Dodgers Territory - Path to Kiké Reunion, 2025 Prospect Outlook, JJ Cooper Joins!

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

DT host Clint Pasillas recaps the biggest headlines from DodgerFest, including the latest on a potential Kiké Hernández reunion. (1:11)(4:50) Could Shohei Ohtani return to the mound sooner than expected?To claim your Double your Roses offer, go to 1800Flowers.com/ft(7:54) Baseball America’s JJ Cooper joins the show to break down the Dodgers' top prospects heading into the 2025 season.(14:11) Which of these prospects is most likely to make a significant impact this year?(17:21) The Dodgers have mastered the art of prospect evaluation—Cooper explains how they’ve managed to pull off blockbuster trades while maintaining elite depth.(29:11) Plus, the 2025 promotional schedule is out, and there are some must-see giveaways lined up for a certain Padres series.Subscribe to DT on YouTube! DT is LIVE on Mondays & Thursdays at 12p PT/3p ET all year long!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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go get your at blackeffect.com slash podcast festival don't play yourself okay pull up. Then she says have you seen a photo of my son and I'm like who is this person Welcome to the Boys and Girls Podcast Arranged marriage is basically a reality show and you're auditioning for your soulmate. And who's judging?

Only your entire family? I sacrificed myself to this ancient tradition, hoping to find love the right way. And instead, I found chaos, comedy, and a lot of cringe. Listen to boys and girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Broki Sasaki had a perfect game followed by eight more endings of perfect. That's the kind of thing when you say what kind of impact? are our guys that you don't really want to face your header. Welcome to a Monday edition of Dodgers territory.

I am your host today. Clint Passius, Alana Rizzo, remains on vacation, and I remain jealous. What is going on, Dodgers fam? We got some news. We got some updates out of the Dodgers over the weekend. A whole bunch of things to talk about. Sound off in the comments. Let me know how you're feeling about this team.

Hey, Dodgers, pitchers, and catchers report next week. so it's a fun time to be alive. Please do rate and review this show on your podcast platforms. Five stars goes a long way. It's free to do that. It's also free to subscribe. Help us get to 10 billion subscribers by like tomorrow. And one last thing,

editor-in-chief over at Baseball America, J.J. Cooper will be joining me in a little bit. We'll be talking about all things, Dodgers prospects. But before we get to JJ, we got to talk about what went down at Dodger Fest this weekend. For folks that went there, sure you have some thoughts, some opinions, some things you would like to say or complain about with how the event was set up, all told, or all together. The important thing is people were there.

Fans got to see players. We are a week away from spring training. That is the exciting thing going. That's the exciting thing going for us. That's what we need to be excited about. That means fan fest being over means it's time for Dodger baseball and that's what we're happy about. But the big news, the big thing out of fan fest was, hold on, we're excited. Listen, there's a door, there's a pathway to Kikei Hernandez coming back to the Dodgers because Brandon Goams, Dodgers general manager, manager told Dodgers reporters and Andrew Friedman told Dodgers reporters, the door is never closed on Kike Hernandez. Of course, fans cheering Kiki, Kike at fan fest.

They're kind of making. what we've been complaining about or what we've been echoing and shouting from the rooftops. This team needs to have Kike Hernandez back. And we don't care if there isn't a clear roster spot available for him. This team needs Kike Hernandez back. Just figure it out. And we got a week. What the front office said was, hey, we're giving him his time to find what's best for him and his family.

It's also maybe a way of saying, you know, we're just waiting to get enough time. As I've been saying a whole bunch, even Alana has kind of said it. I've said it everywhere online. We're giving enough time to get through spring training or get into spring training, rather, where we can open up that 60-day injured list. We could clear some roster space for Kike Hernandez and then have a real honest competition during spring training to see who gets that final roster spot. Because very clearly, there is competition.

There is Kike who would be in the mix. There is somebody like Chris Taylor who remains on this roster. Andy Pahez is presumed to be that fourth outfielder, but maybe there's a path there where if they do resign Kika Hernandez, he would go and take Andy Pahez's spot. I'll tell you one thing. I do not envy having to be. I would hate to have to be Dave Roberts and this front office

in making all of these tough decisions when it eventually gets to that point. but again, I would rather have more talent than not enough talent, and this team is going to have a bunch of talent. It is worth mentioning that along with us waiting out Kike Hernandez, there is kind of a rumor. The Yankees have reported interest again late in the offseason, as we saw last year. This comes from the New York Post.

Listen, it's going to be the Dodgers. Put it out there, just put it into the ethos, keep it going. It's going to be to the Los Angeles Dodgers. A couple more things real quick before we get to J.J. Cooper. The front office also mentioned the Dodgers remain in contact with Clayton Kershaw. And I know some people have some issues, have some concerns with the idea of Clayton Kershaw returning to this Dodgers team and to this incredible staff that we see this team have already pitching staff. But as we say a lot here online and what we saw last year, you can never have too much starting pitching. so it won't hurt to have Clayton Kershaw back in the mix.

And that's another one of those guys where it sounds like conversations will continue to evolve over the next week or two as spring training gets here. So both of those dudes, I would not be surprised if we hear something in about a week to 10 days in terms of roster movement. Finally, the big one, the other big one that actually has a big implication for the team. Shohei Otani, we did get an update from Dave Roberts about when Shohei could be pitching, because I was sitting back kind of thinking about it, and I don't know how many people have also thought this way as well. If Shohay is going to be the DH to open the season, and he's got to rehab and get his pitch count built up to be a starter,

I kind of don't know how that works. And that's an interesting question I think we need to dive into at some point. It won't be today, but even so, where Shohay Otani is, is he's feeling good. He had the shoulder surgery. of course the elbow surgery at the end of 2023. If spring training, if his throwing, it goes well at the start of spring training and his bullpen sessions go well at the start of spring training.

What we've heard before is maybe, you know, maybe he's pitching in May, maybe a little bit later. But what Dave Roberts said is it's still likely sometime in May, but it could be sooner depending on how those early bullpen sessions go during spring training. So we could see Shohei Otani pitching sooner. One thing is certain. One thing is certain, Shohayotani will not be pitching during that series

against the Cubs in Tokyo, which is fine. As I've maintained a whole bunch, you don't need Sho Hayotani pitching on opening day. You don't even need him pitching in April or May. That's fine. As long as he's ready to go

towards the latter half of the season and in October, that is really, really what you want out of the Dodgers and Shoha Tani. But all that said, I hope you guys are excited. I hope you guys are ready for Dodger baseball.

I hope you guys are ready to talk to JJ Cooooooke. Cooper and based about this you know from baseball America sorry and about the Dodgers prospects. There's a lot of things going on. We're excited. It's almost Dodgers season and all that kind of stuff. But all of that said, we are going to be back in just a second to welcome JJ Cooper. But first, we got to hear from our friends A.J. Prisinski and Scott Braun about 1,800

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That's the FT deals that we're always looking out for. Go to 1800flowers.com slash FT. That's 1,800flowers.com slash FT. It's the new me and it's the old them. Everybody's on their journey. And your journey is different to this. This Woman's History Month, the podcast, If You Knew Better with Amber Grimes,

spotlights women who turn missteps into momentum and lessons into power. I think coming out of where I came from, I'm from the Bronx, I think I grew up really poor. I didn't know that then because I very much used my creativity to romanticize life. And I'm like, my mom did a really good job of like, you step back and you're like, whoa, we, I don't know how we made it.

So a lot of my life was like built out of like, survival to get to the next place. Like my drive, my like tunnel vision of like, I gotta be better. I gotta achieve this was off the strengths of like, I want to make a better life for us. If You Knew Better brings real talk from women who've lived it. Unpacking career pivots, relationship lessons, and the mindset shifts that changed everything.

Listen to If You Knew Better with Amber Grimes on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. A big thank you to 100 Flowers. sure you guys are taking care of your wife taking care of your girlfriend taking care of your mom all that kind of stuff uh j j cooper we know the dodgers take care of their prospects my friend how are you doing appreciate having you join us here join me here today on the show but um listen again i keep looking at my wrist we got a week until pitchers and catchers report it's it's fun baseball is here man how you feeling great for that exact reason you know it's something baseball never ends we go straight

winter ball and we have the Caribbean series and now we're going into pitchers and catchers reporting first you know the Juko seasons already go on college baseball D1 will be starting before long but it is also amazing we sit here to talk Dodgers it's like yeah it's funny but the the question I keep running into is is how are they going to fit all these guys like oh they're not there's not possible to you know but that's a good problem to have again yeah that's something I do want to address a little bit but for the folks who don't know JJ Cooper is the editor and chief over at Baseball America.

It does some great stuff at Baseball America, but I've been reading your stuff for a very long time, and I appreciate the way you're able to let everybody know that the Dodgers are very good at what they do, top to bottom, with that organization. And they do it every way, you know, every way they can, whether it's signing regular draft picks or whatever, of course, international market.

The Dodgers have really, really, have flourished in as well, up to it including Roki Sasaki, a little bit of a non-traditional top prospect, but he is the name who's getting a whole bunch of love, including the recent top 100 and top 30 prospects list over there at BA. Tell me your kind of vision, your viewpoint of Roki Sasaki, what you think year one could look like and why fans should be exciting. Fans all around baseball should be excited about Roki Sasaki. On his best days, Roki Sasaki already can be as good as anybody. Now, if you want to say how often is he going to be at his best right now,

that's the question we'll see. You know, the goal for the Dodgers, the goal for Roki is to get to the point where he's doing that more often. But at his best, he already is pretty much unhittable. I mean, what you saw Paul Skeens do, I don't know if he'll do it with the consistency that Skeen's did last year. But if you told me that in his best outings, he kind of reminds you of the rookie impact we saw from Paul Skeens. That's not a crazy idea. This is a pitcher who's reasonably well-seasoned at this point, obviously having pitched in the MPB for multiple years, and not just pitched in the MPB, but I always keep saying this, but it's just true. He has back-to-back

starts at a professional level that are probably the best back-to-back starts that any pitcher has ever thrown in their life. You can talk about Nolan Ryan and all the no hitters. Nolan Ryan never had a perfect game. Roki Suzuki, and I know it's the MPB versus MLB and all that, but Roki Sasaki had a perfect game followed by eight more innings of perfect in, you know, eight perfect innings was pulled for a pitch count, nothing else. That's the kind of thing when you say what kind of impact, guys who can basically throw an

unhittable fastball and an unhittable splitter in their best starts are guys that you don't really want to face your header. Yeah, and the splitter seems to be kind of a big focus for this Dodgers front office. Obviously, you have Yamamoto. The splitter for Shohei Otani is nasty. Rokies should be one of those world-class kind of splitters as well, but it's also the stuff. We're talking about a dude who throws 100 plus, gave the Dodgers amongst other teams homework. Hey, why was I not throwing 100 last year? But we've tried to tend. some expectations or some of the excitement as well. As good as this kid is, there is still going to be a learning curve. He's still young and he's also, you know, jumping from NPB to MLB. What kind of

challenges do you think Roki Sasaki could face in year one in MLB? I think we always have to throw in there the cultural adjustment, right? You're coming to a different country and just a different environment like travel obviously in the u.s and major league baseball is at a different level than you're talking about the mpb um i would say that you probably have taken away one of the big questions which is often there's that transition from being in a essentially a once a week rotation to pitching you know in a five-man rotation once every six days don't think that's going to be a unless something catastrophic happens that's probably not going to be something they have to just do with the dodgers because when you talk about otani coming back

When you talk about Yamamoto being better suited in that, when you talk about the pitching depth that the Dodgers have, it wouldn't be crazy at all to think that they're going to probably go, you know, in a situation where Sasaki will have a whole lot more starts on six days' rest than he will on five. So I think that will be a little easier that way. But I think the key thing that's going to be making this a little easier his transition is, they don't need him.

You know, there are a lot of places where he would have been the number one or the number two the moment he arrived, right? Like even if he'd assign with, you know, some of the other teams who, you know, prominent teams who are pushing, you know, for him. If he's signed with the Padres, he would, you know, maybe he's not number one, but he's right at the front of that rotation. With the Dodgers, there's no guarantee that he'll be in their playoff rotation, even if he pitches well because now, last couple of years, obviously not everyone stayed healthy. But if everyone has stayed healthy, Blake Snell's getting starts in the postseason. Tyler Glassnow, you'd think would be getting starts in the postseason. Yamamoto's probably getting starts in the post.

We can just keep going on this list. And you just mentioned, like, I don't think Clayton Kershaw is getting starts if everyone's healthy, which is crazy enough. But that's the kind of situation we're talking about. And, you know, it just, it's going to make his job a little bit easier because they're not going to be saying, okay, we really need you from day one to be a star. They just need him to fit in from day one. Yeah.

It's a wealth of pitches for the Dodgers. And there are other dudes in that, in the farm system that are kind of. ready to go. There's also another guy who's maybe sort of on the outside looking in, although he'll be getting starts at the start of the season, Tony Gonslin, who is once kind of one of those top prospect list darlings. Same with Dustin May, who has disgusting stuff when he can stay healthy, which has been difficult for the dude. But flashing forward here now to 2025 and getting outside of maybe the pitching side of things, because we know Rokey's going to play an important part for this team. But there's a lot of talent.

in the farm system for this team. Who is another name you're watching that could make an impact for the Dodgers at the major league level this year? It would require right now some injuries, something to happen, but Dalton rushing is pretty much big league ready. You know, he was gonna be our number one prospect

for the Dodgers before Rokey Sasaki sign. And the bat's ready. Now, if you said Will Smith went down, is he ready to be the everyday catcher? That's probably a little bit more debatable. I think he can catch. I think it's something where it's not at all to think that Dalton rushing can, you know, his career could be largely behind the plate

in a situation where he's not on a team where there's another Louisville graduate who is signed to a long-term deal to be the catcher of the present and the future. But so rushing is pretty close to ready. You know, I don't know also though, now that they've, now of all the signings, I don't think he fits in the outfield right now either. He probably is headed back to AAA for more seasoning. Could end up being a trade chip depending on, you know, I don't know what the Dodgers are going a need at the deadline. What do you get for the team that has everything? But he would be one, if you're saying impact this year, I would say probably we got to see him at the end of last year, but Engardo Enriquez would probably be the other guy who stands out as far as I think it's very

plausible that he has a path to playing and spending time in the big leagues because he's a reliever. And so, you know, he's a reliever of options. So if you said that he's going to come up, he's going to go down, he's going to come up, but he could make an impact when he's up, he would be one that. He would be one that jumps out. This is the crazy part of this Dodgers team is there's not really, I mean, Alex Freeland would be the other one you could maybe throw out there because the only almost potential weakness is I can't envision the scenario where the Dodgers decide that Mukubets isn't fitting at shortstop and they say, okay, we're going to hand it over to Freeland, but, you know, crazier things have happened, I guess. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to dive into right

there. Freeland was one of the guys I really did want to ask you about because I've got mixed reviews, mostly positive reviews about Alex Freeland. And luckily, I mean, you don't want to look too much at the bats when you're talking single A and A plus ball. But you start getting to double A. And this is kind of what happened with the other kid, Diego Cartaya. He got to double A, a little bit to AAA.

And you saw the game speed up on him and had some health issues. you're seeing somebody like Dalton rushing, he's able to kind of rise to the occasion at AA as well as AAA, and you're kind of seeing that as well with Alex Freeland. From what you've heard, what you've kind of put together on Alex Freeland, is he somebody who could be a legitimate, like, starting shortstop for maybe Dodgers is tough.

Dodgers is obviously one of those ball clubs. It's very difficult to crack. But if we're looking at, I don't know, Pittsburgh or Tampa Bay or whatever, is he somebody who could be? a quality major league shortstop or is he somebody who maybe finds a path as maybe the the next version of a kikey hernandez or chris taylor for the los angeles dodgers i think that's the more realistic option when you're talking about him defensively right like he can play short you're probably you're kind of hoping that you have someone on your roster who's a better shortstop than alix

freeland not because he's unplayable there but because you know a lot of teams want to have a plus defender at short and that's probably not freeland Now, if you said, though, playable at short, maybe above average, you know, at the best case scenario at second and third can play all of those, can hit. That kind of guy obviously has a lot of value. And that's kind of where I don't know if that even fits for the Dodgers because, again, like the problem that were the Dodgers, we can talk about, you know, like Cartaya kind of hitting those upper levels. But we can talk about outman hitting the, you know, kind of hitting that wall of how do you fit. You can talk about Andy Pahas, who had a good year last year. We don't know how he really fits kind of into everything now that with all the signings.

We can talk about Michael Bush being blocked. The Dodgers right now, it's really hard. Like if you said, how am I going to find a prospect position player who's going to step in and play, it would really almost have to be kind of that, like if Carson Williams, who's not really ready for the race, but if a Carson, if Jordan Lawler with the Diamondbacks was a, was a Dodger prospect. Okay, you could project him and say, this is the true shortstop.

It makes everyone else, you know, kind of fit a little bit better because you don't have to ask Mooky to play shortstop. He's big league ready, all that. But other than that, it's kind of just hard to project any of these guys just stepping into the Dodgers lineup because we know that L.A. has a ton of depth.

And at the same time, with all this prospect depth, if they come to a point that they reach, June, July, and they decide there's a clear need at whatever position it is, the more likely answer is they're going to go out and get a productive big leaguer and they have plenty of prospect up to trade to bring that people. It's the new me and it's the old them. Everybody's on their journey and your journey is different to this. This Woman's History Month, the podcast, if you knew better with Amber Grimes, spotlights

women who turn missteps into momentum and lessons into power. I think coming out of where I came from, I'm from the bra, I think I grew up really poor. I didn't know that then because I very much used my creativity to romanticize life. And I'm like, my mom did a really good job of like, you step back and you're like, whoa, we, I don't know how we made it. So a lot of my life was like built out of like survival to get to the next place. Like my drive, my like tunnel vision of like I got to be better. I got to achieve this was off the strengths of like I want to make a better life for us.

If You Knew Better brings real talk from women who've lived it, unpacking career pivots, relationship lessons, and the mindset shifts that changed everything. Listen to If You Knew Better with Amber Grimes on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up? I'm Miles Turner. And I'm Brianna Stewart. And our podcast, Game Recognized Game, has never been done before.

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I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I'm Greg Rosenthal. And this is 40s and free agents. The games may be over, but the NFL never stopped. This is my favorite part of the calendar. Yeah, mine too, Greg. Free agency, the combine. The NFL draft, ProDays, Tray.

this is where teams reshape their future. This is where Daniel Jeremiah makes his money. On 40s and free agents, we break down every move that actually matters. From my draft evaluations, mock drafts, and team fits. To my top 101 free agents and how real rosters are built, cap space, contracts, and all the tough decisions included. You got quarterbacks on the move. We got teams rebuilding. It's hope season.

Yeah, absolutely. It's hope season. We'll tell you what's real, what's noise, and what it means for your favorite. favorite team. Smart analysis, real conversations every week. I don't know about the smart, but definitely analysis. Listen to 40s and free agents on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And it's funny. We saw that last year, you know, the headlines, of course, Jack Flaherty going back to Detroit and the name that went to Detroit, Tray Sweeney, who was one of those guys that probably was never going to sniff, you know, playing time in a Dodger uniform, but all of a sudden he's picking up starts at shortstop for the playoff Tigers and

whatever. It's, I imagine for somebody in your position who's been doing this for a long time looking at teams, looking at, you know, different farm systems. And usually when you have a ball club that has had the sustained success, the Dodgers have had, that farm system just kind of gets eaten up and spit out. Yet somehow, what is it, I think baseball America, you guys have six Dodgers on that top 100 and it's and you don't know where they're going to play. They're all blocked at the big league organization. Like how is it in your view that the Dodgers are able to, how are they getting away with this sort of thing, you know?

So we did, you know, we did a deep dive on the Dodgers system that's up on our channel at YouTube today. And we were talking about this. And the point, like you get a lot of people say, oh, Dodgers prospects are just, they're just perennally overrated. That's what it is, is that we just over. rate Dodgers prospects year after year. And then when you say, okay, well, when does that window start? Because, you know, obviously if you go back to Seeger, if you go back to Bellinger, they're like,

okay, no, no, we don't count them. And then you say, okay, well, what about Walker Bueller? No, no, that's too far back. Okay. Then you say, well, what about Will Smith, you know, who's probably one of the best, who's been on the better catchers in the national league over the last few years. It's like, well, not, you know, let's talk about since then. And yes, I mean, we have gotten to a point now where the Dodgers end up trading Michael Bush because he just can't ever play for them. And then two of the guys they have at the top 100 now are guys, they got Zahir Hope. They got Jackson Ferris back. So they got real high upside prospects back.

They're doing a great job internationally. You know, and that's where Jose de Paula comes from. And Roki Sasaki is kind of a really kind of odd case of that. But we talked about Alex Friedland. He's a top hundred prospect. That was a third round pick. The Dodgers obviously don't pick at the. top of the draft, but they do scout really well. They do develop really well. And when there's

this backlash of, oh, all these Dodgers prospects are overrated, a lot of what that can be translated as is Alex Verdugo is not as good as being the guy who was a key piece for the mookie bets trade. And that's true. But Alex Verdugo has been a regular and a kind of a two to three war regular year after year after year. That's valuable. It's just not that valuable for the Dodgers. You know, we could, you mentioned a lot of pitchers, and we didn't even mention like Gavin Stone. And you didn't meant, you know, we've also a Gavin Stone, Bobby Miller, who had a great year two years ago. That whole Tulsa rotation, a lot of those guys have gotten hurt, but they still have value. It is kind of still an embarrassment of riches.

But a lot of that is you say, how did they've done it? I would say a lot of that is when the, you know, Dodgers acquired River Ryan and guys like that, Kyle hurt. These were not thought to be premium guys, but then they've helped develop them into being those kind of premium, you know, higher level prospects. Now, their ability to embrace risk, I would say, is at a different level than many teams. I'd say them and the Braves are both willing to kind of accept pitching injuries. They don't want pitching injuries to happen. But if you're the Dodgers and you say, we're going to take a player who talent-wise we think can get to be an impact big leaguer, and there's some additional injury risk here,

they're probably more willing to take that on than other teams. Braves do that with a guy like Spencer Strider, for example, as well. But seeing those kind of moves, if you can do that, especially if you can do that and you're comfortable in your depth that you're able to have, it makes a whole lot of sense to chase upside. And they're seeing a lot of payoff from chasing upside because we're not talking about top of the draft, first rounders. We're talking about their ability to develop back of the first round, second round,

third round, fourth round, fifth round, trades, international signings. They just are willing and able to acquire talent from a wide array of different sources. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned the Michael Bush trade. We saw that happen with the Bush trade, but there are other times where they need the high-end talent. Last year with Jack Flaherty, a couple years ago, Max Scherzer and Trey Turner, they are willing to move these pieces because they know they could find them. They know they could sometimes steal them from organizations.

You know, last one, and I guess this is selfishly for me. on the flip side you know dodgers have been so good at this and the Padres have been kind of the almost extreme opposite they've had a couple of guys that sort of have played out CJ Abrams of course traded away uh Ethan Salas is still a good far way away how is it that other organizations kind of aren't able to hit I mean I know it's kind of just a frivolous open air question there but but like for the Dodgers and Dodgers fans and seeing you know, the Padres kind of become this team that has to rely so much on the trade market. And they've had some prospects, they've traded, but it still seems like it hasn't been very

strong draft wise for them. See, I would actually push back on that somewhat because I think that they've been swinging for the fences so much. But James Wood is a stunt. And that's a draft and success story that they've then turned around and trade. Like, if you look at just that trade and you say James Wood and you say C.J. Abrams and you say McKenzie Gore. Well, that's a really impressive kind of core of hitting on prospects right there because all those guys, and Abrams had a setback year, probably needs to push away from the poker of the blackjack table a little bit earlier, things like that.

But those are success stories. Fernando Tatis Jr., who they acquired basically when it's still in the DSL, is a success story. Jackson Merrill was one of the better, you know, rookies in baseball here. I think the Padres, now what the Padres do is, I would say, no one chases upside more than A.J. Preller. And so they'll deal their drafts. They'll do their international side. It'll be the Ethan Salas international class. It'll be the, you know, Leodales-Divries international class. You say, who else do they get? It's like, no, it's all on this guy. But to their credit, they've hit on those guys where even if Ethan Salas, who had a bad year offensively last year is a guy who, who was two, three years younger than pretty much anyone else at the level as a catcher.

But even if he doesn't turn out now, they did hit on them because if they wanted to, Ethan Salas could get them significant talent right now, right? Like in a way that a lot of guys who are signed for two, three, four million dollars internationally never have that kind of trade value. DeVries could get them a lot right now. But I would say, though, for like a team like that, the problem for them is, is that they have to keep chasing on that hamster wheel because because they've been willing to make all these moves because they went and brought in a Soto who they then turned it around and traded away because they

went and signed Bogart's to go with Manny Machado. They have Tertis all this. It does feel like that now that they're having to kind of regress a little bit as far as salary structure wise does put them in a tougher place. Like is Dillon C's going to be traded? Things like that. But I would say they've had a lot of success though in hitting on high-end high-ceiling talent but then they ship it away a lot of times too yeah i guess uh yeah i kind of just took a lazy approach of looking at at at you know draft their um their most recent drafts mainly under the preller uh regime and you don't see a whole lot of war on those lists but even so listen we can talk prospects for a whole lot of a whole long time but i know you're a busy man i think hot sheet's coming up for you so yeah i'm literally

get a log off here and I'll go straight over to hot sheet. But guys, that is JJ Cooper. He's the editor-in-chief over at Baseball America. By the way, we had that promo code on the screen. You could get a year subscription at Baseball America and learn more about all these great Dodgers prospects. But JJ, appreciate the time, man. I'm glad we're able to do this.

And looking forward to catch you on Hot Sheet. Guys, make sure you subscribe to the Baseball America YouTube channel. But next, we get into Last Licks. Here we get a look again at the beautiful pepperoni called Pays. Paisley was recently rescued from a shelter in the Davor area, and all reports are saying that she is a very, very good girl. She is adjusting well with her foster, and she needs a forever home at some point down the road. They are still doing things to make sure that she is healthy, she is happy, and that she is a good girl. She is currently being fostered in the Santa Clarita area, if I remember correctly.

but the important thing is if you want to help her out or you want to help out Alana and Gidreys Guardian in it in any way, check out Gidreysgarden.org or hit up Alana and her DMs on the internet machine for more information. Now quickly, before we get out of here, and I appreciate you guys hanging out with us so far, appreciate you guys hanging out in the chat, appreciate J.J.C. Cooper for joining us today.

But we've got to have a little fun before we get out of here. The Dodgers late last week announced their promotional schedule for the 2025 season. And there, I mean, there's so much good stuff on there. There's a billion in one bobbleheads and all of that. But if you look at one particular week, the Padres come to Dodgers Stadium. And, you know, we like to have a little bit of fun about the idea that maybe it's a rivalry.

It's not a rivalry. Oh, the Padres and the whole crying Kerscha meme and all that, whatever. We act like we've been there. Well, you look at what happens here. And it's pretty funny what the Dodgers. lined up as the Padres come into town. There's a Blake Snell bobblehead on the calendar and of course Blake Snow, former Padre. There is a World Series replica trophy which by God go line up out in front of Dodgers

Stadium right now for that because that's going to be insane. Yeah, that happens against the Padres and the World Series gold-striped jerseys is a giveaway while the Padres are in town. So I guess thoughts and prayers going out to the Padres there. It's going to be funny to watch some of the people crying online as those pop up. But guys, that's about it. If you want more Dodger Talk, I will be live tonight on my YouTube channel. All Dodgers with Clint Bacias, do check it out.

We got more time. We can kind of just let it eat, let it breathe. And I want people's thoughts, insight as to their view of Dodger Fest. If you went, call into the voicemail hotline we have on my channel, check it out. All Dodgers with Clint Bacias. I want to know how people's fan fest experience was. And I want to know about people's excitement. for this upcoming season.

All that said, guys, thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. Thank you for tubing in. Please subscribe to the channel. It is free to do so. We'll be back on Thursday. Alana will be back with me next Monday. So until then, thanks for watching.

I'll see you on the next one. Bye. Peace to the planet. Shalameen, the God here, and listen. We are back. The Black Effect Podcast Festival is back in Atlanta on April 25th at Pullman Yards. And the full lineup is nuts.

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and i'm like who is this person welcome to the boys and girls podcast arranged marriage is basically a reality show and you're auditioning for your soulmate and who's judging only your entire family i sacrificed myself to this ancient tradition hoping to find love the right way and instead i found chaos comedy and a lot of cringe listen to boys and girls and girls on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and this is Freddie Rodriguez. And we're back. Dos Amigo Season 2, baby!

Last time, we went deep on our careers, our lives, our art, and everything in between. Our big breaks, our auditions, the near misses, the epiphanies, the moments that change our lives forever. This season, we're deepening our relationships, creating collaborations, and the door always stays open for a third Amigo to pull up a chair. On the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.