The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The deal between the Dodgers and Teoscar Hernández (1:00)
- The Mariners trade Robbie Ray to the Giants for Mitch Haniger and Anthony DeSclafani (6:40)
- The Mariners also trade José Caballero to the Rays for Luke Raley and the Rays also trade Andrew Kittredge to the Cardinals for Richie Palacios (18:35)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Will anything stop this trend of deferred money in contracts? (23:40)
- Will there ever be a salary floor and would that help baseball in any way? (32:20)
Check out our past episodes!
- Yoshi Yamamoto Fallout, the Chris Sale/Vaughn Grissom Trade and Transaction Roundup – listen here
- Tyler Glasnow, Jung Hoo Lee, D-Backs’ Signings and the Braves’ Confusing Moves – listen here
- Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Deferred Money – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
It’s remarkable the extent to which the Mariners have stripped down a good team that was on the cusp of regular playoff appearances. They are demonstrably worse than they were last year or the year before.
I’m not so sure. Raley could easily outperform kelenic, there was no guarantee that Geno was going to have a bounce back year at the plate, and Mitch could easily match Teo’s production if healthy. They didn’t have Ray last year, so not having him this year is pretty easy to cope with. Garver is a better DH option than anyone from last year’s pool. Julio and the young pitching staff will continue to improve. What am I missing?
I’d expect one more move for the infield, by the way. Rojas and Urias will not both be starters come opening day
Mitch’s back issues are likely the end of him as a productive bat. You need to look elsewhere to replace Teo’s bat.
@kodlon: I agree. I don’t see how anyone can presume that Haniger is anything more than a roll of the dice due to his health.
You’d need two players to replace his 211 ks. Even mitch is on par with Teoscar’s awful defense. .435 slugging percentage was lower than JP’s. I will not miss TO one bit.
The rotation is obviously a huge plus. I suppose the plan is to have an excellent defense to then maximize value from the staff. It can definitely work. However, their weaknesses last year offensively haven’t been addressed with upgrades, rather with lateral moves at best. Haniger, Garver, and Raley aren’t really upgrades over anyone from last year. I suppose Garver is at DH. By the same token, Haniger and Garver (who are the key offensive additions) are significant injury risks. You could easily imagine Crawford regressing a significant amount and you could easily imagine France continuing his slide. I think losing Kelenic will be seen as a mistake long term. He just needed more patience. Last year was a step forward.
It just seems to me like another marquee bat to pair with J-Rod is what this lineup is crying out for. Bellinger would be expensive, but if last year was real, then he’s the guy. Beyond that, maybe a trade for Polanco (admittedly injury prone as well, and not really marquee) would help. The idea with a Polanco addition is that he adds volume along with Haniger and Garver.
Completely agree. I’d rather not have to rely on the Mitches staying healthy, but that’s the situation ownership has put the team. Might as well hope it goes well, makes for a more enjoyable summer
Appreciate the “mailbag” discussion of Dodgers’ use of deferrals. Ultimately you guys got it right. The benefits to both player (tax deferral, helping teams pursuit of high quality players) and team (slight reduction in calculation applied to CBT) are significant and correlated.
Great explanation/history lesson on the use of deferrals over the past 30 years, Steve!
Appreciate Darragh’s final point that this strategy is NOT likely to impact Friedman’s ability to spend and build strong rosters 5-10 years out. The CBT hit is all Andrew cares about honestly. Dodgers are hugely profitable and are quite capable of sustaining a higher financial commitment to payroll downstream.
If what Steve said is true that Teo was likely looking for a contract comparable to Schwarber’s and JD’s, then Teo needs therapy.
Schwarber was coming off a .928 OPS season
JD was coming off a 1.066 OPS season
And Teo thought he deserved similar money coming off a .741 OPS season? Are you kidding me?
Even if you look back 3 years instead of one ….
Schwarber .862 OPS from 2019-2021
JD .943 OPS from 2015-2017
And Teo .803 OPS from 2021-2023
It is an absolute joke for Teo to be grouped with Schwarber and JD when they signed their big multi-year contracts.
Oh yeah, sometimes, a lot of times, free agents overvalue themselves. I get it, go get your bag, but don’t expect the moon either. One such example is Matt Chapman, dude has a good glove, but his bat has deteriorated over the past two seasons, but I’m sure Boras wants top dollar for him. There’s a reason he’s unsigned…
Yup, I am shocked that a player and/or his agent wanted more money.
IRT Chapman, I think he could drop to serious value. You see this all the time where people go from way over-valued, to under-valued, because the over-value took their names off of GMs listings.
Appreciate the discussion on the salary floor. Steve, I think you nailed it. There is too much revenue disparity between the richest and poorest teams in baseball for a floor to make much of a difference. The poor teams cannot compete with the rich teams for the top talent so they are just are going to overpay for fringe guys to make the floor. Some might even just say screw it we’ll pay the penalty much like some rich teams pay the CBT penalties. That revenue disparity also makes a salary cap nearly unworkable.
Six Degrees of Mariners players. 8 of 9 is pretty good for one podcast.
Seattle needs to sign Whitt Merrifield