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Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat with Steve Adams: 2/17/25
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Steve Adams
1:41
Happy Monday! (Well... if such a thing exists?) We'll get underway in a little more than an hour, but feel free to ask a question in advance if you prefer.
2:58
Hello! Let's get going
MoTork City
2:58
Is 85-90 wins realistic for the Tigers?
Steve Adams
2:59
They won 86 last year, and this season they'll have more Jobe, presumably more Flaherty, hopefully more Carpenter/Meadows, etc.

They'll have some injuries and regression as well, as is the case with any team, but yeah, 85-90 feels plausible.
3:00
(So does, say, 78 with enough bad breaks ... there's a pretty wide range of what's "realistic" and not for midrange contenders)
Astros Fan
3:00
On paper the Astros outfield is very weak.  Shouldn't they at least try to get Verdugo on a $3 MM plus incentives type of deal?  He can't have many options to start and rebuild his value, and while people focus on the Crawford boxes, right field at Daikin Park is also fairly short.
Steve Adams
3:01
You'd have to get Verdugo to agree to that base, which is around one-third of his 2024 salary. And, if it goes well, he's going to hit those incentives and probably push them over the CBT number, requiring some kind of subtraction elsewhere on the roster.

I don't love Verdugo in general, so while I agree that Houston's outfield looks brutal, I'd probably just go with what they have for now and reassess at the trade deadline if/when the need persists.
Geddy
3:02
Does Devers spend the season at 3rd?  I hope not…
ind1kmn
3:02
Did the Red Sox completely mess the bed by signing Bregman without first getting Devers to agree to move off 3rd?
Steve Adams
3:03
Yeah, I think all the drama will eventually be much ado about nothing and you'll see Bregman at 2B (barring a Devers injury). Kristian Campbell can mix in at 2B and in the outfield as well. Injuries will pop up around the diamond and render some of this all moot.

I'm surprised they didn't just tell Bregman they want him at 2B, but I don't think this is all boiling up into a situation where Devers demands a trade or something.
ClarkeinEcuador
3:04
Rafael Devers made his position clear Monday in Fort Myers: He's not willing to move off third base or be the designated hitter to accommodate Alex Bregman if asked.  So, is Bregman the 2B - and Campbell plays elsewhere - or does Yoshida get traded and Casas, Bregman, Campbell and Devers rotate around? Does Devers do what’s best for the team and become a DH?
Steve Adams
3:05
I've repeated pretty often that I don't find Yoshida tradeable unless the Sox are eating like 80% of the contract. I don't think he'd get a multi-year deal in free agency. I think he'd be looking at offers like $6-8MM over one year in a good scenario, with some teams looking lighter than that.
Bill Chuck
3:05
Any value of a New York/New York deal Marus Stroman for Brett Baty?
Steve Adams
3:05
Baty has way, way more value than Stroman. I doubt the Mets would give up Baty even if the Yankees paid all of Stroman's salary.
Andruw Jones
3:06
Why is it taking so long?
Steve Adams
3:07
Beats me. Andruw is such a slam-dunk, no-brainer Hall of Famer for me. I don't fret too much over voting these days. The voting process is silly, and I don't feel it's worth the stress and angst it seems to cause so many fans. But Andruw is such an obvious case that I'm genuinely stunned at how long it's dragging. He's about as close as I get to exasperation with regard to the Hall at this point. Especially now that they finally put McGriff in (also way, way too late)
Ken
3:07
Assuming Nick Kurtz continues to hit well in the minors and forces his way to the majors towards the end of the season, what do the A's do with Tyler Soderstrom? Could he play a passable left field? Or is he just trade bait? I assume Rooker is ensconced at DH after signing the extension.
Steve Adams
3:09
I have a hard time seeing Soderstrom panning out in left field, but they could try it. If Soderstrom really rakes, at a certain point I wonder if you just shrug and put Rooker back out in LF. At least he's played there before, and there'll be less ground to cover at Sutter Health Park than at the Coliseum.

All of this is contingent on all three players staying healthy and all three hitting well enough to force the issue, of course, so it may not ever even be a dilemma the A's actually face. But if they're lucky enough to run into this "problem," for me the answer is just plugging Rooker back into LF and living with the defense.
Dave P
3:10
How does Jose Iglesias not get a major league offer coming off his performance last year?
Steve Adams
3:12
Teams are more about what they expect/project him to do than what he did in 2024. He's 35, and nothing about his 2024 output feels sustainable. Iglesias had a .382 average on balls in play -- 72 points higher than his career mark. He hit for no power, walked at a 4% clip, and barely ever made high-quality contact (85.8 mph average exit velo, 2.2% barrel rate, 30.6% hard-hit rate). He slugged .448, whereas Statcast put his expected slugging at .369.
3:13
Also, we don't know decisively that he hasn't had a big league offer at any point, unless I missed him saying that. We know he didn't accept one yet. Maybe the Mets or someone else offered him a year and $1.5M to $2.5M back in November and he incorrectly thought the market would turn out better for him.
Guest
3:13
Is Doughnut asleep on the couch ok on with the chat.
Steve Adams
3:13
Hahaha
3:14
I believe all my cats -- Donut, Waffle and Oatmeal -- are accounted for and in the house. I won't be sprinting into the front yard to try to wrangle a cat this chat. (A cat that didn't even wind up being my own, ha, but sure looked an awful awful lot like Donut through the window)
Jimmy Racer
3:15
Os a Stroman for Arenado trade still possible?
Steve Adams
3:16
It just doesn't seem to do much for the Cardinals, especially with that vesting player option looming on Stroman's deal. I think there's some sense to it, but I can understand why if that's the best the Cards are being offered, they're content to just hang onto Nolan and try again at the deadline.
3:18
Even if the Yankees said they'd take on all of the Arenado deal, you're looking at a net $46MM savings for the Cardinals, who've been reluctant to eat more than $15MM or so (net $49MM savings) in talks with other teams. And, if Stroman's option vests and he exercises it, then that savings shrinks to $28MM.

I think it's still a reasonably logical framework, but I also doubt the Yankees would be fine taking the entire thing on. It just doesn't seem all that feasible given where the two clubs are at right now with their payroll goals, in the end, even if I think the logic/concept behind the trade is sound enough.
3:19
(Hopefully that's not too wishy-washy an answer ... basically, sure it makes sense to me. But I don't think the teams in question like the financial component of it, and my personal opinion is not one that has been sought out by Brian Cashman or John Mozeliak, haha)
TBJ Bullpen Coach
3:19
Please tell me that Amir Garrett is not going to be the only left handed reliever we're going to be adding to my bullpen
Steve Adams
3:22
He's not even guaranteed to be in there at all! It's a non-roster deal. I'd like to see the Jays add one of the remaining lefties though, yeah.

They have Garrett, Richard Lovelady, Josh Walker, Easton Lucas and Brendon Little all competing for a spot as well, and a solid lefty coming from that group isn't all that outlandish to think.

Little, in particular, posted the highest GB% in MLB last year (min. 40 IP) and did so by a wide margin. 71% is wild. Tim Hill (68.2%) and Clay Holmes (65%) were next on the list.
Donny Baseball
3:23
With Spring Training under way now, do you see any way that the Yankees and Cardinals could revisit the Stroman for Arenado deal?  Thanks as always
Steve Adams
3:25
It is plausible to me, but I think the Yankees would need to find a taker for Stroman first and manage to shed a decent portion of that contract. They seem pretty reluctant to take on much more salary. If you get to a point where they dump $10-12MM of the Stroman deal (which feels less likely to me than it did, say six weeks ago when there was more time on the calendar and free agents were still holding out for larger deals), and if the Cardinals simultaneously relent a little on how much money they're willing to eat, yeah they could find a common ground.

I wouldn't consider it likely, but we're not talking about whether it's "likely," just if there's a scenario where the two sides think there's maybe a 20-30% chance they get something done and have real talks about a framework? Sure.
3:26
Lots of Cease questions today as well, so I'll just say this ... Rob Bradford of WEEI just tweeted, kind of out of the blue, that a Cease/Red Sox trade isn't likely at all because the Sox have no intention of including Wilyer Abreu. But that gives you an idea the type of return the Padres would probably be seeking. (And I imagine it'd be Abreu plus -- not just 1-for-1).
3:27
Rob Bradford
@bradfo
13s
In other news, per sources, Dylan Cease to the Red Sox is a long-shot. Sox have no intention of including Wilyer Abreu in any such deal.
Nationals closing in on a deal with Lucas Sims, per MassLive's Chris Cotillo. Probably cheap and should be a good pickup. I like Sims better than a lot of the remaining low-cost bullpen options out there.
Jack
3:27
Seriously, do we need multiple Arenado questions each chat?
Steve Adams
3:28
Based on the sheer volume of questions coming in -- and coming in from multiple IP addresses, not just one person changing their username a bunch -- it seems like the general populace of these chats would say, "Yes, yes we do."
Chief
3:29
Please tell me the Royals don't go with an outfield of Melendez, Isbel and Renfroe.
Steve Adams
3:33
I would love to be able to tell you that, but it increasingly seems that'll be the case. I don't think there are any great alternatives in free agency at this point, but I just cannot reconcile looking at that group and thinking "This feels fine."

At the bare minimum, I'd like to see them sign Canha or someone of that ilk to platoon with Melendez. Would also be fine seeing them bring David Peralta in to share time with Renfroe and just more broadly deepen the group.

It is so uninspiring. I don't love Verdugo as a player, but yeah, I'd probably prefer him out there every day to Melendez/Renfroe, who you could just condense into a platoon.

Kansas City seems to have a huge blind spot for MJM, but maybe he/they will prove me wrong this year. I never mind eating my words if so. Has happened plllllleeeeeeenty over the 12 or so years I've been doing this full time now haha
Trout Phishin'
3:33
Are the Phillies more likely to extend Schwarber/Realmuto or let them walk and try to sign a Vlad or Tucker? Their moves seem limited so what's their best options going forward?
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