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Nationals To Name Gary DiSarcina Third Base Coach

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The Nationals are bringing veteran big league coach Gary DiSarcina aboard as their new third base coach, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (Twitter thread). They’re also bringing assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler back in that same role.

The 53-year-old DiSarcina had a 12-year playing career as a shortstop with the Angels, appearing in the big leagues each season from 1989-2000. He spent time in the Halos’ front office and then as a minor league manager in the years following his retirement, but his past eight seasons have been spent on big league coaching staffs.

DiSarcina spent three years as a base coach with the Angels organization before heading to the Red Sox — where he’d previously managed in Triple-A — to serve as bench coach. His next stop came with the Mets, again as a bench coach in 2018, and then as third base coach fort he past three seasons.

Roessler, 61, has been the Nats’ assistant hitting coach in each of the past two seasons. Like DiSarcina, he’d been with the Mets prior to his time in D.C. After a lengthy stint in the Yankees’ player development department (including a run as their farm director), he joined the Mets’ coaching staff in 2015: first as an assistant hitting coach and, by 2018, as their lead hitting coach.

There’s been a fair bit of turnover on the Nationals’ staff already this offseason. Hitting coach Kevin Long departed to take the same job with the division-rival Phillies, prompting the Nats to bring Darnell Coles back to the organization to join the Major League staff in that role. Recently retired outfielder Eric Young Jr. is lined up to serve as the Nationals’ new first base coach, replacing Randy Knorr. DiSarcina will be replacing Bob Henley. Both Knorr and Henley were reassigned to player development roles earlier in the offseason.

Mets Parting Ways With Zack Scott

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The Mets are parting ways with acting general manager Zack Scott, reports Andy Martino of SNY. His tenure in the New York front office lasts a little less than a year, as the Mets hired him away from the Red Sox as an assistant GM last December.

Scott was bumped up to acting general manager a little more than a month later, once then-GM Jared Porter was dismissed after Porter’s prior sexual harassment of a reporter came to light. Scott was in charge of daily baseball operations in Queens for much of this past season, but his own future in the organization came into question when he was arrested and charged with a DWI at the end of August. The Mets placed Scott on administrative leave once his arrest was made public, and that course of events will result in his departure from the organization.

Once Scott was placed on leave, team president Sandy Alderson assumed control of day-to-day baseball ops. Alderson is expected to move back into a broader advisory role — as he initially intended when rejoining the Mets last year — and the club has been on the hunt for a new baseball operations head since the end of the regular season. That search has involved some highly-publicized misses on their early targets (Theo Epstein, David Stearns, and Billy Beane among them), and most recent reports suggest the club has turned their attention to younger, up-and-coming executives with other clubs.

Settling on a baseball operations leader remains the biggest point of order for the Mets to kick off their offseason. Over the summer, it seemed like Scott was a plausible candidate to eventually take hold of that role permanently. But his arrest and subsequent leave placement seemed to foreclose that possibility, and there’d been no indication he was in consideration for the position since the end of the season.

It remains to be seen whether or when Scott will land elsewhere, although that could depend on the resolution of his still-pending legal matter. Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News reported last week that Scott’s trial is set to begin on December 8.

Rotation Market Rumors: Kershaw, Gausman, Giants, DeSclafani

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Clayton Kershaw’s 2021 season didn’t go as hoped. The Dodgers icon was sharp when healthy and posted his best K-BB% (25.3) since 2017, ultimately logging a 3.55 ERA in 121 1/3 innings with even better fielding-independent marks. That said, Kershaw also missed more than two months due to a forearm injury and was only able to briefly return before a recurrence of that same issue wiped him out for the postseason. Asked at his end-of-season press conference whether Kershaw would be viewed differently than other free agents because of his history with the club, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters that’s likely to be the case (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Juan Toribio):

“Yeah, I think that’s fair,” said Friedman. “Obviously what he’s meant to this organization, to the city — from his standpoint, I think it’s all about what makes sense for him and Ellen and their family. … “I think, taking off my president of baseball operations hat, there’s something nostalgic and great about Kersh playing with one team and being able to win another championship and having a parade.”

Friedman noted that Kershaw has earned the right to do what’s best for his family but spoke glowingly of the lefty’s legacy and implied a desire to continue the relationship. Kershaw reportedly won’t require surgery, and the Dodgers will have the option of making a qualifying offer to the veteran southpaw.

More notes on the looming free-agent market for starting pitchers…

  • There’s a “strong” chance that the Giants will push to work out a multi-year deal to keep Kevin Gausman atop their rotation, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The Giants value the chemistry that was developed during this year’s postseason push and have interest in maintaining some continuity, which could lead them to explore reunions with any of Gausman, Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood. San Francisco president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has already gone on record to call the rotation the team’s “number one priority” this offseason, no surprise given the impending free agencies of Gausman, DeSclafani, Wood and Johnny Cueto (whose $22MM club option will assuredly be bought out for $5MM). The Giants have about as much payroll flexibility as any team in baseball, giving Zaidi and his staff myriad options in rebuilding the rotation over the coming months. It certainly stands to reason they’ll be active in the market for Gausman, who has an even 3.00 ERA with stellar strikeout and walk numbers (30% and 6.5%, respectively) over 251 2/3 innings in black and orange since the start of 2020.
  • Gausman received a qualifying offer last winter, making him ineligible for another in his career. The Giants will have to decide whether to offer an $18.4MM QO to one or both of DeSclafani and Wood in the coming days, though. Grant Brisbee of the Athletic opines the club should offer a QO to DeSclafani based on the aforementioned rotation uncertainty and payroll flexibility. Signed to a bounceback deal last offseason following a poor 2020 with the Reds, DeSclafani made 31 starts and worked 167 2/3 innings of 3.17 ERA/4.11 SIERA ball this past season. Brisbee doesn’t expect San Francisco to risk that lofty one-year sum on a QO for Wood, however. Also a low-cost flier last winter, Wood impressed with 138 2/3 frames with a 3.83 ERA/3.60 SIERA. Injuries limited the veteran southpaw to just 48 1/3 combined innings from 2019-20, though, and it remains to be seen how much of an effect durability concerns could have on Wood’s free agent market this time around.

Rockies’ Extension Offer To Jon Gray Was In $35-40MM Range

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Two weeks ago, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post reported that the Rockies had made an unsuccessful extension offer to Jon Gray. Nick Groke and Eno Sarris of the Athletic shed a little more light on that effort, reporting that Colorado made a three-year offer in the $35-40MM range.

With extension overtures rejected, Gray is now set to hit the open market once the World Series wraps up this week. Groke and Sarris write that the Rox are likely to issue him an $18.4MM qualifying offer, which would entitle the club to draft pick compensation were he to sign elsewhere. Qualified free agents have ten days to decide whether to accept or reject the QO, so Gray and his representatives at CAA Sports will have some time to gauge interest before making the call on whether to return to Denver for a strong one-year salary or reject in hopes of landing a stronger multi-year offer.

Gray will be one of the trickier evaluations for teams looking through the market for free agent starters. The right-hander has two seasons with a sub-4.00 ERA on his resume, no small feat for a pitcher who calls Coors Field home. Outside of a terrible eight-start showing during last year’s shortened season, Gray has regularly posted strikeout rates a tick or two above the league average for starters. He’s put up similarly solid walk and ground-ball marks in recent years, and his 2021 campaign was largely par for the course.

Over 149 frames, Gray pitched to a 4.59 ERA with a slightly above-average 24.4% strikeout percentage and a 9% walk rate that’s a bit north of the league mark. Gray’s 11% swinging strike rate was almost exactly league average, while his 48.4% grounder percentage was a few points above par. That’s solid mid-rotation production, and there’s an argument to be made that he could yet have untapped upside.

A former #3 overall draft choice, Gray averaged 94.9 MPH on his heater. He backs that up with a slider that typically generates plenty of swings and misses. Gray will be entering his age-30 season, so rival clubs will surely be intrigued about the potential that power arsenal could wield outside of the league’s toughest environment for pitchers.

That said, there’s an argument that Gray has been less adversely effected by Coors Field than most. As Groke and Sarris explore in a piece that’ll be of interest to Rockies’ fans or those more generally interested in pitching, Gray’s primary combination of a low-spin fastball and slider seems most resistant to high altitude’s impact on pitch movements. Like any Rockies’ pitcher, Gray still has to contend against a home park that props up fly ball distances and has an expansive outfield (thus increasing the rate of hits allowed on balls in play), but his results may not be as inflated by the environment as those of some of his teammates. His ERA at home this year (4.02) was more than a full run lower than his road mark (5.22), in fact, although his home/road strikeout and walk splits were virtually identical.

Teams will be tasked with placing Gray amongst the third tier of free agent starters. Eduardo Rodríguez, Anthony DeSclafani, Steven Matz and Alex Wood are among the other mid-rotation options who’ll be available to clubs this winter. There figures to be quite a bit of variability among the league’s 30 clubs as to how they’d arrange that group on preference lists.

Of course, Gray could yet return to Colorado, whether by accepting a QO or agreeing to a multi-year free agent deal. Gray and the Rockies expressed mutual interest in an extension on multiple occasions over the past few months, and the front office didn’t move him at this past summer’s trade deadline. The Rox have already hammered out multi-year deals with rotation mate Antonio Senzatela (buying out his final two years of arbitration and extending their window of club control by an additional four seasons) and fellow impending free agent C.J. Cron. With the club planning to increase player payroll over the next two years, it stands to reason they’ll remain involved in the market for Gray as well.

Diamondbacks Hire Jeff Banister As Bench Coach

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The D-Backs announced they’ve hired Jeff Banister as bench coach. It’s the Snakes’ second key coaching addition in as many weeks, as Arizona recently hired Joe Mather as hitting coach.

Banister picked up one big league plate appearance with the 1991 Pirates, but he’s far better known for his post-playing accomplishments. He received his first professional managerial job at age 30, spending 1994-98 managing at the lower levels of the Pittsburgh farm system. Banister moved into a broader organizational role in 1998 and spent the next decade-plus as a major and minor league field coordinator before landing his first job on a big league staff as Clint Hurdle’s bench coach in 2010.

Over the next few seasons, Banister was frequently mentioned as a strong managerial candidate. That opportunity presented itself after the 2014 campaign, when the Rangers tabbed Banister to succeed Ron Washington. Texas was very successful over his first couple seasons, winning the AL West in both 2015 and 2016. Banister was rewarded with an AL Manager of the Year selection in his first year at the helm, but the success proved short-lived. The Rangers finished below .500 in both 2017 and 2018, and the club dismissed him towards the end of that latter season. All told, Texas went 325-313 (.509 winning percentage) in just under four years with Banister managing.

After spending a couple seasons back in the Pirates’ front office, Banister spent this past year as director of player development for the University of Northern Colorado. After one season in Greeley, he’ll return to a big league staff for the first time since being dismissed by the Rangers. The 57-year-old will be the top lieutenant for D-Backs’ skipper Torey Lovullo, who’s entering his sixth season leading the Arizona clubhouse.

Latest On Mets’ Front Office Search

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NOVEMBER 1: The Red Sox are expected to grant Ferreira permission to interview with the Mets, assuming she’s interested in doing so, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (on Twitter).

OCTOBER 30, 1:23PM: Brewers VP of baseball operations Matt Kleine is another candidate the Mets have discussed, as per Martino (Twitter link).  With both Kleine and Rodriguez, however, the Mets are wary about approaching the Brewers and Rays since both teams have repeatedly denied New York’s requests to interview other front office personnel in the past.  Kleine is believed to be interested, and his hiring could help set the stage for the Mets to land Stearns as a free agent a year from now (or after the 2023 season, depending on the reported vesting option in Stearns’ deal with Milwaukee).

OCTOBER 30, 8:05AM: The Mets’ attempts to hire a new president of baseball operations or general manager has hit its share of roadblocks, and Dodgers assistant GM Jeff Kingston is the latest executive to decline an interview with the team, according to The New York Post’s Mike Puma.  However, several other prospective candidates remain, as it seems as though the Mets now could be specifically looking for a general manager, rather than someone to fully take the entire reigns of the baseball ops department.

To this end, Puma writes Rays VP of player development Carlos Rodriguez, and assistant GMs Daniel Adler (Twins), Randy Flores (Cardinals), and Ben Sestanovich (Braves) are all “on the Mets’ radar” as possible candidates.  The Mets have also asked the Red Sox for permission to speak with assistant GM Raquel Ferreira, SNY’s Andy Martino reports.

Any of these five executives would be a first-time GM, and ostensibly in charge of the baseball operations department even without the official “president” label.  The unusual nature of the Mets’ front office dynamic has led to some questions about how much authority a new GM would have, as team president Sandy Alderson is remaining with the club and has said he’ll be shifting over to focusing on the team’s business matters once a new baseball ops head is in place.

Had Mets owner Steve Cohen been successful in luring one of his big-ticket initial targets (i.e. Billy Beane, Theo Epstein, David Stearns) to New York, it would’ve made for a smoother transition, as any of those execs would’ve been the PBO and had the sway to make their own choice for a general manager to act as their chief lieutenant.  However, it is perhaps understandable why Kingston and others have opted out of what could be considered as something of a glorified one-year trial period.  If the Mets play well in 2022, a newly-hired GM could be entrusted to become the president of baseball operations; if the Mets struggle, Cohen could resume his search for a major name as PBO, leaving the general manager as perhaps something of a lame duck.

Cardinals GM Michael Girsch, Giants GM Scott Harris, newly-promoted Brewers GM Matt Arnold, and another Dodgers assistant in Brandon Gomes have all declined to be considered for the Mets’ job.  For the five names mentioned by Puma and Martino, it is possible any of the Rays, Twins, Cardinals, Braves, or Red Sox could deny New York permission to interview their personnel, though teams usually don’t stand in the way of their executives being offered a promotion.

Kingston technically has experience as a general manager, as he served as the Mariners’ interim GM for the last month-plus of the 2015 season after Jack Zduriencik was fired.  Kingston has worked as an assistant GM for the last six seasons (three with the Mariners, three with the Dodgers) and he has been considered for other front office openings in recent years.  The Phillies and Angels each had interest in Kingston for their most recent GM vacancies, and Kingston was a finalist for the Angels’ position before the team hired Perry Minasian.

Cubs To Hire Greg Brown As Hitting Coach

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The Cubs are planning to hire Greg Brown as their next hitting coach, report Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic. Brown has spent the past two seasons as the Rays’ minor league hitting coordinator.

This will be Brown’s first job on a big league coaching staff. The 41-year-old spent a few seasons in minor league and independent ball in the early-mid 2000’s before transitioning into his post-playing career. Brown spent two seasons scouting with the Astros before taking over as head coach at Division II Nova Southeastern University. He held that role for nine years, with his club winning the D-II national championship in 2016, before departing to join the Rays.

Brown replaces Anthony Iapoce, who was let go after four seasons as Cubs’ hitting coach last month. He’ll be tasked with overseeing a Chicago offense that’s in transition, much like the roster in general. Having shipped out much of the core of their 2016 World Series winner over the past year, the Cubs leaned heavily on minor league veterans down the stretch. The front office will presumably bolster the lineup externally somewhat this winter (although catcher Willson Contreras might be a trade candidate), but it seems likely they’ll also take another look at players like Frank Schwindel and Patrick Wisdom to see if they can find a potential late-blooming regular or two.

Cardinals Assistant Hitting Coach Jobel Jimenez Won’t Return In 2022

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Cardinals assistant hitting coach Jobel Jimenez won’t return to the club in 2022, reports Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat (Twitter links). Jimenez was offered a position as a roving instructor on the minor league side of the organization but turned down the reassignment.

The departure of Jimenez is the first notable change to newly tabbed manager Oliver Marmol’s 2022 staff. The Cardinals stunned onlookers by abruptly parting ways with former skipper Mike Shildt and quickly elevated Marmol to the manager’s chair just over a week after firing Shildt.

Jimenez, like Shildt is a longtime Cardinals fixture who first joined the organization back in 2007 (as profiled in this 2019 piece by Anne Rogers of MLB.com). Initially hired as the hitting instructor of the Cardinals’ affiliate in the Venezuelan Summer League, he steadily rose through the Cardinals’ system and served as a hitting coach at various minor league stops before being added to the big league staff, under Shildt, in 2019. Rogers notes that Jimenez has previously worked as a scout and and instructor in the Mariners and Dodgers organizations as well.

After being bounced by the Dodgers in the National League Wild Card game, the Cardinals were reportedly mulling an extension for Shildt and leaning toward retaining the entire coaching staff. Shildt’s firing and the attempted reassignment of Jimenez represent a rapid about-face from that direction. It’s not clear whether additional changes to the staff can be anticipated, though they’ll obviously need to hire a new bench coach now that Marmol has been elevated from that position to manager. The Cards have yet to formally announce Marmol’s coaching group for the upcoming season.

Royals Release Ryan McBroom To Sign With Team In Asia

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The Royals on Monday announced that they’ve requested unconditional release waivers on first baseman/outfielder Ryan McBroom. The move, according to the Royals, was made in order to allow McBroom to sign with a professional club in Asia. Kansas City did not divulge whether McBroom will be signing with a team in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, the Korea Baseball Organization or the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. Wherever McBroom lands, the Royals will likely receive some minor financial compensation for facilitating the move.

McBroom, 29, has been up and down between Triple-A and the big leagues for the past three seasons, posting a .268/.322/.427 slash with six home runs and eight doubles through 177 Major League plate appearances. He’s punched out at an alarming 34.5% clip during that time and walked in 6.8% of his plate appearances.

With top prospect Nick Pratto looming and likely to debut early next season, plus the likes of Carlos Santana, Hunter Dozier and several outfielders ahead of him on the depth chart, McBroom wasn’t likely to see an uptick in playing time moving forward. A jump to an Asian club, whether it’s NPB, the KBO or the CPBL, will afford him more regular playing time and quite likely a notable increase in pay over what he’d have made splitting his time between Triple-A Omaha and the occasional big league promotion.

While McBroom has yet to piece things together in limited big league experience, he’ll head overseas with a strong track record in the upper minors. McBroom has appeared in parts of three Triple-A seasons and turned in a much heartier .290/.361/.517 batting line through 1363 plate appearances with the Triple-A affiliates for both the Yankees and the Royals. He’ll turn 30 next April, but with a good few seasons of play in a foreign professional league, he could eventually follow a Darin Ruf-esque path to the big leagues if that’s his eventual goal.

The Royals’ 40-man roster was already at 38 players, and McBroom’s departure will drop that total to 37 players.

Padres Hire Bob Melvin As Manager

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The Padres have made their bombshell managerial hiring official, announcing on Monday a three-year contract with now-former Athletics skipper Bob Melvin to serve as their new manager. San Diego’s managerial post had been vacant since the firing of previous manager Jayce Tingler just over three weeks ago. Melvin’s option for the 2022 season was exercised by the Athletics back in June, but Oakland reportedly allowed Melvin to interview in San Diego and agreed to let him depart without receiving compensation from the Padres in return.

Melvin’s departure comes as a shocking development. There had been no prior indication that the Padres had their sights set on Melvin or that their pursuit of him had begun — let alone reached the finish line. Rather, the Padres had been tied to Atlanta third base coach Ron Washington, who wouldn’t have been able to interview until after the conclusion of the World Series. Instead, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has already pounced upon his preferred candidate.

“Bob is one of the top managers in the game and brings a tremendous wealth of knowledge and a proven track record to win at the Major League level,” Preller said in a statement within today’s press release. “Throughout the process, Bob showed our group a true love of baseball and a natural presence to lead. It was immediately evident how he’s been able to bring out the best in his players throughout his managerial career. We believe that Bob is the right man to take our talented group and help them deliver a championship to the city of San Diego.”

Coming into 2021, after an extremely active offseason, the expectations were that the club would be in the running for the NL West division crown. Things seemed to be following that plan for a few months, as their winning percentage was just under .600 at the end of June. However, they floundered down the stretch amid reports that Tingler had lost the respect of the players in his clubhouse, and the team eventually finished the season below .500 and well out of playoff contention. After Tingler’s firing, various reports linked the club to managers with more experience in the skipper’s chair. The Padres’ last two two managerial hires, Andy Green and Jayce Tingler, were both first-time managers and both in their late 30s at the time of their hiring.

Melvin, who turned 60 years old last week, certainly fits the “more experienced” description. He has close to 20 years of managing on his resume at this point — his first coming with the Mariners back in 2003. Since then, he has been employed as a bench boss for at least part of every season except for 2010. After two seasons with Seattle, he was with the Diamondbacks from 2005 to 2009, and worked as a scout for the Mets in 2010.

In June of 2011, the Athletics fired manager Bob Geren and replaced him with Melvin. He was initially hired as an interim manager but stuck around for over a decade. In his time with Oakland, the club went 853-764, a winning percentage of .528. They made the playoffs six times out of those 11 seasons, including three division titles, most recently in 2020.

As to why the Athletics would allow such a successful manager to leave, Bob Nightengale of USA Today suggests a financial motive (Twitter links). He reports that Melvin was making “about 4MM a year” and that the club intends to slash payroll for 2022. Melvin’s new contract in San Diego guarantees him a total of $12MM, so he’ll now match or exceed his Oakland salary and do so over a longer term.

MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently looked into the fact that the Athletics have a tremendous arbitration class this winter that will push the organization into uncomfortable financial territory. The fact that the A’s are seemingly willing to let a fruitful decade-long partnership with their manager come to end for a few million in cash savings certainly casts an even darker cloud over that situation.

Melvin and the Padres will now turn their focus to getting that club to live up to their full potential in 2022 and trying to chase down the Dodgers and Giants, while the Athletics will now have to add a managerial search to their to-do list in an offseason that seems to have the potential for lots of turnover.

MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell broke the news that the Padres had agreed to a three-year deal with Melvin (Twitter links). ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez reported that the A’s had allowed Melvin to interview and accept the Padres’ job despite being under contract for the 2022 season (Twitter link).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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