They go a long way back. So far that they managed in the same division: Bob Melvin won the 2007 NL West with Arizona while Bochy finished last in his first season with the Giants. They’ve always been friendly, and in light of recent developments, their next conversation should be a real beauty.
The specter of contrast remains, perhaps greater than ever.
As he comes out of retirement in Texas, Bochy’s job is to make the Rangers feel respectable. To convince Corey Seager and Marcus Semien it wasn’t such a bad idea to sign with this perennial also-ran last winter. Maybe he could even help lure Jacob deGrom, Carlos Rodón or another top-flight free-agent pitcher to join his rotation.
However it comes down, it’s a full-upswing adventure for the Rangers, who could hardly sink much lower. Melvin has to feel good about the revival of San Diego’s baseball love affair, but that final episode — losing the NLCS to Philadelphia — left him with a list of concerns:
• The potential of widespread turnover on his roster. Josh Bell, Brandon Drury, Mike Clevinger, Wil Myers (club option) and Sean Manaea are eligible free agents. Jurickson Profar and relievers Robert Suarez and Nick Martinez have player options and could choose to hit the market. This will be a very different-looking team in 2023, especially with scorned superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. returning to the club a few weeks into the season.
• How’s it going to work with Tatis, who drew a drug-related, 80-game suspension that left the entire organization in disgust? The opinion here: Tatis is one of the game’s top five talents. He’ll take some good advice from his father, who played 11 years in the big leagues, and return with a vengeance. If he doesn’t start out at shortstop, where Ha-Seong Kim made an eye-catching impression, he’ll have a spot in the outfield — and this crisis will have vanished by mid-summer.
• Finding out what it takes to revive Juan Soto, who had a terrible season by his lofty standards, hitting a career-low .242 after hitting .301 his first four seasons, albeit with consistent walk and power numbers. He only had a couple of notable moments over three postseason series. It’s doubtful Soto will need much guidance. Imagine if he joins Tatis and Manny Machado in a three-man pledge to dominate the National League.
• Game 4 against the Phillies. Melvin had lost faith in Manaea, the former A’s pitcher who was so badly hammered by the Dodgers during the season (23 earned runs in 172/3 innings), he could not be trusted to face LA in the Division Series. Returning from a three-week layoff, he was trying to protect a 6-4 lead in the fifth inning of Game 4 but gave up two walks, Rhys Hoskins’ two-run homer and a Bryce Harper double that put the Phils ahead to stay . Melvin said he was “trying to get him through Harper” with a lefty-lefty matchup, but the result was disastrous — and probably ended Manaea’s stay in San Diego.
• When Harper slugged his eighth-inning home run in Game 5, clinching the Phillies’ trip to the World Series, left-handed ace reliever Josh Hader was only beginning to get loose in the bullpen. “We had him up for four outs” maximum, said Melvin, confidently sticking with the right-handed Suarez, who had dominated lefty hitters all season (.181, no homers). Melvin didn’t play the desperation card, and sometimes that’s what it takes in October.
• Then there was the utterly baffling sight of Trent Grisham dropping a bunt with runners at first and second in the ninth inning of Game 5 and two outs left in the Padres’ season. The idea was a drag roller to the right side, past the pitcher and an automatic single if the first baseman’s playing at normal depth. “He’s a good bunter,” said Melvin. “First baseman’s back, wet field, drag it over there and we’ve got a chance.” But watch the replay: Grisham lined up his bat squarely over the plate, aiming straight ahead, and sure enough, he bunted it back to pitcher Ranger Suarez. Moments later, a bunch of Phillies were jumping up and down.
There’s no question Melvin’s first season in San Diego was triumphant. The town came alive, the Padres knocked off the 101-win Mets and the 111-win Dodgers in succession, and the players credited an angry Melvin for spiritual shift after he vociferously chewed out the team for its mediocre play after a mid-September loss .
“First time we’d ever seen Bob get really mad,” said second baseman Jake Cronenworth. “I really think that was the turning point for us.” Funny, though, how the most recent memories can dictate a mood.
Trudge to the finish
In the mythical free-agent market of MLB, Aaron Judge doesn’t descend from the sky, godlike, the ruler of all he surveys. Yankee Stadium fans were so disheartened by his dismal ALCS performance against Houston, and the club in general, they were eerily quiet when Judge took his final at-bat in the ninth inning.
These things can happen. Judge’s homerless 1-for-16 recalled Gil Hodges, a deeply beloved Dodger, going 0-for-21 in the 1952 World Series against the Yankees. When Ted Williams reached that stage, for the only time in his career, he hit.200 without an extra-base hit in the Red Sox’ seven-game loss to St. Louis.
Not that the Giants have lost any interest in Judge. Yankees insiders are giving San Francisco a solid chance to acquire him, noting that he isn’t terribly enamored with the New York baseball climate and would love to return home to Northern California. It should be mentioned as well that historically significant sluggers rarely make postseason headlines.
Of the 47 occasions in which a player hit 50 or more homers in a season, only six wound up in the World Series that year: Greg Vaughn, Albert Belle, Luis Gonzalez, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle (twice) and Babe Ruth (three times). Only Mantle and Ruth staged blockbuster performances, Gonzalez coming up big at the finish with his Series-clinching single off Mariano Rivera. A lot of very big names — including Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg and Alex Rodriguez — saw their titanic seasons end with an early vacation.
Angry Clay
Klay Thompson isn’t quite back to vintage form with the Golden State Warriors, and he knows it, and it really ticks him off. Incredulous at drawing an 88 preseason rating in 3-point shooting by NBA 2K23 — in a tie with Desmond Bane, Kevin Durant and Luke Kennard, behind Stephen Curry’s 99 — Thompson called those behind the video game “bums.” He’s starting to hear some chirping from the opposition, notably the Suns’ Devin Booker, who baited Klay into his first career ejection Tuesday night. Then there was TNT’s Charles Barkley, who watched that game and concluded, “You saw tonight, he’s like, ‘This young boy (Booker) is kicking my ass, ain’t nothing I can do about it.'” Barkley then deemed the Warriors too old to win the title, because “Klay is slipping. Same thing with Draymond” Green. Good for Thompson, firing back at Barkley, and remember this: When it comes to forecasting the fate of Steve Kerr’s Warriors, Barkley tends to be wrong. Like, every single time.
Bruce Jenkins writes the 3-Dot Lounge for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected]