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Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLB Trade Rumors 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 2024 season is moving into the postseason, with the offseason just over the horizon. 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.

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLB Trade Rumors 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 2024 season is coming into its final days, with plenty left to be decided. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the offseason 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 MLB Trade Rumors 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 2024 season is coming into its final days, with plenty left to be decided. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the offseason 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 MLB Trade Rumors 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 2024 season is coming into its final few weeks, with plenty left to be decided. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the offseason 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 MLB Trade Rumors 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 2024 season is coming into its final few weeks, with plenty left to be decided. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the offseason 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 MLB Trade Rumors 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 2024 season is coming into its final few weeks, with plenty left to be decided. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the offseason 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 MLB Trade Rumors 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 2024 season is coming into its final few weeks, with plenty left to be decided. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the offseason 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 MLB Trade Rumors 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.

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve been able to take questions, as we were in the thick of the trade deadline for a while. Now that we are firmly in the post-deadline part of the calendar, it’s time to open things up again. If you have a question about something that happened at the deadline, a look ahead to the offseason 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.

Rich Hill To Throw For Interested Clubs On Friday

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Free agent left-hander Rich Hill is going to be throwing for interested clubs on Friday, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. It’s not known which clubs will attend the throwing session but Hill has already reportedly received interest from the Yankees and Dodgers.

Hill is attempting a fairly unique mercenary mission this year, something that he’s had in mind for a while. Back in August of 2022, he told Rob Bradford of WEEI that he wanted to skip the first half of 2023 but then participate in the second half. The idea would allow him to both spend more time with his family, choose a team in playoff contention and also theoretically give him more firepower as he wouldn’t need to pace himself for the grind of a full season.

Though the idea was in his head over a year ago, he didn’t follow through on it in 2023. He signed with the Pirates on a one-year, $8MM deal, making 22 starts with a 4.76 earned run average. He got flipped to the Padres at the deadline but then both he and the club faltered. He got bumped to the bullpen and was even put on waivers at one point but went unclaimed. He ultimately recorded an 8.23 ERA in his ten outings with the Friars.

He has been more committed to the plan this year. In October of last year, he mentioned it to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune and hasn’t diverted since. In May of this year, he told Ian Browne of MLB.com that he had turned down offers from three clubs in the offseason but was still throwing to keep his midseason plan afloat. Last month, Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reported that Hill was throwing from a mound and had interest from the Yankees and Dodgers.

It’s an intriguing experiment and the timing is also perhaps not a coincidence. With the trade deadline now in the rear-view mirror, teams are fairly hamstrung in how they can go about upgrading their rosters. There are still a few ways, as MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently laid out, but most of them involve making moves around the margins.

The recent trade deadline was often characterized by observers as having a lack of clear sellers, which seemingly led to high asking prices on the few players that were available. For clubs that balked at those prices, they may be intrigued by the opportunity to acquire Hill for nothing more than cash.

A source tells Murray that Hill isn’t even doing this for the money but more a desire to win. Hill has already banked over $75MM in earnings, per his Baseball Reference page, but doesn’t have a ring. He pitched in the postseason for the 2007 Cubs and then the Dodgers from 2016 to 2019, but he was with the Twins in 2020 when the Dodgers won the World Series.

Hill could potentially be an impact addition if the self-shortened season allows him to get back to his old self. He’s already had one of the more unique trajectories, as he debuted way back in 2005 and had one of his best seasons in 2007, tossing 195 innings for the Cubs with a 3.92 ERA.

But his results tapered off from there and he struggled to get a lengthy opportunity for almost a decade. From 2008 to 2015, he didn’t hit 60 innings pitched in any of those major league seasons due to a combination of injuries and underperformance. He came roaring back with the Dodgers in 2016, his age-36 season, and kicked off a remarkable second act. From that year and through 2020, he had a 3.01 ERA, 28.3% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate in 476 innings.

In 2021, his age-41 season, his ERA climbed to 3.86. Then it was 4.27 in 2022 and 5.41 between the Pirates and Padres last year. Perhaps Hill’s ERA would have continued climbing if he tried to pitch another full season but he’s hoping that acting as a late-season hired gun will help him deliver better results with less volume.

How that plays out will be an interesting situation to monitor. There are only about seven weeks remaining in the regular season schedule at this point. Though Hill is throwing on his own, he will probably require a few weeks of ramp-up once he signs, a sort of belated Spring Training. In a best-case scenario, he can bolster a club’s rotation down the stretch and then factor into their postseason rotation as one of the freshest October arms around, despite now being 44 years old. Per Murray, Friday’s throwing session takes place at 10am Eastern time at Champion Physical Therapy and Performance in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Tim Dierkes’ MLB Mailbag: Waivers, Gleyber, Goldschmidt

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This week's mailbag gets into possible waiver contract dumping, Gleyber Torres' free agency, teams' interest in Trevor Rogers, the Cardinals re-signing Paul Goldschmidt, and much more.

Ben asks:

What teams might we expect to see make some last minute, financially-motivated maneuvers to avoid the consequences of the luxury tax? Do you anticipate any notable players being placed on waivers, such as when Lucas Giolito and Matt Moore were made available last August? Which teams would be in prime position to take advantage of this system?

Joseph asks:

You guys recently did a piece on how players could move post-deadline. Could you envision a scenario where a taxpayer like the Giants fall out of the wild-card race then put a bunch of expensive pending free agents (like Snell or Conforto) on waivers to dump salary in an attempt to duck under the CBT? I remember that happening forever ago with the Angels and Vernon Wells, but never with a star player playing really well like Snell. How crazy would that be for an impact player to get claimed on waivers and influence the playoff race?

Since competitive balance tax penalties are compounding up to the third consecutive time a team goes over, there's benefit to "resetting" and getting under the base tax rate so you can become a first-time payor in 2025.  Doing so requires dipping under $237MM this year.  Failing that, it's still beneficial to avoid going over the second surcharge threshold of $277MM, which triggers your highest available draft pick moving back ten spots.

Additionally, CBT payor status affects the mechanics of losing or signing a qualified free agent.

The Rangers have a case.  Cot's Baseball Contracts has their projected CBT payroll at about $251MM, and they paid the luxury tax last year.  If the Rangers were to fall further out, they could put impending free agents such as Max Scherzer, Andrew Heaney, David Robertson, Jose Leclerc, Kirby Yates, Andrew Chafin, and Carson Kelly on waivers.  Though such a scheme could benefit the Rangers, it's possible it could rankle these veteran players, particularly if it serves as an end-run around Scherzer's no-trade rights.  It may be a moot point, as he's on the IL at present, but this could become an option if Scherzer is healthy and actually wants to finish the season with a contender.  The Rangers are five games out in the AL West at the moment.

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