Full Interview And Reaction To Writer On Skubal Trade
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00And, of course, the trade deadline is looming and to talk more about it, we welcome in from
00:05MLB Network and MLB.com and host of the Road to Cooperstown podcast, John Marossi joins
00:12us here on 97.1 The Ticket.
00:13What's up, John?
00:14Good morning, my friend.
00:15Great to be with you today.
00:17Yeah.
00:18Thanks for joining us.
00:19And let's just start real quick with the Road to Cooperstown.
00:21You talk to people who are headed to the Hall of Fame and get their stories.
00:27What have you had on there most interesting of late?
00:29Thanks, Doug.
00:30Yeah, it's been a lot of fun and certainly Cooperstown will be the focus this weekend.
00:34Jim Leland is going in, of course, his big induction day is on Sunday.
00:38I'll be there on on site for MLB Network, which is going to be really exciting.
00:42The question with Jim, of course, Doug, is not is not if he will cry, but how many times
00:47he will cry in all the best ways, because as we know, the Skipper's got a big heart
00:53and it's just going to be a wonderful speech.
00:55I can't wait.
00:56And one of my favorite details about Jim's overall baseball family biography is that
01:02his son, Patrick, is now a minor league manager, which is, of course, how Jim began his managerial
01:08career.
01:09So Pat, I believe, is 32 now.
01:11He's managing at Kannapolis in the Chicago White Sox organization.
01:15So it's a family business.
01:17It'll be a lot of fun to see him.
01:18Of course, Adrian Beltre, Joe Maurer, Todd Helton, those are the players going in on
01:23Sunday.
01:24Our podcast highlights those who are.
01:27The goal, Doug, is to speak with every living Hall of Famer and enroll the podcast once
01:32a week.
01:33So we've already spoken with Michigan native John Smoltz, Craig Biggio, who actually was
01:37almost selected by the Tigers back in 1984.
01:40That would have been quite a story had Biggio become a Tiger and not an Astro.
01:44Joe Torre, we actually had so much stuff with Joe Torre, Doug, that we had to split the
01:49episode into two parts because there was his playing career, of course, a former National
01:53League MVP, and then he became a Hall of Fame manager.
01:56So just a lot of really fun stories for me to hear.
01:59And Johnny Bench was our first episode.
02:01We still have an episode with Cal Ripken Jr.
02:03It's going to get rolled out in the next couple of weeks as well.
02:05So Road to Cooperstown is the podcast.
02:08You can download it anywhere that you get your podcast.
02:10Well, John, the big story around here is the trade deadline.
02:15And I want to start with with Tarek Skubal, because that got some new life with a Tom
02:20Bernucci report that the Dodgers and the Orioles put together packages to try and entice the
02:24Tigers to make a trade.
02:27Do you think that either of them will come to the table with the godfather offer that
02:33would tempt Scott Harris?
02:35I think, Doug, that they are going to come up with compelling offers.
02:40I believe that, whether it's actually been submitted now or if it's going to get a little
02:44bit closer to the deadline, it's not clear to me.
02:48But I do believe they're going to try.
02:50And I think that Scott Harris is in a position where he'll have to listen.
02:54It would be a very difficult choice.
02:57But in some ways, Doug, I would say that it is an easy, hard decision.
03:03And here's what I mean by that.
03:05The only way that you go down the path of potentially moving a Tarek Skubal is if the
03:12Dodgers or the Orioles or some other team that we're not thinking about come up to you
03:17with an offer that is just simply absurd and that you have to accept.
03:22And if it's south of that, don't even worry about it.
03:25Just say, hey, guys, I can only trade this player if you come to me with an absolutely
03:30incredible offer, similar, as I pointed this out yesterday, similar to what the Nationals
03:36got for Juan Soto, which included someone who was an all-star this week in CJ Abrams,
03:41someone who I think is an all-star caliber starter in Mackenzie Gore, and someone who
03:46is, in my judgment, undeniably a future all-star in James Wood.
03:50That's like two and a half all-stars.
03:52That was the standard for Juan Soto.
03:55And people could say, well, Skubal hasn't done what Soto has done in his career.
03:59That's fair.
04:00That's exactly correct.
04:01But pitching right now is so important that you can price the pitching a little bit higher.
04:07We're at a time in the industry where there's so much injured pitching out there, especially
04:13from a team like the Dodgers, that you can put a little bit of a tax on that and say,
04:18listen, it's got to be a little bit higher.
04:19Because I see in Baltimore's case, they've got so many great young position players,
04:23but they need a Tarek Skubal.
04:25The Dodgers, look at how many injured starters they have.
04:28They need a Tarek Skubal.
04:29So price him like Juan Soto was priced and see if someone meets it.
04:34And if they don't meet it, move on, go on to the offseason, see if there's a better
04:38package at that point, or just ride it out and say, I believe the Tigers are going to
04:43be a more competitive team in 25 and in 26 than they are in 24.
04:48So if you want to buy me out of having Tarek Skubal in those years, come on, bring it.
04:52And if you fall short, you fall short, I move on.
04:55So it sounds to me, and let's start with Baltimore, is the kind of offer now that you would only
05:01say yes to is if Baltimore says yes, Jackson Holladay and Sam Basalo, or yes, Jackson Holladay
05:07and Kobe Mayo, three right there, elite position prospects?
05:15I think that it would have to include, and by the way, you're talking about the right
05:18names, and if any Baltimore fan or observer says no way, no how, well again, I draw your
05:25attention to what the Padres had to give up to get Soto.
05:29It's that kind of a prospect.
05:31So I would say it's more of a grouping, like two of the four.
05:36I would think that for the Tigers to be really compelled to move Skubal to Baltimore, it
05:41would have to be two of the four, or two of the five, if you will, of Holladay, Colton
05:48Couser, Mayo, Basalo, that kind of a conversation that you'd have to get two from that group.
05:56If you want to add in any of the other younger players, again, I'd be really surprised.
06:01I would doubt that Jordan Westbrook would at all be an option there.
06:04Heston Kierstad, maybe you would add him to that conversation too.
06:08It would have to be multiples of the group of players that I just mentioned.
06:14And I think that if you're looking at it objectively, Doug, the team, if you had your choice of
06:21dealing with Baltimore or dealing with the Dodgers, you would rather choose Baltimore
06:26because they've got so many of the players that you need.
06:31Basalo could potentially play first.
06:34Mayo could potentially play first.
06:36Norby, Connor Norby's another guy.
06:38Maybe he's a second base, outfield, he could move around.
06:40I think part of this conversation, where it gets really interesting, Doug, and where it
06:45becomes like a multi-layered evaluation, is if the Tigers are going to bring in a player
06:51like a Basalo from Baltimore, or like a Kobe Mayo, for example, who would potentially play
06:57first base, it tells you a lot about how they feel about Torkelson.
07:02And to me, the fact that Torkelson is not back yet, and that he has not destroyed triple
07:08A pitching yet, says a lot about where they're at at the moment.
07:14And also, you keep this in mind as well, do they potentially move to a place where
07:20if you get a third baseman, like a Kobe Mayo would be, do you then say, listen, if that's
07:27the case, would we envision a Mayo at third, a Jace Young at second, and a Colt Keith at
07:33first, and then again, Torkelson's not as much a part of the plans anymore.
07:38That's kind of where you're moving.
07:41And from my estimation, if I'm just looking at it objectively, the way that Torkelson
07:46has played this year, both in the majors and the minors, has told me that if in these conversations,
07:52whether it's a Dalton rushing with the Dodgers, or again, Mayo, Basalo, someone like that
07:57with Baltimore, that Torkelson no longer has a firm claim on being the first baseman of
08:05the future for the Tigers for the next three years.
08:07But if you can find somebody there, or if you reconfigure your infield to put Colt Keith
08:12at first and Young at second and get a third baseman, those are options that are available
08:16to you.
08:17Because honestly, Doug, just look at the numbers, he has not stood out.
08:21And at some point in time, this becomes a performance-driven industry.
08:26Jack Flaherty, he had a healthy start, probably needs a couple more to solidify a deal as
08:32a rental pitcher.
08:33What could they be looking to get for Jack Flaherty?
08:37He probably is a player that, when you look at the deal that the Tigers made a year ago
08:43with Michael Lorenzen, Howie Lee was, of course, the player they got for him, and he actually
08:48had a really good season at Double-A. He's played in the Futures game this year.
08:52I think that's the kind of player that you probably would get for Jack Flaherty.
08:57It's not a transformative, change your organization type of a move like Scoble, or like they maybe
09:04hoped that Eduardo Rodriguez was going to be a year ago.
09:07I think it's much more of a, you look around the dynamic of Major League Baseball and see
09:13teams that need a third, fourth starter, someone who's probably going to start a game for you
09:18in a playoff series, but not game one and probably not game two, but somewhere in the
09:22middle of that rotation.
09:24The Milwaukee Brewers, I would say, are one more example of a team that probably needs
09:28a little bit more reliability in their rotation, given injuries that they've experienced and
09:32certainly having to move on in the last offseason from Corbin Burns and Brandon Woodruff being
09:37injured.
09:38So I think Milwaukee is a fit there.
09:40I would say, potentially, the Dodgers is because of how, and we saw it up close in Detroit
09:45last weekend, how thin their rotation is right now.
09:48The Dodgers have to be involved in every trade conversation right now for a starting pitcher.
09:51The San Diego Padres, I think you'd put in the same category.
09:55So the Tigers are fortunate in that the Flaherty value is clear for teams that need another
10:01starter and I think the price point is pretty clear as well.
10:06It's about what they got for Lorenzen, who again was half a year of a guy who made an
10:10all-star team last year, was pitching really well.
10:13It's probably about that same level of player for Flaherty right now.
10:16Final thing, because I deal with this question and people are hesitant to make any trade
10:20because of what happened with Avila.
10:22Your impressions of Scott Harris, should he be trusted to move these commodities?
10:27Yes.
10:28The reason why you signed him, the reason why you've got Scott Harris in this position
10:33is because you trust him to make this move.
10:36I think, to me, whatever moves Al made with Verlander and others are irrelevant in this
10:42moment in time.
10:43It's about what Scott Harris can do and it's interesting.
10:46Scott has made a handful of trades with a few teams.
10:50He's traded a lot with Philly.
10:52It's interesting, Dave Dombrowski has been a frequent trade partner with the Tigers,
10:56it seems.
10:57He's traded with Atlanta.
10:58I think that to really do a good job, and this is where it's going to be interesting,
11:02we know that Eduardo Rodriguez was almost traded to the Dodgers a year ago.
11:07They got to the finish line, basically, and couldn't get over the finish line.
11:12I think that he's going to have to find a way to make a deal either with the Dodgers
11:15or the Orioles or some other team that comes up if, again, Scouble is going to be available
11:21and on the market.
11:22It's going to be a big-time trade with a big-time team and an experienced GM like Mike
11:29Elias in Baltimore or Andrew Friedman with the Dodgers.
11:33I think he can do it, but I think it's going to require expanding the aperture a little
11:37bit of the number of teams that Scott has made deals with so far.
11:41I trust him to make the deal.
11:42I think Tigers fans should as well.
11:45This is going to be, though, the next couple of weeks, I would say, a very transformational
11:49period of time for the Scott Harris administration in Detroit.
11:52John Marossi, appreciate your time.
11:54We see your stuff and read your stuff on MLB.com and MLB Network, Road to Cooperstown's podcast.
12:00Thanks for joining us here on 97.1.
12:01Doug, thanks so much for the call.
12:02I really appreciate it.
12:03I look forward to catching up again real soon.
12:04There you go.
12:05Lots to talk about out of that.
12:09He trusts Scott Harris?
12:13Sounds like a Baltimore offer could be the heavyweight offer that we're asking for.
12:22You brought up Juan Soto in that deal.
12:24Yep.
12:25He's called two and a half all-stars.
12:26I mean, that's where you got to start.
12:29That's just where you got to start.
12:30I like the way he worded it, the easy, hard decision.
12:34They've got to make it so easy for you to say yes is the only way you would say yes.
12:38Yep.
12:39And that makes sense.
12:42Your reaction next, 97.1, the ticket.