Breaking Down Jurickson Profar's 162 Game PED Suspension

00:00:20
Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Hammer Territory Podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. Hope, wherever you are and wherever you are listening, I would say that it's your lucky day because this is actually the second Hammer Territory production of the day. And you would think that that would be for positive reasons. But lo and behold when it comes to the Braves, No, that's not how things work. This is the full breakdown of the once again notable yet negative news that we got concerning the Braves. Outfielder DH Jerks and profar Reportedly nothing official as of yet because the full process has to happen. Has been suspended the whole season for ped use, his second ped suspension that has occurred over the past year. Just just an unbelievable development that I feel many are. Their first reaction is just just how how can this happen? And it's just hard to fathom. Scott Colman did a great job of giving an instant breakdown earlier today, but here with my podcast partner Stephen Tolbert, one of the best when it comes to breaking down the Braves, we want to go full into it. We want to go into what exactly the details are that's going to come from this suspension, what impact it has on the Braves, and how do the Braves respond, how do they pivot to potentially be able to, you know, deal with the year long loss of Jerks and Profar. But Steven, let's get right into it. I mean, it just it's one of those things that you just don't understand. I feel that that's the first way to look at it. And there are the details of what all comes from this concerning Profar in the Braves, and then there's just the emotional reaction of how stupid can you be?

00:02:09
Speaker 2: What's up, buddy? So let's go through the details first. We do want to I can hear Brad Rowland in my head saying like, we do want to be a level of professional about this, and lord knows, I'm the least professional of the four of us. So let's at least go through the details first. So about noon today and Scott did a good job of breaking this down, But in case you missed it, around noon today, Jeff Passing of ESPN, the preeminent you know, reporter in baseball, tweeted out that Joseph Profar was going to be serving one hundred and sixty two game suspension for his second failed PD test in as many years. Obviously, he failed in well, we don't actually know when he failed, but it was reported on that he failed last year around like five days into the season. That was an eighty game suspension. This is a second failed test, which just carries a hundred sixty two games suspension full season. Now I'm going to I'm going to say, I'm going to give him a small benefit of the debt. The Braves have not acknowledged this in any way, shape or form yet, which is odd. Which is a little odd because like last year when when Passing reported the Braves put out a statement like within thirty minutes, we're like, yeah, we're extremely disappointed in Jerksen, like you know, the normal stiff you hear when this happens. It has been i mean it's been like nine hours since this report. It was reported by Passing, it was confirmed by Ken Rosehalt, so literally the two biggest reporters in the sport have confirmed this. The Braves have not said a word. Also notable, Mark Bowman at no point today said anything. And Mark Bowman and the reason that's important is because when Alex wants to get a message out, but he doesn't want to do it directly from the team. He will send it to the beat writers, specifically Bowman, to get a message out, you know, of some sort either you know, we don't believe, we don't buy this. If it's a rumor he wants shut down, he uses you know, that's how That's how on front office has used their beat writers. So it's been crickets from everybody on the Braves side since this came out. That is weird. So I'm going to and then and then Rosevehalt came out and said that the union is going to be appealing this, which I think is mostly just I'm not gonna say performative, but it is mostly just the process. I think the union has to stand by their guy for so long. I don't Passonda a radio spot today is like, you know, this is this is just normal. So he from what he understands, there's nothing in profar As case that that specifically is interesting about an appeal. It's just part of the process. But the fact that the Braves have not said anything in like nine hours, eight or nine hours since this drop or I guess it's like six or seven hours since this drop. It's weird to me. So we're going to we're gonna say that upfront before we get to the umprofect stuff, and that's coming on the professional side. We're going to say upfront that the Braves have not in any way, shape or formed. They have not confirmed this, and by the way, MLB has also not confirmed this. This is just a report from Jeff Passon. But again, Jeff Passon is the number one reporter in the sport, so I want to cover our bases there. So that's the professional stuff. What we're going to do now is the unprofessional stuff, because I'm going to assume that this is accurate.

00:05:32
Speaker 1: You've got the prepared Tobert technicalities. Now it's time for the best part of the show, the unfiltered Tolbert takeaway.

00:05:40
Speaker 2: There will be some filter because we do want to keep our jobs. But I'm going to assume for the next five minutes of what I'm about to say that this is true and that he's going to serve one hundred and sixty two games suspension for a second failed PD test. This moron, How in the world, How in the world do you fail a set like once? I okay, you know a trainer gave me something. I was trying to get my wife pregnant. They gave us some weird pills whatever. You know that I believe all that stuff when he said it. Not really, but all right, whatever, that's fine. A second failed test, and again we're assuming for this segment that this is all true, that the number one reporter in the sport is not mistaken on this. What kind of a moron do you have to be to put something in your system that you don't know one thousand percent what it is, or you are just the biggest dumb ass on the face of the earth and you actually thought that you could get away with this. It's one of the two. You're either the biggest idiot or the honestly, you're just no, it's just the one. You're just the biggest idiot that's ever lived. And I have zero respect for jerks and profar. That dude has screwed the Braves over now twice. He's been on the team for two years. He's screwed him over twice. And I saw some people given Alex, you know, grief about this, like yes, in the binary fashion of anything that happens under the Braves, that Alex is in charge of Alex is responsible for I get that, but this is not Alex's fault. On what world do you think you're gonna have somebody so so stupid to not only felt one drag test but fell a second one. What planet would you ever think that's the case. How do you have how do you smart enough to put your pants on in the morning and dumb enough not to know to take not to take more supple? I mean, it's crazy, it's crazy. And of course this happens because being a fan of the Atlanta Braves the last two years has just been a It's been a circus. It is just every day waking up thinking, I wonder what Annvilla is gonna fall on my head today? Like it's like an Acme cart it really, I feel like the road Runner and the Coyote. Like it doesn't make sense. How does this happen every single year? How does it every week we get to come on this show and do some brutal, you know, emergency podcast because Austin Riley fell into farm equipment, or or Ronald Una Junior has been hit by a you know, a bus full of chicken. It's like every day it's something new. It's crazy. It drives me crazy. I don't know why we can't just have a normal damn off season and a normal damn spring training and Jersey profar if you're listening to this, you are a moron. You are an absolute moron. How are you this stupid? I don't get it. I don't get it. If something happened and the reason the Braves happened to responded is because you know, there was an error with the test or something, then I'll retract, I'll apologize for all that. But for right now, I'm gonna assume this is all true and Jersey Profile is just the biggest idiot that's ever lived.

00:08:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, and I have seen some people, you know, they can't wrap their head around how you can be this stupid, And I feel it's just one of those things where you just you save yourself some grief and just accept that you can't wrap your head around it.

00:09:15
Speaker 2: Right.

00:09:15
Speaker 1: I think it's one of those situations.

00:09:17
Speaker 2: I mean, he's either the biggest cheater in the world or the biggest moron in the world.

00:09:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, but let's put it into a bit more honest. Let's let's put it into a bit more context book. Jerks and Profar signed this contract with the Brakes on January twenty third of last year January twenty third of twenty twenty five. Up to that point, jerks and Profar had been in Major League Baseball for a little over nine years. In terms of service time, he'd earned roughly thirty five million dollars in his career, but because of his twenty twenty four breakout season, he earned forty two million dollars over the next three years, so he was set to make in three years one hundred and twenty percent of what he had made in nearly a decade of his MOB career. So far, it had paid off for him. Whether he if he cheated, he hadn't been caught, and it paid off for him. That money was right there for him to earn. But then in the thirteen months since that has occurred, he has squandered half of that contract. He will have squandered twenty one million dollars because of being busted for peds twice. And the other thing to take away from that is this is that he loses all that money. Everything that Jerks and Profar was likely looking forward to this season, it's gone World Baseball Classic, playing baseball in general, fifteen million dollars, which for his career earnings is life altering money, and also playing in the playoffs. It's gone, it's done, and you have likely you have likely wrote off the rest of your career unless you've come back and just have an, you know, absolutely outstanding season. That's what this comes down to. It's a masterclass in stupidity, and it's to a level that where if you're questioning it, it's probably just best to accept it's just one of those things you can't explain. The one thing though, that I will say, Stephen, is that while Jerks and Profar will be without the fifteen million dollars that no longer will be going to Healm, the Braves actually will recoup that money and have it at their disposal when it comes to their resources to potentially move on and pivot to answering the question how will the season look without Jerks and Profar. We'll explore that a bit more in just a moment after a word from our.

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00:12:06
Speaker 1: So Steven has has had a moment to breathe. He's he's back with.

00:12:09
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what it's. It's a it's a very good thing that I learned about this like seven hours ago, because if we had done this like immediate, if we had done our an immediate recording, I don't know, I don't know what, we probably would have been fired.

00:12:26
Speaker 1: All warranted, all warranted. But but now that we're composed, now, now now that now that we you know, have gotten you know, the emotional response out of the way at least now onto something that you know, I'd much rather talk about. Well, I don't want to talk about it, but I've much preferred to talk about it more than jerks and profar is where do the Braves go?

00:12:45
Speaker 2: Now?

00:12:46
Speaker 1: What does this mean? And I think it's first important to establish that. Well, obviously, what Jerks and Profar has done on the field over the past couple of years, is it true?

00:12:57
Speaker 2: Is it? You know?

00:12:57
Speaker 1: Sincere, is it actually what he's capable without? It seems to be cheating. The loss of Jerks and Profar is significant. I don't think that that needs to be questioned at all. Stephen. When you look at now the Braves being without Jerks and Profar for the season, what is your immediate response from that perspective.

00:13:18
Speaker 2: Well, it starts with the offense. I mean, obviously he's gonna DH most of the time, and they signed him for his bat or what they thought was his bad It might just be the steroid version of his bat, but they signed him for his bat, and they signed him to hit the middle of the order, or at least at the top of the order. I mean he was probably gonna bat. I mean, I don't know what what was gonna do you know, Drake Baldwin batting second might have been the thing he went with. But Profar was gonna bat somewhere between two and probably like five. I would think like in the heart of the order. So and he's a switch hitter, so he helps you versus left handers and right handers, which is insanely valuable, right because you don't have to plat tun because he can he can mash both. And so when you start thinking of one hundred and sixty two games without him, you start thinking about seven hundred, seven hundred to seven hundred and fifty plate appearances that you've got to cover somewhere else. That's a massive hole. Now. I saw some talk today like it's a good thing to brave sign Mike Kaztrimsky, And that is true, it is a good thing to brave signed mikey Strimsky. But Mikeyshumsky is not the level of hitter that Jerks and Profar was at least supposed to be or what the Braves were counting. Like Profar was projected for like a one twenty WRC plus against all pictures left and right. That's you know, do you look at Yastremsky's numbers, Like if you get that on one side of a platoon, you're happy, but you're never gonna get that on the other side. You're gonna get half that on the other side. So Stimsky is not profar by any way, shape or form. So you've got just immediately, you've got this massive hole in the middle of your order that now you've got to figure out. Now, do you go get a right handed version to help Yastrimsky? Do you just go get another DH I think we're gonna talk about some of the options, the potention to riskally look at the end of the show. But like, you know, what you lose in the field is negligible, It's basically nothing. What you lose on the basis is negligible, basically nothing but his on base percentage and his ability to sit in the middle of the lineup. Like, honestly, outside of Ronnie and maybe Matt, I assume Profarle was gonna have probably the third highest on base percentage on the team, right, I mean, am I crazy? I'm trying to if I'm missing somebody, maybe Baldwin, But I had profar pegged as like the third best on base guy on the team, the third best guy in the lineup at not making an out. And we've talked about this before about sometimes it's just the simplest way to talk about offenses. Just don't make outs, and Profar was one of the best in the lineup. And not making outs, he drew a ton of walks. He didn't strike out a bunch. He had power again, he was a switch hitter. He could hit left handed and right handed pitching. It's a massive loss. It just his and and of course it happens too weeks in the spring training when most of the decent players have been signed. It's probably, you know, making a massive trade at this point is probably you know, it's probably off the table unless the Braids can talk some team into basically thrown in the white flag even before the season starts, which is not likely. It's just a massive loss. I don't I mean, I don't know what I saw some people trying to like downplay it. It's not that big a deal. Like, no, the Braids were counting on Profar to sit in the middle of their lineup or the or the top of their lineup, get on base, drive in runs, hit left handed and right handed pitching. He was gonna play every day, either in left field or DH And now that's gone again, assuming that Jeff Passing is correct and that he is serving this one hundred and sixty games suspension that's gone, and that's a that's a big hole, just all of a sudden to have in the middle of your lineup.

00:16:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, if you look I believe that I looked it up earlier today, and I believe the qualifier that I used was I wanted to say, at least five hundred plate appearances versus right handed pitching over the past two years, and Jerks and Profar I believe had a one to thirty one WRC plus which was thirty, which was twenty third of all players in baseball. So you're legitimately talking about one of the best producers against right handed pitching. And we've talked multiple times over the past few weeks the area that this team really needs to perform well in is against right handed pitching because of how well it correlates with not only making the playoffs, but thriving in the playoffs. And now you've lost a source. Whether or not it was it was a truthful source, it's still the production had been there for what you know, and so it is a big, big loss. And to expand on into bits right over the past couple of years, Alex and Thopless has learned about his core offense, that their injury prone, They're very streaky, with a big, big variance between their peaks and valleys. They struggle to get on base, struggle to produce with runners in scoring position, and their power output has decreased. That's a lot of weaknesses coming off that twenty three season. You found out over the past two years on paper, Alexon Thoppolis has made sensible additions Mikis Strimsky, Jerkson Profar and Hassan Kim. Those guys were brought in for their on base skills, to give productive at bats, to bring up the floor to be more consistent for this offense less than the variance for again, a streaky Corps offense. And now you only of those three have you Strimsky at your disposal at the most critical time when you needed those three, which is the start of the season, because you have so many slow starters Olsen and Riley and Harris. So now the big thing when you look at the big picture outside of what just Profar does himself, when you look at the big picture, due to injury and stupidity, you're now back to mostly relying on your core offense, and that includes a bunch of guys, you're hope and gets back to production that they had multiple years ago, plus uncharacteristically starting the season off strong. And that's the big overall impact of losing a guy like Profar And that's again, to your point, something that you're likely not going to be able to make up for in a move this close to the season.

00:19:10
Speaker 2: And yeah, not only that, I mean alex us the depth of the offense as one of the justifications for not going and get more starting pitching. He said, you know, we think this offense is so deep that we're not gonna need as good as starting pitching as we you know, we can kind of use the twenty twenty three model where we didn't have great starting pitching, but we had a great offense. Well, you know, all that lovely depth that he was talking about, I mean, Hassan Kim's hurt Sean Murphy's hurt jersep profiles are moron. So like, what there goes your depth right now now, And again, we haven't even really started playing games yet. We're like the guy the the everyday players have played like three games so far, Like this is not We're not even into the part of baseball where guys you start losing guys like for real, like to injuries. This is just this is just so Yeah, I don't know what you do. I really don't. I mean I think they're gonna have to go make a move. I know they're gonna have to make a move. They don't have it. They don't have any internal like outfielders that they can I mean, they were already gonna have to rely on Eli White an uncomfortable amount in my opinion, because I think he was gonna be the starting left fielder against left handed pitching. Yeah, I don't know. I mean it's a huge blow because, like you just said, and Alex made this point. I think one of the first days of spring training he was like, we don't need any of our hitters to like reach their top line level because we have so much depth. We're not relying on any one player to have a great year. As long as most of them have solid years, we're fine. Well that's pretty much gone. Like now, you like you just said, you need Matt Olsen, and you need Austin Riley to turn back into Austin Riley. You need Michael Harris to not be the worst player in base You need Ozzy Albi's to remember, like who Ozzy Albi's was from a couple of years ago, and not the guy at the kind of the shell of the player we've seen since you need a couna to stay healthy. I mean, you've just lost all of your margin of error and we haven't even started really playing games yet. That's the kick in the nuts. I mean, that's the other kick in the nuts. It's one more kick in the nuts. It's the tenth kick in the nuts we've had in you know, twelve months. It's just really really frustrating. I'm I had calmed down quite a bit from like noon today, and I'm working. I'm worked back up. It's just it's insanely frustrating, and I don't know why it keeps happening. And it really does feel like deja vu. I mean it does feel like twenty twenty five all over. I mean, the pitching injuries, the profile suspension, it's it's insane.

00:21:56
Speaker 1: No, and don't get me wrong, that's the part of this that I'm trying to avoid focusing oning. It was just the woe is me, which is so warranted when it comes to covering the braves or cheering for the Braves or most importantly, the Braves players themselves. They have to feel like like when does this end? But don't don't want to get too focused on that because.

00:22:17
Speaker 2: Oh and I'll say one more thing, because I saw some current players and former players tweeting about this today. There's nobody that hates cheaters more than the other players. Yeah, yep. Like last year when he came back, I thought the clubhouse was very gracious and how they handled that. I thought they could have been a little more sour if they wanted to, and been justified in doing that. They did not do that. They welcome pro far back with open arms. I thought the fan base was very gracious overall, like they welcomed him back with open arms. There was a lot of cheering. There were some booze on his first like maybe game or two, but after that it was too much all cheers and Profart played well when he came back, But my guy, I would not expect that a second time. I know. There's no if Again, this entire show is predicated on Jeff Passon's reporting being accurate, which is normally pretty safe. Bet if he's going to serve one hundred and sixty two games, suspension for a second felt p test. When he comes back, it will be a I'm going to say, a very different reaction and I very warranted. And I don't know if he would be welcome back in the Brads clubhouse. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised as Brace cut him, even though they owe am still fifteen million for twenty twenty seven. I wouldn't be surprised to off they cut him. There might be guys in the locker room just said I don't want him, I don't want him here, and I wouldn't blame him.

00:23:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, And and I mean, if you want to go back one of the the one of the off the field moments that has stood out to me over the past decade that just resonated with you know how important you know players, you know, take the care and going about doing things the right way. Go back and look at Mike Trout's reaction to what the Astros did back in twenty seventeen. And the thing about it is is that you do it once. It may be easier to understand, like the Braves did with Profar, but the big thing is you did the same thing again. Yeah, and Kevin Pallar brought up a great point in that you doing this multiple times is multiple opportunities taken away from other players who are not on teams right now because their production is compared to yours and your production is false. It's not true.

00:24:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's and it's money, money that they don't have that you do. Yeah, now knowing well the Braves have it, but yeah, I mean yeah, it's players get way more mad about this than fans doing. Fans get mad as hell about it.

00:24:52
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, and that just goes back again to the stupidity. You're not only you're not only losing money that was already guaranteed, but you've just cost yourself another payday down the road as well. Again, yeah, it just makes very little sense. But do want to hit on this point about the money that the Braves have, So basically the one silver lining of this is that the Braves lose Profar for a year, but they do regain his fifteen plus million, which, while right now options are limited because of how close we are to the season, that is a good that is a good pull to act from when it comes to in the season. More than likely, if there's going to be any significant development from this it'll be in season because getting to how the Braves go about approaching handling the dhpot and things like that. I think that the big thing is you've got Dominic Smith who's in camp right now. Last year he had a one to nineteen WRC plus. I don't mention Dominic Smith as being a guy that I'm saying, hey, he can come in and probably replicate what jerks and profile would provide you. That's not true at all. He's just the most obvious name that if you didn't expect for him to make the team now with the roster spot, he potentially would since he's already in camp with the Braves. Ben Gammel may be another name. And again, none of those guys, and neither one of those guys inspires you. There's no one out there in free agency who would make sense. I mentioned the name Jesse Winker because he's had pass success against right handed pitching. I know Andrew mccutching is out there because he's done okay against left handed pitching in recent years. But none of those guys are more than just depth pieces, and you certainly don't want to waste too much time expecting them to be more than that so the most obvious way for the Braves to go about handling this, though, is to figure out how they can get the most out of those type of sources for the first fourth of the season, for the first forty five games or so of the season, and then once Hassan Kim as well as Sean Murphy you're back in the fold again, you're going to need for those those guys be closer to what they were two years ago than what they have been over the past couple of years. But getting into mid may just kind of managing the situation till then until you get Cam and Murphy back seems to be not necessarily the most sensible, but the most likely approach to how you move on from this.

00:27:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, listen, if you go with the Dominic Smiths Andrew mccutchins of the world, those guys are all projected to have like a ninety WRC plus for the season. You know, in terms of a DH left field, that's pretty abysmal. You're gonna end up being a pretty much a zero maybe a point five war player. I mean, just you know, that's exactly what you would expect for somebody that's available on March third, somebody who's just not very good, and listen, McCutcheon is beloved in the clubhouse, and you might get lucky where you could maybe squeeze out some platoon splits with with Alminic Smith or Andrew McCutcheon. But the only way you're actually going to be able to recoup any of the production that you just lost is probably on the trade market, because anybody that could give you that kind of sort of production that's was on the free agent market has already been signed. They're not just sitting out there, So you know, I don't know if you want to go through like a whole list of names, but like the as soon as this came down, the first name, I thought it was Yandy Diaz from Tampa because one his name was in trade rumors all off season. I actually thought he was going to get traded this winter because he's in the last year of his deal. He makes like nine million bucks, which is expensive for the Rays, and they almost always trade guys when they're this close to free agents. Actually they pretty much always do, not all, not almost always, basically always, so I thought Yandi would get traded if the Braves just wanted a DH type Yandy can hit, Yeah, but he's a DH probably a you know, he could probably fake it at first base and just let Yastremski and Eli White platoon and left field and just have Yandi be r DH. I don't know, that might just be too restrictive on the roster, while Weiss has already talked about having that dhpot being opened. But listen, it's a different world than it was when you made those comments. We're in a different situation. So Marcelo is Uno, unfortunate, has already been signed. I saw somebody's asked, could the race trade for Marcel? I'm pretty sure there's a role in place now. Because of the qualifying off for stuff, you guys who signed free agent contracts can't be traded until the June middle of June, so you know, the trade market for guys who've already been on rosters is probably the way to go. Yandi was the first name I thought of. The Oils have been reportedly trying to trade Ryan mount Castle for the last probably two weeks, three weeks. That's a guy that you can at least dream on some upside, right. I think he can also play the outfield a little bit if I remember correctly. I'm not a I'm not an expert on the Orioles roster, but I think he's played a little bit of outfield. But that's probably what you're looking at. If you want to actually try to find someone who could potentially match the production that you just lost, you're probably gonna have to trade, because unless you just catch lightning in a bottle, right, every once in a while you sign a you know, you sign a guy off the scrap heap and he goes crazy, like the you know, Ramon Loreano from a couple of years ago. Sometimes you get lucky and that happens. And maybe that happens if you sign Andrew McCutcheon, he has one last great year. I just wouldn't count on that. I think the Brave's best chance to recoup any of the actual production now they get all the money back. This is not really a money thing, but we're talking about production. The only way to recoup the production, as much of it as possible is probably gonna be through the trade market. And again, it's it's tough to convince a team to start waving the white flag and trading players away in spring training. I mean, they're trying to sell tickets too, so it's easier said than done.

00:30:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, a couple of the names out there that we've heard trade rumors on, or at least you know there there you could see the teams you are potentially moving on from them, you know, if it made sense. The Boston Red Sox their outfield situation. Yeah, Yoshida's got He's got eight million left for the next two years. He's not the level of hit or that Profar is, and so I don't really think that makes sense. Isaac parodies from from the Astros. He's mainly a third baseman. A lot of his value is in how he builds third base.

00:31:30
Speaker 2: That's a horrible It's a horrible park.

00:31:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, not not not the park.

00:31:35
Speaker 2: Would be a miserable place for him as much as he pulls the.

00:31:37
Speaker 1: Ball in the one name and this is probably more towards you could see the way of the white flag early Joe Adell of the Angels. You know, there were some trade rumors out there. I think they were more hot and heavy before Taylor Ward was traded to the Orioles. But but you know, Ryan mount Cowso is a good call out. I think that he could certainly make I.

00:31:57
Speaker 2: Just know that the Orioles have been actively trying to trade him agree so, and I don't know if the Race have been actively trying to trade YONDI Diaz, but I can guarantee you the Rays would absolutely trade him right now if you made them a good enough offer. Like there, they work. They're different than every organization. They don't really care about negative fan reaction about trade. Their fans are used to guys getting traded. That happens every year. So they're a team that would I think trade with you right now as long as you messed Matt met their price.

00:32:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I could see that happening. But the one thing that I implore the Braves to understand, you can't sit on that fifteen million dollars. If you sit on that fifteen dollars and do nothing, that is that's going to be in and of itself inexplication.

00:32:44
Speaker 2: And there is Listen, there is an argument, and Scott brought this up. I think Scott brought this up. Maybe it was maybe it was somebody else I was listening to. I think it might have been Scott. But there is an argument for like, all right, we can't use the fifteen million dollars on the offense, there's somebody out there, go go use this fifty million dollars and shure up the pitching staff and trying to, you know, try to build it back the other way. So like Lucas Giolito signing would not surprise me at all. Indirect response to this, Jeff Passen was talking about it on that Yeah, it was passing. Yeah, that's right, it was, and it.

00:33:16
Speaker 1: Makes perfect sense. That's my whole point is that, yes, I could certainly understand going out and trading for a hitter. I'm gonna go ahead and mention his name because the Twins are very much one of those teams that can fall off as well. You've got fifteen million freedomp. Go talk with the Twins about Byron Buxton. You have every reason to do that. Go all in, do it this three year with you. You kind of have a de facto three year window with how many of these older players are signed for three more years. Go add one more to it, and you want to talk about someone that could be even better than Profar, it's Byron Buxton. Now, the asking price just went up, right, so it still may be prohibitive, but at least ask because now at least you have the money to be able to make it happen for this year, and obviously you can figure out twenty seven if it happens, and twenty eight beyond that. But that's my biggest point of all, is that Profar no longer an option. He there's a good chance he's played his last game as a Brave. But for this year, when you have every reason to go all in as possible, You've just had fifteen to eighteen million fall in your lap. Your team is now weaker than it was. You've got to make moves to do something. Don't need something just to do it, but use that money wisely. You're so focused so making sure that if you spend money, you get value out of it. Now you've got a good deal of money going into the season, there are sensible options out there. Go make moves to make your team better, whether it's signing Lucas Gilto, whether it's trading for Riyandi Diaz. Do something significant with this money that you have, because if you don't, if you don't use that money, it's very unlikely that all the things that you need to work out for what you currently have to work with is going to happen. Yeah, that's just a simple truth.

00:35:09
Speaker 2: And I mentioned h I mentioned Passing was on Local Ready, I'm not I don't live in Georgia, so I don't I don't know the name of all the shows, but he went on one of us. It was six eighty six eighty Yeah. I can't remember the actual name of the show. It was the Italians. Yeah, basically, but I would say, go listen to that, like he was on there for like twenty twenty five minutes something like that. And at no point did he waiver on any of his reporting, like even though the Braves haven't confirmed this and MLB hasn't confirmed this, at no point was did he was he like, well, well, you know, he basically just said, this is going to happen, like this is like we're trying to be responsible because we don't have actual confirmation yet, so we do have to have a some level of responsibility here. But the way Passon was talking in the radio interview was this is gonna happen, like you don't you know there unless he's I think the actual phrase he used was unless JERKSI PROFI has the smoking guns of all smoking guns that no one has ever seen before in any of these appeals, This one hundred and sixty games suspension is going to happen.

00:36:18
Speaker 1: So Jeff Passon would not have gone on in a Braves centric source without having all the competence in the world that he's reporting what was absolutely on.

00:36:29
Speaker 2: And his source is almost one hundred percent Yes, yeah, the league itself.

00:36:34
Speaker 1: Not only would he not have reported it, he would not have taken the extra step to go on to Breeve centric.

00:36:38
Speaker 2: So you know, I know there're still fans holding out hope that maybe something's up here, and the fact that the Braves haven't said anything that maybe you know, you wish upon a star and somebody got you know, a bad sample or something. But listening to the and that's why I said, go listen to that radio spot that he did. He did not waiver at all. And again this is the number one reporter in the sport. So I just I would just prepare yourself that probably sometime tomorrow we're gonna get the blue square that says the Braves are extremely disappointed in Jerseer Profar and blah blah blah blah blah. So you know, it sucks Jerseer Profar is a moron. I can't believe how stupid that guy is. I don't expect him to be welcome back in the clubhouse this time. I would not be surprised. All the bridge is cut him and just said, hell, you know, we'll figure out the fifteen million dollars will owe you next year. We'll figure out later. I don't know that you can bring him back. He if you brought him back next year, I mean he'd get booed, just unmercifully. I mean he should be. You know, I didn't blew him last time because enough time had passed, and you know, I thought maybe he could have been a you know, an honest mistake. No, nobody's gonna have no. He doesn't get that benefit of doubt anymore. You pop two tests, that's you're just a cheater. That's what it is. So God, it sucks. I'm very curious to see what the braves doing response. I agree with you one hundred percent. The one thing you cannot do is sit on that money and pocket that money and just say, yeah, well, you know our shareholders are happier. You got to go make the team better now, because again you still got the Spencer Strider question hanging out there. I mean, you still got Ronaldo Lopez questions and even Grant Holmes question like, the reason you didn't upgrade the offense the starting rotation was because of how deep your offense was. Well, now you're the depth of your offense just took I mean, just just lost an entire leg. So you gotta go spend this money they should have been looking to add even before this. Now with this, go make the team better somehow.

00:38:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'll end on this note.

00:38:44
Speaker 2: Jeff Passing.

00:38:45
Speaker 1: You know again we reference him because there's a reason why he's the most trusted source in the game. And when it comes to news, and he brought it up in that six't eighty interview, the Braves are have more questions than any team.

00:38:58
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, you're right, he said that.

00:39:00
Speaker 1: But he also said he couldn't quit the brace, which I agree with as well, because if so many of those questions are answered the right way, you've got a true contender. But the thing that I'll end with is this is again, your abundance of being able to answer those questions are more is more available now than it has been in years. As well. What I'm talking about is that one of the big storylines of spring training has been how well some of your youngsters look Jr. Richie, John Hill of Owen, Murphy, Diego, Torns, others. You've got the chance to replenish your farm system even further to a level that you haven't had in years when it comes to this draft, right, and you've got extra money to work with as well. Yeah, use those resources. Stop being reluctant, Stop being resistant. You don't have that luxury anymore. What you now have is a reason to go all in when you truly are trying to contend. The need is there. You need to make it happen. And because now your resources. Again, I know that it sucks that were to this point, but you have more resources than you've had entering a season in a long time. But you also now have more reason to use them make it happen.

00:40:21
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, this is one of those you know, Alex always says you can't make moves in response to stuff because it's it ends up being reactionary. But I just don't I don't know. You just can't sit on your hands here, Yeah, because you're one more picture in jury. I mean, if you know Spencer Stredder. In two more weeks with Spencer, Strider is still strolling ninety two miles an hour, which, by the way, we were gonna I was gonna talk about Spencer to night. Obviously it got it got replaced by something more pressing. But like, if Spencer's still throwing ninety two ninety three in a couple of weeks, I mean, I'm not saying he can't be a decent picture, but like the idea that he was going to be your number two pitcher is probably gone. So like you gotta go add, you gotta add something, and I think you need to add a bat. I think you need to add Giolito and a bat quite honestly. You know, Alex said they had money to spend even before this profar stuff. Now you got an extra fifteen I think it actually ends up being like eighteen million when you count in the luxury Oh and that was another question people had. I got like three of those questions today.

00:41:26
Speaker 1: Does it count.

00:41:28
Speaker 2: Does not count against the luxury tax? It comes off the luxury tax as well as the cash payroll because his AAV moves to zero for this season, so you're not charged luxury tax. Dollars for a suspended player, So the Braves get the savings on the cash payroll, but they also get the savings on the luxury tax payroll. So the Braves have the full weight and power of that money at their disposal now to reallocate anywhere they want. Now, obviously it's so late in the game, there's not a lot of places to do that, but gi Alito is a really obvious place to start. And then I'd probably try to call around and try to grab one of these decent hitters that can you know, you know, Yondi Diaz can sit in the fifth spot in your order and you're not like, it's not crazy, Like he can produce there. And there's some other guys that maybe have a little upside that you can dream on. I don't know if Andrew McCutchen is the name i'd go with. That's the name everybody's gonna say. I get it. I get why because he's available as a free agent. There's a reason he's a free agent though, So the same thing with Dominic Smith. I don't really it depresses me to even go down that road. So let's go spend that money add to the roster and try to flip this back into a positive where you can reallocate these resources to other places on the roster.

00:42:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, more reason than ever.

00:42:43
Speaker 2: To go all in and dr profile you are a moron, More.

00:42:47
Speaker 1: Reason than ever to go all in, and more resources than you've had in a long time to make it happen. Let's make it happen. For Steven Tolbert, you can buy him at b Underscore Outliers on Twitter slash x. If I were a betting man, which I occasionally am, i would say that this is not the last time in the next twenty four hours that Steven Tolbert will use the word more on. You could also find me at Stat's sac on Twitter. This is depressing. I'm tired of doing this?

00:43:17
Speaker 2: How many of how many shows are like this? Have we done of the last time.

00:43:20
Speaker 1: I love doing podcasts. I love doing these podcasts. I love the Braves, I love covering this team, and I love having content. Just simply want for it to be more positive moving through. Until next time, Go Braves. We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer Territory podcast