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Front Office Chat: 12/12/25
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Anthony Franco
4:13
I'll take the field, Mountcastle if I had to guess
4:14
Sheets at DH, Arraez somewhere else
Phil (Charm City)
4:14
As an O's fan, is it unreasonable to think the birds could add two additional SPs, one more of a #1-2 and another for the back end of the rotation?  Or should I revert to my prior expectations and assume I won't see another Alonso-type deal for the next 15 years?
Anthony Franco
4:15
No I think multiple starters, including one who sits comfortably in the upper half of the rotation (Framber, Ranger, Edward Cabrera) should be the expectation
Public or Private Auction
4:15
Wondering - do the teams bidding on free agents usually know the identity and amount of competing bidders and bids, or are offers sometimes made in partial or complete confidence so at least the bidder's identity is kept secret?
Anthony Franco
4:18
This is at the discretion of the agent -- teams cannot tell one another what offers they're making, that's blatant collusion -- but it's generally in their interest to keep that quiet. Teams are otherwise incentivized to bid one dollar above what the prior best offer and treat it like an auction
4:20
If the player's camp plays things close to the vest, they can try to get a team to bid against itself. I have no idea what the second-highest offer was to Xander Bogaerts, for instance, but I have a hard time believing it was $279M. Sometimes a team just wants a player bad enough that they'll keep going up to get it done
4:21
It's a case by case thing though. We know a little about how Schwarber's camp approached negotiations. They basically got other teams to bid it up, decided 5/150 would be the stopping point, then took it back to Philly with the chance to match because that's where he wanted to be. I don't know if they tell Dave Dombrowski "hey he's going to be an Oriole if you say no," but they can make it clear that some other team is willing to go there
What a Mets
4:21
Dodgers and Diaz yet to be announced? Thoughts on cause of delay?
Anthony Franco
4:22
There are like 10 agreements that haven't been finalized, Díaz among them. Probably just a hold-up on the physical with so many team personnel and agents in Orlando until Wednesday night
TedS
4:23
How are the Braves' major extensions (Acuña, Albies, Riley, Strider, Harris, Murphy, Olson) impacting the team's decision making?
They were lauded as home runs, but with recent early playoff exits, has the long-term commitment (especially to guys not named Acuña/Olson) actually hampered flexibility to make necessary changes? How would you rank them so far?
Anthony Franco
4:24
Acuña deal is still one of the five best for the team in MLB. Olson contract looks great. The shine is off the rest a little bit, as you mentioned
4:26
I don't think any of them are actively bad. Albies isn't making enough to be a huge deterrent. I imagine they'd still do the Strider deal given the upside he showed before the surgery, but it's no longer a huge bargain
4:27
Murphy's probably a little above market because of the injury. Harris, eh, but there's still stuff to like there. Riley's the one that looks like it could really hurt
BG
4:27
With the news the Twins are looking at the mid-tier first base market, Nathaniel Lowe seems like a good fit. What kind of contract would we expect Lowe to sign?
Anthony Franco
4:27
One year, $5-6M
Expensive
4:28
How much trade value does Marte's deferred money add? He can't seriously be worth more than Juan Soto was when SD traded for him right?
Anthony Franco
4:28
No he's not that good haha
4:32
It's below market but we're talking ages 32-37 and he's already a middling athlete, so he's probably getting more DH time by the end of it. He's got $102.5M left. I think he's a better player than Bregman, who's probably looking at $160M+ over six years for same ages as a free agent. If we assume someone would do the same or a little better for Marte, we're talking like $60-70M in surplus value
Texas Holdem
4:32
How do you think the Rangers will operate this offseason full speed ahead, moderate salary dump or strip it down and rebuild with a younger core?
Anthony Franco
4:33
Moderate salary moves to kick off a stronger commitment to Langford, Carter, eventually Walcott as the real core
GBS42
4:34
Do you think teams, players, and agents have a rule of thumb dollar amount or contract percentage value they place on opt-outs? For example, would an opt-out on Emilio Pagan's two-year, $20M have cost him $1M, $2M?
Anthony Franco
4:36
That's a good question, I don't know how systematically they approach it. Theoretically it should work this way where each side assigns some kind of monetary value to the out clause and prices that in
4:37
Not sure they always treat it that formally though. There are some teams (Kansas City and the Reds have done this a few times) that regularly give the opt-outs to middle to lower tier two-year signings and others that seem to reserve it for the marquee names
CubsCore
4:38
Desperately need a SP (or two or more), and need to replace Tucker’s bat in the lineup. Sign Bregman, try and trade Shaw for a mid-range rotation arm, and (ideally) bring back Belli? Although realistically someone like Bader? Any of this (not all) feasible?
Anthony Franco
4:39
Definitely don't think they're doing Bregman and Bellinger. Would be pretty surprised if they wound up with either, and Carter Hawkins really pushed back against the idea of using Shaw as a trade chip
4:40
Bader's obviously feasible financially but they've already got Happ and PCA with Caissie looming and Suzuki an option in RF. Don't see why they'd end up as the high bidder over teams that need an everyday center fielder
4:41
I'd still lean towards them making their biggest move on the rotation front and hoping that Caissie and Ballesteros (plus a step forward from Shaw in year two) can replace enough of the offense they're losing from Tucker
Joshua
4:42
Passan mentioned the Royals have checked in on CJ Abrams. What would it take to land him? Pairing him at 2B with Bobby Witt at SS would seem to be a really fun infield.
Anthony Franco
4:44
Tough match for me. The farm system's bad and they don't have a ton of high-upside controllable MLB talent whom they're not already counting on to play huge roles in 2026. Carter Jensen's closest to that but he's going to get an increasing amount of playing time behind the plate as they continue to get Salvy more DH work, and the Nats obviously just acquired Ford
4:47
If the Royals are offering something around Cameron, Nats could probably do better. Pasquantino also has three years of club control with less defensive value, so that's not doing much for Washington. Assuming the Royals aren't putting Caglianone into play here (especially after they bizarrely tendered India a contract), so I can't find one that I think works
JC
4:48
What kind of return would the cardinals expect from Pittsburgh in a hypothetical trade for Donovan?
Anthony Franco
4:50
Burrows+ seems right to me. Much as I love Donovan, I'm not doing Ashcraft, Chandler or Jones there if I'm Pittsburgh
Alright, coming up on two hours so I'm going to wrap it here
4:51
Thanks for all the questions! Had a lot that I couldn't get to unfortunately, but I'm always happy to take one on X @affranco10 if I didn't get to yours here
4:52
Appreciate all of you continuing to support the site! Steve should be back on the Monday schedule next week with no Winter Meetings, and I'll do this again on Friday
Have a great weekend!
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