Locked On Rangers Podcast: Wyatt Langford Liftoff, Dan Dunning's mystery pitch, and Jordan Montgomery returning to Texas?
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00:00 After a slow start to spring training, Rangers super prospect Wyatt Langford
00:03 is going absolutely nuclear in Arizona.
00:06 Talk about that, the mystery pitch that Dane Dunning revealed, and Scott
00:10 Morris taking some rare losses.
00:11 Does that mean the Rangers are back in on the Monty reunion sweepstakes?
00:15 Talk about all that and more on this episode of Locked on Rangers.
00:17 Let's get into it.
00:18 You are locked on Rangers.
00:23 Your daily Texas Rangers podcast.
00:27 Part of the Locked on podcast network.
00:30 Your team every day.
00:32 You are locked onto the world series champion, Texas Rangers.
00:46 I'm Bryce Patrick, a cripplingly addicted Texas Rangers fan covering
00:49 this team for 10 seasons, including all five as the founder and host of this podcast.
00:53 Thank y'all so much for making Locked on Rangers your first
00:55 listen every single day.
00:56 If you're not already, you can follow me on Twitter at Bryce Patrick.
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01:05 grow the show is to comment nearly any single thing below.
01:08 Now, before we get into the nuclear weekend from Wyatt Langford, the mystery
01:14 pitch revealed from Dane Dunning and some renewed hope about a Montgomery reunion.
01:20 In Texas, this episode is brought to you by Fandle.
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01:32 Now it was a very slow start to the Rangers spring training.
01:38 The Rangers left fielder slash DH slash one of their top prospects.
01:43 White Langford started over 10 and spring training with more
01:47 strikeouts than I think we expected.
01:49 It was a slow ramp up for him and a long winter.
01:53 For the young kid.
01:54 This was, as he said, the longest time he has spent away from playing organized
02:00 baseball, a long winter for the youngster, a long off season, but he is back.
02:06 He is apparently got his timing, right.
02:09 And he is looking absolutely incredible at the plate over the course of this weekend.
02:16 Now for the entirety of spring training in 17 at bats, six games for him so far,
02:21 he is hitting three 53, a four 50 on base and slugging a cool eight 80.
02:27 Two.
02:28 That is a 13 32 OPS with three home runs.
02:33 I'll hit this weekend, two walks to five strikeouts.
02:37 The guy is an absolute hitting monster, a hitting machine.
02:41 I talked last week on Monday show about how, uh, how he was called the best
02:47 player on the field by Mike Maddox.
02:51 Yeah.
02:51 The best player on the field, a field that included several reigning all stars,
02:58 many, many world series champs.
03:01 And Mike Maddox, who has been around the game of baseball for a long, long time
03:05 said, Nope, that kid, white Langford.
03:07 Yeah.
03:07 That's, that's the best one on the field.
03:09 And, uh, over the weekend he showed why.
03:11 Yeah.
03:12 That, that statement might not be outlandish.
03:14 That might be spot on right on the money.
03:18 This guy, I think it world, the spring training statistics
03:22 don't matter all that much.
03:23 The results, the processes, the swings and the raw data, all of
03:28 that matters a little bit more.
03:30 And that's one of the things that I loved about white Langford from last
03:33 year is that even though his numbers were truly incredible and astounding,
03:38 the processes, the swing decisions, the outcomes were great, but the things
03:44 that are predictive, the reasons that why he was having success and why he would
03:48 have success at the big league level, should he break camp with the Rangers,
03:52 which I think feels like a certainty at this point, I know it was a two game
03:57 stretch where he just went off, but.
03:59 It's about who he is as a player, what he is showing these managers, all those
04:05 statistics that indicated that he would have success at the big league level.
04:08 That was why the Rangers were so high on him after his minor extent.
04:12 That was why he was around the team with the traveling party,
04:15 going through the playoffs.
04:17 And that was why he was considered for a big league call up in game
04:22 four of the world series, despite it not happening, it was still strongly,
04:27 strongly under consideration.
04:29 I feel like this is an almost certainty that he breaks camp with the
04:33 Rangers in an everyday role, because if he's not getting everyday at bats,
04:37 then he's not getting better.
04:38 And if you're not helping, you're one of the top prospects at all,
04:41 baseball with one of the highest offensive ceilings of any prospect in
04:45 the minor leagues, then what the heck are you doing?
04:48 What the heck are you doing?
04:50 If you are not getting that guy everyday reps to get better, to work on whatever
04:54 things, if he is not good enough to be an everyday player on your team, which
04:58 I think I feel very strongly that he is at this point, if he is not good enough,
05:03 in your opinion, that he has got to be in the minor leagues and getting everyday
05:08 reps so that he can continue to get better.
05:10 Because he is not going to get better being on the big league roster and on the bench.
05:14 I feel like this is the Rangers opening day DH.
05:16 I feel like most of the position, actually, I feel like all the
05:19 position battles are settled.
05:20 All the position player battles are settled for the starting roles.
05:24 I think it's going to be DH, Wyatt Langford, left field, Evan Carter,
05:28 center field, Leo DiTaveres, right field, Adonis Garcia.
05:31 And the infield is, well, everybody in the infield either has an all-star game
05:37 under their belt or a silver slugger under their belt.
05:40 And, uh, that's, it's a pretty darn good place for your all-star infield
05:45 slash silver slugger infield to be at.
05:48 And I think that all of the guys in the outfield that don't have either
05:52 all-star appearances or silver sluggers or at DH as well, I think those guys
05:56 might end up with one over the course of their careers and there has been some
06:01 speculation that there are some Boris clients out there, including one hitter.
06:05 JD Martinez, who has been linked by a couple of different prognosticators
06:09 that the Rangers might end up making an offer on him.
06:11 It takes somewhere in the one year, $15 million range to get JD Martinez.
06:16 And while I think that that would make the Rangers better.
06:18 And at that point you have to make a decision.
06:22 It's not a question of is JD Martinez better than Wyatt
06:25 Langford as a DH right now.
06:26 I think that as much as I love Wyatt Langford, I think that is probably
06:31 edge to JD Martinez for this year as a hitter as a DH, but then it becomes,
06:36 it becomes more is JD Martinez as your DH, Wyatt Langford as your left fielder,
06:41 Evan Carter as your center fielder better than Leo Tavares in centerfield,
06:45 Evan Carter and left and Wyatt Langford as your DH.
06:48 That's more the question rather than is JD Martinez better than Wyatt Langford?
06:52 I think the answer is yes, but is the upgrade of offense and whatever
06:58 downgrade there is defensively.
06:59 Cause I think having Wyatt Langford as your left fielder, as opposed to Evan
07:02 Carter, that's a downgrade defensively.
07:05 I think it's probably about even of centerfield Evan Carter
07:09 versus Leo Tavares defensively.
07:11 The Rangers obviously feel like Leo Tavares has the edge at that point, but.
07:15 Is adding $15 million to your payroll, which you have been stingy about adding
07:20 to this year's payroll or especially the longterm with any kind of longterm
07:24 deal with Jordan Montgomery or anybody, this free agency, you have a two year
07:29 deal for Tyler Malley, but that's more about buying low on a guy than, you
07:34 know, signing anybody for more than two years.
07:37 So do the Rangers feel good enough to add $15 million to their payroll?
07:42 15 million plus whatever it's going to cost in luxury tax allocations, because
07:47 that $15 million is not just going to be $15 million if they add JD Martinez.
07:51 I don't think that that's worth it for them at this point, because if they're
07:55 going to go spend money, obviously we all know adding another starting pitcher.
07:59 Be very helpful, including Jordan Montgomery.
08:02 We'll talk more about that in how the Matt Chapman and Cody Belanger deals
08:06 actually really affect the market for the remaining two, three big Scott Boris
08:11 clients, but I think at this point.
08:13 Adding a Brandon belt or whatever DH option to, you know, move either
08:19 Leone to the bench or to have white language start the year in the minors.
08:23 I don't think that's worth it.
08:24 Even if it's just like a five, $6 million deal for Brandon belt.
08:27 I don't love that for the Rangers.
08:29 I don't think it makes sense, especially mainly almost entirely because
08:34 Wyatt Langford seems to be everything.
08:37 Rangers fans dreamt.
08:38 He would be maybe, and then some, and you got to get this guy in the big
08:42 leagues from the start of the season because of the draft pick, instead of
08:45 it, talked about it on last week show because of the draft pick, instead of,
08:49 of having him on your roster from opening day, if he wins through the year,
08:52 because Evan Carter is amazing.
08:54 He is fan duels favorite right now to win a rookie of the year.
08:59 White Langford has the third best odds.
09:01 And if you don't have him on your opening day roster, because you wanted to sign
09:05 another DH or a DH over this kid who honestly could put up better overall
09:12 numbers with the defensive prowess.
09:14 I think it can show with the base running ability and the hitting ability over
09:17 whatever DH option you want to sign.
09:19 If you do that and he wins rookie of the year and you don't get that
09:23 tracking draft pick compensation, the Rangers front office is really going
09:26 to be kicking themselves at the end of this season coming.
09:29 We're talking about Dane Dunning's mystery pitch revealed why I think it
09:33 could make him so effective and what made him so darn good last year.
09:37 And can it continue into 2024?
09:39 Talk about all that and more right after this with more sponsors.
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10:40 single day. On tomorrow, we'll be talking about what Leo DiTaveris needs to do in
10:44 his second full season as an everyday starter to prove he deserves his job as
10:49 the center fielder of your World Series champion, Texas Rangers.
10:53 Now, the big news out of this weekend is that we finally got the answer, the
10:57 reveal, the question you were all asking about this spring training.
11:01 The most important thing to happen this spring training, or just a decently
11:04 important thing, the mystery pitch of Dane Dunning.
11:08 It is indeed a forkball.
11:11 Now, if you don't know what a forkball is, it is a version of a splitter.
11:16 It is not a very commonly thrown pitch.
11:19 It is something that he is looking to, I believe, replace his change up with.
11:24 Last year, his change up was not a very effective pitch for him.
11:27 He had several very, very effective different pitches, but the change up was
11:32 not one of those pitches.
11:34 It is also something that he struggled facing lefties last year.
11:38 Lefties had a 140 point, nearly 140 point higher OPS against him versus righties.
11:44 He had a 644 OPS against righties and 782 against lefties.
11:50 That is a little high as a starting pitcher.
11:53 You're not going to only face righties.
11:55 You are also going to face a lot of lefties.
11:56 I'm actually pretty even splits of the number of righties that he
12:00 faced versus the number of lefties.
12:01 381 plate appearances against righties and 341 against lefties.
12:06 That is kind of an unusually close number for Dane Dunning.
12:11 But he needs to get better against lefties.
12:13 That is one of the things that he struggled with last year, but he had a
12:16 very, very good season last year.
12:20 Like just surprisingly out of nowhere, just stepping into Jacob DeGrom's
12:25 spot in the rotation when DeGrom went down, ended up taking that spot and
12:29 running with it for the full season and had the best year of his career.
12:34 Was the most effective and was voted the Rangers pitcher of the
12:38 year, even over Nate Eovaldi.
12:40 He had a 3.0 baseball reference war, ended up with just under 700 and
12:47 175 innings at 172 and two thirds at 370 ERA, just overall very solid numbers.
12:54 But that changeup could be just a little bit more effective for him.
12:58 Now looking at his baseball savant page is not something that people do a lot
13:01 with Dane Dunning because he's not Jacob DeGrom, he's not throwing a hundred
13:05 miles an hour, doesn't have some crazy off speed pitch that has just insane
13:11 numbers, but he was an incredibly effective pitcher for the Rangers last year.
13:15 Down the stretch, he was a little bit less effective.
13:17 He wasn't in the starting rotation during the playoffs, but he was still a very,
13:21 very helpful pitcher for the Rangers last year and is an important
13:25 part of their rotation this year.
13:26 One of the things on his baseball savant page that always stands out to me is
13:30 that his extension rate is so good.
13:32 He is so tall at 6'4".
13:34 The fastball isn't anywhere in the upper nineties or mid nineties, even it's,
13:39 it's one of the slower fastballs in baseball, but it doesn't matter because
13:43 his extension is so good because he's so tall because he gets down the mountain
13:46 so well that fastball is right on hitters.
13:49 So it just jumps on them like it's a lot faster than it is 91 miles
13:53 an hour coming out of his hand.
13:55 But the thing that really jumps out to me looking at last year's page is
13:59 his fastball run value, just the overall value of all of his fastballs, the
14:03 sinkers predominantly, a little bit of the four seamer and a decent chunk of
14:09 the cutter, there's the 99th percentile of fastball run value, the top 1% of
14:16 baseball, Dane Dunning's fastball is in the top 1% of baseball last year.
14:22 That's how stinking effective he was.
14:26 And it's averaging 91 miles an hour.
14:28 Now, mostly it was the sinker, which he threw about a third of the time.
14:32 Uh, the cutter, he threw about 20% of the time and then the four seamer, just,
14:37 just 3%, just mostly to keep guys off of that sinker, keep them getting too
14:41 comfortable with that more of a kind of change of a look of the fastball than
14:46 the pitch he was throwing the most.
14:48 Now that cutter was one of the big changes in his repertoire from 2022 to 23.
14:53 He threw that cutter just 12% of the time the year before and 20% this past season.
14:59 And it was an incredibly effective pitch for him.
15:02 And in fact, his, his second most effective pitch that he threw a plus
15:06 six run value on that cutter last year.
15:08 And his sinker was incredibly effective, maybe a little more effective than the
15:13 predictive numbers would indicate, but a plus 17 run value on that sinker.
15:20 That is one of the elite pitches in all of baseball.
15:24 Dane Dunning's sinker in the top 1% of baseball.
15:29 It is an elite, elite pitch.
15:31 Now that changeup, one of the reasons why he is scrapping it, it was a
15:35 minus three run value of pitches that he threw at least 5% of the time, which
15:41 excludes his curve ball and his, his four seam fastball.
15:43 So he did have six pitches last year.
15:46 That changeup was his worst pitch.
15:48 The cutter was a positive run value.
15:49 The slider was a plus two positive run value.
15:52 The curve ball, he only threw it less than 5% of the time.
15:55 That was minus one four seamer was minus three.
15:58 So the four seamer was, was really not that great.
16:01 Not that helpful getting off the sinker.
16:03 Maybe he needs to scrap the four seamer as well.
16:05 Just go be a true five pitch pitcher, have the sinker, the slider, the
16:10 cutter, the curve ball, and also this new fork ball, not fork ball is a modified
16:16 splitter.
16:17 I did, my guess was a splitter and he did throw it a little bit more often, uh,
16:21 in this most recent outing where he did get shelled up the first time that he
16:26 would throw it in the spring training.
16:27 He absolutely spiked it in the dirt, but I think this could be a very,
16:30 very effective pitch for him.
16:32 Now the main pitcher who throws a fork ball is what's called the ghost fork, a
16:38 name for pitch for Kodai Senga.
16:40 The 31 year old second year pitcher for the New York Mets came over from Japan
16:46 and was incredibly effective last year.
16:49 And that ghost fork was no joke.
16:52 One of the best pitches in all of baseball.
16:55 Now by run value, it was a plus 11.
16:58 I don't, I don't expect that that Dane Donning is going to come in and
17:01 immediately replicate the ghost fork of Kodai Senga.
17:05 That is an unreasonable expectation for Dane Dunning in a first year throwing a
17:09 pitch.
17:10 He first messed around with it, throwing a, a fork ball grip, just tossing the
17:15 ball around in the world series.
17:16 So in the off season, he thought, okay, my changeup wasn't that great.
17:20 I messed around with this little fork ball grip and it felt kind of good.
17:23 And I think it'd be an effective compliment to the rest of my repertoire.
17:26 So let's go and work on that.
17:29 But the ghost pitch, the ghost fork of Kodai Senga was so incredibly good.
17:35 Batters only hit 110 against it.
17:37 A whiff rate of 59.5%.
17:42 A strikeout rate of 58.5%.
17:46 The expected batting average was even lower than the actual batting average.
17:50 Actual batting average of 110, expected batting average of 103.
17:55 And he was striking guys out with it.
17:57 They were swinging, missing 60% of the time on this pitch.
18:01 That's insane.
18:04 A good swing and miss rate is, you know, 25, 30%.
18:09 He was double that with that ghost fork.
18:13 Now he's a little bit different pitcher than Dane Dunning.
18:17 Doesn't have a sinker.
18:18 He has more of a four seamer, more of a higher velocity pitcher.
18:21 That four seamer averages 95.7 miles an hour for Kodai Senga.
18:25 That uses it a little differently, I'd imagine, than the ghost fork.
18:30 It's given the ghost fork name because it's a little bit different
18:33 than a traditional forkball.
18:35 So it's not the average forkball that a player throws.
18:39 It's just a very, very uncommon pitch.
18:41 But think of it kind of like that splitter that Nate Eovaldi has.
18:45 It'll work a little differently because he is a different pitcher
18:48 than Nate Eovaldi, Dane Dunning, and Eovaldi.
18:51 Very different pitchers.
18:52 That's fine.
18:52 They're both effective in their own ways.
18:54 A little bit more strikeouts for Eovaldi.
18:56 A lot more gas.
18:57 But the mixing and matching ability, and one of the things that makes a
19:02 splitter and a ghost, a forkball in general, so effective is that hitters
19:08 haven't seen it a whole lot.
19:09 And if you're adding it as your sixth pitch, or if he's throwing it the,
19:14 you know, however high a percentage that he threw it last year that
19:18 he threw his changeup, so the fourth most used pitch, if he makes it his
19:22 fourth most used pitch, more than the curve ball and the four seamer, then
19:26 I think that could be a very, very effective pitch for a guy who is
19:29 trying to eat up innings, trying to be, you know, a guy who can, you know,
19:34 stay healthy, be a horse in the middle of your rotation, just keep your team
19:39 in games and do the job of a middle rotation starting pitcher, which Dane
19:46 Dunning did beautifully last year.
19:49 I think he's going to stay in this rotation for, well, at least the
19:52 majority of the season, we'll see where it shakes out and how healthy those
19:56 three pitchers on the IL are going to be when they come back, I think Dane
20:00 Dunning, if he is not in the starting rotation, when those guys come back,
20:04 he is definitely going to be kind of a bulk piggyback starter, I think,
20:08 in getting those guys fully healthy.
20:10 We saw it be very, very effective.
20:12 If you start off a game with Jacob Grom and you've got a guy, you know,
20:14 blowing a hundred by you and then Dane Dunning comes in and he's a
20:18 completely different look that is, was very effective in the few games
20:22 the Rangers saw it last year.
20:23 I don't know how effective it will be over the long haul, but I think that
20:26 Dane Dunning adding this fork ball to his repertoire is a very, very good
20:31 sign for the Rangers, as is the sign.
20:35 Of these guys, Scott Boar's clients taking much smaller deals than everyone
20:40 anticipated at the start of the off season coming up, we're gonna talk
20:42 about why that's a good thing for the Rangers, what it means about a
20:45 potential Jordan Montgomery reunion right after this word from our sponsors.
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21:58 Shout out to the Air Daters for making Lockdown Rangers your first
22:04 listen every single day on Wednesday.
22:06 She'll be back and talking about what to expect from El Bambi this season
22:10 coming off that ALCS performance with that two year deal.
22:14 I think this is going to be another fantastic year for
22:17 the Rangers star right fielder.
22:19 Now this weekend, we got some news about some big time free agents
22:23 signing deals, not with the Rangers, but two guys who were, I'd say outside of
22:28 the, the non Shohei Otani category of hitter, these guys were pretty much
22:34 the two best hitters on the market.
22:36 And they have secured shorter term deals than I think just about anyone anticipated.
22:41 Now, maybe Cody Bellinger's contract was a little bit more anticipated
22:45 because he was one of the weirder free agents in this class, a former MVP
22:50 coming off a really, really good season with the Cubs where he just looked
22:54 like a completely different hitter.
22:55 He was not a guy who was swinging out of his shoes.
22:58 He was a guy who was walking more, cutting down that strikeout rate, but
23:01 the power numbers were still there.
23:03 A weird defensive fit because he's a center fielder in a first
23:07 baseman, which is, it's not something you see very often, but it's coming
23:11 off a big year with the Cubs and everyone thought, okay, this guy's
23:15 going to go back to the Cubs on some kind of massive mega deal.
23:18 They are right on the verge.
23:20 They just stole a manager from their interdivision rival.
23:25 They are very much ready to compete and adding Cody Bellinger makes
23:29 all the sense in the world.
23:31 And the off season dragged on and on and on.
23:33 And still this mega offer that was thought some team was going to offer
23:39 Cody Bellinger somewhere in the, you know, eight years, at least six
23:43 years, maybe even 12 years as one publication predicted, I believe
23:47 that was MLB trade rumors had him in the 12 year, 280 something million
23:53 dollar range that was not the deal for young Cody Bellinger, three years,
23:59 $80 million opt-outs after every single season, an average of 26.6667
24:08 million dollars for the three seasons opt-outs after the first and second year.
24:12 So if he has another year like this, maybe teams will feel a little bit
24:17 more confident giving Cody Bellinger lots and lots of money.
24:20 Maybe the Cubs will feel more confident giving him lots and lots of money,
24:24 or he'll just feel better about heading back into free agency.
24:28 Next year, where it's more of a pitching heavy market, and we still have
24:32 very pitching heavy market this year.
24:33 Not a whole lot of great hitters outside of Otani.
24:36 And this was the best year, best deal that Scott Bores could get his client.
24:41 A guy who is yet to turn 29 years old, has an MVP under his belt, has several
24:48 really, really great seasons, and is just incredibly talented coming off a great
24:54 year, granted kind of redefined who he was as a player in his offensive approach,
24:59 but he's still a very good defensive center fielder, a very good defensive
25:04 first baseman, a guy who hits well enough to play first base and plays defense
25:08 well enough to play in center field.
25:10 This is one of the weirder free agents that we've had in a long time.
25:13 A guy who gets non-tendered before the end of his six years of club control.
25:17 And he just ends up with a three-year deal.
25:20 Now it's okay, average annual value of, you know, 26 and two thirds million
25:25 dollars a year for the next three years, but it's not what Cody Bellinger is
25:28 expecting, and in a market that was so short on hitters and a lot of teams that
25:33 really could have used Cody Bellinger, including I think the Giants who felt
25:38 like they'd been in on almost every other big free agent that's been around for a
25:41 long time, and the Cubs as the obvious fit settle with this three-year deal.
25:47 And the more obvious guy who settled even worse, I think, is Matt Chapman, a
25:53 guy who was getting MVP votes not that long ago, a guy who was, has been an elite
25:58 defender at third base, one of the best defenders at third base, still hits the
26:02 ball very, very hard, then entering into what will be, I believe his age 31 season,
26:07 signs a three-year deal with the Giants for an average annual value of just $18
26:16 million, just $18 million for a guy who has been a many time gold glove caliber
26:23 third baseman, I believe he has won a platinum glove as well, has been an all
26:27 star multiple times, coming off a very hot start offensively to last season,
26:32 then cooled down quite a bit.
26:33 It got a lot of bad luck, badded ball data.
26:36 I think there's plenty to indicate that Matt Chapman is still a very good hitter.
26:39 He is going to be a very good defender at third base for a long, long time.
26:43 And in settling for a three-year deal, averaging $18 million, I mean, he was
26:48 getting a lot of projections of somewhere around the five-year, $100 million range.
26:52 And that felt not outlandish at all for a guy who's been incredibly consistent,
26:57 incredibly good defender, and a pretty decent offensive player at third
27:01 base for many, many years.
27:04 And this is all Scott Boris, the pretty comfortably top agent around baseball.
27:10 Everyone thinks that he is the best agent in baseball and has for a long time.
27:13 He has earned that reputation.
27:14 This is all he could get Matt Chapman.
27:15 A guy who's probably the third best offensive player on the market.
27:20 Now it's behind just Shohei and Cody Bellinger.
27:23 This was all he settled for.
27:25 That did not seem possible at the start of the off season.
27:29 For so many years, there have been a lot of butting heads against Scott Boris,
27:35 the guy, but number one, the guy gets the best deal for his client.
27:39 The vast majority of the time.
27:42 The vast, vast majority of the time he gets that client, the
27:46 deal that they were expecting.
27:48 Corey Seager, Scott Boris client.
27:50 10 years, $325 million from your Texas Rangers.
27:54 Solid deal.
27:55 I believe that Marcus Simien is also a Boris client.
27:58 I could be wrong on that one, but he got a seven-year, $175 million deal.
28:02 I think well over what anyone was expecting Marcus Simien to get.
28:06 But Hey, most of the time this guy gets there, gets his client, the best deal
28:11 available, and he is still has three big clients out there on the market that the
28:18 Rangers have been kind of linked to in recent weeks, including Blake Snow.
28:23 Even Blake Snow who's coming off a Cy Young season, one of the best second
28:28 halves of a season that we've seen in a long, long time, like truly exceptional
28:32 second half with a 145 ERA in 14 starts and 102 strikeouts in 82 innings.
28:40 That guy still can't get a big deal.
28:41 That's insane to me.
28:44 That's absolutely insane to me.
28:46 Yoshinobu Yamamoto got $300 plus million.
28:53 I believe it was $325, might be a little bit less than that, but $300 plus million.
28:59 And he hasn't thrown a pitch in the big leagues and that's not a slight on him.
29:03 It's more slight on Scott Boris.
29:06 Not being able to get this big old deal for Blake Snow coming off a Cy Young
29:09 season, granted he is a flawed player.
29:11 He is also coming off a season where he led the league in walks.
29:15 He also led the league in hits per nine in ERA plus and in ERA in general at
29:23 225 in 180 innings with 234 strikeouts.
29:28 Won a Cy Young for the second time in his career.
29:30 This is a very good pitcher.
29:32 A 320 career ERA in 191 starts.
29:36 This guy doesn't go all that deep into games.
29:38 He does struggle with walks, but he is a strikeout machine.
29:41 It is incredibly difficult to get good contact off of him.
29:44 He is a guy you could feel really, really good about throwing
29:46 game one of a playoff series.
29:49 And it seems like he might even be willing to take a shorter deal.
29:52 And it seems like Jordan Montgomery might be as well.
29:55 I was projecting somewhere in the five years, a hundred and maybe $125 million
30:01 range for Montgomery at the start of the off season.
30:03 Now it seems like three or four with some opt outs might be the case for Montgomery.
30:08 And it seems like it's down to the Rangers in Boston at this point.
30:11 That's the only places that are being rumored and linked to Jordan Montgomery.
30:15 And one of the reports came out last week is, is that if he did, if Jordan
30:19 Montgomery did take a shorter deal, the Rangers or team, it takes, it makes more
30:23 sense for him to do that with than the Red Sox, the guy wants to win.
30:27 He liked being in Texas.
30:28 It has been the most obvious fit for the entirety of this off season, but the
30:32 Rangers have had an offer out there that they will not pass.
30:36 They will not go above whatever mystery number they're at with Jordan Montgomery.
30:41 That was the max they would go to and they have stuck with it.
30:44 And a lot of times in the off seasons, teams will crumple, teams will fold to
30:50 those late free agents because the thought is, okay, all right, we've, we've
30:55 done the song and dance for a long, long time.
30:57 And it's, it's about time to get this guy in our camp, especially a starting pitcher.
31:02 It takes those guys a while to ramp up and you want this guy ready for opening day.
31:07 I don't think he's going to be the Rangers opening day starter if they
31:09 signed Jordan Montgomery, but he's probably their day two starter.
31:12 And they definitely want this guy ready for the first half, because that would
31:15 be the entire value of the entire point of bringing Jordan Montgomery back is to
31:18 shore up the first half rotation while you're waiting on those reinforcements
31:22 from injuries, that's the entirety of this season, that is the main plot point
31:27 of this regular season for the Rangers.
31:29 Stay good, stay competitive, wait for those big arms to get healthy and be
31:33 your reinforcements, and then go out and continue to clobber teams and have a
31:37 great stretch run leading to a hopefully second straight world series title.
31:42 But Hey, this really gives some, not a false hope, some, some real hope of
31:46 Scott Boris taking some rare losses.
31:49 This is a great sign for the Rangers.
31:51 If you're very pro player empowerment, this is not a great sign for you.
31:54 If you were Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell, not a great sign for you, but
31:59 Hey, hopefully the Rangers can use this as leverage to bring Jordan Montgomery
32:04 back, something they should have done months and months ago, and hopefully
32:07 they can do it relatively soon.
32:09 So they can get him healthy and ready for the first half of their season,
32:13 where they will desperately, desperately need their former postseason
32:17 ace back in their rotation.
32:19 That's going to do it for today's show.
32:21 Thank y'all so much for listening and subscribing and until next time, don't
32:24 forget to enjoy world series champion, Texas Rangers baseball.
32:28 [inaudible]