Well it’s official the Philadelphia Phillies fired manager Joe Girardi. This is shocking news as it’s happening early in the season, but it’s understandable as the team was hovering around a .500 record the last few seasons, instead of making the playoffs as expected. I wouldn’t say that this is completely Girardi’s fault, but the team finished at 82-80 last season despite a close division race and missed the playoffs. This season they’re 22-29, but should be 26-25 based on their Pythagorean W-L record. Bench coach Rob Thomson takes over as the new manager.
The Houston Astros extended DH Yordan Álvarez for 6 years/$115 million in a great move for both sides.
The Los Angeles Angels fired manager Joe Maddon. I don’t think the team’s struggles are his fault. Phil Nevin is now the interim manager.
The Toronto Blue Jays moved on from Charlie Montoyo in an obvious move. John Schneider takes over for the rest of the season.
The Detroit Tigers fired GM Al Avila in what’s potentially the right move. Sam Menzin takes over on an interim basis.
The Texas Rangers fired their manager Chris Woodward, and is replaced with Tony Beasley on an interim basis. Texas is doing exactly as they were expected too, so unsure why management expected them to be any better. I guess it’s their 6-24 record in one-run games. We‘ll see if it was a good decision. A few days later, they then fired GM Jon Daniels and replaced him with Chris Young. He was pretty bad so it was a good move.
The Atlanta Braves extended CF Michael Harris II for 8 years/$72 million. Good but risky deal for Atlanta.
The Seattle Mariners extended CF Julio Rodriguez for 12 years/$450 million in a risky but potentially bargain move.
The Tampa Bay Rays extended SP Tyler Glasnow for 1 year/$25 million past his expiring contract next season in a good move.
The Detroit Tigers hired a new President of Baseball Operations in Scott Harris in a solid move. The Kansas City Royals perhaps rightly fired GM Dayton Moore. J.J. Piccolo takes over for Moore and we’ll see how that will go.
The Seattle Mariners extended SP Luis Castillo for 5 years/$133 million. This is a great move for Seattle, bad one for Castillo as he would’ve made more money on the open market.
The Atlanta Braves extended SP Charlie Morton for 1 year/$20 million, with a $20 million team option for 2024. So much for his retirement, I feel that Atlanta overpaid.
The St. Louis Cardinals extended RP Giovanny Gallegos for 2 extra years in a good move.
The Kansas City Royals fired manager Mike Matheny, but I’m not sure that their poor play is his fault, though it didn’t seem that the fans held him in high regard either and he did make questionable bullpen decisions.
MLB & FANTASY BASEBALL ANALYZED 
The interesting correlation between these two manager is that both of them have World Series wins on their resumes and both will probably land with another team soon. The culture of sports is not about what have you done but “what have you done lately?” Yes, ,I think that Joe Girardi could have done a better job in some aspects but again laying the blame solely at the manager’s feet isn’t a smart way to go and doesn’t really entice any other job candidates to want the job as well. As for the Angels, I don’t totally understand the absolute collapse they’ve had the past few weeks since they started out hot. Again, Joe Maddon is a pretty good manager overall and with his track record he may be able to find another spot somewhere.
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