00:00Ryan Weathers probably means to the average Yankee fan, but like I talked to a lot of teams and the sense I got was like eight to 10 teams were trying to get Ryan Weathers that Ryan weather.
00:14So, so this is my comparison.
00:16I'm going to make a comparison and this didn't work in New York, but it ultimately worked to me.
00:21Ryan Weathers is a little bit like when the Yankees traded for Nathan Navaldy, like with the Marlins, same age.
00:29Had had injury problems.
00:31The stuff was overt like it is with Weathers and he between injury and maybe not being ready.
00:38It never worked with the Yankees, but the second he left the Yankees, Nathan Valdy's had one of those careers.
00:45I would love to have because people talk about Nate.
00:48First of all, he's won championships and he's won championships in part because he's been great at that time of year.
00:54Like I couldn't live with never having that moment.
00:59So he's been good in those situations.
01:01Talk to people about him in the clubhouse, including guys who played with him in the Yankees, Red Sox, wherever he's been Rangers.
01:07I mean, this is a beloved teammate, right?
01:11So like a valid, you just exploded out of here and had great success.
01:15And his people are going to look back on a non hall of fame career and say, man, what a career that guy had.
01:21Like, so that, and he's made plenty of money doing it also.
01:23Yeah.
01:23So will it work for, it might not be like that, but there it's almost the exact same age.
01:29It's the same exact organization trading them, the player here and the profile, the one was lefty and a Valdi is righty.
01:37The profile is, God, they have stuff that's untapped.
01:41And I have talked to people who have worked with weathers and they're like, it is so untapped and he's coming.
01:48Now, will it come here?
01:49Will it ever come anywhere?
01:51I don't know.
01:52But this guy was a top 10 draft choice, right?
01:56Like, it's not like, whatever, there is a not 0% chance that this guy starts a playoff game.
02:04Wow.
02:05So like, I, I know you could look at the ERA, et cetera.
02:11What I would say are the number of what I would call the smart organizations who I checked in with and they were like, yeah, we were trying to get them.
02:20Like, was not, not a low number.
02:24And it wasn't nothing that the Yankees gave up.
02:25It was three prospects.
02:26I mean, that's, that's a lot of, a lot of prospect pool to give up.
02:29We'll see what it turns into, uh, along the way, you know, again, like the day the Yankees traded with the, uh, Marlins and got Domingo Herman and Michael King in the same trade.
02:43Nobody like who was a fan said, wow, this is really going to make a difference.
02:46And like things went wrong with her mom, but he did pitch.
02:49Well, he pitched a perfect game, right?
02:51Like, like, and had other good moments.
02:54And Michael King obviously was very good.
02:55So, so it's not, it's not sexy, but I, the, the off season is a strange beast is a strange beach.
03:08Last year, the only free agent of any significance, the only addition of any significance, the Mariners made was Jorge Polanco.
03:16And they went further than they've ever gone.
03:19Meanwhile, the Blue Jays did a ton of stuff.
03:21It almost all went wrong.
03:23Anthony Santander, Andres Jimenez, Hoffman, uh, Yimmy Garcia trading for mile straw to get extra money for Roki Sasaki.
03:32And then not getting Sasaki and being stuck with straw.
03:35Like it all went wrong.
03:36And they got the closest you could get to winning a world series without actually winning the world series.
03:41By the way, you know, who had a shit off season last year, the Dodgers, the Dodgers had terrible Tanner, Scott, Kirby Yates, Michael Conforto.
03:50Like they, they had a terrible off season.
03:55Sasaki wasn't what they thought they were hitting.
03:57Like none of it really worked and they won the world series.
04:02And so I know we layer on stuff.
04:05And part of our job is like, Hey man, go do it.
04:08Let's see something famous names, et cetera.
04:11Uh, you could be surprised by, Hey man, that team won the off season.
04:16How many times does the team that won the off season actually won the season?
04:20It's not, it's not regular.
04:22It was true the year before the Dodgers got Otani and Yamamoto, right?
04:27But it's, it's not always that way.
04:31Nope.
04:32And it does look like the Dodgers are going there again with the Tucker and Edwin Diaz and whatnot.
04:37But look, Joel, the starting rotation, I think in Weathers, it's a huge factor here real quick on Weathers.
04:43Do you think he will be the star, like he'll be in the rotation opening day?
04:47Like he'll be one of the starters.
04:49Yeah.
04:49I think if healthy, uh, you know, like I think Blackburn and Yarborough are here to be swing men, uh, like, and, and, and, and place fillers until, and if Rodon and, and Cole get healthy.
05:04Right.
05:05And, you know, like, I think they know they need extra because how much are they going to get out of Schlittler in year two?
05:12How much are they going to get out of Warren after pitching them so much last year?
05:16You know, Freed went beyond where he's ever pitched before.
05:19And Luis Hill has heard a lot.
05:20So like the idea of having, so you got those four guys plus Weathers plus Blackburn and, uh, Yarborough.
05:30Is that seven or eight?
05:31I'm losing count.
05:32Whatever.
05:33That's seven right there.
05:34That's seven.
05:34I think, again, these things get corrupted as you go along.
05:39I think if you put the Yankees on truth serum today, they'd say Rodon, May 1st, Cole, June 1st, uh, Schmidt, August 1st.
05:50Like that would be like the hope they believe, uh, uh, uh, uh, Elmer Cruz will pitch in the majors this year, like, and, and be a guy.
06:03And they, and, and Lagrange is a guy who, if you hit the right, um, analytics guy, scouting guy from another team, uh, somebody who high level talent evaluator, one guy will tell you, Hey man, if it worked out perfect, he's going to pitch the eighth or ninth inning.
06:22And then there's other guys who say, if it works out perfect, he's probably starting to game two of the playoffs.
06:28So like, and, and by the way, there'll be people who are like, I hate that profile.
06:32He's going to be nothing.
06:34So like, he is a wild card in all of this wide variance right there.
06:38You just laid out.
06:39Yeah.
06:40But, but, but, but that that's, that's the prospect world.
06:43Like you would have asked the Phillies two years ago about Andrew painter.
06:48They would have said, well, he's probably going to start opening day in 2026.
06:52And now there's a lot of doubt.
06:54There's still waiting on him to come out though.
06:56Right.
06:56Like it'd be Grayson Rodriguez.
06:58This is off season Taylor ward.
07:01Like two years ago, if I would have told you, that's a trade that was going to be made.
07:05So like, they're all just suspects until we actually see them do anything.
07:09But, but you know what, if as suspects go, I would roll my, the dice that Schlittler is, uh, like answered some of the questions and look like he can be somebody.
07:19Will he be, you know, see, this is his first.
07:22Trying to build some depth just in case.
07:24No.
07:25Yeah.
07:25Look, and, and I hear you like the Yankees are, that's how they would pencil it in right
07:30now, but you can only pencil it in so much.
07:33And we've seen how these guys go when they're recovering from injuries, especially major surgeries
07:38like this.
07:39I just, I think you're playing a really dicey game here and you're gambling a lot on those
07:44guys coming back on those marks that you've said, you know, something, Ryan, I'm sorry.
07:48I cut you off there, but, um, um, last year I kept expecting the Yankees to collapse because
07:56they were always one starting injury, pitching injury away from Alan Winans.
08:02Yeah.
08:02And then what else?
08:03Like, like they, and somehow they kept it together long enough as guys came back and
08:08whatever.
08:08I actually think they go in with more potential this year, high end potential this year than
08:15last year.
08:16And I don't think it's close.
08:18And there is, you know, you do have to, the likelihood that you'll ever have all your starters
08:24healthy at one time is not great.
08:28Yeah.
08:29Problem is if you do, you know, like it isn't like they're going to get a commissioner's
08:34dispensation to be like, Oh, you could carry 16 pictures this year.
08:38Like, so like you can't overstuff the burrito to the point where you can't have them all
08:43on your roster.
08:44Stuff the burrito.
08:45That's a good one.
08:46You know what I mean?
08:46It's like, like, like there they'll get a 40 man roster spot right away by putting Schmidt
08:53on the 40 on the 60 day IL on.
08:57I think it's the second day of spring training.
08:59Wouldn't Cole go on 60 day IL as well?
09:01So the question is, if Cole goes on, you'll know that it's June 1st.
09:05Yeah.
09:06Right.
09:06Like, but I'm sure Cole is maybe saying, I mean, his mindset, but of course he want, he's
09:12a bulldog.
09:13Yeah.
09:14And, and when I've talked to Yankee people in recent weeks and I've said, Hey, would you
09:18follow a plan a little bit like the Otani plan last year, which was look, the Dodgers
09:26considered using Otani out of the bullpen in 2024 in the post season.
09:32Okay.
09:33So when spring training 2025 came and I watched him throw a bullpen, I was like, that guy
09:38could start a game.
09:39Right.
09:39And they held him for what until about June also, right?
09:43Mid-May, June, whatever, because they were like, we're going to make the playoffs and we
09:48have to factor in 20 post-season innings for him.
09:51And so I said, would you do the same with Cole if you said, Hey, coming back from Tommy
09:56John, we feel comfortable at 130 innings or 140 innings.
10:00Would you say then, well, what we really mean is 120 and 20.
10:05And they said, when Cole is ready to pitch in the major leagues, he will pitch.
10:10So in other words, they're not there.
10:11That's what they insist to me now underneath.
10:14Are they doing something else?
10:15I don't know.
10:16But when I've asked and I've asked that, that's what they, they say.
10:21I think the Yankees have a chance to have very, very good starting pitching.
10:29But the, the, the variance for them might be the greatest variance because two of their,
10:37or even if you want to include Schmidt, who I think is pretty good, like a good mid rotation
10:41guy, three of their guys could combine to be really good or give them zero innings.
10:47Zero innings.
10:48Yeah.
10:48And then, or not very, or innings, but not as good as you think based on the names, because
10:53they, it's going to be a year until Cole is Cole again.
10:56And if it's ever going to be Cole.
10:58So I get it, but you have just as, as your resources are your resources, as far as how
11:05much money and farm systems you have to do anything.
11:08And I think the Yankees are for better or worse close to where they're not going to spend
11:16a lot of money anymore this off season, unless it's Bellinger.
11:20And I think that they feel blown away that they did it as much as they did last July and
11:29got Ryan Weathers.
11:30And they still haven't touched what I think they would say are their top eight prospects.
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