By Jeff Todd | at
After running into some roadblocks with other candidates, the Diamondbacks have settled upon Matt Herges as their next pitching coach, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.
Herges will join the staff of skipper Torey Lovullo after a pair of seasons as the Giants’ bullpen coach. The former MLB hurler replaces Mike Butcher in guiding the Arizona pitching staff.
By Dylan A. Chase | at
The Giants will provide a second interview to Royals quality control coach Pedro Grifol in their hiring search for a new manager, according to a tweet from Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (link).
The 49-year-old Grifol played nine minor league seasons before garnering professional managerial experience with the Seattle organization from 2003-05 and in ’12. He has worked in the Kansas City organization in a variety of roles dating back to 2013. Grifol has also interviewed for the Royals’ managerial seat this offseason, although Mike Matheny has long been viewed as the likely successor to Ned Yost.
Grifol will join former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler and Astros bench coach Joe Espada as the only reported candidates in San Francisco’s process to receive a second interview. With the recent revelation that Dodgers bench coach Bob Geren received an interview for the Giants’ position, the club’s reported pool of initial interviewees stretched to nine candidates. Franchise icon Bruce Bochy bowed out this winter after 13 seasons, 1052 wins and three World Series titles in his time as the manager of the Giants.
Updates on the Giants’ search and the other ongoing (and recently completed) managerial searches throughout MLB can be followed here.
By Dylan A. Chase | at
The Giants have designated righty reliever Kyle Barraclough for assignment, according to Kerry Crowley of Bay Area News Group (link). Barraclough’s DFA comes as the corresponding move to the club’s Wednesday waiver claim of pitcher Tyler Anderson from the Rockies.
This likely represented a tough decision for the San Francisco front office, as Barraclough is only a few seasons removed from seeming like a potential bullpen stalwart. Between 2015 and 2018, the now-29-year-old righty logged a 3.21 ERA with an 11.5 K/9 across 218.1 innings out of the Miami pen. The Nationals acquired Barraclough from the Marlins in exchange for $1MM of international bonus availability in October of ’18, but, like most Washington relievers in the first few months of the 2019 season, Barraclough struggled mightily in late-game situations. Barraclough pitched to a 6.66 ERA (6.57 FIP) in 25.2 D.C. innings before the Nationals exposed him to waivers in August.
Following a claim by San Francisco, Barraclough looked to get back into something approaching vintage form in a small performance sample with the Giants. Though he began his time in the organization with Triple-A Sacramento, Barraclough came up to the big club in September to log a 2.25 ERA in 8.0 IP–although it’s worth noting that his historical troubles with control continued to undermine his bottom-line results (10/9 K/BB ratio).
By Anthony Franco and Jeff Todd | at
The Giants have claimed left-hander Tyler Anderson off waivers from the Rockies, per an announcement from the Colorado organization. It’s a disappointing end to the tenure of the former first-round draft pick.
Anderson landed with the Rox in 2011 as the 20th overall pick. He debuted in strong fashion in 2016, working to a 3.54 ERA over 19 starts. While Anderson’s earned run results stepped back in the ensuing two campaigns, he turned in 262 reasonably productive innings. Anderson carried 8.4 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 from 2017 through 2018, with xFIP (3.95, 4.21) and SIERA (4.14, 4.22) grading him as a strong back-of-the-rotation arm.
As with large swaths of the rest of the Rockies roster, Anderson seemed to hit a wall in 2019. He was tagged for eight home runs and 27 earned runs in just 20 2/3 innings over five outings to open the year. Anderson ended up requiring knee surgery in May and did not return to action thereafter.
The NL West-rival Giants are plenty familiar with Anderson; president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi saw him up close both with San Francisco and previously with the Dodgers. No doubt he’s intrigued by the lefty’s decent swing-and-miss ability (he managed about a 12% swinging-strike rate at his best).
The Giants have had success at tweaking the offerings and approaches of other hurlers; perhaps they have ideas in mind for Anderson to try out. First, he’ll need to show he’s at full health, but it’s not hard to imagine Anderson competing in camp for a bullpen or even rotation job with the Giants.
By Steve Adams | at
The Giants have interviewed Dodgers bench coach Bob Geren in their search for a new manager, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). At present, the only candidates reported to have received a second interview are Astros bench coach Joe Espada and recently dismissed Phillies manager Gabe Kapler.
Like Kapler, the 58-year-old Geren is plenty familiar with Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi from the pair’s days with the Dodgers. However, Geren’s connection with Zaidi predates their Dodgers tenure, as Geren also managed the Athletics from 2007-11. At the time Geren was hired in Oakland, Zaidi was a burgeoning baseball operations analyst with the Athletics, and he was the club’s director of baseball operations by the time Geren was dismissed in June 2011.
Geren, who played in parts of five Major League seasons as a catcher (mostly with the Yankees), has managed at coached extensively both in the at the Major League and Minor League level. He managed two different Athletics affiliates from 1999-2002 before being added to the Major League staff as a bullpen coach and eventually a bench coach. Since that five-year run as Oakland’s skipper, he’s spent four seasons apiece as the bench coach with the Mets and the Dodgers, working alongside managers Terry Collins and Dave Roberts.
By Steve Adams | at
Former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler will receive a second interview with the Giants, per SiriusXM’s Craig Mish (Twitter link). He’s one of two candidates now reported to have received a second-round interview in San Francisco’s managerial search, joining Houston bench coach Joe Espada in that regard. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets that the second round of interviews will likely be narrowed to a total of three or four candidates, thus putting Kapler and Espada on a short list.
Kapler, 44, was let go by the Phillies two-thirds of the way through his three-year contract. He’s surely quite familiar with Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, given that Zaidi’s time as general manager of the Dodgers overlapped with Kapler’s time as the director of player development with the Dodgers. Kapler has also managed in the Red Sox’ minor league ranks and spent parts of a dozen seasons as an outfielder in the Major Leagues.
The Giants have reportedly interviewed a pair of internal candidates — bench coach Hensley Meulens and third base coach Ron Wotus — in addition to Royals quality control coach Pedro Grifol, Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro and Cubs first base coach Will Venable. Whether the ultimate choice is Kapler, Espada or one of the other known candidates, the 2020 Giants skipper will have some enormous shoes to fill. Franchise icon Bruce Bochy walked away this winter after 13 seasons, 1052 wins and three World Series titles as the manager of the Giants, though Bochy recently suggested that he could be amenable to one more run as a manager after taking a year off next season.
Updates on the Giants’ search and the other ongoing (and recently completed) managerial searches throughout the league can be followed here.
By Anthony Franco | at
Astros bench coach Joe Espada is set for a second interview for the Giants’ managerial vacancy, as first reported by Ken Davidoff of the New York Post (via Twitter). He’ll meet with San Francisco brass after the conclusion of the World Series. Espada’s first interview with the organization came on Thursday’s travel day between Games 2 and 3 and lasted a little more than four hours, as Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic details (subscription required).
Espada expressed optimism to Rome about his chances of securing the Giants’ position. After meeting with GM Farhan Zaidi, CEO Larry Baer and members of the organziation’s analytics department Thursday, Espada anticipates his second interview will include more involvement with ownership. The 44-year-old has been a popular candidate for interviews the past two seasons, and he was reportedly on the radar for the Cubs’ and Pirates’ jobs this month. It appears, though, that San Francisco offers Espada’s best hope of landing a head position this offseason, as he tells Rome he has no other interviews on tap. The Cubs have since tabbed David Ross, but Pittsburgh’s position remains unresolved.
Espada succeeded Alex Cora as A.J. Hinch’s bench coach after the 2017 season. Prior to that, he’d worked with the Marlins and Yankees in various coaching and front office roles. His only prior managerial experience came in 2012 in Puerto Rican winter ball, although teams certainly value his recent coaching experience with successful teams in New York and Houston.
The Giants have cast a wide net in their search for Bruce Bochy’s replacement. Royals quality control coach Pedro Grifol, former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler, A’s quality control coach Mark Kotsay, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, Cubs first base coach Will Venable, and internal candidates Hensley Meulens and Ron Wotus have all joined Espada in interviewing.
You can track all of the league’s managerial news and rumors here.
By Steve Adams and Jeff Todd | at
Eight teams were looking for new skippers in October, and loads of potential candidates have been either rumored or directly connected to these job openings. We’ll do our best to keep things straight in this post….
Hired
Interviewed Once
By Dylan A. Chase | at
The Giants are moving on to the next phase of their search for a new manager, and third base coach Ron Wotus has been informed that he is no longer under consideration for the position, according to a tweet from Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic (link).
Recent updates on San Francisco’s hiring process included word of Astros bench coach Joe Espada receiving a second interview on Thursday. Aside from Wotus, who has coached with San Francisco since 1998, the team is said to have held interviews with Royals quality control coach Pedro Grifol, former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler, Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay, Giants bench coach Hensley Meulens, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, Cubs first base coach Will Venable, and Espada. It stands to reason that more candidates are due to be removed from consideration in the club’s “next phase”.
With so many names in their reported initial interview pool, Giants beat writer and San Francisco Chronicle scribe Henry Schulman recently opined that the team seemed unlikely to make a decision before the first week of November.
Stay up to date on all the league’s managerial rumors here.
By Dylan A. Chase | at
Veteran baseball man Dave Magadan can be counted as one vocal supporter of Mets managerial candidate Tim Bogar, as the longtime MLB coach spoke of Bogar’s virtues to Mike Puma of The New York Post (link). Magadan, who has worked with Bogar on several coaching staffs, describes Bogar as a “sharp”, “attention-to-detail guy” capable of integrating analytics while still relating to players. Magadan says that coaches and players were very surprised that Bogar didn’t get the Rangers managing job that he held in an interim capacity after the resignation of Ron Washington in 2014. “We all thought he was going to get the job there in Texas,” Magadan says in Puma’s article. “Especially after we turned things around that last month, and it didn’t happen and we were all kind of surprised.” The Rangers ultimately gave the full-time gig to Jeff Banister despite Bogar’s 14-8 interim record, while Bogar ended up undertaking some front office work with the Angels before a coaching stop with the Mariners and, ultimately, the Nationals. Bogar interviewed with Mets leadership for the second time on Thursday, although Eduardo Perez has since been described as the “front runner” for the position.
More manager-centric notes from around the game…
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