The Dr. Morbius Memorial 2020-2021 MLB Hot Stove Thread

As one legend leave us, another returns:

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/3503548467/23d93ae8ec7b802718a234c75b19ea21_400x400.jpeg

BREAKING: Tony La Russa named #WhiteSox manager. @MLBNetwork @MLB

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) October 29, 2020

honestly wtf

fuck

Another sign of this offseason being a brutal market for free agents and arbitration-eligible players: Cleveland isn't picking up a $10 million option on Brad Hand, a three-time All-Star closer coming off a great season for a playoff team.https://t.co/KV4Q6Kn1qH

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) October 29, 2020

Oh god.

xpost

Tony La Russa is 76 years old. He should be running for President, not managing a baseball team.

— Write Sox (@WriteSox) October 29, 2020

how long before tim anderson gets suspended for calling la russa a "weak ass n*gga"?

— sugar shake (@curlyfro) October 29, 2020

i am anti-la russa in general but he seems like a particularly bad choice for this set of players

yeah the only thing i can take from this is that they want someone who will bench anderson et al for flipping bats and/or kneeling

@whitesox email announcement appears to have AJ Hinch Signature. Looks like it was corrected on Twitter. @SoxOn35th @SouthSideSox @SoxMach_pnoles pic.twitter.com/m64LcrshZG

— Gabe (@GabeNotDave) October 29, 2020

White Sox could have been cool.

In my five decades as a baseball fan, there have been very few players or managers I have actually disliked. Two come from the late-'80s A's teams that used to beat up on the Jays: La Russa and Eckersley. Roberto Alomar helped fix that, a little.

Huh.

Tony La Russa was in the White Sox dugout as manager when Jack Morris threw his no-hitter for the Tigers on April 7, 1984. Now, La Russa is back.

AJ Hinch was in the Tigers' dugout at Comerica Park as a backup catcher when Detroit avoided a historic 120-loss season by beating Ron Gardenhire’s Twins on the final day of the 2003 season. Is Hinch about to return in a different post?

https://www.mlb.com/tigers/news/aj-hinch-tigers-manager-search

what was wrong with renteria again?? and don cooper for that matter?

love the thread title.

renteria has now gotten dicked over twice by chicago baseball teams in favor of bigger names

After firing Rick Renteria as manager after the Sox bowed out of the expanded postseason, Hahn said he wanted to do a deep dive into the pool of available coaches and managers, interview people from forward-thinking organizations and find the right fit for a young, up-and-coming team. When he described the manager he was looking for, it sure sounded like former Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who was fired for his role in the sign-stealing fiasco that rocked baseball, pre-pandemic.

But Hinch was never formally interviewed and instead, they wound up with the boss’ friend. It helps that said friend is a Hall of Famer, but this search put a monkey wrench in the White Sox organization’s image renovation.

sounds like jerry reinsdorf just . . . hired his buddy

#Rays Neander said they will not pick up either Mike Zunino or Charlie Morton's options. They will be free agents.

— Juan Toribio (@juanctoribio) October 30, 2020

Mark it down -- Oct. 30, 2020, one of the most significant days in franchise history. The Wilpon era is over. The Mets have a new owner, Steve Cohen.

— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) October 30, 2020

Invite user @david_j_roth to thred

aj hinch is the new tigers manager

BREAKING: Brodie Van Wagenen, Omar Minaya, Allard Baird, Adam Guttridge and Jared Banner are all leaving the Mets.

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) November 6, 2020

Sick

Alex Cora new manager of the Red Sox.

Every big/risky trade Brodie made flopped big time. Even if no one could have predicted Diaz would have such a bad year, and that Stroman would opt out for the entire 2nd year, he probably should have held back a bit. Things will be worse if any of the traded prospects become stars.

(That said, JD Davis was a great pickup and now one of my faves.)

i appreciate that brodie didn't fuck around with alonso's service time and let him start on opening day last year. and that he got degrom re-signed despite the wilpons' cheapness. but yeah

jeff luhnow has sued the astros for breach of contract

Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in February and charged with DUI a day before the team hired him, according to court records obtained by ESPN.

News with @pinepaula and @MoynihanCharles: https://t.co/C1lHlik4Zl

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 10, 2020

Just mind boggling.

How many DUIs does he have (or do we know about?)

Only two I think

Here is the full Stroman thread... pic.twitter.com/8nxWzLYRsl

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 10, 2020

ESPN obtained the full arrest report for Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa's DUI charge.

"Do you see my ring?" La Russa said to the arresting officer. "I'm a Hall of Famer baseball person. I'm legit. I'm a Hall of Famer, brother."

News at ESPN: https://t.co/C1lHlik4Zl pic.twitter.com/GnqS5k7V9e

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 10, 2020

nice of him to use the non-gendered "person" rather than "man"

looooool

Marcus Stroman tweets that he has accepted the Mets' $18.9 million qualifying offer. He'll be back in the rotation in 2021.

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) November 11, 2020

!

Making history by bringing a lifetime of excellence, Kim Ng steps to the helm as GM. #JuntosMiami pic.twitter.com/UrYESbjTHe

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) November 13, 2020

Tight

Pretty sure either I or Morbs linked to this 2003 interview somewhere on this board, worth a rescreen imho:

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/2460/prospectus-qa-kim-ng/

She was mentioned as a candidate for several GM jobs this off-season.

Only took 18 seasons...

Miami #Marlins GM Kim Ng also believed to be the first GM of any North American men’s sports league in history.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) November 13, 2020

(tbf there are more than a few female minor league GMs, but the job is very different)

How overdue is the hiring of Kim Ng? I blogged about her as my candidate of choice for the Dodgers' GM opening that went to... Ned Colletti, in November 2005. 15 years ago today https://t.co/oDlobxGVEs

— Jay Jaffe (@jay_jaffe) November 13, 2020

Theo Epstein has resigned as president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs. Jed Hoyer is the new president of baseball operations.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 17, 2020

whoa

Ground Chuck back to ATL, 1/15.

excited to see half the league get non-tendered this evening

Rosario going on waivers (and clearing them) surprised me. I hadn’t realized how overall mediocre he’d been.

i can understand why the twins are dumping him -- alex kirilloff can fill that role for a lot less money -- but in a regular 2020 season rosario would have been worth like 2.5 WAR, which should honestly be plenty sufficient for someone to pay him the $9 or $10 million he'd have made in his final year of arbitration. i mean he finished 17th in the AL MVP voting!

cubs non-tendered schwarber and almora

love how the teams always say they're keeping the door open to bring people back (for less money) -- can anyone think of examples of that actually happening?

Charlie Culberson?

your framing of the situation pains me

dominating the league do have its downside.

Mets stocking up on people whose last name ends in -illar

Fifth team for Pillar in two years, wow. If he continues to hit like he's been hitting recently, he's a good guy to have around.

Star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. and the San Diego Padres are in agreement on a 14-year, $340 million contract extension, a source familiar with the deal tells ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 18, 2021

one owner didn't get the memo

jesus

(also that's awesome)

It has to be a record.

OMG

if you're going to give out a 14-year contract, it might as well be to a player who's 22 years old

dude doesn't even have a full season under his belt

neat

The Giants have made a unique addition to their coaching staff: former Rays outfielder Fernando Perez joins them as a video analyst. Perez is a Columbia alum, a documentary filmmaker and a published poet. He's also a Spanish speaker who can help Latino players w/video analysis. pic.twitter.com/4eH0c9hhxo

— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) February 18, 2021

Cute optics but big picture though:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/14/crowley-charles-johnsons-ownership-is-a-shame-for-the-san-francisco-giants/

clown

The speech, which was downloaded to YouTube and went Twitter viral on Sunday morning, offered information that the Mariners' front office would likely never share publicly to the media or the fan base. https://t.co/g4rRecXKxX

— Seattle Times Sports (@SeaTimesSports) February 21, 2021

Mariners have released a statement: Kevin Mather has resigned.

— Corey Brock (@CoreyBrockMLB) February 22, 2021

forced to resign for saying out loud what every front office truly believes

remarkable idiocy though. rotarians!

Seattle should put up a statue of Mather for getting Kelenic in the Diaz/Cano trade.

Manfred must be so so pissed.

is it bad that, as a lifelong fan, i want the CBA negotiations 10 months from now to utterly destroy baseball

not at all

I don’t know if the players deserve that.

group economics

Blue Jays just announced they are no longer going to have a radio team. I still listen all the time in the car or while doing work around the house - and listening to TV broadcasters try to paint a picture of what I can’t see is going to be some serious garbage.

Time for some pirate radio announcers to swoop in

xp Wait, what? Yeah, I listened a lot on the radio. Yet another reminder that I'm old, because this doesn't even compute to me.

yeah, hoping for a cottage industry of amateur feeds, who knows?

Oh I see, a "simulcast". Bah, radio is a craft not to be taken on by anyone. Thankfully Wilner is gone at least

Close your eyes and imagine...

Joe carter rounding the bases after hitting a world series winning home run. One of the biggest hits in baseball history...

As the sound of Buck Martinez's strained "howme rawwwwwnnnnnnnghghghghg...." call trails off, Pat Tabler chimes in with "Joe Carter is a baseball player, Buck."

Our collective souls die a little inside. "Touch 'em all Joe" is so out of reach for our middling TV crew.

Time for some pirate radio announcers to swoop in

you don't want any of the pirates' announcers

tbf dan shulman is a total pro and has worked in radio, so if anyone can make it work (assuming he's allowed to!), i'd trust him

Shulman is a saving grace, definitely

for sure.

I think it goes more like this:

Close your eyes and imagine...

[Joe carter swings the bat]

Buck: get out of here ball, get out, get out!

[ball clears the fence, crowd erupts, Jays win the series]

Pat: Whoa! How about that!

Hypothetical radio listener: ??????&*&

jbj to brewers, 2 years, 24M

Blue Jays just announced they are no longer going to have a radio team. "

That' some cheap BS in the age of zoom. F'n Ronnie Reagan was doing baseball radio broadcasts by wire (and many others also did so) back in the paleolithic era.

Lindor extended w/Mets. Just before April fools.

Boy is it gonna be awesome reliving the Manny Ramirez betrayal all over again.

only ‘betrayal’ here was by cleveland ownership

what was the betrayal?! i was not following baseball in the early Manny years.

afaict the betrayal is "chose to sign with a different team in free agency"?

which i guess is worse than "was offered nothing by a team that has been crying poor for years, got traded to a different team where he was offered one of the biggest contracts of all time and accepted it instead of going back to the first team in free agency for some reason"

but not by much

Manny signed with the fucking Red Sox and won a goddamn World Series and Cleveland didn’t.

Yes of course it’s the owners I’m mad at. And at the MLB for not having a salary cap.

Poor people should not be allowed to own professional sports teams.

tbf he won two world series with the red sox

and larry dolan is worth $4.6 billion, fourth-most among mlb owners

aren't even small market teams fairly profitable? i think the issue might be too many, let's say, "wealth oriented" groups owning teams!

ALSO: OPENEING DAY!!!

thank you all for honoring dr. morbius properly by arguing about something that happened in baseball like 100 years ago

bosox/orioles postponed :(

"And at the MLB for not having a salary cap."

wait what

A couple days late, but Mets opening day. I knew they had a good opening day record, but this is amazing:

The Mets begin the 2021 season with the best Opening Day record ever -- a 39-20 (.661) mark that ought to be the envy of every other club. It’s all the more remarkable considering that the Mets, born in 1962, did not win the first game of any season until 1970. They are 39-12 (.765) since then.

Back of the napkin calculations but the Cleveland Neo-Naps could give Lindor the same contract as the Mets and they would still be 112 millions under luxury tax threshold.

Their revenue in 2019 was 290 millions.

There is no excuses.