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Archives for October 2017

Cubs Hire Chili Davis, Brian Butterfield, Jim Hickey

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6:10pm: Hickey has evidently put pen to paper, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that the agreement is “official.”

5:30pm: Chicago is nearing agreement on a deal to bring Jim Hickey aboard as the new pitching coach, Patrick Mooney of NBC Sports Chicago tweets. Hickey long served as the Rays’ pitching coach, including a long run with Maddon. He had reportedly drawn interest from quite a few other organizations as well.

12:22pm: The Cubs announced today that they’ve hired former Red Sox coaches Chili Davis and Brian Butterfield to their staff. Davis will take over for hitting coach John Mallee, who will not return to the organization. Butterfield will be the team’s third base coach, replacing Gary Jones. Additionally, the Cubs announced that minor league hitting coordinator Andy Haines will be the team’s new assistant hitting coach, replacing Eric Hinske, who took a job as the Angels’ hitting coach earlier this week.

Davis and Butterfield were both a part of John Farrell’s coaching staff in Boston through the end of the 2017 season, but the Red Sox gave permission to Farrell’s staff to explore other opportunities. Their hiring in Chicago makes them the second and third members of the Red Sox 2017 coaching staff to take new jobs today alone; Carl Willis was named pitching coach of the Indians earlier this morning.

The 57-year-old Davis enjoyed a highly productive 19-year playing career as an outfielder and DH with the Angels, Giants, Yankees, Twins and Royals. He hit .274/.360/.451 with 350 career homers in just under 10,000 MLB plate appearances and won three World Series rings as a player (’91 Twins, ’98-’99 Yankees).

Since hanging up the spikes, Davis has also emerged as a well-regarded hitting coach, first taking the position with the Athletics (2012-14) before joining the Red Sox (2015-17). He drew interest from the Padres in the same role and has also been listed as a speculative managerial candidate at times. While there are many in the Boston organization that deserve some degree of credit, Davis was the primary voice guiding Boston’s rising crop of young bats, including Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi and Xander Bogaerts.

The 59-year-old Butterfield will bring more than two decades of coaching experience to the Cubs. He’s previously held various positions with the Yankees, Blue Jays and D-backs, serving as a first base coach, third base coach and bench coach at the Major League level.

Giants Announce Coaching Staff Changes

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The Giants have announced a broad shake-up of their coaching staff, which will remain under the charge of skipper Bruce Bochy. Most notably, perhaps, the team will shift long-time bench coach Ron Wotus to third-base duties while filling the resulting opening with Hensley Meulens, who had been the hitting coach.

Wotus has been on the San Francisco staff for two decades, most of it as the bench coach. He has filled that job under three different managers, in fact, and has often been cited as a managerial candidate himself. Now, though, he’ll cede the job to Meulens, who (per the announcement) will “take over the day-to-day administration and participate more directly with Bruce Bochy’s in-game strategy.”

In other moves, the Giants have added Matt Herges as bullpen coach and decided to keep Jose Alguacil (first base coach) and Shawon Dunston (replay/on-field instructor) in their current roles. The club bid adieu to Phil Nevin, who had functioned as the third base coach.

Additionally, the Giants have reassigned the rest of the pitching and hitting staff members. Long-time pitching coach Dave Righetti will move into the front office as a special assistant to GM Bobby Evans, with last year’s bullpen coach Mark Gardner taking on a “special assignment” role. Assistant hitting coach Steve Decker will become a baseball ops “special assistant,” per the club.

Evans explained the moves, which are fairly notable but perhaps aren’t all that surprising after a miserable 2017 campaign, as driven by a need to maintain the team’s “edge” in a highly competitive industry. It’s necessary, he says, “to constantly infuse new ideas and energy at every level of the organization, on the field and in the front office.”

There will be a few new voices in the dugout, too, though their identities remain undetermined at this point. In the wake of today’s announcement, the Giants still need to hire a pitching coach, hitting coach, and assistant hitting coach. The club says it is still conducting interviews for those jobs.

Agency Notes: Fernando Tatis Jr., Andrew Toles

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A couple of recent agency switches over in the NL West…

  • Padres top prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. is represented by MVP Sports, as ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. There had been indication that Tatis was changing representation, but it seems that is not the case. The 18-year-old wunderkind raked at a .281/.390/.520 pace as one of the youngest regulars in the Class-A Midwest League before receiving a late-season bump to Double-A. Tatis ranks as one of the game’s top overall prospects (No. 15 on Keith Law’s midseason top 50; No. 51 on MLB.com’s top 100; No. 101, per Baseball America). While Tatis has yet to make his MLB debut, it’s not inconceivable that the highly touted second-generation talent could do so late in the 2018 campaign. He figures to open next year in Double-A, so a midseason move to Triple-A or even a jump directly to the Majors from Double-A is plausible.
  • Dodgers outfielder Andrew Toles, who missed the majority of the season with a torn ACL, is now a client of Marc Anthony’s Magnus Sports, tweets ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. Toles burst onto the scene with the 2016 Dodgers, hitting .314/.365/.505 in 115 plate appearances down the stretch before shining with an .878 OPS in 11 postseason contests. He was off to a slower but still-solid start in 2017, batting .271/.314/.458 with five homers in 102 PAs when he suffered the ligament tear while trying to preserve Julio Urias’ no-hit bid with a running grab in the left-field corner. Toles spent the remainder of the season on the 60-day disabled list, accruing big league service time after undergoing surgery to repair the ligament. He’ll finish out the year with a year and 87 days of MLB service time, meaning he’d be eligible for arbitration (at the earliest) following the 2019 season and eligible for free agency following the 2022 campaign.

This agency news is now reflected in MLBTR’s Agency Database, which contains representation info on more than 2,500 Major League and Minor League players. If you see any errors or omissions within the database, please let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.

Brewers Re-Sign Eric Sogard

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The Brewers announced Thursday that they’ve re-signed infielder Eric Sogard to a one-year, Major League contract. Sogard had been set to hit free agency but will instead return to the Brewers rather than test the open market.

[Related: Updated Milwaukee Brewers depth chart]

Eric Sogard | Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Sogard will receive a guarantee of $2.4MM plus $650K worth of possible incentives. That includes $150K apiece upon playing in his 30th, 50th, 70th, and 90th games as well as another $50K if he raches 120 games played. Octagon brokered the deal on the player’s side.

Sogard, 31, inked a minor league deal with the Brewers last winter after missing the 2016 season due to knee surgery. The longtime A’s infielder came to Milwaukee with a reputation as a plus defender with a light bat but posted a career-year at the dish in 2017. After having his contract selected in mid-May, Sogard turned in a .273/.393/.378 batting line with three homers, 15 doubles and a triple over the life of 299 plate appearances.

Most of Sogard’s defensive reps came at second base with the Brewers, but he also played shortstop and third base in addition to logging eight innings in left field with Milwaukee. The knee injury that cost him the 2016 season didn’t appear to have any adverse effect on Sogard, as Defensive Runs Saved pegged his work at second base as five runs above average (in just 365 innings) and his glovework at shortstop at two runs above average (160 innings).

“Eric brings to the team a veteran presence who possesses the ability to play multiple positions and reach base at a high rate,” said general manager David Stearns in a press release announcing the move. “We are pleased to welcome Eric and his family back to Milwaukee for the 2018 season.”

SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter) and MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy (Twitter link) reported financial details.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mariners Outright Ryan Garton

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The Mariners announced Thursday that right-hander Ryan Garton has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma, thus removing him from the 40-man roster.

Garton, 28 in December, was acquired from the Rays alongside catcher Mike Marjama in a minor August swap. Garton actually pitched rather well following his trade to Seattle, tossing 11 2/3 frames and allowing just two runs (1.54 ERA) on five hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. He averaged an even 92 mph on his heater to go along with a 41.2 percent ground-ball rate. All told, Garton has a career 4.55 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a 44 percent ground-ball rate in 61 1/3 Major League innings. Presumably, he’ll compete for a spot in the Seattle bullpen next spring.

Cubs Claim Jacob Hannemann, Designate Mike Freeman

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The Cubs on Thursday announced that they’ve claimed outfielder Jacob Hannemann off waivers from the Mariners and designated infielder/outfielder Mike Freeman for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster. Hannemann was originally with the Cubs earlier this year but was claimed off waivers by the Mariners in September. He’ll now return to the organization that selected him in the third round of the 2013 draft.

The 26-year-old Hannemann made his MLB debut with the Mariners following that claim, though he collected just 20 plate appearances over the final month of the season and hit .150/.150/.300 (3-for-20 with a homer and four punchouts).

Through 322 PAs with Triple-A Iowa in 2017, Hannemann slashed .265/.324/.404, though his rough Double-A performance dragged his cumulative batting line down to a less palatable .240/.312/.372. Baseball America rated Hannemann as Chicago’s No. 23 prospect last offseason, writing that he has 70-grade speed and is the “best athlete in the Cubs system.” However, he also has a fringy arm in the outfield, per their report, and has never demonstrated that much power in the minors.

The 30-year-old Freeman saw time with the Cubs, Mariners and Dodgers in 2017, appearing at all four infield positions but mustering just a .100/.182/.183 slash in 66 trips to the plate. Freeman’s jack-of-all-trades status on the defensive end of the spectrum and quality on-base numbers in Triple-A have made him a desirable commodity to round out 40-man rosters over the past couple of seasons, though. He’s played every position other than catcher over the past two seasons and has a career .312/.377/.420 batting line in parts of four Triple-A campaigns.

Reds Claim Micah Johnson Off Waivers

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The Braves announced Thursday that infielder/outfielder Micah Johnson has been claimed off waivers by the Reds. Cincinnati has plenty of open space on its 40-man roster, so a corresponding move isn’t needed to accommodate his addition.

Once considered the second baseman of the future for the White Sox, Johnson went from Chicago to the Dodgers by way of the three-team trade that sent Todd Frazier to the Reds to the ChiSox. Johnson spent the 2016 season in the Dodgers’ organization but was flipped to Atlanta last January. He enjoyed a solid run with Atlanta’s Triple-A affiliate, hitting .289/.377/.400 in a small sample of 155 plate appearances but also missed a significant portion of the year due to a fractured left wrist.

Cardinals To Name Mike Maddux Pitching Coach

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The Cardinals are set to hire veteran pitching coach Mike Maddux to replace Derek Lilliquist, who was let go after the season, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (on Twitter). Maddux has spent the past two seasons as Dusty Baker’s pitching coach with the Nationals but was not renewed after his two-year contract with the Nationals expired.

Maddux, 56, has been a big league pitching coach dating back to the 2003 season. He spent six seasons in that role with the Brewers (2003-08) before moving on to occupy that position with the Rangers (2009-15) and Nationals (2016-17). The older brother of Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, Mike has developed a reputation as one of baseball’s best pitching minds after a successful 15-year playing career and now another 15 years as a big league pitching coach.

Twins Hire Garvin Alston As Pitching Coach

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The Twins announced on Thursday that they’ve selected Athletics bullpen coach Garvin Alston as their new pitching coach, replacing the previously dismissed Neil Allen.

Alston, 45, was the Diamondbacks’ bullpen coach in 2016 and opened the 2017 season as the Padres’ coordinator of pitching rehab before joining the Athletics as their bullpen coach for the bulk of the 2017 season. He’s served as a minor league pitching coach and minor league pitching rehab coordinator with the A’s for parts of 10 years as well. Alston made a handful of appearances with the 1996 Rockies during his playing days and spent parts of nine seasons playing professionally after being taken in the 10th round of the 1992 draft.

With the Twins, he’ll be tasked with molding a young staff that is fronted by veteran Ervin Santana but otherwise figures to consist largely of still-developing arms. Young Jose Berrios is among the Twins’ most important core pieces, and top prospects Stephen Gonsalves and Fernando Romero could both figure to factor into the Twins’ 2018 plans (though both will almost certainly open the year in Triple-A). Alston’s background in pitching rehab is also of note for a club with Phil Hughes (thoracic outlet surgery), Trevor May (Tommy John surgery) and touted minor league relievers Nick Burdi (Tommy John surgery) and J.T. Chargois (stress reaction in right elbow) all missing the majority of the season due to injury.

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