It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're now two days away from the Major League Baseball trade deadline. We had a big player get hit in the hand. Apparently, he's fine. Where's he gonna go?
Which teams are buyers who are sellers in this new Major League Baseball playoff format? Teams are sticking around a little bit longer. What's going on with the reliever market? There's so many questions. It's an avid chap.
About everything going on, things that might happen between now and Thursday. Joining us right now is a staff writer who covers all things Major League Baseball for the Athletic. We're being joined by Levi Weaver. Levi, I appreciate the time, man. Yeah, of course.
How are you doing? I'm very well. I mean, I guess the big news and story is what took place last night. A guy was cracked 36 home runs. Gets cracked in the hand.
Thank God Eugenio Suarez apparently is okay and in the clear. What is likely to happen with him? We know there's certainly a bunch of teams that are interested in bringing him on. What can we expect between now and Thursday? Yeah, I mean, I think we can expect that he'll be in a different uniform.
The Diamondbacks did for a while sort of try to. Posture that maybe we won't sell. Maybe we can sneak into the NL wild card. They've already sort of tipped their hand, you know, by trading Josh and Naylor to the Mariners.
So I think it will be a sell-off there.
Sorry, on a market where there's not a ton of big bats, he's a hot item. And so when you've got the guy that's sort of the biggest. The biggest bat on the market. I don't think the Diamondbacks have any reason to rush it. They should wait until the last minute, see what the best offer is, and then take that.
But I think they will send him. I mean, there's, gosh, half a dozen teams that could use a third baseman right now. I think he'll end up one of those places. I think they'll probably also send a starting pitcher out as well. When you think about what the return might be, knowing that he's basically going to be a half seasonal, what can the Diamondbacks expect back in return for whoever brings him in?
I guess honestly, that depends on how desperate the other teams get. Um It's always hard to predict, right?
So In years where there's a lot of hitters on the market, somebody like Suarez may get you some guys that you're. Fan base is really not going to recognize this year. Would the return be a little higher? Yeah, I would assume so, because are they going to get? Ryan Hearn, if they don't get Suarez, or are you going to turn your attention to Luis Robert?
Like, there's not a whole lot of backup options. It's hard for me to say that some team's going to really truly overpay. You're not going to get like a top 10 prospect in the game for somebody that's a one-year rental, but I think they should get. I A return that's more valuable to them than just letting the season play out and hoping he'll stick around next year in free agency. Levi Weaver is here with us from the athletic.
When you think about the teams that spend real big, seemingly every year, we know the Dodgers have now moved past $400 million in payroll. We got both of the New York teams. The Chicago Cubs are certainly in a good position right now. What do you think that these teams are going to do over the next several days? What can they do?
We know the Yankees seemingly need everything. The Dodgers have been dealing with injuries. What's likely to occur? One of the more interesting things that I've seen over the last couple of days was. I'll talk from Brian Cashman that And sort of hedging around the at this time of year, you sort of have to read between the lines and then read between those in between margins as well.
Sort of indicating that Maybe this year's Yankees team is really not one that's worth making a huge splash. The bolster. If you think you have the the roster to go win the World Series, then yeah. Flags lie forever. Make a painful trade, get rid of some prospects that are going to hurt later to fill a spot that needs to be filled.
The Yankees have not been very good. for like almost a month now. They got off to a good start, but Is it going to be worth it to the Yankees to lose prospects to bring in a guy That maybe helps them get into a wild card spot, maybe doesn't, and then they're out those prospects for the coming year. That is a fascinating one to me that the Yankees, who would have thought it a month ago when they were leading the AL East by so much. uh maybe wouldn't be big buyers, but that's That is, I'm certainly keeping an eye on that one.
I do think the doctors will go get.
Some bullpen help, despite the fact that they tried to arrange their roster where they shouldn't have to do that this year, guys got hurt. They're going to have to go get more relievers, more grust for the Dodger's arm mill. And Yeah, and I think the Cubs, honestly, if you talk about teams that are in contention to go get Suarez, I think it's really interesting that the Cubs and the Brewers are not only. Battling each other for the NL Central lead, but could also be two of the teams. Making the biggest bids for Suarez.
Well, Levi, when you talk about bats, and there's not a lot of options there to be game changers at the plate. We've seen some pitchers have some off years. Sandy Alcantara hasn't had the best year. Dylan Sease doesn't look like the guy that we're accustomed to seeing. What does the market look like for starting pitchers right now?
Man, I think a lot of it depends on Two things. One, do the Twins decide that it's time for a full-on sell? And if so, Joe Ryan would be a great top-of-the-rotation guy for any team that could that could pry him away from Minnesota. And They could also Lopez is injured, but he's another guy that could be. Yeah, if they decide to really tear it down.
Those are two very good starters that could come from Minnesota. Um You know that let me look at my list here. There are I I think on our big board at the athletic. I think we something like something like four to one or five to one pitchers to hitters. But I think Ryan is the big name for me.
That if the Twins decide to sell. Man, that could really change the market in a big way. And Alcantra is another one who, you know, we'll see how his start tonight goes. Had a very good start last time, but just has not been the guy. That we saw when the Cy Young before his Tommy John surgery.
And so. Is there a team that's going to be willing to pay for the potential that he could be back? Are the Marlins even going to take a package that's less than that? They could maybe get more this offseason or next year if it does fully come back.
Well, Levi, we know the Marlins typically every year. It doesn't matter if they win, they're selling. If they're bad, they're selling. The Marlins are always. In cell mode, are there any teams that are kind of on that line about do we want to stay in?
Do we want to stay out? Yeah, we've started to see those teams really begin to separate themselves recently, right? Like the Braves for a long time were like, okay, yes, we got off to a bad start, but we're better than this. We're going to have that hot streak. We're going to get back in contention.
They haven't done that. It teams like the Diamondbacks are another one. They're a bubble team. We're starting to see them kind of. Lean towards being a seller.
And on the flip side, you've got teams like the Rangers who got to a pretty bad start. Their offense was very bad for the first half of the season. It started to click in July. They've been on kind of a hot streak. It looks like they might be buyers now.
It always kind of Comes down to it, you know, the last couple of days before the deadline, and more so now than it used to, because with the expanded playoffs, you've got teams that could be a game or two under 500. That convinced themselves, well, yeah, but you know, we're only a couple games out of a wild card spot here. If we really buckle down, I can, you know, optimistically, we could make it make it into the playoffs. That's kind of the angels every year with they should sell and then they decide well, you know What if we just don't? What if we just try and go for it?
And I don't know. That's the Angels. Artie Moreno operates in his own little way. Yeah, we had Artie Moreno was ready to sell the whole damn team, and he changed his mind. Forget the players.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I there's there's no telling what exactly is going through his mind, I think, a lot of the time. The other wild card in, and I don't mean like wild card team, I mean wild card when it comes to trading in recent years is the Rockies, who this year they did finally trade Ryan McMahon to the Yankees, but it's just a number of re years recently where It would totally make sense for them to ship guys out, and instead, they just keep them and don't trade them. Execs around the league, we've got a story from Andy McCullough on the athletic today about Who, you know, different personalities of front office executives. And they, It suggested that the Rockies it's like speaking an entirely different language, trying to pull off a trade with them.
So who knows what they're going to do. Yeah, who knows?
Well, Levi, taking a look at the landscape as it currently is constructed, and granted, things are definitely going to change over the next several days. What team do you think is best situated to go on a championship run? come October. Who Man. I'm biased because I I really always Hope for some sort of an underdog.
Like coming into the season, I wanted to see the A's and the Rays in the ALCS because I wanted both minor league parks to have to post playoff games.
So, um, So yeah, I mean there's the Blue Jays have looked really, really good lately. The Brewers have looked really good lately. Do I think that it's going to be a Brewers versus Blue Jays World Series? In my dreams, but I don't, you know, the Dodgers are just too. stacked and too deep and too loaded and too like when when October comes If they're even 80% healthy.
They're the prohibited favorites. They have to be. And the AL, you know, the Tigers have been a week and a half ago, I would have felt very good about just sort of casually going, yeah, probably the Tigers. They've been on a a cold stretch stretch lately.
So Who even knows? I mean, we'll probably end up with like... Astros, Dodgers, again, and we'll roll our eyes and be like, cool, yeah, that's exactly what we expect. That'd be a massive eye roll. It's like, oh, great, the Astros are back.
What else is new?
Well, that'll be nice to at least get a World Series. We've heard all of these stories, Levi. about the CBA and salary cap and how to get owners to spend more and Rob Manfred and Bryce Harper. Do you ultimately think that we're going to head towards a work stoppage by the time we get to twenty twenty seven? Yeah, I think we do.
Um I could get I think you're pretty militant about this. But just objectively speaking like The winds of discontent seem to be there amongst the owners. I do think that they will lock out the players. Are the players willing to give up 162 games worth of a season? stick to their guns and do that and lose an entire season of About income.
I don't know. I mean, it's a multi-billion dollar industry. I think that. A lot of Obviously, a lot of money rides on those decisions, although I think a lot of egos ride on those decisions. And unfortunately, the posturing seems to have begun pretty early.
And yeah, it it doesn't look like it's going to be smooth sailing for sure. How can we get to a point where there's more parity in the spending of the league, where we don't have a team with a $400 million payroll? And another one with a payroll of like 70. Like, how do we get there? Right.
I mean, you're right, and I think they took Some steps with the luxury tax, which was intended to do this, right? The luxury tax was intended to make it more expensive to spend that much money. It hasn't really panned out, but the problem isn't that the Dodgers, in my opinion. The problem isn't that the Dodgers are spending $400 million. Is it seems like the pirates aren't.
And I know they can't afford four hundred million dollars a year, but A pickaxe. They can afford more than they are spending. Last offseason, finally started to sign some free agents to multi-year deals. And the reason was they were going to lose their. Uh the money that comes from the the Shared revenue.
If they didn't spend more money on their roster, and so the league basically forced them: hey, you have to start spending some of this money that you're getting. You can't just be pocketing this. You know, this is not for your vacation. This is not yacht money. Like, you need to spend this on the roster.
So, those teams with lower incomes. Yeah, start to spend that money. You know, I wish I was smart enough to just walk into a room or be on a radio interview and be like, well, look, it's real simple. You just do this, this, this, and this, and it's solved. It's a complicated issue.
Um I I don't I don't know that I even have an answer that I would tell you is. exactly uh the best solution. But I don't Think that the salary cap is it. And the reason is because. Teams will use that as an excuse not to spend on players, and unfortunately, what happens is that money ends up going.
Back to the back to the owners. It's very easy as a fan to go, oh my gosh, $400 million being paid to players. How on earth? They deserve that much. And listen on a societal scale, sure, I hear you.
Money's there, money's there. The money's there. And if it doesn't go to the players, then it goes back to the owners.
So, who would you rather be getting that money? the players on the field or the owner whose job it is to, you know, be Erdie Marino. Yeah, it's a crazy situation to just think that there's no floor, and that baseball has to force a team to. Go out there and spend money. It the the discrepancies, the math doesn't math.
And it seems that ultimately things will come to a head. Like, you got one guy at the end of the team who's making 70 mil a year, and you got the other guy. I don't want to say that he's making scraps, but. It seems like there's a a wealth dis uh disparity even amongst the players that's that's not even.
So There's a lot to get into here, and I don't know if the economics are going to work.
So I agree with you. We're likely to have a work stoppage. I think amongst the players, they got beef. I think they obviously have beef with the owners. They ain't making stew, let's just put it that way.
Yeah. Yeah, it's not pretty. And I have privately wondered often, like, how long does this bubble grow before it Ops. How long can we franchises that were worth even 10 years ago, 400, 500 million dollars? Which holy cow, that's a lot of money, are now worth $1.7 billion, $1.8 billion.
the value of these franchises is expanding at such a rate That first of all, it's another reason not to feel bad for the owners. If they invested 10 years ago, their money's already doubled. But How much longer can it keep doing this? Yeah. I don't know.
Yeah, that bubble may burst. I know there's interest in the negotiating of the television rights. It's just baseball, it is some real interesting economics, but at least we got some baseball now. And we'll see where some of these guys end up between now and Thursday. That'll keep us busy before we get to 20.
27. Hey, Levi, thank you so much for the time and for the chat. Please tell everybody where they can follow you, the athletic, you're writing, the newsletter, Felix In. Yeah, just uh just Google the the athletic, the wind up, and my name, which is Levi Weaver. Uh easy way to remember that is it's if I'm the one weaving the jeans.
For the yeah, it's dumb, but you won't forget it. And it's just yeah, the wind up. That's our newsletter. It's free. You don't even have to be a subscriber to the athletic to sign up for the free newsletter.
So yeah, that's how you find me. Levi, always a pleasure, man. We'll see what what bears fruit between now and Thursday. You be well. All right, take care of you two.
No doubt about it. Always great to have Levi on the show. I am. The the economics surrounding baseball are just They're wild. And it is out of all the sports that we have In North America, well, at least the big four here.
They have the wildest economics where you can actually look at them and go.
Well, the bubble just might burst. We'll talk about that more on the other side of the break. 888-710-4ISN. We're also going to get into some of these gambling situations. I told you we're going to get into Arch Manning and some of the comments made by Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Cleveland Browns.
We have a lot to do. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on the Infinity Sports Network. And right now, it is time for a news flash. Here he is, Rich Ackerman.
Okay.
