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Angels Manager Mike Scioscia To Step Down

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Mike Scioscia is stepping down from his post as Angels manager, the veteran skipper announced to the media (including Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times and MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado) after the Halos concluded their final game of the season.  Rumors had swirled since August that this would be Scioscia’s final year as Los Angeles’ manager, and while there was some indication that Scioscia would retire from baseball altogether, he said today that he would be open to another managerial job with another club.

According to team president John Carpino (via Shaikin and other reporters), it was Scioscia’s decision to not return to the Angels.  This doesn’t exactly match last week’s news that Scioscia wanted to remain with the club, as he said he would make his final choice after talking with owner Arte Moreno and GM Billy Eppler.  This was the final season of Scioscia’s ten-year/$50MM contract, so the Angels could possibly have felt that change was necessary in the wake of three straight losing seasons.

Still, Scioscia’s 19-year tenure as the Angels’ bench boss has easily been the most successful stretch in franchise history.  Scioscia was a first-time manager when originally hired prior to the 2000 season, and he ended up managing the fifth-most games with a single franchise of any skipper in baseball history.  He currently sits 18th on baseball’s all-time managerial win list with 1650 victories (against 1428 losses).  Scioscia’s resume with the Halos included 11 winning seasons, six AL West titles, and the crowning jewel of the 2002 World Series championship, the first and only time the Angels have hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy.

Over the last nine seasons, however, the Angels reached the postseason only once, a trip that resulted in an ignominious three-game sweep to the Royals in the 2014 ALDS.  Given that the game’s best player (Mike Trout) was on the roster for much of this stretch and the Angels have consistently posted large payrolls under Moreno’s ownership, there have been whispers over the last couple of years that Scioscia wouldn’t be back in 2019, if not sooner.  In fairness to Scioscia, however, it’s hard to blame him for the Angels’ recent struggles given that the team has been hit by a staggering amount of pitching injuries over the last three years.

It isn’t clear if Scioscia (who turns 60 in November) will pursue a managerial post immediately, or if he might take a year off to recharge his batteries and test the market.  The Reds, Rangers, and Blue Jays are the only three teams known to be looking for new managers this winter, and there has been heavy speculation that the Orioles could also be looking to replace Buck Showalter.  It’s possible more jobs could open up in the coming days or even weeks, depending on whether any playoff teams decide to make a change in the dugout.

The Angels will now embark on their first managerial search of the 21st century.  As Ken Rosenthal initially noted last August in his report about Scioscia’s impending departure, top in-house candidates for the job include bench coach Josh Paul, special assistant Brad Ausmus, and Triple-A manager Eric Chavez.  Fancred’s Jon Heyman wrote earlier this week that Chavez could be the favorite, as he only took over the Triple-A job (moving from his own special assistant role under Eppler) in early August, around the time of Rosenthal’s report.  It’s fair to assume that a wider-ranging search could take place, as external candidates are likely to have strong interest in a managing a roster that includes the likes of Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Justin Upton, and other intriguing pieces, though obviously the front office has some work to do this winter to get the Angels back in contending form.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Federal Grand Jury Probing MLB Signings In Latin America

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A grand jury has been convened as part of a federal investigation into Latin American amateur signings by Major League Baseball clubs, according to a report from Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. It’s a notable development in a segment of the baseball labor market long noted for its shadowy dealings.

Full details are not yet known. As Passan explains in this must-read article, however, the potential scope of the investigation is vast. After all, ballplayers from Latin American nations — in particular, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Cuba — make up a significant portion of the game’s talent base. For decades, they have signed as teenagers under an obscure, largely unregulated system.

So-called “buscones” — alternatively framed as “trainers” or “finders” of young talent — play a notable role in the scheme. Characterizing them, though, quickly becomes complicated: root cause or symptom of systematic issues? scourge or part of the solution? There are differing perspectives, both on the system as a whole and the individuals involved.

A recently initiated MLB clean-up effort notably seeks to bring buscones into the process more formally. Of course, they don’t exist in a vacuum. The broad grey area in which they interact with representatives of MLB organizations and player agents is where the business of Latin American baseball occurs. Millions upon millions of dollars change hands in that foggy world, with some of the game’s brightest future stars emerging in one of thirty uniforms.

So, where’s the focus here? Passan writes that the specific “target of the inquiry” is not yet fully certain. But it seems that the 2015 signing of Cuban infielder Hector Olivera by the Dodgers is at least one area of interest, with a “former Atlanta Braves official” (the organization acquired Olivera later that year) and certain unnamed “people involved with the signing” receiving subpoenas.

Olivera received a hefty $28MM signing bonus as part of a $62.5MM total guarantee. Of course, he was excluded from the much more restricting parameters that govern the signings of younger players. The rules — as recently amended — create a hard cap on the amount of total bonuses each MLB team can dole out in a given year.

Whether the Olivera situation is of singular interest or just one element of the inquiry isn’t quite clear. But there’s little question that the duration and breadth of the Latin American signing game offers quite a few more potential targets to investigate. An array of club officials and agency personnel have certainly been involved over the years, with untold numbers of middle men and peripheral figures in addition to the well-known buscones.

Even more broadly, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have undeniable roles in all of this. Whether foreign governmental officials could be involved, potentially raising the stakes, isn’t know, though Passan notes that the matter involves Justice Department attorneys who prosecute actions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

It’s not yet known how the investigation will proceed, where it will reach, and what the potential and actual consequences will be. As Passan writes, though, it has “spooked” the “top officials on both sides” — that is, the league and the union. And it’s amply arguable that a full accounting of MLB’s involvement in Latin America is warranted.

Blue Jays Announce They Will Not Retain Manager John Gibbons

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12:03pm: GM Ross Atkins announced in a joint press conference with Gibbons that the latter will not return to his position.

9:06am: The Blue Jays will announce today that they will not retain manager John Gibbons for the 2019 season, according to Steve Phillips of MLB Network Radio (via Twitter). As Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca explains in reporting the same, this news represents a formal acknowledgement of an outcome that was more or less already decided.

Gibbons, 56, has run the dugout for the past six seasons in his second stint with the organization. He originally took over the team in the middle of the 2004 season but was let go in the midst of a disappointing 2008 campaign. After a few years in the Royals and Padres organizations, Gibbons returned for the 2013 season after the Jays allowed John Farrell to move to the division-rival Red Sox.

Most recently, Gibbons signed an extension that included a guarantee for the 2019 campaign. Accordingly, he’ll be paid under that deal regardless of where he ends up. As Davidi writes, Gibbons says he’d prefer to continue managing. Whether that’ll come to pass in the near term isn’t clear, but it seems to suggest that he’ll continue to look for opportunities on major or minor-league staffs.

In his return effort with Toronto, Gibbons guided the club to memorable campaigns in 2015 and 2016, including an AL East title in the first of those years. While the Jays were unable to break through to the World Series, suffering consecutive ALCS defeats, the period represented a return to prominence for what had been a dormant organization.

Things have turned south since, of course, though it’s tough to lay the malaise at the feet of Gibbons. In the aggregate, he carries a 791-787 record as the Blue Jays manager. As Davidi notes, that places Gibbon second only to the legendary Cito Gaston in games managed and wins in franchise history.

Roberto Osuna Agrees To Peace Bond; Assault Charge Withdrawn

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Astros right-hander Roberto Osuna appeared at a court hearing and agreed to a one-year peace bond, as Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports (Twitter links). With that agreement, the assault charge from the alleged victim in his pending domestic abuse case was withdrawn. Under the terms of the peace bond, Osuna will not be permitted to contact the alleged victim for one year without written consent and must avoid any further criminal charges.

Per the Canadian Department of Justice’s web site, peace bonds are generally used when “an individual (the defendant) appears likely to commit a criminal offence, but there are no reasonable grounds to believe that an offence has actually been committed.” The Canadian Department of Justice further adds that peace bonds are obtainable by “any person who fears that another person may injure them, their spouse or common-law partner, or a child, or may damage their property,” and violation of a peace bond can result in up to four years of prison time. Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tweets that according to the Crown Prosecutor, the complainant is in Mexico with the couple’s three-year-old and wishes to continue co-parenting. She chose not to testify.

Osuna declined to speak with the media upon leaving the courthouse, instead only releasing the following statement via his lawyer (Twitter links via Rome and via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet):

“Now I can begin to put these alegations behind me and focus on baseball. I want to thank my family, teammates and fans for believing in me. I am grateful to the Astros for providing me with the opportunity to play baseball and compete for a World Series championship. I will make no further comments about this matter, as I plan on moving past this and look only to the future.”

The Astros, meanwhile, released their own statement on the proceedings:

“Today, the Ontario Court of Justice withdrew the assault charge against Roberto Osuna. The Houston Astros look forward to Roberto continuing his commitment to be a productive and caring part of our community. The Astros remain committed to increase our support rearding the issues of dometic violence and abuse of any kind. We have engaged with a number of local, state and national organizations — and we look forward to working with them in the short term and over the long term.”

Mets Reinstate David Wright From Disabled List

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The Mets announced today that they’ve formally reinstated team captain David Wright from the disabled list. Their plans were made clear earlier this month when announcing that Wright would return for the season’s final homestand and make one start (this coming Saturday), but today’s announcement makes it official that Wright is an active Major League player for the first time in more than two calendar years.

The final six games of the season, particularly Saturday’s contest, promise to bring out plenty of emotional moments in Queens, as Mets fans bid farewell to arguably the greatest player in franchise history. Wright’s career has been tragically cut short by a series of injuries, beginning with a spinal stenosis diagnosis in 2016 that preceded eventual neck and shoulder surgeries. In a tearful press conference addressing his future earlier this month, the venerable third baseman acknowledged that playing baseball had become “debilitating” for him and that doctors simply could not forecast his condition improving to the point where he could continue his playing career.

Tickets quickly sold out for the final start of Wright’s career, so he’ll have the opportunity to soak in moment in front of what should be a capacity crowd at Citi Field. The franchise icon and World Baseball Classic hero will head into his final weekend as a Major Leaguer with a career .296/.376/.491 batting line, 242 home runs, 196 stolen bases, 390 doubles, 26 triples, 949 runs scored and 970 runs batted in.

Wright, now 35 years of age, won’t formally retire following the season, and he’ll continue to be paid out the remaining $27MM on his contract while spending the 2019-20 seasons on the 60-day disabled list. The Mets’ insurance policy on his contract reportedly covers 75 percent of his salary, so they’ll only owe him a combined $6.75MM out of pocket over the life of those two seasons.

Mike Scioscia “Would Like To” Keep Managing Beyond 2018

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In an interview with Terry Smith of KLAA, Angels manager Mike Scioscia stated that he would “like to” continue managing beyond 2018 (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Maria Guardado). As the Angels’ season comes to a close, Scioscia said that he will consult with Angels owner Arte Moreno and general manager Billy Eppler to make a determination on his future:

“I’d like to. We’ll continue to evaluate things this week and I’ll speak with Arte and speak with Billy and kind of come to a decision, but I think that if you love something, you want to continue to keep doing it, and if you can, great, and if it doesn’t happen, so be it. But I love the dugout.”

Scioscia’s status for 2019 has been unclear since reports surfaced earlier in the season that he would not remain with the Angels past this season. Scioscia, however, refuted those reports, calling them “poppycock.” Scioscia has now doubled down on his comments, reiterating that he would prefer to continue in a managerial role with Los Angeles after 2018.

Scioscia, 59, has managed 19 seasons in the Major Leagues, all of them with the Angels. Currently in the final season of a 10-year, $50MM contract signed in 2009, Scioscia’s deal is set to expire at season’s end. However, Scioscia’s comments make it clear that he would be willing to accept an offer from the Angels. While the interest must be mutual if his Angels career is to continue, Moreno has been loyal to Scioscia, who has been the Angels’ only manager since Moreno purchased the team in 2003.

Scioscia has managed to a career record of 1645-1427, a .535 winning percentage. In 2002, his third season with the Angels, Scioscia led the team to a World Series title, the first in franchise history. His teams have reached the postseason seven times, most recently in 2014. A two-time American League Manager of the Year, Scioscia is the winningest manager in Angels history.

Amid the Angels’ recent struggles, having missed out on postseason play in each of the last four seasons, rumors surfaced that Scioscia was expected to step down as the Angels manager after the expiration of his contract. Reports suggested that it was unknown whether Scioscia was interested in managing for a new team if he were to step down. Any uncertainty regarding his motivations has vanished, though, as Scioscia’s most recent comments confirm that he intends to remain in Los Angeles, if possible.

Giants Remove Bobby Evans From GM Role

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7:50pm: Baer said in a conference call tonight that the Giants will search for a new head of baseball operations, meaning Sabean will not be in charge of such decisions moving forward, either (Twitter link via Pavlovic). Baer also stated that the team expects Bochy to return as the manager in 2019 (Twitter link via Schulman).

6:50pm: The Giants announced the move and added that Evans will be “reassigned” to a new role with responsibilities that have yet to be determined. Giants CEO Larry Baer offered the following statement:

“I want to thank Bobby for his tireless work on behalf of the Giants. He played an important role in our team’s success throughout his tenure, which includes three World Series championships, four NL pennants and eight playoff appearances. We look forward to new leadership to continue our historic record of success.”

Sabean will not simply be reprising his role atop the team’s operations hierarchy, it seems, as the press release indicates that he’ll work with Baer to find a replacement for Evans.

“I take great pride in the longstanding continuity of our baseball department,” Sabean said in his own statement. “I want to express my thanks to Bobby for all he has given to the Giants over the past 25 years and for his countless contributions.”

6:15pm: Bobby Evans has been removed from his post as the Giants’ general manager, reports Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s not clear if Evans will remain with the organization in another capacity or look for an opportunity in a new organization, though Schulman adds that he’s expected to be offered another role within the Giants. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area writes that the move is likely to be the first of many in a major front-office shakeup, though Schulman notes that executive vice president Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy are likely to be retained.

Evans has spent more than two decades with the Giants and played an instrumental role in helping to construct the three rosters that won the 2010, 2012 and 2014 World Series during San Francisco’s “even-year” dynasty. At the time, Evans was the assistant general manager to then-GM Sabean, but in 2015 the organization promoted Sabean to executive vice president and bumped Evans up the chain of command another peg.

Things haven’t gone well since, as San Francisco has been burned by big-money free agent signings (Jeff Samardzija, Johnny Cueto, Mark Melancon) while struggling through a pair of losing seasons. The Giants won only 64 games last season but loaded up on veteran additions in the offseason with an eye toward contending in 2018. Trade acquisitions Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria didn’t help the offense in the manner that Evans & Co. had hoped, however. This year’s club did manage to hang around the periphery of contention longer than the 2017 iteration of the Giants — despite myriad injury issues, it should be noted — but ultimately plummeted out of the division race in catastrophic fashion by losing 11 consecutive games.

While the past couple seasons for the Giants have been miserable, Evans should have no trouble finding another opportunity with a different organization if he decides to move on from the Giants. He’s among the game’s most respected executives and would bring a wealth of experience to a new club. It’s worth noting that there is at least one other GM opening that’ll need to be filled, as the Mets are searching for a new head of baseball operations following Sandy Alderson’s departure from the team earlier this summer.

Victor Martinez Will Conclude Playing Career This Weekend

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Victor Martinez will take the final at-bat of his career this Saturday, per Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. Friday and Saturday against Kansas City will be the final two games of Martinez’s career.

Victor Martinez

It seems, then, that Martinez has put aside any remaining doubt as to his intentions. He said recently, in reference to the remainder of the 2018 season, that he was “pretty sure this is going to be it,” as Evan Woodberry of MLive.com was among those to cover. It’s now clear that Martinez will hang up his spikes after taking the final at-bat of his career in front of his home crowd in Detroit — which, as Woodberry tweets, is the way the veteran wants to wrap things up.

Martinez, a native of Venezuala, signed as an amateur free agent with the Cleveland Indians in 1996. After breaking into the majors as a catcher with the Indians in 2002, Martinez played his first full season as a 24-year-old the following season. Cleveland traded their star catcher to the Boston Red Sox at the 2009 deadline for a package of Nick Hagadone, Justin Masterson, and Bryan Price. After finishing out the 2009 season with a disappointing ALDS loss to the Angels, Martinez returned to Boston for the 2010 seasons – his last year of playing full-time at catcher.

As a free agent in 2011, Martinez joined the Detroit Tigers on a four-year, $50MM contract, where he became a primary designated hitter. The Tigers won the AL Central in all four seasons of Martinez’ initial deal, prompting the Tigers to re-sign him after the 2014 season to a second four-year pact, this one worth $68MM. That contract runs out at the end of this season.

The last two seasons have not been kind to Martinez, but he was legitimately one of the most feared hitters in the American League for a ten-year stretch from 2004-2014. His best season came with the Tigers in 2014 when he hit .335/.409/.565, leading the league with an impressive .974 OPS. For his career, Martinez slashed .296/.360/.455, with 246 home runs and a 118 OPS+, making the All-Star team five times and winning a Silver Slugger Award twice – in 2004 as a catcher and in 2014 as a DH.

Unfortunately, Martinez never won a World Series, but he was no stranger to the postseason, reaching the ALCS with Cleveland in 2007 and again with Detroit in 2011. Martinez missed the entirety of the 2012 season after tearing his left ACL during offseason conditioning, which was – unfortunately for Martinez – the year Detroit won the American League Pennant, getting swept by the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.

With 32.3 career rWAR, there’s a Hall of Fame case to be made for the switch-hitting catcher/1B/DH – but it’s unlikely. His 30.6 JAWS score puts him well below the average Hall of Fame score of 44.0 for catchers, but certainly impressive enough to receive some votes and remain on the ballot for a few years. Nevertheless, Saturday will mark the final playing time in a long and impressive career for Martinez, who turns 40 in December. Martinez will retire having made over $140MM across 16 major league seasons.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Rangers Fire Jeff Banister

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1:00pm: The Rangers have announced that Banister has been relieved of his duties. Wakamatsu will finish out the season as the interim manager.

12:42pm: The Rangers will not bring manager Jeff Banister back for a fifth season in 2019, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Banister is under contract for next season, but he’ll earn his reported $950K salary while someone else takes the helm for the Rangers, it seems. Grant notes that Banister will not finish out the season, and bench coach Don Wakamatsu will likely serve as the interim skipper.

It’s a jarring fall for Banister, the 2015 American League Manager of the Year. He guided the Rangers to a pair of winning records and a consecutive American League Division Series appearances in 2015-16 — his first two at the helm of a Major League organization. The 2017 Rangers disappointed but hung around in the race until September, ultimately finishing at 78-84. The Rangers have ensured a worse record than that in 2018 with 88 losses already in the books.

Certainly, it’d be unfair to place the entirety of the 2018 team’s failures on Banister’s shoulders. He was scarcely afforded a rotation to work with as the Rangers performed a series of half-measures last offseason, declining to enter a definitive rebuild but also paring back payroll and signing a series of stopgaps for the rotation. Texas came out of the gates strong with a three-year deal for Mike Minor to return to a starting role, but that was paired with low-cost additions of Doug Fister, Matt Moore and Bartolo Colon. Moore, perhaps, could’ve been considered an upside play, but pairing that unit with Minor and the returning Cole Hamels never looked like anywhere near enough to have a realistic shot at contending in 2018.

That said, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Jeff Wilson reported in a detailed column yesterday that Banister’s communication skills with his players had come under fire recently, with pitchers sometimes not knowing when their next start would be while some position players would find themselves in the lineup having previously been assured a day off. Texas also burned through several closers very quickly under Banister’s watch, with Shawn Tolleson flaming out in 2016 after being used on five consecutive days to close out the 2015 regular season. Sam Dyson, another bullpen workhorse under Banister, had dismal 2017 results after a heavy workload in 2016, though he’s since bounced back in San Francisco.

Wakamatsu, Grant further tweets, figures to become a candidate to take over the club on a full-time basis in 2019 and beyond. That said, the Rangers will surely interview candidates from outside the organization as they look for a developmentally-inclined skipper to help them through some degree of a rebuilding process. It’s not clear whether the Rangers will retain any of the current coaching staff, though the fact that Wakamatsu will be considered as a replacement bodes well for his chances of returning in some capacity.

Michael Fulmer Undergoes Knee Surgery

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As had largely been expected by this point, the Tigers announced today that righty Michael Fulmer has undergone surgery on his right knee. (Via MLB.com’s Jason Beck, on Twitter.) The repair work to his meniscus is not expected to prevent Fulmer from participating fully in Spring Training next year.

Fulmer, 25, went mostly backwards this year in a rebuilding season for the club.  Though his 7.48 K/9 returned to the standard he’d set in his sterling rookie season of 2016, Fulmer gave up a career high 19 HR in just 132 2/3 IP, saw his walk rate spike a nearly a hitter per nine (3.13, from 2.19 in ’17), and allowed hard contact nearly 40% of the time in 2018.  It was, by most accounts, a disappointing season for the former Rookie of the Year.

Still the crown jewel of a young Tigers rotation, Fulmer, a Super Two player, will embark on the first of his four arbitration-eligible seasons in 2019.  He figures to reprise his role as a coveted trade candidate in the offseason, where teams will no doubt value his long period of control, mostly consistent strike-throwing, and lack of significant injuries to this point.  It’s worth noting, too, that Fulmer’s average fastball velocity remained, at 95.8 MPH, one of the ten best in the league, so perhaps heretofore untapped upside is still in play.

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