MLB Trade Deadline BOMBSHELLS: Red Sox Eye Zach Neto, Brewers Going ALL-IN?

The MLB Trade Deadline is heating up, and The Baseball Insiders is breaking down the biggest rumors and answering your mailbag questions. Adam Weinrib and MLB insider Robert Murray dive into the Red Sox's pursuit of Zach Neto, the latest on CJ Abrams and Shea Langeliers, the rapidly evolving catcher market & Milwaukee's aggressive trade deadline plans. Plus, insider updates, trade predictions, and everything you need to know before deadline day.

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Video Transcript

Welcome to the Baseball Insiders.

Happy Friday .

I am Adam Weiner, joined as always by Fansite at MLB Insider, Robert Murray, and we are zooming towards the trade deadline.

It's not July this year, it's August.

We got a little time, but we don't have that much time, so there's no better time to join the Baseball Insiders on YouTube, on your favorite podcast platform, in the Discord, on subtext, where you can talk to Robert Murray directly.

He'll answer your questions.

He also does private Q&As in our All-Star tier of the Discord, uh, every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, good time to get your Questions and we have a mailbag today to close the week and some questions from the Discorder, so stay tuned for those, but plenty to talk about, uh, and things that have emerged over the past 24 or so hours.

The Red Sox getting a little hungrier, the Angels entertaining, moving some players they might not have moved.

What does it mean for the Brewers to be aggressive and where do the Blue Jays stand?

Plus, I guess LeBron James is in Philadelphia.

Now, we're not really gonna ask any questions about that, but also just a crazy thing that happened, more proof that anything can happen, Robert Murray.

Welcome to the show.

Hey, it's good to be here.

LeBron James is a Philadelphia seventy-Sixer, which is totally crazy, and who knows, could that possibly be the biggest move of the trade deadline?

We like, a lot of stuff is unknown currently in baseball.

I'm having conversations with folks trying to get a good read on the market and really, Like nobody's got a good feel for it right now.

So the next 7 to 10 days are going to be super interesting and basically will determine everything that happens on the market.

So, I'm excited to break it all down cause I've got new stuff in my notebook.

Always exciting for that.

I'm sure it's gonna get even more packed as the days go on here.

So, Adam Weiner, happy Friday .

How is it going?

How do you feel about LeBron going to Philly?

I feel uh good.

I think I was ready for uh some fresh blood in like Miami, that's stale, Cleveland, like, what does he do for Cleveland other than just an emotional reunion?

You're kind of saying like, I'm not gonna win a title before I retire, but I guess I will go back to Akron and Philly, like, this is not something I expected and, and they, they are my rival and the New York Knicks, um, you know, their path got a little harder, but, uh, I will just say Knicks in 5, that already happened, so that's fun.

Uh, now the rivalry gets better.

Credit to the Sixers, the Knicks embarrassed them in their own building last year in the playoffs, and their response was, let's get way better, instead of, like, oh, let's just, I think we'll do.

Nothing, or let's back away and get worse.

They got awesome.

Uh, so, shout out to the Knicks and Sixers, who are gonna have a fun rivalry this year, and shout out to the Boston Celtics.

You made this happen, you idiots.

Uh, Brad Stevens won Executive of the Year last year for making his roster worse and for trading Nikola for Nikola Vusovich at the deadline and just regressing that roster every chance he got, um, got credit for a gap year that didn't win a title.

Will he win a 2nd consecutive Executive of the Year for building the 76ers this year?

You gotta wonder.

Um, so far, Um, the Boston Celtics are the biggest losers in this situation, though they have Devil Magic, I'm sure they'll be a top 3 seed next year anyway, for no reason, and Nixon 5, stamp it on the screen.

Uh, that already happened, that's the past.

The past is in the past, the present is fun, and the present involves, uh, potentially some juicy Red Sox, Angels rumors.

Uh, so we'll start here in the trade deadline mailbag.

Will Sam and Ken Rosenthal teamed up to reiterate the Sox-Zach Netto match, which we know was part of the offseason conversation.

This story indicated Hey, the Angels might be interested in Marcella Meyers, part of the package.

Um, who knows which side that maybe came from.

Uh, the Neto thing is interesting for multiple reasons.

One, cause it exemplifies the willingness of Boston to go a little bit further in adding, that's gonna be an expensive ad, and, uh, it also maybe says something about the Angels and the way that they plan to behave under John Mosella.

Uh, so, percentage chance you can put on Neto being available at this point, and what do you think the cost would be to a team like the Red Sox, if so?

Yeah, I get the impression from talking to teams that when Neto is being asked about, the Angels aren't exactly saying, like, no, they're not hanging up the phone, they're at the point where they're listening.

So, that definitely indicates, OK, they're they're at least willing to discuss things, which I think that's the case for the players across the board who are not named Mike Trout.

So, that would make a ton of sense for a team like the Boston Red Sox.

I think that'd be a terrific fit there.

Um, and also, Neto's gonna be drawing interest from other teams across the league.

He's a very talented player.

I don't think it's impossible that he's moved.

Uh, I don't know the likelihood, but it's definitely not impossible at this point.

But the Angels at this point are definitely a team to watch because they have Neto, they have Reed Dettmer, they got Soriano, they got Joe Adele as well.

Jamozalla is getting a lot of.

a lot of interest in his players.

He's listening, he's having plenty of talks across the league.

They're to me, definitely probably the team, maybe like a top 3 team to watch here at the deadline cause I think they could be plenty active, and that's not even including their, their rental players like Jorge Soler, Kirby Yates, Brent Suter, among those guys, so.

It's going to be very busy for John Mozalla, and I think the Neto conversation is only going to heat up from here for sure.

The Angels with all those names you mentioned could dictate the way that we move with this.

Again, it just takes two sweeps in either direction.

The Red Sox got 4 of them and that's why they are where they are now, but the way that this deadline is already unfolding and will continue to unfold, it's not gonna take much to get yourself in the picture, to, to turn yourself from a buyer to a seller.

The Angels are out.

Seem to know that, and now we move.

Meanwhile, on the Red Sox side, all of a sudden, this is not the only Red Sox rumor that's flying.

You got Bob Nightingale pegging CJ Abrahams as someone they could be interested in.

Shay Langgolier, they apparently are very interested in.

Uh, we know the Yankees talked a little bit about Langlier, didn't really go anywhere, that's gonna be a tough sell for the A's, but who knows?

Uh, so what's more likely for the Red Sox?

They land a catcher or they land a big-name shortstop like Neto or Abrams?

Um, I'll, I'll say this.

Let, let's start with the, the catching aspect of this because I was told that Lang Lear, Ruchman, and Hunter Goodman at this point are unlikely going to be moved.

I guess, it would take a surprise offer , uh, because the ask understandably is very high for all those guys.

So, if the Red Sox want to add a catcher, I think they would have To look in a different direction.

Could that be like a, a Tyler Stevenson type?

Could that be a Ryan Jeffries type?

Could that be looking in a different direction?

Like, it remains to be seen there, um, but I would expect the Red Sox and also a ton of these teams to try to continue to have the conversations with these other clubs about landing a catcher, but I just don't expect it to be a big name by any means.

Let's turn the, uh, the, the table here to, to CJ Abrahams, cause he is a player who I've seen in rumors, and I've been checking on this, and I can confidently say he is the subject of repeated interest, uh, from the Washington Nationals, but as of this point, I don't believe, I don't, I hear that the, the Nationals at this point are not engaging on CJ Abrams, so I'm I'm skeptical that he's going to be moved, um, but it is no surprise at all that teams are calling.

It seems like there's a lot of teams who are calling about Abrahams, and we heard about that in the offseason when the San Francisco Giants, uh, called the, the Nationals about him.

They called him about Jacob Young, uh, obviously, did not get a deal done for either.

Uh, but Abrahams continues to be the subject of rumors, but I, I placed the odds of him being moved at relatively low at the moment.

Abrams throughout his career, second half drop-offs too this year trying to buck that trend.

It's early, uh, but he's hitting 423 with 4 homers in his 1st 6 games in the second half.

Pretty good.

So, yeah, not bad, hey, look, all things considered, if that's a trend you're trying to buck, you've done a pretty good job, uh, but we, we need more data there, but even so, that's the reason why, you know, you're gonna be asked to pay a lot for Abrahams, that's something a trend.

Teams are gonna be trepidatious of, but so far he's making people believers.

Uh, it sounds like the catcher market, you're saying, hey, maybe Tyler Stevenson is someone that we need to start paying more attention to, whether it's the Red Sox, whether it's the Yankees, uh , a tier lower than the Langgoliers and Hunter Goodman and, and Ryan Jeffers as a rental, but , um, is that and Adley Richman?

I mean, is that a name that you're now thinking?

Let's think, you know, you're telling teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays as well, like, think just a little bit smaller, think Steven Center, think 2 months of Jeppers, don't think those big guns.

Yeah, I'm, I'm, that's exactly what I'm thinking here, and, like, as I said, I would expect these other teams to be talking or to be asking about those superstar catchers, but I, I would be really surprised at this point if they were ultimately moved.

Um, but yeah, like , another guy that I would mention in there too is Victor Carratini, and obviously he's with the Twins, so we're talking about both Twins catchers being In trade rumors, I can't imagine they're gonna trade both.

Uh, so that would be, I think, it would have to be one or the other.

So, if, if they want to hold on to Jeffers, then they can move Carratini, but Carrettini is also controllable for next season.

So that's an aspect here.

I think we got a monitor, which makes me think that Jeffers would be the more likely of the two.

But that being said, there could be some other teams here who have catching depth who could try to enter the market here.

We have, uh, the Texas Rangers, they got catching depth.

They also, uh, the Seattle Mariners also have catching depth too.

And I'll, and I'll turn the tables back to, um, the Rangers for a second because I keep hearing Josh Smith as someone who could be, uh, possibly on the move.

He was recently optioned to Triple-A.

Uh, he's a veteran.

Guy who was a former Silver Slugger winner, so, uh, that's, that's noteworthy for us, of course, uh, having done it last year, so that's, that's a pretty cool deal.

But there's a bunch of teams that can make sense for a guy like Josh Smith.

We have the Atlanta Braves, we have the Tampa Bay Rays, the Cincinnati Reds.

I mean, there's gonna be other teams that could possibly be in the mix there as well.

So, I think he's definitely a name where I would be far from surprised if he's moved.

Um, so, yeah, I think definitely though, we're gonna be talking about a bunch of different catching depths to like to go back to that conversation .

Um, but yeah, again, I just don't see the stars going.

Josh Smith needs a little more SEO juice right now, the Atlanta Hawk is still ahead of him if you Google search him, but yeah, 2024 Silver.

It's crazy cause I was doing my notes the other day and I, I was, I googled them just thinking Josh Smith, like that one would, would pop up and all of a sudden, next thing I know it is the Atlanta Hawks, uh, guy that's that pops up instead of the Rangers guy .

Fun fact, by the way, is I have a Josh Smith Atlanta Hawks.

Jersey card.

It's it's somewhere here at my apartment.

So that's, that's, I guess that's always fun.

I, I found that the other day when I was going through my stuff.

It traveled with you.

It made it from your childhood home to your current apartment.

It, it does.

And yeah, I mean, I got a, this is actually kind of noteworthy.

I have a, I like, I have a bunch of different, uh, sports cards over here.

I have a few LeBron James rookies.

So if anyone is in the market for a LeBron James card.

All right, your boy.

I just, I listed some stuff on eBay this week for my personal collection cause I learned the price of daycare.

Anybody out there not know the price of daycare?

Google that.

No, actually, I have no idea.

Google that, you'll somehow get Josh Smith, the Atlanta Hawks player.

What the hell, um, daycare need Desi juice as well.

We're, uh, somehow off topic in a trade deadline mailbag, uh, and I'm glad we are.

It's fun, but, uh, I'll get, let me get this back.

I'll twist this back.

Um, the, another headline stealer from the last, uh, couple of days, the Brewers, their Brewers' aggression is being a little bit more plainly stated.

Uh, we have on this podcast for a long time, banged the drum for, like, why not get involved in Tarek Scole?

Like, which is, why not?

If you're the Milwaukee Brewers, he's a rental, he is CC Sabathia this year.

You've done it before, it was nearly 20 years ago, but why not do it again when you have this endless.

of prospects and it's hard to win a championship, and your fans are frustrated that they get to the playoffs with 95 wins every year, and then they can't beat the Dodgers.

You know what a fun way to beat the Dodgers is?

Getting Tarek Scoble and using him against them.

Uh, Adam McCalvey said they have checked on Scoble and Mason Miller.

We are now calling them aggressive.

Uh, so what are your current thoughts, temperature check on how far aggressive could mean to the Milwaukee Brewers?

Like, what does that mean?

How do we define it ?

Yeah, they have been active in conversations.

Like that's something that I've heard from a few different people across the league.

Uh, I have not heard of anything imminent on any front for Milwaukee, but that being said, um, they have checked on Scoble, they have checked on Mason Miller, like Adam McKelvey, who is very plugged in in Milwaukee is correct.

Uh, that being said, I believe that both of those players are unlikely, and Scoble, like he's got a much better chance of going than Mason Miller.

Uh, Scoble, like, still in limbo there .

Detroit's kind of trying to fight back into the postseason conversation.

Uh, but that being said though, like, I do not get the impression the Brewers want to move like their , their upper, upper prospects.

They are really happy having the top-ranked farm system in baseball, and I just don't get the impression they're in a hurry to, to part with those high-end guys.

So, that would make me think that Scoble is unlikely.

And that would definitely make me think that uh Mason Miller is unlikely because as I've said on the show before, and I'll reiterate it again, Mason Miller is unlikely to be traded.

I cannot stress that enough.

Things can obviously change.

AJ Preller can be a madman at the deadline, but it is unlikely despite the rumors that you're hearing.

So, um, that being said though , um, Scoble, I like Scoble would be an awesome fit in Milwaukee.

I've said that for months.

Like, you add him to that rotation.

And you have him, Mirowski, and Kyle Harrison, provided, like, hopefully they're healthy, but you have them going into the postseason, to me they're the team to beat in the National League.

They would be just an absolute force to be, to be reckoned with here, and they could be very capable of beating the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Without Scoble.

And really without another bat, I don't know if they're capable of dethroning the Dodgers, and it feels like a team that could end up having another disappointing postseason run.

So, I am fully advocating for Mark Attanasio and Matt Arnold to be aggressive when it comes to the trade market and land one of these big fish, but I've seen what they've done in the past, and I've seen them come empty or come up empty, and I'm, I'm worried it's gonna end up happening again, and Brewers fans are gonna be upset.

Here's a slight follow, now that we know, it probably the a lot of leaders in the clubhouse for weirdest transaction of the offseason, but I'm gonna go ahead and call the Freddie Peralta trade the weirdest one cause everybody flamed the Brewers at the time, you know, you're right in the championship window, why are you doing the thing you did with Devin Williams again and and you're helping the Mets, you're helping your competition.

The Mets are no longer their competition, the Mets are maybe the worst team in the National League.

Freddie Peralta is available, he also hasn't been good, he's been 5 and fly, but the worst version of it.

Any chance the Brewers are willing to trade a smaller tier asset to bring him back?

I mean , what is the market on Freddie Peralta at this point in time?

Maybe the org that knows him best knows, like, all right, we already got Williams and Sproat, let's just give up our 17th ranked dude and go run it back with Freddie Peralta for the second half.

No, I think it would be an awesome fit getting him back to Milwaukee.

That being, like, I have a hard time seeing David Stearns wanting to trade him back to Milwaukee and for way less than what he gave up.

Yeah.

So I think that'd be a PR nightmare that David Stearns would want to avoid in a season of PR nightmares.

Yeah, his first PR nightmare of the year it's been a great season.

Yeah, it's been a great season, but yeah, it's that also like, um, when it comes to Peralta, he's got, A pretty strong market from what I, from what I hear.

Um, he is a player, obviously, he has not performed to the level that he did last year, or even like the last 5 years, for that matter, but he's also someone who's a proven veteran, where he's also signed for 8 million bucks prorated, so you're gonna get him for maybe what, 3 or 4 million bucks for for the rest of the season.

And you also know you're gonna be getting an A+ clubhouse guy.

And those last two things really matter when, when you're talking to teams and uh the affordability for him, uh, you can buy low on him for the rest of the season and you have a chance of landing somebody who can be a difference maker in a rotation.

He's playoff tested.

Uh, I would, if I was a team and I was running, if I was running the organization, which spoiler alert, I'm not.

Uh, Peralta would be somebody that I would be targeting pretty heavily, cause I think he would benefit from a change of scenery, cause I think he's meaningfully better than what he's performed like in Queens.

So, yeah, but I, I, I do believe his market is quite strong here for sure, but I just don't think a Brewers reunion is happening.

Meaningfully better than how he's performed in Queens describes basically everyone except for Luke Weaver, um, and I'm not sure about Brett, but one of those guys.

Um, now is a better time to, to, just to tie it back to the Mason Miller thing, which, you know, is part of this aggressive conversation.

This is a mailback question from Drew in our Discord.

Uh, I framed it as, like, what AJ Preller might explore beyond Mason Miller, but the question was, does Adrian Morahone move with the trade deadline?

And now, if you're saying Miller probably off limits.

Given the number of years of control there and given the fact that he is just, like, one A in the world of relief pitching, Morahona Rental, an All-Star last year, and it's, if Miller doesn't move, he's probably the best relief name that could move with this deadline, so, do you think he could be explored as a candidate for the Padres to sell?

Yeah, I definitely think at this point he's gonna be a candidate to watch here for sure, especially with Miller being unlikely to be moved and, and we're talking about a guy, uh, super, like, he's a very strong performer, he's someone that a lot of teams really like, and the Padres are getting a bunch of interest in him, but also Wandy Peralta as well.

So, I will look at those two as being much more likely candidates to be going rather than Mason Miller, which, again, I, I've said this like the last, I think 3 or 4 shows, I'll make it the, the, the last 5 now.

Um.

The Padres' stance with Mason Miller is this, they know he is an elite, elite, elite reliever.

Uh, he can get up like the, the toughest outs against the best hitters in baseball in the biggest moments, and he signed for 3 more years, super affordable, they just got him last year after AJ Preller had tried for years to go out and get him.

Like they're not in a hurry to move him at all.

They would need to be beyond the words blown away to be moving him.

So, I don't expect any team to be giving him an offer that allows them to move on from Miller, um, but yeah, I, I would look at the other Padres relievers as being more.

Likely to go.

I mean, like I've been surprised, but I just, I don't see Miller going anywhere.

And I, I'm, I, it's very rare.

You like, very rare you see me this adamant on a podcast or just that adamant and like, like taking down a rumor.

So I think that shows how confident I am in this one.

Morahan intrigues me a lot more than even getting into the Mason Miller fantasy too, and, like, from a Yankees perspective, sorry, don't throw tomatoes at me , like, they've needed bullpen arms this whole year, they didn't construct a complete bullpen , it's, they do have a, a 2 bullpen ERA in all of baseball behind the Red Sox at this point, but that does not tell the full story.

The bullpen is not a disaster, like, it doesn't need to be rebuilt from the ground up, but swing and miss, they significantly lack, and for most of the season, they had 3 people you could trust.

David Bednar, Fernando Cruz, and Brent Hedrick.

Brent Hedrick has thrown in 50+ games this year.

Fernando Cruz has melted down a few times in recent weeks in Boston against the Dodgers, against the Pirates, hasn't had a great season, but when you have three arms you can trust, stuff like this happens, guys wear down.

And, and recently, the trust tree has expanded to Paul Blackburn is now crazily in the trust tree.

Uh, good job by Paul Blackburn, good job by Matt Blake.

They called up Angel Chavi, who they got from the Rockies for TJ.

this offseason and he has thrown 11 nasty innings, so, he's not in the trust tree yet, you gotta do more work than that, but all of a sudden, the 3 names have now become, like, 4.5, I guess, which is a little bit better, but high leverage, swing and miss is still something they really desperately need cause once you get beyond that group, the other names in the bullpen are just not high leverage at all.

Ryan Yarborough and Tim Hill is a specialist, and Camilo Duval is unusable and, and, like, they just don't have Duvall, I don't.

if he'll ever pitch for the Yankees again.

Jake Bird's in Triple-A, right?

So, you maybe don't need to shoot for the stars, but you definitely need at least one more high leverage relief option.

And so Morahone, a rental, it's gonna be expensive.

The Yankees and Padres deal all the time.

It is interesting to me, so I'll at least just throw that out as, like, Mason Miller as a Yankee fan, I'm not entertaining, that's crazy.

Morahone, I'm like, lefty, maybe Hedrick's getting a little tired, you know, we need additional high leverage lefties.

That makes all the sense in the world to me.

No, it totally, and if you can end up adding another high leverage guy, maybe even two of them, I think that would be a really good position for the Yankees to go and, like, and also the the what you just listed off, last year they were so confident that they were gonna have that Super Bowl pen, like, Bednar's worked out the rest of it.

Duval never saw that coming, like, I, I mean, I don't think anybody could have, he was like a, he was somebody that the Giants valued super, super highly, and it took a lot for them to move on from him.

And they moved on and it's just been an absolute poop show ever since he's gone to, gone to the Bronx, so I would expect them to be absolutely very active in that market, and, like, OK, I'll, I'll throw this back to you, Adam, like, if we're not talking Moron, like, or who exactly would be, like, your top target for the bullpen?

I genuinely can't figure it out.

Like, that's why I'm excited to have Morahone in the market, cause I'm looking at the, the Marlins are slipping out of the wild card picture again.

Anthony Wender.

I, I, Anthony Bender is my guy , Lake Bashar, you know, intrigues me a little bit.

John King is someone I know the Yankees targeted in the Joey Gallo trade way back in the day and didn't get, they ended up swapping a different name in there.

Um, so, like, I'm, I've been thinking about the Marlins this whole time.

If the Cardinals wanna thread the needle.

like, I don't think they traded Riley O'Brien, I don't know what Jojo Romero does for the Yankees, but, like, a name like Morehone finally solves the Yankees problem that I've had for a long time and trying to figure out which leverage dudes make actual sense, and, like, the Blue Jays won't trade with us, so, you know, we're, we're going back and forth on I just saw Jeff Hoffman, Phillies connection today, he's obviously thrived in Philadelphia and uh the Blue Jays are gonna have to have some serious conversations.

I feel like there's no way they go as far as Louis Varland, but they might sell Hoffman, but they ain't selling him to the Yankees.

That doesn't help anything other than distracting other teams with red meat while the Yankees chase more alone.

So, I mean, the answer to your question is, it's been impossible for, like, a month and a half and finally, now I have a name that I can be like, maybe, maybe that's a fit.

Yeah, and that's also the issue that these teams are having because they, they don't know who's gonna be available in the next 10 days.

It's absolutely crazy with how many teams are trying to compete and want to, like, actually think they have a chance of going to the postseason, which has really made this market as unpredictable as I think any that I can recall , as I've been in baseball, which is crazy.

Now, I haven't been in baseball 10+ years, and this is easily like the most bizarre deadline for sure.

So that's why if you're the Angels, the Mets, the Giants, Shoot, I'll even throw the Royals in there, cause they have Michael Walka and Seth Lugo, who I think they should be absolutely listening on.

This is the time to take advantage, because you can get such strong value, but I can, I sense it from other teams across the league right now.

There's, there's frustration because the prices are super high.

Um, they are, there's a very limited amount of players who are actually available.

So, could this end up changing in the next 7 days and have like a super loaded market?

For sure, but I'm like, I, I, I, I'm a little skeptical that this market could end up being super loaded, so we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll see, but the next 7 days, I'm not kidding you when I say this, will determine everything.

At this moment, what is your perception of the Blue Jays as a seller, which is, again, like, 2 weeks ago, we were talking about Red Sox hard seller, Blue Jays, they're like, 5 back, no way they sell, you know, they're trying to repeat as AL champs, and now it feels like, I mean, we know what the Red Sox are doing.

And when you look at the Jays, it's really hard to justify saying, like, going, go all in on this 9 games under 500 team that's about to go to Fenway Park.

Yeah, I can't believe what they are definitely trending toward being sellers, and they are the or they are the Toronto Blue Jays, who I'm talking about potential sellers here, and they are the team that a lot of people across the league are watching right now and eyeing up.

Kevin Gosman is gonna draw significant interest on the market, like, this is my own speculation.

I think he'd be an awesome fit for the Atlanta Braves, like they're gonna be looking for a starting pitcher, and I think he's very Bravesy, so I think he's, he's somebody who I think makes a ton of sense for them.

Uh, Dalton Varho, uh, he's gonna be drawing a lot of interest here as well.

He's in, in the final year of his contract.

Uh, I don't necessarily know who's like the most obvious fit, but there's gonna be plenty of interest there for him for sure, especially up from the defensive side.

Uh, Jeff Hoffman, I'm glad you said that before.

He's someone who, I think I mentioned a few days ago as a possibility that the Jays could listen on.

All these teams are looking for a bullpen help, and I get it's been up and down in Toronto, but he's a proven guy.

He's also shown that he can be good in Philadelphia, which is one of the toughest places to perform.

So, he's gonna be drawing interest, sign up for another year after this, so you get him for at least 1 year and a half years.

I, I would not be surprised if he ends up going considering the bullpen shortage overall in the market, um.

But yeah, I think Varland is unlikely to be moved, as you said, but teams are definitely eyeing up the Jays, and I'll, I'll, again, I'll throw the Baltimore Orioles in there, like, they're much , like, we're not exactly sure what direction the Orioles are gonna go quite yet, but teams across the league are eyeing up Trevor Rodgers.

If, like, both of those, both Rodgers and Gosman, um, maybe one of them goes, I think Gozman is much more likely, but if the Orioles do decide to sell, especially with Rodgers being in a contract year.

I think teams across the league would pounce on that one for sure.

Like, 10 days ago when we were at the All-Star game, I asked Varlo about how good it feels to be stable this year at the trade deadline, and now it's kind of like, I mean, I think he stays, but already we have, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, old takes exposed, yeah, we'll send that right up right over if he ends up getting traded.

They loved it, they'll hit my ass for sure.

Anything else on the notebook before we sign off?

No, the stuff that I wanted to hit on was was the CJ Abrahams stuff because I've been seeing that pretty, pretty often here on Twitter, but again, like, the Nationals are not engaging with teams.

Uh, they are, like, getting plenty of interest in the guy like CJ Abrams, but not looking to move him.

Exactly, and also a guy like uh Foster Griffin too.

This one's up in the air, like, you have, you trade him, he's been awesome for the Nationals, All-Star of the season, or do you extend him now?

I don't think anything is cooking as of this point on the extension front, so they'd have to really get going on that if they want to have a hope of extending him between now and the deadline, um, but that one's 50/50 on what exactly could end up happening there.

My guess is he's probably gonna be traded.

Uh, but that is a very difficult conversation or very difficult decision there for the Nationals because they really value Foster and Again, as I've said before, he's, he was the first signer for Paul Tabodi, so you gotta think there's at least some sentimental value when it comes to, when it comes to Foster Griffin in Washington.

All-Star in year 12.

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