This is a digital version of The Windup newsletter. Sign up here to receive this content straight to your inbox every morning.
It’s officially the off-season. It’s time to heat up the free agent rumors, find a surprising number of managers, and talk about a busy first weekend. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal – welcome to Windup (coming to you twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, all off seasons)!
The off-season has begun
Today is the first day teams can sign members of a free agent class led by Shohei Ohtani. But did you know that there are other free agents too? We have a top 40 free agent big board here, so open it up, bookmark it and make it your new internet friend for the next few months.
However, before players and teams could begin the free agency process, a few matters needed to be resolved: player and team options (and mutual options), which allow a team or player to exercise the final year of a contract or elect to part ways to decide.
Here are some of the better-known names who either made decisions (or had decisions made for them) over the weekend:
Team options
• Among those acquired by their teams: OF Max Kepler (Twins, $10 million), 2B Jorge Polanco (Twins, $10.5 million), LHP Andrew Heaney (Rangers, $13 million ), RHP Kyle Hendricks (Cubs, $16.5 million) and RHP Jose Leclerc (Rangers, $6.25 million).
• And here are some notable names whose options were declined, making them free agents: SS Tim Anderson (White Sox, $1 million buyout), RHP Liam Hendriks ($15 million buyout, payable over 10 years, according to CBS Sports ), RHP Lance Lynn (Dodgers, $1 million buyout), 1B Joey Votto (Reds, $7 million buyout). Yes, the Reds and Votto no longer exist for the time being.
Joey Votto is no longer a member of the Cincinnati Reds. (Harry How/Getty Images)
Player options
• 1B Josh Bell (Marlins, $16.5 million) and RHP Ross Stripling (Giants, $12.5 million) will return with their teams.
• Among those who decided to test the waters in free agency: OF Cody Bellinger ($5 million buyout), RHP Mike Clevinger (White Sox, $4 million buyout), RHP Seth Lugo (Padres), RHP Hector Neris (Astros), LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (Tigers), OF Jorge Soler (Marlins), RHP Marcus Stroman (Cubs) and DH Justin Turner (Red Sox, $6.7 million buyout)
Mutual options
• The Padres declined options on two players – RHP Nick Martinez and RHP Michael Wacha (Padres), triggering a player option at a lower salary. Martinez has already declined and Wacha is expected to follow.
• Likewise, the Blue Jays and 2B/OF Whit Merrifield ($500,000 buyout) decided to part ways.
Oh, and we also had a trade before free agency began: The Brewers sent Mark Canha to the Tigers for minor league pitcher Blake Holub. Meanwhile, the GM meetings begin Tuesday in Scottsdale, Arizona. Here’s Ken with more on that.
Ken’s notebook: Manager carousel
Wait, didn’t we just leave Arizona? Yes, and the Rangers’ celebration will hardly be over when the general manager meetings begin tomorrow.
The meetings are a springboard for offseason conversations where executives lay the groundwork for future trades and free agent signings. But five clubs – almost a fifth of the sport – will be preoccupied with a more pressing matter: finding a manager for 2024.
The Guardians would have made it to the sixth time, but they announced Monday morning that they have their man. Two of the five remaining teams, the Mets and Brewers, are awaiting a decision from leading free agent manager Craig Counsell. Two others, the Angels and Astros, appear likely to follow the whims of their owners. And the last club with a vacancy, the Padres, will hire its sixth manager in 10 years under general manager AJ Preller.
A quick overview:
Mets: Assuming Counsell is the Mets’ first choice, the question is whether they will offer him enough money to thwart any offer from the Brewers to keep him. Yankees relief coach Carlos Mendoza is also on the Mets’ roster, but would new president of baseball operations David Stearns opt for a rookie after the team’s questionable experiences with Mickey Callaway and Luis Rojas?
brewer: Counsell wants to raise the bar on executive pay, and the Brewers aren’t exactly known for spending money. But to keep Counsell, owner Mark Attanasio should be tempted to do whatever it takes. Let’s say we’re talking about a salary of $8 million per season. That’s about the going rate for a free agent setup man. And with all due respect: Counsel is a lot more valuable than Joe Jiménez.
Guardian: The team announced Monday that it is hiring former major league catcher Stephen Vogt, who just completed his first season as the Mariners’ bullpen coach. Vogt was the leading candidate for the job, according to a rival manager who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to comment publicly on another club.
Padres: Bench coach Ryan Flaherty and senior advisor Mike Shildt are the leading internal candidates, with former Angels manager Phil Nevin and Angels infield coach Benji Gil also in the mix. Preller met newcomers Andy Green and Jayce Tingler as well as experienced managers Bud Black and Bob Melvin. Flaherty and Gil would be there for the first time. Shildt and Nevin already have management experience.
Astros. If the Astros were to promote the next in line, they would hire replacement coach Joe Espada. If the choice rested solely with general manager Dana Brown, the job could go to one of his former coaches with the Braves, Walt Weiss or Eric Young Sr. But owner Jim Crane will almost certainly have a big say, and one of his advisors, former Astros star Jeff Bagwell, could advocate for his former teammate, former Tigers and Angels manager Brad Ausmus. Crane is well acquainted with Ausmus, who was second to Brown at GM and a finalist for the manager job that went to Dusty Baker in 2020.
Angel. It’s Arte’s decision, Arte is Angels owner Arte Moreno. One day Moreno might wake up and think, “Give me a big name.” I want Buck Showalter.” Another day he might say, “Give me a member of the 2002 World Series champion Angels – Benji Gil, Darin Erstad, Tim Salmon, any of the above!” Showalter hasn’t done his best job with the Mets in 2023, but would be a smart choice for a team in desperate need of stability and responsibility.
Awarded Golden Gloves
The results are in: Here is a complete list of the 2023 Gold Glove Award winners. Some highlights:
• Anthony Volpe won the AL Shortstop Award in his rookie season. As Chris Kirschner writes in the link above, Volpe’s long-term fit with the Yankees may not even be at shortstop, as they have Oswald Peraza, who is considered a superior defender at that position.
• For the Rangers, Nathaniel Lowe ranked dead last in Defensive Runs Saved among first basemen in 2022. This year he’s a Gold Glove winner after a winter spent working with Francisco Lindor and others. Adolis García took home the award in right field and Jonah Heim captured the gold medal at catcher, a year after his former teammate Jose Trevino won it with the Yankees.
• Two other teams also had three winners: the Toronto Blue Jays (3B Matt Chapman, CF Kevin Kiermaier and P José Berríos) and the Chicago Cubs (2B Nico Hoerner, SS Dansby Swanson and LF Ian Happ).
• And in San Diego, second baseman Ha-Seong Kim became the first Asian-born infielder to win a Gold Glove.
Marlins hire head of baseball operations
Kim Ng left the Marlins front office in mid-October and now the Marlins have hired former Rays GM Peter Bendix to take over baseball operations in Miami.
This is a new position that has been in the works for some time. It was reported that Ng left the company when Marlins owner Bruce Sherman told her he was hiring a head of baseball operations to step in above her.
As Andy McCullough notes, Bendix is just the latest member of the Andrew Friedman crew to take over baseball operations elsewhere, following the recently fired Chaim Bloom in Boston, James Click (who left Houston after 2022) and Matt Arnold still around Milwaukee. Friedman’s departure preceded hers; After the 2014 season, he took over the Dodgers’ baseball operations.
Bendix had been with the Rays since joining the organization as an intern in 2009.
Handshakes and high fives
The Curse of the Bambino: interesting but pretty simple. The Curse of the Goat? Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. But how about the KFC Colonel’s Curse? That’s really strange, and Andrew Baggarly has all the details in this story, explaining how a statue of Colonel Sanders was “responsible” for the Hanshin Tigers’ 38-year title drought. The team won the Japan Series this week for the first time since 1985.
Chad Jennings has an absolutely amazing interview with Geddy Lee of Rush, who is selling many – but not all – of his collection of baseball memorabilia. The scope of Lee’s collection is staggering, but Jennings also tells the backstory of Lee’s baseball fan base.
Geddy Lee and part of his collection. (Courtesy of Richard Sibbald)
Clayton Kershaw hopes to return to pitching sometime in 2024 after shoulder surgery.
In front office news, Jen McCaffrey says the relationship between Red Sox manager Alex Cora and new head of baseball operations Craig Breslow will be a big focus this year.
Rangers radio host Eric Nadel has been with the team since 1979. Last week, he finally had the chance to make a bucket list request – the Rangers’ final World Series win. Earlier that day, I sat down with Eric to talk about his life in broadcasting.
Sign up for our other newsletters:
The jump 🏀 | The pulse | Full time ⚽ | Prime Tire 🏁 | Until Saturday 🏈
(Top photo by Tim Anderson: Quinn Harris / Getty Images)