Royals extend Maikel Garcia & sign Lane Thomas, Jays extend Shapiro, Lil Boston offers? Teo trade soon?

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Kratz.

00:00:05
Speaker 2: You and me had a good giggle right after the show yesterday. Do you remember what it was about?

00:00:12
Speaker 1: Is about me?

00:00:14
Speaker 2: No, no rare moment. It wasn't about you.

00:00:17
Speaker 1: Oh thank god?

00:00:19
Speaker 2: No, really you don't remember, Okay, I'll give you a hint. It involved Pete Alonzo's contract.

00:00:27
Speaker 3: He passed his physical, that's right, which is an Orioles thing. Like, look, people like, it's not just we laughed about it, but it was. It was Scott. You got to tell your jokes right when you hear wait, right when you think them, just interrupt us. Tell your jokes because you've had two of the last two days where you're like, I almost said that. I almost said that Pete's Pete passed his physical. It's a big thing with the Orioles, that is.

00:00:53
Speaker 1: It was who was the last guy that they didn't It was last year, wasn't it.

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Speaker 3: Historically it's been pictures. That's what we're That's what Scott.

00:01:02
Speaker 1: And he almost won a World Series. But that makes sense.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but he wasn't. He wasn't healthy enough.

00:01:08
Speaker 1: I got you.

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Speaker 2: Right, He only pitched the entire season. Remember, I feel like they did it to Grant Balfour once does that ring a bell? Did they do it to him? I felt like they flunked him. I mean, they flunked so many pictures. And I'm sure there are even more that we didn't know about, but there were many publicly that they agreed to. Player flies there and they're like, yeah, never mind, and now your value shot because we just told everybody we feel like you're damaged goods.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I bet there's another. But the part that we and we'll have to ask Hoffman later maybe next time it comes on, I bet they go back to him, was like, we'll still give you. We'll still get like we were going to give you fifty million, We'll give you forty two, even though we know after everything, after we know you're hurt. Yeah, I want to find I want to find tact.

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Speaker 1: It might be their tactic.

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Speaker 3: You never know, just just saying it.

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Speaker 2: I would not put it past them based on previous ownership group where they're like, but here's still some money. And the reason why I bring that up is actually just got this story when I was at the winter meetings. Apparently there was one time where the team was run by the Angelus family. Before this, the Orioles signed a player I'm not going to say that player's name, and they wanted to trade him before spring training. He did not do anything wrong, he didn't say anything, he didn't do anything. Owner calls and says, hey, some of my friends said that he doesn't think he's going to be good. This is a true story. Wanted to trade the player before he even got to spring training. After they signed him.

00:02:50
Speaker 3: I was drinking up in the Hamptons with some of my some of my friends and trade the guy that I just signed.

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Speaker 1: Wow, I was on the h or you do have a name?

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Speaker 2: I actually legit, don't remember the name, and I don't know if I want to say the name, because then I'm outing the person who told it to me. But but to be continued, to be continued, let me see if I can get permission from that person to actually.

00:03:19
Speaker 1: Do nobody's gonna care after the fact, don't.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes people don't want to get into the industry and they don't want to roast.

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Speaker 3: No, you're just tell me, Just tell me, and I'll tell everybody.

00:03:32
Speaker 2: Well, we'll talk post show and then maybe to be continued on Monday. But we do have breaking news. The Royals are dropping some dough mikeel Garcia is signing a five year contract extension. Now the details are coming in as we speak. There is a club option for a sixth year. That's according to our FT senior insider Ken Rosenthal. We don't have the money yet. Garcia is twenty five years old. He's a goal to club winner. He had one of the top wins above replacement numbers in baseball, which is one of the most valued numbers in the sport. We're tabulating what he does at the plate, what he does on the basis, what he does in the fields, and Todd Father he actually is one of the best third basemen in baseball that almost nobody knows about.

00:04:22
Speaker 1: You know, but no, I was just going to say that nobody knows about it. Two eighty six last night, three fifty one on base four forty nine slog. I mean, sixteen home run seventy four RBIs with twenty three bags. That's actually not that bad. Gold Glover first year All Star guy. Oh yeah, then nobody knows about this guy, you know. I mean, you listen, he plays Kansas City, he gets after it. They didn't make the playoffs, which was unfortunate, and I think that's what people worry about more than sometimes individual stats and how guys are doing. If I'm a Royals fan out didn't make it again, of course you don't go back and be like, well, m you know, mckel had had a really good year. But yeah, I like this. I like this pickup. I think he's an exceptional ball player. I think he goes about his business the right way. I think he's a leader. And I think they did this cratzy because they think this guy is important to the team and he can bring that culture back to as well. So I like it. If you feel like somebody needs to be on this team and you want him there for a little longer, talk to the guy and make something happen.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just trying to look up my Todd Fraser stats. Another third baseman didn't get the gold glove. They never let you have the goal glove. But you know he's in his age twenty five season. You were twenty five when you got called up. Yeah, I think I was like, So it's fun to always look at that kind of stuff because we know where your career ended up. We know how many All Star Games you made. Home run Derby's all that stuff.

00:05:47
Speaker 1: Yep.

00:05:48
Speaker 3: And you say, obviously, we don't know what the numbers are that he's getting, but you look at what he did, and this is why I have a tough time believing that the we'll get to another sign that the Royals made also but believing that the Royals would really be in on taoscar Hernandez. I know they went after Santander hard and made a really nice offer last year, but he ultimately had already agreed with the Blue Jays. So this is the type of player that the Royals need to build around, or the types of players that they need to fill their roster out with. Casey is a monstrous field. It's a huge outfield, so their outfitters need to be athletic. They need to be able to get after it. And part of that is you need corner guys who can handle that position in a sense of you let a ball get down the line. In KC, it's a little bit different. Guys are scoring on a ball down the line and left guys are scoring from first because it's bigger, and you need a really good left fielder to be able to handle that. So you also need a really good third baseman. And I think they see the value in it. But man, you delve into after this contract, after this extension came out, I started looking at some of his numbers. I mean, this is a dude that's on an upward trend. Yeah, Kansas City, you're afraid. As a fan, You're like, was this like a one year, one year thing? I tend to agree. I think it's not. I just think it's a it's somebody that's kind of a jumping off point in his career. He's twenty five, he's gonna play next year is age twenty sixth season, And the fact that he made these jumps with his batting average, he made the jump with his stolen bases went up, I mean not up. His stolen bases have stayed pretty consistent. Sorry, they went down because in twenty four you thirty seven bags. But the biggest thing for me is his walk rate went through the roof with his strikeout rate going down. You know, is that some of Jonathan India, you know, rubbing off on him being on that roster a little bit? Is that the fact that he went from age twenty four season to twenty five, when Todd was making a jump from Double Chattanooga to Louisville, Kentucky. Like, that's the kind of stuff I like seeing this and knowing the Royals, it's probably a really nice team friendly deal. But for MIKEL. Garcia, it is a lot of cashish locked in through his age possibly age thirty one season. If that six year gets picked up.

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Speaker 2: His wins above replacement number this year from Fangrafts was five point six. That was top fifteen among position players in Major League Baseball, top fifteen overall number. Yeah, I mean he runs baseball. I gotta look, he gets caught at his stolen base percentage is not great from what I remember. Kratz, maybe you have it in front of you quicker, because I'm lost this year populated.

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Speaker 3: Just this year, he was caught nine times twenty three bags, but it was caught nine times. Last year it was thirty seven bags, only caught twice. The Royals do, and the Royals do an incredible job. Rusty Konz has set this precedent back since I was there in fourteen that and they've gone through some transitions, so you know what happened there? Who knows the dude was on base? I mean, I'm trying to figure out how much more he was on base. He was on base almost at a one hundred extra clip, like, he had a two to eighty one on base percentage this year. This past year it was three fifty one, So he was on base more, got caught stealing more. So obviously they want to clean that up. But you're talking about a dude that was almost a forty stolen base guy and got caught twice in twenty four So yeah, you know he's got he's got to increase his efficiency out there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but also he makes contact. He has elite exit velocity numbers. Two years ago, I remember because there was a good article about how it was weird. He had great hard hit percentage, right, which is how much you're making contact with the ball ninety five miles an hour off the b are better, But then his barrel percentage wasn't good. And you guys can probably speak better to the difference there and how one is so far off from the other. But the point is there were a lot of the stats that teams love these days that are indicators that there's more right the stats in terms of expected and indicated numbers. A couple of years ago, we're painting a picture of a player who should be even better, and then we saw a lot of that come to fruition this past season. So I think the Royals say, this is real, Let's drop some money on him. Let's eat up basically all of his prime years, and that's what you're going to get. I mean, in Major League Baseball these days, the prime years are on average twenty five to thirty one range. We're not talking about Kyle Schwarber here, but on average, that's when you see a lot of players at their best. They're going to eat up all of those years right now with MIKEL. Garcia, and they might have one of the top left sides of the infield and all of baseball. Todd Father, you got Bobby Wood Junior and MIKEL. Garcia locked up for the long term. That's what you're supposed to be doing. You're supposed to get these guys on quote team friendly deals that you can keep them.

00:11:01
Speaker 1: And they should be very happy. They should be very happy with this with Junior, should be excited about this, and the Royals should be. I mean, if you're a fan right now, hey, listen, it's not the sexiest name, but this dude is really good and he plays the game the right way. So another plus for the Royals. I know they had that big offseason last year getting guys in and out didn't work out, but again, this is a plus. It doesn't mean you pick somebody up, but you have a home stay here with one of these guys, and it's a really, really good infield. You got a Gold Glover and you've got one of the best players in baseball. That's pretty sweet.

00:11:36
Speaker 2: And they did add They also added Lane Thomas in the last twelve hours. Krat's about one year, five million. It is one year, not about one year, but it's about five million bucks one year. I'm not going to get made fun of today, or I'm at least going to play some defense. One year and five million bucks for Lane Thomas to jump into the outfield. It seems like Krats are going to spend in this kind of rains to try and patch up what has become a huge hole for them. Right they need to show up the outfield. Lane Thomas has had his moments. I feel like he was a hot commodity with the Nats and moves over to Cleveland had one of the biggest swings in their franchise history. But overall, I think it was a pretty bad year for him this past season. Again, though, a guy that teams like and a guy that teams can playtuon.

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Speaker 3: What can he what can he mimic that he was doing in Washington if you're looking at if you're looking at a guy who was a big I mean one of the guys who even in twenty I think it was twenty three, Yeah, twenty three, when he was twenty eight homers. He had an ops plus of one point fifteen. Like I thought he was going to get traded that year. He was one of the biggest right handed commodities because he was smashing left handers and he was getting a lot of he was getting a lot of burn out there, and you you thought he would turn it around or you thought he would get traded in the offseason. He didn't. He's had a decent start to the twenty four season, but ever since he's gone to Cleveland, it has not been good dealt with injuries. He started out super slow, like it was a bad It was a bad look early for Cleveland in twenty four, but then he had the huge home or the Grand Slam in the playoffs. Last year. He just never got going, and so people are going to look at it. Oh, what why are the Royals giving the guy who had a negative point six war, which we just talked about with mikel Garcia, Why they give him five million dollars. This guy shouldn't even be a big leaguer. Lane Thomas brings something that a lot of teams really want, but they never go after quality at bats and a guy who knows how to come off the bench and has a certain skill set, and if they use it correctly, you're able to get the most value out of that position. Maybe not necessarily, Lane Thomas. Lane Thomas isn't going to give you. You know, I don't think they're going in the season saying we need one hundred and sixty two games. We need you to hit twenty what I say again, twenty eight homers that like I don't think that's what they're expecting, especially in Kaufman. I think they're looking for a guy that's gonna you know what you're gonna get. They're facing lefties. He's gonna play every day against the lefty, and he can play all three positions in the outfield in a huge outfield, and he can still run.

00:14:24
Speaker 2: And in fairness, he never got going because he didn't really have much of a chance to get going. He had about a quarters worth of play appearances. So I know you. I heard you ask me this. That's when I was throwing on clothes and getting back into the studio. You asked a question right before the show started. I heard you. Guy, just couldn't answer because my mic was muted. But you were like, what happened to Lane last year? Well, he had two cases of right foot planter fasciitis and a right wrist bruce, and that's why he only had one hundred and twenty five AB's.

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Speaker 3: I will, I will, I will go to my grave saying that I don't wish on my worst to me plantar fasci itis. I had planner fascias when I was in Kansas City. Fortunately I ran down the first base and it blew out. So that's the best, Like it released right, or if you just sit there and you live with plant fasciitis, I wouldn't. I wouldn't even wish that on Utah. Yours like popped when you ran yep, and it felt better in the moment, it hurt like crazy. Yeah, day and a half later completely gone. Never had it again. I'm not a doctor, but that's incredible. And he had the I think Lane had the I thought he had an ankle issue too. I had turf and you had it both. I had to put a metal metal little shiit. Yeah, oh my god, you had a shank in your miserable. That's Nobody needs foot, foot or hand injuries.

00:15:50
Speaker 1: No, Dusty Banker always says, take care of your feet and hands.

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Speaker 3: Yep, that's it.

00:15:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:15:55
Speaker 2: So if that's better for Lane, then he's going to be in a better spot. And the last thing for the Royals is if they're going to trade away any of their pitching to try and get one more outfielder. It sounded like from Ken Rosenthal's notes column at some point he's written so many of them they were going to sign one trade for another. I think they could end up just signing two, and I think Royals fans hope for that because I think you need that advantage of having as much pitching death as possible. Look at how good Cole Reagan's was two years ago, and then they just didn't get a lot of Cole Reagans this past season because of injury. So I would hold on all of those guys, but we'll see what happens. We'll do more Royals talking popcorner. Let's sizzle. Let's get to news. So we'll start with Christopher Morrell signing up with the Miami Marlins one year contract. This, according to Ken, Rosenthal expected to mostly play first base, and Ken said the hope is that the Marlins hitting coach Pedro Guerrero will unlock Morell and also gave credit to Mike de Portees for the first on reporting that story. Okay, I mean, I'm expecting more from the Marlins, but sure you want to fill it up with some lottery tickets too, and some depth and see if Kristopher Morel can finally corral the skill set. Go for it, Todd, for I feel like we talked about him somewhat recently when he was cut loose, and you look at Tampa Bay really losing a trade. Here is sak Paratus is an all star bat. And I know there were other parts to that trade, but Christopher Morrell has been a big bust in the big leagues so far for a guy that's some front offices love. This is the tale of a guy who does have those sexy stat cast stats and some of the metrics that front offices fall in love with, and I equated to the William o'panias back in the day. It's BP power, but it hasn't converted and he's not a good defender. So he needs to hit for serious pop and try to get on base a little bit to be a big league player. We'll see if the Marlins can find that. If it doesn't work for him this year, he could be out of the game.

00:17:56
Speaker 3: C C.

00:17:57
Speaker 1: Pedro for sure to step it up a little bit. No, listen, he just at one. At what point do you look as a baseball player as ahead or you look yourself? Man, this just isn't working. So I think Pedro Garrera knows what he's doing. I think I think he's got a test in front of him. Maybe revamp the swing, cratsy, maybe no more leg kick, Maybe see a couple pitches here and there, don't be afraid to look at a pitch and you know, maybe it's a ball. But he had a lot of strikeouts. Understandably he strike out or you know, pop out kind of guy. But I think he should revamp his whole swing and maybe change something go to a two strike approach or fix something. Make sure your head because my biggest thing. The more the higher he got with the leg kick, your eyes move and your head moves, and I think the more your eyes move, the more you're gonna swing and miss their foul balls off that you're like, oh man, how did I miss that? And there was a lot of that. So for him, you know, maybe it's time to revamp your whole swing and hopefully, you know, resurrect your career moving forward.

00:18:54
Speaker 3: I'm always about giving guys like another opportunity. Yes, like I obviously bounced around a long time, you know, played at a completely media yorkre level. But you're always trying to change things. You're always trying to fix little things. To me, when you sign a guy like this, yeah, they're hoping he could hit twenty plus pumps. But when I hear he's going to play first base, I had to look on Baseball Reference. They have him listed as an outfielder d H third baseman, and so I look down at the defense part and it says zero games played at first base. Don't hamstring your team at a position that is trivialized by a lot of the industry of teams that don't win, of teams that look at the first base position as yeah, whatever, ah, we got a third baseman. We're gonna pick up Todd Frazier and he's gonna play first It's nothing against Christopher Morel, not saying he's not athletic enough to learn it. It is a big time position. It's a big time position on a young team. You don't have a lot of veteran infielders that need that help over at first base. And then you just say, oh, we got Christopher Morell because the Borbino's not available, because Josh Bell isn't gonna sign with us, Like like you you enter those names of the guys who have played first base, and it's a harder position than just hey, you know what, he's had twenty plus homers in seasons. I know he strikes out Pedro Guerrero, fix him go play first base for us, Like that's that's tough. And I don't want to see the momentum that the Marlins made this season based on their pitching staff, based on their defense, take a backslide because they're like, well, we'd like to have some offense for on the cheap we'll just throw them at first.

00:20:47
Speaker 2: Interesting what's next? What's next for the Marlins? They're apparently pirates light this offseason. I don't think they're gonna play ball for a player that's worth, you know, one hundred million dollars in guaranteed money. But it's like they are going to get involved and crafts. We can make fun of them all we want. I do actually think they'll spend a little money because it's the same story as the A's last year. You have to so that the league just doesn't get pummeled with more grievances that they have to uncork when they get to the labor agreement a year from now. So in all seriousness, I do think they'll spend a little bit of money, not a lot, but a little bit of money. And I do still think they might trade one of their young starters, turn that into a position player, and then sign a starter to backfill it in the rotation.

00:21:35
Speaker 3: I mean, they think they think they have the answers in the pitching staff because they have good pictures, but they also think, you know, if they call all the pitches from the bench, you know, I saw the change in the last four weeks when they were calling the pitches from the bench, so we don't really need we don't really need the best pictures, So I would agree with you. I think they trade from that excess in their mind, like, oh, call someone up that's also going to give us value in there. I think as a Marlins, when you have a starting rotation like you do, you can't be afraid of keeping all of them and dipping into the two year To me for the Marlins, if they dip into the two year market for a hitter, that could be impactful. I think that's when they start making changes. They're in a tough NL East, but the reason that they did as well as they did was because of that starting pitching. I'm afraid that some of the recent firings in the last few years in the Marlins system that was involved with the development of all these young pitchers might come back to bite them. But you know that's time will tell. Time will tell, and I think it's it's time for the Marlins to strike or tell Sandy al Contre, hey, you know what, thanks for everything, and there's gonna be a lot of value. But that might not happen until, like Freddy Pearl is either taken off the market or he's traded, you know. I think that's the kind of thing where I would I would bet on the upside of Sandy al Contra if I'm a team, because of his controllability and his and his history of being a durable dude who wants the ball for nine innings thirty two times a year.

00:23:21
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, al Contera, it's time to move on in my opinion, not not I mean him trade for sure, but I think that would be their next move. I don't know. I just don't see them. I don't see them spending I honestly don't see them spending any more money, if you want the truth.

00:23:37
Speaker 3: And four in there, a Contra, a Contra and Uri Perez were the guys before. Now I think Edward cabreroed Edward Cabrera is kind of emerged as the guy that like, oh, guys didn't really know about because they had Yuri, and then they you have Meyer that's coming up to or not coming up, but solidifying himself. I just think there is an opportunity for the Marlins to continue that upward trend and whatever moves they make, I hope that's what they're doing. And not saying, hey, we overachieved last year, we're just going to stay status quo. I think it's time to slowly continue to move.

00:24:20
Speaker 2: Man Meyer hasn't worked out at all for the most part for them, and from what I've read, Uri Perez is the only untouchable like Edward Cabre. Edward Cabrera could be dealt al Contra. I think they want to deal. I think the hold back there is the value the Marlins want to valume as a number one. He showed flashes of that, but not the full season, and it was the first full season coming off the surgery. I don't know. I think they might play hardball and hold on to al Contra because I think they might match the value they're looking for. With Edward Cabrera. There's more years of control. It's easier to price him in the marketplace than it is for all contract. But we'll see, we'll see. Let's get to Michael Garcia. We're going back to him. Why because we got money five years, fifty seven and a half million dollars. There's a club option and escalators in the deal, so it could max out at six years eighty five million dollars. I don't have a lot to say about this. I mean, this is how these deals generally look like, good job pay. If this guy keeps doing what he did this past season, tod fother, he's a steal. I mean, if he's a he was almost a six win player, if he's a five win player, depending on how you value wins. I mean, most front offices look at a win between at least five and ten million bucks. A lot of times in the public it's looked at as ten million bucks. Obviously there's not fifty million dollar players, but it's showing the value that that player brings. I mean, he can easily pay for this contract in the first couple of seasons. This involves arbitration, years, all kinds of stuff there. That's why the general public that doesn't pay at tenime baseball will look at a contract like this be like what that's it. That's because you're limited on how much you can make until you hit free agency, and that's factored into these extensions.

00:26:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a great deal. I think it's a great deal for both sides.

00:26:13
Speaker 2: And I.

00:26:15
Speaker 1: Just hope that this guy just keeps on doing what he's doing and doesn't worry about anything else. Stays humble like he has and just stay under the radar. Everybody's going to know who you are now, but just keep doing you get the knocks that you have, make the plays, and help your team out. Nothing else need. He has no more worries in the world. Just play the game that you know how to play.

00:26:33
Speaker 3: Get your first contract. None of it's guaranteed. Before before this season, he was we talked about War. He was a three point eight war player. Obviously, he's always had the defense. That's something that never slumps. So even if he has an offensive slump of a season or this was just his one outlier, which I don't believe it is, because when you reduce your walk when you reduce your strikeout rate and increase your walk rate in the same season, like that is a that is a sure fire definition of a guy that has figured figuring it out and is going to continue to improve. But to me, you're you're locking in. You're locking in essentially a contract for a guy who was a over a five win player, and that contract is really only what Jake Cronin were signed. You know, I was trying to look at like other contracts that were out there, and he's playing what I think is the second premium position. I think third base. That's why you see so many Platinum Glove winners at third base because the value of the plays that are made there, to me are yes they're ground balls, yes they're balls down the line, but you're taking away doubles when you make those plays, especially in Kaufman.

00:27:54
Speaker 2: Let's do some digging, ready for some weeds?

00:27:57
Speaker 3: Mmmm?

00:28:07
Speaker 2: Hey, what's the deal? Are the Dodgers really shopping to Oscar Hernandez. Katie Wu is new on the Dodgers beat, and she's also just becoming an insider in the sport right, working with Ken Rosenthal on notes, columns and stories like this. I mean, her and people like Will Samon really emerging with great insight. And she said the Dodgers continue to quote kick the tigers, Tigers kick the tires on trading to Oscar Hernandez, and Andrew Friedman did not rule out the possibility of adding another free agent after signing Edwin Diaz. I mean, that second part feels quite obvious. But she alludes to the quote from Brandon Gomes on Monday at the Winter meetings where we were saying trading to Oscar Hernandez quote doesn't feel likely. She said, the Royals have covered in an offense first outfielder and have interest in Tao. According to a league source, Kratz, you can kind of bring back what you were saying earlier as somebody who played for the Royals.

00:29:06
Speaker 1: I'm with you.

00:29:07
Speaker 2: I'm like, offensively, he's perfect. Defensively, if I'm Kansas City and I want a winning team on the field, he's mostly dhing for me. And do they want that spot for Salva a little bit too? How is this all going to shape up? Maybe they just say, Kratz, you know what, screw it, we need that kind of offense. That kind of right handed pop is not really available right now. And that kind of call him glue guy, I mean, super likable guy in the clubhouse. You wouldn't think he's available. He's available because the Dodgers have show, Hey, Joey's going to clog up the DH spot for a long time, as he should. So it just leads to a roster crunch and the Dodgers might have to trade someone away that makes them significantly better on offense, and if they can fill that or significantly better on defense, and they can fill that on offense. I do think it could happen. I mean, you're getting enough for reports out here that I feel like it's real. Do you think the Royals could be a legit option if they give him a lot of DH time.

00:30:08
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't, just like any team that's locking somebody up at DH. Just we're talking about Kyle Schwarber recently signing the fact that the Dodgers right now don't need flexibility and so it's fine, that's show. Hey is your DH like you're talking about two elite dhs. If you bring Tao in, obviously it's gonna cost you. It's gonna cost you a decent amount. It might be one of your pitchers or whatever the Dodgers are looking for. To me, it's it's it doesn't scream a Royals move. Tayo had five hundred and forty six played appearances last year and walked twenty six times. The Royals don't walk a lot, and that's probably part of the issue of you know, they don't have a lot of power, so teams just kind of go after them. But he struck out one hundred and thirty four times, like he would automatically become the largest strikeout or the highest strike out number for this team. I don't see it.

00:31:03
Speaker 1: Now.

00:31:03
Speaker 3: If he was like elite defense and that's those strikeouts, they could handle it. I just don't see where you put him in left field because I assume Caags Jack Haglion is still going to be in right field. And maybe you might mix in DH between Caags if you get another athletic outfielder oh Lane Thomas Okay and then Vinnie Pasquentino get him off his feet, he DHS. When Salvi goes to first base, he won't play as much first base anymore because Felix for Mean's gone, but like Salvi's also in there DH, and so you kind of have that DH platooner. I just don't see it. I heard it. I heard what they're saying. I don't think his twenty five home runs that he had this year, thirty three the year before really fits into what the Royals are going after. And I know people say, well they went and got Jorge Solaire, sorry to Tayo, but Jorge Silaire and Tao are different power guys. I just so I don't see it based on what the Royals have done recently or in the past decade, fifteen years even.

00:32:09
Speaker 2: And i'd for me. By the way, Todd Father has thrown that out there for the troll.

00:32:13
Speaker 1: Always say Felix because.

00:32:15
Speaker 2: It's one of those where you like, you know of Felix and then you just throw his name out there. For me, that's what I'm here for. I'm that annoying stack guy.

00:32:23
Speaker 3: Right.

00:32:23
Speaker 2: It's like Tony really back in the day on PTI. But anyway, Todd Father, sorry, c Intera, and.

00:32:28
Speaker 1: I'll be quick. I just think the Dodgers have so many guys that they're like, let me just throw this out there about taoscar Hernandez and see, you know, if we can get some feelers and maybe something can happen because they are they are the team right now that picks up anybody and guys go there. And I think that's truly amazing for them. I think that's unbelievable. Dave Roberts got to be just loving Christmas every year these past couple of years. He's been going just knowing another gift for my team. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it's true. I just think they might be something and putting a feeler out there to see maybe they can catch, you know, a big fish, you know, and all of a sudden like, oh, all right, well this did work, so we'll see what happens. I love Teoscar Hernandez. I mean, he's a playoff guy. He steps up to the plate all the time. Yeah, we talk about defense, but we'll gets you to the big leagues hitting and that's all he does.

00:33:20
Speaker 2: And does he hit enough to be a full time DH? I think so, especially for certain teams. No, Kratz. See the thing is, I think that's where he has to transition pretty quickly. I think already next year you should be looking at fifty percent of his days in the outfield at most. I don't want to put him in Jordan Alvarez status, but the Astros did recently bring up how their plan is to primarily DH him. They had been toying with a little outfield the past couple of seasons. This past season he was hurt a ton, and I think they just want to let him do what he does. We know that Tao is not you were done. But there are some teams that could use this. How about Pittsburgh.

00:34:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, obviously there's teams that could use it. Not everybody has a I think he's a career one nineteen ops plus, so yes, he's got some career one thirty five ops seasons and then last year it was it was uh one O three. I think it was his ops last year. Like, I get what you're saying, Could he DH? Yes? He could? Are you asking me is he the DH for a World Series contending team? I think the Royals have made moves recently, and they continue to make moves to push towards their new stadium, obviously, but also pushed towards wanting to get back to the World Series. They have a pitching staff that is really good, but they're brought into Kaufman. They're brought into Kansas City to be able to do what they do with a defense behind them. And you get extra value out of guys like a Seth Lugo, like a Michael Waka. Obviously Cole Reagan's when he's on he doesn't need any defense. I mean, you're talking about a guy that almost had one hundred strikeouts in sixty or seventy innings. So there's different ways of doing it. I just I don't know that Taoscar. Yes, the Dodgers could eat if the Dodgers eat ten million a year of his contract, then you're talking, Okay, we're paying Taoscar ten million a year to be our DH more palatable. But I don't know that he's not the upper He wouldn't be an upper tier DH. And he could go out this year and have a ridiculous season because he's shown that he has that ability. Just last year was a tough year to put that out there, and they just signed him to the contract. Last year we were talking about him being a serviceable outfielder. I don't think his defense. I think he could still get another year to maybe two years out of his defense in this count.

00:35:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, but he's worth what half, if not a third of what you're talking to out with the Kyle Schwarber contract. Shorber's only a DH. He's not Shorber. But Shoreber's signed up for one fifty contract. Is not even half that. No, I know he's not Shoorber. My point is I started to like the idea the more I said it. There's not right handed hitting outfield pop slash DH pop out. There not a lot of it right on the free agent market, and it's super expensive the team. I keep going back to is a club like Pittsburgh. I believe Pittsburgh will add and impact bat. Do I believe they will be able to add that bat from free agency? Probably not. They're going to have to significantly overpay to talk someone into that situation. Given what they've done, you have to trade for a player like that. I could see them trading for someone like that. They should be in the running for people like this. Maybe you think I'm off, but they need so much on offense. They need everything. They need contact, they need power, they need walks like anybody that is an above average offensive player could immediately be their best hitter. That's how much of a difference it could make. So if they have the money to spend. They clearly threw out one hundred and twenty million dollars. This is half that to get Tay. You might be able to get him in trade for somebody else too. Pittsburgh has prospects. Their farm system is definitely top ten, if not close to top five, top ten to be fair, I think this could be a spot for them, that's all.

00:37:16
Speaker 3: I agree, And that would be a massive There's there's only a few teams out there that Tay Oscar Hernandez would be a massive upgrade. I went to a game in April. Emmanuel Valdez was hitting fourth for the Pirates. Like when you start your season in April and you don't have a clear, cleanup hitter, you don't have a clear bat in that spot in the order, Like, yeah, he'd be a massive upgrade. I would love to see this, But can they afford to get rid of prospect? And again, I don't know where the Dodgers, the Dodgers would want. I know you're you're talking about eating a lot of a lot of money, like I said before, from a contract that was just signed. It's not like there's a five year deal and now we're in year three of his down of his decline. They signed it three year deal last year. It was it three or four years. I'm sorry I blanked right there, but talking yep, Okay, it was it was the first year where he had the down year here and I trust that he bounces back. Okay, I thought it was a three year deal. I think it's twenty two a year or something like that. I just I like Tayo as a player, But I think it would depend on how much money they're looking to eat and where it's going. But if they go after Kyle Tucker, then I see I see no spot for Tayo, especially because Jeremy Meyer in our chat he brought up a good point. Is Andy Pahes the playoff Andy Pajes or is he the regular season Andy Pajes, Because if you're losing some offense, like you need more offense out of the outfield because you had any combination of Confordo, Pajes and Tao, and now you get rid of Taeo, you'll probably get rid of Teyo to put up Bellinger. I don't both think Bellinger's coming back there or you're putting a Tucker in there. I just there's questions there. But they're questions as far as like are the Dodgers going to repeat or not, not like ooh if they don't figure this out, but Dodgers aren't going to make the playoffs. No, that's not what we're saying.

00:39:26
Speaker 2: Three years sixty six with deferrals. Net present value of that deal when it was signed was three years about fifty eight million bucks. So you're looking at less than twenty million year on net present value for a player like that, and now it's just two years left in the contract, he said, And he told us on our show that he took less money to sign with the Dodgers, so I'm sure he'd be a little pissed. He's probably not pleased seeing his name pop up in what I think are legit trade rumors. But just throwing it out there, bet MGM futures. We're looking at the braves today for the NL pennant ten to one odds for ATL were feeling frisky with this number, Todd Father. They picked up a couple pieces yesterday. I mean, I really loved the Bullpen ad, but even the Mike yeasad too, to give them a little more depth and flexibility with the roster. Now it's Robert Suarez and Rycelgalacias at the back end. You're gonna get a full healthy season, hopefully from Ronald Acuna junior. And they were missing most of their starting rotation. What do you guys, what do you guys coming up with over there? It looks like you're up to no good.

00:40:33
Speaker 1: I don't know. I look out of brothers. I get angry.

00:40:39
Speaker 2: You guys are extra far away from each other today. Oh well, Kratz is also sitting in my share.

00:40:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true too. He doesn't want to ruin your spot. Yeah, I would dabble here, I would dabble a little bit.

00:40:51
Speaker 3: Why not.

00:40:52
Speaker 1: They picked up a couple of good guys. Love Robert Swarz, you know a little bit on there, you, I mean, plus one thousand is a lot. But do I see them being the Dodgers now? But I don't know. You never know what can happen. There's still more stuff to get picked. There's still more guys that need to get picked up. So doing it right now and then all of a sudden it could get lower or could get higher.

00:41:17
Speaker 3: You don't think that. You don't think their starting rotation can compete against the Dodgers lineup? No sale, Strider, Schwell and Boch. You're gonna have Ronaldo Lopez back because clearly they don't need to transition into the bullpen? Who do that? Miss grand Wall drip too.

00:41:36
Speaker 1: I do like them, I do, I do like them.

00:41:38
Speaker 3: I just that to me. That's why I love Yeah, go ahead, I love the tender one. I really really like that number. I mean, anytime anytime I get into thousands, I'm like, yeah, give it to me, But.

00:41:50
Speaker 1: Do it for the Marlins.

00:41:51
Speaker 3: Then the lineup has to the lineup has come around. I will not do it for them. True, they do have a good picture. You're right, they have good starting rotation. They always have good depth.

00:42:03
Speaker 1: But you never know, like I said, they could pick up somebody down the road here and all of a sudden it goes to plus eight hundred plus seven hundred.

00:42:09
Speaker 3: I don't think it. I don't think they have a big move in their cast. Like to me, if they get if they get a Sun Kim to play shortstop, does that move the number off of plus one thousand. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I'm waiting until the season. But if it's still at plus one thousand, I will. I will take some of that because I think they're still a good team, but the offense needs to needs to bring it consistently. A full season of Akunya Michael Harris's swing change is clearly worked from halfway point of the season, and well, profar I might not be on the good goods, so you know, you might just not get too much.

00:42:52
Speaker 2: They might pick up a few extra wins. Have you seen the Mets roster lately? Bet MGM throughout four potential candidate to join the team in spring training.

00:43:02
Speaker 1: The bottom line, Stone Cold.

00:43:06
Speaker 2: Stone called Steve Austin. What's the King of Queen's real name? Kevin James, Kevin James.

00:43:13
Speaker 3: Paul I'm saying, like, all cop, who's who's the best athlete?

00:43:19
Speaker 1: After what? Jared?

00:43:21
Speaker 3: That four?

00:43:22
Speaker 1: Of that four? I would say, are you joking?

00:43:28
Speaker 2: What Stone cald Steve Austin is a freak?

00:43:32
Speaker 1: No? I thought you're just talking about baseball only.

00:43:34
Speaker 2: Sorry, oh oh baseball player.

00:43:36
Speaker 1: Like if you had to pick right, is that what you like? Somebody?

00:43:39
Speaker 3: And that somebody that four has to hit second in your line up? Somebody?

00:43:43
Speaker 1: And listen, you said athlete. He might be a good wrestler. I don't think he's good at basketball, baseball, maybe football.

00:43:50
Speaker 3: Scott Scott thinks just because you have muscles that you're good, that you're a good athlete. Scott's like, check out these boss steps? Do these aren't athletic?

00:43:58
Speaker 1: You don't think?

00:43:59
Speaker 2: You don't think Stone Cold Steve Austin can can bang down low and grab some rebounds, block some shots and box out half the team and a wrecking who's.

00:44:09
Speaker 3: Getting a hit first? Of those four? Paul Blart mall cop. Adam Sandler is the one for me.

00:44:20
Speaker 2: He said athlete athlete. If he said who's getting a knock? I would have said Sandler, I'm with you. And Sandler looks like in that picture it might be old.

00:44:27
Speaker 1: He's got some forearms, play some basketball too. I've seen him on the streets.

00:44:31
Speaker 3: If these four pictures were FT hosts, obviously Scott is sena which which.

00:44:39
Speaker 1: You said seen it's not seeing its stone?

00:44:41
Speaker 3: What did I say, John Cena, I'm sorry I did this. I did this stone called Steve Austin is obviously.

00:44:47
Speaker 2: My favorite wrestler growing up.

00:44:50
Speaker 3: Wow. Okay, so so which which of those other three are you?

00:44:56
Speaker 1: I'll go I'll go with Sandler.

00:45:00
Speaker 3: Okay, I mean my career would say I'm Jerry Seinfeld, but I feel like I'm I'm the mall cop them.

00:45:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would be Paul Blart. But the thing is you lost a lot of weight. You can't.

00:45:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have not lost any weight. I'm literally you were graduating. I appreciate you. You're making me blush at Christmas here, but no, I literally wait, did you lose I weigh two hundred and fifty pounds ever since my senior year.

00:45:23
Speaker 1: Of how about now two and fifty pounds, no chance, I don't believe. I say two forty.

00:45:32
Speaker 2: That's dangs. He's got your over under it to forty and a half anyway, no matter the matchup, betting with bet MGM boosted odds makes every basket feel a little sweeter. Activate your odds boost token for any college basketball bet. You'll receive a bigger payout if that bet wins gets up for tip off with bett mg and we miss baseball, but there are other sports in action. If you feel the need gambling problem more concern, please call one eight hundred gambler. I had two more items to get to. Let's skew this tweet from Chris Catillo, and it's in reference to Sean McAdam, who also covers the Red Sox on a daily basis. They did not want to go long on Pete Alonzo. Apparently they fell pretty far behind, but they did go for him, so that's interesting. They were in on him. Tell me if you've heard that one before. Chris Catillo said, speaking in general terms and not specifically about the failed Alonzo talks, one prominent agent noted of the Red Sox they don't believe in long term deals. I will push back a bit. I mean, how long did they just sign Garrett Crochet for? Like, they don't have anybody on long term contracts. They traded away Raphael Devers, but what two three years ago they gave him a long term deal. Maybe that's the game plan this offseason, and if so, good luck getting Alex Bragman for less than five years. I don't know if I believe this one or if it's one agent who's pissed about his particular player or players not getting long term offers right, because I do think that they're going to send a decent quote, long term offer Alex Bragman's way. So this is maybe some other agent that's like, ah, they're not going after my player the way they should. I think they're going to offer Bregman at least five years in today's game, Isn't that a long term offer?

00:47:30
Speaker 3: I think that's a long term offer. And I think Alex Bregman like like Kyle Schwarber to the Phillies, it's a different level. We're talking about something different. Like I think I heard somebody say it, had somebody offered, had somebody offered six years, one sixty five to Kyle Schwarber? The Phillies would have come back and done that. I think the same can be said about Bregman. Yes, they might not want long term deals on guys that are unknown. This is why, this is why you had a trial period, you had. You dated Alex Bregman last year, and now it's time to put a ring on it. Like I think, I think they'll go. I think they'll go longer with him. I think I'm now, I don't know that they want to be known as a team that has to try to backfill a guy that came in and really made a lot of positive waves in that young clubhouse. So I think this would be maybe they don't want to go long term, and they showed it by getting rid of Raffie Devers and all the drama that was around that. But Bregman, I think is Bregman is different. Alonso unknown commodity for them in that clubhouse. Bregman known commodity.

00:48:48
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean to say, you're not gonna do long term deals.

00:48:52
Speaker 3: I've it won't work out.

00:48:54
Speaker 1: I don't get it. Yeah, it never does, right, I don't know, And that's that's you won't get the of the names. I think that's the way going these long term deals are for the greatest of baseball players. So I don't know. I'm not sure what they're thinking is in their logic there.

00:49:13
Speaker 2: I think they just won't give long term deals to certain players.

00:49:17
Speaker 3: I think certain type of player.

00:49:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I understand that. I mean, look at the Mets just now. They didn't believe that Pete Alonso merited a long term deal. They completely laid that out right. For as much as that team spends, they did not feel like that type of player was going to age the way they wanted him to. Baltimore disagreed, and there you go. Looks like they didn't want to go more than like threeish years for him Tops. So anyway, one more. Mark Shapiro has been running the Blue Jays for a long time. Ross Atkins works under him, but Shapiro gets signed up for five more years. So Shi Davidi reported how this is going to set him up for a total of a fifteen year run on top of the franchise, and he's the president and the CEO of the team since the end of the twenty fifteen season. Top Father. For a while, it looked like a tenure that was not fulfilling, especially lately when they had superstar players like Flattie and Bo and it's incredible how one postseason run changes everything, because it really did.

00:50:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, and time, give this guy. Give give somebody time. It's not like running a ship. It's hard to do. Sometimes you need time, you need a little more effort, you need to figure out who works well here and there. And now you're seeing it's paying off. And they had a really big opportunity to win this World Series and that would have been the icing on the cake for him. But they have a big opportunity to come back and do what they do. So congratulations to him. That's that's really great for the Blue jack.

00:50:53
Speaker 3: They gave him too much time. In my opinion, Okay, this should not be his This should not be his extension, this should not have been his In my opinion, it should not have been his World Series team. Ultimately, it's always about the players on the field. But to me, I felt like his time was overextended in Toronto, and I went on plenty of radio stations saying that. So I have to go back and now say, maybe we should have trusted the roster he was putting together. Maybe that you know the fact that he wasn't going back out and getting the pieces that had success in Toronto, the Matt Chapmans, the Brandon Belts or those types. And I saw a decline from the previous seasons and they weren't going to get those guys. And now this offseason, look at what they did. They went out and got Andre Samenez Platinum Glove winner. They doubled tripled down on their defense. Ale hunter Kirk got some stability and had one of his better years again behind the plates. Vladimir Guerrero. To me, that was, you know, ownership that wasn't necessarily front office, but I was the one banging the drum that I felt like a lot of the issues of why the Blue Jays couldn't turn it around and ultimately finished last in the American League East was because of Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro, and I clearly am wrong because now they got five year extension for a guy that I thought was out the door about a year and a half ago.

00:52:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was bad until it wasn't and now it's great, So props to him. A lot of this stuff's about timing, too. Nailed it on timing, nail yailed it. I mean this was magical. They lit up Canada, so they give them credit. It took longer than many people wanted it to, but it's only one team out of fifteen that's going to represent the American League each year in the World Series, and the Blue Jays were able to get as close as you can get to pulling off the title. So congrats to Shapiro and the Blue Jays keeping the front office intact there and now let's lap hey shout out to the team behind the scenes that helps us put together the newsletter each week. There's the QR code. It's on your screen right now. Leadoff Newsletter. If you're listening on podcast, we posted a tweet with the little preview and a link to sign up to it. It costs a whopping zero dollars. It comes out once a week and it gives you a little recap of what we hit on the show, some of the big guests, the whole deal. So if you want to just give us a little appreciation, we're not going to spam you to death. We just throw one in there a week. Usually on Fridays, it's the ft Leadoff Newsletter. Next week we're on full normal week, there'll probably be twenty million signings. I mean that, in all seriousness, there's still a lot of activity left to go. We had a really fun week at the Winter Meetings, but in terms of volume, there wasn't a ton a volume of deals. There were high impact deals. That's good for us. That means next week it's gonna be awesome. I really believe that. Leading up to Christmas time here, leading up to like the twenty third, which is when we stop down for a little bit at least with the live shows, it's gonna be lit crat hats.

00:54:16
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:54:17
Speaker 3: The reason that there's no volume is because everybody was coming on our show. If you go back and watch some of our shows from the Winter Meetings, everybody was on FT. I mean, how can I not My hero is Todd Fraser. How can I not wear Todd Fraser's hat? Ah, Todd gave me this hat? Oh wait, no, Todd did not give me this hat. But I'm aware of reds.

00:54:38
Speaker 1: I want to keep it here.

00:54:40
Speaker 3: You know, you know, what are you to use as a trash.

00:54:43
Speaker 1: Can as big as this rock rock red stuff all the time? Us people and Tom's Ever, when I go to.

00:54:47
Speaker 3: Grocery store, I'm not saying you're not gonna this. That won't fit you. You'll put it on your head and you'll turn and it'll just stay at the same place. Five eights.

00:54:57
Speaker 1: I'm a half my best gut.

00:55:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can put your your cereal in that thing top. Father wash it first.

00:55:06
Speaker 1: But some honey Cora. I want a big bowl of honey may one. Honeycombs, May one honeycombs. Uh.

00:55:18
Speaker 2: Happy Friday people, We will see you on Monday FT Live and actually we're working on some special content that everyone will be able to check out during the winter break between Christmas and New Year's so stay tuned for that and we'll see you on Monday.

00:55:35
Speaker 3: See you