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Our front-office survey has arrived to tell us which teams are smarter than the others. Plus Ken has a note on Albert Suárez, and I look at two teams dominating one side of the game. OH, and the Giants’ bullpen catcher is OK. Phew! I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!
Ranking the top MLB front offices
It’s one thing for fans — or even journalists who cover the sport for a living — to speak on how MLB front offices are performing. Good analysis exists (and thank you for reading). But it’s always a little more significant to hear an assessment from those who know the ins and outs of the job intimately.
That’s what we have today: a survey of 40 front office executives who were asked to rank the top five front offices in the sport. Points were assigned for first through fifth place votes, and when it was all tallied up, it’s probably no surprise that there was a clear No. 1.
Nearly half (19) of the first-place votes went to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have flourished under the supervision of former Rays wunderkind Andrew Friedman. As the story points out, there has been a ton of turnover since Friedman took over in the fall of 2014. But the Dodgers have never missed the postseason under his watch.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the team Friedman left behind finished a close second place, just 26 points behind the Dodgers. The contrast is fascinating, with the Dodgers operating as a financial behemoth, and the Rays having to make do in one of the league’s smallest markets. It really highlights how the voting had very little to do with the resources available, and more to do with how the front offices use what they have.
All in all, six teams — the Dodgers, Rays, Braves, Guardians, Orioles and Diamondbacks — received at least one first-place vote, and 16 teams received at least one fifth-place vote to make the board. It’s a great read, with some insightful quotes, supplemented by analysis from our team of MLB writers.Now here’s Ken with more about a player whose remarkable journey we told you about last week. Ken, over to you.
Ken’s Notebook: Marveling at Betts’ shortstop transformation
From my story today on the Baltimore Orioles’ latest find, right-hander Albert Suárez, who has pitched 11 1/3 scoreless innings after signing as a minor-league free agent last September:
Suárez, 34, often was injured during his three seasons in Japan, but pitched well as a starter during his two seasons in Korea. The Orioles continued to monitor him. Mike Snyder, their director of pro scouting, wanted to sign him in the fall of 2022. But Suárez returned to the Samsung Lions with a seven-figure guarantee — a better opportunity than any major-league team was willing to give him.
What changed last year?
Suárez suffered a left calf injury in early August. The Lions, facing a Korea Baseball Organization cap on the number of foreign players they could carry, released him to replace him with another import, Taylor Widener. Snyder, seeing an opportunity that had not existed previously, contacted Suárez’s agent, Peter Greenberg.
“He’d been trying to get Albert for maybe the last three years. But the market in Asia moves very quickly,” Greenberg said. “He would always come to me early in the offseason here, but Albert would already have signed back in Japan or Korea. (Last year), though, he came to me and said, ‘I’m not going to be late this time. I want to try to sign Albert.’”
Snyder’s timing finally was right. The Lions wanted Suárez back, Greenberg said, but at a reduced salary in the $700,000-$800,000 range. Suárez was tired of being away. He is married with three children, ages 11, 8 and 4. The family lives in Katy, Texas. He had made decent money in Asia. He was ready to return full-time to the U.S.
The Orioles under general manager Mike Elias generally are selective in signing minor-league free agents. They don’t like releasing such players in spring training, and prefer their draftees to get the bulk of playing time in the minors. Elias, though, said he entrusts Snyder and his pro scouting group to handle minor-league deals for pitchers. Special assignment scout Will Robertson and pro scouting analyst Ben MacLean, in particular, vouched for Suárez, Snyder said.
“We are always conscious of the difficulty of finding starting pitching. And we saw flashes with him over the years,” Snyder said.
“We sold him on an opportunity in spring training, that we would give him some rope. We didn’t promise he was going to make the rotation. We didn’t make any promises.”
D-Backs offense, Mariners pitching shine
Two mini-storylines that have been developing of late continued to play out last night. Namely, the Seattle Mariners’ starting pitching and the Arizona Diamondbacks’ offense.
Let’s start in Arizona, where the Diamondbacks beat the St. Louis Cardinals 14-1. Fifteen hits, three home runs [yawn] you know, the usual. It’s the fourth time in just 25 games that the D-Backs have scored 12 or more runs. Last year — a year in which they went to the World Series, by the way — they only scored 12 runs or more five times out of 162.
You don’t lead the league in scoring (148 runs; Atlanta is second at 133) without a full-team effort, and the D-Backs have gotten contributions up and down the lineup. But Ketel Marte has stood out as the ringleader; he’s hitting .324 (.925 OPS) and his 23 runs rank second in baseball behind Mookie Betts (24).
Meanwhile, the Mariners rotation is beginning to live up to — and exceed — high expectations. Starter Logan Gilbert held the Rangers scoreless through 6 1/3 innings last night. That’s significant because it was the 11th straight game in which a Mariners starter has gone at least five innings and allowed two or fewer earned runs, a franchise record.
The bullpen has done its job, too. In those 11 games, while starters have allowed a total of 13 runs in 69 innings, relievers have followed with just six runs allowed in 31 innings.
The quintet of Gilbert, Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Bryce Miller and Emerson Hancock — filling in for Bryan Woo, who should be back soon — were supposed to be good. After a bumpy start, they’ve been better than good — they’ve been great.
In those 11 games, the Mariners are 8-3; with last night’s 4-0 win over Texas, they’ve overtaken the Rangers for first place in the AL West.
Fun day at work for Giants’ bullpen catcher
Maybe you saw the clip on social media: The Giants had a new in-stadium presentation for the introduction of closer Camilo Doval. The new LED lights blacked out, Doval’s name shone on the big screen, and with orange lights washing over the stadium, a giant spotlight followed the 26-year-old Dominican as he trotted out of the bullpen toward the Oracle Park mound.
One problem: As the presentation began, Doval was in the middle of throwing his final warmup pitch. When it left his hand, the lights were as bright as ever. Milliseconds later, as the pitch sailed in the general direction of bullpen catcher Alex Burg — blackout.
Don’t worry: Burg is OK. He somehow managed to catch the pitch. Andrew Baggarly caught up with Burg, and uncovered this coincidental bit of info from the former catcher’s minor-league days:
He said his time with the Rangers included occlusion training, which involved turning off the lights mid-pitch against machines in the cage. But nothing prepared him for catching one of those pitches — especially from a right-hander, Doval, who has been clocked as high as 103 mph.
All’s well that ends well. Apologies were made, as were assurances that this wouldn’t happen again. Burg even received a gift from the Giants’ senior director of live experience and entertainment: a 300-lumen headlamp.
Handshakes and High Fives
Seattle isn’t the only rotation that has been very good lately. Hear about the Phillies’ hot stretch from catcher J.T. Realmuto.
I’ve always been fascinated by Adam Ottavino’s approach, and holy cow, this conversation about pitch selection between the Mets reliever and Tim Britton is incredibly nerdy in the very best way.
If you’re looking for a new underdog ahead of the next World Baseball Classic, C. Trent Rosecrans has an excellent introduction to Team Poland.
Eno Sarris’ “Caught Looking” column is back! He gives us some shorter mini-stories from conversations with Lars Nootbaar of the Cardinals, Lane Thomas of the Nats and others.
Gleyber Torres’ walk year in the Bronx isn’t going great, but he says free agency isn’t on his mind.
Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez underwent surgery to repair his injured thumb, and the surgery included an internal brace. He’s expected to miss around eight weeks.
Kyle Hendricks is on the IL. Cubs manager Craig Counsell says this isn’t the end between the team and their longest-tenured player.
The Guardians are currently baseball’s best team. Zack Meisel digs into some numbers to try to explain.
Another week, another Red Sox injury. This time it’s Triston Casas, who has a rib fracture.
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(Top photo of Andrew Friedman and Shohei Ohtani: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)
