Carlos Estevez Interest and the Braves' 40-Man Roster

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to episode one three one of the Hammer Territory podcast. I am your host is Brad Rowlands, coming to you on a Thursday. Happy New Year everyone, our first episode of twenty twenty five, and I'm joined tonight by the great Stephen Tolbert. Hello sir, how are you Bradley?

00:00:36
Speaker 2: What's up buddy? It's been a minute since you and I have done one of these, but yeah, happy new Year to you, obviously, Happy new year to everybody out there listening. You know, obviously it's still been pretty quiet in Braves Country as we do another one of these with not a thing to hear. Nothing in terms of an addition to talk about. We do have a couple of little things to get to tonight, but yeah, man, it's always good to do these with you.

00:00:57
Speaker 1: You as one of my friend Pin shating of sorts on as I've been dealing with family illness for several days and now so hopefully she's coming around the bend now, shouts to our guy Sean living the dream. I don't have children, so I get sick lest everybody else seems to h that's what happens on the podcast. But we should sit at the top of the show. We are part of foul Territory as a network which check out the entire network, including the flagship show. We cover the Braves here in Hammer Territory. Please subscribe, rate and review. Check us out on Apple Spotify. We're on YouTube if you want to watch us on that platform. We do have three episodes over the holidays. Did a mail bag before the holidays started, did Matt Olsen deep dive kind of in you know, evergreen fashion, and then Scott and I did kind of a state of the free Agent market a few days ago, and really nothing has changed since then, even across the league, Like this is the one time in this calendar so far. I don't know about you, Steve and were, like, the whole league's been pretty quiet, Like it's basically been not that it's been totally shut down for the holidays, but as soon as Christmas Eve hit, basically it got real quiet around baseball and hasn't come out of that yet. Maybe maybe they're waiting until Monday. Maybe offices are kind of shut down until next week, but you know, we'll see what happens. But it's the brains are quiet. Yes, we're all frustrated. Everybody says on every podcast, It's definitely true. But it has been around baseball for a little of the last week to ten days pretty quiet.

00:02:11
Speaker 2: I would say, Yeah, there was that run on pitching, you know, the Walker, Bueller and a bunch of those guys kind of in that level signed you know, the Dodgers brought Ti Oscar back a couple of weeks ago. But yeah, other than that, it's been very quiet. Just been rumors and not much else. And obviously, as a brace fan, we basically don't even get rumors.

00:02:33
Speaker 1: So there's there's one kind of pseudo one we'll get to in just one second. But you're right, the Braves are not a good rumor team. I wish they were for our sake, Steven, I always say this, but like I think, if I was in front office, I would operate like the Braves do, and I would not want to get anything out, and I'd operate in cloak and digger like Alex seems to like. As a content creator, I would love some rumors. Wouldn't it be great if we just had constant rumors like some of these teams do, like you know I did. We did the show with copy and it's like a gold mine all the time. It was great. I love that as a contaent guy. But I think Alex is better. I think Alex is better than copy of his job, So that's probably a little bit more important.

00:03:08
Speaker 2: Right. One is good for baseball and one is good for us. Yeah, and I agree. I mean if I was Alex, I wouldn't. I mean, I wouldn't tell anybody anything. Information is power. Information is leverage, like in the the better you control it, the better you are. So I don't, I don't. I don't blame him at all for running as tight as ship as possible. There's a lot of teams out there that wish they could run as tight as ship as Alex runs.

00:03:31
Speaker 1: Yea.

00:03:31
Speaker 2: But yeah, for us it sucks because I mean we just we're just sitting here on a fish, ok, just waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting.

00:03:37
Speaker 1: So it certainly does. There is one ripple. It's not even a rumor. It's just like a little bit of a report that I thought was interested in the last few days. Scott and I to talk about Tanner Scott on the last show we did. By the week ago, I waste a little bit less than that not even that that's not only been a rumor either, but a couple of people that mentioned Tanner Scott he's out there. This is similar in that vein John Hayman of I believe the or post a Bleacher Report as well. He licked the Braves to Carlos Steves, one of the you know, tier two relievers on the market, not Tanner Scott. He's not as good as Tanner Scott, but a real reliever, like a back end of the bullpen good reliever. And it wasn't like a the Braves or the old team on him. They just kind of kind of threw the braids out there as a potential connection if you don't know who that is. Carlos Steves finished last year with the Phillies, actually thirty two year old right handed reliever. He had his best year ever last year, which probably was good timing for him. There's a question about how much you want to pay for someone's career year at thirty one years old, perhaps, But Steven, when I kind of mentioned this to you that we've kind of maybe leave with this a little bit, what did you make of this? Are you interested at all in a stevis given that the Braves don't only have a glaring knee. But I think we all agree that they're probably gonna do something at the bullpen. Maybe that would be.

00:04:47
Speaker 2: What they do. Yeah, he's right handed, right, he throws hard. He's a back end reliever. You know, the Phillies actually gave up a decent amount for him at the deadline. They gave up two of their top twelve prospects to get him at the deadline. So he's good. I'm he's very good. He goes very hard, he sits ninety seven, He touches one hundred ninety nine, one hundred pretty easily. You know, again, he's right handed. If you look at the Braves, you know, best relievers at the moment, you got a Glaciers obviously, then Jimenez got hurt and so that's kind of the big glaring hole. And then you have guys like Aaron Bummer, Dylan Lee, you know, Grant Holmes, depending on what role he serves like, they could definitely use more bullpen help. I don't think there's any question about that. That's why the Tanner Scott stuff made sense. Yep, you know, you know obviously this would make sense. It all, it's all gonna come down to money, of course, and contract. But just on the baseball side, if yeah, I mean, you can't have too much bullpen, you can't have too much pitching in general, but especially in the bullpen. And yeah, I mean, you know, his his free agent projections have been kind of all over the board in terms of what people think he's gonna get. I think I saw one that was like a three thirty contract, and I saw one that was like a one year deal for like less than ten million. So the he's got a pretty high variance in terms of what he's gonna cost. So that makes it impossible. It's already impossible to predict with Alex, but it makes it even more impossible to predict because one we don't know how much they have to spend and two we don't know how much it cost. But just on the baseball side, it makes a ton of the need they need high leverage relievers. I think they need another right handed guy. He throws hard, He's had a really good year last year. It makes sense to me. It's just kind of come down to money, just like everything else.

00:06:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we're on the same page, Like you know, last three seasons combined, he has an ERA and like the you know three point three range FIPP in the mid to high three. He's like, he's not a dominant reliever, but he's a good reliever. I pretty confident in saying that last year era of two point four or five of three point two the big change last year we will go super deepend in. We don't need to yet at the sign we'll do the deep dive. But his walk rate went way down last year, which it seems like that's what unlocked him a little bit to have his best year ever. If that's sustainable, he is a a good reliever. If it's not that he becomes like a pretty good believer, which is still helpful, he would still help the braves. H You mentioned the projections, the three that we kind of cited before the winner started with like this ESPN I think it was Kyle mac daniel did one fangrasp with Ben Clemens and then LB trade rumors. Ben Clemens had the one that was one year nine million and ESPN's was three for thirty six. Like that's a very big range for a reliever. Now it's similar AAV but you know, if you can get a guy for one year, nine million, that becomes like a no risk, like absolutely yes kind of contract, whereas three for thirty six is a much more complete commitment to a guy that like, you know, it's not a crazy number, Like I don't think the Braves giving him that contract would be outrageous. I wouldn't come on the podcast at scream and yell about it. But that's a very different contract. One nine and three thirty six are very different investments in a reliever. So we'll see, Like that's all we had. Literally Intel lies. It's just drawing him and mentioning this on the podcast or on a on a stream of some kind. So I think we're gon we're in agreement, like he would help. I don't know how serious it is. Nobody does that. No one's report on this that I could see locally beyond the hym and thing. So, uh, you know, Alex does, I think, Well, the one thing that I will say, I know you took about a little bit with Sean as well. Alex has gone out in his limited interviews he's done at the GM meetings. At the Winter meetings, he's mentioned Bullpen multiple times. Like I think that he's not shying away from that they want to add to the bullpen in the wake of him and his injury. So like that's what's got's a little bit more on high awhere, it was for me, But I don't know. I don't know if it's gonna be a step best, But like I think they're going to do something in the bullpen. I just don't know what it's going to be.

00:08:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, because they also lost A j Minster obviously, who's still a free.

00:08:32
Speaker 1: Agent so far. Yeah, he's not he's not on the team at the moment.

00:08:36
Speaker 2: So but at the moment, he's not on the team that you know, at the moment they've got in terms of healthy guys, They've got Iglesias and their next best guy is probably Aaron Bummer, Dylan Lee, depending on what you think of Pierce Johnson. Uh.

00:08:48
Speaker 1: I mean, it's those four. I mean it's the thing, like you go from from last ye's bullpen, which was awesome by all counts, they had this top six that they were really invested in. The four guys we just talked about, Uh plus Mentor and Himen and Mentor and A Menez. We're supposed to come into the season as like the number two and number three guy in the bullpen last year and Menis wasn't that role mentor was there until he was hurt. And they've done nothing except for lose those two guys, right right, So the bullpen, it's still fine on paper, like there's still a good bullpen, but they're not like in the place of safety that they were. And look, both bullpens are never safe. I'm always saying that they're not safe. But as far as like, what ale Ex tends to do is just throw resources at the bullpen. He likes to invest in a bunch of different guys. He's not afraid to spend money, probably more so than he's I would say, but he's less afraid than I would be to spend on relievers at times. So I think this is a Again, I didn't want to use the word rumor, but it seems like a idea that if it popped up on the timeline in the next few days, no one would would be surprised if they signed Carls's Denis, at least I wouldn't be.

00:09:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's enough smoke between the Tanner Scott stuff and this the Brads. I mean, I think the Brads are going to add to the bullpen. I don't think it's gonna be something. Yeah, you know, the the elephant in the room is that this is Aglesius is last year under contract and he's the closer. Uh. You know, I would not be surprised if we got at some point in this offseason we got the blue square for an extension for Aglesias. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't do that and they went out and maybe got Tanner. Scott signed in to a longer deal with the idea that he would be the guy after Aglesius. Like they could do. They could go a bunch of different ways. You know, Stevez could be a guy who they looked at that role if they wanted to give him, you know, some more years. So it is a you know, bullpen is always a fluctuating, high variance part of the team, probably the highest variance part of the team by far so. But yeah, as it sits today, it's a good bullpen. They could be deeper, especially right handed wise, because after Aglesius it gets tricky, especially if Pierce Johnson has another shaky year like he did last year. So yeah, I think I think they're gonna.

00:10:51
Speaker 1: Add Yeah, the terro Scott thing, and we talked about a little bit in the last show, but one of the theories and even in the comments and responses to that podcast that Scott and I did, it was like, well, the split between why would the Braves pay Tann or Scott big money when they have Iglesiast was a lot of big explanation, and then the other half was like, well, this sets him up if Iglesias is gone and lace, this is gonna be thirty five. I pick his birthdays actually have like today or the next day. He's pretty close to now it'll be thirty five years old. And that's not like crazy, but not like a guy you would spring to mind. It's like, hey, we got to extend this guy for two more years as a reliever. Like it's a little bit dicey at that point time. So I'm not say you paid Tanner Scott big money. The Braves could do it. I wouldn't fall on the floor. But seventh is kind of the middle ground. Honestly, he's one of those guys in the middle. Like he's I mentioned kind of with a laugh. There's always old guys that the Braves have ties to that are available. Kirby Yates Kenlee Jansen, Chris Martin, like all these former Braves that are available on the market for one year deals. And then Will Smith David Robertson is not a firm Brave, but he's like an old guy, like very Alex core, like one year ten million reliever who's been awesome for a long time. Like they could go that route, or if you go somewhere like a Steve, this is a little bit probably more than a one year deal, if I had to guess, and then like a little bit more of a investment versus like a plug the whole kind of thing. So maybe they do both. Alex could just pay everybody. I don't know what's he gonna do.

00:12:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't see any planet where a Stebez only gets a one year, nine million dollar contract.

00:12:17
Speaker 1: I think that's at least not right now. If he signed that, it would have to be like in March with just no market and he's like, all right, I'll take your one year deal because that's all I have. But yeah, I'd be surprised to be the only one year just because of the rest of the market where it's going. But hey, Scotts still out there. It's just maybe maybe the relief markets, the one area where people gods, you're not gonna get paid.

00:12:35
Speaker 2: And Hoffman, Jeff Hoffman's out there too, so there's yeah.

00:12:38
Speaker 1: I mean he might be a starter though, is he's the only think about hoffin Like, I don't know, we'll see, but perhaps this is the only market that's not gonna get the windfall like everybody else seems to be getting this winner. All right, Steven, do you want to get into the uh the other topic on the show today? This is something I'm gonna mostly leave it to you because this is your your idea and it's a good one. It's talk about the forty men roster, because the prey have a forty man roster like everybody else does in the winter. Because you don't know this, you cannot have guys on the sixty day il, so you only can have forty. You can't have more than forty with other machinations. You're just kind of limited to forty. And the raps are full right now on the forty min which often leads, at least that I've seen to people asking like, wait, they're full in the forty men, alright, Like how can they make other moves when they're full in the forty minutes. So allous question we can answer along the way here. But your your interest was peaked basically, and you correct me if I'm wrong, because they have kind of a lot of not to be mean, they have a lot of clutter, a lot of like flotsome on the forty man. It seems like, so, uh, take us there, Steve, what do you make of the situation where the Braves don't really have like Ian obviously have their core guys, but if you look at the forty men, I think if an average fan pull up the forty minut right now, they would be surprised how many guys they have no idea about and like I have no relationship to and just a bunch of names on a page.

00:13:51
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the forty men obviously is the roster that every if you if you want a guy in your active roster, then he first has to be put on the forty man, and then from the forty men you can be put on the twenty six man. So nobody can play for you unless they're on the forty men roster. And the Braves right now have forty guys, which is not uncommon. But what's unusual about the Braves at the moment is that they have a number of fringe roster players, and by fringe, I mean not guarantee. If we started the season today, they would not be guaranteed a spot. These are not the Acunyas and the Sales of the world. These are the Nick Allens and the Eli Whites and the you know, Ian Anderson's of the world who are not guaranteed spots. And the Braves have an unusually high number of those guys who don't have any minor league options. And the key to that, and it's kind of the Griffin Canning problem that we ran into earlier in the offseason we talked about a lot on this podcast, is if you aren't guaranteed a spot on the roster, if you're a fringe roster guy and you don't have minor league options, it's very tough to keep somebody like that in your organization, at least a high volume of guys like that in your organization. And right now the Braves actually have a decently high volume of guys like that on their forty man and this was this is it reminds me a lot of last year, honestly, where the Braves did a full like purge of their forty man roster. People remember the Aaron Bumber trade last year where the Braves just sent like four guys who were on their forty who didn't have spots, maybe out of options, and they just wanted to clear their forty man and so they sent four guys to the White Sox got Bumber back. If you look at the roster right now, it reminds me of that situation where to the point where I would not be surprised at some point between now and the beginning of spring training if we saw another trade like that where the Braves clear three or four spots at once to get one piece back, And it's always easier to do that with bullpen, so it wouldn't surprise me. Been off they did with a bullpen piece. But yeah, anytime you look down and you see such a high number of guys, it's like, he let me double check. I think it's like seven guys on the roster one, two, three, four, five, six. Yeah, seven guys right now that aren't aren't guaranteed spots on the twenty six man active roster and don't have any minor league options. And then on top of that, on top of guys who don't have minor league options, the Braves have two guys who they took in the Rule five draft. They have Christian Cairo and they have Anderson Polar where they took in the Rule five draft. And for people don't know, the rule for the Rule five draft is you have to keep those players on your twenty six man roster, or if you want to take them off, you have to expose them to waivers or offer them back to their original team at half price, which means effectively means you can't option them, which is all that really matters in this conversation. The Braves just have a high number of guys on their forty man roster who they can't currently option to the miners to do kind of the Gwynette Atlanta shuttle that we see so much every year. And that's unusual, and I think at some point we're gonna get to the point where they're either gonna have to make a trade like the Aaron Bummer trade, or to have some of these guys get DFA for bigger signings, which is almost certainly gonna happen anyways, but it is It is an unusually high number of guys who don't have any minor league options, who aren't guaranteed spots, and who are on the forty man roster and all of those combined is unusual.

00:17:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know the people people, I mean, the bumber Tray was one of those deals that the reaction was mixed is the nice word I'll say, because people didn't understand it. And the difference I would say between that and what it is now is for the non diehards, like the diehards are sickos like us, they'll look at stuff all the time. But the bumber tray was people that fans recognized. It was Michael Soroka, it was Nicky Lopez, is Braden Shoemaker, former top pick. Even Jared Schuster had like been around.

00:17:40
Speaker 2: Right.

00:17:40
Speaker 1: The guys that are on the forty man now, fans don't know. I mean I don't think they though, unless again the non Seco fans, I'm gonna say a bunch of names right now, Steve with no just the reference here. So these are guys with no options that the group that Stephen just teed up, Nick Allen, Eli White, It's been on the roster for a while, so people know who that is, but no options there Luke Luke Williams, same thing. Eli White, Luke Williams are like pro typical utility guys no options though it's hard to I have those guys with no options. Then you get to the you mentioned the rule five guys. You got Angel Perdomo who's been hurt for a year plus, no options, Like if he's healthy, could be interesting bullpen piece, but people don't know who that is unless you're a sickope. They do know In Anderson, who is no options, Which is interesting though, because Ian I think is like he's the one, He's the one guy of that crop of you know, back back and rotation guys who has no options left. And if he and Anderson, like, I don't think he should be guaranteed their rotation spot by any means, Like he's gonna be fighting for his life in spring training, one would imagine. And then they're guys that do have options, but they're on the forty man. People don't recognize either. You know, Brian day La Cruz, who we did a funny episode about recently, Carlos d Rodriguez, quadruple a position player, Connor Gillespie, Davis Daniel who the Brave just acquired Dimingo Gonzales. Like they have a bunch of names of guys who people just don't know. So is anybody like starting I guess maybe Ian's worth talking about for a second because obviously long time investment guy, had the injuries, pitched in the playoffs, top five pick all those things. But like it is an interesting thing people probably are thinking about, Like, Ian Erson is not in the ability to just like ship him off to Quinnette anymore. We've we've passed that point, so you could trade him. I think he might have some value in a trade to someone that's like a lower end team. It just looks looking for depth, or maybe you just give him one more chance as the fifth starter. We don't we don't know what a third Brands are gonna add somebody else in the meantime. But I found that as we were talking about this episode, something to circle, like, hey, just to put this on the radar. Guys like Ian's not in the Whinings Dodd Elder Smith Shaber group and they can just like ship show them to Guinnette. It's decision time, Ollian Anderson.

00:20:00
Speaker 2: Basically, yeah, I mean you know this what we're talking about with options is exponentially more important with pitchers, because, yeah, pitchers are the ones that you you know, almost never do you go full season with five starters, right, well, and yeah, you tend to option pitchers, uh regularly, you said the seconds to win that regularly, and back and back and forth threven the season.

00:20:22
Speaker 1: All the time with Ian, Like, man, Okay, let's get this, Stephen, what is the percentage chance that Ian Anderson is in rotation all season law, which is the only way that he could be on the team without being exposed to waivers at some point, would be to be in rotation or I guess maybe in the bullpen, which he's never really done all year long? Like, is that what's the what's the chance of that happening? It seems very unlikely to me that would happen.

00:20:51
Speaker 2: I put that in like less than five percent, because he would have to pitch well enough to earn that spot.

00:20:57
Speaker 1: I mean, right in spring training, he'd have to he'd have to go out and beat out several guys. Now, obviously you can be at the quality of these pictures and this is not in any order, but he has to be better than Smith Shavor in spring, he had to be better than you know, Waldrop's a little bit different. He's a little bit a little bit further away. But also if the Braves bring in another veteran starter with I think everyone agrees or we projects that they're gonna add a veteran starter of some renownt It might be a boring fifth starter guy, but someone else is coming, and then you figure that they're gonna have stridterback at some point, like man, you're threading a real needle there, and yeah, maybe you maybe you dfa him and he ends up passing through and hanging around. But I think he might be interesting enough where like a team's gonna claim. So I'm not look at I probably listen quit not this. I'm not the most invested in the innerson. I think my projection level on Ian is pretty low as far as like what I'm expecting him to do in the majors moving forward compared to what I've seen from fans. But I mean, you just answer the question, like if you think he can't be in the rotation like opening day and there it's a weird spot because you can't send them in the minors without saying everybody we're sending them the miners DFA come get him. It's weird.

00:22:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, even if the Braves don't make even if the Brigs don't add a starter, right, the odds of him being up in Atlanta are very small. Like, I think there's a better chance Ian Anderson gets traded between now and spring training than I do he's going to be a significant part of the rotation in twenty twenty five, because I mean it's the exact same thing as the Griffin Canning problem, Like, if you don't have options, you cannot be a part of the shuttle. And if you can't be a part of the shuttle, then you have to be good enough to hold a spot all year long year yep. And the odds of that happening are just tiny. I mean Ian Anderson, forget the injury stuff, just on the pitching side. He hasn't been good enough to be in the majors in three four years. I mean, the odds of him being good enough to hold down a rotation spot for not only spring training, but for six months of a season are just tiny. They're tiny. And I don't think the Braves. I don't think the Braves are counting on it, and I think he would absolutely be included in trade if the Brave's got anything of use in return, because you look at this whole forty you know, in its totality they need to clear it. They probably do need to clear a couple of these guys because it's just too many. And ian erst it would be at the top of the list.

00:23:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I don't mean to center on him too much. It's just that he's the most relevant because he's the biggest name, but also because he might have some value and he's relatively young still. I think he is what is he just now? He's still twenty six and twenty seven in May. But you're right, like onmer top five pick. Yeah, I mean, but as a reminder, I think people know this for the most part, he he has a pitch in the majors at all since twenty twenty two, so it's been a long time. This last year he was helping out to make I think he made fifteen starts in the minors. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't incredible by any means in Gwinett as a twenty six year old. So uh, yeah, I think that you know, he's not gonna bring you some massive return in trade. But yeah, And if you're asking me, what's more likely he gets put in a trade as a filler, not like a zero in a trade, but as part of a trade, or he's in the rotation in April, I would say trade is more likely pretty easily.

00:24:14
Speaker 2: And I think I will I'll say this because the other guy on the pitching side is Perdomo. Yep, he's got a very good chance to be in the bullpen because he doesn't have a like when you're when you're a bullpen piece, it actually sometimes works in your favor because you're more likely to get the spot than the guy does and stay and stay there like hey, and unless you get hurt or whatever. Like and by the way, if you're someone like Perdomo, maybe you earn a bullpen spot coming out of sprint train. Maybe maybe you're a seventh guy in the bullpen. If you get hurt or you just don't pitch, well they'll just do it fa you and that's the end of that. Like, it's very it's very clear. And Pardoma they have like a relationship with I mean, just to put up don't even know who he is. He's thirty years old, by the way, but he didn't pitch last year at all. He was good actually in the in the Majors with the Pirates, and I think it was was the twenty twenty three. Yeah, he was pretty good in the Major which is why the Braves probably have interested in him.

00:25:10
Speaker 1: He's he's got hurt.

00:25:11
Speaker 2: Hurt all last year.

00:25:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, hurt all last year. The Braves, by the way, brought him in while he was hurt, Like they knew he was hurt. They brought him in. It was a project for twenty twenty five basically, and so the relationship to the fan base is not there with him and Ian. But you're right, it's it's so much cleaner and so much more likely that he's in the bullpen opening day than it is that Ian would be in the rotation. And they are the two guys of the pitchers that we're talking about here who are truly out of options. Then you have the rule five you mentioned before Anderson Polar, But it's there's two guys out of options as pitchers the position players. It's like they're all kind of the same. They're not the same, but you know what I mean, it's the it's the trio of Nick Allen, Eli White, and Luke Williams, any of whom could be player twenty six on the roster in April. But they they can't all be there, like one of them, I mean, maybe two of them, but I would say probably only one of them on the roster to open the season. I don't have a prediction as to who that's going to be. Steven, maybe you do between go ahead and way on a field, but just saying like that means you're probably gonna move on either via DFA or trade from at least one of these three, if not two.

00:26:17
Speaker 2: It just comes down to, like do they add in the outfield? Do they add to shortstop? Because if like let's say they add to shortstop, that pushes you know that that pushes Orlando Arcia to a bench roll, which pushes somebody else off of a bench roll like a Nick Allen.

00:26:31
Speaker 1: Like I said, Nick Allen only has one role and it's back up middle infielder.

00:26:34
Speaker 2: So increasing and Christian Cairo has to be on the roster or he doesn't have to be. But if they he has to be on the roster, he has to be opened up the waivers because he was a real five pick, so you know that probably doesn't help Nick Allens. You know you could and again the same thing with the outfield, like, do they add like Brian day La Cruz. Yep, you know he's he's actually a major league player, he's playing the majors for a long time now, but he's on a split contract, he's on a non guarange contract. But if they don't add another outfielder, then you feel pretty good about the chances of Brian Daila Cruz being on the roster, especially since Acuna is not gonna be their opening day. But if they add another outfielder, you know, it opens up, it all opens back up again, and he might be at risk of being DFAD as well. So a lot of it's good. You know, for the position players, it's not as nearly as important because you know, they don't get shuttled like the pitchers do. But for these guys, they don't have options. It can't be optioned, like the Rule five guys, they're one signing away from from being out of a job. And if that.

00:27:32
Speaker 1: Even I mean that's the thing, like, even if they don't do anything else, which we think they're probably not gonna do. They're not keeping all of Alan White and Williams. There's no chance. And Nick Allen, I think we talked about when when the Braves acquired him. Uh, he is one of the worst hitting profiles I've ever seen ever for am edge leaguer. Uh. And that's unfortunate. But you know, look, he's a perfectly harmless backup middle infielder. But if they don't need that guy, if that's Orlando for instance, instead, like he is no role in Atlanta. And maybe you also on these guys, it's easier to DFA them and have them maybe and it's still end up in Guinette. That's happened before with I think multiple of these guys, like they end up just going back to Gwinnett because somebody wants them, nobody claims them. So anyway, that's the long and short of it. Like you got you know, Rodriguez has options too. And look some of these guys, the guys that have options, they just spend the year in triple A a lot of the time. Like it's pretty, it's pretty, it's pretty cut and dry. But the forty man also can get full. I mean it's full right now. There are I think maybe the last thing we'll talk about briefly here. Space opens up when you get to spring training, because then you can go ahead and put guys on the sixty day Again, we know of one player already, Jojamanez is gonna be on sixty day IL as soon as he's allowed to be. So that's that's one spot, and then other other injured players or whatever. So like there's more roster flexibody when once you get into like mid to late February than there is right now. And look, if the Brakes want to sign someone today to a contra, they want to have any trouble creating a forty man spot. I've seen that like consternation. I don't know if people are trolling or what, but it's like, well, the forty man's full, and they will figure out a way to not have to be a impediment to signing someone. I prompt.

00:29:15
Speaker 2: It's one It's one click of a button and all of a sudden, the forty man is not full anymore. Like it's it's very easy to clear. I mean, that's the good that's the one good thing about having so much kind of fodder, so much friend to so many friends, roster players. Is that you know you're not short, you know you're not lacking any number of guys who can be cut if you want to add a major league piece and the bread Listen, I know there's a lot of I know there's a lot of inks, and I know every day it grows, and I know every single day people get mad at matter. I still am firmly try to say this from the beginning. I am still firmly in the camp. I think they're gonna spend money. I think they're going to add. I'm stunned that they haven't done anything in terms of a major addition as we sit here on January second, like I'm I'm genuinely stunned at nothing has happened. But I think they're gonna add. And when they do add, they will have to cut guys off the forty. You can only have forty guys until the sixty day opens back up in the middle of February, so they'll have to cut guys, and these guys, a bunch of these guys will never see the light of day, may maybe not even see spring training for the Braves. But you know, they teams just add guys when they when they like something, and they have a spot, they add guys knowing that if they add somebody better, they can cut, they can cut them later. It's it's it's there's no harm.

00:30:29
Speaker 1: So it's very low risk. That's such a good point. We've questioned and made a lot of these. It's like very very low risk. The Braves just like, all right, this guy's available on a spot deal or they can get him for you know, cash considerations or whatever from a team and like take one look at him. Uh, you know gets it, you know, get a spring fraan. But you're right, even before spring training, they might just be like, this is guy we're holding on a roster unless someone's better is available. They said that player, cut cut this player, et cetera. Again, we made fun of it kind of with the with the Daily Cruise Soudermerse podcast. We were being funny about that. It wasn't actually emergency podcast. But he's a good example, like it's sweat contract that will stop that from doing anything else. It just won't. So anyway, I go.

00:31:11
Speaker 2: I think I looked it up because I was actually wondering because the Brakes have like three or four guys on split contracts right now. If anybody who cares this is getting deep into roster stuff. Anybody who cares when guys sign a split contract, the most are the guaranteed portion of that contract is only like one hundred and eighty K, which is what they make if they're in the minors. Yeah, and so I mean one hundred and eighty k is like it's a quarter of a minimum salary. It's a lot of money in real life, but in baseball one hundred and eighty k is is nothing. So right, and I and there's a lot of people pissed off because that's all the money the bridge has been so far this winter. And I get that, but at the very least, the risk is very low. Like Brad just said, it's just it's effectively no risk in baseball terms.

00:31:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to talk to this a little bit. I knew this was coming up with Ianerson in particular, but I don't want to go back to that again. But like, I think he's someone that Braves fan should keep an eye on because they do have the relationship. I think, you know, I'm sure you're seeing this too, Stephen. I think I'm mostly responsible for monitoring our YouTube comments and things of the four of us, but like, there are a lot of people that still believe in it and Anderson.

00:32:16
Speaker 2: It's almost a mirror of the Michael Soroka situation from last winter he.

00:32:20
Speaker 1: Was coming into it is pretty similar with no options.

00:32:23
Speaker 2: Been hurt, but had success in the past that people still dreamed on, and it ultimately got traded. And I'm just warning people now, especially people that are in love with Ian Anderson, do not be surprised if if he suffers the same fate and is part of the trade, because that's that's just that's what happens when you get to this point you don't have minor league options and you're not you know, you haven't locked down a spot on the roster.

00:32:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's it's not even a there's no animacy here. It's just that's it's just a simple math game at some point, Like and especially if you don't think that, you know, with Soroke, he kind of remade his career as a reliever. Now he's gonna start again. Just that's we're all rudy for Michael thro by the way, we all have been the entire time great guy the Nationals, right, uh, And which was kind of surprised because like, hey, you got real money, and you know, maybe maybe there's a path to Ian in a bullpen somewhere, But I don't know if that's the bread the Brays wanted to do with him. It's not that Ian anders an episode. It just kind of became one for a minute there. But yeah, he's the most famous player that we that we talked about on this conversation to Braves fans, and I think he's maybe the most interesting because of just the logistics are involved there. But you know, Allen Eli White's all these guys are like.

00:33:37
Speaker 2: Soroka Anderson was drafted by the previous regime.

00:33:41
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.

00:33:42
Speaker 2: Always keep out of mind who drafted who got. You're not nearly as tied to guys you didn't draft.

00:33:46
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, especially when again, he hasn't pitied the Majors in a long time, like two plus years of calendar time, and last year, like I know, people were clamoring for him by the end of the season, but it is telling, but he never even got to the majors last year when they were falling apart at times the rotation they had well and people people also.

00:34:05
Speaker 2: Forget he got optioned and then he got hurt. He got optioned because he was pitching so cool.

00:34:11
Speaker 1: He was bad.

00:34:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, he didn't get he He hasn't been gone for two years because he's been hurt. I mean he has been, but the reason he's not been on like the sixty day IL is because he was on the minor league roster when he got hurt. Because that's how bad he was pitching.

00:34:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's again, well, keep an eye on you. And I think he's he's the biggest name to monitor, but I won't listen the names again. But there there are like, like we said, five or six guys no options plus the rule five. So that's seven or eight guys that are either have to be on the roster or not essentially before and be on the yeah, or it can't be on the roster and if they get to the minors because they passed through waivers the DFA process. So, uh, Steven, anything else you want to add on this conversation. It's kind of a look, it's to be candid with everybody. It's kind of a plug episode. We're waiting for stuff to go on. I understand that. I think the seventh thing was actually really interesting on some level, but a floated out there. We haven't talked about a lot, but the forty Man was coming thing we were like gonna talk about at some point and it became the first show of twenty twenty five. But anyone you want to ask you, I.

00:35:09
Speaker 2: Would love to add something out. I would love to have.

00:35:11
Speaker 1: Something else, Yes, agreed.

00:35:14
Speaker 2: Our our our our dms, our daily dms are hysterical at this point.

00:35:18
Speaker 1: But I know I advertised that the other day. I was like, I will never we'll never share the screenshots. But we're the four. But when I said the four of us, myself, Stephen, Shawn and Scott are in a in a group chat and we're we're enjoying ourselves especial as we can. What's having here?

00:35:33
Speaker 2: So yeah, no, just happy New Year and everybody, of course you know it's been It was an awesome twenty twenty four. Obviously, we started the new version of this podcast in twenty twenty four. The response was unbelievable, has been unbelievable since we started. So a big shout out to you guys. You know, we will keep going as long as we can. Twenty twenty five will be just like it, and here's to Alex giving us something to talk about in the next I'm mean, it's got to be coming. It's got to be coming soon. It's got to be coming at something. We're running out off season at some point we are. And you know, Scott and I put the stake in the ground last week on the show.

00:36:11
Speaker 1: If it gets to mid February and they haven't done anything, we'll go do clear and I'm we will discerate them. I volunteered you to do a solo screaming episode in mid February if you want to go ahead and do.

00:36:24
Speaker 2: I've already written the script for perfect.

00:36:27
Speaker 1: Don't do anything between none and then all right, that's a podcast, everybody, Steven. Where can folks find you? Social media wise?

00:36:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, should be Underscore Outliers is the X handle. Technically I'm on Blue Sky as well. I think I've sent one post there in like twelve months, so hey, hey, you're on there, though I'm on there, we have a podcast to spread around, so yeah, we try to get them all. But yeah, b Underscore Outliers is the X handle. That's where I am mostly, and then obviously Battery Powers where a bunch of us still right, so check us out over there. But we appreciate the support on on harmid territory and the foul too or two guys, it's been it's been incredible.

00:37:07
Speaker 1: Agreed. Please subscribe to this podcast. Well just find us with the first time. First of all, welcome aboard. Second of all, please stick around for us. Subscribe on Apple or Spotify, Amazon Music, anywhere you find your podcast. We're also on YouTube if you're a YouTube watcher, thank you keep doing that. Also, please subscribe for us on audio to download their just to help out the podcast, but like the podcast as you're watching it, leave comments, et cetera.

00:37:31
Speaker 2: Follow u Studio and condolences. Condulences to all the uja uja fans out there.

00:37:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a very we have a very mixed listenership on college sports. In fact, all four of us hosts have different allegiances, two of which are not Southeastern, two of which are. And I won't mention anything. Look, I wasn't gonna bring it up. I started bring up, Yeah, you guys, you know what's going on? Yeah that was yeah, So it's kind of I didn't even think about it until right this second, because I'm I'm a Michigan person. Stephen as an Alabama person, so that was an ill timed on our parts. But it's also a bowl game, a non plaoutf ball game in twenty twenty four, So like, I don't really get that invested in a non playoff ball game in twenty twenty four, but one for me I enjoyed.

00:38:14
Speaker 2: We're a basket, we're a basketball school.

00:38:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, BAM's a basketball school. That's that's fine. Georgia did a lot of things that they probably would want back tonight. As of course it was competitive. They didn't play terribly, they just made some mistakes. So anyway, Coffeetball's fun. But anyway, we'll have more on this podcast network soon enough. We have a plan. I won't say what it is in case it falls through. We have a plan for a show for Sunday. It'll be interesting if if it comes through, So stay tuned for that. Please subscribe to the podcast. Tell your friends tier going to fall Out Territory. We'll see you all next time.