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…
- MLBTR’s 2024-25 Free Agent Power Rankings (1:30)
- Gerrit Cole didn’t crack the rankings due to his specific opt-out situation with the Yankees (6:30)
- The upcoming free agencies of Alex Bregman of the Astros and Pete Alonso of the Mets (9:20)
- Is there any scenario where Juan Soto of the Yankees is not the top free agent? (15:15)
- Ippei Mizuhara, former interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, charged with bank fraud (19:40)
- Athletics to play in Sacramento before moving to Las Vegas (32:40)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- How can a pitcher blow a save in the seventh inning? How early can a save be blown? (38:25)
- Do you think the Tigers will release Javier Báez? It is painful to watch him. (41:15)
- Who could the Braves target inside or outside the organization to replace Spencer Strider? (45:15)
Check out our past episodes!
- Reviewing Our Free Agent Predictions And Future CBA Issues – listen here
- Baseball Is Back, Will Smith’s Extension, Mike Clevinger And Jon Berti – listen here
- A Live Reaction To The Jordan Montgomery Signing, Shohei Ohtani’s Interpreter, And J.D. Martinez Joins The Mets – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
A’s moving to Sacramento is a lack of of management by MLB office. Allowing a owner to gut a team and pay almost nothing in wages. Choose to play in a Minor league stadium to save money shows there is no leadership from Manfred. I have never seen such lack of leadership in any sport like is in MLB today.
Just wait until they get to Vegas, where there’s heavy competition for entertainment dollars. They’ll need Taylor Swift to perform between innings to get people to attend. Major Black Eye coming for MLB.
LP2T: Has it ever occurred to you that most of Swift’s concert tickets are purchased by the organization that funds and promotes her? Almost certainly more than 90% of the attendance.
Now, go ahead and knee-jerk whine that I’m wrong without bothering to ponder WHY what I’m presenting might be valid.
Taylor Swift’s Era Tour grossed more than $1 Billion…are you saying that “organization that funds and promotes her” shelled out $900 Million to make $100 Million?
Maybe you should go check yourself into a hospital for a few days.
You’re missing JazzJazz’s point.
You’re missing ALL points, zachary.
Maybe for some people, the act of starting to figure things out takes many years.
ARC – There’s a simple solution.
MLB needs to implement a minimum payroll requirement for all revenue sharing recipients.
Agree but was does the MLBPA give up in return?
MLBPA can demand min spending all they want but mlb n owners have no incentive to agree to such without getting something in return.
Question is what does mlb n owners want in return and is it acceptable to MLBPA
Believe – A minimum payroll threshold without a hard cap?
MLBPA would instantly sign off on it, they would be thrilled to force the lowest payroll teams to spend more.
Fever, but there are a handful of owners opposed to a minimum payroll requirement (Fisher, Monfort, and some Central division team owners).
It seems that IBWCW is asking you what MLBPA would give up to the MLB owners to get the minimum payroll agreed to by ownership side.
MLBPA would be ecstatic yes
But what are they giving up in order to get MLB/Owners to agree to such a thing?
Its a two way street.
MLBPA wants minimum salary thresholds
What does the MLB/Owner side get in return for agreeing to such? And what the MLB/Owner side want is that acceptable to the MLBPA in return for minimum spending threshold?
Without even listening I question “Ohtani’s stolen money”. Ippei will take the fall and will be the world’s wealthiest interpreter. I believe Manfred and his posse of wonks are diligently digging into all the facts and I believe buffalos can fly and MLB cares about its fans. What this has done is it’s given everyone a new excuse for when things go wrong or they’re caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing, blame your interpreter
Would it be legal for the Tigers to place Baez on the IL with a mental problem and then have him work with a sports psychologist? Something has to be wrong because a world class athlete rarely simply “loses it” as quickly and as much as Baez seems to have. Usually it is more of a sliding scale instead of complete drop off a cliff. It HAS happened that way in the past, Andruw Jones comes to mind, but it is not common for sure.
He got paid, No motivation to work on his game or get better.
silly. 2025 isn’t the end of the world.He still had potential to make 100 million more if he were good
I wish I owned a ranch in Floridatita…almost as good as owning one in Sparks.
@ronnsnow
And also no reason to keep using whatever they were using that helped them produce like they did to get those contracts.
MLB and MLBPA seriously need to give teams the option to void contracts when they can get proof that a guy used before signing the contract. I’m sure the clean players will be for it. And the crazy thing is that we’ll get more guys busted because teams will hire investigators to find the proof that is being masked when these guys test.
Banned – If they don’t test positive, what would you constitute as proof? Not a chance MLB would win a judgement for something like that.
If you can get the same type of proof that busted A*Roids, Bonds, etc. who didn’t test positive for tests, but evidence was found.
I have been wondering about the legality of strapping him to a Falcon9. The Tigers could save a lot of money and that’s the luxury, first class model. Only the best for Baez!
Um, there have been guys who completely lost it. Chris Davis comes to mind. So does Mo Vaughn. Ryan Braun didn’t have it so much after he was busted.
What do those guys have in common?
You have Baez. We in Miami have Avi Garcia.
Who doesn’t think that Baez and Garcia aren’t the same situations as the guys I mention?
BannedMarlinsFanBase
Um, there have been guys who completely lost it.
========================
I wouldn’t absolve the owners and GMs when they sign a player that should suspect was using PEDs. Some players are more consistent, but some players are 30 years old, with a career 7.25 OPS, and suddenly have an .850. Surely, the GM has to suspect he had help.
Fair statement, but that isn’t always the case with ownership. There are many who know just about as much about baseball and baseball players as they do about rocket science.
No mention of the Bauer accuser being charged with felony fraud?
So, how many accusers did/does he have? Lindsey Hill,this felony girl, and any else?
How many accusers did Laci Green have back in 2016? Quality over quantity every single time.
who? what
Radfem Youtuber who was popular in the 2010s decade. She put out a video on false grape accusations which she concluded by saying she believes ALL grape/SA accusations, even random anonymous ones made on YouTube and urged her viewers to do the same. Commenters responded by dogpiling on Green in the comments section accusing her of graping them.
If prosecutors and.judges would start doing their dm jobs instead of looking at a political or corporate futures and encourage policing the right way – to the fullest extent of the law we might be able to save this country.
Criminal liable, criminal harrassment, sexual harassment, sexual liable, extortion, slander, sexual slander…..and I’m not talking about Bauer. Trespassing, assault. Put the dm criminals AWAY FOR A LONG TIME. QUIT MAKING JAIL TIME SO EASY. No TV, weight rooms, holiday meals, special meals……STOP SERVING COOKIES FOR GOD’S SAKE!
That’s right, I said it. Go to jail….YOU DON’T GET COOKIES!
On all major contract websites, it shows Cole’s money for the opt out years at $36m per season. That equals $144m. Why does MLBTR keep quoting the opt-out amount at $188m?
The NBA just banned Jontay Porter for life for gambling on basketball and giving inside information to gamblers. You know, for the integrity of the game. Hello MLB. Porter should have blamed his interpreter
One final thing from me as we agree to disagree, aren’t you happy I gave you something to talk about today?
A’s aren’t just going to Sacramento for 3 years, they are moving there permanently. Fisher will end up selling to Ranadive.
Ohtani’s money wasn’t stolen. It’s not even possible to make transfers of that size without direct contact with the account holder, not just a phone call, and even the bookie said that the translator was taking the fall for Ohtani.
Chat over.
I’m in full agreement on the Ohtani “theft”. We are witnessing the most famous ‘fall” ever.
Relocating is not new: Philadelphia A’s, Kansas City A’s, 1901 Baltimore Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers, St Louis Browns, Boston Braves, Milwaukee Braves, New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, Montreal Expos and Washington Senators twice all relocated.
Javier Baez should watch from the bench the remainder of his career.
Javy Baez = modern day Andruw Jones 🙁
Owner interference
Why was Soto so bad defensibly for the padres?
@larry48 He may not have been bad .(though he’s slow enough to be legitimately bad.) since three years of defensive stats roughly equal one year at the plate, and we know how much hitting can vary fr year to year
or
a minor nagging injury last year
or
weak OF defensive placement by the Pads
or
rule change had an obscure effect on LF defensive stats (also, that def numbers took a season to catch up with)
or
undisclosed LASIK this offseason
or
and so on.