OverDrive - Rose on the MLB trade deadline perspective, Kwan's trade value and the bullpen market

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

Baseball Today and Dugout Discussions Podcast Host Chris Rose joined OverDrive to discuss the Blue Jays' trade deadline options, Steven Kwan becoming a suitor for Toronto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s skills with the bat, teams seeking a significant move, the NL landscape, the Dodgers' view as contenders and more.

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How are you doing, Chris? Good, how are you? We're doing very well. Where do you see this going over the next 24 hours? If you're looking into the crystal ball and you think the Blue Jays, very good team, playing really well, leading the American League East. What would you hope to see happen over the next 24 hours? Yeah, I think, uh,

here Anthony Dominguez was a really good start. Uh, I would keep going that direction, definitely. I think he'd just keep adding to that bullpen. I think that's the biggest area of need. Uh, I will say this, that even though the offense, I think that's the biggest area of need. I will say this, that even though the offense I think has been pretty good, there's no question, and I actually came out on my social media and talked about how the Guardians cannot trade Stephen Kwan without really alienating a fan base, and I truly believe

that, that he would be perfect for your team Perfect from a baseball standpoint. He is such a tough out. He is such a grinder He's got over an 800 OPS in the playoffs. So he's battle-tested unlike a lot of your guys at a high level That haven't made a deep run in the playoffs you know he is he is everything about that and then some so i think you think that he'd be a great fit for you guys

what kind of appetite do you think the blue jays front office would have for a fairly high or even if you want to call it an astronomical acquisition costs for a player that's truly going to help them like that? Well, the problem is I don't know. I don't think it makes sense from the Guardian standpoint. So I just, you know, unless I'm off base, it looks like six or seven of the top eight prospects that the Blue Jays have are pitchers and the Guardians need hitting in the worst way and it looks like your top prospect is a 19 year old shortstop which I don't know if that's that's gonna be a

tough sell to the city of Cleveland. But if you're Toronto why wouldn't you go for it? Like who gives a damn about the rest of this stuff. It's been 32 years since you've made a World Series The If you were to if you were to list the teams in order of best to 10th best right now, I Don't think that that distance Is a wide margin at all. So what I'm saying is is go for it we'll figure out 2026 when we get there.

And why not? Give your fan base something really to be excited about here. Well, that's another component that it can complicate things, that there's a real, real bonus in terms of like buzz, in terms of like tickets, in terms of merchandise. It was 10 years ago I believe today they acquired David Price and

You know 48 hours later or whatever it was they went out and got Troy to Lewicki and that was Bedlam I can't even tell you what it was like in Toronto. I'm sure you can understand Chris I mean it was just crazy and all of a sudden Price is here and Toulouse here and they go on this unbelievable heater and they go to back-to-back ALCS and That generates such an incredible amount of excitement where I could see the owner Which is always sticky and you never really want to get there if you're a GM You don't want the owner sniffing around but I'm sure he's sitting there saying listen, we're four and a half up on the Yankees sure he said they're saying listen we're four and a half up on the Yankees building sold out every night you you add two or three pieces of prominence like

a Kwan and whoever it's gonna be out of the bullpen man this this city will explode so a it makes you better be you're that much closer to winning but see your fans are gonna be so activated there's there's a lot of value on that from every single layer yep there's a lot there's a lot of value on that from every single layer there's a lot there's a lot going on here after the business component every decision you make you know the business becomes more fruitful the deeper run you make in the playoffs so it's really

about what makes your team the best there are you know a certain number of pieces like i said i, I like the Dominguez trade. He's a heavy strikeout guy. He can also be a little nerve wracking in terms of the plate moving on him, particularly in October.

So that can get, that can get a little tough, but overall I like that move a lot. And I just think it's, I think it's a good, good start. With Chris Rose. Yeah, I'm with you. And your assessment of the American League in particular has been very consistent with what we've been talking about with other people when we've had them on, the two of us have been discussing.

Like I guess the Tigers, Houston, the Jays, Yankees, maybe Seattle, maybe Boston, Texas, if they get hot. Like it just, it doesn't, there's no pace car right now. There's no one that I can sit here and say, I guarantee you that's the best team in October. So why wouldn't it be the Blue Jays? Why not put your chips in? Yeah.

Yeah, there's not a team that they're gonna be terrified of. I think Detroit can get a little tricky in a short series. If it, you know, if it goes five games because scubal is such a dog, you know, and he could just guy throws strikes and he challenges you. So if you get quick outs, he could still be in there in the eighth inning and that can terrify you a little bit. It did me last year as a Cleveland fan, right? I mean, we had to beat him in game five

and we ended up doing it. It's not, you don't wanna make a living out of that, but that's what I would say. It's just, I think it's worth it. People say, oh, we're giving up so much. Guys, there's, teams give up top prospects all the time and some of them turn into great, great players.

It does happen, but so many of them don't. Wouldn't you rather have a guy that has made it at this level, regardless of contract length? I know you have to measure it. Every deal is its own vacuum, so I understand that, but there's no reason for Toronto not to go for it. How do you assess Vladdy's season so far? I believe 15 home runs on the year. Not really knocking it out of the park, but it's been a really good ball player for them. In Toronto, do we maybe have too high of expectations for what he is as a power hitter or is he underachieving, I guess, with the power game but is bringing other things to the table

that helps the Blue Jays be a good team? Yeah. He's had a really good year. Now, would I have ever paid a guy $500 million? Probably not, but I always measure that this way. Does it prevent you from doing business elsewhere? And that's the only answer. So when Steve Cohen pays 765,

that's gonna end up being $800 million for Juan Soto, is that gonna prevent him from making other moves? I presume not. The question I always had with the Vlad deal was, if you're going to give him this amount of money, does that mean that you have to cut back elsewhere and people can say whatever they want they're like well they said that it's not well saying and doing a couple of years down the road are two totally different things so I don't

think he'll ever be like a consistent Shohei Otani, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, high 900s, he can have seasons like that and we've seen him have seasons like that. But right now he's like 865 OPS, really good. Strike out to walk ratio one to one, that's elite stuff. Particularly out of a guy that can park it. He's got almost 40 extra base hits so he's gonna have you know 55 extra base hits this year that's gonna be pretty solid that's all good stuff it just it might not ever be elite elite

on a consistent basis I think there's gonna be elite ears and I just think as long as you kind of go into the mindset knowing that then then that's good enough. Well and I think in terms of what you're saying about you know the Vlad E payments not having an effect on the payroll I think it comes down to wins and losses like that's when it will be challenged if they're a really good team keep spending because we're gonna keep making money the the issue is if they if they sink at any point the next bright in a fourteen years

they'll hold that against whoever is the gm where was the president here where i think that's probably different colin like colin will just spend his way out of that but there won't be dip i just keep spending and spending and spending uh... you know you don't care, he doesn't care. No. He doesn't, he just, there is no bottom to his vat of money. Well, and you look at what the Mets did today, they acquired Tyler Rodgers from the Giants,

who's been red hot this year, but they gave up a lot to get him. And that's the buzz around baseball. If you want to go get, you know, a guy who's high leverage that's really going to bolster your chances of winning, you got to go get you know a guy who's high leverage that's really gonna bolster your chances of winning you got to pay a lot I kind of have an appreciation for the Mets like that really falls that's clearly permeating from the top down go get Soto go get this guy go get that guy give up these guys like they're they're all in to win it and they're a better team today than they were yesterday regardless of how much they paid yeah and it's

it was so there's two ways to look at it one is is the map dvc on the way which is well we could afford to give up prospects because guess what we're going to go get proven major leaguers in the free agent market regardless and then it it would let's remember the one thing he said at the beginning of his mess

ownership we want to be the east coast version of the Los Angeles Dodgers And the reason the Dodgers have been so successful is a couple of things number one They are willing to spend whatever money they have to but really at the bedrock of their foundation Is the fact that they draft and develop? extremely well they have in trades they've given away a ton of players that have made it at the major league level and for some organizations that would

kill them because teams would look back and they say oh we could have had all this cheap labor and gotten great production look at what it's done to us but Dodgers just say you know what we're so good at drafting and developing we'll just do it again down on the farm. And they do, they always have one of the top five to seven farm systems so that when they need pieces like they do right now, they are able to go out and meet the asking price for whatever it is

on top of being able to add through free agencies. Now that we're talking out west, we're talking Dodgers, is it the most Padres thing ever, that they're actually having a pretty good season, they got 59 wins, but they're still four games back of the Dodgers who, by all accounts, they were kinda spinning their wheels a little bit, they were three and seven over 10 games,

then one some in a row, but they're like, yeah, we're not playing great baseball. But they're just still ahead of the Padres, who are just under 60 wins. Yeah, I mean, the Dodgers were having a good year. We expected them, and we talked about it at the beginning of the year,

can they get past 116 wins? And I really don't think that they cared about it. I just think they want to get the healthiest 26 guys they can to October. So I really don't think they care if they win the division by three games or 17 games. They just don't care. But the Padres, it's not like that. I mean, the Padres have been a good baseball team. You could make an argument that they were the second best

team in baseball a year ago. That they just ran into the Dodgers in the divisional round in a five game series, right? They led that thing two games to one, and the Dodgers were staring at a bullpen game. And when you talk to the Dodgers after the World Series, they said they were most scared of the San Diego Padres. So the Padres are, like, they're in good shape.

If they get to the playoffs, which I think they will, no team's gonna wanna play them, because I think that Preller's gonna do something nuts over the next 24 hours, and what I mean nuts, like fun for his team and fun for us to watch. Could he trade Dillon Sees? Yes, but could he trade dylan sees yet but could he end up bringing in a sandy alcantara on the other side of it he

could with chris rosewell in terms of the dodgers you got a tiny back in the mountain i think this will be a seventh and he's used creeper reaction made his first start against the podres about a month ago uh... you know his numbers are great he's he's now going about three innings maybe tonight I don't

know does he go four innings how many pitches is he gonna is he gonna get off over 50 tonight 55 60 where do you stand on that projection? Otani as a starter now that we're almost into August. Well again, it's unlike anything we've ever seen because the rest of these guys who are trying to come back from arm surgery and we can focus on a guy that's near and dear to my heart and Shane Bieber, who's made a handful of rehab starts now, he's doing it out of sight, out of mind in the minor leagues.

Shohei Otani, they can't afford to do that because he's got to hit five times a game on top of it. It's just incredible when you really think about what he is doing. He is rehabbing at the major league level. Who does that? It's, it's crazy. So they just want to be able to build them up so that if he can give them six innings in a playoff start in the divisional round, great. You know, I don't know if you guys saw the news,

but Blake Snell's gonna make his first start this weekend since early April. These are all big things. Tyler Glass now has been back for a couple starts and pitched okay last night, but pitched exceptionally well in his previous start against the Tw twins where he struck out 12. The Dodgers they like it when they're playing well at the end of July but if you ask if you ask them if they were hooked up to the lie detector they would tell you we need to

be moving in the right direction from September 20th on. And I have full faith they will do that. And I think most people do. Yeah, yeah, right. So that's the truth. That's that's the way they operate. He is Chris Rose. Great catching up with you, Chris.

We appreciate you doing this. My pleasure, guys. Take care. Good luck at the trade deadline and keep your hands off Stephen Kwan. Yes, we will do our best to do all of that. Thank you. There he is. I'm from the Gloria Sons. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado. Made in Canada, the station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required, just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca

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