The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams and Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- Why did the 2023-24 offseason play out the way that it did? Was the slow offseason a trend or a blip? Looking at competitive balance tax and TV revenue issues. (2:40)
- The decision between a middleground deal versus a short-term deal, focusing on Cody Bellinger of the Cubs but also other players who didn’t get the huge offers they were expecting (20:00)
- There were very few long deals this winter, so can we glean anything about the trend of extending contracts to lower the average annual value? (34:50)
- Why did we project big contracts for players with clear warts? (42:10)
- Is the middle tier of the free agent market dying? (45:15)
- With the next CBA negotiations coming after 2026, how will the players respond to recent events? (50:20)
- Are the owners divided, with rich and poor teams getting pushed apart by the collapse of TV revenue streams? (59:05)
- Is deferred money a real problem and is there any motivation to change the rules? (1:02:40)
- Does MLB need more parity and what are the best ways to do it? (1:09:30)
- Was Shohei Ohtani’s deferred money an extreme outlier or is it still a concerning trend? (1:13:10)
- Will there be another lockout after 2026? (01:19:35)
Check out our past episodes!
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!