Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

Anthony Franco

• Hey everyone, hope you've all enjoyed your week!
• Looking forward to another of these, let's get it going

Reds

• Four guys under contract (Hayes, Greene, Trevino, Pagan) and less than $80 million in payroll per BR. They can't be serious about not signing anyone, right?

Anthony Franco

• Not sure where you've got the sub-$80M mark but I think they're more like 105 once you factor in arb projections and minimum salary players to build out the roster
• They should've non-tendered Lux and should still shop him and Steer, kick around ideas about swapping Singer for a bat. I don't expect them to do much in free agency, though
• They've never gone beyond $64M on a free agent and Schwarber was a special case from ownership's perspective

Breslow

• There's been rumors that the Dodgers may be looking to unload Teoscar to open up their OF a bit - do you think a swap of Teo for someone like Jordan Hicks would make some sense? Teo could become the RH DH bat the Sox are looking for while dumping Hicks $$ - relatively small net payroll add for Boston and LAD saves some money and gets back a live arm....

Anthony Franco

• Don't think it does a lot for the Dodgers. Teoscar's rough out there but so much of the deal was in a signing bonus so the remaining salary commitments (plus option buyout) is 2/33, a lot of it deferred. Hicks is due a straight 2/24 and isn't good. Teoscar should be a DH but he's still at least an offensive contributor

Robert from SC

• How much did the Braves improve with the Suarez and Yaz signings?

Anthony Franco

• Didn't love either move. Would've stopped at two years on Suarez and one on Yaz. The latter's a weird roster fit anyway unless they're trading Profar or more concerned about Murphy's health than they've really let on
• Suarez is a good, not great reliever who's entering his age-35 season. Obviously the bullpen's better with him than without, but if the velocity drops from 98-99 to like 96-97, eh
• Already doesn't have huge swing-and-miss rates because he doesn't throw a breaking ball

Willson Contreras

• Is there a taker for me if I waive the no trade? Mets? Someone else?

Anthony Franco

• Mets make the most sense, Boston could work there. Arizona, San Diego, Texas all fit positionally but probably require the Cards to eat more than half the money

Hmm

• If a team loves the Rule 5 player they chose, but don't really want to keep him on the MLB roster all season per the MLB rules, can they work out a deal with his previous team to keep him or must they pass him through waivers first, and then if he passed through waivers,  must offer him back to his previous team?

Anthony Franco

• Needs to go through waivers and get offered back to the original team first. They can then try to trade for him back, which does happen sometimes -- usually for cash

Who signs first?

• Kyle Tucker, Framber Valdez, or Bo Bichette - who do you think signs first of this trio?

Anthony Franco

• I'll take Bo, largely on the assumption that he goes back to Toronto

Pete Alonso

• Do you think I crack 183 home runs with the Orioles, which would put 10th on the all-time home run franchise leaderboard?

Anthony Franco

• That's an average of 37 per season unless they extend or re-sign him down the line. I'll take the under, think I'd set it more at like 160

Coldstove season

• Has this been one of the slower starts to an offseason in recent memory or am I falling for some recency bias? The Winter Meetings in particular felt much less active than usual.

Anthony Franco

• Agree that the Meetings were quieter than usual. Offseason as a whole maybe a little slower than normal but not dramatically so. I get some version of this question every year
• I think there's been a decent amount of movement overall but it's not all that exciting because so much of it has been the bullpen market

Curious A's Fan

• Your call: Do you overpay for a FA pitcher like Bassitt or M. Kelly (2+ year contract) OR trade Colby Thomas for a rental SP like Singer or Bubic?

Anthony Franco

• I'd trade Thomas for Bubic (assuming the medical review checks out) but not for Singer. I don't think a two-year deal at $16-18M per for Merrill or Bassitt is much of an overpay, so I'm fine with that direction if they want to give Thomas a chance to play his way into the outfield mix again
• I would be out on either of those guys if it got to three years though

Joe from Milwaukee

• The Brewers have made giant trades before when they had other young, controllable pieces in place (Yelich). Do you think they pull off a Ketel Marte/Corey Seager sized trade since almost all of their position players are controllable for at least a few more seasons? Or maybe James Wood if they prefer to get more out of their CF?
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