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The latest on what Jon Morosi is hearing about the potential trade of Tarik Skubal.
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00:00Monday. It's going to be here. Joining us this morning, John Marossi, MLB Network.
00:05Bumped into him at the ballpark on Wednesday for Scoobles. Final start, we think.
00:10John, good morning.
00:12Jim and John, good morning, my friends. Yes, we could have. We had a quorum of all Detroit sports media.
00:17We could have voted on official business and passed next year's budget and agenda.
00:22We were all there on Wednesday.
00:25Well, so I asked you before the game, chances he gets moved.
00:28Clearly, that game changes things.
00:31Is he actually getting dealt?
00:34Jim and John, right now, I've got the chances at around 70%.
00:39I think it's certainly higher than it was before that first pitch.
00:45There was a sense of finality, I thought, to the way that that game played out.
00:51Even just reading the body language after the game, just of the people in the clubhouse,
00:57which I think you can learn a lot from, it just, it had that feeling to it.
01:01Now, of course, it's up to Scott Harris, it's up to ownership, because when you're talking
01:06about someone like Tarek Scoobles, it goes up to that level.
01:09The most important thing, I think, in all of this, to me, Jim and John, is that the teams
01:17that you would want to be involved are involved, meaning teams that have a real reason to make
01:25a big-time trade and teams that have the prospects to get a deal done, and that's principally the
01:31Dodgers, the Rays, and the Brewers.
01:33Those are the three favorites.
01:35Of course, it's always possible that another team emerges, but especially in the case of
01:40the Dodgers, their farm system is so deep, they can make a trade like this and not really
01:47hurt their standing as one of the better farm systems in the sport, and almost always when
01:52they do make a trade like this, they try to bring in other players to make it more worth
01:58their while-to-give-up prospects, so there's certainly a world in which it's not just Scoobles
02:04that would be going back to L.A. if, in fact, the Dodgers win the bidding.
02:08So, yeah, I've got it at about 70%, and I certainly am more confident now that he's going to get
02:15traded than I was when the week started.
02:17So, a question that, it's just total speculation, if he is, when does it happen?
02:25Does it happen this weekend, or are they going to take this right up to the trade deadline?
02:32Well, John, I'll say this.
02:33I'll have my phone with me pretty much from now until 6 p.m. Monday, wherever I go, because it
02:39could happen at any time.
02:41It's a very fair question.
02:43I think the Tigers, they know this, and this is a unique circumstance to this one in comparison
02:54to Eduardo Rodriguez a couple years ago, three years ago now, right?
02:58And even Flaherty went right up until the deadline.
03:02Eduardo famously didn't actually get traded, although that was a very substantive conversation
03:08with the Dodgers, ironically enough, a few years back.
03:12I believe the Tigers would not let this thing go until 5.59 p.m. Eastern on Monday because
03:21of a couple reasons.
03:22Number one, if you trade Scooble first, then it allows you to make other moves that you
03:29may want to make, and obviously he is their biggest chip by far.
03:34But the other piece of it is that teams, there are enough other starting pitchers out there
03:41that teams, and obviously they're not Tarek Scooble, but there are enough pitchers out there
03:47that teams will be able to say, listen, if you are not going to play ball here, we'll move
03:53on to option two, three, four, and five, and we're not going to circle back to you.
03:59So the industry, to some extent, is waiting on this to happen, and so it does benefit everyone
04:07mutually to get this deal done and then move on with the rest of the things that they're
04:13planning on doing.
04:14The other piece is, to me, John, there was some clarity given by this last homestand.
04:22If you were going to make a move, if you were going to make a real push in the standings,
04:27you would have done better than three and four against the Royals and the Orioles.
04:31If you were looking for clarity of a sense of whether this team was good enough to win
04:36on its own and to keep it together, you needed to see more out of that homestand than you
04:42did.
04:43And that was even true, I thought, before the final game.
04:45It was especially true after the final game.
04:48This bullpen is not good enough.
04:50And there are some fundamental ways in which this team is not as good as it was last year.
04:55So even with the arrival of McGonigal, who's been everything we hoped he would be and more,
05:00the team's just not good enough.
05:01And Scott Harris and Jeff Greenberg in the front office, I think they realize that.
05:06A lot of people say the Dodgers are the favorite.
05:08I know you've talked a lot about them.
05:09What type of return could the Tigers get back from L.A.?
05:12So the interesting part there is, and I mentioned this last night, just talking about the other
05:17options.
05:18They've got a collection, and this is how good the Dodgers are, this is how scary good
05:23they are, that six of the top hundred prospects in the entire industry are Dodgers outfielders.
05:29Not just Dodgers, but Dodgers outfielders.
05:32Wow.
05:32Six of the top hundred.
05:33They've got plenty of outfield talent.
05:35Of course, the irony now is that here comes Max Clark and what is his future?
05:39What's his role going to be?
05:41All those questions.
05:42But the three big names at the top of their system are Josue DePaula, Mike Sirota, and
05:49Eduardo Quintero.
05:50Interestingly, all of them either currently or have played for the Great Lakes Loons in
05:56our very home state of Michigan up there in Midland.
05:59So, interestingly enough, there's a real connection to even our own home state there with that
06:05group.
06:06DePaula is industry-wide, at least in the industry rankings, he is the top of that group and does
06:14do the things that Scott Harris likes to talk about, about dominating the strike zone.
06:17Look at his walk-to-strike-out ratio.
06:19It's really favorable.
06:21He gets on base a ton.
06:23But there are people in the industry that would say that they believe Sirota, they would
06:28have him ahead of him, ahead of DePaula, and there are even those that believe Quintero
06:32was the best of the group.
06:33Quintero was a really electrifying center fielder who runs really well.
06:37And so, I believe if you're going to make this trade, you probably come away with one
06:43of those three.
06:44And then, importantly, you look at the major league rotation piece.
06:50If you're going to trade Schuble now, you have to find a way, in my estimation, to
06:55upgrade next year's rotation.
06:57And they do have someone in Emmett Sheehan who they could bring, who they could probably
07:01get back in the deal, who is a right-now starting pitcher.
07:05And that at least protects your ability to compete in a representative way for the balance
07:10of this year and then into next season.
07:12If you've got Jackson Jobe coming back, and if you're able to bring back a player like
07:16Emmett Sheehan, who's a major league starter with experience, then at least you fill in
07:21that spot of your depth chart, if you will, to protect and just continue on to have good
07:28starting depth for next season.
07:29So I think that, to me, is what I would see that you would insist on, at least one of
07:35those
07:35high-end outfielders.
07:36And then a major league starter, also Emil Morales, who's a really good middle infielder
07:41as well.
07:42And we might say, OK, well, why would you get a center fielder if you think that Max Clark
07:49is coming in?
07:50And why would you get a shortstop?
07:51Because we've seen McGonagall.
07:53I think you just get as many up-the-middle players as you can, because then you can always
07:58move them around a bit.
07:59And I think one of the other big-picture points I would make is that outfield defense has not
08:04always been great, especially when Meadows hasn't been in there.
08:07And you can never have too many good defensive players, because I think the Tigers are not
08:13quite as dynamic defensively now.
08:15I mean, obviously, behind the plate, they're elite.
08:17But there are some ways in which they're not dynamic defensively, and I would say this
08:22is a good chance to get a little more athletic.
08:25What's the motivation or the level of motivation for the Milwaukee Brewers to be able to compete
08:30with the Dodgers in the postseason?
08:32If you're a Brewers fan and you had Mizorowski and Scooble, and thinking in a seven-game series
08:38you might see them four times, what's their level of motivation to make a deal with the
08:44Tigers?
08:45That's exactly the idea.
08:48Especially with Mizorowski being somewhat, and he's not limited right now in terms of
08:54his innings, but there is some concern, I suppose, about how much they'll be able to
09:00have him go deep in the games because of how hard he throws.
09:03And obviously, with the guy who's doing things that we've really never seen before, from a
09:08right-handed pitcher, especially with his stature and just the length of the levers and all the
09:13things that he does, you want to have a really good running mate for him, right?
09:19It should be 1-A and 1-B, if you will.
09:24And Tarek would change the game for them in a way that CeCe did for them in 2008 when they
09:30got him all those years ago in that trade with Cleveland.
09:33And by the way, that brought the Guardians, Michael Brantley, and he helped get them to
09:38the playoffs many times in the following decade.
09:42So that was a deal, I think, that worked out for both sides.
09:45The same philosophy now holds.
09:47This is, of course, also in the context of Major League Baseball and labor negotiations,
09:53etc.
09:54The Dodgers, if they were to get Scooble, it really affirms what the owner's side has
10:01been saying, which is that the big market teams have such an advantage.
10:05If the Brewers are raised, get them.
10:07It sort of at least builds the idea that, OK, maybe these smaller market teams can compete
10:13and maybe they can make a run.
10:14But you're exactly right, John.
10:16The idea is to put them right there with Mizorowski.
10:18And then if they run up against the Dodgers again in the playoffs, it's a fundamentally
10:24different calculus in terms of what their chances would be to beat them.
10:28Of course, last year the Dodgers swept them.
10:29But it was a close sweep, so to speak.
10:32It was a competitive sweep.
10:34This time around, if you got Mizorowski and Scooble in a seven-game series, the Brewers
10:39would enter that series with a ton of mental edge, I would say, over even the two-time defending
10:45champion Dodgers.
10:46Are they motivated enough?
10:48Because if there might not be an organization or a fan base that is in love with their prospects
10:53more than Milwaukee, are they motivated enough to where Jesus Made could be a part of that
11:00deal?
11:01Yeah, I think that's the big question.
11:03And the only reason that Made could be moved or could be included in that deal is they've
11:09already got Cooper Pratt at the major league level.
11:13There are those, however, that say that Made is just so special and so next-level that
11:20they would not include him.
11:22I think it's still, I would say that it's an unlikely situation that by Tuesday that Made
11:29is a Tiger.
11:30I think that they, the Brewers, are very likely to keep him.
11:35But the reason why the Brewers are such an interesting team to talk about here is that
11:40they've got prospects that they could trade that would make it a pretty compelling offer
11:46even if they don't include him.
11:47So, of course, Cooper Pratt's already in the major leagues.
11:50But you could look at a scenario in which you go Luis Pena, who's a really promising infielder,
11:55Jet Williams, and then Josh Adamczewski.
11:58Adamczewski has a little bit of overlap in terms of the profile with a Colt Keith.
12:06I think he's maybe a little bit more athletic and dynamic in some ways than Colt is, at least
12:12the ceiling could be.
12:13But he's a really interesting left-handing prospect who doesn't really have a position yet.
12:20And the Tigers already have a couple guys who are kind of similar to that.
12:25And so that's where, John, you're asking about the right guy.
12:28I think Made, if the Brewers put Made in there, I think they become the favorites.
12:33And it just probably becomes a question of, internally, how do they really feel about not
12:39just Made, but Cooper Pratt?
12:40If they feel like Pratt is their shortstop of the future, they've already got Terang at
12:45second, who has played on Team USA this year and is elite, it's a really fun topic.
12:52But the Brewers have, I believe, enough elite talent to make this deal worth the Tigers well,
13:00even without putting Made in there.
13:02But if they do, my goodness, I think it becomes very difficult to say no to the Milwaukee Brewers.
13:09John Marossi, MLB Network.
13:11We're tight for time, but I did want to ask about non-Skooble pieces that could be moved,
13:15the likelihood of Glaber Torres, Casey Mize.
13:18What are you hearing?
13:19What's the prospect of moving those guys?
13:20I think Glaber has a ton of value because there's a lot of teams out there that need
13:26a righty bat.
13:27And so Yankees, even on some level, although that would be a little surprising to go back
13:32to his original team, they could be a fit.
13:36I think the Mariners, there's a lot of interest there in terms of getting one more righty bat.
13:40And he's such a pro.
13:42We saw what he meant for the Tigers last year.
13:43I thought he had some of the best at-bats in that entire playoff series.
13:46So Glaber, I do think there's interest in him.
13:49And then Mize, basically, if you move Tarek, then Mize, in my estimation, should be right
13:55behind him.
13:56And Mize, his value, I think, lines up more with what the prospect profiles you would see
14:01with a team like Philadelphia.
14:04Even, ironically enough, the White Sox, who had a scout in the ballpark for Schuble's
14:09start.
14:09So even in the division, you never know.
14:11So I think the Phillies, White Sox, teams that are maybe not quite as splashy.
14:17And yes, even the Rays, if you trade Schuble to the Brewers or the Dodgers, you could say,
14:22OK, Rays, we've already had a lot of conversations about your system.
14:25Can I interest you in a KC Mize?
14:27So I would say that the over-under on Tiger's trades in the next few days is probably at
14:34two and a half, we would say, just to make it interesting for us as we're looking at
14:37the potential of other deals.
14:39It always is interesting.
14:40I was a little shocked.
14:41Only 70% chance they trade Schuble, given this market and the intrigue level.
14:46Call your shot.
14:47Where does he end up?
14:49I believe that by Tuesday, he'll be a Dodger.
14:52I just think that they have a ton of motivation.
14:54And importantly, Andrew Friedman makes trades like this.
14:59This is what has made him one of the most celebrated executives, future Hall of Famer,
15:04I would say, is that Andrew Friedman has pulled off trades like this.
15:07Maybe not quite to this extent, but you go back and he's made some bold rental moves.
15:14Manny Machado was one in the past.
15:16Hugh Darvish.
15:16I think Tarek will be a Dodger by Tuesday morning.
15:20He's John Marossi.
15:21We'll be all over social media.
15:23We'll be looking for updates.
15:24We know you'll be all over it.
15:25Thanks, John.
15:26Thanks so much.
15:27Have a great weekend, guys.
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