JotCast | Front Office Chat: 6/30/23

Front Office Chat: 6/30/23

Anthony Franco

3:59

Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well! Let's get going

For Love of the Game

3:59

Beyond rentals like Lorenzo's and E-Rod, should the Tigers hold on to the rest, including the relievers unless they get blown away by an offer?

Anthony Franco

4:01

I wouldn't take any of the relievers off the table. That's just not an area of the roster I'd feel great projecting multiple seasons of success, and I think teams are generally a little too unwilling to sell high on controllable pieces

4:02

Obviously that doesn't mean you just give away Lange, Foley and Vest for whatever's available. But if they can get a prospect at the same level as Hayden Wesneski (who the Yankees sent the Cubs for Scott Effross last summer) for Vest or Foley, I'd pull the trigger

Jorge78

4:03

I notice Darragh has the occasional article. Is he helping until you find another Dardagh? I liked his chats!

Anthony Franco

4:04

Darragh's a full-time member of the staff. He's on site coverage every weekday. He doesn't do a weekly chat or Front Office post -- we have to weigh the time spent on those versus the ability to put out extra original content for the main site -- but Darragh's around

Whither Rengifo

4:04

Luis Rengifo used to have a lot of promise, based on his minor-league stats and what he did last year. This year, he's tanked. What happened? At age 26, does he have a pulse?

Anthony Franco

4:06

Never really been a fan, think last season was playing above his head. Has some defensive flexibility but he's not great anywhere. Contact skills but a fairly aggressive approach and not a ton of power

Casey

4:06

Does Joey Bart have trade value? Do you suspect he is moved with the emergence of Bailey?

Anthony Franco

4:07

Yeah I'd guess he gets dealt by next offseason, maybe this summer. Still some appeal. Not what it once was obviously, but I don't think we're quite at Cristian Pache territory

4:07

Do we really need anything?

Anthony Franco

4:07

(Braves)

4:09

No such thing as a perfect roster but this is pretty close. Could use a little more position player depth, maybe a second left-hander for the bullpen. They're luxury buys though. This team is awesome

Jared Young

4:09

Is he Mervis 2.0, Frank the Tank 3.0 - above Mancini on depth chart in a month? What-cha think?

Anthony Franco

4:10

Not sure what Mervis 2.0 would be. Haven't really gotten a look at Mervis 1.0 yet

4:11

The upper minors track record for Young is pretty good. Has some plate discipline, can move around the infield a little bit. Strikes out a ton. Certainly don't think he's an everyday first baseman but I could see him hanging around as a depth piece for a year or two

LV A's

4:11

Will Tyler Soderstrom ever hit for average, or will he be the second coming of Mike Zunino (in a good year)?

Anthony Franco

4:13

I've never seen him play but scouting reports tend to have him around a 45 hit tool. Zunino is probably a 20-grade hitter

I'd expect Soderstrom to make more contact than Zunino, even if he's a power-over-hit player in general. If Soderstrom's striking out 40% of the time against MLB pitching, he probably doesn't stick around for long

4:14

Zunino was a plus defender for a while, which is a big reason he's stuck around despite the strikeouts. Soderstrom getting to average catcher defense seems like a reach

Stormy

4:14

Can a high school or University player choose to go straight to Japan and play there upon graduation? If yes, could they sign a one-year contract and then come back to MLB as a free agent?

Anthony Franco

4:16

You can go over there, yeah. Carter Stewart did this a few seasons after he and the Braves couldn't reach agreement on a signing bonus

4:19

Jumping back after one year to circumvent the draft is tough, though. Pretty sure they'd be subject to the bonus pool caps until they turn 25, which caps the earning potential of doing that. The Asian leagues also have limits on how many foreign-born players can be on a roster, so they're not able to just take on a bunch of kids right out of high school or college and push them to NBP or KBO

Brewers

4:19

Could you see the Brewers making a trade for Pete Alonso?

Anthony Franco

4:20

He'd be a great fit obviously but I'm still hard-pressed to see the Mets moving him. Both Jon Heyman and Ken Rosenthal have kind of shot that idea down in the past few days, and it'd be such a huge blow to their 2024 chances I don't think ownership or the front office want to take

Seems like the Mets are trending towards trading David Robertson, Tommy Pham and Luke Raley and calling it a deadline

Tony

4:20

Thanks for the chats. Always interesting. The Mariners have a number of good young arms but seem to need hitting. Is there a match with the Cardinals surplus of young hitters and their surplus of arms?

Anthony Franco

4:22

Got a similar question either last week or two weeks ago. I sort of see it but all those guys are so good, which makes them the kind of players teams don't like to give up. Very rare to see the Jazz Chisholm/Zac Gallen swap of two young players

4:23

St. Louis and Seattle swapping Jordan Walker for Logan Gilbert would be fun as hell, but it's not something I think either team would actually do

Cory

4:24

Given how the Orioles starting pitching has performed over the month of June, do you see the starting pitching or middle relief being more of a priority?

Anthony Franco

4:26

Still the rotation for me. I like Wells and Gibson's solid, but I'm still not convinced Bradish or Kremer are more than 4/5 guys. Need a genuine Game One playoff starter

wvpirate

4:26

The Pirates soon will have a glut of middle infielders. Do you see a trade involving one such as Castro or Marcano?

Anthony Franco

4:27

I don't see much trade appeal there with either guy. Maybe they ship one out just to clear space but they're not going to get anything notable in return

4:28

No impact in the bat with Marcano. Castro doesn't have a good defensive fit and has been ice cold offensively since that excellent April

jdf21

4:28

Why is Dana Brown being so open with the media about who he wants to extend and who he is looking to trade? What's the advantage there?

Anthony Franco

4:30

I don't know that there's any advantage but it's nice for us. I don't think there's much downside for a GM saying they want a bat and they're open to trading from the MLB roster either. It's not like Chas McCormick and Jake Meyers are going to stop trying

4:31

I think that kind of openness is neither advantageous nor disadvantageous to front offices. They tend not to do it because they don't get much out of it, but it's cool when it happens and I'm glad Brown's in a position where he can be so forthright

Cards Fan

4:31

Ouch, when thinking about my Cardinals this year. Can they blow up the pitching staff between the trade deadline and the offseason prior to 2024? What about getting Civale for Carlson, E. Cabrera for Herrera/Gallegos/DeJong, or if we were really luck, a haul for a SEA starter like Gilbert or Kirby? Something's gotta change, cause it ain't good right now or in the foreseeable future.

Anthony Franco

4:32

Mentioned the Seattle thing earlier. Marlins wouldn't do the Cabrera deal you suggested. I think Carlson gets you Civale but Civale is the mold of strike-throwing 3/4 starter that the Cardinals have loaded up on and gotten destroyed with this season

Pitchers

4:33

Please rank the following rookie pitchers for this year and for the long term: Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo, Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams

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