Yankees Have To Be Aggressive at the Trade Deadline | Pinstripe Post

If everything were perfect, Mason Miller would get out in the market, which I'm not a real strong believer in. I'm not a strong believer he's going to get out. But that Mason Miller gets out in the marketplace and the Yankees do everything they can to win for him, and if they do, I think it means what they'll have left to use from their farm system is to get more secondary to try to raise the floor of the offense. Hello, welcome to the Pinstripe Post. My name is Ryan Samson, but he's the star of the show, Joel Sherman. Today is Monday, July 27th. Joel, since the last time we spoke to you, the Yankees took two out of three versus the Phillies over the weekend. They dropped last night, the third game of the set, but they are now three games back in the AL East as the Rays won three straight. We're learning more and more about this trade deadline, who's emerging as potential sellers, buyers, as more baseball is being played. We're going to dive into the Cody Bellinger injury today and how that affects this team. And I'm curious to hear your thoughts about all of that before we get to any of that, as always, on a Monday morning. How are you doing today, sir? Good. I was at the Met game yesterday. You know, you do see how sensitive this time of year is. I'm not sure I have an accurate count. I think there were six major league scouts at the Met game yesterday. I'm not positive. You know, guys slip by. You know, I've been around a long time. I know what most guys look like. I think there were six. And you know, like on one hand, it was a good day for the Mets, right? Like Brooks Raley, who they'll almost certainly trade, you know, came in and did great. I thought Luis Robert took a good at bat to draw a walk in a situation. Tyrone Taylor, who, you know, maybe they'll get all like a like a like a low a like, you know, whatever you get for Tyrone Taylor. But I think somebody will take him. He's been great since he came off the injured list on June 28th. He's a good guy in the clubhouse. He could play all four or three outfield positions. And he's hitting in a way that he really like it's probably fool's gold, but he's hit great since he's come off. You know, Luke Weaver got a shut out hitting in part because he made one of the most athletic players you'll ever see a pitcher make. But the guy everybody came to see was Freddy Peralta and Freddy Peralta didn't pitch well again. And, you know, like, what do you make of this? The Mets are almost like, again, almost forced to trade him in the next. And now it's a week where you and I are doing this on Monday. It's about 10 o'clock in the morning when we're doing this. So it's a it's a two, eight, seven days and eight hours, eight hours from from from the deadline. And so I know teams are still jockeying, you know, for who are we? What are we? What are the packages? But like, like, you just see how sensitive it is. Like the Tigers lost two of three over the weekend to the Royals, to the Royals, who are a clear seller. There's a moment where the Tigers feel like at least we're going to take two out of three, if not sweep and put out. They were one of the teams that have played the best since the beginning of June. And now they fall back again. And, you know, probably from 20000 feet, the right thing to do is trade Tarik Scouble. But how about up close when you're still only like three, four games out of a, you know, a playoff spot and you have Scouble. So you see how sensitive it all is. And, you know, to your point, one day you're like, at least if you're the Yankees, we have Cody Bellinger. And then at least through the deadline, you do not. And, you know, there's still no exact word on Stanton. They're still obviously the most important, no exact word on judge. There's still no exact word on Rodan. These are all valuable guys for the Yankees to make. What I feel like is probably in their thought what needs to happen now, which is have a good trade deadline, get healthy and like last season storm late August and September and see if, you know, the Rays have really surprised everyone this year with how I don't think they surprised them. They thought they were going to be really good last year and they weren't. I think that this is the version of the team they thought they were going to have last year. And so I think you've got to treat the Rays as a team that is going to be aggressive at this deadline and get to at least 90 wins. And the Yankees better figure out a way to get more than that. And maybe a lot more than that, the way the Rays are playing. And by the way, the Red Sox are playing. And so that was a long winded way of saying it's an interesting week and there's not going to be a ton of sleep during the week. No, I'm sure not. Lots of caffeine for Joel and myself as well. But yeah, I got mine right here, too, buddy. Look, so I am interested because right. Like it was a positive weekend in terms of you took two out three versus Philly's team. You know, you would think that they're potentially a playoff team and the NL is stronger than the AL. So and there were two improbable wins, you could call them, too. I mean, they were close games. Friday night's game won nothing. And they it was nails and grits. It felt like a playoff game. Joel, when I was watching that one Friday night, Saturday again, close game, you know, and they they win again. But the Bellinger news, it feels like it put a little bit of damper on what you got out of this weekend, because let's face it, you just said it. Bellinger judge stand. So that's your three, four, five hitters that are out now with injury. And it puts more pressure. I would throw in. Can I say that I would throw in Rodon because while your hitters are out, the Yankees won on Friday and Saturday because they didn't give up run. Yeah. And you're in a period right now where you're going to have to win low scoring games. You saw Will Warren let a game get away and the Yankees couldn't win that game. And so and you see what happens is when a game gets away, that's when he brings in, you know, Boone like knows that he doesn't have enough offense now to chase it with his best relievers and doesn't want to burn him out. And like, even when he gets to six, three, he has to live with. And by the way, that was as good as the balls pitched all year in a actual close game. Probably he got to live another day with the ball. But then, you know, Volpe makes a terrible error to open things up in the next inning. And your borough, you know, again, who I think has a not zero percent chance of not being on the team on August 4th. I think they're going to add relievers. I think they're going to try. And look, he might make it through August 3rd because they have Clark Schmidt coming back. They hope at some point Rodan and they could always decide later on, you know, to let their long guy go. I do think they want to get to 13 pitchers they trust. It's one of the things you're seeing with the Dodgers a little bit. If you watch the Dodgers, Dave Roberts used the term yesterday and I'm going to mess it up. He just in some ways, he said his his confidence tree has never had as many branches when it comes to his bullpen. And I think the Yankees are at four and a half relievers. They really believe in depending on what you think of Tim Hill. And I still think they believe in Tim Hill to the extent that he's never going to be afraid. And you're going to have to hit the ball to score off. You know, no strikeouts, but no walks. And you've got to put the ball in play. And often it's on the ground. It's not been the best version of Tim Hill, but they got four guys they're pretty confident about. When a guy goes in, when they get Rodan back, does Warren go into the bullpen and they hope use his power arm to help there? Does Schmidt come back and help them there? So I think they want to add at least one and probably two to kind of get to the point where they have 13 they really believe in for the stretch run in the playoffs. And that's how they run just now. That's how they're going to have to win games. Yes, they are. Forgive me for not knowing. I'm going to look it up after this because I'm going to write about it a little for sports plus tomorrow. I think the Yankees are in a period where 32 and again, please don't hold me to this, but I think I'm pretty close. I think 32 of their last 34 games, they've scored five runs or fewer. They are giving no margin for error at all to their pitching staff. I mean, they're at zero. Now, the good news is that Cole's looking better and better. Reed is back and looked good. Schlittler is right there with Dylan Cease is probably the A.L. Cy Young favorites. So you've got those three. Weathers had a good game this last game after not starting great. The guy Warren has regressed where lefties are beating him up badly again. You know, can he get it back together? I don't know. But it's going to be replaced by Rodon at some point, you hope. And they're going to have five guys probably going round and round. They have pretty high level of confidence in a strong bullpen that I think they'll augment in the next seven days. Can they survive in advance until Bellinger, Judge Stanton and whoever bat or two they potentially add in the next seven days comes to make this a better group? Because this is you can no longer say they're in a bad period. Like this is now over a month of just inability to deliver runs. And sometimes it's strange because the Yankees still hit home runs and they steal bases, though not as frequently in both. In recent times, they should score more runs. They don't. There's not. I'll go back. There's not enough batting average in their lineup. There's too much dead dead spots at the bottom. I think they have too many utility guys are playing. But that's what happens when you lose your front line, right? Is you have this. And look, one of the guys they were really counting on was Rosario against lefties. And that's gone really bad. And I think you know what I feel about the play about the person. Right. Right. I think he works hard. He works his tail off and is a great teammate and I think has helped Dominguez kind of mature for whatever level of player getting out of Dominguez. I think Rosario gets an assist there. I think they've got to upgrade like like until Judge comes back. Can it can I this is going to get a little long where there's OK if I think I offer the two ways the Yankees could go in the next week. Yeah, I think. Well, this ties this ties to what you're saying, though, I think before before you talk about this, Joe, the setup here is it ties into the fact that without Judge and now Bellinger and Stan, there's more pressure on that offense and they need I think the Yankees and you recognize there's a need to get more there for the lineup. And this is this is what you're saying they need to do pretty much so. So I think that there is probably when you think about. You know, they're a team that has heavily used the depth of their farm system over especially the last four or five years to go get things. And so they still have stuff down there. And these are the Yankees. And Brian Cashman has shown he'll make a bunch of trades, I think, in the next seven days to try to address the areas of need. But. I think the two ways they could go, my sense from talking to people is if everything were perfect, Mason Miller would get out in the market, which I'm not real strong believer in. I'm not a strong believer he's going to get out. But that Mason Miller gets out in the marketplace and the Yankees do everything they can to win for him. And if they do, I think it means what they'll have left to use from their farm system is to get more secondary backs to try to raise the floor of the offense. Like, can you get a better version of Rosario? Can you get a better backup catcher? Can you like like I think you raise the floor of the offense and hope that with the better run prevention, which gets even better with Miller. You hold on until Bellinger judge and they hope Stanton come back as best as possible. I think without Miller, they would then use their better prospects to see is Zach Neto really available? I mean, really available, like not just something like I've heard from people who've talked to the Angels that he's available. You know what I mean is like available, like, but he's not somebody they have to move the second to maximize and they can wait till the offseason if they really want to do it and do it. But they can do it now. And I think that Neto's a guy who I think, depending on who you talk to, like there's a lot of people who've been the Angels have fired a lot of people over the last five years. So you could find a lot of ex-Angels who have jobs elsewhere and ask them questions. And they're like, I know you don't like Zach Neto's defense, but I'm telling you, if he went to a contender, it would get his attention and it would be better. And I'm like, you sure? And they're like, well, you're never sure. But they said he's in a place where winning is just not happening. And that he would be a guy who would rise to the moment in a winning situation. Would he? I don't know the answer. Like, like, I don't know the player well enough. That's why I ask the questions of people. So that Hunter Goodman's defense is a real concern, especially his framing. The Yankees have been at the forefront and may be the best team at teaching it. Can you, can you make bad acceptable? And is he worthwhile to give up a big package for? Because the one thing you would get with Goodman, if you went in that direction, say, is he could catch, but also while Stanton and Judge are out, he can DH when Wells is catching. Like you would actually use him as a DH. He can play a little first base and in Yankee stadium, could he stand in right field? Well, hell they had Stanton stand in right field. So, so I think he could do a little of that because I think at this point there's a beggars choosers thing. They need more offense, no doubt about it. So those are like big bats that could go. I think, I think on the last show, I suggested if I were you, if I were a Yankee fan or any Yankee fan, I'd root for the Yankees to win and the twins to lose. You know what hasn't happened? The twins aren't losing. And, and by the way, one of the reasons they're not losing is Jeffers is really hitting right off the IL right from the handmade surgery. And so it does still lend the question, does Toronto, does Minnesota still believe, Hey, we've got Alex Jackson. We got Victor Carrutini. Jeffers is a walk your guy. We don't have to quit on this race. We still have two catchers that are okay. Can we take Jeffers and get stuff for the future? Plus perhaps a bullpen arm or two to just make it better this year. So like, I just don't think there's a bunch of moving parts that are here, but I think the two roads, Ryan, or if Miller is available, they'll really go for him. And that's where they'll invest their cap, their main capital. If they could get, if not, I would say they'll try to get good relievers. Maybe even Adrian, more home does do the Padres do a, a, Hey, we're not conceding, but we have to use something from our bullpen to get a starting pitcher, deeper lineup, whatever, and turn more a hone into it. In which case can the Yankees do more a hone and a batter to, or two good relievers and better bats. I think that they're willing to expend significant capital at this deadline, uh, to try to get the things they want. This has not been a good week if you're doing a market watch of, Hey, did the Minnesota, did the twins have a five game losing streak? They did not. And the one team that had a bad weekend, I'm not saying the Yankees won't listen on Tarek scuba because like, you know, what if they say like, we really love Ryan Weathers and we'll take two prospects. Like, like you got to at least listen to the off and what, what it is. Um, but the Yankees, one area of not need is the rotation, like the top of the rotation. Of course you take, you'd go get Tarek scuba if you could, but, but I do think generally at this time of year, uh, if you go look at his history and there's a lot of three decades of history, Brian Cashman is a literalist. If he needs a right-hand hitter, he goes and gets a right-hand hitter. If he needs a third baseman, he goes and gets a third baseman. If he needs relieving, he doesn't play the, well, I'll do this and then we'll do that. And then we'll do, I think he's mainly like Dave Dombrowski is like this, like the Phillies need a depth starter, a reliever who can pitch in the last nine outs of the game and a right-hand hitting outfield bat. I bet you they get those three things because Dave Dombrowski is a literalist who goes for it. Yeah. Look, Joel, uh, those are two interesting scenarios. And I, and I think even for you now that the, the Padres are sitting at 53 and 53, it's, it feels very much in the unknown of whether or not Preller wants to deal Mason Miller. And I don't think he's going to openly declare that right to the media or anyone. But because like, look, why don't we, one of the things you always have to do, I always encourage people again, like yourself who are Yankee fans or Mets fans or whatever it is, don't put yourself in the seat of the general manager of the team you care about. Put yourself in the other seat, right? You're sitting with Mason Miller. He's the best closer in the world at a time. You know, there's good ones, Duran, Viral, uh, Barlin, et cetera. David Bednar's pitch. Great. Miller is the best Miller. And, and he's a cheat code in the post-season, right? Like, like as big a thing as you can have in the post-season is the games you should win after seven innings you win. Uh, and he is a locked down guy, but, uh, I don't think his value goes down one piece. If you wait until the off season, right? Like it isn't as opposed to more alone, who's a free agent at the end of the year. Like you either trade him or you don't, or by the way, you keep them and he's really good and you go for it. Right. But this is the last time you could turn him into capital. And not only do I think this is not the last time you could turn Miller into capital. I don't think it changes the package all that much at a time where Preller with new ownership might be having to show, Hey, you should keep me in the job at a time where they're still drawing over 3 million people. And you know what those 3 million people don't want is them to trade Mason Miller. Uh, you have a veteran clubhouse with big contracts like this, not, there might not be some shots with these guys, but I just think everything points to Preller not trading Miller unless it is such a, how do I not do this? Right. But I think he's going to get that offer in the off season. And so I think he, I'm always surprised at this time of year. I bet you two guys get traded that we never saw coming because here's, here's the thing. And I know this will get aggregated. So I'll try my hardest to say, don't aggregate this. I don't believe for one second, this player is being traded. I don't believe it, but I always play the game of if I were Brian Cashman, if I were David Stearns, if I were AJ Bell, I'm trying to put myself in their seat. So I know what questions to ask and what calls. And I would call the and say, Hey, how many things would we have to put together to get Sal Stewart? And I think the Reds would say you can't. And, but, but it would be a call I would make because Stuart to me is a guy like he's a little rough at third. I get it. But right now you put them at third and eventually is gone after the season. You put them at first, Stanton's gone, probably like one more season, maybe not even that rice becomes your DNA. Now you're building. Now you have Stewart and rice you're building around with the backend, the judges prime. Like I think the Yankees, like, like that's why Goodman, if you think the bat is real and you think you could really improve his to the point where it's passable, the game has changed a lot. But one of the reasons the Yankees and Mets played in the world series in 2000 was no catchers could hit, but Mike Pagliazza and and you know what nobody ever said there go to good catchers. Now the game has changed so much with framing and game calling and ABS and how, how teams do game planning and individual plans for each hitter. And the pitching is so much tougher to just catch because of the shapes and movements and velocity. I don't think you can live with a bad catcher. I don't think you can live with a bad catcher. So the question is, can you make somebody league average at the skill the Yankees care about the most, which is for that position, which is framing because he's not good at it. Tyler Stevenson, who might be a secondary choice by all the public metrics is not good at it. Do you think your catching guys can very quickly make a guy who's not good, slightly below average to get the offense? I think it's an important question. I'm sure Yankees are good I'm sure they've asked that question internally because I think that if they can't get Miller, one of the things they should be thinking about is not just an offensive player who gets them through the rest of the year, which they desperately need, but can they get another young guy where they're like him, Goodman and Rice plus whatever judge has left, which maybe is another three or four good. I mean, judge wasn't slowing down before he got hurt. If he stayed healthy, if he never has that dive, he's probably the front runner for the MVP again, because he's Aaron judge. But you have to begin to prepare for he's 35. There's going to be a moment where the production dims. That you know, so let me ask you a question, Joe, because I think it's an interesting point of thought with the long term view, right? The long term planning that you could think about. Is there any with the doubt of the offseason of there being baseball next year? Would that put any like doubt into those type of conversations being had from Cashman's field? You mean about acquiring a guy in the office acquire yet acquire a player long term like that that you're talking about? I think it's the right question. Ryan, I would remember that you can do business. Let's assume the worst, which I think I think is 100% of the people will tell you we're going to have a lockout on December 1st. You could still do business through November 30. And if you remember last time, like the Rangers signed Marcus Simeon and Corey Seager for the lockout. Yeah. So I expect that especially a couple of big guys are going to go down early, though it's a terrible free agency for position players coming up. But like, I think that there is going to be action before November 30th. And let's be frank, GMs are not going to stop GMing even when they're told not to. And so will GM a call of GMB when by the way, there's nothing else going on and say, hey, man, when this thing ends, if I offered you blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I think that they'll be and they'll then be another three weeks of hurry up spring training to get ready for whenever we play your season. Look, let's be hopeful. Let's hope it gets settled. We play 162 game season. I'm very doubtful about all of it, Ryan. But like, you know, it is what it is. Yeah. So I think, but to your point, I'm not throwing away this season. I think the is because of their rotation and because of what they could do with their their bullpen as far as like loading it up with starters who don't stay in the rotation, whatever they do with the deadline. Plus, you know, Bednar and Hedrick and Blackburn and Cruz, they're going to have a puncher's chance in the postseason. So you don't want to throw away this season. But I but if you remember at the deadline last year, a lot of the trades that were made were for players who had more service time. Again, whatever you think of Jake Byrd, Deval, McMahon, Caballero, those were guys who had continuing service time this year. Yes. And that was valuable to the Yankees at the moment they made the trade because they knew they need them for more than just 2026 2025. I think I don't think they'll turn away from Luis Arise because Luis Arise batting average would really help this team. I still say I'm not sure there's a place to play him unless you really want to get bad at third base with jazz Chisholm back there. Well, so let me ask you a question about the jazz thing. It seems like he's kind of because we saw over the weekend, you know, played once. And I know they face lefties, but he's kind of turned himself into just because of how bad of a year he's having into a platoon player right now versus righty righty. Unfortunately, it's the same side of But I guess my question is, rise can hit lefty on lefty, right? Like you could play well, then you're just replacing Chisholm. In other words, like, are you saying you're turning Chisholm into a second base only bench? I can hardly think of anything that you would want on the bench less than that. There's a single position guy. So that's why I think I said on the last show, I would not avoid arise, but I have to know I have a place to park Chisholm as part of a multi move thing. And I think that's a little tougher. Because whatever negativity you are feeling towards Chisholm, oh, he's not hitting lefties, his attention span can like, it isn't like the league is blind. And so I, I never again, I'm in the never say never business. But we don't see three team and 14 trades as often as you and I might be able to make one up. Because that trades are hard, just me and you to do the I'm going to trade my second basement here. So I can open up a place to acquire the second basement there. Possible, but difficult. Yeah, sure is Joel. That second scenario you laid out there, though, is very fascinating. And it's because of how little batting is available on the market currently. And, and I wonder, would they make that big swing? Like you're saying, no pun intended, but for that bat, and it hurts a little bit when Shea Langeleers goes down possibly for the year two, which lessens the market for another big bat at the catcher spot. So I wonder, like, is Goodman that big enough a bat like you can trust him to be a real impact for you here in New York? And the netto one is very interesting, because then that makes me ask you, does that mean that lumbar doesn't get the call up if they were to get someone like a Zack netto? And would he potentially go back into trade for something else? Look, I, I always want to be careful with lumbar thing. I have, I am of the belief that if your choices remain Caballero and Volpe, then I would think seriously about Caballero in August at some point. And I guess somebody may, I wish I could give the credit. It's a rule I should understand better. I guess if you wait till August 15th, you know, there's certain benefits as far as rookie status for the next year that that continues, etc. But I do not think the Yankees are as gung ho to bring Lombard up as their fan bases. I feel like they, they are very concerned about screwing with what they feel is a natural gestation period for what a prospect should go through. That was slowed down for a few weeks by a hand injury recently. And I know even very, very pro Lombard people in the organization who are like, cool your jets. The best thing for him would be to come to spring training next year with us having left the spot open to try to win the job. The second best is let's see it in September. So I'm not ruling out August. I'm not ruling out August 4th. Who knows how desperate the Yankees are? If Caballero or Volpe get nicked up, you're going to have to bring up the short stuff. But I think that they're trying to take a deep breath and be level-headed about a prospect they love and not rush it at a time where there's some stressors outside the organization pushing for them to do it. And I would point out it's probably a lot of like when it's fan voices, it's probably a lot of the same people who were screaming for Volpe, right? It's probably a lot of the same people who were screaming for Spencer Jones. It was probably a lot of the same people who were screaming for Jason Dominguez. Like the backup quarterback is undefeated. He's always going to be better than your starter unless you have four guys. And so we always think the guy who's off screen who we've never seen play is going to be better than the people who are on screen. So you got to be careful about that. But again, having said it, I've seen George Lombard play a little bit in spring training. So I have to trust the scouts who watch him who I believe in most. A handful of guys who I've talked to for years. And they're convinced he could play defense, run the bases, take a good at bat, but maybe not a great at bat right now. The problem is the Yankees kind of need the bats right now. That's the tricky thing. And I think they really need it. I think they really need it. I think even with Judge Stanton and Bellinger, they need to at least raise the floor of the thing. And as I become more dubious that Miller is going to get out in the marketplace, I think that they have to at least in, you know, like, look, I don't think that the. I don't think the Astros would have dealt with them either, but the Astros have started to win and their general manager, Dana Brown, came publicly and said, we are not selling. But like, like if they had had a bad week, someone like Esau Parady, somebody like Jeremy Pena, like this all would have it's been a bad week for the for the sellers in the marketplace because those a lot of the teams in the middle have either just stayed there or maybe even incrementally improve their shot. And none of those teams, a lot of those teams are built the mindset. So what I would find interesting, I think the mindset of the Minnesota twins, and I want to be clear about this baseball front office, not their ownership would probably be to sell jobs. I'm not sure that their owner is going to allow it. I don't think anybody in the Padre or Astro organization wants to sell for one second, like they would have to be faced with, hey, man, you have no alternative. You're 12 under your like, but that isn't what's happened in this recent period. They've played better. It makes sense, Joel. And, you know, like, it's just as I'm thinking about it, you know, the Marlins. Yeah. Like, can you go to the Marlins and say, or and again, this is where I'm always worried about being aggregated. I don't think they'll trade these guys. I don't think they'll trade these guys. I don't think they'll trade these guys. But do you ask about Otto Lopez? Do you ask about Xavier Edwards? Do you ask about those kind of guys to say, if you move it, we'll give you an A plus return at a time maybe you're still building and you've had a bad moment? I don't think they'll get moved. But I do think the Yankees are in a place where for the for the for this moment and the near future, asking about the I would have to hear it from Peter Bendix. Hey, you know, like, let me hear it. You're not trading. I would have to hear it from Nick Kroll of the Reds. Let me hear it. You're not. No. Good. Because I won't waste money, but but but 100 percent, right? Like, I can't twist your arm a little bit if I put A, B, C, D and E in this, right? Right. No. OK. But I think this is a moment. And by the way, I bet you the Yankees have done it. Sure. I bet you the Dodgers have done it. I bet you the Rays have done it. I bet you the Brewers have done it. I bet it just why wouldn't you if I thought of it and I'm not running a front office? I think everyone I think these guys are in contact because of this a lot more than they ever were in the past where I could you could do. Hey, Peter Bendix, just to hit you with a concept, just want to be positive here. These guys available at all under like if I'm willing to go sky high. No, thanks. Have a good trade. You know, so I assume that everybody is asking for everybody's best. And you know what you're waiting to hear from the if you're a team like the Yankees, Brewers, Rays, Dodgers, is somebody go, huh? Sure. What are you talking about? Yeah, because, you know, what with what is the opening of the door? It's like just the door has been cracked open a little bit here. You know, we're going to do a show, I assume either Monday night or Tuesday morning next week. And we will have two people. We were surprised that. Right, like we'll go, oh, I didn't see. And all we've been doing for two months is imagining this marketplace. And still, they'll be like, oh, like, like the first trade that was made of some significance was Curtis need for Connelly early. Yeah. Like, all right. Like, those were not names we're throwing around. And like, like, and I'll throw this out there. Think about what the Red Sox had to give up a good young controllable starter to get a right. How bad right hand hitting is in the sport, right? Controllable right hand hitting. They gave up. And and remember, Paul Toboni, who runs the Nationals, drafted Connelly early, so he knows it. And you could say whatever you want about Craig Breslow. I would say the one thing he knows for sure is pitching. Look, the pitching is put together in Boston. So, like, it's interesting. He gave him up. A guy who knows him got him and a guy who got designated for assignment in March was traded. And because he's had a good off of what have he had always been a promising player who had never lived up to his promise. Now he's living up to his promise for a few months. And by the way, he doesn't bring defensive value. Really? I mean, he could put him out in the field. He's not good, because the right hand bat is so desired. So when you start thinking if you're you or Yankee fan, hey, that right hand bat, keep doing teaching for what it's going to cost you in the market. But Hunter Goodman, that right hand, that right handed bat, that netto, that right handed bat, which comes attached to a shortstop, which comes attached to a catcher, which comes attached to multiple years of club control for both guys, especially Goodman. So, yeah, you know, it's you're not wrong, Joel. And that's exactly what I thought when I saw that trade come through. And I'm like, wow, that was a steep price. I thought Connolly early was a very good player, a pitcher. He's a very good pitcher. And I'm like, I'm surprised he's going for Curtis Mead. It's like pitch against the Yankees a few times. Yeah, good. Yeah. Yeah. So, look, I think it's it's so fascinating. The names that you throw out there and like where your thoughts are and like how where they could potentially attack this thing that the bottom line, though, is Joel, they need some of these guys to perform better. And I think one of them I'm a little concerned about, again, is Trent Christian was over this this weekend. He's going through it a little bit. I just I remember the Dodgers play, obviously, from the previous series the weekend prior and and and puts more pressure on a guy like Ben Rice, who I feel like he's having a great year and we're all focused on how do they improve? How do they improve? One of the young bats that they have has been so damn good for them, but it's tough for him to carry this entire lineup right now. Solo act now that the Grisham's at bats have gone the wrong way. Not good because I think last week I mentioned a coach said to me the only two guys who take who drag at bats deep and do well is our Grisham and and Rice. And so when it now Yes. You know, which was the other thing is and and you see and get big hits, like, you know, which is what you want out of him. And now he's going to be gone at least 10 days. Is it somewhat encouraging that he you know, there's video him doing agility drills the day after he gets put on the IL that maybe it's, you know, a shorter period than say Grisham's hamstring, which was like a month. Yeah, Grisham was out. But also I go back to there's a period where when you're going to hit this badly, all the other stuff has to be so buttoned up. And like Grisham's route to open the game on Trey Turner's triple. Yes, it's just like it's just not acceptable. It's just not acceptable. It's it's again, it looks you looked cool, man. What can I say? You were cruising, you're looking, you didn't stop the ball from getting to the wall. It was not. I do not believe that's full speed to go get the ball. I don't think it's a good angle. I don't think it's full speed. And it's the first play of the game. What would I have to do to get your attention? This is why I go back to it's it's him not scoring on the play like two weeks ago. Like what would I have to do to get your attention? Like, have you noticed judges and around? Have you noticed stands not around now balance is not around like we need you man. And need is more than get hits in the batter's need is how are you playing? How are you playing because every run the Yankees give up is precious. A couple of more runs on Friday or Saturday allowed and they get swept. They do not have enough offense to cover for other things right now. So this is a moment. You just can't give it away. And you've got to be sharp on the bases. You have to be sharp in the by the way, that should be 162 games. But if I don't have your attention for 162, can I at least get it right now? Yeah. Yeah. How about is his partner in the outfield there Jason Dominguez in the seventh inning on Friday night, that throw to home? I don't know, Joe. Like, I know we've talked about his defense and how bad it's been this year. I've seen feel like some incremental improvements over the last month. And he's been better at the play. He's playing right. So therefore, you know, like, I think he gets to look. I think the hope for him was always major league average defense and above average offense. Forget that he's nicknamed the Martian and go from there. There still is not enough defense and there's still not enough offense like they need. He's another guy. Look, he's going to get he is full runway. Like you want to show that you should be playing. Let's not talk about it as theory anymore. This guy's been hitting three, four or five in the lineup. Yeah. And he's playing every day lefty righty. They're not holding him out against lefty. They're not in a position to do it. They have key right-hand hitters out of the lineup. He's going to play. So like, it's no longer a theory. He's going to get hundreds of at bats of runway before this is all done. I assume Spencer Jones is just about to get runway here. It doesn't have to be theory anymore. Like they value. This is something that has come up a lot on the show in three years. We've done. Yeah. Value is not only the output, but when you provide output, which is why I don't believe in the bullshit, completely analytic MVP argument about, well, just look at the numbers. I'm like, yeah, like this guy produced the numbers for a team that was never in the race. When were these numbers produced? I did it. I talked about it with David Stearns. I wrote about it. I've talked about it. David Stearns at one of his press conferences, like maybe two, three weeks ago said at the end of the year, Bo Bichette's going to have Bo Bichette numbers. And I'm like, yeah, but who cares when the Mets needed Bo Bichette for their season, not to spin out of control. Bo Bichette wasn't good. Like, like, okay, he's going to hit 300 the rest of the year. He might as well do that on Mars. You know what I mean? It's like when you're like a home run at one, one is different from a Homer at seven. That's the Devers thing. That's just the reality. Yeah. It's the Raphael Devers thing you were talking about a week ago about how he's providing it now. You know, and then all of a sudden he woke up and yeah. Joel, before we wrap, I want to wrap up here, but I want to get your thoughts just because look, you've been doing this for a while and I don't mean that as an insult. I mean that is in a valuable, insightful way. I think a lot of fans are always interested in your insights, but for you personally, is there anything that you can think of when you're thinking about this time of year with the deadline? Like as a reporter, how difficult it can be to dig through the quote unquote bullshit of people talking to you or the real valuable insight you can get from, from baseball people when you do have conversations with them, how is that struggle or, or maybe not struggle? Maybe it's a challenge that you accept. How do you go through that every day now in this time period with the week to go before the deadline? So I would say maybe, maybe it's a blessing of being around a while and having relationships. I think I deal with less out and out lies and bullshit at this time of year and just more of, I'm not going to talk to you, which I appreciate. I don't want to be lied to. I don't want to be misled because again, I'm not collecting the information to hoard it. I'm trying to disseminate it to fans, to people, you know, our readers at the post, people who watch me in a MLB network, to people who watch this or listen to the podcast I do with Johnny Heman. Like, like the idea is like, we have a similar goal in some ways when I'm talking to you. We want to make the fans care about this and we want to make them smarter fans, more knowledgeable, know things. If you lie to me, I'm going to end up telling them an untruth. Like I, when I catch a guy in a lie, that's what I tell them. And then I stopped talking to them. I say like, **** you. I'm done with you. Right? Because like, like, well, I'm trying to, Ryan, because we move fast and there's always a little bit of a fog of news. Like you do get things wrong, but you never should ever get anything wrong purposefully. Like I've made mistakes and I will tell a guy, like, I am writing, like one of the things I say all the time is I'm writing about this. Sure. Like you can decide not to help me, but I am writing about it and I don't want to have it wrong. If you'd like to help me shape it to be able to give to the fan base as good information as you can within the parameters that you feel you could talk to me, please do that. Because like, I could only be knowledgeable. I'm not in any of the 30 offices who are making these deals. Like you are. And so I'm none of the agents, you know, if you're an agent and all you're trying to do is okie doke me to get your player to a better spot. Like, all right. Like, I appreciate that you're doing your job. Do you have no respect for my job? Do you have no respect for the fan base? Like I get it, but like this isn't the last client you're going to ever have. And hopefully this isn't the last phone call we're ever going to have. Like, let's not screw around with each other. Right. That's that's how I feel. Now, do I still get bullshitted? Of course. Like it's part of the game. I wish I think it happens less. I think there there is a such a better understanding. I think I could be wrong about this, but I think there's such a better understanding of like the players who could and should be available, the teams who could and should get those players that it's hard. And yet we'll be surprised, as I say, by Monday, six o'clock, we'll have a couple that go up. Didn't see that one coming. So I think we begin this thing as early as, say, May, where we're like, oh, team, this team isn't very good. And they have Tarek Scuba. This team isn't very good and they have Mason Miller. This team isn't so it's like, oh, if you were a detective, you already know, like who has a pretty good chance to have like committed the crime. Right. Like because you're doing is detective work. Right. Trying to put the clues together to figure out how to solve this thing. So, yeah, I think there's less of it. Ryan, I do. I hope that's about relationships and that people trust me and know that I'll take good care of information and do the best I can with it. But I just also think just some things are more obvious than they've ever been. Front offices are sharp. I know people won't believe this, but like. So when I was a beat writer, late 80s, early 90s, I recognized like, oh, you know, the Yankees aren't really going to help me with things that to maybe know what's going on with the Yankees, I have to call other people and be like, oh, like, oh, you know, the Yankees need a third baseman. And I would like, you know, like no Internet, go down baseball, you know, like the USA Today baseball stats like, OK, third baseman, who could be available? Oh, this team's third baseman. They're a losing team. He's going to be a free agent or he's making too much money. And I would call some of these. Now, some guys were very sharp even then. But some people would say, oh, the Yankees need a third baseman or like who do they have? And I'm like, how how do I know more than you? Yeah. And that's in the last four decades. Yeah. Right. And that doesn't happen anymore. Like even the worst front office now, I think is better than most of the best ones back then. But they're just sharper. They they they see things three and four d like from a lot of ways. They're they're like I think the average fan and by the way, the average reporter would be shocked at how much information is gathered at this time of year, like medical, psychological background, family, you know, like these are big decisions. Like if the Yankees are going to include, say, Dax Kilby in a trade or George Lombard Jr. in a trade or like like future value is a term that every baseball fan should understand. Like there is a number placed. It's usually a dollar amount placed on every player. Dax Kilby future value is. Fifty five million, 60, but whatever number they come up with, they're trying to make sure every team is trying to make sure I get at least 60 back, every team trying to make sure they get 70 million dollars in value and they get what excess value, which is why they're saying, oh, add that extra guy from a ball in the trade because he's a lottery ticket. We have our variable is he could be worth nothing or he could be worth 70 million dollars because of his talent. Right. Like if you traded for Kam Schlittler last spring, not this spring training and spring training, twenty, twenty five. Sure. Like like you went to the Yankees and said, well, we will trade you this very good player for Kam Schlittler. The Yankees probably would have done it if a team had Kam Schlittler might be worth zero. But we're seeing a progression here where maybe he's worth one hundred million dollars. Maybe he's worth more. And so that's part of what's going on here. And teams are very the most sophisticated teams are like. I will say that before it's all said and done, maybe after retirement, I might beg a front office I really respect and say, can I embed I don't want to report about it, but I'd like to see I've reported on this for a long time. I'd like to see it fully function. Like I'd like to see how the meal is completely made, because I think I have clues. But even somebody who's doing this every day, I don't think I fully appreciate. That's a wrong word. I appreciate. I think guys are working incredibly hard. I don't think I fully know how many different levels. They're working on things, biomechanics like is a big thing now, right? Like, oh, we're going to we're about to give up Dax Kilby for this pitcher. What do our biomechanics guys say about his likelihood of sustaining the rest of the season next year, et cetera? So I just think there's things that are going on at a very sophisticated high level at this time of year. And, you know, and you still get it wrong. You still could acquire Jake Bird and he just can't pitch. Like, and I bet you the Yankees did incredible homework, incredible. And, you know, you think you think you got it and you don't. Joel, future value, present value. You give it to us all. We appreciate you, man. Thank you, as always, for making some time, especially during this busy time of year. We're looking forward to your coverage throughout the week. And we're looking forward to catching up with you again next time. And as always, thank you, Joel. No, I really appreciate doing it. I appreciate everybody who watches. I know it's a time of year. This is Yankee specific where Yankee fans are just, I'm sure, updating social media over and over and over again between now and next Monday. And trust me, I understand that I have this job because people care this much about it. And hopefully we'll do a good job of covering it all week so that fans enjoy it. Joel, you're the man. Thank you, buddy. Thank you, guys.