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Quick Hits: Marlins, Rangers, Young, Pirates

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The Marlins are adding a pair of new faces to their coaching staff in 2021, per Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. Keith Johnson is joining Don Mattingly’s staff as first base/outfield coach, while Lee Tressel has been promoted to strength and conditioning coach. Johnson managed Miami’s Triple-A affiliate between 2018-19; he’ll replace Billy Hatcher on the MLB staff. The rest of Mattingly’s assistants are expected to return in their previous roles, Frisaro notes.

Some other notes from around baseball:

  • Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News profiles new Rangers GM Chris Young. The 41-year-old brings a blend of playing experience and a “strong unique analytical capability,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred tells Grant. Young has worked for Manfred in the league office the past three seasons and quickly rose to a position of overseeing on-field operations. The former pitcher will initially work as president of baseball operations Jon Daniels’ chief lieutenant. However, Grant notes the pair is expected to form “a more equal partnership” when Young gains more experience in the team’s front office.
  • Pirates general manager Ben Cherington discussed the club’s shortstop competition with reporters (including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) earlier this week. Each of Cole Tucker, Kevin Newman and Erik González will be given a shot to win the job in spring training, the GM says. All three struggled offensively in 2020 but each is still fairly young and comes with a decent prospect pedigree. Cherington noted that whichever players don’t win the shortstop job could find themselves in the mix for utility roles. Newman and Tucker can also be optioned to Triple-A. González seems a good bet to make the MLB roster in some fashion; the out-of-options infielder agreed to a one-year, $1.225MM deal to avoid arbitration earlier this week.

Rangers Hire Chris Young As General Manager

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The Rangers have hired Chris Young as their new general manager, Ken Rosenthal and Levi Weaver of The Athletic report. Jon Daniels will stay on as the team’s president of baseball operations.

This is out-of-nowhere news, as there was no indication Daniels would step aside as the Rangers’ GM this offseason. It’s a role Daniels has held since 2005. While Daniels is now 43, he became the youngest GM in league history when he got the job at the age of 28. The Rangers have since earned five playoff berths and won two American League pennants, though they have fallen on hard times in recent years. The team hasn’t finished above .500 since 2016, and it will reduce payroll heading into 2021, making an immediate return to contention even more difficult.

The Rangers are hoping the addition of Young to their front office will make it easier to return to relevance sometime soon. The 41-year-old is a former major league right-hander and a Princeton alumnus who began his career with the Rangers from 2004-05 before Daniels traded him to the Padres. Since he hung up his spikes in 2017, Young has been working in the MLB office, first as the league’s vice president of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy. He took on an even bigger role this year after chief baseball officer Joe Torre moved into an advisory position.

Young recently interviewed for the Mets’ GM job, but he dropped out of the running because he did not want to relocate his family. The Dallas resident will now get an opportunity to help lead a local franchise.

Chris Young Withdraws From Mets’ GM Search

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Former big league pitcher Chris Young, who interviewed last week for the Mets’ GM vacancy, has now withdrawn his name from consideration, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports. Sherman suggests that Young was indeed intrigued by the position but prefers not to move his family from Dallas to New York at this time.

Young, 41, called it quits in 2017 after a 13-year career on the mound and quickly went to work for Major League Baseball. He was first appointed as the league’s vice president of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy, wherein he oversaw “the application of playing rules and regulations, on-field standards and discipline, pace of play and other special projects.” When MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre moved into an advisory role in early 2020, Young added “senior” to his title and took on a larger slate of responsibilities within the same realm.

There’s little clarity about the Mets’ ongoing front office search at this point. Young and former Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill were the two known candidates to have interviewed prior to today’s report. However, it’s not clear whether Hill was interviewing for the GM post or for the president of baseball operations vacancy that will now not be filled. Incoming president Sandy Alderson, who is returning after two years away from the team, indicated last week that he’d shifted gears and would now focus on hiring only a GM, rather than a president of baseball ops. New owner Steve Cohen acknowledged last week that he’s had some difficulty getting candidates in the door, as other clubs have denied permission to interview candidates from within their organizational ranks.

Mets Reportedly Interviewed Chris Young For GM Vacancy

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Mets president Sandy Alderson revealed earlier this week that his team would not hire a president of baseball operations and would instead focus its front office search on hiring a general manager. It’s already known that Alderson and new owner Steve Cohen have spoken to former Marlins president of baseball ops Michael Hill, and Mike Puma of the New York Post now tweets that former big league pitcher Chris Young has also interviewed for the position. Alderson said earlier this week that six candidates have interviewed.

The 41-year-old Young would be mark a second straight outside-the-box hire were he to eventually be the choice, following the Wilpon family’s surprise hire of agent Brodie Van Wagenen two years ago. That said, Young hasn’t been simply sitting back and reminiscing on a solid, 13-year playing career since retiring after the 2017 season. Rather, he’s been working for the league itself. Major League Baseball announced in May 2018 that Young had been named the league’s vice president of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy — a role in which he focused on “the application of playing rules and regulations, on-field standards and discipline, pace of play and other special projects.”

Young reported directly to MLB’s chief baseball officer, Joe Torre, for the first two years he was in that position. Back in February, Torre moved into an advisory role, serving as a special assistant to commissioner Rob Manfred. Young, in turn, took on a greater role within the league’s hierarchy and was promoted to senior vice president of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy.

While Young would be an unorthodox hire, his candidacy isn’t a total shock, either. SNY’s Andy Martino noted more than a month ago that Young and Alderson maintain a strong relationship after getting to know one another during their time with the Padres’ organization, and Martino has since reported that the veteran pitcher and Princeton grad is a candidate for some type of role in the Mets’ new front office.

Hiring Young as the GM, however, would somewhat fly in the face of Cohen’s previous comments about his club’s search for a baseball ops executive. At his introductory press conference earlier this month, Cohen suggested he preferred an experienced candidate, telling reporters (link via Newsday’s Tim Healey): “I’m not crazy about people learning on my dime.” Young’s work in the league office gives him more relevant experience than most recently retired players, but he’d still be a rookie in a team’s baseball ops department. Even with guidance from an experienced vet like Alderson, he’d be “learning on Cohen’s dime,” though perhaps that’s more palatable for Cohen if Alderson heads up baseball ops himself for the early portion of an incoming GM’s tenure.

Turning to other potential candidates, Martino reported this morning that Rays special assistant Bobby Heck, who’d previously been under consideration, is no longer seen as a candidate for the job. He’s expected to remain with the Rays.

Quick Hits: Young, Torre, Int’l Prospects, Leon, Franco

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Major League Baseball announced some changes within its baseball operations department, including the hirings of the newly-retired Gregor Blanco and Nick Hundley.  Some other familiar names will be taking on new roles, as head of baseball operations Joe Torre will now be a special assistant to commissioner Rob Manfred.  Taking over Torre’s former job as the head of the ops department is former right-hander Chris Young, whose new title is senior VP of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy.  This portfolio covers, as per the league’s press release, “issues that affect play on the field, including oversight of umpiring, playing rules and regulations, on-field standards and discipline, pace of play and other special projects.”  Young has worked for the league since May 2018, coming on the heels of a 17-year pro career that included 1297 2/3 innings pitched over parts of 13 MLB seasons.

More from around the baseball world….

  • Some of the top outfield prospects in the 2020-21 international draft class are profiled by Baseball America’s Ben Badler, who also details which teams are expected to sign these players on July 2.  The Reds, Pirates, Red Sox, and Rangers are all thought to have seven-figure bonuses lined up for four players from the Dominican Republic, though the Astros are reportedly ready to pay what may be the biggest bonus given to any player in the 2020-21 class — a deal in the neighborhood of $4MM to 21-year-old Cuban outfielder Pedro Leon.  Because of his age, Leon is already eligible to sign, though he will wait until the opening of the next July 2 window because most teams have exhausted most or all of their funds from their 2019-20 international signing pools.  The int’l market will take on added importance for the Astros over the next two years, as the club’s pipeline of top young talent will be limited after losing their top two picks in both the 2020 and 2021 amateur drafts as part of their punishment for the sign-stealing scandal.
  • The Royals didn’t waste time in their pursuit of Maikel Franco, as assistant GM Rene Francisco called Franco the day after the Phillies non-tendered the third baseman, Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star writes.  Franco and the Royals agreed to a one-year, $2.95MM deal within a few weeks’ time of Francisco’s early expression of interest, and Franco has since been diligently working with Royals coaches to overhaul his approach at the plate.  Rather than the grounder-heavy results that defined so much of his stint in Philadelphia, Franco is putting a particular focus on getting the ball in the air.

Cubs To Hire Chris Young As Bullpen Coach

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The Cubs will hire Chris Young as their next bullpen coach, according to Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic (via Twitter). He’ll take over for departing long-time pen leader Lester Strode.

This makes for a notable hire under new skipper David Ross. Young — no, not the former MLB pitcher and certainly not the former outfielder — just wrapped up his brief time as the Phillies pitching coach.

While his tenure in Philly didn’t turn out as hoped, Young’s perspective on the game remains highly valuable. He’s an analytically oriented presence who has had some ups and downs in his efforts to transition to a uniformed role. It remains to be seen who’ll take the pitching coach job in Chicago, but the Cubs obviously feel they can structure a productive combination of voices to guide the team’s staff.

NL Notes: Bumgarner, WGN, Cubs, Phillies

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Madison Bumgarner has made his last pitch of the 2019 season – and perhaps his career as a San Francisco Giant. The free-agent-to-be would have been in line to start Sunday’s season finale, but manager Bruce Bochy says they’ll watch the game together from the bench, per Kerry Crowley of the Mercury News. Sunday will be the last game of Bochy’s prodigious career as well, and it will be appropriate to take in the game alongside Bumgarner, with whom he won three world championships. If Bumgarner does move on this offseason, he will finish his career in San Francisco with a 119-92 record and 3.13 ERA/3.32 FIP across 1,846 innings – 8th on the Giants all-time bWAR leaderboard. Still just 30-years-old, Bumgarner wraps up 2019 with a 3.90 ERA/3.91 FIP while eclipsing 200 innings for the seventh time in his career. As the penultimate day of the 2019 season gets under way, let’s check in on a couple other teams from the senior circuit…

  • The Cubs say goodbye to WGN this week, the beloved television network known as the home of Cubs content for the last 72 years. The long-awaited Marquee Sports Network launches next year, but the revenue streams won’t provide real kickback for a couple of years, per Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. The long-promised “wheelbarrow full of money” won’t be arriving at Theo Epstein’s baseball operations department from day one, but neither does Epstein see the new television deal affecting baseball decisions. Said Epstein, “We want to win the World Series. But it’s not because of the TV network. That’s the goal. It’s unrelated. There’s a wall between baseball decisions and anything related to the TV network.”
  • Trust is a process, and first-year Phillies pitching coach Chris Young understands that process takes a little longer with suboptimal results, per The Athletic’s Matt Gelb and Meghan Montemurro (subscription required). Young’s job was made all the more difficult when players bristled at the dismissal of his predecessor Rick Kranitz. Young’s analytics-driven philosophy was in lockstep with manager Gabe Kapler, but Philly pitchers are taking longer to buy-in, in part from its perception as an inflexible top-down approach. It was a frustrating season on the whole for Philadelphia’s pitching staff as the team regressed to 2017 levels after taking a big step forward in 2018.

Quick Hits: Keuchel, Alvarez, Young

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Yesterday, Mets broadcaster and long-time MLB hurler Ron Darling announced on his personal Twitter account that he has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Thankfully, the outlook seems to be good. Darling says he hopes to be back in the booth in around a month’s time, which is certainly quite promising to hear. I’ll be among the many fans looking forward to Darling’s return to action. He’s an attentive, thoughtful, and honest broadcaster and I always enjoy tuning in. MLBTR extends its very best wishes to Darling and his family for a speedy recovery.

  • Veteran lefty Dallas Keuchel discussed his never-ending free agency with Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports in an interesting interview. Keuchel says he is anxious to sign but won’t just settle for the lowball offers he has received to this point. He acknowledges that he may need to wait until after this summer’s draft, at which time teams will no longer need to give up draft compensation to add him. Keuchel says he wasn’t looking for this sort of standoff and wasn’t unrealistic in his asking price, noting that “it’s not just the front offices who have all these numbers” when it comes to understanding market value. He says he’d rather be pitching; agent Scott Boras has even advised him to settle and get back on the field. So why is Keuchel still available? “I told [Boras] no on numerous deals because it’s about principle. It’s about fair market value. And I wasn’t getting that.”
  • Another Boras client, slugger Pedro Alvarez, is also still on the open market — albeit under quite different circumstances. The left-handed power-hitter opted out of his minor-league deal with the Marlins late in camp and is now nursing an Achilles injury. But the 32-year-old isn’t calling it quits just yet. Alvarez turned in a middling showing at the plate in limited MLB opportunities last year. But he has long been an above-average performer at the plate (when limited to facing right-handed pitching, at least) and had a torrid showing in Cactus League action this spring.
  • Former MLB hurler Chris Young is thriving in his new career in the league offices, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. It’s an interesting look at the end of an uncommon playing career and the start of what could be an important new run in a management capacity. Young was hired as MLB’s vice president of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy — a new role that deputy commissioner Dan Halem says was “expanded” to match Young’s skillset. The story is particularly interesting because it touches upon the changing labor dynamics in the game. Young says he only took the job after explaining that he “view[s] this as a partnership between the players, owners and fans” and emphasizing that he “want[s] what is best for the game.” Halem says that Young has brought “strong opinions on what is good and what we may have to change” and has been “really good at explaining the players’ viewpoint on things.” It seems that Young is operating more on the rules side at at the moment, but it’ll be interesting to see whether and how his presence ultimately impacts the league’s approach to the thorny collective bargaining issues that have arisen in the past several seasons.

Chris Young Undergoes Hip Surgery

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Angels outfielder Chris Young has undergone right hip surgery, per a club announcement. He will need an additional procedure on his left hip as well. Both are to address labral tears.

The 34-year-old’s outlook isn’t immediately clear, but it seems reasonable to guess it’ll be challenging for him to make it back this year. He has already been on the shelf for a month with a hamstring strain. With just two months of the season left to be played, Young may be looking at a return next spring.

Regardless, the Halos likely will not get value on the $2MM they invested in Young over the winter. That was certainly a reasonable amount to pay for the veteran reserve, who has mostly provided solid overall output over his 13-year career. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out as hoped.

In 128 plate appearances on the year, Young carries only a .168/.252/.363 batting line with six home runs. It’s fair to note that he’s only carrying a .183 BABIP, but Young is also producing soft contact at a whopping 38.5% rate and his strikeout rate has jumped to 28.9% after sitting in the twenty percent range in recent years. Plus, he has graded as a below-average defender in the outfield.

Young has been more effective against left-handers (85 wRC+) than against same-handed pitchers, but obviously he has lagged even in that regard. The expectation was that he’d provide something of a platoon partner for Kole Calhoun and a back-up for Mike Trout and Justin Upton, helping to form a highly productive outfield unit on a contending team. Instead, with the since-rejuvenated Calhoun embroiled in a miserable slump to begin the year, right field became one of the problem areas for a club that has fallen short of expectations.

Angels Place Tyler Skaggs, Chris Young On 10-Day DL

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The Angels have placed lefty Tyler Skaggs and outfielder Chris Young on the 10-day disabled list, per a club announcement. That pair will be replaced by righty Deck McGuire and outfielder Jabari Blash.

In more promising news, right-hander Garrett Richards has been reinstated from his own stint on the DL. He’ll take the active roster spot of utilityman Kaleb Cowart, who was optioned back to Triple-A.

Skaggs has been diagnosed with a strain in his right thigh adductor, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. His placement is backdated to July 1st. It is not clear at this point what kind of absence the Halos expect for Skaggs, but anything more than a brief respite would represent quite a disappointing turn of events.

It has to this point been a breakthrough campaign for Skaggs, who’s preparing to celebrate his 27th birthday later this month. In 92 innings, he owns a 2.64 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9. Unfortunately, health remains a major limiting factor for the talented hurler.

As for Young, he hasn’t been productive at all since joining the Angels on a one-year deal. But he has outperformed Kole Calhoun, who’ll now presumably be spelled against lefties by Blash.

Things had finally seemed to be clicking for the Angels earlier this year. But an ongoing run of injuries has contributed to a slide back to the .500 mark — good only for fourth place in a competitive AL West division.

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