Chance Sisco was long considered the Orioles’ catcher of the future.
Apparently, that future won’t be at the start of the 2020 season. Perhaps the future has already passed.
Manager Brandon Hyde says Luis Severino will be his No 1 catcher next year. That leaves Sisco as the backup.
Sisco will 25 on opening day, not exactly old but it’s also not young.
“From the outside, I’m not sure why the Orioles aren’t giving the opportunity for more playing time because it’s not like they’re going to contend next year,” a scout from a National League team said. “But nobody knows their players better than their own team. If the Orioles don’t think he’s a starting catcher, then that tells you something.
“That’s the thing about prospects. You never know. They don’t all live up to the hype.”
Sisco has hit just .210/.333/.395 with eight home runs in 132 games over the last three seasons. He has thrown out just 23 percent of runners attempting to steal and has minus-12 defensive runs saved.
Hyde said last week at the Winter Meetings last week that Sisco planned to spend a significant portion of the offseason working to adjust his hitting mechanics.
(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)
–Except for Commissioner Rob Manfred, seemingly no one in baseball likes the three-batter minimum rule that will go into effect.
Relief pitchers will be required to face a minimum of three hitters unless they end an inning. Hyde said he was “cloudy” on the issue, but other managers don’t like it.
“Not one bit,” the Chicago Cubs’ Joe Maddon said. “I know this is supposed to affect the pace of play and I’m all for having a better of pace of play. But this rule messes with a fundamental aspect of the game and that bothers me.”
Love the rule or hate it, though, managers are going to have to adjust.
“I think the game has kind of went to multiple-inning pitchers anyway, in a sense guys that can give you more than three outs,” the Philadelphia Phillies’ Joe Girardi said. “Depending how many left-handers they have, maybe you spread your left-handers out. So, if they have a guy that is efficient in getting left-handed-hitters out, you surround him with two beasts that are right-handed hitters.”
–One rule change that everyone in the game seems to agree on is that players who test positive for opioids will not be suspended. Instead, they will be required to get treatment.
MLB’s decision to test opioids comes in the wake of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs’ death last season due in part to a drug overdose.
The extent of opioid abuse in baseball is unclear. However, one player, who asked not to be identified, believes it mirrors that of the general population.
“Think about it,” the player said. “You’ve got guys coming off major surgeries. You’ve got guys trying to play through injuries. Nobody gets through a 162-game season without some pain.
“So, it would seem to me that there has to be players using opioids for pain relief and, just like anyone else, could get addicted to them.”
–Will anyone have a merrier Christmas than Scott Boras?
The high-powered agent has negotiated $878 million worth of contracts for free agents Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg and Mike Moustakas this month.
Boras gets a five-percent cut. That works out to $43.9 million.
Happy Holidays, indeed.
John Perrotto has been a professional sports writer since 1982 and has covered a multitude of sports, including MLB, NFL and college football and basketball. He has been a member of the Baseball Writers’ Association since 1988, a Hall of Fame voter since 1997 and has covered 21 World Series and two Super Bowls. He is a graduate of Geneva College, the birthplace of college basketball, and lives in Beaver Falls, Pa., the hometown of Joe Willie Namath. He also writes The Perrotto Report (theperrottoreport.com), newsletters that concentrate on Major League Baseball and the Pittsburgh Pirates.