Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

Anthony Franco

• Good afternoon, hope you've all enjoyed your week!
• Less than two weeks from Opening Day! Let's get rolling

Fake Jim Bouton

• Seem to me the Yankees should start the season with Carlos Lagrange in the bullpen - why waste those bullets in the minors?  Any reason not to?

Anthony Franco

• I assume they'll start him in Triple-A to try to keep open the long-term possibility that he can start but given how far the control would need to come, I'd be pretty tempted to just throw him in the MLB bullpen as well
• Some of it comes down to how you feel about Cade Winquest, I guess. Tough to carry both of those guys in lower-leverage roles, at least to start the season. Obviously Winquest would need to be offered back to St. Louis if they don't hold him, whereas Lagrange could open in the minors without occupying a 40-man spot and buy them a little more time on the Rule 5 decision

Lysol

• Do you think Casas will be productive for the sox in 2026? Or with Contreras do you think they will trade him?

Anthony Franco

• I feel like a deadline trade is ideal for everyone, needs to get healthy first before that's really an option. Nationals fit is easy with the Toboni connection but also the most sensible one since they've got nothing at first base and plenty of runway

Ben Cherrington

• Glad Tim was able to exonerate me in my inability to decision not to trade for a 3B in this week’s mailbag!

Anthony Franco

• Haha here's Tim's much lengthier breakdown on Pittsburgh's third base situation that this question is referencing
• https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/03/mlb-mailbag-pirates-shortstops-...
• I don't entirely agree with him -- would consider Abrams a pretty clear upgrade over Triolo, for instance -- but I'm also generally alright with them using Triolo as a low-end regular for a while given how many other moves they made offensively
• Will say that if the cost on Donovan was something like Barco, Termarr and Triolo (which Tim loosely floated as a comp to the package they got back from Seattle, not saying St. Louis definitely would've done it), I'd have easily jumped on that if I were the Bucs

Black and Gold

• With the Pirates starting 4 pretty much set in clay. (Skenes, Kellar, Chandler, Ashcraft) Who is the front runner for the 5th spot?

Anthony Franco

• Urquidy needs to be on the MLB roster so I imagine he's pretty well locked in there, at least for a few starts
• If he's carrying a 7.00 ERA with a bunch of homers in the middle of May, they can pull the plug and go to Barco or Harrington

Idiotic Failson

• Any chance we see a breakout from Masyn Wynn this year? He's gotten some games under his belt and used to have a 60 hit tool projection

Anthony Franco

• He's not far off being a 60 bat if you view the hit tool as putting the ball in play and hitting for average. Bigger issue is that it's not all that valuable (at least offensively) when it comes with minimal walks or power
• I do think there's a little more in there than he's shown though. He should be getting to double digit home run totals with 30 doubles annually. Approach is good enough that I'll take the over on his career 6.5% walk rate moving forward. Could see his 2024 numbers being the baseline into his mid-late 20s, which is a really good player when you're a top three defensive shortstop
• Also think some of the slugging can play up just from him being more aggressive when he's fully past the knee issue. He didn't hit any triples last year, which I have to imagine is driven largely by playing through a meniscus injury given the athlete he is. Turning a handful of doubles into triples over the course of the season can juice the slug by a few points without any change in the batter's box

Guest

• Is it my imagination or is Detroit stashing shortstops? 6 of their top 30 players are  shortstops starting with McGonigle. I understand that if you play short you’re probably athletic enough to play elsewhere. Can’t play them all at short so do they trade some for pitching?

Still an A

• Does Kevin McGonigle make the Tigers opening day roster?
• 

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