Ken Rosenthal’s Inside Scoop: CBA talks, lol Twins, Bieber’s shocker + Skenes wants to be a Yankee?

00:00:05
Speaker 1: John Snyder's gonna win. Okay, let's just I know, I know you like to forget about the team up north, Ken, but John Schneider is gonna win. Okay, He's gonna win this award just because he's there in the A. L. E's and everyone's gonna look at him and say, oh, the Yankees and Red Sox, but the Blue Jays. But hey, that's fine. I get it. You forget about him sometimes.

00:00:23
Speaker 2: I got you. I got whatever he's saying about it.

00:00:30
Speaker 1: That's fine.

00:00:31
Speaker 3: What is that pen?

00:00:32
Speaker 2: Drop?

00:00:33
Speaker 1: Pen? Is that like that? Like a small pan?

00:00:37
Speaker 2: A lot before you even talk. I brought this up to you yesterday. You didn't even remember it. I had mentioned at the time Stephen Vogue could be Manager of the Year because the Guardians were on this incredible run and you had to run your mouth. And that's what happens Mann.

00:00:51
Speaker 1: You know, you know, you know what you know. What I didn't know at the time is that you were like Jerry Reinsoref and Tony LaRussa, trying to get certain people into the Hall of Fame. You were on this committee that voted for al Manager of the Year. You didn't give me all the information. Ken I didn't know behind this you were preaching out all.

00:01:08
Speaker 2: These people young. That's today. That's my only vote this year.

00:01:12
Speaker 1: Null and void, Ken, null and void.

00:01:14
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, you're in the middle of this. You can go to the bbw A website and see who voted for each award. You will not see Ken Rosenthal's name on ale mander aj. Now you got to click on something, read something to figure this out.

00:01:34
Speaker 1: Here you go, Ken, ready, I'm sorry, Ken, I'm happy for Steven. Vote again. You'll think that Ken had some behind the scenes scenes, back back dealing that I don't know about. So because he was way too confident about this one, which is which is what vot vote?

00:01:52
Speaker 2: Yes, I understand over the years how guys think and women think when they're voting. Yeah.

00:01:58
Speaker 1: True, congratulations even vote an Pat Murphy obviously, all.

00:02:02
Speaker 4: Right, age, I have to side with Ken on this, having been towards vote a few times as well. It's a lot less conspiratorial than some people think out there. That's not quite what people seem to think. But with that, Ken, obviously, first of all, thank you so much for joining us here on the inside Scoop. You've written a lot recently. I want to jump in with an article you wrote with Evan Drelich yesterday about Major League Baseball and representatives from the Major League Baseball Players Association met for a preliminary meeting on labor. With the expiration of the CBA just a little more than a year away. This is obviously a very very big topic in the game, executives, agents, everyone's talking about it. What can you tell us about this meeting and what came out.

00:02:38
Speaker 2: Of it, Kyle, I don't know that I can tell you a whole lot about what happened at the meeting. Basically, the story is that a meeting took place, and we determine that because of the nature of these negotiations in the past, the acrimony that has existed over the years, we determined at the Athletic that that alone was worth a story. That they've met and that whatever happened happened. But at least there is some conversation. Now. I was told this morning that there's more conversation Nick goes on than we think, maybe, and that's fine. But this was a formal meeting, and again I don't expect that anything substantive happened at it. But the mere fact that they're talking. We determined that was a news story and that's why we wrote it. So is it a good sign or a bad sign? I don't know that it changes Kyle the tenor at all. This is gonna be what it is. We all know what's coming. A lockout is coming, a dispute is coming. But it would be actually, it would behoove both sides to meet and meet often now and try to get this thing done, maybe before even the lockout date of December one, twenty twenty six. That's the expiration of the CBA long time ago, back in two thousand and six. I remember during the World Series the agreement was expiring December, and they reached agreement during the World Series. I don't expect that to happen this time, but it's not impossible. It's happened before.

00:04:06
Speaker 1: Ken. Come on, Ken, you know they're gonna drag this out. They're not gonna get it done, gonna they're gonna drag it out because guess what they get paid for dragging it out. Why haven't they been meeting the whole time? I don't understand. I just don't understand why we just can't meet the whole time. And go from there. But what I really don't understand is why were you not in on this meeting?

00:04:22
Speaker 3: Ken?

00:04:23
Speaker 1: You could have just squeezed through the keyhole and sat in there and listen and then given us the inside scoop a j That's.

00:04:30
Speaker 2: A great point, and I wish I had been at this meeting and many others over the years. There was one time in my career where the Oriols were being sold in a bankruptcy auction. This was in nineteen ninety three and it was taking place in a courthouse in Manhattan, and I did sneak into a meeting because there were all these people in suits and I was actually in a suit too, and no one knew who which group. So I snuck into this meeting and I was successful and I found out some stuff. But in the past thirty two years, I really haven't done that again. Hasn't worked out for me?

00:05:02
Speaker 3: Are there because of the contentious negotiations and like kind of some misdealings accused from both sides. Is there any chance that some of these meetings have to be held with an arbitrator in it, or because these are preliminary meetings, they don't have to have any kind of fair. I'm not even sure what the legal term is like fair negotiating tactics in these meetings, because last year it was or last CBA, they came to the meeting and they said, hey, here's our offer, and then part of fair negotiating, you're supposed to make a counteroffer, and there was never counteroffers. So is there anything like that that has to happen this time?

00:05:39
Speaker 2: No, And what you're referring to, I think eric is a charge of unfair labor practices that might result from contentious negotiation that ultimately could be part of the outcome here I don't necessarily expected. But you don't have an arbitrator sitting there, even in these kinds of meetings, and you don't have one sitting there at the end. It's not how this works. They just meet, they negotiate, they go back talk to their own people on both sides, and try to figure out solutions. And that's just generally how these things work.

00:06:15
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00:07:16
Speaker 2: KEN.

00:07:17
Speaker 4: In terms of on the field, the Texas Rangers are one of the more interesting teams this offseason. Of course, we saw them win their first World Series in franchise history in twenty twenty three. Twenty twenty four, things didn't go the way they'd hope. They finished under five hundred last year eighty one and eighty one. Right at five hundred, Bruce Bochi stepped away. Skip Schumacher is now their new manager. This is just an interesting team to kind of figure out what direction they're going in. What are you hearing, what are you seeing, and what do you expect from the Texas Rangers here moving into twenty twenty six.

00:07:47
Speaker 2: First of all, Kyli agree with you. They are quite an interesting team. And first off, they've got to figure out where the payroll is and they're like a number of clubs right now that don't have a clear direction yet. Perhaps the results of the luxury tax payrolls will influence them one way or the other. It seems were under based on what was out there publicly, but they want to know for sure they were under, rather than perhaps being over and getting penalized again as a third time offender. So that's one thing that's going on. But they are in a position where they are going to reduce payroll and that's not really a secret. The question is how do you do it. You've got two guys they can non tender. I don't expect them non tender both, but it could be certainly one of them. Adolis Garcia and Jonah heim Garcia is making more money than him, and by non tendering one or long shot both, you would save some money and then you could go forward with what you want to do in the off season. But I don't expect them to be as aggressive in the off season as they've maybe been in the past couple of years. And what would really be interesting would be if they could move one of their bigger cons. Now I don't see that happening. Marcus Simeon would probably be the only one, and he's in decline and he's owed a lot of money still. But the question I think is how far will they go to free up money so they can do other things knowing that their payroll is going to go down. And they're an interesting case study for other reasons as well. Kyle, here's a team that were kind of the anti Blue Jays last year. The blue Jays I was critical of in the past for not getting the most out of their talent. The Rangers have kind of been that way offensively for a couple of years now. They're better on paper than they play on the field, and it's going to be really interesting to see how that dynamic might change. With Drew Mocker now taking over. They also need to address their pitching and they've got some other things that they're going to have to do as well. But it is one of those teams that, yeah, you're gonna be watching closely this offseason because they can go in a couple of different directions.

00:09:57
Speaker 1: Keim, what do you think? I mean? Yes, they can go in a couple different directions. But then you have like the Twins who are also saying, oh, we could try and compete, but we don't know yet, Like when do you know? You should already know, right, because like the Rangers know what they're gonna do. They know who they have on our contract, and they know what they need. The Twins know what they need. They traded their whole team away, so now they're gonna say, we're gonna try and compete, so now we have to buy all these guys. Like that's what I understanding, Like when do you know as a team January first, after the winter meetings? How do you not know? Like you should know it?

00:10:30
Speaker 2: And I hear this from a couple of teams or a number of teams. Actually the Twins are one of them that we don't have our budget yet, we're not sure exactly what we're dealing with. That's an ownership call. Ownership has to make that decision where they are with the budget and how much they're going to allocate from major league payroll. All of that. Now, the Twins are really interesting as well, because if you read Dan Hayes's story in The Athletic Today and you see Derek Falvey's quotes. Derek is the president of baseball operations for the Twins, he is basically saying he wants to compete. He doesn't want to go backwards anymore. He wants to go and add to this team. They have talent they can build around Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, and Byron Buxton for starters and that's a pretty good nucleus of players that But will they continue what they did at the deadline, which is just tear it down And here's an ownership group that just took it on the two minority investors. A big part of that they're thinking was to help pay down the debt. Have the minority investors the money that they're infusing into the organization pay down their significant debt. But how about putting money back into the team at a time when you've also liked the Rangers hired a new manager, Derek Shelton, and at a time also when your fans are as alienated as I can ever remember Twins fans being. And maybe I'm a victim of recency bias here, but I don't remember the last time Twins fans with this disaffected with their team, and two and two that's a long time ago. Okay, that's fair, but that's a long time ago. And the way to get fans back is to show you care about the product on the field, and that's what's been lacking the last couple of years.

00:12:14
Speaker 3: Do you believe, then, when these teams say it, because these teams are owned by billionaires who run businesses, if the billionaire was going up to the last month before the fiscal year and said, just not shore our budget. They're setting their budgets sometimes years out in advance. Do you believe these teams really don't know their budget or is it just the hey, you know, we're putting on the face of we're not sure how much we're gonna spend free agency. Sorry, you're not gonna get a lot of money.

00:12:40
Speaker 2: Eric. Is a curious thing to me, and maybe you're right that it's masquerade to show the players, and we don't know exactly what we're gonna spend, then you should be too excited. I don't know, but when you hear the Baseball operations people talk about this particular kind of situation that we don't know our budget yet, I don't believe they're lying. For whatever reason. Maybe ownership or just ownerships are just taking stock of what happened in the season and trying to figure out where they are and not entirely sure yet.

00:13:13
Speaker 4: But you're right.

00:13:14
Speaker 2: It's November twelfth here, offseason has started, free agent market is open in the meetings are a couple of weeks away. Let's go, And I would anticipate that even for a team like the Twins that has had off field things going on right, left and right, the ownership situation, with the investors coming in, the firing of a manager, they can get to the budget at some point soon, you would think, if they haven't gotten to it already, I.

00:13:40
Speaker 1: Know how to get under the budget.

00:13:41
Speaker 3: Have a guy sign a sixteen million dollar contract that you didn't know he was going to pick the option up and he could be worth fifty million on the market. Can you talk about the Shane Bieber not fall out, because I think it's awesome for him if he's happy. But what you've heard from executives other teams around the league him accepting what we feel like is below market.

00:14:03
Speaker 2: Yes, I wrote about this yesterday and I've heard consistently from executives since he decided to pick up his sixteen million dollar player option that this was one of the more stunning decisions they've seen, A bizarre decision, baffling decision by a player who just came off Tommy John surgery, eighteen months removed, but was very successful for the Blue Jays in the time that he pitched, and effectively what he did was take a one year, twelve million dollar deal because he had a four million dollar buyout if he declined the player option. So it was curious to a lot of people, and it remains curious now. Shane Bieber hasn't really spoken publicly at all about this yet what his motivations were. We do know that, like I said, he is eighteen months removed from Tommy John and it's a process, and he obviously was comfortable in Toronto, happy in Toronto, like all the Blue Jays players were, and their families. That's a big thing, and maybe that was a huge part of his decision, But he could have turned down the player option and perhaps negotiated a better deal with the Blue Jays. One question that has been raised by the executives was or is okay? Is Shane Bieber entirely healthy? Is there something going on there? There's no indication of that. And if you remember, in Game four of the World Series, he pitched really well, five and a third innings, one run, that was it. Picked Game seventy pitched him relief. He gave up the homer to Will Smith, but he was pitching on three days rest. It was his first relief appearance since twenty nineteen, at the end of a long grind for him, coming off Tommy John surgery. I wouldn't say that indicates a physical issue, but again, we don't know exactly what his thinking was. But as I wrote, until we hear from him and get a better read on this, there's gonna be a mystery about this. And it just remains curious to a lot of people that he did what he did, and people say, oh, it's great, he took money to stay in a place he loved. Yes, I get that, but he could have stayed in a place he loved and probably got more money. And he certainly could have gotten a lot more money someplace else, assuming he's healthy. So while we all would love to paint this as an altruistic act of loyalty, and maybe it is, I'm not so sure that's the case. It just seems that there may be other things going on here. Ken.

00:16:24
Speaker 4: Speaking of former Sign Award winners who pitched the Blue Todays last year, Max Scherzer. You spoke to him. He says he wants to come back. He's forty one years old, and look, he's a first ballot Hall of Famer, one of the greatest pitchers of his generation. He also had an ERA over five last year. He has not thrown a hundred innings either of the last two seasons due to injury. Realistically, what do you expect Max Scherzer's market to look like?

00:16:47
Speaker 2: That's a great question. Last year, Kyle, he earned fifteen point five million from the Blue Jays, and that was probably an overpay based on what happened. Right, he did pitch great in the World Series. Maybe it was worth it for that alone. But I would expect he's probably a one year, maybe ten million dollar guy. Maybe it's fifteen again. I don't know, but the dynamic with him is interesting. Do the Blue Jays want him back to the San Francisco Giants? Under his former pitching coach at Missouri, Tony Vitello won him in kind of a pitching role, obviously, but also a leadership role, kind of as a buffer between the players and Vitello, or a guy who just explains, hey is so this guy thinks he kind of serves as his advocate in the clubhouse. That would seem to me to make a lot of sense if you're the Giants. So I do expect he is going to pitch again. He says he's healthy, his thumb issue is behind him. The question is where, and the question is how much. He certainly has made a ton of money in his career. He does not need to hold out for X dollars, But at the same time, it's a respect question and he's not going to want to play for a minor league deal either. So we'll see how it plays out. But I am pretty certain that Max Schurzer is going to be in a maze juigue camp in spring training and getting ready for his age forty one season.

00:18:06
Speaker 1: We will see what happened san Diego. Can Kyle Glazer can facilitate the deal san Diego one year deal would be perfect for him.

00:18:15
Speaker 2: San Diego needs starting pitching. I can't rule it out.

00:18:19
Speaker 4: We will see what happens.

00:18:20
Speaker 2: Ken.

00:18:21
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for joining us, and everyone, please don't forget to check out Fair Territory. Yesterday's episode is out right now, and Ken will be back tomorrow with a fresh episode at twelve thirty pm Eastern.

00:18:36
Speaker 2: Camp.

00:18:39
Speaker 4: All right, guys, so yesterday Ben Charrington spoke to reporters and let everyone know that Paul Schemes will not be trained. He will be a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates in twenty twenty six. This is something that I think realistical. We all knew, but people like to talk about it, especially given the pirates unwillingness to spend agent. I'll start with you, Paul Skiing remaining in Pittsburgh for at least one more season. What are overall thoughts.

00:19:08
Speaker 1: It says in the twenty twenties. It just says in the off season. It doesn't say it the trade deadline. It says in the off season. Okay, let's get it because this will be what will happen if they do get a great deal and they trade him, they'll be like, well, we said we weren't trading him in the off season, but we can get stuff for him. So I'm not surprised they have to do this. Listen, They've already have no good will right now. We talked about the Twins earlier and how they don't have a lot of good will with their fans. The pirates don't have a lot of good will with their fans. When the fans are chasing the owner through the concourse, you know, there's not a lot of good will. So this is not a surprise. I think he will eventually get traded because he's gonna price himself out of Pittsburgh. But the hero at this year, he's only in his third year. He hasn't even got the arbitration yet. Of course they're not trading him. He's making the league minimum. He's the best deal in the world. Ben Chington.

00:19:54
Speaker 4: Ben Ben Charrington's response. Officially, you know, the question gets asked. It's always respectful. Teams have to ask the question, right. I suspect that won't end. But the answer has been consistent and aj to your point, Paul Skins is making the minimum. The Pirates still have team control over him for the next four seasons. He's going to bring back a Hall three years from now if it comes to it. It's not like if they don't trade him now, they're not going to get some massive package. So it does make sense. Hey, you have this generational talent, build around them.

00:20:25
Speaker 1: This is the love that was funny Kyle. Yeah, that's why.

00:20:33
Speaker 3: And that's why as laughing, like like, build around him or have a plan. We talked about with Ken. Teams have plans. Owners know how much money they're going to spend. And I'm not even just talk about like money spending with the Pirates here because they're not going to it's what's your plan? When do you truly see your current roster maturing developing being in the big leagues? It's Connor Griffin going to be that guy? Is Connor Griffin going to be Andrew Cutchen Because you have to you have to look at the past and say, well, how did we do it before? Because we got we got Andrew McCutcheon, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez, guys that were coming up, and then you supplemented some older minor league guys that ended up doing well in there, like a Garrett Jones type, And then you had Garrett Cole and you added Russell Martin, you added aj Burnett like this is how you made it to and Starling Marte was then a little bit behind those guys.

00:21:30
Speaker 1: This is how you made it to the playoffs.

00:21:32
Speaker 3: So if you truly want to win, which is a little deep asque, I think there's a better chance Bob Nutting wants to spend money then he wants to win. But as a front office you gotta want to win. At some point, why not say, Okay, Paul Skeen's is gonna cost us ten Linsicum type of money and arbitration because nobody's done what Paul Skeens is done besides linccom. I think he had two syms before his arbitration, and I think he signed for two forty million. Well you know that ain't happening. So to me, Paul Skeens should not be a Pirate after this season. Pirate fans might get pissed at me, but I see it as if I'm Ben Charrington, I want to say, what will put us in the driver's seat to be in the playoffs without ever getting any free agents. And to me, if Juan Soto got a James Wood cj Abrams, Mackenzie Gore, I forget Robert Haslin. I think he was the other one in that deal, four of their current big leaguers. Then what can the Pirates get for Paul Skeens if they trade him after this next season because they don't want to pay his arbitration money. Even if it is arbitration, there's no good one year deal for the Pirates if it's over ten million, and Paul Skeens is gonna get a ton of money. So think outside the box. From you're Sharrington, they're gonna fire you soon anyway because they don't want to spend money and that's tough to win. So do something outside the box.

00:23:02
Speaker 4: So in terms of Paul Skins' future, again, ben Cherrington's saying that they will not.

00:23:06
Speaker 1: Ben Rington doesn't want to. Ben Cherrington doesn't want to be the guy that traded Paul Skeins because you know what what happened to hein blue Heim Balloon's legacy. I even know a lot of these guys are Heine Bloom draft picks that are there now. He's the guy that traded Mookie Bets. I understand that. But people don't look at him blue and say, man, he drafted Anthony Meyern Campbell and all these other guys. They're like, Oh, he's the guy that traded Mookie Bets for Jeter Downs and Connor Wong and whoever the heck else they got for him. Right, that's the legacy, and that's for Ben Cherrington. If he's the guy that has to trade Paul Skeins and all the players he get back don't hit, that's gonna be his lasting legacy and he's gonna have a hard time finding another job.

00:23:47
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, do it.

00:23:48
Speaker 4: So if and when the Pirates do decide to make a move. There's an interesting article in NJ Advanced Media the other day. According to a Pirates teammate who spoke anonymously, Skens has quote no confidence the Pirates are ever going to win end quote with him in Pittsburgh, and he's quote hoping for a trade end quote well before he can become a free agent after the twenty twenty nine season.

00:24:11
Speaker 2: Quote.

00:24:11
Speaker 4: Trust me, he wants to play for the Yankees. The Skins teammates said I've heard him say it multiple times. When asked, Ben Sherrington responded, I do dismiss it, but I understand it. What we're going to focus on is just how do we win games with him in a Pirate's uniform? Future Paul Skins with the New York Yankees? Eric, what do you think?

00:24:32
Speaker 1: I mean New York Yankees.

00:24:34
Speaker 3: They're like, yes, please, we'll take it. We would definitely take of Paul Skins as with all twenty eight other teams, because the Pirates have him right now. And for him to say that to it from an anonymous source, I'm not saying it's a lie that this person said it, but you know, what was the context? Where would you like to Where would you like to play? I want to play somewhere where I'm freaking in the playoffs every single year? And as a baseball don't you want Paul Skins in the playoffs every year? Don't we want Mike Trout in the playoffs every year? Like you talk about wasting years of a player's career, He's gonna win another Cy young and he's not sniffing the playoffs after May? How is that? How is that good for baseball? It's not So Paul Skeins is just saying the same thing that every other that every other fan is saying. I mean, I'm sure that some fans that are like, well I don't want to see him go to the Yankees, Well, you don't have a choice. The Yankees would sell the farm. I talked to a scout that said, how hard would it be? It would not be hard for a team to trade for Paul Skins. It's hard for the Pirates to trade Paul Skins because how do you even put a value on what you're getting back? Like, and who's to say, Like AJ said that each of those guys is gonna hit, not just not just hitters but pitchers too, who's to say each of those guys is going to be a big league player. But yes, the Yankees would love it. Yes, he would it because he wants to be in the playoffs. You can see it, like sometimes he comes off the field and he's like looking.

00:26:04
Speaker 1: Around, like, man, I would love to be winning this game.

00:26:08
Speaker 3: But again, eleven runs in his ten in his ten losses, Like, you're not You're not set up to win. Imagine what this guy could do if he was put in a situation where hey, we need you to go seven tonight. Why oh, because we got to get the dub this. He's built for this.

00:26:28
Speaker 1: I mean I played with Mark Burley. I played with Mark Burley, right, he was he was always mister Cardinal. I want to play for the Cardinals. I want to play for the Cardinals. He never went to the Cardinals like I was. I was a Braves fan growing up, right. I finally got to play the Braves when I was a free agent at the end of my career, and they were dog crap, right, But I got to go there and play there and it was awesome. But just because like guys talk about this all the time, I want to go here. I want to play here. I want to But it doesn't always work unless you're a free agent and they give you the best money. But for someone like Skiens, he might not get to where he goes until he becomes a free agent. So this is just again who said it? You know, you put your name on it.

00:27:07
Speaker 4: One of the things with Skemes is he is not the biggest personality. Right, He's pretty bland. There's not a whole lot he's gonna say that's controversial, And we had seen that type of personality really thrive with the New York Yankees. You look at a Derek Jeter, you look at an Aaron Judge, Eric, what do you think about just his personality and how it would play in the Big Apple. Because we know that talent's a big part of it, but playing for the Yankees, it's a whole different ballgame, and who you are as a person plays a big, big role in how you're treated, both by the fans on the media.

00:27:38
Speaker 3: Hey, dude, plenty fine he gives. I mean when we talked to him, I thought he was I thought he was very personable. You know, he puts off this like quiet persona. But when he was on our show, we had a good time. He seemed to loosen up. But look, if he was in the Big Apple right now, with the career that he's had, there is nothing they could say, There is no they would they will love this man as long as he does well. There's there are no players that do really well in the Big Apple that fans are like, yeah, this guy's a bomb, Like yeah, Aaron Judge becomes a bum in the playoffs because the fans are like, yeah, you always got a hit in the playoffs.

00:28:19
Speaker 1: They're never pleased.

00:28:21
Speaker 3: Paul Skeens has never had He hasn't had a blip in the radar, so there's nothing for them to not be pleased about. But I think it's to me as demeanor looks. See it looks and seems obviously don't know the guy, but it looks and seems like he would.

00:28:33
Speaker 1: He would thrive, there.

00:28:36
Speaker 2: No question about it.

00:28:37
Speaker 4: For more on the Skeen Saga, go ahead and check out one of Foul Territory's newest shows, Bucco Territory, hosted by Josh Allison, Pirate, Josh Harrison, Excuse Me, Pirates beat writer Noah Hiles, and Platinum Key host. Go ahead and subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts to the entire Foul Territory network.

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Speaker 5: Square see you in the neighborhood again. That's Square dot com, slash go, slash foul to learn more.

00:29:56
Speaker 4: One piece of news that came out today, David Fletcher, long time Major League infielder who tried to convert to a two way player, mounts his retirement today after seven seasons in the Majors. Had a few very very productive years with the Angels. Looked like he could have been a long term piece for them. Ultimately just wasn't able to sustain it. I did think it was interesting he tried to reinvent himself as a knuckleballer and a two way player. Clearly didn't quite work out, but again, all in all, play seven seasons in the big leagues. That's a career to be proud of.

00:30:26
Speaker 1: Congratulations on a great career. You gave it everything you had. He even tried to be a knuckleballer. It's not as easy as people think. But congratulations on a great career.

00:30:34
Speaker 3: I mean, cool, one hundred and one innings, eighteen starts in the bushes. I mean he was throwing a knuckle puck up there. So I don't know, I don't know. I like, obviously somebody that bounced around from Triple A to the big leagues to go back to be a starting pitcher, and then you're like, hey, we need you to go back to High A to start pitching and learning pitching again. I'd be like, maybe I don't want to go to pitching again.

00:31:02
Speaker 4: Since both you guys were catchers, Eric, I want to start with you. Is there a place for knuckleballers in today's game with the emphasis on velocity.

00:31:09
Speaker 3: If you get out, you get out.

00:31:11
Speaker 1: Yes, if your ball avoids hard contact one hundred percent, there is a place for you. You don't have to throw There's a dude on Twitter the other day. I think he threw his knuckleball like eighty nine miles an hour. We don't need that. We don't need somebody throwing the ball that hard like you're gonna hurt a catcher. Just get that knuckle pup moving.

00:31:29
Speaker 4: That's it, guys, A legend is being replaced. The Freeze is going to have a new man behind the mask in Atlanta a J. I want to ask you during your tenure with the Braves, did you ever meet the Freeze? Did you have any interactions with Oh?

00:31:43
Speaker 1: Because he wasn't there because it was they weren't in the new stadium, so they didn't have the Freeze. All they had was the tool race. And if you haven't seen the video of me dominating the tools and letting two bit the drill win, you should google it because it's amazing when I tackled Hammering and the rest of them. So he was not there, But I'm mad he was not there because I would have liked to have watched these people try and fail miserably to beat him. And it's a sad day. If they can't find a new Freeze, they're gonna have to do something.

00:32:13
Speaker 2: Now.

00:32:13
Speaker 1: People keep saying that I should do that. Nobody likes running, even people that run, they don't like running. They're lying. They're lying to you saying they like running. Nobody likes running.

00:32:22
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:32:23
Speaker 4: The list of requirements is interesting. On the job description. Must be physically fit and in good health to endure conditions including extreme high and low temperatures. Must be able to run during the racetrack, beat the freeze on field promotion. Previous mascot or athletic experience preferred, but not acquired. Rely to interact with large crowds, families and children. It's a pretty long job description with Look, this is something where it's not just going to be hey, an Olympic sprinter.

00:32:46
Speaker 1: They want a lot yeah, and then they want a lot of time and you have to be there and you have to wear those tights too. I don't know that I could pull off the tights. The tights would be a problem, especially if it's cold. Man. I don't want to be out there running running tights and tights only.

00:33:00
Speaker 4: All right, guys. One of your fellow brethren, catcher Austin Nola, signed a minor league contract this winter with the Braves, but he's actually been granted his release to become the Mariners new bullpen coach. Ah, I'll start with you in this transition from behind the plate to a bullpen coach.

00:33:17
Speaker 2: What do you see?

00:33:18
Speaker 4: What are the challenges, and just what do you make of this news?

00:33:21
Speaker 1: Great for Austin Nola. I mean, he probably wasn't gonna make the Braves out of spring training, so you know what he gets, he gets a guaranteed big league job. I don't know if he's gonna be on the pension and all that stuff, but I think this is awesome. Good for him. He played there, he played in Seattle, so they know him. I think they like him, and I think bullpen coach is the one job Cratzy that is great. You know why, because they never fire the bullpen coach. Bullpen coaches last forever if you're good at it. I mean, I had Rick stell Mazic in Minnesota. He was there for like forty five years. He was there forever. And bullpen coaches they don't ever get fired. They just I'm just gonna stand there with my clipboard and tell whoever's coming andres munios when you come in. Though, that's that Nobody can hit. Look how good I am.

00:34:02
Speaker 3: And look at the last bullpen coach that got hired out of Seattle, Steven Vote. He's now back to back manager of the Year, So there's something in there. I saw Austin last year in Boston and it was a grind for him. He dealt with playing, he dealt with concussions and it kind of got him out of the game. He was like, you know, I was playing, I was playing through these concussion symptoms and the sort of finally get back to the big leagues last year. This is this is awesome. We'll go from playing essentially in the bushes to now coaching in the big leagues.

00:34:34
Speaker 2: Sweet.

00:34:36
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:34:37
Speaker 4: And also know why I got to cover him a lot when he was in San Diego and one of those guys that you could tell had to coaching future, very very bright, natural leader all the way around. And like you said, Ed Jay, bullpen coaches is a pretty sweet gig. We just saw, you know, Ben Fritz got a multi year extension from the Padres And again it's a job that you rarely get fired, but sometimes you can get that nice extension.

00:34:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, And does anybody know who most bullpen coaches are? Does does anybody really pay attention to All they know is, Hey, there's this guy that's standing there with the clipboard next to the guy warming up, but he's just like, who knows what he's saying. They can be talking about dinner, resort. Look, I got reservations for the next road trip lined up. You want to see him? Maybe we can go together, right, I mean, and they usually can throw BP. I'm assuming Austin Olla cold throw some VP. They a lot of bullpen coaches sometimes have to rub the balls up before, so, I mean, they have duties, but kind of like the assistant pitching coach a little bit too