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Front Office Chat: 12/15/23
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Anthony Franco
3:47
Hey everyone, hope you're all wrapping up a good week!
Can't stick around much past 4:00 today but we can get going a little early. Decent amount in the queue this week
Matt
3:47
We’ve heard Tim, Darragh, and Steve’s thoughts on Ohtani’s contract - would love to hear yours?
Anthony Franco
3:49
Makes mutual sense for Ohtani and the Dodgers. I agree with Tim's (somewhat controversial) post about it not being all that concerning from a luxury tax perspective
3:51
I'm probably a little more bothered by it than anyone else at MLBTR just from a "raw payroll" perspective.Regardless of the luxury tax considerations, I don't love that a player and team can agree to backload or defer a contract to that extent. I do think it's a little problematic for competitive balance and encourages high-spending teams to push in for a super team in the short-term and then tank/rebuild down the line.
3:52
If I were drawing up a CBA from scratch, I wouldn't allow that level of backloading. But the CBA doesn't prohibit it and I'm not sure it's prevalent enough for a coalition of small-market owners to outlaw in the next round of CBA talks, so I don't think the Dodgers or Ohtani are "cheating the system" or anything like that
Bill G.
3:52
Anthony --- Isn't the Bobby Bonilla contract the best example of deferred money?  Still paying him 1M per year long after retirement.  And there was no luxury tax then.
Anthony Franco
3:53
I think Ohtani's now the big example of deferrals, but yes, this has been happening forever. What the Dodgers are doing is different in degree but not in kind from how the Nationals constructed a roster that won them the World Series in 2019 too
Kevin
3:53
Now that the Giants, dodgers, and Yankees have their big bats in the outfield or DH who do you think is likely to sign Cody Bellinger?
Bellinger
3:54
I know you wrote that you no longer think he will get a $260MM contract now that the Yankees are out of the bidding. So, what is your updated guess for his contract and destination? $150MM to the Jays?
Vlad Jr
3:54
Are the Jays really going to pay 300M for Bellinger?  Will TBD
Anthony Franco
3:54
Jays and Angels feel like the top suitors at this point. I'll take the Halos for a little above $200M
Hey, man!
3:55
Jon Heyman ticked off an entire country - and hopefully, about 26 other teams - when he said that SO going to LA instead of Toronto was good for baseball. I thought getting him on the east coast, playing the yankees and redsox more regularly, and being cheered by an entire nation would be better but maybe I'm biased. How does propping up "iconic" franchises help the GROWTH of baseball??
Anthony Franco
3:55
I just reject the idea that any player signing with any team is "good for baseball"
3:56
It's good for Dodger fans. It's bad for the rest of the NL West, the Angels and the Jays
If Ohtani had signed with the Royals, it's not like people would suddenly forget MLB exists
JL
3:56
Would the Marlins really move Luzardo?  If so, what is the return package from Baltimore?
Anthony Franco
3:59
I'm sure they're open to it in the sense that they're generally open to anything. Three years of Luzardo is extremely valuable. Any prospect of Holliday seems like a reasonable starting point for Miami
Could ask for Samuel Basallo and Joey Ortiz, something like that
Guest
3:59
Am I the only one that thinks the Rays killed that deal? glasnow is overrated in my opinion
Glasnow
4:01
what are your thoughts on the rays trade return and his subsequent extension? Fair value for the extension and trade?
Anthony Franco
4:02
I think it's fine. The Rays weren't going to meet the ask on the extension. I think Steve laid out that this is the pretty typical extension rate for "ace-caliber arm with serious durability questions"
4:03
From a value perspective, the Rays probably come out a little ahead. I like Pepiot a decent amount and think Tampa Bay was likely to take a step back next year regardless, so I'd probably prefer their end of it. But the Dodgers are all-in and Glasnow's currently healthy and better than Pepiot
GBS42
4:03
Are there any advantages to a signing bonus versus a regular salary? Is it solely because it's a lump sum and is paid sooner than an annual salary that would be spread out over the full season? Is it taxed at a higher rate because it's a bonus?
Anthony Franco
4:04
As far as I know, the only advantage is just that it tends to be an up-front lump sum. It's not treated any differently than salary for CBT purposes
Tigerfan
4:04
The tigers and royals have been the only most active teams in the Al central this offseason. After the moves they’ve made, which is the better team?
Anthony Franco
4:04
I like Detroit much more than K.C. I'm coming around on the Tigers as the best team in the Central
4:06
The Royals moves raise the floor but they're lower-ceiling additions for a team that won 56 games and still has a bottom five offense. They're getting better but it's a long climb from 106 losses if you're trying to accomplish it via mid-level free agent signings
Disappointed
4:06
I was disappointed that MLBTR didn't completely own up to the fact that you also added to last Friday's hysteria by creating a "Shohei is on his way to Toronto" post. You deleted it. But most news orgs would have called out the retraction directly. Baseball "journalism" took a huge hit in credibility that day. I think you need to address your specific process about who you trust, how you vet stories, and when you delete posts instead of keeping them up given the site IS about "Rumors"
Anthony Franco
4:07
I'll address this one since I think it's a fair question
4:08
To clarify, we didn't technically delete the original "Ohtani reportedly signing with Jays" post. We deleted the tweet and updated the post when the initial report was refuted
But that's largely semantics and not the main point of your question
4:11
We don't put things on the site that we don't believe. Hoornstra has an extended track record covering the Dodgers for news organizations. We've cited him on the site a number of times.

While none of us would've picked him as the likeliest person to break the Ohtani story, there's a much higher chance of validity to that report than if it had been a random tweet from someone we'd never heard of
4:13
Obviously, none of us feel great about how it played out. Aggregating something that turns out to be incorrect is a shitty feeling. At the same time, I'm not sure there's much to change about our process. We all agreed that we'd have trusted that report based on the track record of the reporter
mmddyyyy
4:14
When does this CBA expire?
Anthony Franco
4:14
Runs through 2026
mlbFan
4:14
What do you think of the tigers singing flaherty?
Anthony Franco
4:15
I like it. I drove our (incorrect) three-year prediction on Flaherty, still in on him as an upside play
mmddyyyy
4:15
When imagining contracts, do you better enjoy speculating on dollar amount or number of years?
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