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00:00i think we agree they're going to get a catcher or try very very hard to get a catcher do
00:05you
00:05watching this offense and having mystery about judge and to some degree stanton do you think
00:12they need to add a bat someplace else as well and if so where and how john uh we're edging
00:19ever so
00:20close to the trade deadline 6 p.m on august 3rd there probably is no bigger story than is he
00:28or
00:28isn't he that is is tarik skuble getting into the trade market or not and we do have tigers manager
00:34aj hinch to discuss it with us yeah hinch is a great guest we've had him on multiple times in
00:39the past good for him to come on here uh when we're out two weeks to the deadline and that
00:44is the
00:44biggest question out there still will tarik skuble uh be traded so i'm looking forward to hearing what
00:50aj hinch has to say about that yeah you know we'll cover that well certainly part of that is asking
00:55him does he think the tigers are real contenders in both the al central and uh for the wild card
01:01and in the whole league uh with or without uh skuble john and i will do a deep dive at
01:06the top
01:06especially on the yankees but we'll talk about the mets uh trade deadline situation as it approaches
01:11we'll play hit or error at the end if you stick with us on the show with joel sherman and
01:15john
01:21well john and another week has gone by and uh i i will say this is the yankees are comfortably
01:28the
01:28top wild card team they're a game and a half behind the falling rays and yet it feels like
01:34at least a three alarm if not a four alarm blaze in new york because they just it doesn't feel
01:41right
01:41right when you're watching it the offense has been uh albeit they on on monday night against the uh
01:48the pirates they got their act together but that was before that they had scored more than five
01:53runs once in 27 games that was the second time then in 28 games they've done it the offense has
01:58been so bad without judge the absence of judges just felt daily the yankees aren't like handling it
02:06great uh john i just just focus what what kind of team do you think the new york game is
02:12right now
02:13well i certainly would help to get judge back and we don't really know if he's coming back they're
02:17expressing confidence that he's going to come back but we have really have no idea they waited what how
02:23many weeks uh to retest him and uh you know they said there was some progress but what progress is
02:29there
02:29when they have to again retest them and hopefully then he can begin uh making his way back uh they
02:36will need judge obviously they have not been the same team uh they've been a lot worse than i thought
02:42they would be i thought they would weather this storm a little bit better uh you know you had a
02:47stat
02:47basically they lose every year when he's out you know and they win winning with him obviously so he is
02:53extreme and i'm not to say anything we don't know but he's extremely extremely valuable guy with him
02:58they should be the best team in the american league without him uh let's say it doesn't come
03:03back can they get can they make it i i you know in this league uh almost anything can happen
03:08they're
03:08gonna they'll probably get in the playoffs even without him right i mean how do they not they're
03:13still more than 10 games over right i mean you basically have to be a 500 team probably to get
03:18in so
03:19uh i still think they're better than that without him so uh you know uh but the whole key is
03:26is judge
03:27coming back and we don't know we we have no idea at this point john you know i i'll say
03:32this the
03:33american league is obviously not very good but you know like steadily it was like usually like three
03:39or four teams over 500 i think we're up to six or seven now uh and other you know obviously
03:44boston
03:45is surge i think seattle got itself over 500 i think texas is a game over and i i still
03:51think you're
03:51going to need 85 at least to get in uh uh we'll see maybe i'll be wrong about that uh
03:57but like
03:59both of us were talking about it when we were uh at the stadium over the weekend we and you
04:04were so
04:05much better at this than me last year seeing the disaster coming that was the mets and it was
04:10impossible in mid-june to imagine the mets wouldn't make the playoffs they had the best record in the
04:14major leagues through june 12th and when they began to play poor for the next poorly for the next
04:20month i was one of those guys okay this is just a bad month but they're a good team they're
04:24going
04:24to pull down and they didn't now i think the 2026 yankees are better than the 2025 mets but i
04:30think
04:30they've opened the door here of some 10 possibility that should and probably would get everybody fired
04:37uh if they somehow like just plummet out of this and i think it's a bad reflection on everything
04:43about just how badly they don't just have like struggles hey we lost seven to ten but then we got
04:49it
04:49back together their their struggles really last too long and they look like they met each other
04:54in the parking lot and decided to play a baseball game at this point john i i think they're going
05:00to
05:00be fine but i thought the 2025 mets i said that almost to the end and you kept saying essentially
05:05in the nicest way possible even for you calling me an idiot and i and you were right that they
05:10were in
05:11much bigger trouble than i thought are the yankees in trouble at all well thanks for crediting for
05:16seeing and i i still thought the mets would probably make the playoffs i just thought those
05:20fan graphs 95 were way wildly too high i mean to me i was looking at it as more like
05:2760 at some point
05:28with a week to go not 95 in this case i do think the american league i know that there
05:34are more teams
05:34now around 500 slightly over i don't think it's going to take 85 games took 83 last year for the
05:41reds
05:41and they got in on a tie break with the mets uh you know my guess you're probably right i
05:46was saying
05:46500 i split the difference it'll probably be 83 it's hard to see them uh not winning 83 games it's
05:53not
05:53impossible uh i still think it's probably 95 chance that they do get in even if judge does not come
06:00back
06:00or comes back late in september which i think in september it looks like the best guess at this point
06:06i mean
06:06i i'm not on here saying i don't think he's coming back i i would say that he's more likely
06:11than not
06:12coming back we just don't know uh i mean they they have too much pitching to me to completely collapse
06:19and so i i don't see them winning 82 or 83 games and being uh you know left out of
06:26the playoffs
06:26entirely they still have you know as much as i said let's improve the bullpen their bullpen has still
06:31been good overall uh and particularly at the back end i got to give bednar credit i've been saying
06:38go get a closer making the setup man he's been a good closer so far that doesn't mean i don't
06:42want
06:43mason miller for the yankees that would be fantastic um but they're they're starting to throw out a a
06:50serviceable or better starter every every game pretty much every game now they do they they've had
06:55uh elmer rodriguez who will be good at some point i think uh come up occasionally and and throw a
07:02game
07:02but i i think compared to the other teams uh their pitching is is too good to not make it
07:08yeah with the
07:08chances of getting much better right freed and rodan both making strong inroads to coming back in a way
07:14like we were not seeing from judge right like those guys we actually see the ballpark throwing the ball
07:19that freed is out on uh rehab uh the spillage of that will be that either warren or weathers could
07:27go to the bullpen uh clark schmidt i keep seeing at the ballpark and he keeps giving me thumbs up
07:32about how he's doing so i think he just likes you i don't know yeah uh uh but uh uh
07:38i think he could
07:39become a factor as kind of a hybrid guy uh late i do think they're going to trade for some
07:44uh relievers
07:45nevertheless at least one maybe more though to your point bednar hedrick's arguably been one of
07:51the two or three best lefty relievers in the sport this year uh cruz notwithstanding the blow up
07:56the other day against the dodgers has been really really good paul blackburn has been really good and
08:01i don't know what what to believe about angel shavihi uh but it's been for for six games and they
08:07got you got to keep looking at it to see what what what it looks like i think they made
08:11the right choice
08:12get jake bird off the team i think eventually that will happen with daval as well but it does
08:16lead to this question like i think we'll agree to agree they're going to add at least one reliever
08:20maybe more and try to do the other stuff internally i think we agree they're going to get a catcher
08:25or
08:26try very very hard to get a catcher do you watching this offense and having mystery about judge and to
08:33some degree stanton do you think they need to add a bat someplace else as well and if so where
08:40and how
08:41well i you know i shouldn't advocate against adding wherever you can add but i think there
08:46are limitations realistically i think the best route to go is to improve the pitching and to get a
08:51big hitting catcher i i think uh under goodman is probably unlikely with three years to go i don't
08:57think langoliers is too likely with a couple years to go ryan jeffers is the obvious guy the twins are
09:03trending down uh i think he would fit into the clubhouse the guy's got a 900 ops i would say
09:10get
09:10that catcher and improve the pitching so i i'm going to live with lombard as the shortstop i don't
09:15know if you are or caballero uh as the shortstop with volpe i mean they've got three possibilities
09:21there i'm going to bank that one of them is going to come through rather than give away prospects for
09:26a pain or whomever could possibly be out there that'd be my thought that i would prioritize a catcher
09:32and bullpen and not worry about the shortstop issue yeah you know john i i would prioritize
09:40the shortstop issue uh i think that uh volpe and caballero i don't think look the yankees because of
09:48the pitching and judge if they have it right might win a championship anyway i did see a world series
09:53where anthony volpe was a starting shortstop so i know and he played well and he played well
09:58but like i i don't think either guy is really a top end starting shortstop that you trust uh i
10:05don't
10:06know how much the astros will sink uh i don't know if jim crane will ever accept selling i don't
10:13know if
10:13he sells if he'd ever sell to the yankees but if jeremy payner were available i would very very strongly
10:21try to get that because i think if you don't you do have to bring up lombard and see because
10:26because i do
10:27i i think they will i think they're gonna bring i'm with you john i think they will as well
10:32but
10:32but like it is a lot to put on a 21 22 year old in the middle of the pennant
10:37race uh to do it but i
10:40i know this is where metrics versus eyesight the metrics like the yankee shortstops uh i'm not a
10:48big fan of the yankee shortstops defensively they're okay yeah they're okay there's especially
10:54when volpe plays there's too many double plays not made when caballero plays he's always trying
10:59to do the spectacular to me and botches the routine uh i just think you need a steadiness there and
11:04it
11:05comes with jeremy payne's bat which is above average as an experience in the postseason which
11:10includes an mvp in the alcs in the world series i just think if he gets out there and the
11:15astros would
11:16ever deal with the yankees i think you've got to think seriously about it yeah i mean i think they
11:21have faith in lombard i mean the more you hear about what they're saying it feels like lombard
11:25is going to come up and they're going to test it out i like caballero better as a utility guy
11:30and you know i get it with volpe at this point you know he's not providing any power at all
11:35they do
11:36need a little more offense you know at lombard uh you know it's mixed reviews on on the bat but
11:42his
11:42defense is spectacular i mean we know the makeup from everything you hear is fantastic i think they're
11:48going to give him a shot i don't know i mean i i don't crane does not like to trade
11:55and give up
11:55he doesn't so i don't think pena is a great chance uh it does feel like the angels might actually
12:02be
12:03sellers for a change uh what do you think of netto i i kind of like him as a player
12:08i love the offense
12:09he's a bad defender i think that that i think if you're going to win a championship yeah catcher and
12:14shortstop it's a little bit my hunter goodman issue and i don't know enough about hunter goodman
12:19like i haven't seen him play a lot and we were talking about this yesterday john is like the
12:24people i talk to say ignore the defensive metrics on goodman he is not a good defensive catcher so
12:30like i think and i think the yankees and i understand they have to hold their nose a little
12:35bit because they're getting so little offense out of the catching spot but they just they just
12:41really believe in the framing and the pitch calling and controlling a game it's why austin wells is still
12:48in there he's exceptional at those three things while not hitting at all really uh and so i just
12:54think that's gonna be a tough time your your point that you made is the right one ryan jeffers is
13:00the
13:00perfect plug and play guy for them because he's good on both sides of the ball and he has history
13:05lots of history with the yankees current catching coach and so they feel they could probably plug and play
13:10him so i just think that's the the guy if they they go there and i think it helps on
13:15both sides
13:15of the ball yeah yeah i i'm not really i mean i just threw netto out there i i i
13:20think netto you
13:21know i've seen them play he's got feels like he's got pretty good range he is a little bit he's
13:27a hit
13:27miss a little bit at bat but he's a good offensive player obviously i i don't know i i i
13:33i wouldn't be
13:34stunned if if his name was comes out there at least i will be a little surprised if they do
13:38trade him
13:38abrams uh yeah i you know he's a great offensive player also so he's probably not going to fit
13:44their mold is as more offense first shortstop even if he is out there and at this point i would
13:50say
13:50not that likely they're around that's around 500 but you know we'll see i mean i they could still
13:57trade some of their guys or free agents but he does he's got a big picture than that yeah i
14:03think so i
14:04don't know the first year guy in the executive chair there yeah yeah i think so but uh i'll live
14:10with the i'll live with the shortstop situation i think the catching situation needs to be improved
14:15that's my thought on yeah the one that i think is the dumbest i keep hearing people try to associate
14:21rafael devers with the yankees i would say that rafael devers has the most underwater contract in the
14:27sport perhaps uh i think people forget what what what like just what his behavior was in a couple
14:33of different places now uh and things like i i i told somebody yesterday they asked me and i said
14:40that's like being hungry and buying a restaurant yeah yeah that make any sense like like like you
14:46have an itch right now you scratch it with a one or two year guy you don't bring in that
14:50doesn't
14:51sound like something they would yeah consider for a second i don't know told you that came up with
14:56that but uh i mean you know they still have some hope i don't know how realistic it is that
15:02stanton
15:03will be back he's a dh devers is a dh i think for most teams and for the yankees it's
15:10really dh right
15:11yeah yeah um look on the subject of misery if i could go there the uh mets are 42 and
15:1959 and i think
15:20over the next uh two plus weeks uh they might uh trade more players uh than anyone else and the
15:28question is how deep do they dig and john i'll just set it up and you you you when when
15:34i'm done
15:34you just tick them off and tell me if you think they'll go i think obviously minter raley and as
15:39bad as he's pitching peralta because they're all in their walk year go i think tyrone taylor somebody's
15:45interested in also in his walk year he's a good extra outfielder who's actually hit a little bit
15:50uh this year he goes so those are the obvious ones uh because they're all walk year guys and i
15:55think
15:56homes goes uh because i think even though there's always talk about uh can they extend them it's steve
16:04cone have your cake and eat it to trade them and then then sign them back uh and do it
16:09both ways
16:10because he he's obviously going to opt out at the end of the year so i think it's that so
16:14then the
16:14do you agree with me on those five i do could they potentially uh keep homes and give them the
16:20qualifying offer you know i and then maybe that leads to an extension at that point i do think he
16:28provided he looks pretty good in the rehab he probably is traded i personally think they should
16:34trade the guys who you know have years to go as well because they're more helpful to a contending
16:41team isn't luke weaver more valuable weaver and brasoban are the uh with the next now brasoban has a
16:46few years to go but yeah weaver has one more year to go so he's got one important year with
16:52the mats
16:52plus this year and if he's traded he's got two years with another team they should be able to figure
16:56out a place to trade weaver and i think that's true of homes as well um yeah i don't i
17:03don't think
17:04lindore is going anywhere and i wonder is there any hope on to trade devon williams peralta robert
17:10i mean it's i mean i don't want to pile on because i think david sterns has taken even worse
17:15than he
17:15might deserve i don't know but i mean could they have i mean he took the cop the five big
17:21moves
17:21and i love simian personally but you know the five big moves counting peralta and simian i mean
17:27none of them have worked none of them from the last opa fall with four strikeouts with golden
17:33sombrero what's over five i think they have a thing for it i i don't remember what it's called
17:38but whatever it is he's done the executive version of that i think he has yeah i right bichette i
17:45mean
17:45bichette's been fine at third he's fine in the clubhouse i know he's been hotter lately but he's
17:52still got less than a 700 ops it's it's 42 million dollars yes i mean is he the fourth he
17:59might have the
18:00fourth highest salary of any player in major league baseball i'd have to look at it uh bellinger might
18:05bellinger's higher at the moment but not per year uh so he might maybe it's fifth but i mean
18:12you know that he's not a 42 million dollar player uh and then he's got the opt-out so to
18:17trade him
18:18is very complicated uh although he is certainly more there are teams that are going to want him
18:23because he is a very good not a 42 million dollar player but he is a good player uh it'll
18:28be
18:28interesting to see i i don't think lindore is going anywhere i i think they want to win next
18:33year i think you can make up as much as we love luke weaver and he's a friend of the
18:38show i think
18:38you can find a reliever you cannot find a shortstop on the free agent market who's a 30 30 shortstop
18:45and i think this year is kind of a fluke for lindore and he's still a terrific player the best
18:50shortstop
18:51who's a free agent is jp crawford you know he's in like 210 right i mean i know lindore's not
18:56hitting
18:56well right either now but i mean you got mateo is a is a free agent shortstop you've got uh
19:02hasung
19:03kim as a free i mean none of these guys can be the shortstop next year if you want to
19:08win right you've
19:08got to you've got to hope that lindore and soto can be the lead guys of a winning team so
19:15i don't see
19:16and he's got a no full no trade as well so there are a number of reasons why that's not
19:20happening but
19:20what do you think can they can they deal any of these other guys who they obtained last year i
19:25mean
19:25simians i don't i don't see that one right at this point because you know he's played enough
19:30for people to say you know he may not be that good anymore right but could they trade polanco or
19:36robert
19:37uh we think they can trade perolta but can they trade devin williams that was the other the fifth
19:42of the moves yeah you know john uh just just to double down on lindore uh you mentioned the shortstop
19:49it's just a bad uh free agent class for position players so if the mets want to revisit this in
19:54the
19:54offseason his five at 160 will look a lot better whenever we play baseball again and whenever
20:00there's an actual free agent market right you gotta take a chance that he can do the 30 30 thing
20:05again
20:06and he can be the shortstop that he's i'm with you i think he's still a really good player and
20:10i expect
20:10him and bichette to both play well the rest of the year for whatever that's worth and i think
20:15potentially make them valuable in a bad free agent market for position players if the if the mets are
20:20sitting with bichetta two at 84 and lindore at five at 160 they're both underwater a little bit
20:27but comparatively if jess chisholm is the best free agent hitter available or glaber torres i think that
20:33they could at least revisit it in the offseason they have other stuff to do here and i'm with you
20:37i would do everything i would move weaver you know you mentioned brazilban has a more service time but
20:43he is older than people recognize i think he's like 36 years old uh so like i and and you
20:48know he's at
20:49his peak of probably value right now and i seriously if my conceit if i'm david sterns is
20:54in a crappy year i did put together a pretty good bullpen i believe you could at least do that
20:58again
20:58and go get the extra pieces now i would do all that my only thought on them being able to
21:04trade
21:05the guys you mentioned is can they bundle some of them and take on a distress asset like willie adamas
21:12like like can you put two of them or three of them together and say hey san francisco we'll take
21:17willie adamas off your hands or uh or devers or like is it worthwhile to say you've got to take
21:23singa simeon and uh polanco and we'll take devers or something like that yeah that'll be a funny trade
21:31how did the two teams sell that trade we got rid of the worst guys we're happy with this trade
21:36our
21:36guys are that we traded are worse than the one we're getting yeah no i by by the way i
21:40wouldn't do
21:41it i i find the mats and i have steve cohen's money the one thing that that david sterns um
21:46valued
21:47and prioritized was to shorten the years on all right so i just instead of thinking on something
21:53long and long and bad i'll just either eat create dead money by eating the bad contracts or try with
22:00like polanco and simian again next i do think i'm not sure about simian it just feels like he got
22:06old
22:06quick uh i think polanco if he could get his i think as a dh get him off the field
22:12i think polanco
22:13will hit uh can they get his legs good enough to hit 110 120 games next year and and then
22:20maybe i
22:21mean the guy's a good hitter we've said that when they signed him they got a good hitter and when
22:24he
22:24plays uh certainly but what's that worth as a value a dh who's a good hitter i mean he's not
22:31stanton
22:31he's not devers as a hitter right yeah he's a good he's a good hitter the teams don't want to
22:37tie up of the dh spot the mets didn't think they were doing when they signed him they thought he
22:42was
22:42the mostly the first baseman right so uh yeah i these guys don't really have any value i don't
22:49think in terms of trading them sanga certainly does not i think you just gotta live with them
22:53and or eat them or give another shot at what you think it looks like i mean they totally turned
22:59over
22:59the last year's team which won 83 games right and now we're going to come back with the same team
23:04that's going to win way fewer than 83 games that's going to be a little bit odd maybe maybe there'll
23:11be
23:12a way it it is funny that the free agent market the two best hitters possibly are jazz chisholm number
23:18one and glaber number two yankee second baseman right i mean neither one of them i mean they're they're
23:24both very good baseball players obviously but we it's pretty clear there's no not only no one soda
23:30out here there's no perennial all-star on the market i think chisholm is the best of the whole group
23:35and he's showing that the last couple days i mean they're good players don't voice shows a good
23:40player or rosarina but you know you're not rebuilding the offense so to trade lindor even in the
23:45and that's easier to do in the offseason right yeah but even in the offseason why would you want to
23:51trade him i don't see it yep uh look it's uh not not been a good run for david stearns
23:57in the mets
23:58a team that got off as bad as the mets was the detroit tigers but since june 1st they've been
24:03one
24:03of the best teams in the major leagues and they're are they are they not in the race does that
24:09mean
24:09they're going to trade or not trade tarik skuble we have lots of questions and we have tigers manager
24:14aj hinch to join us next to give us some answers
24:22aj hinch uh 2017 champion with the astros this is his sixth year managing the tigers they've made
24:28the playoffs the last two years and of course they're one of the most interesting teams uh as
24:33we head towards the deadline because they're kind of in it maybe they're totally in it we'll ask aj
24:38about that uh and what does it mean for tarik skuble and others if they're not aj thank you so
24:43much for
24:44joining us on the show thanks for having me you know aj i i got home from the yankee game
24:48last
24:49night and i flipped on your game and i saw the last two innings of it which felt a little
24:53russian novel
24:54novel like uh watching the give and take does it feel different at this time of year to play a
24:59game
24:59understanding the implications of which way things go uh that you're a buyer a seller or both where
25:07i mean are you even managing the game like a playoff level game because of that yeah i think that's
25:12a
25:12great point because i we have to pay attention of the urgency of of the time of the year you
25:18know i
25:18mean obviously we've been getting asked questions about the deadline far before the deadline was even
25:25you know necessarily in front of mind but i i think there's an urgency to us we have to answer
25:30the
25:30questions we know where we are we dug ourselves a huge hole in may now we played incredible baseball
25:37for june into july now we're in late july and then we know what's ahead so uh there's a little
25:43there's a little more edge to these games in july than normal because of the conversation around our
25:48team and and the hole that we dug ourselves so i we're embracing it and just understanding it's
25:54part of our day by day yeah i like joel's inside baseball question but i'll jump to the
25:5964 000 question you know i'm kind of i'm trying to be nice to open up here john this is
26:05this is
26:05that northwestern thing we were talking about you you go mean quick all right well you know we're
26:11tough there we're tough in evanston illinois uh is school will staying all right i'm shocked that's
26:16the that's a topic i mean i'm shocked you would ask that i mean i i only get asked that
26:21in every city
26:21that we go to you know by some of the the writers and i i say the same thing like
26:26i don't know
26:26you know i think part of the the the conversation around the deadline is you go to the records and
26:32you see where everybody is and you go to you know everybody thinks they have access to your
26:36best players and then the reality sets in of like you win a series then you then you sweep a
26:41series
26:41then you win another series and you look up and you feel like you're in it you know august 3rd
26:46is
26:46the deadline everybody knows it it's circled on the calendar it's just a long time between now and
26:51then we got a lot of baseball to play but i um we put ourselves in this situation where we
26:56have to talk about it because of the you know the record and and how how poorly may went but
27:01um i keep preaching to like control what you control to our guys and and play the games and
27:07we'll see where it leads us well just to put a final point on like the the roller coaster on
27:12may
27:1231st through may 31st you had the worst record in the american league you're 22 and 38 since then
27:17you're 25 and 15 only boston 26 and 15 are is better and we've seen what happened to boston they
27:23totally flipped from hey they were getting asked all those questions but they didn't have tarik
27:26skuble uh and now they're they're they're buyers uh it's left you six and a half out in the al
27:32central
27:32it's left you four and a half out of a wild card aj is there like numbers where you have
27:39to say
27:39we're going for it and are there numbers back where you have to say we're not like like like
27:44you are you and scott harris saying hey if we're here we've got to go for it and if we're
27:50here
27:50come on man we got to be honest with ourselves so we haven't gone there yet you know i i
27:55think
27:55it's important to to realize like what you just said like boston rattled off 14 straight wins to
28:01get to that record we rattled off a bunch of wins we won some series and then you know every
28:06loss
28:06feels like like a big deal you know we lost a one-run game in anaheim the other day we
28:12could
28:12have swept and said we won two out of three i've never really complained about winning two out of
28:17three in a series in my career but all of a sudden it feels like oh you let one get
28:21away from you and
28:22so you know i i think there's there's obviously this is a win total exercise the playoffs are a win
28:27total exercise you got to get to to a bunch of wins in order to factor in now that the
28:32wild card has
28:33has has changed that a little bit but you know the decisions at the end by towards the deadline and
28:39what you're doing and what's available like i try to keep all that stuff out of the clubhouse and and
28:45even away from me so that i can focus on what my job is which win as many games you
28:49can
28:50win a bunch of series we are you know a crazy intriguing team because i i think we like i've
28:57said a number of times we're a good team with a bad record and that that often complicates decisions
29:02that that come around these deadlines i mean i i'm you know i still uh i'm curious myself but of
29:09what's gonna happen but i look up i'm like now i'm at wrigley i gotta play the cubs we have
29:13a four
29:13game series against the royals a three game series against the orioles we go out to sacramento we have
29:19an off day and and all of a sudden the deadline is going to hit us right in the face
29:22so um i know if
29:24we win a ton of games if we we make that decision later and later and we probably should as
29:30a as an
29:30organization but also as a as an industry how many huge trades do you see that are done you know
29:3610
29:36days out of the of the deadline and the answer is not many you're not your average run-of-the
29:41-mill
29:42manager you you went to stanford you were in the front office you've got quite a great reputation
29:47you've been in the playoffs a lot you've won a world series how much input do you have on this
29:52trade situation and are you in there telling i'm assuming you want you'd like to keep school but
29:56the manager right you have a vested interest in that so who doesn't want talking about it all the
30:02time with him or yeah not really all the time i mean again i i think our office scott and
30:07jeff do a
30:07great job of of of keeping you know the lines drawn of where the jobs are i mean we have
30:13different jobs
30:14you know my job would to get the players ready to to play and and push and get them to
30:19execute and
30:19and motivate and move them around during the game and stuff and and try to win games and and the
30:25broader view of the organization the front office handles but i you know i i'm aware of everything
30:31that's in front of us but i i'm not on the phone i don't i don't i don't do any
30:35of the deals and
30:36so i i try to stay in my lane of do my job and offer my opinion as we get
30:41closer and closer to
30:42the to the deadline it just right now again like you know a week ago you know boston was was
30:48a mess
30:49they won seven in a row in the last week now we are you know want to want a series
30:54coming out of
30:54the break we have a chance to win a series in wrigley tonight i just think we should pay attention
30:59to
30:59where our feet are you know i know you pulled off a miracle a couple years ago when you were
31:02a seller
31:03and actually sold flaherty and some other pieces and then still made the playoffs is there a
31:07possibility to trade scoobal because he's a exceptional case and could bring back a lot and
31:13really what i'm assuming you want to keep him right well i i i listen who doesn't want scoobal on
31:20on your
31:20team or any of your you have your best players got one that saw young two years in a row
31:24and so i
31:24you know we're very motivated to win we want to win we want to win with scoobal i again i
31:30think
31:30where where the record stands it creates a bunch of dialogue around our team and we have two choices
31:35we can run from it or we can just deal with it and very similar to how it was the
31:41last couple of
31:41seasons we've had to deal with two monster you know conversations around our team one was we sold a
31:48bunch of players and made a bunch of trades we went young and we found ourselves one of the better
31:53teams in baseball the last month and a half and in the playoffs last year we jumped out way ahead
31:59we ended up sort of like getting creeping back towards the field cleveland goes off and gets
32:05the division we go beat them in a playoffs like baseball's crazy so i think we should just do our
32:10part to to win as many games we can and and of course i love writing terrick scoobal's name in
32:16the lineup man he's one of the best pitchers in baseball if not the best pitcher in baseball and
32:20that that makes your team better uh but you've got to keep earning these opportunities by winning games
32:25you know aj i wonder if i could double down on that question because it was something i was
32:28thinking of asking and i think it it is an interesting point so again just to draw a final
32:34line since june 1st when you've begun this good streak you lead the major leagues in starting pitcher
32:39era uh and that means more than scoop you have other guys pitching very well uh mize valdez uh
32:49kato montero like others you melton melton melton has been terrific uh you like and and by the way
32:57jackson job i noticed made his third rehab appearance and got up to 45 pitches you could
33:02tell us what's going on with justin verlander you could get somebody out back for scoobal
33:06can i make the point that the in the best interest of the tigers would be yeah go get as
33:12much stuff as
33:12possible for for scoobal because he's so good and you're probably not going to be able to retain
33:18him long term but don't wave a white flag keep mize who's a potential free agent keep claver torres
33:24who's a potential free and just have it's like have a cake and eat it too is that a sound
33:32strategy
33:33at this point and and i'm asking you to put your executive hat on to some degree well i i
33:37think
33:37everybody has great ideas and and i think it creates a huge conversation around what the deadline
33:44is like i've been part of deadlines where there's been massive sell-offs i've been the buy sell i've
33:49been the just sell i've been the stand pat like all those happen across the entire the entire game
33:57so like i'm not skirting the question i have no idea what's what what we're going to do or what's
34:02possible but i think the conversation around your team is like you want to keep your strengths
34:07of strength and you want to address the weaknesses that you do have now with a lot of teams weaknesses
34:12might be just get your guys healthy and get and we love getting glaber back javi bae is going to
34:17start
34:17a rehab assignment tonight we got to get parker meadows you know on the mend and doing doing his
34:23thing we miss will vest in the back end last night i was going to go through every reliever i
34:27could to
34:28beat the cubs like we had every reliever available that i pitched everyone that was available so
34:33you know the best interest of your team is is always keep your strength of strength and try to
34:38address your weaknesses but you got to earn that through the the opportunities ahead and so you know
34:43all this conversation again this used to start just in july where we would talk about it in july and
34:49i
34:49understand we're in july now we've been dealing with this since may and june people ask me about the
34:54deadline the first question in the month of may about the deadline and that's because we were losing games
35:00so how do you combat all this and and sort of guide your own destiny so to speak you got
35:06to win games
35:06and we've been doing that now for a couple months we got to do it more and by the way
35:11when the
35:11deadline comes no matter what happens as a manager the season still goes on i still look at i've got
35:17the pirates twice i got the the dodgers coming to comerica we got to play the white socks and the
35:21guardians who were in front of us so the deadline's just a day and then things are going to happen
35:26around
35:27the league there's going to be an emotional reaction to it and then we got to go play more
35:31games and you got to keep winning in order to get to the playoffs yeah look i remember in 2019
35:36aj asking
35:37davy martinez uh so you got to trade max scherzer right when they were whatever 1931 in may and they
35:43then i saw davy martinez pouring champagne on max scherzer in 2019 at the end of the year
35:49so i know how how that could work but if i could just you know you talked about hayman being
35:53the one
35:53that's mean asking questions like that 2019 law still hurts oh i'm sorry you know something i
35:59forgot as i was asking you well i think you shouldn't say i'm mean i think you should say
36:04i'm stupid because i forgot you as i was pointing that out i wasn't gonna bring it up
36:09no but but i it but to get back to mean i wonder if i could just drill down again
36:15on essentially that
36:16same question is if terck scoobel you know obviously i am not wishing for hoping but but if he came
36:22in
36:22today and said oh you know i pulled my hamstring and he couldn't pitch the rest of whatever injury
36:28you wouldn't give up right like i think you could look at your team rightfully even your rotation
36:34which obviously would be hurting you're not only losing an ace you might be losing the ace of the
36:38sport but i guess what i'm saying is if i took them off your team you'd still think you could
36:43win
36:43wouldn't you yeah of course we're still trying to win no matter what injuries no injuries trade no
36:49trade uh availability no availability like that never stops that's a great point of like we are
36:55going to play the games like again i try not to get too cliche but like we're going to play
36:59the games
36:59and see how many wins we have at the end and and there's a chance regardless of anything we have
37:04a
37:05chance to win we have a chance to win tonight and we're not you know pitching you know terrick
37:09scoobel or i'm not pitching jack flaherty i'm not pitching casey mize like we're we're pitching
37:13for amber valdez and we feel good about our chance to win and so i i think our mindset downstairs
37:19in
37:19the in the in the clubhouse is keep plugging away keep taking a step forward keep going and that
37:25doesn't change and it shouldn't change regardless and we have an experienced team that's that's that's
37:31made moves both ways both incoming and and trading out where where we won at the end of the season
37:38um in advance to the playoffs so our mindset's going to remain the same for sure yeah how confident are
37:44you that you can win this division i mean you you were the favorite going in you you managed a
37:48lot of
37:49teams i think that have overachieved now obviously you had a ton of injuries in may i think that really
37:53caused the six and 20 but you are trending upward but you know the white socks have been a little
37:59bit
37:59of a surprise guardians always tough what do you think you feel pretty confident in this division
38:04six and a half out yeah they play their games too you know i i think it's you know it's
38:08always
38:09important to play uh the teams in front of you and and take care of business when you do and
38:14we
38:14we hadn't done that uh up to date you know we had a pretty good series against the white socks
38:19we've
38:19had a couple good series against the white socks we've struggled with cleveland um you know dating back
38:24to last year and so i you know we are going to have those teams in front of us that
38:28we're going to
38:28get to play we haven't played a ton of division games you know and we're all the way into late
38:33july so
38:34you know our confidence is that we believe in our team i i love getting glaber back last night and
38:39being able to slide dingler into the five hole we would slide torkelson down in the order and all
38:43of a sudden those 18 19 homers in the seven hole feel like a strength as opposed to um the
38:49bottom of
38:50the order not not not swinging the bat as well and so i those those things i think are important
38:55as we
38:55get as we get healthy we've played better defense um that leads to more confidence we've obviously
39:01pitched really well like like like joel said we our our rotation um has been awesome and you know
39:06even though the last couple of starts i've had to go out and get starters early so um we're again
39:13win totals are win totals and we're going to need to increase those to to catch those teams the good
39:18thing is we're going to play these guys you know in this in this back 50 60 games how much
39:22does that
39:22matter like is that part of the discussion that you're the the teams in your division are littered on your
39:29schedule uh the rest of the way where it is in your hands to some degree is that part of
39:34a discussion
39:34on whether to trade a little whether to trade on by the way whether we haven't asked this question
39:39whether to buy and try to go for it yeah we're going for it either way i i think transactions
39:46don't
39:46mean whether you're going for it or not i think it's the public version of of of changing your roster
39:52but um you're going to still try to win and so i i you know again i i think tonight's
39:56game
39:57can springboard you forward or you're going to take a step back like that's the reality tomorrow's
40:02the same way and so what i what i heard coming out of the break from the questions in the
40:06media was
40:07hey you got to get off to a good start like okay we've won you know three of the first
40:10four
40:11and it doesn't matter unless we you know continue that trend to to improve our trajectory i mean it's
40:17you know right now the accomplishment feels like winning series and getting ahead of of the the pace
40:23that we were on when we were headed south and we've done that so far we got to keep doing
40:28it for
40:29us to factor in and and be relevant like that down the stretch playing the teams in front of us
40:34you know we saw a couple of tiger all-stars uh at least i did in philly uh we've talked
40:39a lot on the
40:39show about mcgonigal obviously he's gotten a lot of publicity as the uh favorite i think are one of the
40:45favorites for the uh american league rookie of the year how about this catcher of your you know you
40:49were a major league catcher uh this guy dingler uh where did he come from how he he looks really
40:55good yeah draft and development you know he came he pretty high pick out of ohio state and and worked
41:01his way methodically through the through the minor leagues and everybody says catchers take
41:05step-by-step process he did that every level he conquered it and then he would come and then he
41:10was
41:10the backup on that 2014 that made the playoffs with jake rogers doing the majority of the catching and
41:16then it flipped jake got hurt dylan came in he took advantage of his opportunities and he's taken
41:21off and been you know arguably one of the top catchers in baseball performance wise for sure
41:27but also stability wise like everything he does behind the plate is plus everything he does at the
41:33plate um is productive i've i've moved him up from the bottom of the order now he's primarily hitting
41:38second third fourth or fifth um and then last night he had a couple homers he he exceeded the 20
41:44homer
41:44total um just an just an incredible person to to be stable behind the plate i'm very catcher biased
41:51but it i get asked about him as much as i do you know mcgonigal or or taric or um
41:57you know casey and
41:58and you know our players like riley green like these guys the other managers ask me a ton and they're
42:04always intrigued by by what dylan's doing behind the plate there's a you'll never see a good team
42:09without a good catcher like do you need a good catcher to to be you know what the best version
42:15of your team he impacts the game on both sides look i think in this age where where it's hard
42:20to find
42:20terrific two-way catchers if you have one the advantage over the other team i think is the
42:26greatest advantage you can have and i think you've got the best uh actually in the sport uh especially
42:32dollar for dollar um uh just uh it's it's scuba uh jason could you give us an update on do
42:40you expect
42:41jackson joe back this year in your rotation where where is that and do you expect verlander back
42:46just in the idea of if you have to fill in but you want to keep you are going to
42:51try to keep going
42:51and winning could these guys help you along the way for sure jackson is is trending pretty quickly
42:58i mean he's in you know well into his rehab assignment he's going to pitch again this weekend
43:02and um and have and have good starts along the way he's very you know you guys in new york
43:08saw this
43:08with garrett cole and going you know through a very long spring training-esque type build coming out of
43:15tommy john and so jackson's doing that he's doing in the upper 90s he's hit 100 in every outing that's
43:21both encouraging and scary meaning he is locked in you know throwing the ball as hard as he can
43:26um i think he threw three innings in his last rehab start so again like you're gonna end up
43:32challenging him to four and challenging him to five and build his pitch count up we do expect him to
43:37to contribute and pitch for us i don't know when it is because we're we're paying attention to rest
43:43we're paying attention to his his recovery this is a tommy john rehab it's not coming back from a
43:48you know a sore quad or or you know a sore back or anything like that so uh we'll be
43:54excited to get
43:55him back in the mix and then in verlander's the same way he's just behind because he's not doing
44:01rehabs uh outings yet he hasn't pitched in a game in a while we're gonna need to to build him
44:06you know
44:07i i love what the commissioner did to acknowledge his career and pay tribute to what he's given the
44:13sport and his excellence and he announced this is going to be his last year and so we're all really
44:19motivated for him to contribute to a winner i mean we want this guy to uh to finish in our
44:24uniform and
44:24and have that moment where he's able to go out there but also be good and he's working towards
44:30that he's really motivated uh to pitch he's had a heck of a time getting himself back to 100 percent
44:36after the the hamstring injury in the in the beginning of april so i um i i've i've got a
44:42close
44:42relationship with justin so i'm rooting for him i'm also rooting for us but i um i do want to
44:48acknowledge just like the greatness that we that we had around us he's impacted this team in a positive
44:54way even though uh the innings have been have been light yeah well he's obviously a first ballot hall
44:59of famer when that comes up five years after his retirement i wonder as a way to finish aj uh
45:05i mean
45:06i thought the tigers the yankees and the mariners coming into this year with a class of the american
45:11league and boston was that next thing does it matter anyway i'm sure you did felt some way about
45:17it a hundred games into the season as you're thinking about things does it matter what you
45:22think of your team anymore or the reality is you're six games under 500 and that's the only thing that
45:27matters um i don't think that's the only thing that matters i just think that's the reality of the
45:33situation that you're in you know when you start the year you start with a little bit of an
45:38illusion that you're going to have this team for the remainder of the season and it never works out
45:42that way because guys get hurt you have good performance bad performance then we get to the
45:47deadline and all i hear about is changing your team right so like even when we predict things at the
45:51beginning of the season we have no idea how july is going to go when when you go through the
45:56season
45:56and the grind like there are these peaks and valleys and there are teams that get injury you know
46:02riddled and and struggle to maintain themselves and then there's also teams that jump out and
46:07and fade and there's teams that get off to a slow start all of boston and all of a sudden
46:12they're on a
46:12on a massive sprint um towards wins and so um i think it matters as you start to that you
46:19can
46:19accurately evaluate your team that you know what your strength is and how to how to maintain that
46:24and you know what your weaknesses are and you try to address that initially in the year
46:28with young players or or six-year free agents or your your minor league depth um and then you get
46:34to this part of the season where you have to declare a little bit of where you're at and and
46:38that's the
46:39beauty of this sport you go through like multiple seasons within the first hundred games and so you
46:45got to have belief in your team if you're going to maintain that mental consistency to to bring it
46:51every day that those hundred plus win teams that i've had in my past we had six and seven and
46:56eight
46:56game losing streaks like that happens in this sport to the best of teams like i've i've been around the
47:02game long enough to know every team's going to have to deal with this stuff so um you got to
47:07stay
47:07focused on what you can control when you can control it and and ride this this roller coaster of 162
47:13games it doesn't mean you have to to know at 100 what your full season is going to look like
47:18so
47:18um stay positive and and and keep reaching for wins because they they matter at the end
47:24hey jay i i hope i'm speaking for john also as we we you know we get our guests every
47:28week and
47:29this is a time of year where most people who are involved in significant news stories run away from
47:34us uh and don't want to do this so they run away from us anyway yes uh they run a
47:40little faster in
47:40late july i've noticed uh and so uh uh aj you've been on the show multiple times so we're always
47:46thankful
47:46for that but you're doing it at this time where obviously you have the player it may be him and
47:51mason miller that most people are talking about right now they're actually going to get out to
47:55the market uh john and i truly appreciate you joining us on the show enjoy it see you guys thanks
48:01aj
48:07john and i of course thank aj hinch the manager of the troy tigers for joining us on the show
48:12john
48:13hit or error i got another error i'm on a run of errors i gotta go with jose caballero with
48:19his
48:20stall tactic in the in the box okay he's annoying the pitcher okay that's one thing he's also you
48:28know potentially getting a pitch clock violation he's done that you know two or three times he
48:33maybe earned himself three balls or four balls or something like he's annoying everybody else with
48:38this too though it is not worth it what if everybody did this everybody tried to outsmart the
48:43rule okay give him congratulations found a loophole in the rule where he can maybe get a minor
48:49advantage uh two or three at bats out of the 500 he's going to get this year it is not
48:54worth it uh
48:55nearly led to a fight yesterday i don't blame santana i i mean i don't want to go out there
49:00and
49:00fight caballero not only because i wouldn't beat him uh it's not worth it but he's got to cut it
49:06out
49:07mlb's got to tell him to stop it that was not the intention of the rule yeah can i love
49:12and hate
49:12something at the same time there uh i really hate watching it yeah it is annoying my as somebody who
49:20believes like the like like everyone is way too friendly on the field and especially before and
49:25before games now the fact that he pisses everybody off i kind of like it like like like i think
49:32it's
49:32a competition and i think what if everybody was doing that well it'd be terrible john i said i hate
49:36it
49:36the game would be ruined we have a three and a half hour game i did i think i said
49:41i hate and love it
49:42i hate watching it there like i think part of who he is is he wants to annoy the crap
49:49out of everybody
49:50and that includes me and you watching the game and he's doing it he's succeeding at a very high level
49:55but i think he's bothering the other team is is he is it a working because he isn't like hitting
50:00really like it isn't like he does this and he gets like a big advantage at the plate but um
50:05john
50:06i i think i want to give a hit for this uh but i'm not exactly sure that's the right
50:13thing you know
50:14the best thing that happened to the mets is they didn't sign kyle tucker um i just watched him over
50:19the weekend again and if you remember when we were doing shows one of the things i said all the
50:25time
50:25about kyle tucker is you know you and i think about go back to 2015 especially 2017 because of the
50:32sign stealing the the the astros became the red sox to the yankees the yankees hated them their
50:38fans hated them the games were big and i know i covered tons of games in houston regular season
50:43yankee stadium regular season all the postseason games those were big games and you know i would
50:48leave the ballpark and go god damn it jose altobe is a timely player god damn it alex bregman could
50:54field the ball in the eighth inning or whatever and take a good at bat and jeremy pain you're and
51:00you're
51:00don alvarez and you could have convinced me kyle tucker didn't even like you'd have to remind me
51:04kyle tucker played in the series i'd go really he was there he was in this series and people were
51:09saying like what they thought of him and how much money he was going to get i'm like i don't
51:12know i
51:12saw him on a great team and i didn't even know he was on the field and i covered a
51:16lot of big games
51:17between those teams and a lot of big astro games where i just like forgot it he just played a
51:21weekend series against the yankees you would have to remind me again that he played in the series
51:26he went two for nine with two singles struck out twice and it felt like like every time i watched
51:31kyle tucker like he had a card in his hand was putting it into the time thing to prove he
51:36showed
51:36up for work and then that's it and i like i guess the good news for the mets is they
51:42could have signed
51:42that contract and been into it i i would rather have bachette for the three oh absolutely then tucker
51:49for the four uh after watching it it's just like i just think he's a incredibly talented
51:59yeah he might be i don't know is he the 12th best player on the dodgers i i don't know
52:03but i mean
52:03obviously he's not having a good year it is something that you and i do not see that the two
52:09highest priced gms determined that he was the guy to go for last winter that they had to have him
52:15to the point where they're going to make him the first 60 million dollar play he got two teams to
52:20offer him 60 million dollars i'm with you uh altuve bregman alvarez uh pena there were a number of
52:29players who were the marquee guys on that astros team now was tucker a very good player he's better
52:35than this yes he was a very very good player offensively and defensively right now he's an average
52:41player both ways yeah i i don't get it i mean every team makes mistakes we'll see there's still
52:48a little bit of time to go maybe he'll turn it around but i'll never understand why two teams
52:53thought that he should be the highest paid player in the game john i'll even go to this and this
52:58is
52:58one that's like i had lots of analytical people on it not even nice tell me i was wrong and
53:04an idiot
53:04i just kept saying wait kyle tucker's better than cody bellinger because why because you say so because
53:10of some war number i said i just watched cody bellinger play a whole season and and i leave
53:14the park every game that cody bellinger plays pretty much and goes wow he impacted the game on
53:19defense he impacted the game on the bases he impacted the game left on left he's just a good
53:24five tool player i think he's a like like again i think and i so you see he has struggled
53:31without
53:32judge because i think what cody bellinger is is a is as high a level co-star as you can
53:38like whoever
53:38the third billing is in a great movie that's what he feels like but but stealing scenes where you
53:44watch him and you're like man he is a good baseball player high baseball iq plays with some oomph in
53:50his
53:51step and i i was saying like when people saying well the yankees house timeburn is cheap they should
53:56go get tucker and i'm like i guess they could spend more money and get tucker or they could spend
54:01less
54:01and get the better player to me in bellinger the guy who's played in major markets and not been
54:07afraid of it and like i what john you know i didn't get tucker i didn't get tucker for either
54:13team i
54:13didn't get him for the yankees i didn't get for the yankees and the mets have the two bad the
54:16best
54:16two right fielders in the game by encountering the offense with soto and judge and as it turns out
54:22the mets have a full outfield with ewing and bench and you know we wouldn't have even seen
54:27ewing uh if they had signed tucker so uh they to use a cliche sorry they dodged a bullet there
54:34obviously i think you are absolutely right you've been saying this all along he is not a passionate
54:39player and uh you know can you be a very good player for 20 years when you're not passionate
54:45i i think it becomes a little more difficult at some point uh bellinger is that passionate player i
54:51mean he was a superstar he had that terrible injury he had to recreate himself he's done everything
54:56he can to become a very very good player he probably is overpaid as well but he is a very
55:03good player and he does impact the game so there is a a strong value to him i'm lost on
55:09kyle tucker
55:10i think cody bellinger is is overpaid in a small market but in this market when he proved he could
55:17play
55:17in los angeles chicago and new york and he is so additive again i think he has struggled without judge
55:24i
55:25talked to him yesterday and i asked i said are you feeling like i have to do more because his
55:29numbers have cratered without judge and he insisted to me he didn't but i feel like he actually feels
55:37like i feel good about it in some ways if i'm the yankees he feels responsibility he cares
55:41like he cares like you feel his passion about it uh the person who we know uh is a star
55:49and worth
55:49every penny tommy producer he doesn't get bellinger money he doesn't we're working on it tommy we don't
55:56either on bellinger money for a week uh apple spotify wherever you uh listen to podcasts please
56:03rate and review us it does help the show uh the new york post sports uh youtube page give us
56:08a view
56:09and uh look the trade deadline is two plus weeks away uh nobody uh and no no no redness nobody
56:16works
56:17harder at it and does more interesting work around the trade deadline than john hayman
56:21so please uh nypost.com give me a view and we'll talk about it all here on the show if
56:26you stick with us
56:27you
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