Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 2356: The Trade Lifeline

Episode Date: August 2, 2025

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about where they stand on two competing perceptions of this year’s trade deadline activity and why it turned out not to be a dudline, then discuss all the major storylines—including A.J. Preller’s all-in antics, the Twins’ teardown, Carlos Correa’s Houston reunion, and the closer carousel—before going through moves on […]

Keep you company, they'll keep you sane A long bike ride or a slow work day Megan Benwaxin' about a playoff race A blues bad's hard It's effectively wild Hello and welcome to episode 2356 of Effectively Wild, a FanGraphs baseball podcast brought to you by our Patreon supporters. I'm Meg Raulia Fangrass and I am joined by Ben Lindbergh. Ben Lindbergh.

That's it. How are you, Ben? How are you? What's up? I'm Ben Lindbergh. I'm a fan of your show. I'm a fan of your show. I'm a fan of your show.

I'm a fan of your show. I'm a fan of your show. I'm a fan of your show. I'm a fan of your show. I'm a fan of your show. I'm a fan of your show. I'm a fan of your show. Actually, more than halfway, halfway through the last name. Ben Lindbergh. That's it. How are you, Ben? How are you? Which I was going to ask before that minor introductory stumble there. Yeah.

You've been busy. You just shepherded, what, 20 something posts to publication in the past day or so? Well, I would be wildly remiss if I claimed shepherding as if I were the only shepherd. Yeah, doesn't preclude other shepherds being involved. Oh yeah, we must thank Matt Martell among the shepherds. He's really the other shepherd, at least from the fan graph side. Let's see, we published 19 things yesterday, and then one, two, three, four, five, six, as we are recording right now, Matt's shepherding a seventh, Davey just filed an eighth, and we're also going to have a prospect ranking post that'll go live probably sometime tonight

or tomorrow morning. So it's a lot of sheep as it were. It has transformed you into count van count. It sounds like we're here on a Friday afternoon. You're perhaps a little extra loopy. And yet we have a trade deadline debrief to do a trade deadline digest, dissection, other words that start with D. It was a deadline. It was not a deadline, Meg. It was, oh, see, I called you Med.

See, we... And what's your excuse? Did you even write on the deadline, Ben? You didn't even write on the deadline, Ben? You didn't even write on the deadline. We'll get our names down eventually, another 2300 something episodes. But there you go. It was busy. That is indisputable. It was eventful. I think there are two schools of thought on this trade deadline, two possible interpretations. So one is that this was active, this was wild, this was super exciting, this

exceeded every expectation. And unquestionably, there were a lot of trades. And Jake and Jordan over at Cespus Family Barbecue, their count was 36 trades. I don't know if they did that in the countdown count voice, but 36 trades on deadline day. And that was just on the final day itself, 52 over the final two days, they declared this a record, a new record for trades. And so that's one interpretation. Wow, deadline just blew our expectations out of the water. We thought it was going to be sort of slower and consequential and wow, were we wrong? The other interpretation was that a lot happened, but not that much of consequence that there were many trades, but few impact trades that this was sound and fury signifying something, but not that much in the grand scheme of things.

I'd say Dan Simborski initially struck this tone he put on Blue Sky, I'm running the numbers now, but I suspect that when the zip simulations are done, this will project as one of the lower impact trade deadlines in recent memory in terms of the bottom line probability changes. And I asked him whether that turned out to be the case when he did run the numbers.

And he said, not completely. It was a little lower, but not interestingly so. So it wasn't notably inconsequential, but maybe the raw volume, the number of trades is a little deceptive in terms of how much they move the needle. And that was Joshian's stance too in his excellent newsletter. He said that a lot of people described the deadline as exciting. I don't see it. The median and mode trades were three guys who sounded made up in exchange for 25 innings of three and a half FIP relief pitching from a third righty.

The trades that don't fit that pattern were three guys who sounded made up for fifth starters and fourth outfielders, et cetera. So that was his take. OK, sorry. Not to insult Joe, but has he heard of Mason Miller? Does he know who that is? Well, yes, I think he is aware. But as he noted, Baseball America had two top 100 prospects traded. I don't know what the the Fangrass tally would be there, but that's more than the zero from last year's deadline. We had we had non zero last year last year, so there's that.

Yeah, so that, I guess, those are the two extremes. Those are the two poles. And often we come down somewhere in the middle, and that will probably be the case here too. I think there are elements of each of those interpretations that I agree with. And yet on the whole, I think it was certainly an interesting trade deadline. I think there's a lot that I'm excited to talk about. Yeah, I think so. A couple of things about that, and I'm not meaning to snark at Joe, but I think you have a couple of things that can at least account for the way that this all played out in the projections. And Dan acknowledged this dynamic when he published his piece today on which teams saw

their playoff fortunes move the most in zips as a result of the activity starting with the Adam Frazier trade, that blockbuster, and concluding with yesterday's activity. Some of it was that the highest profile trades that happened yesterday, not all of them obviously, but many of them that happened yesterday or earlier this week, involved relievers, and even very good relievers aren't necessarily going to move the needle from a playoff projection perspective all that much. We might be, if we are fans of the Mets or the Phillies or the Padres thrilled to see those guys come October, and they definitely have the potential for outsized impact once

we get to the part of the calendar where being able to deploy shutdown arms is particularly impactful, but you're not going to necessarily see that as much in the projection. So that's one thing. I think that part of it too can be accounted for as simply as when you look at what Baltimore did with their deadline, they got some good prospects, but they clearly were taking a volume approach rather than insisting on top-top return. Now again, it doesn't mean that there weren't good prospects who moved at the deadline, both for Baltimore and for other teams, but

I think maybe the best guy who moved? I mean, De Vries is probably the best prospect, though, you know, it kind of depends what list you're looking at. But you also saw guys moving in the Durand trade. Like, there were good prospects who went back and forth, but not the top-top guys, again, depending on your view of De Vries. So some of it was that, that there was more of a volume approach taken. And then you have trades like, and then we can dive into some of these in particular, I guess, maybe starting with this one, even if we want to. But you look at what say the Minnesota Twins did, arguably their biggest deal in terms of sort of resetting the trajectory of the franchise was moving Carlos Correa. And what they were

interested in that transaction was salary relief, not a prospect, right? Now, I know that that trade and Minnesota's approach more generally has been like very upsetting to twins fans. I get out of that Correa deal if it it were me and we can talk more about that. But like some of it too is that like the biggest names either involved relievers or were like, hey, won't you take $33 million of this back from us? The Astros, what a weird organization they are at this point. They're coming and going. They are. They are bagweld and not, I don't know. The same players coming and going often with these Astros.

We got a listener email about that, just how many players they have reacquired just over the fast five years or so since the 2020 to 2021 offseason. Jason Castro, Michael Brantley, Marwin Gonzalez, Justin Verlander, Rafael Montero, Michael Brantley twice, John Singleton, Kendall Graveman, Justin Verlander twice, Josh Hader, Miguel Diaz, Oled Misdias, Hector Naris, Ben Gamel, Cooper Hummel, John Singleton twice, Omar Narvaez, Taylor Scott, Hector Naris again twice maybe,

Jordan Weems, Luis Guilorme, Carlos Correa. Yeah, that's a lot of guys to get back. And some of them, as this listener Harry noted, were Jesse Chavez type situations where someone's kind of sticking around and up and down. But that is a lot of guys who have reunited with that organization. Yeah. Where should we start? Because there's a lot of guys who have reunited with that organization. Yeah.

Where should we start? Because there's a lot of trades here. The balance that I would strike between those two extremes of it was wild and it was kind of a dud is that, yeah, I mean, most deadlines probably aren't super consequential. I think we tend to overrate the impact of the trade deadline in terms of just how determinative they are of who makes the playoffs or how far they advance in the playoffs. There's just, there's only so

much time after the trade deadline and as Joe always says, variance swamps everything so you can project this or that. Some guys are, as I believe he wrote, are gonna go off and some guys are gonna go away. They're just gonna do nothing and other guys are just going to be on fire for the rest of the season and it'll look like a brilliant trade, but it's not necessarily something that you could have expected or projected. But yeah, on the whole, other than a CC Sabathia trade here and there, it's usually not going to be the thing that decides a season or at least it's hard to say in retrospect

that it was the thing. But I think that there were a lot of interesting storylines from this deadline, at least. There's a lot of stuff that's just fun to chew on. There weren't that many individual moves that made me do a double take or say, oh wow, I didn't think that kind of trade was going to get done. With the exception of Carlos Correa, which was partly because he was returning to the Astros, but also partly because I just didn't really foresee with the number of years and dollars that he has left on his deal, that he would move, but I didn't foresee the depth of the twins sell off here, obviously.

So that trade and then the Preller, A's, Padres trade with Miller and Sears and DeVries, that's a big one too. So those are probably the two that really rocked me back on my heels. And that's not a lot, but then again, I guess, how many major moves are you really expecting at a trade deadline? Other than that, it was a lot of guys who were expected to go, who went, and oddly, some guys who were expected to go who did not, even though there was this great volume of trades.

Like, when this season started, if you had to peg two players who would have been traded at the deadline, it would have been Sandy Alcantara and Luis Robert Jr. and neither one of them went anywhere. So that is sort of surprising. But between the twins doing their semi midseason fire sale and Prellar up to his old antics and the Correa reunion. I think there was enough here that stood out to say, oh yeah, this was fun. This was eventful. This was not individual trades that are described as blockbusters, other than maybe the Miller trade I'd describe as a blockbuster.

Other than that, I don't know. Yeah, maybe Duran. One thing that stood out is this was like a closer carousel. Great, great. You didn't have a closer you were interested in moving. Yeah. Or acquiring. Yes.

There were, gosh, what? Like six guys, I guess, who were closers or who were their team's designated save getters at some point this season. Duran, Helsley, Miller, Finnegan, Bednar, Doval. And there's a big gap between Duran and Finnegan. Let's say I realize that even though they're both closers, but still that's a lot, I think.

That seems like a lot. And Neil Payne did some analysis about how many relievers were moved at this deadline. And that's always kind of the case, because there are just a lot of relievers, and they're just not nailed down, really. They're so fungible, and everyone could use one, really. And so even bad teams will typically have a good reliever they could part with. So, you know, and there are just a lot of them that aren't on long-term deals. So they tend to be on expiring contracts and they're good rentals. And, and if you're headed for the postseason, then you know that you're going to

really rely on them. Yeah. Once you get to October. And one thing that Neil pointed out this season in particular was that a lot of the good teams that are in shape to make the playoffs actually don't have good bullpens. Yeah. And so I think that created a need. If you had like the Cubs, the Blue Jays, the Tigers, the Yankees, the Phillies, the Rangers, the Mariners, these are a lot of teams that are probably ticketed for October,

but didn't really have those shut down, laid in in guys that you really want in October. And so that just created this alignment between needs and whether their teams were getting rid of, other than like the Brewers, the Astros, the Padres had good pulp pens. Not that that stopped AJ Prear and the Padres from further upgrading their pullpens. This was like, it was a throwback. It was nice to see

Dipoto and Pellar up to their old tricks. They've been kind of quiet and by their standards. And it's nice to see them get that release because you know that that had to feel good for Jerry and AJ to be making moves, pulling triggers. We have a concept of the challenge trade, right? Where it's like you trade your guy who name been then that and then it's like, ah, I think that every year AJ introduces his own version of a challenge trade to the writers of America where he's like, I'm gonna do a trade that you weren't anticipating and I dare you to not use the word stimulant in it, your analysis

anywhere at all. I'm just saying like, the man's He's wired differently. Wired differently. What a lovely way to put that. I liked seeing them active. I will say that I thought this was a very, and this is going to sound like a backhanded compliment, and I don't mean it to, but in a way, I thought this was Jerry's most straightforward and almost restrained deadline and also his most impactful. And I don't want to discount the Randi Rosarito trade from last year because that obviously paid dividends for them.

Even though they didn't make the postseason, it helped to dramatically reshape that offense for the second half last year. And clearly he's an important part of their lineup this year. But I feel like Jerry can have a, you know, red paperclip tendency, right? Where he's like, I'm going to eventually trade this into a World Series ring. And that's not what he sounds like, but, and he never does it or he hasn't yet. And this year it was like, Hey, our offense needs upgrading. Those two bats can really help.

They're going to bolster our infield corners. We're going to reunite with Ayo-Hanio Suarez. The city of Seattle is going to go nuts. They were talking on the broadcast last night. It was Eric Goldsmith and Ryan Rollinsmith in the booth, and they were both remarking upon the fact that Marinichans are so happy that Ayo Hanayo is back in Seattle and they act like that guy was in the org for like 10 years. He had two seasons with the Mariners before now, but I think it's just a testament to

what a good clubhouse presence he is. He seems to, wherever he goes, just engender a lot of affection from the media, from his teammates, really from fans. But yeah, Jiru's like, our offense needs an upgrade. Ben Williamson, who has been playing third base for Seattle, is a terrific defender, and I'm sure that he will remain on the roster and be there at the very least a late ending defensive replacement. But it's like, we need to do better than Ben Williamson's bat, and we need to do better than Ben Williamson's bet and we need to do better than Rowdy Talez or Luke Railey or Donovan Solano and so they just went out and got a Ohanios

and Josh Naylor, bing bang boom. I'm sure that they would have liked to bring in additional bullpen reinforcement outside of Caleb Ferguson. Although I liked that movie even though it was smaller because they had exactly one reliable lefty in the bullpen prior to his acquisition. So you know, it was quieter in a way, but I think it's just like they had needs and those needs were mostly addressed with the possible exception of them getting like a higher impact relief arm. So good job, Jerry. And then yeah, AJ is just like, Oh, you think I can't trade

for Mason Miller? You think I can't frickin trade for Mason Miller? I'm gonna go trade for Mason Miller. And then he did. Yeah. But they did other stuff too, right? Like Mason Miller is like a very surprising luxury option for them given the rest of their bullpen. What they really needed was a reliable DH and he went and got one of those too. And that's good. Yeah. On Jerry, I was sort of impressed that they went back to that Suarez well, because they did sort of soury dump him and they seemed to feel like perhaps his best days were behind him and he had played like that late in his Mariner's tenure. And so there's a certain amount of having to swallow that maybe you misjudged the guy or

maybe that was the wrong move at the time, or maybe it's kind of conceding. To bring that guy back and to win a bidding war for him when he's the most desirable bet on the market, that does kind of take some owning up, I guess, to saying, oh, well, maybe it wasn't the best move to get rid of that guy when we did, but we're not going to double down on that by now depriving us of his services in 2025 too. He's what we need. Maybe we should have kept him all along. He's even on the same deal. Like he didn't sign, he's not like more affordable now or anything. He's just having a really good year and that deal's almost up. And so they went and got him.

So I thought that was nice, you know, not like being too proud to admit that the guy you need now is the guy you let get away. I think that's good, right? So yeah, so between Suarez and Naylor, everyone has wanted Jerry to go get bats and he went and got bats. Got some bats.

Good job, Jerry. Went and got some bats. He needed a bat. He was like, oh, I need a bat. And then it was like an Ocean's 11. He's like, you think we need one more? I think we'll go get one more. And they got the best one probably.

I agree that they got the best one. And you know, with a like a livable, you're not gonna, you're generally not gonna get good players without giving something up, right? Like the days of teams getting really well and truly fleeced in deal, I don't wanna say it doesn't happen, but like most front offices are pretty savvy.

And there might be guys where the evaluation that a front office has is fundamentally different than the rest of the industry, and that should perhaps give them pause. Like I'm sure that if Oakland had the Sean Murphy deal to do again, they'd do it differently now. But it's unusual for a team to just get skunked by another club. And so you're going to give up good players generally, or you're going to get salary relief or something. Like there's often a legible and sort of logical rationale for these transactions, even if

the fans might not like it or it doesn't end up working out or whatever. Having said that, like I think the Diamondbacks got good players back from Seattle in both of these deals, but there's there was no like, you know, mortgaging of the future here, right? Like maybe you really like Locklear's bat more than I do. But you know, like it was fine. I thought they'd have to, they didn't have to give up any of their top top guys to get either of those dudes, which is appropriate because you know, I was a rental, but he was the best bat available. And sometimes when you're the best bat available, you end up returning like much more significant prospects than your contract and your production would necessarily merit. But that didn't happen

this time. It's like Arizona got good players. Some of those players are either close to the majors or I mean, Locklear is probably just my mom is coming to visit. She knows it's it's wild for her to come this time of year, but she loves me. And I'm taking her driving back scheme while she's here. And the depravity we are going to see, the stripped down, we might get to see Mason Miller close a game for the Padres though, so that's going to be cool and weird.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's talk about AJ. He owns the deadline. This is his time. It's just, I was asked by another Ringer editor, Isaac Levy-Rubinet, is AJ Peller good? Is he a good GM? And I said, not sure if he's good, but he's good for content.

That much is definitely true. It is fun to talk and write about AJ Peller because he will just do things that no one else does. And we kind of complain sometimes about how all the GMs and the po-bos, they're just cut from the same cloth these days and a lot of them talk the same way and they operate the same way and they have similar models and they're conservative and they value prospects and all these things and okay, they probably know what they're doing. But it's nice to have just someone who's out there just on an island doing his own thing

and standing out. And that could be an advantage. It could also be a disadvantage depending. But you look at A.J. Peller and you think like, how does he keep getting away with this? How does he keep doing this? How does he always have prospects to trade? And that's the thing that impresses me

is that he has traded entire farm systems worth of prospects. I remember a Baseball America piece from like 2021 about how the Padres had traded like a whole 40-man roster worth of prospects over the preceding two years or something and he just keeps doing that. And Isaac said to me, yeah, it feels like one of those magical coin sacks that improbably always has room for more.

It's just like the loaves and the fishes or something. It's just like, just when you think that Preller has completely cleaned out the farm system and he can't keep enticing teams to make trades with him because he has got nothing left. No, suddenly he's scouted or signed or developed another excellent prospect. And DeVries is a good example of that. So DeVries, a consensus best prospect who has traded at this deadline, 18-year-old shortstop who's in high A,

and there's some difference of opinion on him. Like, FanCrafts has him 21st overall prospect in baseball, Pipeline has him third overall overall prospect in baseball pipeline has him third. Yeah. Overall. That's a pretty big difference. The low outlet on degrees. Yeah.

But, but still pretty high. If that's the low, that's pretty high. He's, he's an excellent prospect. Yes. Yeah. Like I don't want to, I don't want anyone to like come away. Don't, don't anyone come away confused from, from this. Like he's a great prospect. He's, you know, but we have him as a 50 where I think a lot of publications have

him closer to where Walcott and Made, Connor Griffin in the 60 range. Yeah. So you look at a list of all the prospects Preller has traded over the years and it does maybe make you a little sick to your stomach if you're a Padres fan. It's like Trey Turner, James Wood, Max Freed, Mackenzie Gore, Andres Munoz, a bunch of guys who were traded to other teams at this deadline were Padres prospects in the past, like Josh Naylor and David Bednar for that matter and CJ C.J. Abrams and, oh man, just Class A for that matter. Not that he was traded, we know why, but like just so many guys who started

their professional lives as Padres and then went out in this great Padres diaspora to other organizations. And so you could say, oh, well, they sure would like to have some of those guys back, and I'm sure that they would. But there's just as long a list, probably a longer list of guys who were big prospects at the time and then just haven't panned out.

And he traded them, you know, like your Luis Serias or Luis Patino or Graham Polly or all these guys who were top prospects and now no one really thinks about them that much. So that's the problem with prospects. Most of them don't pan out and maybe it's an advantage if everyone else is saying, no, you can't pry any prospects away from me. And AJ is just like, ah, we'll, we'll make more, you know, we'll part with these guys, we'll make more. We'll part with these guys,

we'll get more proven commodities, sure things in the short term and then we'll figure it out. And he clearly has some acumen when it comes to international scouting. Like that's been a strength of his going back to his Rangers era. And he has managed to just refresh the pipeline enough that he could always get a deal done

when he wants to get one done. Now, this particular deal, I don't know. I don't know that I love it. I'm not like a super prospect expert, but I like DeVries. You gotta like anyone who's that young and that advanced and play shortstop and everything. And Mason Miller, like obviously an excellent reliever,

but the Patres don't really need him. I mean, he helps of course, but that was a strength of theirs. And there was some talk that, okay, they're now gonna trade Robert Suarez and they're gonna trade Dylan Cease. And they didn't do that and credit to them that it was just all upgrade for them.

Right, yeah. But also, did they need Mason Miller that acutely or JP Sears, how big of an upgrade were those guys really? And Miller is under team control for a few more seasons. So it's not like a rental situation, obviously. But even so, you know, just a lot of volatility with that kind of player profile, reliever, hard thrower, et cetera.

I know there's been some speculation that maybe they'll turn him back into a starter Just a lot of volatility with that kind of player profile, reliever, hard thrower, et cetera. I know there's been some speculation that maybe they'll turn him back into a starter or something. Yeah, that they might upcycle him. Yeah, so perhaps there's some upside there, but yeah, I don't know. It seems like a steep price to pay. It's definitely the type of price that teams tend not to pay at the deadline anymore, surrendering a prospect of that caliber.

So he makes that trade that I think a lot of teams would have been hesitant to make. And then there was clearly some unfinished business because the Padres needed bats. And then they went and got bats too. So they went and got Ryan O'Hern and Ramon Lloriano from the Orioles. Now Lloriano has been excellent this season, which has completely come out of nowhere for me. Like, you know, I didn't, and he has a high babbip and all the rest. It's not like complete mirage, but definitely sort of unexpected performance for Louriano as opposed to O'Hern, who's a pretty good hitter.

So I don't know how much I trust that continuing. Yeah. But then there were other depth moves. He goes and gets Nester Cortez from the Brewers. He gets Freddie Fermin, the catcher from the Royals. Thank God. Yeah. And they DFA'd Maldonado last night too.

Yeah. It gets Will Wagner from the Blue Jays. It's just like all sorts of moves that Preller is making here. So Fermin, that seems like, you know, the bats they got were not like superstars, but I think were, were needed. They, they needed guys like that. Yeah. And if you look at like, you know, obviously, I'm sure, I don't think San Diego has any

complaints about their production out of right field, but the other corner has been a problem for them all season. I'm sure that they're relieved that they didn't try to bring Profar back, but like they've had issues in left pretty much the entire year. And you know, Larianno's in some ways miscast in left because he's a better defender than you typically have over there. Like he could cover center if he really needed him to, although he's been in left for most of his recent career.

But he's an upgrade. Sometimes it's about getting like a position to the point of acceptability rather than having it be a black hole, right? Like, Freddie Firmin is a fine player. He's on any other team. He's just like straightforwardly a backup catcher. That was the role that he played in Kansas City. But the depth of San Diego's catching despair to this point is shocking. Shocking, right? And so for him, this is a good trade for San Diego. And this is one of those times where I'm like, you know, look at Freddie Firmin, because now Freddie Firmin is going to be just like a starter and he's going to get more time and like he's on a team that's postseason bound with much greater certainty than would be the case in Kansas

City. He gets to go live in San Diego. Get out of here. That sounds fantastic. So like that I think that they, I agree with the idea that DeVries is a, is a high as steep price for what is basically a luxury reinforcement to an already very strong unit. I wouldn't even say an upgrade because like you can make a case at least for this year's version of Mason Miller. Now there have been prior years where you're like, he's just the best reliever in baseball. But like this year's Mason Miller has been diminished relative to his very strong rookie campaign and yet is still good. Man, Mason Miller's like, I get to go live in San Diego. I don't have

to live in Sacramento anymore. Mason Miller, what that guy, what a great time. What a champion. What a life lived right now. Didn't have anything to do with it? It's still great. So, you know, it's like he is a, he's not even really an upgrade on their existing unit. He's a reinforcement of an already strong unit. But they have to deal with the Dodgers. And Mason Miller helps them deal with the Dodgers next year, to your point. Like he's under team control for such a long time.

And he's and he can be a tremendous reliever or maybe they will try to upcycle him into being a starter and that'll work out or maybe it won't. If it doesn't, so what? He goes back to the bullpen. Like it's hard to judge AJ as an executive because I generally am of the belief that like from a process perspective, San Diego is a mess. Like the Pottery Diego is a mess. Like the Potters are

a mess. It is sound and fury signifying a good team, but often like it is, it seems to the outside anyway, that it is a couple of folks in that front office and they get a wild hair in them and all of a sudden you have Mason Miller in your boyfriend. And so I think from a modern process perspective, disaster. But the results can be like really fun and they can be really good. And I think that having a base aggressive instinct when you have to contend with the rest of that division is generally an asset. It doesn't mean that it always works out for them long term. And obviously, like Preller has had some catastrophic misses in terms of his trades.

But I do generally think that like you at least want to look, you know, up north and go, I got to be a rockum sockum robot sometimes. I don't even know what metaphors I'm mixing right now. I'm pretty surprisingly not like loopy today. I do feel the crush of a month's worth of fatigue, but I feel like I'm holding but still like rock'em, sock'em robot. Who am I? Anyway, I saw a tweet or blue sky poster of someone who said like, I used the phrase, Bob's your uncle in an interview. And I've never said that before in my life. People were just quoting all sort of quote tweeting all sorts of like weird expressions

that they used out loud despite never having said them before. Yeah. Rock them, suck them, robot. Did you have rock them, suck them? I just enjoy saying rock themem, suck'em, I think is what I'm learning in this instant. Well, you only have to hold it together until the end of this episode and then you can rest maybe.

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, you pull back and okay, so yeah, Miller is like maybe gilding the late inning Lily a little bit there, but yeah, like it's exciting. From the day he started, he's been making exciting trades and signings and all the rest. And it's now, I guess it'll be 11 years that he's been running the Padres front office

in a couple of days. And he's made the playoffs three times. Now he's probably about to make it a fourth time. And also 2023 was just weird and kind of fluky that they didn't make it. So they have had a sustained run of being in contention here. And obviously that depended a lot on the fact that they splurged and spent a lot of money. It wasn't all just A.J. engineering this through the brilliance of his trades.

But yeah, it's not, he hasn't like taken them to the promised land exactly. And there's been a lot of going forward and then stepping back and he's tried to kind of circumvent a rebuild and then figured out, oh, maybe we actually do have to do this kind of the slower way. And then, you know, it is a tough assignment

in the NOS, as you said. The thing is that they have developed a lot of talent or at least a lot of talent has originated with them. It's not that they've developed it always, but either they haven't really given themselves a chance to develop it in a lot of cases because they just traded guys or players have failed to launch in San Diego. So it does seem like they're stronger when it comes to the scouting and the signing than the doing the developing. Yes, at least on the pitching side. I think that they've had more success among their position players.

But yeah, you don't have a lot of hunger-grown Padres pitching talent to look at and say like, oh yeah, they made that guy better than when he entered the org. Right. Yeah. And Zach Krieser ran the numbers on this in the bandwagon and he found that yeah, they have generated more major leaguers than almost anyone else. Like maybe the Dodgers, the Astros, the Cardinals, the Yankees are up there. But if you look at all the regulars in baseball today, then like players who originally signed

as Padres have been more productive than players who have originated with any other organization except the Dodgers and the Astros who were kind of the two leading player development franchises for some time there. So that's a feather in their cap, but very little of that production has come with the actual Padres or is coming with it this year. If you look at their roster, Zach found only 16% of the 2025 production from original Padres has come for the actual Padres, the lowest percentage of any franchise.

So just not a lot of homegrown guys like the median MLB team he found is reaping 47.5% of the benefits from the current big leaguers it signed. So almost half, and no other team in contention is below the Cubs who are at like 30%. And then the Padres are at about half that. So they've minted all these major leaguers, they've signed them, they've found them,

and then they've given them away for the most part. And that's like almost doing it on hard mode, I guess. The way that a lot of teams build successful franchises, they sign and develop draft players and then those players play for them and give them a young cost controlled core. And the Padres do most of that, but not the part of like actually getting that cheap production from those players. They just move them on for someone else's major leaguers. So it is a lot of work to get to where they are. It's just a lot of dancing and plate spinning and all the rest. And it's highly entertaining from afar to watch it happen.

And yeah, there's gonna be some heartbreak with the guys they give up, but there's some method to the madness, I guess. It's all just, it's made possible by the fact that they keep somehow reaching down and coming up with another wave of prospects that they can pedal for established big leaguers. And that's certainly a skill in itself. And it Luna And it'll be interesting to see how if at all their kind of roster building approach

adapts going forward because part of what has backstopped Prelor's ability to do what he's done and take the sort of tact that he has over the last couple of years was that it seemed like maybe the money wasn't endless, but that they were going to operate within whatever financial constraints they needed to build the team, they being the front office rather than like ownership saying, hey, sorry, you got to go sell. And obviously the appetite for that seems to have changed with the, you know, with Siedler's passing with some of the consternation within that ownership group. So I don't know, I don't know how many deadlines like this they will have, because

if suddenly your young cost control core matters a lot more, maybe you can't trade a top 20 prospect for a reliever. Maybe you can't do that. But so far, AJ going to AJ, so it seems like it's been fine. Yeah. So that's the addition, the team that added that made the most waves and a lot of the waves at this deadline Were generated by the Minnesota Twins sadly for twins fans But this was this was the thing that kind of catapulted the trade activity at this deadline

Above a lot of people's expectations is that you had the twins single-handedly making double digit total of trades or I don't know how many it came to, but they ended up shipping out about 40% of their active roster. I think it was 11 players. Yeah, that's certainly more than I expected. So I don't know what to make of this. Like, you know, Derek Falvey puts out a statement, basically saying like, this had to be done,

that we think we're in a stronger position now. I mean, what else is he going to say? But, you know, just like this group wasn't quite good enough. And so we had to make the painful decision to basically start over and do a rebuild here. Obviously hanging over all of this is the impending sale of the Twins, which sounds like it could be coming in a matter of weeks, is that something will be announced here.

And it's very odd that this is the way it works, that this is evidently something that makes a franchise more attractive to potential bidders. Just like, let's strip the roster down to its studs. Like, what is the value of a baseball team? I mean, it's that there are only 30 in the majors and there's a ballpark and you have a following and you have media rights and all this stuff that's sort of hardwired and it almost doesn't matter who's on the roster. But then, you know, you can see it in the Twins' attendance figures, which have fallen fast because they haven't given their fans any reason to come to the park lately.

They've just sat on their hands. I mean, maybe Twins fans would prefer their approach at the last couple of deadlines, which was do nothing. That was like, this was a monkey's paw. If you didn't want that to happen again, was this what you wanted? Probably not that either. But over the offseason too, they just didn't do anything. And so basically everyone who was rumored to go except for Joe Ryan left.

And it's just odd that you would want to pick up. I guess I understand the appeal of starting fresh. Like okay, we're picking up this asset, the Minnesota Twins. And there's not a lot of other spending and commitments that someone else made that we're now saddled with, but like, you want a good baseball team that people will come to see so that you can make money, right? You would think that. You would think that. I want to remind everyone, you never have to hand it to them. You just don't even, even Uncle Steve.

But like the number of owners who just don't even, even Uncle Steve. But like the number of owners who just don't seem like right now we have a lot of owners in the baseball cap and quarter zip molds, right? Which is like when I, I think I've said this before on the pod, like when I saw Cone like in the front row in that outfit during the postseason last year, I was like, oh, the Mets are going to sign one soda. Like, Oh, okay. I understand this differently now than I did before. This guy wants to be the team, right? Like he is, he's doing, you know, and like a spoiler alert, Steve Cohen wants to make money, but like, um,

you know, he, he's in it in a different kind of way, right? And not the only owner who is like, I view my team as at least in part and more so than many of my fellows in this weird little group, a civic institution, right? Like there aren't enough owners who, none of them go to the grocery store, so this is like kind of a broken way of describing this, but like there just aren't enough owners where they want someone in the frozen food aisle at the grocery store to be like, you're doing great with the team, you know? Like you need, maybe the answer is that they need to be out in the world more so that they

can be congratulated or yelled at, whatever's appropriate. But I just don't think there are enough owners that are sort of in that hypothetical group. I say hypothetical because again, none of them actually go to the grocery store. This is the problem that you run into and I think it explains in large part this phenomena you're describing because part of what reinforces that virtuous cycle of, hey, but at base we want to have a good baseball team, is viewing the team as either a civic institution for your community to enjoy, or an expression of your own narcissism. And if it occupies one of those two for you, you're probably

going to invest more in your club. But if your understanding of it is, well, we have this tremendous opportunity to be in a, you know, a constrained asset class, you've already lost the thread. And to your point, I'm sure that there is some amount of this that is explainable by like, we might have a vision for how a roster ought to be built. We might have a, you know, we want to bring in our own guys, we want this club to be our club. But it does strike me as strange that it's not a bigger problem for them to just be like, well, you're going to be a bad baseball team for the first however long. And I think Minnesota did well, given what I imagine was a directive from ownership for

them to shed as much payroll as they possibly could at the deadline. I think they came into the year like, hey, let's do, let's have one last ride. And if you, you know, if you guys are in contention, come the deadline, like maybe the directive would have been different, but given where they were, I think they were just like, everything must go, you know, they did reasonably well given that mandate. Like it does feel bad to have the guy who you committed a franchise record contract to Sort of unceremoniously sent back from whence he came for nothing more quote-unquote than contract relief but I

Do think that's kind of a defensible move on their part because I think the back end of that Korea deal might look Really bad and we might be in the beginning of really bad right now. But it's hard when you're sending guys who excite the team, when you're sending the best closer. Sure, you're excited about Taite, but are you that excited? Are you that excited about Mick Abel? Do you, you know, don't you want Louis Varland like in the fold for longer? And again, I think that like these are defensible moves in so far as they were told, hey, you gotta shut payroll. And so I think they brought in prospects, some of whom will end up being good players for them, but it's a really tough pill to swallow, you know? And I want to, I want Twins fans to know that like, I hear, and I know that we have a number

of listeners who are Twins fans, and so I'm not trying to discount like the experience of this from a fan perspective because it really sucks. And I think that it really sucks, especially because fans know you can take this approach, you can do the hard rebuild and sometimes it works out, but sometimes you're the Baltimore Orioles and you're still selling off everything in sight that you possibly could. They're only non, I didn't realize this, I didn't quite clock it until Kyrie was writing her piece off everything in sight that you possibly could.

I didn't realize this, I didn't quite clock it until Kiri was writing her piece on the Mullen's deal, but the only healthy pending free agent who wasn't shipped out of Baltimore over this deadline period is Sagano. All the rest of them are gone. They have hurt guys, like Eflin's still there and Gary Sanchez, but like they don't have anyone who's not on the IL and depending for agent who is still on that roster. And so it's like, you know, I don't, I think that we can sometimes get a little caught up in the like the surplus value of it all and the brighter day will dawn.

And I hope so much that that is true, but I understand it feeling bad in the immediate term. And I understand not taking for granted that it will materialize into a better team because sometimes it doesn't. And then you're just left with a collection of arbitration or pre-arb indistinguishable blondes. Some of them are very good, but some of them have been less fortunate.

I'm talking about all the guys in Baltimore who look like all the same. I think there's, there's something to be said for being decisive when you do decide to do a rebuild, then, then really do it. And I'm saying you have to absolutely totally tank and be terrible, but just pickle lane, I think that can be helpful sometimes. have to absolutely totally tank and be terrible, but just pick a lane. I think that can be helpful sometimes. And that was sort of how Falvey tried to sell it. We need a clear and deliberate decision to strengthen the next chapter of

championship caliber baseball. We didn't make surface moves. We acted with purpose and it wasn't about patchwork or small adjustments. Okay. I think there's something to be said for that in some circumstances. Like I'd rather do that every now and then rip the bandaid off than the angels, let's say, who are kind of like nominally on the fringes of contention and they just go pick up Andrew Chaffin and Luis Garcia.

Like that's going to make a difference. You know, it's not like they gave up that much either, but they just. Wait, okay. I'm going to put a pin in my angel's thoughts because I have a couple, but please continue. They just, yeah, they never say we're done. We need to start over. Right.

At some point you just have to do that or else you just end up treading water or worse, usually sinking in their case. But you know, you have a few guys who could kind of be the beginnings of a core of a competitive team, but then you're going for it when you have no realistic chance to go for it. Like I respect, that's something that you want a Pobo or a GM to be able to do. And Buster Posey kind of did it, you know? The Giants were kind of on the periphery of contention too and obviously started the season well

and he was just like, looking at where we are and how we've been playing, it's not happening. So just reload for when you have a more realistic shot. And that's always tough and it's especially tough in this expanded playoffs world where a lot of teams are close enough to have a chance at least on paper on the standings. But yeah, sometimes you have to know that's the difficult decision that you employ these people to make.

In the Twins case though, I think it really smarts because they were there. They were right there. They had the championship caliber core and they just did not supplement it. And that's probably more of a polad problem. But nonetheless, like twins fans saw this team that made the playoffs in 2023 and had this continuity and these good players and just did absolutely nothing to improve on it. And like they did the hard part of acquiring a core, and then they just would not spend a cent really to improve it.

And then they decide, well, this isn't working out. We have to start over. Well, yeah, because you just, you kind of gave up on it prematurely. So I think that's the source of the frustration. And maybe the twins will be good again under new ownership in a few years. And it'll be some of the guys that they got frustration and maybe the twins will be good again under new ownership in a few years and

it'll be some of the guys that they got at this deadline who were driving that roster at that point. But yeah, it just, it leaves a really bitter taste in your mouth where you kind of got close enough that you could see it and then just stalled out at that point because you stopped investing in the roster and then suddenly you're trading Correa, Duran, Jax, Varland, France, Bader, Castro, Stewart, Paddock, Coulombe, just so many guys all gone at once. I saw Chris Antinetti, the Guardians were playing the twins and he was like, yeah, we're gonna have to do some work to like familiarize ourselves with who's on this roster that we're playing next. I were with the Cleveland Guardians. I would not be making jokes about other people's deadline activity. do some work to like familiarize ourselves with who's on this roster that we're playing next.

I would not be making jokes about other people's deadline activity. That's just a little Meg quote you can throw out there. They didn't do what the twins did for better or worse. They traded Bieber, but they didn't do a whole lot of- I agree. I just like, I want to know how they understand themselves. I'm glad that they didn themselves. I'm glad that they didn't. I'm really glad they didn't move Stephen Kwan. I'm glad that they mostly kept this

group together. I think that this is, and I think they did well with that Bieber trait. So but also like you're just not a very active deadline team is my point. Like they never like go, you know, they don't, they're not like, oh, we got to go for it. So it's just like you leave the criticism of people's deadline strategies to anyone who's really criticizing them. Like, like relax my guy. Same is true for anyone who goes to play Baltimore. Like it's like the only guys who are left are indistinguishable Blondes.

Like how will we ever figure out? It was, it was like, okay. So the Orioles and the Diamondbacks were in sort of the same boat. They expected to be good. I mean, the Diamondbacks were in a boat where they actually tried to get better over the off season and made some significant moves, but didn't pan out for either of them. Boats in the desert rarely do, you know?

Yeah, true. And so these beached boats, they decided, okay, we're, we're going to just do some subtracting in the short term. They know that they have good enough players that they should in theory come back next year and be in line to contend. But they did what one typically does when you're kind of out of it. Fine. Okay.

I don't have a problem with, with that approach, but the Braves did not, they didn't do that. Those are the three teams that I would kind of group in like were supposed to be good and just a lot of things went wrong. And the Braves basically didn't do anything at this set. They traded Rafael Montero, I guess, but that's about it. Not that they had so much to trade. Right, this is the thing.

Yes, all their pitchers are hurt. And then, you know, Marcel Azuna is not playing well. And yeah, I guess there wasn't that much for them to do, but I wonder, cause Alex Anthopoulos said some time ago, we're not going to sell. And that like, he couldn't even conceive of selling. Cause it's been so long since he was running a team that was not in the playoffs or was not contending. And so, yeah, I wonder if part of it was bad and like the memory of 2021 and you never

know. And but yeah, when I look at their roster, I guess there's only so much that they realistically had to offer. Yeah, I think that they found themselves in a modified version of the Diamondbacks situation where it's like the Diamondbacks had a clear, you know, by the time the deadline rolled around, they had a clear case to sell, right? You know, it could have gone either way for a while there, but I think that once, you know, when they got to the point where they traded Naylor, it was like, okay, you know, you're game under 500. I get the direction here. I guess Naylor came a little after that. Anyway, you know what I'm trying

to say. So like they were in this position where they had a clear directive to sell. They had made that choice. They have a bunch of guys on the team who are obviously going to be around for a long time and good next year, but they also had this crop of pending free agents. And so the decision they had to make was like, are we going to get enough in trade that it is worth it for us to send these guys away as opposed to keep some of them in house, qualifying offer them and then get draft pick compensation when the time comes, right? Which was part of Bauman's argument when I told him and Jay, I was like, you have to argue with each other about whether they should sell or not.

And I thought it was a point well taken, right? Which is that their option wasn't to either trade them and get something or keep them and get nothing, right? They could have extended the qualifying offer to a couple of them, Merrill Kelly, Ayo Heniel, to Gallan maybe. And if those guys had signed elsewhere, they would have gotten draft pick compensation for them. But the Braves didn't really have, like they didn't have an Eugenio Suarez.

If they'd had an Eugenio Suarez, maybe they wouldn't have had to sell at all. But like they didn't have that same sort of contingent of obviously good and valuable, but disposable in terms of the long term roster fit guys, right? There was no Merrill Kelly on their team. So we should talk about the Rangers because their deadline was really weird to me. So I'm kind of sympathetic to the situation that they found themselves in. The team is getting older though, you know, like they are getting older and a lot of their younger guys are like injured pitching So that's gonna be an interesting thing for them to navigate because that that group of like bright-eyed

You know brace foundation donors is getting getting closer and closer to 30 every day every day there Yeah There wasn't you know for all the relievers who were traded and all the late inning guys And that's one thing I guess you could say about this deadline It wasn't, you know, for all the relievers who were traded and all the late-inning guys, and that's one thing I guess you could say about this deadline is that there's a pretty good chance that we'll be watching late October games, even World Series games, and some of the last innings will be pitched by players who change teams at this deadline. So that's kind of consequential.

The other thing I guess I would say is, last time we talked and we were sort of setting up the deadline, we were thinking, well, maybe there will be fewer moves because so many teams are in contention and they could convince themselves that they'll be in the running either this year or next year or the year after.

The other thing though you could say, I guess, is because there are so many teams clumped together that there actually is a decent chance that the deadline this year could be probably will come down to a game or two, right? So that this very well could swing who ends up inside and who ends up on the cold in the outside. And you know, you look at Suarez and say, okay, he's probably the best player traded best bat. Someone else who was traded will outwore him, I would expect I would take the field over the best player because you you know, he's good. He's not that good. And also, there's just... And he's defensively limited. Yeah, and there are a lot of other players who could just get hot for a couple months.

But yeah, like it could end up really mattering, even if it's just a one wore difference or something. Well, it might be a one game difference in the standings. But for all the relievers who were traded, there were very few starting pitchers. Very few. Yeah. And there are teams that needed a starter and didn't get a starter and their fans are upset that they didn't get a starter, but at least no one else got one either. So it's not like, you know, you got outbid. Yeah, I guess I think the best starting pitcher

who was acquired was maybe Shane Bieber, who hasn't pitched in the majors this season, but has looked good in his rehab appearances and should be back soon. And at least, you know, he has a upside if he comes back and isn't too rusty or diminished by the Tommy John surgery. But other than that, like what other starters were out there?

Dustin May and Stephen Matz, the guys that the Red Sox got. And Matz has been in long relief pretty much the whole year. Yeah, right. I don't know that their plan is to make him a starter again. He's pretty, his splits are pretty dramatic. I think that he will probably, which also makes it a weird roster fit because I'm like, you have a bunch of lefties already and then like you're heading in the-

Yeah. Sears. Sears? Like, you know, back end guy. It's fine. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a lot of- The Padres guys who moved to the Royals will probably have been starting and probably will, especially given Kansas City's, I thought that they threaded the needle in a nice way, Kansas City. I was, I was generally pretty

impressed by their deadline. It was, it was like, it was muted and I don't know if it'll work. And maybe for it to have worked, they needed to do something bolder. But I also think that like, it would have been really goofy for them to overcommit given where they are. And so I don't know, I thought that they it's to your point earlier, like picking a lane and having a decisive course of action is often the right move. And we have criticized teams over the years, the Red Sox comes sort of most immediately to mind for like this coming and going business. It's like, what do you, how do you understand yourself? I feel like the Royals, they didn't like go, they came, did they go, went? I don't know.

I like the Royals' deadline. I thought it was fine. It was like, they upgraded in a couple of places, not dramatically, but in some spots it was like their corner outfields were to the Royals what the Padres catching situation was to the Padres. And it's like, is a Jastremski Gritschik platoon like gonna catapult you to the division lead? Probably not. But like, it'll make you a more respectable baseball team. Maybe I catch lightning in a bottle, you know, a little lightning in a bottle.

Zach Lattell, another starter, went to the Reds. Yeah, yeah, there were a few teams. So many home runs. I know. A lot of teams who do try to kind of, you know, balance the coming and the going. And there are times when that can make sense. I mean, you know, you could upgrade yourself

and maybe still get a good deal with an eye toward the future. But yeah, like the Dodgers, I guess, were in that camp, the Rays, the Royals to some extent all made moves that you would classify as buying and selling probably. Yeah. The Dodgers deadline fascinated me because, you know, speaking of another team that probably could have used a starter and didn't get one, in fact, they dealt one. Yeah. Their deadline was much more sort of future focused in terms of the, like the best players

they came away from their trades with were prospects. I mean, they managed to insinuate themselves into that let's tell trade and got a good prospect in the balance. I mean, they managed to insinuate themselves into that L'Itale trade and got a good prospect in the balance. Um, but yeah, it was for a club that like has both obvious flaws in the moment and it clear postseason ambition. They were more future focused than I thought they would be like they had Alex call and, uh, Brock Stewart, Tony Brock's. It's hard for me to say that name without going Brock.

I want to put like some oomph behind Brock. When did Brock become a name? What's that name about? I'm not trying to insult all the Brock's who listen to us. I'm sure there are a number of Brock's. It's just what's up with your name? Who was the first Brock? You know, who was the first Brock?

Brock's. See, and it's like, I've said it enough where I'm like, what is that word? How are you allowed to put a B and an R and a C and a K so close together? Oh boy. Oh, it's all catching up with you now. Okay, well, where do we go from Brock? Should we talk about the Rangers real weird deadline just as a reset? What was up with the Rangers? Here's the part of this that confused me. On the one hand, I can totally understand

feeling nervous about your existing rotation situation not because I guess Meryl Kelly was the best starter who moved at the deadline. Yeah. All right. Let me here now around and to form on the Rangers. So I think Meryl Kelly was the best starter who moved at the deadlift. Yeah. All right. Let me here. Now I'll round into form on the Rangers. So I think Meryl Kelly is great. He is precisely the kind of starter that the Rangers need because he is good. He is above average.

He is having a year even better than his like career numbers this year. There have been times in the last couple of years where he's had cramping, I think because the air conditioning and Chase's bad, I don't know. But this year has been remarkably available, just a super reliable steadying force for rotation that has been very injured or underperforming. Great.

And I get them wanting to reinforce both the rotation and sort of the back part of that bullpen because, you know, like they have deGrom who's having a great year but has made a candy glass and Valdi who has been good. And then it's like a lot less dis- like sorted after that, right? Like rockers up and down and lighters up and down, not literally from the majors to the minors, but in terms of their performance. Gray is like in the bullpen now. They've had a bunch of injuries. Put some respect on Patrick Corbin's name. I was just going to say, and then they have Patrick Corbin having the season he's having

and being very good for him relative to his most immediate seasons and super available, but you're not going to give playoff innings to Patrick Corbin unless something catastrophic has happened, right? So I get them wanting a starter, but also like their pitching has been very strong and their lineup has been at times underwhelming. It's been better over the last month, but like, you know, like they're running a lease out there every day. I don't know if they're going well. So, I mean, not every day, but you know, it's like they had obvious places that they could upgrade and they have a deep farm system. So in theory, like they had the prospect capital to make a move. And so I just,

I thought the way that they allocated resources to be so pitching heavy was just weird. Um, and you know, maybe they'll make a fool of me, but it just seemed like there were other bats that moved who were good. And I'm surprised that they, and maybe they were in on all those guys and they just weren't able to get a deal done. But I'm a little skeptical of that. So I don't know.

It's just like a weird, the shape of it was strange given their roster needs to me. So yeah, I agree. Though, since you brought up the Rangers, I must note that the biggest addition they made from my perspective was not adding Coulombe or Kelly or who else? Phil Maton. Coulombe or Kelly or Who else? Phil Maton, but Luis Corvello They promoted this week and who made his major league debut on Deadline Day

Yeah, yeah, yeah, two beautiful scoreless innings to complete my minor league free agent draft board Ten for ten. It's now it's official. It's 10 for 10, it's now, it's official. I can't believe this. Am I jacking the deadline pod for this? You're using the deadline pod to brag about your minor league free agent draw team? I mean, I have to tell the world I'm bursting with pride, because Corvello, he had been on the taxi squad earlier this year, and didn't make it into a game, and I felt like Armando Galarraga.

I came so close to perfection, but unlike Galarraga, I came so close to perfection, but unlike Galarraga, I got a do-over and this is my proudest achievement as a prognosticator. Perhaps my only achievement as a prognosticator because I try not to prognosticate. They said it couldn't be done. Ten for ten, perfect minor league free agent draft. We'll return to that topic at the end of the season, but just just had to crow about it a little bit I'm sorry I just hope that their new relief additions don't endanger Curello standing in that bullpen because I still still need those batters faced

But I'm very proud very proud Papa. Okay, so I'm happy for you. Yeah, I know, I can sense that. The happiness is just so, the warmth in your voice. Overwhelming. Yeah, yeah. So I guess other teams we should just quickly touch on. The Mets, the Mets were fairly active. They picked up a lot of bullpen help to put behind Edwin Diaz.

They got Gregory Soto, and man, they got Cedric Mullins, who I know is not hitting like he did in his prime, but he robbed a homer in his last game as an Oriole, I think, the day before he was traded. So he's still got it out there in the outfield and that'll improve them. And then they got Helsley and they got Tyler Rogers, who wasn't included in our previous listing of save getters and closers, but is one of the best relievers in baseball. We probably don't talk enough about Tyler Rogers and how consistent and unorthodox he is. Both of the Rogerses were traded actually on deadline day, but the Mets got the better. Rogers, they got

Tyler, and they gave up a fair amount. Taylor got traded twice this deadline season. Yeah, he did. It's true. He was a pirate very briefly, I guess. Very briefly. The Mets gave up kind of a lot in the Tyler Rogers trade, but Rogers is a really good reliever. So, you know, like these are teams that are pretty certain of their playoff bound status and they're just trying to get those late October innings set and they did that and their rivals in the NL East also did that.

They actually, they had sort of similar deadlines in a way because they both got late inning help. They got closers. The Phillies added Duran and they also added Bader. So that was their good defensive center fielder they picked up. Bader was sort of supposed to be Buxton's caddy, the latest of them, but until recently, Buxton had been healthy. So he didn't really need to back up Buxton so much, but he was actually

hitting pretty well in Minnesota. So yeah, the Phillies and the Mets were both quite aggressive, but sort of canceled each other's moves out a little bit, I guess, at least when it comes to the division race. But you know, it's classic Dumbrovsky to part with some prospects to get relief help. And the Phillies have had better bullpens than Dombrowski's teams used to have, but they still needed some help in that department this year and they got the best guy available.

They got Duran, who is another guy who's under team control for a few years. So they had to give up Eduardo Taite and Mick Abel, catcher and big league ready starter. So two of the best prospects at the deadline, but these are teams that should be making that kind of move, the Phillies and the Mets for that matter. Like Phillies are getting older and have this aging core

and they're in it and this is the time when you make that type of move to rob the future, to pay the present. They also picked up Matt Manning. So yeah, a lot of action there to make up for the inaction in the rest of the NL East of the other teams, which didn't do much. The Marlins didn't do much either. They didn't trade Alcantara.

They didn't trade Cabrera. They just, I guess, like what they have. They've been surprisingly good lately. Anyway, yeah, like when you're in that position where you're pretty confident that you're gonna be playing playoff baseball, then you just wanna shore things up and solidify those late innings,

because you know that those are gonna be pretty important. Yeah, I think that they each knew that they were gonna go into the deadline being aggressive and trying to bolster obvious holes and you bolster a hole bolster a weakness. They did that. And you know, it's remarkable when you look at the Zips projections for the Mets and the Phillies post deadline, like they didn't really change their playoff odds that much in part because they both made similarly matched

moves, right? They're still sort of deadlocked, but they each improved their World Series odds because they're better teams now than they were. So I just think that's a fun little bit of symmetry, is all. I guess two teams that were fairly inactive despite being in indecent playoff position, though different playoff positions, the Cubs and the Red Sox. So the Cubs didn't do a whole lot. They picked up Michael Soroka and Andrew Kittredge and Willie Castro. And those are all nice little moves.

They picked up the other Rogers, Taylor Rogers. So they made several additions, but none huge on its own. And then the Red Sox, of course, who were rumored to be in the running for Joe Ryan late were making a push, but evidently didn't get all that close to prying him away from Minnesota. So they settle for Matt and May. So their fans not pleased. They gave up the younger prospect, the outfielder, James Tibbs III, when they got back in the Devers trade. They then flipped him and another prospect to the Dodgers for May. So May, like he's

been one of the only durable Dodger starters this year, but has not been that great. And I guess the Dodgers are feeling pretty good about their guys getting healthy in time for October that they felt comfortable removing May from the mix, even though he's sort of been the staple, the stalwart in that rotation this season. And the Red Sox get him and like, you know, I guess there weren't that many impact starters available and May has been better before. I generally, I like him as a pitcher and thought he'd be better than he's been

this year and they did address their deficiencies and their needs there, but not in a very exciting way. and their needs there, but not in a very exciting way. And there was a Craig Breslow press conference where he just kind of talked like he does in this sort of new age exec robotic way that I guess confirms the Bres is a stiff perception that people seem to have now. And he basically did a, we tried.

He said, if fans were in the office during this deadline, they would see that guys we didn't expect to be willing to talk about going into these conversations we made available. We tried to put the most aggressive offers we could in hopes they were going to end in deals. I understand the frustration and the disappointment because we're all looking at the last week right now in terms of the trades that were made and weren't made. There's

not a lot of sympathy for how hard we tried to get deals across the line. I understand that that second to last sentence there has really been making the rounds, I think kind of out of context because you know, he wasn't complaining about the fact that there wasn't a lot of sympathy. I don't think he was saying, whoa, is me. We tried really hard. Why won't anyone feel sympathy for us? But when you see that line, that sentence in isolation, it sort of sounds like that's what he's saying.

But no, I think he was attempting to be empathetic and saying, I understand why there's not a lot of sympathy. But nonetheless, whatever he said, it wasn't gonna go over well, because they made the Devers trade, they cleared all that salary, they've got all these young guys, they've got this great young core, and they had prospects they could dangle, and they just ultimately just didn't make very exciting moves,

and they are in a spot where they kind of need to. I guess, which do you think like needed to make moves more, the Cubs or the Red Sox? Cause they had sort of similar playoff percentages, I think, or no, the Cubs have a very high playoff percentage. They're like basically a lock, but they are kind of 50-50 in the division. And that obviously makes a big difference.

Do you get that by or not? Whereas the Red Sox have very little shot at the division and that obviously makes a big difference. Do you get that by or not? Whereas the Red Sox have very little shot at the division, at least according to the playoff odds, and yet they have a pretty good shot at a wild card. And so you could say, well, they should be even more motivated to make moves because their place, their playoff birth is much less assured.

But then again, the Cubs are in the running for a division, which is a bigger prize that may be out of reach for the Red Sox. So I guess, yeah, either way you, you know, and the Red Sox are only what, like five games back in the East. So I guess that's not entirely out of reach. So yeah, there's just, there's a lot of frustration with the Red Sox organization right now. So like not that the depoto hasn't managed to put his foot in his mouth at different points, but like I think that there was a realization on the Mariners part at some point that like a lot of what Jerry says inspires reaction. And I think a lot of that reaction is like fair, but some of it is also like a fatigue with him. And so it would be hard for him to say

anything and not have it come across in a way that bothers people. And so that I think is part of why the organization has put Justin Hollander out front so much. Part of that is that he's the GM, and he should talk to the media and they want to keep him. So he needs to have a front-facing role in addition to DePoto. But I think that maybe it would be good for Breslow to have a designated deputy for some of this stuff. It's not a great quote, but it also felt like people were ready to be mad at him. Like you said, for whatever he said. And so I'm just like, but like, this is pretty early in your tenure for you to be at that point.

You know? So I don't know. I don't know about that. It seems like good. I guess they don't have a GM, right? So I don't think they do. I don't think they do. Yeah.

So they don't really have a designated number two who could kind of fill that role, maybe. But yeah, might be something to look into, I guess. Anyway. Anything else we should touch on? I guess the Yankees were pretty busy and I kind of like what they did. Yeah. There wasn't any one move maybe that's going to like persuade the Cashman haters out there, but you take it in some, they made quite a bunch of moves to address weaknesses. Like their bullpen went from not very good to pretty

elite now, at least if you like look at the projections, adding Bednar and Doval and Jake Bird from the Rockies. Like that's a pretty big upgrade to your bullpen to make it the deadline. Bednar, we talked about Jake Berger's minor league reset earlier this year and the concept of the minor league reset just sort of send a guy down, get his head straight, light a fire under him, whatever it is. Bednar also had that this year. He had a minor league

reset and he's come back firing after that. I guess Francisco Alvarez too. The minor league reset. It's a fun phenomenon. But yeah, the Yankees, like we talked about the McMahon trade when that happened and Rosario, they just, they did a lot. They turned over a surprisingly high percentage of their roster too for a team that is adding and Caballero they picked up from the raise as well. So really remade their bullpen, gave themselves a lot of depth and versatility

on the position player side. So yeah, you know, no huge star pickup that's going to win over Yankees fans who are unimpressed by this organization. But on the whole, lots of little improvements, I think. They're in some ways a difficult roster to upgrade. They have all of this star power and money already sunk in and a lot of it is, a lot of the players are good, you know? So I don't know that they're, I think marginal changes were the order of the day given that like, you know, they're going to get judged back and you know, they will

have more pitching available in future seasons, obviously not right now. So it's just, they're in sort of a weird spot. So I thought that they did well given some of their concerns. Like I feel much better about that bullpen than I did before the deadline. Caballero is such an interesting, like, I mean this, I want to be clear. I mean, this is a compliment. Jose Caballero is a pain in the ass. Like he's a pain in the ass if you're playing him.

Like, I don't know him as a person. I have no sense of him as a man, you know? But like, he delights in trying to mess with pitchers around like the pitch timer. And, you know, he's a really hard base runner. And he is one of these guys who likes to, he likes to kind of be a little annoying to his opposition.

Not in a way that's disrespectful or anything like that. I'm not trying to knock the guy, but in a way that feels purposeful, right? He's trying to be a little bit of a pain in the ass. And that's just an interesting fit for New York because, you know, but they like playing the villain. They play the stupid, they do the, you know, they have the evil empire reputation. So anyway, Jose Caballero is just like an interesting fit for them. But yeah, I liked their deadline. Should we, can I just say how weird the angels are for a second?

Oh yeah. Well, the Yankees guys that they got those relievers also under team control for a while. I think Bednar they have for next year, Deval for a few years. So they gave up some pretty decent prospects to get Bednar for instance, but those guys aren't really rentals. McMahon wasn't either. So they've kind of done some of their off season business here at the deadline as well. Okay.

Yes. Please proceed in talking about how odd the angels are. They're so weird, Ben, like, it's fine for staff members to disagree. J. Jeffery was like very exercised about their deadline activity when he wrote about it, which I found fascinating because it's just so hard to get exercised about Andrew Chaffin, you know, like, and Andrew Chaffin is a fine player. I thought that like, it was, you can't be mad because they didn't really give up a whole lot, right? Like it wasn't like they had a dramatic overpay

for him and Luis Garcia. I did have a moment where I was worried that we hadn't read the piece. I didn't edit that one. Matt did. Matt's a consummate professional, so Matt would never have made this mistake. But you know, it's the deadline, everybody's busy and I was like, wait, we had the right Luis Garcia in there, right? There are a lot of Luis Garcias, you know? It's Joe Smith. That's a very common name. So anyway, but they didn't, they didn't overpay, but they're also not too like middle relievers away. So I'm just like, what is your, again, what is your understanding of yourself? Because it's, it's weird. It's a weird, they're so weird, you know? And like, they're, They're so weird, you know? And like, they're, I don't know.

It seems like they have a ownership mandate not to sell, but they also seemingly have an ownership mandate not to spend that much anymore. And a lot of their free agent additions really went wrong. And so I get why they might be a bit squeamish or gun shy, I guess. But yeah, it's like, you're trying to, I guess you, if you, if you can't sell, then you can't sell. But like, I don't know, you want to tell me that Kikuchi wouldn't have been a valuable trade target? Mm hmm. Yeah, I don't know. I'm so confused by that. Anderson Yeah. I don't know.

I'm so confused by that. Anderson or, I don't know. They had some guys. I mean, kind of. This is the other thing. It's like, who, other than Kikuchi, who did they really have to trade? Like they're not gonna move.

I guess they could, you know, they would have gotten, you know who they would have gotten a lot back for would have probably been Taylor Ward. They probably could have. Yeah, given just how many moves were made, there were some, like even on the Braves, someone like Rysella Glacius, you know, you've got all these relievers

and closers moving, not him or Pierce Johnson, and then the Marlins kept the starters and the White Sox kept Robert and Ben Intendi and Tachman, and the Pirates kept Tommy Pham and IKF, which I was kind of hoping he'd get traded so that my man Cam Devaney could get more playing time. But yeah, there were a bunch of bad teams that still had at least a few, maybe, appealing players,

and they just kept them. The White Sox did trade Austin Slater, I forgot in my recounting of Yankees moves, yet another addition that they made. And kind of, you know, kind of nice, like platoon outfield bat. He'll be somewhat useful for them. So, yeah, I don't know. Sometimes it's like whatever the opposite of death by a thousand paper cuts is.

It's just like you're adding with a bunch of little moves that amount to maybe a lot in the end. I guess we've come almost to the end here and in classic Effectively Wild fashion, we have neglected to talk about the Reds, who did make some moves also kind of confusingly. So they got Miguel Andujar, who's still around. What a weird career he has had. And then they got Zach Andujar, who's still around. What a weird career he has had.

And then they got Zach Lattell, who, yeah, doesn't seem like the best fit for that ballpark, perhaps. They got Kibrein Hayes from the Pirates, who, like, I have believed in him in various points. I thought that he was going to hit. And at times, it really looked like he was. But boy, he sure hasn't lately. And physically, I'm just not sure that he was going to hit. And at times it really looked like he was, but boy, he sure hasn't lately. And physically, I'm just not sure that he can. But, you know, the glove is great. But now,

what are they going to do with Noel V. Marte? I guess I get that they needed some help, but they're just always positionally kind of confusing. They're just always moving guys around. And sometimes we praise versatility and playing guys out of position. It's like positionless baseball. Hey, don't let guys get stereotyped or typecast or locked into a box. Maybe they could play other positions. But with the Reds, it often seems that they're just bouncing guys around and maybe it hurts their development offensively because they're trying to play positions that they're miscast at.

Anyway, I don't know. They seem like they could make a run. They have this core. Some of their core has underperformed. I guess L'Telle gives them some rotation depth and insurance if someone gets hurt as is often the case in their rotation, which has been good on the whole, but is fairly fragile. But yeah, I don't know exactly how like Anduhar and Hayes fit with their existing alignment and whether Hayes can hit at all. Right. Yeah. I don't know. They're kind of

confusing to me too. They, Dan noted that they're, they took on money with Hayes and not a lot in the grand scheme, a surprising amount for the Reds. And their playoff odds actually went down. I don't know if Cabrera and Hayes will ever be able to hit acceptably. I understand wanting to try more. Now, my optimism around that has dimmed just because he's been healthy this year and he still hasn't hit. And so like in prior years, you'd be like, oh, there's been some injuries, been dinged. Not really the case this year. So that part of it is concerning. He is a really special defender. And so I get that part, but I find their strategy

with infielders just generally over the last couple of years to be kind of confounding. And I don't know that their evaluations have been particularly good. Like remember when they signed Candelario and then, you know, and some of this isn't their fault, right? Like, you know, Marte got suspended for PEDs. And so some of it is like, and they've had a lot of injury on the infield. So some of it's that, but I also,

given all of that sort of volatility, can understand them wanting to be like, well, let's just get this guy, have him anchor third. He's a good defender there, a really great defender there. And like, you know, I think because his bat has struggled so mightily, we've kind of lost sight of how special he is at third. And then we just, you know, we'll get him to hit or we won't, but we don't have to worry about that position from a defensive perspective. So maybe that's the rationale. But yeah, what do you do with Marte? Because like, he's...

I had the Reds game on and they're like, yeah, we don't. I'm trying to remember who was saying this. I can't remember if I had the Reds broadcast on or not, but they were like, what are we, what are they going to do with Marte? Because you know, like they can't put him as short because of Ellie. I'm like, they can't put him as short because he can't play shortstop. Like what are we talking about? Like he's also defensively limited.

Like is he better at second than Matt McClain? I don't know, man. So yeah, they're in a weird kind of spot with some of their guys. And it's not like, you know, like, Marte's under team control until like 2030 or something. It's not like free agency is gonna just like thin the heart for them naturally. They're gonna have to, but he's hitting well this year, Marte, you know?

So, I don't know, maybe just TH him. The Tigers did not attempt to repeat their plan from last year, which was get worse and profit. Instantly play better. I don't know if they got a lot better though. No, they didn't do. I don't know if they got a lot better though. No, they didn't do that much. I don't know if they got a lot better, but they're a better team, so that's fine. Yeah, right. They got Charlie Morton, they got Kyle Finnegan, they got Paul Seewald,

they got Cody Hoyer. The injured Paul Seewald. Yeah. They got Rafael Monteiro, they got Chris Paddock and Randy Dobnak. So they did a bunch of stuff. I like the Paddock and Randy Dobnak. So they did a bunch of stuff, but yeah. I like the Paddock move. Yeah, I always like Morton. He's been pitching better of late. So yeah, you know, they need help less than they did last year

when they decided that they were beyond help and then went on a run anyway. So plus they have the power of Riley Green's mustache now. Have you read the quotes about Riley Green's mustache? He is he went from beard to mustache. And everyone's obsessed with the mustache now. Who is everyone? Everyone on the Tigers.

Okay. They all touch it now. They touch the stash and Green said it's great. It gets the boys going. it gets the boys going. Whatever gets the boys going. And he says, McInstry may have gotten some power from touching the stash. He touched it, a lot of people touched it.

And AJ Hitch said, we've all touched it. I'm not sure how that's going to go over with quotes around it. And Green said, it's getting kind of weird. Okay. So, okay. Okay. So here's the thing. Again, I am a known advocate for the boys giving each other a little kiss if everyone wants to. And if Riley Green is fine with people touching his stash, that's between him and God.

That's none of my business. Although it sounds like he's starting to register it as a bit odd. Yes, he also said it's not a good look. Just he doesn't like how the mustache looks. Oh, on him? Okay, I was like, I don't know. Not the touching of it, but the just.

Of all the, I just. But he said, if it means winning, then I'll keep it. I don't know that it does, but... I guess you'll never convince baseball players of that. You've never met a more superstitious group of human beings in your life. Like there are, you know, there are Puritans who burned witches who are less superstitious than baseball players. I'm doing witches in air quotes.

I just think that like it's on your face is the thing. Like of all the like, things to touch in your workplace on another worker's face. It's just a lot. Like there's something very, I mean, we're all thinking of so many jokes right now and they all involve nastiness, right? Our grandmothers are embarrassed. They're blushing. They don't know why, but they're like, I feel like somebody's thinking a bad thing. But there's something so intimate about like you're in the dugout and all of a sudden,

like you're just Zach McKinstry is just like touching your face He's just like it and it's like you can't charge a touch Sorry to touch your mustache without like obscuring part of your mouth So it's just like a very I don't know about that. You know, I don't know about it. I again like You if you're gonna be in the lip area Already just give each other a little kiss, you know, like give each other a little good luck kiss. Will Carlos Correa be able to give members of the Astros a little kiss on the head?

He's a little kiss on the head guy, you know? Is he gonna, is he like, I'm coming home and I'm bringing back the little kiss on the head, you know? Is he gonna be able to do that? I don't think I... Sorry, can I just say this about Carlos Greer? Because I feel like I...

I don't think I appreciated how dire Esau Parade's injury was until they traded. Yeah, he's done for the year, it seems like. Yeah. I did not. Somehow in all the comings and goings, I didn't clock how bad his injury was. I don't know how much they talked about that, but I just missed it. I'll blame myself and not the Astros. But anyway.

No, it is a well, first of all, speaking of other news about touching, Brian Cashman was asked whether Spencer Jones was untouchable. And he said some guys are more touchable than others. Clearly, Riley Green is among them. But yeah, Carlos Correa, like he has not played well this year. He played well last year when he was healthy, but between being unavailable sometimes

and just not playing well this year. And there's no apparent injury this year that you can exactly trace it to, but it's, in some ways that's almost more concerning. So him going back to the Astros, I guess it's like, it's a feel good story for Astros fans and for everyone else. It's like a, it's also feel good cause you get to feel angry, I guess, cause it's like, oh good, I can consolidate my booing.

Now one of the, the sign stealers is back on the sign stealing team. So that simplifies things maybe. But I could imagine that, yes, as you said, the twins may be happy to get out of the backend of that contract. On the other hand, I could also imagine him just like going back to Houston and just miraculously having a run and it clicking and they need help.

It will 100% happen, Ben. Because look, the universe is like, you need a new way to feel bad about your baseball team, Meg. And so he will go home and Rick, he's going to be riding high on how he gets to go literally home because like, you know, his wife's family is from there. I think his parents maybe live there now. He's gonna, no, it's gonna be, yeah. No, he'll probably just-

I'm ready to crash out about it. I'm ready. Yes, he'll be vintage Carlos Correa, most likely. Yeah, all right. And then the brewers, we haven't really mentioned. They didn't do much either. And they're locked in a tight race there. Maybe they figured, Hey, we have Andrew Vaughn.

What else do we need? He's the best here in baseball, but he moved back in the box, Meg. He moved back in the batter's box. I'm sure that was the only reason. But I want to be clear. I was never giving you guff about your theory. I said that there were examples to the contrary, but I know it definitely works for some guys like, yes. Oh yeah. But no, the brewers,

they got Shelby Miller and Jordan Montgomery, which would have been a major move at one point several years ago. Jordan Montgomery, slow quitting king. And I feel bad saying that because he had Tommy John, he's injured. But Jordan Montgomery got a trade bonus and will probably never, I wonder if he'll even go to Wisconsin. Is that guy, because he's a free agent at the end of the season, he's never going to throw a pitch for the Brewers agent at the end of the season. He's never going to throw a pitch

for the Brewers, at least not on this contract. But he got a half million dollar trade bonus. So I think that's great. You know what? It feels like a win for labor generally, you know? And like that deal was a bad, that ended up being a real disaster of a free agent signing for the Diamondbacks. But what are you going to do? Sometimes those don't work out. And sometimes you get half a million dollars for being home. That sounds great. I would take half a million dollars to be at home. I'm already home, Ben.

Ben慎e That's where I want to be. That's my natural habitat. Brewers also got Danny Jensen. Anyway, they didn't do that much, but they'll probably just figure it out and win anyway somehow. Somehow, although, you know, they could have used a big bet. I'm just saying, I know that Andrew Vaughn may never strike out again. Maybe he'll never miss, but there's a lot of evidence to the contrary about that.

And Andrew Vaughn. You know, I hadn't seen Andrew Vaughn without his hat on until he went to Milwaukee. You should wear a hat. It's my not very generous Andrew Vaughn take. It's just like, I think the problem is, I think it's hat hair. You're exactly. The problem is that like he wears the cap because I'm just circulating because I'm Imitating his hair with my hand. I'm like, oh it's his hair and Older than he is. He's 27. He is more than a decade younger than I am and Boy, would you have a hard time convincing me of that if I didn't know what his birthday was, you know That's the funny thing about him. What other teams have we talked about that we should?

The Pirates sold? That's not surprising. Yeah, but not that much. Yeah. We didn't talk about Ronald Acuna's Achilles injury, which was, if this had not been a deadline pod, we probably would have talked about that. That's a bummer and extra bummer because like it was sore and hurting him and he didn't want to miss any more time. And so he probably pushed it too hard,

and now he ends up with an Achilles injury. Hopefully it's not a terrible one. But yeah, and Buxton back on the IL with ribs. At least it's not knee. But yeah, no, I think we covered almost all the major trade activity. I did, before we say farewell, I wanted to share with you Sir Anthony Dominguez's farewell to Orioles fans. He put a graphic up on Instagram, I guess,

that is almost indecipherable because it's like orange text over a partly orange background. And it's a real graphic design is my passion sort of goodbye message, but kind of nice because you figure he probably did this himself. It's just like a superimposed text that says, I just want to say thank you, Orioles, my family. And I will always be grateful

for having been given the opportunity to be one of you. But I could barely read the words because it's against white and orange background. I always enjoy that. And you also, yeah. Sorry, I just opened the link. Orange is a, that's a hard color, you know? It's a tricky color.

It's a tricky color to wear. And I'm learning a tricky color to read. Yeah, and also I believe you had an unhinged joke that you wanted to make that you didn't want me to forget because you posted that you had this. I don't know if this is good, okay? I don't know. I was riding the high of Eohenia as far as being back

in Seattle and the Mariners beat the Rangers, and they'd been tied for that third wild card, and Aohanio doubled, and Koho Young hit this freaking tank. This was all before Luis Corvello came down and shut him down for two minutes. Yeah, it was before that. But it ended on kind of a down note, because I think, speaking of Achilles injuries,

I think that Trent Thornton blew out his, but they haven't gotten the MRI back on that, but needed a cart to get off the field. Never a good sign. So, you know, that kind of soured the previously immaculate vibes. But before that happens, you know, Dominic Kanzone, we gotta talk about Dominic Kanzone for a second. I mean, only for a second to set up the stroke. So he's been, you know, he is speaking of Mariners guys who are the byproduct of a trade with the Diamondbacks. Like Dominic Canzone has been really good for Seattle in limited action this year. And like he's definitely over his skis. Although like, you know, he's running a super high babbitt, but like, you know, from a Wobbax Wobbop perspective, it's not all that bad. So it's like, okay, dominant

can zone. So dominant can zone is in the box and he is, you know, they're showing dominant can zone from various angles. Here's what I'll say, a big dumper gets all the attention, right? I think that we need to spend a little time in a different canzone because... You're working with quite a... Yeah. It's not the big dumper, but there's a little bit of a dumper back there. And I'm just trying to work up like, canzone. You know, I feel like there's something there.

I'm not saying it's a fully formed joke. It sounds like it would be the rooting section of fans out in the outfield or wherever would be in the can zone and they might have like, they'd hold up some butts or something. Yeah. Maybe they'd moon people. Yeah. And it's like, you know, I think that it's, it's, there's a tension, right? Because sometimes a woman will be told that she has great cans and it's her.

And it's not behind her. And so there might be some slang confusion there, right? And so maybe that's why it doesn't work. But I just was I was like, it's not even a joke so much as an observation that has been delivered sort of humorously. And I want it to work. And I wonder, like does Dominic Kanzone, I don't wanna know the answer to this actually, okay?

No one asked him, I would be mortified. But I do wonder, like, does Dominic Kanzone feel like Cal's keister is obscuring his, is concealing hisinder? Or is he relieved? Is he like, oh, I've been hearing about my great ass my whole life. You were worried I was going to be like all down the middle. And then I made a stimulant stroke and you were like, where's this going to go? And the place it's going to go is to me talking about Dominic Kanzo and Zayas. Yep. Kanzo, the Kanz part of it makes it tricky, you know, like that part, it's like, eh, that doesn't maybe work.

But I just think that it could, you know, and slang evolves over time. And maybe it can mean one thing broadly, but a different thing specifically. And the specific thing could be about Dominic Janswins, but. Yeah. Well, you can think about that. And you can think about Brock. All right you know I meant to say I don't know where the A's will be playing in 2028 but I'm pretty bullish on the Bats. Kurtz, Wilson, Butler, Rooker, Soderstrom, Clark, now DeVries. I think

that got us still going. Not Dave Stewart, he was a pitcher. Also his nickname was Smoke. A few final follow-ups here. Listener Zach, Patreon supporter, wrote in to remind us of a precedent for cows in the clubhouse. Meg was talking about this, what with the raw milk and the fillies. And of course, there was a situation with Meg's Mariners involving a cow in the clubhouse back in 1995. Ken Griffey Jr. lost a bet to Mariners manager Lou Pinella. It was about Griffey hitting homers in batting practice. Junior lost the bet and the steaks were a steak. And so instead of paying up with an actual steak dinner,

Griffey delivered a cow to Lou Pennella's office after finding some pretense to remove the manager. So yes, everything in baseball has happened before and may happen again. Listener Rick, Patreon supporter also wrote in about an email that we answered in our previous episode about whether some rich person or rich persons could frame a pitcher by betting on some pitch prop

and making it look like that pitcher was doing something illegal, put a bunch of money on someone throwing a ball. Rick writes, the reason the betting scheme likely wouldn't work is the bets would need to be correct to implicate the pitcher. If a bunch of bets were placed on a first pitch ball,

but the first pitch was a strike, it might raise some alarms, but it would be clear the pitcher wasn't involved in any wrongdoing. That's true. That is a complication. There might still be some suspicion. Maybe it would look like you agreed to throw a ball

and then thought better of it at the last second or something. Also, as I said to Rick, there's a pretty decent chance that you would just get that correct by chance. First pitches this season have been balls almost 40% of the time league wide. And with the right combination of batter and pitcher,

you could probably get your odds even higher. Maybe you could get it to the point where it's close to a coin flip. And then if you did it a few times, then you'd be right eventually. It's probably an overly elaborate scheme anyway. Also Raymond, Raymond Chen, effectively wild wiki keeper,

Patreon supporter wrote in about other precedents for mid double header trades because Serentheny Dominguez was traded between two teams that were playing each other in the middle of a double header. He pitched in the second game, not in the first game of course, but I mentioned that there was some precedent,

Cliff Heathcote and Max Flack outfielders who switched teams and jerseys, I believe, the Cardinals and Cubs back in 1922. Raymond's research paid dividends, he said, on mid-doubleheader trades, I found this. On Monday, June 8th, 1952, Cal Abrams, a spare outfielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers, was traded to the Cincinnati Reds

between games of a doubleheader. The funny part is that before the first game started, the Dodgers manager, Charlie Dressen, told Abrams that if he wanted to stay with the team, he had to heckle the opposing team and their manager from the dugout for the entirety of the doubleheader. After doing this for the entirety of the first game, Abrams was told between games

that he had been traded to the Reds and had to immediately report to the manager, Rogers Hornsby, he had been heckling throughout the first game. Hornsby, not the greatest guy to begin with. Also Raymond says Jose Cardinal went from the Phillies to the Mets in the middle of the July 2nd, 1979 double header, but spent the second game on the bench.

So he missed out on being a trivia question answer until now at least. You don't have to miss out on being a Patreon supporter of this podcast. If you go to patreon.com slash effectively wild, you can be one too. You can sign up to pledge some monthly or yearly amount to help keep the podcast going,

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