MLB Notes: Steinbrenner backs Girardi, blames players for slow start
Hal Steinbrenner had just started his quarterly State of the Yankees session when he asked to switch places with reporters and stood near the side of the lobby at Major League Baseball’s headquarters.
“This feels better,” the New York owner said with his back to the wall. “Very fitting.”
A minute later, a security guard asked Steinbrenner and the media to step outside.
That’s what happens when your team is last in the AL East at 16-22.
Steinbrenner backed manager Joe Girardi, his coaching staff and general manager Brian Cashman on Wednesday and blamed players for the team’s poor start, which bottomed at 9-17. Mark Teixeira, Chase Headley, Michael Pineda and Luis Severino were singled out for criticism, and Steinbrenner also praised Headley, Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks along with Girardi, Cashman and pitching coach Larry Rothschild.
“The coaches are doing a good job,” Steinbrenner said. “These are professional athletes. They’re the best baseball players in the world, and sooner or later it comes down to them, on the inside, to push through whatever it is they’re going through and to persevere.”
Far less tempestuous than father George Steinbrenner, who goaded the team from his purchase in 1973 until nearly the time of his death in 2010, Hal discussed the Yankees analytically – but with hope.
“Needless to say, the first five weeks were disappointing, frustrating, particularly looking at the offense,” he said. “Clearly not living up to their potential.”
Teixeira, a three-time All-Star first baseman, started the day with a .211 average and 11 RBIs. Headley didn’t have an extra-base hit until May 12. After going 5-3 with a 2.89 ERA as a rookie, Severino is 0-6 with a 7.46 ERA and is on the disabled list with a triceps injury. Pineda is 1-5 with a 6.60 ERA – 102nd among 104 qualifying pitchers in the major leagues.
Steinbrenner’s comments:
– “When you look at a guy like Mark Teixeira, clearly he’s not playing to his potential with the bat.”
– “Chase Headley, same thing. Now you’re starting to see him hit, see him more relaxed. He’s making harder contact. That has to continue.”
– “Pineda is concerning – all these strikeouts and yet he’s given up these runs. Clearly he’s giving up runs early. Clearly there’s been issues with his slider. Again, Larry can only do so much. Whatever technically is wrong with the delivery, Larry’s going to work on, but the rest is up to Pineda to figure out. He’s a professional and that’s what we expect from him and that’s what his teammates expect from him.”
– “We all know Severino has good stuff. I’m not worried about his stuff. We saw that the last two months of last year. We’ll see about the injury and how much that played into his performance the last few outings. I also think there was a confidence issue at some point. He is a rookie. This is his first downturn, if you will. … Every player is going to have to learn how to push through that downturn the first time and get through it. And he will.”
“I don’t think it’s a flaw in the way the team is put together,” Steinbrenner said. “I think the team we have this year is better than the team we had last year.”
Speaking in Phoenix before the Yankees played Arizona, Girardi understood Steinbrenner’s sentiment.
“If I was the owner, I’d be frustrated, too,” the manager said.
Now 46 and his hair starting to gray near the temples, Steinbrenner put off questions about what he would do if the Yankees are far from contention as the Aug. 1 deadline approaches for trades without waivers. After missing the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time in two decades, New York returned last October only to lose to Houston in the AL wild-card game.
For their first 22 home games, the Yankees averaged 38,587 fans, on track to surpass last year’s average of 39,992 given the larger crowds that usually show up when school is out.
“Season tickets are slightly up, which is the first time in four or five years that that’s been the case,” Steinbrenner said. “I don’t know if it’s making the playoffs one game or not. I don’t know if it’s some of the young players, Hicks, Castro, (Aroldis) Chapman, some of the guys we brought on. I don’t know. But the fans have been excited.”
He talked about the need for the Yankees to always have veteran stars, even as they add younger players. He looked ahead to prospects such as first baseman Greg Bird and pitcher James Kaprielian, who are both hurt, and shortstop Jorge Mateo. He said another run of consecutive World Series titles may be more difficult with the parity caused by revenue sharing and the luxury tax, but he thinks it still is possible.
“Sooner or later it comes down to” – he stopped, and tapped a hand over his heart three times.
New York won six World Series titles while George Steinbrenner was in charge. Hal, whose only title since taking over came in 2009, knows the standard dad set.
“If my name wasn’t Steinbrenner, I wouldn’t be here,” he said. :I don’t look at this as something I deserve. I’ve been given this. It’s a gift. I respect it, and I enjoy it.”
Gonzalez laughs off firing
Fredi Gonzalez brought two bottles of wine and knocked on the hotel room door of Atlanta general manager John Coppolella for a late-night bull session. Gonzalez also brought his personal spoiler alert – that he knew he was out as manager of the Braves and had found out not by pink slip, but an automatically generated email.
Gonzalez received an email Monday that had been sent from the team’s travel agency that informed him his flight for the next day had been booked from Pittsburgh to Atlanta. Whoops. The Braves were scheduled to play in Pittsburgh through Thursday night.
Gonzalez confirmed the expected news – and embarrassing logistic gaffe – with Atlanta’s traveling secretary then went to talk with Coppolella. They ordered some pizza and dissected for the final time together the misery of this season’s Braves.
“We sat and talked it through,” Gonzalez said. “There was no animosity.”
Braves President John Hart called in and told Gonzalez he planned to make the move when he flew to Pittsburgh on Tuesday for the rest of the road trip.
“I said, ‘John, you don’t have to come up and fire me,’” Gonzalez said. “It was unfortunate but it was also good.”
Gonzalez could have used a few more bottles to try and forget a team that forged the worst record in baseball and has a bleak immediate future. But even at his Pennsylvania home, Gonzalez could not entirely disconnect from the Braves – his MLB At Bat app notified him Tuesday that his former team trailed Pittsburgh 9-0 in the second inning. Gonzalez had to excuse himself from his family and move to another room and collect his thoughts.
“It’s still my team. I feel like I should have been there,” he said.
Gonzalez was professional and gracious toward the Braves on Wednesday in a lunch with The Associated Press just a few blocks away from Villanova’s campus. Gonzalez is engaged to a woman in the Philadelphia suburb of Malvern and plans to make the area his home.
He doesn’t have a home anymore in Atlanta. Gonzalez had a lease on a townhouse that expired June 30 and he had just given his 45-day notice that he would renew for another year.
“Two days later, I get whacked,” he said, laughing. “I call (the realtor) and he says, `I know what you’re calling me for.“’
Out of work, out of Atlanta, just not out of hope that he still has a future in baseball.
Gonzalez’s career managerial record in stints with the Marlins and Braves was once 65 games over .500 before it faded to just 18 games (710-692) when he was fired.
“It was tough when you see those actual numbers,” Gonzalez said. “It was one of those things where you go, `wow.“’
He doesn’t want to sit out next season and would like to coach (”it’s not manage or bust”), pretty much ruled out a TV gig and seemed most intrigued by a front office job.
Even as the losses mounted, Gonzalez was publicly in good humor, sometimes cracking jokes and tried to make light of his arduous situation. But the losing took a toll, and stress manifested in a quick temper and arguments with umpires and the front office.
“I started to feel myself get really short with people,” he said. “That’s not my style. I felt my temper would flare at certain things. I’d lash out. I think it would continue to get worse and worse and worse.”
Gonzalez said a recent blowup with a member of Atlanta’s executive team had gnawed at him.
“I got into a thing that, after the fact, I knew I shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “The circumstances have been building up.”
Coming off a 95-loss season, their worst in a quarter-century, the Braves realized they were likely to endure another difficult year while slogging through a major rebuilding job. They had major busts in the free-agent market, flopped in the draft and failed to pursue top international stars.
“A word that never, ever came out of their mouth was tanking,” he said.
The once-powerhouse franchise is clearly aiming toward a return to contention in 2017, when the Braves move into their new suburban home, SunTrust Park.
The Braves entered Wednesday just 9-29 and on pace for the franchise’s worst season in nearly 30 years, done in by injuries, roster moves that haven’t worked out, a shaky bullpen and a struggling offense. No one expected Atlanta to bottom out so quickly and so completely.
“We’re still a long ways away,” Gonzalez said. “I think the plan going into 2017 might come up a little short. I think some of our players may not have been as ready as we wanted them to be. Pitching, I think we’ll be OK. Positionally, I think some of our young players are maybe a whole other year away from being in the big leagues.”
Gonzalez went 434-413 in five-plus seasons in Atlanta, including leading the Braves to the NL East title in 2013, their 17th postseason appearance in 22 years. Yet what began as a slow slide in 2014 accelerated quickly over the last 10 months – Atlanta went 34-81 in Gonzalez’s last 115 games. He was replaced by Brian Snitker.
“Good guy. I’m rooting for him,” Gonzalez said.
Good guy. Words often used to describe Gonzalez, who was Atlanta’s third-base coach under Bobby Cox before he was hired by the Marlins.
He might go to a few games as a fan – he bought a ticket a couple of years ago on an off day in Detroit and good-naturedly trash-talked former Brave Jeff Francoeur. But instead of writing a lineup Wednesday night trying to solve Pittsburgh’s Francisco Liriano, he was running a more pressing errand:
Gonzalez had to help pick up a prom dress for his future stepdaughter.
Clearing the bases
The Reds called up right-handers Jumbo Diaz and Keyvius Sampson from Triple-A Louisville before playing against the Indians. … The Rockies are sending Jose Reyes to extended spring training with no firm plan for when he’s eligible to return June 1. Reyes has been suspended without pay under MLB’s domestic violence policy. … Catcher Geovany Soto is going on the disabled list with a torn right meniscus, giving the Angels 10 injured players. … Sam Dyson will replace closer Shawn Tolleson for a while, Rangers manager Jeff Banister said.