Quick Hits: International Signings, Astros, Watson, Nationals
Though much of the offseason baseball calendar has been shuttered by the lockout, the next international signing period will still open as scheduled on January 15. This will technically be the 2021-22 signing window, as both this upcoming signing period and last year’s period were pushed back from their normal July 2 date due to the pandemic. Since many of the eligible international players long ago entered into unofficial agreements with their future teams, there isn’t much mystery about the landing spots or even the signing bonuses for these top amateur. As such, Baseball America’s Ben Badler is able to rank the top 50 players in the market by their expected signing bonuses in his preview of the 2021-22 int’l market.
Cuban outfielder Cristian Vaquero leads the way, as the 16-year-old has already been linked to the Nationals. The 16-year-old is a bit of a work in progress at the plate, as Badler notes that Vaquero only somewhat recently became a switch-hitter rather than a pure left-handed hitter, though he does swing well from the left side. As for glovework, Vaquero is “a dynamic center fielder with plus speed, a strong arm and good defensive instincts for his age.”
More from around baseball…
- “I think bringing back [Justin] Verlander is probably going to go down as the Astros’ biggest move of the offseason,” The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan writes as part of a reader mailbag. The exception might be if a notable remaining free agent was open to the type of short-term, high-average-annual-value contract the Astros seemingly prefer, yet barring such a move, it doesn’t seem like Houston would pivot towards a longer-term deal. To that same end, this would seemingly indicate that the Astros won’t pursue Trevor Story or a reunion with Carlos Correa, and instead head into 2022 entrusting rookie Jeremy Pena with at least a share of the regular shortstop job. Though there’s some obvious risk involved, Kaplan notes that the Astros tried this same tactic last season when George Springer left in free agency, and the club found adequate in-house center field replacements in Myles Straw, Chas McCormick, and Jake Meyers (Houston even had enough depth at the position to deal Straw at the trade deadline). The Astros could acquire a lower-tier veteran shortstop to provide some extra backing for Pena and utilityman Aledmys Diaz.
- The Nationals have spent the last several months looking to overhaul their player development practices, and they went in-house to elevate De Jon Watson to the role of director of the player development department. In a two-part interview with The Athletic’s Maria Torres (part one, part two), Watson discusses the many steps both already made and in the works, plus he also shares his thought on some of the Nats’ most interesting prospects.
Athletics Expected To Hire Brad Ausmus As Bench Coach
The Athletics’ search for a new bench coach appears to be over, as MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter) reports that Brad Ausmus is expected to land the job. It will be Ausmus’ first on-field job since he was fired as manager of the Angels following the 2019 season.
The 52-year-old Ausmus has been linked to several other managerial positions since leaving Anaheim, interviewing with the Padres, Astros, and (most recently) the Mets about their openings in the dugout. This also marks the first actual coaching job of Ausmus’ career, as he worked as a special assistant with the Padres in between the end of his playing career and his hiring as the Tigers’ manager in November 2013. Ausmus then worked another special assistant job for a season in the Angels’ front office before taking over their managerial position.
Now paired alongside newly-hired Oakland skipper Mark Kotsay, Ausmus will provide a veteran voice as Kotsay embarks on his first gig as a big-league manager. Ausmus has 808 games (386-422) and five seasons under his belt managing Detroit and Los Angeles, highlighted by an AL Central crown with the Tigers in 2014.
When the A’s let Bob Melvin take the Padres’ manager job, it also led to the departure of former bench coach Ryan Christenson, who followed Melvin to San Diego. Kotsay and now Ausmus will fill those two vacancies, though it remains to be seen if Oakland might yet make any other changes to the coaching staff heading into 2022.
Read The Transcript Of Our Chat With Hall Of Famer Chipper Jones
This is a big one. Chipper Jones needs no introduction; you can simply read his Hall of Fame plaque. Chipper is one of the best switch-hitters of all time. Drafted first overall in 1990, he was the offensive centerpiece of the Braves dynasty in the 90s and early 2000s mainly as the team’s third baseman. Chipper’s first full season was 1995, when the Braves won the World Series and he finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting. His accomplishments are too numerous to list, but Jones was the 1999 NL MVP and received votes in 12 other seasons. He hit 30 home runs in six separate seasons, including 45 in ’99. He also reached the century mark in RBI nine times. Even as he battled injuries later in his career, Jones’ production stayed strong, and he won the 2008 batting title by hitting .364 at age 36.
Jones finished his career with a .303/.401/.529 line, hitting 468 home runs in his 19-year career. He became a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2018. We were honored to host Chipper today for a live chat. Click here to read the transcript. You can follow Chipper on Twitter @RealCJ10.
If you’re a current or former MLB player who would like to do a chat with MLBTR readers, reach out through our contact form! We’ve also had requests for a chat with a former MLB general manager, if there are any out there who would be interested.
Coaching/Organzational Notes: Beltran, Mets, Chavez, Manno
When the Padres were putting together their new coaching staff this winter, the club had some talks with Carlos Beltran about a possible job, The New York Post’s Ken Davidoff reports. “The talks never advanced to anything serious,” either on the coaching front, or towards Beltran’s preference for an advisory position within the front office (similar to the role Beltran held with the Yankees in 2019). Beltran has yet to work in any official baseball capacity since the Mets abruptly fired him as manager in January 2020, following the revelations of Beltran’s involvement in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
San Diego is the first team known to explore hiring Beltran for any position, which does perhaps present a bit of a icebreaker towards his possible return with some team, though Davidoff opines that it doesn’t seem Beltran has interest in coaching. That could be an obstacle if Beltran eventually wants to get back into managing, considering that Beltran has still never officially managed or coached at any level of pro ball; the Mets fired him before he ever led the dugout for a single game. It remains to be seen exactly what Beltran’s next step might be, as Davidoff notes that the longtime star outfielder has moved his family back to Puerto Rico, and Beltran has the financial security “to be selective in his return — or to simply never return” if he so chooses.
More notes from the coaching and organizational ranks…
- Earlier this week, Deesha Thosar of The New York Daily News reported that the Mets were lining up “an exciting, headline-grabbing hire” as their next bench coach. In her latest update, Thosar reports that Eric Chavez was that planned major name, as the Mets talked with the longtime A’s star about the bench coaching role before eventually settling on Chavez as the team’s new hitting coach. As one might expect, hiring Chavez involved “a tricky negotiation process with the Yankees,” considering the Yankees only just hired Chavez as their assistant hitting coach in December.
- In regards to the bench coach role, the Mets are now aiming towards hiring “a younger, analytics-driven individual,” Thosar reports. It will make for an interesting complement to veteran manager Buck Showalter, providing something of an old school/new school approach between Showalter and his next chief lieutenant. Reds game planning/outfield coach Jeff Pickler is one of the names under consideration for the Mets’ bench coach job, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link).
- Reds scout Bruce Manno is retiring after close to 45 years in pro baseball, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link). Manno has been a familiar face in many front offices over the years, working with the Blue Jays, Brewers, Orioles, Cardinals, Braves, and Reds in various capacities, including working as the Cards’ director of player development during the club’s 2006 World Series season. Manno worked as an assistant GM with both the Brewers (1987-94) and Braves (2007-14), and his time in Atlanta helped pave the way towards their 2021 title. Freddie Freeman was drafted, developed, and extended during Manno’s tenure, and Ronald Acuna and Ozzie Albies joined the organization on their initial amateur contracts. (Manno discussed the Acuna/Albies deals with David O’Brien of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution back in 2018, with Manno praising the work of then-director of international scouting Johnny Almarez). We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Manno on a fine career, and we wish him the best in his retirement.
New York Times To Purchase The Athletic
4:05pm: As previously expected, the deal has been announced following the close of the stock market. A press release by the New York Times Company confirms that it has reached a deal to acquire The Athletic (as well as the purchase price of $550MM) and announces an expected closing of the deal in the first quarter of 2022.
Though she makes clear that The Athletic’s ample subscriber base played a major role in the Times’ attraction to the San Francisco-based sports outlet, Meredith Kopit Levien, the New York Times Company’s president and CEO, suggests in the statement that The Athletic will be given relative free reign, describing it as a “complement to” the Times and “a subsidiary of The Times Company” that will “continue to operate separately.” The Athletic’s founders, Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann, will remain on board following the acquisition, though each will now report to Times Company executive David Perpich, who will be named The Athletic’s publisher.
Though the role is multi-faceted and varies from organization to organization, a publisher broadly sets the editorial and commercial direction for a publication, particularly with regard to big-picture decisions like target markets, forms of content, and the scope and nature of advertising. Perpich previously served as president and general manager for Wirecutter, another New York Times subsidiary, and is the first cousin of Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger. Perpich’s precise role in the future of The Athletic remains, at this point, unclear.
1:36pm: In a deal likely to shake up the sports media landscape, the New York Times Company (the parent company and publisher of the New York Times) has agreed to a $550MM deal to purchase subscription sports news service The Athletic (first reported by Jessica Toonkel of The Information). As of early Thursday afternoon, neither The Athletic nor the Times has announced the deal, though Sara Fischer of Axios reports that the deal is expected to be announced after the stock market closes for the day.
How (if at all) the deal will affect The Athletic’s coverage or subscription model remains to be seen, but Toonkel suggests that the deal may have been motivated by the site’s hefty subscriber base. Indeed, the acquisition of The Athletic’s more than one million subscribers (a threshold it crossed in September 2020) will go a long way towards meeting the Times’ stated goal of reaching 10 million subscribers by 2025; as of September 2021, it reported 8.3 million digital and print subscribers. Though some overlap in the publications’ subscriber bases certainly exists, the deal will move the Times a good deal closer to its target.
Previous reporting suggests that The Athletic had been in discussions with a number of media outfits since at least early 2021. In addition to the New York Times, the site had engaged in talks with politics-focused news site Axios (per Fischer) as well as sports betting behemoths DraftKings and FanDuel (per Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel of The Information), though it’s not entirely clear which of these negotiations culminated in an offer.
Since launching in 2016, The Athletic has pioneered a new model in the sports media landscape, offering a subscription-based service dedicated to what it has called “smarter coverage for die-hard fans” through a combination of day-to-day beat reporting (traditionally the province of local newspapers) alongside the sort of long-form analysis, original reporting, and social commentary more commonly found in national magazines. The site also benefited from a broader decline in print media, which has seen many local papers cut staff (including in sports sections) and others shut their doors entirely. At present, The Athletic has devoted coverage for 40 US cities, seven Canadian cities, and the United Kingdom.
On one hand, the backing of one of the world’s most powerful news organizations could offer The Athletic further coverage resources to add to its stable of experienced reporters. On the other, the potential imposition of new leadership (Fischer reports that founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann will stay on, though they’ll now at least notionally report to the Times’ board of directors) could impact the thrust of the site’s coverage in any number of possible directions. Until either organization confirms the deal or releases a statement regarding the future plans for the site, any further analysis of the deal’s implications would be wholly speculative, but it does represent a significant consolidation in digital sports media — a long-established trend across the digital media landscape.
What You Thought Was The Most Questionable December Deal Five Years Ago
While news of minor league deals, international signings, and coaching hires continue to trickle in, much of the baseball fandom has stayed engaged thanks to one thing: speculation. For weeks, fans and writers have used what information they can gather during MLB’s lockout to predict what the next CBA will look like, which free agents will sign where, and who is going to draw the most trade buzz. With little in the way of breaking news many of us have shifted gears towards thinking about the future, though now seems as optimal a time as any to reflect on the past.
Five years ago in December 2016, the baseball hot stove was cranked all the way up. Outside of one day in the beginning of the month, it’s easy to hail 2016’s closing month as more consistently action-packed with baseball news than the December we just experienced. In fact, December of 2016 was so rife with moves that MLBTR crafted a poll, titled “Dubious December Decisions“, asking readers which recent move they found to be the most questionable.
Several contentious baseball moves were made five Decembers ago, but for the poll’s sake we zeroed in on three: The Nationals’ trade for Adam Eaton, in which they surrendered then-prospects Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dane Dunning; the Rockies’ decision to sign outfielder/shortstop Ian Desmond to a 5-year $70MM deal and play him at first base, forfeiting the 11th overall pick in the amateur draft; and the Yankees’ decision to sign Aroldis Chapman to a record 5-year, $86MM deal.
Nearly 15,000 people voted in this 2016 poll and ranked the moves as follows, with higher vote percentages representing the most skepticism:
- Adam Eaton to Nationals (50%)
- Ian Desmond to Rockies (32.2%)
- Aroldis Chapman to Yankees (13.1%)
- Other (3.6%)
The Eaton deal proved far and away the most head-scratching by voters, who questioned why the Nationals would surrender some of their best prospects for a right fielder when a certain Bryce Harper already had the position covered. Advocates of the deal on the Nationals side were quick to point out that Giolito, the headlining prospect of the deal, didn’t look very promising in his first Major League action during the 2016 season. Eaton, meanwhile, was signed to an affordable contract through the 2021 season, averaged a 119 OPS+ and 5.3 bWAR in the three seasons prior to the deal, and could play center field until there was a vacancy in right field (hint: there was).
Early returns for the Nationals side of the deal didn’t seem as terrible as many feared. Eaton struggled to stay healthy, but was productive offensively, slashing .288/.377/.425 (109 OPS+) in his first three seasons in the NL. Giolito went on to have his worst minor league season in 2017 and gave up the most earned runs of any pitcher in 2018. Lopez generally struggled across those three years out of the White Sox rotation, outside of a decent 2018 showing, while Dunning pitched well, albeit exclusively in the minor leagues.
The past couple of years have quite handily tipped the trade in Chicago’s favor however. The right-handed Giolito turned a sharp corner entering the 2019 season, and has now garnered Cy Young consideration every year since his ’19 emergence. Lopez has had trouble with consistency, but is coming off a season that saw him pitch out of the bullpen at times to post a cumulative 3.43 ERA. Dunning, meanwhile, was the key piece in the trade that sent Lance Lynn from Texas to Chicago.
Eaton saw his production crater in 2020 and ultimately had his 2021 option bought out by the Nationals. Adding some insult to injury, Eaton ended up signing with the White Sox as their regular right fielder before last season. Eaton’s 2021 Chicago tenure didn’t last long, as he managed 58 games before being designated for assignment. He latched on with the Angels for a spell but couldn’t quite reignite the abilities that made him such a trade commodity back in 2016. He’s now in a state of limbo while he mulls retirement.
While the young pieces surrendered in the Eaton trade make that deal seem the most regrettable in hindsight, a win-now Nationals club benefitted from Eaton when they needed him most. In the 2019 World Series that the team would go on to win, Eaton slashed an incredibly useful .320/.433/.560 with two home runs and a steal for good measure. Neither the Rockies or Yankees have taken home a World Series trophy in the past five years, though it’s hard to attribute their 2016 deals as the reason for that common distinction.
Unlike the Eaton deal, the Desmond deal largely proved a sunk cost from the very beginning. In his first year in Colorado, Desmond was unable to match his All-Star form in Texas, slashing .274/.326/.375 while learning a new position. Desmond produced a 20-20 season in 2018, but his accompanying OPS+ of 83 left a lot to be desired from a first baseman in Coors Field. Desmond shifted to the outfield full time in 2019 and again chipped in 20 homers, though his offensive and defensive contributions were consistently regarded below average.
Desmond has since opted out of the two most recent seasons, owing to pandemic conditions and a desire to be with his family. The Rockies bought out an option on Desmond’s contract in November, sending him to free agency and potentially spelling an end to the respected veteran’s Major League career.
While the Desmond contract was a misstep for the Colorado front office, it can be argued that they weren’t “$14MM and a better first baseman” away from being championship contenders at any point during Desmond’s tenure. The front office gambled on an All Star’s upside and it didn’t quite pan out, only costing money— mostly.
The Rockies aren’t entirely off the hook for this deal yet considering they surrendered a high draft pick to dream on Desmond. Few can be sure who the Rockies would have selected with the 11th overall pick in 2017, of course, or how the player would have developed in Colorado’s farm system. Still, it may sting Rockies fans to know that All-Star Marlins pitcher Trevor Rogers was taken two picks after the sacrificed pick, at 13th overall. The rest of the first round has yet to produce any All-Stars, though it does feature a number of highly regarded prospects, including touted Royals first base prospect Nick Pratto.
The Yankees portion of the poll is much more cut and dry review-wise than the first two deals. Fans didn’t think the Yankees would regret this deal as much as the other clubs and they were proven correct.
Chapman has been as advertised, flashing erratic control in his first three seasons in pinstripes but combining it with lights out stuff. The flame-throwing closer comes with baggage and has a habit of making things interesting, but he’s been so effective that the Yankees reached a new agreement with Chapman back in 2019, keeping him in the fold through the 2022 season. Since signing that contract extension, Chapman has pitched to a 3.31 ERA with an elite 41.3% strikeout rate that largely makes up for an unenviable 14.6% walk rate. Even if Chapman struggles next season, it’s hard to say New York hasn’t already come out ahead on their partnership with the closer.
All that said, our readers proved that informed speculation can age quite well. Flags will fly forever in D.C., but it’s surely a tough pill for a retooling Nats club to swallow now that every one of their traded prospects has proved valuable elsewhere. But what do you think? Do you feel like the Rockies’ deal should have garnered the distinction of being the most questionable? After all, even if the Nationals overpaid to acquire Eaton, one could argue it was a more logical decision than signing a non-first baseman as a first baseman. Or perhaps you have another deal from December ’16 that you feel deserves more head-shaking and finger-wagging. Be sure to let us know in the comments!
Our Lockout Lottery Is Now Closed
UPDATE: The contest is now closed. We’ll be rooting for the lockout to end as soon as possible.
You’re here on this website, waiting for some sort of news indicating the MLB lockout will soon end. We’ve got nothing: no indication of recent talks or progress. Transactions are frozen, so we’re left to do our best talking about what happened in November and what might happen post-lockout.
That means our free agent prediction contest is frozen too, with Scott Schum standing alone atop the leaderboard with a .433 batting average. Scott has been able to pull off this Nap Lajoie-like feat by correctly predicting the destinations of Corey Seager, Marcus Stroman, and Starling Marte, among many others.
I thought it might be fun to make the best of a bad situation by creating a contest to predict the date on which the lockout officially ends. Everyone who guesses correctly will receive a free one-year subscription to Trade Rumors Front Office, or a one-year extension if you already have one.
By “officially ends,” I mean the date on which a press release from MLB goes out declaring the lockout over. If there winds up being some subjectivity on the official date, the MLBTR staff will deliberate and decide.
If you’re interested in signing up for Trade Rumors Front Office right now, click here to learn more about the benefits.
NL Notes: Knebel, Phillies, Mets Coaches, Reds
In a piece for the The Athletic, Matt Gelb recaps the frantic lead-up to the Phillies’ signing of right-handed reliever Corey Knebel, which included an unfortunately timed trip to Mexico and a number of insightful quotes from Knebel himself. One particular quote of note is that Knebel and Philadelphia “entertained” a two-year contract before ultimately settling on a one-year, $10MM guarantee.
While Knebel is the presumptive closer for his new club at this time, neither he nor president Dave Dombrowski have confirmed as such. Accordingly, Knebel says he’s using the personal risk of a one-year contract as motivation to regain the form that made him one of the game’s most dominant arms from 2017-2018. As the “$10MM” portion of his latest contract indicates, however, Knebel may not need much more motivation to regain elite status at the back of a pen. After all, a newfound reliance on his curveball led to the right-hander spinning 25 plus innings of 2.45 ERA ball with the Dodgers last season.
While health and its corresponding impact on effectiveness is always a question with pitchers who have undergone Tommy John surgery, the Phillies front office was surely pleased by Knebel demonstrating some of the best control he’s had in his career. Further dampening health concerns were Knebel’s strikeout abilities, which were down during the season from his own lofty 2017-2018 heights, but were still solidly above average and exploded in the playoffs— in 5+ innings the right-hander struck out 11 batters against just one walk.
In other news out of the National League…
- The Mets have been one of baseball’s busiest teams during the lockout thus far, and have been the runaway winner in activity over the past 48 hours. The team already reeled in its biggest coaching fish of the offseason back in December when they hired Buck Showalter, but they have since announced plans to hire a number of other coaches around him. Among the recent coaches set to join the Mets coaching staff are first base coach Wayne Kirby, third base coach Joey Cora, and hitting coach Eric Chávez, who was successfully wooed away from the crosstown Yankees. Mike Puma of the New York Post explains (via Twitter) the reason none of these coaching additions have yet been made official. Puma states that every prospective hire is receiving a “very thorough” background check, which is likely delaying an official announcement from the club on this trio of reported coaches. It remains to be seen if this thoroughness is delaying the hire of the team’s alleged high-profile mystery bench coach as well. That the club is being methodical in its search for new club personnel should register as a shock to no one, with several high-profile members enjoying unceremonious ends to their New York tenures in recent years.
- Bob Nightengale reports that the Reds have signed center fielder Lorenzo Cedrola to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. A signee out of Venezuela with some prospect pedigree, Cedrola was traded by Boston to Cincinnati back in 2018 for international bonus pool space. The 23-year-old will now look to continue his work in the Reds farm system, where he’s fresh off his first Triple-A promotion and an overall .315/.354/.458 season. His 10 home runs across 115 games last season easily represent a career high, though Cedrola’s 10 for 18 showing on the basepaths could use some work if he’s to crack the Reds’ uncertain outfield mix in 2022.
Minor League Notes: WooSox, Listach, Tigers
While the first full week of 2022 remains light on the type of transactional news baseball fans are usually accustomed, there has been no shortage of big news on deals of a different kind. There’s potential for that trend to continue, as Michael Silverman of the Boston Globe reports the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate, the Worcester Red Sox, is being eyed as an acquisition target by sports and entertainment company Endeavor. The Beverly Hills-based company is no stranger to minor league acquisitions, having scooped up ten minor league affiliates at the end of last year. Silverman notes that a $50MM bid by Endeavor for the Red Sox affiliate has seemingly already been rejected. That said, ownership groups are permitted to own up to 24 minor league teams at a time, meaning Endeavor has plenty of room to continue its pursuit of the Worcester outfit and add several other affiliates to its portfolio.
Some other minor league notes from around the league:
- Per Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the Phillies have hired former big-league shortstop and 1992 AL Rookie of the Year Pat Listach as the bench coach for their High-A affiliate, the Jersey Shore BlueClaws. Listach played in parts of six seasons with the Brewers and Astros and has been a part of multiple major league coaching staffs, including with the Nationals, Cubs, and Astros, and has held minor league roles with the Cubs, Dodgers, and Mariners. Most recently, he served as the manager of the Mexican League’s Acereros de Monclova, whom he led to the playoffs in 2019 and 2021.
- On Thursday, the Tigers unveiled their new-look set of minor league coaching staffs. Included among the new faces in Detroit’s ranks are 2016 World Series-winning coach Gary Jones, taking over as Triple-A manager, and former Tigers third baseman Gabe Alvarez, hired as the organization’s new Double-A manager. Chris McCosky of The Detroit News helpfully compiled the full list of Detroit’s development personnel changes here.
Coaching Notes: Dodgers, Yankees, Angels, Mets, Reds, Rangers
- The Mets were considering Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough for bench coach after he impressed in his managerial interview with New York, but a hiring doesn’t seem likely to come to fruition. Jon Heyman of the MLB Network tweets that New York brass doesn’t believe McCullough would leave Los Angeles for a coaching position elsewhere. Instead, it seems he’s lined up to return for a second season on Dave Roberts’ staff. Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News reported yesterday that the Mets were looking into a potential “headline-grabbing hire” for bench coach.
- The Mets already made a notable coaching move this morning, tabbing longtime big league third baseman Eric Chávez as hitting coach. Chávez had accepted a position as one of two Yankees assistant hitting coaches just a few weeks ago, leaving the Bronx club with an unanticipated vacancy on staff. Lindsey Adler of the Athletic reports (on Twitter) that the Yankees do plan to replace Chávez this offseason. That aligns with general manager Brian Cashman’s stated wish to enter the season with three hitting instructors on staff. Dillon Lawson is slated to be the team’s lead hitting coach, with Casey Dykes lined up for an assistant role.
- Though the club has confirmed that Ray Montgomery will make the unusual transition from front office to bench coach on Joe Maddon’s staff, the Angels have not yet announced assignments for either former bench coach Mike Gallego (who will remain on the staff) or newcomers Phil Nevin, Benji Gil, and Bill Haselman (per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). This may be due to the club’s pursuit of Adam Eaton for its staff should he choose to retire — which, given that he remains an active member of the MLBPA, cannot be completed during the lockout.
- The Mets announced their full slate of minor league coaches Thursday, including new managers at all four affiliates: former Cubs farmhand Kevin Boles at Triple-A Syracuse; journeyman infielder Reid Brignac at Double-A Binghamton; former Expos, Red Sox, and (briefly) Mets shortstop Luis Rivera at High-A Brooklyn; and former Mets catching instructor Robbie Robinson at Low-A St. Lucie. A full list of Mets minor league coaches, compiled by SNY contributor Jacob Resnick, can be found here.
- The Reds have hired sixteen-year big-league veteran Juan Samuel as a minor league hitting instructor, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network, though his precise role has not yet been announced. Since retiring, the three-time All-Star has held a number of positions, including as a major league base coach and, briefly, as interim manager of the Orioles following the 2010 mid-season firing of Dave Trembley. In addition to his long and productive playing career, Samuel is remembered as the Mets’ return in the 1989 deal that sent Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell, cornerstones of the 1986 World Series champs, to the Phillies.
- The Rangers announced two members of their 2022 big-league coaching staff, including the promotion of former journeyman catcher, advanced scout, and so-called “coordinator of run prevention” Brett Hayes to bullpen coach and the hiring of former Jays farmhand and Dodgers minor league hitting instructor Seth Conner as assistant hitting coach. Both will join Chris Woodward’s staff for a season the Rangers hope will represent a major step forward in the rebuilding process following the club’s recent big-ticket signings of Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, and Jon Gray.