00:00I want to talk about Boba Shett at this point, because Boba Shett on Monday met with the Philadelphia Phillies.
00:05It was virtual, is my understanding. Ken Rosenthal on Foul Territory said, quote, if I had to guess right now, I would say they're the favorite.
00:15The Philadelphia Phillies. I brought this up in passing on the Friday Just Baseball show last week when it broke that he was meeting with the Phillies.
00:23And you said, where do they keep spawning money from?
00:25Now, this would obviously be the start of a couple of other transactions, like if Bichette came into the fold, Bohm is gone and that clears up some money.
00:34And there's probably another guy that would go as well, probably takes them out of the Real Muto conversation as well, although I'm not sure they need a catcher.
00:43Where do you stand on the Bichette Philly match?
00:46I love it because of the fact that, yeah, you'd have to figure things out, right?
00:50You'd probably move Bohm, but there's still about 24 million below last year's final payroll.
00:56And if you sign Bichette and trade Alec Bohm, you should be right around that same number.
01:01And I think when you look at what they've been trying to do here, there was some quotes from Dave Dombrowski about, and this was more as it pertained to the outfield,
01:11but how the Phillies were trying to look for right-handed outfielder.
01:15It's just not out there.
01:16And Dombrowski was saying, you know, there's been times throughout my career as a general manager, president of baseball operations,
01:21where just sometimes exactly what you need is just not out there in the market.
01:26And I know that that's probably a frustrating, you know, wrinkle and things.
01:30And this doesn't necessarily directly answer it, but I think it does answer the larger conversation and larger issue that they have.
01:37I don't think it necessarily had to be an outfield.
01:39I think that's just where they had the more clear-cut opening.
01:42They just need a good right-handed bat, a good proven right-handed bat in this lineup.
01:46Because other than Trey Turner, and you assume you're going to trade Alec Bohm, but even if you include him,
01:50the only other right-handed bat you've got right now in the starting lineup is Adolis Garcia, who's a bounce-back candidate.
01:55They sorely, sorely, sorely need a right-handed bat.
01:59And I think they've given up on it needing to be an outfield bat.
02:02And I think they're focused on it needing to just be a bat, period.
02:05And you figure the rest out from there.
02:07Were you a little surprised that you saw zero smoke between the Phillies and Harrison Bader this offseason?
02:13He fits what they would have needed, and he was good for them last year after the deadline.
02:18But I also understand if they have minimal confidence in him repeating that.
02:21Yeah, I think that paired with the money that it would cost, even though it's not insane, but from some of the things that they want to do.
02:28And I think the fact that they want to give Justin Crawford a shot here.
02:30And I do think a Crawford platoon with Johan Rojas on the short side, though Crawford did hit lefties well last year.
02:36You know, if that's your nine hitters and they both defend really well, I think if it allows you to then push all of your chips towards higher ceiling guys, I think it makes a little bit more sense.
02:47I'm really interested, though, if you do sign Bichette, you imagine you put him at second base, you trade Boehm.
02:54Bryson Stott's probably very capable of learning third base, right?
02:57And then if he's not doing a great job there, then you can go and call up Aiden Miller.
03:02I think that's a good enough situation there where you rock with those two.
03:06Also, Miller could come up and take the short side of the platoon.
03:09Is that how you go about it, I guess, is my question, because I wouldn't hate it.
03:13He's played like two games at third base in his big league career.
03:16I know Bichette has played second base and did it in the World Series.
03:22Could Bichette be a fit at third base?
03:25Would they try that or no chance?
03:26I think they got to try it and see what happens.
03:29I think it's more just what Bichette wants to do, because it does make more sense to have the glove of Stott at a position that he's good at,
03:36instead of kind of nerfing his defense and putting Bichette there, who's going to be better than he is at short, but not going to be great.
03:43And that's going to be a huge crater defensively from what you had before.
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