- Despite Andrew Heaney’s very rough 2021 season, several teams are eyeing the left-hander as a possible bounce-back candidate. The New York Post’s Joel Sherman (Twitter link) lists the Blue Jays, Cardinals, Dodgers, and Nationals as some of the teams interested in the free agent hurler. Heaney still had above-average strikeout and walk rates last year, as most of his problems stemmed from an inability to avoid home runs — Heaney allowed a whopping 29 homers over his 129 2/3 innings with the Angels and Yankees.
Cardinals Rumors
2021 Gold Glove Winners Announced
The 2021 Gold Glove winners were announced tonight, with plenty of Cardinal Red to be found amidst the gold. The Cardinals became the first team to ever have five players capture Gold Gloves, underlining the tremendous all-around defensive effort that helped St. Louis reach the postseason. Ironically, the only nominated Cardinals player who didn’t win was the most decorated name of the group — nine-time winner Yadier Molina.
The A’s, Royals, Astros, and the World Series champion Braves also had multiple winners, with each club boasting two Gold Glovers. Ten of the 18 winners captured their first Gold Gloves, though some veteran winners continued to shine. The most notable of the multiple-time winners is Nolan Arenado, who becomes the 23rd player to ever win nine or more Gold Gloves in his career. Arenado still has plenty of time to continue his climb up the all-time list, yet catching 16-time winner Brooks Robinson for the all-time third base record may be a tall order even for Arenado.
Here is the full list of winners, as well as the other two nominated finalists at each position….
NL Catcher: Jacob Stallings, Pirates (1st career Gold Glove)
Yadier Molina/Cardinals, J.T. Realmuto/Phillies
NL First Base: Paul Goldschmidt, Cardinals (4th)
Freddie Freeman/Braves, Max Muncy/Dodgers
NL Second Base: Tommy Edman, Cardinals (1st)
Ozzie Albies/Braves, Kolten Wong/Brewers
NL Third Base: Nolan Arenado, Cardinals (9th)
Manny Machado/Padres, Ryan McMahon/Rockies
NL Shortstop: Brandon Crawford, Giants (4th)
Francisco Lindor/Mets, Kevin Newman/Pirates
NL Left Field: Tyler O’Neill, Cardinals (2nd)
David Peralta/Diamondbacks, AJ Pollock/Dodgers
NL Center Field: Harrison Bader, Cardinals (1st)
Jackie Bradley Jr./Brewers, Bryan Reynolds/Pirates
NL Right Field: Adam Duvall, Braves/Marlins (1st)
Mookie Betts/Dodgers, Mike Yastrzemski/Giants
NL Pitcher: Max Fried/Braves (2nd)
Zach Davies/Cubs, Zack Wheeler/Phillies
AL Catcher: Sean Murphy, Athletics (1st)
Martin Maldonado/Astros, Salvador Perez/Royals
AL First Base: Yuli Gurriel, Astros (1st)
Matt Olson/Athletics, Jared Walsh/Angels
AL Second Base: Marcus Semien, Blue Jays (1st)
David Fletcher/Angels, Whit Merrifield/Royals
AL Third Base: Matt Chapman, Athletics (3rd)
Jose Ramirez/Guardians, Joey Wendle/Rays
AL Shortstop: Carlos Correa, Astros (1st)
J.P. Crawford/Mariners, Andrelton Simmons/Twins
AL Left Field: Andrew Benintendi, Royals (1st)
Randy Arozarena/Rays, Lourdes Gurriel Jr./Blue Jays
AL Center Field: Michael A. Taylor, Royals (1st)
Kevin Kiermaier/Rays, Myles Straw/Guardians
AL Right Field: Joey Gallo, Yankees/Rangers (2nd)
Hunter Renfroe/Red Sox, Kyle Tucker/Astros
AL Pitcher: Dallas Keuchel, White Sox (5th)
Jose Berrios/Blue Jays and Twins, Zack Greinke/Astros
Cardinals To Hire Skip Schumaker As Bench Coach
Nov. 7: Katie Woo of The Athletic tweets that Schumaker’s deal is a one-year contract with options.
Nov. 6: Skip Schumaker is returning to the Cardinals. The former infielder will join new manager Oliver Marmol’s staff as the bench coach, per Rob Rains of stlsportspage.com (via Twitter). The agreement will be finalized this weekend, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Schumaker was thought to be a candidate to take over as manager after Mike Shildt was let go, and while that job ultimately went to Marmol, Schumaker returns to the Midwest anyway to serve as Marmol’s right hand. Schumaker was the Padres’ first base coach last season. He now steps into the role that Marmol himself filled for St. Louis last year.
The scrappy infielder/outfielder was a fan favorite of the Cardinals’ rabid fanbase during his playing days. He spent eight seasons in St. Louis, slashing .288/.345/.377 in 2,687 plate appearances.
Cardinals Outright Max Moroff, Justin Williams
The Cardinals announced Friday that they’ve outrighted infielder Max Moroff and outfielder Justin Williams to Triple-A Memphis. Moroff posted a meager .125 OPS in a tiny sample (16 plate appearances) in 2021, while Williams managed only a .531 mark in 137 trips to the plate.
Though neither player has yet contributed much in the Major Leagues, Williams comes with the greater pedigree. After arriving in the Cardinals’ system (alongside Genesis Cabrera and Roel Ramirez) in the 2018 Tommy Pham deal with the Rays, the outfielder put together a sterling .296/.372/.484 line in the upper minors in 2019. He had a similarly strong line (.274/.307/.560) in a short stint in Triple-A this year, but he’s not managed to translate his tools into big-league production.
Moroff has appeared in parts of five big league campaigns, never appearing in more than 56 games in a given season. The switch-hitting utilityman owns a .175/.264/.301 mark in 260 cumulative big league plate appearances. Both Williams and Moroff will be eligible for minor league free agency.
Giants Claim Austin Dean, Joe Palumbo Off Waivers
The Giants announced they’ve claimed corner outfielder Austin Dean and left-hander Joe Palumbo off waivers from the Cardinals and Rangers, respectively. San Francisco also confirmed the previously-reported claim of righty Hunter Harvey from the Orioles.
Dean has appeared in parts of four big league campaigns with the Marlins and Cardinals. Most of that action came between 2018-19, as he’s tallied all of 45 plate appearances with St. Louis over the last two years. In 356 plate appearances, the right-handed hitting Dean owns a .225/.282/.391 slash with eleven home runs.
That’s below-average production, but Dean has hit extremely well at Triple-A. In parts of three seasons at the minors’ top level, the 28-year-old owns a .322/.394/.535 line. Assuming he sticks on the 40-man roster throughout the winter, he can factor into an uncertain Giants’ outfield, which manager Gabe Kapler has mixed and matched heavily based on the opposition in recent seasons.
Palumbo has been regarded as one of the more intriguing pitchers in the Texas farm system for years, but he’s battled injuries over the past couple seasons. His big league resume consists of 19 innings of 9.47 ERA ball between 2019-20, but Palumbo had posted very strong minor league numbers through 2019. Entering the 2021 campaign, Baseball America ranked the southpaw 26th among Rangers’ prospects, praising his low-mid 90s fastball and curveball but raising questions about his control and durability.
Cardinals Decline Options On Matt Carpenter, Carlos Martinez
The Cardinals have declined their 2022 options on infielder Matt Carpenter and right-hander Carlos Martinez, the MLBPA announced. Carpenter had an $18.5MM club option with a $2MM buyout, whereas Martinez’s contract included a $17MM option with a $500K buyout. It was a foregone conclusion that the pair of options would be bought out after poor 2021 showings for both longtime Cardinals, who are now free agents for the first time in their careers.
Carpenter, 36 in three weeks, still draws plenty of walks (11.4%) and makes a lot of hard contact — but much of that hard contact is pulled on the ground into an eagerly awaiting shift. Just shy of 75% of Carpenter’s ground-balls were pulled this season, so it’s hardly a surprise that he batted .143 on ground-balls despite a leaguewide average of .236 on grounders. It’s a similar story on line-drives; Carpenter pulled exactly two-thirds of his liners this season and hit .536 — whereas the league average on line drives was a much larger .689.
Prior to his recent decline, Carpenter was a fixture in the St. Louis batting order who made a trio of All-Star teams and thrice drew MVP votes in the National League — including a fourth-place finish in 2013. Since Opening Day 2020, however, he’s managed just a .176/.313/.291 batting line with a 29.9% strikeout rate. Carpenter has made clear he wants to play in 2022, but it’ll almost certainly require him signing on with a new team, as the Cardinals’ infield is quite crowded. Even if the DH comes to the National League, Carpenter’s 2020-21 swoon probably wouldn’t make him a top consideration for the Cards.
Martinez’s decline was even swifter and was far less expected. Still just 30 years old, the righty was limited to 48 2/3 innings by a shoulder strain in 2019 but remained highly effective when he did take the mound that year. From 2015-19, he looked like a rotation building block — hence his $51MM contract extension — as he logged 747 innings of 3.22 ERA ball with a strong 23.7% strikeout rate and a 9.0% walk rate.
However, in 2020, Martinez was blown up for a 9.90 ERA in 20 innings, and after a strong run in mid-April and May this season, his season took a catastrophic nose dive. Martinez served up 10 runs against the Dodgers on June 2 and was tagged for five runs in three of his next four starts. His season ultimately ended with a 6.23 ERA through 82 1/3 innings and a torn ligament on his thumb that landed him on the 60-day IL. Dating back to Opening Day 2020, Martinez owns a 6.95 ERA and a woeful 6.0 K-BB% that would’ve seemed unfathomable just a few years ago.
Latest On Mets’ Front Office Search
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.
Cardinals Assistant Hitting Coach Jobel Jimenez Won’t Return In 2022
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.
Justin Miller Elects Free Agency
Oct. 31: Miller has elected free agency, per the MLB.com transactions log. That was a foregone conclusion once he cleared waivers, as players with three-plus years of MLB service who are outrighted off the 40-man roster can become free agents at season’s end.
Oct. 28: The Cardinals have assigned Miller outright to Triple-A Memphis after he went unclaimed on waivers.
Oct. 25: The Cardinals are designating reliever Justin Miller for assignment, relays Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). The move was necessary to create space on the 40-man roster for Jordan Hicks, who is being reinstated from the 60-day injured list in a procedural move. Players must be activated off the 60-day IL before the start of the offseason.
St. Louis added Miller off waivers from the Nationals in early July. The 34-year-old tossed 16 innings of 4.50 ERA ball with the Cards down the stretch. Miller threw strikes at a solid rate but only struck out 13.2% of opposing hitters with a meager 9.3% swinging strike rate. A fly-ball pitcher, Miller allowed five homers in 19 innings split between Washington and St. Louis, although only two of those came in a Cardinal uniform.
Miller didn’t pitch in the big leagues in 2020, but he appeared at the highest level in five of the six seasons from 2014-19. The right-hander posted big strikeout numbers with the 2015 Rockies and 2018 Nats, but he hasn’t been able to lock down a long-term bullpen role over the past few seasons due to inconsistent performance and injuries.
The Cardinals will place Miller on outright or release waivers in the coming days. Should he pass through unclaimed, he’d have the right to elect minor league free agency as a player who has previously been outrighted in his career.
Cardinals’ GM Michael Girsch Declines To Pursue Opportunity With Mets
The Mets have already been turned down by a handful of targets in their search for a new baseball operations head. Each of Theo Epstein, Billy Beane, David Stearns, Matt Arnold, Scott Harris and Brandon Gomes had been raised as potential candidates only to later be ruled out of consideration.
Cardinals general manager Michael Girsch can be added to that list, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (Twitter link) that New York reached out to the Cards for permission to speak with him last week. Girsch, however, declined to pursue the opportunity, electing to remain in St. Louis instead.
It’s not especially surprising Girsch would choose to stay with the Cards, where he’s worked since 2006. He broke in as the club’s coordinator of amateur scouting and earned himself a larger responsibility within the front office over the course of his tenure. Girsch was named an assistant GM by 2011 and bumped up to general manager in June 2017. For the past four-plus seasons, he’s served as the top lieutenant for Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. Girsch signed a contract extension in November 2019 that takes him through the end of next season.
The Mets will continue their search for a baseball ops leader over the coming days and weeks. New York set their initial sights on the high-profile trio of Epstein, Beane and Stearns, but they’ve been primarily tied to other teams’ second-in-command types after missing out on their early targets. Dodgers senior vice president Josh Byrnes — a former GM with the Diamondbacks and Padres — has previously been mentioned as one candidate the Mets were discussing internally.