Darragh McDonald
- Hello, everyone. Anthony is off today, so I'm doing the Friday chat this week. Sorry to the Francoists out there.
- We'll be getting started a bit earlier than usual since I'm covering the afternoon news. Apologies to the West Coasters if that's annoying.
- Anyway, feel free to drop questions and I'll be back at 11 Central to answer them.
- Okay, happy Friday, everyone.
- If you're at work, I hope you're doing a good job pretending like you're doing something.
- Let's talk baseball.
Joe Baseball
- Will Zach Eflin will get a multi year contract if he doesn’t get a QO from Baltimore, or have to take a one year prove it deal? He should be fully recovered by January and he had back surgery, and his arm isn’t a problem. Thoughts?
Darragh McDonald
- I would guess one-year prove-it deal. He's been fairly injury-prone in his career and is coming off a pretty rough year.
Michael
- Do you think a trade between the Pirates and Mets for Mitch Keller is possible? Mets seem to have a glut of young infielders they could spare between Acuna, Baty, Mauricio, Acuna, etc that would be an immediate upgrade over what the Pirates have been trotting out there
Darragh McDonald
- I suppose there's a chance. Stearns kept adding more starters last offseason even when it seemed like they had plenty.
- Going into 2026, they've got McLean, Tong, Sproat, Holmes, Peterson, Senga, Megill, Manaea, Scott, and others.
- Doesn't seem like they need much more but I could have said the same thing last year when they kept adding Montas, Canning, etc.
- I wouldn't be surprised if Keller is available but I probably wouldn't pick the Mets as the most likely landing spot.
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The explanation for the Urquidy situation sounds like a bureaucratic mess but makes sense. You can’t just send a guy directly down to the minors. The only way to do it is to DFA him and pass him through waivers, unless he has options, which I’m assuming he doesn’t. So, DFA, and the waiver is revokable, which makes it a formality, at best.