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Front Office Chat: 9/20/24
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Anthony Franco
2:54
Hey everyone, hope all is well! Glad to be back  after Steve stepped in these past two weeks
2:55
I'll need to wrap this one right at 3:00 Central but we'll get going a few minutes early
mlbfan
2:55
Chris Fetter one of the best pitching coaches in the game? What he's done with this tiger staff is remarkable
Cat Herder
2:55
Anthony, with 9 games left, The Tigers and Twins are locked and Detroit is WHITE hot.  As a long suffering Tigers fan, I want to believe.  And the kids are winning games they shouldn't be winning.  Should I optimistic and start looking at a trip to Houston?  Or, should I listen to the rest of the world and pour cool water on my expectations?
Anthony Franco
2:56
Feels like we've gotta start here. I picked the Tigers to make the playoffs before the season -- division, in fact, since I way underrated the Guardians -- but left them for dead by July like everyone else. I really don't know how they're keeping the pitching together beyond Skubal and Olson
2:57
Some of it is a weak schedule but this kind of run is impressive no matter who you're playing. I'd take them to pass Minnesota at this point
2:59
The Twins have the tiebreaker but they're obviously headed in completely different directions. Both have tough series this weekend and one that should be a freebie next week -- MIN against Miami, DET versus the White Sox. It'll probably end within a game but I'll take the Tigers
notsohotlanta
2:59
The Braves have a few dilemmas this offseason,Fried- freed or refried,Soler/Ozuna?Arcia later or keep,shed Murphy’s offensive offense,Bummer? Let Snitker retire? How to inject clutch into an often clueless offense.
Anthony Franco
3:00
Exercising Bummer's option feels like an easy call but I agree the rest of these are tough decisions. Feels like they'll need to find a taker for some of the Soler money. I liked the trade with where their offense was at the deadline but  they can't go with Soler and Ozuna for a full season
3:02
Probably need to give Murphy one more chance to rebound. The free agent catching class is a disaster. Keep TDA around and be willing to give him a greater share of playing time next year if Murphy still can't hit. I'd prioritize keeping Fried over making a splash for Adames or even Kim to upgrade on Arcia at shortstop
Tony
3:02
How many front offices do you see changing? Giants and cards are rumors. Mariners,  cubs, and blue jays are also on the rumor mill. Does this portend a significant field leadership change over a well?
Anthony Franco
3:05
Entirely speculation but yeah, I could see the Giants changing. Cardinals might shake things up a little but it'd probably involve bigger roles for Girsch and/or Bloom than an outside splash. Seems like Dipoto's getting another shot. Blue Jays making a move wouldn't be surprising
CardinalRed
3:05
Cards have $56 mil in payroll possibly coming off the books after this season (Goldy, Gibson, Lynn, and Kenyan). I know it's not this simple, but why can't it be...unless Soto prefers the big city lights, I guess?
Anthony Franco
3:07
Tim made a bit of a case for this in his mailbag this week. I'd be shocked if DeWitt is ultimately willing to hang with Steinbrenner, Cohen, etc. in a Soto bidding war but you're right that there's theoretically short-term payroll space to make a play
Rangers13
3:07
Rangers will need at least #2 or #3 starter this off-season. They will also need two-three position bench/dh players to improve offense. If you could choose one of these trios which would you take if you were CY? Flaherty/Oniell/Goldschmidt
Which trio best suits the Rangers needs for next season? Goldschmidt, Santander, Flaherty or Rooker via trade, Crochet via trade, T. Scott via FA?
Anthony Franco
3:08
I doubt the A's trade Rooker, especially in division, but I'd definitely prefer the latter trio to signing Flaherty, Goldy and one of TON/Santander
3:09
Doubt they'll have the spending capacity to make that level of a splash in free agency. It'd probably be a blend of the two options where they push for someone like Crochet in trade and then concentrate most of their spending capacity in an O'Neill-type free agent
For Love of the Game
3:09
What's the latest on the Diamond Sports bankruptcy and the status of team broadcast contracts?
Anthony Franco
3:11
Not a ton going on. Diamond's still holding on by a thread and MLB isn't confident they'll make all their payments in '25, much less beyond that. Guessing we'll hear a lot about the TV uncertainty again next winter
Buy the Dip
3:11
What could the Red Sox get in a trade for Tanner Houck, assuming he doesn't get hurt between now and the end of the season? He's been great, but he threw a career high in innings that is 60 more than in any other professional season and 2/3 of his pitches thrown this year are either a sweeper or splitter and I fully expect his arm to fall off 5-10 starts into next season, if not sooner
Anthony Franco
3:13
He'd bring back a lot. Three years of cheap control, has held up over a full season as a starter. Finally mitigated the longstanding platoon issues
3:15
There are probably teams that'll share your concern about the workload spiked and the arm health for a pitcher who's as heavy on the breaking ball/split, as you mentioned. It's also more of a ground-ball approach than huge swing-and-miss stuff
3:17
But ultimately controllable starting pitching is the toughest thing to find and Houck's really damn good. If Boston did move him, they should get comparable value to what the Mariners gave up for a year and a half of Luis Castillo. I think Houck's more valuable than Fedde was this summer or Pablo López was when Miami traded his two arb years to Minnesota
Guest
3:18
Opinion of Horowitz/Casas for '25.
Anthony Franco
3:19
Still more bullish on Casas because of the power
Steve
3:19
The TWINS miss the playoffs,right. How did everyone miss on Cleveland? GoTigers (why not?)
Is Steven Vogt manager of the year?
Anthony Franco
3:20
Yeah, I think Vogt's going to take it. First-time manager leading a team that few people expected to make the playoffs to 90-95 wins and an easy division title
3:23
I thought the bullpen would be good but certainly didn't expect them to be this dominant. The offense still worries me but they held up a lot better than I anticipated in the first half. I wouldn't have gone into the season banking on much from David Fry or Jhonkensy Noel
Kevin
3:23
what would it take for Texas to lure Mike Trout away from LAA
Anthony Franco
3:25
You'd need Trout to have a complete change of heart and force his way out of Los Angeles and get Angels' ownership and the front office to agree to move him within the division. Just isn't going to happen
Bob T
3:25
I hope Arte Moreno was watching Ohtani last night. He deserves to suffer for his inability to build a competent team around Trout and Ohtani.
My question today is; what is he going to do with Rendon. Rendon is an embarrassment to the franchise and is just collecting his remaining 105 million without producing anything on the field. I think he should release him and let another team try and get anything from him. Arte has to pay him either way.
Anthony Franco
3:27
Decent argument for it on paper but ownership groups are still generally afraid to admit it's a sunk cost when they owe that much money. It'd be easier for Minasian to push this if they had a clear answer at third base
3:29
Rengifo could play there but he's probably more valuable bouncing around. They're not going to splurge on Bregman and the rest of the FA third base class is bad. Guess they could try a one-year rebound deal for Gleyber and move Rengifo to third, but that's throwing more money at the infield without any kind of cost savings on Rendon
Arthur Dent
3:29
Mariners fan here 😭, oops sorry, I know there’s no crying in baseball but with any hopes of a wild card spot slipping away, any word on what the offseason could look like for Seattle?  Will budget constraints still be the driver again in the coming year?
Anthony Franco
3:31
They took on some money at the deadline but the TV stuff isn't going away. They've opened the last two years around $140MM, seems unlikely they'd go past 150-155 next season
3:33
RR has them around 95 in guaranteed commitments. Arozarena, Raleigh, Gilbert and Kirby are the big arb guys. If you assume that pushes them into the $125-130MM range, it's probably more of the same. Middle tiers of FA, trying to move money around in trade by offloading some of the Garver deal. Reasonable argument that they should listen on Crawford
3:35
Bringing Turner back would make sense. Need to find answers at second and third base. Brandon Lowe could fit there, maybe they do the Gleyber pillow deal
$$$
3:35
Future contract value for contracts,
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