00:00Who are the big free agents going to sign with? I have 10 of the biggest names that are left in
00:06free agency. Let's give our picks for where those guys will end up.
00:21So, the baseball free agent period. Well underway. We've had some big names go,
00:27but some big names still on the board. So, I'm going to go through the 10 biggest names that I
00:32think are left in free agency and give my picks for them. At number 10, because there have been
00:39actually quite a few signed, I think Chris Bassett makes the list. I would love for him to stick with
00:44the Blue Jays and for Toronto to try to find a way to keep him around. I don't know if that's going to
00:49be the case. I think he's going to want to get that starter money, and I think a team that could
00:52kind of use him is the Texas Rangers. They've had some injury issues at pitcher and could use someone
00:59to just eat up a bunch of innings for them. Bassett can do that. He can do that effectively,
01:03and the Rangers are going to want to be competitive again here, I think. Making some big moves,
01:08obviously, so maybe they won't be, but they're going to need that starting pitching, and I think
01:12Bassett fits what Texas is looking for quite well. Next, Eugenio Suarez. I have him going to the Red Sox,
01:19which probably tells you where I don't have Alex Bregman going, but Suarez, bit of a rough playoff,
01:25a couple of big hits, but certainly didn't have the big explosion off of an excellent, excellent
01:34regular season that he had. The Red Sox need a little bit more pop in that lineup. Suarez can
01:40provide that, so I have Eugenio Suarez coming into the American League East and signing with the Red
01:46Sox. Zach Gallin is my next one with the Astros. That's who I have him signing with, so again,
01:51tells you where I don't have Frambert Valdez going. Gallin, I still think there's a there there,
01:58maybe not to what it was before, but the Astros are going to need that front-of-the-line guy.
02:03Can Gallin be just a straight-line replacement for Valdez? Probably not, but I think he can still be
02:08effective enough in what is, again, going to be an Astros season of trying to retool and trying to
02:14catch up with the Seattle Mariners. So we'll see what direction they go, but I have Gallin going
02:21there. The next one is Munitaka Murakami, who is the big kind of pop hitter coming in from Japan.
02:32It felt like there was a lot of buzz about him, and then the story came out that he basically missed
02:36every pitch that went more than 90 miles an hour last season, and so I think there was a little
02:40bit of concern there. I wonder, given the Rendon of it all and everything, feels like the Angels
02:48might want to get back in that market and might need a little bit more pop in the lineup that they
02:54got rid of Ward, maybe looking for a bit of a spark there. So I have Murakami going to the Angels.
03:00They feel like the team that could kind of match some of the demands that that prospect,
03:04or that player, sorry, would have. One of the names that everyone north of the border is excited
03:10about, interested about, stressing about, is Bo Bichette, and I have him going to the Toronto Blue
03:18Jays. I think Bo sticks with the Jays. That just, that felt like a relationship that, like, him with
03:24the fan base, him with Vladdy, and John Schneider as well, all of that felt like Bo want, like, this is Bo's
03:32team. He is obviously seeing how the market plays out, telling people he would move to second base.
03:36That doesn't take him away from the Blue Jays, by the way. Jimenez could move to short just as
03:40easily, and they could still do it that way. There's a lot of different possibilities here
03:44for Bo Bichette to stick around with the Blue Jays, and so my pick is him staying in Toronto.
03:50Tetsuya Imai is the next one. I, I had him going to the Blue Jays right up until, um, the Ponce move,
03:58and maybe that doesn't take them out. Like, maybe the Blue Jays are just stocking up on everything
04:01now, but the way he was talking about wanting to be competitive, wanting to go against the Dodgers
04:07and trying to, to beat them and, and all of that, um, maybe it's not like I'm going plucky underdog
04:13here, but I have him going to the Yankees. I think that Imai ends up with the Bronx Bombers, that they
04:18desperately need to make a move in that starting rotation, and I, that, well, we'll talk about the
04:24other ones in a second here. I don't see them making a whole lot of other big splashes right
04:28now. Maybe they do. Maybe I'm wrong, but this feels like still the one that could kind of get
04:32the fan base back into it a little bit and kind of get them rolling in the right direction because
04:36they really need to at this time. Um, Alex Bregman is the next one on the list. I am going to the
04:42Detroit Tigers. Detroit making that run to, um, back into the postseason after getting a scare from
04:50Cleveland toward the end of the year. I know that there's all the Tarek Scooble discussions going on
04:55there. I still don't think that trade actually happens. And I think that this is a lineup that
04:58needs that big game changer in the middle of it. Bregman showed that he could be that at times
05:04with, with Boston last year. He has a relationship with AJ Hinch. It all just kind of lines up. So I
05:09see Bregman going to the Tigers. Cody Bellinger next on the list. This is kind of playing what we saw
05:15from a little bit ago from last time Bellinger was available and all of that. I have them go
05:21into the Blue Jays. It's a bit of an out there thing, but Toronto, I think they're going to make
05:26the big splash bringing in Bo. Not that Bellinger is going to be cheap, cheap, cheap or anything like
05:30that, but it is probably a step down dollar amount from the big name at the end of this list. And so
05:36I think that is kind of the combination that the Blue Jays go with. It still improves the outfield
05:42spot. Lucas and Schneider, um, a fine platoon in the playoffs last year for Toronto, but Bellinger,
05:48excellent defensively, a good lefty bat for the top part of that lineup for the Blue Jays.
05:54And I think would make it a very, very dangerous Blue Jays team. He just seems to fit it really well.
06:00Haven't seen the Blue Jays tied to them a lot. So maybe this is just being the homer here. I will
06:03absolutely admit that if it's not the Blue Jays, I could totally see him just going back to the
06:08Yankees. Um, but right now I'm going to say Toronto. Frambois Valdez, uh, I am going to the Orioles.
06:14Baltimore needs pitching that they just spent going out and get Shane Baz for a few prospects. Um,
06:20Valdez, I think that incident with the catcher has really hurt the market on Valdez. Um, that there
06:28was some talk about the Blue Jays maybe kicking the tires on that. I just feel like when you are a team
06:33that everyone is talking about winning a world or going to the game seven of the world series based on the
06:38power of friendship, you can't bring in a dude who then threw at his catcher. So that is obviously
06:44an issue. And so maybe the Orioles don't want to bring that into a young clubhouse and have Adley
06:48Rushman have to deal with that, but they need starting pitching and he is the best that's
06:52available. So I think Valdez to the Orioles makes the sense. And then the last one, Kyle Tucker,
06:57basically every sign is him to the Blue Jays right now. But like I said before, I think they keep
07:02Bo around and it just prices them out a little bit of the, the Kyle Tucker market, all the moves,
07:07the Mets have made point to this. The off season hasn't been very good. It has been surprisingly
07:12a little on the cheaper side with some of the moves that they have made, some of the players
07:16that they have let go with Nimmo leaving, bringing in Simeon, um, at second base, it leaves an obvious
07:25hole in the outfield. And I think it makes all the sense in the world that they just go out and
07:28overpay and bring in Kyle Tucker. It also like the, the Met fan is pissed right now at how things have
07:36gone down. So I think that you have to kind of correct that. I think that, um, Steve Cohen and
07:43Mets ownership is aware of the Met fan reaction to everything. And so I think there is going to be a,
07:51a real push to, to make that move. So Kyle Tucker to the Mets is my prediction there. I can't imagine,
07:59I just went 10 for 10 on what you guys are thinking in terms of who goes where in baseball
08:05free agency. So let me know in either the chat here, um, or in the comments, what you think I got
08:11right and what you think I got wrong.
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