Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Juan Soto and Josh Bell Traded to the Padres! - Emergency Podcast (8/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

Juan Soto and Josh Bell are headed to the Padres (1:20)! What does this mean for their value? ... What do we need to know about the prospects the Nationals received (4:35)? ... Should Fantasy managers add CJ Abrams (9:00)? ... In an unrelated deal, Jorge Lopez was traded to the Twins (11:55). Will Felix Bautista close for the Orioles? Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. And just like that, one of the biggest trades in MLB history is going down, as both Juan Soto and Josh Bell are headed to the San Diego Padres. Welcome in to another emergency edition of fantasy baseball today on Tuesday, August 2nd. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. I was skeptical that a Soto deal would actually happen, but cue Michael Scott because it's happening. The mega deal sends. Soto and Bell to the Padres in exchange for a prospect hall that includes

Mackenzie Gore, C.J. Abrams, outfielders, Robert Hassel, and James Wood, as well as pitching prospect, Harleen, Susanna. And it sounds like Eric Hosmer could be part of the deal, might not be part of the deal. That doesn't really matter. He's not going to Washington. All right. He has decided that. I don't think he's going to be in San Diego, but we'll see what happens.

A lineup that now includes Manny Machado, Fernando Tateez, Juan Soto, and Josh Bell is just absolutely insane. Soto having a bit of a down year, but as we expected since the start of July, he's been amazing 324 batting average, 515 OBP, 7 homers, an OPS approaching 1,200. Scott, we'll start with you,

Juan Soto, Josh Bell, I assume stock up. Yeah, I mean, being in a better lineup is a good thing. San Diego's not the best place to hit. Washington isn't either. San Diego's a little worse. I don't think in Juan Soto's case, though, you know, obviously a generational talent like that, those talents are going to translate anywhere. So I'm not, I'm not sweating that. I'm just taking in the enormity of this deal because it is like, on the one hand, yes, you have generational talent being traded at age 23, five years into his career, granted.

But still, like, so much of his career. career still ahead of him and he's being traded. So that is, there's little precedent for that to begin with. And then what they got in return, I mean, I was skeptical too because with two and a half years left, you know, they knew they weren't going to be able to keep Soto. They gave it their best shot. 15 year, $440 million offer, I think. An unprecedented offer for a player at this stage of his several, a couple years,

before he enters free agency, an unprecedented deal that big. And he turned it down, which is his right. They knew they weren't going to compete in the next two and a half years, so they wanted to make sure they got something for him. But because they had all these windows left to trade him, okay, this trade deadline, the off season, next trade deadline, next off season, you knew it was going to take. You knew they were going to need to find a club who was willing to empty the vault.

And the Padres did that. This is, this is, this might be the, biggest prospect package ever traded for a player, which is justifiable given the player that they traded it for. Yeah. And, you know, I'm not saying it's necessarily worth Juan Soto because what is, but if you've already decided you're not going to be able to keep Soto, like I feel like the Nationals did the best they could possibly do.

I can't imagine any other club giving them more than this. It's, it's, there are, there are plenty of all-star campaigns to be had among this group of, uh, of four prospects that they acquired. Yeah, I was on CBS Sports HQ earlier today. It's apologies for those watching. You have to see my hair. It's, it's, it's a huge issue. I don't like showing. He's not allowed to wear fitted hats on HQ. I wish I was. I don't, I don't like showing my hair. It's just, it's weird. It's, have you tried it? You're not going to have it forever, Frank. Yeah, that's true. But it's fine. You know, look, once it starts to go, I'm, I'm going the Chris route. It's I have no problems with that whatsoever. I said, like, you're never going to get a package worth Juan Soto, but this is about as close to it as you can possibly get. We'll get into the prospects in just a little bit.

Chris, I'll give you an opportunity to talk about just the magnitude of this trade. I mean, one of the biggest in baseball history and, you know, what it might do for those surrounding Wonsoto now. I mean, stock up for Manny Machado, stock up for Jake Cronoward. Stock up for Josh Bell, who's already having an amazing year. He's the top eight first baseman in both head to head points and Roto. So your thoughts on the deal. Yeah, I mean, the comp, I guess, in terms of like a player at a comparable part of his career who is going to be in the Hall of Fame someday would be Miguel Cabrera when the Marlins traded him after the, I think it was the 2008 season.

And they got two top 10 prospects in all baseball and Andrew Miller and Cameron Maven and then kind of a bunch of organizational filler, like 15 to 30 type of guys in the Tigers organization at the time. well, I guess if you look at McKenzie the Andrew Miller comp, which I worry might be a more accurate comp than Nationals fans might want, but we'll cross that bridge eventually. James Wood, I guess, would be the Cameron-Mabin comp in terms of where he's being looked at amongst prospect people. Maybe C.J. Abrams would be that comp, but then you have. Yeah, probably. Probably. Hassell and Wood, who both might be, you know, top 50, certainly top 100 prospects this year in baseball. Like the nationals did about as well as you could possibly have hoped for in giving up someone called it 1942 Ted Williams on Twitter. Like, you know, somebody somebody I follow on Twitter asked for like an NFL comp.

And I said it was like Justin Herbert getting traded if Justin Herbert was 1984. Dan Marino. Like that, that's the kind of air that Juan Soto is. Like, he's, you know, one of the three or four best young hitters in the history of baseball.

So like, like Frank said, you can't, you can't get equal value for that kind of player, but the Nationals did about as well as you could possibly have hoped for. And if two of Abrams hassle would and Gore make multiple all stars, that's probably the best case scenario. you know just in the in terms of how prospects tend to work out but they got four of the five best

young prospects does gore technically is he technically a prospect anymore i'd probably exhausted at this point but you know for the for the first two months mackenzie gore was looking like uh yeah the rookie of the year frontrunner certainly has that kind of upside even though i have a lot of concerns about how the you know the mechanics are going to hold up and the elbow health obviously but you know no He's not an incredibly talented young player. No structural damage in that elbow for what it's worth. For now.

I mean, he's a 20-year-old pitcher. Sure. And as recently as 2020, he was considered the best pitching prospect of baseball, former third overall pick, had the troubles with the mechanics last year and then seemed to write it in spring training. Maybe they cropped up again, and that's why he struggled prior to this elbow injury. Maybe the elbow was already bothering him. But the point is we know that,

that ace profile is still in there for Gore. And so to get him along with C.J. Abrams, who consensis top 10 prospect coming into the year, Robert Hassel, consensus top 25 prospect right now as a 20-year-old in A-ball, a guy who great hit tool could be a power speed profile, the power's still developing. Maybe that doesn't fully manifest,

but it's just like a very safe, projectable center fielder at at age 20. And then James Wood who is like, who's probably my favorite prospect who wasn't a clear top 100 guy

coming into the year. I think he is a clear top 100 guy now. He might be top 50. Six foot seven behemoth who leverages who's able to leverage that size for power like all those other six foot seven guys have. But unlike an O'Neill Cruz, an L.E. De La Cruz.

Even Aaron Judge, when he first broke in, James Wood makes a lot of context, 17.8K percentage at low-way. His numbers at A-ball this year are bonkers. 337 with a 10-54 OPS. And even the fourth guy, Harlan, Susanna, very interesting. 18, he's in rookie ball,

so there's a lot of development ahead, but he's dominating down there. He's 6'4.6. he's already high 90s. It's easy to see him being a triple-digit guy once he fills out a little more. So, you know, that could go a lot of different ways, but you see the upside there.

Chris, are you looking to add CJ Abrams right now, reassuming that he just goes over to the Nationals and he has an everyday role with the team moving forward? You know, he was in and out of the lineup with the Padres and hasn't looked great so far this year. 232 batting average, two homers, one steel. He is very fast, 92nd percentile, in sprint speed, but 21 years old.

It looks like he does have some development ahead here. He's 33% rostered. What do you think about adding Abrams now? Yeah, I would expect he gets called up just because the nationals are so bereft of talent. But it's worth pointing out he's only played 72 games between double A and AAA. So he's been very aggressively promoted. And it's always weird when a player gets promoted aggressively like that and then doesn't get to play every day like the Padres have done with Abrams.

because, you know, how much development are you getting if you're not getting everyday plate appearances? He hasn't really gotten everyday played appearances in three years at this point, which is, you know, tough for any player's development. So when you put it in that context, the fact that he hasn't been, you know, the worst hitter in baseball as a 21-year-old, I guess is even more impressive. But, yeah, I think I would assume the nationals are going to call him up. And he is someone who I think you should be adding at this point just because there's a, a lot of talent there. You know, a decent amount of speed, you know, potentially good hitting. The Nationals have not had the best track record lately of getting the most out of their young position players.

But Abrams is talented enough that I hope he gets the opportunity. All right. The weirdest thing about Abrams is that he has just one stolen base because that's supposed to be his best tool. Like he earned 80 grades for that in the minors. 92 percentile sprint speed in the majors. So I don't know why he hasn't been doing more of that. But like if if that manifests fully, if the nationals allow him to be more aggressive on the bases,

then, you know, it almost doesn't matter how quickly the back comes around. Like he would at least be valuable in that Jorge Mateo sort of way, you know. Yeah, 38 steals and 106 career games in the minors. 33% rostered is CJ Abrams. So any categories league where you need speed, I think going out and adding C.J. Abrams is a smart move. Again, both Juan Soto and Josh Bell are headed to the San Diego Padres. It's going to be awesome. I mean, hopefully within the next couple of weeks, Fernando Tatis is back.

And to see all those players in the same lineup is just going to be really, really fun to watch for baseball. Maybe not so fun for Dodgers fans. I'm sorry, but like, whatever. Your team is also. They've got Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and all the rest of those guys. It would be okay. Doesn't matter. I'm grateful to the Padres.

for preventing the Dodgers from getting one Soto because that, you know, they might have had to cancel baseball at that point. The Dodgers got one Soto. That's no joke. Kind of lost in the mix here. Obviously Soto is the huge news of the day. But Jorge Lopez, the closer for the Orioles, was traded to the Minnesota Twins. And Chris will start with you with this one.

Do you assume that Lopez closes for the twins now, you know, Yawand Duran. He's kind of been using that just fireman, high leverage situation role with them. and do you assume now that Felix Bautista is the closer for the Orioles? And how excited would you be to add someone like him if he needs saves? Yeah, I definitely wouldn't add and added Bautista in the one league that I've got that has open ad and drops. I already have Jorge Lopez in that one. So it's kind of a, you know, making sure that I'm going to get some saves out of it. Because there's a chance that Lopez isn't the closer.

But I think given the way the twins have acted this season, they have seemingly preferred to not just put Yohan Duran in the closer role and just use him as a traditional closer. So I don't think he's going to get zero saves, but I do think Jorge Lopez is good enough, presumably. I mean, you know, Emilio Pagan has been good enough for most of his career and he's been a disaster this season. So you never know with these things. But Jorge Lopez seems like he should be able to solidify the ninth inning role. And that should, I think, give them the look that. that they want, which means that Yon Duran's going to get the occasional save.

I think he's still going to be available for those two-inning saves, especially, you know, the situations where the best part of the lineup is coming up. But Lopez should get the majority of the saves for the Twins is how I'm approaching it. Felix Batista is 23% rostered. He's been really, really good this year for the Baltimore Orioles. Scott, what do you think about comparing him to players like Kyle Finnegan or even Sir Anthony Dominguez, who are still widely available in leagues? I think Dominguez is my favorite choice of them, but Bautista would probably be right after him.

I just think the talent gap between him and Kyle Finnegan is big enough that I'm willing to give up a little in the way of assurance. I mean, we should know pretty quickly whether Felix Bautista is going to be treated as is going to be handed, save opportunities as regularly as Jorge Lopez was. And, you know, now's the time to act. Yeah, I feel like whenever Lopez has either been out, missed time, or unavailable, Batista has really has been the next man up. So it's been very good. If you need saves, he's widely available.

23% rostered is Felix Batista. All right, that's it. We're going to wrap up for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching this emergency edition of Fantasy Baseball today. Have a feeling it will not be our last of the day. but we will be back later on tonight. Bye-bye.