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Mark Teixeira Out For Season With Fractured Leg

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Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira will not return this season after tests showed that he has a fracture in his right shin, GM Brian Cashman told reporters including Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News (via Twitter). It’s expected that he’ll require three months to recover, Jack Curry of the YES Network adds on Twitter, meaning that he should be ready to go for the spring.

The loss of the 35-year-old puts a dent in New York’s efforts to keep pace with the Blue Jays in the AL East. He had rebounded from two straight marginal seasons with an excellent .255/.357/.548 batting line and 31 home runs in 462 plate appearances. The switch hitter has been out since fouling a ball off of his shin on August 17th, but it seems the significance of the injury was only just detected.

Replacing that level of production is nearly impossible, of course, but 22-year-old Greg Bird has been solid in his first 94 big league plate appearances. Bird, who hits from the left side, owns a .241/.319/.458 slash with five long balls. He has been relied upon heavily in Teixeira’s absence, appearing in every single game since the veteran went down.

While Bird figures to hold down the position in the long run, assuming he can build upon a promising start to his major league career, the Yanks will no doubt give Teixeira every opportunity to retake the position next spring. Next year will be the last of the eight-year, $180MM deal he signed before the 2009 season. New York owes him $22.5MM for the 2016 campaign. Both players could conceivably share time in the field, with the other taking swings from the DH slot, though veterans Carlos Beltran and (especially) Alex Rodriguez factor heavily in that role.

Avila: No Decision Made On Ausmus

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11:38am: Via Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links), general manager Al Avila has issued the following statement regarding Ausmus: “I spoke to Mr. Ilitch today and to Brad and I can reconfirm that our evaluation is ongoing and decision has not been made.” A decision on Ausmus will be made by season’s end, Avila adds.

7:40am: The Tigers are planning to fire manager Brad Ausmus at season’s end, according to Bernie Smilovitz of WDIV-TV in Detroit. Per Smilovitz, new general manager Al Avila wants to bring in his own manager to give the organization a fresh start. Ausmus, notably, was a hire of former GM Dave Dombrowski, who was dismissed in August and quickly landed in Boston as the Red Sox’ new president of baseball operations. Former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is among the candidates being discussed internally as a potential replacement in 2016, according to Smilovitz.

The Tigers are currently a surprise last-place team in the American League Central, with a record of 64-76. Part of the reason for that standing, of course, is the decision by the since-dismissed Dombrowski to sell at the deadline, moving the likes of David Price, Yoenis Cespedes and Joakim Soria in a trio of trades for younger talent. However, even at the deadline, the Tigers were a disappointment, having fallen well behind the division-leading Royals and sitting two games below .500 entering the final day of the non-waiver trade deadline.

As George Sipple the Detroit Free Press notes in reporting that he, too, has also heard Ausmus will be ousted at season’s end, Avila said at the time he took over as GM that Ausmus would manage the club for the remainder of the 2015 campaign: “He’s our manager for the rest of the season for sure. I have all the confidence in him. I think he’s done a good job,” said Avila at the time. “…I do have all the confidence in the world in Brad Ausmus and his staff right now.”

If the Tigers have indeed made up their mind on Ausmus, it would seem only fair to the skipper and the team to make a move more immediately. Waiting until season’s end to do so would almost certainly create an uncomfortable atmosphere in the clubhouse and put Ausmus in an extraordinarily difficult position for the season’s final few weeks. An interim manager from the current staff could certainly be named — such is often the case in these situations — before searching for a permanent replacement this winter.

For his part, Ausmus tells Chris McCosky of the Detroit News that he “[hasn’t] been told anything” by the Tigers yet. Last week, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported that Ausmus’ job did appear to be in jeopardy, adding that owner Mike Ilitch was skeptical about hiring a rookie manager from day one.

Ruben Amaro Out As Phillies GM

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The Phillies announced today that they will not extend the contract of general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. According to a team press release, assistant GM Scott Proefrock will take over as interim GM, effective immediately. The team’s search for a new, permanent GM begins today, per the release.

Ruben Amaro, Jr.“It’s never an easy decision to make a change,” said president-to-be Andy MacPhail in the press release. “Ruben has had a direct impact on some of the best years in the team’s history. He helped to create some great memories for Phillies fans with his accomplishments, but in order to return to a top-contending club, we believe this is the right thing to do as we continue the rebuilding process.”

The writing has been on the wall for quite some time that Amaro’s days as GM were numbered. It’s been widely expected that in the wake of the team’s collapse over the past four seasons, MacPhail would seek to hire a new GM to guide the Phillies — possibly one that will bring a stronger commitment to analytics to the organization.

Amaro, 50, has been the Phillies’ general manager since the 2008 offseason, when he succeeded Pat Gillick. The Phillies made a World Series run in Amaro’s first full year as GM, ultimately coming up short to the Yankees, and went on to reach the postseason in the 2010 and 2011 campaigns as well. However, a number of the trades made by Amaro that were aimed at keeping the team in contention served, instead, to only deplete the farm system while failing to pay significant on-field dividends. Some of the more notable names moved in his time as GM include Carlos Carrasco, Travis d’Arnaud, Jarred Cosart, J.A. Happ, Vance Worley, Trevor May, Domingo Santana and Jon Singleton.

While Amaro does deserve some credit for acquiring Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee without surrendering any players that have, to this point, gone on to stardom (some would suggest that Carrasco is well on his way — an argument I’d support), it can also be said that he committed too strongly to an aging core when seeking younger alternatives would have been more prudent. Specifically, the Ryan Howard contract and Carlos Ruiz signings stand out as missteps that are still haunting the team (with Howard’s $125MM extension serving as perhaps the most egregious error of his tenure). Ruiz, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley all could have been allowed to hit free agency (or been traded in the final season of their previous contracts) but were instead re-signed to deals that ultimately carried negative value. The Phillies have also traditionally not been significant spenders on the international front, although that’s begun to change in recent signing periods (including this summer’s $4MM investment in 16-year-old Dominican slugger Jhailyn Ortiz).

In fact, there’s little denying that the Phillies’ farm system as a whole has improved substantially over the past few seasons with Amaro at the helm. J.P. Crawford and Aaron Nola both look to be outstanding top picks, and farmhand Ken Giles has emerged as one of the best young relievers in all of baseball. Maikel Franco looks like a star in the making at third base and should be considered a feather in the cap for Phillies’ international scouts. Trades of several veterans have netted arms such as Ben Lively, Tom Windle, Zach Eflin, Jake Thompson, Jerad Eickhoff, Alec Asher and Nick Pivetta, while position prospects such as Jorge Alfaro, Nick Williams and Darnell Sweeney have entered the picture as well. Odubel Herrera may be the best pick from this past Rule 5 Draft as well.

Although that restocking of the farm system falls under the “too little, too late” category for Amaro, it does help to create an appealing job opening for prospective general managers. The Phillies boast a rising farm system, a well-respected president in MacPhail, an excellent 2016 draft position and significant payroll capacity. Beyond that, there are no commitments on the books beyond the 2017 season, save for a $2MM buyout on Matt Harrison’s club option. As such, the Phillies GM vacancy figures to be a highly appealing position despite the club’s lack of recent success.

With the Phillies now in the hunt for a GM, that creates five such openings around the league. The Angels, Mariners, Red Sox and Brewers are all on the hunt for new general managers as well, meaning there will be a significant amount of baseball operations changes in the coming months. Not only will each team employ a new GM, but those five newly minted executives will undoubtedly have some changes in store for the baseball operations departments and the field staffs which they’ll inherit upon taking their new roles.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Athletics Extend Bob Melvin Through 2018

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5:40pm: The Athletics have announced a two-year extension for Melvin that runs through the 2018 season. In a statement, Melvin said that he is “fully committed to this team, this organization, and this fan base.”

1:10pm: The Athletics will hold a press conference this afternoon in order to announce an extension for skipper Bob Melvin, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier in the year. Slusser and Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com both say (Twitter links) that Melvin’s new deal will be made official today, though its duration and terms remain unreported.

As Slusser noted in the earlier report, and reiterates today, Oakland is also likely to promote Billy Beane to the president-level position while handing the general manager’s seat to current AGM David Forst. It is not yet clear precisely how those long-time colleagues will change their everyday duties, or whether and when the move will be consummated.

The timing may seem curious at first glance, given that the team is mired in last place and Melvin was already under contract through next season. But he’s long been viewed as a top-quality skipper by the organization, and the overall results have been strong. Since taking the reins in 2012, Melvin has led the club to two AL West crowns and one Wild Card berth.

The A’s, of course, are well known for their crafty roster-building and player-usage approaches, and Melvin has proven well-suited to the organization’s philosophies. As the Chronicle’s Bruce Jenkins wrote in an interesting profile last year, Melvin blends more traditional approaches to managing (“drill-sergeant qualities”) with an understanding of and comfort with modern analytics.

Speaking at the time of Beane, Melvin described an interesting dynamic that has helped the club to thrive in recent seasons despite a perpetually low payroll and frequent roster turnover. “The thing about Billy is that he allows debate,” Melvin said. “Spirited debate. I don’t think he wants you to agree with him all the time. There’s a system in place here, something we’ve all bought into, but on a day-to-day basis, there can be disagreements. Sometimes it might get a little heated, but I appreciate that I have a voice in it.”

Tim Hudson Says He’ll Retire After The Season

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Giants righty Tim Hudson says he’s hanging up his cleats after the season, as John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on Twitter. Previously, the 40-year-old had indicated that he was likely to retire, but it now appears he has made up his mind.

“This is definitely my last year, for sure,” said the veteran. “It’s the right thing to do. It’s the right time for me and my family.”

This season hasn’t been quite the send-off that Hudson might have hoped for (though he had quite a memorable outing last night). He has missed time due to injury and is carrying an ERA over four per nine for just the third time in 17 seasons.

But Hudson is still remarkably useful given his age. He has continued to generate a groundball rate of over 50% and would undoubtedly draw plenty of interest as a free agent were he to consider signing.

Still, it’s not terribly surprising to hear that Hudson has decided to call it quits. He has made clear throughout the year that things were likely headed in that direction. And as he and his wife discussed in the above-linked piece, via Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, a variety of considerations beyond pitching capability have driven the decision.

We’ll have to wait until the end of the year to make a final tally of Hudson’s overall body of work, but needless to say, it will be impressive. Hudson broke into the league with the Athletics back in 1999, spent nine years with the Braves, and capped it off in San Francisco. All told, he has racked up over 3,000 innings with a lifetime earned run average of less than 3.50 runs per nine innings.

Those results came mostly via a sterling 58.0% career groundball rate rather than dominant strikeout tallies. In fact, Hudson has averaged only 6.0 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 in his career. He nevertheless managed to compile over fifty wins above replacement over his career as a consistent, quality, and durable rotation piece.

That body of work is probably not enough to get him into Cooperstown, but Hudson undoubtedly rates as one of the best pitchers of his era.

Mets, Cespedes Modify Contract Release Clause

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3:57pm: Cespedes’ agents (he is represented by Roc Nation/CAA Sports) were the ones to initiate discussions about amending the clause, tweets Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News. As she rightly points out, having his current club involved in offseason bidding can only serve to increase Cespedes’ ultimate price tag.

3:13pm: The Mets have agreed with recently-acquired outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to a modification of the language in his contract that will remove a previous barrier to the team’s ability to re-sign him as a free agent, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports.

Previously, the contract called for the employing team (originally, the Athletics) to release him at the expiration of the contract. That would have made Cespedes ineligible for a qualifying offer and would have left his current team with just five days to reach a new agreement upon completion of the World Series. Following that five-day window, the Mets would’ve been ineligible to sign Cespedes until May 15, 2016 under the rules of the collective bargaining agreement. (Put concisely, teams cannot re-sign players they released to a Major League deal until the following May.) In that scenario, Cespedes would not have been able to test his market before negotiating with the Mets, making an agreement difficult to work out.

Under the new agreement, Cespedes will be free to sign with the Mets at any point in the offseason, just as he would any other team. It provides him another possible suitor while leaving the team free to re-sign him on the open market.

While the qualifying offer issue may have posed a barrier to reaching such an arrangement between Cespedes and his most recent team, the Tigers, that is no longer an issue. Because Cespedes was traded in mid-season, the Mets are unable to utilize that rule regardless.

In other words, as things stood, the modification appears to be a win-win for player and team. While neither is any more obligated to the other than was the case previously, it is now certainly feasible for New York to pursue a long-term deal with a player who has delivered outstanding results since coming over at the deadline.

Mets Expected To Modify Matt Harvey’s Workload

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9:29pm: GM Sandy Alderson has responded to the USA Today story, as Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com reports (Twitter links). “Any plans we have for the rest of the regular season are tentative,” said Alderson. He went on to throw doubt on the notion of a settled strategy for the postseason, saying: “We have not spent any time yet on a ’playoff’ plan. Nothing has been discussed in that regard.”

9:24pm: The Mets have arrived at a plan to limit righty Matt Harvey’s innings down the stretch and into the postseason, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. GM Sandy Alderson indicated this morning that he and agent Scott Boras were working toward a compromise, as Harvey himself recently said would be the case.

The resolution, it appears, will be for Harvey to start tomorrow against the Nationals and then just make one more regular season start in a bid to keep him to about 182 or 183 regular season frames. He’ll only start in the season’s final week against Washington if the division is still at stake, per the report.

Most interesting, perhaps, is that the roadmap would call for Harvey to start only once per playoff series. Notably, also, the 26-year-old would potentially be placed on a roughly 60-pitch cap for his post-season outings.

In terms of on-field impact, it’s hard to downplay the significance of this modified usage. While New York now holds a commanding five-game lead in the NL East after gutting out a win today, and remains in the driver’s seat, the October limitations seem rather limiting. The Mets will also be looking to manage the workload of rising youngster Noah Syndergaard, and he or another pitcher could theoretically be paired with Harvey at times, but it would obviously be preferable — from a near-term competitive perspective — for the team to turn loose one of the game’s most potent arms without restriction.

From a transactional perspective, agreement between the sides would presumably help to ameliorate any bad feelings about the highly-publicized situation. Harvey is eligible for arbitration for the first time net year and is on track to hit the open market after the 2018 season. With the free-agency-oriented Boras as his agent, it’s long been expected that he would not seriously entertain extension talks, and some have speculated that the apparent discord could lead to a trade. There is little sense, really, in attempting to forecast the long-term relationship, but any compromise would at least appear likely to defuse serious future discord.

Matt Harvey Backs Proposed 180-Inning Limit

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7:35pm: Harvey’s agent Scott Boras conducted a study regarding Tommy John recipients similar to Harvey, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Boras looked at pitchers who never exceeded 200 innings in a season, had Tommy John surgery, then returned with a roughly 200 inning workload.

Four pitchers fit into the statistical bucket – Shaun Marcum, Josh Johnson, Jarrod Parker, and Kris Medlen. Three of them required a second Tommy John surgery while the fourth, Marcum, is quite familiar with the disabled list. Boras offers Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann as two examples who built their innings total more carefully. Obviously, both pitchers have yet to experience another elbow related injury.

To be fair, any statistician would warn against taking this case study at face value. It’s interesting that all four pitchers have experienced continual health problems, but full statistical and medical analysis would surely be needed before assessing how these findings apply to other players.

4:47pm: Yesterday, it was reported that there was friction between Matt Harvey’s agent Scott Boras and the Mets over the Mets’ plans for handling Harvey down the stretch. Boras wanted the Mets to keep Harvey, who had Tommy John surgery following the 2013 season, on a 180-inning limit. Harvey has already pitched 166 1/3 innings this year, so a 180-inning limit would severely limit the Mets’ use of Harvey in the rest of the regular season and in the playoffs. The Mets responded that they would pitch Harvey based on their own plan and would have him pitch a “reasonable” amount during the postseason.

Today the story took a surprising turn, as Harvey himself spoke up to back the 180-inning limit. Here are the details, via MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (Twitter links) and the Record’s Matt Ehalt (Twitter links: 1 2 3 4). Harvey told reporters today that he would be limited to 180 innings. He refused to answer questions about the playoffs.

“I’m going to always play, but like I said, I hired Dr. [James] Andrews to do my surgery, and I hired Scott for a reason, and that’s to prolong my career and put me in the best possible position,” said Harvey, who added that the 180-inning limit came from Andrews (although Harvey was unsure whether that included the playoffs).

Via FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (Twitter links), however, the Mets deny that Andrews backed a 180-inning limit. “He didn’t say 180 was the number,” says GM Sandy Alderson. “He was not categorical at all.” Rosenthal also tweets that Andrews does not prescribe strict innings limits for patients returning from Tommy John surgery.

Despite Boras’ previous comments, it’s surprising that Harvey would come out so strongly in favor of the innings limit. In early July, Harvey complained about the Mets’ six-man rotation, which would have limited his innings total this year. Some reporters, including Rosenthal (on Twitter), have suggested that Harvey might be hurting. That is, of course, speculation. But it could explain the timing of the 180-inning controversy, which might have been resolved, say, before the season, rather than in September. In any case, such a severe restriction on an impact pitcher like Harvey for the remainder of the season would have a significant effect on the Mets’ chances the rest of the way.

White Sox Claim Mike Olt From Cubs

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The White Sox have claimed Mike Olt from the Cubs, MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat tweets. The Cubs designated Olt for assignment last week when they acquired outfielder Austin Jackson. They originally acquired Olt from the Rangers when they sent Matt Garza to Texas in 2013. At the time, Olt was a well regarded young player who had hit for good power in the minors, but he struggled at the Triple-A level after arriving in the Cubs system. He got an extended shot in the Majors last season and didn’t hit well, batting .160/.248/.356 in 258 plate appearances (although he did hit 12 homers). This year, he’s hit .265/.333/.460 in 235 plate appearances at Triple-A, missing time early in the season due to a wrist injury.

With Kris Bryant at third base, Anthony Rizzo at first and plenty of young talent elsewhere, it appeared unlikely Olt would get many more chances with the Cubs. Now 27, he’ll attempt to revive his career with the Cubs’ crosstown rivals. The White Sox should be able to provide more opportunities at third base — the team currently has Tyler Saladino and Gordon Beckham at third, neither of whom have hit well this year.

Tim Lincecum Undergoes Season-Ending Hip Surgery

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7:04pm: Club trainer Dave Groeschner says that Lincecum is expected to require about five months to recover from the procedure, as Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News reports (Twitter links). Lincecum underwent both a labrum repair and a shaving of bone to address an impingement. “The doctor was pretty confident this will help him, and help him return to pitching next season,” said Groeschner.

11:43am: Giants right-hander Tim Lincecum underwent season-ending hip surgery this morning, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Giants GM Bobby Evans said Thursday in a KNBR radio appearance that Lincecum is out for the season, though he did not definitively mention Lincecum’s surgical procedure (hat tip: Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle). Said Evans:

“He won’t be able to come back this season. That’s evident. He went to Colorado to see a specialist and get a second opinion and get an evaluation with the prospect that he will have surgery. The next step for him is to do everything he can and get back and get well, but it’s going to take him out for the season. What that leads to in terms of his progression healthwise will dictate what opportunities he has with us or elsewhere.”

As Schulman notes, the injury may very well bring to a close Lincecum’s historic career as a member of the Giants.

Selected with the 10th overall pick in the 2006 draft, Lincecum debuted in 2007 as a hard-throwing 23-year-old, tossing 146 1/3 innings of 4.00 ERA ball and averaging better than a strikeout per inning with initially shaky control. The control woes quickly dissipated, however, as Lincecum won consecutive Cy Young Awards in his next two seasons. From 2008-11, there were few pitchers in the game that were decisively better than “The Freak,” whose unorthodox delivery and dominant results won the hearts of Giants fans. Over that four-year stretch, Lincecum posted a 2.81 ERA with 10.0 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 881 2/3 innings, earning All-Star honors each year.

Since that time, though, Lincecum’s career has gone in the opposite direction. He’s lost the mid-90s fastball that he had in his early to mid-20s, and he averaged just 87.2 mph on his vastly diminished heater this year. Lincecum inked a two-year, $35MM extension after the 2013 season despite marginal bottom-line results (sabermetric stats pegged him in a more optimistic light), but he hasn’t lived up to that deal. In the end, he’ll have pitched just 232 innings with a 4.54 ERA to show for it under that contract.

Schulman writes that Lincecum “surely will not get a Major League deal” from the Giants this offseason, and if that’s the case, it does seem likely that his days with San Francisco are coming to a close. Barring an exorbitant recovery timetable from this operation, it’s tough to imagine that no team would give Lincecum a big league deal, his lack of recent results notwithstanding.

Heyman wrote earlier this week that Lincecum was seeing renowned hip specialist Marc Philippon in Vail, Colo. Per Heyman’s report, surgery would most likely have Lincecum ready in time for Spring Training, and there’s a belief among some doctors that the dip in velocity is partially tied to his hip troubles.

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