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Rob Manfred Discusses Astros Investigation

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Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred addressed the ongoing investigation of the Astros organization at this week’s owner’s meetings, ESPN’s Jeff Passan writes. The league began looking into the Astros on the heels of a report from The Athletic wherein four former employees, including right-hander Mike Fiers, detailed a practice in which the Astros utilized center-field cameras to steal pitch signs and alert the hitter to what pitch was about to be thrown.

“I’m not going to speculate on whether other people are going to be involved,” Manfred told reporters today. “We’ll deal with that if it happens, but I’m not going to speculate about that. I have no reason to believe it extends beyond the Astros at this point in time.”

In the past, both the Cardinals and Braves have been sanctioned under Manfred. The Cards were hit with a $2MM fine and lost their two highest draft picks when former scouting director Chris Correa illegally accessed the Astros’ proprietary database. The Braves were barred from signing international players for multiple signing periods and stripped of 12 prospects they’d signed after extensive violations of the league’s international signing rules were discovered.

Manfred declined to speculate as to the potential punitive measures that would be levied against the Astros organization, instead stating that any discipline will be dependent on “how the facts are established at the end of the investigation.” The commissioner wouldn’t rule out a repeat of those prior sanctions — loss of draft picks and international free agency restrictions — but also was sure to specify that his authority allowed a “broader” range of potential disciplinary measures. There’s no active timeline for the investigation to wrap up.

“Any allegations that relate to a rule violation that could affect the outcome of a game or games is the most serious matter,” Manfred said Tuesday. “It relates to the integrity of the sport.”

MLB Ruling On Astros Investigation To Come After World Series

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Major League Baseball continues to investigate the incident involving the Houston Astros’ apparent attempt to discredit Sports Illustrated reporter Stephanie Apstein, per Joel Sherman and Ken Davidoff of The New York Post. Apstein, of course, published an article about inappropriate comments made during the Astros’ ALCS-clinching clubhouse celebration by assistant GM Brandon Taubman, who has since been fired.

Commissioner Rob Manfred made clear that a verdict will not come down from MLB until after the World Series is over. Sherman and Davidoff expect a fine at the very least, though the extent of MLB’s inquiry won’t be clear until their decision has been rendered. What is clear, per Manfred, is that the investigation began in response to the Astros’ initial statement regarding Apstein’s article.

As for the overall scope of MLB’s inquiry, said Manfred: “There are a variety of issues. I’m not going to narrow it to the statement or any of those. We’re going to continue to review the situation, have communication with (Astros owner Jim Crane).”

The incident is all the more frustrating for league officials as it continues to cast a shadow over the World Series, per The Athletic’s Marc Carig. Both the league office and the Astros are keen on keeping focus on the games ahead, though there remains an understandable amount of public curiosity regarding any potential sanction against the Astros.

Latest On Oakland Stadium Dispute

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Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle reports new details in the ongoing litigation taking place between Alameda County and the city of Oakland (link). To recap, Alameda County engaged in negotiations with both the city of Oakland and the Oakland A’s organization in an attempt to offload its share of the Oakland Coliseum and the Oakland Arena. With the stipulation that the city would pay upfront, Alameda County offered to sell its share of debt to Oakland for $78MM back in February–that offer was ignored on Oakland’s part.

Interestingly, though, the plot thickened from there: as Ravani characterizes it, that “snub” prompted Alameda officials to pivot to the Athletics, to whom they offered to sell their debt for $85MM. This time, however, the county would allow the A’s seven years to pay off the sum–with the very important caveat that the A’s would have to remain in Oakland. “The A’s were able to spread their terms out … whereas the county wanted us to pay it all up front,” Oakland Councilman Loren Taylor says in Ravani’s article, “From my perspective, we still need to have a conversation about the same terms that the A’s were given.”

The city and county are currently embroiled in a lawsuit intended to block the county from selling its stadium stake to the A’s, which has put something in a wrench in the team’s plans to develop a new stadium project. This state of affairs caused commissioner Rob Manfred to comment that he was “very concerned” at the litigation and the overall lack of “concrete progress” toward a new playing site for Oakland. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff later indicated to KTVU that Manfred has proposed the possibility of relocation to Las Vegas, with the Chronicle also relaying a similar suggestion on the part of Manfred.

Quick Hits: Maxwell, Lorenzen, Bauer, Manfred

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Former Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell is a player known more for his ideological stances than for his performance on the diamond, but that hasn’t stopped the backstop from turning a few heads while playing in Mexico this season. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser can be counted as one who has taken the time to notice Maxwell’s torrid production south of the border, as the veteran scribe profiled the catcher’s attempts to resurrect a career impacted, in part, by his decision to kneel during the national anthem in 2017 (link). The now-28-year-old Maxwell hit .325 with 25 homers in 2019 while playing for the Acereros de Monclova, a team that also featured fellow former Athletic Chris Carter. But, as Slusser points out, it’s far from clear if Maxwell’s foreign success will be enough to entice teams to overlook the “political baggage” (Slusser’s words) associated with him.

“People say you have to be stand-up citizens, but guys who are taking steroids come back and they still have jobs,” Maxwell said to Slusser in regard to his current lack of stateside of employment. “Guys who beat their wives are back like nothing happened.” While Maxwell had a few other expletive-laced thoughts on the subject of perceived double standards within the business of sport, he did also admit to some mistakes over a brief MLB career that saw him hit .240/.314/.347 (83 wRC+) over 127 games. “I accept I had an attitude,” Maxwell said, “and I could have changed it and I didn’t; I accept responsibility for that.” Maxwell, in addition to his anthem protest, also gained notoriety for a 2017 arrest for aggravated assault.

More notes from around the game, as the Nats and Cards do battle in the NLCS…

  • While any news involving Maxwell is likely to inspire some commenting forum debate, our second item comes with far less controversy. In a piece for The Cincinnati Enquirer, Bobby Nightengale profiles Reds hurler Michael Lorenzen’s offseason quest to add velo to his already-fearsome fastball (link). Notably, Lorenzen is planning to seek the tutelage of recently new teammate Trevor Bauer. “We’re talking about making my delivery more efficient where I’m actually able to throw harder with less effort,” Lorenzen said of his discussions with Bauer to this point. “That’s a real thing if you understand human anatomy and human movement. It’s a real thing. With my strength numbers and my power numbers and my movement quality, I should be throwing harder.” As Nightengale points out, Lorenzen already averaged 97.2 mph on his heater this past season en route to notching a 2.92 ERA across 83.1 innings out of the Cincy pen. If Bauer is able to replicate the success he had working with former Indians teammate Mike Clevinger–who added several ticks to his fastball under Bauer’s instruction–the Reds may find themselves with a truly terrifying late-inning option in the Orange County-bred Lorenzen.
  • Evan Drellich of The Athletic published a thoughtful and well-researched piece that touched on MLB’s so-called attendance problem, which the writer positions as a possible consequence of broader societal moves toward online–and not in-person–leisure activities (link). MLB attendance was 68,494,752 in 2019, down 1.7 percent from the 2018 season, but Drellich points to the year-over-year growth of MLB At Bat and MLB.tv as signs that the league is growing in ways that may not be evident when looking at attendance data alone. Commissioner Rob Manfred is inclined to agree with this line of thinking: “We try to think about engagement with the game,” Manfred told Drellich. “We sell different things. We sell a live product…We sell a broadcast product…We try to look broader than just attendance.” Drellich’s piece also features extensive data regarding the league’s deployment of social science polling data in their concerted effort to engage Gen Z fans–very heady stuff, for those so inclined.

Manfred On Ball, DH, Free Agency, Expansion, Rays

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If you ask Astros ace Justin Verlander, Major League Baseball has become a home-run happy farce. Verlander, who started the All-Star Game for the American League on Tuesday, issued acerbic comments on the direction of the game Monday, saying (via Jeff Passan of ESPN): “Major League Baseball’s turning this game into a joke. They own Rawlings, and you’ve got Manfred up here saying it might be the way they center the pill. They own the [expletive] company. If any other $40 billion company bought out a $400 million company and the product changed dramatically, it’s not a guess as to what happened.”

Sour grapes from someone who’s already close to allowing a career-high home run total for a season? It doesn’t seem that way. There is growing skepticism – not just from Verlander – about the integrity of the baseball MLB is using, and understandably so. Big leaguers are on pace to hit 6,600-plus home runs, which would crush the record of 6,105 set in 2017, Tyler Kepner of the New York Times notes. Like Verlander, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark is under the impression something is up. So are starters Max Scherzer, Charlie Morton, Jake Odorizzi, Marcus Stroman and CC Sabathia, as Kepner and Passan detail in their pieces.

“If there’s something that’s potentially altering that, just come out and say it,” Odorizzi said. “I think, as players, we’ve gotten to the point now where we’ve accepted it.”

However, according to commissioner Rob Manfred, there isn’t anything nefarious happening. Rather, the league “has done nothing, given no direction, for an alteration in the baseball.” Manfred added MLB doesn’t want more home runs – owners have “no desire” for an increase, he insisted Tuesday – so juicing the baseball wouldn’t make sense from MLB’s perspective.

At the same time, Manfred did admit Monday the ball has changed. He told ESPN’s Golic and Wingo (via Passan): “”Our scientists that have been now studying the baseball more regularly have told us that this year the baseball has a little less drag. It doesn’t need to change very much in order to produce meaningful change in terms of the way the game is played on the field. We are trying to understand exactly why that happened and build out a manufacturing process that gives us a little more control over what’s going on. But you have to remember that our baseball is a handmade product and there’s gonna be variation year to year.”

Whether Manfred’s telling the truth in regards to the baseball is up for debate. What’s clear is that the game won’t be injecting more offense by implementing a universal designated hitter in the imminent future. Manfred remarked Tuesday (via Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) that a DH in the National League is not “inevitable,” indicating it won’t come up as a possibility until after the collective bargaining agreement runs out in 2021.

Free agency, like the DH, will be an important discussion point during talks on the next CBA. Clark conveyed a desire this week to restore “meaningful free agency.” Manfred seems happy with the current system, though, saying baseball has the “freest free agency in any sport” – one devoid of a salary cap, franchise tags and max contracts. He expressed satisfaction that MLB “has produced more $100 million guaranteed contracts than the rest of professional sports combined.” While Manfred did indicate a willingness to negotiate with the union as regards free agency, the league’s “economic system has to preserve the competitiveness of those small-market clubs. That is always our overriding goal.”

Concerning the markets MLB plans to occupy going forward, Manfred put the kibosh on any short-term expansion possibilities, stating, “There’s no way we’re biting into expansion until we get Tampa and Oakland (which also needs a new stadium) resolved one way or the other.” 

Tampa Bay, however, is exploring becoming a two-city franchise – an idea the league has thrown its support behind. In Manfred’s estimation, the Rays’ proposed Tampa Bay-Montreal team-sharing setup would present “an opportunity to preserve baseball in Tampa Bay. And I’m not prepared to say one way or the other what’s going to happen if that effort turns out to be unsuccessful.”

MLB Announces Implementation Of Pitch Clock For Spring Training Games

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Major League Baseball has formally announced the implementation of a 20-second pitch clock to be tested during Spring Training games. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported minutes prior to the announcement that it’d be made today. Per the league’s announcement, there has been no decision made regarding the potential implementation of the pitch clock during the upcoming regular season, though Passan tweeted that there is a “very real possibility” of that happening.

Early in Spring Training, as players adjust to the latest pace-of-play tactic put in place by commissioner Rob Manfred, there will not be any ball or strike penalties for pitch-clock violations. By the second week of games, umpires will begin to issue warnings, and eventually, umps “will be instructed to begin assessing ball-strike penalties for violations.”

Notably, the pitch clock comes with numerous restrictions. It does not apply to the first pitch of a plate appearance, and the pitcher need only start his motion before the clock expires rather than deliver the actual pitch. Hitters will be required to be in the batter’s box by the time there are five seconds remaining on the clock, and the clock will reset when the pitcher receives the ball back from the catcher.

On pickoff plays, the clock will reset when the pitcher once again receives the ball from the infielder to whom he threw. The clock will also reset if pitchers feint a pickoff motion or step off the rubber with a runner on base. Mound visits will also cause the clock to reset. If an umpire calls or grants time, the pitch clock will not be used on the following pitch (unless time was called to swap out a ball thrown in the dirt).

Manfred has the ability to unilaterally implement the pitch clock for the 2019 regular season even if he does not come to an agreement on its implementation with the players’ union. However, Passan notes — as does today’s release announcing the clock — that the league will continue to negotiate with the players in search of an agreement on the matter.

Whether the clock is implemented in 2019 or not, today’s announcement serves as a harbinger for change in 2020 and beyond. Manfred has made improving the pace-of-play one of the focal points of his tenure as the league’s commissioner and has regularly put initiatives into place — most recently limiting the number of mound visits allowed per game and instituting automatic intentional walks. The pitch clock would be a more dramatic measure — one with far greater potential to impact the outcome of games — than other recent changes, however.

That said, while it’d be a change requiring adjustment for many established big leaguers, a pitch clock has been in place in the minor leagues dating back to the 2015 season. Because of that, it’d be a familiar regulation to the next wave of prospects who make their way to the big leagues. In theory, the pitch clock should be largely unnoticed once the league grows accustomed to its existence — be it this coming season or in the future — though there’ll surely be some early growing pains with the new system. And, of course, the move will likely be unpopular among most longstanding baseball fans; while part of Manfred’s aim in accelerating the pace of play is to grow the general appeal of baseball, there is of course a sizable (and oft-vocal) portion of the existing fanbase that does not want to see any such changes put into place.

Quick Hits: SoxFest, Banuelos, Rule Changes

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White Sox GM Rick Hahn recognizes there will be some disappointment and finger-pointing if the White Sox don’t come away with Manny Machado or Bryce Harper this offseason, but he’s not ready to say more about the ongoing negotiations than necessary. Hahn did flat-out reject the idea of signing both free agent stars, as two monster contracts would hamper the long-term flexibility to a harmful degree. While Hahn spoke openly about Machado rumors, he is unhappy with the number of leaks, both true and untrue, coming from the Southside, per the Athletic’s James Fegan. As irritating as the leaks are, Hahn assured the crowds at SoxFest that they will continue to confront leaks of all varieties with honesty. Fegan also notes that former top prospect Manny Banuelos has generated more hype than usual for an unestablished 27-year-old. The Sox preempted Banuelos’ minor league free agency by acquiring him via trade from the Dodgers in November. Banuelos has been around the block, spending time with the Braves and Yankees, starting six games for the former in 2015. He put together a solid campaign last season for the Dodgers’ Triple A affiliate, throwing 108 2/3 innings, with a 9-7 record, 3.73 ERA and 10.52 K/9 versus 3.48 BB/9. Now, rumblings from the league office, and more from SoxFest in Chicago…

  • Baseball’s offensive landscape has shifted due to record strikeout totals, increased bullpen usage, shorter stints from starting pitchers and more meticulous long-term bullpen management. These trends have been spotlit by the increased media attention paid to service time manipulation, most-famously in the case of Kris Bryant, as well as the Tampa Bay Rays’ recent revelation that has already made its way into common baseball parlance: the opener. In an effort to curb these trends, Major League Baseball is getting set to present the Players’ Association with rule change proposals that may include the institution of a pitch clock, reinstating the 15-day disabled list and increasing the amount of time an optioned player must spend in the minor leagues, back to 15 days from the current minimum of 10 – though nothing official has yet been released, per Ronald Blum of the Associated Press. The league office could force feed these rule changes with a year’s notice, but Commissioner Rob Manfred is unlikely to use such an aggressive tactic. It will be up to the players, then, to decide whether these proposals are good for the game.
  • Of note, the league has made strides in quickening the pace of the game, as average 9-inning game times sped up from 3 hours, 5 minutes, 11 seconds in 2017, to 3 hours and 44 seconds last year. Trimming mound visits without a pitching change from 7.41 to 4.01 certainly had a hand in cutting out those 4+ minutes. Quantifying the impact of these changes is difficult, giving baseball circles more than enough fodder for debate, though it seems the “state of the game” conversations will continue throughout the next two years leading up to the expiration of the current CBA in 2021. 
  • White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper won’t kowtow to the wisdom of the opener anytime soon, per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun Times. The way Cooper sees it, the role of the starter on the White Sox has not changed, and he still expects to get 6+ innings out of his guys. That’s been a tough ask of late as the Southsiders have built their staff from the ground up via development and trades. Next season is a key year for their young arms, as the trio of Carlos Rodon, Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito look to cement their place in the rotation before the arrival of the next wave of high profile prospects like Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech and Dane Dunning, the latter two of whom are working their way back from injury. Ivan Nova rounds out the top four in Cooper’s rotation, with Dylan Covey in competition with Banuelos for the five slot. There are still plenty of arms on the free agent market, however, and GM Rick Hahn says the team is working on 3-4 potential acquisitions. Given the collective injury troubles plaguing Chicago’s cavalcade of young arms, it would not be surprising in the least to see one or two veteran arms brought into camp on cheap or minor-league deals. 

MLB Owners Approve Extension For Rob Manfred

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10:35am: Manfred has been unanimously approved for an extension through the 2024 season, tweets Nightengale.

Nov. 15, 7:34am: The vote is expected to take place today, tweets Fancred’s Jon Heyman.

Nov. 9: Major League Baseball owners are expected to meet next week to vote on a five-year extension for commissioner Rob Manfred, reports USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. He’d need the approval of ownership representatives from 16 of the 30 teams, though Nightengale reports that Manfred is expected to receive unanimous approval. It’s been four years since Manfred officially succeeded Bud Selig as the league’s commissioner, and the new agreement would effectively ensure that he’d spend at least a decade in his current role.

Nightengale adds that various rule changes will also be discussed, as is typical in the offseason, with a heavy focus on pace of play — which has come to be one of Manfred’s more focal issues during his tenure. The idea of a pitch clock will once again be discussed, as will limitations on pitching changes, defensive shifts and “openers,” per the report. Manfred has already implemented numerous pace of play initiatives, most recently including a limited number of mound visits per game.

MLB.com’s Jon Morosi has previously tweeted that Major League Baseball is also weighing various avenues to curb teams’ abilities to steal signs using technology; one popular idea, he adds, would be to limit real-time access to the center-field camera views in teams’ video rooms. Yahoo’s Jeff Passan hears similarly (Twitter links). Deputy commissioner and chief legal officer Dan Halem spoke with Nightengale about the subject, indicating that it was a frequently raised topic at this week’s GM Meetings and that he will bring several “good suggestions” to Manfred as the league looks to address the issue at next week’s owners’ meetings.

Halem also noted that roster expansion has been a frequent topic raised by general managers, although that issue is likely to be tabled until the next wave of collective bargaining begins. The current CBA spans the 2017-21 seasons, so any hope of additional bodies being added to the roster doesn’t seem likely for another few years, at the very least.

Angels Ownership Responds To Manfred’s Comments About Mike Trout; Trout Adds Own Statement

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10:04pm: Trout himself has added a statement regarding the commissioner’s comments. Here’s the full text of his response.

“I have received lots of questions about Commissioner Manfred’s recent statement. I am not a petty guy and would really encourage everyone to just move forward. Everything is cool between the commissioner and myself. End of story. I am ready to just play some baseball!”

While most of the statement seems lighthearded and passive, perhaps the most interesting part is the inclusion of the phrase “End of story”, which rhetorically serves to completely shut down any invitation of further questions on the subject. It’s of course a crystal clear sign that Trout wants to stay as far away from any controversy as possible, and certainly doesn’t wish to perpetuate any conflict between Manfred and the Angels.

8:59pm: The Angels issued a statement today regarding outfielder Mike Trout. Out of context, the statement offers praise for the two-time AL MVP (both for his on-field accomplishments and his off-field character), while simultaneously congratulating him for another excellent performance in the All-Star game. While you can read the statement in its entirety at the above link, the excerpt below helps to capture its essence succinctly.

“Mike Trout is an exceptional ambassador for the game. Combined with his talent, his solid character creates a perfect role model for young people everywhere. Each year, Mike devotes a tremendous amount of his time and effort contributing to our Organization, and marketing Major League Baseball… In addition, Mike spends quality time as a husband, son, brother, uncle and friend. We applaud him for prioritizing his personal values over commercial self-promotion. That is rare in today’s society and stands out as much as his extraordinary talent.”

There is, however, important additional context to consider in this situation. As Ronald Blum laid out in a piece for AP News, commissioner Rob Manfred recently criticized Trout for lack of engagement in actively marketing himself. Manfred at one point went so far as to comment on how Trout spends his free time. Below are some of Manfred’s most interesting words on the subject.

“Player marketing requires one thing for sure — the player. You cannot market a player passively. You can’t market anything passively. You need people to engage with those to whom you are trying to market in order to have effective marketing. We are very interested in having our players more engaged and having higher profile players and helping our players develop their individual brand. But that involves the player being actively engaged.

Mike’s a great, great player and a really nice person, but he’s made certain decisions about what he wants to do and what he doesn’t want to do, and how he wants to spend his free time and how he doesn’t want to spend his free time. That’s up to him. If he wants to engage and be more active in that area, I think we could help him make his brand really, really big. But he has to make a decision that he’s prepared to engage in that area. It takes time and effort.”

While the comments seem mostly harmless, it’s hard to recall a time in recent memory when the commissioner offered such a direct criticism of a player’s effort to build his brand. The fact that Trout’s shown such exceptional talent while never accruing so much as a blemish on his reputation makes this criticism all the more peculiar. That Trout’s not a bigger name outside of baseball circles probably speaks as much to the league’s efforts to market their players (and overall popularity) as it does to Trout’s own individual endeavors.

Although the subject of marketing Trout has never taken this much spotlight before, this is far from the first time it’s been broached- Fangraphs’ Effectively Wild podcast is just one outlet to have examined it in detail. It’s often been suggested that while Trout’s baseball talent is extraordinary, his personality doesn’t particularly invite the same fascination. The Angels outfielder’s most widely-known hobbies include fishing, crabbing, with an interest in meteorology perhaps being his most unusual one. Some reporters have actually tried to exploit that latter item; Ken Rosenthal in particular put a weather map in front of Trout at one point during the All-Star Game and asked him to tell his audience whether they might see any rain during the course of the exhibition. Nonetheless, there’s been little success in eliciting the same kind of extroverted passion seen in players like Francisco Lindor, humor shown by players like Brandon McCarthy, or any of the bizarre and noteworthy comments given by players like Bryce Harper.

That said, it’s not as though Trout has stayed entirely out of the spotlight. As Angels ownership noted in the aforementioned statement, he’s been involved in plenty of community outreach. The seven-time All-Star has visited schools, hospitals and plenty of other charities, signing autographs for children and other fans while exhibiting class and humility. That Trout’s been a great husband, brother and friend to many while accomplishing such unimaginable feats in the game of baseball does plenty to establish a brand in its own right.

One could argue that Trout’s somewhat simple personality has allowed for plenty of humor by of contrast. Comedy is created by opposition, after all, and Trout delivering lines somewhat dryly with a monochromatic expression has created some brilliant humor in commercials for products like BodyArmor Sports Drink, Subway, and even MLB itself. While successful deadpan humor amidst heightened situations is far from the only ingredient in the recipe for a strong brand, it certainly isn’t nothing, and it’s proof in and of itself of how knowing the personality you’re working with is a key component of a successful marketing campaign.

Then again, it’s important to examine whether it’s any sort of obligation for Trout to actively market himself if he doesn’t want to. Certainly the league would benefit greatly if its consensus best player were as prominent of a celebrity as LeBron James or Tom Brady, but it would be hard to argue that Trout “owes” the league anything additional in that regard. After all, he’s fulfilled all his contractual obligations with the Angels since the moment he set foot in The Show, and his level of play certainly suggests he puts 110% effort into his game. Manfred’s comments seem to imply that it’s Trout’s responsibility as a top MLB talent to put more free into building his brand, when in reality the very use of the phrase “free time” illustrates that such a suggestion is at most up for debate. Trout certainly has significant obligations to his family, and there’s of course significant drawbacks to being more recognizable in public.

All that said, there’s no denying that it would benefit Trout’s legacy if he were to devote more time and resources to promoting himself and building his brand.  Even considering only his accomplishments to date, Trout is a surefire bet to land in the Hall of Fame, and he’s not even to the age that most would consider to be a player’s “prime”. If he stays healthy and ages at least gracefully, he stands a reasonable chance to break Babe Ruth’s records for fWAR and bWAR and go down as the greatest baseball player of all time. A bigger brand could mean more public notoriety, a greater estate for his descendants, and a greater impact on the community he devotes so much time to helping.

Though it’s fair to assume that Manfred’s comments were made largely in his own self-interest, noteworthy is the fact that the Angels themselves would be among the most lavish beneficiaries of a greater Trout presence, considering they directly benefit from the increased sales they’d likely draw from ticket sales and player merchandise (though one would hope the products would be better than this shirt). That Angels ownership stood in such obvious opposition to Manfred’s comments perhaps speaks to their relationship with Trout, and perhaps even a contrasting assessment to that of the commissioner. For their part, many players, including former teammate Huston Street, certainly seem to believe that Trout is exactly what a player ought to be.

It will be interesting to see how Trout and his agent, Craig Landis, respond to this drama, or indeed whether they choose to at all. Furthermore, it’s easy to wonder if this will lead to a further exchange between the commissioner’s office and Angels ownership. And of course it’s also possible that Tony Clark of the MLBPA could even get involved. Speculation aside, though, one thing is certain… the subject is unlikely to simply disappear over the long remainder of Trout’s career. Perhaps the most intriguing concern is whether this controversy will reach a point at which it causes unnecessary tension between the league and its best player… for the sake of the game, I hope that seemingly far fetched outcome doesn’t come to fruition.

Poll: Should The NL Adopt The Designated Hitter?

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There are few topics more polarizing among baseball fans than whether Major League Baseball should adopt a universal designated hitter. Proponents of the DH argue that there’s little excitement derived from watching pitchers hit, while detractors lament the loss of strategy that would come from removing the frequent double-switches, determining when to pinch-hit for a pitcher and the general small-ball aspects of the game that are inherently tied to pitchers hitting.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred touched on the subject briefly following the quarterly owners’ meetings this week, as Scott Boeck of USA Today writes. While Manfred didn’t delve into specifics, he did hint that the adoption of National League designated hitters could be on the horizon.

“I think that is a continuing source of conversation among the ownership group and I think that the dialogue actually probably moved a little bit,” Manfred said of the ongoing discussion regarding the DH being utilized by National League clubs. That certainly doesn’t indicate when a potential change of the rules would be put into place, but it does make it sound likelier that said change will be implemented at some point in the future.

It’s true that employing a designated hitter in both leagues would eliminate some more conventional means of strategy. Double-switches force managers to get creative with their lineups and use their bench pieces in selective fashion. Pitchers hitting leads to more sacrifice bunting and creates some degree of gamesmanship when it comes to facing the eighth-place (or, in some instances, seventh-place) hitter ahead of the pitcher. Many hitters have seen an artificial boost to their OBP by virtue of being pitched around or intentionally walked in order to face the pitcher (or in order to force the opposing manager to pinch-hit and thus remove a starter from the game). Those elements, of course, would be no more. Fans who’ve spent decades primarily watching the game played in a certain fashion may understandably bristle at the notion.

Does the advent of a DH in the National League necessarily “eliminate” strategy, though? At a time when defensive shifting is at an all-time high and becoming all the more advanced, it’d be easy to argue that the increased prevalence of data (and its manifestation in the on-field product) simply creates new types of strategy.

It’s commonplace now to not only see fielders shifting at the beginning of a player’s plate appearance but to even begin re-positioning themselves during said plate appearance based on the count. We’ve seen some teams, the Cubs most recently, shift pitchers to the outfield for one batter as a means of keeping them in the game to set up multiple left-on-left and right-on-right matchups that would otherwise be broken up by an opposite-handed batter. (Just this week, Chicago moved Steve Cishek to left field to get a lefty-lefty matchup against the Brewers before bringing Cishek back to the mound to face Lorenzo Cain — a move which Cain amusingly said “kind of broke my heart.”) The Rays have been using relief pitchers to open games in hopes of more effectively neutralizing an opponent’s best hitters early. If anything, strategy seems to be evolving rather than evaporating.

Still, many traditionalists simply enjoy the novelty that comes with pitchers taking turns at bat. I doubt I’m alone in acknowledging that I’ve watched Bartolo Colon’s home run against James Shields a borderline-unhealthy number of times in my life. Plenty of fans would like to see Madison Bumgarner participate in the Home Run Derby at some point in his career. The arrival of Shohei Ohtani in the United States has only further created some intrigue around pitchers hitting. Allowing pitchers to hit does create some unexpected moments of excitement, as any Diamondbacks fan who watched Archie Bradley’s seventh-inning, two-run triple during last year’s NL Wild Card game can attest.

At the same time, with the notable exception of Ohtani, there’s little denying that even the best-hitting pitchers simply aren’t good hitters. Bumgarner is considered the game’s best in that regard (again, excepting Ohtani), and the best four-year stretch of his career saw him bat .224/.272/.433 (from 2014-17). That’s a slightly worse level of output than Tommy Joseph turned in for the Phillies last season before being designated for assignment, claimed by the Rangers and, eventually, being sent outright to Double-A.

Pitchers are batting a collective .111/.144/.140 this season and striking out at a 42.8 percent pace. Conversely, the league-average non-pitcher is hitting .249/.321/.413 with a 21.8 percent strikeout rate. As the league explores ways in which to increase the frequency of the ball being put into play, giving the National League a regular designated hitter would be one way to go about doing so. Pitchers batted 5277 times last season and struck out in 2028 of those plate appearances (38.4 percent). Nearly halving that number would’ve resulted in (roughly) 1,000 fewer strikeouts, and the discrepancy between hitter and pitcher strikeouts has only increased from 2017 to 2018.

While many fans would argue that the American League should simply drop the DH, there’s no way that the MLBPA would agree to that during collective bargaining agreement talks, as it’d remove as many as 15 jobs for offensive-minded position players, so for the purposes of this poll, I’ll withhold that option from being an answer. That said, the topic generally makes for a rather spirited debate, so we’ll open this up for all of our readers to weigh in (link to poll for Trade Rumors app users).

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