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Ruben Amaro Jr.

Cafardo On Kapstein, Amaro, Mattingly, Zobrist, Kapler

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In his latest column, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe discussed the role of former Red Sox advisor Jeremy Kapstein. Newly installed club president Dave Dombrowski did not extend Kapstein’s contract. The former player agent had worked with the Red Sox for 14 years as a senior advisor of baseball projects. Kapstein once represented a number of top players and was among the first to use statistics in arbitration cases. He’ll seek a new role elsewhere.

Here’s more from the column:

  • Freshly minted first base and outfield coach Ruben Amaro Jr. is already familiar with many of Boston’s outfielders. While with the Phillies, he pursued Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and prospect Manuel Margot in trade negotiations for Cole Hamels. Former Phillies closer Brad Lidge noted that Amaro was comfortable spending time in the clubhouse with players, so he should adjust well to his new role.
  • Don Mattingly is the Marlins eighth manager in the last six seasons. The last manager, Dan Jennings, was recently let go after he was told he would return to his former job as GM. The club owes him about $2MM. Mattingly is said to have agreed to a four-year deal although financial details have yet to be disclosed. Marlins fans may recall the four-year, $10MM contract signed by Ozzie Guillen prior to 2012. It serves as a warning to Mattingly that a long term of contract or high AAV will not ensure job security in Miami.
  • As reported earlier this week, Ben Cherington has joined the sports management program at Columbia University. That hasn’t stopped the Pirates from pursuing him for a front office role. Cafardo wonders if Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro might show interest too. In my opinion, the Blue Jays job might not be a fit since Cherington walked away from a similar situation in Boston.
  • One AL executive worries about Ben Zobrist’s age. “Ben is 35 years old. He keeps in great shape and does the job, but he’s not someone you’re going to devote big dollars to over a long-term deal.” Of course, his agent, Alan Nero, believes a three or four-year deal should be well within reach. Nero and the Royals have not discussed an extension.
  • The Orioles will bring back pitching coach Dave Wallace. According to a source, manager Buck Showalter asked him to stay. The Orioles pitching staff had a rough season after outperforming their peripherals for a few years. Free agent Wei-Yin Chen will be difficult to replace if he signs elsewhere. The club also has to carefully manage top prospect Dylan Bundy. He’s missed most of the last three seasons after making a couple relief appearances as a 19-year-old in 2012. He’ll be out of options.
  • Team sources label Gabe Kapler has the leading candidate for the Dodgers managerial job. Kapler “speaks the same language” as president Andrew Friedman and they have an established working relationship. While Kapler has not managed in the majors, he “drew rave reviews” while managing with the Red Sox Single-A affiliate.

Front Office Notes: Jennings, Anthopoulos, Klentak, Cherington, Chavez

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The Marlins’ front office arrangement remains unresolved, according to Jon Morosi of FOX Sports. Dan Jennings isn’t listed on the team’s official website and hasn’t been working as the team’s general manager, per the report. It’s not yet clear where things are headed, but as Morosi notes, Jennings is under contract for the next three years in Miami.

Here’s more from the NL East:

  • Meanwhile, the Blue Jays now face an increasingly interesting situation with their own general manager, Alex Anthopoulos, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports. The crux of the matter isn’t money, says Davidi, who writes that Anthopoulos “is believed to have a strong extension offer on the table.” Instead, it’s a matter of resolving the authority structure between Anthopoulos and new president Mark Shapiro. Per Davidi, working that out is the key; if that can’t be done, a departure is “a real possibility.”
  • The Phillies finally installed a new baseball operations leader by hiring Matt Klentak, and the organization now seems largely set up to begin moving back toward contention in earnest. As MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki writes, the organization’s newly accessible leader, owner John Middleton, wants to make the team a consistent presence at the top of the standings. He acknowledged that the Phils “didn’t recognize early enough and act upon that recognition that the window had closed.” Now, the work to open a new window will start with a new philosophy. “The word that [president Andy MacPhail] has talked about and the word [Klentak] has talked about today is ’discipline,'” Middleton said. “So I think you’re right. I think you have to have a goal and you have to have a road map to achieve it, and you have to be disciplined to know where you are on that road and therefore use that to dictate your decisions and what you do. That’s what I think is going to be the key to success. The other part of this is being objective about yourself and your performances.”
  • Of course, the Phillies’ front office decisionmaking process is an important matter in and of itself, even after the hiring, and CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury lays out where things stand in that regard. MacPhail said that he will vest substantial authority in Klentak, even though his job is also baseball-focused, and both men emphasized that they are looking for balance in all regards (including, notably, between analytics and scouting in player assessment). Klentak also noted that he sees a big opportunity in the club’s worst-in-baseball finish last year. “There’s a really strong foundation of players in this organization, some of whom are in the big leagues and some of whom are coming,” he said. “I think that, coupled with the first pick in the draft, the largest international bonus pool this year, the first priority in the waiver period, the first pick in the Rule 5 draft, etc., creates some inherent advantages at least in the short term that are incredible. And I think if we do our jobs right, we will turn this into a winner and it’s going to be fun for a long time.”
  • Former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington has joined Columbia University’s Sports Management Program as an “executive in residence,” according to a press release. As Alex Speier of the Boston Globe writes, the move isn’t as surprising as it might seem at first glance.
  • Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the Yankees tried to hire Cherington following his resignation from the division-rival Red Sox in August. “I reached out to him,” Cashman told Sherman. “I have a lot of respect for him, his integrity and how he did his job.” Sherman notes that Cherington could have conceivably become an assistant GM when Billy Eppler left to go become the Angels’ GM, but Eppler’s responsibilities go to top scout Tim Naehring, as has been previously reported. Cherington will eventually join a front office, but for the time being, his role at Columbia makes sense, as his wife and children were living in suburban New York even while he was Boston’s GM.
  • In another interesting GM transition, former Phils GM Ruben Amaro Jr. has taken the unusual step of moving to the Red Sox as their first base coach, and Tim Britton of the Providence Journal delves into the reasoning for the move. As manager John Farrell noted, both men have some similarities in having moved from the front office to the field, though obviously the skipper made that move much earlier in his post-playing career. “I guess it’s unusual but for me, I’ve always had an itch to be back on the field,” Amaro said. “It’s always been something I’ve thought about quite a bit, and I was afforded a wonderful opportunity…. Had it not been the Red Sox, frankly I probably would not be doing this.”
  • The Angels have added former big league third baseman Eric Chavez as a special assistant, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported earlier today in his latest notes column. Chavez had served in that capacity last year for the Yankees, working there with new Halos GM Billy Eppler. It sounds as if the 37-year-old will have wide-ranging job responsibilities, including working with the club’s younger players and performing various scouting-related functions.

Red Sox Hire Ruben Amaro Jr. As First Base Coach

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The Red Sox announced today what the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo first reported over the weekend: former Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has been hired as the club’s new first base coach. He’ll also serve as Boston’s outfield instructor and assist in coaching the club on baserunning. Per the release announcing the move, Amaro signed a two-year contract.

“I was honored that Dave [Dombrowski] and John [Farrell] would consider me for this opportunity and add me to this dynamic coaching staff,” said Amaro in a press release announcing the unusual hire. “I am poised, focused, and ready to bring anything I can in terms of experience and knowledge to this position, and I look forward to being a part of the Boston Red Sox.”

Amaro’s transition from the top of a baseball operations hierarchy to a coaching staff is relatively unprecedented. Earlier this year, Marlins GM Dan Jennings moved from the front office to the dugout, although that was within his own organization after the club had fired skipper Mike Redmond. Amaro, on the other hand, leaves the only organization with which he’s ever been involved in the front office to join the coaching staff of an organization with which he’s never been affiliated. Amaro was a teammate of Farrell with the Indians in 1994, so the two men do have a preexisting connection.

Though Amaro doesn’t have prior coaching experience, he did spend parts of eight seasons in the Major Leagues as an outfielder. In 1051 plate appearances, Amaro batted .235/.310/.353 with the Angels, Phillies and Indians. He joined the Phillies’ front office the same year that he retired as a player, in 1998.

One would think that Amaro could have found a spot within a different front office as a special assistant or senior adviser to a different GM, as many previously fired GMs have done. For example, former Cubs GM Jim Hendry is currently in the Yankees’ front office, former D-Backs/Padres GM Kevin Towers is with the Reds, former Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi is with the Mets and former Mets GM Omar Minaya spent several seasons as an assistant/adviser in the Padres’ front office before joining the MLBPA. (Those, of course, are just a few recent examples.) Amaro, though, clearly wants to go down a different path than peers who have found themselves in similar situations, and kudos to him for doing so even though it will likely open him up to come criticism.

The 50-year-old Amaro’s tenure as Phillies GM was littered with missteps that led to a widely expected dismissal in September, but his successor, former Angels’ GM Matt Klentak, thanked Amaro at today’s introductory press conference for the work he did in rebuilding the club’s farm system over the past year-plus. Amaro acquired prospects Jorge Alfaro, Jake Thompson, Nick Williams, Jerad Eickhoff, Alec Asher, Ben Lively, Tom Windle, Zach Eflin, Nick Pivetta, Darnell Sweeney, John Richy and Joely Rodriguez in trades that sent Antonio Bastardo, Jimmy Rollins, Marlon Byrd, Cole Hamels, Jonathan Papelbon and Chase Utley to new teams over the final year of his tenure.

Front Office Notes: Amaro, Benedict, Naehring

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UPDATE: Amaro is one of a small group of finalists for the position, tweets Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. However, a final decision has not been reached according to his sources.

Former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro seems to have found a new job — he’ll serve as the Red Sox’ first base coach, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe tweets. This is somewhat surprising news. Amaro played for eight years as an outfielder in the big leagues, but he’s never served as a coach, and the path from GM to first base coach is seldom traveled. (Amaro did briefly play with current Red Sox manager John Farrell on the 1995 Indians, which might partially explain why he’s now turning up on the Red Sox’ staff.) Amaro became an assistant GM for the Phillies right after his playing career ended, then advanced to become GM before being fired last month. His father, Ruben Amaro Sr., was once a first base coach with the Phillies. Here are a couple additional notes on front offices.

  • The loss of special assistant Jim Benedict to the Marlins is a significant one for the Pirates, Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. Benedict has been a key part of the Pirates’ very successful pitching program, and his ability to blend old-school scouting and new-school tools is rare. The Bucs’ ability to cheaply acquire struggling pitchers like Francisco Liriano, J.A. Happ and Edinson Volquez and help them improve has been key to the team’s recent success, and it remains to be seen how losing Benedict will affect them. Sawchik also notes that Benedict will take on an expanded role with the Marlins, helping with the draft and with evaluations of potential acquisitions as well as working with pitchers already in the organization.
  • With former assistant GM Billy Eppler taking over as GM of the Angels, the Yankees have promoted Tim Naehring to take over his role, although not his title, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. (Cafardo first tweeted that Naehring would receive a significant promotion.) Naehring had previously been a scout with the Yankees.

Cafardo On Cherington, Indians, Lackey

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The game is getting younger, but we saw plenty of older players make a difference in 2015, as Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes.  The list of impact vets starts off with Red Sox slugger David Ortiz who posted a .273/.360/.553 slash line with 37 homers, earning Cafardo’s “Old Guy of the Year” award.  Twins outfielder Torii Hunter was another older player who made his mark this year, though he may have had a stronger impact on his team off the field rather than on it.  That type of veteran leadership can be valuable for a younger team, Cafardo argues, and he hears from people within the Astros that they’ll be seeking a “older, Raul Ibanez type” in the winter.

Here’s more from today’s column..

  • Despite some speculation to the contrary, former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington says that he has not interviewed for the Phillies’ GM role.  Cafardo writes that he seems “content to sit out the year and regroup.  Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports recently noted that Cherington isn’t likely to try to get a GM job this offseason, but the Phillies job could be appealing to him, since he and Phillies owner John Middleton both went to Amherst.  If Cherington does take a GM job, he’ll want it to be with people that he trusts.
  • Cafardo hears that the Indians will continue to try and move a starting pitcher for a hitter this offseason.  Cleveland seemed more willing to move Danny Salazar than Carlos Carrasco later in the season, Cafardo says, and The Boston Globe scribe identifies the 25-year-old as a potential trade chip.
  • One major league source tells Cafardo that Cardinals pitcher John Lackey could be a fit for the Cubs next season as a free agent.  After all, Theo Epstein signed Lackey as a free agent in Boston and the veteran hurler is close with Jon Lester.  Lackey, who turns 37 in a few weeks, pitched to a 2.77 ERA with 7.2 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 33 regular season starts.
  • Cafardo cautions us not to expect Xander Bogaerts and the Red Sox to work out an extension this winter.  Agent Scott Boras isn’t one to do team-friendly deals and Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski tends to wait later in the arbitration process to discuss new deals.
  • D’Backs Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa offered up a strong endorsement of ex-Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, who is looking to repackage himself as a manager. “Ruben is a very smart baseball man,” La Russa said. “There’s no doubt in my mind he could be a very good major league manager. He’s an ex-player who understands the game.”
  • Tim Naehring, one of the Yankees’ top pro scouts, is a possibility to replace Billy Eppler as assistant GM in New York.  Brian Cashman adviser Jim Hendry and former big league outfielder Kevin Reese are other potential candidates for the role.

Quick Hits: Phillies, Puerto Rico, Park

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Phillies president Pat Gillick will officially pass the baton to future-president Andy MacPhail in roughly 45 days, writes Jake Kaplan of the Philadelphia Inquirer. However, the first decision of the MacPhail administration was made on Thursday when the club dismissed GM Ruben Amaro Jr. Kaplan provides a look at potential candidates and names Angels assistant GM Matt Klentak as a possible favorite. Klentak, 34, fits plurality owner John Middleton’s suggestion that MacPhail “hire himself.” Klentak was also a favorite of MacPhail while both executives were with the Orioles. Former Reds GM Wayne Krivisky, Royals assistant GM J.J. Picollo, and Yankees assistant GM Billy Eppler are also names to watch.

  • Regular season games may return to Puerto Rico in 2016 for the first time since 2004, writes Bill Shaiken of the LA Times. Major League Baseball plans to honor Puerto Rican legend Roberto Clemente in a series between the Pirates and Marlins. Details are as yet unconfirmed per Shaiken’s anonymous source. The visit could include part or all of a four game set between the two clubs. Shaiken also writes about the history of talent development out of Puerto Rico. When the island was included in the Rule 4 draft beginning in 1990, clubs refocused international scouting efforts to Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately, the unintended consequence weakened the popularity of baseball in Puerto Rico.
  • We learned earlier today about how Jung-ho Kang’s success could influence the earning power of fellow Korean star Byung-ho Park. Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes about the “paradox” or Kang’s success. When Yoenis Cespedes and Ichiro Suzuki were acquired from their respective markets, they were a relative bargain. They were followed by Jose Abreu and Daisuke Matsuzaka respectively. In both cases, the second player earned substantially more. As such, the Pirates may be pushed out of the market for Park. Sawchik does have a word of caution. Davenport translations suggest Park may only be a roughly .249/.323/.443 hitter with 24 home runs. Teams may want to be careful about investing Abreu or Matsuzaka money in Park.

Reactions To And Effects Of Ruben Amaro’s Dismissal

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The Phillies made a move that many felt to be inevitable yesterday when they announced that Ruben Amaro Jr.’s contract would not be extended, and assistant GM Scott Proefrock would become interim GM immediately as the team began its search for a new full-time general manager. Plenty has already been written about the decision and what it means for the Phillies’ future, and here are some early reactions and aftereffects in the wake of the fifth front-office shakeup we’ve seen in about two months’ time…

  • Amaro’s firing was “only a matter of time,” writes ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, but he did well to position his successor for a quick turnaround with recent trades of Cole Hamels, Jonathan Papelbon, Chase Utley and others. Crasnick lists former Angels GM Jerry Dipoto, former Cubs GM Jim Hendry and current Royals assistant GM J.J. Picollo as potential candidates, also noting that former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington isn’t likely to pursue any GM opening at present, thus removing him from consideration. President-to-be Andy MacPhail told Crasnick that he isn’t limiting himself to targeting a specific “type” of GM (e.g. a young, analytically savvy candidate or a more traditional, scouting-based GM). Said MacPhail to Crasnick: “Let’s look at a wide spectrum of candidates. You might be surprised.”
  • MacPhail said at yesterday’s press conference (via MLB.com’s Paul Hagen) that while he will, of course, have a role in roster decisions and general baseball operations — “…let’s face it, I’m not here for my marketing acumen,” he joked — any GM he hires will have a good deal of power. “I’ve had GMs under me before,” said MacPhail. “If you talk to them, I think they feel like they had a fair amount of autonomy, which I think is important to them to be able to do their job. They can’t be in short pants running back to the president every time they have to make a decision. … They should keep me apprised, but that is a balance I’m going to have to strike.”
  • MacPhail feels that it would be ideal to have a new GM in place by the time the Phillies hold their organizational meetings on Oct. 26, writes Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com, but he admitted that said timeline may be a bit “ambitious.” Hiring an outside-the-box thinker is key to the hire, whether he comes from an analytical background or scouting background, writes Salisbury, though if the selection is of the latter variety, MacPhail will look to add to his analytics department in other ways. Proefrock, who has worked for MacPhail in the past (with the Orioles) will receive some consideration for the full-time position, per Salisbury, but Angels assistant GM Matt Klentak could be the early favorite. Klentak, whose name has been mentioned in connection with the Phillies’ presumed GM vacancy in the past, was the Orioles’ director of baseball ops while MacPhail served as president. Also named by Salisbury are Dipoto, Picollo, Hendry, Yankees AGM Billy Eppler, Giants scouting director John Barr and Angels pro scouting director Hal Morris.
  • Partial owner John Middleton offered his take at yesterday’s presser as well, Salisbury notes, stating that he wants MacPhail to find a young version of himself. “And I say that because, 30 years ago, a very young Andy MacPhail was a general manager, a newly minted general manger at that,” said Middleton. “This guy was sitting in an office in Minneapolis and he was playing with mathematical, statistical, analytical tools. And he was using them to try to figure out how he could make better evaluations and therefore better personnel decisions. Andy was constantly pushing himself to get better.” (Salisbury has a second piece with further, more in-depth quotes from the press conference for those interested.)
  • Interim manager Pete Mackanin has a good chance at returning in 2016, sans the “interim” label, writes MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. “I would encourage everybody not to make any assumptions about what’s happening today to have any domino impact on the manager,” said MacPhail. “…I know the tradition is that the GM picks his manager. I’ll just go full disclosure here, if that happens, and it takes you a while to find a GM and then he gets consumed the first month or two with a manager and coaching staff, look how much of the offseason we’ve lost. That’s a high price to pay.” MacPhail said the best way to measure a manager is by the energy, effort and enthusiasm he gets out of whatever talent is provided to him, and Mackanin has shined in that area thus far.
  • MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweets that he expects to see Dan Jennings’ name connected to the Phillies’ GM opening if he does not return to his former post as Marlins general manager following the season.

Ruben Amaro Out As Phillies GM

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The Phillies announced today that they will not extend the contract of general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. According to a team press release, assistant GM Scott Proefrock will take over as interim GM, effective immediately. The team’s search for a new, permanent GM begins today, per the release.

Ruben Amaro, Jr.“It’s never an easy decision to make a change,” said president-to-be Andy MacPhail in the press release. “Ruben has had a direct impact on some of the best years in the team’s history. He helped to create some great memories for Phillies fans with his accomplishments, but in order to return to a top-contending club, we believe this is the right thing to do as we continue the rebuilding process.”

The writing has been on the wall for quite some time that Amaro’s days as GM were numbered. It’s been widely expected that in the wake of the team’s collapse over the past four seasons, MacPhail would seek to hire a new GM to guide the Phillies — possibly one that will bring a stronger commitment to analytics to the organization.

Amaro, 50, has been the Phillies’ general manager since the 2008 offseason, when he succeeded Pat Gillick. The Phillies made a World Series run in Amaro’s first full year as GM, ultimately coming up short to the Yankees, and went on to reach the postseason in the 2010 and 2011 campaigns as well. However, a number of the trades made by Amaro that were aimed at keeping the team in contention served, instead, to only deplete the farm system while failing to pay significant on-field dividends. Some of the more notable names moved in his time as GM include Carlos Carrasco, Travis d’Arnaud, Jarred Cosart, J.A. Happ, Vance Worley, Trevor May, Domingo Santana and Jon Singleton.

While Amaro does deserve some credit for acquiring Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee without surrendering any players that have, to this point, gone on to stardom (some would suggest that Carrasco is well on his way — an argument I’d support), it can also be said that he committed too strongly to an aging core when seeking younger alternatives would have been more prudent. Specifically, the Ryan Howard contract and Carlos Ruiz signings stand out as missteps that are still haunting the team (with Howard’s $125MM extension serving as perhaps the most egregious error of his tenure). Ruiz, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley all could have been allowed to hit free agency (or been traded in the final season of their previous contracts) but were instead re-signed to deals that ultimately carried negative value. The Phillies have also traditionally not been significant spenders on the international front, although that’s begun to change in recent signing periods (including this summer’s $4MM investment in 16-year-old Dominican slugger Jhailyn Ortiz).

In fact, there’s little denying that the Phillies’ farm system as a whole has improved substantially over the past few seasons with Amaro at the helm. J.P. Crawford and Aaron Nola both look to be outstanding top picks, and farmhand Ken Giles has emerged as one of the best young relievers in all of baseball. Maikel Franco looks like a star in the making at third base and should be considered a feather in the cap for Phillies’ international scouts. Trades of several veterans have netted arms such as Ben Lively, Tom Windle, Zach Eflin, Jake Thompson, Jerad Eickhoff, Alec Asher and Nick Pivetta, while position prospects such as Jorge Alfaro, Nick Williams and Darnell Sweeney have entered the picture as well. Odubel Herrera may be the best pick from this past Rule 5 Draft as well.

Although that restocking of the farm system falls under the “too little, too late” category for Amaro, it does help to create an appealing job opening for prospective general managers. The Phillies boast a rising farm system, a well-respected president in MacPhail, an excellent 2016 draft position and significant payroll capacity. Beyond that, there are no commitments on the books beyond the 2017 season, save for a $2MM buyout on Matt Harrison’s club option. As such, the Phillies GM vacancy figures to be a highly appealing position despite the club’s lack of recent success.

With the Phillies now in the hunt for a GM, that creates five such openings around the league. The Angels, Mariners, Red Sox and Brewers are all on the hunt for new general managers as well, meaning there will be a significant amount of baseball operations changes in the coming months. Not only will each team employ a new GM, but those five newly minted executives will undoubtedly have some changes in store for the baseball operations departments and the field staffs which they’ll inherit upon taking their new roles.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Phillies Notes: Amaro, Mackanin, Franco

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Ruben Amaro Jr.’s job security has long been a narrative throughout baseball, but retiring Phillies president Pat Gillick tells MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki that the team isn’t yet making a decision on the GM’s future. “We just got by the Trade Deadline,” Gillick told Zolecki. “Consequently, we’re moving a lot of people in the Minor Leagues from [Jerad] Eickhoff to [Alec] Asher and others. We’ve had our hands full. It’s a decision that will be made in the next 30 days or so.” As Zolecki notes, the Phillies have gone from one of the game’s worst farm systems to one of the stronger minor league systems over the course of the past year, and Amaro has done well to get value for aging veterans. Gillick said he believes that Phillies fans are knowledgeable and recognize that Amaro has done some good work recently, though he stopped short of making any definitive statement about Amaro’s future. President-to-be Andy MacPhail wouldn’t comment when asked by Zolecki — MacPhail is currently not granting interviews to anyone, he notes — and Amaro simply said that he’s hopeful of remaining with the organization and excited for the future.

Here’s more from the National League…

  • Interim manager Pete Mackanin’s future is also up in the air, but CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury hears that the work he’s done so far has taken him from a strictly interim skipper to a legitimate candidate for the permanent position. Mackanin received an overwhelming vote of confidence from division-rival skipper Terry Collins (of the Mets). “The energy level they have right now is completely different than it was a month ago, two months ago when we played them,” Collins told Salisbury. “…[Mackanin] has a tremendous sense of humor. He’s a people person. I’ve known him for years, and the first time I met him, we just meshed. He’s an upbeat guy. He’s funny. He’s got the players’ attention. I hope he gets the chance. I hope when they sit down at the end of the year, they realize what they’ve got. He’s done it with young players.”
  • The Phillies had begun to express optimism that Maikel Franco could return to the Majors this season, but as Jake Kaplan of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes, Franco’s chances took a hit this afternoon. Franco felt discomfort in his left wrist (which he fractured last month) while taking soft-toss swings at Citi Field today, Kaplan explains. If he doesn’t show improvement over the next week, the team may just shut him down for the remainder of the year. Mackanin told reporters that the odds of Franco returning this season are “50-50,” though Franco notes that those odds are perhaps too generous. Franco was firmly in the NL Rookie of the Year mix when he was hit by a pitch and landed on the DL; he was hitting .277/.340/.490 with 13 homers in 326 plate appearances at the time of the injury.

Heyman’s Latest: Castro, Shapiro, Davis, Anderson, Brewers, Phils

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Within his latest Inside Baseball column, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that displaced Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro has joined Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez as struggling former stars that have cleared waivers. (The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo first reported that Ramirez and Sandoval cleared waivers.) The Cubs had a few trade discussions pertaining to Castro prior to the July 31 non-waiver deadline, per Heyman, and they’ll likely revisit trade talks this winter. As for Sandoval, Heyman hears that there are not active discussions at the moment, although one can easily imagine new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski exploring ways to shed that sizable commitment this offseason.

Some more highlights from Heyman’s latest column…

  • Indians president Mark Shapiro has been given permission to meet with the Blue Jays about their opening, per the report. The veteran Cleveland executive is “believed” to sit atop Toronto’s wish list, and Heyman says there’s an increasing expectation that he’ll end up moving over to the Jays.
  • Chris Davis is in line for a significant payday this offseason, but the Orioles aren’t likely to be the ones writing the check. Heyman hears that two years ago, following Davis’ brilliant 53-homer campaign, agent Scott Boras was eyeing Joey Votto’s 10-year, $225MM contract as a comp. Granted, Davis’ reduced production since that time has almost certainly lowered the asking price, but I personally agree with the assessment of MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes in his latest Free Agent Power Rankings: Davis is in line for a nine-figure contract, which seems beyond Baltimore’s traditional comfort levels.
  • Though some were surprised to see Brett Anderson land a $10MM guarantee from the Dodgers due to his injury history, Heyman hears that the Dodgers may be considering an even more surprising move: extending a qualifying offer to the injury-prone hurler. Anderson, in my eyes, would be a risky candidate for such an offer, but there’s reason enough that the Dodgers could make that call. For one, the team can afford a $16MM investment in an injury-prone pitcher, and Anderson’s worth close to that kind of cash when healthy. Secondly, Anderson’s coming off one of the lone healthy seasons of his career and may see this as his best chance to cash in on a multi-year deal. He could see the only downside as another one-year deal worth $10MM+, meaning he’d be risking around $6MM for a chance at quite a bit more.
  • The Brewers are expected to take “well into next month” in their search for a new general manager and are interested in pursuing non-traditional candidates. We’ve heard several possibilities batted around, and Heyman says he’s heard at least some chatter about Athletics assistant GM Dan Kantrovitz and Red Sox special assistant Jerry Dipoto.
  • While the Phillies could have their own front office changes to make, Heyman says it’s still possible that Ruben Amaro Jr. could not only stay in the organization in some capacity, but keep the GM chair.
  • In a separate piece, Heyman also takes an interesting look at the thirty best deals made over the last year. There’s certainly a good case to be made for his top choice: the Blue Jays’ acquisition of Josh Donaldson.
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