Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

Anthony Franco

The Knuder

I've been asking this question since before yesterday's ownership news, so maybe the Pads' calculus has changed, but I might as well keep asking: what would an extension for Laureano past 2026 look like, and will the Padres offer it?

Anthony Franco

You're buying out ages 32+ on a corner bat coming off a very good year but with a lot of inconsistency. I imagine he'd happily sign up for Profar money (3/42) right now. Three years in the mid-30s seems reasonable if you're making that commitment a year in advance
Not sure the Padres really need to do that -- I'd rather let him play it out -- but it's not like it impacts the '26 budget so I guess I wouldn't be super surprised if the team wanted to lock him up

Thank you for the chat!

Anthony Franco

Would a package around Seth Hernandez entice the Nats to send Abrams to Pittsburgh? Ditto for Keller to Baltimore for Westburg?

Anthony Franco

Hernandez as a starting point on Abrams seems reasonable enough. Teams are going to have varying opinions on guys who are that far away, but if the Nats feel like Hernandez has a chance to be a top-of-the-rotation starter, it'd be tough to pass on the upside
I don't think Keller's close to getting Westburg. He's a solid pitcher whose contract has a little surplus value. Westburg's a pre-arb, above-average everyday third baseman. Much rather have the latter

Rickey35

The A's need to spend about 30-35 mill this off season. What do you think they do with the money? Give Kurtz a Roman Anthony type deal or any trades rumor, free agent rumors that are likely?

Anthony Franco

I imagine the A's would be on board giving Kurtz that deal. Skeptical the player would. Kurtz has a longer MLB track record than Anthony did at the time -- though no one doubted that Anthony would be great -- and already has a full service year
He's also an Excel client and for all the talk about how Boras doesn't like extensions, I can't find any examples of Excel clients signing a pre-arb extension in the past 20 years. Precedents get broken, but Kurtz already banked a huge signing bonus on draft day and is going to do well in the pre-arb bonus pool
A low nine-figure extension for Jacob Wilson seems more viable to me and something I could see the A's pursuing. They'll obviously be in on pitching and a veteran infielder. Feels like they should be able to leverage some short-term payroll space to trade for a costlier starter with upside (e.g. Keller, Ray) if that guy's available

Free Agents

When do you expect significant free agents to begin signing contracts? Any inclination as to who might sign first of the bigger / top 25 names?

Anthony Franco

Guessing we'll get two or three around Thanksgiving. A lot of the early smoke has been on relievers, so I'll guess Díaz or Williams to be the first shoe to drop

Bruce

Thanks for the chat. What’s the latest regarding the Rangers and Heim/Garcia? If they tender a contract do they have to either ultimately reach agreement or arbitrate (and the Rangers notoriously never arbitrate). Does that mean they probably non-tender both unless they can reach an agreement to cut their salaries prior to the tender deadline?

Anthony Franco

They need to decide by next Friday whether to tender a contract. That does then commit them to either agreeing to deals or going to a hearing, yes
If they agree to a deal, the contract becomes fully guaranteed. If they go to a hearing, they can still get out of it for 45 days termination pay during Spring Training (which is what happened with the Giants and J.D. Davis a couple years ago)
But that's a suboptimal outcome. Termination pay still costs a few million, especially with what García's salary would be, and there presumably aren't great alternatives sitting around in mid-March
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