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Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat with Steve Adams: 6/2/25
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Steve Adams
3:22
Velo is good, command is good, the almost 17% swinging-strike rate is elite. He's healthy. He's going to get paid a lot.
Steve D
3:22
I’ve watched the Mariners all season and the long reliever role seems dead. Very rarely does a pitcher go 2 innings for this team let alone 3-5 in mop up duty. Wouldn’t it make sense to have one non max effort pitcher in the bullpen to long term save your bullpen? What happened to the traditional 12th pitcher on the roster?
Steve Adams
3:23
The Mariners just use Casey Lawrence or Jesse Hahn in that role and then immediately DFA them, knowing they'll pass through waivers and accept an outright or re-sign on a new minor league deal
Still an A
3:24
Saw this debate on IG. You're starting a franchise and get to pick one: Corbin Carroll, PCA, or James Wood?
Steve Adams
3:27
Woof that is hard. Excruciatingly so. I wouldn't fault you for choosing any of the three. I'll say that PCA's lack of walks worries me a bit, and we really only have a couple months of him as a plus hitter. Wood doesn't have near the same defensive upside, but he's the youngest of the bunch (22 for Wood, 23 for PCA, 24 for Carroll).

I would probably take Carroll just because he has the longest record of MLB success and what I consider a more well-rounded skill set -- PCA hasn't hit lefties at all yet, though that's not to say he won't -- but I couldn't push back strongly against any of the three as a legitimate option. It's close. If you asked me to make a list of the 10-20 best/most exciting position players 25 and under, they're all on it (and toward the top probably)
Addison Barger
3:27
Am I for real or am I potentially Davis Schneider part deux?
Steve Adams
3:29
Even when Davis Schneider had his big rookie showing in 2023, he was striking out at more than 30% and posting middling batted-ball data.

Barger's K% is 10 points lower than Schneider's was -- a colossal difference -- and he's averaging 95 off the bat with a 56% hard-hit rate. I don't think he can keep THAT up, but for comparison, Schneider was at 89.5 mph with a 38.9% hard-hit rate in a comparable sample. (Barger actually has more batted-ball events in 2025 alone than Schneider did during his rookie showing)
3:30
All of which is to say, Addison Barger feels a lot more real, even if there's no earthly way for him to keep up this kind of contact quality.
Guards
3:30
Guards Starting pitching turned it around in May, and Bieber is on track for late June. Seems like they're sleeper picks for the division
Steve Adams
3:34
I'm less optimistic. Losing Lively hurts the depth. We can hope Bieber is himself again when he's back, but we don't know how he'll look. Gavin Williams is still walking way too many guys. Ortiz and Allen aren't that far behind. The lineup still feels really top-heavy, though the guys up top (Kwan and Ramirez, specifically) are excellent.

At this point I have a hard time not giving the Central to the Tigers, and I would go Twins, Guardians, Royals in that order to round it out.

Obviously, lots of season left though, and plenty of injuries and other factors that make it too hard to say things like that with absolute confidence.
Far from Fenway
3:34
Find the Redsox a 1B.. please!
Steve Adams
3:37
Nate Lowe and Ryan O'Hearn are the most obvious ones. If the Brewers had a healthy Tyler Black mashing in AAA, I'd wonder more about their willingness to move Hoskins, particularly if it brought back some help for the other side of the infield.

Black is working his way back from an injury and is on a rehab stint right now, so worth keeping an eye on, but Hoskins has been Milwaukee's best everyday hitter so that's probably a bridge too far unless they slip hard in the next few weeks.
Alan53
3:38
Do you think there is any punishment that is too harsh for people who.insist on referring in speech or writing to "the MLB," even after we have patiently explained to them why that is wrong?
Steve Adams
3:38
Ha, it is a pet peeve of mine also
Jerm
3:38
Do the Twins make a move before the trade deadline, or are they going to be content with getting Wallner back and then Kaeschall likely being back around the All Star break?
Steve Adams
3:40
They have maybe the best all-around pitching staff in MLB right now. If they're in Wild Card position or arm's reach of the division, I'd expect them to make some moves. A lot of their bats (Lewis, Miranda, Julien) haven't really shown up early in the season. (Could say Correa, too, but he tends to start slow and has been on a tear for the past five weeks or so now ... .319/.350/.489 since late April)
Gavin Cordes
3:42
do the Padres have what it takes to get Duran without trading De Vris or Salas?
Steve Adams
3:46
My answer to these sorts of things tends to be "Yeah, we typically overstate the need to include a very top-tier prospect in these things," but I'm almost certainly the high guy on Jarren Duran at MLBTR, and the Padres' system is light in general after their top two, as one would expect after so many major trades over the years.

They could try sending Arraez back to fill Boston's 1B need and then round out a volume-based package, but it's hard and I think if Duran were truly available, then another OF-needy club would come calling and make it hard for San Diego to avoid including their top guys.

I generally don't think Duran's going to be traded anyhow. I know Dennis Lin of The Athletic reported this morning that the Padres are interested, but having interest and actually making an earnest pursuit/being willing to meet a presumably enormous asking price are not the same thing.
3:49
Alright, I've got to wrap this up. Thank you everyone for participating! I'm on X @Adams_Steve and Bluesky @adams-steve.bsky.social.

I'll have a free chat on the site tomorrow, and I'm pinch-hitting for Tim Dierkes on the weekly subscriber mailbag as well.

Anthony will have another subscriber chat on Friday. Thanks everyone, and enjoy your week!
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