Murakami’s short-term White Sox deal, Willson Contreras traded to Red Sox, Yankees sign Paul Blackburn

00:00:01
Speaker 1: This is it.

00:00:02
Speaker 2: It's like Friday, but it's Monday. For some people that might feel that way, if today's our last workday for a little bit before the holidays, or maybe it's a Thursday for you, if tomorrow's your last workday for a little bit, Tomorrow's Tuesday. If you're listening to this right now on the podcast platform for FT, tomorrow is the last live show of twenty twenty five. Last one last live show of twenty twenty five. Now we will put out other content we've been working hard on, some other thangs we're working on.

00:00:28
Speaker 1: It might include movies.

00:00:29
Speaker 2: It also will include some moves we're expecting for twenty twenty six, being that many moves haven't happened yet, but look forward to that. You'll have plenty of Shnanigan's today. We have really good guests. I do want to make sure we get to the big moves.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: So let's hit it.

00:00:46
Speaker 2: Charge about charging the mound Todd Father with a little Wilson Contreras acquisition for the Boston Red Sox. Some fans might look and say, hey, wait, we have a first baseman named Tristan Cassis. Now he's coming off another big injury and the Sea and might start late for him. They do have a DH position they can utilize for a number of people. They do have an extra outfielder still which we can get into as well, but they can mix and match with that DH spot. But let's focus on what happened here. Wilson Contreras has put a very good numbers Tod Father and in his first year at first base it looked pretty good defensively. The Red Sox send Hunter Dobbins and name people know from his rookie season, and he's the prize of the package plus two other prospects four mister Contreras's services. Contreras also has, let's see, forty one point five million bucks left in his deal and the Red Sox are going to get eight million of that coverage. So they're paying thirty six and a half million over the next two seasons.

00:01:41
Speaker 1: Well, no, it's.

00:01:42
Speaker 2: Thirty six and a half plus a buyout on a club option for twenty twenty eight, So the Red Sox are paying all but forty one and a half million dollars of that deal. There's a no trade cause for Contreras. He waived it in order to go to Boston. What do you think of this move for the Red Sox, tod Father doesn't cost him a ton of money.

00:01:58
Speaker 1: See you figure they still have some room left.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: Alex Bragman, I couldn't hear you. You do say Alex pregnant.

00:02:06
Speaker 2: I mean other times you're interested, but I'm just saying, like, maybe you can get pregnant before the Blue Jays or Diamondbacks or whoever else for sure.

00:02:12
Speaker 4: And I heard he's narrowed down to a couple of teams too, as we get into that. But Wilson catres you talked about him a lot, Scott, and I remember, you know, we had that conversation about man, he'd be a good fit on this team or that team, and I was thinking, okay, but this one seems this one seems right. You know, the Red Sox seemed like what were they doing this offseason? Were they gonna try and get and how would they decipher who they need?

00:02:36
Speaker 3: You know they need other.

00:02:37
Speaker 4: Things, but you know, the solidify a guy like Wilson Contreras who's been playing for a while, a veteran player, a guy switched positions. The first base not the biggest target, but he's played well there. So I know Cratzy can attest to this. If you're a catcher, you can most likely play any infield position. You might not be the quickest at it, you might not get to every ball, but you could field every single ball that comes to you. You'll knock it down one way or another and make the play. But again, this is a good spot for the Red Sox.

00:03:06
Speaker 3: I like this move. They got rid of a couple guys, Okay, so be it. But to get a guy that.

00:03:12
Speaker 4: Is well known, who's been playing for a while and that can play and is gonna love hitting with that green monster and left field, good start there for the Red Sox.

00:03:22
Speaker 5: God I caught. There's no chance I'm going to play any other position. Besides you said any for any other infield position. That's why we get all of our ground balls out during VP. Yes, nobody sees the times you make airs. Nobody sees the below average footwork. The reason I think it really worked for Wilson is because he is super athletic behind a dish. He was always he always moved around really well. I think some of the things that lacked for him behind the dish were the things that are valued behind a dish. But his athleticism was never in question. He wanted to throw everywhere. He had a good arm. His receiving was below average, his game calling was suspect at times. But he's really made himself into a first baseman. And I'll credit whoever writer wants to credit, whoever broke this, but Scotti Broun is the first one to break it that he's going to Boston. So it's a great fit. Like and it's another move by Breslo that says and it's not just Breslo, but we're talking about the Red Sox right now, that says, yes, the amount of money per year is higher. You probably could have gotten like a Ryan O'Hearn, you probably could have gotten I'm trying to think another first basement, you know, like a one year deal, but that's essentially just getting Wilson contreres On a two year deal and compared to his ops plus combined, comparing it to Pete Alonso their neck and neck, and you're paying Pete Alonzo for five years. So I think that's the part that Craig Reslo is really looking at it, like we like this, we're able to make the move. And so hein Bloom strikes again. Him's like I build up this entire minor league system. I'm just gonna take it all back from the Red Sox with the Gray trade, with the Contreras trade. Possibly if the Red Sox don't get Bregman, could be a Nolan Aernado trade could be revisited. So Hime's just like, I build all these guys, I'm pillaging this entire minor league system.

00:05:33
Speaker 1: That's good. That's a good way to look at it. It's true. I mean Saint Louis is in a rebuild right now. This is real.

00:05:40
Speaker 2: We didn't know if it was going to be happening. Not this offseason, but a year ago. Remember Krat's a year ago and top five year ago. We were like, are they gonna trade Tonny Gray? Well, no, he didn't want to go. They're gonna trade Wilson Contreres will know he wasn't giving them permission and he had a no trade class. They wanted to trade Nolan Aernado and they couldn't figure that out based on the no trade power that he had.

00:06:02
Speaker 1: Well, here we go.

00:06:03
Speaker 2: Now they're actually making their moves, and I think this is actually good news for Saint Louis. Todd father. If they had done this last year. It's not just under John Mazzelac. Hein Bloom was working there, so he has some say. But now this is fully his onus, right, this is his responsibility. Hey, I'm making these deals. Let's see who pans out from this. We're not going to be able to look back and go, oh, those were still John Mzzaylac trades like. No, the veterans that they're able to deal right now are returning guys that hopefully will be part of the next Cardinals playoff team and they'll go through one or two years of paying.

00:06:36
Speaker 1: To get there.

00:06:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then you see these moves going on, like you brought up a name like Nolan Arnatto, like okay, wow, okay, guys are moving left and right.

00:06:45
Speaker 3: Does he want to be part of rebuild? I would say no.

00:06:49
Speaker 4: I would say there's there's opportunities now for him to be like, hey, listen, you know, I know I have places that I don't want to go. I have this, you know, with the clauses and everything else. But if there's an opportunity for him to go elsewhere, I think he's he's gonna take that opportunity and really think about what he wants to do. You know, he's getting later in his career, and you want a championship. And I think that that's the biggest thing. I think that's the next thing that will most likely go if there's an opportunity for him. And I think if the fit is there, even if it's not there, it might be an opportunity where all right, you know, I'm gonna be spinning my wheels here instead of fighting to get to a championship or at least in the playoffs.

00:07:33
Speaker 5: Something I always was impressed with he's even as a young player, Wilson Contraras is his ability to hit to the field, hit too.

00:07:41
Speaker 3: Now.

00:07:41
Speaker 5: He's never going to be like this elite level hitter. He's never going to be a guy who wins a batting title. But he's okay getting his hits to right field when he needs him in situations where hey, you're giving me a large you know, a large gap between first and second, or he's okay, you know, trying to take his shots. I'm very intrigued to see how many doubles Wilson Contrere's hits off the Green Monster because he's not a all launch angle kind of guy. He's a very good at spraying the ball all over the park, but he's good at doing it on different pitches. So I'll be interested to see. Like pulling the ball is not a people you know, kind of get on East Op parades because he pulls the ball all the time. Well, it's a superpower if you can pull the ball correctly, and you can pull it correctly in Boston, now all of a sudden, you're just clicking everything out front. You're able to slow down on breaking balls. Pull him out front, and I think he has the ability. He's that level of a hitter that he can make adjustments when they're in Fenway, when they're starting to pitch him differently, and he just takes his hits to write. And most likely if they I think they'll get Bregman back. He's not going to be the focal point in this lineup, unfortunately. If he is the focal point, I'm a little I'm a little leery, I'm a little weary for this lineup how it's constructed. But adding this right hand to Batt and Wilson, Contreras and Bragman vaults them right up there with the Jays in the American League East.

00:09:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean one twenty three ops plus one hundred league average this past season. He's entering his age thirty four seasons, so it'll be thirty four and thirty five for the two years. But even some of the other indicators that the front offices love, the quality of contact indicators and the perperal numbers there really strong bat speed which we have nowadays Todd Father, It doesn't matter if a player's paying attention to it or not. The front offices are, and he had great bat speed numbers, so some of those numbers look good and tell you okay, he should still age nicely into his mid thirties for the next couple seasons. I think this is huge for Boston. Wilson Contreres definitely can piss people off off on the field. He makes for good entertainment for us sometimes right, he gets into it with ups, he gets into it with other teams.

00:10:10
Speaker 1: I don't care. Can he hit? Can he play first base? Cool? Sign me up? And is he playing every day? Yes?

00:10:16
Speaker 2: And so for Boston Cassis maybe gets traded. If not, he can be part time first base and DH, you can't wait for a guy. It's been a couple of years.

00:10:28
Speaker 1: He hasn't been healthy.

00:10:29
Speaker 2: And if I'm Boston in my winning windows, now sign me up for Wilson Contreras.

00:10:35
Speaker 3: You said it best. It's time to win now.

00:10:38
Speaker 4: And I think that's the problem, and that's the opportunity that they're having. They've been They got a couple good pitchers last year, as we saw, they made the playoffs, just couldn't get over the hump against the Yankees. This is another piece of the puzzle for the Red Sox to climb and get over that hump.

00:10:52
Speaker 3: So yeah, I like it. Opportunity came. They found a way to get a guy over there.

00:10:58
Speaker 4: And if I'm Castias right now, I'm like, hey, man, I gotta look myself in the mirror and I got to step up. I know your injury. I know there's a guy coming in here taking your spot. Not saying you can't come back and be a good lethal hitter. You got to come up with what you believe in and look yourself in the mirror and find a way.

00:11:13
Speaker 3: But for the Red Sox, solid, solid job.

00:11:17
Speaker 5: I know I'm gonna say this and I'll probably get roasted if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Tristan Cossas has one more option coming off of a coming off of an injury year, where I mean it's a significant injury that he's recovering from. Get himself back on his feet, get his legs back under him, and maybe adjust some of the things his like. His patient approach is great as long as he's only doing damage on pitches in the zone and when you're not swinging at pitches on the perimeter of the zone, that's a good thing. But you can't miss the pitches that are middle middle, and that's you know, maybe something that he can It's tough to work on triple A because he kind of dominated her play before, but that option. Don't don't if I'm a Red Sox fan, don't don't anticipate what can Tristan costs get us to me. I think that that option if he has it, which I'm pretty sure he does. I don't have my updated option list here, but that is a value. Because now Yoshida goes down, they have you know, a rolling DH he starts raking, his legs are under him. Maybe they can bring him up and still use him because Wilson wants to play every day at first base.

00:12:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Bob Nightingale tweeted over the weekend. The Red Sox are now expected to end trade talks with the Diamondbacks for second baseman. Kit tell Marte, Okay, I mean to me that means you're very much banking on someone like Alex Bragman joining the fold.

00:12:52
Speaker 1: You're not going to get both right.

00:12:53
Speaker 2: They are going to have Trevor Story and Marcella Meyer take up two of the infield spots, so now they have contreras for an other and then it's Bragman or you could pick up a second baseman and Ad Meyer play third.

00:13:07
Speaker 3: Right.

00:13:07
Speaker 2: That's where Sox fans are still like, wait, we can we can find room for del Marte if we can't sign Alex Bragman, or we can find room for Boba Schett if we can't sign Alex Bragman.

00:13:17
Speaker 1: So just keep that in mind.

00:13:19
Speaker 2: Also, on the return package for the Cardinals, I think some credits should go to the Red Sox organization for developing pictures that they're turning into assets. You saw the Scrats, So I'm going to butcher names. But Yoker Fajardo. He is nineteen years old and he signed for four hundred thousand dollars out of Venezuela by the White Sox in twenty twenty four, the Red Sox traded him for camp booz. Boozer was designated for assignment, so they basically traded him for someone that cost him almost nothing. White Sox had to eat the money, so they got like a free prospect that they included this deal. Next up Blake aida sixth round pick out of Kennesaw State in twenty twenty. For nowadays, six round pick in the major league draft even more than a crapshoot. Right to get a prospect that you're either able to develop into a valuable big leaguer or that you're able to flip into trade.

00:14:12
Speaker 1: Is a massive success. So they have the success there.

00:14:14
Speaker 2: And then Dobbins, like you mentioned, is actually from the heinm bloom era twenty twenty one, he was an eighth round selection. So the Red Sox are making really valuable trade assets out of spots that you usually don't find them in.

00:14:29
Speaker 5: That's huge When people complain like, oh, you know, we never get to pick at the top of the draft, like the Dodgers never get to pick it the top of the draft. Your minor league system creates so much value. Your big league team is boosted by your minor league system. I remember when I worked for the Red Sox, they gave us a bonus. When the Red Sox made made it, I forget where they ended up making it too. They won the wildcard game against the Yankees. It was twenty one, but they truly believed in that time that anybody that was working in the minor league system was helping the big league team. I had nothing to do with the big league team. I never went to games. I never went to anything that year. But the way the Heim Bloom, the way that BA Brian Abraham was running the minor league system was a just an extension of the big leagues the minor leagues or extension of the big leagues. People were like, well, you know you made Marcella Meyer, you made Anthony, you know all those guys. No, you helped those guys get better, to reach the potential to help the big league team. And if they're not quite there, you turn them into a Wilson Contraras, you turn him into a Sonny Gray. And that's how good teams that want to win create value in the minor leagues. And you see some teams that don't do it money or no money.

00:15:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've the Cardinals on the other end of this, filling their first base spot pretty easily. Barlaston gets full time over at first base. You get to give him a full season of run and see what it looks like. And just to finish on the Cardinals too, Todd Father, I think they might have trouble trading Nolan Aronado without eating up a good chunk of the money.

00:16:16
Speaker 1: First, you look.

00:16:17
Speaker 2: At what he's valued at, because that's what teams will do. What does he get on the free agent market right now?

00:16:23
Speaker 1: Maybe a year?

00:16:24
Speaker 2: And does he get the league minimum crats or is it like two million bucks?

00:16:30
Speaker 1: Ops?

00:16:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's not more than it's not more than five based off you get number decline in projections. Yeah, on a big league deal, big league deal, what's the number two?

00:16:43
Speaker 1: Two million bucks? Now?

00:16:45
Speaker 5: I think I think he'll I think he would. I don't think he'd signed for less than four million. I could be completely wrong based on how much he's made, but you know he's in. He's in that realm because his defense has declined some. His defense last year still had values. Offense declined. To me, he's in either the four to five million dollars big league deal range, or like Todd experience at the end of his career, the old non roster invite.

00:17:11
Speaker 3: T Yeah, but.

00:17:16
Speaker 2: Anthony Rizzo felt that way and then he just didn't sign. Ronatto doesn't have to deal with that because he's under a contract. My point is it's difficult to trade someone like that when the industry looks at you that way. So it could just be a buyout, or it could be a deal where a team just picks up a couple million bucks and they pay off the rest. Those deals are pretty unconventional, right. Usually at that point, if it's that little money that's being picked up on a large deal remaining, they just cut the player.

00:17:49
Speaker 1: So I don't know. We'll see what happens.

00:17:51
Speaker 2: They're going to try to trade him, but I don't know how much success they're going to have trading him to a first division team and a spot that he wants to go to.

00:18:00
Speaker 1: You just throwing that out there, So, yeah.

00:18:04
Speaker 5: You gotta get going. One more on the Red Sox. You guys remember a guy named Christian Campbell. He started the season last year in the big leagues with the Red Sox. Signed for sixty million dollars. Guys. This is why it's okay if somebody takes a sixty million dollars big league deal when they first get called up. A lot of a lot of people want to roast players for doing that. You're leaving money on the table. Some guys need a little bit more time to round out and become the players that they're gonna be. It's okay if you take sixty million dollars to buy up all your arbitration years in one or two of your free agent years, like they're already looking in the next year. It hasn't even been a full calendar year yet since he got that contract and they're looking for somebody to play his position. That's gonna be locked up for more than one year. Doesn't mean his career is over. I'm just saying it's okay to take your money. When they give you your money, Todd.

00:18:59
Speaker 3: Your money, it's yours.

00:19:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was kind of a late bloomer, as it is Christian Campbell and then he was a fourth round pick out of Georgia. Tech developed quickly, but you can develop really quickly and then hit a roadblock and.

00:19:14
Speaker 1: Takes some time.

00:19:14
Speaker 2: Right, it was it was all moving so fast until it wasn't for him, and Kratz is right. I mean, he might turn into a nice player, but even if he doesn't, this is why you can't criticize a guy for taking the bag, even if it's a position player. Yeah, he is set for life at eight years, sixty million dollars, and he might still be a very valuable player for the Red Sox. But they're not going to sit around and wait for it to happen either. It'll be a nice addition, bonus, whatever you want to call it, if he can really emerge this coming season and be a factor for a team. Injuries happen all the time. I'm sure if he's good, they'll figure it out. Red Sox are trying to build depth. Munataka Mari Kami was saying that for about a month and change while he was up for grabs. I pay a little posting fee. Well, it's a small posting fee for the Chicago White Sox two years, thirty four million dollars. Murakami's going to be their first basement. He's a home run champ over in Japan. Todd Father some publications had him making well over one hundred million dollars. Tim Britton does the contract projections for the athletic and he's really good at it. I mean, there are some that he has gotten on the mark this year, the exact mark.

00:20:25
Speaker 1: This one.

00:20:26
Speaker 2: He had him pegged at one hundred fifty eight million dollars over eight years.

00:20:32
Speaker 1: Murakami ends up with two over thirty four.

00:20:34
Speaker 2: It sounded like he had longer term offers but for much less average annual value. And he's twenty five years old, so he's going cool two years seventeen a year. Let me go prove it and then I can hit the free agent market still at a very young twenty seven years old. But initially it was looked at at oh eight one point fifty eight something like that because he's so damn young. The problem was in the free agent market. Team said too much swing and miss. We have questions about your defense.

00:21:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, I it's so funny when he saw the White Sox getting like what the heck of a White Sox doing right now? But yeah, I mean listen, I like that he wants to go and prove himself. I like that he's only doing a two year deal. It's a substantial amount of money. But again, yet way off on what a lot of people thought he was gonna make Yeah, you know what, go ahead, prove yourself. Man, go out there. He looks happy, he's excited. The guy's got some absolute tremendous pop uh crats. He's talked about it before. This guy can hit one to the moon and back. People worry about the swinging mess. I mean, everybody's worried about the swing and miss. Everybody swings and missus, you know at the end of the day. So let's see how his defense is. Let's see if he comes to America here and just absolutely hitting nukes like he always does. I'm excited to see this guy play. Good pickup by the White Sox.

00:21:54
Speaker 5: I mean, everybody's worried about swinging miss and yet nobody's doing anything about it like this is this is a prime I'm not saying he should have gotten one hundred plus million dollars, but this is a prime case of the industry being okay with demeaning the things that the industry's be okay with in general. They're okay with guys coming up that strike out a ton. They're not sitting there going man. They put together the Rangers, they put together good at bats. No they struck out. They swung a miss way too much. That's why they weren't good, and so it was a nice narrative for them to kind of squash a little bit of this guy's value. So I love that he only got a two year deal. I love that the two year deal is a nice yearly amount because I went back and I looked at Seya Suzuki's contract, and I've played against both of these guys, and I was so impressed with Saya. Say is that bats over in Japan when we played against them were very impressive. He got fifteen a year. He got fifteen a year that gave him. I'm sorry, no, I did my math wrong. He got seventeen a year, and this is exactly what Morikami Murakami gets. So I love the annual value here. And until somebody comes over directly from Japan as a hitter and is an immediate success, I have a hard time seeing that one hundred million dollar threshold getting broken right out of the gate. Seya Suzuki was very, very disciplined coming over. He was a walk one walk to one strikeout kind of guy. He had power, not the elite power that you've seen and it took Saya a little bit to make that adjustment. I thought he should have been an All Star last year. I know he really created after the All Star break, but he's developed into a very, very good big league hitter and it's taken a little bit of time. So maybe Morikami sees that and says, I have more power than this guy. And let's just say his strikeout rates stays the same. The biggest thing is going to be for the White Sox is how does he fit into this lineup to give them production and give them slug that they have that they've been missing, because if he's just he actually had better numbers against lefties, because if he can't hit a fastball, maybe a leftiest slower fastball is easier for him. I'm not sure, but it will definitely be interesting. But it'll be a nice environment for him to not feel the pressure of the entire world on his shoulders to try to do well. But he's also still in a big city. Don't forget Chicago, the White Sox. It's still a big city.

00:24:40
Speaker 2: And he's been just on a tear out in Japan up until this past season.

00:24:44
Speaker 1: I mean, the numbers were still good.

00:24:46
Speaker 2: While he was playing, but he actually missed a good chunk of the year hurt.

00:24:50
Speaker 1: He's young. It's not something chronic.

00:24:52
Speaker 2: But I mean, everything we're talking about is just another thing that a team gets concerned about and that could be used in contract negotiations. He played fifty six games this past season elbow surgery, oblique injury, set back, miss.

00:25:08
Speaker 1: A lot of time.

00:25:09
Speaker 5: It's also had. He also had a thousand ops. He also had a better.

00:25:15
Speaker 2: Fifty games than a COVID amount of season. Hey, I'm not he's been.

00:25:18
Speaker 1: Great for years before that, but.

00:25:20
Speaker 5: All he could play. Yeah, hit better against lefties and right He's like, there's so many times that I can like, you can say, oh, you know, he doesn't hit the he doesn't hit ninety three plus well enough to be to do well in the big leagues. Okay, well, then you don't want him, Like you can create so many narratives to say, why you don't want to sign Todd Frazier, Why you don't want to sign Munataka much munich Mi're comedy, But that's like, to me, then you just don't want them. So good for the White Sox, a team that nobody's really linked to in the sense of like, oh, you know, they're gonna get Frambervodez, they're gonna get Good for them for saying I get what his shortcomings are. Everybody's got shortcomings. Everybody has. Trey Turner won the batting title, they're like, oh, you didn't hit for enough power. You know, there's so many there's so many things that you can point to to squash salaries. Good for the White Sox for getting this one done.

00:26:18
Speaker 1: Also, he's twenty five, his baby.

00:26:20
Speaker 2: How much development happens now, that's part of it. The point that I like, right, I'm just providing both sides of context here, Kratz. I'm not necessarily going against you. I honestly have a hard time figuring out what he's going to look like. I know he's gonna hit dingers, and he's gonna hit dingers on some mistake pitches. We'll see how the league figures out holes and how he adjusts, just like most young hitters have to do. But Ken Rosenthal pointed out in an article maybe two weeks ago that the twenty five percent strikeout rate is actually lower than show Heyo Tani's twenty seven percent strikeout mark, but he was younger Otani. It was ages eight into twenty two seasons and NPB, but and Sey Asuzuki was at sixteen percent in MPB before he signed with the Cups. The point is, it's not like this guy is such an.

00:27:12
Speaker 1: Outlier with strikeouts. Right.

00:27:14
Speaker 2: It's nice to see a guy like Akamoto who's gonna come over here and sign Todd Father with really nice contact numbers. But it's not like this guy can't overcome swing and miss, even if it's a part of his game.

00:27:26
Speaker 1: It's not like he's not going to be a successful player.

00:27:28
Speaker 2: He might be a high strikeout guy, he might be a twenty five percent plus thirty percent.

00:27:34
Speaker 1: Even strikeout guy in the big leagues.

00:27:35
Speaker 2: But if it's fifty Dingers, I think many teams would take that. It's just I think the problem is it's really hard to gauge. Like the upside is Kyle Schwarber and the downside is Joey Kingman, Joey Gallo, stuff like that.

00:27:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's difficult to see until we see him get on the field and get to custom to USA Baseball man, it's all.

00:28:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, I like it.

00:28:05
Speaker 2: For the White Sox, Kratz, we were picking up the White Sox, and I mean we still will because they're operating with a pretty small budget, but this is seventeen million bucks a year, and the White Sox second half offense was good, so that's good. We'll see if they can carry that is Coulson Montgomery gonna bring. Coulson Montgomery has some swing and missing his game, but he might hit thirty five forty homers.

00:28:26
Speaker 5: Two He showed his power that really didn't show up a ton in the minor leagues, definitely translated to the big league. So what they're doing up there is good. And for me, Murkami, if he's able to not get away from his chase rate, because he doesn't chase very much, it's his in zone contact. It's balls that are in the strike zone making contact with it make it sounds, so it sounds very elementary and remedial to hey, well, yeah, you just got to hit the balls. He has to be ready for the pitch that's middle, middle, and if that means he does chase a little bit more, to me, that's how his power is going to play in the big leagues. Because Todd will let you know if some dude doesn't hit for much power or doesn't you know, doesn't drive the ball on all pitches. You're just going to keep pounding that pitch to the guy. You're gonna nibble the zone with everything else, and then you're just going to keep attacking him the other way. And to me, he's got to catch a few balls out front. The party's out front, get the ball in the middle of the zone and let that power go to work.

00:29:41
Speaker 3: Boom.

00:29:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were bottom five and runs the White Sox. They were bottom five and slugging percentage todd five that you played there, that's not a pitcher's park, So it's time. It's time to get the offense cranking. Do you know who their home run leader was this past season? I don't know if you guys mentioned in the pregame meeting, but it's, by are the toughest trivia question if you're asking for each team's home run leader for the year, This one, to me is the toughest answer out of the thirty teams.

00:30:08
Speaker 5: It wasn't Coulson. Did he get to Coulson Getton? No, not, no time.

00:30:14
Speaker 2: You'll never I mean, it's it's a guy where you're gonna be like, I completely forgot about him as even a factor that did anything, And obviously you're not watching a lot of White Sox games compared to everything else. Colson Montgomery, by the way, finished with twenty one. He was one shy of the twenty two home runs hit by Lane Michael Taylor Lane in Sosa.

00:30:36
Speaker 1: Twenty two home runs. Yeah, that wasn't happening.

00:30:39
Speaker 2: But now you've got Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel, Edgar Carrow, Miguel Vargas more Kami's in there, chase my draft Braidon Montgomery from the Crochet White Sox Red Sox trade last year coming soon. You're starting to build a little bit of a core that has a chance to keep you in some games. At corner time, let's talk about the state of the Yankees this offseason. In a team that scored a ton of runs, made the playoffs, has a lot of promising pitching coming up this season, but fans expect more. They want action, and they've been pretty quiet so far on that front. Fans just saw Yankees sign and then they see Paul Blackburn, and it's nothing against Paul Todd father, but it's not the big fish that fans are looking for. One year deal, two million bucks, right they've signed to med Rosario Ryan Yarborough. Now here's Blackburn for some pitching depth, who's dealt with a fair share of injuries, but maybe could be either a swingman or a back end depth guy.

00:31:34
Speaker 1: So there's that.

00:31:36
Speaker 2: But I do want to go a bigger picture here. Where do you think fans are at right now with this team and what they're expecting. We just spoke to Robert Murray, who still linked Cody Bellinger to the team, and they're probably battling over what that price will look like. But you know how it is, even if the team had no holes, they've got to make a splash. It's just the way that the fan base demands things. And in fairness to the fan base, they have one championship since two thousand and nine, and it was not a perfect run.

00:32:04
Speaker 1: In the playoffs. Just now, they got smacked around by the Blue Jays.

00:32:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's that what have you done for me lately?

00:32:10
Speaker 4: Mentality, which we're you know, born and raised over here to you know, pretty much abide by. I think the fans are it's anticipation. I think the word I was used. They're you know, a little on edge, a little excitement, a little hey, what what's Cashman going to do? Yeah, this is it's it's it's a it's a pick up. Paul Blackburn is not the same guy used to be, but finding a way to get a guy in there to you know, help out with the team. Yeah, I think it's that. Wait and see. I think there's plenty of time still left. H you got all of January coming up, and I think, honestly, they are going to.

00:32:46
Speaker 3: Make a move to get a big name.

00:32:49
Speaker 4: It's just nobody's really taken down those bigger names besides like a Pete Alonzo like hitting hitting wise, you know, it's just holidays come around, everything gets slow and then to pick back up after the new year. In my opinion, But yes, I think they have some opportunities to get some guys, and I think they will. They're gonna put in a good effort to get some you know, an outfielder of course, and go from there because they need a couple of pictures. You know, there's two guys Garrett Cole Carlos Ordan that aren't gonna be ready in the beginning of the year.

00:33:19
Speaker 3: So we'll see how that transpires.

00:33:22
Speaker 2: Hitting that futures market hard bet MGM futures. Aaron Judge home run total minus one oh five gets you fifty one homers or more. If you think he's going under fifty one homers, it'll cost you a buck.

00:33:35
Speaker 1: Twenty to win a hundo. Todd Father, where are you going over? Over and over and over.

00:33:43
Speaker 4: I think he's going to be in the fifties for a long time. Still, I think he's gonna be fifty four fifty five range.

00:33:50
Speaker 3: So I will take that over all day, every day.

00:33:54
Speaker 1: Same with you, Kratz.

00:33:57
Speaker 3: Man.

00:33:57
Speaker 4: You see he got hurt and you still got over fifty do the guy's an animal, though.

00:34:02
Speaker 5: I'm not touching it. I'm not touching it just because I saw other home run I know we're not doing other home run people right now. But and the guy we just had on today scared Peta Petez at thirty seven and a half, and I love that number better if I'm only getting if I'm only getting minus one ten, I'm taking the over with Pete. I'm not taking it with Judge just because right now, I don't think that number is going to change right now. Who's protecting him? And he has done a great job of being able to become a complete hitter. I'm afraid if they don't have somebody protecting him, that he's not able to get to that fifty mark. It's such a great number. It's such a great number. I think he's a fifty guy. But can I say I'm taking the over on that. No, Pete's going into a lineup right now that there is some protection, or he's protecting other people, whichever way you want to look at it. And I think his number is low enough that I'm taking that.

00:35:00
Speaker 1: Wow, that's a low number in my mind.

00:35:03
Speaker 2: I mean, Pete's very durable, and I'm guessing that they also might still be looking at the ballpark, I guess. I mean, it's not Mount Waltimore anymore, it's not what it used to be. But it's kind of in between that he's going to crush there also, I mean, Todd Father, you know this. It's tough to hit dingers in Queens. Not as tough as it used to be, right, but it's still tough to hit dingers in that park compared to many others. I think that's still a at least top ten pitchers park, if not better. My guess would be it's like in the seven or eight range. I'd have to look and I don't go completely off stackast factors either, but it use it as a tool. I would say it's probably in the top ten range right for pictures.

00:35:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so I don't know.

00:35:47
Speaker 2: I mean Baltimore was like that a few years ago and then they moved the walls again.

00:35:52
Speaker 1: I just think, man, new team.

00:35:53
Speaker 2: You know what I always think about, actually, Todd Father the home run projections for Juan Soto when he was entering that free agent year with the Yankees, and the number was so freaking low. It was frustratingly low, and you're getting all these wild explanations about how his pop's gonna play in the.

00:36:15
Speaker 3: It was trash.

00:36:16
Speaker 1: He destroyed the number.

00:36:17
Speaker 5: I think it was twenty nine and a half. I'm positive twenty nine and a half. And they were like and it was because they said, oh, well, he hits a lot of balls to left center and that's the biggest part of Yankee Stadium.

00:36:30
Speaker 3: And I was like, yeah, it's just.

00:36:32
Speaker 5: Like we talked about with Like I talked about Wilson Contreras earlier. There's some guys who are like, I'll hit it over there, or I'll hit it there. There's some guys that can do that, and Juan Soto was definitely one of those. And I think Pete is the only part that he can't hit it out of is Yosemite. So I don't you know, wall back, wall forward, whatever. I think people will be surprised in Camden Yards, and Pete might even be surprised once he gets there. How many balls he's gonna be able to flick over right field because right field can give you a lot. And when Pete's not going well, he tries to go to the opposite field, he tries to take the ball the other way, and then when he's hot, he's taking it everywhere.

00:37:18
Speaker 1: I'm with you, Hey, there's no baseball right now. We miss it.

00:37:23
Speaker 2: Although there's a lot of action going on, there is pro football action. Bet MGM players, you can get an early holiday treat. It's a Pro Football same game parlay boost token, and you can use that token by stacking up a same game parlay wager made from bets on any pro football game, dropping into your bet slip and give that token a merry little activation. Gambling problem or concern call one eight hundred gambler. All right, let's slaps.

00:38:00
Speaker 1: What do you have.

00:38:03
Speaker 5: Might be a little just a little like just reminder that the off season's going. Like teams are picking guys up, but the Yankees. I think the Yankees do it backwards from other teams. They get the little pieces to fill in and then they go get the star. So I think they're still going to be there. But got to make sure everyone over in Yankee Land is not going to Christmas too early.

00:38:24
Speaker 2: Hey, Actually that leads me to my last point here during Slap We have our last live show of the year coming up tomorrow, which is Tuesday, and then we have a lot prepared for you over the days of podcast and YouTube clips that you'll enjoy. Give a much needed rest to everybody that works every day all year round. But we will have Ken Rosenthal on our last show of twenty twenty five. Kevin Pilar is hosting with myself and with Kratz. One more I'll give you for now. On the guest list for tomorrow is a former Yankee who can smash left handed pitching and he's going to be back in the big leagues this coming season. The Chicago Cubs signed Eyler Austin, and we didn't really go over the signing at the time, So instead we're just bringing the player on to go over his return from Japan and how he start out there.

00:39:09
Speaker 1: Why are you're throwing your hands up?

00:39:11
Speaker 5: I've texted him so many times and he's gonna come on. And I didn't even know this TJA all the way.

00:39:18
Speaker 2: Oh crap, I messed up. Now he's not coming on right now. Now he can't make it. Oops?

00:39:25
Speaker 5: Is Joe Kelly coming on? Instead?

00:39:30
Speaker 2: We'll bring on the other side of the battle. But we'll try and get Tyler in early January. Hey, it's coming in hot. As I talk sometimes I make stuff up, but tomorrow I try not to.

00:39:38
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll see you tomorrow.

00:39:40
Speaker 3: Do you