Bob Nightengale on Difficult GMs & Trade Deadline Winners/Losers

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Hey, we've got Bob Nightingale from USA today, looking nice and fresh like you got some rest, Bob, great job on the cover is yesterday.

00:00:09
Speaker 2: Question you want to start there, Bob, what do you think about shouldn't a white Sox have moved Luis Robert Jr. Or should they say, oh, we're gonna pick up his twenty million dollar option?

00:00:19
Speaker 3: Absolutely should have moved him, and he was throw a bag of balls. You move the guy they were asking for way too high, and we can do it. Throw bad money after bad money. It makes no sense to throw twenty million dollars. Then it be since you know he has hurt all next year too, he can do the same thing. Don't move with the deadline and then pick up the option for another twenty million.

00:00:37
Speaker 4: Makes no sense to keep them Bingo. I like this guy.

00:00:40
Speaker 5: I like that.

00:00:41
Speaker 4: I like that, Bob.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: We're all on the same page. We're like, tell us we're crazy, and nobody's telling us we're crazy. So let's go over winners and losers. You put those out, we'll start there. Let's start on the positive side. You want to run through some of your winners. I see your list, But where do you want to start, Like the winner that you're most excited about, well, sort.

00:01:00
Speaker 4: Of the Padres.

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Speaker 3: I mean, you know they're going after the Dodgers once again, trade away twenty two minor leaguers, and the way you know a j Pellar figures that, hey, we got a draft for a reason, we got scouts, we'll get more. We'll keep doing the same thing year after year. I love the fact they were that aggressive, you know, and it trade cease and in trade swars, they kept going after it. So now they're they're the biggest winner in my book by far.

00:01:25
Speaker 1: Well, I see the Astros on here. What about the Astros? What did you think of their trade deadline? And I know you were reporting a lot on the whole Carlos Korea situation, which I'm sure was a fun rollercoaster ride for you.

00:01:37
Speaker 3: Yeah. I was stunned, you know, at the beginning of they even had interest in Korea with all the money. You know, he's he's got, uh, he's not had good performance in Minnesota.

00:01:48
Speaker 4: And I didn't believe it for a whiles.

00:01:50
Speaker 3: I got I kept hearing calls from different guys, so I finally checked out.

00:01:53
Speaker 4: So yeah, we're checking in.

00:01:55
Speaker 3: Originally it still twins in up paying thirty three million dollars.

00:02:01
Speaker 4: I mean, really, what happened?

00:02:02
Speaker 3: The Twins changed the whole trade market by dumping everybody.

00:02:06
Speaker 4: It's a shock that it moved Joe Ryan too. But yeah, I.

00:02:10
Speaker 3: Thought the fact you get Korea for you know, a lot less uh, you know, dirt cheap price. Right now, they almost got Dylan Cees. Uh you know, they got outfield help.

00:02:20
Speaker 4: So I like what you did a lot. Dana Brown had nice deadline.

00:02:24
Speaker 2: Bob, you mentioned the Twins. I know you used to cover the Twins a lot up in Minneapolis. Your son still covers the Twins. What the heck were they doing? And should Twins fans be as angry? I know Derek Falvey put out a letter that this is a step to the World Series or whatever his letter said and signed it to all the Twin season ticket holders. But I mean they just got rid of They just cleaned house, right for a team that won a playoff series two years ago.

00:02:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean even with the Astros, you know that deal in a being between the pull Ad family and Jim Crane, it wasn't with the GMS. Is like, hey, you guys, are you know four hundretyllion dollars in debt.

00:03:01
Speaker 4: You guys really lost forty.

00:03:02
Speaker 3: Million dollars that you want to dump this contract and they just changed their minds, So okay, let's dump everybody. That's the biggest buyers sale in baseball history for a single day, as unbelievable. So, yeah, the Twins can't be sold fast enough. I mean, that franchise, They're ruined, that franchise, the polo Head family. They got to dump it fast because the public's got to be furious up there.

00:03:23
Speaker 5: I had read somewhere, and I've read too many different things, so I'm not sure where it came from. It said, had the Class A news come out about the nondisciplinary restriction list, had that not come out, would the Twins have still dumped the same amount of guys because they said it wasn't duran and then became way more valuable and they were able to start the cavalcade of just getting rid of money.

00:03:50
Speaker 4: No, I don't think that anything to do with thereic, you really don't.

00:03:52
Speaker 3: I think it was just a situation where once Jim Green called pole Ad and said, hey, you got to dump money in the front office. That kind of asked ownership and you want dump or not? And they said dump and they's ownership there kind of changed everybody's mind and said okay, let's stripped his franchise. So I mean it's totally helped. I mean, they got more for Derandi. I thought they would. That's why all these relievers got moved. You know, Athletics had no intention of training Mason Miller, but we that can return. You got no choice, so I used thinking it was an ownership decision, like let's stripped us, sing down the bones, and then not now we can sell the team for the price we want.

00:04:31
Speaker 4: Hey, Bob.

00:04:31
Speaker 1: One more in the Astros that I thought you covered well was what didn't happen and their pursuit of Dylan Cease. I mean that was a hot topic for twenty four to forty eight hours and I saw your tweet after the trade deadline about the asking price. So can you tell us what happened there and your thoughts on if they should have tried to get it done?

00:04:50
Speaker 4: Well, they were in on it, and they were coming ouptimistic for a while.

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Speaker 3: The Astros were then you know, they thought that the asking price changed and went from Spencerrighedty and three prospects. And then the astro's mind is like, wait a minute, now, we like ry Getty's going to come back. He's we like him. Ben and Dalton sees Cease is just a rental. So then became a no brainer to turn it down. And you know the potteris, you know, during the morning when they made that trade with Mason Miller, I think the speculation when a Zucky Cease goes because we don't have money, Suarez goes. They had no intention of Suarez. They were never trading him and they really didn't want to trade Cease either. They're really saying, you know what, our windows closing here. We got to go for this thing at least one more time.

00:05:33
Speaker 5: You had Reds on your winners list. Can you give us a little bit of an explanation of why you felt like the Reds were winners at the deadline.

00:05:42
Speaker 4: I just like the fact that they went for it. I mean not huge.

00:05:46
Speaker 5: Uh.

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Speaker 3: You know, if the hitting coaches can turn around, get Brian Hayes, that's a big thing.

00:05:51
Speaker 5: Uh.

00:05:51
Speaker 3: The Diamacks were upset, they wanted to move you know, you Henny swar is there, so they got to you know, come on, you gonna take Haze over Suarez?

00:05:59
Speaker 4: Well, I mean not get Newly the attention they thought they would.

00:06:03
Speaker 3: So yeah, just by getting uh, by getting him getting the outfillder helps to uh at least that they're going for it. And then they you know, of course got Paddick starting pitcher. So I like the fact that they didn't just sit pat like a lot of teams. They said, let's go for it.

00:06:18
Speaker 4: It wasn't a massive, massive yet, but it was. It was nice. Additions, you mentioned Cabrian Hayes.

00:06:24
Speaker 2: Why why would the Reds take that contract with the last couple of years offensively that he's had, Why why did the Reds take that on?

00:06:33
Speaker 3: I think they're just hoping that we could we can turn around. Obviously they're playing a band boxing. If you can't in Cincinnati, you can't hit anywhere. But I think that you know, that starting rotation is so good and talented, it's like, let's help let's help them out with defense. Well turn that defense in a run prection that way. But I just I just think they think they can turn them around. Where if you're Pittsburgh, it was underwater contract dumb them from what they did so Pittsburgh was a static to move them.

00:07:00
Speaker 1: I want to hit some more teams on your losers list. Let's go to the Red Sox, the Red Sox and Cubs. I feel like, get bunched together. We're gonna cover them later. I want to get your take on those two and if you thought they were close to getting anything done and why they're so hesitant when they had prospect capital to make a move for a starting pitcher.

00:07:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, teams hate done with the Red Sox.

00:07:23
Speaker 3: They said, just very tough to do with Breslo Diamondbacks, who had some momentum going with Merril Kelly and that fell apart to him.

00:07:31
Speaker 4: I don't think they were ever really in on Joe Ryan. You know some report that was done.

00:07:35
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that even had conversations, But when you talk to gms around the game, said just very tough to deal with the Red Sox and Craig Breslow in particular. And if they're really going for itk you know they did a poor job because.

00:07:49
Speaker 4: The Yankees got a whole lot better.

00:07:51
Speaker 3: Blue Jay's got better, So I think they'll give me an outside of looking in, I think if that you didn't do anything they may be sitting home and the Texas Rangers take their places as a wildcard team.

00:08:03
Speaker 2: All right, Well what about where Breslol came from the Cubby Bears. Well, I mean they made some minor moves. They didn't know, they made some smaller moves, but they didn't make it in the dfa Ryan Presley after the move, So what were they doing? Did Bresilo learn from Jed Hoyer? Like core prospects and the prospect has is worth ten thousand dollars, so.

00:08:19
Speaker 4: We don't want to give up that ten thousand dollars. Like what the heck happened in Kubbyville?

00:08:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, gims are asking us same like, how can you be all in to go get Kyle Tucker? Did the trade down the line and you've got a chance to be good and you have a chance for a World Series? You do absolutely nothing. So everybody's asking the same question. And then, you know, the one intriguing thing is, you know, Jed Hoyer just gout's contract extension. If you had not got that extension, would he have been a lot more aggressive trying to you know, finish wrong, finish first place and going.

00:08:49
Speaker 4: Deep in October? Now you have security you're almost looking at your prospects like, you don't give me around for a couple of years. I don't want to trade those prospects away.

00:08:57
Speaker 3: So they went for a team that had, you know, may the best chance to be the World Series in National League. So you know, reality is probably only the fifth or sixth best team in the Nation League right now.

00:09:08
Speaker 5: The Giants, you have them on a loser list. Do you feel like maybe the trade deadline kind of snuck up on them because they've started to play poorly and they were like a team that got Rafael Devers, so it's like we must be in a buy mode and all of a sudden the poor play down the stretch kind of led to their eh kind of trade deadline.

00:09:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, here's a month ago they're all in going for Devers and how gress is gonna be at their deadline and then just selling saying what we got no chance? Obviously, the Dominas contract so far has been disaster, you know, Berlin or has it worked out? They must really not have liked the ball for him, just you know, throw them away at the Yankees when he still has years of control.

00:09:50
Speaker 4: So it'll be interesting offseason. I think this can be interesting last two months.

00:09:54
Speaker 3: I know they just picked up the option of Bob Melvin's contract, but what they can do if they just keep playing this poorly down this wretch, that franchise could go either way as far as buyer sale. Because they didn't get much of the deadline at all in their moves.

00:10:08
Speaker 2: Bob, a couple other losers. They're close to each other, the Brewers who didn't do much. Yes, they got Andrew Vaughan, Priester Jansen. I get all that before the deadline, but I thought they had a chance to strike. And but the Cubs not doing much. They're in first place, but they could have maybe made a move. And in the team two hour south, the White Sox, we already talked kind of talked about Robert, but some of the other guys, Savallee could have been moved. There's some other guys. They probably could have made some moves for they did it. What happened to these two teams?

00:10:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, the Brewers have used that you know, state pat.

00:10:38
Speaker 3: I mean every time we rip them, you know, they always take off, they always have a bad winner, and then you look up and they're in play in October. So I thought the their trade there to get Shelby Miller was almost a panic move, like, my guy, we better do something.

00:10:51
Speaker 4: It's gonna look stupid.

00:10:52
Speaker 3: So they took a lot of money and they took on Jordan Montgomery's contract too. You know, Dinebacks chipped in two million of it. But you know, just to to have Chelby Miller, who's a nice reliever but not you know, not a stud guy.

00:11:04
Speaker 4: But yeah, you know, I think.

00:11:05
Speaker 3: The Brewers fans, you know, frustration is that they always get in the playoffs, but they don't have that team to go all the way. So they're lucky. You know, the Cubs an't doing anything. They went to White Sox. Yeah, to go back to you know, Luis Robert, just not trading him as a disaster. Should have got more for those guys.

00:11:24
Speaker 5: Uh.

00:11:24
Speaker 4: You know, you talk to gams.

00:11:25
Speaker 3: They get frustrated with Chris cats too, so you know they you know, they kind of stood pat. But I think the Robert thing, you know, they should have trained be the winner for one, they had a trail. Now I don't think they can pick up that, you know, that option. I think it's stupid to throw.

00:11:40
Speaker 4: Another twenty million dollars down the drain.

00:11:42
Speaker 3: If anybody thought he's any good, they would have you know, they would grabbed him. I mean they were begging the Philadelphia Phillies to trade him and trade to him, and the Phillies had no interest. I mean everybody sees the same thing. The guy rarely plays. I don't care how much doubt you have. You know, uh anthrow a. Don's got talent too, but he's not playing. What good is it?

00:12:01
Speaker 4: Agreed?

00:12:01
Speaker 5: Agreed?

00:12:02
Speaker 2: All right? One more on the Brewers. Why did they get the Montgomery? Did the Diamondbacks just want him out that quickly? Like the Diamondbacks were just like, all right, we're out of this. And the other thing for the Brewers is I know they got Vaughn and I know, you know again we'll go back to that. Vaughn's been great for him, but wasn't again Suarez would have looked so good in their in their uniform at third base, just for this year. And is making the playoffs enough for the Brewers to keep their fans happy because they make the playoffs losing the first round?

00:12:28
Speaker 4: Make the playoffs.

00:12:29
Speaker 2: I know they had the one deep rom but they make the playoffs losing the first round. Is that enough to keep the fans in Milwaukee happy.

00:12:36
Speaker 3: No, they were very upset during the spring because the didn't do it. They during the winners and what are we doing here? You know, let a Diamus walk drained away Devin Williams. But you know, God and they are still sitting in first place. But yeah, I think with the Montgomery thing, you know, he's done for the season. Maybe we had Tommy John surgery. So all they did was okay, so we don't have to give a prospect back for Chelby Miller. We'll take on the money. So the Diamacks are just dumping payroll. Originally had diamondbacks in that list.

00:13:02
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:13:03
Speaker 3: You know they had a bad trade deadline too. I mean, you had all these pieces. Zach Gallon never got any offers for him, really, so now they're they're stuck with him. They're trying to move him. I mean, they've got to give him qualifying offer just to keep him around. But they didn't get much at all for the other guys.

00:13:19
Speaker 5: Uh.

00:13:19
Speaker 3: And they were stunned how the little action they got in Suarez. They wanted to move him desperately, but nobody was giving him anything.

00:13:27
Speaker 4: You know, it wasn't a good market for position players, as a few gams have told me, you know, in the trade deadline, you know, you never get much for position players. I mean when they J. D.

00:13:36
Speaker 3: Martinez got moved to Diamondbacks years ago and give up a bag of balls for the guy, so swore as they were very disappointed that the Yankees did go after him, and then when the Reds went to Hayes instead of going after him, that the market for him traded.

00:13:51
Speaker 1: Hey, I'll bring up another team that I thought should have been involved for Gino Suarez. What did you think of the trade deadline for the Detroit Tigers. I saw a lot of quantity that would maintain depth for the next couple months. But are they aware that once you get to October, it's nice to have a high leverage arm, a right handed power bat. I just thought they missed the boat for me.

00:14:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, me too, Gims.

00:14:15
Speaker 3: You talked to you know, echo the same sentiment, like, here's a here was a team of chance to go to the World Series, and you know you didn't get that big time arm.

00:14:24
Speaker 4: You know, it's an opportunity.

00:14:25
Speaker 3: You're gonna have Scooba for one more year after this and that's it, you know, Casey Miz is there flirty flarity maybe walking after this year or too. So yeah, I'm with you. And you know, the asking price for Suarez was low. They should have grabbed Suarez even perfect there. I think too many teams were worried about Suarez batting emerges. They give me a streaky hitter, and you know defense isn't you know, the best, But still to have a power hitter like that, you know, thirty six home runs, eighty seven ribies, you know it's a rare opportunity.

00:14:56
Speaker 4: So yeah, I agree Scott is that they should have done.

00:14:59
Speaker 3: More than that.

00:15:00
Speaker 5: Obviously, I love division battles and when the trade deadline hits, then National League East, the Mets in the Phillies, it's a division battle to see who can win the division and get that first round by who won out of that out of the trade deadline, because the Mets added more bullpen pieces plus that center fielder, and the Phillies added their coveted closer, in my opinion, probably the best closer available, plus plus they had you know, they have years of control with them, and they got their centerfielder. So who do you feel one between the two of those?

00:15:35
Speaker 4: You know, I was lead for the Phillies until I started talking to gms and they said, clearly the Mets.

00:15:40
Speaker 3: They like what the Mets did. In fact, they said, went to Phillies, go get Cedric Mullins. He would have been a lot better fit than Harrison Bader. They thought the Phillies too, even though they made them big move and Duran should have even got another reliever in there. I know they got David Roberts in, but you know he's a grapshoot, who knows how he's gonna pitch, you know, missing a entire season. People love that what the Mets did, and you talk to gms, they say they already gave up anything for what they got too, so they gave a lot of great to David Stearns said he got the most for giving up the little geez.

00:16:14
Speaker 2: Well, he keep saying this was you know, no one gave up anything except the Potters, the only person gave up. They got what seven big league players back, So you know, apparently you didn't have to give up much to get a lot back, Bob. But I want to know you keep saying some of these gms are difficult to deal with. Is that because they're too afraid to lose a deal, and they're too afraid that their twenty ninth best prospect is sometime, you know, five years from now going to turn into a good player.

00:16:38
Speaker 4: I think that's it.

00:16:39
Speaker 3: I mean, look at a j Peller, I mean he gave up you know, those guys that get Juan Soto. The trade was disaster. I mean, it wasn't a good fit in the clubhouse. They didn't do anything with them, but at least they were able to flip them back. But you know, a j Peler has no regret for making that move.

00:16:53
Speaker 4: You go for it.

00:16:54
Speaker 3: I mean even if you go back to the old days when Detroit Tigers, you know when they traded John's smallest to Atlanta for Joe Alexander Alexander exactly what they wanted Raindy Johnson, exactly what Houston wanted that year.

00:17:07
Speaker 4: So yeah, too many teams are afraid of.

00:17:09
Speaker 3: That, and I think sometimes you know, these teams know their prospects anybody else, even the great short stop that the pottery's created to Seattle, I mean, trade it way to the Athletics. They say, he's not a shortstop. He's gonna have to play third base or first base. So they know him anybody else, but they're not. They didn't really blink about trading them.

00:17:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get because AJ's are smart, Bob, don't ever forget that ajs are the smartest people in the game.

00:17:34
Speaker 4: Okay, we know you are, we know you are.

00:17:38
Speaker 1: You earn your first He's in GM on TV, which is great. It works out really well. You get all the benefits and you don't have to listen to someone above you.

00:17:46
Speaker 4: Right, not bad.

00:17:48
Speaker 5: Sometimes I have to try to listen.

00:17:49
Speaker 4: That's true.

00:17:50
Speaker 1: That's true, and.

00:17:51
Speaker 4: That's a GM said. They say a lot of quantity in this trade, but there wasn't that many quality of prospects exactly. Inspect what people are saying they thought, maybe like thank you. Really good players.

00:18:01
Speaker 1: Have moved right right the top five for most teams. The contenders stays put. When I was looking the next day, here you're looking at Baseball America and cracking open the prospect list. So hey, good job by them, Bob. Great work yesterday. It was fun to follow. Thanks for hopping on with us and everyone. Check out his Winners and Losers article, among other things. In USA Today always puts out great notes on the weekend as well.

00:18:22
Speaker 4: Thanks Bob. Thank you. Guys have great weekend.