Giants sign Harrison Bader, Guardians/José Ramírez extension, Cutch vs Pirates, Yu Darvish calling it?

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Happy Monday. It was a happy Saturday. It was a fun night BBWAA Awards. We streamed the entire thing live. It's about a four hour live stream. You can skip through and pick and choose your spots including Otani, Judge Skiens, Schooble speeches, interviews with guys like Pat Murphy, Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin, Carlos Rodin was on our show, so you can go back and look at that.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: It is on the FT YouTube channel.

00:00:29
Speaker 1: We're going to post some parts of it on our podcast platforms this week, but if you're listening in the car anywhere else right now, on Apple, Spotify or otherwise, you can head over to our YouTube.

00:00:40
Speaker 2: Channel to check that out. It was fun and Todd Father Kratz was dressed up nicely.

00:00:46
Speaker 3: It was I saw. I saw a couple of pictures he was dressed to impressed.

00:00:51
Speaker 4: I gotta be honest, I'd give him credit for that, but I'm glad he's got his hat back on and we can move on, so we're good.

00:00:58
Speaker 5: I was gonna wear a hat. It got k it got Oh really yeah, I got a nice new Era came out with a line of Fedoras and uh, what are the what are the ones that like the taxi cab hats with the short brim that that kind of John I got him back in the day. So I was gonna wear them, but didn't quite match my suit. So until next.

00:01:24
Speaker 2: Year it got kebashed by us by.

00:01:30
Speaker 5: Higher up, higher up than Scott, higher up than Mark, higher up than Claude cab. The higher, the higher.

00:01:37
Speaker 1: Up, the highest, the highest up, the familial highest up.

00:01:42
Speaker 5: Yep, okay, my daughter, my daughter, I'm saying it was my daughter. You look, you look stupid. Your face is weird.

00:01:50
Speaker 4: Dad's She's not wrong, she's not wrong.

00:01:54
Speaker 5: It's not wrong.

00:01:57
Speaker 2: And Todd father would tell her checks in the mail. I got you.

00:02:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, relax, come on now, it's let Doddy, Let Doddy love a little bit.

00:02:06
Speaker 5: Well, it's we get a suit that matches it.

00:02:09
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure that it was clear that we aren't preventing you from doing anything like the ft network supports whatever you do and where your family not anything right, but your family is there.

00:02:21
Speaker 2: To keep you in check. All right, let's charge.

00:02:26
Speaker 5: Let's charge about.

00:02:29
Speaker 1: Get ready for the statue in Cleveland. Top Father Jose Ramirez signs an extension and he gets more money added on. So he had three years left on his contract, and now his deal runs through twenty thirty two. He turns forty later that season in twenty thirty two, so that'll do it twenty five million a year from twenty twenty six to twenty thirty two. Ken with the details on this part. Ten million deferred each year during that time period, so twenty five and then ten gets pushed back ten years later for each of those years. Also, Ken notes private jet travel for one round trip per year, plus one trip to and from the All Star Game, also an additional hotel room on the road besides his suite. Awards packages also doubled from current contract. Five hundred k for MVP, three hundred k for second or third, one fifty k for fourth or fifth, plus bonuses for All Star Gold Glove Shortstop or Star Sorry Shortstop, Silver Slugger LCS, and World Series MVPs. And guess what, He's finished top five seven times in MVP, so he might be getting a little extra.

00:03:34
Speaker 2: Kashish.

00:03:35
Speaker 1: He's always kind of mentioned how he could have gotten more and he could have pressed the Cleveland Indians at the time now Guardians, but he decided to take the quote team friendly contract so that he could stick around, not get traded, and never hit the free agent market.

00:03:51
Speaker 2: What do you think about all of this?

00:03:53
Speaker 4: I love it. It's like a dream come true, man. I mean all this stuff, one free round trip per year plus one trip to him from All Star Game, like he already knows I'm making the All Star Game. I love the confidence and it's true. He's an absolute beast. Yeah, I've always wanted to hear about stuff like this. You get the outside stuff. And now, yeah, where's he gonna go? Man, He's gonna go to you know, Fiji. I mean that one round trip. I would take that up and go go somewhere special. But yes, he's sitting pretty. He always has. He's and he deserves it. He's been a really good UH baseball player.

00:04:28
Speaker 3: Through the years.

00:04:29
Speaker 4: And he's gonna make some incentive money too as well, pay for the groceries. And yeah, he's got to be smiling right now no matter what the weather is. He is in really good shape. I mean, this is this is really incredible, and you know, not many people get stuff like this and this is you know, he deserves it. He took a team friendly deal, and now he's the face until twenty thirty two, which he was already pretty awesome deal for him.

00:04:56
Speaker 5: I mean, this is, without a doubt, year in and year out, the most underrated player in the game. If he played in a bigger market and put up the numbers that he has, and he doesn't. His game doesn't not have blemishes. You know, he's not perfect, but he is a top five player in the game year in and year out. And I don't think a lot of people know about his game. Like I think they know who Jose Ramirez is. They know he's an All Star, they know he's the face of the Guardians right now, and they know he's a really good hitter. But if you really look and delve into what he has done and how tough he is, the fact that he has a career one thirty ops, plus the fact that he has he has a little bit of inefficient deficiencies at third base, but the fact that he is possibly the last three years he's had a shot at being a forty to forty guy, he's a thirty thirty guy. Like the numbers are just there. That's nomical to me, and for him not to get more love It's okay, because I think that's why he resigned with the Guardians. He loves it. I've heard him saying plenty of interviews, my daughter is born here, like familiarity and the opportunity to stay at a place really does mean more than a certain amount of money to people. So good for Hosey and great for the Guardians organization because he will go in as a Hall of Famer as a Cleveland Guardian.

00:06:29
Speaker 1: That's right, three years, sixty nine million was left. Now new money is seven years, one seventy five. No, no, sorry, New Year's New year money is four years one oh six to the existing deal. Seventy million of that is deferred money. Wait, I thought only the Dodgers did deferrals. I thought only the Blue Jays did defarls. Just anyway, Yes, last year, one hundred and fifty eight games ops plus one thirty seven thirty homers, forty four stolen bases, still a plus defender. I mean, he's got it all. He's also mentioned how he loves the fans and they never bow. So maybe he gets to the late stages of his career and does show decline like a normal human would, and fans will still appreciate him. You don't always get that in every market. You don't always get the loyalty from team to player either. We'll talk later about Andrew McCutcheon. Here's my question for you, Todd father. Do you feel like Cleveland needs to show him a little more love and support in the lineup. I don't know what to believe anymore sometimes when something pops up on social media, but I do remember seeing March twenty twenty five, he was on some podcasts and it was in Spanish, and I don't speak Spanish, or at least not well, and they were talking about how at least it said, and I don't know if this is true or not, that you know he wanted the team to kind of take advantage of the discount and build a winner. Even if that's not true, let's say that was the case in a hypothetical right, because the Guardians haven't won a World Series since the late nineteen forties, do you feel like Cleveland owes it to him to give him a little bit more. They stay pretty silent during the offseason and still put together a nice contender, But can you imagine if they could add a bat or two.

00:08:05
Speaker 3: I think they owe it to Cleveland.

00:08:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, Jose, of course he's been there through the long haul, through the good and the bad.

00:08:13
Speaker 3: But I think they owe.

00:08:14
Speaker 4: It to the city to put a contender up there. You know, they make the playoffs, but you know, getting beat by the Tigers and you know, not scoring that many runs. So I mean, listen, at the end of the day, they need a couple more bats. They need some help. For sure, they find ways to win. They got good pitching. They they're good enough, but will they get catapult over to where they want to be and win a World Series?

00:08:40
Speaker 3: Not yet.

00:08:40
Speaker 4: I just think they do need They need somebody else in that lineup to help him, you know, without pitching around him all the time.

00:08:48
Speaker 5: For sure, Wait help him. Wait a minute, you're saying that a better lineup Jose Ramirez could be better than this. I totally agree with you, Todd. Like if they added if they added a piece behind him, not a Carlos Santana again, not a you know, not a one year prove it kind of free agent deal, but like that guy, like maybe Pete Alonso last year, What that would have done to this lineup. It was clearly going to be a one year thing. What would that have done to this lineup? Massive? What would have done to Jose Ramirez production? It would have It would have taken to me, It would have taken him to that MVP level. And I don't think he can do it on his own. But there's one stat that is so crazy at Jose Ramirez. The last ten seasons, ten straight years, including the COVID season, he has had more RBIs than strikeouts. In an era where we have just been totally okay with the strikeout, his short little arms keep getting to the ball and keep driving the ball out of the ballpark. It is. It is a wild thing to say that somebody's that's ended up in the top five in Envy he voting so many years, is underrated. But I will say it again, Jose Ramirez is underrated.

00:10:06
Speaker 1: It's not just Cleveland. It's also that he's kind of boring in a good way. He just consistently puts up the same numbers every single year. It almost makes it boring, right, He's fun to watch, I'm just saying from a national stage or like cool, same dude every year, Top five MVP consistent and Wyatt doesn't speak much publicly, so that's part of it too.

00:10:26
Speaker 5: And he doesn't hit and he doesn't hit five hundred foot home runs. Guys with forty home runs, you're like, whoa did you see that tape measure? I mean the first year where he really broke out and he had a ton of doubles. The next season something like something like seven of his doubles the year before either hit the wall or were at the base of the wall. And the next season he had like seven or eight more home runs. So he he's just he is a pure hitter with power in a lineup that he carries it all himself.

00:11:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, he gets pitched around all the time, so it makes it even more amazing. Good for him, good for Cleveland, good for the organization. Breaking news during FT and we have a resident GM, Jim Boden, to help talk us through at Harrison Batter signs a two year contract to play center field for the San Francisco Giants, something they wanted to upgrade. And there was a story from your colleague Andrew Baggerley in The Athletic the other day about how they were going for CJ.

00:11:27
Speaker 2: Abrams they came up empty.

00:11:29
Speaker 1: This I don't want to call it is a pivot, but they still needed to do things. What do you think about this particular move for San Francisco and their offseason as a whole.

00:11:38
Speaker 6: Yeah, So, I mean, to me, Bater's a fourth outfielder. You know, he's a pretty good defensive player. He is a good base runner, His uniform is dirty by opening day, and he tends to irritate coaching staffs by the end of the season.

00:11:54
Speaker 3: You know, he was a member of the Yankees.

00:11:56
Speaker 6: He thought he should be hitting clean up on that team. So what I I've heard, you know, in terms of clubhouse guy not the best, but he plays hard. Fans love him because of that. And to me, you know, it's a good fourth outfielder. We all love pitching in defense, and so to me, Harrison Bader is a plus when it comes to that. But my view on the player is more of a fourth outfielder than a starting center fielder.

00:12:19
Speaker 5: What does this say about Jung Hu Lee, who they paid one hundred and third one hundred and thirteen million dollars. Is it maybe a misstep on evaluation or his game or his defensive game, which is supposed to be his trademark, hasn't translated to the big leagues for the Giants.

00:12:36
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean again, I think they just they wanted outfield depth here. You know, I haven't talked to anyone's who's the news just broke, so I haven't had a chance to pick up the phone and call Buster Posey or Manassian to get kind of their take on the role.

00:12:49
Speaker 3: That Bater's going to be.

00:12:51
Speaker 6: But they still do love young Holy Bader is not taking his job in this transaction. Again, I just think it's a depth play there that they're here. I haven't seen the contract yet, Is that part of the breaking news? Is that out there yet? Scotty?

00:13:05
Speaker 2: Not yet? Not yet.

00:13:06
Speaker 1: We just have two years, so no money yet in terms of what he's getting.

00:13:10
Speaker 2: You know, it appeared that he was looking for three but he gets two years.

00:13:13
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's going to be a pretty low contract. And look, he's a solid fourth outfielder and in that ballpark, as you guys know, you know, you really need centerfielders in all three outfield positions. So you know, Vader coming off the bench giving you depth. You get an injury, you can still catch the ball for your pitching staff. So yeah, I like to fit in that ballpark. Farris and Beata as a quote unquote extra player.

00:13:34
Speaker 1: Last one here on this. Did they do enough San Francisco if this is the end of their offseason?

00:13:39
Speaker 5: No?

00:13:39
Speaker 1: Right, I mean you load it up with guys who you want to take advantage of right now, Adamas, Stevers, et cetera. Don't you feel like you have to keep pushing while you have them in their prime?

00:13:48
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:13:48
Speaker 6: I mean I love the fact they were chasing CJ. Abrams, Like, I really love that they were having those conversations because I would have loved him at second base on that team, and I'd love Abrams in an environment where he can be put in his place by veteran players and be in a place where you know he can be a little more disciplined on and off the fields. I would have liked that fit a lot. But I know, to me, Franber Valdez gives them the good offseason. Like go, I like the Tyler Maley signing.

00:14:13
Speaker 3: I do.

00:14:14
Speaker 6: If he's healthy, we know he's a good picture. He's underrated if he's healthy. But to put Valdez at the top with Web and Ray, Okay, now you got a chance for a wildcard. You're not catching the Dodgers, so you're fighting for a wildcard Berth and you got a lot of good teams that are kind of the same as you, and so how do you separate yourselves. You really haven't done that this offseason, so hopefully their offseason isn't done. I mean, you know, look, a lot of things can happen. We still have a couple of weeks until spring training. There's still some free agents out there, there's still trades that can be made, so we got to show patients. But as of now, the answer is no, San Francisco has not done enough. Outside of the fact they bought the current Theater, which I think is a cool acquisition. I just wish they had put the money into pitching or another.

00:14:57
Speaker 1: Bat I'm with you, the good ol real estate instead of player payroll.

00:15:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one plays out over the long term. I like that.

00:15:06
Speaker 1: That's a good way to finish this conversation. JB are the best. Thank you, appreciate you. Thanks guys, all right, we'll keep the conversation going right now with Todd Father and with Kratz. So for San Francisco, the other layer here, like JB mentioned, is how they just recently made a strong push to get cj Abrams and Andrew Baggerley of The Athletic, who covers the team, wrote about this here. It included a prospect package that could have had I don't know if I'm going to say the name perfectly here, Josh war Gonzalez, thank you. He's eighteen years old, so he's still got probably a couple years to marinate. He is the number thirty ranked prospect by Baseball America, and there are some others that are in the top one hundred from San Francisco that looked like they had a shot of being in a package. For Abrams, you'd get three years of him and Krats. This would of course be for him to play second base, not to play shortstop. Your old teammate Willia domis the shortstop for a while there now, But that.

00:16:02
Speaker 2: Would have been cool. That would have been a nice ad.

00:16:04
Speaker 1: It seems like they've been trying to pluck Brendan Donovan away for a while and haven't been able to come up with a prospect package for Saint Louis. So your thoughts on what they've done here so far, including the addition of Batter. I'll go against JB by the way and say I think Bater's going to get some pretty serious playing time. I mean, if you just flip real quick to the lineup right now from Fangrafts and they added instantly Will This against Righty's Willia Domas one devers set first base, hitting second, Elliott Ramos left field. They've got in the three spot. They needed another outfielder in addition to him. He had a nice year last year for them, a bit of a breakout. Matt Chapman clean up Jung Hulee in right field, and then Bader batting sixth in center.

00:16:47
Speaker 2: They've got Bryce Eldridge, the rookie who is a.

00:16:50
Speaker 1: Top I believe twenty prospect right now in Baseball America's top one hundred at DH, Casey Schmidt at second base. They'd like him to be a super utility and get someone like Donovan or Abra and then Patrick Bailey catcher in the nine spot.

00:17:04
Speaker 5: I mean, yeah, it's great. It's great that they brought Beata in. And I agree with you. I'm against what Jim said, like I think he steps in right away. You know, they traded away Yas last year, didn't resign back, so you have a guy that needs to step in. It's a large it's a large left center to right center and then right center is really tough to play. So does Lee play center? Does Beata play center? Who knows? Either way? You're having a guy that has defensive upside. I hope because we don't know the money yet. For the giants sake, they didn't pay for what he did offensively last year because that was a in my opinion, it was an anomaly, and I think his offensive production will be diminished in San Francisco. I think he can be a contact guy because it's essentially what you need to do. But I think you look at what Buster Posey is doing, and it's only because it came out about the whole c J Abrams, you know they didn't get him. He's okay having guys who are utility guys, but that super utility role like you're talking about with Casey Schmidt, where you go, Okay, we have somebody that can play all those positions. Not we have somebody that plays second, but he's not a great second basement, So we need somebody that plays this and that he looks like he's making moves for guys who play every day. That's what he did, That's what his entire crew of young guys that came up when he was playing, and they had successful teams. They had dudes that were out there every single day. And I don't think they want to be a huge platoon team. You take advantage of opportunities, but I think this Batter signing also helps them. Is Elio Ramos going to be the guy that he was two years ago in twenty twenty four? He had a step back last year, But can he still be that guy or can he recapture that twenty twenty four Eli Oramos, because if not, he may find himself getting slid to the bench a little bit, depending on you know, Drew Gilbert was a guy that was up there and plays that plays, you know, kind of a hard nosed type of baseball. But it's tough to build a lineup without saying that guy is a banger defender, like you need your offense needs to be defensive when you're playing eighty one of your games in San Francisco.

00:19:28
Speaker 1: And good call, real quick top father. Twenty twenty four was the breakout for Ramos.

00:19:32
Speaker 2: He was fine. I mean, he was still a productive player.

00:19:34
Speaker 1: Last year, but his best season twenty four, Yeah, it was not as good of a year.

00:19:39
Speaker 2: I mean twenty four he was just.

00:19:41
Speaker 1: Going off some basic advanced stats here seven ninety two ops one, twenty four ops plus. That's really good two point three Baseball Reference war. And then he took a little step back on offense this past season seven to twenty eight ops one O eight ops plus. Again still a productive player, that's still a starting talent player. It's not by any means, you know, it's like a little above average player basically.

00:20:06
Speaker 5: But it felt like, sorry Todd, like it felt like Elio Ramos. Elio Ramos last year became like, Okay, he's got it. They wanted him to take that superstar leap he wanted. They wanted him to hit the thirty home runs, hit twenty five home runs, and it looked like his swing became like it almost looked like he was trying to carry the weight of the fact that they had Lee back in center and wasn't going to give you a lot of offense and wasn't going to give you more than just you know that contact and on base makes stuff happen type of thing. And I think he's going to be I think Elio Ramos will benefit from Bryce Eldred doing really well, an entire season of Raphael Devers, and I think it's something that the whole adage of rising tide raises all ships. When you have when you have aircraft carriers in your lineup for the entire season. It helps a guy like Elliot Ramos, who is a good player and above average player. That makes him be closer to that All star that he was in twenty four.

00:21:13
Speaker 3: And like to kind of button all this up. You know, we talked about Bata.

00:21:16
Speaker 4: I love him, good signing, but are they gonna Is this a team that right now can beat the Padres and the Dodgers, you know, to hump up and get back into the playoffs. I don't see that, So yes, Scott, back to your point, they do need some more. But again, really good defender saw him in New York. He looked really well and we'll see, I mean conflicting reports on both sides whether he's gonna start or not, or position he's gonna play, So all up to what the Giants want to do next.

00:21:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good fit, right. You want a super athlete. Bater is a super athlete. Yeah, you want super athletes. In San Francisco, Kratz always talks about this, Eric, you want to build around your ballpark. You can't just have no pop in your line. It's not like Bader doesn't have pop. They're going to have more pop than they've had in a long time. With Adamis, who finally cracked thirty for San Francisco first time since Barry Bonds, that you had to player crack thirty homers, that's crazy. Devers should do that if he's healthy this season, and I mean Bryce Eldridge should be able to do that eventually, whether he cracks the team in spring training to opening day or not. I mean, he's a guy who has serious pops. So this gives you pop, but then you still want athleticism from this team. So Buster Posey's trying to put his stamp on this ball club.

00:22:36
Speaker 5: I think when you said what I said, you build your team around the park. Only when you have a certain park that it really plays like Oracle, like Kaufman, even though they're moving the fences in like Colorado. You have to be able to But to me, you have to be able to bring those guys up from the minor leagues and then supplement them with other guys that bring something to the table because you do have to play eighty one games on the road. But to me, they have a distinct advantage in San Francisco of finding ground ball pitchers, guys who don't walk, guys on the mound, don't chase the strikeouts, and then offensive players who are also elite defenders. I mean, the Matt Chapman fit there is ridiculous. The fact that they have platinum Glove at third base and he can still hit. Like I'm not saying these dudes are, you know, are just bobo hitters. But let's pump the brakes. Like as good a year as Bader had, he hadn't been above ops plus since like sixteen or seventeen before this, Like he's a career ninety six ops plus. His value is in that defense, and that's where the Giants get a little extra. We don't know what the money is, but that's where they get a little extra in the contract compared to other teams that could have signed Baper.

00:24:06
Speaker 1: Let's do the classic after a signing power rank the division teams National League West?

00:24:13
Speaker 2: Who would like to go first?

00:24:18
Speaker 5: Dodgers? All right, who's second? Then Todd Dodgers.

00:24:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do it. Besides let's do two through the rest.

00:24:25
Speaker 3: All right, I'm going I'm going Padres still, I'm going.

00:24:33
Speaker 4: Arizona, San Francisco, Colorado, Okaya, And I'm like the San Francisco Arizona. I'm I'm torn on a little bit though. Okay, that can go either way.

00:24:49
Speaker 5: I agree Kratz man, if the if the Diamondbacks had any kind of pitching, if they resigned, gowon all the ifs and butts and all this stuff. Coryn Byrne comes back in June, is he one hundred percent healthy? I think the Diamondbacks have the highest ceiling of anybody. I mean, they need some of their woopen to come back. Like there's there's a lot going on with the Diamondbacks. The Padres aren't perfect. They have a really good bullpen. They're starting rotation. If they get rid of Pavetta, it's scary, like all of a sudden, you know you have Michael King. Your starting rotation was suspect at some points. So I don't think it's I don't think it's the slam dump of the giants of the fourth place team. I'm gonna say the Padres, Padres Giants, then Diamondbacks. Currently, as we sit on January twenty sixth.

00:25:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough.

00:25:48
Speaker 1: I'm I think I'm gonna go with Todd Father for now, but it's close. I just really like the Arizona offense and the core that they have, and they kept it together trading Catl Marte. That's the difference maker for me. Yeah, I'd like to a good offense. I'd like to see them add one more arm. It could make a difference, and then they're gonna have arms coming back at some point throughout the season.

00:26:14
Speaker 2: Even is Corbyn going to get back maybe late in the year. I don't know. Corbyn burns right, you should have him at some point. Maybe August I thought he was.

00:26:23
Speaker 5: I thought he was JUNI or july A right, let me it.

00:26:26
Speaker 2: Could be okay.

00:26:27
Speaker 1: So anyway, I think that's a that's a tight one with Arizona and San Francisco right now. I think the Patres are one step ahead of those teams. Then of course you have la.

00:26:38
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what he said.

00:26:39
Speaker 2: That's what he said.

00:26:42
Speaker 5: That's what he said.

00:26:43
Speaker 2: That's what he said.

00:26:47
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into this battle, Henry McCutcheon versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's the battle that I don't think anybody signed up for but it's happening right now.

00:26:56
Speaker 2: They had their fan fest this past weekend. Cutch is not there.

00:27:00
Speaker 1: Why Cutch is a free agent. He has not gotten a phone call from the Pirates. He's been signing up to one year contracts last couple of years, five year, five million dollars and he's very vocal on Twitter.

00:27:12
Speaker 2: We love him for that.

00:27:13
Speaker 1: He's a great personality in our sport. He said he hasn't gotten a phone call from the Pirates. At one point this offseason, he explained how he can still do some outfield. I mean, he didn't do a ton of it, but he can right still in good shape to be able to run around in the outfield. Ben Charrington at FanFest for the Pirates, and I'll paraphrase here, was saying how there's laser focused on winning more games this year, and how he didn't say Cutch wasn't in the mix. He just said, we'll see. It was kind of a we'll see, here we go, where's Cutch? And here's the answer from Charrington To be exact, Andrew's meant a ton to the franchise. Our approach this offseason has been laser focused on what gives us the best chance to win more baseball games in Pittsburgh than we have in the past seasons. I will add a captain obvious to the back end of that answer, but that is your job as GM and they've done it.

00:28:00
Speaker 2: Nice job. They haven't done a ton, but they've done a little bit. Todd Father, whose side are you taking here?

00:28:07
Speaker 1: Should Andrew McCutcheon be on the twenty twenty six Pirates if he does end up on the Pirates? Should they have figured this out before FanFest? And what does the contract look like for someone who was close to the league average with his offense last year and at times looked like one of their best bats because their offense was so bad last year.

00:28:26
Speaker 4: This is a tough one, but I'm always I'm always gonna side with the player. I don't think there's an argument like between the two of them, between Charington and McCutchen, But I feel like McCutcheon deserves to at least be in the know about what they're trying to do here. Fun loving guy. Everybody loved him in Pittsburgh. This would not be a good way to go out. Maybe there was a disconnect of knowing, like when he wanted to retire. I don't know if they have had conversations. There's got to be more to this store, to what we're hearing here, then you know what we see on top of the surface, because you know, we don't know how many conversations those two had.

00:29:07
Speaker 3: We don't know what both of them were thinking. But I love what mccutch and said.

00:29:11
Speaker 4: You know, he told basically whoever said that, you know, listen, you're not gonna write my story, man, my story's not done. I think I could play, and he's confident, and I believe he still can play, and I believe the only team he should play for is the Pirates. So I hope they come to a conclusion on this. I hope they find a way to get him another year deal, you know, maybe put some stipulations on it.

00:29:33
Speaker 5: I don't know, but.

00:29:36
Speaker 4: I feel like him coming out and saying this, I think he wants one more year at least. So I would love to hear, you know, mccutch and talk about this too, just to see where his mindset is.

00:29:46
Speaker 2: We can try and get him on the show. We can work on that we've had him on before.

00:29:49
Speaker 1: So there was a radio host in Pittsburgh who said, you know, on the Andrew McCutchen reunion tour, because he's done three years, that's great, but they never won more than ninety or seventy six games during the last years. I respect what he's mean to the franchise in city, but he's thirty nine. At some point you have to look at different, better ways to win, even if it means moving on. Cutch Quote tweeted that, and he replied, I wonder did the Cards do this with wayIn Wright, Pouhols Yati Dodgers to Kershaw, Tigers, Tomiggi.

00:30:21
Speaker 2: The list goes on and on.

00:30:22
Speaker 1: If this is my last year, it would have been nice to meet the fans one last time as a player talking about FanFest, talk to them about my appreciation for them over the years, shake that little kid's hand, or hug the fan that's been a fan since Clemente. You see, this is bigger than baseball, bigger than looking at a forty men roster and cherry picking numbers that fit your agenda, prove why your opinion matters. The fans deserved, at the very least to get that opportunity. I don't know what the future holds for me at the present moment. But what I do know is I'm thirty nine, on the back end of my career. I still work every day to be better than I was before. If there wasn't a burning desire to continue this journey, I would be home surrounded by my family, which no one would judge or be surprised.

00:31:02
Speaker 2: But not yet.

00:31:03
Speaker 1: There's more work to do and I'm not done. No matter what label you try to stamp on me, rip the jersey off me. You don't get to write my future. God doess So Kratz, what do you think? And when this stuff comes out, people want to pick sides. Should Andrew McCutchen be on the twenty six roster and should the Pirates be handling this differently? I'll just add this one caveat even if the Pirates didn't want him back, why is there not a phone call? And if they do want him back, which Charrington still is alluding to, phone call, Hi, Andrew, We're still working through our offseason. We'll see how the roster shakes out, but we are thinking about bringing you back, and it might look at one year. Whatever the number is that they come up with. We'll keep you posted.

00:31:46
Speaker 5: Five million, one year five million. I mean, it's like it's just a standard Andrew McCutchen contract. I'm not going to sit here and arc because Todd already said the player is part of it, whether he should be on the team or shouldn't be on the team. It's more about what you said, Scott. It's more about the fact that organizations don't just wake up and go, you know what, we're going to try to compete this year. They knew what their plan quote unplanned, was gonna be when the off season started. That conversation could have been had at the end of last season. Now, maybe Ben Charrington was saying, maybe they're gonna fire me. So I don't really want to be the bad guy and talk to Andrew McCutcheon about this, but the conversation needed to be had last year. I saw Cutch in April and we were hanging out before the game and he was playing outfield at that time, and he was like, because Reynolds was down with a I want to say, a shoulder or something, so he wasn't He was still hitting, but he was not playing the outfield at that point. He was like, he said, at my age it's not the fact that I have to play the outfield, he says, the fact that you have to work into playing the outfield. You have to work into you have to get your reps out there. And when you get your reps out he's like, when I get my reps out there, I'm good. I know where I need to be. He's like, I'm not running around center field, he said, I'm good to go. It's just the fact that if you're DHDHDHDHDH and then all of a sudden, banging in the outfield for four out of seven days, it doesn't work like that. You don't just rip the band aid off right away. He's like, but if I know I got to play the outfield four of seven days in the five of seven days, he's like, then I just work myself up to it and I'm able to get ready for that. So that's where maybe a little bit of a lact of communication. Now there's a new manager, Don Kelly comes in, maybe he's able to communicate with him once he's on the team. But I think he's still a viable piece to this organization. But as a guy who I played with him two thousand and nine, my first year with the Pirates. He made his big lead debut that year. The fact that you're talking about since two two thousand and nine, he's going on his seventeenth season in the big leagues. You say, there's a piece of that organization that they that if they really care about the fans, there's something that needs to be done differently than how it's been done so far this offseason.

00:34:16
Speaker 1: To Andrew McCutcheon, I wonder what the conversations were like last year. He's been part of the organization for a few years. I know you talked about this a little bit Todd Father. Do any think they would have sat down with him and said, hey, what's your plan? How much longer do you want to play so we can try and make this as beautiful as possible.

00:34:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I didn't hit that. I'm glad Cratty brought that up. Like, where is the communication?

00:34:43
Speaker 3: Man?

00:34:43
Speaker 4: That that's the most frustrating part been with the organization. You know, I only played about twenty games, but spring training on the communication was okay, I mean, but at the same time with this guy, come on, dude, Like that's the more frustrating part, Like, hey, dude, we're going to talk to in the off season. If we can't talk now, just something a little leeway of what they're trying to do, you know, and if he gets mad over that, then so be it. But at least they told him exactly what they were thinking. And that's that's that's the issue on hand. It's like, yeah, you want to win more, Okay, I get it. Yeah, you want to surplus of great athletes coming into your organization, but you also want to be respectable and let a guy go out on his terms and what he did for that city can't be unmatched by anybody.

00:35:33
Speaker 3: So that's the problem. No communication.

00:35:36
Speaker 4: Just like when I tell my twelve year olds in basketball when they're playing defense, where the hex's your communication?

00:35:41
Speaker 3: There is not so they need it.

00:35:44
Speaker 5: I don't know how Ben Charrington should have said this, but it got me a little, like it made my neck like hairs on my next and yes, and I do have hair on my neck stand up like where I was like, ah, man, Like he could have said it differently, like hey, where's Andrew McCutcheon. Essentially, he said, oh, we're trying to win, so that's why we're not bringing them back. Like what, first of all, you should be laser focused on winning every single day, no matter if you're playing only the minimum, you know, big league call ups. You should be laser focused on how you're trying to win. It's not just like, well, you know what, we're not trying this year. Oh wait a minute, ben Cherrington said that. Essentially, he said that in his own words and how he should have said it, Like, I just feel like there was a better way to say, Hey, you know what, we're not bringing Andrew back right now because we're looking at other options, like give me a vague, not well, we're really laser foot we want to win, and you know why we're not picking him because we want to win. Is essentially what he said that to me, that that might fire, that might fire, fire cuts up a little bit, get them old knees cranking up.

00:36:58
Speaker 2: Do you think that this be salvaged or or do you think we're past that point?

00:37:03
Speaker 4: Right?

00:37:04
Speaker 1: I mean, you can call and apologizes. You don't think you can be salvagedocrats I don't.

00:37:10
Speaker 5: I don't, And I think and I think Kutch had no he had no desire to go play anywhere else. I mean, my guy's got he's got all the kids, he's got every one of the kids, and he doesn't want to go anywhere else. And it's tough, Todd. I don't know if you ever played, you never played where you stayed at home. But you play a season where you stay at your house, the house you live in any offseason, and then you go to the season, you go to your games, you come back to that house. All of a sudden, you're like, wait a minute, what does that look like again? Okay, I'm signing with the team in Arizona. That's six weeks away. Okay, and then wait a minute, I'm never going to be home. People. There's other people that are saying, wait, what what did the pirates say? Well, they didn't call, Well what did they say? Why don't you call them? See what they're see what they're thinking, Like, that's a that's a tough transition. But cut seems he definitely is pissed. I'm not gonna say seems pissed. He's definitely pissed from his tweet, and he wasn't necessarily hitting back at the Pirates. More so, what what the guy on you know ninety three seven, the fan was saying, he's zerotated. Yeah, he's irritated for sure, motivated, I'm motivated.

00:38:26
Speaker 1: Chip on the shoulder, and also this is a legacy player. So I just think it's so important again to go back to what Todd father tells the youngsters and the basketball team communication, because you are going to want Andrew McCutchen at future FanFest, You're going to want him to be at spring training, post playing career, You're going to want him.

00:38:46
Speaker 2: To be part of future marketing opportunities. That's important.

00:38:51
Speaker 1: The teams that know what they're doing from a community perspective, from a fan engagement perspective, and even from a business perspective have some of the vets show back up at certain times during the year. And Andrew McCutcheon is the most notable Pittsburgh Pirate in a while.

00:39:08
Speaker 2: So.

00:39:10
Speaker 3: They have veteran they have veteran guys.

00:39:12
Speaker 5: Go.

00:39:12
Speaker 4: I've had guys at the Reds Vest for the past twenty twenty five years since they've had it. Come back yeah every year, and their lines are always packed for an autograph, for a picture.

00:39:23
Speaker 5: So now in the last year, last calendar year, the Pirates have covered up Roberto Clemente Wall with a drink with a drink option they got rid of bricks that fans paid for to have outside to commemorate their generations of fans, and now they got a little, not even a tiff, just like poor communication with their current living franchise player.

00:39:53
Speaker 2: Who is super popular with the fans.

00:39:56
Speaker 1: Have to be careful, Yeah, you need to do some introspection and say, hey, are.

00:40:03
Speaker 2: We doing everything we should be doing correctly here?

00:40:05
Speaker 1: And if not, how do we actually make changes? Because that stuff permeates through an entire organization, and that actually is part of a winning culture.

00:40:13
Speaker 2: How do you do things?

00:40:14
Speaker 1: How do you conduct business with everyone, with the fans, with players, with former players. I think all of that matters. We see some of the best organizations really thrive with that. Okay, let's get to the next That's what he said. We had some controversy over the weekend. There was a report out there from Kevin Acy, who does a great job covering the Padres. He often breaks news out there, and he talked about how it appears as if you darbish is going to retire and they're going to avoid the rest of that contract. So as far as leaving lots of money, I look at it as that was never mine to begin with especially considering the money I haven't physically earned yet. That was a quote from Darbish in this article. Great work by Kevin to report on this story. After the story comes out, first we get Joel Wolfe, who is the representation for you, Darvish. He responds, he said, you has not made a final decision yet. This is a complicated matter we are still working through. By the way, darvs is thirty nine and he has forty three million dollars left over three seasons. He's not pitching this year. It was it's Tommy John, right, I'm just clarifying Kratz.

00:41:26
Speaker 2: Is it Tommy John yet? Okay, just making sure Tommy John.

00:41:28
Speaker 1: So he's expected back in twenty twenty seven if he does want to play in twenty seven. He wasn't going to play in twenty six regardless. We also have a quote from Darbish after the story, after the agent comes out with a quote, and here's what he said from his own Twitter account. You may have seen an article and although I am leaning towards voiding the contract, there's still a lot that has to be talked over with the padres. So the final finer details are yet to be decided. Also, I will not be announcing my retirement yet. Right now, I am fully focused on my rehab for my elbow, and if I get to a point where I can throw again, I will start from scratch again to compete. If once I get to the point and I feel I can't do that, I will announce my retirement.

00:42:18
Speaker 2: Okay, U Kratz, do.

00:42:22
Speaker 1: You want to take me through what is going to happen now? When you kind of say something and then go, oh wait, I'm not going to give up all of the guaranteed money yet, And it's not a good look for the players to give up the guaranteed money that they fight so hard for.

00:42:38
Speaker 2: Where are we at here?

00:42:41
Speaker 5: I mean, I love I love what he said. I love the fact that he's like, whatever, I didn't even really earn that money yet, like it's fine if I don't get it. I love that he said that, not for the whole like guaranteed contracts, the next player coming, all that stuff. But I also think he knows what level he wants to get back to, and he knows how tough that will be. He knows what he has ahead of him in the next year, and I to me, I think it's a stand up thing that he said. But I also think there's a lot of people that are gonna sit there and go whoa whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoah. We're not like, you're really gonna walk away from this. I think he's more of just like whatever, we'll say I'm done. I'm fine being done because of the fact as a player, you sit there and you go I have to rehab for an entire year. I have to put everything I have into rehabbing to not say I'm done like I'm done, like I don't have the energy I got. I think he has a seventeen year old son who's gonna be starting college in the next year or two. I think he's got you know, he's got other kids too, So it's like he's ready to move on. I don't think everybody else is ready to move on. That was hoping to get some of that paycheck too.

00:44:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, Scotty, let me finish this up. It says there's still a lot has to be talked over with the padres or the finer. Finer details are not yet to be decided. So that's where I'm like, was he in talks ready to get the heck? Out of Dodge and go do his own thing. So that's where I'm a little indecisive about the whole thing. So is he leaning more towards retirement. We don't know, But when you hear a comment like that makes you wonder just a little bit more whether he's ready to hang him up.

00:44:30
Speaker 1: Most likely, what will happen, in my mind, if I had to predict, is that there will be some type of fire out. Fine, then he will retire and step away. If that's what he's feeling it. It appears as if he doesn't want to go through the entire rehabit process again at thirty nine years old. So I think you can probably come up to some agreement. Maybe there's a bunch of deferred money in there that makes the actual net present value smaller, clears up some money for the padres. On the short term, I think we're to see something like that over the next perhaps few weeks. Hey, did you guys see who?

00:45:17
Speaker 2: By the way? Dodger's territory coming up part of the Ft network right after this, and then.

00:45:21
Speaker 1: Baseball America Hot Sheet will prospect Talk at three point thirty Eastern time, So we'll keep live programming going for you on the FT network, just like we did on Saturday for four hours. If you want to go back and look at the BBWAA live stream the award show.

00:45:37
Speaker 2: It was awesome. Did you guys see.

00:45:41
Speaker 1: Craig Kimbrel still kicking, still caring to have a base if he makes the team, Todd Father to add to the four HG D forty career saves. I mean, I don't think you're necessarily going to be closing down games for the Mets.

00:45:52
Speaker 3: But hey, somebody else in the back burner there, you never know.

00:45:57
Speaker 4: I think that's a good pickup. He's not like he's he's like washed up. The dude gets still pitch. Let's see, we'll see what happens. You know, there's always gonna be injury. So oh let's just throw you know, Kimberling there in the sixth seventh instead of you know so and so we'll put them back down the minors though, But you know, I like it.

00:46:15
Speaker 3: I like it a lot.

00:46:16
Speaker 2: He made fourteen appearances last year with the GDRA teams. Think the stuff's going down.

00:46:21
Speaker 1: I mean, no doubt this stuff's not going to be what it was from five years ago. But we'll see what he looks like in spring training, the Wall.

00:46:30
Speaker 5: The me as they are with the velocity velocity down. As much as the Guardians haven't done a whole lot this offseason, the fact that they locked up a franchise player in a time when nobody spends their entire career with with the same team. Good for the Guardians. I think the internal workings of the Guardians are one of the best that I saw when I played for a team. Good for them, good for Rosey, and good for his second his second video game room that he gets to have video games and then his kids don't wake up in the middle so he can play some Mario Kart in the second hotel room.

00:47:09
Speaker 2: Oh that's right, that's true.

00:47:12
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's for his draft.

00:47:15
Speaker 1: That's right, right, the separate video game room. I don't think they clarified that in the contract, but he does get two hotel rooms.

00:47:21
Speaker 2: He's a lucky man.

00:47:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, he earned it. He is the best player on that team for a long time. Noelan Arnado joined us on tomorrow's show among other guests.

00:47:31
Speaker 2: Yes, we will see you tomorrow.