Yankees Name Rachel Balkovec As Manager Of Lower-A Affiliate
The Yankees have made a groundbreaking hire in their minor league ranks, as The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler (Twitter link) reports that Rachel Balkovec will manage the organization’s lower-A team in Tampa next season. Balkovec will become the first woman to ever manage an affiliated minor league club.
This is the latest of several barriers broken over the course of Balkovec’s decade-long career in baseball. Beginning as a strength and conditioning coordinator in the Cardinals’ farm system from 2011-15, she then moved to a similar role with the Astros from 2016-18, working with both Houston’s Latin American prospects and then the Astros’ Double-A affiliate. She has spent the last two seasons working within the Yankees’ minor league system as a hitting coach, following some time spent working with Driveline and in the Netherlands working with the Dutch national teams.
Along the way, Balkovec has routinely been noted as the first woman to be hired in these positions, whether in her strength/conditioning jobs or as a hitting coach. The 34-year-old will now take yet another step forward managing some of the Yankees’ top young prospects, and Balkovec is undoubtedly already familiar with many of these players due to her coaching work.
As Balkovec told The Associated Press’ Ronald Blum in 2019, “I have aspirations of being in a more leadership role from a broader standpoint,” mentioning the possibility of one day being hired as a “director of baseball operations or farm director or GM.” Such goals aren’t as remote as they once seemed for women in baseball, considering that Kim Ng is the Marlins general manager, Eve Rosenbaum is the Orioles’ director of baseball development, and Sara Goodrum was recently hired as the Astros’ director of player development. As for on-field personnel, Alyssa Nakken is a member of the Giants coaching staff, while Bianca Smith (Red Sox) and Rachel Folden (Cubs) have worked coaching jobs in the minor leagues for their respective teams.
Ty Buttrey Looking To Resume MLB Career
After stepping away from baseball last April, former Angels right-hander Ty Buttrey said during a Twitter Spaces conversation tonight that he wanted to return to playing (hat tip to Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group). Buttrey has remained on the Angels’ restricted list for the last nine-plus months.
A fourth-round pick for the Red Sox in the 2012 draft, Buttrey was dealt to Anaheim as part of the July 2018 trade that sent Ian Kinsler to Boston. The trade led to Buttrey making his big league debut, and he emerged as a solid member of the L.A. bullpen in 2018-19, posting a 3.86 ERA and 27.4% strikeout rate in 88 2/3 innings of those two seasons.
The strikeouts dropped off to just a 16.1% rate in 2020, however, as Buttrey struggled to a 5.81 ERA over 26 1/3 frames. The diminished K% was just one of several subpar Statcast metrics on Buttrey’s record, though he was far from the only player to struggle amidst the unusual circumstances of the abbreviated 2020 season. The Halos were expecting Buttrey to rebound last year, but instead, the 28-year-old wanted to leave the grind of big league life.
“I couldn’t help but notice that my love and passion for this game had started to diminish.“,” Buttrey explained as part of a an Instagram post about his decision. Simply making it as a professional ballplayer seemed enough for Buttrey, who said “I completely lost the drive to continue doing something that I didn’t love because in my mind, I already accomplished it. It was never my dream to make it to the Hall of Fame, win a World Series, or become an All-Star. In my head, I accomplished what I wanted, to prove people wrong and accomplish something extremely hard.”
Angels manager Joe Maddon told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger and other reporters last spring that Buttrey informed the team of his decision prior to the team optioning the righty to the minors at the end of Spring Training. Going by Maddon’s statements of support, the door would seemingly be open for Buttrey to return to the Angels once the lockout is over, and the team could get a look at him in camp before deciding on any next move.
Latest On Giants, Seiya Suzuki
The Giants’ interest in outfielder Seiya Suzuki was first noted back in November, and San Francisco has continued to be linked to the longtime Hiroshima Carp slugger. As reported by Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic, the Giants were one of the teams who conducted video interviews with Suzuki (through Zoom) prior to the start of the lockout.
The 27-year-old Suzuki has a long list of known suitors, as the Rangers, Yankees, Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Mariners have all reportedly shown interest in his services. Texas has been one of the offseason’s biggest spenders and the Blue Jays (with Kevin Gausman) and Mariners (with Robbie Ray) have also made some aggressive signings. New York and Boston have stayed relatively quiet, perhaps in anticipation of some bigger spending after the lockout once the details of the new CBA are finalized.
That same tactic could be the Giants’ modus operandi for figuring out how to navigate the post-lockout world. It’s not as if San Francisco hasn’t been making moves this winter — the club retained Brandon Belt via the qualifying offer, re-signed both Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood, and further augmented the rotation by signing Alex Cobb. None of these signings broke the bank, however, and the Giants have only around $126MM committed to their 2022 payroll to date.
This doesn’t mean that the Giants will necessarily use their available payroll space on any huge signings, given the team’s reported reluctance to sign players to nine-figure deals. However, there is still plenty of talent available for well less than a $100MM deal, and Suzuki stands out as one of the more intriguing options available for reasons beyond just cost. MLBTR projected Suzuki for a five-year, $55MM pact, though his market is rather more difficult to project than most free agents, given his lack of MLB experience and now the unusual circumstances over his posting situation.
Like so much else in the baseball world, Suzuki’s free agency has been put on hold by the lockout. The Carp officially posted Suzuki on November 22, so he got roughly ten days into the 30-day posting period before the lockout began. While it’s safe to assume that the Giants and other teams laid some initial groundwork in their online meetings, the 20 days remaining doesn’t leave much margin for error for Suzuki and his reps to find an acceptable contract.
Given the uncertainty surrounding labor talks between the owners and players, it wouldn’t be entirely shocking to see Suzuki opt to return to Nippon Professional Baseball for another season if the lockout keeps dragging on. As noted by The New York Times’ Brad Lefton, February 1 could serve as something of a deadline for Suzuki, since Japanese teams begin their Spring Training on that date. It is extremely rare for Japanese players to miss any of their training camps for reasons other than injury, so Suzuki could need to decide between NPB or MLB by late January.
From an on-field perspective, there is plenty of logic in a Suzuki/Giants pairing. He could immediately step into regular duty as an everyday right fielder, providing San Francisco’s lineup (and the outfield mix in particular) with a needed right-handed bat. Suzuki has played only as an outfielder for the last seven seasons but he has some history as a third baseman, first baseman, and shortstop, so there’s even a small chance the Giants could experiment with using him around the diamond, as they have so many other versatile players on the roster. Suzuki only turned 27 last August, so he should have plenty of prime years left to help a Giants team that now has designs on winning a World Series as early as next season.
Recapping The KBO League’s International Player Signings
With the lockout slowing MLB-related transactions to a crawl of minor league deals, transactions involving Korean Baseball Organization teams have taken more of a spotlight on MLBTR’s pages since the start of December. These moves have included the signings of several names familiar to North American baseball fans, as the KBO League’s clubs have looked to address their allocated three roster spots for non-Korean players. International-born players can only sign contracts worth a maximum of $1MM in total salary, and players new to the KBO League can sign only one-year pacts.
Though the Doosan Bears have one signing that still isn’t yet official, the other 29 slots have been filled. It is still possible this list could be adjusted in the coming weeks due to a number of factors — injuries, players returning to North America (for personal reasons or a deal with an MLB team), issues related to the pandemic, or teams just changing their minds after seeing the players in training camp. Here is the rundown of this winter’s international signings for the 10 KBO League franchises….
Doosan Bears
Jose Miguel Fernandez (deal not yet finalized), Ariel Miranda, Robert Stock
NC Dinos
Nick Martini, Wes Parsons, Drew Rucinski
Hanwha Eagles
Ryan Carpenter, Nick Kingham, Mike Tauchman
Lotte Giants
Charlie Barnes, DJ Peters, Glenn Sparkman
Kiwoom Heroes
Tyler Eppler, Eric Jokisch, Yasiel Puig
SSG Landers
Kevin Cron, Wilmer Font, Ivan Nova
Samsung Lions
David Buchanan, Jose Pirela, Albert Suarez
Kia Tigers
Socrates Brito, Sean Nolin, Ronnie Williams
LG Twins
Casey Kelly, Adam Plutko, Rio Ruiz
KT Wiz
William Cuevas, Odrisamer Despaigne, Henry Ramos
CPBL’s Wei Chuan Dragons Sign Jake Brigham
The Wei Chuan Dragons of the Chinese Professional Baseball League announced earlier this week that right-hander Jake Brigham had signed a contract for the 2022 season. This is Brigham’s second stint with the Dragons, as he began last season with the Taipei-based team before heading to the Korean Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes last April.
The well-traveled Brigham is one of the rare players who has seen action in the CPBL, the KBO League, Nippon Professional Baseball, and Major League Baseball. Originally a sixth-round pick for Texas in the 2006 draft, Brigham spent his first nine seasons in the minors with the Rangers, Cubs, Pirates, and Braves. He finally reached The Show in 2015, posting an 8.64 ERA over 16 2/3 innings in 12 games with Atlanta.
That marked Brigham’s last appearance in North American baseball, as he has since spent time with the NPB’s Tohuku Rakuten Golden Eagles, last season’s brief stint with the Dragons in the CPBL, and parts of five seasons in South Korea with the Heroes. Brigham has posted some very solid numbers as a reliable starter for the Heroes, and is coming off a 2021 season that saw him post a combined 1.95 ERA over 106 1/3 combined innings (61 with the Heroes, 45 1/3 with the Dragons) across both leagues.
Jeff Pickler Withdraws Name From Consideration For Mets’ Bench Coach
Jeff Pickler has removed his name from consideration for the Mets’ bench coach position, per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. The Reds’ planning and outfield coach will stay with Cincinnati for 2022.
Pickler had recently been identified as one of the candidates for the position, as the Mets have been actively filling out their coaching staff in recent days. The Mets are behind most other teams in putting their coaching staff together, as they also had to make a front office hire that occupied the early part of their offseason. They eventually hired Billy Eppler as general manager in mid-November, but he had to focus on free agency with the ticking clock of the looming lockout.
Once the lockout was implemented in December and big league transactions were frozen, the club shifted their attention towards the coaching staff, with the majority of the crew from 2021 not being retained. Buck Showalter was the first piece of the puzzle, being hired as manager on December 20th. After a lull in activity around the holidays, the Mets have reportedly added first base coach Wayne Kirby, third base coach Joey Cora and hitting coach Eric Chavez in recent days.
The bench coach position remains an ongoing matter, with today’s news focused on who won’t be taking the position. Earlier today, it was reported that the Padres denied the Mets the opportunity to interview quality control coach Ryan Flaherty for the position, which would have seen him reunite with Showalter, his manager from his playing days in Baltimore.
Pickler was selected by the Brewers in the 11th round of the 1998 draft. He spent eight years in the minors for the Brewers, Rangers and Rockies before transitioning to scouting. After stints as a scout with the Diamondbacks and Padres, he joined the Dodgers in 2014 as special assistant in professional scouting and player development. The Twins hired him as a coach for 2017, with Pickler joining the Reds two years later.
It was recently reported that the Mets had a “headline-grabbing hire” lined up for their bench coach job, but that turned out to be the aforementioned Chavez, who actually settled on the hitting coach position.
Padres Deny Mets’ Request To Interview Ryan Flaherty
The Mets have been one of the busiest teams this offseason, as they hired Billy Eppler as general manager in mid-November, then quickly signed Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha before the lockout began in early December. Since major league transactions are not allowed during the lockout, their attention has shifted to their coaching staff, with Buck Showalter being named their new manager just before the holiday break.
In recent days, details about who would be filling out Showalter’s staff have started to emerge, with Wayne Kirby, Joey Cora and Eric Chavez reportedly lined up to be the first base coach, third base coach and hitting coach, respectively. One position yet to be filled is the bench coach, but one name that can apparently be crossed off the list of contenders is Ryan Flaherty. According to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Padres have denied the Mets’ request to interview their quality control coach for the position.
As noted by Rosenthal, teams usually allow their employees to interview with other clubs if the open position represents a promotion for the individual. Although the Mets’ bench coach job is considered a promotion for Flaherty, the Padres apparently decided to deny the request for timing reasons. Although the lockout could push everything back, spring training is still tentatively scheduled to begin in about a month. If Flaherty were allowed to interview for the position and ultimately landed the job, it would leave the Padres in the awkward position of having to scramble and make another hire in a narrow window of time.
This is a fairly logical decision from the Padres’ perspective, as they lined up their coaching staff early in the offseason and seemingly didn’t want to get dragged back into another search. However, whenever a team blocks one of their employees from seeking greater opportunities elsewhere, there is risk of creating resentment in said employee, reducing their ability to be retained. Flaherty isn’t quoted in the report, making his feelings on the matter unknown. But Rosenthal reports that he was involved in the process of filling out the coaching staff after Bob Melvin was hired, which included his former Vanderbilt teammate David Macias being brought aboard as first base and outfield coach.
After a playing career that spanned 547 games in eight seasons, Flaherty was hired by the Padres to be a quality control coach prior to the 2020 season, the same offseason that saw Jayce Tingler brought aboard as manager. Tingler was recently fired and replaced with Melvin, with several other positions on the staff seeing turnover as well. Flaherty, 35, seems to have survived the cull, however, and will stick with the club for 2022 and beyond, as Rosenthal reports that he received a three-year deal at the start of the offseason.
Reds Had Interest In Andrew Heaney
This offseason has largely been about subtraction for the Reds so far, with Tucker Barnhart getting traded to the Tigers, Wade Miley going to the Cubs on waivers and Michael Lorenzen joining the Angels via free agency. Nick Castellanos also opted out of the remainder of his contract and, though he remains a free agent, seems unlikely to re-sign in Cincinnati. There have also been numerous rumors swirling about teams around the league trying to pry Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle and Sonny Gray away, as the club is apparently looking to “align our payroll to our resources“, as general manager Nick Krall phrased it.
However, there was at least one addition that the club considered prior to the lockout, as Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that they were interested in Andrew Heaney before he signed with the Dodgers. Whether the club actively pursued Heaney isn’t known, but the interest is noteworthy, especially given the fact that they haven’t signed a free agent to a major league deal yet this offseason.
Heaney took the final spot on MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents, with a prediction for a one-year, $6MM deal. It’s possible that Cincinnati’s interest was in that range, as he ultimately landed with the Dodgers for slightly more, a one-year deal worth $8.5MM. With Gray set to make almost $11MM in 2022 and Castillo likely getting close to $8MM in arbitration, perhaps they viewed Heaney as a low-cost way of supplementing the rotation after losing Miley and maybe another starter.
After six straight losing seasons from 2014 to 2019, the Reds emerged from their recent rebuilding effort in 2020, going 31-29 and qualifying for the expanded postseason. 2021 was another winning effort, as the club went 83-79, but that wasn’t enough to qualifying for the postseason. Despite that progress, the front office seems to be stuck in an awkward position where they don’t want to start another rebuild so quickly but don’t have the ability to make a significant addition to the payroll.
Exactly how they plan to walk this fine line isn’t yet known, but Heaney would have been a low-cost, high-reward gamble for them. He has long tantalized teams with excellent strikeout and walk numbers, but disappointing results largely caused by the long ball. In 2021, for instance, he gave up 29 home runs and had an ERA of 5.83, but a strikeout rate of 26.9% and walk rate of 7.3%, both of those being better than league average. Given their apparently limited resources, it makes sense for the Reds to be drawn to such a gamble. However, their home field of Great American Ball Park is considered to be quite hitter-friendly, especially when it comes to home runs. It would have been challenging for Heaney to finally reach his full potential in that environment. But given their financial situation, perhaps those are the types of gambles the club will be trying to make after the lockout.
KBO’s Doosan Bears Close To Re-Signing Jose Miguel Fernandez
The Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization are close to re-signing Jose Miguel Fernandez, reports Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. This would be the fourth season with the Bears for Fernandez, who turns 34 in April.
Fernandez was a high-profile signing of the Dodgers in 2017, after defecting from his native Cuba in 2015. In 2017, he played 90 games in Double-A and three in Triple-A, producing an overall slash line of .306/.367/.496. Despite that solid production, the Dodgers released him at the end of the year. He was signed by the Angels and spent most of 2018 in Triple-A, hitting an excellent .333/.396/.535. That was enough to get him selected to the big league club, playing 36 games and hitting .267/.309/.388. That small sample is the only MLB experience on his resume, as he signed with the Bears after that season.
Fernandez has had three straight excellent campaigns for the Bears, with at least 141 games played and 15 home runs in each of them. His overall line from 2019 to 2021 is .334/.403/.476, walking more than he struck out in that time, 184 to 131. Now it appears he will be suiting up for the Bears for a fourth straight season in 2022, his age-34 campaign.
As noted by Yoo, each KBO team except for the Bears has filled their three slots for foreign players. The Bears have used two so far, on Ariel Miranda and Robert Stock. If the signing of Fernandez is completed, that would mean all the league’s roster spots for non-Korean players are spoken for.
Quick Hits: Camden Yards, Blue Jays, Nationals, A’s, Valentine
The Orioles have called Oriole Park at Camden Yards home for the last 30 seasons, and the team continues to negotiate with the Maryland Stadium Authority about the ballpark’s future and a lease extension. “The good news is both the Orioles and the stadium authority feel very strongly that we want to renew this partnership and that it’s been beneficial for all parties — the state, the city, the team,” Orioles senior VP of administration and experience Greg Bader told The Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Barker. The Orioles’ lease at Camden Yards is up in December 2023, though the club can decide by February 1, 2023 whether or not it wants to exercise a one-time, five-year extension that would run through 2028.
Given the mutual interest between the two sides, there doesn’t appear to be any concern that the Orioles would actually leave Baltimore, despite the uncertainty that often surrounds discussions of ballpark leases or renovations. Bader said the team is looking to upgrade OPACY to match “what a lot of newer or renovated ballparks have in terms of those social spaces, those areas for people to engage with baseball the way that people do today.” This could include loge seating, outdoor seating or concession areas, or a sportsbook, as “the Orioles are quite interested in finding the right sports gaming partner.” That said, Bader also stressed that old-school experience of watching a game at Camden Yards (the modern stadium that started the trend towards more retro, baseball-only venues) wouldn’t be significantly altered. “We’re not looking to upend the traditional side of a baseball park. We’re very confident that what makes Camden Yards so special would be able to be retained with whatever we do,” Bader said.
More from around the baseball world…
- Yimi Garcia‘s two-year contract represents the Blue Jays‘ biggest investment in their bullpen this offseason, and The Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm thinks the club might not spend big on any further new relievers. While relief pitching was a big weakness for much of the Jays’ 2021 campaign, the in-season acquisitions of Adam Cimber and Trevor Richards helped shore up a core group that also includes incumbent closer Jordan Romano and southpaw Tim Mayza. With other needs yet to be addressed, Chisholm figure the Blue Jays will spend bigger on the lineup and rotation: “keeping the stakes low [in the bullpen] is a logical approach so the larger bets can be saved for other areas.”
- In the latest edition of the Rates & Barrels podcast, The Athletic’s Derek VanRiper, Britt Ghiroli, and Eno Sarris discuss a variety of topics, including the Nationals‘ struggles in player development, some hypothetical trade fits involving the Athletics, Blue Jays, and Mets, and the concept of Matt Chapman moving from third base to shortstop.
- Former Mets manager Bobby Valentine has received some consideration as a special assistant within the front office, according to The New York Post’s Mike Puma. It isn’t known whether Valentine is himself interested in such a role, as Valentine hasn’t been officially involved with a big league club since the Red Sox fired him as manager following the 2012 season. Valentine both played with the Mets in 1977-78 and then posted a 536-467 record while managing the club from 1996-2002, leading the Mets to the National League pennant in 2000.