JotCast | Trade Rumors Front Office Chat

Trade Rumors Front Office Chat

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Anthony Franco

2:00

Hey everyone, hope you all had a good week!

Plenty of questions in the queue today so I'll have to move a little quicker than usual, but let's get into it

Peter

2:00

What level do you think NYY prospects Peraza and Volpe to start the season? Could they start at the same level perhaps to try to move off of SS? Thanks

Anthony Franco

2:01

Peraza has been a level ahead of Volpe for essentially their whole careers. The former finished at Double-A last year while the latter was in High-A, and I imagine they'll each just get bumped up to start 2022

Peraza to Scranton, Volpe to Somerset

Tigers Fan

2:02

By when does Suzuki need to make a decision about trying to sign with a MLB team versus opting to go back to NPB? With the work stoppage in place, and the inability of MLB teams to negotiate with him (even if they do it behind closed doors), there must be a date by which the CBA must be signed. If it is not signed by "when," when might it be best for him to choose prudence over optimism, sign with a Nippon team, and wait until 2023? Thanks.

Anthony Franco

2:02

Yeah this is a good question. I don't have any idea and I'm not sure there really is a date set yet

Suzuki's posting window is on hold for now, and I imagine if the lockout is resolved by sometime in February, it'll be fine

2:03

But you're right, if this lingers into something like April, at some point he's probably just going to pull the plug and head back to Japan for another season

Jorge78

2:03

Anthony! Any chance you guys add more chats (even temporarily) since things are slow?

Anthony Franco

2:04

I know Tim's looking into the possibility of arranging more chats with players like the one with Colón this week

He's trying to arrange one as soon as next week, I believe

2:05

As for chats with us, possibly? We don't want to abandon writing -- even if it's original content -- but I stretched my chat on the main site this week an extra half hour or so because there's nothing really going on

Dave the trader

2:05

Would an offer fronted by Bohm, Moniak, and Painter be enough to get Reynolds from Pittsburgh or Mullins from Baltimore to fill my center field void? If so, can you see the Phillies signing both Schwarber and Bryant, especially if the NL gets the DH?

Anthony Franco

2:06

No, I don't think that's all that close to landing either Mullins or Reynolds

2:07

Bohm has some value but real question marks, Monica looks like a fourth or fifth outfielder at this point. Painter's interesting, but he's also a recently drafted high school pitcher, and those guys have really high attrition rates. Not enough certainty with any of those guys to lead a package for an All-Star caliber guy with a ton of team control

Jorge78

2:07

Anthony! If the lockout drags on into March, what happens with pending arbitration cases? Thanks!

Anthony Franco

2:07

I'd imagine they're just on hold until whenever the new CBA is signed

2:08

There'll have to be a few week grace period between the signing of the CBA and the start of regular season for players to get back into shape in exhibition play anyways. Maybe that kind of Spring Training overlaps with arb hearings? Not sure, it's all kind of uncharted territory in recent memory

Zach

2:09

What would the Royals want for MJ Melendez, specifically from the Rangers?

Anthony Franco

2:11

Don't see a great match directly off the big league roster there. Could try to arrange some form of prospect for prospect swap (maybe involving Cole Winn) but those kinds of deals don't really happen much

Nick

2:11

Thanks for hosting this chat! I'm wondering your thoughts on Javy Baez's opt-out only 2 years into his deal? Seems like this can only go wrong after year 2 (either they lose him, or they are stuck with an underachieving player on the player's terms).

Anthony Franco

2:11

Yeah I just wouldn't have offered what the Tigers did

2:12

Ton of downside, as you said. I doubt Báez opts out of 4/98 two years from now, but that's obviously because I don't think he'll perform at a level that's worth that kind of outlay

2:13

But we at MLBTR (Steve and I specifically) were pretty down on Báez. Teams seemed more willing to live with the swing-and-miss risk than either of us would've been

Roddstone

2:13

Do you anticipate the twins making any pitching moves that will actually make them competitive this year or will it be more of the same?

Anthony Franco

2:13

They have to do something, but the free agent market has already been pretty well picked through and all they've come out with is Dylan Bundy

2:14

Feels like they're going to be really motivated to swing a trade for SP help. Gut feel is that they make a move for one of the Oakland guys (Bassitt, Manaea, maybe Montas but he'd require surrendering the kind of prospect that front office doesn't like parting with)

2:14

Do you think Vidal Brujan will have a significant role this year?

Anthony Franco

2:15

Yeah, I think he'll get about 350-400 plate appearances bouncing around the infield, so long as he's performing well enough to warrant it.

2:16

He still has an option year, so he might be up-and-down a couple times as Tampa Bay does the roster shuffle thing they love to do. But I think he'll spend more time in the majors than he does in Triple-A, and he'll start more games in the big leagues than he sits

Joshua

2:16

What do you see the Nats doing about their starting pitching? Their offense seems like it could be average with a signing or two, but their pitching is a mess. Any free agents or trade targets you could see them going after? Thanks.

Anthony Franco

2:17

They've been my pick on Glasnow for a while. I don't know that they're really in position to trade for a top-tier controllable arm with no injury concerns like Luis Castillo or Tyler Mahle, but they should at least be in that mix

2:18

Free agency's tough at this point. Not really a great group of multi-year deal types out there, and their bigger concern should be 2023 than next season. Could explore Rodón, I guess, but I think there'll be other teams closer to contention that just need him more ultimately

Joe

2:18

Is zero news coming out of the mlb/mlbpa negotiations a good sign (that they're negotiating in good faith, and not through the media)? Or a sign they're not even negotiating enough to generate any leaks?

Anthony Franco

2:18

Pretty sure it's the latter. I don't think they've talked since the start of December

Guest

2:18

What about an amnesty system, where a team can remove a contract from their luxury tax calculation, cut the player but still have to pay them the real dollars? To avoid circumventing, a team can only have one amnesty at a time and the player could not resign with the team that gave them the amnesty.

Anthony Franco

2:19

Hmm, it's creative. Could incentivize spending a little bit more, but only having one amnesty at a time would dissuade teams from cutting a guy like two years into a 10-year deal, assuming the amnesty sticks as long as the term of the original contract

2:20

I'd have to think harder about the effects to have a strong opinion, but my first thought is that I kind of like it

Josh

2:20

Ultimately, who do you think gets the managing gigs that are still open?

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