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Chat with MLBTR's Steve Adams: 10/20/20
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Steve Adams
2:55
Back to Oakland, also, completely viable of course.
Ken
2:56
What do you expect the Cubs yo do this winter?
Steve Adams
2:57
Trade Bryant and Schwarber. Focus on lowering the team strikeout rate. Add a mid-rotation arm. Try to cobble together some more low-level bullpen signings.
eriepoporn
2:57
Assuming Carlos Santana option isn't picked up by the Indians. Do you think he will get a 1 or 2 year deal or having to settle for a minor league deal after the year he had.. Because maybe owners not taking as many risks because of Covid
Steve Adams
2:58
I think he'll take one year at a decent AAV, though maybe he's earned enough that he's fine taking like 2/16 and just having the continuity/stability of multiple years if it's with a contending team.
Tim
2:58
And the next Angels GM will be??
Steve Adams
2:58
Hard not to pick Dave Dombrowski when Ken Rosenthal and several others are all reporting him as the favorite (and were even before Eppler was fired)
Caleb Clark
2:59
Do you have any thoughts/predictions for Ha-Seong Kim?
Steve Adams
3:00
He'll be some team's opening day shortstop or third baseman in 2021. Soliciting some opinions from teams and such on him right now. He'll be in our Top 15 or so free agents this winter, though. Maybe top 10
SOX FAN
3:00
What are our chances of resigning McCann?
Steve Adams
3:00
Little to none. He's done enough to earn a starting job and to have teams offer to pay him like a starter.
The White Sox aren't going to pay him to be that, nor should they with Grandal on board.
Mets GM
3:01
Cant see Semien passing up any multi-year deals. His 2019 looks very much like an anomaly.
Steve Adams
3:01
Sure, but he was a 3-4 WAR player in 2018 and played at about that pace again in 2020. Plus I'm sure he believes he's capable of returning to those 2019 levels -- what pro athlete wouldn't? These guys are all supremely confident in their abilities.
3:02
He's also already banked $24MM in his career, and a one-year deal at, say, $14MM (the Didi Gregorius deal in Philly) brings him into the upper 30s. It's easier to bet on yourself when you've established that level of security.
Caleb Clark
3:02
What will the Reds do this offseason?
Steve Adams
3:03
I think they'll come up short on Bauer and look to add a shortstop (Didi, Semien ...Lindor...?) while adding another mid-rotation arm to help cover some of the innings Bauer takes out the door with him.
Bullpen will be an area of focus, too.
Kenny Powers
3:04
Given the TJ surgery, does Kenny Giles get a Garrett Richards / Michael Pineda type 2 year deal?
Steve Adams
3:05
I can see that. I doubt it's as big as the $15.5MM that Richards got, since he's a reliever, but $7-10MM isn't impossible.
Bernie Brewer
3:05
Do the Brewers move Hader?
Steve Adams
3:05
He's still affordable enough this winter, but I can see them shopping him around next July if they're not contending and certainly next winter.
David Forst
3:05
Does simmons make sense as replacement for Semien in Oakland. That infield defense would be legendary!!
Steve Adams
3:06
It would be really fun -- well, as a sucker for elite baseball defense I have a pretty geeky definition of fun -- to see Simmons go there and then the A's sign Kolten Wong on a cheap deal to round out an infield defense for the ages.
3:07
That assumes that Simmons' glove is still elite, though, which it wasn't in 2020
He's had severe ankle issues in each of the past two seasons, and if that is hindering his range permanently ... then he's really not that exciting a player anymore. Hopefully that's not the case.
Ben Cherington
3:07
Do I have no other choice but to move guys like Josh Bell, Joe Musgrove, etc? And what could I get back for him?
Steve Adams
3:08
(Cherington = Pirates GM)

I think Musgrove could certainly be moved this winter -- and likely that he will. Teams will need cost-controlled arms, and he pitched well when healthy in 2020... including a pair of ridiculously dominant starts to close out the year (13 IP, 6 hits, 0 runs, 21-to-2 K/BB).
3:09
Bell's stock is so far down that it'd be silly to sell low on him. He was awful second half 2019 and awful in 2020.

Maybe you run the risk that he never builds the value back up, but the return right now would be pretty uninspiring -- particularly given his poor glovework.
So much so that I think it's worth hoping he bounces back next year.
Braves
3:10
Will Pache be the starting centerfielder next year for the brave? If yes would they trade Incarte and what would they get for him?
Steve Adams
3:11
I think Inciarte is moved this winter, probably for a pretty minimal return, and Pache is the everyday CF by season's end next year. Braves could play Acuna there if Pache looks lost at the plate in spring. Important to remember how minimal his upper-minors experience is.
3:12
Red Sox could use a CF. D-backs. Rays love them some all-world defenders, although Inciarte is probably more costly than they'd prefer.
Marc L
3:12
Help me understand the Sanchez trade talk. No better option in the market besides JTR. Gary's arbitration years and potential alone make him more valuable, right?
Steve Adams
3:14
They could also trade for a catcher, and there's an argument that a James McCann or even Yadier Molina would be better than what Sanchez was this past season and for parts of 2019. The defensive issues and sky-high strikeout rate/poor OBP become a lot more glaring as the price tag rises.
Morning Mist
3:14
Any insight into how y'all put the top 50 free agents with predictions list? Is it just by committee vote/majority rule or is there a big back and forth discussion on each one?
Steve Adams
3:16
There's a lot of back and forth among myself, Connor Byrne, Tim Dierkes and Jeff Todd -- typically several days of meetings and research. We'll talk to agencies and teams to some extent -- not on every guy but on players where we're far apart -- and we each have the chances to make cases for guys we feel the rest of the group is off base on.

It's a pretty exhaustive effort -- perhaps one people would find silly for a largely speculative list -- but it's our most popular post of the year every year. We want to be able to thoroughly defend any position we take and present a scenario that makes sense when taken in all together -- even though one bizarre signing or a major trade will inevitably throw the entire thing out of whack every year, haha.
Gambling
3:17
Gary Sanchez for Josh Bell?
Steve Adams
3:18
From the Pirates' standpoint, I guess you'd rather have the catcher, so sure. But there's little sense in a rebuilding team trading a veteran for another vet in the same service class who'll become a free agent at the same time.

And for the Yankees, why take on a project like Bell when you have Voit at 1B and Stanton DH'ing already?
Raphael
3:19
Biggest Dark-Horse team for Trevor Bauer?
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