NEWSLETTER
Man alive. It was already going to be a busy week for a variety of scheduled reasons – including the GM Meetings kicking off today – but after yesterday’s stunner, with the Cubs hiring Craig Counsell as their new manager, it still feels like things are spinning.
There’s going to be so much more to get into today. All right. Let’s start with some David Ross-heavy Bullets …
- As exciting – and correct – as it was for the Cubs to go after Craig Counsell when they learned it was really going to be possible to get him, there is the necessarily cold other side of the coin. The Cubs had to dump David Ross, despite otherwise being perfectly happy to retain him for 2024. Ross did not EARN being fired. But he was fired all the same.
- David Ross really does deserve the best possible treatment on the way out the door. He wasn’t fired for his own performance, and he’s still a deserved fan favorite for his contributions to the organization. It’ll take a little while for his time with the Cubs to become separated from the memory off how he was broomed, but I think fans will be relatively quick to remember how much he meant to the organization. I think, in fact, that even for fans who were disappointed with Ross’s performance as manager, they will get right back to loving Grandpa Rossy in short order.
- Also, I still contend that Ross really wasn’t that bad overall as a manager. He was clearly great in the clubhouse. He helped put together a good coaching staff. He kept players focused and locked in. There were proactive player developments under his watch. And his in-game management was mixed, not necessarily atrocious. The poor decisions were always more visible than the acceptable ones, of which there were far more of the latter than the former. That’s just kind of how managing goes.
- Also, if David Ross is extremely upset about this, and it comes out later that he is, I would strongly advise folks not to react harshly. Really consider it from his perspective. Even if on some level you get why the Cubs did it, you were part of this organization for years. You ground through some of the toughest circumstances. You were assured, publicly, that you were the guy for next year. And now you know you might never get another managerial shot, because the club you knew and loved just told you to get lost. It’s harsh. It’s cold. It’s business, yes, but Ross is still a human being. I really feel for him on a human level today.
- The parallels to the Cubs’ move to hire Joe Maddon back in 2014 were immediately apparent yesterday. But I particularly appreciated this pull from Patrick Mooney, which is about how the Cubs thought about ditching a manager they liked and were otherwise committed to, because a star became surprisingly available:
“Last Thursday, we learned that Joe Maddon — who may be as well suited as anyone in the industry to manage the challenges that lie ahead of us — had become a free agent,” Epstein said then. “We confirmed the news with Major League Baseball, and it became public knowledge the next day. We saw it as a unique opportunity and faced a clear dilemma: be loyal to Rick or be loyal to the organization. In this business of trying to win a world championship for the first time in 107 years, the organization has priority over any one individual. We decided to pursue Joe.”
- If you missed how Jed Hoyer and the Cubs kept this move a secret, and told David Ross in person before making the change, see the discussion here.
- We’ll keep tabs on the Brewers’ managerial search now, since everything that was true before yesterday is still true: it matters who manages the Brewers. I hope they get someone who stinks.
- Justin Steele is not an NL Cy Young finalist:
- Steele had a markedly better ERA than both Gallen and Webb, and a similar WAR. The big difference was in innings pitched, where Gallen and Webb both had 40-ish innings on Steele, which makes it a lot harder for me to argue that he got snubbed. That’s a massive difference in innings, and Steele probably would’ve had to be even more dominant to make up for it (like Snell was). Zack Wheeler and Spencer Strider also would’ve had arguments to be a finalist. Unfortunately, Steele falling off a bit at the end of the year is what did him in. Still an incredible season for Justin Steele.
- The other awards finalists can be found here. Also, um, bring home that hardware, Craig:
- In case you missed it yesterday amid the flurry of major news, the Cubs DID add Luis Vazquez to the 40-man roster, but did NOT add Yonathan Perlaza, so he’s now a free agent.
- The White Sox didn’t have a coach assigned to baserunning OR outfield last year? What:
- If my son hit one that far and DIDN’T flip his bat, I would ground him for a month:
- For now, this is just about the NBA, but it’s not at all hard to imagine MLB trying to work out the same thing: in the Diamond Sports bankruptcy, the sides worked out a deal that the Bally RSNs can carry NBA games through this season, but then after this season, all the rights (all 15 teams at issue in the bankruptcy) will revert to the NBA for them to decide what to do. Apparently the NHL is trying to do the same kind of deal. If that were to happen for MLB, it would be a MAJOR step toward the league being able to create what it wants, which is a centralized hub for all games without any blackouts.
