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If the choice were between signing Kirk to that type of deal or letting him reach free agency I'd let him reach free agency every single time. That just feels like a massive overpay relative to what he's accomplished up to this point. That type of AAV is limited to the elite catchers of the sport, and Kirk just isn't there yet. If he were to find a way to resurrect the bat to peak 2022 levels in combination with the elite defense he's been offering in recent seasons then *maybe* this type of deal looks a little more palatable, but as of right now that's far too much AAV for a guy who has maxed out as a 4 win player in his career season up to this point. He's never started more than 89 games behind the plate so it's a giant unknown how he will hold up with the increase in workload. With the mediocre backup options the team possesses at present the team will need to be very careful to monitor his overall workload to avoid burning him out and increasing the likelihood of an injured list stint.

Sean Murphy signed a 6 year $73 million extension with the Braves starting in his age 28 season. That is an AAV at just over $12 million. He's produced several seasons better than Kirk's peak season up to this point and doesn't carry the same type of long term bad body concerns.

I don't think it would likely take anywhere approaching $20-25 million per season to extend Kirk. Other than a few exceptions catchers generally aren't paid that well in free agency or extensions. I'd wager something closer to $12-15 million AAV would likely get things done.

I don't believe Bo has ever produced a peak season sufficient to garner those types of deals. Perhaps if he produced a 6+ win season where he took a step forward defensively he could get closer to the contractual stratosphere of the listed players.

I simply don't see why the team needs to rush to make this switch. Bo produced above average OAA metrics. Gimenez is already one of the sport's most valuable defenders at second base so I don't think there needs to be some sort of rush to move him off of second base. He's so elite at second base that shifting him to short stop may be more of a sideways move in terms of overall defensive value.

I believe Gimenez is likely a plus defender at short stop. He's produced a combined 7 DRS/8 OAA in about a half season's worth of innings at the position. It remains to be seen what type of numbers he can produce in a full season at the position, but I believe there's a very good chance we will find out in the 2026 season if Bo moves on.

Why do you hate Bo Bichette so much? When he's hitting up to his capabilities he's a top 5 overall short stop in all of MLB. Gimenez can move to short stop full time next season if Bo moves on, there doesn't need to be some sort of massive rush to do so.

That would do nothing but serve to piss off Bichette and basically guarantee he's leaving in free agency. Bo isn't nearly that bad that he can't play a single inning at short stop. It isn't even guaranteed that swapping Giminez and Bo would offer a massive defensive improvement as Bo hasn't played a single inning at second base in his major league career and we don't know what kind of defense he can offer at the position. Up until now the team simply hasn't had a better full time short stop option on the roster instead of Bichette so there really wasn't a full time option that would make shifting Bo off of the position full time. Don't bother trying to mention Semien as an option because his short stop metrics were very poor before he signed as a Blue Jay, and were also far worse than Bichette's in the year that they were both employed by the team.

Don't pretend you've been offering up some sort of succinct analysis vs a steady stream of whining.

I think you are underestimating how mediocre the American League is in general right now. It took all of 86 wins to qualify for a wild card spot last season, and I don't expect that to change dramatically this season.

The Blue Jays were a whopping 0.14 runs per game below the AL average last season. That's despite receiving essentially no contributions from Bo. They've added a legitimate middle of the order bat in Santander so with a little luck it should be an above average offensive group.

I would imagine Iglesias could compete for the 3rd base starting job if he were signed by the Blue Jays. Clement's projections are better than Iglesias and I would tend to agree with this. I don't think it's even remotely conceivable for Iglesias to repeat his 2024 success offensively. This is a player with a career 90 wRC+ and the projections largely place him in this bucket as well. His numbers against left handed pitching in particular look to be of the unrepeatable variety as he produced a 184 wRC+ in the split. If you look under the hood it's red flags galore, including a .471 BABIP and .416 wOBA vs .327 xwOBA. I think the team has ample depth to cover the infield to the point where an Iglesias signing would serve to limit opportunities to the younger players for what most likely would amount to a marginal upgrade if an upgrade at all.

That's possible but he presumably only spent half of his left field time at Camden Yards. I don't know if it's possible to break down defensive numbers in this fashion.

I'd like the team to give both of Springer and Santander a look in left field to see who is more comfortable with the position. Santander produced legitimately awful metrics in his time in left field a few seasons ago to the point where he'd really be hurting the team defensively if he isn't able to make a dramatic improvement with more reps.

I would imagine most of those errors occurred before the suspension as Orelvis only appeared in 11 games post suspension and 63 games prior to the suspension.

Santander can still play the outfield for another season or two before he settles in as more of a DH type. He also appears to be a decent first baseman as well based on the small sample of innings he's played there so he shouldn't be limited to DH only once he's too slow for the outfield.

Why would you think that though? Recent seasons saw guys like Belt and Turner signed who primarily played at DH as each only provided a few hundred innings in the field.

Would you mind going into a little more detail how to post Fangraphs tables to the forum? The Baseball Reference example is easy enough to follow as I had no issues finding the share and export function, but I haven't been able to locate a similar function on Fangraphs.

I believe Rodriguez's primary issues stemmed from poor command. I think he would tend to get himself into trouble when he wasn't able to locate his pitches in the strike zone. I had a peak at his splits and his numbers second time through the order were better than the first time through the order, with a lower walk rate second time through the order standing out. I surmise this was due to him only pitching through the order a second time on days where he could reliably command his pitches. His numbers third time through the order are pretty ugly, but this is a situation that rarely occurred.

Huh? The team is in the current situation with Vlad because they tried to sign elite free agents in Ohtani and Soto? I don't follow your line of thinking. What's this about Atkins chasing after Teoscar? That makes even less sense, the guy is signed and there has been zero evidence about Atkins "trying to chase him down". Why would Vlad have signed a long term deal after a terrible season? He knew the same as the rest of us that Soto was nearing free agency and as such was likely to set a new financial bar in free agency. On top of that why on earth would the club want to hand out a $300 million extension to a player that barely topped a single win above replacement in a season where he appeared in 156 games? I don't know how you are on about when you say that the team is chasing players that won't come here due to no loyalty from management (whatever that's supposed to mean), and then immediately list Max Schurzer (I like this spelling), who has literally announced as having already signed with the team. I fully expect that Vladdybacon or whatever his name is will chastise me for pointing out how dumb your post is. He takes personal offense to dumb posts being labelled as such for some reason.

I'm not so sure I said anything of the sort. Having said that the team didn't really have the necessary trade capital at the time of the Soto trade to outbid the Yankees, which essentially left free agency as the primary remaining means to improve the club. Fast forward a season later and I think the team is in a much better spot in terms of available trade pieces, but I don't have a feel for who is actually available at a price that the team is able/willing to meet.

That's a pretty rough assessment. Bassitt was a late bloomer who carved out a nice career as a number 3 pitcher in his 30's. I have plenty of respect for guys like Bassitt who carve out successful careers based on effectively mixing their pitches and using a more cerebral approach vs simply overpowering hitters with top end stuff. I think he got himself in a bit of hot water by being too forthcoming on a podcast but that's a pretty small complaint.

This season featured a much better overall crop of hitters compared to the 2023/2024 offseason. Bassitt himself mentioned how there really wasn't a very effective pivot once you moved past Ohtani. The next best options were guys like Teoscar, Chapman, Bellinger and not much else. This crop was much deeper and after Soto and presented a lot more options for team building in free agency.

If it were a choice between a combination of Scherzer and one of Alonso/Bregman vs Flaherty by himself I'd gladly take Scherzer. If it were possible to still add another bat on top of Flaherty I would take the upside that Flaherty offers all day long.

Yes please.