Reds want Kyle Schwarber, Brewers flip-flop about Freddy P + Potential landing spots for Bo Bichette

00:00:06
Speaker 1: Hot corner time. We got some fresh notes from Ken Rosenthal this morning in his column. Let us begin with Kyle Schwarber. There is interest from the Reds. There's interest from Schwarber. AJ is laughing why because if you keep reading the article you can see that the math is not mathing. I would love to see this, Like, if there's someone that would be more perfect, please tell me who it would be. AJ, offense needed thump. This would be a great guy to hit behind Ellie. This would be a great guy for a very young clubhouse.

00:00:42
Speaker 2: Right.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: He's from Ohio, grew up going to Reds games, the whole deal. There's interest from him. It's just that he's probably going to get like five years, one thirty to one fifty mil. The Reds. I've already announced that they're going to keep payroll in the same range as last year. That gives them about twenty million dollars to spend. That alone won't cover Kyle Schwarber. And there are not a lot of big time movable contracts like in the article, AJ, Gavin Lux's name is thrown out there. That's five million. That's still not getting you there. So am I just saying what's going am I like basically narrating your brain right.

00:01:17
Speaker 2: Now, let me just say that Scott did who we have on earlier Noah Hiles, who does he work for the Pittsburgh Pirates?

00:01:27
Speaker 1: He don't work for the pirates.

00:01:29
Speaker 2: Well, he works covers.

00:01:31
Speaker 1: Was not hire him?

00:01:32
Speaker 2: Yes? He cover? Excuse me, he covers the pirates? What did I ask him? Are they just going to say they're in on a guy to make the fans happy? Do we really think we have to look at track records that the Castellini family who owns the Red, and they have a great restaurant and hotel. They know I'm Scott Still I stayed their first spring Trainey called Sanctuary wonderful place. But do you think that they're going to take their money and put it into Kyle Schwarber after the track record of never having done this in their entire life, and all of a Suddeny're gonna flip uwitch and say we're gonna sign Kyle Swarber for three years, one hundred and thirty million, Like, no, it's not gonna happen. And to get him to go to Cincinnati. I know he's from there, and we're won the Red's games and this and that, blah blah blah blah blah. They're gonna have to overpay and they don't have a history of doing it. So it's cool. It's great. It's a fun story. A team go Reds, Mister Red Missus, Red Bronson Arroyo out there on his boat playing the guitar, Todd Frasier hitting one handed homers, Joey Vada wearing his uniform three sizes too small. All that is great, But at the end of the day, they're not going to do it because they haven't done this. Until they do it, I gotta see it.

00:02:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's such a bummercrats because I know that they can't think this way. But if the Reds have a little playoff run in them next year, you're going to make up that money and then some right. I mean, I think we can calculate whatever the number is, five, ten, fifteen million dollars per playoff game that you get right, We don't have the official public numbers. I really think Kyle Schwarber is the missing piece for a team like this. They've got a nice core of young starters, they have a developing core of young position players. More work to do there, but their offense wasn't good enough. And it's a great American ballpark too, even if I mean whether you look at the regular offense or the league adjusted offense, looks even worse for them, right like league adjusted park adjusted I should say offense. Last year by most metrics, they were bottom ten. This is a park where home runs are hit. Their home run leader last year was Ellie de la Cruz at twenty two home runs, including just four in the second half of the season. There were reports, of course, of an injury for Ellie. Also he was getting fed more off speed pitches, blah blah, whatever it is. Kyle Schwarper had fifty six home runs last year for Philadelphia.

00:03:47
Speaker 3: There's I mean a lot of teams. When you look at signing a DH for five years, you say, like when you look at the Phillies, okay, like, well, we're gonna have Trey Turner, who's gonna need some DH time. Bryce Harper is gonna need some DH time in those five years. The Reds don't have that. The Reds are not aging the way that other teams are. So that's why this does fit. He's from Cincinnati, he's got more kids. Now that'd be huge, he'd be able to make his mark on yet another team. And everywhere this guy goes, they make the playoffs. With the Cubs, they won the World Series. He goes to the Phillies, they lose in the World Series. They make the playoffs every year. Like he is that kind of game changing person. But exactly like AJ said, Sorry, Reds fans, it ain't gonna happen.

00:04:39
Speaker 1: Such a bummer. It just it feels right. Wait, you're mute at AJ, but it feels right. It feels right.

00:04:47
Speaker 2: They could shoot your stupid mute button. Thank god. It stupid. But they can't afford it. They can't afford it. But my question is is listen, as much as we all love Kyle Sharber and we love what he brings offense, are they only one piece away? Because so who's their first basement? Is it South Stewart? Is it Incarnacian Strand you know, is Ellie going to take the next step? Is Stevenson saying, hell, they're more than one piece away. I think that's the way you're going to look at it, and that's the way they're going to do it.

00:05:15
Speaker 3: I don't I don't agree that they're one piece away. I think I think they are one piece away. I think Spencer Steer, I think Matt McClain, I think Ellie d la Cruz. And I'm only going on watching them seeing, Okay, this track record is Ellie always going to be a like a ops plus of one oh six first career. I have a hard time believing that that athletic that fast on the basis switch hitter, he's never facing right, all right, left on left, like, I think there are too many pieces, and they are. They're just grossly underperforming offensively. Now, this might be one of my conspiracy theories. The pitching is ridiculous for this team. The starting pitching is ridiculous. The bullpen was a little above average, and the offense was brutal. So is Great American Small Park all of a sudden becoming a pictures park. Did the human door get turned up a little bit too much? I'm just saying, just looking at it, like maybe it's not as great of a hitting place as it used to be.

00:06:17
Speaker 2: All right, well, I'm gonna ask you this. Here's the problem with the Reds. They strike out too much. Look at their strikeout numbers. They strike out a ridiculous amount. That's not gonna change just because you throw Kyle Swerburn there, because guess what KYLEE. Schwerber does do He strikes out a lot. You got to find some other ways to generate offense and humidor no humidor if great Kyle Swerber goes out and hits you forty five homers, if your next guy has twenty and it's Elie, you gotta find out a way to cut down on the strikeouts. That's the biggest thing for the Reds offense. They strike out way too much. Check the numbers.

00:06:47
Speaker 1: Okay, so maybe someone like Akamoto is more the answer, right, more of a contact, higher floor kind of guy. I mean, it's certainly a huge difference in terms of clubhouse presence. I feel like Kyle Schwarber is leading the league or one of the top guys to be able to really influence a young ball club. It's no knock on Alcamota. I'm just bringing out I mean, he's coming from another country and many other guys. It's like, sure they could be a good fit. But it just felt like this had had written up and it's not likely to actually happen. But who knows, Maybe the Reds will just wake up one day and decide screw it. That's up the payroll for one year, and if we end up getting a couple extra Playoff games out of it, it more than covers it. Anyway, I don't think they're one piece away from being a World Series winning team. I do think they're a piece like shore Burr, away from being much more of a sure fire Playoff contender. Right last year they made it eighty three wins, they made it just barely. I think they would be in a much better position here, and I do think some of that young pitching is going to take the next step for them in the rotation. Okay, next thing on the list, and last one we'll cover here today from Ken had to do with the Brewers. They are the ultimate flip floppers right now. I mean, because some of these comments have been public, it's not like they're just coming from anonymous sources. Maybe Freddy Parolta gets traded now, we're probably not going to trade him. Oh Woodriff took the qualifying offer, Now, maybe we'll trade him. Then again, you kind of see that they're not going to trade him now. Ken Rosenthal has tilted the pendulum back to we're listening. So aj. I do think some of this has to do with teams calling and upping there. I don't want to say offers, but they're conversations because they like to do this slow little teaser dance with everyone when they call about trade talks. I think they're doing that because they looked at Dylan see seven years at present value close to two hundred million dollars and said, hmmm, twenty nine year old seas kind of player or twenty nine year old Freddy Parolta with better credentials right now, right or at least comparable credentials for eight million bucks next season. So if you're a contender, you're like, maybe I could find one more prospect to make this happen Milwaukee, Can I entice you into this? It's not a money thing for Milwaukee. He's eight million bucks, like anything can afford that? For Milwaukee, they're just like, he's probably gone after this year. Do we have to maximize a return here? Or can we afford to keep him, build on the ninety seven win team from last year and then give a qualifying offer and just get a first round pick versus multiple high level prospects.

00:09:17
Speaker 2: No, I agree, it's not a money thing. It's a we can get it super extra special stuff for this guy and hopefully that helps us. Now, they didn't usually Milwaukee's ahead of this game. They did it with Devin Williams. They've done it for years, the Corbyn Burns. But the one guy they let walk was Willia Damas right, and they had a hard time kind of filling his offense even though they wont a bunch of games. Freddy Peralta eight million dollars. Teams are like, yeah, we can get one year of healthy, full menu Freddy. And he finished probably I don't know where he finished the Young but top five in the c I Young. He can go pitch for us. Heck yeah, and we'll give you the ABC and D. I like this for the Milwaukee I hate it if you're a fan. But at the same time, I'm like, if we can get a bunch of things that can keep our our hot streak going and our winning and our playoffs going to do it, I'm sorry.

00:10:02
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, calling online. Six is the Red Sox. How do how do the Brewers? The Brewers have to match up with a team that is going to give them big league ready pieces. To me, I think it's two players. I think it's Jaron Durant, and I think it's another player that helps fill whatever void the Brewers have to continue to win. Is it Marcella Meyer and somebody else? Is it something that is young and able to fit right into this team. I don't know, but Freddy Peralta, I was trying to see what Corbyn Burns was making his last year before you got traded to Baltimore, and Corbyn Burns was making, was making more than eight million. And Corbyn Burns brought in Joey Ortiz and d l Hall. I know dal Hall was hurt, but you know, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of extra spice there when you're talking about two top of the line or top of the line prospects that are already in the big leagues, already have big league experienced. I think that's what the Brewers we'll be looking for. And it's going to be a huge haul because he's only getting paid eight million dollars. And when you look at it now, all of a sudden, the Red Sox go Crochet Gray and Freddie p and then you're rounding it out with Bayo and the young core of guys that came up and filled in last year, all of a sudden, the pendulum swings back in the Red Sox favor for the American League East.

00:11:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was getting sixteen mil Corbyn Burns in that last year. Those deals have also worked out really well for the teams, right, I mean not Burns after that since he got hurt, but his one season with Baltimore, I mean he was a number one starter for them, pitching dominantly in a playoff game for them that they lost, but not his fault. And then Crochet. I mean that's one of the best trades in a while. I mean, you picked up a one, then you were able to lock them up long term. So Freddy p is going to be a hot commodity. We'll talk a lot more about him next week at the way our meetings, if not before that time period too. Sing at Aja, sing it for us, sing it loud.

00:12:20
Speaker 2: That's what we went with. We went with bo That's who we went. We went, but.

00:12:26
Speaker 1: We'll bo go so for a little context, So go by one get one free. That's right. We did this last year with Juan Sota where will Wan go? And it was so damn popular with the eighties music that it is back, just like stranger Things. So let's start there. Where do you think Bo will go? And can you give us a little glimpse while you're talking about this of what you've been writing about.

00:12:48
Speaker 4: Boh yeah, I mean I think we did a post at a mob shower last week. I'm just kind of looking at we did this for all the top reagents, but for Bowe in particular, like which games make the most sense? And I think that kind of writing that really crystallized that. To me, the Jays bringing him back is like by far the best fit. It's a situation where you know Bo obviously this is it's pretty common for players he want a hitting for agency to say, yeah, of course I'd like to come back. But Bo was said that repeatedly, and he's talked a lot about his friendship with FLA Junior, going back to their time in the low minors. And you know, they couldn't have gotten any closer to winning the World Series without actually doing it, and they did this year. And so even if at some point, like the front office kind of head just was like, oh, we're gonna acquire Andre Semenez and he can be our long term shortstop. You know, I think it would be very difficult for them to get as close as they did to winning a title and then kind of back out because they don't want to meet Bo's asking prist.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: What are the what did the team getting? The Blue Jays know what they're getting. They know that he had a bounce back year this year. Maybe some things were lingering last year offensively, But what as a team that doesn't hasn't seen him day in and day out getting if they signed Bobashett to obviously a nine figure contract to play shortstop.

00:14:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think you can have some questions about how long he sticks a shortstop, especially if you're gonna sign him to, you know, a seven or eight year deal. You're probably projecting him to move to second base at some point down the line, maybe within the first couple of years. But it's rare to find middlelin fielders who hit like this. This is the guy who you know, he's won or led the American League hits twice in his career. He would have done so again this year had he not missed last three weeks this season with a knee injury. You know, he was banged up in twenty twenty four but every other season of his career he's an OPS above eight hundred and so, and we saw even you know, he came back during the World Series after missing a month with the knees brain, didn't have any game reups. Obviously there's no minor leagues at that point, comes back in against the Dodgers and hits. I think it was like three forty hit that you know, monster home er off of Italian Game seven that had the Jays alan to the lead, would have been like one of the greatest moments in Toronto sports history. And so, you know, I think that there are a few you know, anfielders are really anyone around the league who you're more confident in. It's just gonna make a lot of contact, gonna you know, be a threat to hit three hundred and potentially win a batting title at some point down the line. And to get that, even if you have to move to second base in a couple of years, to get that from the middle infield position is pretty rare, all right.

00:15:27
Speaker 2: So then let's let's go through some of the teams that you listed for teams you think are Red Sox, Giants, Tigers, Yankees, And then you named a whole bunch of other teams, Angels, Brave, Dodgers, Rangers. Okay, Giants, Will they spend the money? Right? Will they? Will Puster or Posey be allowed to spend the money it's going to take to get them Red Sox Again, same thing, Will they spend the money? And plus they have to bring back Bregman. They just go went Owt and got Sonny Gray. Take the argument whether he's a number two starter or not. The Tigers, well, they have Labor Torres and they have what McGonagall is a mcgonak McGonagall the shortstop prospect coming right, and then they have whoever plays third base for him, So they all sound great. The Yankees again, will they spend? But they got Cody Bellinger, They have other options out there for what they're gonna do. So it all seems like, yeah, they all's are ifs and butts, But at the end of the day, it seems like.

00:16:16
Speaker 1: The Blue Jays are the best team.

00:16:17
Speaker 2: So why have they not got this done? Because I you know, we can look at all these things and say, but they don't fit as well as he fits in Toronto.

00:16:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, like I said, I generally agree with that that Toronto is the best hit I think. I mean, the Giants definitely need a second baseman, Casey Schmidt, who's probably their starting second basement of things this season open today. He's okay, but certainly not a guy who's gonna stop you from going after the sheet. Now, you're right that they already have long term contracts for Devers and Chapman and a Dominis. They want to spend that kind of money at all, and if they do where they want to put in another infielder. I don't know. I do think Detroit would have made more sense had they not made the qualifying off of the labor Torres. But you know, I mean Habibias, He's had a great career. I know he was had a strong first halt last year, got back to the All Star Game. But if you kind of line up every team, especially contenders among the shortstops, like Bias is at the lower end of that at this point of his career, and so you know, you could sign Bashett have n't played shortsop for a year. If McGonagall does reach the majors at some point in twenty six, maybe he breaks in at third base, and you know, at that point Tours is on a one year qualifying offer, and so if you want mcgonagall's your long term shortsop, okay, break them in at the third base, you move him over to shortstop in twenty twenty seven, and you let Torres walk after this year and kick the shut over. So I think that they could kind of move pieces around to make that work. And then Boston, I think I do expect him to spend on a hitter of some kind. Now you can make the argument that going after Schwarmer or Alonso or Monetaco, more Comy, somebody, you know, a pure power batch to play first base makes a little more sense for them, But right now they don't have a clear, everyday second basement. And I do think after the signing great trade like adding you know, some kind of impact hitter is the next step for them.

00:18:00
Speaker 3: All right. I want to go to your dark horse teams that you wrote about. There's four of them, Angels, Dodgers, Braves and Rangers. Are they dark horse teams because there's a fit but maybe not necessarily on the seven to eight year contract. Or are they dark horse teams because you don't know if they're actually going to spend on the second base position or or shortstop obviously.

00:18:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean a little bit of both. I think for the Angels, you could make the argument that they don't necessarily need in middleandfielder, like maybe a third basement if they were going to spend, like maybe they make more sense for Bregman obviously, they don't need shortstop. Zacneto's blocking the shortstop. They could use a second basement. But their top prospect for some more is a second baseman who debuted last year, and you know, he shruggled a little bit. But the Angels kind of rushed their prospects, and so that's to be expected. I don't think they want to take more out of the equation entirely. So you know, I think for them, you could argue that if they we're going to spend, it wouldn't make a ton of sense to go after a middle infielder. Maybe a different position would make more sense. The other teams, like the Dodgers, don't really have a lock in second basement, but they like to kind of kick things around. Kick guys are on, you know, muse Edmund there or if I Sang Kim could play there, and so I don't know that they want to make a long term commitment and then lock in bets and Baschet. But I think that not mentioning the Dodgers at all on any top free agent just you know, you never want to rule them out. Atlanta certainly needs a shortstop, but it's just a question of whether they'll play at the top of the market. And if they are going to sign a free agent shortsop, then I imagine that they would prefer to bring back hoss On Kim for less than half the price. And the Texas, you know, they would have been not a fit at all a couple of weeks ago. Obviously, they just traded Marcus Semiens, so they don't really have a second basement. And now part of the reason that they made the semi nimo trade is that they're probably scaling back payroll.

00:19:56
Speaker 2: But if we had more like.

00:19:58
Speaker 4: Conviction that they were willing to spend, I think on paper they make a ton of sense. It's just a question of whether they want to give out a seven or eight your deal to anyone this off season.

00:20:09
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to open up the conversation now, past Bow and Anthony, you do a lot of writing for MLB trade rumors, about everything going on. This is like the prime time of the year for the website, along with the trade deadline of course in July. So I'll open it up to you in terms of what you've written in the past say month or so that you think actually could happen. Right, A lot of rumors get thrown out there. There's no shortage of rumors these days. There's probably more now than ever, as you can quickly try to become an insider on social media. There are a few that actually do the top job of breaking news and getting it right almost every time. But from a signing and trade perspective, what do you think really hits and could realistically happen.

00:20:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I'm curious to see where the rotation trademark it goes. I think that it was a pretty quiet deadline for starting pitching trades. We kind of expected a little bit more than we got in the asking price, I guess for teams that were selling pitching just was so high. Now, I don't I would be shocked if the Tiger's traded to card School. I don't think that makes much sense. But you know, the twins are kind of in a they are not necessarily calling it a rebuild, but they sold a lot of the deadline, and so you've got Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez, and if they're not going to reinvest and rebuild an entire bullpen and deep in the lineup, like, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to just go into the season with the team they have now, which is clearly not going to be good enough, and so I could see them being more aggressive and selling later in the offseason. I think that the Nationals with Mackenzie Gore, it's the same kind of situation where he's got two years of team control. They haven't gotten out of the rebuild yet, and so you know, they've got a new front office, new manager. It probably takes a little bit of time for them to come in and get the lay of the land. But at some point later this offseason, I think that you could see Gore on the move as well. Maybe you get I don't know that I would take either Gore or Ryan over Garrett Crouschet where Krushet was last year, but a trade of that kind of magnitude later in the off season, maybe even at the winter meetings.

00:22:15
Speaker 3: Anthony, how long have you been writing for MLB trade rumors.

00:22:19
Speaker 4: Uh, six years part time, I think full time for four.

00:22:24
Speaker 3: Okay, So when I played, I finished in twenty twenty, I had gotten traded eight different times, and MLB trade rumors not once told me I was going to get traded. And as a player, that is tough to hear. So you guys got to get your sources. Bet No, I just want people to know that it's you guys do an incredible job. And honestly, I know a lot of players that read it, watch it and not saying it took over for Baseball America, but Baseball America's had had the They had the books in our clubhouse and dudes would always be pulling up MLB trade rumors. So you guys do a great job.

00:23:04
Speaker 4: Well, thank you. I appreciate It's always it's always kind of ratifying to you know, you get players or fun office people are like, oh yeah, we actually read the stuff that you guys put up.

00:23:14
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no doubt. We are all hooked and we will continue to be the rest of the off season. Anthony, great to have you, odd Man, really appreciate it, and welcome to have Tea as a guest here for the first time. I hope you enjoyed it.

00:23:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did.

00:23:26
Speaker 4: Anytime that I really appreciate it,