The last several games have been incredibly disappointing. Not because they lost. Because they haven’t played well in any part of the game. 1-6 in the last seven games. They’ve scored 2.7 runs per game. They’ve allowed 6.7 runs per game. And they have been making errors far too often. It seems like they’ve shut off.
I don’t know what you do if you are ownership or management.
The knee jerk response is fire the coaching staff. They got rid of a few coaches before last year and they went from 74 wins
to 94. Pretty amazing really. The same coaches are here now. I have a hard time making the case that they went from smart to stupid in an off-season. I’d imagine some changes will be made, likely after the season, but that sort of things happen most years. Like that say, it is easier to fire the coaches than the players.
I remember Earl Weaver, when the team was in a deep slump, would put names out of a hat to pick the batting order. Maybe that would be fun for one game.
Fire the front office? Well, again, they build the team that won last year. I didn’t think the changes they made in the off-season would cause the team to crater. I don’t really think Bo Bichette was the ‘straw that stirred the drink’, as much as he had a good season 2025 season.
I didn’t expect George Springer to have as good a season as last year, but then I didn’t expect him to go from 4.8 bWAR to a 0.1 bWAR. Nor did I expect a similar drop from Vlad (4.6 bWAR to 0.8). Or, for that matter, Varsho to drop from 2.7 to 1.0.
I didn’t expect Kevin Gausman to go from 4.0 bWAR to 1.1.
Last year the stsrting pitches had a 4.34 ERA, this year 4.52, so not all that much of a difference. Relievers had a 3.98 ERA last year, 3.92 this year. not all that much different.
Injuries haven’t helped, but if you have an older team, you have to expect some injuries.
The trade deadline should be interesting. We won’t be adding any rental players, but maybe they look for some creative deals like they made to get Shane Bieber.
I’m sure they will sell some guys off. They have Gausman, Springer, Scherzer, Bieber, and Varsho coming up to free agency. Straw has a team option ($8 million). Some of those guys might bring them some prospects. I don’t know that the team would be all that excited about bringing any of them back next year.
