2016 MLB thread. THE CUBS HAVE BROKEN THE CURSE! Chicago Cubs are your 2016 World Series champions

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Yanks just gotta take a lead into the 7th :pimp: .

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Francesa sighting :lol:
 
Sign Maeda to team up with Tanaka

Ease his innings to prevent arm damage

Do it Yanks

Screw over the Dodgers 
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Or sign Kazmir 
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  to accomplish that too...

Tanaka

Kazmir

Eovaldi

Pineda

Nova

Sabathia

Tanaka

Maeda

Eovaldi

Pineda

Nova

Sabathia
 
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The hell :x please sign Upton to help our putrid offense. Yankees really trying model themselves after the Royals down to the meh starting pitching :lol:
 
Apparently if he is suspended for 46 or more days, he doesn't get to become a FA after the season.

@JackCurryYES 4h4 hours ago
According to @jonmorosi, Chapman would need to be suspended 46 or more days in 2016 to NOT be eligible for FA after the season. Stay tuned.

Players do not accrue major-league service time while serving domestic-violence suspensions. If Chapman avoids suspension or receives a minimal penalty, his new team would have him for most of 2016. If he receives a long suspension, his team could have him for ’17 as well.

Chapman, 27, will enter the season with five years, 34 days of major-league service. A full year of service time is 172 days. Thus, Chapman will need to be on an active roster or disabled list for at least 138 days this season in order to become a free agent next winter.
Click to expand...



I'm starting to think they won't trade Miller, unless a team goofs with a huge offer.

They just traded Justin Wilson & Adam Warren, who were the 2 best bullpen guys after Dellin & Miller last year.

Trading Miller now would just put them back at square 1. And wouldn't make any sense.

Could have kept Miller, 3 years left on contract. And not parted with any minor leaguers.
 
Another tidbit about the GOAT that I wanted to share: his first WS homerun

The shrug from Jarrod Washburn 
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Tanaka's arm is going to need the surgery eventually, so hopefully they can work something into a front end starter sometime soon.

How will 2016's pitchers returning from Tommy John surgery fare?

Out of context, throwing a baseball for a living is not a particularly dangerous job. There are hundreds of other occupations that provide a greater threat to health on a daily basis than standing on a pitcher's mound. In the context of the game of baseball, however, pitching is a dangerous occupation. Besides the threat of a comebacker or awkward play at first base in which the pitcher has to cover, every pitch thrown during a game is a risk. Every pitcher in baseball is dealing with damage to his elbow in varying levels of severity, and as there's no telling how healthy a given pitcher's elbow is, the one pitch that could lead to serious injury is what makes the craft, in a word, totally unpredictable.

The success rate of Tommy John surgery is now so high that many fans take it for granted when an injury does occur, even going so far as to view it as some sort of rite of passage that every young pitcher must go through. But not everyone makes it back to the mound, and those that do are more likely to need another Tommy John at some point. We also know a lot more about how pitchers come back from Tommy John surgery than we used to, and it debunks a lot of previously-held beliefs.

On average, pitchers don't gain velocity, don't improve performance compared to their pre-injury numbers, and they're more likely to go on the disabled list with an injury to their throwing arm than a pitcher that didn't have surgery. While there is some evidence that TJ surgery might allow pitchers to not suffer as much age-related depreciation as those that have their original ligament, it's clear that this is a major surgery, and not something to be taken for granted.

With that said, there are a number of All-Star-caliber pitchers who are likely to make their return in 2016 (if all goes well), and they should be included in any analysis of the ongoing offseason transactions around baseball. 2015 was a particularly difficult year in terms of the talent of pitchers requiring Tommy John surgery, as a number of current and potential future aces had to undergo the procedure.

To help visualize the talent of the pitchers who had the procedure last year and could possibly return this coming season, I've plotted the average Wins Above Replacement in the year prior to pitchers undergoing surgery (I've set the lower cutoff at the year 2000, as it was the first year in which the number of surgeries was in the double digits). In other words, how collectively good were each year's Tommy John patients the year before they had surgery? Take a look:

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In terms of performance in the year prior to surgery, 2015 was the third-"best" year in the past decade and a half, eclipsed only by 2008 and 2001. 2008 saw a collection of above-average pitchers undergo the procedure, as Tim Hudson, Sergio Mitre, Jake Westbrook, and Chris Capuano all had elbow injuries. 2001 claims the highest average WAR before surgery, as Pat Hentgen, Kris Benson, and Scott Williamson were some of the bigger names at the time to get TJ.

If we look at the raw total WAR of our pitchers instead of the average, 2015 is still third, but this time behind 2014 and 2012. This is because the number of surgeries has gone up markedly since the start of 2012; while the yearly average number of Tommy John procedures was around 17 from 2000-2011, it has spiked to an average of over 28 in the past four years.

Now that we concretely know the overall level of talent in our 2015 Tommy John class, let's take a look at the 2016 performance projections for a select group of starters that are expected to return in 2016. Dan Szymborski's ZiPs projections are used when possible, but if not available, Steamer was used instead (full ZiPs projections have yet to be released).

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Yu Darvish, Texas Rangers

ZiPs Projections: 132.0 Innings Pitched, 3.41/3.45 ERA/FIP, 2.9 Wins Above Replacement

ZiPs projects Darvish to throw 132 innings in 2016, based on the assumption that he'll miss about a month of the season. The system also has him down for 2.9 WAR, second only to Cole Hamels among Rangers starters (3.7 WAR). The 2015 mid-season acquisition of Hamels, along with Darvish's likely return, put a good perspective on the Rangers depth moves of giving a minor league deal to A.J. Griffin and resigning Colby Lewis. While the back end of the rotation still has yet to sort itself out in light of these moves, the Rangers are primed to have two top-tier aces for the majority of the 2016 season.

Homer Bailey, Cincinnati Reds

ZiPs Projections: 149.0 IP, 3.93/3.85 ERA/FIP, 1.9 WAR

Bailey vaulted into the public eye with his 2012 and 2013 no-hitters, even though his year-to-year stats haven't quite matched the level of domination he showed during those two games. ZiPs is bullish on his ability to handle almost a full season of work in his return -- currently slated for mid-May -- and he will be an important, long-term part in the rotation of a team undergoing a serious rebuild. Attention should be paid to whether he can get his strikeout rate back to 2013 levels, as well as reversing the small erosion in control he suffered during the 2014 season.

Zack Wheeler, New York Mets

Steamer Projections: 65.0 IP, 3.69/3.63 ERA/FIP, 1.0 WAR

Wheeler's projections are difficult given the outstanding nature of the Mets' rotation. Currently, given a "June or July return," Wheeler would be battling for the fifth spot with Bartolo Colon, who New York just signed to a one-year deal. However, given that Wheeler is young, cost-controlled, and likely will still have the high-ceiling velocity of a potential ace, he makes (and has already made) an intriguing trade chip. While he could be a very useful swingman or fifth starter for the Mets during the second half of 2016, the embarrassment of riches they currently have at the starting pitcher position make a trade easily imaginable.

Alex Cobb, Tampa Bay Rays

Steamer Projections: 48.0 IP, 3.52/3.53 ERA/FIP, 0.8 WAR

While the Steamer projections are on the low side given the expectation of a midseason return, Cobb is one of the most interesting names on this list. In addition to his name recently cropping up in trade talks with the Cubs, Cobb posted two seasons of at least 140 innings pitched and sub-3.00 ERAs before he was injured, flashing completely un-hittable stuff at times. His changeup ranked as one of the five best among starters by run values during 2014, and if he can avoid the pitfalls of decreased control (something he has had difficulty with already) following surgery, he could pick up right where he left off.

Brandon McCarthy, Los Angeles Dodgers

Steamer Projections: 48.0 IP, 3.20/3.20 ERA/FIP, 0.8 WAR

Given the way this offseason has unfolded so far for the Dodgers, it's not a stretch to say they would welcome a healthy McCarthy back into their threadbare rotation. Coming off his first 200-inning campaign in 2014, it looked like McCarthy might have put his injury history behind him while posting some of the best numbers of his career; his elbow unfortunately had other plans. Still, the right-hander always seems one adjustment away from putting it together. Despite his strong ground ball rates, he's been victimized by home runs over the past few years, and even outstanding gains in his strikeout rate couldn't mask the problem. The Dodgers will be hoping for a repeat of 2014 when McCarthy returns sometime in June or July, because it seems like they might truly need it after missing out on some of the top names in the free agent pitching market.

Finally, there are a couple intriguing relievers who could see a return to the field in 2016 after undergoing surgery last season. The most exciting is Adam Ottavino, who has three different sliders and looked dominant in his short stint as the Rockies' closer during 2015. Greg Holland, who had surgery just this past October, will likely not see the field until 2017 unless his recovery is miraculously short.

While it might be easy to forget about pitchers who have stepped out of the spotlight due to injuries, 2016 hopes to be a banner year for the return of ultra-talented pitchers from serious surgery. With any luck, these starters and relievers will be added to the long list of success stories, primed to pitch again.

Yankees Build Laugh-Out-Loud Bullpen With Aroldis Chapman.

At best, Aroldis Chapman is unstable. A manageable sort of loose cannon. At worst, he’s violent, a danger not only to himself but to others. There’s a lot to try to handle here — more than we want to have to handle when we’re dealing with baseball players and baseball trades. We don’t want to have to consider this stuff, but here we are, and it can’t be avoided. Aroldis Chapman has been traded to the Yankees, for Rookie Davis, Eric Jagielo, Caleb Cotham, and Tony Renda. Chapman would’ve been a Dodger by now, or maybe a member of the Red Sox, but for an off-field incident involving alleged violence and gunfire. Chapman wasn’t arrested, but he might still be suspended under MLB’s new domestic-violence policy. That part of this story is front and center. Were it not for the incident, Chapman wouldn’t be on the Yankees. Were it not for the incident, Chapman would’ve commanded a higher price.

I can’t tell you how you’re supposed to feel. I can’t tell you what Chapman did or didn’t do. At this point I bet even the parties involved couldn’t tell you exactly what Chapman did or didn’t do, given the memory’s tendency to warp. All that’s known is there was something ugly, and Chapman was in the middle of it, and the details caused some teams to back off. If you love the trade for the Yankees, that’s fine. If you don’t want to root for Chapman anymore, that’s fine. If you feel like it’s getting harder and harder to be a sports fan these days, that’s fine. The more we know our athletes, the more we know them as real people, and real people are complex, where sports are supposed to be simple. This isn’t what a lot of us signed up for.

Your job is to figure out how you feel. And how you want to feel, if it’s different. My job is to tell you about the baseball. I’m not qualified to do the other stuff. And here’s the reality of baseball: no team likes off-the-field concerns, or potential pending suspensions. Every team wants its 25 players to be saints. But character is only part of it, and when the talent level is high enough, teams will overlook everything else. Aroldis Chapman is one of the greatest per-inning pitchers on the planet. Of that there is zero question. There are questions about his character, but teams know this stuff blows over. And beyond that, you could say Chapman’s off-field problems created a market inefficiency. Just ask Brian Cashman:

“Given the circumstances that exist, the price point on the acquisition has been modified,”Cashman said. “We felt this was an opportunity to add a big arm to our bullpen.”

There you go. Sometimes executives are reluctant to share the whole truth. Cashman is more of a straight shooter, and that excerpt tells you everything. Chapman’s got some troubles. Those troubles scared off other teams. And that made it appealing for the Yankees to strike. As far as roster management is concerned, Chapman’s incident is practically a good thing. Value value value. Below, I’m going to write more about baseball. After all, there’s a transaction to analyze, and I have a job to do. Read, or don’t. I’m not here to judge you or anybody. I’m here to judge statistics, and Chapman has some awesome statistics.

No one who reads FanGraphs needs to be told what Chapman has accomplished in Cincinnati. He’s famously been the most overpowering reliever in the game, a man armed with a ligament I damn near want to rip right out of him when he sleeps so I can submit it for inspection. Chapman has been stupid-good, and he’s not even 28, so he ought to remain stupid-good for the short-term future.

Stupid-good, like Andrew Miller. Stupid-good, like Dellin Betances. Some weeks back, when the Dodgers were close to acquiring Chapman, I wrote about what it would look like to combine Chapman and Kenley Jansen. With those two, the Dodgers would have two of the five or so best relievers in baseball. But in my heart, I was disappointed, because I was hoping for insanity. Back then, Chapman was going to Los Angeles, and the Yankees were rumored to be shopping Miller around. I wanted Miller, Chapman, and Betances all in the same place. And now, here we are, for an unprecedented bullpen experiment.

It’s not much of an experiment, I guess, because the results shouldn’t really be in any question. How will they combine? Probably a lot like an elite-level starting pitcher, only somehow even better, and with practically every inning and every plate appearance being higher-leverage. This assumes, of course, the Yankees keep all three, and Chapman isn’t dealt a super-long suspension. But this could be silly. You don’t even need to root for Chapman or the Yankees. You don’t need to be emotionally connected. You can just be someone who appreciates ridiculous numbers. By all indications, those numbers are on the way.

What the Yankees wanted to do was find some cost-controlled starting pitching, because they’ve acknowledged there are a bunch of questions in their starting rotation. But you’ve seen what the starter market has been like. The Yankees didn’t want to mess around with that, despite being the Yankees and everything. So the Yankees have improved their rotation by improving their bullpen, thereby limiting the responsibilities the starters will carry. It’s not like every single inning can be given to one of the Big Three, but they’re going to preserve most leads, and get the most big outs.

How much do the Yankees have to lose? They lose some prospects, but they’re not losing any of their real top prospects. And though the Chapman stuff is bad PR, and the New York press can be rough, how much damage can really conceivably be done to the Yankees brand, because of an off-field incident that didn’t result in an arrest? People are going to pay to see the Yankees. They’re the Yankees. The Yankees went international ages ago. Their brand is almost untouchable. That doesn’t have to be a nice part of reality; it can be just part of reality.

Chapman, Miller, and Betances had three of baseball’s four highest strikeout rates last year. Based on Steamer projections, they’re pegged for three of the five lowest FIPs in 2016. Here’s what’s at the top of our current team bullpen projections on the WAR page:

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Bullpen projections are hard, and there’s a lot of uncertainty, but there’s no getting around that. The Yankees are projected in first by a massive amount. There have been teams before that have had multiple good relievers. There are teams right now that have multiple good relievers. But as far as I can tell, no team has ever had three relievers like this, at one time. The Orioles love having Zach Britton, Darren O’Day, and Mychal Givens, and they should. The Royals love what they’ve got. The Red Sox love what they’ve got. The Yankees are at the top of the class. They have the on-field value and the name value. They’ll flaunt it. It’s classically Yankees.

I do want to note a few other things. It’s easy to get carried away, because the very notion of this Yankees bullpen is absurd. But while this should look dominant, it shouldn’t look wildly unfamiliar, because just last year the Yankees had Betances, Miller, and Justin Wilson, and they were outstanding. Wilson finished with a WPA of 2.58, while Chapman finished with a WPA of 2.59. Wilson, now, is gone. Chapman’s an upgrade, but not an overhaul. And then there’s this: under Joe Girardi, since 2008, the Yankees rank first in baseball in bullpen WPA, at +56. The Rangers are in second at +36. That’s a 20-win difference in eight seasons, showing that the Yankees have an established history of great relief. This isn’t like if the Tigers put this together. For the Yankees, this is luxury, but they’re accustomed to liking their bullpens.

And just for the hell of it, here’s 30 years of bullpen WPA and bullpen WAR:

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Sometimes there are a few too many bad pitches at the wrong times. It’s possible for a bullpen to be superficially great yet unclutch. Let’s take that 6.6-WAR projection from Steamer. Over the past 30 years, of the teams whose bullpens have finished with a WAR between 6.1 and 7.1, those bullpens have finished with WPAs ranging from +1.8 to +13.9. There’s very little chance the New York bullpen will be bad, but it might not be totally automatic.

To say nothing of any injury risk. There’s always injury risk. It helps that this is a one-year deal, unless Chapman is suspended for so long that the Yankees get another year of control. My guess is that’s unlikely. Chapman, I imagine, will be a free agent next offseason, and he should get a qualifying offer, and then the Yankees would be positioned to get a compensation pick. If he were to leave. Lots of assumptions.

And speaking of compensation picks, there’s the matter of the Reds’ return, here. They’re not walking away with nothing. We can assume the package they would’ve gotten from the Dodgers was superior, but there’s some value here, so it’s not like this is a salary and headache dump. The prospects are led by Jagielo and Davis. Jagielo, to me, feels like the equivalent of a compensation pick. The kind of player the Yankees could pick back up in a year and a half, if things went down that path. Jagielo was taken 26th overall in 2013, and he’s shown real power, but his strikeouts are elevated, and a leg injury has done nothing for his defense at third base, which was already questionable. So Jagielo is bat-first, with injury issues. Davis is a decently hard-throwing righty starter who last year cracked Double-A. He showed good improvement in his command in High-A before getting promoted, and he could have a definite future. Observers have said good things about his curveball, and even if he were bumped to relief, his heater could get to the high-90s.

Cotham is a tweener-prospect because he’s already 28. But he’s a big-league-capable reliever with a fastball and a slider, and this past season he adjusted well to the bullpen. He should throw plenty of innings for the Reds in 2016, and perhaps in the years beyond that. Finally, Renda is a second baseman with six career home runs. He’s more of a bat-control type, but it seems like any future is on the bench. He’s the clear fourth piece, and you can’t expect much from a fourth piece in a trade for a one-year player.

Obviously, the Reds didn’t get what they would’ve liked. They didn’t get what they could’ve gotten were it not for the off-field story. But there was nothing for them to do about that, so they decided to move on and sell Chapman for what they could. With the market diminished, the Yankees moved in, with little to lose and plenty to gain. Again, if it weren’t for the incident, this would set the Yankees up for a wildly entertaining bullpen project, the likes of which we’ve never seen. All that stuff is still true, but our perspective is complicated, and maybe this seems less entertaining than it could’ve. Maybe eventually it comes out that Chapman didn’t try to hurt anybody, but I don’t blame you if you’re something less than jazzed. However you feel is justifiable. However you feel next summer will be justifiable. Don’t feel bad because you think everyone else has it all figured out, because none of us do. We all just try to deal with the news.

Today, there’s big Aroldis Chapman news. The Yankees are responsible for it, because they feel like, in time, it’ll be good for them. They’re probably right. That’s sports.

Nationals Settle for Daniel Murphy’s Adequacy.

One of the many reasons why it’s challenging to evaluate a front office is that it’s hard to know what to do with intent. All the stuff we actually see is results-based observation. This offseason, the Nationals wanted to sign Darren O’Day, but he went somewhere else for similar money. They wanted to sign Jason Heyward, but he went somewhere else for similar money. They wanted to sign Ben Zobrist, but he went somewhere else for similar money. They couldn’t even finish a deal for Brandon Phillips after Phillips wanted too much to waive his no-trade clause. The Nationals have had several plans, but the big thing they’ve actually done is sign Daniel Murphy, pending a physical. According to reports, it’s to be a three-year contract, worth $37.5 million.

You remember Murphy for his whirlwind October. For sure, it was a hell of a story, tracking the rise and fall of an unexpected superstar. If there was a mistake made, it was linking Murphy’s performance to his upcoming free-agent negotiations. When Murphy was white-hot, I remember reading speculation he could land a five-year contract. When he came undone in the World Series, many wondered how much money Murphy had cost himself. The playoffs were never going to be that important, relative to Murphy’s track record. He’s now signing the contract he was pretty much always going to get.

Murphy turns 31 on the first of April. He’s historically been a solid player, but he’s never been a great one for more than a week or two at a time. He’s a middle infielder with heart but objectively mediocre defense, which is to say, he tries his damnedest, but he doesn’t look smooth. The Mets put a qualifying offer on Murphy, meaning he’ll cost the Nationals a mid-round draft pick, and those get evaluated around $10 – 15 million or so. Put it together and the Nationals are paying Murphy to be worth more or less six wins. And that’s basically how he projects. I know this reads like an oversimplification, because every player is unique and every situation is different, but this is what’s at the very core of the agreement. In terms of just money, the Nationals are probably getting a bit of a deal, compared to other free agents. That’s balanced out by the loss of the draft pick.

The Nationals needed a second baseman, because they like Trea Turner as a shortstop, and Danny Espinosa as supportive utility. The Nationals also wanted a left-handed hitter, which is one of the reasons why Yunel Escobar went away. Murphy checks off the boxes, even if the front office might’ve preferred Phillips. On the one hand, Murphy is happening only after the Phillips deal collapsed; on the other hand, Phillips is a righty, so it’s not like Murphy doesn’t have his advantages. The Nationals were already good enough to make it to the playoffs, and now this should make them a little bit stronger.

Because of the Murphy arc, it’s only natural to want to know what to do with his playoffs. It wouldn’t make good sense to suggest that Murphy just suddenly figured something out and reached a new level. He’s not to be considered one of the best power hitters in baseball. By the same token, it would be stupid to pretend like the playoffs just never happened. Murphy deserves credit for all the good he did, in particular because he homered against the likes of Clayton Kershaw, Jon Lester, Zack Greinke, and Jake Arrieta. I think the right thing to do is to just combine Murphy’s overall 2015 performance into one. Here’s what happens — you see Murphy’s regular-season numbers, then his combined numbers below those.

Daniel Murphy, 2015
2015 Season BA OBP SLG wOBA wRC+
Regular 0.281 0.322 0.449 0.325 110
Combined 0.285 0.329 0.478 0.340 120
It’s a minor boost in average, a minor boost in OBP, and a big boost in power. That shows up as a 10-point leap in wRC+, which is not insubstantial. At 110, Murphy would’ve been tied with Dexter Fowler. At 120, he would’ve been tied with Justin Upton. Murphy gets credit for a .193 isolated power, which would be by far the highest mark of his career. The talk a few months ago was about how Kevin Long got Murphy bringing more of his lower body into his swing. Regardless of whether the changes are easily observable, here are hints in the output.

But it’s not just about the power. See, Murphy has always been hard to strike out, but last year he made a leap. A couple years back, Murphy whiffed once per 7.5 trips to the plate. Last year, he whiffed once per 14.2 trips to the plate, and his strikeout rate was the second-lowest in baseball among regulars and semi-regulars. The only player who struck out at a lower rate than Murphy was Nori Aoki, and Aoki didn’t show Murphy’s pop.

Murphy made an unusual transition: he started making more contact while also pulling the ball more. Typically, those are more inversely related, as you can see with, say, Xander Bogaerts or Matt Carpenter. But while Murphy shaved six percentage points off his strikeout rate, he added seven percentage points to his pull rate. The most similar player in that regard: one Bryce Harper, who did the same thing. Less encouragingly, there were A.J. Pierzynski and Ichiro. In general, it feels like it should be a good thing to be able to hit for more power while also hitting for more contact. It’s just a question of how it’ll sustain.

You can see how Murphy concentrated more on one part of the field. His results by location:



Daniel Murphy, wRC+
Season(s) Pull Center Opposite
2012 – 2014 120 126 136
2015 178 82 64
Instead of being an all-fields hitter, Murphy last year was a pull hitter. These numbers don’t include the playoffs, but the bulk of his playoff damage was done to right and right-center. Murphy’s power has always been to the pull side, but he could at least get hits elsewhere. Last year he lost a few of those singles, and this could just be a consequence of the transition. As the power goes up, the BABIP goes down. It’s not like every indicator can be good.

So here’s where we are: the Nationals are getting a contact hitter, fresh off a career-best contact rate. That’s good. The Nationals are also getting a secondary power hitter, fresh off a career-best power rate. That’s good. Because of the contact, and because of the power, the hitter doesn’t walk too much, and he doesn’t spray the ball around. You can accept that, as long as the power is there. The defense is a weak point, but it’s playable. Maybe you end up in a situation where both Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman need to play first base down the road, but that point isn’t here yet. That’s a future issue, not a contend-in-2016-and-then-see-what-happens issue. Murphy’s defense is mediocre, but it’s not embarrassing.

I don’t think it’s a challenge to see how the Nationals could end up quite pleased with this. If Murphy keeps up his blend of contact and power, he’ll be a helpful player for almost all situations. He could look like a first baseman playing second. On the downside, he could look like a first baseman playing second. And he could lose some ground at the plate, since he’s strong, but not notably so. When you have just enough power, it doesn’t take too much of a slip for those long flies to become outs. Murphy found a good balance in 2015. He helped get the Mets to the World Series. Yet as he ages, he might find the power and contact can’t remain so closely linked.

There are questions, as there are with everyone. The Nationals have their own. It’s not like this was their Plan A. But I think just about every question is offset by a selling point. When that’s the case, I feel like you’re looking at a fair deal. Murphy was never going to get $70 million, and he never cost himself half that money with a lousy final series. Murphy was destined to get this kind of deal. Destiny just didn’t know who would be giving it.

An End-of-the-Year MLB Legal Update.

It’s been a busy year in the courtroom for Major League Baseball. From its minor league pay practices and fan safety rules, to its scout hiring and television broadcasting practices, MLB spent 2015 defending itself from a variety of different lawsuits across the country. While I’ve covered many of these cases throughout the year, I’ll provide a final, year-end status update on three of MLB’s on-going lawsuits: The Payne suit challenging MLB’s fan safety protocol; the MASN broadcast royalty dispute between the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals; and the Wyckoff suit contesting MLB’s scout-hiring and pay practices.

Payne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball

The issue of MLB fan safety was front and center in 2015 following a series of incidents in which fans sustained serious injuries after being struck by foul balls or broken bats. In light of these events, MLB announced earlier this month that it was issuing a new set of non-binding safety recommendations to its teams, encouraging the league’s franchises to take steps to install additional netting between the dugouts, while also making it clearer to fans at the time they buy their tickets whether particular seats are shielded from flying objects.

Despite these recommendations, MLB continues to face a lawsuit that seeks to force the league to take even greater steps to protect its fans. As I noted in July, in Payne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, a California federal court has been asked to order MLB to mandate that all 30 of its teams install foul-pole-to-foul-pole netting in their stadiums. As I also noted at the time the case was filed, though, the suit faced several substantial legal hurdles — not the least of which was the fact the lead plaintiff in the suit appeared to lack the requisite legal standing-to-sue, since she had never been injured while attending an MLB game.

Likely recognizing this defect in the case, the plaintiff’s attorneys filed an amended complaint in October, adding two new plaintiffs to the suit, both of who previously had been hit by foul balls. The new complaint also went to greater (and more visceral) lengths to illustrate the damage that foul balls can inflict on fans, showing a number of relatively graphic photos of fans who had suffered injuries at games.

Despite these additional allegations, MLB nevertheless filed a motion to dismiss the Payne case in November, urging the court to toss the suit on several grounds. First, the league picked up on the standing issue I discussed in July, arguing that none of the three named plaintiffs in the case had a sufficient legal basis to sue. Specifically, in addition to noting the first plaintiff — Gail Payne — had never been injured at a game, MLB contended the second plaintiff — Robert Gorman, author of the book “Death at the Ballpark” — had only been injured at a minor league game, and thus didn’t have legal grounds to file suit against the 30 major league clubs.

Meanwhile, although MLB acknowledged the third plaintiff, Stephanie Smith, was alleged to have been injured at a Los Angeles Dodgers game, the league stressed she had not indicated that she had plans to attend another game in the future, and therefore arguably did not present the continuing risk of future injury necessary to legally support a court order of the sort requested in the case.

In addition to the standing issue, MLB’s motion to dismiss also asserted that the suit was barred by the so-called “baseball rule.” As I explained in June, under the baseball rule, courts have historically held that teams are not liable for injuries a fan might sustain from an object leaving the field of play because fans have legally assumed the risk of being injured when attending a baseball game. MLB asserted in its motion that the Payne lawsuit must be dismissed pursuant to these prior judicial precedents.

Finally, for good measure, MLB argued the California federal court in which the Payne suit was filed lacked jurisdiction over many of the league’s 30 teams. The league previously asserted this same defense successfully in the Senne minor league wage lawsuit, which resulted in the court dismissing eight teams from that case earlier this year.

In response, the Payne plaintiffs have disputed MLB’s characterization of the facts and the law, contending the court should allow the case to proceed to trial. A hearing on the matter has been set for Feb. 26, with the court likely to decide whether to dismiss the case in the weeks that follow.

Even if the plaintiffs survive this initial attempt by MLB to have the case tossed out of court, though, it still appears as if the Payne suit ultimately faces long odds of success.

The MASN Case

Last month, a New York state court issued its long awaited decision in the MASN broadcast-rights-fee dispute between the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals. As I noted at the time, the court’s opinion represented something of a split decision for the parties. On the one hand, the court granted the Orioles and its Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) much of their requested relief, tossing out an arbitration award from MLB’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee (RSDC) that would have forced MASN to pay the Nationals roughly $60 million per year in broadcast-rights fees.

In particular, the court emphasized the involvement of the Nationals’ legal counsel, the Proskauer Rose law firm, in the case. Because the Proskauer firm had extensive ties to MLB — having represented the league and its teams in a variety of matters — the court believed the firm’s representation of the Nationals in the MASN dispute presented an appearance of potential impropriety, warranting a reversal of the RSDC’s arbitration award.

Despite tossing the RSDC’s arbitration award, the court refused to order MLB to send the dispute to more neutral arbitrators, as Baltimore and MASN had requested. Instead, the court suggested that so long as the Nationals retained new legal counsel for the dispute, MLB would be within its rights to send the matter back to the RSDC to hold a new hearing and issue a new award in the case.

Not surprisingly, both sides have notified the court they intend to appeal the decision. Specifically, MASN and the Orioles are appealing the court’s decision to allow MLB to send the matter back to the RSDC. Meanwhile, MLB is appealing the court’s determination that Proskauer Rose’s involvement in the matter warranted a reversal of the RSDC arbitration award.

As a result, we would still appears to be months — if not years — away from a resolution of the matter. Unless the appellate court sides with MLB by reinstating the RSDC’s award, then the issue will have to go through another round of arbitration — before either the RSDC or a panel of neutral arbitrators — following the appeal’s resolution. Given the contentious history between the parties in the case, it seems likely that whichever side loses a new arbitration would then file yet another lawsuit challenging the outcome in court.

So it’s reasonable to anticipate the MASN dispute will continue to drag on for the foreseeable future.

Wyckoff v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball

The Wyckoff case is the latest in a series of lawsuits challenging MLB’s pay practices. While earlier cases had predominantly focused on the treatment of minor league baseball players, the Wyckoff case identified another group of MLB employees who are allegedly paid a sub-minimum wage: scouts. Specifically, the Wyckoff suit alleges that MLB scouts can be paid as little as $5 per hour once all of their job duties are properly accounted for.

In addition to alleging these pay practices violate federal minimum wage law, the Wyckoff suit contended MLB’s scout hiring practices violate federal antitrust law. In particular, Wyckoff asserted that MLB teams have entered into illicit agreements not to hire away one another’s scouts, resulting in a lack of competition between teams that has further depressed scouts’ salaries.

There have been several developments in the Wyckoff suit since our last look at the case in July. First, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in the suit in October, adding a new plaintiff to the case. In addition to the original plaintiff — Jordan Wyckoff, a former part-time scout for the Kansas City Royals — a second former MLB scout — Darwin Cox, previously a full-time scout for the Colorado Rockies — has added his name to the lawsuit.

In addition to adding a plaintiff to the case, the new complaint further substantiated MLB’s alleged antitrust violations. In particular, on pages 21 to 23 of the new filing, the plaintiffs contend MLB has implemented a so-called “offset policy,” in which the league regulates salaries paid to employees who have signed a contract with a new franchise after being dismissed from their former team. The Wyckoff plaintiffs allege this system harms scouts by lowering the pay that scouts receive, and further deters teams from signing away scouts from other clubs.

Following the filing of the new complaint in the Wyckoff case, MLB submitted a motion asking the court to officially dismiss most of the lawsuit. MLB’s motion began by predictably arguing that Wyckoff’s antitrust claims should be thrown out in light of baseball’s historic antitrust exemption. In addition, the league contended that 29 of the 30 MLB teams should be released from the suit’s claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act because only a single scout — the case’s original plaintiff, Jordan Wyckoff — had asserted that he’d been paid a sub-minimum wage.

In a rare moment of agreement, the Wyckoff plaintiffs conceded that their minimum wage claims should be dismissed against all but the Royals, since Kansas City was the only team currently alleged to have paid its scouts less than the minimum wage.

The plaintiffs disputed MLB’s contention that the case fell within the scope of baseball’s antitrust exemption, however. Instead, the plaintiffs emphasized prior rulings by New York courts adopting a relatively narrow view of the exemption, contending that because scouts are not directly involved in the staging of professional baseball games, their antitrust claims were not covered by the sport’s exemption. Indeed, as I noted earlier this year, courts have historically been divided regarding the extent to which MLB’s activities are protected by the exemption.

MLB’s motion to dismiss the Wyckoff case is still pending before the court, so it will likely be several months before we discover which view of baseball’s antitrust exemption the court will adopt. At a minimum, though, the case will continue forward on Wyckoff’s claim minimum wage claim against the Royals, regardless of the court’s ruling on the antitrust issue.
 
LOL is this guy serious??? What the hell
This is why we cant have nice things
 
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