Fair Territory: Trade Deadline letdown? Phillies sign David Robertson, Jays and Brewers on HEATERS

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Speaker 1: Good morning everyone. Ken Rosenthal here, I've been telling you guys for weeks unfair territory and foul territory. It's too early. We really can't talk about deadline yet. Forget all that it's not too early anymore. Ten days remain. The clock is ticking, the deadline is nearing, and we have plenty to dive into on this Monday morning. We can start with yesterday's news, which was quite interesting, the Phillies signing David Robertson. This is the third time that they are uniting with Robertson. They sign him as a free agent one year that was twenty nineteen, I believe, and then had to well, they didn't have to do anything. He had Tommy John surgery. He barely pitch for them. Then they reacquired him from the Cubs in twenty two for Ben Brown, who is now a pretty good pitcher for the Cubs, kind of a developing pitcher. And now the signing yesterday one year, sixteen million dollar contract, but it's pro rated, so he'll get about five and a half million. And what was really interesting about the terms were that here's a guy, Yes he's making five and a half million, but it's costing the Phillies because they're over the highest luxury tax threshold, a total of about twelve million that includes a one hundred ten percent tax. That's a big chunk of money for a guy who well hasn't pitched this year, a guy who is forty years old, but a guy who last year for the Texas Rangers had a really good season three ERA ninety nine strikeouts in seventy two innings. That was David Robertson just last year. He presumably should be fresh. He hasn't pitched yet. He's going to need a ramp up, and that's fine. The Phillies can wait a little bit for him to get ready. He has been throwing, so it shouldn't be too long. And what this deal shows clearly already is the need for bullpen help among contenders, and the desperate need for bullpen help among contenders. It's a lot of money to pay David Robertson ad middally. He has a great track record, but with the trademarket being what it is, so muddled. Even right now with ten days to go, I'm sure the Phillies thought, you know what, we might not be able to get a Manuel Clause. We might not be able to get John durand Griffin Jacks. We might not be able to get Mason Miller, the reliever that we want. Now, they're going to still be active, They're gonna look for more, but this at least gives them a buffer to go to the next level with their bullpen as they await the return for Jose Alvarado, who, of course is not eligible for the postseason. He's completing that eighty game ped suspension. So Robertson is in the fold for the Phillies. That's one move for them. It will not be the last one. Now as we approach the deadline, and again I said it's ten days away. Now, I've been hearing from executives really for months now, this could be a disappointing deadline that ultimately Raphael Devers might be the biggest name traded. And when I hear such talk, I always think, na, it'll good. It always turns out Okay, I'm not so sure this time. Now, don't shoot the messenger. What I'm saying might not even turn out to be true. But it just seems to me with so many teams still in the mix, so many teams undecided about their direction, and still might be undecided in ten days about their direction. We're going to see, obviously it be a seller's market, but also a market in which some teams are reluctant to move. And I'm thinking about the teams in the al Central, the Guardians, the Twins, the Royals. They're not really in it, but they're close enough to think they're in it. And I'm thinking about some other teams as well. What are the Cardinals going to do? These are questions that will frame the deadline. Of course, the Diamondbacks are another team, and I'll get into them in the inside dish. But I'm just not sure we're going to see the quality of player trading that we've seen in the past. For instance, best starting pitcher available, who do you think it is? I would say right now it's Zach Gallen, But Zach Gallon has a five point four to ora. He is not Max Scherzer in twenty twenty one, Zach Grenki in twenty nineteen, you Darvish in twenty seventeen. Those were monster pitchers traded future Hall of famers in two of the three cases, at least huge moves at the deadline landscape changing moves. I don't know if that Zach Gallon at this point moves the needle that much, not when he has been so inconsistent this year. You have some other starting pitchers who are available, Mitch Keller and Andrew Heney and Pittsburgh, the Oakland pitchers, Sevarinos, Springs and Sears, Adrian Hawser and Chicago with the White Sox, and there should be some other names that pop up as well, but it is not a terribly sexy group. Let's face it. Best hit are available. Well, there's one guy who jumps out. The guy who is on a fifty seven homer pace, Aohano Suarez, potential free agent. My goodness, two more home runs yesterday. He is on fire as a potential free agent. Maybe he's comparable to what a. JD. Martinez was in twenty seventeen when he went from the Tigers to the Diamondbacks. Maybe he can have that kind of impact. But behind them, the bats aren't that great either. And we're not looking at a Wan Sodo situation by any stretch of the imagination, where a guy of Soto's caliber is available for two and a half pennant races. I'm sorry, three Pennant races two and a half years the way Sodo was in twenty twenty two. So I'm sort of questioning where this deadline is going to go now. I wrote about Mason Miller today in my notes column, and he would be an interesting name for sure, four years of control remaining beyond this season. The A's aren't talking about him yet, but they may end up talking about him if they get pushed. And there are teams the Phillies being one, the Dodgers being another, that may push the A's and if they get this monster deal, well, if you get the right offer for any player, you make the deal. Mackenzie Gorenationals would fit into that description as well. The Nationals interim GM Mike de Bartos said this weekend. I don't want to trade any of my young guys. No, he doesn't want to, but if some team comes at him with some huge offer, then he might. So we'll see how this all plays out. And I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer here, don't get me wrong. They'll be action. I just don't know that the quality of player traded is going to be what we've seen in the past. And while saying that I leave open the possibility, as you always have to do, that something will happen that we just cannot foresee. The Ralfield Devers trade was that kind of trade, So who knows where this all goes? Okay, as we continue on here, I want to talk about two hot teams, two of the most surprising teams in baseball, and two teams that frankly I love talking about because they're playing at such a high level. The first would be the Blue Jays, and I've already apologized the Blue Jays fans for calling them the paper Tigers last year, for criticizing their front offense, for all thees that I committed with regard to Toronto Blue Jays. The reason I wrote those things is because they were true. At the time. The James weren't underachieving team. They were a team with a front office that seemed to be flyling. Well. All things are going pretty well right now. They swept the Giants this weekend. They beat Justin Verlander, Logan Webb, and Robbie Ray tenth straight home. When you see that right there, it ties the franchise record set in nineteen eighty five. They have a three game lead in the ale least. They're one and a half games behind the Tigers for the best record in the American League, and they're fifteen to five in their last twenty games, that includes three sweeps. They've had just an amazing run here. And what is kind of driving them, it seems, is that their offense has the lowest strikeout rate in the majors. Now. I've talked about how they're getting unexpected contributions from some of the players at the bottom of their roster. Tyler Heineman, Addison Barge are all these guys, and then yesterday Guerrero with the big home run. But they've been really an outstanding example of a team coming together. We all thought they were talented, We've thought they were talented for a few years now, but this is an actual team. This is a team playing at a high level, a team picking up one another on a nightly basis, and a team that, yes, will be active at the deadline. They've got some bullpen needs now due to some injuries, my Garcia being one of them. They also could use a controllable starter with Bassett insures are eligible for eligible for free agency, and heck, they might look for an impact bat someone that can put anywhere on the diamond. What they want to do clearly is enhance what they've got. And when you're doing that, when you're trying to do that, as we've seen with the Dodgers for so many years, you're looking for impact. So the J's on a roll. Good for them. They are taking control of the AL East and in the NL Central. The pesky Brewers, the Brewers, the team that you can never count out, the team that you seem to see every year lose major pieces. And it happened to the Brewers again this offseason. And here they are again, right there in the thick of this thing. They swept the Dodgers over the weekend. They go six and zero against the Dodgers this season. They are now tied with the Cubs for the best record in the National League. It's right, the Brewers and Cubs tied for the NL Central lead and the best record in the NL. And those two teams are only a half game behind the Tigers for the best record in baseball. Now. Pat Murphy, their manager, has had some great quotes all along, and we're going to refer to a couple of them here that he said after yesterday's game. Murphy seems to revel in the Brewers underdog spirit, and here he is yesterday on this team, it's a bunch of guys that nobody has ever heard of. Like I said, no disrespect to the great fans of Japanese baseball, but they can't name five players in our lineup. Murph might be right about that. Let's go to another quote. This one's pretty good too. Here's Murphy again saying this is from Kurt Hog and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Pat Murphy's club walked into Dodger Stadium and swept the season series against the reigning champs, with their top contributors being Isaac Collins, Caleb Durbin, Quinn Priester, and Joey Ortiz. It felt fitting the manager thought he called them a bunch of average joes. Now, I don't know what it is about the Brewers, what it is about their culture why they are able to do this year after year. Remember Devin Williams traded Willia Damas, lost a free agency. They do nothing, virtually nothing in the offseason. They ultimately signed Tintona late. They did trade for Quinn Priester, but man, they come up with these players. These players fit into their roster so well, they make contributions so mightily, it seems. And here they are again now the deadline. There written about this for months. They're a fascinating team because during the latter stages of spring training, when all their pictures were getting hurt, they're starting pitchers. That's when they added Priester and Quintana. And ultimately, now that those pictures have come back or are coming back, they have they are the one team with seemingly a surplus of starting pitching. They can do some things with that pitching. And because they swept the Dodgers, go six and zero against the Dodgers, and because their owner, Mark Antenasio lives in La and I'm sure was loving every minute of this. I am intrigued to see how he reacts here, whether he as an owner, says, you know what, let's spend some money, let's go for it, let's do some things. That's not the Brewers' way. We all know that that's kind of why they're the Brewers, but I would imagine Antennasio is rather excited by what he's seeing. So there it is. David robertson the deadline, the Blue Jays, the Brewers. Stay with this. We've got the inside dish coming up.

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00:13:03
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00:13:10
Speaker 1: Now for the inside ditch, the part of the show where I talk about maybe a story I've written, maybe a trend in the game, or maybe as we are ten days out one particular division with regard to the trade deadline, and today I want to talk about the NL West. Not that the NL West is that competitive a division. The Dodgers still lead it, but the way the Dodgers are playing it could become competitive and really each team, each of the contenders, the four contenders in this division are rather interesting. Let's start with the Dodgers. They've lost ten of twelve. They look horrible. Mookie Betts got benched over the weekend. He's not hitting, hasn't hit all season. They did survive a scare with Freddie Freeman yesterday, But overall, the Dodgers are not at all where they want to be at the deadline. I've written about this. They're going to be active looking for bullpen help this signing Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates and re signing Blake Trin in the offseason, spending more than one hundred million on the bullpen. It's amazing they end up in this situation every single year. Now, I mentioned in the lead they could be a team for Mason Miller, and they could be a team also that looks for a bat, looks for a bat maybe in left field. They are offensively perhaps one bat short. And it's just interesting to see how this is all plan out for them, you know, as division champions for so many years and as defending World Series champions. I'm sure the regular season for them is a bit of a yawn. They know that they're going to be in the playoffs. The question is can they come together at the right time. Now, I'm sure they think so. But this is the one thing I've been wondering about all year. They're kind of sluggish. They've got things going wrong here and there. Real Blake Snell and Tyler Glass now and Otani. Will that rotation be their rotation with Yamamoto of course too at the end of the season. Will the bullpen swored out, Will the offense be clicking? Will Mookie find it again? They're counting on all of these things that happen to be the team they want to be. I'm not sure it's all going to happen for them. It's theoretically possible, but right now, the way they're playing, you look at it, it looks a little bit troublesome, to say the least. All Right, as we moved down in this division, the Padres another fascinating team. The Padres currently hold a third wildcard spot. They haven't been quite as hot as they were earlier in the season when they started off so well. They've been kind of a five hundred team since. But they're winning enough, they're playing well enough. They've survived some injuries, and certainly without Michael King and you Darvish for a long time, their rotation held it together rather well. Their bullpen is amazing. It's perhaps the best bullpen in baseball. Three of their relievers went to the All Star Game. What Aj Preller, their general manager, has said is we're looking for a bat or two, not just one, but two. Left Field is the obvious area of need. Catcher is also an area of need. It's difficult to incorporate a catcher in the middle of the season. But while the Padres are getting good defensive work out of their two catchers, or at least good handling of the pitching staff, I'm not sure a good defensive work would cover it. But there are catchers Maldonado and Diaz. They handle the pitching staff well, but they need more offense out of that position. So left field is going to be a focus. There's been talk about Jaron Durant, There's been talk about Luis Robert. It's just going to be interesting to see how Aj Preller maneuvers in this market. He also has the potential at the end of the season for Dylan Cees and Michael King to be free agents. So with those two potentially gone, with Robert Suarez the closes are potentially gone, He too is a potential free agent. There is some urgency with the Padres, and I always seem to think, ah, this is it. They've got to figure it out, or the team's coming apart. Well, it doesn't seem to be that way. AJ Peller always seems to put it together in some fashion. This, though, is a unique challenge because when you lose those kinds of pitchers. If they do lose them, then obviously it's a different kind of team going forward. So the Padres as always at the deadline a team to watch because with Preller, you never know what might happen. Then there are the Giants. The Giants eleven and six seventeen since the Ralphae Old Devers trade. Eleven and seventeen since this transformative trade that was supposed to elevate their offense and make them into a different kind of team hasn't happened. Get swept by the Blue Jays over the weekend. As I mentioned, they're now two and a half back in the wild card race. They fallen behind the Reds and they just don't look like a kind of team that you expect to make the postseason, do they? They need a lefty reliever, that's something pretty clear right now. They lost Derek Miller and they are team also that needs another bat. Put that bat in the outfield perhaps I don't know where you put it exactly, but at some point they're gonna have to get more offense too. Maybe it's second base. That's where Casey Schmid is right now. Casey Schmidt naturally a third baseman. He has not shown yet he can really hit in the major leagues. Has shown flashes, but this team offensively is disappointing. Willia Domas has come on now, but it's been a while since he did come on, it took him a while to get going. So the Giants are a team to watch too, because after making the Devors trade, you can't imagine that they're done. They're obviously going for it. They obviously want to be in the playoffs again in their first year under President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey. But right now they look like they're short. And then there are the Diamondbacks. And I wrote the Diamondbacks, or wrote about them today in the lead of my Notes column. The Diamondbacks are perhaps the most interesting team in baseball relative to the deadline right now. And what I wrote about is how this is not just about twenty twenty five for them, it's also about twenty twenty six. And what I mean by that is this Corbyn Burns, aj Puck, Justin Martinez, those three pitchers pivotal to the Diamondbacks. Chances are all out for at least the first half of twenty six after undergoing major elbow surgeries. Now the Diamondbacks have all these potential free agents who are attractive. They could make qualifying offers to each of them. I'm talking about Zach Gallen Merrill, Kelly, Jack Naylor and talking of course about ue Aohano Suarez as well. You can make qualifying offers to all of them, but as I wrote, they probably would all reject them. And if they all reject the qualifying offers, if you're keeping the team together, then you're looking at seven players that you're without at the start of next season, the three who are injured, the three pitchers, and then those four free agents. So that is why, as I wrote, they need to trade several veterans. They don't need to trade them all because they just swept the Cardinals and they suddenly look like they could be making a push, even though their bullpen is absolutely depleted. They're waiting for guys to come off the injured list, Jalen Beaks and Ryan Thompson and Shelby Miller. They don't look like a playoff team, but they have one of the most dynamic offenses in baseball top five offense, and maybe they carry that offense carries the Diamondbacks to a playoff spot, the way Detroit's pitching staff carried the Tigers to a surprising playoff spot even after they sold last year. Not saying it's going to happen, not saying it's particularly likely to happen. But the Diamondbacks have this talent, this amazing offensive talent, and if you trade Suarez and the Brewers could be a team for Suarez. The Yankees could be a team, of course, the Cubs. We've talked about all these teams relative to Suarez. Then you could have something with Jordan Lawler replacing him at third base. You could put Pevin Smith in at first base, if you trade Josh Naylor. There are things you can do. But can they get the controllable pitching that they need. I'm not sure they can do that. So they're in an interesting spot, a bit of a tight spot and a bit of a curious spot because they're sort of in it in their minds. They have this offense that's so good, and yet they need to acquire talent for twenty six because they're already short with those three pitchers that I talked about undergoing surgeries. So the NL West is going to be a fascinating division to watch in the next eleven days or so next ten days as we approach the deadline, and I'm really intrigued to see what all of these teams do. All Right, that's it for the inside dish, stay with us for grilling, can krats.

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00:22:46
Speaker 1: All right, come talk ball with us on chat BCC at foul Territory dot Chat. We're hanging with fans, answering questions, hosting trivia, and running giveaways like two free Major League Baseball tickets up to four hundred dollars value free MLB jersey of your choice. Got a hot take or burning question, drop it in the chat. We might even feature it on the show. It's free to join. Go to foul Territory dot chat and come hang all right. Time now for Grill and Ken. Let's get to your questions. The first comes from Chris ahearn, who asks, oh, good question. Who will be busier at the deadline? Baltimore or Arizona. I would say Baltimore. Baltimore has all these players on expiring contracts to trade, and they will be busy. I'm talking about Ryan O'Hearn, Cedric Mullens, Ramo Loreanos, Sar Anthony Dominguez, on and on. It goes Zach Eflin if he's healthy. They're gonna be active. They're gonna be active, and it's going to be multiple trades. I would expect the Diamondbacks could be active and will make trades. As I just outline, they need to make trades, but I don't know that they'll have as many trades as the Baltimore Orioles. All right, next question, let's see this one comes from Sean Donovan, who asks could the Red Sox be in contention for Zach Gower or Merrill Kelly. Well, the Red Sox certainly need another starting pitcher, and ideally it would be a number two to slop behind Crochet and put ahead of Brian Beao. They've got Giolito as well and Walker Bueller. Can they get one of those two? Well, it's going to be awfully competitive for those two guys. Now, I don't expect the Diamondbacks to trade both. They have to get through the season. They don't want to concede totally. They will trade perhaps one of them, not both, and I would expect that Gallan would be the more attractive guy. Kelly is one of the most consistent pitchers in baseball. He is remarkably underrated. He's also thirty six thirty seven years old. Team see that they see the low V low. They're not as intrigued they should be because he's really good. But I don't see him attracting the same kind of attention as Gowan, another potential free agent who of course has been a cy Young finalist in the past. So that is where I see that going. But the Red Sox, yes, they need to be acted. They need to go another starter. They need another bat too. First base would be the spot to do it, and maybe it's Josh Naylor or Ryan O'Hearn who they would prefer, of course, or right handed bat. So the Red Sox another team to watch as we get toward the deadline. All right, I want to thank everyone for watching, everyone for listening, everyone for their questions. We've got another show coming up live when It's Den with Alano Rizzo That will be on Thursday. Have a great week everyone. I'm expecting we're going to see some action soon. Maybe not yet, but real soon.

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