Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 62 | Stras, Cole, Bum & Rendon get signed. Kluber gets traded. A bunch of other moves made as well

Episode Date: December 16, 2019

Strasburg to the Nats. Cole to the Yankees. D-Backs sign Madison Bumgarner. Rangers trade for Kluber. Mets sign Michael Wacha. Dodgers sign Blake Treinen. Angels Sign Rendon. Tigers sign Austin Romine. Rays sign Yoshitomo Tsutsugo. Phillies sign Didi Gregorius. Red Sox sign Martin Perez. Yankees re-sign Gardner. Mets sign Rick Porcello. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 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.

Welcome back to another episode of Talking Baseball where a lot has happened. So many guys have signed big names off the board. Let's dive in. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Talking Baseball. Back to our normal setup, which is only normal for a little bit. But we're excited to have kind of the calm after the storm of winter meetings. We haven't been doing our regular just reaction episodes in a little bit.

while and Jake I don't know if you know this but since our last one a lot of people have signed I had no idea yeah I mean there's a lot of news I have to break for you Cole went to the Yankees Dan Winkler to the Cubs that's a good one I'm proud of them for that one yeah well I hope everyone's doing well I hope you're gearing up for Christmas and the holidays and I hope that you remember these names forever because they're sponsoring this show. Tom Finnegan. I once had whiskers on my chinigan. They fell out and then grew in again. Joseph Hermann. Alec Posner. Vikram Narayan. Sorry, I blew that one.

Jeremy Gibby. Gibi. No one better call that guy Jeremy. Just call him Ghibi. Nick Laman, Christopher Toth. Trevor Boyson, Anthony Milazzo, Jake Slavosky, Slovowski, and Kurt Johnson. Those are most recent patrons, John Boy Media Patrons. We appreciate you. They get to watch live. I know we have a handful watching live right now Monday morning, 10 a.m. Watching live with us, part of the chat.

If you guys want to have anything to say, say it. And maybe it gets on the show. Also, we give them some giveaways. There's going to be more coming. We have a new YouTube channel that we're going live under Jake. talking baseball. So if you ever want snippets of conversations or snippets of interviews

or the full thing or you want to see our reactions and our faces, go subscribe to talking baseball. But anyway, Jake, you had a long weekend on the mountain after a long week in San Diego.

Your temperatures went crazy on you. My temperatures went crazy on me. Yep. How about back to you in the booth. Sun to snow for you. Sun to snow for me. Even sun around the snow. So, yeah, I'm completely shot.

Yeah, landed back from winter meetings, got home at 2 a.m. And then, yeah, woke up the next day and drove to steamboat, did skiing and partying for a couple days. Drove back yesterday. It took like five hours. Brains full Swiss cheese mode. And today's my first day that I feel like I'm a member of society. in about a month. Because from our L.A. trip, that took me straight into Thanksgiving.

And it's just been, I've been living out of the soup case for about a month now. So ready to settle in for four days. Yeah, I mean, it's not really going to end. I can't even settle. We have house guests this week. On Friday, I go down to the shore and I spend like a week with the family. And then we have maybe two weeks before we go back to L.A. for our next venture out there.

So it's been, it's going to be, it's a wild off season. Which weekend is that? Is that like the 13th or something? 12th. We haven't planned it yet. Because we're going to have to, we have to put some days around it. Let's just put it, let's make this a full planning episode. Just you and I organizing our thoughts.

That's what the people want. Oh, dude. It's, it's been crazy. Oh, dude. I'm yearning for like the days when I would just wake up, sit in my chair, make breakdowns go to sleep. Sorry that you're yearning so much. You should talk to your doctor about that.

Well, I'm learning about yearning, and that's what my doctor does. What do you want to talk about, dude? Can we just do like a winter meetings update for those that didn't really follow along as much? Because... Yeah, I guess so. We should catch everyone up.

Then I would promise you, we will get into... Strasbourg, Cole, Rendon, Klubor, Waka, Trinen, Romine, Sutsugo, Gorgorius, Gardner, Purcello, Martine Perez, Lindblom. There's fucking Madison Baumgartner. So many things happened. Gregorius. Yeah, a lot of, a lot of ish went down. Jim, I think you'll laugh because you left.

I forget when I put these notes in there. They might have been after, like, the first day of winter meetings, but I had the Brad Brock and Dan Winkler signing so we could cover those now. Those are done. And just, but yeah, and as you see, I wrote them down in very,

my Jake chicken scratch. I wrote Astros cheated. Sorry Astros fans, but yeah. Some of the George Brett rumors are true. He was having a good time at winter meetings. That's all I'll say. Al Leiter was nice to us.

He tried to describe what Jimmy does for work, and he wasn't even coming close. A drunk guy. To Henley Mules. Alliter called me over. We'll slow it down just to get you the vibe. The bar, the hotel lobby at winter meetings is there's a bar on either sides and the lobby in the middle. So it's kind of like a dog bone.

And the ends are the bars in the middle is just the lobby that you hang out in or whatever. It was really cool because anyone can walk in. And if you walked in on day one, you would have seen Boone and the whole Yankees crew on one side of the bar. Cora and the whole Red Sox were on the other side. side of the bar. Al Leider, George Brett, Henley Mules, a bunch of guys just mixing it up in the middle. And then also all the reporters that we follow and know we're there as well. And Al Leiter, I wasn't going to go up to Al and say, I didn't go up to anyone really and say hi besides if I already knew that they knew us. So Al Leiter, I'm walking by and he goes, John boy,

get over here. And then he's trying to explain to Bam Bam Muleans what like I do and what the videos are and he just has no like idea he's like he makes these hilarious videos um uh he's cut like he's like uh tell him what you do tell him tell him i was like oh wow that was pretty cool it was pretty it was nice by alighter but it was also like the predicament of what we've tried to tell our parents that our job is for the past past year and a half or so um yeah that first night, Corrin, Boone were on opposite sides of the bar. I mean, it wasn't anything beefy like those two are friends, but it was just kind of a funny dynamic that there was a Red Sox corner and there was clearly a Yankees corner. Cliff Floyd was wearing a swaggy outfit. I wrote that down.

And my final note was Jeff Passon is our best friend. He's also short and he's the youngest 39-year-old I've ever seen. Yeah, but you're the youngest 30-year-old a lot of people has ever seen. So you guys have that in common. Well, that's, we kind of sized each other up for a second. He was looking at, like, Passan kind of looks like just graduated college and he's interviewing for jobs. And I, I look like I'm late high school. So we were kind of sizing each other up like, all right. Like, he was looking at me, like, you better get fat quick and get this whole thing over with. And I'm like, I'm trying, Jeff. Trying my hardest. Yeah. So what are means our cool time? Like we were upstairs in Radio Row.

Downstairs was the writer's room. And then like the big studio productions like MLB Network and Sirius. And then all the other like, you know, the Chicago affiliate, Philadelphia affiliate, Yes Network, S&Y, John Boy Media, we're all upstairs. The lobbies always have things going on. And then like Jake was saying, not no one knows what goes on at winter meetings because I had no idea until I went. And there's no fanfare around it because MLB. be kind of, I don't know if they don't want that or whatever, but it's cool.

Like all the trainers were there for a trainers conference. There's a trade show. We made a video at the trade show for kind of like concessions and gift shops, merch that they want to get into all minor league stadiums. There's like everything in there. There's like analytics companies that show up and are trying to like sell data. It's pretty wild. Yeah.

And then there is a job fair for anyone that's graduating college and wants to go get a job. in baseball, like any sort of job. Like a lot of it's like ticket sales, marketing, social media for teams, anything. We were thinking of setting up a booth to to have like people that wanted to intern at John Boy Media. But that would have been a nightmare.

I'm glad we decided not to do that. I mean, we were working. We got to winter meetings at what, like 8 a.m. And we left at 1 a.m. every day. And we were, I think we were the only, I think we were one of the only. was burning it at both ends. Like we were doing the chummy, hang out in the bar, hang out with everyone, and also getting 14 interviews in three days. Yeah, if you're a baseball fan,

winter meetings is cool. It's crazy how much the year by year matters. Like we were in Las Vegas last year and it was kind of a tough dynamic because everything was separate gym. I was laughing because we got press passes this year and we were stoked and we thank you Major League Baseball. but we kind of didn't need them this year. Like last year, they were in necessity if you wanted to be involved with media stuff. This year, everything was open. I mean, people were walking up to our booth. People were walking up to yes.

That's the Yankees network. The MLB network had like three setups, Jim. They had one downstairs, one at the top of the escalators, and one on the roof. So, yeah, I don't know. If it's a city you think you'd be interested in, like visit that city. Also check in on winter meetings and carve out a night because you'll see players, coaches, and medias just having a drink and hanging out. It's pretty cool. Yeah.

And then I tweeted out a full list of interviews that we got. I was going to read it in case anyone, you know, we probably have a lot of listeners that don't have Twitter. And they wanted to, they want to hear what we did. Yeah. I'm trying to find this tweet. I wrote out a full list. That's pissing me off. Oh, here it is.

Lindsay Adler, she already, that already got posted on talking the Yanks. Baseball Brit, that already got posted on talking baseball. I hope you guys enjoyed that. And let's do it. We actually got a lot of, we got a lot of like really good feedback that that was super interesting conversation with Joey.

So go follow him. And I'm so excited for every bunt double of the 2020 season to be like, sent his way. They did it. So all five of those. Craig Calcutera joined us on our, our history podcast, laughs from the past, where we talked about the history of sign stealing and all that. Phil Nevin, Yankees' third base coach, joined us.

That'll be on talking the Yanks. Sessmanist family barbecue dudes, Jordan and Jake, joined us. That'll be on this show talking baseball. And we forgot to talk baseball, really, but that's a really fun time. Yeah. If you like them and you like us, you'll like it. If you're looking for a baseball deep dive, you might be in a weird spot. Marley Rivera from ESPN.com joined us.

That might go on both properties, Talking Yanks and Talking Baseball. Jack Curry, Talking Yanks, Brian Hoke, Talking Yanks, Joshua Kuznick, an agent who will say anything came on. You guys will probably really enjoy that. It's an interesting insight. It would be on Talking Baseball. Starting nine, Jared and Dallas came on this one. Meredith Murakovich for Talking Yanks.

And Phil Hughes, maybe that'll go on both. It'll definitely go on Talking Yanks. I just have to release them. I think over the holidays, Jake and I will catch our breath a little bit, and these will help just release it. I think we're at the points in the off season where we're going to run out of breaking news, which might help us. Now we can just release some interviews and work on other stuff because a lot of guys have gone. If you haven't been keeping up, Cole's off the board, Strasbourg is off the board, Mad Bum's off the board, Rendon's off the board, wheelers off the board. We knew that already.

Kluber got traded. And there's some others that I'm forgetting. But of the top 10, I feel like the only guy that's really left is Donaldson and Ryu. Donaldson and Ryu? Are those the two of like the projected top 10 free agents? I think the impact guys that are left, Ryu, Donaldson, who am I blank not? Keikl.

No one's talking about him. Marcelo Zuna isn't signed yet. Castellanos, Edwin Encarnacion, Pueg. So, I mean, you know, it does start coming down a little bit, but there's still a few impact guys out there. Delham Batances, everyone's wondering what that contract is going to look like. And, yeah, I don't know. Impact players is kind of a widespread term.

I think there is a little drop-off maybe when you get after Pueg or Castellanos, depending how you measure guys. But I mean, even there's some second tier guys, Avicale Garcia, ass crabs had such a big playoffs. Daniel Hudson. Dallan, Dellen Patensis,

someone he might get looked at. So, yeah, Delly Belly. So, I mean, there's still a group of impact players, and then there's a group of guys that, I don't know,

I mean, look what as Drupal Cabrera did for the Washington Nationals. If he could, if he figured something out, like that guy can be a good player for you. we've got a little bit but yeah all the top names uh all the big big names are pretty much checked off and i was laughing james i was sorting i was sorting the contracts by aav this morning just catching up and and looking at things and i was like how long ago does the zach wheeler signing feel

like that feels like it was decades ago yeah everything feels like it was a long time ago i mean strasberg feels like we haven't done an episode talking about strasberg yet yeah so Everything's weird of wild. There was a tweet from our good friend, Mark Corrig. One last name I'm very, very much struggling with. So sorry, Mark. Carrig is my best guess right now. But he said there have been 12 deals this winter of guarantees in excess of $30 million.

So 12 teams have given out contracts for $30 million guaranteed. Nine of those deals have been done by teams that did not make the playoffs in 2019. I think he had the first number wrong and he corrected. So I think it's actually 11. So 11, 30 million guaranteed contracts by 11 different teams. Nine of those teams didn't make the playoffs. So baseball's free agent market is being driven by teams hoping to get better

by signing better players, which sounds just so generic and corny, but that's not, was not the case last year. So I thought it was a good treat by Carrick. Nine teams who didn't make the playoffs are saying now's the year. and they're going after it. And it's good for baseball. This whole off season has been great for baseball. Yeah, I mean, if you start going around baseball last year,

the word was like, oh, tanking. Look how many teams are playing bad. Now you go through. I mean, look at the NL West. Look at the NL Central. Like, ask those teams and those fan bases if they're competing. And, like, honestly, I think know who's going to be a big winner in about three years is the San Francisco Giants.

Because the NL West is just going to be, the phrase that came to my head was hump and doorknobs. But after the Dodgers, I mean, there's three teams that just are like 84 win teams. And yeah, maybe the ball starts bouncing your way. But I can't sort between the Padres, the Rockies, and the Diamondbacks right now. And I think Bumgarner's the biggest eyebrow razor of the offseason so far, which I mean, we'll get there in a little bit. But yeah, I mean, the Reds, the Texas Rangers, I love it. Yep.

All right. Let's take a quick break and then we'll get back and we'll deep dive into all these individual signings. Tired of crowded grocery stores? Thrive Market is here for you. Offering everything from healthy snacks to organic wine. Thrive Market brings you food as it should be. Real ingredients, environmentally friendly and delicious. Thrive wants to make healthy living easy for you,

so they're offering a free trial and 25% off your first order by going to bit. LY forward slash save on thrive. That's Bitley forward slash save on thrive. All right, all right, all right. We are back. Cronpod? You want to do Cronpod a little bit? I mean, at this point, the Strasbourg won, he goes back to the Nats.

And the buzz around this deal is that he doesn't want to be the number one. He doesn't want to go to the Padres and be the dude. this is like, I think just like rumor mill. I don't know. Like there's no way Strasberg has said this. But like he likes that Scherzer is the crazy dude with a pressure. And he got to like kind of be like, oh, well, actually Strasbourg is the best pitcher. People are saying that that's the vibe he enjoys.

So it's I think it's a little bit of that. You know, he's not necessarily looking for that number one ace pressure. And that's like what Scher lives for. so they're kind of a they're a good buddy cop duo there. And I think the other thing is he's not a big change guy. Like he is comfortable in his surroundings. The two options that really made sense were San Diego or Washington. I mean, it feels like he just got comfortable in Washington.

It feels like two years ago, not even. He was still, I don't know, he wasn't comfortable in his own skin. I feel like him and Scher got into like a couple yelling matches in the dugout. and now look where we are. So good, good for him. He gets paid, paid. And Jim, you and I, it became the story at winter meetings, but him signing first and signing for that much money was huge for everything else that happened.

Yeah. And the biggest thing, I forget who told us this, but I think Boris or Boris at Heyman, like, tweeted out, was that the Strasbourg signing, it's seven years, right? but it brings him to his age 29 season or 39 season and that and then Cole's camp which is the same camp Boris and them by the way same camp we're telling people like hey we want to bring Cole to 29 age 29 as well so that's why 39 yeah well bad it's not a math pod Jake it's not a math pot so they we've run him to get to age 39 as well

so that bumps two more years which I was shocked at and you want our initial reaction. We did a talk in Yanx episode all about Cole. We were drinking wine and having fun and very obnoxious Yankee fans. Yes. Yes. Arguably our most obnoxious Yankees pod. But yeah, it was pretty wild because, I mean,

Cole was the buzzword around winter meetings. And you and I have discussed a decent amount how, you know, the top free agent usually sets the market and it builds off of that. But the Strasbourg thing was kind of genius. because you start doing like Cole is, Cole is better than Strasbourg right now and value-wise going forward. So you started doing the numbers and you're like, okay, if Cole gets a little more money per year and an extra year,

is he going to hit three? And then it was funny at winter meetings, the conversation was like, you think Cole get 300 and then about 24 hours later is like, how far over three is he going to go? Yeah, it's crazy. It's good that the best pitcher gets paid. made the most money. Like, that's what you want. I don't want to go into a strike. So I'm happy

everything's going kind of well for the big free agent guys getting their money. It's a huge contract. And we've come to find out that the angels offered money, but it was really nowhere close. They really weren't going to push the limits. Limits. So Yankees were kind of bidding against themselves in a way. And we got the same thing with Corbyn last year in the nationals and wonder how much could they have gone less and still got him. Who knows he did want to go. Like the West Coast pull was there, I believe. But, you know, money speaks.

Now he's got to shave his beard. Yankees have a really good rotation now. I mean, Yankees have never had a really good rotation. And if everyone stays healthy and pitches to their abilities, so status quo, Cole is the one, Sevi as the two, Paxton has the three, Tanaka as the four.

However way you want to do the two, three, four, I don't care. I'm not going to argue with it. That's a really good top four. I think the Yankees may have the best fourth pitcher in baseball in Tanaka or Severino. Yeah, there's an argument out there to say it's the best rotation in baseball. It'll be interesting to see, you know, where, again, there are a couple free agents and potentially a couple trades to be made that could make things a little more interesting.

But, I mean, with Cole, the Yankees are going to be the Vegas favorites. I think they currently are. And I've been saying this on talking Yanks. I mean, when you really looked at the Yankees team, it sounds obvious because how many teams could say, hey, we're missing a true number one. I mean, a lot. But Yankee fans are complaining about first base

where they have options there. The hole on this team was up top on that rotation. It makes the depth so much better. And again, this is a podcast, and we can be open with our fandom. I mean, it's a, it's going to be a really exciting three to four years to be a New York Yankees fan. Yeah. And Cole does have an opt out after the fifth year, which if he takes would be insane.

I mean, if he. It means he's doing really good. If he takes that option, that means the Yankees signed a fucking great signing because that means he is incredible for five years and only looking to get better. And he's going to opt out and go get more money. Yankees are like, great, we got five fantastic years. So I doubt he takes that. We'll see when we get there, obviously.

Jakey Hot takes, and this is something for my guy, Ryan Rusillo. I'm going to report this now. Garrett Cole is picking up his option. He's going to stay with the Yankees. Yeah. Okay. Isn't his option to leave? It's an opt-out.

Yeah, that would be opting out. He's picking up his option to stay with the Yankees. Interesting. Okay. What do you want to do next? Which one? So the angels don't get call. Should we do all, we should do all the free agent signings and then we should do all the trades. Okay. Is there more than one trade? We got a few trades, yeah.

All right. So the Yankees do not get, the angels do not get Garrett Cole. They weren't even close in the end. And Jake and I said this. And a lot of people said this right away. Like, good, because Garrett Cole doesn't fix you guys. he's the best pitcher in baseball, you're not one best pitcher away from contending. The Yankees are. They're already contending, and they need that to over the top.

The angels have a lot of weaknesses and a lot of holes and a lot of needs in the rotation. So it's kind of good like, hey, good, don't spend $300 million on one dude. Go spend, go get three dudes for $100 million each. As soon as Cole doesn't come their way, they pivot rather fastly to Rendon, who gets signed. by the Angels. He's going to protect Trout, I'm guessing. What's the numbers there?

I'm trying to find it on my screen. I can't find it. 7 for 2.45. 35 mil a year. And no trade clause. Samis Strasbourg. No trade clause. No opt-outs, no deferrals.

So just straight up as as straight up as a contract can be, which we have some coming up later in the show. Weird incentives and opt-outs and deferrals and stuff like that. So I love the no frills contracts. Those are cool. But Rendon signed seven years, man.

This is good. I mean, you're a big Angels hater. You don't like a lot of the moves they make. So I want your thoughts on this one. I like the move. Like you were saying, and I think we're genuinely not doing this in a pompous Yankees way, but Garrett Cole didn't solve their problems.

If they sign Rendon, Ryu, and maybe a couple other bodies, He's like, that's what the angels need to do. And I do love it. And that's my, my angels hater vibe that has come around is a little misled. And I, someone got me good on the Twitter sphere because they were like, Jake, Rendon and Trout, third base and center field. These angels are playing with your heart. I was like, yeah, I love these guys. So I like it.

And Simmons with the glove up the middle. I mean, yeah, they're your team now. They're, I, you know, people are buccal. my balls and now when you do something like that we've talked about Lestella and who's the other guy I'm blanked out of Fletcher

like now if you have one of those guys put together a full season now you've got another body and like instead of banking on those guys you stretch it out and Otani is a true wild card I mean how far are they going to push Otani this year with the stick he's awesome and like

Trout Otani Rendon so I'm I'm interested to see that dynamic and yeah someone what's the uh the fan graphs chart with the the balls on it that you like or it's not fan graphs baseball savant baseball savant like trout and rendone are like the craziest dudes on that website so uh i'm excited for mike trout to have some protection um i still don't like the dylan bundy trade uh and i'm i'm fine with saying that uh and so yeah i mean they they still have a couple other things to round out but no they are they are looking like a better team.

Have there ever been two least marketable All-Stars on a team? Trout and Rendon are the most mundane 23-34 to ever come together. They're both, I mean, Mike Trout's one of the best players to ever play the sport of baseball. Rendon should be a superstar. Just no one really knows his name,

but his stats should have him as like perennial All-Star, Superstar level. Rendon's quiet as a monk. Trout likes. the weather. They're like, they're like not. Make Otani the star.

Make Otani the star. Otani's going to have to get all the attention. I mean, it's just funny. Like the angels are like, we got the two best guys. Let's market them. Like, well. Well, that's tougher. Big storm coming through.

What's tough? What's tougher? What's tougher? Market to market Rendon and and trout to kids or to get both of them out consecutively. Ooh. I don't know. I think MLB kind of found their thing with Trout. I know you like that this year. Like his marketability is he's not marketable. Yeah, I did. I thought that was a really good commercial. I think that was like the very first episode of talking baseball. I played that commercial. That's good. That's good.

So this is kind of a question, but because we're on the Angels right now, I'll stay on the Angels. We might have to do this later in the show as well. What pitchers are left but for them, man? They don't get cold. they don't get Bum Gardner they don't get Strasbourg I mean really if they still want to get guys it's Riu or a trade for price because they still need

rotation help they can't go into the season with Haney Otani Bundy as their one two three I'm thinking it's one more free agent interested to see if it's Riu or Kike I like Keikl there. I mean, I like Ryu too as a ball player,

but I feel like he's going to have a lot more options. I don't know. I think Keikl's a fit. And then, yeah, man, I don't know. The David Price trade stuff is making a lot of sense in my head. I think the Red Sox are willing to eat a little bit of money, which would make prices next three years, about $20 million per. and I think when you see someone like Madison Bumgarner gets a five-year contract for $85 million

and you start saying David Price for three years, that's pretty solid. And I just think the Red Sox want to get off the money. And the Angels need some more pitching. Their lineup is looking more solid than I have given them credit for. But yeah, when you add someone like Anthony Rendon, it can do that. So I'm interested to see, but yeah, I mean, they need two more arms, period. Yeah, so we'll see how they go and get them. It'll be interesting.

You mentioned Madison Bumgarner. Angels didn't get him. The diamondbacks come out of nowhere in a way and sign Madison Bumgarner. It's not for that much money, Jake. It's a five-year deal for $85 million with $15 million deferred, meaning he's not going to get that. He's not going to get the $15 million paid in the $1,000. these first five years, which brings the AAV annual, average annual value to $14 million, I

believe I read. I didn't do the math. It's not a math pod. 14 mil a year for five years. That's light for Madison Bumgarner, especially after the Wheeler deal. We all thought, oh, he might get, Bum's going to get 100 as well. He gets 84 with deferred. Very interesting.

now they said they said that uh you know it was a location thing like he wanted he liked arizona he had similar or better offers on the table that he was like no i want to go to arizona and play there someone tweeted out i forget the writer i wish i could give him credit but i forget the name right now tweeted out like i could probably find it like hey no one's talking about arizona for bumgarner he has horses there and he really likes it he may go there isn't that fun money, man. I mean, we get so lost in the hometown discounts or guy wants to be East Coast or West Coast. And sometimes there's a factor. Think about what we know about Madison Bumgarner.

I'm assuming his agent went to Arizona and basically said, hey, if you roll out a similar deal to what Atlanta or whatever these other teams are offering me, I'm coming through. So it became like a meme. This dude, Andrew. Braggerly. He tweeted out. Nobody has mentioned Diamond Macs much in the Bumgarner pursuit, but if their interest is legitimate, Phoenix would be a very desirable landing spot for Bum. He has horses there, loves the area. And people kind of laughed at it. And then the report was, no, like location mattered for him. I like this signing for Bumgarner because I think he stays in the N.L. West. He's going to pitch in a lot of big ballparks soon, still. Nice weather. And, and just kind of do his thing.

You know, like we thought he was going to come to the NL East or the AAL East. And I was like, I don't think, like, I had no interest in seeing him in the AAL East. I just think it would be a sad tale facing the DH and small ballparks. It's completely different in what he's had his whole career. Not saying he's going to be terrible. But he definitely, every single pitcher that pitches with an out given to you. And in those big ballparks in the West,

they get benefited from those that's it's not hot take to say that so i like that he stays there stays put i mean to see him like in a it's almost nice that he stays in that division because like yeah okay good i don't have to deal with that much change now yeah i was seeing some uh some of my rocky's tweets from a couple couple of the guys i follow follow for them out here and they were i mean i mean you have to think about what they've seen with madison bumgarner they've seen like basically ace Madison Bumgarner for seven, eight years or whatever it's been. So my Rockies buddies were like, God damn it. Like he's, that dude's still hanging out and he's not with us.

Okay, that sucks. And then Giants fans were pissed off too because, like you've mentioned a few times, that Bay Area slash the Giants themselves have this kind of history of keeping their dudes. Just the Giants. Yeah. Yeah. And now when that contract. comes out because you're right all the rumors were like wow mad bum might clear a hundred by a lot now guys

are looking at this like could we have kept mat bum um for what he's going to give us and the and the value that might be in this contract like if mad bum gives you three good years as a third starter i think this contract pays itself off and he could very well do that so i know a lot of the n l west wasn't happy. It's kind of the surprise signing, I'd say, of the offseason so far. I mean, what would rival it, a moustakis? But, I mean, you can still make sense of that. Yeah, no, they came out of nowhere for me. I didn't know he had horses there, so that's my fault. I also thought this line was good. Bumgarner, 85 million, the Diamondbacks. It's the second largest contract the Diamondbacks have given out in franchise history behind the one they gave

Zach Granky in 2015. and they get another they get another pitcher who can hit and by hit we mean have a 540 OPS but does get one hit in every 20 plate appearances and people say oh I love one a pitcher can rake whoa yeah and a little a fun I mean we'll do an NL West day somewhere on this but yeah man I mean the NL West is just like you You look at Arizona's pitching staff and you're like, okay, Mad Bum, Robbie Way, Robbie Ray, Luke Weaver. They got that guy that came from overseas last year. I forget his name. And yeah, you just go through all these NOS teams and be like, Hermann Marquez could be an ace or he could be bad. You could do the same thing with like a lot of the dudes on the Padres, the Rockies, and the Diamondbacks.

I have no idea how that's going to sort out, but I'm excited to see it. What's interesting, man. So I'm not smart enough because a lot of people I've read and go to read comments and read up about these things. And they're like, man, diamondbacks are doing a great job. Like these are some really smart moves they've made. They got rid of Granky.

They're paying him $30 million a year. And then they bring in Bum for $14 million a year. and to replace him, they might trade Robbie Ray now, and they're like, hey, they might be good. I'm not smart enough to see that vision. So, like, I'm not denying it, but I'm like, I don't see how you guys are good next year. But I've read a bunch of places that I usually read,

and they're like, yeah, Diamondbacks are going to be doing big things. And I'm kind of like you, like they seem still like an 85 win team and that misses the wild card, even with Bum. I'm not trying to be a hater. I just don't see it. They won 85 games last year. Eduardo Escobar. He could be one of the most underrated players in baseball.

I like him. I mean, Cattel Marte had a crazy year. I mean, they've got some question marks. I think the juice ball was there a team that benefited from that on offense. You know, a lot of their lineup aren't names that you know. I mean, Christian Walker hit 20. home runs last year for them. So, I mean, it'll be interesting to see what they put together.

But yeah, there's not a lot of names that scare you. The name I was blanking on was Merrill Kelly. So you replace more than half a year at Grinky with Madbom. I don't know. Again, that whole division is going to be like, who takes a jump next year? Does Luke Weaver build off his really 12 impressive starts for them? I don't know. But I know if this was a Rockies pod,

they'd be telling you how this is the window with Story and Aeronado and some of their guys. And if this is a Padres pod, they're yelling about how, yep, Tatis for the full year, Machado, our guys are going to do it. And I don't know. I just think all those guys are going to bump heads and the Dodgers will casually win 103 games again.

We'll see. The Dodgers have forgot they're allowed to sign guys. What are they doing? They missed out on everyone. And supposedly they weren't even in on Rendon and they weren't even in on Bumgarner. The Dodgers, the report I read, and I hate, I don't put much stock into these,

so sharing it's kind of silly, it was like they're banking on a Lindor trade. It's like, you can't do that. You cannot bank your off-season on a trade. Yeah, it feels like they are, though. Well, anyway, they're still good. Yeah, maybe Ryu come, I mean, if they re-sign Ryu and they do do a Lindor trade,

I mean, that's still not a bad, off season. But yeah, they, uh, at Ryu might make out great. Are you and Kikil? Are they going to benefit from being the last guys? Because there's still a lot of teams that want those dudes. Yeah. Or like a trade now, like, you know, Hap for the Yankees. They're shopping him around. Does someone believe in him on a one year rental trade for lesser? You know, like there's, trade routes are going to open up now, but we have to get Ryu, Kikil done first. Tehran, does anyone want him? Your guy.

Let's some quick signings. The Tigers picked up Austin Romine. One year, $4.1 million. Austin Romine's been the Yankees. Back up for about five years now. I don't think, I like Romine as a clubhouse guy. If you're a Tigers fan, wondering a Yankees fan opinion. Awesome clubhouse guy.

Really good leader. Good backup. I don't know if he could be a starting catcher, but I'm glad he's getting the chance to. A cheap deal. He got paid, so good for him. Yeah, there's some numbers you could talk yourself into Romine. He's a guy that if you have been following, he's super easy to root for.

He got in a fight with Detroit a couple years back, so a lot of Yankee fans were having fun with that. Yeah, Mickey Cabs, and I think they had a chance to apologize and they didn't really. So, yeah, that's someone we're excited for. There still are a couple catchers out there. It'll be interesting to see how that sorts out. But yeah, everyone root for us in Role Mine. Phillies signed D.D. Gregorius. Kind of a sad signing, in my opinion, because D.D.

you should have gotten paid to pay, but he had Tommy John surgery. He came back. He didn't hit that well. And now he's on a one year, prove yourself deal. And I am happy he took this and didn't take a couple years for, like, lesser money. Take the one year, $14 million deal. I hope he does go out and prove it and gets paid next for agency. I like when guys bank on themselves.

Again, another guy that was on the Yankees was below. loved by Yankee fans, was hated for like a week because he replaced Derek Jeter. He overcame that. He saw them from old Yankees to new fun Yankees and kind of led that transition. A dude can speak five languages. He's an artist, a graphic designer, a video editor. He's like the most skilled, talented guy in the world. He's pretty good at playing shortstop and hitting the baseball.

One year, 14 million deal, we heard that there was more money on the table elsewhere, but he wanted to reunite with Joe Girardi, his old manager. and stay on the East Coast. So good for the Phillies. The Phillies are putting together a squad, right? You happy with what they're doing? I am. I am.

It'll be interesting to see kind of their final touches on the team. I know we were talking to the Yes Network and kind of cringing. Like if they get Delam Batantis and they start doing a mini Yankees, Yankees NL thing, they could put something together, especially with Gerardi in charge. I love Dedi.D. I think he is a player that benefits from being at a hitter's ballpark, but, you know, Citizens Field is that. And yeah, man, I went on some rants this year because quality short stops do not hit free agency. If D.D. Gregorius can replicate his 2017, 2018, and he comes back to free agency, I mean, he's going to clear a good chunk of money.

He was a guy that if he had a good year this past year, he could have approached 100. million dollar contract. We'll see how another year does and what this year looks like, but I think he's going to be quality. You know, this season was odd. You come back from a weird injury for a position player, and you jump on during the middle of the season. So another guy that's tough, tough to root against. And like, dude, Philly is going to love him. He already posted an Instagram that was like graphic design of like him, Harper Hoskins, Real Mudo. And it's like, oh my God. Yeah. And it's not like Dedi has a guy who's like, hey,

Hey, hey, I want to suck up to the Philly fans. Like, can you guys post them? I'm like, nope, Dedy hopped on the computer and drew that up. Yeah. He's good. He's fun. Speaking of Yankees, Brett Gardner gets a one-year 12.5 million deal. This one, there's not much to say I'm talking baseball.

It's the Yankees getting back. Fourth outfielder starts while Hicks hurt. Really good clubhouse guy. Yankees love him. it's a marriage that's gone really well. What I do want to talk about is how this money is divvied up because I always find that stuff interesting, Jake. So it's one year 12.5 mil guaranteed.

That 12.5 million, two of it is a signing bonus. So he gets that right away just for signing. Eight is his salary. So really, I don't know how the annual average salary or value is. I don't know, but it's eight is his salary. And then he has a $2.5 million buyout. out. So if the Yankees don't want him back for 2021, they buy him out for $2.5 million or they can opt in at $10 million. So all that adds up to $12.5, but really like eight is what his yearly

salary is, but really $12.5 is. It's very interesting how they do that. Yeah, I think for the actual AIV, I think it lands at 10. But yeah, if you're, if you're, if you're tuned into baseball, this was like the biggest lock of the offseason. Garty returns. And yeah, I just, and I'll say this in a kind of rude way.

If you're another team and your offseason plan involved Brett Gardner, like that was never happening. You're dumb, dumb. Yeah. Barking up the wrong tree. Hey, quit your barking.

Let's kick it. I didn't like my trade in signing commercial. You want to go to a break? Yeah, I think so. Okay, Jake's break. Jake's break. Okay, we're back

from the break now. Welcome back, everybody. There's still more signings to talk about. Can we just rip through these one year? The Red Sox signed Martin Perez, one year, $6 million deal, a lefty with promise, and then the promise kind of waned. Is this

to replace? Is this now they can go sell price? And they're like, we got someone to at least take his spot in the order or the rotation, they have like all lefties, the Red Sox now. Man, they still need a couple other arms. I mean, especially if they do trade price. I mean, you wonder what they get back if they get an arm in a David Price trade. But yeah, I don't know.

I mean, he's a guy that's thrown innings in Major League Baseball the past couple years. Like, he's going to be on my list of dudes to compare to Dylan Bundy throughout the season, because I think he could probably give you the same without giving up for prospects. But yeah, we'll see what the Red Sox can do. And yeah, they like their lefties. Maybe Sale and Erod can teach him a thing or two and if Price stays around.

So, yeah, good for Martine. My thought was this means they're, this allows them to shop Price easier, having his spot in the rotation filled already with a guy who can eat innings like Price does. This price is much better, obviously, but they really want to shut that money. So that's where my brain went. Like, oh, I think this heightens the price trade.

And now that a lot of pitchers are falling by the wayside and gotten picked up and signed, like I said, with Hap, with price, Kluber just got traded. The market is that people are going to be going and knocking on doors about pitchers and trade soon. So this might, this offseason might keep rolling, which would be really fun. Yeah, I think it gives them options. I mean, they still need some more throwers, so you wonder if they do flip price, does that open them up to more free agent arms?

I don't know. But yeah, he's a guy that can throw you innings. Okay. Speaking of, Porcelo to the Mets. Yeah, Pursello to the Mets and Brody said that they have the best rotation in all of baseball now. And whatever. I'm glad that Brody says that.

but like just throw one of on there because otherwise you come off like just such an agent. So the Mets signed Priscilla and the Mets reach a deal with Cessippus. We would talk about both of those right now. They sign a one year deal. And Michael Waka. Well, Michael Waka is a whole conversation I want to have because it's so fucking interesting. Did he go to the Mets too? Yeah.

That was part of it. I think he said our rotation is like the best in the most depth or something like that. Yeah. So they got. Pretty Ricky, who's also 30 years old, Jake, because he broke in at 20. He was supposed to be a phenom. Didn't put it together really for a while. Like, you know, good average pitcher.

He had one year in 2016 where he won the Sai Young. Stoll the Sai Young, which he should not have. He did not get as many first place votes. Just a stupid system, but whatever. I mean, he throws games, Jake. His last four seasons, his last three starts, 33 starts, 33 starts, 33 starts, 32 starts. So that's his benefit. And he had a 5.52 ERA.

His ERA plus was 87. You're not adding this guy and then saying, and now we have the best rotation to baseball, but you're saying solid, solid back end guy. I do think he's a solid back end guy, for sure. Yeah, he's going to throw the ball. And the wheels fell off last year.

Like there's no denying it. He was on slump watch. for a while. I mean, baseball that can happen. And I think the other thing that you can look at is like, I don't know, in 2015, he finished 9 and 15 with a 492 ERA. The next year he bounced back, went 22 and 4 with the 315. Like, Rick Porcelo's already kind of been through a lot in his career because like you

mentioned, he came up early. He kind of wasn't the pitcher he thought he was supposed to be. And then he kind of turned it around. And I don't know. Again, you like it. if Rick Porcelo is your five-starter coming into the season, you're like, hey, he could really give us something. And if not, it's not the end of the world.

So yeah, Rick Porcelo at the end of your rotation, sure, I can sign up for that. All right. The next signing we said was Michael Waka. And Michael Waka, he was a big deal when he came up, right? He was one of those when the Cardinals were getting all their fire prospects to come relieve in the playoffs, and then they would become pitchers. And it was like, yeah, Cardinals do it right. but he hasn't been a name in a while.

His contract is so interesting and so weird and bizarre. So listen up because you follow along. He's making, I forget what the guaranteed is actually, but there's a lot of non-guaranteed money and incentives right here. If he starts 10 games, he gets 500K. If he starts 14 games, he gets another. 500K. So that's a million dollars right there for 14 games started. If he starts 18 times, he gets one another 500,000. So now we're at 1.5 mil. Then every start after 20 until 30, which isn't

going to happen, he would get another 500K per start. So that that totals up to $7 million of possible incentive money right there. And instead of start, they also have a relief outing of three plus innings. So they can't just use an opener to take away the game started for him. So I don't know. That's wild. And then there's also 1.35 million relief pitching award bonuses that we don't know the exact things about that. He's not going to be a starter unless someone gets hurt.

Which they will. Yeah, but he's got to get 10 starts. So 10 starts or relief outings of three plus innings. Like I hope I remember this contract so we can keep track of it. And then he'll get really close and then they'll release him. Yeah, they'll do something funky. Man, I kind of like the Waka signing too. And again, I can spin everything back to the Dillon Bundy trade if I want.

But up until last season, Michael Waka, 127 games started to the tune of a 377 ERA. again last year was kind of a mess for him he's only 28 he's a guy that came up when he was young and yeah last year was a mess so if you if you can if you're the Mets and you see what happened wrong there or if you're in Waukes camp and there was an injury you didn't know about or something like that I mean this this could be something that works out pretty well for you I mean 2018 and 15 starts he was 8 and 2 with a 3-2 ERA so if you you could somehow find that and bottle that up again, you might have a nice option. Or maybe he turns into kind of the Mets swing man. He hops in the rotation a little bit.

The Mets will always be looking for more help out of their bullpen. So I think you're right with the contract, Jim. What was said in those, what was said in those negotiations? Was it, oh, yeah, Waka, you're going to be in there and we're counting on you as our fifth starter and, you know, hopefully if you pitch well, you'll be there all season, or, you know, was it you're going to have to earn your keep? Because you're right. This could become a messy thing with that kind of contract mid-season if the Mets start doing Mets-type things. So, I mean, Waka says, like, no, I'm going to be part of the rotation. And supposedly the Mets

said we got him to be part of the rotation, which is interesting. So that would put DeGrom, Sindegarde, Stroman, Mats, Waka? Where's Pursello? Porcelo? I mean, you know, you want to come into the year

with six, seven starters? Yeah, but if you're promising Waka, a rotation job, one of Matt's, or Purcellos, like, well, then what the fuck am I? Yeah, I mean, hey, six man. Yeah, I mean, maybe they're going to make those guys

battle it out. Maybe Matt's... No, I mean, Matt's... had a really good year last year. I don't know. I mean, hey, trade Cindergarde, that'd be fun. I don't know. I'm not going to penalize the Mets for having rotation depth. So here's, here's Brody Van Gems' quote on it.

If all are healthy, then we have more decisions to make that hopefully will be a high-class problem. But at this point, we're going in with six bona fide starters. The ability to have seventh and eighth starters with Lugo and Gislemen. we're walking in with depth and upside and we can't speculate in terms of what the mix of who they give are for all healthy. I will say this.

It's a good rotation. Like the Mets have a nice rotation. I think there's a lot of good pieces there. And like we always say, you need more than five guys. They currently have six. Hopefully injuries play out where it's not like a brutal decision. I'm not sure why they promised Waka a starting job

when there's not one currently for him. I mean, they're just kind of predicting an injury, which they will happen. but he might start off as a bulk inning guy. It would be shitty if they never let him get three innings pitched, and they only use him for two innings just because of the incentives. So we'll see.

And they just had some other money situation with Cespitus. If you don't remember, he fell off of his pony or stepped in a hole or something and got hurt. Steps in a hole. And they stopped paying him because, you know, he breached his contract, got hurt doing something else. and I think they kind of won, like they settled in the middle because Cespitis Camp knew they didn't really have a chance to fight this one.

Yeah. So they shed some money off that of contract. Good for the Mets. The fucked up part is Brody was his agent who negotiated the contract and now Brody is the GM who's voiding the contract. Yeah. It's all fucking weird, man. Yeah.

I, uh, yeah, and if you want to hear a little more about that, that's stay tuned for our Josh Cousinic agent episode. Hey, I'm going to give the Mets a little credit here too because this could have been a really ugly situation and it was kind of never a story, which again is kind of unmetz like. Yeah, I mean, yeah, they handled this one well. But I think it's also, it was so egregious

that Sestman's camp was like, you got us. Yeah. You literally and figuratively had to come off your high horse. All right. Cole just walked in the Yankees like New York with a beard. And people are like, do you think he's going to shave it? I'm like, well, he has to. Yeah.

It's not really a thing. That's how that works. It's not a think situation. It will be gone. All right. Good job. The match. You're making some more moves.

Hopefully they work out. Waka. I see this Waka thing as a completely like risk-free signing. It's pretty cheap. It's all incentives. If he hits those incentives, you're happy to pay him because he did what you wanted. Have you seen his, like, peripherals and all those baseball savant numbers? They're awful.

Yeah, I mean, he had a pretty atrocious last year, a 5-6-1-fip. So, again, is there something in the tape that can bring him back to 2017-2018-slash-the-rest of his career? I don't know. And interested to see. Are the Mets still rolling with their old dude pitchers? and coach? No, no, they got a new pitching coach. That's right. That's right. Damn. Damn. Yeah, that guy, it's a bummer. Who else do we have to talk about here before the trade? The trade's the big one.

The Reyes signed that Japanese guy. Yashitomo Susugo. Yeah. And good job by me pronouncing that name. Yeah, you crush that, bra. I don't know. I think we have a little bit of a Yankees fan knee-jerk reaction. Like, the race don't make a lot of bad. bad news. So when you hear there's a guy with power and some good potential that's coming over and the raise are the ones that won the bidding, um, hey, maybe there's some risk reward on their end because that's how the raise also have to do business. But now, like, I, I don't know. If I had to bet money on Susugo being a good ball player, I, I would place that bet.

Does this make the Tommy fam trade easier to handle as raise fans? Um, a little bit. Uh, I, I, I, I mean, I still think if you're a race fan, do you like that trade anyways? Did we ever, did we do that trade on here? I don't know. I can't remember anything. Yeah. I'm going to watch this 47 second clip of one at bat by Susugo. I've no idea if that you pronounce it.

I'm going to let you guys know everything you need to know about him. Okay. So this is in the world baseball classic. Oh, he's facing. I don't know who he's facing. It looks like some Yankee that I don't remember. And he's got his. hands like really out in front of him.

Big separation on the hands like Otani. Yeah. All right. Little wiggle, slow leg. Yeah, he sliced that one down the line. So it was a little slow leg action comes through a nice swing check. Not a beautiful lefty swing. Like if you see the slow mo, I don't think you're like, wow, that is gorgeous.

But I'm going to see the slow mo right now. I think he's facing like Chris Martin or something for the Yankees. Now I need to see a defensive play. and then I'll let you know. Oh, wow. I'll let you know, hey, is this a good signing by the raise? What position is he played? Could you give me his offensive stats for this upcoming season?

For the upcoming season? Yeah. Yeah, 254 batting average. Okay. It's going to pop 31 home runs. Wow, 31, okay. Yeah. Two are speaker jobs and catwalk jobs that fall.

And he's going to have a, 330 on base percentage. Wow. 814 OPS. Pretty good year. That is a really good year. Yeah, I'm coming in a little below that. I think I've got him at 22 homers, 261 batting average.

22 homers. Okay, wow, yeah. Well, people aren't going to know how to pitch to him for a while. He does a little elbow wiggle on the back end. Okay. He looks like a hefty guy in the middle, so that's cool. He's got a little pouch Like a little belly

Yeah but it could just be the jersey You never know tucked in jerseys Okay They fake you out sometimes Susugo So wow You guys just got a full Full scouting report

That's yeah That was in depth The Dodger signed Blake Treenen Guy who had promise Had a bad year One year $10 million deal Kind of an easy signing I don't think you're going to find

Anyone saying That was a stupid move it's pretty cheap. The upside is really there, and the downside is not even that much there. Does this, you and I have been a little up in arms about the non-tendered guys, because again, it's not really supposed to work like that.

Was this kind of a win for training? He goes cross, he goes to the Dodgers. He's coming off a bad year. I think he was supposed to make like $8 million if he got tendered. So he would have been $8 million on the A's. or he goes 10 million on the Dodgers coming off a bad year where if he shoves for a year, he's going to get a big old contract.

Yeah, that's true. Actually worked out in favor for him. Good for you, Blake. Blake trying him. Tough. Any Blake we run into is going to be a Southern guy, huh? Want to talk about the trade? We can talk about the trade.

Anything else we have to clean up? Our brewers got Lynn Blom and Brombe, Brett Anderson, I kind of love it. I mean, really low risk if one of those guys pan out that's kind of a win. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, you're not ecstatic about them because if you're a Brewers fan and you think you're in win now mode. Throwers, baby. Throwers. I don't know if they can last shit. Those aren't playoff wins. The Brewers should be getting people that make them winners in the playoffs, not

contenders in the regular season. Hey, if there's a team that can make throwers work, it's the brewers. And I think the quote we heard from a baseball source was like, hey, if you could get Lindblom for 3 mil and Anderson for 5 mil, is that better than having two years of Tanner Rourke for 12 million? I think so. But we'll see. We'll see. All right. Trade alert.

Let's do our big trade alert sound effects. Trade alert. I don't have one. Never mind. Trade alert. Trade alert. Trade alert. A big trade.

Kluber comes off the board. The KluBot been rumored to be traded for a while. Big time rumors last year before the injury with crazy packages. He gets dealt to the Indians, to the Rangers, from the Indians to the Rangers in exchange for outfielder Lino de Shields and right-hander, Emmanuel Clace, who's, you know, a closer, who throws 101 mile per hour, cutter, supposedly. And Cluber had a $1 million bonus in his contract if he gets traded. And he, the Indians are sending 500 of that to the Rangers. So the Rangers actually got some money.

They got $500,000 and Cluber for Delano to Shields. and Emmanuel Clace. There's a couple talking points about this trade. One, Jake, I saw a lot of people on Twitter and Reddit and baseball forums say like, whoa, the Rangers, they're competing. And anyone that listens to talking baseball

and you and I have been talking about all they see, we've been telling you the Rangers are going to make a splash for a while now. So I wasn't surprised at all when I saw this, but a lot of people still didn't realize the Rangers are trying to go all in. They got the new stadium. They got some players they like

and they want people to come to the new stadium and get excited about the team. And this is what that does. So that's the first day. Rangers aren't done, by the way. Rangers are not done. I mean, they were in on Rendon. I mean, there's a chance they go for Josh Donaldson or hell.

I would kind of love it if they finished out the rotation, man. You know, hey, go make a splash and sign Ryu and make it five deep with a lot of quality guys. I mean, that would be badass. I think they've still got one. another move up their sleeve. But with the Kluber trade, I'm interested to get your thoughts, Jommer, because I know from all the reports we heard middle of this season,

things were down on Kluber. I mean, is it kind of Texas taking a chance? Because everyone was giving the Indian shit. Because on paper, the return for Kluber doesn't look great. But there's a chance Kluber is not anything close. to Kluber anymore. Yeah, I think there's a good chance. I mean, I had heard reports when Kluber was trying to make his comeback towards the end of last season that like he did one bullpen session and they're like, they just shut it down. They're like, no chance we roll you on

the mound throwing this. So I think the miles per hour are severely dropped. And I think, you know, outside baseball doesn't know that yet. And maybe he does make a full recovery. if he is like you know if he returns to 100% healthy cluber and is like you know a fucking dominant ace right then this is a bad trade by the indians they get guys this is my problem with the indians they want a tank we've been saying this year so they would love to tank they'd love to trade lindore and dump salary and all that stuff but they have two good of players so now they're making these trades where they trade bower but they bring back puig and they're like no guys fans we're still trying to compete right now.

And then they can use that same excuse with Delano to Shields and Emmanuel Clay's and just tell their fan base, well, we had better packages, but we want to compete right now. And these two guys come over and they go on our team right away. And there might be a lot of truth to that. But I still just think it's dumb. This is a salary dump. I mean, it's a salary dumb. There's not really any ways around it.

Yeah. I think the other thing, I mean, with the Bauer trade, I think the, Pueg, I think that's almost a good comparison to the Todd Fraser trade a few years back. Like Pueg was the name you know, but Fran Mill Reyes was the piece they wanted in that trade. So yeah, I mean, it's how much do they love this thrower they got, the Chase Kid? But yeah, no, Angel fans were pissed off because like we've been talking about, they need more throwers. and the reported package that was being asked for from Angelsland, and again, who knows the truth to this,

but it was big prospects. So the Angels are looking at the return that Cleveland got are saying, like, what the hell? We heard you were looking for two top 10 prospects, and now you do it for a utility guy and a top 30 prospect. So it'll be interesting to see what Kluber still got. And I mean, yeah, even if he's 85% of himself, it seems like a good deal for the Rangers. But there's also like a chance.

And I'm surprised more people aren't talking about it that like Kluber ain't Kluber anymore. They took the chance. Reportedly the Indians had better offers, but this is what they wanted. And I think what the best thing is they did not want to roll the dice and have him pitch in 2020 and then, you know, move him at the deadline because I think they are scared his value might plummet. Right. Once he gets on the mound a handful of times. So the Rangers are taking the chance there.

But hey, they have a little nice rotation now. They picked up Kluber. They have minor. They have Lance Lynn. They picked up Gibson and they picked up Liles, which, you know, isn't really going to, like, make you say, oh, shit. Wow. But not a lot of teams have five solid, five solid guys. experience and can go out there and do a pitch for a whole season.

Yeah, how about, how about Jordan Liles with his Milwaukee numbers, earning himself some money? Good for him. Yeah, Rangers are, Rangers are my number one, like, flip or flop team. Like, either those old birds put it together, like Mike Miner's a stud, Lance Lynn has figured it out, Kluber's healthy, and, like, it all comes together, or, like, I think it could be a train wreck. Like it could be, it could be like, you know, Lance Lynn was a little smoking mirrors. Klobber's dead. So, yeah, I'm excited for it, though.

I mean, this is what we talked about all last year is that we wish teams tried this. And baseball had gotten away from it. It's been a great offseason for baseball. I mean, we are still not at Christmas. I mean, by Christmas last year, Jake, was there anything that happened? I think I was looking at it I think like Corbyn had happened And I think one other thing

But everything's happened Almost everything Yeah Yeah Yeah like now if If you're one of the free agents left Like we talked about There's definitely still a sweet spot

Like you might get a bidding war For Ryu or Kykel Or someone like that But if you're a free agent You're also a little Like if you're Marcelo Zuna or Nick Castellanos, are you starting to get nervous? Are our teams starting to check off their list already and kind of be done?

I don't know. That's kind of that weird, weird, we're in that weird Midler F.A. time where it's, am I going to have to suck it up and take a one year with good money and try to earn it again? Or are you going to get a little late bidding war going and get paid paid? I don't know, but I know that you have two teams in the L.A. area that need pitchers. the Dodgers need a pitcher The Angels need two pitchers The Dodgers rotation right now is what

Kershaw Bueller Maida Urius and May Am I missing someone The cat dude maybe The cat dude What's his name? Strickland?

No No that was the guy they got from Tampa Cat dude When he pitches they call it Catterday Yeah That's tough. Is Rich Hill coming back for them? He's hurt, right?

I don't believe. Yeah, I don't think he's part of the active plan. Gonsolin is a cat dude. Gonsolin, yeah. Tony G. baby. Yeah, I mean, they've still got options. All right, cool. You got anything else to add?

I think we covered everything, guys. On Friday's episode, it might be, if there's news, we'll come back and we'll do a little bit of news. and then throw an interview in there. But we got a lot of interviews to go and we're excited about it. Like I said, if you want to watch it, go to Talking Baseball podcast on YouTube and subscribe. We're trying to get the subscribers up, brand new channel. So we're moving everything over there.

Otherwise, keep listening on whatever podcast app you like. We appreciate it all. Jim, call me stupid. Do you want to talk to Tommy FamTree? I think we missed it. Did we? I think so. So we didn't talk about Snell saying Slaptic prospect and all that?

I don't think so. I could be losing my mind, but... I didn't get the Tommy Fam trade from the Ray's perspective, but I get it now that they sign this dude. Because they got a good... They got a good prospect. The Slaptic prospect, he's pretty good. People think he's going to be the real deal.

Fam is better than Renfro. And so, like, what my thing was, aren't the Ray's in more of a win now mode than the Padres? Like, the Padres are 100. hundred percent trying to win now. The raise are already winning now. So if I was a raise fan, I'd be like, hey, I get that this prospect is good, but can we attack the now?

And like, like, I wouldn't focus further than 2020 if I was a raise fan. And I'd be mad at the team for doing so, even though it's smart, but like, come on. Like, we have a window. We're good. Let's win. Because in a couple years, you're going to trade all these guys for more prospects, and then we're just doing the same routine. but now like you know with knowing they signed this dude to kind of hopefully replace or replicate

some of that then i think it's not that bad i totally get the move from the padres they are they have a ton of young guys they have a ton of talent and fam helps them win now yeah and so from the podre side you get tommy fan who's got some of the best on base numbers the past few years and i think they really need that at the top of their lineup it's a little righty head but I mean if you could get fam on base for Machado, Tatis, I mean, you can you can start putting a lineup together there pretty good in San Diego or at least at the top. For me, it kind of, again, it's this NL West situation right now. Does Tommy Pham put you over the top? I don't think so. So in a couple years when Xavier Edwards, who looks like a really solid ball player is knocking it

around for the raise and being productive and Tommy fan left you in free agency. I mean, I wonder what that looks like and feels like for San Diego. And at the same time, like with the raise, Hunter Renfro, I'm pretty sure he's got really nice numbers versus lefties. So I mean, worst case, do you get a Hammond Sissugo platoon going and they rake? Because that's something the rays are really good at. So I don't know. I like it for the raise. The other player involved is Jake Croninworth, who's an infielder and relief pitcher. So, A, I just need to see that guy in Big League Base. baseball. I think I like it. I like it for both sides. That's kind of a trade cop out. I like it more for the raise. The other thing I do love about Tommy Fam in this trade is that San Diego, you kind of

need a hard-o guy like fam. And I mean that fam interview that went kind of viral this year, like Tommy Fam ain't going to take days off. Tommy Fam is out there to play. So I do like that for San Diego. All right. San Diego needs some pitchers. Yeah, or they need young guys to get better a little bit. You can't bank on that. I mean, Paddock is their number one, dude, and he's not a short thing yet. Like, I think he's going to be like a really good pitcher, but you can't be like Paddock's going to put it all together

and he's going to lead our rotation. That's not a good place to have him in as a sophomore year. Yeah, hey, maybe they surprise us and they bring someone else in. They brought Kyle Davies in. But, yeah, I mean, it's also the way these two, organizations operate. Like the raise have to always kind of be thinking about tomorrow because their money's not going to be there. And I mean, San Diego ain't loaded either.

Well, they're spending a lot of money. Like, they'll give out the Hosmer contract, the Myers contract, the Machado contract. They're doing it. Yeah, I mean, I think they'd pull back two out of three of those. But yeah. And then I forget if we've done Omar Novias to Milwaukee. He's actually got some really nice numbers the past few years. So maybe that could be a nice bargain place.

by them. And then, Jim, I wrote this down. There was the Jake Mariznick to the Mets trade. They were looking for a defensive center fielder, and that's exactly what they got. I do have, I'm just going to call these some interesting numbers on Jake Mariznick, Jim. Are you interested in that? Yes. So, Jake Mariznick, who, as you know, Jim, I like the name Jake and I love defensive center fielders. I mean, a pretty bad lifetime hitter. 227 batting average, 280 on base, a 660 OPS. And he's not, it's not like he's a great platoon guy. His career splits versus Ritees. He hits 223 with a 635 OPS versus lefty, 234 with a 701 OPS. So a little better. There's just one outlier in Jake Mariznick stats, Jimmy, and it happens to be the year 2017, which I don't know if you've heard any of

this Astro stuff from 2017, but there's some rumors going around about this. 2017, Jake Mariznick had an 813 OPS against right-handed pitchers and an 817 OPS against left-handed pitchers. Those are very clear outliers in his career numbers, and it just makes your wheels spin a little bit because if you heard his hitting numbers, I mean, those are pretty bad. And so if his career hitting numbers are just boosted by 2017, I mean, it just brings some more stuff from this Astros things to life. Like, would Jake Moriznick still be an MLB ball player if he didn't have those stats? Would another guy in AAA who's a defensive center field or get a chance? I don't know. It just had my

wheels spin in a little bit, so I figured I'd throw it out there and make someone. mad at me, maybe. I don't know. So you think he might have benefited from something? I'm just saying his 2017 stats are a clear outlier, and I actually did leave one more fact out about his 2017. He had a 647 OPS on the road. He had a 1.0.0.0PS at home. Interesting. How about this guy? Just some numbers. How about this guy, guy by the name of Marwin Gonzalez? Yeah. Okay. 2014, 727 OPS,

2015, 759 OPS, 2016, 694 OPS, 2018, 733 OPS, 2019, 736 OPS. So we're looking at a career average

740, 730 OPS guy. 2017, 9-07 OPS, a 150-point jump. I don't know what that could have been. Anything. Could have been anything. I don't have his home-and-away splits, though.

What about that? A little Astro stuff at the end for the people. Just for everyone. All right. Sorry, Astros fans. But there are some interesting nuggets like that. It's just interesting. That ends it for us.

We'll see you guys later. Goodbye.