Latest / Foul Territory / Fair Territory: Freddy Peralta/Mets extension soon? Max Fried story, Oli Marmol extended

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Fair Territory: Freddy Peralta/Mets extension soon? Max Fried story, Oli Marmol extended · Foul Territory

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory. I'm
0:04
Speaker 1: Ken Rosenthal. Be with you for the next twenty five
0:07
Speaker 1: thirty minutes or so. I am back from ten days
0:10
Speaker 1: in Florida. Ten camps in ten days. It's not quite
0:14
Speaker 1: the MLB network thirty camps and thirty whatever they do now,
0:18
Speaker 1: but I did hit ten different camps. And while I
0:21
Speaker 1: didn't write every day or every about every team that
0:24
Speaker 1: I saw, I did see a lot and part of
0:27
Speaker 1: what I was doing there were interviews for Fox that
0:29
Speaker 1: will be appearing on pregame shows throughout the season, and
0:33
Speaker 1: part of it, of course, was work for the athletic
0:36
Speaker 1: And I ended this tour with the Mets. There's no
0:39
Speaker 1: particular reason for that. I started in Fort Myers, southwest
0:43
Speaker 1: part of the state, went up the west coast to
0:45
Speaker 1: the Tampa area, then went to Lakeland to see the Tigers,
0:48
Speaker 1: and then went east to see the Mets and the Astros.
0:52
Speaker 1: And at Mets camp yesterday, it was rather interesting just
0:56
Speaker 1: seeing the vibe of this team because it is a
0:58
Speaker 1: completely different team almost They are excited, and every team
1:03
Speaker 1: is excited. We understand that even the lowliest teams in
1:07
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball are optimistic at this time of year.
1:10
Speaker 1: But the Mets do have a different feel and a
1:13
Speaker 1: different look about them because they have so many new players.
1:17
Speaker 1: Boba Schet. I want to touch on him a little bit.
1:20
Speaker 1: He is a guy that is in much better shape
1:23
Speaker 1: than he was last year when he was injured and
1:25
Speaker 1: could not train the way he normally does. He's excited
1:29
Speaker 1: about that, he's optimistic about that. I expect a big
1:33
Speaker 1: year out of him. Carson Bench, the rookie who is
1:36
Speaker 1: competing for one of the outfield spots. He's an interesting
1:40
Speaker 1: guy because the Mets see him as someone who if
1:44
Speaker 1: he's not ready right away, they give that job to
1:47
Speaker 1: Mike Takman. He'll at least be ready at some point
1:50
Speaker 1: during the season. And he's a guy with unique back
1:53
Speaker 1: to ball skills as well as unique power. So the
1:58
Speaker 1: Mets have all of these potentially new players. Luis Robert Jr.
2:01
Speaker 1: Of course, is one of the players who is the
2:03
Speaker 1: talk of camp, in part because when you see Luis
2:07
Speaker 1: Robert Jr. On a baseball field, he is a specimen.
2:10
Speaker 1: He can do special things. He is a rare talent.
2:13
Speaker 1: My question with Luis Robert Jr. Are the same questions
2:16
Speaker 1: that we're all asking can he stay healthy? So this
2:20
Speaker 1: is a team that I have written. I am not
2:23
Speaker 1: quite sure it's going to come together the way David Stern's,
2:27
Speaker 1: the president of Baseball Operations an dissipates, but it is
2:30
Speaker 1: going to be quite an interesting journey. Samy and at second,
2:34
Speaker 1: Polanco at first, all of these different things going on.
2:37
Speaker 1: They feel they have more depth than in the past
2:40
Speaker 1: with Biento's and Batty and some others who if they're
2:44
Speaker 1: not starting, can come off the bench. They're going to
2:47
Speaker 1: be a team to watch the entire season because not
2:50
Speaker 1: only do they have new players that have new coaches,
2:52
Speaker 1: they are really kind of starting over on the fly. Now.
2:57
Speaker 1: The guy I wrote about today is of course one
2:59
Speaker 1: of their big trade acquisitions, and that would be Freddy Peralta.
3:02
Speaker 1: And you see the headline right there on my story
3:05
Speaker 1: in the Athletic Freddy Peralta already seems at home with
3:08
Speaker 1: the Mets. Will it be a long term one? And
3:11
Speaker 1: basically in the story I suggest that there's no reason
3:14
Speaker 1: it should not be a long term one. Freddy Peralta
3:17
Speaker 1: is a guy who, when he was eleven years old,
3:21
Speaker 1: came to the United States with his little league team
3:23
Speaker 1: from the Dominican Republic came to New York City. They
3:26
Speaker 1: spent about a month in New York. He recalls throwing
3:28
Speaker 1: a no hitter in the Bronx, and he talked about
3:32
Speaker 1: even last opening day when the Brewers remember opened the
3:35
Speaker 1: Yankee Stadium, and he left forty tickets for family, friends
3:40
Speaker 1: and whoever else might have been wanting to come to
3:42
Speaker 1: the game. He is a native of the Dominican Republic.
3:45
Speaker 1: The Dominican population in New York is the largest of
3:48
Speaker 1: any immigrant group, so he's excited about being there. And
3:52
Speaker 1: of course there's another thing here, another element. He is
3:56
Speaker 1: someone who has a long standing relationship with both David
4:00
Speaker 1: Stearns and Edwardo Brizuela, the top two guys or two
4:04
Speaker 1: of the top guys. Sterns the top obviously, Edwardo also
4:07
Speaker 1: is in the Mets organization, both with the Brewers. Sterens
4:11
Speaker 1: once traded for Paralta with the Brewers. It was one
4:14
Speaker 1: of his first trades, and he signed him to an
4:16
Speaker 1: extension with the Brewers, So this is obviously a guy
4:20
Speaker 1: he likes. Freddy Parolta said when David Sterns called him
4:24
Speaker 1: to inform him of the trade, he could hear him
4:27
Speaker 1: smiling on the phone, or could almost visualize him smiling
4:30
Speaker 1: on the phone, and Stern said the same thing about Paralta. Now,
4:34
Speaker 1: the one bit of news in this story, at least
4:36
Speaker 1: in my estimation, is that Paralta said he doesn't want
4:39
Speaker 1: one of these short term, high dollar deals. He wants
4:42
Speaker 1: something long And we all know that David sterns at
4:46
Speaker 1: least in his tenure with the Mets and even before
4:48
Speaker 1: that with the Brewers, does not like long term, high
4:51
Speaker 1: dollar deals for starting pitchers. So that is something that
4:55
Speaker 1: I imagine they can work out get through, but that is
4:58
Speaker 1: going to be one potential roadblock in the negotiations. One
5:03
Speaker 1: more thing about Paralta. He is one of the most
5:05
Speaker 1: brilliant personalities in the game. I said in the story.
5:09
Speaker 1: He's kind of a pitching version of Aohano Suarez. Aohano Suarez,
5:14
Speaker 1: of course, known for his good vibes only catchphrase, that's
5:17
Speaker 1: Freddy Peralta from a pitching standpoint, and it's only going
5:21
Speaker 1: to help a team that had some clubhouse issues last year.
5:24
Speaker 1: We've talked about them ad nauseum, and if there's a
5:28
Speaker 1: rift to be repaired between Soto and Lindor, Juan Soto,
5:32
Speaker 1: Francisco Lindor. We still do not know exactly what that was. Well,
5:37
Speaker 1: Paralta is a guy that can help do it. So
5:39
Speaker 1: the Mets getting ready. The key for them, like for
5:42
Speaker 1: any team, is going to be staying healthy, and that's
5:45
Speaker 1: one question I have with them. Bashett hasn't been all
5:48
Speaker 1: that healthy. Robert is never healthy. Polanco has had some
5:51
Speaker 1: knee issues in the past. The pitching, of course, that
5:54
Speaker 1: is the number one question when it comes to health
5:57
Speaker 1: and production. We'll see how it all plays out, but
6:00
Speaker 1: that's going to be a team much like San Francisco
6:03
Speaker 1: because of Tony v Tello taking over, that is going
6:05
Speaker 1: to be fascinating to watch, even more fascinating than most
6:08
Speaker 1: clubs on a daily basis. Some other news yesterday from
6:13
Speaker 1: the East coast of Florida and that involved the Saint
6:15
Speaker 1: Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals, of course are rebuilding, but they
6:19
Speaker 1: did something that they should have done because of where
6:23
Speaker 1: they are in their evolution here, and that is extending
6:26
Speaker 1: their manager, Ali marmal Oli. Marvel gets a two year
6:29
Speaker 1: deal for twenty seven and twenty eight with a club
6:32
Speaker 1: option for twenty nine. Obviously, this was his last season
6:36
Speaker 1: under guaranteed contract, and you might ask, well, why is
6:39
Speaker 1: this necessary now? Why not just play out the season.
6:43
Speaker 1: It's a good move by their new president of baseball Operations,
6:46
Speaker 1: Heim Bloom, because it offers stability and it tells Ali Marmal, hey,
6:52
Speaker 1: you're going to be here through this rebuild. We're not
6:54
Speaker 1: going to judge you on wins and losses. You're going
6:57
Speaker 1: to be our guy for the next two and mi
7:00
Speaker 1: maybe three years beyond this one. Now, obviously they could
7:03
Speaker 1: have kept him as a lame duck, but if you
7:05
Speaker 1: do that, it raises all kinds of questions that you
7:08
Speaker 1: don't need to have raised during the year. The big
7:11
Speaker 1: question will be can Ali Marmal see this through to
7:14
Speaker 1: the other side when they come out of the rebuilding plan,
7:16
Speaker 1: And that is going to be where this becomes a
7:20
Speaker 1: real question for the Cardinals. But that's down the line now.
7:23
Speaker 1: Foul Territory is in Jupiter today, Jupiter, Florida, at Cardinals Camp.
7:28
Speaker 1: They're live at eleven am ET. Now. The World Baseball
7:32
Speaker 1: Classic is coming up this week and all of our
7:35
Speaker 1: World Baseball Classic coverage is brought to you by our
7:37
Speaker 1: friends at Fox one My Friends, which is live stream
7:41
Speaker 1: all your Fox favorites together in one place, including all
7:44
Speaker 1: WBC games over the next few weeks. I'll be doing
7:47
Speaker 1: nine of them, and after that the best MLB action
7:50
Speaker 1: all season long. Now, speaking of the WBC, we had
7:54
Speaker 1: a roster move yesterday, probably the last roster move, let's hope,
7:58
Speaker 1: barring any injuries, and it was this Ryan Yarborough, the
8:02
Speaker 1: left handed swingman from the Yankees, kind of a jack
8:06
Speaker 1: of all trades. He is going to be replacing Joe
8:09
Speaker 1: Ryan on the roster, a move that was kind of expected.
8:12
Speaker 1: Joe Ryan had that lower back inflammation last week. Doesn't
8:16
Speaker 1: appear to be serious, but teams are always looking for
8:19
Speaker 1: an excuse to pull their guys out of the WBC,
8:21
Speaker 1: and with Ryan, he just had this little issue. You're
8:24
Speaker 1: not going to want him to pitch. So Ryan Yarborough
8:26
Speaker 1: joins the staff and it should be pretty interesting to
8:30
Speaker 1: see how this all comes together. Their workouts start today
8:34
Speaker 1: in Scottsdale, Arizona. They have a workout today, then they
8:38
Speaker 1: have games exhibition games the next two days against the
8:42
Speaker 1: San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies. Then on Thursday they
8:45
Speaker 1: fly to Houston, and on Friday they begin WBC pool plan.
8:50
Speaker 1: Talking of course about Team USA, all of the other
8:53
Speaker 1: teams in this hemisphere will be following the same kind
8:57
Speaker 1: of schedule. There are a number of teams in Arizona
9:00
Speaker 1: that will be playing against major league teams, a number
9:03
Speaker 1: of teams in Florida that will be playing against major
9:06
Speaker 1: league teams as well. So from the WBC through the
9:10
Speaker 1: World Series, to the World Cup, to NASCAR and IndyCar.
9:13
Speaker 1: With Fox one, you get it all live. Start your
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Speaker 1: seven day free trial today offers our subject to change.
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Speaker 1: Download Fox one today and stream the World Baseball Classic
9:23
Speaker 1: live March sixth to fourteenth. Go to foxwe dot com
9:27
Speaker 1: for complete terms and conditions. Fox one streaming. Now. All right,
9:32
Speaker 1: without further ado, Let's get to the inside dish Well
9:38
Speaker 1: Well will Well. I mentioned earlier my tour through Florida,
9:46
Speaker 1: and one of my stops was in Tampa at New
9:49
Speaker 1: York Yankees camp, and there I had something of an
9:53
Speaker 1: idea that I wanted to pursue. It was an idea
9:55
Speaker 1: that I've actually had for quite some time. I really
9:57
Speaker 1: wanted to write it last year but never got to it.
10:00
Speaker 1: But it was a story about Max Freed and Max
10:04
Speaker 1: Freed I remember going back to his days in the minors.
10:07
Speaker 1: I remember talking to evaluators from other teams and hearing
10:11
Speaker 1: that Max Freed was soft. This guy's a big prospect,
10:14
Speaker 1: he's soft, He's not gonna be the guy that everyone thinks, etc. Etc.
10:20
Speaker 1: Didn't write all of that. Hear these whispers all the time,
10:23
Speaker 1: but I kind of filed it away and I kind
10:26
Speaker 1: of thought, Wow, this will be an interesting guy to follow,
10:28
Speaker 1: because he was the number seven pick in the draft
10:30
Speaker 1: by the San Diego Padres. It was twenty twelve. That
10:33
Speaker 1: was the year Correa and Buxton went one two, and
10:37
Speaker 1: he was coming out of high school Harvard Westlake High
10:40
Speaker 1: School in Los Angeles, California. Big time prospect. Now, his
10:45
Speaker 1: career was an interesting one, of course, just from the
10:48
Speaker 1: path he followed. The Padres traded him to the Braves
10:51
Speaker 1: and the Justin Upten deal, and then at that time
10:55
Speaker 1: he was still recovering from Tommy John surgery. So I
10:58
Speaker 1: wanted to ask Max this because Max is one of
11:01
Speaker 1: the most thoughtful guys in the game. He's soft spoken,
11:05
Speaker 1: but he has interesting things to say, and he's someone
11:08
Speaker 1: who I thought would be honest about his journey. Maybe
11:12
Speaker 1: he would have said listen. I never heard that talk
11:14
Speaker 1: and there would have been no story. But when I
11:17
Speaker 1: mentioned this to Max, I said, Max, I heard this.
11:20
Speaker 1: I wonder if you heard it too, and he said, yes,
11:22
Speaker 1: I did hear it. It was a label that was
11:24
Speaker 1: on me soft. But he explained why that was all
11:29
Speaker 1: going on at that time, why that perception might have existed.
11:33
Speaker 1: And it existed, he said because he came out of
11:36
Speaker 1: high school eighteen years old, first goes to the Padres
11:40
Speaker 1: rookie affiliate, which I guess at the time was in Peoria, Arizona,
11:43
Speaker 1: and then his first full season at nineteen years old
11:46
Speaker 1: is in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in a ball with the Padres.
11:50
Speaker 1: And basically what he said was I was a kid,
11:53
Speaker 1: I was a teenager. I wasn't ready for this kind
11:56
Speaker 1: of life. And one of the things that was interesting
12:00
Speaker 1: is he understood, of course that it was a job
12:03
Speaker 1: that he was going to get paid. But coming up
12:06
Speaker 1: in high school, what he said was, you're root for
12:08
Speaker 1: your teammates, You're root for everybody to do well. It's competition,
12:12
Speaker 1: but it's not the same kind of competition. Once you
12:15
Speaker 1: get into pro ball, it's every man for himself. You're
12:18
Speaker 1: fighting with your teammates to get to the next level.
12:21
Speaker 1: You're competing with them on an everyday basis. And he
12:24
Speaker 1: said when some of his teammates would get released, it
12:28
Speaker 1: was rather jarring to him. It was something that he
12:31
Speaker 1: was not really ready for, and all of this kind
12:34
Speaker 1: of played into his head. He had the Tommy John
12:36
Speaker 1: surgery and then he came out of it, and he
12:39
Speaker 1: came out of it the first year pretty well.
12:41
Speaker 2: Twenty sixteen, he missed, the twenty fifteen season, sixteen comes
12:45
Speaker 2: back does fairly well, and then in seventeen crashes two
12:49
Speaker 2: and eleven, an era of almost six And he basically
12:54
Speaker 2: said that at that time he had a conversation with
12:57
Speaker 2: his dad and he said, you know what.
12:59
Speaker 1: I don't know the I'm cut out for this. I
13:01
Speaker 1: don't know if this is going to be my future.
13:03
Speaker 1: Maybe I just need to go to college. What happened
13:06
Speaker 1: from there, well, we all know what happened from there.
13:08
Speaker 1: The Braves called him up even though he was horrible
13:11
Speaker 1: at DOUBLEA because they were rebuilding at the time. They
13:14
Speaker 1: wanted him kind of to get experience and prepare himself
13:18
Speaker 1: to be part potentially of the twenty eighteen rotation that
13:22
Speaker 1: didn't really happen. He was up and down at eighteen,
13:24
Speaker 1: he was hurt a little bit, but in nineteen was
13:27
Speaker 1: his breakout year. And of course we've seen everything he
13:30
Speaker 1: has done since. The tremendous performance in Game six of
13:33
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty one World Series, the three top side,
13:37
Speaker 1: top five side young finishes, the All Star appearances, the
13:40
Speaker 1: Gold Gloves, and of course the record contract for a
13:43
Speaker 1: left handed pitcher with the Yankees eight years, two hundred
13:47
Speaker 1: and eighteen million dollars. So you might ask, Okay, what's
13:51
Speaker 1: the big deal? All major leaguers have difficult journeys. Why
13:54
Speaker 1: is Max Freed so special? He's so special and he
13:59
Speaker 1: was worth writing about in my opinion, because often I
14:03
Speaker 1: believe fans and even media members, writers, broadcasters don't have
14:10
Speaker 1: a full grasp of the difficult journey that some of
14:13
Speaker 1: these guys have. Some come pretty quickly and it's not
14:15
Speaker 1: that hard for them, a very small percentage, but most
14:19
Speaker 1: are like Max Freed, and I like in my job
14:23
Speaker 1: to write about those journeys. I did it a little
14:26
Speaker 1: bit with Alec Bowl in last week of the Phillies.
14:29
Speaker 1: I do it from time to time. Of course, I
14:31
Speaker 1: also do many other things for the athletic with news
14:34
Speaker 1: columns whatever the case might be. But I go back
14:38
Speaker 1: to this often Tim Kirkton. When I first joined the
14:41
Speaker 1: Baltimore Sun, he was the baseball beat writer for the
14:44
Speaker 1: Morning Sun and I was the baseball writer for the
14:46
Speaker 1: Baltimore Evening Son, and we were in competition even though
14:50
Speaker 1: they were owned by the same people. And one of
14:53
Speaker 1: the things that Tim taught me, one of the first
14:55
Speaker 1: things he taught me was the game is really hard.
14:59
Speaker 1: You can never lose respect or appreciation for what the
15:02
Speaker 1: players go through, how difficult it is, how difficult it
15:06
Speaker 1: is to succeed. So stories like that, I think we
15:11
Speaker 1: can kind of apply them to our own lives. When
15:13
Speaker 1: Max Freed says, you got to take one day at
15:15
Speaker 1: a time and you got to just keep believing and
15:17
Speaker 1: going forward, That's the way I ended this story. Words
15:20
Speaker 1: to live by from a guy, a superstar who has
15:24
Speaker 1: had not an easy journey, a difficult one. So I
15:28
Speaker 1: hope you read the story. I hope you enjoy it.
15:30
Speaker 1: It was quite a fun one to work on. And
15:33
Speaker 1: I will say this, Max Freed was incredibly open about this.
15:37
Speaker 1: It was a seven minute interview. I asked only three questions.
15:42
Speaker 1: That's how expansive his answers were And you might say, well,
15:45
Speaker 1: seven minutes, that's not that long when you interview someone.
15:48
Speaker 1: When you're talking to someone, seven minutes is actually a
15:51
Speaker 1: decent length of time. And the fact that I answered,
15:54
Speaker 1: actually asked only three questions, that tells you that Max
15:58
Speaker 1: Freed was thoughtful about this, and he was expansive about it,
16:01
Speaker 1: and he was really good to talk to. So with that,
16:04
Speaker 1: we get ready for Grill and Ken, and that will
16:08
Speaker 1: be next bet.
16:09
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16:13
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16:15
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16:18
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Speaker 3: there's help called one eight hundred gambler.
16:30
Speaker 1: Time now for grilling Ken, the part of the show
16:32
Speaker 1: where you get that grill me, ask me questions. So
16:35
Speaker 1: let's go. Let's get right to them. The first one
16:37
Speaker 1: comes from Shawn Michael in Florida, who says, hey, Connor
16:40
Speaker 1: Griffin Ken had one good game with two home runs.
16:43
Speaker 1: Has anyone paid attention to Kevin McGonagall. He's hitting four hundred.
16:47
Speaker 1: Here we go, everyone needs their attention. We all know
16:51
Speaker 1: who Kevin McGonagall is. Kevin McGonagall is having a tremendous camp.
16:55
Speaker 1: Connor Griffin is the number one prospect in the game.
16:58
Speaker 1: They are both going to get all the attention they
17:01
Speaker 1: ever could want. And Kevin McGonagall, I expect, will be
17:05
Speaker 1: a member of the Tigers at some point this season.
17:08
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's going to be opening Day.
17:10
Speaker 1: It's a little bit different situation than the Pirates have
17:12
Speaker 1: with Griffin. But McGonagall is a guy with, as we
17:16
Speaker 1: talked about with Carson bench, unique back the ball skills.
17:20
Speaker 1: He is a guy that if he's not the number
17:22
Speaker 1: two prospect in the game behind Griffin on some lists,
17:25
Speaker 1: he's right there in the top five. He is someone
17:27
Speaker 1: who can be perhaps as transformative for the Tigers as
17:32
Speaker 1: the Pirates hope Griffin will be. So, Yes, Kevin McGonagall
17:37
Speaker 1: is going to be a big factor. Max Clark, the outfielder,
17:39
Speaker 1: also might be a big factor. McGonagall is an infielder.
17:42
Speaker 1: They've got to decide where to play him and how
17:44
Speaker 1: it's going to work and all that, but the Tigers
17:47
Speaker 1: are going to need him because they didn't do much
17:50
Speaker 1: offensively to enhance themselves in the offseason, in part because
17:55
Speaker 1: they've got these two kids, two of the top five
17:57
Speaker 1: prospects perhaps in the game. They are waiting on them,
18:01
Speaker 1: they are ready for them. They want to clear paths
18:03
Speaker 1: and keep them open for them. But show out. To
18:05
Speaker 1: answer your question, we love Kevin McGonagall too. We love
18:09
Speaker 1: Connor Griffin, who, by the way, now has three home runs.
18:12
Speaker 1: He hit one yesterday, So keep your eyes on both
18:15
Speaker 1: these talented young players. Next question, this one comes from
18:19
Speaker 1: Living Legend seventy two thousand. He says, Hey, Ken, it
18:22
Speaker 1: was very nice to meet Nice to meet you at
18:23
Speaker 1: Astros camp over the weekend. Do you think they'll try
18:27
Speaker 1: to trade parades for an outfielder? Funny you should ask
18:30
Speaker 1: Living Legend, because my next column coming out tomorrow is
18:35
Speaker 1: on this very topic. I will give you a brief
18:38
Speaker 1: preview by answering your question, do I think they should
18:41
Speaker 1: trade parades for an outfielder, a left handed hitting outfielder.
18:45
Speaker 1: The answer that you will see in this column is
18:48
Speaker 1: a resounding yes. The Astros have an imbalance. They have
18:53
Speaker 1: too many players in their infield, not enough players in
18:55
Speaker 1: their outfield, or not enough good players or established players.
18:58
Speaker 1: I should say, these guys are all good players, not
19:00
Speaker 1: enough established players in their outfield, and they've got in
19:02
Speaker 1: the infield a situation where Christian Walker is at first,
19:07
Speaker 1: Jose al Toovey is at second, Jeremy Pagney is at short,
19:10
Speaker 1: in Carlo's career at third, with Jordan Alvarez the DH,
19:13
Speaker 1: where is the room for Iszak Parades? Well, there is
19:16
Speaker 1: no room. Now they can bench guys were not rest guys.
19:22
Speaker 1: They can use the DH on days when Alvarez is
19:24
Speaker 1: in left field. They can play out two ve in
19:26
Speaker 1: left field at times if Parades is capable of playing
19:29
Speaker 1: second base, which is doubtful. But it's a log jam
19:33
Speaker 1: that needs to be resolved, and that is the subject
19:36
Speaker 1: of my column tomorrow. The Peralta and Free Reid stories
19:39
Speaker 1: there today. The story about the Astros and what they
19:42
Speaker 1: need to do is tomorrow. That is an opinion column,
19:45
Speaker 1: so you have to distinguish between the two. All right,
19:49
Speaker 1: let's get to the next question. Next question is, oh,
19:53
Speaker 1: Pigtown Sports, Why is Michael Kopek still a free agent?
19:56
Speaker 1: Good question. He is one of the remaining free agents,
19:59
Speaker 1: along with Lucas Gildo, Zach Lttel, Danny Koolam, Tommy fam
20:05
Speaker 1: I'm not getting to everyone, but I'm trying to mention
20:07
Speaker 1: the ones that come immediately to mind. Kopek is a
20:10
Speaker 1: guy that I believe was on the Athletics Big Board
20:14
Speaker 1: the number fifty free agent. We had fifty top free agents,
20:17
Speaker 1: and he was number fifty. The only reason perhaps he
20:21
Speaker 1: is not a free or not signed to a team now,
20:23
Speaker 1: or maybe the biggest reason would be health concerns. He's
20:27
Speaker 1: had a number of injuries, and I don't know exactly
20:30
Speaker 1: what he's looking for. That's always an issue when it
20:32
Speaker 1: comes to free agents who are unsigned. But the health
20:37
Speaker 1: concerns perhaps would be the reason why Kopek is still
20:40
Speaker 1: out there. I expect, as long as he's healthy that
20:43
Speaker 1: he is going to sign somewhere. I also expect that
20:46
Speaker 1: with Gilido and with Lttel especially, But every year we
20:50
Speaker 1: have players who get hot, who get stuck and remain
20:55
Speaker 1: free agents beyond where they want to be as camp opens.
20:58
Speaker 1: And while Starling Marky signed a minor league deal with
21:01
Speaker 1: the Royals this weekend, Randall Gritchard with the Yankees last week,
21:05
Speaker 1: you still have a few remaining guys out there, all right.
21:09
Speaker 1: Next question, This one comes from Ricky schaff fifty seven
21:13
Speaker 1: to fifty eight, Ken, what did you think of Marte
21:15
Speaker 1: to Casey Hey, Ricky, great segue there. For the Royals
21:20
Speaker 1: who are looking for outfield help, Marte is certainly worth
21:24
Speaker 1: a flyer on a minor league deal. And I talked
21:26
Speaker 1: about the Astros and the imbalance between their infield and outfield.
21:30
Speaker 1: The imbalance with the Royals is greater than it is
21:33
Speaker 1: for any team. If you look at projected war Their infield,
21:37
Speaker 1: particularly with Bobby Wood Junior and Michael Garcia, is tremendous
21:41
Speaker 1: in its projections what it might accomplish, and the outfield
21:45
Speaker 1: not so much. Now they signed Lane Thomas, they traded
21:49
Speaker 1: for forgetting his name, the guy from Milwaukee who has
21:53
Speaker 1: had a really good rookie year. And they are a
21:55
Speaker 1: team that is looking for outfield production and they're hoping
21:58
Speaker 1: Jack Callianode provides some of it. But Marte gives them
22:03
Speaker 1: another option and with that perhaps they can put together
22:08
Speaker 1: a better outfield than in the past. Isaac Collins is
22:10
Speaker 1: the guy I was looking for. Thank you to my
22:12
Speaker 1: producer for Jeremy Myers for helping me with my brain
22:15
Speaker 1: cramp there. So yes, for the Royals who are always
22:18
Speaker 1: looking for outfield help. You remembered they were trying to
22:20
Speaker 1: trade for Jaron Duran for most of the offseason. Marte
22:24
Speaker 1: at least is a guy that is worth taking a
22:26
Speaker 1: look at. All. Right, let's say if we have a
22:28
Speaker 1: next question here. It comes from Carter Hawkins one thirty.
22:31
Speaker 1: I don't believe Cubs GM Carter Hawkins is actually asking
22:35
Speaker 1: me a question, but let's use the pseudonym and go
22:38
Speaker 1: with it. Ken, what would the Cubs have been better
22:40
Speaker 1: off giving show to Iman August twenty two point five
22:43
Speaker 1: million to a top closer like Robert Suarez. Okay, that
22:47
Speaker 1: is a fair question, and certainly you can always wonder
22:51
Speaker 1: about how teams allocate their money, but they were thinking
22:55
Speaker 1: that with Palencia at the back end, they're comfortable with
22:58
Speaker 1: him and they wanted to make sure they're starting pitching
23:02
Speaker 1: was in a good place and in Minaga, it's one year,
23:06
Speaker 1: so yeah, it's a big number for one year. But
23:09
Speaker 1: if they can get him to be what he was
23:12
Speaker 1: in his first season or something close to that, then
23:15
Speaker 1: we'll be talking about something pretty good. So for the Cubs,
23:18
Speaker 1: they were trying to build rotation depth. They transform their
23:21
Speaker 1: entire bullpen. Signed a bunch of free agents to go
23:24
Speaker 1: with Palencia. So we'll see how it all works out
23:27
Speaker 1: and they might have to adjust on the fly, But
23:30
Speaker 1: at the same time, it's something that they're gonna have
23:33
Speaker 1: to just go through the entire season and figure out
23:37
Speaker 1: as they go along. All right, final question, This one
23:41
Speaker 1: comes from foul Territory, our good friends of foul Territory,
23:45
Speaker 1: who asks, how does Vlad Guerrero Junior look this spring?
23:48
Speaker 1: Flag Guerira Junior, he always looks good. And if you
23:51
Speaker 1: read Jason Stark's article about the Blue Jays and their
23:55
Speaker 1: reaction to Game seven and losing it and coming into
23:57
Speaker 1: this season, Blad Junior is quoted in that. It's a
24:01
Speaker 1: quote that actually I got when I interviewed Lad for
24:05
Speaker 1: Fox Sports and he talked about how hurt he was
24:09
Speaker 1: hurt just sitting there in the dugout after Game seven.
24:14
Speaker 1: He said he wanted to sit there and he wanted
24:16
Speaker 1: to be the last one out of the dugout going
24:17
Speaker 1: back to the clubhouse because he wanted to feel it.
24:21
Speaker 1: That man is motivated. That man, as we saw in
24:24
Speaker 1: the postseason, the entire world got a glimpse of what
24:27
Speaker 1: Toronto fans knew. He is not just a hitter. He
24:30
Speaker 1: is not just a power hitter. He is a good
24:33
Speaker 1: defender at first base and above average defender at first base,
24:36
Speaker 1: and he is an excellent base runner as well. Vlagerreo
24:40
Speaker 1: Junior expecting big things out of him this year. Expecting
24:43
Speaker 1: big things as well out of the Blue Jays. All right,
24:46
Speaker 1: I want to thank everyone for watching and for listening.
24:48
Speaker 1: Foul Territory, as we said earlier, coming up at eleven
24:51
Speaker 1: Eastern from Cardinals Camp. Aj Prizinski is live from that camp.
24:55
Speaker 1: Eric Kratz and Scott Brunn also will host We're Back
24:58
Speaker 1: Thursday at our usual time twelve thirty Eastern with Lanorizzo.
25:02
Speaker 1: It will be a WBC extravaganza cause we get ready
25:06
Speaker 1: for the tournament. We'll talk to you then