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Chat with MLBTR's Steve Adams: 5/27/25
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Steve Adams
8:40
Good morning! Hope those who were able to enjoyed the long weekend! I'll get this going at 1pm CT, but feel free to send in questions ahead of time if you prefer.
1:01
Good afternoon!
Let's get underway
Royals_Gt
1:01
HI from Guatemala! My question is... Would the Royals trade Pasquantino then bring up Cags to play 1st Base. What could they get for Pasquantino? Thanks for the chat!
Steve Adams
1:04
Hello from Minnesota! I don't think the Royals have enough bats to justify trading one of their only competent ones (Pasquantino) midseason. I suppose you could draw up some kind of swap with an 1B-needy team like the Red Sox, but Boston's not sending them a quality outfielder like Wilyer Abreu for a 1B-only with less club control.

Easier to just put Caglianone in the outfield, where he's started half of his six games in AAA. He's been splitting time between 1B and the corner OF spots on about a 50-50 basis in recent weeks.
Braves
1:04
If a player signs a one day deal to retire as a member of a team, does that player require a 40 man spot?
Steve Adams
1:05
Nope
Pivo
1:05
What is DeGroms contract status? Any chance he becomes available if the Rangers fall out of it?  Yankees?
Steve Adams
1:06
As of the trade deadline, deGrom would be owed about $87.5MM over the next 2+ seasons. He has a full no-trade clause. He'd effectively cost the Yankees $78-79MM annually when factoring in the luxury tax.
All of which is to say, the Yankees fit almost certainly isn't happening regardless of what happens with the Rangers (and, more broadly, I don't expect deGrom to be traded to anyone)
Jake
1:07
How long until Brady House is playing third everyday for the Nationals?
Steve Adams
1:09
He's hitting well this month, albeit with a pretty shaky K-BB profile. I'd like to see him making more contact or at least better swing decisions, but the Nats could use some help at 3B before too long ... I imagine he'll be up within the next month, barring a slump where his production goes in the tank in Rochester.
MoonbeamMcSwine
1:09
AL Central: Still think it's the Tigers to win or did losing three of four to Cleveland give you pause?
Steve Adams
1:13
There's three other good teams in there all within six games. It's too early in the season to proclaim them winners by any stretch of the imagination; injuries happen, young players slump or regress... other teams call up prospects or get healthier or make trade acquisitions, etc.

Detroit is the obvious favorite right now, as is true of any team with a 5-game lead at the one-third point of the season, but projection systems give them anywhere from a 56% chance (PECOTA) to a 66% chance (FanGraphs) of winning the division, which seems generally fair. I'd probably err closer to the FG projection, but there's a lot of season left. No team is a lock to win its division right now.

The only real division locks at this point are the Rockies and White Sox finishing last in the NL West and AL Central, respectively.
Kyle Finnegan
1:14
Why isn't anyone talking about me?  Seems like I would bring at least a decent return...
Steve Adams
1:17
Finnegan is basically doing the exact same thing he did last year ... below-average K%, way below-average swinging-strike rate, passable command. His 2.41 ERA is overwhelmingly attributable to the fact that he hasn't given up a home run, which isn't something any pitcher can sustain.

I think teams will see him as a fine, but not great reliever, which is backed up by the fact that he was non-tendered and lingered in free agency until he took a deferral-laden contract that guarantees him less than his projected arbitration price.

I don't think he'll bring anything great, and I'm not sure other clubs would view him as a surefire closing option, but he's a serviceable reliever with plenty of late-inning experience, so yeah he should net a prospect of some kind.

Probably just not the type you'd expect based on his save tally and shiny (but unsustainable) ERA.
Drew Pomeranz
1:18
Am I back?
Steve Adams
1:20
"Back" in the sense that he's pitching in the majors! But as is the case with most small-sample sets of dominance, it's pretty easy to poke holes in Pomeranz's success. Hasn't allowed a homer. .148 average on balls in play. Swinging-strike rate at 9.7%. Plenty of hard contact allowed.

I won't dispute the idea that he can be serviceable, but there's a whole lot of smoke and mirrors with regard to what he's done so far.
Coby Mayo
1:21
What is Baltimore doing with me? Do I have a future here, or am I better off in another org? Who even am I anymore?
Steve Adams
1:24
I am perennially confounded by the Orioles' reluctance to give some of their guys a chance. Mayo has never gotten a real look. Kjerstad didn't get one until his age-26 season, and early on that wasn't even the case. Norby, Ortiz, Stowers never got great looks before being traded.

I know there's a lot of position-player depth, but the O's give plenty of reps to fungible bench guys every season.

Mayo hasn't helped himself by posting pretty middling numbers in AAA this year, but if you'd told me prior to the season that Jordan Westburg was going to miss 2+ months and Mayo would get all of 13 MLB plate appearances in the interim, I'd have assumed Mayo was injured as well.
Rickey Henderson
1:25
Which of Victor Scott and Chandler Simpson do you like better long term?
Steve Adams
1:27
Ceiling, I'd go with Simpson for the vastly better hit tool/contact skills. He has the speed to be an elite defender in the outfield obviously, but he's not there yet.

Floor, give me Scott, since he already has the plus-plus glove and comparable speed. He'll never match Simpson's hit tool, but there's an easier path to him being a useful role player even if he doesn't hit.
Clark and Addison
1:28
If you were Jed Hoyer, who would you prioritize for a long-term deal, Kyle Tucker or Pete Crow-Armstrong?
Steve Adams
1:29
You're not getting Tucker to sign an extension at this point, so PCA by default I suppose. Although there's no reason they shouldn't go all out to keep Tucker in free agency
Brewer Fan
1:30
With all the analytics, how can teams still not move away from the sunk cost fallacy? In other words, how in the world do Aaron Civale and Quinn Priester have roster spots over Logan Henderson and Jacob Misiorowski?!
Steve Adams
1:35
Aaron Civale isn't a sunk cost because he got injured and had one bad start and one mediocre one in his return. He pitched a career-high 161 innings last year and gave the Brewers plenty of value.

It's a matter of preserving depth. Civale can't be sent down. Priester is in his final option year but hasn't burned that option yet. He's also pitched pretty well his past four times out.

Henderson being optioned was more about lengthening the bullpen than anything else. I would imagine he's back up as soon as they have an IL situation, perhaps even in time for him not to miss a start.

Misiorowski absolutely could/should be in the majors by now though, I agree that he seems largely ready for a look.
Spencer Jones
1:36
After striking out an incredible 200 times over 126 games last year, somehow I'm off to an even better start this year with 41 strikeouts through 26 games. However, my OBP is up (.336 -> .372) and I'm slugging at .554., which is the highest on my team and up from .452 last year. Why am I so frustrating? Will I be a major leaguer batting .190 with 40 home runs every year?
Steve Adams
1:39
I just don't think he's been challenged by good enough pitching to fully exploit the hit tool yet. I can't get behind a player striking out at a 36-37% clip in Double-A as a legitimate high end prospect, even if the other tools are loud (and they very much are).

If Jones can really scale back the K's in Triple-A or early in his MLB tenure, he could be a monster, but we have no evidence he's capable of that right now. He K'ed at a 36.8% clip in AA as a 23-year-old and is at 36.3% in AA this year when repeating the level as a 24-year-old. His overall contact rate is actually down three percentage points from last year.

As I've said in the past -- I'm not the guy you want to talk to if you're looking for Spencer Jones hype. I'm just not buying at present.
Sophia
1:40
If the Rockies finish the season with the worst record in baseball, will they be eligible to win a lottery pick in the 2026 draft? Or, will they be ineligible just like the White Sox were for 2025?
Steve Adams
1:41
The Rockies had a lottery pick in 2024 and have another in 2025. The draft lottery setup, which was implemented to prevent tanking, doesn't allow teams to land lottery picks in three consecutive years. And teams that aren't eligible for the lottery can't pick inside the top nine in the draft.

So, they'll seemingly end up 10th, like the 2025 White Sox.
Ben Fried Rice
1:41
One-Third into the season, which current division leader ends the season not winning the division? My moneys on Philly
Steve Adams
1:42
Which current division leader is likeliest to cede that lead by season's end?
Yankees (3.4% | 13 votes)
 
Tigers (12.7% | 48 votes)
 
Mariners (43% | 163 votes)
 
Phillies (12.7% | 48 votes)
 
Cubs (15% | 57 votes)
 
Dodgers (4% | 15 votes)
 
None. Those are the 6 winners. (9.2% | 35 votes)
 
Total Votes: 379
Dodger Dog
1:43
Why are the Angels collecting every member of the White Sox team that lost a historic number of games?
Steve Adams
1:44
"It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them."
1:45
It's both perplexing and amusing. I can see the logic on Moncada. Anderson has been a mess for two-plus years now, though. Colas ... I don't know. There's no harm in a minor league deal, but I don't have high hopes for him either.
Crisortunity
1:45
Brewers take this chance to recoup value and send out Peralta, Megill, Hoskins, etc at the deadline, right?
Steve Adams
1:45
They are one of the teams I look at and wonder if they'll be an opportunistic seller while not punting on the season outright, yes.
Chris Getz
1:46
Any chance I bring back another top 100 prospect at the deadline? My best trade chip might be Davis Martin, with Robert slumping.
Steve Adams
1:49
I don't see anyone on the Sox who's going to net them a 50-ish FV prospect, no. Lots of role players for sale ... Tauchman, Slater, MAT, Houser, Rojas, Steven Wilson.

I think it might've been in the subscriber chat last week but someone asked about the possibility of moving Jonathan Cannon, and I think a team in the White Sox' shoes should be willing to entertain the idea even though he has five years of club control post-2025. He's not going to be an ace, and if a team is willing to overpay for someone who feels pretty fourth-starter-ish because of that club control, why not listen?

But barring that very unlikely scenario (and barring Robert catching absolute fire here), I don't see a big-ticket trade item.
Olereb
1:50
I read an article about the Braves trading Profar back to the Padres. My question does Profar have any trade value? I think Braves are stuck with him.
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