Front Office Originals

Steve Adams

• Happy Monday! We'll get going in about 90 minutes, but feel free to send in questions ahead of time.
• Hello! Let's get underway

Rafael Devers

• (Sorry for the old news but it’s still hot for a lot of us.). Is my contract “under water”?  Some reports say yes, the market (I.e., the Giants) apparently say no.  Great hitter but not much more.  Is there surplus value in the contract or not?

Steve Adams

• I wouldn't say it's underwater. Devers is an elite hitter, top-10 in the sport, who won't turn 29 until October. We just saw Guerrero get a $500MM contract and Soto $765MM. Devers is owed $238.5MM beyond this season, starting with his age-29 campaign. That's older than Soto and Vlad were when they signed their contracts, of course, but if you asked me whether Devers would clear $238.5MM as a free agent this winter, I'd say he would, yes. Maybe not by leaps and bounds, as many teams would view him as a DH, but yeah, I think he'd get more than that in the open market still.

Knock-Knock

• Are there ever thoughts about changing All Star Voting? I think the starters should be based on stat leaders at each position and then reserves should be who the fans vote for. Too many homers vote for their favorites when clearly, they aren’t the best. This year is better than past years (so far) but not totally true to who is playing the best at each spot.

Steve Adams

• I doubt there will be, but yeah, I said last week in a chat that I don't really care about the All-Star Game whatsoever, in part because I find the voting process so stupid in the internet/social media era. It's always been more popularity contest than anything else, but it's just so exacerbated now.It'd be more appropriately labeled the "Fans' Choice" game or "Fan Selection" game, but in general, I don't find much excitement in it. I'll watch it if I have nothing else going on that night, but I find the All-Star Game less exciting than just tuning into a random Pirates/Reds game to watch Skenes vs. Greene or something.But it's also probably not aimed at the hardcore fan or a baseball sicko like me who consumes as much baseball content as I do. So maybe I'm just jaded and grumpy, haha.

What about Ann?

• Tyler Fitzgerald a fit for Braves 2b?

 

Anthony Franco

• Hey everyone, hope you had a good weekend! I'm not feeling great today so I'm going to keep this one around an hour. Let's get rolling

Duffy Scliff

• You’re gonna get a million Devers questions, but tell me this, have you ever seen a trade like this? Where a contending team trades a player early into a massive contract? This is not Mookie, or Sale, or Nomar. This is not like A Rod or Stanton being traded in a salary dump. This is 100% unprecedented. This relationship must have been so far beyond repair and we didn’t see it. This is one of the most shocking trades in baseball history.

Devers

• Why would SF do this deal? They don't have 3B open for him and with Eldridge coming up soon, Devers is going to be a very expensive DH only bat. The upside exists, but that's gambling a lot on a guy adjusting to the NL West gaunlet and changing his clubhouse negativity for a team surprisingly in the midst of a tough playoff race.

Anthony Franco

• A quick control Ctrl-F shows there are 18 mentions of Devers in the queue. Not going to publish all of them for obvious reasons
• Broadly speaking, I like it more for SF though I get where both sides are coming from. If Boston felt the relationship was truly beyond repair, I have a hard time seeing them getting more than this. Giants took the whole deal (minus the Hicks contract, which is a negative value asset but a short-term commitment) and Harrison and Tibbs are arguably on par with Top 100 type prospects
• Harrison obviously is no longer a prospect but I think he'd be valued equivalently to a back of the top 100 guy if he hadn't exhausted his rookie eligibility
• There's definitely risk for the Giants in creating a long-term logjam at the corner infield with Chapman signed forever and Eldridge knocking on the door. But we've also seen the top of the market for elite hitters spike in the couple years since the Devers contract was signed -- Vlad Jr. might be a worse player and just got $500M -- and they're in a division where there's always going to be huge pressure to pursue top-end talent

Dear Evan Carter

• do you see the Mets transitioning well given canning is starting to show his true colors and senga being out awhile? i am concerned about what we could expect from montas/manaea given the time off.

John

• Would it make sense for the Mets to trade one of their depth starters to try to get a higher leverage reliever or use some of the younger prospects in a bullpen role later in the season? I get a feeling the bullpen market will be light given how scarce quality arms are, especially lefties

Anthony Franco

• Yeah I think they're going to be fine. The rotation is going to regress a little bit but the offense was heating up (at least going into the TB series) and they were starting to produce more with RISP
• I imagine they'll just deal prospects to a non-contender for lefty bullpen help but I wouldn't be wedded to keeping Blackburn if they had another win-now team that wanted to swap MLB assets

Bat first

• Yankees' designating Pablo Reyes for assignment in favor of keeping Ben Rice in the lineup is a bit surprising. With Rice/Escarra on the bench, that leaves Peraza/Grisham (or whichever outfielder is sitting that day) as the only pieces on the bench that can play a position other than 1B or C. Wouldn't it have been better to give Rice or Escarra everyday reps down in AAA, rather than let your 100 wRc+ players rust on the bench if you simply don't have everyday spots for them?

Anthony Franco

• They like Escarra more than Rice defensively as the backup C and I'd much rather have Rice on my team than two of Reyes and Peraza
• Tough to count on Stanton playing every day and there's not much harm in mixing in a few more rest days for Goldy. Between that and maybe an occasional start at catcher, I think they can find 3-4 starts a week to keep Rice in a groove

Robert from SC

• I saw that Braves fans were disappointed today when Nacho Alvarez was optioned. I don't understand why. He's not going to save this team from the disappointing season they're having. Is Nacho the long term answer at SS?

Anthony Franco

• Hey everyone, hope you're doing well!
• Looking forward to another of these, let's get it going

Tony

• What moved do you see the cards making at the deadline? They seem to think hesley will form down a QO but I think fedde would take it.  I would trade fedde and some mix of Gorman, Burleson and Scott/Siani

Gadzooks

• There are 3 NL Central teams between 2.5 and 4 games of the last Wild Card spot; Milwaukee, St Louis, and Cincinnati. Who's most likely to be a seller come the Deadline?

Anthony Franco

• Cards have hit the skids here a little bit, which makes sense since it felt they were playing above their level in May. I still lean towards them as soft sellers and think they should move the rentals
• Definitely wouldn't QO Fedde (that'd be an easy accept) and probably wouldn't do it for Helsley either. Decent chance he'd accept and a $21M+ salary for a very good but not top-tier reliever is rich, especially for a team that pulled back spending over the winter
• As for the broader division picture, I think Milwaukee will try to straddle the line (shop Hoskins while acquiring MLB talent elsewhere), though Civale was the most obvious candidate for that even before he asked out. Cincinnati doesn't have a ton of short-term pieces beyond Nick Martinez, who is good but expensive since he's playing on a QO salary. I think they'll be soft buyers as long as they're within five or six games of a Wild Card spot

Wandering Chief

• Heyman suggests that the Braves are studying the shortstop and outfield markets. I can see a couple of outfield options - I love Durran - but I don't think there's an outfield market to study. What say you?

Sam

• Let's say that you're Alex Anthopoulos and Braves ownership has told you that you must buy at the trade deadline and attempt to compete this year. What steps would you take to improve the Braves' roster?

Anthony Franco

• Outfield has a little more than shortstop. I'd be really surprised if the Braves made a massive push for Duran when they're this far out of it. Taylor Ward might be available, Ryan O'Hearn could play some outfield (though there'll be a lot of completion for him). Maybe someone takes a flier on Chas McCormick when he comes back from an oblique injury
• Braves need bullpen help too. I don't really agree that they should buy unless they really turn things on over the next six weeks, but they're a potential Bednar fit to stabilize the ninth

Bo Knows Deadlines

• Obviously with the Blue Jays now leading the wild card chase in the AL Bichette isn't likely going anywhere but if the unthinkable happens and the Jays drop out of the running between now and the deadline what would a package for a Bo rental look like given the nice bounce back season he's current enjoying?

Anthony Franco

• I think they could pull a 50 FV prospect (a back of the top 100 type) and a mid-level guy for a Bichette rental -- especially given the lack of alternatives at shortstop. They'd need to absolutely tank over the next month to do it though

Matt

• Do you think Taylor Walls will be DFA’d when Kim gets activated? On a related note, how good of a defender do you have to be in order for teams to overlook the fact that you can’t hit? I’m flummoxed that he’s kept his roster spot for this long.

Anthony Franco

• He'd feel redundant with Kim and Caballero. Still has options so it doesn't necessarily need to be a DFA. They could demote Mead instead, I guess. Not like either of them (or Morel for that matter) have done much
• Plus glove at shortstop gets you a decent leash as long as you're not making any money and have options. Teams like that profile a lot less when you don't have any roster flexibility

RAGBRAI

• Are the Brewers gambling a bit by letting Civali go? Or is the depth good enough to withstand an injury loss?

GBS42

• Do you think the Brewers sending Civale to the White Sox was simply a matter of doing their best for the team and player while fulfilling his request, or was there some, "Well fine, enjoy your time with the hapless Southsiders!" Reminds me of the Cardinals spitefully trading Rolen to the Blue Jays, the last place he wanted to go. (It could have been worse for Civale, they could have seen him to the Rockies.)

Anthony Franco

• Eh he asked his way out and I just don't think he's all that good to begin with. I was surprised they tendered him a contract for $8M in all honesty
• Low-90s velocity with declining whiff rates, inconsistent durability history, escalating home run issues. I like him more as a swingman than as a fourth or fifth starter
• As for the trade itself, definitely wouldn't have predicted it but I guess I get it. Vaughn wasn't getting another chance in Chicago. Sox can give Civale six or seven starts and try to get a 40 FV prospect for him at the deadline, which was less likely with Vaughn. I don't see a whole lot in it for the Brewers but it felt like they just wanted to get this over with before it became a distraction and maybe there's a 5-10% chance that a change of scenery gets something out of Vaughn

Rhys Hoskins

• Can I find myself back in Philly? I would boost the offense, let Harper DH a bit if Schwarber plays some LF, and bring good vibes to friends and teammates alike.

Anthony Franco

• Tough for me to see that one with the number of bat-first players they've got already
• I kind of get the vision but you're putting a lot on Schwarber's plate defensively and more or less pulling the plug on Kepler, who hasn't been productive but is a guy they signed for $10M over the winter

Chris

• Can you see Schwarber getting more than 90M this offseason?

Steve Adams

• Good afternoon! We'll get this going at 2pm, but feel free to submit questions ahead of time. Looking forward to it!
• Hello! Sorry to start a couple minutes late. Let's get underway!

Marlins

• Who on the team gets the All Star nod? Agustin Ramirez?

Steve Adams

• I would imagine it's Kyle Stowers. They've both been good overall and cooled off recently but Stowers has been up all year. I guess you could say Ryan Weathers if he makes another six or seven really good starts between now and then, but Stowers feels likeliest to me right now

Beano

• How low can W Adames numbers go this year? A career year repeat was out of the question, but a total bust is surprising - no?

Steve Adams

• Yeah, it's a pretty big surprise. It's also worrying, because the main culprit I'd point to is bat speed. Adames is actually chasing less often and making more contact in the zone. His strikeout and walk rates are similar to last year. He's not suddenly hitting a ton of grounders -- though his GB% is up a slight bit, nothing major.

  He's tied for the eighth-biggest drop in bat speed, as measured by Statcast, among 175 qualified big leaguers. That's not great, obviously. He was at 73.6 mph in 2024 and is down to 71.8 mph in 2025.

  You never know precisely how healthy a player is. Maybe he's working through something that's hampering his shoulder or wrist strength. Maybe he made a tweak in his mechanics moving to a bigger park and it's having an adverse effect.

  It's impossible to say, but you're plenty justified to be concerned with the first two-plus months at this point.

Kegger

• Do you see only rentals moving at deadline or bigger deals happening?

Steve Adams

• There will always be some players with multiple years of team control moved. The Rays are always a team to watch here because of their constantly strong farm and their constant payroll crunches. Brandon Lowe, Yandy Diaz and Drew Rasmussen come to mind. Pete Fairbanks. The Rockies waited too long to trade Ryan McMahon, but they're so bad this year that I wonder if they'll finally listen on guys like him or Kyle Freeland
• Marlins obviously will listen on Alcantara, but they'll want to avoid selling too low. Ryan Weathers and Anthony Bender will get looks. Jesus Sanchez, too.
• Pirates will have David Bednar and Dennis Santana, both controlled through 2026. Bailey Falter is another one there. Nathaniel Lowe in Washington
• Even win-now clubs looking to buy will be forced to part with some young major leaguers; that's the nature when there's a limited inventory of available players for buy-side teams to target and when teams are more reluctant than ever to trade true prospects.

Kevin in Ranger Texas

• Idea of Texas trading Mahle or Corbin or Gray after he comes back, for a consistent hitter to help in the lineup, hopefully the guys we have now can turn it around but…. Adolis is no help, Jung has slowed, Seager has not helped out. Should we trade ? And stay in it.