December 8, 2025 • 18 mins
Chicago White Sox Director of Player Personnel and our own baseball insider Gene Watson joins the show from Orlando where MLB Winter Meetings are underway!
Gene, Craig, and Jake discuss the free agent landscape, the Nationals' trade with Seattle, a potential surprise suitor for Kyle Schwarber, and the outlook for several other contenders looking to bolster their chances.
Gene, Craig, and Jake discuss the free agent landscape, the Nationals' trade with Seattle, a potential surprise suitor for Kyle Schwarber, and the outlook for several other contenders looking to bolster their chances.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
I know there's somebody out there.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
No way, we're in December.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
What's with the baseball music? Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Baseball's Winter meetings are under way in Orlando, Florida. There's
some important stuff there on the docket. And with that,
if it's important, and even if it isn't, if we're
just talking baseball, we're talking with our good friend Jean Watson,
the player personnel director of the Chicago White Sox, our
MLB insider who joins us from the Sunshine State. Are
(00:33):
you scouting out restaurants in advance for me when I
get down there at the end of the month for
the cheese at Citrus Bowl for the Longhorns.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Well, i'll give you Columbia in celebration.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You got to go there. It's amazing. Yeah. Well, I'll
have a full scouting report for.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You all right now, full disclosure here if you haven't
already been able to figure it out during the course
of the year. Our man Jeene Watson loves the Texas Longhorns.
He's from Templeton, Access born and bred. Loves Longhorns. But
if there is a college football team that might capture
his heart a little more, it's a team that just
(01:09):
got left out of the playoff. It's the fighting Irish
and Notre Dame. How many games did you go to
this year, Gino?
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I went to four and was planning on at least
four more, and that.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That dream is over.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Okay, all right, So the first one you went to,
you still say A and M was holding on that
touchdown pass, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
We had a holding on the last play in overtime.
There was a there was a targeting about four plays
before it wasn't called, and then you had the pass
interference on the last play of the game that would
have potentially put him in fil goal range. Although the
kicker wasn't very good this year, you never know, but
the holding penalty ended up being not only big for.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Notre Dame, but also big for Texas.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
So yeah, it's amazing how one play in August can
affect an entire season for a lot of teams.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Well, you bring up a good point.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I wanted to I wanted to give you the floor
for a minute because we've talked about, you know, what
happened with the committee, and obviously I had no dog
in the hunt. But the way that I looked at
it was listen, you know me you've known me a
long time. I'm a more is more guy. I fell
all along. The playoffs should be larger anyway. I think
it should be sixteen. If it was sixteen, Notre Dame
(02:16):
would be in, Texas would be in. We wouldn't even
be having this discussion. That said, I know you're disappointed,
as everybody else is that is rooting for the fighting Irish.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Well, and I'm going to speak to the University of
Texas part of this. Like what Marcus Freeman said at
the end is absolutely true. It's the twelve best teams now.
And you can't go all season long and say that Texas,
A and m might be the best team in the country.
And then Texas beat Texas beats in the day for
Thanksgiving and they're left out of the conversation. Notre Dame
(02:50):
is in. Then Alabama bumps them, goes ahead of them
having not played great, and then so and then you
bump Miami ahead of them with no team playing. So
it's just been a moving target the entire time. I
would say that easily Texas beats nine of the twelve
that are in the playoffs, and who knows how many
Notre Dame beats but the group of five is ridiculous.
(03:13):
Participation trophies don't belong in college football, and quite frankly,
this college Football Playoff has very little credibility to me
because the Texas Longhorns and Notre Dame Fighting Irish aren't
in it.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
How much fun would it be, Geno to have a
seven versus ten matchup between Texas and Notre Dame either
in Austin or South Bend in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It would be unbelievable. It would have been unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
And you know, this is going to reshape the way
teams look at If I'm Texas and I'm Notre Dame,
I'm looking at that home and home in twenty seven
and twenty eight and saying, you know, it really makes
sense for us to play these games because both teams
are going to be top five programs at the time,
and if you're going to be penalized for it later
in the season, why play those games?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
And as I was saying earlier, you know Sark mentioned
at his press conference last week, he said, We're going
to honor our contract for the home games with Ohio
State and Michigan in twenty six and twenty seven. But
then you have Irvin Meyers saying he's telling Ryan Day
find a way to opt out of it, don't play
Texas in twenty six. So, like you said, the genie
may be out of the bottle on this thing.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It may go on.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Question. Yeah, all right, question.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
And for those for those criticizing Notre Dame for not
playing in a bowl game, that is a clear message.
And in my opinion, the first dominoes fall on what
was an attack by ESPN. It's people, and so it's
going to betting to see how that all plays out
as well.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
All right, let's we'll move on to happier topics. So
let let's talk about the Winter Meetings. And I want
to ask you. Everything that I'm reading says that the
and I know we hear about this every year with
the Winter Meetings, and I I've been at a couple
of myself, obviously, but the ones that the things that
(04:56):
come to mind is everybody's talking about the free agents.
So Dylan Ceik gets his deal with the Blue Jays.
But you've got fromer Valdez, Tatsumai, have Ranger Suarez, Michael King,
Zach Gallen, Merrill, Kelly Justin Verlander, Chris Bassett, Tyler Mayley,
Zach Eflin, Lucas gi Alito, Zach Lttel.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
They're all on the market this year.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
And uh, would you say that it's going to be
an active free agent market during these next few days.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
And talking to a lot of agents on the floor,
you know, the demand is so much greater than the
supply supply for pitching that you know, the teams that
are able to spend in that price range are all
getting a measure on, you know, how can we get
the most bang for our buck and still not like
destroy the rest of our off season payroll. So that's
(05:46):
that's the one thing that teams are monitoring. They want
to get to a price point on the best possible
pitcher and still be able to do other things. And
so that's really where it's kind of at right now.
The real buzz around the floor right now is Kyle Schwarbery.
There are some teams on Kyle Schwarber right now that
he could sign with that would be shocking to the
(06:09):
baseball industry from a standpoint of where the major league
team sits now, but where that major league team could
sit in two or three years is completely different, and
this is the kind of guy that you bring in
and now it attracts other free agents and you send
a statement to your fans and your fan dates that
generate revenue to help with the contract. So Kyle Schwarber
(06:32):
is the one player that I would keep an eye
on is there could be some real surprises where he
ends up this winner.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Okay, I'm going to jump back to hitters in a moment.
The other thing I wanted to ask you about. I
just rattled off a list of really good starting pitchers
who are on the market.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And then in.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
The out of the Bullpen, you're talking about Diaz opting
out of his that deal that he had with the Mets,
and then you got Devin Williams, Ryan Helsley, Emilia Pagan,
Rice ell Iglesias. Uh, they sign new deals, But Robert Swarez,
Pete Fairbanks, ken Lee Jansen, Tyler Rogers, Kyle Finn again,
(07:09):
Luke Weaver, they're still on the market. So what's gonna
What's gonna be more active? Starters are relievers?
Speaker 4 (07:16):
No, I think the starters are going to be more
active because because you've got to spend, like your rotation
has to be able to compete every night, and then
from a from a rhythm of the winter standpoint, Like
those closers, they're not gonna sign with clubs until they know, hey,
I've got a real shot of winning a championship.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Because when you talk about going out.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
And throwing sixty seventy appearances a season, you want to
know that you have a chance to won reach throws
of those appearance thresholds, but also that you're doing it
for a championship team. And so it will, certainly, I believe,
be the starters first, and and and again clubs will
be measuring the price point the bank for Buck to
build out the rest of their team.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Geene Watson, our MLB inside are joining us here on
Sports thirteen hundreds and all right now, I'm going to
move to the hitters.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
You brought up Kyle Schwarber.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
In addition to Swarber, we're talking about Kyle Tucker, Pete Alonzo,
Cody Bellinger, Alex Bragman. You got the two Japanese star hitters,
Muna Taki Murakami.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And Kazuma Akamoto. Those guys are in there.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I'm hearing lots of different things in terms of where
guys may wind up but you're saying there is a
distinct possibility we may see Schwarber signed with somebody that
maybe folks aren't expecting to see sign him one.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Hundred percent, and then from there it's going to be
Bellinger and Tucker the next two dominoes to fall, and
then those contracts will set the market for the rest
of the group. And I know the Yankees are working
hirously to bring Bellinger back. Tucker arguably fits so many teams.
I know that the Cobs would love to have him back.
(08:55):
Not sure that's going to get there, but those are
the three big dominoes. To Paul, I'm not saying that
Schwarber won't end up, you know, with a first division
club for a chance to win a championship in twenty six,
but there is a chance he could be in a
surprise destination.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Let me get your thoughts on something and your theory
on this. You mentioned Kyle Tucker. The Blue Jays hosted
him last week at their spring facility.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
There.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
They're also hoping to bring back Bobashet. They obviously were
active of what they've done with Cease. How much would
you say they were within as we know, Take your
thumb and forefinger index finger and put him a quarter
inch apart. That's how close they were to winning the
World Series. How much did that taste of it getting
(09:44):
really close to winning the whole thing fired them up
for their aggression in this free agency market to finally
get over that Hume.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Craig, I've said this a thousand times. You know, you
have the vision for your organization to get to the playoffs,
and then it happens, and you never want to let
that feeling go. When you get to a World Series,
you never want to let that feeling go. And when
you lose, you wake up the next morning. And I've
been a part of this twice, and this is just
(10:17):
this emptiness that you feel that you were that close
and imagine essentially being inches away from winning a world championship.
That passion and desire and fire beginning with ownership to
the front office, to the entire organization, to your.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Fan base, to the media base does not go away.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
The push becomes even greater. And I could promise you
that Toronto is going to put the foot on the
gas to try to do whatever they can do to
repeat what happened last season.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Okay, so now here's the home team imp. We're gonna
start with Jake Washington, Nationals fan that he is.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Jay Well, we probably won't talk about Washington so much
during the season, who knows. But these winter meetings obviously
pretty interesting for them with a new front office led
by Paul Taboni, and they kind of fire the first
shot here trading jose A Ferrer, who was their closer,
for Harry Ford, the mariners number two prospect. As the
Nationals have kind of rebuilt their entire front office, what
(11:14):
kind of direction do you see for them and and
what kind of predictions might you have for the way
their offseason could go.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Well, Paul's outstanding and another Notre Dame guy by the way,
but he's got a great vision. He's got a great
vision for where it's going to go. And he did
such a tremendous job in Boston when you talk about
the players that he drafted and that they signed internationally,
he was certainly at the front of that. So but
he when you're entering a rebuild like they are, the
(11:45):
first thing you're doing is measuring yourself within the division.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And if you just do that, if.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
You don't worry about anybody else in baseball and you
just measure yourself with where you need to be within
the division, and you look at where the Mets are,
and you look at where Phillies are, and even the
Braves are a tweak to be a very good club
next year. When you look at that overall division, I mean,
it's very simple to look at the chance of let's
get younger, more impactful. Let's try to get a core
(12:12):
group of young players together that are going to come
up and grow together and and do all those things
that come with building a strong organization. And Harry Ford
is an outstanding prospect. Actually I've seen him many times,
saw him in Round Rock this last summer, and the
Sky's limit athlete. First, he can play all over the diamond.
The catchers his primary position, and the bat is real.
(12:33):
And so they'll continue to make moves like that. They
know where they are within the division. But to get
leaner and meaner and younger with more impactful ceiling players
is certainly going to be their goal.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Okay, now the update for the now back to back
World champions and and and I'm kind of curious about this,
you know, you know when they when when the Dodgers
weren't active at the trade deadline, they said, we just
want to get guys healthy.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
If we get healthy, we'll be okay.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And it ultimately it proved to be the case, although
they weren't completely healthy. Do you see them also waiting
through this, waiting on the progress of Evan Phillips, Michael Kopek,
River Ryan, who's been mentioned as a possible trade option
for them. I saw where they and I think this
is a great move. Resigned Miguel Rojas to a one
(13:21):
year deal and then he's going to work with player
development after playing one final season.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
La Where do you where do you see the Dodgers
in all this?
Speaker 4 (13:29):
I think they're going to try to do something that
hasn't done in about twenty five years. They're going to
try to, you know, do what the Yankees did and
win three years in a row. And they're certainly the
front runner to do it. And the thing that I
admire so much about the Dodgers that the push to
build the roster from the top.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Down never ends. It would be easily so it'd be
easy to.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Look at that everyday lineup and say, you know, we
don't really need much. Let's let's add some complimenary players.
Know they're in on Kyle Tucker, and they're in on
a lot of these big name free agents and so.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And what makes said also such a.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Great environment is that there are players on that twenty
six man roster that bringing other people in affects their
playing time. But it's such a selfless roster and they
all know that they have a chance to do something
special and it's very unique in today's sport that you
have that kind of that type of culture.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
But they know what they're going to try to do.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
It was a i mean by inches to get it
done this year. So you know, you bring in a
couple of guys that are great players that have never
gotten there before, and those guys become the catalysts to
get it done because they've never won, and everybody kind
of gets behind those players.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
To do it.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
So it's great admiration that they continue to build from
the top down. But their depth is so strong, and
this is an organization we pay attention to every day
because you know, the backside of their forty man roster
are players that would certainly impact hours and so great
admiration for the Dodgers and look for them to post
(14:57):
very strong in the twenty twenty six to do it again.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Watch and join us for a few more minutes. Let's
get the Texas teams updates. For those folks whore wanting
to know about the Rangers and Astros, do you do
you see those two being busy? And how active will
the Astros be to try to keep from or Valdez.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I think they'll be active.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
You know, Jim Crane one of the great owners in
the history of our game, and and I tell everybody
he's the modern day George Steinbrenner. You know, being able
to interview with him in twenty twenty for the general
managed position just gave me so much respect for, you know,
his expectations, drive of the results. And when you look
at that team this year, on paper, they should not
(15:37):
have competed in the way that they in the manner
they did, but they just they have expectations and they
meet them and I think they'll they'll work.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
It'll work very hard to try to get that done.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
But but that entire division, you know, short of Seattle,
who you know, they're they're gonna use They're gonna lose
Eugenios for us potentially. But but that division is kind
of coming back together a little bit in Texas with
their young position players and some younger pitchers coming, and
Houston's gonna probably be pretty active in free agency.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
The American League West.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
With what the Angels are doing and they're young pitching,
that's going to be a dog fight next year because
it's not one team that's a clear cut run away
from the division. I think you're going to see even
Oakland with their young core, uh and and getting prepared
to move into Vegas, They're going to be active. I
think it's going to be a dog fighter division and
it's gonna be interesting to see how the rest of
(16:30):
the winner plays out.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Boy, you know, it was interesting to see the Rangers
were pretty busy in November. They non tendered a Doolie Scarcia,
Jonah him and Josh Spores and then uh they flip
Marcus Simeon for Brandon Nemo that made the deal there
and Skip Schumacher is the new manager.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
They've already been pretty active.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
They have they need Kamar Rocker and lighter to to
to step up and be the guys that they can
be that they can be. If they can do that,
that's going to be big for a help for them
on the mound. They need Wyatt Lengkord to be the
player start to reach the ceiling that they believe that
he was going to be out of the University of Florida.
And they need healthy Evan Carter. If Evan Carter can
(17:13):
stay healthy. You know, Josh Smith is just a grinder,
dirtback type player that's going to feel in a second base.
But if Evan Carter or White Langford and those young
arms can step up, they've got a chance to be
to be a little more competitive in twenty six.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Then other people might be giving them credit for him.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Hey, tell me what you know about Sebastian Walcott, who's
so high on their prospect list.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
I mean, this is a dynamic player.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
This is a guy that is a super athlete, very
tooled out beyond his age maturity wise on the field.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And it's not going to be long.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
You know, once you get to that double A level,
you know, the player kind of lets you know when
they're ready. The player's expectations drive the results. And this
is a super gifted town to player. And if he
gets off to a good start in April and May,
it won't be long before he's impacting the team in Arlington.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Wow, Gino, I appreciate this.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Have fun in Orlando and better days are coming, my friend,
for both of the college football teams to which we
are currently attached.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Okay, Craig, appreciate you, thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
All right, that's Geene Watson joining us here. We have
more coming up on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the
Zone in the iHeartRadio app.
I know there's somebody out there.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
No way, we're in December.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
What's with the baseball music? Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Baseball's Winter meetings are under way in Orlando, Florida. There's
some important stuff there on the docket. And with that,
if it's important, and even if it isn't, if we're
just talking baseball, we're talking with our good friend Jean Watson,
the player personnel director of the Chicago White Sox, our
MLB insider who joins us from the Sunshine State. Are
(00:33):
you scouting out restaurants in advance for me when I
get down there at the end of the month for
the cheese at Citrus Bowl for the Longhorns.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Well, i'll give you Columbia in celebration.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You got to go there. It's amazing. Yeah. Well, I'll
have a full scouting report for.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You all right now, full disclosure here if you haven't
already been able to figure it out during the course
of the year. Our man Jeene Watson loves the Texas Longhorns.
He's from Templeton, Access born and bred. Loves Longhorns. But
if there is a college football team that might capture
his heart a little more, it's a team that just
(01:09):
got left out of the playoff. It's the fighting Irish
and Notre Dame. How many games did you go to
this year, Gino?
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I went to four and was planning on at least
four more, and that.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That dream is over.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Okay, all right, So the first one you went to,
you still say A and M was holding on that
touchdown pass, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
We had a holding on the last play in overtime.
There was a there was a targeting about four plays
before it wasn't called, and then you had the pass
interference on the last play of the game that would
have potentially put him in fil goal range. Although the
kicker wasn't very good this year, you never know, but
the holding penalty ended up being not only big for.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Notre Dame, but also big for Texas.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
So yeah, it's amazing how one play in August can
affect an entire season for a lot of teams.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Well, you bring up a good point.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I wanted to I wanted to give you the floor
for a minute because we've talked about, you know, what
happened with the committee, and obviously I had no dog
in the hunt. But the way that I looked at
it was listen, you know me you've known me a
long time. I'm a more is more guy. I fell
all along. The playoffs should be larger anyway. I think
it should be sixteen. If it was sixteen, Notre Dame
(02:16):
would be in, Texas would be in. We wouldn't even
be having this discussion. That said, I know you're disappointed,
as everybody else is that is rooting for the fighting Irish.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Well, and I'm going to speak to the University of
Texas part of this. Like what Marcus Freeman said at
the end is absolutely true. It's the twelve best teams now.
And you can't go all season long and say that Texas,
A and m might be the best team in the country.
And then Texas beat Texas beats in the day for
Thanksgiving and they're left out of the conversation. Notre Dame
(02:50):
is in. Then Alabama bumps them, goes ahead of them
having not played great, and then so and then you
bump Miami ahead of them with no team playing. So
it's just been a moving target the entire time. I
would say that easily Texas beats nine of the twelve
that are in the playoffs, and who knows how many
Notre Dame beats but the group of five is ridiculous.
(03:13):
Participation trophies don't belong in college football, and quite frankly,
this college Football Playoff has very little credibility to me
because the Texas Longhorns and Notre Dame Fighting Irish aren't
in it.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
How much fun would it be, Geno to have a
seven versus ten matchup between Texas and Notre Dame either
in Austin or South Bend in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It would be unbelievable. It would have been unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
And you know, this is going to reshape the way
teams look at If I'm Texas and I'm Notre Dame,
I'm looking at that home and home in twenty seven
and twenty eight and saying, you know, it really makes
sense for us to play these games because both teams
are going to be top five programs at the time,
and if you're going to be penalized for it later
in the season, why play those games?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
And as I was saying earlier, you know Sark mentioned
at his press conference last week, he said, We're going
to honor our contract for the home games with Ohio
State and Michigan in twenty six and twenty seven. But
then you have Irvin Meyers saying he's telling Ryan Day
find a way to opt out of it, don't play
Texas in twenty six. So, like you said, the genie
may be out of the bottle on this thing.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It may go on.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Question. Yeah, all right, question.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
And for those for those criticizing Notre Dame for not
playing in a bowl game, that is a clear message.
And in my opinion, the first dominoes fall on what
was an attack by ESPN. It's people, and so it's
going to betting to see how that all plays out
as well.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
All right, let's we'll move on to happier topics. So
let let's talk about the Winter Meetings. And I want
to ask you. Everything that I'm reading says that the
and I know we hear about this every year with
the Winter Meetings, and I I've been at a couple
of myself, obviously, but the ones that the things that
(04:56):
come to mind is everybody's talking about the free agents.
So Dylan Ceik gets his deal with the Blue Jays.
But you've got fromer Valdez, Tatsumai, have Ranger Suarez, Michael King,
Zach Gallen, Merrill, Kelly Justin Verlander, Chris Bassett, Tyler Mayley,
Zach Eflin, Lucas gi Alito, Zach Lttel.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
They're all on the market this year.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
And uh, would you say that it's going to be
an active free agent market during these next few days.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
And talking to a lot of agents on the floor,
you know, the demand is so much greater than the
supply supply for pitching that you know, the teams that
are able to spend in that price range are all
getting a measure on, you know, how can we get
the most bang for our buck and still not like
destroy the rest of our off season payroll. So that's
(05:46):
that's the one thing that teams are monitoring. They want
to get to a price point on the best possible
pitcher and still be able to do other things. And
so that's really where it's kind of at right now.
The real buzz around the floor right now is Kyle Schwarbery.
There are some teams on Kyle Schwarber right now that
he could sign with that would be shocking to the
(06:09):
baseball industry from a standpoint of where the major league
team sits now, but where that major league team could
sit in two or three years is completely different, and
this is the kind of guy that you bring in
and now it attracts other free agents and you send
a statement to your fans and your fan dates that
generate revenue to help with the contract. So Kyle Schwarber
(06:32):
is the one player that I would keep an eye
on is there could be some real surprises where he
ends up this winner.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Okay, I'm going to jump back to hitters in a moment.
The other thing I wanted to ask you about. I
just rattled off a list of really good starting pitchers
who are on the market.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And then in.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
The out of the Bullpen, you're talking about Diaz opting
out of his that deal that he had with the Mets,
and then you got Devin Williams, Ryan Helsley, Emilia Pagan,
Rice ell Iglesias. Uh, they sign new deals, But Robert Swarez,
Pete Fairbanks, ken Lee Jansen, Tyler Rogers, Kyle Finn again,
(07:09):
Luke Weaver, they're still on the market. So what's gonna
What's gonna be more active? Starters are relievers?
Speaker 4 (07:16):
No, I think the starters are going to be more
active because because you've got to spend, like your rotation
has to be able to compete every night, and then
from a from a rhythm of the winter standpoint, Like
those closers, they're not gonna sign with clubs until they know, hey,
I've got a real shot of winning a championship.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Because when you talk about going out.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
And throwing sixty seventy appearances a season, you want to
know that you have a chance to won reach throws
of those appearance thresholds, but also that you're doing it
for a championship team. And so it will, certainly, I believe,
be the starters first, and and and again clubs will
be measuring the price point the bank for Buck to
build out the rest of their team.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Geene Watson, our MLB inside are joining us here on
Sports thirteen hundreds and all right now, I'm going to
move to the hitters.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
You brought up Kyle Schwarber.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
In addition to Swarber, we're talking about Kyle Tucker, Pete Alonzo,
Cody Bellinger, Alex Bragman. You got the two Japanese star hitters,
Muna Taki Murakami.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And Kazuma Akamoto. Those guys are in there.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I'm hearing lots of different things in terms of where
guys may wind up but you're saying there is a
distinct possibility we may see Schwarber signed with somebody that
maybe folks aren't expecting to see sign him one.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Hundred percent, and then from there it's going to be
Bellinger and Tucker the next two dominoes to fall, and
then those contracts will set the market for the rest
of the group. And I know the Yankees are working
hirously to bring Bellinger back. Tucker arguably fits so many teams.
I know that the Cobs would love to have him back.
(08:55):
Not sure that's going to get there, but those are
the three big dominoes. To Paul, I'm not saying that
Schwarber won't end up, you know, with a first division
club for a chance to win a championship in twenty six,
but there is a chance he could be in a
surprise destination.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Let me get your thoughts on something and your theory
on this. You mentioned Kyle Tucker. The Blue Jays hosted
him last week at their spring facility.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
There.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
They're also hoping to bring back Bobashet. They obviously were
active of what they've done with Cease. How much would
you say they were within as we know, Take your
thumb and forefinger index finger and put him a quarter
inch apart. That's how close they were to winning the
World Series. How much did that taste of it getting
(09:44):
really close to winning the whole thing fired them up
for their aggression in this free agency market to finally
get over that Hume.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Craig, I've said this a thousand times. You know, you
have the vision for your organization to get to the playoffs,
and then it happens, and you never want to let
that feeling go. When you get to a World Series,
you never want to let that feeling go. And when
you lose, you wake up the next morning. And I've
been a part of this twice, and this is just
(10:17):
this emptiness that you feel that you were that close
and imagine essentially being inches away from winning a world championship.
That passion and desire and fire beginning with ownership to
the front office, to the entire organization, to your.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Fan base, to the media base does not go away.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
The push becomes even greater. And I could promise you
that Toronto is going to put the foot on the
gas to try to do whatever they can do to
repeat what happened last season.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Okay, so now here's the home team imp. We're gonna
start with Jake Washington, Nationals fan that he is.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Jay Well, we probably won't talk about Washington so much
during the season, who knows. But these winter meetings obviously
pretty interesting for them with a new front office led
by Paul Taboni, and they kind of fire the first
shot here trading jose A Ferrer, who was their closer,
for Harry Ford, the mariners number two prospect. As the
Nationals have kind of rebuilt their entire front office, what
(11:14):
kind of direction do you see for them and and
what kind of predictions might you have for the way
their offseason could go.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Well, Paul's outstanding and another Notre Dame guy by the way,
but he's got a great vision. He's got a great
vision for where it's going to go. And he did
such a tremendous job in Boston when you talk about
the players that he drafted and that they signed internationally,
he was certainly at the front of that. So but
he when you're entering a rebuild like they are, the
(11:45):
first thing you're doing is measuring yourself within the division.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And if you just do that, if.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
You don't worry about anybody else in baseball and you
just measure yourself with where you need to be within
the division, and you look at where the Mets are,
and you look at where Phillies are, and even the
Braves are a tweak to be a very good club
next year. When you look at that overall division, I mean,
it's very simple to look at the chance of let's
get younger, more impactful. Let's try to get a core
(12:12):
group of young players together that are going to come
up and grow together and and do all those things
that come with building a strong organization. And Harry Ford
is an outstanding prospect. Actually I've seen him many times,
saw him in Round Rock this last summer, and the
Sky's limit athlete. First, he can play all over the diamond.
The catchers his primary position, and the bat is real.
(12:33):
And so they'll continue to make moves like that. They
know where they are within the division. But to get
leaner and meaner and younger with more impactful ceiling players
is certainly going to be their goal.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Okay, now the update for the now back to back
World champions and and and I'm kind of curious about this,
you know, you know when they when when the Dodgers
weren't active at the trade deadline, they said, we just
want to get guys healthy.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
If we get healthy, we'll be okay.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And it ultimately it proved to be the case, although
they weren't completely healthy. Do you see them also waiting
through this, waiting on the progress of Evan Phillips, Michael Kopek,
River Ryan, who's been mentioned as a possible trade option
for them. I saw where they and I think this
is a great move. Resigned Miguel Rojas to a one
(13:21):
year deal and then he's going to work with player
development after playing one final season.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
La Where do you where do you see the Dodgers
in all this?
Speaker 4 (13:29):
I think they're going to try to do something that
hasn't done in about twenty five years. They're going to
try to, you know, do what the Yankees did and
win three years in a row. And they're certainly the
front runner to do it. And the thing that I
admire so much about the Dodgers that the push to
build the roster from the top.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Down never ends. It would be easily so it'd be
easy to.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Look at that everyday lineup and say, you know, we
don't really need much. Let's let's add some complimenary players.
Know they're in on Kyle Tucker, and they're in on
a lot of these big name free agents and so.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And what makes said also such a.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Great environment is that there are players on that twenty
six man roster that bringing other people in affects their
playing time. But it's such a selfless roster and they
all know that they have a chance to do something
special and it's very unique in today's sport that you
have that kind of that type of culture.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
But they know what they're going to try to do.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
It was a i mean by inches to get it
done this year. So you know, you bring in a
couple of guys that are great players that have never
gotten there before, and those guys become the catalysts to
get it done because they've never won, and everybody kind
of gets behind those players.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
To do it.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
So it's great admiration that they continue to build from
the top down. But their depth is so strong, and
this is an organization we pay attention to every day
because you know, the backside of their forty man roster
are players that would certainly impact hours and so great
admiration for the Dodgers and look for them to post
(14:57):
very strong in the twenty twenty six to do it again.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Watch and join us for a few more minutes. Let's
get the Texas teams updates. For those folks whore wanting
to know about the Rangers and Astros, do you do
you see those two being busy? And how active will
the Astros be to try to keep from or Valdez.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I think they'll be active.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
You know, Jim Crane one of the great owners in
the history of our game, and and I tell everybody
he's the modern day George Steinbrenner. You know, being able
to interview with him in twenty twenty for the general
managed position just gave me so much respect for, you know,
his expectations, drive of the results. And when you look
at that team this year, on paper, they should not
(15:37):
have competed in the way that they in the manner
they did, but they just they have expectations and they
meet them and I think they'll they'll work.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
It'll work very hard to try to get that done.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
But but that entire division, you know, short of Seattle,
who you know, they're they're gonna use They're gonna lose
Eugenios for us potentially. But but that division is kind
of coming back together a little bit in Texas with
their young position players and some younger pitchers coming, and
Houston's gonna probably be pretty active in free agency.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
The American League West.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
With what the Angels are doing and they're young pitching,
that's going to be a dog fight next year because
it's not one team that's a clear cut run away
from the division. I think you're going to see even
Oakland with their young core, uh and and getting prepared
to move into Vegas, They're going to be active. I
think it's going to be a dog fighter division and
it's gonna be interesting to see how the rest of
(16:30):
the winner plays out.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Boy, you know, it was interesting to see the Rangers
were pretty busy in November. They non tendered a Doolie Scarcia,
Jonah him and Josh Spores and then uh they flip
Marcus Simeon for Brandon Nemo that made the deal there
and Skip Schumacher is the new manager.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
They've already been pretty active.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
They have they need Kamar Rocker and lighter to to
to step up and be the guys that they can
be that they can be. If they can do that,
that's going to be big for a help for them
on the mound. They need Wyatt Lengkord to be the
player start to reach the ceiling that they believe that
he was going to be out of the University of Florida.
And they need healthy Evan Carter. If Evan Carter can
(17:13):
stay healthy. You know, Josh Smith is just a grinder,
dirtback type player that's going to feel in a second base.
But if Evan Carter or White Langford and those young
arms can step up, they've got a chance to be
to be a little more competitive in twenty six.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Then other people might be giving them credit for him.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Hey, tell me what you know about Sebastian Walcott, who's
so high on their prospect list.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
I mean, this is a dynamic player.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
This is a guy that is a super athlete, very
tooled out beyond his age maturity wise on the field.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And it's not going to be long.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
You know, once you get to that double A level,
you know, the player kind of lets you know when
they're ready. The player's expectations drive the results. And this
is a super gifted town to player. And if he
gets off to a good start in April and May,
it won't be long before he's impacting the team in Arlington.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Wow, Gino, I appreciate this.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Have fun in Orlando and better days are coming, my friend,
for both of the college football teams to which we
are currently attached.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Okay, Craig, appreciate you, thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
All right, that's Geene Watson joining us here. We have
more coming up on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the
Zone in the iHeartRadio app.
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