annual salary that’d be a record for a position player. It’s not clear whether Correa would be willing to sacrifice a year or two at the back of a deal in order to land a record-breaking AAV, although he’s reportedly already passed on offers of $160MM over five years (from the Astros) and $275MM over ten years (from the Tigers).

There’s no question he’ll have myriad options from which to choose once the sport’s business resumes. Correa is coming off a fifth-place finish in AL MVP balloting on the heels of a .279/.366/.485 line (134 wRC+) paired with Gold Glove defense. Of equal importance, he avoided the injured list (aside from a brief stay related to COVID-19) en route to 640 plate appearances over 148 games. That marked Correa’s heaviest workload since 2016, helping to assuage concerns clubs may have had after he was limited to 294 games between 2017-19 (98 per season) by thumb, back and rib issues.

Details On Luxury Tax Payments For Dodgers/Padres

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As expected, the Dodgers and Padres are the two teams that exceeded the luxury tax threshold this past season. The Associated Press reports that Los Angeles will pay $32.65MM in fees, while the Padres’ tax penalty lands at a more modest $1.29MM. No other teams exceeded the threshold in 2021.

Neither the Dodgers nor the Padres exceeded the threshold in 2020. Under the terms of the 2016-21 collective bargaining agreement, teams were only subject to escalating penalties for exceeding in consecutive years. Thus, both teams will be treated as first-time payors this offseason.

Teams are only subject to penalties on the dollars they spend above the threshold. The 2021 penalties for first-time payors checked in at 20% on every dollar between $210MM and $230MM, 32% on overages between $230MM and $250MM and 62.5% on each dollar spent above $250MM. CBT figures are calculated by summing the average annual values of all of a team’s player contracts (plus benefits), not by looking at a team’s actual payrolls in a given season.

As their hefty tax suggests, the Dodgers were by far the game’s biggest spender in 2021. Los Angeles’ final luxury tax number checked in at $285.6MM. (Their tax payment is calculated as the sum of $4MM on their overages between $210MM – $230MM, $6.4MM on their overages between $230MM – $250MM and $22.25MM on their overages above $250MM). The Dodgers flexed that financial might to build a star-studded roster that went to the NL Championship Series.

By exceeding $250MM, the Dodgers also accepted a minor hit in next year’s amateur draft. Teams that exceeded the highest tax threshold in the previous CBA saw their top choice moved back ten spots in the ensuing Rule 4 draft. Instead of picking 30th overall next season as originally scheduled, they’ll first select at pick No. 40.

While the Dodgers shattered the luxury mark, the Padres very narrowly exceeded the first threshold. Their final ledger checked in at $216.5MM, the highest mark in franchise history. San Diego’s financial cost for doing so is minuscule, but surpassing the threshold would be of more import were they to sign a free agent who has been tagged with a qualifying offer. Teams that pay any CBT penalties are subject to the highest levels of draft pick and international signing bonus forfeiture for signing qualified free agents. Exceeding the tax also reduces the compensation teams receive when one of their own qualified free agents signs elsewhere; this winter, the Dodgers received the lowest possible compensation (a pick after the fourth round) for watching Corey Seager depart.

As mentioned, the previous CBA contained escalating penalties for teams that exceeded the threshold in multiple consecutive years. It’s not clear whether that process will continue with the next CBA (or where the thresholds will land in the next CBA) but most high-revenue teams have occasionally determined to dip back under the threshold to “reset” their tax bracket and dodge escalating penalties.

That makes the Padres’ decision to narrowly exceed the threshold and potentially shoulder escalating penalties in future years a bit atypical. A handful of teams settled their spending limits just below the $210MM mark. According to the AP, each of the Phillies, Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Astros ended with payrolls less than $5MM below the first tax threshold. They’ll each be first-time payors if they exceed that mark in 2022, with the Yankees and Astros resetting after exceeding the threshold in 2020. (The Cubs also exceeded the threshold in 2020 but didn’t come especially close to $210MM in 2021).

The AP also reports that overall spending on players took a step back. The combined tally of all thirty teams’ luxury tax payrolls this past season tallied $4.52 billion, down from the $4.71 billion teams spent in 2019. That’s not entirely surprising on the heels of a 2020 campaign with essentially no gate revenues, although it’s the lowest overall expenditures on players since 2016’s $4.51 billion.

A’s Name Mark Kotsay Manager

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Dec. 21: The A’s have formally announced Kotsay as their new manager. He signed a three-year deal with a club option for a fourth season, per the team.

Dec. 20: The Athletics are hiring Mark Kotsay as their next manager, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (Twitter link). The news comes as little surprise, as Heyman had reported over the weekend that Oakland was zeroing in on Kotsay for the position.

It’ll be the first managerial stint for the 46-year-old, who spent the 2021 campaign as the A’s third base coach. While he’d only served in that capacity for one season, the longtime MLB outfielder has been on the Oakland staff for a while. Kotsay originally signed on as bench coach over the 2015-16 offseason. After two years in that capacity, he bounced to quality control coach for a few seasons before taking over third base coaching duties last winter.

Now, Kotsay’s in position to oversee a dugout for the first time. His taking over the managerial chair in Oakland this winter would’ve seemed completely improbable just a few months ago. Longtime A’s skipper Bob Melvin — generally regarded as one of the better managers around the league — remained under contract after the team exercised a 2022 option on his services in June. Yet Oakland brass eventually granted Melvin permission to explore opportunities elsewhere, and the three-time Manager of the Year fielded inquiries from the Padres. San Diego and Melvin finalized a three-year deal in early November, leaving Oakland on the hunt for a new dugout leader for the first time in over a decade.

Melvin’s departure was nothing short of shocking. Once the dust was settled, however, it became clear that Kotsay was as strong a candidate as anyone to succeed him. Not only has the latter spent the past six seasons taking on various roles in Oakland, he spent the 2014 campaign as a special assistant in the Padres’ front office and logged the following year as the Friars’ hitting coach.

That’s a wide array of experience, particularly considering Kotsay’s not that far removed from hanging up his spikes. The ninth overall pick in 1996 coming out of Cal State Fullerton, Kotsay made his big league debut with the Marlins a little more than a year after his draft day. He’d appear in the majors in each of the next sixteen seasons, continuing his playing career all the way through 2013.

Kotsay appeared with seven different organizations during his MLB career, including two separate stints in San Diego and four years (2004-07) with the A’s. That stretch included a .314/.370/.459 showing in his first year in the Bay Area that stands out as one of the better seasons of his career. Oakland’s current top two front office decision-makers — executive vice president Billy Beane and general manager David Forst — were already in key positions with the A’s during that time, so Kotsay’s original stint in the organization likely laid the foundation for the key post-playing roles he’d eventually assume.

While Kotsay has yet to manage at any level professionally, he’s long been viewed as a viable candidate. By 2015, he’d been mentioned as a possibility to lead the Padres’ clubhouse on an interim basis after the firing of Bud Black, although that role eventually went to Pat Murphy. By the 2019-20 offseason, he was garnering consideration from clubs to land a managerial role on a permanent basis. He reportedly sat down with each of the Giants, Pirates, Astros and Red Sox that winter but didn’t ultimately land a gig. Last year, he interviewed with the Tigers for the position that eventually went to A.J. Hinch, but he’ll now get his opportunity with the franchise he arguably knows as well as any.

Aside from Kotsay, the A’s reportedly considered bullpen coach Marcus Jensen and hitting coach Darren Bush as possible internal options. Oakland also looked into Rays’ bench coach Matt Quatraro, Red Sox’s bench coach Will Venable and Astros’ bench coach Joe Espada. With the A’s the last team of the offseason to finalize their managerial situation, each of that group will have to wait at least one more year in the pursuit of their own first managerial nods.

Kotsay’s first order of business figures to be nailing down the coaching staff, which he and the front office can embark upon during the lockout. Once the transactions freeze is lifted, the A’s appear to be in for a rather significant roster overhaul. The front office is always operating under a tight budget due to payroll restraints, and reports have suggested for months that the A’s could trade key players (i.e. Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas) in an effort to reduce costs. Indeed, reports suggested Melvin’s $4MM salary may have been part of the reason the A’s allowed him to head to San Diego in the first place, although it’s likely the organization’s affinity for their longtime skipper was also a factor.

The specific form the restructure takes won’t be known until there’s a new CBA in place. Yet it’s likely Kotsay and his staff will be tasked with leading a club that looks very different, both from last year’s 86-win squad and the roster as currently constructed. That could make for a tough challenge for a first-year skipper, but the front office clearly believes in Kotsay’s ability to lead the franchise through that transition.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Mets Hire Buck Showalter As Manager

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After weeks of speculation, the Mets have hired their new manager.  New York announced on Monday that they’ve hired veteran skipper Buck Showalter. It’s reportedly a three-year contract that’ll go down as the largest investment in a manger in franchise history, topping the $9.4MM earned by Art Howe.

“Buck has been one of the best baseball minds for the last two decades and he makes teams better,” owner Steve Cohen said in the team’s statement. “We have a lot of talent on this team and Buck is the right manager to take us to the next level and lead us to sustained success. I am excited he is our new manager.”

It had already been reported that Showalter had advanced past the initial pool of candidates and moved onto the second round of interviews for the managerial opening. This represents another close call at helming a dugout for the other two finalists, Tampa Bay’s Matt Quatraro and Houston’s Joe Espada. Despite reverence around the league for the latter two coaches, industry insiders quickly tabbed Showalter as the frontrunner for the Mets position.

The veteran skipper will now take over a Mets dugout that has been something of a revolving door since Terry Collins’ seven-year run as manager ended after the 2017 season.  Mickey Callaway was fired after two seasons, and following the short-lived hiring of Carlos Beltran, bench coach Luis Rojas took over the manager’s mantle heading into 2020.

The past two seasons saw Rojas sport a 103-119 record, a disappointing sum for a team with so much star power. While Rojas can hardly be pinned as the sole reason for the team’s struggles (the cross-town Yankees promptly hired Rojas as a coach following his dismissal, speaking to his abilities), he did oversee a collapse this past season. After spending 114 days in first place, the Mets were no longer able to weather injuries and under-performance, ultimately limping to a third place finish in their division.

While Rojas, Beltran, and Callaway were first-time MLB managers, Showalter is a known commodity.  Over the course of 20 seasons and 3069 games, Showalter sports a .506% winning percentage and has taken home Manager of the Year hardware with three different clubs (1994 Yankees, 2004 Rangers, 2014 Orioles).

While Showalter has never won a World Series as a manager, many around the league have cited his leadership skills as a reason teams become postseason contenders. Most recently, during his 2010-2018 run with Baltimore, Showalter helped turn a rebuilding club into one of the American League’s winningest teams. After a 69-win inaugural full season with the club, Showalter quickly saw the team post non-losing records in the next 5 seasons. The Orioles made the playoffs three times during that stretch, including once as a first place team— no small feat considering the financial powerhouses that reside in the AL East.

It’s been some time since Showalter managed one of those very powerhouses, last managing the Yankees in 1995. Improbably, he’ll now helm a team with even greater resources at its disposal. In a series of win-now moves, the Mets have launched their 2022 payroll to new heights. RosterResource pegs the Mets to open next season with a franchise-high $263MM payroll, a number that is handily the highest in all of baseball, and was more astonishingly reached with months (and plenty of free agents) left in the offseason.

With the likes of Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, Mark Canha, and Eduardo Escobar already joining the Mets this offseason it’s become imminently clear the NL’s New York club isn’t content to idle under .500.  Pair these additions with star holdovers Jacob deGrom, Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, and Pete Alonso and the Mets are teeming with top-shelf talent. That collection of players, plus all of the other bounce-back talent on the roster, will give the team’s new manager plenty of firepower to claim a division that has belonged to Atlanta the past four years.

In the ensuing weeks Showalter will round out his coaching staff, while the Mets may still add players to their club after the lockout is lifted. Whatever changes are made before the 2022 season starts however, many pundits and fans will point to this hiring as the team’s key move of the offseason. Hiring a widely-respected stabilizer may be just what the Mets need to capitalize on their potential and get to the postseason for the first time since 2016.

Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reported Showalter’s deal was a three-year contract. Mike Puma of the New York Post reported the deal was the largest for a manager in franchise history.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

David Blitzer To Acquire Significant Minority Stake In Guardians

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David Blitzer, partial owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, is  acquiring a large minority stake in the Cleveland Guardians, tweets Jon Heyman of the MLB Network. Perhaps of more interest, Heyman further reports that the deal gives Blitzer an option to become the majority owner around five to six years from now.

Eben Novy-Williams and Scott Soshnick of Sportico reported this morning that Blitzer was in talks with the Guardians about acquiring a significant minority stake. Those reports come on the same day that Zack Meisel of The Athletic published his own report indicating that Guardians majority owner Paul Dolan has enlisted investment banking firm Allen & Co. to assist him in finding a buyer for a share of the team that could be as large as 30 to 40 percent. In a statement to reporters (Twitter link via Mandy Bell of MLB.com), Dolan confirmed that he and Blitzer have held “meaningful” discussions but chose not to comment any further on the negotiations.

Dolan’s search for a new investment partner comes in the wake of John Sherman’s departure from the ownership group back in 2019. Sherman held a significant minority stake himself when with the club, but he divested his interest in order to purchase a majority stake of the Kansas City Royals from then-owner David Glass. Sherman paid more than $1 billion in his purchase of the Royals, and his former shares of the Indians/Guardians franchise have been sitting in escrow since his departure, per Meisel.

Forbes’ most recent franchise valuation estimates (back in March) pegged Cleveland at $1.16 billion. Sportico’s most recent valuation was a $1.375 billion sum. Meisel, meanwhile, suggests that Dolan has placed a slightly more aggressive $1.4 billion valuation on the team. It’s not clear how amenable Blitzer has been to that $1.4 billion sum, but Sportico’s report indicates that he’s currently negotiating over what would be a 35 percent stake. That’d mean something in the vicinity of a $490MM investment (based on that $1.4 billion figure) from Blitzer, who’d be buying up Sherman’s former shares as well as some of Dolan’s stake.

This isn’t the first time that Blitzer has sought to expand his portfolio into the baseball world. Many fans may recall that Blitzer and Sixers/Devils majority owner Josh Harris were at one point seeking to purchase the Mets from the Wilpon family before being outbid by current owner Steve Cohen. At present, there’s no indication that Harris is a part of the negotiations that have taken place between Dolan and Blitzer, however.

Any sale and/or ownership change can bring about relocation concerns among the fanbase, but it seems quite unlikely any such plans would be in the works even were Blitzer to eventually take control of the club. The Guardians recently inked a 15-year lease extension at Progressive Field, guaranteeing that to be their home site through the 2036 season. The extension also came with the “potential for 10 additional years” to be added onto the agreement, per the team’s announcement at the time. That agreement called for $435MM worth of renovations and upgrades to the stadium, which has been the team’s home since the 1994 season.

The other pressing thought for Guardians fans in the wake of the report would be one of potentially increased payroll capacity, though it should be stressed that a five-year transfer of majority ownership would in no way guarantee a sudden payroll spike. Cleveland’s payroll has plummeted to among the lowest in MLB as they’ve traded away various recognizable names, including Mike Clevinger and Corey Kluber, while simultaneously eschewing any notable spending in free agency. The result is a payroll where Jose Ramirez’s $11MM salary is now the only guaranteed money on the books for Cleveland in 2022, though subsequent arbitration agreements and a smattering of free-agent pickups and/or trade acquisitions will surely boost that figure a bit.

An eventual ownership change could, of course, bring about new spending habits for an organization that has typically been one of the league’s lowest-payroll clubs. That said, the primary drivers of payroll upticks for any team will always be increased revenues through television/streaming rights, gate revenue and/or real estate holdings surrounding the park. It’s unlikely that transitioning to Blitzer or another majority owner would catapult the Guardians into the top third of Major League payrolls at any point, but a new majority owner/control person could certainly impact various organizational spending philosophies (e.g. willingness to spend on rare extensions for key players).

MLB, MLBPA Not Expected To Discuss Core Economics Until January

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TODAY: Thursday’s discussions involved such topics as PED policies, the joint domestic violence/sexual assault/child abuse policy, special events, procedures for filing grievances, and scheduling, ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers writes.

DEC. 15: Since Major League Baseball instituted a lockout in the early morning hours of December 2, there’s been little known back-and-forth between the league and the MLB Players Association. Evan Drellich of the Athletic reports this evening that the sides aren’t expected to discuss the game’s core economic structure until sometime in January. The parties have, however, been in contact about other issues and are expected to meet in-person tomorrow to discuss issues outside of core economics.

Disagreements related to core economics figure to be the most important, contentious issues to hammer out. Such topics as the service time structure, playoff expansion and the competitive balance tax are among the areas of import for both sides that could be difficult to iron out. Agreeing on the core economics structure figures to take ample bargaining time, and that the sides won’t even address the issues again until January is the latest confirmation that the lockout figures to drag on for quite some time.

In the aftermath of the lockout, both Commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA lead negotiator Bruce Meyer publicly expressed a willingness to continue negotiating. Yet Drellich hears that neither side has initiated talks regarding core economics in the nearly two weeks since then, even as they’ve engaged on less contentious matters.

There doesn’t seem to be much belief that meetings regarding core economics before January would serve much of a purpose, though. Drellich hears from individuals on both sides of talks who suggest that a sit-down within the coming days or weeks would likely have only resulted in negotiators “saying the same things to each other over and over.”

As Drellich points out, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of urgency for either side to move off their initial demands at this point on the calendar. During the winter months, owners aren’t losing gate revenues while players aren’t forfeiting game checks. Major league transactions are frozen, but that alone doesn’t seem to be enough of a motivator for either side to alter their bargaining positions.

The league’s owners are clearly content to wait through a transactions freeze, having voted to lock the players out unanimously as the previous collective bargaining agreement expired. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark, meanwhile, suggested to reporters on December 2 that the freeze wouldn’t affect the players’ negotiating resolve. “Players consider (the lockout) unnecessary and provocative,” Clark said at the time. “The lockout won’t pressure or intimidate players into a deal they don’t believe is fair.”

It’s possible both sides will begin to feel more pressure to move closer to an agreement as the scheduled start of Spring Training nears. As things currently stand, the first exhibition games are scheduled to begin on February 26, 2022. Of course, there’ll need to be some time for players to report and to get into game shape before jumping right into game play. In the immediate aftermath of the lockout, Bob Nightengale of USA Today suggested the sides viewed February 1 as a “soft deadline” for a deal getting done to avoid interruptions to Spring Training.

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