On one level I think Shelton yet again demonstrated that he's out of his depths last night. Letting Bae bat in the 9th and then Grandal bat in the 10th with Bart and BDLC on the bench was absurd. I can't really kill him for using Holderman since they were basically out of guys, but to allow the same relief pitcher to accumulate 4 losses in 8 days is pretty egregious in general. He may be a swell guy who the players love but tactically he's Mike Tomlin bad.
There's this gem from last night after the game:
Doubt anyone in the media followed up, but OPS against LHP in 2024:
Bart - 1.123
Grandal - .529
Shelton just has to go. He's a moron.
With that said, and while I'd fully support a managerial change, the roster just isn't there. One can argue that the collapses of Hayes, Suwinski, and kind of Bednar weren't expected, the fact you have what was a theoretically a critical game and your lineup is 5-9 is hitting .191, .242, .186,, .196, and .199 is comedy. People have argued with me about the BDLC acquisition, but the bigger issue with it than the fact he's not helping them this year is that they'll almost certainly view RF as addressed headed into the offseason, creating another dead spot in the lineup. We could go into 2025 with a top 5 rotation in baseball but lose 85 games again because there's really very little path to a competitive offense given the current roster, what's in the system, and what they are likely to invest.