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This is encouraging. I’m not well versed in the minors and was concerned about their system post Soto trade.

This thread really devolved into worrying that an abuser is being silenced? Really? What The f*** Also, Freedom of Speech is a protection from the government silencing individuals, not a protection from the consequences of one’s own actions. Nor from society or an industry shunning an abuser. Visquel deserves to be buried in obscurity, never to work in baseball again. If you’re concerned that an abuser is being silenced or censored, that says way more about you than it is any sort of indictment of society. If that is you, maybe stop worrying about a former baseball player failing from grace and get to work on yourself. For fucks sake. /rant

Especially their cost-controlled pitchers when they’re salary dumping useful players.

JP Crawford would like a word. He's the heart of that team. RF and DH should not require trading away cost-controlled pitching.

The cost-cutting Mariners would probably rather dump Ray than Woo or Miller. I'd be surprised if the O's traded Santander or Mountcastle this winter as well. Even with all of their prospects, good teams still need a mix of veteran players.

It's a game of chicken basically. They could jump the market, but as O's fans have said here, Elias usually holds firm with what he's willing to offer and will walk away before upping beyond his threshold. I don't expect a deal with Baltimore to go down for that reason. But other suitors won't start seriously sniffing around a Cease trade until the quality FA options dry up.

Cease's market won't heat up until the FA sign. It's all a leverage play until then. Baltimore isn't signing either FA, but they won't get serious with their offers until they have to, once other teams start making serious inquiries as well.

I'd be a fan of the move if it meant they weren't counting on him to actually play.

I'd say it has more to do with the holidays than anything being close.

Curious what makes you think that. I'd be surprised if they were close on a Cease trade with Snell and Montgomery still on the market. What other move(s) would necessitate holding off announcing Maldonado or clearing 40 man space?

What in baseball is guaranteed? Or in fandom for that matter. We've had enough of JR. New may not be everything we want, but there's a much greater chance than the zero chance we have now.

Stop burning money on the fringes instead of adding impact FA in their prime.

This part. Can't emphasize the bolded enough.

Your point is valid, but at this point it's hard to be worse than JR. Not impossible, but I'd take marginally better over more of the same.

Ray is obviously a question mark coming back. How effective will he be this season? Gilbert and Kirby have under 3 and 2 full seasons in the bigs respectively and neither have established themselves to be top of the rotation starters yet. Miller and Woo both made their debuts in 2023. I wouldn't say they are in position to salary dump their ace entering 2024.

Oh that’s 100% the real reason. They can’t say that out loud though.

They still need an anchor for their young staff. Robbie Ray won’t be back until summer at the earliest.

They’ve dumped a lot of quality just to cut payroll. It’s a damn shame for a team fighting for the division into the last weekend of the season. Fans showed up all season for them too.

Cheap owner who doesn’t want to give away cost controlled pitching?

It would be nice if someone else were saying it too.

When an admin brow-beats everyone who disagrees with their posting, it is.

For what they are paying him, they probably could have found a better defense only catcher. Their purported rationale falls apart pretty quickly once you take a closer look.

I avoid engaging you when you're on one of your typical crusades to prove yourself right, but this is bullshit. Getz holding out for X does not mean Y wasn't offered. For all we know Baltimore is offering 2 top 100 positional prospects, and JR's mandate is to get pitching in return. You do not know what is actually being offered. If Cease isn't traded by Feb 13, it could be for MULTIPLE reasons, only one of which would prove you correct. You don't get to claim you were proven right when we will likely never know what was or wasn't offered if a trade doesn't happen. But of course, everyone else is moving the goalposts. JFC dude, do better. This of course will be construed as getting personal, so feel free not to respond. I certainly won't engage with your inevitable response.

White Sox might be pushing for worse record in baseball, let alone the AL Central.

Minny or Cleve wins it, but which one? They both kind of take turns winning it by default.