Ken Rosenthal, Skip Schumaker & Tommy Kahnle; Paul Skenes to Yankees? | Foul Territory

Ken Rosenthal, Skip Schumaker & Tommy Kahnle; Paul Skenes to Yankees? | Foul Territory

[Music] [Applause] [Music] What’s up everybody? Welcome in to another edition of Foul Territory. I’m Kyle Glazer, pinch hitting today as your host, joined as always by the great AJ Presinski and Eric Kratz. Guys, it’s exciting times. Got the GM meetings going. It’s award season. Sing votes are announced tonight. It’s a good time. It is. It is a good time. It’s It’s It’s a weird time for baseball fans because there’s no games going on really other than I guess the winter leagues, but as far as awards and free agencies ready to kick off and GM meetings where GMs will have interviews and say nothing. Um, we’d like to really spend money, but we’re not going to spend money. We want affordable guys, but we’re willing to go out and sign. Like, it’s always nothing. So, I’m just waiting for a GM to say something at one time. Like Brian Cashman had it to happen a couple years ago, but when will a GM say something? Yeah, we did see yesterday Jed Hoyer with the Cubs talk about, hey, they are going to prioritize pitching. We saw AJ Prowler, I thought, interestingly, mentioned that they are interested in bringing back Luis Aryz at first base just given their power needs, finishing 28th in homers last year. So, I do always feel like they sometimes tip their hand a little bit, but you’re right. For the most part, this is not a time when we uh see the full plan on display. I mean, Eric, you’ve uh you’ve you’ve seen all the GMs speak after all the different teams you’ve played for over the years. You know, know that as well as anyone. Yeah, they speak like mice on TV, but they they rule like lions behind the scenes. Nobody’s never Nobody ever sent me down and was like, “Well, you know, it’s really just uh we’ll see where the path goes.” No, they’re like, “Sorry, you didn’t hit good enough, so we’re going to go and get somebody that does better.” Yes, indeed. Well, again, we have the SI Young Awards going to be announced tonight. MVP awards announced tomorrow. Lot of good stuff coming up. Uh quick reminder once again, go ahead and subscribe, tweet, uh tweet at us here on FT Live, buy merch at foul territory.com. It’s a lot of good stuff. And with that, it’s time to charge the mound. He’s charging the mound. All right, guys. So, sighing awards will be announced tonight. We have Paul Skins in the National League and Trick Scooble in the American League. Considered pretty much the runaway winners. AJ, I want to start with you. The question is not whether Skins and Scubble will win, it’s whether or not they will be unanimous. Do you think either of them deserve to be unanimous this year? Uh, geez. I I think Skins Skinsh, you know what? I think they got to both have a chance. I think I think Scubble’s going to get it again. I think I don’t know Crochet and Hunter Brown didn’t do enough, especially towards the end. And if you in and Sanchez might steal a vote from So I think Scooble will be unanimous. I don’t think skins will just because I think Sanchez or Yamamoto are going to steal a vote somewhere. Now, here’s the better thing. If they included the postseason, I know not all these guys were in the postseason. You have to make a case for Yamamoto and what he did in the postseason for the Dodgers. So, do and Christopher Sanchez pitched great. Now, it’s not Ski’s fault they didn’t make it, but I I I think Sanchez or Yamamoto will steal a vote and I think Scooble is going to be unanimous. Eric, what about you? Where do you stand once again? and the NL Young finalists, Christopher Sanchez with the Phillies, Paul Ske with the Pirates, Yoshinoi Yamamoto with the Dodgers. Over in the American League, Garrick Crochet with the Red Sox, Hunter Brown with the Astros, and TK Scubal. Do you think school or skins deserve to be unanimous? I think they do deserve to be unanimous, but I’m going to go the opposite of what AJ just said. I think I think in the American League I think Crochet is probably the only one that gets a chance to maybe take a take a first place vote away from Scooble. I think I think Skins did exactly what like his numbers he had I think one blip on the radar the whole season but he was like is he was essentially beginning to end favorite to win the Sai Young and he did it like rarely do you see that. Normally it’s like, okay, this dude’s coming in. Scubble probably coming in to be that favorite again. I think Crochet gave him a run for his money. He ultimately will not will not beat him, but I think I think SC I think Scooble loses one first place vote to Crochet. Diving into the NL race here a little bit. Paul Ski, look, this was an incredible year. 197 RA. That was more than half a run lower than his closest competition in the National League. Again, pick your favorite statistic. Whips, strikeouts, fifra plus, it’s skins by a mile. What’s interesting about this is he went 10 and 10. And we know we’re in an age where wins are not considered the big factor in sung voting that they were one, you know, a long time ago. Nonetheless, it is interesting the concept of a pitcher with a 500 record winning the Sai Young award when as recently as 20 years ago, it would have been unthinkable. And again, it wasn’t his fault. His offense only provided him with 11 runs in those 10 losses. So, I mean, his case really speaks for itself, but it nonetheless it is kind of a historical anomaly. You think though, really? Because didn’t Felix when Felix won the one year, there’s been some guys that have done this. So, I don’t know that it’s that big of anomaly anymore because of the advanced metrics now. I I I I think that this has just become wins. This is the whole wins don’t matter, which I kind of disagree with because wins should matter because at the end of the day, you get paid on wins and losses as a team. Yeah. So, Felix was at least a little bit over 500. He was 13 and 12, so one game over. But you’re right. I mean, we’ve seen wins sort of be deemphasized. And you mentioned it’s something that you don’t necessarily agree with. Eric, where are you on that? I mean, wins wins are important. Starting pitchers need to win. But the reality is like even in Felix’s case, I think he had 250 innings or 240ome innings that year. Like he gave you everything. like some of these guys. And it’s not Paul Ske or it’s not Paul Ski’s fault at all. He’s getting taken out. They are 100% load managing him for whatever reason. I guess the Pirates have the answers more than anybody. Or maybe it’s just the whole game. But guys don’t pitch long enough to get wins. Sometimes you have to pitch into the seventh inning before your team scores. Sometimes you have to be able to pitch into the sixth inning. I mean, I think SK did a good job of pitching pitching as deep as he was allowed to pitch, but they just they don’t let guys get wins, and that’s why wins for pitchers aren’t that aren’t as important. A guy that pitched deep into games this year, Max Freed, also got hurt deeper into games. So, I think there’s there’s some argument on both sides, but if you’re a starting pitcher, if we have Max Sergio on here right now, he wants the win in every game. And I think it’s just a change in mindset and I don’t think it’s a change in the players mindset. It’s a change in the front office mindset or or the coaching staff’s mindset. Absolutely. You mentioned Felix Hernandez. Of course, Jacob Deg Grom was another guy who won two signing awards while finishing barely over 500. Uh he went 10 and nine and 11 and eight. His two seasons he won signing awards. AJ, you mentioned something earlier I thought was interesting that Yoshino Yamamoto, if this vote took place after the World Series, if these votes took place with postseason performance in consideration, would you start to lean Yamamoto more or would it still be skins for you? Uh, Yamamoto has to be under consideration because he was the best pitcher in the postseason. I mean, especially after his epic game seven performance, after pitching game six and winning, he won three of the four World Series games for the Dodgers. So I I think he would have to be involved in it. But it’s it’s it’s a regular season award. I get it. That’s why Yamamoto won the World Series MVP. But and the other thing is you can’t include postseason because not all these guys are in the postseason. You can’t criticize skins because he his team stinks and they don’t spend any money and score any runs. So I I think yeah if if postseason was involved, I think Yamamoto would be right there with skins. Yamamoto was No, I I I think it’s funny because they he’s probably going to end up third and probably a distant third. I would assume, you know, I think Christopher Sanchez put together freaking amazing year, but the fact that Yamamoto would be in consideration to dethrone Skins shows you the fact that starting pitcher starting pitchers matter. I get it. Last year, the Dodgers won because of their bullpen, but this year they won because of starting pitching. I wonder if it’ll be reflected in this free agent, this free agency this off season. So, you have Sanchez potentially finishing second, Yamamoto third, but you’re right. What Yoshinoba Yamamoto did even during the regular season, he was the only Dodger starter to make every start this year. We know this rotation was ailing. He was the one constant for them. Moving over into the American League, we talked about Terrick Scooel had yet another amazing season. He will be the SIG award winner in the AL for the second year in a row. You know, Garrick Crochet and Hunter Brown are interesting to me because both of these guys, as they were coming up as prospects, a lot of evaluators considered them future relievers. I can’t tell you how many times over my tenure at Baseball America, I heard these two guys are probably going to be relievers. And Crochet did start as a reliever before moving into the rotation with the White Socks. What do you think this shows you about, you know, guys and their ability to continue to evolve? Because I think sometimes we see guys as almost finished products when they get to the majors when nothing could be further from the truth. I think it shows that teams don’t always know what they’re doing. I think it shows you that evaluators aren’t always right. And I think it shows you that you have to give guys chances to grow. I mean, Chris Sail came up as a reliever. He was a closer. I remember I was there. He was he was our closer for a little while, right? Because everyone’s like, “Oh, he’s going to get hurt. He’s never going to be able to pitch 200 innings. He’s never going to be able to do this. And now he’s on a a Coopertown track. So, I think you have to let guys develop and figure it out. Crochet got hurt, so that cost him some time. But I think in his mind, he always wanted to be a starter. He was a starter coming out of college and he always thought he’d be a starter down the road. And the White Socks didn’t allow him to do that until the one year and he proved he could do it. Now, he didn’t get to pitch a lot, but the Red Sox were like, “You know what? You’re our guy now. You’re our one. Go out there and do And for Hunter Brown, Hunter Brown made some adjustments from where he was a couple years ago. He quit trying to be Justin Verlander. He became Hunter Brown. He’s really good. I think these guys I think these guys have the opportunity to start. It really gets put on the play to the player. We had a discussion about a week and a half ago about Mason Miller. To me, if Mason Miller says, “I want to be a starter.” He’s learned to pitch in the big leagues. He’s learned to see how his body recovers. You got to want to try. You got to want to try because if what what’s the worst that can happen? I remember when Garrett Crochet said he wanted to be a starter and the White Socks were like, “Well, we don’t care about anything else, so we’re just going to let him do it.” It’s on him. But the question was, dude, this guy missed two of the last three seasons because of injuries, and now all of a sudden, he’s going to be a starter. He’s probably going to blow out even more. And he’s shown that this guy is a monster. Like, his frame says, “Hey, you know what? I can deal with throwing 100 miles an hour for seven innings and then I get my five days to recover and it’s worked out perfectly to to me. I think it should be the opposite when you get called up. It should be he’s a starter until he proves he’s not a starter. Then you go to the bullpen and then you say, “Okay, are you able to build back up the stuff you’ve learned?” Not, “Well, he’s a he’s a bullpen guy.” Like how can you tell somebody’s a bullpen guy because he doesn’t have a second pitch when he’s 22 years old? I think evaluators make that assumption too too quickly in guy’s career sometimes. Yeah, no question about it. Looking at it once again, Tercoel is going to be most likely the winner. Um 2.21 RA nearly a quarter of a run better than anyone than anyone else in the league. Brown was second. I will say Crochet leading the American League with 205 and a third innings given all the things we talked about just truly amazing and shows that you don’t want to put limits on greatness. We’ve got a lot more to talk about here on Foul Territory. Stay with us. We’ll be right back with Ken Rosenthal and the inside scoop next. [Music] This episode of FT is brought to you by Square. Your favorite neighborhood spots run on Square. Give me an example. In Pennsylvania, Kratz, right down the street from my house, the Tap House. Not only is it an awesome place to hang out, get your beers, get your drinks, whatever it is. But you know what? The company has the simplicity of Square and they give back to the community with 10% of all the proceeds that they bring in going back to community projects. I love it. Sports and sports bars are so good at bringing together local communities and you can actually take this ad as an excuse to go support your local spot and have yourself a day or a weekend in the neighborhood. Square is a proud partner of more than 4 million neighborhood businesses around the world. These businesses are what make the neighborhood the neighborhood. So visit square.com/go/foul to learn more. But before you do, go support your favorite neighborhood spot. You’ll be happy you did. Square. See you in the neighborhood. Again, that’s square.com/go/val to learn more. One piece of news that came out today, David Fletcher, longtime major league infielder who tried to convert to a two-way player. Root announced his retirement today after seven seasons in the majors. had a few very very productive years with the Angels. Looked like he could have been a long-term piece for them. Ultimately just wasn’t able to sustain it. I did think it was interesting. He tried to reinvent himself as a knuckle baller and a two-way player. Clearly didn’t quite work out. But again, all in all, play seven seasons in the big leagues. That’s a career to be proud of. Congratulations on a great career. You gave it everything you had. Even tried to be a knuckle baller. It’s not as easy as people think, but congratulations on a great career. I mean, cool. 101 innings, 18 starts in the bushes. I mean, he was throwing that knuckle puck up there. So, I don’t know. I I don’t know. Like, obviously, somebody that bounced around from TripleA to the big leagues to go back to be a starting pitcher and then you’re like, “Hey, we need you to go back to high A to start pitching and learning pitching again.” I’d be like, “Maybe I don’t want to go to pitching again.” Since both you guys were catchers, Eric, I want to start with you. Is there a place for knuckle ballers in today’s game with the emphasis on velocity? If you get outs, if you get outs, yes, if your ball avoids hard contact, 100% there is a place for it. You don’t have to throw There’s a dude on on Twitter the other day. I think he threw his knuckle ball like 89 miles an hour. We don’t need that. We don’t need somebody throwing a ball that hard. Like, you’re going to hurt a catcher. Just get that knuckle puck moving. That’s it. [Music] John Snider’s going to win. Okay, let’s just I know I know you like to forget about the team up north, Ken, but John Schneider is going to win. Okay, he’s going to win this award just because they’re in the AL East and everyone’s going to look at him and say, “Oh, the Yankees and Red Sox, but the the Blue Jays.” But hey, it’s fine. I get it. You forget about him sometimes. It’s fine. I got you. I got you. AJ, whatever you say, brother. That’s fine. What is that? Pen drop. Pen. Is that like a Is that like a small pen? Pen drop or Hold on before you even talk. I brought this up to you yesterday. You didn’t even remember it. I had mentioned at the time Steven Vo could be manager of the year because the Guardians were on this incredible run and you had to run your mouth. And that’s what happens, man. You were wrong. Ken, you know, you know, you know what? You know what I didn’t know at the time is that you were like Jerry Rinsworth and Tony Laruso trying to get certain people into the Hall of Fame. You were on this committee that voted for AL manager of the year. You didn’t give me all the information, Ken. I didn’t know behind the scenes. You were reaching out to all these people for NL Young. That’s today. That’s my only vote this year. Null and void, Ken. Null and void. Okay. You can go to the BBWA website. Kyle, I’m sorry you’re in the middle of this. You can go to the BBWA website and see who voted for each award. You will not see Ken Rosenthal’s name on AL Manager. AJ, now you got to click on something. You got to read something to figure this out. Here you go, Ken. You ready? I’m sorry, Ken. You were right. I’m happy for Stephen vote, but I still think that Ken had some behind the scenes back back dealing that I don’t know about. So, because he was way too confident about this one, which is which is why I know how voters vote. Yes, I understand over the years how guys think and women think when they’re voting. Yeah, true. Okay, congratulations to Stephen Vote and Pat Murphy, obviously. All right, AJ, I have to side with Ken on this, having been voter a few times as well. It’s a lot less conspiratorial than some people think out there. It’s it’s not quite what people seem to think. But with that, Ken, um, obviously, first of all, thank you so much for joining us here on the inside scoop. Um, you’ve written a lot recently. I want to jump in with an article you wrote with Evan Drellich yesterday about Major League Baseball and representatives from the Major League Baseball Players Association. Met for a preliminary meeting uh, on labor with the expiration of the CBA just a little more than a year away. This is obviously a very, very big topic in the game. executives, agents, everyone’s talking about it. What can you tell us about this meeting and what came out of it? Kyle, I don’t know that I can tell you a whole lot about what happened at the meeting. Basically, the story is that a meeting took place and we determined that because of the nature of these negotiations in the past, the acrimony that has existed over the years, we determined at the athletic that that alone was worth the story that they’ve met and that whatever happened happened, but at least there is some conversation. Now, I was told this morning that there’s more conversation that goes on than we think. Maybe and that’s fine. But this was a formal meeting and again, I don’t expect that anything substantive happened at it, but the mere fact that they’re talking, we determined that was a news story and that’s why we wrote it. So, is it a good sign or a bad sign? I don’t know that it changes Kyle the tenor at all. It’s this is going to be what it is. We all know what’s coming. A lockout is coming. A dispute is coming. But it would be actually it would behoove both sides to meet and meet often now and try to get this thing done maybe before even the lockout date. December 1st, 2026. That’s the expiration of the CBA. Long time ago, back in 2006, I remember during the World Series, the agreement was expiring in December and they reached agreement during the World Series. I don’t expect that to happen this time, but it’s not impossible. It’s happened before. Ken, come on, Ken. You know, they’re gonna drag this out. They’re not going to get it done. They’re gonna they’re gonna drag it out because guess what? They get paid for dragging it out. Why haven’t they been meeting the whole time? I don’t understand. I just don’t understand why we just can’t meet the whole time and go from there. But what I really don’t understand is why were you not in on this meeting, Ken? You could have just squeezed through the keyhole and sat in there and listened and then given us the inside scoop. AJ, that’s a great point and I wish I had been at this meeting and many others over the years. Uh there was one time in my career where the Orioles were being sold in a bankruptcy auction. This was in 1993 and it was taking place in a courthouse in Manhattan and I did sneak into a meeting because there were all these people in suits and I was actually in a suit too and no one knew who was which group. So, I snuck into this meeting and I was successful and I found out some stuff, but in the past 32 years, I really haven’t done that. But again, hasn’t worked out for me. Are there because of the contentious negotiations and like kind of some misdeings accused from both sides. Is there any chance that some of these meetings have to be held with an arbitrator in it or because these are preliminary meetings, they don’t have to have any kind of fair I’m not even sure what the legal term is like fair negotiating tactics in these meetings because last year it was or last CBA they came to the meeting and they said, “Hey, here’s our offer.” And then part of fair negotiating, you’re supposed to make a counter offer and there was never counter offers. So, is there anything like that that has to happen this time? No. And what you’re referring to, I think, Eric, is a charge of unfair labor practices that might result from contentious negotiation. That ultimately could be part of the outcome here. I don’t necessarily expect it, but you don’t have an arbitrator sitting there even in these kinds of meetings and you don’t have one sitting there at the end. It’s not how this works. They just meet, they negotiate, they go back, talk to their own people on both sides and try to figure out solutions. And that’s generally how these things work. Ken, in terms of on the field, the Texas Rangers are one of the more interesting teams this off season. Of course, we saw them win their first World Series in franchise history in 2023. 2024, things didn’t go the way they’d hoped. They finished under 500. Last year, 81 and 81, right at 500. Bruce Bochi stepped away. Skip Schumacher is now their new manager. This is just an interesting team to kind of figure out what direction they’re going in. What are you hearing? What are you seeing? And and what do you expect from the Texas Rangers here moving into 2026? First of all, Kyle, I agree with you. They are quite an interesting team. And first off, they’ve got to figure out where the payroll is. And they’re like a number of clubs right now that don’t have a clear direction yet. Perhaps the results of the luxury tax payrolls will influence them one way or the other. They it seems were under based on what was out there publicly, but they want to know for sure they were under rather than perhaps being over and getting penalized again as a third-time offender. So, that’s one thing that’s going on, but they are in a position where they’re going to reduce payroll. And that’s not really a secret. The question is, how do you do it? You’ve got two guys. They can non- tender. I don’t expect they’ll non-tender both, but it could be certainly one of them. Adoleis Garcia and Jonah Heim. Garcia is making more money than him. And by non-tendering one or long shot both, you would save some money and then you could go forward with your what you want to do in the offseason. But I don’t expect them to be as aggressive in the offseason as they’ve maybe been in the past couple of years. And what would really be interesting would be if they could move one of their bigger contracts. Now, I don’t see that happening. Marcus Simeon would probably be the only one and he’s in decline and he’s owed a lot of money still, but the question I think is how far will they go to free up money so they can do other things knowing that their payroll is going to go down. And an interesting case study for other reasons as well, Kyle, here’s a team that were kind of the anti-B Blue Jays last year. The Blue Jays I was critical of in the past for not getting the most out of their talent. The Rangers have kind of been that way offensively for a couple of years now that they’re better on paper than they play on the field and it’s going to be really interesting to see how that dynamic might change with Schumacher now taking over. They also need to address their pitching and they’ve got some other things that they’re going to have to do as well. But it is one of those teams that yeah, you’re going to be watching closely this off season because they can go in a couple of different directions. Kim, what do you think? I mean, yes, they can go in a couple of different directions, but then you have like the Twins who are also saying, “Oh, we could try and compete, but we don’t know yet.” Like, when do you know? You You should already know, right? Because that’s like like the Rangers know what they’re going to do. They know who they have under contract, and they know what they need. The Twins know what they need. They traded their whole team away. So now they’re going to say, “We’re going to try and compete. So now we have to buy all these guy.” Like that’s what I don’t understand. Like when do you know as a team? January 1st after the winter meetings. How do you not know? Like you should know last year. And I hear this from a couple of teams or a number of teams actually. The Twins are one of them that we don’t have our budget yet. We’re not sure exactly what we’re dealing with. That’s an ownership call. ownership has to make that decision where they are with the budget and how much they’re going to allocate for major league payroll, all of that. Now, the Twins are really interesting as well because if you read Dan Hayes’s story in the Athletic Today and you see Derek Fal’s quotes, Derek is the president of baseball operations for the Twins. He is basically saying he wants to compete. He doesn’t want to go backwards anymore. He wants to go and add to this team. They have talent. They can build around Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, and Byron Buckston for starters, and that’s a pretty good nucleus of players that you can build on, but will they continue what they did at the deadline, which is just tear it down. And here’s an ownership group that just took on two minority investors. A big part of that, their thinking, was to help pay down the debt, have the minority investors, the money that they’re infusing into the organization, pay down their significant debt. But how about putting money back into the team? At a time when you’ve also, like the Rangers, hired a new manager, Derek Shelton, and at a time also when your fans are as alienated as I can ever remember Twins fans being. And maybe I’m a victim of recency bias here, but I don’t remember the last time Twins fans were this disaffected with their team. And 2002 contraction. That’s a long time ago. Okay, that that’s fair, but that’s a long time ago. And the way to get fans back is to show you care about the product on the field. And that’s what’s been lacking the last couple of years. Do you believe them when these teams say it? Because these teams are owned by billionaires who run businesses. If the billionaire was going up to the last month before the fiscal year and said, “Just not sure our budget.” They’re setting their budgets sometimes years out in advance. Do you believe these teams really don’t know their budget or is it just the hey you know we’re putting on the face of we’re not sure how much we’re going to spend free agency sorry you’re not going to get a lot of money. Eric it’s a curious thing to me and maybe you’re right that it’s a masquerade to show the players and we don’t know exactly what we’re going to spend and you shouldn’t be too excited. I don’t know. But when you hear the baseball operations people talk about this particular kind of situation that we don’t know our budget yet, I don’t believe they’re lying. For whatever reason, maybe ownership are just ownerships are just taking stock of what happened in the season and trying to figure out where they are and not entirely sure yet. But you’re right, it’s November 12th here. Offseason has started. Free agent market is open. The winter meetings are a couple of weeks away. Let’s go. And I would anticipate that even for a team like the Twins that has had off-field things going on, right, left and right, the ownership situation with the investors coming in, the firing of a manager, they can get to the budget at some point soon. You would think if they haven’t gotten to it already. I know how to get under the budget. Have a guy sign a $16 million contract that you didn’t know he was going to pick the option up and he could be worth 50 million on the market. Can you talk about the Shane Bieber, not fallout because I think it’s awesome for him if he’s happy, but what you’ve heard from executives, other other teams around the league about him accepting what we feel like is below market. Yes, I wrote about this yesterday and I’ve heard consistently from executives since he decided to pick up his $16 million player option that this was one of the more stunning decisions they’ve seen. a bizarre decision, a baffling decision by a player who just came off Tommy John surgery, 18 months removed, but was very successful for the Blue Jays in the time that he pitched. And effectively what he did was take a one-year $12 million deal because he had a $4 million buyout if he declined the player option. So, it was curious to a lot of people and it remains curious. Now, Shane Bieber hasn’t really spoken publicly at all about this yet, what his motivations were. We do know that, like I said, he is 18 months removed from Tommy John, and it’s a process, and he obviously was comfortable in Toronto, happy in Toronto, like all the Blue Jays players were, and their families. That’s a big thing, and maybe that was a huge part of his decision, but he could have turned down the player option and perhaps negotiated a better deal with the Blue Jays. One question that has been raised by the executives was or is okay is Shane Bieber entirely healthy? Is there something going on there? There’s no indication of that. And if you remember in game four of the World Series, he pitched really well. Five and a third innings, one run. That was it. P game seven, he pitched in relief. He gave up the homer to Will Smith. But he was pitching on three days rest. It was his first relief appearance since 2019 at the end of a long grind for him coming off Tommy John surgery. I wouldn’t say that indicates a physical issue, but again, we don’t know exactly what his thinking was. But as I wrote, until we hear from him and get a better read on this, there’s going to be a mystery about this. And it just remains curious to a lot of people that he did what he did. And people say, “Oh, it’s great he took less money to stay in a place he loved.” Yes, I get that. But he could have stayed in a place he loved and probably gotten more money. And he certainly got could have gotten a lot more money someplace else, assuming he’s healthy. So, while we all would love to paint this as an altruistic act of loyalty, and maybe it is, I’m not so sure that’s the case. It just seems that there may be other things going on here. Ken, speaking of former Sang Award winners who pitched for the blue days last year, Max Scherzer, you spoke to him. He says he wants to come back. He’s 41 years old and look, he’s a first ballot Hall of Famer, one of the greatest pitchers of his generation. He also had an erra over five last year. He has not thrown a 100red innings either the last two seasons due to injury. Realistically, what do you expect Max Scherer’s market to look like? That’s a great question. Last year, Kyle, he earned 15.5 million from the Blue Jays, and that was probably an overpay based on what happened, right? He did pitch great in the World Series. Maybe it was worth it for that alone. But I would expect he’s probably a one-year, maybe $10 million guy. Maybe it’s 15 again. I don’t know. But the dynamic with him is interesting. Do the Blue Jays want him back? to the San Francisco Giants under his former pitching coach at Missouri. Tony Vitello want him in kind of a pitching role obviously but also a leadership role kind of as a buffer between the players and Vitella or a guy who just explains hey this is how this guy thinks he kind of serves as his advocate in the clubhouse. That would seem to me to make a lot of sense if you’re the Giants. So I do expect he is going to pitch again. He says he’s healthy. His thumb issue is behind him. The question is where and the question is how much. He certainly has made a ton of money in his career. He does not need to hold out for X dollars, but at the same time, it’s a respect question and he’s not going to want to play for a minor league deal either. So, we’ll see how it plays out. But I am pretty certain that Max Sher is going to be in a major league camp in spring training and getting ready for his age 41 season. We will see what happens. San Diego can Kyle Glazer can facilitate the deal. San Diego one-year deal be perfect for him. San Diego needs starting pitching. Can’t rule it out. We will see what happens. Ken, thank you so much for joining us. And everyone, please don’t forget to check out Fair Territory. Yesterday’s episode is out right now. And Ken will be back tomorrow with a fresh episode at 12:30 p.m. Eastern. We’ll be right back to Shake It Up. [Music] Pratt’s Pop Quiz. What has 35 gram of protein, 6 g of fiber, 27 essential vitamins and minerals, comes in excellent flavors like of course chocolate, vanilla, but chocolate peanut butter, my favorite. No added sugar, gluten-free, under $5 per meal, and is ready to drink. Go out the house, get yourself a fuel. Look at you. You even have one right there. Ready to smack that, John? H chocolate, peanut butter, chocolate, and vanilla. Deliciosos. Also, there is a new daily greens ready to drink. 42 vitamins, minerals, and superfoods. Only 25 calories on that one. Four grams of fiber. There’s flavors like blueberry, apple, peach. Hule makes healthy eating simple. They also just launched into Target stores nationwide. Try both products today with 15% off your purchase for new customers with the code foul at ule.com/fol. Use that code foul and fill out the postcheckout survey to help support FT. Guys, a legend is being replaced. The Freeze is going to have a new man behind the mask in Atlanta. AJ, I want to ask you, during your tenure with the Braves, did you ever meet the Freeze? Did you uh have any interactions with him? No, cuz he wasn’t there because it was uh they weren’t in the new stadium, so they didn’t have the freeze. All they had was the tool race. And if you haven’t seen the video of me dominating the tools and letting two bit the drill win, you should Google it because it’s amazing. when I tackled Hammer and Hank and the rest of them. So, he was not there, but I’m mad he was not there because I would have liked to have watched these people try and fail miserably to beat him. And it’s a sad day that if they can’t find a new freeze, they’re going to have to do something. Now, people keep saying that I should do that. Nobody likes running. Even people that run, they don’t like running. They’re lying. They’re lying to you saying they like running. Nobody likes running. Yeah. The list of uh requirements is interesting on the job description. must be physically fit and in good health to endure conditions including extreme high and low temperatures. Must be able to run during the racetrack beat the freeze onfield promotion. Previous mascot or athletic experience preferred but not required ability to interact with large crowds, families and children. It’s a pretty long job description with look this is something where it’s not just going to be hey an Olympic sprinter. They want a lot. Yeah. And then they want a lot of time and you have to be there and you have to wear those tights too. I I don’t know that I could pull off the tights. The tights would be a problem, especially if it’s cold. Man, I don’t want to be out there running around in tights and tights only. Plus, I mean, I’m not that fast. [Music] [Music] It’s time now for Shake It Up, guys. We talked about the Twins a little bit with Ken Rosenthal. Dan Hayes of The Athletic uh reported that he wants to build on what the Twins already have in place, but if the Twins continue to tear things down, Byron Buckton might be open to waving his no trade clause. And this comes after Buckton said from the All-Star game really through the end of the regular season as the Twins were tearing it all down. He told anyone who would listen that he was a Twins player for life and would not be willing to wave his no trade clause. Now might seem like things have changed. Eric, I want to start with you. Just what do you make of this and and kind of the change in tone potentially? Obviously, you know, we’re the last to find out, but the fact that he came out at the All-Star game and said this and then the half of his team got traded, almost half of his team got traded. Yeah. It’s either one, they went to him before that and so when the question was asked of him, he was like, “Yeah, I’m ready. I’m ready for this. Somebody asked me this if I’m going to get traded.” And he says, “No, because the team’s already asked and I don’t want to be traded.” or he had no idea that all these dudes were getting traded and that the team was hemorrhaging cash and they needed to trade all these dudes and so maybe he’s rethinking it. But I know there’s a lot of teams that would be like hm potential MVP speedy center field on a nice easy teamfriendly contract. Yeah, I’ll trade for that guy. Yeah, I think it’ll be really interesting to see if the Twins do decide to trade Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan this off seasonason just because it feels like that would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. They traded 10 guys off their big league roster at the trade deadline. You understand for Byron Buckton looking around and saying, “Hey, who’s around me?” Now, he does have three years and $45 million remaining on his current deal. And once again, he does have no trade protection through next season. He can block trades to five clubs in 2728. AJ, what for you would be the line in which you say, “Yeah, screw it. I’m waving my no my no trade clause.” Uh, it would have already happened. It would It would have done the Griffin Jack. I would have gone Griffin Jack style like he did. Remember they started trading dudes and he goes in there and goes, “Can you guys throw me in there, too, please?” Um, yeah, it was cool when he came out and said this and I get he’s comfortable there, but they’re not on a winning path right now anytime in the near future. So, yeah, it’s great he wants to stay there his entire career. And yes, they brought him up and yes, they signed on this deal. What’ you say it was? 3 years 45 million. Yes. 345. I mean, that’s easy easy tradeable for the numbers this guy can put up when he’s healthy. So, I I don’t I don’t He’ll here here’s the thing. Also, the owners can go to Brian Bucks and say, “Listen, we really appreciate you and all, but like we want to trade you. Can you help help us out here?” Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. But I know he, you know, he loved he he Tory Hunter was a guy that, you know, started at the Twins, ended with the Twins, Bucks and him are super tight. Lroy Hawkins is back there. Another guy that he was tight with. So, do I think he’ll stay there? No. Do I think he might still want to stay there for his legacy? Yes. But if I was in a situation, he gone. I’m sorry. I’m gone. I’m moving. I’m I’m trying to find a place I can go win a ring. And this is this Kyle, this is also somebody that’s not just chasing rings. Like AJ was loyal. AJ’s come on here and said how different times he’s signed back for less to stay in Chicago. So this is somebody who understands legacy with a team, understands success with a team, understands taking less, and it comes to a point like it comes to a head at some point. Byron Bucks has constantly been told or heard in the media, ah, he can’t stay healthy. He can’t stay healthy. Now, he stays healthy for a couple seasons and this team then like kind of backpedals. They they collapsed last year. This season, they just never got it going. Never really, you know, they had a couple hot stretches, but they were just poor. And then ownership says, “I’m out.” Like, you can change your tone. It’s okay. you can change your mind from the perspective of other teams and the appeal of acquiring a Byron Buckton. You guys mentioned health and it’s interesting him staying healthy the last two years. It’s all relative. So last season Byron Buckton played 126 games. In 2024 he played 102. So he’s missed 40 to 60 games each of the last two years. That’s still the most games he had played since 2017. So, we know that when you acquire Byron Buckston, you’re looking at a tremendously talented player who can impact the game in all sorts of ways at the plate, on the base pass, on defense, but you also know realistically, you’re hoping for 100 to 120 games. From your guys perspective, how aggressive should teams be in potentially pursuing him given this latest news? I think teams would go for it. I think teams would be all over it. I don’t think that there’s any any doubt about it. But I think if he can get 120 games out of him and he hits you 30 to 40 homers and plays good center field when he’s out there and steals his bases for 15 million, teams seems to have fall over themselves for this, right? I mean, I I I still go back to Mike Trout and and we all love Mike Trout. We think Mike Trout’s is one of the best players of all time, but Mike Trout hasn’t been to the playoffs in forever. He’s never won a playoff game and he’s kind of just become faded to the wayside because he’s his whole career basically has been wasted in Anaheim. I don’t want to see that happen to Byron Bucks. I want to see him get an opportunity to win a ring. All right. Well, here’s here’s your comp for you then, Kyle. When you ask about like would they go after him? Tyler O’Neal got three years 49 million last off season. If you can get Byron Buckton, who maybe you know they both have some injury issues. Byron Buckston’s injury issues aren’t quite the same as Tyler O’Neal’s, but the talent is through the roof. It I mean, Tyler O’Neal’s had some cool stretches in his career where he’s hit some dingers and he’s played some center field, but if you can get Byron Buckston for 5 million less, four million less than what the Orioles had to pay Tyler O’Neal in free agency, yes, this would be a massive hall for whatever team is looking for a center fielder. For the record, I completely agree. And I’ll be curious to see also if the teams that pursue him want to keep him in center or to keep him healthy, potentially move him to a corner. Guys, moving on to another team that was a big disappointment where the bottom completely fell out in 2025. The Atlanta Braves, Alexopoulos has come out and said they need to add quote unquote a lot of relievers, but they’re going to prioritize shortstop and a starting pitcher. We saw shortstop was a mess for them last year. They started with Nick Allen, then they acquired Hassan Kim. They couldn’t really find a long-term solution there. His quote was, “We’re going to focus on those spots. We’ll see where those lead us, what the acquisition costs are and all that. Then we’ll turn our attention to the bullpen.” In terms of the Braves approach this off season, starters, shorts stop, relief pitching. Is that the order you think they should go in? AJ, I’ll start with you. Yeah, you need Well, first of all, you need a shortstop. Okay. You can’t play You can’t Every good team has a really good shortstop. So I mean the Dodgers mookie bets the Blue Jays even though Bob Bashett got hurt they still had Andre Simenez at least defensively that was pretty solid and got some huge hits for him. So you need a good shorts stop that should be priority number one. They have Sale they have Strider they have Schwelenbach they have Smith Sharver all these guys are going to come back at some point hopefully this year for him and pitch better than they did last year. I think their starters are in a good spot. To me, they need relievers and they but priority number one has got to be shortstop and then you find some relievers and then hope that some of these other guys and you use a Shawn Murphy if you have to to trade to make some moves to get some certain people. But to me, shortstop’s one, relief two, and starters are three. It’s hard to find a shortstop to replace Danby Swanson. Dan Swanson won a gold glove. He won a World Series in 21. Then he was an all-star in 22. Won a gold glove. was an MV I think top 15 in MVP. So, it’s hard to replace that, but they have done a poor job of it since 22 when Danby left because Orlando Arcia gave them the defense and that year he made the All-Star team. Like, it was like, wow, we got this guy for, you know, they they paid him nothing and now it’s been tough. I I would expect they’re going to be hard in on the Boba Bashette because he plays shortstop in the big leagues. But I agree with AJ. like if they’re saying they’re going to go after starters and Alex Anthopoulos is probably one of the more upfront, open, honest GMs that we see out there that doesn’t have as much GM speak as everybody else, maybe they’re going to go like a like a Dodgers from last year in the sense that the Dodgers had nine or 10, I forget, legit starters knowing what happened to the Braves this past year where six of their prime pre primary starters spent significant time on IIL. Well, maybe they go out and they say, “Okay, we’re going to sign three starting pitchers because of the fact that we can option some of our young pitchers down and just have a just have a massive hall of starting pitchers.” But I doubt they’re going to do that because they don’t have quite they don’t have the money that that the Dodgers do to spend on one spot. So, I think they’re going to go after those relievers and they’re just gonna bring in tons of relievers and see what happens. The Red Sox did it. The Red Sox brought in a ton of relievers in spring training and their bullpen was I think they had the best bullpen erra in baseball. If not, it was the best bullpen Rra in the second half. So there there’s different ways to do this, but shortstop is the key. Yeah, it’s not just going to be about the external additions either. They need internal improvements. They need bounceback healthy seasons from Michael Harris, from Aussie Alb, from Austin Riley. That would all go a long long way toward getting the Braves back to the playoffs. We’re gonna take a break here and then we’ll be right back with special guest, new Rangers manager Skip Schumacher. Keep it right here on Foul Territory. [Music] All right, guys. One of your fellow brethren, catcher Austin Nola, signed a minorly contract this winter with the Braves, but he’s actually been granted his release to become the Mariners’s new bullpen coach. AJ, I’ll start with you. This transition from behind the plate to a bullpen coach. What do you see? What are the challenges? And just what do you make of this news? It’s great for Austin Nola. I mean, he probably wasn’t going to make the Braves out of spring training, so you know what he gets? He gets a guaranteed big league job. I don’t know if he’s going to be on the pension and all that stuff, but I think this is awesome. Good for him. He has he played there. He played in Seattle, so they know him. I I think they like him. And I think bullpen coach is the one job, Katr that is great. You know why? Because they never fire the bullpen coach. Bullpen coaches last forever if you’re good at it. I mean, I had Rick Stone in Minnesota. He was there for like 45 years. He was there forever. And bullpen coaches, they don’t ever get fired. They just I just I’m just going to stand there with my clipboard and tell whoever’s coming, Andreas Munoz, when you come in, throw that slider that nobody can hit. Ah, look how good I am. And look at the last bullpen coach that got hired out of Seattle, Steven Vote. He’s now back-to-back manager of the year. So, there’s something in there. I saw Austin last year in Boston and it was a grind for him. He he dealt with uh playing he dealt with concussions and it kind of got him out of the game. me was like, you know, I was playing I was playing through these concussion symptoms and then so to finally get back to the big leagues last year. This is this is awesome to be able to go from playing essentially in the bushes to now coaching in the big leagues. Sweet. Yeah. And also Nola, I got to cover him a lot when he was in San Diego. And uh one of those guys that you could tell had a coaching future. Very, very bright, natural leader all the way around. And like you said, AJ, bullpen coaches is a pretty sweet gig. We just saw, you know, Ben Fritz get a multi-year extension from the Padres’s. And again, it’s a job that you rarely get fired, but sometimes you can get that nice extension. Yeah. And does anybody know really who most bullpen coaches are? Does Does anybody really pay attention to All they know is, “Hey, there’s this guy that’s standing there with the clipboard next to the guy warming up. He’s just like, who knows what he’s saying. They could be talking about dinner reser. Look, I got reservations for the next road trip lined up. You want to see him? Maybe we can go together, right?” I mean, and they usually can throw BP. I’m assuming Austin could throw some BP. They a lot of bullpen coaches sometimes have to rub the balls up before. So, I mean, they have duties, but kind of like the assistant pitching coach a little bit, too. You said duty. [Music] [Music] All right, we are pleased to be joined now by new Rangers manager and the pride of UC Santa Barbara, Skip Schumacher. Skip, thank you so much for joining us. You are now in your first offseason as a Rangers manager. Got to ask, how’s it been so far? Hey guys, uh it’s been great. The pride of Santa Barbara, I’m not sure. I mean, you got Michael Young, you got Jim Rome. I mean, you got some dudes over there. But, uh, a part of Santa Barbara culture. I’ll take that. But, uh, so far so good. Um, you know, first week or so, first month or so was kind of drinking out of a fire hose, as you see, an actual hose, uh, behind me. Um but uh but yeah, it was a lot at the early on, but with all the Zoom calls and meeting people um even though I was there for a year um and getting to know the organization, there was still a lot to do and uh but you know, grateful for it. Skip, hold up. Pride of Santa Barbara, you got TCU gear on. You’re not in the Cardinals anymore with Matt Carpenter. You don’t have to suck up to him anymore. Okay. It’s like No, no, no. It’s n It’s national signing day. It’s national signing day. Today my son signed Yeah. to uh to TCU. So yeah, so we were just at his high school. Um all the family there celebrating uh my son Brody. And so that’s why I’m all decked out. I’m usually not like this, I promise, but that’s that’s why I’m all TCUed out. Okay. Well, congratulations to you, Anderson. Well, I mean, I’m going to interrupt AJ here and I’m going to have to bring on a pick that you sent me say congratulations since he signed today. But what is this? What is this? And then we’ll get into your big league crap because this is the important stuff. This picture, what does this picture mean? Besides the fact that I like get to look at your calves all the time on my phone. I get to check them out. What does this picture mean for you? Because when guys become managers, this is the stuff that you give up. This is a picture of you and your son in Japan after he caught the final out. Am I right? That’s right. That’s right. Okay. What What does it mean? What does what does it mean? Because you managers lose a lot. Any coaches in the big leagues lose a lot. They lose opportunities to go and be with their kids like that. So, one, what did that mean to watch your son win that? And what did what does it mean to take on the responsibility? And now you don’t get to see very many of his games at the Horn Purple Frogs or whatever they’re called. Yeah. I um Horn Frogs. Yes. Um, but I uh I didn’t get to see one high school baseball game uh the first couple years. Um, and that as you know, you guys all have kids. Um, you want to feel like uh you’re present with your family and your kids and missing out on uh some really special moments. U you know, it takes a toll on you. It’s the kids aren’t affected as much as you think, but um I definitely um wore that uh you know, I’m every single game, you know, when you’re facetiming or my wife taking at bats and it’s just not the same as being, you know, in real life watching these uh at bats or ground balls or whatever it is. So, when Brody made the USA team, uh there was no way I was missing out on it. you know, when you uh you a couple years ago when I was no longer the manager um with the Marlins and CY and um and Ross gave me the opportunity to be the special adviser with the Texas Rangers. You know, they allowed me to play catch-up with my family. Um I got I didn’t miss any soccer games with my daughter. I didn’t miss any baseball games with my son. And fast forward um you know come July and August all of a sudden he makes this USA team and you know we’re in Okinawa as a family watching Brody play for team USA. It was an uh a moment I will never forget. Um an experience I’m so grateful that the Texas Rangers allowed me to have with my son and it just filled my cup. Uh I’ll be honest with you, I just it made it all worth it. that all the stuff that’s that’s happened the last couple years worth it and uh now I’m ready to rock and and get back into the 162 grind and very very grateful for all this that happened. Skip, you’re inheriting a team that was the best offense in baseball in 2023 and that carried them to a World Series championship, the first in Rangers franchise history. The last two years the offense has regressed a little bit. Now there is a lot of young talent. You have Evan Carter, you have Wyatt Langford. You also have great veterans like Cory Seager and Marcus Simeon. Coming into this year, you’ve talked a little bit about wanting this team to find its real offensive identity. What are your overall thoughts about this team’s offense and where you think there can be some growth? Yeah, we need to find ways um where we’re not just so predictable and easy to get out, you know, one through nine. Um I think, you know, you need to have power in your lineup. You need to be able to have guys that have contact skills. You need to have um guys that um you know have speed and you know up and down. I just don’t think you should be one way. Um and you have to be creative in scoring runs. It’s hard to score runs in this league and um I do believe in the value of of the ball put in play. Um but I also love a three-run home run. So um I just we just have to find ways to win today. Um and whatever that means. So I just don’t think we should be one way up and down the lineup. Um, we do have a lot of slug. We have some really good hitters. We had some guys that, um, honestly just had some really tough years that, uh, if they were just, you know, who they were, um, the last year, I think, you know, you’d see a much different offense and, um, and I think that’s what we’re looking forward having a number of guys having some bounceback years. Skip. Well, then that leads me to this. What did you learn last year while you were there? You’ve managed before and now you just got to sit back and watch Boch. Did you help Boch? Were you in the meetings with the organization? Because what did you learn while sitting back and then everyone kind of had said, “Oh, Skip Sumacher. He’s the manager and waiting.” Well, boom, here you are. Bochi retires, goes back to the Giants, and Skip Schumacher is now the manager of the Rangers. Yeah, I definitely wasn’t helping Boch. I don’t think he was looking to me for any help, that’s for sure. Although I will tell you that Boats was very open um wanted me uh you know around as much as I wanted to be around and I’m very grateful for that. You know I’ve been around a lot of rookie managers in my career either um playing for or definitely on the coaching side um as a bench coach. So I had you know Andy Green was a rookie manager. Olly Marmal was a rookie manager. Jace Tingler was a rookie manager. Um so I got to learn from a lot of rookie managers and they’re all great. Um but you know I never got a Bruce Bochi to um sit back and learn from. It also afforded me to learn the system uh in a way a lot of you know managers don’t get to do um you know when you’re in an interview process for a week or 10 days of an interview process you’re getting the best version of a lot of these guys um in the room and front office and scouts and that kind of deal. But what I got is I got to learn um how the front office reacts in wins and losses. I got to understand what the coaching staff uh how they reacted, wins and losses, how they developed. I got to learn the farm system. I got to learn um you know who the farm director was. So all of that was huge for me uh to get a head start in this thing which you know a lot of guys you know don’t get the opportunity to do. Um and not in no way did I think I was you know just next in line by any means. I was just trying to be um still um relevant in the game uh just in case I got a chance to you know interview for another team uh you know in the next season. From an outsers’s view here on this show, we talked about it before Kevin Polar even came on. Talked about just looks like they’re little Rangers just kind of waiting for something to happen. You were inside there. You were inside the organization. When you hear something like what Kevin Polar said, it just seems like h, you know what, we showed up, some guys didn’t show up till, you know, we were on the line stretching before the game. When you hear that going into it as a manager and what you saw, can you change that environment? Do you have to talk to certain guys and say, if that was the case, do you have to go to certain guys and be like, “Hey, I need you to be more energetic because I think Corey Seager would be like, “Well, I’ll just go and hit homers and I’ll just do what I do.” Can you change that as a manager? Because if you look at your last job with the Marlins, you got a lot out of not that much. And I think that can happen with the Rangers, too. Yeah, I think um you know, whatever was said um you know, by Polar and a couple guys, um I I I wasn’t in there for 162. I will So that’s not for me to tell you exactly, you know, what went on. I don’t think that’s fair for me. I think if you ask, you know, somebody on the coaching staff or the front office, I think they would have a different viewpoint of exactly what was happening uh inside that clubhouse, um I do think that you have some really good players in that clubhouse that were frustrated on how their season was going. Um, and you know, a number of guys would react differently on on, you know, you know, Krat and AJ, you guys have been in clubouses and you know, when it’s not going well. Um, you know, you you do a little bit stuff differently than you’re used to to try to get back on track. Um, and probably aren’t the nicest person all the time to be around. Um, and I think, you know, a lot of this is, um, it’s a lot of individualized stuff is happening, uh, in today’s game of, you know, trying to get yourself ready for today’s game, whatever that means. You don’t see a ton of guys taking BP a lot anymore. You um, you know, very rarely did you see, you know, some of the best players in the game taking uh, batting practice at 5:00. It just doesn’t happen. It’s more of a ramp up to today’s game. there are guys that need to be out there every single day to keep getting better. And the last thing I um so I I don’t think it’s um u a Texas Rangers thing. I think it’s a lot of what the game is nowadays of of guys are trying to figure out how they can be the best version of themselves tonight and uh whatever it means to for them to get ready. I will tell you that the best players never think that they have arrived. They are still trying to adapt and get better. our best players are still trying to figure out how to get better, whatever that means to them, stay healthy and to get better. And the young guys, you know, I don’t think you uh can get let them just, you know, run, you know, let the prisoners run the asylum. I think they still have to develop and still work. So, I think it’s a combination of things. Um, and you know, when I get into spring training, I think we’ll we’ll figure out all the dynamic out. But part of my um last week or last month, I should say, is getting in front of all these players and talking with them and get one-on-one time and figure out exactly what happened and what went wrong and and try to get it right next year. Skip. Back in 2023, Evan Carter came up and took the world by storm. Seized a starting outfield spot, was hitting either third or cleanup in every game of the World Series. Looked like he was going to be the runaway winner for American League Rook of the Year in 24 and be a cornerstone of the Rangers moving forward. It hasn’t worked out that way. 2024 and especially last year, he struggled with injuries. The production has not been as hoped. When you have a young player like this, again, he’s still only 23 years old, who has been at the top and then also had the struggles he’s had, how do you approach working with him to get back to ultimately what he showed he could be when he first came up? Yeah, I think you hit it the nail on the head is um he’s been hurt and when he’s healthy, he is a really, really good player. You see what he can do in the outfield. His defense is as good as anybody’s in center field and in the corners. Uh he can really run the bases. He’s a left-handed bat that not only can hit for power, but hits for average. And we really missed his bat uh the last couple years. If we get him um you know, just to be okay against lefties and still be really really good against righties, you have an all-star player. And I think everybody in our organization feels like Evan is uh an all-star type caliber player that is going to help us win another World Series one day. um and trying to figure out how to get him on the field. Uh you know, 150 games plus is going to be the goal. Um he’s still young, he’s still developing. You know, he only had a handful of bats in the minor leagues before he got called up in that World Series run. So, he is not a finished product. He knows that. Um it’s a big off season for him to make sure he gets his body right and be ready to play, you know, 150 plus games. All right. So, I got to ask Skip, h how do you handle this as a manager in a new organization, right? You have some guys that I I told the story Robin Ventura when he came to the White Sox, he didn’t call one person. He went to spring training with a with a a fresh slate. Then you have guys like Alex Kora, right, that try to control every little thing that happens and they fly around the country and they fly around the world just because they want frequent flyer miles, Alex. Okay. But how do you handle this? Do you call the veterans? I mean, you were around last year, so do you call the veterans? Do you go around because I know other managers that fly around and meet with their guys in the offseason. Are you that kind of manager or are you a handsoff until we get to spring training type? Yeah, I’ve already met with a handful of guys one-on-one um whether it was lunch at their house, dinner, coffee. Um I just had uh lunch yesterday with the uh at with at the younger guy on our pitching staff um that lives close to me here in Orange County, California. So yeah, I’ve met uh with majority of the guys already. um one-on-one. Um and the guys that I haven’t met with yet. Um I plan to to meet with um but I’ve called uh just about everybody. U trying to knock out the 40man roster of just the phone call and just check in and kind of player plans this off seasonason and see what they’re they’re doing. Um but I I have to start building this rel these relationships, AJ. like I I can’t start it in spring training and try to figure out who these guys are and what they’ve been doing and just hope that you know our relationship you know some somehow forms in spring training uh a couple hours a day. I just don’t think that is what the players want nowadays. Um it’s I think players want to know where they stand and where I’m what I’m thinking and kind of meeting some of the new staff members I think is important. Um, so I I am definitely the I’m not traveling around the world, but I’m definitely uh trying to get some one-on-one time, whether it’s just a couple hours or, you know, over a dinner, whatever it is. I I am trying to get some facetime. AJ badly wants to be a manager, so he needs to know what the process is because we hear there’s like I don’t want to be a manager. Tiff, take your hat off. Look at all this hair and it’s not great. Take your hat off. Yeah. It’s gone quickly. Yep. Exactly. It It doesn’t matter. But the process, the interview process, like we hear there’s sometimes eight, nine hour days. Like do they give you like a bathroom break cuz like I mean you got to get snacks do they like are they evaluating you as you’re eating because like you’re eye candy but nobody can look at somebody for eight hours. Like that’s just that’s too much. Like what does that process look like? a little bit. Yeah, I think um you know even I was um you know with the organization the last seven eight months and even my interview process was lengthy and I think that’s what every organization is trying to do is trying to figure you out. Um the R&D has an hour or so with you. The training staff has an hour or so with you. um you have the front office, you have the coaching staff, you have um you know ownership, uh whatever it is, you have these hour or so pockets that you are, you know, getting questioned on. And um I think it’s such a collaborative um type of position that they have to make sure that um that you are the guy ready to, you know, to take on a lot of different responsibilities in the organization. Uh yes, there’s bathroom breaks and dinners and lunches and all that stuff uh mixed in. Um and you have some fun, too. And I think the the healthiest ones are the most organic ones that you can uh interviews you can have. I think the ones that are just rifling off question after question. Um that’s when it’s like, you know, you feel like you’re uh your head is spinning. You don’t know which way to turn and you’re forgetting people’s names and um it’s a disaster. But I think, you know, I think every single department gets an hour or so with you to see, you know, how well verssed you are, what you need to learn more about the organization, and um if you’re, you know, honestly willing to work with others. Okay. I got to ask because you brought it up. You said the trainers get an hour with you. I played in Texas. What is Lucky and Jamie Reed asking you for an hour? Because I mean, what are they and Raul the the massage guy? What’s he saying? Hey, do you like neck massages or like what are they asking you? How you going to handle injury reports? Like I mean what are they doing? Yeah. So I I don’t it’s not the entire training staff. So no, the massage therapist is not in there. That’s pretty funny. That would be amazing if that happened. Um, but I uh but I do think the um you know trying to figure out that how the SNC staff, you know, works with the training staff, works with the hitters and the pitchers and and you know, just trying to figure out how this whole thing works, right? Because the last thing you want to do is have guys, you know, getting stuff from, you know, some really good places. Tread is a great place, Drive Line’s a great place, and, you know, we want to, you know, make sure that, you know, we have relationships with, you know, those um types of facilities as well and guys that are working there as well. But we also want to have a lot of stuff inhouse for the players and you know there as you know biomechanics is is real in in our world and making sure that we’re all on the same page if they go to the trainer or the SNC staff that you know they’re aligned with you know the pitching in our in our hitting side. All right. You making the lineup? Is that part of the negotiations? Are you guys talking about that? Like how does that go down? Is that when Hey, Skip, do you have any questions for us? Uh, I pretty confident that I’m making the lineup. That’s for sure. Um, I that’s not to say I’m not going to ask the hitting coach what they’ve been seeing. Um, but I feel like it’s definitely a staff um conversation after the games. And if guys need a blow, and you know how that works, Cratsy, like sometimes I don’t see everything. And if guys are grinding in the cage and there’s stuff going on at home or whatever, and they need a day, then they need a day. Um, but you know, I’m very grateful that CY is, you know, the the president, too. I mean, he’s, you know, an all-star World Series champion pitcher. So, um, he has some feel. Um, and I’m grateful that he, you know, gives me, you know, full reign of, you know, what I what I think the lineup should be and how it should be constructed. Um, am I going to take some projections? Of course. I mean, it’s data and you want to see some recency. You want to see, you know, guys what they’ve done against another guy. um you know before as far as like you know their at bats against another pitcher. All of that is real. Um but if you know Cory Seager doesn’t have good numbers against a pitcher, there’s a good chance I’m probably going to put him in the lineup still. U so I I think there’s uh some feel to this to this thing as well. Skip, thank you so much for joining us. We really really appreciate it and best of luck with your first full season as the Rangers manager. All right. Big fan of my big fan of your show, guys. Thanks for having me on. All right, everyone. We’ve got a lot more to talk. Right back to discuss Paul Skins and his future with the Pittsburgh Pirates. So guys, some interesting news about the upcoming LA 2028 Olympics. Show Otani potentially looking at coming up before the opening ceremony and overall Major League Baseball is looking at potentially scheduling some adjustments for players to participate in the Olympics. Eric, you were part of the 2020 Olympic qualifying team. Ultimately, those Olympics got pushed back. What are your thoughts on active major leaguers getting a chance to actually participate in the Olympics? Do it. Do it. I I’m a huge Olympic fan. Major League Baseball said, “You know what? We’re gonna own the WBC. It’s cash for us. They kind of said me to the Olympics, which I get it. You know, you build a business, you’re not going to be like, ah, hey, everyone else can do the other business. I’m not saying it has to be a one or the other. It can be a andor. It can be both. So, I think I think the Olympics is it’s every four years for summer, every four years for winter. And it’s something that it doesn’t really matter what sport is on. I have it. I’m glued to the TV. I I love watching all Olympic stuff. So, for baseball to be in it, to me, I think it’s a travesty that it’s not the best players in the world because Japan, they have all their best players. That team samurai, they’re they practice together in the off season. They are ready to go. And I think that’s what you’re looking for for all the teams. So, I want to see the best bigers. an opportunity to see everybody rather than, you know, maybe just an all-star game during that period. Yeah, AJ, this would require adjusting the schedule. Yes, a chunk of the schedule. But also, what does MLB own that KR said? The WBC. So, if they let major leaguers go play in the Olympics, will that take away from the WBC? Something that’s gonna have to be negotiated, right? But absolutely, you throw on your USA thing and you go, “Hey, we’re going to we’re going to go try and win a gold medal. I’m in.” And we need to figure out a way to make this happen because we saw what happened with hockey and the four the four the four nations thing for the All-Star break. You got to take a chunk out of the season and let the big leaguers go play to help, as MLB says all the time, grow the game. What better way to grow the game than having it in the Olympics? Explain with your best players in the world. Now, hockey is a good comparison because for the longest time they did cancel their all-star game during Olympic years, let the NHL players go play, and on top of that, there was a World Cup of hockey. So, if there is precedent for it, we’ll see if baseball’s able to do it. Hopefully, they are [Music] All right, guys. So, yesterday, Ben Sharington spoke to reporters and let everyone know that Paul Ske will not betray. He will be a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2026. This is something that I think realistically we all knew, but people like to talk about it, especially given the Pirates unwillingness to spend. AJ, I’ll start with you. Paul schemes remaining in Pittsburgh for at least one more season. What are overall thoughts? It says in the 2020, it just says in the offseason. It doesn’t say at the trade deadline. It says in the off season. Okay. So, let’s get because this will be what’ll happen. If they do get a great deal and they trade them, they’ll be like, “Well, we said we weren’t trading them in the offseason, but we can get stuff for them.” So, I’m not surprised they have to do this. Listen, they’ve already have no goodwill right now. We talked about the Twins earlier and how they don’t have a lot of goodwill with their fans. The Pirates don’t have a lot of goodwill with their fans. When the fans are chasing the owner through the concourse, you know, there’s not a lot of goodwill. So, I this is not a surprise. I I don’t I think he will eventually get traded because he’s going to price himself out of Pittsburgh. But to hear it this year, he’s only in his third year. He hasn’t even got the arbitration yet. Of course, they’re not trading him. He’s making the league minimum. He’s the best deal in the world. Yeah. Ben Sher Ben Ben Sherington’s response officially, you know, the question gets asked. It’s always respectful. teams have to ask the question, right? I suspect that won’t end, but the answer has been consistent. And AJ, to your point, Paul Skins is making the minimum. The Pirates still have team control over him for the next four seasons. He’s going to bring back a Hall three years from now if it comes to it. It’s not like if they don’t trade him now, they’re not going to get some massive package. So, it does make sense. Hey, you have this generational talent. Build around them. They should. They should. This is the problem. That was funny. That was funny, Kyle. Yeah, that’s why that’s why AJ’s laughing like like build around him or have a plan. We talked about with Ken, teams have plans. Owners know how much money they’re going to spend. And I’m not even talk about like money spending with the Pirates here because they’re not going to. It’s what’s your plan? When do you truly see your current roster maturing, developing, being in the big leagues? Is Conor Griffin going to be that guy? Is Conor Griffin gonna be Andrew McCutchen? Because you have to you have to look at the past and say, “Well, how did we do it before?” Because we got we got Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez, guys that were coming up and then you supplemented some older minor league guys that ended up doing well in there like a Garrick Jones type. And then you had Garrick Cole and you added Russell Martin, you added AJ Bernett. like this is how you made it to and Starling Marte was then a little bit behind those guys. This is how you made it to the playoffs. So if you truly want to win, which is a deep ask, I think there’s a better chance Bob Nutting wants to spend money than he wants to win. But as a front office, you got to want to win at some point. Why not say, “Okay, Paul Ske is going to cost us Tim Linceum type of money in arbitration because nobody’s done what Paul Ske has done besides Lindicum.” I think he had two Sai Youngs before his arbitration and I think he signed for two years 40 million. Well, you know that ain’t happening. So to me, Paul Ske should not be a Pirate after this season. Pirate fans might get pissed at me, but I see it as if I’m Ben Sherington, I want to say, what will put us in the driver’s seat to be in the playoffs without ever getting any free agents? And to me, if Juan Sodto got a James Wood, CJ Abrams, um, McKenzie Gore, I forget, Robert Hlin, I think he was the other one in that deal, four of their current big leaguers. Then what can the Pirates get for Paul Skins if they trade him after this next season? Because they don’t want to pay his arbitration money, even if it is arbitration. There’s no good one-year deal for the Pirates if it’s over 10 million. and Paul Sches is going to get a ton of money. So think outside the box if you’re Sharington. They’re going to fire you soon anyway because they don’t want to spend money and that’s tough to win. So do something outside the box. So in terms of Paul Ske’s future again, Ben Cherington saying that they will not trade doesn’t want Ben Cherington doesn’t want to be the guy that traded Paul Ske because you know what? What happened to Heim Bloom? He bloom’s legacy even though a lot of these guys are Hein Bloom draft picks that are there now. He’s the guy that traded Mookie Bets. I I understand that. But people don’t look at Hein Bloom and say, “Man, he drafted Anthony and Meer and Campbell and all these other guys.” They’re like, “He’s the guy that traded Mookie Bets for Jeter DS and Connor Wong and whoever the heck else they got for him, right? That that’s the legacy.” And that’s for Ben Cherington. He’s the guy that has to trade Paul Skins and they all the players he get back don’t hit. That’s going to be his lasting legacy and he’s going to have a hard time finding another job. I’m sorry. Do it. So if if and when the Pirates do decide to make a move, there was an interesting article uh in NJ Advance Media the other day. According to a Pirates teammate who spoke anonymously, Skins has quote no confidence the Pirates are ever going to win end quote with him in Pittsburgh. and he’s quote hoping for a trade end quote well before he can become a free agent after the 2029 season. Quote, “Trust me, he wants to play for the Yankees.” The SK Ski teammate said, “I’ve heard him say it multiple times.” When asked, Ben Sherington responded, “I do dismiss it, but I understand it. What we’re going to focus on is just how do we win games with him in a Pirates uniform?” Future Paul Skins with the New York Yankees. Eric, what do you think? I mean, New York Yankees, they’re like, “Yes, please. We’ll take it. We would definitely take it.” Paul Skins, as would all 28 other teams because the Pirates have him right now. And for him to say that to from an anonymous source, I’m not saying it’s a lie that this person said it, but you know what was the context? Where would you like to where would you like to play? I want to play somewhere where I’m freaking in the playoffs every single year. And as a baseball fan, don’t you want Paul Ske in the playoffs every year? Don’t we want Mike Trout in the playoffs every year? Like you talk about wasting years of a player’s career. He’s going to win another Sai Young and he’s not sniffing the playoffs after May. How is that how is that good for baseball? It’s not. So Paul Skins is just saying the same thing that every other that every other fan is saying. I mean, I’m sure there’s some fans that are like, “Well, I don’t want to see him go to the Yankees.” You don’t have a choice. The Yankees would sell the farm. I talked to a scout that said, “How hard would it be? It would not be hard for a team to trade for Paul Ske. It’s hard for the Pirates to trade Paul Ske because how do you even put a value on what you’re getting back?” Like, and who’s to say, like AJ said, that each of those guys is going to hit? Not just not just hitters, but pitchers, too. Who’s to say each of those guys is going to be a big league player? But yes, the Yankees would love it. Yes, he would love it cuz he wants to be in the playoffs. You can see it. Like sometimes he comes off the field and he’s like looking around like, “Man, I would love to be winning this game.” But again, 11 runs in his 10 in his 10 losses. Like you you’re not you’re not set up to win. Imagine what this guy could do if he was put in a situation where, hey, we need you to go seven tonight. Why? Oh, because we got to get the dub. This he’s built for this. I mean, listen, I played with Mark Burley. I played with Mark Burley, right? He was a He was always Mr. Cardinal. I want to play for the Cardinals. I want to play for the Cardinals. He never went to the Cardinals. Like, I I was a I was a Braves fan growing up, right? I finally got to play the Braves and I was a free agent at the end of my career and they were dog crap, right? But I got to go there and play there and it was awesome. But just because like guys talk about this all the time, I want to go here. I want to play here. here I want. But it doesn’t always work unless you’re a free agent and they give you the best money. But for someone like skins, he might not get to pick where he goes until he becomes a free agent. So I this is just again who said it, you know, put put your name on it. One of the things with skins is he is not the biggest personality, right? He’s pretty bland. There there’s not a whole lot he’s going to say that’s controversial. And we have seen that type of personality really thrive with the New York Yankees. You look at a Derek Jeter, you look at an Aaron Judge. Eric, what do you think about just his personality and how it would play in the Big Apple? Because we know that talent’s a big part of it, but playing for the Yankees, it’s a whole different ballgame and who you are as a person plays a big big role in how you’re treated both by the fans and the media. He drew plenty fun. He gives I I mean, when we talked to him, I thought he was I thought he was very personable. You know, he puts off this like quiet persona, but when he was on our show, we had a good time. He seemed to loosen up. But look, if he was in the Big Apple right now with the career that he’s had, there is nothing they could say. There is no they would they will love this man as long as he does well. There is there are no players that do really well in the Big Apple that fans are like, “Yeah, this guy’s a bum.” Like, yeah, Aaron Judge becomes a bum in the playoffs because the fans are like, “Yeah, you know, he’s got a hit in the playoffs.” They’re never pleased. Paul Ske has never had he hasn’t had a blip in the radar, so there’s nothing for them to not be pleased about. But I think it’s to me his demeanor looks see looks and seems obviously I don’t know the guy, but it looks and seems like he would he would thrive there. No question about it. For more on the scheme saga, go ahead and check out one of Foul Territo’s newest shows, Bucko Territory, hosted by Josh Allison, pirate Josh Harrison, excuse me, Pirates Beatrider Noah Hiles, and Platinum Keyhost. Go ahead and subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts to the entire Foul Territory Network. Stay with us. We’ll be right back with longtime Big League Reliever Tommy Canley. [Music] So, we talk about the pressure of New York and it extends beyond the players. It extends well into the front office. We saw that the Yankees have reportedly fired longtime international scouting director Donnie Roland. uh three major league sources confirmed to the Athletic that was done this off season. There were some initial hits on the international market. You look at Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, etc. But in recent history, the Yankees have had a lot of big dollar misses and international signings. Eric, I’ll start with you because you know this franchise so so so well. Just what do you make of the news that Donnie Roland has been fired and and ultimately the Yankees are holding a major front office leader accountable for their signing failures? I think it’s tough. I don’t think we know I don’t think we know enough about international signing and what it takes for these guys, but the fact that they’ve had success and that’s what scouts really kind of hang their hats on. Oh, well, he drafted this person. Oh, he helped facilitate the signing for this person. It is a it’s a cavalcade of people that are helping with these signings. So, for him to take this, you know what, there might be trying to go in a different direction. 62 years old. He’s had a great career. Probably would like to continue, but you know what? It’s a team effort. So maybe he’s taking the brunt of this as the face of the scouting department, international scouting department. But you know, is is it on him technically? No. Just like when somebody does pan out when you do sign a Gary Sanchez for however many million they signed him like like it it’s it’s not it’s not all success for that person either who signed that guy. Yeah, Tony. You lose your job. That’s what happens if you don’t if you don’t I mean if I’m a player and I don’t hit, guess what? I get released. It sucks but it happens at every job. If you don’t perform, you get fired. Yeah. And what’s tough with Donnie Roland too, you talk about that. It’s al a lot of what have you done for me lately? Because you go back, he was the Angel scouting director for a number of years. He was responsible for drafting John Lackey and a lot of guys who helped the Angels become a World Series championship team and have that run through the 2000s. Again, he’s been in the game for 23 years. He spent the last 15 years uh with the Yankees. I should say the last 23 years overall in the Yankees organization, last 15 as their international director. So, there’s been a lot of successes, but again, it’s very much a what have you done for me lately kind of Okay. [Music] [Music] All right. We are pleased now to be joined by longtime big league reliever Tommy Canley. Tommy, thank you so much for joining us. How’s free agency treating you? Uh, thank you. I’m here. Uh, to be honest, I haven’t really gotten into any free agency stuff yet. So, I’m sure it’s going to be picking up here uh in the next few weeks. You know, we got I think the owner meetings at the end of the month. And uh yeah, should be uh interesting. Right now, just kind of enjoying the family time at home. My daughter’s birthday is today. She’s turning four. So, it’s gonna be a chaos when she wakes up from nap here. By the way, as well, by the way, h happy birthday to your daughter, but that shirt’s tired. And second of all, it’s by the way, how are they ranked ahead of Miami, but Miami beat him? It doesn’t make any sense. Bias join a conference. Anyways, one’s trending, one’s going this way. one team beat the other team and look here’s here’s my bone I have to pick with you I see you in the playoffs right and I and you’re on you know you’re sitting there you’re on the phone I just walk up to you and just try to give you knuckles shake your hand you don’t even acknowledge my existence you know and then we walk into the clubhouse in Seattle and the I think the Eagles were losing so you had the the Phillies lost the Eagles lost the Yankees lost Notre Dame probably had lost that weekend. You were just not a happy person, Tommy. Don’t take it out on me because all of your teams were losing at the same time. Okay. Thank you. That passion, man. I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know. It’s always there for everything. Fandom. I loved it. Always there. By the way, I love the fact that you’re not I mean, I just walk in there and your teammates were all over you about the Eagle. I think the Eagles had lost and Notre Dame had lost. I don’t know. They were all they were all over you. I had never seen teammates get on one guy more than they were just they just were piling on. It was fun to watch. No, I I’ve been dealing it with with it for my entire life. So that’s from friends from we were, you know, grade school through high school onto my college buddies, my minor league buddies, everybody. Kratzy sure has seen it. He’s seen it. You are a target. Why? Why are you a target? Why do you think that is? Why? Why do you think that is? Let’s delve into it. I like to wear my stuff. I like to flaunt it. You know, I don’t know what to tell you. You have two lockers. You have two lockers. One with your baseball stuff and one with all your jerseys. So, you flaunt your team and then when they win, you say, “Yeah, baby.” It’s not wrong. Hey, what are you gonna do? No. All right. So, you ride the highs of your team. How did you ride the highs of your season this year? We talk about it. We talk about it all the time. You, you know, the Tigers were nails the beginning of the season and then struggled in the second half. Everybody knows it. Did you feel like your struggles were part of your personal struggles were part of the team struggles? Did you feel like it was something that you were starting to get worn out? It was the most innings you had thrown in a season since I think 19, but before that it was like when you were a baby. Like what what was it that for you personally kind of made the struggles? But then also like how do you during that time how do you try to get back to like being you being the Tommy Kanley that had a like a 157 erra in the first half of the season? Yeah. Um, I think it was a culmination of everything. I mean, I like you said, it’s been six years since I pitched this much and basically pitched an entire season. So, um, I think I probably got a little tired. I know, uh, I was fighting through like a little bit of a calf thing, so I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but there was a culmination of that. you know shoulders started sparking a little bit here and there but overall I felt you know that I could you know keep going out there and contributing but uh at the same time you know obviously that’s when we started our little trajectory down so it was uh it was going hand in hand but I don’t think uh you know our struggles kind of affected me personally um I just you know I tried to keep all the guys you know upbeat like hey like this this stuff happened like you know you’re On good teams, I’ve seen this happen. You go through spells where you lose, you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine games in a row, and then next thing you know, you flip a switch, turn a corner, and you’re back off. But I felt like, you know, it happened a couple times, maybe it just snowballed too much for us. Um, and we just never kind of really regained that like just the magic that we had those first couple months. it it kind of flashed here and there in the playoffs I feel like but it just never really culminated to the team we were those first you know three four months of the season and I mean uh I was you know not generally too happy with my performance in July obviously so um looking back on it I mean obviously that one month was killer but overall I feel like you know I finally pitched an entire season you know being able to contribute and helping the team. Maybe not through that time, but um overall, you know, the the entire season, I feel like I, you know, I did a pretty good job. Um maybe the numbers don’t show it, but hey, I feel like, you know, I stuck with it, hung in there. You know, mentally it’s tough to go through times like that. So, to come out of it at at after, you know, around later August, I think, is when I started to kind of re regain that form again. and it uh tried to help these guys win. I think you all did a great job. You guys went through what you went through. Then you beat Cleveland. You beat them to go to the next round and you you know, whatever you want to say about the next series was one of the best series I was ever a part of. Those five games are unbelievable. Like ups and downs and ins and outs and twists and turns. But what does it mean? Because you mentioned you were struggling. I know this when I talked to Hinch. He never lost faith in you, right? And he would still put you out there. He puts you in situations. So, what does that mean as a player that even though you think, “Oh, man. I’m really kind of struggling, but Hinch just kept running you out there in all kinds of situations.” I mean, as a for me as a former player, I would say, “All right, this guy believes in me, maybe I am still pretty good.” Yeah. Um, I I definitely, you know, I went through probably a few weeks there where I kind of just got kind of pushed to try to just get me into different situations to try to get that form back. But he was really, you know, he he kept going to me and I I wanted the ball. I mean, it’s not like I’m going to shy away from it. It uh obviously going out there and not performing is that’s that’s the that’s the name of the game is, you know, perform, but uh it was it was uh I think I got mentally worn out a little bit. He he we had a talk after the season. He he definitely agreed with me on that one. And I feel like it just kind of snowballed a little bit too much and and then I it was just too late by then and I was just kind of, you know, looking up at the scoreboard a few times here and there and just going, “Oh gosh.” But he did believe, you know, he kept getting me in there and and later in the season I started pitching in those late inning uh scenarios again. So, it uh it definitely turned around, which was the positive part of the season, but obviously I’m still, you know, not too happy with the way I finished, like my overall season, cuz I feel like I can avoid that that month if I just recognize it sooner. And you think I, you know, I’ve been in the league for over 10 years now. I would have probably figured that out by now, but still learning. So, that’s always making adjustments. I I want to go to that game five. I want to go to what you’re watching. You’re watching your offense and I joked about it on here. Like had the Tigers continued to play, I don’t know that you guys would have scored a run. Do you see a difference in hitters approaches when it comes to extra innings in the playoffs? Because normally you get a runner on second and it’s like, well, you know what? This is probably going to be done here. Oh, blooper base hit. Okay, we’re we’re going. Do you see a difference? Because when we got in extra innings in that game, when you guys we I was just watching the game, AJ was sleeping on the broadcast. Is there like a do you are you sitting in the bullpen like go can I get a line drive from somebody? It’s like strikeout, popup, strikeout, popup, inning over. I mean, you’ve been in the bullpen, you know. You know, we uh we definitely had a lot of stress balls down there. Um, maybe a couple times I was like that, but still just like sitting there just waiting, you know, trying to enjoy it. Uh, I know a lot of the other guys seemed a little bit stressed out. I mean, it makes sense. They’re younger. I was like that when I was young in those playoff situations, like you ever going to score? Like, can we get it done? But, you know, I I kept believing, you know, these guys are going to get it. But, uh, you know, obviously we didn’t push one across. you know, the crazy amount of scenarios for both teams to, you know, push it across sooner, but yeah, it was uh it was definitely I could see the the stress and it was getting bigger and bigger. So, it was mounting. So, it it sucks. It it does, but you know, it was a it was a hell of a run. I wouldn’t change anything again. It was I had a blast with these guys. Tommy TKO is in all likelihood going to win his second consecutive American League signing award tonight. What did you learn about him? Look, we all know he’s great, but what did you learn being a teammate of his, watching him, being around him every day, especially compared to some of the other greats you’ve been teammates with like the Garrick Kohl’s of the world? Yeah. Um, his involvement definitely with the younger guys. He’s same as I’ve seen, you know, with other SA young guys around the league, you know, Kershaw, Garrett. Um, I’m sure I’ve played with quite a few others that I can’t even think of off the top of my head, but it uh his involvement with the younger guys and just with the staff, you know, they’re always working with each other, you know, kind of throwing things off each other, you know, back and forth, but just his, you know, every day he’s in there doing the same, you know, the routine. It’s always routine. I think it’s that’s one of the things we need to teach younger kids today is that routine is a big big thing in baseball. And I mean I have a routine. I know younger I try to teach the younger bullpen guys to have a routine. You know, keep the same thing every day. Every once in a while you stray from it. I mean there’s nothing you can do about it. You’re hit with like a quick phone call. But overall like Scooble like I just thought his routine was was pretty flawless. So I mean he just he kept it. And obviously you see him, he’s he’s phenomenal. It was incredible to watch him all year. I mean, he’s a big lefty throwing 100. It was insane. So, it’s in a disgusting change up. So, I get to admire that while I’m out in the bullpen watching him pitch. So, I I I truly enjoyed watching him pitch. All right. Well, your routine when the season ends is to not pick up a baseball and not watch baseball. Did you get to see any of the World Series or did you did you not see any of it? So, I I can admit that I probably watched Oh, boy. Maybe one inning, two innings maybe. But I How hard was it? Uh, pretty hard. I I just was like, I don’t even feel like watching this. I just walked just went. I was down here watching it late night and I said, nah, I’m done. I wouldn’t just play video games. Can you can you can you get into that a little bit because I know the years that I lost I don’t know about AJ the years that I lost in the DS or the CS and I love baseball. I love watching baseball. I love watching baseball as much as you love watching all the other sports that you watch. But it it was so hard for me to watch it. Not because I was jealous but because it was like no I I should have been there. And then I’m like I’m exhausted from what we did play and all that stuff. Can you can you delve into that feeling at all since it’s still kind of fresh? The World Series just ended. Yeah, I agree, Cry. You know, you you you lose in a playoff series like that and uh it’s just it’s tough. You know, obviously you don’t want it to go that way. But, uh I come home, you know, I decompress and like you said, I I don’t even watch baseball. I just after game five I like I said I think I watched one two innings of the World Series maybe. And uh I just didn’t want to deal with it. I didn’t want to watch it. I didn’t want to like you said you you it’s just stuff that goes through your head like we should be there. I I I know it. But you know it just one bad pitch, one bad play in the infield, one bad play in the outfield, you know, hit somebody something crazy, but it’s just and you start your mind starts racing. So, it’s just kind of a I don’t want to even think about it. It’s over. Like, there’s nothing you can do now. You know, it took me probably till the next day to realize, you know, it’s over. Like, I I can’t there’s nothing I can do about it. Like, it’s the game’s over. It’s done. So, I like to come home and watch football. Obviously that’s it’s football in the air and I come home and I just watch football and basketball and having a grand time and then basically just getting ran over by my kids 247 and video games. You forgot the video games. You forgot the And the video games and the video games. Yes. Let’s not forget the most important thing. Now you went through a little bit of of not an easy free agency last time you were out there. Do you think because of that you’re more like to sign the first deal that comes your way or are you going to rely on your agent and and try to wait it out and get the best deal? Because spring training, right? You have to find a place to live in spring training. You got to figure out a place to live in the season. All those things add up. Is it easier just if the first team comes to you and whatever team that is and says, “Hey, Tommy, here’s a one-year deal, whatever number.” And you’re like, “Man, maybe I should take this instead of wait.” Even though it might be someone saying don’t take it. Yeah. Um it’s definitely, you know, I have discussions with my wife. That’s first is kind of once you do get the offers, you kind of have to weigh them. And I I generally at this stage in my career, you know, one thing has eluded me and my agent knows this is, you know, winning a World Series. So it’s not everybody can’t do it. I mean, you’ve done it. It’s definitely not easy. So, that wouldn’t be the last domino that I would like to, you know, check off the list before I uh ride off. But, uh, it’s definitely in my mind, it’s definitely location. Location helps because obviously family um you know where where the team’s at. Money is obviously a factor, but you know, there’s always things that can change me. And I feel like at this stage I’m older now and you know time’s ticking. So I’m not I don’t think I’m just going to jump on the first first thing thrown out at me. I kind of want to just get teams in there and see who’s interested and kind of pick and pry from there and see what they’re doing out in the market and all that kind of stuff. So it’s definitely like a I feel like there’s a lot of things going on for me at this stage of my career. I just don’t want to jump on anything and but I mean obviously if you don’t sometimes offers go away. So I mean it’s going to it’s going to be a it’s going to be an interesting free agency this time around. So I I definitely we’ll see at the end of the month kind of how it starts to weigh out. So I haven’t I know I’m going to have a discussion here probably within the next few days with my agent just to see what what uh what we got going here. Okay. So you do pay attention a little bit. So that’s not true. You do pay attention a little with I would say with the free agency stuff I will obviously. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So before I let you know all that. Yeah. Notre Dame losing again to the Coast Guard or whoever else they play, you know. But and my favorite part, by the way, I know we got to we got to get but my favorite part was the team. And I asked you this question. Have you ever been to a game at Notre Dame? And you said no. And I was like typical Notre Dame fan because I lived in Chicago for years and they were oh a Notre Dame fan. They can’t name five players and they’ve never been to a game there. So, you’re not a real fan. Now, let me get to I can name all I can name way more players on Florida than you. That’s fine. You’ve been over there. That’s that’s not true. That’s not true. That’s 100% not true. But what I want to know is in the playoffs when we and we we always get to meet with the managers and we have Hinch, right? And he says, “Oh, when Tommy throws that one fastball and he strikes him out, comes in the dugout and says, “See, see see. So, you’re known for your change up, but you threw a couple fast balls and you punched some tickets with these fast balls. Is it true that you come in the dugout and you say, “See guys, I can’t throw 95 and I can’t strike out guys with my fast ball.” I will say there’s times, yes, this year I did come in and uh kind of nudge them a little bit, all the, you know, the coaches and, you know, players and stuff, but uh yeah, I mean, at the end of the year, you know, I look back on it, I do wish that I threw more fast balls. I think it just it was playing so much better this year that we could have utilized it way more. Um I especially in the that last outing. I feel like the Crawford the single I gave up the uh kind of like bloop hit to right. I don’t know if it was a bloop or not. Maybe his heart. I have no idea. But it just felt like you know the I threw a change up almost off off the ground and he sticks the bat out there and hits it into right field. I feel like you know you you buzz a fast ball. He’s probably see you later. But you know this there’s I felt like that was a lot throughout the year. I was giving up kind of like those you know ass out hits. Guys are just reaching out there and just kind of like scooping it over the second base into right field stuff like that. So I feel like those are the times that you know you come out and let the 95 eat. Even if it was I mean I think I got Bobby earlier in the year on a 94 just literally right down the middle because I guess people just just don’t expect me to throw a fast ball these days. So no they don’t they don’t and and and by the way I wasn’t going to bring up the last inning so thanks that you did it. I’m sorry. What are you gonna do? I know but it was it was it was such great everything. I know, but I was such a great game and it was so exciting and then I’m like, I don’t want to bring it up because, you know, the way it went. So, you brought it up. I’m glad you moved on, but it was a hell of a series. Yeah. Yeah, it was. I mean, that obviously I can’t do anything about that inning now, so I can talk about it obviously, but what are you gonna do? All right. Well, Tommy, thank you so much for joining us today. We really, really appreciate it and best of luck in your free agency journey this off seasonason. All right. Thank you guys. Awesome. See you boys. Good time. All right, everyone. We’ll be right back to go over the BBWA Manager of the Year award winner next here on Foul Territory. [Music] the Sai Young BMG odds for the season that Crochet had to start at plus 500 and if you said, “Okay, he’s going to lead the league in strikeout. He’s going to he’s going to lead the league in innings and then say at the end of the year he still had no shot at winning it.” Would you have believed him? AJ because Garrett Crochet started at plus 500, ended at plus 900 because he has no shot of winning. Uh, no, but I also knew he’s in the league with Terrick Scooel and I knew that he was going to have a hard time. So, no, I mean he listen it it’s when you have a guy that is as good as a guy like Terrick Scooble, okay? and he can pitch and pitch and pitch and pitch and he and he does his numbers and he has his team and everyone looks at him and he’s won the award before you all you have to have a historic year to jump him again. Kind of like what we’re going to talk about with the MVP. But to me, Garrick Crochet had an unbelievable year. He just had it in the wrong league in the wrong year with Derrick Scubble. Derek Scubble misses a start here or there, doesn’t pitch great all the time. Garrick Crochet is an easy choice. But this year, Derek Scubble was just better. It sucks. Yeah. Again, I mean, we’ve talked about this when Terrick Scooel has an ERA, you know, by, you know, 2.21, no one else is within, you know, 20 points of him. It just is what it is. But it is a point that, you know, Garrett Crochet, all the questions we had coming into the year, can he hold up under a starter workload, he answered them. So, I do think it’s a testament to him that his odds went the way they did. And realistically, he is likely going to be the runner up. Yep. You know what that gets you, Kyle? Nothing. Nothing. Actually, it might get him some bonuses. If he’s top three in Sai Young, there might be a little little bonus in his contract there. Yeah, but at the end of the day, I mean, it’s like it’s like when you win the It’s like when you win the American League and you don’t win the World Series. Like, you get a second place ring. Cool. Sweet ring that you’re never gonna wear. You You don’t like the AL championship penants? They’re awesome. They’re awesome. I mean, I like it, but you remember him, but you also I mean, you just I don’t know. It’s one of those like h do I ever wear a second place ring? Like, nope. I don’t know. I’ve always wondered about that. How decked out are the pennant rings versus the World Series rings? Like, what’s the comparison here? They’re nice. I don’t know. I never lost a World Series game, Kyle. That is a good point. All right, everyone. will bet MGM players will receive a no sweat token to apply to any bet on Pro Football. To use the token, add a bet on a Pro Football event to your bet slip and activate the token. Receive bonus bets if the bet [Music] [Music] Manager of the year was announced yesterday. Pat Murphy winning NL manager of the year. Steven Vote winning American League manager of the year. Pat Murphy became just he the first Brewers manager to ever win the award which is kind of amazing when you consider some of the managers they’ve had. He’s only the second manager in NL history to win it back-to-back years, joining a great like Bobby Cox. Eric, I want to start with you. Pat Murphy’s had a really interesting career path. Famous college coach, Notre Dame at Arizona State, leaves kind of ignominously, ends up having to work his way back up the minor league ladder from the lowest level of the Padres’s system, gets a bench coach job, an internship intern job with the Padres’s. And here he is backto-back manager of the year, something only Bobby Cox has ever done in the National League. He’ll tell you, and he said it on the show, all those steps got him to this point. Had he gone Tony Batello straight from college to the big leagues, he would have sucked because he said the person he was as a college coach, he was going through things in his life and decisions that he would make with players and like, but what never changed about Murf is his relationships. It’s how he approaches them now. And I think it it goes to show like you win manager of the year. His words, not mine. It’s a team that was not expected to do anything and exceeded those expectations. I think that’s what happens when you put somebody in charge that gets the most out of players because people don’t just players don’t just become MVPs. They don’t just become like these amazing players. Like the players were already there. How do you get the most out of them? How do you get, you know, a rookie of the year candidate in Durban? How do you get the most out of Joey Ortiz, who didn’t have the best of seasons, but you know what, they slotted him in at a premier position in shortstop? How do you get the most out of Bryce Dang in, you know, later in the season when he had just a ridiculous, I think it was August. Um, it’s by that constant relationship, constantly building these guys up, being honest with them and everything throughout throughout the season. And Pat does that. He certainly does. We are going to take a quick break and we’ll be right back to slap hands next. All right, AJ. So, we talked about the National Manager of the Year award, manager of the year award winner and Pat Murphy. Steven Vote, fellow catcher, won American League manager of the year. Just what were your thoughts on the job vote did and and if he deserves to be the winner? I know you and Ken had a little bit of back and forth on this regarding John Schneider. Um, listen, I’m happy for Voter. I love Voter. I love going in and talking to him. I think it’s awesome. his first two year he win he wins manager of the year got to see him to the postseason um yeah I just thought that the voters would be a little bit tired of Stephen Vote but they weren’t and you know what good for him Steven vote I don’t know I don’t even think they give you they even give you a trophy for manager of the year I don’t I don’t know if you get bonuses but I I think this is an awesome accomplishment to put on it and you know what Murf and Vote are a lot alike in the fact that they kind of do it their own way and they have their own style and they’re very personable and they have a relationship with all 26 guys on their team and then all the front office and everybody. So I I think this is kind of a they’re mirrored a little bit. Now now Murf tries to be a little more funny than what Voter does. Voter is just himself and you know Murf Murf Murf when if you’ve ever had a meeting with Murf he talks you can barely hear him. He talks like this and you’re like Murf what can you speak up a little bit and whereas voters a little bit more serious but I I think they have very similar personalities as they get to know everybody. They figure out what they can work with on them and they run with it. Certainly do. By the way, they do get a plaque from the BBWA for manager of the year. So, they do get something. Okay. Nice. I just plaque is cool if you’re into plaques. You’re into that kind of thing. As a member of the BBWA, look, we we got to show the love, right? The players, the managers, everyone everyone gets something. When you win something, it’s a huge accomplishment. Got to get something out of it. Everybody gets a trophy, Kyle. No, just the winners. Oh, yeah. Just the winners. John Schneider got nothing. This is true. He does get an American League Championship ring, which you guys have talked about. You don’t love. They’re nice. They’re nice. They’re really nice. I don’t not It’s just you’ll always know who beat you. And if you ever come into if you’re wearing your American League Championship ring and somebody has a World Series ring on in the same room, you got to take it off. Like there’s there’s ring hierarchy. Like you you can’t be you can’t. Again, I think uh we will see. I know for Toronto fans, especially John Schneider, I that pain of that World Series is not going to go away anytime soon. That that one hurts. They always hurt, but that one’s got to hurt even more. So, all right, we’re going to take a quick break and we’ll be back to uh slap hands. [Music] All right, Eric, the question everyone wants to know. What? But how are you wearing it today? With my TCU hat, of course. I mean, since I’m getting the T Oh, wait. No, another Texas. Of course, we got Skip on. Why not? You got to have your Rangers hat. And I’m expecting a turnaround because if Skip can do what he did in Florida, he’s got a little bit better more of a talented roster in Texas. He does. He does. The big question I’ve always wondered, Eric, as part of our Kratz Hat segment, how many hats do you actually own? I know it’s more thanund I know it’s more than 152, I think it was, cuz I went 152 straight without wearing the same hat again. And now, New Era has been very kind and they’ve sent me a couple extra. my buddy over here to my left, he’s been very kind and sent me one from London, the All-Star game. So, you got to have your you got to have your hookups. So, one day I’ll count them all. I think I’ve got about 30. AJ, where you at? Your number of hats. Oh, I have a lot of hats. I just wear the same one every day. All right, everyone. Well, this has been a great great edition of Foul Territory. Thank you so much for having me on as a guest host. Scott Braun will be back tomorrow. We will have Jace Tingler. Got lots of great stuff. Um, yeah, again, always great stuff. And we will have breakdowns of the Sang Award winners and a look ahead to the MVP award winners. Kyle Scott, you said you said you were pinch hitting. We’ve had people come on here pinch hit, spot start, bullpen relief. Today you were sitting on the bench and you were like, “Yeah, there’s no way I’m getting in the game.” Blazer, you’re pinch running. So I think today you were pinch running and you didn’t even get I’m glad you just didn’t pull a hammy in today’s show. That’s it. That’s it. I’m in I’m in my late 30s so everything everything’s starting to tighten up a little bit. So, but so far so good. I’m I’m surviving. Okay. Yeah, I got a call on an hour before the show. So, all right. Well, once again, I want to go ahead and plug everyone. Uh, go ahead and check out Frier Territory. That’s the show I host with Heath Bell and Mike Cameron, Talk San Diego Padres’s, and really everything baseball around. And of course, go ahead and subscribe to everything here on the YouTube on Foul Territory Network. We’ve got so many great shows. We’ve added a bunch more. And of course, the great AJ and Eric, two of a kind. Mayday’s on next. Stay on stay on our channel here and you catch Mayday, Trevor May the Great. Absolutely. Any final thoughts, guys, as we wrap up or All right. Well, I guess that’ll do it for Foul Territory and thanks for joining, everyone. [Music]

A.J. Pierzynski, Erik Kratz and Kyle Glaser welcome Senior Insider Ken Rosenthal with the Inside Scoop around baseball, including reaction to Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy and Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt winning back-to-back Manager of the Year awards. Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker stops by, and free agent reliever Tommy Kahnle also joins the show.

The guys dish on the latest rumor that Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes wants to be a Yankee, even though Ben Cherington says Skenes is staying put this offseason. Plus, a primer for tonight’s Cy Young award announcement. Join the conversation in the chat!

Get Huel for 15% off for New Customers only with code FOUL at https://Huel.com/FOUL (Minimum $75 purchase)
Check out https://square.com/go/FOUL and go support your favorite neighborhood spot to see what Square has been up to in your neck of the woods.

Subscribe to the podcast!
https://apple.co/3KWKFNo

Follow all our social media channels for more content!
Tweets by FoulTerritoryTV
https://www.instagram.com/foulterritoryshow/

@foulterritory

https://www.facebook.com/FoulTerritoryShow
https://www.twitch.tv/foulterritoryshow

0:00 Start of Show
2:17 AL & NL Cy Young named tonight
14:04 David Fletcher retiring
15:55 Inside Scoop with Ken Rosenthal
34:46 Braves hiring a new Freeze
36:36 Byron Buxton mulling Twins future
43:39 Braves offseason needs
47:07 Austin Nola new Mariners bullpen coach
50:01 Skip Schumaker talks Rangers
1:10:05 Latest on MLB players in 2028 olympics
1:13:02 Skenes staying in Pittsburgh?
1:23:50 Yankees fire international scouting director
1:26:39 Tommy Kahnle talks free agency
1:46:43 BETMGM AL Cy Young odds from March
1:50:00 Manager of the Year winners
1:55:29 Kratz Hatz