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Reaction: How Will Kenley Jansen Fit With The Tigers? · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:13
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network, a Detroit Tiger's podcast. I'm Karen
0:16
Speaker 1: Steckley with me as always as a man who would
0:18
Speaker 1: have stopped the Grinch from stealing Christmas, but like not
0:22
Speaker 1: in a vigilante way.
0:24
Speaker 2: He is Coddy Stavenaggen.
0:25
Speaker 3: How you doing, Hey, doing all right? The Yeah, the
0:27
Speaker 3: Jim Carrey Grinch is very scary, that's all I'll say.
0:30
Speaker 3: That's that was a weird movie. Man didn't fully love.
0:32
Speaker 2: It, love it then love it now. It's still one
0:34
Speaker 2: of my favorites.
0:35
Speaker 1: All right, Let's move on to another one of our
0:39
Speaker 1: favorite things to talk about, Cody.
0:41
Speaker 2: Actual things that happened. We get to do that now.
0:44
Speaker 2: The Tigers have come.
0:46
Speaker 1: To an agreement that happened over the weekend with ken
0:49
Speaker 1: Lee Janssen one year, eleven million dollars plus a team option.
0:55
Speaker 1: I do not believe we have the number on that
0:58
Speaker 1: team option, but that is the reporting from you and
1:01
Speaker 1: various colleagues in the in the media sphere.
1:04
Speaker 2: Just a couple of notes. Jenson will turn thirty nine
1:08
Speaker 2: in late.
1:09
Speaker 1: September, basically October, so it's gonna be his age thirty
1:11
Speaker 1: eight season and at a decent year last year by
1:15
Speaker 1: some numbers, and not so decent year last year by
1:20
Speaker 1: some others. So this is as close to the Tigers
1:24
Speaker 1: acquiring a closer as we've seen in a bit here, Cody,
1:29
Speaker 1: what do you make of this move?
1:31
Speaker 3: Sometimes you gotta be careful what you wish for. Maybe
1:34
Speaker 3: you know, we want the Tigers to get aggressive. You
1:36
Speaker 3: want him to spend, We want we get some names.
1:39
Speaker 3: Kimlely Jansen's a good pitchers. He's a name. Kimley Jansen
1:42
Speaker 3: is fourth on the all time saves List's that's not
1:47
Speaker 3: the one we're gonna talk about this here in a second.
1:49
Speaker 3: Kim Lee Jansen. I mean, this guy's a dude. He
1:51
Speaker 3: has been very good for a very long time. Four
1:54
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy six saves. He's talked pretty openly about
1:58
Speaker 3: getting to five hundred being a real goal in his career.
2:02
Speaker 3: So you bring this guy in coming off a good season.
2:05
Speaker 3: He had a sub three ERA. The Tigers tagged him
2:08
Speaker 3: for six runs on May second. From then on, his
2:10
Speaker 3: ERA was one point nine to seven. So there are
2:14
Speaker 3: a lot of things to like about this, But then
2:17
Speaker 3: it actually seems like a very Untiger's like signing I
2:22
Speaker 3: think the elephant of the room here. Kiley Jansen's been
2:24
Speaker 3: a closer his whole life. We just said this guy
2:27
Speaker 3: wants to get five hundred saves. He's been very upfront
2:29
Speaker 3: about that. A j N is not really had a
2:33
Speaker 3: set closer for the better part of five seasons in Detroit.
2:37
Speaker 3: Are they suddenly going to reverse course and just hand
2:40
Speaker 3: Kimley Jansen.
2:41
Speaker 2: The ninth inning?
2:42
Speaker 3: And more specifically, would they hand Kinley Jansen the ninth inning?
2:46
Speaker 3: Considering there are a lot of red flags in his metrics.
2:51
Speaker 3: Here's Chris Brown, a great Tigers analyst, who pointed out
2:55
Speaker 3: just a few of them. Career low k rate, career
2:57
Speaker 3: low babbit, second highest fit third, worst strikeout for walk right,
3:03
Speaker 3: stranded a lot of runners. So there was both an
3:05
Speaker 3: element of luck and he just wasn't missing bats like
3:09
Speaker 3: he had been before that The average exit velocity against
3:15
Speaker 3: him was also the highest of his career. He was
3:18
Speaker 3: just hit and hit hard last last season in a
3:21
Speaker 3: way he had not been before. It's almost like, I
3:23
Speaker 3: don't know, he's getting old or something right, And so
3:27
Speaker 3: going into his age thirty eight season with some declining
3:30
Speaker 3: metrics is it really fair to expect a bounce back.
3:34
Speaker 3: What is the good he throws a cutter. He threw
3:36
Speaker 3: it eighty percent.
3:37
Speaker 2: Of the time.
3:38
Speaker 3: He has done that the last couple of years. Really
3:41
Speaker 3: vexed right handed batter. He's been good against righty's and
3:43
Speaker 3: lefties his whole career. I'll be curious if the Tigers
3:46
Speaker 3: want him to throw eighty percent cutters. Could be a
3:48
Speaker 3: nice East West compliment to other guys like Will Vest
3:52
Speaker 3: and Kyle Finnigan who are a little bit more vert fastball.
3:55
Speaker 3: And then like Finnegan's you know, splitter down invests a slider,
3:59
Speaker 3: so a little bit of a different profile, which I like.
4:04
Speaker 3: So those are some of the things that play here.
4:06
Speaker 3: And then again we just don't quite know how he's
4:09
Speaker 3: going to be used yet. This deal is still pending
4:12
Speaker 3: a physical, so we haven't heard from Kinley, we haven't
4:15
Speaker 3: heard from Scott Harris. I've asked a couple people and
4:18
Speaker 3: not gotten a totally straight answer on what the plan is.
4:23
Speaker 3: I think it's entirely possible to Tigers sat down with Kinley.
4:26
Speaker 3: Jansen said, hey, look man, you pitch well, there's no
4:29
Speaker 3: reason AJ's not going to give you the chance to
4:32
Speaker 3: get the twenty four saves or whatever it is you
4:34
Speaker 3: need to get to five hundred. So maybe that's what
4:37
Speaker 3: it is. But also if I were Will Vest, I
4:40
Speaker 3: wouldn't be thrilled about this because will Ves was really
4:43
Speaker 3: good last season. Let's take a look at their metrics.
4:46
Speaker 3: Will Vest is here on the left, Kinley Jansen's here
4:49
Speaker 3: on the right. If you're watching on YouTube. Bottom line,
4:52
Speaker 3: Will Vest misses more bats, throws with more power, kids
4:55
Speaker 3: more weak contact. There's a lot of red on his
4:58
Speaker 3: stat cast page, and there's a decent amount of blue
5:01
Speaker 3: when Kim Lee Jansen's stat cast page, at least that
5:04
Speaker 3: was last year. The signing of Kiley Jansen would seem
5:08
Speaker 3: to be taking save opportunities away from someone like Will
5:11
Speaker 3: Vast and Kyle Finnigan, and save opportunities right or wrong
5:15
Speaker 3: is still kind of what gets your money as a reliever.
5:18
Speaker 3: So if I'm Will Vast for wild Vest agent, I'm
5:20
Speaker 3: not loving this. And then, so we've laid out all
5:23
Speaker 3: these reasons, you can criticize it and then even step
5:26
Speaker 3: back and be like, well, I mean they have Vest,
5:28
Speaker 3: Finnigan and Kim Lee Janssen. Suddenly, if I mean, you
5:32
Speaker 3: could feel a lot worse about the back end of
5:33
Speaker 3: that bullpen.
5:36
Speaker 2: Man throughout numbers there.
5:38
Speaker 1: Excuse me, I'm working on I'm working through a cold here,
5:41
Speaker 1: so my voice is off that that's why, So just
5:43
Speaker 1: want to apologize for that. But anyway, through a lot
5:47
Speaker 1: of numbers out there, through a lot of analysis out there,
5:49
Speaker 1: a lot of speculation out there.
5:51
Speaker 2: And and.
5:53
Speaker 1: I can't imagine any sort of understanding about you're gonna
5:59
Speaker 1: get plenty of opportunities. I'm sure the Tigers stop short of,
6:05
Speaker 1: you know, saying it's your job quote unquote, but they
6:08
Speaker 1: probably said like this is you will get your opportunities
6:12
Speaker 1: in the ninth enning.
6:13
Speaker 2: And you know, it's funny looking at Will Ves.
6:17
Speaker 1: You know, you brought Will Best there, looking at his
6:19
Speaker 1: career profile and again I know saves, you know whatever
6:22
Speaker 1: as a staff but career high two coming into twenty
6:27
Speaker 1: twenty five saves and he had he said, twenty three
6:30
Speaker 1: last year. So it's it's it is gonna be a
6:34
Speaker 1: little bit different. But that kind of also speaks to
6:36
Speaker 1: something that I've kind of said, is that like I
6:38
Speaker 1: kind of like Will Vest better as a guy I
6:40
Speaker 1: get you to the ninth ending guy as opposed to
6:43
Speaker 1: the ninth ending guy, and Finnegan also kind of fits
6:46
Speaker 1: that profile too. Is somebody that you like as a
6:48
Speaker 1: get you to the ninth ending guy. Now what ending
6:51
Speaker 1: is that? You know that's gonna obviously bury game to game,
6:54
Speaker 1: but now you have two rock solid in best case,
6:58
Speaker 1: like you know, pretty damn trustworth the guys to get
7:01
Speaker 1: you to the ninth anny and if if Jansen wants
7:04
Speaker 1: the last three outs more or less, that's gonna work
7:08
Speaker 1: out okay. And you could also probably see your opportunities
7:11
Speaker 1: to reverse the order a couple a couple of different
7:13
Speaker 1: ways as well. The uh, the other element to this,
7:20
Speaker 1: Cody is you start your statement like that. I want
7:25
Speaker 1: to come back to it on Tiger like this, this
7:28
Speaker 1: is something that you don't typically see them doing. Actually,
7:32
Speaker 1: Chris put it on that graphic you could see it
7:34
Speaker 1: up you before falling on YouTube on his tweet feels
7:37
Speaker 1: like a twenty twelve signing, which I actually laugh. I
7:42
Speaker 1: appreciate Chris for putting it out there because that's exactly right.
7:46
Speaker 2: This feels like a I almost want to say, like
7:50
Speaker 2: an admission.
7:52
Speaker 1: That you're not as solid organizationally with the options that
7:58
Speaker 1: you have for back end dudes that you would sign
8:00
Speaker 1: a thirty eight year old ton to be you know,
8:04
Speaker 1: thirty nine.
8:04
Speaker 2: Year old closer closer to a.
8:09
Speaker 1: Ten plus million dollar contract, and then you know, with
8:11
Speaker 1: the option to keep them for another season.
8:14
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
8:15
Speaker 1: So it almost if it if the timing was different,
8:19
Speaker 1: I would call it desperate. This is still not a
8:22
Speaker 1: desperate time in the offseason, but it does kind of
8:24
Speaker 1: feel like an indication of all right, well we need
8:26
Speaker 1: some we need some more kind of some kind of
8:29
Speaker 1: juice back there. And I will say I do like
8:32
Speaker 1: the fact that you're getting somebody with a plethorough experience.
8:35
Speaker 2: He's not green.
8:35
Speaker 1: That was one of my concerns with Finigan coming into
8:38
Speaker 1: like post trait deadline last season. This guy who'd never
8:41
Speaker 1: been in the postseason. You're back to back postseason Alds team.
8:46
Speaker 1: You need guys that are comfortable playing in the postseason.
8:49
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a bad thing to get somebody
8:51
Speaker 1: who has a postseason track record as well. So that's
8:53
Speaker 1: just a couple of other notes from me there.
8:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll see. It makes you wonder, makes me wonder
9:00
Speaker 3: if maybe the Tigers felt like they're not gonna be
9:02
Speaker 3: able to get Pete Fairbanks. They're not gonna be able
9:05
Speaker 3: to get Sir Anthony Di Mingez. And then is there
9:07
Speaker 3: a little bit of a cliff there in the reliever market.
9:10
Speaker 3: I mean, there's still a lot of relievers, Luke Weaver,
9:14
Speaker 3: Kirby Yates, Pierce Johnson, Caleb Ferguson. You know, there are
9:18
Speaker 3: plenty of relievers out there, and there are some good ones.
9:21
Speaker 3: But Jansen, there's a little bit of a cliff where
9:24
Speaker 3: it falls off to guys who maybe aren't as sure
9:26
Speaker 3: of things. And despite the red flags of regression, Kimley
9:30
Speaker 3: Jansen's been very good and for the most part, consistent
9:32
Speaker 3: throughout his career. So I wonder if that played into
9:37
Speaker 3: this at all. It's certainly something to consider. I'll just say, like,
9:42
Speaker 3: kind of like Alex Cobb last year, Like I've said
9:44
Speaker 3: a lot, when I looked at Alex Cobb, is like
9:46
Speaker 3: he's hurt, he's barely pitched. I moved on looking at
9:51
Speaker 3: the reliever marketable earlier this offseason was like Kiling wants
9:55
Speaker 3: to be a closer, he's getting old, doesn't really seem
9:58
Speaker 3: like a fit for the Tigers. I moved on. Turned
10:00
Speaker 3: out they came back and they signed him. He's been
10:03
Speaker 3: good enough his whole career. I don't know if he's
10:05
Speaker 3: just gonna fall off cliff and be terrible. Maybe he's
10:08
Speaker 3: not as good as he was in his prime. But
10:10
Speaker 3: if he gets you a three five R and does
10:13
Speaker 3: some nice things, like you'll be happy with it. I
10:16
Speaker 3: think maybe that's what we should be looking for as
10:19
Speaker 3: the best outcome. Maybe not some kind of Kimley Jansen
10:22
Speaker 3: revival after a down year metrically, but hey, this guy's
10:26
Speaker 3: not not what he once was, but he's still a
10:28
Speaker 3: really solid back end option. I think that's probably gonna
10:31
Speaker 3: be the best case scenario for this deal. There is
10:34
Speaker 3: some potential downside though, for sure, which is why I
10:37
Speaker 3: say it's it's on Tigers, like I say it's on Tigers,
10:40
Speaker 3: like even though maybe they've done a few of.
10:42
Speaker 1: These now, but again, like there is an element of
10:46
Speaker 1: like you have built in so in fairness to all
10:49
Speaker 1: those concerns that we just raised, like because you have best,
10:53
Speaker 1: because you have fit again, because we know there's gonna
10:55
Speaker 1: be somebody else that emerges and as like a late
10:59
Speaker 1: ending option person like like you are not You're not
11:03
Speaker 1: Jansen or bust in games. And then also like you know,
11:07
Speaker 1: we got to remember too, like we were really concerned
11:10
Speaker 1: about the workload of will Vest, like the like, and
11:14
Speaker 1: I would say, like more so the adrenaline workload than
11:18
Speaker 1: the than the physical endings taxing physically, but just like
11:22
Speaker 1: you know, he was just so vital, sort of like
11:24
Speaker 1: the Dylan Dingler for you know, the bullpen where it's
11:26
Speaker 1: just like you, she would like to give him some
11:28
Speaker 1: time off, you just can't afford it. This feels like
11:31
Speaker 1: a move to get out ahead of some of those things.
11:35
Speaker 1: So like all those things that we all that stuff
11:37
Speaker 1: that we raised that were concerns, I do want to
11:40
Speaker 1: make make note of that, Like this could be somewhat
11:44
Speaker 1: of a shrewd signing in that aspect of it.
11:48
Speaker 3: So I don't know if shrewd is the word, but yeah,
11:52
Speaker 3: if you were ask me like do I like this
11:53
Speaker 3: or not? There are some red flags that were in me.
11:57
Speaker 3: That's just as strait of an answers is like and
12:00
Speaker 3: give to that. But one way to think about it,
12:02
Speaker 3: if you want to talk yourself into it, Let's say
12:05
Speaker 3: God forbid will Vest gets injured and if you don't
12:08
Speaker 3: sign Kiley Jansen, you're trotting out someone from Triple a
12:12
Speaker 3: to take that spot in the bullpen. You're bumping Finnig
12:14
Speaker 3: into the ninth and you're hoping Bow Briski or someone
12:17
Speaker 3: has a resurgence season and can take over more a
12:19
Speaker 3: seventh eight aany rolls instead if you have a vest
12:23
Speaker 3: or a fin again get hurt fin again had a
12:25
Speaker 3: big workload two after he was traded. Well you got
12:28
Speaker 3: Kinley Jansen there. You're not just adding someone random in
12:32
Speaker 3: crossing your fingers in the bullpen. This does give you depth,
12:36
Speaker 3: It gives you some experience. It's a one year deal,
12:39
Speaker 3: so who cares what the money is and we'll see
12:43
Speaker 3: how it works out.
12:45
Speaker 1: Yep, And we are going to take a quick break
12:48
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14:00
Speaker 1: Back here, uh Terik Schooble in the news again, as
14:04
Speaker 1: he always is, the number one news man in in
14:07
Speaker 1: baseball it seems. But it does feel like we are
14:12
Speaker 1: we be in the general baseball community are kind of
14:15
Speaker 1: linking him to the Dodgers. That feels like the the
14:19
Speaker 1: the common thing to do, just like with anybody, because available,
14:22
Speaker 1: it's gonna be expensive, you just like them to the Dodgers.
14:24
Speaker 1: So the yet to be sponsored but contractually obligated Terrek
14:28
Speaker 1: school Ble update is that Tyler Glass, now of the Dodgers,
14:34
Speaker 1: was on the doing a radio appearance and he seems
14:37
Speaker 1: to think that the schoolbl to the Dodgers speculation is
14:42
Speaker 1: relatively real.
14:44
Speaker 2: So there you go.
14:45
Speaker 1: There's your Tark school ball get actually obligated but unsponsored update.
14:50
Speaker 2: So what do we got? Cody? What we got?
14:52
Speaker 3: Said? It would be pretty sick if the Dodgers got Schooba,
14:56
Speaker 3: which would be a sick transaction. I don't know. Maybe
15:02
Speaker 3: this is the best insight we've had yet. I mean,
15:04
Speaker 3: he said Andrew Friedman told him he's not going to
15:06
Speaker 3: be traded, so it sounds like he sucked. Had a
15:09
Speaker 3: conversation with the man himself, Andrew Friedman, about at least
15:12
Speaker 3: some level of this stuff, whereas I'm not sure where
15:15
Speaker 3: some of these other reports have been coming from. I
15:18
Speaker 3: don't know if it means anything one thought I have
15:21
Speaker 3: had with the Dodgers, which is as everyone is drawing
15:24
Speaker 3: these links like yeah, they're going for a three pet Yeah,
15:27
Speaker 3: Scoogle would help them get there. But I don't know
15:30
Speaker 3: if I would do this. If I were the Dodgers,
15:32
Speaker 3: why would I send talented prospects regardless of how they
15:36
Speaker 3: might be blocked, or you know, all the rich of talents,
15:42
Speaker 3: the wealth of talent you have in your organization, why
15:45
Speaker 3: would you just give some of those players to another
15:46
Speaker 3: team for one year? Schoogle, If you could just wait
15:49
Speaker 3: a year, know that you're going to be able to
15:53
Speaker 3: outspend it to get on the year from now for
15:56
Speaker 3: not free, but without parting with other talent, other assets
16:00
Speaker 3: in your organization. And you're still entering the twenty twenty
16:03
Speaker 3: sixth season, you're going to be World Series favorites. I
16:06
Speaker 3: just I just don't know if I would do that
16:08
Speaker 3: if I were the Dodgers.
16:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, I mean, plus, you have the back to
16:13
Speaker 1: back titles element to kind of hang your head on,
16:16
Speaker 1: and you don't have to do anything because you have,
16:18
Speaker 1: you know, proof of concept that what you have is
16:21
Speaker 1: good enough to win a championship.
16:22
Speaker 2: So and you know, for.
16:24
Speaker 1: The most part, for the most part, without even utilizing
16:27
Speaker 1: Otani as a like full fledged pitcher as well. So
16:32
Speaker 1: there you go. That's your tech schoopl update. Other transaction
16:36
Speaker 1: that happened over the weekend, Cody. The Tigers decided to
16:39
Speaker 1: trade Chase Lee to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange
16:43
Speaker 1: for minor league lefty Johann Simon. Lee was a guy
16:50
Speaker 1: that was pretty exciting there for a little bit last
16:52
Speaker 1: year and then just kind of fell off, and we
16:54
Speaker 1: kept kind of waiting to see if we would get
16:58
Speaker 1: more Lee opportunities, but maybe also just kind of what
17:02
Speaker 1: I was talking about with like the best stuff a
17:04
Speaker 1: second ago, if that's if twenty twenty five, like the
17:09
Speaker 1: regular season ends a little bit more comfortably, we might
17:12
Speaker 1: have seen Chase Lee again. But eventually the stakes were
17:16
Speaker 1: just too high, to lack of a better term, kind
17:19
Speaker 1: of like experiment and learning lab his way in the
17:22
Speaker 1: major league. So he will now be a member of
17:25
Speaker 1: the Toronto Blue Jays organization.
17:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, a nice little housekeeping move from the Tigers. Their
17:32
Speaker 3: forty man roster is at forty whenever Drew Anderson is
17:35
Speaker 3: officially announced he has cleared his physical untold. But coming
17:39
Speaker 3: from the KBO, there's just weird paperwork. It takes a
17:42
Speaker 3: little bit longer. So they were at forty. They were
17:46
Speaker 3: gonna have to get rid of someone to at Kyle Finnegan.
17:49
Speaker 3: Rather than just defaing someone, they were able to at
17:51
Speaker 3: least get a mildly interesting young pitcher in return for
17:55
Speaker 3: Chase Lee, who probably would have been the next guy
17:57
Speaker 3: d fade. They'll have to clear an no other forty
18:00
Speaker 3: man spot now for Kenley Janssen and signing growth in
18:04
Speaker 3: the Tigers system. Getting to the point where there are
18:08
Speaker 3: not clear guys that you want to whack off the
18:11
Speaker 3: forty man roster. I mean, I'm going down here, and
18:14
Speaker 3: I don't really want to speculate too much one who
18:16
Speaker 3: might get DFAD, But you're at a point where there
18:21
Speaker 3: are going to be hard choice. Is it gonna Is
18:23
Speaker 3: it gonna be guys you like? Is it gonna be
18:25
Speaker 3: Scott Harris, guys like a like a Justin Henry malloy,
18:30
Speaker 3: Or would it be you know, young pitching depth like
18:33
Speaker 3: a a Drew Summers or someone you know Ty Madden,
18:37
Speaker 3: Guys that are are interesting pitchers, Bailey Horn who isn't
18:42
Speaker 3: young but showed good stuff at times last year. The
18:46
Speaker 3: forty man it's getting dicey. There should be a couple
18:49
Speaker 3: more transactions this offseason, so I'll say I think it's
18:53
Speaker 3: good roster management to at least get something in return
18:55
Speaker 3: for Chase Lee. One of those small little moves that
18:58
Speaker 3: you never know gonna end up making it difference.
19:01
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure.
19:03
Speaker 1: All right, Well, you know, we're a week ish removed
19:07
Speaker 1: from from winter meetings, and you know, one of the
19:10
Speaker 1: things that we didn't really get to talk about, Cody
19:13
Speaker 1: was like how the organization feels about Colt Keith because
19:19
Speaker 1: we throw Colt Keith's name around a lot as somebody
19:22
Speaker 1: that you know, you and I agree is still an
19:24
Speaker 1: ascending player, an ascending talent, still quite young. The contract
19:28
Speaker 1: obviously everybody knows about is is quite team friendly. He's
19:35
Speaker 1: shown a willingness as a young guy to move around,
19:37
Speaker 1: you know, from the second base to the first and
19:40
Speaker 1: you know, now he's played some third last year.
19:45
Speaker 2: You like him?
19:46
Speaker 1: Is he in the way of some other moves that
19:48
Speaker 1: would be deemed more sexy? I don't know, But like, like,
19:52
Speaker 1: how do the Tigers kind of view the having Colt
19:55
Speaker 1: Keith in the organization, because that's you know that that
19:58
Speaker 1: might be the number one that might be something we
20:01
Speaker 1: need to know before we speculate about, like whether you're
20:03
Speaker 1: gonna go get a Alex Bregman, whether you're gonna go
20:06
Speaker 1: get you know, you know, any of these guys Bashatt
20:09
Speaker 1: who might have to end up not at shortstop. Eventually
20:11
Speaker 1: you know like all these things, So like, how did
20:13
Speaker 1: the Tigers view cold Keith?
20:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I came away from winter meetings with the sins
20:17
Speaker 3: that they are high on cold Keith. As ever, for
20:20
Speaker 3: probably reasons I've pointed out, there's still a lot of
20:22
Speaker 3: metrics that point to him being an ascending young player. Yeah,
20:26
Speaker 3: he's not the most natural fit. There's some big defensive questions.
20:29
Speaker 3: But if you're asking me, do I think the Tigers
20:32
Speaker 3: would trade col Keith? I think I feel more strongly
20:35
Speaker 3: than ever that they That answer is no. This is
20:38
Speaker 3: a good young player on a team friendly deal that
20:41
Speaker 3: Scott Harris orchestrated like this is one of his guys,
20:44
Speaker 3: and I don't think he's moving off of him anytime soon.
20:48
Speaker 3: In terms of Colt Keith's role for the upcoming season,
20:52
Speaker 3: here's a Scott Harris quote if I've ever heard one.
20:54
Speaker 3: He's going to take ground balls at first, second, and third.
20:57
Speaker 3: He's going to prioritize the lateral plosiveness to get his
21:01
Speaker 3: body in a position where he can be a real
21:04
Speaker 3: asset for us defensively. So we'll see if some offseason
21:09
Speaker 3: lateral workouts suddenly turn him into a gold Glover. He's
21:13
Speaker 3: going to keep playing every position. They're not going to
21:15
Speaker 3: give him any home or any clarity, which has already
21:18
Speaker 3: been hard on Colt Keith. But Scott Harrist did say
21:20
Speaker 3: they had a good exit interview with him and proud
21:23
Speaker 3: of the way he handled the challenge of going to
21:25
Speaker 3: third last year. Sounds like maybe it'll be a little
21:27
Speaker 3: bit fluid regarding who else they bring in this offseason
21:31
Speaker 3: or who's healthy in spring training. They want to keep
21:34
Speaker 3: cold Keith ready for anything, which really is quite a challenge,
21:38
Speaker 3: a challenge he's handled well so far. But I think
21:41
Speaker 3: it would be nice to see Cold Keith eventually be
21:44
Speaker 3: able to settle in at one of these positions this year.
21:47
Speaker 3: It looks to me like third base is the most
21:49
Speaker 3: obvious one, but one move or one injury could always
21:53
Speaker 3: change that, And so that's why they're keeping him ready
21:55
Speaker 3: at three different positions.
21:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a fair point.
22:00
Speaker 3: Uh.
22:01
Speaker 1: The fact that any arm concerns arm concerns, whether it
22:08
Speaker 1: be health wise or you know, taxing wise, was not
22:12
Speaker 1: brought up. Makes me think that they feel like he's
22:15
Speaker 1: he can handle that on a you know whatever, relatively
22:19
Speaker 1: everyday basis. Uh, you know, for him, and and and
22:23
Speaker 1: uh and I think him being able to play third
22:27
Speaker 1: base at an adequate level does open up your you know,
22:32
Speaker 1: opens up your roster tremendously, you know, for this season
22:35
Speaker 1: or in the in the next several as you try
22:37
Speaker 1: to finagle your roster. And then it also opens up
22:40
Speaker 1: you know, just like what you can do lineup wise,
22:43
Speaker 1: and and you know, even like pinchhit opportunities. It gives
22:47
Speaker 1: you some depth if labor, God forbid, gets you know,
22:51
Speaker 1: some sort of injury, maybe gives you an opportunity to
22:53
Speaker 1: rest him a little bit more than you had to,
22:56
Speaker 1: uh and than you could last season.
22:58
Speaker 2: So so yeah, I mean I think I think he's
23:01
Speaker 2: an asset.
23:02
Speaker 1: So he's in general an asset, but I don't necessarily
23:04
Speaker 1: know if we're ever going to get.
23:05
Speaker 2: To the point that his defense will be an asset.
23:09
Speaker 1: Maybe the fact that he can play multiple positions will
23:11
Speaker 1: be an asset, But I'm.
23:12
Speaker 2: Not really sure.
23:13
Speaker 1: I'm holding my breath on that. And that's okay, and
23:17
Speaker 1: that's okay. There's no perfect player, all right, and so
23:21
Speaker 1: so yeah, it's just one of those things where if
23:23
Speaker 1: you want to figure out what you think the Tigers
23:28
Speaker 1: should do or can do or will do, you kind
23:30
Speaker 1: of got to know how they feel about somebody like
23:32
Speaker 1: cold Keith now and long term. So I'm glad we
23:36
Speaker 1: could get that update in there. All right, let's wrap
23:40
Speaker 1: up on this, Cody. I. I just wanted to kind
23:47
Speaker 1: of introduce this as a possibility, like a little bit
23:51
Speaker 1: of a thought exercise, mental preparedness for what you know,
23:57
Speaker 1: it could happen, and so I want to get out
23:59
Speaker 1: ahead of it a little bit. And that's you know,
24:01
Speaker 1: a lot of talk about Kevin McGonagall, you know, even
24:05
Speaker 1: Max Anderson, friend of the podcast.
24:08
Speaker 2: Not a lot of talk about Max Clark.
24:10
Speaker 1: And I mentioned that before, and I believe he just
24:12
Speaker 1: got marry congratulations to Max and his wife, But not
24:17
Speaker 1: a lot of talk about Max Anderson or Sue me,
24:20
Speaker 1: Max Clark and what his twenty twenty six kind of
24:24
Speaker 1: looks like. And I was going through it in my head,
24:26
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, what if Parker just
24:31
Speaker 1: you know, struggles to kind of put it all together.
24:34
Speaker 1: You know, Perez could get hurt. We've seen that Parker
24:37
Speaker 1: could get hurt. Virlin could get hurt. Like all these
24:39
Speaker 1: things that happened last year that made like center field
24:42
Speaker 1: like a little bit dice a little bit more dicey
24:45
Speaker 1: than then would be ideal. You know, Clark's going to
24:49
Speaker 1: be in Triple A next year, and he's a high
24:53
Speaker 1: profile He's a high profile kid. He's a high, highly
24:56
Speaker 1: touted prospect, top you know, number one draft choice. I
25:00
Speaker 1: think we got to be prepared for some calls for
25:02
Speaker 1: Max Clark. Everyone's excited for Kevin McGonagall, but like, the
25:06
Speaker 1: Max Clark calls are gonna be coming, and then with that,
25:10
Speaker 1: is there a possibility that he could get rushed. So
25:13
Speaker 1: I'm not saying this is all gonna happen, but I'm
25:15
Speaker 1: just like, I was like, man, this actually feels like
25:17
Speaker 1: a this feels like I feel like it's on the board.
25:20
Speaker 1: I feel like something like this is on the board.
25:22
Speaker 1: So I just wanted to introduce that as an ideal.
25:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's a lot left to play out here.
25:28
Speaker 3: I think the scenario you just described could certainly happen,
25:31
Speaker 3: and I also think the opposite could happen. If Parker
25:34
Speaker 3: Meadows has a great two month great you know, April
25:37
Speaker 3: and May, and Max Clark is struggling a little bit
25:40
Speaker 3: out of the gate, those calls could fade real quick.
25:44
Speaker 3: It could be like, all right, Tiger's got Parker, have fun, Max,
25:47
Speaker 3: keep working on our swing. See in a couple of
25:49
Speaker 3: years where it could be like fans calling for Max Clark.
25:52
Speaker 3: You know now Max, you know, he's obviously a very
25:55
Speaker 3: talented prospect, makes great swing decisions. He hit two fifty
26:00
Speaker 3: one with a three sixty one base percentage in EERIE
26:03
Speaker 3: last year in forty three games. Look, that's plenty solid,
26:06
Speaker 3: but I think he still has more work to do.
26:09
Speaker 3: He began elevating the ball a little bit more last year,
26:12
Speaker 3: but I think that's still a concern. Can you get
26:15
Speaker 3: the ball off the ground. He's gonna start seeing more
26:17
Speaker 3: high end lefties. How will that translate in Triple A
26:20
Speaker 3: and eventually in the big leagues? And then we know, Look,
26:24
Speaker 3: we know he's quick, we know he has great baseball instincts,
26:27
Speaker 3: but is he a true centerfielder. I think even that
26:29
Speaker 3: part of his game, there might still be some things
26:32
Speaker 3: to be refined. So that's all to say, like, yeah,
26:35
Speaker 3: I don't know how this one's gonna play out. I
26:37
Speaker 3: don't think the Tigers are gonna be rushing Max to.
26:40
Speaker 2: The big leagues.
26:40
Speaker 3: They have not been in the business of rushing prospects
26:44
Speaker 3: really ever. Under this Scott Harris regime. But a lot
26:49
Speaker 3: of that whole conversation is dependent on the performance of
26:52
Speaker 3: one Parker Meadows. There's no doubt.
26:56
Speaker 1: Again, it's another reminder of the list of like the
27:03
Speaker 1: list of things and and and and team options and
27:07
Speaker 1: team success that rests on the shoulders of Parker Meadows
27:10
Speaker 1: being able to be an everyday center fielder at the plate.
27:15
Speaker 2: Obviously we know we can do it in the field.
27:17
Speaker 4: Uh.
27:18
Speaker 2: Man, it's a lot, it's a lot.
27:22
Speaker 1: It's a lot, Ryan on it, and we were as
27:24
Speaker 1: we were feeling this is probably again I don't have
27:27
Speaker 1: like a long speel about this. This probably as uneasy
27:31
Speaker 1: as we felt about Parker metals in a couple of years,
27:33
Speaker 1: because you know, he had the the flashes and then
27:37
Speaker 1: you know the great postseason in twenty four.
27:40
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, it's hard. It's hard. It is hard.
27:44
Speaker 2: So we'll we'll see.
27:45
Speaker 1: But I just wanted to I was just thinking, I
27:46
Speaker 1: was like, you know, the McGonagall hype is there, but
27:49
Speaker 1: we're not necessarily talking about the the demand for Clark
27:53
Speaker 1: that that could very well happen. Who again, is gonna
27:57
Speaker 1: the flashy stuff is gonna play on Twitter and people
27:59
Speaker 1: are gonna lie on to that stuff and all that
28:01
Speaker 1: boring stuff that the front office is consumed with. It's
28:05
Speaker 1: not gonna gonna not gonna get a whole lot of Okay, Yeah,
28:08
Speaker 1: I see why you're keeping that guy in uh in Toledo.
28:11
Speaker 1: So all right, anything else Cody before we jet out
28:15
Speaker 1: of here?
28:16
Speaker 3: Uh No, I think that covers it for now. Hopefully
28:19
Speaker 3: later this week we will hear from some of these
28:21
Speaker 3: guys the Tigers have signed, and hear a little bit
28:23
Speaker 3: more from Scott Harris in the front office as these
28:26
Speaker 3: become official. So uh, stay with us. We'll be back
28:29
Speaker 3: later this week and we will keep you updated throughout
28:32
Speaker 3: the rest of the off season.
28:33
Speaker 1: All right, then you can go and you can stay
28:35
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28:48
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28:51
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys. All Right, So for Cody Stavenhagen, I'm
28:54
Speaker 1: Keeran Steckley here we have great day,