Anthony Franco
Hey everyone, hope you’ve enjoyed your week!
Have a bunch going on today so I need to keep this one at an hour
Olereb
Who do you see the Braves targeting to upgrade at ss, also do you see the Braves trying to rid themselves of Justin Profar?
Anthony Franco
Bichette would be uncharacteristic for them but they’ve got Iglesias and Ozuna coming off the books short term and there’s a case they need to move off their usual operating procedure of prioritizing trades/extensions based on how poorly they’ve played this year
Albies doesn’t look like a core piece anymore, so they’d be able to slide Bo over to second in a couple years if he can’t stick at SS long term. Trade market at the position has been bad for a while. Sox would probably move Story to make room for Marcelo Mayer (eh), could try to get the Royals to give up Maikel Garcia but it’d take a lot
Profar’s mashing since he’s been back. They’d need a new left fielder if they trade him. I’m sure they’re not happy with how things went down, but keeping him at 2/30 seems fine to me
Sam
What’s the Twins’ offseason ahead look like? Will it be frugal once again due to the Pohlads retaining ownership of the team, or will they decide to start spending again (a la Correa) to try to get back into contention?
Anthony Franco
I have a hard time seeing them kick up spending dramatically. Teams almost never follow up a massive teardown by throwing a bunch of money at it and trying again
I expect Ryan and Jeffers to go at least. Feels like they could hold Pablo into next season because of the injury impacting his trade value. Then backfill with a bunch of smaller deals in the bullpen (similar to last winter’s Rangers approach) at catcher, and for a right-handed outfield bat
They brought back enough upper level talent, particularly in the rotation, that I could see a path to contention in 2027. Much harder for me to envision it next season
Brian
with Samuel Basallo now locked up long term, what are chances the O’s trade Adley this offseason?
Anthony Franco
I don’t think the Basallo extension moves the odds much. They had him under team control for six seasons and knew how good he was already
They can coexist with the DH but Rutschman’s offensive decline has made it feel for a while that he’s running out of time there. Guess I’d put the odds of an offseason trade at 55%? Feels like at least 75% chance he’s dealt by the 2026-27 offseason
The best evah
Can you explain what makes Mackenzie Gore so attractive to MLB teams? Despite a higher K/9 this year compared to previous years (10.7), he has a career 4.01 ERA and (as far as I can tell) striking out half a batter more per nine seems to be the only thing he’s improved in his game this year. To throw out another data point, Will Warren is a year younger and sporting a HR9/BB9/K9 of  1.0/3.9/10.1, compared to Gore’s 1.2/3.4/10.7. Is Warren half a strikeout per nine away from being seen in a similar light to Gore?
Anthony Franco
I’m sure there are plenty of teams that really like Warren but Gore throws two MPH harder from the left side, and there’s a huge gap in swinging strikes on a per-pitch basis. Gore’s eighth among pitchers with 100+ IP with a 13.4% swinging strike rate. Warren is 69th at 9.5%
Warren gets a ton of called strikes, so they’re pretty close in overall strikeout rate, but that’s a little tougher to bank on year over year. Gore getting tons of whiffs with plus stuff from the left side feels like a higher upside play
Also feels like Gore’s results are weighed down a little bit pitching in front of a Nationals infield that is by far the worst in MLB. It’s a good shout though. Warren’s good, just a tier down below Gore for me
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