caulfield12

https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-white-sox/intriguing-opportunity-has-developed-for-the-white-sox/

MLBTR’s Steve Adams reported yesterday that Foster Griffin has spoken to eight different teams with varying interest levels in his services, while MLBNetwork’s Jon Morosi added that a deal could come together soon for Griffin. Which team will land the intriguing lefty?

I read all the reports when he was with SD...if they really believed he was their CFer of the future and not a corner guy, they likely wouldn't have traded him, because they weren't yet sure Jackson Merrill would succeed in CF yet. During that time frame, CF play was being measure against guys like Grisham and Margot. "Zavala shows good defensive instincts and a solid-average arm in center field, though his speed likely fits best in a corner." baseballamerica.com And also concerns that he was going to continue to fill out/put on weight and that would work against his ending up in CF as well.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/angels-re-sign-yolmer-sanchez-to-minor-league-deal.html Gatorade coolers rejoice.

That's where you find Dallas-Arlington-Ft.Worth in the in-between zone of large and mid markets for baseball (#8-12)...impossible to imagine them anything but Big with a capital B for football though.

How is Kansas City in any sense not a small market franchise for football? What is the differentiator? Nashville KC and Cincy would be at or near the bottom...in the 20's. Buffalo's success would never impossible in MLB. Ofc thru also wouldn't be opening one of the best baseball stadiums, either, with Pegula/Rich money. Also hard to consider CLE as mid market IMO. They too are getting a shiny new fb stadium eventually. 37 Milwaukee 922K PACKERS 40 Las Vegas 834K RAIDERS 43 Jacksonville 757K JAGUARS 50 New Orleans 664K SAINTS 54 Buffalo, NY 613K

How do you account for it being impossible for the Tigers to keep Skubal, the Pirates to keep Skenes, the Rays to keep any players over $10 million, etc.? They need to have something like a franchise tag. Which would be anti player movement, as well as limits or controls on international free agents 25 or older. The owners definitely have to allow for a $100-125 million payroll floor. In return, lesser tax penalties for higher payrolls, but forcing those top market teams to share/split more of their local broadcasting revenues. You can’t have teams with billion dollar media deals and the bottom 10-12 teams all earning $20 million per year or less.

He's a CFer in the same way Braden Montgomery is.... And he has to hit much much better on a consistent basis over 4+ months at AA to be even considered as a viable option. https://worldbaseball.com/npb-the-top-15-position-players-entering-the-2025-seaons/ The best Japanese outfielder remaining in Kensuke Kondoh, but he's 32 already and needs to come to the US as quickly as possible if he's ever going to try. No later than 2027.

We're probably 7 months away from drafting an NCAA CFer in the second or third round with a 2028-29 timeline...

He's not a big league CFer. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/foster-griffin-rumors-multi-year-offers-mlb.html Which unidentified team offered Foster Griffin two years? Or just an agent smoke screen to drive up interest?

The only things that will drive up the franchise valuation are: 1) new stadium deal 2) young star talent on cost-controlled deals for favorable rates...Montgomerys Teel Cholowsky etc. Ofc right now none of those guys (or Shane Smith) deserve even a Maikel Garcia deal as of yet. 3) extended winning/playoff appearances/2-2.25 million attendance and trending back up.

$12.5-15 million or a deal with a lot of incentives...or combination thereof.

"The Braves are bringing back Ha-Seong Kim on a $20MM contract, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s a one-year deal, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Kim had declined a $16MM player option and earns a $4MM raise to return as Atlanta’s starting shortstop. Kim spent the final month of the 2025 season with the Braves. They claimed him off waivers from the Rays, who were happy to get out from under the $16MM player option." Noticing a trend with the Rays? https://www.fangraphs.com/players/ha-seong-kim/27506/stats/batting Gambling that he can get back to that 3.2-3.5 fWAR version he maintained for three seasons before the shoulder injury sliding into a base. 30 years old. Very durable/consistent player until that injury. Quiet leader/glue guy. Offense has always been the concern...but he has surprising pop when healthy. Strikes out a lot for what should be a high contact position.

Nobody believes the Brewers Guardians or Rays could actually win it all...but TB did come relatively close. The problem comes when fans in too many cities believe they have no shot at all before Opening Day. Ofc fans in Seattle and Toronto and maybe even Detroit (for now) believe they're "right there." And the example of Oklahoma City in the NBA...even though the Indiana and Milwaukee small market success stories usually don't hold up for long. Namely, it's star players hitting FA.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/evan-phillips-rumors-sign-january-july-red-sox.html Evan Phillips available strictly on a one year deal

Jets Saints Browns NY Giants TN AZ Washington Cincy Two NY teams that are constant doormats, Washington was in the playoffs last year with Daniels and Burrow/Chase two of the most recognizable stars in the game. You don't have the equivalent unless you think Nats are really = Commanders. You also don't have two superstars long term in the NFL equivalent of Pitt Cincy KC in MLB. Well, Bobby Witt Jr. might be the one singular exception.

Most Sox fans don't believe all that much in Pereira...but 100% would rather watch him than Tauchman Bell Arraez Ozuna Kepler Conforto etc. Would anyone get excited about Rhys Hoskins, for example? No, not really. The real problem is they always want to cobble together 3-5 veteran "name" players years past their sell by dates instead of investing $125-175 million into a really really good hitter...we also know quite well the Sox (at least until Isbia) would never even dream on $200+ million, let alone getting that first $100 million guy.

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article/chiefs-playoff-elimination-and-patrick-mahomes-knee-injury-puts-chiefs-dynasty-at-a-crossroads-is-it-a-pause-or-the-end-075325247.html A lot of younger people forget/don't realize that the Patriots' dynasty paused for almost a decade in the middle. KC is going to have to find a dynamic RB in the next 3-5 years (Barkley last year, J.Love in draft, maybe it's Bijan Robinson or Achane via trade or FA). And Andy Reid is already near 70. https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/patriots-super-bowl-appearances 2005-2015 between SB wins 3-2 start exactly like KC Then 3-1 again in their "second wave," and Brady at 37-41 years old.

Not to mention Ohtani Matsumoto and Ohtani are responsible for sonewhere in the vicinity of $150-250 million in revenues generated in various forms in SoCal and especially through Japanese corporate partners/advertisers. Almost the same number of Japanese were watching LA on a Sunday morning for Game 7 of the WS in a much smaller country than Americans watching on a weekend night. And the same advantage is accruing to Toronto as "Canada's team," just on a slightly smaller scale (Rogers is a massive national corporation) that puts them on equal footing with the Yankees and ahead of Boston/Balt. All these resources have also led to a perennial Top 2-3 farm system...where they have 3-5 replacements for every position with the exception of closer, which was addressed with Edwin Diaz after Sasaki made it through the playoffs (barely).

Not to mention Meadiocre.

Having watched him pretty closely the last couple of years...he's almost the very last player to buy low on when he's still going to get something like $12-15 million on name/reputation alone. https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/2025-atlanta-braves-player-review-170000563.html M.Ozuna...or Conforto, in following the Encarnacion/Alonso tradition, just somehow feels likelier, because both SHOULD be under $10 million and willing to sign one year "make good" deals that allow them to be flipped to contenders with better performances.

Do we even know this for sure? That week when minority shareholders were offered the opportunity to sell at a $1.8 billion valuation...a surprising number of those share sales went to the Reinsdorf kids and not Ishbia. JR was already around 25% personally. His kids maybe at 5-10%? Ishbia MIGHT be at 45-50% now, Reinsdorf family at roughly 35-40% and also a number of the minority shareholders decided to hold out. At least 10-15% remaining. But there hasn't been any public reporting that the Ishbias are over 50%...and control person title/shares is all that really matters at this point.

https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/what-josh-bells-signing-means-for-the-rest-of-the-twins-lineup-r19547/ From reading this， Trevor Larnach has now become the obvious trade candidate.

Twins now with 9 left handed OF 1B DH candidates and counting.... TEAM CURRENT ODDS OPENING ODDS Tigers +290 Guardians +225 Royals OTB +275 Twins OTB +260 White Sox OTB +15000

https://www.mlb.com/news/starting-pitcher-trade-candidates-2025-26-mlb-offseason Pros and cons of 7 biggest names on FA pitching market