00:00Rob Bradford, this is going to be a very interesting offseason here.
00:04Can I just start with the whole Sonny Gray thing?
00:07What do we know about what's going on with him right now?
00:10I think that he's going to get some money as a free agent now.
00:14I don't buy that he'll just go anywhere for the money.
00:18I think he is firmly dug in on there are places that he would go with his family.
00:23I don't think that he's ruling out the Red Sox.
00:26The problem is that usually with guys like that, the Red Sox might say,
00:31hey, if you're not going to come at our price,
00:33we are going to get somebody else at a lower price that might not be quite as good,
00:38but we think that these other guys are better than they were a year ago,
00:43the Peyton Tollies, et cetera.
00:44And so we can get a, I don't know who, name your name,
00:48a Nick Martinez or someone like that and fill that spot.
00:52So what I'm saying is that I wouldn't rule out Sonny Gray,
00:55but I'm not optimistic about Sonny Gray,
00:57but it has nothing to do with, well,
00:59Sonny Gray said bad things about the Red Sox on the final day of school.
01:03All right, two-part question for me, Rob.
01:05One, will the moves all happen this month?
01:07Like stuff has to happen in the next few weeks, correct, before the lockout?
01:11So like all the free agents.
01:12Yeah, or if you want to wait until after the lockout.
01:15I mean, if you go back, Ken, not to interrupt your excellent two questions.
01:18But if you go back to last lockout, there were big deals done before
01:24and there were big deals done after.
01:26Seager and Simeon, they were all done before, like huge deals.
01:30And then you have Trevor Story was done after, Freddie Freeman was done after.
01:35I do think that there will be a ton of moves.
01:37I think there will be a lot of action when it comes to the Red Sox.
01:41I couldn't tell you.
01:41I don't think that they're going to be like knees deep in terms of the free agent market.
01:47But this November is going to be awesome in that respect
01:51because it should always have the deadline.
01:54This is great.
01:55Instead of waking up Christmas morning, checking your phone to see a minor league transaction,
02:00we actually are going to be able to say, all right, starting December 1st,
02:04there is nothing that can happen, and we'll see you when this whole thing is over.
02:09Okay, so second part of that is because Jim Bowden had reported the Red Sox will continue
02:13to call the Nationals regarding a possible C.J. Abrams trade and the Reds
02:18if Cincinnati decides to move Ellie De La Cruz.
02:20So I just want to know if I should be on Abrams' watch and De La Cruz' watch
02:24here in the next couple weeks.
02:26Yeah, I think you should be.
02:27I mean, I think that when you go back to what the Red Sox,
02:32the Red Sox obviously had interest in De La Cruz at the trade deadline,
02:35and rightfully the Reds said, well, good luck with that.
02:40But still, the fact that they had interest in him.
02:42You get a little closer, obviously, you know, you're half a year later.
02:47The Reds might be a little bit more willing.
02:50The Reds might say, hey, this is our Juan Soto.
02:52And I went back and looked at the Juan Soto compared to Ellie De La Cruz,
02:56and Ellie De La Cruz has one more year control.
03:00He's not as good as Juan Soto was.
03:02But think about the package that they got for that when he was trading for the Padres.
03:06It was crazy what they got.
03:08This is how a franchise like the Reds are able to restart itself.
03:13They understand that.
03:14And Ellie De La Cruz, he is a dynamic player,
03:17a player I would love to see in Boston,
03:19a guy, a foundation guy, a star,
03:22a guy who you could put his name on the back of little kids' jerseys
03:25all over Fenway Park, absolutely.
03:27But he isn't Juan Soto.
03:28He isn't the certainty of Juan Soto.
03:31Still, I wouldn't make that move,
03:33but it's going to cost you Franklin Arias and then some.
03:36Hey, Bradfo, any thoughts on some of the new hirings they have made on the coaching staff?
03:42I guess Shelly Duncan used to be the AAA manager for the Yankees,
03:45and Jason Bell.
03:46Is there any of these guys that they've brought in for coaching,
03:49signal anything to you?
03:52Does it tell you anything?
03:53Or is there nothing to really read with that?
03:56No, well, I love the someone who had surfaced the Shelly Duncan saying,
04:00I hate the Red Sox or whatever, like back in 2007, which is always spicy.
04:06But it's – no, Ted, I don't think so.
04:08I think the bigger takeaway is that you're keeping the hitting group together.
04:15And obviously, you know, you had that group is primarily a driveline-centric group.
04:22They're going down this road with them.
04:24They feel like they did a good job with what they had last year,
04:27even though in September it took a turn for the worse.
04:30But that, to me, was the biggest signal of, like, the approach that they're taking
04:35because they could have looked at it and said, hey, you know what?
04:37We promoted all these guys, and they did their best, but we want to sort of get upgrades.
04:44They were happy with Sauteropolis and Paulino and some of these other hitting guys that did it.
04:49And so that's the path they're going, for better or for worse.
04:53Now, we can re-litigate this and say, hey, driveline isn't the way to go.
04:57And the Milwaukee Brewers had more opposite field hits than any team in baseball.
05:01And I don't know if you know this.
05:02They won the World Series.
05:03But they're continuing to go down the driveline road, and maybe it works out.
05:08But I know that that's what they're digging in on.
