If you were worried about another offseason getting swallowed up by saber-rattling and fearmongering between Major League Baseball and its players association, you're in luck: Investigations and minor league contraction have instead moved to the forefront.
There's probably a corollary that the more a sport's commissioner has to speak, the less fun it's having. Sure enough, the league finds itself in the middle of a couple controversies, only one of which is of their own doing, but both of which they're responsible for concluding.
The former is the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal. It's not getting any better for the club, as former Baseball Prospectus writer and podcaster turned Houston scouting director Kevin Goldstein is the latest individual implicated:
A high-ranking Houston Astros official asked scouts to spy on opponents' dugouts leading up to the 2017 postseason, hoping to steal signs and suggesting the potential use of cameras to do so, sources familiar with the request told ESPN.
The reaction among those who received an email from Kevin Goldstein, a special assistant to Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, was mixed, sources told ESPN. Some were intrigued by the idea, sources who received the email said, while others were bothered by the thought of pointing cameras from the stands toward opposing teams' dugouts, a plan that could have earned them scorn within the scouting community if caught.
There are two questions from here: What kind of punishment the Astros deserve, and whether any other teams were following similar practices. Manfred indeed seems willing to drop the hammer on Houston, but he doesn't seem as willing to pursue rumors about other teams. The idea may be to use the Astros case as a cautionary tale to the rest of the league, which strikes me as a dubious theory, considering Ken Rosenthal said the Astros didn't take the hint from the league's warning shots against the Red Sox and Yankees.
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If that's not enough fun for you, MLB's plan to eliminate 42 teams and reduce systems to four full-season affiliates and a complex rookie-level team is meeting opposition from Congress. More than 100 of its members signed a letter expressing "firm opposition" to the plan.
Since we first talked about MLB's idea for reorganizing Minor League Baseball, the New York Times reported the full list of the teams on the chopping block. As expected, the Great Falls Voyagers are the only White Sox affiliate in jeopardy. (My local Tri-City ValleyCats are not.)
There's probably some need to reshuffle the deck in order to have a league that more properly lines up with population shifts, especially if some clubs and facilities have degraded enough that it's not a productive place to develop ballplayers. The idea of leaving pockets of the country without affiliated baseball leaves a lot of people cold, however, especially since there isn't a particularly pressing reason. The league stepped in this one itself.
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Today is the deadline for clubs to protect players from the Rule 5 draft, but the White Sox' bubble isn't all that compelling. For one, they have seven open spots on the 40-man roster with more ways to cut, so they can be generous with additions if they so choose.
But also, generosity may not be needed. I sized up the pool back in late August, and I'm pretty much in the same place.
- Locks: Dane Dunning
- Likely: Jimmy Lambert, Zack Burdi
- Notable omissions: Blake Rutherford, Yermin Mercedes, Bernardo Flores, Alec Hansen
Dunning and Lambert have started throwing as they return from Tommy John surgeries, and if they can resume their trajectories, they could play a part in Chicago by the end of the season. The same can be said for Burdi and his knee surgery, and more so because he's a reliever. He'd be susceptible to Rule 5 draft selection, as he could be stashed in the minors for legit rehab and pretend rehab for part of the season, and used every third day in mop-up time for the rest.
As for the others, Rutherford doesn't have the kind of carrying tool that teams can use off the bench over the course of a season. Flores is the pitching equivalent of that argument, and Hansen is just broken all over.
Mercedes is the exception to the discussion, as he's proven what he can in Charlotte and offers power that teams could use as the rationale for selection. However, if the White Sox wanted to add him to the 40-man, they had every opportunity to do so in September and declined, and I don't know what would change their minds now.
