JotCast | Front Office Chat: 11/11/22

Front Office Chat: 11/11/22

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Anthony Franco

3:20

There's a gigantic class of mid-tier starting pitchers this year, bigger than any of us can ever remember in one offseason. In a vacuum, we think most of them are worth two or three year deals, and we had a really tough time pulling them apart. Even Mike Clevinger and Taijuan Walker, who ended up with pretty big gaps in our contract projections, aren't that far apart in a performance perspective

3:21

So that left us to take a guess: does the whole class being ok mean teams a) wait them all out and they all get crappy deals because they're indistinguishable or b) identify a few priority targets they jump on early in the offseason because they consider one or two superior to the rest of the group?

3:23

Tim and Steve, in particular, think the answer to that will be the latter. I'm a little more skeptical, but we're just kind of left to guess as to how teams will behave with so innings-eating types out there. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what guys we think would get pushed to the top of that group and ultimately settled on Taillon, Walker, Manaea and Thor being the most interesting

Beane

3:23

A’s a good fit for Conforto? Could easily sign him at 1 year, $15-18 mil, with both sides knowing he’s going to be dealt to a contender at the deadline.

Anthony Franco

3:24

That feels higher than I expect the A's would go a free agent this year, and I suspect Conforto prefers a more favorable ballpark to rebuild his stock

TennJay

3:24

Jays and Pirates hook up in a trade surrounding Brian Reynolds and Kirk? Plausible?

Anthony Franco

3:24

Kirk's the caliber of player I think would get the Bucs attention on Reynolds, although they just drafted Henry Davis first overall as their franchise catcher

Beane

3:24

Will the A’s do … anything?

Anthony Franco

3:25

Yeah they'll add some innings at the back of the rotation, probably grab a second or third baseman

3:26

They'll obviously listen to offers on Murphy again from a seller's perspective

paul

3:26

A lot of fa pitchers coming out which ones will the angels get

Anthony Franco

3:27

A back-end type. Clevinger, Cueto maybe a Matt Strahm flier like Lorenzen last year

Not all three obviously, but I expect somebody like that to be their one rotation add

Plus a middle reliever or two

A's Fan

3:27

Do you think Kimbrel would take less money on a one year deal to come to Oakland and be the Closer or would he max out a one year contract to be a set-up pitcher?

Anthony Franco

3:28

Yeah I could see him taking like 1/7 to go close for the A's

The Ranger Fan

3:28

Do you see Texas signing an ACE and if so who ? Who else have you heard for the outfield and any pitching trades?

Anthony Franco

3:28

I gave them Rodón, I'm sure they'll be in on all the good pitchers

3:29

Pablo López could fit there. Zach Plesac, JT Brubaker. Basically any viable starting pitcher makes sense for Texas. They need impact and depth

Chuck D

3:29

What kind of predictions were you and the others making on a Diaz contract before the Mets resigned him.

Anthony Franco

3:30

We were going to put 5/100. Steve initially had him at 102, ironically, albeit over six years

Hadn't done team picks at that point although I'd have had him back to the Mets

Lite Sox

3:30

Will Rick Hahn be able to improve the Sox's roster in any noteworthy way if he doesn't spend much in FA and relies primarily on trades? They have a weak farm system (and probably want to keep Colas as an MLB piece for 2023). They can't expect to get anything for Grandal/Moncada/Kelly/Diekman. If they were to trade Giolito, TA, Hendriks, or Vaughn, they'd just open up another hole on the roster. And not sure if it would be worth trading away the rare promising prospect like Montgomery unless they felt confident that the return would strongly increase their chances to contend immediately.

Anthony Franco

3:31

Agreed, I think they're looking at a pretty bland winter for all the reasons you mentioned. Seemingly no payroll wiggle room, not many great trade candidates on the MLB roster, weak farm system

3:32

I will say that running things back mostly with the same core isn't as awful to me as it seems to be for most White Sox fans. 2022 was a huge disappointment for Grandal, Moncada, Giolito, Lynn to a lesser extent and they still won 81 games

3:33

Keeping mostly the same roster but with a new manager and hopefully better health could get them to like 88-90 pretty easily. They could trade for a Kevin Newman type to plug second base for almost nothing. Right field's bad but the corner outfield mark is never super strong

You could throw a few million dollars at Corey Dickerson or something with no problem

3:34

It's not exciting but I don't think they have to do a whole lot to have a top 10 roster going into next season

Josh P

3:34

Out of say, the top 15 or so free agents, who will be the first domino to fall that will get a chain reaction going?

Anthony Franco

3:34

I don't think we're seeing a chain reaction no matter who falls. The baseball offseason is just very slow

Last year's wasn't, but that was lockout-related

3:35

I'd probably pick Willson to sign first out of the top free agents, largely because he's the clear #1 catcher out there

Rangers13

3:35

If you are C Y does Rodon or Degrom make more sense for the Rangers? I also think that C Martin an Arlington native makes sense to pair at the backend of the BP with Jansen if Texas signs him. What do you think?

Anthony Franco

3:36

Sure, I think Martin makes sense for any team that's trying to win right now. He's a good reliever who should get two years at decent but not back-breaking money

3:37

They'll be in on both Rodón and deGrom. I guess I'd prefer Rodón's youth and spreading the money over a longer term but really, either of those guys works if you can get them

Arthur Dent

3:37

There are rumors swirling around Marinerland that the club is really really unhappy with Winker in that he allegedly has a poor work ethic and his personality does not fit in with team chemistry at all. Any truth to any of this or is it over blown? How does Winker’s status affect Dipoto’s offseason moves?

Anthony Franco

3:37

I haven't seen or heard anything like this

Abe Froman

3:37

What do the White Sox do to fix the corner outfield holes this offseason? Eloy can't be their LF solution going forward can he?

Anthony Franco

3:38

Probably not, although as mentioned I doubt they do anything super notable

David Peralta, Dickerson, Tyler Naquin -- someone like that for a year

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