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Robin Ventura

Heyman’s Latest: Teheran, Ventura, CarGo, Lucroy, Myers, Turner

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Writing at todaysknuckleball.com, Jon Heyman breaks down the woes of the Dodgers and Angels. Both teams face difficult decisions over the summer. The Dodgers, at least, still seem positioned to contend and could play an interesting role on the trade market.

Here are more notes from the column:

  • Amidst the considerable amount of Julio Teheran chatter, one Braves source tells Heyman, “I don’t see the Braves trading Teheran.” That’s a less-definitive statement than the one Heyman received regarding Freddie Freeman, as a source told him the first baseman is “totally off limits,” which lines up with GM John Coppolella’s offseason comments. Heyman adds that the Braves have “tried to dangle” Erick Aybar in trade talks, but he has no value at this point and could simply end up being released, creating an opportunity for one of Atlanta’s top-tier shortstop prospects (Dansby Swanson and Ozhaino Albies).
  • Robin Ventura is on the hot seat with the White Sox, Heyman writes (adding more detail here). A team source tells him that there’s a feeling that “patience has been shown” and a change could benefit the team. Bench coach Rick Renteria, who formerly managed the Cubs, could succeed Ventura. Not that it’s particularly surprising, but Heyman adds that former skipper Ozzie Guillen wouldn’t be a candidate to return to his old post.
  • The Rockies haven’t yet started receiving calls asking about Carlos Gonzalez, but they’re expected to listen to offers despite hovering around .500 to this point of the season. GM Jeff Bridich tells Heyman that his current focus is on winning and adds that prized righty Jeff Hoffman, who headlined the prospects acquired in last July’s Troy Tulowitzki blockbuster, is “closer than he is far away.”
  • While Jonathan Lucroy is perhaps the most-cited trade candidate in baseball, GM David Stearns tells Heyman that an extension can’t be entirely ruled out. Heyman notes that if the Brewers are able to move Ryan Braun, they could look to reallocate some of those funds to locking up Lucroy, who is more open to an extension now that the Brewers are performing better than most pundits expected. There could, of course, be some level of gamesmanship there, as it would make sense for any team official to downplay a prime trade target’s availability.
  • The Padres are “open” to trading Wil Myers in the right scenario, says Heyman, but it still seems unlikely that’ll come to fruition. San Diego has received hits on Jon Jay and Derek Norris, though, and presumably the organization is more willing to part with those players.
  • There was talk of the Tigers pursuing Chris Davis over the winter, and Heyman says that was indeed the case. The club was considering an offer in the $180MM range for the slugger, per the report. Owner Mike Ilitch also pushed for Yoenis Cespedes over Justin Upton, but the club elected to grab the younger player. That choice is certainly up for debate after their respective starts.
  • The Phillies are obvious sellers, but most of their marketable assets reside on the pitching side of the equation. But the club sees infielder Andres Blanco as a plausible piece, with Freddy Galvis also potentially on the block. Blanco isn’t quite repeating his surprising 2015 season, but is hitting at around the league average rate and could be a useful utility piece.
  • With continued uncertainty surrounding Felix Hernandez, the Mariners are likely to explore the rotation market this summer. The club has received a nice boost from James Paxton of late, but many of its starters have long-term injury questions so it isn’t surprising to hear that the club is readying for an addition in that area.
  • Heyman also floats the idea that the Nationals could dangle top position player prospect Trea Turner in trade talks this summer. He wonders whether he could be the chip that lands a top-end reliever, citing Yankees hurler Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman. From my perspective, that would be rather surprising: Turner has shown himself ready for a full crack at the big leagues and is widely considered one of the game’s twenty best prospects. Even if the Nats don’t make him the starter in 2016, he’s a critical part of the team’s middle infield depth right now and an important future piece.
  • Veteran outfielder Shane Victorino has rejected several opportunities to join teams on minor-league deals, says Heyman. Victorino is holding out for a shot to join a big league roster.

White Sox To Retain Robin Ventura

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White Sox GM Rick Hahn said today that the club will retain skipper Robin Ventura for the 2016 season, as Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com was among those to report on Twitter. Though Ventura was already under contract for next year, there had been plenty of speculation about his job security after a disappointing campaign.

Hahn did confirm that bench coach Mark Parent has been fired from his position, as Hayes earlier reported (Twitter links). The rest of the staff will remain intact except for assistant hitting coach Harold Baines, who has decided to move into a different role in the organization.

Ventura has compiled a 295-350 win/loss record since taking the helm before the 2012 season. He directed a winning club in his first year, but has overseen sub-.500 efforts in each of the last three.

Increased spending and heightened expectations couldn’t prevent another middling season, leaving Ventura seemingly at risk. But Hahn explained that he still believes the former All-Star third baseman can lead a team to a championship, as Hayes tweets.

The White Sox already seem to have a pretty clear idea of what they’d like to do with next year’s staff, MLB.com’s Scott Merkin reports (Twitter links). Adding a coach with a Latin American background is one priority, and the team may prefer that its new bench coach have managerial experience. One name that appears to be getting some consideration is Raul Ibanez, according to Merkin, though it’s not clear what role he’d be in play for.

AL Central Notes: Tigers, Sox, Lindor, Sano, Hicks

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Miguel Cabrera spoke with MLB.com’s Jason Beck about what has been perhaps his most difficult season as a member of the Tigers. Despite great personal success — Cabrera is hitting .335/.438/.540 even after 20 straight hitless at-bats — Cabrera hasn’t experienced a losing season since his first as a Tiger in 2008. The two-time AL MVP told Beck that had everyone been healthy from Opening Day, he feels the talent was there to make a postseason run, but injuries led to the tough decisions to have to trade David Price, Yoenis Cespedes and Joakim Soria. Those same injuries (to himself, Victor Martinez, Justin Verlander, Anibal Sanchez and others) led Cabrera to defend manager Brad Ausmus. “…[I]t’s not his fault,” said Cabrera. “…Why do people say you’ve got to fire him? … I always say, man, if we’re healthy, we can push harder. But this year, we got a lot of key players out for one month, two months. With that, there’s no way you’re going to win, because we need everybody here. It’s not about one player.”

More from the AL Central to kick off Friday morning…

  • On a similar note, White Sox outfielder Melky Cabrera praised skipper Robin Ventura when speaking to MLB.com’s Scott Merkin. “I found what I expected here,” said Cabrera, who has enjoyed his first season in spite of the team’s losing record. “I think that Robin is a great manager. I like to play for him. We have the core players that we can compete in the future.” Cabrera and Ventura both spoke about the slow starts for a number of White Sox players (Cabrera included) and the difficulty in overcoming the early hole dug by those struggles. Cabrera, Adam Eaton, Alexei Ramirez and Adam LaRoche all struggled a great deal early on. Eaton came to life in early May, whereas Cabrera turned it on in June and Ramirez has been hitting quite well since July 1. LaRoche, on the other hand, has seen his struggles continue all season.
  • Did the Indians wait too long to promote Francisco Lindor this season? Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer examines the question from both sides, noting that there was a case to be made for Lindor to break camp with the club and one that says it made both business and baseball sense for the team to keep him in Triple-A until mid-June. The Indians gained an extra year of club control and likely prevented Lindor from reaching Super Two designation by keeping him at Triple-A until June 14, though as Hoynes notes, the four-game gap they’re facing in the Wild Card standings may well have been smaller with a full season of the potential Rookie of the Year winner. (From my vantage point — Lindor didn’t hit much at Triple-A in 2014 and started the 2015 season quite slowly in Triple-A as well. Had he come firing out of the gates, there would’ve been a definite case to bring him up late April, but he didn’t begin hitting until late May anyhow.)
  • Even Twins GM Terry Ryan admitted to being surprised by just how impressive Miguel Sano has been at the plate since his promotion, he said in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (audio link). Ryan noted that Sano looked “rusty” early in the season in his first action back from Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for all of 2014. “He really struggled in the first month of April down there, and his at-bats were not good,” said Ryan. “…When he came up here in July, he was putting tremendous, quality, professional at-bats together. He wasn’t chasing, and when he got a strike, he did something with it. And he’s given us that power presence in the middle of the lineup that we desperately needed.”
  • Host Todd Hollandsworth also asked Ryan about the progression of Aaron Hicks, noting that the Twins deserve some praise for sticking with the former first-round pick through his early struggles in his career. Said Ryan of Hicks: “He reminds me a lot of Torii Hunter back in the day, when Torii struggled through the system in the minor leagues and came up and went back a couple times, then finally solidified himself as a great player.” Hicks’ breakout hasn’t garnered the attention of Sano’s performance, but the 25-year-old is hitting .262/.323/.412 with 11 homers, 12 steals and strong outfield defense after a batting a woeful .201/.293/.314 from 2013-14.

White Sox Won’t Dismantle At Deadline

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With a few weeks to go until the trade deadline, little is certain about what the White Sox will do.  Jeff Samardzija has a litany of possible suitors, but he and other trade chips could wind up staying put depending on how the Sox fare in the coming days.  No matter what happens, however, White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams told Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports that the team won’t be holding a fire sale.

“It’s important that we not lose sight of what our organization goal was, and that was to give us the best three-year window. And we’re not going to abandon that completely with only three months to play,” Williams said.  “I think [Rick Hahn’s] done one hell of a job. Everyone wants to put the blame on [manager] Robin [Ventura], too, but all he can do is put the players in position to succeed. They’re the ones who have to look in the mirror and execute. If we do anything, it will be consistent with trying to maximize this three-year plan or window that we set out originally.”

After today’s loss to the Orioles, Chicago owns a 36-43 record and sits last in the AL Central, 10 games back of the first-place Royals and 5.5 games behind the last wild card spot.  It’s not an ideal spot by any stretch, yet given the crowded American League standings, the White Sox are just be a hot week or two away from being right back in the hunt.

While it may be a bit too early to start selling yet, Williams said he’s open to at least hearing any trade proposal.  Teams can even pitch trades for ace Chris Sale, but it’s extremely unlikely that anything will happen on that front.

“We’ve always had that mind-set that we will listen to anyone who wants to make an offer for our players,” Williams said. “How else do you know what the value is? Something may bowl you over. But we can’t envision anything happening along those lines.”

While Sale is locked up on a team-friendly deal that could run through the 2019 season, Samardzija is a different story, as he’s set to hit free agency this winter.  Nightengale mentions that “every club with an urgent pitching need” has expressed an interest in Samardzija, and that the Blue Jays in particular have “strongly pursued” the righty.

If Samardzija signed an extension to remain on the south side, that would obviously change things.  “We just have to get some sort of indication it’s possible or not to sign him. We have to also see if it’s realistic given our resources and the other obligations we have,” Williams said.

That said, a midseason deal seems very unlikely with Samardzija so close to the open market.  While he stressed that “by no means does it take the White Sox off my list” if he hits free agency, Samardzija seemed eager to take control over his playing future.

“I worked hard to get to this spot in free agency.  I just want to sign with a team that is competing every September with a chance to be playing in October,” Samardzija said.  “Look, I don’t hold bad blood or grudges against anybody. I understand how the business side works. Front offices have to do what they have to do. But I also need to protect myself and make sure I’m in a situation where I can win for a long time.”

AL Notes: Hamilton, Ventura, Graham, Texas, Hassan

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The Angels signing of Josh Hamilton has set the franchise back in ways other than financial, opines Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. During the 2012 offseason, the Angels decided to invest their payroll in Hamilton rather than make a serious bid to retain Zack Greinke. The five-year, $125MM contract forced GM Jerry DiPoto to cut corners when building his pitching staff for the 2013 sesaon and eventually he had to deal bats like Mark Trumbo and Howie Kendrick to acquire young arms (Hector Santiago, Tyler Skaggs and Andrew Heaney) over the next two offseasons. Shaikin posits the Angels’ lineup is a Mike Trout injury away from being devasted.

Elsewhere in the American League:

  • With public criticism mounting against White Sox manager Robin Ventura, first baseman Jose Abreu came to the defense of his skipper, Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune tweets. “If the people want someone to blame, it’s the players, not Robin,” Abreu said.
  • Twins Rule 5 pick J.R. Graham is here to stay, manager Paul Molitor tells reporters, including Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press (on Twitter). “He’s going to be here all year,” the manager said. Graham threw two scoreless innings to close out the Twins’ 13-3 beating of the White Sox this afternoon.
  • The Rangers will have a logjam at first base once Mitch Moreland recovers from his elbow surgery, but they won’t be able to move some of the surplus to the outfield because of the injury history of Moreland and Kyle Blanks, reports Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. Moreland says there was only one bone chip (a little bigger than the size of a watermelon seed) that needed to be removed from his elbow, tweets FOXSportsSouthwest.com’s Anthony Andro.
  • Indications are the continuing waiver wire saga of outfielder Alex Hassan (who has been claimed five times over the past seven months after being picked up by the A’s yesterday) will prompt the MLBPA to make this an issue during the next round of collective bargaining, according to Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal. The concern is the procedural movement hampers a prospect’s development, a sentiment echoed by Hassan. “You’re just behind,” Hassan said. “Do I prefer to be claimed by another team and have to break my lease and have to move my family and have to go find another apartment and take another short-term lease and get settled — and have to perform right away, knowing you’re the last guy on the 40-man roster? Or would it be better to stay where you are and get some stability and hopefully play well enough to where you might earn your way back up there? I don’t know the answer to that.“

Heyman’s Latest: A-Rod, BoSox, Bryant, Ventura, Gordon, Duda

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In this week’s edition of his Inside Baseball column, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports begins by looking at the contentious courtroom showdown that stands between Alex Rodriguez and as much as $30MM worth of home run milestone bonuses. As Heyman notes, people on all sides of the case have reasons to dislike A-Rod. Rodriguez filed a lawsuit (that was eventually dropped) against the MLBPA, and he parted ways with agent Scott Boras more than six years ago. The Yankees’ reasons for resenting Rodriguez are obvious, as are those of the league, with whom Rodriguez battled to reduce a 212-game suspension to a still-significant 162 game ban. Heyman looks at the arguments that can be made by both sides as well as the potential fallout once the situation is finally resolved.

Some highlights from the latest edition of Heyman’s newest weekly column…

  • Though the Red Sox aren’t blinking when it comes to trade talks with the Phillies regarding Cole Hamels, one rival GM considers Boston the favorite. The Phillies quite like center field prospect Manuel Margot, and Boston does have other nice pieces. Heyman notes that one scout actually expressed concern to him about Mookie Betts’ ability to hit the ball on the outer half of the plate, but the Sox remain steadfast in their refusal to part ways with Betts.
  • The Cubs aren’t concerned with a potential grievance being filed against them on behalf of Kris Bryant. Rather, their main concern is trying to find a way to extend him beyond his current allotment of team control. Heyman hears that Cubs are already considering trying to make him a Cub for life, though he also notes that it’s a bit early for those discussions.
  • White Sox skipper Robin Ventura signed an extension of an unreported length prior to the 2014 season, and Heyman now hears that Ventura is under contract through the 2016 season. The contract length is said to be of little importance to ChiSox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who loves Ventura.
  • The Royals plan to try to do “whatever they can” to retain Alex Gordon beyond the 2015 season. The 32-year-old Gordon’s $12.5MM player option has increased to $13.25MM based on performance escalators, per Heyman. While Gordon has implied that he will exercise the option in the past, it’s exceptionally difficult to envision him merely picking up the option rather than trying for a highly lucrative multi-year deal. The Royals never felt they had a great shot at retaining James Shields, but their hope with Gordon is that the career Royal and Nebraska native might be easier to retain. Heyman adds that while the club is interested in trying to extend Salvador Perez beyond the 2019 season, those talks aren’t likely to come until after the season.
  • Juan Uribe is off to a decent start with the Dodgers, but the hot play of Alex Guerrero and the addition of Hector Olivera in Spring Training could eventually lead to Uribe becoming available on the trade market. Uribe’s at hasn’t lined up with his previous seasons to this point, but he’s hit a perhaps surprisingly strong .293/.333/.435 dating back to Opening Day 2013.
  • Rival executives are anxiously anticipating a Brewers fire sale following the club’s awful 5-17 start to the season, Heyman hears. One exec listed Carlos Gomez, Khris Davis, Jean Segura, Gerardo Parra, Kyle Lohse and Francisco Rodriguez as players who will draw interest, noting that Jonathan Lucroy is probably untouchable, while Matt Garza and Ryan Braun are somewhat overpriced.
  • The Mets were trying for a three-year extension that contained a club option and would’ve guaranteed Lucas Duda a bit shy of $30MM. I’d imagine that with Duda could end up the beneficiary in that scenario, particularly if he can sustain the increase in his walk rate and the more notable decrease in his strikeout rate.
  • Multiple Yankees people have shot down the notion that the team would pursue Hamels when asked by Heyman. One replied that the team is “not looking” at Hamels, while another wondered if Hamels is still a legitimate ace or more of just a big name.

White Sox Notes: Ventura, Konerko, Offseason

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White Sox GM Rick Hahn says manager Robin Ventura will be back in 2014, Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com reports. It's unclear, however, what will happen with the team's coaching staff. "I don't think it’s fair for anyone in uniform for me to single out individual coaches or individual players at this time, while we’re still playing, and say, 'This guy fits going forward,' or, 'That guy doesn’t fit going forward,'" says Hahn, referring to both coaches and players. Ventura wants his coaches to come back next year, Hayes says. Here are more notes from the South Side.

  • First baseman Paul Konerko hasn't decided what he'll do in 2014, Hayes tweets, noting that Konerko might consider returning to the White Sox as a part-time player. Konerko reportedly recently told friends he wanted to play in 2014. Konerko finds himself at the tail end of a miserable 2013 season in which he's hit .248/.316/.361 while playing poor defense. He becomes a free agent this fall. Hayes does note that if Konerko were to come back in 2014, it would be his last season.
  • Hahn says the White Sox will approach this offseason with the long term in mind, Scot Gregor of the Chicago Daily Herald writes. "[W]e're not going to do anything that's simply going to be a band-aid approach that's simply going to move the arrow slightly upward for 2014 so that I can sit here a year from now and tell you, 'Hey, we won seven more games, so we're headed the right direction,'" says Hahn.

Extension Notes: Samardzija, Wainwright, Ventura

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Here's a look at players and a manager who aren't looking to rush into a contract extension just yet…

  • Jeff Samardzija turned down a five-year contract extension from the Cubs this offseason as he hopes to continue prove himself as a pitcher before focusing on financials, writes Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. "We were talking, and we both have the same interest in mind,” Samardzija said. "We both want me to be here and both want me to be part of this team for a long time. When we feel like we’re on the same page with that, we’ll get it done." The 2012 season marked Samardzija's first season in the starting rotation as he pitched to the tune of a 3.81 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9.
  • Adam Wainwright has put contract negotiations on hold after holding court with the Cardinals for the past week, but that doesn't mean talks can't resume in the future, says Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It doesn’t mean that it’s over," Wainwright said. "The door is still open. It just didn’t work out right now."
  • Robin Ventura turned down a one-year contract extension from the White Sox this offseason as he wants to take managing one year at a time, writes Chuck Garfien of CSNChicago.com. The former third baseman, who guided his squad to 85 wins in his first season as a manager, is entering the second year of a three-year contract.

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