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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid. The hot stove season is over. Spring training is here. Pitchers and catchers have reported. Full squads next week. We got games to talk about in spring training right around the corner. Let's bring in Jack McMullen as he's getting ready for spring training in Jupiter, Florida. He will be doing the play-by-play on radio for the Miami Marlins once again this season. But of course, here on SportsGrid, he is hosting the Just Baseball show, which comes your way in 30 minutes from now.
00:26Jack, great to catch you here on Newswire once again, and happy baseball season to you.
00:32Yeah, I would wish you a happy holidays because this is kind of our version of the holidays, right? It's just nice to open Twitter or X as it's now known and just hear the pop of a glove and see a bunch of grown men in baseball uniforms stretching and just talking with each other because there's really no physical exertion that happens on these days.
00:49It's just, hey, you know, we're all around the complex and we'll chat with the media, yada, yada. But it's such a joy to know that we are even starting the process of getting our baseball back.
00:59Definitely so. I can't wait to do it. We'll have more news on that with Jack and I, by the way, this spring training. I don't know if I'm allowed to do it yet, but soon, next week, maybe the week after.
01:08Okay, so anyway, let's get to what we've missed in the last seven days. It's actually been a lot. The hottest stove we've had thus far has gone down. Let's talk about what the Tigers have done because this is what made the big news last week.
01:22It caught me completely by surprise that they were in on Frambois Valdez, three years, $115 million. And this was all going on during the Tarek Skubal arbitration.
01:34So, like, you know, in the media, what we try to do is tie things together. Is one thing correlated to the next? Did they know they were going to lose and then just basically said, let's go all in? Is it the opposite? Did they know they were going to lose and get Valdez to trade Skubal?
01:47I don't know the answers to any of this stuff, but I know that the Tigers have to be considered the clear favorite in that division by adding Valdez at this point.
01:56Yeah, I would think so, especially with the dormancy that Cleveland has kind of showcased over the course of the offseason, and that's not out of the ordinary for the Cleveland Guardians.
02:04They typically like to compete with what they already have in-house. They're not going to make this big splash with a starting pitcher or, you know, a center fielder or whatever they may need.
02:12So Cleveland's dormancy, coupled with what Detroit just did, I think absolutely makes Detroit the frontrunner in the American League Central.
02:20But I was trying to do the same thing as you. I don't think that's fair to Scott Harris, who's the new lead decision maker in Detroit.
02:26He's had that role for about three years now. This guy is really good at drafting, identifying, developing.
02:32They've got some of the best prospects in baseball. I think the second best prospect in the game, Kevin McGonigal, could be playing shortstop for them by May 1st.
02:39So you have that. How do you capitalize on this window? And this window of Tarek Skubal, maybe the best pitcher on the planet, is closing this year, it seems.
02:49If he were to be a Tiger for the foreseeable future, you would think it would have already happened by now because he's already on your team,
02:55and he's probably slated for $400 million next offseason, but he gets his one-year $32 million pack by winning his arbitration case.
03:03The timing was weird, but what the Tigers have created, I think, is the best one-two punch in Major League Baseball.
03:12And, you know, a lot of people would hear that and say, well, what about what the Dodgers have going with Yamamoto and Snell?
03:17What about Philly with Wheeler and Sanchez? Well, Wheeler is coming off of a major shoulder issue.
03:23Snell is always an interesting and intricate guy.
03:27I think you can also pick two with Seattle, and you can say, well, what about Logan Gilbert, George Kirby?
03:33What about Gilbert and Brian Wu?
03:35What Skubal has done over the last couple of years and the consistency that Frambois Valdez showcases year in and year out,
03:41I think they are the best one-two punch in Major League Baseball atop a rotation.
03:46Yeah, I would agree.
03:47And you could see right now that the Tigers are plus 130 to win the division, followed by Kansas City, Cleveland, Minnesota,
03:53and certainly the Chicago White Sox are trying to get better this season, but still probably looking up at the majority of the division at the end of the season.
04:01Those are the current odds to win the American League Central.
04:04All right, we've got a lot of pitchers being signed over the last 24 hours here.
04:09Today, Aaron Savali lands with the A's.
04:11They keep spending money.
04:13Nick Martinez goes to Tampa Bay, so naturally we'll look at that one.
04:16Probably ended up being smart by Tampa Bay.
04:18They make a lot of good moves.
04:19Eric Fetty is back on the Chicago White Sox.
04:23And then Chris Paddock, you'll get to call his games this season as he will slot into that Marlins rotation.
04:29I'm guessing SP4, maybe SP5.
04:32He returns home to Miami, the place that originally had him many years ago.
04:36So I'll allow you, Jack, to have the floor here.
04:39You got four pitchers signing with different teams.
04:42All I believe, if I'm not mistaken, on a one-year deal.
04:44Did they announce the Martinez deal?
04:45I didn't see the money on that one, but four pitchers and four deals.
04:48Yeah, I think Martinez is one-year 10 for Tampa.
04:52And that, to me, is the most intriguing one.
04:56Nick Martinez is a South Florida guy.
04:58He signs in, what, Central Florida, Western Florida?
05:01I don't know what Tampa is considered.
05:02But he signs in the state of Florida, so he stays in this state.
05:06Nick Martinez is, I think, a little bit better than the national perception of baseball would suggest he is.
05:13This guy was playing at a very hitter-friendly ballpark in Cincinnati.
05:16But he has this fastball-change-up combination that I think gives a lot of hitters fits.
05:21And he knows his arsenal.
05:22He knows what he can do.
05:24And he knows how to kind of massage his way through when he doesn't have his best stuff.
05:29Tampa needed pitching.
05:30When you took a peek at Tampa's roster, you said, there's so much unproven here.
05:36And the proven is coming off of major injury.
05:39They traded Shane Boz.
05:40To me, one of my favorite arms to watch is the left-hander Shane McClanahan.
05:44I don't know what McClanahan's going to be.
05:46He really hasn't thrown in Major League Baseball in about two years.
05:49So you have this grab bag of maybe we get the good McClanahan, maybe we get the bad McClanahan on a given night.
05:55You needed some reliability.
05:56To me, Nick Martinez fits that.
05:58I also think you get some reliability with Chris Paddock in Miami.
06:02You know, you've got this, like, irons-in-the-fire approach to it seems like the three through five spot in that Marlins rotation going into this year.
06:09Paddock is a sense of reliability there while you wait for prospects like Thomas White, Robbie Snelling to really blossom.
06:16So those are the two that jump out to me.
06:18Martinez is certainly the headliner of those four.
06:20And Paddock, I can tell you, asking initially for $8 million about a month ago, ends up getting four from Miami.
06:29So a good deal, I think, for the Marlins.
06:31Okay, speaking of Marlins, former Marlin Marcelo Zuna has a new destination.
06:35It is in Pittsburgh, and if there is a destination that you want to sign with to try and boost your value for future years, it would appear this is it.
06:45I don't know how many games the Pirates are going to win.
06:46They've gotten better for sure on paper with Brandon Lau and Ozuna and Ryan O'Hearn.
06:52But Ozuna had a down season last year, hitting just .232 with 21 home runs.
06:57I would guess that these numbers will pop back up as the primary DH for the Pirates this season.
07:03Yeah, I was looking at this, and I mentioned on the Just Baseball show, I have a feeling that we could be looking at this in six months saying that was an absolute heist by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
07:13We're two years removed from this guy hitting .300 with .40 homers, or just about those numbers.
07:18Marcelo Zuna is a menacing bat.
07:20And even in a down year or regression year, like you pointed out, .2.30 with north of 20 homers, that's not a bad year from your DH.
07:28And the Pirates are clamoring for that.
07:32They had one guy by OPS Plus that was over 100, which means better than league average.
07:37They had one above average hitter in that lineup last year.
07:40Now they add an O'Hearn, who was an all-star last year.
07:43They add an Ozuna, who is a multi-time all-star.
07:46They add a Brandon Lau, who is an all-star.
07:47They kind of bucked the trend this offseason of run prevention.
07:52They just want to score runs.
07:54And that fan base is clamoring for runs to be scored on the backs of Paul Skeens and Bubba Chandler and Jared Jones and Mitch Keller.
08:01They have pitching taken care of.
08:02It's time to hit, and the Pirates are going to hit a little bit.
08:05Do you think, Jack, that that – what kind of position do you think that moves them into?
08:09I've noticed that their odds are now – I don't know why it took this long –
08:14but now finally ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals, which to me, I thought they were a complete rebuild here.
08:19But I guess just on that jersey with the Birds, that they think somehow that the Cardinals are going to be good.
08:23I don't personally think so.
08:25You've got the Reds in the division.
08:26You've got the Brewers in the division.
08:27I don't know that they moved ahead of them, but I would think that they should be at least in the mix at this point.
08:31That's fair, right?
08:32I think it's fair.
08:34I also think that they're looking at this wide-open clump in the wildcard seedings in the National League.
08:40You've got some heavy hitters in the National League, right?
08:42You look at the Mets.
08:43You look at the Dodgers, obviously.
08:44The Padres.
08:45You can look at a couple others.
08:47The Philadelphia Phillies were one of the best teams in the NL.
08:50And then it gets wide open.
08:51So it's a fight.
08:52It's a scratching claw for the four through six seed in the National League.
08:57And I think the Pirates fit that clump of teams that can compete for those final two, three wildcard spots.
09:03A couple of big trades also over the past week in baseball.
09:06Jack and I will get to those next.
09:08You're watching Newswire here on Sports Grid.
09:10We are talking baseball here with Jack McMullen from Just Baseball.
09:14And we'll continue that conversation when we come back right after these messages.
09:18Don't go away.
09:19Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
09:20Significant trades involving second baseman over the past week or so.
09:24We had Brendan Donovan traded to Seattle.
09:26I want to get into that with Jack McMullen.
09:29But first, let's talk about the most recent deal because this is the one that I need Jack's emphasis and input on
09:34because a lot of young players were moved in this trade.
09:38So the Milwaukee Brewers are getting back the multi-talented and often well-traveled.
09:45Strangely enough, Kyle Harrison, left-handed pitcher, goes from Boston where he only spent, I think, not even a year.
09:52Was it the Devers trade?
09:53David Hamilton also goes in return to Milwaukee.
09:56He's going to take the spot of the guy they traded, I assume, in Caleb Durbin, who was a fantastic second baseman, I thought, for them last year.
10:04Also, Andrew Monasterio was involved in the deal.
10:06The thought process, for sure, I get it.
10:08I'm going to guess that the Red Sox overpaid to get Durbin, but how much did they overpay to fill that position?
10:18They had been looking to fill second base the entire offseason.
10:21To be honest, I really don't know if they overpaid to get Durbin because Durbin is a heck of a player.
10:26So I don't know what an overpay looks like for that guy.
10:30The other thing that we've got to factor in is Caleb Durbin comes with five years of control.
10:35And it seemed like the Red Sox were hunting second base or third base.
10:39And they were going to figure this out.
10:40And the Red Sox offseason has been fascinating.
10:43It took a long time for them to sign a major league free agent.
10:46They were operating in the trade market where they go and acquire Sonny Gray and Wilson Contreras in two separate deals with the St. Louis Cardinals.
10:53But then they signed Ranger Suarez, and you're thinking, OK, it's time for some heavy hitters to come to Boston.
10:59Alex Bregman always felt like priority one, right?
11:01He was the guy that effectively took Rafi Devers' spot.
11:04The subplot in this is fascinating because Harrison was the headline of the return going back to Milwaukee.
11:10Kyle Harrison was the headline of the Rafael Devers deal.
11:13And now three of the four players you got back for Rafael Devers are in other organizations.
11:20They traded James Tibbs.
11:21They traded Jordan Hicks.
11:23And they traded Kyle Harrison.
11:25You're rerouting all these pieces.
11:27So the only guy left from San Francisco that came over in the Devers deal is a minor league pitcher that had an ERA north of five this year in Jose Bale, which is fascinating to me in its own right.
11:38Bregman was probably priority one for Boston.
11:40He signs his $175 million deal with the Cubs.
11:44And then you pivot to, do we want a guy that can play second and third in Durbin, or do we want a guy that is going to handle third base every day in Isak Paredes in Houston?
11:53Because Houston has a ton of infield.
11:55They opt for the cheaper guy, and they opt for the guy with more control.
12:00Paredes is making about $10 million this year.
12:02He's got two years of control left.
12:04Durbin is making the league minimum.
12:05He's got five years of control left.
12:07And Caleb Durbin is a very strong, he's a small guy, but he's twitchy.
12:12He's a fun ad at third base or second base for the Boston Red Sox.
12:16The other funny thing about this trade is the Red Sox just took the entirety of Milwaukee's third base reserves.
12:24So they got their primary option at third and Durbin, their secondary option at third and Monasterio, and their tertiary option at third and Anthony Siegler.
12:32So they're clearly trying to steal a line from Billy Bean, recreate third base in the aggregate right now.
12:38Yeah.
12:39I have no idea how they're going to fill that, but the Brewers always figure it out, and they end up winning the division.
12:44So who are we to argue?
12:44We haven't had a chance to check in on that trade that Mariners made to get Brendan Donovan, which to me, like, I see some of these odds, Jack, and, you know, with baseball, we're careful, you and I, about the betting and stuff like that.
12:58But, I mean, I don't understand how the Cardinals even sniff 70-something wins this season.
13:03Like, they literally traded away their all-stars, their starting pitchers, everything else.
13:08And I think some of these projections are just based on, you know, the jerseys or something like that, because I don't get it.
13:15Now, by the way, I think Heimblum is going to be amazing in St. Louis, and I think he's doing all the right things there.
13:20But Burleson's left there.
13:23Who else?
13:23Like, I mean, what kind of expectations is team supposed to have?
13:26And on the flip side, great move for Seattle.
13:28Everybody coveted Donovan, and he ends up going there.
13:32Yeah, amazing move for Seattle.
13:33And I think Seattle should be considered one of, if not the favorite in the American League.
13:38They are a pretty flawless team.
13:40When you look at the rotation, the bullpen, and that lineup now, that lineup is new and improved.
13:45You know, they bring back Josh Naylor, who was great after the deadline, after they acquired him from Arizona.
13:49They trade for Donovan.
13:51They bring in some other pieces, and it looks really nice.
13:53They added Rob Refsnyder, flies under the radar, can crush left-handed pitching.
13:57That rotation may be the best in baseball, one through five.
14:00You had a Brian Wu breakout last year.
14:02He was an all-star.
14:03You still have Castillo, Gilbert Kirby, and Bryce Miller.
14:06You look at what St. Louis is doing, I guess the only reason that total would be that high is many people would expect a great version of Mason Wynn, the uber-talented shortstop.
14:18Yvonne Herrera is one of the better-hitting catchers, but he's now DH-ing for the most part in the game.
14:24So, I guess you're banking on, you know, maybe a bounce-back from Jordan Walker and then Wynn, Herrera, and Burleson really mashing for St. Louis.
14:31But I don't think that's fair when you trade Donovan, Contreras, Sonny Gray, Nolan Arenado.
14:37They depleted their whole darn team.
14:40So, while Seattle is gearing up and they do not want to be denied in Game 7 of the ALCS again, St. Louis feels like they're restructuring.
14:47And they got a fascinating pitcher back in Gerangelo Sanja.
14:51That's how you say the name.
14:53First-round pick by Seattle in 24.
14:56Sanja was a switch pitcher.
14:58For the most part, he's going to be a right-handed pitcher.
15:00This is an incredibly talented arm, a lot of really loud stuff.
15:04They've got some good prospects coming through.
15:06And it seems like they've sold off their pieces effectively, but they've sold off every piece.
15:10So, I have no idea why the expectations are there in the mid-70s in terms of a win total for St. Louis in 26.
15:17Yeah, I don't either.
15:18Anyway, we're going to get a chance to see that kid pitch for the Cardinals here coming up in Jupiter in spring training.
15:23So, when is your first date in Jupiter?
15:26When is your first attendance?
15:28Is it next Monday?
15:29Is that what I'm guessing?
15:30Or is it before then?
15:32Yeah.
15:32So, I'll conclude the two-day drive from Pittsburgh to Jupiter.
15:36I'll conclude that on Sunday the 15th.
15:38And then I'm there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Monday the 16th at, I think, 7 a.m. or 7.30 a.m., whenever we've got to be there.
15:47Gotcha.
15:47Gotcha.
15:48All right.
15:48Well, I will see you Monday in Jupiter.
15:52That'll be my lone day that I'm able to get over there while still, you know, obviously trying to host this show every day, too.
15:59And then we'll see each other in spring training, I'm sure, afterwards.
16:02So, thanks again for coming on Newswire, Jack.
16:04And what do you got coming on the show, by the way, coming up here?
16:06A couple minutes.
16:07World Baseball Classic roster preview.
16:08Really excited about that.
16:10So, we kind of break down Team USA, the Dominican Republic.
16:12Like, I think Venezuela could mess around and win the whole darn thing, and we'll talk about that.
16:16Venezuela is a loaded roster.
16:18So, a lot of World Baseball Classic stuff coming up.
16:20It will not be Puerto Rico.
16:21I looked at that roster.
16:23I can tell you it will not be Puerto Rico this year.
16:26All right.
16:27It will not.
16:28Thanks again, Jack.
16:29Appreciate it.
16:30Appreciate you.
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