Fair Territory: Pirates sign Marcell Ozuna, Red Sox acquire Caleb Durbin, Ken's 5 Spring Storylines

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Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory Spring Training Pitchers and Catchers Report this week, and it seems that teams and agents are waking up and realizing it's go time. Two big moves this morning. We're gonna get into both of them. We're also gonna get into my top five springs training storylines as well as a review of Scott Boris's off season. But let's start with the trade. The big trade this morning between the Red Sox and the Brewers. I want to go through the names first and then we'll talk about the meetings for each team. It's a very interesting trade on a lot of levels. The Red Sox, of course, have been looking for a third baseman or another infielder the entire off season after losing Alex Bregman. It appears that Caleb Durban, the principal return in this trade, will be that guy. But they also acquired some other infielders too, Andrew Monasterio, Anthony Sigler. Anthony Sigler had some moments for them last year, as did Monasterio. Durban is a guy they acquired from the Yankees in the Devin Williams trade that they like an awful lot or liked an awful lot sty'll do. I'm sure they also get a competitive balance b pick Kyle Harrison, who really was expendable for them. Because of the pitchers that they've acquired this offseason, we're talking about Ranger Suarez, Johanno Viedo, Sonny Gray, there's not much room for him. They've got some prospects as well, and then David Hamilton expendable after the signing of Isaiah Kaina Phileffer. The minor league deal for Brendan Rodgers and Shane Jrohan yet another of their better pitching prospects. Not their top, but they're better pitching prospects that they've traded this winter. That list includes Richard Fitz, David Sandlin, now Kyle Harrison, Brandon Clark, and Hunter Dobbins. So what they've done is basically trade off a bunch of guys who would be in their Triple A rotation most likely depth for the major league club, for players who will help their major league team. These are pieces that help them get a variety of different players, including Wilson Contraras. So the Red Sox now it's not Alex Breckman, it's not eazac Parades. It's not a guy really with Caleb durban who hits for power, but he is a useful player, a good player, and I would expect that the Red Sox would play him at third, although they've wanted to play Marcelo Meyer at third, so maybe they played Durbin at second. He has some experience there. But either way, it's an interesting trade for both clubs. I don't know what the Brewers are going to do at third base now. They conceivably could trade for ezac Parades. More likely they patch it together wait for some of their prospects. Jet Williams is an up the middle player, not a third baseman. They could play him at third. They do this all the time. Cooper Pratt another player in their system, highly regarded but didn't really hit last year at double A. So we go forward with the Brewers and the Red Sox. The Pirates this morning also with a major move, at least from their perspective. One year twelve million dollars from Marcel Azuna, free agent designated hitter and Marcella Zuna for them will fill obviously the role that Andrew McCutchen largely filled last year, and beyond that, he's going to be I'm sure the everyday DH. This likely signals the end of the McCutcheon era in Pittsburgh. I don't see a place for him on their roster. Now. What the Pirates have tried to do is upgrade their offense, and they've done it for the most part. Ryan O'Hearn, Brandon Lowe, Marcella Zuna. Those are three competent major league hitters. They also got the Password from Boston. He's a top prospect, or at least a good prospect that maybe can fit into their mix as well. They should be a better offensive club. We know they can pitch. We know they have one of the best young groups of starting pitchers in baseball. So the Pirates, they have had an offseason that they kind of promised in some ways. They didn't get all the guys they wanted, of course, they were outbid for a number of them. But are they better than they were at the end of the last season. I don't think there's any question about that. All Right, Pirates, Red Sox Brewers. Let's go to the top five spring storylines. I guess I will start at the top, and the top, of course, is going to be the back to back World Series champions. The Los Angeles Dodgers, and what they will do and how they will prepare for a three pet Now, can they do that? Of course they can do that. They've added two major pieces this offseason. I'm talking about Kyle Tucker, I'm talking about Edwin Diaz. But as we've already heard from them, they're going to slow play Blake Snell and they're coming off a second straight deep run into the postseason. Yamamoto is going to be in the WBC. Otani is not going to pitch in the WBC. He'll probably be on a somewhat limited schedule the whole season, probably pitch once a week as he has done in the past. And the question I have with the Dodgers is what about all these guys, these pitchers coming back coming off a deep run into the postseason in which they were ridden hard. Remember four starters pitched in Game seven of the World Series. Otani, Imamoto, Glass now and who am I missing? Oh Blake Snell. I just mentioned him. So we'll see what the Dodgers, But yes, they're going to be a team to watch for sure. Number two on my Spring storylines, the new look Mets. We've talked about them the entire offseason. Alonso has gone, mc neil has gone, Nimo has gone, Edwin Diaz has gone. But they have brought in a huge number of players, an entire new infield. Except for Francisco Lindor, I'm talking about Bobashett at third. I'm talking about Marcus Simeon at second, and Juanney Polanco at first. Luis Robert Junior will be in center field. They've also added to their pitching staff Freddy Peralta, Devin Williams, Luke Weaver in relief. It's going to be an interesting spring for them, just to see all these pieces fit together, other to see Baschett adapt to third base, Polanco the first. I don't expect it to be much of a problem for either, but the new look Mets are another big spring storyline. Third on my list moves still to be made. Now, I had Marcela Zona on that list. Today, I had the Red Sox needing an infielder on that list. But we will still see transactions and trades and signings throughout the spring. Zach Gallen the biggest free agent starting pitcher remaining. We've got Lucas Giolito still out there, Chris Bassett, Jose Cantana, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and a number of teams one agent estimates and many as ten teams that still need starting pitching. So there are going to be some free agent starting pitchers moving in the next few weeks. I'm sure we will see some other trades as well. San Diego Baltimore are among the teams that need starters. I'm missing some, but there are a number of others. Houston still has to resolve what's going on with is Zac Parades and Christian Walker in their infield as well. They've got one too many, all right. Fourth on the list the dawning of the Tony Vitello era in San Francisco. This is a fascinating move, a fascinating hiring by the Giants. It's going to be something we talk about, not just in spring training but all season. The first college coach hired by a major league team to manage in I don't know over a century it's happened before, but it hasn't happened in a quite a long time. Vytello is a guy who had a great reputation at Tennessee. Kind of fiery, kind of got into it with people at times, the opposition. But he's gonna have to tone it down obviously in the majors. He knows it. He has two former managers on his coaching staff, Jase Tinkler and Ron Washington, coming back into the game. So Tony Vitello will be one to watch all spring. All right, we keep it going here, the final thing, the final spring training storyline and maybe the biggest the WBCA see ramp up and the WBC. Now, obviously players are already in camps who will be participating in the World Baseball Classic. Saw some video yesterday of Clay Holmes throwing off a mound in Port Saint Lucie. He's there early because he is part of Team USA. We're going to see the ramp up. We're going to see the tournament in early March. Japan, the Dominican Republic, and the United States, all with powerhouse clubs. It's going to be a terrific tournament. I'm quite certain of that. It is, as I said previously, the best US team we've seen. So looking forward to the WBC for sure. I'll be working it for Fox, and that is it for the spring training storylines. We will be back with the Inside Dish and the review of Scott Bors's offseason right after this. Ajay.

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Speaker 1: Tie out for the Inside Dish, the part of the show where I talk about I don't know something, I've written, trend in the game, something else entirely, And today I want to go through Scott Boris's offseason because of course he is the premier agent in the game. He has the most big name clients. A number of big name players did quite well this offseason, and a number of his clients did as well. Now, before we get into it, I'm always amused when I see comments or on Twitter that Ken, you're a shill for Boris twenty nineteen, and he had a rough offseason, at least by his standards. He had Bryce Harper, Don Yaes and Kakoochie and Zach Britton, but Dallas Kichel didn't sign. He had kind of a down off season for him by his standards. And I wrote about it and it was critical, and after that, Scott Boris did not talk to me for a year. A couple of years ago, I was the one who coined the phrase the Boris Four for the four free agents who were kind of lingering into spring training they all ended up doing rather well, except for Jordan Montgomery. So over the years, I've gotten up and down with Scott Boris, as I've gone up and down with a number of agents. In fact, two prominent agents right now are not talking to me. It's been quite a while for both of them. And that's the way it goes in this business. I write what I think is proper at the time. I write my opinions, and sometimes people like them, sometimes people don't. Sometimes readers like them, sometimes they don't. In any case, here we go with the review of Boris's offseason. Now at the top, Dylan Cees, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonzo, Cody Bellinger. These guys all did rather well. Cease seven years two hundred and ten million with the Toronto Blue Jays, Bregman five years one hundred and seventy five million with the Chicago Cubs. Now, both those players had deferrals in their deals, so the net present value of both is pretty good amount below where the actual numbers reported numbers were. Dylan Cease was two hundred and ten million, the net present value is more like one to eighty nine Bregman one hundred and seventy five million, the net present value one fifty four regardless, both did very well. Both beat projections by guys like Tim Britton of the Athletic and Bregman. You remember he signed that big deal with Boston last year, stayed there one year, and that two was heavily deferred. But he ends up beating what the Tigers offered the year before, which was six years, one hundred and seventy one point five million. That's a good outcome for Bregman, there's no question about it. Now. Bellinger didn't quite get the length that maybe was expected. Remember he was looking for seven years. He only got only five. But his AAV was higher than most people thought it would be in that one hundred and sixty two point five million dollar deal. I believe it's the fourth highest AAV ever for an outfielder. That's pretty good. Pete Alonso did great. Five years, one hundred and fifty five million with the Baltimore Orioles far exceeded projections. A lot of people thought he was going to get stuck if the Mets weren't there for him, but he got a huge deal from the Oriels. Ranger Suarez, another Boris free agent, some people thought he'd get six years, ends up with five, but a very healthy deal at one hundred and thirty million. The two Japanese clients that Boris had this offseason, Kazuma Okamoto and Tatsuya in my now, both those guys like Murakami in Chicago, he's represented by Excel. They did not do as well as people thought. There were big deals predicted for really all the Japanese free agents, and none of them got major deals. They did fine, but they didn't get the monster deals that some expected. Okamoto four years sixty million with the Toronto Blue Jays, and then Emma went to the Astros three years fifty four million. Finally, Hashan Kim one year twenty million with the Atlanta Braves. Perhaps he could have gotten a longer deal, but he's hurt all the time. He's hurt again, so he did Oka too. On balance, we're talking about almost a billion dollars of contracts, with Zach Gallon still to come, and with REYE. Hoskins still to come. I don't expect Hoskins to do particularly well, but Gallon might, and ultimately this looks like a strong offseason for Scott Boris. Now, I don't want to overlook any of the other players who did really well. Kyle Tucker Excel represents him. He got a great deal four years, two hundred and forty million from the Dodgers, and there were a number of others. The Edwin Diaz deal he's represented by Wasserman, did well to go to the Dodgers in addition to Tucker, and I'm missing a few, but there were a lot of good deals signed this offseason, including just recently from ber Valdez, represented by Octagon. See, I'm taking care of everybody here. He got a five year, one hundred and fifteen i'm sorry, three year, one hundred and fifteen point five million dollar deal from the Detroit Tigers. So most of the free agents, the big ones, did really well this offseason, and I don't know that anyone's going to have much of a complaint. I don't know that any one other than Zach Gallon really got caught in a tough spot. Now I'm talking about the top guys. There are still a number of free agents out there, and you're going to see in the weeks ahead, most likely a number of guys signed for maybe less than we would have thought, and maybe some of these starting pitchers fit into that mix, and it seems to me that the clubs that need starting pitching I mentioned the Padres and Orioles earlier, there are a whole bunch of others. These teams are waiting. They're trying to squeeze these pitchers and trying to get the best deals possible before they round out their rosters. We'll see how it all plays out. But every year it's the same. Every year we see guys at the end not doing maybe as well as we would expect. So that's it. The review of Boris's offseason. I don't think by any standard you can say this was not a good offseason. You see the total right there, nine to sixty six point five million. If he gets Gallon thirty three point five million, then he's got a billion dollars deals. Now, I know some is deferred, yes, but that is still a strong group of players. It's a strong group of deals. And in many cases over the last couple of years, some of those short term things that he has done for Bregman, for Matt Chapman, from Blake Snell, they've wound up in the end turning out really well. So that is it. We will go and take a break now and come back with Grill and Ken right after this bet.

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Speaker 1: All right, Time now for Grill and Ken, the part of the show where I answer your questions. Let's get right to them. I'm sure you've got some good ones today. First one comes from that guy. I don't even know what this is, that's his hand whatever. His question is good though, or her question if you had to guess, are the Pirates out on paradies? Now? If I had to guess the answer to that is yes, they are out. And the reason is that they probably are at their payroll limit or close to it, and parades is not necessarily that costly. A guy I don't have a salary or projected salary for twenty twenty six in front of me, but he would add to that, now, should the pirates be out on paradies, they absolutely should not. They should go get parades if they get him to play third base. To me, this is a wildcard contender. They might even be that right now. But I just don't know whether after giving Marcela zun a twelve million for this year, that they have enough money left in their budget. And that's Bob Notting's budget, it's not mine, it's not maybe even Ben Sherrington's. But I don't know if they have enough money left to go and make a trade for parades. I'm not sure the stomach for that is there too. They've made or traded some other young pitching in this season already or this offseason, and I'm not quite sure they want to do that much more. But parades still would be a great fit for them. Next question, This one comes from harmand is amazing one of our best questioners. He says, do you believe the Red Sox will choose one of Monasteria or Sigler and package it with the compy pick and send it to the Astros for parades. I don't see the Red Sox doing that. It's possible this move today was the precursor to a trade for parades entirely possible, and as we reported yesterday, Chandler Rome and I. The Red Sox, Cardinals, and Astros were discussing a three team trade in which Brendan Donovan would have gone to the Astros, Ezach Parades to the Red Sox, prospects to the Cardinals, So it's possible that it could all work out like that. I'm sorry, the compy pick did go to the Red Sox, so we will see how this all plays. I'm not exactly sure, but you can trade the compy pick. Certainly you can do some things and still maybe satisfy the Astros. So I don't know that I would rule it out. Good question there from Armand is amazing. Let's go to the next one. This one comes from Andrew Tagara. When does Nick Castillanos get released? I don't know the answer to that question. They are the Phillies intent on doing something with him, and tomorrow is the day I believe that teams have to set their sixty man or put players on the sixty man il to clear forty man roster spots. Perhaps then it becomes more likely that the Phillies do it, or perhaps they simply keep waiting. I'm sure they want to trade him, and even if it means eating almost all of the money, but they haven't been able to do that so far, so we'll see how that all plays out. If it indeed plays in Castillanos's favor, where he winds up in a place that wants him rather than getting released and having to find a job as a free agent. Not as easy as, of course, when a team trades for you. All right, next question, This one comes from Ryan, who asks have you heard anything about Renievo to the Snakes Luis Renheevo. I've not heard anything about that. I assume it would make some sense, but they're pretty set in their infield. If you look at what they have, it's Arnatto at third, it's Perdomo at short, it's Martee at second, and Pevin Smith at first. So I'm not exactly sure where Luis Renifo would fit in for them. Anything is possible, and they do need, after what they did over the weekend or recent trade, a little bit more infield depth. They need another guy because they traded to the Orioles Blaize Alexander, So yes, they are looking for another infielder to be that kind of guy. They've got Tim Tawa, They've got Jordan Lawler, but I would expect that Renifo is kind of beyond or a little bit better than what they're looking for. Might be wrong about that good name. All right, here we go, Let's go to the next one. Someone comes from Ryan who asked, what's next for Cutch? Yeah, when a team searching for a right handed hitter like the Cardinals be a fit as a veteran leader or an extremely young squad, what's next for Cutch is a very good question, and I don't know the answer. I assume he still wants to keep playing. He's a proud guy, and rightly proud by the way. He's had an amazing career and, as I pointed out in my column last week, was still productive last season. He's not the Cutch of old, but he is a player who can fill a role for a team. The Pirates simply wanted more offense. They wanted more than he was able to give or could give, and they feel Azuna can get back to being the guy he was twenty three and twenty four when he was really a monster, and in the first part of twenty five two in April of twenty five, he was really good. So that's why they made the decision they did. I don't know that Cutch can go anywhere or would be willing to go anywhere, but can he be a useful major leaguer? I still believe that. I still believe he wants to play, and maybe at this point he wants to prove a point going to the Cardinals, a team in the division might be right up his alley. All right. Next question, this comes from Mike, who says the Brewers losing Peralta, Durbin, coins, and meares while the Cubs ad Bregman and Cabrera. Are the Cubs the biggest offseason winner? Or should I be worried about the Brewers somehow turning Zurpa and Harrison into Cy Young. Great question for Mike, and yes you should be worried. Of course you should be worried. The Brewers do this all the time. They do it every year. They make these trades, they lose players. And we're going back to hater, right, hater Corbyn burns Now, Freddy Peralta and guys like me, We say the Brewers they can't sustain it, they can't keep going, and they do so. Yes, I would expect that they're going to get something maybe out of Harrison and Zurpa that we don't expect, and I would expect that they're going to be quite a competitive team this year. Now they like Durban a whole lot, Monasterio and Sigler. As I said earlier, they filled roles for the Brewers, no question about that. They were a team kind of of rule players. But at the same time, I'm not sure they're quite as strong as they would like to be, and it's going to be interesting to see if they have another move in them. I'm sure they do for some kind of third base option, but at the same time, they're going to figure it out. They always seem to figure it out. They've got a great pitching program that of course helps them compete every year. So yes, I do expect the Brewers to be competitive, but you could argue that, yeah, the Cubs on paper are clearly superior. All right, last question before we get going. This one comes from Ryan Blum, who asked, have you heard anything regarding Joe Ryan or Pablo Lopez as far as trades go. I would assume they're going to begin the season with the Twins and potentially be dangled at the deadline. Again. Ryan you've nailed that. I would expect that You're absolutely right. The Twins with their new regime taking over now Derek Falvey is out, They've got a new head of the operation, Tom Pohlad. Tom Poulad has talked about wanting to compete this season. They haven't spent the money you would think for a team that wants to compete, but that is what they are saying. So they're gonna go into the season. They're gonna try to compete now in the Al Central, even with the Tigers as strong as they are, they might be able to compete. But at the same time, I would expect that at the deadline they're going to face tough decisions. The new GM, Jeremy zol is going to have to look at this and say, Okay, where are we Should we trade Ryan, should we trade Lopez? And should we trade Byron Buxton? All right, I want to thank everyone for watching and for listening. Foul Territory coming up at one o'clock Eastern. Jim Bowden, Noah Hailes, and Ken Davidoff joined Aj Prazinski, Eric Kratz and Scott Braun while they here already, and I'm sure there's more to come, have a great week everyone,