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Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat with Steve Adams: 4/21/25
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Steve Adams
2:46
He pitched great in AAA and the velocity is still there. If this is largely mechanical and mental, then I can see being cautiously optimistic, but there's nothing to make me confidently say "Yes Bednar is back and if you're on a fantasy team you need to go add him right NOW."
Pirate Bay
2:46
Does David Bednar return to form or are there rough waters ahead?
Steve Adams
2:46
Whoops, that answer should've been for Bednar
Must've misclicked when I tried to publish the question
Astros Fan
2:47
The Astros offense isn't really this awful......right?
Steve Adams
2:50
Yordan Alvarez is way, way too good not to turn his performance around. His bat speed is still in the 99th percentile of MLB hitters. He's still drawing walks, still K'ing under 20%, still making tons of hard contact. I don't buy his downturn at all.

Christian Walker strikes me as someone who might be pressing a bit with a new team. Chase rate is way up, but his in-zone contact rate is pretty close to his 2023-24 levels. Down a bit, but nothing super alarming. Bat speed down, but not a ton. I still expect him to turn it around as well.
2:53
But a lot of the spots in the lineup looked questionable heading into the year. Houston was banking on Brendan Rodgers, Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers, Mauricio Dubon all playing pretty prominent role. They couldn't find another outfielder who fit Jim Crane's spending mandate, so Altuve and Smith in the corners was a patchwork solution.

I can buy saying "We expect Altuve to hit anywhere," and he has. Cam Smith was 21 and had barely played in pro ball. Big on his future, but skeptical he can do it right now, recent multi-HR game notwithstanding.

They just placed a lot of bets, seemingly because Crane didn't give Brown & Co. the resources they needed to spend like they'd hoped. The Astros just don't have a lot of margin for error as constructed.
2:54
The lineup will feel better when Yordan inevitably turns around, and I think Paredes will hit for plenty of power at Daikin, too. So no it's not this bad, but it's also not close to as good as it's been in the past.
Brewer Fan
2:55
Has Chad Patrick earned his roster spot once Woodruff and Meyers are back?
Pirate Bay
2:55
Quinn Priester. He won’t continue his current pace but is there a potential breakout brewing?  (No pun intended).
Steve Adams
2:59
Yes to both, more or less. Patrick has earned further opportunity, anyway, even if he's demoted briefly. The nature of pitching injuries is such that he might go down to AAA for a few weeks, even if he doesn't "deserve" to, but he'd be one of the first guys up if a need arises and probably would still have a path to 80-100ish MLB innings.

Priester "breaking out" as a viable fourth starter wouldn't surprise me at all. Former first rounder who's had some tough stretches in AAA and with the Pirates but never got a great look in Boston. New cutter is interesting.

You can add Logan Henderson here to a lesser extent. Really impressive debut.

Basically, the Brewers are good at getting SP contributions out of guys who most people don't think can provide them. I don't know that we'll see any one Brewers pitcher other than Peralta top 150 innings (health permitting), but if they get solid 90-120 inning contributions from eight guys, that'll still play. Just in more tumultuous fashion than a conventional rotation.
Paul Skenes
3:00
I seem to have accepted the likelihood of pitching on losing teams until I’m traded to the Yankees or Dodgers. Could the Pirates get 5 or 6 top 100 prospects if they traded me now? What’s 4.5 years of control worth?
Steve Adams
3:03
They could get an unprecedented haul, but they won't do that. Pirates ownership seems to constantly one-up itself in terms of PR disasters, but even they won't fumble this badly.

Hypothetically speaking, I think you'd have to just throw out pretty much all prior conventional wisdom in trying to put together a speculative package. You're talking more than the Padres gave up for Juan Soto, which was a ton.

No one doubts that Skenes is a capital-A Ace. He'll earn basically the league minimum this year and next. He's dominant. He's marketable. A team would give up a comically large return. I can't even begin to fathom what that might be. Multiple immediate big leaguers, multiple top prospects ... it would genuinely be a jaw-dropping/precedent-shattering return.
Padres put Luis Arraez on the 7-day IL following that horrifying concussion yesterday
Sha-pie-roh
3:03
Does Easton Lucas get repladced by Paxton Schultz in the rotation until mad max gets back? Schultz was incredible yesterday. Lucas not so much.
Steve Adams
3:04
The Jays just optioned Lucas like 60 seconds ago, so I suppose that answers this one
Population
3:04
Thank you for doing these. How many on aveage do you get in a Front Office Chat compared to open chats?
Steve Adams
3:07
Happy to do them, genuinely. I love our subscribers and am genuine and earnest when I say it's still humbling to me to consider the number of people who read/compliment our site and even more so that we have people paying to support us and get extra content from us. It's incredible and I am ever-thankful for it.

Chat attendance depends on the time of year. Busier times, more people of course.

Today and last week we've oscillated from like 75-110 people at a given time in these subscriber ones, which is nice and feels manageable. On the main site, an April chat probably has ...400-600?

Closer to the deadline we'll get a few thousand in a free chat. I really only started hosting subscriber chats a couple months back... not sure how many Anthony had in his chats during the deadline last year or Winter Meetings this year.
3:08
A's are calling up Nick Kurtz
2024's No. 4 overall pick, video game numbers in AAA.
3:09
Kurtz + Soderstrom + Rooker is going to lead to some rough defensive alignments, likely with Rooker/Soderstrom logging some corner OF time, but that team's going to mash between that trio, Butler, Bleday
Plus Wilson's contact skills
Zack
3:09
Is CF for Texas now Harris’s to lose?  Seems like the Rangers are ready to move on from Taveras.
Steve Adams
3:12
I don't think a season of Harris playing CF regularly would go well. And while he's hit well through seven games ... it's seven games. He's struck out 7 times in 21 PAs and is sporting a .400-something BABIP, too. I don't know what they can do in CF, because I don't have a ton of faith in Taveras turning things around at this point. They can piece it together with Taveras, Harris, Evan Carter and Kevin Pillar until the trade deadline, but it's not a great-looking group at the moment.
Tampa Bay
3:13
If the Rays have a losing record by the trade deadline, do you think they trade HS Kim? Brandon Lowe and Yandy maybe too?
Steve Adams
3:15
Kim's going to be hard to trade. The opt-out clause is a poison pill for any player in trade talks. The acquiring team knows that he's either going to play well and opt out or get injured/decline and stick them with an extra year they don't really want. If the Rays were way out of it and Kim was healthy/performing well, I think they'd still explore it, but it'd be a hard one.

Yandy and Lowe, much more straightforward yes. I thought one would be gone this offseason. Honestly, I thought they both would be.

Aranda's more than ready for a 1B look full-time. Caballero, Walls, Mead give them some 2B options. Both players could fetch decent returns and clear some money, too, of course.
Fred
3:16
Does Chas McCormick have any trade value to a team in need of OF help?
Steve Adams
3:18
I don't personally see a ton. The batted-ball and plate discipline metrics have been quite poor going back to last year. His $3.4MM salary isn't a lot, but it's not nothing, especially in-season.

I'm not saying no team in the league would roster him, but in terms of getting any sort of meaningful prospect in return ... I have a hard time seeing it.
3:20
Ok, I've got to get this wrapped up. I'm on Twitter @Adams_Steve and Bluesky @adams-steve.bsky.social if you'd like to ask me more questions there. I'm always happy to take them if I actually remember to open social media and look, haha, which I'm admittedly not always the best at!

Thanks so much, again, for subscribing and supporting MLBTR. Really grateful for the group and community we have. Enjoy the rest of your week, everyone!
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