Fair Territory: 5 intriguing teams to watch this offseason, Craig Stammen is new Padres manager

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Thursday edition of Fair Territory. I'm Ken Rosenthal here with Scott Braun in for Alana Rizzo. Now, back when Clarence Clements was alive, a member of the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen used to introduce him by calling him King of the World, Master of the Universe. He go on and on. I'm going to introduce Scott today as the Emperor of the Foul Territory Empire. Scott, welcome. Wow.

00:00:28
Speaker 2: I'm in Aj Perzinski's seat right now. I'll be in the other one for Foul Territory later, Ken, but I appreciate that I will. For me, I try to stay humble, but I'll make sure that Aj knows what you just said.

00:00:40
Speaker 3: I'll make sure please do.

00:00:41
Speaker 2: The Emperor was the name, and we'll figure out a name for AJ maybe later on in the show.

00:00:46
Speaker 3: But I appreciate it.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: Let's get to biz, and to lead off today, we're gonna look at five teams that you have pegged for very intriguing off seasons.

00:00:55
Speaker 3: Now we'll preface it.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: Every team is interesting and we will cover them through the offseason. But for today's purposes, let's pick five, and the first one you want to hit is.

00:01:06
Speaker 1: The defending World Series champion, two times defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. And here's why you might say, I can come on the Dodgers. Yeah, they're gonna be busy, of course, but I had a rival executive tell me yesterday that he thinks the Dodgers are going to be even more active than usual this offseason because of the threat of either a salary cap in the next CBA or increased restrictions on spending. So this might be the last chance saloon for the Dodgers to go nuts once more. So what would that mean, Well, they definitely would like to address their outfield, and you've seen them linked already to Kyle Tucker. Trent Grisham is another player that they've liked in the past, according to the athletics Fabian Ardia. And it's going to be interesting because Tayo Hernandez's tasker Pandas did not have the same kind of year this year that he did last year, and his defense has declined. So that is one I would expect to go to address the bullpen in some fashion. Again, maybe they go out and get another closer to top off Tanner Scott. So the Dodgers are definitely a team to watch and maybe the team that ultimately lands Tucker will see it's funny.

00:02:15
Speaker 2: I felt like fans really got pissed off at the end of the offseason when they signed Tanner, Scott and Kirby Yates.

00:02:21
Speaker 3: They weren't factors in the postseason.

00:02:23
Speaker 1: So he didn't make the roster.

00:02:25
Speaker 3: In mind, Nope, didn't make the roster. Okay, next up?

00:02:29
Speaker 1: Next up, Let's see who I have here? I would say, oh, yes, the Philadelphia Phillies. Now this is another interesting team for a lot of reasons. One, they're free agents Schwarber, real mutto Ranger Suarez, and with the Phillies, they want to resign Schwarber, they want to resign real muta they probably need to resign both because they don't have people to replace them. Internally, they just don't. They're already at two hundred and fifty nine million in the luxury tax payroll, so if they resign those guys, what is that take them to to ninety nine something along those lines. They're running out of room. They don't want to spend much more money than that, So how do they do this? Can they get in on Kyle Tucker. It would seem to me no is the answer, because I don't know that they can do one more big contract. Alex Bregman would fit into the same category, but third base is a possibility. If they trade Bone, which they've talked about doing forever, an outfielder would be a possibility. They're gonna be really interesting to watch. I just don't know how they're going to make it all work because you really can't trade any of your big money players. They're players that you want. Tucker, I'm sorry, Turner and Harper and Wheeler, all these guys. You're not trading any of them. So how do you somehow create payroll flexibility? If indeed that is what the owner, John Middleton, wants to do, you would think even he has a limit. I guess we're going to find out.

00:03:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the past two postseasons have not worked out well for Philly despite winning the division. You always think, does an owner suddenly go, you know what, I want to switch things up, not in terms of spending less, but just trying to get a different roster on the table coming into this season.

00:04:07
Speaker 1: Okay, next up, next up the Boston Red Sox, and they're intriguing for a lot of reasons, namely Alex Bregman. We know what Bregman meant to that team. We know that he was not simply a guy who played well when healthy, but also someone who is transformative in the clubhouse. He makes other players better. He's constantly in tune with the game, seeing things, and that is value that you can't quantify. Obviously, what if they don't sign Alex Bregman, that's the question. You could play Marcelo Meyer third. That's one way to go about it, and go sign another corner infielder, maybe a Pete Alonso. That's one area that they're going to need to address, the corner infield. The other would be starting pitching. And of course they made the great trade for Crochet last year, but they could use one more. And will they be active in free agency or will they again try to trade because their form system remains strong. Trade candidates include Derek scoobl We'll be talking about him all winter, Hunter Green, Joe Ryan, the Red Sox thought they were close on him last year. Close doesn't work at the deadline, sorry, Sandy al Contra and Freddy Peralta.

00:05:16
Speaker 2: Fans like to simplify things, and I think they go, Okay, you traded rapphiet Evers, what are you doing with that extra money? They are looking exactly at that big chunk of money and saying where is that going?

00:05:28
Speaker 3: And not in the future.

00:05:29
Speaker 2: They want this offseason to be a time period where all of a sudden they get spent.

00:05:33
Speaker 1: And they're not wrong about that, Scott. That's what the Red Sox said they were going to do. We're trading devors to create pet flexibility for the future.

00:05:39
Speaker 2: Well, let's go Five intriguing teams to watch this offseason continues right now, and the fourth one on.

00:05:46
Speaker 1: The list the Atlanta Braves. And the Atlanta Braves are particularly interesting, not just because they named Walt Weiss their new manager, but because their chairman on an earnings call yesterday. Remember, the Braves are the only American public traded company in Major League Baseball, so we know what their earnings are. They are public, and they have to be released. He said on an earnings call yesterday that he expects the Braves to go back to being a top five payroll team. They were a top nine payroll team this year. They ranked ninth in payroll, So what would that signal? To me, that would signal to me that they're going to be aggressive. And the other thing, the other motivator for them to be aggressive is they missed the playoffs for the first time since twenty seventeen. The president of Baseball Operations, Alex Anthopolis, has been quite open about not being happy with that outcome, So I do expect them to be busy. Shortstop is the big question. Can you resign Hatshan Kim, who opted out as they expected he would, or do you have to find some other solution That market is not particularly Lopez coming off the shoulder surgery. Hurston waldrip great finish to the season, but could they use one more?

00:07:01
Speaker 2: Sure they could, Yeah, Braves fans have high expectations. We also talked about the Walt Weiss hiring for the team, keeping it internal. We actually covered that on Foul Territory during Ken's appearance, so if you want to check that out, go for it. It's in Wednesday's edition of the show. And last but not least intriguing team to follow here.

00:07:22
Speaker 1: This team doesn't have a manager right now, the San Diego Padres, but that's not their big question. Their big question is going to be reconstructing their pitching. Darvish out for twenty twenty six after a UCL repair. Dylan Cees and Michael King are free agents, as is their closer Robert Suarez. What their payroll flexibility will look like, we don't know yet. They're also going to have to address for at base, where Ariaz is a free agent. They could move Cronenworth back there, maybe get a second basement. There are all kinds of ways to do it. We know aj Preller will be aggressive. We know they have the capability at least or the possibility of moving Mason Miller and or Adrian mordejone into the rotation. They're gonna have to be creative. That's the bottom line for the Padres, and they're gonna be really interesting to watch as we go forward. Here.

00:08:09
Speaker 2: Wow, and actually it looks like we potentially might have breaking news on the Padres. Let's take a quick break and then we'll digest to that and come.

00:08:18
Speaker 3: Right back with maybe some breaking news.

00:08:23
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00:08:28
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00:08:37
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00:08:52
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00:08:56
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00:09:03
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00:09:09
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00:09:09
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00:09:21
Speaker 3: Apply sea site for details. We are back.

00:09:26
Speaker 2: Ken is working hard right now. We should have him back pretty soon. So it's weird. We're talking about the San Diego Padres as the fifth team and we didn't go in any particular ranking order. We just hit five teams intriguing ones to watch this offseason.

00:09:40
Speaker 3: Ken finishes with the Padres.

00:09:42
Speaker 2: I kid you not, as I'm looking down at my phone for a second to see when we're going to go to break and what we were going to bring up next, looking for Grill and Ken questions. You see Kevin Ace with a report that the Padres have made their decision and that is Craig Stammon as their next manager.

00:09:58
Speaker 3: So Ken is back Ken.

00:10:00
Speaker 2: This has been a windy road, Mike Shilt out, that's a surprise, pooh Hole spending nine and a half hours on a meeting, but it's Craig Stammon who emerges as the new manager of your thoughts, definitely a surprise.

00:10:11
Speaker 1: He was not someone that was thought to be even in the mix. Now he is a former major league pitcher. Of course, he has been in the Padres organization in their front office. Shilt was in the same kind of category when he was hired by the Padres to replace Bob Melvin. So it's a surprise. I am always skeptical, I will remain skeptical my entire career of guys who have never managed coming in and taken a team like the Padres. But We've seen success stories over the years, Aaron Boone, Stephen Vote. You can look at each one of these and say, well, they had no experience, no coaching experience, what's up with that? But we will see how this goes. With Craig Stammon, It's a very interesting choice, to say the least. He is someone who is what's the word I'm looking for here, quite engaging. He's a guy who's kind of popular, good personality, and I expect him to be, at least in that respect, a good choice for them. Now, can he run a game? Can he handle the club in the clubhouse? Who knows? You don't You never know with any of these guys. But this is not the most radical hire we've seen this offseason. I would put Blake Puterra up there, and Tony Vitello, but certainly a surprise for the Padres and.

00:11:22
Speaker 2: A little more context on the background of Stamman if you forgot about his playing career for fans listening right now, he spent his final let's see six seasons with the Padres. He retired and finished up in twenty twenty two at thirty eight years old. He's currently forty one years old. Background wise, He's been a part of the organization since twenty twenty three, so basically right into that special assistant.

00:11:45
Speaker 3: Type of role.

00:11:45
Speaker 2: And I'm trying to look into more of what he was covering during that time period. Worked with both the major league team and minor league affiliates, So this is someone that they know well it is.

00:11:55
Speaker 1: And what's also interesting here, Albert Pools was a candidate for the Los Angeles Angels job, did not get it. It was a candidate for the San Diego Padres job, did not get it. The only remaining opening is the Colorado Rockies, and if I'm Albert, I don't want that job. So he was someone who came into this offseason wanting to manage, and with all these openings, it appears he is not going to get that chance, at least at this point. So that is surprising too. This whole thing is surprising with the Padres because the names we heard on their search were Albert Pooholes, Ruben Dieblo, their pitching coach. We will see if he stays now, Ryan Flaherty, who was a coach with the Cubs but had been part of that organization too, and Nick Hunley. They chose Craig Stamon interesting choice.

00:12:41
Speaker 3: One follow up on pool Holes.

00:12:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't seem like he's going to be a manager for this coming season, at least not at the start of the season, and based on him being available and being involved in these interview processes, he clearly wanted to be a manager next season. Now he will manage the Dominican Republic team in the World Baseball Classic. If he doesn't manage a team, which seems like that'll be the case, I'm wondering what he does next year in general. Does he consider any type of role within an organization to be more involved. I know right now he's technically part of the Angels organization based on the personal services agreement he has with them, So I'm curious what the next year looks like. Albert to put himself in a position for twenty twenty seven as a manager.

00:13:23
Speaker 1: It's a good question. He could continue on MLB network and we remain visible in that role. Does he work for a team in some capacity. I would tend to doubt it. Like you said, he has that personal services contract with the Angels. They'd have to somehow come to an agreement on that. But I don't see Albert as a bench coach somewhere. He has no experience in that, of course, no experience as a manager either. Could he be some other kind of coach for a team, I guess, But I just don't see that he wants to manage, and at some point I believe he will get his chance to manage. It's just an interesting scenario with him because historically Hall of Fame type players, great players do not make good managers. Ted Williams Frank Robinson was a pretty good manager at times, but it's hard for them. It's hard for them because their expectations are up here and sometimes the players that they have cannot meet those expectations. Oftentimes they cannot, So it's a challenge. Pools would be a fascinating case study as manager to see how he would handle this. But at least as of right now, it does not appear, as you said, Scott, that he's going to have a job managing for this season.

00:14:28
Speaker 2: We'll have much more on this on the FT Network. I feel like this is definitely my obligation Ken calling me emperor at the top of the show of the Ft Network, I'll say I'm co emperor, so I will throw this out there.

00:14:39
Speaker 3: Friar Territory is part of the FT Network.

00:14:42
Speaker 2: That's our Padres dedicated show Kyle Glazer, Heath Bell, Mike Cameron. They will have a show I'm shore at some point today with the breaking news val Territory is coming up. If you're watching live right now in forty five minutes, we'll lead off the show at that topic as well. We've been all over the Poohles interviews, so a lot more to cover there. But let's get to some questions now with Grill and Ken. I'm told we have a Mike Trout question to start, and there was a great article about Trout in The Athletic written by your colleague Britney Droli this week. So here's Maverick. Is there a world where the Angels trade Mike Trout to the Dodgers? He deserves so much better, but he chose his path well.

00:15:25
Speaker 1: I would encourage everyone to read BRIT's article because it was really good on Trout, a really good look at where he is now in his career. Now, two things about a trade with Trout had a ton of money left, and he's not the player he once was. And beyond that, the most important thing to Remember, he has not given any indication, zero indication, that he wants to be traded. Now, there might come a point where he gets there, but that point might have passed where it's going to get the Angels a good return, and where they might decide it's in their best interest. Obviously, they would love to get rid of the money if they could, if Trout wanted to go, and they'd love to get a return for him, but it's not going to be so easy when you have a player who is in obvious decline. So I don't see the Dodgers going there. If anything, they need to get a younger hitter. Their position player group is aging. I wrote about this during the World Series. It's not that they're unproductive. They're still really good players, but they're going downward a little bit. So a Tucker who will be twenty nine next season would make a lot of sense for them. That would be the direction I would see them going, more than an older veteran.

00:16:32
Speaker 2: One other note for Maverick, Even if you do think he gets traded at some point, the chance that he gets traded from the Angels to the Dodgers is not high. There are still humans involved, exactly. I would say close to zero. The only chance would be if the team gets sold. Artie Moreno is not going to sell him, you know, to the team that makes their franchise look bad. Let's be real, So I would cross that team off the list just for that alone.

00:16:57
Speaker 3: Okay, what's next.

00:16:59
Speaker 2: Let's get a question in here on the reliever market. Bernie asks, how do you see the relief pitcher market shaking out? And how would you rank the top closers that are available.

00:17:10
Speaker 1: This is interesting because obviously closers relievers in general, are always in demand, and we've got some good ones out there. Edwin Diaz is one, Devin Williams is another one. Ryan Helsley a third. Hellsley. Let's start with him. He had that situation with the Mets where he was tipping for about three weeks. Teams still love his metrics, love his pitch shapes, all that kind of thing. I expect he's going to do. Okay, it might only be one year, but maybe it gets to three years if there's enough competition at the one year level. Devin Williams is kind of in a similar category, and the team still regard his stuff and what he does analytically. Maybe better than his performance in twenty twenty five, which wasn't bad. He had some down periods, but he also had some really high periods as well. And then Edwin Diaz is probably the best of this bunch. I would rank him first, and he's a guy who's coming off a great year with the Mets and has proven he can do this job time and time again. So I do expect the market to be good, and I expect all these guys, even Hellsley, to get good deals.

00:18:11
Speaker 2: I'll throw two other names out there. Luke Weaver I'm a fan of I think he can close, and Robert Suarez opting out becomes a free agent.

00:18:20
Speaker 1: Yes, I forgot to mention him. He's obviously in that category. Two. I would put him probably behind Diez and maybe right about even with Williams. I'm not sure exactly. I'd have to look at it statistically, analytically and all that, but he too will do well. And yes, Luke Weaver is a guy that I would imagine some team would want as a closer. So yet, all those guys Scott are going to be interesting names to follow.

00:18:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, good question and good names. It's a good list for this offseason. Relief pitcher wise, let's get one more in there before we hit another break.

00:18:53
Speaker 3: Here's Jay.

00:18:54
Speaker 2: This offseason seems a lot lighter on talent than last year, yet a lot of the dollar figures be thrown around are similar.

00:19:01
Speaker 3: Does this make sense? And I'll just throw this out there.

00:19:04
Speaker 2: I know Tim Britton puts out his list and he just did of free agents and the money that he thinks they're going to man command. Kyle Tucker is gonna get a lot of money. The other one that stood out, I think he had twelve four something for Boba Schett, which was in a similar range.

00:19:17
Speaker 3: To Kyle Tucker. So those are big dollar figures.

00:19:20
Speaker 1: The question is good because there's no Sodo in this year's market. There's no Otani in this year's market. There's no Yamamoto in this year's market. Though there are several players from Asia Cumming who are going to get a lot of attention. The picture am I perhaps foremost among them. I don't see numbers being thrown around like Soto or Otani. Tucker has been a guy we've all thought could be four hundred to five hundred million. He's coming off two years where he didn't play the entire season. He had kind of these nagging injuries. I wonder if that depresses his value some and I wonder if teams see him in quite the same light. Do I expect it to get the four hundred with him? Yeah, I do. I expect him to be that kind of guy. But it is a lesser market in terms of monster names. But you're gonna see trades, You're gonna see free agents sign I'm sure we're gonna see some things. I say this every year, and I say it every deadline that will make our head spin. That's the beauty of the off season. It's the beauty of the deadline. So while it doesn't look as attractive, I expect it to be newsworthy, I expect it to be fun as it always is.

00:20:23
Speaker 2: Great Questions. We're here live every Thursday for Girl and Ken Questions. Of course Mondays is live as well, and we try and get to things there.

00:20:29
Speaker 3: That's Ken Solo.

00:20:31
Speaker 2: Okay, coming up next, Dudent Dork of the Week, And I'm just gonna preface this before we hit the break. I've actually never participated. I've done this show maybe three or four times over the last couple of years, but I always leave early to go host foul Territory. We're a little earlier with the show today, so I'm excited and we'll be right back.

00:20:48
Speaker 3: Bet I'MGM account holders today.

00:20:51
Speaker 2: How about in any sport parlay boost token you can score a bigger payout if your wager with that token hits. Tokens can be used on parlays and on same game parlays. Gambling problem or concerned, there's help called one eight hundred Gambler. Hey, when you get a chance, subscribe to foul Territory on YouTube. We are getting very close to three hundred thousand subscribers on the channel and love all of them, so we'd love you to join us on that channel as we break down everything going on across the sport. It is baseball the way it should be covered at foul Territory.

00:21:23
Speaker 3: Give us a sub.

00:21:24
Speaker 2: Dude, dude, dude, let's do this.

00:21:34
Speaker 3: Due to the week, Ken Miguel.

00:21:36
Speaker 1: Rojas and I know we're a little bit away from the World Series now it's been a few days, but my goodness, we're talking about a game tying home run in the World Series by a guy who had not hit a home run off a right handed picture all season. He had hit one off a right handed position player one, but not a pitcher. And the thing I love about Micel rohas this is what Dave Roberts said after it. And remember he had just been inserted into the line up in Game six because Roberts wanted him to give them a jolt of energy. And Roberts said, the game honors those who honor the game. And what he meant by that is that Miguil Rojas is one of the great teammates, one of the great workers, just a guy that you want on your team. He's the one who helped teach Mookie Bets or relearn shortstop Mookie Betts. And that was after losing his job. So it was cool to see him have that moment. It was shocking. Go back and look at the video, look at Dave Roberts face, and for me, he's the dude of the week.

00:22:35
Speaker 2: Hey, he's a glue guy. I gave up his number for Rookie Sosaki. I know a lot of guys would do that, but he's just involved in a lot of things. When you talk about the Dodgers, despite not being one of their stars, I'll go with mine and a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, I'm sure there will be feature stories written about Kirby Yates. Not a factor in the postseason for the Dodgers, but still, it is every ballplayer's dream to win a World Series. And he said if he won a title, he would get Kirby the animated character video game you can play them and super smash all that right on his butt cheek with the World Series trophy. So it's Kirby with that piece of metal, and it's awesome. I love a man of his word. We got the story from Keik Hernandez who kind of caught it live on one.

00:23:18
Speaker 3: Of his Instagram stories. So there it is.

00:23:19
Speaker 2: If you're listening to us right now, you can find it. And I think we did a nice job with our production team of just showing you like the exact tattoo and not stretching it out.

00:23:28
Speaker 3: So good job, Kirby, very nice.

00:23:30
Speaker 1: Yes, what's it? Dork? All right, Scott? Now I'm looking at my watch checking the date. The date is November sixth. The GM meetings start November tenth. The Colorado Rockies do not have a GM now I presume they will have one in time for the meetings. But my goodness, they're already over a month late. The Nationals fire their GM at mid season, Mike Rizzo, and then hired Paul Taboni in late September. Why so he could get a headstart in the offseason staffing, all the things that need to be taken care of before you even get into player acquisition. The Rockies, we're still waiting Dorks of the Week.

00:24:17
Speaker 2: Sounded like they had two finalists that weren't interested.

00:24:20
Speaker 3: We'll get more on that. I'd say at some point.

00:24:23
Speaker 2: That's not a good sign either, not liking the conversations they were having. Okay, my first ever Dork of the Week that I'm going to hand out is to Jim Murray. He is a player agent who is in trouble for I like the movie That Departed a lot, being the Rat the mole for Major League Baseball. It is an incredible story. I think that it hasn't gotten enough attention yet because it came out during the World Series.

00:24:44
Speaker 3: Evandrelik wrote it, he broke it.

00:24:46
Speaker 2: It's called Inside the Text Messages of the Agent who Became a Mole for Rob Manford and MLB. When you read that title, you're like, is this a sensationalized title. It is not the story is worth the read. Then we also did a follow up with Evan on our show.

00:24:59
Speaker 3: We talked to that.

00:25:00
Speaker 2: We talked about the Tony Clark players way situation. So there's a good podcast and video clip on YouTube to check that out. But Jim Murray for me Ken dork of the Week, and I won't say much more besides that he was basically smashing players and working against them despite representing them.

00:25:16
Speaker 3: So if you want more, please give it a night.

00:25:19
Speaker 2: You need like five ten minutes because you're going to be jaw dropping when you read this.

00:25:24
Speaker 3: It is worth it.

00:25:28
Speaker 2: And then that's it. Right, We're on our way out here. I'll sign us off. Okay, So Foul Territory is coming up next live at one o'clock Eastern. Patrick Mooney, Ken s Kylie Govertt, the Athletic and also one of the hosts of Northside Territory will be on there. Blake Mitchell, who's a super prospect with the Royals, and P. T. Tierney, who is part of the MLB Fan Council, will ask him about how that works.

00:25:49
Speaker 3: That should get interesting.

00:25:50
Speaker 2: Ken, great to do this with you and I enjoyed my dudent Dork of the Week experience for the first time.

00:25:56
Speaker 1: Thank you well Scott, Thank you Emperor of the Foul Territory Empire.

00:26:02
Speaker 3: You'll see Ken on Monday on fair

00:26:07
Speaker 1: Mm hmm