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Cardinals To Hire Skip Schumaker As Bench Coach

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Nov. 7: Katie Woo of The Athletic tweets that Schumaker’s deal is a one-year contract with options.

Nov. 6: Skip Schumaker is returning to the Cardinals. The former infielder will join new manager Oliver Marmol’s staff as the bench coach, per Rob Rains of stlsportspage.com (via Twitter). The agreement will be finalized this weekend, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Schumaker was thought to be a candidate to take over as manager after Mike Shildt was let go, and while that job ultimately went to Marmol, Schumaker returns to the Midwest anyway to serve as Marmol’s right hand. Schumaker was the Padres’ first base coach last season. He now steps into the role that Marmol himself filled for St. Louis last year.

The scrappy infielder/outfielder was a fan favorite of the Cardinals’ rabid fanbase during his playing days. He spent eight seasons in St. Louis, slashing .288/.345/.377 in 2,687 plate appearances.

Padres Announce Several Option Decisions

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The Padres have announced that they exercised their club options over right-handed relievers Pierce Johnson and Craig Stammen for the 2022 season. Johnson will be retained for $3MM while Stammen will return on a $4MM salary.

While the two relievers offer differing skillsets, it was an easy call to hold onto both players for similar salaries. In 2021 Johnson posted a solid 3.22 ERA and again mystified the opposition with a 31.6% strikeout percentage that ranks as firmly above average. While the right-hander gives up too many free passes (11.1 BB%) and doesn’t induce many groundballs (33.3 GB%) he has proven adept at avoiding home runs when opponents are actually able to put the ball in play against him.

Stammen, meanwhile, rebounded nicely from an uncharacteristically poor 2020 season where he sported a 5.63 ERA after 24 innings. It’s worth noting that his performance there was impacted by some bad BABIP luck, as the durable reliever’s underlying peripherals largely resemble this year’s successful campaign. Regardless, this recent season saw the BABIP pendulum swing the other way while Stammen’s strikeout rate ticked upward and his 55.1% groundball rate remained typically robust. The 38-year-old will look to replicate this year’s 3.06 ERA next season in what will be his sixth season of a very strong Padres tenure.

They’ve also declined their options over right-handed reliever Keone Kela and outfielder Jake Marisnick. San Diego could have paid Kela $800K and Marisnick $4MM to stay aboard next season, but clearly felt between their respective injury and underperformance neither was worth the entirety of that investment. Marisnick will receive a $500k buyout before heading to free agency.

The Kela decision registers as the greater surprise here, as a strikeout-happy reliever with a career 3.33 ERA on its face seems like a bargain with a sub-$1MM price tag. Still, the 28-year-old is recovering from Tommy John surgery and wasn’t thought to be available until midway through next season. After tallying just 42 1/3 innings over the past three seasons, and some declining bottom-line results, the Padres clearly didn’t feel the fiery right-hander was worth the half-season gamble.

Marisnick, meanwhile, was a no-brainer to have his option declined after an ill-fated midseason deal with the Cubs landed him on the west coast. As a glove-first, center field-capable player Marisnick provided adequate production at the plate in Chicago, delivering a .731 OPS. That number cratered following the trade however, as a subsequent .472 OPS contributed to the Padres year-end skid and negated a good deal of the value Marisnick had built for himself earlier in the year.

Additionally, the team confirmed that utility-man Jurickson Profar has exercised his $7.3MM player option for the upcoming season while right-handed closer Mark Melancon has declined his $5MM player option in favor of a $1MM buyout and trip to free agency. The result of both player options are largely formalities at this point, considering the platform years both players posted.

By measure of bWAR Profar was the definition of a replacement-level player in 2021. The one-time top prospect bounced around five positions and upped his walk-rate to a cool 11.9% across 137 games. Unfortunately, that versatility was undercut by generally poor reviews of Profar’s glovework across 4 of his 5 positions. Furthermore, an inability to hit the ball with much authority meant those 137 games worth of plate appearances led to a punchless .227/.329/.320 slash line. Profar will look to tap into some of the upside that he’s shown flashes of throughout his career before making a call on next year’s $8.3MM player option.

Lastly, the 36-year-old Melancon proved to be one of last offseason’s thriftiest pickups. In return for a $3MM guarantee the veteran gave the Padres outstanding production at the back of their bullpen, leading the league with 39 saves in his fifth All-Star campaign. Some batted ball luck worked in Melancon’s favor this season, suggesting his 2.23 ERA is due for some regression, but a very strong groundball and home run rate— plus a spike in strikeout rate from last season— indicate that Melancon remains a plenty serviceable option as a high leverage reliever.

Jurickson Profar Exercises Player Option, Will Remain With Padres

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Padres utilityman Jurickson Profar won’t opt out of his contract with the team, instead choosing to exercise his $6.5MM player option for the 2022 season, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).

Profar’s free agent deal with the Padres last winter contains three guaranteed years, though Profar had opt-out clauses after both this season and the 2022 season.  Opting out would have allowed Profar to pocket a $1MM buyout and then test the open market, though he will now receive a $6.5MM salary from the Padres in 2022, plus $1.5MM in remaining signing bonus money.  Profar is set to earn $7.5MM in 2023 if he doesn’t opt out of that year, with another $1MM buyout attached.  The two sides also have a $10MM mutual option on Profar’s services for the 2024 season ($1MM buyout).

There wasn’t much suspense behind Profar’s decision, as leaving $15.5MM on the table wouldn’t have been advisable considering Profar’s lackluster 2021 numbers.  Profar hit .227/.329/.320 with four home runs over 412 plate appearances, and was a sub-replacement level player in the eyes of Fangraphs’ WAR metric (-0.7).  While Profar had strong walk and strikeout rates, he simply didn’t make much hard contact, finishing in only the seventh percentile in hard-hit ball rate and barrel rate.  Profar was further hampered by a pair of stints on the COVID-related injury list, which cost him around three weeks of action.

It seemed as if Profar was turning on the corner after a solid 2020 season, yet his struggles this year only added to his history of inconsistency at the big league level.  Once considered the game’s top prospect during his time in the Rangers farm system, Profar hasn’t been able to put everything together, and his progress hasn’t been helped by a number of injuries along the way.  After playing in parts of eight MLB seasons, Profar has only 4.6 fWAR and a .236/.320/.384 slash line to show for 2444 plate appearances.

This track record notwithstanding, Profar’s good 2020 season and his top-prospect reputation garnered him quite a bit of interest on the open market last year, and the Padres were willing to go to three years to retain him.  That investment doesn’t look great one season into the deal, as while Profar was intended for something of a super-utility role in the first place, he doesn’t have a clear path to regular at-bats on next year’s Padres roster.  There is still hope for a late breakout at age-29, and while Profar’s salary isn’t exorbitant by itself, San Diego is already pushing the luxury tax threshold even before making any offseason roster adds.

Padres Hire Bob Melvin As Manager

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The Padres have made their bombshell managerial hiring official, announcing on Monday a three-year contract with now-former Athletics skipper Bob Melvin to serve as their new manager. San Diego’s managerial post had been vacant since the firing of previous manager Jayce Tingler just over three weeks ago. Melvin’s option for the 2022 season was exercised by the Athletics back in June, but Oakland reportedly allowed Melvin to interview in San Diego and agreed to let him depart without receiving compensation from the Padres in return.

Melvin’s departure comes as a shocking development. There had been no prior indication that the Padres had their sights set on Melvin or that their pursuit of him had begun — let alone reached the finish line. Rather, the Padres had been tied to Atlanta third base coach Ron Washington, who wouldn’t have been able to interview until after the conclusion of the World Series. Instead, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has already pounced upon his preferred candidate.

“Bob is one of the top managers in the game and brings a tremendous wealth of knowledge and a proven track record to win at the Major League level,” Preller said in a statement within today’s press release. “Throughout the process, Bob showed our group a true love of baseball and a natural presence to lead. It was immediately evident how he’s been able to bring out the best in his players throughout his managerial career. We believe that Bob is the right man to take our talented group and help them deliver a championship to the city of San Diego.”

Coming into 2021, after an extremely active offseason, the expectations were that the club would be in the running for the NL West division crown. Things seemed to be following that plan for a few months, as their winning percentage was just under .600 at the end of June. However, they floundered down the stretch amid reports that Tingler had lost the respect of the players in his clubhouse, and the team eventually finished the season below .500 and well out of playoff contention. After Tingler’s firing, various reports linked the club to managers with more experience in the skipper’s chair. The Padres’ last two two managerial hires, Andy Green and Jayce Tingler, were both first-time managers and both in their late 30s at the time of their hiring.

Melvin, who turned 60 years old last week, certainly fits the “more experienced” description. He has close to 20 years of managing on his resume at this point — his first coming with the Mariners back in 2003. Since then, he has been employed as a bench boss for at least part of every season except for 2010. After two seasons with Seattle, he was with the Diamondbacks from 2005 to 2009, and worked as a scout for the Mets in 2010.

In June of 2011, the Athletics fired manager Bob Geren and replaced him with Melvin. He was initially hired as an interim manager but stuck around for over a decade. In his time with Oakland, the club went 853-764, a winning percentage of .528. They made the playoffs six times out of those 11 seasons, including three division titles, most recently in 2020.

As to why the Athletics would allow such a successful manager to leave, Bob Nightengale of USA Today suggests a financial motive (Twitter links). He reports that Melvin was making “about 4MM a year” and that the club intends to slash payroll for 2022. Melvin’s new contract in San Diego guarantees him a total of $12MM, so he’ll now match or exceed his Oakland salary and do so over a longer term.

MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently looked into the fact that the Athletics have a tremendous arbitration class this winter that will push the organization into uncomfortable financial territory. The fact that the A’s are seemingly willing to let a fruitful decade-long partnership with their manager come to end for a few million in cash savings certainly casts an even darker cloud over that situation.

Melvin and the Padres will now turn their focus to getting that club to live up to their full potential in 2022 and trying to chase down the Dodgers and Giants, while the Athletics will now have to add a managerial search to their to-do list in an offseason that seems to have the potential for lots of turnover.

MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell broke the news that the Padres had agreed to a three-year deal with Melvin (Twitter links). ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez reported that the A’s had allowed Melvin to interview and accept the Padres’ job despite being under contract for the 2022 season (Twitter link).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Padres Outright Five Players

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The Padres have outrighted five players off their 40-man roster after they went unclaimed on waivers, according to the transactions page at MLB.com. Catcher Webster Rivas, outfielder Brian O’Grady, infielder Ivan Castillo, right-hander Miguel Diaz and left-hander Daniel Camarena have all been removed from the roster. All five are now eligible to become free agents.

The 26-year-old Diaz has the most major league experience of the bunch, having thrown 108 2/3 innings for the Padres over four different seasons from 2017 to 2021. In 2021, he logged 42 innings with an ERA of 3.64, healthy 26.7% strikeout rate but a high walk rate of 11%.

Camarena, turning 29 next month, only got into six games this season but cemented himself a place in Slam Diego lore by hitting a grand slam off Max Scherzer in July. His ERA at the big league level was 9.64, but in a small sample size of just 9 1/3 innings. In 83 1/3 Triple-A innings, his ERA was a much more palatable 4.75, despite a low strikeout rate of 16.9%.

Rivas, 31, got 77 plate appearances for the Friars this year and slashed .221/.303/.338 for a wRC+ of 80. His Triple-A numbers were a smidge better, as he hit .252/.339/.393 for a wRC+ of 83 over 186 plate appearances.

The 29-year-old O’Grady got 61 MLB plate appearances with a palty line of .157/.267/.333, but his Triple-A numbers were much better. Over 329 plate appearances for the Chihuahuas this year, he hit .281/.366/.547 for a wRC+ of 120.

Castillo, 26, only got four MLB plate appearances this season. At Triple-A, he got to the plate 435 times and hit .287/.326/.366 for a wRC+ of 73.

When factoring in these outrights, as well as players heading into free agency and players coming off the 60-day IL, the 40-man roster will be sitting at 38 when the offseason begins, in the estimation of Jason Martinez and Roster Resource. But the Padres have club options on Pierce Johnson and Craig Stammen that could get that number back up to 40, as well as mutual options with Jake Marisnick and Mark Melancon.

Padres Notes: Washington, Fritz, Front Office

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11:01AM: The Padres have hired Rob Marcello as the new pitching development coordinator, according to The Athletic’s Dennis Lin (via Twitter).  Marcello has spent the last two seasons as the pitching coach for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate

8:18AM: After Ron Washington was initially linked to the Padres’ managerial search, reports from last week suggested that the Padres weren’t planning to interview the Atlanta third base coach.  However, “Washington remains a possibility,” according to Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune, considering that the club has yet to make a hire as we approach November.

The Braves’ extended postseason run could be the reason for the delay, as the Padres have been forced to wait on Washington while other known candidates (such as Luis Rojas, Mike Shildt and Ozzie Guillen) were more immediately available for interviews.  It doesn’t seem like San Diego is on the verge of a hire, as Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller told Acee and other reporters that the team may not have their new manager in place for the start of the GM Meetings on November 8, which was Preller’s initial target date.

We now know the World Series will go at least five games, and thus through October 31.  November 3 is the scheduled date for a potential Game 7, so it could be another week before Washington is free to speak with the Padres.  (Or, conceivably, with the Mets about their managerial vacancy, though New York would likely first want to complete their PBO/GM search before turning to the manager job.)

Should another candidate wow the Padres in the interim, Washington could be out of luck.  But a source tells Acee that the Padres aren’t rushing to speak with Washington since he is already a known quantity — after all, Washington was a finalist for San Diego’s last managerial opening, as the Padres opted for Jayce Tingler over Washington in October 2019.  One interesting suggestion is the idea that another candidate (Rojas is mentioned for this possibility) could wind up as the bench coach on Washington’s staff.

In other coaching news, Preller said that interim pitching coach Ben Fritz will return to the team in 2022 and resume his former duties as bullpen coach.  Fritz was promoted to the pitching coach job in August when Larry Rothschild was fired, and San Diego now has a new full-time pitching coach in the newly-hired Ruben Niebla.

The Padres have also made two more organizational changes, as The Athletic’s Dennis Lin (Twitter links) was among those to report that the team parted ways with pitching development coordinator Steve Lyons and strength and conditioning director Dan Byrne.  Lyons and Byrne had both been with the Padres since 2013, making them the latest long-time employees to depart in recent weeks as the club has undergone something of a minor shakeup.  As reported last month, farm director Sam Geaney and coordinator of advance scouting Preston Mattingly also won’t be back in 2022.  Interestingly, Lin notes that the Padres seemingly decided to replace Lyons before Niebla was hired, though Niebla and Lyons previously worked together in the Guardians organization.

Padres To Hire Ruben Niebla As Pitching Coach

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OCTOBER 27: The Friars have finalized an agreement with Niebla, reports Dennis Lin of the Athletic (Twitter link). As expected, he’ll be the club’s pitching coach in 2022.

OCTOBER 24: The Padres “are locking in on” Indians assistant pitching coach Ruben Niebla as their next pitching coach, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney tweets.  The hiring isn’t yet official, though Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune reports (via Twitter) that Niebla “is considered all but a done deal” to change teams.

Ben Fritz had been serving as the Padres’ interim pitching coach since Larry Rothschild was fired in late August.  According to Acee, the Padres are hoping Fritz remains with the team — Fritz had been working as the bullpen coach before his in-season promotion.  It remains to be seen how the rest of the coaching staff will shake out, as bench coach/third base coach Bobby Dickerson has already left the team to join the Phillies, and there could be a wider coaching shakeup once the new San Diego manager is hired (as presumably that new skipper would get some say in assembling the staff).

Niebla will already be in place, however, as the SoCal native will now be moving closer to home for his first official gig as a Major League pitching coach.  Niebla briefly served as Cleveland’s interim pitching coach in 2012, his highest rank in 21 seasons with the organization.  Much of that first decade was spent as a minor league coach before Niebla joined the MLB staff as a coaching assistant in 2010, and then following his interim gig in 2012, he worked seven seasons as a minor league pitching coordinator.  Niebla has been in his current role on the Major League coaching staff for the last two seasons.

At least one familiar face will already be there in San Diego to welcome Niebla, as former Indians hurler Mike Clevinger is expected to be back next season after missing 2021 due to Tommy John surgery.  On paper, San Diego has plenty of solid rotation options in place with Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Chris Paddack, Clevinger, Ryan Weathers, and (around midseason) Adrian Morejon, except injuries and general under-performance ravaged this group last year.

In the bigger picture, the Padres will also surely be looking to pick Niebla’s brain about some of the secrets of Cleveland’s success at drafting and developing pitchers in recent years.  While the Padres have had no shortage of promising young pitching prospects, they’ve had issues in converting that potential into success at the big league level.  (To wit, all of Musgrove, Darvish, Snell, Paddack, and Clevinger were acquired in trades.)

Padres Interview Ozzie Guillen In Managerial Search

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The Padres interviewed Ozzie Guillén last week as part of their ongoing managerial search, report Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (Twitter link). Guillén joins Brad Ausmus, Mike Shildt and Luis Rojas as known candidates for the position.

Guillén’s sit-down with San Diego is his first known managerial interview since he was let go by the Marlins nearly a decade ago. The 57-year-old has continued to maintain interest in landing another shot over the years since, however. While he’s been away from the dugout, Guillén has spent time in the broadcast studio, working with ESPN and NBC Sports Chicago.

Of course, Guillén is far better known for his previous playing and managerial runs than for his days as a broadcaster. He played in the majors from 1985-2000, spending the bulk of his career with the White Sox. After hanging up his cleats, he moved into coaching and landed a managerial position rather quickly. Over the 2003-04 offseason, the White Sox tabbed the then-39-year-old to take over the dugout.

Guillén’s time on the bench was almost immediately successful. The Sox posted winning records in each of his first three seasons at the helm, including a 99-win campaign in 2005 that culminated in Chicago’s third World Series title — their first in 88 years. By 2007, the team had taken a step back. They rebounded to win another division title in 2008 but didn’t make the postseason again for the remainder of Guillén’s tenure. He was let go at the conclusion of the 2011 season.

The Marlins signed Guillén not long after, but his time in Miami proved very brief. Despite an ill-fated contention effort the prior winter, Miami stumbled to a 69-93 season in 2012. They dismissed Guillén after just one season, and he hasn’t been on a major league bench since then. (Guillén has managed professionally in Venezuela more recently).

In each of his two previous hiring cycles, Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has tabbed a first-time skipper (Andy Green and Jayce Tingler, respectively). Chairman Peter Seidler has stated that previous managerial experience won’t be a prerequisite for this hiring cycle either, but the Friars’ publicly-known candidates have all managed in the majors before.

Shildt and Rojas were managers elsewhere this past season, while Ausmus managed as recently as 2019. Given how long it has been since he was last in a major league dugout, Guillén would certainly qualify as a more out-of-the-box candidate than the rest of that group. There aren’t many available options with his kind of resume, though, even if his best seasons are by now more than a decade in the past.

Which Draft Picks Each Team Would Forfeit By Signing A Qualified Free Agent

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The collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1st, and it’s unclear whether its rules for draft pick compensation will remain in place for the 2021-22 offseason, whenever teams eventually sign free agents.  It’s at least possible that the current rules will be used once more.  We know that the qualifying offer is set at $18.4MM this winter, and by mid-November we’ll know which players received and turned down a QO.  If those players sign with new teams, here’s a look at the draft picks each signing club would lose – if the old rules are used.

Competitive Balance Tax Payors: Dodgers, Padres

If either of these teams signs a qualified free agent from another team, it must forfeit its second-highest and fifth-highest pick in the 2022 draft. The team will also have its international signing bonus pool reduced by $1MM. Both teams could plausibly sign a qualified free agent, though the Dodgers have significantly more payroll space.

Revenue Sharing Recipients: Brewers, Diamondbacks, Guardians, Marlins, Mariners, Orioles, Pirates, Rays, Reds, Rockies, Royals, Tigers, Twins

These 13 teams received revenue sharing and did not exceed the competitive balance tax. If one of these teams signs a qualified free agent, it forfeits its third-highest pick. These teams face the smallest draft pick penalty.  Of this group, the Mariners and Tigers seem to be the most likely to sign a qualified free agent, but others like the Twins and Marlins are possible.

All Other Teams: Angels, Astros, Athletics, Blue Jays, Braves, Cardinals, Cubs, Giants, Mets, Nationals, Phillies, Rangers, Red Sox, White Sox, Yankees

These 15 remaining teams would forfeit their second-highest pick and and have their international signing bonus pool reduced by $500K. The penalty is something of a middle ground.  The Mets are of particular note: due to their failure to sign Kumar Rocker, they pick at both #11 and #14 in 2022, making that #14 pick subject to forfeiture.

What happens if a team signs two qualified free agents? The CBA calls for forfeiture of the next highest available draft pick. For example, if a team has already lost its second and fifth-highest picks and it signs a second qualified free agent, it would lose its third and sixth-highest picks. So as in the past, if you’ve already signed one qualified free agent, the draft pick cost to sign another is reduced.

Coaching Notes: Goodwin, Schumaker, Guardians, Brewers

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The Red Sox are parting ways with first base coach Tom Goodwin, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom told reporters (including Molly Burkhardt of MLB.com). Goodwin had been in that role for the past four seasons, joining Alex Cora’s staff before the latter’s first year as Boston’s manager. After a fourteen-year major league playing career, Goodwin moved into coaching and minor league managing in the Red Sox’s system. Between two separate stints with the Sox, he spent six seasons as Mets’ first base coach. Goodwin’s departure might be the only change on Cora’s staff, as Bloom told reporters the Red Sox are hoping to bring back the rest of the group in 2022.

The latest on a few other coaching situations around the league:

  • The Cardinals have been in contact with Padres associate manager Skip Schumaker about potentially joining the  organization in some capacity, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Almost immediately after the Cards dismissed Mike Shildt as manager, speculation arose about Schumaker — a former Cardinals utilityman — as a potential successor. St. Louis opted to promote bench coach Oliver Marmol instead, although it’s still possible Schumaker could assume some other position on the Cardinals staff. The 41-year-old remains employed by San Diego, but Padres’ coaches were given permission to explore opportunities elsewhere after the Friars dismissed manager Jayce Tingler.
  • The Guardians are on the hunt for a new hitting coach after parting ways with Ty Van Burkleo a few weeks ago. Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com reports that his replacement is expected to come from outside the organization. Searching for a hitting instructor is unfamiliar territory for the Guardians’ front office and manager Terry Francona. Van Burkleo had served in that role for the entirety of Francona’s tenure as Cleveland’s manager, joining the staff leading into the 2013 season.
  • Brewers coaching staff advisor Ed Sedar is retiring, the club announced this morning. Sedar was a longtime member of the staff, working as a base coach for the Brew Crew from 2007-20. He transitioned into an advisory role last winter, with former big league outfielder Quintin Berry stepping into the vacant third base coaching role. Sedar spent the better part of three decades in the Milwaukee organization, first joining the club as a minor league coach in 1992.
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