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The Pesky Podcast
The Pesky Podcast episode 137 Off Season News
We discuss off season news and rumors about the Boston RedSox and MLB.
following video is brought to you by the Boston Sports Entertainment Network, please consider liking and subscribing for more Boston SportsCon. Shot to right, slicing toward the pesky pole, down to the right field line toward the pesky pole. Leaping up, and now the ball is gone, that's a home run. They're brought of our nascent team as well. High fly down to right field line headed toward the pesky pole, that one tucked in, and that ball is going to be against the wall, and into second base the number retired, and a run by a zebra is trying to retire that baseball inside the pesky pole. Welcome to another episode of the pesky podcast. I'm your host, The Ritz. With me like always is the OG, Mr. George Sutherland, Mr. Rob. And our producer Brandon, guys, what's going on, man, it's a little different. Like we had to throw in a bonus episode because our season schedule with interviews with Red Sox, minor league and major league players has been, you know, this consistent and we're still booked. I think we're booked now completely until January, so every Sunday you will be getting another Red Sox, minor league, we just had on calmly early, Blake Wiehund, Drew Erhard, Noah Deane. Am I missing anybody, guys? Those are the ones we had on so far. So, and then this week, we have Kayden Rose, who was playing a little Arizona league fall ball this season, so. But enough about that, let's dive right in to the Red Sox off season, and let's go with the top of almost everybody's wish list. We'll start with you, George. Hey, Mr. Juan, Soto. So the Red Sox went and they flew out, Henry, you know, Bailey. I think Kennedy was involved. Alex Cora went out with, you know, so either one of two things is happening. They know how to put on a ticker parade for the fans who say, hey, we went out there. You know, throw everything or they actually are going to be put in for an effort this off season because last year they said we want to wait for this core. Well, guys, the core is coming. The fantastic four is on the cast of joining the Major League roster for the Boston Red Sox. So, George, what are your thoughts on Juan Soto? Oh, I learned a little bit about it last Sunday. You know, to pick him up would be, look, you can't, the guys in town, you want him on the club. He's going to, he'll love them way park. You know, don't you fall off with the pesky pole and the bullpen's in right field, and he'll, you know, a couple of those fly ball outs and gets another stadiums are going to be, you know, off the green monster. It still has the fact that that it's an extremely left heavy lineup and you've just made it even more so. Now, if you say screw, we're going to go and we're not going to pay attention to that stuff anymore. Cool. But, you know, balance is balanced. And the same reason why I like to pick him, you know, pick up a left to start pitchers, you know, let's keep the opposing team honest. Okay, you know, a picture of this lineup, we've got, you know, causes, deserts, Soto, you know, to win, you know, so those four, okay, well, late in the game, when you get a, you know, when you get a lucky specialist in there, guess what, you know, that I'm sorry, I don't know how good of you are. That's a problem. But they made just through saying screw, you know, we're going to pound the hell out of the ball and we're going to get a couple more pitches, you know, we'll stand up here with the desk. I think it'd be great. But it's going to cost and, you know, he's joined Henry going to swap the nozzle wave out of his checkbook this time, you know, so that's the real question. Yeah, and we're going to get to Kennedy's car. Oh boy, I'm going to flash back last year, George. We're going to get ready to look at his face. Yeah, but Rob, what are your thoughts on, you know, Juan Soto, do you think the red Sox are putting forth, you know, their best effort? And what percentage do you think he's going to make it here? So let me just tell me my thoughts on Juan Soto. I have a Juan Soto t-share from when he won the World Series with the Nationals. I've always been a big fan of Juan Soto, even when he was on the Yankees, what a great year he had last year. There's not really much time or there's not really much, like you don't see this too often where a generational hitter hits the free agent market at such a young age, only 26 years old. And this is one of the things where you got to look at it. Okay, he wants to turn up a big amount of money, 600 million. That's a bit hefty price tag. I mean, Oh, Tommy made 700 million last year with technically he's making like, like quite a like, did a fair money around like four out of 90 million. But still, he wants a lot of money. But I do think worth the money. He is one of the one better hitters I have gotten to see in my lifetime. And I do think the Red Sox are all in on Juan Soto. And the reason why I say this is you have John Henry, who obviously just saw the Yankees number one just go to the World Series. So that has to light a fire up in your rear end, just seeing your rivals go to the big state. Obviously, it must have felt even better to see them lose, obviously, it made me feel great. But you got to look at it in that sense. You're fired up. You just saw your rivals make it all the way. So you want to do something to improve your team. And you had a you have a bright future with the minor leader is going to call up Roman Anthony, Marcelo Meyer, you got Kyle Teal in the wings, Christian Campbell, you got young guys. And something that stuck out to me is Juan Soto was talking about when with the Yankees, he would house dime bread or something came out of said, he doesn't feel comfortable with the future of the New York Yankees, their player development. The Red Sox probably have one of the better player developments right now. And you got to get it that way. That's one way to look at the future. And especially a guy who's so young, you're going to sign him to a 13, 14 year deal. You want him to sign for the rest of his career. So you want him to be, want him to, you know, be excited for the future. You want him to know that the future of the franchise is going to be good. And I think also having guys like David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, obviously bringing Raphael Bevers, Brian Bayo, bringing all the guys who are from the DR guys that he looked up to, guys who are he is around with in the league and his peers. I feel like that's another pitch that the Red Sox can make. And honestly, the percentage, it's in the teens. I give it, I still think he likely go to the Mets, but I do give it like a 18 to 20% chance. But if I do hear some more news, maybe that percentage will change. Yeah, Rob, I'm going to agree with you on part of that. Like, yes, he is a once-in-a-lifetime generational talent that's hitting free agency. But the Red Sox had another once-in-a-lifetime generational talent. Mookie Betts, and they let him, you know, they created him. And the number was somewhere around 300 million. So now we're talking double that for Juan Soto. And to me, Mookie Betts, I've said this a couple times, you know, George was with me when we were on Jeff Bates's show where, okay, he could have been our second base problem solver for, you know, the time last year, this year, like, come on now. So to me, 600 million is either a, you know, you're thinking Soto is way better than Mookie. B, your John Henry and Kennedy are admitting a huge mistake that they did. And they're trying to, you know, right, they're wrong. But it's gonna cost them 300 million more. So, like, that's, that's something really crazy. Brandon, what were you talking about? You're five years later down the wall. You're five years out still, right? So, you know, so that, that, that's thinking, well, it sounds like a lot, it's really not. So here's, here's my take. And, uh, I got to kind of root with Rob on this one because, you know, it's, it's going to be wherever he goes, it's going to be 13, 14, 15 year deal. Is he worth the money? Absolutely. And like, I am very leery because of the full throttle stuff last year. But there's a few things that seem different this year. And there's a few things that not a lot of people are talking about that I picked up on watching other podcasts and just from what I've seen on X and things like that. First of all, Sam Kennedy, when he was doing an interview with somebody the other day, David Ortiz called him in the middle of the interview, right? And then, suspiciously enough, on section 10, David Ortiz was texting Karabas while they were recording. It was either on section 10 or baseball is dead the other day that they were texting back and forth while recording. And then on baseball is dead this morning, Karabas is acting all giddy. I think, and Ortiz lives next to Soto's family in the DR. So there's something there. I think also that I don't think enough people talk about this, that when you watched the comeback, which we've talked about at length on this podcast multiple times, there was something in the way John Henry was portraying himself on camera that was either one, he's a really good actor, or two, he's starting to get a little hitch of his step that we haven't seen in a long time. Because he had that kind of swagger about him and maybe reliving and having to do those interviews is starting to bring John Henry back into that competitive mindset. Because he had to relive that when he went through those interviews. Does that play into it? I don't know. But I do think that there's some smoke here and the one thing that I'll counter to the Mookie Betts point is that when the Red Sox sold off Mookie Betts, they didn't have Anthony Meyer Teal and Campbell in the wings. They didn't have the makings of that next championship team that they do now. So there are some other factors there that go into it. Do I think they're going to land him? No, I think he's going to end up with one of the two New York teams. But I do think that we're going to be pretty good players in there. Yeah, Brandon, I agree with you also a little bit there to wear with the whole Mookie Betts thing. They didn't have farm system wasn't ready yet and stuff. So what I really sit there and think, it could be a great opportunity. But do you guys think, okay, say he gets a 12-13 year deal, there's going to be opt-outs. So it could end up being a five-six year deal. Because if he was smart and he could opt out and go for another big contract, because he's that young for it. So do you think that there's going to be opportunity for them to get a semi-short term deal done? But with long-term aspects, 12-year deal, but a five-year opt-out, six-year opt-out? George? Yeah, I don't think that these days you can develop a contract for any edge league ball player without the obligatory opt-out clause. And yeah, it's going to be somewhere. Rob, what about you? I feel like if you're looking at his, like as a young player, I think having an opt-out in a contract is pretty good, especially like throughout the five-six year mark, especially with him being so young, he would still be like in his prime at 31 years old. It would make sense to have it opt-out. But also, I heard things about Juan Soto saying, "It makes me feel good because I don't think that even though Dodgers met with them, I don't think the Dodgers will land on because he doesn't want any of that money. He doesn't want it deferred." So that's something that you got to look at. The Dodgers are known, well, obviously just one show, hey, contract, obviously. But the money was deferred, it was pushed back a bit. But if Juan Soto wants that money straight up, that eliminates the Dodgers, because the Dodgers obviously do have money up front that they can give them. But then, how are you going to afford Otani, Freeman, Mookie, and then Soto as well? It kind of doesn't add up with that. But I do think, yeah, an opt-out would be good around like a five-six year mark. Yeah. And right before we get to you, Bill, at Sock South here, we've lit a millions of dollars on fire and bad contracts in the last decade. We can't bulk on signing Soto because of the money. Bill, I absolutely agree with that one. Man, the first contract that I can think of is Pablo Sandoval. That was absolutely horrendous the way that we sit there and offer him, and he underperformed dramatically. But Bill, I agree with you. If the opportunity is there, we can't sit there and not sign Soto. But if it's because of money, if it's anything else, then you've got to look at it. But you can't say it's the money. So Brandon, what about you? Final thoughts on Soto? Yeah, I think that whatever the opt-out is, to me, whatever Soto's contract is, whatever he wants, you give him the blank check and you say, what do you want? What do you want for opt-outs, things like that? Because like you said, there's a good chance that he opts out after five, six years and tests the market again because he's going to be in really the prime of his career at that point. As good as he is now, he could be even better than which, I mean, that thought alone is like, why aren't you going after this guy hard? Any team that has the money to do that? And even if he opts in and you're stuck with that last six to 10 years on the back end of this contract, it's Juan Soto and even when and if he declines, he's still going to be a leader in that clubhouse. He's still going to be a voice that the young guys and the people that you trade for in the future can look up to. I mean, look at David Ortiz, he was hitting, you know, 20, 30 home run seasons up to age 40, 41. So the fall off is not guaranteed. So I would be worried about anything on the back end. I would just give him what he wants. And then I do agree with that as well, where you say like a leader form because we've heard and we've seen Raphael Devers is labeled as the leader of the clubhouse. There's no definitive leader in that clubhouse, Tristan Costas, Trevor's story, I would say, kind of is a leader, but there's no guy that's stuffed up as a leader in that clubhouse that the players can look up to. I think Juan Soto, obviously having a World Series Championship under his belt, being to the World Series twice at only age 26, is something that he could be a leader in that clubhouse. He could be a big voice. And honestly, I know they're saying, they were saying about Raphael Devers and this, that and the third, but Juan Soto could step in and be the face of that franchise right off the bat. Take the pressure off of Raphael right away. And that's really not Raphael's makeup. He kind of forced himself in a couple of occasions to make some statements. That's not for years. You know, he's, he's, he's a, he's a kid. Okay. And he would prefer to kind of like remain one. He says, you know, when he's got all the talents in the world, he did a baseball country pilot. But you know, if somebody came in on top of him, that would be great. It's the same thing with David Ortiz running the clubhouse back in the day where Manny was then, you know, Manny being Manny was okay with Ortiz, you know, and Pedro, you know, running interference for him, particularly with, you know, with Poppy, you know, absolutely. And to talk about those guys for a second too, Soto grew up a Red Sox fan idolizing those two. And then the last thing that I forgot earlier that I just want to make a point of, because not a lot of people are talking about this, apparently from what I've seen in red, there was talk in the Soto meetings about Vlad Jr. So that's another name that I think the Sox are, I don't know if they're going to trade, try to trade for him. But that's another name that maybe next off season, they're all in on, on Vlad Jr. and they're trying to get another pairing of a Manny and Poppy tight together like that. Yeah, well, let's go on to Nick Pavetta. So a lot of people were questioning them offering the call, the qualifying offer to Pavetta. So let's, let's talk about that and then talk about Pavetta, you know, rejecting the offer. So Rob, let's start off with you. So the first thing I want to say is when basically when a team offers a qualifying offer, essentially is that the player declines, regardless if they offered it or not, if they accept or not, they were, if they were to sign somewhere else, they got a compulsory draft pick. They got a draft pick attached to the player. Nick Pavetta, I don't think he is worth $21.5 million after what he performed last year, great in the bullpen, I think 2023 was great in the bullpen, stepped up big in 2021 in the playoffs, especially. But when you look at Nick Pavetta, I do not see the Red Sox re-signing him. If they do, if they do, they sign up for a lower deal, but I do see, I don't, I think the market they were saying for Nick Pavetta is going to be big because there's not a lot of besides Corbin Burns and Max Reed, there's not a really lot of, and Snell, of course, there's not really a lot of starting pitchers out there. And the guy like Nick Pavetta who grows hard, he doesn't really get injured, must he throws a lot of innings, throws a lot of strikes. He's a guy that could get some money on the market. I do see him going to maybe a team like the Angels who are hungry right now, they've been making a lot of trades in a couple of signings that have been pretty good trading force to wear and a couple bats they've been looking good. I can see him going there or even the Atlanta Braves taking him to the Atlanta Braves. So they need some pitching always. But Nick Pavetta, I, wherever he goes, I do wish him the best because even when he got pushed into that bullpen role, he took it on the chin, and he did what he had to do with it. But yeah, that's the reason him to climb the qualifying offer is just so if the Red Sox, if he does walk, they get a draft pick out of him. Yeah, and in recent years, well, let's just bring up Sandra Bogart's, you know, we offered him something, he declined it, the qualifying offer, and we turned that qualifying pick into one of the fantastic four Christian Campbell. So that just shows you, you know, what one extra pick in the draft to do, it pick correctly. And, you know, he did really well, you know, for us there. Pavetta, you know, rejecting the offer, I'm glad he did because like, you know, I don't think he's worth 21 million, you know, especially 21 million to what your fourth or fifth starter. Like that's, you know, that's a lot of money for four or five. So Brandon, what about you? I honestly, I think it was a genius move by Brizlo, like Rob said, you attach the draft pick to him. If he were to take that offer and come back, I mean, worst case scenario, like also like Rob said, there's not a ton of pitching on the open market. So he's still tradable at that point. Maybe you have to eat a little bit of that money for the one year, but he would probably be easily tradable to get, you know, well, the Astros, that's where I think he's going to sign because they wanted every deadline. They need pitching. And I think that's what he's doing. But if he had stayed here, he's still tradable. You say, okay, I'll take, I'll eat five million of a deal for one year, brings his deal down to, you know, 15, 16 more, what he's maybe worth on the open market. And you package him and one of your deals that you're obviously going to make this offseason. So either way, it was kind of a genius move on Breslow's part. George, I didn't think he was going to take the 20 to 21 million anyway. I think he's looking for a security and a long term deal. All right, I can see going back to the nationally. I think the Cubs would take a flyer on him. I think the Cardinals might also do that time. Bloom is not going to take over the organization in St. Louis. And don't ever come on deal with it in Philadelphia. Yeah, was he worth it? No, and I love the guy, you know, you guys all know that. But yeah, I really move. You know, go ahead, leave. We'll take the draft. We'll demonstrate that we can turn those things around with the goal. We've done it twice. Right? So let's make it, let's make it work. I wish him well. You will find no better competitor in baseball than he is. And goes out there and views you everything he has at all times. So maybe, maybe a younger team that's looking for, you know, a veteran president, CSA, your next step ought to be better. You know, there are a lot worse things you can do. The Angels are might be, but my money is on the Cubs. So. Yeah, but man, all was it Tuesday? I messaged George. I was on back and forth on Instagram talking to somebody. And we're going to lead right into the segment because every, because certain people were waiting on the, on Povetta for the 40 man roster move, but before we get into the 40 man roster editions, that's just head on over to our sponsor, Castorado, baseball development. Are you tired of being overlooked by college recruiters in professional scouts? Are your metrics so low that your bat speed doesn't sell you? Well, guess what? We have your solution. We have our dynamic bat speed accelerator training program, now available. Bye us. And right now, Castorado baseball development has a plea pre-Black Friday deal. So evaluations are 50% off, hitting 30% off, fielding 40% off, pitching is also 40% off. So head on over to Castorado baseball development. You know, get your, get your evaluation and get, get the deal. But two people just so happens that our additions to the Red Sox 40 man roster are also working with Mr. Fabian, Castorado and Castorado baseball development, Hunter Dobbins. And I'm not even gonna sit there and try to mess it up. Mr. Garcia, the password, as they nicknamed him in the minor leagues. So yeah, I was on the, I was sitting back and forth with Hunter. Hunter was on the phone with the Red Sox as soon as they announced it. So what are your guys's thoughts on Hunter Dobbins who we've had on the show? George, you know, you've got to talk to him twice now. And the password, Mr. Garcia. Well, I'm happy for Hunter. You know, so we had the opportunity to talk to him a couple of times. Good guy, hard worker, he'll get a shot, he'll get a shot on the majors. Obviously, the Sox, the promise of some pitching depth, it's a long season, he'll get a shot this year. I said, Garcia, young talent, but you know, wherever he's gone, he's hit and hit well. So they see something there, whether or not they, they keep him and, you know, bring him along and he eventually makes the big club or they spin him out to get something else that he, they actually saw some things that they liked and they wanted to keep him before somebody else snapped off. So yeah, extremely happy for Hunter. I mean, he's a really good guy. Yeah, and Hunter, if you're filled with this, that we have now we actually have pitching depth in Triple A, you know, we have Priestley or Priestor, we've got Richard Fitz, you know, we've got Hunter Dobbins down there now, you know, just to name a few, we have pitching depth, which can make us a sort of system. We've even got Cooper Criswell, who everybody thought was out of minor league options, you know, he still has an option down there. So they could put him back in Wooster. Huh, George, George? We'll get it. Okay. Wooster. Wooster. We got to work with him some more. And, you know, they can keep them stretched out just in case. So, but Rob, what are your thoughts on Dobbins and Garcia? Honestly, I think they're two solid pitchers. And like you said, having them in the minor league depth is great, especially with the roster depth, having those two guys who can fill in at the Major League level, especially when the Red Sox desperately need to pitching down the stress just year when they were trying to make a push for the playoffs. And I do think adding them to the roster is great because they have good potential for the future. Also a great nickname in the past where that is such a badass nickname. And I think the two players that we released for them and had to be done. Isaiah Campbell obviously lost it in the majors, wasn't very good with his command. And I thought like, obviously, at first, beginning of the year, who's great and kind of got struggle after. And then Brian Mata, I mean, that sucks to see him go. We had no plays. And it's just seemed he was always injured. And when he was healthy, it was just that he was never going to make it to the majors. It was a tough decision to make, obviously, with Brian Mata leaving. But it was the right decision, I think. And then those two guys added to that 40-man roster, two solid pitchers who have exciting to see in the future. Brandon? So I think, I think that Garcia is an underrated pick, right? Like, I saw a lot of people on Twitter after this announcement going, "Who is this guy?" And, you know, he's, he's still got some development to do, but he is someone who could be very good at majorly level. But I really want to focus on Dobbins because we were just talking about Pavetta. And Dobbins has that kind of fire in him, okay? Like, I don't want to come to Pavetta because I honestly think Dobbins is going to be better than Pavetta. But like, you want to talk about the workhorse mentality, the fire, the conviction, the gamer, that sheer dog out there on the mound, that's Dobbins. Anytime I hear him speak, any time I hear him interview with anybody, you know, that's the sense that I get from him, he's going to go out there and he's going to try to shove every time out. And I either see him as a starter down the road or possibly even a back end reliever. And the other thing that I love about him, and he brings us up every chance he gets, loves shoving it down the Yankees throat, even in the minor league levels, he said he just loves pitching against the Yankees affiliate teams. And he always brings a little extra when he does that because he loves the rivalry. So again, we want to talk about maybe trying to bring the rivalry back. Maybe this is the start to it. Absolutely. Knowing overall, like talking to Dobbins, he's a workhorse. You know, his fastball is upticked at 99 now. So it's actually crazy, you know, to see, and George, you know, we've always talked about here at the PESP podcast, interviewing, making relationships, friends, and their journey to the major league. Dobbins could be the first guy that we've interviewed that gets to, you know, to break that Red Sox barrier overall. Well, we do, we aren't talking to Mr. Fitz in the coming weeks. So, but yeah, he'd be one of the first one of the early guys we had on. So yeah, that would be cool. Yeah. I couldn't be happier when the news came out. I was like, yes. So, but yeah, I was trying to get breaking news, but the Red Sox, of course, beat us to it, duh. So, but let's move forward and touch a little bit about what Brandon said earlier. I think it was Brandon about Toronto, open for the trade talks with Vlad. So, man, that that would be a vicious three-headed monster there with Soto, Dever's, and Vlad. But Brandon, what are your thoughts on, you know, possible Vladimir Guerrero Jr.? So the one thing that I don't love about it is that we would potentially, if this trade were to go down, if it weren't to be waiting till next year off-season signing, if it were to be a trade this off-season, we're probably given them costs, or given them costs us. And I don't necessarily love that inner division, you know, then you've got to see costs us for the next four years. But that said, Vlad Jr., and if that's also a key to bringing Soto in, if that's part of, you know, like, that they discussed it, they're going to say, okay, we'll pair you with this guy, you guys are buddies, you want to be the next Manny and Poppy, if that's part of it, I make that trade contingent on kind of like what the Dodgers did with Glass now, like, we'll trade for you, but we immediately want an extension. Because to me, one year of Kossis, or one year of Vlad for four years of Kossis, isn't a great deal, even though I personally would love that right-handed bat in the lineup, but if you can make that trade and sign Vlad long-term, then yeah, I'll make that deal right away. And I love Kossis, I don't want to see him go, but if this is the way to get Vlad, I think you got to pull that trigger. See, see me, Vlad's not the Vlad that I remember when he first came up. Like, he's been gradually declining, pretty much, in my opinion, with the, since he won the home run derby. So, Rob, this is the up man. Yeah, that's why JD Martinez said that he would never, ever enter one because it messes up your swing. Rob, what are your thoughts? I'm gonna be honest, I have always been a big Vlad Amer Guerrero junior guy. I've been always a big Vlad Amer Guerrero fan in general, even before with his father, who was an amazing Hall of Famer. I got to say, Vlad, junior, I mean, that would be sick to have him with the red socks, and I think if you were to, like, Brandon said, to trade Kossis, you might have to trade off Kossis to make this happen. You could see that, or you could, because obviously, four years of Kossis, if that opens, if you trade off Kossis, that opens the first base spot, or if you ideally want to think about it, you could move Vlad, junior to third base, where he originally got called up at. He's a little bit of a probably of a better defender than Rafael Hevers, and then that opens up the opportunity of saying, "Hey, Rafa, you can DH, or you could play first base, or you could platoon somewhere," kind of makes it a little bit more open in that sense. I do think Vlad is a great hitter. I do agree with you, Rit. He has declined a little bit with his swing, but I mean, hey, the guy's a superstar cover of MLB The Show 24. He's a guy, if you add him to the red socks lineup, it makes it even more scary. Imagine if they got Soto, and then they get Vlad, Vlad Soto Devers. You're scared, you're scared in that A, at least. And also, Vlad, junior, I just think it has the flair. It would be pretty cool if we ever played the Dodgers. They got a lot of Japanese talent, and the red socks got all the Dominican talent. I think it would be pretty cool to see that, too. Yeah, just looking up. 2021, that's when Vlad hit 48 home runs, and then it went down to 32. We went down to 26, and then this year it came back up to 30. His batting average did come up 323. His OBP's 396. So this year was an uptick from the previous two years of really, really bad down. He had 940 OPS. The previous two years was 788 and 818. So the numbers were an uptick this year, but I got to see consistency. You go have a great year, two bad years, a great year. So what? Are we going to trade for Vlad and then get two bad years? Because that's what the pattern is. George, what about you? Yeah, I mean, Vlad at the Guerrero playing first base in Family Park, 81 games a year. Yeah, there's going to be a few extra dents on that wall. You know, I cost this out of trade deadline, too. If the socks wanted to go big and do something spectacular, trade tosses one. I don't think it's a straight up deal, though. You go one for one, and yes, they do need to sign an extension. So there's going to be some kind of weak link there. It's going to cost you. But, you know, here's something to consider. If they sign soda and they want to trade for Vlad, quite frankly, a braille and tosses are available. Toronto would do that deal. They might want a young pitch that's thrown in, but they would do that deal because now they have a starting first base and a quality starting out field. But they're going in. They would also signal to the fan base, you know, we're going down for two to three years. So, you know, be prepared. But, yeah, I would never say no, not with his bat. And I think change of scenery, change of ball park will help him. You know, let's face it, Toronto's a weird place to play. It's an indoor stadium for the most part. The roof doesn't get open all that off. Yeah, and I think that, you know, he does well on the other stadiums in the American League. But, you know, put him in Boston for 81 games. I think he's, I think his average and his home run numbers go up. You have probably in the water going from anywhere from corner to corner to corner, 30. I've been reduced maybe even 20. So, yeah, it would be a it would be a fearsome lineup. I'll tell you that those three in a row could scare the hell out of opposing pitchers. Yeah, I did so. No, me personally, I'm not I'm not sold with sold with Vlad. Just because, okay, and it's not a bad, you know, thing to have. But what you looked at the year, you know, our lineup next year and the year after, like, okay, where are we putting everybody at? You know, like you said, a brand you's going to have to get traded. You know, well, let's put it this way. One of your outfielders has to get traded. You know, we already signed Saddam right by yellow to the long term. So, you know, it's not him. So, it's grand and or Bray is got to be gone because you got Roman Anthony and get ready to come up. You got you got a DH like that. Well, hopefully they'll replace some outfield next year, you know, after the surgery. I'm I'm really, really hoping that the surgery, uh, the surgery fixes whatever where he wasn't able to play the outfield, you know, then you got Kyle Field coming up. We got Christian Campbell, you know, they're saying about Vaughn Grissom. So, we just too many, you know, and it's not a bad thing to have, you know, but I don't want to spoil too much, but I do have a breakdown a little bit later when we play GM of how that, how the lineup works out. And I do want to touch on one thing you said, though, I don't necessarily I don't want this to happen, but I don't necessarily think that Raphael is untouchable. The one thing about that contract is it's tradable. It's a tradable contract and teams like that teams like control for, you know, seven, eight years at six million. So, it is a tradable contract. I don't think he gets moved. I don't want them to move him, but I wouldn't count that necessarily out of the remote possibility either. Yeah, to me, I can't trade Raphael not knowing that he is your biggest and best option at shortstop if Rob's boy, Trevor Story goes down. I got the jersey back there, bro, it's signed. I want to do a full healthy year from Trevor Story, fingers crossed. Please, please, let's do it. And then also the black topic, real quick, I wanted to add, if you get him in that lineup at Fenway Park, I just looked up his stats at Fenway real quick. In 45 games, he's hitting almost 360 with 10 homers and 44 RBI. So, it looks like he really does enjoy playing at Fenway Park. So, that's just another thing to add. If he does go to Fenway, it would be a fun sight to see. Yeah, and build back at Sock South here. That is 26 yards. You know, yeah, he's only 25, but I'm going to bring up a great point. Oh my god, he's my age. That makes me feel, you know, 199 hits, 30 RBIs and 30 home runs and 103 RBIs. You know, and he is 25. I just don't, I don't want to trade for him. Like, that's my biggest thing right there. I don't want to trade for him. Let's, let's, if he really wants to play here, let's, let's give him, you know, next year, free agency, and not get, and not get, and not give anything up for him. Like, what we have to give up, let's get, let's get starting pitching. Like, that's what we can sit there and do, you know what I mean? So, yeah, look, let's go over to, let's move on to Sam Kennedy and his comments, you know, Rob, we're going to go with you first with Sam Kennedy, of course, because, you know, here we are again. He wants to get nine, 90, 95 wins. He wants to win the AL East, and if it has to go over the, you know, the threshold, let's go. Okay, but how, like, saying stuff like that. Okay, well, now are we going over the, the, the salary cap threshold by a million, 20 million, 30 million. Like, we can get, we can go right now because we've been under the salary cap, the big tier. We can go up to close to 300 million, you know what I mean? And Kennedy knows, it's like the Red Sox, how to play with your heartstrings, like, like a relationship. You know, now we're done, we're over, but all of a sudden there's that box of candy, and I'm a, I'm a fat guy, I love me some candy. Oh, oh, there's some roses, a little soft music in the background. Okay, okay, I'm back. I'm back. We're back together. So, so Rob, what are your thoughts on Kennedy's, you know, I don't want to say full throttle, but the comments he's made. Well, you put it in a good perspective, and I kind of agree with that sense. Like, they know how to draw you back in, but this time I want to see action. I don't want to hear words. I want to see action with this statement. 995 wins, that's what you want to shoot for every year. You want to shoot for even a hundred wins a year, but you really need to look at it. You need to spend the money. And I feel like the Red Sox not spending on Bogart, not spending on Mookie Betz. You have that money that you can spend. And John, John Henry ain't a cheap man. His net worth is almost five to six billion. He has money to spend. He has all these incomes coming up from the penguins, from all the stuff with family sports group Liverpool. So, he has money. He has deep pockets. He's willing to spend. And if you're Sam Kennedy and you're telling the fans, "Hey, we want to go over to CBT, prove it. Go after the big talent on the market. Go after a guy like Max Fried or Blake Snow that had proved your pitching rotation. Go after a guy like Juan Soto like that. Those are things that you need to do. You need to not just say it, but you need to do it, especially in this after the past two, three years of just saying it and not doing it and letting Red Sox fans down. Stop playing with our hard strings, make it happen and actually stick to what you're saying. I want a commitment. Like, I'm dating the Red Sox now for quite some time. Like, I'm waiting to turn around and all of a sudden, you know, if I say that's going to sit there because they're going to be like, "Oh, well, we gave you 2004, 7, 13, 18. But I want to ring, like, propose to me. I want a commitment here." He's been struggling a long time, he doesn't like it. Now, George? There you go. I'd like it. First of all, Kennedy can say, "Well, he wants, but, you know, Uncle John's still the one that writes the chat. The thing is that, you know, the Sox need a thumper, number one, but they also need a number one pitcher. So you either go about those two ways. You go into the free agent market and you sign a number one pitcher, but you're not going to get the big thumper or soda at the same time. Or you get Soto and you use some of your assets to acquire a starting pitcher. Okay. And quite frankly, let's go after, I have a note here that says a one and a one A, okay, because you need to get you need to get quality pitching. So, you know, you get about those and, you know, I don't think, do they sign a Sasaki if he's willing to come to Boston? Okay. How's that deal going to be structured? You know, there's only one way it can be structured right now, at least on paper. Correct. But there's the wink, wink, you know, okay. And, you know, the other thing is, once Soto is being marketed by my buddy and, you know, one of his clients already is out there bitches and the fact that he wants to get his deal done quickly. And that's Blake Snow, because he saw how it cost him last year. So, you know, it's good. Yeah, everybody, and I get somebody else that commented about Sunday. It's like, everyone put the hair shirts on, and, you know, we're offered one to the altar of Morris and said, "Oh, please, we love you. Yes, we go to, yes, you're the greatest, you know, your clients, the greatest things since sliced bread." And, you know what, you're the greatest agent that ever walked the face of the earth. You know, everybody has to, you know, Jennifer, when they walked in. Yeah, I just, what are you going to do? You know, I think this is the big thing. So, that's another piece of this as well. And if they get taken, if they get taken, but I guarantee you, the fans are going to be really, if he's out there, we're noisy and went to weekend last year. We get to that point again, and it looks like somebody else scoops in and does it, in a fact, and that just doesn't sit well. Don't even bother taking the bus to Springfield this year. Well, look, right, because I want to drink the Kool-Aid with you guys, right? Like, I want to drink the Kool-Aid. I want to get excited. I do feel like there is something different about the way that things are this year. There feels like something is different in the air, but you got to call it what it is, and Rick doesn't want to say it, but I will, until they prove it with action, it's full throttle 2.0, right? And like OG said, it's not Sam Kennedy signing the checks. I think Sam Kennedy loves the Red Sox in a way that John Henry does not. And I think that Sam Kennedy might say some of these things with full intention of this is how it's going to be. This is how it should be. And then he goes and John goes, well, wait a minute. That's, no, that's not how we're going to do things. And maybe that's part of what happened last year. And that's my worry is that that happens again, that we hit February, March, and nothing really big to the extent that we were expecting gets done. And then we're left going, okay, well then, what do we do? Because they're in on Soto, they're in on Vlad, they're in on Sasaki, they're in on Snell, they're in on all these guys, but just like we learned last year, in on Yamamoto, in on Montgomery, in on Triosco Hernandez, doesn't necessarily mean going to get and doesn't necessarily mean competitive offers. It means we had a meeting, we made a phone call. So until they start proving it with action, I can't drink the Kool-Aid and as much as I want to. So that's where I'm at with it. I think it feels different too, especially now that it's off season. I want to point back to earlier in the year, right before the year ended, that the Red Sox brought in Theo Epstein to help focus on baseball with the Red, well, obviously part of family sports group ownership. But he also, they brought him in to focus on the Red Sox, but in particular, I think that really gets you kind of excited to think about it. Because Theo Epstein, we know, and we saw with the comeback documentary, he mentioned that how he was aggressive. Do you guys, I just want to ask a question, I want to go around the table to ask you guys think this changes the direction, okay, with Theo Epstein's here, does he think that changes the view of ownership? Do you think that he gets like kind of like an input and like to fire up under their ass and say, hey, we need to change the way we're managing things right now? I think he was brought in as an advisor role. If there's one person that can sit there and maybe talk to Henry and maybe get a little, you know, bug in his ear, I think, you know, it will be Theo. So I say, yeah, you know, I say that, you know, Theo can be that guy, the in-between person to, you know, get deals done. And why else would you bring him back? Take him the money. If he wasn't, now, he wasn't brought back just for the Red Sox. He was in a role for the whole, you know, group. So, but if you're looking for someone to advise you in Red Sox moves, who else better than, you know, Theo? Yeah, I mean, the short answer is yes, because like you said, he might be the guy that can get in Henry's ear a little bit, right? He's not going to be the Dombrowski that walks into Henry's office and goes, all right, we're going to get in David Price, give me the checkbook. And that's that. And Dombrowski is going to do what he's going to do. He's going to go get the guys and kind of not necessarily bully Henry, but he lays it out there and says, this is what you hired me to do, let me do by job. Theo's not that guy. I don't think Breslow is that guy, but Theo is the guy that can maybe go in there and be like, come on, John, remember 0-3, remember 0-4, remember 0-7, remember how fun that was. I'm not asking for the moon. I just need a little bit here, John, and we can get back to that. That might be what Theo can do, and that's where I am holding out some optimism here, because I do think that that will play a role in it. Well, he's got history with Henry. That's important. He speaks John Henry. He's like the UN translator. He speaks Henry. So he can walk in and end results with John. Look, I know he had this visceral reaction when I say to you, I'm going to present to you a $600 million contract, and you're going to go, what are you out of here? Are you cutting-picking mind? You're out of half and true. Now, look, we spent the money when we had to. We're going to spend it judiciously. Do you enjoy getting lit up in the press all the time? Do you enjoy getting food any place you go? Look, this is the marquee of this sports group. We need to take care of it. You already have a place in history. He can make it even better. I think he knows what buttons to push with Henry. He has a track record, too, and that's important. I think that's the most important part right there, is the fact that he has a track record. He was able to turn the corner, reverse the curse, and all that good stuff, and maybe he can tug at him and say, hey, buddy, let's go. I don't want to say, okay, when I worked at a place with DC, and it was kind of like process improvement, and that's what I kind of did for them, where I came up with an idea, and they always came back with me, okay, how's this benefit? You want to take four people off of packing products and assist. Well, okay, where are those numbers that these four people are supposed to get? Where are they going to be at? That's exactly what the field's got to do. Oh, okay, 600 million for Soto. You put that out, but look at the sales, ticket sales that are going to go up. Look at the Jersey sales, and I know MLB shares those sales, but you're going to make your money back in the long run overall. You're going to get playoff money, which we haven't seen in a little while. You could possibly get World Series money. I think another thing that really hurts the Red Sox is Nesson, because they don't have to worry about a TV deal. They don't have to worry about all that. It doesn't matter if they put out their a team like the White Sox. They're guaranteed to get that on-teat Nesson every game, and it's ridiculous. But I think the field's got its in there and have all these keys crossed, his eyes dotted, and tell him, okay, this is what we need. This is what we need to get there. This is what you're going to get in the back end of it, which is going to be more money than you put out. Henry understands the financial aspects of things like derivatives, and finance. But one thing the Red Sox have done exceptionally well on it, his ownership is monetizing every possible thing, whether it be sponsorships, naming rights, official, one of the Boston Reds. They've monetized every possible thing, and it's allowed them to make the improvements they need to do to keep them at the top of a people's minds when they want to come to a ballpark. But, yeah, this team has sucked for so long that fan base's patience is done. I think the is probably the only guy that can shake John up and say, look, we need to do this, because up right now, I don't know anybody else is there. He might like Brazil, he might like AC, he might like Sam, but he needs somebody who's brought him success in the past, and so I can bring this back to you again. We can be top of the he big end. So, well, one big thing is there must be some reason that they signed AC long-term, you know, last year, mid-season. So, whatever they told AC, you know, it's either AC loves this team so much he doesn't care, but I know AC loved the win too. So, we got another comment from Harrison Wits 99. I want Juan Soto. So, so do I, brother. So do I. Me too, Harrison. Me too. Let's get down and, you know, Sunday morning quarterback this thing, GM style. So Brandon, let's start with you, you know, walk us through what your ideal off-season would look like, and then the end result for the, you know, roster. All right. So, I'm going to break this into three quick parts. The first part we've already touched on quite a bit, and that's offense. The first thing that I'm doing, if I'm Craig Breslow, and this might be a shock coming out of my mouth, because you know how much I love and defend Yoshida. But I'm calling the Angels, and I'm saying, you want Yoshida, you know, get them on the West Coast, you know, give the Angels another Japanese star since they lost Otani. Maybe you eat some of that money, and maybe you can even bring some of like, Reeve Detmer's back in that deal. He's been declining. I know the Angels have been open to moving him. That's a picture you can maybe get in your system so you can unlock in it. But that's the first thing I'm doing. The second thing I'm doing is going hard on Soto, whatever it takes. You get Soto, you call the Blue Jays about Vlad, and if some of that doesn't work out, you call Tae Oscar, and you say, "Hey, I know last year didn't work out. What do you got?" You get a couple right-handed bats in that offense as well. There you go. And then when the Lord has started pitching, which I think is the most important. Now, if you're going to spend all of your money on Soto, you can't really go out there and spend on the open market. So then you're going to take a guy like Reeve. And I'm going to pose a package here. Does it necessarily mean that this is the package that gets it done? This is just from some of the research that I've been doing. You take Reeve, you take Meyer, and then you take either Von Grissom, who was in talks with the White Sox last year before the Dylan Sees a deal went through and they pivoted into sale, or Miguel Blaze, and you go, "Okay, White Sox." Abreu, Meyer, and one of these two. There's your crochet offer. Take it or leave it. See if they take it. If they do, great. If they don't, you take some of that package, not necessarily the whole thing, and you call it the Marlins, and you say, "What do you want for Lizzardo?" He wants to be a Red Sox. He said so last offseason, or Braxton Garrett. There's three lefty options to get a lefty in there, and then on the phone with the Marlins, you say, "How do you guys feel about Woosuk Go?" A guy that they got in the Tanner Scott trade last year, Korean kid. Still a very good prospect, in my opinion. He hasn't panned out for either the Padres or the Marlins yet, but I think that something can be unlocked there, and you get one of those guys, and then you go hard on Sasaki, right? You need like, "Brisla went over to Japan and scouted the guy." That doesn't get talked about enough. You go hard for Sasaki, and then finally, with the bullpen, I already mentioned Go, you sign Tanner Scott, and you call the Giants. Bailey's old team, and you say, "What do you want for Camilo Dovall?" and you get those talks started. Get Camilo back with Bailey, and that turns them into something good. That's where I'm at, and then you look at, you have, you know, you're starting pitcher, you're starting rotation, you have potentially Crochet and Lizzardo Garrett, one of those three, Zasaki, Hauk, Beo, Gileto. Then you got all those young guys that we talked about in the wings. You look at the lineup, you got Duran, Vlad, Devers, Soto, Grissom or Campbell at second base, you get Raphael in there, and then you get Wong/Teal at catcher, and then, of course, Trevor's story at shortstop. So, I mean, to me, that's how you make the team, and to me, as crazy as it might sound, I don't think multiple of these deals, I don't necessarily think every single one of those deals gets done, but I can see multiple of those deals or similar deals being done this off season. I agree. I agree to an extent with all those moves. I do think that when you look at it, especially Crochet, the Red Sox have been linked to that. I think doing that trade will definitely bolster that rotation, and you're right with the bullpen. The bullpen had struggled down the end of 2024, obviously. Lucas Simms and Garcia being added in those trades, and they just didn't pan out. For me, personally, if I'm going to rebuild the Red Sox and restructure this team, it starts with Wong/Soto spending the big money getting that big superstar. Like you said, you get him in on the team, you got Jersey sales, you get ticket sales, you get not only that, you get this, and then you also get back home in DR. You get all the streams from Dominican Republic you got, because they got Soto endeavors, two of the biggest guys there. You look at that, and then you also look at trading guys trying to rebuild this team. Maybe if you get Soto, then you can include, well, like you said, William and Bray, you win a package for Crochet. Lazardo would be very good. I know he was in a lot of Red Sox mock trades on Twitter a couple of years ago to get him. I wouldn't mind Lazardo on the Red Sox. He's a very solid guy. He pitches a lot of innings, or you could even go with them, and you can get a younger guy like Edward Cabrera, who has a couple of years of control and good velocity on there as well. Tanner Scott, you need a left hand reliever at him to the bullpen, and then you're looking at this. The Red Sox get restructured, they get a little bit stronger, but you could also, me personally, you need to mix up that rotation. If you can't get Crochet in a trade, I go in the market and I go out there max-free. I think he's a lot younger than Blake Snell. He's obviously can pitch a little bit more. I mean, Snell has proved this year, obviously, he can make it past the sixth inning, obviously throwing a couple of no hitters, and taking no hitters into deep into the ball games throughout the year. I almost had two this year. He had obviously the one that he threw, and then almost had a second one, so he's been proving that he has more depth. I think max-free, he's a little bit younger, and he has a little bit more control on that, so that would be good to add another left-hand arm into that rotation, because last year was all right, he's in that rotation. There was no left-handed mix match, which kind of hurt the Red Sox, and I sent two. Then obviously, you can do a move, you can sign a guy like Tayoska Hernandez to deepen the lineup, or you can bring back Tyler O'Neill. You need a right-handed bat who can slot in that lineup to even out that lineup a little bit. I think bringing back Tyler O'Neill, not extending the qualifying offer was smart, because then you can get him on a cheaper team-friendly deal, and he's expressed that he wanted to come back to Boston. If you don't land Tyler O'Neill, I know Tayoska Hernandez shot out to him, because he did a Photoshop within the Red Sox uniform, talked highly on the Red Sox. By the way, I posted that, so that makes me feel like just saying me and Tayoska are like this, but if he does come to the team, it would be pretty cool to have him, especially him growing up playing being a fan of the Red Sox. Then you get Soto, and then you got a stacked lineup, you got superstar talent, and then people who said they were boycotting last year, you fill in the seats. Going to a lot of Red Sox teams, it felt like going to row games. I watched a Mets game there, a Dodgers game there, and it felt like I was going to Dodgers stadium, like it was going to City Field. It's just you want to turn the Fenway experience. They get to preach the Fenway experience. If you say the Fenway experience and you spend money on your players, you'll get that Fenway experience back. You get the fans back into the ballpark, the roundiness, the atmosphere will be so much better, because when you hear about opening day last year, nobody was really talking about Red Sox opening day on the new. No one really cared. It's like you want that back. Boston's a baseball town, and if you spend the money, it'll be good. I'd say get Tayoska Hernandez or Tyler O'Neill, you can trade off willy or bravo if you do get one, Soto, and then you deepen that. The rotation can be either crochet or freed at the top, then you still got cutter croft at the bottom of that rotation, and you could slot into the bullpen to help out. People are forgetting too, you still have their wet loft. You could start, or you can be moved back to the bullpen, but that's what I would do ideally. You talked about the Fenway experience, and my first thought when you said that is, could you imagine if the market for the Fenway experience was Juan Soto peppering the monster, hitting both on the lands down, wrapping balls around the pesky ball, if that's the Fenway experience that you're selling me, I'm trying to get there all 81 games at the play in there. Look, I started out when I was putting my notes together before tonight, I said, look, the Sox need two pitchers, they need a backup catcher, they need better defense at third base, and they need a permanent solution at second base. Now, second base, I think they can work out are a couple of different ways. Backup catcher, they need one, and please don't tell me Christian Vazquez is in my return trip, thank you very much for the mail, okay, but they need a quality backup catcher and signing that kid that they signed, the guy for the miles isn't going to cut it either. So, to me, if you go after Soto, that's saying that I'm all in, I want to put I want to put butts in the seats, and I also want to have an exciting career to baseball, you know, to go along with that. You need to get better at third base, your sheet of has to go, sheet of fedetmer or something like that. I'm okay with that, okay. It's, you're doing Ladi Moreno again, everything is possible. I also think that of the free agents out there for pitching, I don't think the Burns is coming here, I think you get a better shot with freed, maybe Sasaki, you're going to have to trade to get crochet, is that, what does that package look like? It's somebody and the White Sox are going to want major league ready for talent, not prospects, because they want to be able to do something. So, you know, what do you do? You need a third baseman. I'm going to go off and I'm going to say, I honestly believe you could get out, I think if you're a breggman here, I think for a lot less money than everybody's saying. That automatically puts Raffi at TH where he go wants, all right. You move, Yoshida, we signed several abreos available. You've got assets you can go after and change. You know, if you still want to trade for Vrati Juni, you've got, you still got classes of Breu, you know, Wong, you know, if you decided to teals ready and they can get a quality backup veteran catcher to help you out, who's better at framing pictures than Wong is, I think it's available on the trade market. I, you know, I honestly think, and I got, I made some notes here. I think you got, besides foreshay, maybe you go talk and, you know, go pime on my case and store it with that to say gallon available, you know, or, you know, you go out to Seattle, Kirby or Gilbert, you know, put something together that's, that's, you have assets you don't have before. And Bailey and Company are building a mildly pitching machine right now. The draft proved that. Almost all of us, three of the draft picks were pictures. So they're going to build the pitching machine over the next two to three years because they already know they got talent at, you know, around the bases. You know, I don't know, do you do something like that? I don't see them signing breaks now. Okay, this, you know, there's too much of a gap between his good years and his badness and his great years. Okay. His name to bring in, if you're looking for a right-hand, right-hand hitter, who could double as an outfit, or Zuna. Mm. Oh, that's on the brief. Yeah, exactly. You could do a lot worse. Okay. I think that Breslow is thinking outside the box. He has the needs in number one. He'll find one. I think he has the talent and the backup talent to be okay. Two to five. Oh, I'd like to see him pick up another round. Okay. I think he needs, he knows he's going to improve the defense and get better from the right-hand side of the play. That's why I'm thinking, you know, Zuna works in that scenario. There's a number of different things, but they have to be aggressive. And it's not just signing a name. We fully intend to get better. Yeah. I'm sitting there. I'm a mix between all you guys, and George, you and I did a podcast with Jeff Bates, and I talked a little bit about how I wanted to structure things. I love me, Bregman. I think Bregman and his agent, both, made the statement that he's willing to go to second base. And we have a small gap at second base. So I would like to sit there and sign him, put him at second base, let him, let him work there for a little bit, until Christian Campbell's ready to come up. Then, you know, backup catcher wise, I kind of like Christian Bass Bass just because of his, you know, his defense back there. And it's not worth though, it was not what it was. It was steadily gone down. But you know, you're not going to pay much for him. And I think he can be serviceable back there as an option for a backup catcher. Looking at the right hand of bat, Bregman solves your problem for that too. So I look back at all of the World Series that we won. And it's based on pitching, based on starting pitching. So that's where I'm spending my money at, where it's going to be max-free. You know, sign him. There's your number one. I'm looking for a trade for crochet, absolutely right. I think that it's going to need to take a, you know, immediately pay people. And as much as I love to do, cutter-croffers will be in that deal. I will give up myself. Just because we have short stops that can, you know, even Campbell's short stop to replay the tire. I would give up Bond Grissom. And for the people that are like, wait, we traded Chris Sale, who just had a Cy Young for Bond Grissom. For the second position. Okay, we traded Chris Sale for, and then we can trade Chris some for Shay and get more years out of it, you know, and healthier too. So I would throw him in, and I might only picture, you know, to help round that out. You know, Bond Grissom is major league-ready. So everybody says, we haven't got a chance to see it yet, cutter-croffers major league-ready. Marcella Myers is, you know, if he can stay healthy, you know, he can be, you know, there. So, um, so I got bam. I got freed. I got crochet. I got me Tanner Howe. I got Brian Bayo. And then a fifth one, you know, you can put anybody there. And I would actually go out and put all my eggs in one basket and go get me Sasaki. He used a signer for a league deal. And keep him in the minors. And so you think he's ready. You can bring him up with your fifth starter. You can bring him up as needed, you know. Overall, I got to get Tanner Scott, too. I got to get me a closer. And he's going to help the bullpen, I think. We're not bringing Jans back. I would like to bring Martin back on a one-year deal. Well, I'll throw one in, right? And I just messaged it. I said, I think Kirby Yates. I'm going to tell you a story. I'm going to tell you about my town. I'm going to tell you a big fat story, baby. I'm talking about my town. Yeah, I'm talking about the river. Down by the mix of the river. 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