Author: Marc Normandin

Brewers’ salary dump might mean one less competitive club in 2023

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One thing to keep in mind this offseason is that you need to change the lens through which you’re viewing the winter’s transactions. With the revamped schedule format of 2023, you can’t necessarily use the old thinking when it comes to the moves that teams make. For instance, look at the Brewers’ trade of Hunter Renfroe to the Angels: he’s expected to make around $11 million in arbitration next year, so the Brewers dumped him despite the fact he hit .255/.315/.492 with 29 homers in a year where offense and dinger rates were terrible for people not named Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber. Renfroe’s hit a combined .257/.315/.497 with 60 long balls the past two seasons 269 games, will be just 31 in 2023, and, by OPS+, was Milwaukee’s leading hitter this past year.

To put it another way, even ESPN’s Buster Olney chided the Brewers for what is an obvious salary dump:

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MLB investigating Mets, Yankees over Aaron Judge free agency story

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Major League Baseball is investigating whether or not “improper communication” occurred between the Yankees and the Mets regarding the free agency of slugger Aaron Judge, at the behest of the Players Association. The source of all of this was a story by Andy Martino, published on November 3, that discussed how Hal Steinbrenner and Steve Cohen had a “mutually beneficial” relationship, and therefore the Mets would not attempt to pry Judge away from the Yankees:

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Dusty Baker, James Click, and Jim Crane’s cruel efficiency

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Jeff Luhnow might not be with the Astros any longer, and hasn’t been for a few years, but the culture he fostered certainly still exists in some form. No, no, I’m not talking about the cheating scandal — you can put down those pitchforks and alt accounts, Astros fans — but instead the central conceit of the Luhnow-era team: everyone and everything is a tool to be used until it can be thrown away. The fast-acting poison that is McKinsey’s obsession with efficiency and dehumanization has not vanished from Houston, just because the man who introduced it has.

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Mailbag: Under the radar minor-league CBA issues

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Mailbag! If you have a mailbag question you’d like to see answered, either respond to this newsletter email, or hit me up on @Marc_Normandin on Twitter. Here goes.

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Consider the source of A’s, Rays stadium rumors

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Last week, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred gave an update on the stadium situations in Oakland and Tampa Bay, for the A’s and Rays, respectively. He was appearing on SiriusXM Radio with host Chris Russo, who asked about what was going on in those two markets: at this point, the Rays have been making noise about needing a new stadium or leaving for seemingly longer than they have not, while the A’s release some annoyed statement every few months when things aren’t moving along as quickly or as in-their-favor-y as they’d like in their quest to have Oakland pay for all or most of a new park.

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Minor League collective bargaining has begun

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Well, it’s actually happening. There is a minor-league sub-unit of the Major League Baseball Players Association, and they’ve officially entered into the collective bargaining process with the league, according to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. The two sides — the players once again represented by Bruce Meyer, the league by deputy commissioner Dan Halem — “made presentations for their respective sides,” which is how these things open, especially when there is no existing CBA to work off of.

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Mailbag: Changing minor-league team control

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It’s time for a mailbag. If you have a mailbag question you’d like to see answered, either respond to this newsletter email, or hit me up on @Marc_Normandin on Twitter. Here goes.

Payment and living conditions are likely big items, as well as getting spring training pay formalized, but what are the issues MiLB might try and address that might have drastic impact on team/player control for minor league players? -@ERolfPleiss

That… is a great question. Realistically, this first time out, I’m not sure if it will be a priority to change how long minor leaguers are under the control of one club. It becomes very hard to change things that have already been agreed upon in a prior collective bargaining agreement, and while this will be the first between minor-league players and MLB, there are already rules and regulations in place in the existing CBA between MLB’s players and the league.

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After authorizing All-Star Game strike, Dodger Stadium workers get new contract

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Recall this summer, when Dodger Stadium concession workers authorized a strike shortly before the 2022 MLB All-Star Game was held at that venue? It was a well-timed threat, and, due to UNITE HERE’s history of following through on such threats, one that was heeded immediately. The All-Star Game went on as planned, because the concessionaire these workers were employed by, Compass/Levy, agreed to listen to their demands after the strike was authorized.

While few details were released at the time in regards to what exactly the strike threat was aiming to achieve other than to get Compass/Levy to go back to the bargaining table — Los Angeles’ UNITE branch did not release specifics this time around like their Bay Area counterparts did at Oracle Park before the 2021 postseason — a new contract has been signed, and now we have a sense of some of what it was they were fighting for.

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It’s still easy to win 100 games when most MLB teams aren’t trying

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The 2022 MLB season was nearly a historic one in ways other than the performances of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. There were four 100-win teams, and four 100-loss teams, which equaled the records set and most recently matched, respectively, in 2019. In 2019, it was an issue, as I described at the time in a piece headline “Winning 100 games is easy when most MLB teams aren’t trying.”

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Mailbag: Separate bargaining units, salary floor

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Mailbag time. If you have a mailbag question you’d like to see answered, either respond to this newsletter email, or hit me up on @Marc_Normandin on Twitter. Let’s get to it.

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