Cafardo On Victorino, Cahill, Cubs

In today’s column, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe spoke with managing general partner of Sapient Global Markets Dave Donovan, who is trying to apply banking principles to baseball in order to help limit risk on the part of teams.

“Because there’s such an emphasis by teams on acquiring the right players, especially now where you have financial constraints with luxury taxes, etc., we’re looking at it the same way as we do with banks,” Donovan said. “Banks want to make as much money as they possibly can. Their constraint is regulation. They have stress tests they have to do for the government after banks almost took down the world because they weren’t financially compliant. We’ve been working with these banks to measure their risks and you can apply the same concepts in sports…Your roster is no different than a portfolio of securities. Those are your assets. That’s what you’ve put your investment in, so it only makes sense that you should monitor your assets”

When considering risk management, Cafardo wonders aloud if the Red Sox’s decision to sign David Price to a seven-year, $217MM was a prudent one.  Cafardo speculates that the hedge fund operator in owner John Henry probably wasn’t thrilled about the move.  However, in the short-term, he knew that Boston needed an ace pitcher.

Here’s more from today’s column:

• Shane Victorino’s agent, John Boggs, said a couple of teams have shown interest in his client, but no deal is imminent at this time.  Boggs added that the veteran is looking to sign a one-year deal in order to re-establish his value.  The Flyin’ Hawaiian hit just .230/.308/.292 in 2015 in 204 combined plate appearances for the Red Sox and Angels.  Still, he’s only two years removed from his 2013 campaign in which he slashed .294/.351/.451 with 15 homers for Boston.  Victorino, who plans on getting back to switch-hitting, celebrated his 35th birthday in late November.
• Right-hander Trevor Cahill had an opportunity to sign with the Pirates or Orioles as a starting pitcher, Cafardo writes.  However, he opted to stay with the Cubs where he will be used in a relief role.  Cahill’s clear preference was to start again, but he also didn’t want to leave Chicago.  Cahill gave the Cubs 17 brilliant innings of relief down the stretch, yielding just four runs and recording an outstanding 22-to-5 K/BB ratio to go along with a ground-ball rate of 61.8 percent. He also pitched 5 1/3 innings in the postseason, allowing two runs on seven hits and no walks with eight strikeouts (3.38 ERA).
• Ron Gardenhire lost out on the Padres’ job but “the feeling” is that he could always go back to the Twins organization and work in some capacity.  However, Gardenhire’s preference would be to manage for a major league team again.  Gardenhire has extensive postseason experience from his time with the Twins, having led the club to six AL Central Division titles in 13 seasons and also bringing the team to a Game 163 tiebreaker that was lost to the White Sox in 2008. However he also has a disappointing 6-21 record in the playoffs, having only captured one series victory (against the A’s in 2002).