Here’s the latest from Ken Rosenthal, via a video for FOX Sports:
- Departing Tigers manager Brad Ausmus says he would be open to managing a new team immediately, although he tells Rosenthal that there don’t seem likely to be many possibilities. Rosenthal, though, points out several, including the Phillies job as well as the Mets job, which is expected to open. The Braves could also be a possibility, and Rosenthal notes that if the Red Sox have a quick playoff exit and opt to part with John Farrell, Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski hired Ausmus while he was an executive in Detroit.
- Fredi Gonzalez looks to have many qualifications that could be attractive to the Tigers, including past managerial experience with a rebuilding club (the Marlins) and connections to Tigers GM Al Avila (with whom he worked while both were in the Marlins organization). The Tigers will, however, consider any number of other candidates. One they might not consider too carefully is Giants third base coach Phil Nevin, who the Tigers fired as their Triple-A manager near the end of the 2013 season.
- Astros utilityman Marwin Gonzalez could be a free agent to watch in the 2018-19 offseason, Rosenthal argues. Like Ben Zobrist, who received a $56MM deal two years ago, Gonzalez switch-hits and can play several positions in the infield and outfield. Gonzalez is also reaching the end of an outstanding .303/.375/.530 season. I might point out that Gonzalez doesn’t have Zobrist’s overall track record, but Rosenthal notes that Gonzalez will have only recently turned 30 at the start of the 2019 season, and that unlike Zobrist, he can play shortstop.
- Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks’ first-year arbitration case this offseason will be an interesting one, says Rosenthal. Hendricks has a 2.94 ERA over 100 career games, a number that compares favorably to that of Clayton Kershaw in his first few seasons. that isn’t to say Hendricks and Kershaw are similar players, as Rosenthal points out, only that Hendricks’ first arbitration payday could be a hefty one.
Hoping Marwin resigns with the Astros
Not Ausmus for Boston please!!! Meabe Cora, Vizquel or Many Acta
Manny Acta? Seriously?
Yeah I think Cora could be the next Dave Roberts
I vote for Cora but Farrell has not done anything to get let go yet.
Gary DiSarcina is a possibility for the Red Sox if Farrell is finally let go.
Ownership loves Ferrell! But….The GM might have other ideas!
Don’t see Boston happening right now for Brad but that is his lifelong dream to manage them. His mom was a fan and he was as a child
Ausmus should never get another job, if he does I feel bad for that team. He is a awful manager no way around it.
Joe Torre, Joe Maddon, etc all had rough beginnings. Ridiculous to make that judgement by first team that had so many other negative issues affecting it.
If you look at the Tiger’s team that Ausmus had, they were predicted at the beginning of each season to be no less than a wild card contender. That’s not a lot of ” negatives” to be working with. I do think he will do better with his next team, because of this experience.
Funny, that’s what they used to say about Ned Yost (before two WS appearances and one World Championship).
Disagree! Can’t blame him for what’s been going on the last 3 seasons!
Sorry, but Marwin Gonzalez “plays” shortstop worse than Ben Zobrist. Small sample sizes or not, both this season and over their careers, Zobrist has been a better shortstop.
If you’re going to use advanced statistics for everything else, you have to use them with defense (you don’t get to pick and choose when it suits your narrative), and Marwin’s UZR is worse than Zobrist at shortstop. Don’t bring “fake news” into your “analysis”. Always be truthful.
Don’t criticize Zobrist for who he is while building up Marwin for being worse at shortstop.
Zobrist: -10 DRS, -1.9 UZR/150
Gonzalez: 5 DRS, -6.3 UZR/150
At the end of the day, they’re about equal.
Plus you’re going off a comment that says Zobrist can’t play SS, which he doesnt. Zobrist hasn’t played SS with any type of regularity in 5+ seasons, and hasn’t played more than 20 games there in since 2014.
So yes, considering when both players were impending FAs, the writer’s original comment stands.
The Cubs don’t need Zobrist to play shortstop, but could he (adequately) if they did? Yes, at least better than Gonzalez.
I didn’t like the phrase “unlike Zobrist, he can play shortstop”. I’m not sure what we mean by “play” since the statistics say that Zobrist is still “better” than Gonzalez — both this season and over the course of their careers. No time frame demonstrates that Gonzalez is better, only that he’s played it more often than Zobrist recently.
Can you place Gonzalez at the shortstop position on the field, if needed, to field a better lineup? Yes. Can he “play” shortstop? Yes, but not better than Ben Zobrist, even though admittedly, both players are below average at the position.
A team could sign and ‘play’ Billy butler at shortstop but that does not give butler any type of leg up on zobrist.
He was not criticizing Big Ben. As a fan of Ben he was traded for nobody by the stros and came in to his own over many years , Marwin will as well , and saying fake news does not make it so. He was simply giving statistical analysis for our enjoyment. If you do not like it then read something else like espn (sarcasm).
Of course, you can pick and choose. The first reason is that UZR and DRS both require a minimum of 450 games of data to be an accurate measure of defensive performance and by that time they are useless as a predictive stat. The 2nd is that there is so little defensive data other than Statcast that all of the other defensive metrics can pretty much be dismissed out of hand.
Ausmus will never get a roster better then he had in Detroit. Multiple CY young winners, multiple mvps, an owner/gm that were willing to spend whatever necessary and he was 1 for 4 in making the playoffs and the 1 year they did make it they lost in the first round. Ausmus will never get a chance like that again. Plus Iv followed baseball Emmy whole life and never saw someone manage a bullpen worse then brad did. He’s an awful manager and doesn’t deserve the chance to ruin another franchise.
ERA may be the only thing going for Hendricks in arbitration. He doesn’t maintain a large amount of strikeouts or wins, both unfortunately relevant stats arbitration.
wins aren’t very important…strikeouts not so much either when considering a pitcher with a style similar to Greg Maddox.
Give me Varitek please
Kevin Cash will be managing Boston soon..
I’m surprised we haven’t heard David Ross’ name come up for the Red Sox job (assuming there’s an opening) . From all reports he’s a lock to be a manager someday.
Espn or Mlb job for Ross!! Varitek over him
Bring in Big Papi for the managerial role in Boston!