Mets “Almost Certain” To Retain Sandy Alderson, Terry Collins For 2015
The Mets are expected to bring back both general manager Sandy Alderson and manager Terry Collins for the 2015 season, sources tell Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. Contract details haven’t been finalized with either man, though since Collins is already signed through 2015, Alderson’s status is the only one that needs to be immediately addressed. The GM’s previous deal will expire at the end of the season, and though the Mets hold a team option on his services for 2015, Martino reports that it’s more likely the Mets will work out an extension with Alderson rather than just exercise the one-year option.
Alderson and Collins both joined the team prior to the 2011 season, and the rebuilding Mets have a 297-339 record under both men. It had been assumed that Alderson would return in 2015, and though Collins’ status was perhaps in question earlier in the season, recent signs pointed towards his return as well. The skipper signed a two-year extension with the Mets last September that covers him through 2015, plus a team option for 2016.
While wins and losses haven’t been a major concern for the Mets in recent years, this could be a different story in 2015 when Matt Harvey is back from Tommy John surgery and joins the several other promising young players on New York’s roster. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Mets only announce that Collins is returning and don’t work out any further extension; the team will want to see if Collins is the right man to manage a contender before making a longer-term commitment. At most, the Mets could exercise Collins’ 2016 option so he could avoid lame-duck status next year.
The Mets will make an official announcement on Alderson and Collins at the end of the season, and sources tell Martino that the club could confirm both are staying during a single press conference, though nothing has yet been decided.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Stewart, Orioles, Levine, Rockies
Here’s the latest from Ken Rosenthal, via a video at FOX Sports:
- Some within baseball believe Dave Stewart might be a top candidate for the Diamondbacks‘ open GM position, but that he can’t confirm that he’s overly interested in the job until he knows it can be his. Otherwise, he risks losing clients as a player agent.
- The Orioles are lucky to have avoided signing Manny Machado, Matt Wieters and Chris Davis, Rosenthal suggests. Machado and Wieters are dealing with injuries, while Davis has struggled through a disappointing season and is now serving a 25-game suspension for amphetamine use. The Orioles, meanwhile, have Nelson Cruz, J.J. Hardy and potentially Nick Markakis due for free agency this winter, and they’ll need to have money available if they want to keep them.
- Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine could be a candidate for a top position with the Rockies if Colorado decides to make changes in its front office. Levine is also a potential candidate for the open GM job in Arizona. The Rockies could choose an internal candidate if they do replace or reassign Dan O’Dowd and/or Bill Geivett, however.
Yasmani Tomas Showcase Scheduled For Next Week
SATURDAY: Tomas will work out for teams September 21 at the Giants’ Dominican complex, Ben Badler of Baseball America writes.
THURSDAY: Slugging Cuban outfielder Yasmani Tomas has been unblocked by the United States Foreign Office of Assets Control and is currently waiting to be declared a free agent by Major League clubs, and MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez now reports that Tomas will soon showcase for MLB clubs. His showcase is “tentatively scheduled” for the end of next week, according to Sanchez.
Needless to say, it would be a surprise if all 30 clubs didn’t have some degree of representation at a showcase for a prospect of Tomas’ stature. The 24-year-old is said to possess 70-grade raw power (on the 20-80 scouting scale), and as MLBTR’s Jeff Todd noted when writing about Tomas being cleared by OFAC, both youth and power are prized commodities on the free agent market.
Tomas isn’t thought to be as advanced a hitter as Jose Abreu, but Sanchez reports that as has been the case with other recent Cuban signees, Tomas looks to be in markedly better shape now than when he was playing in Cuba. (Both Rusney Castillo and Yasiel Puig got themselves into much better shape upon defecting.) Sanchez notes that for his size — Tomas is listed at 6’4″ and 240 pounds — Tomas is surprisingly agile, and he also possesses a strong throwing arm. However, there are some questions about his glovework overall, and some international scouts do consider Tomas to be a fairly high-risk/high-reward prospect, Sanchez writes. Adding to the risk, Dr. Francis Montesinos has said to Cuban media outlets that Tomas did deal with a wrist injury recently in Cuba.
Nonetheless, Tomas ranks seventh on MLBTR’s Free Agent Power Rankings and should command a significant contract this offseason, as he is not subject to the international spending limitations due to his age and professional experience. The Phillies will reportedly make a push for Tomas, though he will of course have numerous serious suitors. It’s possible that he could top Castillo’s record $72.5MM guarantee with the Red Sox and/or Abreu’s $11.33MM average annual salary with the White Sox, but it’s still too early to tell what kind of contract he will command once cleared by MLB.
Phil Bickford To Pitch For Southern Nevada
Former Blue Jays top draft pick Phil Bickford will pitch for the College of Southern Nevada this season, MLB.com’s Jim Callis reports. The move to a two-year college will officially make Bickford eligible for next year’s draft. CSN is already known in baseball circles for being the school attended by 2010 top overall pick Bryce Harper.
The Jays took Bickford tenth overall out of high school in 2013, but the two sides couldn’t agree to a deal, and Bickford headed to Cal State Fullerton. His stock improved this summer after showing great stuff in the Cape Cod League, and he currently appears likely to go even higher than tenth overall next time he’s draft eligible — Callis notes that Bickford could be a candidate to go first overall. Had Bickford gone back to Cal State Fullerton, he would not have been eligible for the draft until 2016.
“He had the best arm in the league,” says John Schiffner, an opposing Cape Cod manager. “He threw one of our guys a slider in a big situation, and three kids’ knees buckled in our dugout. And that’s not even his best pitch, because we saw 97 mph.”
Latest On Astros’ Manager Search
The list of potential candidates for the Astros’ open managerial job could include former Indians and Nationals manager Manny Acta, former Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu, former Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch, Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo, and Angels bench coach Dino Ebel, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman writes. (Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times previously wrote that Ebel was a candidate for the position, and ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweeted that the Astros had interest in Wakamatsu, with Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle being the first to note some of the other names.) Other potential candidates include Joey Cora, Bob Geren, Jim Riggleman, Bengie Molina, Tony Pena, Chip Hale, Tim Bogar, Mike Maddux, Dave Martinez, Tom Lawless, Pat Listach and Tony DeFrancesco.
Astros GM Jeff Luhnow has suggested that he might prefer candidates with previous big-league experience as a manager or bench coach. Heyman also notes that Wakamatsu and Hinch could fit the Astros’ desire for a manager with sabermetric leanings. Acta was previously a minor league manager in the Astros system, and he declined a chance at the Astros’ managerial job in 2009 in order to become the Indians’ manager.
Hall, La Russa On D’backs Payroll, Roster, Front Office
Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall and chief baseball officer Tony La Russa both spoke with Zach Buchanan of the Arizona Republic, providing an interesting look ahead at the club’s important upcoming decisions.
The Diamondbacks’ payroll will likely be scaling back from $112MM to about $100MM in 2015, Hall says. He did hedge his comment a bit by saying, “If we think we can spend more, we’re going to.” The reduction in payroll isn’t surprising given that Arizona is looking at its worst single-season attendance total in franchise history. As Hall noted, as with any team or business, anticipated revenues constitute a constraint on spending plans. “The formula that really works for major league teams is to try and keep your payroll at about half of your revenues,” he said. “For us, that’s what we’re looking at.”
With just over $67MM already committed to the 2015 roster and arbitration raises coming for Cliff Pennington, David Hernandez, Wade Miley, Addison Reed and Mark Trumbo, it’s possible that some players will be non-tendered to help meet the organization’s spending targets. Pennington and Hernandez are the most obvious candidates of that group, though Buchanan mentions that some salary could be moved via trade as well.
In part, shedding some dollars may be necessary to accomplish the team’s offseason priorities. Said Hall:
“Obviously we know there are some holes we have to fill. We’ve talked about wanting to go out and get a bat and we’ve talked about wanting to get starting pitching, and in order to do that you’re either going to have to go through trade or free agency and either way you’re going to probably spend dollars on it. To spend more dollars, we’re probably going to have to find areas to save more dollars.”
Hall did note that, so far as starting pitching is concerned, the team sees greater depth in next year’s free agent market than this one. “We’re going to be active,” said Hall, “but just how competitive it gets with fewer arms where the next year the free-agent market is much bigger and brighter … we’re going to be active, but there’s no crystal ball that’ll tell me if we’re going to outbid other teams in larger markets.”
Of course, the first order of business is for the club to install a new general manager. Preliminary interviews have already been conducted with four of the team’s ten initial candidates, says Buchanan, with the team expected to both finish those talks and conduct second-round interviews within the next ten days or so.
Team managing partner Ken Kendrick is not expected to become involved in the process until it comes time to make a final decision on whomever Hall and La Russa want to hire. “As I told him, ‘I don’t think you need to or I need to interview everybody now that we have Tony. Let’s let him do that and Tony and I can decide on the finalists,'” Hall said. “When we think we’ve picked the candidate, we’d like him (Kendrick) to sit down with him to make sure he’s comfortable with he or she as well.”
Beyond a new GM, the team is said to be considering other changes in its baseball decisionmaking. But widespread turnover seems not to be expected, with La Russa suggesting that the addition of statistical-oriented staff could come through the GM hire or a lower-level addition. “Baseball ops, I think we have a pretty healthy situation there as far as numbers, and everyone will be reviewed and analyzed,” said La Russa.
La Russa also emphasized that there is real interest in a continued relationship with former GM Kevin Towers, who will wait to see who replaces him before deciding whether to continue on with the organization. “I’ve said very clearly I’m distressed that the report was leaked early so that the initial headline said ‘dismissed, fired,'” said La Russa. “That’s 180 degrees from the arrangement we have potentially. Kevin has got a lot he can offer.”
Rays Sign Neil Wagner To Two-Year Minor League Deal
1:40pm: The Rays have officially announced the signing of Wagner.
9:48am: The Rays and right-hander Neil Wagner are in agreement on a unique two-year minor league deal that contains an invitation to 2016 Spring Training, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (Twitter link).
The 30-year-old Wagner, a client of Munsey Sports Management, underwent Tommy John surgery this August and is expected to miss most, if not all of the 2015 campaign. That injury is the reason behind the deal’s rather uncharacteristic nature, as Wagner will spend all of 2015 rehabbing with the Rays before attempting to break camp with the club in 2016.
Wagner has spent the past two seasons with the Blue Jays, and though he posted an 8.10 ERA in 10 innings this season, he pitched to a 3.79 ERA with 7.8 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a 44.1 percent ground-ball rate in 38 frames with the Jays in 2013. He was designated for assignment and eventually released by Toronto last month.
The way in which Wagner was compensated for his solid 2013 season was the subject of ire from agent Jim Munsey, who explained back in April how his client came to earn the league minimum ($500K) this year despite the fact that his initial contract with Toronto was a $525K minor league deal. Toronto’s pre-arbitration pay scale is based on service time, and the salary they offered was just $506,250. Munsey refused the salary in protest, at which point the Blue Jays renewed his contract for just $500K, as was their right. (MLBTR’s Zach Links looked at pre-arb pay scales in depth earlier this year.)
The contract with Wagner is somewhat reminiscent of Juan Carlos Oviedo‘s deal with Tampa. Oviedo (who formerly pitched as Leo Nunez) inked a minor league deal prior to the 2013 season that contained a $2MM club option for the 2014 campaign as he recovered from Tommy John. Oviedo’s contract was a bit more significant given his previous success closing games for the Marlins from 2010-12 (when pitching as Nunez).
Padres Hire David Post As Special Assistant To GM
The Padres announced that they have hired former Astros national crosschecker David Post as a special assistant to GM A.J. Preller and the scouting department. Post will assist Preller in all aspects of amateur, professional and international scouting.
In addition to his experience with the Astros, Post has served as a regional scout for the Marlins as well. The 41-year-old also had a 12-year playing career as a minor leaguer with the Dodgers, Expos, Indians, Pirates, Yankees and Rockies, tallying a combined .272/.367/.383 batting line.
Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets that the hiring seems to cast doubt over previous speculation that Kevin Towers would join the Padres’ front office in an advisory capacity were he dismissed as GM of the division-rival D’Backs, which he ultimately was. Towers has been offered a scouting role within the Diamondbacks organization.
Latest On Changes To Yankees’ Player Development Department
1:04pm: Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News hears that Steinbrenner plans to hold an organizational meeting immediately after the season ends, and a perform a “total evaluation” of the player development system, which could result in “complete overhaul.” It’s possible that Oppenheimer, Denbo and other Newman associates are not retained, according to Feinsand.
Unlike King, Feinsand hears that Newman’s replacement will come from outside the organization, as Yankees decision-makers feel that a new direction and new ideas are necessary.
8:35am: Yankees vice president of baseball operations Mark Newman, who has been in charge of the club’s minor league system for the past 15 years, is set to retire, reports George A. King III of the New York Post. However, there appears to be a bit more to the story, as King hears that with Newman’s contract up at the end of the season, he likely would not have been retained had he not gone the retirement route.
As King notes, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner has expressed in the past year that he would look at all aspects of his team, including the player development and amateur scouting departments. The Yankees’ minor league system has drawn some flak for a number of years, and King also hears that director of player development Pat Roessler could be on his way out as well.
Of course, part of the reason for the Yankees’ lack of homegrown position players has been the team’s repeated forfeitures of high draft picks in order to sign free agents. While the Yankees had three first-round picks in 2013 (Ian Clarkin, Aaron Judge and Eric Jagielo), the club has surrendered picks to sign Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran, Rafael Soriano and Mark Teixeira in the past six years. The team also failed to sign Gerrit Cole, now with the Pirates, out of high school when selecting him 28th overall back in 2008. This is likely among the reasons that despite the lack of impact from the minor league system (on the hitting side, at least), King hears that vice president and director of amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer’s job is believed to be safe.
The replacements for Newman and Roessler appear to be in place already as well. Former Royals manager and Dodgers bench coach Trey Hillman is being touted as Newman’s successor. Hillman has served as a minor league manager in the Yankees’ organization in the past as well and recently returned as a special assistant. Former Yankees hitting coach Gary Denbo, who worked with Hillman when Hillman managed in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, is likely to replace Roessler.
All of this news comes just days after reports indicated that the Yankees would likely retain general manager Brian Cashman, whose contract also expires at season’s end.
Chris Davis Suspended 25 Games For Adderall Use
12:30pm: Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports that Davis did not have a TUE for Adderall in 2013 (Twitter links). His previous TUE came earlier in his career than last year’s breakout. As Passan notes, this opens the possibility that Davis’ first positive test (which would only result in a warning) came prior to the 2014 season. Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that Davis has been diagnosed with ADD in the past but did not apply for a TUE in 2013.
11:32am: Davis did not apply for a therapeutic use exemption from the league this season, tweets Connolly. In a followup tweet, Connolly reminds that a 2012-13 study showed that 122 Major Leaguers had TUEs — 119 of which were for ADD.
10:31am: Davis was indeed suspended for Adderall usage, he announced in a statement (All Twitter links to MLB.com’s Britt Ghiroli):
“I apologize to my teammates, coaches, the Orioles organization and especially the fans. I made a mistake by taking Adderall. I had permission to use it in the past, but do not have a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) this year. I accept my punishment and will begin serving my suspension immediately.”
That Davis has been suspended means that would have had to test positive twice for a banned stimulant such as Adderall.
10:10am: Orioles first baseman Chris Davis‘ season is over as he has been suspended 25 games after testing positive for amphetamines, tweets Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun. MLB has since confirmed the suspension, which will run through the postseason.
It’s unclear exactly what substance Davis used, but those making the leap to steroids should note that even the usage of fairly common stimulants like Adderall can result in a 25-game suspension (as Troy Patton proved earlier this season). That’s not to excuse Davis, of course, as this is a grave mistake at the worst possible time, and the substances are banned without receiving exemptions from the league.
Baltimore currently leads the AL East by 10 games and will now be without Davis’ game-changing power for the final two-plus weeks and all of the ALDS and the ALCS. The ALCS roster would, of course, have to be set before the series begins, meaning that the Orioles would have to play a man down for the first few games of that series in order for him to be reinstated midway through. It’s highly unlikely that a team would agree to play with 24 men in such an important series, meaning the earliest Davis would likely be eligible to return would be in the World Series, should Baltimore advance to that stage.
Davis is hitting just .196/.300/.404 after his breakout 53-homer campaign last season, thanks in part due to an increased strikeout rate (33 percent) and an abnormally low batting average on balls in play (.242). Baltimore added some depth to its roster late in August by adding Kelly Johnson and Alejandro De Aza via trade, and the emergence of Steve Pearce gives the team another corner bat on which to rely. Nevertheless, the loss of Davis is a big blow to a team that has already lost Manny Machado and Matt Wieters for the season.
From a financial standpoint, Davis’ suspension will cost him about $1.07MM, as he won’t be paid while on the restricted list. He is earning $10.35MM this season as he approaches his final offseason of arbitration eligiblity.