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Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast

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On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.

The hot stove is starting to warm up, with multiple deals being signed in the recent days and weeks. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the rest of the winter or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Ty France Open To Playing Catcher

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Ty France hit free agency at the start of the offseason when the Reds outrighted him off their 40-man roster. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets that the former Mariner is open to catching opportunities as he fields interest from other teams. Feinsand adds that France has already received at least one guaranteed contract offer, though it’s not clear how many teams (if any) view him as a realistic option for work behind the plate.

France has never played catcher in an MLB or minor league game. He’s not wholly unfamiliar with the position though. As a member of the Padres early in his career, France took catching reps at the team’s alternate training site during the 2020 canceled minor league season. He was reportedly viewed as a potential emergency catcher in both San Diego and Seattle, though neither team ever got into a situation where they were compelled to use him.

At 30 years old with no in-game catching experience, France is probably no more than a third catcher or emergency option. It’d be a huge task for him to acclimate to the receiving and game-calling nuances for even semi-regular work at the position. Still, there’s little harm for France in expressing a willingness to entertain catching if a team offered him the opportunity.

France’s lack of defensive value is the biggest knock against him. While he has a bit of experience at both second and third base, he doesn’t have the quickness to play either position regularly. France played almost exclusively first base in 2024. He received poor defensive marks there as well. Defensive Runs Saved graded him seven runs below average, while Statcast estimated he was nine runs below par.

For a couple years, France offset that minimal defensive profile with a big performance at the plate. He combined for a robust .284/.354/.441 slash between the 2020 deadline deal that sent him to Seattle and the end of the ’22 season. His production dipped to a .250/.337/.366 line in 2023. The decline continued this year, as France got out to a .223/.312/.350 start before the Mariners designated him for assignment. A move to hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park didn’t spark his bat. France hit .251/.292/.391 in 52 games for the Reds.

FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each graded France’s 2024 performance below replacement level. That made it an obvious call for Cincinnati to decline to tender him an arbitration contract that likely would’ve topped $8MM. It wasn’t out of the question that France would be limited to minor league offers, but Feinsand’s report indicates there’s at least one team willing to give him an Opening Day job. That’d very likely be on a low base salary, potentially with incentives based on his games or plate appearances.

MLBTR TikTok Focus Group

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This website is 19 years old.  I am the owner of the site, and I’m 42 years old.  I have two teenage children and another who is 12, and they have helped me realize that MLB Trade Rumors might benefit from having a presence on TikTok.

I’ve played around with TikTok recently and understand the basic idea, but it’s not an app I would use naturally.  So before launching an MLB Trade Rumors account, I’d like to talk to people who use TikTok regularly.

We are looking for 12 people for a focus group who meet these criteria:

  • Available to join a Zoom call on Wednesday December 4th at 7pm central time
  • Use TikTok regularly
  • Use this website/app regularly
  • Would like to help us out by answering my questions for an hour.  Generally I am trying to figure out what an entertaining and/or informative MLBTR TikTok account would look like and what you’d like to see.

If you’d like to participate, please enter your email address into this Google Form.  I will select roughly a dozen people at random from that list to participate in a one-hour TikTok/MLB Trade Rumors discussion over Zoom on Wednesday December 4th at 7pm central time.

I assume more than 12 people will add their email, but I think a larger group would be hard to manage for an open discussion.  All who enter their email will be added to a list where I may send emails about future TikTok focus groups or surveys (your email will not be used for any other purpose).

A few quick notes on this topic:

  • I’m not sure we’ll be launching an MLB Trade Rumors TikTok, but I’m leaning toward it.
  • The possibility of TikTok being shut down in the U.S. likely won’t affect my decision, because we’d be cross-posting to YouTube Shorts.
  • This account would not be run by a current member of the MLBTR writing staff.  We would hold a separate hiring process for this, but I’m not ready to do that yet.

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast

By | at

On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.

The hot stove is starting to warm up, with a multi-year free agent signing and a notable trade in recent days. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the rest of the winter or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast

By | at

On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.

The offseason is here, though the stove isn’t exactly hot yet. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the winter or anything else baseball related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Chris Sale, Garrett Crochet Named Comeback Players Of The Year

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Major League Baseball conducted its 2024 awards show on Thursday evening. MLB revealed a host of honors, most notably Comeback Player of the Year and the Hank Aaron Award winners. The top honors from the Baseball Writers Association of America — the MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year awards — will wait until next week.

Braves lefty Chris Sale and White Sox southpaw Garrett Crochet were named Comeback Players of the Year. Sale rebounded from a middling final season in Boston in which he was limited to a 4.30 ERA in 20 starts. He starred for Atlanta, turning in an MLB-best 2.38 ERA across 177 2/3 innings. He’s favored to win his first Cy Young next week.

Crochet, who was limited to 12 2/3 innings of relief by elbow and shoulder problems in 2023, was one of the game’s biggest breakout performers. The former first-rounder moved into Chicago’s rotation and turned in a 3.58 ERA over 32 starts. While the Sox eased his workload late in the season, he managed 209 strikeouts across 146 innings. Crochet is the top pitcher known to be available on the offseason trade market.

Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were named the respective winners of the AL and NL Hank Aaron award, given to each league’s best offensive player. Ohtani also picked up the Edgar Martinez award as MLB’s best designated hitter. Guardians star Emmanuel Clase and Cardinals fireballer Ryan Helsley won the respective Reliever of the Year honors in each league. Much like Crochet, Helsley is one of the winter’s top trade candidates.

MLB also announced its 1st and 2nd teams. Those are not league specific and are designed to honor the best player at each position. Those are as follows:

1st Team

2nd Team

MLB Announces Silver Slugger Winners

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MLB and Louisville Slugger announced the 2024 Silver Slugger award winners. MLB had announced the list of finalists last week. The results are as follows:

American League

National League

BBWAA Announces Awards Finalists

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The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the finalists for the 2024 awards. Those are top three vote getters (listed in alphabetical order) for the four biggest awards: MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year. Winners will be revealed next week, as will each voter’s individual ballot.

MVP

American League

National League

Cy Young

American League

National League

Rookie of the Year

American League

National League

Manager of the Year

American League

  • A.J. Hinch (Tigers)
  • Matt Quatraro (Royals)
  • Stephen Vogt (Guardians)

National League

  • Carlos Mendoza (Mets)
  • Pat Murphy (Brewers)
  • Mike Shildt (Padres)

—————————————————–

There’s some intrigue with the Cy Young finalists in particular. Clase landing in the top three over a starter like Corbin Burnes or Cole Ragans is somewhat surprising. Cleveland’s closer had an all-time great showing — awards are voted on before his shaky postseason performance — but it’s rare for a closer to get into this territory. Clase becomes the first reliever since Francisco Rodríguez in 2008 to earn a top three finish.

In the National League, the biggest development is Skenes landing in the top three for Cy Young. The Pittsburgh righty had a sensational rookie season, posting a 1.96 ERA while striking out nearly a third of batters faced. He only started 23 games and logged 133 innings after being called up in May, however, so it wasn’t clear if his workload was sufficient to get into finalist territory. Skenes is the first rookie to secure a top three Cy Young finish since José Fernández in 2013.

The remainder of the balloting came without a ton of suspense. Ohtani and Judge are expected to win the MVP, while Skubal and Sale should secure the first Cy Young wins of their respective careers. Ohtani would become the 13th player in history to win MVP three times and would join Frank Robinson as the only players to win the award in each league. It’d be Judge’s second such win.

Things are more open with the awards for the top rookies and managers. There wasn’t a dominant rookie showing in the American League. All three NL finalists would have been prohibitive favorites to win the award if they played in the AL. (Even Shota Imanaga and Masyn Winn, who were squeezed out of a loaded NL field, might’ve won in the American League.) Manager of the Year is always one of the most difficult to predict given the difficulty in quantifying a manager’s impact when a team outperforms general expectations.

The awards will be announced as follows:

  • Nov. 18: Rookie of the Year
  • Nov. 19: Manager of the Year
  • Nov. 20: Cy Young
  • Nov. 21: MVP

Enter The MLBTR Free Agent Prediction Contest

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The MLB Trade Rumors Free Agent Prediction Contest is now open!  Click here to enter your picks for the destinations for our top 50 free agents.  The deadline for entry is TONIGHT at 11pm central time.  You can edit your picks until then.  Further contest info:

  • After the window to make picks has closed, we’ll post a public leaderboard page so you can see who’s winning the contest as players sign with teams.  We’re going to use entrants’ full names on it.  So, if that concerns you, please do not enter the contest.  Entries with inappropriate names will be deleted.
  • We are also collecting email addresses, which I will use to notify winners.
  • If a player signs between now and the close of the contest, that player will be excluded from the contest.
  • After you submit your picks, you’ll receive an email from Google Forms.  In that email, you’ll see a button that allows you to edit your picks.
  • We will announce the winners on MLBTR once all 50 free agents have signed.  We will award $500 to first place, $300 to second place, and $100 to third place.  We will also be giving  one-year memberships to Trade Rumors Front Office for everyone who finishes in the top 15.  Winners must respond to an email within one week.
  • The winners of this contest will be declared on Opening Day 2025, and any unsigned players will be excluded from the competition.
  • Ties in the correct number of picks will be broken by summing up the rankings of the free agents of the correct picks and taking the lower total.  For example: Tim and Steve each get two picks correct.  Tim gets Juan Soto (#1 ranking) and Clay Holmes (#21 ranking) for a total of 22 points.  Steve gets Max Fried (#6) and Tanner Scott (#14) for a total of 20 points.  Steve’s total is lower and he’s ahead of Tim for tiebreaker purposes.

If you have any further questions, ask us in the comment section of this post!  Otherwise, make your picks now!

Alex Bregman Has Bone Chip Removed From Elbow

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Agent Scott Boras spoke to the media at the general managers meetings in San Antonio today. He discussed the situations with many of his clients, noting that infielder Alex Bregman underwent a procedure to remove a bone chip from his right elbow. Per Boras, Bregman will resume swinging in a few weeks and should be fine for spring training. Chandler Rome of The Athletic was among those to relay the news on X.

The news doesn’t come out of nowhere, as Bregman dealt with some elbow soreness in August. He didn’t go on the injured list but did miss about a week and then served as the designated hitter for a few games once he returned to the lineup. He was back at third base at the end of August and through September but clearly the issue lingered enough that it needed offseason attention.

Assuming the timeline provided by Boras is accurate, it shouldn’t be a big deal for Bregman, as he will seemingly have plenty of opportunity to heal up. But it will nonetheless be something for clubs to monitor before making a sizable investment in Bregman.

He recently ranked third on MLBTR’s annual list of the Top 50 Free Agents with a prediction that he could secure a guarantee of $182MM over a seven-year deal. As clubs like the Astros, Mariners, Blue Jays, Mets, Yankees, Tigers and others consider forking over that kind of cash, any kind of health situation will be something to watch closely. The free agent market doesn’t really have another viable everyday third baseman but the trade market could feature guys like Nolan Arenado or Eugenio Suárez.

Durability has generally been a strong suit in Bregman’s career. He missed a small amount of time in 2020 due to a right hamstring discomfort then in 2021 due to a left quad strain, but he appeared in at least 155 games from 2017 to 2019, then again in 2022 and 2023 before getting into 145 this past season. He’s hit .272/.366/.483 in his career with above-average defense at third base, allowing him to produce 39.7 wins above replacement so far, in the eyes of FanGraphs.

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