Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 266 | Red Sox, Yankees, and Nationals Making Moves!

Episode Date: January 26, 2021

The Red Sox made some moves, the Yankees made some moves, the Yankees and Red Sox made a move together, the Nationals get some bullpen help, and the Padres bring back Profar! 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. The Red Sox made some moves. The Yankees made some moves. The Red Sox and the Yankees made a move together. What? Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Thank you very much for joining us. We hope you had a fantastic weekend.

My name is Jimmy. Sitting next to me is Jake. Coming here from California is Trevor Plouffe and producer Bug Bug Bug Dude in the corner. we got a lot to talk about today. The Red Sox signed two guys. They traded for one guy. The Yankees picked up some guys and they traded away a guy. The Nats picked up some guys and there's a bunch of smaller moves.

Actually, a jam-packed free agency trade. Things are happening. Actually, things are happening. So we'll talk about all of that. But first, I need to tell you about some special people in our lives. Benjamin Gibbard, Jordan Colt Pack, Pet, the captain. Not a name, kind of like an instruction. You don't know.

Christian Macias or Macias. Mike, my eyes are like broken right now. You're right, Daddy? Mike. Fluger. Fluger, Matt Irons, Tyler Stewart, Colin Joseph, Eric Banker, Evan Phillips. Reed Pitts. It sure is.

That's an unfortunate name. Sorry, Reed. You got to be tough with that name. Reed Pitts? Yeah. It sounds like a bad golfer Michael Say Luke del Medico

Del Medico Delmedico Yeah Not Mr. Moon Judy Oh fuck Let it How would you say it

Let a toy Laetoye Maggie Hughes Juan Carlos Rodriguez from Panama Shout out Shout out Canal season Mariana Rivera

Milk Carton Kid Eric Bergenhire and Amanda Carroll. Those are our most recent patrons, patreon.com slash talking baseball. Tough names, tough crop of names for me right there. Tough start. Trev, how are you doing out there in California?

I'm doing well. It's kind of a, it's a tough day, I think, because I'm bringing back some memories. A year ago, we, Kobe passed. I was heading home from our beautiful trip to spring training and found out about it on the way in the plane on the way home and things really

haven't been the same since so it's it's interesting to you know kind of look back and see what happened after that but a lot of people posting tributes about Kobe today which is kind of cool to see I'm decked out in my Kobe gear but you know RIP Kobe Jiana everybody else that was on board tough tough day I was a year ago. Yeah. If you would have made me guess, honestly, I probably would have said three months. It wasn't spring training.

I was coming back from Twinsfest. Excuse me. I misspoke there. Yeah. I was in Minnesota headed back home. Big time. Where were you moment? I was still in Denver.

I was at a friend's child's B day party. And it was just like this delightful event. And then open the phone and it was like, holy smoke. So yeah, it's, uh, Kobe and coming up on the COVID anniversary, there's going to be a lot of weird, you know, New Year's is normally the weird year reflection. But I think we're going to have some more of that coming up. Oh, and, by the way, baseball hot in the streets, Tim. So hot, you could crack an egg, make an omelet on the pavement.

Oh, bad taste, though. Don't do that. It's my favorite scene from Father of the Bride. I think it's Father of the Bride, too. Driveway Omelet. Critically acclaimed. Have you ever seen you'd like it? Because Martin Short, it's amazing.

I don't know. I doesn't seem like a movie that's up your alley. Father of the Bride, too. Trabbe, your big father of the bride fan? No, I'm not. That's a Steve Martin thing. I feel like I don't appreciate him as much as I should. But I think I'm a little too young for that,

which you guys are younger than me, so I don't know. I mean, Steve, yeah, we'll get back to baseball, but appreciate Steve Martin. He's hilarious. Okay. Thank you. I do appreciate him. I know he's funny.

Okay. Awesome. Also, early gray head. So obviously, I am kinship with him. Let's start with the Red Sox. They made some trades. They picked up some guys, Trev. First, they signed Garrett Richards.

One year, $10 million. This is a guy that has an upside, but an injury history, but all the peripherals kind of love him. I'm shocked by the, I was shocked by the Kluber 11 million. I'm shocked by the 10 million here. I kind of, I think I just misread the market. I wouldn't have, it is a one-year deal, but this makes me a little happier about the Kluber deal.

This was higher than I thought it was going to take to get a one-year Garrett-Richard's deal. They also pick up Kike Hernandez. I love that move for them. And then they trade for Adivino. So the Red Sox are making some moves. Like five episodes, I said that they should get Kluber and Simeon because they needed that second. basement roving infielder and a one year high upside prove it arm instead of cluber and simeon

they go with garret richards and uh kike which i like i guess i don't know are the red sox trying to compete jake you're my red socks guy so i was crunching the numbers love those socks um when they first did garrett richards i was trying to do mental math and like what do the Sox actually need to do to be the Blue Jays or to be, you know, in the realm for an actual wild card spot this year. And it's, so let's start doing best case scenario. You know, E. Rod comes back and E. Rod's a really good pitcher. Chris Sale coming back midseason. What does he look like? Does he look like? Chrisale? Chrisale? Is he just a body? You know, kind of a wild card effect there. Avaldi was low-key pretty good. So, you know, Garrett Richards, he does have the high-end potential. When that

dude's on the bump. Like, he's a guy you don't want to see. He's kind of got gross stuff. The injury, I mean, again, we go through baseball reference and go look at some of the greats and go look at some of the just, like, very good guys that couldn't stay on the field because Garrett Richards, man, I mean, there's only one season with 16 starts since 2015. Guys always been tough when he's on the mound.

I like it for the Red Sox. a chance. Jim, you mentioned the market, and I think Trev would normally go to this place, but yeah, it's all about the one year. And for one year, they'll take a chance if Garrett Richards can go out there and shove, and if Boston's out of it, flip them for a prospect at the deadline. If Boston finds a way to be Boston and adds a part or two to try to get into a wild card race, you know, Garrett Richards can be someone for them. So it's fun. And then on the Kike side of it, obviously I love Kikea, sex symbol. He can play all around.

You know, they're thinking primarily second base, or they still have a hole at center field, which is his two best positions, but he can move wherever. He's kind of a GM and mostly a manager's dream at this point. So it's good to see Boston get in the act. They still would need, like, two impact-free agents to kind of get into wildcard discussion.

But, hey, if you're Sox fans, you've got a couple guys to get excited about Trev. Yeah, I think, look, if you're Boston, you can't just go complete rebuild. You have to do something, some fan service, if you will. You're a major market. You've got to spend some money. So I think these moves are, you could look at it a couple different ways. You could say, okay, the AL East, we don't know what it's going to be.

It could be, you know, the easiest the AL East has been in a long time. It also could be pretty competitive because there's not one team that really stands out as a now. I mean, we talk about all the time. I think the Yankees are probably still the best team, but I don't think they're as strong as they typically are. And maybe that'll change. Maybe they'll sign somebody. But I think for the Red Sox, you're right, Jake, these are some signings, especially like a Richards. If he does go out and have a good first half, like they can flip them. And we know how much teams love prospect capital. But I think more than anything, it's really just they got to do something.

They got to fill out a team. They can't just tear it completely down. They do still have some guys. They still have JD in the lineup. They still have sale coming back. The addition of Martin Perez. So they have a semblance of a staff. It just doesn't seem like it's a,

I mean, as of right now, as we stand, the Red Sox are going to be fighting for the, if there is expanded playoffs, they'll be fighting to get in at the end. So it's just an interesting thing. Himes in there. He can't, I guess, completely punt. It's a mystery type off season for me.

They're kind of in a nice place, front office-wise. They're doing enough to compete this year. If it doesn't work out, they can trade these guys if they do work out. The Red Sox are going into this season. This is going to not land well, so I'm going to back out of that. Backed out. I'm going to back out of it. Well, with some of the one-year contracts, like, you know, as you going in reverse.

You can trade. Make a trade. Or they can be surprisingly good. I was going to say the 2017 Yankees, that was my mindset. Like, I had had no hope they were going to be good. I thought best case for the 2017 Yankees was that Matt Holliday worked himself into a trade. And who else did they pick up? Do you remember they picked up like three one-year deals?

And then there was a bunch coming off the books. And I was like, best case, they can work themselves in the trade. They made it to Game 7, the ALCS because all the rookies panned out. So the Red Sox still have a squad. So I think what's ownership's brain, it's either we're not, we're bad, and we can sell off some pieces and get better and continue this rebuild. Or we're surprisingly good. As a fan, it's not exactly what you want to be, but they're kind of there.

Like, Adavino, I think he will be traded. I think they paid $9 million for Adavino. get a prospect with it and they hope at the deadline they can turn him in to another two relievers another two prospects and they trade him because everyone wants to shut down reliever come the deadline. So, you know, if they're good enough that they want to keep out of Vino, that's great. But if they're not, they're very happy to flip him because someone will be looking for him and see those strikeouts and that upside and want to righty out of the pen. So that's kind of how it seems to me that's playing out.

They can go either way with it. And it's going to be interesting to see how the rest of their free agency and potential trades play out. Because they add out of Vino, I think he's arguably the second or first best guy out of their bullpen. Now it's him and Matt Barnes and then a pile of crap. The Ben and Tendi trade rumors is something going to happen there? Or did they get nothing because Benny was so bad last year and mad at the year before that, you know, they're kind of in a Gary Sanchez territory like, hey, let's see if Benny can fix himself or we're done with them. They're in outfield.

They're short right now. They've got Renfro, your guy, currently in the starting lineup. I think they're still going to sign someone. You know, they're reportedly in talks with JBJ. You know, there were some deep cut Ozuna rumors, which, you know, I was kind of getting flashbacks to Manny. Everyone's talking about how Ozuna is closer to a DH than anything else at this point in his career. Hey, Ozuna could handle that left field at Fenway. Man, he did it for a year. So are they still going to be big players in the rest of this offseason?

Because, man, I think they're a bad away from that lineup looking tough. And, you know, the pitching, obviously not this team's strength. You need a lot of things to start going right. But, you know, if you can stay in it until Chris Sale comes back, I mean, if he looks anything like Chris Sale, then we're talking socks, baby. How crazy is that Avaldi deal? I was just going through the guys they could potentially trade if they wanted to. And obviously we named a lot of them.

Like Dustin Bidroy, he's going to be a free agent in 2022. They could trade that guy. So I might take a flyer. Did he officially retire? I think he's about to officially retire. Yeah. Garrett Richards, they could trade him if he pitches himself well enough. You know, there's hope there.

Martine Perez, same thing. They got some relievers they can do it with. And then I was looking at the Avaldi thing because someone could trade. him for half a season. You get the next season, but it's 17 mil a year. 17 mils a lot. 17 mils a lot for Avaldi. I was saying that I wanted to keep

the conversation simply just Red Sox, but a lot of their moves tie in with other moves. There's a really good pivot point to the Yankees we can hit, but also the Red Sox were supposedly in on Jurekson Profar, who signed with the Padres three years 21

million. As soon as that signing went down, the Red Sox went to Keeke for the same AAV seven years, seven million a year, but they only did a two-year deal, which I found a little interesting. I'd prefer Kiki than Profar because of the defensive versatility,

but the Red Sox wouldn't go to three years because maybe they are thinking more of a, this is a rebuild window, this isn't our team, where the, that's, I don't know, I'm reading into that situation. I'm trying to. Let me,

BPD, I need a look up here. What's the Red Sox payroll going into this year? Red Sox payroll. You know, for me, the worst thing that could happen to the Red Sox is for them to be in the middle of things come July. Yeah, you want to be sellers or you want to be buyers. You don't want, but there's with expanded playoffs

and no waiver wire, no one, everyone's a buyer. one knows. So, like, they need to be bad bad. So interesting, because we saw the Giants last year go through the same thing. Yeah, a lot of teams do it now, and it's, it's kind of sucks. That's where I'm really interested to see how the rest of their offseason goes, because if this is kind of it, you know, maybe even JVJ or an outfielder, I still think they're definitely a tier below the Jays, the Rays, and the Yankees, for sure. If they were to get an impact free agent, I think it enters a discussion, you need a lot to go right, but that's baseball. I mean, Bobby Dalbeck's getting the call.

Does Chavez ever figure it out? Who's the free agent? You gave a whole OZuna speech a minute ago, but he didn't like that. Compared him to Manny. It was kind of beautiful. That's where you guys, the audio was out,

because I didn't hear any of that. I don't think they're even close to going after Ozuna. There's no chance. Rumors. For luxury tax purposes, it appears there are payrolls at 204, which I think means I have about 6 mil before the threshold.

That's a lot more than I thought their payroll would be at all. luxury tax payrolls. I think in real dollars it's less, but. They paid sale. They paid Bogarts. They paid J.D. Yeah, they're rotation. They paid Avaldi. Their rotation and great. And I think that's going to do them.

Their lineup can be good. You got guys there. I like their lineup. So that's the Red Sox and what they're doing. They made a trade with the Yankees. Adamadovino goes from the Yankees to the Red Sox. He's got one year. Nine to 11 million, but nine million on the luxury.

tax side of things is the contract. The Yankees also sent a prospect Frank Hermann. I had never heard of him before. Young kid, I think he hits 98 miles per hour and as a slider, so there's potential there. And the Red Sox sent to the Yankees nothing, just a player to be named later. And they paid for Otto's contract. It was a straight salary dump by the Yankees because they only had two million left before they hit the luxury tax.

And now, by trading Atovino, they have $11 million to play with. And they can use that to go get a reliever that they like just as much as Otto. Plus Brett Gardner, honestly, probably just Brett Gardner, to be the fourth outfielder speed guy and second center fielder on the roster. Interesting trade. You don't see the two teams trade a lot. And also, the Red Sox did pick the Red Sox basically a free agent signing for the Red Sox. They just traded cash for a player. That's usually a free agent signing, not a trade.

They do get another prospect with them. I don't think that means much. It's just kind of a name. Trev, were you shocked to hear of this trade? I was because Otto's been such a reliable reliever. Wherever he's been, I know last year wasn't great for him, but, you know, the years prior to that, he's been a lockdown reliever. I face this guy. He's not a guy that you want to see on the mound. you know like he's a guy that really can go on a run and be like a lockdown strikeout back of the game reliever and it was interesting to see like they chose him because it was clearly what obviously was for salary reasons I don't know what the rest of the salary configuration is for the Yankees bullpen but I think you know it was more like he had one more year and they needed to do something and so they just decided on auto

I don't know if 2020 had anything to do with it. I'm sure there was a little bit of consideration for that. But in my eyes, this is a great move for the Red Sox. They get Auto. If they are where we think they're going to be at, you know, come July, they're going to be able to flip this guy. And he's going to go to a contender. He might go back to the Yankees.

Instead of paying, you know, whatever, $9 million, they'll pay $4 million. I don't know. It's an interesting trade. I think the Red Sox, I think they did a good job. This is Hyen. This is Haim coming in and saying, I find value here when you don't find value. Love it, Tref. You just got the Yankees and Red Sox buddy, buddy now. Heim's in, him and Cashman. They love each other.

I'm just saying. I love it. No, it's Atovino. He was very friendly to us through talking Yank stuff, so it was a little bit of a bummer there. And yeah, if you look at last season stats, there's one appearance against Toronto that messes up everything, and that's how it works with Relievery RA. Otto was good with the Yankees. They kind of messed with his confidence a lot. He's a thinking man on the mound. He's the first to tell you that and even the fact that he overthinks stuff. And the Yankees kind of, they used him as it went from lights out reliever.

He came over. He was dominant. And then they had Canely and him. Canely was so good against lefties that they kind of had this freakish two-headed monster where no righties could touch Otto, no lefties could touch Canely, that they almost deployed it to a point where it hurt Atovino's mentality because this guy has years where he's gotten both sides out easily. He's got nasty stuff.

He's an X-Axas king. X-axis king. And I don't know. I'm excited for him to go to Boston. Northeastern guy. I think that Boston Penn needs some innings, whether they're in it or not. So good for him. Go get some work.

Believe in yourself. we always say that. And it allows the Yankees to spend a little more keesh, which to stay under the salary. Don't say it, Jake, don't say it. Don't say it. Salary. He's also turning, is he 30, he's 35.

Sneaky older. Yankees thinking, like, hey, he was a great pitcher for us. He did well for us, you know, and now it's time for us to move on. Teams do that all the time. I just think that he's kind of a guy that doesn't need the Velo and he can rely on his stuff and that's going to play even at his age. So I think this is a win for Hime. I guess it's a win for both because I do clear up some Sally, which is can't believe we're talking about the Yankees and them saving $9 million.

This is a different Yankees team. I guess I always remind myself this isn't the old Steinbrenner Yankees anymore. Cashman does not operate the team like that. You know what's frustrating though, Treb? You know what's starting to frustrate me is everyone the cheap Yankees, the cheap Yankees. They have the highest payroll in baseball. They have the highest payroll in baseball. But to shy away from the luxury tax, it's just a weird thing.

It sucks to put the luxury tax ahead of like going all out. But that's every team. Every team's doing. If there was like other teams that were just busting through it, then sure, cheap Yankees, but every team is doing it. Because the tax is 50 cents on the dollar. understand that. Tell a millionaire he's going to get taxed 50 cents on the dollar and he's going to say,

I'm not, I don't want that. So, I mean, is that taxes with Jimmy? That's taxes. So essentially what's happening, but I just think the Yankees team is better with Otto on it than with him not on it.

That is essentially what's happening just to clear it up for the audience. Well, it's not, it's not his money. Like, it's not like coming straight out of his pocket. I mean, this is a payroll.

I mean, what does he earn his money from? a lot of things. If John Boy Media isn't, if John Boy Media isn't profitable, then I can't pay myself my salary anymore, Trev. It's profitable in a lot more ways than just like you thinking about a payroll and then saying,

oh, he's going to get text for the cents on the Darrow. What did his franchise value do? What are the auxiliary earnings from his franchise do? There's a lot of things, ways to think about it. Does Otto make them a better team? And if they make it to the World Series, they get paid more.

Well, that's so many ways. I think they can... It's not black and white like that. Well, it is that if they go over the tax, they get taxed 50 cents on the dollar, they're over. And if he makes you a better team, you can earn more money. We ended up in a weird spot.

We still, Trevor, the other thing is we are expecting this opened up the Yankees to make other moves. We think that they're going to sign a reliever that they believe in more than Adamatovino right now. We'll see how the rest of the relief-free agency plays out. You know, a lot of intriguing names out there. It'll be interesting to see who ends up in the Yankees price range. All the Yankee fans want Rosenthal. I think he's the most exciting reliever he left. I think he's going to get priced out from the Yankees.

It's interesting, Shane Green. He was a former Yankee farmhand, right? You could see maybe a little reunite. But yeah, it's looking like the Yankees basically said, you can get a meh prospect of ours, and we're going to re-sign Brett Gardner and a different rule. believer. How much do they have to work with now before they hit the threshold?

Around 11 million. And you got to remember, you have to keep some of that so you can make trades at the deadline. And when you call up... I said somewhere the other day that said 14 and a half. I don't know where people get these numbers. Well, what's... It's like a legit website, too. What's River Ave say?

He said four and a half before the auto trade, I think. So it's like 13 then? but you got to leave a little wiggle room when you want to make trades in the middle of the season also when you want to call in-season call-ups you got to leave like a million, million and a half, two million for that stuff. But the Yankees don't do trades at the deadline anymore

so maybe they will just spend it all. But no, the Yankees have at least one signing and two trade or one signing in a trade or two signings left to go. That's what this move means is that the Yankees have more move. to be made. I just would rather have Otto than Brett Gardner and a reliever that cost the... But Trev, you're they don't use Otto.

He didn't pitch in the Postseason. It's partially a Yankee problem. Like, I would rather Otto if the Yankees actually pitched him, but they don't pitch him in high leverage situations. They didn't even use him in the postseason last year at all. It wasn't an option. They used Loisiga instead of him. So if the Yankees

don't have any faith in him and he cost them $9 million, then go get a guy that you have faith in, like if Shane Green's going to cost you $6 million, go pick him up and maybe you have faith in him in the playoffs. Because I get what you're saying from the outside. It's like, do you think he just traded away their best reliever from the inside? They didn't even use him in high leverage.

I don't know why. I disagree with them not using him. But they went into the season last year having no faith in him. And they ended the season having no faith in him. We didn't get it. We were like very confused by it because besides one game, he was awesome. But if you're not going to use him in the post, season, don't pay them the money.

Bang. Can I circle back to... The guy is just a really good pitcher. That's how I... We agree. We agree. We agree. But for some reason, they don't use them. It was very weird. I want to go back to Kiki and ProFar real quick. Yep. We talked about the U-Til and they get the same AAV. ProFar gets the extra year, the third year. When you do get into the kind of gritty numbers of it, it does stand out a little bit. for how fun and sexy he is. Last year, he had a 680 OPS the year before, 715 OPS.

And ProFar has been moved all around. He plays infield and outfield too. And ProFar hit pretty well last year. He had a 771 OPS, 278, 343. And, you know, teams always want to buy in in that former top prospect figuring it out. So I was with you, Jim, but now that I've kind of double-checked it,

it makes more sense than I would have believed. I had it checked out. I did their last three years, and it was like the same exact numbers, offensively at least. Last three years, 243 batting average, 244 batting average. 323 on base, 313 on base. 434 slugging, 436 slugging. 757 OPS, 749 OPS plus, 99 OPS plus.

Like last three years, they've been the same exact offensive hit. Yeah, but that third year was, big for Kike and we're now three years away from that where the recent years are better for Jerksson. The last two? Yeah. Okay. They're like very similar. I think

I think the way I was reading into it is the Red Sox don't want to commit to a player for three years. I don't think it's I don't think it was Jerksson versus Kiki. I think they're very similar. I think it was. I think so? Yeah. Because I mean Jerkson played every Jerkson played

Center, second, left field, right field, and short last year. And he had a 113 OPS plus. So I think the recent stuff played better. The last two years is still they're very similar numbers.

Very similar offensive numbers. I think they didn't want to go three years. Do you know these guys, Trev? Do you know? I'm a Kike guy. If we're comparing the both of them, I just think he's has a better track record. I think Jerkson has the

the old prospect status. And he is younger than him, so that has something to do with him probably getting an extra year. Kike is turning 30 this year, and Jirksson's turning 28, I believe. So I've played with ProFar, at least had a spring training with him,

and I don't want to be mean or anything, but I wasn't super impressed with kind of like anything. Like, I know he can play everywhere, but maybe he's coming into his own. He did have a decent season last year. but for me, I think Kiki just brings more. Were you looking at him as competition during that spring training?

No. Okay. Not at all. Okay. Not at all. But I just, you know, to me, I think Kiki is just the more exciting player and can bring more value. And it's reflected in his numbers besides the last year. I think, Jim, you're saying the last three years, they're very similar.

But overall, Kiki, I think is just a better defender? so he gets a little bit of bump there. Well, you know, I'm happy for both these guys. You know, it's about time teams value utility so much, but they never pay for it. And now they're kind of paying for it. You know, I would say both these guys got a, you know, a decent contract for what they bring.

And I think Boston is an excellent place. I was pretty shocked by the profile deal, to be honest. I was too. I know it's $7 million isn't crazy, but to give three years and commit 21 mills, I was just taken back I was like Well he got what

And he's also a switch hitter So they're trying Maybe they'll try to exploit more platoon splits with him I don't really understand it But hey man I'm happy these guys are getting paid And you know they reach free agency And they did it

And it ties into this Padre's Kind of three year window too The three years for him Right now him and Kim From overseas are listed as on their bench we'll see if it's has an expensive bench it's a pricey bench right now so we'll see or they might think the dh is coming and then you can move one of those guys they've got croninworth who's flexible so with kim and pro far and croninworth you've got a lot of flexibility

there especially if they get the dh but yeah if we're going nl pitchers hitting right now there's going to be a couple good ball players who like if kim's just sitting on the bench just 14 million sitting on the bench and the pitcher's hitting Ball. Interesting. Also, the Yankees. I'm looking at these numbers more and more now. I don't get it, man. The profile numbers? Yeah. It doesn't scream

7 million years below average offensive player. And defensively as well. And you can, you know, yeah, it's very odd to me. I was good for him, happy for him. Good for the Padres for giving players money. Yes. That, you know, that's, maybe that becomes

the reality soon for everyone. but that's like a late 19 like an early 2000s contract. I disagree, lads. Okay. The Yankees also traded for Jameson Taon. We did an impromptu episode on talking Yanks, Trev. So Jake and I's opinions are out there. We can share some here.

The Yankees traded four players for Jameson Tyone. one, two, we're on their 40-man roster. I can tell you their names. Not to be rude, you don't care about their names. Miguel Yajore, something, Michael Escado, Cannon Smith, and Ronzi Contreras was the other 40-man.

Michael, Roonesy, Cannon, and Miguel, Canaan. So those are the guys they gave up. They get Tyone for two years, two million for this year. So it's, you know, and cheap. option.

He's double Tommy John guy. He hasn't pitched in a long time. We sat down with him in spring training before the world went to shit, had a nice conversation with him. Kind of like I like the move for the Yankees because what I stumbled into on talking yanks was if we're going to go the injured pitcher route, just get them all because eventually two will work out. The Yankees have eight options now and they need two of them to.

stay healthy and make it to October looking good. And the more you add to that collection, the more the chances are you have two of them. So he's now one on the list of hopefully, you know, he can recover and pitch. His upside's there. Like when he was healthy, he's really good. I think 19 of his 22 starts in 2018 were three earned runs or less.

And he had 22 in a row at one point of three runs or less. So the upside's there, but, you know, double Tommy John. I don't know the prospects they gave up if they're anything crazy, but this is, yes, the ultimate upside deal for them. And this guy has been through the gamut, man. Like two Tommy Johns, he had cancer in the middle of that.

And here he is. And if, you know, they can get him into form this year. And then even next year, I mean, this is a great sign for the Yankees. And he has that mentality, like,

you know, that he wants, he feels like, he still has so much left to give the game. And that's the kind of person you want in a situation like this. He's going to work his ass off to get out there and be the pitcher that he knows he can be. Sometimes these are just freak injuries that happen, especially a Tommy John, a double Tommy John. I mean, that's very tough for a pitcher, but he has the mentality to come back.

And, you know, I think the Yankees pride themselves on being able to kind of get value out of some pitchers. I think they would do a good job developing pitchers. and this is reuniting Tyone with Garrett Cole. The Yankees? I think so. You don't think so? No.

They're really bad at it. I think they do. Developing? Yeah. Oh. Didn't they just bring in a bunch of a whole new system with a Cressy and everything like that? Last year was the first year.

So we haven't seen it happen yet. They're historically, terrible at developing pitchers. I always felt like whenever I faced the Yankees, they had good pitchers. Maybe they just had a lot of big pitchers. They bring a lot of them in. They ship out a lot of parts to bring in the other pieces. It turned a decent amount of guys

into relievers that are effective. It's going to be interesting with the new system. And the Yankees kind of had a weird 2010 up till 2017. So we'll see how, you know, Trevor, that stance could change very quickly if David Garcia is real and Clark Schmidt's real and Dominga Hermann is real.

But we got to see that. Ron's the Marlins, right? Yeah, he's traded over, but he got them in the system. Trevor's talking about the system. Jim, you mentioned it, a lot of kind of cool lottery tickets. Like, you got, if you need three matching numbers, you know, you just scratched off the first two, and you're either going to do or die real quick. We'll see what Kluber's got in the tank.

We'll see what Tyone's got in the tank. You know, Domingo Hermann did not pitch. last season. Severino when he comes back. So, like you said, with Tyone added to the mix, it gives the Yankees like one more room for error with these guys. And yeah, I mean, never mind these guys, but throughout the league, how much are pitchers going to be allowed to let it rip this wise this year? Inningwise, I don't know. So it's going to be interesting to see timing of whatever injuries do happen this year. It's going to be interesting to see Seve's rehab. But yeah, Yankee fans are excited for Tyone and they should be because his,

I mean, the last full season on the mound, I think he was fourth in, in war in the National League. So excited to see what he does. And as a Yankee fan, it's going to be roller coaster of the season, seeing who's healthy and who looks good. Do you remember when they brought Garrett Cole over and everyone, all they could talk about was, oh, this guy's going to, he's essentially another pitching coach. These guys are all going to go and there's clips of him showing people his grips and what he does. Did that, did you guys, you guys are way more into Yankee World than I am, did that come to fruition last year? Is there more talk about that? Did he help their staff at all? It was a really weird year. It's tough to say. No idea. It was Matt Blake, the pitching

coach's first year as a pitching coach, and he, from the times we've seen him, he doesn't necessarily carry himself with a giant ravado. Not trying to be rude, but No, when Matt Blake had to make pitching changes, it looked like, you know, bring your son to work day. And he went and made a pitching coach for the pitching change for the first time. Hopefully that changes

in year, too. Treb, I will say this, and I'd love to get your feedback from whenever you tried to listen to the pitchers talk and they said, get the hell out of here. I am excited for the pitcher's room this year, because I think Garrett Cole, Kluber, you know, those guys,

talking to the young guys. I'm really excited for that. I'm excited for Davy and Clark Schmidt to listen to those guys talk because I'd assume their encyclopedias of pitching. Yeah, you know, so funny to hear like you guys reaction when I said the Yankees have developed pitchers. Honestly, when I coming up, whenever you face the Yankees, just felt like they had a bunch of arms ready to go. They're always saying, this is going to be so-and-so, this guy's going to be so-and-so. This guy's going to be so-and-so. And then I guess if I look back at like, when I played him in the big leagues. Like they had to bring guys in.

The last, like, pitcher that had a full career is Andy Padet. And then, like, right below him is Phil Hughes. And that's all. Seems like we had a bunch of young guys last year. Maybe that's what I was thinking of. The Clark Schmitz, the Davey Garcia. Do you know what the Yankees are really good at, Trev? Like, they're, like, one of the best hyping young pitchers.

Maybe that's what it is. And then trading them. And then they never pan out. And they become relievers for another team like Shane Green. that Shane Green made like seven starts for the Yankees looked great. They traded them to the tigers. Ian Kennedy. Ian Kennedy.

Same thing. Jabba Chamberlain. Same thing. Melanson. They're really good at hyping up their prospects because they know they need to trade them because they're eventually to become relievers. They're really bad at developing starting pitchers. But that's why they're easy, dude. Well, I know.

And they just, they just fired every pitching coach in the entire organization after the 2019 season. and so they're trying to get better at it. But they're very, Andy Padet. It's the last guy that had a full career that came. Starting pitcher. Strike that statement from the record then. Yeah. That I said they're good at developing pitchers.

They just get at developing hype. Could it happen money. Really good at developing hype. Jesus Montero. Heard of them. Oh my gosh. Stud. That's a name.

That's a blast in the past right there, baby. Came up, hit two short porch home runs. Boom. ate himself out of MLB. John Ryan Murphy. Same thing. Yeah, they're very good at that. Not the eating thing.

One homer off Glenn Perkins. You guys Aaron Hicks. Oh. Glenn, we used to be my locker neighbor. Did you know that? No, I didn't know that. Oh. Okay.

Keep up. The Nationals made some signings, and the NL East gets crazier and crazier. They pick up Brad Hand one year, $10.5 million dollars. They also have Ryan Zimmerman return on a one-year one-million deal, which is nice and clean. Hand is so interesting because any team could have got him for one year 10 million when the Indians DFAed him. Am I wrong?

No. Oh. You're not wrong. Oh, Jake did a wow on me. I wasn't wowing you on my screen. Oh. And then the Nats pick him out for one year 10.5. Do you think like, I don't know.

Part of me has Brad Hand telling him his agent. Like, they're going one year 10, tell them I'll only do it for one 10.5 because fuck everyone for not picking me up for that one year 10. I ain't signing. Like imagine like just a pride factor. If you want me, you got to get me more than 10 mil because I ain't, I was bullshit. Whatever you guys colluded to earlier in the offseason was nonsense. I hope Brad Hand drops dick all over this MLB. season. He probably will. He does all

time. Because it's all he does since 2017, 224 games, a 261 ERA, 103 saves. Jim, the face I, the snarf I made that distracted you was, you know, I like using the Fangraphs page a lot and it shows a power ranking of

just, you know, if you look at the lineup, it gives a power ranking like it says Juan Soto was the ninth best player in baseball last year. I don't know how Fangraphs gets that number but, you know, it puts, it makes all things relative. It had Brad Hand as the best reliever in baseball last year. So the fact that we're even doing this dance, and hey, you know, I know if our friend,

Eno Seris was here, he'd be telling about how his fastball's losing velocity and how that's such a big warning sign. I mean, my biggest warning sign would be he was the best reliever in baseball last year with that Velo dropping. So I get it. There's guys sexier than Brad Hand. You know, I'm sure he's due for some regression. Maybe the guy knows how to pitch.

And maybe he's been really good in Major League Baseball for a while. Trev, your guy Brad Hand. It's funny to look at his baseball reference page and just see him go from very suspect starting pitcher to elite reliever. And people think it's just that easy, but there's not many guys that do that. I know it's like reference to the like, oh, just throw him in the bullpen. But like, this is different. Like he went and became a three-time All-Star, a guy that can shut games down. So, yes, I'm excited for him to get the opportunity that NL East is just a joke.

It's a joke. What are they going to do? Marlon should just quit. How does baseball justify that somebody from like the NL Central is going to get in? And then like these teams are going to be so much better in the NL East, just knock it in. We need a balanced schedule. It's so ridiculous. This is going to be the most apparent year for that.

I mean, with, sorry, that was my rant. With the current NL East and the current NL Central, it's, tough to argue against you. There's some baseball purist in me and Jimmy that hates that, but God, the fourth best team in the NL East will be clearly better than the NL Central winner this year.

I don't know, because we went into last year thinking that it was going to be a four-team race and the Phillies and Mets crap themselves pretty hard. Short season. Yeah, I know. So we'll see how to play. Yeah. I know, I like that. Lendor McCann and I wasn't trying to shit on them for this year. I was just saying like, you never, you never,

You never know, but it all signs point towards that happening. I got a trivia question for you guys. Oh, Trevor's trivia. So I was typing Brad Hand's name into the baseball reference search bar, and I'm going to ask you guys, how many players with the last name, Hand, have there been, according to baseball reference in the big leagues? Five.

That's a good guess. That's a great guess. Jim. Five is my guess. I mean, hand is such a good. There's some self-fulfilling prophecy to having the name hand and playing baseball. I'll go eight. It's three. Not as many as I would have thought. There's also one hands with his S, a plural, two hands. Or their first names. Well, now I got to go back and look, Jim. Let me get it up for you guys. Yeah, Brad Hand. Donovan Hand was recent, 2013 and 2015 and Rich Hand 70 to 73 and then Bill was the plural hands 65 to 75. So Mr. Hans.

Bill Hans. Yeah. William Hans. Nats fans, reach out because what's up? You guys need another bat. Bring Dozier back. Love Dozier. I don't know if he's their solution.

He's retired. I love Daddy Doge. Don't think he's. the answer. Because you can talk yourself into the Nats. I mean, Turner, Soto, like, they're kind of your stars. Schwab or Bell, if one of them pans out, you're excited. Key Boom and Robles are the young guys. Right now, Goams and Castro, you just need more out of one of those positions. I have wanted that. I think it would make this team a lot of fun. I think we're going to see a scary. I know he's always been scary, but Juan Soto, as he just gets a little bit older.

more experience. This guy is the best hitter in baseball right now. And he's just going to get better. I think he's like underappreciated somehow. How is that possible? Because he's so good at such a young age and he's done it on a big stage already. They already won the World Series with this guy.

I can't wait to see him. I think he's, I think he's correctly hyped and slept on at the same time. Maybe. He got screwed last year. Like, I don't think he got COVID, but he was COVID-ed out of the season for, like, the first three weeks. False positive, right? I guess.

I thought that's like they came out, and I said it was. I just know he didn't have. I'd assume so. I want to watch a random Bradhand video. Okay. Because, oh, this looks like the video that it's chosen is a ball to Jose Martinez from 2018. It's also loading so. Yeah.

Internet's struggling. So whatever. Brad Hand for me, like all those numbers, the eye test, like whenever I see Brad Hand come in and pitch, I'm like they're going to crush this, dude. So I don't know why. I'm not trying to just being honest with the people, whenever Brad Hand comes into a game against the Yankees, I get like giddy. I don't know how they fared against him if like there's a bias there,

but it's like slow looper just doesn't, I don't know. doesn't impress me. But I know the results are there. So it's something different in my brain. It's just, I just guess I'm used to, like, guys come in and just throwing gas. Pumping. Yeah. But, dude, Juan Soto last year led the league in batting average on base percentage slugging.

Obviously, if you lead an OVP and slugging, you're going to lead an OPS as well. Led an OPS plus. He was intentionally walked 12 times in 47 games. That's why they need someone behind him. Golly. Cap Ellen Schwabo. either of them can play defense one of them may hit 1920 and 21 year old seasons

he had an on-base percentage over 400 that's the most impressive thing that's incredible yeah crazy speaking of incredible the cubs signed austin romine to a one year 1.5 million dollar deal love romine go get it good job cubs romy mahomi got anything on this treff Your guy.

You don't need to have anything on this. Oh, I don't. I don't like the Cubs right now, so I don't like it. All right. Blue J's signed Tyler Chatwood, Jake, your guy. Get out there and twirl it, Tyler. The Braves have re-signed Pablo Sandoval to a minor league deal. Oh.

Gotta be better options. I don't get it. I don't get it. There's just. It must have been really friendly there or something. I don't know. Like if he makes the Major League Club, he gets a Millie. there's just got to be better options

guys a bowling ball and like I'm a fan of those but still like what I don't know understands why there's got to be someone in your system that you could get up for like 500K that can do whatever he's going to do for you Ocuna must love him

you think he's That's the only that's all I got Treve why would they do this Signed Pablo to a minor league deal Yeah. He's not going to break with a team, you guys. He's just depth. So why even do it?

Was he on the playoff roster last year? I think he was. He made an app. He got a bat. It's like that pinch hitter. And then that's why you do. You have him as depth. And if someone goes down, he can come up and fill a role.

You can have Jake's depth. I know. I don't know, man. I have a little bit of bias towards Pablo. But, you know, why? In what way? Good or bad? Good or bad.

Oh, bad. Oh, bad. Yeah, because you got a big deal and just stop working. I hate that. Oh, okay. It's a pet pee of mine. So I just think he's depth and maybe they like that he's a switch hitter. Maybe I don't know.

Maybe he does a relationship with someone there. I thought to me, it's like a whatever move. The Red Sox deal with Pablo, I thought was the dumbest move ever. The fact that they didn't put in a weight clause was insane to me. Dude, had three World Series rings and you just. gave him $100 million or whatever. And you didn't put in... It's getting thick.

You didn't put in a weight clause. And he already had issues. It's like, what did you think was going to happen here? So anyway. Good job, Pablo. Claveland brings back Cesar Hernandez. Jake, you said you had a really hot take on this. What just happened to you?

I don't know. Tell the people. No, that's YouTube. Actually, they can't even see. It's below camera. Tost. a plastic cup So it was good

It was plastic Man I don't know Dude gets on base He racks up war Feels like he does his thing There's been some kind of Jose Ramirez

Rumblings I don't know If you're Cleveland You're like Okay You know What are you supposed to do At this point?

I don't know Sorry Frankie's gone But Hernandez is back This is a good player man It's a really good player. He's a really good second base, and he gives good at bats,

and he's got a great demeanor, mental state about him. But yeah, Cleveland, I mean, another team I just don't really want to spend a lot of time on because they're just, I don't know what their deal is. I don't know what their deal is. You're mad at them.

You mad. Jay Ram's gone. They have to trade this guy. You like teams that spend money? I do like teams that spend money. You're a Yankees fan? They spend the most. in all of baseball.

I do like the Yankees, sure, yeah. What if the Braves give them young? You give him credit for something they didn't even actually do, Jim. I must be. Yeah, that was a little bit shocking. I was like, well, I didn't want to, I didn't want to come at you, but I didn't want to come at you. I didn't want to come at you, but I wanted to make sure you've retracted it on your own at some point because. That's fine.

Yeah. You explain it to me well. They hype players up. The only other option, like a better than Hughesie is actually Ivan Nova. Like he's like had a career as a. starting pitcher. That would probably Pineda in the mix. Marlins.

debuted with the Marlins. Did the whole minor leagues with the Marlins. Mariners, sorry. Mariners, not Marlins. You know, I think, and God, I hate that I'm about to say this. Oh, my gosh. Maybe New York, the lights are too bright. Because I feel like if you look back at

minor league track records, they would have guys that are like, okay, this guy is going to perform in the big leagues according to these numbers. It could be that way, but it also could be they just bat it. Like they revamped their entire minor leagues. They often, I mean, for years they traded a lot of their top prospects for, you know, big name MLB players in the late 2000s.

They never had elite draft picks, and those draft picks also didn't pan out. And so, I mean, that's a pretty easy way to cover like 20 years without a legit dude coming in. Yeah. And I do think if we compared it to other franchises, we would be shocked just like how tough it is to develop pitching. Unless you are... Because like how do you label the pirates? The Indians right now.

Because the pirates have had dudes come up, but with the pirates, they were dick. Yeah. You know? It's the Indians, the rays in Oakland. They develop pitching. Zito and Mulder, man. In sad news, Hank Aaron passed away.

The king. Did you ever have any interaction? Trev? You know, I don't think anything personally, saw him around the yard, like in spring training and stuff like that, but never was like I wasn't good enough to be in his presence. That's just an honest statement. But just a king. People ask, you know, do you consider him the home run king? And I kind of do. I'm kind of a Barry Bond's hater. I know how good he was, but, man, to me, Hank Aaron, like, I grew up with him as the guy that had the most home runs ever in the major leagues, and I still kind of feel like he's the guy that should be holding

that title. So from all accounts, just a great person. So this definitely has been a tough year, man. We lost a lot of good people this year. It's nuts. Oh, in the last year. In the last calendar year, like MLB Network put up a graphic, and it, like, there's a whole roster. There's a whole roster of Hall of Famers. It's insane.

And even in the last week, it was like, it was LaSorda Sutton and Hank Aaron. So nuts to think about, yeah, if you're, we always reference, we always reference baseball reference. Go check out Hank Aaron's baseball reference. It's insane. And yeah, like I, I don't know. This isn't even a take. It's not that hot, but I'm like, I'm kind of a retire 44 guy, like the, just across the league, man. I mean, he's, he is like kind of the true home run king in a way. And when you just hear the stories of what he went through, it's like, what? Like, it's insane that he was playing baseball at the level he was for 20 plus years.

Well, you know, getting death threats and everything. So he's a man who should be remembered in baseball forever. 44? Yanks already have that retired, so you're all set. I'm good. Boom. Now, I read a story about, you know, we brought the Negro leagues into, brought the stats and considered it Major League Baseball now.

I was reading a story that they found enough homers for Hank Aaron that. It's really tricky. It's really tricky. I dug into that a little bit because there's some games that just don't have stats. There's like a lot of barnstorming games, a lot of exhibition games. Do you count the playoffs? And there's a lot like they don't know like what game this game was.

So they're doing their best to sort it out. But I'm guessing there's got to be some home runs. I don't know. Yeah. And there was an interesting article about it. They're like, yeah, we can go back into clippings. And it said he had a homer each game and there were seven games. So he had to have seven homers here.

You know, they really have to do their research. And if they're serious about integrating statistics, then possibly we will have Those people do crazy research. The Sabre people, like that's, they have bios on every player on baseball reference, basically. Guy played like five games and they'll have like a bio written up about his like early childhood life to getting drafted and scouted and then like playing five games and then not being a major league anymore.

It's crazy the research they do. So I'm sure they'll get it done somehow. That'd be cool. I would like that. Yeah, whenever they update it, I think it's going to be really cool. Like when baseball references like today's the day, and then we can go look at all the changes

and all the new records and all that, that's going to be fun. But yeah, sad day in the baseball world. And I think that's it. I don't know if we're long. I think we're not live anymore. I think the internet crapped out on us over here. So I'm glad we're still with you, Trev.

We got everything covered. There's a lot going on. We didn't even get into the, the labor pod disputes that are starting up again. Maybe we'll do that later in the week. The DH. Follow Trevor Plouf on Twitter for that. We'll get into all that.

And anything new that happens because there's going to be more. We still got to find Bauer, Romuto, Odorizzi. Ozuna. Ozuna. A home. Tanaka's going back to Japan. Is that official official? Not official, but not official. Yeah.

So over him. Yeah. Go get your money. Have fun. Get away from Corona. We will see you later this week. Thanks, guys.