Craig Breslow

We beat it up and we think through it, and if it turns out that we didn't, we question how we arrived at that decision.

Obviously, there are kind of more significant financial implications to this one relative to some of the others, but we hope we got this one right the same way we hope we got all the others.

is is ranger maybe somebody that there really aren't changes or have the conversations led to we might change him this way for asking that change yeah he does a pretty good job of optimizing both kind of usage uh intended locations and shapes um i guess all three of those things uh but that's not to say that we can't continue to you know help provide the most information that we possibly can because he's clearly a guy who's got the ability to execute and

kind of pitch to a scouting report and a game plan, and so we want to make sure that we're giving him the best information.

And then I just think as pitchers evolve physically over the course of the contract, there may be opportunities to tweak usage or shapes.

So he's been very successful with what he's done, and we're not here to reinvent his success, but we'll make sure that we can supplement that if possible.

Yeah, well, when there's somebody who has this track record of success and someone that we think can be as good going forward,

You don't want to overcomplicate this, right?

And, you know, like I said, his command gives him, you know, room for error as well, right?

The ability to execute multiple pitches, you know, to sequence and tunnel and pitch to a game plan and really exploit hitters' weaknesses.

You know, we talk a ton, and Andrew talks a ton about making sure we lean into a pitcher's strengths, and Ranger is kind of one of the rare examples where his strength is the ability to exploit a hitter's weakness.

So we'll make sure to lean into that.

You know, in some ways, I think the parallel is like, you know, we talk about times through the order within a game, but then you also start to think about the number of times, like, you know, a lineup wouldn't be exposed to the same reliever in a series, right?

And so I think this idea of...

contrasting, say, Garrett and Ranger into very different styles of pitching could make for a really difficult time for a hitter.

I don't know that I would handicap in a particular way.

I felt like we were still going to do whatever we could to improve the team.

And I think that's the outcome that it's really important we work backwards from.

Because when you narrow the options, given that trades and free agency are so unpredictable, you're just cutting yourself off from possible paths to improvement.

So we work backwards from...