Author: Tim Dierkes

Michael

• Which free agent left-handed starting pitcher will end up in Pittsburgh this year?

Tim Dierkes

• https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/10/2025-26-mlb-free-agents.html
• I hadn’t really considered them adding an SP much.  Can I interest you in Nestor Cortes though?

Steve Adams

• Feels like there’s always one! Haha. But I don’t think they’ll reprise the Rich Hill, Tyler Anderson, Andrew Heaney, Martin Perez signing this year.
• Money has to go to bats.
• Nestor would be a decent cheap option for midseason depth though, sure, if they want to carry on the tradition
• Maybe give Kyle Hart a minor league deal, haha

Tim Dierkes

• I think the signature move will be a trade for a bat, but I threw the Pirates on Jorge Polanco anyway.  I assume he’ll have better options, but maybe others will be reluctant to go to three years and the Pirates can break precedent and actually do a market value multiyear deal.

Steve Adams

• I had the Bucs on Mullins before he was bumped from the list when the Rays declined Fairbanks’ option last-minute

Guest

• Do you see the Orioles sign a quality SP and not someone like Morton

Steve Adams

• Still think Mullins should be on here, but I digress.

Tim Dierkes

• I’m not positive it’s a signing, but my guess is that the Orioles perhaps learned their lesson with how the Morton/Sugano “safe” additions went.  I think it’s finally time they go bigger.

Steve Adams

• I put them on Framber. I don’t think he’s going to command the 6+ years to which Elias seems averse, and Elias was the Astros’ scouting director for years and has brought in a handful of former Houston guys during his tenure. That’s a reach, of course, but we grasp at straws on these things when making picks sometimes, haha.

Tim Dierkes

• Cease, Framber, King, and Giolito got picks from our team. There’s really no SP they should not be in on.

Reds

• Predicting Pete Alonso to come to the Queen City is quite bold, isn’t it?

Steve Adams

• Broadly speaking, I do think they’ll make a more impactful move. I had them on King for awhile, too. I don’t think they’ll go super long-term. (Orioles)

Tim Dierkes

• It kind of is, but it’s mostly the idea that the Mets have a good chance of moving on and the contract will not be prohibitive.  For the most part I’ve seen larger contract predictions elsewhere and if that happens then it’s probably not the Reds.  It’ll be interesting to see if the market responds differently to have.  Seemed like no one gave a decent four or five-year offer.  I know it was a better year but I don’t think he’s drastically different moving forward.
• *have = him

Steve Adams

• It’s bold in the sense that the Reds don’t spend like this in free agency, but not in the sense that Alonso just isn’t going to cost THAT much by today’s standards. Cincinnati has enough payroll capacity to make one big move in free agency and would free up more if they trade Singer (unless they do the Singer-Taylor Ward swap I have been manifesting for weeks, haha)There’s no clear option at 1B. The team is desperate for offense. We expect the Reds to try for Schwarber, a Cincinnati native they love, and when they fall short pivot to the next-best bet in terms of power bats.

  I wound up putting Alonso on the Red Sox, but I was between them and the Reds primarily for him. We’ll see if they actually pull the trigger, but it feels feasible based on payroll

• And hey, they gave Votto twice what we’re predicting for Pete — and that was more than a decade ago

Jim

• Biggest free agent the A’s sign?

Tim Dierkes

• The A’s got more love on our list than I thought they would.  Eugenio Suarez, Bassitt, Seranthony, G Soto, Mahle, Willi Castro.  The last two of those were mine.  I think they make sense for guys who are finding their market to be disappointing, because we know FA generally don’t want to go there.  I guess Mahle is a stretch, but it was tough to place all these SP without overloading certain teams.  I’m sure the A’s want to add SP.
• I guess I didn’t answer the question.  I’ll stick with Willi.  Can play a bunch of 2B, help out in the OF corners, poor finish to his year.

Steve Adams

• Severino’s experience and vocal distaste for pitching there has me wondering if they’ll be able to reel in another starter of note, so I gave them some decent relievers (Dominguez, Soto). I could see them going after an infield bat though. Jorge Polanco, Gleyber Torres, Geno Suarez.I don’t think it’s impossible that they sign a SP, but they’d probably need to comfortably overpay — like be the team that goes the extra mile for a once-prominent SP whose stock is down. Zac Gallen, perhaps.

Jim

• Do you agree the A’s will have to address their rotation through trade(s) rather than free agency?

Steve Adams

• I do find that the likelier outcome

Tim Dierkes

• Mostly yes. I assume there will be certain guys who would look at them because they can guarantee an opp to start.

Brandon

• I find it very hard to believe Mets let Diaz go, yet everyone predicted he signs with another team. What was the logic behind this?

Steve Adams

• (Re: A’s — also via the farm! Gage Jump time in 2026!)

Tim Dierkes

• I’d say you’re putting too much stock in the team picks.  A little odd to explain but I don’t think any of us feel like the Mets are out on Diaz or unlikely or something.  Personally, though, it was not Stearns who did the first Diaz contract, and committing $20MM+ per year over four to an RP seems like the opposite of why Cohen hired him.  Could Steve just override and say “We need a bullpen, get it done!”?  Of course.

Steve Adams

• I find a Mets return totally plausible, but David Stearns hasn’t to this point been a “let’s pay top-of-market prices for relatively old free agents” kind of guy. The Mets went nuts on Soto, obviously, but he’s 26 and that was a Steve Cohen call anyhow. Maybe Cohen will just keep Diaz at all costs. I find that plausible. But Stearns tends to operate more on the value side of things.(Then again, I put Devin Williams there on a pretty big deal himself, but Williams’ first-half struggles in the Bronx might’ve cost him tens of millions of dollars, so I can see Stearns — former Milwaukee GM/president — thinking his former closer is a relative bargain who’ll bounce back just fine)

Tim Dierkes

• I like the Dodgers on Diaz for the sheer obviousness of A) not having a bullpen by the WS B) him being the top available RP for just money and C) they just won the WS, they have plenty of money to spend, and it has to go somewhere.

Steve Adams

• I put Diaz in Toronto for similar reasons to Tim putting him in L.A.

Rich S

• Brad Keller to the Dodgers ?

Tim Dierkes

• Viable, unless they want a guy with a deeper track record of success.
• I had Keller on the Braves like some of my colleagues, perhaps because AA has spent on RP and Keller could be one of those “maybe he can start” conversions like Reynaldo was.  I did a late switch when I decided Raisel could just stay there, and I didn’t have the Yankees doing anything to address their bullpen.

Steve Adams

• Totally viable. We’ve been wondering whether a team will try to put him back in the rotation. Five pitches. Track record as a solid starter before he had TOS surgery.The Braves love the reliever-to-starter move (Reynaldo Lopez, tried it with Jeff Hoffman but balked at the physical) … and they also love Georgia guys … like Keller!

FishFam

• O’Hearn to Miami feel like a fit?

Steve Adams

• 100%

Tim Dierkes

• 3 of 4 of us picked that, ROH is a low-end regular, they have a clear 1B need and intend to be more active in FA that usual.  We had him on a three-year deal and switched to two late.  I guess Anthony thinks Naylor leaves the Mariners and they switch to him.

Jim

• Which free agent caused the biggest disagreement among you all?

Steve Adams

• I had him there even before Barry Jackson with the Miami Herald suggested this week that the Marlins will try to add a more established presence at 1B. ROH won’t break the bank, and the Marlins are a team that could even push to a third year to get the deal done.
• A lot of them!  Haha

Tim Dierkes

• Hmm.  Let’s throw some out there.  I had to fight to get Robert Suarez a third year

Steve Adams

• Who was our biggest? Dylan Cease maybe?

Tim Dierkes

• We pushed Bellinger up to 140 late
• Darragh and I had Cease on a long-term deal, Anthony and Steve short.  Long won out but that can go either way

Steve Adams

• You didn’t “fight” for it. You just overrode the rest of us and gave him the third year haha

Tim Dierkes

• Haha fair
• I do that once in a while, with limited success haha

Steve Adams

• Yeah, I came around on Cease long-term eventually. I like the pitcher and think he SHOULD get paid. I just am wary with the ERA fluctuations.A few more…

Tim Dierkes

• I had Murakami a lot lower, but I get why we came up

Steve Adams

• Tim and I had a hilariously impassioned back-and-forth over one year versus two for Raisel Iglesias of all people. I did not expect to be a passionate Raisel Iglesias truther, but this list does weird things to us.
• Devin Williams we were all over the map on

Tim Dierkes

• I had King and Gallen on two-year opt-out deals but came around to the four years

Steve Adams

• He’s another in the Cease bucket of “this ERA is a fluke, he’s one of the best in baseball … will he get paid based on the rate stats?”

Tim Dierkes

• I might still take the under on Devin, but we argued so much back and forth that my brain turned to mush

Steve Adams

• Eventually we decided yes.I was heavy on Zac Gallen despite not liking the pitcher much. It’s hard to take that stance with much vigor…. “I don’t think this guy is that good, but I do think he’s going to get paid because XYZ”

Tim Dierkes

• Yeah, we have guys like that every year.  I remember the year Hosmer was a FA, we knew he’d get paid and none of us would like it.  That proved true

Andy

• Would the Dodgers risk clubhoise chemistry by trading Teo or Muncy to make room for a big splash?

Steve Adams

• None of us are very big on Gallen. I think we all feel he’s a landmine. But we thought the same about Madison Bumgarner, predicted him to get paid anyway, and we were right.Cuts both ways though. We all thought Alonso would be hung out to dry last winter but didn’t have the guts to predict a short-term deal for him. Wish we would have stuck to our guns.

Tim Dierkes

• On the Dodgers question, I think they’d look at that.  They could also just bring someone in and let things be crowded.  For example, if they love Murakami or he wants to go there on an affordable deal, they could just jam him in there and keep Freeman/Muncy

Steve Adams

• I find Hernandez more viable than Muncy, mainly because Max is only on a cheap one-year deal. If they want to make a bigger splash, they can just do it and sort out the playing time. Murakami, for instance.Teo feels like a square peg in a round hole there with two more years of bad OF defense all but locked in. He didn’t hit that well this year. They only brought him back with heavy deferrals at a relatively light rate (by big-market standards).

  I think they’d welcome the opportunity to move on, but that’s totally speculative on my end just based on years of watching how they operate. I have not pinged Friedman or Gomes to get their thoughts on the matter, haha

Kk

• Will the Red Sox really pursue any of the power bats with limited to no defensive value (Schwarber, Alonso, Suarez, Murakami etc)? I see the names pop up incessantly, but it seems like the polar opposite of how the team wants to change. Clearly, contracts like Yoshida’s and Devers’ are not the type they easily stomach.

Tim Dierkes

• I put them on Geno for lack of a better option in concert with my other picks.  They want power, they want better defense, he only offers one of those.  Most players who offer both are not available.  But they basically have DH open, so they can accomplish the power without affecting the defense.  Yoshida was a mistake, but Breslow didn’t make it.  I don’t know that that would affect their interest in Schwarber.

Steve Adams

• I think they have pretty easily stomached Yoshida’s. I also think that was them sort of trying to get cute by overspending on a NPB bat they hoped could produce at Alonso-y levels (not in terms of pure power but just overall offensive value) and it burned them significantly.Again, we’re basically giving Alonso like $24-27M per season over a four- or five-year deal. It’s just not that much by their standards. They can play him at 1B for a year or two, then move him to DH and let him absolutely destroy the Monster (or maybe not, since he’d be clearing the thing so often)

Tim Dierkes

• Geno is Eugenio Suarez, for future reference.  We are thankful for shorthand options as we do most of our deliberating in a Discord chat

Steve Adams

• Good Vibes Only

Meow

• Congrats on 20 years, guys! Feels like the site has grown so big since I was browsing it to kill time in college over 15 () years ago.

Tim Dierkes

• Thanks!  We have come a long way from the days where I did all of the writing and in a much less professional way

Ray

• Looks like the Cubs won’t be shopping at the top, am I wrong?

Steve Adams

• I was browsing it to kill time (and figure out where Johan Santana was going to be traded) in college … 18 years ago! Did not think I’d be working here full-time for what’s now coming up on a decade and a half (wtf)

Tim Dierkes

• I can’t tell yet.  Logically payroll should be up this year, at least closer to the CBT.  The Kittredge trade was weirdly cheap for a bullpen that basically just has Palencia, but maybe they just don’t like him at that money for next year.  I’m guessing the Cubs would prefer to trade for a good SP than sign one.  They’ve rarely done the latter, but Hoyer was there for Lester and Darvish.  Lester was a Cubs legend and Darvish was solid for most of the six years even though Hoyer dealt him halfway through.

Steve Adams

• The Cubs never want to shop at the top. I don’t really understand why. They’re the Cubs. They print money.I could see them adding one of the bigger starters but not quite the top of the market. Did I put them on Ranger Suarez? I think I did. Ha. Something in that just-over-100 price range.

  I also put them on Kazuma Okamoto, simply because I don’t think Matt Shaw did anything in 2025 to seize the 3B job, and if they’re not going to shell out for an absolute top-of-market free agent, Shaw, Caissie, etc. are going to be popular asks on the trade market.

  I think the Cubs will be in on Joe Ryan, MacKenzie Gore — basically all the big trade names this winter.

Go Birds!

• Does kyle tucker end up in red pinstripes in south philly this coming season?

Steve Adams

• I can see it. Phils were on my short list of plausible Tucker spots, along with the Giants, Jays, Yankees and Dodgers.

Tim Dierkes

• Darragh predicted that.  I think it’s reasonable enough, particularly if Schwarber leaves.

Jack

• Could the D-Backs be a sneaky fit for Alex Bregman? He is a New Mexico guy. I know Lawlar is likely their intended 3B next year but maybe if they land Bregman they could seek to use him as a headliner for a big starter acquisition?

Tim Dierkes

• I hadn’t though much about that fit.  They are supposed to reduce payroll and are prioritizing pitching.  That said, Ken Kendrick’s big moves sometimes seem to come out of nowhere.

Steve Adams

• Lawlar looks so, so bad at 3B. They’re trying him in CF. I don’t think they’re convinced at all that he’s the long-term 3B. They traded Suarez and still didn’t hand 3B over to him full time.Snakes are trying to scale back payroll and contend simultaneously, which is a tall ask — particularly since they have basically no rotation or bullpen right now. I expect pitching to be the primary focus.

  Even if they did trade Lawlar for a pitcher — which feels perfectly plausible — I think they’d still dedicate their free agent resources to pitching

Free agent buzz

• What do you think the Jays pivot is if they don’t land bichette? Do they look at the OF and move Barger to 3B/Clement 2B? Do you see them focusing on bichette or the pitching market first?

Tim Dierkes

• The Jays are one of those teams that is capable of adding just about anyone.  If Bichette leaves, I could see Bregman or even Tucker.  And I could see them signing any SP or RP, up to and including Cease or E Diaz.  Would they sign two top 10 FA?  Not the type of thing we like to predict on our list, but it happens.

Steve Adams

• They can do anything, in part because Shane Bieber just decided to leave anywhere from $60-100MM on the table and gift them a return at the same price we saw the shells of Alex Cobb and Charlie Morton command last winter.(I think that may be the most surprising option decision I’ve ever seen)

  Jays could realistically pay Tucker, Bregman, Cease, Diaz … and frankly, I expect them to go hard after multiple big names. They’ve been in on Ohtani, Soto, Sasaki (different type of big fish) and more.

  Getting some of those top names to sign is a lot easier now that they were just a few pitches away from a WS title.

Tim Dierkes

• I will have to find it but one time I interviewed JP Ricciardi and he talked about how the typical free agent does not want to go to Toronto, so they had to overpay to get A.J. Burnett there.  Based on the Bieber decision and everything coming out about the 2025 clubhouse, what Ricciardi said seems very much not the case.
• could be in here.  Don’t have time to read https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/02/opt-out-clauses-mlb.html

Blue Jays fan

• Were you guys shocked that Shane Bieber didn’t opt out? If he wanted to stay in Toronto, why wouldn’t he opt out and resign with the jays for more?

Steve Adams

• That was also probably 15 years ago? Fair to say some things have probably changed, haha
• Literal most shocking option decision I can recall.

Tim Dierkes

• Yeah, as Steve said, we were indeed shocked.  There were a lot of “wtf?” texts going around.  We had 5/130 on Bieber.

Steve Adams

• I happened to be texting with a couple other agents (different agencies) about other topics at the time Bieber opted in, and they were dumbfounded
• “Has to be hurt” and “I don’t understand this at all… I don’t care how much you love Toronto” were their immediate replies, ha.

Tim Dierkes

• I have seen some stuff on Twitter with some Jays fans saying, “The national media just not get us!  They shouldn’t be surprised Bieber did this.”  But after doing this for 20 years, we’ve certainly seen players take discounts to stay put, but this is just on a scale that we cannot recall.

Steve Adams

• I hope he’s not hurt.

TxDude

• With the reports being that the Rangers are kind of strapped for money, what moves do you see them making? They need a complete offensive overhaul

Steve Adams

• If Bieber wanted a “discount” to stay in Toronto, he could’ve signed for like … 3/75?
• This is so far beyond a discount

Tim Dierkes

• A couple of us did Arraez with Texas, I put Caratini there.  My assumption is that CY builds the bullpen back up cheaply as he’s had some success with that.
• It’s weird because even cutting payroll, they’ve got room to spend.  But the “we’re not spending” vibes seem pretty strong so I guess none of us put them on a major FA.

Steve Adams

• It’s not reports … president of baseball operations Chris Young plainly said they lacked payroll certainty this offseason.I think the Rangers are going to move on from Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim. I expect them to be very open to trading Josh Jung and Jake Burger.

  That said, their payroll is projected for $197MM at RosterResource right now. That’s already down from last year’s $225MM, and that still includes Garcia and Heim for a combined (projected) $18MM. I think they’re both as good as gone.

  So there’s room for them to make some additions and still keep payroll down a bit.

  Arraez does fit there and would change the offensive identity. I think they add a new catcher (Ryan Jeffers? Victor Caratini? Even JT Realmuto is possible) and move away from a lot of this low-OBP, big-power archetype they’ve sort of begun cultivating (whether by design or happenstance)

John

• Will the Royals make a bigger splash in the trade market over free agency?

Tim Dierkes

• It does seem that they would like to trade an SP for a corner OF bat.  But bringing Yaz back or doing something on that scale in FA makes sense too.

Steve Adams

• Their system just isn’t that great, and I’m not as big on moving a big league SP as Tim and (I think) Darragh have been when suggesting someone like Kris Bubic.I had the Royals on Gleyber Torres before he received the QO. Since I think he’ll accept, I moved Jorge Polanco from SF to KC.

  I find the Royals totally viable for a reunion with Yaz or a run at Cedric Mullins (who, again, should be on the list, Tim )

• Grisham, too, though not sure they’ll spend that aggressively.

Tim Dierkes

• Cedric Mullins was a point of debate, believe it or not.  Most of us couldn’t get him past one year and $10 mil.  I assume Steve was furious when the Rays declined Fairbanks’ option and Mullins was bumped

Steve Adams

• Don’t love the player. But someone’s going to pay him more than we would. The end.

Vince

• Your estimate of $400m/11y for Tucker seems high to me, maybe because I’m not as familiar with him, because he doesn’t seem to have the impact of other players who have reached that number.  How much of his estimated guarantee is due to the weakness of the FA class?
  Also, for Steve, you

Tim Dierkes

• I don’t think weakness of the FA class had much to do with it.  Tucker is a very good player.  The idea that he might sign the fourth-largest contract in MLB history is deceiving, because of inflation.
• I am in the Chicago area and saw firsthand how weird and disappointing Tucker’s second half was.  I don’t feel great about the 400 mil prediction, but also did not have the conviction to put him lower.  My colleagues helped make his case and it remains strong.
• I wrote some stuff in my mailbag about how I can see Tucker’s market failing to materialize, but at that point I hadn’t given enough consideration to the Blue Jays.  I think he has the Jays, Dodgers, and Yankees as three fairly likely big market suitors.  If for whatever reason two of those take different paths, Tucker will not get 400 mil, in my estimation.

Steve Adams

• Tucker is 29 and does everything well. He’s had a couple pretty fluky injuries that were exacerbated certainly by Houston’s … less-than-stellar … track record with managing injuries (and, to a lesser extent, that also happened in Chicago).He probably is the quietest superstar in the game, but Tucker is a bankable source of 4-5 WAR every season even including the past two injury-shortened years. A full season of a healthy Tucker is probably comfortably worth 6+ wins. Teams pay for youth.

  Tim wanted him lower, and I can’t say I’ll be shocked if he signs for “only” 350 or so, but this player is so, so good, and with teams like the Giants, Jays, Yankees, Phillies and Dodgers all standing as viable landing spots, yeah I think he gets a mega-deal.

  As Tim is referencing, focusing on the trade market for bats or simply prioritizing pitching for some of his major potential suitors could throw a wrench into the 400+ contract, but I don’t see any real way he signs for under 300

• And I tend to prefer erring on the side of aggression when it comes to the very top free agent(s)

Tim Dierkes

• I did come in at 400 mil in my independent Tucker prediction.  But when we all kind of landed there as a consensus, I stress-tested that a lot because I’m really not sure.  I have also written in my mailbag, Excel Sports Management hasn’t really had guys where taking the Boras path of three years and $120MM with two opt-outs was chosen.  We don’t know if Excel would accept something in that 300 range for Kyle.

Astros fan

• How did you come up with Verlanders salary? To me his age makes him too large of a risk to decline or be injured to give him that much.

Steve Adams

• He just got 15MM coming off a 91-inning season with a 5+ ERA
• Then he went out and had this season, complete with a monster finish. He has to have earned a raise (or he should have). I suggested putting him at the QO value and we all more or less agreed.

Tim Dierkes

• I started at 16 there and I assume a few of the guys talked me up.  But we have seen some very mediocre guys get 15.  Verlander had a really nice finish, he’s a famous future HOF, he’s slowly driving toward 300 wins.  Ultimately I felt like his stature meant he should indeed get more than a million bucks over Alex Cobb.

Steve Adams

• Also, and this is silly, but $22MM just … isn’t much in today’s MLB climate.

Tim Dierkes

• Whether that’s 18, 20, 22, I don’t know, but sub-18 does feel wrong to me.

Steve Adams

• Certainly not on a one-year deal

The Fonz

• Does the weird F. Valdez incident from earlier this year impact his free agency?

Tim Dierkes

• Our team voted no on that.

Steve Adams

• I don’t have much to add beyond that. I’ve been asked and answered this in basically every chat I’ve had on the site since the cross-up.Framber Valdez is one of the best left-handed pitchers (best pitchers, period) in the game and I don’t think one perceived scuffle (if it was even that) with a teammate is going to cost him significantly in free agency. He’s too talented.

Joe

• Why didn’t the Rays pick up Fairbanks’ option and trade him?

Tim Dierkes

• My assumption is that no one wanted to trade for him at 11 mil.  The Rays could’ve dealt him just to get out of the buyout, as the Cubs did with Kittredge.  From what I’ve seen on Twitter, Fairbanks’ reputation outstrips his current abilities.  This was the first healthy season of his career, he’s at 97 and not 99 these days, and his K% has been average the last few years.  He’d a fine reliever, that’s about it.

Steve Adams

• I like him a bit more than Tim, but he is more name value than performance/positive trend lines right now. He was healthier this season but also took notable steps back in velo, K%, swinging-strike rate, etc.I won’t be surprised if Fairbanks ends up around 1/11 or the 2/18 we predicted. But teams are wary about plopping down significant expenditures on day one of the offseason if they’re at or close to market value. We’ve seen this in the past. Colin Rea last year. Brad Hand with Cleveland a few winters back.

  I suspect Fairbanks wasn’t viewed as having much surplus value, and the Rays preferred to just pay the $1MM buyout as opposed to exercising and then finding minimal trade value as the offseason wore on

Guest

• Who makes the final call on the years/$ amounts? Are each of you assigned certain players and you get the final call?

Steve Adams

• At that point, you either have a sub-$100MM payroll with a reliever (possibly a declining one) taking up $11MM of it. Or you have to eat more than the $1MM buyout just to trade him for a negligible return.

Tim Dierkes

• I make the final call, but I like to come to something close to a consensus.  On certain players we will have one dissenter, but mostly all four were at least begrudgingly on board with what we put out there.

Salary floor

• Any belief a salary floor will be included in the next CBA? I could see that greatly impacting free agency

Steve Adams

• We collaborate and try to have a consensus. But at the end of the day, Tim started MLBTR and he writes the checks. If he wants to be wrong about Robert Suarez getting three years — just like he was wrong about Robert Stephenson getting four years 🙂 — that’s his right!
• (Tim has also very correctly pushed several guys over the line against pushback in the past. I’m just needling him here haha)

Tim Dierkes

• I feel better than ever about Robert Suarez getting three years.  If he gets three and 40+, Anthony Franco has to buy me a Robert Suarez shirsey of his new team.  So in my mind that’s already in my wardrobe

Steve Adams

• I’ve got framed James McCann and Travis d’Arnaud shirseys in my office
• The TDA one is a Dodgers shirsey! (He had one PA as a Dodger)

Tim Dierkes

• yes!  At least I came through on those.  We had to add an apostrophe to the custom TDA one
• anyway, the salary floor question.
• I don’t think that can happen without a cap.  In talking with the team, we do not think a cap happens in this CBA.

Steve Adams

• I don’t see a salary floor and don’t think it would have the intended effect most fans seem to.

Trader Jim

• When you guys make these predictions, how much weight do you put on a team’s proclivity to not want to give up draft pick compensation?

Tim Dierkes

• For me, if the GM basically said they wouldn’t sign a qualified FA (which I’m guessing the union would take issue with), then I’d account for that.  Otherwise I didn’t let it be an overriding factor on a fit I liked.
• To be fair, there are a lot of FA for whom I think the QO will be a problem: Gallen, Imanaga, Grisham, maybe King and Woodruff.  Torres so much so that we predicted he will accept

Steve Adams

• In terms of market value, a Tucker/Bichette, zero thought. The QO has repeatedly proven not to be a major deterrent for the top stars. For others, it matters greatly. We had Gleyber signing a three-year deal, but as soon as he got the QO, we all said on our group text “So Gleyber accepts? Right? Right.”Team-wise, yeah, it has to come into play a bit. There are clubs who seem loath to sign a qualified FA or who, at least in one specific offseason, kind of signal that they’re really against it in the short-term.

Sparky

• On Bregman, the piece said “There seems to be an expectation the Red Sox will get it done”, yet all four of you predicted he’d go elsewhere. Can you clarify?

Tim Dierkes

• Interesting contrast.  Part of that might be me writing that Bregman thing several weeks ago.  But it’s also that in this case I think the media might be wrong

Steve Adams

• Yeah, Tim wrote that player up and I agreed with the sentiment … a lot of the Boston media is treating Bregman as something the Sox have to get done.I don’t think they will. This hasn’t been in Breslow’s wheelhouse to date, and I think other clubs are going to more heavily prioritize him. Boston has other in-house infield options that are highly regarded, even after disappointing rookie showings. Mayer, Campbell. They could sign a shorter-term option. They also badly need starting pitching.

  Granted, I picked them to sign Alonso, so I’m very much talking out of both sides of my mouth here, but I think the Alonso contract will come in much lighter and feel like the Sox (or whoever) gave him a bit of a soft landing, whereas I expect Bregman to be more genuinely in demand and command top-of-market dollars.

cpins

• I know the projected landing spots are as much fun as meaningful but Woodruff to the Mets got me thinking about a larger issue.  If they trade for a frontline starter wouldn’t they want to avoid the 2 pick/$1m IFA penalty since the trade would deplete the farm?  2nd thought:  Is the comp penalty price for a Woodruff greater than the likely prospect cost for a trade for say Alcantara?

Tim Dierkes

• My assumption is that the Mets will only bring in one front-rotation type.  If Woodruff qualifies as that for Stearns, then giving up the second and fifth round picks and the international pool money is part of the calculus.  3/66 is a fairly light contract if Woody can pitch like he did in the regular season this year and most importantly, by healthy for the most part come October (which of course he was not in 2023 and ’25).
• The Alcantara price I think would require players with relative certainty and proximity to the Majors.  It just seems like a different kind of way of paying than forfeiting picks, most of which bust
• You don’t want to continually wipe out all your draft picks, it’s a numbers game, but a lot of fifth rounders don’t become anything
• I assume the three of us picking the Mets on Woodruff couldn’t resist the Stearns connection and his tendency thus far to not sign SP to long-term deals.  We sometimes grasp at straws a little bit to decide why this team should get this SP and this other one that one

Steve Adams

• Not convinced the Marlins trade Sandy this winter. At all. Though it’s possible enough that he ranked prominently on the Trade Candidate list. He will 100% be talked about and sought after all offseason.It gets a little murky, answering questions like this. You’re making short-term talent acquisition concessions by signing Woodruff. You’re making a different kind of concession to add Alcantara (or another veteran SP on the trade market), but there’s the implied future value of making him a QO years down the line as well, if all goes according to plan.

  More to the specific Mets question … their farm is great. They can stomach the loss of two picks and some international money. And it’s feasible they can get some extra picks in the future, pending possible QOs for Clay Holmes, David Peterson etc.

Tim Dierkes

• My last thought on Woodruff is that he’s gonna need a clean physical. The late lat strain was likened to a hamstring strain.  I ain’t a doctor, so we will see

BurnerK

• Did everyone think Dombrowskis Flex statements on Schwarber was enough to scare everyone away from bidding or what?

Tim Dierkes

• I don’t believe free agency typically works that way, and the true flex would’ve been to just sign Schwarber to an extension.  That did not happen so clearly Kyle has some interest in seeing what’s out there based on whatever overtures the Phillies have made thus far

Steve Adams

• One more Woodruff point from me: I’d be surprised if he accepts. I think the very fact that the Brewers made the QO suggests they believe the injury is not major. They’re already paying him a $10MM buyout, so this is Milwaukee of all teams risking a $32MM payout to a pitcher. Yikes.
• Dombrowski is as aggressive a GM as there is when he sets his sights on someone. I think the Phils just love Schwarber and feel he’s the guy they cannot let get away

Mariners

• Do you see a world where Alonso signs in Miami?

Tim Dierkes

• Mostly no.  If his market is so bad that he’s doing another two-year deal, and the Mets have already moved on, then I guess I can almost slightly see that world if I squint

Steve Adams

• Personally, no. I think it’s too big a financial risk and I also don’t think this is a skill set that president of bb ops Peter Bendix values highly
• Oh true, in that scenario, sure.
• But then you’d have a bunch of unexpected bidders in the fray since there’s no QO this time around

Ethan

• Do think the MLBPA will step in like last year with the Athletics and threaten a grievance if a team doesn’t increase spending? The Marlins come to mind for me.

Tim Dierkes

• Yes, but those grievances are weird.  They never seem to result in real penalty and I think dismissing them just becomes another CBA bargaining chip.  If we’re going to say teams need to spend 150% of their revenue sharing, then the players need to fight for strong penalties when they don’t.  Also I’d really love for revenue sharing info to not be under lock and key as it is!
• I can see why MLB has locked that down though.  If we saw all the revenue sharing figures in a concrete way each year, there would be more pressure on recipients to spend it on players

Steve Adams

• I think the A’s were a special case. They’d lost revenue-sharing in the past and only had their rev sharing rights reinstated under the past CBA. Then they went right back to basement-level CBT numbers.If you look at the Marlins, they ran an $86MM CBT number this year, which the MLBPA probably hates — but they’re also already signaling plans to spend some. Also, from 2022-24, they were between $105MM and $139MM in CBT tallies every year.

  The A’s were like 3-4 straight years at $85MM or less. That’s the difference, I would assume.

Refresh, Please

• Of the four of you—which had the most correct last year and what was that number?

Tim Dierkes

• https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/mlbtr-apps/free_agent_contest_leaderboa…
• Steve led the team with a robust .188 average on 48 picks

Steve Adams

• No one’s taking my crown this year baby
• Gunning for a beefy .200 batting average

Tim Dierkes

• Out of I think 5,000 people, one guy hit over .229

Steve Adams

• The champ is here.
• Now please never look at the prior offseasons
• Just trust that I am always in the lead and certainly that I’ve never been at the bottom of the pile.

Mike

• Do you see the Yankees possibly signing Bichette?

Tim Dierkes

• I don’t think they need to spend big money on a non-SS.  Long shot for me

Steve Adams

• Don’t love the fit but I understand it. Volpe is a question mark, only one more year of Jazz at 2B, lots of talk about needing a new offensive approach.I still don’t see it.
• Side note on that
• The Yankees are one of like 7 teams where all the talk is about making more contact, getting on base more, moving away from such a boom-or-bust approach, etc.That bodes well for Bichette. And for Tucker!

ERS

• What was your debate like that re: Murakami? I get the big power, but the Ks are worrying enough that I’d be very wary of giving him anything over, like, 4 years. There is a legitimate chance he is not a viable major league hitter if he is striking out upwards of 33%.

Tim Dierkes

• I’ll mostly cede to Steve’s memory on this.  I came in at 5/100, we talked ourselves up to 208, and then we came back down a bit to 180.  For the most part it was about 80 grade power and youth you can rarely find on the market, but the risk is real.
• We have regularly come in low on star Japanese free agents, so this was probably an attempted correction on that as well

Steve Adams

• Agree wholeheartedly. I threw out Miguel Sano as a possible worst-case scenario here.That said, we see teams make questionable nine-figure commitments to more established guys all the time. Chris Davis, Javy Baez, Nick Castellanos, Patrick Corbin — the list goes on.

  Murakami is so young with such rare power than I think a team will dream on him. I also make an effort to chat with MLB scouts who focus on NPB/KBO every offseason when it comes to these guys, and I didn’t hear anything so negative or worrisome on Murakami to make me think he’d come in with a short-term deal or something under 100.

Tim Dierkes

• Some high K guys become absolute monsters.  Some do not.  NPB projections are the hardest

Matt

• Do you see the Twins signing any real free agents? After mostly sitting out of the market the last few years, I feel like they now have some wiggle room to add a little salary with Correa gone. Am I too optimistic that the Pohlads will spend money?

Steve Adams

• Murakami is so young, it’s easy to see a team thinking it’s getting Schwarber-lite, with a smidge of defensive value, and shelling out for that.

Tim Dierkes

• Classic Steve question.  Once I decided they didn’t need a top 50 FA, I focused on other teams

Steve Adams

• I’m 40 years old and have spent all but 4.5 years of my life (2014-18) living in Minnesota. Nothing in the Pohlad history gives me an iota of confidence they’ll spend money this winter.They absolutely have the capacity to. They have like $93MM projected as a payroll, and that’s before they non-tender Trevor Larnach and (likely) trade Ryan Jeffers. They could get wild — gut payroll at the deadline, add a bunch of MLB-ready guys like Abel, Bradley, Roden, etc. then turn around and spend the savings/deal from one of the best farms in MLB (that’ll get better with a likely top-5 pick next year) to try to get right back in contention!

  They also, almost certainly, will do none of that.

Tim Dierkes

• haha I enjoyed that answer

Steve Adams

• I would love any team to engineer that kind of chaos. I love offseason chaos. I badly want it, not as a childhood Twins fan or current Minnesota resident.
• I just want insanity. The Twins could do it. I have no faith they will.

Tim Dierkes

• agreed.  at MLBTR we always, always want offseason chaos.  Unexpected stuff rules, that’s all we’re really rooting for

Cards guy

• the cards sign any free agents at all ?

Tim Dierkes

• seems like they’ll add some SP innings and a veteran reliever.  I had them on Adrian Houser before we cut him from the list, although he doesn’t really feel like a Bloom type signing.  I think they’ll do low-level value stuff in FA this winter.

Steve Adams

• I almost gave them Giolito but that feels like too heavy an expenditure. I do think they’ll sign some cheap innings and maybe make an upside play or two in the bullpen.But I also expect them to trade Donovan, Gray and Romero at the very least. Probably Nolan Gorman. I don’t think this is a team that’s going to make any exciting win-now moves.

Carl

• I saw where you guys had the Braves active on quite a few of the mid tier guys on your list. Do you think they make a push for one of the top starting pitchers similar to the Nola pursuit a couple of years ago? If so who would that be?

Tim Dierkes

• I think they already have high ceiling starters and just need some semi-reliable innings, hence my Bassitt pick there.  If I’m wrong, Cease is the on-the-nose pick since he’s from GA.  That’d surprise me, but like you said, there’s a bit of precedent for AA trying for a top FA SP

Steve Adams

• Nola is the only time the Braves have ever even flirted with the idea of spending long-term on a free agent. I can’t view him as anything other than a special case where Anthopoulos and others in the group loved that specific player.I expect them to be strongly in the mix to re-sign Kim and Iglesias, and I gave them Brad Keller as their reliever-to-starter conversion du jour.
• (Also a Georgia native!)

Tim Dierkes

• It’s kinda funny to me that Nola was AA’s one exception guy, and two years later that contract looks really rough.  Five years left

Guest

• How do you think about Zack Littell becoming an A?

Tim Dierkes

• I feel just fine about it, especially if the A’s pony up for a third year as Anthony Franco tried pushing for.  Pffff Anthony, so silly
• If I’m Zack, I don’t care if I need to pitch at a Little League field, if I can get 3/30 or so

Steve Adams

• Anthony loves Zack Littell
• Well, no
• Anthony just thinks a team will pay Zack Littell and is more ambivalent toward him than the rest of us, who think he’s like a fifth starter.

Peter Man

• Is Cody Bellinger and option for a return to the dodgers? I believe Dodgers need to trade Teo, maybe to the Phillies?

Steve Adams

• Agree with Tim on that last point — max out, dude.
• The Phillies have been trying desperately to undo the Castellanos mistake for years. Trading for Teo would be the funniest thing ever.

Tim Dierkes

• I just can’t see the Dodgers re-engaging with Belli in the $140-160 mil range.  If somehow the bottom drops out on his market again, then maaaaaybe they can kind of view him as a different, healthy guy and throw him a short-term deal
• For most of October, we had Belli at 5/125.  I was looking at it yesterday and just couldn’t stomach it, so we pushed to 140.  The FA market spat on this guy once, then the trade market kind of did.  The question is whether Boras would “settle” for 125 or we’d get yet another round of Belli opt-outs

Steve Adams

• And yeah, I’m out on Bellinger/Dodgers as a viable reunion. The breakup there was so bad, both in terms of on-field performance and then the weird comments after the fact where there was finger-pointing about his injuries and how they were handled and all parties kind of had to publicly say “Oh we didn’t mean that we’re all good here”I don’t remember the specifics, but it just doesn’t feel like something that’ll be revisited.

Tim Dierkes

• I wonder about the psychological effect of three years with two opt-outs.  To keep trying to prove yourself and having the will he/won’t he each winter.  It’d mess with me man

JW

• Every year the Cubs seem to wait to choose from the fell-between-the-cracks guys. Who do you think they’re hoping to see in that group this year?

Steve Adams

• Think we already kind of saw that with Flaherty
• I was surprised he took 1/20, but eventually you probably just get sick of being a free agent and hearing why teams don’t want you haha

Tim Dierkes

• On the Cubs, I suppose Bregman again, maybe King, Gallen, D Williams?

Steve Adams

• Feels like a Tim/Chicago question here. Hah
• I can see any of those pitchers. They’re not paying Bregman
• Helsley maybe

Tim Dierkes

• If the Cubs simply don’t want to do the long-term SP deals, then lying in wait to see if King/Gallen will take two years seems like something they’d do

Steve Adams

• Fairbanks
• Agree on that

Tim Dierkes

• That said, the Cubs could’ve had Bregman by putting an opt-out after Year 1 and they did not, perhaps feeling burned by the Belli thing.  So I’m not positive they want to keep doing that

ERS

• If Giolito had received the QO, would you guys have predicted him to accept?

Steve Adams

• I think so

Tim Dierkes

• We were doing a late debate on that situation but yes, I think we leaned that way bc him being out on the market with a QO would’ve been really rough for him

Dahntahn Pittsburgh

• Who should Bob Nutting pursue at a high-ceiling level in free agency?

Steve Adams

• Ending with an elbow scare is tough, and even throughout his awesome 20-start stretch to close the season, he wasn’t missing bats anywhere near his prior levels. He wasn’t even league-average in that regard.
• “Pirates owner Bob Nutting” and “high-ceiling free agent” do not compute

Tim Dierkes

• I don’t really know how to answer this, haha

Steve Adams

• If you’re at all a believer in a potential Cedric Mullins bounceback, then I can see that

Tim Dierkes

• usually the high ceiling deals are for SPs, they don’t really need that.  So I guess Okamoto could be an answer

Steve Adams

• (I’m not really, but maybe some folks are!)

Jared

• Will the Rockies sign any real free agents this offseason? Do you think the addition of Paul DePodesta will affect the offseason strategy bring more aggressive or conservative than usual?

Steve Adams

• Think the Rockies are going to be at the beginning of a very, very long rebuild both in terms of their roster and the infrastructure of the organization itself.I don’t see them doing anything more than short-term pieces who could maybe be flipped at the deadline.

Tim Dierkes

• That will be fascinating to find out.  My guess is that DePo will come in and tell the Rockies they suck and it ain’t getting fixed through free agency.  But I also assume he’s going to shake things up in a lot of ways in Colorado and that should be fun.

Brewer Fan

• Brewers have anymore flexibility this year with some contracts coming off the books and Chourio’s big numbers not kicking in yet? Think there is any all-in moves they could explore? I know I know… they wont.

Steve Adams

• Yoan Moncada? Luis Rengifo? That sort of bat (re: Rockies)

Tim Dierkes

• I had Gleyber in Milwaukee before he got the QO
• A Quintana-esque signing if Peralta and Woody leave. A trade for Paredes maybe. Moncada works there. Geno was my long shot pick for them

Steve Adams

• Eh, Hoskins is off the books sure, but they’re also paying big a big arb raise to Contreras and now have an unexpected (but very welcome) semi-notable $8MM or so to pay Andrew Vaughn following that hilarious breakout. That’ll eat up a fair bit of the payroll that’s coming off the books.I don’t expect them to spend much. Operate on the trade market, bring in some sneaky value free agents. The typical Brewers playbook.

  Not a bad thing. If it ain’t broke…….

• Turang also arb-eligible for the first time. Megill gets a raise. Payroll already looks similar to 2025.

Jim C

• You’re describing Bichette as a non-SS…is it a done deal that he moves to 2B?

Tim Dierkes

• More that we feel he only has a year or two max at the position, or something of a backup SS/starting 2B role

Steve Adams

• Yeah. No one’s signing Bo with the expectation that he’s their shortstop in even 2029, let alone like 2032.

DC’s Finest

• Name one FA and one trade who Paul Toboni could get this offseason

Steve Adams

• You’re signing the bat. And the youth. (Bichette)

Tim Dierkes

• For the Nats FA, I’ll say Caratini. The trade…eh, I’ll make Steve do it?
• I’m not sure this is the right time to trade Gore

Nattitude

• The Nats are going to spend big this free agency. Similar to the rangers a few years ago. They have to accelerate the rebuild

Tim Dierkes

• That I do not see

Steve Adams

• I don’t expect the Nats to be that aggressive. Could see Caratini, sure. Maybe take an upside swing at Rengifo, Moncada … hope for a Hoskins bounceback?I think it’s 100% the right time to trade Gore. And CJ Abrams.
• A trade acquisition…… hard when they’re rebuilding

ERS

• As a general question, how do you balance what you would personally give to a player versus what you expect the market to give?

Steve Adams

• You’re looking at younger guys, maybe who’ve fallen out of favor in their current org.
• Triston Casas to the Nats. book it

Tim Dierkes

• There are some, like Keith Law, whose list is entirely about what he would give to the player.  Ours is almost entirely about what we expect the market to give, but certainly our “man I would not do this” creeps in a bit.
• We have been doing this for 20 years.  Every year I think there are fewer GMs on whom we can pin our “bad” FA contracts.  Which means they’re just gonna happen less, as we saw with Alonso last winter

Steve Adams

• I think in general, we’re also kind of conditioned to think at least loosely in the same vein as today’s front offices. We sit and stare at this stuff all day everyday for years on end. In 2009, I probably would not have been on the “Hell yeah pay Dylan Cease and Devin Williams despite terrible ERAs” team, but now it’s more, “Oh I can totally see why teams would completely disregard the ERA and pay for future projection.”Maybe they won’t with those two specifically, but just using them as examples.

  There are still times where we have to plug our nose and pick someone to get paid even though we’d never personally do it. Sometimes those are right. (Madison Bumgarner)

  Sometimes, we predict a long-term deal for Pete Alonso much to our own chagrin, and then we end up wishing we’d have just predicted the short-term deal we all thought he was going to have to take.

cap

• I don’t really understand why a salary cap is such a huge issue for the union. It’s true that it would limit the megadeals, like Ohtani’s, Soto’s and perhaps Tucker’s this offseason, but if it’s coupled with much higher minimum salaries and stronger incentives for the low-spenders to increase spending, then it’s not obvious to me that a salary cap would be harmful to most players. A significant raise in minimum salary alone would be very impactful for many players, even if it doesn’t matter too much to the superstars.

Tim Dierkes

• Please don’t take this response as condescending, that’s not my intention.  Sometimes it is hard to convey tone in a live chat.  So let me start there
• I have an opinion that there are two books that are required reading for any salary cap talk (no idea if the questioner has read them of course)
• One is Marvin Miller’s book.  $14 on Amazon.  The other is John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm
• That history, of why the MLB has a strong union and how that came to be at least up until the 1994 strike, I think is crucial in understanding the union stance on a cap
• Your points are not wrong in that perhaps there could be a system that keeps the player pool of revenue the same and transfers some from superstars to young guys or the rank and file. I think it’s a trust issue more than anything.  Will the players’ % of revenue then move backward over the next few CBAs?  Will teams include all relevant revenue in an honest way?
• When I started MLBTR, I did not know who Marvin Miller was at all.  Ya gotta start there I think.

Fat Guy

• I see the Twins signing Tucker for league minimum but he gets a lifetime of free Juicy Lucy’s. Think he’d take that deal?

Steve Adams

• Not a ton to add — and not sure if Tim will keep going here

Tim Dierkes

• what even is that
• we’re gonna wrap at 11, so couple more

Q

• This one’s for Tim – why did you select the Cubs for Imai? How do you think he could fit in their rotation? And for both you and Steve – what are realistic expectations for his first year in MLB?

Steve Adams

• But real quick, once the cap is in, it’s in. The league will spend every subsequent negotiation session trying to tighten the vice and shrink the players’ piece of the pie. It might start out OK, but deteriorate quickly. Josh Erickson, who runs our hockey site, was talking about that a lot at our last meetup
• Tim, c’mon — a juicy lucy is a stuffed cheeseburger. Come to Minnesota. You’re like a 45-minute flight or 6-hour drive away

Tim Dierkes

• I picked Imai for the Cubs bc they have a strong Japanese presence, he’s younger than other FA starters, he can add some velo to the rotation, and you can dream on him becoming a #2. Whether they feel that way I have no idea
• hmm first season…150 innings, sub-4 ERA, 25 K%?

Steve Adams

• Imai has the widest range of opinions on basically any of the prominent NPB names who could (we still don’t 100% know he’s being posted) come over. I frankly have zero clue what to expect. He’s the hardest thrower in NPB. I’ve seen plenty of “He’s No. 2 SP!” reports and also talked to a scout who said his breaking stuff won’t miss bats and he’s a 4th starter or high-leverage reliever
• I’m going to take one question here and give a very simple answer
• (Tim has been selecting them this whole time)

JT

• Didn’t a certain writer in here call Madison Bumgarner a third starter a couple months before he signed that massive deal and got all kinds of hate for it? Hmmmm

Steve Adams

• Please actually be Jeff Todd
• That is all.

Tim Dierkes

• if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that we miss Jeff Todd

Steve Adams

• If so, hey buddy. Miss you. Text or email us some time.(Back to Tim selecting questions)

Tim Dierkes

• I don’t know how you even found that, there are a million questions in the queue

Steve Adams

• I adore Jeff Todd

ERS

• As a Sox fan, I’m a bit confused where the high demand for Bregman will come from. He’s an aging player, not an elite hitter, and has limited power. I’d bring him back for something like 4 years/110M, but anything beyond that will end up being quite a bad deal, I think. I am pretty concerned he will fall off a cliff offensively, like Arenado. Granted, he has better contact skills than Arenado, but Arenado also had much more raw power.

Tim Dierkes

• last one!
• Umm yes, I definitely get that. we are assuming he has upped his value a bit since last winter. I don’t see the Cubs in on him, and can easily see the Tigers doing something else.  Red Sox, Jays, not quite sure who else is bidding here. I did the contract anyway in picking “the field” in a sense, but I get it.

Steve Adams

• Almost all major FA contracts end up being bad deals. To sign an in-demand free agent, you are inherently saying you will pay him more than the rest of the market deems wise.Bregman is a good defensive third baseman with elite contact skills, above-average power and (thanks to a somewhat resurgent walk rate in ’25) quality on-base skills.

  He is also in the Kyle Schwarber/Eric Hosmer mold of “everyone absolutely loves this person, and his teammates would run through a wall for him” clubhouse mold. That sort of thing gets overstated at times, but with specific players it’s very clear that teams will absolutely pay more for the leadership.

  I also just think he’s a pretty safe 3-WAR floor for the next few years and disagree that Arenado had more raw power. Arenado has never hit the ball hard. Below-average hard-hit and exit velos every year.

• Granted, that’s also true of Bregman, but not to the same extent.
• He was huge in the first half, pre-quad injury as well, and think he answered a lot of doubts that clouded his market last time around. Plus no QO this winter.

Tim Dierkes

• I know Steve would make some good points there.
• That’s a wrap for this chat.  I genuinely enjoyed seeing all these questions and answering as many as we could.  Here’s to a wild and fun offseason!

Steve Adams

• Seconded
• Thanks for the discourse and for the support. We’re so lucky to do what we do. Hoping for a great offseason!