Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

Steve Adams

• Last Front Office chat of 2025! I hope the holidays treated everyone well. As always, feel free to ask about the remaining free agents, potential trade scenarios, team prospects, and whatever other Hot Stove-related topics (or, honestly, other topics!) are on your mind! I’ll be starting work around 1:30pm CT. Looking forward to me!
• Let’s get started!

Drake

• What do you think of the Soderstrom extension? I like it overall and I hope the A’s can get at least one more of their cores locked up

Steve Adams

• I’m a big believer in Soderstrom, so for me, getting the deal done and buying out at least three free agent years for less than 100 guaranteed is a move well worth it. That’s not to say Soderstrom has sold himself short. A year ago he looked like a marginal contributor, and now he’s signed the eighth-largest extension of any player ever in his service class. Most of the guys before him (Tatis, Witt, Posey, Trout, Yordan, Bregman) were already superstars when they put pen to paper. It’s a good move all around. Soderstrom is definitely a guy I would like to build around, especially because of how well he handled LF.

jrizz1e

• biggest player traded between now and the start of spring training?

Steve Adams

• I don’t know if Brendan Donovan is considered a big name player among most MLB fans, but he’s a big name for front offices and I think it’s much more likely than not that he’ll eventually be traded.

Ben Cherrington

• Can ROH or Horowitz play 3B? Meintakwicz(sp?) did this a few years ago in the steel city.

Steve Adams

• Doug Mientkiewicz played 33 games (30 starts) at 3B for the Pirates in the late 2000s and, as you would expect from a 34-year-old first baseman making that move for the first time, he scored terribly.
• The Jays gave Horwitz 250ish innings at 2B, and he didn’t do very well there. O’Hearn doesn’t play 3B.
• I think you will only see the two split times on DH and 1B. O’Hearn could see some OF time depending on injuries elsewhere on the roster.

JL

• If the Os are serious about a TOR arm, will Eflin take Kremer’s place in the rotation? What is the trade value of Dean Kremers?

Steve Adams

• They wouldn’t leave Kremer even if they added Imai, Valdez, Suarez, etc. Kyle Bradish threw just 54 innings last year between the minors and the MLB. Eflin himself was younger than 90 IP. Injuries are inevitable. We don’t even know exactly when Eflin will be healthy enough to take the mound in a big league game. Bringing him back to $10 million was a relatively reasonably priced depth move with a decent upside. Every big league team needs a lot more than five starters to get through a season. Next season the O’s will probably have seven or eight guys starting more than ten games. The rotation takes care of itself.

Foley

• As good as Logan Gilbert is, the Mariners should consider trading him, realistically they won’t have the money to sign him and with two years of control they should get a pick that could help now and down the road