Anthony Franco's NL Central comments

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mikechamp
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Anthony Franco's NL Central comments

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These comments came from a chat with MLB Trade Rumors' Anthony Franco that occurred on January 4. (You can find him on Twitter at @affranco10 if you really want to ask him something.)

There are some interesting questions this time, but no bonus Q&As. Maybe next time.

The link to the entire chat can be found here: https://live.jotcast.com/chat/mlbtr-cha ... 14710.html

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How does it work when a player has two contracts? Hosmer signs with the Cubs for, let's say 1 year/$5 million, while still getting his 3/39 from the Padres? I'm presuming a new contract doesn't supersede the old one, as Hos would be walking away from a ton of money. So he's just out there playing with multiple contracts from multiple teams?

Anthony Franco
When a player is released from a guaranteed deal, the previous team is just on the hook for all the money except for the league minimum salary.

So the Padres are paying virtually all of it and the Cubs will pay the minimum for as long as Hosmer's on the roster. They're prevented from signing for anything more than that with the new team to prevent the kind of double-dip you suggest where a player makes out better financially because they played poorly enough to get released in the first place.
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The Cubs are Making a LOT of medium size and small moves to address their issues. Have they made enough progress to be serious contenders for the NL Central? Or is this still St Louis's to win?

Anthony Franco
Yeah the Cubs haven't really done enough for me to consider them legitimate contenders in the NLC. They've kind of solidified their hold on third place but are still behind St. Louis and Milwaukee in my view.

It's not like Bellinger's a lock to upgrade center field. They made a huge pickup at second base (by kicking Hoerner over after signing Dansby) but negate that somewhat with the downgrade at catcher. Corner infield is still pretty weak, back of the rotation is improved but behind St. Louis's and Milwaukee's.

They're better than last year for sure, and I expect them to win more than 74 games. But it still feels like a roughly .500 team than a real division contender.
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Who would the Marlins get the biggest return from among Lopez, Rodgers, Cabrera, or Luzardo?

Anthony Franco
This is a great question. I think it's Luzardo, but suspect it'd vary pretty significantly depending on the other team's competitive cycle.

A true win-now club that just wants some immediate rotation stability probably values Pablo higher than the rest of the group. Someone like the Cubs or Orioles -- a team that would like to win in 2023 but is just kind of cracking the contention window open -- likely prefers Luzardo or Rogers given the longer period of club control.
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What would you put the odds on Bryan Reynolds starting Opening Day for the Pirates in 2023?

Anthony Franco
Like 60%?
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Are you surprised at the relative silence out of Busch Stadium especially after MO touted "increased payroll" ? It's tough to sell anyone on a playoff contender with two Top 3 MVP candidates ousted in round one.

Anthony Franco
They signed Contreras so it's not like they've done nothing, but I did think they'd more seriously try to pursue an upper-mid rotation or better starter.
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With the top free agents all gone, should we expect much action over the next six weeks until pitchers and catchers report? Or have we passed into the time when teams are just signing bullpen depth? Obviously, we never know when a trade will happen, but are you expecting a lot of trades, or just a lot of noise?

Anthony Franco
There are going to be some trades obviously -- Miami and Minnesota feel like they still have to do something -- but I'd guess it's pretty slow from here on out. There aren't that many teams this year that don't think they can compete.

And even the handful that'd fall in that bucket -- Oakland, Washington, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Detroit to a lesser extent -- have already shipped out most of the interesting players they wouldn't consider to be long-term core pieces.
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What was the first trade you remember happening as a kid? Mine was in 1992. My dad left me a note before he left for work. It said the A’s had traded Jose Canseco to the Rangers for Ruben Sierra.

Anthony Franco
I grew up a Cubs fan. Getting Derrek Lee from Miami was probably the first move I knew to be excited about.
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What’s the point of a mutual option like the one in Wade Miley’s deal? Those almost never get picked up.

Anthony Franco
Mostly just to defer the payment a few months. Rather than evenly distributing a $4.5MM salary throughout the season, Milwaukee can distribute $3.5MM and hold off on the last $1MM until the end of the year. It just maintains a marginal amount of budgetary flexibility for the team and is largely immaterial to the player.
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