2015 Major League Baseball season

This article is about the 2015 Major League Baseball season only. For information on all of baseball, see 2015 in baseball.
2015 MLB season
League Major League Baseball
Sport Baseball
Duration April 5 – October 4, 2015
Number of games 162
Number of teams 30
Regular season
Season MVP AL:
NL:
League Postseason
World Series

The 2015 Major League Baseball season began on April 5, 2015 with a Sunday night game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, and will end on October 4, 2015.

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game's 86th edition will be held on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio, home of the Cincinnati Reds.

This year the Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the annual Civil Rights Game on April 15 against the Seattle Mariners, the first time the game will be held on Jackie Robinson Day.[1][2] The Dodgers won the game 5–2.

This is also Rob Manfred's first season serving as Commissioner of Baseball.

Standings

Division

American League National League
AL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 13 9 0.591 — 6–6 7–3
Tampa Bay Rays 12 10 0.545 1 6–6 6–4
Boston Red Sox 12 10 0.545 1 6–4 6–6
Baltimore Orioles 10 10 0.500 2 6–4 4–6
Toronto Blue Jays 11 12 0.478 2½ 5–5 6–7
AL Central W L Pct. GB Home Road
Kansas City Royals 15 7 0.682 — 8–2 7–5
Detroit Tigers 15 8 0.652 ½ 8–5 7–3
Minnesota Twins 10 12 0.455 5 6–4 4–8
Chicago White Sox 8 11 0.421 5½ 6–3 2–8
Cleveland Indians 7 14 0.333 7½ 2–7 5–7
AL West W L Pct. GB Home Road
Houston Astros 15 7 0.682 — 5–5 10–2
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 11 11 0.500 4 4–6 7–5
Seattle Mariners 10 12 0.455 5 5–7 5–5
Oakland Athletics 9 14 0.391 6½ 4–9 5–5
Texas Rangers 7 14 0.333 7½ 2–7 5–7
NL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Mets 15 8 0.652 — 10–1 5–7
Atlanta Braves 10 12 0.455 4½ 4–6 6–6
Miami Marlins 10 12 0.455 4½ 6–6 4–6
Washington Nationals 10 13 0.435 5 5–5 5–8
Philadelphia Phillies 8 15 0.348 7 6–6 2–9
NL Central W L Pct. GB Home Road
St. Louis Cardinals 15 6 0.714 — 8–2 7–4
Chicago Cubs 12 8 0.600 2½ 6–5 6–3
Pittsburgh Pirates 12 10 0.545 3½ 6–4 6–6
Cincinnati Reds 11 11 0.500 4½ 6–5 5–6
Milwaukee Brewers 5 17 0.227 10½ 3–10 2–7
NL West W L Pct. GB Home Road
Los Angeles Dodgers 13 8 0.619 — 10–2 3–6
Colorado Rockies 11 10 0.524 2 4–5 7–5
San Diego Padres 11 12 0.478 3 6–7 5–5
Arizona Diamondbacks 10 11 0.476 3 6–8 4–3
San Francisco Giants 9 13 0.409 4½ 4–6 5–7

Schedule

As was the case in 2014, teams are scheduled to play 19 games against each division opponent for a total of 76 games, and six or seven games against each team from the other two divisions in its league for a total of 66 games.

All teams are scheduled to play 20 interleague games throughout the season. For 2015, the interleague matchups will be AL East vs. NL East, AL Central vs. NL Central, and AL West vs. NL West. Since "natural rivalry" matchups will be part of the three-year divisional rotation (for the first time), the schedule format for interleague games is different from other years. The 20 interleague games each team will play consist of two three-game series (one home, one away) against its natural rival (total of six games), two two-game series (one home, one away) against each team for two other opponents (total of eight games; one of the matchups takes place back-to-back within the same week), and a single three-game series against each team for the last two (one home, one away; total of six games).

During the final day of the regular season, all games are scheduled to start simultaneously at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, reminiscent of the English Premier League's last-day "Survival Sunday" scheduling.[3][4] MLB hopes that this will add excitement and drama during the final day, and limit teams from resting starters at the last minute based on early game results.[5]

Managerial changes

General managers

Offseason

Team Former GM New GM Reason for leaving Story/Accomplishments
Colorado Rockies Dan O'Dowd Jeff Bridich Resigned O'Dowd resigned as general manager on October 8, 2014, after 15 seasons at the position, and Bridich was immediately named his replacement. Bridich spent 10 seasons in the Rockies' front office before becoming the general manager.[6]
Tampa Bay Rays Andrew Friedman Matt Silverman Resigned On October 14, 2014, it was announced that Friedman would leave the Rays to become the President of Baseball Operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Los Angeles Dodgers Ned Colletti Farhan Zaidi Promoted On October 14, 2014, Colletti was removed from his position as General Manager of the Dodgers but would remain with them in a new position of Senior Advisor to the President. Former Rays GM Andrew Friedman was named President of Baseball Operations the same day.[7] He hired Farhan Zaidi to be the new GM.

Field managers

Offseason

At the end of the 2014 season, the following teams made replacements to their managers.

Team Former Manager Interim Manager Reason for leaving New Manager Story/Accomplishments
Houston Astros Bo Porter Tom Lawless Fired A.J. Hinch Porter was fired on September 1, 2014 along with bench coach Dave Trembley. Lawless was named the interim manager. Porter finished with a record of 110–190 in under two seasons. A.J. Hinch was announced as the new manager on September 29, 2014.[8]
Texas Rangers Ron Washington Tim Bogar Resigned Jeff Banister Washington resigned on September 5, 2014 for personal reasons, later revealed to be an affair, after eight seasons with the Rangers. He finished with a 664–611 record and is the franchise's all-time leader in regular seasons wins and games managed. Washington led the Rangers to four straight 90 win seasons, three playoff appearances, and back to back American League championships during his tenure. Banister was named the manager on October 16, 2014.[9]
Arizona Diamondbacks Kirk Gibson Alan Trammell Fired Chip Hale Gibson was fired on September 26, 2014 after four years as manager of the Diamondbacks. He finished with a 353–375 record and led the Diamondbacks to the division title during the 2011 season while capturing the National League Manager of the Year award. Former Athletics and Mets coach Chip Hale was named manager on October 13, 2014.[10]
Minnesota Twins Ron Gardenhire N/A Fired Paul Molitor Gardenhire was fired on September 29, 2014 after 13 years as manager of the Twins. He finished with a 1,068–1,039 record and led the Twins to six division titles and was American League Manager of the Year after the 2010 season.[11] Paul Molitor was announced as the new manager of the Twins on November 4, 2014.[12]
Tampa Bay Rays Joe Maddon N/A Resigned Kevin Cash Maddon exercised an opt-out clause on October 24, 2014 and resigned from the Rays. He managed them for nine years and finished with a 754–704 record with two division titles and led them to four post-season berths and the 2008 World Series. Maddon was American League Manager of the Year after the 2008 and 2011 seasons.[13] On December 5, 2014 Kevin Cash was named the new manager of the Rays.
Chicago Cubs Rick Renteria N/A Fired Joe Maddon Renteria finished the season with a 73-89 record. He was fired on October 31, 2014. Former Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon was hired as his replacement.[14]

Milestones

Batters

Pitchers

Uniforms

Wholesale changes

The New York Mets changed their home jersey from a cream shade to white and took away the home white alternate jersey.[22]

The Minnesota Twins took away the pinstripes from their home jersey and added a gold trim to the "Twins" wordmark. A hat was also added highlighting the "Twin Cities" logo in gold.[23]

The Pittsburgh Pirates introduced a new camouflage alternate jersey in honor of the U.S. Military which will be worn during all Thursday home games. A new camo-style hat also accompanies this uniform with a black bill and black "Pittsburgh" logo.[24]

The Seattle Mariners have added an alternate cream color jersey with blue and yellow, the original colors of the team from 1977-1992. An alternate light blue hat with a gold "Seattle" logo will accompany the uniform as well.

The San Francisco Giants have added an alternate black jersey.

The Milwaukee Brewers wore their batting practice jerseys as an alternate on April 21. The front has the Brewers' "M" logo on front, and has gold trim on the side.

The Cleveland Indians have added a new dark navy alternate jersey along with a return to their dark navy "Chief Wahoo" home and alternate road hats.

Anniversaries and special events

The following teams will wear commemorative patches for special occasions:

Team Special occasion
Arizona Diamondbacks In memory of ISIS hostage Kayla Mueller (March 3–8)
Atlanta Braves 50th year in Atlanta
Chicago Cubs In memory of Ernie Banks
Chicago White Sox In memory of Minnie Minoso
Cincinnati Reds 25th anniversary World Series champions reunion
2015 All Star Game
Cleveland Indians In memory of Al Rosen
Houston Astros 50th anniversary of the Astrodome
Philadelphia Phillies In memory of Sara L. Buck
St. Louis Cardinals In memory of Oscar Taveras[25]
70th anniversary of Red Schoendienst's MLB debut (April 17)
San Francisco Giants In memory of Lon Simmons
Washington Nationals 10th year in Washington

Throwbacks

The Astros and Angels wore 1965 uniforms on April 18 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Astrodome and the 50th anniversary of the renaming of the team to Astros.

The Reds and Cubs wore 1990 uniforms on April 24 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Reds' winning the 1990 World Series.

The Tigers and Indians wore Negro League throwbacks on April 25. The Tigers wore the uniforms of the Detroit Stars, while the Indians wore the uniforms of the Cleveland Buckeyes.

The Mariners and Red Sox will wear Negro League throwbacks on May 16.

Other uniforms

Players, coaches, and umpires at all games wore #42 on April 15, the 68th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in the majors.

The Giants wore uniforms with gold "Giants" script lettering on April 18 to celebrate their 2014 World Series title.

On April 20 (Patriots' Day), the Boston Red Sox wore home white jerseys with "BOSTON" written on the front to mark the two year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings. The uniform also sported the 2013 navy-blue circular patch with a white border on the left shoulder saying "B Strong" (with the red B in the classic font featured on the Red Sox's caps).

Television

National

United States

2015 marks the second year of MLB's eight-year deal with Fox Sports, ESPN, & TBS. The Fox network will televise Saturday night games for eight consecutive weeks, leading up to the All Star Game, which will also air on Fox. Fox will then televise Saturday afternoon games for the last four weeks of the regular season. Fox Sports 1, in its second year, will televise games on Tuesday nights and Saturdays, both during the afternoon and at night. ESPN will televise games on its flagship telecast, Sunday Night Baseball, as well as Monday and Wednesday nights. TBS will televise Sunday afternoon games for the last thirteen weeks of the regular season. Fox and ESPN Sunday Night Baseball telecasts will be exclusive; all other national telecasts will be subject to local blackout.

TBS will televise the National League Wild Card Game, Division Series, and Championship Series. ESPN will televise the American League Wild Card Game, Fox Sports 1 and MLB Network will televise American League Division Series, and Fox and Fox Sports 1 will televise the American League Championship Series. The World Series will air exclusively on the Fox network for the sixteenth consecutive year. All postseason games will air on ESPN Radio.

Local

The Chicago Cubs opted to re-negotiate its terrestrial television contracts for the 2015 season through 2019. WGN-TV will still hold rights to 45 Cubs games per season, and its overflow broadcasts will move to WPWR-TV in place of WCIU-TV. WGN will be joined by ABC-owned station WLS-TV, which will now broadcast 25 games per season.[26][27][28] Broadcast Cubs games among the three stations in the market, along with White Sox games (which will also have games move from WCIU to WPWR) will be carried in the Indianapolis market among Media General's duopoly of WISH-TV and WNDY-TV, in addition to a regional network in Iowa and downstate Illinois.[29]

The cable network WGN America will no longer carry Chicago White Sox or Chicago Cubs games, as the network has phased out Chicago sports programming as part of its transition towards becoming a nationally-focused entertainment network. This brings an end to the "superstation" era of cable broadcast, started in 1976 when WTCG (later to become WTBS) broadcast Atlanta Braves games, followed by WGN and other stations such as WOR-TV (New York Mets), WSBK-TV (Boston Red Sox) and KTLA (California Angels) airing simulcasts via satellite or cable.

After an absence of over a decade, New York Yankees telecasts will return to WPIX, sharing time with the Mets after WWOR-TV declined a contract extension. Both teams' games on WPIX will still be produced by the YES Network and SportsNet New York respectively.

Radio

ESPN Radio will air its 18th season of national coverage, including Sunday Night Games, Saturday games, Opening Day and holiday games, the All-Star Game, and Home Run Derby, and the entire postseason.

Local

WBBM will be the new radio home of the Chicago Cubs starting in April 2015 after long time home WGN gave up the broadcasting rights after 90 years.

WJZ-FM, for the second time, will become the flagship radio station for the Baltimore Orioles. WJZ-FM held the rights for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

Rule Changes

New rules were made to increase the pace of the game.[30][31]

Retirements

Retired numbers

References

  1. ↑ "Los Angeles Dodgers to host the Seattle Mariners in the 2015 Civil Rights Game on Jackie Robinson Day, Wednesday, April 15th" (Press release). MLB.com. March 16, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  2. ↑ Cinisomo, Lara; Cinisomo, Vince (March 17, 2015). "Dodgers To Play Host To Mariners In Civil Rights Game". BaseballAmerica.com. The Enthusiast Network. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  3. ↑ Hagen, Paul (March 20, 2015). "Final-day drama: Games to start at same time". MLB.com. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  4. ↑ "MLB hoping to 'maximize' final day". ESPN. March 20, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  5. ↑ Shaikin, Bill (March 19, 2015). "MLB hopes to add excitement on season's final day with simultaneous starts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  6. ↑ Nightengale, Bob. "Jeff Bridich replacing Dan O'Dowd as Rockies general manager". usatoday.com. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  7. ↑ Shelburne, Ramona. "Andrew Friedman to join Dodgers". ESPN. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  8. ↑ McTaggert, Brian (September 29, 2014). "Astros set to hand managerial reins to A.J. Hinch". MLB.com. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  9. ↑ Sullivan, T. R. "Banister named manager of Rangers". MLB.com. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  10. ↑ Gilbert, Steve. "Hale is D-backs' choice for skipper". MLB.com. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  11. ↑ Bollinger, Rhett. "Gardenhire dismissed by Twins after 13 seasons". MLB.com. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  12. ↑ Bollinger, Rhett; Laymance, Austin. "Twins set to introduce Molitor as manager". MLB.com. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
  13. ↑ Chastain, Bill. "Maddon opts out of contract, leaves Rays". MLB.com. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  14. ↑ Muskat, Carrie. "Cubs hiring Maddon to replace Renteria as manager". MLB.com. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
  15. ↑ Fehr, Israel (April 13, 2015). "Royals' Paulo Orlando makes history starting career with three triples". sports.yahoo.com. Yahoo Sports. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  16. ↑ Short, D. J. (April 16, 2015). "Giancarlo Stanton hits his first home run of 2015; becomes Marlins all-time home run leader". hardballtalk.nbcsports.com. NBC Sports. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
  17. ↑ Fallas, Bernardo (April 18, 2015). "Trout hits 2 HRs to lead Angels past Astros, 6-3". sports.yahoo.com. The Associated Press. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Encarnacion hits 2 home runs, Blue Jays beat Orioles 13-6". ESPN.com. The Associated Press. April 22, 2015. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  19. ↑ Browne, Ian; Chisholm, Gregor (April 29, 2015). "Down early, Blue Jays out-slug Red Sox to even series". mlb.com. MLB Advanced Media, LP. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  20. ↑ Baer, Bill (April 10, 2015). "Mark Buehrle earned his 200th career win". hardballtalk.nbcsports.com. NBC Sports. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Lohse, Brewers snap 8-game losing streak, beat Reds 4-2". ESPN.com. The Associated Press. April 23, 2015. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  22. ↑ Creamer, Chris (November 5, 2014). "New York Mets Release Uniform Changes for 2015". SportsLogos.net.
  23. ↑ Miller, Phil (November 10, 2014). "Uniform update: Twins get rid of pinstripes, add gold trim". startribune.com.
  24. ↑ Singer, Tom (December 13, 2014). "Pirates unveil alternate jersey honoring Armed Forces". Pirates.com.
  25. ↑ Silva, Drew (March 25, 2015). "Cardinals add "OT" patch for Oscar Taveras". hardballtalk.nbcsports.com. NBC Sports. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  26. ↑ Channick, Robert (November 6, 2013). "Cubs exercise option to end WGN-TV contract after next season". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  27. ↑ "Cubs reach deal with WGN-TV for remaining 45 broadcasts". Chicago Business Journal. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  28. ↑ "White Sox add WPWR-Ch. 50 to station rotation". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  29. ↑ Staff report (March 20, 2015). "WISH-WNDY To Carry Cubs, White Sox". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  30. ↑ Stephen, Eric (February 19, 2015). "MLB to implement pace-of-play rule changes in 2015, per report". SBNation.com. Vox Media, Inc. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  31. ↑ "MLB, MLBPA announce pace of game initiatives, replay modifications" (Press release). MLB.com. February 20, 2015. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  32. ↑ "Tim Hudson of San Franciso Giants 'pretty sure' 2015 will be his last season - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  33. ↑ "West Notes: Hawkins, Ellis, Gregerson, Melky". MLB Trade Rumors. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  34. ↑ Brink, Bill (November 11, 2014). "Pitcher A.J. Burnett returning to Pirates on one-year deal". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  35. ↑ Lancaster, Marc (February 27, 2015). "Brewers' Aramis Ramirez to retire after 2015 season". SportingNews.com. Sporting News Media. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  36. ↑ Chaistain, Bill (March 24, 2015). "Rays to retire Zimmer's number on Opening Day". MLB.com.
  37. ↑ Merkin, Scott (January 15, 2015). "White Sox will retire Konerko's number on May 23". Whitesox.MLB.com. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 "Yankees to retire Nos. of Bernie, Jorge, Pettitte". MLB.com.
  39. ↑ Hoch, Bryan (February 15, 2015). "Yankees planning to retire Pettitte's No. 46". MLB.com.
  40. ↑ "Brewers to retire No. 1 for Selig". ESPN.com. The Associated Press. September 26, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  41. ↑ Silva, Drew (January 6, 2015). "Diamondbacks to retire Randy Johnson’s No. 51". hardballtalk.nbcsports.com. NBC Sports. Retrieved March 4, 2015.

External links