The Big Dumper Extension with Grant Bronsdon

John Trupin
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John Trupin
Hello and welcome. Thank you all for meeting us at the Mitt. My name is John Trupin. This is the meet at the Mitt podcast brought to you by the peopleoflookoutlanding.com.

i am thrilled to be here, joined today by Grant Bronston, staff writer at Lookout landing.com. grant, how are you?

You have been to some of the games, this home stand.

You've got plans for more.

How are you feeling right now?

Unknown
I mean, hard not to be feeling pretty good, especially when they play pretty badly for the first parts of most of the White Sox games and then somehow still win them.

Excited to go to the game today, even though, thanks to fanatics, we're only going to get to see the steelheads hats and not the steelheads jerseys.

So thank you, fanatics for not only not giving us alternate jerseys, but also making very bad classic jerseys. Fnatics, not a sponsor. Will not be a sponsor. Sorry, guys.

John Trupin
Yeah, absolutely. Let's. Let's see if fanatics and Nike can get that turned over to McDougal bats.

You know, I bet they could expand their production into jerseys. I see. I see no issues with scaling. It's another Oregon based company. It's real easy. Just, you know, hand, a little handoff. There shouldn't be a problem.

Joining us as well, we have Evan James, our audio engineer. Evan, how has, how has the recent home stand hit your spirits here?

Evan James
You know, it's been terrific. And I realized that I'm deep into selfish territory with Mariners these days because when Julio hit that home run the other night, I expected the Mariners to win that game. Yeah, no, stop. Like, I expected the Mariners get that home run, clean up and finish business, and they didn't because this is real life, and I don't get to have everything I want automatically.

But it feels like I've gotten most of it lately because the team has just played out of their minds and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm having a blast.

John Trupin
Yeah. Larry Stone, I believe it was, tweeted something to the effect, not in that game, but I think either the night before or the night before. The night before, saying, at no point, it may just be the White Sox, but at no point in time did I have any doubt that the Mariners were going to that game, even though they were losing the whole way. It was like, yeah, he really did feel that way, and it is the White Sox or it was the White Sox. But still, this has had this last, you know, few weeks in particular has really solidified to me that this is the 21 or the 2021 team again, except I think that the 2021 team wasn't that good, relatively, but they played, they won a lot of games. I think this team is actually better than a lot of the ways that they're performing, but they're still getting the results. Like, it's a really weird ebb and flow where a lot of players, especially on the offense, are so heavily underperforming, but they're also ultimately getting good win loss results.

It's very strange, but we're going to dig into a couple folks who are really are carrying their weight, and then we're going to get into what the Mariners may have some opportunities to do and how some moves may impact what the Mariners prioritize in improving the roster, especially in addressing some of the areas where the team is still objectively struggling, but we're going to start where they're not. And where they're not struggling is starting catcher.

Where they're not struggling is Calbert Raleigh.

Don't quote me. Don't, don't fact check that. His name's Calbert.

Cal Rawley has been, I think Ryan Divish said recently, and certainly I think if you asked in the, in the dugout at times, folks would agree that he has been the most valuable player, or at least he has been the most valuable position player on the team. Now, you could debate that given, you know, some of the inconsistencies. And really, it is a funny circumstance of Raleigh and Julio both having inconsistent years. But Cal's performances in certain moments have ultimately, I think, helped him stand out here. So, Grant, we've talked about this a little bit, and I think we're going to put something up on the site. We're going to write something about this. But is there a case, this is oft debated, given his age. Is there a case for the Mariners to sign Cal Raleigh to a contract extension and what would the reasons in favor be?

Unknown
Well, I think that the principal reason in favor is California. Raleigh is a good player and the Mariners should keep good players on their roster for a long time.

John Trupin
It's a good start.

Unknown
There's so many pros and cons here. I think on the one hand, Scott, Boris, there are a couple exceptions generally not one to sign long term deals or even entertain the notion of long term deals.

You also have the fact that as we potentially get closer to our robot overlords extending into the strike zone, pitch framing becomes a bit less important. And that's obviously one area where Cal really shines.

You also, though, get a big benefit to the team by rewarding someone who's not only a very good player and is a player development success story, especially on the position player side, but somebody who's a team leader and someone who is, I think, up there with JP in my mind as one of the undisputed people that the rocks of the clubhouse.

So I think there's a real case to be made. I think the team will be better having him as their starting catcher. You do have Harry Ford knocking on the door, and so you can make a case for keeping Cal around, letting him hit free agency and having Harry Ford find his way into the lineup and taking over from Cal. But I also would rather bet on the sure thing who we've seen be good at the major league level as opposed to the prospect who we think could be good. Everyone thinks we'll be great and then comes up and is Jesus Montero or Dustin Ackley or one of the many other top prospects we've seen scuffle? So, you know, I think the case is there. I do think, of course, catcher's a hard position to maintain well into your thirties.

I don't know enough about playing Catcher outside of stint as an emergency third catcher when I was twelve years old to tell you about the physical demands of the position, but I can see some of the skepticism of will he age well and will he still be valuable when capturing defense might fall off of it?

John Trupin
Yeah, I think, first of all, I would say, you know, Harry Ford's having a spectacular season, but I do still think he's a little bit more like, just sent a text saying that he's leaving the house and he's like, on the way more than like knocking at the door, you know, just the way that they have brought him along and sort of the, the.

I mean, he's doing everything right in AA, but he just, I think he's, he's not, he still has enough progression and he's young enough that I would be astonished, I guess, if they, if they were to utilize him in any active capacity this year. Which means, you know, Cal is preeminent in that focus in terms of the defensive aspect. It really has been, you know, he, he's just continued to absolutely dominate. And while I do think you're right about the sort of robot overlords, eventually I believe we've seen from, from Manfred that it's not going to be next year, which means, you know, that's at least one more season.

I could definitely see them bringing in the challenge system which they've been utilizing in AAA now pretty, pretty widely. And by and large, players actually seem to like that more.

But even then, I think, you know, you're not going to have that every single time, which means, you know, it still keeps some value for that. So in terms of the Boris factor, it absolutely is a factor. Frankly, it's also a factor that the Mariners have not played, you know, have not dove into the sort of bigger pool, you know, into the deep end of free agency in any capacity since signing RoBinson Canoe or, you know, I guess arguably Nelson Cruz. But even then, that was, you know, Robbie Ray.

Yeah, Robbie Ray. Well, I think Ray and Kikuchi are both like second tier, like definite big signings, but we're not the top, top level.

And I think Cal would be in that same range of pay.

I would agree there of like, this is not going to be a $300 million deal or something, but the rapport has not ever been reported to be great between Boris and mariners sort of ownership.

But if they're willing to spend money, then, you know, their money spends just as good as anyone else's.

And there are at least a few players who Boris has been representation for that have signed extensions. It's not all free agents, you know. Jose Altuve signed an extension with the Astros.

Xander Bogart signed an extension with the Red Sox initially.

And, you know, that obviously, ultimately Bogarts ended up being a free agent afterwards, but he signed a six year, $120 million extension with an opt out initially.

And I mean, a lot of his deals that he's had players sign have included opt outs, especially as that's become more popular. Right? Elvis Andrews and Steven Strasberg both had opt outs in there, but there was, they were still, you know, extensions. And I think that that's, to me, a model you could see. I think the other example that's referenced, and I dug through some of this and then I also found this is a credit to CB's sports who had a write up on this back in the winter, Mike Sisa.

But Carlos Gonzalez Mariner. Great.

Signed, signed a 70 or $80 million extension with the Rockies once upon a time.

So it's not out of the question. It's not even like, well, one time this happened. This has happened a bunch with high level players of cal's caliber.

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Unknown
Yeah, there's, there's a demonstration. There's a, there's a theme in those deals other than maybe the altuve deal, that there's an opt out involved, and I think Boris would love to sign a long term deal that still gets somebody a crack at free agency. So I think what you're going to be looking for to make it interesting for the Mariners is to guarantee at least a couple years of club control for free agent years. And I think for Boris, you're going to look for somebody that can break back into free agencies somewhere between the ages of 30 to 32. I don't think he's gonna want somebody to be a free agent much before then.

So Cal, this year is his age, 27 season.

He's got arbitration for ages 28, 29 and 30.

So what does a deal look like? You're probably saying seven or eight years with an opt out after five. I think an opt out after five years gives you, you know, the Mariners get two extra years of free agency controlled, and you'll still be able to have Raleigh hit free agency and get another five year deal or something, assuming he's playing well.

John Trupin
And when you. When you say another five year deal, you're meaning if he were to opt out?

Unknown
Yeah, if he were to opt out in free agency. And so, you know, he either continues to be good, opts out after five, and then signs a free agent deal for five years or re signs with the Mariners, or he is bad, gets a couple extra years of a nice paycheck, and then is able to walk into the light a la Kyle Seeger and just go coach like, you know.

John Trupin
Eight year old baseball and even could be good, but just not think he can beat the deal right where, you know, that can also be the case, and it can be right on the edge. And honestly, that, to me, is what I would hope for and what I could anticipate making happening very well of, you know, if Cal is able to remain steady on his defensive performance, he has the frame to hit for power. He has the bat speed and the, and the strength to continue being, at the very least, an effective power hitter.

And, you know, he's, he's been a pretty steady, you know, he's been pretty steady in his ability to get on base. Yes, he swings and misses, but, you know, among catchers, that, that feels appropriate.

How does that stack up against sort of some of the other top catchers who have gotten extensions recently or you're even.

Unknown
Yeah, well, the challenge is the top of the market is set by Joe Maurer and Buster Posey. And as much as I love Cal Rawley, he is neither of those players.

So I don't think you can really use those as accurate comparisons.

Sal Perez is one of the other folks that gets mentioned here. One of the challenges with him is he had a very unusual contract story. So after his rookie year, he signs, and these are real numbers, a five year, $7 million contract with three extra team options. Team options. Each is an individual team option that could push it all the way to eight years and $21 million. So they have his fan deal.

John Trupin
Like, I know, I know that. Like, I get why players sign deals like, they want stability, and that is, you know, seven make. Becoming a millionaire is stability. I get it.

And, you know, if I recall correctly, you know, Sal Perez was a great player, but. But I don't know that he was like, a sure thing prospect. So, you know, I don't know that he necessarily even had that. That cache or that background.

You know, he started out well and he was hitting well, but he was not. And depending on how you look at it, he has never been a great player.

But, yeah, that is. That is what, as a comparison.

Unknown
I mean, sure, you may not have had that same level of prospect cache, but he came up, had 40 games where he was 30% above league average as a hitter, as a 21 year old catcher, and signed away.

I mean, you know, league minimums, he would have been making a total of about $2 million or so over the next three years, maybe 1.5 at that point, and then would have had a couple years of arbitration. So, you know, yes, if he'd gone year by year, there's the additional risk, but he probably would have paid all of that guaranteed money through five years and all of the money over eight years by six easily.

So, yeah, I think that that deal aged. Aged pretty poorly pretty quickly. One thing he does have in his favor, and actually, I'm curious, Evan and John, what the two of you think about this, is he's a great manager of pitchers, and I think that's where Cal shines, too. I don't know how you value that. I don't know if you can put a dollar value on that. But when you have a young core of pitchers that seem destined to stay with the. For a while, and we know that the Mariners have rebuffed plenty of trade advances for Wu and Miller and Gilbert and Kirby and have extended castillo it's easy to imagine. Honestly, knock on wood, that could be our rotation for three more seasons. Like, those are the five guys for 2025-2627 so how do we value that? How much is that worth, or is it worth something? What do you think the tough thing is?

Evan James
Is it's definitely worth something, and it might not be worth something, actually. You know what I mean? Like, it very much matters to the team. It's important to them that Cal Rawley has a good relationship with Logan Gilbert, you know, George Kirby with Brian Wood. They trust him that they're not, they're not shaking off his calls, that they're trusting him at the plate. They're trusting him to guide them through what is a tough situation they're going through. But as far as the Mariners are concerned, they're going to do everything they can to not pay for that. You know what I mean? Like, there's a given, there's a give and take to it where we do want to sign him, we do want to give him everything worth, and we also want to very specifically not pay him for that. So it's tough. What do you think they do, Jon?

John Trupin
I think that this is, this is where you need as a team to be.

You need to think a little bit in the way that players do not because that makes you more effective as general managers, GM's and front offices for as much as we want them to. And we want ownership groups to be fans and to care to the degree that fans do about winning and putting their energy and efforts and their money where their mouths are.

It matters to players that the players, the people that they respect and the people that matter to, you know, that their teammates are treated fairly, are treated with respect, are treated with the sense that, like, if you do what we ask of you, we will, you know, you will be recognized for that. Because I think fundamentally, that is what makes for successful player development. That is what makes for a successful clubhouse. That is what makes for a team that other players actually want to come join and want to come, you know, sign with or play sign extensions with, like Luis Castillo, like Julio, obviously, but also Julio got, you know, a potentially $400 million. So that sort of has an additional aspect to it. But with Cal Rawley, I think what you're looking at also is someone who gets at least some of the credit, sure, for managing pitchers in game, but also because of his familiarity with the Mariners pitching staff and their pitching development and the way that they and being, you know, integral to how they plan, game plan.

I think he is likely at least partially worth crediting for the fact that the Mariners have had a bunch of young pitchers meet, at least meet, and several of them exceed expectations and also be able to adapt once they've joined, once they've made it to the majors. Right. Logan Gilbert's made it to the majors as this. You know, it's obvious why Logan Gilbert would be successful. He's huge. He throws hard, and he's got pretty good command and four different pitches. But now he has a better slider, a better split change, and he utilizes his fastballs better. George Kirby came up. He's the pinpoint control guy. Yes, he's got a bunch of different bitches now. He has. And he's having a, you know, more fine year as opposed to this unbelievable year. But he has developed a slider that is more effective. He's developed a better change of. Bryce Miller has developed one of the best split changes in certainly in the rotation, and I would say definitely in the American League. And he is no longer just a fastball at the top of the zone guy, which is what he came up as. He's still utilizing his pitches effectively. But I think that is if you're being realistic as the Mariners. No, you don't, Evan. I agree. You know, if you're the Mariners, you're not trying to pay him, give him all of that credit. But it is worth it for you to say we recognize that this is happening. All of these other players that we are getting in the most cold financial mindset that we are getting excess returns on our investment from is partially because of this guy.

Unknown
Yeah, I think there's a case we made for that. I actually don't think there's a case around saying we extend him to prove that we reward our players.

I think to me, that's where they've given money to enough other guys that I'm not sure that's a huge issue.

But I do think that overall boost to the pitching staff is real.

It's hard to define how would these pitchers have done if Mitch Garver were catching them for 80 games and you had Sebi Zavala catching them for the other 80 games, other than they would be a black hole in the nine spot for half the season?

John Trupin
Logan Gilbert might not get any run support if that were the case.

Unknown
So, you know, I think a Cal Rawley extension, like, it's something to strongly consider. I think given the other extensions that guys like Will Smith and Sol Perez have signed, you're probably looking at something like 30 or a little bit more than 30 million for the three arbitration years. You're probably looking at somewhere in the ballpark of 15 to 20 million a year in free agency.

Will Smith ended up getting something like 15 million annually with a. With about a third of it deferred. However, they also gave him ten years. So really, do they expect him to be an everyday catcher through age 38? No, it's more like a seven year deal that they're extending to ten to decrease the impact each season. So, you know, maybe we call it a total of eight years.

The last five years are valued at 18 million a year. I could see giving him eight years, 120 million opt out after year five.

Maybe the Mariners say, if we're going to go that 8th year, opt out is after year six, or we have a team option.

We know Jerry depot can get very, very creative when it comes to putting together a contract, as evidenced by Julio's 810 18 year contract. Contract or something like that. It's the, you know, choose your vendor contract.

Evan James
Yeah.

Unknown
So, exactly.

John Trupin
For legal reasons, no.

So, like, really, it's select your scenario. Contract.

Unknown
The. Select your scenario. It's similar to the new era cap trick rather than. Or the cap shuffle rather than the hat trick.

So, yeah, that's, you know, there's a. There's a deal that can be made there and they can get something together. To me, what's interesting about that kind of an extension is that if the mariners are considering it, or if the Mariners think they will be able to get it done, or perhaps both, that's when trading Harry Ford becomes a really interesting conversation. And as someone who enjoys their teams getting better sooner rather than later, I think trading Harry Ford at the trade deadline gives you at least a good start in acquiring a bat.

So I think that's where the extension has a double impact of then giving you a very expendable and very valuable trade piece.

John Trupin
So who should they trade for?

Unknown
Because I agree, the beautiful thing about having an offense that's not that good is there's a lot of places you can get better.

John Trupin
Sure are.

We saw one very prominent option demonstrate that. In theory, hitting in T Mobile park won't be, shouldn't be an issue.

Unknown
This past week, just, I mean, again, it's easy to be wooed by the shiny object right in front of you, but seeing Luis Robert come in and pinch hit, and one pitch, one just like half swing, hundred mile an hour off the bat, it got out of there quickly, like, okay, I could watch this guy play left field in T Mobile for a long time.

John Trupin
It did give me a little bit of shades of 2013, certainly, and then 2014 as well. Nelson Cruz coming in and just having series where he hummeled homers into just left dents that I think they still are trying to pull out of Edgar's cantina and the bleachers up there and just being like, okay, probably this right handed power hitter is going to be okay. Would be okay.

Unknown
Yeah. So I think, like, it's pretty easy to imagine, hey, let's get a really, really strong right handed power hitter who's going to just deposit balls over left field. It's not a hard case to make.

It will not be cheap to acquire a player that's that good with. I believe it's three extra years of. Of control. It's one year guaranteed at 15 million and then two club options at 20 each.

That is well below what he would be getting on the free agent market. So that's a pretty interesting option, but there are a lot of other guys that could be rental players. I don't think Jerry Depot is going to give up a great prospect for a player that's got less than one extra full season of club control. I think that's why he was willing to go all in to get Luis Castillo two years ago was because he knew he had him for the rest of the season and one more year, and then, oh, by the way, they extended him right away and were able to get him for the long haul.

John Trupin
Right. You would have Robert through the same amount of time that Cal Rawley is currently slated to. And he's a year younger than Cal Rawley, which is wild.

Unknown
Yeah.

John Trupin
What do you think about the concern that I think is a reasonable one about going after Robert for the Mariners when the Mariners already have a, you know, an elite defensive center fielder, and in theory, that's part of what you would be, you know, paying for in terms of. In terms of cost.

Evan James
Can I kick that off, if you don't mind, please. So, two thoughts. Number one is that Mariners outfield defense, besides, Julio sucks. So if we're bringing in somebody who's good, that's a good thing, regardless of the situation. Like, I don't want to hear about how, like, you still, he's too good to put in the quarter. No, he's not. We could use that very much.

Unknown
So.

Evan James
So ignore that. But two is that I want to ask Grant.

Robert's having kind of a weird year. He looks like he's rounding into form, and I'm only saying that because he hit Mariners pitching and like, how much, doc, do I really want to put in that? Right? Like, we just saw him. We just saw him Homer off of Mariner pitching. But I guess the question is, is he all the way back to the. To the point where you feel comfortable trading for him real value, or do you still think that there's enough unknowns there where it's a little bit uncertain if you're going to getting him what he's going to give you this year? Because make no mistake, this year is really where the value is in terms of the Mariners trading right now. They're trying to get to the playoffs. They're trying to win a game in the playoffs this year. Is he the guy for this year? For 2024?

Unknown
Yeah. I mean, it's challenging because he's clearly shown he can be that outstanding player. I mean, last year was his first full season. Full season. We're not including the 2020 abbreviated year. And he was outstanding, right? He had a 129 OPS plus. He's an all star. He got mvp votes. I mean, like, the kind of player that you. That you build around for a long time, unless you're the White Sox, where you are so bad that you can build around him and still win 55 games.

So when you've got that kind of a player seen it, it's not like he's just fallen off a cliff because the bat speed has deteriorated over a couple months. There's an injury there.

All that said, it's kind of similar to Mitch Garver in some ways. The player isn't really similar, but you're getting someone that has been good in limited action. Will they be able to keep it up over a full season? Will they be able to handle the rigors of playing day in, day out when you're not in center field, when you're able to spend a little bit more time at DH? That should make it a bit better.

But I keep coming back to the fact that the Mariners don't want to be spending huge money on free agents. That's their prerogative. I would love it if they did because it's not my money they're spending, other than all of the money that goes toward tickets and merchandise.

But I can understand that it does give you fewer options. And when you have fewer options, you gotta go with who's out there.

Somebody that's out there right now is a very good defensive outfielder. Sure. You're not gonna get as much value as if you could play in center field every single day. Sure. You'd rather have a guy that consistently plays 150 games season over season, but you don't have the kind of options to say, well, we can just go sign Juan Soto this offseason and we'll answer it. Cause I think I would at this point, I can comfortably say the Seattle Mariners will not sign Juan Soto.

So, okay, you gotta make the move where you can.

And that's why I think he could make a lot of sense.

Just there aren't that many people that will be available that will be a huge upgrade or have the kind of ceiling that he provides.

Evan James
I couldn't agree more into the Soto point. John tried to talk me into admitting we should trade for Soto during the offseason, and I was resistant and I was wrong. Full stop. We should have done it.

Should have done it.

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John Trupin
It certainly would have been.

I think, that the emergence of so many of the Mariners farmhands has made this a little bit easier. Right.

The Mariners could trade what the, you know, what the Yankees traded for Juan Soto or even what the Padres traded for Juan Soto, and they could still have multiple top 100 prospects.

I don't think they will do that because I don't think that Robert ultimately actually draws that level of, um, you know, package, no matter what the White Sox leak or someone else leaks that the White Sox are looking for. But that is the state of the Mariners farm, that they have six or seven top 100 prospects right now.

None of them, you know, top ten prospects in baseball necessarily, but they.

Evan James
Maybe one of them.

John Trupin
It could be, yeah, arguably, certainly, but, you know, not at least presently ranked that way.

Unknown
If you look at Keith Law's top 50, and I'm sure a lot of people have issues with. With Keith law, but you might have issues with a lot of different prospect guys. He's got five mariners in the top 50. He's got Cole Emerson at number ten. So there's. There's real love for these guys, which, to your point, John, you can trade them and not have a farm system that's totally barren, you've got a real chance to. To go all in without feeling like you're actually trading away the future or mortgaging the future.

John Trupin
Yeah. I have 1234.

I have four mariners prospects in the top 30 for my own personal rankings right now.

That's obviously a little bit dependent on Johnny Formello and what the status of his injury is, which is unfortunate because he was in crutches and in Seattle this last few days. So he may be, unfortunately, slated for some surgery, but, um, you know, that also is recoverable. Um, it could also be just, you know, a surgery, but not ultimately too. Too detrimental to his. To his trajectory. At least that would be what we'd hope.

Evan James
Regardless, the injury probably takes him off of trade lists.

John Trupin
Right?

Evan James
Like, probably not going to trade him, given the way this year has gone for him. Otherwise, they would.

He's lower minors, he's a really good prospect, he's hitting well. But just given the pedigree in combination with the fact that he hasn't played very much, I think that they wait on him. So if you're wondering what this all means, he's probably not getting traded is the short answer.

John Trupin
And I agree. Evan and I think the grouping of prospects is such that, like we said at the top, Grant, you know, Graham mentioning this, like, if they extend Cal rally Harry Ford, we love them, but that's not really someone that you're necessarily prioritizing holding on to. Um, and if you have six short stop middle infield prospects, yes, you want to hold on to more than two, but you're more comfortable trading one or two.

Um, so that, I think, is. Is ultimately where I agree that Robert should be, where they're targeting. And absolutely, to Evan's point, this defense, outfield wise, is awful.

Awful.

Evan James
Julio and friends, generously so.

John Trupin
You know, Victor Robles is a ranger player, but he's not as rangy as he was when he was younger, and again, has not had much of a history of hitting to the point where you want him playing consistently. So you're. You're really stretching. Stretching the roster. And given how many of the Mariners pitchers are fly ball pitchers, it absolutely makes sense, in my perspective, to invest in actually having a, you know, sort of duplicative, positive defenders outfield wise. And that's been a point of their success in years past, is. Is Dylan Moore was out there in the outfield, and that's odd, but he's got range and he is not bad. You know, he doesn't have an arm but he he is rangy. Asking Julio to cover most of the field is not unreasonable, but it has consequences, and we have seen it have consequences, especially given the narrow margin for error that the mariners are playing with right now.

Unknown
In fairness to Victor Robles, we were all rangier when we were younger.

John Trupin
That's true. That is true.

Unknown
This actually gets into a couple interesting questions that we got on the platform, formerly known as Twitter about some of the prospects and about some of the young guys. So I'll combine two questions in here.

One was from at Mariners, TTM Mariners to the moon of the rookies we've seen at the major league level so far this year, Hancock, Klasse, Bliss and Locklear and maybe others. Who has the best chance to stick with the team in the long run and who is most likely to be shipped in a deadline deal?

I think of the players we have, Harry Ford is probably the most likely prospect to be a centerpiece because you have Cal, even if you don't extend him for three more seasons. But I think of that group, I'm curious what the two of you think. Who's most likely to be traded away?

Evan James
I think there's an interesting layer to this, which is there may be a different answer this year versus in the future in general. Right. Because like we might say, Hancock is a great chance to stick for the rest of this season, but if he pitches well, somebody might be interested in him in the future. So, like, I don't know about going forward.

If you were to just ask me this question in general, though, I would say that Locklear, given both the combination of the need and the way he looks so far, seems like a good bet to stick.

And I'm a little bit less sure about Ryan Bliss, even though he's played really well and the team could use defense. I just think that given Polanco is coming back and a whole, you know, cavalcade of other factors may conspire to not give spot. What do you think, John?

John Trupin
Yeah, I I think that Locklear has the best shot.

There's.

I don't think that they will trade Hancock because I don't think that they would get enough and there is enough value.

Even if he's performing reasonably well, there is enough value to them as a team in having an optionable, decent six starter, especially given Brian Wu is not a beacon of durability thus far in his career and know the rest of the pitchers are, have been incredibly durable, but they are pitchers. So first, frankly, Hancock himself is the least durable. Thus far of all of them, like.

Evan James
So the most pitcher of all the pitchers.

Unknown
Yeah, right.

John Trupin
Exactly. So, so, yeah. So I would be surprised if they dealt him.

Class A, frankly occupies almost a similar place to me from the position player side where because he is so fast and such an obvious, like, specific sort of utilizable player, particularly for a playoff team. Like, he's going to be on the Mariners playoff roster. If the Mariners make the playoffs, he's going to be on the playoff roster because they'll, they'll need two or three fewer pitchers and they will want somebody who is a stolen base in a can, and that is Jonathan Class A. If nothing else, he is that. And, you know, he plays defense like a little, a little bit drunken fist is, I would say what his, what his outfield style looks like, but he is rangy and, you know, he's, again, he's 21, 22. Like he, he will improve at that.

You know, just the reads of the ball, which is much more the issue than it is his athleticism, which is, is better than anyone. But Julio, in terms of bliss, I have long been a skeptic on him and I've, I've genuinely been.

I would give significant kudos to him defensively thus far. I have been really impressed with his range, with his hands.

His arm is still not very good. But, you know, you've, we've noticed that on some potential double plays that have been either turn, either not turned or turned with a ball that bounced, you know, 60ft on the way.

But he's just, he's just been slumping so hard and slumping, sort of a tough thing to say when it's like, you know, 42 of plate appearances, but he's just, he is, I think someone who is, has a really narrow pathway for success because of how much of the power he needs to generate with that leg lift to be viable.

And we've seen him go the other way with some power impressively. But I just, I don't think, again, I don't think there's much value to trading him at this stage.

You know, he could be fill in for, you know, the back, you know, to close out a trade. But there's not really much reason, in my opinion, for them to move any of these players because they're rookies. Like, this is the group that's rookies. They can all be optioned. They can all fill in here and they have, they're young enough that they could improve on this aspect. Right. Bliss could figure out his timing better and absolutely could continue to hit at an above average rate. Um, you know, Hancock could lock in his command or, you know, could, could finally find a real outfit. But I would be surprised if, frankly, I think Locklear is the one most likely to be traded, even as I've said that he is the most likely to stick. And that's because I could see if the Mariners decided for a big bat that's a corner infielder to be where they go for a player. Locklear would be an appealing trade, you know, piece to, to deal in in response.

Unknown
Yeah, I think what, when you're a contending team, you actually do want to keep the rookie or rookie adjacent players and you're more willing to trade the guys that are further away from the big leagues, even though the guys closer to the big leagues hopefully are more talented and have a little bit less risk.

Somebody like Hancock and classe to your points there, John, like, those are players you're going to need to rely on either to get to September or in September and October.

Bliss and Locklear. I think Locklear is more likely to be traded just because I think he's more likely to get more in a trade. But I think someone else at Roop Grape tweeted, what do we do when Jorge Polanco comes back? I assume Ryan Bliss is taking the sounder down to Tacoma. I think it's exactly what's going to happen to Ryan Bliss. I think that's fine.

So, yeah, I think, you know, the, I don't think any of those four are likely to headline a deal unless Jerry wants to go all in and do some sort of Tyler Locklear for Pete Alonso. Let's get a rental player and somebody that can just play first base for us. Like a straight swap like that. It feels out of his nature, but that's, that's where I think there's a possibility of one of those guys going.

John Trupin
Yeah, and, and bliss is 24. You know, he has had less than or barely one season at AAA and, and he's 24. That's pretty young for Triple A at this, at this stage. Like, you know, he is, he's, it's perfectly reasonable for him to do the shuttle a little bit and that's, that's not a, that's not a death knell on his career.

I will also, I guess, just throw into that group, right, of like Canzone or, you know, probably not well, you know, in thinking about it more honestly, I mean, Ken zone is, I think, likely a player that could be traded here as well, even though he doesn't have, I think, much value.

Right. But just in terms of, well, here's a younger player who has some aspects of potential and if the Mariners are going to move, you know, move to get a, an outfielder, which seems the most likely an outfielder or corner infielder, then you're going to move players like that. That's why to me, tie France was a likely player to also be traded if they're going for a more significant upgrade. And he has not exactly performed his way out of being upgraded. On, on.

I do want to take one here just in looking at these questions from Henry Noble at Hen 253, which we discussed some prospects here and in the tradable group.

Given his limited bats over the past year since being drafted, how has Colt Emerson shot up prospect? Listen, don't get me wrong, I love it. I'm just confused by his meteoric rise with so few games played. Thanks.

Evan James
The short answer is that everybody loves him. And if you listen to Jerry, if you listen to Jerry, last year when they were talking about drafting him, they interviewed his team. I don't remember which team he played for in college baseball, but they interviewed his team and the most common answer they got was, you should draft this kid. Like, he's, he's really special. He's a leader. He's incredibly good. So what did they do? They drafted him and he's been nothing but a superstar ever since. His numbers are incredible. Like he's basically had no on ramp as far as professional baseball is concerned. He's just been good, if not borderline superstar as a prospect almost immediately. The only thing that is holding him back from being further up prospect list already is, is the health issue because he's been injured twice this year. If he had been playing this entire time and he might be in Double A already, like he's been that good and that impressive quickly.

John Trupin
Yeah, I think the, the logistical component as well is Emerson, when he was drafted, the, the profile was here is a shortstop that very likely could end up being a second baseman or a third baseman.

And he's, you know, he hits left handed, he's got decent power, but not necessarily, you know, overwhelming power. And, you know, is, is the plate discipline going to actually carry forward? And what he's done as a pro is, oh, he hits the ball really, really hard, consistently. So his, his average exit velocities and his like ability to specifically barrel the ball, to hit the ball, you know, not just hard, but hit line drives hard, not just ground balls hard.

That has been really, really, really consistent, and it's also been consistent in practices. And so scouts are able to see that, teams are able to see that and have that data. And even if he's only had around 100, 5200 plate appearances, that's enough for teams to up their appraisal. The other part is he has added strength and not seemingly yet lost speed. That's part of being drafted at a seven at age 17 is you can grow a little bit still and you can have your body fill in your physicality in such a way where Emerson now looks much more to scouts and to me, like he will be a shortstop or certainly like he can be in a shortstop. So those are the two things. So you're saying he is. I'm, I'm not, I'm not, to be honest, I'm not, like, blown away defensively, but I do think he is rangy enough to handle it. And he has a, he has a very good arm.

So that, that was sort of the, those were the two knocks was, you know, decent power, decent range.

I not, I'm not sure that many folks are going to follow this, but Anthony Volpe, when he was drafted, had a lot of similar characteristics to Emerson in that he was kind of like, well, he does everything decently and he looks smooth, but he isn't quite that strong. And because he's not that fast, there's concerns that he won't stick as a shortstop. And then Anthony Volpe came back, you know, after his first pro season, hitting the ball way harder and looking much more like, oh, when your job full time is to train and play baseball. Yeah, going from high school to that, you, you can add a lot of physicality and athleticism. And that took, you know, Volby from a, you know, back end of the first round player to, everyone would have picked this guy top five, which is basically the way that folks talk about Emerson now. So that is the trajectory that I see as quite possible now. Volby is faster. Volby is a faster player, and we've seen that in the minors as a base runner and we've seen that in the majors as a base runner. I'm not expecting Emerson to be a 2020 guy, but I do think he could be a very significant power hitter for a short stop.

And that's, that's why Colt Emerson has risen up so many prospect lists over someone like Cole Young, who is incredibly consistent but fundamentally does not have that much power.

Unknown
It's exciting to have, it feels like at least one or two guys every year go from drafted in the late teens or twenties or thirties or below and then even still quickly rise into a top hundred, if not even maybe top 50 prospect.

Obviously you still got to get them into the big leagues and you still have to make them produce once there's but it does feel like I just have so much trust in who the Mariners draft year at this point and just kind of assume that that person will be top 100 by the time that the next season rolls around, top 50 the next year and then suddenly they're contributing to the big leagues. And it's also reassuring that for a while they were just producing pitching and now producing lots of great hitting prospects again, want to see the hitters actually make it to the big leagues, but it's good that they're not just able to work with one single archetype. They're able to take well regarded pitchers and make them great. They're able to take pitchers off the scrap heap or random 12th round picks and turn them into fireballing arms like we're seeing with Logan Evans right now. And then they're also able to take raw high school hitters and turn them into guys that are looking like they'll debut by 21 or 22.

There's just. There's an exciting theme to where player development is right now, which, going back to our earlier conversation, makes me that much more comfortable with trading from the farm to get players that you can keep long term.

Since apparently we're not just going to go sign Juan Soto, I'm still going to be sore about that because he's very good and I'd like him in a Mariners jersey.

John Trupin
The history of Mariners first round picks, really, you know, I was trying to think of an appropriate way of framing this that sort of gets at it, because I was going to say every single one of the Mariners top or Mariners first round picks has been a top 100 prospect in the depot rail. And that's great.

It is not inherently that valuable to frame because like the previous several years, that was also true, right? At some point. Alex Jackson, DJ Peterson, Mike Zanino, Danny Holton, Taiwan Walker, Dustin Ackley, Nick Franklin. We're all for shown or we're all top 100 prospects.

Evan James
Guess who of those is still around?

John Trupin
We got Tyler, we got the tie.

Evan James
Fighter, Alex, still around.

John Trupin
Well, that's true. That is true.

Unknown
He's not good, but you know, he's in a major clubhouse somewhere.

Evan James
Yeah, that is true.

John Trupin
Which is a real trip. But.

But, like, every single one of the Mariners picks has been, like you said, grant, like, each year it has been, oh, they have improved since they were drafted.

Really. Like, white is the only one who fundamentally didn't really improve on his draft, you know, expectations.

Evan James
I would. I would consider that a technicality, too, because he's a weird prospect. Right.

John Trupin
Hancock as well. I would say Hancock as well has definitely. But, you know, that it's, it's, it is just. Yes, it is a really.

It's a great place to be, and it affords the team so many options now to say, yeah, we'll shell out because we won't shell out money. We'll shell out prospects for.

For an upgrade, like you were saying, grant for. For a significant potential improvement like Robert. And, yes, you know, Robert has not played that often, relatively, but that is where, you know, the Mariners could absolutely, it is a higher risk, higher reward, but it is absolutely where the Mariners could go from.

They're in this good shape when the rest of the division is down to chokehold on the division. If you have Robert and Julio performing like stars.

Unknown
Yeah.

And in a, in a game where even the best teams in a playoff series have not much more than, like, a 60% chance of winning the series are slightly higher. The ability to win the division, and especially even to be one of the top two seeds and entirely miss that first round there, that is such a huge advantage. It gives you. Honestly, that alone gives you a better chance.

Being a division winner versus a wild card winner, maybe even, like, the two seed versus the three seed, is probably a bigger increase to World Series odds than adding any one player that is conceivably available at the deadline. And so if Luis Robert, he is potentially the difference in getting you that two seed, that is a massive swing in playoff odds. And as Mariners fans most like, if you polled Mariners fans, probably many, maybe even a majority would be happy with just making the playoffs, whether or not they go very far.

That's not how you build a team. Or at least that's not how you should build a team. You should say, I want to win a World Series, and making the playoffs is a great way to do that. And at the end of the day, depot knows that, yes, he wants to win 54% of his games because that'll get them into the playoffs. But the real point of that is to say playoffs are a crapshoot. This is not the NFL, where being a really, really good team makes a big difference, or the NBA, where being the Boston Celtics means you're going to cruise to the finals.

You just got to get the at bats. You got to get in the playoffs and see what happens. And so being able to win the division gives you such a better chance. And I think depot gets that, and that's why I'm willing to, I would be surprised if they do not deal one of those top 100 or fringe top 100 guys to get better at some position at the deadline.

Evan James
And that's the whole point of having multiple top 100 prospects.

You don't need six shortstops, you need one work stop, and you need some of these other guys to convert to other positions. So realize the trade value. It makes perfect sense. And we, to be fair, we haven't been in a position to do this before. This is relatively unique to the depot era that we actually have the talent to trade and also the team to add to. It's both parts of that, right?

John Trupin
Yeah.

It's the first time the farm has been good and the team has been good outside of 2021 where, as I think I said earlier, I'm not really willing to say the team was good.

I loved them, loved the team. But this is, you know, this, this to me is, is a stronger roster.

The, the Guardians right now are the easier to catch team in the AL Central in terms of if the Mariners can, can maintain that hold on the AL west. The Guardians are three games up on the Mariners, I think, or three, three and a half.

And yeah, I completely agree that that is a chase. I will also say like it.

I hate watching the Astros, and I've hated watching the Astros and Rangers win the division year after year after year, even as like pulling back from fandom. I like objectively, like a lot of the things that the Rangers did have done as like in team building, strategy components. And I like, I enjoy watching them play against other teams. Sometimes it sucks. And I love the idea of hanging an AL west banner. Obviously, I want the Mariners to thrive in the playoffs. I want them to win a World Series.

That is paramount. But the fact, like, the Mariners not being able to be the best team in the AL west is, it's the bigger demonstration of quality of team in baseball relative to, like you said, grant, you know, in, in the NFL or the NBA, I don't really know enough about the NHL to know how wild things get in playoff series, but I would imagine it breaks towards the better team, usually more than MLB series do. And it, it is worth it to me. I think for the Mariners to have us have seasons where they are like, we were the best team, we were the best team in our division.

Whatever happened to the playoffs, we were the best team in our division.

And that hasn't been the case. You know, I mean, it obviously literally hasn't been the case in over 20 years. And so that that is worth going in for for someone like Robert to me, for this year and the fact that it does that for the next multiple seasons, that you can. You can have that confidence and you have then the time to draft again and hopefully build that up again. And frankly, it doesn't cost you financially so much that the Mariners cheap ass ownership can't justify another, you know, another addition of some sort.

Unknown
And excuse me for a moment while I excuse the John Stanton ownership point a second, but as if you think of them as running a business, you can easily make the case that a baseball team should be more a community property than a business, or at least that's part of it. But if you think of it as running a business and you have a large amount of uncertainty as to tv revenue, which is a significant amount of the business's revenue as a whole, I understand being hesitant to commit money last off season, season.

It sucks because that was a great time to add great players to make this team good, but I understand it gets settled or at least there is more certainty and the Mariners still do not invest in good players. I think that is when there is absolutely no excuse with this team eschewing free agency, as they generally have for eight plus years.

I do think that I get it and I would rather them spend again, not my money, to get better.

But hopefully this offseason they'll say, well, we have a better idea of what the RSN situation is going to be, how our tv deal is going to break out, what the next couple of years will look like for MLB wide tv revenue, and we'll then say, sure, adding especially a player like Robert not going to break the bank and is very reasonable, and even adding another expensive free agent is doable.

So I do think that I can understand why they didn't spend last offseason, and I'm hopeful that that was just because of temporary uncertainty.

So I think there's a chance that they will be able to say, yeah, we can add another $15 million salary this year. That's going to cost us an extra five to 7 million the rest of the season, and it will add more cash into the payroll in the future, but not an amount that we can't afford.

John Trupin
I do want to note also, because Evan, you asked about this and grant you gave, I think, a quite comprehensive answer around Robert performing this year and whether he's in case, at least in terms of physically, he looks to be all good, right? He is showing sprint. His sprint speed is up either at or maybe even is his, like, career high.

His bat speed is good. Like, it's that physically he looks healthy. Like, completely healthy.

Evan James
All the home runs he hit against the Mariners answered a lot of my questions begrudgingly, so. And yes.

John Trupin
And. And, I mean, he's only been back for like a few weeks, but, like, he is fast enough that he probably won't run a 161 Babbitt his whole season. So, yes, he's hitting 188, but the fact that he's hitting 188 and still have been an above average hitter, I think he'll be okay. I think he'll get his timing back. Yep, I'd take that. That'll probably balance out.

Evan James
We'll swap him out for Dom Canzone and not miss a beat. How's that?

John Trupin
I will not be too sad. Evan, do we have any more questions that we want to hit here before. Before we hit the road? I know we're. Grant and myself are both heading to the game tonight, so I think the.

Evan James
Only question we should answer is about Jorge Polanco. We got a question about when he's healthy. Where is he? This is from root grave. Yes, healthy. Assuming Bliss is back in Tacoma, what's going to be the deal? Kind of. How do you guys see the playing time sorting itself out?

John Trupin
Yeah, I think Grant. Grant touched on this a little bit earlier, and I think that Bliss does go back on, on the train to Tacoma. But I do think the Polanco situation is a tricky one because he should, in theory, be an above average solution at that position, and he has not been remotely this year.

It would be lovely if this were just like a full reset for him. And they're definitely seeming to give him the time to do that reset, even though it's meaning some games where Ryan Bliss is starting and is struggling, but, you know, they, they appear to have hit their point where, like, we need, you know, Luis a reuse. Your. Your. Your leash is up, you know, so I think they will bring him back and have him mostly play full time because Dylan Moore, much as I am both an appreciator and a fan of him, is, I think, hitting as he often has, hitting that overexposure threshold where, you know, we're maybe starting to see him struggle a little bit. And the team is recognizing that. Right. They moved him down out of the number two spot where they'd had him for a while.

The team just. That is really the challenge, is they don't really have a number two. Or while Julio is not hitting a number three hitter, they don't really have a number four hitter. When Kels struggling, they, they have a team of a couple leadoff hitters and then a bunch of like five to eight hitters. And it's such a funny, funny group of people because it really is like if they line it all up right, you know, they just, they are just running coin flips and Polanco is, I think, a slightly weightier coin flip. Their favor to play every day.

And if he's, if he comes back, he's playing every day and he is really eating, you know, eating shit, then okay, then, then they still have a month to figure out are we, you know, are we completely turning? Are we, are we throwing in the towel on this? Are we pulling the plug on this? But I think you got to give him full time reps still. Just based on tracker McDougal bats McDougal bats is a bend, Oregon based baseball and softball bats company, family owned. They are big Mariners fans and they build baseball bats and softball bats that are fantastic to use for your own league. If you have kids that are getting into their season now, I think we're in at this point, you know, we are approaching summer ball. I know at least in the Seattle area, we're sort of in the midst of the high school seasons and middle school seasons. But if you have woodbat leagues, those typically get started around Memorial Day, at least for baseball, I think it is very worthwhile. One of the big perks on a McDougall bat is that they have a longer sweet spot and they are designed to last for really as long as you keep swinging that bat. Though they are not a composite bat, they essentially are incredibly sturdy. They are not liable to break on you. I actually have now a McDougall bat that I am excited to be cracking open this coming weekend, getting into games. So I am. I'm excited to track myself stats here. If you go to McDougall bats, that's macdougall bats.com and order a bat, if you use the discount code, go Ms. That's goms, you will get $15 off your order and we will be very pleased.

We'll get a little extra bonus from that as well. So go check them out.

Unknown
Yeah, I agree. And there's a couple things that I think about. One is the comparison to our dear friends the Houston Astros and what they've done with Jose Abreu, where Abreu was bad. Not irredeemably so, but bad. Last year and then was among the very worst hitters in baseball history for as many plate appearances as he got early this season, they sent him down to the minors, see if they can fix something. He does terribly in the minors. They call him back up. He does only slightly better still. Well, well, well below league average, and they just release him. So they decided we don't have a great backup solution, but he is so bad that we have nowhere to play him.

The difference, though, is that Jose Abreu is, I think, 37 years old this year and Jorge Polanco just turned 30. So one is at a place in age curves in baseball where you would expect him to get a lot worse, and one is at a place where he's probably as good as he's been, perhaps the tiniest bit worse, but not a huge difference.

The other thing, and forgive me for not having the exact number, but I remember reading an article about Dan Szymborski's zips projections and how he manages to make rest of season projections by adding in data from April, Jorge Blanco has played more than just the 20 to 30 games again in April, but he's had, I think, 46 games this year. It's not a massive sample size, and I believe Dan Szymborski said that by adding in April stats, the projections get something like three to 5% better. It is a tiny, tiny amount compared to the body of work and all the other pieces of data that we have. So to your point there, John, is there a better option who we think will be better rest of season? Even with the data we have of how good or not as good he's been this season, it is hard for me to imagine. And should they try to get better at second base at the trading deadline? It's hard for me to imagine that the gulf between what we think Polanco will be and someone we could trade for is, I don't think that is a bigger gap than corner outfield Dom Canzone to somebody else that is available, both because I think the level of play there is just as bad, if not a little bit worse, or certainly I think it's less likely to be better down the road. But also there are better corner outfielders available than there are second basemen available.

Maybe you try to make a move for like Beau Bachette. I guess I don't know if there's much else.

Again, if the White Sox are asking for Colt Emerson, Cole Young and your firstborn child for Luis Robert, maybe that's off the table. Maybe then you say, well, Toronto is willing to give us Pichette. So that's, that is a place for us to upgrade.

But I'm, I'm not too worried about running Polanco out there.

Yes, if he's terrible for another month, it's going to be tough, but I'd probably rather roll the dice with Polanco and upgrade elsewhere than canzone and an upgrade at second, let's say.

Evan James
Couldn't have said it better myself. And for the record, like, if Polanco just isn't very good, you already have their placement in bliss ready to go anyway. So it's like, there's no harm in seeing if he's still good. If he is great, the guy you play for the rest of the year, if not great, you play the prospect you have instead. Right? Like, there's not really a huge downside to this.

Unknown
I don't trust bliss enough to view him as, like, a good enough replacement for a playoff contender, but, like, you know, this is not, oh, crap. We have to put Jonathan Diaz in the rotation every single fifth day the rest of the season. Right? Like, this is, it's not such a big drop off that you're completely caught embarrassed.

John Trupin
And there are options for the Mariners if they are inclined towards making a trade.

It wouldn't be grant as, I mean, Bichette would be the big target. I think you could probably find something a little bit more, you know, middling that that at least is more stopgappy coming to mind. Initially, it's like Thyro Estrada from the Giants.

I think he has a little more cost control or years of control.

So it might be a little bit more sort of costly. But, you know, there are, I think, you know, again, we could do the Jake Cronenworth conversation again, we could do, you know, looking at, looking at some of the players, like, who is it, David Schneider, also on Toronto, who's sort of a second base, third base guy who's, you know, a younger player but is more fine.

If that's really so much an inclination. What I will say to the, to the question on Polanco is also what was more worrisome around his early performance to me was his bat speed and his, a lot of his, like, swing decisions. The hope to me that I don't think is outlandish is when you have a hamstring or lower body injury that has been nagging for a while, that tends to impact your ability to swing and drive with power.

That's hopeful.

That has been having an impact, but it's not outlandish.

And it's certainly been an aspect with Garver as well of his slower start, which has at least been heating up of late, where the back spasms that he had in the first month of the year likely had at least some aspect of a role in his, his performance.

What I will say regarding Polanco as well, though, is when you said Jose Grant, I thought you might be pointing to Altuve, who is, who is also a player who has had some horrific month, first month or two stretches in his career. Not all the time, but you know, he was, I mean, he was worse than Polanco has been for his, you know, for the 2020 season, for the entire 2020 season, right? A worse WRC plus just an overall worst player.

He has had months where he has been worse as a hitter in April and May and he has bounced back. That is not really a one to one comp by any stretch. It is just to say this contact heavy with power profile, there can be stretches where players really struggle. And Polanco usually still has been a guy where when he's healthy, he is a good player.

So that's why it is to me fully reasonable to still give him. He is still the best shot that they have at good performance.

I think we're going to call it there.

Thank you to everyone for tuning in. Thank you to Evan for joining us. Thank you Grant, for hopping on Grant. I know we don't always get you on here. Where can people track you down?

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The Big Dumper Extension with Grant Bronsdon - Meet at the Mitt Podcast

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1: Introduction and Catch-Up

2: Deep Dive into Cal Raleigh's Performance

3: Team Strategies and Potential Moves

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