0:10

And

0:19

welcome

0:30

And welcome to Gleam

0:32

the geek the geek by

0:34

black by Black Stag Brewing. a liquor

0:36

store near you near you. I'm

0:38

John bonus of the Twins with me. Aaron Gleam

0:41

York York Times. No. The athletic

0:43

New York Times subsidiary. Is

0:45

that right? Yes. Okay. that

0:47

right? Yes. Okay. We'll go with that. Yeah. I'll

0:50

tell you this, we I'll tell you this. We

0:52

had a, the You've already

0:54

sidetracked the show, saying by

0:56

saying times. I like saying your curveballs early.

0:59

throwing your keys early. of the front

1:01

it's not It's not that difficult.

1:03

I'm willing to be sidetracked

1:05

easily. easily. Well, there ain't a

1:07

there of a lot of not to

1:09

to get sidetracked right now. true, yeah.

1:11

we'll get to the we'll get

1:14

and trades in a minute, but

1:16

first. That's right. in a minute. But first.

1:18

We had a a, like a zoom

1:20

with we being the the athletic

1:22

staff. Okay. Had a had

1:24

a zoom with a

1:26

woman from which is the new is

1:28

the new media. Not

1:30

new, new, to Twitter, to

1:33

Twitter, X, whatever. And she

1:35

us through through like. I'm

1:37

already on on there, you're on there. How to skit? I

1:40

don't like that. that. just going to

1:42

call it toy call it a maybe. a posting,

1:44

the features that maybe we didn't know

1:46

about and how to get verification, to

1:48

which is why I thought of

1:50

this, why I thought of this, there aren't aren't like,

1:52

well, there used there used to be

1:54

on Twitter back on Twitter back in the day.

1:56

There used to be check marks that

1:58

said you were verified. And now. just pay eight

2:01

bucks for a bucks it has the

2:03

opposite effect, but the opposite There isn't

2:05

that on there isn't that on Blue

2:07

Sky instead on Blue It's

2:09

not a good system, it's told good but

2:11

they might be changing it. told you

2:13

this but you know is that like

2:15

instead of being like Blue Sky how you

2:17

know is that like whatever, which

2:19

I am. like me. Gleeman dot

2:22

Blue not whatever. You

2:24

can be like Aaron Gleeman at

2:26

the York Times. Times. Right. And that's

2:29

the verification because in order to

2:31

get that handle that parent company has

2:33

to like verify you on that

2:35

end got it on that end. you

2:37

have to get the parent company you

2:39

you have to get the the parent company

2:41

try to kind of have the

2:43

same you have to get the right. I think like the

2:45

that I know it exists now Try

2:47

to can ask of have the is that once

2:49

upon a time. For twins mainly. I the real that I

2:51

know what much, but whatever he is

2:53

the real Seth. I hate to see a to see

2:55

a second one. I have seen

2:57

a second one. brother looks like you're not

2:59

correct. He's like you and your

3:01

brother your rarely seen two sets of

3:03

brothers two more of you and your brother

3:05

like than you and your brother at name?

3:08

uh, what is Seth's met him

3:10

multiple times, I I've met him

3:12

nice guy. know, I apologize. Super nice

3:14

guy. You nicer Way nice. Too fairly. Friday

3:16

But anyway, my point

3:18

was, point was. that we can't be

3:20

New York Times because we can't can't

3:22

be name name at New

3:24

York Blue Skye because we're not because

3:26

we're not New New York Times

3:28

employees. so when we're saying Aaron of the

3:30

New York Times, I thought, Times I

3:32

thought not I'm Blue Sky gonna be so I

3:34

Sky, to be Aaron Cleman dot athletic maybe they'll

3:36

work on on I don't know.

3:38

I don't know know I I

3:40

just like I I just I get

3:42

to that I get to as you as athletic Yeah,

3:45

well you saw saw how quick

3:47

I walked in here. here. Yeah, so

3:49

you're very I'm about a week

3:51

away from getting rolled rolled into

3:53

place. Pretty much. If I If I

3:56

didn't... like have more, I more,

3:58

it's I got, it's, I don't know if it's. just

4:00

a low bar for embarrassment, but

4:02

I'm not going to be one

4:04

of those guys who has a

4:06

scooter, even though I probably could

4:08

use one right now. I just

4:10

view you and Stu Thornely jousting

4:12

in the twins hallways, the target

4:14

field hallways. Stu rides around in

4:16

that thing and just, he'll like

4:18

use it to hold the elevator,

4:20

like he'll just plow into the

4:22

elevator basically and hold it and

4:24

like. Yeah, he really has the

4:26

opposite mindset that I have, which

4:29

good for him. He leads into

4:31

it, baby. Yeah. Yeah, me, I

4:33

like to just limp around. Anyway,

4:35

it's winter meetings, uh, Eve, sort

4:37

of, kind of. People will be

4:39

flying to, uh, not me, but

4:41

people will be, I'm skipping this

4:43

year, but people will be, they'll

4:45

try to go on without me,

4:47

believe me. Uh, going to Dallas

4:49

starts Monday morning, starts Monday morning,

4:51

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I guess technically

4:53

Thursday, but a lot of people

4:55

leave, Wednesday is the annual winter

4:57

meetings in Dallas, Texas, which is,

4:59

we talked a little bit about

5:01

it on the Patreon side, like,

5:03

I think people may be. play

5:07

it up as a bigger deal than

5:09

it is. Yeah, we went into it

5:11

a lot. We went to do a

5:13

lot of the Patriots. Yeah, and the

5:15

only reason I won't go back into

5:17

like the minutiae of it, but I've

5:19

gone to, I want to say five

5:22

or six of them in kind of

5:24

two different eras of my life. I

5:26

went to the last two or three

5:28

of this era. Right. Did she limp

5:30

around also? But we're going to unpack

5:32

that at some point. That I'm like

5:34

Taylor Swift? No, we're going to pack

5:36

the eras. The errors in my life.

5:38

The errand eras. A lot of coach.

5:40

Yeah. There was the couch era. We're

5:42

getting back. Then there was the six

5:45

month not on a coach era and

5:47

then there was the couch era. That's

5:49

pretty much it. There used

5:51

to be a coach in St. Paul

5:53

when there was a coach in Montana

5:55

and I was coaching me. That's really

5:58

the only. That's it. It's not that

6:00

great of a concert, really. Oh, special

6:02

guest though. me, I'll bring everybody up.

6:04

Gracie Abrams will come out. Anyway, easily

6:06

sidetracked today. But the reason I say

6:09

that the winter meetings can get kind

6:11

of overblown from a fan perspective is

6:13

that it's something everyone talks about because

6:15

it's like a mile marker of the

6:17

off season in a way. And it's

6:20

a media event is really what it

6:22

is. It's become that because when the

6:24

winter meetings first started decades and decades

6:26

ago. It was truly just a way

6:29

for all the front office people to

6:31

get together in the same rooms because

6:33

calling each other on the phone long

6:35

distance was I'm talking you know decades

6:37

ago was the only way to do

6:40

it but now that you can have

6:42

zooms and you can have group chats

6:44

and you can have God knows what

6:46

slack whatever There isn't really a neat,

6:48

like if Derek Fallview wants to talk

6:51

to the GM of whoever, he can

6:53

do it very easily. It's similar, it's

6:55

probably most similar to like an industry

6:57

convention. Yes, it's just that this industry

6:59

is the baseball industry. Yes, well, and

7:02

there is a trade show attached to

7:04

it, there's a job fair attached to

7:06

it. But for the most part, it's

7:08

become. a media event in that hundreds

7:10

of media members including clubs like me

7:13

go and there's a you know giant

7:15

media workroom where everybody sits and types

7:17

away on their laptops and they hold

7:19

at least once a day each team

7:21

holds like an availability up in their

7:24

suite which you go to and then

7:26

any key moves there's like a you

7:28

know availability for press conferences and Boris

7:30

always does his annual where he goes

7:32

up in front and everybody runs like

7:35

he's the president talking. And I think

7:37

it used to be sort of driven

7:39

in popularity and in part media popularity

7:41

because deals used to get done there.

7:43

Like a lot of that where the

7:46

free ages would show up there, there'd

7:48

be a big, you know, the biggest

7:50

free ages would do a big show

7:52

and so on. But similar to what

7:54

I was saying about the front offices,

7:57

there's no extra incentive to do it

7:59

during the winter meetings. This is exactly

8:01

what I'm going to get to, is

8:03

that it also be like where we

8:05

talk and that sort of thing. But

8:08

now there's so many more ways to

8:10

communicate. the primary reason I think for

8:12

most media to go there is You

8:14

get a lot of off-the-record talk with

8:16

your own GM and or coach Because

8:19

everybody's just there killing time for three

8:21

days and you might as well have

8:23

breakfast with Rocco the primary reason I

8:25

think is is Marriott points for most

8:27

of the writers I would say I've

8:30

never gotten a single Marriott point because

8:32

I travel once a year and I'm

8:34

too stupid to sign up but Talking

8:36

to beat writers including Dan they're obsessed

8:38

with me. They're all stay at Marriott.

8:41

Yes the entire beat writing infrastructure revolves

8:43

around there must be something better about

8:45

Marriott's I don't know Marriott's I really

8:47

don't know but yeah you're right about

8:49

that so that starts Monday and yeah

8:52

you're right I mean it's it's a

8:54

way for In

8:56

the Twins case, let's say, well, we

8:58

have talked to them because they changed

9:00

front office and they did the ownership

9:02

thing. But for a lot of teams,

9:04

you talked to them last day of

9:07

the season or two days after the

9:09

season, which is, you know, first week

9:11

of October. And so it's been two

9:13

months since you've had any sort of

9:15

scheduled media availability for some of these

9:17

teams. And if the twins hadn't shaken

9:19

up the front office, we wouldn't have

9:21

had any with them. We just happened

9:23

to have had some. And so yeah,

9:26

to be able to go up into

9:28

the team suite and talk to them

9:30

off the record and you can get

9:32

some info for the off-season ahead, but

9:34

you can also kind of, and this

9:36

is a big part of what I've

9:38

learned, doing this job for four or

9:40

five years now, you bank stuff for

9:42

the long winter ahead. Oh yeah, right,

9:44

which is ideas, topics, topics. You describe

9:47

those things as quotes, right. And you

9:49

go, well, that's kind of interesting. Nobody

9:51

really needs to know that today. But

9:53

two months from now, or when the

9:55

guy reports the spring training, I can

9:57

tell the story of whatever. So that's

9:59

what it's become built into the winter

10:01

meetings, though, are two things that will

10:03

be of interest to twins fans fans.

10:06

is on Tuesday afternoon I want to

10:08

say is the draft lottery right the

10:10

third third annual yeah yeah third annual

10:12

draft lottery now I have attended each

10:14

of the first two draft lotteries in

10:16

person and let me tell you there's

10:18

never been a less and a more

10:20

underwhelming event and last year's was hosted

10:22

by Brad Paisley as I talked about

10:25

on the patreon and even that couldn't

10:27

do we know who's hosting it this

10:29

year Are they trying to get that

10:31

again? I don't think he's going to

10:33

be Brad Paisley. Like maybe his mother...

10:35

Joe Paisley or something. Yeah,

10:37

I don't, I don't think, but they

10:39

try to turn it into a made

10:41

for TV event and it just, it

10:43

just isn't. Because for one thing, I

10:45

mean, even like the NBA draft lottery

10:47

is not that interesting. Like, it's a

10:50

five minute thing. But even that isn't

10:52

in front of like a live studio

10:54

audience either, right? Like that's just, it

10:56

either, technically. At least in the NBA,

10:58

draft lottery, the guy's number one pick,

11:00

number three pick, number five pick, you

11:02

go, this guy's going to play this

11:04

year. People are going to immediately know

11:06

who he is. Right. MLB it's like

11:08

oh this guy will go to cedar

11:10

rapids for a year and a half

11:12

and then maybe you'll see him with

11:15

the Saints two years from now and

11:17

then so that's a big difference but

11:19

of note to the twins because they

11:21

missed the playoffs they are in the

11:23

draft lottery I believe I saw they

11:25

have a one point something percent chance

11:27

of getting the number one pick and

11:29

like a ten percent chance something like

11:31

that of moving into the top six

11:33

because they draw for the top six

11:35

and then after that it just fills

11:37

out which would be great. I mean

11:40

if you think back to the inaugural

11:42

one two years ago, I think they

11:44

were supposed to pick in the low

11:46

teens and end up picking fifth. And

11:48

what was a five person draft? And

11:50

they got walk and a strong five

11:52

person. Yes, I mean, they couldn't have

11:54

worked out. Well, number one pick would

11:56

have been Paul Skeens. That would have

11:58

been a pretty good. But it worked.

12:00

brilliantly for them and then last year

12:02

the Brad Paisley hosted one I was

12:05

sitting there and the Guardians had just

12:07

narrowly missed the playoff similar to the

12:09

twins this year and had like a

12:11

you know point eight percent or a

12:13

one point two percent something like that

12:15

chance and they got the number one

12:17

pick so you know it can happen

12:19

with the twins I think certainly even

12:21

moving into the top six while this

12:23

is not considered a you know, great

12:25

draft class, I think it's considered just

12:27

sort of a normal draft class. That

12:30

would be big, not only from a

12:32

talent standpoint, but also just a money

12:34

to spread around standpoint, because the difference

12:36

between like having the 13th pick and

12:38

having the fifth pick is multiple million

12:40

dollars that you can either spend, not

12:42

that guy, or spread around to other

12:44

picks. Ultimately, your reward is you get

12:46

to spend more on draft picks than

12:48

other teams. So perhaps the pull ads

12:50

are rooting against. Is there a way

12:52

for us to drop down in the...

12:55

And then Wednesday is Well,

12:57

Becky jokes a lot about the Rule

12:59

5 draft in our house because... She

13:01

doesn't know the first four rules? No,

13:03

she doesn't care at all. She just

13:05

hears me talk about it. She hears

13:07

us talk about it. She hears us

13:09

talk about it. She sees me slacken

13:12

metadata about it. Do you think there's

13:14

a fan base that talks more about

13:16

the Rule 5 draft than the truth

13:18

fan base? No. I mean, I can

13:20

explain why. Yeah, it's very easy. Shane

13:22

Becky and Johans Santana. Correct. When the

13:24

best picture in the history of the

13:26

franchise, and one of the better players

13:28

on a World Series team in Shane

13:30

Mac, and they've had some good ones

13:32

prior to that too. I mean they've

13:35

also had like Ryan Presley was a

13:37

great rule 5 pick, only about half

13:39

for the twins, but you know. Was

13:41

Blackburn in a Rule 5 pick? No.

13:43

Diamond. Diamond. That's right. Thank you. But

13:45

yeah, when that happens, people are, you

13:47

know, you get another 30 years of

13:49

people caring about. Every time you get

13:51

a sigh young winner from the Rule

13:53

5, you get 30 years of people

13:55

caring about it. Johan, before people correct

13:57

us, which they love to do. And

14:00

I don't blame you. There's a lot,

14:02

there's plenty to correct. Think of this

14:04

show as just a rough draft. Sure,

14:06

that's right. Now is there going to

14:08

be a final copy? No. But there's

14:10

just a rough draft. It's a run-through.

14:12

Like we're on Broadway, but we're just,

14:14

this is the run-through. And then you

14:16

say, well, when do you guys open?

14:18

No, we just like to run. We

14:20

just like to do dress rehearsals. Yeah,

14:23

just that's right. A dress rehearsal for

14:25

what? Good question. I don't know. Just

14:27

our own entertainment. But Johan was picked

14:29

by the Marlins from the Astros organization.

14:31

He had been like a single a

14:33

pitcher and wasn't even of note at

14:35

all. and but they had a prearranged

14:37

trade 40 remember who they trade Jared

14:39

Camp that's pretty good John yep look

14:41

at you right-handed picture made the majors

14:43

I want to say but didn't turn

14:45

into anything so you'll see that a

14:48

lot like the team with the number

14:50

one pick will like draft for someone

14:52

in that spot because when you get

14:54

the number one pick or even the

14:56

number two pick in the rule five

14:58

draft which it just goes by record

15:00

it's the same right so they're bad

15:02

teams but a team that's decent let's

15:04

say might say might love a guy

15:06

who's available and know they have no

15:08

shot to get them with the 15th

15:11

pick so they might say we take

15:13

this guy trade him to us we'll

15:15

give you know x you can't trade

15:17

pick so you actually take the player

15:19

the draft for him so they did

15:21

an immediate trade yohan took a few

15:23

years but turned into a great player.

15:25

They've changed the rules for the rule.

15:27

So that's Wednesday afternoon. That's right. It's

15:29

basically the last event of the winter

15:31

meetings. Right after that people start calling

15:34

home. In fact, let me tell you

15:36

this. It's also just in a giant.

15:39

when they have weddings and stuff like

15:41

that. Yeah, it's a room in a

15:43

ballroom, a hall in a hotel, right.

15:46

In, last year was in ballroom D,

15:48

Iraq or something. Right, yeah, that's right.

15:50

There's a wedding on there three, three

15:52

hours later. Yeah, that's right. People bring

15:54

their luggage to the rule five drafts.

15:57

That's what usually happened. rules to the

15:59

rule five draft how many five years

16:01

ago maybe to add an extra year

16:03

yeah it used to be if you

16:05

were a college pick you had three

16:08

years until you were eligible three years

16:10

of the minor leagues okay and four

16:12

years for a high school or teenage

16:14

signing and they added a year to

16:17

those i think i have that right

16:19

i might be off right here but

16:21

yeah this is a rough draft one

16:23

because i remember it as being four

16:25

and five and now it's five and

16:28

six but it's not six it's not

16:30

six because six year minor league for

16:32

agent okay oh anyway they added a

16:34

year and what that does is fins

16:37

the pool considerably because you have an

16:39

extra year to decide on all these

16:41

guys and so if you look at

16:43

like the talent pool available it's much

16:45

much worse because you just you're creating

16:48

it is much less likely that something

16:50

like the satano or whatever you're just

16:52

creating far fewer like actual difficult protection

16:54

decisions and so if you look at

16:56

like how many picks have actually been

16:59

made in the rule five it's shrunk

17:01

and like it used to be 20

17:03

picks now a lot of teams just

17:05

pass in the first round. So from

17:08

the twins perspective this year. I

17:11

felt like when I previewed it,

17:13

because I always preview it, my

17:15

first year at the athletic, I'd

17:17

been at the athletic for two

17:19

months in 2019, and my editor

17:21

was Zach Pierce, who's awesome. It

17:23

was back when the athletic was

17:25

very compartmentalized, it was Minnesota athletic,

17:27

and he said, well, what ideas

17:29

you got for the off season?

17:31

I said, well, we got to

17:33

a Rule 5 preview, and he

17:35

was like, why? He's like, we've

17:37

got to. Who cares about it?

17:40

Let's do it once. If the numbers

17:42

are good, I say I told you

17:44

so. Right. If the numbers you have

17:47

to do it for the rest of

17:49

your life. Correct. But he quit as

17:51

our editor. You didn't think about that.

17:53

I'll do it every year. But here's

17:55

the thing. The numbers are always good.

17:57

It always performs well as an article.

17:59

And the matter the talent level is.

18:01

This year, I think I listed eight

18:03

guys or something like that. I felt

18:05

like they had four, I probably would

18:07

have protected, at least three I would

18:09

have protected, and four I maybe would

18:12

have protected. They ended up only protecting

18:14

two players. They protected two pitchers. Mark

18:16

O'Raya, who was the biggest no-brainer. He's

18:18

one of those probably three to five

18:20

best pitching prospects. And then also Travis

18:22

Adams who I think I had fourth

18:24

on my list or fifth on my

18:26

list, but he's like a kind of

18:28

run-of-the-mill durable back-end starter and those guys

18:30

are very easy to pluck away from

18:32

teams in the Rule 5 because they

18:34

can just slot them into a long

18:36

relief roll or whatever. The two that

18:39

I was a little surprised that they

18:41

didn't protect We're a pair of right-handed

18:43

hitters, kind of corner bat types, which

18:45

is Kalei Rosario, who I think is

18:47

probably the bigger name, but the lesser

18:49

prospect. And then Ricardo Olivar, who I

18:51

personally am a big fan of, I

18:53

think I'm probably maybe the... high man

18:55

on him which is potentially a way

18:57

of saying I overrate him we'll see

18:59

but he's a catcher left fielder Rosario

19:01

is just a you know poor defensive

19:04

right field there both are right-handed hitters

19:06

Rosario is more of like a low

19:08

batting average high-power guy or Olivar is

19:10

more of like a you know controlled

19:12

strike zone hitline drives type of guy

19:14

neither of them were protected now they're

19:16

both certainly talented enough to get picked

19:18

but the issue with players like that

19:20

are are you really going to because

19:22

If you take a play in the

19:24

Rule 5 draft, it costs you $100,000

19:26

and you have to keep them in

19:28

the major leagues on your major league

19:31

roster for the entire season. And if

19:33

the moment you try to take them

19:35

off the major league roster, they're offered

19:37

back to their original team for half

19:39

the money. So you just lose $50,000

19:41

in the player. And so part of

19:43

the Rule 5 draft is just talent.

19:45

Like, is this guy good enough to

19:47

get taken? But a big part of

19:49

it, at least half of the decision

19:51

making involves, do we think one of

19:53

the other 29 teams will actually take

19:56

this guy and keep him in the

19:58

all season and with a backup shortstop

20:00

or a backup catcher or a middle

20:02

reliever or like Travis Adams, a fourth

20:04

outfielder, a fourth outfielder or a back-end

20:06

starter who can be a long reliever,

20:08

those guys can just fill bit rolls

20:10

on your team and not hurt you

20:12

either way and then you try to

20:14

develop them as much as you can.

20:16

But with a right-handed hitting, you know,

20:18

right-fielder, right, it's like, do you really

20:20

want that guy to get 150 at

20:23

bats in a platoon roll? And he's

20:25

probably not ready. And both of them

20:27

have played above double A. They're both

20:29

pretty young. So the twins are taking,

20:31

in my mind, at least a fairly

20:33

big risk with those two of leaving

20:35

them unprotected. There's a pitcher named Christian

20:37

McCloud who is a kind of a

20:39

left-handed Adams type who could get taken,

20:41

but he's got more of an injury

20:43

history. Here's one name,

20:45

you brought up under a different context

20:48

the other day, Jovani Moran, who

20:50

was signed to a two-year minor league

20:52

deal after being dropped from the 40-man

20:54

roster and he's missed all of

20:56

last season following Tommy John's surgery. Now,

20:59

before Tommy John's surgery, I'm not going

21:01

to say he was a reliable

21:03

reliever, but he showed flashes of being

21:05

a good major league reliever. Lefty with

21:08

a pretty good fastball and a

21:10

great change up control issues. That's a

21:12

very nice way of saying that. Didn't

21:14

know where the hell the ball

21:16

was going after time. So who knows

21:19

what he's going to look like after

21:21

an elbow surgery, obviously, and a

21:23

year and a half on the sidelines,

21:25

he might come back and you know,

21:28

he might not be able to

21:30

hit the broad side of a barn.

21:33

Since they, so it's been like three

21:35

weeks since they made their two protections

21:37

and the rosters get locked at that

21:39

point so you can't add any relate.

21:41

I've heard from people from other organizations

21:43

who are kind of sniffing around some

21:45

twins, some unprotected twins, to the point

21:47

that some names I'd expect, some names

21:49

I wouldn't expect. There's a guy named

21:51

Will Hollins who's like a center fielder

21:54

shortstop. that triple last year, could be

21:56

a utility type of guy. There's a

21:58

few other names, but to the point

22:00

that now I'm starting to think they'll,

22:02

they might lose somebody. I mean, that

22:04

is the other reason to watch the

22:06

rule five draft is because even if

22:08

your organization doesn't acquire somebody like a

22:10

Johan Santana, people might lose somebody. Right.

22:12

But they even really, I'm trying to

22:14

think, the last guy they lost Akil

22:16

Badu. Akil Badu is the big one.

22:18

Which that looked really bad for a

22:20

year and now looks inconsequential basically because

22:22

he's sort of a fifth outfielder type

22:24

or whatever. So yeah, I wouldn't be.

22:27

He is what he was when they

22:29

drafted him essentially. He's a fifth outfielder.

22:31

Yeah. That's true. How they kept him

22:33

on the rest? I mean, that's why

22:35

I remember the when he then, I

22:37

think he might have finished like third

22:39

in the third in the rookie, like

22:41

third in the rookie, like third in

22:43

the rookie, the rookie, the rookie year,

22:45

the rookie year, the rookie year, the

22:47

rookie year voting for the year voting

22:49

for, the Tigers, the Tigers, the Tigers,

22:51

the Tigers, the Tigers, the Tigers, three

22:53

years, three years, three years, three years,

22:55

three years, three years, three years, three

22:57

years, three years, three years, three years,

22:59

three years, three years, three years And

23:02

I remember when he was playing well

23:04

for the Tigers that first year, asking

23:06

somebody with the twins, like, do you

23:08

guys regret leaving him unprotected? And the

23:10

answer was, well, yeah, obviously he's doing

23:12

well for them, but the logic behind

23:14

it seemed fairly sound, which is he

23:16

had had a injury. and hadn't really

23:18

played I don't think above high A

23:20

and I think that was in 2021

23:22

which means he was coming off a

23:24

2020 season where he didn't even play

23:26

minor league baseball right that's right so

23:28

it had been like over a year

23:30

since he had had any game action

23:32

so unless they had a drone flying

23:35

over a CHS that's exactly nobody saw

23:37

him doing anything it was a leap

23:39

of faith by the Tigers and you

23:41

know maybe there are a lot of

23:43

leaps of faith in between the 2020

23:45

career five draft like there are a

23:47

lot of people like oh i hear

23:49

i hear from such and such correct

23:51

so and so is doing something which

23:53

is they're trying to sneak him through

23:55

which is the type of sniffing around

23:57

i'm getting right which is what you

23:59

know about this guy what was his

24:01

health at the end of the year

24:03

all this type of stuff so we'll

24:05

see that's uh that's Wednesday and I

24:08

don't know I don't expect certainly at

24:10

the twins level it sounds like like

24:12

Juan Soto might be on the verge

24:14

of signing sure but at the twins

24:16

level they're they're waiting for the trickle-down

24:18

economics of this thing by any I

24:20

mean I don't expect them to make

24:22

might hope that the winter meetings are

24:24

a place where they could, if they

24:26

are interested, doing some trades or shaking

24:28

up the roster a little bit, making

24:30

some deals. That would be a place

24:32

where, you know, that sort of thing

24:34

is more easily discussed than, you know,

24:36

if you have a zoom call slash

24:38

text via whatever. But I will tell

24:41

you, the source was the update given

24:43

internally was, quote, we have no irons

24:45

in the fire. Yeah, that's bad to

24:47

borrow. So, you know, I don't know

24:49

that we're... They can neither afford a

24:51

fire nor an iron. And I hear,

24:53

I won't see an onion. They can't

24:55

even afford an onion. No onions in

24:57

the fire either. Before we move on

24:59

to some coaching news by the 20th.

25:01

You know what is fire? Black stack

25:03

brewing. Black stack front brewing is absolutely

25:05

far. And I'm going there tonight. Shockingly.

25:07

I'm going to the tap room. Say

25:09

how to Becky? I sure she'll be

25:11

there with you. That bonus is permanent

25:13

third wheel. I have not invited Becky.

25:16

We'll have to maybe respond there. She

25:18

just spawns there. Like she just showed

25:20

up. We're going to meet, I think

25:22

we're going to meet up with the

25:24

owner Cooper. Maybe get a little tour

25:26

or such stuff. Yeah. I like black

25:28

stack brewing. I've been there a couple

25:30

times over the last few months. I'm

25:32

looking forward to going there with some

25:34

new friends and then I'm actually with

25:36

our goddaughter. But the truth is you

25:38

don't have to go to the tap

25:40

room anymore. You can just go to

25:42

your liquor store because that's the beauty

25:44

of black stack brewing is that all

25:46

those people who you know, would make

25:49

the trek to the tap room to

25:51

get their, you know, well-recognized beer, now

25:53

can just go to their liquor store.

25:55

So you're going to be going to

25:57

like various holiday events, you're going to

25:59

be responsible for bringing you a six

26:01

pack or something like that, or maybe

26:03

you're having a holiday event, or maybe

26:05

you're having people over grab good on

26:07

the liquor store and ask for Black's

26:09

Day. Or maybe you've just spent a

26:11

lot of time with your family over

26:13

the holidays and you need to drink

26:15

some beer. They've got some very high

26:17

ABV IPAs that will help you. in

26:19

a number of liquor stores and the

26:22

list is growing you can go to

26:24

Blackstack's website and they have like where

26:26

to find us page that's right and

26:28

also if your your neighborhood liquor store

26:30

doesn't carry them tell them and they

26:32

can start carrying they also have some

26:34

lower ABB beers as well like there

26:36

check out Blackstack the you can go

26:38

see them they're like 94 and 280

26:40

ish but also just go look for

26:42

them in your local store that's right

26:44

Harry's raisers they have a long-time sponsor

26:46

of ours, but they have a holiday

26:48

craft set which is a great gift

26:50

or you can just buy it for

26:52

yourself and get a good shave in

26:55

2025. That's exactly right. You can get,

26:57

it includes a razor with a craft

26:59

handle, your choice of foaming shave gel

27:01

or shave and cream. two extra blades

27:03

and then also a travel blade cover

27:05

now they like I said they've been

27:07

a long-time sponsor yeah I mean they

27:09

have these new long-time sponsor because I've

27:11

been a long-time user I love my

27:13

I will just challenge you this if

27:15

you haven't used Harry's razors yet and

27:17

you're using your old razor Try using,

27:19

and you want to get a really

27:21

good close shave. Try just shaving yourself

27:23

the way you normally do, go with

27:25

the grain that's usually up to down.

27:27

And then lather up again and try

27:30

going down up, which is against the

27:32

grain. You're going to end up with

27:34

one of two things. If you don't

27:36

have Harry's razor, you're going to go.

27:38

If you're going to end up with

27:40

one of two things, it's going to

27:42

go. If you don't have Harry's razor,

27:44

it's a brand new. And you're going

27:46

to know what the, you're going to

27:48

want to keep touching your face throughout

27:50

the day. You're going to be like,

27:52

I can't believe that I am this

27:54

smooth on my face. Boy, sometimes I

27:56

walk in and Johnny's just rubbing his

27:58

own face. I do. I'm thankful that

28:00

that's always, never mind. What I was

28:03

going to say is over the years

28:05

when they've had a new offer, they've

28:07

sometimes sent us a sample and I'm

28:09

always very impressed wrapping. comes in a

28:11

rich sleek green gift box that will

28:13

stand out and you can personalize it

28:15

with engraving options. It's a risk repurchase.

28:17

Harry offers a 100% money back guarantee

28:19

ordered by December 12th to receive your

28:21

How Day craft set by Christmas. I

28:23

think it'll start to be available. Either

28:25

now or by certainly by Monday. That's

28:27

right. Yep. And you just need to

28:29

go to get the holiday craft set

28:31

in the green box the free handle

28:33

engraving Harry's com slash gremlin. That's H-A-R-R-R-Y-S

28:36

Harry's.com/gremlin for the Harry's holiday craft set.

28:38

I didn't know you have a god

28:40

daughter son. I have a god daughter.

28:42

You know the family actually. What kind

28:44

of sick goes. Yeah,

28:47

especially because they're Lutheran and we're Catholic.

28:49

Well, my wife's Catholic. I was racial.

28:51

That's the least of my problems with

28:53

you. Religion won't even come into it.

28:55

I hope this kid likes beer. Oh,

28:58

I'm working on that. Yeah, I figured.

29:00

I saw you with a friend of

29:02

ours dog the other day working on

29:04

that. Yeah, by the way, with the

29:07

people she already has at her life.

29:09

Yeah, they're going to beer. Yeah, they're

29:11

going to Blackstack brewing tonight, of course

29:13

they're into beer. True. Let's talk a

29:15

little bit about coaching staff stuff. So

29:18

the twins announced a month ago, maybe,

29:20

that Matt Borgshulte was going to replace

29:22

David Poppins. Did they actually announce it

29:24

or did we just find it out?

29:26

That's a good question. I can't remember.

29:29

I was trying to remember if they

29:31

actually announced it, because when they were

29:33

making the announcements yesterday, I was like,

29:35

are we going to finally get the

29:37

Borgshold announcement? But I might have just

29:40

missed it. Well, there was no like

29:42

zoom with him. Like zoom with him.

29:44

Like zoom with him. Like zoom with

29:46

him. Matt Borgsholti is the hitting coach

29:49

which we knew a month ago, either

29:51

because they announced it or because everyone

29:53

reported it. Yeah, that's a good question.

29:55

It's always a good question with them.

29:57

They hold things weirdly, but they revealed

30:00

the rest of the Rocklebaldelli's, I think,

30:02

11-person staff, I want to say. 2025,

30:04

which includes three new people. And in

30:06

addition to Bork Sheltie, so a total

30:08

of four new people, and then some

30:11

changing roles for a couple of the

30:13

holdovers. We're going to go over those

30:15

in a second. The ones that haven't

30:17

changed, let's go over those first, just

30:19

so people know, Rocco Dan Baldelli is

30:22

still the manager. We knew that on

30:24

the last day of the season when

30:26

fall. We knew his middle name was

30:28

Dan on the last day of the

30:30

season for a while now. I'm starting

30:33

to doubt that. Anyway, first

30:35

draft. If only we had a way

30:37

to look that up. Jayce Tingler, don't

30:40

know his middle name, but it's a

30:42

good name. It is. Becky likes Jayce

30:44

Tingler because she thinks it's just a

30:47

great name. That's a good name. My

30:49

goal is to introduce her to him

30:51

at some point and say, here's your

30:54

favorite name in the majors, Jayce

30:56

Tingler. I would think that would be...

30:58

You don't need them. I like having

31:00

the last name bonus. I like that.

31:03

Even though most people can't pronounce it

31:05

correctly the first time they say. But

31:07

having a last name, tingler? Yeah. I

31:10

feel like you could do something.

31:12

I feel like you could play with

31:14

that a little bit. Leaming in the

31:16

tingler. Yikes. Yeah. I don't like that.

31:20

Tingler yeah, anyway, I don't need to know

31:22

about last night now. We've been mocking. I

31:24

don't know I never liked my last name

31:26

I want I think I've told the story

31:29

before when I was this is gonna insult

31:31

one side of my family, but whatever when

31:33

I was like 16 17 and I was

31:35

thinking about going into writing yeah My

31:38

plan was to change my pen name

31:41

to... What was it going to be?

31:43

The other side of my family's name.

31:45

Oh, okay. And then I got a

31:47

gig with Roto World in college and

31:49

hadn't done it. Right. And I don't

31:51

want to say like I got known

31:53

or anything, but... Well, you had a

31:56

blog by that point, too. Right. I

31:58

had a blog and I had clips

32:00

and stuff like that, so no. late

32:02

to do it so now I'm just

32:04

gleaming. Although even then it was errand

32:06

space probably, I don't know if you

32:08

went into your last name. Did you

32:11

have your last name? I mean it's

32:13

sad there, but it wasn't. I wasn't

32:15

shouting it from the rooftops. Okay. Like

32:17

I do now where the first word

32:19

is gleaming and the geek. We should,

32:21

let me, on year, how about on

32:24

year 20? See now that is what

32:26

we should be doing. That's not my

32:28

doing by the way, I don't want

32:30

my name as the promo code. That's

32:32

just what they send us. Yeah, that's

32:34

right. Because they just look what the

32:36

day of the show is, they take

32:39

the first. How would you like it

32:41

if our promo code was tingler? We

32:43

could do that. We got a few

32:45

where it's been geek. We haven't a

32:47

couple of people be with geek. That's

32:49

fine. That's fine man. Let's fine man.

32:51

Let's fine. Let's fine. Let's fine with

32:54

me. Let's fine. Let's fine. Let's fine

32:56

with me. Let's. Let's fine with me.

32:58

Let's fine. the trio of pitching coaches

33:00

which is Pete Mackey as the primary

33:02

pitching coach Luis Rodriguez or Ramirez excuse

33:04

me as the assistant pitching coach and

33:06

then Colby Suggs as the bullpen coach

33:09

which is basically just an assistant pitching

33:11

coach who sits out in the bullpen

33:13

during the game that remains unchanged so

33:15

the trio of pitching is the same.

33:17

who's probably not real well known to

33:19

people, is the quality control coach, which

33:22

basically means he kind of runs the

33:24

day-to-day aspect of it, the timing of

33:26

everything, the scheduling of everything, especially particularly

33:28

during spring training, all Ralph, you know.

33:30

The fact that they're doing this work

33:32

out at 930 and this work out

33:34

at 1015 is the choice made by

33:37

Nate. Everybody's complaining to me. That's about

33:39

everything. He's in the same role and

33:41

then the controversial one I suppose based

33:43

on my Twitter replies and my blue

33:45

sky replies also is Tommy Watkins remaining

33:47

in the third base coach slash outfield

33:49

coach role. I'm not surprised by that,

33:52

but I get that people. Assumed

33:55

I guess even that if he remained

33:57

on the staff he might no longer

33:59

be the third base coach that water

34:01

got pretty hot at the end of

34:03

the season. But as we've talked about

34:05

a lot over the years on this

34:07

show, and I guess that in and

34:09

of itself is proof of what I'm

34:11

about to say, think in your heads,

34:13

whether you're twins fan, whether you're a

34:15

fan of another team. of

34:18

a popular third base coach. Respected, touted

34:20

third base coach. There isn't. It's a

34:22

lot of credit. I mean, maybe there's

34:24

one, I don't know. And now think,

34:26

how many third base coaches have been

34:28

run out of that job because everyone

34:30

was furious? And now think, if everyone

34:32

who's in that job, as a great

34:34

railing givens in justified said, if you

34:36

run into an a-hole in the morning,

34:39

and then you run into an A-hole

34:41

in the afternoon and then you run

34:43

into an A-hole at night, maybe you're

34:45

the A-hole. If every third base coach...

34:47

Is in the opinion of fans doing

34:49

a horrendous job? Perhaps it's the job

34:51

itself. Maybe it lends itself to, you

34:53

know, criticism, I would say. But with

34:55

that said, he will, he'll remain in

34:57

that role. Here are the changes that

34:59

we can go through. I might have

35:01

botched that real and given school, but

35:04

you get the idea. Again, rough draft

35:06

of his show. We'll get in post,

35:08

we'll fix it. Have you watched the

35:10

entire series of Justifers? I have seen

35:12

it. I need to watch that. It's

35:14

a great show. Took me like four

35:16

years of it and I think I'd

35:18

love it. To talk Becky into watching

35:20

it. And here's what often happens, here's

35:22

a little glimpse behind the scene of

35:24

Casa de Gilemon. I will say this

35:27

is one of my all-time favorite shows.

35:29

Now some of those, that's not the

35:31

way, right. Some of those she's not

35:33

into, I get that, but this one

35:35

I said, this is a legitimately good

35:37

show. The lead is both charming and

35:39

incredibly good looking by my estimation, so

35:41

she can watch him on screen. And

35:43

she said, no, no, I don't want

35:45

to watch it. I watched it a

35:47

second time, like with her in the

35:50

other room, like with her in the

35:52

other room, like with her in the

35:54

other room, And then here's what always

35:56

does it. She won't look at, uh...

35:58

No. would think that. I was like,

36:00

this guy with the cowboy hat, he's

36:02

doing nothing for you anyway. She needs

36:04

like Ricky Rubio or somebody to come

36:06

on. Here's what convinces her to watch

36:08

something. There are

36:10

three local influencers that you know.

36:13

Okay. One is named Randball Stu.

36:15

Okay. One is named Brandon Broxy.

36:17

Really? And one is named... Broxy's

36:19

an influence. Yep. To her. Yeah.

36:21

All right. And one is named

36:23

Zach Floyd. Now these are lovely

36:25

people. Yeah. These are three of

36:28

the favorite people I've met. Love

36:30

them. In my life. Yes. Great

36:32

to have a beer with, great

36:34

to go to a Jason Isbell

36:36

show and sway silently next to,

36:38

which I've done several times with

36:41

them. Influencers, style influencers, I don't

36:43

know that I call them that,

36:45

but here's what happens. I think

36:47

I trust that three-some on entertainment.

36:49

Don't call them with three-some, please.

36:51

Because that, but here's what happens.

36:53

For years I'm saying, watch Justify

36:56

with me. No, no, no, I'm

36:58

not into it. It's not a

37:00

cowboy show. They had

37:02

some back and forth one day

37:04

on Twitter where it was like

37:06

somebody posted a gift of railing

37:08

givens and there is dude's like

37:11

oh man I'm gonna watch that

37:13

again great show my favorite show

37:15

next morning she's like we should

37:17

watch justified Perfect. It's like, what

37:19

do you mean? Perfect. Have you

37:21

thought about, I mean, similar to,

37:23

you know, advertisers approaching us to

37:25

talk about their fantastic products? I

37:28

approach, Broxy, Stu, Floyd, and tell

37:30

them, talk about this. That's right.

37:32

Well, I'll, okay, I'll expand this

37:34

now. One of my favorite documentaries

37:36

I've ever seen is called Hero

37:38

Dreams of Sushi. I believe a

37:40

one academy order was nominated. It's

37:42

like 10 years ago, something like

37:45

that. It's about like a small

37:47

sushi restaurant that's been in some

37:49

small place in Japan, I think,

37:51

in like a subway station. It's

37:53

like got four seats. It's like

37:55

the greatest sushi. And it's about

37:57

the Guy Hero. hero like our

37:59

spelling right J-I-I-R-I I think who's

38:01

like the master sushi man I

38:04

just thought it was a fascinating

38:06

like look at someone's craft okay

38:08

for 10 years now I've been

38:10

trying to get her to watch

38:12

it and we watch every documentary

38:14

sure you will not watch it

38:16

to the point that we do

38:18

a top chef competition every year

38:21

we watch that show okay each

38:23

draft a team oh okay I

38:25

thought you're gonna actually tell where

38:27

you cook oh god no No,

38:29

in fact I usually order DoorDash

38:31

while we're watching Top Chef. And

38:33

the winner of that competition, it's

38:35

like a fantasy draft scoring, gets

38:38

to force the other person to

38:40

watch any piece of media up

38:42

to and including three hours. Okay.

38:44

For four consecutive seasons of Top

38:46

Chef, I have been playing to

38:48

win to force her to watch

38:50

Hero Dreams of Sushi, a I

38:52

think 98% Rotten Tomatoes document, and

38:55

she beats me every single year.

38:57

So to your point. That's funny.

38:59

Close circuit to stew or Brandon

39:01

or Zach. Yeah, she listens. Yeah,

39:03

that's the problem. She listens now.

39:05

Don't listen. Yeah. Anyway, back to

39:07

the coaching staff. Hank Conger. Another

39:09

great last name. Yeah, good. I

39:11

mean, the Hank Congress is a

39:14

great name. They've got a lot.

39:16

Sugs? Let's not overlook the name

39:18

Rocco Baldelli. Yeah, that's true. That's

39:20

a pretty great epic name. Uh,

39:22

Hank Conger had been the first

39:24

base coach slash catching coach. He

39:26

will remain the catching coach. He's

39:28

a former Major League catcher, obviously.

39:31

He's moving from first base coach

39:33

to assistant bench coach, which is

39:35

technically a promotion, I think. I

39:37

think a lot of it is

39:39

getting him off his feet. I

39:41

know he said some health problems,

39:43

similar to one you have with

39:45

your legs and your feet. Oh

39:48

yeah, right. I think he eats

39:50

too many steaks and drinks too

39:52

much beer perhaps. I don't want

39:54

to speak for anyone. I don't

39:56

know. Hank's a fun guy. And

39:58

so he's now this. bench

40:01

coach and Ramone Borrego, I hope

40:03

I'm saying that correctly, it will

40:05

now take over as the first

40:07

base coach and he will be

40:09

the slash infield coach which had

40:11

been Tony Diaz's gig and he

40:13

was among the four coaches let

40:15

go a month or so ago.

40:17

Borrego was has spent 20 years

40:19

in the organization, most of that

40:22

as a manager. I think you've

40:24

started, I think he was a

40:26

player in 1994 drafted or 1995

40:28

or something. He's most recently been,

40:30

I think, oh no, I'm sorry.

40:32

Oh no, that's right. It's 20-something.

40:34

21 years. You're right. Being able

40:36

to coach and insurance mentality. That's

40:38

almost 30. Yep. Compared to zero.

40:40

He past three or four years

40:42

was the double A Wichita Wichita

40:45

manager. And before that was the

40:47

Fort Myers manager and before that

40:49

was the rookie ball manager. He's

40:51

been a huge part of their

40:53

farm system and their organization and

40:55

their player development for a long

40:57

time now. I know from talking

40:59

to rookies, let's say, or prospects

41:01

when they come up and you

41:03

ask him, you know, who played

41:06

a big role in your development?

41:08

He is a common name that

41:10

is cited, both from a on-field,

41:12

but also off-field standpoint, mentorship standpoint.

41:14

And if you think back to...

41:16

what happened at the end of

41:18

last season when a lot of

41:20

the young hitters kind of collapsed

41:22

and there was some i don't

41:24

know i say in fighting but

41:26

sure quotes going around that people

41:29

didn't like well he has coached

41:31

and managed all these dudes right

41:33

uh... yep he's been rois louis

41:35

is manager in three different seasons

41:37

he's managed i mean name a

41:39

young twins hater and they've come

41:41

up and played under him and

41:43

also i just like the idea

41:45

of 20 years of by all

41:47

accounts a well respected run long

41:50

before the fall of the era

41:52

and in fact he was in

41:54

fact a player of the twins

41:56

organization 1996 right so he made

41:58

he topped out at AAA like

42:01

that's how long ago Yeah, 2002.

42:03

Yeah, right Wow, that's uh, so

42:05

yes, he's he's been around for

42:07

a long time and yeah, I

42:09

do like that he's been somebody

42:12

that had that most of the

42:14

especially the younger players Yes, have

42:16

had experience with quite a bit

42:18

and I mean he's been at

42:20

double A for what seven years?

42:22

You know three or four years?

42:24

No, no, no before Wichita before

42:26

So he's a new first base

42:29

coach and in field coach. And

42:31

beyond that then, we mentioned Matt

42:33

Borgshellty who had been, well if

42:35

you go back four years, he

42:37

was the Twins triple hitting coach.

42:39

And that off season, he had

42:41

done that for a couple years

42:43

and was, I would say, pretty

42:46

well respected there too. They, opted

42:48

not to promote him to the

42:50

Major League Hitting Coach, which was

42:52

open, and instead brought in David

42:54

Popkins from the Dodgers organization. He

42:56

had been the Dodgers High A

42:58

hitting coach. And three years later,

43:01

they fired Hopkins into assistance and

43:03

then went back to Borg Shelty

43:05

who had spent the last three

43:07

years as the co-hitting coach. for

43:09

the Baltimore Orioles in the majors

43:11

and during that time the Orioles

43:13

I think ranked like first or

43:15

second run scored had a ton

43:18

of good young hitters and they

43:20

basically I essentially said how about

43:22

a do-over on that right yeah

43:24

I'm sure there was some money

43:26

involved and I'm sure there was

43:28

a new title because he's the

43:30

primary hitting coach now they also

43:33

needed a name to offset the

43:35

really good names you don't think

43:37

Borg shalties are good that's really

43:39

that's probably said that So

43:42

he's the primary hitting coach so

43:44

he technically replaces David Hopkins. He

43:46

now has two new assistants that

43:48

they named yesterday. I'm gonna pray

43:50

I pronounce this correctly. Trevor Amicone

43:52

who had been for the last

43:54

couple years the Yankees AAA hitting

43:56

coach. Right. then Raiden Sierra, which

43:58

is a great name, like that

44:00

absolutely had been. He's, he offsets

44:02

the pork shoulder for sure. I

44:04

stick to the positives. Let's talk

44:06

about the great names. We don't

44:08

need the, Raiden Sierra who. Coached

44:10

in the minors for the twins

44:12

in the low minors for a

44:14

few years, but last year Was

44:16

their minor league assistant hitting coordinator?

44:18

Which basically means he's going place

44:20

to place kind of feeling in

44:22

the blanks and helping run their

44:24

development on the hitting side Both

44:26

pretty young. I mean Borgsholdi himself

44:28

is right 30s. These are all

44:30

three pretty young guys It's interesting

44:32

to hire a guy from triple

44:34

Yankees much like hiring someone from

44:36

the Dodgers or the race or

44:38

something like that there's a or

44:40

Cleveland on the pitching side let's

44:42

say there's kind of a built-in

44:44

assumption that the Yankees themselves made

44:46

a good hire probably when they

44:49

brought it hurt you right right

44:51

right so it's almost like you

44:53

passed the first background check there

44:55

just because it's like well the

44:57

Yankees hired them right all the

44:59

Dodgers hired them well that you

45:01

know that didn't work out necessarily

45:03

with Hopkins we should know we

45:05

talked about this at the time

45:07

got a job before Borgshulte. He

45:09

was hired as the new Blue

45:11

Jays hitting coach, which I don't

45:13

know that I necessarily would think

45:15

that's a worse job than the

45:17

Twins hitting coach. No, I would

45:19

think for a year at least

45:21

he's got Vlad Guerrero to work

45:23

with. Interesting. Anyway, so that's the

45:25

new... Potentially Soto. Well, yeah, we'll

45:27

see. Should we talk about that

45:29

after our sponsor? Sure. So, but

45:31

that's the new coaching staff. That's

45:33

a decent amount of turnover, obviously.

45:35

It's not the amount or level

45:37

of turnover that the, you know,

45:39

fans with the pitchforks wanted. Obviously,

45:41

that would have started with the

45:43

front office or the manager or

45:45

something. But I will say this,

45:47

like, the team is for sale.

45:49

The two decade president is phasing

45:51

out, stepping down, however you want

45:53

to do it. There's been a

45:55

movement. the front office that they've

45:57

basically promoted the number two to

45:59

kind of a one B situation

46:01

right now with Jeremy Zoll and

46:03

they blew up the GM left

46:05

well yeah the old number two

46:07

they had Levine left right and

46:09

they completely overhauled the entire hitting

46:11

department of the coaching staff. That's

46:13

a fair amount of change. That's

46:15

a decent amount. You know, even

46:17

if it didn't quite check every

46:19

box that everyone was looking for.

46:22

So that's the coaching staff. I

46:24

really, I wish I knew more

46:26

about some of these guys to

46:28

tell you. Hopefully, you know, if

46:30

you actually meet them or they

46:32

do a zoom or something like

46:34

that, I can get some more

46:36

background on them. But that's, I

46:38

don't know. Here's a thing. I'm

46:41

not convinced teams themselves can predict

46:43

who will make a good manager

46:45

or a good coach. And so

46:47

certainly podcasters who have never met

46:50

these guys cannot predict it. I

46:52

mean, it's like hiring anybody in

46:54

any position. True, but I would

46:56

say if you look back at

46:58

like, and I think this is

47:00

true like NFL coaching, all sorts

47:02

of stuff, if you look back

47:04

at like the hireings, especially on

47:06

like a manager front. Every

47:09

off-season there's seven new managers, whatever

47:11

it is. If you look back

47:13

and determine in your mind who

47:15

the most kind of praised hiring

47:17

was, I bet that person had

47:19

a less than 50% success rate.

47:21

It could be. A lot of

47:24

the times the guys who just

47:26

weren't thought of as anything. And

47:28

on a coaching front or assistant,

47:30

like I don't think anybody has

47:32

any ability to predict that. So

47:34

we'll see. Interesting mix of, you

47:36

know, inside the organization, outside the

47:38

organization, people, but you know, youth

47:40

and age, you know, it's a,

47:42

it's a, I don't know if

47:44

they were, I mean, I think

47:46

coming out of last season, there

47:48

was certainly a, um, And

47:51

I think we've seen this even

47:54

when Palanco left Santana would came

47:56

in in part not just to

47:58

replace his bat but also because

48:00

of the felt like they needed

48:02

some chemistry, you know, to replace

48:04

Jorge Polanco's impact. I wouldn't be

48:06

shocked if part of these the

48:08

coaching hires on this peat beyond

48:10

the experience and sort of where

48:13

they're from and just their excellence

48:15

in doing their job is also

48:17

based on, you know, we also

48:19

need just a little different mix

48:21

of personalities amongst the coaching staff

48:23

or in the locker room. I

48:25

mean, I would say. half of

48:27

coaching is being a therapist basically

48:29

on a daily basis or a

48:31

wrangler or a whatever is needed,

48:34

a friend, whatever, bringing in a

48:36

different mix like that maybe allows

48:38

you to reach different people at

48:40

different times. Yeah, I mean I

48:42

think this is true on a

48:44

team level too, but I also

48:46

like we talk a lot about

48:48

how People tend to, I think

48:50

fans and media members, tend to

48:53

overstate the stickiness of performance on

48:55

a team level from year to

48:57

year. Sure. And we're seeing that

48:59

now with the twins, which the

49:01

fan base is understandably just in

49:03

the worst mood after what happened.

49:05

how it is is how it

49:07

is and every comment is like

49:09

well if they don't do anything

49:11

big this obviously then they're doomed

49:14

next season it's like i don't

49:16

know most of the projections that

49:18

are you know clean slate in

49:20

this thing right have them in

49:22

a fairly decent light and i

49:24

think that's true from like a

49:26

chemistry or club house or coaching

49:28

or interpersonal Aspect too, which is

49:30

all that stuff is important and

49:32

there are sometimes where it's like

49:35

we got to make a change

49:37

like this isn't working Nobody likes

49:39

working with this person. I don't

49:41

think that was the case in

49:43

this I mean popkins and assistance

49:45

were pretty popular Tony Diaz is

49:47

one of the nicest guys I've

49:49

ever met all that But I

49:51

think there's value sometimes in like

49:54

just hit and reset even if

49:56

almost like a change for change

49:58

sake Like just, all right, it's

50:00

new, new season, like, uh, new

50:02

faces, new voice, literally and figuratively,

50:04

new approach to certain things. Yeah,

50:06

even if you're gonna. shake something

50:08

up. Let's shake this up. And

50:10

I think it's easier to do

50:12

that with a coaching staff, obviously,

50:15

than an entire roster full people.

50:17

Perhaps you are thinking of shaking

50:19

up your financial stuff. Mm-hmm. And

50:21

I will, I'm sitting across the

50:23

table from somebody who's recently discovered

50:25

the value of investing. Yeah, sure.

50:27

Yeah. As opposed to the lottery.

50:29

Lottery. You know, it's, it may

50:31

be that one of those things

50:33

where, you know, here, hey, the

50:36

2024's been a really good year

50:38

for the market in a lot

50:40

of ways, and you're kind of

50:42

cringing going. You know, maybe I

50:44

should be looking into what's the

50:46

market. Yeah, I should be looking

50:48

into investing, but I get why

50:50

you don't, it's scary. Yes. Like

50:52

you don't want to do something

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53:24

Soto is supposedly close to signing.

53:26

I am going to go out

53:28

on a limb and say it

53:30

won't be with the twins. Here's

53:32

the mind of Dan Aids, which

53:34

we often talk about on this

53:37

show. Because it needs to be

53:39

documented for like science. I was

53:41

afraid you're going to say for

53:43

legal reasons. Yeah, well, maybe that

53:45

too. He said, uh... He had

53:47

a tweet out there or whatever

53:49

you said? He said two days

53:51

ago. Hey, what do you think

53:53

of this thing? Actually I'm going

53:55

to do... is a text. Okay,

53:58

it's not a tweet. Oh, text.

54:00

But this is a trial balloon

54:02

for a possible tweet, which is

54:04

often what happens with day and

54:06

a's. Think, read this in your

54:08

mind in like the Beavis and

54:10

Butthead Boy. What do you think

54:12

of this one? Quote, Unsourced. The

54:14

twins have been informed they're no

54:17

longer in the running to sign

54:19

one. And I said, that's great.

54:21

I said, it's an eff and

54:23

bore it off season off season.

54:25

A hut day. I

54:28

love that. He should have done

54:30

that. That'd have been great. Sure.

54:32

Why not? It's not your New

54:34

York Times subsidiary that he's ruining.

54:36

I'm not the truth. I'm going

54:38

to truth. Daily Account will steal

54:40

that. Sure. Yeah. Make sure to

54:42

market parody like you do with

54:45

ramball stew stuff. A

54:47

lot of years, even for the twins

54:49

who obviously don't typically spend that much

54:51

in for agency, although they've signed a

54:53

top five guy in two out of

54:55

the last, or three of the last

54:57

seven off seasons or something like that

55:00

with two careers in a Donaldson. you

55:02

can at least do kind of the

55:04

connecting dots at this point in a

55:06

lot of off seasons even for the

55:08

twins and say well okay they're not

55:10

gonna sign so-and-so but once this guy

55:12

signs and this guy signs and then

55:14

there'll be some musical chairs going on

55:17

and people pivot and I think Nelson

55:19

Cruz could be available right or right

55:21

whatever I mean where we Donaldson himself

55:23

was that true and for that matter

55:25

Korea you are correct and but this

55:27

time I don't think there's

55:29

really a pivot to be made because

55:32

they don't have any money to pivot.

55:34

And maybe there's a pivot at some

55:36

point with some dominoes falling with some

55:39

trades obviously and I think what we

55:41

can go over here is there's been

55:43

a decent amount of early activity and

55:46

by early I just mean pre-winter meetings

55:48

activity and especially on the starting pitching

55:50

front. You know, you saw Blake Snell.

55:53

What we're seeing is the starting pitching

55:55

market looks a little stronger than we're

55:57

seeing a couple things. One is they're

55:59

signing. more than most projections. Now that

56:02

can just mean the projections weren't good,

56:04

but whatever. But I mean those projections

56:06

are based on past salaries, so we're

56:09

seeing a significant raise over what we,

56:11

a bigger raise than we expected to

56:13

see over previous years. Yeah, I mean,

56:16

it's just looking at similar guys last

56:18

year, the year before and that's. But

56:20

we're also seeing, and I think. Maybe

56:24

people will read too much into this

56:26

if they don't recognize the second factoid,

56:28

which is the vast majority, almost all

56:30

of these five or six for agent

56:32

starters, prominent for agent starters who have

56:35

signed, are Scott Boris clients. And so

56:37

if you look at the market without

56:39

knowing who they're represented by, especially when

56:41

someone like Scott Boris, who's such a

56:43

big part of everything. You go, oh

56:46

my god, pictures are coming off the

56:48

board, teams are moving quickly. Well, think

56:50

of what happened to Scott Boris and

56:52

his many high profile clients last off

56:54

season, which is he took the opposite

56:56

approach, which he often does. He often

56:59

will let the market sort of, you

57:01

know, gas itself out and then step

57:03

in late when everyone doubts or there's

57:05

no money to be had. I mean,

57:07

certainly some big names that happen to

57:10

occur. Yes, put it backfired badly to

57:12

the stop season to the point that

57:14

there were articles written and certainly people

57:16

talking as he lost his fastball after

57:18

30 years of doing this or whatever.

57:20

And so it's no surprise that his

57:23

reaction to that was, let's get these

57:25

guys off the board. early the surprise

57:27

though is it hasn't seemed to hurt

57:29

no the deals there yeah let's say

57:31

this one thing if you say oh

57:34

what Boris is panicking he's taking low-ball

57:36

offers no he's not taking low-ball right

57:38

these are well it remains to be

57:40

seen well it's possible that the market

57:42

is just gonna be very inflated overall

57:44

we haven't all I'm saying is we

57:47

haven't seen what the market necessarily is

57:49

we've seen Scott Boris clients so far

57:51

what their actions are Fair. But let's

57:53

go through some of those. So Blake's

57:55

now signed like a $180 million deal

57:58

with the Dodgers, who is a Boris

58:00

client who had. settle for a one-year

58:02

deal last off season. That's right. Yeah,

58:04

he was one of the guys who

58:06

got burned, but turned out okay for

58:08

him. That's the thing. If you add

58:11

in last off season. That's part of

58:13

his talking point though on these, you

58:15

know, is waiting out the market is

58:17

that even if you do end up

58:19

taking a short-term deal, then kick-ass that

58:22

year and yet you get a long-term

58:24

deal. Right. Sometimes you don't kick-that year

58:26

with the opt-out. and you add it

58:28

to a hundred eighty million he just

58:30

got from the Dodgers he basically just

58:32

got a seven-year two hundred ten million

58:35

dollar deal which he would have been

58:37

thrilled to get had the qualifying offer

58:39

last year too of hanging over him

58:41

didn't he yeah yeah so i mean

58:43

but he was also you get around

58:46

that little obstacle as well here's the

58:48

funny yeah i guess he won the

58:50

sai young award two years ago and

58:52

couldn't get this type of offer it's

58:54

strange but the uh... the uh... the

58:56

other The other starters who have signed,

58:59

second biggest one was actually yesterday. I

59:01

will set this as the leader in

59:03

the clubhouse for strangest deal of the

59:05

off season and I would not expect

59:07

it to be topped. Or Twins Daily

59:10

Slack on this one. Yeah, which is

59:12

Luis Severino, who's perfectly solid number three

59:14

starter type of guy. Former Yankee pitched

59:16

last year for the Mets coming back

59:18

from injury, had a good solid season,

59:20

but not a lot of strikeouts. uh...

59:23

signed a three-year sixty seven million dollar

59:25

deal and he had the qualifying offer

59:27

which means cost a draft pick right

59:29

now if you haven't heard the news

59:31

thinking your head i don't know twenty

59:34

five teams you think might have signed

59:36

him to that deal It

59:38

wasn't one of those 25 teams,

59:41

though. I don't know who the

59:43

25 you named, but it wasn't

59:45

one of those. It was the,

59:47

not even Oakland, the Sacramento Athletics,

59:50

who, he now represents half of

59:52

their payroll for 2025. Literally. They

59:54

have a $46 million projected payroll

59:57

and he's making $23 million. teams

59:59

spending money. And they're still at

1:00:01

a $50 million payroll. They got

1:00:04

another $50 million to spend before

1:00:06

I would even say they're trying.

1:00:08

Old gleam in the geek terms.

1:00:12

Why 20-something million on a 30-something-year-old number

1:00:14

three starter? And why three years and

1:00:16

why give up a draft? They should

1:00:18

not be making any signings that give

1:00:20

up a draft pick ever. Right. No

1:00:22

team needs draft picks more than the

1:00:25

Oakland or the A's. It's going to

1:00:27

take me a while to get over

1:00:29

that. I mean, I... I mean, and

1:00:31

he's already gotten the qualifying hour, I

1:00:33

was just like, well, they think maybe

1:00:35

they'll, you know, he'll thrive and they'll

1:00:38

trade him away at the deadline? But

1:00:40

who wants a three-year deal, too? That's

1:00:42

the other thing is, it seems, so

1:00:44

like most of the projections on him,

1:00:46

well, actually... last month

1:00:48

when he got the qualifying offer there were

1:00:50

some people that speculate he would just take

1:00:53

the qualifying offer which is one year twenty

1:00:55

one million he turned that down then most

1:00:57

the projections were like yeah twenty million a

1:01:00

year for two years you know two forty

1:01:02

two to forty five something like that maybe

1:01:04

even a little higher three sixty seven is

1:01:06

above and beyond anybody right his expectation it

1:01:09

seems clear to me that this was twofold

1:01:11

one they had i mean

1:01:13

they just had to pay a premium

1:01:15

to get him and probably to get

1:01:18

anyone and if i were to guess

1:01:20

i would say he was not their

1:01:22

number one target or even their number

1:01:25

one targeted mid rotation starter i'm gonna

1:01:27

guess they were in the market for

1:01:29

some similar guys maybe slightly higher rated

1:01:31

or ranked free agents and those guys

1:01:34

said The A's, what? Because they have

1:01:36

two things working against them. The first

1:01:38

is they're just not contenders. They haven't

1:01:40

won for five years. Now, if they

1:01:43

add some talent and they keep adding

1:01:45

some talent, you could maybe become a

1:01:47

contender. And then the other thing is

1:01:50

the one you just mentioned, which is

1:01:52

not that Oakland was any great place

1:01:54

to play, but they're going to be

1:01:56

playing in a literal AAA ballpark in

1:01:59

Sacramento for probably at least the next

1:02:01

two or three years. this hypothetical, you

1:02:03

know, move to Las Vegas, which may

1:02:06

or may not happen at this point.

1:02:08

So to get a veteran guy who,

1:02:10

by the way, has spent his entire

1:02:12

career playing in New York for the

1:02:15

Yankees and the Mets, to sign with

1:02:17

the non-Oakland A's and play at a

1:02:19

triple-third year on their chip. I really

1:02:22

think that's probably what happened. Yeah, I

1:02:24

mean, our take on it was that

1:02:26

the A's are looking to do what

1:02:28

the Royals kind of did last year

1:02:31

is let's let's and I don't mean

1:02:33

in terms of like being good. No,

1:02:35

I mean, in terms of like, yeah,

1:02:37

sign up, sign enough names to show.

1:02:40

Hey, we're investing in this team to

1:02:42

try and convince Las Vegas or whoever

1:02:44

to build you a stadium. Like this

1:02:47

is what we're gonna. Luis Severino. by

1:02:49

the way in the year 2025 not

1:02:51

the year 2019 when he was well

1:02:53

yeah but you take a look I

1:02:56

mean you look at the people that

1:02:58

the royal signed it was I mean

1:03:00

other other than the enormous contract extension

1:03:03

to to their shortstop I mean they

1:03:05

didn't go and make a bunch of

1:03:07

big signings either no but Michael Walker

1:03:09

similar guys they do I have no

1:03:12

problem like like I'm saying I

1:03:15

have no problem. They're trying to convince

1:03:17

people they're trying. That's what they're doing.

1:03:19

Well, also, literally an hour after the

1:03:21

signing, they announced season tickets were for

1:03:23

sale, or tickets were for sale for

1:03:26

next year in Sacramento, which is an

1:03:28

interesting time. I just can't imagine Luis

1:03:30

Severito. I was like, but again. I'm

1:03:32

all for owners spending money. I mean,

1:03:35

they have one of the worst owners

1:03:37

in sports in John Fisher, but he's

1:03:39

a multi-billionaire. Spend some money. It's ridiculous

1:03:41

that they had a $25 million projected

1:03:43

payroll before yesterday. It's ridiculous that even

1:03:46

after making this signing that were like,

1:03:48

that's a crazy signing, they have a

1:03:50

$40-something million projected payroll. If this is

1:03:52

the first of, like, you said, Royals,

1:03:55

like three moves like this or four

1:03:57

moves like this, where they're going to

1:03:59

sign another. starter or

1:04:01

reliever and out for something like that

1:04:03

right and get the payroll I mean

1:04:05

how they could sign two more Luis

1:04:07

Severino's and have a 90 million dollar

1:04:09

payroll yes which would rank you know

1:04:12

28th and MLB yeah it'll be 40

1:04:14

million dollars less than the twins right

1:04:16

right right yeah that makes much more

1:04:18

sense because then you're doing what I

1:04:20

think all team should do which is

1:04:22

whether you're rebuilding or contending spend money

1:04:24

and try to win five more games

1:04:26

that's what you should always do But

1:04:29

if that, if this is just the

1:04:31

move, and they have, they end up

1:04:33

with like a 60 million dollar payroll,

1:04:35

one third of which is going to

1:04:37

a past his prime Louis Severino, it's

1:04:39

just a real strange deal. So the

1:04:41

other prominent pitching moves were actually fairly

1:04:43

similar. Kakuchi signs 363. Similar in terms

1:04:46

of money. Right. Yeah. But Kakuchi did

1:04:48

went to a contending team. Yes. I

1:04:50

would much rather of Kakuchi for 363

1:04:52

without a draft pick involved than Severi.

1:04:54

I mean, I'd rather pay Kakuchi $100

1:04:56

million than Severino. 67 million. If those

1:04:58

were my two options. How about Pablo

1:05:00

Lopez at 363? You like that one?

1:05:03

Yeah, 64 and a half. 64 and

1:05:05

ever. Well, that's what we talked about

1:05:07

earlier, which is like, you know, Pablo

1:05:09

Lopez had what he would be the

1:05:11

first to tell you. He would have

1:05:13

been a free agent on this market.

1:05:15

correct if they hadn't signed him to

1:05:17

extension he would have been in this

1:05:20

mark he had an inconsistent season his

1:05:22

overall performance was worse than he had

1:05:24

hoped he would be the first to

1:05:26

tell you that uh... but if you

1:05:28

were free agent right now and by

1:05:30

the way he's younger than all these

1:05:32

guys he's twenty nine i think I

1:05:34

think he'd get a hundred million no

1:05:37

problem. I mean he would get a

1:05:39

five-year 120 something million dollar deal right

1:05:41

no problem look at some of these

1:05:43

prices and so while the twins payroll

1:05:45

situation has caused people to look at

1:05:47

his next three years which are worth

1:05:49

21 and a half million a year

1:05:51

and go that doesn't really fit that

1:05:54

well in a hundred and thirty million

1:05:56

dollars especially when you're also paying Korea

1:05:58

30-something million is he a trade candidate

1:06:00

because of that money it's the shame

1:06:02

of it is he's undervalued with I

1:06:04

mean that's a team-friendly contract except in

1:06:06

the circumstances where the team itself has

1:06:08

imposed a payroll that is ridiculous he

1:06:11

is the one guy that you could

1:06:13

trade away and it would both save

1:06:15

you money and get you back the

1:06:17

significant value yeah probably I mean I

1:06:19

mean that is that is 21 million

1:06:21

dollars off the books and you get

1:06:23

you get decent I don't know that

1:06:25

you get a you know middle of

1:06:28

the order bat for him, but you

1:06:30

would get some significant return back. Yeah,

1:06:32

I mean think of whoever was bidding

1:06:34

on Savarino who finished runner-up right if

1:06:36

you would have said well too bad

1:06:38

you didn't get Luis Savarino right what

1:06:40

do you want to give us for

1:06:42

three years of Pablo Lopez at a

1:06:45

cheaper price I mean you would think

1:06:47

so Kakucci gets three years 63 million

1:06:49

which you know tells you at that

1:06:51

point number two number three starters 20

1:06:53

something million dollars a year basically. Frankie

1:06:55

Montes who once upon a time was

1:06:57

a off talked about trade target on

1:06:59

the show but then got hurt and

1:07:02

really hasn't been the same last year

1:07:04

came back healthy actually pitched a lot

1:07:06

last year for the Reds and the

1:07:08

Brewers but had a high four ERA

1:07:10

give too many homeowners strikeout rate was

1:07:12

down but could be a kind of

1:07:14

a bounce back guy got two years

1:07:16

34 million dollars from the Mets And

1:07:19

then Matthew Boyd, who has been injured

1:07:21

throughout his career for the Tigers, we've

1:07:23

seen him a lot just in the

1:07:25

house. The guy who's out a perennial,

1:07:27

he's gonna break through, yeah, the candidate

1:07:29

for a long time, last year, latched

1:07:31

on with the Guardians last year on

1:07:33

on like an incentive, late in one

1:07:36

year deal, made eight starts, plus I

1:07:38

think one playoff start, eight good starts,

1:07:40

like in the second half for them,

1:07:42

through like 40 innings basically, got a

1:07:44

two year, 29 million dollar deal. both

1:07:46

I mean I kind of wasn't wondering

1:07:48

if there's gonna be a one year

1:07:50

plus option or something I agree but

1:07:52

what we're seeing is basically an extra

1:07:55

year And actually in the light of

1:07:57

these other deals, whether it's Snell, Severino,

1:07:59

Boyd, Montes, I love 363 for Kakuchi.

1:08:01

And I'm not like the biggest, I

1:08:03

mean, he's been inconsistent, believe it. He

1:08:05

was awesome down the stretch last year.

1:08:07

I'm not confident that the angels are

1:08:09

going to be the team to keep

1:08:12

him on track, obviously, but 20 million

1:08:14

a year for some of these other

1:08:16

guys. I'll take him just in terms

1:08:18

of like the raw stuff and upside

1:08:20

over all of them. to wrap this

1:08:22

around and bring it to the twins,

1:08:24

they weren't going to be in the

1:08:26

mix for any of these guys. You

1:08:29

know, basically if your question to us

1:08:31

is, do you think the twins have

1:08:33

any chance of signing this guy? I

1:08:35

can tell you regardless of who this

1:08:37

guy is. No, probably not. But all

1:08:39

of a sudden now, Chris Paddock. Well,

1:08:41

I mean, we, with us, one year,

1:08:43

Joe Ryan, Bailey Over, Pablo Lopez. Right,

1:08:46

but that's a completely different thing. Chris

1:08:48

Paddock at seven and a half million

1:08:50

dollars for 2025, which is a one

1:08:52

year deal, basically, and he's a free

1:08:54

agent. I'm not sitting here saying he's

1:08:56

a better bet than those guys. I'm

1:08:58

not sitting here saying, you know, we

1:09:00

talked about Boyd's injuries in the month.

1:09:03

Yeah. He didn't pitch in the second

1:09:05

half. Yeah. The Boyd of the Montes

1:09:07

deals give you a lot of hope

1:09:09

for patting. I mean, those guys are

1:09:11

getting... You can like take a look

1:09:13

at the others and go, well, these

1:09:15

guys are kind of premier guys, they're

1:09:17

being snapped, no wonder they're being paid,

1:09:20

you know, you know, a premium, a

1:09:22

premium, he's a premium, he belongs, he

1:09:24

belongs to an entirely different, he belongs

1:09:26

to an entirely different, he belongs to

1:09:28

an entirely different class, he's a different

1:09:30

class, he's a different class, he's, he's,

1:09:32

he's, he's a different, he's, he's a

1:09:34

different, he's, he's, he's a different, he's,

1:09:37

he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's,

1:09:39

he's, he's, His class of pictures isn't

1:09:41

that much different than say... No, I

1:09:43

mean, performance-wise, he was no worse than

1:09:45

Montes last year. Now, he pitched a

1:09:47

lot less than Montes last year. And

1:09:49

Chris Paddock is one of the most

1:09:51

injured pitchers of the last 10 years.

1:09:54

He might have thrown more innings than

1:09:56

Boyd over the last five years. It's

1:09:58

probably pretty close. So, I think... you

1:10:00

know, under normal circumstances. if

1:10:02

they they had hundred eighty million we wouldn't even

1:10:05

be having this conversation. even be We'd

1:10:07

just be like, he's the fifth starter,

1:10:09

would we might be just he's the to

1:10:11

the bullpen. honestly we might million saying sort

1:10:13

of the luxury item. million as for

1:10:15

a pitching staff when you're already at

1:10:17

your payroll limit. you're already at your have

1:10:19

said now I have are probably sick of

1:10:21

hearing probably sick months or three months. months

1:10:23

or three months that of the

1:10:25

veteran guys on one-year guys on

1:10:27

one year deals who be of

1:10:29

could be superfluous which is seven and a

1:10:31

half a half million and and at

1:10:33

at ten million To to me, should it should

1:10:36

be much, much, much easier to move

1:10:38

salary. at his full salary. You would

1:10:40

think so. And get something in the it is

1:10:42

right now. Have we seen any now. Have we

1:10:44

seen any catcher signed? Yes. Okay. Travis

1:10:46

Darno signed. Gaggioca signed.

1:10:48

other guys. All few other guys, all

1:10:50

for less than 10 million, opposite. We been

1:10:52

the opposite. We can go through these

1:10:54

pitching moves and one of these every one

1:10:56

of these early signings make seven and a one

1:10:58

year, seven and a half million dollar

1:11:01

deal look like a relative bargain. And

1:11:03

then you can look at the three or four

1:11:05

catching signings and go. and go, who's

1:11:07

to trade for to is when they could have just

1:11:09

signed when they for six million a year or something

1:11:11

like that. for six million a year or

1:11:13

stronger. that. So I'm even my conviction

1:11:15

that I'm correct on that I'm

1:11:17

the face in the face of. every

1:11:20

guest we've had on the show. the show saying

1:11:22

saying that's wrong and multiple twins

1:11:24

people at the end of

1:11:26

the season end this idea

1:11:28

to them I me this idea to them

1:11:30

move me oh no we'll see we

1:11:32

mean so we'll see um I mean if the

1:11:35

that have signed early. signed early are

1:11:37

at at a than the pitchers that

1:11:39

have signed early, right? I mean, it's a high level

1:11:41

the Well, have signed early, right? mean,

1:11:44

right? So the- But also Vasquez does right, right? level than

1:11:46

Paddock probably? In have a less high level

1:11:48

course. Of probably, No, terms of upsides. Of

1:11:50

course. like, my point being is be, it

1:11:52

might be might be interesting to see

1:11:54

what happens if they court, you know, of

1:11:56

weight out the market a little bit

1:11:58

on the bit on the catcher thing. not saying that

1:12:00

they're not going to have to eat any

1:12:02

salary on it. I'm just saying, eat any salary optimistic still

1:12:04

get something for them if they they should also

1:12:06

note. We were talking about

1:12:08

the if lottery We but MLB announced were

1:12:11

talking about the draft What are they

1:12:13

called? earlier, but the MLB announced the, what are

1:12:15

they called, competitive balance out like

1:12:17

a dozen or so, I think year was

1:12:19

or so, I think this year was 15 picks.

1:12:23

Half of them are between the the

1:12:25

and second round. are called those are called competitive

1:12:27

and then half of them are between

1:12:29

the second and the third round. are

1:12:31

called competitive balance B picks, are called and

1:12:33

they're distributed. balance B picks, and based on

1:12:35

a formula from MLB. I don't

1:12:37

know if it's a formula or not,

1:12:39

but it's basically market size and

1:12:41

revenue and record. basically And the

1:12:43

goal is to... record. And the goal is

1:12:45

to reward teams. that are are trying.

1:12:47

but are trying are trying

1:12:50

under. circumstances. circumstances. of

1:12:52

the idea behind revenue

1:12:54

of the idea behind revenue sharing. like

1:12:56

the Twins is uh... or

1:12:58

the know, teams like whatever, the

1:13:00

they're the pirates or whatever.

1:13:02

and they're putting forth an effort

1:13:04

and they're winning games and they're

1:13:06

not just taking their money and trotting out

1:13:08

a $60 million payroll, at the end of at the

1:13:10

end of each season, the formula

1:13:12

will spit spit some picks for

1:13:14

them. for So them. So the twins. Got a

1:13:17

a competitive balance a pick awarded

1:13:19

yesterday. Slapped guess? between in

1:13:21

between the and second round. Yes,

1:13:23

end up being. up being

1:13:26

Basically like the 35th overall pick yeah, had

1:13:28

36th something like that like that overall

1:13:30

overall right, but it So right, but

1:13:32

it goes behind right cusp. That's

1:13:35

gonna be that's right a

1:13:37

few of them, but them, but

1:13:39

That is, and they've and they've gotten

1:13:41

past, in the past the second and third round.

1:13:43

Yeah, between the to and third round. one is going

1:13:45

to happen in the first one to lose are going

1:13:47

to lose some picks. People are going to gain

1:13:49

some based on the free free that are signed, signed,

1:13:51

That's why we don't know the exact number. exact

1:13:53

number, Because it depends on the contract on the contract signed

1:13:56

by the But the 35th pick in the draft,

1:13:58

and I bring this up bring this up note about. about

1:14:00

competitive balance round picks.

1:14:02

those are the only draft picks that can

1:14:04

be traded. be traded. MLB for the

1:14:06

entire history of the draft the

1:14:08

entire history of the draft prior to like

1:14:10

the years ago where you the only trade where

1:14:12

you could not trade draft picks drove know

1:14:15

that drove people nuts and it was hard

1:14:17

to explain to people why. to people why. And

1:14:19

now it's even harder to explain to now

1:14:21

there are 15 picks out of a 15 picks

1:14:23

out year a you can trade. you can I

1:14:25

bring this up for a couple for a One,

1:14:27

reasons. One, not saying the twins will trade

1:14:29

it, will trade it, but. you know, essentially a

1:14:31

late first round pick, pick overall,

1:14:34

let's say, has huge value.

1:14:36

Yes, I mean, i mean The

1:14:38

35th pick in in any draft will

1:14:40

immediately be one of their of best

1:14:43

prospects. prospects. Sure. know, I think Matt

1:14:45

Wallner was a comp pick. I

1:14:47

think I think was a comp pick.

1:14:49

Was pick. a comp pick? pick? Yes, or

1:14:51

he was or he was just second round,

1:14:53

maybe, he might have he might have been a

1:14:55

cop. I mean I mean, second. was He's around

1:14:57

30s. He the mid in the mid 30s. of good

1:14:59

players go in the mid in the mid 30s. and you

1:15:01

know in terms of You know, in terms

1:15:03

of trying to slap a value on that of

1:15:06

all it mean, first of all, it adds a

1:15:08

couple or dollars or three million dollars to

1:15:10

your bonus pool, to sign can be used that's

1:15:12

Well, that's minimally what the value is, because

1:15:14

every team is thrilled to give a guy

1:15:16

$3 million. dollars The real world value of

1:15:18

that, because then you get that guy, know for minimum

1:15:21

know, for minimum three years and three years and

1:15:23

arbitration, you whole whole career for three

1:15:25

million dollars. It's probably closer like ten

1:15:27

million dollars in terms of like excess

1:15:29

value. terms of like And so I bring this up

1:15:31

for a couple this One, I think most likely

1:15:33

they'll just draft a player likely that pick, which

1:15:35

they should do. player with that pick which

1:15:37

a free prospect like a free

1:15:40

but basically but they could incorporate that

1:15:42

into a trade and essentially you're kind

1:15:44

of trading a top prospect

1:15:46

without having met that top prospect

1:15:48

yet. yet. the reason that teams

1:15:50

like that is, first of

1:15:52

all, they can choose the guy

1:15:54

they want. and also they then

1:15:56

they the get the money to spread around

1:15:58

to other prospects. I've also

1:16:00

already got got this came out last

1:16:02

night. night people could they

1:16:04

attach that attach that pick to let's

1:16:06

say, and use that pick to

1:16:09

move pick to move Vasca's

1:16:11

entire absolutely if you wanted If you

1:16:13

wanted to move Christian Vasquez's entire

1:16:15

salary attach that pick pick it's done, the

1:16:17

the problem is that that pick is

1:16:19

worth more than more than him right or clearing

1:16:21

his salary I I think that would

1:16:23

be an overpay an overpay is a it

1:16:26

is a nice uh Freebie,

1:16:28

you know the Brewers know the one,

1:16:30

a and a bunch of got one got one,

1:16:32

I think I got the the Twins third

1:16:34

highest one. best And so it gives

1:16:36

them highest one, and so it gives them

1:16:39

another trade chip and to to

1:16:41

able to basically trade a

1:16:43

top prospect. but

1:16:45

not have it be someone who anyone

1:16:47

is emotionally attached to yet. yet. know what

1:16:49

mean? what I mean? Seth has not had a

1:16:52

chance to become Facebook friends with their

1:16:54

grandparents yet. know what I mean? You know

1:16:56

what so this is just a nameless,

1:16:58

faceless, faceless, July, when when he's drafted and

1:17:00

everyone meets the the people will be like,

1:17:02

be don't trade him, trade that's so that's a

1:17:04

Before we get to some other we get

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gleam. Okay. Let's

1:20:03

hit some other

1:20:06

news and notes

1:20:08

here. So. I

1:20:11

was thinking, uh, we should also mention,

1:20:14

speaking of contracts I did not expect,

1:20:16

Kyle Farmer got a one year, three

1:20:18

and a half million, plus a team

1:20:21

option, or a mutual option for 2026.

1:20:23

Right. I'm fascinated that he continues to

1:20:25

get paid pretty well. That part makes

1:20:28

sense. He's a viable backup, good club.

1:20:30

Oh, sky, all that stuff. Versable. but

1:20:32

that every deal he signs including the

1:20:35

one he signed last year with the

1:20:37

twins as an arbitration eligible player was

1:20:39

like a one year six million with

1:20:42

a six million dollar option for this

1:20:44

year right which they declined and had

1:20:46

to give him two hundred fifty thousand

1:20:48

hour how does he keep getting options

1:20:51

added on to these contracts as like

1:20:53

a utility guy it's really strange like

1:20:55

who why are teams like we got

1:20:58

lock him up for next year because

1:21:00

if he has that breakout year at

1:21:02

age 35 whatever it is very strange

1:21:05

he's going to the Colorado Rockies which

1:21:07

honestly If I were kind of a,

1:21:09

you know, mid-30s utility guy looking for

1:21:12

a last contract. It's not a bad

1:21:14

one to target. Colorado is a great

1:21:16

place. You might play a decent amount

1:21:18

because they're not real good. We just

1:21:21

saw them give like 300 a batch

1:21:23

to Jake Cave last year. And if

1:21:25

you're looking to like stave off late

1:21:28

career decline, course field is a hell

1:21:30

of a drug. Of course. Course field

1:21:32

can make a 220 hitter look like

1:21:35

a 260 hitter with no problem. So

1:21:37

yeah, Cal Farmer did well. I did

1:21:39

not expect to be the first Twins

1:21:42

free agent off the board. You know

1:21:44

what I mean? Yeah. Of all their...

1:21:46

Yeah, okay. Not the dance, some huge

1:21:48

class, but like Kepler and Santana and

1:21:51

some other guys. Yeah, it's true. How

1:21:53

far and we're getting like three and

1:21:55

a half, four million dollars guaranteed. It's

1:21:58

a pretty good thing. Speaking of Jay

1:22:00

Cave. Yeah, went to Korea. Your favorite

1:22:02

team, the Dusin Bears. Not my favorite

1:22:05

team, but I like... like, I enjoyed

1:22:07

my, maybe, I enjoyed my visit to

1:22:09

their, to their stadium. Jake Cave, Seoul

1:22:12

Korea. I would, I would advise people,

1:22:14

go to baseballreference.com, which is the greatest

1:22:16

website in the history of the world,

1:22:19

and even better than Twins Daily. You

1:22:21

guys are number two. And look up

1:22:23

Jake Cave. And whatever you think, however

1:22:25

many seasons you think he played and

1:22:28

however many games and at bats, you

1:22:30

think he accumulated over the years, it's

1:22:32

more. Yeah. And however much money you

1:22:35

think he made, it's more. And I

1:22:37

bet he has a blast in Korea.

1:22:39

He'll pay off a ride and so

1:22:42

we'll see. Now

1:22:45

also while you're on that page,

1:22:47

look up the last season in

1:22:49

which he had an above average

1:22:51

OPS. Then think to yourself, how

1:22:53

did he keep playing for five

1:22:56

years since then? He is a

1:22:58

hell of a guy. Yeah. So

1:23:00

we'll see all that translates to

1:23:02

Korea. Last thing I want to

1:23:04

say. You know, he's

1:23:06

a very cheap free agent option. So

1:23:09

cheap in fact that he took a

1:23:11

million dollars to go to Korea. Kyle

1:23:13

Farmer, not as cheap as I expected,

1:23:15

but he was a cheap free agent

1:23:17

signing for the Rockies. I don't know

1:23:19

if three is much different than I

1:23:21

expected. Wow. I would have bet on

1:23:23

a minor league deal if you said,

1:23:25

will he get a minor league deal

1:23:27

or three and a half million guaranteed?

1:23:29

I would have bet on a minor

1:23:31

league deal. I think I would have

1:23:33

probably gone the other way, but... Well,

1:23:35

that's easy to say, no, John. You

1:23:37

make yourself look good, buddy. You put

1:23:39

yourself over. Yeah, that's easy. That's my

1:23:42

job, usually. We should maybe be... That

1:23:44

would be an interesting over-under episode for

1:23:46

us to kind of go through... How

1:23:48

much... What will the contracts be? Not

1:23:50

necessarily... Maybe a few of the top

1:23:52

guys, maybe if you guys we think

1:23:54

the twins might target, maybe a few

1:23:56

of the guys that are leaving the

1:23:58

guys that are leaving. Just a fun

1:24:00

episode. Just Santana Kepler would be. Santana

1:24:02

Kepler would be. All right, we'll see

1:24:04

if either of us can remember that

1:24:06

between now and the next episode. some

1:24:08

other cheap free agent options that if

1:24:10

twins fans are being even somewhat realistic.

1:24:12

Honestly if you're being really realistic even

1:24:15

some of these guys are probably sure

1:24:17

because they just they have no money

1:24:19

like as of now they have negative

1:24:21

money probably as of now but I

1:24:23

wrote about some of these guys so

1:24:25

we can just to run through them

1:24:27

very very quickly but if you're looking

1:24:29

for a bat you know, they lost

1:24:31

Carlos Santana, which means first base is

1:24:33

now open. Alex Kirloff retired, which means

1:24:35

to some extent, first base DH left

1:24:37

field, does a something of an opening.

1:24:39

You could fill first base with Miranda

1:24:41

and Julian, you could fill DH just

1:24:43

with a, you know, rotating assortment of

1:24:45

guys, which I actually think they would

1:24:47

prefer to do post Nelson Cruz. They've

1:24:50

generally done that when possible. I

1:24:52

also think if you're not getting

1:24:54

a real a middle of the

1:24:56

order bat why not just fill

1:24:59

it with yeah mix and match

1:25:01

guys guys who do you day

1:25:03

off all that stuff I also

1:25:05

have been saying for approximately 20

1:25:07

years that they should sign or

1:25:09

trade for a competent right-handed hitting

1:25:11

corner out fielder who can you

1:25:13

know hit left-handed pitching. It seems

1:25:16

clear to me that they disagree

1:25:18

that that's needed because they've basically

1:25:20

never done it and when they

1:25:22

have done it it's been like

1:25:24

a trade for Jordan loophole who's

1:25:26

a mirely guy. and then also

1:25:28

just like uh you know backup

1:25:30

center field there could be a

1:25:33

could be in play sure maybe

1:25:35

a utility type to replace farmer

1:25:37

let's say so with that in

1:25:39

mind here are some low-cost

1:25:41

fits and the way I determined

1:25:44

low-cost was I took the athletics

1:25:46

big board which listed 40 guys

1:25:48

uh-huh I was part of the

1:25:50

voting panel for that and I

1:25:52

crossed all them all that's how

1:25:54

you start with the 40 first

1:25:56

yeah and if I'm being honest

1:25:58

even like the guys in the

1:26:00

because we We actually ranked it

1:26:02

to 60 I think because we

1:26:04

didn't know who was going to

1:26:06

like take a qualifying offer and

1:26:08

all that. I actually eliminated the

1:26:10

top 50. Okay. So 41 through

1:26:12

50 weren't known but I crossed

1:26:14

those up too. So here's what

1:26:16

I was left with. These are

1:26:18

not top 50 free agents which

1:26:20

to me says they're most likely

1:26:22

going to be available for a

1:26:24

one year deal perhaps similar to

1:26:26

or lower than the $5 million

1:26:28

contract that Santana got last year.

1:26:30

Well, okay. Number one. A gentleman

1:26:32

named Carlos Santana would be a

1:26:34

pretty good fit. He's an older

1:26:36

gent, but I've heard good things

1:26:38

about the defense and certainly did

1:26:40

not look old last year on

1:26:42

any level. I fear, weirdly, you

1:26:44

don't see a 39 year old

1:26:46

whose market is on the rise.

1:26:49

I think he's going to get more

1:26:52

than $5 million certainly. I've heard that

1:26:54

he's been talking to some other teams.

1:26:56

I don't know that he's talking to

1:26:58

the twins. I honestly won't be shocked

1:27:00

if he gets a two-year deal. or

1:27:02

like a one year with an option

1:27:04

that has some kind of decent buyout.

1:27:07

I think he'll certainly get more than

1:27:09

five million, which unfortunately, even if the

1:27:11

twins were interested, that might take them

1:27:13

all the running for him. I can't

1:27:15

believe I'm sitting here and saying a

1:27:17

39 year old, basically platoon guy, he

1:27:20

wasn't very good from the left side,

1:27:22

he was okay. But yeah, at that

1:27:24

price point. Yeah. I mean

1:27:26

if I can be convinced he'd be

1:27:28

at six I have trouble seeing a

1:27:31

two-year 12 or two-year right but the

1:27:33

problem is if everyone thinks he sounds

1:27:35

good for six million yeah somebody's gonna

1:27:38

have to think he sounds good for

1:27:40

12 million that's how the twins ended

1:27:42

up with Vasquez on a three-year deal

1:27:45

sure so he would be a cheap

1:27:47

if you could get him for a

1:27:49

one million now raise over last year

1:27:52

Why would you not do it in

1:27:54

my opinion? Josh Bell is another switch

1:27:56

hitting first baseman. Yeah, who is much

1:27:59

much much worse. to

1:28:01

the point that he's probably more of

1:28:03

a D.H. He's huge, so he's going

1:28:05

to be a much different look than

1:28:07

Santa Ana, but he's just kind of

1:28:09

awkward around the bag. I don't know

1:28:11

that he's the worst, but he's just

1:28:13

not a good defender, but he's just

1:28:15

not a good defender, has had an

1:28:17

up and down career, but has shown,

1:28:19

you know, 30 home or power has

1:28:21

been an all-star type of hitter. I

1:28:23

mean, he's someone who in a good

1:28:25

year is going to be much better

1:28:27

than Carlos Santaos, In kind of an

1:28:29

average year, he'll probably be worse than

1:28:31

Carlos Santana. And then the other first

1:28:33

baseman is Justin Turner. who if you

1:28:35

like a 39 year old Carla Santana

1:28:37

why not like a 40 year old

1:28:39

Justin Turner? Right? Yeah. Who's been a

1:28:41

great player for the Dodgers and more

1:28:43

recently Red Sox and Blue Jays and

1:28:45

Mariners in the second half of last

1:28:47

year. He's lost some power and he

1:28:49

used to be a third baseman now

1:28:51

he's like first base DH but he's

1:28:53

pretty decent from what I saw last

1:28:55

year at first base right handed hitter

1:28:57

as opposed to a switch hitter not

1:28:59

much of a power guy more of

1:29:01

a batting average draw walks control to

1:29:03

strike zone type of guy but If

1:29:05

you're just looking for a cheap one-year

1:29:07

deal, he would probably be someone who

1:29:09

would be available. I could see that.

1:29:11

He's a good fit. Outfield-wise, one of

1:29:13

the guys we've talked about seemingly every

1:29:15

year for 10 years is Randall Grichick,

1:29:17

who's just your prototypical fourth out-fielder, right-handed

1:29:20

hitter. could play in center as a

1:29:22

stretch but can be in left and

1:29:24

right knocks around lefties every single year

1:29:26

puts up enough of a fight against

1:29:28

righties that if you need him a

1:29:30

couple times a week against righties he's

1:29:32

not the end of the world there

1:29:34

generally been available on one year deals

1:29:36

has actually had a really good year

1:29:38

last year after a couple of mediocre

1:29:40

years. Harrison Bader is a guy we

1:29:42

talked about last off season as kind

1:29:44

of a Michael Taylor Esk, mostly defense

1:29:46

and speed, but does have some pop.

1:29:48

He got 10 million from the Mets

1:29:50

last year, but then didn't have a

1:29:52

particularly good year, so maybe he could

1:29:54

be a little bit cheaper. And then

1:29:56

the non-tender group, which provides kind of

1:29:58

a second wave of free agency. Austin

1:30:01

of mid-tier free ages. Yeah, I mean

1:30:03

they're by definition right they were not

1:30:06

wanted at their projected arbitration salaries Chris

1:30:08

these Phillies traded for and then cut

1:30:10

Austin Hayes after he had some health

1:30:12

problems and didn't hit much But if

1:30:15

you look at Austin Hayes first of

1:30:17

you well, he's younger than most of

1:30:19

these guys I think he's like 28-29.

1:30:21

He's been a borderline regular like an

1:30:24

everyday type of guy, but probably he's

1:30:26

a right-handed hitter corner outfielder played a

1:30:28

long time for the Orioles good

1:30:31

career numbers against lefties, mediocre career numbers

1:30:33

against righties, and not a great defender,

1:30:35

but a okay defender, he would be

1:30:37

similar to Grichik, a younger version of

1:30:40

Grichik if you get him. The Phillies

1:30:42

caught him instead of paying him $6

1:30:44

million. So my presumption is he's gonna

1:30:46

get $4 million or something. Yeah. Ramone

1:30:48

Laureano who we saw with Oakland and

1:30:51

Cleveland and bounced around he had a

1:30:53

decent bounce back with the Braves he's

1:30:55

a guy who right-handed hitter good in

1:30:57

the corners can be stretched in center

1:30:59

if needed this is kind of the

1:31:02

type that I would be targeting AAS

1:31:04

Dylan Carlson who was with the Cardinals

1:31:06

traded I think to Tampa Bay kind

1:31:08

of had a disappointing here he's a

1:31:11

younger guy but again borderline center field

1:31:13

they're good in the corners he's actually

1:31:15

a switch hitter but better against Rides

1:31:17