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Front Office Chat: 4/4/25
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Anthony Franco
3:01
Hey everyone, hope you've all had a good week!
Going to keep this one right around an hour with Steve off this week. Let's get rolling
Youkilyptus
3:02
The Crochet deal looks great for Boston, right?  Ellie pitching is crazy expensive and getting more so.  Gotta roll the dice somewhere.  Might as well be a young strikeout specialist.
Anthony Franco
3:04
I like the move but don't think it's a huge steal. They're paying around $32MM annually for the five free agent years, which is basically the going rate for an ace. It covers Crochet's prime, but he also hasn't pitched a full season with a regular starter's workload, so it's a gamble
3:06
Really good deal for Crochet personally. I like it for the Red Sox and it's the finishing touch to what I thought what was a great trade for them, but it's a high-risk, high-reward play
Parker Jones
3:07
Can we expect to enjoy this elevated payroll status and free-wheeling ownership or is the old geezer just preparing to sell the team to another miserly businessman who will immediately treat the team like a money printing machine again?
Anthony Franco
3:07
Not sure if you're in the chat right now but I honestly don't know what team you're asking about here
Tovar
3:07
Will I sniff the playoffs in my career? Or will I be a poster child for an entire era of disappointing Rockies fans?
Anthony Franco
3:10
He's signed through 2030. I think they'll make the playoffs at least once by then. The farm system isn't devoid of talent and the Freeland/Senzatela money will come off the books in the next few years. Bryant's signed through '28, which is a disaster, but he's there with McMahon and Tovar as the only guys guaranteed for at least two seasons after this one
Brewer Fan
3:10
I love seeing the prospect/very young player extensions like Chourio and Merrill, is there any chance this trend ever gets extended to pitchers? (or am I just missing some of those?) Or is the injury risk to big?
Anthony Franco
3:13
Agree that they'll be less frequent because of the injury risk. There have been a few (Strider, Greene, Bello, Bibee) but they're not decade-long commitments that go beyond nine figures for guys that early in their careers
3:16
The Dodgers invested 12 years and $325M in Yamamoto. You could take that as an indication that some teams will live with the risk for young pitchers they consider aces. (As a free agent, he obviously had much greater earning power than guys signing extensions with 1-2 years of service time.)

But aside from maybe Skenes, it's tougher to bet on young pitchers to remain healthy and effective for a decade than it is for comparably valuable top hitting prospects
Ben
3:16
If Tampa or Oakland were to make the world series, would MLB let the games happen in a minor league park? Or do you think they'd play them at another stadium?
Anthony Franco
3:19
Good question. My guess is they'd do something at a neutral MLB field but I haven't seen any indication one way or the other from the league on that
sunzoom
3:19
I think the Giants should offer Tyler Rodgers a short extension, what say you? (Maybe 2 yrs + a 1 yr team option?) He's so unique and so reliably effective. Yeah he's 34, but that submarine delivery really lowers arm-stress/injury risk, doesn't it?
Anthony Franco
3:23
I could see him getting two years with a club option, sure. Don't know that I'd be anxious to lock him up right now rather than seeing how this year plays out, but a guarantee in the $15MM range seems about right.

He seems like a safer bet from a durability performance. There's some batted ball volatility when you don't strike guys out but he has multiple years of elite control and soft contact rates
In Rizzo We Trust
3:23
Should the Nats send Dylan Crews to AAA or let him right the ship with the big league club?
Anthony Franco
3:25
Give him some time. It's only been five games. If he's still swinging and missing this much in two weeks, then I'd agree it's worth considering a reset in Rochester
Michael
3:26
As a Braves fan, please tell me we still have a chance at the playoffs, even at 0 - 7!  When does it become critical?
Atlanta
3:26
Are Strider and Acuna really worth hoping on at this point? No team has started this badly and made the playoffs. Considering we only got in last year because Arizona rested on their laurels, I'm really worried the window has been slammed shut by an unforeseen thunderstorm....
Ewitkows
3:26
So no MLB team has started 0-7 and made the playoffs. Who could you see the Braves selling off in May/June
Western skies
3:26
Thanks for the chat! If, say, the Braves play even so-so between now and Memorial Day and are double digits out of a wild card, who could they realistically trade and improve the roster without  blowing things up? Murphy? Albies? It’s looking pretty grim.
Anthony Franco
3:29
I think that 0-7 stat is pretty overblown. Most teams that start 0-7 do so because they have very little talent (e.g. the 2024 Marlins). The Braves have played two great teams while down an MVP-caliber position player and Cy Young-caliber pitcher
3:32
Yes, it's a horrible start, and the roster is probably more flawed than it has been in years, but it's much too early to say they're dead. To get to 88 wins, they need to play at a 92-win pace from here on out. That's not crazy for this roster, especially once Strider and Acuna are back
3:35
If they don't turn it around, who could they trade? Dealing Murphy seems reasonable given his offensive struggles and Baldwin's presence. Big catcher trades happen more frequently in the offseason than at the deadline though.

Raisel Iglesias and Marcell Ozuna as veteran rentals would be obvious. Sale would be the most interesting call. Affordable $18MM club option for '26 but he's 36. If he's pitching like an ace and they dig themselves too deep a hole to get out of this year, they should probably flip him at the deadline to more controllable starting pitching
Smalls
3:35
With Ottavino being outrighted (out-righted?), and the Rockies bullpen being atrocious, any chance for a reunion here? He pitched well in the very tiny sample size last week.
Anthony Franco
3:39
He hasn't technically been outrighted, just DFA, but it's likely he'll be outrighted or released by the weekend. Could see Colorado bringing him back over one of Herget or Kinley. Feel bad for Kinley because he was having such a good year before the elbow surgery in 2022, but he's probably running out of rope
Tyler
3:39
What do you think of this: Texas sends OF Evan Carter, RHP Kumar Rocked, INF Blain Crim, INF Justin Foscue to Miami for RHP Sandy Alcantara, RHP Tyler Phillips and cash to keep TEX under luxury threshold this season.
Anthony Franco
3:43
Man, I'd like this for Miami. Real health risk but huge upside swings with Carter and Rocker. Can't see Texas doing it unless Carter's back is messed up beyond belief though
Padres
3:43
Lost in this hullabaloo about the Dodgers and Braves, are the Padres that good or just lucky
Anthony Franco
3:44
They also smoked a Cleveland team that won 92 games and went to the ALCS last year. I think San Diego's just really good
3:46
They're below the Dodgers but I wouldn't really push back if you called them the second-best team in the league. Rotation depth probably gets tested by injury over 162, but the top half of the roster competes with anybody's
Dan
3:46
Mark mentioned on last weeks chat that your predictions for division winners and world series winner was published last week. Could you repost it. Thanks
Anthony Franco
3:48
This was an email-only thing. We didn't publish it on the site because while we wanted to keep it exclusive to subscribers, it didn't feel right to paywall a post that was basically a bunch of dart throws without any analysis
If you drop your email address in here, I can resend it to you. Won't publish that in the chat itself obviously
Liberal Arts Major
3:49
I know that conclusions from just over one week of results (injuries aside) can be dismissed with the one word reply: "April." But, realizing that the answer is likely to be different for different metrics, when do results start to become meaningful/projectable?
Anthony Franco
3:51
You can see tangible changes in pitcher stuff (new pitch, significant velocity uptick or drops) within one start. If you pair something like that with a spike in whiffs, I think it's fair to change your opinion on a pitcher within two or three outings
3:53
It's a lot tougher for hitters. The plate discipline metrics (chase rate, contact rate within the strike zone) is the stuff I'd start to trust first but even then, I'm reluctant to put much stock into anything before May
Ben Cherrington
3:53
Why did I pick up Canario? Don't I have enough all glove no bat guys on the team?
Anthony Franco
3:55
Not really an accurate description of Canario's profile. He's a corner guy with huge power who strikes out a ton. There's offensive ceiling, but the swing-and-miss means he's probably a Quad-A type
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