Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 432 | Rangers Sign Corey Seager & Mariners Sign Robbie Ray!

Episode Date: November 29, 2021

Timestamps: 2:30 - Rangers Have the Best Middle Infield in Baseball 10:00 - Rangers Need Pitchers 11:30 - Mariners Sign Robbie Ray 21:45 - Where do Baez & the Others Go? Presented by DraftKings 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. We're back. Emergency episode, Seeger 325, Robbie Rand the Mariners. Holy smokes. Let's go. Hello and welcome back to Talking Baseball. We already went live for our Monday show today, but baseball is hot in the streets right now.

This weird CBA is going to run out. So guys are signing and we were debating, should we go live? What should we do? And Trev, when the question is, should we go live, what do we do? We leave the mall. Yeah.

We leave Christmas shopping with our beautiful daughter and come and put the work in because that's what we do. Different. Different. I can't believe it. Dude. We filmed the whole episode this morning

talking about this and then boom just like that two massive paydays massive man core if you have no idea corey seager to the texas rangers by the way we're going to call john boy in in a second he's driving home um corey seger 325 to the texas rangers after they signed simi and we talked a lot earlier today about if this would if they were done there was rumors that They weren't, and boy, they were not. That number is crazy for him. Robbie Ray to the Seattle Mariners. It's an AL West lifestyle.

Pretty unreal. I mean, the Ray news drops, and it's like, okay, Mariners, excited for you. Cy Young, that young team, so much energy, team that wouldn't die this year. And then that kind of put the Texas Ranger Simeon signing into light because of our whole conversation we had like what does that do for the Texas Rangers now they signed Corey Seeger I mean they just added up the middle I mean a lot of juice Trev I'll kick it to you first I'll probably call in the John Bino while you're talking within a span of how long 48 hours they have the best middle infield

combo in the big leagues oh is that like they just went out and got it it was available to them and they said, we'll take it. Now, the question is, where do the Rangers we're talking about? Now, where do they go from here? I'm reading, according to one of the beat riders there, that they were willing to go up to $100 million

in new contracts this year for next year. Hello. And with, oh. Hello, hello. Oh, I muted ourselves. Hey, Jimmy. Sorry, Trev's rolling. I was trying to mute you in.

All right. Keep going, Treb. They've committed like upwards of $76 million next year, which means they still got money to spend 24 mil left to go if that report is accurate. Like they're not done. The Rangers are making a splash and, you know, Corey Seeger, 10 years, $32.5 million per year, that's taking it to the bank right there.

That's crazy. But he does everything well. Like he's another one of those guys. You don't balka giving this guy that money. You look at Seeger's stats on paper, and they're better than Correa's. I don't know if people necessarily realize that. The defense has some questions. When Seeger is healthy, his stats are off the chart.

Jimbo, you're coming live from the road. How are you doing? We're talking Seeger. Since I left the office, I've gotten two miles. I just got past the stadium, so that's awesome. Nice. Seeger is now like the 11th highest AAV or something like that. But, I mean, that's a crazy thing.

But I guess good for the growing business of baseball. Is he younger than Correa? Yeah, I think he's a little younger. A year maybe a little less, but yeah. My first thought is just like, what does this do for the Correa deal? Who the hell is going to sign Correa now if it's not the Yankees or, like, Phillies? like who else is going to pay Correa? But I think Trevor had the best prediction of 2021,

unless someone has on record that they think Simeon and Seeger were going to go to the Rangers. I think that would house Trev for best prediction of 2021, and you'd have to give them his plaque. So Correa is younger than Seeger. They're both 27. Seeger's like 200. Yeah, I mean, they're both 27 for lack of a better.

way to look at it. And yeah, I mean, Corey Seeger, he's got, you know, his 2016 through 2018 was really good. 2020, the shortened season was nasty. And this year in 95 games, a 915 OPS. Like, I know we see those as, you know, yeah, those are really good hitting numbers from a shortstop, from a lefty, those are kind of unreal at this age. So there's some injury concerns. He's had a little bit. There's Some with Correa, too. But, I mean, both of these guys, I mean, Correa came into this free agency pretty much knowing he's going to get the highest billing. Shout out to our guy Jeff Passon, who said Seeger was going to get $300,

and everyone kind of bluffed a little bit. I mean, Correa's got to be looking at $350, $370, something like that, because, I mean, with his defense, Seager is going to have to move off of shortstop. Jimmy, I know you tweeted about it the other. other day, you know, about these old short stops and how long will they stay there. I mean, Simeon's already off. Seeger will be off one day. I don't know.

I mean, at least Correa, he will be at the shortstop position for a while. So, yeah, where's, is Seeger down to Detroit? Or excuse me, Correa? Is he down to Detroit, the Yankees and the Astros? Philly, Sos, man, that's what I was going to say. The Astros should just snatch this up from Texas and just be like, well, screw you,

we're in the same division, same state. We'll just get Korea back. I'd like a Trevor story to the Astros. I think they're a team that would look to see, or they'd say to themselves, we can get this guy at a discount right now, and he's really good. From Texas, kind of all plays out.

They offered Correa what they offered Correa. I don't think they're going to get back together. That'd be really, really tough. They were really far apart. So I don't think that's going to happen. But for them, I think it'd be cool if the Astros went out and got Story. That's got to be on the table. I mean, Trevor Story right now, I think him and Baez are winning.

We wondered how the shortstop market was kind of going to play out. I thought you could get a deal on Story. I don't think you can, man. I think Trevor Story's got a lot of numbers that go to toe-to-to-to-to- with Simeon. Do you think these short-stops that are left or any player that's, left right now is calling the agent and being like, I know you told me that we were going to wait through the lockout, like, go get me a deal right now. I'm not sitting in December and January, not knowing when these are the contracts that are being handed out right now. I say yes to that

question. They're definitely calling their agent. And then on the other side of the agent saying, let me do my job. This is why you hire me. Let me do it. Now, do you trust him or do you not trust him? my guy. We didn't have any negotiations like this, obviously. But I think that's the conversation that's going on right now. Why is everyone getting paid? Where is my money? Can we do it before the lockout? That'd be real nice to go into Christmas with that bag. And a lot of the agents are probably saying, we can't. We need to wait. We need to wait. We need to wait. I mean, man, I've been on the story bandwagon for a little bit for my Yanks. And I thought he was kind of going to get overlooked if this was a normal free agency.

His guys were bidding for Seeger, Correa. Trevor Story is going to get an absolute bag, absolutely massive. I think Bias, man, I think people were going to be nervous to give him some of the years, but when you look at the remaining teams available, there's teams that need short stops, and they're both studs. I mean, there's obviously different levels to this, and when you're giving out a contract of this nature, you're projecting, and obviously age becomes more and more of a factor.

but Trevor Storre is an athlete with really good career stats who still plays a really good shortstop. Baez, you know, people get worried about some of the OBP stuff, but dude can play defense around the horn, and he still ends up with an OPS in the 8th. So, like, the shortstops are winning this free agency. Kind of all the players are winning this free agency. Where are the Yankees?

Where are the Dodgers? The Rangers have to go get Kirshaw now. go get cursed or stroman they have to get a pitcher you don't you don't give what is it 400 million dollars and completely revamp the middle of your infield and the middle of your lineup and then roll and then not get a pitcher as well when they need that too yeah yeah they have I mean yeah we we we I was I was talking to Jake about this before we went on I was like where am I what am I missing here like the immediate take that comes to mind is like like we've seen this with the angels.

Like they need to go get some pitching. And I'm wondering, you know, we looked at the roster and the guys that are available, like Stroman's a fit there, especially, you know, with who's out there. Like you kind of have to say Rodan, Stroman. Yeah, Kershaw is a possibility. I feel like the Dodgers are going to go out and get him for some reason. But I don't know, man.

Like they do still have money. Like Chris Young said, $100 million we can add in payroll for the next year. And so that gives them 25 mil left. Yeah, and I know we joked a lot about our guy, Josh Young, today. You wonder, does he become trade bait? Does he become a corner outfielder? Because if Seeger is going to slide to third at some point, because he's going to have to.

I don't want it to be shots fired. Of course, Segar, you're awesome, dude. But it's just kind of how baseball works as you get older. You have to be super happy for Texas Rangers fans. I mean, they went out and spent the bag. But on the other side of that, who are the Texas Rangers still? And we're talking about them signing some pitching.

In this AL West where the halos, they're going to have, you know, O'Tonnie post-MvP, Mike Trout will be back. They signed Cinderguard. What other moves are they up to? Are they in the shortstop game? And then the Seattle Mariners in their division, they just signed Robbie Ray

after they finish second in the division with their young upstart team. They made the Adam Fraser trade, which there's been so much baseball action we haven't even been able to talk about. But they go out and they get the Cy Young winner. I know Robbie Ray right now he doesn't speak to people as Cy Young winner Robbie Ray, but that's what he did. He just beat out Cole. He just beat out Lance Lynn.

He was the AL-Sy Young Order winner this year. He goes from Toronto to the Seattle. Mariner's five years 115 Jim I'll kick it to you first What were you thinking when you heard about that I was I don't know A little shocked I didn't even consider it really

I guess I didn't give it much thought But remember how awesome Those last couple games were in Seattle And they were selling out the stadium The fans were going crazy And it looked amazing Well That's awesome that those fans get rewarded

And get to add on to it and keep going They should go pick up Stroman now or another pitcher probably. But they also got Frazier, which we were going to, they traded for Frazier at second base. We were going to save that for a future episode because there's just been so much going on. But it's a second move that they've made now to better their team. The AOS, I'm interesting to see how it plays out because every team's trying to get better. And this kind of goes to the AOS as a whole. I wonder how much of this Rangers spending was calculated from years ago where, you know,

three years ago were they looking at, okay, Verlander comes off the books then, and Correa comes off the books then, and Springer will be off the books for a year by now. Let's attack in 2021 offseason because the Astros will be, you know, they won't be the same team. It still goes through the Astros until it doesn't. but I wonder how much of this ALS attack with money plan was based around the Astros window with all those guys. It makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. I think the teams didn't take into account that the Astros would just find more and more talent

as to keep bringing people up through the pipeline because they're not going anywhere. They're still the favorites in the AOS without a doubt. I don't know, man. I'm looking at the ranger staff, the mariner staff. There's a lot of young guys. You're relying on a lot of inexperience there. And look, these guys can be good and they can take steps forward and more than likely a few of them will,

but more than likely if you even won't too. And you're going to be searching for pitching. I still think both these teams need to go, even with the addition of Robbie Ray, Seattle, I think, needs to go and try to continue to find pitching somewhere. I mean, I know both, like I said, I know there's prospects coming. I know there's some young guys that flashed some brilliance.

Logan Gilbert looked amazing at points during the season for the Mariners. But it's 162 games, and you've got to eat up a lot of endings. So both these teams just have to keep going. Like, I don't know. I'm happy for both of them. I think that's the fun part for the AL West. It's like, where does this game of chicken end? Like, you know, the angels are, the angels were supposedly in on Scherzer for a little bit.

Like, are they going to make a shortstop player? Are they going to make more pitching plays? Seattle, they can kind of go anyway with it. They had such good momentum. I like that you brought that up, Jim, that, like, hopefully this is how baseball and other markets works. Like, you know, if your team goes on the surge like that and has the young talent on the way, go get Robbie Ray when he's a free agent and see, hey, you know, Robbie Ray, we talked about the strikeout thing. He wins a Cy Young.

Maybe he's figured it out. maybe it was that pitching guru in Toronto who's his guy. I do like the fact that he's going from hitters parks in Toronto to Seattle. You know, that should give him more of a chance of sustained success. But man, yeah, if you're Seattle, you have to be on Cloud 9. I guess the other thing that just started spinning through my head, the Oakland A's, you know, the ship was burning and on its way out. Oh my God, get rid of all of them

It's a garage sale, baby Come on, come get it I mean, I was just complimenting Washington Because they're going to be rebuilding While the whole NL East is going for it Same thing if you're Oakland Like let's get ugly for a few years Maybe get the team to Vagie

And then you'll be ready to go for it But right now the West is gnarly And I guess hopping around a little too much But back to Texas Because it all ties together This is the AOS I guess the only the other thing I'd say when you guys are talking about, you know, timing it up with Houston

losing Verlander and Correa potentially Springer. I guess the other thing going through my head that I've said before on here is this shortstop crop doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen in baseball that if you're the Texas Rangers and say, say 2022 isn't their plan, but 2023 is, I mean, you had to get Seeger and Simeon this year. So if that's the. the one-year investment you had to make to get those guys on your team for when Young's ready or maybe you got some pitchers on the way, that's when you have to make your move on them.

So, hey, good for the Rangers GM, our guy Chris Young getting in the owner's ear saying shell out that money, because, I mean, they still need a lot more, but at least they're trying. On the Oakland A's thing, Jake, like sell everyone. I was thinking about Olson. And one of the updates we got was that the A's are going at their own speed deliberately with the Olson trades. And I am going to guess, I'm not guessing it, but if I was them, I wonder if they're saying our speed is we're not entertaining trades until Freeman and Rizzo are off the board and then you're desperate. Because that's like, you know, Freeman probably goes to the Braves. If the Yankees are looking at Olson, they're probably like,

we're not going to give you much. We'll just get Rizzo and roll with him. But if both Rizzo and Freeman are gone, and you're looking for a first baseman, Olson's your guy, and the Yankees are going to have to pay a ton to get him. Sounds about right. It sounds like the Yankees will end up having to pay a ton to get him. They should because he's a stud.

I think it's going to be a garage sale, like I said. And I think a bunch of these AOS teams are just going to go swoop in on Oakland. Chapman, he's going to be gone. pay him for what they're going to be losing and he's a stud where's he going to go you just mentioned olson all those there's some pitchers there you got basset you got mania like you got montas like there's some guys there they're probably going to get rid of everybody and this is the fun part about tanking this about the only fun part about tanking is there's a lot of meat to be divided throughout the league so it's fun to think about that meat you know what I'm saying always uh speaking of

fire sales. We're, you know, Cyber Monday still going on at our store, 21% off everything. Don't need a discount code or anything. Just put it in the damn cart and get it. We got blankets, people. We've got blankets. Yeah, I, that's, and again, we said this this morning and it kind of sucks with the CBA that we're going to run into a stop, but it's also part of the reason all this action is happening. Kind of wish trades could still happen during it because I think you're right, Jim, what you said about, Matt Olson, like if I'm, if I'm Cincinnati, I'm holding on, is Luis Castillo the best pitcher available right now? Probably.

Like unless Kershaw is fully tapped in and healthy, which he could be, but. Strowman, maybe. Stroh's got an argument. Troman's about to get paid. Yeah. I mean, that's all these dudes, man. It's kind of a good time to be a free agent, and it feels like the chaos is just getting started.

I mean, we were making emergency plans if more signing signed tonight because, I mean, it feels like the money's there. I mean, what? I don't know, man. I don't know, man. No free agents. Jimmy's officially in New Jersey. He can play some bets. Man, good.

Honestly, good. If I'm giving out contract grades currently, I mean, I have to boost, I have to boost Simeon and Seeger. because at least Texas is doing it. And Trev, I love dumb sports phrases. And you said right now they might have the best shortstop second base combo. So, I mean, that's just being able to say that is a massive win. Yeah. Who else is there?

I'm sure there's a couple guys. But, I mean, man. I mean, Yankees got no one in Glaber. Perfect. No one in Glaber have entered the chat. Yeah, and, dude, I am stoked for the Seattle Mariners. I'm now having flashbacks to myself during this year saying, I hope they were one of the stories of this offseason.

And with Robbie Ray... Someone go clip every time Treff said the 2022 Seattle Mariners. We're clipping it. We've been on them since 2021. By the way, J.P. Crawford. Yes, it's a huge... It's a huge J.P. Crawford. pod. If you're a Mariners fan, you have to be on cloud nine right now. So Robbie Ray, Marco

Gonzalez, Flex, and Gilbert. Okay, maybe add a little juice there, although all those guys actually had pretty good years. Wow. Those stats are nice. That's some analysis right there. Nice. Jimbo, any final thoughts from the road? Where's, where's Baezgo? I don't know, man. He has the same suitors. I feel like maybe Philly steps in for him. They need to do something, right?

Yeah, they hired Dombrowski, the number one of all number one, go-get-it guys. I don't know how much he's demanding. I think it's going to be a lot, but does it make sense for the Dodgers to go get him? I know they have, he can play everywhere. He's kind of a guy that they like.

I have a question. Question. Do the angels have any pitching yet? your Los Angeles Angels They got Cinderard O'Donnie Cindergard TJ recovery year

So in my In my brain That's a no Uh Sandoval who was kind of Their solid guy last year Young Lefty They signed Michael Lorenzen

Um Oh yeah Two way Two way Lorenzen They were saying He needs to relax A little bit on that Okay

Lorenzen runs a little hot Yeah He's so jacked So yeah I mean So a solid, not really. Solid, not really. Yeah.

I mean, that's... They need to go sign someone. The Astros are going to be slang in what they're going to be slanging. The Astros still have J.V. They got Framber thrown it all over the place. They got Garcia. Like, they are still in a great position. Everyone's doing all this.

The Astros are just sitting back like, huh? Granky to the Angels. You're saying it first? Yeah. They're going to sign. Granky and Kakuchi and consider it a win. I mean, I think that would be for the Angels. The Angels got loop.

People are saying in the chat. It's a, and I forget if I said this on here, if I said it to you out the door, I guess that's the part that's becoming very real. I mean, the Angels, Trout, and Otani, the Mariners, their upstart year, and now signing Cy Young winner, Robbie Ray. Texas Rangers just sold out almost $600 million.

and one of those teams is going to finish in fourth or fifth place in the AL West. I love what James said about that, dude. I love what he said about that. Like James, what you said about these other AOS teams, seeing the window close or believing the window was going to be closing for the Astros and planning this and seeing who was going to be available, spending spree, let's go, let's go. But the Astros are still there, dude.

They didn't know that Yordon Alvarez is going to be. be one of the best hitters in the game. They didn't know that Kyle Tucker was going to take massive steps forward. They didn't know these young pitchers were going to step up. Like, they're not going anywhere. I do wonder if that really was part of the Rangers, you know, it was one of the reasons why they

you know, they circled this year knowing that that that 2017-18 core of the Astros like, it's like down to five guys. Now I know all the replacements are good. It's a It backfire like Tref's saying, but I do wonder if that actually was a thought. Could have been.

Could have been. And yeah, the Astros, I mean, they could still do work. They could go out and get Baez or story pretty easily. I mean, their top prospect, Pena is a shortstop. Right now they've kind of got him penciled in. So did they go stopgap? Is Pena stud? I mean, dude, if you told me Javi Baez is joining Houston tomorrow,

I would bet on him having a monster year. does that not feel like a good environment for him? That's like too good though. That's too good. I don't think it would happen. I think it'll be actually really bad. Go on. Correa to the Dodgers now and they keep Trey at second.

Like what are the Dodgers going to do? I mean, who the hell's going to sign Correa? Tigers have to. Someone who's willing to pay $370 million. But who is that? Tigers, Yankees, Dodgers. Tigers aren't paying that much Tigers have showed out money before

Oh my God Dombrough has Dombrough Do you know the point I was making earlier about They got Graveman Oh yeah they did They can sleep to that division I mean they may not be done

But yes No I mean but yeah Maybe there's like whatever We'll win and then we'll just get better at the deadline. Yeah. Who's the threat? Threats in the AL Central,

not the Twinkies. The Tigers? If the Tigers make big moves. Yeah. Golly. So who are, I mean, we are,

so who are we on watch for? We're still on Trevor's Storywatch. We're on Bayas. Bias is supposed to happen tonight. That's what all those reports are saying, right? Yeah. Correa.

Rodon, Freddie Freeman, Castellanos, Chris Bryant, Kershaw, Stroman, Chris Taylor, Schwarber, and then we're kind of getting into a different tier. Cobb, Kyle Seeger, Reza Liglathia. So, yeah. What else we got, boys? I keep thinking. Okay. If it locks out until February 1, that's going to be.

Yeah Treff shaking his head trep I don't know it's weird because we are seeing a flurry of moves But we're seeing high-end guys You know and that's not Like the high-end guys are fine Like I think the biggest discrepancy is

The middle tier of big league players are getting pushed out And I think that's going to be a focus of these negotiations So you know I said I would you know it's optimistic that all these guys are signing, but as I started to think about it more and more, it's like, well, these guys are signing no matter, you know, what the deal is. These are the elite. So I'm hoping that February 1st is like not a realistic day. I'm hoping it's like quicker than that.

But after we've seen these two sides negotiate basically in front of us, we know it's, the relationship is poor to quite poor, to put it frankly. Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah they got to fix the amount of years That these guys are locked up for And then the minimum and the arbitration system

But It's just going to be boring If there's we go like two like 60 days Without even rumors Like it's pretty boring when there's no moves But at least there's rumors Like what are we What is the baseball world going to talk about

after being so hot in streets to just as dormant as you can be. Probably me and Jake's only fans that we're going to start, I think. That's probably, it'll be the biggest news around baseball. I'm interested. Yeah, I mean, there's going to be a lot of projecting of when it comes back and what teams are still left. Trev, I guess what you've got me spinning right now is,

you're right, all the big boys are getting paid because they were going to get paid. You got to wonder that the second tier that I kind of ignored before, like, hey, let's go through the Braves Outfield from the World Series. Jack Peterson, Solair, Eddie Rosario. Are those guys just getting low-balled right now? So they kind of get peer-pressured into signing? Because we haven't seen, like, any of those really drop.

Eddie Escobar and Cana. Mets never count. You know that. Um, they, uh, Mets were going to make their moves. Um, but yeah. I would say those guys are kind of on the upper end of the free agent scale. Like not on the upper echelon, but like they're, they're up there. Eddie was a, uh, all star last year.

I know that's a little hokey, but, um, who, well. Yeah, not a daisy. Not a daisy. Not a daisy, you know. you are I think we should wrap it up guys I think we got a lot of our thoughts out there the daisy's on the screen can I make one more point

Trev please make one more point as you ran home from the mall drove home from the mall you got a big dinner tonight I don't want to say their name but nameless Jeff will be there what's your final point I spoke earlier about this

on the first show we did my first of three shows I did today thank you very much much taking a bow um the jacob de graham opt out i'm looking at his contract right now he's making 32 excuse me 35 5 this year he has the opt out the options are 32 and a half that thing is going to be 50 i promise you he has all of the leverage he is going to negotiate upwards of 50 million dollars a year from himself from Uncle Stevie and I just can't wait. It has me thinking of like the Rounders clip

when he finally realizes that the Oreos or what's going on and he throws them off the table. I think Cohen's like shit! And Matt Damon is played by Jacob de Grom in this scenario. Okay. 50 mil. Champ. Look it.

Broke up a lot but good scene in that way. I went off. It was perfect. It was beautiful. Whatever the plan. 50 mil. So I guess that's what we just answered our question. Well, you know, when baseball stops, we'll start talking about next year's free agency with Jacob deGrom.

Talking baseball, faithful, thank you guys for hopping in with us for the live app over 2K in here. You guys are sickos just like us. We got blankets. We got blankets. Go get something from the shop. We love you guys If something crazy crazy drops tonight We might be doing a Zoom app

We'll see Otherwise Yeah you might see us tomorrow Baseball's hot in the streets We love you guys And go baseball Go your team Go your favorite team

Yankees sign someone Dodgers What is you doing baby Jake's