Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Is Toronto a REAL Threat for Shohei Ohtani? | 754

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINVisit http://get.bluemoonbeer.com/BASEBALL to see delivery options.++++++0:00 Jolly & BBD LIVE From Winter Meetings2:30 Mariners Trade Kelenic and Others to Mariners11:45 What if the Mariners Did THIS?16:25 Soto and Ohtani Rumors27:20 Brewers Sign Their Top Prospect31:00 KBO Guys Were Posted37:00 Is Bregman on the Block?39:30 Ohtani and Blue Jays Rumors Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to Talkin Baseball Winter Meeting special with our field reporters on the ground in Nashville. Mariners made a trade with the Braves, Rumors, and More. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today. My name is Jimmy. Big baby David is here producing. There's no Jake.

He's on his honeymoon. Trev. He's on vacation. We have Jolly Olive joining the show. And he's boots on the ground with BPD in Nashville. So we'll go over some rumors and stuff, part two of the show. Part one will be the Braves and Mariners trade. Jowell, how are you? Good. Having a great time meeting a lot of people putting names to faces. It's been a lot of fun. We didn't have a lot to go on yesterday, but still we managed to film a lot, get a lot done. And it's been a lot of fun. So hopefully today is a little bit different,

a little bit more eventful. And we can keep on the grind. I think last year, day one wasn't that eventful. And a lot of stuff happened the last two days. Aaron Judge happened the day we were leaving. We were packed to go to the airport and we had to go back to the table to record it like 7.30 in the morning, right, Bebs?

Yeah, you woke up early, get to the table, recorded. It was like our last thing. and we went right after. Yeah, went straight to the airport. So I know everyone's kind of having fun or not having having fun being mad at how slow it is. But it's day one, you know, they got to have some meetings. They don't just show up and the meeting's done. So I'm still hopeful we're going to get an eventful intermeetings.

I could be an absolute fool here. And I'll hand up and say I'm full. But I'm still optimistic. We're going to have some fun updates. And that's, again, part two of the show. And the show is brought to you by Seatkeek, and you can use Code Talkin for $20 off your first purchase. The app is great.

There's 70,000 different events in your area. Every single night, you can go to one of those. You can go on a date. You can go by yourself and enjoy some solitude. And if you use Code Talking, you get $20 off. I want to dive in to the Mariners and Braves trade. And as a baseball enthusiast, Jolly, I feel like you're interested in this as well.

Also, as a Mets fan, There's some interesting elements to this for you as well. So I just go over what the trade is. And then we'll talk about why maybe I find it interesting and you do. The Braves acquired Jared Kelnick from the Mariners. They also acquired Marco Gonzalez and first baseman Evan White. Those are money. So like those names, not to be rude to those two names, but from the Braves and Mariners point of view,

though you're not acquiring the player there. you're acquiring the contract. So basically they acquired the player, Jared Kelnick, for four years, four more years, I believe. And they acquired the money of Marco Gonzalez and Evan White. The Mariners received right-handed Jackson Co-R. Is that how you say his name? Yeah, at least so.

And Cole Phillips. And those guys are kind of interesting in their own right as well, because Jackson Coar, the Braves just got him. in a trade the Kyle Wright trade, right? Yeah, one for one. And he was a former number one prospect, so there's still a lot of arm talent, but it has not panned out for the royals.

We thought the Braves were going to take him and turn him into a stud. And now he's, doesn't ever even wears a brave uniform. And they, and also Cole Phillips. The biggest question here, Jolly, is what the hell are the Mariners doing?

I think that's the surface level reaction from everyone is like, what are the mariners doing? Well, it's, there's two roads you can take. It's one of them is, oh, the Mariners freed up $30 million. They're probably going to make a big move. The other road is the Mariners freed up $30 million. And that's the end of the story.

And I think it's kind of down that road a little bit. I mean, with the Evan White aspect of it, I wasn't even aware of the extension that they gave him early on. He was a big prospect for them. They really liked what they saw. They gave him a $24 million deal over six years. And I think they just wanted to get that off the books. And that was attaching Gonzalez to this. He was worth $12 million.

dollars. Obviously the biggest shocker is the marquee piece, which is Jared Kelnick, who's now traded a second time before he turns 24, which is really remarkable when you consider how highly ranked of a prospect he was and how good of a start he got off to in 2023. He had an 846 OPS in his first two months over 53 games. It's just the rest of the way. He was dealing with injury. He went up and down. And he just wasn't the same kind of hitter. But, you know, we've talked about Kelnick at length before considering the other trades and all the storylines with the Mariners the past two seasons. The tools are there.

So I think it's a great move for the Braves. It's a very braves move in terms of them, you know, taking one piece from a deal and connecting it to another and getting themselves a five-starter and a corner outfielder while not really seeming like they're losing much outside of the expense of taking on all that money. And now they got this brilliant young outfield where Ronald Ocunee Jr., who's 25 years old, is the oldest guy there. Michael Harris, the second is 22.

Jared Kellnick is 24. Who knows if Kelnich is 20, who knows if Kelman. Nick is also a part of another deal because they got linked to Dylan C's there. But I think the Braves are big time winners here. If Gonzalez is healthy next year, that's a good look for them. And with the Mariners, man, yeah, but we've said it at length before on Wake and Jake and stuff like that. But yeah, Mariners fans should be worried because this team is straying further and further away from where they were. And where they were wasn't even a playoff team.

So I don't really know what the path is here for Mariners fans. Yeah, I mean, at the Rotary clubs, I know what they're. saying this is. They're saying that they don't want to be a strikeout team anymore. And Kelnick was a 31% of the time. He struck out. Teosker was 31% in time. And, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, you Henneau

S Juvene was 30% of the time. So they got rid of their three. You wouldn't want Tayas relief to do free agency. Um, they traded Suarez and now Kelnik. They also, who else? They are, they have four spots open, I believe, the Mariners now. So it's a, a lot of roster turnos. turnover, but they haven't really been linked to anybody either, which is my main concern, because, like, there's so many holes to fill to just get back to the, what, 88 win team that you were.

Yeah, so they shed $30 million. Great. You're not going to be able to fill all the holes you created by signing one player. Like, it's not like, oh, now they're, they're shedding money to get into the Juan Soto deal. No, they're shedding money to get into like two players and two prospects coming up, which isn't really a team in the hunt. and the division got better. It's really weird.

Also, you say the Braves come out as winners. Very easy to come out as winners when you are doing a salary dump trades with not big salaries. Like a salary dump is like David Price, you know? Or what are some other big salary dumps we've had recently? We had a- I mean, don't call it from a couple years ago. It was a big time. Just take the money.

We can't afford it. yeah not not these so like the Braves are like what we don't that's fine that's not like they're supposed to take the money on it's supposed to be like oh this is a lot the Braves just did this and they might do more moves on it like I don't give a shit Marco Gonzalez is going to be out because they're going to bring in another pitcher or go get cease or something like the Mariners are making it very easy for other teams to have fun their salary dumping in my opinion but they're saying they're getting rid of strikeouts it's going to be interesting what they do to replace these bats because they were like, you know,

they weren't, I'm not going to sit here and say they were amazing, but they played. They had at bats. Kelnick had a really good start of the season. Then he got hurt. It was battling injury and not great. But again, the Braves traded for Kelnick as a spring training position war. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Like if you trade for a player and you are salary, you're eating money. usually it's like a Juan Soto situation. We're like, yeah, we're going to eat money, but this dude's going to be our three-hole hitter and he's going to be an everyday player. Kelnick might not even like be in the starting lineup. And they know that. So the Mariners are making it a very fun time, very fun team to trade with right now. And yeah, they're not linked to anyone big. I like the base, the MLB trade rumors.

They were like, so who are the Mariners going to go get because they don't want strikeouts, but they also don't have money. They're like maybe they said, uh, Whitmerfield or Lord of Scoriel Jr. Like maybe they go try to get those guys. Like, okay. If people are trying to theorize like the fun like Soto go there situation. Like I think Topoto has a very limited history of trading for one year guys. Like as much as he trades, he doesn't do a lot of one year dudes. And on the on the brace and another advantage they have of all the dudes they signed to what are now looked at as below market value extensions.

They're like, oh, they took on enough money to make like one of those normal. And there's still so much room for them to play with with all their dudes. I do think there's a way where the Mariners come out looking nice here. I mean, still, they're not a trade away from getting back into a competitive state. And it's frustrating because they have this really good young, controllable rotation that is at their disposal with guys like Bryce Miller and Brian Wu at the back end who just came up and are showing they're capable. and you're going to be wasting that. You know, you just signed Castillo to this massive seven-year extension, not that long ago. It was 2022 at the end of that season.

And now you're sort of putting yourself, you're closing the window on yourself for no apparent reason. And you're giving teams like the Braves the excuse to not bring back a guy like Eddie Rosario, that now they don't feel the pressure to sign Rosario to a one or two deal, two-year deal or whatever, because they have a guy like Kelnick who's under control until 2029 is going to cost them a million dollars this year. the Mariners are a market that can operate in that way. They're fully capable. They sell out games year in and year out, and they've recently had their best season. And I think it's just, it's just frustrating.

They get, they get pieces back in this deal in Co-R and Phillips. Co-R, obviously, you know, a frontline prospect kind of guy, a former first-round pick, had bad numbers at the Major League level, had injury history. Cole Phillips, I think, is their number 15 prospect last year, this year. He doesn't even pitch last year. So there's no immediate answers there. So Mariners fans should be irate. And the fact that they're not linked to anything,

rumors is all we have to grasp at right now. And the fact that you're not even hearing their team name and anything involved is super disappointing. All right. What if, what if the Mariners take their next steps and they sign Whitmerfield. And they trade for one of Randy Roserania or Isok Parades, who the rays are, you know, shopping and supposedly shopping. and that's what they do. Are they better than last year or are they the same as last year?

I think they're the same. I mean, you get rid of that strikeout problem. The raise selling high on somebody always tends to scare me. And that's like actively what they're trying to do with Parades, who has a lot of similar peripherals to Oscar Hernandez, by the way. They're very similar batted ball profiles. Wood Merrifield, I think is a cool signing for them. gives them a little bit of versatility.

But yeah, I mean, you're just getting back to the baseline of where you were at last year. And the ALS is going to continue to improve. The Rangers and Astros obviously aren't going anywhere. So you needed to have a splash move ready to go this offseason. And this off season is weird because the position player market is kind of weak, but it's also top heavy. So if you make a play for one of these big guys, you can really consider this winter of victory. But like, I don't see that happening, even with them freeing up this money. Because $30 million, what does I get, you know, less than one year of?

Choha Otani. I don't believe they're a real player there. And then Soto, they're not going to have any dreams of extending. And they're not in this one year window. So yeah, I think your proposed plan, if all of that comes together, which is a huge if, gets them back to an 85, 88 win team. All right. I tried to find some silver lining for our Mariners listeners. We didn't really do it.

It's hard to. I just think this trade is so interesting because Marco Gonzalez may not be in their rotation should come opening day for the Braves. Kelnick may lose the spring training battle and be like at AAA or a bench outfielder on opening day. And you'd still be like, yeah, but Braves won the trade. Yeah. Because they didn't even have.

So in theory, they got these guys as options or depth for Kyle Wright. Yeah. I mean, the Kyle Wright trade, I think, shocked me more than this in the first place. I mean, shoulder injuries are a whole thing. But yeah, the Braves are just protecting themselves and giving themselves options, which teams like the Mariners, I guess, are they're not in a position, apparently, to give themselves versatility and options, which, you know, this is how the Braves do business.

We've seen them make moves like this before. And maybe it's paving the way for something else that might happen today. But yeah. If people think Gonzalez is going to be flipped and if that's the case, and okay, I'm assuming, assuming the praise aren't eating money to do that, again, he's not a huge salary than you ate less salary to do any of this and whatever prospect you got back for that or whatever the trade is. I don't know.

We'll see. Is it a bullpen guy? I don't know. I know the Braves didn't win. I know the Braves didn't win in the playoffs and they need to win in the playoffs. But boy, is it fun to have like that much talent locked up and just get to fuck around on the margins during the offseason? Yeah, seriously.

I mean, they can involve them. themselves with anything, whether you believe them in and on to Otani or not. But yeah, when you establish a massive winning culture and when you have this resume of making great moves and great extensions, like, yeah, people are going to want to come play for you and free agency. So I'm hoping, I'm not hoping as a Mets fan, but I'm curious to see if this is the year where the Braves finally, like, punch a ticket and sign a big free agent because I think the most expensive player they have on their books is Matt Olson, who's making 24, 25 in that range. So they could blow that open completely on their payroll because they have the money to do it.

So. Damn. All right. Well, that wraps up that. I wanted to ask you some questions about winter meetings. The buzz there. The rumors going on.

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dot com slash baseball. Made brighter. Celebrate responsibly. Blue moon brewing co. Thanks to them for sponsoring the show. All right. I feel like the Soto, Yankees, Blue Jays, Blue Jays, Oton. is the only real gossip.

I don't know if it's the only gossip people care about. I don't know if it's like, well, the free agency doesn't really start until Otani signs. And trades don't really start until Soto gets traded. So that's all we are, you know, that you got to start the race. Is that how it feels there? Yeah, definitely.

It kind of feels like the balloon is, you know, waiting to pop and everything is kind of, you know, being recycled and set in different ways just to get headlines out there and keep people invested. We've heard some interesting things. There's a lot of Mets beat reporters here. And obviously the Mets are going to be active in some capacity. They're linked to a lot of names. There's also been like conflicting reports because Eduardo Rodriguez is here.

And some people are saying he might sign before Otani and maybe he burst the bubble. And a bunch of teams in the middle of the pack could be in on him as well. But yeah, the general consensus and the vibe and the things we're hearing is that until I'll Tony goes and until Soto goes, nothing else can really go. They're kind of setting the market in that way. And, you know, it's fun to speculate. And I'm sure we'll do that in the back half of the show. And minor moves can be made that the real baseball, you know, nerds can get into.

But yeah, the explosives and the fireworks are not going to go off until these main two headline guys, you know, do something or give us something to chew on. I don't know if Erod's signing early changes anyone else's timeline. besides maybe Monty. I don't think it even affects Snell. No, Snell and Monty. I think it's,

I think like maybe it unlocks whatever the tier like below those guys are like the, but how many guys fit into that and how. Yeah. Like E-Ride, go sign somewhere. I don't think you're connected to the other domino pieces

and all of this nonsense. Yamamoto is also a piece that could go early, but I feel like there might be he's waiting O-Tani out or they might, feels like there's just such a culture of respect and like respecting your elders that there might be like, oh, Shohay, do you want me to wait until you sign?

Because I will. I don't know. I don't know how much that's, I don't know. Yeah, don't know how much that is necessarily directly tied into it. I know last week ago you were away, like the, the news on the Amamoto was just not meeting with anybody face to face till after. So he's a next week.

You know, he'll start talking. He'll start directly meeting with teams. I'm sure his agents are talking to people this week, engaging stuff. But how's this setup in Nashville? Can you see the GMs walking around? Would you recognize most of them anyway? Yeah, we're actually, we're stationed right by where manager press conferences take place

and we're right outside the ballroom where, like, a lot of the Hall of Fame stuff was going on and probably the Rule 5 draft stuff tomorrow night. So we're kind of in the intersection of all that, which is cool because you're able to catch people coming and going, which is how we got Tori Lavello, how we got Carlos Mendoza yesterday. And, you know,

nothing happening is kind of a bummer, but it also kind of invites like more fun questions and more silly content, which is also like, you know, kind of the spirit of jambling media a little bit. And like, I think it's, it's nice because you know, you're not really getting a ton from these miniature press conferences. So when you're able to catch them as they're coming out and, you know, give them something fun, I think that that's really enjoyable. And we're actually going to get like the back half of the managers, press conferences. They're going to happen today. And it's a lot, you know, of the bigger names you get excited for. Like Stephen Vote's going to kick it off. Aaron Boone is going to be later in the day. He's going to be. going to draw a crowd for sure. So I'm excited to see what else we get today in terms of like short form content and stuff that we can deliver because it was nice to see. You kind of felt like everybody was on Twitter and on social media waiting for something that happened. So when we could put something out there, it's like, hey, we don't have any news, but like here's like something fun that, you know, you can chew on for at least a minute.

It felt good to get like a lot of validation from that. So hopefully we get the buzz. The buzz is cool when like the arson judge tweet happened. That was like, you know, to be at winter meetings, when everyone, like everyone there cared deeply about this and also thought it was, it was, you know, it's such a nerd, nerd thing. Any like con convention is that, you know, so like, yo, oh, this, everyone here's in on this inside joke.

And that's like the one thing we haven't seen yet. Like everything stopping in motion, everyone getting the, the news at the same time. Yeah. And I think the more that it doesn't happen, like a full day and nothing yesterday is only building it up more so today so that when it does happen. I hope it like we have the cameras out because it's probably going to be like a big. Yeah. The way the media area is laid out with all the TVs and stuff, you can tell like you will see just a flood of people start moving a certain direction.

And that's going to be very funny. Also the we went in 2018. It was the first time we went winter of 2018. So before the 2019 season. And then the next year before the 2020 season. And then they didn't have it for two years. so we went last year before the 2020 three season and December of 2019

is when Cole signed with the Yankees and then last year judge but you also had Rodon. You had a ton of different signings and we got like good buzz both times. The first time we went was Harper Machado when no one signed they had to make that like free agent spring training.

And we were sitting next to Michael Kay and I don't think he's been back since. He said, I'm never going again. This was such a waste of time. and it really was. So I hope we get some stuff this year. Yeah, like for me, it's my first one.

So I'm like, kid in the candy shop, trying to film as much as we can, like trying to talk to as many people. And it's really funny to see the dynamic of writers that have been doing it for like four or five plus. Oh, yeah,

yeah. So over it. Like they're so done with it. Like last year, everything we say about like press boxes. And they're like, oh, all these people kind of hanged.

Yeah, they're like what people say I'm like. But, but when you actually see it like I'm not that jaded and and uh I'm out of it yet like like this sport you know what you'll see from reporters I and I will say 95% of the reporters that we've met in in the baseball world and I wonder me's are are incredibly kind to us especially Jake and I didn't know if they would be like nice and all that but you will see some of the sour eggs um drop articles right before manager's

So look out for that. If like you have the Dodgers manager coming or Booney or something like that, some like, um, new theory or like, oh, I just heard this happened. So the manager sits down and then they say, did you hear about this?

And then I haven't even heard that. What are you talking about? And then they explain it to them. And then it's a moment. And then people go, wait, I haven't heard that. And they go search the article.

That happened a lot last year. And it was like, uh, a good tactic, honestly. yeah yeah last year booney was like right after arson right he was uh yeah that wasn't planned but yes that was a different thing but just that was

crazy speaking of arson we we do have a tweet from the man of the hour related to otani it's nothing groundbreaking he did say just now uh otani did tell some folks he knows before his probable jays florida visit he has a positive feeling about toronto don't discount the jays which kind of feeds into what we're to talk about later, but still. Jays are, have you, have you,

um, seeing him in the wild? Oh, yeah, he's, he lingers a lot from what I saw. Oh, yeah.

Every, I was going to, he got coffee with him this morning. He's like, um, he's like a Rumba that's battery's dying. That's how he navigates the room. Just kind of corner to corner,

slow. I haven't seen him look up. I haven't seen him look up. Like, like, look up. He doesn't look up. Bob was incredibly nice in the interactions. So nice. Jeff said hello. Of course, we're friends with Jeff. And like all the athletic guys, all the the beat reporters from New York were incredibly nice. Ken, we had an exchange with. But like the one guy that we haven't really like made eye contact with is John. I got eye contact on the coffee line this morning. And I might have ever said that. I may have burnt that bridge for us. You know, it's a rule we have here. There's one exception. And again, I actually read him his articles. I just his history. Twitter's horrible.

I think he just put out that 12 teams are in on ICF. Yeah, I saw talking to ink sweet about that's nothing. I immediately said to Jolly, if 12 teams are in on you, no teams are in on you. Kyle, Kyle said it in the office,

Jim, did you hear 12 teams are in ICAF? I said, Heyman tweeted and he said, yes. I said, well, come on.

I could have tweeted. Half the league. Yeah, but that would be my guy, hold of his Twitter for a day and want a pair. I would tweet 12. teams are in on ICAC at the moment. No one's even asking for that up there.

Can't say it's false. How it's 12th? He must have, I would like to check the timestamps of his tweets. He must have like a, I need to get something out every 20 minutes, rhythm to how he operates. And if he doesn't have anything,

it's just like stuff like that. Tweet something you already tweeted and. Yeah, try it again. I mean, he's already fired off. But I see why am I in front of it? That's an old reporter trick. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. We did not miss it. Yeah. All right. No other buzz? Like there's no other who, I mean, I guess the mark no Bellinger. But I was really. He's going to wait until.

Yeah. I mean, it's been a lot of rumors that were pretty much said before we even got here between Gordon Burns and Emmanuel Class A and then you like, I mean, even if you move all the deals that happened right before like, Nick Martinez signing with the Reds or like Louis Sabarino signing with the Mets or Dodgers bring back Joe Kelly. Like that would feed some lifeblood into this con, but there's been nothing. Like it's been crickets. Like some GMs have held like private press meetings in suites like David Stern's had his own.

So a couple of my Mets Beat report friends went up and they got the invite there. But again, nothing of substance can can really be said because everything is very tight knit. And like there's only one. We've seen two players. We know Erod is here and we saw Jackson Trio because he signed. is extension, which, like, by the way, the Brewers are being the most active team. I didn't have that in my book. They've made three moves.

Everyone else has made none. But the fact that, like, players aren't even really here and, like, agents, like, they're few and far between. It's just we're all waiting for the bubble to burst. Do you want to run through some of these moves, I guess? Like, there's not, I don't think there's much to chew on, like the Mariners were raised on, which was kind of interesting. But there's some updates we can just rip through.

Yeah, sure. Totally. what do you want to tackle do you have let's see I'm trying to see if there's an active list somewhere I can just read through the brewers what have the brewers done they gave a crazy extension to a minor leager right they extended jackson chrio they signed wade mylie back to a one year deal with an option and then they signed joe Ross to a one year Ross so much some one year deals what's the name of the minor leager is he a in what position is he max contoriio he's a center fielder I believe he's currently ranked the number two overall prospect depending on what website you look at. And they gave him like a hundred mill over eight years. So they bought out two of his free agent years. They gave him an eight year contract worth 82 million. It makes him the second highest paid player on the brewers going into next year,

only behind Yelich. And it's kind of like the Corbyn Carroll deal from last year where like they gave him the eight year $100 million deal before the season started. It turned out to be a pretty good looking deal from the look of it. But the thing with Corbin is that we played like 40 games in the year poor. So they were like, okay, he's seen MOV pitching. There's a sample. Played in a game, made his debut.

The Tru Rio one is really kind of risky and interesting because he hasn't played at all. And like the only other time we really saw that happen was Luis Robert, who got 50 million before he played. And like he turned out to be a great player. He had a great season last year. But all of it kind of points to the brewers just trying to get ahead of it and be cost efficient and like enter this new era where they're going to sell off a bunch of guys. And Trio is going to be, I guess, the focal point of. the next error of brewers baseball. How old is he?

He's young. I think 19 years old. Jeez. So he'll still be 27 when he hits a free agent. So you can't really turn that down if you're him. Of course not. I mean, it's one, it's guaranteed money.

It's more money you've ever seen in your entire life. But two, like, yeah, you're going to hit free agency again. And if your big league career pans out the way everyone else is expecting you to and probably you are expecting it to, then yeah, you're going to do for another paycheck later on.

Yeah. But if you're going to hit free agent, if he's 24 years old. There's no way you can sign that because you need to be a free agent before 30. Yeah. And there's two at the end too. So if like he can exercise those as well. So like it could turn out to be in a $100 million contract.

And it's the first deal the brewers have made without like David Stearns in the front office too, which I found really interesting. And who knows? Maybe they're going to make more moves. You can't really count them out, I guess, because the annual central is kind of weird. And like maybe Trurio turns out to be this great major league player. and, you know, they don't have to leave this window necessarily, but yeah, there's a lot more work to do.

You know, on the Brewers, you know, and this is literally nothing, but I did see their new manager walking out of the hotel with his suitcase this morning, so they might be done. Oh, that might be done. Nice guy. He's really, he's really nice.

We love Murph. Yeah. We met him, we met him at one of the funnier press conferences from yesterday. That's funny. Yeah. They're probably still here. doing this headline just cracks me up because of the guy's name very inappropriate and childish of me but woo suck go uh has been listed that's funny about that i don't know man that's that's

crazy translation it's spelled w o space s uk space go woo suck go i've heard he's good you know he's way young young who lee also posted people are still talking about him i am very confused uh i'll take uh Trevor ploof's normal role here i am very confused why people are excited over or as excited as they are over um young what's his name this happened for me young who lee um yeah situation's kind i'm fascinated by him i would i'm excited to watch him on a team that isn't the one I root for is the talking point I've had with people. There's just not any history. There's one guy in the history of MLB that has come over from the KBO and been in a

above average bat. One. And that's Shinsu Chu. It just doesn't really happen. They don't have like fast pitchers in the KBO. He didn't see like a lot of 95 mile power plus at all. Now, you can have, like, defensive wizards and, and decent ball players that are MLB players, but the money you might have to pay if that's like what it is or like to think he's going to come and change your team in the next two years.

I think it's just never really happened. He gives me a very similar vibe. And I know this is a Japanese player, not a Korean player, but Shogo Akiyama came over a few years ago, signed with the red sound like a very cost efficient deal. And he profiled like the same way. He was like defensive upside can play all three out. field positions, slap hitter, a little bit of pop, and then he came over and he just couldn't hit fastballs. Like he couldn't deal with major league velocity.

He never hit a home run in 142 games. And I'm not saying that this is what Junkhuli is destined for, but yeah, he's one of these guys where I'm like, I'm intrigued by him, but I don't necessarily want my team to give him, like, this three year guaranteed deal and make him, like, one of their key position players. Because I think he, you know, he's kind of in that echelon of like Kiermeyer or maybe like Michael A. Taylor or something like that where like you don't necessarily want him to be in your starting three outfielders. And looking at like,

wait, metrics that are out there, these for some reason gotten this reputation as like a defensive stud and speedster. And that's not true. Maybe that's, is proven wrong once he comes over to America and we get our stack ass on it. But like, like it's a he can play center field and maybe he's a like an average corner outfielder.

Is the like articles I've read on it. it. I have something to confess. I botched what I said earlier. Shin suit went through the minor league system. He never even played in the KBO. He's like the so he doesn't even count. So I don't know who the best player position. Like we've had pictures to come over. The other one would be would be Hassan Kim who that whole first year, year and a half. It was, you know, a transition period for sure, uh, the last two seasons. The numbers are pretty good.

He had above league average. And obviously he's a defensive stud. It's homers now. Yes. And he's a defensive stud. And I think he's a great phenomenal player. There's an adjustment period. Even with a guy who there's an and even.

And even then, you know, he's that he's never an 800 OPS. Like, it's not like this guy's supposed to hit. Like, I just don't think it's going to happen. I'd take a flyer and see if I was the Braves.

But like, if I'm the Yankees and need a dude that's going to come, save my. team. I just don't know. We've never had someone come from that from the KBO and perform offensively right away or for a full career. Like Kim has has on three years. Yeah, three years in. One thing from our guy, you know, Sarah, so also really nice guy, he said how to before. He did the batted ball stats comparison between Hassan Kim and Jung Huli. And there's like some similarities between like average exit velocity, launch angle and

like a pretty decent sample size. So if you want to take pure raw data and just put them together, then yes, you can probably say that maybe Giancoui projects to get to that level once he gets the amount of reps that he needs. But still, it kind of, it scares me a little bit.

Wu Suck Go, I think is just being talked about because of the name, because he's a relief pitcher that like, his stats in that league aren't great. I read an article that says he, and Lee are brother-in-laws. That's fun. So brothers-in-law.

So that's interesting. Maybe like it's like a translator situation. One of them is going to help the other. Yeah. And I think they're both 25. So I don't know. Young. A team has made a move, by the way.

Ooh. Just got word. Are you ready for this? Yes. The Savannah bananas have signed bridges and they're doing their player announcement at 11 a.m. So the Savannah bananas have now signed four players. than basically 29 other major league teams.

Who did they just sign? Say it again. I miss name. Noah Bridges. I think he's like a TikTok guy. Nice. Okay. How about it?

Hey, I was in Disney World last week and saw a decent amount of Savannah banana's gear. Shout out Jesse, our guy over there. Very friendly with him still from our visit. Love the Savannah bananas. So check out when we played him in Blitzball in the warehouse. Any other like bullet point stuff to tackle?

I'm just looking at MLB to trade rumors. And Tiger sign, AJ Hinch to a long-term extension, Rob Thompson, Topper got an extension, Cardinals are listening to Off on Tyler O'Neill. Which I think it's been going on for like three years at this point. And then I think the big one was Astros are not training Alex Bregman, which I thought they might be because I don't think they're going to be in a position at the deadline where they're losing.

So I don't know if they're going to have the money to pay him because I feel like that. If you were going to do it, you'd have to do it before the season. That front office is probably just saving all the money for Jose Altova. So maybe it's one more year, Bregman in Houston. Who knows? Tucker, I think they're saving the money for Tucker. Yeah, you think so? Yeah.

I think he's, I think the owner, what's the name? I think he came out or maybe it was a GM. One of them came out and said like, I think it was the owner. He was like, but he said that we want to retain Tucker. Like that we're very interested in keeping Tucker. At some point, he did say that. Probably would leave then? because he hits free agency in 2025.

So he's got, he's got that one more year. That's it. Who, Tucker does? Who is Al-Tuva? How old is he? He's going to turn 34 next year. He's been in the league for so long.

Oh. Yeah, part of me wants, not part of me, all of me wants Al-Tuvve and Bregman to be Astro's lifers. Yeah, yeah, that's where I'm out. So I hope they stay that I think that's the best way to reward a fan base, and that's the best way to, like, keep fans interested. And if they can still compete, now it's an open market for a reason.

You got to be able to pay for talent to retain it. But I would be, this isn't even a, I don't want this to be perceived as an anti-Asher's thing. I, it's a pro. I want, for Asher fans, I want them to keep those guys on that team. It's more fun. And for people that like to hate the Astros, it's more fun to know your guys. So, like, I just very much rooting. way I wanted for it to stay in Atlanta.

Yeah. And I mean, they got it done with Bigeo and Bagwell. So it would be kind of cool to see like generation to generation. Like here's a lot of fielders that stayed Astros their entire careers. But that's, I still think that like it's going to be hard to do with both of them. Like, because the Astros just are, they're very reluctant to spend money. We talked to, I talked with Ari Alexander yesterday who covers the Astros. And he was just telling me some things about how, how stringent payroll is going to be and how they're always kind of entertaining.

Like, yeah, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're. we're open to spending more this year. We're fully capable of and then it just never really comes together. And they kind of got burned on the Rafael Montaro deal. So who knows where their headspace is at? But I thought it was interesting that they're saying, no way we're trading pregnant.

Maybe it's smoking mirrors. When are we going to get trout rumors? Yeah, one is that. I mean, there's ever. It's a teammate of trout. I feel like we should start talking about him. We talked pre-show briefly and we alluded to it a little bit. But like Jack Kerr,

has now started tweeting about Otani and the Blue Jays and some thought processes there. It feels like we should probably do a formal like five minutes on Otani Blue Jays rumors. Yeah, he said. Yeah, what do you guys got? Because in my minds, it's the Dodgers until it's not. So you got to convince me because I'm maybe the hardest person to convince. I'm fine with being wrong here. Why should I believe the Blue Jays are going to get him over the Dodgers?

the Dodgers, every move that Dodgers have made for the last two off seasons have been like, well, they're saving for Otani. I'm talking to a couple of people this morning where it definitely feels like today there's been more people buzzing. And who knows how much is hearsay, how much is just collective people trying to come up with something. The failing thought has been like, why are the Blue Jays even rumored as part of this that that's not a place, Otani? It's very interested in going. there's been talk about how Japanese players have different tax implications than like American players who choose to play in Canada. So he's one of the few people in the world who you aren't losing money by choosing to play in Canada. And Othani doesn't care about that.

He foregoed his posting to come to the U.S. He lost so much money when he came to the U.S. early and didn't like play out all his years. I think he's already proven like the excess on top. of the contract he's going to get isn't going to really change. So I know that's there, but it doesn't sway me. Fair to not be swayed by it. And I think the Dodgers are still very, very, very much involved. And the other scuttle butt that I've been hearing talking to a couple people is just,

Otani's very interested in Canada because like baseball's a little bit secondary and he can be kind of a normal person in Toronto, like guys, you know, Drake lives in Toronto and is kind of normal. He's intrigued by the idea of not having to be the most famous person in the world. Believe whatever you want. That's what people are talking about. If he goes to the Dodgers, he'd be the 900th most famous person in L.A.

Yeah. So, um, listen, if the Blue Jays get him, I'll be so excited and shocked and it'll be like, like, holy shit. Like that's crazy because I am so ready. for Dodgers. I think the like thought there, whether or not it happens,

don't know, nobody knows. Nobody knows when it's going to happen. I think just people are getting the sense of like, oh, don't be dismissive of like the content. You aren't, but just it's an actual, it's on the table. This is what people are starting to say. People are playing like agents.

Team payroll game too, because like the Dodgers right now have a ton of money. not on the books. Like they have a smaller payroll for 2024 than the Colorado Rockies right now. They're at $130 million. But like the Blue Jays are not that far away either. They're at $142 million guaranteed.

So they both have that leeway. And what Jack Curry tweeted, which kind of kicked off this whole thing, was about how they renovated Rogers Center and they put a lot of money to fix up the stadium and drop attendance. So I'm sure if he's saying that, then it's got to be a factor because I'm...

Why is Jack Curry even bothering? Right. And says if it's, if it's something that bears mentioning, on like a yes broadcast. Then yeah, I think there's definitely weight to that being true. But right now it feels like a two horse race.

Like I forget, I think it was Buster only tweeted yesterday. Like the Angels were still a player. I just don't see a world where that happens. How it would be sure. But like to waste all this time and then just go back to the angels would be ludicrous to me. So it is a two horse race. But it still does feel like it's Dodgers until it's not.

Say that stat about the Dodgers. You said payroll again. The Dodgers, 2024 total payroll is 130.9 million guaranteed right now. The Colorado Rockies are above them at 131.9. And that is by design. The Dodgers have been clearing payroll for two years now for Otani. They essentially took themselves out of free agency competition last year because of the sweetstakes.

They knew that this was coming. And they have a lot more money. So. So, yeah. The, uh, yeah. for what the Blue Jays chatter is today. Less than 24 hours ago, there was that like wave of people

that started talking about angels being back as one of the options. So in 24 hours, you could feel very different. People are angels, man. What's going on? Don't even.

I mean, we talked about, we opened up, open up with the Mariners saying, okay, if you go and make trades for, um, Randy Rosary and Esoc Parades and sign Woodman.

You're kind of back to even. That's great. look at what the angels have to do to get back to even and even for them is last place. Did you see what Ron Washington said at the end of his presser yesterday? No. So Washington, who's a super funny guy to just like listen to like he was very entertaining. The one thing that he said, because basically in every manager presser, even Mark Katsay, who's Oakland days manager, they got a question about Otani.

someone was kind of doing it like tongue and cheek but i was like that's probably somebody somebody who's here from like japanese media is definitely just going to ask every manager right so wash gets asked about it and instead of just kind of dispelling it and giving the usual like manager answer to make it go away he's like i can't say anything about that because i don't want to let the cat out of the bag yet so he's also like put and fuel into the fire of that angel's side of it which like i don't know man i guess like you can argue that like oh nothing would have to change he can keep his routine he wouldn't have to move all these different things, but like after all of this buildup to just resign with the team that everyone has been saying, I feel so bad you have to play for this team.

It would be such like a slap in the face. I don't know. Also, it doesn't make them better. It makes them the same. They have to rebuild their farm system. They cannot go forward until they establish their own developed talent, which they haven't done for the past decade. If the angels want to spend a ton of money, they should trade Mike Trow and eat half his contract.

they won't they the the only like real that's how you rebuild the farm and actually like start the angels are another team with more guaranteed money for 2024 than the Dodgers by the way the only like real tact to why otani would go to the angels as far as what people are saying is that well the angels let him do whatever he wants and I think

I think just oh and all the negotiating he does with whatever team he goes with moving forward say oh you just have to let me do whatever I want when I come and done. Yeah. Promise you can do what he wants. Yeah. If you want to beat. Very interesting.

Which is, I think all the angels have. Besides, familiar. Well, I hope you guys run into more scuttle butt and I hope you get a big moment while you're there.

I'm jealous. Thanks for pop it on, Jolly filling in for the vacation boys. I'm not vacation boy anymore because I'm done with my vacation. I hope it was a good one, though. It was nice. T cups four times for James.

Really enjoyed him. You liked them. You liked them. See you guys. Thanks for tuning in. Jake sucks.