Who are coming and all to the Heir Territory Podcast presented by Fox One.

My name is Sean Coleman.

Hope, wherever you are and wherever you are listening, you are having a wonderful week in the midst of the Champion Chip Series.

But while baseball is going on on the diamond, there is plenty to discuss when it comes to what should be a busy off season for the Braves.

And we've opened it up to our listeners a special mailbag edition of the Hair Territory Podcast.

And of course there are a few, if any, who are better equipped to answer your questions than the one and only Steven Tolbert Stephen.

Good to see you against here.

It's been a little bit Hope you're well and looking forward to talking some Raves baseball with you with some pretty good questions from our listeners.

Yeah, what's up, buddy.

Yeah, we threw it out to the listeners.

We kind of crowd sourced some questions tonight.

The listeners as normal, came through Clutch.

They sent a bunch of really good questions.

We kind of grouped them together.

We got four or five that we're gonna try to answer tonight.

Go kind of deeper into some of them and kind of the spirit of the question and maybe expound on it a little bit.

But yeah, it's you know, we're right in the middle of the playoffs.

Of course, the ALCS the NLCS are both going on right now.

World Series will be you know, near the end of the month, and then boom, we're into the offseason mode and that's when it's gonna really start getting fun.

I do expect the Braves to hire a manager sometime between now and then.

We'll see what happens.

Obviously we'll come on and break that, you know, have an emergency show whenever that happens.

But yeah, we gotta mail back question tonight.

Some fun things to talk.

About, absolutely, absolutely, and let's get right into it, because I think that the you know, current managerial opening, you know, another you know, already attractive managerial opening came available, I think a bit unexpectedly over the past forty eight hours.

Mike Sheilt retired from being the Padres manager.

So there, if you're if you're a hot prospect, if you're someone like a Ryan Flaherty or others that we've seen mentioned with under multiple openings, you know, there's plenty to choose from and for the Braves that could make them want to act sooner rather than later.

And let's start there when it comes to our mailbag questions.

This comes from Jason Reese at Jase eleven twenty nine.

Jason, thank you for the question, how do you like George Lombard as a possible manager for the Braves?

And Steve and I have he checks a lot of boxes.

As the first initial answer that I want to give, but also when it comes to him, you know, I mentioned that I would really like an option that has had past managerial experience, but more than anything, I want to coach that's been around a while and not only been around, but has contributed to multiple winners.

He's been around a lot of winning baseball.

I think that's the big box that George Lombard chicks, among many other connections to the Braves and Alex and Thoppless.

Yeah, so this is a name that we've heard a lot, and especially behind the scenes, maybe not more on the public side, but on the private side.

This is a name we keep hearing that you really need to watch out for because and there's a few reasons.

One is he's gotten very obvious ties to the Braves.

He was.

A former player, a former top prospect for the Braves.

He was actually committed to go to the University of Georgia, which I did not know that, but was drafted in the second round by the Braves, so they bought out his commitment and he joined the organization.

He's obviously a Georgia guy, so you know, he had his playing career with the Braves, which didn't pan out the way he wanted to.

But since then he's been a coach in the majors for a long time.

And he was actually in LA with the Dodgers as their first base coach while Alex Nthoppolos was working for the Dodgers, So that's probably the first time him and Alex ever cross pass.

And he did the Dodgers job from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty through their World Series, and then over the last five years he's been the bench coach for aj Hinch in the Tigers organization, and the Dodgers and the Tigers are two organizations that push kind of modern baseball forward.

You know, they're not stuck in the past.

Aj Hinch specifically is a pretty forward thinking manager.

The fact that this guy has spent the last five years as his bench coach, and we've talked about that in the past.

A bench coach's kind of the natural, you know, that's the natural last step before you become a manager, is you're a bench coach.

And he's been there for five years, Like it's not a small amount of time.

And like I said, he's he's.

Been with the Dodgers, been with the Tigers, he knows how Alex he has ties to the Braves.

Like it makes a lot of sense.

And you know, the one thing that I would say is like maybe a negative is he does he just doesn't have that managerial experience.

And when you have a team that's trying to win a World Series, that's capable of winning a World Series, hiring a first time manager has its own levels of risk and challenges and whatever.

So I think that's a fair counterpoint.

But like I said at the top, we've heard I've heard the name George Lombard a lot, and I'm not saying it's you know, I'm not saying where there's smoke, there's fire, but that is certainly a name that I would watch out for.

He is highly respected in baseball.

He is everybody in baseball thinks he is going to be a manager at some point.

It's just a matter of when and what team pulls the trigger on it.

Do not be surprised at all if it's the Braves and it's right now that he's the next manager.

I'm not saying it's going to be not reporting that, but that's a name that we keep hearing a punch and I think there's some pretty valid I think there's some pretty valid smoke there.

Yeah, And I mean, you know, again, he checks those boxes of just everything that you just common sense would tell you would be valued in looking for, you know, the next Braves manager.

Of the connections to alex Enthopolis, connections to the organization.

He's had impact over the past decade in winning organizations.

But it's also not you know, take away the fact that he also is he's part of a baseball family, right you know, George Lombard himself, you know why he didn't necessarily panned out as a player.

He obviously has as a coach, but he right now he has an older son in George Lombard Junior, who is a top prospect in the Yankees organization, and he just so happens to have his younger son, Jacob Lombard, who's a shortstop who's potentially a top five pick in next year's draft, so you know, you can make some connections there as well.

So the point is is that, yes, I think not only is he a very sensible potential managerial prospect that the Braves could add, but he's a very sensible one.

I think that there would be a lot of good potential with him leading the organization, especially with the other managers that he's been on staffs with.

I think that it would be I don't necessarily know if home run high would be the way to describe it, but I definitely think that he would be one of the better choices when it comes to being a manager.

With that being said, we talk about the manager position being really what's on on the you know, at the forefront, it's the priority right now.

We've also talked about what our priorities potentially this offseason, and it comes back to pitching rotation as well as the bullpen.

But Steven, we got a couple of different questions from folks regarding this, what about the offense, Because again I think that it's a fair question when you look at the past two years.

The one aspect of this Braves team that stands out as being the closest to being contender worthy in terms of quality has been the starting rotation.

It's been the offense that's underperformed.

So you think to yourself, that should be an area where the Braves look to add.

But why is it not in European opinion, steven maybe a bigger priority.

No, that's a fair question, and you know it's wide throughout the season.

I did not want We talked about this a few times.

I did not want the narrative of the twenty twenty five season to be the injuries to the pitching staff.

Is what did the season end?

A because it's not true.

It's an irresponsible narrative.

B because it's it's only.

Half the story.

You have to you have to combine that with the fact that from April till basically the middle of July they couldn't score runs.

And that's where they mostly healthy offense.

I mean they didn't have Profar at the time because he was still doing the eighty game suspension.

But Acunya was back.

Not only was Akunya back, Acunya was hitting like prime Barry Bonds.

You remember that first, you know, a couple of months he was back before he went through a little cold spell in August.

He was a monster, and they still couldn't score runs because the rest of the lineup wt cold.

And it is you have to talk about the offense when you talk about the twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five seasons, just as much, if not more than the injuries that they suffered in the twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five seasons.

So a perfectly fair question.

We had a number of people ask this, like why is the offense not being talked about more?

And I would say two things.

One, I think it is being talked about because the number one priority and Alex mentioned it as shortstop.

And listen, the Braves have had a black hole offensive late shortstop for like three years now, well two years.

The first half, for the first half of twenty twenty three for land Arc was really good, but since then they've been probably the worst hitting team in baseball when it comes to that position.

And so the reason everybody's talking about Hassan Kim Hassan Kim Hassan Kim is because he is such a massive upgrade on offense at that position.

So anytime you hear the name Hassan Kim, that is saying the offense needs upgrades.

And this is the primary with upgrade.

Take your weakest hitting position, which is shortstop, and add a legitimate, like above average or better hitter.

And so that's why Hassein Kim is such a big name is because he is he is literally the biggest he he covers up the biggest weakness the Braves have, which is offense at shortstop.

The second thing I would say to that is, that's why we keep talking about the DH on this show.

That's why we keep talking about potentially an outfielder.

That's why we you know, Scott and I did a show on Sunday where we did an entire, like fifteen minute segment on the DH and all the different ways they could go and you know, potentially trading for somebody or signing an outfielder like because the offense is not a finished product.

It's just not.

And we've already talked about the streakiness of this offense with Michael Harris and Ozzy Albi's both being incredibly streaky.

Austin Riley, Matt Olsen being incredibly streaky.

Even a Kunya goes through you know, he's not a streaky as everyone else, but he's not, you know, immune to these kind of three week, four week slumps every now and then.

They just have a ton of streaky hitters.

So you just need more talent and you can't have offensive black holes.

That's why his shortstop is so critical.

That's why Hassan Kim is so critical, and that's why I think, you know, we said it on the show on Sunday, like I think DH is not being talked about enough, Like DH matters.

We got to go find another good hitter to compliment these other hitters that can be good but can also be awful for times.

And you got to be able to you gotta be able to sustain that and weather that, and you do that through more talent.

And so it's a fair question.

The offense was the problem in twenty twenty four and for the first half of twenty twenty five, basically the competitive portion of twenty twenty five, the offense was the culprit.

So Hassan Kim and a.

DH is a big part of this offseason, and I think it does need to be talked about more.

I agree with you.

I definite think those are two areas, especially if that other DH option can play the outfield as well a bit more simpler perspectable Minyand when I say simpler, I mean, you know, just to me, it just comes down to this, you just have less room to add value on the position player offensive side than you do on the pitching side, because when you look at the Braves overall position players, they're besides shortstop, you have a player already in place in the eight or in the seven other positions that you have multiple years of control over and that you either owe money to or just make sense to be playing, and they're going to be playing every day.

So that's the reason why I say that offense is probably not being talked about as much as pitching because you just don't have as much room to add value because of a lot of those players you've already got in place for multiple years of control, they may not necessarily have the best value to move, so it doesn't make sense to move them.

So I just think that's the issue, and that's the downside, you know, like we've discussed about having so many extensions out there, if they're not performing to their expectation.

I think in terms of you know, why the pitching is being talked about a bit more than the offense.

To Stevens point, it is because of the fact that you know, pitching probably makes sense is the big addition, and we are talking about offense on the shortstop side.

But I just think it really comes down to the fact that you've already got a lot of your main offensive players in place.

You could see another significant move or two on the pitching side make a bit more sense.

However, we talk in general in general about where the Braves could add.

What about some specific names, and what exactly is the order of operations to get those moves made.

That's another mailbug question here in just a moment after a word from our.

Partners, this is for everyone listening right now.

What are you wearing right now?

And why isn't it me on Deese Kratz.

It is time for everyone to upgrade and get that super soft micro modal glory so good that you don't want to take it off.

The reason I'm stoned you is because that's how soft they are.

It's ridiculous, Like I feel, I don't even understand what kind of material it is.

It's got to be something space age for.

Your butt signature, super Soft micro modal fabric, breathable, stretchy, unbelievably cozy, and now you can even get glow in the Dark part of the Halloween line.

Right now as a listener of FT, you can get cozy and spooky for less but deals up to fifty percent off at me undies dot com slash foul enter promo code foul.

That's meundies dot com slash foul promo code foul for up to fifty percent off me Undie's comfort that's made for fall.

So Steve and I think that if you were to set up this off season and if you were to ask yourself, okay, what would make this a successful off season?

What needs being filled would really stand out as helping to define this off season as a s success.

And I think that four stand out.

Hiring the right manager, filling the shortstop position with the reliable option, getting another significant arm for the rotation, and getting a somewhat reliable to reliable option in the bullpen.

Would you agree that that would be a pretty good assessment of the big needs this offseason.

Yes, I I could.

I could quibble a little bit on the order, but yes, in terms of total totality.

Yes, yeah, And I didn't mean to put them in any order or anything, just was listing them off as the four main ones.

Well that that's just a fun way of looking at it.

And we had a fun question from Sea Breeze e O on Twitter.

I like I like the I like the name.

How would you grade this offseason if a if AA only does these three things trade for Pablo Lopez, extend Hasan Kim, and sign Devin Williams Now, I think Braves would probably do a bit more in you know, a perfect offseason.

But if you're looking at those level of names being added to the Brakes, I think that that is a pretty reasonable expectation for what a highly successful offseason would look like.

You've got three pretty significant additions via trade in free agency that I think really could improve this Braves team going forward.

And I like the way that he positioned it in that I truly do think that the big moves for the Braves of this offseason is if they can extend Kim, that's your main offensive signing, and you will see them add a significant arm to the rotation, be a trade or via free agency, and then I think that they're going to go try to find a value adding the bullpen someone that was successful in the past that maybe has fallen off a little bit here recently.

But yes, I don't know about those specific names that were mentioned, but names on a similar levels of those guys.

If you can get three of those of these additions, three additions at that level to this team, I would consider that a very successful offseason.

Yeah, so let's just go through them real quick.

So of course, signing Hassan, Like, if you start the off season by signing Hassan Kim, then everything else, like you've created a floor for the offseason where it's not probably gonna drop below like a be right, Like, if I know for a fact that Hassan Kim is gonna be the shortstop next year, a lot of my anxiety about the off season is already gone because, like that's just a massive upgrade at literally your biggest you know, your number one week spot on offense, which is shortstop.

So if you do that, if you start there, you're really gonna have a hard time convincing me they're gonna have a bad offseason.

Now, they might not have a great offseason, but adding Hassan Kim alone get me to like a B in terms of a grade.

So then you moved to Pablo Lopez.

And I've always loved Pablo Lopez.

I wanted the Braves to go after him when he was in Miami, and you know, the Twins made that really aggressive trade for him.

I think that was the Luis Riis trade if I remember correctly.

And Arise has already been traded back to the or to the Padres since then.

But Arise in two prospects for Pablo Lopez.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

So and yeah so, and Pablo has always been underrated just because he played in Miami for so long.

Now I will say the one you would have to trade for Pablo.

He's still under contract.

He's he's he signed to a very reasonable contract.

I think he signed through twenty twenty seven, so you have multiple years of control.

The thing is he didn't miss a good chunk of last year with elbow concerns.

He had an MRI I know in late September that showed there was no structural damage to the ligament, which is good of course.

So and obviously any trade would include medical he would have to pass a physical and all that stuff.

So there's a little hesitation there.

But prior to that, prior to that injury scare, Pablo had been really consistent in terms of like stacking thirty plus start seasons.

I think he had like three or four straight thirty two start seasons before this, before twenty twenty five.

So, and he's very good, and he's under team control, and he doesn't he's not gonna break the bank in terms of I think he makes like sixteen million years, seventeen million years, something like that.

I have to go back and look at the contract, but I remember when he signed it, so I think it's something like that.

So of course, if you know, if the Braves announced a trade for Pablo Lopez tomorrow, the first thing I would do is come in here and I'll talk about the elbow.

I talk about the concerns with the elbow.

But I would mention he's a very good pitcher, he's under a very very reasonable contract, he's got multiple years of control, all good things.

And then you had Devin Williams.

Devin Williams certainly probably did not have the season that he wanted in New York.

Obviously got traded right before the season started to New York.

That you know, Milwaukee and New York kind of made that weird.

Uh not weird.

It was just kind of contender to contender trade, which you don't see a ton and playing in New York is a different animal.

I'm not gonna put a ton on twenty twenty five A.

It's one year of a reliever.

B I don't.

I didn't think he pitched that poorly.

I just didn't go as well as they wanted to.

And you know, the expectation was he was going to be their lights out closer and he wasn't.

And you know he lost that job at some point in the middle of the year.

So, but it would depend on the contract.

You know, as Devin signing a one year show me deal to try to get back on the market after a good season, is he is he signing kind of a multi year deal to lower a v You know, any any any type of reliever edition is going to be contract based in terms of how I value it.

But the Braves need more help in the bullpen, and I think Devil Walliams is still a really good reliever.

Again, I don't put a lot of stock in one season in New York.

So I would be fine with that offseason.

I don't know if I graded an A, but if you told me right now, that's the off season.

You know, it come down to what did they give up in the trade for Pablo, how much money did they pay Devin Williams, and what was the final contract number on Hassan Kim if it ends up being a free agent signing, right the devil's in the details for actually grading those deals.

But in terms of player ads, I wouldn't hate that, and I.

Think that it's a very along the lines of what AA has done in the past type off season, you know, when we talk about it.

By the way, again, we're doing a mailbag edition here of the Hammer Territory podcast presented by Fox One, and we're discussing we're discussing, you know, specific names, what level of names, and how many of them could be added to the Braves this offseason.

A question from a listener, remember of Braves Country on what about potentially an off season of trading for Pabul Lopez, signing Hassan Kim, and signing a Devin Williams.

But I think that it's the nature of those moves that also makes sense right, because Hassan Kim would be probably in the four to five seventy to eighty million dollar deal.

You know, I looked it up before this show.

Stephen correct me if I'm wrong, that would be right near the largest free agent free agent contract AA has ever given out in terms of a pure free agent to this day.

I believe that Russell Martin five years, eighty two million back in twenty fourteen with the Toronto Blue Jays was the largest contract he's ever handed out to a pure free agent, not extension, not you know, not someone that he traded for then extended.

I could be wrong, but I believe that that may be the largest free agent contract he's ever signed.

The point that I'm go ahead.

They ended up picking the option up on Ozuna, so at the end that contract ended up being five years and eighty something million, right.

But initially it was a one year, eighteen million dollar deal that was pro rated in the twenty twenty year and then he was extended for four sixty five before the twenty one season.

He wasn't extended though Son is a free agent.

It was a one year deal and then they signed him late as a free agent, so it.

Was a free agent contract.

So I think the final I think you're still right though, because I think the Russell Martin deal actually was bigger.

Yeah, So I think if you add in the option, they ended up picking up Azuna's final deal into being like five for eighty.

Or something eighty.

But to the point though it's that five year, eighty million dollar deal, it really has been the range of where Alex has been comfortable.

He's extended people for more.

But the overall point, and you're right, it's two examples are better than one.

The overall point is is that the Braves are not going to go out there, as you mentioned last episode and be at the top of the food chavem when it comes to free agents.

He wants to get value.

There would be value in that hasan Kim edition with how big of aholl the Braves have had it shortstop.

There would be value going to get a player like Pablo Lopezu's value may be a bit low because of the injury scare, but has multiple years of control that could come in and really perform well.

And there could be value with getting an underrated signing like a Devin Williams who's done well in the past, could come into the brain system and do well.

Once again, there's value in those moves, and that's what we know.

Alexandopolis puts a lot of value on for better but for last way of putting it.

So it's not just the names, it's the fact that the process about getting those names really seems to be a sensible way for Alex and Popleys to operate this offseason as he has in the past.

So let me ask you a question, Sean, And I'm assuming you didn't look this.

Up before, so I'm gonna take your word.

We all heard the same stuff about Devin Williams all year, about the kind of year he had in New York.

If I just if I just said, what do you think Devin williams FIP was in twenty twenty five?

What do you think it was?

I would say a three point three to five.

His FIP in twenty twenty five was a two six eight.

Yeah, okay, and his ex FIP was a two nine to five.

So you can forget everything I just said about Devin Williams son a one year show me deal.

Devin Williams gonna get paid, Devin Wallie's gonna get paid a lot of money people don't care about.

He had.

He had his era was almost in the fives.

It was a four to eight.

But his strikeout numbers were insane.

He was striking out thirteen per nine innings.

He had.

His FIP and x FIP were both looked great.

His velocity still look normal.

You could forget Devin Williams on a value count.

Devin Williams gonna get paid a lot of money, so that might change the That might change the evaluation here, And it doesn't mean Alex won't sign him.

Like you said that, one of the biggest contracts he ever handed out was to a closer when he signed will Smith, and he traded for even bigger contracts when he traded for Rossly Iglesias.

He took on that entire deal, which is essentially like a free agent signing basically.

So he has shown he will spend money on bullpen.

He will especially spend money on closers.

So Devin Williams could still be the name, but I think it's gonna cost a premium.

And Devin Williams also, but I'm not necessarily saying they're the same repertoire.

But it's a similar setup as rice E Iglesias.

We know Ryce eel Iglesias, you know, best pitch is that change of It's the same with Devin Williams, not justly overpowering stuff.

So maybe he thinks Williams age as well.

So yes, I think that Williams could be there, but to your point, he could pay.

But in general, the question about the level of names mentioned in that question and the order of operations, the way about going to get those names, I think that it is a very sensible way of looking at the off season.

And if the Braves go about filling in, you know, those needs that we talked about, an anchor guy in the bullpen, significant rotation edition and you know another you know, or the shortstop position obviously with Kim.

If you've got that as the basis for your off season, I think that it is a very successful off season.

But we talk about sensible approaches to the off season.

How AA could go about operating like he has in the past.

But in the past, Alexandoppolis has been known to come out of left field plenty of times to make some very noteworthy moves.

Could that be in play this offseason as well?

More on that particular thought in just a moment after another word from our partners KP.

We both love Omaha Steaks.

My latest order six private reserve filet mignons.

It sounds bougie because it is.

They were fantastic and also one and a half pounds of jumbo cooked shrimp with a big initial discount and then an additional thirty five bucks off with the code foul.

You have been a long time Omaha Steaks guy too.

Yeah.

Back in college, I would always order steaks.

I'd put them in my freezer.

And that's the reason I bolked up is because I always had fresh steaks in my freezer, ready to.

Go, delicious protein, Get after it.

Okay, it is the best in the biz.

If you're ordering steaks online, you can say big with Omaha Steaks.

Visit Omaha Steaks dot com for fifty percent off site wide and an extra twenty percent off select favor during their early Black Friday sale, and for an extra thirty five dollars off used promo code foul.

Checkout terms apply sea site for details.

That's fifty percent off at Omaha Steaks dot Com Promo code foul at checkout.

So Stephen, you know we use left field.

You know I feel bad for left field because sometimes it's it's kind of made fun of as the position on the diamond.

It's the unexpected area of the diamond where where things happen, you know, when people describe what's going on.

Again here on the Hammer Teryory podcast presented by Fox One, Stephen, if there was a move out of left field?

This question comes from let's see here not your father's podcast.

Yeah, not your father's pod.

Are there any out of left field moves you could see Alex making this offseason that where that he would move a guy from the big league team for a significant edition And he mentions other than Sean Murphy who's been talked about now that qualifier, that specific specific detail about of out of left field move that that changes things a bit.

But but what are your thoughts about that and out of left field move in and listen, Eve, it's even not moving a guy off the roster.

What would be an out of left field move that you may be in favor of this offseason?

Yeah, so Alex is always good for not always good for one of these, but can oftentimes be good for one of these the way you know, obviously trading will contreras in that offseason, no one, no one saw coming, and obviously today there's a lot of people that still, you know, don't enjoy that fact.

But the fact is we didn't see it coming.

You know, the name I always think about because he looks so good and he's been linked to the Braves before is Jacob de Gram in Texas because a the Rangers are reportedly trying to cut payroll be he looked like old Jacob de Gram last year.

He's still got multiple years of team control.

The Rangers would definitely have to eat some of that money.

He's like, I think he makes like thirty five million dollars year.

I don't think the Braves would go there.

But like, if you told me they're gonna do like a Chris sale where they go get a veteran like ace level pitcher who had some injury concerns but they feel good about and you told me it was Jacob de Grim, it wouldn't stun me.

Now again, you have to figure out the money.

The money is a.

Big factor, and I'm I know I'm gonna get people responding to this.

You know, have you seen Jacob de Graham's contract.

It is a lot of money.

But I think it's only two years.

I think it's only twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven.

I think he has a club option after that.

I have to go back and look, but I think he makes like thirty five million dollars this year at thirty five million dollars next year, So you'd have to figure out the money side.

But like, that's the level of move I would put in terms of like, we did not see the Chris Sale move coming.

No one saw that move coming.

I mean, as out of left field as it gets.

It was on no one's radar because Chris Sale had these injuries.

He had used to have been an ace, but he'd had these injuries and kind of had left peace people's mind in that way and in a lot of the same ways I can say about de gram and again de Graam has spoken highly about the Braves in the past.

I actually thought the Braves might aggressively go after de Groam when he became available with the Mets.

So that would not stun me.

There's a couple of out you know, outfielders are tough because it's you know, I would not be stunned if they went back to the Byron Buxton deal.

You know, anybody with the Twins.

The Twins are clearly clearly resetting the whole thing.

So like a Pablo Lopez Joe Ryan, the Twins still have some decent relievers, Like none of that would surprise me.

You should never be surprised with anybody from the Rays.

They move people all the time.

Brendan Lao for the Rays would make a lot of sense.

They've got some pitching that would be interesting.

I mean not.

You know, trades are tough because you can really throw out so many names.

But de Gram is stuck in my head for the last couple of weeks just because of the parallels to Chris Sale and how it feels a lot the same.

Now again, they have to work out the money.

The money is no joke.

But if they were able to do that, and the Rangers reportedly want to cut payroll, that would not that would not stumny.

So we are on similar tracks when it comes to the out of left field move that I think the Braves could make, and mine is more kind of the format of the type of move that would come out of left field than it is necessarily just an completely off the radar move.

I think that there is a lot of sense being made in the Braves making a trade to fill two needs at one time.

I've seen this discussed a bit on Braves Twitter, and I agree with it as well.

You know, for TONI we're talking about we're talking about Ontani.

No, no, not that, not that level of killing two birds with one stone.

But Frank Ran in the past, like will Owmen and Reed Johnson a bit bit to a bit bigger scale though, you know, being able to go out and get an arm and a bat in the same move, that could make sense.

Now it's identifying the teams where it would make sense to go do that.

And you know, for instance, I don't think like the Braves would go to the level of a Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan plus a Byron Buckston from the Twins or Mitch Keller and Brian Reynolds from the Pirates.

I don't necessarily think that they would look to take on two long term contracts like that in a move.

But what if you go to the Cardinals and you potentially want to look at, you know, a Sunny Gray and a Lars Nootbaar, if they would be interested in that, if you could offer the right type of prospect package to go get that type of combination.

Talk about the Rays a Brandon Law and a Griffin Jacks.

You're able to get your anchored gopen piece, plus you're able to get that utility guy.

Maybe if you want to take another chance on a former top prospect who didn't pan out, if you want to go talk with the Rangers who want to cut costs, what about Nathan Yavali Valdi and Evan Carter as a potential combination that could make sense.

The thing that I'm getting at is is that I think that tandem type trade could make a lot of sense for the Braves.

It could potentially be that value type move that Alex really values.

And here's the other reason why I think that it could make sense to do it this offseason because the Braves, I feel, have a bit more ammunition, have a bit more in that prospect coupverared to trade this off season.

But they also are going to have a bit more ability to replenish anything that they trade in that twenty six draft, especially if Drake Baldwin wins Rookie of the Year.

So I think that that type of move could make a lot of sense that Toronto Alex type move.

You hear that music playing that type of move, killing two birds with one stone, filling two needs with one trade.

I definitely think could make sense, and this would be the time to do it to really improve the team for twenty six.

Yeah, I mean I could see, you know, especially the Cardinals one again, Sonny Gray makes a lot of money next year.

You have to work out the money.

But the Cardinals.

Cardinals are in such a weird spot.

I don't really know what they're doing.

The Brewers and the Cubs have just so completely passed them.

You know, they're kind of stuck in the middle, which is where you don't want to be.

What's the GM's name.

They just retired there, John Mosela, Mazela, that's right, he just retired.

So they got a whole new front office coming in not tied to any of those players.

So I would not be surprised if if Saint Louis is aggressive and trying to move pieces around.

They have a couple of hitters that I would be interested in.

Brendan Donovan has always been one of my favorite players, but I don't know if they would let him go, But yeah, that would make sense.

Yeah, the Rays, like I always say Brenda Lalle is gonna get traded every year, like he's just the type of guy they usually move on from for a young player.

They haven't done it yet.

The Pirates do make some sense with uh, with with Keller, I don't Yeah, I don't know if the Braids would take on that deal though.

Yeah, I mean there's there's there's there's stuff out there.

Again, trades are so difficult because a you don't know who's available.

Like I can make some interesting trade with the Giants, I can make some interesting trades with the Diamondbacks.

I can make some interesting trades with the Padres.

You know, there's always been talk like the Padres are trying to clear money.

The Padres have kind of outspent there.

You know, they are allotment the last few years and at some point I got have to roll it all back.

If they ever got to that point, I could make some interesting trades with the Padres.

You know, there's there's teams out there, but you never know who's actually available.

We don't get that on the public side.

We don't.

We just don't get that information.

Now.

We hear stuff privately sometimes, but we have very rarely.

Is it to that level, So.

We'll see I could, I could see a lot of that, But for some reason, de Gram is stuck in my head as like the Chris Sale move.

And maybe I'm being biased because the Chris Sale move worked out so well, because the d Gram move would also obviously have some serious risk attached to it and it could blow up in your face pretty hard if he gets hurt again.

But yeah, I mean I with Alex, you always need to expect that there might be something like that coming down the pike.

Yeah, And you know the thing is is that again, he probably hasn't made as many headlines through trades like he didn't try.

But when you look at this current Braves team, the big moves that he's added that weren't part of the Braves organization, Matt Olsen, Sean Murphy, Chris Sale, all of Ryce so Le Iglesias, all of them trades.

You know, Marcello's are not really signed, but the majority of them have been through trades.

So I would not be surprised if he went that route again, and if he made sense to make a tandem deal.

I think this will be the off season to explore it again, especially with the enhance stability in the twenty sixth draft to replenish, you know, some of what you may trade in a potential move this off season.

Stephen, do you have anything else?

As we wrap up this mail bag edition of The Hammer Territory Podcast, thanks so much, listen.

The reason why we do mail bag additions is because it allows for us to be able to cover topics that you, the listener's braves country finds interesting and also it's just fun to talk about.

It's fun to speculate.

This is the time to speculate.

This is the time to get a little crasp it comes to predictions and that is always fun.

Stephen, anything else for you?

As we wrap up this edition of the Hammer Territory Podcast.

No shout out to the listeners for coming through with some questions.

I sent that tweet out of like five pm Eastern, which is like the exact opposite time that you want to be sending out a tweet anytime you need engagement to go with it, and there was just a ton of responses.

We We're gonna save a bunch of them because this is not the last mail bag that we're going to do this offseason for sure, so we'll get to more of them as we go through the off season.

We just picked four or five that we felt were the most interesting tonight.

But yeah, shout out to the fans.

Of course, we're just kind of in wait and see mode.

On the manager.

I do think the news is going to come.

I think it's going to be just out of nowhere, a blue box gets tweeted out by the team account and the Brays have anue manager.

I do not see there being a lot of smoke leading up like there is for some other clubs.

There are a lot of openings in baseball right now for managers.

There's like seven or eight.

I think the Padres made eight or nine.

I can't remember exactly how many.

There's a I don't really remember an obviouseeason with this many teams needing managers.

So that could lead to this emergency where the Braves want to make a move to get their guy because there's heavy competition for him.

So we'll see, we'll see what happens.

Obviously, as soon as it drops, we'll be on here talking about it.

And then when we get to the end of the month and kind of beginning of November, we jump into the season or the off season, and there's a whole bunch of dates that stack up and are important, and we'll get to all that when it's time, but we appreciate the support as always, and yeah, we'll be here to cover at all.

And I do I've seen a couple of you know, think pieces out there that have written about it and all that different stuff.

I feel like there's not much debate there.

The Braves are the most attractive job out there right now when it comes to filling a manager's position.

I'm sorry, but all I have to do is just mention the name Ronald Acuna Junior and that immediately takes care of eighty percent of the argument.

And I know I may be a bit biased, but I don't think that it's going to come down to that.

Like I think that Alex probably has a candidate or two in mind that he's probably not gonna have to fight other teams for.

But it doesn't hurt that the Braves are a pretty attractive job compared to their long term outlook.

And it starts with Alex and Thopolis himself as well.

So again I agree with you.

I think the manager position is going to be filled, and hopefully quickly, because then that can lead us to you know, purely focusing on what to add to the roster.

But again very busy offseason.

As Scott and Stephen discussed last time as well, we know that Alexanthopolis loves to do his heavy lifting in early November, so once we get past the games being played in ending this season, we really could see Alex and Thoppolis take center stage.

But can't thank you enough for joining us on this edition of the Hammer Territory Podcast, again presented by Fox One.

You can find me at a Stat's sac on Twitter slash ck Steven Tolbert to be underscore outliers.

Make sure you follow Hammer Territory across all forms of social media, part of the Foul Territory family of podcast Don't Forget.

You can also go to get apparel, Get Hammer Territory Apparel.

Where can they go?

Stephen to get a Hammer Territory.

Apparel hammiturtuur shop dot com.

I'm a big as tumbler guy, so this is where I go for my stuff.

But yeah, Hammer turturishop dot com.

Shirts, you've got pullovers, you've got tumblers.

I don't know if they've taken up my idea of autograph pictures of me and Stephen on the podcast.

But hey, it's time there that that that may be a hot seller in time.

Until next time, go brave.

We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer Territory podcast