The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Jake Kaplan Discusses The Astros Punishment and Firings

Episode Date: January 14, 2020

Jake Kaplan, Astros beat writer for The Athletic joins Matt to discuss the punishment levied on the organization and Jim Crane's decision to fire Jeff Luhnow and AJ Hinch

Stop that wave. Busting the wave since the stroves were in the dome. Who are you going to call? Wave busters. Houston Sports Talk continues. With the Matt Thomas Show. 1233 at the PM here on Sports Talk 790. Ross for your real with you on the Matt Thomas show.

Matt in Memphis with the Houston Rockets. Do we have Matt? Matt? I'm here. Okay. How you doing, Matt? I'm fine. I'm fine. Just trying to, you know, just take all this in.

And we invite our good friend, Jake Kaplan, who is a Friday contributor to the show. We love him more than life itself. Well, let's not get crazy now. That's true. He's a Sixers fan. Jake Kaplan from the Athletic on Twitter at Jake M. Kaplan. Jake, tell us what you were thinking, the moment that Jim Crane announced that A.J. Hinch and Jeff Leno were both relieved of their duties. You know, I don't remember exactly what I was thinking. I do know I was very surprised by that. I was not surprised by the sanctions, MLB.

You know, I thought those were more or less in line with what I expected, but the first real surprise of the day yesterday I thought was crane announcing, you know, that those two had been fired. And from what I understand, you know, not many people knew about it even the, who work for the Astros until it happened. So it was a complete shock to really everyone, you know, and it was, you know, he was breaking news to a lot of people at the same time. Do you think he was getting any pressure from Commissioner Manfred to do something like this? Or do you think this was just, you know what, this has already put a black cloud over the organization. I need to really cleanse the entire organization, especially from the baseball.

side. I think it could be a lot of things. You know, I think we have to remember that Jim Crane also has, he's not the only owner of the Astros. He's the top guy, but he has other owners to answer to. In the Astros ownership group, he has other owners around baseball that have interest in this. And then there's Rob Manfred. So yeah, I mean, I think there's probably some components of all those things. But, um, You know, ultimately, you know, his rationale was that, you know, they didn't, and neither Luna nor Hinch, you know, devised this game, but they didn't stop it either. So, you know, positions of power, you're held responsible, you're culpable for what the people under you do. I don't know if you can answer this, Jake, but there was a story this morning from Jeff Passing over to ESPN saying that there are some people around baseball that are angered that the penalties weren't severe.

Do you have any sources or as you guys got together with the athletic that were trying to figure out what those people wanted? What did they want? Do they want the Astros World Series title taken from them? Do they want longer suspensions, bigger fines? When they're asking for more blood, what were they looking for? The biggest one I heard was about the length of Luno's suspension. I think the rationale being the teams in place already, the Astros aren't spending any more. money, they've said that, which means they don't have much room to operate at the tread deadline

either. So if you're suspending Luno through only the beginning, you know, through the World Series, you're not really impacting as much as you could. I think, you know, maybe some people thought, you know, suspend Luno for the next off season, which is really like the next big thing for the GM when they have all these free agents, that would have had more impact. So that's the biggest one I heard. you know, I'm sure there's some who thought the money was light, although it was the most Manfred said he could do. I'm sure there's some who expected international money taken away. I certainly was surprised, but there wasn't.

But, you know, the thing, like to reiterate, I think the biggest one was probably the Luno aspect, given where they are, you know, in the calendar and what a GM, you know, the heavy lifting of the GM's job for the off season is over. Jake Kaplan from the Athletic on The Matt Thomas Show, Jake M. Kaplan on Twitter if you'd like to follow his baseball insights. Jake, no players were put into this because, from what I'd read and kind of interpreted, there were too many of them, frankly, is what I'm kind of reading between the lines on that. Are you surprised that no players were suspended as part of this? I think we had kind of heard a little bit of that a couple weeks ago.

There were some reports about that. So I wasn't surprised yesterday. I guess it would be difficult to do because there's so many of them. Many of them are on other teams. And as MLB kind of indicated in their report, you know, they needed information from the players, too, in all these interviews. So, yeah, I mean, I wasn't, I got to I wasn't super surprised by that, you know, but it is an interesting part of it, especially when one of those players is now in a position of power as a manager. the Mets, I think that probably presents an interesting decision for the Mets.

But as far as those who are still playing, you know, I guess they, you know, they have to deal with the consequences of what this meant for AJ Hinge, for Jeff Luno, but in terms of, you know, individual punishments, they escape there. Looks like we lost the MET there in Memphis, Jake. So I guess I'll just take this over from here. Where do you think the Astros go from here as far as, I mean, are they going to hire someone within you think for the general manager job and the manager? I mean, this is just obviously unprecedented. Where do the Astros go from here in Jim Crane as far as the hires they're going to make?

Yeah, I don't think Jim Crane knows yet based on, you know, yesterday it sounded like he was definitely going to consider internal candidates for both the GM and the manager's spot. You know, I think, you know, it depends on what he wants. He didn't sound like an owner who was about ready to clear out everyone else, aside from the two that you fired. So if he wants to keep everyone else around, an internal GM would make sense because you maintain the infrastructure that you have in place. You know, the manager one is a little, I'm a little less certain of. You know, Joe Espada is there as a logical choice.

but at the same time, if you just vowed to, you know, have a clean slate, can you promote the bench coach of the 2018 team that was just proven to be cheating also in addition to 2017? So not that Joe Espato was implicated, you know, in the report, but he was on the staff. So those are things that they'll have to sort out. I'm not sure which way they'll go. And like I said, I'm not sure that they know at this point. I think that'll, you know, a lot of this week will probably be figuring that out. Do you think it will be, Jake, just a, you're in charge this year with a grand plan of finding somebody for the long term?

Or do you think they'll take a little extra time to maybe hopefully find some people, both for the general manager and for the manager's spot for the long term? Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they did, like, an interim situation. For example, Pete Patilla, who's their only assistant GM left. They could say, hey, you're the interim GM. It's partially a trial. It's partially just a placeholder. We'll see how it goes.

If it goes well, maybe you're the GM, but we're also going to keep our options open. And they could do the same thing with Joe Espada theoretically. So, yeah, I guess I could see that scenario. I think the manager hire is probably a little more pressing because of spring training being in a month. And like I said earlier, the GM duties, obviously they need a GM, but, but, they're pretty much done with the roster, which obviously it's been a quiet off season on the transaction front anyway. So I could see it going in a number of directions, really. They've lost a lot of players.

The front office is gone. The manager is gone. George Springer's $5 million away from the number that he wants in arbitration. From a PR standpoint, is George in the catbird seat on this? Or could this get ugly between the two of them? because, you know, that's a pretty significant amount of money that's different between what the Astros believe his value is and what George believes his value is. Yeah, I mean, it depends who's in charge of that now, right? I mean, it's all up in the air with Jeff Lino being gone.

So, you know, my guess is that they go to arbitration and the three-person panel decides which salary Springer makes next year or this year. But, yeah, I don't know. Do you, you know, over, do you give them a huge offer for a monster extension to ease the PR? If you're Jim Crane, does Springer want that right now with all the uncertainty about the team? I think those are all questions that no one really knows the answer to. I would expect that they just go through the regular arbitration process and then go from there. But, you know, it kind of adds a whole bunch of wrinkles to everything. And they do have a lot of other free agents after next year, too.

I mean, the whole outlook of the team is different now. Last question. I don't believe Alex Cora manages the Red Sox this year. I think he's up for a long, long-term suspension. How long do you think before AJ gets a chance to manage again? And will Jeff Lillow ever be able to be a general manager of a baseball team again? You know, I'm not sure how long, but I do think A.J. Hinch will get a tent to Maddo again somewhere

or maybe be in a front office, whatever he decides to go. I think he has enough clout around the game. Obviously, this seems his reputation, but I think someone would give him a chance down the road. Jeff Luno, you know, I could see him just walking away from baseball. I don't know anything. I have no inside information, but, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the last we hear from him from the DM standpoint.

you know but I I don't know his reputation is not as strong around the game you know obviously people respected what they built but but the way they did it he was often criticized so you know those are tough questions and I'm honestly just speculating I don't know anything but that would be my guest right now

great stuff as always thank you very much for the time we will talk with you in about 30 days down in Florida my friend Good. Thanks for having me on guys. Thanks. Jake M. Kaplan on Twitter joining us and again, a lot of speculation at this point. What would you do if you were the Astros? Would you go short term or take the extra couple of weeks and try to find a long-term solution? My guess is they find people to run the baseball side of things for just 2019, for 2020 and then go from there, kind of a trial by fire or temporary basis.