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Front Office Chat: 11/22/24
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Anthony Franco
3:00
Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well!
Busy day for us with the NT deadline obviously, so I'll have to keep this around an hour. Apologies in advance for the stuff I don't get to
M’s Fan
3:00
Say you were commissioner for a day and could assign Roki Sasaki to any team you wanted for parity’s sake, would you try and pump up a mid level contender like KC or give him to someone like the White Sox or Angels?
Anthony Franco
3:02
Hmm, yeah I'd probably put him on a mid-level contender. Maybe not the Royals, since they're already built around a really good rotation, but a fringe playoff team like that. Detroit would work, maybe the Giants. Sasaki as the piece to potentially put the Nats back in the playoffs would be fun
Putting him on a team like the Angels, Rockies or White Sox just wouldn't change the league's competitive landscape in the next year or two. They're too far away
#regret and taxes
3:03
Will Adames become Baez or Story in the first years of his contract, and Bregman to a degree also??
Anthony Franco
3:03
I like Adames more than I liked Swanson and certainly Baez at the time of their deals. Probably more so than Story too given the concerns about Story's arm strength
3:04
Would I be super excited to give him $150-200MM given the strikeout questions? No. But I do think he'll be better than those guys were in the first two or three seasons of his deal
Elbow
3:04
Reading Steve's recent article about D-Back OFs, it looks like Alek Thomas might be an easily correctable issue (low launch angle) away from becoming an above-average regular with all-star upside. Am I missing something on Alek Thomas, or are launch-angle inclined FOs and coaching staffs also salivating at the potential? Could we be seeing a more athletic version of Daniel Murphy's 2015 transformation in the making?
Anthony Franco
3:07
Pretty easy to see the upside there but changing a hitter's swing path to dramatically increase launch angle isn't an easy thing. Some guys (like Murphy and J.D. Martinez) take to it quickly but a lot of other try it and get out of whack mechanically
Scott Kingery's a guy who jumps to mind as someone who tried to do this early in his career with the Phillies, didn't take to it, and basically could never figure out how to get his old contact-oriented approach back afterwards
SoxControl
3:08
This was also mentioned in a recent post, but the Reds and Red Sox seem natural trading partners (besides the similarity in team name). Reds requiring outfield assistance and the Sox looking for young starting pitching.
Wondering who would say no to a: Wilyer Abreu + Richard Fitts for Rhett Lowder swap?
Anthony Franco
3:08
Can't see the Reds doing that
Dan
3:08
Honestly what in the heck are the cubs doing? Latest rumor is they are trying to move Bellinger and Hoerner. Both would be sell low trades and would seemingly achieve two purposes - cut payroll (necessary for a big market team already miles below the CBT threshold) and allow a pair of top (but unproven) prospects to take over. This division is about to get even easier to win with the Brewers losing Adames, the Cardinals likely selling, and the Reds and Pirates being the Reds and Pirates. Jed is a lame duck, you would think he’d be pushing the chips in to win. Should cubs fans abandon all hope?
Anthony Franco
3:10
Agree that a Hoerner trade would be a sell low after the surgery. I don't think it's happening this offseason. I'd try to move Bellinger though. Offload a portion of the money to clear space for a run at a top-of-the-rotation starter. They've got enough upper minors outfield talent (i.e. Canario, Caissie) that they should be able to replace most of what Belli brings to the table offensively
Optimistic Giants Fan
3:10
Who's your way too early pick for a first or second tier free agent whose market simply doesn't materialize like they or their agent is expecting?
Anthony Franco
3:11
Alonso
3:12
The TLDR version is basically that this is a profile that modern front offices hate paying for but he's a big enough name that I wouldn't be surprised if he's trying to get $200MM
Bruce
3:12
Why aren't the Braves considered for Juan Soto?  Imagine their lineup (when healthy, unlike this year) with Soto batting second behind Acuna and ahead of Riley, Olson, Ozuna, ALbies, and others?
Anthony Franco
3:14
Roster fit makes a lot of sense but the payroll's already high and they'll be going into their third straight season as a CBT payor, which hits them hard with the escalating penalties
Dave
3:14
Would DePaula or Rushing need to be included by LAD in deal for Crochet?
Anthony Franco
3:16
I don't think so. Sox could really like Hope and Freeland or something. Building around Pages could work too, I guess. Sox went that route with Miguel Vargas in the Kopech/Fedde deal
Gadzooks
3:16
Is Yaz the most likely to be traded instead of non-tendered?
Anthony Franco
3:17
I lean NT but neither outcome would surprise me. The arb projection is basically right on the border of his market value
Would you rather have Yaz or Max Kepler next season? I could go either way and expect Kepler to sign for something like the $9.5MM Yaz would make if the Giants tendered him or traded him to someone who will
Diamond Dud
3:18
What are the chances of MLB creating an international draft to end the system which allows richest teams to dominate the market & players agents negotiating ridiculous deals for newcomers. I doubt there’s but a handful of fans outside New York or LA that believe their team has a hope in acquiring the next Matsui, nevermind Ohtani…
Anthony Franco
3:19
Disagree that the current system allows the richest teams to dominate the international market (assuming you're referring to amateurs). The pools are hard capped with a slight preference to lower-payroll franchises. The international amateur market is one of the only places where every team is on nearly equal footing
3:20
MLB will push for an international draft again in the next CBA. They tried hard for it last time but didn't get an agreement from the Players Association. I expect they'll get the MLBPA to move on it in '28 but it'll have to come with a concession to the players on the luxury tax or something
Used Car Salesman
3:21
What's stopping teams w/o a cable deal from forming their own version of the YES network? Not many teams have the viewership rates of the Yankees but maybe two or three teams could form one network and split the profits. Maybe Cleveland & Cincinnati could make the OH network or maybe Minnesota & Milwaukee could work together? Heck let's just throw them all in one pot and make a network where you can watch four contending teams for one low price
Anthony Franco
3:22
Teams can create their own network, sure. Rangers are considering it. It's just a matter of risk tolerance because you're not contracting with a third party for a fixed revenue stream
3:24
I've never considered the possibility of different MLB teams that are loosely connected by geography forming a joint network. Some teams do this with other franchises in their city (i.e. Astros/Rockets, Pirates/Penguins)
3:25
I guess I'm skeptical that there'd be enough demand if you combined two teams from the same league. I don't know how many people want to pay for both Brewers and Twins games. Feels like most people in the Wisconsin/Minnesota area would be fans of one of those teams and not really care about what happens with the other
Walterj23
3:25
What are the odds of the pirates shopping David Bednar this winter and do you think they would be interested  trading within the division  to the cubs ? What would it cost ?
Anthony Franco
3:26
I think they'll shop Bednar. Could see them preferring to move him out of the division but it shouldn't be a huge factor if the Cubs make the best offer. The only reason they'd trade him at all is because he was terrible last season
3:27
Don't think there's much surplus value there, just a mid-level prospect
Rooked
3:27
How was Austin Wells one of the three finalists for rookie of the year? Langford, Abreu, Cade Smith and Mason Miller had better seasons than Wells.
Anthony Franco
3:28
Huge pitch framing grades got him into the 3-4 WAR range. I'm skeptical enough about those metrics within a one-season sample that I wouldn't have put Wells in my top three, but I get the argument for it
mwcsteepler
3:29
Sure you'll get plenty of this type of question today, but does Tampa's stadium fiasco make it more likely they move pitchers like Jeffrey Springs and Pete Fairbanks for pre-arb players that maybe they wouldn't have accepted a week ago? Not garbage players, but maybe a lesser asking price (considering the injury history/contracts of those two)
Anthony Franco
3:32
I doubt it. The stadium disaster is more of a long-term revenue concern than something that should have a huge effect on the '25 payroll. They're already like $15MM below where they opened this year, largely because of their deadline trades of Eflin and Arozarena. Maybe it has a slight impact on their eagerness to pay Springs $10.5MM, but they've got other guys in that price range they could also move. Fairbanks is making less than $4MM. Even for them, that's basically nothing
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