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Mets Interview Joe Espada In Managerial Search; Don Kelly Withdraws From Consideration

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The Mets have interviewed Astros’ bench coach Joe Espada as part of their ongoing managerial search, reports Andy Martino of SNY (Twitter link). He becomes the fifth known interviewee, joining Matt Quatraro, Buck Showalter, Brad Ausmus and Bob Geren.

Espada, 46, has spent the past four seasons as the Houston bench coach. His first two years were under A.J. Hinch, and he retained that position even after the club moved on to Dusty Baker in the wake of Hinch’s firing for his role the 2017 sign-stealing scandal. Before his time with the Astros, Espada spent four seasons in the Yankees’ organization, the latter three of which came on Joe Girardi’s coaching staff. Espada’s time in the Bronx partially overlapped with that of current Mets’ general manager Billy Eppler, who worked as an AGM with the Yankees from 2012-15.

To date, Espada has no big league managing experience. He’s long been regarded as a viable candidate to land a top position at some point, though. Over the 2018-19 offseason, he reportedly interviewed for managerial positions with the Twins, Angels and Rangers, and he was reported to be a finalist for the Blue Jays’ job that eventually went to Charlie Montoyo. The following winter, he met with the Cubs and Giants — making a strong enough impression with the latter organization that he was once reported to be the front-runner for a position that ultimately went to Gabe Kapler.

Espada has also drawn interest from the other club with a current vacancy in the dugout. Britt Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported earlier this week that he’s expected to sit down with A’s brass as part of their efforts to find a replacement for Bob Melvin.

Of the six known candidates for the Mets’ position, five have now interviewed. The other — Pirates’ bench coach Don Kelly — appears to be out of the running. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported this evening (on Twitter) that Kelly has pulled his name from consideration for personal reasons. Presumably, that means he’ll reprise his role as Derek Shelton’s top lieutenant in Pittsburgh in 2022.

That’s not to say the group of five known to have interviewed are the finalists for the position. Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets that the Mets have an interview with an additional unknown candidate scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Update On Mets’ Managerial Search

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Not long after reports of the A’s conducting their first managerial interview surfaced, the Mets have begun an interview carousel of their own. SNY’s Andy Martino reports that the Mets conducted their first managerial interview today, and expect to keep the process going Tuesday. Among the identified managerial candidates include a trio of bench coaches— Houston’s Joe Espada, Tampa Bay’s Matt Quatraro, and Pittsburgh’s Don Kelly— as well as two veteran managers, Buck Showalter and Brad Ausmus.

Martino notes that the current list of candidates still has room to grow, but throws cold water on the notion that beloved Mets alumni Curtis Granderson and David Wright will interview after their names surfaced in earlier discussions. Whoever makes the shortlist and earns a shot at interviewing will meet with newly-minted GM Billy Eppler and his staff. Owner Steve Cohen will meet with vetted candidates some time after the initial round of interviews.

The identity of today’s interviewed candidate was none other than Brad Ausmus, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Ausmus has quite a few things going for his candidacy that surely helped net him the first opportunity to meet with Mets decision-makers. One such factor working in Ausmus’s favor is his relationship to Eppler, as Ausmus served as a special assistant to Eppler before being promoted to dugout manager in 2019 while the two were with the Angels. In other networking news, Fansided’s Robert Murray also notes that Ausmus is a Dartmouth alum like Mets president Sandy Alderson and assistant GM Bryn Alderson.

Unlike some of the candidates who have yet to interview, Ausmus also has a track record as a Major League manager. Between his time with the Angels and Detroit, he has compiled a 386-412 record as a manager, including two winning seasons at the helm and a playoff appearance. It probably also doesn’t hurt Ausmus’s case that his best season in Detroit coincided with Max Scherzer’s last season in the AL. Scherzer, one of the Mets’ marquee pickups this offseason, owns one of the game’s more fiery personalities and is perhaps best handled by a dugout operator who’s familiar with his tempo.

If Quatraro’s name rings a bell it may be because he interviewed with the A’s within the past couple of days. That the Tampa Bay bench coach has landed interviews for 100% of this offseason’s managerial vacancies is no surprise. The Rays have proven their division’s winningest team during Quatraro’s time as bench coach, no small feat considering the powerhouses that reside within those same confines. Martino reports that Quatraro is in line for a Tuesday interview.

There aren’t many updates for the remaining candidates of Espada, Kelly, and Showalter, though they all remain highly credible options in the wake of MLBTR’s profile of their candidacies last week. Jon Heyman does note (via Twitter) that Espada and Eppler share a “strong link” dating back to their time in the Yankees organization, and calls Espada a “serious contender”.

Red Sox, Astros Interested In Trevor Story

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The Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros have expressed interest in free agent shortstop Trevor Story, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman in his latest insider piece for Audacy’s “Big Time Baseball” podcast. Heyman reiterates that he’s also heard Seattle convey interest in the shortstop, as MLBTR covered prior to the lockout last week. As is the case with all player-team connections made in the lockout age, no talks can take place between either party until the lockout is lifted.

Interestingly, Boston was recently cited as a team who reached out to free agent shortstop Carlos Correa’s camp. The path to that connection being anything more than due diligence lies in moving All-Star Xander Bogaerts off the position, an option neither the player nor Boston front office have indicated is on the table. The takeaway from a potential Correa pursuit is in many ways identical to a hypothetical Story one— sign an All-Star shortstop to guard against a Bogaerts departure, improving infield defense in the interim.

Just like Boagaerts, Story has yet to give a firm indication that he’ll be anything but a shortstop heading into the 2022 season. As we saw with Boston’s recent reacquisition of Jackie Bradley Jr. however, the Red Sox clearly aren’t afraid of shuffling players around if it means upgrading their defense. Even on the heels of a modest-for-him campaign, metrics across the board agree that Story would be an improvement with the glove over the incumbent Bogaerts. Of course, with Seattle allegedly showing interest in Story as a third baseman it’s possible Boston can do the same, choosing instead to move Rafael Devers (a subpar defender in his own right) off his position for a presumed upgrade in Story.

The Houston connection, for what it’s worth, would require the least moving parts to bring Story aboard. With Correa out of the picture for now, the Astros have a clear opening at shortstop that Story could fill. As is the case with the Red Sox, a Story signing may push the team past the first luxury tax threshold if he signs somewhere in the vicinity of MLBTR’s predicted six-year, $126MM guarantee. This may be a bridge too far then for Houston, though they’ll likely have plenty of financial wiggle room as soon as 2023 (to say nothing of a CBA that may change entirely).

Financial complications aside, the Astros pursuit of Story may hinge on how ready they are to give top-ranked prospect Jeremy Peña a look. Peña dominated in a 30-game showing at Triple-A this year, swatting 10 home runs to go with a .287/.346/.598 slash line. The home run power is new, and certainly encouraging for Houston brass to consider, but still may not be enough to hand the starting shortstop job to a 24-year-old.

The Astros remain the top dogs in the AL West but should expect the overall competitiveness of their division to increase next year. The drop-off from a 7.2 bWAR Carlos Correa to whatever it is a rookie can produce may be less palatable than simply turning to a steady producer like Story. With Story locked in alongside Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve through 2024, the team would then have the benefit of shopping Peña around for talent beyond the infield, or can simply hold onto him as a very enviable depth piece.

Lance McCullers Jr. “About A Month” Away From Throwing

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Lance McCullers Jr. last pitched in Game 4 of the ALDS, as the Astros right-hander suffered a flexor pronator muscle strain that sidelined him for the remainder of Houston’s playoff run.  Tests at the time of the injury didn’t reveal any structural damage, and McCullers continued to give positive news when speaking The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome (Twitter link) and other reporters today before serving as an honorary captain for the NFL’s Houston Texans.

McCullers revealed that an MRI taken within the last two weeks didn’t show any damage, and Dr. Neal ElAttrache indicated that the graft McCullers received during his November 2018 Tommy John surgery is still in good condition.  The right-hander said that he is “about a month” away from beginning to throw, which represents a longer rest timeline than the six-to-eight weeks McCullers projected in late October.

Still, it would seem like McCullers is still tentatively on pace to proceed relatively normally during Spring Training, and then be ready for Opening Day.  (Obligatory caveat that the lockout could potentially delay the opening of spring camps and potentially the start of the 2022 season.)  Needless to say, the Astros would keep a close eye on any pitcher recovering from a forearm injury, but McCullers will perhaps receive particular attention given the one TJ procedure already on his health history.

That earlier procedure cost McCullers the entire 2019 season, though he has pitched well since his return to action.  The right-hander posted a 3.35 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate in 217 1/3 innings in 2020-21, with his fastball still sitting at its pre-TJ velocity.  Health-wise, McCullers had avoided any major issues prior to this forearm problem — a minimum 10-day IL stint in 2020 due to a neck strain, and he missed about three weeks this past season with shoulder soreness.

The Astros can only wonder what might have been if McCullers had been available against the Braves in the World Series, but the concern now is getting McCullers set for the start of the next season.  He will rejoin a rotation mix that includes Framber Valdez, Jose Urquidy, Luis Garcia, Jake Odorizzi and theoretically Justin Verlander, though Verlander’s reported two-year agreement with Houston wasn’t officially finalized prior to the lockout, and it is still unclear exactly what is causing the delay.

Latest On Mets’ Managerial Search

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10:04 pm: Martino tweets that while Granderson’s name had come up in initial discussions, he is not expected to interview for the position.

9:49 pm: Robert Murray of FanSided reports (on Twitter) that longtime big league outfielder Curtis Granderson is also under consideration for the Mets. The 40-year-old announced his retirement from playing in 2020 following a 16-year big league career that included a trio of All-Star appearances and a Silver Slugger Award.

Granderson had emerged as a respected veteran presence in clubhouses over the course of his career. He currently serves as the president of the Players Alliance, a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing accessibility within the sport for Black athletes. Granderson played four seasons with the Mets during team president Sandy Alderson’s time as the club’s GM. Prior to that, he spent four years with the Yankees — a stint that overlapped with Eppler’s time in the club’s front office.

6:35 pm: The Mets declined an option to bring back skipper Luis Rojas shortly after the end of the 2021 season. Two months later, they remain without a manager. After spending a significant chunk of the early offseason in the search for a new GM that eventually landed Billy Eppler, the Mets turned their attention to the player market last week in advance of the lockout. With clubs barred from making major league transactions for the duration of the work stoppage, the Mets and the Athletics, the other team currently without a manager, figure to zero in on those respective searches in short order.

Andy Martino of SNY reports some preliminary candidates, naming Astros bench coach Joe Espada, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, Pirates bench coach Don Kelly and former MLB managers Buck Showalter and Brad Ausmus among those under early consideration. Martino cautions that’s not an exhaustive list, and it’s not clear whether everyone in that group will get an interview.

No one from that group registers as much of a surprise. None of Espada, Quatraro or Kelly has managed at the big league level, but they’ve all been rumored as part of searches elsewhere. Espada, 46, has been the bench coach in Houston for the past four seasons, working underneath both A.J. Hinch and Dusty Baker. He’s interviewed for a few different managerial openings in recent years and at one point even looked to be the favorite for the Giants job that eventually went to Gabe Kapler.

Quatraro’s name has come up a few times over the past couple offseasons. Kevin Cash’s top lieutenant over the last three years in Tampa Bay, the 48-year-old Quatraro has interviewed with the Giants, Pirates and Tigers in winters past and was reportedly a finalist for the Pittsburgh job that went to Derek Shelton. Kelly has worked underneath Shelton in the Steel City over the past two seasons. The 41-year-old interviewed with the Tigers and Red Sox last offseason and was reported to be among the top handful under consideration for the job that went to Alex Cora.

Showalter and Ausmus, meanwhile, come with significant managerial experience. The former has been one of the more accomplished skippers of the past couple decades. Showalter, now 65, landed his first big league managerial job with the Yankees in 1992. He spent four years in the Bronx, managed the D-Backs from 1998-2000, the Rangers from 2003-06 and the Orioles from 2010-18.

Over his career, Showalter won Manager of the Year Awards at three of those four stops. He’s overseen five playoff clubs (including three division winners), taking the 2014 Orioles to the AL Championship Series. Showalter hasn’t managed since being dismissed by Baltimore after the 2018 campaign, but he’s continued to express openness to a return to the dugout.

Ausmus, meanwhile, has managed at two separate stints. He spent the 2014-17 campaigns at the helm of the Tigers, then managed the Angels in 2019. That stint in Anaheim overlapped with Eppler’s tenure as Angels’ GM, fueling immediate speculation upon the latter’s hiring with the Mets that he could look to bring Ausmus to Queens.

Prior to that stint as skipper, Ausmus spent the 2018 season as a member of the Los Angeles front office. Eppler’s Angels fired Ausmus after just one season in the managerial chair, but it was reported at the time that call was made by owner Arte Moreno (perhaps not coincidentally just one day after it was announced Joe Maddon was leaving the Cubs).

Astros’ Deal With Justin Verlander Not Yet Official

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As of last night, the Collective Bargaining Agreement between MLB and the MLBPA has expired and the league is officially in a lockout, meaning that no transactions will be permitted until a new CBA is ratified. This outcome had been widely anticipated throughout the industry, which is why there has been such a frenzy of deals in recent weeks, as many teams and players tried to cram in some of their offseason business before the lockout arrived.

One such deal that was reported a couple weeks ago was the Astros agreeing to re-sign Justin Verlander to a $50MM guarantee over two years, with an opt-out after 2022. However, Jon Heyman of MLB Network notes that the deal has not yet been announced and doesn’t seem to be official. Furthermore, the official MLB page for Houston’s 40-man roster doesn’t list Verlander’s name, nor does the signing appear on Verlander’s transaction tracker.

At this point, it’s unclear why the deal was not officially inked before the CBA expired and there’s no reason to suspect that it’s in any sort of jeopardy. However, it is at least noteworthy that it will apparently remain in a state of limbo as long as the lockout continues.

Verlander’s last full season was 2019, where he threw 223 innings, racking up 300 strikeouts with an ERA of 2.58, winning the AL Cy Young that year. However, Tommy John surgery put a halt to his 2020 after throwing just 6 innings and caused him to miss the 2021 season entirely. Shortly after the end of the season, the 38-year-old held a showcase to demonstrate that he was back to full strength and seemed to have succeeded in that regard, garnering robust interest in his services. About a week later, the reports of the deal with Houston emerged.

Astros To Hire Sara Goodrum As Director Of Player Development

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  • Sara Goodrum, believed to be the first woman in Major League history to hold the role of minor league hitting coordinator, will leave the Brewers to become the Astros’ director of player development, according to MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy.  She’ll follow a pair of path-breaking women — Marlins GM Kim Ng and Orioles director of baseball development Eve Rosenbaum — who’ve been hired to prominent front office roles. While her elevation to her new role represents another in a series of major steps forward for women in Major League Baseball, Goodrum is also one of several other women employed by teams in coaching roles in recent years.
  • The Reds announced a series of coaching changes Monday.  Former Astros farmhand Rolando Valles has been promoted from major league associate coach to major league assistant coach.  Kyle Arnsberg, the game-planning coach for Double-A Chattanooga, was also promoted to an assistant coach role on the MLB staff.  Former Vanderbilt infielder Joel McKeithan has been named a major league assistant hitting coach and offensive coordinator.  Bullpen catcher Nate Irving has taken over Arnsberg’s old role in Chattanooga, where he’ll also serve as the bench coach.

Outrights: Scrubb, de Geus, Martin, Anderson

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As a busy evening of contract tendering (and non-tendering) draws to a close, some players find themselves in a new position of being outrighted off their team’s 40-man roster. The following players cleared waivers and remain with one of their organization’s minor league affiliates:

  • Right-handed Astros reliever Andre Scrubb has been outrighted to Triple-A Sugar Land. Scrubb posted a shiny 1.90 ERA across 23 innings last season despite a huge 19.6% walk rate. His ERA regressed to 5.03 in a similar sample size of 19 innings, while his home run rate ballooned to nearly double the league average.
  • Arizona infielder Andrew Young and right-handed pitcher Brett de Geus  are ticketed for Double-A Amarillo and Triple-A Reno, respectively. Young demonstrated strong power numbers in limited action but struck out an untenable 43.3% of the time. The 24-year-old de Geus was a Rule 5 pick who was thrown into the fire by both the Rangers and Diamondbacks this season, but will return to the minors for additional seasoning after recently being designated for assignment.
  • Baltimore shortstop Richie Martin is headed to Triple-A Norfolk following a sub-replacement level season as an Oriole. The 26-year-old Martin has shown some offensive prowess at Double-A in the past, but for now he’ll look to establish himself as a plus hitter at Triple-A for the first time.
  • Blue Jays right-hander Shaun Anderson is on his way to Triple-A Buffalo after a busy season that saw him pitch for three big league teams, only to be claimed by Toronto in mid-November. Anderson didn’t have much go right in his 23 innings this year, but has consistently been capable of 3-something ERAs in the minor leagues as a starter or reliever.

Astros Sign Hector Neris

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The Astros have made an addition to their bullpen, announcing a two-year contract with reliever Hector Neris. The deal, which reportedly guarantees $17MM, also contains a 2024 option valued at $8.5MM ($1MM buyout). That’s currently a club option, but Neris can vest that provision into a player option in any of three ways: making at least 50 appearances in both 2022 and 2023, making 60 appearances in 2023 alone, or making a combined 110 appearances over the next two seasons. Neris is represented by Brian Mejia and Ulises Cabrera of Octagon Baseball.

The former Phillies’ closer was reportedly in high demand, despite being the face of a bullpen in Philadelphia that led the league in blown saves. Neris himself notched 12 saves and 11 holds, but also seven blown saves while tossing 74 1/3 innings across 74 games. He had a 3.63 ERA/4.08 FIP while pairing a strong 31.6 percent strikeout rate with a less-than-ideal 10.3 percent walk rate.

To his credit, Neris kept the ball on the ground more frequently than usual, logging a 48.9 percent groundball rate. The Phillies were hardly known for their infield defense, but that’s a positive sign nonetheless as he heads to Houston. In total, Neris was credited with 1.4 rWAR, a solid number for a reliever.

The 32-year-old has spent his entire eight-year career with the Phillies, totaling 405 appearances and a career 3.42 ERA/3.79 FIP. The Dominican right-hander was originally signed by the Phillies back in 2010 as an amateur free agent. Despite moving in and out of the closer role during his time in Philly, Neris was an overall positive contributor going back to 2015.

He’ll now embark on the next chapter of his career in Houston, where he steps in to assume Kendall Graveman’s late inning responsibilities. Graveman, acquired midseason from the Mariners, recently signed a three-year, $24MM deal. The Astros will pay Neris a half million more per season, but with only a two-year commitment, which tracks market-wise, given that Neris is two years older than Graveman.

Neris will team with fellow righties Ryne Stanek, Phil Maton, Pedro Baez, and Rafael Montero to try and bridge the gap from the starter to closer Ryan Pressly. If nothing else, the Astros can rest assured that Neris can handle the mental burden of pitching for an often-maligned franchise in Houston. Having spent so long in Philly, Neris should be used to hearing his share of criticism on the hill.

Neris leans heavily on a 84 mph split finger, which has long been the bell cow offering of his arsenal. He’s especially reliant on the split versus lefties, against whom he uses the split finger roughly 50 percent of the time. For comparison’s sake, he went to the split just 36.9 percent of the time against right-handers. For same-handed hitters, he leans heavily on a 94.1 mph four-seamer (43.9 percent usage rate) and a 94.8 mph sinker (31.1 percent usage rate).

He has also occasionally toyed with a slider against righties, which he threw just 44 times last year – only thrice to lefties – though the breaker wasn’t particularly effective for Neris. Against lefties, Neris throws the heater 37.3 percent of the time, while dialing back usage on his sinker. On the whole, the split finger has been his most effective pitch, producing a mere .152 expected batting average and .240 expected slugging. He finished 2021 in the 93rd percentile for both whiff rate and chase rate while finishing in the 91st percentile for strikeout rate.

Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia first reported the Astros were signing Neris to a two-year deal. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported the $17MM guarantee. Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reported the presence of the 2024 option and its specific provisions.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Doug Jones Passes Away

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Former major league reliever Doug Jones has passed away, according to an announcement from the Guardians. He was 64 years old.

A right-hander, Jones first broke into the majors in 1982 with the eventual American League champion Brewers. That was just a four-game cameo, though, and he didn’t make it back to the bigs until 1986 with the Indians. Despite not really get an extended big league look until his age-30 season, Jones emerged as a fixture in the bullpen by 1987. He worked 91 1/3 frames of 3.15 ERA ball that year before kicking off a three-year run of sub-2.60 ERA, 30+ save seasons.

Jones was selected to the All-Star game each year from 1988-90, garnering down ballot MVP support in two of those seasons. After some uncharacteristic struggles in 1991, he posted arguably his best ever season the following year. Jones worked 111 2/3 innings across 80 relief outings with the Astros in 1992, earning his fourth All-Star nod and his highest MVP finish (14th). He’d continue to be an effective bullpen workhorse deep into his 40’s, earning his fifth and final All-Star selection in 1994 and again appearing on MVP ballots in 1997 before retiring in 2000.

Jones twice led MLB in games finished, wrapping up 70 contests with the ’92 Astros and 73 games with the ’97 Brewers. He appeared in parts of sixteen major league seasons and worked 1128 1/3 innings of 3.30 ERA ball over 846 outings. Jones recorded 303 career saves and struck out 909 batters. His 129 saves with Cleveland ranks third in franchise history, and he ranks seventh in that category on Houston’s career leaderboard. Jones also pitched for the A’s, Pirates, Phillies, Cubs and Orioles over the course of his very impressive career. During his post-playing career, he served as a coach in the Rockies’ farm system.

MLBTR joins others around the game in sending our condolences to Jones’ family, friends, teammates and loved ones.

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