Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 240 | Steve Cohen, Blake Treinen, & Qualifying Offers

Episode Date: November 3, 2020

Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe are breaking down Steve Cohen buying the Mets and joining twitter (9:30), Blake Treinen's defense of Justin Turner (18:10) and how the qualifying offers will effect Trevor Bauer, Marcus Stroman, DJ LeMahieu, Kevin Gausman, George Springer, and JT Realmuto! (26:15) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today is November 3rd. We're back in the studio. We're back to Talking Baseball. We got free agents, new owners, and drama. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Thank you very much for hanging out with us today. We got, it's the off season, guys. The season isn't on anymore. My name's Jimmy. I'm coming to you. I've got to change my whole intro. Change it, baby. It's all messed up. name's Jimmy Singh. Next to me is Jake in California. We got Tidey Plouf and behind the dish producer, Bug Bug, Dude. This episode of Talking Baseball is brought to you by our most recent patrons. We got Daniel Clark, early settler name. Brian Biggs. I was going to say Briggs, because I think that's

a little more fun, but Biggs is still fun. Brian Briggs. Lance Briggs, great linebacker for a while. Todd Burfiend. Matthew Watson. Christ. Dumont Kyle Vodano Savannah Saviana Engel Ben Johnson Keelan

Aguar Yeah How would you say this name? Oh you had it Keelan Aguilar My brain wanted to say Kelly Lynn first BF

and Zev Adikoff Michael Marcus Visto Thank you very much We appreciate it And all the patrons that are watching live with us right now. Jake, how are you doing? Tell us after Trev tells us how he's doing.

Wow, it's a new year. I'm first up, Jake. I'm doing great. The sun is shining. It's a beautiful day out. And I want to mention, I watched The Boys. Okay.

Which is a TV show about superheroes. I'm not a superhero guy, but this is like the anti-superhero thing, whatever. It's the craziest show I've ever seen in my life. I don't know if the chat's been on it. You guys been on it. Sounds like you've never watched a crazier show. Yeah.

Have you watched any of this? No, I haven't. I haven't. Literally this goryest, craziest thing I've ever seen in my life, but very captivating. So I finished watching that last night. I'm still kind of like wrapping my head around all of it. But to answer your question,

Jim. Doing great. Can't wait to talk about the free agents. I got some takes. It's a big take. Okay. You never watch the TV series Hung?

Mm-mm. It's on HBO. I'd say it's as electric as the boys without seeing the boys yet, but. People's heads in this show literally just explode. And they're like, like, explode. Like, their heads just explode.

And like, the main character is like a Superman, but he's like an evil Superman and he just like lasers people right in half. It's like... Heavy. Holy crap. Late night, Treve or regular Trev?

Or both? It's late night for me because I'm the only one that watches it. Do you have a crush on any of the female characters? No. No. The character development's really good, Jim. I know you're like into that more.

The writing, I think the writing is good. I think the chat kind of agrees with me. Well, Treve, I, A perfect segue. You're watching the boys. I'm just happy to be back with the boys. I haven't seen you in too long. And I mentioned this to Jimmer the other day.

I'm like really excited for the offseason. I kind of had a couple day lull and was, you know, feeling it out. You know, okay, yeah, oh, I work nine to five and I'll ride the Peloton every morning. Now I'm like, let's go offseason. Let's get nuts. Who's getting traded? And you want to know what really sparked me? I tweeted out the other day

I was like, you know, I'm ready for it. Who's got your free agent takes? Like give me, you know, this guy's buddy is on the team or this owner didn't lose as much money because he's invested in Netflix or whatever. Like give me your free agent takes. And someone chimed in because everyone's like, oh, I want power on my team.

We're getting real mooto. And then someone from the top rope goes, you know, I really like Josh Reddick's fit on the white socks. And I was like, yes, give me the, The 75th best free agent and where he's going. That's what I'm here for. So I'm tuned in right now. Wow.

Yeah. It's exciting stuff. Huge. Marcus Vista, new Patreon. I mean, he's all over that. It's huge. He's excited. I think Josh Reddick would work on the White Sox because their manager's 90 years old.

So he believes that smoking is still good for your health. And Josh Reddick loves to smoke heaters. Yeah. So it kind of works perfectly. Reddick was an early player. follower followed me. Yeah. Then all the Astro stuff happened.

So I wonder how it feels. Yeah. Does he still folly or are you gone? I think he does. We'll get him on. He does. You know what? He's not,

I think he's pretty like, he understands like it's pretty bad. Yeah, no, he was playing into it. He was like, you know, they asked about the Dodgers fans

at the bus and he was like, I thought there'd be more. It's good. That would be now, Trebs got me thinking it'd be hilarious as Tony Liverus and the White Sox just sign a bunch of like, the oldest.

free agent like 38 and up just well then did you send us something that Hinch was going to have cora as his bench coach I didn't I didn't that would be that would flip the world upside down if that happened yeah oh I heard they didn't like each other at the end in Houston but I thought that's what you sent us but maybe not maybe not sounds like not clean and not if they just dug into that oh and someone else was like Hinch is going to bring all the Astros all the free agent Astros to the white socks like Springer and Reddick and all those guys. It'd be so funny if Lou Rousse had just won. The Tigers, do you mean? Tigers. If Lou Rousse had just went old crew and he, like, got all like,

like, who are some old school players like Eaton, somehow like traded back for Eaton? I think Eaton's a free agent. Bring him back. Everyone loved him in that clubhouse in 2015. John Lester. Slash-S. That was my sarcastic note. Being sarcastic. Sarcastic note. Anyway, so we have a lot to talk about. We'll do some ground. Brownskeeping, Cohen on Twitter,

trying and backing his boy JT. We just told you all about the Astros and White Sox plan. And then we have a big topic today, free agents, who got qualifying offers, what we think is going to happen. And we're just going to talk about some of the top free agents. That's the thing.

We find it very hard to have structure on these offseason shows for anyone that was with us last off season. So we're going to try and actually have segments, I guess. Do our best. They're an ad at some point in here? Okay. Do we have a new one? I don't do well with structure.

I need chaos. Offseason BBD, how are you? I'm ready for the offseason stuff. Okay, huge. Trev, how was like having a weekend free? It's great. Do you know what to do with yourself? I was kind of like, what?

I agree. I was looking forward to today to get back here. I left my studio alone. It's just been sitting here. It's probably a little mad at me than I haven't been frequenting it. But definitely strange. We worked really,

really hard there in a lot of days in the playoffs. And it was fun though. Like good stuff, right? Like that's what we want to be doing. Yeah. I didn't know what to do with myself. But you know what? You know what?

The weekend was one thing, Jake. How did you feel getting home? This is a little bit of fodder. Anyone that's coming in, sorry, we'll get to baseball. We'll go. How did you feel, and same with BPD? How did you feel getting home at like 530 yesterday with nothing on the docket till sleep?

because I was so weirded out. I was like, oh, shit, Katie, we got to think of something to do here. Disaster. I haven't had this since July. I cooked dinner. We watched a TV show for a little bit. Oh, dude. We watched two episodes of Ted Lassow almost bedtime.

Right when the Monday night football game kicked off. Pretty good, that show? He's ours. Yeah. It's the best show, Trev. Go check it out. That's good. It's really good.

You like that. Very much seems like your kind of show, like humor and everything. You'd like it too. All the jokes. It's good and funny. So I think, is that not your style? Good and funny? Yeah.

You guys love that show with the show. I'll be honest with you. The boys is not my type of show whatsoever. Yeah, you didn't really sell me on that. You got people's heads exploding randomly. Not my bag. But maybe I'll check it out. All right.

The first thing I wanted to talk about here And maybe I'll play a little Noise just so everyone knows like we're Oh boy We're done when he gets into the sound We're done with the fodder Yeah And now we're going to a little segment

Huge Cohen officially is the new Mets owner He took to Twitter Asked the Mets fans What they wanted to see Mets fans responded and then he responded back to them I don't know if you got into the weeds With any of these Trev

I actually like screenshoted a bunch And I was trying to format a tweet to be like I know this may not end up Like I just wanted to say like this is very cool Doesn't mean much but it's very cool for Mets fans But every time I tried to tweet it There was a tinge of like also like But it doesn't mean anything

And then I felt rude about it But it was cool I think so many fan bases out there Would kill To one flip ownership And two the first thing the owner does is actually tweet and respond with them about new ideas. And if he follows through with any of these things that they suggested, that's so cool. Someone was like, we should bring back Old Timers Day for Metz Grates.

And he responded, that's the must. So now if, like, they announced that old timers day is happening, that's really cool. That's that type of engagement every fan kind of wants, right? He's right in the book on, like, how to enter new ownership 101. A, be really rich. Be a lot richer than every other owner. I tell people to do that. And then B, yeah, I mean, you throw it to Twitter and it's harmless

because I think it's exciting and fun for now. But it's also, it's so funny that these little things that would speak to fans. Like if they do an old timers day, that's cool. Yankee fans will probably get obnoxious about that. Like, oh, they're taking our thing. Who cares? Have an old timers day all for it. And then, yeah, there was other little ones.

they were like mark off the spots in the parking lot where the old stadium was where like the Gary Carter thing happened or stuff like that. And he's like, yeah, it seems like a layup. You're telling me I just got to paint a parking spot. So yeah, man, I mean, good for him. Mets fans are excited. And good. Be excited, man.

And I hope we're talking about them a good amount through this episode and through the offseason. Because, man, you talk about a good way to change the franchise. How about being the richest owner coming in when every other owner lost a bunch of money? Yeah. It's a perfect storm. Yeah, it's the best time. Dude, I have a few takes on it. Like I said, I tweeted this out.

I think this year, if you want to be opportunistic in the free agent market, you really could. And maybe Cohn, I don't know what's happening there. Maybe Cohn is going to be that way. He's going to be opportunistic and bring some guys in. Maybe he's not. I think is my first point is it's really easy to get on Twitter and like kind of show you're a real person and fans eat it up but I'm not trying to like that's not forget that's what every

all my tweets kind of had a sense of that Trev and and I can see how someone would be like you're trying to you're downplaying it like because no other owner really does this besides Cuban maybe so yeah that's like people love Cuban yeah and we had Adonacio on our show people love that and it's like show that you're human that's pretty easy to do the problem is you still got to put a winning team out there That's where it's going to lie. Once the season starts, people are going to forget about,

oh, he joined Twitter and was like that, whatever, whatever. He's got to follow through with, like, putting together a good team. I think,

and I think if he goes out and is opportunistic and what surely is going to be a depressed free agent market, that is one way to, to stamp and be officially like a cool owner. Like, go out and freaking do it. Like you said,

when nobody else is going to be doing it, go get some good players. So, and this will jump, into free agency a little bit, but it's on the Cohen discussion. Bug Bug Bug dude drove me home yesterday, and we had a conversation about this, and we landed or I landed, he could have just been appeasing me, that at this point, if Cohen doesn't, if the Mets do not go and sign one of Bauer, Real Muto, Springer, it's kind of like, it's got to do it,

one of, you know, if he doesn't bring any of. I think Bauer is a great one for them. There was a fourth one we set. Strowman, Bauer, Springer, Real Muto, so four. DJ? You're taking him from the Yankees? One of the top five. If he doesn't bring in one of the top five,

I think then it starts to sour, not sour, but it's like, wait, hold up. Like you didn't, because you're coming out strong. But it's very easy for him to sign one of those top five. And then the momentum builds even more fun. You have to flex the money somehow, whether it's a top five free agent or maybe it's taking on a contract from somebody of a big name player or something like that. You have to do something.

Let's go indoor. Yeah. Yeah. And hey, the biggest flex and all of that? How about his wife, Alex Cohen, with the Mrs. Met as her backdrop. Well, okay. I love that. And this is where he's playing a really dangerous game.

His Twitter bio is husband of Alex Mom 5. Yeah. And I mean, dude, people like you right now, Cohen? So that's probably going swimmingly. Sure. I mean, make one wrong move and you just gave a direct line for assholes to be assholes to your wife. Assholes are going to be assholes. Yeah.

Offering a direct line, though. It's a little scary. I mean, 100% they went and said, okay, we're going to get the Mets. They hired a firm. How can I be likable? And this is one of the ways it was suggested. Engage with your fans on social media. It seems like a no-brainer.

But nobody else is doing this besides Mark Cuban, really. Yeah, I mean, maybe the owner of the Kings kind of does it, the Sacramento Kings. I forget what his name is. He's kind of trying to be cool and relevant and all that stuff. But this, he's got to have a team helping him out with this stuff. So I'm sure there's a bunch of muted words and there's blocked accounts and all that good stuff. If he doesn't, if he's not doing that, he should. Oh, yeah, mute everything.

I had something else. I don't know. I'd love to see those, those things that you just talked about, Treve, like, finding out how the public will, like the Clintons, they did a vacation at one point. Oh, politics. And they did a whole, a whole poll of like, what does the American family like more? Cabins, summer vacations, or skiing, winter vacations. And that's how the Clintons decided their vacation.

That's easy. Obviously summer vacation. I believe skiing one. It was more like, you know, in the elements, wholesome. You're not just sitting on a beach relaxing. and the American public wants to see you, like, active. And that was like the results. I read the whole thing.

I was so fastening. I was like, oh, my God. Why don't you just be humans and do whatever you want? I would have, if I knew that, I would have taken some vids when I got Montezuma's revenge when I was in Mexico. Ooh. Yeah. And that would have made me more relatable to the people. They told.

Skinning is the least relatable thing. Yeah. The people will love you. Keep the camera running. Nobody, who's skis? You live in California. You live in California, Treve. I don't know.

But isn't skiing like an elite-ist type behavior nowadays? No, I think if you go to like the super rich mountains, but if you just want to go to like Stowe or, you know, some local ones in New Jersey. Still skiers, though, huh? Yeah, I mean, I got a lot of relatives that like, I think we're going with him this year. Wait, Jake's a skier. I skate. Like an active skier.

Like, not like once a season. I ski. I got to be honest. I mean, I've taught to, yeah, this is California. I don't know what the hell that means, Jim, but. I lot of snow We have mountains. I don't know if you know that we have snow in California.

Where in L.A? How far away is the skiing? Big Bear is like an hour and a half outside of L. I literally can see snow-top mountains from Calabasas. But you could drive an hour and go ski? I was hidden. Yes, that's what everyone always says. You can go surfing in the morning and skiing in the afternoon.

Oh, yeah. That's the biggest thing California people say. I apologize. I didn't know that L.A. was that close. I know that Northern California is Tahoe. But also that saying, is the worst thing about... Mammoth.

It's the worst thing about moving to California. Everyone you meet... It's true, though. Everyone you meet says it. Like, it's basically like, oh, you like the weather? Wait a week. Oh, that's...

You move to California. What's not to love? You can surf in the morning and ski at night. It's like everyone says it to you. No, anyone where you go. When I moved there. They'll take snowboard, though,

because that's what everyone does now. Snowboard. That's more relatable. And that brings us right to the qualifying. Offers, Trevor. No, actually, we want to talk about Trinan. Trinan. And we need the official.

Got it. Trinin went on radio and defended J.T. Justin Turner. Pretty publicly, I wish I could bring up the soundbite. I think I could. And then I don't know what show it was on. We should find that. But he did this, and Bauer did as well. And, you know, opened up for everyone.

Neither of these two said, you know, the players aren't to blame at all. and the situation wasn't not Justin Turner and the Dodgers fault. But it's a mixed bag. And MLB saying, we don't know how this happened. We're going to investigate. It's like, what are you talking about? You know how it happened.

You let him back on the field. He said, I want to go back on the field. You guys didn't stop him from going back on the field. That's a two-party wrong. And so like I think Trinan was just pissed like, dude. Are you going to play the clip? I'm trying to find it. I don't know how to spell is dang.

name. That to me was the biggest takeaway is like, and I thought made the most sense, was Justin's getting painted as like a guy who was like a man possessed and nobody was going to stop him from being out on the field and he went through barricades and

that's not what happened. Here it is. It's on Mad Dog Radio. And here's. Still very stupid that he was back out. I want to make sure that was a lot of the truth involved in that. And it's really unfair what's happened to him. Without going into detail, I feel like the MLB needs to be supporting him more than they are, you know, smearing him the way they did. That guy's given 10 years to the league.

He's been phenomenal ambassador for the game. You know, that guy, he asked if he could come on the field and people escorted him out there. It's not like he ran out there like they're saying it. My thing is this, why does it have to be blame him, blame them? Like, it's not a player versus the league. It shouldn't be league versus players. It should be, hey, look, we did our best interest to keep you guys safe. It failed.

We don't know why. Instead of us pointing fingers, we support you guys. We're going to do what it takes to get you healthy. We're going to make sure your family has what it needs to get healthy. And everybody else who's been exposed, we apologize, we don't know how this happened. Let's fix it. But instead, there's like this casting the blame. There's this smearing like Justin's a terrible person.

Justin's one of the greatest teammates I've ever had. And so for people to go out there and start tweeting these reports about, like, instantly, about, like, how irresponsible it is, those are the same people who were doing things irresponsible within our own bubble. So, like, that to me, like, I'm behind JT all the way. Our players are, like, there's a lot of stuff that happened, and I get it. Living in a bubble so long, like, it sucks. But the players, we were literally hotel, eat, field, hotel.

Wake up, eat, field, hotel. Like, there was no room for anything. So blame it on a player, that's not us. It might be somewhere else where somebody came in and, you know, maybe wasn't tested thoroughly. I have no idea. But I'm kind of tired of this, like, narrative against Justin and the league and the players, like, that's got to be resolved. And there needs to be some type of common ground where they're supporting each other on this because no one created the coronavirus. No one wants this thing to, you know, hurt everybody.

Like, you know, nothing you can do about it. It's a virus. It's going to do its thing. So, like, instead of just casting the blame and, like, berating somebody, like, let's just fix this and be unified in it and move forward. We all have JT. Yeah. I mean, trying to mix it. good points. Yeah. It's, I mean, it sucks, man. You know, the whole thing for me goes back to human

nature. Like, it's, it's very easy from the outside to say, like, you know, JT, you can't go out there. But how many of us were 10-year MLB vets that have been part of this team for five years now that's had World Series dreams and then they finally get there, you know, to get pulled in the eighth inning and then you win it. And both sides are to blame. I mean, MLB, if you want to be this mad at it, you know, you had the people to help stop this. And, you know, we were at the game flex. And, you know, the whole thing was bizarre as they've got the, you know, players were smuggling their family members onto the field. And then they finally let their family members on.

And then you're wondering, you know, about the Turner thing. And, you know, we had A.J. Pollock on. Go check out that interview. And, you know, I think he was talking, his child is kind of high risk. So he was talking about playing it safe or anything and everything. We didn't talk about the Turner stuff really with him. But, I mean, you just, you get it. And whichever side of the argument you're going to be on, you know,

there's a wrong aspect to it. And it's human nature. Why do you have to be on a side of it? Yeah. That's just America. Yeah, that's where everybody lands. So, I don't know, sucks, especially because we like JT a lot. And he actually does a lot of good stuff for growing the game.

And he's, you know, he's got some podcasts. action going. So I don't know. It stinks and I don't know. I can't disagree with anything trying and said. You like that he called out the reporters? What's that? Do you like that he called out the reporters? He was like, hey, you're tweeting about how a much of a disgrace this is. Someone else said this to, um, was it Pollock on our show? Hot tape. Someone else was like, yeah, you know, other people were playing golf and, uh, they're supposed to be in the bubble. Who, who's that? I'm going to be. Bow, It might have been someone.

Like the reporters were going to Starbucks and that, I don't know. Yeah. But I think that's what he's saying there. The main point is the bubble wasn't a bubble. I think that's the main. I think Treve, when you, we, we, I mean, like, it wasn't a bubble. I mean, we got invited into the bubble. Not by a player.

It's, that's the thing. So like, should Turner ever went back on the field, absolutely not. Should MLB have done something to? to stop him. Yes. They didn't. He didn't break through anybody's, you know, like he wasn't held down and broke through. Like he just asked and they, he went out. That's according to Trinan. So I think probably has a pretty good grasp on the situation. So there's just like, I think I agree. Like there's just everyone's kind of at fault. It should not have happened. You do understand the human element part of it. But I just think like, it's an unfortunate situation. Shouldn't

happen. You hope Turner is doing good. By all accounts, I think he's doing okay. But, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I,

and I, it stays that way. Uh, but if we're going to do bubbles again, if this is, I don't know what's happening, but if we're going to do bubbles again, we should probably do the bubble,

like a real bubble. The bubble. It's frustrating. It was Joe Kelly. Thanks to the patron chat. He was the one that said, that stuff. Cool.

All right. Yeah. The fans, the fans in the stands, that's not a bubble. although like whatever but the main thing is the sharing of the hotel from what I heard about the hotels

is there were still regular families staying at the hotel coming and going and kind of being in close proximity so that's like the definition of not a bubble dude yeah they're like sharing a lobby and stuff bubbles can't have like openings or else they

I've learned that in school USC go Trojans the big deal You think any networks tried to, like, you know, scoop up the licensing rights to the bubble boy? The movie? It'd be a good time to run that on TBS.

Probably. Someone probably owns it. If one's sick of the bubble. Is that Jake Jillenhall? Might be. I think it's a Jake Jillenhall movie. Just like, oh, this is timely. 2001.

Ooh, what happened? Jake found something interesting. Yeah, Jillen. What's the other one? Bio? Dome. Biodome. Dany Treo.

Make a table. Cool. Cool. Yeah. All right. Well, let's move on to the free agent talk. But first, a little word from these guys. The season is in full swing.

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but the Niners are so beat up, I don't know. How would you actually take in a fight, a cheese packer or a gold mine guy? Oh, a miner. A miner? Yeah, I think the harsh winters of Wisconsin, you know. They make you tough. They make you pretty tough.

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That's right. You bet and they cover up to $100 when you use promo cojambor during sign up for a limited time, only at Drafking Sportsbook. Must be 21 or older, New Jersey only risk-free coverage paid out inside credits, restrictions, apply. See, draftings.com, slash, sportsbook for details, gambling, 1-800 gambler. All right. That was the first time reading that, that, uh, that new wording at the bottom. I nailed it. Huge. Free agents. Now we can move on. Thank God. So the free agent, pool looks bad. It looks like the market's going to be awful. The pool of players is actually pretty decent. The market looks like it's going to be bad. Everyone got their, uh, qualifying

offer declined besides six players. And a reminder, qualifying offer works as such. if you are a free agent, your contract is up and you're leaving the team. Let's use Trevor Bauer as an example because I was going to do DJ, but people complain. We always talk about the Yankees too much. Trevor Bauer, free agent, leaving the Cincinnati Reds. Cincinnati Reds offer him the qualifying offer. What's that you mean?

It's the average salary of the top 150? 125 players in MLB, the average salary of a top 125 player, which this year is $19.8 million? $18.9. I was close. So one-year deal for that number. Now, if the player accepts that because he thinks he can't get better on the open market,

cool. They shake hands, they come back, one-year deal. If he does not accept that because he wants to go test free agency and see if you can get more years and more money, he wants to get wine and dined and told how great he is by all these different franchises, he declines the qualifying offer. and that means a draft pick is now attached to him and whoever signs Trevor Bauer

has to basically give one of their draft picks to the Rets. Do we know anything about the round or draft pick or anything like that, compensation pick? The compensation round, so it's in between the first and the second round. Okay. Yeah, there's different rules. Well, I think there's a couple different. It could be a second rounder type.

If your team is a top, top third, worst team in the league, you don't have to sacrifice your pick, and there's a couple other complicated rules around. I changed the rules in the last, like, two years, too, so I forget exactly what the- Does the draft even exist anymore? For an example of when this came to fruition, the Yankees offered Nick Swisher the qualifying offer

after his four-year contract was up. He declined it. He went to the Indians. The Indians? He went to the Indians. The Indians had to give a draft pick to the Yankees. The Yankees drafted Aaron Judge with that pick. God, always Yankees.

Always jenks. That's the only one I know. If you think I know an example of qualifying offer decline and draft pick result from any other team, you're out of your mind. I mean, they're all over the place. I like to get a specific reference, but that happens a lot. So that's, I know what happened. This is a big deal. It's a big deal for teams to extend it.

It's a big deal when a player declines it. The team's very happy. Oh, another example. Okay. Here we go. Kikl was offered a qualification. after the 2018 season. He declined it,

thinking he can go make a ton more money on the open market. Turns out people didn't think his value was worth losing a draft pick, so Kichel didn't get signed until mid-June or mid-July when that draft pick wasn't attached to him anymore, and he got a very late start to the season

and he got picked up by the White Sacks. Braves that year. Braves that year. You can only get the qualifying offer. once. So that's why DJ LeMay, he's actually getting in now. He didn't get it from the Rockies when he originally hit Free Agency. So these other guys, that becomes part of the thing. And I think the number one example, and I think we want to talk about this on Jimmy's got a nice little segment for us. But it becomes really interesting for someone. And I think the number one name you

have to circle is Marcus Stroman. If Marcus Stroman got offered the qualifying offer this year, which means he could accept it, make 18.9 million doll hairs, and then hit free agency next year. So if he pitched good this year, he could clean up and look pretty good. And there's no draft pick attached to him because you can only get qualifying off for once. Or he declines it and he risks going into free agency, which, hey, you know, there's definitely a world where Marcus Drummond could probably get a nice three, four-year contract.

You know, you start factoring in some of the COVID stuff, blah, blah, blah. or if you look back at that that Kikel example, you know, it starts to become a dangerous game. And I think the other name that should be mentioned right now, Trev, is your guy from last year. Odo, kind of, I don't want to say he got screwed by it, but a little bit. He accepted the qualifying offer. He bet on himself. And then in this weird shortened year, he's got some injuries and stuff where if Odo hit the market last year, I mean, he probably gets three years, you know, 50, 45. I don't know. I'm not the numbers guy here, but he accepts it,

and now he hits free agency this year, and it's more likely he's going to take, you know, maybe a one-year chance on himself or a two-year taster type deal. So that's, there's some info. Yep. Another bizarre example of this whole scenario is that your guy, Trev Mustakis, he denied the qualifying offer after 2017 or 2018, and then didn't get anything better and then he signed a one-year prove-it deal with the Royals for much less than if he would have just accepted the qualifying offer

and he lost out on a lot of money that season. What? It's pretty messed up. It's pretty messed up citrus. So anyway, yeah. So with six players receive the qualifying offer, Trev. Yes, I was going to bring out the Mustakis thing, the Odarezi thing.

Odoree definitely, you know, cost himself some money by taking that one-year deal, taking the qualifying offer and then having, you know, earning 30% of that and also being hurt this year it's going to be tough for him. Mustakis, yes. Turned down, I think at the time, 17. Something ended up, I think,

getting four from the Royals, but you know, he made it up with the Reds. I think some guys have some interesting decisions. And I think the one that I was most surprised with was the Kevin Gossman receiving a qualifying offer from

San Francisco. In a typical cool year, I would say, okay, I get it. He had a really good year this year. He's a starting pitcher, and those are always in high demand. But he's a little older. And I just don't think teams are going to spend the way they normally would this year. So I think he's going to, he has a big decision in front of himself. Like, can I test the open market, try to get a three-year whatever, or do I just take this almost $20 million for one year? I think. He's probably the one that in my mind has the biggest decision in front of him. The other one's all kind of seen like no-brainer.

So you guys know I like checking boxes. I mean, LeMayhew Bauer, Springer, Real Mudo. Those guys are all going to get paid. You know, I don't think it's a decision at all. I think Stroman, I'd like to circle, and I think that's going to be a good conversation with us. The Gossman one was kind of the one that took everybody by surprise in the sport. He had a really nice year for San Francisco. He came over on a, I think it was one year, 9-mill.

He was rumored at the trade deadline, everything, had a really nice season. And this is kind of one of the fun ones because the rumor is Sam Fran likes them, and they're trying to work on a multi-year deal. So they figured they'd throw this out there, which I think is a good move because I think they're going to figure out an extension, because I think if he hits the open market with a draft pick, I don't think he's going to get whatever Sam Fran's offering him. So it is interesting.

Does he take the one year, taste himself, and try to pitch well and turn into a good thing? Um, yeah. I mean, the rumors are. Is Dan Fran trying to win right now? That's what I don't understand. They need pitching and I think they want it for a couple years.

Gabe Kapler manager there. So, yeah, I think San Fran is trying to retain him. And if you're going to try to retain a guy for multiple years, you're probably going to show good faith and offer this. Um, unless you're the Yankees and Brett Gardner. Might not be good faith.

I think it's also like now another team kind of won't negotiate with them because if they're going to give up a draft pick, for God. It does help them. Yeah, okay. You can talk me both ways. You can talk to both ways. You're going to be handcuffed, which many guys are.

That's why the players are trying to get rid of the qualifying offer in full. But also, Kevin Gossman, one year 18 mil, that's a pretty good handcuff for him. The other guys, it would be a socky handcuff. Yeah. It's, yeah. So the draft pick definitely is an interesting thing that the Giants could be working on with him. I just don't know where they're at in their franchise and where they want to go. Doesn't seem to me like they're trying to win now,

and he's kind of like a win now a piece. He's 30 years old. You're going to have to pay him, you know, whatever, a lot of money over a couple different years. So interesting, interesting tactic by them. Yeah. Trev, do you think it's any bit of a thought process for Stroman? Because here's my thing. We know he's a confident dude, you know, about my height, sexy, twirls,

it driven by confidence, and that's, you know, I think he'd be the first guy to tell you that. I mean, Marcus Stroman, one year, 18.9, I mean, a guy that's bad on himself his whole life, I know that's like a dumb statement, but is he coming off injury? Did he just bow out? He bowed out. He got nicked up, and then he bowed out once he got his service time. Okay. And with this weird free agent market this year, Trev, I don't know, man.

If I'm him, well, A, me and B, B, D, we're. laughing earlier because it'd be hilarious if he goes back to the Mets after he kind of bailed on their season last year. But man, to bet on yourself for a year, if he does it right, he's going to hit free agency in a much better market coming off of a season where he pitched well. Now the risk is the Oda Rizzy. So I don't know. I mean, at the same time, I think he thinks he's going to get paid and I still think he'd get paid enough to make it worthwhile. But I don't know. I think there's a thought process there. Yeah, Trabb, what do you got? Because I got a lot of thoughts. in my opinion

I don't think Marcus Stroman is going to get that 18.9 per year I do think there's going to be a number of teams that want to offer him a multi-year contract. Now what that average value is

I don't know 15 I could absolutely see a team paying him 345 350 and then in that case you're like dude, I think he should turn down the qualifying offer and take that. Like, that's set up for the rest of your life.

Obviously, he's probably already close to that with the money he's already earned. I don't think he wants to, I don't think he wants to test taking that one year and then seeing where the sports at because we have no indication that free agency is going to be normal anytime soon. In all indications, point to the opposite way that it's going to be frozen for this offseason next off season he's only going to be another year older I think that he's going to look and say if I can convince a team now

which I think he can to give me three four years he keeps saying five to seven years in all his tweets he's always like for the next five to seven years look what I'm going to do which I appreciate team is going to do five to seven years and I think they're going to do three to four years and add an AV of around 15 and I think he'd be smart

to go test the market and go take that I think teams, he still brings enough, not even just on the field. Obviously on the field, he's a good pitcher. But I think teams like what he brings just as far as fan interaction. I remember when the twins signed Tori Hunter, they mentioned that as well. Like they gave him a one year $10 million deal. And I was talking to one of my teammates at the time. They're like, dude, that's such a great deal for the twins.

They're going to make all of that money up just like off the field stuff, like what he brings to the franchise. and anything on field is a bonus. I think Stroman, obviously they want him to perform, but he brings excitement to your team. Like he generates interest in your team, and I think teams are going to look at that as well. I think he does end up getting a three, four-year deal around 15.

I'm on a different, I don't check every forum and every fandom, but the places I look, he's left two fan bases who don't like him. Like Blue Jays fans are not Stromen. fans from everywhere. Why don't they like Stroman? He brings a lot of ancillary noise or extra noise. I think he's super marketable, Jim. I think he's one of the more marketable player.

When him and our dude, what's that fuck's name? Gritchick. Gritchick, like got into a spat. All the places that I look for people's opinions were like, from Blue Jays fans were like, not on Stroman side of, And then I think Mets fans are down as well. So I don't know about all that.

Yeah, I don't know. I think I lean Trevor there more. I mean, the dude's almost got 500K followers on Twitter. You know, if you're a Mets fan, I think you're a little salty because the dude said he didn't want to play baseball for your team this year. But if you're a real baseball. That would hurt. And you're tied into the dynamics of baseball, you know,

we kind of understood why Stro did it. Like he's worked his whole life for this paycheck. So I kind of get it. And I think wherever Stromen signs, I mean, that fan base is going to go nuts for a little bit. Can you someone find me a comp, like him? Well, that's the crazy thing. And you're going to hate this. The comp is Kikl.

Kikl's only biggest thing is he had a Cy Young in the bag. That's not good news for Stroman. I know. And that's where things get crazy. Kikel had a 366 ERA when he hit Free Agency, 183 starts, a 109 ERA plus. The biggest thing for Keikl, too, was he was on the decline. And this is when all the nerds were getting hot to trot in baseball and all the big contract stuff.

Stroman, he's got a 376 career ERA and 140 career starts. The ERA Plus is actually higher than Keikles when he hit free agency. It's 113. But his stuff is also people were very worried that Keikle was going to fall off a cliff. Like it was getting worse. They thought he was going to kind of mad bum. He's bounced back a little bit. But that is the interesting thing.

With the picketash, with this COVID year, it can make you think. And I don't know. He may land somewhere good at the end. I think that he's going to, I think he might have to sweat this decision out. I think he's going to say no to it right away because he wants to go get multiple years. And I don't think he's going to get more AAV, Treve. I agree with you there. But he might get multiple years and then lock himself up through the CBA and all that shit.

I think that's his goal. Lock me up from CBA. The CBA is a huge point. Lock me up through the CBA. But I think he's going to have to sweat out this a little more than he thinks. I flip-flop on it a little bit because I see the Kikel-Comps and I'm like, man, with this year it could get ugly, there's a lot of teams that need starting pitching. Everybody needs a little.

And more importantly, a couple desperate teams. Like the angels are desperate for starting pitching. I mean, hell, I can see maybe reunite with Toronto. I don't know how many bridges he burnt up top, but they overpaid for Ryu. Minnesota Twins. Yeah. So I think he ends up doing all right.

I really like that three for 45 range, but... I just looked at the athletic thing. I swear I didn't steal this from them. They haven't predicted three years 45. I think he fits really well in a lot of teams' budget right there. I think that's the thing he's going to lock in on is I just want the guaranteed. I just want the guaranteed money. In this time of uncertainty, and the end, what I've learned,

about free agency since covering it and talking to a lot of people that have been through it all you need is a few teams

to be bidding against you man or beginning or heading against each other one in a good agent they say Truff so yeah

we know about that when you have the angels and you have the twins possibly the Mets I mean there is no shortage of teams that need starting pitching I think

he could bank on 345-460. I think he can bank on that. Okay. We'll see. Yeah, we'll say. Interesting. I'm interested in that one. All right. Cruising along here. I wanted to play a little game because we're running a deeper than I thought. Trev, want to play a game with you. Bauer, Real Muto, DJ, Strowman, Gossman, Springer. How many accept the qualifying offer? I'm guessing you're going to say zero. I think just Galsman. I think Gossman's going to accept it. Okay.

Yeah, maybe not. Maybe the exact same shit I just said about Stroman, you could say the same thing about him. MLB never put up this graph comparing Gossmann to Wheeler. A lot of people say he profiles and then like they put up a side. They put up a side by side and none of the stats were like comparable. I think, yeah, my one answer would be Gossman, but with a caveat, like I think they just figure out an extension.

Like I think they, I think those guys go like three for 40. and just shake hands and call it a day. I agree with that. I think zero. I think the CBA or the M-LB, the PA, just straight up wants to be like, fuck the qualifying offer. Yeah.

We're trying to get rid of this. Let's not play their game. Just decline it. Bieber? I mean, kind of an important part of this game. I think I just counted right. Like, only seven players ever have taken it. They are all in the last like four years.

It's rare. I mean, it was Odo last year. It's literally just a way to hamstring. It's just a way to hamstring free agency by the league. I think like the rule of thumb with it is like you don't offer a player the qualifying offer if you think he'll take it. It was supposed to be a way to reimburse smaller market teams for losing their players. You get a draft pick when your guy heads out of town. Thank you for grooming this talent.

Thank you for grooming this talent. It did the opposite, dude. Because these big market teams have the free agents and they can let, I don't know. It's, it's, or they can afford to have someone, have the qualifier for this day. Treve. How many of the six players regret not taking it? So we're all kind of like maybe zero, maybe one. I think one.

I think Gosman will take it. Okay, but take Gossman off because we all think he will. Jake and I think they'll sign an extension. The other five, we're saying zero, no, no, no, no, no, right? I mean, the only one is potentially Stroman. Yeah, I mean, I don't think he will give pride reasons. If there's not a bad deal for him. If you want to be like Stro, you get $18 million right now.

Then next off season, you can go, you can shove for one season. You know, you're going to. Then they can't offer your qualifying offer again. You can't have, you won't have a draft pick attached to you. And then you can go get unlimited big money. Like if the CBA wasn't coming up, I think that's a good, that is a conversation. No, Jeff. Even Trevor Bauer, even Trevor Bauer, who has famously said, I want to work

one year at a time to maximize my value. Even he's backpedaling on those statements. Now that he's here, now that he's here, at the door of free agency, he's like, I'll accept all offers. Like, I'll entertain all offers because he understands where we're at. Well, and he'd be incredibly selfish. In the business side of the things, like this isn't, this isn't 2016 MLB, 2017 MLB.

This is like global pandemic. This is 60 games short in season. Uncertainty in 2021. Uncertainty in 2020 with the labor agreement. This is all sorts of uncertainty, and the teams are going to be playing it like a fiddle. This is the team. The teams are so happy right now. They're going to suppress free agency and it's going to have a lasting impact. Five years from now, we're still going to be talking about in 2021.

They suppressed the crap out of free agency and now look where we're at. Bauer knows that. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, if he takes a one-year deal like he said he wanted to, he now has enemies on both sides. And Trev, because the PA would be like, what the fuck,

you're the number one pitcher on the market and you just fucked over. If he sets the AAP, 32 million, they're not going to be upset. Well, it's got to do with that then. I don't think a team's going to pay someone

$32 million for one year. If he gets hurt, they're just fucked. And Treb, everything you just said, I mean, you could put that in a plus column for Stroman. You could also put in the minus.

I mean, if all these teams get together and they say, you know, we ain't paying this offseason. He could find himself without a contract this year and going into the CBA. I do think someone ends up giving him a contract, and that's where, Jim, you talk about regretting it or not. I mean, for Stroman, it's except 18.9 this year.

If you pitch well, you could stumble into three for 60. If you pitch bad, it's going to be like a one-year trial deal or something like that. So, I mean, you know, it's kind of flip a coin and you're gambling a little bit. or, I mean, if he gets the three, let's say it's even three for 40, I mean, is that a win? Or is that a loss? Because he didn't bet on himself, you know? I don't know. I think it's a win because, I mean, I mean, that's 20 plus more million dollars guaranteed.

Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting, man. Trev left us, so I'll give you a little update. Maybe Trev can hear. I think he retired. I think that was a walk-off. Talking baseball is the number one baseball podcast in America right now.

So thank you to everyone that listens. Oh, thank you. I'm trying to word a tweet that doesn't come off cocky, but like, dude, we're ahead of Barstall the Ringer, CBS, ESPN. I don't know what effectively wild is, so that's good for them. Like, those are big fucking networks. Good job by everyone that listens.

We've been saying it all year. We're the best at what we do, and that's not cocky. That's just true. We have the best fan base. But it's pretty impressive, I think, you know, that we're ahead of those companies. That's pretty cool. Anyway, keep going on free agency.

We have free agents by position. We do. I mean, we're running. I mean, are we just going to yam this out? Like, what are you guys thinking right now? Yeah, how, where are we at right now, BBD? We're over 50 minutes. I'm starting to have the idea that maybe this is, we do a second episode this week.

Why don't we do this? Out of the top 10 free agents, we did a lot on those six. Kind of a lot. You know those six because we talked about them. The other one in there's Ozuna Ozuna. There's a couple guys that are I mean, dude, Marcus Simeon, you know, the year before this was a top three MVP guy

and then he has a mass 60 games and he doesn't get the qualifying offer and we're talking about him like a weird free agent. It's where baseball gets messed up and there are impact dudes. I mean, Brantley's hanging around like that dude could still give you a nice two years. Dedy.

Turner is a great one. Do the Dodgers have to resign Turner, right? I guess next episode will be our free agent episode. This was, you know, a get back together. Qualifying offer episode. Qualifying offer episode. I mean, I want to rip. I mean, do we just, do we stop this episode and go into a second with the patrons and play it next week?

No, I got a lot of things to do. Okay. Jimmy's got a tweet about how we're the best. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. No, we'll do another free agent episode. do this Thursday. Yeah.

Episodes come out on Tuesdays and Thursdays now. Next week we are taking off. So we have one lined up in the can and we're trying to get another. So it might be one or two. But then we'll be back. It's Tuesday and Thursdays. Sounds like we're going to have a free agency and an interview next week. No, free agency this week.

I think we'll still put free to have Thursday. And you guys have the interview lined up on. We have one interview ready to go out next week. Probably going to try to do one more. Yes. Maybe we do Just give the people what they want And just have a T-Ploof Solo app

Crazy Hi Trevor Plouf Solo Blindfolded And we have you reach into various jars Blindfold it so you can't look What's in the jar Yeah I was just thinking so you can look at any notes Oh okay All right give me

Let's if we're ending it now I just want I want you guys to do one thing for me All right love it Trevor's last ending segment Last thing Last last last thing Yeah. Marcus Stroman. Give me what you think his contract will be.

Two years... Because he's not going to class anyone for me. Like two years 30. Because I think the owners are all going to collude and be like, we're not giving offers past the CBA, because that's what they want. And we're not giving them more than the qualifying offer because I can't believe you fucking thinks he's worth more than that a year.

And they're going to be like angry about it. So he gets multiple years, but he's getting less A-A-V, and he doesn't get past CBA. I have very, I have very mean owners. I feel the same way. Go ahead, Jake. Plus, he spit in their face by not playing this year. Give me, it's similar to that, but there's a third year with a decent option and a decent buyout. Oh, we're going to get such creative options on all these things.

So many options. Incentives. That third year is, it's three-free. 45. There's a $5 million buyout or something. I mean, someone does it. Give him the freaky, Zach Britton, like, two-year team option. If they decline, he can

opt out, or he can opt in for one. The double option. Give him Kikuchi's deal. And no one can figure it out. I'm still lost in that one. You side Kikuches. I think he's the highest paid player in the league. That was the last thing I read. His options and shit are nuts.

Crazy. What do you think, Treve? four for whatever what you said i don't see four the more i think i see three i see three years um definitely under the qualifying offer and i'm going to settle in at like 14 a year three years 42 i like that that's what i got and i think i think the twins will be huge players on it and i do want to say i do want to say make another point point to end the show. Yes. The Mets.

How do you get to the World Series? You have to have good pitching. Okay. Now they got Wheel or not really, they have DeGrom. Yeah. Sindegarde will be back. At some point. Correct?

We'll be ready for the start of the season? I think so. I think it's 12 months in April. Depends on how each one goes. They probably don't push them too hard. I remember here in July when it happened. DeGrom, Sindigard, Bauer is a three-headed monster that can get you to the World Series.

I mean, don't. Just saying that. Just saying that. People have been just saying that about the Mets for six years now. New owner. Yes, but I'm saying they've had the pitching names going on half a decade. Francisco Linderdor. They need a lot of the other side names.

I don't think they do. Their lineup was pretty damn close. They had a weird year this year, but they're pretty damn close. They lost a lot of those starting pitchers. So yeah Yeah I guess that would be the counterpoint I mean this year they really didn't have the starting pitching Yeah they didn't but it but that's the thing

They've they've had this like For a while Right Wheeler Wheeler got heard and then Cindergards heard and then Was it 2015 World Series What's supposed to be like Harvey died Harvey died Matt's was supposed to be

I know he thinks about Harvey did You take him up top I only face him one time and it was like literally snowing when we faced him. So no, I did not. I bet it was snowing when you faced him. Yeah. Out of his nose.

Come on. Come on. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Number one podcast, baby. Let's go. Allegedly.

Trevor, 0 for 3 off Matt Harvey. No strikeouts. Yeah, I mean, whatever. Fucking shifts, man. Ban them. Fly ball to right, grand out to first. Matt Harvey stinks. I'll say it right now.

I do not like Matt Harvey, okay? Oh my God, he's our next guest. He's our next guest. I'd love to have it. I got some questions for him. Yeah. I got some fucking questions then. Let's let it haul out.

Hey, Matt, thanks for joining us. Name some regrets. I kind of get it, man. He came in hot. He was the King of New York models, partying, all falls apart. Now what? Connecticut boy, right? I'm there except the last, I'm only the last part.

Connecticut boy. Connecticut boy all falls apart. Yeah. I missed out in the middle part. You hung out with a model once. Peloton, back-to-back days. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Did I? That Brazilian girl? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Thanks, everyone. She couldn't read, write or speak. English. Nice gal.

Matt Harvey's never allowed on our pod. Next guest. Next guest. Our next guest.