Cup of Coffee: January 19, 2023
Signings, mea culpas that may go too far, a plea for much-needed aid, some intriguing real estate, a stupid murderer, Ron DeSantis is about to get run over, career tropes, and "Slow Horses"
Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!
The Mets signed a slap hitter, the Red Sox signed a part-time outfielder to be a full-time outfielder, the Brewers signed a utility guy with upside, the Twins extended a once-promising starter as something of a bet, and Atlanta’s disgraced former general manager speaks, but only partially, but maybe too much. I dunno, it’s complicated.
In Other Stuff there are some people in California who need our help, there’s a new song for Sad Dads everywhere, there’s a house for sale in which you may be interested, we have a new entry in The Stupidest, Most Careless Murderers sweepstakes, it’s looking like Ron DeSantis is gonna get run over by the Trump Train, we contemplate career tropes, and there’s a TV show I love except for one part that annoys me to no small degree.
The Daily Briefing
Mets sign Tommy Pham
The Mets already have a big power hitter in Pete Alonso so of course they have room for a slap hitter like Tommy Pham. He has now joined the team on a one-year, $6 million deal.
Outside of the context of fantasy football disputes, Pham, who will turn 35 in March, has not hit anything particularly hard in recent years. He sported a combined line of .236/.312/.374 (87 OPS+) while splitting time between the Reds and the Red Sox last season. On a Mets team with Mark Canha, Brandon Nimmo, and Starling Marte, he’ll be a fourth outfielder and occasional DH at best.
As for how the slapping incident and Pham’s character play for the Mets:
Well in that case it’s totally fine then?
In other news, the level of ball-washing Martino has done for the Mets since Steve Cohen took over is damn nigh monumental. Like, we were already breaking new ground here before “hey, at least he slapped an opposing player” hit the wires yesterday. Who knows where this could end up? Frankly, I’m excited.
Red Sox sign Adam Duvall
The Boston Red Sox have a deal with outfielder Adam Duvall. It’s for one year at $7 million. The deal includes plate appearances bonuses that can take it up to $10 million.
Duvall, 34, hit just .213/.276/.401 (87 OPS+) in 86 games in 2022 and then he had wrist surgery. He’s not the sort of hitter who should be playing every day at this point, I don’t reckon, and his ability to do more than spot-start in center, as opposed to a corner, is pretty questionable, but given that Kiké Hernández is now going to have to move to the infield, what with Trevor Story’s injury, Duvall is likely to be a regular part of the Bosox’ outfield.
What an assemblage of misfit toys Chaim Bloom has collected in Boston.
Brewers sign Brian Anderson
The Milwaukee Brewers have signed third baseman Brian Anderson to a one-year $3.5 million deal. Anderson was non-tendered earlier this offseason by the Marlins.
Anderson, 29, hit .222/.311/.346 with eight homers and one steal across 383 plate appearances last season with Miami. He’s better than that, really, but injuries have been a factor for him. He’s got some good defensive versatility, though, so the Brewers could’ve done way worse with a utility guy. Especially if he reverts to both good health and offensive form.
Twins, Paddack agree to a three-year extension
The Minnesota Twins have signed righty Chris Paddack to a three-year $12.525 million contract extension. The deal buys out Paddack’s final two seasons of arbitration eligibility and his first season of free agency with salaries of $2.5 million in each of the first two years and $7.5 million in 2025.
Paddack, who looked like a bright young star when he came up with the Padres in 2019 and served as their Opening Day starter in 2020, has struggled with command and then, last season, underwent Tommy John surgery, ending his 2022 campaign after five starts. As he will not see action until well into the upcoming season this deal is more of a bet on 2024-25 and, more broadly speaking, on the promise he showed four years ago.
John Coppolella speaks
Disgraced — and now reinstated — ex-Atlanta general manager John Coppolella has spoken to the media for the first time. At least sort of. It was via email to Jayson Stark of The Athletic. What’s more, Coppolella declined to talk about a number of topics, focusing instead on making sure everyone knows that he takes full responsibility for what he did with Atlanta and that he has gone out of his way to hold himself accountable. Which, as far as can be told from the outside, he has. At the very least there does not appear to be any blame-shifting or excuses on his part. Ideally he’d eventually talk more specifically about the unseemly world of international signings which he first exploited and which later led to his downfall, but I suppose what he does have to say is pretty admirable as far as it goes.
Know what, though? I think Coppolella may be justified if he did shift some blame and point some fingers here. I say that because, as I noted last week when his reinstatement was announced, there is no damn way he was some lone actor in Atlanta’s international bonus chicanery. Above Coppolella on the org chart were his two predecessors as Atlanta general manager, John Hart and John Schuerholz, each of whom were still quite active and quite hands-on in baseball operations until the hammer came down. Coppolella resigned on October 2, 2017. Then — magically and totally coincidentally! — Hart retired not long afterward and Schuerholz was bumped from Vice Chairman to Vice Chairman Emeritus. While the club did well to hire Alex Anthopoulos six weeks after Coppolella resigned, you’d think that a couple of experienced GMs like Hart and Schuerholz would’ve been useful interim executives, no? But nope, they either jumped or were pushed at the same time Coppy went bye-bye. I can think of some reasons for that.
Against that backdrop, this little bit from Stark’s column about how Coppolella got his post-suspension job working for a time-share company hits different, as the kids say:
It was just before Christmas in 2017 – “an especially dark time for my family and me,” John Coppolella remembers. It was only days after MLB had announced his suspension. His world was spinning. His baseball friends had gone silent. Where could he possibly go from here? What was over the horizon for a man who had just been banished from the sport?
And then his cell phone buzzed.
On the phone was Mike Flaskey, a friend and neighbor of John Hart, the former Braves president of baseball operations who had resigned about a month after Coppolella . . . Flaskey was the CEO of Diamond Resorts International, a timeshare company. His firm was looking for a vice president of personnel development. He wondered if Coppolella was interested.
Yeah, I know I’m venturing into conspiracy theory land here, but I still find it super duper weird that Coppolella wore all of this, the men he answered to did not, at least publicly, and then a job from the neighbor of one of those men landed in his lap. Taken all together, I can’t help but wonder if the whole affair has played out in such a way that everyone is better off for Coppolella, and only Coppolella, being held accountable for it.
Other Stuff
Please donate to the Merced Farmworkers Mutual Aid Fund
As you no doubt saw, Merced County, California and many other places out that way were placed under a federal Major Disaster Declaration earlier this week due to the massive storm systems and subsequent flooding which recently hit the west coast. One of the areas most severely affected is the small town of Planada, which was placed under a 100% evacuation order when the worst of it hit. Around 4,000 people live in Planada, many of whom are farmworkers. To say their lives have been upended is a massive understatement.
Baseball writer/Cup of Coffee subscriber Jen Mac Ramos lives in Merced County and they’ve hipped me to a way in which we can help the people of Planada: a mutual aid fund which has been created to provide relief for farmworkers who have been affected by the flooding. So far 70 households have applied for aid from the fund, which is hoping to give $500 per household. The goal, then, is to raise around $40,000. At present $6,854 has been raised so, obviously, there is work to be done.
The Venmo ID is @MercedFarmworkersFund. Anything you can do to help is much appreciated.
There’s a new song from The National
As a 40-something year-old sad dad I am obligated to let you know that there is a new song from The National:
Have a great day, everyone.
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