What’s Next: Dustin Pedroia, Cito Gaston, Don Wakamatsu, and More

The Boston Red Sox have been battling injuries all year long. Actually, every team in baseball have faced injuries, but Boston has certainly dealt with more high-profile talent getting hurt than most other clubs.

While they still have key pieces missing from the club, Boston recently got Josh Beckett back from a lengthy stay on the disabled list and if the rest of the staff can stay healthy, Boston could yet have the time to make a run.

The lineup has been without several key players for most of the season, and with the recent season-ending injury suffered by Kevin Youkilis, they will remain that way. The Red Sox signed former Met and Blue Jay Carlos Delgado to a minor league contract and if he can get his timing back after not playing at all this season so far, he could pick up much of the slack in the heart of the Boston order. Mike Lowell is also back from injury and is covering first base duties in the meantime.

ESPNBoston.com’s Gordon Edes has a piece updating us on the progress of former MVP Dustin Pedroia as he tries to come back from a broken foot. Pedroia, out since fouling a ball off his foot on June 25, has begun baseball-related activities, and was reported to be running well. If all goes well over the next few days, Pedroia could start a brief rehab assignment as early as this weekend, with an eye on returning to the Red Sox lineup in time for the first game of a nine-game home stand that begins on Tuesday.

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Pedroia was playing well before going to the DL. He was batting .292 with 12 homers and 41 RBI in 73 games. In his absence, Bill Hall has filled in admirably, playing in 34 of the 39 games that Pedroia has missed. Hall is batting .250 but with eight home runs and  a .509 slugging percentage in that time. The Red Sox have managed to stay afloat since Pedroia went down, going 21-18 so far without him.

Edes’ article also gives a brief update on the progress of Jason Varitek (foot), Mike Cameron (abdominal tear), and Hideki Okajima (hamstring). Clearly, even with the recent return of Jacoby Ellsbury and the impending return of Pedroia, the Red Sox have more pieces coming.

As play begins today, Boston sits just five games behind the Yankees and 4.5 games back of the Rays. With the reinforcements they have coming, they aren’t out of this thing yet.

Meanwhile in Toronto, the Blue Jays are long-shots to make a playoff run this year, but manager Cito Gaston has his club six games over .500 in baseball’s toughest division. A year ago at this time, Toronto literally gave away OF Alex Rios and then they traded perennial Cy Young candidate Roy Halladay in the offseason. Most has assumed that Gaston, having already announced that 2010 would be his final year managing, would be leading a team that would only battle Baltimore for the cellar.

Instead, Gaston has his Jays club playing surprising good baseball, and he told Jim Bowden of SiriusXM’s Inside Pitch that if asked, he would consider coming back for another year at the helm of the Blue Jays.

Toronto has exceeded expectations so far by using a very solid starting rotation lead by Ricky Romero and Shawn Marcum, a better than average bullpen, and by leading the majors in home runs. GM Alex Anthopoulos has made some deft acquisitions over the past year, adding quality pieces like Fred Lewis, John Buck, Kevin Gregg, and Yunel Escobar as well as the very nice haul he got from the Halladay trade. The key piece of that deal, RHP Kyle Drabek, could be called up soon. He’s won 12 games at Double-A this year.

There are plenty in the Jays blogosphere that seem to think the game has passed Gaston by and that they could do better by letting him walk after the season, as was the plan, but I suppose that’s true of any group of fans and their manager. If Gaston is interested in coming back for another year, Toronto would do well to let him stay. Do I need to remind anyone of the days of John Gibbons?

Meanwhile in Baltimore, the Orioles got their man in new manager Buck Showalter, who made his debut with the club last week. All the AL-worst O’s have done since then is win seven of their last eight games. Baltimore drifted into obscurity over the past 12 seasons and began the year 15-39 before firing Dave Trembley. Then they lost 34 of the 51 games managed by interim boss Juan Samuel before Showalter took over.

Baltimore still doesn’t have the talent needed to compete in the AL East, but Showalter will get more out of his club than his predecessors did, his track record of building winning ballclubs speaks for itself. The Orioles will be much improved going forward once their plethora of talented, but young, pitchers begin to learn the art of pitching in the majors, and if Showalter can turn Matt Wieters and Adam Jones into the players they could become, Baltimore could return to relevance as early as next season.

Baltimore’s owner, Peter Angelos, has more often than not gotten in the way of rebuilding efforts in the past, but he seems to be allowing GM Andy MacPhail to do things the right way this time. Adding Showalter might not have been MacPhail’s first choice (the are rumors that MacPhail preferred Eric Wedge), but Showalter has the ability to light a fire under his team. And Baltimore has been sorely lacking a disciplined manager for quite some time.

In other managerial news, Seattle parted ways with Don Wakamatsu on Monday, less than two seasons into his regime. Last season, Wakamatsu took over a Seattle club that had lost 101 games in 2008 and lead them to 85 wins in 2009 despite being outscored by 52 runs on the season. He was hailed as a great leader and the man that would lead Seattle back to the playoffs, where they haven’t been since 2001.

But the lack of offense remained a problem this year. GM Jack Zduriencik failed in trying to adding pieces to a below average attack, as guys like Casey Kotchman, Milton Bradley, and the DH combination of Mike Sweeney and Ken Griffey Jr. never panned out. The Mariners won with great pitching a defense in 2009, but the defense has been shaky in 2010 and despite boasting a rotation featuring two of the top pitchers in the league (Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee) for much of the year, there was never enough offense.

Wakamatsu lost the clubhouse at some point this year, and that’s always a good time to make a change. Griffey’s retirement tour didn’t go as planned as he butted heads with Wakamatsu and more recently Chone Figgins had a public battle with the manager. Suddenly, the leader of the club was out of a job.

It won’t be long before Wakamatsu gets another shot at managing, I’d expect him to be a finalist for any job that opens up this winter. The Mariners have turned to Triple-A manager Daren Brown as the interim skipper, but don’t be surprised if Bobby Valentine winds up in Seattle next season.

The Japanese ownership group in Seattle will be familiar with Valentine from his days managing in Japan, and like Showalter, Valentine is the kind of strong-willed personality that can push his players. But if Jack Z can’t find a few good hitters somewhere, it won’t matter who is filling out the lineup card. The Mariners won’t be winning again anytime soon.