MLBTR Poll: NL Wild Card Matchup
Unlike the American League, where the Wild Card matchup was not known until the final day of the season, the picture in the National League has been clear for some time. The Los Angeles Dodgers are hosting the St. Louis Cardinals.
In one corner, we have the defending World Series champions and the club with 2021’s highest payroll, by a wide margin. The Los Angeles Dodgers are a stacked team that notched 106 victories this season but still couldn’t manage to outflank the Giants in the NL West. Now they find themselves one loss away from an early winter.
In the other corner, we have baseball hottest team. On July 31st, the Cardinals were 52-52, seven games behind the Padres for the second Wild Card spot. But they stormed through the end of the season, going 38-20, including a remarkable 17-game winning streak, and finished seven games ahead of their nearest competitors, the Reds.
On the mound will be two veterans who each already have World Series rings. 37-year-old Max Scherzer will toe the slab for the Dodgers, just over two years after starting 2019’s National League Wild Card game for the Nationals. In that start, Scherzer tossed five innings, allowing four hits, three walks and three earned runs. Although he left the game with his club down 3-1, the Nationals pulled off an incredible comeback and continued on their way to the 2019 World Series crown. Between Washington and Los Angeles this year, Scherzer threw 179 1/3 innings with 236 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.46.
Representing the opposing dugout will be Adam Wainwright, who continues to make mockery of aging curves. The 40-year-old logged 206 1/3 innings this year with 174 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.05. Incredibly, this will be the ninth season of his career where he has made at least one postseason appearance.
Who do you think will emerge victorious? (Poll link for app users.)
Who Will Win The 2021 NL Wild Card Game?
-
Los Angeles Dodgers 53% (2,166)
-
St. Louis Cardinals 47% (1,906)
Total votes: 4,072
Dombrowski: Gregorius Not Guaranteed Phillies’ Starting Shortstop Job In 2022
The Phillies remained in playoff contention until the final week of the season but ultimately came up short, missing the postseason for the tenth consecutive year. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski conducted his end-of-season press conference this afternoon (video provided by 97.3 FM ESPN) and offered some insight into the front office’s plans for returning to contention next year.
Dombrowski suggested the team was prioritizing lineup help, pointing to their need to complement Bryce Harper in the middle of the order and for more production from the leadoff spot. (Phillies leadoff hitters had a .236/.302/.404 cumulative slash line that ranked third-worst in the league by measure of wRC+). One potential position at which the Phils could look to upgrade is shortstop, where incumbent Didi Gregorius struggled to a .209/.270/.370 line over 408 plate appearances.
When asked whether Gregorius would return as the club’s top shortstop option, Dombrowski was noncommittal. “It very well could be him. But he knows, we’ve had a discussion with him that he needs to be better. And we’re in a position where we also are going to be open-minded to what’s going to take place at shortstop next year. It could be internal, could be him if he comes back. …. Maybe it is him. He’ll come in (next season) in shape, but he’s not guaranteed — and he’s been told — that he’s for sure the shortstop. It doesn’t mean he can’t play other positions for us too, and maybe we’ll have a DH that’ll be a part of our club too.”
Gregorius is guaranteed $14.5MM next season under the terms of last winter’s two-year free agent deal. In addition to his offensive struggles, Gregorius rated as eleven runs below average by measure of Defensive Runs Saved. Dombrowski alluded to the 31-year-old’s issues with the glove, a microcosm of a team-wide issue for the Phils throughout the past few seasons.
Bryson Stott, the Phillies first-round pick out of UNLV in 2019, has spent the bulk of his minor league career at shortstop. The 24-year-old hit a solid .301/.368/.481 with ten home runs over 351 plate appearances at Double-A Reading, earning a late-season bump to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Dombrowski said Stott could factor into the shortstop mix next season, but it’s also easy to connect the Phils to the star-studded upcoming free agent class at the position.
Dombrowski suggested the Phillies didn’t feel adding a star player was inherently necessary, pointing to Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Rhys Hoskins, Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola as among the club’s impact players. That’s indeed an enviable core, but this offseason presents a unique opportunity to land a potential marquee shortstop. The Phillies have made big free agent splashes in each of the past three winters — signing Harper, Wheeler and Realmuto in succession. Those players have hefty contracts on the books through at least 2024, but the Philadelphia organization has long been one of the game’s biggest spenders.
In the estimation of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource, the Phillies already have north of $142MM in both actual payroll and luxury tax commitments on the books for next season. That’s before accounting for arbitration raises for Hoskins and Zach Eflin that’ll likely tack on another $12-15MM. The Phils entered the 2021 campaign with an estimated payroll just north of $191MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, although they did take on some additional salary midseason by acquiring Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy at the trade deadline.
It’s possible the Phils could invest heavily at the top of the shortstop market, although that’d leave them without much more breathing room to address other potential areas of need like center field, third base and the bullpen before approaching this year’s spending level. That’d be less of a concern were owner John Middleton is willing to sign off on further spending, though, and Dombrowski suggested Middleton had expressed openness to exceeding the luxury tax threshold this past trade deadline to accommodate a potential impact addition. Ultimately, the Phils did not surpass the CBT threshold, and next year’s tax threshold remains unknown, subject to the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations.
It remains to be seen in which specific direction the Phils will go, but Dombrowski’s long been known as one of the league’s most aggressive executives. There was never any expectation the club would have any interest in taking a step back, but Dombrowski’s presser only served to confirm the Phillies are again looking to address weak points on the roster and build around their high-end core.
Rangers Claim Edwar Colina From Twins
5:16 pm: Colina recently underwent another elbow surgery, Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey told reporters (including Dan Hayes of the Athletic).
3:08 pm: The Rangers announced they’ve claimed right-hander Edwar Colina off waivers from the Twins. Colina has spent the entire season on Minnesota’s injured list and will immediately land on Texas’ 60-day IL.
Colina made his first big league appearance last season. The right-hander allowed four hits and issued three walks while recording just one out in that game, but he averaged north of 97 MPH on his sinker. Entering this season, Baseball America slotted Colina as the #21 prospect in the Minnesota system, writing that his arm strength and hard-breaking slider gave him a chance to be a middle relief option in spite of below-average control.
Unfortunately, Colina missed the entire 2021 season after undergoing an arthroscopic debridement procedure on his throwing elbow in May. He did pick up a big league salary and MLB service time while on the injured list. The Rangers will take a flier to see if he can translate that big arm speed into major league success. Colina still has all three minor league option years remaining, so Texas can move him back-and-forth between Arlington and Triple-A Round Rock for the next few seasons if he sticks on the 40-man roster.
Indians Part Ways With Hitting Coach Ty Van Burkleo
The Indians are parting ways with hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo, reports Zack Meisel of the Athletic (Twitter link). Meisel notes he’d been the longest-tenured active hitting coach in MLB. Assistant hitting coaches Victor Rodriguez and Justin Toole are expected to remain on staff, Meisel adds, but the club will pursue a new hitting coach from outside the organization.
The 57-year-old Van Burkleo appeared in the majors from 1993-94. Since retiring as a player, he’d worked in a series of coaching and player development roles, including stints as a hitting coach with the A’s and Astros and a season as the Mariners’ bench coach. Van Burkleo joined Cleveland entering the 2013 campaign, Terry Francona’s first year as Indians manager.
Francona has missed the end of each of the past two seasons because of health issues. He’s expected to return to the dugout in 2022, although he’ll do so without Van Burkleo alongside him for the first time in his Cleveland tenure. Francona and company have had plenty of success in recent years, including a 2016 American League pennant that saw Cleveland come within a game of their first World Series title since 1948.
The Indians had a disappointing 2021 campaign, though, tailing off after a solid start to the year. Cleveland had a below-average offensive unit, slashing just .238/.304/.408 (excluding pitchers). That mark ranked 22nd out of the league’s 30 clubs by measure of wRC+. Of course, some struggles at the plate were to be expected for a team that saw the departures of Francisco Lindor and Carlos Santana last offseason.
Padres Fire Jayce Tingler
After days of rumors, the Padres have officially parted ways with manager Jayce Tingler. The former skipper has been offered the chance to stay with the organization in another role.
“Jayce accomplished a great deal in his two seasons with the Padres, leading our team through an unprecedented pandemic and into the postseason for the first time in 15 years,” president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said. “I have tremendous respect for him as a coach, colleague and friend. After much thought and consideration over the last several weeks, we felt change was necessary at this time to ultimately reach our championship potential in San Diego.”
Reports surfaced over the weekend that Tingler was going to be replaced, and while the Padres announced in response that “no decision has been made on Jayce’s employment status at this time,” the writing seemed to be on the wall given the rather stunning nature of the team’s collapse.
At the end of June, the Padres were 49-33 for the season and winners of 11 of their last 12 games. The question at the time seemed to be which of the three NL West powers (the Padres, Dodgers, and Giants) would capture the division title and which two would be destined for a showdown in the wild card game. Instead, the Padres cratered to a 30-50 mark over their final 80 games, including a nosedive that saw the club win only seven of their final 28 contests.
The result was a 79-83 record and the Padres’ 10th losing record in 11 seasons — a bitter pill to swallow for a club coming off an NLDS appearance in 2020 and with the highest of expectations. Despite the star-studded nature of the Padres roster, several of the big names were undone either by injury or a lack of performance, with the starting rotation being particularly hampered by injuries down the stretch.
It was clear the late-season struggle was creating friction within the team, as there were reports of clubhouse discord at Tingler’s decision-making and his ties to Preller. The Padres’ brutal record in September and October might have well been all the evidence necessary for Preller and ownership to decide that Tingler had lost the team, and now a new manager will be needed to get the Padres on track.
Tingler finishes with a 116-106 record in his two years as San Diego’s manager, still a winning mark thanks to his success in 2020, leading the Friars to the playoffs for the first time since 2006. The Padres’ 37-23 record was the third-best record of any team during the shortened season, and San Diego’s victory over the Cardinals in the wild card series was their first postseason triumph since the 1998 NLCS.
While a manager is usually the first to go when a team doesn’t succeed, there were enough issues with the 2021 Padres that Tingler was hardly the only one at fault. The Padres’ next manager will be the third Preller has hired to run the club in his seven-plus years in charge of the front office, and though Preller recently signed a contract extension that runs through the 2026 season, there will certainly a lot of extra pressure on the PBO to finally turn the Padres into a consistent winner.
On the more optimistic side, a case can easily be made that the San Diego job is a prime opportunity for any manager. There is plenty of talent on the roster, and the Padres could certainly find themselves back in contention with better health alone in 2022. Both Tingler and previous skipper Andy Green were first-time managers, so it will be interesting to see if Preller again looks for a younger voice in the dugout or if he looks to hire a manager with past experience.
MLB To Require Vaccinations For All Minor League Players Prior To 2022 Season
Major League Baseball is preparing a policy that will require all minor league players to be vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to the start of next season, Yahoo Sports’ Hannah Keyser reports. The news comes just a few weeks after the league’s requirement that all players participating in the Arizona Fall League be vaccinated.
Because minor leaguers aren’t part of the players union until they have actually played in the big leagues, MLB can issue mandates covering all of minor league baseball even though some players within the farm system have already made appearances in The Show and/or are on 40-man rosters. The league would need the MLB Players Association to agree to a vaccination policy to cover all union members and MLB players in 2022 and beyond, and it could be that the AFL and minor league edicts are the first steps towards stricter policies the Commissioner’s Office could be planning for the coming season.
Many players have already received the vaccine, of course, and 24 of the 30 teams have already had their in-season COVID-19 protocols relaxed since 85 percent of players, coaches, and medical staff were fully vaccinated. Getting any of the 30 teams to a 100 percent vaccination rate (or even the six holdout teams to an 85 percent rate) might not be possible, however, without MLB and the MLBPA signing off on a mandate covering all Major League personnel.
Twins Reassign Coaches Edgar Varela, Kevin Morgan
Twins hitting coach Edgar Varela and Major League field coordinator Kevin Morgan won’t be turning to the coaching staff next season, as the club announced that two were reassigned to player development roles. With the bench coach position also open and veteran coach Bill Evers retiring, Minnesota now has four vacancies to fill on Rocco Baldelli‘s staff for 2022.
Varela has been with the Twins for four seasons, serving as the hitting coach for the last two years. Offense was the least of the team’s concerns when the “Bomba Squad” put up big numbers in 2020, but even that lineup was a little one-dimensional and too focused on power, and a lack of consistent production in 2021 was one of the many reasons the Twins fell to last place in the AL Central.
While Minnesota batters still finished fifth in home runs, the Twins were closer to the middle of the pack in most other offensive categories. In fairness to Varela, the Twins’ statistics surely would’ve been more impressive if several regulars (i.e. Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Mitch Garver) hadn’t missed a lot of time on the injured list, and if slugger Nelson Cruz hadn’t been dealt to the Rays.
Still, the Twins clearly felt some new voices were necessary, leading to both Varela and Morgan departing the staff. Morgan just finished his first year in the field coordinator role, as he was moved up to the MLB coaching staff to help fill the void left when former bench coach Mike Bell passed away last March.
Earlier this week, The Athletic’s Dan Hayes wrote about how the Twins were looking to expand their coaching staff in terms of overall positions (from 10 coaches up to as many as 14), though potentially with some names being reassigned elsewhere. The expectation is that Minnesota’s next bench coach will come from outside the organization, and the team might also look to add another pitching coach with big league experience.
David Ross, Cubs In “Preliminary Talks” About Extension
TODAY: Speaking with MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian and other reporters today, Hoyer confirmed that negotiations were taking place with Ross. Bastian writes that a Ross extension would begin with the 2024 season, as the Cubs would first exercise their club option for 2023.
OCTOBER 2: The Cubs and manager David Ross have “had some preliminary talks” about a contract extension, Ross told NBC Sports Chicago’s Gordon Wittenmyer and other reporters. Ross is taking something of a laid-back approach to the negotiations, saying he is focused on the remaining days of the Cubs’ season, and that “if I’m meant to get extended, I’ll get extended.”
As Wittenmyer notes, there has been an expectation that Ross would indeed get a new deal, following up on the original three-year pact he signed with the team in October 2019. The 2022 season will be the final guaranteed year of that deal and the Cubs also have an option on Ross’ services for 2023. The nature of the extension talks aren’t yet known, though it could be that the Cubs might simply lock in Ross’ 2023 season now, giving the skipper a bit more security beyond just one remaining guaranteed year.
The Cubs made the postseason in Ross’ first year, posting a 34-26 record before being eliminated by the Marlins in the first round of the expanded 2020 playoff structure. With a 38-27 record back on June 13 of this season, the Wrigleyville crew seemed well on their way to another postseason berth before the wheels completely came off, resulting in a major fire sale of veterans and impending free agents at the trade deadline. The Cubs enter today’s play with a dismal 69-91 record, marking their first losing season since 2014.
Between the pandemic and all of the tumult surrounding the Cubs in particular over the last two years, it is hard to gauge Ross’ share of the blame for the team’s struggles. Ownership and the front office have seemingly been more concerned with keeping the payroll in check rather than adding big pieces around the Cubs’ former core of talent, leaving Ross with less to work with on the field.
While president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has said Chicago will be “really active in free agency” and “spend money intelligently” this winter, it remains to be seen how much of a push the Cubs will make towards contending in 2022, or if they’ll continue to reload on young talent and keep their spending limited. As such, Ross’ role in the dugout could continue to be more focused around managing and developing younger players rather than being overtly concerned with wins and losses.
Dodgers Announce Wild Card Roster
The Dodgers have announced the 10 pitchers and 16 position players that will comprise the roster for their wild card game with the Cardinals tonight. Max Scherzer will make his first postseason start in a Dodgers uniform.
Left-handed pitchers
Right-handed pitchers
- Phil Bickford
- Tony Gonsolin
- Brusdar Graterol
- Kenley Jansen
- Joe Kelly
- Corey Knebel
- Max Scherzer
- Blake Treinen
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
The injured Clayton Kershaw is of course prominent in his absence, and Walker Buehler and David Price are two other prominent arms absent from this hitter-heavy roster. Buehler is being lined up to start Game One of the NLDS should the Dodgers advance. With “only” 10 pitchers available, Los Angeles is counting on Scherzer to throw another gem, with Urias and Gonsolin on hand to provide depth if Scherzer falters.
With so many multi-position utility types on the roster, normal “infield/outfield” designations don’t mean as much for the likes of Taylor, McKinstry, Beaty, or even Lux. The Dodgers are aiming to give manager Dave Roberts as much flexibility as possible in playing the matchups against St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals bullpen. The Dodgers’ position player mix is also missing a key name due to a recent injury, as Max Muncy‘s dislocated elbow will keep him out of at least the wild card game, though Roberts hasn’t closed the door on Muncy returning if L.A. gets deep enough into the postseason.
Cardinals Announce Wild Card Roster
The Cardinals have announced their roster for tonight’s showdown with the Dodgers in the NL wild card game. Adam Wainwright has already been announced as the starting pitcher, one of 12 pitchers the Cards will carry along with 14 position players.
Right-handed pitchers
- Jack Flaherty
- Giovanny Gallegos
- Luis Garcia
- Dakota Hudson
- Miles Mikolas
- Alex Reyes
- Adam Wainwright
- Kodi Whitley
Left-handed pitchers
Catchers
Infielders
- Nolan Arenado
- Matt Carpenter
- Paul DeJong
- Tommy Edman
- Paul Goldschmidt
- Jose Rondon
- Edmundo Sosa
- Juan Yepez
Outfielders
Of the Cardinals’ regular starting pitchers, Jon Lester, J.A. Happ and Jake Woodford weren’t included on the roster — none surprising omissions due to the one-game nature of the playoff. Mikolas, Hudson, and Flaherty are there to provide some level of depth if Wainwright has to make an early exit from the game. Of the position players, Yepez is the most intriguing name, as the 23-year-old has posted big numbers in Triple-A this season but has never appeared in a Major League game.