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Front Office Chat: 9/15/23
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Anthony Franco
4:36
Gabriel Arias is a good enough defender that I expect it's his to start and they hope that someone like Brayan Rocchio or Tyler Freeman forces their hand when Arias has a 75 wRC+ at the beginning of June
TheBeatlesShow
4:36
The curse of the 'Wild Card'.  Instead of watching a three team race to find out who wins the pennant, we're watching a three team race (in the NL) to find out which team is going to be the sixth best in the league.  Any thoughts?
Anthony Franco
4:37
Five teams per league was my ideal, but it'd be a pretty similar result this year. A lot of fine but flawed teams trying to track down the Cubs and Mariners essentially
4:39
The Wild Card system inherently involves a tradeoff of "keeping more fanbases interested" for "focusing on the best teams in September." I think that's generally a positive. The season wouldn't be particularly interesting if the Braves and Dodgers had locked up spots in the NLCS by August 1 and everyone else was meaninglessly playing out the string
Uke
4:39
I don’t understand what happens to Josh Donaldson’s team option for next year.  There’s an $8 million buyout, do the Yankees pay that?  Does anyone have an option to keep him, and at what price?
Anthony Franco
4:40
Paid by Yankees. He'll be a true free agent again at the end of the season, no option involved once the player is released from his original contract
Bob Loblaw
4:40
With Urias and Ohtani off the SP market, there’s going to be fierce competition for Nola, Snell, etc. given STL’s prospect hoarding ways, does any actually think they’ll land 2 SPs better than Mikolas? I’d say 50-50 Mikolas is their best SP in April 2024 and the FO is touting Hudson’s turn around and “earning” the no 5 role
Anthony Franco
4:42
Ha, I hope for your sake that your pessimism isn't correct. I can't imagine they don't add at least one starter better than Mikolas and two overall. Tougher supply now than there was a couple weeks ago, sure, but the offseason's a complete failure if they run it back with the same rotation options
Especially since Mozeliak has candidly talked about how bad this year's rotation is multiple times
wvpirate
4:43
Who will be the Pirates 1st baseman next year?
Anthony Franco
4:44
Some kind of stopgap free agent singing. Could check back in with Santana, who said all the right things about Pittsburgh when they traded him. Garrett Cooper could work, maybe Brandon Belt (with Connor Joe taking most of the at-bats against LHP)
Bo
4:45
Bowden Francis has done well. Does he make the Jays rotation next year
Anthony Franco
4:46
Won't be in the season-opening five. They'll have the same group sans Ryu and they'll give Manoah another look if they don't sell crazy low on him this offseason
4:47
But Francis has been good enough to get on the radar as a starter when injuries arise. Could keep him in multi-inning relief to start and break him into the rotation as necessary midseason
4:48
The Jays have had really good health out of the rotation this year. Aside from Ryu's TJ rehab, they've basically avoided injuries. Can't count on that to happen again, but it'll look better with Francis as the sixth or seventh option than it did when it was Mitch White
thebeatlesshow
4:48
What team that pleasantly surprised this year do you think will go back to earth in '24...and what team that unpleasantly surprised...did worse than expected...do you think digs out of the hole next year?  (Thanks again.)
Anthony Franco
4:50
Not too many decent teams I'd expect to totally collapse next year. I'd probably take Arizona or Cincinnati as regression candidates based on the pitching, but they'll both add to it over the offseason
4:51
Rebound, I'll take the Yankees. They'll be able to overhaul the rotation, break in some more upper minors talent. Volpe probably gets a little bit better
paw paw
4:51
Will Braves keep Ozuna next year?
Anthony Franco
4:53
Don't see why they wouldn't. Under contract for another season. They stuck with him when he wasn't performing at all while a bunch of people (myself included) were arguing he should be released -- even aside from the domestic violence arrest. They've been proven right on expecting him to turn things around
Tor Min
4:53
Any news on Alek Manoah?
Anthony Franco
4:53
Seems like he's done for the season
Tor Min
4:53
Are the TWINS about done with Byron Buxton. He turned out to be a lousy DH who went and got injured anyway. Why is not someone else's problem?
Anthony Franco
4:55
Man, that's such a tough one. If the knees are bad enough that it's unclear when you can expect him to play center field regularly, there's really no appeal there. If they do think he'll be able to get back on defense next season, it doesn't make sense to give him away when his value is at its lowest point
4:56
I think they're kind of stuck in a holding pattern, but keeping him strictly as a DH isn't a viable long-term solution. He's just not that good of a hitter, as you mentioned
Bob Loblaw
4:56
who signs Yamamoto and for how much?
Anthony Franco
4:57
Haven't given much thought to specific teams for the various starting pitchers yet. I'm tentatively around $210MM on Yamamoto right now
Question Mark
4:58
Owen Caissie?  Is he the real thing...?  Dynasty monster?
Anthony Franco
4:59
Has a chance to be but a 32% strikeout rate in Double-A is a huge red flag. It's already testing the upper bound of what's viable to be a good MLB hitter, and that number tends to go up as the pitching gets better
Bob T.
4:59
Anthony, I always look forward to the Friday chat. What kind of trade value does Mike Trout have now that he is closing out another season shortened by injury? How much of his remaining salary will Arte have to eat? Without Ohtani, is he still valuable to a team that needs a rebuild? Thanks for answering.
Anthony Franco
5:01
He has seven years left for around $245MM. I don't think that'd be out there coming off another injury-plagued year and going into his age-32 season. I doubt they'd be able to offload the entire thing
5:02
If they paid it down to around $185MM, I expect there'd be takers, but probably without much willingness to part with legitimate young talent
5:03
If Ohtani walks, I think the Angels should try to get out from under it and completely start fresh (if Trout were willing to waive his no-trade rights). I don't expect they actually would do that given the optics of losing both those guys in close proximity
Lefty
5:04
Who are the top position players from Asia that may be available to MLB teams this Winter? Specifically OF and SS. The Giants need to make inroads in Asia, and in this weak free agent year the timing feels right.
Anthony Franco
5:05
We haven't gotten too deep into the NPB and KBO markets yet. That's on the list for the next few weeks as we start prep for the Top 50. Jung-hoo Lee is probably the top position player
Had a down year this season and underwent season-ending ankle surgery, but he was the MVP in South Korea last year
Frank
5:05
One important factor in the Chaim Bloom firing to consider is the numerous times Red Sox performance was shown to be well below league norms in numerous areas such as extremely subpar defense at times, terrible starting pitching,  said pitchers often not going more than 5 innings, player discipline concerns and how owner John Henry perceived he and his team thus was being perceived by the public.   Much as I feel Henry shares responsibility for some of the situational developments scarring the Red Sox this year, ultimately it’s the underlings not the owner who often suffers the departure .
TONY
5:06
Do you think that Bloom was the second coming of JP Riccardi? A senior person from an organization that people respected before realizing that maybe they were attracted to the pedigree instead of the person?
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