Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

Anthony Franco

Good afternoon everyone, hope you're well!
Sorry about dropping back to one subscriber chat these past two weeks. Prioritized getting those team-by-team deadline outlooks done before trade season really picks up

#1 Marlins Fan

Sounds like all of the Marlins trade news has gone completely silent the last couple of days. How many of players do you expect to be dealt?

Alcantara

Anthony Franco

Probably still another week before it really gets going. Most of the activity will take place in the July 29-31 window
Barry Jackson with The Miami Herald had some details on the Marlins' thought process a couple days ago. Nothing especially surprising: listening on Cabrera, Sandy, Bender and Sánchez; would love to move Quantrill (obviously)
I think the first four guys will all go. They should get a ton of hits on Cabrera given the scarcity of potential top-end starters. Feels like a sell-high opportunity with his injury history, and he's their trade candidate who'd get the biggest return
I expect someone to add Fortes for a mid-level prospect. Might as well take what they can get for Faucher. Henriquez is probably their most interesting reliever but they might prefer to hold and let him build up a longer track record

Brewer Fan

Why do prospects sign for less than slot value? I get why teams want to obviously but what stops a prospect from just saying pay me slot value?

Anthony Franco

Just a lack of leverage, especially for college guys. If you're a college senior, you basically can either take whatever the team offers you or not play affiliated baseball
High schoolers who go underslot usually do so because they're drafted higher than they'd go if it were just based on talent. The Braves went underslot with their first-round pick, but he was around 45th on Baseball America's pre-draft board. Slot value around that pick is in the $2M range
So if the Braves come to him and say "hey we'll take you at 22 but you have to sign for $2.6M against a slot value of $4M," he's better off taking that than waiting for the slot value of a pick between 40-60. That discussion happens before they make the pick, because if the player says no, then the Braves just draft someone else

Ross Atkins

Do you think Reid Detmers and Jo Adell might be available if the Angels are sellers?

Anthony Franco

I do not. I think the Angels will buy as long as they don't completely tank in the next two weeks, and even if they sell, it'd be rentals

Ken

Anthony Franco

Three and a half years of control. Durable but it's middling velocity and below-average swing and miss. You could kind of write off his huge home run rate this year as a product of the Sacramento bandbox, but that was an issue for him in Oakland as well
There'd be interest for sure but I think most contenders would view him as a low-end #4 or a fifth starter. Could see someone packaging a few mid-tier prospects but I'd be surprised if they got a huge headliner

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