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Front Office Chat: 4/13/26
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Anthony Franco
3:34
Penner group made clear they're not getting involved in day-to-day and it's still the Monforts' business. I don't think it changes much in the short term but clearly that amount of money puts them on a better footing financially
3:35
Even if it's largely just paying down existing debt (not clear how much they'd accrued but the team announcement said the investment covered whatever they had in full), that obviously opens them up for future spending a little more
3:36
Not the right time to do that since the MLB roster is going to be terrible for a few years no matter what they do. Between the DePodesta hiring -- bold if nothing else, which the Rox have almost never been -- and some of the coaching stuff they're doing (e.g. hiring Leichman and calling pitches from the dugout), does seem like they're moving away from some of their previous rigidity in how they approached things
Cat_Herder
3:37
Parker Meadow's injury plague continues.  Do we see Max Clark before he's ready to come off the 60 (as of today)?
Anthony Franco
3:37
Yeah I'd be pretty surprised if Clark isn't up within two months
Playoffs?
3:37
Which team is your biggest dark horse for the playoffs 16 games in?
Anthony Franco
3:38
Considering they're all either 7-9, 8-8 or 9-7, the standings don't help much there
3:39
Braves have probably been the most impressive so far relative to my preseason expectation. Wouldn't exactly call them a dark horse though
3:40
I don't think Miami's a playoff team but sneaky competitive again, sure
The Knuder
3:41
Padres: Who gets DFA'd when Song comes back: Nick Castellanos, Bryce Johnson, or Ty France?
Anthony Franco
3:42
Johnson's the most expendable player -- he'd probably clear waivers and could re-sign on a minor league deal at that point -- but dropping him would be conditional on them being confident Song's ready as a fourth outfielder. Not sure how they feel about that considering the oblique kept interrupting the Spring Training work out there
3:43
France feels the likelier cut to me than Castellanos just based on track record even though France is off to the much better start
Skeptical but hopeful snake
3:44
Three starts in, is E-Rod for real or are there stats that I'm not looking at?
Anthony Franco
3:45
He can probably guile his way to league average results behind the command and secondary stuff
3:46
Definitely not buying him as a top-of-the-rotation starter when he's sitting 91 with a 15% strikeout rate
But I never thought he was as bad about the roughly 5.00 ERA over his first couple seasons in Arizona showed either
Chris
3:47
Is there any smoke to the Blue Jays controversy with "Ohtani gets too much time to warm up in-between innings"?  Why don't both teams just get extra time in games he pitches?
Anthony Franco
3:48
I don't think he should get extra warmup time as a two-way player but I have a hard time caring about this. Doubt it has any real impact on his pitching performance
Paulie from Fall River
3:48
Kutter Crawford is starting a rehab assignment. What does Boston do with him when he’s done rehabbing?
Anthony Franco
3:51
Probably just long relief but Crawford's going to need a few rehab turns in Worcester and if Bello gets bombed two or three times before then, could option him
Chris
3:51
We've always heard about players having geographical preferences, but wouldn't baseball be the sport where that matters the least? Outside of March / first half of April, basically every team plays in warm weather unlike the NFL, NBA, NHL.
Anthony Franco
3:52
Don't think it's generally a weather thing so much as travel proximity for family, especially since so many of these guys either come from the Southern U.S. or Latin America
3:54
Spring Training home can be a big thing too. If you live in Florida, it's a nice bonus to sign with a team that plays in the Grapefruit League and is within driving distance for the nearly two months you're down there. Same idea for Arizona/Cactus League teams
Ca$hman
3:54
other roster considerations being equal, would you rather have a superstar pitcher, catcher, centerfielder, or ss?
Anthony Franco
3:54
Shortstop
Steve
3:54
Is Lucas Giolito still out and if he is, why?
Anthony Franco
3:54
He's throwing, basically says he just didn't get any offers he liked
3:56
That entire 30-minute convo with Bradfo is a good listen. The free agent stuff is the most newsworthy part but there's some pretty good tidbits in there -- his thoughts on how the challenge system is impacting umpires, pretty good anecdote about the first time he saw José Soriano pitch -- that we didn't pull for the MLBTR post on it
Nick
3:57
Would love to see a more robust financial analysis of the Konnor Griffin deal showing ranges of dollar estimates of what Konnor might get going year-to-year for 2 years club control, 4 years arbitration, and the early free agent years vs. this contract.  The downside financial risk still seems substantial - surprising from the Pirates.  Are we aware whether the Pirates offered Skenes an extension in '24 or '25?
Anthony Franco
4:00
That's the risk-reward calculus right? Let's say Griffin becomes Zach Neto. Griffin's ceiling is higher than that but Neto's a damn good player, hardly an insult for a conservative comp
4:02
Neto's making $4M as a Super Two this year. Bake in a couple years of inflation and I'll bump Griffin closer to $5M for year one. Add $5-7M annually from there and he can get to $50-55M over four years of arb (plus a little less than $3M for two-plus seasons of pre-arbitration)
4:03
Assume that if there's no extension, the Pirates aren't calling him up early enough for a full serve year in 2026. So a nine-year deal probably buys out only two would be free agent years
4:04
Those might be worth $55-60M annually by the middle of the 2030s. Look at what Bichette and Tucker got by going short term already
4:05
If Griffin's an MVP player, could argue that his first-two free agent years are worth closer to $70M by that point
4:07
So if he does end up going down the Bobby Witt Jr. path, the Pirates benefit enormously from this. Obviously there's a small chance he busts completely (likelier due to injury than complete underperformance), in which case he's very happy to have secured life changing money
Bill
4:07
Maybe Atlanta should consider trading Kim and extending Dubon
Anthony Franco
4:07
Should've just trusted Dubón and not re-signed Kim in the first place
4:09
Kim can't get traded anytime soon. Full no-trade until 6/15 and the injury history and salary would mute the interest anyway. They'll give him SS back and move Dubón around the diamond once HSK is healthy
DC Native
4:09
No real comment except that the Nats are more fun to watch than I expected.Definitely not GOOD or anything, but they're running a lot and scoring a lot and their defense (22nd in Defensive Efficiency) is merely bad rather than horrific. And their bullpen makes sure that every game is an adventure!
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