Monday was one of the most stunning days baseball has seen in recent memory. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and A.J. Hinch, who oversaw several contending teams in Houston and led the club to a World Series championship, lost their jobs as a result of a sign-stealing scandal. Before accusations against the Astros arose several weeks ago, neither Luhnow nor Hinch looked likely to leave their posts for the foreseeable future. Now, though, the Astros are the lone team in baseball that doesn’t have a clear answer at either spot (though the Red Sox could join the Astros soon if the league drops the hammer on manager Alex Cora). But what about after the 2020 season? Which clubs could be in need then?
With help from the ever-valuable Cot’s Baseball Contracts, let’s take a look at clubs whose GMs and/or managers are entering contract years. As a reminder, this list might not be complete or fully accurate. Some teams may have extended their lame-duck executives/skippers and not publicized those moves yet, for instance, while other individuals in those spots could have less job security than it appears.
Angels: Entering the 2016 season, the Angels hired general manager Billy Eppler to helm a franchise led by all-world center fielder Mike Trout. As was the case then, Trout remains on a collision course with a Cooperstown plaque. The problem is that the Angels have continually failed to take advantage of his presence. Since Eppler came aboard, they haven’t even posted a .500 season. They’re also on their third manager (Mike Scioscia, whom Eppler inherited, then Brad Ausmus and now Joe Maddon) since their GM assumed the reins. Eppler has been rather aggressive this offseason as he works on a turnaround, though, having signed third baseman Anthony Rendon to a seven-year, $235MM contract, picked up catcher Jason Castro and added starters Julio Teheran and Dylan Bundy. The acquisition of a much-needed front-line rotation piece this winter has eluded Eppler, who will perhaps keep trying to land one before the season. Regardless, it appears to be put up-or-shut up time for Eppler. Should the Angels fail to make significant progress in the upcoming campaign, it seems likely they’ll have a new GM a year from now.
Blue Jays: The partnership consisting of president Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins has been going on since before 2016. The Blue Jays were then on the cusp of their second straight ALCS-bound season, but they’ve since launched a rebuild and endured three consecutive losing campaigns. Shapiro’s now going into the final season of his contract, though he and the organization are willing to discuss an extension, while Atkins’ status is a bit less clear. Atkins signed an extension last June, but it’s unknown whether it will go beyond the coming season. One thing’s for sure, however: This has been a busy offseason for Shapiro and Atkins, as the Jays have acquired four pitchers (Hyun-Jin Ryu, who cost the team an $80MM commitment, as well as Tanner Roark, Chase Anderson and Shun Yamaguchi) and infielder Travis Shaw.
Braves: The two-year extension Snitker inked in 2018 has a team option for 2021, in which he and the Braves will go for their third straight NL East title. Snitker, who took over as interim manager in 2016, endured a couple losing seasons before his recent run of success and has not been able to secure a playoff series win thus far. The overall results have been good, however, so it stands to reason the Braves will exercise Snitker’s option if they have another playoff-caliber season.
Nationals: The extension the Nationals gave GM Mike Rizzo a couple years back reportedly lasts through 2020, while manager Dave Martinez has a club option for ’21. Back when the Nats re-upped Rizzo, they were known as a talented team that couldn’t break through in the fall. That finally happened in 2019, the year the franchise finally took home its first World Series. Thanks in part to that triumph, it would be a stunner to see the Nats allow Rizzo or Martinez to get away anytime soon.
Royals: Like Rizzo, it doesn’t seem Moore’s in any danger of exiting his current organization. Moore, KC’s GM since 2006, has only overseen two playoff teams, but the Royals sure made those seasons count. They won the AL pennant in 2015 and then the World Series the next year. They’re now amid a rebuild and coming off two 100-loss seasons, and are likely in for another lean year. Still, new owner John Sherman is reportedly set to hand Moore an extension to keep him atop the franchise’s baseball hierarchy.
Tigers: GM Al Avila seems to be safe, at least from a contractual standpoint, but the rebuilding Tigers could go in another direction in the dugout soon. Veteran skipper Ron Gardenhire’s not signed beyond then, and there doesn’t appear to be any hurry on the team’s part to change that. While Gardenhire enjoyed plenty of success with the division-rival Twins from 2002-14, he signed off for a difficult job in Detroit. The club, which hasn’t had much talent throughout Gardenhire’s reign, has gone 111-212 on his two-season watch. The Tigers have somewhat beefed up their roster this winter, though, and that should give Gardenhire a legit chance to help lead the team to a better output than its 47-win mark in 2019. Detroit has redone the right side of its infield by signing first baseman C.J. Cron and Jonathan Schoop, improved at catcher by adding Austin Romine and landed innings-eater Ivan Nova for their rotation. Nothing splashy there, but Gardenhire’s probably happy to have those vets aboard after he had to guide such a sorry roster a season ago.
Yankees: This is the last guaranteed year of Boone’s contract, though his deal does include a club option for 2021. At this rate, the Yankees will exercise it, as Boone has made an almost seamless transition from the broadcast booth to the dugout. He has two 100-win seasons in as many attempts, has helped the Yankees to an ALCS, and nearly won AL Manager of the Year honors during an injury-laden 2019 for the club. Expectations will be even higher this season, though, considering Boone now has ace Gerrit Cole at the front of his rotation.
so who is signing a.j. hinch next season?
Boston
So Cora goes to the Astros then?
Cora will be suspended
Cora should be banned from baseball. He was the bench coach for the Astros and the Manager of the Red Sox during both incidents.
Any team that wants to win, and maybe create a new sign stealing scheme!
The Miami Marlins, so Jeter can prove that he’s not a Yankee stooge. Plus Hinch will be someplace irrelevant so the league won’t be as up in arms
A couple contracts expired today.
And more this week!
Why aren’t Beltran and Cora on this?
Did you bother reading it at all? He addressed Cora in the first paragraph and Beltran is in no risk of suspension or otherwise as he was a player for the Astros not part of the coaching staff or FA.
Astros interim GM and manager
As a RS fan I’m upset about Cora being a very stupid guy, and just ruining his career n damaging the RS, even though I realize he was not alone. As far as AJ goes I don’t buy him not just not enforcing a stoppage, there is no way Cora n Beltran would do this without approval from AJ. AJ is responsible for everything team wise, as Cora is in Boston. After the NYY onslaught in London all Cora said is the best acquisition the NYY did was Beltran, referring to his participation in Huston, n insinuating he is doing it in with the NYY, too. Beltran will dodge the bullets, but stupid Cora will be hung. DD I heard will be involved too, n Henry also. I feel sorry for Bloom n what a mess he walked into. And worse I feel badly for all the RS Nation, we surely don’t wanna see what will befall our team because of bad choices playing the game.
Hmm rings in ’18 and ’13. Rich owners. Noone will feel sorry for RS nation.
Beltran wasn’t on the Yankee squad during the London series.
I don’t think Dayton Moore should be extend past 2021. We need to see how the Royals play in 2021, the supposed competive year.
How someone like Eppler keeps his job is beyond me. Signing an All Star like Rendon will help but the rest of the D grade players won’t move the needle.
I wonder if he finally got the okay to spend some money. We have not seen the angels spend like this in a few years. Their rotation will be better and less injury prone. I doubt it’s enough to finish better than 3rd but who knows. That offense should be good.
Because he revamped a farm system, convinced ohtani to join him and has found other talent for nothing like robles/ la stella? Oh and he’s good enough to get mike trout convinced enough to resign for the rest of his career. Yeah, how does that GM still have a job.
I agree. What scares me about the thought of replacing Eppler is the common tendency of new GMs to trade their existing prospects for poor returns because they themselves didn’t draft them. The Angels farm system was the worst in baseball when Eppler arrived and he’s done an excellent job of turning it around.
Good point Otis… a new gm scrapping the farm system to push for a complete win now (which after would probably force) would be devastating.
Eppler inherited a mess. Bad farm system. Lots of contracts for guys like Hamilton, Pujols, Weaver who weren’t productive.
He’s definitely had his misses on guys like Harvey and Cahill and his drafts are mixed. At least most misses have been 1 year deals.
Bottom line, he’s been about a B, maybe B- in my opinion.
Hamilton was gone and Weaver had one season remaining when he took over.
@JDGoat Did you sleep through Angels History, or just cut class?
Eppler was hired before the start of the 2016 season.
Hamilton was cut from the team, but he was on the Angels payroll for $28M a year for 2016 and 2017.
Paying $56M to a player who isn’t on the field is a huge hole in any GM’s budget.
Keeping Mike Trout was a huge deal; the biggest transaction/event in team history (for many reasons). Getting Ohtani to come here, even speaking Japanese and having him feel comfortable, was another major Eppler milestone. Those 2 elements alone have me pro-Eppler. That being said, hes had terrible misses in Harvey, Cahill, Cody Allen, Lucroy, Bour, Cozart, etc. His free agent acquisitions have really been subpar (outside of a few like LaStella) which I would also lay blame on the analytics team who should have seen the downward trends (esp on a guy like $11M Harvey).
David bell
I’m surprised Eppler has lasted this long. And after his mediocre off-season, he’s a lock to lose his job at the end of yet another subpar season.
He’s a good GM and this teams starting to come together because of him. He took over a team with nothing and people expect him to pull pitchers out of nowhere. He’s added so much talent to the angels organization it’s absurd to want him gone
Hahahaha what?! He took over a team with nothing? It’s the same freaking team + Ohtani!
What talent has he added? What has he done besides Ohtani? Seriously!
Dr_Doom. You should really look up the angels 2015 roster compared to the one now. Your memory seems to have forgotten what our roster was in 2015 and what eppler has added too it, so plz inform yourself
shane’s wife? or hubby?
Gonna be real hard to support the angels when they let eppler go for a big name like dombrowski or something man
David Dombrowski will probably be hired by the Astros soon…
Oh, and there’s no way the bats haven’t extended rizzo behind the scenes right? What else could they be waiting to see from him lol.
Rizzo’s extensions do not get done until the team is fully constructed, usually at the end of Spring Training
Way off topic, but did nested comments go away? I have no idea who is replying to whom anymore.
go to your phone and you will see.
I’m on a laptop and they are working just fine for me
On my phone, they don’t work for me. Here’s an example. The ‘I’m on my phone…’ comment should be nested underneath Vizionaire’s comment but instead it’s at the bottom.
i.imgur.com/P6KevkI.jpg
I’m on my phone. For each comment, the replies are not nested. They’re all just under the parent comment.
Snitker and the Braves are going for their 3rd straight NL East title in 2020, not 2021.
The Royals won the AL pennant in 2014 then the World Series in 2015.
With Cora all but guaranteed to be suspended for a season plus and get fired by the Red Sox, I wonder if Manfred would go after Dave Dombrowski as well. I believe he was their GM (correct me if I’m wrong) and he explicitly warned teams that both the manager and GM would face severe discipline if their teams were caught using technology for an advantage. While DD was already let go from Boston, he has stated that he wants to continue his career, so I wonder if he will get penalized as part of this unfortunate stain on baseball.
Uhg. Please, no more Snitker.
Both Luhnow and Hinch to the Jays as soon as the suspensions are completed please.
The best solution for the Astros right now is to promote Craig Biggio, who works for their FO now anyway. Bring in DD as some kind of executive advisor or something to help him out. Yesterday was a heck of a hit for the Astros, and who better than the beloved Biggio to lead them out of the morass.
Manager? Bochy would work; Bucky would work. Somebody with unquestioned integrity. even if they only hang around for a year.
Boston? Roneikie is already there if Cora gets bounced, and he’s pretty well regarded.
Eppler has done a decent job, at this point. But without trading Trout, there was no way to retool the farm system over night. The only draft pick the idiot that is now in Seattle, that has helped the Angels, is Middleton. That idiot in Seattle only won one trade in his time with the Angels. That was finding someone dumb enough to give anything for Conger. The farm system was historically bad when Eppler took over. Canning looks to be a solid starter. Fletcher is probably the most underrated player in the majors. Thaiss the jury is still out on how good he will be. All three of those players were drafted by Eppler. Addel and Marsh will be getting called up soon. Sandoval has the best pure stuff of the Angels young pitchers. Still have to wait and see if he can learn to control his secondary pitches.
While Dipoto didn’t have many first round picks due to the Pujols/Wilson/Hamilton signings, the picks on the historical list from 2013 and 2014 cause one to assume the person who was making the list was inventing names to place in the slots—these are players who never cast a shadow in the Angels minors. It is easy to say “Dipoto didn’t have high draft picks”, but when he did have one in 2015 it was Taylor Ward. I’ll give him credit for Middleton and Fletcher, and for Jahmai Jones if he ever turns into a big league player.
But the percentage of misses in the Dipoto era is just staggering. Guys who never went anywhere, guys who have already retired from the game. Dipoto is responsible for the scouting and the methodology for valuation of the talent, and he and his team guessed wrongly in a spectacular manner.
Dipsnot quit in May of 2015. So Stoneman drafted Fletcher. Because he filled in as GM after Dipsnot quit.
To be exact, Dipoto resigned 7/1/15. The draft that year was 6/8-6/10. He got that draft completed before he quit. I’m not a huge fan of the guy but I’ll give him credit for this draft.
But even had he quit in May, as you stated, the legwork for the draft was largely done. It was simply making the decision of best available when the slot rolled around.
Astro’s fired their manager and GM after MLB suspended them for one year. But they are finished in MLB, because its all about trust and no team will trust them and risk what the Astro’s got.
Cora who is being labeled the mastermind of the entire cheating scheme in Houston and then bring it to Boston is being called the biggest cheat in MLB, he’ll likely receive a life time ban.
Carlos Betran was a big part of the cheating in Houston, but Manfred said MLB is not going after players so Beltran might escape being banned since he was an active player, however the Mets will be looking long and had at him and asking if they want a manager with a history of cheating guiding their team.
A lot of people got hurt by this cheating. Joe Girardi, Yu Darvish, the Cleveland Indians, the L.A. Dodgers (twice), Clayton Kershaw.
I’m not positive but I swear I saw Dave Dombrowski at Intercontinental in Houston tonight when I was getting my bags