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MLB Notes: Baseball lifer Brad Mills pinch-hits as A.L. All-Star Manager

American League All-Star Game starter Chris Sale, left, looks on as A.L. manager Brad Mills speaks during a press conference on Monday for the All-Star game in Miami. (Ron Blum / Associated Press)
Associated Press

MIAMI – Among the most unlikely All-Stars is a former 17th-round draft pick with one career home run.

Brad Mills won’t swing a bat on Tuesday night. But he will pinch-hit.

The Cleveland Indians bench coach will manage the A.L. team as a replacement for Indians manager Terry Francona, who is recovering from a procedure last week to correct an irregular heartbeat.

“Getting this responsibility is very humbling,” Mills said. “I’m thrilled to be here, but I definitely would love to have Terry sitting here in this chair.”

If not for Francona’s health issue, Mills would have taken part in the game as a coach. Now he’s responsible for running a 32-man team and getting most of the players into the game.

He had some help with the starting lineup from Francona, who paid Mills a visit before the Indians’ game Sunday.

“When he came in the clubhouse he sat down, and the first thing he said to me is, ‘OK, who’s hitting second?’” Mills said. Both knew it was a given Jose Altuve of the Astros would lead off. Jose Ramirez of the Indians will bat second.

Despite contrasting personalities, Francona and Mills have been close since they were college teammates at Arizona in the 1970s. Mills serves as the straight man while Francona delivers punchlines.

Together they could perform “Who’s on First?”

“Brad’s the anti-Tito,” Indians All-Star reliever Andrew Miller said. “To watch them work together and see how different they are, and yet how much they do like each other, it’s pretty special. I don’t know if they could be more different.”

Francona and Mills hardly look at each other during games, their eyes fixed on the field as they shift the defense, analyze pitches and at-bats and plan moves.

Deciding the A.L. batting order was another result of their teamwork, Mills said.

“You really couldn’t do wrong with putting them anybody anywhere in the lineup that we have,” he said. “It was more about this being a show, let these guys show what they can do. Up and down the lineup we can shuffle it, put anybody in there.”

Mills will be assisted by the rest of the Cleveland staff and by Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash, who previously worked for the Indians. Francona and the staff earned the opportunity to lead the A.L. All-Stars after guiding the Indians last year to the World Series, their first since 1997.

While the 60-year-old Mills has never before led such a star-studded lineup, he’s a baseball lifer.

“This was definitely thrust on him,” Miller said, “but the recognition and spotlight are very well deserved.”

Mills broke into the majors as a third baseman with Montreal in 1980 and was finished by 1983, after 106 games. He began coaching in 1987 and in 1997 joined the Philadelphia Phillies, where Francona was a rookie manager.

They were also together in Boston, where Mills helped Francona manage the Red Sox to the World Series championship in 2004, ending the team’s 86-year title drought. Mills was still coaching for Francona when the Red Sox won the championship again in 2007.

Mills managed the Houston Astros for 2 1/2 seasons beginning in 2010 but was fired after going 171-274 (.384). When Francona was hired to manage the Indians in 2013, Mills rejoined him.

“Millsy and Tito are pretty much joined at the hip,” Indians All-Star right-hander Corey Kluber said. “It might be Brad Mills managing the team, but it’s not going to be that much different than if it was Tito.”

All-Stars remember late Marlins’ ace Jose Fernandez

Clayton Kershaw stood in the N.L. clubhouse before Tuesday’s All-Star Game across from Jose Fernandez’s locker, which serves as memorial to the Miami Marlins’ dynamic right-hander.

“It’s sad for sure to see that,” said Kershaw, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ ace. “Obviously he meant a lot to everybody, because his locker is still here. You reflect for sure.”

Fernandez was a two-time All-Star before he died at 24 in a boat crash last September. Among his unfulfilled goals was to start in Tuesday’s game at his home ballpark.

It would have happened if not for the accident, Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria said. “His last five starts would probably have been one-hitters, so he would have forced the issue,” Loria said. “He is on my mind every day, every single day. It’s something that doesn’t disappear for me, unfortunately. No doubt he would have been an All-Star. He would have found a way to be the starter.”

Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton agreed.

“His No. 1 thing to that point, besides winning Cy Young, was to start this game,” Stanton said.

Fernandez was the “probable” operator of the speeding boat that crashed into a jetty last Sept. 25, killing him and two other men, an investigation determined. It listed drugs and alcohol as factors in the crash.

Manfred: MLB open to more aggressively managing change

With home runs, strikeouts and game time at record levels, Commissioner Rob Manfred says baseball is open to making changes in how the game is played on the field.

Speaking Tuesday to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, Manfred says there is a “dramatically increased tolerance for strikeouts by offensive players.” He adds that there’s “much, much more emphasis on the home run as the principal offensive tool in the game. There’s a dramatic increase in the use of relief pitchers.”

MLB proposed several initiatives last offseason, including a 20-second pitch clock, limits on mound visits by catchers and raising the bottom of the strike zone. The only change was to allow intentional walks to be signaled without throwing pitches.

Manfred says: “I’m certainly open to the idea that we should take a more aggressive posture.”

MLB has the right to unilaterally impose for 2018 the proposals made last offseason that were not accepted. Union head Tony Clark says “our guys are engaged in the dialogue.”