Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Biggest Storylines Heading Into Spring Training!

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Use code TALKIN2025 for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2025. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Start your free online visit today at https://Hims.com/talkin for your personalized ED treatment options. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code TALKIN Trevor Plouffe and Talkin' Jake break down what Vladimir Guerrero Jr. declining an extension means for him and the Blue Jays, how the third base saga between Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman will shake out, Geraldo Perdomo signing an extension with the Diamondbacks and more! 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. Things are happening. The socks, we got a little drama. What's going on in the infield? Vladito! Is he going to stay in Toronto? Not right now. And more signings.

Justin Turner. John Means. John Means. Base hit other way. The twins are implementing situational hitting into their batting practice routes. We're back to 2004. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. I promise you we won't.

dive into that topic. Jake Storelli, Trevor Plouffe, Rob Chiracco producing. Welcome back to talking baseball. February 19th. If you hear a little something in me and Trev's voice, we're coming off a warehouse week that we are, we're battling. But it's also it's also nice to sit down, talk some ball and be like, wow, little over a month. We're going to be playing games that matter. Actually, I think a month of the Korea series. So Yeah, there's some stuff coming up quickly. Sheesh. And if you want to go, well, maybe I think you get tickets there.

You get tickets to anything on Seekek. With the MLB season coming up, basketball is rolling. Hockey is heating up, ironically. Or if you're trying to not get your sports fit, go see a concert. Kendrick Lamar, the weekend. Sure. And with our partners at Seatgeek,

you can now get 10% off. tickets with code talking 2025. Talking 2025 at Seek, the best ticketing app in the world over 28 million downloads. Go to spring training, go to whatever you want to see. It's so easy to use, I can use it. Talking 2025, 10% off any tickets at Seekkeek. Coach, what's going on on the West Coast? I'm battling right now, coach.

I got a little bit of an internet. I don't know what you'd call it. A little back and forth with the constituents there. Last night, our social team on talking baseball and John Boy Media, put out a clip of this guy. A pitcher from Georgia, he looked back at the second base bin, did some tongue out stuff, ends up striking the guy out to end the game,

does some more antics. So I got on a little bit. Okay, we're going to show the video here. This is what's going on. He looks back, a little tongue out. Big Georgia Kennesaw State game. Okay. And then he throws that pitch, strikes him out.

tosses the glove. Don't know what that means. He has a watch on, which is strange to me. So a lot of weird things. You know, I'm not the biggest college baseball guy. So all I put on social media was, that's funny in all, but I would have taken that pitch

450 to left side. That thing was, I mean, that's, to quote Tori Hunter, that was a gift from the guys. That was a looper up there. That's all I said. If this guy controlled a second base runner, I can surely put that out there.

But then people started telling me, well, there's been a lot of things that kind of hurt a little bit. They said, bro, you do sausage races now. You can't even hit a blitzball. The furthest homer you ever hit was 436. So they've been coming at me. I've been going back and forth a little bit. And I don't like to get in internet battles, man, but I'm grinding through this sickness. And I got to go through and just tell people, yeah, back in my day, not right now.

I would not hit that 450 right now, obviously. So that's where I'm at, dude. I mean, tough warning for me. I am excited to talk some balls because I do think we have some good topics. But I was just getting a little like thousand paper cuts. You know what I mean? Sometimes it hurts. That hurts worse.

I sure do. And I think I might get back to bullying on social media. I might be on the other side of the fence. Because, yeah, I don't know. I mean, at Twitter slash X went through a lot of changes. It's tough to do that. And now, I, I, I, shouldn't say I'm going to be bullying on the internet because that's not right.

There's kids that, like, someone had a very nice tweet to us this morning. They were like, proud dad moment. My son was listening to talk of baseball. Don't bully online. I'm going to come out and say that. I've been mixing it up on Twitter more. I guess I did bully Chris Rose this morning because he called himself a mouth. He called himself a mouth player.

I can't let that go. You know, I have an obligation to the people to not let that slide. I've been mixing it up more. And, hey, I'm actually going to dig myself a deeper hole here. I saw a clip of your guy, Aaron Rogers, who is saying, if someone's commenting or, you know, giving you advice or critiquing you,

but it's not someone you'd care about, then don't care. And I was like, that's kind of, the root of that's actually kind of nice, especially for interacting online. Like, if you said something to me, Trev, and you were like, Jake, you got to stop comment and stuff like that.

Jake, you can't take that guy 450. I'd be like, oh, yeah, that's my guy, Trev. If Porn Dog 420 comments that. That's my burner. I also respect it. So, okay, a couple life lessons off the top. And Trev, I'm excited. I think I want to start with life lessons from the Boston Red Sox infield right now.

Yeah, this is interesting. Because I think it's already had a life cycle. of, oh, like 10 out of 10 spring training chaos to, okay, it's the situation that everyone talked through and thought it landed on. But Rafi Devers had a press conference and came out and said, I'm a third baseman and, you know, dropped a very sharp no in the middle of his interview to, like, deaching. Cora came out and said that Devers got that contract from Hym so I don't care what he was. promised at third base and it was like,

okay, Red Sox, yeah, let's put a little fuel on the fire. I do think, and then in the middle, like the tipping point was Kosses gave him interview that was like Devers is my third baseman, which I think if you watch the interview is, I don't know, he was just

kind of backing his guy, like it wasn't shots fired at Bregman. And then I think Breggman's iced the whole thing over. So that's that's the view from 40,000 feet. What do you got, Rob? I gave a big take on baseball today about this. But I've got to think about it, I guess, a little bit more.

So it's very intriguing to me this situation because you do have a veteran player in Raphael Devers who did sign to play third base. But usually my take on all this is once you sign that deal, all bets are off. Like the team, Raffy Devers has no, he can't decide where he plays. That's the truth. Okay, if he wants to sit out games, then he won't get paid. They'll put him on the restricted list and he won't get paid.

He's going to play where they put him. Now, I don't think necessarily the Red Sox handled this. I'm talking about like front office, core. I don't think they handled it perfectly. Although it was a difficult situation to handle. I mean, they didn't know they were going to get Bregman. They've been trying to get Aeronado. And so I think Devers, all offseason,

probably should have got himself mentally ready for something like this. I mean, it had been talked about for four months. They were trying to bring a third base in. So I'm trying to put myself, in that clubhouse, like how would I feel? Obviously, Rafi's been there. He's in the clubhouse. He knows all these guys. So he's going to get the benefit of the doubt there already.

But also, Alex Breggman is a pretty dang respected player within the game. And you do know as a player in that clubhouse that the best lineup probably doesn't have Devers or third base. It has Alex Breggman at third base. So it's very interesting. I don't know exactly where they go from here. Cora's line about, well, that leadership is gone. They're in St. Louis.

Aren't you a leader or two? I don't understand all these guys, dude. You don't need to say shit like that to the press. That does no good. It does no good. A manager needs to take the high road 99 times out of 100. Every once in a while the guy can let one loose. I don't think this is a situation where he didn't let one lose.

Just take them behind closed doors. How did they not? Let me ask you this. I think this is also one of my biggest takeaways is, how do they not get together before these interviews happen and like formulate a plan that's usually what happens they knew devors was going to talk to the media they knew core was going to talk to the media like they know the media is there to ask these questions this is juicy for journalists juicy oh they should have got on the same page and i guess they have it i don't know whose fault that is that could

be devours not wanted to talk it could be them saying well we got spring train to worry about and there's 40 other people in here and things just kind of got in the way but it's a little messy but the facts are that Devers is going to play where they tell them to play there's no alternative to that

you can't just say no I'm not going to play you can't do that you're making $31 million a year for the next 10 years or whatever it will you know this is a deal once you get that money you kind of just got to be a guy that says I'll do whatever it takes to win.

Like, that's just the mindset that you have to have. Even maybe you don't feel that way, Jake. Maybe you're like pissed. Maybe he's pissed. Right. But you have to be out in the media saying, I'll do whatever it takes

for this team to win. Behind closed doors, if you want to go into Kora's office and don't punch a wall, but if you want to be mad and say, fuck, man, like I want to play third base. That's where I play.

You told me I was going to play. That's where to have this discussion, not like through the media up. To have two gibronies like you and I talking about it. Right. Two proud third. basement in our own right fighting for territory. That's true, yeah.

Yeah, it's for, for Rafi, you wonder, what is the true motivation? Is it, is it, is it, like, getting into the Hall of Fame? Because it's really hard to get into the Hall of Fame as a DH. But there was one guy who was unanimous first ballot as a DH in Boston that, like, okay, I guess from the fan perspective, that might be more in our head than Rafi's. The other thing that doesn't get thrown out there a lot, and I feel like I'm a DH truthist, is that being a DH is hard.

You get four at bats in between innings, you're just chilling. Like, I know we laugh. Like, if you're good at it, it's kind of the coolest job you can have because it's like, all right, hey, you just, you hit a double and scored. Why don't you go chill out for an hour, and we'll see you next time.

For a lot of players, it's really difficult to, Okay, rounded out to short. My next step bat's in an hour against a different pitcher. And he just got the first call was off the plate from the umpire. And here I am, oh one. Like being a DH is hard and that's where I've come. Like I super value Jack Peterson, who I think he's shown he can DH.

You know, J.D. is now getting up there in age. But guys that can DH, I think that is part of a skill set that I guess I would love to know Devers full side of it. But, like you said, with that contract, and if you're trying to win, you know, you kind of got to look at the pieces out there. And I do think when that lineup gets written and if Devers is at DH, I don't think he's going to say anything. Or he might just say like, you know, I love playing third base, but let's win some ball games. So I don't know. It's a little tricksy. And Bregman's played everything, right?

I think Rob has a Bregman interview from yesterday because all that got brought up. Great. We've been having a lot of fun. We've been taking ground balls back here doing our work together. Talking about winning, talking about baseball, talking about excited for the season. Last night we all got together, had dinner. It was great. None of this falls on that guy. He didn't do anything. That was six-foot Alex Bregman talking about how everything's cool. I guess I have been a bully lately, haven't I? A little bit. Just a little bit.

I need to stop. I was getting ready for the warehouse, that's why. Yeah, that's true. Where I have to tell people in the stands, I don't really feel this way. Yes, Devers and DeH. D. Age is, it's not easy. It takes a certain type of player.

You have to be very mentally strong to be a DH throughout a season. It's less wear and tear on your body. But I think mentally it's probably more difficult because you don't have that time to focus on something else. I think it's really good for guys to be able to separate offense from defense

because and that in itself is hard, but if you're able to do that, it just helps out. So I get that. I'd say the same thing about pinch hitters. I think pinch hitting might be even tougher than being a DH. Or a platoon guy is very difficult. You're just not playing every day.

So the, you know, the timing is off. But Devers as a DH, 87 plate appearances, 284, 322, 506 for an 828 OPS. As a third baseman, 279, 346, 511 for an 856. So better as a third baseman, but it's very small sample size as a D.H. I think he can do it. I think this all blows over, and I don't think it's necessarily going to be that big of a deal. I think if you're a Red Sox fan, you have to be stoked.

You shouldn't care about any of this. You should be stoked that you just have so many options and good players that you don't know what to do with them. That is what's happening here. At the core of this, they have too many good players. They don't know what to do. Bregman at third means Von Grissom or Keith, is it Keaton Mitchell? Don't have it up in front of me. The prospect that they were talking about?

You know I'm not a big prospect guy, but I've... I'm glad to have you in the game. Yeah, I'm in the problem. One of their big prospects. I don't want to mess that up because I feel like... Tristan? Tristan Campbell? Tristan Campbell.

Who's Keaton Mitchell? Do you have a receiver? Keaton Mitchell's a running back on the Ravens. He showed a couple flashes and then he had a bad injury. I'm sick, people. I got no sheet in front of me, okay? You know I'm not a prospect. They have Tristan Campbell, ready to play a second base.

And then in the outfield, they have a gluttonous amount of outfielders. I mean, you can go, Duran, Abraeu, Raphaela. You talk about Roman Anthony coming up. You have Casas and Yoshida. like they just have so many good players that that's what's causing this this problem keaton mitchell's not on the red side people not yet he's not not yet you and him might do an open trial but that is the core of this problem so i think that's why i don't really care about all this i think it will get sorted out don't think they handled it the best way possible but who really care like this is

this is going to be water under the bridge my opinion before the season even starts yeah i think uh as a Yankee fan, their PR guy, Jason Zillow, the godfather. He's reached out to us a few times. Always good. Always good and fair to us. But he's like one of the most powerful people in the Yankees, that it's funny, especially spring training. The Yanks come in.

And you guys and your teams, well, you could be on both ends of the spectrum. I guess let us know what you hear. But it was funny. Austin Wells is just, he's not, he's not, he's not. taking live at bats yet. And he said, I'm not, I'm just not ready yet. And everyone was like, okay, I don't know, 20, 25, 26 year old catcher. What's, what's that mean?

Aaron Boone also just said, he's just not ready yet. So it's just a funny thing like, okay, the team clearly sat down with their, the PR crew and was like, here's what we're saying. That's it. That's the end of the conversation. The Red Sox, their PR guy, I don't know. Maybe it's just like Cora ends anything. thing because he kind of is the Don over there.

But it was funny to see, to get all these opinions. At the same time, me and Jimmy, like, this was a conversation in the office yesterday. We were like, this is great. Like, this is baseball fodder. And, like, I think PR trying to get in the way of these conversations, depending where all this lands, like, this is the good stuff. Yes. Like, this is good.

Like, it's good for people who like drama, entertainment, I guess. I don't think it's good for like their clubhouse necessarily. I guess that's the next steps, become what make it interesting. And I do think there's just spring training. This is one of the first things we could grab on to that it became a fun conversation. Well, yeah, I like where you landed, Trev. This is this is a great Red Sox problem.

Didn't even mention my guy, Marcelo Meyer. Right. They just have a lot of bodies ready to contribute at the major level. like, you know, quality players. So be stoked if you're a red sex fan. I have also been bullying Yankee fans

because I said to the Yankees I said are the Diamondbacks better than the Yankees and they appeal. Oh man, our socials, I forget how much of our socials are Yankee guys. Right.

Like not the follow, our followers. They are just ripping me to shreds. I can't even open my ex up. I can't open my ex up. How social media day for you, man. That's, we're not going to get into that.

right now. Let's not get into that. But I believe that. I don't think it's... You know what hits Yankee fans in the court? Hit him with rings. I mean, well, I guess the dimebacks won the National League. So they didn't, they didn't win. But it didn't. And the Yankees went last year. Let's not talk about that. Okay. Let's not talk about that. I do want to talk about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. because that, although this is ALEA's now, it might not be ALEA as this season rolls on. And all our Vladdy talk is brought to you by Hymns. He is him.

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Now, Trev, segue and a little promo. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Had a deadline to reach an extension agreement that was yesterday, and they have not agreed to an extension. So I had your guy, Jared Carrabis, on Wake and Jake, yesterday, which was crazy timing or two days ago

because the Devere stuff just started up. Like, I didn't realize that teams think Vladdy's in play now. Like, Jared was on a, I wonder if they're going to shop Casas in a package for Vladdy. And I was like, whoa, I didn't, Red Sox fans, we got enough, like, this team's good. I didn't know they were there that I wonder if other teams are wondering about the Vladdy game too. But, Trev, the biggest thing is there is no deal. and it seems like Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

wants to hit free agency and after what he saw Juan Soto do, I don't blame him. Yeah, it's interesting because my thought on this was if you're the Blue Jays, run it until the All-Star break and see where you're at.

Ben, I don't think the hall is crazy different from trading him now at the beginning of the season to trading him at the deadline when teams kind of know where they're so they're more willing to give up pieces because they're close. This is a deadline change that. Like your psyche,

if you're the front office, like, is there something in that where it's like, okay, well, this deadline came past. And now we know it's not going to happen. Or at least he said it's not going to happen during the season.

I always kind of take that with a grain of salt. Like he says they have their numbers. I have my numbers. If the Blue Jays came to him with his number or something close to it, I bet he would sign. So, like, I don't think it's like a dead deal, but psyche-wise, if you're saying, wow, well, I guess we can't talk to this guy about it at all. Maybe we shop them earlier than we thought.

But I don't think that's going to be the case. Unless they get blown away by a package, which we really haven't seen for like one-year guys recently. I don't think it's really, maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe I'm missing one. But my thought is they're going to keep both him ambush at until close to the trade deadline. and then kind of evaluate where they're at. If they end up going the entire season and they feel like they're in it

and they want to make the playoffs and do all those things, you know, they offer the comp pick and they move on. I do not see them getting traded early on in the season though. No, I, this Blue Jays team, man, I, they,

they've tried and they've been trying and they've added pieces around Vladdy to give themselves a chance to have a shot. this summer that, um, I guess I, per usual, would love to know what Vladdy's asking for. Because yeah, I want to be surprised if he was asking for Sotoesque money. I, I, so he's about to turn 26. Right. Right. He's got to be looking for a 10 plus year deal, right? Yes. Let's just call it 10 round numbers for our math. Do you think he's at like, like,

10 years 550 to 6 with some deferment like some deferred payments Is that where he's at? Gotta have the deferment 50 a year is a lot pop

It's a lot of cake for a guy that last year was kind of viewed as like a prove a year and he proved it in a big way He did I mean I called him out a little bit I said you know Is he just a good player

And did we put too much emphasis on the 2021 season, but then he came out in 2024, second half, you know, after May, I think it was, just went absolutely bonkers. His career numbers are great, man. 363 on base, 500 slug, 863 OPS, 137 OPS plus. You don't just find guys like that. He plays every day. Yeah, he posts. He plays every day. And yeah, 940 OPS had him in rare air last year. So I don't know. That's always one of the funny things that between the agent and the player how do you view yourself like does is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

view him as Juan Soto? Like, you know, Soto defensively how long is he going to stick it right field? You can't, I don't think you can compare these two. I don't. I don't think so either. But that doesn't mean that's not how Vladito views himself. That doesn't mean

that's how his agent views himself. Yeah, if he's like, hey, Soto got 800 mil, give me six. What's six into eight? to three-fourths. Three-fourths. Am I 75% of the player that Juan Soto is?

Think about that. I should be an agent. A guy who, you know, Vladdy, even as he ages, hopefully should be able to stick around in first base and not potentially clogged that DH spot till later. It's interesting. I have no idea the scope that the players get to view themselves in and, dude, I'll tell you what,

if Vladdy runs last year back, he's going to have quite an argument. I've got to get some stats up now. 863 OPS career. Right. I want to go, Rob, maybe you take care of this for us

because I don't want to waste this time. Grab's an half guy. Let's go since 2019. He played 123 games. Let's go from 2019 through last year. Give me the players that have 863 OPS or higher. Very curious about that.

Then you can do it on fan graphs and kind of toggle and do all those things. Well, let me also, before we get your numbers, if you take out Vlad's first two years, which is 2019 and 2020, he was age 20 and age 21, and that 2020 season was the COVID year. He's had an 887 OPS. Like, he's, I know last year he needed, but he did it. So for the Blue Jays, I guess, depending what Vlad's asking price was or is, how close did they get? And I guess let's say Vlad does run it back again.

So Vlad has a 940 OPS. He balls out. He plays every game. He's 26 years old. Vlad is worth 600 million, 700? Like, depending how you do the contract and stuff like. that. He's in Soto's stratosphere. I just don't know Jake. I mean, I'm not trying to hate on this guy, but how many contracts have gotten over 500? It's, it's Shohay and Soto. That's it.

Right, but I guess for me, the age thing is always massive. Like, if, Judge, they're often in class, by the way. How about that? Soto, Tatis, and Vladdy, same international class. Not bad. that for me, I guess, if you're the Blue Jays, if he runs it back and he's already asking for that money, cool. If he does a 2023 and he has a 116 OPS plus, if you're the Blue Jays,

well, that does change the math equation. So I don't know. If I'm a Blue Jays fan, the biggest thing I'm taking away, I know this is just a quote and he's saying the right thing. He said he wants to stay in Toronto forever. So if Toronto comes to the table with the, biggest contract this off season,

that's going to be interesting. Because Toronto fans have been tested, bro. Show, hey, a lot of free agents. Oh, Toronto's in the mix and they're toe to toe. They've lost a lot of battles. If they were to lose a Vladdy battle after these quotes, then you really have to change your just mindset. I don't know, man.

I feel like we went over this. We did a TPP on the Blue Jays, and we went over this. Like they've, they haven't not spent. They haven't not gone after guys. They've been aggressive. I mean, yeah, did they land second fiddle a couple different times? Sure. But I think the fact that they have continuously went out through free agency and tried to improve this team.

I mean, they got it better than a lot of teams right now. Toronto. I understand you want him back and he is, you know, obviously, you know, the franchise player on that team. I'm just. I guess I'm just curious I look at these numbers and again I've been going through internet trolling

lately so I'm not trying to hate at all we got two outlier years we got 2021 when he won dotted it which was awesome last year through May was kind of looking the same then he went gangbusters

so he's had a couple of crazy years and then one two three four years of good baseball player. I know he's young. Do you have to take that in account? Is he entering his prime now?

I feel like they always move the prime closer to 20 every single year. If I'm a guy looking to sign him long term, I think I have to look at that track record and like the consistency and be like, okay. And I do think that there are some peripheral numbers that kind of, he was better than his 788 OPS or his 818 OPS he was hitting the ball really hard

like things were good they just didn't he was the launch angle wasn't there he was hitting the ball on the ground a little bit too much so that's you know you could change that and he has the success but I don't know I think that

I don't think he's on Soto's level like that's is that bad to say I think the numbers don't support that what's so I think it's fair to say this he needed last season to have this conversation next season is going to dude if he runs it back then he

kind of is dude Soto has a career like 950 OPS I know 53 160 OPS plus he's on a different tier but I get what you're saying I do I do think that Vladdy is a premier hitter in the game

especially if he goes out and does it again this year you know what gets me going Jake look at the walks of strikeouts last year that gets me go right do you have the stats up, 72 walks, 96 strikeouts for a slugger guy. A 30-100 guy.

That gets me going. That tells me maybe he is getting better as a hitter. Maybe he is about to just bash and go off for the next five years. It's curious. I'm very curious to see what happens to him in the off-season. The suitors are not going to be

plentiful, right? How many teams can go after a guy like Vladdy? Five? Yeah, I mean, not a ton, but they're the teams. I feel like the Dodgers can't. Like, that's crazy. I like, take them even out.

I feel like it's the Yankees. Never take the Dodgers, though. I know. I should. I feel like I should, though. Matt's Yankees, Toronto. Boston. Boston.

I don't, like, is Philly going to get into that? I don't think so. I feel like they got a guy at first base they kind of like. He's under contract for a long time. I'm just saying it's going to be interesting. I don't know. Rob, what, What stats have you drilled up?

Since 2021, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has an 887 OPS. That's ninth on the list. Okay. Do you guys want to see if you can name the top eight? Oh, yeah. I have the list in front of me, so I'll bow out. Okay, Juan Soto, Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge is one with a 1.56.

Soto's 4 with a 943. Um, sheesh, this is. This is going to be pretty tough, actually. Is Shoah on there? Showhay's second with a 984. My gosh. Who else is just a gangster like that? Mike Trout might be on.

Yeah? Mike Trout's on. Since 2021? No. Oh, you might have a game limit up. I did a similar search without a game limit. And it has Trout fourth, but he... He's missed a lot, yeah.

He's missed a lot. What is the number we're looking 880? or above 880 Ferranathet Tati's Jr. Did he get the cut? I'm sorry? Pran Tatis Jr. I know he had no.

Name it for me. All right. You got Aaron Judge Otani, your Don, Soto, Harper, Freeman, Betts and Kyle Tucker.

So you're in good company. You're in really good company. So if he does it again, Trey. That's kind of, you did take out two years that I asked for. But yeah,

No, I get it. You were talking about 22 and above. I'll give it to him. 20 and 21 is crazy to be a big leaguer anyway. Right. And he was a child. Yeah, I like most guys. I'll give him 500.

Okay. Five-eighths. I mean, you and I were saying, you and I at the hotel bar, whatever. We were talking about Vladdy, and I was kind of giving you my Toronto speech, like me sign this guy. like sign this guy and you're but he's going to hit free agency because he's earned that right he's

Vladdy's son look what Cohen just threw out the Soto blah blah blah and you were like you know if they threw 500 at Vladdy I don't know if he says no you made me tilt my head but again I have no I have no idea what Vladdy when he says I have my numbers and they have their numbers gosh I want to know what they are maybe it'll come out eventually Carlos Baeger where you at bro Get a little, just dig a little bit for us, okay? And Trev, guys, I'm sorry, but this is a really good example. And I used to hate when Simmons and Rosilla would do this because they're Boston guys, but it's where you get your data from.

The Yankees and the Aaron Judge contract year right before the season said we offered him, I think it was 227 mill or something like that. And they said it so confidently, you know, how could a guy turn down this money? He went out and he broke the home run record, and he got a lot more money. What's his contract? Where did he land? 360 or 340? 10, 360?

Not bad, huh? It ain't 500? 8 for 230. Hey, how do you need to know that? That's what they offered before this season. Oh, okay, okay, eight for 2.30. And then he end up getting 10 for 360? What's 10 times 40?

40 mil a year. You'd think that would be 400 if I know my numbers well. I was doing fractional work with Teddy last night. That's why my fractions are on point to it. Oh, wow, dude. That stuff. That stuff is gnarly. Trev, let's wrap it up with a little bit of show info.

And Justin Turner signed a real contract. John Means and the Guardians have their end of season pitching plan again. and my guy Domo got extended for the snakes. It's all brought to you by Draft Kings and announced for the show. We're going to start doing the King of the Week. The King of this week might have been Bregman getting that contract and stirring up the controversy. But every week, Draft Kings is going to bring our Kings of the Week

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On behalf of Boothill Casino when Resort in Kansas, 21 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. New customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. Four additional terms and responsible gaming research. sources, see dkng.com.co slash audio. Trev, which one of these three is the juiciest for you between Perdomo extension,

Turner, and John Means? I like the Perdomo extension a lot. I really do. Justin Turner's my guy. He's got into that category of Chuck Peterson, David Robertson, and Justin Turner now. I think there's a couple other guys who I have in that tier where you just sign them and they're going to give you something. whether it's veteran experience whether it's you know a month or two of really good baseball like

these guys are these guys can still really do it so i actually really like justin turner on the bench and kind of you know i'm curious to see how they do their the plane time there um but the perdomo extension signals to me something about the debacks that's kind of what sparked this entire are they better than the yankees conversation they just they have a good core of players locked up now. They're going to be competitive and use that term kind of lose it.

They're going to be a very good team for quite some time. After this year, they do lose some pitching, some starting pitching. But obviously they got Corbyn Burns locked up. I'm hoping they are able to keep

one of Zach Galen or Merrill Kelly. They need to do that. But this team is kind of stacked. Jake. And like Perdomo isn't, you know, he's a kind of like a glove first type of player old school, like bat to ball skills doesn't strike out, walks, you know, puts together a good at bat. He's like a good baseball

play year. Fundamentally sound, you want the ball hit to him. He's going to be able to bunt. He's going to be able to move a runner. All these things he can do very well. And, you know, people are saying $40 million for a guy like that, like $11 million a year. To be able to stabilize your your middle infield and have a guy that can kind of wreak havoc or play the game of baseball, which is kind of, you know, I don't want to sound like a boomer, but it's kind of a lost art. That's worth it to me. I actually really like this signing. Move Jordan Lawler over to third base as Eugenio is done after this year. Like, then they have to tell it's at second. Like, this is awesome. Yeah, he,

things that don't matter, they used to matter. He is beloved, man. That city, loves him. He's at NBA games. He's at W. NBA games. He's everywhere. If they're doing fan engagement stuff, he's a part of it. He's 25 years old. A, what if he gets a little better? The contract is basically low risk. He's got one of the best swing decision rates. I think he's like third at not chasing pitches outside of the zone. And yeah, man, if you've got a switch hitting shortstop who can get on base at the past two years combined, he's sitting around 350, 349 as your nine-hole hitter. Yes.

And that's what Mike Hazen came out in the press conference and said the two guys that should be happiest about this deal are Corbyn Carroll and Catelle Marte. Get on base. All Perdomo does is get on and flip the lineup. So yeah, the Homer numbers probably ain't going to be there. Maybe they will. Maybe he's 25 and find something in his swing this. 6-2-200, bro.

Like, this guy, like, maybe, send me down there, Jay. Let me work for this guy. Let me show on that. It's all in the back hit. Get it through. I say this in the nicest way. The dimebacks might not want that from you.

He's led baseball in 22 and 23 in sacrifice hits, which, like, okay. Like, there's a little bit of a skill set to that. A little bit. That's a real skill that you have to practice that not many to do. What did I just, last year, I had a viral clip because I was like, nobody can defend the bun. Right.

Do you watch the playoffs? I know you did. I did. Putting pressure on a defense still works in baseball. Yeah, I mean, if he can be a league average bat, which he has been the past two years for him to lock into that shortstop position. And hey, maybe it is a, I'm interested to see how the Jordan Lawler stuff goes. And, you know, they had a couple other prospect.

plays Alexander like, guess what? Now shortstop's off the table. Like just being straight up with you guys. There's going to be other spots to be had. We paid that guy to stay there. And Trev, you like this. You want to be an MLBGM. It's 2018.

The snakes are on the horn looking to add a nice veteran outfield bat by the name of John Jay. Okay. The Royals asked for, some 18-year-old shortstop. Raldo Pardomo. And shout out to Amiel Saaday. Probably not saying that right.

Mike Hayes' assistant slammed the table and said, we can't move that guy. And now he's going to be their starting shortstop for like six years. Did I say sharding stortstop? You did. Shout out. Shout out. Now he's a skater.

Treb, the other thing for me is Justin Turner to the Cubs, the Cubs that were supposedly in the Bregman mix. I was wondering if they were going to be in the Aeronado mix, or is that just too sinful in the Cubs Cardinals' rivalry to do something like that? That Justin Turner signs, and I'm like, great. Like, okay, here's our classic mariner shrapnel, so he hit up there so he's not coming back. Speaking about a guy that's going to be loved in Chicago,

I was a little shocked and not to be rude to Justin Turner, because I think it is right. I didn't realize it was going to be for 6 mili. Like that's a number that you're paying a guy to play, Tra. I think it's just a good insurance piece, depth piece. I don't know how much third base he's going to play. I don't think he played much at all last year, primarily first base in DH.

But it's, yeah, it's good insurance. I mean, who wouldn't want Justin Turner on their bench, spelling guys from time to time? I think his presence alone is worth $6 million. and he still got he still got in the tank Jake right he still can hit man he still can put together good at bat

so I think any team will be better with Justin Turner like on your bench so this the Cubs still have I looked this number up the other day like 40 million dollars before they even get to the first CBT

tax threshold like let's go six million dollars for them no brainer yeah I I hope, I hope, I hope this goes awesome because I think more teams need to do this. I think teams have gotten, Trev, you went on your depth rant that cracked me up, but like, that's how it's supposed to work. Like instead of being like, oh, we got nine spots filled, let's not bring anyone else in. No, bring in Justin Turner.

So if Michael Bush is having a couple tough days, guess what? Throw JT at first. Hey, Matt Shaw's not, you know, having some young moments at third. JT, get out there. Like, that's huge. That's huge. That I think teams have devalued that by mistake. That good for the Cubbies.

I know it's not Bregman, and we'd be loving to pound the table and say, you got Breggy, let's go, Cubs. This is the offseason we dreamed of. As a nice insurance policy for maybe Matt Shaw, who could be the future for six years, whatever, like Justin Turner. It couldn't be better.

He should be on every team. I know. 214.5 is where they're at right now. The tax thresholds set at 241 this year. So quick math, that is 26.5 million dollars left to spend. How much math? Who's out there? Not a lot, Pa.

Not bad. But, yeah, I mean, not bad to have a guy that you can just throw in, you can hit 260 get on base at a 350 clip he had a 114 OPS plus last year yeah he still got he still got it why does he still have it dude didn't invite me to his golf tournament this year and he invited me the year before and I couldn't go

and I didn't get the invite you blew it dude I blew it that's on you I was gone if you get that invite you got a clamps you know come on JT couple Southern California kids.

Do we need to talk about his workout routine or something? Like how is 40? Still just hitting. He's always been like that, man. It's the hitter. God, took a little click for him and he is just continuing to roll it. Good for him, good for the Cubs.

And then John Means, if you have any final thoughts, I mean, for me, it's just interesting that the guards, it's one year with a club option. John Means is coming off his second. Tommy John. But we saw it. The Guardians, they got a couple

olds last year that were getting healthy around August that ended up pitching in the postseason for them that this might be some new Guardians baseball

of getting some insurance policies to pitch late in the season when teams are running out on guys. Depth. I mean, I don't really have a time on, John means,

we're being honest. Yeah, depth. Rotational depth. And you never, whenever the Guardian signs someone, you always had to be like, what hold on right especially a pitcher so everyone else didn't come to the table uh yeah expect john

means to have four innings shut out come october um because that's what happened um all right a little juicy spring training mixing it up episode uh everything we mixed please comment below. I think I said shart stop before. So that sharding shortstop. Everyone maybe put your best sharding story in the comments. All right. We will be back Monday. Enjoy your weekend and God, we are getting close to baseball, babe. Subscribe.

This truly was our Jordan Flew episode. Battled. I said Keaton Mitchell. That one threw me off. That's old-school, like, fantasy football just, like, from the back of the brain came forward. Crazy. Like, week 15 waiver wires. Baltimore Raven?

He has a little juice, yeah.