FairT: Eugenio Suárez deadline destinations, Boone/Yankees stumble, Dustin May trade bait?

Foul Territory

Fair Territory hosts Ken Rosenthal and Alanna Rizzo discuss what New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone is doing to stem the tide following an ugly series in Toronto. (Top of show)

(5:53) Looking at the Trade Deadline, the hosts debate if Arizona D’backs third baseman Eugenio Suárez could be a fit for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Get 20% off your first Slab Pack or card purchase by going to ArenaClub.com/FOUL and use code FOUL

(7:51) The hosts also discuss Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Dustin May’s future - could it be in a different uniform? 

(11:43) Ken and Alanna take your Grillin’ Ken questions, including deadline outlooks for the Astros and Cubs, plus Ken's favorite "club" music.

Get up to 10 FREE meals and a free high protein item for life at HelloFresh.com/FT10FM. One item per box with active subscription. Free meals applied as a discount on the first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan.

(20:23) The hosts crown their Dudes and Dorks of the Week.

(25:41) Ken and Alanna preview this weekend's Dodgers-Red Sox series.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2025-07-25 29 min Transcript

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Transcript

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Thursday edition of Fair Territory. I'm Ken Rosenthal here with Alana Rizzo and Alana. We are one week away from the trade deadline and we're going to get into all that, but first we have to talk about a bungling, blundering team wearing pinstripes.

00:00:17
Speaker 2: Let's get to them.

00:00:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, Ken, Hi, good to be with you as always on this Thursday. I tell you what it seems like the New York Yankees, at least temporarily, are taking a page out of the Bad News Bears book. Ken, what more can you tell us about just the fundamental defense that doesn't seem to be there?

00:00:33
Speaker 1: Well, last night was basically an embarrassment and eight to four loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, the team they are chasing in the Ale East. The Yankees made four errors in three innings. At one point there were other players that were not errors that were not made, and that makes twelve errors in ten games against the Jays this season. Now, afterward, Aaron Boone said that really they've been a good defensive team, but they had two bad series in Toronto. Okay, perhaps, but this speaks to a much larger issue, and I wrote about it today in my column, just the idea that in the eyes of many Yankee fans, Boone is way too forgiving of his players publicly, way too soft on them. And what I wrote essentially was his public comments essentially are irrelevant. They don't matter in the long run. What matters is performance, how the team performs on the field, and if Boone is holding them accountable behind the scenes, that's all that really matters. If they play better, and when they play like this, and they have at various points this season, and this goes back years now under Boone, it makes you wonder what the heck is going on if indeed, behind the scenes he is being more firm, holding players more accountable. If he is, it isn't showing on the field, And that to me is the issue, not so much him being too soft here and too milk toast, even though I know a lot of fans feel at times he's gaslighting them by essentially saying, now, what you're seeing is okay.

00:02:05
Speaker 2: It's not okay.

00:02:06
Speaker 1: He knows that, but he needs to relay that, I would think to the players privately, and.

00:02:11
Speaker 2: Whether that is going on, to what extent that is going on.

00:02:14
Speaker 3: We don't know ken if you ask the players, though they love playing for him. Cameron Mayban, of course, who does stuff here with us on Foul Territory, was saying he played for Aaron Bone and he absolutely loves playing for him. Do you think that is because he has given them too much rope? Or he truly does have their back publicly but does hold them accountable behind closed doors. Not certain that you know that answer, But why do you think it is that the players love him even though there's this perception that he's not perhaps holding them accountable.

00:02:44
Speaker 1: They love him because he does have their back, that's absolutely right alone in my estimation. And they love him also because he's an excellent communicator. He is a guy who is not so far removed from being a player himself. Understands the give and take of the game, understands how difficult it is, understands also the added pressure of playing in New York and what that means.

00:03:07
Speaker 2: Some people might have.

00:03:08
Speaker 1: Seen the exchange he had with John Boy on his weekly show with Them this week, and those guys were asking about players not giving fiery public comments, not expressing greater or more acute disappointment, and his point was, hey, I don't want them like that. I want them on an even keel. Now in baseball, because we play one hundred and sixty two games, that is the preferred way to go, and that is all okay, But at some point, this is the point of what I wrote again, there has to be accountability and there has to be some level of crispness to a team's play. It's not just the Yankees that play like this in this day and age, in fairness to them, but we saw in Game five of last year's World Series. We've seen at various points over the last several years this kind of sloppiness, and it drives fans nuts, and it should drive the Yankees brass nuts.

00:04:01
Speaker 3: Ken does it beg the question that perhaps one of the reasons that Aaron Boone was hired was because Joe Girardi was too rigid, maybe wanting his players to be too rigid, and that just doesn't necessarily go over with the player of today. Is that part of the reason why he was attractive As far as a new manager, a new voice, Alana.

00:04:20
Speaker 1: We see it all the time. It's a great point you're making. They go from one extreme to the other. Joe Girardi was too rigid, He was not as good a communicator as perhaps he could have been, and that was at least the perception in that clubhouse, the perception the front office had of Girardi. It was time, so they went to a guy who had never managed before, Aaron Boone at any level, but of course has had great success. Look at the wins and losses. Third most wins in the Majors since he took over, took him to the World Series last year for the first time since two thousand and nine. So definitely, at some level, Aaron Boone's tenure is a huge success. But at the same time, as I point out in the column, it seems like at times they've almost gone too far the other way. In this happy camp that they have, or a happy environment that they have, it might be too soft an environment.

00:05:13
Speaker 2: I'm looking for the right words and maybe not finding them.

00:05:15
Speaker 1: But this is the give and take that managers face. And you're right, Alana. In today's game, you can't be ear a Weaver or Billy Martin, or even when Jim Leland used to be. You cannot get in players' faces. They will not respond and you will lose them. But The measure of a manager, in my opinion, is if he keeps his team playing hard, which I would say Boone does, and if he keeps his team playing at a high fundamental level, that is where the Yankees have fallen short.

00:05:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, perhaps a happy medium is in there somewhere. Certainly not saying Aaron Boone should be fired. He gets to the postseason perennially, but there's got to be some sort of give and take there in terms of that. All right, moving on, Ken, let's talk a bit about the trade deadline. As you mentioned, it's about a week away. Henneo Suarez seems to be on the top of a lot of club's minds. What more can you tell us about that.

00:06:06
Speaker 1: Best that are available in a thin market at midley. He is having an amazing season, all the home runs, and the Diamondbacks just got swept by the Astros at home, an Astros team that has seventeen players on the injured list and somehow is tied with the Toronto Blue Jays for the best record in the American League. Good for them, but from the Diamondbacks perspective, and I wrote about this earlier this week and a little bit today as well, they don't want to sell. That is against what their general manager, Mike Hayson stands for. It's against what their owner Ken Kendrick wants to do. And at the same time they have.

00:06:40
Speaker 2: To look at reality.

00:06:42
Speaker 1: They are fading in the wildcard race. They've got a ton of injuries, and this is what.

00:06:47
Speaker 2: I mentioned earlier this week.

00:06:48
Speaker 1: They have a number of potential free agents that they're not going to all bring back. So at some point you have to get something for some of these guys. Now, with regard to Suarez, see Trent Rose of The Athletic Today reporting that the Reds are among the teams interested, and we've heard about the Cubs and the Yankees, of course, the Mariners. All of these teams are interested. I wrote today that the Brewers should be interested, but I put a caveat in there. It's spring training. I kind of said, Man, the owner doesn't spend it. If they don't play well this season, it's on him. Guess what they didn't spend their playing He's laughing all the way to the bank, and he's laughing at me. I'm sure too. So the Brewers do it their way. They're unique, for sure, but they also need power and if you look at their slugging numbers, they're hard hit percentages, all of that, Alana, it's not great. Suarez would help.

00:07:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems like the Brewers are almost kind of like the Tampa Bay Rays in the National League. Those two clubs seem to do things their own way, and it seems to continue to work itself out all right, trade deadlines on everybody's vind Ken. What do you see happening with right hand or Dustin May of the Los Angeles Dodgers. I mean, do you see him going to a bullpen roll when Blake Snell comes back, or do you see his days with the Dodgers being done?

00:08:08
Speaker 1: I can see either scenario, Alana. And what we reported today is that the Dodgers are at least willing to listen on Dustin May as you would expect.

00:08:15
Speaker 2: He's a potential free agent.

00:08:17
Speaker 1: He might be back, he might not, but he's the kind of picture that certainly would be in some demand, even though he's been a little bit uneven this year. The other option, though, of course, is to put Dustin May in the bullpen. And I want to put this question to you, what do you think Dustin May could do for the Dodgers as either a long man or a piggyback guy. With shoe Heotani, how valuable could he be in that role?

00:08:44
Speaker 3: Ken, I think that's been the role for him right the last couple of outings. I mean, shoe Heyo Tani has gone out there and pitched an inning or two or whatever, and then Dustin May comes out to be the relief guy in terms of the bulk amount of work before they actually go to their bullpen. But I have been saying this since the season started, Ken, I really feel like Dustin May's stuff plays better in the bullpen. I think he has really good stuff for about three three plus innings and not necessarily for a starter that you want to be able to go deep into the ballgame. With Blake Snell coming back, I would love to see Dustin I don't want Dustin May to be traded, although what are you going to get in return? And Andrew Friedman hates over paying for relievers, but with this relief market and the fact that the Dodgers desperately need bullpen help because of the injuries and lack of production. Now Tanner Scott is on the il Kirby Yates doesn't look good. You know Evan Phillips is out for the season, Blake Trianon is coming back soon. I would love to see Dustin May as a long man in the Dodgers' bullpen again. It just kind of seems we'll just have to wait and see. I asked for Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts to come on Dodgers' territory today. They haven't written me back yet. Ken, I'm not sure why.

00:09:54
Speaker 1: A lot of one more point on this, and obviously the Dodgers have trouble keeping pictures healthy.

00:10:00
Speaker 2: Would you trade a healthy.

00:10:01
Speaker 1: Pitcher a guy who is second on your team and innings pitched at the same time. They've gotten burned trading prospects for relievers over the years O'Neil Cruz for Tony Watson Jr. Don Alvarez for Josh Field's, Zach McKinstry for Chris Martin.

00:10:15
Speaker 2: The Dodgers do not want to do this again.

00:10:17
Speaker 1: They've got a ton of prospects. They can make trades with those prospects, but maybe they see May as one other way to go.

00:10:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, the jor Don Alvarez Josh Fields trade still keeps me up at night. Ken Rosenthal all right, much for to come on Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal. Make sure you get your questions in the YouTube chat chat BCC as well. Grill and Ken is next right after this break.

00:10:40
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00:10:53
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00:10:54
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00:11:11
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00:11:46
Speaker 3: All right, this is my favorite segment on the show. Grill and Ken get your questions, and we're gonna start with one question from our friends at chat BCC. Not necessarily baseball related, but funny nonetheless, Elvis Santoyo wants to know Ken. I thought I saw you and Aj walk in, So Ken Rosenthal and Aj Prisinski walk into a bar with a goat and a in Chicago while fifty Cents Party in the club was playing what an entrance Adam would have to play journey to get Aj moving? What song I can't even read? What song would he have to play to get you dancing and move in? Ken Rosenthal? What's your jam? When when Adam Aman is on the you know the DJ booth there?

00:12:24
Speaker 1: Well, Elvis, Adam A Mean's style of music, what he plays is not necessarily my number one taste. I like all kinds of music. I do like alternative, I do like Springsteen, I like all those kinds of things rock. But when Adam a means rolling like he was rolling Saturday night in Chicago. I'm not one to suggest he should do anything other than what he's doing.

00:12:47
Speaker 3: Look at that photo. That is a framer. Is it a rite of passage or is that something like when you get your BBWAA card Baseball Writers of America Association card or whatever it's called, do you have to prove that you're a spring Steen fan in order to get that thing? Because I feel like.

00:13:04
Speaker 1: Alana, it is a running joke among writers of a certain age let's say that category. And yes, most in that age category do like Springsteen, and the younger ones give us a hard time all the time about that, and I just advise them to go to a show sometimes and then report back to me.

00:13:23
Speaker 3: Yes, Ken Rosenthal, Ken Gernick, Bill Plunkett, Joel Sherman, I swear I've like traveled all over the world to see the Boss. Okay, here's a question from our YouTube channel, Alejandro Chavari. What should the Astros do for the trade deadline? With so many injuries you had mentioned, Ken, they have seventeen guys on the IL right now, lots of pictures coming back from injuries, and a backup team that doesn't seem to stop winning. Could a trade set them back? Do they have all that they need?

00:13:51
Speaker 1: Basically, Alejandra, what they're doing is incredible. I don't know that we can talk enough about it. Jospota is going to be a leading candidate for American League of the Year. Trade wise. The loss of Parades Zach Parades to what looks like a significant hamstring injury that could force them to make an infielder a priority. That's one.

00:14:12
Speaker 2: Now.

00:14:12
Speaker 1: They do have Spencer Arraghetti and Luis Garcia expected back in August, but they have talked about a top of the rotation starter as well, not that one is really available, or they've talked about another higher leverage reliever. Though they have one of the best back end bullpens in the game. I expect them to be active. That's Dana Brown's nature as general manager, Jim Crayden's nature as owner. Now they've had, of course financial concerns at various points over the years, but when competitive at the deadline, they generally have done things, and I expect them to do something as well, maybe multiple things.

00:14:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, I tell you what We're always like, Oh, maybe this is the year that the Astros just have to kind of push pause and rebuild, and here they are again probably running away for the you know, the the Al West, back into that postseason. Okay, Cubs question for you here on Grill and Ken as we continue with this, Mike g wants to know are Cubs viewed among league execs as having a prospect package that could land an ACE caliber starting pitcher like a Joe Ryan, a Mackenzie Gore? Would Casey Wiggins plus be hard to turn down.

00:15:16
Speaker 1: I don't know that they are short in prospects. What I would answer that question with is a question of my own, which is are the Twins willing to trade Joe Ryan and are the Nationals willing to trade Mackenzie Gore. Joe Ryan has two years of control after this year. As I wrote the other day, the Twins are for sale. A new owner could come in and presumably would ease the payroll restrictions that the Polad family has put on and enable them to build a good team.

00:15:45
Speaker 2: Again.

00:15:45
Speaker 1: They have a good team, good talent, They're not a good team. So when we're talking about Joe Ryan and John Duran and Griffin Jacks, if I'm the Twins, all those guys have two more years of control. Why am I trading them unless I'm getting completely not over And I don't know that even a massive prospect package would be enough because I want to win sooner.

00:16:06
Speaker 2: So that's one.

00:16:07
Speaker 1: Mackenzie Gore is a separate issue. The Nationals, somewhat like the Twins, are in an uncertain state. They are a team with an interim general manager, Mike de Barblow, and a team where ownership needs to choose or decide where exactly they are going with this. The rebuild has kind of stalled. I wouldn't say failed exactly, but it hasn't been as quick and productive as they would have wanted. That's one reason they dismissed the President of Baseball Operations, presumably Mike Rizzo. So here's Gore. Yes, he's at the same level of service Juan Soto was in twenty twenty two, two plus years remaining. But do the Nationals want to do this right now, when you have an interim GM, when you have traded guys away really your entire existence big stars? Or do you want to keep Mackenzie Gore for now and stay the course and revisit this once you're more settled.

00:17:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, Max, Sure's or Trey Turner, Juan Soto, Mackenzie Gore would be in line with those types of superstars that you're talking about. Ken all right, another question here for you on our YouTube chat, this one from two Goofballs. Is Mikel Garcia a real interest for the Yankees? Are the Royals interested in shipping him?

00:17:21
Speaker 1: The Royals are one of those teams right now that we're kind of waiting to see what they do. They just won two or three from the Cubs. They want desperately to be in contention. They don't want to sell. They're sort of like the Diamondbacks in that respect. But I don't see them, even if they sell, trading Mikel Garcia All Star this year. A guy who's a really good player, very useful around the diamond. He plays third, could play other positions as well. I don't see him being an option. The Yankees third base options, at least on the surface are obviously Juhueno Suarez, Ryan McMahon, Kee, Brian Hayes, those three, and I'm sure beyond that, Willie Castro of the Twins that's a possibility, and he'd be a useful player for them. He might be my favorite of all.

00:18:08
Speaker 2: Those guys for the Yankees.

00:18:09
Speaker 1: So I don't see MIKEL. Garcia being a guy, but they're gonna do something in third base, no doubt.

00:18:16
Speaker 3: Can Do you think the likelihood of any teams that this trade deadline doing more than a two team trade as possible? Three team trades always freak me out a little bit. I mean, do you see that happening with just the way that the market is right now and so many teams in contention, good.

00:18:32
Speaker 1: Question, Alanna, and two team trades are difficult enough to pull off, but three team trades are even more difficult.

00:18:38
Speaker 2: Now that said, we've seen.

00:18:40
Speaker 1: Aj Preller, we've seen other guys or other gms I should say, involve third teams over the years, and certainly I expect that that can be the case this year as well. It's not easy to do. I remember way back when I was first starting as a national writer, a five team trade at the deadline, the.

00:18:58
Speaker 2: No trade, the Nomarch trade, team trade.

00:19:01
Speaker 1: But whether that happens again beyond two teams, we'll see.

00:19:05
Speaker 3: I can't even imagine that. A lot of moving parts with that. Happy birthday to Nomar by the way, that was yesterday, So happy birthday to no more Garcia part all right, much more to come on fat Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal. We are going to be talking about our dudes and dorks of the week when we come back after this quick break.

00:19:23
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00:20:24
Speaker 1: Dude, dude, dude.

00:20:32
Speaker 3: All right, Ken, let's give some folks their flowers. Who is your due to the week for this week?

00:20:37
Speaker 1: All right, Alana, we were just talking about men of a certain age. Well, I'm gonna give my due to the week to a man of a certain age forty five years old, Which Hill pitching for the Kansas City Royals Tuesday night against the Cubs. Five innings, three runs, but only one was earned. It was amazing to me to see which Hills step back into a major league environment and do what he did. Good for him. He's just keeps going and going and going.

00:21:02
Speaker 2: Rich Hill, due to the week.

00:21:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with you. I sent him a text. I said, welcome back, Dick Mountain. He said, Alana, thank you. Great to be back out there. Rich Hill has one of the most sneaky, funny personalities I've ever ever seen. He seems very like stoic and always has very thoughtful answers, very poetic and then he gets into a charter plane and he gets on the microphone that is used for the flight attendants and has the entire team rolling. Good for him, Good for his wife, Caitlin. It's good to see him still out there. He's like the new Jamie Moyer.

00:21:33
Speaker 1: Right.

00:21:34
Speaker 3: All right, my dude of the week, I'm going to give it to three teams who easily can could have thrown in the towel wave the white flag, if you will, the Rockies, the Marlins, and the White Sox. I don't give the Due to the Week award to the organizations. I give the Dude to the World Dude of the Week award to the players themselves, because they could easily say, you know what, forget it, We're not going anywhere. I mean, maybe some of them are trying to showcase their talent so other teams can pick them up and get them the hell out of Colorado, Miami and Chicago. But they are my dudes of the week for not giving up and putting together some decent games and some decent series. Okay, time now for the John Fisher Dork of the week. Okay, who's your dork of the week, ken hold On.

00:22:28
Speaker 1: I want to start off by saying, I have a ton of respect for major league umpires, a ton of sympathy for major league umpires who take grief night after night after night. Some of it deserved, but much of it not. That said, there are times when an umpire snaps, understandably snaps and crosses the line. Chad Witson crossed the line the other night when he went to the Giants clubhouse.

00:22:53
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, dugout, and you could see it right there.

00:22:56
Speaker 1: He yelled, worry about getting out of the third inning. Now we don't know for sure that he was directing at it justin Verlander, but Justin Verlander the night before had not gotten out of the third inning. So it stands the reason that's who Chad Witson was yelling at. And there are certain things that go on on the field, back and forth that.

00:23:16
Speaker 2: You can understand.

00:23:17
Speaker 1: You can understand managers getting hot, you can understand on pirates getting hot. But that, to me crossed the line. With a future Hall of Famer, that was just not right. Now. I have no idea what Verlander might have said to prompt it, if indeed that is what happened. But at the same time, that was not a good look. So Chad witson without knowing more information, You're my dork of the week.

00:23:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes sense. My doork of the week is and it's hard to say this because obviously he's an unbelievable player and unbelievable person, but Sho Hee Otani is my dork of the week only because Ken And this might lie on the hands of the Dodgers too. I don't know, but I know that there have been a lot of rule changes in terms of the way that the media is allowed to interview some folks after games one and show Heyotani became a Dodger. There's just certain things parameters that have that they have to now follow and show hey Otani yesterday tied a franchise record with five straight home runs. He has five straight games with a home run in each game. Obviously the record is eight right, eight straight games with the home run, but it did tie a Dodgers franchise record. He also was intentionally walked, obviously, just you know, gamesmanship type of situation by the Twins, but he didn't make himself available after the game. And again, could that have been a Dodgers call? Could that have been a show Hey call that bothers me because as a media member and as a journalist, we have our jobs to do too, and that's a big part of the story, right, It wasn't as if it wasn't a loss. I mean, the Dodgers came back and walked it off by Freddie Freeman. I just feel like Showhy should have made himself available to the media to talk about that milestone, to talk about the game, to talk about, you know, whatever it is, whatever questions they had in terms of being able to get their job done as well. And I know that you've dealt with this too. You are in so many different aspects of journalism, obviously with Fox here unfair territory writing for the Athletic. This is a frustrating thing for a journalist when a big piece of the story is not made available.

00:25:14
Speaker 1: It's true and often when fans say, well, who cares, We don't care if the players speak to you, my response is, hey, when they don't speak, they kind of put it on their teammates to speak. Now, last night was not necessarily that kind of situation, but it's basically just a responsibility players have.

00:25:30
Speaker 2: So that's how I would view that one.

00:25:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean again, he's the face of the game right now the sport. I just wish he would have made that available for those of us that those of you that are still with us, we appreciate it very much. And you were coming to my neck of the woods. I'm insulted, Ken that you didn't ask if you could stay at Chateau Rizzo here in the Boston area. This is going to be an interesting series that the Dodgers and the Red Sox, both teams kind of limping into it right now with their play over the last you know, since the All Star Break. What do you hope to see from these two clubs?

00:26:07
Speaker 1: From the Red Sox a continuation of what we saw last night in Philadelphia that was perhaps their biggest win of the year. They came back, they had lateening drama, they had a lot of things go right, and they just need to kind of stabilize themselves again. They were playing so well before the break. They've been too enforced since the break, so they just need to kind of build some momentum and they need reinforcement in the next week from their President of Baseball Operations, Craig Breslo.

00:26:37
Speaker 2: No question about that.

00:26:38
Speaker 1: The Dodgers, I wonder when they're going to kind of snap to it. And it's still only July twenty fourth, and it's not a situation of urgency.

00:26:48
Speaker 2: They've got the division.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: Lead, they're going to make the playoffs, But you wonder when is this all going to click? When are their players going to get healthy, how are they going to reinforce.

00:26:58
Speaker 2: Their bullpen, what is going on with Mooky?

00:27:01
Speaker 1: All these different little nagging issues that right now individually are not devastating in any way. But come September, when you want to roll into October, where are they going to be then? And that is the curiosity I've got with the Dodgers. I've had it all season. When will they turn it on?

00:27:20
Speaker 2: Will they be able to turn it on?

00:27:22
Speaker 3: Isn't that funny they're still leading the division? Or wondering when the Dodgers are going to be able to turn it on? Let me ask you this though you mentioned Mooki bets and nobody is harder on Mooki than Moki himself. Dave Roberts essentially benched him the other day, said that he was giving him a mental break. Obviously, you wrote about this in your column specifically about the Yankees on how to handle unproductive players. But it was right after the All Star break, so I don't think that Mooky needed that the rest or the mental break, but he's certainly struggling. How do you think Mooki is best served to get out of this and get back to the player that we know he is and that he certainly knows he is.

00:27:57
Speaker 1: Wow, A lot of that is a great question, And you're right about Mooky.

00:28:01
Speaker 2: He's extremely hard.

00:28:02
Speaker 1: On himself to a fault sometimes maybe not just sometimes, maybe a lot of times. And he does not believe this has anything to do with his play at shortstop moving to shortstop full time. He just cannot kind of figure out what is going on now. You can't bench him for an extended period. That would make no sense. The mental relief, I understand that that was obviously Dave Roberts saw something in that first game that he said, Nope, we got to give him a day. So the obvious thing here is to keep playing and keep going.

00:28:36
Speaker 2: That's what major league players do. That's what Mookey Betts has done his entire career.

00:28:40
Speaker 1: But you worry that this has gone on for so long. This is not just now the stomach illness that hurt him early on. This is an extended season long slump and he has to play himself out of it. But it's not easy to do.

00:28:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, no question about that. It'll be interesting to see the series this weekend. Ken, I hope to see you over the course of the weekend at Fenway. For everybody watching Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal, we appreciate it. Ken has a brand new episode on Monday. Don't forget Foul Territory is next. Eric Kratz and Todd Frasier join Scott Braun. They have good guests today, Brent Rooker, Jesse Chavez and Jesse Rogers from ESPN. We'll see you next time. BETMGM is giving you the chance to win a prize every day during the baseball season. Step into the batter's box for betmgms Swing for the Fences free to play game. Visit the betmgm app to access the game, and you'll score a prize if you hit a single, double, triple, or home run. Strikeout. No problem, Try again tomorrow. Gambling problem or concern, there is help. Call one eight hundred Gambler

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