Free Agent Waiting Game and Braves Bounce-Back Candidates

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Hammer Territory podcast. This is episode three one seven. I'm your host for everyone, coming to you on a Sunday evening here in early January, our first show of twenty twenty six on this podcast feed. And I'm joyed today as I usually am. By Scott Coleman. Scott, it's been pretty quiet. We made it through the holidays. It's a new year.

00:00:41
Speaker 2: How are you, hello, Brad? Happy new year to you and everybody out there. And hey, twenty twenty five was not the Braves year? Is that fair to say? To put it as lightly as humanly possible? But thank god, a new calendar year. Let's hope better days on the horizon for the Braves. And it has been painfully slow across Major League Baseball the last couple of weeks. All of those executives deserve time off with their families and friends and to unplug a little bit. But as we're going to talk about a little on the show tonight, there are a ton of free agents out there. It seems like the trade market might be getting ready to heat up as well, so hopefully over the next month or so, as spring training gets closer and closer. We have a lot of action for the Braves and across the rest of the league.

00:01:26
Speaker 1: For sure. We are in that zone now where it starts to pick up again. At least usually there are sometimes a move over the holiday, like this year there was the Tatsuyumi flurry of activity because there was a deadline there. That's why. That's what spurred that. We did a show where Shawn Steven talks about him and I think there was some real smoke about the Braves. And then, by the way, he got this very interesting contract that we won't analyze in full, but a three year deal with the Astros that has an opt out after both of the first two seasons. I don't know about you, Scott. My first thought was that Oxen Thapas would rather jump up a building than hand out that contract.

00:02:02
Speaker 2: So very very friendly to am. I good on him, and good on Scott Boris forgetting the deal. But when it was reported that Emai was going to the Astros, I think about thirty seconds later and Astros beat reporter chimed in and said it's a three year deal with multiple opt outs, and I said, well, yep, that's why. I just there's probably a point in time for Alex Andthopolis to break his no player opt out rule. I don't know if Tatsu yet am I is that player, but eventually we might get to that point.

00:02:36
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't think it has to be a hard and fast rule, but what I would not want to do is pay a posting fee and then have an opt after a year one and then again after year two, like to the point where if he's decent at all, he's going to opt out. And you know there are worse things than that if you get once he's not a guy. But anyway, not a ASTROS podcast. You alluded this though we are six weeks away from pictures and Catchers reporting. We've made fun of that plenty in the past about like that's really fun for about one day when guys report, but it is a milestone. We're getting closer to that. And this is one of your favorite topics. But essentially half of the top free agents available are still available, which is kind of funny a Corey, and you pulled the U. I've thought about reading the numbers that you wrote down on our document here. It'd be very bad radio, so I won't do that. I did add them up so our friends a LB Trade Rivers had the top fifty. We talked about a lot already this winter. Basically six of the top ten guys on that list are still available as of January fourth, nine of the top twenty five and twenty one of the top fifty. That's mind blowing to me, but it's also not It's kind of on brand for baseball. With that said, we're not getting any closer to being able to close the door on free agency and free agency talk and speculation, and I'm sure it might seem repetitive to you the listener. It does to me as well, to be honest with you, but that's the life that we've chose in covering baseball and the market as it is. So, Scott, where's your head at with free agency? Knowing that the Braves still potentially have some work that they could do, and that I know we have talked at nauseum as a foursome about the pitching market, in particular.

00:04:12
Speaker 2: The starting pitching market is I mean, everybody has their eyes on it, and it's probably been the slowest market across the board in Major League Baseball. And Dylan Sees signed early, but other than Sees, I think probably four of the top six arms on the market are still available, whether that be Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez, Zach Gallon, Chris Bassett. All of those are like established, good to great starting pitchers, and the Braves presumably have money if the right deal comes along, so we'll see if that finally starts to shake out in the next couple of weeks. There's also a couple of really good hitters out there still, Kyle Tucker, Boba Schett. I don't necessarily think those are real options for Atlanta, but I mean someone's got to sign him. And sometimes if the team has their eyes on one of the big name hitters and they don't get them, well, then they shift their money elsewhere and go, Okay, let's go get a pitcher or two for what we were going to maybe pay Kyle Tucker or Bobaschett. So it's gonna be fascinating over the next couple of weeks to see just where these big names land. There's also this pending lockout and a new CBA that's twelve months away for baseball that seemingly has played a factor into players who have signed. It's been a really interesting offseason so far. And maybe the Braves are going to be able to swoop in and get a player for a little bit less than what the predictions two months ago suggested. These players are going to get.

00:05:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, once you get this late in the off season, those predictions become usually, I would say a little bit less accurate because there's just a lot more volatility in the market. We've seen the Japanese. The Japanese guys have gone way underneath their projection. Those are more complicated. Those are always difficult to project because we don't have the information on those guys, but they've all come in way under Emi included despite the odd kind of I the way that deal is built with the opt outs. But we got a question that I actually want to ask you, and it's not the most real life question, but it could be a real life application. So that's where we'll kind of go with this. But the question came in from Welch, who says, if the only goal was to make the Braves better in twenty twenty six and money didn't matter, keep that in mind only this season mighty doesn't matter. That's important by laws here, which remaining free agent? Would you want the Braves to add and My first thought was everyone's going to sue based on what we have always said about needing more pitching, that you picked the best pitcher and add that picture spoiler. That's not my answer. Do you want me to go first? You want to go first?

00:06:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, go first, because you have an interesting answer. Your answer is not what I immediately thought of, So yes, please take the floor.

00:06:49
Speaker 1: So I will give a little bit of a hat to Grant McCaulay front of the pod also at Capitol Avenue. Great I think retired Braves blogger, but very smart Braves person, and they're having this chat online that inspired to some degree. But my answer is actually Kyle Tucker. I was not shouldn't be terribly controversial to add Kyle Tucker. He's going to be at a sky high price, which is why this is a priceless endeavor. But my stance is very clear. I think you said the same thing, they need starting pitching. I stand by that. I'm not avoiding that they need more pitching. I believe that. With that said, if you're I think Kyle Tucker is enough better than any pitcher that is available, and position players are safer. They also have generally more impact on a War basis or however you want to put that. They're in the lineup every day. And looking back at this is where the conetation that Grant was having with Captitol Avenue on Twitter inspired this. Looking back at the Braves from a couple of years ago. Now, twenty twenty three wasn't outlier season. I'm not saying it wasn't, but the Braves had arguably the best offense of all time. We're saying, certainly top five of all time offense. They won one hundred and four games. We all know the story. I actually had, not like forgotten, but kind of memory hold how average that pitching staff was like the Braves. I looked it up. Had the number eleven pitching staff by Fangrafts war that season, which isn't bad, but it's not great. You know, it's above average. They were twelve in starting pitching fangrafts four. That's easy. And they won one hundred and four games because scoring run Scott usually is a very very good thing when short taking a baseball team. And that's I know it's very obvious, but I look back like three or four or five years. I won't give you all the data right now, it's become a long answer. But if you're a top five, top six offense in baseball, it's almost always ninety wins in a playoff spot. Like even if if you if you have bad pitching, like you have to have very very bad pitching to have a top five offense and not make the playoffs. And really it's about getting in the dance when it comes to all that. So that's the short version of the answer. I would maybe given a thirty minute answer later on, but Kyle talk. The short answer is that I think that the Braves neat pitching. If you could add Kyle Tucker without penalty in this fantasy scenario, yeah, I understand they if you start doing the math, like, okay, they have kind of an extra player now, but that isn't a problem. Having too many good hitters is not a problem. Katucker is better than all of the players in the Braves outfield sands Ronald Kunya, and so if you have to have less played appearances for Michael Streemsky or Jerson Profar, sorry, guys, Katucker's better than you. That's what it comes down to do for me. So you can certainly I will throw it to you. Maybe your answer is one of the pictures. It's not a crazy answer to say one of the pictures because they need that. But I think I really would go down with Katucker. If you took Tucker off the market, then it becomes interesting because it's like, would I'd rather have Cody Bellinger or Bob Shitt versus a pitcher that's a lot closer to me, But I actually a pretty firmly I would take Kyle Tucker even with everything going on with the Braves.

00:10:05
Speaker 2: I had a really good, in depth discussion with Steven about a week ago on the show about this Brave's lineup and is it good enough as we expect it's going to be constructed moving forward? And sure they could totally shock us and signed Tucker or Bashett or Bellinger or trade for somebody, but for my money, and I think your money too. Objectively, we feel like this lineup is pretty much set other than maybe one more addition to the bench. And it's an interesting thought exercise. Is this lineup good enough? And are they going to score enough runs consistently to support what we feel like could be a pretty good pitching staff. But we know the last two years on offense have been nowhere near what we were hoping for. That's an interesting conversation. To answer the question, I immediately thought of Framber Valdez. I feel like he is the best pitcher on the market now. If you're only talking one year, I think the one year difference between Framber and Ranger Suarez.

00:11:03
Speaker 1: Is pretty small.

00:11:05
Speaker 2: And if you want to take Ranger Swarez over Framber Valdez for twenty twenty six, I wouldn't fight you on it. But if I needed the Braves to add an impact high end could take the ball in game one of a playoff series. I'm taking Framber Valdez all day long, and we'll see if the Braves have had discussions with Framber and maybe ultimately try to sign him. But it's a really interesting question because I think you can make a strong case even though kind of one through nine the lineup is pretty set on paper, there are some very real questions about this group after you get past maybe the top five.

00:11:39
Speaker 1: In the order, right and without making an this in an hour conversation, there's also some freedom. While I strongly believe the Braves need more pitching, they do have some pitching already, which makes it easier to take the bat. In my mind, like if the Braves had zero pitching, if we were like, man, they're like twenty eighth right now in projected rotation, then the pitching because the floor is so low. You know, I looked at the depth charts today on fangraund. I think the Brands are like seventh or eighth and starting pitching projection war right now. You know, your manage may vary on that, but it's not. They're not twenty eighth. Like they're in okay shape with the pitching. They need more. But between that reality and again, like I don't want to beat the dead horse, but a good position player is just more valuable than a good picture in a vacuum. Like that's just what it is. They just they're they're on the field more, they have more opportunities to impact things, and.

00:12:32
Speaker 2: Over over one hundred and sixty two games, correct, I agree. I think they'll in October give and give me the impact starter over the bat.

00:12:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's actually it's a good way to I was thinking more big picture, but yeah, you're right. Like one of the ways to argue against me would be if you really believe frame Ravaldez is like a dominant playoff level guy. Then yeah, that that that might swing it in your favor, especially if you project the brasement the playoffs, which I think we probably do at this point. But I thought it was a good exercise and it is more theoretical. Obviously, Collin Tucker's not gonna sound a one year deal with the Braves for five dollars like we would hope that he would. But I think it's fascinating and oddly, while I like the Ustrimsky move more than most people did, it would have been more interesting to see the reaction if the Braves had like spent big on a bat and people would have because people were bothered anyway that they wouldn't got Yustrimsky in this role. And it's like, what if they had spent even more, like if they wouldn't got Cody Bellinger instead of Michael Scrimsky, what would the reaction have been. I would have liked it, but fans wouldn't have. Maybe I don't know. It would have been strange to.

00:13:38
Speaker 2: Me offensively, other than Hassan Kim, who I think we all agree it will be a significant improvement over Nick Allen at Shortstop. They are really putting some eggs in the basket that Mike Yustremsky, at age thirty five, is going to carry over what he has done against right handed pitching for basically his entire career, and I think he will. If he was thirty eight years old, I might be mildly terrified. And I think there was nothing in Yastroemsky's profile to make me think that this is going to fall off a cliff tomorrow. But they are really banking on Yastroemsky continuing to hit right handed pitching because he's never really hit lefties. It's a calculated gamble, but one I think we're going to be holding our breath on.

00:14:18
Speaker 1: For a little while. They are also putting a lot of eggs in the basket of some positive regression from internal guys, Austin Riley chief among them, but then also Michael Harris and Izy Alby's. And we'll get to a question actually about both Michael and Ozzy in just a moment after I work more partners. Okay, Scott, the aforementioned question is here from Stephen, not our Stephen, just a Stephen in the world. Hello Steven Tolbert, if you're listening, not you do you have? The question is do you have more confidence in Ozzy Alby's or Michael Harris bouncing back next season? One of the ultimate questions, because I do think that Riley just as a small sidebar. I think Riley is more than either Harris or Ozzy personally because of the money, because of all those things. But putting where I would decide, I will give you the first the first floor, and perhaps we'll go first take style here. Maybe I'll maybe I'll just take the other guy to see what you say thoughts.

00:15:15
Speaker 2: So who am I more confident in bouncing back? Ozzy Alby's are Michael Harris? My first thought was Ozzy Alby's and then I remembered he broke the hamdmate bone in the same hand and wrist that he broke a year ago.

00:15:31
Speaker 1: Scott, that is so funny. I have to say, that is exactly we didn't. We didn't listen. It's not on our document we have. We have lots of notes back and forth. We didn't say this. That's exactly what I thought, like exactly, now keep going, we'll talk about it.

00:15:43
Speaker 2: But uh yeah, it's almost like we've been doing podcasts for a decade at this point, it is almost like that. So I will take Michael Harris because I am legitimately concerned about yet another hand and wrist injury for Ozzy Alby's, whose offensive game has been in decline, and in three of the last four years, Ozzie has been a flat out disappointment between performance and injuries. That being said, Michael Harris man alive.

00:16:11
Speaker 1: He was.

00:16:12
Speaker 2: I knew Michael Harris had struggled last season. He was impossibly bad when you look back on his first half. He hit two ten with a two thirty four on base three seventeen slug and a forty seven WRC plus, which is worse in baseball. Michael Harris brad, this guy was Rookie of the Year three years ago and he carried the worst WRC plus in the majors. Quick reminder, one one hundred is league average and he was forty seven. That's impossibly bad. Then he went nuclear from July twentieth to August twentieth, turned into Barry Bonds a two fourteen WRC plus and ops above eleven hundred. Michael Harris was basically the best hitter in the game for a month, but then he was bad again. Right after that, and if Harris was able to keep it going, I think I'd be even more optimistic. But he had a fifty three WRC plus the last six weeks of the year. He did have a pretty good last couple ten fourteen games of the season, which I know he was talking about frequently changing his stance in the box and where his hands were placed. And I think that's why I'm a little more optimistic, between both the health of Michael Harris and his age and the fact that we have seen him do this at a high level. But to be blunt, until Michael Harris learns how to identify pitches better, learns what pitches to swing at and not swing at. He had the worst chase rate in the majors last year, and it was nearly worse than three years before that. I'm not super confident in either of these guys fully bouncing back, but because of the injury to all these I will take Michael Harris has a better chance of bouncing back.

00:17:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you. I think that it's interesting because if the framing was just at the plate, I might take Ozzie because I think he's baseline at the plate is higher than Michael Harris's Harris is Harris. Harrison's higher upside probably at the plate, but as He's downside is higher. It's provided he's somewhat healthy, which I think he probably will be. But you just laid it out. I mean, Harris's downside the plate is really ugly. It really is, like it is, I mean, not the first person to me in comparison, but it is. It is. After the league figured out jefferan core ugly, that is. That's the comparison. I mean, I'm sorry to everybody involved. What's at school with Jeff. I know Jeff. That is the comparison. It is, and that's not a good comparison. If you're Michael Harris, that's not where you want to be lumped in at the plate. I've heard arguments, actually maybe this is a different conversation for a different day that I'm with you on the on the walks like, he's never gonna be a high walk guy. That's just not gonna happen. He needs to take more. But it's almost like maybe he should be even more aggressive, because if you're not gonna walk, maybe you just turn, like maybe maybe you go hobby bias, like and you just hack and run into run, run into a few, like just hit more home runs because he has good power. I mean, Michael's got real power anyway. That's a different conversation. But the reason why I would lean Harris isn't the plate. It's the fact that he plays center field, can run and plays defense. Like if Michael Harris is even an ady w RC plus, which is bad, to be clear, he's still a like starting level player because he's not good at defense. It's in centerfield. If Ozzie is the AWC plus he's not, he's not. He's not a good player. That's that's what it comes down to. So like some of the projection systems really like Harris, Like ZIPS is very high on Harris. I think he's like three and a half wins, Like it's a really aggressive projection. I would be under on that. I hope I'm wrong, but I still would probably lean in Michael's direction, in part because Ozzy is older. You know, it's worth remembering Michael Harris is currently twenty four years old, that'll be twenty five in March. He's very very young, which is part of why projecting sisters are are still gonna like him because he should be on the upswing. Still, Ozzie it is not on the upswing now. He's younger than you might think. Os would be twenty nine in a couple of days, and twenty nine it's like right in the middle of your prime. But when you're five to five, I'm not sure twenty nine is in your prime. He might just have a little bit of an odd agent curve.

00:20:13
Speaker 2: Oh so, almost certainly. And there's other things too with Ozzy Alby's that makes me concerned. And let's say, like we love Ozzie Alby's, love Assie, like if you just like personality wise what he's you know, his reputation on off the field. We are huge Ossy Alby's fans. But I'm I'm pretty concerned. I really don't think Ozzy's gonna bounce back now. If everybody else in the lineup is doing their job, I think it's gonna be fine. But I have some legit concern. I mean, maybe you're not as concerned as I am. Brad All, I mean, where are you at?

00:20:45
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not as concerned as some people are. I also think people should not think that odd is gonna be a star again, Like Ozzi was a star, like a four win, five win Star Wars player. That guy's gone. I think I think he can be what SIMS projects, which is like a two win player, and that is not exciting. That's not going to be exciting to anybody. But that's a twenty million dollar player and he makes seven million dollars, So like I would. Okay, so I'll ask you this, if you could sign up for whatever way he gets there. Ozzy Albi's posts a two Fangraft four season in twenty twenty six. Yes or no? Do you take that right now? Yes?

00:21:31
Speaker 2: Because, to be blunt, I think that's probably pretty close to Ozzie's ceiling after another handmate bone injury. I worry about the power. His defense has graded out terribly the last couple of seasons. He's also lost a step. He was only forty fourth percentile in sprint speed, whereas a couple of years ago he was routinely in the seventies and eighties. So I'm pretty concerned. I mean, if it's not clear, I am capital letters concerned about Ozzie Alby's I hope he's able to bounce back. But I mean, to answer your question, I would take a two war season all day long.

00:22:03
Speaker 1: I would too. I think he has higher upside than that, but his upside is not what it was like. You know, for instance, twenty twenty three, he hit thirty three home runs and was a one point of five WSC plus and a four win player. That guy's probably gone, I think, But can he be I don't know, like a one to ten WRC plus league average. Maybe defensively, like that's a good player. It's not a great player anymore. But you know, we're talking about this probably too long. I we both would take Carris. It's funny. I think if you asked me who's going to be the better offensive player, I would take Aussie.

00:22:43
Speaker 2: Interesting. You know, I probably would have until he broke the Handmaid down.

00:22:49
Speaker 1: I mean, if I thought he was healthy, I would take Auzsie for sure. Like I wouldn't even think about it offensively, only with the Handmaid bone. You're right, it's there's there's a level of uncertainty that we have to acknowledge him with that we have in knowledge, like we don't we don't know what it's going to look like. But having just had that, it clearly affected him. The numbers showed that I think the comments on and off the record showed that as well. You know he does. If you're gonna do that, doing it right for the offense is probably a good time for it to happen, like you have the whole off season. But maybe he's not one hundred percent ready, not ready to go like he'll he'll play earlier in the year. But maybe he's not, like himself told June. And if that happens, then yeah, you gotta dog rate him a little bit for sure.

00:23:30
Speaker 2: And for reference in case, folks, the handmate bone is a notorious bone that hitters break in their hand and it's known to zap your power and impact your grip strength. A lot of power hitters, just hitters in general, have broken this bone getting hit in the hand and then zaps their power for a certain amount of time and everyone responds differently. And you're absolutely right. The fact that Ozzie broke that bone in September, he has six plus seven months to get back to being healthy. That's encouraging because in the second half of last season Ozzie carried a one to eleven WRC plus and in ops of about seven fifty. That's so much more in line yes, all day long. Oh my god, yeah, send it in no questions asked. I just I worry about yet another injury to the same hand, to the same risk to a player who is smaller is unconventional, has always been unconventional. That that really does have me concerned. And I would love nothing more than for Ozzy in the first month of the year to hit aid home runs and say in your eye Scott Coleman and and you know, and come on the podcast and laugh at me forever doubting him.

00:24:38
Speaker 1: He's one of the guys that I think we'll pay close attention to in spring training than most because for me, like Sperence, training is not about like it's about like are you healthy? Do you look like? Like do you have the juice? What are you saying on the record, Like what's the buzz about his health? Like obviously Sean Murphy is one of those where it's like, hey, are you able to play? But Oz is one to kind of quiet le monitor. I think everyone's saying he's gonna be good to play, but good to play and one hundred percent back to where you were physically are not the same thing, which is notable. So anyway, a good question good prompt confidence level is really interesting. They need this is a different question. They need one of these guys to bounce back. I don't know if you're gonna get both. I would take one, to be honest with you. Maybe maybe that's the pessimist in me, but they need one. If you get what you got from Ozzie and Michael last year, that's not good. That's gonna be now. Granted it won't be as bad because you're already reference to this, but not having Nick Allen the lineup makes everything a little bit easier. But you still don't want to have the twenty twenty five level of Harris and the twenty five level of Ozzie in the same line of every day. That's not what you want.

00:25:48
Speaker 2: I think you can withstand one of them being bad. It's gonna be really tough. If both of these guys struggle as badly as they struggled last year, we're gonna be kind of hanging on for dear life because the top of this line and can only do so much.

00:26:03
Speaker 1: All right, Scott, Let's pivot to another question from Mike, who says, does Louise Severino make sense for a Braves trade if they don't sign a free agent starter interesting question, I Gott. We talked about a couple times on the pod, but not in a ton of depth. And I think once the Braves made their pitching coach change because Jeremy Hefner has experienced with Severino, which you pointed out I think already on the podcast and again to me in the documentary right now, but just to lay to set up a little bit what he's contract looks like, and I'll throw it to you. He is going to make twenty five million this year. That's a lot of money, I understand, but it's not crazy in the world. I'll starting pitching prices and then a player option, aha player option for twenty two million dollars next year. I have to say this out loud. He plays with the A's. I have a feeling that A's might pay some of that contract if they were to be able to shed it from their books. So you're not like, this is a situation where you're getting a guy and you know you're paying all the contracts. Uh, maybe they would have to, but the A's probably are not in love with that contract given where they operate financially. So all that said, the question is you were a Scott Does he make sense for the Braves? Yes?

00:27:18
Speaker 2: Or no. Louis Severino the last two seasons has a four point two ERA, a four point one six FIP and a four point three six x FIP across about fifty five starts with the Mets and the Athletics. And it's interesting because my take on Louis Severino is I'm not interested today, but get back to me in three or four weeks. Once from Bravaldez assigned, Ranger Swarez assigned, Chris Bassett, Zach Gallen, whoever else is no longer available. If the Braves strikeout or don't want to go to whatever links it is to sign one of those free agents, I would be mildly interested. Reno. I think what I would want is to basically one give up no prospects of no. I mean, if they want to throw in a sixteen year old so it hasn't even made it to the States. Yeah. And then also either the a's cover money or the Braves would send Aaron Bummer in his ten million dollars to Sacramento to balance it out, because then you're getting Louis Severino for like fifteen million bucks. That's not bad.

00:28:24
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that there.

00:28:25
Speaker 2: I mean, that is not a lot of money for starting pitchers in the year twenty twenty six. So I'm not in love with sever Reno. But he is an interesting name because, and you alluded to this a moment ago, Oakland slash Sacramento would give this guy away. I mean they would. They would personally drive him to the airport to say see you later. Sever Reno also probably once out he openly criticized the ballpark that the A's were playing in, and I mean it was it was little league, and I mean it's a legitimate minor league.

00:28:52
Speaker 1: They're still playing there, by the way, Yes they are. He hated it.

00:28:56
Speaker 2: So an interesting name. I wouldn't say it's zero percent. I think it's a low chance that the Braves will get Severino. But if again, if all the free agents signed for crazy contracts or get you know, opt outs after every year like em I just got, then maybe you have that conversation. And I mean I would take him over Bryce Elder. I can tell you that right now.

00:29:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm with you. Not a priority acquisition, you would certainly prefer Baldezer Swarez full stop Gallan. It still depends on what the money is with Gallen. I'm not in love with Gallen, but he is a I like the upside a lot better with Gallon than Severino. I went through the numbers a little bit on this number one his stuff plus, which is a good metric of like just how how good your stuff is. It was good last year. I took too kind of actually a half step forward, odd situation like he's signed there. It was like when he signed with the A's, people are like, what's going on here? And the A's kind of like needed to spend some money for revenue sharing purposes and all these Anyway, they decided to give him money, and it was kind of an odd situation. The way you put it is perfect because while I have been higher on the Chris Bassett types than you this winter, I think Louis Severino is like very comparable with Chris Bassett. And I don't mean that in like an awesome, like pump your fist way, but for example, they have almost the exact same fangrafts for and innings totals over the last two seasons. They're both like two and a half win per season pitchers. The last two years. Not sexy, but good eat innings, pretty durable, guys. Severrino's four years younger than Bassett, and that's the kind of deal Bassett's gonna get. Like what Severrino's owed is basically two years and forty seven million dollars if you factor in the player option, that's like what Bassett's probably gonna get. And if it's the situation that you laid out, like I'm not saying you trade, you know, Ken Kimen Eddie for Louis Averno, that would be insane. You don't do that. You don't trade any I'm with you, no top ten prospects for Louis Severno. But if the price is bargain basement and your other options are gone, like I could definitely see Alex saying I'd rather trade essentially nothing for Luis Severino then give Zach Gallon one hundred million dollars. Yeah, oh yeah, that's defensible to me. Now I'd rather pay one hundred million dollars for Rader Suarez or Favorite moll Is than trade for Luis Arena personally, but as they fall back in a month, in six weeks, it's not crazy, like you could certainly convince me that that would be a relatively responsible addition, especially if the price is as low as I think that it might be. Also one of my pet projects, Tyler Mallley signed this week, one of the few guys who signed recently rip to. One of my dreams was that Tyler Balley would sign for like eight million dollars to the Bravees. I'm kind of kidding about the dream, but like guy, I would have liked the Braves to sign.

00:31:51
Speaker 2: No.

00:31:51
Speaker 1: I think Sevrina is interesting in a sick o way, like no one would be excited, not even us, Like we come on and be like, all right, here's the deal. Everybody body pretty useful, pitcher, not sexy. So if we're saying that, the reaction would probably be like this guy stinks, get him out. He It's fine, that's the normal reaction. But the Hefner piece does make it my brain go a little bit up. But also it might be that Hefner's like, hey, Alex, no, we don't know. We don't know if we we don't know if he loves him or not. And it's uh, it will never know if he doesn't like him, you know what I mean?

00:32:23
Speaker 2: Right, So that familiarity. Yeah, familiarity with the player is not always positive. I mean, yes, there is that easy line connection between Severino who just for reference, Severino's career was basically on life support. He signed with the Mets. Jeremy Hefner was the pitching coach with the Mets, and Severino had his best year in a couple of seasons and ultimately got a two year plus one contract with Sacramento, and everyone was like, wow, Okay, good for sever Reino.

00:32:48
Speaker 1: He's back.

00:32:48
Speaker 2: Well, of course one time a major pitcher with the New York Yankees. So that's why there's been a little bit of connecting the dots. It would feel very alex and thoughtless, especially if he was able to unload Aaron Bummer or if Sacramento threw in eight to twelve million dollars to cover some of that money. That's why he makes sense. And you're right, I mean, if get back to me on January twentieth and and we'll make a decision on whether or not it makes sense to pursue Severino.

00:33:17
Speaker 1: That's not that far away. That's a two weeks from I Scott, there's a chance that Suarez and Valdez are still available on that's true.

00:33:22
Speaker 2: Okay, get back to me on January twenty seventh. That's my mom's birthday. Happy early birthday Mom. January twenty seventh. We'll have maybe the Luis Severino discussion if nothing else has happened.

00:33:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, Shults of Scott's mom. No, And look, there's always a guy or too, like Sevrino. I think everyone understands it's probably available in trade. We talked about Joe Ryan earlier this summer early winter, Pablo Lopez, like that kind of guy's there's probably somebody available. We don't know he's available. That Alex bite Bilda pounce on. And it's one of those things that like we just kind of he's a very natural fallback option. Who I Yeah, I think it's comparable, not better than Chris Bassett, but like somewhat in that like next year down. If the price is right, and again the price is low. If the price is high, we're out. I could probably speak for you on that. And the price is high're right.

00:34:15
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, Please don't hear this. Please don't hear this segment and go, oh, the guys on hammerd Territory are banging the door.

00:34:21
Speaker 1: For lay Severino we're not.

00:34:24
Speaker 2: But if rahmber Valdez gets two hundred million dollars and Ranger Suarez gets a six year deal, and we don't believe in Zach Gallon enough, and Chris Bassett beats Merrill Kelly who got two years and forty million, then I would if it's all things equal, I don't necessarily want Louis Severino, but if the Braves strikeout everywhere else, yes, and I am fascinated to know of the we'll call it rumored to be available starting pitchers on the trade market. Who's actually available, Like there was some smoke earlier today with Edward Cabrera from the Marlins might be available, and sounds like a couple of teams to there. Earlier in the off season there was talking about Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan, but there's been nothing on that front ever since. Maybe the Twins aren't going to sell. There's a lot of not a lot of there's some bad teams in baseball who probably makes sense for trade partners with the Braves. I think at this point we're just waiting for the free agency dominoes to fall, and then there will be a little bit of a scattering of trade stuff in the back end of January before everybody has to get ready to go come early February.

00:35:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and unfortunately everything's full circle. The market is just it's kind of a waiting game. And I think that just as a lot of people, whether you're a school teacher or you're going on or you do sales or whatever, you're going back to work, like tomorrow or maybe today's wisten this podcast, the fifth is like the day that everyone goes back to work. That's probably the case of maj Wely baseball to some degree as well. It's a different job, but kind of there's some normalcy to it. The holidays are over, and I think this week we'll probably see a little bit more fireworks than we saw last week. Non Japanese player division when it comes to posting. So yeah, with that said, it's a new year, Scott. It's twenty twenty six. Our first show is in the books for the most part. You mentioned it earlier, but last year was not a lot of fun. Like I like talking to you, I like talking to Sean, I like talking to Steven, all of our guests. I enjoyed it. In the podcast. The Braves had a nightmare season Nightmber Year, Nemour calendar year last year. I don't want to tempt fate by saying it can't get worse, because it can always get worse. But I don't think it will. I think it will be better in twenty twenty six. How much better remains to be seen. But we're catching in the fire again. About baseball, We're getting closer. Spring training is on the in the offing. Scott and I are fans of the number one, number two teams in college basketball. You might be able to see our moods improve as the spring goes along. That goes well, you know, we're almost there. It's a new year, Scott, happy to we did not do the construction of New Year's resolutions that every podcast does. Maybe we should have. Maybe we'll do that in two weeks. What nothing else is going on but a pleasure to talk to you once again as this New Year's upponus.

00:37:09
Speaker 2: Yes, Happy New Year's to you, my good friend and everybody out there. And I just want to give take a quick moment to give a sincere thank you to everybody who has checked out the show, whether you've been listening to us since the Talking Chop days, or you joined on three weeks ago, and I'm sure there's every day I hear, hey we just found you guys, I didn't know you changed hosting sites, or wow, we just found the show.

00:37:32
Speaker 1: We love it.

00:37:32
Speaker 2: Thanks for all you do. We really do appreciate you guys checking out the show. It means the world to us. You would never know this team has had such a bad twenty twenty five.

00:37:40
Speaker 1: The way that everybody tunes in that gives us a reason.

00:37:43
Speaker 2: We really do strive to give you, guys the best Braves content on the internet. And we'll continue to keep rolling in twenty six, and God willing, let's have a better season, maybe have another signing or two in the next couple of weeks, and then let's get back to the playoffs. Let's do those playoff series, Let's do those playoff game reactions and shows that you know we're sweating, and then we fire up the microphones and do a fun show. Let's get back to more of that for the Braves in twenty twenty six.

00:38:08
Speaker 1: I agree with my friend. Please subscribe everybody, if you have not, if you just foind us now, hey, welcome on board, Please go ahead subscribe. If you are an audio listener, Apple Spotify, et center. Easy to subscribe there. If you want to take two seconds and a'llo subscribe on YouTube, be very helpful to go ahead and do that. That's literally a one click endeavor and the same in reverse if you if you're a video watcher on YouTube, thank you for being here. As always, please subscribe on your favorite podcastlet from as well. Audio wise, Apple Spotify auto download the show. All the clicks help us not to try a game system, but it's true that it all helps us patronize our our advertisers, all that stuff, ratings, reviews. Follow Scott if you want to on social media is an excellent follow on the Braves. He's at Scott Pullum fifty five. I'm a kind of a bad Braves follow, so if you want to follow me, that's okay at pt Roland. But Steve and Sewan and Scott are way better follow us than I am about baseball only because I do like it's basketball season. I'm doing a lot of basketball now. It's just what it is. It's worked for me. One more time, Thank you everyone for listening. We'll have much more coming up this week, a more normal schedule moving forward the holidays are over. We're back in full the Stay tuned subscribe. We'll see everybody next time.