Front Office Chat: 8/31/2026
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Anthony Franco
4:01
Good afternoon, hope all is well!
4:02
Second straight week where I'm on Monday and Steve will handle the Friday chat. Let's get rolling
Guarded Indian
4:02
Do the Guards bring up Vazquez tomorrow or do they keep him down because of potential lockout consequences?  There is nothing left to prove in AAA and Fry can easily be sent back down.
Anthony Franco
4:06
He should be up but I'd have promoted him as soon as the 2027 rookie eligibility date passed and they didn't do it. I don't know if they just don't feel they can offer him everyday ABs but I'd rather bring him up and move Lowe into a bench role, wouldn't even need to send Fry down at this point with the extra roster spot
4:07
I take the point about not needing to add him to the 40-man but that's much more an ancillary consideration than getting this roster into the postseason. And if they do get in, have a hard time believing they wouldn't be better off with Velazquez on the playoff roster
Dirt
4:07
Hi Anthony, thanks for the chat. What do you expect the Braves to do with the rotation next season? Is Mahle an option for re-signing? He's been pitching well. What do they do with Strider, change of scenery candidate?
Anthony Franco
4:09
Yeah I don't see why they wouldn't look into bringing Mahle back. He's not going to go beyond two years, they need to stockpile mid-rotation types given the injury histories of their in-house options
4:11
Wouldn't rule out a Strider trade entirely -- Mark Bowman of MLB reported after the deadline that they looked into sending him to Texas as part of the deGrom talks -- but 2/49 is underwater given the recent injury history so it'd probably need to be some kind of contract swap
4:12
Still think something involving Eovaldi (if he's willing to waive his own NTC) would make sense for both Texas and Atlanta
Uncle Jerm
4:12
Unless the Twins win all six of their games this week, do you think it is time to shut down Buxton and Ryan for the year? And also bring up Rodriguez and give as many ABs as possible to the rookies to see what they have heading into camp next spring (assuming there is camp next spring).
Anthony Franco
4:14
Not a doctor obviously but it doesn't seem like there's a ton of re-injury risk on Ryan. Unless they're concerned about the glute impacting his mechanics and stressing something else, I'd bring him back whether a playoff berth is out the window or not
4:16
Shutting Buxton down early would make more sense -- recurring injury, potential for offseason surgery -- but even a 4-2 week keeps them vaguely in this Wild Card race
4:17
If they go 2-4 or 1-5, wrap it up
Lowe
4:17
Why would you sit N. Lowe for Cleveland? He mashes righties.  Can't hit lefties that is why Fry plays.
Anthony Franco
4:20
Bad wording on my part, doesn't have to be a full benching. More so meant that Velazquez becomes the everyday 1B and Lowe's available to rotate through DH on days when Bazzana's at 2B and one of Genao or Rocchio sits. High-end pinch hitting option on days when he's not in the lineup
4:22
Lowe's a nice player but Velazquez is the long-term core piece, has nothing left to prove at Triple-A, and the overall offense is better if he's on the roster. I'd have him up and prioritize his playing time and find ways to get Lowe into the lineup around that, even if it involves a slight cut back in playing time
Paul
4:22
Expectations for Tim Tawa for the next 3 weeks?
Anthony Franco
4:24
Not a whole lot, still think he's more of a quality role player than a true everyday guy. Would be closer to his overall season numbers than what he's done in August
Beano
4:24
Is Friedl working his back into the Reds lineup?
Anthony Franco
4:24
He'll hang around as the CF against RHP for the last couple weeks but they're non-tendering him this offseason
Sacramento Waystation
4:25
Any thoughts on the A's being interested in James Click?
Anthony Franco
4:26
Makes sense but I wouldn't put too much emphasis on one report identifying him as a very preliminary candidate
Optimistic Giants Fan
4:26
Any specific high leverage bullpen arms the Giants should target this offseason? (I know the answer is like, any of them, but who would you pick)
Anthony Franco
4:28
They've got so many needs that I'd just throw a couple one-year reclamation deals out there (Pete Fairbanks, Evan Phillips) and hope for the best
4:29
Morejon's the top guy in the class for me but I don't see this roster being one $75M bullpen investment away from turning things around
Lloyd
4:29
Expansion is a terrible idea, right? Rosters are full of .220 hitters, and pitchers with ERAs over 5. Not enough talent to support a couple more teams.
Anthony Franco
4:32
I've never found this all that compelling an argument. The overall league baseline drops marginally but there's not a huge difference between the late-season rosters that teams like the Giants and A's are running out there already and what you'd see from an expansion team
4:33
In the short term, yeah, you're adding two teams that are going to be awful for a few years. But they'll have time to build a farm system and by the franchises' third or fourth seasons, the overall product doesn't look much different at 32 teams than it did at 30
Ben Cherrington
4:34
Can my team still make the playoffs?
Anthony Franco
4:35
Pirates are too far gone, I'm afraid. Disappointing because this was a playoff-caliber roster that got some terrible injury luck
Fun Questions
4:35
My buddies and I were discussing the top pitchers of their eras, between Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and Greg Maddox for the 90s-early 2000s, then between Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, and Max Scherzer for the late 2000s-2020s. There's no wrong answer here which is why it's such a fun question, so I'm curious as to who would you pick!
Anthony Franco
4:39
Pick one from each era? I'd go Pedro and Kershaw, respectively (assuming you're not including Clemens for the PED link). But I was pretty young for the first group so I'm open to the idea that "you just had to see it" to truly appreciate Maddux as the greatest of his generation
phillies1993
4:39
Do you expect rosters to expand in the next CBA?
Anthony Franco
4:40
Nah I think 26 is good. Adding more pitchers cuts against the pace of play concerns and there's not a huge need for a fifth backup position player
Robert
4:40
Please explain salary and "competitive balance" salary and "luxury tax" in an easy way. Lets say theres a player who signed for 25million this year for the Mets and the Rays. How much does each team actually pay them, and how much do they pay towards the league or other teams based on that?
Anthony Franco
4:41
Competitive balance tax payroll and luxury tax payroll are the same thing. CBT is just the official name for it
4:42
It differs from the team's actual payroll in a few ways but the simplest one is that the luxury tax number is based on average annual value and doesn't account for when the money is actually paid out
4:44
If a player is on a straight one-year contract, their actual salary and their luxury tax number are the same. If the player's on a multi-year deal, then they can differ depending on the salary structure because the luxury tax is looking at the average
4:45
The Rays are below the luxury tax threshold, so in your example, they just pay the player his $25M salary and the league nothing.

The Mets are paying a 110% tax this year, so they'd pay the same player a $25M salary and pay the league an additional $27.5M for that player at the end of the season (so he costs them $52.5MM overall)
Ethan Hullihen goes into more detail on the payroll stuff here:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/08/mlbtr-payroll-tracker-glossary....
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