A 2022 season shortened by the lockout would have a statistical impact on every player, particularly veteran names like Adam Wainwright. The Cardinals veteran is looking forward to one final season with retiring longtime teammate Yadier Molina, and if the duo joins forces for 20 more Wainwright starts, they’ll set a new record for most games started by a battery (breaking the Mickey Lolich/Bill Freehan mark of 324 starts). “Any time you can say you had the most all-time ‘anything’ in baseball is a real accomplishment,” Wainwright told Rick Hummel of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I just look so much forward to having an opportunity to break that record with my buddy, Yadi. I hope we get enough starts to make that happen. We just need the season to start.”
To this end, Wainwright is hopeful of a good result in labor talks between the league and players, but feels “these owners are going to have to come around, though. They’re kind of crazy with their asks. I guess when you own the company, you want to see how far you can stretch it. The game of baseball is a very lucrative thing for players and owners. The ones that get left out of that are always the fans, unfortunately. Baseball sometimes just needs to get out of its own way and realize we could be the only show going.”
Though a delay to the start of Spring Training seems inevitable, Wainwright is continuing to work out as usual as he prepares for his 17th big league campaign. This work was temporarily delayed by a recent bout of COVID-19, though Wainwright said his symptoms were relatively mild.
More from around the National League….
- “The Dodgers seem to be positioning themselves to have a young wave of pitching ready in the second half of next season,” The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya writes, citing Dustin May’s return from Tommy John rehab and the impending big league debut of prospect Ryan Pepiot. Los Angeles hasn’t been shy about immediately putting its young arms into key roles in the rotation or bullpen, so Ardaya believes the Dodgers will look to acquire a veteran “stopgap” kind of starter to cover some innings before the youngsters arrive. Clayton Kershaw’s free agency also continues to loom over the L.A. offseason, yet Ardaya feels the Dodgers would “likely” still try to land that second-tier arm even if Kershaw also re-signs with the team. Such moves would give the Dodgers six starters on paper (with Kershaw and the stopgap joining Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, Andrew Heaney, and Tony Gonsolin) before even considering the likes of May or Pepiot, though having a surplus would be a welcome problem for a Dodgers team that had its depth thinned by injuries in 2021.
- The Phillies hired Chris Fonnesbeck as the top analyst in their research and development department earlier this offseason, The Athletic’s Matt Gelb reports. Fonnesbeck worked in the Yankees’ analytics department from 2019-21, and also spent the 2018 season working as a consulting analyst for the Brewers. The Phils have put a new focus on their analytics team this winter, hiring Arirudh Kilambi as the team’s new assistant GM and putting him in charge of R&D.
am I the only one who’s not willing to buy into Pepiot after only one full season in the Minors? Not saying he’s a bad prospect, but top 100?
I certainly don’t see him as some kind of top level prospect the Dodgers can count on. Man. Half of the Dodgers current rotation is made up of Gonsolin and Heaney. I’m sure they still have some moves left but man, this team looks a whole lot worse than last year. I don’t care how much money they spend. Paying Trevor Bauer $45 million to probably not even play for the next year is really going to hurt this team. It would really hurt any team to pay a player that kind of money to not even show up. I don’t think there is any way out of that contract for them. No team is going to trade for him and they have no legal grounds to get out of that contract. Ozuna still has a job and he was more likely than Bauer to miss paychecks. Next year, Bauer’s contract makes Ozuna look like a steal. From an NFL perspective that would be like a football team signing a top tier quarterback just to watch him get a season ending injury before game 1. You can bet on Bauer picking up that 2023 option, too. At least it’s less money but no one else is going to pay him $17 million on top of the $45 million for next year.
Gonsolin has pitched seven innings once in his entire MLB career and more than five not once last season. Counting on him for the rotation is a stretch.
Dustin May won’t be full go until 2023. Starters take a full 18 months minimum, more likely near 2 years to get back 100% from TJ, so counting on getting anything from him next season is silly.
Pretty sure MLB is going to suspend Bauer for the season. If that’s the case, the Dodgers aren’t on the hook for his salary. They’ll only be on the hook for his 2023 salary, which is still $17 million
If he gets a 162 game suspension I’m pretty sure it would be backdated to the middle of last season when he was put on leave. But it’s a moot point really because he will appeal the suspension and if the appeal doesn’t go his way, he will sue MLB and the union such that nobody will know who owes who how much for years most likely.
Until his case is resolved in a court of law the Dodgers will continue to have to pay Bauer on “administration leave” because MLB will do nothing until then.
Perhaps a prolonged work stoppage will benefit the Dodgers in the fact that maybe, just maybe the Bauer issue will be resolved. May will be closer to returning, and maybe Kershaw will too (assuming he re-signs once the lockout is over)
Not so. If the DA declines to press charges, the commissioner can then complete his investigation and impose a suspension under the joint policy. Normally the length of the suspension would be negotiated between the commissioner, the player, and the union, but that won’t happen here because the player will refuse to accept any suspension. He then has the right to an appeal, which he would almost certainly lose. Then he sues everybody. But to your point, the moment a player lands on the ineligible list due to a suspension, the team is no longer required to pay him. In this case the team probably also gets sued, but no way are they going to write him million dollar checks while they are waiting for the lawsuits to be resolved. Any money they aren’t required to pay him, they won’t pay him.
But that’s the whole point. Until the DA’s office finishes its investigation nothing will happen. So if by opening day (whenever that is) this is still ongoing Bauer goes back on “administrative leave” and continues to get paid. The league will not act before that. It would be naive to completely write off the Dodgers paying any money to Bauer this season until something actually happens. If you live in Southern California and have watched any news you probably realize Bauer is the least of Gascon’s office concern right now
True, but I was responding to your statement that nothing can be done until the case is resolved in a court of law. Not so! If Bauer is charged the player hits the restricted list and the Dodgers no longer need to pay him. The joint policy action is mooted. If he isn’t charged, the commissioner can act under the joint policy (pretty quickly I suspect) and for whatever number of games he is suspended the Dodgers won’t have to pay him. This is how all of these situations have worked so far. But this one is different because the player won’t accept a suspension. The likely timing of this and what might be happening behind the scenes nobody who isn’t directly involved with this process knows. I didn’t represent any knowledge or even theories about whether these rulings would happen before the start of the season because I have no idea. All I know are the possible scenarios, and they are potentially catastrophic for MLB, the MLBPA, and possibly for the Dodgers. I don’t think many people appreciate how much damage this guy is planning on doing to baseball.
You’re right. Bauer’s career is over unless a team in Mexico or Asia wants him. Knowing this Bauer is going to fight MLB to the death. Lots of teams and players better be ready to play defense because these things tend to usually escalate to becoming about more than what the issue actually is about
His MLB career might not be over if he was prepared to do what every other player in his situation has done, which is take responsibility for his actions, accept the penalty for exercising poor judgement, and move on. Lots of players have done this successfully. But Bauer is missing that gene, so instead he’s going to hurt baseball as much as he can, and he probably can quite a lot. The situation was a bad look for baseball when it broke last year, and it won’t get better especially if the next chapters play out against the background of labor unrest. Very tough sledding ahead for baseball, I’m afraid.
You’re right, BlueSky. There is a lot of ugly on the horizon for baseball. None of us know Bauer personally, but we’ve all seen enough to know he will probably go to great lengths to stand on his hill – which doesn’t bode well for anyone being able to move on. The sooner a suspension can be finalized, the better.
This situation has to make the Dodgers a little more wary of character red flags going forward. No one saw this kind of situation coming – but we all knew something would come with him.
Expecting MLB to suspend Bauer for the season is fool’s hope. After all this time, Bauer still hasn’t even been charged with anything. If the DA had enough evidence to charge him they would have done it already. Imagine if they had enough evidence but they just sat on their hands. Bauer could still be out there victimizing people while the DA does nothing. They haven’t charged him because they don’t have enough evidence to charge him.
To Blue Skies point, the commissioner could still, in theory, give Bauer a lengthy suspension but he won’t. Ozuna was actually charged with a violent felony and faced decades in prison. The commissioner gave Ozuna a backdated 20 game suspension and he is eligible to play on opening day. That’s the biggest penalty Bauer could possibly get considering he wasn’t even charged. Bauer is going to start receiving full paychecks from the Dodgers during the first month of the season and it’s never going to stop until his contract is up. He is probably going to get all of his paychecks and serve no league enforced suspension.
The Commissioner just gave Ozuna a slap in the wrist and made him eligible for opening day despite the fact he was charged with a violent felony. He’s not going to turn around and throw some kind of heavy suspension at Bauer after that even though Bauer hasn’t been charged with a single crime. I can promise you that. After the Ozuna outcome and the lack of charges against Bauer I am very surprised some people still think the Dodgers are going to get out of paying Bauer. If the Dodgers we’re going to avoid paying Bauer, the Braves would have been able to avoid paying Ozuna. That didn’t happen. From a legal perspective, Ozuna was much more worthy of a serious suspension than Bauer has ever been. Manfred isn’t going to tell the world that Bauer’s alleged and uncharged actions are worthy of a serious penalty but Ozuna being charged with a violent felony makes him okay to take the field on opening day.
@Please, Hammer. Don’t hurt ’em…
“Expecting MLB to suspend Bauer for the season is fool’s hope.”
I’m not sure how long he will be suspended, but the DV policy grants the commissioner the authority to suspend players even if they are never arrested let alone convicted. Players have incurred lengthy suspensions for less than what Bauer did and by all accounts, Manfred is probably going to try to make an example out of Bauer.
“If the DA had enough evidence to charge him they would have done it already.”
Well that’s simply not true. The allegations surfaced in late June/early July so if he was formally charged tomorrow it would have been a little over 7 months. That would actually be considered a SHORT investigation for this sort of thing. The authorities want to have ALL the evidence before they move in to make an arrest because they want to make sure a conviction is guaranteed.
@legendary: you are too concerned with what the rules allow Manfred to do than what will actually happen. Those same rules allowed Manfred to suspend Ozuna indefinitely for being charged with a violent felony. Manfred decided Ozuna is good to go opening day. What makes you think he is suddenly going to change course with Bauer and treat him worse than Ozuna’s violent felony charge?
@Please, Hammer. Don’t hurt ’em…
1. Bauer’s case has gotten a lot more publicity than Ozuna’s so Manfred might impose a longer suspension than he otherwise would have in order to save face or make it look like he is hard on players who do what Bauer did.
2. Bauer being or not being charged with anything means nothing.
@legendary: I see your logic. After looking at the Ozuna body cam footage, I think it is very likely Bauer did something far more egregious than what Ozuna did. In the NFL case about Ray Rice, the video really hurt him. It looked terrible. I’ve seen far worse things than what was on the Ozuna video take place in downtown, Queens, Orlando, Miami, Cleveland and several other places with police officers just trying to diffuse the situation and not charge anyone with anything. So I get your point.
What I’m saying is, Manfred is opening himself up to a lot of legitimate criticism and bias claims if he punishes Bauer more than he punishes Ozuna. The commissioner office is supposed to be at least as neutral as the legal system. He can’t really tell the Braves that they still have to pay Ozuna even though he was charged with a violent felony but tell the Dodgers that they get out of paying Bauer’s record 1 year salary when Bauer was charged with nothing. That would look like serious bias against the Braves and in favor of the Dodgers.
The big money Dodgers would get out of paying a player who has been charged with nothing while the small money Braves still have to pay a guy who was charged with a violent felony and faced decades in prison? Manfred is not going to consider himself a more important judge than the actual judges in our legal system. That would creat more problems for him. Manfred is also trying to protect his own behind.
If Manfred punishes Bauer more than he does violent felony charged Ozuna, he is opening himself up to a legitimate lawsuit from Bauer. He doesn’t want that either. Any Bauer suspension relies on him being charged with a crime. Manfred would have no excuse otherwise. Any long term Bauer suspension relies on him being charged with a violent felony. Manfred let Ozuna slide while being charged with a violent felony so he has no excuse to punish Bauer more when he hasn’t been charged with anything.
I agree that everything could change with Bauer if he is charged with something in line with it worse than Ozuna. That’s what I am saying is fool’s hope. I have worked in the legal system during the Covid backlogs. I know prosecutors. I have seen many terrible cases that occured well after Bauer’s and have been resolved for months. There is definitely a backlog right now but Bauer’s media attention has in all likelihood moves his case to the front of the line. Prosecutors want as few people thinking they are sitting on their hands as possible and more people are looking at this case than almost any case in that prosecutor’s plate. I 100% believe, based on experience, the prosecutor would have Bauer already if they had enough evidence. There is no video evidence. There is no DNA evidence. There is text message evidence supporting Bauer’s disgusting statement about what he wanted to take part in. There is also more than enough evidence to destroy the credibility of the person making the claims against him. That person is also the only evidence against him. It’s basically believe her testimony and he is guilty. Believe she is a liar and he is not guilty (as far as a court of law is concerned). There is plenty of evidence to prove she is a liar and specifically lying about this case. There is also plenty of evidence to suggest she intentionally sought to do this with Bauer for this express purpose and that she graduated to it after working on guys like Clevinger and Tatis. She has zero credibility and she is on record asking him to make it more “rough” than they were already doing.
I’m not suggesting Bauer did nothing wrong. I find his actions very disgusting even if any woman were to go along with them. Far worse than anything I saw in the Ozuna body cam footage. Manfred’s job isn’t to take specific moral stances, though. His job is to hold everyone to the same standard and let the real judges be the judge. There is far more than enough evidence to suggest Bauer’s alleged victim intentionally wanted him in this situation and even talked him into it. Bauer’s biggest problem isn’t the law, right now. Bauer’s biggest problem is that the vast majority of Americans think what he did was absolutely disgusting even if it was consensual. That’s not a legitimate reason to punish him more than someone else who was actually charged with a violent felony, though. If you are a Dodgers fan and you are worried about the organization letting that disgusting person put in their uniform again, don’t fret. The Dodgers would never disgrace the organization by allowing that to happen.
If you are a Dodgers fan hoping they will be able to free up any significant payroll space because of this, I would suggest not wasting your hope. At least it was a short term deal.. by 2023 it will barely matter and by 2024 it will be totally meaningless. The Dodgers will have a great competitive team regardless of what they pay Bauer.
For the record: The Dodgers are my favorite to sign both Kershaw and Rodon to fill out their rotation. I’m willing to be they have a third big signing in them on top of that. It’s the Dodgers. They are more likely than any other team in baseball history to spend like the Bauer contract never happened. I could totally see them looking at it as they made a mistake by signing him so they are going to not let the fans be punished by that. The Dodgers are probably just going to continue spending and pretend they never signed Bauer in the first place. The team is super competitive right now and they seem like the kind of organization that would believe they at least owe their fans that much.
I don’t see it.. His case was dismissed and as much as I don’t like the guy you can’t prove he did anything wrong over a he said she said thing so ur probably gonna have him pitching.. your not going to give him over 60 million in next row years to walk away
They already declined charges
It’s funny that this guy says he doesn’t care about how much money the Dodgers spend then goes on a lengthy rant about how much money they’re spending on Bauer.
Bauer is playing softball at a complex near my house. He should be ready to go when asked. (Sarcasm)
Did I ever tell you about the time I saw Trevor Bauer at a grocery store in Beverly Hills? I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to bother him and ask him about the abuse allegations or anything. He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?” I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying. The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter. When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.
Yeah, i can see Bauer being that way in person. Sounds sort of like the story about Mike Leake when he was a rookie and stole a bunch of t-shirts because apparently he thouth being major League Baseball player meant everything was free
Woah, he is one weird dude, but I guess we kind of knew that already. When did this happen?
I’ll take ‘Things that never happened’ for $500, Alex.
I’m not as high on him but the Dodgers easily have the best pitching pool in the minors.
Analytics is the worst thing to ever be introduced to baseball.
Why is that? And are you aware analytics started in the 19th century?
Dude you are talking about nerds trying to make math sense in baseball controlling freak athletes. Did analytics work in the Braves making four or five trades at the deadline to win the WS after their best player blew his knee out in the regular season?
Do you think they didn’t use analytics to help them decide which players to trade for and how to use them?
The Phillies will suck but the Mets will still finish below them.
Wainwright says the owners are crazy with their asks. Believe he’s got it backwards.
As a fencesitter on the labor dispute issue, it seems really disingenuous for him to say that. It appears like the owners were making concessions with things the PA is in favor of like the fWAR-based pay (performance-based pay is something the PA wants for pre-FA guys, albeit not WAR based), pre-arb bonus pool, and a limited draft lottery, as well as their early abandonment of age threshold for free agency. Outside of that, it’s the status quo–the same conditions that the MLBPA agreed to 5 years ago
Why the hell would the MLBPA agree to the “status quo” when players have been unhappy about varioius aspects of the game? That’s the point of the new CBA and the negotiations.
Sure, i just bought a jersey with an owners name on it. I watch games to see the best owners in the country with skills that 1 percent of the country has. No owner has lost money owning a baseball team. If its a buisness, than give up the antitrust exemption. Just like in every other type of business ,the successful companies give part of their profits to the ones that don’t bother to compete. GTFOOH with your nonsense
The player’s association has basically conceded at every turn in these negotiations. Wainwright is spot on
The league basically just stopped negotiating. And this is a lockout, not a strike.
It blows my mind how consistently deep the Dodgers are. It’s not just about the money, it’s how smart they are AND the money. Hell, even last season they made it to within two games of the World Series while seriously depleted of some high end/leverage players vs a fully loaded Atlanta team.
Agree on everything until your last point, Atlanta’s 2 best players were missing.
I disagree. They had adequate time to replace them and their production. The Dodgers lost Muncy on the last game game of the season. Wasn’t Scherzer not even available? Big difference than what the a braves had.
No acuna, soroka, or soler (1 ab )
“Fully loaded”
The rest is true though
Bring on 2023
It’s really weird how it’s so difficult for those on one “side” to look at things objectively. What Wainwright says here about the labor dispute is exactly what we see in modern political party politics. An unwillingness to see acknowledge what your side is proposing that is unreasonable to the other party and then compromising to get some of your wants and accepting some of the other sides asks. Your side is doing things right and the other is bad and incompetent. Seems the MLBPA wants all the marbles this time instead of trading marbles. I’m usually on the players’ side, but some of their demands have been big stretches from the previous CBA and I totally get why the league would refuse to give in since it sets a new baseline for CBA’s going forward.
The last three CBAs have given lots more power and money to the owners. Players are trying to get some of that back.
When there is an idiot in charge why listen Manfred(Biden)
We’ll, that would apply to the previous administration, too.
Let’s go Brandon!
you’re an idiot..
Well, if the Cards can get Wainwright 8 starts against the Pirates, they can just watch him throw his glove on the mound and pencil in the win.
Pepiot needs to get those walks down. Goslin shoulder. Heaney has an elbow of an Angel. Kershaw maybe needs TJ and would have it done if he was in the middle of a long contract and not a free agent. Yeah I say the Doyers are not done. Andre Jackson has a chance to start
The Dodgers aren’t done, but their pitching depth has been depleted. Heaney and Price may be very important parts of the rotation, especially early, and that should be terrifying to the Dodgers.
His name Anirudh not Arirudh please fix it!
His name is Aniruth, not Ariruth. Please fix it.
“I guess when you own the company, you want to see how far you can stretch it.”
Seriously, how dare the owners of a company try to get their way? That’s so pre-2020 of them.
I have all ways been a devoted baseball fan above any and all sport. I purchase 10-30 home games a year. Pay for cable packages just to watch the remainder of games and that is the only reason I purchase cable. This year I already have 20 home games purchased before the lockout. I know some fans have a stance for one side or the other to get paid more ( players or owners). I really don’t care about the millionaires or billionaires fighting for more of our money (fans). It is extremely distasteful to me. Just my perspective. Yet, I have decided if there is a baseball strike and my investments suffer (games purchased, cable agreements just to watch games) then I am 100% going to give up on this game for good and pursue more logical entertainment. Not one side has the fans best interest at heart. They both (owners and players) just want to keep pushing the bar as far as they can on both sides to keep squeezing more of the fans finances so they can bathe in it. I don’t know if it is due to time or circumstances I have went through in life, or the fact that I am 40 now and not a younger fan anymore. I have never missed a season or game. I am at my ropes with the whole process. Strike = lost fan for me.