Domonic Brown Elects Free Agency After Outright
OCTOBER 26: Brown has elected free agency, Matt Eddy of Baseball America reports on Twitter. That will bring his tenure in Philadelphia to an end, barring a somewhat surprising reunion.
OCTOBER 19: The Phillies announced today that former top prospect and starting right fielder Domonic Brown has been outrighted off their 40-man roster. As a player with more than three years of big league service time, Brown will have the option to elect free agency rather than accepting an assignment to Triple-A. Also outrighted were catcher/first baseman Tommy Joseph, outfielder Brian Bogusevic and outfielder Kelly Dugan.
Brown, 28, batted just .228/.284/.349 this season — a disappointing season and a near-mirror image of his 2014 batting line: .235/.285/.349. Ranked by Baseball America as the game’s No. 1 overall prospect midway through the 2010 season, many believed Brown to be ticketed for stardom. The former 20th-round pick batted .327/.391/.589 with 20 homers in just 93 games between Double-A and Triple-A in that 2010 campaign, leading to visions of future 30-home runs seasons from the powerful lefty batter.
Brown looked to be delivering on that promise in 2013 when he belted 27 homers and batted a hefty .272/.324/.494 in his age-25 season, but much of that production came in a torrid six-week stretch, and he’s been unable to recreate anything resembling that level of success. He’ll assuredly draw some interest from other clubs with the hope of buying low on his once-potent bat. Brown cleared four years of big league service in 2015, meaning any team that signs him would be able to control him for 2016 and 2017, if he’s productive enough to justify a spot on the roster for that long.
Making this series of moves even more disappointing for the Phillies is that Joseph, too, once ranked among their top prospects. The main piece acquired from the Giants in the trade that sent Hunter Pence to San Francisco, Joseph’s once-promising career has been slowed by injuries — most recently a series of significant concussion issues. Joseph’s first full year in the Phillies organization was marred by injuries, but he looked to have turned a corner in 2014 when he got off to a .282/.345/.551 start in 27 games at Double-A Reading. A left wrist issue that ultimately required surgery cut that season short as well, though, and he hit just .193/.220/.301 in Triple-A this season before moving to first base due to concussion woes.
The 25-year-old Dugan rated 17th among Phillies farmhands last offseason, per Baseball America, but batted just .221/.295/.298 upon reaching Triple-A for the first time this year. Bogusevic, 31, has bounced around the league since debuting with the Astros in 2010. He’s a lifetime .238/.311/.373 hitter in 834 big league plate appearances.
Torii Hunter To Retire
Twins outfielder Torii Hunter has decided to retire, he tells LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star-Tribune. The 40-year-old played in parts of 19 years with three organizations.
“I’m sad because it’s all I’ve known for half of my life,” Hunter said. “This great game of baseball has done so much for me. I have learned a lot of lessons. … I still love the game, but time has taken a toll on me mentally and physically.”
Hunter ended things where he began by returning to Minnesota for the 2015 season. He broke in with the Twins back in 1997, earned regular playing time as a reserve in 1999, and locked down an everyday job with the club in 2001.
From that 2001 season through the end of 2007, Hunter put up over 4,000 plate appearances of .272/.326/.484 hitting with 178 home runs. Then serving as a center fielder, he received the Gold Glove award in every single one (and for two more years thereafter).
The winter of 2007 seemed to spell the end of Hunter’s tenure in Minnesota. He departed via free agency to join the Angels, who promised him $90MM over five years. Hunter continued to thrive, posting a .286/.352/.462 cumulative batting line in nearly 3,000 trips to the plate over the life of that contract.
Having transitioned to right field in the back half of his tenure with the Halos, Hunter caught on to take over there for the Tigers. He was a strong contributor to two good teams in his two years in Detroit.
While other organizations came calling before 2015, Hunter decided on a return to a Twins club that wasn’t expected to do much. But it proved more than a farewell tour, as the club surpassed expectations (and underlying performance barometers) with an 83-79 record.
Believers in the power of clubhouse chemistry would surely attribute some of the Twins’ success last year to the presence of the fiery Hunter, who is respected highly in that regard. He didn’t have a great season — to the contrary, he played at or below replacement level — but was still expected to be courted for a return, albeit in a reduced role.
Minnesota has plenty of options to proceed without the veteran, whose departure could open the way for some of the organization’s young talent. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explained in his offseason outlook for the team, there are some options on hand that figure to step in.
As a forty-to-fifty win player who was more consistently excellent than great, Hunter seems unlikely to land in the Hall of Fame, though he surely deserves a spot in the proverbial “hall of very good.” He has come under fire for homophobic comments made in recent years, an area that tarnished his reputation to many, though Hunter is widely lauded as one of the game’s good guys. All told, Hunter enjoyed a memorable career as one of the better players of his generation.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
KBO’s Lotte Giants To Post Outfielder Ah-Seop Son
The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization will post right fielder Ah-seop Son for MLB teams to bid upon this offseason, according to the Yonhap News Agency (hat tip: Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Lotte had reportedly been mulling over the difficult decision of whether to post Son or third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang, both of whom had asked the club to post them. However, KBO’s league rules state that a team can accept only one bid on a posted player per offseason, and a league ruling was made that Lotte could not simply post them simultaneously and then select the top bid.
Per Yonhap, if the Giants don’t receive a bid that is to their liking on Son, or they accept a bid but Son and the winning team cannot come to a deal on a Major League contract, the club will then immediately make Hwang available via the posting system. If a bid for Son is accepted and he does indeed sign with a big league club, then Lotte almost certainly will lose Hwang for nothing next offseason, as he’s set to become a true free agent next winter and could negotiate with MLB clubs without the restrictions of the posting system.
Because of that, it’s at least a mild surprise to see Son posted first, as he’d have been eligible to be posted next winter as well. However, the Yonhap report indicates that the Giants elected to post Son first due to a superior track record over the past five seasons. While Hwang set multiple career-highs in 2015, most notably in home runs (by a wide margin), Son’s been the steadier hitter over the past half-decade.
Dating back to 2011, Son has batted .333/.409/.476 as opposed to Hwang’s .289/.357/.438. Son has averaged 12 homers and 16 steals per year in that time, while Hwang has averaged respective totals of 12 and 17. (Hwang’s 26 homers in 2015 skew those averages somewhat, though so, too, do Son’s 36 steals in 2013.) The duo’s 2015 production — .317/.406/.472 for Son and .290/.350/.521 for Hwang — made the decision difficult for Lotte.
Son, who is represented by agent Rick Thurman of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, will turn 28 during Spring Training next season. He will be posted under the old, blind-bid posting system that still applies to KBO. As a reminder, that means all 30 clubs will have the opportunity to submit a bid of any amount to secure negotiating rights for Son’s services. If Son’s team accepts the bid — and the Giants could neglect to do so if they don’t think it to be a high enough price for one of their top players — that team would then have 30 days to negotiate a big league contract with Son and Thurman. If a deal can’t be reached, Son would return to Lotte for the 2016 season, and the MLB club that won the bidding would receive its money back. As noted above, should that scenario play out, the process would start over with Hwang, with all 30 teams being eligible to place a bid.
Son will become eligible to be posted starting on Nov. 1, and due to the possibility that Lotte could have to go through the month-long bidding process twice this winter, it’d make sense for the club to post him as early in the offseason as possible. Teams will be burning through their budgets over the course of the winter, and waiting until later in the offseason raises the possibility of a team feeling its spent all it can on free agency or of acquiring an alternative to either player either via free agency or trade.
For the time being, Son will join a crowded free agent market for corner outfielders that is headlined by Jason Heyward, Justin Upton and Yoenis Cespedes but also features Colby Rasmus, Alex Rios, Steve Pearce and Rajai Davis, among others.
Red Sox Hire Ruben Amaro Jr. As First Base Coach
The Red Sox announced today what the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo first reported over the weekend: former Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has been hired as the club’s new first base coach. He’ll also serve as Boston’s outfield instructor and assist in coaching the club on baserunning. Per the release announcing the move, Amaro signed a two-year contract.
“I was honored that Dave [Dombrowski] and John [Farrell] would consider me for this opportunity and add me to this dynamic coaching staff,” said Amaro in a press release announcing the unusual hire. “I am poised, focused, and ready to bring anything I can in terms of experience and knowledge to this position, and I look forward to being a part of the Boston Red Sox.”
Amaro’s transition from the top of a baseball operations hierarchy to a coaching staff is relatively unprecedented. Earlier this year, Marlins GM Dan Jennings moved from the front office to the dugout, although that was within his own organization after the club had fired skipper Mike Redmond. Amaro, on the other hand, leaves the only organization with which he’s ever been involved in the front office to join the coaching staff of an organization with which he’s never been affiliated. Amaro was a teammate of Farrell with the Indians in 1994, so the two men do have a preexisting connection.
Though Amaro doesn’t have prior coaching experience, he did spend parts of eight seasons in the Major Leagues as an outfielder. In 1051 plate appearances, Amaro batted .235/.310/.353 with the Angels, Phillies and Indians. He joined the Phillies’ front office the same year that he retired as a player, in 1998.
One would think that Amaro could have found a spot within a different front office as a special assistant or senior adviser to a different GM, as many previously fired GMs have done. For example, former Cubs GM Jim Hendry is currently in the Yankees’ front office, former D-Backs/Padres GM Kevin Towers is with the Reds, former Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi is with the Mets and former Mets GM Omar Minaya spent several seasons as an assistant/adviser in the Padres’ front office before joining the MLBPA. (Those, of course, are just a few recent examples.) Amaro, though, clearly wants to go down a different path than peers who have found themselves in similar situations, and kudos to him for doing so even though it will likely open him up to come criticism.
The 50-year-old Amaro’s tenure as Phillies GM was littered with missteps that led to a widely expected dismissal in September, but his successor, former Angels’ GM Matt Klentak, thanked Amaro at today’s introductory press conference for the work he did in rebuilding the club’s farm system over the past year-plus. Amaro acquired prospects Jorge Alfaro, Jake Thompson, Nick Williams, Jerad Eickhoff, Alec Asher, Ben Lively, Tom Windle, Zach Eflin, Nick Pivetta, Darnell Sweeney, John Richy and Joely Rodriguez in trades that sent Antonio Bastardo, Jimmy Rollins, Marlon Byrd, Cole Hamels, Jonathan Papelbon and Chase Utley to new teams over the final year of his tenure.
Phillies Name Matt Klentak GM
OCT. 26: The Phillies have announced the hiring of Klentak as vice president and general manager, adding that, at 35 years of age, Klentak is the youngest GM in the club’s history.
“In Matt we found an executive with the keen ability to understand cutting-edge baseball analytics, coupled with superior scouting, player development and leadership skills,” said president Andy MacPhail in the press release that announced the move. “Additionally, his commitment and resolve to build the foundation for a championship-caliber team was evident every step of the way through the process. I trust Matt to lead the Phillies as we all rededicate ourselves to return championship baseball to Philadelphia.”
OCT. 24: The Phillies will name Angels assistant Matt Klentak as their next GM, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe tweets. Yesterday, it emerged that Klentak was a finalist for the job, along with Chaim Bloom of the Rays and Dan Kantrovitz of the Athletics. As MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki noted (via Twitter), all three candidates were in their 30s and had Ivy League and analytics backgrounds.
Klentak began working in the Rockies baseball operations department soon after graduating from Dartmouth with an economics degree. He then worked in labor relations for MLB for several seasons and helped shape the 2006 Collective Bargaining Agreement. He departed to become director of baseball operations for the Orioles, where he worked under current Phillies president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail. Following the 2011 season, he headed to the Angels, where he specialized in working with contracts, arbitration and roster issues. He was recently a candidate for the Angels GM position that went to Billy Eppler. (While with the Angels, Klentak was also one of the first-ever guests on the MLBTR Podcast, appearing one year ago today.)
“Matt brings so much to the table,” said then-Angels GM Jerry Dipoto. “Matt understands the inner workings of baseball from the field to the finance. He understands baseball from the staff in the clubhouse to the players on the field to how to communicate back and forth with a finance department and ownership.”
MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez writes (Twitter links) that Klentak did much of the Angels’ GM work once Dipoto resigned (even though Bill Stoneman was officially the Angels’ interim GM). Klentak is analytically oriented, but is regarded as a good communicator.
The Phillies’ 2015 season was, of course, a miserable one, but the situation Klentak is entering is in many ways rather favorable. Thanks to what appears to be a solid series of recent top draft picks and the strong trade of Cole Hamels to the Rangers, the Phillies have a very good collection of young talent headed by J.P. Crawford, Maikel Franco, Aaron Nola, Jake Thompson, Nick Williams, Jorge Alfaro and Cornelius Randolph. The Phillies have also historically had relatively large payrolls, which could give Klentak the ability to add to that core once it matures.
Besides Klentak, Bloom and Kantrovitz, other interviewees for the Phillies’ position included former Marlins executive Larry Beinfest, MLB vice president of baseball operations Kim Ng, Indians vice president of player personnel Ross Atkins, Cardinals director of player personnel Matt Slater, Royals assistant GM J.J. Picollo and former Cubs GM Jim Hendry. Klentak’s departure is the second significant one for Eppler and the Angels’ front office this week — the Mariners just hired Klentak’s fellow Angels assistant Scott Servais to be their manager.
Latest On Nationals’ Managerial Search
9:52pm: Black’s second interview will also take place on Monday, ESPN’s Jim Bowden tweets.
2:53pm: Dusty Baker and Bud Black will indeed receive second interviews for the Nationals’ managerial vacancy and, at this point, it appears that one of the two will get the job, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com writes. “Barring something strange happening,” Heyman writes that it will be one of the two experienced candidates since they are the only finalists remaining.
Baker will interview on Monday while Black’s interview will also take place early this week. Heyman notes that GM Mike Rizzo has a preference for experienced managers, though he made an exception in the case of Matt Williams.
In 1362 career games as a manager, all with the Padres, Black totaled a record of 649-713 despite routinely having to work with one of baseball’s lowest payrolls. A pitching coach prior to his work as a manager, he drew praise for his work with many of San Diego’s young arms over the course of his career in the dugout.
As the manager of the Reds, Baker led the club to a 509-463 record and three playoff berths across six seasons. The 66-year-old is also a three-time NL Manager of the Year and led the 2002 Giants to the National League pennant. In total, Baker owns a 1671-1504 record as manager of the Giants, Cubs, and Reds.
The Nats conducted a wide-ranging search for the position with names such as Ron Gardenhire, Giants coach Ron Wotus, Dodgers coach Tim Wallach, Alex Cora, and Diamondbacks minor-league manager Phil Nevin among those linked to the opening. Ex-Dodgers skipper Don Mattingly was conspicuously absent from their search and it doesn’t appear that Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. garnered consideration despite his stated interest in the job.
Mariners Name Scott Servais Manager
The Mariners announced on Friday that Angels assistant GM Scott Servais has been hired as the team’s next manager. While there’s been no official announcement in regards to the coaching staff, Angels special assistant Tim Bogar is expected to be named bench coach. Both men worked closely with new Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto in his time as Angels general manager.
Dipoto is quoted in the press release announcing the move: “Through the course of the 20-plus years I’ve known Scott, I’ve come to see him as one of the most complete, well balanced and inclusive baseball people in the industry. … He is a communicator with strong baseball acumen and leadership skills. I truly believe his strong character and career experiences as a player, coach and executive have prepared him for this opportunity.”
Servais himself expressed excitement for the opportunity as well: “It has long been my goal to manage a big league team and while I took a slightly different path than many, I am confident in my ability to lead. We have a terrific core of players and I’m looking forward to bringing in a coaching staff that will help me establish a winning culture here as we work toward putting a championship-caliber team on the field for the fans of the Northwest.”
Servais, 48, is a former Major League catcher that enjoyed an 11-year playing career. He began his career as an executive working in the Rangers’ front office before being hired away by the Angels to serve as assistant GM and oversee the team’s scouting and player development operations. This offseason, Servais has interviewed for the Padres’ managerial role and the Angels’ GM vacancy, though the latter of the two positions went to former Yankees AGM Billy Eppler.
The Servais decision will continue the increasingly popular trend of hiring rookie managers, as we’ve seen names such as Mike Matheny, Walt Weiss, Robin Ventura, Brad Ausmus, Craig Counsell, Matt Williams and Paul Molitor hired without prior managerial experience in recent years. Some of those names (Williams and Molitor) did come with coaching experience, and others (Ausmus and Counsell) were similar to Servais in that each had experience working in a front office.
Bogar formerly served as the Rangers’ bench coach and was Texas’ interim manager when Ron Washington abruptly resigned late in the 2014 season. However, upon being passed over for the permanent opening, which went to Jeff Banister — Bogar did interview and was a consideration — he joined the Angels’ front office as a special assistant to Dipoto. He’ll now be with his third AL West club in a three-year span.
Adding Servais and Bogar to the Mariners’ dugout will give Dipoto a rapport with his field staff that he very obviously lacked in Anaheim. Dipoto’s summer resignation from his post as Angels GM was said to be fueled largely by feuds with manager Mike Scioscia over his distaste for being provided with analytical input from the Halos’ front office, and reports have since indicated that pitching coach Mike Butcher was also resistant to receiving that type of input from Dipoto and the rest of the front office. Servais and Bogar figure to be much more open to that style of input, which should be a significant departure from former Mariners skipper Lloyd McClendon, who employed a more traditional approach to his on-field duties.
Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times reported that Servais had been hired (via Twitter) and added in a second tweet that Bogar would be the bench coach. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported last night that Servais had emerged as the front-runner for the position.
Photo courtesy of Seattle Mariners media relations.
Klentak, Bloom, Kantrovitz Are Finalists For Phillies GM
1:21pm: MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki tweets that Kantrovitz is the third finalist for the position. As Zolecki notes, Kantrovitz, Bloom and Klentak are all Ivy League graduates in their 30s with a backgroudn in analytics, which fits the mold of what MacPhail and Phillies ownership were reportedly targeting early on.
1:03pm: Picollo is no longer in the running for the position, reports Crasnick (via Twitter).
10:52am: Bloom is indeed one of the three finalists for the position, Crasnick now reports (via Twitter).
OCT. 23, 9:40am: Klentak is one of the three finalists for the vacancy, reports Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter).
Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com writes that the current postseason schedule gives MacPhail a nice window to make an announcement. While the league frowns on major news announcements on game days, the Phillies could make an announcement Monday morning on a scheduled off-day. That’d allow MacPhail and the new GM to be with the club for the onset of the Phillies’ organizational meetings. Sources tell Salisbury an announcement could very well happen on Monday.
OCT. 22: 10:07pm: Former Cubs general manager Jim Hendry also interviewed for the Phillies’ GM vacancy, Crasnick tweets, and while he could land in Philadelphia, it’d be in an advisory role as opposed to GM. Hendry is currently working in the Yankees’ front office as a special assignment scout.
8:30pm: Crasnick adds (also via Twitter) that Rays VP of baseball operations Chaim Bloom has also interviewed for the position, though he doesn’t specify whether or not Bloom is among the finalists.
8:25pm: The Phillies are down to three candidates in their hunt for a general manager and could make a decision in the near future, reports ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter). The team’s organizational meetings begin on Monday, and while president Andy MacPhail recently said a hiring by that date would be ambitious, Crasnick’s report would seem to indicate that the team could have someone in place by Monday after all.
We’ve been keeping tabs on the list of GM candidates for Philadelphia since the team began its search to replace Ruben Amaro, who was dismissed late in the season. To this point, the known list of candidates to interview includes former Marlins GM Larry Beinfest, MLB’s vice president of baseball ops Kim Ng, Indians VP of player personnel Ross Atkins, Angels assistant GM Matt Klentak, Cardinals director of player personnel Matt Slater, Athletics assistant GM Dan Kantrovitz and Royals assistant GM J.J. Picollo. However, Crasnick reported recently that Beinfest has been informed he’s no longer in the running, while Ng reportedly is not among the top candidates.
Earlier this week Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported that Kantrovitz had received a pair of interviews. He’s the only known candidate to have interviewed twice, so he seems the likeliest of the listed candidates to be among the final three. Klentak has long been said to be a favorite, having worked underneath MacPhail with the Orioles, and Picollo has been oft-mentioned as well.
John Farrell’s Cancer In Remission
The Red Sox have announced excellent news: manager John Farrell’s cancer is in remission. The skipper announced that he would step down for the remainder of the season back in August in order to undergo treatment for lymphoma. Bench coach Torey Lovullo served as manager on an interim basis through season’s end.
In a statement today, Farrell said: “I am extremely thankful for the outpouring of support I have received from the Red Sox, my family, friends, and fans throughout this process. I am also especially thankful for the talented doctors who cared for me in Detroit and here at MGH. I look forward to getting back to work and bringing another championship back to Boston.”
Earlier this month, the team announced that Farrell would return to manage the club in 2016, adding that Lovullo had signed a two-year extension to remain in his role as bench coach. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said in today’s press release that the organization is “thrilled to hear the great news about John” and is looking forward to having Farrell return as manager next season.
Don Mattingly Won’t Return As Dodgers Manager
Don Mattingly and the Dodgers have mutually decided to part ways, as first reported from Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. The 54-year-old had served as the team’s manager for the last five seasons. Los Angeles will pay Mattingly the salary he was owed for 2016, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times reports on Twitter.
It was a successful run overall for Mattingly, who oversaw three straight NL West division winners and five consecutive winning ballclubs. While his .551 overall winning percentage was impressive, though, the Dodgers’ post-season performances haven’t matched their regular season marks. Los Angeles won just one playoff series under Mattingly’s command.
Heyman describes the situation as amicable, even in parting. The front office continues to hold plenty of respect for Mattingly, who in turn does not feel mistreated by upper management. The broad issue, according to Heyman, is that “there wasn’t support for the long-term” for Mattingly.
It appears that the sides considered a continued relationship, as both acknowledged in announcing the move. Mattingly’s contract did have one year remaining on it, and some manner of extension was contemplated. (ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported that an extension was offered, while Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets that it was discussed conceptually, but never formally offered.)
Ultimately, it does seem clear that all agreed to part ways. In a prepared statement, Friedman said that extensive discussion “evolved to a point where we all agreed that it might be best for both sides to start fresh,” a conclusion that ultimately was confirmed after further deliberation. Mattingly, meanwhile, echoed that, saying that “a fresh start would be good for both the organization and me.” He thanked the organization and said he hopes to continue managing with another team.
For Mattingly, it’s not a bad time to be hitting the open market. Numerous clubs — including the Marlins, who are said to have interest, as well as the Nationals, Mariners, and Padres — are in search for new skippers. There’s little doubt he’ll draw interest after managing winning teams under two rather different front office regimes, in a huge market, and with a variety of high-priced and somewhat volatile players to be accounted for. As Heyman notes, though, his in-game strategy has drawn some critics.
Likewise, the Dodgers should have no trouble attracting candidates to their open post. With a talented roster (and the deep pockets to add to it), Los Angeles figures as a perennial contender. Of course, running the Dodgers ship is also one of the higher-pressure gigs in the game. It’s hard to know at present what direction president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman might go with a new hire. He inherited Mattingly when he came to L.A., and only oversaw one manager (Joe Maddon, now with the Cubs) while serving as the general manager of the Rays.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.