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Cubs latest: What we’re hearing at the GM meetings · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:08
Speaker 1: Sahada Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:11
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. We are
0:16
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas for the GM meetings. It is I mean,
0:22
Speaker 1: it's hot stove season in a sense. It's you know,
0:26
Speaker 1: can actually sign, trades, can be made, all that good stuff.
0:30
Speaker 1: There's nothing, nothing big has happened yet, but this is
0:33
Speaker 1: where the groundwork is laid. You and I like to
0:37
Speaker 1: say that, you know, we come to the GM meetings
0:38
Speaker 1: and it kind of sets us up for what we
0:42
Speaker 1: kind of plan for the entire off season. And I
0:47
Speaker 1: guess we had our first you know chat with Jed
0:51
Speaker 1: Hoyer of the GM meetings really of the off season
0:55
Speaker 1: outside of that, you know, the season wrap up, and
1:00
Speaker 1: I guess what stood out to me was, you know,
1:03
Speaker 1: we we we asked about the budget, we ask about money.
1:07
Speaker 1: He's not going to give us exact answers there, but
1:12
Speaker 1: unlike it felt like last season, immediately it was like,
1:17
Speaker 1: don't waste your time on the big, big money free agents.
1:20
Speaker 1: That that's almost like you get that Bob immediately talking
1:23
Speaker 1: to Jed last year this year very different and I'm
1:29
Speaker 1: not saying that you know they're going to be aggressive
1:33
Speaker 1: at the top of the market, but him not shooting
1:36
Speaker 1: down those ideas and then quickly answering a question about
1:42
Speaker 1: qualifying offers guys with qualifying offers. A lot of times
1:45
Speaker 1: at midim you can kind of read him right it's
1:47
Speaker 1: like he's having in hauing thinking about how he should
1:50
Speaker 1: answer that question. He said, no, that's not going to
1:53
Speaker 1: be a hurdle essentially, and in signing a guy that
1:56
Speaker 1: that's not something that they're thinking. I think those that's
2:01
Speaker 1: interesting and it's pitching. It was very clear about that.
2:04
Speaker 1: Pitching is you know their focus right now and they're
2:08
Speaker 1: going to be active. And I don't know if i'd
2:10
Speaker 1: use the word impressive, but active is. It was a
2:13
Speaker 1: word we heard multiple times between both Jed and Carter Hawkins.
2:20
Speaker 2: Jed put it this way, right of.
2:23
Speaker 3: The Cubs could go play a game tomorrow if they
2:26
Speaker 3: had to, particularly on the position player side, meaning they
2:33
Speaker 3: have to get better on the pitching side. That was
2:37
Speaker 3: kind of a direct quote from him, and I had
2:39
Speaker 3: the same reaction when you asked Jed that about the
2:42
Speaker 3: qualifying offer, because oftentimes a lot of the best free
2:46
Speaker 3: agents are attached to those qualifying offers.
2:48
Speaker 2: And.
2:50
Speaker 3: Normally you get kind of a Jed WinCE or like
2:53
Speaker 3: a Jed turned his head to the side and squint
2:56
Speaker 3: and think about it, and this is not an issue,
3:00
Speaker 3: which you know.
3:03
Speaker 2: I was surprised at how quickly he just went there.
3:05
Speaker 3: I thought there might be a well, it's baked into
3:07
Speaker 3: every calculation, YadA, YadA, YadA.
3:10
Speaker 1: This was okay.
3:13
Speaker 3: And there are lots of interesting pictures attached to qualifying offers,
3:21
Speaker 3: and the fact that I don't want to read too
3:24
Speaker 3: much into body language or tone of answers, but we've
3:28
Speaker 3: been to enough GM meetings and Winter meetings when you
3:30
Speaker 3: know that the cubs are handcuffed that you can you
3:36
Speaker 3: can hear whispers, you can see how they carry themselves.
3:40
Speaker 2: Obviously, Jedd and THEO.
3:42
Speaker 3: For a long time, we're used to kind of being
3:45
Speaker 3: major players at these meetings, the ones who were involved
3:48
Speaker 3: in the biggest deals that they had their hands and all.
3:51
Speaker 2: Sorts of potential blockbusters.
3:53
Speaker 3: And at a certain point there after the twenty sixteen
3:56
Speaker 3: World Series, they were much stuck just kind of hanging
4:03
Speaker 3: around the hotel suites, not really sure what they can
4:08
Speaker 3: do or just kind of, you know, crossing their fingers
4:11
Speaker 3: see if they could trade someone to open up something else.
4:14
Speaker 3: This is pretty close to a blank canvas, and I
4:18
Speaker 3: think they definitely feel that energy.
4:21
Speaker 2: Now.
4:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was talking with with another writer, a non
4:27
Speaker 1: comes writer, and just talking about like, you know, is
4:31
Speaker 1: it hard when your team doesn't do anything. He was
4:33
Speaker 1: trying to understand, like, I'm so bored with my team
4:36
Speaker 1: that I'm covering, And I was thinking, like after that
4:40
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen season when when they really stopped going hard
4:44
Speaker 1: after free agents, it was kind of it gets kind
4:47
Speaker 1: of tough in the off season. It's like you're chasing
4:49
Speaker 1: down Daniel Descauso free agency rumors and great guy, but
4:54
Speaker 1: not the most exciting fre agent decide. So this is
4:58
Speaker 1: like and you know they're obviously the Tucker trade last
5:02
Speaker 1: year made it an exciting offseason, but there were no
5:07
Speaker 1: we knew that, like shopping at the top was not happening.
5:10
Speaker 1: So it makes it at least makes our jobs a
5:12
Speaker 1: little bit more fun of trying to chase down Well, okay,
5:16
Speaker 1: maybe they are, maybe they are interested in these guys
5:19
Speaker 1: that we had kind of been like, Okay, they made sense.
5:21
Speaker 1: But will the Tubs go there? And I and I
5:24
Speaker 1: wouldn't too far Cranbervel does, don't C's they fit the
5:31
Speaker 1: Cubs really well?
5:33
Speaker 3: Uh.
5:33
Speaker 1: They make a lot of sense for the Cubs, both
5:36
Speaker 1: the you know, for different reasons. Dylan Ceas has the
5:39
Speaker 1: stuff and swinging mis capabilities the Cubs, uh black at
5:43
Speaker 1: that front office, doesn't I mean that that rotation doesn't
5:46
Speaker 1: have that Branbervelt does? You know? He strikes hers out
5:51
Speaker 1: a decent rate, but he's ultra consistent, pitches a ton
5:56
Speaker 1: of innings. Uh and and he uh and he gets
6:00
Speaker 1: a ton of ground balls. You put that in front
6:02
Speaker 1: of the Cub's defense, it makes a ton of sense,
6:05
Speaker 1: Like that's a cy young contender immediately. Uh. I think
6:09
Speaker 1: the drawback with Branberveldez is this is a guy that
6:12
Speaker 1: like he's pitched deep into October every year, He's pitched
6:16
Speaker 1: a ton of innings and he's in his thirties. Like,
6:19
Speaker 1: did the Cubs want to give up a draft pick
6:21
Speaker 1: and give six years togact that five or six years
6:24
Speaker 1: and wondering like that doesn't sound very Cubs, Like dn't
6:28
Speaker 1: see Dylan Cee really sounds like it like it sounds
6:32
Speaker 1: like a fit. Again, the Cub's going to set the
6:35
Speaker 1: markets for this guy. That's where I start to to
6:37
Speaker 1: pull back. But you know, when you start looking at everything,
6:41
Speaker 1: I mean, there's you know, there are opportunities for them
6:45
Speaker 1: to go big with pitching, and I wouldn't I don't
6:48
Speaker 1: think unlike years past, I don't think we'll be surprised
6:52
Speaker 1: if they reel in a pretty big name or or
6:56
Speaker 1: spend aggressively. Do they hand out four of those contracts?
7:00
Speaker 1: No one. I don't think it's going to shock anyone.
7:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean another name out there, Tatsuya am I.
7:10
Speaker 3: I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, but a younger pitcher
7:14
Speaker 3: coming over from Japan. And you know, Cubs officials, while
7:19
Speaker 3: not talking directly about am I, acknowledge that they feel
7:23
Speaker 3: like they have a competitive advantage there that there are
7:26
Speaker 3: fewer teams operating in that space. They have an infrastructure
7:32
Speaker 3: to help those players succeed on the field, as well
7:35
Speaker 3: as a support system to help them assimilate off the field.
7:41
Speaker 3: You know, we've heard the Cubs kind of involved or
7:45
Speaker 3: planning to.
7:45
Speaker 2: Be involved in that area with a my and.
7:50
Speaker 3: Really there's a bunch of interesting players out there that
7:53
Speaker 3: they're going to have to kind of continue to dig
7:57
Speaker 3: in on, you know, Ranger Suarez, Zach Gallen, Michael King.
8:06
Speaker 3: There's a lot of good pictures out there that you know,
8:10
Speaker 3: everyone needs pitching, but not everyone can you know, meet
8:15
Speaker 3: you know, every player's wish list. And so I think
8:18
Speaker 3: the Cubs are pretty good well positioned here.
8:20
Speaker 2: I'm with you. I don't I think we're gonna hear
8:23
Speaker 2: them in Framburgh a lot. I just don't know if
8:25
Speaker 2: they'll go.
8:28
Speaker 3: Max out for a guy in his thirties, like and
8:32
Speaker 3: that's this actually kind of leads into our next segment
8:34
Speaker 3: on show Day, ma Naga, Like you look at the
8:37
Speaker 3: age of these pictures. That's why I think my will
8:41
Speaker 3: make a lot of sense for the Cubs. Dylan sees
8:45
Speaker 3: as well, kind of as youth on his side, durability stuff,
8:52
Speaker 3: and even though the Cups have changed a lot since
8:53
Speaker 3: he was drafted and in the minor leagues, he made
8:56
Speaker 3: a really good impression on people in the organization in
8:59
Speaker 3: terms of his uh you know, pitching, i Q, his.
9:03
Speaker 2: Willingness to uh embrace uh you.
9:08
Speaker 3: Know, his rehab process or some of the new technology
9:10
Speaker 3: they had coming on online at that time.
9:12
Speaker 2: Like, I think that's part of why you see this.
9:18
Speaker 3: Energy from the Cups front office of knowing they have
9:21
Speaker 3: a good team coming off first playoff trip.
9:25
Speaker 2: You know, the president not being on the hot seat
9:29
Speaker 2: in a lame duck year.
9:30
Speaker 3: I think all of those things gives them this ability
9:34
Speaker 3: to sort of like take a step back be you know,
9:38
Speaker 3: even more precise with what they want to do.
9:43
Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah, I mean, pitching is the focus. We kind
9:47
Speaker 1: of felt that way starting in the playoffs and through
9:51
Speaker 1: the playoffs. That was the vibe we're getting. And I
9:53
Speaker 1: don't think Jared Horyer could be any clearer than he
9:55
Speaker 1: was when we spoke to him that that that remains
9:58
Speaker 1: the focus and the priority. Uh well, let's take a
10:02
Speaker 1: quick break and talk about showdam and Aga, because that's
10:05
Speaker 1: someone that obviously can get a bolster. They're pitching depth
10:08
Speaker 1: and right now we'll see if what the chances are
10:11
Speaker 1: of him returning to Chicago.
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11:14
Speaker 1: Welcome back to North Side Territory. Patrick should it in
11:18
Speaker 1: Monaga the last we recorded. I don't believe the Cubs
11:21
Speaker 1: had offered him the qualifying offer yet it kind of
11:27
Speaker 1: I guess we were. We weren't one hundred percent sure
11:30
Speaker 1: on that at the time, but obviously it's been offered.
11:34
Speaker 1: The question now is does he accepted it would be
11:40
Speaker 1: around twenty two million am I right on that Yep,
11:44
Speaker 1: you know, nearly recouping all of what he would that
11:50
Speaker 1: two year option would have been for him. That he
11:54
Speaker 1: like eight million short of that two that two year option.
12:01
Speaker 1: Right now, the vibes are it doesn't sound like you
12:04
Speaker 1: know that he's definitely picking that up. But you know,
12:07
Speaker 1: things can change in the next couple of days. What
12:10
Speaker 1: have you been hearing is is you walking around the
12:13
Speaker 1: lobby and at the at the cosmopol out here in.
12:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, getting a lot of steps in of just randomly
12:22
Speaker 3: wandering the casino floor and the lobbies and.
12:25
Speaker 2: The uh, you know, coffee shops and restaurants here.
12:29
Speaker 3: Jed Hoyer did make his first public comments about the
12:33
Speaker 3: Shoda decisions uh and he insisted there's no hard feelings,
12:39
Speaker 3: no bad blood on either side, saying the door is
12:44
Speaker 3: open for Shoda to return. Obviously the Cubs are comfortable
12:48
Speaker 3: with paying Shoda a really big number for one season
12:54
Speaker 3: because of who he is as a person and a pitcher.
12:56
Speaker 3: And also, look, this front office loves flexibility and that
13:01
Speaker 3: the old baseball saying of like, there's no such thing
13:04
Speaker 3: as a bad one year deal kind of applies in
13:07
Speaker 3: this case.
13:08
Speaker 2: The Cubs.
13:11
Speaker 3: View showed his third year on that option as a
13:15
Speaker 3: sticking point, and so that's kind of the if he
13:21
Speaker 3: does return, I'd imagine it would be either on the
13:24
Speaker 3: qualifying offer or.
13:26
Speaker 2: If they somehow came up with a two year structure.
13:30
Speaker 3: But obviously, you know, showed his betting on himself here
13:34
Speaker 3: and thought that he could be two years and a
13:37
Speaker 3: little over thirty million dollars. I think, you know, when
13:42
Speaker 3: he came over from Japan, there were several teams interested
13:46
Speaker 3: in none of them really jumped out the way the
13:49
Speaker 3: Cubs did, and even the Cubs kind of benefited from
13:52
Speaker 3: show to just being in the area training in the
13:57
Speaker 3: Chicago Land area. And so you know, that initial group
14:00
Speaker 3: of teams from his previous posting experience would be the
14:06
Speaker 3: Red Sox, Giants, Padres Astros. And that's just kind of
14:11
Speaker 3: the start of what you would think would be a
14:13
Speaker 3: logical group of teams that could sort of circle back here.
14:20
Speaker 3: Showed a went to the Cressey Sports Performance Facility in
14:25
Speaker 3: Florida shortly after the season ended to get into their
14:29
Speaker 3: pitch lab, get a you know, updated set of data
14:34
Speaker 3: to be made available to teams and maybe lay some
14:40
Speaker 3: concerns and answer some questions about what happened in the
14:43
Speaker 3: second half of this year. As we record, I think
14:49
Speaker 3: there's maybe a little under a week before Showed has
14:52
Speaker 3: to make the decision on the qualifying offer, and you know,
14:57
Speaker 3: his camp will be using the rest these GM meetings
15:01
Speaker 3: the next several days to gauge that market and see
15:04
Speaker 3: what what else is out there.
15:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you look at we don't know what
15:11
Speaker 1: the market is like yet. We just like, we don't
15:14
Speaker 1: have a great feel for things until a couple of
15:16
Speaker 1: deals are signed and then and then you have a
15:19
Speaker 1: little bit better idea. Okay, pitching is going to be
15:22
Speaker 1: expensive pitching, maybe there are some deals being whatever. And
15:27
Speaker 1: last year, you know, a month, you know, about a
15:31
Speaker 1: month into everything is when the Cubs signed Matthew Boyd
15:34
Speaker 1: And that was two years I want to say it
15:37
Speaker 1: was two years, twenty nine. And this is a guy
15:41
Speaker 1: that was a guy coming off like forty innings pitched
15:43
Speaker 1: or something like that, and he looked great, He looked
15:46
Speaker 1: really good. But you know, you know, whatever is going
15:52
Speaker 1: on with Show, to some team, you'd have to think
15:56
Speaker 1: they know what he can do when he's at his best.
15:58
Speaker 1: He's gone to Cressy as all this data, whatever is
16:01
Speaker 1: going on there, there's going to be I think you
16:04
Speaker 1: kind of you kind of nailed this early on. But
16:08
Speaker 1: there's going to be some team that looks at him,
16:12
Speaker 1: looks at those numbers, looks at that data, and says,
16:14
Speaker 1: we we have the guys that can help him, We
16:17
Speaker 1: know what needs to happen. We can help you, Showa,
16:19
Speaker 1: we can get you back to who you were in
16:21
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, whatever that may be. There's going to
16:25
Speaker 1: be some group that believes, you know, two thirty five
16:29
Speaker 1: is a deal or something like that. That's just my
16:33
Speaker 1: guess when you look at how like, you know, three
16:37
Speaker 1: four five years. Yeah, maybe Show is not getting that.
16:40
Speaker 1: But can he beat the two year option? I think
16:43
Speaker 1: is how you ultimately look at that, the option that
16:46
Speaker 1: he declined. Can he beat that? I think there's a
16:49
Speaker 1: decent chance when you consider how hard it is to
16:54
Speaker 1: get pitching. Now the qualifying offer does gum things up? Yeah,
16:59
Speaker 1: Matthew Boyd did didn't have that, so maybe he that's
17:03
Speaker 1: you know, that's part of it. Uh, it is something
17:05
Speaker 1: that teams consider. It's not it's not a small thing.
17:09
Speaker 1: So that does you know, we'll see what how big
17:13
Speaker 1: that market is if it's those teams you mentioned. Uh,
17:16
Speaker 1: those aren't you know, teams that are generally afraid to spend. Ah,
17:22
Speaker 1: So it's a I don't know, it feels like there's
17:26
Speaker 1: enough of a market that maybe, ah, you know, we
17:31
Speaker 1: shouldn't expect him to accept that, and and he may
17:34
Speaker 1: move on. But I also understand the point of view
17:37
Speaker 1: that you know, what we're jazz coming from of of
17:41
Speaker 1: the door is not closed like he couldn't, like on
17:43
Speaker 1: a reasonable two year deal. I think that makes a
17:45
Speaker 1: lot of sense for the Cups. Uh, he's he's comfortable there,
17:49
Speaker 1: he's familiar with they're familiar with him, he's familiar with them. Uh.
17:53
Speaker 1: Maybe there's some value to that if they feel like
17:55
Speaker 1: they can get on the same page with everything.
17:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, with the way.
18:03
Speaker 3: The Cubs operate, given the success showed ad in Chicago,
18:09
Speaker 3: when there's still time for this stuff to develop, I
18:12
Speaker 3: don't like to kind of rule anything in or out.
18:14
Speaker 2: I mean, that's not how the Cubs roll.
18:16
Speaker 3: They want to keep their options open all the time
18:19
Speaker 3: and not make any decisions until the last possible second.
18:23
Speaker 3: I will say that Shoda is a proud, competitive individual
18:27
Speaker 3: who feels like he has something to prove. He's someone
18:30
Speaker 3: who's shown that he's very open to new environments and
18:35
Speaker 3: being challenged and you know, wanting to conquer the next thing,
18:41
Speaker 3: and you know, maybe that is somewhere else.
18:45
Speaker 2: It's been.
18:48
Speaker 3: Really a great partnership outside of disappointing September slash October.
18:56
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's.
18:57
Speaker 2: Still kind of.
19:00
Speaker 3: Hard for me to like process how quickly like this happened.
19:02
Speaker 3: You know, we're on I just stay on top of things.
19:05
Speaker 3: I vividly remember being in San Francisco in late August
19:08
Speaker 3: and council being asked about Showda and he gave this
19:11
Speaker 3: amazing quote about how you know it's time to stop.
19:15
Speaker 3: And we went through all these questions of you know,
19:18
Speaker 3: how's he going to respond to this or how's he
19:20
Speaker 3: gonna adjust to that, and that showeda has continually proven
19:23
Speaker 3: himself as a competitor, you know, thinking man's pitcher. And
19:28
Speaker 3: then September, you know, a couple of bad starts.
19:32
Speaker 2: Maybe he loses a little bit of confidence.
19:36
Speaker 3: I think the thinking is that his mechanics were slightly
19:39
Speaker 3: off after that hamstring injury in the middle of the season,
19:44
Speaker 3: and so you know, we we know Shoda as a
19:51
Speaker 3: reason to watch Cups games, like his starts were events
19:54
Speaker 3: there for a while. I think you see the Imanaga
19:57
Speaker 3: jerseys at Wrigley Field.
20:00
Speaker 2: He brought some charisma to that group.
20:04
Speaker 3: And you know, when I asked Jed Hoyer how that
20:07
Speaker 3: factor's in, you know, he said everything factors in, but
20:12
Speaker 3: not super heavy.
20:14
Speaker 2: I think was the term that he.
20:17
Speaker 3: You know, his obligation, his job is to feel the
20:20
Speaker 3: best team possible within the you know, budgetary constraints of
20:28
Speaker 3: the franchise as well as like the parameters they set
20:32
Speaker 3: as a Baseball operation groups in terms of how they
20:35
Speaker 3: allocate years and dollars.
20:36
Speaker 2: And that did not line up.
20:39
Speaker 3: That three year option didn't line up for the Cubs
20:41
Speaker 3: and showed up very quickly responded was saying, well, I'm
20:45
Speaker 3: going to opt out too then, so it'll be I'd
20:50
Speaker 3: imagine we probably get some resolution here that maybe he
20:53
Speaker 3: would be one of the earlier signers.
20:55
Speaker 2: But that's just me guessing.
20:58
Speaker 3: Because as we've seen the some of these qualifying offer guys,
21:02
Speaker 3: if they decline it, that draft of conversation could be
21:05
Speaker 3: a real drag on their market. And they're lingering out
21:08
Speaker 3: there a lot longer than anyone.
21:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, if they have a good feel for a market,
21:14
Speaker 1: for the market and know what, Like you know, you're right,
21:17
Speaker 1: like you don't want to linger out there. You want
21:19
Speaker 1: to have a feel for the market and kind of
21:20
Speaker 1: have something close or a good idea of where you'd
21:24
Speaker 1: like to you know, some options. At least I do
21:28
Speaker 1: like it. I agree with you. I'm like, it's like
21:30
Speaker 1: been a swing of emotions and like, how do you
21:33
Speaker 1: feel about showed him and Agen? It's happened so quickly
21:35
Speaker 1: that I feel like I haven't really I don't feel
21:40
Speaker 1: strongly about it because I just like it. It was
21:43
Speaker 1: too drastic of a change. It went from like like
21:46
Speaker 1: you said about what counsel was talking about, like you
21:48
Speaker 1: trusted this guy implicitly to get the job done and
21:52
Speaker 1: work through things and get through any difficult moments, to like, wow,
21:56
Speaker 1: he really got lit up and looked off and like
21:58
Speaker 1: both physically and mentally, nothing seemed right there. But an
22:05
Speaker 1: off season of reset, you know, get the lower body
22:08
Speaker 1: feeling right and strong. Who knows he can he could
22:14
Speaker 1: look just like twenty twenty four for another year or two.
22:17
Speaker 1: I do think like age is a factor and that
22:20
Speaker 1: it makes a lot of sense why they declined the
22:22
Speaker 1: three years. We'll see, We'll see what type of picture
22:27
Speaker 1: showdo Monaga becomes. If it's especially if it's elsewhere, we're
22:30
Speaker 1: gonna be We're gonna be keeping an eye on it
22:33
Speaker 1: because is it like, was this the mistake that becomes
22:36
Speaker 1: made or do they did they evaluate this right? Are they?
22:38
Speaker 1: Are they good enough to continue to bring in pitching
22:42
Speaker 1: and get through seasons with maybe not the biggest of names,
22:46
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, solid pitching. It seems to they
22:51
Speaker 1: always seem to outperform expectations with their pitchers. A lot
22:54
Speaker 1: of that has to do with their defense. Maybe some
22:56
Speaker 1: of it has to do with the way Brigley's played,
22:58
Speaker 1: but that is that it's something that the Cubs have
23:01
Speaker 1: succeeded it and like we started this out with, it
23:03
Speaker 1: may not just be lesser known pitchers. We'll see where
23:06
Speaker 1: the Cubs end up. This could be a fun offseason.
23:10
Speaker 1: It could be an interesting off season. There could be
23:12
Speaker 1: a big signing and it's going and when, if and
23:14
Speaker 1: when it comes, it'll be on the pitching side. I
23:17
Speaker 1: think we just need to continue to hammer that because
23:19
Speaker 1: I do think some people saw the offense struggle at
23:22
Speaker 1: times down the stretch and in the postseason at times.
23:26
Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker is a free agent. Jed Hoyer just didn't
23:31
Speaker 1: seem eager to talk about building around the offense or
23:35
Speaker 1: adding anything significant there. So I think that's gonna be
23:40
Speaker 1: an area where you know, they'll be opportunistic, as they
23:45
Speaker 1: like to say, and then work around the edges. And
23:48
Speaker 1: our focus remains pitching, pitching, pitching. We'll continue to dig
23:52
Speaker 1: in and see what else, what other information we get
23:55
Speaker 1: out here in Vegas. We'll we'll wrap up the GM
23:58
Speaker 1: meetings later this week with another episode. But thanks so
24:01
Speaker 1: much for listening to Northside Territory and make sure to rate, review, subscribe,
24:04
Speaker 1: subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic,
24:07
Speaker 1: where Patrick and I are on top of all things comes.
24:09
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone,