Overhauling the dugout
With the departure of Pedro Grifol, the Royals coaching staff search is now expanding to include the bench coach position. Plus some random World Series thoughts!
Along with the want ad the Royals placed for their vacant pitching coach position, they now have to expand the search to also look for a bench coach.
I suspect they were planning on doing that all along. Nothing against Pedro Grifol, who was hired by the Chicago White Sox to be their next manager, replacing the departed Tony LaRussa. I got the distinct impression that the Royals were looking to restructure the dynamic in the dugout as much as possible.
Grifol interviewed for the Royals’ managerial position the last two times it became available. He’s served as a trusted lieutenant for years and is widely respected in the baseball community. He’s going to be a good manager. It just wasn’t going to happen in Kansas City.
Again, that’s not a knock on Grifol or his leadership capabilities. Rather, it’s an issue of timing. The interview the first time around was just eyewash as everyone knew that Mike Matheny was Dayton Moore’s favored candidate. The recent opportunity came at a time when it was clearly necessary the organization needed to bang the reset button with the on-field leadership. It’s not as though Grifol was tarnished by association as Matheny’s bench coach, rather there’s just a need for a fresh start.
It will be fun to see how Grifol’s tenure plays out on the South Side. He will be taking the helm of an aging and historically underperforming team. Expectations are going to be elevated, but they should be in Chicago. Given that, LaRussa was an insane choice. Grifol could turn out to be an inspired one.
In fact, the Grifol appointment could have an almost immediate negative impact for the Royals. James Fegan at The Athletic is reporting that Royals Special Assignment Hitting Coach, Mike Tosar, is likely headed to the South Side to serve as the White Sox hitting coach.
Hahn said the new manager will play a central role in determining their coaching staff, and those close to Grifol expect him to bring along previous associates. A potential name to watch is Royals special assignment hitting coach Mike Tosar, since he worked closely with Grifol during breakout power-hitting seasons for Jorge Soler and Salvador Perez.
This would obviously be a blow to the Royals hitting program should Tosar depart. Really. The Royals assemble a team of hitting coaches and almost immediately one gets poached. Certainly can’t fault Tosar for moving up the baseball ladder. That’s how the profession works…successful “assistants” or “special assignment” guys get work as the lead coach in their discipline. It’s extremely difficult to keep the band together.
Why couldn’t have been Cal Eldred?*
*I am totally aware that Eldred is neither a hitting coach or employed by the Royals. Still…why couldn’t have been him?
New manager Matt Quatraro is scheduled to meet the Kansas City media on Thursday morning, so it will be interesting to hear from the man himself. (There will be a full recap here tomorrow.) I’ve written this before, but his experience with two forward-thinking baseball organizations in Tampa and Cleveland has me incredibly interested to see how he assembles his staff. (I mean, I’m interested to see how this plays out once the season starts, but given that we’re about five months out from meaningful baseball, I’ll go ahead and keep the focus on the short-term.)
Could we see the bench coach come from—or have roots in—the Tampa organization where Quatraro has spent the majority of his career? It would hardly be surprising. Then would the pitching coach likewise have spent time in the Cleveland organization where they’re known for embracing the data and the analytics and deploying that information to help develop their pitchers? Again, it wouldn’t be a surprise in the least if that’s how this played out.
This figures to be an active couple of months for the Royals. They didn’t waste time in finding their manager, now they have to act with similar haste to get the rest of the staff assembled. That will give the crew plenty of time to formulate plans of action for the rest of the winter leading into spring training.
The World Series has been a bit…bizarre? In all four games, a team has raced out to a 5-0 lead. And then the Phillies couldn’t manage a base hit off Christian Javier, Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly. It was the second time in World Series history a team was held hitless.
Hey! A no-hitter is a no-hitter is a no-hitter. But it was just kind of…strange? I don’t know. I’m all for celebrating those kinds of moments, but when they come in a World Series when your team is battling for a title, it just adds to the overall weirdness of the situation. Anyway, Javier was incredibly filthy. It’s hardly surprising he didn’t allow a hit.
It just adds to the flavor of a crazy series.
Game One - Phillies fall behind 5-0 before tying it up and winning in 10.
Game Two - Astros lace three doubles on the first four pitches of the game.
Game Three - Phillies smash five home runs.
Game Four - Astros throw a combo no-no.
I’m actually kind of frightened to see what happens in Game Five.
With the World Series now tied at two games each, my internal monologue on the teams is in overdrive. On one hand, I really like Dusty Baker and what he’s done over his career. It seems as though a title is the only thing missing from an incredibly impressive resume. On the other hand, it’s still the Astros.
I was delighted by the irony on Tuesday as Lance McCullers was apparently tipping his pitches by altering his leg kick.
I mean, that’s about as obvious as someone banging a trash can. The baseball gods may take their damn time, but karmic corrections eventually happen. (I’m not too bothered by the McCullers’ neck-chop, throat-slash thing from 2015. Kendrys Morales took care of that.)
While I’m still smarting over the Royals’ six-game loss in the 1980 World Series to Philadelphia, the current edition of the Phillies seems like a crazy fun ball club. I also dig the fact they’re the sixth seed in this postseason, something that appears to have fallen by the wayside as the Fall Classic approaches the winter solstice. Bryce Harper hasn’t posted the numbers he did in the earlier rounds of the playoffs, but he’s still the guy who makes things happen. Some would call that clutch. As someone who witnessed George Brett come through again and again in big moments, the clutch gene most certainly exists. Harper has it and it’s damn fun to watch.
Still, I’ll stick with my prediction at the start of the series: Houston gets Baker his first title.