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Astros, Peter Lambert Agree To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | November 3, 2025 at 9:34pm CDT

The Astros are in agreement with right-hander Peter Lambert on a minor league contract, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The 28-year-old returns stateside after a season in Japan with the Yakult Swallows.

Lambert made 21 starts in his only year in Nippon Professional Baseball. He allowed a 4.26 earned run average across 116 1/3 innings. That’s not an especially impressive number in a pitcher-friendly league. Lambert had the fifth-highest ERA among the 47 NPB pitchers to toss at least 100 frames. He fanned 20.5% of opponents — a solid mark in a league where hitters are more focused on putting the ball in play than they are in MLB — but issued walks at a 10.2% clip. That’s the highest rate among the aforementioned group of 47 pitchers.

A former second-round pick of the Rockies, Lambert pitched parts of four seasons with Colorado. He started 19 games as a rookie back in 2019 and worked in a swing role after that. Lambert’s most recent big league action came in 2024, when he allowed 5.72 earned runs per nine over 61 1/3 innings. He has a 6.28 ERA with a 16.4% strikeout rate over his big league career.

The Astros are likely to stockpile upper minors rotation depth. They’ll almost certainly non-tender Luis Garcia (who is again out for the season after another Tommy John procedure) and will have each of Hayden Wesneski, Ronel Blanco and Brandon Walter on the injured list after they underwent elbow surgeries. They’re expected to let Framber Valdez walk and Lance McCullers Jr. shouldn’t be locked into a rotation spot. Houston already took a $1.35MM flier on former top prospect Nate Pearson to allow him to compete for a starting role. Lambert seems likelier to open the season at Triple-A Sugar Land.

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Houston Astros Transactions Peter Lambert

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Reds Bench Coach Brad Mills Retires

By Anthony Franco | November 3, 2025 at 8:54pm CDT

The Reds announced a handful of changes to Terry Francona’s staff. Most notably, bench coach Brad Mills has retired. Mills was one of two bench coaches this year, so the Reds could stick with Freddie Benavides (who also has the title of field coordinator) without making an outside hire.

Cincinnati has made three additions to the staff. Mike Napoli gets the title of assistant bench coach after spending this past season in a nebulous “staff assistant” role. The Reds have also promoted Willie Harris to third base coach and hired Bill Haselman as their catching coach.

Mills, 68, has enjoyed a longtime relationship with Francona. He worked on Francona’s staffs in Philadelphia, Boston and Cleveland going back to the 1990s. He spent most of that time as the bench coach. Mills got a two-plus year managerial run of his own with the Astros between 2010-12, though a rebuilding Houston team won only 38.4% of their games over his tenure. He had not been on an MLB staff for a few seasons before returning last offseason when Francona came out of retirement to take over in Cincinnati.

Harris spent this past season managing Cincinnati’s Low-A affiliate in Daytona. He’s back on a major league staff in the same position he held with the Cubs between 2020-24. Cincinnati’s previous third base coach, JR House, left to take the same position with the Diamondbacks last month. Haselman is a former MLB catcher whose coaching career began with Francona’s Red Sox in the mid-2000s. He has ample minor league managerial experience and was most recently on a big league staff with the Angels in 2023.

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Cincinnati Reds Bill Haselman Brad Mills Freddie Benavides Mike Napoli Willie Harris

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Rockies Have Spoken With Adam Ottavino About Top Front Office Job

By Anthony Franco | November 3, 2025 at 2:47pm CDT

Rockies owner Dick Monfort has spoken with longtime big league reliever Adam Ottavino about the team’s top front office vacancy, reports Tim Healey of The Boston Globe. (That’ll presumably be a general manager but the title could change based on whomever they hire.) Meanwhile, Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic reports that Guardians’ assistant general manager Matt Forman and Diamondbacks’ AGM Amiel Sawdaye — previously reported to be finalists for the position — are now out of the running.

It’s unclear how seriously the Rockies are considering Ottavino as a candidate to run baseball operations. The 39-year-old not only has no front office experience of any kind, he’s still technically an active player. Ottavino pitched in the majors with the Yankees as recently as this past April. He made three appearances before electing free agency. He spent the rest of the season as a free agent but has not officially announced his retirement.

Ottavino has long been expected to find a front office or coaching role once he concluded his playing career. He was well-versed in using analytics as a pitching development tool. He’s also media savvy and has frequently appeared as a guest analyst on the MLB Network over the offseason. Still, it’d be shocking if a team hired him as their top decision-maker before he gets any kind of post-playing experience.

The Rockies have been one of the sport’s most insular organizations with front office and coaching hirings. They’ve already announced that they would not promote from within this time around. Ottavino would be an outside-the-box hire, but he also has close ties to the franchise and to Monfort. He has spent almost half of his MLB career in Denver. He posted a 3.41 earned run average over 361 appearances with the Rockies between 2012-18.

Ottavino is personally familiar with the challenges of pitching (and succeeding) at Coors Field. He discussed exactly that in an MLB Network appearance in May. It makes sense that the Rockies would want him in a front office role of some kind, yet a GM hire would obviously be a massive amount of responsibility.

There doesn’t appear to be a clear timetable for the Rockies to install anyone at the top of baseball operations. Forman and Sawdaye were the only two known remaining candidates coming into today. Ghiroli writes that they were indeed the only two finalists as of last week. It seems they’re now branching back out.

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Colorado Rockies Adam Ottavino Amiel Sawdaye Matt Forman

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Ha-Seong Kim Opts Out Of Braves Deal

By Anthony Franco | November 3, 2025 at 1:43pm CDT

Middle infielder Ha-Seong Kim is opting out of his deal with the Braves, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. He passes on a $16MM salary to return to the open market.

It’s a disappointing but not entirely unexpected development for Atlanta. The Braves claimed Kim off waivers from the Rays at the beginning of September. They weren’t competing but hoped to lock in their starting shortstop for the ’26 season. They instead wound up taking on the remaining $2MM of Kim’s 2025 salary for the final month of a lost season.

Maybe that’ll still turn out to be a worthwhile decision. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said in September he hoped that getting Kim acclimated with the Atlanta organization and clubhouse would give them a leg up even if the infielder decided to head back to free agency. They’ll certainly make an effort to bring him back, but Nick Allen is atop the depth chart at shortstop for the time being.

For the second straight winter, Kim hits free agency with significant questions. He had an outside shot at a nine-figure deal over the 2024-25 offseason until he suffered a labrum tear in his right shoulder in August. Kim required season-ending surgery, leading the Padres to decline to issue him a qualifying offer. He signed a two-year deal with the Rays that guaranteed $29MM and allowed him to retest the market after one year.

Kim’s rehab from the shoulder procedure carried into July. He’d wind up going back on the injured list twice more as he battled lower back issues. Those stints were brief, but his time in Tampa Bay consisted of 24 games with a .214/.290/.321 batting line. It’s certainly not what the Rays wanted for what amounted to nearly $11MM on their part. They were happy to shed the contract in the final month, getting them off the hook for the ’26 option.

The brief stint in Atlanta was a little more encouraging. Kim played 24 games with the Braves. He hit three homers with a .253/.316/.368 slash in 98 trips to the plate. That included a 10-game hit streak in the middle of September, though he recorded only two hits in 25 plate appearances in the final week of the season. He concluded with a .234/.304/.345 line across 191 trips to the plate.

Kim’s camp nevertheless feels he’ll be able to find a multi-year contract that is preferable to the $16MM option. They’ll be aided by the lack of middle infield alternatives on the open market. Assuming Trevor Story doesn’t opt out of the two years and $55MM remaining on his contract with Boston, Kim would be the second-best free agent shortstop after Bo Bichette.

He’ll hit the market without any draft compensation, as the Braves are not permitted to make a qualifying offer because he changed teams midseason. Kim could try to max out on a three-year deal or look for another two-year pact with an opt-out similar to the one he got from Tampa Bay. His old team in San Diego could look for a shortstop to push Xander Bogaerts back to second base. The Giants, Tigers, Royals, Pirates and Brewers are other clubs that look for help at one or both middle infield positions.

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Atlanta Braves Newsstand Transactions Ha-Seong Kim

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Pete Alonso Opts Out Of Mets Contract

By Anthony Franco | November 3, 2025 at 1:11pm CDT

Pete Alonso has officially opted out of his contract with the Mets, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He declines a $24MM player option and heads back to free agency.

Alonso announced that he’d be doing this as soon as the season ended. There was never much intrigue anyhow. Last offseason’s two-year pillow deal was always designed to get him back to the market this winter. He collected $30MM for the first season — a $10MM signing bonus and $20MM salary — and now takes another shot at finding the long-term deal that didn’t materialize last winter.

The five-time All-Star should be better positioned this time around. He’s coming off a .272/.347/.524 showing with 38 home runs and an NL-leading 41 doubles across 709 plate appearances. Alonso’s 2024 had been a relative down season by his standards, as he’d hit .240/.329/.459 with 34 round-trippers. Last winter also saw his market dragged down by the qualifying offer. That’s not on the table this time. The collective bargaining agreement prevents a player from receiving more than one QO in his career.

Alonso will slot behind Kyle Schwarber and probably NPB superstar Munetaka Murakami as the best power bats in the class. He’s atop the list of free agent first basemen, which also includes Josh Naylor, Ryan O’Hearn, Luis Arraez, Josh Bell, Paul Goldschmidt and Rhys Hoskins. There’ll be teams that prefer Murakami as a first baseman rather than at third base, which has been his primary home with the Yakult Swallows in Japan. Another NBP corner infielder, Kazuma Okamoto, is also coming over via the posting system.

Alonso’s opt-out is one of three resolved option decisions for the Mets so far. Edwin Díaz is also opting out, while A.J. Minter exercised his $11MM player option as he works back from lat surgery. They’re still awaiting official word from Frankie Montas, but he’s obviously going to lock in his $17MM player option after undergoing elbow surgery in August. The Mets could simply release Montas at that point to open a roster spot, but there’s no escaping the money. The team still has to decide on options for Brooks Raley ($4.75MM or a $350K buyout) and Drew Smith ($2MM).

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New York Mets Newsstand Transactions Pete Alonso

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The 2025-26 Offseason Begins

By Anthony Franco | November 2, 2025 at 7:02am CDT

A thrilling World Series came to an end in Game 7 last night. The Dodgers won in an extra-inning affair after Miguel Rojas hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning, while World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto came out of the bullpen to finish off the Blue Jays despite starting Game 6.

The offseason is officially underway. Last year, the Braves and Angels lined up on the Jorge Soler deal within the first few hours of the reopened trade window. Another Day 1 trade of that significance might be too much to ask, but the moves will be flooding in before long. There’ll be a host of waiver claims as clubs clear space from their 40-man rosters, largely in tandem with the necessary reinstatement of injured players from the injured list. Clubs and players have five days to decide whether to exercise any contractual options.

Free agency technically opens today, but there’s a five-day window for exclusive negotiation between teams and their own free agents. We’re not getting a Kyle Tucker signing anytime soon, but we could see a smaller extension or two as teams try to keep players from testing the open market. The Royals and Michael Wacha worked out a three-year, $51MM contract within this five-day period last winter.

MLBTR’s winter coverage will kick off later today with our preview of the Top 40 Trade Candidates. We’ve already released projected arbitration salaries from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz and taken a position-by-position look at the upcoming free agent class while previewing the qualifying offer decisions for pitchers and position players. MLBTR’s Offseason Outlook series for Front Office subscribers is also nearly complete. We’ll publish the entries for the two World Series teams within the next few days, while we’re awaiting the Rockies’ GM hire before finalizing the Colorado version.

Our Top 50 Free Agents post will be published on Thursday evening after the finalization of option and QO calls.

NOVEMBER 2: Free agency begins for eligible players, but they aren’t permitted to sign with other teams for at least five days. Free agents no longer count against their previous teams’ 40-man rosters. Trades of players who were on the 40-man roster reopen for the first time since last summer’s deadline.

NOVEMBER 2: Gold Glove winners announced.

NOVEMBER 6: Free agents are eligible to sign with any team. All players or teams with contractual options/opt-out clauses must make their decisions by this evening. Teams have until 4:00 pm Central to decide whether to issue qualifying offers to eligible free agents.

NOVEMBER 6-7: Silver Slugger winners announced. The National League winners will be revealed on the 6th, while the American League honorees will be awarded on the 7th.

NOVEMBER 10-13: General managers meetings in Las Vegas, Nevada. The GM Meetings typically lay the groundwork for the offseason rather than spurring much roster movement in themselves. They’re nevertheless significant as an opportunity for media to speak with high-level executives, which can shed some light on teams’ goals for the winter.

NOVEMBER 10: Rookie of the Year award winners announced.

NOVEMBER 11: Manager of the Year award winners announced.

NOVEMBER 12: Cy Young award winners announced.

NOVEMBER 13: MVP award winners announced.

NOVEMBER 13: Reliever of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and Hank Aaron award winners announced. All-MLB teams revealed.

NOVEMBER 18: Players have until 3:00 pm Central to decide whether to accept the qualifying offer. If they accept, they’ll return to their previous team on a one-year, $22.025MM contract. Players who accept a QO, like all major league free agent signees, cannot be traded without their consent until June 15. Those who decline the QO are tied to draft compensation. MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk recently covered what each team would receive for losing a qualified free agent and the penalties that teams would pay to sign a player who declined a QO.

NOVEMBER 18: Rule 5 protection deadline. Teams have until this date to add players who would otherwise be eligible for the Rule 5 draft to their 40-man roster to keep them out of the draft.

NOVEMBER 18-20: Quarterly owners meetings in New York. Commissioner Rob Manfred typically speaks with reporters at this time.

NOVEMBER 21: Non-tender deadline at 7:00pm Central. Teams must decide whether to offer contracts to the arbitration-eligible and pre-arbitration players on their 40-man roster. They do not need to agree to salaries by this date, but there’ll be a flurry of salary agreements as players who might otherwise be non-tender candidates often lock in deals at slightly lesser than projected salaries to avoid being cut loose. Players who are non-tendered immediately become free agents without going through waivers.

DECEMBER 7-10: Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida. The Winter Meetings are the offseason’s busiest few days and annually feature ample free agent and trade activity.

DECEMBER 7: Hall of Fame Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee announcement. Formerly known as the Veterans Committee, the 16-person panel votes on eight candidates who were not previously inducted into Cooperstown by the Baseball Writers Association of America. The eight candidates under consideration are usually announced in early November; those who receive at least 12 votes on December 7 are elected to the Hall of Fame. This year’s committee will consider only players whose greatest contributions came in the 1980s or later.

DECEMBER 9: Amateur draft lottery. The White Sox have the best chance of securing the first overall pick at 27.8% (h/t to Baseball America). The Rockies, Nationals and Angels are not allowed to pick higher than 10th. The CBA prohibits teams from having lottery picks in three straight years, which rules out Colorado. Clubs that do not receive revenue sharing cannot pick in the lottery in consecutive seasons, ruling out Washington and Los Angeles.

DECEMBER 10: The Rule 5 draft will conclude the Winter Meetings. Players selected must stay on their new teams’ active rosters for the entire ’26 season or be offered back to their original organization.

DECEMBER 15: Closing of the 2025 signing period for international amateurs.

JANUARY 8: Teams and arbitration-eligible players exchange salary filing figures. They’re free to continue negotiating beyond this date, though virtually every team treats this as an unofficial deadline to avoid an arbitration hearing unless they sign a multi-year contract.

JANUARY 15: Opening of the 2026 signing period for international amateurs. The majority of the international signings for the year will be announced on this date, as virtually all the top prospects have reached handshake agreements by this point.

JANUARY 21: Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame announcement at 5:00 pm Central.

EARLY FEBRUARY TBA: Arbitration hearings. Arbitrators must choose either the team’s or player’s filing figure, not a midpoint.

FEBRUARY 11: Voluntary report date to Spring Training for pitchers and catchers.

FEBRUARY 15: Voluntary report date to Spring Training for other players.

FEBRUARY 20: Mandatory report date. Spring Training play begins.

MARCH 5-17: 2026 World Baseball Classic.

MARCH 25: Yankees @ Giants standalone game on Opening Night.

MARCH 26: Opening Day for the other 28 teams.

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Lucas Gilbreath, Aaron Schunk Elect Free Agency

By Anthony Franco | October 31, 2025 at 10:01pm CDT

The Rockies outrighted infielder Aaron Schunk and lefty reliever Lucas Gilbreath off their 40-man roster, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. Both players had been outrighted before in their careers and exercised their right to elect free agency.

There’ll be plenty of waiver movement as soon as the World Series ends. Teams need to activate everyone from the injured list and get their roster counts down to 40. The Rockies were already positioned to do so with Germán Márquez, Thairo Estrada, Kyle Farmer and Orlando Arcia hitting free agency. They’ll only need to reinstate Kris Bryant and Jeff Criswell from the injured list.

Colorado had also tried to sneak reliever Dugan Darnell through waivers this afternoon, but the Pirates intervened. Dropping Schunk and Gilbreath gets them down to 37 players. There could certainly be a few more cuts once they finalize a GM hire. Colorado has top priority on the waiver wire, which they should leverage to churn the back half of the roster next week.

Schunk and Gilbreath will each look for the second teams of their careers. Colorado drafted Schunk in the second round in 2019. The Georgia product has had brief MLB stints over the past two seasons. He has fanned 41 times in 131 trips to the plate, batting .222/.246/.302 over 55 games. The righty hitter owns a .291/.348/.468 line over parts of three seasons at Triple-A Albuquerque.

While that’s a solid line on the surface, it’s below average after accounting for the extremely hitter-friendly environment. The 28-year-old Schunk is a good defensive third baseman with a plus arm but hasn’t found much consistency at the plate. He was a two-way player with a mid-90s fastball at Georgia but hasn’t pitched in pro ball. Speculatively speaking, it’s possible another team would be intrigued to see if he’s willing to try his hand on the mound again.

Gilbreath, 30 in March, was a seventh-round selection back in 2017. He had a couple productive seasons as a middle reliever/setup man between 2021-22. He underwent Tommy John surgery in Spring Training ’23 and has barely been a factor since returning from the operation. Gilbreath made three MLB appearances late last year. He only pitched once in the big leagues this past season, striking out two while allowing an Alexander Canario home run in a mop-up inning in Pittsburgh on August 22.

Colorado optioned Gilbreath back to Albuquerque at the end of that game. He gave up a 7.59 earned run average with poor strikeout and walk numbers over 42 2/3 innings in the minors. Before the surgery, Gilbreath had a 93-94 MPH fastball and an 81-82 MPH slider that served as an excellent secondary pitch. The fastball dropped to 92 in 2024 and backed way up this year, as he was in the 89-90 MPH range. The breaking ball has also lost nearly three ticks relative to the pre-injury level.

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Colorado Rockies Transactions Aaron Schunk Lucas Gilbreath

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Robinson Chirinos Will Not Return As Orioles Bench Coach

By Anthony Franco | October 31, 2025 at 7:43pm CDT

The Orioles will not retain bench coach Robinson Chirinos for the 2026 season, reports Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner. Kostka writes that Chirinos technically remains under contract but is pursuing opportunities elsewhere.

That’s common practice when teams make managerial changes. Chirinos was hired just last offseason to replace Fredi González as Brandon Hyde’s top lieutenant. That lasted all of six weeks into the regular season. Baltimore fired Hyde after starting the season with a 15-28 record. While many teams promote their bench coach to interim manager after a midseason firing, the O’s opted for third base coach Tony Mansolino in that role.

This was Chirinos’ first season on an MLB staff, so it’s not surprising that the Orioles opted for a fifth-year coach in Mansolino for the rest of the year. They tabbed Guardians associate manager Craig Albernaz as their permanent skipper earlier this week. An external managerial hire usually results in an overhaul of the coaching staff. The O’s already moved on from assistant hitting coaches Sherman Johnson and Tommy Joseph. There hasn’t been official word on the statuses of any others.

The 41-year-old Chirinos should be able to find a coaching position with another club. The former catcher was a respected clubhouse leader over a playing career that spanned parts of 11 seasons. Chirinos played for six teams, including the Orioles, and spent the majority of his career with the Rangers.

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Bo Bichette Doesn’t Expect To Require Offseason Knee Surgery

By Anthony Franco | October 31, 2025 at 7:06pm CDT

Bo Bichette has played through a sprained PCL in his left knee during the World Series. He’s clearly physically limited but has picked up five hits (all singles) with three RBI in 18 trips to the plate.

Of course, Bichette’s focus for the next day or two will be fully on the World Series. He did address the injury before tonight’s Game 6, telling Ben-Nicholson Smith of Sportsnet that he does not expect he’ll need to undergo offseason surgery. Bichette suffered the injury in a collision at home plate with Yankees catcher Austin Wells on September 6. He was out of action for almost seven weeks before making his return for the Fall Classic.

Bichette would clearly still be on the injured list if this were the regular season. However, he has gotten to a point where he can hit and make routine defensive plays. The Jays moved him to second base while keeping Andrés Giménez at shortstop to slightly reduce his defensive workload. They used him as a designated hitter in Game 5 after George Springer tweaked his side. However, Springer has improbably returned for tonight’s game and is back at DH. Bichette heads out to the keystone again.

The 27-year-old infielder (28 in March) is days away from becoming a free agent for the first time in his career. He’s widely viewed as the second-best player in the class behind Kyle Tucker. The knee injury might add to the already present questions about how long he can be expected to stick at shortstop. There’ll be teams that prefer Bichette as a second baseman, but he’s an annual threat to lead the league in hits and is coming off a .311/.357/.483 batting line in the regular season.

Bichette spoke with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic about his decision to play through the injury earlier this week. He acknowledged that he’s “not really expecting to make huge progress” in the healing process while he’s playing. Bichette nevertheless stated that he’d “risk it all” to win a World Series. He demurred on the free agency question this evening. Bichette admitted at today’s pregame media scrum that while he has thought about his future at times this season, he has “got a World Series to win” right now (video via TSN).

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Toronto Blue Jays Bo Bichette George Springer

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Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

By Anthony Franco | October 31, 2025 at 12:01pm CDT

Anthony Franco

  • Good afternoon everyone, hope you've had a good week! Another one that I'll keep around an hour as we put the finishing touches on offseason prep, let's get rolling

Guest

  • The Yankees need both rotation and bullpen help but I believe the offense is their biggest need.  I would love to see them sign Tucker but find that unlikely. So, if not Tucker then who?  Thanks as always for the chats!

Anthony Franco

  • I don't see why Tucker wouldn't be in play unless you're assuming they re-sign Bellinger before Tucker comes off the board. I wouldn't rule them out on any free agent hitters really
  • First base might be tough because they've got Rice internally and can't use the DH spot. Beyond that, any outfielder seems viable. They could make a run at Bichette and trade Jazz, or just roll with a Bo/Jazz middle infield tandem for a year and make Volpe play his way back into an everyday role

Snelling

  • Snell said the Jays got lucky. Was he just making excuses for a unsuccessful performance?

Anthony Franco

  • I mean, it obviously wasn't a great performance. He gave up homers on two of the first three pitches and issued four walks. It's also true that he would've had 6 2/3 innings of three-run ball with seven strikeouts if Edgardo Henriquez had done his job behind him, which doesn't look nearly as bad as five earned runs do

Yes. Savage.

  • 12Ks. No walks. Still a rookie next year. How amazing was that outting? Also, does make Trey the default prediction for rookie of the year next year?

Anthony Franco

  • Of course it would not have mattered because this was happening on the other side of the ball
  • I don't know that I'd pick Yesavage to win ROY over Kevin McGonigle or something, but yeah, incredible performance. Insane that the dude was in A-ball a few months ago

DJ Clutch

  • How would you resolve the weird roster jam the Astros are facing for position players?  Is it ridiculous to think Correa could handle 2nd if Paredes can't?

Anthony Franco

  • I don't see why Correa couldn't play second base.  It'd still be a weird logjam because you need Paredes at third with Yordan/Altuve splitting LF without the fallback of moving Altuve back to second if he's still bad in the outfield
  • I think they just need to eat part of the Walker deal and move on

Dipoto

  • I'm wondering how you see the 1st base market developing in free agency this offseason.  Will I be able to keep Naylor?  If I can't, how will the two Japanese 1B/3B coming over impact the marketplace and what's a reasonable cost estimate for Okamoto?

Anthony Franco

  • Yeah I don't think they'd be so openly putting out there that they want to keep Naylor if they weren't serious about making a competitive offer. Payroll's going to be up a little bit from where they opened last season (as it should be) and they could hear teams out on Castillo again
  • I can't imagine they'd pay Murakami. I think we're going to end up with Okamoto at four years in the $60M range. Tim seems open to the possibility that he pushes to five years, which I don't see at his age. If Okamoto turns out to be a four-year deal guy, Seattle should probably just pay the few extra million annually to get Naylor done

Michael

  • Gleyber Torres to Washington make any sense?

Anthony Franco

  • Eh, they need to do better than García but I don't think Gleyber's netting them much at the deadline and they're still rebuilding
  • If he takes something similar to this year's 1/15, I'd rather just spend that money on a starter who has a better shot to be an in-demand trade chip. You'll be able to pitch starters to almost every contender in July but there'll only be a couple teams that want a second baseman without defensive flexibility
  • And if Gleyber commands three-plus years, I wouldn't be a fan of it for any team
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    Braves, Astros Swap Mauricio Dubón For Nick Allen

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