You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Front Office Chat: 2/17/23
powered byJotCast
Prev Page View Full Chat Next Page
Anthony Franco
4:53
Not right now but there'll be trade possibilities that shake loose eventually. Willy Adames and Tim Anderson each have two years of remaining club control. If Milwaukee or the White Sox fall out of contention, either could be a viable trade candidate down the line
Oakland
4:53
We’re you suprised about the overall amount of money they spent on free agents?
Anthony Franco
4:54
A little bit. Not necessarily the 2023 salaries -- they had literally no guaranteed money on the books at the start of the offseason -- but I didn't think they'd go multiple years on both Aledmys Díaz and Jace Peterson
4:55
Not like there's anything that'll be onerous long term, but they spent more on Díaz in particular than I'd have projected
Chafin
4:55
I know you might’ve answered this before, but how suprised were you at how little money chafin got? Plus the opt out ?
Anthony Franco
4:56
Questioner's referring to the team option for the second year. Yeah, I don't get why the market has been so quiet on Chafin two years running
4:57
Presumably because he doesn't throw hard but he consistently misses bats and keeps the ball on the ground in spite of it. We thought he'd do better
Joey
4:57
How do you guys at MLBTR get news? Are you always like searching reporters’ articles or the athletic?
Anthony Franco
4:57
We have someone watching Tweetdeck for 18 hours a day. A lot of the most significant news gets broken on Twitter by a local or national reporter, all of whom we follow
4:59
But yeah, for more rumors-oriented stuff, we're reading beat reports at the Athletic, MLB website, local newspapers constantly. Most of it doesn't prove of value for our purposes, and the longer you do this job, the better feel you get for subconsciously filtering out what's relevant and what isn't
Hits Like Rays
4:59
Is it just me, or do teams seem to be winning an abnormally high amount of arbitration cases this year?  And if so, what might that mean?
Anthony Franco
5:00
Teams are up 8-5 right now, so your anecdotal observation is right. Don't think it's anything more than a sample blip though
Stan
5:02
Are there any trade partners that the Cards young outfielders would be a good match for some pitching or pitching prospects? Maybe the Rangers?
Anthony Franco
5:03
Not before Opening Day but the White Sox or Guardians feel like teams that could move a starter depending on how things play out over the first couple months
Phil
5:03
Who are your favorite most-likely-to-bounce-back candidates? Winker? Austin Meadows? Javy Baez?
Anthony Franco
5:05
Out of the guys specifically, I'd take Baez. Tougher question just generally. Off the top of my head, Brian Anderson and Jeimer Candelario stand out
Yoan Moncada too
Cubs' fan
5:05
Rank who will get the most saves in 2023 among Adbert Alzolay Brad Boxberger Michael Fulmer and Brandon Hughes?  Thank you!
Anthony Franco
5:06
Probably go Alzolay, Fulmer, Hughes, Boxberger
Eddie
5:06
Do you think it's wise to add all of these new rules at once?  Instincts will be tampered with, so it may have been better to add a couple at a time.
Anthony Franco
5:08
Yeah, I think they run the risk of making too many changes at once that it becomes hard to tell whether the effects you're seeing are the result of one or another. If contact rates go up two percentage points, is it because the shift ban is incentivizing hitters to put more balls in play or because the pitch clock is taking a greater than anticipated toll on pitcher quality?
Naterz
5:08
Lodolo or Greene.  Assuming healthy for the whole season, who has the better year?
Anthony Franco
5:09
I'm more of a Lodolo fan. They're both good but Greene's fly-ball propensity probably gives him consistent home run issues in that ballpark
Joey
5:09
did you see John Heymans article this morning about what the pirates offered Bryan Reynolds? what did you think
Anthony Franco
5:09
Heyman repeated that they offered around $76M, which he first reported a couple weeks ago
5:10
I did a full post on it at that time if you want like 1200 words on my thoughts haha
5:11
The TLDR version is that 76 feels vaguely justifiable considering what Sean Murphy got ultimately a fair bit lower than I'd expect Reynolds to actually take. Murphy deal was probably low in general -- Braves are really good at that -- and Reynolds is working from a better arbitration platform than he was
5:12
Somewhere in the 100-115 range feels right to me. Reynolds seems to want more and the Pirates want to offer less
Brad
5:13
Am I crazy or did the Padres way overpay wacha? Those option years are crazy
Anthony Franco
5:13
They did that on purpose to make the luxury tax work. I wrote about their general strategy more yesterday
5:15
We projected Wacha at two years in the 16-20 range. They'd rather go above that guarantee to diminish the annual salary to minimize the tax impact. I don't think it's any kind of huge bargain but feels fine
Golf Guy
5:15
Would you like to be a fly on the wall at this years Masters Champions Dinner?
Anthony Franco
5:16
Ha people were mad I answered a golf question in one of the main chats a couple weeks ago. I don't know anything about it except that Seb Korda's sister is awesome
Mr Fantastic
5:16
What fantasy pitchers should I avoid since the league says they are outlawing toe taps and other funky windups
Anthony Franco
5:17
Passan named Gausman and Houston's Luis Garcia as guys who'll have to change their deliveries because of the balk rule. I highly doubt it's significant enough to change their fantasy outlooks though
Brad
5:17
Also how do you feel about thoughts on teams being just south of some of these tax lines? Wouldn't you want to leave room for deadline deals?
Anthony Franco
5:19
Yeah I suspect they'll ultimately end up going over at the deadline anyways and it'll be a moot point, but I guess it doesn't hurt to dip to $272.5M for now if you were tracking towards like $275M
Sandy G
5:19
Do minor league salaries differ for players on 40 man rosters versus the non-roster guys?
Connecting…