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White Sox Have Interviewed Carlos Mendoza

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8:10pm: Mendoza actually interviewed with the White Sox nearly two weeks ago, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score reports (via Twitter). He has not had a second interview, although there’s no indication to this point that he’s squarely out of the running.

9:27am: The White Sox have gotten permission to interview Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza in their managerial search, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). It isn’t clear whether Mendoza has already sat down with Chicago brass or is planning to over the coming days, but he marks a new entrant into the mix.

Mendoza, 42, has spent more than a decade in the coaching ranks. A Venezuela native, he began his career as a player in the Giants system back in 1997. He played professionally for 12 years in the San Francisco and Yankees organizations, briefly topping out at Triple-A. After the 2009 campaign, he transitioned into coaching in the New York farm system. He spent the 2011-12 seasons managing at the lower levels of the organization, and he worked his way onto the MLB coaching staff by 2018.

Over the past five seasons, Mendoza has worked on manager Aaron Boone’s staff. He broke in as an infield instructor and was bumped up to bench coach going into the 2020 campaign. A year later, he got looks from the Tigers and Red Sox in their managerial searches. Those respective positions ultimately went to A.J. Hinch and Alex Cora, but Mendoza was reportedly among the final five under consideration for the Boston job.

The White Sox are the only team without a manager currently in place. Tony La Russa held the position for the past two years, but he stepped away from the team late in the season due to health concerns and subsequently announced he wouldn’t return to the role in 2023.

Thus far, Chicago is known to have interviewed bench coach Miguel Cairo (who served as interim manager for the stretch run while La Russa was out), Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol, Astros bench coach Joe Espada and former Chicago bench boss Ozzie Guillén. They’ve also been tied to Braves third base coach Ron Washington, although it isn’t known if the sides officially sat down at any point.

It seems they’ve started to narrow down their list of potential candidates. Over the weekend, MLB.com’s Scott Merkin reported that Espada was no longer in consideration. Heyman adds that Washington and Guillén are also unlikely to land the position at this point.

Albert Pujols Officially Files For Retirement

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Future Hall of Fame slugger Albert Pujols has officially signed his retirement papers today, ending his glittering 22-year career, per Mark Feisand of MLB.com. Pujols had already announced 2022 would be his final season, but after a resurgent final year for the Cardinals this news confirms he won’t be back.

Pujols will go down as one of the sport’s greatest sluggers, having mashed 703 home runs over his career, which included three MVP awards and eleven trips to the All Star game. The 42-year-old enjoyed a stunning final season in St Louis, the city he spent much of his career, hitting .270/.345/.550 with 24 home runs, enough to become just the fourth player in history to join the 700-club.

Pujols was drafted in the 13th round of the 1999 draft by the Cardinals, and made his debut in 2001. He began mashing immediately, hitting .329/.403/.610 with 37 home runs on the way to a Rookie of the Year award and a fourth place finish in NL MVP voting. That would set the tone for one of the great slugging careers, as Pujols continued to terrorize National League pitchers over the next decade in St Louis. Between 2001-10, Pujols never finished a season with a batting average under .300 or a home run total under 30, and only had one sub-.400 OBP season. Over his first eleven seasons with the Cardinals, he amassed a staggering 86.6 bWAR, and firmly entrenched himself as a St Louis legend and a great of the sport.

He inked an extension with the Cardinals in 2004 for $111MM which proved extremely good business for the team, and delayed his free agency until after the 2011 season. Once on the open market, it was the Angels who secured his coveted signature, landing him on a ten-year, $240MM deal after the Cardinals topped out at a nine-year deal. At the time, it was the third largest contract in MLB history. While Pujols had a few years of strong production which earned him down ballot MVP votes, the deal was mostly a disappointment for the Halos and he was never the offensive juggernaut he was in St Louis. Pujols hit just .256/.311/.447 across ten years in Anaheim and was worth just 12.8 bWAR there.

The Angels finally cut ties with him in early in the 2021 season, and he landed with the Dodgers for the remainder of the year. There was speculation he’d retire after the 2021 campaign, but the Cardinals opted to bring him back for a $2.5MM farewell season, and he didn’t disappoint. He’ll be a favorite for NL Comeback Player of the Year and along with the pending retirement of fellow Cardinals’ legend Yadier Molina made 2022 a memorable season in St Louis.

His resurgent final season helped the Cardinals make the playoffs in 2022, but his career came to a close in a series loss at the hands of the Phillies in the wildcard round. Pujols didn’t hit much in that short series, but he was a dominant force in playoff fixtures over his career. In 88 post-season matches, he hit 19 home runs amid a .319/.422/.572 slashline. That included a combined four World Series home runs during the Cardinals’ championship years of 2006 and 2011.

While the formal confirmation of Pujols’ retirement is not a surprise, it does draw to a close the career of one of the sport’s great players. He’ll assuredly wind up in Cooperstown, but in the meantime, everyone at MLB Trade Rumors congratulates Pujols on his memorable career and wish him the best in retirement.

Kyle Hendricks Hasn’t Started Throwing; Still On Track For Spring Training

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Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks has still not begun throwing in his recovery from a mid-season capsular tear in his shoulder, per Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports. While the delay in his recovery is enough to cause some concern, Wittenmyer notes that there’s not yet reason to think that Hendricks won’t be ready for spring training. Hendricks was originally due to resume playing catch at the end of the season, but the plan is now to start that in November.

Hendricks posted a 4.80 ERA across 16 starts this season before going down with injury. Hendricks’ HardHit% soared in 2022, standing at 38.8%, well above his second highest mark of 33%, which occurred last season. As one would expect, that translated into a higher home run rate and Hendricks gave up almost one per start this season. It’s the second straight season that’s been the case, as Hendricks suffered from a lift in home runs on the way to a 4.77 ERA across 32 starts in 2021. Prior to that, Hendricks was an incredibly reliable arm for the Cubs, regularly hitting 30 starts and posting ERAs in the mid-to-lower threes.

While Hendricks has experienced some decline in recent years, he’s still a much-needed workhorse for the Cubs rotation. They’ll have veteran Marcus Stroman back next year as well as the impressive Justin Steele. Beyond that, Keegan Thompson, Adrian Sampson and Hayden Wesneski all showed varying degrees of promise to suggest they’ll feature in the rotation next season, but none can be reasonably pencilled in to make 30 starts. Steele, too, is no sure thing workload-wise having pitched a career high 119 innings in 2022, though the promise he showed in pitching to a 3.18 ERA with the peripherals to match suggest the Cubs will certainly be looking to get big innings out of him.

The uncertainty over Hendricks’ immediate future could provide further motivation for the Cubs to be active in the starting pitcher market this winter. A competitive Cubs team in 2023 probably already needed an arm or two in the rotation, and if Hendricks’ recovery is set back any further that need will only increase. Hendricks is owed $14MM in 2023, and has a $16MM team option for 2024 with a $1.5MM buyout.

The Dodgers’ Looming Decision On Justin Turner

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Since 2014, Justin Turner’s provided the Dodgers lineup with an elite bat and sound defense at the hot corner. Yet after a season that saw his output decline the veteran’s future in LA is up in the air. The Dodgers hold a $16MM team option for 2023 with a $2MM buyout, and according to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, haven’t informed the 2022 winner of the Roberto Clemente Award of their decision yet.

It was a tale of two halves in 2022 for Turner. The buyout looked to be the heavy favorite at the All-Star break, as the 37-year-old posted just a .256/.331/.403 line with five home runs. It was vintage Turner after the break though, as he hit .319/.386/.503 with eight home runs to finish the season with 13 home runs and a .278/.350/.438 line. That still amounted to Turner’s worst offensive production since joining the Dodgers, but the strength of his second half has made the decision a tough one for the Dodgers’ front office. On the other side of the ball, Turner saw his defensive numbers decline, as he posted -2 Outs Above Average and -2.1 UZR. As a result, around half his appearances this season were at DH.

Turner’s option decision is, in fact, just one element of a complicated off-season for the left side of the Dodgers infield. The team will lose shortstop Trea Turner to free agency, while Max Muncy, who made 84 appearances at the hot corner, is under contract at $13.5MM. Muncy also scuffled at the plate in 2022, hitting .196/.329/.384 with 21 home runs but graded out better defensively with seven Defensive Runs Saved in 84 games at third base, and is also capable of manning second base.

The Dodgers may be hesitant commit $29MM to two players coming off of down years, particularly if they’re looking to make a serious bid to either re-sign their star shortstop or go after someone like Carlos Correa. Per RosterResource, the Dodgers’ luxury tax payroll projects at around $176MM in 2023, though that’s before factoring in arbitration-eligible players. That leaves them with a fair bit of space to maneuver in before reaching this year’s mark, but the Dodgers do need to spend at the aforementioned shortstop position, solidify their rotation and they’ve been rumored to be in the market for Aaron Judge.

With that being said, it’s hard to imagine Turner in a different team’s uniform, and the Dodgers may well value his leadership and veteran presence enough that they bring him back, either via the team option or on a new, restructured contract. Plus, while Turner may be starting to decline, he’s still a productive player that was worth 2.4 fWAR in 2022. The Dodgers have until five days after the World Series to decide on Turner’s option, and while there’s a solid argument to be made either way, it still seems a good chance he’s back in Dodger blue in 2023.

Will the Dodgers pick up Justin Turner's team option?

  • No - but they'll re-sign him to a new contract 52% (3,731)
  • No - he'll go to free agency 26% (1,880)
  • Yes 21% (1,535)

Total votes: 7,146

Editor’s note: This post originally indicated Muncy’s option had yet to be exercised. The team preemptively exercised it in August when signing Muncy for an additional year.

Cardinals Notes: Arenado, Holliday, Coaching Staff

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Perhaps the biggest offseason question facing the Cardinals was resolved over the weekend when Nolan Arenado informed the team he would bypass his chance to test the free agent market. He’ll play out the final five years and $144MM on his deal with St. Louis, staying with the Cards through 2027.

The star third baseman would almost certainly have found a stronger financial offer if he hit the open market. He’s likely to be an NL MVP finalist after arguably the best season of his career, a .293/.358/.533 showing paired with his typical elite defense. Even heading into his age-32 campaign, he had a strong case for a six-year deal that bested the $28.8MM average annual value remaining on his contract.

Arenado has maintained on a few occasions that he’s happy in St. Louis, however. He reiterated that sentiment in speaking with Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch about his decision over the weekend. “For me, to get traded to St. Louis was a very complicated deal and it wasn’t easy to get here,” Arenado told Goold. “There was a lot of time and effort put into it. It meant a lot to me they went that far beyond for me. I really appreciate their effort they took to get me here and I want to hold up my end of the bargain. Everything has been, for me since I’ve been here, better than I thought it would be.”

St. Louis made the postseason in each of Arenado’s first two seasons with the club, including an NL Central-winning team this year. Colorado reached the playoffs twice during his eight years on the roster, both times as a Wild Card entrant. Arenado spoke publicly about how meaningful he found it to be part of a division-winning roster in the immediate aftermath of St. Louis clinching the Central, and Goold writes he expressed that again during a sit-down with president of baseball operations John Mozeliak last week.

While the Cardinals have had plenty of regular season success over the last two years, they’ve gone 0-3 in the postseason and been dispatched from the playoffs quickly (first in the 2021 Wild Card game, then in the newly-implemented Wild Card series). Mozeliak and his staff will look to bolster the roster again this winter in hopes of positioning the team for a deeper postseason run. The Cards’ front office head told reporters last week that ownership had signed off on a payroll increase and highlighted catcher as an area the team would look to address over the coming months.

They’ll also work with manager Oliver Marmol about building a coaching staff that saw a trio of notable departures. Neither hitting coach Jeff Albert nor pitching coach Mike Maddux are returning in 2023, and bench coach Skip Schumaker departed to become the Marlins manager. That leaves St. Louis to fill three key voids, and they could look to a marquee name for one of those spots.

John Denton of MLB.com reported last week that Matt Holliday is expected to garner some consideration for the hitting coach vacancy. Holliday played for St. Louis from 2009-16, a tenure which included four trips to the All-Star game and four appearances on MVP balloting. He raked at a .293/.380/.494 clip over his eight seasons with the club.

Holliday last appeared in the big leagues in 2018 and currently coaches at Oklahoma State, where his brother Josh Holliday is the head baseball coach. Reports last offseason suggested Matt Holliday would have some interest in the St. Louis managerial vacancy that eventually went to Marmol. Whether he’d be willing to assume a spot on Marmol’s staff is unclear, but the 42-year-old left open the possibility in an appearance on Hot Take Central on 590 The Fan in St. Louis this morning (Twitter link with audio). Asked about the chance to replace either Schumaker or Albert as bench coach or hitting coach, Holliday noted he’s not yet heard from Mozeliak but indicated he was open to having a conversation.

“I haven’t spoken with Mo yet,” Holliday said. “I think there’s a chance that I will have a conversation about what that might look like. I’m not going to say ’no,’ but I’m not going to say ’yes’ either. I think I probably will, at some point, have a conversation with Mo and Oli about what that could look like — being part of the organization in some capacity. I’m not quite sure, I don’t have an answer just yet for you.” That’s hardly a firm declaration Holliday will rejoin the St. Louis franchise, but it raises the possibility of the seven-time All-Star being in touch with key Cards decision-makers this winter.

Tyler Danish Elects Free Agency

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The Red Sox announced that reliever Tyler Danish has elected minor league free agency. Boston had evidently placed the right-hander on waivers in recent days, freeing up a spot on the 40-man roster.

Danish spent a year in Boston. A former second round pick of the White Sox, he signed a minor league contract with the Red Sox in Spring Training and cracked the 40-man roster before Opening Day. Boston didn’t immediately carry him on the big league club but he pitched his way to the majors by the middle of April. It marked his first big league action in four years, as he’d kicked around the upper minors without landing an MLB opportunity from 2019-21.

The 2022 campaign was by far Danish’s longest look against big league competition. Manager Alex Cora called upon him 32 times, giving him 40 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. He pitched to a 5.13 ERA, striking out only 18.5% of opponents on a modest 7.4% swinging strike rate. He did show the best control of his career, walking only 6.9% of opposing hitters, but his lack of missed bats and a higher than average seven home runs against (1.56 HR/9) push him off the roster.

Danish isn’t a particularly hard thrower, averaging just under 91 MPH on his sinker. He leaned primarily on a curveball this year, with that low-80s offering generating a fair amount of soft contact but not missing many bats. Danish was reasonably effective against right-handed batters, against whom he managed a .245/.310/.415 line. He couldn’t find much of an answer for southpaws, though, punching out just seven of the 57 lefties he faced and surrendering a .275/.351/.490 mark.

Because he’s already been outrighted in his career, Danish had the right to elect free agency as soon as he cleared waivers. He’ll head back to the open market and may be looking at minor league offers with Spring Training invitations once again.

With the offseason approaching, the Red Sox are conducting typical roster maintenance. Removing Danish from the 40-man drops their tally to 39. The Sox have five players on the 60-day injured list who’ll need to be reinstated at the start of the offseason, although they’re on track to see seven players hit free agency (including Xander Bogaerts, who’s a lock to opt out of his contract if the sides don’t agree on an extension in the next week and a half).

Marlins, Pitching Coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. Agree To Multi-Year Extension

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The Marlins have agreed to terms with pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. on a multi-year deal, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid (Twitter link). Specific salary terms are unclear, but Mish adds that Stottlemyre is now among the highest-paid pitching coaches in the game.

There’d been some uncertainty as to whether the 58-year-old would return to Miami. He took the position on Don Mattingly’s staff over the 2018-19 offseason, re-signing on a one-year deal last winter. With Stottlemyre out of contract and Mattingly and the Marlins agreeing not to continue their relationship, it was in doubt whether he’d stick around.

Miami has clearly valued Stottlemyre’s work with their young arms, and he’ll return for at least a fifth season. The former Royals hurler has spent more than a decade as a pitching coach in the big leagues, previously holding that role in Arizona and Seattle. His veteran status is in contrast to Miami’s incoming manager. Skip Schumaker is taking over the dugout in South Florida, the 42-year-old’s first MLB managerial job.

The Marlins were a below-average pitching team for the first two seasons of Stottlemyre’s tenure, but they’ve been better of late. Dating back to the start of 2021, Miami ranks 13th in the majors with a 3.91 ERA. Their spacious home ballpark has certainly aided in keeping balls in the yard, but they’ve been less fortunate from a batting average on balls in play perspective. This past season, Miami pitchers ranked eighth in strikeout rate, fanning 23.7% of opponents.

Miami has seen Sandy Alcantara develop into one of the game’s top handful of arms. He’s a heavy favorite to win the NL Cy Young award this year after easily leading the league in innings pitched — his 228 2/3 frames topped those of second-place Aaron Nola by 23 2/3 — and posting a 2.28 ERA. The Fish have also seen Pablo López develop into a mid-rotation mainstay, while Braxton Garrett and Jesús Luzardo took steps forward this year. 2021 All-Star Trevor Rogers looked like another top-of-the-rotation arm in the making, but his 2022 campaign went off the rails to a disappointing 5.47 ERA.

Stottlemyre returns to try to guide Rogers back to last year’s form while steering along the development of a number of Miami’s young arms. The Fish also have have Eury Pérez and Edward Cabrera as two of the more touted young pitchers in the game, to say nothing of Max Meyer, Sixto Sánchez and Jake Eder — each of whom were very well-regarded themselves before recent injury troubles. There’s enough depth the Fish are likely to explore dealing from their rotation to add some lineup help this winter.

Brewers To Re-Sign Jon Singleton To Minor League Deal

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The Brewers are re-signing first baseman Jon Singleton to a minor league contract, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (Twitter link). The 31-year-old will be in big league Spring Training as a non-roster invitee, McCalvy adds.

It’s a second straight season in the Milwaukee organization for Singleton, who hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since 2015. A member of Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects lists every year between 2011-14, the power-hitting first baseman signed a $10MM extension with the Astros in June 2014. That came in conjunction with his first big league promotion, a precursor to pre-MLB guarantees for players like Scott Kingery, Eloy Jiménez and Luis Robert. Houston’s hope was they’d found a middle-of-the-order presence for years to come, but the left-handed hitter didn’t meet the lofty expectations.

Over the next season and a half, Singleton sputtered to a .171/.290/.331 line in 114 MLB games. After playing the 2016-17 seasons in the high minors, he was released in May 2018. That came on the heels of a third career suspension following a failed test for a drug of abuse. As McCalvy chronicled in greater detail this past spring, Singleton has been open about his battle with marijuana addiction.

Singleton spent a few years out of the game but returned to professional baseball in Mexico last year. He spent the entire 2022 campaign with the Brew Crew’s top affiliate in Nashville, putting together a solid season. Through 581 plate appearances, he hit .219/.375/.434. His batting average isn’t eye-catching, but he connected on 24 home runs and drew walks in an incredible 20.1% of his trips to the dish. Even with an elevated 27.7% strikeout rate, he ranked 15th among 148 International League hitters (minimum 300 plate appearances) in on-base percentage and tied for seventh in long balls.

That wasn’t enough for Singleton to get a big league look, but it was sufficient for the Brewers to bring him back on another minor league deal. He’ll get a chance to compete for an MLB job next spring. Milwaukee can retain both of their 2022 first basemen, Rowdy Tellez and Keston Hiura. Like Singleton, Tellez is a left-handed hitter whose profile is carried by his power and plate discipline. He’s clearly above Singleton on the depth chart, although he’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $5.3MM salary in his second year of arbitration eligibility. That’s not an insignificant sum for a Brewers team with a huge arbitration class, and as MLBTR’s Maury Ahram explored earlier this month, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Milwaukee fields trade offers on Tellez this offseason.

The Opener: World Series, White Sox, Senga

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Welcome to The Opener, our new weekday morning series here at MLBTR!  Nick Deeds will take you through three things to watch around MLB, with our typical hot stove leaning.

As the postseason continues and the baseball world gears up for the offseason, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on today across baseball:

1. The World Series Heads To Philadelphia

The World Series is set to return to Philadelphia for the first time since 2009 tonight, with Noah Syndergaard set to take on Lance McCullers Jr. in Game 3. The series is tied 1-1 after the Phillies managed a comeback from a 5-0 deficit in Game 1 but were unable to do so for a second time in Game 2. With Philadelphia’s pair of aces, Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler, unlikely to return to the mound before Game 5, the Phillies will have to rely on their offense, a well-rested back of the bullpen, and the boost of playing front of their home crowd to overcome the Astros, who won 19 more regular season games in 2022 than Philadelphia.

2. The White Sox Are The Final Team With A Managerial Vacancy

Following yesterday’s announcement that the Royals have hired Matt Quatraro as manager, their AL Central rival on the south side of Chicago is the final team searching for a manager this season, assuming Astros manager Dusty Baker is indeed asked to return for the 2023 season. Chicago’s search for a skipper who can help the team move past Tony La Russa’s tumultuous second run as the team’s manager has lacked the clarity other managerial searches this offseason have possessed. With one of the few known interviewees in Astros bench coach Joe Espada reportedly out of the running, the only candidates known to have received interviews to this point are Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol, who also interviewed for vacancies in Kansas City and Miami, and former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. White Sox GM Rick Hahn noted earlier this month that interim manager Miguel Cairo would be interviewed for the position during his end of season press conference.

3. Kodai Senga Eyes Free Agency

NPB star Kodai Senga has been expected to test international free agency this offseason for months now, and according to Jason Coskrey of The Japan Times, the right-hander has officially filed the necessary paperwork with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to do so. Senga, who will pitch next season at age 30, figures to be one of the more intriguing options in the starting pitching market this offseason. With a phenomenal 1.94 ERA in 2022 and a four pitch mix including a mid-90s fastball and a splitter FanGraphs sees having “bat-missing action”, Senga figures to be given ample opportunity to establish himself in the big leagues as a quality starter, and at a much cheaper cost than the top flight free agent starters such as Carlos Rodon, Jacob deGrom, and Justin Verlander. That cheaper cost is due to the heightened risk in his profile, however; overseas players are rarely guaranteed to see their talents carry over at the same level in the big leagues, and FanGraphs notes that it’s possible Senga may need to pitch in high-leverage relief in the majors due to the relative weakness of his cutter and slider. Still, Senga figures to generate a great deal of interest among pitching-needy teams this offseason, and his free agency should be closely monitored.

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