Here’s the latest from around the AL Central…
- White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf issued an official statement regarding the Adam LaRoche retirement controversy, noting that this will be the last public discussion of the matter by any White Sox employee. Reinsdorf expressed his respect for LaRoche and his full confidence in the White Sox management team. “I do not believe there is anyone to directly blame in this situation. While there is no doubt this might have been handled differently, the fact remains that this is an internal matter that we have discussed and now resolved,” Reinsdorf said, also noting that he felt “much of this was a result of miscommunication and misunderstanding rather than this being a case of anyone not telling the truth.”
- Marlon Byrd’s minor league contract with the Indians has up to $2.5MM available in incentives, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian reports (Twitter link). The veteran outfielder will earn a base salary of $1MM if he makes the Tribe’s big league roster.
- Ross Ohlendorf can opt out of his minor league deal with the Royals today, Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star reports. If the team wants to keep the veteran righty, it will have to put him on the 40-man roster. Ohlendorf posted good results in 19 1/3 innings of the Rangers bullpen last season, though his path to a similar role in K.C. could be difficult given the number of other good arms in the Royals’ relief corps.
- “It’s a possibility” that Victor Martinez may not be ready for Opening Day, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus told reporters (including MLB.com’s Cash Kruth). Martinez hasn’t appeared in a game since straining his left hamstring on Monday. Ausmus said the veteran slugger could swing a bat tomorrow for the first time since the injury, though “we’ve got to wait and see.”
- As David Ortiz enters his final season, the Twins’ infamous decision to release the slugger in 2002 is revisited by Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Twins GM Terry Ryan took responsibility for the release, calling it “a very bad baseball decision. We thought we had better options. We were wrong in a big way.” Ortiz is still dismayed about his treatment with the Twins organization, noting that the focus always seemed to be on his shortcomings rather than the positives he could bring in the form of his power bat.
My Sox should mail Terry Ryan a couple World Series replica rings in thanks for basically handing us the future HOFer that is David Big Papi Ortiz
Ortiz will have an interesting case for the HoF. He put up excellent numbers and won numerous rings. However, the writers view DH’s in a negative way and Edgar Martinez (while not as successful) has shown that the ballot will not be a lock.
Plus there’s the 2003 drug test.
You guys are way off base, Papi is going to stroll into the HOF on his first ballot. That 2003 BS is nothing more than some butt hurt NY Times journalist spreading lies about Papi due to his jealousy. Papi has been clean his entire career.
Papi probably won’t be in the HoF.
Hes a steroid-accused DH. They don’t exactly get votes often.
He’s a Hall of Famer, failed drug test or not.
Piazza was steroid-accused and less credentialed than Ortiz, albeit at a premier position. And he’s in the Hall. Steroid-ACCUSED should mean nothing, steroid PROVEN is what should keep you out.
With all due respect, that’s a completely speculative statement. The silence after his protestations of innocence speak volumes. No one has ever rebutted the failed test, or explained it, except in the manner you do–which is it never happened because we don’t want it to have happened. If we are going to start down that road, then we can expand the Hall right now for a number of other, worthier players. And the idea that, even Juice-free, he’s a first ballot HOF is laughable in the context of the history of the Hall and the voting procedures. It even took Piazza five years,
What you have made is what you claim happened–a baseless accusation, and made it in a crude way.
Maybe the voters let someone with as low a WAR in, and maybe they look past the PED allegations. But the idea that he’s entitled to special treatment is ludicrous, and even more so when you look at the far more qualified players, with the same taint on them, who have been denied access.
Of coarse you gonna say that LOL So he failed a test, the reports are that trainers in the organization showed in 2002 and 2003 how to proper administer then to your self if you are gonna do then and you still say the whole team is clean right? Get over buddy. He did use them.
Yes, the New York Times is known for being unprofessional.
There is no evidence that Piazza used steroids; Ortiz, as mentioned, failed a test.
He won’t make it into the HOF in his first year of eligibility.
You are an Ortiz fan/apologist, and you can’t/won’t see what the rest of baseball sees: (1) Ortiz is a one-dimensional player and always has been, (2) he does not have many friends among the baseball writers who vote for the HoF because of his arrogant, self-entitled attitude, (3) DHs have been undervalued as players by the HoF voters (see Edgar Martinez and Harold Baines), and (4) regardless of whether you want to believe he was a steroid user a large portion of baseball fans think he was. He may get into the Hall, but it will be a struggle.
Very few are first ballot hall of famers, actually. The plus for Ortiz is being a Red Sox player. Outside of that he’s basically Jim Thome without a position. He’s certainly an entertaining player…but he’s a stretch HOFer for me. So was Jim Rice and Andre Dawson by the way.
didn’t big papi admit to the drug use a couple years ago
I bet you said the same thing about Manny too. Ortiz failed a test. That is not up for debate. Unless you are a delusional fool, which you have proven more than a few times to be the case. Big Phony took PED’s. Grow up and get over it just like every other fan base has when one of their players got popped.
He may get in, but definitely not on his first ballot.
Kid, he admitted to using PED’s. He won’t be a first ballot. Keep thinking that the Red Sox are the kings of baseball. You’re a tool. #trynottosuck
When is a failed test steroid-ACCUSED and not steroid-PROVEN? If HOF voters are keeping out players such as Bonds, there is no way they can justify voting in players such as Ortiz.
David Ortiz is currently tied for 182nd in lifetime WAR–among hitters. Add 3 WAR for this year, and that moves him to about 160–among hitters. There are many more deserving possibilities than Ortiz.
Agreed.
His war is low because he doesn’t play defense
The fact that he doesn’t play defense hurts his case.
Gotta agree with Papi fan here. If you are going to bring up his defense , then are you going to complain about Batting Average of AL pitchers
My guess is a lot of the big sluggers prior to the DH were not exactly gold gloves.
He’s a case for Red Sox east coast notoriety for hall of fame. He puts up the same career and never leaves Minnesota we’re basically thinking of him like Jim Thome.
That’s apples and oranges. Do you complain about position players nonexistent ERA or lack of innings pitched? Defense is half the game for a position player and it’s fair to critique a players inability to play defense.
Closers only pitch one inning at a time and are getting in the hall. They pitch 1/6 the innings as starters. While i certainly dont think papi is a first ballot, he has been the premier dh and certainly has a case. He has the longevity as well as the peak for a h.o.f case. The only tarnish is the possible failed test when said substances were still legal. He has also played the majority of his career with more rigid testing. I think he gets in but in like year 5 for him, or 10 years or so from now.
David Ortiz feeling slighted still over something that happened 14 years ago? I don’t believe it.
Given the success Ortiz has had since you’d think he’d be grateful for the way everything turned out.
What does the White Sox front office really think about Adam leaving the team? How many days do you wake up and find an unexpected 13 million dollars in your bank account?
He’ll get something of that 13m…but yeah…its nice
No, he won’t. He retired therefore no buyout needed.
So did Cuddyer…but he was given a settlement by the Mets. Won’t be surprised to see LaRoche get 5-7m
I think Toronto already had an uphill battle with such top notch talent entering walk years and others anchored to giant contracts long term i.e. martin. However, they’ve never been more screwed with Shapiro at the helm. That jamoke has kept the Indians out of contention for years. We were always 3-4 hitters away from competing when he’d go out and get a reclamation project the property brothers wouldn’t touch. I feel relief he’s finally left, even though we still feel his shock waves throughout our franchise. Rest assured though blue Jay fan, he’s the destroyer of worlds and you’re next on his list.
Thanks for your comment Jer. Now go back to your nap. Thanks for making the Chicago White Sox into the Chicago Browns.
Ortiz is a juicer like a rod
If Ortiz is truly still harboring ill will towards the Twins 14 years and a fine Red Sox career later, he doesn’t need motivation, he needs therapy. Seriously, they goofed, and it worked out well for you. Get over it.
““Anyone who says it was a financial decision is dead wrong,” Ryan said. “It was a very bad baseball decision. We thought we had better options. We were wrong in a big way.”
Okay. then why didn’t the Twins trade Ortiz?
Even if the trade results in a meager return, at the very least, you receive some sort of yield. It’s just baffling.
go jays, I believe the answer was that the twins would have had to have tendered Ortiz a contract. They didn’t think he was worth the money.. They had already paid him $950K for his age 26 year (which doesn’t seem like much, but this was 2002, and the MLB minimum was $300K. Oritz had a total of 2.6WAR for his time in Minnesota, over what amounted to about three years of PA, with his last year there 1.3 WAR, He couldn’t really play the field and the team was ultra-frugal, and didn’t expect him to take it to the next level. Terrible decision in hindsight, but obviously the intervening factors that drove up his performance came later.
War for a dh needs to be changed imo. They take way too much a penalty for defense that they don’t play. Sure it would be better if they had some versatility but they arent asked to that, and it doesn’t penalize the team other than not being able to rotate veterans in that spot.
@mike156
the issue that is that Terry Ryan explicitly said it wasn’t about money, and that it was a bad baseball move.
The thing is that in 2002, Ortiz had a OPS+ of 120. That’s good enough to play as a DH on most teams. There would’ve been a market for a guy like Ortiz.
(weirdly enough, if Terry Ryan did say it was all about a tight budget, profit/losses, etc., then that would make more sense, as I recall the Twins being in dire financial straits at that time)
gojays–I know he said it, but I’m not sure that wasn’t a little bit of revisionist history. If you recall, the 2002 Twins were one of the two teams that MLB teed up for contraction. They were looking for leverage in labor talks with Union, and they wanted to induce some state and local stories. Google stories about it–Twins and Expos were supposedly the 2 teams the owners voted in late 2001 to eliminate.
Sorry but I still think that it’s past due for Kenny Williams to be sh*t canned…he seems to be about as unsure as his boy Kyle was returning kicks in the playoffs for the 49ers a few years ago
Might want to stop with the Kenny Williams bashing. He did not create the situation. Players and staff complained to management. Williams politely asked LaRoche to “dial it back. LaRoche ignored him. Williams brought the hammer down, and LaRoche ran. Williams was doing his job (as president) as all Sox management – including the owner – discussed how to handle the situation previous to Willimam first talking to LaRoche.
When Harry Truman brought back General Douglas MacArthur from Korea for ignoring his instructions, they met in the Oval Office. Harry politely explained to him that he respected MacArthur as a great General that the country owed a debt to, and that he understood the great General not being happy taking orders from little Harry Truman. But then Truman explained that that he might be little Harry Truman, but for whatever reason he was President of the United States, and Generals report to their Commander in Chief – the President. Harry said the problem was not that MacArthur ignored his instructions. It was that MacArthur ignored the President of he United States instructions. I understand people in America today not wanting to be lectured about something like this, as everyone believes they are entitled to do whatever they want whenever they want to do it – and everyone else needs to get out of their way. But I think this entire episode would not have occurred had an employee listened to the person that all employees report to. Call it a “miscommunication” and move on.
You seem to know a bit about history Samuel, my hat is off there.
In that regard and with just a short post, rather than long answer that would like on a sports blog? Mac’s want to in turn take it to North Korea and China was the correct response, rather than sit on their (America’s) respective thumbs as Harry intended to do and squander the chance he had to kick them both back.
Proven once master of the Anzio “sit fest” Mark Clark took over once Mac was relieved and the Cold War at the 38th parallel has remained for over 60y.. Thanks to Harry…
You are sadly mistaken if you think the US could have kicked all the butt you talk about. The Army was in no shape to take on such a mission and I’m afraid the butt kicked would have been ours.
Until a player comes forward saying they actually complained about Adam’s son I won’t put any credence into the speculation that it happened. If anyone believes Williams said Dial it back, they are misguided. Reisendorf said himself the issue could have been handled better. I also wish ppl would stop comparing this to the real world. When they pay 10 million plus on Reg jobs then make the comparison.
You won’t believe what multiple writers have reported– not speculated upon– but you’ll speculate yourself by saying that Kenny Williams didn’t tell LaRoche to decrease the amount of time Drake LaRoche spent with the team.
Williams is the vice president not to nitpick. I take his side, there were reports he told different people different things which is in poor form and i can get some outrage from that.
In Minnesota, Ortiz was an oft injured, good, but not great hitter with negative defensive and baserunning value. People forget that he didn’t become the hitter he is today until he became teammates with Manny Ramirez.
I find the most interesting part of that article are the quotes from Jerry Remy, Boston’s longtime TV analyst. “He has been amazing, because if you look back through history, the home run production of sluggers usually falls off sharply after 35.
“One thing unique is that even the best hitters, as they get older, will speed themselves up to make sure they don’t get beat by a fastball. That makes them vulnerable to off-speed pitches.
“That happened to Yaz [Carl Yastrzemski] late in his career. He had a lot of trouble with the breaking ball.
“Papi … he still can get to the fastball and yet he punishes the off-speed pitches.”
It’s amazing how he has been able to have a better OPS+ from age 36-39 (151 OPS+) than he did from ages 26-29 (144 OPS+).
Unlike Edgar Martinez Ortiz has three World Series rings. But he will not be first ballot HOFer.
David Ortiz has a failed drug test on his record. How will the HOF voters justify electing him into the Hall while keeping out players such as Bonds?
He failed a survey, when it wasnt penalized and roughly 10% of all mlb players failed. Over 100 in total. Unlike arod, braun, or manny he hasnt failed since, yet i feel like he gets villafied just as much. Its been 12 yrs since he failed or like 80% of his career.
Bonds didn’t fail any of MLB’s tests or surveys, is a far superior player to Ortiz and still hasn’t even been close to getting in after multiple years. If players such as Ortiz get in and Bonds doesn’t, that will just prove what a farce the HOF is.