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Front Office Chat: 3/10/25
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mmddyyyy
4:54
When is the right time to speculate on the MVP race?
Anthony Franco
4:55
For fun? Before the season starts. To have any kind of strong frontrunner? Probably need to wait into June unless one player is going absolutely ballistic
Angels Fan
4:56
Who do you think will be the Angels 5th SP coming out of Spring Training and why?
Anthony Franco
4:58
I'd guess Detmers based on the higher swing-and-miss upside compared to Kochanowicz (or Dakota Hudson)
Ben Cherrington
4:59
The Athletic says I should sign Paul to 10/200m. Think Nutting will give me the money?  Why are you laughing so hard?
Anthony Franco
5:02
Yeah I can't see this happening. Makes it all the more disappointing that the organization continues to do nothing to meaningfully improve the offense while they have Skenes and Jones on pre-arb salaries
Lance/Vlad Ito
5:02
Odds Vladito gets dealt midseason?
Vlad Jr
5:02
Am I a Yankee next year?
Anthony Franco
5:04
Decent chance on a trade. Entirely dependent on the Jays' proximity to the playoff race, of course, but there's probably a 25-30% chance that they're so far out of it by the deadline that they have no justification for holding him. Ownership's less likely to step in and take him off the block the way Arte Moreno did with Ohtani
5:06
Yankees as a fit? Sure. He's already walked back the comments about never signing with them -- why take that off the table as a possibility -- and they're viable on any top-of-the-market free agent
IL
5:06
Thinking of Gerrit Cole potentially needing Tommy John surgery and being lost for all of 2025. When high priced players go out for the season and the club has an insurance policy for them, how does that affect their finances for the season? The player still counts for luxury tax purposes, correct? So theoretically the Yankees could be reimbursed for some or all of Cole’s salary, but then have “less” to spend when factoring in the high luxury tax that would be paid for any additional players? Is that correct? And conversely, hypothetically, if the A’s were to lose Luis Severino and had a similar policy, they would have the ability to spend every dollar and stay within their 2025 budget (as luxury tax is far from a factor for the A’s)?
Anthony Franco
5:08
Yeah, an insurance policy could reimburse some or of the actual salary but won't impact their luxury tax number and associated penalties
Seeding or Current Structure
5:08
Do you think that a move away from Divisions (current playoff structure) to something more of a MLB wide seeding system would be a good thing and up for discussion in the next CBA?  The more I feel like good teams in strong divisions are being somewhat penalized, I think it could be a good thing.
Anthony Franco
5:11
Kind of answered this in the expansion question above. I'm not wedded to divisions necessarily but they add a layer of excitement to the playoff races -- there's less value in jumping from fourth to third in an overall league seeding setup than there is for winning your division vs. Wild Card under the current format -- and there's still better marketing upside when the divisions give the league a reason to schedule more traditional rivalry games
5:14
A league specific 1-6 or overall 1-12 is probably more equitable, but the margins on that are pretty slim and the playoff field is big enough now that they're not leaving any great teams on the outside looking in. You might have a 98-win team that ends up as a wild card and plays on the road against an 88-win team that won its division, but it's not like the 98-win club is in any danger of missing the playoffs.

If you win 85 and the worst division winner gets in with 84, I have a hard time feeling much sympathy
mmddyyyy
5:14
Are there any MLB contracts with a mid season opt out?
Anthony Franco
5:15
Midseason opt-outs are a thing for minor league contracts but not for major league deals
John B
5:15
Jerar Encarnacion has been tearing it up this spring. Do you think it's sustainable?
Anthony Franco
5:16
The power's real but no, he wouldn't sustain a 17% strikeout rate
Miked
5:16
Would Andrew Abbot (now healthy)  or Nick Lodolo be enough to pry Spencer Jones away from Yankees?
Anthony Franco
5:18
They would be for me given Jones' strikeout issues but I imagine the Yankees like him more than I do
Chris H
5:19
How do you think the temporary stadiums for the Athletics and the Rays will affect projections for wins and losses?  It seems like it's great for hitters, and terrible for pitchers.
Anthony Franco
5:20
I have no insight into this but the minor league park factors but from what I've seen, it does seem like it'll skew both places more favorably for hitters
5:21
Baseball America's park factors have Steinbrenner Field as one of the more hitter-friendly in the Florida State League
5:22
Sutter Health Park was very pitcher-friendly in comparison to the rest of the Pacific Coast League, but "pitcher-friendly by PCL standards" is probably much more favorable to hitters than the Coliseum was. Players who were in Sacramento seem to agree with that assessment
RAGBRAI
5:23
Kerkering end up the closer in Philly by the end of the year?
Anthony Franco
5:24
Yeah I could see that happening before the All-Star Break
5:25
Alright, closing in on two hours so I need to wrap this one up
Thanks for all the questions and for continuing to support the site as always!
5:26
I'm on X @affranco10 if you want to throw anything else at me throughout the week. Steve will run one of these on Friday afternoon, and I believe he'll be back to do his usual Tuesday chat that isn't paywalled
Hope you all have a great week!
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