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Front Office Chat: 2/28/25
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Anthony Franco
3:36
I don't think it's likely but not a bad dark horse pick
Cy Tobb
3:36
Come on, Anthony. I think Ten Batting Titles would do it for Arraez. Fifteen? I spit out my coffee.
Anthony Franco
3:37
Haha alright fair, I'll reconsider Arraez's HOF candidacy in 2032 if he rips off seven consecutive batting titles
RAGBRAI
3:37
Assuming Alcantara performs well at the beginning of the season what is the most likeliest out come? Trade before June, traded at the deadline or traded in the offseason next year?
Anthony Franco
3:38
Before June is probably early -- want to give him some time to show he's maintaining his stuff for a few months after the surgery -- but something within June seems viable
If he's pitching well and healthy, I don't see any way he's not moved by the deadline
Angel
3:39
What's up with the Martian? Was he this bad defensively in the minors and the Yankees ignored it? What are the chances, with stanton out. That the Martian DHs and pererria plays left or the Yankees sign someone?
Anthony Franco
3:40
Domínguez has never been good defensively but I expect him to be a fine left fielder
3:41
Moving him to DH and having him adjust to left field whenever Stanton comes back is too hasty. Between the strikeouts and last year's injury, Pereira needs to hit in Scranton for a couple months before he becomes a realistic option out there
Jacob F
3:41
With the Red Xox now likely over the luxury tax (but only just barely), it seems like a no brainer to go out and add Quintana to help hedge against Crawford and Bello being out longer than expected (and letting Priester get time for more work in AAA) as well as Robertson in the pen. Do you see them doing so?
Anthony Franco
3:43
I don't think it's necessary. No indication that Bello and Crawford are going to be out for extended stretches. And if Quintana's weighing a bunch of one-year offers in the $6-10MM range, guessing he'd prefer to land somewhere where he's not worried about getting pushed out of the rotation by injury returnees within a month.
otisPDriftwood
3:43
I never know if I am supposed to ask fantasy baseball questions or baseball questions in these chats! So here are two fantasy baseball queries
  1. Caleb Durbin - will he get the PT necessary to be rostered on a fantasy team? I'm not sure where I see him playing. Same for T Saggasse in St. Louis
  2. Thoughts on Grant Holmes, Max Meyer, and Alex Diaz?
Anthony Franco
3:44
I'm not opposed to taking fantasy questions but I don't play in many leagues or formats, so I'm not the right person to ask about auction values or whatever
3:46
Durbin should be in the third base mix in Milwaukee. Is he good enough to warrant a spot on your fantasy team? Not sure about that.

Moderately intrigued by Holmes, not as much faith in Meyer to stay healthy. Not sure what the question is on Alexis Díaz but I expect him to open the year as Cincinnati's closer if you're looking for saves
Drew W
3:46
The Orioles hired Mike Elias on the strength of his track record in scouting and analytics, especially with the Astros, and he did a great job rebuilding the Orioles. Do you think he is also a good "wartime cosigliere," a GM who  isn't afraid to trade from prospects  to get the team to the WS.  Everyone has different strengths and maybe Elias just isn't the guy to build the Orioles past their prospects.
Anthony Franco
3:47
Have gotten a lot of variations on the Orioles trading prospects question but never one equating Mike Elias to Tom Hagen. Well done
3:49
They did this with the Burnes trade, acquired Eflin at last summer's deadline, and I expect them to be aggressive for rotation help this summer. I think they've done a generally solid job building the MLB roster (here's where I admit that I actually liked the Trevor Rogers trade, whoops)
3:50
But we've talked about this a lot over the past year at MLBTR and I think Steve Adams is closer to your read on how they've handled things
Dodger prospect
3:51
I guess I have to hope to be traded if I want to make the bigs?
Dalton Rushing
3:51
Will I break camp with the dodgers
Anthony Franco
3:51
Don't think there's room for Rushing to break camp but they'll eventually find space for guys of that ilk
3:52
Someone like James Outman probably needs to get moved to get another chance though
Injury Risk
3:52
Which team is more susceptible to an injury derailed season: San Diego Padres or Texas Rangers?
Anthony Franco
3:54
Injuries can derail anyone but I'll say Texas of those two. I like the Rangers a lot but they've got a lot of older starters, a couple of whom are coming back from surgery. Not hard to see how that could go south
Developmental Steps
3:54
Back in 2021 when Corbin Carroll and Jordan Lawlar were both injured with similar shoulder issues, the Diamondbacks had them attend every game down the stretch in Phoenix and sit with a scout who taught them what to look for in evaluating players. Both players have commended that as has the team. Both players are likely to be pivotal parts of the 2026 Arizona Diamondbacks offensive success and theoretically could also both end up as Rookie of the Year winners. Why don't other teams do this more often with their young, injured guys? Even Arizona opted against doing it for Druw Jones and Kristian Robinson when neither of them could play on the field a year after Lawlar and Carroll had been hurt. Seems like an extremely valuable piece of development that many players could benefit from.
Anthony Franco
3:56
I like this idea. Need to do it with the right personalities though. Carroll and Lawlar both have elite makeup and drive to get better. That's not true of every player, so not everyone's going to take as much away from it, but this is a cool idea
WAR and Analytics
3:56
There was an argument recently about analytics regarding the Perdomo extention on the AZSnakePit blog. In that exchange, one party tried to claim analytics were bad because 2017 JD Martinez and 2022 Josh Rojas have similar bWAR totals (they were trying to say a comparison of Perdomo's pre-extention stats to Ketel Marte's pre-extention stats was invalid because analytics are bad...). Can you explain how WAR is calculated and why an explosive half season like JDM in Arizona is valued similarly to a "mediocre" year like the cherry-picked Rojas 2022?
Anthony Franco
3:58
Haha I'm not going to defend someone else's poor argument, but it's true that sometimes guys have outlier years in defensive metrics that inflate their single-season WAR totals
4:01
Nicky Lopez had a season where he was worth like 5 WAR. Nobody ever thought he was a superstar, and he never had a chance to repeat that. Those happen and are reasons not to go overboard on any one year of any statistic. But it's not that hard to spot those kinds of outliers. A player having a 5-WAR season doesn't mean that's his true talent any more than you'd assume that Jose Iglesias will hit .335 every year because he did it last year
4:02
WAR's positional adjustment goes really hard on designated hitters. It's also a counting stat, so comparing 62 games for JDM after a deadline trade to 125 games over a full season from Rojas is silly
Jay
4:02
No team has ever had too much starting pitching, but with Wheeler, Nola, Suarez, Luzardo, and Sanchez all set for the Phillies, plus Walker's contract, and Painter due up in July, do you see them going the way of the Dodgers and using a 6 man rotation? Or does this just give them some flexibility come trade season to flip a quality starter for an impact player somewhere else?
Anthony Franco
4:03
I think they'll have just cut Walker by the time Painter is ready
4:04
Maybe he'll get some run because of injuries and the contract but going to a six-man rotation to make sure he keeps taking the ball at the expense of a couple starts from Wheeler, Nola, etc. is unnecessary
Marlins potential trade
4:04
Will the Marlins trade for Marte, Taylor, Montgomery or Stroman to satisfy reaching MLB bargain agreement like the A's did and get some kids also in return by taking on that bloated 1 yr contact?
Anthony Franco
4:06
If they were doing this, I imagine they'd have been more active in the middle tiers of free agency
Mike
4:06
any chance the Yankees still add a 3B? Josh Smith? Would Peirera and Peraza get it done?
Anthony Franco
4:06
Nah, Texas passes on that. Seems like you've got LeMahieu for now
Bryan
4:06
How do you see the Royals dividing up playing time for Garcia, India and Massey?
Anthony Franco
4:08
There's room for all of them between second, third and the outfield. Garcia's probably ends up as the technical backup/utility piece, but he'll have opportunities to cut into the Renfroe and Melendez at-bats if he handles himself well in the outfield
Rangers13
4:08
Should the Rangers look to trade Taveras to Detroit for a prospect and then use savings to sign Rizzo as a backup for Burger at 1B?
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