Front Office Chat: 7/9/26
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Anthony Franco
4:12
Not saying that outweighs the financial disadvantages they face, but you would expect the lower revenue franchises to have deeper farm systems on average
4:13
Milwaukee and Cleveland are excellent at developing pitching. All three of those teams tend to have good athletes, strong overall defenses
4:14
That's by and large a younger player skillset, so again makes sense that it'd be something they emphasize compared to teams that do a lot in free agency
4:15
And they're also just more willing to make unpopular trades that don't align with a traditional competitive window. Milwaukee was coming off an NLCS berth and the best record in baseball and traded their most established starter last offseason
4:17
It didn't come as much surprise because that's just how they do things, but there was no world in which the Phillies were moving Jesús Luzardo for a couple prospects last offseason
Joshua
4:17
Would Seattle trade Ryan Sloan to take a shot on Dylan Crews of the Nats?
Anthony Franco
4:18
No way. Crews isn't getting a potential top-end starter at this point
Sandy at 90
4:18
Do you have any more definitive dates when Snell and Glasnow will be activated?
Anthony Franco
4:19
Snell said yesterday he's pain free and will throw his first live BP this weekend. Glasnow's throwing but not much beyond that
4:20
Dodgers themselves don't have definitive dates yet. Would guess second half of August on both in an ideal scenario but there's no incentive for them to rush since all they care about is the postseason
4:21
Division is a lock, top two seed and first-round bye highly likely. It'd be nice to secure home field but not a huge deal, they had no issue going through Milwaukee and Philly last year
Arte and Mo
4:22
If Detmers, Soriano, and Neto bring in a total of 5 Top 100 prospects, Bremner is already in the Top 100, Hayden Alvarez is on the brink. Depending on who they draft on Saturday, the Angels could go feasibly end up with 8 Top 100 prospects going into next season? (That would be a transformative trade deadline for the Halos.)
Anthony Franco
4:23
They could turn the farm around quickly if they want to but it'd require them to admit they're going to run out the worst roster in MLB for the next couple seasons
ScottHarris
4:23
Do you see the league imbalance as being based on matchups or talent?  With interleague play and the universal DH, there is little distinction between NL and AL now.  If NL clubs line Cincy miss out while an Al squad with 80-82 wind gets in, can you see some kind of realignment taking place or some other means of remedying the imbalance?
Anthony Franco
4:24
Not really. I agree there's no practical distinction but that's also true of the NHL, NFL and NBA and none of them have abandoned the conference/division format
4:25
The NFL had a sub-.500 division winner host a playoff game last year. NHL had multiple teams from the East that missed the playoffs but would've made it with the same record in the West. I don't know much about the NBA but imagine there are similar situations
Shea
4:26
Peralta makes a lot of sense for the Braves, right?
Anthony Franco
4:27
Yeah any of the top rental arms do. Peralta a little more complicated because the Braves would need to be content sending prospects in-division
Natitude Dude
4:27
Okay, the Nats are 3.5 back in the wildcard. If you are Toboni, do you stick to your guns and deal Foster Griffin or do you try to extend him and have him be a piece of the foundation for years to come?
Anthony Franco
4:31
Depends on the number right? If I can get him at three years and something in the $40-45MM range, I'd prefer the extension. If his camp is looking closer to Severino money, cash him in
4:32
That conversation needs to happen before the deadline though. He's a fringe QO candidate and just holding him and letting him walk squanders most of the future value they get from the signing
Joshua
4:32
I know this is outside the box and rarely done, but I would love to see the Nats Buy by going after Reid Detmers (trade Brady House, Seaver King, Luke Dickerson, YoYo Morales type deal), but also Sell by dealing Foster Griffin for a 2025 Merrill Kelly type return which would also give Paul Toboni more of "his" guys. Any chance of something like this happening?
Anthony Franco
4:33
That's light on the Detmers return but this general line of thinking makes sense for the Nats and Cardinals
Tequila Sunrise
4:33
Do the Astros truly believe that they have actual prospects to go for Tarik Skubal?  If so, they are more dillusioned than I thought.
Anthony Franco
4:36
Yeah I don't buy that one as more than due diligence. Assuming they're not trading Jeremy Peña or Cam Smith, tough to see them making that work given the lack of high-end talent in the farm and the payroll questions
4:37
Building something around Xavier Neyens and AJ Blubaugh? Meh
Kotsay
4:37
Should I start updating my resume?
Anthony Franco
4:39
The A's never had enough pitching and the lineup took a bunch of injury hits at the worst possible time
Alright, I have to wrap this one up
4:40
I see Steve just published the mailbag so there's another 6319 words (lol) on various questions to peruse as well
4:41
No regular chat tomorrow, believe Nick Gaut will do his standard fantasy chat in the early afternoon
4:42
As always, feel free to throw anything else at me on X @affranco10 if I didn't get back to you here. Steve will do another of these on Monday and has the weekly mailbag midweek, I'll be back to the normal schedule next Friday
Thanks for the flexibility this week and your continued support of the site! Have a great weekend!
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