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Pirates Interview Matt Quatraro, George Lombard

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10:40am: Pittsburgh has also interviewed Dodgers first base, outfield and baserunning coach George Lombard, per SiriusXM’s Craig Mish (Twitter link). Lombard, 44, played parts of six seasons as an outfielder in the Majors and has been in his current role since 2015. He was briefly named the Braves’ minor league field coordinator before accepting his current post with the Dodgers and has also served as a minor league outfield coordinator, hitting coach and manager in the Red Sox organization.

10:04am: The Pirates have interviewed Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro as part of their search for a new manager, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. Quatraro has also reportedly interviewed with the Giants organization.

Quatraro, who’ll turn 46 next month, served as a minor league hitting coach, manager and hitting coordinator in the Rays’ system before being hired as the Indians’ assistant hitting coach in 2014. Tampa Bay hired him back and installed him as their third base coach a year later, and he ascended to his current position of bench coach once the Blue Jays hired Charlie Montoyo away from the Rays last winter. A former catcher who played parts of seven minor league seasons in the Rays organization, Quatraro has also worked as a catching instructor in the minors with Tampa Bay.

If Quatraro does land with the Pirates (or with the Giants), it’ll mark the third consecutive offseason in which the Rays have had at least one member of their coaching staff hired away by another organization. Manager Kevin Cash enjoyed three years of continuity from 2015-17 but has since seen Rocco Baldelli hired as the Twins’ new skipper in addition to Montoyo’s hiring in Toronto.

Quatraro joins a list of Pirates interviewees that includes Twins bench coach Derek Shelton (also a former Rays coach), Athletics bench coach Ryan Christenson and Cardinals first base coach Stubby Clapp (as can be seen in MLBTR’s 2020 managerial search tracker). Others rumored to be in consideration include Astros bench coach Joe Espada, D-backs director of player development Mike Bell, Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay and former Pirates bench coach/former Rangers manager Jeff Banister, who is currently a special assistant in the Pittsburgh front office.

Red Sox Likely To Hire Chaim Bloom

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Oct. 25: Bloom is “likely” to be hired by the Red Sox, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman adds, via Twitter, that the Red Sox are “close” to appointing him as the new head of their baseball operations department.

Oct.24: Rays VP of baseball operations Chaim Bloom is among those to have interviewed for the Red Sox GM opening, according to reporting from Chad Jennings and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). The club’s hiring search has been notably quiet since the dismissal of president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, but Jennings says the process “seems to be coming to an end.” ESPN’s Jeff Passan adds that “multiple sources” believe Bloom will ultimately get the job (Twitter link).

Bloom, 36, has been in the mix for several high-profile executive jobs in recent years. The Yale graduate was reported as the runner-up to Brodie Van Wagenen in the Mets search for a new GM last year, while San Francisco also considered him for the leadership position that ultimately went to Farhan Zaidi. The Twins and Phillies were also said to have considered Bloom for a GM role in recent seasons.

Though youthful by most standards, Bloom is a front office veteran with over 15 seasons of experience in the Tampa Bay front office. After beginning as an intern with the organization in 2005, Bloom worked in minor league operations for several years before being named as director of baseball operations in 2011. The Philadelphia native was promoted to the role of vice president of baseball operations in 2014, with a “senior” title being attached to that role in 2016 when the club also promoted Erik Neander to GM.

The Red Sox parted ways with Dombrowski on Sept 8 — less than 12 months after the club captured the 2018 World Series title. The organization has since entrusted operations to assistant GMs Eddie Romero, Zack Scott, and Brian O’Halloran, as well as senior vice president of major and minor league operations Raquel Ferreira.

AL Notes: Lindor, Oakland Stadium, Cash, Boone

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In a lengthy piece for The Athletic, Zack Meisel charts the different courses the Indians could take with regard to the contract status of star shortstop Francisco Lindor (link). As Meisel takes pains to point out, Lindor has taken a chilly posture to the idea that he would offer his club a discount in potential extension talks. Besides speaking vocally in support of 2018 free agents Manny Machado and Bryce Harper securing “every single penny that they can get“, Lindor was blunt in stating during the 2019 preseason that Cleveland would need to pay him full value if the club is interested in preventing him from reaching free agency after the 2021 season. “Who knows?” Lindor replied to a gathering of reporters during Spring Training when asked if a longterm extension would interest him. “Can you afford to pay me? If you pay me, I’ll stay.” Noting that the Indians have never signed a contract north of $60MM (Edwin Encarnacion in 2016), Meisel wonders if the time may be ripe for the club to consider trade options involving the 25-year-old shortstop.

While the writer ultimately seems to lean toward the idea of keeping Lindor, allowing him to play out his last two arb years, and then living with the possibility that he leaves in 2022, it is tantalizing to imagine the interest Lindor’s name could stir up on the trade market. As a mid-20s, up-the-middle player with five consecutive seasons of four-plus fWAR valuations, Lindor remains one of the game’s steadiest producers and most marketable stars.

More notes from around the American League in advance of Game 2 of the World Series…

  • In an attempt to rid themselves of the current legal quagmire surrounding their new ballpark project, the Athletics have offered to either buy out the city of Oakland’s half share in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum site for $85 million or enter into a long-term lease, per Phil Matier of The San Francisco Chronicle (link). The team has offered a “community benefits package” to the city that includes affordable housing provisions and apprenticeship programs, with the expectation that the city drops its lawsuit against Alameda County in return. Alameda County, which holds the other half share of the Oakland Coliseum site, recently offered to sell its own half share to the A’s, but a city-initiated lawsuit has stalled that potential agreement. Work on the new Oakland Ballpark is expected to begin in the city’s Jack London Square area in 2021.
  • Rays manager Kevin Cash was honored as one of Sporting News’ several award recipients today, with the outlet naming Cash as American League Manager of the Year (link). Cash was tasked in 2019 with a roster chock-full of trade acquisitions and overlooked players, ultimately leading Tampa to a 96-win season and an ALDS berth. Cash also deserves credit for getting his guys to surmount injury trouble–just two Rays players appeared in over 140 games–although there was another manager in his division who was tasked with some truly Herculean challenges with regard to roster management in 2019. Yankees manager Aaron Boone could be seen as something of a snub for this honor (which is not to be confused with the BBWAA awards that receive far more coverage and recognition) after his Bombers sent an MLB-record 30 players to the injured list en route to an AL East title in 2019.

Pitchers Recently Electing Free Agency

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Since the conclusion of the regular season, a number of players have elected free agency. That right accrues to certain players who are outrighted off of a 40-man roster during or after the season — namely, those that have at least three years of MLB service and/or have previously been outrighted. Such players that accepted outright assignments during the season have the right to elect free agency instead at season’s end, provided they aren’t added back to the 40-man in the meantime.

We already rounded up the position players. Now, here are the pitchers that have recently taken to the open market, along with their now-former teams (via the International League and PCL transactions pages):

AL Notes: Yankees, Astros, Red Sox

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Ken Davidoff of The New York Post spoke with a Rays official in the wake of the team’s close-but-not-quite battle with the mighty Houston Astros, and the Tampa employee believes his team’s ALDS strategy could end up changing the shape of the postseason. “We gave the Yankees a blueprint for how to pitch them,” the official told Davidoff (link).

There’s certainly some merit to that takeaway. Although the Astros have been expected to steamroll their way to the Fall Classic for most of the year (Fangraphs’ playoff odds have tabbed Houston with a 30 percent-or-better chance to win the championship for much of the season), the Rays came awfully close to taking them down within the first round of the playoffs, in part via a bullpen-heavy mix-and-match pitching strategy. As Davidoff points out, just one Rays pitcher–starter Charlie Morton–threw long enough to qualify for a decision in the ALDS, with manager Kevin Cash calling on 11 separate pitchers to tame the wild Astros offense. Houston’s offense mustered just a .700 OPS in the divisional round against this all-hands-on-deck approach, and will now square off with a Yankees team that, for what it’s worth, notched a competent 4.08 collective bullpen ERA in 2019 (good for 9th in MLB). However, Tampa’s approach, it should be noted, may have had something to do with the fact that Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, two of their frontline starters, were forced to work in limited capacity; the Yankees should be able to sport a more traditional look with their James Paxton/Luis Severino/Masahiro Tanaka starting triumvirate, although Severino’s own 2019 injury considerations could preclude an early dip into the pen by manager Aaron Boone.

  • After reassigning Dana LeVangie to their scouting department, the Red Sox are in search of a new pitching coach. As Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe opines, that’s a search that could have great import for the club moving forward, as the Sox will be on to their fourth pitching coach in the last six seasons in 2020 (link). It’s also a hiring search that carries far more nuance than it might have in previous eras, as modern pitching coaches are expected to blend data and biomechanical considerations with the more traditional soft skills involved with instruction–and that’s before accounting for a coach’s personal baseball-playing background. As Abraham notes, the Twins hired Wes Johnson to be their main source of pitching instruction in 2018, despite Johnson’s complete lack of professional playing experience. The club’s ultimate selection should give some indication of the philosophical leanings of Boston’s current, interim leadership group, which includes assistant GM Eddie Romero; the new coach’s ability to reign in the talents of David Price and Chris Sale should go a long way toward finally bringing some stability to the Boston pitching post.

MLBTR Poll: Astros-Rays Game 5

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Last night’s contests delivered high drama — one at the very outset, the other at the end. That left three of the four championship series spots claimed, with the Nationals joining the Cardinals in the NLCS and the Yankees already ticketed for the ALCS. But who’ll square off against New York’s savages? That’ll be decided tonight.

The pressure is on the Astros, who have already squandered two opportunities to clinch the series. Two of Houston’s three exceptional starters failed to close it out, so they’ll hand the ball to the final member of the trio. Gerrit Cole doesn’t have the Hall of Fame resume that his teammates do — yet, at least — but he’s at top form and is arguably the best of the group right now. The Rays have only scored runs in bunches once in this series, but their pesky and balanced group of hitters will try to scratch out some runs against the dominant Cole. If he had a soft spot this year, it was — like so many others — in the long ball department. Cole allowed 1.23 per nine on a 16.9% HR/FB rate during the regular season. Houston skipper A.J. Hinch may ultimately face some nervy decisions late in this game, but he’ll surely ride Cole as long as possible.

Tampa Bay counters with pure power of its own in the form of Tyler Glasnow. While he hasn’t come close to Cole, his former Pirates teammate, in overall output over the past two seasons, Glasnow has the ability to dominate as well. He’ll also have a chance to further extend his pitch count after throwing 76 pitches and lasting 4 1/3 frames in the first game of this series. That’s just the first step of the Rays’ strategy, which is sure to involve a parade of relievers once Glasnow exits. The club pushed several of its best arms hard in game four, but an intervening rest day should leave plenty of options at the disposal of manager Kevin Cash. He and the staff will be trying to navigate an almost laughably talented Houston run-production machine.

It’s hard not to like the battle-tested, star-studded Astros at home with Cole on the mound, but the Rays have already proven they won’t back down. Who do you think will take it tonight and book a date with the Yanks?

(Poll link for app users)

Astros-Rays: Who Wins Game 5?
Astros 59.05% (4,963 votes)
Rays 40.95% (3,442 votes)
Total Votes: 8,405

Postseason Injury Notes: Chapman, Wacha, Diaz

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Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman was seen with his left hand heavily bandaged during the team’s celebration last night, writes Dan Martin of the New York Post, but the lefty insisted that there was no serious injury at play. Rather, Chapman explained, he was hit with a bottle while jumping with teammates to celebrate the Yankees’ advancement to the American League Championship Series. There’s no indication that Chapman would need to miss New York’s forthcoming date with either the Astros or the Rays.

A few more injury situations to monitor around the league…

  • Cardinals righty Michael Wacha will throw a bullpen session tomorrow, tweets Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A mild shoulder strain kept Wacha off the Cardinals’ NLDS roster, but if he comes out of this ’pen session well and the Cards manage to topple the Braves in tomorrow’s decisive Game 5, Wacha could reemerge as an option for the pitching staff in the next round. Of course, Wacha didn’t exactly cement himself as a crucial part of a postseason roster while struggling through one of his worst big league seasons. In 126 2/3 innings, he posted a 4.76 ERA with career-worst marks in K/9 (7.4), BB/9 (3.9) and HR/9 (1.85). He’ll be a free agent this winter, so if he doesn’t return for a potential NLCS berth, Wacha may have already tossed his last pitch as a Cardinal.
  • Rays slugger Yandy Diaz is still on the team’s postseason roster despite exiting Monday’s game with an apparent foot injury, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Though he’s not in tonight’s starting lineup — Joey Wendle gets the nod at third base, with Ji-Man Choi at first and Tommy Pham DH’ing — Diaz presumably remains available for pinch-hit duties or for a mid-game substitution. Wade Miley is the only lefty on Houston’s ALDS roster, but Diaz and his .314/.397/.588 slash against southpaws could quite likely emerge from the dugout if Miley makes his way to the mound.

AL Notes: Alvarez, Astros, Benintendi, BoSox, Rays

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The Astros and Dodgers “were at an impasse” in trade negotiations over reliever Josh Fields at the 2016 trade deadline, Houston GM Jeff Luhnow said, before Luhnow decided to aim beyond L.A.’s farm system.  As Luhnow tells MLB.com’s Alyson Footer, the Astros had had interest in Yordan Alvarez as an international signing before he agreed to a deal with Los Angeles in June 2016.  “Really, it wasn’t until the day of the deadline that I remembered the Dodgers had signed Alvarez, and I thought, ’Well, if we can’t get a minor league player that we’re really excited about, why don’t we just take a flier on this young guy that they just signed that I know we like?’ ” Luhnow said.

After that sudden brainstorm, the Fields-for-Alvarez trade was concluded fairly quickly, putting Alvarez (then a somewhat obscure 18-year-old prospect) onto a new team less than two months into his pro career.  “I was surprised and a little worried. I didn’t know what a trade was,” Alvarez said.  “I thought they might have been releasing me. I was really surprised, but when they explained it to me, I understood.”  The rest, as they say, is history, as Alvarez blossomed in Houston’s farm system and then made an immediate impact at the big league level, hitting an incredible .313/.412/.655 with 27 homers over his first 369 Major League plate appearances.

More from around the American League…

  • Andrew Benintendi put on some weight last winter in an attempt to add more power to his game, though in the wake of a down year, the Red Sox outfielder tells WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford that the new goal is “to get lighter and more athletic this offseason.”  Many tabbed Benintendi to break out into superstardom in the wake of his impressive 2018 season, though he ended up hitting only .266/.343/.431 over 615 PA in 2019.  Some nagging injuries played a role, though Benintendi’s added bulk didn’t translate into more power, as he posted a lower slugging percentage and fewer homers (13) than in 2018.  Benintendi is hoping that better health and a more back to his old speed-based game will result in a better 2020 season.
  • Also from Bradford’s piece, he notes that Trey Ball and Teddy Stankiewicz have reached minor league free agency and could be unlikely to remain in the Red Sox farm system.  Ball was chosen seventh overall in the 2013 draft while Stankiewicz was Boston’s second selection (45th overall) from that same class, though neither player has reached the big leagues.  Bradford takes the opportunity to look back at a draft year that ended up as almost a complete miss for the Red Sox, as only five (Mauricio Dubon, Carlos Asuaje, Matt Thaiss, Gabe Speier, and Kyle Martin) of the 40 players selected have reached the majors, and none ever suited up in a Boston uniform.  Still, the 2013 draft class did plant some indirect seeds for future success — Asuaje was part of the trade package the Sox sent to the Padres for Craig Kimbrel, while Speier was included as part of the Rick Porcello trade with the Tigers.
  • The Rays used a trade-heavy approach in building their roster, though beyond the low-payroll franchise’s usual tactic of trading veterans when they become too expensive, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times notes that the Rays have also looked to add MLB-ready players rather than younger prospects, while also being willing to move minor leaguers of their own.  “But increasingly we’ve been more open to swapping players…earlier in their career. I think at the end of the day, we recognize that we have to be wide open to any acquisition method that gives us a team that we like better than the one we had previously, be it for today or be it for tomorrow,” GM Erik Neander said.  “The more near-term sensitivity we have competitively the better position we’re in, so that’s the goal. Striking that balance has to be a constant….Where you want to be is having a mindfulness on the short-term and not having it 100 percent pushed out to the future.”  A whopping 16 of the 25 players on Tampa Bay’s ALDS roster were acquired through trades, most in under-the-radar swaps.

Rays Announce ALDS Roster

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The Rays announced their 25-man roster for their best-of-five ALDS showdown against the Astros, which will begin this afternoon when Tyler Glasnow takes the mound against Cy Young candidate Justin Verlander. Tampa Bay has made a handful of changes from the roster they used to win the American League Wild Card Game. Here’s how their revised roster shakes out:

Right-handed pitchers

Left-handed pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

The Rays have a few substitutions from Wednesday’s Wild Card roster, swapping out first baseman Jesus Aguilar, infielder/outfielder Daniel Robertson and infielder Mike Brosseau in favor of left-hander/first baseman McKay, infielder Sogard and the right-handed Chirinos. The Astros are stacked with right-handed pitchers and, in fact, are only carrying one lefty (Wade Miley) on their ALDS roster at all, so the Rays have swapped out some right-handed bats for lefties (McKay, Sogard) and additional pitching depth (McKay, Chirinos).

For those unfamiliar, yes, McKay is both a first baseman/DH and a left-handed pitcher. While he hasn’t quite ascended to Shohei Ohtani levels of infamy, the No. 4 overall pick from the 2017 draft enjoyed a remarkable season in the minors this year. In a combined 73 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, McKay pitched to a 1.10 ERA with 12.5 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9. On the other side of the ball, he struggled in Double-A before hitting .239/.346/.493 with five homers and a pair of doubles in 78 Triple-A plate appearances. The 23-year-old was primarily a pitcher in the big leagues and had his share of hardships, as evidenced by a 5.14 ERA in 49 innings. But McKay notched a 56-to-16 K/BB ratio and, in 11 plate appearances, went 2-for-10 with a home run and a walk. He’ll give manager Kevin Cash plenty of chances to be creative.

As was the case with their Wild Card roster, the Rays’ ALDS roster is rife with the fruits of their frequent trades. Sixteen of these 25 players were acquired via trade, while Garcia and Morton, who dominated the Athletics in Wednesday’s Wild Card win, were signed as free agents. Anderson, who struck out nearly 42 percent of the hitters he faced this season (including a video-game-esque 52.6 percent with the Rays following a trade over from Miami), is among the game’s most quietly dominant bullpen weapons.

They’ll have a tall order against a ridiculous 1-2-3 combination of Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke in the Houston rotation, but the Rays did take four of seven games from the Astros during the regular season (albeit with three wins coming before Houston acquired Greinke).

MLBTR Poll: AL Wild-Card Matchup

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The Athletics are minutes away from hosting the Rays in a wild-card matchup consisting of two of the majors’ lowest-spending teams. Even though the A’s and Rays don’t boast the spending power of fellow AL playoff clubs such as the Yankees and Astros, that didn’t stop either Oakland or Tampa Bay from enjoying outstanding regular seasons. The A’s, built by executive vice president Billy Beane and general manager David Forst, amassed 97 wins and posted the majors’ fifth-best run differential (plus-165). The Rays, led by by their own formidable two-man setup of senior vice president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom and GM Erik Neander, rival the A’s in victories (96) and run differential (plus-113, which places seventh in the game).

Oakland will initially turn to left-hander Sean Manaea in Wednesday’s matchup, even though he missed the majority of the regular season while recovering from the shoulder surgery he underwent last September. The 27-year-old Manaea was fantastic during the five starts he did make this season, though, having notched a sterling 1.21 ERA (with a less imposing 3.42 FIP) and 9.1 K/9 against 2.12 BB/9 in 29 2/3 innings. He’ll try to contain a Rays lineup that was tough on lefties during the regular campaign, as the unit logged the league’s 11th-highest wRC+ (101) versus southpaws.

Meanwhile, the Rays will count on the battle-tested Charlie Morton, a brilliant offseason free-agent signing who’s just two falls removed from serving as a playoff hero for World Series-winning Houston. The 35-year-old Morton has been among the absolute best pitchers in baseball in 2019, evidenced by the 3.05 ERA/2.81 FIP with 11.1 K/9 and 2.64 BB/9 he has put forth across a career-high 194 2/3 frames. He’ll deal with an A’s offense that has caused headaches for righties, who yielded a 104 wRC+ (the game’s sixth-highest figure) to Oakland’s hitters. Center fielder Mark Canha, first baseman Matt Olson, shortstop Marcus Semien and third baseman Matt Chapman have made life especially miserable on RHPs this season.

In all likelihood, both teams’ bullpens will figure prominently in tonight’s contest. Both groups were among the league’s most successful in the regular season, and the two look especially loaded for a one-game playoff. Reigning AL Cy Young winner Blake Snell, breakout righty Tyler Glasnow and dominant in-season pickup Nick Anderson are at the forefront of the Rays’ options, while the A’s bring to the table imposing youngsters Jesus Luzardo and A.J. Puk, not to mention lights-out closer Liam Hendriks and workhorse righty Yusmeiro Petit, among others.

Regardless of who wins tonight, the hope is the game will rival the excitement of Tuesday’s Nationals-Brewers matchup. The home team, Washington, survived a thriller to advance to the National League Division Series. Now, will the A’s also hold serve in their stadium? Or will the Rays move on to face the top-seeded Astros in the ALDS?

(Poll link for app users)

Who Will Win Tonight's AL Wild Card Game?
Rays 64.42% (1,914 votes)
Athletics 35.58% (1,057 votes)
Total Votes: 2,971
Show all

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