Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

Anthony Franco

Good afternoon everyone, hope you've had a good week! Another one that I'll keep around an hour as we put the finishing touches on offseason prep, let's get rolling

Guest

The Yankees need both rotation and bullpen help but I believe the offense is their biggest need. I would love to see them sign Tucker but find that unlikely. So, if not Tucker then who? Thanks as always for the chats!

Anthony Franco

I don't see why Tucker wouldn't be in play unless you're assuming they re-sign Bellinger before Tucker comes off the board. I wouldn't rule them out on any free agent hitters really
First base might be tough because they've got Rice internally and can't use the DH spot. Beyond that, any outfielder seems viable. They could make a run at Bichette and trade Jazz, or just roll with a Bo/Jazz middle infield tandem for a year and make Volpe play his way back into an everyday role

Snelling

Snell said the Jays got lucky. Was he just making excuses for a unsuccessful performance?

Anthony Franco

I mean, it obviously wasn't a great performance. He gave up homers on two of the first three pitches and issued four walks. It's also true that he would've had 6 2/3 innings of three-run ball with seven strikeouts if Edgardo Henriquez had done his job behind him, which doesn't look nearly as bad as five earned runs do

Yes. Savage.

12Ks. No walks. Still a rookie next year. How amazing was that outting? Also, does make Trey the default prediction for rookie of the year next year?

Anthony Franco

Of course it would not have mattered because this was happening on the other side of the ball
I don't know that I'd pick Yesavage to win ROY over Kevin McGonigle or something, but yeah, incredible performance. Insane that the dude was in A-ball a few months ago

DJ Clutch

How would you resolve the weird roster jam the Astros are facing for position players? Is it ridiculous to think Correa could handle 2nd if Paredes can't?

Anthony Franco

I don't see why Correa couldn't play second base. It'd still be a weird logjam because you need Paredes at third with Yordan/Altuve splitting LF without the fallback of moving Altuve back to second if he's still bad in the outfield
I think they just need to eat part of the Walker deal and move on

Dipoto

I'm wondering how you see the 1st base market developing in free agency this offseason. Will I be able to keep Naylor? If I can't, how will the two Japanese 1B/3B coming over impact the marketplace and what's a reasonable cost estimate for Okamoto?

Anthony Franco

Yeah I don't think they'd be so openly putting out there that they want to keep Naylor if they weren't serious about making a competitive offer. Payroll's going to be up a little bit from where they opened last season (as it should be) and they could hear teams out on Castillo again
I can't imagine they'd pay Murakami. I think we're going to end up with Okamoto at four years in the $60M range. Tim seems open to the possibility that he pushes to five years, which I don't see at his age. If Okamoto turns out to be a four-year deal guy, Seattle should probably just pay the few extra million annually to get Naylor done

Michael

Anthony Franco

Eh, they need to do better than García but I don't think Gleyber's netting them much at the deadline and they're still rebuilding
If he takes something similar to this year's 1/15, I'd rather just spend that money on a starter who has a better shot to be an in-demand trade chip. You'll be able to pitch starters to almost every contender in July but there'll only be a couple teams that want a second baseman without defensive flexibility
And if Gleyber commands three-plus years, I wouldn't be a fan of it for any team

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