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Latest On Boston’s Pitching Coach Search

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Almost two months after the firing of president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, the Red Sox are set to name Chaim Bloom as their chief baseball officer. Bloom will inherit a team whose coaching staff is just about complete, though manager Alex Cora & Co. still have to find a pitching coach to grab the reins from the reassigned Dana LeVangie. The race consists of five individuals and is nearing a conclusion, according to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.

Of Boston’s quintet of potential LeVangie successors, the previously reported Bryan Price is the only one with experience as a major league pitching coach, Speier relays. Although Price is best known for his ill-fated run as the Reds’ manager from 2014-18, he’s a former professional hurler who oversaw the pitching staffs of the Mariners, Diamondbacks and Reds for a combined 13 years before Cincinnati chose him for its top job.

It’s not fully clear whom Price is vying against to join Boston’s staff, though Speier notes the club has also spoken with in-house candidates and possibly even coaches from the college ranks. Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal (subscription link) suggested last week that Dave Bush, an ex-big league right-hander who has worked with the Red Sox for three seasons, may be in line for a promotion to take over as either the MLB team’s pitching coach or its assistant pitching coach. Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com writes that Bush is “surely” one of the four non-Price choices the Red Sox have interviewed. If true, that still leaves three mystery names in the running for the position.

Red Sox Speak To Bryan Price About Pitching Coach Opening

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The Red Sox have made contact with former Reds manager Bryan Price about their vacant pitching coach position, according to Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports.

With Dana LeVangie transitioning to a role in the Boston scouting department, the next pitching coach will mark the fourth person to hold the post in the last six seasons. Certainly, the organization would like some stability in the position; we’ll see if Price is the man to do just that.

While Price’s track record as a manager is not especially inspiring, he’s generally well-regarded as a pitching coach. Prior to being hired by the Reds, he served as the pitching coach for the Mariners and Diamondbacks. All told, he has 13 years of experience as a pitching coach, so he seems to fit the qualifications for the Red Sox job. He was rumored to have attracted interest last offseason, but if hired, it would be his first MLB coaching job since the Reds fired him in April 2018.

Interestingly, the Red Sox are proceeding with the search for their next pitching coach while the organization’s general manager chair remains unfilled after the deposition of Dave Dombrowski. However, recent news from Boston indicates that the team may be leaning towards an internal candidate to succeed Dombrowski, so the front office may be in sync despite the lack a nominal GM.

Whoever the new pitching coach is, he will certainly have a number of intriguing weapons at his disposal. He’ll be tasked with getting Chris Sale, David Price, and Nathan Eovaldi back on track; all three have demonstrated their sky-high potential but stumbled through 2019, failing to live up to the hefty price tags to which they are attached. Of course, those costly starters aren’t going anywhere, and they’re undeniably instrumental to Boston’s future success, so Price’s approach to solving their issues will likely be a topic of discussion during the interview process.

Beyond that trio, Eduardo Rodriguez was perhaps the most dependable starter in the Red Sox 2019 rotation; at just 26, E-Rod may yet have his best years ahead of him. Much has been made of the barren bullpen mix, and it’s true that there’s considerable ground to be made up in that department; still, relief aces Matt Barnes and Brandon Workman comprise a fine pair of foundational relievers.

Quick Hits: Twins, Price, Rangers

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The Twins’ decision to hire Rocco Baldelli as their new manager meant also passing over incumbent bench coach Derek Shelton and hitting coach James Rowson for the position, but both chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine were adamant in expressing their hope that Shelton and Rowson will return to the staff in 2019, per Dan Hayes of The Athletic (subscription link). “We thought all three of those men were worthy of being managers,” said Levine of the trio before adding that it’d be a “tremendous competitive advantage” to have all three on the coaching staff. Shelton, who was the runner-up to Baldelli, took the news professionally but with clear disappointment, according to Levine. “The analogy we presented to Derek (on Wednesday) that we truly believe in is, (Falvey) and I are tackling the role of general manager together,” Levine continued. “We are hopeful that he would be open-minded about tackling the leadership in our clubhouse with Rocco Baldelli.”

A few more notes on some coaching situations around the league…

  • Former Reds manager Bryan Price is drawing interest around the league as a pitching coach, tweets Jerry Crasnick. Price, who was dismissed by Cincinnati in April, was a well-regarded pitching coach with the Mariners and Diamondbacks before serving in that role for the Reds. He ultimately succeeded Dusty Baker as the skipper, but didn’t find much success (not that anyone else would likely have fared much better). In all, Price has 13 years of experience as a big league pitching coach between the three organizations, so he’d bring plenty of experience to a new club in a return to that role.
  • The Rangers’ meandering search for a new manager could suggest some indecisiveness on the team’s part, writes Jeff Wilson of the Star-Telegram. It originally appeared that the club would choose one of eight initial interviewees, but after three of that group — Joe Girardi, David Bell, and Rocco Baldelli — were eliminated, the Rangers have changed course, expanding the search and interviewing more candidates. With no decision imminent, the hiring process may not conclude until after the World Series. Among the most notable names linked to the job are Eric Chavez, Stubby Clapp, and Astros bench coach Joe Espada.
  • Shiraz Rehman, recently hired by the Rangers to be their new assistant GM, has the potential to one day shed the “assistant” from that title, writes Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. In addition to tracing Rehman’s path to this point of his career, Grant covers the reason for his decision to leave the Cubs to join the Texas organization. Although his title will remain unchanged, it appears that Rehman will enjoy an expanded role and take up a loftier spot on the decisionmaking ladder with his new club. He’ll also be looking at ways to squeeze value out of the team’s resources. Among other things, Rehman says he sees “some real low-hanging fruit, especially in player development,” that he hopes to take advantage of.

NL Central Notes: Butler, Price, DeJong

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Let’s take a look in at the latest notes from around the National League’s Central division:

  • The Cubs have placed long reliever Eddie Butler on the 10-day DL with a groin strain. He turned in four strong appearances to open the year but has been knocked around in his last two and now owns a 4.30 ERA over 14 2/3 innings, with ten strikeouts against five walks. There’s no reason at this point to believe that Butler will be sidelined long. Fellow righty Luke Farrell received the call to take the open active roster spot. He, too, ought to be able to give the team innings in some volume when needed, as he’s stretched out to start.
  • C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic breaks down the Reds’ firing of skipper Bryan Price in a subscription piece. As Rosecrans observes, it is in some regard actually more surprising that Price lasted this long, despite never overseeing a winning product, than that he was fired so early in the current season. Of course, the struggles during his tenure have hardly all been his fault, and it may be that the long-rebuilding team finally felt this was the time to make a statement. There were some internal hopes of improvement entering the year, making it all the harder to stomach an ugly start to the season. GM Dick Williams explained that “now was the right time to do something about” the fact that the team’s offseason work had gone so far south. At the same time, he acknowledged that “this is an organizational disappointment,” not something that falls only at the feet of Price and his staff. It’s certainly hard to escape that conclusion; as I documented in breaking down the Reds’ offseason just yesterday, Price was not exactly given a compelling roster to work with this year or in the past.
  • Fresh off an offseason extension, Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong has continued to carry above-average overall offensive numbers in his sophomore campaign, due mostly to a healthy .477 slugging percentage. But as Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch observes, DeJong is also exhibiting a worrying rise in strikeouts. Indeed, a league-leading thirty of his seventy plate appearances have ended with a K thus far. And DeJong has drawn only four walks, leaving him with a .286 OBP on the young season. As Frederickson notes, the 24-year-od is showing much greater selectivity thus far in 2018 than he did last year, but he’s also swinging and missing at rates typically procured only by elite relief pitchers. Much like young Rockies shortstop Trevor Story, DeJong still needs to show he can get on base consistently enough to be a compelling offensive player.

Reds Fire Bryan Price, Mack Jenkins

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The Reds announced this morning that they’ve fired manager Bryan Price and pitching coach Mack Jenkins. Bench coach Jim Riggleman will assume managerial duties on an interim basis, while Triple-A skipper Pat Kelly will take over Riggleman’s duties as bench coach. Double-A pitching coach Danny Darwin has been added to the Major League coaching staff as well. The Reds will conduct a search for a permanent managerial replacement “later in the year,” the team added.

Bryan Price | David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports

Entering the season, Price was widely speculated to be on the hot seat. The 55-year-old former Reds pitching coach was entering his fifth season as manager in Cincinnati, but the Reds had opted only to exercise his 2018 club option rather than extend him to a longer team deal.

That decision came on the heels of four consecutive losing seasons, and while one can hardly blame the manager for not piling up wins on a clearly rebuilding club, Cincinnati also didn’t seem to demonstrably improve under Price’s watch. The Reds won 76 games in his first season as skipper back in 2014, and since that time they’ve won 64, 68 and 68 games in the respective seasons to follow.

This year’s Reds have been all the more disastrous, opening the year with a 3-15 record with a -46 run differential that easily ranks as the worst in the Majors. The Cincinnati front office clearly felt it was time for a new voice to guide the club, though it’s fair to question why that decision wasn’t simply made before exercising Price’s option, as not much has changed since last September. It’s also worth pointing out that Cincinnati hired former Red Sox and Blue Jays manager John Farrell in a scouting capacity this past offseason, and he’ll almost certainly join the list of managerial candidates when the Reds begin searching (if he doesn’t already top their list).

As for Jenkins, he took over for former pitching coach Mark Riggins back in July 2016, but Reds hurlers haven’t improved much, if any, under his tutelage. The Reds, to be sure, have had their share of meaningful injuries in recent seasons — perhaps none more notable than Anthony DeSclafani, who has not pitched since 2016 — but that doesn’t explain the general lack of development among the team’s more promising young arms. As MLBTR’s Jeff Todd wrote last September:

By measure of fWAR, at least, the 2016-17 Reds hurlers have turned in a two-year stretch of futility that is orders of magnitude worse than any other organization of the past two decades, falling well shy of the dreadful 2004-05 Royals and 2002-03 Devil Rays units.

The 2018 Reds staff hasn’t done anything to correct that tailspin. Cincinnati’s 5.42 ERA, 4.64 xFIP and 4.91 SIERA marks all rank second-worst in the Majors, while their 5.26 FIP as a collective unit is the highest mark of any team in baseball. Cincinnati pitchers rank near the bottom of the league in strikeout percentage and have also posted one of the highest walk percentages of any team in baseball this season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Rosenthal’s Latest: Cashner, Rangers, Moore, Giants, Reds

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The latest rumblings from FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (video link)…

  • Impending free agent right-hander Andrew Cashner told Rosenthal that he hasn’t discussed a new deal with the Rangers and expects to test free agency in the offseason. Cashner also expressed confidence that his production this season should lead to plenty of interest on the open market. The 30-year-old owns an excellent 3.19 ERA and a solid 48.1 percent groundball rate through 146 2/3 innings, though he ranks second last among starters in strikeouts per nine innings (4.79) and third from the bottom in swinging-strike percentage (5.7). While Cashner has been a mixed bag this year, he had a worse 2016 between San Diego and Miami but still landed a $10MM guarantee in the offseason.
  • It’s a safe bet that the Giants will exercise left-hander Matt Moore’s $9MM option for 2018 and retain his $10MM option for 2018 in the offseason, says Rosenthal. Although the 28-year-old Moore has recorded the NL’s highest ERA (5.31) through 162 2/3 innings this season, the Giants would rather bet on a bounce-back 2018 at a reasonable cost than subtract from their pitching depth. Buying Moore out would cost the Giants $1MM next year and $750K in 2019.
  • Reds manager Bryan Price will return next season, but his future beyond then is in question, per Rosenthal, who adds that the club could cut the cord if it doesn’t make legitimate progress in 2018. The Reds have gone just 269-359 in three-plus years under Price and are currently one loss away from guaranteeing their fourth straight sub-.500 season during his reign. There hasn’t been much pressure on Price to this point, though, given Cincinnati’s rebuilding status and its lack of pitching.

Reds Exercise Bryan Price’s 2018 Option

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Sept. 4: Price confirmed to reporters today that his 2018 option has been exercised by the team (Twitter links via MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon). “It’s a good thing, I think, for all of us because we’d like to see this thing through to the other side,” said the skipper.

Sept. 2: Manager Bryan Price will remain at the helm of the Reds in 2018, C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Thanks to a clause in the contract Price signed last year, the Reds were required to inform him by Saturday whether they’d exercise his 2018 club option. However, the team actually assured him in July that he’d return, per Rosecrans, who adds that Price’s entire coaching staff will likely be invited back.

Next season will be the ninth in Cincinnati for Price, who served as predecessor Dusty Baker’s pitching coach from 2010-13 before taking over as the club’s manager. The Reds have gone just 276-355 in three-plus seasons under Price, haven’t won more than 76 games in an individual year during his reign and rank among the majors’ worst teams in 2017 with a 58-77 mark. That isn’t to suggest Price has been at fault, though, as the Reds are in the midst of a rebuild and have been devoid of pitching during his tenure. This year’s Reds entered Saturday last in the sport in ERA (5.29) and pitching fWAR (2.5). To put the latter figure in perspective, 34 big league starters and four relievers have posted an equal or better fWAR than the combined total of the 29 pitchers the Reds have used in 2017.

Given their woes on the mound, it’s no surprise that the Reds are toward the bottom of the standings yet again. There have been some bright spots this year, however, including the continued brilliance of first baseman Joey Votto and breakouts from young starter Luis Castillo, relief ace Raisel Iglesias and third baseman Eugenio Suarez.

The performance of a manager is difficult to quantify, meaning it’s unclear how much the 55-year-old Price has positively or negatively impacted any of the Reds’ players. Regardless, he and his staff have shown enough to general manager Dick Williams to warrant at least another year in the dugout.

Injury Notes: Thornburg, Price, Sanchez, Wright, Turner, Mesoraco

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Here’s the latest on some injury situations from around the game:

  • Red Sox righty Tyler Thornburg has yet to progress to the point that he’s able to take the mound, manager John Farrell said today (via Jen McCaffrey of MassLive.com, on Twitter). It’s not clear whether he’s making much progress, but it seems he is still long tossing in an effort to rebuild lost shoulder strength. At present, it seems as if there’s no clear timeline for the reliever to appear in the majors for the first time with his new team.
  • Meanwhile, the Red Sox seem to be slowing the rehab pace of lefty David Price, as Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports. It’s not believed to be related to any setbacks, but plans of letting Price face live hitters appear to be on hold for at least another week, per the report.
  • The Yankees are still taking it slow with catcher Gary Sanchez, but there are some indications of progress, as Laura Albanese of Newsday writes. Sanchez, who is dealing with a biceps strain, was able to throw and take some dry cuts. He reported no issues, but the club isn’t planning to speed up his timeline, with manager Joe Girardi suggesting the original plan of a four-week absence hasn’t changed.
  • In another corner of New York, the Mets are seeing some good signs from third baseman David Wright. As David Lennon of Newsday tweets. Wright was able to field balls and play catch today, though he hasn’t yet begun making throws from third base. The veteran is working back from a shoulder impingement (which was suffered as he recovered from a neck issue that arose while dealing with a serious back issue).
  • Trea Turner could be back at shortstop for the Nationals sooner rather than later. As Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com tweets, Turner played in extended spring action and was even able to swipe a bag. That’s certainly promising news, particularly given that Turner is on the DL owing to a hamstring strain.
  • After catching full games on consecutive days, Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco seems about ready to be activated, as MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon writes. It seems the club will wait to see how Mesoraco feels before making a call, though manager Bryan Price also hinted there’s more to the evaluation. “This is kind of the point in time where we’ll re-assess what he needs for any type of finishing touches or polish before he’s activated,” Price said of the backstop, who is working back from hip and shoulder surgeries. Mesoraco has struggled at the plate in limited action thus far.

Pitching Notes: Kela, Gomez, Felix, Arroyo

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As was reported recently, the Rangers have no interest in trading recently demoted power righty Keone Kela, who was optioned owing to his negative impact in the clubhouse. Both Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News and Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram provide further detail on what went wrong, and you’ll want to check out those pieces for the full rundown. All said, it seems there’s plenty of space for Kela to work back into good standing with the organization, though it’s anyone’s guess how long he’ll be shelved in the minors and what it will take for him to return.

Here are a few more pitching notes from around the game:

  • The Phillies took home an Opening Day win after Jeanmar Gomez shut the door in the ninth, but the closer role seems far from settled. As Ryan Lawrence of the Philly Voice reports, manager Pete Mackanin acknowledged after the game that he’s “concerned” with Gomez — who gave up a two-run home run and, in the skipper’s assessment, is struggling to work down in the zone. It seems the club will stick with him for now, but Mackanin suggested continue to evaluate and won’t hesitate to pull Gomez if he’s struggling.
  • Long-time staff ace Felix Hernandez left his start yesterday for the Mariners with groin tightness, as Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports (Twitter links). But the expectation is that he won’t miss any time; the veteran righty says he’ll be ready for his next scheduled outing “for sure.” He did miss time last season with a calf strain that proved worse than initially suggested, though of course there’s no reason to believe this new injury will follow a similar course.
  • Veteran hurler Bronson Arroyo is on track to return to the majors, as Mark Sheldon of MLB.com writes. After a sim game on Sunday resulted in “very, very positive reports,” in the words of manager Bryan Price, it seems Arroyo is slated to make his first MLB outing of the year on Saturday. Arroyo has battled injury ever since going he required Tommy John surgery in the middle of 2014, but has remarkably positioned himself to make it back to the hill at 40 years of age.

Reds To Retain Bryan Price For 2017

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The Reds have announced that skipper Bryan Price will return as the team’s manager for the 2017 season. His new deal includes a club option for 2018, as MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon tweets.

Per the team, all of the coaches have also been offered contracts as well. At this point, it seems, it’s not yet clear whether any will choose instead to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Price had originally been signed to a three-year deal upon taking over the staff. That pact was set to expire just days from now, at the end of the 2016 season. Price had previously served as the Cincinnati pitching coach under then-skipper Dusty Baker before taking the helm when his predecessor was fired.

Clearly, the 54-year-old Price isn’t being retained for delivering wins. The rebuilding Reds have compiled an awful 207-276 record over his three seasons in the dugout. Still, it would be hard to blame him for failing to deliver results with the rosters he has been handed.

The organization evidently felt that Price has succeeded in other areas of importance. Certainly, he has overseen some bright spots in spite of the general difficulties. And the club’s brass has suggested that the win-loss record wouldn’t determine Price’s fate, with his ability to oversee growth from the team’s young players representing the top priority. Though it was reported recently that a final decision hadn’t been made, the Walt Jocketty-Dick Williams front office duo evidently decided since that time to entrust the club to Price for at least one more run.

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