Here are the highlights of the latest from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe:
- 15 years after rejecting an offer from the Red Sox that would have made him the highest-paid GM in the game, the Athletics’ Billy Beane says he doesn’t regret staying in Oakland. “It turned out pretty well for the Red Sox and I have had a great run here and have enjoyed it here a great deal,” says Beane, citing a desire to be closer to his family as one reason he stayed. The Red Sox, of course, instead hired Theo Epstein, who led them to their first two World Series since 1918.
- The Marlins feel they’ve made a significant upgrade in replacing hitting coach Barry Bonds with Mike Pagliarulo. Bonds obviously knew how to hit, as Cafardo notes, but “communicating it and devoting himself to it became an issue.” Pagliarulo has been proactive about developing plans for Marlins hitters. The Giants, meanwhile, hired Bonds as a special advisor.
- Melvin Upton Jr. might not remain a free agent for long, Cafardo writes. Upton hit poorly in his brief stint with the Blue Jays, but had previously revived his career in San Diego, and there’s hope he can once again turn things around. “You just never know when you get him on the uptick and that feeling is what teams are going to look for when they need an outfielder,” says one American League evaluator. The Padres are paying most of Upton’s remaining salary, so he’ll be a cheap addition for his next team.
- The Royals began their season by getting swept by the Twins and will have to perform well in the next few months, or else the team could move quickly to deal free-agents-to-be like Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain. Jason Hammel and Ian Kennedy could also hit the market if the Royals were to struggle.
- The city of Las Vegas “really wants” an MLB team, particularly after landing an NFL team in the Raiders, Cafardo writes. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has previously expressed interest in Las Vegas as an MLB market.
Las Vegas Rays or Las Vegas Marlins, get it done.
Move Astros to Central, move Tigers to East.
Move the Rockies to Central, move Pirates to East.
It would most likely be the rays to be the team to move since marlin park is 5 years old and the rays are looking for a new home
It will more likely be the As and not the rays. To keep the west aligned. The rays will more than likely end up in Montreal to keep the east aligned.
people have an overly nostalgic view of Montreal as a baseball market. Baseball’s likely in no hurry to get back there any time soon.
somewhere in the Carolinas is a much more likely landing spot for the Rays. Baseball’s pretty big there in general and the population’s rising fairly rapidly. Barring that a third Texas team in Austin or San Antonio is also much more likely than Montreal.
You get what I’m saying though
Montreal wants a team. They got screwed over after the strike and lost interest from a cheap owner. Carolina is full of minor league ball and I don’t see a pro team getting in there. This is something the nationals and braves would fight.
that’s the narrative, that the Strike and Loria conspired against them
the truth is a bit more stark, unfortunately. They’re a fairly small city who’s heart will always belong first to hockey in close proximity to the heartland of the Red Sox and Yankee fanbases.
They’d be one of the smallest cities with a team in a bad geographical location competing with a more popular sport for limited local revenue… basically another Oakland….
and the fact that Carolina can support so many minor league franchises should tell you just how popular the sport is there. Atlanta and Washington might complain, sure, but it’s one of the most logical choices.
Minor league doesn’t interfere with major league for the most part
Os fought the expos going to D.C.
I really do not think anything will go to Carolina in my humble opinion
I could see something in Utah if it doesn’t get to vegas
Montreal loved the Expos too. Hamstrung by a crappy stadium that wasn’t downtown, like several teams (who have now built downtown stadiums, like MTL will have to do). And, of course, the strike & crappy owners (the last real one – not MLB itself – being Jeffrey Loria, whose crappiness cannot be denied). Bring ’em back!
you honestly believe any owner’s going to want a stadium in a state that heavily restricts the sale of alcohol? and who’s largest population center ranks as the 124th largest city in America?
I live in Austin. It’s not a baseball town, and the fans are already devoted to either the Astros, Rangers, or UT.
You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. Metro Montreal is the same as Boston’s which puts them in the top 10. The actual city of Montreal would rank in the top 5 largest MLB markets.
Buddy come back to the board
The teams make sense but they’d need a name change to move to the desert.
Not the Rays……..as in, ultra-violet Rays.
This is clever. But I liked the Devil Rays the most. 🙁
Horrible choices. Require changing divisions around entirely. Hate the idea of moving an East team to the West. A’s make about 1000x more sense if a team has to move to Vegas
Poor Oakland….
Not really, the Pirates can just move to the east and swap with whichever Florida team goes.
Cleveland is the furthest east in that division. Would be cleveland to al east
The AL East doesn’t need to be any better than it already is.
That leaves one division with an extra team. 4 Divisions of 4 teams and that gives 6 playoff teams.
AL East Baltimore, Boston, New York, Toronto
AL North Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota
AL South Houston, Kansas City, Texas, Expansion (Carolina or San Antonio)
AL West Anaheim, Las Vegas (Tampa), Oakland, Seattle
NL East Expansion ( Montreal) New York, Philly, Pittsburgn
NL South Atlanta, Cincinatti, Miami, Washington
NL North Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Colorado
NL West Arizona, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco
Top 4 in and 4 WC. Expands the playoffs and reduce the season to 154 games like they have been talking about.. 1st round 3 of 5. Next 2 rounds 4 of 7 then the WS.
First of all they are tv people who talk about shortening the season..the owners would never go for it. Montreal didn’t and couldn’t maintain a team. I mentioned Vegas as an option for the Rays in a previous article and people scoffed. MLB has the right number of teams and adding instead of moving 1 or 2 doesn’t make sense.
I get it. Just trying to make it all work. Just last week there was a group talking about having money to get a franchise in Montreal. Yes, it didn’t work before but Washington failed a couple of times, too. (Rangers/Twins).
I think a lot of folks would like shortened seasons. Including the players. The extra playoff money gets spread out to make up for the loss of 8 games.
Don’t mix football with baseball it’s stupid enough how playoff teams are made already
Expansion works well there’s so many good players unsigned and in the minors. The league needs to make the DH rule for NL.
I hate the idea of moving a team. The only way this works is a 2-team expansion (probably Vegas and Montreal would be the most likely places)
They still need to realign the divisions so you don’t have 2 divisions with an extra team. Or they could just go back to 8 AL/NL West and 8 AL/NL East and take the top 8 into the playoffs.
Las Vegas A’s makes the most logistical sense
Oakland’s a dead-end market as long as the Giants are in SF, and you wouldn’t have to rearrange the divisions by shifting an east coast team to the west coast
Seems like a perfect — Las Vegas Rays in yet another domed stadium
What if you move the rays to Charlotte or another major city in the Carolinas (north or south) and they stay in the same division. I’m not from that area so I don’t know who is the main market team for that area (fan favorite).
I am from CLT market. The White Sox AAA team just built new stadium downtown three years ago, and it doesn’t look capable of being expanded significantly beyond its 11,000 capacity. It would need to be tripled at minimum in order to have enough tickets to sell to MLB games, and I don’t think there is enough land upon which to expand.
Athletics makes more sense
Maybe MLB adds 2 teams. Vegas and once again Montreal.
expansion isn’t a good idea when you’ve already got current teams in unsustainable markets
Vegas Rays, Vegas Marlins? I’m ok with that, as long as they take The other mention in the article! Billy Beane! Get him out of Oakland! Please, I’m begging!
There is no way the marlins go anywhere. They just got a new ugly stadium and a long lease with the city
and it’s a big media market in a fairly populous state, so it’s too soon to pull the plug on it until seeing what they can do with a real owner in charge
The MLB in Vegas will completely destroy any interest they had in hockey. The NFL already kind of screwed over the NHL, the MLB would just pile on it. The only way the NHL team had a chance in surviving was if it could establish a fan base before the others. No chance they can do that now if there is a team moving there.
Las Vegas Athletics
Upton Jr. Back to San Diego? They are paying him already. Why not? 4th outfielder until Dickerson gets back.
As much as I don’t wanna c the As move from Oakland. There colors of green and gold kinda fit in Vegas
It would be interesting to see how Beane did with a little more money.
Vegas? That is funny since the raiders contract will end up costing each Vegas property owner $1000 + I don’t see any team going to Vegas soon. The contract the Raiders signed is a very bad deal for Vegas. Money that did go to the schools and transportation from hotel taxes now go to the raiders. That money will be now taxed on home owners. So Vegas people celebrate until the bill comes due on your higher taxes.
I didn’t realize that. if accurate. Simply sad how people with the fiduciary obligation of protecting their constituents simply screw those same taxpayers. Thank God for great home viewing options today. Even when offered free tix, I choose not to go. $10 beer, $40 parking? Most expensive part of family cable, ESPN and the regional sports networks. Absolutely amazing and not in a good way.
It definitely is not accurate. He is going off of a report by someone who was running for some political office in Nevada and ran his mouth and then Slate took it as truth and reported on it. It is fake news.. The tax is a new hotel tax and doesn’t replace anything that was in place before it. Also, there is no new property tax and I have no idea where he got that information from.
Vegas won’t be able to support 1 team let alone a 2nd even more a third. Most people in vegas are broke
Highest paid GM? Hasn’t won a thing.
Oakland is gonna be the new destination to move to in 20 years… It’s like now where NHL fans want someone back in Quebec, the NFL got the Rams in LA, and MLB fans want back into Montreal.
As a White Sox fan who is relocating to Las Vegas for a job, give us the Sox! Chicago doesn’t care about them anyway and don’t need two baseball teams. The Pale Hose will be loaded by 2019 and ready to put a winning product on the field. They can move to the AL West and the Astros can move to the Central. Boom. Done.
Bad move Beane
Overly simplistic to say “Montreal didn’t and couldn’t maintain a team” without acknowledging the impact of Jeffrey Loria’s refusal to negotiate an English-language broadcast deal as part of his successful attempt to scuttle that franchise, buy the Marlins from John Henry at a discount so the latter could buy the Red Sox, and sell the Expos to MLB for scrap. Loria and Pohlad each profited nicely in the end from all that contraction talk.
Don’t forget crooked selig in all of this – worst mlb commissioner in my life. Which is really saying something, since i have the memories of kuhn.
Beane is not the problem… A’s top brass is…
Money talks to the people who run MLB–especially taxpayer money. LA showed it was willing to spend for football, so it’s just a question of how much more they are willing to give away.
Yeah, let’s move 3 teams around for one joke of a franchise. The real move should be to Montreal where there is already a market and a fan base waiting for a team. How many Montreal exhibition games have been sold out now?
Lol carolinas, Sure guys. Guys dont know enough about the montreal situation to comment like that. They have a new downtown location ready to build a stadium, on the canal. Beautifull location, the only problem would the parking. 350k attendance in the 2 pre seasons games they host at the big O every year, Which was way to far from the city core in the first place. They have an intrest group thats worth billions that is waiting out untill its feasable, which is an entity associated with the provincal goverment. The small metro pop comment is ridiculous. Montreal is the Vegas of canada. I would bet on expansion but they will get a team within 10 years. 55k a spring traing game is no joke. Ive never see so many grown ass men cry being at the big O at a Jays – Pirates game, hilarious.