May 30, 2025 • 16 mins
J.P. Hoornstra of Newsweek joins the show to talk all things Tigers and baseball at large in the MLB.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A lot of pitching from a lot of people back
against the wall. You know, try to just go one
hitter at a time. Good team win. We did a
lot of things right. We did a lot of things
that we can review and do better. But never never
ever be dissatisfied with a series sweep at home.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Am into that AJ Hinch following the sweep of the
San Francisco Giants. His team has won five in a
row or four in a row, and off to Kansas
City to take on the Royals. To night casey MYI
is getting the not against Michael Waka. We talked baseball
with JP hornsti the national baseball writer for News. We
can follow on Twitter at jp Hornstra and he joins
(00:36):
us here on this Friday morning. Jp, thanks for the time,
really appreciate it. Always enjoy your stuff as well to
keep us informed and give us great content to talk about.
The Tigers are a team that you know obviously last year,
propelled by a late season surge and then surprise a
lot of people against Houston before falling to Cleveland. I
don't believe in carryover. Do you think there is a
(00:58):
carryover in this effect? Do you think the biggest reason
for the success is.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think that they were wise to carry over a
lot of the players that they had on last year's
postseason roster. I think they were wise to bring in
some guys like Labor Torres with postseason experience, and I
think that they've been wise to kind of stick with
some of the guys like, you know, Spencer Troklesin is
kind of the poster boy for this, but you know,
(01:25):
guys who maybe early in their major league careers didn't
have quite these statistics to match the prospect hid let's
face it, And I think that there is a little
bit of carryover in the fact that if you're Spencer Troklesin,
if you're Casey Maiz, if you're a young player who
came up through this organization, it's been through the rebuild
(01:46):
and didn't necessarily know that your team had the stones
to make it into the postseason, Well you've got that
belief now, and like, that's not going to hold them
back anymore. Now. The only thing that's necessarily going to
hold back is just talent. And I think to the
extent that we underestimated the Detroit Tigers in twenty twenty five,
(02:08):
maybe we didn't know whether that talent was kind of
a Fuchs or whether that was real. And I think
it's been born out in the early season that what
we saw last season was quite real. And now Armo
with the confidence of that first postseason run, Boy, the
sky's the limit. I think the American League is very
winnable for several teams, including the Tigers.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
What are they missing? Do you think?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
It's a good question. Well, when you've got the best
record in the American League, not much. I think when
you talk about a team that maybe could use help
in the postseason, it's a pretty big drop off from
Tyrek' scouble to the number two starter. And I think
that's going to be true. Whoever is you know, second
(02:56):
in that rotation right short of trading for Paul Skins,
I just don't see them having necessarily the best one
two punch. But if they could add a postseason experience,
the postseason tested starter, you know, Jack flarerty obviously went
on the run with the Dodgers last season. If he's
(03:17):
your number two starter, should we expect you to, you know,
make it to the World Series. I don't know, based
on how he's pitched this season. You know, some good
but some bad and I think every team that is
a contender or fashions itself one is going to be
in the market for a starting pitcher. And I expect
the Tigers to be right there.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, And that's interesting because and that's an assumption that
Jack flaherty would be their second best pitcher, and we
don't know that right now. Who's deeper than the Tigers
when you look at let's just look at the americanly,
we don't have to worry about the Phillies or the
Dodgers right now. Who's deeper than Detroit's pitching rotation and
(04:00):
lineup in general? The best player because that's obviously it's
Aaron Judge, there's no doubt about that. I'm looking at
depth and now on who can hurt your top to
bottom right right?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
You know, the Astros just got your and On Alvarez
back and they were playing pretty well without him, and
they'll be even better with him. So that's a deep
lineup right there. That's a young rotation though, you know,
unless you include McCullers in that group, and who knows
what they're going to get from him this season, but
(04:31):
he's there, and so you never can count out Houston.
I think that's kind of the one thing that we've
learned over the past call it eight years, that Yankee
lineup is tough. It's really deep, deeper than it was
a year ago. And they've got some guys now who
do you have postseason experience, much like Detroit that didn't
(04:53):
have it a year ago, So you've got to be
worried about that. I love the way that Boston got
out of the game, and I think that if their
lineup is what it should be, that could beat the
deeper lineup, and that could beat the deepest lineup of
anything we can talk about. But the pitching big question mark.
(05:13):
That's a team that's going to be in the market
for starting pitching.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
It'll be interesting to see if they if they become
I hate the phrase, but it's so appropriate. Buyers are sellers.
A long way to go, obviously, end of July we
still got two full months. But I was surprised at
their start, especially when Raphael Dovers started like oh for
eighteen with twelve punches. But overall, I really like their lineup.
I'm surprised that they've fallen on hard times as much
(05:39):
as they have, losing six in a row and falling
to the second worst record in the division.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Too. I think if he told me that Walker Baler's
house was going to be somewhat questionable, which I think
it has been, at least as far as his ability
to recover to his pre second Tommy John Forum, I
could have foreseen some of this, But that's about it.
I just I don't see why they can't be just
an offensive juggernaut that wins a bunch of, you know,
(06:08):
seven to five games, And I think to do that,
you're gonna have to make some tough decisions on some
guys and finding a place in that lineup for Roman Anthony,
find an everyday place in that lineup from Marcelo Mayre.
You know, if Christian Campbell isn't cutting it anymore, don't
be afraid to send him back down to Triple A.
I mean, they know the player right. Sometimes that can
(06:29):
harm a players, like maybe they don't want to do that, Okay,
but on paper, I don't see this that lineup is
fully optimized as Boston. The only other team I'm gonna
throw out there is Kansas City, just because they were
very in a very similar position to Detroit last year,
where it was a young team really hadn't been on
a postseason run outside of Salvador Perez and kind of
(06:52):
stuck in there right and found a way to set
up a date with the Yankees, and that was a
pretty competitive series. I think they need a lot of
help in the lineup, more than what trade would necessarily solve.
What I've seen from some of the young pitchers. You know,
though Cameron's been pretty impressive. Chris Kubick isn't a young
guy anymore, but he's arguably in the ace of the staff.
(07:13):
Walka has been there before, So that's kind of you
see some of the pieces there right where maybe somethings
come together. You got to worry about kid.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, Cole Reagan's I think is a really good pitcher
as well. You mentioned Boo bitch. Look, I mean, I
just don't see how mikel. Garcia continues to do what
he's doing. I think they need a lot of help.
The reason they did it last year and I both
know you know, they had the most reliable starting pitching
in all of baseball. I mean, they basically used four
five guys. Nobody does that anymore. The one team that
(07:41):
I'm a little surprised you to bring up a Seattle
because of their starting pitching, Maybe Houston catches them, I'm
not sure. To try took care of business against Houston
last year. That surprised a lot of people, But it is.
It is an interesting dynamic right now in the American League,
and I think what happens even people in Detroit, to
be honest with the JP are to a certain extent,
trying to find why Detroit can't win, rather than why
(08:04):
they can. So I guess I would ask you that
why can't they win compared to other teams in the
American League when I think most of us, at least
with good baseball knowledge, fields like they've got just about
everything covered outside the defensive side of the left side
of their endfield.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Right. That's a good point, and I think you're right
on paper Seattle bears mentioning the fact that they haven't
been able to put it together, I think speaks a
little bit to just the lack of success, right and
the extremities of their home park, which is last year
was the most extreme home field run environment in all
(08:44):
of baseball. It was that picture from me, so correct
to mention Seattle with respect to why can't Detroit the
only thing that I think would necessarily hold them back. Again,
I want to feel better about their starting rotation into
the postseason before I target them as the favorite, even
if on paper their record says they are. And the
(09:06):
only thing that might hold them back is just that
they can't find an impact starting pitcher on the trade market.
Not that they won't necessarily try, but this is shaping
up to be one of those seasons where so many
teams outside of two or three are in contention into July.
General managers just hold on tight to their best players, thinking,
(09:27):
you know, maybe it's not this year. Next year, I'm
going to hold on to my guy, and that could
be a problem not just for destroy but for every picture,
every team that feels like it's one starting pitcher short. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
No, it's a great point. JP Hornstra of the national
baseball writer for Newsweek, joins his fom on Twitter at
JP Hornstraw and two things. You brought up Paul schemes,
and I think it's gained some national traction on why
Pittsburgh might consider trading him. Most people would say that's outrageous.
What would it take? This is hard to answer what
(09:58):
it would take, But why would pitch consider something like
this when they're not really close to winning. Is that
the reason why they would consider it is because they're
not very close.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, I think the reason they would consider its twofold one. Obviously,
they're just so far out of contention that there's no
use holding him for this season. I think the harder
thing with Schemes is that I want to say, he's
like three and a half years away from free agent
eligibility at the end of this season, and so you
know what can happen in that time, Well a lot.
(10:30):
But the one thing that we, I think can say
with confidence in Pittsburgh they are not going to spend
the free agency and show me a team that doesn't
spend in free agency and still is able to put
together a meaningful postseason run like it just doesn't happen
in Major League Baseball. You have to be able to
do that. And so if that is the margin for
(10:50):
error that its front office has in assembling a homegrown
roster that can compete in the postseason, I'm sorry, but
they haven't cleared that bar I love I love O'Neil
Kruz fun player to watch. I love Paul Stan's fun
Player to watch, but you need more than two do Yeah?
And when I say, dude, it's like there are other
guys in the system who can be, you know, part
(11:13):
of a meaningful postseason run on talent, but stars like
you need to develop multiple homegrown stars if you're just
not going to spend in free agency.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, you like Brian Reynolds, but he's not a star.
I mean, Andrew McCutcheon's at the end of that, right,
Joey Bart. Those guys aren't. He wasn't a star in
San Francisco. He's not going to be a star there.
It's a great point. If you were the Tigers, would
you would you sign Trek skouobl to a long term deal?
And what do you think it would take?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I would yes, I think it would take I think
it would take a lot. I think that to sign
that player, to sign any player to a long term contract.
You know. The one great thing that the Tigers have
that lends optimism to it is that they have other
young pieces and play. You know, if you look at
(12:01):
the teams that have been able to sign players to
long term extensions in recent years, the two that really
come to mind are are the Dodgers and the Braves
and the Dodgers are they're printing money, right, so they're
kind of in their own class. But the Braves, you know,
they're they're publicly traded. We can see exactly what their
(12:21):
finances look like. And although they are well keeled, they're
definitely not the Dodgers class. But what they did have
was an environment in which a lot of really talented
young players came up at the same time. And so
once you've convinced Ronald Lacuna to sign long term, yeah,
you can go to Ozzie Albies and say you've got
this guy under long term contract you want to be yeah, sure,
(12:42):
Austin Riley, and then a Cascades, Michael Harris, let's your striver.
You go on down the line. And so I don't
know that they would necessarily need to sign one of
you know, signed Casey Mice for example, to a long
term deal, signed Spencer Trocals into a long term deal,
and I don't know that they necessarily want to do that, right,
But it becomes easier to go to tariff schoople and say, hey,
(13:05):
you know, we've got I don't know, I'm going to
throw out a number here, ten years and three hundred million. Okay,
will you take that? Well, maybe he can get more
on the open market over the next ten years if
he goes to free agency. But is he going to
get a better deal if you know three of his
really talented buddies are already signed up for a similar
(13:25):
ride here in Detroit. Yeah, maybe that becomes a bit
of a tough call for a twenty to say four
year old and that right on.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That Yeah, yeah, And as you know, you can make
you can make yeah, yeah, you can make buddies anywhere.
I was thinking four hundred million, the ten four hundred
that's what's going to happen. I mean, look at Max Freed.
Max Freed had buddies with the Braves and he went
to the Yankees. He's doing just fine, right, and he's
making more money. That would be my guest for Trek
schoobl I think the hard part that we all have
(13:53):
to answer from a Detroit standpoint is, you know, there's
somebody on the other end and Scott Borrows is going
to get his client as much money he possibly can,
and it's got to start. There's always a starting point,
and there's one that's an ending point. How much is
too much? I don't know, but we do know this.
He's got clients who signed for thirty six million dollars
(14:14):
a year. In Garrett Cole, He's seen guys like Jacob
de Gram at the end of his career signed for
forty million dollars. And my guess is that's somewhere in
the neighborhood of what the price is going to be.
As you know too Detroit is you bring up the
Dodgers and the Braves, they can afford to miss on
certain guys when Detroit. When a team like Detroit misses,
and that's where the haves and haves notts really are.
(14:36):
It's not affording a guy like JP Hornstruck, it's whether
or not you can absorb if he isn't good enough,
hobby or bias, it sets you back, right, That's the
hard thing. Would you trade if you're the Tigers they
need a third basement? I think more than they need
a starter. That's just my opinion. Would you trade for
(14:57):
a Nolan Ronado if he waived his no trade laws?
Would you do you think he's a key piece that
could help this team moving forward because there's not many
other third basement out there who you could probably acquire
at this time of a season that would make a biggest,
bigger difference. Would you do something like that?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I would, And I think that that Dovetails was something
that you just said, which is that that's a relatively
low risk move. At worst, You're getting a slightly above
average at the stage in his career, defensive third baseman
with experience in the postseason, and who is generally regarded
as just one of the best clubhouse guys in Major
(15:36):
League Baseball, right, and that's exactly who gets traded at
the trade deadline. Are there better landing spots for him
than Detroit? Maybe, but also maybe not. And if he's available,
I guessing Scott Harris is placing the phone called the
Saint Louis. That would be a smart pickup. Would it
be the kind of pickup that actually changes Detroit's fortunes
(15:59):
in the postseason? In a short series? The problem is
like the better team loses a lot of the time,
and that's just the reality. And so even if Snolan
Arnauto makes it to Trey Tiger is a better team,
which I think he probably does, is he necessarily a
difference maker? I don't know. That doesn't mean you don't
go for it, right. I think that in addition to
(16:19):
getting Nolan or Not out of Saint Louis, which is
what he's been asking for for quite some time, and
getting him the chance to compete for a World Series,
it sends a message to the clubhouse like we believe
in you guys, We think this is a great roster,
and I think that makes every probably it makes every
young player in that clubhouse two percent better, right, because that's.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, it's a trickle down a fact. JP appreciate the
insight and really enjoy following you on Twitter and reading
your stuff. Keep out the great work. Have a great weekend,
my friend.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Thank you. Same to you, Matt,
A lot of pitching from a lot of people back
against the wall. You know, try to just go one
hitter at a time. Good team win. We did a
lot of things right. We did a lot of things
that we can review and do better. But never never
ever be dissatisfied with a series sweep at home.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Am into that AJ Hinch following the sweep of the
San Francisco Giants. His team has won five in a
row or four in a row, and off to Kansas
City to take on the Royals. To night casey MYI
is getting the not against Michael Waka. We talked baseball
with JP hornsti the national baseball writer for News. We
can follow on Twitter at jp Hornstra and he joins
(00:36):
us here on this Friday morning. Jp, thanks for the time,
really appreciate it. Always enjoy your stuff as well to
keep us informed and give us great content to talk about.
The Tigers are a team that you know obviously last year,
propelled by a late season surge and then surprise a
lot of people against Houston before falling to Cleveland. I
don't believe in carryover. Do you think there is a
(00:58):
carryover in this effect? Do you think the biggest reason
for the success is.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think that they were wise to carry over a
lot of the players that they had on last year's
postseason roster. I think they were wise to bring in
some guys like Labor Torres with postseason experience, and I
think that they've been wise to kind of stick with
some of the guys like, you know, Spencer Troklesin is
kind of the poster boy for this, but you know,
(01:25):
guys who maybe early in their major league careers didn't
have quite these statistics to match the prospect hid let's
face it, And I think that there is a little
bit of carryover in the fact that if you're Spencer Troklesin,
if you're Casey Maiz, if you're a young player who
came up through this organization, it's been through the rebuild
(01:46):
and didn't necessarily know that your team had the stones
to make it into the postseason, Well you've got that
belief now, and like, that's not going to hold them
back anymore. Now. The only thing that's necessarily going to
hold back is just talent. And I think to the
extent that we underestimated the Detroit Tigers in twenty twenty five,
(02:08):
maybe we didn't know whether that talent was kind of
a Fuchs or whether that was real. And I think
it's been born out in the early season that what
we saw last season was quite real. And now Armo
with the confidence of that first postseason run, Boy, the
sky's the limit. I think the American League is very
winnable for several teams, including the Tigers.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
What are they missing? Do you think?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
It's a good question. Well, when you've got the best
record in the American League, not much. I think when
you talk about a team that maybe could use help
in the postseason, it's a pretty big drop off from
Tyrek' scouble to the number two starter. And I think
that's going to be true. Whoever is you know, second
(02:56):
in that rotation right short of trading for Paul Skins,
I just don't see them having necessarily the best one
two punch. But if they could add a postseason experience,
the postseason tested starter, you know, Jack flarerty obviously went
on the run with the Dodgers last season. If he's
(03:17):
your number two starter, should we expect you to, you know,
make it to the World Series. I don't know, based
on how he's pitched this season. You know, some good
but some bad and I think every team that is
a contender or fashions itself one is going to be
in the market for a starting pitcher. And I expect
the Tigers to be right there.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, And that's interesting because and that's an assumption that
Jack flaherty would be their second best pitcher, and we
don't know that right now. Who's deeper than the Tigers
when you look at let's just look at the americanly,
we don't have to worry about the Phillies or the
Dodgers right now. Who's deeper than Detroit's pitching rotation and
(04:00):
lineup in general? The best player because that's obviously it's
Aaron Judge, there's no doubt about that. I'm looking at
depth and now on who can hurt your top to
bottom right right?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
You know, the Astros just got your and On Alvarez
back and they were playing pretty well without him, and
they'll be even better with him. So that's a deep
lineup right there. That's a young rotation though, you know,
unless you include McCullers in that group, and who knows
what they're going to get from him this season, but
(04:31):
he's there, and so you never can count out Houston.
I think that's kind of the one thing that we've
learned over the past call it eight years, that Yankee
lineup is tough. It's really deep, deeper than it was
a year ago. And they've got some guys now who
do you have postseason experience, much like Detroit that didn't
(04:53):
have it a year ago, So you've got to be
worried about that. I love the way that Boston got
out of the game, and I think that if their
lineup is what it should be, that could beat the
deeper lineup, and that could beat the deepest lineup of
anything we can talk about. But the pitching big question mark.
(05:13):
That's a team that's going to be in the market
for starting pitching.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
It'll be interesting to see if they if they become
I hate the phrase, but it's so appropriate. Buyers are sellers.
A long way to go, obviously, end of July we
still got two full months. But I was surprised at
their start, especially when Raphael Dovers started like oh for
eighteen with twelve punches. But overall, I really like their lineup.
I'm surprised that they've fallen on hard times as much
(05:39):
as they have, losing six in a row and falling
to the second worst record in the division.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Too. I think if he told me that Walker Baler's
house was going to be somewhat questionable, which I think
it has been, at least as far as his ability
to recover to his pre second Tommy John Forum, I
could have foreseen some of this, But that's about it.
I just I don't see why they can't be just
an offensive juggernaut that wins a bunch of, you know,
(06:08):
seven to five games, And I think to do that,
you're gonna have to make some tough decisions on some
guys and finding a place in that lineup for Roman Anthony,
find an everyday place in that lineup from Marcelo Mayre.
You know, if Christian Campbell isn't cutting it anymore, don't
be afraid to send him back down to Triple A.
I mean, they know the player right. Sometimes that can
(06:29):
harm a players, like maybe they don't want to do that, Okay,
but on paper, I don't see this that lineup is
fully optimized as Boston. The only other team I'm gonna
throw out there is Kansas City, just because they were
very in a very similar position to Detroit last year,
where it was a young team really hadn't been on
a postseason run outside of Salvador Perez and kind of
(06:52):
stuck in there right and found a way to set
up a date with the Yankees, and that was a
pretty competitive series. I think they need a lot of
help in the lineup, more than what trade would necessarily solve.
What I've seen from some of the young pitchers. You know,
though Cameron's been pretty impressive. Chris Kubick isn't a young
guy anymore, but he's arguably in the ace of the staff.
(07:13):
Walka has been there before, So that's kind of you
see some of the pieces there right where maybe somethings
come together. You got to worry about kid.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, Cole Reagan's I think is a really good pitcher
as well. You mentioned Boo bitch. Look, I mean, I
just don't see how mikel. Garcia continues to do what
he's doing. I think they need a lot of help.
The reason they did it last year and I both
know you know, they had the most reliable starting pitching
in all of baseball. I mean, they basically used four
five guys. Nobody does that anymore. The one team that
(07:41):
I'm a little surprised you to bring up a Seattle
because of their starting pitching, Maybe Houston catches them, I'm
not sure. To try took care of business against Houston
last year. That surprised a lot of people, But it is.
It is an interesting dynamic right now in the American League,
and I think what happens even people in Detroit, to
be honest with the JP are to a certain extent,
trying to find why Detroit can't win, rather than why
(08:04):
they can. So I guess I would ask you that
why can't they win compared to other teams in the
American League when I think most of us, at least
with good baseball knowledge, fields like they've got just about
everything covered outside the defensive side of the left side
of their endfield.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Right. That's a good point, and I think you're right
on paper Seattle bears mentioning the fact that they haven't
been able to put it together, I think speaks a
little bit to just the lack of success, right and
the extremities of their home park, which is last year
was the most extreme home field run environment in all
(08:44):
of baseball. It was that picture from me, so correct
to mention Seattle with respect to why can't Detroit the
only thing that I think would necessarily hold them back. Again,
I want to feel better about their starting rotation into
the postseason before I target them as the favorite, even
if on paper their record says they are. And the
(09:06):
only thing that might hold them back is just that
they can't find an impact starting pitcher on the trade market.
Not that they won't necessarily try, but this is shaping
up to be one of those seasons where so many
teams outside of two or three are in contention into July.
General managers just hold on tight to their best players, thinking,
(09:27):
you know, maybe it's not this year. Next year, I'm
going to hold on to my guy, and that could
be a problem not just for destroy but for every picture,
every team that feels like it's one starting pitcher short. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
No, it's a great point. JP Hornstra of the national
baseball writer for Newsweek, joins his fom on Twitter at
JP Hornstraw and two things. You brought up Paul schemes,
and I think it's gained some national traction on why
Pittsburgh might consider trading him. Most people would say that's outrageous.
What would it take? This is hard to answer what
(09:58):
it would take, But why would pitch consider something like
this when they're not really close to winning. Is that
the reason why they would consider it is because they're
not very close.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, I think the reason they would consider its twofold one. Obviously,
they're just so far out of contention that there's no
use holding him for this season. I think the harder
thing with Schemes is that I want to say, he's
like three and a half years away from free agent
eligibility at the end of this season, and so you
know what can happen in that time, Well a lot.
(10:30):
But the one thing that we, I think can say
with confidence in Pittsburgh they are not going to spend
the free agency and show me a team that doesn't
spend in free agency and still is able to put
together a meaningful postseason run like it just doesn't happen
in Major League Baseball. You have to be able to
do that. And so if that is the margin for
(10:50):
error that its front office has in assembling a homegrown
roster that can compete in the postseason, I'm sorry, but
they haven't cleared that bar I love I love O'Neil
Kruz fun player to watch. I love Paul Stan's fun
Player to watch, but you need more than two do Yeah?
And when I say, dude, it's like there are other
guys in the system who can be, you know, part
(11:13):
of a meaningful postseason run on talent, but stars like
you need to develop multiple homegrown stars if you're just
not going to spend in free agency.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, you like Brian Reynolds, but he's not a star.
I mean, Andrew McCutcheon's at the end of that, right,
Joey Bart. Those guys aren't. He wasn't a star in
San Francisco. He's not going to be a star there.
It's a great point. If you were the Tigers, would
you would you sign Trek skouobl to a long term deal?
And what do you think it would take?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I would yes, I think it would take I think
it would take a lot. I think that to sign
that player, to sign any player to a long term contract.
You know. The one great thing that the Tigers have
that lends optimism to it is that they have other
young pieces and play. You know, if you look at
(12:01):
the teams that have been able to sign players to
long term extensions in recent years, the two that really
come to mind are are the Dodgers and the Braves
and the Dodgers are they're printing money, right, so they're
kind of in their own class. But the Braves, you know,
they're they're publicly traded. We can see exactly what their
(12:21):
finances look like. And although they are well keeled, they're
definitely not the Dodgers class. But what they did have
was an environment in which a lot of really talented
young players came up at the same time. And so
once you've convinced Ronald Lacuna to sign long term, yeah,
you can go to Ozzie Albies and say you've got
this guy under long term contract you want to be yeah, sure,
(12:42):
Austin Riley, and then a Cascades, Michael Harris, let's your striver.
You go on down the line. And so I don't
know that they would necessarily need to sign one of
you know, signed Casey Mice for example, to a long
term deal, signed Spencer Trocals into a long term deal,
and I don't know that they necessarily want to do that, right,
But it becomes easier to go to tariff schoople and say, hey,
(13:05):
you know, we've got I don't know, I'm going to
throw out a number here, ten years and three hundred million. Okay,
will you take that? Well, maybe he can get more
on the open market over the next ten years if
he goes to free agency. But is he going to
get a better deal if you know three of his
really talented buddies are already signed up for a similar
(13:25):
ride here in Detroit. Yeah, maybe that becomes a bit
of a tough call for a twenty to say four
year old and that right on.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That Yeah, yeah, And as you know, you can make
you can make yeah, yeah, you can make buddies anywhere.
I was thinking four hundred million, the ten four hundred
that's what's going to happen. I mean, look at Max Freed.
Max Freed had buddies with the Braves and he went
to the Yankees. He's doing just fine, right, and he's
making more money. That would be my guest for Trek
schoobl I think the hard part that we all have
(13:53):
to answer from a Detroit standpoint is, you know, there's
somebody on the other end and Scott Borrows is going
to get his client as much money he possibly can,
and it's got to start. There's always a starting point,
and there's one that's an ending point. How much is
too much? I don't know, but we do know this.
He's got clients who signed for thirty six million dollars
(14:14):
a year. In Garrett Cole, He's seen guys like Jacob
de Gram at the end of his career signed for
forty million dollars. And my guess is that's somewhere in
the neighborhood of what the price is going to be.
As you know too Detroit is you bring up the
Dodgers and the Braves, they can afford to miss on
certain guys when Detroit. When a team like Detroit misses,
and that's where the haves and haves notts really are.
(14:36):
It's not affording a guy like JP Hornstruck, it's whether
or not you can absorb if he isn't good enough,
hobby or bias, it sets you back, right, That's the
hard thing. Would you trade if you're the Tigers they
need a third basement? I think more than they need
a starter. That's just my opinion. Would you trade for
(14:57):
a Nolan Ronado if he waived his no trade laws?
Would you do you think he's a key piece that
could help this team moving forward because there's not many
other third basement out there who you could probably acquire
at this time of a season that would make a biggest,
bigger difference. Would you do something like that?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I would, And I think that that Dovetails was something
that you just said, which is that that's a relatively
low risk move. At worst, You're getting a slightly above
average at the stage in his career, defensive third baseman
with experience in the postseason, and who is generally regarded
as just one of the best clubhouse guys in Major
(15:36):
League Baseball, right, and that's exactly who gets traded at
the trade deadline. Are there better landing spots for him
than Detroit? Maybe, but also maybe not. And if he's available,
I guessing Scott Harris is placing the phone called the
Saint Louis. That would be a smart pickup. Would it
be the kind of pickup that actually changes Detroit's fortunes
(15:59):
in the postseason? In a short series? The problem is
like the better team loses a lot of the time,
and that's just the reality. And so even if Snolan
Arnauto makes it to Trey Tiger is a better team,
which I think he probably does, is he necessarily a
difference maker? I don't know. That doesn't mean you don't
go for it, right. I think that in addition to
(16:19):
getting Nolan or Not out of Saint Louis, which is
what he's been asking for for quite some time, and
getting him the chance to compete for a World Series,
it sends a message to the clubhouse like we believe
in you guys, We think this is a great roster,
and I think that makes every probably it makes every
young player in that clubhouse two percent better, right, because that's.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, it's a trickle down a fact. JP appreciate the
insight and really enjoy following you on Twitter and reading
your stuff. Keep out the great work. Have a great weekend,
my friend.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Thank you. Same to you, Matt,
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