Spare Parts: New year, no movement

Rob Manfred (Arturo Pardavila III)

For those hoping that the first week in January might bring some sort of movement with regards to Major League Baseball’s lockout, no substantial stories of discussions or proposals have surfaced. Maybe we’ll have better luck in Week Two.

In lieu of lockout progress, I’ll point you to this mailbag that reporter Evan Drellich did for The Athletic at the end of the year, in which he answered a bunch of questions about different points of contention. On Monday, Dayn Perry at CBS Sports provided a look forward.

One point Drellich raised got me thinking:

Can minor-league camp start on time? — C. Trent Rosecrans

Yes, even if major-league spring training is delayed, minor league spring training can still get underway on time. The major-league teams control the timing of minor-league spring training, so it would be up to them, and there’s no obvious reason they would delay minor-league camp. Most minor-league players are not members of the MLBPA, and minor-league players don’t have a separate union of their own (but there’s a growing effort to change that).

If the spike in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant remains a real threat six to seven weeks from now, I’m curious whether this might affect the league’s timetable with how teams would prefer to set up the preseason.

Last year, teams staged spring training in two parts. Major-league camps reported at the traditional time in mid-February, but the minor-league portion of spring training commenced after the big camp cleared out in order to reduce the number of bodies in spring training complexes. Minor League Baseball then had its opening days pushed back a month. What kind of impact it had in reducing reducing transmission remains to be seen, but it made sense in terms of social distancing. Minor-league teams also didn’t seem to mind waiting for warmer weather and longer days, although it’s hard to know whether they were just grateful for any season at all.

Normally the league would have no issue inviting minor leaguers to spring training, but if it had designs — or at least a backup plan — of splitting up the camps into two parts in the interest of prioritizing the MLB season, the hard-line approach could dash them.

SPARE PARTS

I’d say it’s a bad move by the league to fire its most credible national reporter for issuing reality-based criticisms of the commissioner, but it’s probably beneficial for baseball fans that Rosenthal didn’t find a way to remain under the thumb of Rob Manfred’s heavy-handed hamfists. Rosenthal still has jobs at Fox Sports and The Athletic, so he’s fine.

James Fegan surveyed his readers about pain points in the White Sox roster with some editorial commentary on the outcomes. I enjoyed the way he worked in persistent reminders that the White Sox’s spending has not matched their championship rhetoric, such as:

For all the history we have observing the White Sox, the budget limitations are usually countered by overcorrecting where it’s more affordable to do so: the bullpen.

We all know that the White Sox signed Kendall Graveman and re-signed Leury García. Now you can read about all the moves AL Central blogs have already wrung all content from.

You can see Graveman’s sinker in one of the GIFs showing the various elements that lead to umpires missing obvious strike calls. It’s the victim of an awkward stabbing attempt and drop.

Treat it as a reminder that the White Sox could use a backup catcher who gets low strike calls when the lockout ends.

Back in 2015, Brian Anderson signed a minor-league contract with the White Sox in a brief, unremarkable attempt at a comeback. I mostly remember it for calling Scott Merkin the one uncle who stayed in contact with Anderson. Anyway, with MLB.com reporters prohibited from writing about current MLBPA players, Uncle Scott is back with another report.

(Photo by Arturo Pardavila III)

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HallofFrank

The Sox preference to add bullpen arms in lieu of solving positions like 2B or RF is, here and elsewhere, framed as a money-saving maneuver, but is that the case? It’s true that relievers are, to use Fegan’s words, “more affordable” in the sense that you can say you signed a “top-of-the-market player.” But what does that matter? The Sox guaranteed $54m to a reliever last offseason, $27m to one this offseason, and paid Kimbrel ~$6m in ’21. $87m over three to four years may not get you a “top-of-the-market player” at 2B or RF, but it sure would solve either position in a way that would make Sox fans happy. And I’m quite sure Jerry is interested in getting a return on his investments, too. So he’s surely aware that the total amount paid to relievers isn’t “more affordable” when measured against the amount of work the Sox receive in return (measured by time, innings, or production). There is surely some reason why the Sox think that a proportionately larger investment in the bullpen is a good idea, but I don’t think it’s to save money.

Trooper Galactus

It’s all about length of commitment. Despite the implosion of so many short-term and one-year deals, this team still operates with an aversion to any free agent contract over four years because they refuse to accept any dead money on the tail end knowing in advance they’ll probably have to deal with it. This despite wasting $20-30 million a year on short-term players who are dead weight in the here and now.

Danetc85

Love to see BA back in the news. I get why he rubbed many the wrong way, and his abysmal offense was frustrating to watch, but I could watch him patrol centerfield all day.

If you see a guy in the upper deck in an Anderson 32 road gray this season, say hey!

Elena

I was a big Brian Anderson fan, too. I have a black home #32 Anderson jersey. Several years ago when he was becoming a pitcher with the Burlington Bees “A” club I took a short video of him pitching. You can watch it on YouTube by asking for “Brian Anderson Pitching!” It’s only 12 seconds long. He was good until he hurt his arm.

fustercluck

sure, I’ll say, “Hey! Amidst this vast sea of Brian Anderson jerseys, which one of you is wearing it unironically?”

Danetc85

Hah! I’ve honestly never seen anyone else at the park with a 32. I always assume people just think I don’t know TA’s number.

As Cirensica

I remember I voted in Fegan’s survey with a need to address back-up catcher as more concerning right now. I believe the White Sox cannot go to the post season with Grandal-Collins-Seby again. That’s a recipe for a disaster. Grandal seems to always miss time, and while he is a good framer, he is not so good at other facets behind the plate and some speculate that was the reason the Dodgers let him go.

Hahn adds another pitcher that is hard to catch in Graveman as your gif shows. I think it is time to explore what can Hahn get in a trade for Seby or Collins. A big problem is that right now there is no decent defensive catchers available in the free agency, and probably Hahn needs to get one via trade. Maybe Stephen Vogt still some left in the tank. He’ll be a significant defensive improvement over Collins and Seby.

GrinnellSteve

The biggest lack of depth is backup catcher and starting pitcher. If they ADEQUATELY address those two positions, I can live with Leury/Gonzalez/Mendick/Burger/Vaughn and Engel/Sheets/Vaughn. The rest of the lineup can hit, and it’s possible to imagine two of those guys stepping up.

On the other hand, if Grandal goes down again or Keuchel is cooked and Kopech breaks under the workload, things can get ugly really quickly.

BenwithVen

Interestingly, ZiPs is really high on Carlos Perez. So much so that his top comp for 2022 is Yadier Molina.

Trooper Galactus

I’d take that level of defense from the backup, even if the bat blows.

GrinnellSteve

Has anyone seen anything to suggest there is any level of support or sympathy for the Manfred and the owners in this fight? I haven’t seen a thing, though my exposure to every corner of the baseball blogosphere and its commentariat is limited.

Normally when one side is getting killed in the court of public opinion, they’re more amenable to getting an agreement and putting the whole mess behind them. I wonder, though, if in their lust for profits and power, the owners are taking their cues from the insurrectionists who are willing to ram through anti-democratic laws and defy anyone to stand up to them. Popularity doesn’t matter when you control the levers of power.

The firing of Ken Rosenthal for criticizing Manfred put this thought in my mind. It’s the sort of thing Orban would do or Trump longed to do. Could that same eff you attitude color the entire CBA negotiation? Could we find ourselves looking back longingly at the shorter and less disruptive negotation of 1994-95?

roke1960

Passan is saying that the next face-to-face negotiations will likely take place in late January. I have a hard time believing that they will make enough progress in so short a time to get the season started on time, unless the players cave (again). The owners certainly aren’t going to cave. I’m guessing the owners will break the players down sometime in March as the players start seeing missed paychecks on the horizon. Then they will sign another substandard agreement and there will be a rush to get the season started. And this will result in many more arm injuries to pitchers who will again be out of rhythm as the season nears. Teams better be prepared to have 7 starters with all the arm problems there will likely be with a shortened spring training.

GrinnellSteve

I really don’t think the players will cave any time soon. The owners may be planning around that eventuality, but I think they’re going to be surprised.

metasox

It is a good point that we don’t know how this might contribute to injuries after we are already coming off an exceptional injury season