You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Chat with MLBTR's Steve Adams: 4/25/23
powered byJotCast
Prev Page View Full Chat
Sam
1:34
Hey Steve! Do you think the Twins will extend Sonny Gray? He’s been way too good to not give an offer to
Steve Adams
1:35
I think they'll make him a qualifying offer -- maybe they'll try for some kind of high-AAV two-year deal a la Cards/Mikolas. But Gray will be 34 in 2024, his current start, while dominant, isn't something he can sustain. And the Twins in general have been pretty averse to multi-year deals for pitchers, with the recent exception of Lopez, who's six years younger than Gray.
Gary Sanchez
1:35
Has Barts Groin injury opened the door for me?
Steve Adams
1:36
It might have, but I wouldn't get too excited about a guy who's hit .195/.287/.394 over his past 1100 MLB plate appearances and is out to a .146/.327/.171 start in the Pacific Coast League.
Clubbo
1:37
Add the Orioles to the list of teams that has never given out a 9 figure deal...
Steve Adams
1:37
You might want to forget it, but Chris Davis got $161MM.
Around the Horn
1:38
Numbers for Bibee and Mason Miller going forward? Trying to catch lightning in a bottle as multiple SPs go down.
Steve Adams
1:39
For fantasy purposes? I'd rather have Bibee. Miller has like 42 career innings pre-2023.  Bibee pitched 133 2/3 innings last year alone and could way more realistically top 150 frames this year. Miller will have more strikeouts, Bibee better command and a better defense behind him.
1:40
More strikeouts per outing/a higher strikeout percentage, I should say. Bibee will probably top him in total K's just due to the innings discrepancy
Bucco Brigade
1:40
Pirates hot start can't be sustainable can it?
Steve Adams
1:43
I don't think they're a 16-7 team, no, but I do like some of the pitching (Keller, Contreras, Oviedo's altered curveball is interesting). I don't love the bullpen (Bednar being a notable exception),and I think there's some pretty obvious regression candidates in the lineup (Connor Joe probably chief among them).

I like Jack Suwinski a lot though, and I can buy Rodolfo Castro as a low-average, solid OBP infielder with some power. Reynolds can obviously flat out hit. Cutch looks great so far.
1:44
I think they'll come back down some, and I'm not picking them to win the division even with the hot start, but I can buy that they're better than I anticipated coming into the season. Oviedo's pretty interesting in his tiny sample thus far.
Flying Squirrel
1:44
If Bart’s injury does land him on an extended trip to the IL, do the Giants pull the trigger and bring up Bailey? He’s hitting the ball in AA but may be a big jump right to the bigs.
Steve Adams
1:47
You could pretty easily defend that move over bringing up Sanchez, I think. It boils down, at least somewhat, to how they view the 2023 season. I can see going with Sanchez because you want to prioritize Bailey's development and don't want to rush him (as Bart was kind of rushed). But it's also pretty easy to say that Bailey's the more appealing option right now, and if that's the case and you want to maximize the talent on the roster at the moment, then sure go for him.

I just don't see much appeal in Gary at the moment.
B. Reynolds agent
1:47
Am I loosing a lot of clients today?
Steve Adams
1:50
CAA is one of the biggest agencies in the industry. Reynolds wanted to stay in Pittsburgh, and he took less to do it. The same agency just got $111MM for Corbin Carroll after 32 games. Players understand that motivations vary among their peers. I don't think anyone out there thinks that the guys at CAA, who are representing Ohtani, Realmuto, Hader, Cronenworth and dozens of other high-profile players, suddenly thought 7/100 in new money was market value for Reynolds.

I don't feel compelled to defend them -- the deal is light from a market context standpoint -- but I think most people around the game can recognize that this was primarily a player-driven decision.
Charlie O
1:51
ETA on Mervis for the Cubs? Swings a big stick.
Steve Adams
1:51
In general, I'm not as high on Mervis as a lot of Cubs fans, but I also don't know why they're running Hosmer out there either. I'd rather give Mervis a look. I imagine he'll be up this summer.
Brad Hand’s Foot
1:53
What do the Padres do about the catching situation. Nola can’t hit or throw out runners.
Steve Adams
1:55
I don't understand their aversion to just starting Campusano. I get that the org loves Nola, but he hasn't hit much since the trade, his K's are through the roof and he's not making hard contact when he does put the ball in play.

Campusano's never had a real big league audition. He's hit well in AAA, his batted-ball profile in the Majors is great. Just give him the lion's share of playing time and see how he fares. At this point, it can't go much worse than it has been for Nola.
Return of the Jedi
1:55
Is Cody Bellinger of 2019 back and here to stay?
Steve Adams
1:56
He's... some of the way back? Strikeouts are way down, and that's the most encouraging thing, but peak Belli was demolishing the ball (91.1 mph average exit velo, 45.6% hard-hit). This Bellinger is averaging 86.8 mph off the bat and has a 30.9% hard-hit rate.

The balls he's barreling up are becoming homers, and that's good, but I'd still like to see more solid contact.
Fed up
1:56
How soon can Tai Bradley come back to the majors?  Is there a time limit on an optioed player?
Steve Adams
1:57
10 days, unless he's the replacement for someone who's injured.
1:58
It's just a quick AAA stint to get him more in line with a 5-day schedule. The Rays have an off-day coming up. I doubt he's down for long. I wouldn't stress over it.
PhillieSteve
1:58
Do you think Michael Busch will get reg playing time with Dodgers since callup? I thought he should've made team to start season
Steve Adams
1:59
Depends on the plan for Miguel Vargas. I wouldn't be shocked if they make a switch of those two. Vargas isn't driving the ball at all, and the OBP is nice, but his overall production is pretty light. Muncy at 3B and Busch at 2B seems feasible enough.
John
2:00
Orioles sneaky good bullpen enough to carry their rotation?
Steve Adams
2:02
The rotation just needs a lot of help. I don't think the bullpen will continue to mask the  starting pitching deficiency there.

If GrayRod can take a step forward and Irvin can right the ship in AAA, they'd be in a lot better shape, but it's looking rough right now. And a good way to make a good bullpen look like a bad one in a hurry is to overwork them.
No Pepper
2:02
Does Mad Bum get picked up by contender
Steve Adams
2:03
I can't see any contender thinking he makes them better.
No one's claiming the contract. I wonder if Bumgarner would accept a minor league deal and head to AAA somewhere to try get back on track. If not, then I don't see how any team, anywhere, puts him on the big league roster.
Jack
2:04
How sustainable is Nolan Gorman's start? He's looked really good so far, but it seems REALLY unlikely he'll hit .300 with an OBP near .400 the whole season.
Steve Adams
2:06
He's looked great, but yeah a .360 BABIP and 35% of your fly-balls turning into homers doesn't feel sustainable for anyone -- particularly not someone with below-average speed.

On the HR/FB stat, last year the only two qualified hitters in MLB to have more than a quarter of their flies go for homers were Judge (35.6%) and Yordan (25.3%). Gorman is homering at that same Judge clip right now. It's a historic pace that he won't keep up. Hitters just can't do it regularly. Hell, Judge couldn't until last year and probably won't do it again.
2:07
Still think Gorman can bat above the league average (currently .245) and draw enough walks to be a notably above-average offensive contributor.
Adam
2:08
When a contract like the Reynolds extension has a limited no-trade clause, are those teams identified up front or can they change over time? I could easily see a team becoming more or less desirable to a player over the life of the contract. I assume there’s flexibility there?
Steve Adams
2:09
I'm sure there are exceptions, but a lot of (most?) players are able to reset those teams yearly.
2:11
Alright I've got to wrap up for the week. Thanks, as always, for chatting -- and sorry for all the questions I can't get to in these. I'm on Twitter @Adams_Steve if you're so inclined and always happy to take more questions there.

You can also consider signing up for our Trade Rumors Front Office subscription package, which (among other things) grants you access to a weekly subscriber-only chat, and your odds of getting a question answered in those is substantially higher. Subscribers also get ad-free viewing, weekly email articles from Anthony and myself, exclusive fantasy baseball advice from Brad Johnson, autograph giveaways and more. It starts at $2.99/month, and you can read more or sign up here:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/membership?ref=chat-4-25-23

Have a great week, everyone!
Connecting…