The Month That Was in Baseball: November 2015

Sunday, November 1

The Kansas City Royals win the World Series for the first time in 30 years, snatching Game Five in New York the way they’ve often done it throughout this postseason: Coming from behind. Trailing 2-0 going into the ninth inning, the Royals are still facing an electric Mets starter Matt Harvey—who had angrily talked his way into pitching one more inning—and quickly forge a Lorenzo Cain walk and Eric Hosmer double (scoring Cain) to start the frame. With Harvey quickly replaced by closer Jeurys Familia, Hosmer moves to third and then makes a gutsy, delayed run at home on a ground ball to third and scores the game-tying run when Lucas Duda’s throw from first goes wild past the plate.

Sending Harvey back out for the ninth seemed the right thing to do—but after giving up the leadoff walk to Cain, the Mets should have pulled him out right there and then. Instead, Harvey gives up the Hosmer double, putting the tying run on base with no outs and leaving it up to Familia to secure a tough save. Which he couldn’t; it was Familia’s third blown save of series, setting a Fall Classic record.

Mets manager Terry Collins on reversing his original decision and choosing to stick with Harvey: “I let my heart get in the way of my gut.”

For the entire season, Harvey pitches 216 innings, 36 beyond the hard limit originally set by his Tommy John surgeon, James Andrews.

The game remains 2-2 until the 12th, when Kansas City pinch-hitter Christian Colon—making his first postseason appearance at the plate—singles home the go-ahead run and sparks a five-run rally that will also include three doubles, a single, an intentional walk that backfires and a Daniel Murphy error, his second in as many nights. The Mets have little to counter with in the bottom of the inning, and the Royals takes the series in five games with a 7-2 triumph.

Greeting Colon at first base after his big hit is first-base coach Rusty Kuntz—ironically, the last man to deliver a pinch hit to bring home a Series-clinching run, doing it for the 1984 Detroit Tigers.

The go-ahead run is scored by Jarrod Dyson, pinch-running for catcher Salvador Perez. The durable Perez will win the World Series MVP after going 8-for-22 while deftly handling a pitching staff despite taking one blow after another to his body from a seemingly endless barrage of foul tips.

For the seventh time this postseason, the Royals win after trailing by two or more runs earlier in the game. They also trailed in all four of their wins against the Mets, joining five other teams who did the same, the last being the 2002 Anaheim Angels.

The five runs in the 12th established an all-time World Series mark for the most scored in an extra inning.

Monday, November 2

Less than a week after the Washington Nationals had come to a handshake agreement with Bud Black to be their new manager, they instead sign Dusty Baker after Black said no to the Nats’ contract offer of $2 million over two years. Baker is given a deal with a similar length but twice the money ($4 million).

Spending three years in exile after being canned by the Cincinnati Reds, Baker becomes the oldest active manager at the age of 66—and the only African-American skipper in the majors. Only the luckless Gene Mauch (1,902 wins) has accrued more victories as a manager without a World Series ring than Baker (1,671).

On a day in which 139 major leaguers declare free agency, the Miami Marlins attempt to lock up young ace Jose Fernandez with a long-term pre-arbitration contract. Fernandez, who does not become a free agent until 2019, says no.

Wise move by Fernandez. It’s apparent that any player who signs a long-term deal with the Marlins usually becomes frustrated with the state of affairs playing for Miami owner Jeffrey Loria—or gets shipped out of town before the contract expires.

The Marlins will escalate their feud with super-agent Scott Boras, Fernandez’s rep, by attempting to exclude him from any discussion regarding what pitch limit Fernandez should be used for in 2016.

Tuesday, November 3

From the air, it looks like a massive wildflower outbreak has hit downtown Kansas City, but it’s actually an estimated crowd between 500,000-800,000 wearing mostly blue to celebrate the champion Royals as they parade in celebration with their fans. The traffic getting to the event is so bad that some people get out of their cars on the freeway and walk the rest of the way to the parade. Manager Ned Yost, along with his players, salutes the fans: “This is a day like none of us have seen before and we appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts,” Yost tells the crowd. “What we wanted most was to come to this city to win a championship for you guys. We celebrate it with you today.”

Meanwhile, Kansas City pitcher Jeremy Guthrie and outfielder Alex Rios learn that the Royals will not pick up their 2016 contract options and become free agents, while outfielder Alex Gordon will decline his own $13.75 million option (and, later, a $15.8 million qualifying offer) for 2016 and he, too, will test the market.

Wednesday, November 4

A 64-98 record in 2015 is enough for Cincinnati director of baseball operations and GM Walt Jocketty to step down—sort of. The 64-year-old front office veteran is relinquishing his GM duties, giving the role to 44-year-old Dick Williams—no relation to the late manager of lore. Jocketty plans to further curtail his duties after 2016, when he expects to move into an advisory role.

A judge in New York state has thrown out the $298 million arbitration award given to the Nationals in a dispute with the Baltimore Orioles over revenue rights from MASN, the regional TV network owned by the Orioles and which covers both the O’s and Nationals. The reason: The law firm representing the Nationals also once worked for both Major League Baseball and the arbitrators who ruled in favor of the Nats.

Thursday, November 5

MLB hands out its Comeback Player of the Year awards to the Mets’ Matt Harvey (winning NL honors) and Texas slugger Prince Fielder (AL). Harvey sat out all of 2014 with Tommy John surgery and pitched gallantly in 2015—perhaps too much so for anyone who remembers the ninth inning of World Series Game Five—while Fielder, who hit .247 with just three homers in 42 games before succumbing to a neck injury in 2014, bounced back with a solid and stable campaign in which he batted .305 with 23 dingers and 98 RBIs.

We’re agreeable on the honor for Fielder given how badly he hit before his neck went out on him, but should players who miss an entire season even be eligible for this award? We’ve always thought the honor should key off a substandard performance from the year before, as opposed to no performance at all. It’s assumed that a guy like Harvey who misses the season previous would have played poorly—while in the case of Fielder, we know he did.

It’s no surprise since he previously let the cat out of the bag, but Aramis Ramirez formally makes it official: He’s retiring. The 37-year-old infielder played 18 years for three different teams—all of them (Pittsburgh, Chicago and Milwaukee) in the NL Central—compiling 2,303 hits, 495 doubles, 386 home runs and 1,417 RBIs. But he was one of those players who was good enough not to lead the league in anything; the only bold number you’ll see on his retrosheet.org resume is the 50 doubles for the 2012 Brewers which paced the NL. Ramirez appeared in three All-Star games (starting two of them), was adequate at best as a third baseman (he never won a Gold Glove) and, in an age when everyone is striking out, he only collected 100 K’s once, when he got rung up exactly 100 times in his first full season of 2001. He never got to taste the World Series, coming closest as a member of the 2003 Cubs—and as Steve Bartman will not tell you, we all know what happened there. Will the Hall of Fame call for Ramirez? He’ll get votes, but don’t count on enough to earn him a plaque.

Ramirez’s bow leaves just eight active major leaguers who played at least one game before 2000: Alex Rodriguez, Bartolo Colon, David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre, A.J. Pierzynski, Carlos Beltran, Joe Nathan and Randy Wolf.

For five days starting today, Petco Park in San Diego turns into a nine-hole golf course. Huh? Here’s what the Padres have done: They’ve laid out four “greens” (just outlining them using paint) on the field, and golfers can tee off from nine different “tee boxes” in the stands throughout the ballpark. The green fees are $50 per golfer.

Friday, November 6

A record 20 impending free agents are given a $15.8 million qualifying offer—a.k.a., the “last chance”—to stay with their current teams. Some will obviously scoff at the offer and test free agency, players like Zack Greinke, Jason Heyward, Alex Gordon and Chris Davis. Others may, and should, think about taking the money. Do Ian Kennedy, Howie Kendrick and Ian Desmond think they’ll be able to nab a long-term contract worth at least $15.8 million per year? And will teams be willing to sign them and be forced to give a first-round draft choice? (Asterisk to that last question: The 10 worst teams in 2015, by the record, are exempted from losing a draft pick if they sign one of these 20 players.)

Word on the street is that pitchers like Kennedy, Wei-Yin Chen and Marco Estrada—good pitchers, but not exactly A-list material—might be wise to take the offer, play well in 2016 and re-enter the free agent market after next season, when the expected list of pitchers to choose from will me much thinner than this year.

But here’s another reason the “second-tier” pitchers might want to consider the $15.8 million: They may find it hard to get an ideal contract if the team signing them has to forego a first-round draft pick, so treasured these days, to get them. Not taking the qualifying offer has backfired for a number of players, such as Kendrys Morales and Stephen Drew, regardless of whether a draft pick was even involved.

In the three previous years, 34 players have been given qualifying offers—and none of them have taken it.

Saturday, November 7

There’s news that a major league team has paid $12.8 million for the rights to negotiate with South Korea’s Byung-Ho Park, one of the top Far East prospects. Speculation mounts on which team it is while, one by one, other teams publicly state that it’s not them. In 140 games this past season for the Nexen Heroes, Park hit a whopping .343 with 53 homers and 146 RBIs—but before anyone gets excited, it should serve to remind that the Korean Baseball Organization is a hitter-friendly circuit in which one team hit over .300, the league ERA was 4.90 and major league cast-offs such as Marcus Thames (.381-47-140) and Andy Marte (.348-20-89) thrive.

It will be revealed two days later that the mystery team is the Minnesota Twins.

Sunday, November 8

A near-mint Topps baseball card of Mickey Mantle produced in its first year, 1952, sells on eBay for $486,100—the highest price ever paid for a baseball card on the online auction site. No word on who bought the card.

Monday, November 9

Tommy Hanson, once a top prospect for the Atlanta Braves whose continued regression led to a full-season minor league stint in the San Francisco organization this past year, suffers a “catastrophic organ failure” (it will later be determined to be an overdose from cocaine) and dies at the age of 29. After a stellar major league debut in 2009 with an 11-4 record and 2.89 ERA in 21 starts for the Braves, Hanson’s numbers gradually declined from year to year as shoulder issues mounted and his velocity decreased; he was 3-5 with a 5.60 ERA for the Giants’ Triple-A club in Sacramento this past season.

It is announced that two top players have undergone surgery in the past week that will threaten their chances of playing on Opening Day 2016. Los Angeles of Anaheim’s Albert Pujols has his right foot operated on and will be sidelined for nearly five months; meanwhile, Cleveland outfielder Michael Brantley has his shoulder worked on and will not be available until as late as next May.

This is not a year that infielder Jose Reyes will remember with fondness. The veteran shortstop grumbled to the press after being traded from the contending Blue Jays to last-place Colorado in August, saying he didn’t want to play out his career with a losing team. Now comes news that Reyes has been arrested for domestic abuse against his wife while vacationing in Hawaii; he could become the first player disciplined under MLB’s domestic violence policy, negotiated and agreed to by the union earlier this summer. He’ll later plead not guilty to the charge.

Tuesday, November 10

This year’s Gold Glove awards for defensive excellence in 2015 are handed out. There are nine first-time recipients among the list, including the Mets’ Yoenis Cespedes—who wins for his work in the AL with Detroit. St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina earns his eighth consecutive Gold Glove, while four other players (Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer, Nolan Arenado and Jason Heyward) are honored for the third time each. The champion Royals are the most represented with three recipients: catcher Perez, first baseman Hosmer and shortstop Alcides Escobar.

Cardinals pitcher Lance Lynn undergoes Tommy John surgery and is expected to miss the entire 2016 regular season. The 28-year-old pitcher has won 60 games over the last four years in St. Louis.

Will the Lynn injury be a huge below for the Cardinals’ rotation? Perhaps not, even when one adds in the possible free agent departure of John Lackey. Adam Wainwright is expected to return for a full season in 2016, and the continued maturation of Carlos Martinez and Michael Wacha will ensure at least three top-line arms among the Redbirds’ starters.

In Japan, three Yomiuri Giants pitchers have been “indefinitely” suspended by Nippon Professional Baseball for betting on baseball games. The three did not bet on their team nor did they attempt to fix games—but gambling on sports is illegal in Japan.

Wednesday, November 11

Lou Brock, the Hall-of-Fame speedster and member of the 3,000-hit club, has his left leg amputated below the knee due to an infection caused by diabetes, which he was diagnosed with 15 years ago. The 76-year old will be fitted with a prosthetic leg.

Thursday, November 12

The Atlanta Braves trade top defensive shortstop Andrelton Simmons to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in exchange for veteran infielder Erick Aybar, two pitching prospects and $2.5 million.

The Braves are certainly rebuilding in advance of their 2017 move into a new ballpark, but it was imagined that Simmons, still a young 26 and due $53 million over the next five years, would be a relatively inexpensive anchor in Atlanta. It now appears that the Braves, rumored to also be trading Freddie Freeman and Shelby Miller, are looking to build more from the ground up a la the Houston Astros.

In another deal, the Seattle Mariners grab reliever (and potential closer) Joaquin Benoit from the Padres for a couple of minor leaguers.

Houston outfielder Colby Rasmus becomes the first major leaguer to accept a qualifying offer (of $15.8 million) and forego free agency for another season. As mentioned above, 34 players in three previous offseasons had all said no to qualifying offers.

Rasmus feels he can improve on a 2015 season in which he hit .238 with 25 home runs and increase his chances of a bigger payday for 2017, amid a free agent market where other potential available outfielders will include Carlos Gomez, Jose Bautista, Matt Holliday and Jay Bruce (club option pending).

Two more players—Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters and Los Angeles starting pitcher Brett Anderson—will also accept the qualifying offer a day later.

Friday, November 13

One day after letting go of their set-up man, the Padres are letting go of their closer. Craig Kimbrel’s tour of duty in San Diego is over after just one season as the Padres trade him to the Boston Red Sox for four minor leaguers, including top prospects Manual Margot and Javier Guerra.

Toronto pitcher Marco Estrada declines acceptance of the $15.8 million qualifying offer but instead agrees to a two-year, $26 million deal with the Blue Jays.

This one seems a bit of a puzzler: Estrada gained a lot of attention for his performance in the postseason and looked ready to nab something along the lines of a four-year deal in the $60 million range.

Saturday, November 14

The Philadelphia Phillies, 63-99 this past year and now under the guidance of new general manager Matt Klentak, make their first big offseason move by trading for Arizona pitcher and former Rookie of the Year Jeremy Hellickson; going to the Diamondbacks will be 20-year-old, 6’7” prospect Sam McWilliams, an eighth-round draft pick from 2014.

Hellickson has struggled since his fine debut with Tampa Bay, recording a 22-27 record and 4.86 ERA in the last three years. He’s also prone to the home run ball, which will make for some interesting starts at hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

Monday, November 16

The week of baseball’s season awards kicks off with the honoring of the Cubs’ Kris Bryant and Houston’s Carlos Correa as Rookies of the Year in the NL and AL, respectively. Bryant receives all 30 first-place votes, while Correa, also a heavy favorite, surprisingly edges out Cleveland’s Francisco Lindor for his plaque.

Correa is only the second Astro in the franchise’s 54-year history to earn Rookie of the Year honors. Jeff Bagwell, in 1991, was the other.

Tuesday, November 17

Joe Maddon is rewarded with NL Manager of the Year honors after leapfrogging the Chicago Cubs to a 97-65 record—a 26-win turnaround from 2014—and a postseason push that took them to the NLCS. It’s Maddon’s third such award, having won it for Tampa Bay in 2008 and 2011.

Only Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox have won more Manager of the Year awards, with four each.

The AL vote is a close one and goes to Texas’ Jeff Banister, who led the Rangers to an AL West title one year after the team experience a league-worst, injury-depleted 67-95 mark. The Astros’ A.J. Hinch finishes second with 82 total points to Banister’s 112.

San Francisco shortstop Brandon Crawford is given a six-year, $75 million extension (covering his final two years of arbitration and first four years of eligible free agency) after earning his first Gold Glove while enjoying his best year yet offensively in 2015.

The Oakland A’s sign Rich Hill to a one-year, $6 million deal. After years of trying to get his career back on track, the 35-year-old right-hander shined in a late 2015 stint for Boston, going 2-1 with a 1.55 ERA in four starts for the Red Sox.

Wednesday, November 18

The Cubs’ Jake Arrieta wins a close race with Los Angeles’ Zack Greinke to take the NL Cy Young Award, with 17 first-place votes compared to Greinke’s 10; there was even enough love to spread around to the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, who grabbed three first-place nods and came in a somewhat close third overall in the vote. All three NL honors this week have gone to the Cubs. (A fourth is not going to happen as there are no Cubs among the three MVP finalists.)

Although Greinke had the better overall year—leading the majors with a 1.66 ERA that’s the lowest in 20 years—voters sided toward Arrieta, who had a phenomenal second half.

That Kershaw elbowed his way to the top here and there was surprising given the immense statistical caliber of both Arrieta and Greinke, but some were obviously taken by Kershaw’s own exceptional second-half effort as well as his 300 strikeouts, the first such performance in over a decade.

In a less suspenseful poll, Houston’s Dallas Keuchel takes the AL Cy Young with 22 first-place votes to David Price’s eight. They were the only two pitchers listed on every ballot.

On the day he turns 40, David Ortiz announces that the 2016 season will be his last. “I wish I could play another 40 years, so I could have you guys behind me,” he said via a video, “but it doesn’t work that way. After this year, time is up. So let’s enjoy the season.”

With the announcement, the debate has already begun as to whether Ortiz is Cooperstown-worthy. Our answer: Yes. While he has been exposed from the steroid closet (appearing on the list of “anonymous” 100 major leaguers who tested positive in 2003), he appears to have proven that he can hit exceptionally well without the juice and, more importantly, has become a Boston institution, emerging as the most beloved Red Sock since Carl Yastrzemski. Three World Series rings don’t hurt, either.

There are few major milestones for Ortiz to approach in his final year. He stands an outside chance of making the all-time top 10 list in doubles (he needs 41 to supplant Hank Aaron at #10), but otherwise there are no newsworthy lifetime feats ahead for Big Papi.

The Detroit Tigers, who have struggled with subpar closer performance in recent years, reach agreement with Milwaukee to acquire 33-year-old Francisco Rodriguez in exchange for a minor leaguer and a player to be named later. Rodriguez has saved 82 games over the past two seasons for the Brewers and is only 14 away from becoming the sixth major leaguer with 400 in a career.

Thursday, November 19

As expected, Washington’s Bryce Harper and Toronto’s Josh Donaldson are honored as MVPs in the NL and AL, respectively. Harper is the fourth youngest recipient of the award—and the youngest ever to win it unanimously; he is also the first player in Expos/Nationals history to be named. Donaldson, in his first year with the Blue Jays and fifth overall, wins a tighter outcome over Mike Trout—who finishes runner-up for the third time in four seasons.

Here’s an easy prediction for 2016: Harper will not be named the most overrated major leaguer by his peers for a third straight year when ESPN releases its annual player poll next spring.

In a sign that frustrated mlb.tv users will show less frowns next year, MLB has come to an agreement with 15 regional sports networks owned by Fox to allow in-market viewing of games. The other regional networks, represented by other cable outfits such as Comcast, are still negotiating with MLB to do the same.

Friday, November 20

Even after the MVP, baseball isn’t done with its annual postseason awards. The Esurance MLB Awards, which you’ve probably never heard of unless you have the At Bat app or watch the MLB Network regularly, is a collection of honors ranging from the best player (Bryce Harper) to the best social media post (comedian and Mets fan Jerry Seinfeld’s Twitter note of “A Cespedis [sic] for the rest of us”). Also among the 22 topics honored are Best Fan Catch (going to a Cubs fan you caught a foul ball with a loaded beverage cup and then proceeded to drink from it), Best Player-Fan Interaction (Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen giving away his batting gloves to a young fan) and Best Celebrity Fan (Will Farrell).

Saturday, November 21

Boston’s Fenway Park hosts its first football game since 1968 when Boston College hosts Notre Dame (wearing a horrible all-lime green uniform resembling anything from the Riddler to gummy worms) in a college gridiron affair won by the Fighting Irish, 19-16. The field is set up with one end zone near right field and the other by the third base dugout; because there’s so little room on the sideline nearest the first-base seats, both teams must camp out on the far roomier aside near the Green Monster in left field.

Ken Johnson, the only pitcher ever to throw a nine-inning no-hitter and lose (others have lost eight-inning no-nos or left after nine or more innings with the game tied), passes away at the age of 82. The Florida-born righthander was 91-106 over a 13-year career, playing for seven different teams—including three years as an original member of the Houston Colt .45s (now Astros), for whom he threw his unlucky gem in 1964 against the Reds. In the ninth inning of a 0-0 game, Johnson committed an error that allowed Pete Rose to reach second; moments later, Rose scored the game’s only run on another error, this one by shortstop Nellie Fox. Johnson’s best years came as a member of the Braves from 1965-67, compiling a 40-25 record.

Sunday, November 22

Sixty-eight years after bringing on Jackie Robinson, the Dodgers hire their first African-American manager…sort of. Dave Roberts, best remembered for his stolen base that ignited the Red Sox to an improbable 2003 ALCS comeback against the Yankees, replaces Don Mattingly in what will be his first managerial assignment. Roberts is half-black, half-Asian—born in Japan to an American serviceman father and Japanese mother.

Wednesday, November 25

Dodgers Outfielder Yasiel Puig gets into a scuffle with a bouncer outside of a Miami nightclub when asked to leave after getting into an argument with his sister. Both Puig and the bouncer suffer minor facial injuries in the brawl, but neither is willing to press charges against the other.

If the Dodgers are looking to get rid of Puig—who continues to frustrate the team with his lack of progress on the field and a reported lack of understanding in the clubhouse—consider this incident as more fodder for a justification.

It is reported that MLB is negotiating with the operators of London’s Olympic Stadium to host the first regular season games in Europe as early as 2017. The sentimental connection to all of this is that baseball is said to have evolved from many different games invented (or embraced) by the British, including cricket and rounders.

A London-based baseball series wouldn’t be as bad as the lengthy time it took for the Dodgers and Diamondbacks to travel to Australia when they opened the 2014 season in Sydney—but still, it’s likely that the first words out of any player’s mouth when told that his team would be among those participating abroad would be, “No thanks.”

Thursday, November 26

On this Thanksgiving Day, ESPN’s Jayson Stark has a terrific in-depth article on the toughest issues expected to be armwrestled over by MLB and the players’ union as the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires in one year.

Saturday, November 28

Mike Hessman, the closest real-life version of Bull Durham’s Crash Davis (as played by Kevin Costner) that you’ll ever see, retires from baseball at age 37. Drafted by Atlanta in 1996, Hessman would virtually spend his entire career—19 years in all—as a minor league slugger, eventually breaking by one the all-time career home run mark in the minors with 433. Hessman’s weak batting averages—he hit .233 as a minor leaguer, .188 in 109 major league appearances and .189 during a one-year stint in Japan—are the reasons he remained stuck below the big leagues for so long, in spite of his power. It is likely that Hessman will continue in baseball as a coach.

Sunday, November 29

The first big free agent signing of the offseason takes place as the Detroit Tigers net pitcher Jordan Zimmermann for five years and $110 million. The ex-Nationals right-hander will now be one of three players the Tigers will be paying at least $20 million a year to, along with Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander.