Would the Pirates Be Better Off Letting Brandon Lowe Walk?

Yo, welcome to the North Shore Nine podcast.

You are listening to Bucco Brew, powered by DeFerr Coffee and Tea.

I'm your host, Anthony DiNardo.

And with me, as always, this beautiful Monday, we have Jim Razzotti right next to me.

Jim, what's up, my guy?

Good morning.

How are we doing?

Apparently, I'm doing lovely right now.

I feel so awake and I'm so tired.

So, that's a good thing.

That's a good thing.

I do not feel all that awake.

I have not.

I have not like I'd like just got done making my coffee.

So I haven't actually taken a sip of it yet.

So I'll be waking up throughout this show.

There you go.

Yeah.

Well.

I'll be asleep by the end of it.

Anyways, but we are in.

What's today?

The 9th?

Is today the 9th?

November 9th.

Monday, November 9th.

Jim, we are like a couple weeks away from Thanksgiving, which is wild now.

Like, it's not even just November.

It's the 9th of November, which also means we're like a couple weeks away from the offseason being over.

Yeah.

it's a really short offseason, right?

Jesus.

We're four weeks, essentially, away from the CBA expiring.

So, yeah.

Less than that.

Less than that.

It's like three weeks.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

See that face you just made?

That's what I'm saying.

First off, how is it November 9th already?

How have we gotten here?

We finished up 10 months and 9 days.

I hate you so much.

But, yes.

All right.

Well, yeah.

Three weeks away.

The GM meetings are coming up.

The Rule 5.

Protections coming up.

Protection deadline.

Non-tender deadline coming up here.

So, those are all things that come up, not this week, but next week.

And then, yeah.

teams really only have a limited amount of time to do anything right now before we're shut off.

This is wild.

So, anyways.

I guess we should start talking a little bit about that.

Because, Alex has talked about this on his off-beats as well.

Listen to Alex's show.

Listen to it definitely this morning.

Because this will be very contrasting to what we're talking about.

But, Alex has talked about it.

We've talked about it as well.

I think we're anticipating a bit of a frenzy with free agency.

before the expiration.

Because once the CBA is done, they're going to be in a lockout.

We all know what's going to happen, right?

Lockout will happen here.

And nothing's going to happen.

So, and then on the other side of the lockout, like, who knows what's going to happen.

And then who knows how quickly the season will be once the lockout's over, right?

Are they going to rush into spring training mode and then have the season quickly?

So, it's like, there's probably going to be a flurry of off-season moves here coming up.

Which will be fun.

that's something that's different from baseball.

you don't really have that right now.

But, I guess, like, the main topic of the show, right?

We're going to be talking, we've talked a lot about Brandon Lowe and reasons to bring him back and such.

And can it work and money-wise and all that.

And now it might be like, okay, is Brandon Lowe going to be the right choice?

Is there maybe something else that's looming out there that might be a better fit, Jim?

Yeah.

like I said, we've spent a lot of time talking about Brandon Lowe.

It's one of, like, the only talking points to discuss at this moment in time.

But, yeah, you could argue that Brandon Lowe was the Pirates' best player in 2026.

I think that would be a fair argument to make.

He had a career year, almost five wins, 35 homers.

we can go back and forth about the statistics.

Bounced back defensively.

Had a really good defensive season, according to the metrics.

121 rated, weighted runs, created plus.

He was healthy all year, too.

So, like, he actually played 150 games, which is something he hasn't done.

If he's done it ever, it's been a while.

But, like, we're talking about, like, he was able to just put everything together in one season for the Pirates this past season.

Yeah, played the most games he's ever played in his career.

Yeah.

Remind Palin on that one more time when we took the under on the home runs because, oh, he won't finish a whole season.

So, like, there are plenty of reasons to be, like, we need to have this guy back.

Like, he clearly was the best player on this offense.

And if the Pirates want to have any chance to win in 2027, they've got to bring Brandon Lowe back.

And that's what we've been saying this whole time.

I think we've mentioned, like, the Pirates' best chances in 2027 include Brandon Lowe of some variety.

So, they gave him the qualifying offer, $23.15 million he's got until next Tuesday to accept or reject that.

But, yeah, I guess the question goes, for me, there are a lot of red flags with Brandon Lowe, right?

Like, if you, this is something the Pirates haven't done in a while, is sign a free agent this late in his career for this big of a contract.

I don't know if they've ever done it, actually.

Now that I think of it's never happened, if you're following the Pizzer of Pirates.

So, does it make sense for them to break that mold and sign a 32-year-old to a long-term deal?

Or, is there a better alternative that can give you Brandon Lowe-type production for perhaps less money?

Who's a more attractive target out there?

Because, like, I think the question here is, like, if Brandon Lowe hadn't been on the Pirates in 2026.

Like, let's say Brandon Lowe was on some other team.

Would we have been spending the last month and a half...

banging the door about how the Pirates would sign Brandon Lowe?

No. No. absolutely not.

Yeah. So, we're doing it because he was a Pirate last year, right?

But maybe it's time we just look at the bigger picture here and see what's available.

Like, what's out there?

Because MLB Trade Rumors released their full free agent projections, a couple weeks back.

We talked about it a little bit last week, but we really just focused on the Pirates guys.

But they released a full-on list of players.

And one of those players stood out to me when I was looking through projections and, estimated contracts, things like that.

So, yeah. Let's just compare.

Let's just compare and contrast.

Yeah.

Like, I want to add in here something, too.

Like you mentioned about, would we be talking about him?

And we wouldn't, obviously, but he was a Pirate, and that's why it's easier to talk about the guys already on your team and such.

But, let's dismiss, like, how important he was at a clubhouse, how much the guys like him.

And that's also a big part of it also.

You know what?

The intangibles, as you might say.

But with that being said, I feel like...

And, Jim, just hear me out.

Like, I'm not...

You said a lot of red flags.

Maybe we're giving too many red flags, but there's certainly red flags.

Like, there's...

I agree.

There's red flags.

And the thing is, like, when it comes to free agency, I want to also propose this.

Like, when it comes to free agency, a lot of guys simply have red flags because once you're a free agent, you're a little bit older, and just that alone is some red flags.

So, like, a lot of guys have red flags.

If you don't, you're probably getting the $400 million contract.

You know what?

So, it's like most players that are in the Pirates price range especially have their red flags.

And Brandon Lowe's certainly not absent of having those also.

But, like, I do go back.

Like, we've talked about this, and I think I've been more on the side of I might be okay passing on Brandon Lowe.

the left-handed...

I'm sorry, the left-handed pitching aspect of things is certainly one of them.

can you get the other version of Brandon Lowe in some way or other, right?

So, yeah, let's maybe talk and bring up some options here, Jim.

Yeah.

And, yeah, you raise a good point there.

Like, this isn't...

The point of this exercise isn't for us to say the Pirates shouldn't go after Brandon Lowe.

It's more of a, like, hey, like, what...

Yeah, let's just think.

Let's think what else is out there.

And so, here's a player comparison that I put together.

So, just a blind free agent test here, right?

Who would you sign?

If you're watching, you'll be able to follow along on the visual.

If you're listening, I'll make sure to go over everything.

But we've got a player A and a player B.

One player is 28 years old.

One player is 32 years old.

MLB Trade Rumors projects that player A will receive a five-year, $80 million deal this offseason.

They expect player B to sign a three-year, $69 million deal this offseason.

We're looking at $16 million a year over five years versus $23 million a year over three years, all right?

I think we can all probably safely assume that player B is Brandon Lowe right now, right?

So, but look at their projections.

These are 2027 projections according to fan graphs.

They are almost identical, DiNardo.

144 games for player A, 146 games for player B, 30 homers for player A, 29 homers for player B, a 782 OPS for player A 751 OPS for player B,

112 Way to Runs Created Plus for player A, 107 for player B, and then a 2.6 War for both.

So, there I, the stats are almost exactly the same in terms of 2027 fan graphs projections.

So, if you had no idea who these two players are, one's 28, one's 32, one's projected five-year deal at $16 million a year, one's three-year deal, $23 million a year.

Like, who would you sign?

That's the question.

Who would you sign out of these two?

And, again, with this exercise, assume you don't know player B is Brandon Lowe.

Assume he's just player B.

Right.

And you're looking at this.

Well, that's what I was going to say.

Like, I hate these things, Jim.

I hate these because they're designed to set you up and make like a fool.

And that's what this is going to be.

That's what this is.

Because I look at this as, of course, I see 32 years of age.

We're talking about Brandon Lowe.

So that's obviously Brandon Lowe.

So this exercise is to make me say, well, yes, of course they shouldn't sign Brandon Lowe.

They should absolutely go after player A because look, and then you hear who player A is.

And you're like, oh God, I feel so dirty.

Don't do this to me, Jim.

But to put this in perspective by looking at this.

Well, one thing right away, player A is four years younger.

Brandon Lowe already comes with injury risk.

And again, go back to what Jim said.

Go back to what we said.

This isn't an exercise to say, yes, Brandon Lowe is dirty.

He's terrible.

Don't sign him.

Although I'm probably the most on that side on North Shore nine too.

I'm okay passing over him, but I was still welcome back and very wide open arms.

But with that said, he's four years younger.

Like Brandon Lowe already comes with injury risk.

He is 32 years of age.

All right.

This guy's four years younger.

He's also going to be cheaper.

I know it's a five-year contract opposed to three, but again, he's four.

He's four years younger.

So at the end of this, he'll be just one more year older than Brandon Lowe is today.

16 million a year compared to $23 million a year.

And they're both projected to be at 2.6 war.

Okay.

Well, player A is like in his prime where Brandon Lowe is again, like 32 and again, very good.

But there's, we talk about red flags, risks.

He could be on the downside.

So I think just by looking at this, right?

Looking at just strictly numbers, no context.

I think the easy answer is player A, right?

yeah, right?

he's, yeah.

you look at, you just look at these, right?

Four years younger.

He's a player who, you're expecting is entering their prime.

Player B, a little bit older.

You know that, once players hit that 30 in their young thirties, like there's not always the same player.

Right.

And like, if you look at the projections, they're identical.

they're the same for 20, 27.

So yeah, like you look at this and you just go, man, I could save a $7 million a year with player A.

Yeah.

You're like, it's more guaranteed money you're dishing out.

It's $11 million more.

You're given out over the entire contract, but it's less money per year and you're getting a younger player.

So I think, if you're just looking at this, yeah, you could say like, give me player A, right?

it's not to say that player B is bad player.

Like, obviously you look, the stats and they're the same, but like, I don't know.

You seem like you're getting a little more value with player A, right?

Oh, duh.

Duh, Jim.

Who is this stupid player B?

Get him out of here.

So let's find out who player, we know who player B is, right?

It's Brandon Lowe.

Who's player A?

It's Teruaki Sato from Japan.

oh boy.

Oh, see what?

See what you did to us, Jim.

The difference here.

Now I seem foolish.

The difference here.

Sato is a third baseman.

Brandon Lowe is a second baseman.

They're both left-handed hitters.

And yeah, like you've got plenty of red flags with Sato.

you're also dealing with, I don't know, if there's maybe some teams that just seem to be a better fit for players from the NPB, but just go over

Sato a little bit.

If you haven't dove into him, I spent a little bit of time yesterday.

It's learning the guy, right?

he won Japan's triple crown this past season.

he's back-to-back MVPs over there.

He had 306, 39 homers, 106 RBIs.

He played every single game of this season, played in a, in a pitcher friendly park, the most pitcher friendly park over there.

So his offensive numbers probably could have been a little bit better.

weighted ones, weighted runs created plus was right around 200 DiNardo.

so he was twice as good as the average hitter in Japan.

And I think, what makes me a little more comfortable with signing a player like this, despite the red flags that they have is just the fact that we've seen players come over from Japan with similar profiles and hit for the most part, there's been a few

busts, right?

I'm not saying it's like a hundred percent hit rate, but I think you feel a little more comfortable with guys like this than you used to, because we've seen it, seen it happen.

now the concerns with Sato are there too.

he's, he's, he strikes out a lot, right?

the same red flags that Murakami had in terms of contact rate.

Sato has those, he's not, he's not a great third baseman.

He won a gold glove at third base somehow, but he also committed 19 errors this past season and has a really strong arm, but like, it's not super accurate.

but if you think he can play third base and you can think he can be average at it, he, pirates didn't have a very good third baseman this past year.

Right.

So there's that, right?

Yeah.

The other thing with Sato is because of the posting window, like he has to, he's basically, he basically has to sign a contract, by the end of this period before the lockout or, he's going to play next year in Japan.

So it's like, he's, there's a time crunch here.

He's going to sign in the next three weeks.

There's a lot of, big market teams that are, supposedly in on him.

but yeah, Teruaki Sato, 28 year, 28 year old third baseman, from Japan.

Yeah, man.

So it's like, now you put that into perspective and it makes you feel a little uneasy now because yeah, like a player, it's all projections.

It's like, we're looking at projections.

So this is what we're projecting.

Of course, that's not always the most accurate thing to look at, but it gives a solid baseline and yeah, like player.

It made a whole lot of sense, but now you're seeing, okay, it's the guy that coming over from Japan and there's some risk.

There's some unknown.

You talk about the strikeout rate.

Like, he was over there.

his past year, 28.7% year of that 27.3, 26.8.

So like that plays in the States for sure, but coming from Japan over to here, maybe again, like you thought about that's a red flag, but let's go back.

Like what I said before earlier, anyone that's going to be in the pirates price tag comes with the red flags.

all the guys last year came with the red flags.

I was not on the Murakami train at all because of this.

Give me the other guys.

Like I was, I was fine with that.

There's maybe less upside, but they're a lot safer.

And let me go with something that's more safe.

And Murakami had a very fantastic year.

The strikeouts were certainly there.

The batting average is right around 200, but the power you could not deny.

The difference though, was he walked a lot more over there and still walked here, but to your point, Jim, to make the argument we have seen, and I think we're getting a little more

comfortable with these players coming over from Japan, Korea, right?

The KBO even, and producing here hitters wise.

Now, pitchers have been different, pitchers have certainly succeeded.

We've seen those, Dodgers have clearly liked them, but.

But, as far as hitters wise, think about this, the Pirates were like the frontier with Gung, that was so much risk and unknown and he turned out fine until he didn't, but I went back to like the last decade hitters wise and such,

coming from Japan or Korea.

And, yeah, I feel like there's a recency bias, right?

More recent.

It's been a lot more successful.

There's certainly been some hit or misses here and such, but like you talk about like say a Suzuki with a Cubs at a five-year, $85 million deal.

He's put up 15 war averaging 3.14 war a season.

That's good.

Okamoto came over last year.

Again, he was the more safer one.

I was good with four-year, $60 million deal.

This is about that price range here.

We're talking.

He had a three-war season.

I'll take that sign me up, right?

Murakami, two-year, $34 million deal.

he was the big, the big fish, right?

But again, those risks.

White Sox would begin two years, 34 million.

He put up basically a three-war season.

We talked about gung, Heesong Kim, four-year, $28 million deal.

That was back in 2021.

The Padres, he put up 10.8 war in total, 2.7 per season in that contract.

Solid, right?

Jung-Hoo Lee, that's the one that was a big contract.

Six-year, $113 million deal with the Giants.

3.5 war in total, averaging 1.17.

Yoshida for the Red Sox, 2.1 war in total.

He signed a five-year, $90 million deal.

But the offense has been there.

It's been the defense being wrecked on.

But offensively, he's been fine.

Like, so I'm going through this list to point out where, yes, like last year really helped him out, right?

But, like, guys have been coming over and producing, especially guys with, like, the bigger contracts.

There really hasn't been guys like, oh, man, that was just, that was awful.

So that's making me feel more comfortable in the risk of, well, it's coming from either the KBO or the MBB.

Well, and with all these guys, too, that you're mentioning, like, they're not signing for so much money that the Pirates can't be in play, right?

We heard it last year with Okamoto, right?

Like, the Pirates, the Pirates went after Kazuma Okamoto.

They did.

I know for a fact that they went after him and ultimately chose a larger market team, right?

And that's where this gets, like, again, there's nuance in this, right?

Player A versus player B, there's no names or backgrounds to it, right?

Now you have names and backgrounds.

Now, Brandon Lowe played in Pittsburgh.

He seemingly enjoyed his time here.

You have a chance to bring Brandon Lowe back.

Teruaki Sato has maybe never even heard of Pittsburgh, nor has he ever been here.

He's never tried a pierogi.

He's never had a Primanti Brothers sandwich.

He's never gone to Defer in the strip district and tried the great coffee, right?

he doesn't know, he doesn't know anything about this city.

what he does know is he probably knows the bigger cities, right?

He knows about Toronto who just signed Okamoto.

He knows about Chicago who just signed Murakami.

He knows about LA and the players that they have there.

So the caveat here is now that there are names attached, it's the players still ultimately get to pick where they, where they're going to play.

And I think as a, as an organization, you have a much better chance of bringing Brandon Lowe back after, Hey, you just had a career year here.

Your swing obviously works perfect in this ballpark.

You're comfortable here.

The clubhouse loves you.

Let's lock this up.

Right.

there is an easier path to signing Brandon Lowe than there is to signing Teruaki Sato.

just because you don't have to sell him on the pirates, right?

It's like Brandon Lowe has a good idea of what's going on here.

So again, this isn't, this isn't a, you should sign player a over player B.

This is a, there's another guy out there that's projected to do basically the exact same thing.

Signed for a little less money per year.

and like, if you're the pirates, I think, I think you got to try, like, I don't think you can just pass here.

Like you tried for Okamoto last year really hard and you, and you didn't get them.

So like, I think, I think you have to try here because if those numbers are right in terms of like what that projected deal is going to look like now, those projected deals for Sato are all over the place.

There's some people who think he's going to get even less than that.

if you, if you watch Jolly Olive put out a great video over the weekend and he was looking over all the contracts and the numbers and he goes over as all, here's all the things I like about Sato.

Here's all the things I don't like about Sato and, his projected, his projection was like 49, three years, 49 million, I think.

So it was even less than this.

well, I was just going to say again, like going back, remember Murakami last year, like he was the a hundred million dollar man.

So you're 34 million.

Didn't get anywhere.

Never know.

Yeah.

So it's, I said this contract for Sato could look like anything.

what I do know is it's probably going to look like something that the Pirates could afford, but they're going to have to convince them to sign in Pittsburgh over Toronto or Chicago

or, I think San Diego's listed as in the mix there.

Yankees, I would imagine would want him as well.

oh, Phillies were in there too.

so yeah, that's, that's the argument here is.

Yeah.

I think the Pirates have the best chance of bringing Brandon Lowe back just because of the, of his past.

But, I think you push hard.

I think you make a strong push for Sato and just see what happens because this team, we've been talking about how they need a third baseman.

Like that's what we've been talking about all off season.

They need a third baseman.

And if you think Sato can play third and again, I'm not, I'm not a area scout from Japan.

I haven't watched countless games of Teru Aki Sato.

I know that he played third base over there.

Right.

And so I'm just assuming he can play third base over here.

But if you think Teru Aki Sato can play third base in major league baseball, I think you got to make a play.

I think you got to, you got to at least, you got to give it a shot.

And just like Okamoto, maybe it doesn't turn out the way you want it to, but I think you've got to, you've got to look seriously here.

especially because yeah, there's like, he's the best option.

If you're, if you're thinking about third baseman right now, I was going to say, you have to know what the Brandon Lowe situation looks like.

do you even have a shot?

Cause if you don't, right.

Like you need to do something.

You got to pivot somewhere and you're absolutely right.

Like we talked about, like Nick Gonzales does not belong in third base.

Now Nick Gonzales, it's not like a good second baseman, but he plays up at second.

He's better at second than third for sure.

So if you're going to move forward with Nick Gonzales on the team, him being at second base makes a whole lot of sense, which then like you mentioned, you got to get up to the third baseman here because I think we're all on the same side here.

Also just like Alex put up there, like none of us are like truly comfortable of going the next year saying, okay, Murf Gray, third base is yours.

Now adding a guy like Sato maybe changes that in the sense of like, where does Murf Gray, but that's a problem to have later, right?

You got a guy that you're comfortable with.

Do you think you play third base?

Then that's great.

But, that's why this type of player does make some sense here.

But again, you have to know the Brandon Lowe situation.

If you have a shot, go get them.

But like the chances are both of these players are probably being signed at the same time.

Cause I think Brandon Lowe wants to get this thing over with.

Also, like he's one of those type of players, like give me sign.

I'm not waiting till after whatever that might be to find out what team I'm going to be with to find out and struggle.

And, where am I packing and going to like, I want to know right now.

So you're probably going to know before you sign Sato with the Brandon Lowe situation is if you have a chance.

And if you don't, you better go hard on him.

It's we're going, down this talk about, and I'm like, I'm with it.

I still strikeout rate, where there's parts of this game that worries me.

But again, like a lot of free agents at these price points are going to have the red flags.

Which one are you choosing?

You're going with upside.

You're going again, Murray Kami.

I was way off on, I did not want any part of him.

And he basically turned up to be a three war player.

I'm not saying he was the reason, but like, and here he is a star in the playoffs is with the White Sox.

Cause the White Sox are in the playoffs.

I speak Japanese, like cut me.

Come on.

Like I am.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I am Japanese.

so it's like, you gotta, sometimes, like you said, you gotta just trust in your scouting.

And if you believe, right.

I'm not saying they do as well.

Like I'm not with you.

Like I don't, I'm not here saying the pirates do believe they might not.

And that's why they are out on him.

But if they do believe in him, you got to go after him.

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

Or just get Randy or his hair or his arena.

Yeah.

I'm curious.

So like, if you're watching there, listening to this after the fact, as I said, just the exercise, right?

Like forget who the players are and just look at player a player B blindly.

Who do you choose?

Right.

And then after you found out who player a was, what are you doing?

Yeah.

In the comments.

Yeah.

It is interesting.

Again, you can't devalue.

What Brent allow meant to the clubhouse.

You can't devalue what he does.

he PNC park is like a perfect for him, but there are other sides to say, well, we tried it once.

We didn't get anywhere.

There is a big problem.

This team has when they have left-handed pitching and he was a big part of that problem.

So, but we don't really know what Sato is going to be.

There's a whole unknown with him.

He also is left-handed too.

so like he could be part of the problem also.

Like that doesn't fix an issue that just maybe replaces the gift and the curse that you had on this team already.

So anyways, yeah.

Yeah.

It's going to be interesting, but this whole next three weeks is going to be pretty interesting.

Anything else to talk about with him before we go to the next topic here?

Let's move on.

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Well, it's a pretty sweet hat.

Yeah.

Anyways, let's move on.

God, it's part of the show where Jim just gloats about the stupid school he went to.

Big win this past weekend.

Sure.

So we all have heard.

Anyways.

Yeah, man.

So, what do you want to talk about next here?

I want to talk about the GM meetings that are coming up.

real quick.

Yeah, GM meetings.

GM meetings start this week.

Tomorrow, actually, in Las Vegas.

They, typically with GM meetings, historically, they've been, they've been like a, like a precursor for the winter meetings, right?

Like GMs all get together and it's where a lot of trade talks start, because they're all together.

And then winter meetings where things, where things culminate.

Well, we're not going to get winter meetings this year, right?

so we are, this is it.

Like this is the only chance that GMs have to get together over the off season.

So, John Marossi tweeted out yesterday that, similar, set it up that same way where, GM meetings are where a lot of trade discussions start.

but he said that he's been talking to a lot of people around the league and trade talk seem to be, a little bit farther ahead than typical, because of what they're expecting to be a pretty shortened off season here.

so he even said like, you could see a few trades happen this week, while the GMs are together in Vegas, just because of the way that they need to just expedite

this whole process.

So, yeah, so that's this week, I said some urgency maybe added to this a little bit.

So we've been talking about, trade targets, on and off here for a bit, but one to, want to do a little exercise.

DiNardo want to talk about, we want to each do, we want to each do one trade target for the Pittsburgh pirates that we haven't really spent a lot of time discussing yet.

so who wants to start trade?

Who's, if you're a Ben Cherington, you're at the GM meetings, who are you calling and being like, Hey, let's talk about this guy.

why don't you go first?

I'll go first.

As of transparency, I forgot about this part of the show.

Okay.

Well, so do your, I wanted to dig deeper than what I did.

And I forgot to do that part.

All right.

Well, here's what I'm doing.

I'm calling up, maybe having coffee with the president of baseball operations with the Baltimore Orioles.

Mike Elias, GM over there is Jared banner.

But this is a team that you've done a lot of trades with in the past.

You have a pretty good relationship with these guys.

I said, you just, you did what the Billy cook for Patrick Riley trade was a couple of years ago.

I feel like that was probably the last deal that these two teams had.

but they're a team that you trade with low, frequently.

They're a team that, very well.

They know you very well because they play each other nonstop, when it comes to, spring training, when it comes to instructional leagues, these two teams, their spring training homes are, 10 miles apart.

So they know each other probably better than any other team knows another team.

Like these are, these are the two teams that these two teams know the most.

So I'm calling up Mike Elias and I'm saying, Hey, you know what?

You have an infielder over there.

He bats right-handed, which is something that we could use.

And, he didn't play all of last year.

He doesn't really have a position for you going into the season.

What, how about, how about we go ahead and put something together for Jordan Westberg?

Jordan Westberg had Tommy John surgery last year, missed the whole season.

but he's 27 years old.

he's played 260 games throughout his career.

It's about a season and a half.

he's got an OPS over that time of 768 weighted ones, great weighted runs, created plus of 160.

For his career.

He's got a 5.6 career war.

He can play third base.

He can play second base.

he can actually play the positions fairly well.

Also.

he's not like the best defender in the world, but he's not the worst.

but from a, from like the offensive side of things, he's hit.

Like you give him a, you give him a chance to play and he's hit pretty much, every, everywhere.

and it's not even really like platoon splits, 112 weight runs, created plus against lefties, 117 against righties for his career.

And right now, Jordan Westberg is probably like the Orioles DH currently like that, but that's it.

Like he doesn't really, doesn't really have a position with them.

The Orioles are always wanting pitching.

Guess what?

You've got a guy who really wants to be a starting pitcher on your team and he just complains and complains and complains about it.

Alex just did a show last week about how, if he was ranking, the top 150 starting pitchers in major league baseball, Carmen Mlodzinski would probably be right around that 100 range.

Let's build a package around Carmen Mlodzinski for Jordan Westberg.

And let's make that work.

How quickly would you say yes to that deal?

If you're Ben Cherington or that you're saying pretty quickly out Jim Rosati, I think you've got to add a little bit to Mlodzinski there.

but not much.

I don't think you have to add a whole lot.

if you're the Orioles and you're like, yeah, this guy can be a number four starter for us and he's cheap and we can have him for four years.

Then, yeah, I think, I think, it makes it a pretty, a pretty attractive deal.

So, yeah, that's the framework that I'm putting, that's the framework that I'm laying together, on maybe the flight out to Vegas for GM meetings.

And then when I'm in, I'm in Vegas during the meetings, we're going to hammer out the details.

Yeah.

I'm all for Jordan Westberg is just like that solid baseball player.

There's nothing flashy.

Like he's not coming over here because he's like Brennan Brandon Lowe, has like the power.

Like he's just a solid player.

And like you mentioned, like the range is solid.

the defense is, it's fine.

It's fine.

Right.

It's nothing great.

It's not like we're getting like Jared Triolo utility type of defense, like it, but it's fine.

It's also not like Nick Gonzales, a third base defense.

It's fine.

so I'm all for like Jordan Westberg and it makes sense.

It's so funny because I feel like every single off season, Jim, we're talking about some deal with the Orioles.

That makes sense.

Maybe this is finally the year it happens.

Right.

Like that's what we're alluding to.

Like, is this maybe finally the year the pirates trade a pitcher and the Orioles trade a hitter and we make a, just a good baseball move happen.

I'm not talking about Billy cook.

I'm not talking about that deal.

I'm talking about like a real MLB, like a real baseball trade.

that would be fantastic.

Like finally, the stars align and that happens here.

I'll be for it.

I would be all for it.

I guess.

So I'm going to, I don't want to steal your thunder.

So I know there's some players here.

I don't really want to steal your thunder.

So I'll let you go first.

You can, you can choose the guy.

And I forgot we're going to talk about Westbrook.

So that made sense.

Yeah.

You brought him up.

So, anyways, Zach go off from the A's.

So third baseman, you need him.

He had a fantastic season.

Now here's the thing too, Jim, we're going to Vegas.

We're going to Vegas.

Let's just go home.

Let's just go home.

Talk to, we're here.

We're in your, we're in your city.

Let's talk to you.

We want your guy.

We want your player.

And like, going back to what you talked about, Jim, like the GM meetings.

Yeah.

This typically is like the start of something, but right.

Like there's going to be some urgency here.

So you're in Vegas.

Let's just make this happen.

Let's just, we'll just make this happen.

He's a third baseman.

Hit 256 last year, 322, 475, 22 homers.

He had, an outstanding year.

Like, what to call it like a breakout year, but like three and a half war.

he played second most games, he is just 26 years old.

plays good defense.

Like this is a solid fit.

This is going to be his first year of our, so like the money starts coming and Hey, we know how the athletics operate.

Maybe it's time to move on.

Here comes the money.

so like that's a player.

And again, like the thing about this exercise was trying to find someone we haven't talked into exhaustion from last off season to this trade deadline to this off season.

we've talked about the parade is we've talked about all those names and stuff.

So here's one that we really haven't talked about.

And I'm not saying this is even going to be on the table, but like, here's a guy, here's a guy.

No one's really talked about.

So, and you talked about Westbrook or Westbrook, I should say.

we've talked about him a little bit, but not so much.

And that kid season was cut short because of injuries.

I think that's why we really haven't talked too deep into him, but let's let that name resurface.

That one.

I do really like, and again, because of the multi position also, just a good hitter.

Yeah.

I like Zach Gelloff too.

and again, righty bat, some, something that you need.

he's also pretty versatile.

Like if you need him at third, he can do that.

If you need him at second, he can do that.

He can even play the outfield too.

If you need him to do that.

So like, he's a, he's a pretty versatile player.

Also, he mashed lefties mashed lefties last year, which is, which is great to see a 138 weighted runs created plus against lefties, 885 OPS.

So like, he solves some problems that you have.

And again, like the Orioles, the A's are a natural fit.

If you want to pull off a trade because another team that could really use some starting pitching.

And again, like if you're looking for a way to not necessarily rid yourself of Carmen Mlodzinski, but use him as a tool, use him as a way to get better.

Like this is another, this is the A's are certainly another team to look for because I think the A's would look at Carmen Mlodzinski and, looking at their rotation right now, again, he's their number three or four starter, you know?

And then that's like how he would be used and how they would view him and how they would value him.

So yeah, I liked the framework there.

You might need to add a little bit more to land gel off than just Maginski.

Similar situation to Westberg.

he does have, I think one more year of control than Westberg did.

So he's, they're both 27 years old though.

actually they're both right around the same in terms of service time.

Yeah.

So yeah, I think, I think you could like a similar framework that would work for a, for a Jordan Westberg deal would work for a Zach gel off deal.

and either guy helps you out immensely.

especially like with that issue that you have as left-handed pitching.

Right.

Yeah.

I like, I like gel off a lot.

I don't know if the A's would be as motivated to move him just because like Zach gel off is like right in the middle of their lineup right now, the way it stands, they're moving to Vegas.

So maybe they want to keep those younger guys, but they need pitching.

they do need pitching and maybe this is a way to make that happen.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think like Westberg, safe is more safe.

he has more of the tracker.

He's every year.

He's been a solid hitter where gel off has, he's had his ups and his downs.

Like last year wasn't good.

Although very short sample, but like the year before, wasn't all that great either.

so this is last year was good.

25.

Wasn't great.

Well, okay.

I'm still think 26 is still this year in my head.

I gotta get out of that.

Yeah.

Got 25 was not good, but very, cut very short.

24 wasn't really that good as rookie season was.

So like Westberg just came up and has been hitting all the time.

like, he's going to go hit.

So, yeah, with that said, like, I do like Westberg in that sense.

I know what I'm getting for sure.

but either one like that could solve some issues too.

And again, like I, me, I'm all about Carmen's Mlodzinski on this team using the way that he should be used.

But if another team wants to use them as a starter and, Alex does bring up a really good point on that.

Also, again, who cares how you view them?

If another team views him as a starter and they can make this tweak or make that tweak, or that's how they believe and they can get them to be a good, rotation piece then have that mindset and have at it.

Right.

But what's nice and makes it more attractive is, his arbitration is going to be cheap.

You know what?

Like once he hits that and starts making money, it's not going to be expensive because he's been more or less like a reliever this whole time.

So he's attractive because it's going to be very capped in what he's making, through his tenure of being controlled.

So that does add some value.

Like, okay, I think we can make it number three or number four starter and he's going to come cheap.

So let's go get them.

And yes, that speaks to people like the athletics.

It really does.

Yeah.

So yeah, GM meetings are underway.

They officially start today, but the main meetings occur Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday this week.

And yeah, I said that usually stuff, usually we don't really hear anything out of the GM meetings.

It's, like I said, it's mostly like a framework type thing.

But who knows?

It could be a little bit different this year with the way things are shaping up.

Right.

This could be like the mini winter meetings to some level, mini winter meetings.

There you go.

And hopefully for us, it is because I want to talk about something.

Yeah.

We need something to talk about.

Just give me something to talk about.

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Boom.

Well, before we get out of here, a couple of things to discuss.

Last night was the Fall Stars game in the Arizona Fall League, DiNardo.

The Pirates actually had two representatives, one of which was Wyatt Sanford.

The other one was added late.

But Brian Mena, also named to the team, last minute there.

The National League stormed back in the eighth inning and won the game.

They won seven to four.

Wyatt Sanford substituted for his Arizona Fall League teammate, Tate Southacene, at shortstop, about halfway through.

And Sanford went 0 for 2.

Over 2 with a strikeout.

But Brian Mena, DiNardo, came on in the ninth and sealed the win for the National League Fall Stars.

Two-thirds of an inning, one hit, two strikeouts.

Picked up the save.

There you go.

Biggest save of Brian Mena's career.

So what that means is the National League has home field advantage for the lost season in minor league World Series, right?

Exactly, yep.

No, they did away with that rule a few years ago.

It's overall record.

Yeah, but that's not the lost season rules.

You know what actually would be fun is, because you know how, in soccer, international soccer, they do, it's called the FA Cup, where it's like teams from every level of organized soccer

play in this tournament.

Like, it's like, it's like your Sunday amateur leagues that are just like a bunch of guys who get together and drink beer on Sundays.

Like, they are in the tournament with, like, Chelsea and Manchester United, right?

Like, they got to play more games to get to that point.

But, like, it's a tournament that's open to everybody.

You know what we should do this year for the minor leagues is we should do an FA Cup-style tournament where every minor league team across all levels is in this, what is that?

there's, what, one, two, three, four, five levels, if you count the complex league.

Oh, we're even in the complex league.

Oh, yeah.

So, there's a 150-team tournament, DiNardo.

150-team tournament, FA Cup-style.

Let's bring that to minor league baseball this year.

Maybe, like, we do it as, like, a mid-season tournament because it's, like, we're not going to have anything else to talk about.

Oh, like how the NBA does.

The NBA Cup, right?

Yeah.

Instead of the NBA Cup, it's the MILB Cup.

And every single team's in it.

Because it would be fun to see, like, a rookie league team knock off a AAA team or something like that.

Which, I don't know if it would happen, but it could.

It's baseball, and it could happen in baseball.

And when you have 150 teams competing in one single tournament.

Yeah.

That's clearly, that frees up all the ballparks, so they should do this while MLB is back in their spring training.

Yeah.

Get out of our parks.

We needed to have spring training.

Go play your 150-game tournament.

Play your MILB Cup.

And Williamsport or something.

Williamsport could do it.

Yeah, I don't know.

No, but, like, you would play it, like, you would, it would be at, minor league stadiums, I would say.

But, yeah.

Let's...

If there's no major league baseball going on, like, middle of the year, let's do that.

Let's just be like, hey, you know what?

Let's just do this.

Be fun.

I'm with it.

We need to bring this up.

We need to take this to the commissioner.

Absolutely.

There's nothing else on this plate right now.

We demand to speak to Rob at the GM meetings.

Oh, God.

Oh, awards.

Awards are this week.

So, no Pirates are up for, like, Rookie of the Year or Cy Young or MVP, but those get announced this week, too.

And, yeah, just some dates to keep in the back of your mind.

November 17th, Brandon Lowe has to accept or deny or decline his qualifying offer.

November 17th is when Rule 5 rosters...

If you're a Rule 5 eligible player, excuse me, you need to be added to the roster by November 17th on that one.

That's if there's a Rule 5 draft at all.

We still have no idea.

November 20th is the non-tender deadline.

So, that's 11 days away.

And then, December 1st at 11.59 p.m., the CBA expires.

And no one can talk to anybody.

I actually read some of the things that are about this.

Like, let's say if, like, a Major League player is sitting at Pirate City, right?

And they've got their car in the parking lot at Pirate City.

Car is not allowed to be in the parking lot after 11.59.

If the car is in the parking lot, it gets towed.

So, like, there's, like, nothing.

You are not allowed to, like, have anything to do with these players as of December 1st, 11.59 p.m.

Bob's going to clean up with all those towing fees.

Baby, he can't wait.

Dollar dogs are back, baby.

We've got towing money.

Put dollar dogs back on the schedule.

Oh, dear Lord.

Yeah.

Yeah, rest of the week, we got offbeat for you every day.

NS9 Live on Wednesday.

We debuted a new show this past week, Ahoy Métis.

If you haven't watched that, make sure you do.

We'll have episode two, I would imagine, coming out this week.

Mm-hmm.

And, yeah, hopefully something happens and we can do an emergency podcast.

That would be fun.

Seriously, we got about three weeks.

I would like to have a couple emergency podcasts in here.

there's going to be moves happening.

Why not us?

But we'll find out.

But, yeah, we'll be ready.

We'll be amped to do some emergency podcasts.

But, yeah, typical schedule.

Mondays, we're still here.

Wednesdays, we're still here.

Every day, you got Alex to give you offbeat.

But also, speaking of every day, check out the website.

Check out the app.

We've added some new things.

NS9 Play, some trivia, some game stuff.

A lot of people, good feedback that are participating in it already.

There's a lot of competition going on.

We have daily scores.

Of course, monthly scores still.

So, you can see where you rank with everyone else and us.

Now, we don't count on the official rankings, but our points are there.

As you can see, if you're doing better than us.

But we got daily trivia.

We have, like, a Wordle, right?

Buckle word.

We have your daily lineups.

it's a randomizer.

They'll give you a year.

You have to pick a player you want to build your lineup to see who can have the highest war, right?

The best record.

Who's going into the playoffs?

I think two days ago was our biggest day.

A lot of good records.

I think in the month, someone had 107 wins on their team they got.

I think someone even...

I saw a 111-win team already today.

Today?

Today has a 111...

Yeah, today's got a 111-win team already.

Let me go to this.

111.

That is...

Oh, my God.

We got a 113, Jim.

Someone went 113 and 49, actually, as well.

There you go.

Jeez.

But, yeah.

Yeah.

Check it out.

NS9 Play.

Go to our international9.com forward slash play.

Download the app.

Of course, you can play it on there, as well, with a lot of other features.

So, that will keep you occupied during the day.

And, again, a lot of topics are going on.

Yeah.

It's fun.

Like, those are...

There's some good games.

It is worth...

It is worth your time to do it.

If you're a Pirates fan, it is worth your time to do it.

100%.

That's right.

Yeah.

With that said, I think we're done.

Let's get out of here.

Yeah.

It's time for me to go to sleep.

I've run down.

All right.

I'm awake now.

I actually am still really awake.

I don't know how.

But, anyways, we'll see you guys later.

Again, check out Offbeat with Alex Stumpf, if you haven't already.

And we'll see you guys Wednesday.

Bye-bye.

See you Wednesday.

All right.

That wraps up this episode of North Shore Nine.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

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Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.