Former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire would like to manage in the Major Leagues again and has hired agent John Boggs to represent him, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Gardenhire told Rosenthal that he isn’t actively pursuing anything because he has too much respect for MLB’s current 30 managers to campaign for something specific, but he’ll listen “to just about anything.” Rosenthal speculates that the Marlins and Brewers may eventually be looking for new skippers, though he adds that Mike Redmond took some pressure off himself in Miami with a pair of convincing wins over the Phillies. As for the Brewers, Rosenthal hears that they won’t act on manager Ron Roenicke anytime soon.
A few notes from Gardenhire’s former division, where the Twins are off to a 6-9 start under new manager Paul Molitor…
- Questions on the Tigers’ bullpen were the common theme throughout MLive.com’s Chris Iott’s latest Twitter Talk column. Iott fielded questions on Rafael Soriano, noting that he finds a signing doubtful, and he also noted that trading a prospect such as Dixon Machado seems unlikely to happen early in the season. Yesterday, MLBTR’s Jeff Todd looked at ways in which the Tigers could address the ’pen, and 38 percent of MLBTR readers weighed in saying that Detroit needs to add a quality late-inning reliever ASAP.
- Joe Nathan’s tenure with the Tigers just never clicked, Tom Gage writes for FOX Sports Detroit. Money does tend to complicate things, of course, and that was surely true in this case. Unfortunately, Nathan will never have a chance to atone for a sub-par 2014 on the hill in Detroit.
- MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian expects the Indians to deploy Jose Ramirez at shortstop for most, if not all of the season’s first half while Francisco Lindor develops, he writes in his latest Inbox column. Bastian points out that Lindor has gotten off to a slow start at Triple-A, which doesn’t help his case for a call-up, in spite of Ramirez’s offensive woes. Bastian also looks at the upcoming roster crunch when Nick Swisher will be activated from the DL. Cleveland plans to use Swisher in right field and at DH, but not at first base. The club already has a number of similar options on the roster in the form of David Murphy, Ryan Raburn and Jerry Sands. The latter of those three options strikes me as the likeliest to go, though Sands has hit well in his limited time with the club (thanks to being shielded from right-handed pitchers in a platoon role).
Hoping that Murphy gets traded when Swisher come back. We need to rid ourselves of a LHH and even if Sands cools off we have a lot of other options in AAA for a back up OF.
But if the Tigers sign Soriano I’ll finish top 10 in the contest! (K-Rod really mucked things up for me.)
Sorry about your fantasy team…but the Tigers could use K-Rod, and I’m sure the Brewers would be willing to listen.
I think he was talking about the free agent destination contest from the offseason.
Ah! I stand corrected…still think K-Rod is a better match than Soriano.
I’ve seen Francisco Lindor play in the minors a bit, and see a lot of talent but remain unimpressed. He closest resembles Jose Reyes with the flash and athleticism, but he hasn’t shown the ability to use his speed on the bases to upset a defense and turn the momentum of a game. On defense he seems to get to the ball, but has problems finishing a play off by throwing the ball to the other infielder in a way that he can catch it – he is particularly poor at feeding his 2B correctly for a double play. He also hits with little power and has trouble getting the ball up in the air. I’ve seen a lot of line drives that hit the back of the infield dirt. He pings the ball instead of swinging through it.
The young man is also 21 years-old and growing. He has not taken AA or AAA ball by storm. He needs a few years to grow and mature, both with his game and as a person. There is nothing wrong with this. The pressure put on him by the media is not helping things. I saw Manny Machado when he was young, and fact is that he was a better player then Lindor. And while Machado is a fine ML player, he is hardly a major impact player in his 4th ML season. Harper has problems as well. There is too much focus on minor league phenoms that are still growing and learning.
Vandal..If Machado could ever stay healthy for a full season, he could definitely be an impact player.
In his 1 full yr, he led the lg with 667 AB’s & 51 doubles and also had 183 hits.
Yes, I love watching Machado.
Lindor is nowhere as good.
Tigers have been keeping an eye on Soriano, but unless he is willing to come down on his asking price, accept a lesser role, and go to the minors to get in shape to pitch, then the Tigers will pass. They still think Rondon is the real deal once he gets healthy so they will be willing to wait on him for now. With Soria manning the 9th inning, the Tigers will look to see how the rest of the bullpen arms fill the other roles before making a move.
Nathan’s tenure never clicked because he not only performed poorly, but also because he blamed his teammates (specifically Castellanos) and then chin flicked the fans that were booing him. Couple that with his mannerisms and slow pace on the mound and the snowball of dislike from fans got bigger and bigger.
Putting your eggs in a 40 year old basket has proven not to be wise. Until the Tigers make a commitment to the pen, they will continue to be close with no cigar.
A bullpen is usually one of the cheapest and easiest areas to fill on a roster, you would think since the Tigers window is closing fast they would get an arm or too. They are being very cheap in this area, with the money they saved by not signing Scherzer you think they would have upgraded. As we have seen with some teams you can have an average-ish rotation but if you have a lights out bullpen you can shorten the game.
They used Scherzers money on Price.
How when they haven’t signed him to an extension? They thought about resigning Scherzer at 6/$144 but that wasn’t enough. That money is still available.
Scherzer’s contract offer wasn’t what the Tigers were paying him. What Price is getting this year is about what the Tigers paid Scherzer last year.
A pair of convincing wins over the Phillies means nothing. If the Marlins had lost those games, then Redmond would have one foot out the door.