The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- Tarik Skubal winning his arbitration hearing against the Tigers (1:30)
- The Tigers loading up the rotation by signing Framber Valdez and also Justin Verlander but losing Reese Olson for the year (13:25)
- The six-player trade between the Red Sox and Brewers headlined by Caleb Durbin and Kyle Harrison, with Milwaukee then signing Luis Rengifo (24:15)
- The Orioles signing Chris Bassitt and losing Jackson Holliday to injury (35:35)
- The Diamondbacks signing Zac Gallen and potentially losing Corbin Carroll to the injured list (44:30)
- The Braves losing Spencer Schwellenbach and maybe Hurston Waldrep while showing little urgency about bolstering the rotation (52:20)
- Tony Clark stepping down as MLBPA executive director, recorded as the news was still trickling out (59:15)
Check out our past episodes!
- Twins Front Office Shake-Up, The Brendan Donovan Trade, Eugenio Suarez, And More! – listen here
- Examining MLB’s Parity Situation – Also, Bellinger, Peralta, Robert, And Gore – listen here
- What The Tucker And Bichette Contracts Mean For Baseball – Also, Nolan Arenado And Ranger Suarez – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
Seven items and four are involving injuries. Sigh.
hayzee – Five injury items in the pod:
1) Olson
2) Holliday
3) Carroll
4) Schwellenbach/Waldrep
5) Darragh
Hamate or TJ for Darragh?
For – Listen to the pod, it’s great!
As always they make some excellent points.
The Skubal verdict will indeed cause more players to go to arbitration.
And Red Sox Nation is more than okay with Bregman leaving, Fangraphs has him projected for only a .761 OPS
si.com/mlb/cubs/onsi/news/fangraphs-alex-bregman-p…
Thanks, Fever. I still work and find more time to read than to listen. But I’m off tomorrow so I’ll try to catch up!
The Skubal verdict in a way makes a long term extension similar to the deals Rafaella and Cambpell landed all the more likely.
It is more incentive for a team to risk long term guaranteed money on a player without them having first put up big numbers to earn the deal.
I think you will see the teams keeping players in the minors for four seasons and using options on players to push back their free agency, similar to Ryan Ward and Spencer Jones situations. They can use that leverage to sign players to low money extensions as rookies.
If they arent willing to sign a rookie deal, they get pushed back three full years with team options and hit free agency in their early thirties.
This is why teams should be looking at drafting college players like Ward, who played four seasons in NCAA. They can really lever a college player who hits pro ball at age 21 or 22 into a low money extension because if they dont take it, they might not hit arbitration until they are 30 years old.
A solution for the players is to have their option years meld with their arbitration years. Rule 5 players would have their arb status run perpetually after four years of MiLB service, determined by years in the organization instead of MLB service time. If a team holds them back with options, they wont earn in those years but the team will also loose those years of arbitration control.
Uncertain how that will play out but I imagine it will be debated in the labor negotiations.
Marlins are a good example with Aiva Arquette. They can keep Arquette in the minors until the end of the ’28 season, move him to the 40 man, and option him for three more seasons.
They could lever Arquette into a low money deal next season, a Freddy Peralta special, and he might take it because if they are going to pay him he might get some playing time. If he doesn’t, they can shelve him until the ’32 season. That would be his age 29 season.
Joe Mack can be levered too. He can be shelved for another three seasons if he doesnt want the rookie deal and the Marlins will start Liam Hicks at catcher and wont really miss a beat.
Would Joe Mack take a starting job this season and a 6yr/40M dollar deal with two 15M club options? I probably would if I was Joe Mack and it meant the team was committing to me as their starting catcher. That deal could go south if Mack doesnt play well, but if he does, the Marlins have a cost controlled all-star catcher for eight seasons. Its a low risk bet for the Marlins.
Thank you!
Derek Shelton the new manager of the Twins will have to contend with a payroll Sthat has been cut significantly
He’ll reminisce of his time in Pittsburgh as a result
Files – Now we know why Theo lent his gorilla suit to Tony!
Kinda weird for one of the casters to frame the Priester trade as “for a player in A ball”, considering that said player right now is generally seen as the third-best piece they got in the deal (they also received a not-nothing PTBNL and a competitive balance pick they used on a promising arm).
I think everyone with sense figured that MIL had a plan in place to help Priester succeed, so that is no surprise. But even with both casters noting is as a deal that isn’t yet done, they really seemed to undersell how the BOS side of the deal has barely begun to unfold.
Skubal’s victory was historic. The clause in the last CBA that allowed 5th year players to use comparables that allow them to look at veterans and free agents not just arbitration players had not been used yet. Skubal finally did and it will open it up for other 5th year players to get bigger awards. Sorry Dar and Anthony, but you really undersell this decision. The question will be if the owners try to rein this in with the upcoming CBA negotiations.