MLB trade rumors and news: Giants hire Gabe Kapler as manager

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• The Giants subjected themselves to a good old-fashioned Twitter ratio-ing on Tuesday night, hiring Gabe Kapler as Bruce Bochy’s successor following a pair of uninspiring seasons in Philadelphia and a concerning series of off-the-field incidents. It’s hard to imagine that the widespread criticism of the hire is going to go away at any point this offseason, so he’ll just have to change minds by leading the team to on-field success.
• The Cardinals made a rather unsurprising move, re-signing starter Adam Wainwright to a one-year deal on Tuesday. The new contract, which will allow Wainwright to spend a 16th season wearing the Birds on the Bat, pays Wainwright a $5 million base salary with $5 million in incentives based on games started.
• Contrary to last offseason, when he had to sign a one-year prove-it deal with the Braves, Josh Donaldson has quite a few interested suitors on the free-agent market this winter.
• A pair of managers who helped change their clubs’ culture were rewarded on Tuesday, as first-year Twins skipper Rocco Baldelli won AL Manager of the Year after leading his team to an AL Central title, while the Cardinals’ Mike Shildt — in his first full season as bench boss after replacing Mike Matheny on an interim basis midway through 2018 — won NL Manager of the Year after leading St. Louis to its first division title since 2015.
• While this class of rookies is quite good, it wasn’t really a surprise to see Yordan Alvarez and Pete Alonso take home the AL and NL Rookie of the Year Awards, respectively. Alvarez was selected unanimously while Alonso got all but one first place vote, which went to Atlanta rookie pitcher Mike Soroka.
• The Giants have hired Scott Harris as their new general manager. The former assistant general manager for the Cubs will now be the Robin to what was for the past year Farhan Zaidi’s solo Batman show in San Francisco’s baseball operations Gotham. Harris is now the youngest person with the title of general manager in Major League Baseball.
• The Silver Slugger Awards came out last Thursday, and while there was a certain amount of weirdness (Ketel Marte KIND OF got robbed of the second base award because he is too versatile), many of the awards were straightforward as guys like Mike Trout, Ronald Acuna Jr., Alex Bregman, and Cody Bellinger took home awards. The Braves were the big winners on the evening, as they had three winners to lead the league for the 2019 season.
• After snapping a three-year playoff drought and reaching the NLCS, the Cardinals rewarded their key leadership figures by handing out contract extensions all around last Tuesday, re-upping with president of baseball operations John Mozeliak through 2023 and general manager Michael Girsch and manager Mike Shildt through 2022.
• Major League Baseball Players Association Exective Director Tony Clark is taking another big step in breaking up all the collusion currently plaguing MLB. Clark is working to squelch the offseason strategy sharing between MLB teams that is meant to suppress the market and even in certain cases, refusing to offer contracts to big name players in order to bring down their value.
• Excited (or nervous) to find out where your favorite free agent is going to end up this offseason? Our Andersen Pickard made his best guess, predicting landing spots and contract values for each of MLB Trade Rumors’ top 50 free agents.
• Last week was the deadline for teams to extend qualifying offers to players if they so chose in order to get draft pick compensation if those players decided to go elsewhere. When the dust settled, ten different players received QOs including a few players that were a bit of a surprise. Everyone knew that guys like Gerrit Cole and Josh Donaldson were going to get offered, but the Giants in particular offered to Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith and it seems very possible that those guys will just say yes, get paid in 2020, and then hit free agency without any restrictions.
• Stephen Strasburg and Gerrit Cole have a substantial amount of leverage for contracts as the Winter Meetings approach. Could either of them sign record breaking contracts?
• J.D. Martinez was one of the tougher guys to pin down as to whether or not he was going to exercise his opt-out clause following the 2019 season. He was one of the better hitters in the American League yet again, but free agency did not treat him as well as he would have liked his last go-around. Ultimately, he decided to stay with the Red Sox for the 2020 season with the knowledge that he can opt out after next season if he feels the need.
• 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 officially get the hot stove season started, the Royals announced that former Cardinals skipper Mike Matheny got the job as their new manager.
• After bringing home a World Series title, Stephen Strasburg has opted out of the last four years of his contract with the Nationals. The World Series MVP will instead test his value on the free agent market, which in complete honestly will probably offer him more than the $100M over 4 years he had left with the Nationals. And that’s without mentioning all this deferred payment nonsense.
• The Yankees and Aroldis Chapman have agreed on a contract extension through 2022. This extra year includes $18M on top of the $30M he was set to earn in the two years remaining on his five-year, $86M deal. Which will come first, the end of the contract or Chapman’s arm falling off from sheer torque? Stay tuned, kiddos.
• 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 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 from their 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 Mets have hired Carlos Beltrán as their next manager. This isn’t the first time Beltrán has been considered managerial material by a New York team, as he interviewed with the Yankees in 2017 before ultimately being passed over for Aaron Boone. The look is a good one for the Mets. While Mickey Callaway did a lot of things wrong, perhaps the most jarring and damaging was the environment he created in the clubhouse. Beltrán is not only well liked and respected throughout all of Major League Baseball, but has already proven he’ll create a much more welcoming atmosphere than the previous skipper.
• Contrary to popular belief and all the rumors you’ve been hearing: The Red Sox can keep both J.D. Martinez and Mookie Betts on their payroll. And with Chaim Bloom at the helm, that reality might not be as far fetched as most may think.
• The Padres also filled their open manager position. 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 NL in the process.
• Our friends at Beyond the Box Score put it best right here: We are all Deadspin now. We stand in solidarity with independent and just journalism that cannot be bought or silenced and commend the writers who fought so strongly to uphold those principles.
• 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.