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00:00coming up at 1 30 eastern here on sports grid just baseball takes over and so the guys will
00:04be talking baseball for 30 minutes as major league baseball's hot stove continues to trickle
00:09just a bit we actually had a pretty significant signing yesterday so let's bring in jack mcmullin
00:14of just baseball and also marlins radio network to break down the very latest going on with
00:20baseball's offseason jack great to catch up with you once again and uh here we are another hot
00:24stove i will say you know generally i i grade the hot stove every year as like an f like it's
00:30usually my f grade i just hate the fact that we gotta wait till january and february to get this
00:34done but i will say i'll maybe give it like a d or a d plus because hey i mean dylan c signed
00:40somewhere we had a couple trades we had a signing yesterday i mean december in the past jack has been
00:46a complete zero like nothing but at least we're getting a little bit going on right now you know
00:51what craig if you're simon cowell right now i'm going to do my randy jackson impression i i'm going
00:55to say you know what c c plus right now because i'm thinking about how it is relative to what it
01:00typically is to your point so you know you almost have no movement when a couple weeks ago we had
01:05josh naylor going back to seattle and i was like okay things are starting to move a little bit
01:09when was the last time we saw a 200 million dollar deal signed in november i that's like even before
01:15thanksgiving so you got dylan c signing with toronto for 210 million dollars and then you've got the
01:21reliever markets start to move on december 1st i love that with devin williams going to new york so
01:26i i'm willing to push to a c but i understand your sentiment so so devin williams who was one of those
01:35players that i was that i would identify as the pinstripes were not meant for him which we see that
01:41every so often where a player is just sort of not meant for new york but he's gonna stay in new york
01:47and he's gonna go to the mets money talks here jack i am surprised that devin williams got a
01:53three-year contract to go play in queens i thought he'd get one or maybe two years i you know again i
02:01don't know how many offers he had that were three years but usually what happens with a player like
02:05this just with my history covering the sport is that some team made a strong offer with two the mets
02:11go to a third and then he signs with the team i mean i don't know that that's how it played out but
02:15that's usually the the uh the situation are you surprised that he got three years to go to the
02:19mets a little bit but to be honest with you craig i thought this was a signaling of baseball and
02:25really player evaluation moving in a different way and the reason i say that is the era was really bad
02:30as a new york yankee and i'm with you he didn't feel right in pinstripes it didn't work well for him
02:36in pinstripes i think about joey gallo right it was a prodigious power bat with the texas rangers
02:41it just didn't work with the yankees sunny gray another guy who was just acquired by the boston
02:46red sox it just didn't work with the yankees and that era would tell you and the whip would tell you
02:52it just didn't work with the yankees but there were so many things under the hood the whiff rate
02:57was still really good the change-up still performed pretty well after he made a tweak
03:02his certain splits against handedness and at time of year those seem to indicate that it was a little
03:08bit more fluky than bad for him and i feel like we are seeing the signaling of maybe era for relievers
03:16might not matter when you're handing out free agent deals they're looking at 95 on the fastball
03:21and they're looking at the best change-up in major league baseball and they still see other
03:25organizations still see one of the premier strikeout artists in any bullpen in major league baseball and
03:30they're paying him like that so for me my mind went two places number one wow they really didn't
03:37care about the era huh and number two did they just take themselves out of the edwin diaz sweepstakes
03:42yeah that's a good question because diaz still out there and i know there's some reports from you
03:48know people who obviously cover the mets closely jack saying that they are still in on uh on edwin
03:53diaz i mean i i guess i sort of believe that but if devin williams got the contract that he got
03:59how could the mets possibly create this sort of super pen of a hundred million dollars with two guys
04:05like this i i don't know i'm a little skeptical yeah i mean because they can because steve cohen
04:11is the owner of the new york mets they can do what they want right now we're uh i i guess quickly
04:16approaching that inevitable conversation but that doesn't happen during this free agent cycle that
04:21happens in december at 2026 when the collective bargaining agreement is up so frankly right now like
04:27they can go pursue edwin diaz they can go create an 150 million dollar eighth and ninth inning combo because
04:34they can because they're the mets and they have the owner that's willing to do it if they do do that
04:40i really do think that the mets probably have the best eight nine combo finishing a baseball game in
04:46major league baseball and that would solve a lot of problems for new york they had a colossal collapse
04:53at the end of the year it really started right around the all-star break why did it happen their
04:58starters were not logging innings to their fullest potential they really didn't have anybody going
05:04five innings or more until the rookie nolan mclean came up and their bullpen was taxed and their bullpen
05:09wasn't very good they acquire ryan helsley at the deadline who by the way just signed with baltimore
05:14helsley was incredibly disappointing they had to constantly go back to the well of diaz and tyler rogers
05:20if they can constantly go back to the well of devin williams of the eighth at edwin diaz in the ninth
05:25i'm sure they feel so much better about that new york we talk about content creation so naturally
05:31there's no trades but there's possibilities of trades and so let's create some content for
05:37everyone out there ahead of the winter meetings which begin on sunday sunday night really but things
05:42don't happen till tuesday ever there just why i uh some trade candidate i've been enough of these
05:48things to know trade candidates uh katel martay leads a list of players who i think will be traded
05:54that would be my prediction i don't know that any other name that i'm showing right there is going
05:58to get dealt i know we'll hear a lot about that maybe donovan at the end because a new gm coming
06:02in and all that that could be a possibility but martay for the tea leaves that went through last season
06:08tells me his time and maybe coming to an end jack i don't know exactly what was going on there in
06:12phoenix with him but it feels like he was missing some games and some other stuff was happening there
06:17and he got the long-term deal with arizona any team would love to have this player but i feel like
06:24there's a lot of smoke regarding him so that tells me there's a chance of something uh some deal
06:29happening man not by the way not next week or anything just in general right yeah i'm with you
06:33it feels like with what went into the 2025 season for katel martay you're right like in the middle of
06:40all of this baggage coming out in the middle of all of this well maybe he's not the best clubhouse guy
06:45in arizona he gets extended why does he get extended because he is hands down the best second
06:50baseman in major league baseball this guy is a top 15 20 hitter in the game so any team that can pursue
06:57a katel martay trade should absolutely be doing that there are plenty of other star to superstar
07:03talents that we've seen in oil and water type clubhouse dynamic i think about ronald acuna jr in
07:09atlanta it's very well reported that ronald may not be teammate of the year but you know what
07:15ronald is a superstar talent so you've got guys like that and maybe it's just a change of scenery
07:21needed arizona also has some other flaws year in and year out of the last half decade the arizona
07:26diamondbacks have been one of the better offenses in major league baseball you look at the last two
07:31three years they've been top five in team ops and run score they've been awesome where is their
07:37problem their problem is the guy on the mound whether it's in the bullpen everybody got hurt last
07:42year or in the starting rotation guys got hurt guys underperformed like zach gallant they need
07:47pitching in return so this feels like one of those opportunities for a rare big leaguer for a bunch of
07:54big leaguers deal where you've got a whole bunch of young exciting starting pitching and relief pitching
08:00going to arizona for katel martay i've seen teams thrown out there cincinnati what if the return is
08:08headlined by hunter green hunter green and something else or just hunter green for katel martay straight
08:13up that starts to really intrigue me um tampa was floated out as well does tampa want to pursue that
08:20they could they have a bunch of young pitching that they can throw arizona's way i feel like that's the
08:25way it gets done one other name that i want to point to on on that list you mentioned brendan donovan
08:29st louis makes all the sense in the world that they move off uh joe ryan in minnesota
08:34it seems like they have kind of no sights set on competing in 2026 why not move joe ryan with two
08:42years of control yeah they could you know i can't believe pablo lopez just after signing this contract
08:47a couple years ago maybe on the outs too in minnesota but i think you're right it does appear
08:51the twins are headed toward the other way all right we got to go the other way we'll take a quick break
08:56here on newswire when we come back next jack and i will discuss another free agent who is out there
09:01and kyle schwarber of the philadelphia phillies we'll see if we can predict some destinations and
09:06also an interesting story released by the athletic about fans maybe getting involved
09:10in baseball's process we'll tell you more about that and a whole lot more you're watching newswire
09:15here on sports grid and we'll be back right after this all right welcome back to newswire here on
09:20sports grid let's dive a little bit more into the hot stove and free agency with jack mcmullen of
09:24just baseball his show is coming your way in about 15 minutes here on newswire and you know
09:30certainly covering the game not just the marlins who he does the radio play-by-play for and we'll
09:34do it this coming season as well uh let's talk about a player that jack has seen a lot home and away
09:39that is kyle schwarber now uh could we say formally the philadelphia phillies i'm not sure
09:44schwarber 56 home runs 132 runs driven in last year and is a fairly coveted free agent i would guess on a
09:52two or i mean hey devon williams got three kyle schwarber's getting three right four-year deal who knows at
09:57this point the thing for me with him is any rumor that i see jack of him associated with a team that
10:06isn't good i'm dismissing it i will be shocked if kyle schwarber goes from philadelphia no disrespect
10:12to pittsburgh or anywhere else this guy has won in his entire career and you're telling me he's gonna
10:18chase down a four-year 100 something to go to a team that's gonna lose the next three out of four years
10:24i'm not buying it i think he either goes back to philadelphia or a team that's at least competitive
10:29i've just i i can't even imagine him in a uniform of a team that's gonna lose 90 100 games next year
10:35i don't see it you're clearly misremembering the three months that he spent in a washington
10:41nationals uniform i call that the nationals era for kyle schwarber but uh no this guy has been a
10:47winner in pretty much every stop i mean i think about you know him taking indiana university to the ncaa
10:53tournament and knocking on the door of the college world series before he went top five overall to the
10:57cubs but you remember like your first big league memory of kyle schwarber is him playing pretty much
11:02on a torn acl in the world series in 2016 with chicago this guy's a winner every team he's on
11:08impacts or he impacts winning in such a positive way so i'm with you i saw the pirate thing and i was
11:14like okay number one would it be really fun to watch him just blister baseballs into the allegheny river
11:20of course no doubt about it but does it make any sense for him at this point in his career probably
11:25not the team that made me raise my eyebrows just a little bit is san francisco and san francisco is
11:32not a place that left-handed hitters want to go to the last left-handed hitter and before willie
11:38adamas this year the last guy to hit 30 homers as a san francisco giant in a season was barry bonds in
11:442004 it took 21 years for another guy to hit 30 homers in san francisco it's a high standard but it's a standard
11:55that kyle schwarber can meet in terms of being maybe the best raw power bat in major league baseball i can see
12:02him wanting that challenge and also joining that fun team in san francisco but for me at least this feels
12:09pretty close to restricted free agency where philly is going to have the opportunity to match whatever
12:14deal this guy may get if it's three years for 100 million dollars and it's you know 33 million dollars
12:20a year i you know the first call is going to be going dave dombrowski's way and he has the opportunity
12:25to match that yeah i i would say so and again knowing uh jorge soler situation i mean the guy took the money
12:31in san francisco and wanted out of there within like a month you know like it's just really hard to hit there
12:38and the giants just have has not been a premier destination for free agents like i thought it
12:43would be with this beautiful stadium it's just i mean i don't know what happened in san francisco but
12:47nobody wants to play there anymore uh and by the way if you want to sign a potential mega free agent
12:53you do exactly what the giants have done with this japanese pitcher imai saying that they can't sign the
13:01guy wants too much money i'm like i read this and immediately thinking oh that's where he's going to sign
13:07because buster posey has been down this block before they know exactly what they're doing
13:12let me call a writer and say we're out so that therefore they can get the call back from the
13:17agent to say whoa whoa whoa whoa we were just kidding about them we were just playing around
13:21right like isn't that exactly how this i mean how many times do i have to go through this and people
13:26are actually reporting oh the giants are out the giants are out come on jack i mean am i a rookie here
13:30or what i i don't know you're the vet i may be the rookie here because for some reason when i see
13:36that tweet and i'm like huh maybe the giants are out but after i slept on it and after i didn't even
13:41need to sleep on it after i gave it about 30 seconds i said you know what come on buster posey
13:45just traded for rafi devers like six months ago he's not going to close the door on tesuya imai right
13:50now i think that is the slam dunk fit for this guy imai is not as accomplished as yoshinobu yamamoto
13:58was when he was coming over from japan but yamamoto was as accomplished as really any pitcher that
14:03we've ever seen come over from japan um in my my understanding is it's closer to the you darvish
14:10conversation where you see how much talent is in there and he wasn't the top of the class at that
14:17time when darvish came over masahiro tanaka was kind of the talk of japan and japan you know centered
14:23around masahiro tanaka at that point imai seems like after ceases off the board a co number one pitcher
14:31on the market now with fromber valdez who was in houston last year um i think san francisco is the
14:37perfect fit and imai has said a couple of things that are really interesting number one he wants to
14:42beat the dodgers he wants to measure up against the best and he wants to beat them uh and number two
14:47he doesn't want to play on a team with other japanese players he wants to carve his own path
14:52the giants check both those boxes yeah they do west coast too which is usually where they end up
14:58signing and so the angels would obviously be in play wouldn't shock anyone to see him end up there
15:03but i still think the giants are very much alive in this story i want to end with this the athletic
15:08reported this morning that this uh fan council uh jack that i really didn't know a ton about uh fans
15:14like very intimate fans of the game set up to actually uh be on zoom calls and speak to some of
15:20the executives at major league baseball to talk about how they want to improve and talk about the game
15:25and it is the topic that no one really wants to talk about i guess according to the athletic it is
15:29the upcoming uh cba negotiation or lack thereof i think none of us really want to see this happen
15:36i know you don't i mean it's salary you know for honestly all of us here uh with not with no baseball
15:41to cover but i do find it fascinating that baseball is leaning a little more on the fans than they have
15:46in the past yeah it's interesting and i i hadn't heard much of it either thank you to producer frank for
15:52sending me the article but uh no it was phenomenal i i read the article it was great um i do think
15:57it's interesting and i i found it interesting how they initially branded it to this fan council and
16:03it was competitive balance they wanted to have a competitive balance conversation which of course
16:08skews towards a salary cap and a possible salary floor right that's the way that you achieve
16:12competitive balance so i don't know if they were trying to push a certain narrative uh it didn't seem
16:18like they were but you know what it's it's really interesting and it's fascinating that major league
16:22baseball does want to get the fans involved right now definitely so all right jack i will catch up
16:27with you soon and of course have a great rest of your week and enjoy the show coming up in 10 minutes
16:31thanks thanks again as to you
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