Long-running rebuilds have been a constant source of success in the MLB for some years now for those who consistently follow through with them. This year, three more teams seemed to start this process – but only one of them seems to be completely convinced.
The last three World Series Champions had one thing in common: All three climbed the throne of the MLB after a long and extensive rebuild. In other US leagues it would also be called systematic tanking.
This approach requires three things in particular: patience, foresight and absolute dedication. You have to trust the process and you must not deviate from it on the basis of spontaneous irrational thoughts.
Looking at the current MLB landscape, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox and, to a lesser extent, the San Diego Padres are in such a process. Elsewhere, such a rebuild is being pursued – at least that’s what could have been thought in Kansas City, Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh. In the meantime, you can’t be so sure anymore.
The Pittsburgh Pirates made it clear at the start of the winter that it was time for a rebuild on the Allegheny River. The face of the franchise, Andrew McCutchen, was swiftly traded to San Francisco, while star pitcher Gerrit Cole ended up at the champion in Houston.
In addition, rumors were spread that Third Baseman Josh Harrison was also on the move and that people were desperately looking for a buyer. The thing seemed clear: the process of reconstruction had begun, the last halfway expensive but useful parts would be sold out quickly.
But then the Pirates surprisingly acquired outfielder Corey Dickerson from the Rays. Admittedly, Dickerson is not a superstar or even just a capable fielder – the Rays mainly used him as a designated hitter. But with his 27 homeruns and a 120 OPS+ he is one of the better hitters in this league. Besides, Harrison will probably stay.
For the Pirates, this move is somewhat like a U-turn for the Pirates: So now it’s not a total rebuild, but rather a few selective savings, in spite of which the sporting level could be maintained at least partially.
The path of the Royals seemed even clearer, whose World Series participations in 2014 and 2015 were already the result of a previous rebuild. They once again seemed predestined for a new start from the very back. Well-known free agents such as Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas, Jason Vargas, Mike Minor and Melky Cabrera were gone.
And those who should at least close the gaps in personnel were typical gap fillers, which one just fetches if the offspring is not yet ready and one does not want to waste valuable service time with the prospects. There is no other explanation for the obligations of last year’s part-time players like Lucas Duda or Jon Jay.
As far as the rebuild was concerned, they were on course. But then suddenly one of the potential departures, Moustakas, fell into their lap again. This year’s extremely sluggish free agent market made it possible for “Moose” to be recovered for little money.
So the Royals made a huge bargain, because they got the best third baseman on the market for less than eight million dollars – should he achieve all performance bonuses.
The problem with this, however, is that Moustakas will not help to sink the season. On the contrary! Moustakas will do everything he can to achieve his incentives and, on the other hand, to promote himself, because even if he has an option for 2019, his clear goal should be to increase his market value with an outstanding season and then perhaps, in the wake of superstars Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, to get a lucrative long-term contract in the coming winter – perhaps in the wake of the superstars Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.
Before it became “in” and baseball teams started to systematically rebuild, the Rays did so more than ten years ago and with considerable success for a small market team. The crowning glory of the event was the participation in the World Series 2008, in which the Phillies were defeated.
All in all, two division titles and two wildcards emerged from this process between 2008 and 2013. Time and again, the team succeeded in outpacing the great powers of New York and Boston with significantly lower payroll and in keeping them in the East Division. After four seasons in series without play-off participation, the time seemed to have come to start all over again.
Correspondingly, the Rays tidied up in great style: Team legend Evan Longoria was traded to San Francisco, the up-and-coming Slugger Steven Souza Jr. to Arizona and Dickerson to Pittsburgh. Pitcher Jake Odorizzi was sent to Minnesota and Alex Cobb was released to the Free Agency – at least as of now.
In addition, they let Logan Morrison and Lucas Duda go and also gave away Reliever Pat Cishek. In return, Tampa Bay gave only for Carlos Gomez (four million dollars) significant money on the table, apparently in order not to give the complaint of the MLBPA against the Rays and other teams with very low payroll, even more food.
With regard to the coming season, it can be stated at least once in a while that the Rays in particular have consistently thrown the shotgun into sight. While the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have rearmed Yankees powerfully, after both had already reached the playoffs last year, the Rays realized that an attack seems rather hopeless at the moment. The rebuild has begun and is likely to continue in the near future – perhaps even aggressively on the trade deadline at the end of July.
For the Royals and Pirates, the “problem” is that both are not really competitive in their divisions, but they should still have a respectable number of victories. In a way, they are too bad to attack, but too good to be bad. It’s not enough in a rebuild to just dump expensive players. The second step is positioning in the draft. And if you win too many games, you won’t be able to reach the top spots here.
This is generally not so important in baseball because each team evaluates talent in a different way and therefore there is a chance that one team values completely different players than another. But especially the very high picks are usually the ones that become essential to successfully complete a rebuild process. People like Longoria, David Price at the Rays or Kris Bryant (Cubs) or Carlos Correa (Astros) were all top 3 draftpicks!
So while the Rays now seem to be on a good path, Pittsburgh and Kansas City obviously haven’t quite made friends with the complete restart yet. As far as sportsmanship is concerned, they won’t achieve much in human terms, but they will certainly prolong a strenuous and sometimes frustrating process.
This article was published without prior view by the Major League Baseball.