AL West Notes: Espada, Rendon, Athletics
Astros bench coach Joe Espada has been linked to another managerial opening, as MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link) that the Giants have asked the Astros for permission to speak to Espada. This will mark the third team who has put Espada on their radar this offseason, as he has already interviewed with the Cubs and received some consideration from the Angels before Los Angeles hired Joe Maddon. At least three more teams (the Blue Jays, Orioles, and Rangers) all considered Espada for managerial vacancies last offseason, as well.
As Heyman notes, San Francisco’s list of known candidates consists of “mostly younger guys” who have never managed at the Major League level before, like the 44-year-old Espada. Gabe Kapler and Mike Matheny (who has to be interviewed for the job) are the only candidates who have been big league skippers, though Kapler is only 44 years old and Matheny is 49. Longtime Giants coach Ron Wotus, at 58, is the oldest of the candidates. It certainly seems as though Giants president of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi is looking to follow the league’s recent trend towards younger, more analytically-inclined dugout bosses, though Zaidi said earlier this month that he was going to embark on a rather extensive search, so more candidates could still emerge.
More from around the AL West…
- Anthony Rendon in a Mariners uniform? It isn’t like to happen via free agency this offseason, though it was almost a reality back in 2011 when the M’s heavily scouted Rendon as the second overall pick in the draft, The Athletic’s Corey Brock writes (subscription required). “Going into the draft, [Rendon] was probably the player a lot of people thought we were going to take…and we did, too,” then-general manager Jack Zduriencik said. The Mariners had other players on their radar, however, and as draft day approached, Danny Hultzen eventually emerged as the pick. While selecting the highly-touted Hultzen was a perfectly respectable choice at the time, it ended up being a critical miss for Seattle —- Hultzen battled injuries throughout his career and only made his MLB debut this season, as a reliever for the Cubs. Rendon, of course, has gone onto stardom, as have several other players from what now looks like a stacked draft class. Rendon was the sixth overall pick, and Trevor Bauer (3rd), Francisco Lindor (8th), Javier Baez (9th), and George Springer (11th) also went in the top half of the first round.
- The Athletics have promoted Ed Sprague to director of player development, as per a team press release (Twitter link). Sprague will take over from Keith Lieppman, who has served in the role for the last 28 seasons as part of a 49-year run in the organization. Lieppman will become a special advisor to the player development department. Sprague, perhaps best known as a starting third baseman for the Blue Jays during his 11-year playing career, has worked in Oakland’s front office for the past four years.
MLBTR Chat Transcript: Cole, Angels, Padres, Ozuna
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Latest On Padres’ Managerial Search
TODAY: “Many folks around baseball believe” Tingler will be hired as the Padres’ next manager, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). While nothing is yet confirmed, “Tingler is seen as [the] favorite.”
OCT. 16: The Padres could be nearing the final steps in their search for a new manager, as two candidates will receive second interviews for the position. Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (Twitter link) report that Jayce Tingler is in San Diego today, while Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Ron Washington will also meet with the team later this week. These secondary interviews will involve Padres ownership for the first time, as executive chairman Ron Fowler and general partner Peter Seidler will be meeting with Tingler and Washington.
It isn’t known if any of the other known candidates from the Padres’ first round of interviews will also be brought back for a second meeting, or if Tingler and Washington are the only two finalists for the job (or if any candidates could still surface in the future). As per Acee, Fowler and Seidler will give their input but the final hiring is with GM A.J. Preller, which makes for an interesting dynamic given Preller’s connection to both candidates.
The expectation was that San Diego would go with an experienced former big league skipper with their new hire, after failing to find success with a first-time manager in Andy Green. Of the five people interviewed for the job, however, only Washington and Brad Ausmus had any substantial MLB experience. Tingler and Nationals third base coach Bob Henley have only managed minor league clubs, while Padres bench coach Rod Barajas served as the team’s interim manager for the final eight games of the season after Green was fired.
If experience is still seen as a key factor in the Padres’ decision-making, Washington would have the clear advantage, with a 664-611 record and two AL pennants on his resume as the Rangers’ manager from 2007-14. This overlapped with Preller’s time working in the Texas front office, though Preller also worked with Tingler during this same period. Tingler was a manager for the Rangers’ Dominican Summer League and Arizona League clubs, and also worked as the Rangers’ minor league field coordinator from 2012-14. Tingler’s current role is player development field coordinator for Texas, after working in jobs ranging from assistant GM to interim bench coach over the last five seasons.
Latest On Adam Wainwright’s Future
In the wake of the Cardinals being swept out of the National League Championship Series, it isn’t surprising that Adam Wainwright was more focused on the end of his club’s season than he was on his future plans. The 38-year-old righty told MLB.com’s Adam Berry and other reporters after Game Four of the NLCS that “I haven’t even thought about” what he might do for the 2020 season, though “we’ll talk about it over the next couple weeks.”
If the veteran does decide to hang up his glove after 14 seasons, Wainwright will have gone out on a very high note. He posted a 4.19 ERA, 8.02 K/9, 48.8% grounder rate, and 2.39 K/BB rate over 171 2/3 frames for St. Louis this season, and then delivered a 1.62 ERA over 16 2/3 innings during the Cards’ playoff run.
While not at the level of Wainwright’s ace-like prime in 2009-14 (a stretch that saw him earn four top-three finishes in NL Cy Young Award voting), it was still the right-hander’s best season of the last half-decade. Wainwright has been hampered by injuries in recent years, so it’s no wonder that his performance began to improve once his nagging elbow problems finally began to subside. Aside from a 10-day minimum stint on the injured list due to a balky hamstring in June, 2019 was a very healthy campaign for Wainwright, as he passed the 170-inning plateau for the eighth time in his career.
Signed to a one-year deal for just $2MM in guaranteed money, Wainwright ended up earning $10MM by maxing out his incentives. Wainwright re-signed with St. Louis last offseason before October was even over, so another quick deal isn’t out of the question if Wainwright and the Cardinals have a mutual interest in continuing their partnership with as little drama as possible, though it’s fair to wonder whether other teams might also be keen on talking to Wainwright on the open market.
Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas, and Dakota Hudson project as the Cards’ top three starters for 2020, and with Michael Wacha unlikely to return, there would certainly seem to be room for Wainwright to once again suit up as the veteran leader of the St. Louis rotation. Wainwright’s presence would help stabilize an otherwise uncertain back of the rotation, as the Cardinals would then have their younger options (Daniel Ponce de Leon, Austin Gomber, Genesis Cabrera or possibly Alex Reyes if healthy) battling over one rotation job, rather than two. Of course, the Cardinals could also augment this mix with another veteran arm via free agency or trade, even if Wainwright does return.
NL Notes: Rockies, Strasburg, Scherzer, Espada
Thomas Harding of MLB.com confirms that the Rockies have dismissed several minor league coaches, including longtime Triple-A manager Glenallen Hill (link). Double-A hitting coach Lee Stevens and Single-A hitting coach Norberto Martin will also be let go, according to assistant general manager of player development Zach Wilson.
A member of the club’s coaching ranks since 2004, Hill was previously first base coach with Colorado’s big league squad from 2007 to 2012. The 54-year-old Santa Cruz native played for the Jays, Indians, Cubs, Giants, Yankees, and Angels over the course of a twelve-year MLB career. After Hill’s dismissal, top Colorado third base prospect Colton Welker figures to suit up for a fresh face at Triple-A Colorado Springs next season.
More notes from around the National League…
- In another Rockies item, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post gives an eye toward the defensive improvements made in 2019 by catcher Tony Wolters–while also opining that the club should acquire a veteran backstop to lighten the workload of the light-hitting Wolters (link). As Saunders notes, Wolters, a former second baseman, was charged with just one error last season while throwing out 34% of would-be base stealers, a rate which trailed only J.T. Realmuto of the Phillies. Manager Bud Black, for one, told the Post this year that Wolters had turned himself into “one of the best defensive catchers in baseball”. Unfortunately, the value-added performance hasn’t translated to the plate for the 27-year-old San Diego native, as his .239/.327/.324 line in parts of four seasons would indicate. Weighted runs created plus, which discounts the effect of his offensively friendly Coors Field home, pegs Wolters with a 59 wRC+ in that same timeframe, profiling him as one of the weakest-hitting regulars in the sport. For this reason, Saunders posits that finding a platoon partner for the lefty-swinging Wolters will be a high priority for Rockies GM Jeff Bridich this winter.
- Two notes on Nationals players, one bullet point–efficiency reigns here at MLBTR. First up is a piece from MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince, who, in creating a list of eight potential opt-out candidates this offseason, posits that any possibility of Stephen Strasburg opting-in to the remaining four years and $100MM on his contract has been “totally erased” this postseason (link). This seems a good time to supply a standard public service announcement regarding small sample size caveats, as recent history would suggest that postseason performance does not affect free agency decisions as frequently as many would expect. Still, Castrovince might not exactly be going out on a limb RE: Strasberg. While the pitcher’s injury concerns–evidenced best by his team’s decision to hold him out of the 2012 playoffs–have loomed over him for most of his career, Strasberg’s 1.64 ERA across 22 postseason innings this year has arguably gone some way toward ameliorating that fragile rap.
In a piece with fewer implications on the forthcoming hot stove, every baseball fan would be well-served to check out Rustin Dodd’s oral history regarding the college days of one Max Scherzer, published on The Athletic this morning (link). For Nats faithful feeling the afterglow of an NLCS sweep, hearing tales of some of Scherzer’s collegiate habits–including his ravenous affinity for Cici’s Pizza–should provide a giddy laugh. - A Houston source tells David Kaplan of NBC Chicago that Astros bench coach Joe Espada gave a “sensational” interview for the open Cubs manager job (link). Espada gave executive Theo Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer “a lot to think about”, per Kaplan’s source, but the question still remains if Espada can surpass franchise favorite David Ross in consideration for the managerial opening. For the time being, Espada’s ‘Stros will square off with the Yankees in New York this evening for the fourth game of the ALCS.
Justin Turner Open To Position Change
After a 2019 playoff ouster that left the Los Angeles fanbase in collective despair, Dodgers executive Andrew Friedman is likely to be faced with several challenging decisions this winter. However, in the event that his front office decides to pursue superstar third baseman Anthony Rendon, it appears they won’t face any opposition from incumbent third bagger Justin Turner. According to a report from Andy McCullough of The Athletic, Turner would be open to a position change if LA ultimately decides to seek a Rendon acquisition (link).
Before the Dodgers’ appearance in the NLDS, Turner was asked how he would respond if his team pursued Rendon–even if such a pursuit meant he had to change his spot on the diamond. “I’ve bounced around [the diamond] my whole career,” Turner responded. “I don’t care.” While this hardly registers as a ringing endorsement of the idea, Turner’s hypothetical openness is worthy to note when considering how Friedman could possibly retool a roster that went 106-56 in the 2019 regular season.
As McCullough notes, Rendon’s previously stated disinterest in playing deep into his 30s pairs well with the Dodgers characteristic aversion to long-term contracts. In a piece from The Athletic’s Rustin Dodds from a few weeks back, Rendon was asked to imagine what he will likely be doing at age 36, when he reaches the current age of teammate Howie Kendrick. “Hopefully not playing baseball,” Rendon said. “Probably sitting on the couch hanging out with my kids.” If the Texas product is true to his word, then it’s likely he, at 29, will be seeking a deal of no more than six or seven years this offseason.
Turner, 34, is still a third baseman worthy of being mentioned in Rendon’s rarified air. His .290/.372/.509 line in 2019 was par for the course as far as his Dodgers tenure goes–since coming to Los Angeles in 2014, the CS Fullerton product has been a .302/.381/.506 hitter (141 wRC+). Turner has one year and $20MM remaining on the four-year, $64MM pact he agreed to with L.A. back in 2016.
If the Dodgers do indeed have an interest in bringing Rendon, a potential world champion, into their fold, they may have to do a bit of CBT rejiggering. With the 2020 luxury tax line set at $208MM, Los Angeles may say goodbye to impending free agents Rich Hill and Hyun-Jin Ryu this offseason; it’s worth noting that the club will no longer be on the hook for Homer Bailey‘s salary moving forward, either. Still, arbitration raises are coming due to Corey Seager, Joc Pederson, and a little-known upstart named Cody Bellinger. As McCullough notes, a hypothetical Rendon addition, its implications on Turner aside, might necessitate the departure of a player like Pederson or Enrique Hernandez if the club is intent on avoiding luxury penalties.
Matt Quatraro In Running For Giants Manager Job
Per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro is in consideration for the Giants managerial opening (link).
Quatraro, 45, was previously the assistant hitting coach for the Indians from 2014 through 2017, and served as the Rays’ third base coach in 2018. The New York native was an All-American as a player at Old Dominion and played for several minor league seasons following his selection in the eighth round of the 1996 MLB draft by the then Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
According to a tweet from Henry Schulmann of the San Francisco Chronicle, Giants president Farhan Zaidi is a “fan” of Rays manager Kevin Cash, with particular admiration for his club’s usage of voluminous data and non-traditional strategies–two areas in which a bench coach would figure to have a prominent role (link).
Other reported candidates for the Giants job include Royals quality control and catching coach Pedro Grifol, former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler, Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay, Giants bench coach Hensley Meulens, and Giants third base coach Ron Wotus.
Cubs Announce Player Development Changes
According to a release from the club’s media department, the Cubs have constructed a new player development leadership structure within their baseball operations department.
Matt Dorey, formerly Chicago’s director of amateur scouting, will serve as senior director of player development. 2020 will mark Dorey’s ninth year in the Cubs organization and 13th in professional baseball. Dorey previously coached at Washington State before entering the pro ball, PD side of the game.
Bobby Basham will be working with Dorey as director of player development. Formerly a pitcher in the Reds and Padres minor league ranks, Basham has worked in a variety of roles since gaining employ with the Cubs in 2012, including time spent as a major league scouting coordinator, assistant director of advance scouting and major league strategy, and assistant director of minor league operations. It stands to reason that Dorey and Basham will be combining to handle some of the tasks Jason McLeod vacated when the latter moved into a senior vice president of player personnel role this offseason following several years in Chicago’s player development area.
Other notable changes this morning include the naming of former big league Craig Breslow as the club’s new director of pitching–a title similar to the one the Orioles gave Chris Holt recently, as notes Joe Trezza of MLB.com (link). While Breslow’s Yale background would likely position him as the most intelligent person in many a room, the club’s new director of hitting, Justin Stone, cuts an impressive intellectual figure in his own right. Stone is the founder Elite Baseball Training in Chicago, a “technology-infused baseball and softball instructional company”. He has been working with the organization since 2018 as a biokinematic hitting consultant–a modern baseball job title if ever there was one.
Additionally, Jeremy Farrell has been promoted from minor league field coordinator to a new role as Chicago’s assistant director of player development, where his years of experience as an infielder in the Pirates and White Sox systems should come in handy. Jaron Madison, who, like McLeod, worked with Cubs GM Jed Hoyer during the latter’s time as San Diego’s GM at the turn of the decade, has been named as special assistant to the president/GM.
Although the men and women working in player development are not always appreciated by fans for their efforts in fostering, honing, and instructing organizational talent, hires like these are often critical in a team’s quest for continued, year-over-year success. These moves are likely pointed toward re-positioning Chicago’s farm as a top-shelf feeder system after recent rankings tagged the Cubs with bottom-third organizational evaluations; Fangraphs pegged the club with a 20th-ranked system, while only two Chicago youngsters, Nico Hoerner and Miguel Amaya, landed inside MLB.com’s “Top 100” list.
Phillies Managerial Search Reportedly In Final Stages
After conducting interviews with Joe Girardi, Buck Showalter, and Dusty Baker last week, Phillies leadership is expected to welcome all three men back for follow-up interviews in the coming days, according to Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer (link). Breen characterizes the hiring process as being in the “final stages”, with no other candidates slated to interview for the club’s open manager job.
GM Matt Klentak and assistant GM Ned Rice are leading the search, though actively involved owner John Middleton and team prez Andy MacPhail are expected to have a “say” in the final decision. Breen points to next Thursday as a potential window for the team to announce its final decision, as that day will mark the first pause in the World Series schedule of play.
Yesterday, news came that Girardi had stepped down as Team USA’s manager, presumably to focus on the numerous MLB hiring processes in which he is currently involved. Philadelphia is looking for an experienced successor to Gabe Kapler, who was dismissed after two years at the helm on the heels of a disappointing 2019 campaign that left them in fourth place in the NL East.
Quick Hits: Maddon, Sasaki, Red Sox
In an interesting bit of “what if” history, Scott Miller of Bleacher Report runs down the story of how new Angels manager Joe Maddon almost become the club’s skipper at the tail end of the ’90s (link). Apparently, former Angels GM Bill Bavasi identified Maddon back in 1996 as a potential future manager and hatched a plot to install the pitching mind as something of an heir apparent–assuming, of course, that Bavasi could secure the managerial services of Sparky Anderson to serve as Maddon’s mentor. The plan went awry, however, when Bavasi, then-team president Tony Tavares, and Anderson met for a fateful lunch. Apparently, Tavares was offput when Anderson, then 62, struggled to raise a soup spoon to his mouth with a steady hand, and the prez nixed the Anderson-Maddon succession plan immediately after the lunch date. The club later went with Terry Collins as manager (with Maddon serving as bench coach), with the club later going outside the org to hire Mike Scioscia after the ouster of Collins.
If Maddon is harboring any resentment over the way things worked out, he’s doing a good job of hiding it. “I couldn’t be more grateful, sincerely, for how things have worked out for me in my baseball career,” Maddon says in Miller’s article. “I’ve always been a big believer in not having anything happen to you before it’s time. In other words, I had to earn this opportunity, and I felt like I did by 2006.”
More news from around the diamond…
- Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki was selected today in NPB’s amateur draft by the Chiba Lotte Marines, according to the Japan Times (link). Sasaki, 18, was clocked at 101 mph during his time in high school, and many major league scouts were said to have an interest in luring the pitcher to the States. Had the youngster decided to forego the NPB draft, he could have signed with an MLB club in June; instead, he will report to the Marines under the guidance of Chibba Lotte captain and former MLB infielder Tadahito Iguchi. Iguchi, for one, is eager to have the firearmer in the fold. “He’s an extraordinary pitcher,” Iguchi said. “It’s scary to think how far he might go. He was the best player available and now it’s incumbent on us to nurture his potential.” Unlike the MLB Draft, every team in the NPB has an equal chance of landing the first overall pick; teams provide their first choice in secret to the league, and the player’s negotiating rights are decided by the drawing of lots. Some Japanese teams, including the Yomiuri Giants and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, have refused in recent years to allow for the posting of players before they become nine-year veteran free agents. The Chiba Lotte org, meanwhile, has taken no such public stance, so it is not impossible to imagine Sasaki being posted for MLB clubs in the coming years.
- Conversations surrounding the Red Sox bullpen continued for much of the 2019 season, as the club’s decision to forego the Craig Kimbrel market caused many fans to wonder about front office priorities. It’s rather kind then, for Jen McCaffery of The Athletic to offer some free bullpen scouting in her latest piece, in which she looks at a few outside acquisitions who might be a fit in a Boston uniform. Trade options (Brandon Kintzler) and impending free agents (Steve Cishek, Will Harris) are both bandied, with McCaffery wondering aloud if Boston’s new leadership might be inclined to keep Brandon Workman in the ninth inning role he handled for much of 2019. The Sox recorded a collective 4.40 relief ERA last season, 18th among major league teams.