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Angels, Albert Pujols Discussing Managerial Deal

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6:22pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today writes that the Angels have not yet made Pujols an official offer, though he confirms that the interview went well.

6:00pm: It seems the Angels have made up their mind about their next manager, though he still has to agree. According to a report from Sam Blum and Katie Woo of The Athletic, the job is going to go to Albert Pujols as long as he wants it. Per the report, Pujols met with general manager Perry Minasian last night and the meeting went well. Discussions on a deal are in the works but there’s not yet an agreement in place.

It was reported just over a week ago that Pujols would interview for the job and would be a frontrunner. That was just a few days after it was reported that neither Ron Washington nor Ray Montgomery would be back in the job. Washington opened the 2025 season as the skipper but was away for most of the year due to quadruple bypass surgery, with Montgomery covering for him on an interim basis. Torii Hunter has also been reported as a candidate but today’s reporting indicates that Hunter would only be a real consideration if things fall through with Pujols.

Per Blum and Woo, the Angels hope to make an official announcement before the World Series, though there are still some contractual things to work out. The report suggests that Pujols’s personal services contract could be a factor.

The ten-year, $240MM contract he signed with the Angels in 2011 included a ten-year, $10MM personal services contract for after his retirement as a player. He finished his playing career after the 2022 season. He had been released by the Angels and then spent some time with the Dodgers and Cardinals. In February of 2023, he rejoined the Angels as a special assistant to honor that personal services pact. Since he’s only three seasons into that deal, there are seven years left. It’s not clear how the existing contract would impact whatever is being negotiated for him to take the skipper job.

Pujols has previously expressed an interest in becoming a manager but has no experience in affiliated ball, either as a manager or as a coach. He managed Leones del Escogido, a Dominican winter ball team, last offseason. The Leones won the Serie Final over Tigres del Licey in seven games. Pujols is slated to manage the Dominican Republic national team in the upcoming World Baseball Classic but would presumably have to bow out of that gig if he signs with the Angels.

Assuming the sides are able to cross the T’s and dot the I’s, then Pujols will be in the Angels dugout yet again. It feels like a fait accompli at this point, as Blum and Woo report that the coaching staff negotiations are also already in motion. The report notes that former big leaguer Ramón Martínez, brother of Pedro Martínez, is Pujols’s top choice for pitching coach. Barry Enright has been the Halos’ pitching coach for the past two years but it’s fairly common for new managers to make some coaching changes.

The Halos haven’t had a winning season since 2015. Mike Scioscia had a long run as the club’s skipper, from 2000 to 2018. Since then, as the club has struggled, there has been a lot more turnover. Brad Ausmus, Joe Maddon, Phil Nevin, Washington and Montgomery have been at the helm in recent years. It seems Pujols will likely be the next guy to get a chance to turn the ship around.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Jairaj, Imagn Images

Torii Hunter Expected To Be Considered In Angels’ Managerial Search

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Both Ron Washington and Ray Montgomery have been evicted from the manager’s office in Anaheim, as the Angels plan to hire a new manager rather than tabbing either their manager or interim manager from this season to return in 2026. Most of the attention has been focused on the candidacy of Albert Pujols to this point, but Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reported yesterday that one other expected candidate is Torii Hunter.

Hunter, 50, played 19 seasons in the majors. He made it to the All-Star game five times, won nine Gold Glove awards for his work in the outfield, and enjoyed an impressive five-year run with the Angels from 2008 to 2012 where he slashed .286/.352/.462 in 713 games. Hunter being a candidate for the job is hardly a surprise, given the fact that he was reportedly in the mix for the job following the 2023 season before Washington was hired. At the time, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale highlighted Hunter as “tremendously regarded” by club owner Arte Moreno, which was enough to make him an option even in spite of his lack of coaching experience at a time when the Angels were specifically focused on bringing in a more experienced voice at the time.

While Hunter did not ultimately land the job, that didn’t end the organization’s interest in bringing him into the fold. They pursued him as a potential member of Washington’s coaching staff, and while he declined to be considered for that role he was hired as a special assistant to Minasian in April of 2024. He’s remained in the organization ever since, and the relationship that role has surely created with Minasian over the past two years could help give Hunter a leg up in the hunt for the job if Minasian has a say in the hiring process despite his status as a lame duck GM.

Still, it’s must be remembered that Pujols is held in a similar regard by Moreno and is also already employed by the organization as a result of his ten-year personal services contract with the club signed at the time of his free agency as a player. Some reporting has gone as far as suggesting that it might be the Hall of Famer’s decision to make whether or not he serves as Anaheim’s next manager. Even with Pujols emerging as an early favorite, however, that doesn’t mean he’s a lock to be in the dugout next year. There’s certainly a chance that someone with Pujols’s profile might prefer to hold out for a team with stronger prospects than the Angels currently have coming off their tenth consecutive sub-.500 season. The turnover rate of Angels managers might also be a concern. After all, the team has churned through five managers (Brad Ausmus, Joe Maddon, Phil Nevin, Washington, and Montgomery) in the last seven years since Mike Scioscia left the club following the 2019 season.

Even aside from those potential concerns on Pujols’s end, it’s not impossible to imagine GM Perry Minasian pushing for a different candidate or even Moreno himself having a change of heart. All of that is to say, keeping other candidates in mind for the position is sensible, and Hunter has a lot of the same qualities that have made Pujols the early favorite for the job. Given that, it stands to reason that Hunter might find himself in strong position to land the gig if Pujols were to decline to be considered. What’s more, every indication points to Hunter having interest in both managing generally and leading the Angels specifically. He not only interviewed for the role in 2023, but also told reporters at the time that he would relish the “challenge” of helping turn the Angels franchise around.

On the other hand, it’s worth noting that Hunter is arguably even more connected to the Twins organization than he is to the Angels after playing 12 seasons in Minnesota. The Twins also have a managerial opening after their decision to fire Rocco Baldelli, and while there’s not yet been any solid connection between Hunter and that gig it would certainly be one worth considering from Hunter’s perspective. The organization’s massive sell-off this past summer would certainly provide a challenge if Hunter is looking for one, but the team’s history suggests that Twins managers have more job security than those in Anaheim. Every manager in Minnesota in the past 35 years has had at least four full seasons on the job to prove themselves, while Scioscia is the only Angels skipper since inaugural manager Bill Rigney to be afforded that same opportunity.

Angels Hire Torii Hunter As Special Assistant To The GM

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The Angels announced over the weekend that former player Torii Hunter has joined the organization as a special assistant to general manager Perry Minasian. “It means a lot,” Hunter said, per Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “This is a team that when I was in Minnesota and was a free agent, they adopted me and brought me in and treated me like a king here.”

Hunter, now 48, played in the big leagues from 1997 to 2015. As he alluded to, he began his career with the Twins and was with that club through the 2007 season, but he signed with the Angels and was with that club for the 2008 to 2012 campaigns. He then spent two years with the Tigers before returning with to the Twins in 2015.

Those five years that he spent with the Halos seem to have led to a strong relationship with the organization that continues to this day. The club had a managerial vacancy back in the fall after parting ways with Phil Nevin, and Hunter appeared to get serious consideration for the gig. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported at that time that Hunter is “tremendously regarded” by Angels owner Arte Moreno, though the job eventually went to Ron Washington.

From there, the club seemed interested in making Hunter first base coach but he declined to be considered for that position, citing his non-baseball commitments to business pursuits such as barbecue restaurants and cafes, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. Now he will join the club in this special assistant role with unknown responsibilities, though the workload presumably allows him to be involved with the club but without having to travel with the team for the entire season, as he would have to do if he were part of the coaching staff.

Hunter played in 2,372 games in his career, collecting 2,452 hits, including 353 home runs.

West Notes: Nevin, Giants, Angels, A’s

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The Padres reportedly have former Angels manager Phil Nevin among the finalists for their managerial position, according to Jon Morosi of MLB Network. Nevin, 52, was hired as third base coach in Anaheim prior to the 2022 season but became the club’s interim manager early in June of that year following the firing of Joe Maddon. Nevin continued as the club’s interim manager for the remainder of the season and the club decided to retain him in the role for 2023. Ultimately, however, the sides parted ways at the conclusion of the regular season. Anaheim found their replacement for Nevin last week, hiring Ron Washington away from his role as third base coach for the Braves.

Upon former Padres manager Bob Melvin’s departure to manage the division rival Giants, Nevin quickly became a candidate linked to San Diego’s managerial vacancy. Reports indicated late last week that Nevin had interviewed with the Padres for the role, and now Morosi’s report places Nevin as a potential finalist for the position. That being said, Nevin is far from the only finalist with a chance to be San Diego’s next manager. A pair of internal candidates in bench coach Ryan Flaherty and senior advisor Mike Shildt interviewed for the position shortly after Melvin’s departure and have long been seen as likely favorites to ultimately land the role. Shildt, in particular, has been linked to the role very frequently in recent weeks as an experienced skipper with four seasons at the helm of the Cardinals under his belt.

More from around MLB’s West divisions…

  • The Giants have reportedly settled on a new bullpen coach to replace outgoing coach Craig Albernaz, who was recently hired away by the Guardians. Per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco has decided upon Garvin Alston for the role. Alston, 51, was drafted as a player by the Rockies in the 10th round of the 1992 draft and spent eight seasons pitching in the minors, eventually briefly cracking Colorado’s big league roster during the 1996 season. Since retiring from his playing career, Alston has served in a variety of coaching roles in Oakland’s organization, including as bullpen coach, in addition to spending the 2018 season as pitching coach for the Twins.
  • The Angels have begun to assemble a coaching staff under the newly-hired Washington, though despite suggestions to the contrary 19-year big league veteran Torii Hunter will not be joining that staff. Speaking to reporters (including Bill Shaikin of the LA Times), Hunter confirmed that he interviewed for the managerial position prior to Washington’s hiring and that the club subsequently reached out to gauge his interest in coaching, but that he declined to be considered for a coaching role. Nonetheless, Hunter spoke effusively of the Angels, noting that he would have been excited by the “challenge” of managing the Angels through what figures to be a difficult 2024 season, particularly if they are unable to retain franchise face Shohei Ohtani.
  • While Hunter won’t be coaching for the Angels in 2024, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman wrote recently that former Astros manager Bo Porter is a candidate to join the club’s coaching staff. While Porter’s hypothetical role on the staff is unclear, Porter has plenty of experience from his time as a big leaguer with the Cubs, A’s, and Rangers to his time as third base coach with the Diamondbacks, Marlins, Nationals, and Braves to his two seasons managing in Houston, though those Astros clubs struggled to a 110-190 record under his guidance. As Heyman notes, Porter has connections to Washington both from his time as a player in Oakland and also from his time on the coaching staff and in the front office with Atlanta.
  • The A’s announced their coaching staff for the 2024 season today, with a pair of new faces on the staff: Bobby Crosby, who won the AL Rookie of the Year award with Oakland back in 2004 and more recently has served as a manager in the minor leagues, as well as Dan Hubbs, who previously served as director of pitching development for the Tigers from 2020-21 and as a minor league coach with the A’s this past season. Crosby is replacing Mike Aldrete as first base coach as Aldrete moves into a hitting coach role, while Hubbs will replace Mike McCarthy as bullpen coach.

Angels Hire Ryan Goins, Eric Young Sr. To Coaching Staff

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TODAY: The Angels have indeed hired Young, as he confirmed to Alison Mastrangelo of WSB TV (X link).  “It was a hard decision, and I am definitely going to miss the [Braves] organization and more importantly the players and fans,” Young said.

NOVEMBER 11: Just a few days after joining the Angels as the club’s new manager, Ron Washington has begun assembling his coaching staff for the 2024 season, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports that recently-retired infielder Ryan Goins will join the Angels’ coaching staff as an infield coach. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale had previously linked Goins to the role.

Goins, 35, was a fourth-round pick in the 2009 draft and spent five seasons in Toronto at the major league level from 2013-17. He then spent one season with the Royals before joining the White Sox in 2019. Goins played on the south side of Chicago for two seasons and played what would ultimately be his final game at the big league level during the 2020 season. He continued his career in the minor leagues for the Braves in 2021 and 2022, overlapping with Washington’s time in Atlanta as third base coach. While he signed with the Royals on a minor league deal for the 2023 season, he did not appear in any games before ultimately retiring earlier this offseason.

In 555 career games at the big league level, Goins slashed .228/.278/.333 in addition to a scoreless inning of work on the mound back in 2016. He appeared at every position except for catcher and center field throughout his eight seasons in the majors. With his playing career in the rearview mirror, Goins is now poised to tackle the first coaching job of his career under Washington in Anaheim. In doing so, he’ll been the youth and perspective of a recent player to the staff of Washington, a 71-year-old veteran skipper who last played in the majors in 1989.

Though Goins appears to be the only official hire for Washington’s coaching staff at this point, plenty of names have already been mentioned in connection with various roles. In addition to linking Goins to his role as infield coach, Nightengale suggested that former A’s, Cubs, Red Sox, and Mets hitting coach Chili Davis could join Washington’s staff in that same role, former Rockies and Pirates manager Clint Hurdle could join as bench coach, 19-year MLB veteran Torii Hunter could be tapped as first base coach, and Braves first base coach Eric Young Sr. could join the club’s staff as third base coach.

It’s not yet clear if any of those additional names have been or will be formally hired by the Angels, though Jon Heyman of the New York Post confirmed that both Davis and Hurdle are “in the mix” to join Washington’s staff while cautioning that nothing is official yet. On the other hand, Heyman suggests that Young is “planning” to join Washington’s staff alongside Goins. Though Hunter’s candidacy for a coaching role hasn’t been corroborated elsewhere, it’s certainly reasonable to think he could be in the mix for a role given his status as a candidate for the club’s manager seat prior to the hiring of Washington.

Latest On Angels’ Managerial Search

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Though the impending free agency of Shohei Ohtani remains the biggest story of the offseason in Anaheim, the club parted ways with manager Phil Nevin at the end of the 2023 campaign, leading the club to begin a search for his replacement. The search has already turned up a handful of candidates including recently-fired Mets manager Buck Showalter, who has both expressed interest in the job and seen that interest reciprocated by Angels brass. Infield coach Benji Gil and longtime Angels outfielder Darin Erstad have also previously been floated as potential candidates for the position.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale provided an update on the club’s managerial search this morning, and in doing so put forth three more candidates: five-time All Star Torii Hunter, who patrolled the outfield in Anaheim for five seasons; 1993 Rookie of the Year Tim Salmon, who spent his entire 14-year big league career with the Angels; and veteran coach Ron Roenicke, who spent seven seasons as a third base coach in Anaheim under Mike Scioscia.

Nightengale gives particular mention to Hunter, noting that the 48-year-old is “tremendously regarded” by Angels owner Arte Moreno. Moreno is known to be among the most hands-on owners in the game, so his endorsement would surely be a notable piece of any managerial candidate’s resume. That being said, Hunter lacks experience in the dugout beyond his playing career, which would conflict with the Angels’ previously-reported preference for an experienced manager to take over in Nevin’s stead. Salmon faces a similar roadblock, though he’s served as head coach of Scottsdale Christian Academy in Phoenix since 2015.

If the Angels are valuing experience in their managerial search, Roenicke certainly fits the bill. In addition to his aforementioned tenure with the Angels as a third base coach and an eight-year playing career in the majors, the 67-year-old has served as manager for both the Brewers and Red Sox in the past, while also serving as a coach with the Dodgers and in Boston throughout his post-playing career. He currently serves as a special assistant in the Dodgers’ front office. Nightengale suggests that Roenicke, along with Gil and Showalter, may be in line for formal interviews with the club. It’s unclear if Hunter would also be in line for a potential interview, though Nightengale reports Erstad and Salmon’s candidacies as merely having been “discussed” by Angels brass.

Whoever ultimately takes the reins of the Angels dugout this offseason, they’ll have their work cut out for them in 2024. The Angels finished with identical 73-89 records in both 2022 and 2023, and are at risk of losing a superstar, two-way talent in Ohtani this offseason. Even if the club manages to retain Ohtani, he won’t pitch in 2024, leaving the club with a vacancy at the front of the rotation on top of holes to fill in the bullpen. While the club has a solid position player group, it lacks depth that is particularly necessary for a club that’s seen frequent trips to the injured list for Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon, and other veteran players in recent seasons.

This Day In Transaction History: Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving isn’t usually a barnburner of a day as far as baseball transactions are concerned, but that’s pattern more than rule. Most years something official happens along the lines of Matt Skole signing with the White Sox in 2019 or Jason Lane signing with the Padres in 2014 – but  three years in particular gave us a heaping portion of baseball news befitting turkey day: 2005, 2007, 2009. While we wait to see what happens this year, let’s go back and look at some of the most impactful moves made on Thanksgiving day.

  • Last year was a quiet Thanksgiving day, but there was plenty to talk about. If you recall, we were just one day removed from the four-player Brewers/Padres swap that saw Trent Grisham and Zach Davies land in San Diego. MLBTR readers weighed in on Thanksgiving with more people preferring the Brewers’ side of the deal. The Brew Crew landed promising infielder Luis Urías and potential rotation arm Eric Lauer. A year removed, my guess is the public sentiment may have changed. This one might need more time to gestate, however, before a final determination can be made.
  • On this same date and day in history, the Cleveland Indians signed an amateur free agent that changed the fortunes of their franchise. Jose Ramirez – a 17-year-old amateur free agent out of Dominican Republic – signed on Thursday, November 26, 2009. He would debut in the Majors just four years later as a 20-year-old.
  • On the same day, the Toronto Blue Jays struck in free agency signing shortstop Álex González to a free agent contract. Of course, this isn’t the Alex Gonzalez most Blue Jays fans will remember best. This A-Gon spent just a few months north of the border. He was traded to the Braves on July 14th of the following season as part of a four-player deal that sent Yunel Escobar and Jo-Jo Reyes to Toronto. Escobar would net 8.6 bWAR across 2 1/2 seasons with the Jays, while Reyes would be claimed off waivers by the Orioles later that season.
  • In 2007, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim invested heavily in a free agent centerfielder who had spent the entirety of his career to that point in the Twin Cities. Torii Hunter signed for $89.5MM over five years to roam the grass in Anaheim. He’d win two Gold Gloves and make two All-Star teams while racking up 20.7 bWAR as an Angel. They got their money’s worth as Hunter would post the best two seasons of his career by bWAR while with the Angels (2009, 2012).
  • The Cincinnati Reds signed Miguel Rojas as an amateur free agent on November 24, 2005. Rojas would stay in the Reds’ minor league system for a full six seasons before being granted free agency and joining the Dodgers in 2012.
  • That same season, the Marlins did some work with two significant trades on Thanksgiving. The first sent Carlos Delgado and cash to the Mets for Grant Psomas, Mike Jacobs and Yusmeiro Petit. Delgado spent just one season in Florida, but he did grab a 6th-place MVP finish that year for slashing .301/.399/.582 with 33 bombs.
  • Their other deal helped bring the second title of the century to the Red Sox. The Fish traded Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell and Guillermo Mota to Boston for Jesus Delgado, Harvey Garcia, Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez. Sanchez would have a number of solid years with the Fish, while Hanley Ramirez developed into a cornerstone shortstop and the face of the franchise.

Central Notes: Twins, Reds, Senzel, Tigers

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Before hiring Rocco Baldelli as the 31st manager in franchise history  (just the fourth in the last 33 years), the Twins had him vetted by a pair of professional contemporaries currently serving Minnesota’s baseball ops department as special assistants: LaTroy Hawkins and Torii Hunter, per The Athletic’s Andy McCullough. Not long after Baldelli’s hire, he faced a similar grilling from another pair of special assistants: Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer. The quartet of Twins’ legends do more than serve as protective older brother types for Senior Baseball Officer Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine – they’re active in a variety of capacities, from analytics, to hiring, to hands-on engagement with players at all levels of the Minnesota system. Levine said this of their veteran cabinet, “We haven’t acquired a single player at the major-league level without asking them to do makeup work on them.”  Subscribers to The Athletic should read this piece in full for a fascinating peak into the machinations of the Twins organization. While you do that, we’ll see what else is happening in the Midwest…

  • The Reds don’t expect Nick Senzel’s torn labrum to affect his defensive placement moving forward, per MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon. Said Manager David Bell, “He’s so young that hopefully his shoulder — he gets through this and that won’t be a factor at all on what position he plays. I’m expecting a full recovery.” The organization was impressed with how quickly Senzel made camp in center, enough to let his future defensive home remain a dependent variable. Without a clear-cut alternative in center, however, Senzel’s likely to stay put in the near-term. There’s questions in the infield, too, where a handful of options speckle the 2020 landscape, though none of Freddy Galvis, Jose Peraza, Josh VanMeter, or Derek Dietrich have a firm hold on starter’s minutes. 
  • Tigers President and CEO Christopher Ilitch spoke with reporters yesterday about the direction of the franchise, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press. Generally speaking, Ilitch didn’t provide any groundbreaking news. He appeared content with the speed of Detroit’s rebuild while focusing on continued progress as the organization’s only present mandate. Of course, he couldn’t say much to praise the Tigers’ current performance level without seeming disingenuous, and there would be little point in publicly denigrating a team that could well be on its way to a second top overall pick in three years. The primary takeaway seems to be an overall lack of urgency at the big league level – good news for prospect truthers, frustrating for those with hopes of seeing a competitive on-field product at Comerica Park in 2020. It seems there will be at least one more season of slow-and-steady as they continue to flesh out an increasingly well-regarded farm system.

Twins Hire Torii Hunter, Michael Cuddyer, LaTroy Hawkins As Special Assistants

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The Twins announced on Monday that they’ve hired Torii Hunter, Michael Cuddyer and LaTroy Hawkins as special assistants in the team’s baseball operations department. (La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported last week that the trio would likely be hired in that very role.) Each of the three will be in Spring Training this year and will serve “as a resource for players and coaches in the mental and fundamental aspects of the game,” according to a team press release. The trio will also be visiting Minnesota’s minor league affiliates throughout the season, where they’ll work in an instructional capacity with the team’s young talent. Hunter, Cuddyer and Hawkins will also work with Twins executives and coaches “to ensure development in player understanding of culture, talent evaluation and organizational vision.”

At the introductory press conference for new chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and new general manager Thad Levine, the latter spoke highly about the impact that former Rangers star Michael Young had on the organization upon joining the Texas front office in a similar capacity to the roles that Hunter, Cuddyer and Hawkins will be taking on with the Twins. While both Falvey and Levine were billed as more modern, statistically savvy executives to help bring the Twins up to speed in that department, the duo also emphasized the importance of veteran leadership and organizational culture in their first formal sit-down with the Twin Cities media. Today’s hirings certainly mesh with those principles.

Each of the three now-former players has retired within the past year, and each was a mainstay on the Twins’ roster at one point in his career. Hunter played parts of 12 seasons with the Twins, beginning with a one-game cameo in 1997. From that point through the 2007 season, Hunter won seven Gold Gloves and made a pair of All-Star Games. He cemented himself as one of the most productive Twins in franchise history along the way, and upon reaching free agency for the final time, elected to sign a one-year deal with the rebuilding Twins to play out the final season of his illustrious career back where it all began.

Cuddyer was a teammate of Hunter’s for most of that first run and enjoyed his own 11-year run with the Twins to open his career before testing free agency following the 2011 season. Cuddyer was a member of each of the Twins’ six American League Central Division Championships from 2002 through 2010 and drew praise in Minnesota, Colorado and New York for his clubhouse leadership as a player before retiring last winter.

Hawkins, whose hiring was first reported by Neal more than a week ago, spent the first nine seasons of his career in a Twins uniform after being drafted by the Twins in the seventh round back in 1991. He struggled as a starter for more than half of that tenure but blossomed as a reliever in the final four years of his time with Minnesota, serving as a dominant setup man for the first two of the team’s division titles.

Quick Hits: White Sox, Dodgers, Twins, Yankees, Orioles

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The White Sox are willing to listen to offers for just about all of their players, and industry sources regard them and the Dodgers as perfect trading partners, according to Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan (Twitter links). Ace Chris Sale, third baseman Todd Frazier and closer David Robertson are among the players Chicago could move, and all of them fit the Dodgers’ needs, notes Passan. Meanwhile, the White Sox like several Dodgers – outfielder Yasiel Puig and prospects Cody Bellinger, Alex Verdugo, Jose DeLeon and Willie Calhoun – so it seems the two sides could line up for some sort of deal this offseason.

Now for some American League notes:

  • Former Twins reliever LaTroy Hawkins has joined the team’s revamped front office as a special assistant, reports Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press. And longtime outfielder Torii Hunter, one of the greatest Twins ever, could be next. Hunter told Berardino he has had “several conversations about” taking on a role with the Twins, adding that he and the club “will talk here in the near future.” Hawkins and Hunter, both of whom retired after the 2015 campaign, spent a combined 21 major league seasons with the Twins. Minnesota chose Hawkins in Round 7 of the 1991 draft and Hunter in the first round in 1993.
  • Although the Yankees are on the hunt for starting pitching, they could take advantage of a weak market and shop contract-year right-hander Michael Pineda, Joel Sherman of the New York Post suggests. Even if New York opts against that and only adds to its rotation, Sherman doesn’t see the team going to three years for free agency’s best option, onetime Yankee Rich Hill. New York has shown interest in Hill, Jason Hammel and Derek Holland this week.
  • The Orioles did not add outfielder Mike Yastrzemski or catcher Audry Perez to their 40-man roster Friday, meaning both minor leaguers could end up leaving the organization in December’s Rule 5 draft. Baltimore is at least hoping to retain Yastrzemski, the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, writes Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Mike Yastrzemski hit just .221/.312/.369 in 385 plate appearances at Triple-A Norfolk in 2016, though injuries negatively affected him. “He had a labrum problem and he also had a core injury that he had to have surgery on, so he’s got a little work to do to be ready for the spring,” said general manager Dan Duquette. Scouts regard Yastrzemski as a potential fourth outfielder in the majors and Garcia as a possible reserve backstop, and Kubatko expects someone to draft the latter.
  • Along with the previously reported Roger McDowell and Frank Viola, Orioles Double-A pitching coach Alan Mills, Cardinals minor league pitching coordinator Tim Leveque and Rangers minor league pitching coordinator Danny Clark are vying to replace the departed Dave Wallace as Baltimore’s pitching coach, per Kubatko. The club is looking to make a hire soon, perhaps as early as this weekend.
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