00:00My biggest surprise of the season, I'm going to stick with the Marlins here.
00:03I'm going to go with Otto Lopez, who's third in the National League in war.
00:08What a season he is having, Tom.
00:09He's leading the league in batting average.
00:11His .885 OPS has been fantastic.
00:14What a year for Otto.
00:16It really has been, and it's not just the average.
00:20It's getting on base.
00:21It's the fact that he's taken an interesting career path to get here with the Blue Jays.
00:26He gets let go.
00:27He doesn't play in 2023.
00:28Then he comes back, and he's playing at, I'm not just going to say an all-star level.
00:33It's beyond that, that he hits for such consistent average.
00:36He doesn't strike out.
00:37He doesn't have a ton of power, but the job he has at the top of the lineup, he has
00:41done to perfection and beyond that.
00:44My biggest surprise is going to be the Mets and really how bad they have been.
00:49You lose Lindor, I get it.
00:51You lose Soto, they're in and out of the lineup.
00:53But good teams can sustain that, even with the players out.
00:58You can withstand losing one or two players.
01:01To see how far they have dropped for the payroll that they have, I think is beyond unacceptable.
01:06If you told me that they were treading water, they're going to fight for a wild card, maybe they were
01:12a step behind because the Braves got so far out in the NL East,
01:15and the Marlins were having such a good year, they could fight for a wild card, I would understand that.
01:20But being this far down, I think is unacceptable for the payroll that they have and the expectations that they
01:26had coming into the season.
01:27It's beyond the pale.
01:29Yeah, I think that the shocking thing isn't the record, it's the run differential, because you're right, Tom, they've been
01:34just so bad.
01:35So, look, David Stearns is going to have so much work to do ahead of him, but Tom, beyond Peralta,
01:42who, by the way, is not having a good year either,
01:44do they have any real pieces to move that aren't under significant contracts that they can get a return for
01:49here?
01:50Because, I mean, you hear Bichette's name and some of the others, but some team has to take these guys
01:54on, too, and the money.
01:56Right, and it's not just about, oh, they want to get rid of a player.
01:59You need to have a team that's willing to take on that contract, knowing the looming CBA negotiations that we
02:06constantly reference.
02:07That does play a factor into things.
02:09A team not willing to take on that salary, not knowing how it's going to impact things in the years
02:14to come, is a significant thing.
02:16Some teams are just going to be unwilling to do that.
02:18The Mets would like to potentially move some of these players.
02:21I just think they swung and missed in the offseason, and then they pivoted and took things out of left
02:25field, no pun intended.
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