A Braves Mailbag Before Free Agency Heats Up

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello, Everyone's episode one one five of Every Territory Podcast. I am your host, bred rolland coming to you on a Tuesday evening into Wednesday, and I'm joined as I always am, by Scott Coleman. Scott, we're back. It's for forty eight hours. Nothing exchanged. How are you hey, Brad?

00:00:36
Speaker 2: I was really hoping that, in our very traditional Sunday fashion, we were going to podcast ourselves into a Braves transaction on Monday or Tuesday, and of course, sadly there was nothing of real note, although I guess there was a little bit of movement on the last forty eight hours.

00:00:52
Speaker 1: Since we last talked.

00:00:54
Speaker 2: But nonetheless, here we are. Maybe this time is the charm and we'll wake up to a blue square on Wednesday morning.

00:01:01
Speaker 1: Yeah. Perhaps. And you know, Scott's got some commitments the next few days. We want to come back and get a little recording in. I always have Atlanna Hawk's coverage to do, so well, we could find a night to do a podcast. It's a good time to go ahead and do that. In today's show is mostly going to be your mail. Bad questions everybody, if you're listening to the podcast. Before we get to those, though, we should say at the top of the show, we are partner Foul Territory as a network. Please subscribe to Hammer Territory anywhere you find your podcast. We're on Apple, We're on Spotify, overcast, we're on YouTube. We're trying a little bit of a new layout over on YouTube today by popular demand of our overlords. So hopefully that's going to be great for everybody. A little bit more zoomed in on us, which we don't love, but hey, here we are everybody. Hopefully you enjoy watching if you're watching on that platform. And also a couple of plugs. We already alluded to it. We did a show on Sunday which that is still relevant at this point in time. We did a deep dive into the reliever market, talks about a jam mentor. On that show, talked about Walker Bueler, et cetera, et cetera. Before that, last week, Steaman and Seawan, our podcast partners, did two shows interesting stuff is there. So there's all kinds stuff the archive and because I guess the positive nature of this slow start to free agency is that there's all that still relevant. Nothing's really changed, So listen to those episodes for sure, and Scott. Look, there hasn't been a lot of big news before the milbag, though we should at least say out loud Max Freed officially decline his qualifying offer today on Tuesday. That was always going to happen, which we did allude to several times. But do you have a reaction to Max Freed doing the process move that we all expected, no grand reaction.

00:02:30
Speaker 2: It made sense to offer him the qualifying offer because Max Freed was never going to say yes to it. If Max decides to go elsewhere, the Braves will recoup a fourth round draft pick and the money that comes with that. So it's nothing great. But nonetheless, Max Freed officially is a free agent. I guess he was technically officially a free agent as of like two weeks ago, but nonetheless Max is now. I mean, it seems like, based on early report, there might be as many as like a dozen teams who are genuinely interested in Max. It's probably gonna get to a bidding war at some point, and who knows, maybe there'll be a reunion with the Braves, although I think, you know, I think we've all come to terms with that is probably more likely to not happen. Unfortunately, but hey, that's that's the kind of way it plays out. And if Max Reid is going to go and get a big old paycheck for seven or.

00:03:24
Speaker 1: Eight years, then good for Max. Yeah, and one quick bit of data here is actually a courtesy of Braves. TV un let's c J. Yakowski does a great job, of course on the broadcast. He had it today on Twitter that only nine point seven percent of qualifying offers across baseball have been accepted over the last thirteen years, so the vast majority does not get picked up this year. There actually was one that got signed, Bick Martinez signed his, but that's the only one in the last two years, one out of twenty. So basically it's procedural. Max is ever going to sign this, and we'll leave it there. Also quickly, this is going to be today's people listen to this on Wednesday, but Syng Award announcement is to come on Wednesday. I won't call it one hundred percent Scott, but Chris Sale is widely expected to win that award. We talked about him a lot already, so we don't want to do a whole breakdown of Chris Sale probably winning sy Young. If he wins it. Maybe we'll react to that later on this week, but keep it out that that's the one major award Braves are favored to win or really a factor at all in is Chris Sale on Wednesday, So circle that one and hopefully brings best can celebrate a little bit.

00:04:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a while, Brad, I didn't look this up. When was the last time the Braves had a cy Young? Was it, oh, one or two with Maddox maybe, or I mean John Smoltz had a couple of legendary seasons. Of course they've all all three to one, but it's been probably twenty years at least since the Braves.

00:04:43
Speaker 1: I'm looking now because I did not have this pulled. Yeah, the most recent si Young winner for the Braves actually is even longer. It's nineteen one hundred and ninety eight and it's Tom glad Wow. Huh yeah so, but of course, in my youth, and you're even smaller youth, the Braves won five out of six cy Young's. At one point it was max four years in a row, then a one year break, and then gladn won it in ninety eight and they haven't won since. So from ninety one to ninety eight eight times. Did Smolts never win a sy Young he never won, Sez, he never won Wyeah. I think he finished pretty highup a couple of times. Even Milwell was like in the mix at one point for a song. But yeah, the al I'm looking at this now just to make sure I'm not crazy dot com. Yeah, it was literally the Braves won six out of eight and then and the only one that did not win. And that's and that sample size besides Pedro. Oh, I'm lying Max Smolt's one. I'm a more on them. I'm just missing it. That's ninety six.

00:05:42
Speaker 2: John Okay, I thought I was losing my mind.

00:05:44
Speaker 1: I saw so I saw, no I saw, I saw. Here's what happened. This is a great podcasting. I saw four in a row, and in my mind Max won four in a row, which he did, but the first one was with the Cubs. So I saw four Atlanta's in a row, and I assumed they were all Maddox and they were not three Maddix once Boltz. My apologies. Listen, we're just the podcast. It's the off season for everyone. Brad, we're batting one hundred. I was not prepared, but anyway, Yeah, still that Ey eight for Glaviss the most recent time, so it's been a long time again. Sale is probably going to win. The betty market agrees with that. I have not seen a single prognosticator say that he won't win. You know, there was a late push for Zach Wheeler, mostly from Philly fans. It felt like, and I think over finished second as he probably should. He had a great year. But Chris Sale should win, and I think he will.

00:06:29
Speaker 2: So. Yeah, incredible season for Chris and I mean for the price of von Grissom, and I mean Moneys Braves paid I think five hundred thousand dollars cash out of their own pocket for Chris Sale this past season. That is unbelievable. And I mean, hell, Chris Sale. I'm knocking on every piece of wood here. Chris Sale could like not make another start for the Braves and they are already coming out well ahead on that trade.

00:06:54
Speaker 1: I think.

00:06:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, And by all accounts, the Braves should have Sale firm at least two more years under contract control and hopefully even longer than that. He becomes the new Charlie Morton and pitches into his forties.

00:07:06
Speaker 1: Gotta get Charlie in the podcast somehow, some way, and we did it this Tuesday evening. All right, that's it for the news. Let us dive in now, Scott to your mailbag questions on this podcast if you're listening. By the way, if you want to send questions in when we ask for them or not, we'll always take them. Scott put out a call today on Twitter a lot of responses, which is great. We love that. But people please send them in all the time. I have a running tally that I keep even if they're not like specifically for the podcast, just to fuel us a little bit on topics, etc. So always send them in. You can find us at Hamber Territory on all social media platforms, from Facebook and Instagram to of course Twitter. First question though, comes from Wayne, who says, I listened to your show about free agent pictures and I went and found the MLB Trey roomors top fifty. My question is that assuming you are forced and he uses that word in particular, you are forced to pay exactly what they project for a player, which of the top ten in their rankings would you choose to sign? And that he actually sort of elaborates here and he says, I thought about saying the top twenty, but I did not want to allow you guys to say Nathan Eovaldi and he's number seventy on the list. She code for us. Thanks listening way, that's a very h I mean, you listen to the last show because we obviously like it. Ivaldi at the price that he's listened to that, but he's not available for you, Scott, I did the liberty of going through the top ten and eliminating three guys. Maybe you disagree with this, but I think just for the Braves, positionally, I crossed off Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Christian Walker. Maybe you disagree, Scott, Maybe maybe you're a hot take here is going to be signed Alex Bregman to play some other position other than third base, but I doubt it.

00:08:44
Speaker 2: Did you see that, Scott Boris? I think a friend of the network, Ken Rosenthal behind yep, behind that Alex Bregman is going to be looking for like eleven years and three hundred and fifty million dollars.

00:09:00
Speaker 1: Your response with the appropriate one on Twitter in which you said I too would like that much money, how do you I heard you said that he's not gonna get that much money. I don't think from Maybe I will from Houston, but nobody. I'm not greedy, Brad.

00:09:10
Speaker 2: I'd be willing to share our eleven year, three hundred fifty million dollar podcast deal. I'd happily share with the fellas I can. I can find me a nice beach house somewhere and disappear for three to fifty. But yes, I do agree, Bregman Alonzo Walker just not fits for how the Braves are set up. Yeah, those guys that are reasonably in the top ten just not for the Braves. So that leaves us and this, I'm gonna do this in descending order, just the player system. This are not my picks. We'll talk this out. Scott one Soto thirteen years and six hundred million is the number in question here. Corman Burns seven years at two hundred million, Blake Smell five for one sixty, Willia Damas six for one sixty, Max Free Old Pal six for one fifty six, Jack Flaherty five for one fifteen, Anthony Santander four for or Sean Manaia three four sixty. I will give you first crack at this, Scott, which one of those if you were forced to pick one for the Braves to side exactly this contract would you choose? So it's a great question from Wayne, and again thanks to everybody who's sending questions. We're gonna try to get to as many as we can tonight. If not tonight, we'll do another show. It is a long off season. Yes, of that group, I mean, okay, my answer if I if I could wave my wand and add any of those players to the Atlanta Braves, it would be one Soto. The contract is just insane and it's never gonna happen, So but one Sodo in the middle of this lineup would be nuts.

00:10:43
Speaker 1: I almost edited Wayne's question to remove one Soto from the mix because it's kind of like a cheat code answer. And look, there's a whole de bit that we won't do now about whether that whether that would be a good contract or not, because like there is a obviously we agree one so it would be awesome. He's an awesome player. There is a debate about what that would be a good idea to do as a franchise that does have spending limits of some kind to sign him for thirteen seasons, and somebody, somebody probably will do that. But I think we agree. If you're picking one player, certainly he's the answer. It just a lot of money. But anyway, let's just remove him, put him to the side a little bit too for the rest of the question.

00:11:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will take of this group, and there's a couple here for me that are real contenders. I would take Willie Adamis for a couple of reasons. I think the six year, one hundred and sixty million dollar projection from MLB trade rumors is probably a little light. I'm gonna guess that a Damis gets seven years and maybe even close to two hundred million. Man, he just checks so many boxes for this team, a franchise shortstop, no signs of slowing down. He's not that old, so you'd be getting a Domis for his age twenty nine to thirty four seasons over this six year deal. And I mean the real one quest with the Damas. And he's even admitted that he might be willing to move to third base in the right deal. But Adamis's defense is nothing to write home about. But at the same time, if Williadamas was a gold glover, like a legitimate gold glover, he'd be looking at like a ten year, three hundred million dollars deal.

00:12:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, he'd be getting Corey Seeger money basically if you use it.

00:12:21
Speaker 2: Yes, or Francisco Lindor or Trey Turner that winter where all the shortstops got paid big money. So again, interesting question. I would very happily take Williadamas six years, one hundred and sixty million. It sounds like the Braves might be interested in a Damis. There was a report from John Morosi that Atlanta is interested, although about half of the league was reportedly interested. So take that with a grain of salt. But for my money, Williadamas would probably be by number one pick of this group.

00:12:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, and honestly, for the sake of podcasting, I will choose someone else. But I think that would be my answer to just for true Serah purposes, I think I go with the Damis close. I think the number two guy on my list would probably be Max Freed. Honestly, part of that maybe is nostalgia and the fact that he's an internal candidate, that Braves know him. He's been good for a long time. Also, the aav is lower for Max at six for one fifty six is the projection than it is for let's just say Blake Snell. It's basically the same. It's actually a little bit cheaper overall than Blake Snell and one year in one year longer, so it's a way cheaper aav than Snell. Burns is a better pitcher than Max, I think, but Burns is an extra one year and forty four million, which I don't want any part of if I can help it. And I think we said even on our pitching preview show, Flarity is cheaper than Freed. But I think the gap between Flarity and Freed is big enough where I would rather just have Max, especially given the connection. So I'll take Max just for the purposes of the podcast, and it's a reasonable answer. I think that that's a deal that I'll ask you this good. If the Braves signed Max today to that contract, I think we would. We would not say it was a grand Slam value, but I wouldn't criticize it. I think that would be a reasonable investment in Max. Freed again would in my opinion, not a grand Slam investment, not one of those like Man selling the alarm. This is an absolute heist for Alex. I thought, was he did it again? Kind of contracts, but one where I'd be like, all right, let's go do this, let's go do this again.

00:14:28
Speaker 2: Max?

00:14:28
Speaker 1: Is that this guy? Do you kind of share that view with me?

00:14:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, six years at twenty six million a year for Max Freed feels more than fair to me, I will say. I mean, my one legitimate concern for Max Freed is his elbow.

00:14:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had a real concern.

00:14:45
Speaker 2: He had the real scare last year in twenty twenty three, missed what half of the season, maybe even more than that with an elbow strain. I think it was. It was one of those rare ones where everybody thought his elbow might be cooked and headed for the dreaded Tommy John and it was well, no, we can treat it. We think it's going to be okay. Of course, Max came back in the second half, and then he had the weird tingling in his fingers this past season from a pinch nerve in his arm. Maybe that was fluky, but nonetheless, there is a history here of enough elbow and arm problems with Max that I'd be a little nervous just giving six years to a guy who's going to be on the wrong side of thirty. But again, man, that's free agency, I think you said on the show the other night, other than your unicorns like Juan Soto, who are unbelievably good and also debut at age twenty or twenty one, and also don't sign one of these very much in trend long term deals with their teams the way that Bobby Witch Junior just did, the way that Acuna did. It's pretty rare to find free agent talent who's you know, in their mid or late twenties. So no matter who you sign for a big deal, you have to pay for their thirties. It's not a guarantee that Max is gonna fall off a cliff by any means, but I am curious if his medical history is going to scare some teams off or at least give them just a little bit of pause before they say, yes, we'll go that extra year, or yes we'll give you that extra twenty five million dollars that might be needed in order to seal a deal.

00:16:22
Speaker 1: We totally agree there, and that's part of the reason why I would lean to a Dominis to answer to the question myself, like just to agree with you, and also, look, there's something in the back of my brain that always says position players are saying for the pictures they just they just are and also they play more. I mean that's the thing. Like, obviously pictures at the high end can be as valuables dish player. IM not say otherwise. Chris Sale was as valuable as most Dish players as worth this year. But you know, WILLI Domas every single day, the upgrade there on what the Prays have had, a shortstop, et cetera, et cetera. I think that I would go that direction, even acknowledging that Max might be better at what Max does than Willi Domas is of what he does when they're both healthy. It's just that the vue proposition leans a little bit toward the shortstop, especially for a deal that is, you know, the same amount of years for a guy who's younger. Actually Nominas is younger than Max, so I lean that way too. But Max is the runner up both for performance because he's really good. He's still really good. But we agree on on the questions about Max. All right, let's get to a question from Stewart, and this is relevant to the discussion we had forty eight hours ago actually about relief pictures. So the question is if you knew the Aja mentor was one hundred percent healthy, which again is a huge thing that we do not know. That's why he's asking the question, if you knew he was a hundred percent healthy right now, what content would be reasonable for him to sign? Is he closer to Tanner Scott or someone like Blake Tryon or play Homes or worse. So again, listen to that show for more on this, But we did not really give a projection. I listened to this picture repeating ourselves on what Aja actually might get if he was healthy. We did kind of talk about him in that way. But basically in the projections ten Or Scott's in his own tier, it's like four year deals for fifteen ish million a year. That's a lot of money for a reliever, and then there's a big step down to like the two or three year ten or eleven million dollar av for trying in Or Holmes or Corlos Stebs. Other than maybe Jeff Hoffman, who's kind of a hybrid guy. There is a gap there, so where you think AJ stacks up. Again, this is a world that we that we do not live in because there is uncertainty no matter what about AGA's health. But if we if onue of that existed, where would he be in the hierarchy.

00:18:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good question, you know. I would say if the hip issue is never a thing, like say no surgery for Max, I mean for Aj, I would say like three years, forty five million dollars or so Field.

00:18:47
Speaker 1: Which is right by the way, which is right in the middle of scott and the next tier like basically that would make him the second reliever on the market right now, essentially based on the projection that we've seen so far.

00:18:57
Speaker 2: Right elite left handed reliever or maybe not like top top top of the line, has never really been a closer at least hasn't been a full time closer in four or five years now, but very good, you know, with the hip I'm gonna guess that Aj gets like a two year, eighteen.

00:19:16
Speaker 1: Million dollar deal.

00:19:18
Speaker 2: I mean, where are you at, Brad? I feel like a one year deal is on the table. Yeah, if the medicals are really clean, he may be able to still get like a three year deal with the idea that he will only get healthier as time passes. I don't know where are you at?

00:19:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if you're Aja and you can get a three year deal, you probably got to take it based on his career earnings to this point. And we just talk about it a little bit on Sunday. We agree on the one hundred percent healthy hypothetical where I think he would get, you know, three years, thirty five to forty five million, something like that total a lot of money. I think this this winter, there is so much uncertainty that's hard to guess. I think that anything between like a one year seven million dollar deal a two year twenty million dollar deal. That's a big range, but that's very much where the range is. I'd be a little bit surprised if you got a three year deal for big money but only takes one team. I mean, it won't be the Braves. I don't think I'd be pretty surprised the Braves give him a three year.

00:20:14
Speaker 2: Deal right now, Honestly, Brad, If not the Braves, I'm gonna guess. If I had to make a prediction today, I'm gonna guess that AJ takes a one year bounce back deal with Atlanta. But if not the Braves, you know who I think is gonna.

00:20:28
Speaker 1: Sign AJ Minter? Oh? No, the Angels, Oh everyone everyone goes to the Angels.

00:20:34
Speaker 2: There's familiarity there with Perry man Nassian, Ron Washington is there, Travis Garder, they.

00:20:41
Speaker 1: Can trade him to the Braves in July, that's right.

00:20:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, just like Jesse Chavez, AJ will get like a one or two year vacation now, you know, live on the beach or whatever, spend your millions and then come to the Braves for a playoff push in a year or two. But like in all seriousness, if I if I had a handicap, I think I would go Brave one, Angels two because I think for a good reason, I think the Angels are trying to get more serious behind the scenes, you know, established some some clubhouse and culture things and bringing in people like Ron Washington, Travis Darnault. AJ Minter has high regards from his teammates and I mean he's buddies with everybody on the team. So yeah, I'm gonna guess one year deal for the Braves or maybe a two year kind of bounce back and prove a deal with with the Angels.

00:21:30
Speaker 1: That sounds reasonable to me. And the one that that he has to going for him is that after Scott and maybe Holmes, all the other guys who are good relievers basically are old, like thirty seven, thirty eight years old, and AJ just turned thirty one, So like there is a little bit of runway for him, even he's got a lot of miles on the arm. I think we're on the same page there. If there was one, if you made me pick one team for him to sign with, it's still probably Atlanta. But I do wish for his sake and for ours. Honestly, it's be interesting if he was a hunder percent healthy. We just don't have that world. But it's a good question. We can answer it and give a little bit more context on AJ. Question from Clifton, who says if the rosters across baseball were frozen and nothing else was allowed to happen at all, infre agency or trade for any team, how good would the Braves be in twenty twenty five. So basically, there's a lot of preeges right now. This is the world with no one sto playing baseball this year. In this world that he's thiking up, the free agents just don't play. Basically, so it's like, all right, which team is the best? How's the stack up? I'll throw it to you first. But I will just say this, the Braves have a lot of talent on their roster compared to some team. I did a little bit of looking ahead on this one, not a ton, but a little bit, and I will say I was a little bit, not shocked, but mildly surprised how good I felt about the Braves compared to the rest of the league through this exercise.

00:22:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we almost take for granted how many legitimate stars are on this baseball team. I mean, I remember the conversation we had about Michael Harris at some point where for maybe a third of the teams in baseball, Michael Harris would be like the guy, like the player on all of the team's promotional materials, the guy on all the posters outside the stadium, the guy in the Twitter, you know, header photo or whatever it's called like, And Michael Harris is like the fifth or sixth best player on this roster is currently constructed. And that's with nothing of any moves. In this hypothetical scenario, the Braves are loaded Matt Olson, Austin Riley. They might have a otherworldly superstar coming back in Ronic Cunya Junior. They might also have another superstar coming back in Spencer Strider. Of course, we will have to wait and see just how healthy and how effective those guys are come twenty twenty five. But really, for me to answer the question how many wins, I mean, it's it's it's an inperfect science.

00:24:03
Speaker 1: That's hard.

00:24:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably somewhere in like the eighty five, eighty eight, ninety win range. It's really the starting rotation where they would feel it without Max Freed and without Charlie Morton or replacements for those two. But I mean, again, man, this this team, even without making any moves, and of course they're going to make moves, but even without a move that this roster is quite good and and you know, it's a it's a fun exercise in what kind of core do you have with your team right now? And then hopefully over the next three or four months alex Enthopolis can really pour some fuel onto the fire and really blow this up into one hundred win team and a legitimate World Series contender as long as the health cooperates.

00:24:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that would You know, not to go crazy deep on this hypothetical, but I think I have them for ninety plus wins just because I like to take a stack of the rest of the league, the other than the Dodgers, and they are the raging champions, and they're of course incredibly loaded. That's not a big surprise. You know, the Braves probably have the second best lineup in baseball without adding anybody to it, because look, they're not losing anyone. I know, they had a terrible year this last year. We covered that at nauseum. Gonna come up again, I promise you a hundred times. But everyone, everyone that was in the projected opening day lineup for the Braves last year is still on the tee. So you don't you know what I mean, I don't. I'll thinking about that way. But like, you're losing Horace Hilayer, but he was a mid season acquisition. Nothing else has changed. You still have Sean Murphy bounce back candidate. But you got Olsen, you got Albi's, you got Riley, you got Harris Ronnie wouldn't be an opening day lineup, but we'll be back sooner or fider than later. You got Ozona. Still like there's some weaknesses on the roster, but the lineups there and even the rotation we agree there there are uncertainty there, but they're not in the worst shape. In fact, I've pulled this. Fangrafts had their depth chart projections up right now. The Braves are third in baseball with their current rotation. Now, part of that is that they're projecting about two thirds season from Strider, so like he's going to be really good. If that's the case in the projection system, along with Sale and Schwallenbach and Lopez, that's four starters they're giving them. Griffin Canning, I don't know if I do that, but you know right now today, if you weren't allowed to add anybody else, he's on your team, so he'd probably be your first starter. So anyway, this is that we don't have to keep going on this too far down. I did find this funny though, as a bridge to our last question that we'll probably hit on this on today's podcast. There were two weaknesses in the projections at Fangrafts, and they are very raw, down and dirty. I know that MG Rowley and people over there would just say this. It's obviously very early on this, but the Brads are in the bottom five in baseball right now at wait for Scott shortstop and left field. I know, huge, huge, revelation here. In fact, all right, question about this to sign off the podcast comes from Nick Shouts and Nick for the question, And it's a pretty simple one, but it's on that we haven't really answered directly, I don't think yet this winter. And it is would you rather roll with Urcia and add a left fielder or roll with Kelnik and add a short stop? And it's one that I think we've all talked about this brace Pat talked about this all the time. Obviously the real answer is hopefully you fix both. But in the next question, it's like, all right, you can only do one. Uh, I'll let you go first, Scott. This is not a It's not an easy one by any means. It's a very complicated question based on market dynamics, who's available, all those things might come into play here too, But what do you think?

00:27:34
Speaker 2: It's a great question, and I think it's worth I'm gonna hedge this just a smidge.

00:27:40
Speaker 1: I think they have.

00:27:41
Speaker 2: To add and outfielder regardless, because they just don't know what Acuna's knee is going to be like. But for the for the sake of the question, it's a really good one. Man. It's harder to address shortstop than it is left field. Obviously, you can probably make a case shortstop is the most premium position on a baseball field, and there's just not that many options for the Braves. But I just if you had an opportunity, and if the Braves might, the Braves might have a legitimate opportunity this winter to add an impact, above average to star level shortstop to replace Orlando Arcia. You make him your backup utility guy, and you add a legitimate three to six war shortstop into the middle of your lineup. I think you have to do it. It's such an important position. Arcia has shown nothing the last eighteen months to suggest that he's suddenly going to hit again, and he was so bad, and to his credit, he does play a perfectly fine defense at shortstop. That's the one thing I think maybe the biggest argument against it is you could pick left field and just roll with Arcia badam ninth lineup should be better all of that. But for me, if the Braves have a world where they can significantly improve shortstop, I would take that option, and then you just kind of piece together your outfield and hope that Acunya is is healthy because frankly, if Acunya is not healthy, you have bigger problems than who's your number three outfielder.

00:29:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, we didn't consult on this, of course, we had the same opinion to some degree here, and it's because of the positional value and also just how easy it is to fix the outfield in theory. We've seen Alex do it multiple times. It doesn't always work perfectly, but twenty twenty one that did it on the fly and it was an absolute Grand Slam. Last year a little bit less so, but so they're still hit, et cetera, et cetera. And I am of the mind that you know, shortstop is not it's a lot harder to fill, but it's more important to fill, if that makes sense. So if you're just saying in this hypothetic will he doesn't talk about how you do it, but if you want to just use Willa Dallas's example or whatever, like, if you're just saying, all right, we're allowed to just go grab a shortstop and go that that, I think you do that a real shortstop. The other the argument against that would be, and I think I believe this to some degree, is that if you could add a high level outfielder you have Kelnick for super cheap as your fourth outfielder, right, And while I agree with you on the pitch for orlan Arcia being his glove, I think that Braves fans tend to overrate orland Arcia's glove. I think he's he's not Andrelton Simmons.

00:30:30
Speaker 2: Like I agree with you, I will get into arguments with people on Twitter, which is my first mistake, but like people act like he's Ozzie Smith Orranleton Simmons and he's he's fine, but he's not that.

00:30:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's I mean, the ideal of orland Arcia. We've done before. But you know, there have been stretches where he's hit and in league average level while also playing good defense. And that's a good player, it is. But last year he was effectively a worst glove Niki Lopez. That's a that's a wow. But you know what I mean, like Vicky Loveless is a better was a better defender than on the n RCIA. The argument there is that he just he just couldn't hit. But last year Arcia just couldn't hit as well. So I'm not saying that he has to be that bad on offense. He doesn't. I think there is a world where Orlando could post in ninety doub rci plus next year. That isn't a good hitter, but that would be a step above where he was this year, and that player is playable, Like there is a level world where Arcia can Arcia can be a perfectly fine starting a shortstop that ninth if he just hits a little. But last year he didn't hit. He didn't hit a little, he hit none. So uh, we agree on the answer. I am opened to the other the other side, and that I think that using the Braves for and look, I think snip would be more careful than this. But the framing on Orlando has kind of always been catch the ball, Orlando, We'll figure out the rest. You could do that with somebody else, you know what I mean, Like doesn't have to be Orlando. You could you could do that with another guy somewhere else who's more anonymous or whatever. I think if and this, this autism is very interesting because there is a guy in a damis and I don't we don't know if the Braves love him enough to pay him what he's gonna cost. We just don't know the answer to that. But even if it's hass On Kim, like I would probably just rather get hass On Kim if he's reasonably healthy and figure out the outfield, then get the fifteen million dollar left fielder and have to figure out throats stop again personally, which is yeah, and you know, we're trying to stay true to the question.

00:32:30
Speaker 2: And I think folks, you know, there's obviously a million ways the Braves who go here. Yeah, there's there's a lot of nuance here that you can't do with this question, which is why it's question, and it's a great question because frankly, between okay, shortstop, outfield, starting rotation, now you need an at least one impact reliever. You might need a backup catcher as well. I mean, the Braves have a pretty busy shopping list, and between money and prospects, the brain might not be able to address all of those in this one winter. And as we kind of said a little while ago, you can probably survive with one position in your lineup not hitting a ton, especially if the other position has been upgraded with a legitimate bat. And that was the whole plan for this past season, was that everybody was going to hit, and frankly, it was the plan in twenty twenty three, and the Braves put up a historic offense. But you just, for for many reasons, I think they have to make a significant upgrade to at least one of these positions. And hey, if they can do it where maybe they trade for a cheaper, younger player at one and then pay money for another at the other position, then that's probably best case scenario. But again, a lot of things to get to this winter, but a great question. You know, I think you can make a strong argument either way.

00:33:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we leve this podcast with the question about, you know, adding one of the top free agents at who we choose. There's another version of that that like, okay, let's just ignore money for a second, which you can't do. But if you ignored money and you took Sotal off the board, because he becomes the answer very obviously. There there's an argument that, well, I think Corbin Burns is better than Willia Domas at baseball, the Braves might be better adding Willyadamas than they would be Gordon Burns. There's an argument for that because position player versus pitcher, et cetera, et cetera. That maybe one maybe that's one, we'll answer another time. It's like, all right, now, now we answered. We answered about the contracts. Now throughout the contracts, pick up free agent and add them to the roster. None ones other division. Who would you choose? And I think that your argument then becomes basically Corbyn Burns or whichever started picture. But I think he's probably the guy versus Willia Damas. I think because there's not there's not an outfielder other than other than Sodo that's as good as Willia Damas. I don't think on the market. And that's interesting and that kind of again kind of tells you shortstop is an interesting priority. And the debate, the debate, it has already been raging for weeks. I know, I'm sure you've seen it two on social media for Braves fans like about William Damas and what do you want to pay him? And I I'm not like absolutely falling in love with Waya Damas, like I have to have him on my roster, like but he's a really good player, so oh yeah, I could be a swing skill here too, And I'm yeah, we'll see, yeah.

00:35:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, you know what it We've said it a few times, but it should be a really interesting and important offseason for this front office because there are a lot of holes. Clearly based on what Fangraft thinks, this is a really good excuse me, this is a really good roster as is, without doing anything else. And if the uh, you know, shortstop left field they think to put a bow on this, one of those is going to get upgraded significantly. My hunch is that it's more likely to be the outfield, if I had to bet on it. They will add an impact outfielder. They will let Kelnick play right field until Acunya is ready, and they will just run it back with Urcia and keep catching the baseball and give us a little something, a little something more in that ninth spot and everything will be fine. That would be my guess. But I'm sure again, if you could be a fly on the wall in that office to hear the names they're talking about, maybe they are ready to add a franchise shortstop of some kind, whether it's in free agency or not, to go down this rabbit hole. But is there a young shortstop somewhere who you could trade like a Drake Baldwin for, which would be like a super fun, pretty rare but like a super fun trade idea franchise catcher for a franchise shortstop potentially, is that something you're looking at? Hassan Kim interesting player coming off shoulder surgery.

00:36:39
Speaker 1: Is he you know?

00:36:40
Speaker 2: What's his market?

00:36:41
Speaker 1: Like? With Scott forres.

00:36:43
Speaker 2: All of these are in play, and I'm really man, I just want some movement and activity across the league so we can get an idea of what the market looks like. You know, if if the first three players to sign all blow away their projections from MLB trade roomers and fangrafts, then it's like, oh, baby, break out the checkbook. This is going to be a great offseason for the players. But if we go another couple of weeks and like nobody has signed and the first big free agent comes in a year less and thirty million dollars less than what everybody was thinking, then it's like, Okay, maybe it's it's more of a buyer's market and the agents are not going to get quite as much as everybody was thinking.

00:37:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we'll say this for later. There was a question I don't remember whoever's sent it in about basically what will I think about? It literally been what will Scott's reaction be, But what was your reaction be about? Like if the Braves with a straight face looked at us on opening day and said, here's Jared Kellick and Orlando Arcia and left field and shortstop again, what would the reaction be? Not a very kind one on this podcast, I would imagine from one Scott Coleman.

00:37:48
Speaker 2: It depends who's in right field. But I understand the question because if they added, you know, like if Lars Newt bar is standing in right field, then hell, yeah, baby, let's let's roll.

00:37:57
Speaker 1: No, I think the implication was even with even when Acuna is back, kem starting spot, please know, please know, I I just.

00:38:08
Speaker 2: We'll see, it would just be yeah, that would be that would be a misuse of off season funds and priorities.

00:38:15
Speaker 1: In my opinion, the only way to do that and not make us absolutely melt down is if they get like a giant splash in a rotation. Uh. And even then I wouldn't love it. But like if they end up with Corbyn Burns and Nathany Ivaldi, then okay, whatever, But yeah, anyway, that's another rabbit hole for another day, Scott, that's a mail bag podcast on a Tuesday evening, I think, Uh, anything you want to add.

00:38:41
Speaker 2: For me, Simo, nothing to add. Brad, nice to do one of these with you. Wanted to give the folks some more Braves content. I promise you at some point we are going to have some transactions to talk about. Uh. It may be a little while, but regardless, hope everybody enjoyed the show. A big thank you to everybody who sent in mail questions, and I promise you we will get to them more of the questions you guys sent in in the coming weeks. Yeah, I think we got like forty questions combined. And yeah, I don't know. We could have done like a four hour Madman Sicko show, but I don't know if anybody would want.

00:39:15
Speaker 1: To listen to that. There's still time. But also as far as a looking ahead kind of thing, later on this week is the non tender deadline lows on Friday. That's not a huge landmark day, but it's a day in which we'll learn some things. So Ramon Loiano is the big domino for the Braves. If they want to tender him or not, that's a question that they still haven't I answered, if they If they tender him, that will be an interesting data point on this conversation because that means Romal Loreano will be making enough money where they probably have to play him because that's gonna be some real money. So we'll see how that goes well, have a podcast at some point talking about that, but uh, just circle that one later on. That also involved gri Griffin Canning, which is a lower level than Loreano, but another guy who's interesting and they have to sign on. So that's the it's kind of a forced deadline. Obviously, there could be a move before that, and hopefully for our sake and for the podcast sake and for interest sake, then there will be a move. But at the very latest, there'll be some Brazes on Friday because they will have to make a decision on Loreano and Canning and that will be content for everybody.

00:40:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean as much as ten million dollars one way or the other if yep, I believe both players are projected about five million dollars next season, so significant. It might give us a little bit of an insight into what they're thinking for their plan. Of course, now the Braves are that close to two months to kind of figure out their off season path, so of course very aggressive right out of the gate trade. So Laire get out of his money. We'll see what they do. On Canning and Loreano really, I mean, I don't know, Brad, I've liked both of those are like fifty to fifty decisions maybe yeah, yeah, Especially on Canning, I'm curious to know if they actually like him or if they just did it to make the angels, you know, to sell the deal a little bit from a PR perspective. And then Loreano he's an interesting player and you know he was great with the Braves, terrible before that, made some adjustments to a swing. But are you banking on him running like a three eighty bad bit ball next season and being good again wrongside to thirty?

00:41:11
Speaker 1: I don't know.

00:41:12
Speaker 2: It really does feel fifty to fifty to me.

00:41:14
Speaker 1: We agree, and we'll have much more on that, I promise you later on this week when those deals happen or don't happen. But until then, please subscribe to the Herbit Territory podcast anywhere you find your podcast. We're on Apple, We're on Spotify, overcast YouTube if you want to watch us over there. God bless you like the video as you're watching it. Scott's got a bravesat on right now. He's living life over there in Arizona. We're having fun on the podcast. I'm not at Puto, which people can see on YouTube if they're watching it. But I'll be back in my home studio next time. I got And yeah, thanks we listen everybody. I very much appreciate it for Scott, stay tuned. We'll see you all next time.