GM Meetings Daily Recap: Angels new manager, Mariners and Twins outlook, E-Rod, Chapman
The Los Angeles Angels will hire Ron Washington as their next manager per Jon Heyman. Washington has been the third base of the Atlanta Braves since 2017. He won his first World Series with them in 2021.
The 71-year-old was a manager with the Texas Rangers from 2007-2014 and managed 1,309 games. Texas won back to back AL pennants in 2010 and 2011. Those were the only times the Rangers made it to the World Series in franchise history before winning it all this year.
Washington was a familiar face to the Angels. Not only knowing him from his time within the AL West, but general manager Perry Minasian’s time overlapped with Washington when Minasian was the assistant general manager of the Braves.
With the hiring of Washington, this leaves only three more teams without a manager. The Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres are still in the process of filling their job vacancies.
The Seattle Mariners president of baseball operations spoke on what he is looking for this upcoming season. One of the more known aggressive executives in baseball has a clear priority on his mind.
“Adding some contact to our lineup. We want to be a little bit better in putting the ball in play. If we could add right handed bats. We feel really good about our young left handed bats. We feel really good about our through the middle team. Now it’s just a matter of trying to fill in those gaps.”
Seattle had three of the top four hitters with the most strikeouts last season. Eugenio Suarez and Teoscar Hernandez was the top two, with Julio Rodriguez as number four. Hernandez was not given the qualifying offer as the Mariners look for a new approach.
Jon Morosi speculated on two trade targets for Seattle. He mentioned Cincinnati Reds’ Jonathan India and Tampa Bay Rays’ Yandy Diaz. Dipoto made five total trades last offseason, including three in the month of November.
Twins look to lower their payroll this offseason
The Minnesota Twins had a payroll of $156 million this past season. Last season they went out and re-signed shortstop Carlos Correa and they brought catcher Christian Vazquez. However, now they are looking to cut back.
“We've pushed our payroll to heights that we had never pushed it before with the support, certainly, of ownership. We know there is some natural ebb and flow to that," president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said Tuesday from the annual General Managers Meetings. "Will it be where it was last year? I don't expect that. I expect it less than that." Falvey admitted.
One of the ways the Twins could go about this is trading Jorge Polanco. The second baseman is a career .255 hitter with his best year being in 2021 where slashed .269/.323/.503 while hitting 33 homeruns. The 30 year old is not particularly strong defensively as he had a negative outs about average every season except 2020 where was at zero.
A team looking for a short term bat could turn to Polanco. He is currently under contract for $10.5 million for next season and then carries a $12 million club option after in 2025 before becoming a free agent.
Eduardo Rodriguez willing to play anywhere
Free agent lefty, former Red Sox starter, Eduardo Rodriguez has informed teams that he has no geographic restrictions according to Morosi.
Rodriguez used his limited no trade clause at the last trade deadline to reject a trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers as he wanted to stay close to the east coast due to family considerations.
Morosi, noted that the Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants, are already active in their search for starting pitchers.
After a rocky 2021 with the Tigers, Rodriguez set himself up for payday after strong contract year. this past season.
Rodriguez pitched 152.2 innings in 26 starts with a 3.30 ERA/3.66 FIP and a 1.15 WHIP. His Ks/9 went up to 8.4 after dropping to 7.1 in 2021.
Matt Chapman attended the GM Meetings
Matt Chapman is the top right handed bat on the free agent market. Not to mention he just got awarded his fourth career gold glove for his elite defense at third base. To no surprise he got the offered the qualifying offer from the Blue Jays, which is sure to reject.
It is not too common that players will show up at the GM Meetings, but Chapman was spotted yesterday. Chapman lives in Phoenix allowing him to have the unique opportunity to get to know his market.
Jon Heyman reported that he met with multiple teams including Toronto. Morosi added on MLB Network that one team he is watching for very carefully is the New York Yankees.
One person Chapman was seen talking to yesterday was new Giants manager Bob Melvin per Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic. Melvin and Chapman do have a prior player-manager relationship when they were both with the Oakland Athletics, where Melvin saw Chapman win the 2018 American League MVP.
Last season Chapman had a bit of a down year in power with 17 homeruns. Not counting 2020, Chapman had hit over 26 homeruns in each of the last three seasons before his most recent season with Toronto.
Follow Matt on Twitter @Bstrong415
For additional Red Sox, Bruins, Patriots, MLB and NFL content follow Beyond the Monster on Twitter @BeyondtheMnstr.
