After a resurgent season in the Braves’ rotation, right-hander Anibal Sanchez tells Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he hopes to continue playing but hasn’t thought much about his future just yet. Sanchez, like many others, went through a lengthy free-agent odyssey last offseason and ultimately settled for a non-guaranteed deal with the Twins before being cut loose and signing a minor league deal with Atlanta. The 34-year-old adds that when he does eventually retire, he hopes to embark on a coaching career after taking a few years to spend time with his family. Sanchez has been arguably baseball’s best bargain, helping to a Braves’ staff with 130 2/3 innings of 2.96 ERA ball, 8.8 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a 44.7 percent ground-ball rate.
More from the division…
- Dansby Swanson’s partially torn ligament in his left hand has opened the door for either Ryan Flaherty or Adam Duvall to make the Braves’ NLDS roster, Mark Bowman of MLB.com writes. Were Swanson healthy, then Charlie Culberson would be viewed as an important bench piece; however, if Swanson ruled unable to participate in the Division Series after being evaluated this weekend, Culberson would step into the team’s starting shortstop role. Duvall has hit terribly since being acquired from the Reds prior to the non-waiver trade deadline, but he’d give the team an extra right-handed bat on a bench that would otherwise be stacked with lefties. Bowman notes that both Flaherty and Duvall could get a few starts in the final few games — both played today — as the team evaluates its options.
- The Phillies’ season is ending in a veritable free fall, but GM Matt Klentak recently gave skipper Gabe Kapler a vote of confidence. Kapler, however, spoke to Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia about his need to improve as a manager and a leader in 2019 and beyond, bluntly stating that he has “a lot of room to grow and improve.” To that end, Kapler is taking the unorthodox step of sending out an anonymous survey to the team’s coaches and others in the organization to evaluate his performance. Kapler candidly suggests that Phillies leadership “fell short” in preparing young players for the rigors of competing in a pennant chase, highlighting that as one of many areas the organization needs to improve moving forward.
- Injured Mets outfielder Juan Lagares participated in sprinting exercises Thursday for the first time since tearing a plantar plate in his left foot back in May, writes Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. He’s aiming to play in the Dominican Winter League to help prep for the 2019 season. Lagares, considered one of the game’s premier defensive outfielders, has hit just .258/.299/.366 through a mere 961 plate appearances since signing a contract extension that guaranteed him $23MM back in April 2015. Of course, he’s totaled 29 Defensive Runs Saved in barely over 2,000 innings in that time, which speaks to his excellence with the glove. Lagares has been an oft-mentioned trade candidate in recent years, though with $9.5MM still guaranteed on that deal ($9MM 2019 salary plus a $500K buyout on a $9.5MM option for 2020), it’s tough to imagine much demand in him this offseason, barring some salary relief.
Good for Kapler. Great to see an inexperienced manager making the effort to get better at his craft and come back stronger next year, I’m impressed.
impressed? that’s what’s expected of him to do. Impressive would be for him to resign his contract, demote himself to the minors and learn coaching there before trying in the majors again.
Die
Yes, because coaches do that
Or not, it literally says in the article he’s taking the “unsual step” mean it’s not what is expected of him.
That would be moronic, not impressive
Stan, well said.
Sure, I am excited watching the worse defensive team in the major leagues play! Great job coach!
Hint: Assign each player a position and keep them there the entire season.
He’s not a coach, his job isn’t to teach the players how to play defense. They’re a very young team that is probably a year ahead of schedule, they’re going to make mistakes. And having zero versatility is not a good thing.
As a Braves fan, I sure hope Kapler comes back next year.
I’m sure there’s a lot Gabe would like to redo…Be Bold is his deal, and he’s walking the walk…I’m a Phillies fan, and if you offered me 78 wins, 6 weeks in first place, and some meaningful games in September last March, I would have signed right up!!!
But if I had offered you the team spiraling out of control in September, would you have accepted?
That’s a managers job too.
I would have accepted that, because this team was playing above their pay grade most of the season…I had illusions of October baseball, even when things were clicking…but we are rolling in the right direction, finish be damned…
I had NO illusions…my bad earlier.
Would you have signed up for the rollover and die in September, letting playoff teams pound you
I don’t believe this club “rolled over”, they are pretty resilient…they just didn’t have enough to make it anywhere near the finish line…I’m pleased with the season, overall…
Kapler needs to get his head out of his IPad & stop going with the analytics every single time. Sometimes you have to go with what you feel & what you see. You aren’t going to succeed by relying on analytics alone. He used analytics for his defensive positioning and that hasn’t worked at all. His handling of the pitching staff has been an utter disaster.
Actually you need to think of how much worse the Phillies would have been WITHOUT defensive positioning. There have been some who had theorized that because of data based defensive shifts that the defensive abilities of each player was now less important, LOL well that theory may be blown out of the water now. In truth, Kapler was given a team full of known defensive liabilities (and more were traded for during the season). Is it any wonder they performed so poorly?
It is notable however that the Braves resurgence coincides with a stated goal of becoming a better defensive team (of course the young talent maturing ahead of schedule didn’t hurt).
And a lot of that imporved defense is because of the improved usage of analytics! AA brought that to Atl and Snit was open to it!
a lot of the improved defense is having 3 shortstops and Freddie Freeman in the infield, then having inciarte and Acuna in the outfield.
It is working in Milwaukee! Just saying!
“Dansby Swanson’s partially torn ligament in his left hand has opened the door for either Ryan Flaherty or Adam Duvall to make the Braves’ NLDS roster”
That’s a horrifying sentence.
Rockies + Phillies = collusion???
There’s no collusion there, be real. They’ve been in a complete freefall since the beginning of the month, and they looked just as terrible the series before against the Braves.
The Phillies’ “freefall” is them just regressing to what they were supposed to be all along. It’s just in the most excruciating way possible.
Fun little Braves fact: Teheran just broke Maddux’s single season franchise record for lowest batting average against in a season….baseball is crazy
That’s insane to think about. Cause had he controlled his walks, the guy could be in the convo for the Cy Young award. But he’s in the convo for not being in the rotation in the NLDS.
it’s bc the hits he does give up are HR’s
He was frustrating to watch, that’s for sure. Would absolutely dominate one outing, then the next he would seem like he completely forgot how to pitch
Sanchez is a pitcher, he controls the strike zone, doesn’t walk batters and when healthy always has an incredible ERA. Others with far more natural ability could take some notes.
“Kapler is taking the unorthodox step of sending out an anonymous survey to the team’s coaches and others in the organization to evaluate his performance.” If you want real feedback Gabe send the survey to the players, not coaches and others in the FO.
I spent most of my working life in middle to upper management. 2 companies I worked for had employees evaluate management and that was how you truly learn and where the most productive ideas come from.
I was thinking the same thing…..
Good point Cat Mando!
It’s extremely effective. Exit interviews like many teams do at the end of the season with players can be awkward for some. Pointing out your managers flaws face to face isn’t always easy for some. Anonymous surveys are better and no one knows the end product better than those in the trenches. I don’t care if it’s a store, factory or MLB team.
Machado at third would really improve the D.