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Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat with Steve Adams: 1/24/25
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Arizona
3:13
Welcome to Friday and thank you!  Since the Athletics have reached their minimum threshold and Atlanta just spent the remainder of their budget on Profar, is Arizona going to have to pay 80%+ of Montgomery’s salary to move him now? And at that point it’s best to just put him in the bullpen right? He won’t like that but his opinion shouldn’t really matter since he’s so deep on the depth chart.
Steve Adams
3:15
If it took eating 80% of his salary at this point, I don't think they'd move him. GM Mike Hazen was pretty candid earlier in the offseason in suggesting that if Monty was to move in a pure salary dump, he'd like it to be sooner than later so the D-backs had a good stock of potential free agents to peruse with those extra funds. That's not really the case now. They might still eat some cash to move him, or take a bad contract on in return, but I don't think he's a slam-dunk to be traded either.

I agree that if all you're getting for moving him is like $4-5MM of salary relief, just stick him in the 'pen.
Ken M
3:15
I agree with the Cardinals “reset”, but don’t understand not wanting to move arguably the best closer in 2024 whose contract is up at seasons end. Will Helsley really not bring a decent return?
Steve Adams
3:15
Preaching to the choir. It is categorically insane to me for them to not be shopping Helsley and Erick Fedde at the very least.
G
3:16
Do you think the next tier of infielders like Jorge Polanco and Brendan Rodgers will sign shortly after Bregman agrees to a deal?
Steve Adams
3:17
I don't view their markets as all that tied to Bregman. The teams looking at Bregman aren't necessarily looking at Polanco/Rodgers as viable options. Maybe the Jays would add Polanco if they missed? Rodgers certainly seems in his own category -- probably a guarantee under $5MM or, depending on how long he lingers, a minor league deal.
Alval
3:18
The Dodgers might have a few trades up their sleeves. Do you think Muncy still might be one of them?
Steve Adams
3:18
No, I think Muncy will be their Opening Day 3B (barring a spring injury or something, of course)
Tigers
3:18
Instead of signing Bregman wouldn't we be better off signing Grichuk and Flaherty, maybe take a flyer on rebound from Kimbrel?
Steve Adams
3:19
Not sure any of those have to be mutually exclusive. The Tigers have about a $110MM payroll. They could sign Bregman and Flaherty and still clock in around $150MM, which is $50MM south of their franchise record.
#4 starters
3:19
How would you rank these #3 or #4 starters: JP Sears, Luis L. Ortiz, Casey Mize. They all have question marks: Sears in a new ballpark, Ortiz on a new team, Mize on the same team in the same ballpark but seemingly a failed top prospect
Steve Adams
3:19
Ortiz, Mize, Sears for me. I've always like Ortiz's stuff, and moving him to Cleveland seems like it's just waiting for a monster to be unleashed.
3:20
Mize has had injury troubles, and I no longer expect him to be a top-end starter, but I think he could still end up pitching in the middle of a rotation. Sears is a back-of-the-rotation guy for me, and the change in ballpark could be rough.
Michael Andolini
3:20
In the event Bregman does end up back in Houston, wouldn't a Paredes for Wilyer Abreu trade make much more sense than Paredes at 2B and Altuve in LF?
Steve Adams
3:21
I don't know that the Red Sox would move five years of Wilyer for three of Paredes, especially since that be playing Paredes at maybe his worst non-shortstop position.
Donny Baseball
3:22
Do you think if a team offered Bergman more money than the Astros reportedly offered he would jump on it at this point? Thanks
Steve Adams
3:22
Depends how much more. 6/160? No. 7/185 or something? Yeah.
Reds fan Ryan
3:22
No outfielder?
Steve Adams
3:25
I don't pretend to be Jeff Passan or Ken Rosenthal. I don't have the wherewithal and dogged nature to run down every last scrap of info and meticulously trade it behind the scenes to know every single thing that's happening at all times in the sport -- nor is that my job description.

But I do talk to some people around the game, and my understanding from those conversations is that the Reds had little to no money before the unexpected TV deal. And from what I can glean, it sounds like a lot of their recent efforts since then have involved checking in on various relievers.

Maybe they'll still make a trade for a pre-arb outfielder or something, but my expectation is that they sign a reliever as their primary move from here on out.
MLB fan
3:27
Why should we worry about giving long term contracts to players when they're going to lock out after 2026 over greed? You hear them talk about the fans, yet the game has became unaffordable for the majority of families to go to a game
Steve Adams
3:29
MLB revenue is larger than ever. Player salaries have not necessarily proportionally risen alongside said revenues (Soto deal being an outlier). I hear this argument a lot and am not sure why it's always on the players instead of the owners?

The implementation of a salary cap wouldn't lower ticket/concession/parking prices. The NHL has the hardest salary cap of any of the four major sports, and when I go to a Wild game in St. Paul, the tickets are still pricey and the beer/food is still wholly unreasonable.

Ticket prices are what they are because the market has shown it will meet those prices. Lower player salaries wouldn't mean lower ticket prices -- just more money funneling toward ownership.
3:30
Alright, I have to wrap up. I'm on X @Adams_Steve and Bluesky @adams-steve.bsky.social. Thanks so much for chatting, everyone. I'll be back for another one Monday, and Anthony will be back in his Friday slot next week. Enjoy your weekends!
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