The 2023 Player of the Year

And a little something about the greatest manager of our time

Welcome to Warning Track Power, an independent newsletter of baseball stories and analysis grounded in front office and scouting experiences and the personalities encountered along the way.

It was his to lose. To be honest, I wanted him to be the 2023 WTP Player of the Year before the first pitch of the season was even thrown. Pitchers and catchers hadn’t reported. The season that just ended had yet to begin.

I was on the phone with a friend and former colleague.

Jeff Gardner played in the big leagues for four seasons. He debuted with the Mets in 1991 before being acquired by the Padres during the following offseason. In 1993, he was San Diego’s everyday second baseman, appearing in 140 games. One year later, he was in Montreal. Oh, those ’94 Expos.

Gardner, known by many as Gardy, has scouted and coached during his post-playing career. At one point, he served as Bruce Bochy’s advance scout for the Padres.

“The game is starting to come back,” Gardner told me when we spoke back in late January. He was preparing to enter his second season as the Diamondbacks minor league quality control coach. From the sound of it, he couldn’t wait. And he didn’t have to.

Corbin Carroll, who signed an eight-year, $111 million contract extension this past Spring Training after appearing in only 32 Major League games in 2022, had called Gardy. He wanted to work on his bunting. On his bunting! Had the young outfielder become confused and believed he had landed in the Dead Ball Era? Buh-buh-buh… bunting?!

Carroll wanted to know if the coach was available to help.

Of course he was.

Gardner may have seen signs elsewhere, but Carroll’s commitment to putting in the work confirmed it: The game was starting to come back. We could manufacture runs again. Long live small ball!

There was excitement in Gardner’s voice. Not the jubilation, perhaps, he might have expressed had he known the D-backs were going end up in the World Series nine months later. It was the restrained optimism of a man who has quietly observed the comings and goings of countless people over nearly 40 years in and around professional baseball. It was also an assertion of resolute positivity that we don’t often hear from baseball veterans.

When we hung up the phone, I hoped to be writing this article after the season. How many times have you cried for a bunt or slap hit to the vacated area of the diamond when an infield is intentionally not defending against it?

What, I wondered, might Corbin Carroll intend to do with refined bunting abilities? What kind of big leaguer was he threatening to become?

Sac bunts don’t land TV commercials. In fact, they sometimes invite ridicule.

Even bunting for a base hit is at times admonished in this slugging-drunk society. It’s a craft that, say, needs to be developed and practiced in the winter. It’s an art form that the player has to want to nurture.

In 2023, Carroll, the presumptive NL Rookie of the Year, had three bunt base hits during the regular season. That’s not much at all, but only four players had more. (T.J. Friedl of the Reds led MLB with 17!)

Carroll represents a movement.

I acknowledge that it’s unfair to expect one player to change the game, to return fundamental, smart baseball to big league basepaths. However, it’s the mindset and work ethic that helped propel an 84-win team to the World Series. Situational baseball won’t win the home run derby, but well-executed bunts win ballgames. That commitment will also deliver Warning Track Power Player of the Year honors. Congratulations to Corbin Carroll, proof you can work on bunting and still hit 25 homers in the Major Leagues.

Carroll, a 2019 first-round pick out of Lakeside School in Seattle, hit .285 and slugged .506. He recorded 30 doubles, a league-leading 10 triples, and he stole 54 bases in 59 attempts. I hope he takes a few weeks off before he calls Gardy again.

Treats and Tricks

The Diamondbacks accounted for nine of the 15 sacrifice bunts laid down this postseason. The Rangers executed none. Part of what makes the game great are the different available paths to victory on any given night. While there were many great moments during the postseason, my highlight came during the World Series.

After determining that we had seen the last of our trick-or-treaters, I went inside the house and found my father and son watching Game 4 of the World Series together. It was 10-1 in the seventh inning, and still every pitch was meaningful.

Bochy For Mayor

I’ve written about it this week on Facebook and LinkedIn, and I think it bears repeating: One of the most underappreciated elements of Bruce Bochy’s career is that he has always retained the existing coaches when joining a team as manager. He did it as a rookie skipper in San Diego, again as an established field general in San Francisco, and once more after being aggressively courted in Texas.

So often, a manager has a couple guys — an inner circle — who follow him across organizations. I’ve never asked Bochy about his philosophy on assembling a coaching staff. I’m sure he has his reasons. Maybe he doesn’t want to give the impression of factions. Maybe he is opposed to uprooting qualified coaches before giving them a chance. Perhaps he enjoys the challenges of building and rebuilding a team from the inside out.

Whatever the motivation, it’s a testament to his confidence and character. Bochy also deserves praise for being one of the very last people not to wear goggles during Champagne celebrations. It stings like hell. I bet Boch believes it’s supposed to.

Congrats to Bruce Bochy, Chris Young, and the entire Texas Rangers organization!

WTP offers free and paid subscriptions. Sign up now and never miss a word.