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 March 22. (You can find him on Twitter at @affranco10 if you really want to ask him something.)

Some interesting questions this week. I did not include any bonus Q&As, though there are 2 more chats on the way later today to enjoy.

The link to the entire chat can be found here: https://live.jotcast.com/chat/mlbtr-cha ... 15366.html

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With another strong campaign, is there any chance Jordan Montgomery gets over $100 mil?

Anthony Franco
He'll be 31 so it's not of the question on age that he narrowly beats $100MM over five years. I think he's more in the Taillon/Walker bucket that's like four for around $70MM but he's got a cleaner bill of health than those guys and a little more consistency so it's not crazy to push nine figures with another good year.

Probably requires a strikeout rate closer to the 24-25% range he had in 2020-21 than the 22% clip he posted last year though.
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Hayden Wesneski is the _th best pitcher on the Cubs.

Anthony Franco
I'd go fourth behind Taillon, Stroman and Steele right now, but think it's in the realm of possibility he ends up as the best one in the group.
Need more than six MLB outings before putting him above those guys though.
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Are Votto and Mookie HOFers in your book?

Anthony Franco
Votto, yeah. If Mookie randomly retired right now, I'd say no. The offensive counting stats just aren't there yet.

But he's going to play another decade and is still elite so I have no doubt he'll get there.
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Everybody expects Huira to not make the team out of spring training. He's played so poorly last couple years (n spring training), so do you think he makes it through waivers or is there a team that would scoop him up??

Anthony Franco
I think someone would take a shot. The strikeouts are huge but he's a 26-year-old former top prospect who hit 14 homers in 80 MLB games last season.

That's not necessarily tenable for a win-now team like Milwaukee, particularly one that could roster a similar player in Luke Voit. But for a non-competitive club like Washington or Oakland, it's worth a shot. He's controllable for three more years and only making $2.2MM this season. The A's gave Jesús Aguilar $3MM this winter; the Nats signed Dom Smith for $2MM. I'd rather have Hiura than either of them.
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I can’t help feeling like Bellinger will have a nice rebound in performance but not to MVP level, and the Cubs will be on the outer fringes of the playoffs at best. If he’s dangled at the break off of just few months of above average production, what do you think a package would look like?

Anthony Franco
That's a big caveat but if he gets back to something like a 120 wRC+ with Gold Glove defense in center field, he'd draw a lot of attention even as a semi-expensive rental. Maybe something like they got back for Bryant a couple years ago? Alexander Canario wasn't far off top 100 consideration at the time, Caleb Kilian was a nice upside flier.
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Do MLB front offices ever exploit MLB Trade Rumors to spread rumors that will help themselves? For example, would the Cardinals play up a competition between backup catchers in order to drum up some interest in the trade value of the catchers?

Anthony Franco
We're mostly aggregating reports rather than getting anything from teams directly. But yeah, there can be an incentive for teams to put stuff out through the media they hope will give them a competitive advantage. There have been some times where a player was reportedly drawing trade interest and then goes unclaimed on waivers like a week later, which suggests that interest wasn't as prevalent as it was made out to be.

Speaking generally there to be clear. I have no insight into the Cardinals stuff specifically. The St. Louis beat is really good though, so I doubt that's the case for this example.
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