TBNL #328 — Things are pretty dire in Sacramento; Awful Announcing’s broadcaster rankings; Didi Gregorius retires; a KBO team isn’t moving; a new CPBL signing bonus record.

Entering play on Sunday, June 21 — the first day of summer — the Athletics held a 38-40 (.487) record, 1.5 games behind Seattle in the AL West and just a half-game behind Toronto for the final Wild Card spot.

As of Friday, August 21, the A’s were 49-79 (.383) and held the worst record in MLB. The team is 11-41 (.212) since the start of summer, which would be a 128-loss pace over a full 162-game season (worse than the record-setting 121-loss White Sox team in 2024).

The offense ranks 20th in runs scored (557), 13th in home runs (153), and 15th in OPS (.719) for the season.

The pitching staff is dead last in ERA (5.51), runs allowed (742), and home runs allowed (192), 27th in walks (511), and 16th in strikeouts (1071).

Injuries have hit the roster hard. Outfielder/DH Brent Rooker underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on July 17. Infielder Joshua Kuroda-Grauer ruptured a testicle on July 20. Catcher Shea Langeliers tore the meniscus in his knee on July 28. First baseman Nick Kurtz strained his thumb on July 31. Shortstop Jacob Wilson dislocated his shoulder on August 16. Outfielder Tyler Soderstrom underwent hip surgery on August 21. All six hitters have been ruled out for the remainder of the season.

General manager David Forst, who had worked for the organization since 2000 and stepped into the GM position after the 2015 season when Billy Beane was promoted to executive vice president, was dismissed in early August. The team suggested at the time that the decision was mutual, before reports surfaced that Forst had expressed a “reluctance” about relocating to Las Vegas (he didn’t want to uproot his family in Oakland). Dan Feinstein was named as the team’s interim GM to replace him.

A week after the decision was announced publicly, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal discussed some of the challenges owner John Fisher still faces ahead of the team’s relocation to Las Vegas. Included among them are his decision to “host” the team in Sacramento — where playing in a minor league stadium has proven to be challenging for many players and coaches, not to mention the havoc it has thrown into the team’s development plans (it’s been a very high-offense environment that has not been conducive to developing pitching) and the substandard facilities they’ve coped with — and the decision to part ways with Forst. As Rosenthal writes, the team’s next GM needs to be someone unique who can help push Fisher and the organization into a modern era. Among the many challenges they will face, the franchise once “at the forefront of the analytics revolution is now at the rear”.

The A’s are last in attendance — though that was to be expected when playing their home games in a 14,000-seat minor league ballpark. The team is averaging just 10,188 fans per game (through 63 games). They aren’t even selling out a field less than half the size of MLB’s smallest stadium.

The club’s broadcast team of Jenny Cavnar, Chris Caray, Dallas Braden, Shooty Babitt, and Steve Sax ranked at the bottom of Awful Announcing’s annual local MLB announcer rankings for a second year in a row — with a notable portion of the 85,000-plus survey respondents stating a strong dislike for Braden’s “schtick”.

The worst record in MLB. An offense hampered by injuries. A pitching staff that’s been ineffective. Front office turnover and uncertainty. Minimal attendance. A lousy broadcast team.

Things are looking pretty dire in West Sacramento.

And the team still has another full season to play there before the stadium in Las Vegas is complete and ready for use (they’re scheduled to be ready for Opening Day 2028).

There is no clear, easy, or obvious answer to how to start fixing things either.

Circling back to the above-mentioned local broadcaster rankings from Awful Announcing for a moment, it comes as little surprise to see the Padres’ broadcast team of Don Orsillo, Mark Grant, Jesse Agler, Tony Gwynn Jr., Bob Scanlon, and Mariluz Cook take home the top spot. The main duo of Orsillo and Grant is an absolute joy to listen to during a game, while being both entertaining and informative. Orsillo has been a personal favorite since his days in Boston. This is the second straight year they’ve taken the top spot in these rankings.

The Giants (Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow, Dave Flemming, Jon Miller, Glen Kuiper, Javier López, Shawn Estes, and Hunter Pence), Mets (Ron Darling, Gary Cohen, Steve Gelbs, Keith Hernandez, Todd Zeile, and Daniel Murphy), Yankees (Michael Kay, Paul O’Neill, David Cone, Joe Girardi, and Meredith Marakovitis), and Cubs (Jon Sciambi, Jim Deshaies, Alex Cohen, Rick Sutcliffe, Taylor McGregor, Elise Menaker, Ryan Dempster, and Cliff Floyd) completed the Top 5.

Former Reds, Diamondbacks, Yankees, and Phillies shortstop Didi Gregorius has announced his retirement following an 11-year career in the big leagues and four seasons in Mexico with the Algondeneros de Union Laguna.

Signed by Cincinnati as an international amateur free agent in 2007, Gregorius made his MLB debut with a brief nine-game callup with the Reds in Sept. 2012. He was traded to Arizona that winter as part of a nine-player, three-team deal. Two years later, he was part of a second three-team deal (this time involving four players) that brought him to New York. His five seasons with the Yankees (where he took over for a retiring Derek Jeter) were, by far, his most productive — totaling 14.8 bWAR in 660 games while hitting .269/.313/.446 (102 OPS+) in 2658 PA (plus a .257/.315/.426 line in 112 PA in the postseason).

Gregorius reached free agency following the 2019 season and signed a one-year deal with Philadelphia. He played well enough during the Covid-shortened 2020 season to warrant a new two-year extension, but persistent elbow injuries plagued the rest of his tenure in Philadelphia. The team would release him in Aug. 2022. He’d finish his MLB career with a .257/.308/.420 (95 OPS+) line across 4259 PA, totaling 17.3 bWAR.

That is where Gregorius’s travels began. He spent a month playing in Mexico before an opportunity to return to affiliated baseball came about, but after 25 games at Triple-A Tacoma, the Mariners released him. Gregorious appeared in Dubai that winter, participating in a showcase and the inaugural draft for Baseball United. He’d then return to Mexico the next spring, playing three more seasons in the LMB (batting .274/.362/.437 in 842 PA). He was also 1-for-13 for the Netherlands in this spring’s World Baseball Classic.

Ownership threatening to relocate a team if local leaders don’t meet its demands is not a story unique to Major League Baseball.

Nor is it unique to North American sports.

The KBO’s NC Dinos have been at odds with the city of Changwon (located in the southeastern portion of South Korea) dating back to March 2025, but as Yonhap News Agency’s Jee-ho Yoo writes, the two sides have finally moved past their differences. The team released a statement on Thursday withdrawing its threat to relocate.

The contention between the two sides began in March 2025 when an aluminum panel fell from above a concession stand during a game and killed an unsuspecting fan, as Yoo details. The incident led to the stadium being shut down for more than a month while inspections and repairs were completed. The Dinos felt that the city was “dragging its feet” in taking responsibility for the upkeep of the stadium, which is owned by the city, and threatened to relocate if “improvements in and around the stadium” were not made. The team’s statement acknowledged the city’s efforts to meet those demands.

The Dinos have called Changwon home since the franchise began play in 2013.

With the first pick in the 2002 CPBL Draft, the Sinon Bulls (now known as the Fubon Guardians) selected right-hander Chung-Nan Tsai. The addition was a major win for the Bulls as Tsai had already established himself as a household name across Taiwan after impressive performances for the national team during the 1999 Asian Baseball Championships (outdueling Japan’s Daisuke Matsuzaka) and 2001 Baseball World Cup (leading the team to a win over the Netherlands). Tsai received a record-setting NT$6 million (roughly $189,000 USD) signing bonus.

Tsai was 14-9 with a 3.49 ERA in 149.2 IP during his first season in the CPBL, collecting the league’s Rookie of the Year Award. He’d follow that up by going 11-4 with a 3.89 ERA in 113.1 IP the next year.

Tsai couldn’t maintain his effectiveness on the mound — winning nine games while seeing his ERA rise to 4.04 over 146.0 IP the next two seasons — and ultimately couldn’t remain healthy, as injuries cost him part of 2005 and most of the 2006 season. He’d return to throw just 48.2 IP in 2007 before calling it a career and becoming a pitching coach for the team.

Tsai’s record-setting signing bonus stood for more than 25 years before it was broken this week. The Guardians once again held the first pick in the CPBL Draft and selected 18-year-old infielder Po-kai Chen. The two sides agreed to a deal that will pay Chen an NT$6.5 million (roughly $204,000 USD) signing bonus. Per a report from Taiwan’s CNA, Chen will also receive a “training allowance” of NT$1 million and could earn an additional NT$1 million in performance incentives.