Ken Rosenthal: No gig for Pujols, Woodruff QO, FA lockout factor, DePodesta’s Rox + Braves to-do list

00:00:05
Speaker 1: All right, we're back here on the Inside Scoop with Ken Rosenthal joining us. Ken is a senior writer for The Athletic. He goes on Fox as well nationally on the sidelines. He has fair territory here in the Foul Territory network, and he has the unpleasant situation with having talking to me NonStop. It feels like lately, Ken, how are you, frit It.

00:00:26
Speaker 2: Is always a pleasure to talk to you, first of all, and it's especially a pleasure to talk to you on this show because usually a host who should not be named or shall not be named is someone who doesn't read my articles. So not only do you read my articles, you help me write articles, do you write them together? So it's a pleasure, that is true.

00:00:45
Speaker 1: I do know what is in the last two Ken Rosenthal articles. I got a sneak peek at his column that I really want to ask you about, Ken, because I feel like we were talking about this a little in the first segment, Gratzy put his phone on Do not Disturb because he's worried someone's going to hire him out of this show to manage it because he was a catcher. How troubling do you think is this trend obviously Deepodesta not being in baseball in ten years, but beyond that, some of the managerial hires. What are you kind of hearing around the industry about this.

00:01:13
Speaker 2: I don't know if troubling is the right word. I just find it somewhat weird, okay. And I wrote the article, and I made it clear in the article that listen, all of these new hires, the ones that are a little bit outside the box, maybe a lot outside the box, all of them have a chance to succeed. And maybe I'm totally wrong and even questioning it, maybe Tony V. Teller will be great, maybe Blake Putero will be great. I grant all that. And in fact, I mentioned in the article as well that when Aaron Boone was hired in twenty seventeen, I was the one guy who questioned that, saying, whoa WHOA no coaching experience, no managing experience. And obviously he's proven to be a successful manager. But to me, there is a certain path that has followed to these jobs and has been for a long time. It's you're a coach for a long time, you're a minor league manager, you work your way up, and it's not to say that new people from other walks of the industry can't be included in this club, but you're also ignoring a lot of people who are doing it the right way or the common path, and that is troubling to me. It is troubling that people are getting ignored that maybe you should deserve a chance. And that is kind of why I wrote it, because I am hearing from people in the industry, not all people, obviously, but some that this is bothering them, that this is to them kind of offensive. Quite frankly, I don't know that I would go that far, but it certainly raises the question why take these risks with unproven managers some are well won at least from completely outside of professional baseball, when you have qualified candidates all over the place. Now, teams will tell you, well, the thin the pool is thin. It's not as good as you think. I don't know. It seems to me you've got a number of people out there who are deserving him a chance and would like a chance.

00:03:06
Speaker 3: Is this kind of a safe pick by the Rockies? And I have to explain the fact that it's a safe pick because it's somebody that's not been in baseball in the sense that they're going, hey, this is how we've done it, this is how we've had success, and the Rockies have kind of bucked that for a long time that, well, this is how everyone else does baseball, but it's so terrible here in Colorado. So does it feel like as much outside of the box as it is. It's a safe pick for them.

00:03:35
Speaker 2: It's not as if Paul Deepdesta has never worked for a baseball team. He's worked for quite a few baseball teams and been successful, at least with the Mets for sure, and the A's going way back. So he is a really smart guy, one of the smartest people who will ever work in this sport. I would think. My concern there is it's been ten years since he's been in the game, and in those ten years a lot has changed. Now, as was pointed out to me this morning by someone in the game, Hey he's going to the Rockies. He's got nowhere to go but up. He's going to make that place better just by becoming their president baseball operations. I buy it. It's still an unusual pick, to say the least, and it's also a pick that came about after the Rockies two finalists that Britt and I reported about Cleveland assistant GM Matt Foreman and Diamondback's assistant GM Amiel Sode. They for whatever reason, were not in the mix in the end, and it would seem to me that that was the direction they were going, but they couldn't get it done with either one of those guys. And then Paul Dee Pedesta, who they had been talking to as well, he became a more prominent player in their mix.

00:04:45
Speaker 4: Hey, Ken, I played high school basketball a little over ten years ago, maybe like fifteen years ago. You think NBA team would hire me? Mean no, but for real, for real, for real, Aberpool host I was that was average. But I mean, I'm just trying to make the parallel. I mean I did something in the past, doesn't mean I shouldn't necessarily do in the future. But Albertpool hosts, you know, obviously did a little bit of work with MLB Network and did the media think he went out of his way to go coach in the Dominican was planning on coaching. The WBC team tried to take the more kind of traditional route in order to get a managerial job. You feel like that's no longer the route that someone should take if they're trying to be a manager. Is there a shortcut? Is there a better path forward?

00:05:30
Speaker 2: I don't know. Guys like Albert are getting hired. Craig Salmon is a former player who is not that far removed from his playing days, and granted he was a special assistant. Kurtzuzuki the same thing, also a special assistant. Albert has not been a special assistant. But albertpool certainly is someone who wants to manage. And it's telling to me that there are nine or or nine openings still one left with Rockies and he's not getting any of them. Now. Maybe it's because teams fear his strong personality, and we've talked about this a lot. Teams prefer collaboration with their managers, and I get it, that's the way the game is gone. But Albert Pooles is certainly an interesting guy to hire. Now, he'd also be a tough guy to fire, and that's part of the problem, I would think. And with great players, you don't always get a great manager. I covered a few like that. But at the same time, if we're being so bold here, if we're hiring all these outside the box, guys, why at Albert.

00:06:28
Speaker 3: Pooles does he reracket? Does he reracket next offseason when there's maybe only half the managerial openings. I mean, I don't know that we'll see an off season with so many opportunities for him? Does he reracket or does he say no? I have to do it differently. I have to do it Ryan Samberg style where he managed at low A high A, double A, triple A and then he got his opportunity.

00:06:54
Speaker 2: If I'm Albert, I would say no to that. And the reason is because so many others are going hired who have not done that, who are not Albert Pooholes. Now he's going to manage the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. That's another opportunity for him to gain experience. And I would expect that this desire of his to manage is not going to go away. I would think Albert Pooles wants to do something. He's going to try to do something. The question is whether the game will welcome him in that role. I don't know the answer to that.

00:07:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know everything in Colorado's fairly new. Have you heard any sort of rumors of who might take that managerial job?

00:07:34
Speaker 5: No?

00:07:34
Speaker 2: Not yet. And Paul de Podesta, as I said, and we know, has been out of the game for a decade. So some of the managers he might have hired back ten years ago when he was with the Mets in his last job in a secondary role, not the league guy, those guys might not be in the game anymore, or they might have moved on to other things and greater things. I don't know, So I'm not exactly sure how or who his people might be regarding managerial candidates. But it's going to be interesting to see who he hires because obviously he has connections in the game. He was with the Mets, the Padres, the A's going way back Cleveland. He has guys, but whether they're available, or whether he would still want them, or whether they're out of the game entirely, I don't know exactly where all that stands.

00:08:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like if there's one thing, if there's one thing that we know Kennis, that you can't guess, because it feels like everything that has been just crazy has happened this cycle. So who knows what they do in Colorado. It's going to be tough to top the chaos of Paul Deepotesta, but maybe they will, who knows, Maybe they hire Albert Pulos. Wouldn't surprise anyone based on what's going on here for the last goal.

00:08:44
Speaker 3: At that point.

00:08:46
Speaker 2: I'm talking to somebody this morning who knows aj Preller, and I don't know if i'd call him a confident of Prellers, but he knows Pler and talks to him, and he said I'd never heard Craig Stabbin's name out of his mouth, So who knows how that came about. And you're right, Britt, it's been one surprise after another. And again I don't want to sound like a fuddy duddy here, if that's the right term, a grouch, But again, these are risks. These are teams are taking. And you can say, well, it's always a risk no matter who you hire. Well, yes, but the level of risk is greater with some of these hires than it would be with some others.

00:09:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, it certainly seems like like David Ross, Brandon Hyde, Vance Wilson, like Ryan Flaherty. There are candidates that have managed and not managed, who are coaching and have experience and have a little, I don't know a little experience being in the dugout, not as a player. I think it's a everyone is looking for the next Steven Vote. People forget the Vote did spend a year in the bullpen, the bullpen coach of Seattle. And also just because Stephen Vote did it and was uniquely qualified to do it, doesn't mean that there's twenty or thirty other Steven Votes out there. This is where I think the industry gets a little too obsessed with copycat and with the success of a guy like Stephen Vote, kind of meaning that you don't need that experience when he could just be the anomaly here, you know, and not then necessarily the rule. So I want to point that out. I want to switch gears, though, Ken, because there's a lot of other stuff going on qualifying offers. There were some surprises there. Brandon Woodruff with the Brewers, a small market team that you've written about often needing to spend more money, decides that they are going to offer Brandon Woodruff a qualifying offer. How surprised are you by that? And were there other ones that made you go, huh, didn't see that coming?

00:10:32
Speaker 2: That one was the most surprising, And as you said, Britt, the Brewers are not a team that generally spends at market value or above, and I would say twenty two million for Brandon Woodruff is probably above market value considering his health history. When he's healthy, of course, he's a really good pitcher and definitely worked that over one year. But because of the history, you just don't know. And with the Brewers, what I imagine they're doing, actually what I know they're doing is protecting themselves in the hope that some other team will sign him and they will get a draft pick. The problem with that is Brandon Woodriff now has a qualifying offer attached. It makes it difficult for him, or more difficult then it would have been without a qualifying offer, and teams will say, well, I'm not giving Brandon Woodriff a multi year deal and giving up a draft pick when he has this injury history. So ultimately, maybe Woodriff takes it, and that would be a surprise that you can always trade a guy after he signs with the qualifying offer. But I don't know that that's the Brewers intent. It just seems to me they're covering their bases here and the worst case scenario they get Woodriff back. Maybe it's not a worst case scenario. I shouldn't call it that, but the one option is they get Woodrift back. There are probably at least going to entertain offers for Freddy Peralta. So if Woodriff is back in the fold, at least you have, if healthy, a guy who can carry that top of the rotation spot.

00:12:00
Speaker 3: He's not unprecedented, as Monti Grendal came essentially on the qualifying offer they paid him. I think at the time it was like seventeen point nine million for the one year deal. Kind of approve it deal, and I think I think Big Wu kind of is on the same page where he has to do the one year deal. So I like the move by the by the Brewers before we get to any other qualifying offers. We brought this up before. GMS always say, hey, what is you know? One year deals? No such thing as a bad one year deal? Is there a limit to that? Is there a limit for the Brewers different than for the Dodgers, because when you say one year deals, that qualifying offer essentially is collusion by the league saying hey, this is where we're willing to go one year deals. Nobody go higher than this because if you don't sign the guy to qualifying offer. Other teams go to it and they say, okay, well we'll give you what you would have got and had you stayed on that qualifying offer. So is there a limit? Have you heard from GMS? Is there a limit to that bad one year deal?

00:13:09
Speaker 2: Well, I'm sure there is that. I'm sure it does vary from team to team. The Dodgers have the financial capability to absorb twenty two million much easier than the Brewers do. There's not much question about that. So what's surprising about this to me is that a twenty two million dollars salary for the Brewers, given their payroll, it's going to take up a certain percentage that is pretty significant. And that is where I was a little surprised. Now, if he rejects it, all good. They get the draft pick. Assuming he signs for more than fifty million, then they get a pick after the first round, before Competitive Balance Round A, or maybe it's after Competitive Balance Round A, if that's in the twenty nine to thirty two range usually, and then if it's not fifty million, then he gets in free agency. The pick is after Competitive Balance Round B. That's more in the seventy five range not as great a pick, So it's a little bit of a risk in my view from the Brewers' perspective, because I believe he might take it, and that's a high percentage of their payroll. Again, but as I said, maybe it's in their minds protection for them if they do trade Peralta. And there's nothing wrong with having Brandon woodrif on your team, especially if he's healthy. He is really good and we saw that last year with diminished velocity, he was still really good.

00:14:24
Speaker 4: All right.

00:14:25
Speaker 3: Then, the one person that did not get a qualifying offer that feels like, really blit my radar. I don't know about other people. Trent Grisham had a three five war this season, played a very good center field and hit some dingers for the Yankees, who have no issue with money anything from that, Like, are we able to glean anything from the fact that they did not give him or put a qualifying offer on his name?

00:14:52
Speaker 2: If I'm not mistaken, he did get a qualifying offer, Frank Grisham did, Yes, so right, Britt, So you got it here? Yeah he got what he did? Yes, yes, yes, yeah, so yes. It gives the Yankees protection center field next year, even though his defensive metrics have declined, and it's a thin group of center fielders, and they've already got Bellinger as a free agent. So with Grisham, at least you lock in Bellinger qualifying offer in the past is not eligible for another one. So this too is going to be really interesting, Eric, because will Grisham, with the qualifying offer attached, do as well as maybe he might envision. I don't know. The metrics have declined, the speed has declined, and he's not the same in center as he was maybe two years ago. But he's coming off a spectacular offensive year. He is a guy who kind of rebuilt his career after some struggles, which I think is something that should be admired and a testament to his grit and competitiveness. So it's going to be interesting to see where this goes. Does he get a big offer from some team regardless of qualifying offer, or do teams look at him and say not in a multi year we're not that interested. And in his mind does he say I'd rather go to the Yankees for twenty two than test the market, which will be uncertain because of the qualifying offer being attached.

00:16:16
Speaker 4: Speaking of uncertainty, in the market. Do you anticipate for agent being any different this year with potent the unknown of, you know, a season after next.

00:16:26
Speaker 2: Kevin's a great question. It's when a lot of people are asking, and I would think in certain cases perhaps it will have an effect, But in general, I don't see teams operating differently, and nor do I think they should. The fact that there is the potential for a lockout and one that eats into the twenty twenty seventh season, yes, there is that possibility. We all know that. Is it likely. I don't know that it's likely. And let's say I'm hoping against hope. Perhaps, But let's say we don't miss any games, and let's say the season twenty twenty seven goes off as planned. You're gonna want players. The players that are available now, you're gonna want them in twenty twenty seven, the good ones. So if I'm a team, I would not operate with fear of that negative. I would operate as if things were going to be status quo, and if they are not, okay, but you still have that player under control whatever becomes of the twenty twenty seven season and beyond, assuming he is on a long term deal.

00:17:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree with you, Ken. I hope that is what we see. Thanks so much for your time. I'll see you in Vegas next week. Which I said to an executive the other day, it's the GM meetings. It sounds so cool, like, see you in Vegas. We're not leaving the hotel everyone, We're just staying in Vegas.

00:17:41
Speaker 2: We're not leaving them in any city in America, any small town in America, and any hotel in America, and it would be the same outcome. It doesn't matter.

00:17:50
Speaker 3: We're gonna be Yeah.

00:17:54
Speaker 1: Yes, it's not that exciting, but you could check out Ken and it is exciting. Fair Territory Mondays and Thursdays here on the Foul Territory Network with Alana Rizzo as well. So we will be right back here with Shake it Up. Welcome back, Foul Territory, Bridgeroli, Kevin Aerocrats, Steven Talbert joining us for our to do list on the Atlanta Braves. Let's get right to it, Steven, what's the to do list for the Atlanta Braves? They got the manager? What else we got cooking up here in Atlanta?

00:18:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, they got the manager? What weiss was announced on Monday They just added a bunch of coaches to his staff the last couple of days. So now it's about players and the big things for the Braves. You know, they need a shortstop. They needed a shortstop basically since Dansby left. They need starting pitching help. They lost basically their entire rotation to the sixty dil last year. And then they need bullpen help because they just lost their closer, Russio Glesias free agency. They could bring him back. They also declined some options on some other bullpen pieces, so they need bullpen help.

00:18:58
Speaker 3: All right, your first thing on your off season, do list a big league shortstop. Orlando Arcia kind of hurt this because he's a big league shortstop who probably doesn't fit into the big league starting shortstop role, but he was an All Star in that magical season for the Braves. Where do the Braves turn? How do they turn? Do you see the Braves dipping into some of that big league talent to maybe trade for somebody that can play shortstop in the big leagues for them?

00:19:30
Speaker 5: So the hard thing, it's just shortstops are so hard to find. Teams don't trade them. Teams don't when you get good ones you don't trade them. And you know, even when you've got multiple that you know, if you watch the draft, everybody draft shortstops because they can play all of the diamond and so it's just really hard to acquire a shortstop via trade. If you ask me right now, I mean, obviously, they claimed Hassan Kim the last month of the season off waivers from Tampa. He just declined his player option and is now a free agent, so they're gonna have to They're gonna have to sign him on the open market. He's probably the best option. I don't see them getting in the Bobashett sweepstakes, one because he's gonna command probably two hundred plus million dollars. And two there's a lot I mean, there's quite a bit of talk about is he really a shortstop? His metrics last year we're pretty brutal. There's you know, I don't know if he's gonna play second or third or somebody's gonna let him play short. But I think hass On Kim is if you ask, if you said right now, who's going to be the shortstop on opening Day? I would guess Hassan Kim. But if you told me it's definitely not gonna be him. I could not give you another name because they are just very hard. They're very hard to find.

00:20:37
Speaker 4: Let me start a rumor, let me give you a name. And I know Alex likes to operate in a secrecy and he always finds guys that no one else thinks are possible. Hear me out on this. There's one team that's willing to spend money right now, the Atlanta Brakes from everything that I've heard, And there's one team that is wanting to cut payroll right now. Enter Corey Seeger. How do you think Corey Seeger could fit in that equation? He's also a Tennessee guy, Southeast guy. You like it.

00:21:07
Speaker 5: I would drive to Dallas Fort Worth and pick up Corey Seeger myself if that was an option. Yes, I would take that in the heart. I mean, he's owed a lot of money, so the Rangers gave him that massive deal. The kry Seger when he's healthy is like one of the five best hitters on the planet. I've loved Cory Seeger since when he was a prospect with the Dodgers, So I would take that in a heartbeat. If the Rangers are actually serious about moving them. I don't know what you know. You would have to figure out the money, you'd have to figure out the prospects. It's not an easy deal to do. But give me Corey Seeger tomorrow. I'd take that all day.

00:21:40
Speaker 3: I think there's probably five teams that wouldn't sign up for that. So good for you, Tolbert. But your second thing on the list was starting pitching the Braves. The Braves don't need starting pitching. They're the starting pitching factory. They made John Smolts, they made Steve Avery, great Man, Spencer Swelling, Boch, Spencer Streyder. Why do they need starting pitching?

00:22:07
Speaker 5: Well, if they lost six guys last year to the sixty, which is crazy, I'm not I've been falling baseball a long time. I don't know if I've ever seen in a team's entire starting rotation plus one more be on the sixty dil all at the same time, and they just have a ton of inherent risk, injury risk in their rotation. I mean, if you just go by the names Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Spencer Swellenbach, Ronaldo Lopez, Grant Holmes, aj Smith, Schalber, just the names on the list, sounds good. That's a good starting five, starting six. The problem is they were all injured for significant parts of last year. They all have injury risk that you have to kind of project forward. So can you go into a season with those six guys and expect that a critical mass of them are going to stay healthy for a majority of the season. I don't think you can. So they have to go get somebody a little more durable. They have some flexibility because Ronaldo Lopez and Grant Holmes both came out of the bullpen and can go back to the bullpen if need be. And that's what the Dodgers did last year. The Dodgers, you know, they they solve the problem of trying to keep pitchures healthy by just adding a ton of depth, ton a ton of ton of depth, and when guys get hurt, just plug somebody else in. And I know teams can't spend like the Dodgers, but I think you can take a page out of their book of move guys to the bullpen, use your flexibility to build depth and protect against injury through a massive arms And when the Braves have you know, the Braves have so much inherent risk in their rotation already. I think that's the way you got to go. I think you have to add at least one durable, quality starter this offseason.

00:23:46
Speaker 1: So the Braves freed up a little payroll by declining options on two of their top relievers. Or were you surprised though, because now on your to do list is that they need bullpen help. So I mean, in particular, I think the Tyler Kinley moved because he was so good for them, was a little bit of a surprise. Do you think that they would look to re sign either of those guys at maybe longer deals that are a little less aav or are they going to look elsewhere on the market altogether?

00:24:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, that was surprising. The Kenley move specifically was I'm not gonna say a shock because we talked about the possibility, but it was surprising. They acquired him at the trade deadline. They wanted to see what he would look like if they revamped his his repertoire a little bit, get him out of coops Field. Same thing they did with Pierce Johnson and it worked beautifully. And they had this relatively cheap option of five million dollars and they just declined it yesterday. So on top of the fact they declined Pierce Johnson's option rossill Glacies as a free agent. Joejamenez missed the whole season with knee injury last year. So the bullpen is just up in the air, and I'm fascinated to see what they're gonna do there. I mean, at this point, they're probably gonna to add like four relievers, three or four relievers at this point, including a proven closer. So to answer your question specifically, I would not be surprised if they tried to bring Kenley back. I don't know that you're going to get a lower aa B than five million a year, though, So I don't.

00:25:04
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't.

00:25:06
Speaker 5: That was a surprising move. Pierce Jonathon declining that option I can make more sense of Kenley was surprising to me. So it just adds one more thing. I mean, that's just another reliever. They got to go find this all season.

00:25:18
Speaker 4: I heard Walt Weiss talking about on the radio yesterday about potentially implementing I hate using the word load management, maybe except for Matt Olson because he's got this streak going on, but learning that players sometimes just need a day off. I guess my question to you is It's hard for me to say this cause he's a good friend of mine and I know he loves being in Atlanta. But they have a catching situation going on here with Drake Baldwin's emergence. Do you feel like keeping both catchers allows them to kind of balance that load management of having two kind of one A one B. Or do you see value in maybe trading a guy like Sean Murphy for you know, a laundry list of things that the Braves could use.

00:26:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, So this has been a big topic ever since Drake Baldwin busts onto the scene as one of the best young players in baseball. Is you have Sean Murphy signed to this long term deal at big money, it makes fifteen million dollars next year. Are you going to let him be a part time player making fifteen million bucks? That's a real question, and especially when you have this laundry list of other things you need to do. You don't exactly have the Dodgers' upper tier payroll, so you know you got a limit an amount of space to do it.

00:26:26
Speaker 3: So it's a fair question.

00:26:27
Speaker 5: The thing I would say is the messaging out of the team has been we have to have two catchers. It's one hundred and fifty degrees in Atlanta in the summer, Like, playing one hundred and sixty games as a catcher just doesn't work. And I think a lot of teams have moved to more of a dual catcher, you know, I know JT. Realmuto, you know, was kind of the lone exception for a while doing one hundred and fifty games a year. But I just don't know if that's sustainable, and you have to have two pretty good ones, and so it is a fascinating question of I see the value of keeping him, and I see the value of moving him, especially if if it not only it maybe brings in a piece that you're missing somewhere else on the team, but it frees up payroll to go do even more. So yeah, it's a great question. And I all the messages, all the messaging from the team has been there, going to keep both. But we've heard that before from Alex you know, they said they weren't going to trade William Conturras, and then they traded William conture So you know, we'll see what happens. It's it is a It's a fair question though, because you can make a You can make a logical argument on either side of that.

00:27:26
Speaker 3: One, right, Sorry, Stephen Brian mccantz calling me. He wanted to say that anybody can catch one hundred and forty game. Wait, no, he got tired too at the end of his career. But yes, catching it Atlanta is the real deal that he that heat'll get to him. Man, but fifteen million for a catcher is not that much money. My question is and it kind of was piggybacked a little bit off of what KP said what weiss Is he too close to what went wrong last year? Or is he the perfect closeness of what went wrong last year? You had injuries in Atlanta and you don't need this guy coming in and going, oh hey, I saw from the outside that you guys did this, and you guys did that. He was so close, he saw the injury, He seize the talent, and he knows this is a playoff possibly another World Series winning team. So is he the perfect person for this job? Is he the perfect person?

00:28:25
Speaker 5: I don't know the answer to that. I will say this, I think the most important job of a manager is you have to one you have to get the respect of your players and two you have to be able to manage a clubhouse for six months and get twenty six guys. We'll make a ton of money to row in the same direction. And the tactical stuff on the field is very much secondary to just keeping a clubhouse together. And what Weiss has been in that clubhouse for like ten years as the bench coach. The players love him, they adore him. Walt played baseball, He's been at every level. He commands a incredible amount of respect. And so like the biggest hurdles you have to clear as a manager, I feel like he's already cleared, you know. Now will it work? I mean, we'll see. Last year did not go well. I don't know how much of that I would put on Brian Snitker versus really, you know, the injuries were devastating. The offense really struggled last year the first half. We're gonna have to figure out what happened there. I still don't know what happened there. But again I don't know that that was on snit And the biggest parts of being a manager, I think are the parts of what Weiss that I'm most confident in. And so, yeah, it was a surprising hire. People a lot of people thought they'd go outside the organization, new blood, especially after how the last year went. But I understood their logic of he's just highly respected and that's that's a lot of the battle of being a successful big league manager.

00:29:48
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, I'm not that far removed from that clubhouse. And I know the two of them co existed and worked under each other, but two slightly different, not slightly, very big different personalities. Yeah, I love the higher Boltwiss is an incredible man, incredible human being, very intense, where Snitt is a little bit more laid back. Snitt has his moments, but wall is like a cage fighter. He's a UFC fighter, like in a manager's body. So I think he's going to get the most out of these guys. I know the guys in that room love him, respect him. He's a guy you're gonna be willing to run through a wall for. It's not really a question. But like I said, I'm not too far removed from that clubhouse. The biggest elephant in the room for the Braves is just health. Because the same cast of characters that I was there with in twenty twenty three, that one, one hundred and five games is not a whole lot different than they are now. I mean, you know, they've added some young talent, they brought some other pieces, but how the hell do they just stay healthy? Because when healthy, you know they're a top three, top four baseball team.

00:30:50
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean health is health in the offense. Figure out what happened to the offense. You know, the power has been way down. Austin Riley is kind of taking a couple steps back, just like League just the team wide, like the power has gone away and that was the driving force behind that twenty twenty three record setting offense. But yeah, keeping guys healthy. I don't know the secret sauce to keeping guys healthy. I think, like what you were talking about about building in a couple more off days, I talked about with the pitching staff, adding depth, not having to lean on the same five guys for six months, being able to spread the load around to try to get guys to October. But yeah, I mean, obviously there's plenty of teams that would love to figure out the magic formula to keeping guys healthy. I don't know, but when the guys are healthy, they do need to go back to hitting homers. They need to go back to being an explosive offense. That was what they were built on. That's what they built this kind of this run on. They locked up all of their position players because they expected this thing to be built on offense. And quite frankly, the last two years, the offense just hasn't been good enough. Even when guys were healthy, it hasn't been good enough. And so Profar is gonna get a full year, Acunya is gonna get.

00:31:55
Speaker 3: A full year.

00:31:56
Speaker 5: Riley's back next year, Olsen will figure out what they do at DH. Drake and Sean Murphy should be a pretty solid catching tandem. You know, they've got talent, They got to keep it healthy and the offense has got to perform to expectations.

00:32:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, quick follow up too. You kind of touched on it. I know how important Marcelo Zuna was for those guys being in that clubhouse. Obviously he didn't have a great year the year before historic year. Do you see the Braves not going out and getting a full time DH and just kind of utilizing that spot for the two catchers. Maybe some of that load management is getting Riley or Olsen or Cooney off his feet and allowing them to DH.

00:32:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's been a big question, is what are they gonna do with DH. You know, Azuna did not have a good year. He had the hip stuff. That was still kind of a mystery.

00:32:46
Speaker 2: You know.

00:32:47
Speaker 5: I don't know what his market's gonna look like overall. I don't know if the Braves are gonna have interest.

00:32:50
Speaker 2: I do.

00:32:51
Speaker 5: I would love to see the team use that DH spot as a way to give multiple guys days off throughout the week, versus having a set DH all the time. I think that's too restrictive on the roster, and I do think it would help keep guys healthy. Like if you got an outfielder that could give a Kunya in profar days off during the week and let those guys DH, that'd help those guys get to October, if you if you did the same thing for Riley and Olsen. I mean, Olson's gonna play every day anyways, but yeah, get guys off their feet. Use the DH as a way to help solve this injury problem that's that's cursed you the last two years. And then on the pitching side, use your bullpen and use your depth to do the same thing for those guys sitting here today. That's my best guess. But yeah, what they do at DH is a big question of the offseason. I mean I didn't put it on the list because they've got other things more pressing, but yeah, they got to I mean, they gotta do something with that DH spot in we'll see what Ozuna's market looks like. I think it's gonna be pretty suppressed because of the year he had and the injury in his age, but we'll see.

00:33:50
Speaker 1: Great analysis. Thank you so much, Steven, and you check out Hamer Territory on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.