Jim Leyland belongs in the Hall of Fame, so what I’m about to write is not about Leyland’s Cooperstown worthiness.
But I do think the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee got it wrong when it moved Leyland ahead of Davey Johnson and Lou Piniella. Leyland was the only candidate of eight under consideration who received the necessary 12 votes of the 16 committee members who were charged with making determinations on a ballot of managers, executives and umpires whose primary contributions to the game came since 1980.
When Joe Torre was en route to winning his first World Series as a manager in 1996, I wrote a column that if he did get that championship he should be elected to the Hall of Fame. I thought there should have been a category for someone’s baseball life, and I believed that when you combined Torre’s borderline Hall career with managing a championship team, the result, in total, was a Hall of Fame life.
Torre ultimately made that argument inconsequential by piloting four titles while with the Yankees to easily get elected to the Hall.
But I have long held that a whole baseball life should be viewed. Ultimately, the rules evolved in which these special committees can consider a candidate’s overall contribution to the game, though the actual candidacy is narrowed to just one area such as manager.
I think Dusty Baker crossed the threshold even before winning a World Series as the Astros manager in 2022 with his combination of being an above-average player for a sustained period combined with being a successful manager in several places.
I think Johnson and Piniella are from the Baker bucket.
Again, no knock on Leyland. But he never made it to the majors as a player. He managed in four places, led three to the playoffs and won one World Series with the 1997 Marlins. His 1,769 wins are the 18th most ever. It is a terrific résumé. But I would put it in line behind both Johnson and Piniella.
Neither Johnson nor Piniella might have matched Baker’s playing career, but they are in the same sentence. Both were above-average players who were vital contributors on two championship teams each. Johnson in 1973 tied Rogers Hornsby’s major league record when he hit 42 homers as a second baseman (he hit 43 in all, one as a pinch-hitter).
And, like Baker, wherever they went as managers, their teams pretty much won. That should not be taken as a given. Most people who try this would not be successful anywhere; they are more at the mercy of the talent and the moment. But between their acumen, temperament and gravitas, Johnson and Piniella helped produce winners in a variety of places. And both won the same one championship as a manager as Leyland.
Piniella actually is ahead of Leyland, in 17th, on the all-time managerial win list with 1,835. He managed the 2001 Mariners, who won an MLB-record 116 regular-season games. He managed the Nasty Boys Reds to a championship in 1990. His 97 wins with the 2008 Cubs were the most by the franchise at the time since 1945.
Piniella also had the “Fame” part down. He was “Sweet Lou.” He personified the fiery, base-throwing manager. He was a key star in the George Steinbrenner orbit.
Johnson is 33rd (1,372) for most managerial wins. But consider: The Mets won one championship during the Wilpons’ ownership, with Johnson in charge in 1986. The franchise has only finished first twice in the same decade once — in 1986 and 1988 with Johnson in charge during the most successful run in franchise history.
From when Piniella won the title in 1990 until 2010, the Reds only made the playoffs once — with Johnson as the manager in 1995; plus, they were in first place in 1994 at the time the season was canceled due to labor issues.
From 1983, when the Orioles won the World Series, until 2012 under Buck Showalter, the Orioles only made the playoffs twice — under Johnson in 1996 and ’97.
The Expos made the playoffs in 1981 and did not do so again until they were the Nationals under Johnson in 2012.
When Johnson showed up, his teams generally won. His 1986 Mets are among the most famous champions in history.
Again, this is not an argument against Leyland, a deserving Hall of Famer. This is about who should have gone before him.
My totally made-up trade
Jordan Walker from the Cardinals to the White Sox for Dylan Cease and Gregory Santos.
Is this a proposal both teams would walk away from — because the White Sox situation is bad enough that they need to use their most valuable pieces to get not just quality but quantity and because the Cardinals were burned in recent years in giving up on Randy Arozarena and Adolis Garcia too quickly and ultimately watched them blossom into stars elsewhere?
I do not think the Cardinals would trade Walker yet — they need to see more because the upside offensively is so appealing. But let’s play why St. Louis has to at least hold a meeting to consider it: Because even after adding Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, they still need impact toward the top of the rotation. And, when right, Cease has the stuff to pitch in that realm. Cease comes with team control for two years as opposed to other available starters such as Tyler Glasnow, Shane Bieber and Corbin Barnes, who come with just one.
Santos is the sweetener, a live bullpen arm with four years of control for a Cardinals club that wants to fortify that area as well.
Walker was a consensus top-five prospect going into last season. And his offense was fine in MLB season 1 — a 114 OPS-plus and 16 homers in 117 games. But he had a negative Wins Above Replacement (Baseball Reference) at minus-0.1 due to very bad defense as a corner outfielder. He could not play his more natural third base due to the presence of Nolan Arenado.
That is not going to occur in 2024 either. He will be ticketed for right field again, where he made improvements as the year went along, but likely is still going to struggle to get to average.
As for the White Sox, they can use Cease to try to address a few areas. But that is what they did with a much lesser deal when they traded Aaron Bummer to the Braves for a group of players designed to provide a bit more depth and raise the incredibly low floor of this roster.
But the question is if Chicago would be better off getting a better version of this kind of deal involving Cease or just going for the home run? Because if Walker turns into what was expected of him, he is a middle of the order bat. Cease is in great demand because he has excellent stuff and has that second control year.
What should Chicago do to maximize a starter that the industry is anticipating will be moved this winter?
Got my attention
It’s impossible not to notice how locked up this offseason has been as teams await decisions by Shohei Ohtani and, to a lesser extent, Yoshinobu Yamamoto. It is hard for the big-market clubs, in particular, who are in for Ohtani, and also Yamamoto, to know what they need and how much they have to spend until these two sign.
Yet, one executive remains impervious to the slowdown in this market. As always, Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos finds a way to get his work done. It helps that he has such a set club, mainly around his positional core, that he often is augmenting.
But even failing when he big-game hunts — as happened with Aaron Nola and Sonny Gray — does not deter Anthopoulos from aggressively working on the Braves’ roster.
On Sunday, the Braves completed their fourth trade since Nov. 17 when they dealt Cole Phillips and Jackson Kowar to the Mariners and took on a portion of the remaining contracts of Marco Gonzales and Evan White to gain access to Jarred Kelenic to help with the one positional area of need — left field.
Kelenic remains an intriguing and frustrating player. The sixth pick in the 2018 by the Mets, he was traded six months later as the key piece to Seattle in the deal that brought back Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz.
Kelenic played his best with Seattle last year, finishing with a 109 OPS-plus in a career-high 416 plate appearances. But it was not more because in July he broke a foot when he kicked a water cooler and missed eight weeks — remember that the Mariners finished one game out of a wild-card spot. Plus, Kelenic continued to swing and miss at extreme level with a 31.7 strikeout rate.
In Atlanta, though, Kelenic just has to be a piece, not the man who was the key to a huge trade. Vaughn Grissom is going to play winter ball and play left field. So the Braves publicly are not even calling Kelenic the starter. But they obviously did not take on cash elsewhere because they are not intrigued by his upside.
And having Kelenic back in the NL East playing against the team that drafted him promises to bring greater focus as well.
Roster stuff maybe only I notice
We return to our exercise of putting everyone who played in an MLB game back on his original club and seeing who would have the best rosters — and, thus, gain a window into which teams have done the best and worst in amateur procurement and development.
The bottom of the list, to date, is:
24. Tigers
25. Rockies
26. Mariners
27. White Sox
28. Nationals
29. A’s
30. Brewers
This week we will add two more, beginning with No. 23 Miami, which is here for a variety of reasons, including that the Marlins would have difficulty making a team because they have done so poorly at developing middle infielders.
They had just 15 position players in the majors in 2023 who were original Marlins. The positive: that included five catchers who played at least 387 innings behind the plate: J.T. Realmuto, Nick Fortes, Austin Barnes, Chad Wallach and Austin Nola. But one of those, Barnes, was the only original Marlin to play an inning at second base — and it was exactly one inning. Meanwhile, 142 players recorded at least an inning at shortstop in 2023. None was an original Marlin.
Rebound seasons from Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna make this all look a little better, the fade of Giancarlo Stanton and the fade into now retirement for Miguel Cabrera makes it look worse.
The best original Marlins team has Brian Anderson, who played six innings at shortstop in 2021, at that position, which moved Mark Canha into third base. And a reminder: Domingo German and Michael King were originally Marlins.
C: Realmuto
1B: Josh Naylor
2B: Barnes
SS: Anderson
3B: Canha
LF: Yelich
CF: JJ Bleday
RF: Stone Garrett
Bench: Fortes, Stanton, Wallach, Peyton Burdick
Rotation: Edward Cabrera, Braxton Garrett, Andrew Heaney, Eury Perez, Trevor Williams
Closer: King
Bullpen: German, Brad Hand, Dylan Lee, Andrew Nardi, Trevor Richards, George Soriano, Alex Vesia.
At No. 22 is the Giants, whose problem here looks like their actual-team issue — the group of position players hardly ever rises above fine beyond Bryan Reynolds, who was traded for a declining Andrew McCutchen. But because the rotation includes Luis Castillo, Logan Webb and Zack Wheeler, San Francisco really cannot fall much lower than this.
So here is the club:
C: Patrick Bailey
1B: Brandon Belt
2B: Matt Duffy
SS: Brandon Crawford
3B: David Villar
LF: Bryan Reynolds
CF: Austin Slater
RF: Adam Duvall
DH: Christian Arroyo
Bench: Ehire Adrianza, Joey Bart, Luis Matos, Casey Schmitt
Rotation: Castillo, Webb, Wheeler, Kyle Harrison, Ryan Walker
Closer: Camilo Doval
Bullpen: Phil Bickford, Derek Law, Jonathan Loaisiga, Steven Okert, Tyler Rogers, Chris Stratton, Keaton Winn.
Last licks
I want to return once again to the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee’s ballot of managers, executives and umpires whose primary contributions to the game came since 1980.
I want to discuss the process.
I continue to say in this area that the Hall of Fame has to provide greater transparency in all facets, from explaining why they picked the 16 voters to allowing — and imploring — those voters to explain their process, including who they voted for and why.
This is about size. When there are just 16 voters, the power/impact of each individual is accentuated. So is the influence a passionate/well-prepared voter might have in the room.
The regular phase of Hall of Fame voting is much larger (and I am a voter). There were 389 voters last year, which means no singular vote carries nearly as much weight (as candidates vie to get 75 percent of votes) as it does with a 16-person committee. To become a voter, you must have 10 consecutive years of membership in the Baseball Writers Association of America and be deemed in good standing as far as having currently or recently covered the sport. Voters send in the ballot individually. There is no meeting of voters in which particularly strong-minded or convincing people can make a case for a candidate in a closed room.
The BBWAA asked the Hall of Fame to make it mandatory for all of our ballots to be released annually so anyone who is interested could know how each voter filled out a ballot. The Hall rejected the plea. Nevertheless, the large majority of us release our ballots annually. Many of us write and/or broadcast and/or podcast our reasoning behind our ballots.
It is not 100 percent transparency, as the majority of us had wished. But it is better than just about any other large body that is doling out honors.
For example, do you know who votes for the Oscars or how they voted?
I understand why the Hall is hesitant to make transparency mandatory. The nastiness on, particularly, social media is intense. The Hall does not want to subject its voters to the attacks. But I see this as part of the price of being a voter. Simply do not vote if you do not want the vitriol — a vitriol you can mainly shut off if you have the discipline not to look at mentions on social media or to avoid email for a period of time.
The voters on these 16-person committees are sending those who get their 75 percent to the same Hall of Fame as the larger body. We all should be held to a high standard if we are going to help decide immortality in the sport. The standard is transparency.
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