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Trade Rumors Front Office Chat With Anthony Franco
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Anthony Franco
1:59
Hey everyone, hope you all had a good week!
2:00
Pretty sizable number of questions in here today, so I might have to move through them a bit quicker than usual
Let's get going
Clarence Odbody
2:00
If the major leagues are delayed, what will be going on in the minor leagues?
Anthony Franco
2:01
They're going to proceed essentially as scheduled. As far as I know, the only difference would be that players on the 40-man roster who wouldn't be on the MLB active roster (say, an A-ball guy who got protected from the Rule 5 draft) won't be eligible to play
Even in the minors, that is, since they're in the MLBPA by virtue of their selection onto the 40-man
A's Fan
2:01
We know Oakland is going to be shopping their better players once the lockout ends. What we don't know is if the A's will attach Stephen Piscotty to any of their trade deals in order to free up cash to spend on a Better Representative Product. Accepting the premise that the A's need to deal Piscotty, would it be better to make him a part of an Olson deal or to include him with one of Bassitt/Manaea?
Anthony Franco
2:02
In that case, I guess I'd rather attach him to one of the pitchers and maximize my return for Olson by just moving him separately
2:03
But I don't really agree with the premise that Piscotty has to go. He's making about $7.5MM. That's really not that bad
Would they prefer not to pay it? I'm sure. He'd have been non-tendered if he were arb-eligible and projected for a salary around there. But it's not like he's making $20+MM either
DH fan
2:03
If the NL adopts the DL do you think that the rosters will increase
Anthony Franco
2:04
No, I think they'd stick at 26. The AL's managed just fine like that. Most teams just won't carry a full-time DH and would rather rotate a few different regulars through there to keep them fresh
Will
2:04
What is your sense of Jorge Mateo's (2B - Bal) upside this year?
Anthony Franco
2:05
Meh. He's going to steal some bases but he swings at everything and whiffs a lot. I don't think he'll be very good overall
2:06
No issue with the O's giving him a shot. They're rebuilding, he's got some power and athleticism. I'd rather have Mateo in the lineup than, say Rougned Odor. But I wouldn't expect a whole lot from either
Angels fan
2:06
What could we get for Upton and does sezuki make sense for us.  Maybe Otani can talk to him
Anthony Franco
2:07
At $28MM, I don't think Upton's really movable unless you're basically paying it all down and getting a minimal return. I'd rather just keep him around as a righty bench bat, since the money's a sunk cost anyways
Suzuki fits there ok, particularly if they trade one of Adell or Marsh. But I think there are cleaner landing spots elsewhere
Baseball fan
2:07
If the playoffs were increased how would they look. I think too many teams would water it down
Anthony Franco
2:08
Kind of depends on the number of teams, I think
2:09
Either way, I don't think the quality of play in the postseason changes much. We'd be talking about adding teams like last year's Reds and Blue Jays. Were they notably worse than the final teams that did get in, the Cardinals and Yankees? I don't think so
2:10
The bigger issue to me is that playoff series in baseball are pretty random. Even last year, the playoff team with the worst record got hot and won the whole thing
Going to 14 teams and only giving one team per league a first-round bye, as MLB seems to want to do, runs the risk of watering down the regular season substantially IMO
2:11
Not because the playoff field itself gets worse, but because the race to win your division -- and thus a lot of the intrigue in September -- becomes less important since the playoffs are kind of a crapshoot anyways
Mlbtraderumors
2:11
Does the team at mlbtraderumors have any contacts within organizations to confirm rumors?
Anthony Franco
2:13
A few. We can reach out to agents or some team personnel on more minor stuff. But that's more form something like "somebody on Twitter with whom we're not familiar tweeted 'Player X signed a minor league deal with your team. Can you confirm?'" as opposed to breaking huge transactions
And in most cases, we don't need to
If Jeff Passan breaks something, it's just a fact we can trust. His track record's good enough we don't need to do anything else
Paul
2:13
Are we moving away from kenley Jansen
Anthony Franco
2:14
I assume this is about the Dodgers? I'd pick the field over L.A. on Jansen but wouldn't completely rule out a return
It's not like they couldn't use bullpen help. They're also (maybe) losing Nelson, Kelly and Knebel and so far they've signed Daniel Hudson. Feels like they need to do something else there
Bob T.
2:15
After reading the interview on The Athletic with the Angels’ top international signee, I have questions about how teams get to make deals with 13 and 14 year olds. What can be done to make this system of recruiting and making agreements with these children years before they are eligible to be signed. How could an international draft work?
Anthony Franco
2:15
Personally, I'd like to see a draft, even if I think it's unfortunate that involves taking away further agency from the kids involved to choose where they want to go
2:16
But as we covered in greater detail yesterday, the MLBPA disagrees and thinks that simply enforcing bans on early verbal agreements would suffice
2:17
I'm not convinced. We've seen the Red Sox get popped for international signing violations, John Coppolella lost his career over it. But the union thinks threatening execs with greater punishment for doing this sort of thing would be enough
Either way, I think most people agree it has to stop
Alex
2:17
Which "retooling" team is likely to be a surprise buyer: Cubs (even more than already)? Nats? Twins? Rox? Someone I didn't think of? Could a surprise team like these be in on Correa?
Anthony Franco
2:18
Yeah I don't think the Twins or Rockies would even be surprise buyers. They've been open about wanting to upgrade and I expect they'll be pretty active after the lockout
2:19
Not Correa level. But if the Rockies signed Kyle Schwarber and the Twins traded for Matt Olson and Chris Bassitt? Wouldn't be surprised
The Cubs have already surprised me with their activity, yeah. The Nats should be aggressive but it doesn't seem like they're trending that way
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