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Chat with MLBTR's Steve Adams: 3/4/25
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Skywalker wants to know
1:28
Lucas Erceg is KC save-ior?
Steve Adams
1:30
I think Estevez will get the bulk of the saves, health permitting, but Erceg will get a handful just based on days where Estevez isn't available, or if he needs a quick IL stint, or if Estevez blows one and another save opp emerges in extras.

If you're asking for fantasy purposes, Erceg is awesome and will post good enough ratios that he's rosterable anyhow (unless you're talking like a small mixed league of 10 or fewer teams)
Cincinnati kid.
1:30
How bout a swap of Jeimer candelario to Arizona with Jordan Montgomery coming back to Cincinnati. Money is roughly the same
Steve Adams
1:31
Candelario is signed for an extra year and has less utility to the D-backs than Montgomery. The money isn't "roughly" the same, either. Candelario is owed $30MM over two years. Montgomery is owed $22.5MM this season. It's a $7.5MM difference, which
1:32
...which is a fair bit, especially this time of year.
Adam
1:32
I don't get extensions that only cover a players arbitration years, like Ragans? What is the incentive from either side, since it's not adding any years to team control?
Steve Adams
1:35
Ragans was guaranteed $0 beyond the current season. If he pitched terribly, got hurt and required another Tommy John surgery in July, who knows what kind of earning power he'd have long-term?

For the Royals, if Ragans goes out and wins a Cy Young this year, they'll have his first two arb years at around $12MM when going year-to-year it might've been more like $18MM+.

It's just giving the player some security and the team some financial certainty, which obviously helps when determining whether to sign guys to multi-year deals in free agency, on other extensions, etc.
Guest
1:36
Thoughts on Daniel Espino? Has the boat sailed? Will we ever see him? If so, he is probably going to be only a sirp?
Steve Adams
1:36
With all the injuries he's had, if Espino eventually claws to the majors and carves out a role as a single inning reliever, I think at this point you have to call that a win.
Jimmy Racer
1:36
Yoendrys Gomez  for Vrendan Donovan  who says no?
Steve Adams
1:36
Cards
RoxTalks
1:37
The Tovar extension looks like one of the better moves Colorado has made in recent years. If he gets on base more and strikes out less, could it become a bit of a steal for them?
Steve Adams
1:37
It already looks like a steal, but yeah obviously cutting down the K's and drawing a walk more than once a week would further enhance the bargain
Ebenezer_Batflip
1:39
Walker Buehler or Lucas Giolito, who do you think has the better season returning from injury?
Steve Adams
1:40
I just think Giolito's the better pitcher between the two -- but we don't know how he's going to look coming back from the UCL surgery. I'd still lean toward him, but I wouldn't fight hard if someone prefers Buehler. There's a lot of guesswork when someone's coming back from major surgery.
Better year in 2025?
Walker Buehler (79.7% | 231 votes)
 
Lucas Giolito (20.3% | 59 votes)
 
Total Votes: 290
1:41
I expect Buehler to win here just because of postseason recency bias, but he was objectively bad for the bulk of the 2024 season
Rangers
1:41
How concerned with Adolis Garcia’s injury?
Steve Adams
1:41
They haven't even announced MRI results
Andy Salcantara
1:42
Does Sandy Alcantara get dealt by the deadline or do the Marlins hold with additional years left on the deal?
Steve Adams
1:43
If he's pitching well, he's gone. Probably for a sizable haul.
Joe
1:44
What's one competitive balance move you'd like to see in next CBA?
Steve Adams
1:44
I just want teams to be able to trade draft picks. It's wildly overdue.
Braves C
1:45
With Sean Murphy hurt AGAIN, do you think top prospect Drake Baldwin will get his first MLB Opening Day start? What kind of stats should we expect out of him over a whole season?
Steve Adams
1:46
I see lots of "Murphy is hurt AGAIN" mentality coming from Braves fans. This will be the second IL stint of his entire big league career.

Baldwin has a chance, sure, but he'll have to earn it in camp. If he doesn't perform, I doubt they just throw him into the fire anyway -- especially since he's not on the 40-man roster yet.
Tito S
1:46
Do you see Joey Ortiz and Garrett Mitchell taking the next step up in their development? The Brewers have a way of finding players to replace their stars who leave.  Arriba!
Steve Adams
1:49
I think Ortiz can step up and be a nice everyday shortstop, yeah. I'm more bearish on Mitchell than most Brewers fans. He's cut down his strikeouts, I suppose, but he still fanned in 31.5% of his PAs last year and put the ball on the ground at a 56% clip. That's fine for someone with his footspeed, but I don't see how he sustains an ISO (slugging minus average) over .200 that way.

A lot of his production to date in the majors stems from a .389 average on balls in play. He can sustain a higher BABIP than the average player since he's so fast, but that's excessive -- particularly since  he didn't make great quality contact last year.
1:50
I think Mitchell could hit like ... .225/.310/.400, which could be useful with good defense and baserunning value. But I'll take the under, by a long shot, on his career .264/.343/.463 line (unless he takes another meaningful bite out of the K% this year)
Just wording
1:51
If something happens twice, then “again” is the proper word to use. He was hurt last year, he got hurt again this year. Freak injury, but still happened, again. Feels weird to read into a fanbase’s mentality when questioning an injured player.
Steve Adams
1:52
I was referencing the all caps use of "again" and the litany of social media replies we got saying "Sean Murphy is made of glass" or "Sean Murphy gets hurt sleeping"
1:53
Guy strained an oblique last year, which happens to dozens of players every year, and he cracked a rib when he got plunked by a 96 mph heater. Doesn't feel like he deserves the "made of glass" narrative. He's been pretty durable, relative to other catchers.
Adolis Garcia
1:53
Should the Rangers have done more for the OF? Even before the Garcia injury, his numbers fell off last year and Carter missed a ton of time as well. Duvall? Marte?
Steve Adams
1:54
I don't think Duvall is an upgrade over what they have in house, and Marte is tracking more and more like a part-time DH. He's 36, has really bad in RF the past couple seasons, missed time with a bone bruise in his knee in the second half of 2024, and still has lingering knee pain this year.
Orioles seem over confident?
1:55
A local reporter begged the question, why aren't the Orioles trying to sign a few players in the mold of a Andrew Heaney or and Jose Quintana??  Lefties who are cheap and serviceable.....
Steve Adams
1:56
I don't have near the same confidence in their staff that they seem to. That was true last year as well. I thought they should've used their stash of prospects to go get Dylan Cease in spring training and pair him with Burnes.
At this point though, is Quintana a huge, marked upgrade over Dean Kremer? Because that's who he'd push from the rotation.
1:57
The Orioles clearly don't think so, and on that front, I can't really blame them.

Still think they should've made a bigger add rather than the one-year deals for Morton and Sugano, but adding Quintana at this point doesn't move the needle much.
Cpins
1:57
Does someone on a split contract like Nick Madrigal accrue service time & big-league salary during what is likely to be an extended IL stint?    I don’t believe he was on a big league IL to end 2024.
Steve Adams
1:58
He signed a major league deal, putting him on the 40-man roster. He'll spend the season on the 60-day IL. The Mets already moved him there. Since he's on the major league injured list, yes he'll get his full salary and service time.
Spring Training
1:58
Ok whats the deal, its 2025, why isnt every spring training game televised?
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