Ken Rosenthal: Inside the O’s-Angels trade, Pirates poking, QO YES surge + Blue Jays in on Kyle Tucker?

00:00:06
Speaker 1: Inside Scoop time quick Hitters with FT senior insider Ken Rosenthal. Ken, let's get right to the Orioles Angels trade. I love a big leaguer for big leaguer deal. We kind of smash the Oriols for this one for giving up on Grayson Rodriguez.

00:00:17
Speaker 2: But what do you think?

00:00:20
Speaker 3: Well, I heard what you guys are saying, and certainly your points of view are understandable. I did talk to some people this morning. I think I have a little bit better feel for where the Oriols are on this, and I'll try to relay that now. Obviously, Grayson Rodriguez, even if he's healthy in twenty twenty six, is going to be probably on some kind of innings limit. He's not going to pitch one hundred and fifty innings in this next season after all that he has been through. Hasn't pitched since July thirty first, twenty twenty four in the major leagues, so that's twenty twenty six. Then you ask, Okay, that's fine, but what about the next three years? Because he's under club control for all of them, and that is where the Orioles are obviously showing a vote of no confidence here in his ability to stay healthy long term. And they feel that in getting Taylor Ward, a guy who was a right handed bat and remember there's a shortage of right handed hitting outfielders in this market, it's severe shortage. Well, they're going to be better in twenty twenty six, and they're taking the gamble that Grayson Rodriguez is not going to haunt them. Obviously it is a gamble, and I can see both sides of it. But what you guys were saying about giving up that long term starting pitching asset, no team wants to do that. The fact that the Orioles did it to me indicates that they just feel that he is never going to be the guy we all thought he's going to be. And now, if you're Grays and Rodriguez, you want to prove them wrong.

00:01:48
Speaker 4: One million, one million percent.

00:01:50
Speaker 5: Speaking of proving people wrong, we were arguing the last few days about qualifying offers.

00:01:54
Speaker 4: Four guys, four guys. Ken.

00:01:56
Speaker 5: Did the teams make mistakes when they put out these qualifying offers or did they expect a lot of these guys to say, yes, y'all, i'll take twenty two million, Ken, I'll take your twenty two million you make aj When.

00:02:08
Speaker 3: A team makes that decision to extend the qualifying offer, they're taking a calculated gamble and they're saying, Okay, if the guy accepts, we're good with that. With the team doing that, with them making the qualifying offer, they have to be good with the player taking it.

00:02:23
Speaker 6: Now.

00:02:23
Speaker 3: The risk is the player does take it, and maybe they don't have enough payroll to cover it, or if they need the player or want the player, he leaves and they get draft pick compensation and only that in return. Each case is different. I wrote about them all last week, and honestly, I was surprised by the starting pitchers Woodroof and Imenaga more so than Grisham and Torres taking them, because starting pitching seems to be at such a premium, and you would think that those guys would command multi year deals, and maybe they would have Woodroof and Imenaga. I'm sure they could have actually, but with the qualifying offer number now at twenty two point zero two to five million over twenty two million, it's awfully enticing for all of these guys. And you guys touched on this earlier, Scott did. Guys who are not elite, they're the guys who get hammered by the qualifying offer because teams are reluctant to sign them, give up the draft picks, extend the multi year contract, all that. So in each case, I understand where the player was coming from. Even with the lockout looming after this season, they're taking the calculated gamble of their own that we'll go back in the market next year with no qualifying offer attached to us, and regardless of the lockout doesn't deter necessarily what free agency is going to be, and they'll take their chances again. Now, Grisham is the one that is probably the most fascinating of these acceptances. And I know Yankee fans all over the place were screaming and yelling last night. This is going to screw us up. Well, I'm sure fans in other cities without the law jests of the Yankees, without the resources of the Yankees, have no pity for their particular situation. The Yankees, too, knew that Trent Grisham might take it. They knew he had one good year after a kind of up and down career, and certainly the possibility existed even in a thin market for outfielders where he was probably the third best behind Tucker and Bellinger. But at the same time, they'll figure this out, and they're gonna have to figure it out financially. But I know hal Steinbernna talks about getting under three hundred million all the time, and that's his goal, it seems. But my gosh, they could absorb Trent Grisham, they can sign Cody Bellinger, they can fix their starting pitching, add to their bullpen. They can do all of that even with Trent Grisham's signing. It's not like the Pittsburgh Pirates just got stuck with twenty two million they don't want. And the Brewers. One more thing to you, guys. We wrote about this today Will Salmon and I. The assumption a lot of people made after Driff accepted was that, uh oh, Freddie Perolt is gone. In fact, when I tweeted the news yesterday, the first response was bye bye Freddy. Not necessarily. In fact, the way the Brewers are talking not that way at all. We quoted in this story their owner Mark Attanasio and their president of baseball Operations Matt Arnold, as saying, these are different scenarios, independent of each other, and we are excited about our rotation. If you're excited about your rotation on the record, I doubt you'll be breaking up that rotation anytime soon. Freddie Perolt is making eight million, Corbyn Burns was making fifteen million. Much different scenario.

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00:06:40
Speaker 6: Does this change in the next CBA, Has the qualifying offer gotten too big for its breitches because the all the players are now taken and the owners are like, wait a minute, this was an advantage to us. Does this change and it gets completely wiped out?

00:06:56
Speaker 3: You could, Aj, I mean Ieric, I'm sorry. Oh if you miss, I apologize already. I am sorry Eric for calling you by the wrong name. Sorry AJ calling Eric by the wrong name. In the last CBA. If you guys, remember, the qualifying offer was on the table in exchange for an international draft. Now, given this next set of negotiations, I have no idea what kind of offer is going to be made regarding the qualifying offer, But at the same time, it certainly will be something that is subject to negotiation. And of course the owners might seek an entirely new landscape with a salary cap. I don't know that they will achieve that. I seriously doubt that they will, but that would change things too if they achieved a salary cap. So yeah, it certainly will be negotiated. Eric, And now AJ, you can ask a question.

00:07:49
Speaker 4: Oh wow, thank you Ken.

00:07:51
Speaker 5: By the way, Eric says, that's the biggest compliment he's ever been giving his life. So thank you for making Eric's life. Ken, that was really nice of you. But what I want to know is you brought up the Pirates, okay, and you said, oh, it's not like the pirates eating. Did the Pirates really make an offer to Josh? I mean, then the offer wasn't really close to what he ended up getting. So it's like me saying, Ken, you're gonna buy me dinner one day. It's like it's never gonna happen. So like the Pirates like, oh, hey, guys, we got to like seventy five to eighty million.

00:08:18
Speaker 4: He signed for ninety two million.

00:08:21
Speaker 5: Is this all just posturing by the Pirates to say, hey, we're trying fans.

00:08:27
Speaker 3: First off, I believe they made the offer because Jeff Passen reported it, and I have no reason to believe that the report was inaccurate. Now the motivations and the actual realities here and what might happen different story. Last week at the meetings we reported this, we started hearing that both the Marlins and the Pirates were talking about being more aggressive with their payrolls, spending more this off season. Now, it's one thing to say it, it's another thing to do it. And if you're a Kyle Schwarber or a Josh Naylor or any major free agent, let's throw peed a Lonzo in there too, since the Pirates clearly are looking for a bat. If you have a better alternative than the Pirates, you're going to take that alternative. Unless the Pirates go above where everyone else is in the market. They didn't do that according to Jeff Passens report with Naylor. So it's nice that they're trying, but let's see them start succeeding. And you know what, too, free agency is one way to get players. There's another way to get players and take on money, and it's through trades and you can take money off a team's hands, and that perhaps is the better way for the Pirates to go because free agency is going to be difficult for them. Like I said, any free agent with a better option, a more competitive option in terms of what they're going to do on the field the team, they're going to take that option rather than play for Pittsburgh.

00:09:50
Speaker 1: Okay, back for one bonus question. We got two minutes here during the break, and let's just continue on the Pirates. Can I mean Mark finesand from MLB wrote they might up the payroll by forty to fifty mil. They were a eighty five mil according to COT's contracts in twenty twenty five, which ranked twenty six, highest since they ranked twenty six and twenty eighteen when they had ninety point six mil. Just to show how pathetic it's been there. So can we all just have a little laugh when we see, you know, they have interest in someone like Kyle Schwarber, for example, Do we really think Kyle Schwarber is going to make a decision to sign with the Pirates over everyone else. I think we just want to know how we should set the tone with Pittsburgh the rest of the offseason.

00:10:26
Speaker 2: Here.

00:10:27
Speaker 3: The only way Kyle Schwarber signs with them is if they outbid everyone by I don't know, twenty thirty forty million, whatever the case might be, and they're not going to do that. So I am interested to see what the Pirates do. And when I wrote about them last week, I said, believe it or not, these teams, the Pirates and Marlins are talking about increasing payroll, and it's believe it when you see it, like I said, So let's see how this plays out before judging them, because I do expect them to take on payroll. And now whether they do it wisely or not, and how they do that remains to be seen. But at the very least, it's encouraging these teams are doing that. What their motivations are, that's a conversation for another day.

00:11:11
Speaker 1: Yep, I agree, and we will have it at some point. We got a few months here in the off season. Ken, Thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon.

00:11:18
Speaker 3: Thanks guys.

00:11:20
Speaker 1: Spreading rumors, How about this one from Jeff Passon's ESPN article. He put out his Big Notes column for the offseason, and he said the Blue Jays are considered by other front offices to be the favorites.

00:11:31
Speaker 2: To land Kyle Tucker. Wow, that's huge. He's a great fit there.

00:11:40
Speaker 4: He's a great fit on a lot of teams, Scott, So let's not just throw him in there.

00:11:44
Speaker 1: I want him on a team where he doesn't have to be the head honcho. Check there's a head honcho worth a half a billion dollars.

00:11:54
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:11:55
Speaker 1: I think he fits the mo of what we saw from a team that had a very your cut identity, right, excellent defensive team, a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things. Well, uh, contact made quality abs. Sure, that's what every team hopes to have. But isn't that what the identity of the Blue Jays was?

00:12:16
Speaker 4: Tough at bats? Yep, grind out of bats.

00:12:18
Speaker 2: Kyle Tucker does that?

00:12:20
Speaker 4: Boy? Do you think he's so valuable?

00:12:22
Speaker 2: Also?

00:12:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, many player, many teams want him. Aj many teams are not going to fork up four hundred plus million dollars the Blue Jays can.

00:12:29
Speaker 5: Well, then if they get him, they lose bo right, probably is Gosmin's a free agent.

00:12:35
Speaker 2: Too, No, no, so if they lose Facett and.

00:12:39
Speaker 5: Fast So if they lose him or if they signed Tucker, they're probably gonna lose Bow. And their defense is still okay in the infield because you still have him in as, you still have Clement, you have Ladie at first, and you still have I guess you put Barger at third.

00:12:51
Speaker 4: That's still not terrible.

00:12:52
Speaker 2: It's good.

00:12:53
Speaker 5: Your outfield is pretty good with with our show, Springer, Tucker's good. And then they're pitching is pretty good and they sign a reliever or two. It's pretty good, dude. Blue Jays fans start Colin Rogers, Carl Rodgers, get a new phone and get some sports century.

00:13:13
Speaker 1: You still also have, I mean, really Springer more on the DH side of things, or him and Santander can kind of mix and match. Maybe Santander finds it and gets healthy this offseason and comes back and plays well for them. There's the Lucas David Schneider on the platoon side. Like, there's a lot coming back for Toronto. It's nice to hear this if you're a Blue Jays fan and you're concerned that Bo might not sign.

00:13:39
Speaker 2: There the question is.

00:13:42
Speaker 1: If you're going after Kyle Tucker, why aren't you trying to fork up the money for Bobachett.

00:13:48
Speaker 4: And they sign more valuable.

00:13:49
Speaker 1: That's clearly what we're hearing here, because Kyle Tucker is going to get more money than Bobachett.

00:13:55
Speaker 2: Correct, we all agree on that.

00:13:57
Speaker 1: Yes, Kyle Tucker is gonna get like conservative probably four hundred million dollars where Bo is probably more in the two hundred range, maybe a little bit more, probably a little twenty a little less.

00:14:09
Speaker 2: Okay, So do you agree to choose Tucker over Bo?

00:14:16
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:14:16
Speaker 6: If you can, if you can trust that Andre Simenez is going to play shortstop for you, the entire season. If you feel like that is that's where the value is. Shortstop's a very important position, and Kyle Tucker is a very important player. So I don't think I don't think they're one and the same. You can't look at it the same way. But you also, how many teams have two guys that are getting paid over four hundred million dollars If Tucker gets four hundred million and Glad he's already getting five hundred zero. Nobody's getting that much money. And I have a hard time believing that they do it. But I also have a hard time believing that anywhere Kyle Tucker goes isn't a good fit, even if he's supposed to be the leader. This guy, this guy is a bona fide aircraft carrier and where he's wherever he lands, is going to be massive upgrading for their lineup. And I know Blue Jay fans are gonna be like, well what about this guy?

00:15:13
Speaker 4: This guy?

00:15:14
Speaker 6: There isn't anybody in that lineup that should take time away from Kyle Tucker. If your team wants to get Kyle Tucker.

00:15:23
Speaker 2: AJ, We're gonna do things a little bit differently. Here. I am wearing the Perfect Gene.

00:15:28
Speaker 1: And I remember seeing ads for the Perfect Gene like most comfortable fit ever, perfect fit on your body, and I was like, I'm not buying it. Now I'm buying it, and we're showing it off on.

00:15:42
Speaker 5: FT plea, please get off my desk. First of all, Scott, Second of all, I was with you. I was skeptical about Perfect Gene and then I got a pair and the fitting was perfect. And my body's not hard to fix is I got a big old rear and big old legs from years of squatting, and they fit perfectly.

00:15:55
Speaker 4: They're stretchy, they're comfortable, they're.

00:15:57
Speaker 5: Fashionable, They're everything I look for in a g and now I have an extra pair and I'm gonna wear them all the time.

00:16:03
Speaker 1: Foul fifteen is the code at the Perfect Gen dot nyc. FT listeners get fifteen percent off your first order, plus free shipping, free returns, and free exchanges when you use code foul one five at checkout. That's fifteen percent off for new customers at the Perfect Gen dot n my c with promo code foul fifteen. After your purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support the show and tell them foul territory sent you. He also wrote in his article, the Dodgers are expected to have interest if Tucker's open to a short term arrangement. Why would he be open to a short term arrangement if he's going to get larger offers like that that's popped up with the Dodgers every once in a while. Remember they offered Bryce Harper high a their gnual value to me.

00:16:39
Speaker 4: Sometimes people maybe just want to try it out for you.

00:16:41
Speaker 1: No, not not when he's waited to get to this point and he's still coming on.

00:16:44
Speaker 2: You don't know.

00:16:45
Speaker 4: You're not con Tucker. Maybe he wants to just try La off for you or Kyle don't do it. Maybe he wants to go NBA style Scott, no, Kyle build.

00:16:53
Speaker 1: And then wait, what for the lockout the next year? No way, he's signing a multi year contract other teams.

00:16:58
Speaker 4: He put, I'm just trying to give your reason. You asked me for a reason. I gave you the reason, and you yelled.

00:17:02
Speaker 2: You came up with a great reason, and you're right. I apologize for yelling at you.

00:17:06
Speaker 1: Other potential landing spots, AJ tell me if you think any of these oriol spots are believable he had Oils in there. I think that you can cross them off the list after the Taylor Ward acquisition. I think the Oriols clearly stated, yet, we're not playing in.

00:17:18
Speaker 4: The kid, We're not playing in big boy land like that.

00:17:21
Speaker 1: And I actually think they should spend their money on pitching anyway. But the other teams listed on here were the Phillies, Giants, Yankees and the Mets Yankees.

00:17:29
Speaker 4: Yankees make a lot of sense.

00:17:31
Speaker 1: Even with Christiaan back now and Jones and Dominguez and Judge.

00:17:35
Speaker 4: They clearly have shown how much they like those guys.

00:17:40
Speaker 2: What by not playing Diminga.

00:17:42
Speaker 5: Yeah, by not playing dimingas the whole postseason, Yeah, they clearly don't love him.

00:17:46
Speaker 4: Mersham they just brought back. I mean Judges got to play.

00:17:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Judge has to play the outfield. Stanton Sands Dhing Okay, So Yankees, what about you, Kratz? Where do you think is realistic? Give us your Phillies take of course, I'll give the met side of the equation. I don't see it. I don't see it for New York. I think they're going to focus heavily on rebuilding the pitching staff. I think they'll be okay on the lineup front, So I don't just playing to what you said, I don't think they're going to have two four or five hundred plus million dollar guys there, and they're not the only ones either. Lindor's getting paid a lot. I just don't think that's where they're going to focus their resources. So what do you think, Phillies. I think Giants could be a realistic possibility for a player like that.

00:18:31
Speaker 6: I think Giants could be realistic, but I think they understand that they're just not going to get the extreme value out of them because of that ballpark eighty one games there, you're not going to get quite as much.

00:18:43
Speaker 4: I think the.

00:18:44
Speaker 6: Connection for the Phillies is there because they were going to trade for him. They had the Castiano's bomb, you know, supposed trade for Kyle Tucker this past season. So Don Browski clearly likes him to add another ten year contract to this aging roster with Harper being on his thirteen year deal and Trey Turner being on his I think his was twelve. Like I think it's I think it's a stretch to think that, but the connection is already there. So it's like if there's smoke, there's fire. Dombrowski clearly liked him. He clearly was enough for them in a one year rental. He wouldn't have to be the number one guy if they bring back Schwarber, because you can't bring this guy in. Everybody said, you can't bring him in to be the leader. Harper's not the leader. Trey Turner's not the leader. Pitchers can't be the leader. So I feel like it's a stretch, but there is a slight connection there.

00:19:49
Speaker 4: Did you say Harper's not the leader in the Philly Shoreberries. I think that.

00:19:57
Speaker 5: I think that Harper's somewhat. I understand Schwarber's probably the guy, but Harper's got to have some leadership qualities there. Because I've been around that Phillies team, a lot of them look through Harper to see how he's doing.

00:20:10
Speaker 6: I think he's a leader on the field. I think he's an energy guy. I think he says, look, we're gonna get going, boys. I think it's a little bit different complete off the field. I think it's so hard for superstars to be the leader. So much is asked of him, so much as asked day in and day out interviews and this and that, and he's got I just I'm just telling you from the guys that play on the team currently, from what they said, I don't see him as being that leader. Now he's getting older. Could he be a guy that says, Hey, you know what, I want to step up in that role. I saw Rhys Hoskins do it. I I saw Kyle Schwarber do it. I saw different guys do it. I think guys can change, but it's hard when you are the star, like Bryce.

00:20:59
Speaker 1: Harper, he's like the president. And then Schwarbert the chief of staff. He's like doing all of the little teammate things.

00:21:07
Speaker 2: Maybe that's nothing.

00:21:07
Speaker 6: It is Harper's team. It's Harper's team. Schwarber's the leader. Can you say both of those things?

00:21:14
Speaker 2: No doubt you absolutely can