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Phillies To Interview Buck Showalter, Joe Girardi, Dusty Baker

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Oct. 14: Showalter and Girardi are set to interview with the Phillies today, Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports. Baker’s interview will take place later this week.

Oct. 13: With the Phillies beginning the interview process for their next manager, the team is set to interview Dusty Baker for the vacant position later this week, per Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Baker is currently serving as a special adviser to the Giants, who have granted Philadelphia permission to meet with Baker.

If the Phillies are seeking a manager with big-league experience, Baker surely fits the bill. At age 70, he comes with plenty of history to his name, having managed for 22 years and compiling a 1863-1636 overall record. If the Phillies were frustrated with Kapler’s approach to the game, Baker essentially represents his exact opposite.

He fits the trend of the names that have surfaced in the Phillies’ search for Kapler’s replacement. Between Buck Showalter, Joe Girardi, and now Baker, there’s a distinct pattern of traits that the organization seems to prioritize; namely, someone who can bridge the gap between “analytics and tradition.” That’s a reversal of the prevailing trend in Major League Baseball towards young, cheap, and inexperienced managers. And for a Phillies team that finds itself firmly in win-now mode, the list of candidates sends a clear message that owner John Middleton believes a seasoned managerial veteran can help his club secure a World Series win in the very near future.

For Baker, his Phillies interview will mark his first connection to an MLB managing job since the Nationals fired him after the 2017 season.

He’s previously managed the Giants, Cubs, Reds, and Nationals, winning an NL pennant in San Francisco, where he was thrice named Manager of the Year. He’s guided his teams to the postseason nine times throughout his career. The one thing missing from his timeless managerial career: a World Series title. With that in mind, there’s no doubt that Baker and the Phillies will be united in that goal.

Even so, it’s fair to question just how much interest Baker himself has in returning to an MLB dugout. He’s spent the last two seasons working as a special adviser in the Giants front office, and doesn’t seem to particularly miss the stress of handling a club’s day-to-day operations. And after more than 40 years spent as a player and manager, it would certainly be understandable if Baker was content to stay out of the business for good.

Giants To Interview Gabe Kapler

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The Giants are set to interview ex-Phillies manager Gabe Kapler for their vacant managerial position, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Add Kapler’s name to a growing list of known candidates for the San Francisco job, which includes internal options Ron Wotus and Hensley Meulens, as well as Royals quality control/catching coach Pedro Grifol and Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay.

Among that group, it’s notable that Kapler is the only candidate with big-league managerial experience. Even so, Kapler has managed just two years at the MLB level and just got out of his first managing gig. That’s not to say that he’s unfit to return to an MLB dugout; it’s not uncommon for first-time managers to experience growing pains before finding success in their second crack at the job.

Of course, Giants president of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi is familiar with Kapler from their time together in the Dodgers organization, where Kapler served as the director of player development, with Heyman going as far as to say that Zaidi “loves” Kapler.

The 44-year-old Kapler has certainly come under his fair share of scrutiny after two disappointing seasons in Philadelphia. A pair of September collapses have seen his teams come up short of the postseason, which, coupled with rising expectations for the team, ultimately spelled his demise. However, Kapler’s intent on managing again, and there’s reason to believe that he could draw significant interest. He reportedly received a glowing recommendation from Zaidi himself while interviewing for the Phillies job, while Phillies GM Matt Klentak expressed confidence in Kapler before ownership overruled him.

While Kapler could be viewed as a favorite for the position, there’s still plenty of ground to cover before a match is made. Reports indicate that Zaidi intends to interview more than a half-dozen candidates before arriving at a decision. Still, Kapler is certainly a name to watch in the Giants’ developing search for Bruce Bochy’s successor.

Giants Interview Pedro Grifol

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The Giants have a fourth known candidate in their search for a replacement for iconic manager Bruce Bochy. The club interviewed Royals quality control and catching coach Pedro Grifol for the position on Thursday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. The Giants have also shown interest in two of their own assistants – bench coach Hensley Meulens and third base coach Ron Wotus – as well as Athletics quality control Mark Kotsay.

Of the eight teams looking for managers, the Giants are the second who are known to be considering Grifol, a former minor league catcher. The soon-to-be 50-year-old is also on a list of possibilities for the Royals, with whom he has worked in a few roles since 2013. He previously garnered professional managerial experience with the Seattle organization from 2003-05 and in ’12.

If there’s an obvious common theme among the Giants’ group of candidates, it’s that not a single one of them has managed at the big league level. But plenty of teams have turned to novices in recent years, including three of the remaining four clubs in the playoffs (the Nationals, Cardinals and Yankees), and the Giants may be the next to do so. Of course, with president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi having said he’ll interview six to eight individuals for the role, there could still be an experienced option(s) on San Francisco’s radar.

Coaching Notes: Giants, A’s, Bucs, Rangers, Mets

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The Giants interviewed Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay for their vacant managerial position Monday, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle relays (Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported the Giants’ interest in Kotsay last week). Although Kotsay’s the only known outside candidate the Giants have interviewed thus far — it appears bench coach Hensley Meulens has already had a sit-down — president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has indicated they’ll likely speak with to six eight individuals in their search to replace Bruce Bochy. Kotsay and Zaidi entered the process with at least some familiarity, as the latter was a member of the A’s front office when the former was an outfielder with the club from 2004-07.

  • Little is known about where the Pirates stand in their hunt for a manager, but they are at least “wide open” in their approach, according to Heyman. Pirates special assistant of baseball operations Jeff Banister and Twins bench coach Derek Shelton have been connected to the job more than any other potential candidates, Heyman notes. However, it’s unclear whether the Bucs have interviewed either of them or anyone else since they fired Clint Hurdle on Sept. 29.
  • The Rangers are set to hire Cody Atkinson as their new minor league hitting coordinator, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. He’ll take over for Josue Perez, who filled the role for five years and will likely move to a different position with the Rangers, per Grant. Atkinson is just 30 years old, though he does bring an impressive resume to the table. He operates a Seattle-based hitting academy, worked as the Reds’ run production and hitting assessment coach for the past year, and comes with a background in kinesiology. His hiring is an example of the Rangers putting “more emphasis on retooling hitters’ swings using technology and biomechanics as aides,” Grant writes.
  • The Mets and minor league field coordinator Kevin Morgan are parting ways, Matt Ehalt of Yahoo Sports tweets. New York offered to reassign Morgan, but he made the decision to exit, according to Ehalt. It was a long run with the Mets for Morgan, a minor league infielder with the organization from 1994-97 who began working in front office and coaching roles for the club in ’98.

MLBTR Poll: Most Desirable Managerial Opening?

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The Phillies fired Gabe Kapler on Thursday, leaving them as one of eight major league teams searching for a manager at the moment. Fellow National League clubs in the Padres, Mets, Pirates, Giants and Cubs are in the same position, while the Royals and Angels are seeking new skippers in the AL. The question is: Which team has the most desirable job?

For starters, we can probably rule out the Pirates and Royals. Both teams have been hamstrung by low payrolls, with notoriously penny-pinching ownership holding back Pittsburgh and Kansas City (a team whose ownership is in transition) coming off its second 100-loss season in a row. Neither team looks as if it’ll contend in the immediate future, and the same may apply to the Giants, though they are a club with big-spending capabilities and promising president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi at the helm. On the other hand, the rest of the league’s manager-needy organizations look to have decent odds of pushing for relevance sooner than later.

The Phillies just wrapped up their eighth consecutive non-playoff season, but with 81 wins, they weren’t exactly a basement dweller. Kapler’s successor will be taking over a team with big-time talent on hand (Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto and Aaron Nola, to name a few) and the spending power to amply address its most obvious weaknesses this offseason.

Like the Phillies, the Padres have been suffering for too long. They’re fresh off their 13th straight year without a playoff berth, but they’re another team with front-line talent (Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Chris Paddack). Moreover, the Padres remain loaded on the farm, and owner Ron Fowler has made it clear it’s time to start winning in 2020.

The Mets also have no shortage of top-line players, including ace Jacob deGrom and NL Rookie of the Year favorite Pete Alonso. However, their managerial position is probably the most pressure-packed of all the openings. Previous skipper Mickey Callaway oversaw an 86-win team in 2019, but he dealt with scrutiny from the media, fans and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen from start to finish.

There’s also high expectations in Chicago, where even an exemplary record over five years wasn’t enough to keep Joe Maddon employed. The Cubs and president of baseball ops Theo Epstein gave Maddon the boot even though he helped them break a 108-year World Series drought in 2016 and led them to an overall 471-339 regular-season record with four playoff berths during his reign. But the Cubs, another financially well-off club with enviable high-end talent (Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Hendricks, for example), saw enough of Maddon after a late-season collapse and a non-playoff showing in 2019. Maddon’s replacement will be inheriting an 84-win team that will have playoff expectations for next year.

The Angels, who seem like the favorites to land Maddon next, are another franchise with a sense of urgency to win in 2020. Despite the presence of the game’s best player, center fielder Mike Trout, they haven’t gone to the playoffs since 2014. The Halos haven’t even won a playoff game since October 2009, just a few months after drafting Trout.  With fourth-year general manager Billy Eppler set to enter the last season of his contract in 2020, it’s imperative for him to get this hire right (his previous selection of Brad Ausmus didn’t work out). Otherwise, he and the Angels’ next manager could be out a year from now.

That’s a basic overview of where the sport’s manager-less teams stand heading into the offseason. There are more factors you could consider, of course. Which job looks the most appealing to you?

(Poll link for app users)

Giants Sign Drew Robinson To Minors Contract

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The Giants have signed utilityman Drew Robinson to a minor league deal, as per Baseball America’s Kegan Lowe.  Robinson became a free agent after being released by the Cardinals in August.

Robinson appeared in only five MLB games for the Cards in 2019, a sharp dropoff after playing in 95 games (246 PA) as a bench player for the Rangers in 2017-18.  Originally a fourth-round pick for the Rangers in the 2010 draft, Robinson has a .202/.296/.369 slash line over his 253 career Major League plate appearances, but has hit a much more respectable .252/.362/.438 over 3686 PA at the minor league level.

Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi made a habit of picking up depth pieces in his first full year running San Francisco’s front office, and Robinson becomes the latest to get a look from the team.  The 27-year-old brings a lot of defensive versatility, as he started multiple games at six different positions (second base, third base, left field, right field, shortstop, and primarily center field) in 2019, and also has experience as a first baseman.

Giants’ Joey Bart Suffers Fractured Thumb In Arizona Fall League

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8:40pm: The Giants further announced that Bart has been diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture that will not require surgery. He’s expected to be recovered within four to six weeks. That’ll put an end to his AFL run but should allow him a mostly normal offseason.

5:40pm: Top Giants catching prospect Joey Bart suffered a fractured right thumb during last night’s Arizona Fall League game, the Giants announced Wednesday. The injury came during Bart’s eighth game in the AFL, where he’d batted .400/.559/.920 with four homers and a double in 34 trips to the plate.

There’s no indication that the injury will impact Bart’s readiness for the 2020 season. He’s meeting with a specialist today, per the team’s announcement. But the broken thumb certainly figures to put an end to bring an early end to Bart’s 2019 Fall League stint and comes on the heels of a season that was shortened by a fracture in his other hand. Bart sustained a broken left hand back in April and missed nearly two months as a result of the injury. Both fractures were sustained when he was hit by a pitch.

The two hand fractures notwithstanding, the 2019 campaign has to be considered a success for Bart, whom the Giants selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 draft. The former Georgia Tech star reached Double-A as a 22-year-old, closing out the season with 22 games at that level and hitting .316/.368/.544. In a combined 338 plate appearances between Class-A Advanced and Double-A — both pitcher-friendly settings — Bart slashed .278/.328/.495 with 16 homers, 14 doubles and three triples.

Bart ranks prominently on most top prospect lists at this point, sitting 19th on MLB.com’s midseason update, 15th on Baseball America’s Oct. 1 update and 17th on Fangraphs’ latest rankings. A promotion late in the 2020 season doesn’t seem out of the question, though this season’s injuries have perhaps slowed his trajectory a bit. A 2021 arrival at the MLB level might be a safer bet. That would mark the final season of franchise icon Buster Posey’s nine-year, $167MM contract and present Bart with ample opportunity to learn from one of the best backstops in recent memory.

NL Notes: Waino, Chop, Zaidi

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Sunday will mark the first postseason game played in St. Louis in three years, but Cardinals manager Mike Schildt will be trusting the game’s start to a relatively practiced postseason hand. Redbirds legend Adam Wainwright–a free-agent-to-be this offseason–will be taking the ball for Schildt, who is counting on the pitcher’s experience with what promises to be a raucous Busch Stadium atmosphere.

“You have to account for some of the vibe that’s going on out there,” Schildt told Anne Rogers of MLB.com today, “You have to be able to calm your nerves and you have to be able to control your adrenaline, because I’ve seen it where guys go out there and they’re feeling on top of the moon and their adrenaline is rushing, and two innings later they’re out of gas.”

As Rogers notes, Wainwright will be making his 24th appearance in a postseason game (13 starts), after first appearing in the national October spotlight in 2006 as a relief ace for then-manager Tony La Russa’s World Series-winning Cards team. That year saw a 24-year-old Wainwright begin his playoff career with 9.2 scoreless innings, and he has only followed up that initial success by compiling a nifty 3.03 ERA across 89.0 career postseason innings. This year marked the now-38-year-old’s first season over the 30-start mark since 2016, and this October should provide him yet another opportunity to assure the Cardinals–and rival clubs–that he deserves a healthy free agent guarantee this winter.

More notes from around the National League in anticipation of Sunday’s NLDS doubleheader…

  • The Associated Press is circulating a story involving Wainwright’s teammate Ryan Helsley, who did not take kindly to witnessing the en masse enactment of the Braves’ “Tomahawk Chop” tradition during Game 1 of the NLDS this Thursday (link). In comments originally made to writer/hero Derrick Goold, Helsley, who is a member of the Cherokee nation, called the “Chop” “disappointing” and “disrespectful”. “[The tradition] just depicts them in this kind of caveman-type people way who aren’t intellectual. They are a lot more than that. It’s not me being offended by the whole mascot thing. It’s not. It’s about the misconception of us, the Native Americans, and how we’re perceived in that way, or used as mascots.” Of course, with the NLDS tied 1-1 heading to St. Louis for Game 3 of the best-of-five NLDS, it’s possible Helsley could have a say in preventing the series returning to Atlanta. The 25-year-old Oklahoman pitched to a 2.95 ERA in 36.2 innings in 2019, his rookie season.
  • Giants executive Farhan Zaidi already made MLBTR headlines today, when he gave some insight into the team’s ongoing search for a new GM. In a separate set of quotes relayed by NBC’s Alex Pavlovic, Zaidi conducted something of a performance self-assessment in regard to his work at the 2019 trade deadline–and it’s clear Zaidi is a fair critic (link). “I feel like I alternate nights losing sleep about not potentially buying at the deadline and trying to improve our chances this year, or selling more at the deadline and setting ourselves up better for 2020 and going forward,” Zaidi admitted to Pavlovic. It stands to reason that the veteran baseball man would be left with some cognitive dissonance over his team’s activity this summer, being that the club took something of a walk-the-line approach in their dealings.
    While San Francisco held onto impending free agents Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith (and sacrificed the potential prospect assets they might have acquired in a deal involving those players), the team also shaved down the bullpen by sending away Drew Pomeranz, Sam Dyson, and Mark Melancon in separate deals. To be fair, Zaidi was in perhaps the toughest position of any club executive heading into this year’s deadline, as his expected-to-flounder 2019 Giants ripped off a stunning run of success in advance of the Jul. 31 push-or-shove precipice. After playing to their expected level for much of the year, Bruce Bochy’s boys of summer went 19-6 in July, ultimately forcing their front office leader into something of a compromising position. The Giants went 22-36 from Aug. 1 onward, ultimately finishing with a 77-85 record.

Quick Hits: Yankees, Sanchez, Astros, Peacock, Giants

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While Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez has always been known for his ability to send balls into the stratosphere, Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News writes that his improvement defensively is paying dividends for the World Series-hopeful Yankees. Per Ackert, relievers Zack Britton and Adam Ottavino were admittedly skeptical of their new backstop when they first joined the Yankees, but both have been pleasantly surprised with Sanchez’s work not only blocking the ball (after catching his fair share of flak for surrendering passed balls, Sanchez has cut his total from 18 last year to just seven in 2019), but also managing a pitching staff that includes a deadly stable of hard-throwing bullpen arms with different tendencies. That could very well be magnified as the Yankees play in the postseason; with many questioning the team’s rotation, Aaron Boone figures to rely heavily on what might be the deepest bullpen of the remaining contenders.

Some other notes from around the baseball landscape…

  • With the Giants’ search for a new manager underway, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle inspects ten candidates who could be the first new manager in San Francisco since Bruce Bochy took over in 2007. They include incumbent Giants coaches, staff members from Farhan Zaidi’s time in Oakland, and other outsiders. Hensley Meulens, Eric Chavez, Mark Kotsay, and others could all be in contention, though Shea notes that some names are more realistic than others, and that those discussed are merely speculative. Still, for Giants fans interested in what each brings to the table, it’s a worthwhile summary.
  • If the Astros advance to the ALCS, right-hander Brad Peacock could be added to the roster, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. Peacock was a notable omission from the Division Series roster after he struggled in a late-season return from a shoulder injury. There’s hope that he could be fully up to speed ahead of the Championship Series, should the Astros advance. He’s set to throw a simulated game today to stay sharp during his time off the field. With just 11 pitchers on the roster for the first round, Peacock could replace a position player if he is indeed added to the ALCS roster.

Farhan Zaidi: “High Priority” For Giants To Hire GM

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Since Bobby Evans was removed from his post as the general manager of the Giants in September of last year, the team has yet to decide on a replacement for Evans. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the organization has been flying blind, as Farhan Zaidi was installed as the president of baseball operations in San Francisco in November of 2018 and has spearheaded the department for the better part of a year.

Now, though, Zaidi has made it clear that he and other Giants decision-makers plan to move quickly in their search for a general manager to co-pilot the franchise’s baseball ops department, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. After playing out the 2019 season without a second-in-command, Zaidi referred to the search for a GM as a “high priority” as the organization has also begun to vet candidates for the vacant managerial position.

It’s possible that the new GM could be hired in time to take part in the interviewing process for the Giants’ next manager, but that’s far from a foregone conclusion, with Zaidi saying that “there’s no favorite” for the job yet and that the hiring processes will be conducted simultaneously. Still, Zaidi and company are well aware that those two figures will need to have a close working relationship and will have that in mind during the hiring cycle. The interplay between front office and manager has grown in importance in recent years, with the two levels of administration needing to be on the same page as teams implement plans throughout all levels of the organization.

Despite Zaidi’s assertion that no one candidate has separated from the pack, Pavlovic speculates that Athletics assistant GM Billy Owens, familiar with Zaidi from their time together in Oakland, could have the inside track to the job. Owens was considered for the job last offseason, though ultimately the Giants elected to hold off on filling the post for the time being. Owens has experience in the scouting and coaching departments, serving as a minor-league hitting coach prior to assuming a position in the front office.

Per Zaidi, the Giants aren’t hunting for a candidate with a particular area of expertise, but rather looking for someone who will jibe well with the current front office and “[share] the load of managing the overall operation.” He hopes that such an approach will expand the pool of potential candidates, regardless of whether their background comes in scouting, player development, administration, or elsewhere.

In his first year at the helm, Zaidi already has his fingerprints all over the Giants’ makeup. He’s worked to expand the Giants’ analytics department to catch up to the rival Dodgers, his former employer. A seemingly endless cycle of bargain-bin outfield acquisitions has brought some potential pieces to the forefront, including solid performances from rookie Mike Yastrzemski and cast-off Alex Dickerson. Elsewhere, Donovan Solano and Trevor Gott looked like savvy acquisitions, while the signing of Drew Pomeranz later yielded Mauricio Dubon in a July trade.

While the Giants’ midseason hot streak ultimately expired too soon, the team improved its 2018 season and reached 77 wins, appearing to have made some marginal improvements to the roster. In his first full offseason running the Giants, the vacant GM and manager positions are the next priorities for Zaidi, who will have the chance to bring aboard his own staff to carry out an organizational plan.

 

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