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 Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Red Sox and Rafael Devers seemingly quarreling over the first base situation (1:30)
- The Pirates firing manager Derek Shelton (16:00)
- The Rockies firing manager Bud Black (21:35)
- The Diamondbacks calling up prospect Jordan Lawlar (26:55)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Should the Orioles try to extend Cedric Mullins or Tomoyuki Sugano (35:05)
- How real are the Twins and the Tigers? (39:00)
- What should the Cardinals do in right field if Jordan Walker doesn’t get going? (44:50)
- Why do the Mets seemingly do better with external pitching additions than their homegrown arms? (49:25)
Check out our past episodes!
- Replacing Triston Casas, A Shakeup In Texas, And The Blue Jays’ Rotation – listen here
- Mailbag: Red Sox, Alonso, Tigers, Tanking, And More! – listen here
- Justin Steele, Triston McKenzie, And Tons Of Prospect Promotions – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images
Megill and Peterson are solid and the Mets have a huge pipeline of pitching talent what an odd question
And the Mets developed Zack Wheeler.
And Senga’s first MLB team is the Mets.
And they developed one of the most talented starters ever in degrom
But Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson
60% of their current starters are home grown Mets and they all could be on the All Star team this year.
The Cardinals previous hitting Coach ruined Walker when he sent him down to learn launch angle hitting instead of his natural Contact hitting where he hit .275 as a Rookie.
Now the Cardinals are going to have to send Jordan Walker back down to AAA To work on getting his natural Contact Hitting stroke back.
He’s not any help at all now until he gets that line drive stroke back!!
I think it’s too early to be talking about Walker. One of if not the biggest overall failures of the Cardinals of the past ten years is they give up guys with a lot of potential for not a lot in return. This year I think we are seeing what can happen when you give these guys consistent playing time. The results haven’t been stellar but what we saw from Walker for awhile were super exciting. There’s a reason the Cardinals changed his position with Arenado entrenched at third rather than trade him. It’s still too early and I don’t like the idea of bouncing him up and down from the majors to minors. The Cardinals are playing well while getting younger let it be
Megill’s thrown more than 90 innings in MLB just the once, had a career ERA+ of 91 and an ERA of 4.41 despite the home pitcher’s park, and just blew up for the third consecutive game. I’d wait on the ‘solid’ eval,
Mendoza may deserve some of the discredit. His cutesy implied challenge to Megill when the Mets were up 7-1 after 6 innings against the Nats on April 27 led to the Mets 8-7 loss and to Megill throwing 105 pitches when he’s barely a 5-inning guy. Ever since he’s been off as he was again tonight against the Yankees.
“Should the Orioles try to extend Cedric Mullins or Tomoyuki Sugano?”
Don’t know if you guys heard, but recently Mullins agents called the O’s to talk about an extension and were put off.
In fact, up till June, 2024 the O’s had a 1-3 ranked W-L record in all of the majors. Then the FO started dumping the veterans. The vets figured out what was going on, and the O’s played .500 ball the rest of the season. In the offseason they dumped some more of their vets, and took on cheaper vets were dumped by their previous teams and had done nothing to lead the O’s to 101 wins in 2023 and the early 2024 record.
During the offseason the O’s FO dumped more of their vets that had been with the team for years. To refresh, The O’s new FO did a total dump of a rebuild losing 115 games and 108 games in 2018-19……in their history the O’s never lost over 100 games. The veterans they started to dump in mid-2024 and will continue to through the season and offseason, were young players that had made them contenders in 2023. What’s conical is that a few weeks ago Baltimore sports media said the problem with their falling apart in 2025 was: “The lack of veteran Leadership”. LOL
ML teams are full of human beings. Both MLBTR and the O’s FO need to get their heads out of the spreadsheets and realize that.
in 1988 they were 54-107. They have lost over 100 games 5 times since 1954.
Good old Samuel.
What’s wrong with this guy? Samuel’s Os comments are…unhinged. He almost seems mentally ill…
The issues might be a bit simpler.
1-They lost their two best pitchers from 2024-Burnes and Grayson.
2-They lost Santander. They replaced him with O’Neill, but neither guy has performed well.
3-Gunnar had a slow start due to injuries, and has only recently returned to form.
It’s too early for judgements, imo.
Imagine George Steinbrenner dealing with Devers? He’d have shipped him to Colorado for saying he wouldn’t play first.
Steinbrenner would never have hired a POBO who wasn’t an unable-to-communicate, holier-than-thou dunce that made this an issue in the first place.
If Steinbrenner would have had to fly to KC to talk to Devers himself, both Cora and Breslow (the two guys he hired to speak for him) would have been thrown out of the Visiting Clubhouse in KC by Steinbrenner himself.
Troy – I didn’t see your post until after I posted mine, you are 100% correct! This mess was totally self-inflicted.
One of the many things people don’t get, Cora had the sensibility to refuse to ask Devers about first base. That’s because Cora knew how outrageous that was after they told him to throw away his glove because he’s too incompetent to even fill in for Bregman.
So either Cora was playing Good Cop to Breslow’s Bad Cop, or Cora was shirking his responsibility as a manager and dumping it on Breslow’s lap.
Either way, Cora obviously knew that asking Devers about playing first base was a very bad idea. And Breslow either didn’t know, or he knew and didn’t care.
Clip – That would have happened after George fired the manager that told Devers he is an “excellent fielder” and promised he wasn’t being moved and told him to burn his glove ;O)
The Yankees acquired a better fielding SS and stuck him at third just to keep their star happy.
The jeter-arod situation went way beyond just baseball
They would’ve lost so much money and respect with moving their captain off of the most important position and fans would’ve been so angry
Besides it worked out for them anyways since they won a WS and a-roid became way too big for SS anyways
Well in fairness he couldn’t have done any worse than Jeter at short and likely would have worked out very differently if he were asked to play SS. Neither was a good option obviously. Not sure how they would have lost money. A captain should say “I’m possibly the worst fielding SS in history and need to retire or move to a different position”.
THANK YOU
-Michael Scott
If the Stankees move Jeter to 3rd, they win another 2 to 5 rings. Jeter was ATROCIOUS at SS the end of his career. Jeff Weaver wasn’t that bad, they just had arguably the worst SS ever.
Now imagine that the Yankees moved their Captain and long time star off of SS, and brought in a new guy, who’s WAR was essentially the same last year (2024 WAR Bregman 4.1 Devers 3.7) whereas (2003 ARod 8.4 to Jeter 3.6) and then allowed the new guy to leave after one year!!!!!!!
Geez wonder why Devers is pissed
Jeff Passan did a piece in Bregman yesterday. Oddly, I don’t recall Devers being mentioned in the lengthy quoted article.
Creature – just read it, thanks. This is the charm offensive but Bregman and Boras to land the big contract next off season after he opts out of Sox contract.
BTW, bad reporting that he didn’t ask, no? IMHO
I think Bregman/RS agreed to the interview under the condition of not mentioning Devers.
100%
Do you think the Yankees regret trading Rickey Henderson?
Mets – No, he passed away.
Billy Martin would have called Devers a punk, shoved a first baseman’s mitt under Devers’ arm and told him “You’re playing first or go home”.
No he wouldn’t have. Billy Martin managed in an era that players had no say. That era is long gone and they wouldn’t have told a 300 million dollar player to go home. The Yankees would have gone bankrupt.
Mets – Agreed, the days of managers having their way with players are long gone.
When Ortiz went ballistic in the dugout smashing the phone with Pedey and others trying to shield themselves from the flying fragments, he never even got suspended or fined.
Players are heavily coddled these days, Rafaela gets told to stop swinging at the first pitch all the time but he just ignores them. Zero repercussions.
Cora has admitted when a player does something wrong he won’t talk to them about it because he says “they already know, they don’t need to be told”.
Great management there, players need a leader not another BFF.
Fever – Sad but true. Isn’t that essentially why Ryne Sandberg stopped managing?
let – According to Bowa, Ryne felt disrespected by his players such as Giles, Burnett, Hamels.
But Ryne’s official reason was he felt like a lame duck manager with new upper management coming in.
Lowe – yes, Billy Martin wouldve gone ballistic. But, i dont think thats a fair comparison. Very few players in that era were asked to change positions every day, every week, or a lifelong position change on the fly.
Chris Chambliss played first base from 1975-1975 from 150 to 162 games.
Graig Nettles from 1974-1979 played 145 to 159 at third base.
Martin demanded a lot from his players, but didnt ask a guy to move off his position TWICE in to months
sad – Sox management reminds me of this quote:
“Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”.
They have known for years, going back to when he signed out of the D.R. as a teenager, that he would eventually be a first baseman.
So then why the hell have they refused to EVER allow him to even take reps at first base?
Anyone in Raffy’s shoes would have reacted the same way, if not harsher.
“Shipped him to Colorado” to play on the Avalanche, no less. Boston could use little of George’s spirit.
Yet another example of a team player (and the reality is that the vast majority of pro ballplayers will support their team and teammates even if it makes them feel uncomfortable for a period of time) – Javy Baez moves to CF on the fly. “Whatever I can do to help the team”.
Enuff’ said. No matter how the RS handled things, Devers is a big baby.
Carver – “Honestly, I never ended my desire to play center,” Báez explained. “I played center all my childhood when I was really young. I did play a little center field in ’16 in winter ball and then Spring Training [with the Cubs],”
Baez also wasn’t deceived and lied to by Tigers management about his shortstop job being safe this year.
He wasn’t told he sucks so much in the field he should throw away his glove because he’ll never be a fielder again.
And he was asked about the move to CF during ST, not midseason.
And he has been with the Tigers organization for just 3 years, not 11 years. And he absolutely sucked those 3 years with the Tigers.
But sure, exact same situation, great comp …… whatever.
@FPG – Mature adults and real baseball players adapt and do whatever it takes to help the team. Period.
There are countless examples out there of selfless players that did what they needed to do – out of respect for the game and their teammates. Not all of them liked the move. But they sucked it up and did it.
Devers deserves the negativity that surrounds his comments. And there is no doubt that a good portion of the clubhouse is not happy with his approach.
Carver – I respect your opinion. You believe management can treat players as bad as they want like it’s the 1950’s and the players should always bow down to them …. fine, you’re entitled to your opinion.
But facts are facts. I have asked this same question for months, name another longtime 3B with over 11K innings at no other position who has never even practiced at another position and who is the franchise player, that was moved directly from fulltime 3B to fulltime DH in his 20’s.
It’s absolutely unheard of because it makes zero sense.
So even putting aside the horrible treatment of Devers, when you’ve got incompetent management making idiotic decisions it’s the player’s right to stand up and say no.
Devers is like the Rosa Parks of baseball players, he’s standing up not only for himself but for all current and future Red Sox players.
And BTW his teammates are smart enough to not insert themselves in the situation, but all have shown their support for Raffy in general and none have said anything even close to criticism of Raffy’s behavior.
Carver – i think we know of position changes because we see it on the field.
What you and I dont know is how many times an organization asks its premier STAR player to switch positions in a closed door meeting and the Front Office is told “no” by the player. Because most sports organizations have learned not to air their star players dirty laundry in public.
and, for a one year rental no less
Sad – A lot of people don’t realize the Yankees wanted to replace Jeter with ARod at SS in 2004 when Jeter was 30, but he refused.
And ARod was considered the best player in the game at the time and had a long contract, unlike Bregman.
@FPG – Seriously; you are creating my narrative now. You are telling me what I think about management principles and you could not be further from the truth. So state your own opinion when it comes to things, but stay away from making it up when it comes to others.
What RS management did or did not do is one thing…i already stated that they sound awkward and not very player-friendly at times (although anyone on here that states that they “know” what went on is also full of it…we merely get hints here and there). However, as a player you are obligated to your teammates and the team, no matter if you have cause to be a bit upset with your treatment by management.
There is a code, and sure – the players will not be throwing Devers under the bus publicly. Behind the scenes, they don’t like this (unless they are also of the spoiled and entitled variety). Devers is spoiled and entitled making $31M per year to play the game of baseball. Suck it up and grab the glove and learn the position.
In real baseball terms, he was a bad defensive 3B for his entire tenure and a move to DH and / or 1B was always in the cards. First base does require a learning curve but the team would be better off if he worked at it, as full-time DH spots can create a lineup logjam and if he can competently share time at first the team is better. This is really simple stuff.
I credit you for the Rosa Parks hyperbole – I mean, it is one of the more ridiculous analogies ever but very inspiring stuff. I am sure that Rosa would be comparing herself to Rafael as well, as they were both heroes. Oh wait – she was a hero…he is a vastly overpaid baseball player that can’t try a new position because he has a grievance.
Carver – Come on man, show some integrity.
Don’t try to backtrack and accuse me of misinterpreting what you wrote.
You are 100% supporting Red Sox management when you write that Devers should do whatever they want him to do. And you acknowledged Devers has been severely mistreated by management, because EVERYONE has acknowledged it …. even suckups like Tom Caron and Will Middlebrooks have acknowledged it. Speier, Rice and Merloni acknowledged it too …. and they are ALL employed under the FSG umbrella.
You claiming his teammates view him negatively is absurd and not worth addressing further. I mean seriously, unless you’re in the clubhouse there is NO WAY you’d know how the players “secretly” feel about him … and even if you were in the clubhouse, guys don’t judge their teammates.. Trying to use them as a way to support your stance is not a good luck my friend.
Devers playing first base is not an issue, I have been a huge advocate of it for YEARS so you are barking up the wrong tree there.
Your dislike of Raffy is reinforced in your last paragraph, do you not realize irrational bias devalues your opinion? We know there are others here besides you who hate Raffy, no need to keep reinforcing that hatred of a person you clearly know nothing about.
And BTW – what was your take on Crochet’s demand for an extension last year to pitch in the postseason?
@FPG – “Show some integrity” – “don’t accuse me of misinterpreting what you wrote”.
For heaven’s sake, your arrogance is incredible, and only matched by your voluminous posturing on topics that you clearly know very little about. Later.
Carver – As usual you provide nothing to refute, and you refuse to acknowledge even what you wrote which is there for all to see.
Ya’ll come back now, ya hear? ;O)
“Abreu is a fine outfielder” but yeah let’s take a look at first. He won the gold glove in right field last year… come on guys, that’s just brain dead. Anthony is probably suited to play first, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he started taking reps there. You’re not moving a gold glove outfielder to first.
cdr – Yeah Abreu at first base is crazy, you don’t move a young Gold Glove right fielder (and RF is very tough in Fenway) who is absolutely raking at the plate to first base …. especially a player who has NEVER played anything other than outfield in his 9 year professional career. And you similarly don’t devalue Anthony and expect him to play a brand new position when he makes his MLB debut. Anthony is a solid defensive outfielder, he should replace Rafaela.
And it’s really disappointing to hear the Altuve, Harper and Vladdy comparisons.
Altuve is 35 and knows his 2B days are numbered because of his natural decline. They handled his situation the right way, they floated the idea during the offseason and they are obviously still letting him play some 2B. They didn’t tell him “You suck as a fielder, burn your glove”.
Harper basically had no choice, moving to first base allowed him to return to the lineup much sooner after the injury.
And Vladdy was just 20 and had started just 94 career games at 3B in the majors ….. absolutely no comparison to Devers. And oh BTW, he played 100 innings last year at 3B.
There is simply no comp to Devers, an established longtime 3B still in his 20’s who has never played anywhere else in his professional career, being lied to and deceived and suddenly demoted to DH and being told to throw away his glove.
I agree with everything you said. I do believe Anthony is enough of an athlete to go to first, but this isn’t optimal timing. Anthony is a big bodied kid, and he could be a prototypical 1st baseman. We’ve got to find a place for these kids to play. The way I look at Mayer is at this point, we are wasting his talent if he’s hurt again down the road. At least let him get to the big leagues and see if he can rake instead of another year in AA/AAA waiting for him to get hurt.
This bullpen is an absolute joke outside of 3 guys. We need arms, now.
cdr – I agree Anthony could handle first base after learning it, but like the guys said that would be devaluing him and hurting his development. Better to put his outfielder skills to good use. When you are demoted to first base, it’s hard to go back to outfield. I struggle to think of a player who was a fulltime first baseman and then became a fulltime outfielder or any other position for that matter.
BTW – Wong is looking worse and worse every day, he seems to be the weakest link right now.
FPG – great post!!
You only forgot one thing, Devers defense improved greatly last year. His metrics on charging the ball, went up and were quite respectable. Five other 3B made more errors. And, in my mind, he played without a capable SS all year and made the most mistakes going to his left.
Sad – It’s been a while since I looked at Raffy’s defense metrics, but Merloni stated Devers is a plus fielder on charging the ball and a plus fielder on going to his right. It’s the throws and going to his left that he’s been really bad at.
Regardless, the Sox couldn’t have handled his situation any worse.
FPG – metrics are great at telling part of the story. or, numbers can be made manipulated to support any argument based on which numbers you use.
After he’s long retired and even in posts here, Derek Jeter is labelled as a terrible fielder. Did anyone see him bloody his face diving into the stands to catch a foul ball? How about being in front of home plate to relay a ball for a tag out in a playoff game? The thousand successful jump throws?
OK, he missed a random play that a defense first SS would routinely make. But for the life of me, i can think of the name of tht random defense first SS and how many World Series titles he has
Sad – I totally agree, defensive stats are highly questionable. Unfortunately it’s all we have other than the eye test which of course everyone sees differently.
You and I have the knowledge to accurately rate a player by looking at their defense, but many people here don’t.
For instance we knew Vladdy shouldn’t have taken 3B when Rafaela was caught flatfooted after making a catch, but that’s something which doesn’t show up in defensive stats and it just doesn’t register with most folks.
I don’t think Roman Anthony is suited to play 1B when he has been in the outfield his whole career.
The past isnt what matters right now
Would the Red Sox be better off having a potential franchise 1st baseman or try to add him somewhere in the outfield where there’s too many guys and it makes problems
Also is Anthony’s defense in right even good?
Yes, Anthony’s outfield defense and arm are just fine. I wouldn’t put a guy making his MLB debut at a brand new position.
I remember back in the olde days, RS fans wanted to put Papi at 1st, Youk at 2nd, and Pedey at SS, just to add another bat to the lineup.
Jarren Duran played 2B and 3B in college. He might be able to move to first.
I think Devers is upset about the entire offseason talk of Bregman coming in to be the 2B. Like, that was a dumb idea, but I would guess that’s what Devers was told. Then they said Bregman is their 3B and Devers is DH. Devers was probably mad about that. Now they expect him to just go to first and play. Devers probably thinks, “they told me I was their 3B long term. Then they sign a guy for 1 year and he takes my spot. They tell me to DH for the rest of the year. Fine, I’ll do that. Now they expect me to go to first. They have lied to me time after time… if I move there, where will I be next week? F Them!”
Bob – Exactly!! Like everyone including Fangraphs have said, the Red Sox did everything they could to anger and alienate Raffy. Absolutely horrific tone-deaf dishonest unethical management by the Red Sox.
What I’d like to know, why is Grandal not being discussed as a possible solution? The guy has lots of experience at first base, he still is a decent hitter not far removed from a great hitter, and he’d be a great insurance policy at catcher, and he’s got a .780 OPS in Worcester. I say bring him up and have him play first base.
Bob – the Ownership is punishing Devers for his comment two offseason’s ago that the team “should bring in more talent to compete”. Which is what every fan, and player was thinking. The Bregman move was spite.
While i dont mind the player, and hes certainly playing well, moving Devers out, and spending $40mm on another third baseman (tying up $71mm at third) was not a finishing piece for a championship team,. As evidenced by the .500 play though 25% of the 2025 season.
Sad – Bregman obviously has been playing well, but he’s been choking all season in Close & Late situations like last night.
Bregman in 34 PA’s is hitting .167 with a .431 OPS in Late & Close.
Sorry, but that’s just a lot of nonsense.
1-They signed him two years ago, so I doubt they gave him $300M as some form of punishment.
2-No one in the universe signs $100M+ contracts to spite someone.
3-It’s not $40M. The CBT is closer to $30M.
4-You have about as many errors in there as you have words.
Joe- my rebuttal
1) yes they did sign him. The fans demanded it after Betts left, and now they have buyers remorse
2) he asked for more talent to be signed before the 2024 offseason, AFTER his extension
3) Bregman got some in a bonus and some deferred, the actual number was indeed $40mm
Grandal hit very well the second half of last year for the Pirates.
He was Skenes personal catcher.
He cannot throw anyone out which is his biggest problem now.
But he would be fine as a third catcher who mainly plays first base.
It does not cost much to try other than a roster space.
Hello, Austin Barnes
I listened to the talk about Sheldon’s dismissal and the speakers obviously are not Pirates fans.
The comments on Pirates articles obviously berate Nutting for not spending money but they also are in agreement that Shelton has been a poor manager.
He is lucky that he lasted this long and should have been fired years ago.
No team discipline and lack of fundamentals in addition to too many lineup combinations and poor reliever management doomed him to forever be an under 500 manager.
Granted,he could have been given better hitters at this point,but all in all he deserved to be fired.
If the O’s are planning on not making the playoffs this year and Mullins is hitting like 2021 again he could turn into some pitching
Orioles need more veterans but it looks like the owner doesn’t like paying free agents
sad – I just don’t get why the O’s gave O’Neill that contract. It’s looking really, really bad right now.
Devers might be being difficult but suspect there is a lot more behind the scenes that has led to this.
1-Mullins has returned to earth. Still a good player, but he has a .453 OPS over his last 17 games.
2-Isn’t Sugano under control for the next 5 years, and isn’t he 35 year’s old? What would to motivation to extend him be?
3-When Devers lost the 3B job, imo, that was all on him. No one guarantees you a job for life. But I am not completely unsympathetic to him being forced to change positions again. He should, but I’m not offended by his refusal.
In my opinion the facts are these regarding Devers:
He has a nine year contract for $31 M per year and has generally been a good teammate.
He was not a good fielding third baseman.
The Red Sox courted Bergman saying he could play second base when in reality the chances were good that they would keep him as a third baseman.
They eventually went to Devers and said that he would DH because they wanted the better fielder at third base.
Devers did not like that
Devers is too good of a hitter not to play him,and has a huge contract.
It is extremely difficult to learn to play any other position on the fly.
Many think it easy to play first base but it is totally different than third base
The Red Sox should have given him spring training to play first base even though they had a first baseman.
Many players would move once asked,and give it their best
is Devers truly a team player?Maybe not,but the Red Sox did not handle this whole situation very well.
They are stuck with someone who is now not so happy.Pouting in that they asked is not an option,but I believe that many players would not want another change almost in the middle of the season to a totally new position.
I agree with most of that, except I don’t blame Devers for giving the Red Sox crap after they gave him crap.
Mendoza – Very good post!
Devers was asked by a reporter in ST what he would say if the Red Sox were to ask him to play first base, his response was yes he would discuss it and consider it.
As for Bregman, him and his BFF Cora definitely concocted a bait-and-switch. Bregman publicly said he’d play 2B, but would he really agree to learning a new position during a contract year? Doubtful. He wants the mega contract after this season, playing 3B and possibly winning another GG there would help him accomplish that.
Thank you young man.
I usually do not comment on other than the two Pennsylvania teams but sometimes things can clarify when the supposed facts are presented in an orderly manner.This is especially true for those of us like me who are not Red Sox fans and do not follow them closely.
As Sargent Friday said,Just the facts ma’am!
Your fine addition from an insider completes the thought.Thank you.
I wouldn’t be shocked if Devers is doing this on purpose to get traded. He didn’t seem like he was happy that he was pushed off a third base in the first place. So what better way to get back to third base by going to a team that needs a third baseman
CFS – Devers considered a trade, but never asked for one.
I do think a trade will be best for him, probably won’t happen until the offseason though.
Depends on the return and how bad the drama is.
Leave Jordan Walker alone. He will find his groove and is part of a winning team.
Would have fired both the manager.a and the GM.
Sat.the player.down.for a couple.of.weeks.