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Front Office Chat: 4/14/23
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Anthony Franco
3:59
Hey everyone, hope you're all finishing a good week!
Looking forward to another one of these, let's get going
Clete Boyer
4:00
Jhony Brito was so great in his first two starts—and terrible in his third. Will the Yankees keep him in the rotation? Will he recover to be a good mid-rotation pitcher? Or does he need more seasoning in the minors?
Anthony Franco
4:02
Might get squeezed out once Rodón comes back. Feels like that comes down to him vs. Clarke Schmidt, which is borderline. I wouldn't worry too much about one start. It was awful but sometimes guys just don't have it
Feel like more of a back-end guy than a mid-rotation arm
Matteyt
4:02
What order would you rank M. Dubon, JP Crawford, & G Perdomo in a H2H points shortstop while K Seager and L Urias are out?
Anthony Franco
4:04
Man, that's pretty grim. Standard caveat that I'm not really a good person to ask for fantasy stuff but if we're talking a points league where the question is basically which one I think is the best hitter, give me Crawford
Cold to Cole
4:04
Very surprised to see Cole Irvin get sent down. Do you think it's because of their off days or is it skills?
Anthony Franco
4:04
I was also surprised. Thought they'd give him more of a leash than three starts. It's both the things you mentioned
4:05
Brandon Hyde specifically pointed to the off days as a reason they didn't want to go with a six-man rotation. There'd be a long time between starts. But even if they were going to send someone down, they could've demoted Dean Kremer or Kyle Bradish instead of Irvin, so it's not just a numbers game
Julien
4:06
What does Julien need to do to stay up?
Anthony Franco
4:08
He's not going to hold the second base job once Polanco comes back and might get pushed out just because there aren't enough at-bats to go around if Polanco and Kirilloff are healthy
4:09
But he can and probably will force his way into the mix  for good in the middle of the season if he's mashing in Triple-A. Between Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach at first base and in left field, there's a decent amount of both performance/injury risk that should eventually open an opportunity for Julien to get back
Guest
4:09
I know that players are taxed on their income by the state in which the game is played. But that still leaves 81 games at their home field and, thus, half their income taxed by one state. Do state taxation rates play a role when players evaluate competing FA offers?
Anthony Franco
4:10
That definitely comes into play. Agencies are calculating that stuff when it's time to compare the "true" value of the offers that are on the table
4:12
In a lot of cases, though, I think there's also just a competitiveness factor that comes into play for top players (and their representatives). Something like  Francisco Lindor getting $341MM on his extension with the Mets is a good example
4:13
I'm sure Lindor is happy to have the extra million dollars too, but the main benefit of holding out for $341MM instead of $340MM was that he can top the Fernando Tatis Jr. deal and get what was (at the time ) the third-highest guarantee ever
New rules
4:14
Hi Anthony. Do you think a catcher should be given one timeout per at-bat or would this defeat the purpose of pace of play? Right now, I believe they have to use a mound visit or be charged for a pitcher’s disengagement.
Anthony Franco
4:16
Catcher timeout cuts against the clock a little bit and one per batter is probably a bit much but I wouldn't mind something like one per inning to reset the clock if they can't get on the same page with the pitcher. Don't feel super strongly about it either way though
Mike
4:16
Do you think the Marlins will contend?
Anthony Franco
4:17
Lineup feels light for that, especially in that division. Clearly the fourth best team in the NL East for me
Fed up
4:17
What are the odds  that the O's management doesn't learn a thing and sits on their hands again during the off-season or signs nothing but castoff and re-tread pitchers while their great farm system just gets another year older?
JL
4:17
There has to be pitchers out there the Os can go get, right?
Anthony Franco
4:18
Can't do anything about it right now, unless you're talking like Chris Archer on a minor league deal. Agree they have to do something at the deadline if they're competitive and if not, then it's an absolute must next year
4:20
I thought they should've been more aggressive on that front last offseason, but I can see the rationale that it was still a young roster and they didn't want to push too many chips in during a market where free agent prices jumped. If they repeat that next winter, though, it's a disaster and time to question ownership's commitment to winning the way people do with Pittsburgh
Guest
4:21
The wave of deals with young, star players seems inspired by the Atlanta approach. Do you think that teams will stop where they are (one or two extended players at most) or move toward wrapping up most of the team (Atlanta)?
Anthony Franco
4:22
I disagree with the premise to some extent. Atlanta's certainly the most aggressive about it right now but teams have tried these kinds of deals for a while. Cleveland was doing this stuff in the mid-late 90s. The Rays locked up Evan Longoria about a month and a half into his career
4:24
Most clubs would probably prefer to replicate the Atlanta model. But it requires 1) a bunch of really good players who you'd want to ensure are still around 8-10 years from now and 2) player buy-in. A lot of the Braves' deals felt pretty light for the player in the broader market context. Maybe they've gotten lucky to some extent, but I also think that speaks to a culture they've created where a lot of their players want to stick around
CardinalRed
4:25
Rangers/Cards line up for a trade pretty well, would a package of Herrera, DeJong, Hicks, O'Neill, and Burlson be enough for someone in the team top prospects like Owen White, Brock Porter, or Cole Winn or some combo of those 3 even? Cards need pitching, now.
Anthony Franco
4:27
DeJong isn't going to have any appeal for Texas. Burleson and O'Neill probably would, though I can't see them giving up Owen White for either
4:28
As for Winn and Porter, I wouldn't do that if I were St. Louis. It's not like either of those guys is stepping into the rotation. Porter's 19 years old; there's a real chance he never reaches the majors. Winn could factor in at some point but he's gotten bombed in Triple-A, so he's far from a sure thing
Marcmooo
4:29
Will Colas hit enough to stay in the lineup?
Anthony Franco
4:30
Yeah I think so. I'm not super bullish on him (the strikeout/walk profile scares me) but he doesn't have to be all that good to be a better right fielder than Gavin Sheets or Romy González
Bob Loblaw
4:30
Say hypothetically that the Angels decide to move Ohtani this summer. What's a comparable return? The Scherzer/Turner to LA deal?
Anthony Franco
4:31
I think that's the closest comp, yeah. Maybe a little less since Turner had the extra season of club control but within that ballpark. Two top 100 prospects, including one of the 20-25 best in the league, and two or three more interesting fliers
4:32
Which I imagine most fans would find underwhelming, but there's only so much value in three months of any player. Even Ohtani isn't going to move a team's championship odds more than a few percentage points based on the randomness of the postseason
Still think the Angels are good enough we'll never find out though
MeanReen
4:32
Hey, Anthony! I just have to ask because I can't help myself.  Did the Cubs let Willson Contreras walk because he wanted more money than they wanted to pay?
Anthony Franco
4:34
Considering how often he angled for an extension with seemingly zero bite from the team, I just don't think they liked his long-term projection all that much. Whether that's because they don't want to invest in any catcher or concerns about Contreras' defense specifically, I don't know, but it never seemed like something they wanted to do
4:36
What he actually got (five years, $87.5MM with a club option) feels perfectly reasonable to me. It's right in line with what he picked at the start of an offseason that generally had higher prices for top players than we'd anticipated
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