Kuzul

As if things were not going to be difficult enough. 

The Toronto Blue Jays added game-changing pieces to their roster before the non-waiver trade deadline, and a barrage of wins and a sprint up the American League East standings ensued. They have taken over the top spot with a behemoth offense and strong pitching staff, and it does not look like they are going to slow down anytime soon. 

That leaves the New York Yankees chasing a team that looks like it could be the league’s most complete. Meanwhile, the Yankees have a questionable rotation and an offense that showed real signs of regression over the last month—and now a prolonged injury could severely slash their chances of returning to the top of the standings.

After Mark Teixeira was re-examined by the team’s doctor Tuesday, it was determined the first baseman’s bone bruise to his right shin is more significant than the team originally believed. So now the 35-year-old All-Star, in the midst of a resurgent season, will be on crutches for a few days and is still several weeks from returning to the lineup. The injury happened Aug. 17, and Teixeira has started just once since then.

“His bone bruise has not healed at all,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters Tuesday. “There is no stress fracture. That was the biggest worry because he hasn’t responded to [treatment]. But the bone bruise has not healed in any way, shape or form.” 

Teixeira is hitting .255/.357/.548, with a 149 OPS+, 31 home runs and 79 RBI this season. Needless to say, he has been one of the league’s top offensive performers this season, ranking fourth in OPS+ behind Nelson Cruz, Mike Trout and Josh Donaldson.

The Yankees and Blue Jays both won Tuesday night, so New York remains 1.5 games behind. The Bombers have won six of their last 10 games, but they lost ground to Toronto as it went 8-2 in that span.

So, how do the Yankees remedy this Teixeira situation?

The initial stopgap was hitting prospect Greg Bird. He had a 1.091 OPS and two home runs in his first five games with the Yankees, all wins. But in his next 11 contests entering Tuesday, he hit .211/.311/.237 and failed to hit another homer. Bird was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, and his struggles in his first call-up are being well-documented since they are coming in a time of need.

There is also the Alex Rodriguez option, which the Yankees can’t seem to agree upon. A-Rod went from one of the league’s best hitters during the first half to a guy who has significantly struggled in the second, particularly in August.

So it appears he won’t be able to fill the offensive void Teixeira’s absence left. And according to Cashman, Rodriguez will not spell Teixeira on the field, although manager Joe Girardi says the team needs A-Rod at first base while its best hitter is on the mend, per David Lennon of Newsday.

In a related note, Cashman insists that he does not see A-Rod at 1B. Girardi, however, says he needs Rodriguez in mix there now. #Yankees

— David Lennon (@DPLennon) September 1, 2015

When Teixeira initially fouled a ball off his leg, just below his right knee, the team did not believe it would have to find a long-term replacement. The original diagnosis was Teixeira would miss about a week, 10 days at most.

That was manageable. The Yankees, in fact, got through that stretch without disappearing off the AL East radar completely. They went 5-5 over their next 10 games, though the offense struggled as they lost 2.5 games in the standings. Had Teixeira come back after that, things would not have seemed so terrible.

He has not, though.

“He’s going to be down for clearly an extended period of time,” Cashman told reporters. “They’ve ruled out any other complications. It’s a timing mechanism, and it’s just taking a hell of a lot longer than anybody would have expected.”

Since Aug. 18, the Blue Jays have gone 10-3. The Yankees have gone 8-6. New York has bandaged the bleeding by winning four of its last five, but it’s feasted on the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox, two clubs destined to finish miles under .500.

Once the Yankees finish up in Boston on Wednesday, things get more rugged. Their next six games are at home against the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles.

The four after that are also at home. Against the Blue Jays. Without Teixeira.

It’s the biggest, most critical series of both teams’ seasons. National television and media will descend. The microscope will be focused. And even with another series between the teams remaining after that, it is quite possible the division will be decided in those four days in the Bronx.

Now we know Teixeira, the Yankees’ best offensive weapon, will not be there. And that absence, at that time, could determine which team wins the series—and the division.

Stats are courtesy of FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference.com, unless noted otherwise. 

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

First baseman Mark Teixeira has been a driving force behind the New York Yankees‘ high-powered offense this season, but the American League All-Star is now banged up at a critical time.

Continue for updates.

Teixeira Out at Least Two More Weeks 

Tuesday, Sept. 1

Teixeira’s resurgent season has coincided with his ability to remain healthy; however, that is now in doubt as a bruised right shin has hindered his ability to stay on the field, according to the YES Network’s Jack Curry.  

The first baseman hasn’t been in the Yankees’ lineup since Aug. 26, and manager Joe Girardi indicated the slugger won’t be returning anytime soon. 

According to Newsday‘s Erik Boland, Girardi told reporters the MRI showed “more than we thought” and reiterated that Teixeira will be on crutches for “a few days.”      

Tex entered 2015 having missed 225 games over the previous three seasons, including all but 15 contests in 2013. Expectations for his contributions were tempered because of the notion that he had become injury-prone, but he has been fantastic to this point.

He was named to his third career All-Star team and first since 2009 after an excellent first half that saw him hit 22 home runs and 62 RBI with a .240 batting average and .350 on-base percentage.

Coincidentally, his home run and RBI totals at the break matched his output from the entire 2014 season, according to Jeff Quagliata of YES Network:

The 35-year-old slugger has always had that type of power and run production in him as an eight-time 30-homer and 100-RBI guy over the course of his career entering the season. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t approached those numbers since 2011 because of constant injuries.

Chief among them was a wrist issue, which was responsible for him missing almost the entire 2013 campaign. While his wrist is something that is likely to bother him to some degree for the rest of his career, it hasn’t been much of a problem in 2015.

In fact, Teixeira was thrilled with the state of his wrist at the midway point of the season, per Mike Vorkunov of NJ Advance Media: “It’s as good as I could ever imagine. I think so. It’s super strong. I haven’t had any issues with it. I ice it after every game because that’s just a maintenance thing for me. I’m very happy with where it is.”

Despite Teixeira’s optimism regarding his health this season, he has been bitten by the injury bug yet again. If that results in him missing a significant amount of time, then it is a huge blow for the Yanks since he is such a force as a switch-hitter in the middle of the lineup.

The Bronx Bombers have a strong offensive core that also includes Brian McCann, Alex Rodriguez, Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury, but it can be argued that Teixeira is the key component because of his ability to drive in everyone else.

He also provides fantastic defense at first base, which makes him one of the most important cogs in the Yankees’ overall attack.

If New York is going to be a true World Series threat this season, then it will need a healthy Tex moving forward.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — Down here in the Atlantic League, the players hear the stories of what Shane Spencer did.

He came out of nowhere and became an instant star. He walked out of the minor leagues and into the World Series.

He never played here, but leagues like this are full of guys with dreams of doing what Spencer did in 1998 with the New York Yankees. He can tell them what it was like, and as the third-year hitting coach with the Somerset Patriots, perhaps he could even set them on the way to doing it themselves.

But there’s more to his story, and Spencer wants to make sure his players hear that, too.

“They’ll ask me, ‘When was the last time you played in the big leagues?'” Spencer said one day last week.

And he can only warn them not to do what he did six years later.

“I say, ‘When I got a DUI.’ It wakes them up real quick. It’s like a reality check for them.”

It was one bad night, one dumb mistake, one night in Florida when he was rehabbing an injury and trying to get back to the New York Mets. Instead, the Mets released him, and a major league career that began with one magical month of September was effectively over.

He was one of the best September call-ups ever, the guy who joined a Yankees team headed for 114 wins and became the talk of the town. He homered seven times in nine days and eight times in the month, still the most ever by a Yankee rookie in September.

He was “the reincarnation of Babe Ruth,” in the words of Will Clark, and he had his own John Sterling home run call (“Shane Spencer, the home run dispenser”). He won a spot on the postseason roster and a chance to start a World Series game in his hometown when the Yankees played the San Diego Padres.

“I remember watching the playoffs on television and seeing Shane’s picture come up on the screen,” said Tim Schmidt, the Yankees scout who signed Spencer as a 28th-round draft pick. “I’ll never forget, they were promo-ing the next game, and they said, ‘The New York Yankees, led by Shane Spencer.'”

The next spring, he was back in the minor leagues.

Spencer has World Series rings from 1998, 1999 and 2000, and he was in right field for the Yankees when Luis Gonzalez got the hit that won the 2001 World Series for the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was Spencer’s throw earlier in that postseason that led to Derek Jeter’s famous flip play in Oakland.

It was a nice career, but when it ended, Spencer had never played as many as 100 games for one team in one season. He never had another month like that September of 1998, and when he came back to the Yankees on a minor league deal late in the 2004 season, the New York Times called him “the troubled outfielder” and not the guy who was once a surprise September star.

He had knee trouble and shoulder trouble, and even an irregular heartbeat that sent him to the hospital in 1999. He sliced his heel in a bar so seriously that he needed stitches and went to the disabled list (and to Florida, where he was charged with driving under the influence after he was caught going 98 mph).

By 2005, Spencer was in Japan playing for the Hanshin Tigers. By 2008, his playing career was over, and Spencer had a job as a hitting coach at Class A Lake Elsinore in the Padres organization.

Spencer has grown into coaching, earning a reputation as someone who not only helps hitters, but also reads the entire game. Joe Klein, the former major league general manager who is the executive director of the Atlantic League, says he could see Spencer as a manager someday.

For now, Spencer says he’s happy to be where he is, working with Somerset manager Brett Jodie, his minor league teammate from the Yankees organization.

“We’ve just had a blast,” Spencer said. “I’ve got a pretty good gig here.”

He was meant to be a coach, he figures, and even the off-field trouble was part of it. The way Spencer sees it, he can relate to what players go through because he has been through so much himself.

“I knew I gave it all I had,” he said.

“Of course, I made mistakes off the field.”

He still gets recognized for that magical month in 1998. He still has a special feel for this time of year, and he still likes to look at all of the September call-ups, “to see what the young guys are going to do.”

None of them ever do what Spencer did in 1998.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The hottest hitter on the planet has been massively overlooked.

But he did all he could to change that Saturday afternoon, breaking through the star power of his teammates to shine as bright as any player has this season.

Edwin Encarnacion was already on a tear during August when he went into Saturday’s game, and he put everyone who might have been sleeping on him this month on high alert that, at the moment, he might be the best of Toronto’s vaunted bunch.

Encarnacion hit three home runs, prompting his Canadian fans to throw their hats onto the field, and drove in nine runs in the Toronto Blue Jays’ 15-1 stomping of the Detroit Tigers at Rogers Centre, furthering his candidacy as the American League’s best player in August. Before Saturday’s barrage, the designated hitter led the Junior Circuit this month with a 227 wRC+, a .500 wOBA, a .797 slugging percentage and a 1.234 OPS, and he was second in isolated power (.419), according to Fangraphs.

“He was hot,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus told reporters. “He was hot before we got here, and he certainly hasn’t cooled off.”

.@Encadwin all smiles after his #HatTrick today! 💪 pic.twitter.com/1zMRCpjbu7

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 29, 2015

On Saturday, he also extended his hitting streak to 24 games, the longest in Major League Baseball this season. He is hitting .400 (36-90) with 10 home runs and 34 RBI in that stretch to go with a .462 OBP, an .856 slugging percentage and a 1.318 OPS.

Since the All-Star break, Encarnacion went into Saturday hitting .351/.434/.684 with a 1.118 OPS. He knew not to press for power. He knew it would come, and when it finally did, he stole the show by making history as the only player in franchise history to have a three-homer, nine-RBI game.

“That’s going to come, I just have to keep taking good swings and making good contact and the power is going to come back,” Encarnacion told Shi Davidi of SportsNet earlier this month. “I don’t worry about that, I still have my power, just keep trying to hit the ball in the right spot.”

The thing is not many people knew exactly how hot Encarnacion was before he smoked a grand slam, a three-run homer and a two-run shot Saturday, making him the second Toronto player to ever record nine RBI in a single game.

The reason for the anonymity is because the Blue Jays are now loaded, and offensive outbursts like the one they had against Detroit are becoming commonplace for this team. Since Aug. 2, the Blue Jays have outscored their competition 153-70. That is an 83-run differential, and the club is a ridiculous 20-4 in that time to help them to the top spot in the AL East.

Further burying Encarnacion in the headlines is that he looks up in the lineup and there are three superstar players hitting in front of him—Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista. And on every fifth game, he can look on the mound and see David Price, yet another established star to attract attention from Encarnacion.

Encarnacion credits the All-Star break with rejuvenating his season. He was dealing with nagging injuries before that, and in the 14 games before the break he hit .163 (8-for-49).

“Those four days were very good for me because I wasn’t 100 per cent with injuries in my groin and shoulder,” Encarnacion told Davidi. “Now I feel ready; I feel good and I can let it go.”

He certainly did that Saturday, as he has for the entire second half. While Price, Tulowitzki, Donaldson and Bautista get most of the publicity on this team, much of the production belongs to Encarnacion. As did this day that brought on a newly learned custom for the 32-year-old native Dominican.

“[Dioner Navarro] told me when they score three goals, I think, they do that,” Encarnacion told reporters of the fans throwing hats on the field, a tradition normally designated for hockey hat tricks. “It made me feel happy.”

It’s also making the Blue Jays ecstatic. His blazing bat allows those other three in front of him to see at least the occasional hittable pitch, because no one wants guys on base for the cleanup hitter, Encarnacion. And while the trades for Price and Tulowitzki and the MVP candidacy of Donaldson are what people focus on when discussing this team, Encarnacion has just forced his way into the international discussion about the Blue Jays. 

If that continues to be the case, he won’t be overlooked any longer, and he will help make the Blue Jays difficult to pick against come October.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

If you’re a fan of the invisible parrot Edwin Encarnacion takes for a stroll as he rounds the bases after home runs, you were in luck Saturday.

The Toronto Blue Jays slugger went 3-for-5, mashing three home runs and driving in nine runs in a 15-1 win over the Detroit Tigers at Rogers Centre. According to Ryan Field of Fox Sports, only one other player in Blue Jays history has attained nine RBI in a game:

Encarnacion’s first dinger of the game, a three-run shot for Toronto’s first runs of the day, came against Buck Farmer in the first inning. The home run also extended Encarnacion’s hit streak to 24 games:

It’s safe to say Encarnacion has been the most dangerous hitter in baseball during this stretch, as the Canadian Press’ Stephen Whyno noted:

Guido Knudson was the next pitcher to suffer at the hands of Encarnacion, who belted a two-run home run in the sixth that left the building in a hurry. With the Blue Jays already holding a 7-1 lead, Encarnacion scorched Knudson’s offering, delivering a rocket that cleared the left field wall in a little over three seconds.

Encarnacion put the cherry on top of his big day in the bottom of the seventh inning. With the bases loaded and the game out of sight, he whipped the Toronto crowd into a frenzy by hitting an opposite-field grand slam that just cleared the right-center field wall.

Rounding the bases, fans threw their caps on the field, celebrating Encarnacion’s hat-trick of home runs on Saturday. The hero of the day took to Twitter and Instagram after the game:

Things have been going swell for the team north of the border, as the Blue Jays are now two games clear of the New York Yankees for first place in the American League East.

Toronto is the hottest team in baseball, posting a 23-5 record since July 29 while pouring in runs as the majors’ most explosive team. A lot of that is thanks to Encarnacion, who represents a nightmare for any opposing pitcher.

Videos courtesy of MLB.com.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Kansas City Royals designated hitter Kendrys Morales sat on Erasmo Ramirez’s fastball in the third inning, driving it deep to center field.

But before Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Kevin Kiermaier could make out what was happening as the ball hit the catwalk, he made a mad dash for the wall to try to rob Morales of his two-run shot.

The ball bounced off the catwalk and fell back onto the field as Kiermaier sat atop the wall, striking a pose:

The officials upheld the call as a home run upon review, giving the Royals a 3-1 lead.

[Vine, MLB]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a…baseball?

Josh Donaldson crushed Matt Boyd’s 93 mph fastball in the third inning Friday, sending it flying toward the fifth deck at Rogers Centre to give the Toronto Blue Jays a 3-1 lead over the Detroit Tigers.

At an estimated 444 feet, the third baseman’s shot wasn’t even his longest of the season, as ESPN Stats & Info noted:

It was his 35th homer of 2015, matching Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis for the second-most in MLB.

[MLB]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Fan safety at MLB games has been under the microscope lately, and legal action from a Fenway Park attendee is set to intensify discussion about the issue.

According to the Boston Globe‘s Travis Andersen, Stephanie Taubin is suing Boston Red Sox owner John Henry after she was struck by a foul ball last season while sitting above home plate.

Per Andersen, Taubin was sitting in a section that was undergoing renovations, and as a result, protective glass designed to prevent airborne objects from striking fans was not in its usual place. According to court documents filed by Taubin, the absence of glass left her seating “at greater risk of foul balls entering that [section] of Fenway Park.”

In a statement provided to the Boston Globe, the franchise reiterated that “the safety of Red Sox fans and providing a quality ballpark experience are essential to the Red Sox, and to Mr. Henry, and are goals for which we strive as an organization to deliver.”

While the monetary components of Taubin’s suit against Henry have yet to be reported, her filing comes at a time when MLB franchises are starting to examine the merits of enhanced protective measures for fans.

Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported Wednesday the Philadelphia Phillies are interested in installing more protective netting, although plans have yet to be finalized.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar incident at Fenway Park back in June. According to the Boston Globe, a woman was injured when the bat of Oakland A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie shattered and struck her in the head.

While her injuries were originally believed to be “life-threatening,” according to the Boston Globe, the woman was released from the hospital and underwent an “excellent” recovery, per the Associated Press (via Fox Sports).  

Sweeping measures have yet to be enacted to combat the issue, but Rosenthal reported MLB is “working diligently” on viable improvements to fan safety across the league, according to league spokesman Pat Courtney.

It appears the league is taking positive steps toward the protection of its fans with the postseason approaching.   

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Chris Archer tied a franchise record Wednesday against the Minnesota Twins by recording his ninth double-digit strikeout game of the season, per Sportsnet Stats.

The mark was previously set last season by David Price, who has since pitched for both the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays.

Unfortunately for the Rays, Archer’s 12-strikeout effort came in a 5-3 loss, with the ace allowing four runs on nine hits and a walk to drop the club’s record to 62-64 and his own record to 11-10. Despite the loss, the 26-year-old remains among the league’s top pitchers and has a legitimate shot at the AL Cy Young Award.

Archer represents one of the few bright spots for the 2015 Rays, who have fallen out of playoff contention over the last couple of weeks. After trading away Price in July 2014, the team needed another pitcher to step up and grab the ace role, and Archer has more than capably filled that void.

Over 194.2 innings last season, Archer posted a 3.33 ERA and 1.28 WHIP with 173 strikeouts and a 10-9 record. He’s taken it to another level this year, potentially finishing with a sub-3.00 ERA (currently sitting at 2.88) while upping his strikeout rate to a career-high 11.2 per nine innings.

Although the Rays probably won’t be taking home any hardware as a club this season, it wouldn’t be a shock if Archer brings some back to the Tampa area himself. It should also be a comfort to know that the team has one of the league’s top pitchers under contract for the next four seasons.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Dave Dombrowski won big in his fifth year in Florida, and in his fifth year in Detroit. He’s in Boston now because the Red Sox expect him to win big there, too, but there’s no way they expect him to take five years to do it.

Nor should they, because even though the Red Sox are headed for a third last-place finish in four years, they’re far ahead of where the expansion team Marlins or collapsing Tigers were when Dombrowski took charge.

They have talent, and the resources to go get more of it. With the right moves and the right amount of good fortune, they could win soon.

Like next year.

It won’t be easy. If it was going to be easy, the Red Sox wouldn’t need to pay Dombrowski big money to do it, and Bleacher Report wouldn’t need to pay me (somewhat smaller money) to predict it.

He’ll earn the big money if he does it, because his job is harder than mine. He has to operate in the real world, and there’s no guarantee that everything suggested here will even be possible.

Like trading Hanley Ramirez.

My friend John Tomase of WEEI.com wrote Thursday, “Ramirez needs to go.” He’s right, and it’s going to take all of Dombrowski’s huge trading skill to make it happen. It will likely require eating quite a bit of the remaining $68.25 million on Ramirez’s contract, and it will require taking less than equal value (in baseball terms, anyway) in return.

But just as agreeing to sign Ramirez to play left field was the No. 1 mistake the Red Sox made last winter, ridding themselves of Ramirez now becomes No. 1 on the priority list for next winter.

Moving Ramirez to first base isn’t the long-term answer, but it could help build some trade value. No one is going to trade for him as a full-time first baseman, but perhaps Dombrowski can sell him as a Victor Martinez type, someone who can play in the field every now and then while primarily serving as a DH.

Trading Ramirez will be addition by subtraction, but Dombrowski will need to do plenty of addition by addition, too. If signing Ramirez was the No. 1 mistake last winter, then failing to add a top-of-the-rotation starter was No. 1A.

Dombrowski’s move to Boston should be great news for David Price, Zack Greinke and Johnny Cueto, the three top-of-the-rotation starters who will become free agents (assuming Greinke opts out of his contract). Baseball people who know Dombrowski consider it a given that he will make signing one of the three a big priority, which should help make all three of them very rich.

With big-money teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and others (Houston Astros? New York Yankees?) shopping in the same high-end pitching market, it’s not a given that Dombrowski will get any of the three. So he may need to add the top starter through trade.

That won’t be easy, either, but do the Red Sox have enough young talent to tempt Billy Beane to part with Sonny Gray? They might, and Dombrowski should try.

If he gets to the end of the winter and the only big moves he has made are to jettison Ramirez and add Price, Cueto, Greinke or Gray, Dombrowski will already have a much-improved team that could win in 2016. But he should—and will—do more.

He should add a second starting pitcher, perhaps a free agent on the level of Mike Leake, perhaps a trade candidate like James Shields. Besides upgrading a rotation that ranks 28th in baseball with a 4.72 ERA (only the Colorado Rockies and Philadelphia Phillies have been worse), adding two pitchers would give the Red Sox the depth to trade someone like Wade Miley and/or to try guys like Joe Kelly and Matt Barnes in the bullpen.

Rebuilding the bullpen is a must, and it’s a familiar task for Dombrowski from his recent time with the Tigers. That history, though, suggests that building a bullpen is not his strength.

You might notice that we don’t have Dombrowski adding a single position player up to this point. He obviously will, even though the lineup he inherits is third in the major leagues in runs. The needs will depend in part on whether Dombrowski trades any of his major league talent to get someone like Gray (would it take Xander Bogaerts or Mookie Betts?), but regardless, the Red Sox could use another middle-of-the-order hitter.

What they have right now isn’t an overly powerful lineup, particularly if they stay with a Betts-Jackie Bradley Jr.-Rusney Castillo outfield (which would help the pitching). A big-hitting first baseman would be the easiest fit.

There’s plenty more to do, including building a roster that rebuilds the chemistry the Red Sox had in 2013 but so badly lacked this season. And, of course, Dombrowski needs to figure out who to keep and who to add to the front office he inherited (a process he’s working his way through right now).

What about John Farrell?

The Red Sox manager is on leave while he undergoes cancer treatment. While the Red Sox haven’t said anything about his status for 2016, what makes most sense is for Dombrowski to bring him back if Farrell feels up to it.

The Red Sox have had enough clumsily handled departures this year, the latest being this week’s decision on classy and talented NESN announcer Don Orsillo. The last thing they need is to fire a manager while he’s in chemotherapy.

Besides, Farrell won a World Series in Boston. Moving on from him shouldn’t be a priority.

There’s too much else to focus on first.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com