Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 256 | Yu Darvish to the Padres, Josh Bell to the Nationals, and Sam Fuld to the Phillies

Episode Date: December 29, 2020

The Padres made another big move acquiring RHP Yu Darvish on Monday! 2:30 - Darvish to San Diego 28:30 - Bell to Washington 38:00 - Kahnle to Dodgers 42:00 - Ha-Seong Kim to the Padres 49:00 - Sam Fuld Hired as Phillies GM 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.

Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. You Darvish goes to the Padres. Tommy Canley goes to the Dodgers, so that's two even moves. Sam Fold to the Phillies and a ton of other stuff. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today. My name's Jimmy.

I got Jake over there, Trev over there. BBD is in the room with me. And we got some baseball news. We did an impromptu episode yesterday because the Padres traded for Blake Snell. We ended the episode. We said, we'll come back tomorrow today just to clean up all the ancillary other moves that happened over the Christmas weekend. And guess what? Then the Padres went and traded for you, Darvish. So now we have another huge blockbuster trade to talk about before we dive into all the ancillary stuff. Jake is still coming to you from his mother's house

in Connecticut. And Trev is still coming to you from his wife's house in California. Trev, how you doing? Your hair looks great today. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. This is, you know, we did the pod yesterday and you said, let's save all the rap sash for Tuesday. I love the rap sesh. I want to ask you guys about Christmas presents, all that good stuff. But to answer your question, it's a beautiful day out. I went on a run this morning.

I took a hilarious picture of this failed Christmas decoration that looks like Santa is spanking Rudolph. So it was a good morning. I don't know if that's failed. it's pretty funny i was running and i was like this is hilarious it looks like santa's an abusive father and and rudolph did something that he didn't like oh santa was as abusive as ever dude he's basically child labor king anyway jake how are you i think there's grown up adults i think they split up the kids in the the grown up elves yeah i don't i'm doing well uh trev next time you run past the house, just pop in and say hi.

I'm good. Shout out to Yesper Anderson and his Swedish baseball team. They were in my DMs before. Big talking baseball fans were huge in Sweden. Shout out to them. The chat's going, I'm doing well, man. Baseball's so hot in the streets. It's insane.

And Jim, I mean, we're geniuses. While we were talking last episode about all the Snell stuff, you know, Trevor asked, are they out on Bauer? And I think we were totally right. There's no way they're in on Bauer at this point. Zero. They just instead traded for U. Darvish. Yeah, just one.

I don't think U. Darvish is getting the credit he deserves amongst. This is a big move. Udarvish is a stud. And we'll detail the trade and get into all of that and do our discussions. I mean, good for the Padres, man. What a time. We ended. Well, actually, for the patrons, they got to hear this in the post show.

I didn't say it while we were recording yesterday, and I said, I wish I said this. If you know anyone that's getting into baseball, send them the Padres way. Not only are they getting studs, they're getting guys with personality. You Darvish is on Twitter all the time. Clevenger, it's a big personality in the game.

Tatis is so fun. Machado, love him or hate him. He's a personality in this sport. I mean, who else do they got? I mean, Snell is big in the gaming world. Like, this is a very, fan-included team right now, or I don't know what, they're giving back, there's entertainment on and off the field from this crop of players.

So the Padres are doing the damn thing. Now, I am going to shit on the Cubs and the state of baseball. But it is good to note that the Padres deserve a lot of love right now. I mean, this is exactly how you want your team to operate. Now, if you do this over 20 years, here comes some Yankee bias, you will get shit on and everyone just says you buy championships and that, like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But in reality, every team wishes they had owners that every offseason went out and made trades and made signings to get them the best team possible.

I don't know if we've had moves like this. I mean, this is two guys that have gotten Cy Young votes within the last three years as well as Clevenger, who they went out and got last year, who they have for the next year. The Padres are fucking doing the damn thing. I love it. Isn't it interesting? Like, we talked, we were doing like our pre-season. in prop beds. And I mentioned about the Padres. I said, I'm going to take the over because it's like their time, they got to go. Like it's a, they were like, what was I called?

Like running in place for a long time where they were signing these big free agents. They had a great farm system, but it's just like, they couldn't put it together on the big league field. 2020 happens. They go out, have an unbelievable season. And then the off season comes around and they're making this. This is what we've been waiting for. the Padres. You know, they started the rebuild. They signed some guys. Now they're trading away some of those prospects

that they got. They're bringing in Major League talent. This is exactly what you want. If you're a Padres fan, if you're a baseball fan, you have to respect what they're doing. Because I know you said they're going out there buying stuff like the Yankees. They're not really going out there buying stuff. They got Snell on the cheap. They had the Cubs to

eat a portion of Udarvish's salary. We don't know what that is yet. But I think they're doing it the right way. They've held on to their top prospects traded the way, you know, they're three to five, I think. Yeah, you got to remember Machado and Hosmer and some of the signings they've had that are also part of this plan. Yeah, Machado, God, man, he cost it a lot. And so did, so did Hosmer. But for some, you know, they're able to figure out how to get these pieces in and fit within their budgets. I still don't think they're approaching the luxury tax. So that's an interesting thing that

they're going to have to talk about if they need to add a piece. I think they're getting close now. It's awesome. It's awesome. How could you not be excited for San Diego? Yeah, Jim, I mean, the dark side of baseball is showing its head when the Cubs are trading away. Darvish, who finished second in the Cy Young last year for essentially pennies on the dollar because he has a contract that he deserves. So, yeah, I mean, that part of it sucks. I mean, the Padres, like Trevor was mentioned, and, you know, they're cashing in with prospect capital, essentially. They got, you know, two really good pitchers on all right contracts, if not good for Snow. And they didn't have to touch any of their top five prospects. You know, they didn't go crazy heavy into the bankroll.

And it's crazy. They are one of the few teams that position this whole thing well that had an owner that was in on the process. And the whole process has worked since Preller has come in as GM. And now he is, he is already godlike in San Diego. and they, you know, they still got to go out on the field and do it. And I think the other thing that Trev just triggered in my head, man, these Padres, dude, I genuinely forgot what I was about to say, but I love what Trevor said.

Thank you. Yeah. Let's talk about prospects for a second, though, because people freak out about prospects. But what I want everyone to do, you're like, hey, this guy, first rounder, fifth overall, first rounder, 10th overall. he's a studies go back to each draft year and go in the first round and read the names you're going to know about 10 of them and the other 20 guys that got drafted in the first round they don't make it man

you know or if they do it's a cup of coffee or they're still struggling in the minor leagues prospects are not sure things no matter how highly they're rated no matter how highly they're drafted so i love getting rid of prospect capital going out and getting established studs you The Sarvish to Cy Young, dude. Let me tell you about prospects. Dude, I love it. These guys aren't even prospects, Trev. They got Zach Davies from the Padres.

Jake said it yesterday. He had a really good year last year and can be an arm for them and go into their rotation right now. Laffable that the Cubs, like, wanted to trade Darvish away for someone that can help them right now because, like, if you want to win in 2021, you're going to keep Darvish. But Davies does have some more years on him. These other four players that the Cubs are getting from the Padres weren't.

Top 10 in the Padres organization weren't top of any charts. I think some people like they were all going to land in the top 20 Padres. Well, who cares about top 20? I don't give a shit. These kids are one of them is 17 years old. One of them's 18. One of them's 20. I mean, yeah, I'm not trying to say these guys will not be studs.

One of them may be. But this is such a bad return. This is a salary dump by the Cups. Oh, yeah. I mean, this is, this is such a bad. bad return and there's people that love prospects and the value and maybe three of these guys show are awesome in the next two years and the Cubs flip them again for something or maybe one turns into half of Darvish. But this is this is a I mean if you're a Cubs fan, this is not good.

This is not a good trade. It doesn't make any sense. If you're a Cubs fan, you got to be like, we were just in the, we just won the World Series not that long ago. We still have a majority of our team in place. It's a buyer's market and the Padres. are the only buyers. And they're like, they had what, six pitchers in their, and top 100,

these numbers aren't to be wrong. They had six pitchers that were in the top 100. That might be a wrong number, but they had six pitchers that were good. They lost two of them. They still have four of their top

pitching prospects as well as now fucking Paddock, Udarvish, Snell, Lamette. Kenzie Gore, I guess you're probably including him

in the process. Gores the prospects and Clebs on the way. I mean, it's almost like slim pickings. It's almost like if this was a fantasy league, you'd want to kick the Cubs out and be like, dude, you just gave them everything.

That's a good enough. Treb just said like the, you know, the Cubs team and he starts naming the guys. It's over. It's over. Lester hit free agency. Schwerber didn't get re-signed.

Like they could have just offered him money to still be on their team and they didn't do it. It's Brian's last. year. Byas. And I saw a funny tweet the other day that was like, how messed up is baseball that the Cubs fought tooth and nail to get the extra year of Chris Bryant? And now they're doing everything to get off of them, which, by the way, think of all

the one-year contract guys and the trade values we're seeing around the league. If you see Chris Bryant, if you see Lindor get moved, you're not getting a package. Look at these trade deals. So I don't know. Part of it's exciting. fan it sucks man you got your ring and obviously that's the goal of the sport and they erase the curse of the billy goat and all the good stuff but you know me and jimmy went through it one day and it's it's crazy a couple games that they lost they went from best record in the nl and 17 or or 18 and then

they lost one game so they were in the wild card and then they lost there and now look at them i mean it's a it's full rebuild minus the fact that they could win the nl central and which I'm stealing this line from Jim. It's a race for 85 in the NL Central this year. Yeah. Who can finish 500? You've won the division. Congrats.

You know, what's funny about the podges is they're still positioned to make more moves. I don't know why, Trev? Because the fucking Cubs didn't take one of their top five prospects. That's what I'm saying. They might not have money, which I said on my Twitter yesterday,

these teams have money dude like their budget they set the budget it's not like the league sets the budget they could say my budget is 40 million and that's their budget but clearly they can spend more than that like the ray's giving up on snow because he's too expensive that's a dumbest thing i've ever heard in my life he's not he's cheap he's very cheap for the caliber of pitcher darvish is kind of expensive because you you got 22 million for this coming season the next season 22 he's 19 million and after that 18 million. So the Padres, but he will be 35, 36 years old at that time, Trev.

And it's a lot of money as a big chunk to take on. And it's pretty expensive. You're not going to find too many pitchers out there making more than 20 mil a year. You'd be surprised. I bet if you looked it up, you'd be surprised. Especially a guy with his track record. They're all making that.

Maybe 10? I don't know. Kershaw's making 35. Yeah, yeah, but that's a little, this elite of the elite. I would argue that Darvish is that. In fact, my best friend Keith Law wrote an article saying that he believes Darvish was the best pitcher in the National League last year. Can I ask you guys a question? You know, I like trying to see the behind the scenes of the saw.

Was this trade locked in place before the Snell one got announced? Was Preller weary of one of these trades being announced and having the other, like the Cubs finding out what Snell went for or the Rays finding out what Darvish went for being leaked first. Because obviously Snell is cheaper. But it's three years for Snell, three years for Darvish. Darvish is much more expensive, right? They're both pretty good. I think Darvish, I think you can argue both sides of who's been better the last two years.

Snell, his Sigh young is looking a bit like off. What I'm saying is once it comes out that what they got for Snell and they got Patino. Are the Cubs, like, locked in? And can they be like, hey, you have five more guys that are top 100 prospects? Give us one of them? Or were they just? Because why did the Cubs not get better?

And the Cubs gave the Padres money on top of taking these teenagers? We could see that. We saw it with the Boston and L.A. deal. like all you have to do is deal is not finalized there's physicals if the cubs wanted to go back and get more they could be like ah we see something in such and such as physical and we don't like it and then they can go back on it but i don't think the cubs care i think they get their salary dumb they're clearly planning on losing so i don't know man it's it's an interesting situation and why weren't the yankees in on the guy if if that's all it costs tell you tell me please tell

me money because they won't take on that contract there's not a lot of teams in baseball that would take on that contract right now and i know that sounds ridiculous to you but it's true you is getting older but i mean how many teams are in the bower sweepstakes i mean that you can essentially break it down to that i did i did see some commentary that was like if you're the angels what are you doing like if this guy was on the table i mean go and get that guy so Uh, yeah, but I honestly, when it comes down to it, the list of teams that would really be in on a $22 million a year pitcher going through, you know, his middle 30s, the list isn't huge. So I, I think on the GM side of things, uh, I always left reference, you know, the, the white erase board that GMs have in their office. Before this off season, San Diego said, all right, we, we've got a little bit of budget. What are we going to do? What does a team look like if we get Bauer for 30 mil a year? Uh, What does it look like if we trade these prospects for Snell? What does Tampa want?

Darvish is available. What's the price tag there? And I think when they put it all in the pot, Jake Oterizzi, hot, our friend, I think they said, you know, we cannot deplete our farm system at all, get three years of Snell at a good price. And I mean, Darvish essentially just to pay the price tag. And when he rolls off the books and Hosmer rolls off the books in a few years, give that money to Tatis and keep running it.

So I think I think Preller's a smart man and the Cubs, they don't care. They wanted the money off the books. That's all they wanted. I mean, look, I'm just saying, I understand that there's not every team's going to be in on someone, but $22 million down to 19, down to 18, and the Cubs ate some of that.

We don't know how much they ate. It's still very affordable for a high-end pitcher, even though he's 34 this year. Last year, it was maybe one of his best seasons. So this guy still got it. I just, when I'm thinking about clubs, this guy helps every single club. If you're a team that thinks you can win a World Series next year,

you should have been in on Darvish. And everyone slept. We talked about that on this pod. Teams that are advantageous in this off season are going to come out looking great. And the Padres have done that. The White Sox have done it. Yeah.

There's only 11 pitchers that are making more, money than you Darvish in 2021. So it is, you know, it's up there in price. It's not cheap for a starting pitcher. That's interesting to me. That's, I would have guessed more. DeGrom, Cole, Granky, Strasberg, Scherzer, Verlander, Price, Kershaw, Sale, Corbyn, Weiler.

How many other teams do we honestly think could have been in on this? Like, the names that come to mind, Braves, Toronto, the New York Mets. Like, me and Jim are kind of on the pulse on the Yankees. They wouldn't be in on this at all. All of the central teams are punting. Philly should have been on it. The Angels. Phillies depend.

We don't know what they're spending. We don't know what they're spending at all. They might be real mood or bust. That's why they got a bunch of half-ass teenage prospects. They have no prospects. They don't have any. Did you see what Cohen tweeted out? Cohen tweeted out something about the Padres like, wow, really good to see.

They have all these prospects. and like they had like a they had a stacked cupboard in their minor league and they're using it he was like the Mets don't have that minor leaguers are the new capital minor leaguers are the new capital

I'm selling all my capital then there's another Steve Cohen he said Steve Cohen tweeted hey give the Padre's credit they had a top five farm system that gave them flexibility to trade for Snell news flash the Mets farm system needs to be

replenished And by the way, I remembered what I blanked on from Trevor before. Trevor, you mentioned the 60 game season where the Padres are good. Let's not forget a 60 game season is still a small sample. Like the Padres could have very easily went 30 and 30. Does that allow them to make these same moves? I don't know. That's pretty crazy.

And the other thing that resonated with me from Trevor yesterday. And Jim, I don't know if you want to take it and do the baseball thing. But Trev, you said if the raise were the one team that operated like the raise, it would be fun, right? It would be like, okay, the underdog raise, they're figuring stuff out. They always trade away. The rays are the model for every team right now.

I saw an Orioles article today that they're copying the race. The Red Sox are copying the race. The Dodgers are cut. The fact that every team in baseball sees them as the model, and now we're trading away each superstar as they get paid. It's the opposite of the NBA. The MLB wonders why they're not the NBA and why the kids aren't in on it's cool.

When you trade away your star, every year because now they're starting to get paid. The NBA is literally the opposite. Give me your stars. Give me the max contracts guys. Baseball is sprinting the opposite direction. It's crazy. I mean, look,

it's the reason these organizations are looking towards the raise is because or looking more and more like the raise is because the raise are just dishing out all their executives. There's an executive in Houston. Their GM from Houston, Click is from Tampa. The Red Sox GM is from Tampa. Dodgers GM came from Tampa.

I mean, they're everywhere. The system is everywhere. And like the thing that people need to realize is not every organization or not every team can do this. There's articles written about the more teams that tank, the less it works for you. Like the less chance you had to be successful. We talked about the draft being a crapshoot. I mean, you have to develop players. You have to draft right.

You have to wait. You got to make sure those players have everything they need at the big league level. It is a shot in the dark. Tampa's been able to do it. I think their player development is the reason. But these other organizations, they're not all going to be successful like that, and we're going to see some crash and burn.

In Boston, if Hime can't figure it out, my goodness, they will eat them alive there. People in Boston aren't going to wait around. They're pissed now the Patriots suck. They're not going to wait around for the Red Sox and to rebuild for five years. They went through that for a long time before they started winning in the 2000s.

They don't want that to happen again. It shouldn't happen again. This is a major market team that has all the resources available to them. Do not accept this. If you're a fan of the Red Sox or one of these other bigger market teams, especially the Cubs now, don't accept this. Be outraged, dude. This is ridiculous.

If you own a sports team, your goal should be to win championships. This shouldn't be, we talk about it's a business all the time, but you have to give back to your community. You take so much from your community, you have to give back. You can't look at it like just a regular old business. It is a business, but it's not like your other businesses, okay? You have an obligation to your community as a franchise owner. Now we're a labor pot again.

Yeah, I want to go back to you, Darvish. His numbers last year were really good. led the whole entire league in FIP. How many teams do you think he faced that were above average in OPS Plus? Ooh, NL Central. And A.L. Central? Ooh.

Zero. Three. Four. Zero and four. Final answers? Two. Twins once, White Sox twice. I don't know what to make of that last year at all. because a lot of those offenses were really bad.

Hugh Darvish did the best out of all the pitchers that faced them, him and Bauer, so they were top two. But it was only 10 games or whatever. So I'm very curious to see, like, did he make an adjustment? Or did he just have a small sample against the league's worst? I know I'm just saying how much so. I'm excited to be two years from now and really look at this season. with the better lens.

The last season with the better lens. He bangs his foreseem a lot last year, was throwing more cutters, more strikes. That was a big thing for him or being around the zone getting ahead. And maybe that's a by-part of him facing crappy offensive teams.

But he's one of those guys, man. He is nasty. I think he had his highest Vila last year, too, just because he's a sick puppy. So, yeah, no, it's going to be interesting. I mean, hey, if Darvish suddenly starts, to get old. My body's hurting over here. If Darvish gets old next year,

then it's two years at 20 million or whatever, and San Diego fans will be saying it was a bad trade for us. So it's a sick game. So Darvish had three games against teams with a above average OPS plus. Snell only had three games against team with the below average OPS Plus. They both had... How many years? Start last year? 10, 11?

Snell started 11. and you started 12. When you put it in that perspective, it's a little bit different. It's what's just interesting. No balance schedules is hard. I mean, when we look at all the old things, you know, before the Interleague player. You called it with the twins, Jim.

You said, who have they beat? What kind of team are they? What's going to be even tougher this year, Trev? Central's a mess. Central's a mess. Anyway, congrats to the Padres, really good trade by them. They still have top prospects. They still have budding pitchers that can come up.

It's incredible. They're a team right now. I mean, their rotation is nuts. And they have these guys for two more years, three more years with Cleve coming back. For the Cubs, I mean, it's a bad time to sell. You get the money off your books, but the return on paper doesn't look impressive at all. You didn't get any of their time. And, you know, who's kidding who?

We're not expecting Gore to come back for Darvish or, like, the top, top guys. You just like someone who has some hype behind them. These four kids, go read reviews of these four kids by, like, all the experts. It's all like you can tell they're scratching and clawing like, maybe, you know, one day. One day, yeah. If he does, you know. Straight lottery tickets.

Straight lottery tickets. And hey, you know, from everything we've heard about the Cubs, they're not the team to do it. The top free agent at every position has not been signed yet. So if you're an owner, you could still go win over your fan base pretty easily. We knew the offseason was going to be like this. It kind of started out hot. Like, ooh, this guy got 10 million. This guy got whatever.

And we were like, maybe it's going to be different. But now we're seeing there's going to be a freeze here. You know, the holidays. Well, they didn't stop this from. happening, but I think we're going to be waiting on these free agent pitchers. I've been talking to a few of the guys who are free agents, and they've been saying the same thing. These trades are killing the free agent market. Teams that's what I was hitting. Yeah, I mean. That's what I was trying to say, man. Teams would rather trade a few prospects and know what

contract and player they're getting than go to the negotiating table and figure out how much player X, Y, Z wants. You know, there's a, there's a report out right now that the Phillies haven't made an offer to Real Muto. It's probably not exactly. That's bullshit. We heard that a lot with Cole and Machado and Harper. And a lot of his like, yeah, we've been in talks, but they haven't officially sent over

an official piece of paper that when Real Muto signs it, it's complete. That's a lot of the semantics, which the way. word official offer. If they offer, if they say this is what we're willing to go to, I would say they would consider that. It happened with Machado where like Cashman came out and like, I don't know what they mean by that. They clearly know what our price and years are.

We just haven't handed it to them on an official piece of paper, but we've certainly, you know, they know what we're willing to go to. So the make an offer is a semantics game that a lot of agents really like to play to swing momentum against the team. Yeah. What they'll do is they'll say this is what we want and don't come do us with anything under that. I've heard that from multiple people.

That's how some of these top agents operate. Here's our number. Don't make us an offer until you get to that number. And the team will say, okay. So then there's no offer made. Yeah. So. I don't know where room is going to go.

If it's not the Phillies, it would be interesting. There was another trade. A Christmas Eve trade, and we will pivot to that now. The Nationals picked up Josh Bell from the Pirates for pitchers Will Crow and Etienne. This fits for the Nationals. They get a nice first baseman with power and pop. They needed that little protection for Soto. He was amazing last year, but he still got walked like a ton.

What did Soto's on base percentage end up with? It was crazy, right? 900. Yeah. And the Pirates make a trade. Now, I dove into this back on Christmas Eve. I kind of forget where I landed. Do you guys have anything on these prospects that the Pirates got

or any quick takes on this trade? I've been reading two pitchers. One of the guys made his debut last year. It didn't go well. I think Crow was the guy I'm talking about. And then there's another younger guy, Y-E-A-N, 19-year-old, throws cheese, you know, another, he could be good, he could be nothing. People seem to really like crow.

What I think is funny about this trade is the pirates. You knew you're rebuilding and now you trade Josh Bell at arguably the lowest point in his career. The lowest his value is going to be. That's what you did. Well, why not, I guess they don't believe that his value can come up next season? Because if you have, if the pirates have any faith in Josh Bell, they let him play for two months and move him at the deadline next year when a team has injuries and there's a team in contention that really needs a power bat, power lefty bat.

I mean, does it look like the pirates know what they're doing? They don't. No, but I mean, that's kind of common sense. So I just think the pirates don't believe in Josh Bell. But that's not to say we shouldn't believe in him or anything because I don't think the pirates are great at evaluation or anything right now. You don't believe in him. You saw him take that one bad round of BP.

very biased non-belief by me. I don't want that to leak into a real world take, but I saw him walk up, swing and miss at five pitches of BP, and then walk away. And that's all I think about when I hear Josh Bell now. I got to be honest, dude, I don't think I've ever seen that. I've taken a lot of BP rounds, Jim, and I don't think I've ever seen that.

It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen, you know? It was tough. The BP pitcher was thrown junk, but you still can't be with it. I mean, you want to take four pitches and be like, fuck this, I'm out. But to swing and miss four times and then just leave the box, you know, all the little kids are running the right field hoping then you pop some home runs. You don't even hit one out of the cage.

There's a little tough scene for Josh Bell's one. It was four pitches. Prospects are lottery tickets. They get a couple of them. Again, there is a new regime in Pittsburgh. So maybe these are guys they liked. And that was probably the risk reward for them. Do we run out Josh Bell for a couple months and hope he finds his 2019 form where he was a stud and it looked like it all came together?

You know, last season, small sample size, he was rough. And he's got a, he had a weird year in 2018, the year before that, 2017, he was good. So I hope the Nats can tap in. They've got something. Guys swinging lefty. I don't know if you guys remember this. They've got a few guys in the Nationals organization that just copied Soto. So maybe Soto.

Josh Bell can take a couple lefty swings, pick up something from Soto. And yeah, man, I mean, he could potentially be a 35 home run switch hitting first baseman, which used to be the MLB dream. Or, I mean, last year he was a negative war guy who's starting to get paid, by the way. He's out of arbitration. So the pirates, you said it best, Jim. I mean, it was either roll the dice for two months, hope they figure it out, and you could get a bigger prospect package, or they found a couple of,

couple prospects they like and they move on and it looks like that's what they decide to do or they're worried about a shortened season the season isn't starting till may first and bell doesn't even get the chance to up his value and now they're so they just want to move quick I don't know he's go this is a second year he'll go through arbitration and then you know you're not the war thing I get but you're not you're not buying Josh Bell for his defensive war and that's what's really holding him back he's been an above average hitter every single year in the big leagues until last year. And then this is all the sudden the time they want to trade them. It doesn't make any sense to me.

But that's why the pirates stink. Because they do stuff like this. Do you think, well, yeah, I mean, the other guy, we didn't talk about him, Yeen, he's a young kid. He's actually the piece in this deal, not Crow. Crow, they might be a plug-in play where you can start in AAA next year and be the first one to come up, join the rotation for the pirates. I think Yeen is the higher long-term play.

I don't even know if we're saying his name right, but he is supposed to be like a flamethrower, young stud kind of guy. Does the Nats make more moves now, Jake? Yes. Does this... Nats are set up. Nats are set up to do something big.

Do they go get like Odo or Paxton? Um, they could get another arm. I think you'd like that because they still have Scherzor Corbyn Strausberg, which again, I mean, those guys at the top, they'll do it. Fettywap is there, Joe Ross. So you'd like to see another starter. I want to see them get another Batman, uh, because Trey Turner had a crazy season last year. Everyone looks at Soto and is 490 on base, it turns out. Uh, Trey Turner hit 335 with a 394 OBP. Andrew Stevenson, uh, uh, A young guy for them had a good year. I think they're going to bank on him. If they could get one more big bad, and I don't know if it's Chris Bryant, I don't know who it is. I think the Nats have a little coin to spend. I think they're poised to make another move.

I was in on them getting real newdo for a little bit. I think the Phillies made their bed when they brought Dumbrowski back. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Chris Bryant and them doing a trade like that, or, you know, dip into the free agent pool a little bit. I think I like that for the Nats. Sure. I just think they're going to make a move somewhere. I'm interested to see who's going to get Odo or Paxson.

I think, unfortunately, I think those guys' prices are going to drop, and I think if they have good years, they can really change the rotation. A lot of upside if the prices drop pretty low. I think Odo still gets paid. I think Paxton's in a brutal spot, man. With his injury history, you just can't give him the years. I think Odo will still find a nice, nice little three-year landing spot.

All right. So, good move by the Nats. Is there any harm to this? If they get, if they eventually put a D.H. in for the NL, it's a big win for them. Like, Josh Bell's,

I'm looking at this numbers now. It's pretty brutal defensively over there. And there are some things you can do to change that. Maybe they can position him differently, da, da, da, da. But they're, like I said, they're getting him for his bat, hoping he can turn it around and be the player.

And I think he can. We talk about this all the time. 2020 was dumb. I don't put much stock into any 2020 stats. The rest of the time, he's been in the big leagues. He's been an above average bat. You do think Luke Voight's the best home around hitter in all of baseball, though. I do not.

Was he the only one that won over 20? He was, right? Yeah, I think so. That was wild. I didn't even trade. Luke, boy, you guys hate when I say it out. No, I don't want to get a conversation. Maybe the, and Trev, hey, to your point,

how many guys in baseball have a 37 homer, you know, 936 OPS season in their books? That was 2019, the last full season. So, yeah, if you're the Nats, I mean, there's a little bit of risk. I think he's making around 5 mil or something like that. But man, if you can get a 30 homer season out of them, you made that back and some.

So it's not a bad bet by them. And if they go get another, like if they don't go get another starter then maybe they did and Bell is a total bust then maybe Crow not being around like he had a rough two outings this year maybe that hurts them then

but if they go use some money to go get a starter to plug into their rotation not even a great guy but a four or five I really think there's not a lot of risk here for the Nats at all with this move so I like it for them you too trying to figure out who

I'm looking at the free agents because a lefty would fit in really good with that lineup I mean Brantley could he play enough left field for them I don't know isn't Brantley signed no Nats are going to make another

I thought Brantley went somewhere no not yet dude no one's gone anywhere yet I mean really like no one's gone anywhere yet it's crazy Mike Minor uh Charlie Morton one or two more that I'm blanking on right now.

There's a lot left. Speaking of the Yankees tribe, we can do this. The Dodgers pick up Tommy Canley. He had Tommy John halfway through last year, so he's going to miss all of the 20-21 season. He should be good for 2020. You see a lot of teams pick up Tommy John guys, have them rehab and then hope you get that first year back out of rehab with them.

You know, Avaldi was one of these guys. Pineda was one of these guys. I'm sure that we can name a lot. that don't have Yankees ties, but that's where my brain goes to easily. So Dodgers fans, Canely's a beast. If he comes back and he returns to form and you have him as part of your bullpen piece in 2022, he is a delight as a fan and his change-up is as nasty as you'll see a change-up be. He's like a lefty killer, even though he's a righty.

So Dodgers have the money to make this move, and they can take on an injured player for one year to win the next year because they have that wiggle room. So, I mean, just, I'm happy that Tommy went to a contender. Good guy to have. I mean, 2022, he's a good guy. There's not a lot of time needed on this topic, but Dodgers got Tommy Canley for 2022, basically.

Yeah, I mean, the weakness of the Dodgers, if they have any at all, it's been the bullpen. So now they got a pretty nice pan with Gratterol and your ain't. whatever. Yeah, they figured it out during the playoffs. I'm not sure the system they used during the playoffs plays over 162. Gonzales was huge for them. Urias was back there. I don't know if they want to keep him back there. Probably not. But yeah, I mean, look, you need bullpen pieces, dude. So this is a good move for them. Fun guy. It will also be a big impact in the clubhouse and Dodgers behind the scene media stuff. The Yankees really had fun with them, which they rarely do with people. One of the best changeups in baseball when he's right. And yeah, I mean, the thing that caught my eye on it is this is a,

this is the new big market team move. There's a lot of small market teams. We heard from a couple of them that were like, we would never do this. And I think that's kind of going into my new theory about bullpins and small market where if you can have a 500K guy in your bullpen, throw a bunch of bullets in you. I think there's MLB teams that want their bullpen to be under five million total, never mind Tommy Kainly's one year. Yeah. Yep. All right.

Some other little moves here. The Royal signed Irvin Santana to a minor league deal. The Rangers signed Charlie Culberson to a minor league deal. The Rangers signed Coe Arihara. Did I say that right? Kohei Arihara. I don't know. To a two year 6.2.

It's kind of a bigger move. And then we kind of talked about this yesterday. The Padre signed the shortstop. Kim from, is he coming from Japan? Korea. Korea. He's 25. We talked a little bit yesterday about Korean baseball players and how Trev, you talked a lot of how they get overpowered when they come to the U.S.

Someone in the comment section said that Chu for the Rangers and Choi for everyone are different because they were signed at 18 and they were molded to face major leaguers when you play in the Asian leagues and you're built to hit that pitching and play that style then come over, which is a good point. So this kid's 25. So we'll see how much if he's already set in his skill set or if he has time to change and adopt because he's on the younger side than some of the older guys that come over. But I don't have much on anything of those on Kim, Arihara, Colberson, Santana. If anyone has anything on those guys speak up or forever hold your peace. Jake? Well, you know, I'm our foreign international scout. So I'll start there.

Yeah, man, I mean, for Kim and the Padres, it was a weird thing. Jim, I'll tell you, and maybe we'll put this in the bad column. Part of the reason he signed with Andre's is because they gave him full MLB contract, no minor league options. Toronto wanted him to a similar contract, but they wanted to leave minor league options in there. And he said no. So he's going to San Diego. He wants to play Major League Baseball. Good for you, kid. The rumor is Croninworth potentially kicks out to left field.

it gives them options. I'm interested to see, man, and the other thing with him. Yeah, man. Can I, how much are they giving him? Do we have the official numbers on it? I don't know.

I don't have the full, full number, but it's something like seven years, or six years, seven to eight per year, so in the 50-ish range. Is it that much? That much? Wait, say that again?

That's what the Joel Sherman tweet was. That's so interesting. So basically he doesn't have any options. So the Padres cannot send him to the minor leagues unless he agrees to be sent to the minor leagues. Or can they even if he does, Trev, he can wave, right? He can, they can like. Yeah, you guys, that's, that's way off, BBD. It's a four year $25 million.

This is what the initial tweet I read yesterday was. Oh, sorry. So anyway, this. I said I didn't see a final number. If he's really good, that's awesome. Congrats. If he's a great bench player and can come off the bench and swing it and play defense, good.

That's probably not what he wants to be a partial part-time player. If he stinks, I mean. It's not a huge money commitment for the Padres. Yeah, but like that just sucks for him. Like, wouldn't you rather be able to go get, if you stink, if you come over and you just can't keep up and you need to go to AAA. I guess he'd just agree to go to AAA. They'd have to ask him. He can agree. Yeah. They can do that. It would suck if he refuses and they don't want to get rid of them and they just, he plays once every five days and kills a bench spot.

The only thing I, the way they could do that is fake an injury, which is it called the, you used to be called the Phantom DL. I guess it would be called the Phantom IL now. Yeah. And he plays rehab games. But actually, if he doesn't have minor the options, then he would be exposed to waivers. So I don't think that he could just be sent down without being on the Phantom I.O. This is like a low risk type move for them.

They believe in him. Yeah. They believe in him. They are, I saw someone tweeted out the other day. The Padres are one of the few teams that has a full-time scout over there. And they were in on a Koyangam, Kim, on St. Louis, when he came over and they missed out on. So that scout was probably, probably yelling like, hey, I told you guys.

I told you he was going to be good. So they believe in him. They want this guy to play because when you guys start talking bench spots, again, think of the state of baseball right now. Teams don't want to spend millions on the bench. That's what I'm saying. 500K. So this guy better be a starter for the Padres.

And the other thing in Jim, you will kind of hit it on the head when it's talking about the Rangers pitchers, too, which I want to pronounce it, Arihara. That contract was weird for me too, because it was. two years, six million or whatever. And that contract just basically tells me you don't believe. So do you believe this guy is going to be a pitcher for you for the next two years or don't?

Like I don't know, that contract to me just smells like you're not sure you're throwing something at the wall and you're hoping you hit, which, hey, maybe they do. But it also feels like we don't really believe in this guy because if you did, you're either going to give him a little more cheese or a couple more years. It sounds about right for the Rangers. They don't know what's going on over there. They have no idea what they're doing. They have no idea.

They need to call me. I need to help them out. Unbelievable. Yeah, I guess he could change. But John Daniels is still there, right? He just moved up. He's the president of baseball ops now. I don't know, man.

I'm curious. I watched a highlight video of Kim. They just need arms, Jake. They just might need... They just might like let this dude just pitch every five games and shrug. If he's really good, it's fantastic value, but if he was really good,

I don't think two-year six-mill would be the contract we're seeing. Paying three-mill a year to let your triple-A pitchers develop a little more. I don't know. This is, I don't mean to come at Kim at all because, like, I hope he's good. I want to see everyone succeed.

I really do. And it'll be fun to see him come over because, like we talked about yesterday, Not a lot of guys come from Korea hitters that have played there and have success here. And even Japan. There's been a few. We've had Matsui and Ichero. Obviously, they were incredible.

But I watched a highlight video on Kim and it was all these homers and he pimps them and does all the stuff. But I started looking at the pitches. And these are meatballs. These are like, and they all were off speed, like changeups in the miss, backup sliders. This guy's teeing off. this is a different league dude they don't do that here they're going to throw 95 and up at your letters and go ahead and try to hit it so i'm curious to see how he's going to handle vlo because i think that's always the biggest thing vlo plays they don't have a ton of it in korea that's a lot of auspid that's just the way the game is played there it's not the way the game is played here top of the zone spin rate heaters all right so there you go trev does not believe in kim How about Kevin Euclis on Twitter the other day saying,

when are we going to find some content talking about different sequencing? And it's like, hello? Dude, there is this whole underbelly of the internet that is these. Okay. I mean, do we got time? Can I just talk about this? No, we're not doing hitting Twitter today. We're not doing hitting Twitter.

Hitting Twitter is, there's a crossroads. Old XMLBers versus the new hitting gurus on Twitter are fighting. And there's even this other guy, King of Jukkah, who's challenging Mike Cameron to a hitoff, which I think is going to be hilarious. But there's just, there's no middle ground.

And that's people are ridiculous that they can't find the middle ground. It's analytics or old school, and there's nothing in between, which is the dumbest thing. Why are people so dumb? Good luck, Kim and Arahara. Be good.

Don't be dumb. Don't be dumb, don't be dumb. I think that's kind of it, guys. I had something else I wanted to do at the end. Yeah, it's a big thing right on our banner, bro. The biggest podcast in the world for Sam Fault. Oh, yeah, I skipped it on our list because we had it number two. But we are Samfold Pod.

So Trev, do you want to say hi? I'm happy. I think this role is better for him than being a manager. The manager is a great. grind. You don't have a ton of say. I think Sam is better than that. He wanted the Boston job because he's from there. And that's a pretty prestigious managing job. It's not like you're the manager of, I keep banging on the pirate. It's like you're the manager of the Pirates. The Manager of the Red Sox is a little bit more prestigious. But I think he fits better in this role.

What I really think happening here is Dave Dombrowski comes in. He's running the show. Input from Sam will be there. And then I think Dombrowski eventually steps down and Sam will be running that team three, four years from now. And I think that's great. He is the guy. He only retired four years ago. And he was, and he just moved at the ladder so fast. And it's because he's a stud. So I'm happy for him. He's already in Philly, doesn't have to move his family anymore. They have a house there. The kids are there. So I think, you know, that's a one part of all, these moves that people don't think about. So you got to uproot your family and do all this stuff.

Sam gets to keep his family in place and I think that's a good thing for him. So Phillies fans should be excited. I heard this about Sam Fault. You put Sam Fault in a room full of baseball executives and he fits in. You put Sam Fold in a room with a bunch of baseball grinders and he fits in. Remember when I led the league in double plays? True. That's so disrespect.

It's so disrespectful. Well, I think for me, the last time I saw Sam Fold, I was actually in Cali. I took the five to the 405. And I don't know. He's a grinder. Philly fan should be celebrating today. 45. Keep going, man.

You got it. You got it. I'm not going to talk about you at all. Never. You're a great person, Jake. Thanks, Treb. That's awesome. Congrats on that, Jake.

Yeah. What a way to end. the year. Yeah. Hey, want to know it's a good way to end the year?

We're the number one podcast in baseball and I don't, we don't really do pats on the backs a lot or like brag about that a lot. But we, we hit number one

in November and we were all like, holy smokes. ESPN, MLB, like there's a ton of other major networks that we, and I thought it was like a one week, what a blip,

you know, because we had like a big episode that people came for. I think of World Series. It just happened. World Series, yeah, you know, and I, and then I checked it today. Well, they email every now and then I didn't check it. And then I looked at it.

We've been number one majority for the last two months, which I had no fucking clue. Buster only, usually number one forever. So thanks to everyone that listens and shares and watches. And that does not even take into account YouTube views. And we do pretty decent for our long episodes over there as well. So, hey, thank you to everyone. I think this is our last live episode of the 2020 year. we have a pre-planned episode coming out on Thursday.

It'll be the Buster and Ken Rosenthal interviews from winter meetings. But that was pretty exciting to see. And it's a big credit to everyone that listens and has been with us on this journey. So we thank you for that. Number one baseball pod. Pretty insane. We started less than two years ago. Bang.

Bang. Can I just say? What do you want to say? It's like, obviously, we are the best baseball pot. I'll pat us on the back. Some more humble pie. I'm just saying, dude, we are the best baseball pod. We should be number one every day.

I will say this, Trev. I don't listen to any others. So I can't compare. Because then you just steal their thoughts. I want to steal their thoughts. There's a lot of good baseball pods out there. There's people doing some really, really good work. Nobody does what we do.

Well, heard it here first. Oh, my God. Whoever's running the talking baseball account. Just posted some sexy pictures of Jake. No. Oh, yeah, I gave them a couple. Jim, on that note, we thank the fans. Fans are very important.

We love our chat. We love this. Also, I have to give credit to the guys that run our social. They kill it, dude. Yep. Kyle, Zach, BBD, a lot of behind the scenes. It's a whole, I mean, Bill Keith

There's probably some other people as well That is a sexy pick Huh? Oh I don't even want to be How did this come to be baby? Do you're part of this? I didn't participate in this one But on Instagram

It's been a trend lately To do like a post a pick of So we're doing that on the talking baseball account right now So we're just finding old picks Someone asked for sexy Jake And I think that sent Kyle on a chase Oh my God Jake The John Boy Media gifts

I think Bill's out there he's been on on a couple trips that he said, I have a bunch of pictures that haven't seen the light of day. I've got you. What was that, Phil? Did you see this John Boy Media Gifts Twitter account?

Picture that they made of you and the photo of yourself? That's really good too. Phil's just been waiting for a rainy day to let these rip, huh? Who made that gift, BPD? Jake, with the picture frame.

Good question. Probably Kyle. Probably that would have been... Funny. Is that this episode yesterday? It was yesterday. Do you guys know what Gip stands for? Graphic interface fucking.

Yep. Got it right. Now I got to add the age restriction. Ooh. Oh, so Jim, you sent me yesterday. We were number one or whatever. Yeah. And on there and started reading some of like our reviews.

and we have like all are very positive and then there's like a few that are negative and so one of the biggest reasons we get negative negative reviews is for our language which I don't think we cuss a lot that people are like you say F bombs stop saying F bombs I do Jake doesn't really curse I do I mix them in I don't think it's that egregious but anyways that was one of those don't those don't bother me at all because like I I'm not trying to cater to an audience that is cuss free. So I don't like that I'm not. And we also know we're not trying to be like the we curse podcast.

Yeah. Like I think we land pretty in a there's a there's a 13. There's a few that's like two Yankee centric, which you guys also talk about. So we get that. But the thing that was the funniest to me was, um, there was a few that said they were, we were a racist.

Oh, because white guys. Yeah. But then there was another few that, said that we're three white guys talking about race and we need to shut up. So like we're either racist against white people or we shouldn't be talking about race because we're white people. You can't win. Yeah. Well, yeah. The only thing that I think is true is the Yankees by us ones and I do think we do that too often. You admit that on. I, well, I have been trying to tell

I'll stop doing this. We had some, uh, we had like a week where like everything landed back to Derek Jeter and we find it. I don't find it fun, so I don't know. So I'm sure the audience doesn't find it fun. So that's the only review we get that I'm like, eh, that's a true one. Let's work on that. You want me to pull the Yanks real quick?

No, I do think it's hard, though, sometimes because sometimes, like, if I try to think of guys that got Tommy John and got signed, like, I just know more about the team I followed for 20 years than the teams I haven't followed closely for 20 years. So sometimes it's like, well, this is just the example I know. of because of the fan. It's not trying to steer the conversation that way,

it's my example. I get it. I mean, it's part of the reason that, like, Simmons drove me nuts for years and part of the reason I want to be good. He'd be,

he'd do an example, and he'd be like, these chiefs remind me of the 08 Celtics, and you'd be like, no, they don't. No, they don't. That's just what you know. Yeah, so I understand that as well.

How much would the Yankees be cleaning up if they didn't have the Stanton, Chapman, and Ottavino contracts, huh? part of the plan is having those contracts. The Paijays are just like in the perfect storm right now. Like they like,

you know, because if you're, if you were a buyer three years ago, you're not prepped for this, but they, their window just aligned with the storm of, of sellers or buyers market perfectly. And,

um, a little of it is smarts and a little bit of it's kind of luck. Uh, but they also do, they've been doing this. I get Machado. They got Machado and was like, what?

and then they've had a plan, so a lot of credit to the Padres. Oh, this is what I wanted to do to end the show. And we probably lost so many people because we've been so casual the last five minutes. Listen to all these names, Trave. You were asking about if Brantley's still around and Jake was asking what bats are still around. Listen to all these names that we still have to have signed somewhere. And a lot of these guys are probably going to, maybe three are probably going to warrant like episodes. Ozuna, LaMayhew, Bauer, Cruz, Springer, Real Mutual.

and then all these guys don't warrant anything, but still fun to be out there. J.B.J., Dede Grigorous. Liam Hendricks, a big bullpen piece that can be moved. Brantley, Colton Wong, Justin Turner still also announce that he's going back to the Dodgers for two years. Marcus Simeon. Even Waino and Yadi, those are like interesting,

even though they're probably going to go back to the Cardinals. Like, there's still so Tanaka, Rosenthal, Garrett Richards is a pitcher that I'm interested in. Taiwan Walker, he's been on the show. Hap. Archie Bradley's a bullpen piece that can really help some on. Simmons is a shortstop for a year. Like there's still so much news that's going to come. So we're really just starting. You're going to be waiting. Yeah. Biggest contract so far, James McCann, who was the backup catcher on the White Sox last year.

Who could? be on our hot guys list. Oh. Oh. Stop the show. I didn't vote for that. Thanks, guys. See you in 2021.

There will be an episode Thursday. We'll be recorded.