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Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat with Steve Adams: 4/14/25
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Steve Adams
12:19
Good afternoon! We'll get going at 2pm CT, but feel free to ask questions ahead of time.
2:00
Hello! Let's get going
Ron
2:00
I understand the Mariners don't have the best starting pitching depth behind their top guys, but it seems pretty baffling that they still aren't considering a Luis Castillo trade to beef up the lineup a little bit. What's the gameplan there?
Steve Adams
2:03
I view that as a report where we only have a small portion of the information. We don't know which team inquired, which infielder was offered, what sort of financial help (if any) they were seeking, or whether Castillo would waive his full no-trade clause. If it's the Brewers offering Oliver Dunn, the Mariners pass regardless. I have a hard time believing you had Baltimore calling up and dangling Coby Mayo or Jordan Westburg, but the M's just said "Nah we're good."

"Not listening right now" changes the moment someone offers something consequential.
AJ Preller
2:04
Who should I send down when Darvish comes back: Randy Vasquez or Kyle Hart?
Steve Adams
2:06
I don't think you can assume everyone's healthy when Darvish returns. It's not like he's on the cusp of a return or anything. He hasn't even begun a rehab stint.

If everyone's healthy, I find Hart more interesting than Vasquez, who's walked more hitters than he's fanned and who was a garden-variety fifth starter in 2024.
PATigrrsFan
2:06
Joc Pederson..   how worried should we be .. 1-10 on panic meter, 10 being drop immediately
Steve Adams
2:09
Without knowing the context of the league, I would feel comfortable in any standard/mixed format moving on. I'm not a huge Joc guy in the first place, but his usefulness is limited to games started by right-handers and he doesn't have OF eligibility in most formats after exclusively DHing last year.

If you're in a super deep (20+ teams) mixed league or some kind of AL-only format, it might change the calculus. If you're in a 10-, 12- or 14-team mixed, I think there are better options out there. Joc will absolutely go on a tear at some point where he hits like 6 HR in 4 games and you're kicking yourself for dropping him, but the totality of his contributions moving forward is probably something like .250 with 20 homers, no speed contributions and modest runs/RBI tallies.
Grimace
2:09
Pete Alonso is without question benefiting from having one of the best hitters in baseball behind him in the lineup in Soto. I still think it's best for him (and the Mets) if he sticks around in Queens. Will Vlad's contract push Pete' ask too far beyond Stearns' liking, as we know he clearly doesn't love the idea of a LT extension.
Tea Leaves
2:10
Will Pete Alonso continue to strike out at only like 15% and get the 6 figure contract he wants?
Steve Adams
2:14
Alonso is hitting third. Soto is hitting second. I wouldn't agree in general about the unquestioned benefit of lineup protection, because there's plenty of macro evidence to suggest its benefits are overstated, but in this instance, Soto quite literally isn't even batting behind Alonso. Brandon Nimmo has been, more often than not.

Alonso is raking because he's chasing off the plate way less than he usually does (20.1% compared to career 29.4%), making contact on more of those chases than usual (69.7% compared to 55.8%) and making more contact in the zone, too.

It's a small sample but just seems like a better and more balanced approach. I'm not going to say he can sustain it all year, because I don't think he just suddenly added two grades to his hit tool at 30 years old, but I can buy some of the benefit of a more disciplined approach
2:16
I don't think he's going to keep his K% at 13.8% regardless... but if he's making better swing decisions, it's not crazy to think he could scale back from last year's 24-25% and sit somewhere around 20% for the rest of the season.

It's a really great start, however you slice it. And if Alonso gets even like, 4/110 in free agency, he's ahead of the contract extension he turned down. I think that's plausible.
Brewer Fan
2:16
If Megill is hurt (or just bad) Uribe get the first crack at closer? He has been electric so far.
Steve Adams
2:16
My expectation would be Uribe, yeah
Speaking of whom......
OtisPDriftwood
2:16
NL 10 team 5x5 - do I want to keep J Dreyer, Randy Rodriguez, J Estrada or get Uribe for one of them?
Steve Adams
2:17
I would give up Dreyer for Uribe pretty quickly.
John B
2:17
The most surprising thing about the Giants start is that for the most part they're not playing over their heads. Lineup is getting little from Adames, Chapman, Ramos, and Verlander and Hicks are struggling. So what's the bad news?
Steve Adams
2:20
There are certain players, like the ones you mentioned, who aren't playing above their heads. But others -- Jung Hoo Lee, Mike Yastrzemski, Wilmer Flores -- are definitely playing at a pace they can't/won't sustain. Ditto Robbie Ray on the pitching side (at least, not if he's walking this many people)

So, I suppose that's the bad news... the Giants have looked good so far without contributions from some of their most important players, but a lot of the guys who've been picking up the slack seem destined to regress. Maybe it'll all balance out, but I don't love the depth on the position-player side of the roster.
Keep It Stupid Simple
2:20
Has anyone had talks with Elly de la Cruz about him quitting batting right handed? He is BRUTAL and the Right Handed part of his batting is dragging his line from a much faster Dan Uggla to Shawon Dunston. Yikes
Steve Adams
2:22
Yeah I wonder if at a certain point he drops the RHH. It's so bad not just this year but in his career at large... .268/.342/.504 as a lefty but just .205/.275/.317 as a righty. His K% is 3 points higher as a righty, BB% is 3 points lower. His ISO (slugging minus average) is more than double as a lefty.

At a certain point, it's hard not to wonder if he'd just hit better if he were put into left-on-left situations.
Paul K
2:22
How vaild are Power Rankings? The Jays sit in 1st place in the AL East on the day the most recent rankings were released and fell from 12th to 15th ostensibly because Vlad hasn't hit a HR yet. Look, I can pick apart the Jays' weaknesses, probably better than most, but let's be fair. If they are in 1st place, Vlad has not hit a HR, and they have had a tough schedule as measured by last year's winning % of the teams they a played, is that not a good thing?
Steve Adams
2:25
They're just one person (or a team of persons') opinions. I didn't even know which power rankings you were talking about before this. A quick search shows it's MLB.com's. I don't doubt that a bunch of smart folks weighed in on them, but at the end of the day it's an opinion piece and not something rooted in too much science, data, empirical evidence. It's a conversation point.

We're releasing our Free Agent Power Rankings today, so far be it from me to suggest any and all power rankings are silly and pointless, but it's an opinion that generates conversation (and traffic, of course).

We base ours on earning power and thus try to have some rhyme or reason to the rankings. Things like in-season "power rankings" for who has the best team/outlook are even more subjective and not worth fretting over, in my opinion.
Lance Lynn
2:25
Retiring?  Really?  Do you buy that?  He’s gotta have a second act coming.  Everyone needs pitching.
Steve Adams
2:27
He said on Foul Territory last week he was getting lots of offers around a year and $2-4MM. He's made a ton of money in his career, apparently wanted $8MM+, didn't get it, and started to feel pretty OK being at home with the family.

Maybe he gets the itch and signs somewhere midseason if a team offers him that same $4MM for half the season, but right now, I don't have any reason to think he's playing coy and really just sitting back waiting. The guy says he's content at home, feels at peace with the decision and was happy to go out back at Busch Stadium with his final start being a Win where his family was in attendance.
2:28
Hard to knock him for that. Plus he's made $95MM. I'm two years older than Lynn but can 1000% assure you that if $95MM fell into my lap tomorrow, I would also feel pretty good about calling it a career and spending more time with the wife and kiddos, haha.
Riley R
2:28
How do you see the Cubs dealing with the Steele injury, internally or externally?
Steve Adams
2:33
At least in the short-term, internally. There's just not a big presence of available rotation arms on the market/in free agency. You can throw some cash at Spencer Turnbull or try to coax Lance Lynn out of retirement, but the bigger difference-makers aren't going to hit the market anytime soon unless the Marlins take the Luis Arraez approach from last year with Sandy Alcantara this year. (I think they should, for whatever that's worth, but there's no indication they're going to.)

Alcantara, German Marquez and plenty of others will be available this summer. Depending how seasons go in Minnesota, Baltimore, Houston and other places, you could see names like Pablo Lopez, Zach Eflin, Framber Valdez hit the market.

(Not saying I expect those teams to sell -- just three sub-.500 clubs with starters they COULD market if they don't turn things around now)

But we don't know which names those will be until July, which is another reason to hold off and stick in house for now.
Youkilyptus
2:34
How do you feel about Boston’s catching situation?  Were you surprised they were able to nab Grandal?  He wasn’t that bad last year.
Steve Adams
2:37
It is super, super ugly right now. I didn't even like it when Connor Wong was healthy, as I'm just a bit dubious on his ability to actually be a viable starting catcher on a contending club. He was solid last year, but that was with a lot of BABIP help and a pretty ugly batted-ball/contact profile. He is not well regarded for his framing or blocking balls in the dirt.

I'm not *surprised* Grandal was available, because teams increasingly feel content just going with a random 26-year-old (e.g. Carlos Narvaez) rather than signing late-30s veterans on cheap one-year guarantees. I think he was probably the best option they had in a bad situation. I'd have preferred they sign him for a year and $2MM in early Feb and get him in camp with their pitchers all spring, but by the late offseason, some teams just don't want to risk losing someone on waivers to bring in a late-career veteran
Guest
2:37
how soon does Pirate’s manager, Derek Shelton lose his job?
Steve Adams
2:41
I wouldn't be surprised at any point, but it's a paper move made to placate fans more than one that's going to bring about meaningful change. I don't think any manager would be getting much out of this roster. It's a symptom of owner Bob Nutting's unwillingness to even pretend he'll spend money and the front office/player development staff's whiffs on a few notable players so far (e.g. Henry Davis, Jack Suwinski, any number of middle infielders).

Those misses happen with all teams, but when ownership isn't willing to spend whatsoever to help paper over some of those missteps, the magnitude of any mistake is intensified. Cherington, Shelton and the rest of Pirates brass have no margin for error.
2:42
The Pirates haven't given a multi-year deal to a free agent since Ivan Nova signed for three years and $26MM in the 2015-16 offseason.
Aroldis Chapman is the only free agent since then that they've signed for a guarantee over $8MM.
2:43
Free agency isn't a panacea, but when you won't pay to bring in ANY help, ever, you're magnifying development failures and also inherently making the front office wary in trade talks, because they feel increased pressure to get every little thing right whereas they might be less risk-averse if they knew they had some ownership support with regard to the payroll.
2:44
Stepping off the soapbox. But in sum, I don't think any manager or GM is getting any kind of consistent winner in Pittsburgh under current ownership/management.
I Told Y'all So
2:45
If you DIDN'T want to trade Casas to Seattle for an MLB ready Starting Pitcher (attaching Yoshida's unmovable contract doesn't count), you owe me an apology. How can Triston Dalbec turn it around?
Steve Adams
2:46
I don't think the Mariners were giving up any of Gilbert, Kirby, Miller or Woo for Casas, who is still decisively better than Bobby Dalbec and who I expect to be fine in the long run -- ugly stretch of 59 plate appearances notwithstanding. (Really, only an ugly week ... he's hitting .242/.324/.424 over his past 37 PA, which isn't great but is totally fine; if that were his season line, I doubt there's much hand-wringing)
Citiman76
2:47
Should the Redsox try and get Luis Campusano to be their catcher as he is being burried in SD?
Steve Adams
2:48
I think it'd be a worthwhile thing to look into. Might not solve much, but Campusano has had plenty of interesting stretches in the past and the Padres sure seem to be about done with him if they're optioning him in favor of an Elias Diaz/Martin Maldonado tandem.
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