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Yankees’ Ian Hamilton Headed For MRI With Calf Injury

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Yankees reliever Ian Hamilton left tonight’s Game 3 loss in Cleveland with what the team called left calf tightness. The right-hander told Dan Martin and Greg Joyce of the New York Post that he’ll go for imaging before tomorrow night’s game.

Aaron Boone called upon Hamilton in the sixth inning while New York was trailing 2-1. He issued a leadoff walk to Lane Thomas before Daniel Schneemann hit a grounder to first base. Jon Berti knocked the ball down and flipped to Hamilton covering for the out. Hamilton evidently tweaked his calf while running to the bag. He threw a warm-up pitch after a replay of the call at first. He airmailed the throw and was immediately lifted for Tim Mayza.

Hamilton had a breakout season in 2023 after signing a minor league contract. He tossed 58 innings of 2.64 ERA ball behind a 28.9% strikeout rate and an excellent 55.3% grounder percentage. His follow-up has been more solid than great. Hamilton allowed 3.82 earned runs per nine across 35 regular season appearances. The strikeouts dipped by a few percentage points while his ground-ball rate plummeted to a pedestrian 43.8% clip. The 29-year-old missed a couple months midseason with a lat strain.

New York has carried Hamilton on each of their playoff rosters, though he hasn’t played a huge role. He made one appearance in the Division Series, working 1 1/3 scoreless frames with three strikeouts in their Game 2 loss to the Royals. This was Hamilton’s first action of the ALCS.

If the Yankees need to replace him on the roster, his season will be over. Players taken out midway through a playoff round are ineligible for the following series. The Post writes that one of Mark Leiter Jr. or Clayton Beeter would step into the bullpen as a replacement. Beeter only has three MLB games under his belt. Leiter has a lot more experience and seems likely to get the call.

Bryan Hoch of MLB.com relays (on X) that Boone indicated Leiter was the final cut from the pitching staff when the Yankees set their roster before the series. New York acquired the right-hander from the Cubs at the deadline. Leiter was striking out nearly 35% of batters faced at the time. He has continued to miss a fair number of bats in the Bronx (31.7% strikeout rate) but given up far too much hard contact. Leiter has been tagged for six homers in 21 2/3 innings as a Yankee and has been left off both series rosters to date.

Stadium Notes: Rays, Twins

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As the Rays assess the damage to Tropicana Field following Hurricane Milton last week, the club’s ability to get the Trop back in working order in time for Opening Day 2025 has been thrown into serious doubt. Given that the club was already planning to relocate to a new ballpark nearby in in time for Opening Day 2028, questions linger about whether or not the Rays will look to return to their current stadium at all or instead look for an interim home while their newest ballpark is being constructed.

While it will likely be a few weeks before the Rays are able to fully assess the damage to the Trop and hash out a plan of action, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times notes that they’re expected to at least begin the 2025 season playing their home games elsewhere. That reality has led to a rash of speculation about where those home games may end up being played, with Topkin noting a push by local media in North Carolina to put the city of Durham, where the club’s Triple-A affiliate plays. Said coverage of a hypothetical temporary move to the area by the Rays includes a piece by Dallas Woodhouse of the Carolina Journal about the possibility that includes comments from a handful of local politicians supporting the possibility.

Whatever hopes North Carolina residents had of MLB games being played in Durham appear to have been dashed for the time being, however, as the Durham Bulls released a statement this afternoon emphasizing that not only have there been no discussions about the Bulls hosting the Rays in Durham, but that the Bulls “do not anticipate” hosting them for the full 2025 season due to “overlapping scheduled and other logistical challenges.” That statement seemingly rules out the possibility of the Rays playing a full slate of 81 home games in Durham next year, though the Bulls statement also notes that they are “always ready to help [their] parent club” and does seemingly leave the door open for the Rays playing part of the season in Durham if necessary.

That could be a useful option for Rays brass if they intend to fix the Trop up in time for the club to play games there later in the 2025 season, or if the club takes another route to filling out its regular season calendar such as sharing time with other minor league clubs or even one of the more extreme possible solutions floated by Topkin such as sharing loanDepot Park with the Marlins. Any of those options would likely come with some scheduling conflicts not unlike the ones that would face the Rays and Bulls in Durham, and a speculative solution to that dilemma could be spreading the Rays’ 2025 home games across multiple sites.

In other stadium news, a recent report from Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press noted that the Twins are only halfway through their 30-year lease at Target Field in Minneapolis. While that wouldn’t be especially noteworthy in most circumstances, the Pohlad family’s recent announcement that they intend to explore selling the franchise has prompted concern among Twins fans that prospective buyers may look to move the club out of Minnesota. If a buyer planned to do that, however, they’d have to wait quite some time in order to do so as the Twins’ lease stipulates that “shall not vacate or abandon the ballpark at any time” during the lease’s term.

In other words, any prospective buyer of the Twins would likely have to wait more than a decade before they could seriously consider relocation, a reality that could lead any potentially interested parties who hope to purchase and subsequently relocate a team to seek out other options that could lead them to their intended destination faster. That’s surely a relief for Twins fans who have in previous decades endured relocation and contraction attempts while the Pohlad family has owned the club.

Rangers Grant White Sox Permission To Interview Will Venable, Donnie Ecker

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On the heels of reporting earlier today that the White Sox had interest in Rangers bench coach and offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker for their managerial vacancy, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported this evening that the Rangers have granted not only Ecker but also associate manager Will Venable permission to interview with Chicago regarding their available managerial gig. Venable’s name first surfaced in connection with the White Sox last week.

Ecker, 38, got his start as a coach in 2015 with the Cardinals. He acted as a minor league hitting coach for St. Louis from 2015 to 2017 before joining the Angels’ Triple-A club in that same role for the 2018 season. He first cracked the big leagues as an assistant hitting coach with the Reds in 2019. He remained with the club for two years before joining the Giants as a hitting coach prior to the 2020 season, and he stuck in San Francisco for another two years before again changing organizations to join the Rangers in his current role as bench coach and offensive coordinator prior to the 2022 season.

It’s a lengthy resume, and Ecker would bring perspectives from five different big league organizations to an infamously insular White Sox club if hired. This isn’t the first time Ecker has come up as a potential managerial candidate for a big league club, either. Last winter, Ecker was rumored among the potential candidates to replace Gabe Kapler as manager in San Francisco before they ultimately hired Bob Melvin away from the Padres.

Venable has also seen his name come up in past managerial searches and has long been looked at as one of the league’s top up-and-coming potential managers. After playing parts of nine seasons in the majors, Venable joined the Cubs as a special assistant to the front office in 2017 before serving as first base coach in the following two seasons and third base coach during the shortened 2020 campaign. Venable departed Chicago following the 2020 season to become Alex Cora’s bench coach in Boston. He remained in that role for two years before joining the Rangers as an associate manager under Bruce Bochy prior to the 2023 season.

Grant notes that Venable could be the leading contender to take Bochy’s place as manager in Texas when the 69-year-old eventually returns to retirement. Venable was seemingly comfortable with that arrangement when he declined interviews with the Mets and Guardians last winter in order to remain with the Rangers, but it’s possible he’s more seriously considering departing the Rangers this winter amid uncertainty regarding Bochy’s plans for the future. As Grant relays, Bochy told reporters following the end of the 2024 regular season that managing still “drives” him, seemingly leaving the door open to him sticking around beyond the end of his current contract in 2025.

The two Rangers coaches are hardly the only candidates connected to the job, of course. Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough and bench coach Danny Lehman, Tigers bench coach George Lombard, Padres special assistant A.J. Ellis, former Angels skipper Phil Nevin, Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso, and outgoing Marlins manager Skip Schumaker have all been name checked as potential candidates in the rumor mill, with Schumaker and McCullough getting particular attention as potential leading candidates.

Whoever ultimately takes the reins in Chicago will enter an tumultuous situation. Not only is the club coming off a disastrous 2024 campaign that set the modern record for losses in a single season at 121, but the club’s ownership could be up in the air following a report yesterday that indicated longtime owner Jerry Reinsdorf is discussing selling the club to former big leaguer Dave Stewart. While all that uncertainty and the likely long timetable for a return to contention could make the club’s managerial gig seem somewhat unattractive, the relative scarcity of big league manager jobs is sure to draw the attention of quality talent nonetheless.

Latest On Yoán Moncada

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Infielder Yoán Moncada is going to get some reps next month. Per Francys Romero on X, Moncada will play for Cuba in the upcoming Premier12 tournament, which is set to take place in multiple countries in November.

He’s likely happy to get the playing time, as he only got 45 plate appearances over 12 games in 2024. That was mostly due to injury, as Moncada suffered a left adductor strain in April and didn’t come off the IL until mid-September. Even when he was back with the club, the Sox didn’t play him much, preferring to give the work to younger players with more potential to contribute in the long run.

Moncada is about to become a free agent. The Sox have a $25MM club option to keep him around for 2025 but they will certainly go for the $5MM buyout instead, since he hasn’t been his best self in a while.

Marketing himself to other clubs in free agency will be a challenge after an essentially lost season, which is surely part of the reason he’s planning to put his spikes on and play next month. He was also limited by injuries in the previous two seasons, playing just 196 games over 2022 and 2023 while hitting .234/.288/.386 for a wRC+ of 86.

Though he’s been injury prone of late and has seemingly been around forever, it’s easy to forget that he still hasn’t celebrated his 30th birthday, which will be in May. His high-profile defection from Cuba was over a decade ago, but he was just a teenager at that time. He went on to sign a huge deal with the Red Sox, when that was still possible under the old amateur spending rules, later getting traded to the White Sox as part of the Chris Sale mega trade before signing a notable extension with Chicago.

But he’s still relatively young and was in good form as recently as a few years ago. In 2021, he stayed healthy enough to play 144 games for the Sox. He slashed .263/.375/.412 that year for a 120 wRC+. He also received solid marks for his glovework, as he usually does, leading to a tally of 3.7 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs.

The recent injuries and tepid performance will both send him to free agency and knock down his earning power on the open market, but it’s possible that some clubs will view him as a strong bounceback candidate who could potentially provide strong return on a modest investment.

Dodgers Notes: Rojas, Hernandez, Hudson

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Miguel Rojas was left off the Dodgers’ NLCS roster due to a partially torn left adductor muscle, and the infielder has already said he’ll need to undergo surgery to correct the problem after the season is over.  However, as Rojas told Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times, he is also dealing with a sports hernia that will require more surgical attention.

Despite it all, Rojas is still hoping he can heal up enough in the interim to be part of a potential World Series roster if the Dodgers can get past the Mets.  Rojas suffered the adductor injury in the last week of the regular season and was able to play in three games in the NLDS (hitting two singles in eight plate appearances) but hasn’t played since he was removed for a pinch-runner in the third inning of Game 3.

Assuming Los Angeles did advance to the Fall Classic, there’s obvious risk for the Dodgers in rostering a player who clearly won’t be at anything close to 100 percent.  Teams can make (with league approval) injury-related roster substitutions once the World Series begins, yet that wouldn’t prevent the Dodgers from finding themselves short-handed during a game if Rojas had to make another early exit.  The decision will ultimately hinge on both Rojas’ health and what the team feels a limited version of Rojas can still bring to the infield mix.  Other injuries will also be factors, like the hip flexor issue that kept Gavin Lux out of Game 2 of the NLCS.

With these health issues mounting, Enrique Hernandez has been a godsend for the lineup, as the utilityman moved into the starting lineup once Rojas went down.  Since Tommy Edman took over for Rojas at shortstop, Hernandez has become the new primary center fielder, though Hernandez has also seen action at third and second base, including a start at second base in Lux’s place in Game 2.  In addition to the defensive versatility, Hernandez has been hot at the plate, with two home runs and a 1.084 OPS in 20 PA in the Dodgers’ last five games.

Hernandez had already established a reputation for himself as a clutch postseason hitter prior to 2024, though his improved form might’ve been sparked during the summer when he started wearing glasses.  As The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal notes, a conversation with Martin Maldonado in June inspired Hernandez to undergo an eye exam, which revealed an astigmatism in his right eye.  Hernandez started wearing glasses to help his vision, and after an adjustment period, he hit .274/.307/.458 slash line over his final 180 PA of the regular season.  While not standout numbers, it was still a marked improvement over the .191/.258/.299 line Hernandez posted in his first 213 PA.

In other Dodgers injury news, right-hander Daniel Hudson didn’t pitch in Game 2 due to what manager Dave Roberts revealed to media (including Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times) described as a “lower-body” problem.  Hudson was deemed available for Game 3 and while he wasn’t one of five pitchers used in the Dodgers’ 8-0 win, that might’ve had more to do with the increasingly lopsided score than with any lingering concerns over his injury.

With gamesmanship in full effect in the playoffs, it isn’t surprising that Roberts wasn’t specific with the nature of Hudson’s issue.  Any sort of lower-body injury is of particular concern in Hudson’s case given that he tore his ACL in June 2022, and then pitched just three innings during the 2023 season due to recovery from that ACL tear and then an MCL strain.

The good news is that Hudson returned from these injury-marred years to deliver a healthy and productive 2024 season.  Hudson allowed a ton of hard contact and benefited from a .225 BABIP, but he finished the year with a 3.00 ERA and above-average strikeout and walk rates over 63 innings out of the Los Angeles bullpen.  A postseason hero for the Nationals in their 2019 World Series run, Hudson has continued his strong work in October with 3 1/3 scoreless innings so far in these playoffs.

Latest On White Sox Managerial Search

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TODAY: The White Sox also have interest in Rangers bench coach/offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker and Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann, Fegan and Nelson report.  Chicago may have to wait until the NLCS is over to speak with Lehmann or another reported target in Los Angeles first base coach Clayton McCullough, who 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine cited as “a leading candidate” for the White Sox job back in September.

OCTOBER 16: While not the biggest piece of White Sox-related news today, the club’s more immediate piece of short-term business is finding a new manager.  James Fegan and Josh Nelson of Sox Machine report that Tigers bench coach George Lombard and Padres special assistant A.J. Ellis are two of the candidates being considered in a still-evolving search.

This isn’t the first time that the 49-year-old Lombard has been linked to a managerial opening, as he previously interviewed with the Pirates in 2019 (before Derek Shelton was hired) and for the Tigers in 2020.  Though Detroit ended up going with A.J. Hinch as its new skipper, the Tigers were impressed enough by Lombard to bring him aboard as the bench coach soon after Hinch was hired, and Lombard has subsequently spent the last four seasons in the role.

Lombard’s playing career saw him appear in parts of six seasons from 1998-2006, and he hung up his cleats following a 2009 season spent in the minors and in independent ball.  He then worked in the Red Sox farm system for the next six seasons as a coach, roving coordinator, and manager — a two-season stint with the Red Sox rookie league affiliate in 2011-12 represents Lombard’s only experience as a manager.  After a few months working with the Braves as a minor league coordinator in 2015, Lombard quickly moved onto a new job as the Dodgers’ first base coach, and spent the 2016-20 seasons as part of the L.A. coaching staff.

In a coincidental overlap, Ellis was still playing for the Dodgers in 2016 during Lombard’s first season.  Ellis spent nine of his 11 MLB seasons with the Dodgers, and then after retiring following the 2018 season, stayed in the NL West by taking on an assistant role within the Padres’ baseball operations department.  The special assistant title is a nebulous one that tends to vary greatly in responsibilities based on the individual’s specialties and the club’s needs, but Fegan writes that Ellis has done “plenty of roving player development work” over his six years in San Diego.

Moving into a regular job in the dugout would therefore represent an entirely new frontier for the 43-year-old Ellis, who has no formal managerial or coaching experience.  Of course, Ellis’ long career as a catcher shouldn’t be discounted, given the long line of ex-catchers moving into managerial roles.  As Fegan notes, Ellis had a reputation as a leader on the field during his playing days, and the White Sox could be interested in seeing if Ellis can make as a smooth a transition from catching to managing as Stephen Vogt did for the division rival Guardians.

Neither Lombard or Ellis have ever crossed paths with Chicago GM Chris Getz as a teammate or co-worker, nor were Lombard or Ellis ever former members of the White Sox organization.  This fits with Getz’s prior statement that the White Sox were looking to bring in a new voice as the club’s next manager, though interim manager Grady Sizemore would receive some consideration.

Beyond these names, former Angels manager Phil Nevin, Rangers associate manager Will Venable, and Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso are known to be on Chicago’s list of candidates.  While the Sox still want to talk to some coaches on teams currently playing in the postseason, some preliminary culling has already started to take place, as Fegan writes that the White Sox have already eliminated some candidates from consideration.  A source tells Fegan that former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker is “still alive” in the search, which is no surprise given that Schumaker has long been viewed as a preferred choice for the job.

Latest On Marlins’ Managerial Search

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There hasn’t been a lot of concrete information about the Marlins’ managerial search, but one formal candidate has now been identified, as Isaac Azout of Fish On First (X link) reports that Tigers bench coach George Lombard will interview about the position this week.

It is the second time in as many days that Lombard has been linked to a managerial opening, as the White Sox also reportedly have interest in speaking with the 49-year-old.  Since the Tigers’ surprising playoff run only just ended last Saturday, it makes sense that Lombard is only now becoming available for interviews.

Lombard has some distant past ties to the Miami organization, as he played in the Marlins’ farm system back in 2008 but didn’t see any time with the club at the MLB level.  His playing career ran from 1994-2009, and included 144 Major League games with four different teams from 1998-2006.  Lombard played in 13 games with the Rays in 2006, though this predated the time that Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix spent in the Tampa front office.

Lombard’s only managerial experience came in the form of two seasons (2011-12) in rookie ball, running the Red Sox Gulf Coast League affiliate.  Lombard spent six seasons overall working for Boston as a manager, coach, and coordinator in the minors, then briefly worked in a minor league coordinator role for the Braves in 2015 before the big leagues came calling.

After just a couple of months with Atlanta, Lombard was hired as the Dodgers’ first base coach, a role he held from 2016-20.  The first two of Lombard’s seasons in Los Angeles overlaps with Gabe Kapler’s stint as the Dodgers’ director of player development, which creates an interesting link to the Marlins since Kapler is now Miami’s assistant general manager.

Lombard won a World Series ring with L.A. in 2020 and was then hired by the Tigers as their bench coach during the 2020-21 offseason.  The responsibilities of a bench coach vary from team to team, but the Detroit News’ Chris McCosky writes that Lombard’s chief duties include offensive game-planning, as well as coaching baserunning and outfield play.

The bench coach hire came after the Tigers also interviewed Lombard for their own managerial vacancy at the time, which was filled by A.J. Hinch.  Lombard had previously been on the Pirates’ radar in their managerial search a year prior (before Derek Shelton was hired), and the Red Sox also reportedly had some interest in speaking with Lombard before Alex Cora was re-hired as manager in November 2020.

If hired as the Marlins’ next skipper, Lombard will be tasked with helping turn around a team in the midst of an extensive rebuild both on and off the field.  The Marlins made a wide range of firings after the season, letting go of not just Skip Schumaker’s coaching staff but also the team’s conditioning and training crew and the clubhouse attendant staff.  Presumably the new manager would have a lot of leeway in hand-picking people to fill these roles, with Bendix and Kapler obviously also having plenty of input.

Speaking of Kapler, Azout also notes that the Marlins have some interest in speaking with Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken about the managerial role.  Nakken has been working with San Francisco for over a decade, and her five-year stint on the coaching staff began after Kapler was hired as the Giants’ manager prior to the 2020 season.  Her role on the staff bears some similarity to Lombard’s skillset, as Nakken’s duties also included outfield instruction and baserunning.

Nakken became the first woman known to ever receive a proper interview for a Major League managerial position when she spoke to the Giants about their vacancy last October.  Obviously history would be made if the Marlins or any other team hired her to run their dugout, though Miami is particularly noteworthy since the organization was also the first to hire a woman (Kim Ng) as general manager.  The 34-year-old Nakken would also become the youngest current big league manager.

Apart from Lombard and Nakken, Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz and former Marlins bench coach Luis Urueta have also been mentioned as candidates under consideration as Miami’s next manager.  Former Marlins pitcher Anibal Sanchez has also reached out to the club about the position, but it isn’t known if the Marlins reciprocated that interest.

The Opener: ALCS, NLCS, A’s

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As the playoffs continue, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:

1. ALCS heads to Cleveland:

The Guardians are headed back home to Cleveland today having dropped the first two games of the ALCS to the Yankees in the Bronx. As they look to stop the bleeding in front of their home crowd, the club will turn to lefty Matthew Boyd (2.72 ERA in 8 starts). The veteran southpaw has not yet appeared in the ALCS but drew two starts during the ALDS against Detroit. Those two starts went quite well, as Boyd struck out ten Tigers in 6 2/3 scoreless frames. Now, Boyd figures to square off against Yankees youngster Clarke Schmidt (2.85 ERA in 16 starts) this evening. Schmidt’s lone ALDS start saw him surrender two runs in 4 2/3 innings of work with four strikeouts. Today’s game is scheduled to begin at 5:08pm local time.

2. Mets facing deficit in NLCS:

The Mets suffered an ugly 8-0 loss at the hands of the Dodgers last night as the L.A. pitching staff stymied their offense, allowing just four hits. While Luis Severino managed to handle the Dodgers’ offense decently in 4 2/3 innings of work that saw only two unearned runs cross the plate, the L.A. bats came to life late in the game against the bullpen and torched Mets relievers Reed Garrett and Tylor Megill for six runs.

As the Mets try to avoid dropping back-to-back games, they’ll turn to veteran southpaw Jose Quintana (3.75 ERA in 31 starts). Quintana has been excellent for the Mets so far this postseason, pitching 11 scoreless frames and striking out 11 across two starts split between the NLDS and the NL Wild Card series. His opponent tonight will be Dodgers star Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3.00 ERA in 16 starts), who arrived in the majors to much fanfare earlier this year. Yamamoto’s first taste of postseason action in the big leagues has been a mixed bag so far, as he was rocked for five runs over three innings by the Padres in his first postseason start but settled in to post five scoreless frames in a decisive Game 5 against San Diego later in the series. Tonight’s game is slated to start at 8:08pm local time in Queens.

3. A’s ballpark agreements in Las Vegas moving forward:

The A’s no longer hail from Oakland after playing their last game at the Coliseum last month, and with the Oakland chapter of the club’s history now officially closed, things are moving along toward the construction of the club’s planned ballpark in Las Vegas. As detailed by Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Las Vegas Stadium Authority is scheduled to meet today with a review of updated agreements regarding development and leasing of the stadium as well as relocation stipulations between the city and the A’s among the items on the agenda.

The agreements lay out a framework for a number of subjects, including how many out-of-market home games the Athletics are allowed to play each year and what situations could allow the A’s to relocate out of Las Vegas in the future should they so desire. Per Akers, those agreements will then be put to a vote on December 5, with approval of each of the agreements standing as a necessary step in order for the A’s to unlock public funding for their new stadium. In addition to getting approval on these agreements, the Athletics will also need to present a plan for financing their own portion of the stadium expenses before that aforementioned public funding becomes available.

Jerry Reinsdorf Reportedly Discussing Sale Of White Sox

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White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is open to selling the club and is in “active discussions” with a group led by Dave Stewart, reports Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic. It’s unclear how possible a sale is or how much progress the talks have made, but it would be a seismic shift for the franchise if it comes to fruition.

Reinsdorf, now 88 years old, is one of the more controversial owners in the sport. He bought the club in 1981 for about $20MM and has since developed a reputation for being on the meddlesome side, leading to reports of tumult from within the organization. Reinsdorf only owns an estimated 19% stake in the club, according to Forbes, but is nonetheless the principal owner of the club.

The club has had some success during his tenure as owner, including winning the 2005 World Series, but the Sox are at a very low ebb right now. They didn’t make the playoffs from 2009 to 2019, finishing below .500 during the majority of that stretch. A new core seemed to emerge and helped them make the postseason in 2020 and 2021, but that quickly proved to be unsustainable. They dropped to .500 in 2022 and lost 101 games last year before things got even worse in 2024. They lost 121 games this year, setting a new record for losses in the modern era.

Amid that downward slide, plenty of changes have taken place. In August of 2023, president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn were fired after many years with the club. However, that shakeup was followed by the club promoting Chris Getz to general manager from within, seemingly not undertaking an extensive search for external candidates. Manager Pedro Grifol and some coaches were fired in August of 2024. Grady Sizemore took over as interim manager and it’s not yet clear who will be the club’s bench boss for 2025.

Those changes were arguable merited, but as the Sox were nearing their dishonorable place in history this year, Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal put the franchise under the microscope in a lengthy piece for The Athletic last month. In it, various sources traced the club’s misfortunes to Reinsdorf. His slow embrace of analytics, his refusal to invest in amenities or player payroll and his insular loyalty were among the various complaints cited in the piece.

While many of the club’s fans have been clamoring for Reinsdorf to sell the club, it’s possible their wish is being granted in monkey-paw fashion, given who the buyer could be. Stewart is well-known in the baseball world for his playing career and also his post-playing ventures as a coach, executive, agent and stint as general manager of the Diamondbacks. In recent years, he has been involved with a group that has been trying to get an MLB franchise in Nashville, Tennessee. Stewart parted ways with Music City Baseball/the Nashville Stars but told Paul Skrbina of the Nashville Tennessean in May that he still had designs on getting a team to Nashville someday. Per today’s report from Ghiroli, he is now part of a group called Smoke34, a reference to his nickname and jersey number from his playing days. Ghiroli also mentions that Stewart and partner Lonnie Murray are trying to bring a National Women’s Soccer League team to Nashville.

Back in August of 2023, Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the Sox were exploring relocating within Chicago but that moving to Nashville was also under consideration. “Ever since the article came out, I’ve been reading about I’ve been threatening to move to Nashville,” Reinsdorf said in response, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. “That article didn’t come from me. But if we have six years left, we’ve got to decide what’s the future going to be? We’ll get to it, but I never threatened to move out. We haven’t even begun to have discussions with the Sports Authority, which we’ll have to do soon.” In December, multiple sources (including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times) reported that Reinsdorf met with Nashville mayor Freddie O’Connell.

There are still plenty of unknowns with this story and the next steps will require more details to come out. The talks between Reinsdorf and Stewart could in early/exploratory stages or they could be further along. It’s also possible that Stewart’s group is just one of several that Reinsdorf has spoken with or will eventually speak with. Speculatively speaking, it’s possible that Reinsdorf is using the threat of relocation to help get a new stadium built in Chicago. As covered previously at MLBTR, the Sox have discussed plans about a new stadium in Chicago’s South Loop on a parcel of land known as “The 78.” It’s not uncommon for owners of sports franchises to dangle the threat of relocation in an attempt to extract public money for real estate investments. The Sox, who have a lease at Guaranteed Rate Field through 2029, were reportedly looking to get a billion dollars in public money for their new stadium as of February.

Exploring a sale of the club also doesn’t mean it will ultimately come to pass. In recent years, teams like the Nationals and Angels announced plans to explore the possibility of selling, only to later pull back from those declarations. This situation appears to be somewhat different, in that some discussions have already taken place. Though as mentioned, it’s unclear how extensive those talks have been.

This is the second report this month of a club considering a sale. The Twins, divisional rival of the White Sox, are also on the block. The Pohlad family announced last week that they will explore the possibility of a sale. Reinsdorf is the second-longest active owner in Major League Baseball, trailing only the Steinbrenner family, who have owned the Yankees since 1973.

The David Bednar Question

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David Bednar has been the subject of trade speculation for the past few seasons. For the most part, that was a testament to his effectiveness. Bednar broke out as a leverage reliever with 60 2/3 innings of 2.23 ERA ball during his first season with the Pirates in 2021. He carried that into the ninth inning. Between 2022-23, the big righty combined for a 2.27 ERA while striking out more than 30% of batters faced over 111 appearances. He locked down 58 games, including an NL-leading 39 saves in 2023.

That production came on rebuilding teams. Pittsburgh was nowhere close to the postseason. Other teams no doubt tried to pry Bednar away, but the Bucs never seemed interested in moving him. He’s a Pittsburgh native who looked like a lockdown late-game weapon. The Bucs control him through 2026 and surely envisioned fielding a playoff team before then.

Bednar could resurface as a trade candidate in the coming weeks but under much different circumstances. He’s coming off by far the worst season of his career. The question now is not whether the Pirates should sell high on an affordable, breakout closer. It’s whether to move on in a cost-saving measure at a time when his trade value has hit a low ebb.

Even with the understanding that reliever performance can be volatile, Bednar’s 2024 season is confounding. After rattling off consecutive sub-3.00 performances in his first three full seasons, he allowed 5.77 earned runs per nine this year. That’s not a reflection of poor batted ball results that could be dismissed as luck. Bednar’s peripherals tanked across the board.

His strikeout rate had landed between 28% and 33% in each of his first three years. That fell to 22.1% this past season, slightly below the league average for relievers. Bednar’s walk percentage jumped from the 7-8% range to nearly 11%. He allowed more home runs (nine) in 57 2/3 innings this year than he’d given up (seven) across 119 frames in the previous two seasons combined. Bednar lost a lot of whiffs on both his four-seam fastball and curveball compared to prior seasons. Opponents teed off on the heater, in particular, hitting .256 and connecting on six longballs.

Bednar started the season terribly, allowing 14 runs in 10 innings through the end of May. He managed much better results over the next two months, albeit without the level of swing-and-miss to which he’d been accustomed. Bednar missed a couple weeks leading into the All-Star Break with an oblique strain. The wheels came completely off coming out of the Break, as he gave up 16 runs over his next 14 2/3 frames.

The Pirates, who had plummeted from contention, pulled Bednar from the ninth inning at the end of August. By that point in the year, the focus was on getting him right going into the offseason. Bednar’s run prevention in September was better, as he allowed a manageable five runs (four earned) over 10 2/3 frames. Yet he walked another 10 hitters with nine strikeouts in mostly low-leverage spots. It wasn’t a resounding finish.

It’d be easier to explain the dip in performance if Bednar’s velocity had tanked coming back from the oblique strain. That’s not the case. His fastball averaged north of 97 MPH from the start of May onward. His 97.2 MPH average heater for the season was the highest of his career. Bednar didn’t lose any life on his splitter or curveball. His stuff hasn’t dramatically deteriorated. His results never consistently turned the corner, though.

That leaves GM Ben Cherington and his front office in a difficult spot. Bednar’s early-career dominance earned him a solid $4.51MM salary during his first run through arbitration. He’ll be due a raise even on the heels of a down year. Arbitration salaries are designed to escalate as a player accrues service time. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Bednar for a $6.6MM sum if tendered a contract for 2025. That’s the highest figure in Pittsburgh’s arbitration class and would make him the fourth-highest paid player on the roster as things stand.

A $6.6MM salary would be a bargain if Bednar pitched at anywhere near the level he showed from 2021-23. It’s clearly not the kind of money the Pirates (or any team) would want to devote for his ’24 results. The Pittsburgh front office annually works with a tight budget from ownership. That didn’t stop the Pirates from committing a $10.5MM salary to Aroldis Chapman last offseason, suggesting they’re willing to take some chances on talented but volatile relief pitching.

They’ll weigh the risk on Bednar alongside the need for multiple additions to a well below-average offense. Pittsburgh doesn’t have a great bullpen, though someone like Colin Holderman or waiver find Dennis Santana could get a closing opportunity if the Pirates dealt the two-time All-Star.

It’s unlikely the Bucs would non-tender Bednar. He should be too talented to give up without getting anything in return. A sell-low trade is plausible. There are presumably teams that have more budgetary flexibility than the Pirates possess that would be happy to gamble something like $6.6MM on a return to form. That’d be a tough pill for a Pittsburgh front office that has surely declined much better offers over the years than the ones that’ll be on the table this winter.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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