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Front Office Chat: 9/27/24
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Anthony Franco
3:38
It's a really top-heavy roster but that's almost preferable at this point because 1) they're going to make the playoffs anyway and 2) there are pretty clear areas to upgrade around a championship-caliber core with Witt, Ragans, Salvy, Lugo, etc.
RAGBRAI
3:38
Do you see Bart taking over starting catcher duties next year in Pitt or are one of the others going to win the job?
Anthony Franco
3:39
I think he'll be a 1B option behind Endy but Bart has earned a good chunk of playing time
Bill DeWitt Jr.
3:39
What a fantastic article by Katie Woo this morning. Interesting that the Cardinals plan to talk to Arenado, Contreras, and Gray about the team's plan to re-tool (re-boot? re-build?) and whether they want to stick around. Pretend that all three say they want to be traded to contenders. Who are potential matchups for each of the three, and what sort of return can the Cardinals get for each of the three?
Anthony Franco
3:40
Haven't had a chance to read Woo's full piece yet. Have it queued up for after the chat
3:42
As for the question: Yankees could fit if Arenado wanted out, Seattle too depending on money. Contreras could fit with Washington as a DH/part-time catcher, Jays or Red Sox perhaps
3:43
Any contending team could use Gray
Braves
3:43
What do you think of the Braves strategy to “save” Sale until he’s needed now?
Anthony Franco
3:44
Makes sense to me. Run Fried out there tonight. There's a chance they win and the Royals still clinch a playoff spot (if Minnesota loses). Then you'd get a potential hangover lineup on Saturday or Sunday where pitching Sale would be less impactful than holding him for the Mets series
Tony
3:44
Do you think the TV deal will be an impetus for more revenue sharing? It seems like the handful of teams impacted by Diamond Sports has really upended the plans of a number of teams. It doesn't seem healthy for a number of teams to have billion dollar markets and some teams to have tens of millions. Could a team reject the ability of teams to broadcast their games? I.e. could the Cardinals or Pirates say to the Yankees or Dodgers you can't televise our games? Thanks for taking questions.
Anthony Franco
3:47
Not sure you'll get the large-market teams on board with more revenue sharing but MLB is already redirecting some of their CBT money in a more targeted way in response to the TV revenue drop, so you're generally in sync with the league office on this
3:48
To your other question, teams don't have the ability to block their opponents from carrying games on their own networks
mlbfan
3:48
Do the tigers leave maeda off the postseason roster?
Anthony Franco
3:49
Yeah I don't see why he'd be on there. Hinch has completely stopped using him and they've got other guys who can work multiple innings
RAGBRAI
3:49
Who would you say are the top 3-5 candidates to be traded this off season?
Anthony Franco
3:51
We'll hopefully do a Top 10-20 trade candidates post going into the offseason. Crochet is the obvious one. Bichette will be in rumors, the Rays' vets (B. Lowe, Yandy, Fairbanks) should come back up
There's a lot of overlap early in the offseason with guys who were deadline candidates but ultimately didn't go
jaysfansince1977
3:52
Forgot to put my handle on my previous question, so my next question in regards to the Jays, do you see an extension for Vlad and what might those numbers look like???
Anthony Franco
3:53
They'll give it a shot. They have the long-term payroll space to do it and a lot of the reports out of Toronto suggest they're more optimistic about it than getting anything done with Bichette
3:57
On the price point, my off-the-cuff O/U would be $330MM. Rare to see those prices for first basemen anymore but you're covering ages 27-37+ of a top 10 hitter in MLB. Devers money feels like the floor but that's a couple years old, Vlad's working from a higher arbitration base, and his plate discipline profile feels like it'll age better than Raffy's
Bill DeWitt Jr.
3:57
How much of Miles Mikolas's contract am I going to have to eat to move him to another team? $17.7 million, but he's not *good* but he put up close to 170 innings with a 4.20 FIP, BB% under 4, and 2 fWAR. That hasvalue for a team that needs an innings eating 5th starter
Anthony Franco
3:59
Yeah, this is a fair characterization of the player. Durable and throws a ton of strikes but the stuff is meh and he gives up a bunch of hard contact
4:00
He's due $16MM next year. RosterResource prorates signing bonuses by default but Mikolas received his entire bonus in July '23
4:01
If they ate half, they could find a taker. $8MM is Martín Pérez/Alex Wood money. A's took on $9.25MM for Ross Stripling. Mikolas fits in that bucket
Kevin
4:01
Who’s your pick to win the American League
Anthony Franco
4:02
I guess give me Houston again
Jed
4:02
Assuming I don’t get Ricketts to pay Juan Soto but I still have a reasonably fair budget to work with, the best way for me to bolster the Cubs *offense* this winter? Especially knowing that (pending Bellinger’s decision) we’re already more or less set at 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, LF, CF, RF, and DH…
Anthony Franco
4:03
Yeah they're like the anti-Royals. Decent players everywhere, nobody who is great. That's a tougher roster to upgrade. It's a similar problem to what the Cardinals ran into before they really fell off
4:07
I'd probably try to offload some of the Bellinger money, hopefully in a deal that brings in a back-end starter. That opens up right field for Suzuki again while clearing some payroll space to attack the bullpen in free agency. Then you can wait out the first base/DH markets -- which aren't bad this year -- and seems if someone's price drops. Maybe you end up with a Ryan O'Hearn or Joc Pederson to split time with Busch between first and DH
Sam Rice
4:08
I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer but I don't think KC or DET is as good as their records or as close to being a legit contender as many may believe.  Taking away games against the CWS, KC is 73-73 and DET 76-73.  CLE would still be 84-62.  TB would be in the thick of it if ot for a losing record against CWS.  I think Chicago being in that division and being so epically bad has made KC and DET appear better than they are.
Anthony Franco
4:09
No doubt that this helps. Still think the ALC is one of the weaker divisions on paper but it had four potential playoff teams in part because they get to beat up on the Sox more than other teams do
4:10
I think that's an issue with the American League in general though. Houston, New York and Cleveland are the top three for me in some order, but I'm not all-in on any of them. Baltimore has fallen off. Seattle, Minnesota and Boston collapsed in the second half to varying degrees
4:11
I think it's a down year for the AL and a season in which the top of the league generally has been down (in large part because of injuries to the Dodgers and Braves, who were probably the two most talented teams coming into the year)
Kevin
4:11
What will it take to resign Heaney
Anthony Franco
4:12
I'd have him in the 2/24 range
4:13
I wouldn't be shocked if he got three years but between his longstanding home run issues, slight velocity drop and his injury history before getting to Texas, I'd guess it stops at two
Cat Herder
4:14
If Detroit holds out and gets into the playoffs, where do you rank this recovery?  And to what do you give credit? Who should get the praise?
Anthony Franco
4:15
Yeah it's as crazy a second-half run as I can remember. They were like 3.5 games clear of the Angels in early August. I thought they were a playoff team coming into the year but certainly had left them for dead (as did the front office) by July
4:17
There's a lot of credit/blame to go around. Skubal, Hinch, Chris Fetter, Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows, Trey Sweeney, most of the relievers on the positive side
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