Latest On Red Sox Managerial Search
The Red Sox won’t be interviewing Red Sox bench coach Matt Quatraro for their managerial vacancy. Per Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal, Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom cannot hire anyone from the Rays for a period of two years. The condition was put into Bloom’s contract when the Rays allowed him to be hired away by Boston, which certainly makes sense, given the number of Rays executives who have been poached by other organizations the past couple of years.
Expanding the agreement to include uniformed personnel also makes sense, given that the Rays and Red Sox are divisional rivals. One might imagine the Rays being more amenable to letting someone like Quatraro take a promotion with, say, the Pirates, a league away. They proved once again to be rather prescient in putting this agreement in place before letting Bloom join Boston.
Bloom has no shortage of candidates, however. James Rowson of the Marlins, Will Venable of the Cubs, Mike Bell of the Twins, Skip Schumaker of the Padres, Luis Urueta of the Diamondbacks, and Don Kelly of the Pirates are all rumored to be in the mix. And while none of those names carry the public weight of, say, Alex Cora, the rumored favorite for the position, the process is sincere, per Rob Bradford of WEEI. Bradford is quick to point out that Kevin Cash was an unknown of a similar ilk when Bloom and the Rays chose him to be their manager.
Alex Cora remains the favorite until we hear otherwise, but these other candidates have time to make an impression. Boston cannot speak with Cora until after the World Series when his suspension will be lifted.
NL Central Notes: Betts, Brewers, Venable, Tigers, Pirates
Could Mookie Betts have blossomed to stardom in a Brewers uniform? It could have been a reality if former Milwaukee GM Doug Melvin had had his way, as he tried to acquire Betts from the Red Sox in 2013 in exchange for closer Francisco Rodriguez, according to MLB.com’s Adam Berry and Adam McCalvy. As a fifth-round pick for Boston in the 2011 draft, “Mookie sort of went under the radar if you went by the so-called MLB Pipeline or whatever. I don’t think at the time he was in their top 10-15 prospects,” Melvin said. Both the Brewers’ analytics and scouting departments agreed on Betts’ potential, however, so the pitch was made to then-Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington, who wisely declined the offer.
Betts was already in the midst of a big season at the A-ball levels in 2013, and Cherington recalls that by season’s end, Betts’ “name was the first one” mentioned by other clubs in trade negotiations. “Doug Melvin was the first to ask, so I always give Doug credit. He was the first one to ask for him,” Cherington said.
While Milwaukee fans take a moment to sigh ruefully, let’s look at some other items from around the NL Central…
- Cubs third base coach Will Venable spoke with the Tigers about their managerial vacancy, NBC Sports Chicago’s Gordon Wittenmyer reports. Venable was first cited as a potential candidate for the Tigers job back in September, and Venable has also recently interviewed with the Red Sox about their managerial job. Beyond the Red Sox and Tigers, “other clubs also have sought the Cubs’ permission to talk with Venable about other, non-managerial openings in their organizations,” Wittenmyer writes. A veteran of nine MLB seasons, Venable has spent the last three years in Wrigleyville as a special assistant to Theo Epstein, as well as a first base and third base coach. This is the second straight winter that Venable has been a popular candidate, as the Cubs considered him for their own manager’s job last offseason, and the Astros and Giants also interviewed him for their managerial openings.
- The Pirates have 19 players eligible for arbitration this offseason, the most of any team in baseball. At least some of those names won’t be back in Pittsburgh in 2021, as The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel thinks as many as six players could be non-tendered and several others are trade candidates. Interestingly, Biertempfel cites Trevor Williams as a potential non-tender, on the heels of a season that saw Williams get off to a good start but then struggle to finish with a 6.18 ERA over 55 1/3 innings, with a league-high 15 homers allowed. Williams received some trade interest from at least one team (the Blue Jays) back in August, so it’s possible Toronto or another club could have some talks with the Pirates before the non-tender deadline. Williams had a pair of solid seasons in 2017-18 and is entering his age-29 season with two years of team control remaining. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Williams to earn between $3.2MM and $4.6MM through the arbitration process this winter.
Front Office/Coaching Notes: Red Sox, Venable, Marlins, Denbo, Cubs, Epstein, Hoyer
The Red Sox are beginning the process of bringing in candidates for their managerial opening. Cubs coach Will Venable has already come in to interview, while George Lombard of the Dodgers and Don Kelly of the Pirates are likely on the list of incoming interviewees, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). Venable has been a popular managerial candidate recently. He interviewed for openings with the Astros and Giants last season, ultimately returning to the Cubs to serve as their third base coach in 2020. The former player moved back into the dugout for the 2018 season after being hired by the Cubs as a special assistant. For the Red Sox opening, however, Alex Cora continues to be seen as the favorite, though he will not be able to interview for the role until his suspension lifts after the conclusion of the World Series.
- The Marlins are looking to hire a Team President that can complete their upper leadership group in the player ops department. That means augmenting and supplementing the work of Gary Denbo, their Director of Player Development and Scouting. Derek Jeter and Denbo are close, making it easy to presume that he could be a candidate to fill Michael Hill’s Team President role, but that’s not the case, per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Jackson provides a quote from Jeter that shines some light on his thinking for the position, as Jeter said, “Gary has done a great job where he is right now. You look at how you build an organization; you have to have a great scouting department and a great player development department. Gary deserves a lot of credit for what we’ve been able to do to this point. Where he is right now is where he is most important.”
- The Cubs and Theo Epstein remain aligned on the current plan for Epstein to play out the last year of his contract before likely departing after 2021. Executive VP and General Manager Jed Hoyer does not share Theo’s exit strategy, however, and it seems right now as if he’ll stay on to fully take control of the Cubs’ baseball ops department after Theo departs, writes The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney. Hoyer has served as Theo’s partner in the front office for many years, but Theo still steers the ship, as was the case specifically with the Cubs’ rigorous approach to COVID-19 testing this year when they were the only team in the majors without a positive test. Hoyer will preserve a healthy dose of continuity when Theo leaves, but there will be change when the buck officially stops with him.
AL Notes: Tigers, White Sox, Anderson, Angels, Barreto, A’s, Pinder
After Ron Gardenhire’s sudden retirement this weekend, the Tigers have a managerial opening that could be one of the more appealing around baseball. Lloyd McClendon has taken over managerial duties for the rest of this season, and he’ll get a look for the full-time job over the winter. A.J. Hinch, Will Venable, George Lombard, Vance Wilson, Don Kelly, Pedro Grifol, and Mike Redmond are also expected to enter the conversation, per MLB Insider Jon Morosi (via Twitter). Of course, it’s still too early to call this a comprehensive list.
Though they haven’t had a winning season since 2016 and haven’t made the playoffs since 2014, Detroit has had plenty of time to build a deep arsenal of interesting young arms that are nearing ML-readiness. Casey Mize, the first overall pick of the 2018 draft made his Major League debut this season, as did fellow prospects Tarik Skubal and centerfielder Daz Cameron. Matt Manning and Alex Faedo aren’t far behind, while the selection of power bat Spencer Torkelson at 1-1 replenishes the system with a top shelf offensive prospect to dream on. But there’s still some season to be played this year, so let’s check in on some injury news from around the game…
- Tim Anderson is suffering from cramps in his right hamstring that may keep him out of a game or two, per James Fegan of The Athletic (via Twitter). His official status is day-to-day, but the White Sox won’t want to be long without their chirpy leadoff hitter. Anderson could be closing in on his second consecutive American League batting title. The 27-year-old shortstop has unexpectedly morphed into an all-around terror at the plate with a triple slash of .366/.401/.611 and a league-leading 43 runs scored. Even limited to a 41-game sample and coming off a batting title, it’s still fairly shocking to see Anderson put up a season that will merit serious MVP consideration. While Southsiders would no doubt love to see Anderson return to bolster his case, the organization’s priority will be to ensure his health for the postseason.
- Los Angeles Angels infielder Franklin Barreto will undergo shoulder surgery on Tuesday, though it’s unclear as of right now what kind of recovery timeline Barreto will face, per Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group (via Twitter). Barreto appeared in six games for the Halos after being acquired from the A’s for Tommy La Stella. It was a rough year on the whole for Barreto, who slashed .074/.107/.074, though he only had opportunity for 27 plate appearances between both clubs.
- Athletics utility player Chad Pinder took some hacks in the batting cage while returning to baseball activities today, per Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). It remains entirely unclear if he’ll return before the postseason. The 28-year-old Pinder may not look like much from his .226/.281/.396 slash line, but he could play an important role for the A’s in the playoffs. With Matt Chapman out for the year, Pinder has a good chance to get the start at third base against southpaws while Jake Lamb and Vimael Machín fill out the hot corner rotation. Pinder boasts a 108 career wRC+ against lefties versus 89 wRC+ against same-handed hurlers.
Quick Hits: Astros, Venable, Suter, Kim
In the wake of the sign-stealing scandal that has enveloped the Astros and become perhaps the biggest story of the offseason, Astros fan Tony Adams decided to analyze the data from the 2017 season in perhaps the more straight-forward way possible — Adams listened for any loud banging sounds (i.e. someone hitting a trash can) during every opponents’ pitch thrown during Astros home games in 2017. The whistling, clapping, and vocal signals the Astros allegedly also used to alert batters weren’t chronicled, as such sounds are harder to detect amidst the usual sounds of the ballpark.
After breaking down the 58 Houston home games that had available video, Adams made his work public at SignStealingScandal.com, with intriguing results. The banging sounds were almost non-existent for the first two months of the season before spiking during a May 28 game against Baltimore (an 8-4 Astros win) and then staying at a noticeably high level for most of the remaining games over the following four months. More data is available on a game-by-game basis, and on a player-by-player basis.
More from around the baseball world…
- Will Venable interviewed for the Astros’ managerial vacancy earlier this month and for the Cubs’ and Giants’ jobs earlier this offseason, though he appears to be stepping out of the managerial race for the time being. MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo reports that Venable will remain as the Cubs‘ third base coach and thus won’t be a candidate to fill the sport’s last remaining managerial opening with the Red Sox.
- After undergoing Tommy John surgery in mid-2018, Brent Suter returned to the Brewers in a relief role in September and looked tremendous, allowing just a single earned run in 18 1/3 innings (for a tiny 0.49 ERA). While the Brewers generally like to be as flexible as possible with their pitchers’ assignments, GM David Stearns told reporters (including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) that he thinks Suter will continue to work as a reliever in 2020. “We’ll make sure Brent lengthens out so that he can cover multiple innings and accentuate his versatility. It’s keeping someone in a role where they’ve demonstrated they can be successful,” Stearns said. Suter pitched mostly as a reliever in his 2016 rookie season but started 32 of 42 appearances in 2017-18, though rarely pitching too deep into games. A soft-contact specialist whose fastball averaged only 87.5mph last season, Suter provides quite a contrast paired alongside with Milwaukee’s other multi-inning relief ace, the hard-throwing strikeout machine Josh Hader.
- Korean outfielder Jae-Hwan Kim did not draw sufficient interest from MLB teams this winter to make a move across the Pacific, but he’s determined to try again after the 2020 campaign, Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News reports. “If I do well this year, I’ll take another shot at the majors,” Kim said. The outfielder had a monster run with the Doosan Bears from 2016-18, averaging nearly 40 homers per season and topping the 1.000 OPS plateau in all three years. In 2019, however, Kim dropped back to a .283/.362/.434 slash and 15 dingers last year, which he said isn’t just a reflection of the suppressed KBO offensive environment. Kim is hoping to iron out his swing in 2020 and turn in a convincing season before offering his services again to big league clubs.
Latest On Astros Managerial, GM Vacancies
There hasn’t been much scuttlebutt in terms of the Astros’ GM vacancy – but a number of names have been floated for their next manager. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale observes that the current known pool of candidates leans heavily toward veteran, respected leaders (Dusty Baker, Buck Showalter, John Gibbons), while MLB Network insider Jon Heyman succinctly recaps what makes this hiring situation so very unique. The front office executives left behind in Houston would likely lean towards a more contemporary approach, given their heavily analytical approach, but with spring training not that far off, owner Jim Crane made the decision to hire his next field manager personally. Bringing in a field manager before the next general manager is not the ideal process, writes The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan, but little about the Astros’ current situation is.
- Cubs third base coach Will Venable is the exception to Nightengale’s observation. When asked today at the Cubs Convention if he’d be leaving, Venable said plainly, “No, I’m not.” This, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun Times (via Twitter) and many others in attendance – though Venable did walk back the absolute denial a little bit later in the day (covered in depth by The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma here). Sitting bench coach Joe Espada has also been speculated about, though given the circumstances, an outside hire seems like the prohibitive favorite. For what it’s worth, MLBTR readers settled this issue just two days ago, electing Buck Showalter as the best choice with 34% of the vote.
- Now a few days removed from the release of the Commissioner’s verdict on the sign-stealing scandal, most Houston Astros players have avoided public comment. Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman did speak to the media today, expressing empathy for A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow, while denying any use of wearable tech, per MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. The Commissioner’s report found no evidence of wearable tech utilized by Astros players in 2019. Still, The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan writes, the organizational response (or lack thereof) from players on the whole misses an appropriate measure of contrition. As players participated in the Astros’ FanFest today, Kaplan describes a couple of scenes wherein the organization’s PR staff attempted to mollify any discussion of the scandal by pairing stars of the team under fire – Bregman and Altuve, namely – with youngsters like Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez, and Abraham Toro, who were not yet with the club in 2017.
Astros To Interview Will Venable
Cubs third base coach Will Venable will interview for the Astros’ managerial opening on Friday, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports (Twitter links). The Cubs granted Houston permission to speak to Venable about the position.
Mark Berman of FOX 26 first reported yesterday that Venable being considered by the Astros, and Venable brings a different profile than the two candidates who have already interviewed for the position. Whereas Buck Showalter and John Gibbons have combined to manage over 4500 MLB games, the 37-year-old Venable would be a first-time skipper. After wrapping up his nine-year playing career in 2016, Venable took on a new role as a special assistant to Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein in 2017 and then worked two seasons as Chicago’s first base coach.
Venable emerged as a managerial candidate earlier this winter when he was interviewed by the Giants and by the Cubs themselves for their dugout openings. While he didn’t get the big hire, Venable is slated to move into a new role in 2020, as he will move across the diamond to work as a third base coach.
As per the names on Berman’s list, Houston is taking a broad approach to its search, considering both veteran names and candidates without any managerial experience (i.e. Venable, Astros bench coach Joe Espada, Dodgers special advisor Raul Ibanez). It’s hard to predict how the organization might be leaning, both because the search is still in its early stages and due to the lingering cloud of controversy hanging over the Astros due to the sign-stealing scandal that led to the firings of former manager A.J. Hinch and former GM Jeff Luhnow.
Bruce Bochy Not Planning To Pursue Managerial Opportunities At This Time
The 2019 season marked the end of a legendary managerial run with the Giants for Bruce Bochy, but the future Hall of Famer has publicly voiced an interest in continuing his managerial career in the future. FOX 26’s Mark Berman reported just yesterday that Bochy was of interest to Astros owner Jim Crane as he seeks a new skipper following A.J. Hinch’s firing, but Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that Bochy does not plan to pursue any managerial openings at this time.
At the time he indicated a desire to continue his managerial career, the 64-year-old Bochy termed the 2020 season as something of a “sabbatical” for him as he “hit the pause button.” But while a return in 2021 or beyond is seemingly plausible, it doesn’t appear as though Houston’s reported interest in him is reciprocated at this time.
The Astros have already interviewed Buck Showalter and are set to meet with John Gibbons, too, as they look for a new dugout leader. At this juncture of the offseason, interviewing coaches with other clubs could be more difficult than it would’ve been earlier in the winter when teams had yet to set their staffs and had more time to find suitable replacements for departing coaches. That said, Rosenthal tweets that the Cubs would be willing to let third base coach Will Venable interview for the Astros’ vacancy. Venable, like Bochy, was on Berman’s reported list of potential targets for the Houston organization.
Latest On Astros’ Managerial Opening
After firing suspended manager A.J. Hinch on Monday, the Astros suddenly find themselves in the unenviable position of trying to find a new skipper just weeks before the start of spring training. But there’s no shortage of candidates to replace Hinch, according to Mark Berman of Fox 26.
The Astros have an in-house option in bench coach Joe Espada, but they otherwise appear to be looking outside the organization. Veteran managers Dusty Baker, Buck Showalter, Bruce Bochy and Jeff Banister are on the team’s list of candidates. So are Raul Ibanez and Will Venable, who – like Espada – carry no managerial experience at the MLB level.
Baker, Showalter and Bochy are three of the most accomplished managers of the past couple decades. It’s already known Baker, who last managed in 2017, has interest in the position. Baker and Showalter were serious contenders for the Phillies’ managerial job before they hired Joe Girardi in the fall. Bochy, meanwhile, doesn’t seem likely to take the helm in Houston or anywhere else this year. The soon-to-be 65-year-old told Bob Nightengale of USA Today that he’s hitting “pause” after managing in every season from 1995-2019.
Banister, 56, has prior managerial experience in Texas. He led the Rangers for four years, but they parted with him after the 2018 campaign, and he spent last season in Pittsburgh’s front office. Ibanez has been working in the Dodgers’ front office – a role he seems content to keep. As of October, Ibanez wasn’t interested in interviewing for managerial posts, but perhaps the Astros will be able to change his mind. Venable, the Cubs’ third base coach, did meet with Chicago as well as the Giants regarding their managerial openings before those teams went in other directions earlier this offseason.
Along with trying to find a new manager, the Astros and owner Jim Crane will have to land a GM to succeed the ousted Jeff Luhnow. They hope to reel in Hinch’s successor by Feb. 1, per Berman, and Brian McTaggart of MLB.com writes that they’re likely to fill that position before tabbing Luhnow’s replacement.
Giants Interview Will Venable
Cubs first base coach Will Venable interviewed with the Giants on Friday for their managerial vacancy, Henry Schulman and John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle report. He had previously been rumored to be of interest to the San Francisco organization.
Venable, who’ll turn 37 at the end of the month, wrapped up a solid big-league career in 2016. Since, the Princeton grad has worked in the Cubs organization, serving as the first base coach on Joe Maddon’s staff.
With this reported interview, the Giants are now known to have held first-round meet-and-greets with at least seven candidates to take over the managerial seat vacated by Bruce Bochy. Venable is also reportedly under consideration to take over for Maddon in Chicago.