Inside Access with Jason LaCanfora and Ken Weinman
Jim Duquette: The Orioles need to add a relief pitcher
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With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently. With offline maps and on-trail navigation. Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. Orioles and Rangers, game 2 of the 4-game series at 7 o'clock. Tonight, right across the street is where pickles here across the street from Oreo Park in Camden Yards. And we've been talking a lot over the last few days. How aggressive will the Orioles be as the trade deadline is what? 32 days away? Well, let's talk to our friend Jim Duquette, former Orioles exec. Now an MLB network radio and Jim thanks as always for joining us. So how aggressive do you think the Orioles will be as the trade deadline approaches? Well, I think that I'm expecting them to be aggressive as one of the few teams that has a chance to go deep into the post season. And I think that they're one of the few teams that, as we've talked about before, that have the prospect capital to get this done. They also have the ability to take on money, which as we've seen in places like last year with the Astros, if you took on a combination of money and prospects, that is also a way to add. So, you know, they're a real force, I think, on the deadline, and I think this is, you know, it's an important test here for the organization. I just might go live, but the new ownership group, really. Could you see a scenario though, Jim, where they assess everything, you say, hey, you know, crochet is allegedly the top guy, you know, he's a converter reliever whose arm might fall off, right? Who's an unchartered territory? Like, there was a buyer's pitcher market this past off season. It might be a buyer's market again next year, and we fill some of our holes there. And we keep all of our most of our top eight to 10 prospects, you know, and, you know, maybe we win on FETI, maybe we don't, maybe it's Lance Lynn, something like that. And we just sort of see what that looks like, but we keep having these great hands to play in the future. Could you see them playing the long game? I mean, listen, I do think that there's a possibility of that, for sure. I mean, it's a, we already know they're going to get to the postseason. And a lot of times, you know, there's a number of executives around the game that believe that it's a craft shoot to get in once you get into the postseason. Like, if you're playing well, you know, or you're hot, you can run the table as your as your kind of built. They do have to do something. I think we kind of know that. But I do think there's a scenario that, you know, that, like you said, crochet is the best guy. He's not a perfect candidate because he's going to, I think, run out. They'll run into some innings limits. Flaherty, we already saw Flaherty that didn't work. You can't bring him back here. He's probably going to be available for somebody else because he's pitching really well. Severino might be a good candidate, you know, but FETI might be the guy that has the highest floor in the lowest ceiling and give you innings. And, you know, you piece it together that way. It's not the sexy spot that you would want. If that scenario played itself out for the Orioles, I would like to see him get another reliever too. And I've seen, you know, that the Atlanta Braves, when they won the World Series there a couple years ago, they had, you know, two, I'd say two solid stars. The third one, the third and fourth, you had to piece it together. In fact, they had a, when Fried got hurt, you know, they had a spot starter, kind of a young kid that they did as an opener, and then they went all relievers. And they wore out four relievers, you know, and they pitched in every game that they were leading and they won it that way. So you can do it that way. It's a little bit harder to do, though. Jim, could you see them trade anyone currently on the Major League roster? Ideally, no, but, you know, the thing that stands out to me is, you know, okay, Norby was up earlier, or, you know, curse dads up now. If they're in their evaluation, you know, that's an area of depth and they feel like, you know, one of those guys gets them, you know, a controllable, the issue that they have as you guys have talked about too, you know, the starting rotation beyond this year doesn't look good. You're going to have to go out and spend a lot of money to get a free agent, or you can trade for it and give up, you know, some prospect capital now, then you have control over those guys. That's why I like crochet, because he still has control of them for the next couple of years. But, you know, ideally in this type of situation, you don't want to take guys off your Major League roster. But all the GMs that I've spoken to about a half, probably a dozen, half the league, somewhere in that range between 12 and 15 GMs. Every one of them is coming back saying to make it deal, you're going to have to take somebody and do like a Major League deal for Major League deal, or some kind of, you know, taking off of your roster to, you know, add kind of robbing from one area of strength to add to another. And because of the Orioles depth, you know, that there is a way that they could do that. But it's not ideal, you know, I would just say that. We're talking to Jim Ducat, it's inside access here on the fan gym. Let's move to the, and stay in the division, but move to the Yankees. And man, oh man, does this look messy all of a sudden? Stanton gets hurt. The lineup's not deep. Rizzo got hurt. He wasn't good before him. Bullpense, thanks. Bullpense, thanks. Rotation's been bad. Velocity down on Garrett Cole. How apprehensive are you about what's going on in New York? Well, you know, the thing about what's going on with the Yankees, and even with the Orioles, you know, when you have these type of bad streaks and, you know, five-game losing streak is, you know, as bad as it gets for the Orioles. For the rest of the league, that's, you know, some teams have three five-game losing streak and still get to the postseason. And this has happened once for the Colts, but with the Yankees, they've lost six to nine, seven to ten, somewhere in that range. They, you start to see the exposure of, you know, where they are, you know, weak. And I don't think it's as bad in the rotation as what it's looked like, but I do worry about their offense because of, you know, the way that their offense has looked. And I am concerned about their both 10, too, if I were in Bryant Cash can choose. So, you know, I think that there's some things that they, that they have to fix, and they will, you know, they're not going away. But, you know, I think they've been exposed during this last season. This season Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites, like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies, like backpacks, binders and pencils. And they've got your back. When your kid casually tells you, they have a huge school project due tomorrow. Let's face it, we were all that kid. So first, call your parents to say, "I'm sorry." And then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee for your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order additional terms apply. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to, or the succulents that adorn our homes, nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently. With offline maps and on-trail navigation, download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. It's about two weeks stretch. I want to throw a particular name at you because it doesn't come up that much, but I've been fairly obsessed with him for, I don't know, six to eight weeks now. We know Lozardo is now on the shelf, and this looks fairly serious, and he's been IELD a few times this year. So that's probably out the door. The lefty I like is Weathers with Miami, who I know is dealing with a little hand thing. Now it's not dealing with any structural, and he should be back soon. And they've got to kind of get prospects somewhere. I know they don't want to trade any pitching because everybody's hurt, but most of those guys should be back next year. Like, would you target him? Do you buy that he's turned the corner? Like, I kind of think he might be who he was drafted to be all along. Yeah, I like what I've seen out of him recently. I'm kind of with you. The issue, like you said, is the injury, and I don't think he's going to be out much longer. I also think that they would move him, you know, in the right type of situation. You know, and they've done, you know, as we've seen over time, and I know it's a different regime right now in the front office, but they have traded good starting pitching for, you know, position players and maybe haven't quite worked out. You know, I like jazz chism a lot, but, you know, they did that. It was, I think it was for Zach Galen. You know, Galen's one of the top starters in the sport right now. I know he's hurt, but, you know, he's been, you know, bordering on a number one type starter. Yeah, the O's can make a deal, something like that. It wouldn't shock me if Weathers, his dad played for me when I was with Met. So, you know, I know that he's a, you know, going to be a good major leaguer, and he just took a little bit of time for him to figure it out. And he's only 24 years old too. So, I mean, he fits a lot of that criteria that you would look for in a young starter. And by the way, you know, a lefty, that would be a great, you know, long-term fit for the O's. Jim, how big of sellers do you think the Blue Jays end up being at the deadline? So, that's the big, one of the bigger question marks right now. Now, I had Ross Atkins at their GM on my show a couple of weeks ago, and he basically said, no, under no circumstance, was he going to be trading Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., or Boba Shet. Now, hey, we've seen plenty of General Badgers change their mind, but let's just take it for what he said and say that's the truth. If that's the case, you know, and they only go with guys that are going to be free agents, there's not a ton of quality there. I mean, you say Kikuchi is going to be a free agent. They've got a couple of one or two relievers. They've got a catcher, Danny Janton. But, you know, it's limited. And, you know, there's going to be jobs on the line there, too. So, that kind of factors into how deep they would be sellers. So, I don't particularly think that they'll change their mind and go, you know, to that degree. I think it'll end up just being, you know, guys that will be free agents like the ones I just mentioned. You know, Kikuchi, maybe you're like a Jordan Romano. If he comes back healthy at Danny Janton, that type of player would be, you know, available, but I don't see how it would be a fit for the O's unless they really loved Kikuchi. Jim, right now in the National League, if you're not the Marlins or the Rockies, you're in contention for a wild card. Like, how do you see this whole thing shaking out? Because, while there are more playoff spots, there's not enough for everybody left. So, like, how does this whole thing shake out? Well, the National League is interesting. You know, because there's so many teams that are involved, I had the Cubs GMI and the other day Carter Hawkins. He works under Jed Hoyer and, you know, my general feeling has been over time that the teams usually separate themselves. The trade deadline, you know, in front offices want to talk about moving the deadline. I think it's been set there for a reason, right? The end of July is kind of the perfect timeframe for teams, you know, for the sense of urgency to kind of kick in one way or the other. You know what your team is for four months in, and most of the time you can make the decision if you're a buyer or seller. And I think you'll see more separation. We've already started to see it a little bit here recently where we actually have three teams that are over 500 in the wild cards. Now, right, right, Cardinals, I think are the third wild card. They're too over. You know, the Mets are one game back. They're 500. So, you know, we're starting to see a little bit of that separation right now. If I were, you know, putting money down on teams, I would keep an eye on the Diamondbacks. I'd keep an eye on the Giants. Maybe the Reds as teams, you know, that are going to get healthy here if they can hold on. You know, I think the Mets will stay in the mix. I don't see them separating themselves too far, but they'll be around 500. So, you know, Cardinals will be in that mix. So, I think there's like four teams. I think you see the Nationals fall back, the Cubs fall back, that group, the Pirates, they won't be in it at the end unless they make some major deals in the next couple of weeks. Jim DuCette, always great. Thank you so much for your time, man. We appreciate it. Have a good one down there. See you. Thanks so much. Have a great weekend. Trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again. 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