Spare Parts: Guardians interview Craig Counsell

While the White Sox are still making incremental additions to Pedro Grifol's pitching staff -- bullpen coach Matt Wise is the latest addition -- the Cleveland Guardians have to hire a replacement for Terry Francona, and they're aiming high by interviewing Craig Counsell.

Counsell met with Cleveland on Monday, and he's also going to interview with the Mets, who are now run by his former Milwaukee boss David Stearns. Throw in the depth of their pockets, and they're a logical front-runner. That assumes that Counsell is truly looking for something else besides Milwaukee, and not just using the other clubs for leverage.

The Athletic story linked above includes sources saying that Counsell wants to use this opportunity to raise the floor for managerial salaries. That doesn't figure to help Cleveland, but it might not hurt chances much, either. For all of Francona's success in Cleveland, there never seemed to be any legitimate rumors about him looking elsewhere, so the Guardians probably compensate managers accordingly. After all, the right fit can save a team a helluva lot of money.

For the time being, the rumor creates flashbacks of the Guardians hiring Francona out of temporary retirement a year after the White Sox hired Robin Ventura. Sticking with Pedro Grifol while a division rival gets somebody who's been perennial Manager of the Year material would be the kind of Jerry Reinsdorf history that's stuck on repeat.

Spare Parts

• How the Texas Rangers' improved defense helped propel them to the World Series -- The Athletic

Watching the Rangers throughout October, this feature jumped out to me -- they somehow stacked the lineup with hitters without requiring defensive sacrifices from any position. Contrast that with the White Sox, who can't get away from putting Gavin Sheets in right field, even though Sheets isn't even that good of a hitter.

• The late-blooming slugger having the best October ever -- Wall Street Journal

The headline reads a little tragic now since he departed Game 3 of the World Series with an oblique injury, but Adolís García's continuous development in his late-20s is a marvel to behold. His timeline was destined to be different since he defected from Cuba just in time for the Cardinals to sign him at age 24, but it's amazing that the Cardinals somehow dumped him and Randy Arozarena for nothing, only for the two to turn into big-moment players.

• Diamondbacks look to former Cardinals coach, his four decades by first for signs of success -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When the White Sox re-hired Tony La Russa after the 2020 season, I remember coming across a quote from La Russa saying that he'd need Dave Duncan and Dave McKay by his side if he returned to managing. "Like I always said, I wasn't good enough of a manager to do it without them," he said.

Duncan stayed retired, and McKay stayed as the first-base coach of the Diamondbacks, instead recommending Jerry Narron to join La Russa's staff. I wonder if whether McKay knew it wasn't going to be a good idea.

• Leaving it all on the field -- Baseball Prospectus

Max Scherzer also didn't make it out of Game 3, succumbing to a back spasm after working hard to return from a teres major muscle tear. Clayton Kershaw got rocked, and Justin Verlander hit a wall. The question is whether any subsequent wave of starting pitching will be capable of inheriting the Earth, or whether the diminished workload in favor of relievers will always be the superior option in the max-effort era. Or whether the max-effort era will just simply be the way of doing things.

• Contract Crowdsourcing 2023-24: Ballot 1 of 11 -- FanGraphs

For those wondering where the crowdsourced contract values are for help in formulating Offseason Plan Project payrolls, they're coming.

• Frank Howard, towering slugger whose homers were, too, dies at 87 -- The New York Times

Speaking of the ways eras change, the New York Times' obituary for Washington Senators slugger Frank Howard laments that his career batting average was "only .273." One of the most colorful accounts of his career -- or a slice of his career -- can be found in Hawk Harrelson's first autobiography, which included an entire chapter about Howard, probably in order to meet a page count.

As for Harrelson's reaction, Daryl Van Schouwen got it: