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Bill Dewitt Jr. Impressed With Mike Shildt

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The latest from the National League…

  • With Giants second baseman Joe Panik losing his grip on an everyday role, he may be in his last season with the club, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle observes. Panik will earn approximately $5MM in arbitration next year (his penultimate season of team control), estimates Schulman, who writes that the team could either trade or non-tender him over the winter. A Giant since they selected him 29th overall in 2011, Panik isn’t worried about his future, but he may need a strong finish this year to continue with the club. “I do understand the business side of it,” Panik said. “At the same time, “I haven’t even thought that far, and you really can’t, honestly. If you’re thinking that far ahead, you’re not going to be able to take care of business today.” Although Panik has been a solid major leaguer since debuting in 2014, the 27-year-old has hit an unappealing .242/.303/.347 (78 wRC+) in 262 plate appearances this season.
  • It’s unknown whether Cardinals interim manager Mike Shildt will return as the team’s full-time skipper in 2019, but he has earned a fan in chairman Bill Dewitt Jr. since taking over the fired Mike Matheny on July 14. “He’s done everything that we could possibly ask for,” DeWitt said (via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). “I think he communicates with his staff, communicates well with players, has a good baseball-mind. Strategically — hard to criticize what he’s done. He’s a very good manager. Has been coming up through the ranks. Just a very solid baseball man.” It’s difficult to quantify the performance of a manager, but it’s nonetheless worth noting that the Shildt-led Cardinals have rallied to post a 21-10 mark and now find themselves in possession of the NL’s second wild-card spot.
  • Rockies veteran first baseman/outfielder Matt Holliday, 38, is making a case for a promotion to the majors, Thomas Harding of MLB.com writes. Holliday, who sat on the unemployment line until Colorado signed him to a minor league deal on July 28, has slashed a tremendous .370/.473/.652 in 55 PAs with its top minors affiliate in Albuquerque. Rockies manager Bud Black has taken notice, saying: “He’s checking off some boxes. The thing that we’re happy about is the physical side. Mentally, Matt’s been a longtime player. You get back up to speed real quick. That didn’t take long, I’m sure. But the confidence that when he faces all sorts of pitching — there’s a difference between big league pitching and minor league pitching, but he’s been able to face a lot of different styles of pitching in Triple-A — will continue to get him closer to coming to us.” If the Rockies were to promote Holliday, he’d be in line for his second stint as a member of the club, with which he began his career and thrived from 2004-08.

Carlos Martinez Begins Rehab; Michael Wacha Nearing Same

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  • For the Cardinals, it has been all positives of late. But the team could still stand to get a few pieces back. In particular, righties Michael Wacha and Carlos Martinez are on the come back trail. As MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch tweets, Wacha is set to begin a rehab assignment in short order and Martinez is now working in a relief capacity in the minors. In the case of Martinez, the plan is for him to shift to the bullpen when he is ready to roll, which perhaps won’t be far off now that he’s pitching competitively.

Oquendo Not Interested In Managing, Fully Endorses Shildt

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  • Though some Cardinals fans in the past have clamored for third base coach Jose Oquendo to receive managerial consideration, Oquendo tells Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he’s previously made it clear to president of baseball operations John Mozeliak that he’s not interested in managing. Going further, Oquendo emphatically threw his full support behind current interim skipper Mike Shildt, telling Frederickson that the Cardinals already have “the right guy” and that the front office should “decide now” and make Shildt the permanent manager. Oquendo raved to Frederickson about the manner in which Shildt prepares the team and works with the players.

Carlos Martinez Will Move To Bullpen For Rest Of Season

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The Cardinals have decided to utilize righty Carlos Martinez as a reliever down the stretch, as Peter Baugh of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was among those to report. Martinez has been sidelined with a shoulder strain.

Unsurprisingly, the move is expected only to be temporary. The idea seems to be that it would simply take too long to get Martinez back up to speed as a starter. By bumping him into the relief unit, he can perhaps make an impact down the stretch for the Cards before preparing to stretch back out next spring.

Martinez will first need to get back on the hill — and stay there. He has compiled 100 1/3 innings of 3.41 ERA pitching thus far this year, but has also dealt with a series of arm and back injuries that are fairly concerning in the aggregate. His average four-seam fastball is down a full tick from 2017, with his more-frequently utilized sinker falling 2.3 mph.

Surely, the Cardinals will exercise care in handling Martinez. The increasingly worrisome health situation takes place against the backdrop of a significant investment. Martinez remains under team control through 2023 under the extension he signed back in February of 2017, with a guaranteed $34.5MM due over the next three seasons before successive options priced at $17MM and $18MM (each of which come with $500K buyouts).

That’s not to say there isn’t also an interest in getting Martinez back in action as soon as possible. He hasn’t pitched in a relief capacity since he was still establishing himself in the majors, but clearly a pitcher of his abilities could make for a notable addition to the St. Louis bullpen. The Cards are still 2.5 games out of postseason position, but have played quite well of late and entered action today eight games over .500.

Cardinals Select Patrick Wisdom’s Contract

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The Cardinals announced that they’ve selected third baseman Patrick Wisdom’s contract from Triple-A Memphis. He’ll take the place of infielder Yairo Munoz on the Cardinals’ 25-man roster. Munoz landed on the 10-day disabled list with a right wrist sprain. To make room for Wisdom on its 40-man roster, St. Louis transferred reliever Luke Gregerson to the 60-day DL.

The 26-year-old Wisdom, whom the Cardinals chose in the first round (No. 52) of the 2012 draft, is finally in position to make his major league debut. Wisdom had been among the Redbirds’ top prospects in the few seasons after they drafted him, but his production and stock fell as he climbed the minor league ranks. To Wisdom’s credit, though, he mashed 31 home runs at Triple-A last season and returned this year to hit a solid .289/.363/.479 (119 wRC+) with 14 HRs in 405 trips to the plate en route to his first MLB promotion.

Latest On The Mets’ Front Office Plans

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3:01PM: “Several Mets officials” hope that Ben Cherington becomes a general manager, SNY.tv’s Andy Martino writes.  Cherington, the former Red Sox GM and current Blue Jays VP of player development, was recently cited as a potential candidate in reports.  While he recently said that he is happy with his job in Toronto, Cherington also said he’d be open to considering an opportunity to run a front office once more.  Josh Byrnes, however, may not be in the running, as he has told colleagues that he will likely remain in his current role as the Dodgers’ senior VP of baseball operations.

10:49AM: With Sandy Alderson unlikely to return as the Mets’ general manager in 2018, the team is beginning to lay the groundwork for its search for a new baseball operations leader.  Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that Cardinals director of player development Gary LaRocque is one of the early candidates “receiving consideration” from Mets ownership, though the GM hiring process won’t fully begin after the season since the Mets will need permission from rival teams to interview several candidates.

LaRocque is a known figure within the organization, having previously worked for the Mets from 1998-2008 as scouting director, director of player of development, and then as assistant general manager.  The 65-year-old LaRocque has never been a general manager, though he has over 40 years of experience in various front office roles, as a scout, and as a minor league coach and manager in the Dodgers’ farm system.  This track record of overseeing and developing young talent, as well as LaRocque’s familiarity with the Mets, make him a logical candidate for the team as it moves into what could be a mini-rebuild, though New York held off on dealing any of its true roster cornerstones (i.e. Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard) at the trade deadline.

LaRocque also has the sort of old-school front office resume that is reportedly the preference of Mets owner Fred Wilpon, as Puma writes that “the growing belief is Wilpon will look toward a more traditional baseball person” as the next general manager.  While more teams are increasingly turning towards younger executives with analytics backgrounds to run their baseball operations departments, as the 81-year-old Wilpon isn’t likely to hire the type of younger executive “with whom he would perhaps have difficulty connecting.”

This stance isn’t likely to be popular with Mets fans, who are already displeased with the team’s lack of recent success and the common perception that the Wilpon family takes too a heavy hand in the Mets’ day-to-day baseball operations.  Puma also notes that some Mets officials feel that the Alderson front office “became too analytics driven in recent seasons.”

Mets assistant GM John Ricco has long been considered to be a candidate to eventually take over the top job, and though he is still in the running, Puma reports that New York is “more likely” to hire its new general manager from outside the organization.  Ricco and special assistants J.P. Ricciardi and Omar Minaya have been acting as a three-person management unit in Alderson’s absence, and it appears as though the trio will have at least some influence in the hiring process.  Minaya in particular “will have a strong voice in the search,” Puma hears from sources.

Central Notes: Martin, Cutch, Bucs, Hamilton, Carpenter

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The Indians announced today that recently acquired center fielder Leonys Martin is headed to the 10-day DL owing to a stomach ailment. It’s unclear at this point how long he’ll be sidelined, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian adds on Twitter. The club will surely hope the issue resolves itself in short order, as Martin is expected to play a significant role in the team’s outfield rotation down the stretch and into the postseason. The 30-year-old had been off to a productive start in his first six games in Cleveland.

Here’s more from the central divisions …

  • Bob Nightengale of USA Today took an interesting angle on the Pirates’ deadline moves recently, discussing them with former star Andrew McCutchen. The veteran outfielder, who was dealt to the Giants in the winter, said he was surprised that the Pittsburgh organization decided that this was the summer to push hard for improvements. It’s an interesting story, particularly for fans of these two clubs, in no small part because McCutchen discusses the feeling within the clubhouse of going through the trade deadline. Referring to his past experiences with the Bucs, he explained: “We felt we had a good team to compete, but then you see other teams making those moves, getting the key pieces to their team to make them stronger, and you feel like, “Dang, we’ve got to do something, too.'”
  • In a recent post with notes on several ballclubs, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic presents one potential explanation for the timing of the Pirates’ moves. (Subscription link.) He writes that an executive with another team posits that the acquisitions of Chris Archer and Keone Kela were driven in some part by the team’s slumping attendance. That’s not the case, per president Frank Coonelly, who says instead the swaps were made out of a “desire to improve the club for this 2018 stretch run and for the next several years.” Coonelly also cited prospect depth as a factor that enabled the maneuvers. That certainly seems to be a fair explanation, but there’s also little doubt that the team has an eye on the bottom line as well. As Rosenthal writes, perhaps there’s some evidence here of “the power of a disgruntled fan base to effect change.”
  • As Rosenthal further reports in that post, the Reds’ decisionmaking on center fielder Billy Hamilton continues to be influenced by the views of owner Bob Castellini, who has gone on record as a proponent of the exceedingly speedy but light-hitting player. Hamilton didn’t feature as a particularly likely August trade candidate regardless, though perhaps there’s some hypothetical plausibility to such a scenario. But the report suggests the organization may still be rather reluctant to part with the 27-year-old, who is set to enter his final season of arbitration eligibility after earning $4.6MM this year. Perhaps there’s still a way the front office can make this all work in a sensible manner. Hamilton, after all, is a useful MLB player — he’s a great defender and baserunner, and has at least been somewhat better historically against right-handed pitching — who is simply miscast in an everyday role. He could still make sense on what’s hoped to be a competitive 2019 roster, at least if the organization makes a supplemental addition in center and commits to leaning less heavily on Hamilton.
  • It seems like it was just yesterday we were preaching patience in response to chat questions from irate Cardinals fans about Matt Carpenter’s struggles. But a turnaround of this magnitude remains a surprise. As things stand, he’s among the most productive hitters in baseball — even including his meager opening performance — with a .281/.393/.598 slash and 31 home runs through 476 plate appearances. It’s a fascinating situation for a variety of reasons, to be sure. Carpenter himself evidently feels that way, too, as MLB.com’s Joe Trezza tweets. “It’s just not who I am,” says the 32-year-old Carpenter of his exploits. “It’s not who I was. It’s not the hitter I’ve ever been. I’m developing into somebody I’ve never dreamt of or tried to be like. I don’t have an explanation for it.”

Adam Wainwright Wants To Pitch In 2019

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  • Even though former Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright will turn 37 years old on Aug. 30 and is in his second straight injury-plagued season, he suggested Wednesday (via Joe Trezza of MLB.com) that he hopes to pitch in 2019. “I want to see how things end,” Wainwright said. “But it would be really surprising to me if I came out and said I’m retiring.” A free agent at season’s end, Wainwright has made three DL trips this year (two on account of elbow issues) and hasn’t pitched in the majors since May 13.

Rick Ankiel Planning Pitching Comeback

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AUGUST 6th: Ankiel has announced that he will indeed pursue a comeback, in an interview on FOX Sports Midwest (video available on Twitter).

AUGUST 2nd: Though he’s long removed from his days as an active major leaguer, former pitcher-turned-outfielder Rick Ankiel says he’s now “toying with” the idea of trying to return to the mound, as Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports reports. It seems the thought is still in its infancy, but it’s intriguing to consider nevertheless.

Ankiel, who recently turned 39, has already crafted a notable path in baseball. He was a phenom on the mound for the Cardinals, only to see his career crumble in stunning fashion owing to a case of the yips that never went away.

The highly valued young hurler placed second in the 2000 Rookie of the Year voting at twenty years of age. But he collapsed in the ensuing postseason and was never again a useful MLB pitcher. While he made it back to the majors briefly in 2004, Ankiel decided to rebuild himsef as a outfielder the following spring when the problems returned.

Ankiel ended up turning in seven seasons as a position player. While he was noted mostly for his defense — particularly, a rocket of a throwing arm — Ankiel also had plenty of power and ended up swatting 76 home runs and carrying a .240/.302/.422 slash in over two thousand career plate appearances. It was almost entirely a feel-good story, though a PED controversy arose in the middle of that time.

Needless to say, there’d still be quite a few hurdles to Ankiel’s potential return to professional pitching. But he is said to have reached the upper eighties with his fastball even before any dedicated work. He’s not outlandishly old; on occasion, pitchers still work into their forties. And given that he stopped pitching at 25 years of age, his arm hasn’t suffered anything close to the wear and tear of a typical big league hurler.

Given that the idea only seems to have been hatched recently, details remain scant. It may be that Ankiel won’t even follow through on the concept. But he indicated to Brown that he’d like to try working as a reliever in camp next spring. That’d surely make for a fascinating storyline to follow for those many fans that have wondered whether Ankiel still had one more run left in his powerful left arm.

Cardinals Place Tyler O’Neill On 10-Day DL, Promote Adolis Garcia

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The Cardinals will place outfielder Tyler O’Neill on the 10-day disabled list due to inflammation of the groin area, as the team announced on Twitter.  The placement was retroactive to August 4.  In a corresponding move, the Cards have selected the contract of outfielder Adolis Garcia.

Ranked as a top-100 prospect by both Baseball America and MLB.com in each of the last two seasons, O’Neill was acquired by St. Louis from Seattle in exchange for southpaw Marco Gonzales in July 2017.  O’Neill made his Major League debut this season, and has hit .309/.333/.491 with three home runs over his first 60 plate appearances in the Show.  In between a few different stints on the big league roster, O’Neill has been crushing Triple-A pitching, hitting .311/.388/.711 with 26 homers over 260 PA.  That slash line is impressive by any measure, though the high on-base percentage is a particularly encouraging sign for O’Neill, who had struggled with plate discipline in his pro career.  (Though the problem is far from solved, as 24 of O’Neill’s 60 MLB plate appearances have resulted in strikeouts.)

With Tommy Pham dealt to Tampa and Dexter Fowler on the disabled list, it looked as if O’Neill was in line for more playing time in the Cards’ outfield.  This injury opens the door for another young outfield prospect in Garcia, who was recently named the Cardinals’ minor league player of the month for July.  Garcia is hitting .269/.296/.531 with 21 homers over 372 Triple-A plate appearances this season, displaying some on-base issues himself.

The younger brother of former Braves third baseman Adonis Garcia, the 25-year-old Adolis signed with St. Louis as an international free agent in the 2016-17 offseason, landing a $2.5MM bonus.  The 2018 Baseball America Prospect Handbook ranked Garcia as the ninth-best minor leaguer in the Cardinals’ farm system prior to the season, citing his good hitting potential as well as plus baserunning skills and an elite throwing arm (earning “a borderline 80,” or the top scouting grade available) from right field.

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