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Cardinals Sign Wilking Rodríguez To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | November 21, 2023 at 4:59pm CDT

The Cardinals have re-signed right-handed reliever Wilking Rodríguez to a minor league deal, per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. The righty will be a non-roster invitee in Spring Training.

Rodríguez, 34 in March, returns to the organization with whom he technically spent 2023. The Cards grabbed him from the Yankees one year ago in the Rule 5 draft. He opened the season on the injured list due to right shoulder soreness and underwent surgery in May. He stayed on the IL for the full season and collected a year of service time but never pitched in a regular season game for the Cards. He was outrighted off the roster last week and elected free agency, but now returns in a non-roster capacity.

His selection in the Rule 5 was fairly unusual as most picks in that draft tend to be players in their early 20s who have yet to crack the big leagues. But Rodríguez actually made his major league debut back in 2014, tossing two innings for the Royals. He spent much of the intervening time away from affiliated ball, pitching for teams in Venezuela and Mexico. The Yanks signed him to a minor league deal in August of 2022, surely intrigued by his 2.01 earned run average and 43.2% strikeout rate in Mexico that year. The Cardinals plucked him away a few months later but were unable to make use of his talents due to the shoulder injury.

Rodríguez will give the Cards a bit of extra depth for their bullpen, which is in a state of flux. The relief corps posted a collective 4.47 ERA in 2023 and traded away Chris Stratton and Jordan Hicks at last year’s deadline.

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St. Louis Cardinals Transactions Wilking Rodriguez

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Tigers Showing “Serious” Interest In Kenta Maeda

By Steve Adams | November 21, 2023 at 3:49pm CDT

The Tigers have “serious” interest in free agent righty Kenta Maeda, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. The club views him as a possible veteran stabilizer for a young rotation and also hopes a potential Maeda deal would help to “establish themselves in the Japanese pitching market” in the future, Petzold writes.

Following Eduardo Rodriguez’s decision to opt out of the remaining three years on his contract, Detroit’s starting staff currently projects to include Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, Matt Manning and Reese Olson. Righty Sawyer Gipson-Long, 26 next month, posted solid results in his first four MLB starts last year but struggled in Triple-A as well. Relievers Joey Wentz, Beau Brieske and Alex Faedo have all made starts in the majors but struggled in a rotation role. Last year’s Rule 5 pick, Mason Englert, survived the season on the 40-man roster but could head to Triple-A to begin the year. No one else on the Tigers’ 40-man roster has meaningful experience as a starter in the Majors.

Some form of veteran pickup is needed, and Maeda somewhat quietly had a stronger season than many realize in 2023. This past season was the veteran righty’s first full year back from Tommy John surgery, and he gave the Twins 104 1/3 innings of 4.23 ERA ball with strong strikeout and walk rates  of 27.3% and 6.5%, respectively.

However, Maeda’s end-of-season numbers are perhaps disproportionately impacted by one catastrophic start. On April 26, with the Twins playing host to the Red Sox, Maeda was shelled for 10 runs in just three innings. He landed on the injured list immediately after that outing and wound up missing nearly two months due to a triceps strain. That day’s 89 mph average fastball was his lowest of the entire season. It seems fair to presume that he was not pitching at close to full strength that afternoon.

Maeda’s return from the injured list included five shutout frames against the same Tigers who are now showing interest in him, and from that point forth he was one of the league’s more effective starters. In his final 88 1/3 innings, Maeda turned in a sharp 3.36 earned run average while fanning a hefty 29% of his opponents against a 7% walk rate. He’s still a soft-tosser by today’s standards, but the 91.2 mph he averaged on his heater following his return from the injured list is still 2.2 mph faster than the 89 he averaged in that meltdown against the Yankees. Maeda also averaged 5 2/3 innings per start down the stretch, showing a bit more ability to work through a lineup than many of the five-inning arms that populate today’s rotations.

It’s been generally quiet thus far on the Maeda front, with few teams prominently linked to the 35-year-old righty. Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said after the season that he wouldn’t rule out reunions with any of his team’s free agents, Maeda included, but Minnesota is also expected to trim payroll by $10-20MM amid uncertainty regarding the team’s future television rights. Trades of Kyle Farmer, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco and/or Christian Vazquez could create some extra leeway for Minnesota to pursue a reunion with Maeda, but there’s no indication it’s a serious consideration at this time.

Despite the lack of chatter surrounding Maeda to this point, however, he figures to draw wide-reaching interest. Beyond the excellent run following his triceps injury this season, the righty was the runner-up finisher in 2020 American League Cy Young voting and has long since established himself as a viable mid-rotation presence. In 866 1/3 career big league innings between the Dodgers and Twins, Maeda sports a 3.92 ERA, 26.7% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate. His postseason resume includes another 41 2/3 frames of 3.24 ERA ball.

As for the Tigers, there’s virtually no free agent they can’t pursue from a purely financial standpoint. Javier Baez is the only player on a guaranteed contract beyond the 2024 season, and next year’s payroll currently projects at $74MM. That’s nowhere near 2017’s franchise-record $200MM Opening Day payroll, and while that outlay was committed under the late Mike Ilitch, even under his successor and son Chris, the Tigers have trotted out a payroll as high as $135MM (2021).

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Detroit Tigers Kenta Maeda

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Cardinals Rumors: Yamamoto, Gray, Trade Scenarios

By Steve Adams | November 21, 2023 at 3:20pm CDT

The Cardinals added the first two of what they expect to be at least three starting pitchers this week, agreeing to a reunion with veteran righty Lance Lynn on a one-year deal worth a guaranteed $11MM and another one-year deal with Kyle Gibson worth $12MM. They’ll still look to add another arm, be it via free agency or trade. Among the more high-profile names they’re considering, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, are NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto and AL Cy Young runner-up Sonny Gray. Goold’s report was published prior to the Cardinals’ agreement with Gibson, though it’s hard to imagine a one-year deal for a veteran innings eater would derail the club’s plans for higher-profile targets.

Pursuits of both right-handers were generally expected from a Cardinals club looking to add as many as three starting pitchers this winter — with at least one playoff-caliber arm among the presumed preferences. Goold has previously linked the Cards and Yamamoto, and he now writes that Yamamoto does not have any geographical preferences as he tests MLB free agency. He’s open to pitching on either coast or somewhere in between.

Despite his lack of MLB experience, the 25-year-old Yamamoto is widely projected to land the largest contract of any non-Shohei Ohtani pitcher this offseason. He’s considered by big league scouts to be a potential No. 1 or 2 starter in North American ball, and his combination of age and sterling track record make him an excessively rare type of free agent. Yamamoto has won the Sawamura Award, Japan’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award, in three consecutive seasons and just wrapped up a career-best campaign with a 1.21 ERA. He’s posted a sub-2.00 ERA in four of the past five seasons in NPB, fanning more than 27% of his opponents against a pristine 5.7% walk rate during that stretch.

Bidding on Yamamoto is expected to be fierce, perhaps pushing north of $200MM. (MLBTR ranked Yamamoto second among this offseason’s free agents and predicted a nine-year, $225MM deal.) He’s already drawn interest from a wide array of teams, reportedly including the Phillies (even after re-signing Aaron Nola), D-backs, Tigers, Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, Giants, Mets, Dodgers, Cubs and surely more.

Gray, 34, would be a less-expensive but still high-profile upgrade to the St. Louis staff. He finished second to Gerrit Cole in American League Cy Young voting this season on the heels of a 2.79 ERA in 184 innings for the AL Central-champion Twins. He rejected a qualifying offer at season’s end, so he’d cost the Cards a draft pick and $500K of their international bonus pool, though for a pitcher of his track record, that’s perhaps not a detriment.

Gray’s age figures to limit the length of offers he ultimately commands. It’d be somewhat surprising to see him sign for more than four years, as even a four-year pact would run through his age-37 season — an age at which teams have tended to cap long-term deals in free agency. Gray is also on the radar for the Phillies, Braves and Red Sox. The Twins have voiced that they’d love to keep Gray as well — and Gray has said publicly that interest in a return is mutual — but with Minnesota expected to scale back payroll by around $10-20MM amid uncertainty regarding their television rights deal, it’s tough to envision them making the top bid.

In addition to their ongoing free-agent pursuits, the Cards are well-positioned to explore the trade market for potential rotation help. The team still generally has a glut of young position players, with more names on the roster than at-bats to go around. Dylan Carlson, Tyler O’Neill, Lars Nootbaar, Jordan Walker, Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan, Tommy Edman, Nolan Gorman, Masyn Winn and Ivan Herrera simply don’t all have paths to regular playing time — particularly with veterans like Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt and Willson Contreras locked into the infield corners and catching duties.

As has been the case dating back to the summer, the Cardinals appear open to trading O’Neill and Carlson, per Katie Woo of The Athletic. However, just as it was last offseason and this past summer, Nootbaar is expected to stay in St. Louis. The 26-year-old hit .261/.367/.418 last year and cemented himself as the team’s center fielder. Injuries have limited Nootbaar in his early career, but he’s proven he can draw walks at an elite level while displaying intriguing batted-ball metrics and showing enough pop to top 20 homers per year if he can avoid the injured list. Add in his speed and ability to play all over the outfield, and he’s a valuable player whom the Cards understandably view as a core piece.

It’s not long ago that Carlson was viewed as a core piece, but after a pair of lackluster seasons at the dish, it seems the Cards are largely ready to move on from the one-time top prospect. It was something of a surprise that the switch-hitting center fielder wasn’t traded at the deadline, and it’d be even more surprising if he went the whole offseason without changing hands. The 25-year-old Carlson has batted .230/.316/.364 over the past two seasons — a far cry from the .266/.343/.437 output he turned in back in 2021. With three seasons of club control remaining and a projected $1.8MM salary in arbitration (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz), he should still draw interest.

That said, it’s doubtful a trade of Carlson or O’Neill (a free agent next winter looking to rebound from a down year) can command the type of rotation upgrade that now looks increasingly necessary after signing Lynn and Gibson. If the Cards are indeed focused on upgrading the top half of their staff, they’d perhaps need to make more controllable members of the roster available. Woo writes, however, that the Cards “prefer to hang onto” infielders Nolan Gorman and Brendan Donovan. Presumably, first baseman/outfielder Alec Burleson is in the mix of names that could be moved, but his own lackluster production through his first 400 MLB plate appearances (plus his limited defensive ceiling) has probably deflated his stock a bit.

All in all, it’s a bit surprising that the Cards jumped the market for a pair of back-end innings eaters. Doing so ensured the stable, bulk innings the front office no doubt coveted, but it also only ratchets up the pressure to come away with a more meaningful upgrade at the front of the group. “More moves to come,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said today, per Goold.

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St. Louis Cardinals Alec Burleson Brendan Donovan Dylan Carlson Lars Nootbaar Nolan Gorman Sonny Gray Tyler O'Neill Yoshinobu Yamamoto

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Cardinals Sign Lance Lynn To One-Year Deal

By Steve Adams | November 21, 2023 at 2:31pm CDT

November 21: The Cards have now made it official, announced they signed Lynn to a one-year deal with a club option for 2025.

November 20: The Cardinals and right-hander Lance Lynn are in agreement on a one-year contract with a club option for the 2025 season, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Lynn, a client of Headline Sports Group, will earn around $10MM on the contract, which is still pending the completion of a physical. Jon Heyman of the New York Post puts the guarantee at $11MM, noting that there’s a $10MM salary in 2024 and a $1MM buyout on the 2025 option. The deal also contains $3MM in potential performance incentives. The option is valued at $10MM, per the Associated Press. That value would escalate by $1MM apiece if Lynn tallies 170 and 190 innings next season.

It’s a homecoming for the 36-year-old Lynn, whom the Cardinals selected with the No. 39 overall pick in the 2008 draft. The 6’5″ righty spent the first six seasons of his career in St. Louis, solidifying himself as a quality big leaguer by throwing 977 2/3 innings of 3.38 ERA ball. Lynn reached free agency on the heels of that strong run but did so fresh off the shakiest strikeout, walk and home run rates of his career in 2016. He rejected a qualifying offer from the Cards that offseason and found a tepid market, ultimately landing with the Twins on a one-year deal that was agreed upon after spring training had commenced.

Things in Minnesota didn’t go that well, but Lynn rebounded to an extent following a trade to the Yankees and reinvigorated his career in a subsequent four-year stint between the Rangers and White Sox. From 2019-22, Lynn was one of the American League’s most durable and best starters. He pitched 571 innings of 3.42 ERA ball in that time, whiffing 26.8% of his opponents against a 6.2% walk rate. That success came under a three-year, $30MM deal originally agreed to with Texas and a two-year, $38MM extension signed with Chicago following a trade to the ChiSox.

The second season of that extension, this most recent year, marked the worst season of Lynn’s lengthy career. Lynn was baseball’s most homer-prone pitcher in 2023, surrendering an average of 2.16 long balls per nine frames (yielding 44 overall). He remained healthy and ate up plenty of innings, totaling 183 2/3 frames between the Sox and the Dodgers, but his 5.73 earned run average on the year was the second-highest of any qualified starter, leading only Kansas City’s Jordan Lyles.

Despite that career-worst showing, Lynn will still secure an eight-figure guarantee. The Cardinals, in need of at least three starting pitchers this winter, surely value Lynn’s durability and the bulk innings he can bring to the table. They’re also likely heartened by the fact that even through all of his home run woes, Lynn still posted an above-average 23.8% strikeout rate and a solid 8.3% walk rate. The veteran righty’s 12.9% swinging-strike rate remained well above the league average for a starting pitcher as well, and he also induced chases on pitches off the plate at a slightly above-average 32.4% rate. Lynn still has good spin on his four-seamer and cutter as well.

While there are plenty of positive indicators, there’s no sugarcoating the bottom-line results in 2023. It was a poor season from Lynn through and through, and he’ll need to rebound in a substantial way in order to have a meaningful impact on the Cardinals’ rotation. Given the Cardinals’ dire need for help on the starting staff, St. Louis fans were understandably hoping for a clearer upgrade with their first addition.

That said, the Cards still have at least two holes to fill on the staff. If Lynn ends up being the “third” of the three additions to the rotation this offseason, the overall outlook will be much improved. Adding a durable innings eater who can still miss bats and limit walks to round out the fourth or fifth spot in the rotation is perfectly sensible, particularly on a one-year contract with a club option. If the team’s forthcoming additions are more in this same vein, however, it’ll be fair to question the overall direction of the offseason. As with all early-offseason transactions, it’s impossible to glean full context; the overarching picture will be much clearer come spring training.

Lynn’s return to the Cardinals pushes their projected 2024 payroll to a bit more than $159MM, per Roster Resource. The Cards closed out the 2023 season with a payroll in the $178MM range, and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak has indicated that he does not expect payroll to rise substantially. That, however, is not an indication that the Cardinals only have about $20MM of flexibility with which to work. The Cards tendered contracts to both Dylan Carlson and Tyler O’Neill — both of whom stand as obvious trade candidates.

O’Neill is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $5.5MM in 2024, while Carlson is projected to earn $1.8MM. Further, the Cardinals shed several meaningful salaries at the 2023 trade deadline but had been budgeting for a larger payroll prior to their summer sale. In all likelihood, there’s somewhere closer to $40MM with which to work — even after agreeing to terms with Lynn — and that number could further change a bit pending the outcome of various trade scenarios.

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Newsstand St. Louis Cardinals Transactions Lance Lynn

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Yankees Hire Brad Ausmus As Bench Coach

By Darragh McDonald | November 21, 2023 at 2:30pm CDT

The Yankees have hired Brad Ausmus to be their bench coach, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post. The position was left vacant when Carlos Mendoza was hired away to be the manager of the Mets.

Ausmus, 55 in April, played in the big leagues from 1993 to 2010. After his playing days were over, he quickly jumped into coaching and was a manager not long after, getting the skipper job with the Tigers in 2014. He held that job for four seasons, running through the 2017 campaign. The club made the postseason in his first year at the helm but missed in the next three and he wasn’t brought back after his contract expired.

He then joined the Angels as a special assistant to general manager Billy Eppler but moved back into the skipper’s chair going into 2019. He signed a three-year deal but was fired after just one season in which the Halos went 72-90. He returned to a big league dugout in 2022, working as bench coach for the A’s, providing first-time manager Mark Kotsay with an experienced lieutenant. He didn’t return to that job for 2023, reportedly seeking a front office position. He was considered by the Astros for their general manager vacancy, but Dana Brown ultimately got that job and Ausmus is now set to jump back into a bench coach role for 2024.

This will be the first time the Yanks have a new bench coach in a while, as Mendoza had held steady in that gig for the past four seasons before moving to Queens. The Yanks also made a change at hitting coach, with Sean Casey opting not to return and getting replaced by James Rowson.

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New York Yankees Brad Ausmus

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MLBTR Chat Transcript

By Steve Adams | November 21, 2023 at 1:01pm CDT

Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.

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MLBTR Chats

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Yankees, Yerry De Los Santos Agree To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | November 21, 2023 at 12:15pm CDT

Nov. 21: De Los Santos indeed signed a minor league deal with an invite to spring training, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post, further adding that the righty would earn $900K upon making the roster. De Los Santos also has out clauses in the deal on June 1 and July 1.

Nov. 20: The Yankees have an agreement with reliever Yerry De Los Santos, his representatives at Epitome Sports Management announced on Instagram. While the agency didn’t specify the terms, it’s very likely a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training.

De Los Santos became a free agent two weeks ago after he went unclaimed on waivers. That ended his career-long tenure with the Pirates. The righty signed with Pittsburgh as an amateur in 2014. He got to the big leagues eight years later, tossing 25 2/3 innings of 4.91 ERA ball as a rookie. He took on a similar workload this past season, tallying 24 1/3 frames over 26 MLB appearances.

The 25-year-old (26 next month) turned in a 3.33 ERA for the Bucs this year. That’s a solid mark on the surface but comes with an underwhelming strikeout and walk profile. He handed out free passes at a 12.5% clip while punching out a well below-average 17.3% of batters faced. De Los Santos had only slightly better strikeout and walk numbers in Triple-A, where he was tagged for a 6.12 ERA over 25 innings.

That combination of middling control and a subpar whiff rate led teams to opt against devoting him a 40-man roster spot when he hit waivers. He’s a sensible target for the Yankees as a non-roster addition, however. New York tends to prioritize ground-ball arms in the late innings. They’ve led the majors in ground-ball percentage from their relief corps in consecutive seasons.

De Los Santos fits the mold. He relies primarily on a sinker that averaged 95 MPH at the big league level. That has resulted in a grounder rate north of 53% in his MLB career. (The league average for relievers sat at 43.6% this year.) De Los Santos has a pair of minor league options remaining. If he cracks the MLB roster, the Yankees could move him between the Bronx and Triple-A without exposing him to waivers.

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New York Yankees Transactions Yerry De Los Santos

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Angels Name Barry Enright Pitching Coach

By Steve Adams | November 21, 2023 at 12:00pm CDT

The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve hired Barry Enright as their new pitching coach. The former big league righty has spent the past two seasons on the D-backs’ staff, working as an assistant pitching coach under Brent Strom.

Enright, 37, pitched in the Majors from 2010-13, splitting his time between the two teams for which he’s now coached. Arizona selected him in the second round of the 2007 draft and gave him his MLB debut in 2010. He spent two seasons there and also had briefer stints with the 2012-13 Halos. As Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times points out, Enright’s final year with the Halos overlapped with Mike Trout’s rookie year in Anaheim.

Overall, Enright pitched 148 2/3 innings in the Majors. While his career on the mound didn’t yield the best results, we’ve seen time and time again that a successful big league playing career is in no way a prerequisite for a successful run as a coach or manager. His time with the D-backs surely proved quite instructive, as Strom is regarded as one of the industry’s top pitching minds.

Enright joins a revamped Halos coaching staff under incoming manager Ron Washington. Since the end of the season, the Angels have moved on from hitting coach Marcus Thames, pitching coach Matt Wise and catching coordinator Drew Butera. In their places, the Angels have hired Johnny Washington as hitting coach, Jerry Narron as catching coach and now Enright as pitching coach. The Angels have also added former big league infielder Ryan Goins as an infield coach and veteran coach/manager Bo Porter to be Washington’s first base coach.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Los Angeles Angels Barry Enright

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Padres Name Mike Shildt Manager

By Steve Adams | November 21, 2023 at 11:30am CDT

11:30am: The Padres have announced the hiring of Shildt on a two-year contract.

“Mike is a proven winner as a manager at the Major League level, and he brings over two decades of experience in professional baseball to the position,” president of baseball ops A.J. Preller said in a prepared statement. “In his time here, Mike has displayed a strong baseball intellect, a passion for teaching the game, and has established relationships with players and staff at both the minor and Major League levels. We believe that Mike is the right person to lead the Padres forward in our continued pursuit of a World Series championship.”

10:48am: The Padres are set to name former Cardinals skipper Mike Shildt their new manager, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Dennis Lin of The Athletic adds that a formal announcement is expected today. Shildt has spent the past two seasons in the Padres’ player development department.

The Padres somewhat surprisingly wound up with a managerial vacancy this offseason after allowing now-former skipper Bob Melvin to interview with the Giants, who ultimately hired him and signed him to a three-year contract. He’d previously been under contract with the Padres through the 2024 season.

Shildt, 55, beat out a field of reported candidates including former Angels skipper Phil Nevin, current Padres bench coach Ryan Flaherty and Angels infield coach Benji Gil. Former Yankees bench coach, who was hired as the Mets’ manager earlier this month, also interviewed for the Padres post. San Diego had some level of interest in recently ousted Cubs skipper David Ross, though it’s not clear whether he ultimately interviewed for the position.

Shildt’s own ouster in St. Louis was something of a shocking development a couple years back. He’d been viewed as an extension candidate late in the season as the Cardinals rattled off 17 consecutive wins to surge back into postseason contention, and there’d been no public indication that Shildt’s job was in jeopardy. However, Cards president of baseball ops John Mozeliak cited “philosophical differences” for the rationale behind the move, with additional reported details filtering out in the days and weeks following the decision.

The dismissal of Shildt was particularly surprising given the Cardinals’ success under his watch. His St. Louis predecessor, Mike Matheny, was fired midseason in 2018 after a 47-46 start to the year. The Cards went 41-28 under Shildt to close out that season, and his next three years produced records of 91-71, 30-28 (during the pandemic-shortened season) and 90-72. Shildt was named the National League Manager of the Year in 2019 and finished third in 2021. Overall, he was 252-199 as the Cardinals’ skipper.

Shildt will now get a second crack at managing in the big leagues. His appointment in San Diego will somewhat incredibly make him the fourth full-time Padres manager in a span of just six years (and fifth if you include interim skipper Rod Barajas, who finished out the 2019 season after Andy Green was let go). San Diego hasn’t had a manager last more than three full seasons on the job since Bud Black helmed the club from 2007-15.

In addition to his time as the Cardinals’ manager, Shildt has a lengthy background in a baseball career that began as a scout in the early 2000s. He eventually was named a coach in the low levels of the Cardinals’ system, slowly rising through the ranks and holding a variety of coaching titles as he climbed the organizational ladder. The Cards added him to their Major League staff as Matheny’s bench coach in 2017. He’ll bring more than two decades of experience in scouting, coaching and player development to the table as the new dugout leader in San Diego.

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Newsstand San Diego Padres Mike Shildt

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Red Sox Hire Andrew Bailey As Pitching Coach

By Anthony Franco | November 21, 2023 at 11:15am CDT

Nov. 21: The Red Sox have now formally announced the hiring of Bailey as their new pitching coach.

Nov. 14: The Red Sox are close to an agreement with Andrew Bailey to become the team’s new pitching coach, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (X link). Assuming the deal is completed, the 39-year-old will head back to a place where he pitched from 2012-13.

Bailey’s stint in the Sox’s bullpen overlapped with that of Boston’s first-year chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. The two-time All-Star pitched parts of eight seasons from 2009-17 before moving into the coaching ranks. He spent two years with the Angels before taking over as Giants pitching coach going into 2020. Bailey held that role in San Francisco for four seasons.

Along the way, he quickly built a reputation as one of the game’s better pitching minds. The Mets attempted to interview Bailey for a bench coach vacancy in 2022, but the Giants refused permission. His contract expired at the end of the ’23 campaign, however. Bailey has looked for opportunities closer to his home in the Northeast. He attracted interest from the Marlins and interviewed for the bench coach vacancy with the Yankees yesterday. The Giants subsequently tabbed Bryan Price when it became clear Bailey wasn’t returning to the Bay Area.

Bailey will replace Dave Bush, who was dismissed as Sox’s pitching coach at the beginning of the offseason. He takes over a staff that isn’t too dissimilar from the ones he managed in San Francisco. The Giants had a very flexible approach to pitcher usage, frequently deploying openers and bullpen games around top starter Logan Webb (who developed into a high-end arm during Bailey’s tenure). Boston has a number of talented multi-inning arms but is lacking in certainty on the starting staff.

Brayan Bello tailed off in the second half. Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck have flashed but generally found more success in relief. Nick Pivetta has been inconsistent, although he’s coming off the most dominant few months of his career to close the 2023 campaign. Chris Sale has battled myriad injury issues. Breslow and his front office will surely bring in more stability with a veteran addition or two. They’ll hope Bailey can help coax another level out of their in-house options.

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Boston Red Sox Andrew Bailey

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Trade Deadline Outlook: Seattle Mariners

Reds Activate Jake Fraley, Option Christian Encarnacion-Strand

Red Sox Place Hunter Dobbins On 15-Day IL Due To ACL Tear

Cubs Select Brooks Kriske

Braves Place Austin Riley On 10-Day Injured List

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