MLB Trade Rumors and News: MLB offseason begins with Mike Matheny being hired as the Royals’ new manager

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• We have now reached the darkest point of the year as we are going to be without baseball for several months. Fear not: we will get through this together. To get the hot stove season started, the Royals announced that former Cardinals manager Mike Matheny got the job as the Royals’ new manager which is pretty much a peak Royals personnel move.
• The Nationals emerged victorious in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series to capture the title. After years of being among preseason favorites to win the whole thing, the Nationals broke through this year. The details for the celebratory parade were also announced as it will begin at 2 pm on Saturday in DC.
• Trea Turner got called out on an extremely questionable play at first base — one that Nationals fans may have complained about until the end of time if Houston had won. Luckily for them, the call ended up being a non-factor as Anthony Rendon’s homer gave Washington a three-run lead.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates have been busy at the start of this offseason. No....no, not with signing players or even being connected to other teams in trades. Instead, they have been doing a full teardown of their leadership structure. They had already fired their team president as well as manager Clint Hurdle, but apparently both of those moves were not enough to save GM Neal Huntington’s job as he was let go Monday as well.
• The Boston Red Sox have hired Chaim Bloom as their new head of baseball operations, leaving him with large shoes to fill as he replaces Dave Dombrowski. The 36-year old has a very impressive career already, starting out as a humble Baseball Prospectus columnist to skyrocketing up the leadership chain for the Tampa Bay Rays. A Yale alumni just like fellow young-baseball-exec-phenom Theo Epstein, Bloom is highly regarded by everyone in the baseball world, a feat that should not be brushed aside. Jeff Passan of ESPN reports that a former co-worker of Bloom’s described him as so: “For a guy as smart and accomplished as he is, I think he gives everyone a feeling that he’s approachable and wants to engage.” It’ll be interesting to see what moves he’ll make right off the bat and how the offseason may go for the Red Sox with a new captain steering this ship.
• The Phillies have decided to move in a VERY different direction than former manager Gabe Kapler as they announced the hiring of Joe Girardi for their managerial vacancy. Girardi is very much an old-school kind of guy, but he has some experience working with a level analytics department from when he was with the Yankees and will hopefully bring some leadership and stability to a team that was a pretty big disappointment in 2019.
• Tommy John surgery has historically been reserved for major-league pitchers and washed up Division III sidearmers who injure themselves trying to show off in a company softball game. But in recent years we’ve seen an uptick in non-pitching position players go under the knife for UCL injuries. SB Nation’s Ginny Searle looks into this phenomenon and if there’s anything players or athletic trainers can do to stop it.
• The Padres also filled their open manager position last week. After narrowing their search to Braves third base coach Ron Washington and Rangers coach/executive Jayce Tingler, Tingler ultimately won the job and became the youngest manager in the majors in the process.
• The Astros’ mishandling and mistreating of the media over the last couple of months has been performance art. First, we had the Astros preventing a credentialed member of the media from entering the locker room because Justin Verlander didn’t like him. Now, in a much more serious indiscretion, Astros assistant GM Brandon Taubman was heard shouting profane praise of Roberto Osuna at some female members of the media presumably due to the criticism the team received for acquiring the accused perpetrator of domestic violence. Once this was reported, the team immediately discredited the reporter and denied that this ever happened. Well, turns out they eventually decided to change course, firing Taubman late last week.
• The Gold Glove finalists were announced by Rawlings last week. Our own Andersen Pickard ran down the finalists and gave us a look at who should be the favorites for each award.
• The Cubs’ managerial search ended very quickly as they hired David Ross to be their next manager. The Cubs and Ross had been connected even before the team and Joe Maddon parted ways. Now, the team hopefully has a manager that will bring a bit of tough love to a team that looks like a shell of its former self.
• How much better is the pitching in the postseason? I mean, it’s pretty hard to get any better than what some of these guys were doing all year but hey, let them try.
• As soon as the World Series ends, our collective attention will turn towards free agency and who will be where and for how much. Qualifying offers, which attach draft pick compensation to the players who receive them, had a huge impact on the goings on last offseason (see: Kimbrel, Craig and Keuchel, Dallas). As a result, we put together a quick preview of the top 10 players that could/should get qualifying offers this offseason.
• As we creep closer to the offseason, teams are beginning to open up spots on their 40-man roster. Don’t get caught going, “Wait, what happened to that guy?”, and follow our MLB outright assignment tracker here.
• While several teams have been being methodical with their searches for new managers, the Angels and Joe Maddon seemed to be a match from the beginning and had been linked to each other basically since the job became available. Well, things recently became official as Maddon was named the Angels’ manager for the next three seasons.
• There are several managerial openings and it is doubtful that we have seen all of the movement that we are going to see. Our own Andersen Pickard took a look at the currently available (or at least likely available) managerial candidates as well as gave some potential fits for each one.
• The Marlins, coming off back-to-back seasons where they have finished dead last in the NL East, decided to give manager Don Mattingly a two-year contract extension. Some may be puzzled by this move given the Marlins’ lack of success, but it worth noting that the Marlins aren’t going to be winning much of anything over the next two years, which puts less onus on getting the right guy in there at the moment.