Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

Anthony Franco

• Good afternoon everyone, hope all is well!
• Kind of a boring week in terms of baseball news but hey, we're closing in on meaningful games! Let's discuss

donaldmac3@comcast.net

• What is the first thing the Chisox should do to get back to their winning ways, and I know better pitching is essential. I was born in Chicago nearly 80 years ago, and I have followed the Sox my entire life. Baseball is the best game.

Anthony Franco

• Agreed, pitching's the big hangup here. I still think this is a below-average position player group in 2026 but you can see it coming together with Teel, Montgomery, Quero, the upside play on Murakami, potential solid role players in Meidroth/Acuña
• Pitching's still pretty far behind. I like the Newcomb/Kay fliers well enough to raise the floor, buy Shane Smith as a league average starter. It's a low-upside pitching staff for now, though
• Biggest factor long term is whether one of Schultz and Smith dials in the strikes enough to be a top-of-the-rotation arm. They're eventually going to need to add a stable #2/3 type via free agency or trade, but it's not the time yet to push in for that

LFGM

• Last season the MLBTR team was on point about the Mets biggest issue being SP, as that ended up being their downfall, even if the first two months of the year it looked like a miss, what do you guys think this year’s team biggest weakness is?

Anthony Franco

• I think they're pretty well balanced this year, nothing concerns me quite as much as the lack of high-end starting pitching did at this time last season.

  If there is some kind of fatal flaw that tanks the season, it'd probably be the bullpen? It's a solid group but the late innings are heavily reliant on rebounds from Williams/Weaver and if those don't happen, they'd be in some trouble

• Right there with the Phillies as the top teams in the NL East for me though. Not sure if others on the MLBTR staff are a little lower on them

Brewers Fan

• Is there a rhyme or reason to when each teams off-season review comes out? To you wait on ones that you think may still make moves? Or is it just random draw?

Anthony Franco

• Mostly random. We do try to start with the teams that we feel are less likely to make a significant move between when we publish it and Opening Day
• We're basically down to Giolito and Littell as the remaining free agents who'd get more than a cursory mention in an OiR anyway, so it's not as big a deal this year. Was more of a consideration during the "Boras Four" year or certainly the lockout one when we had to drag the series well into the regular season
• There's also just a logistical thing where Mark Polishuk takes around six of these every year and Tim Dierkes usually does the Chicago teams. Neither of them are full-time MLBTR employees -- the site is obviously Tim's focus but he's often tied up with behind the scenes stuff with the developers, web features, etc. -- so the teams that they claim are subject to their other scheduling stuff in a way that mine, Darragh's and Steve's are not

Steve

• If Endy Rodriguez keeps up a good pace this spring, do you see the Pirates keeping him on the roster as a DH/Backup C&1B, or is the roster constructed in a way that blocks him completely?

Anthony Franco

• Certainly don't think he's blocked. Bart's out of options but Davis and Rafael Flores can both be sent down, so they could roll with Endy as the backup catcher and keep the latter two in Triple-A
• Given how little Endy has played the last two years, my guess is they roll with Davis/Bart and start Rodríguez in Indy, but it's not like Davis has done enough at the major league level that he needs to be on the active roster

Connor with a K

• Given Bob Nutting's historical aversion to giving up control/arn years of young talented players (e.g. Skenes, Chandler), do you think it's realistic that Konnor Griffin actually makes the Opening Day roster even if he has a monster spring?

Bounty

• What do you think the over/under on Konnor Griffin breaking camp with the big club? I really need him to go to the minors so I can select him with the first overall pick in our taxi portion of the roto auction league I'm in.
• 

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