Bruihl pitched for the Jays, briefly, in 2025. There was a reason it was briefly.
That’s the sense I get, too. “Just because you were granted a trademark on a generic-y name before doesn’t mean we have to do it again.”
My WAG is that, in the next few months, we’ll hear that they’re keeping the “A’s” name, while picking a new full-length (and trademark-able) word to replace “Athletics.”
Free agent OF Max Kepler has been suspended for 80 games for violating MLB’s drug program. He tested positive for epitrenbolone.
This suspension automatically makes him ineligible for the 2026 postseason.
It’ll be something terrible and innocuous like “Las Vegas Baseball Athletics” I bet.
Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers are heading to salary arbitration. The 2-time reigning Cy Young winner is seeking $32 million (a record). Detroit countered with $19 million.
Personally, I’m hard-pressed to see Detroit winning this one.
and Gray said he wanted to stay in St Louis to be close to his family in TN (?) but waived his NTC
because of Gray’s NTC
check back to me at trade deadline–Bloom is not MO
Rumors are that Detroit was willing to listen to trade talks for Skubal but their asking price was astronomical. I don’t see any team giving away a large chunk of their roster and prospects for a one year rental. Skubal is a Boras client so the chances of him extending with a team before hitting free agency are practically zero.
Bregman to the Cubs: 5/$175 million.
I don’t, and never have, understood why Detroit seems so ambivalent about keeping Skubal. They have a young team ready to win now - they just made the playoffs, and won a playoff series, and absolutely would not have had they not had Skubal - and he’s the best player they’ve developed in… God, I can’t even recall. Forty years?
Like, I get he’s expensive, but AT SOME POINT you have to pay someone, right?
After 1990 the Tigers let Jack Morris walk. For a one year deal. Morris’s new team won the World Series, while the Tigers finished seven games out with a team that had the second best offense in the league and the third worst pitching; had they retained Morris, who didn’t cost much, they would have seriously been right in the mix for the division. One guy can matter a lot.
I’m not sure if they can be anything else. They have one more year of control. The chances of Boras negotiating an extension rather than exploring free agency are close to zero. Detroit doesn’t have much choice.
It’s long seemed to me the actual business of many MLB teams is to buy young talent, build it up, then sell it. The fact they have stadiums, play games, & sell tickets is secondary to the “slave trading” they’re doing.
IMO …
Detroit wants to cash out Skubal to a high bidder while they can. It’s really no more complicated than that. They aren’t in the business of fielding competitive baseball teams. They’re a farm system in the business of cropping talent.
Verlander wasn’t so bad. But that was still 20 years ago.
The opposite really. If they wanted to cash him out they would be willing to listen to reasonable proposals. Apparently they are not. I’m sure there are teams that would give up good value to have him for a year. The rumors are stating that they are asking a ridiculously high price that no one is willing to pay.
Detroit didn’t buy Skubal they drafted him. As has been proven time and again baseball drafts are a crapshoot. Skubal was a 9th round pick who already had Tommy John surgery in college.
Adding to what @Loach said.
Hard disagree. For one thing, clubs don’t ‘buy’ young talent, they draft it. And then that talent isn’t sold, it’s lost due to free agency. If a highly talented player is traded, it’s because the team is trying to get maximum value for him before he becomes a free agent.
I think that all MLB teams are trying to win as many games as possible. But the economics dictate that many clubs, whose owners pockets aren’t quite as deep as the Dodgers or Yankees, simply cannot afford to re-sign their young studs when those guys reach free agency.
The Royals won a world championship in 2015, largely with talent that they drafted and developed through their farm system. Coupled with some timely trades and FA signings, they were the best team that year. But two years later, most of the pieces were gone, lost to clubs who made better offers. Their championship is one of the few exceptions to big payrolls winning World Series.
If KC was really in the slave trade, would they have signed Bobby Witt, Jr. to a 10-year contract a couple of years ago? He’s one of the top 5 players in the game right now.
Tried to think of a quality position player developed by Detroit. Best I could do was Curtis Granderson, who was pretty damn good.
Depends on how far back you want to go, but Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker were both pretty damn good infielders.
I think most ownership decisions these days need to be viewed through the lens of the impending labor dispute. The owners really really really want to get the public behind the idea of a salary cap. Refusing to pay market value for a guy like Skubal is a great way to convince fans that teams like the Tigers just can’t compete without a salary cap.
Locking in guaranteed profit by capping payroll expenditure is the holy grail for sports ownership. If you can do it in the name of “competitive balance” all the better.
“Market value” isn’t a good thing when the market comsists of 3 teams that can afford it.