Craig Carton

The first part of your phone call is that he's a declining player.

Is he really a declining player?

Yes, 25 wasn't as good as 24, but that's because 24 was arguably the best player

season of his entire major league career, maybe outside of one year in Cleveland.

Yeah, 18 in Cleveland.

He had a great year last year.

Like, okay, maybe great is too strong, but he had 30 home runs.

He drove it over 80 runs.

He had an OPS over 800.

His defense, yes, declined a tad, but at 32 years old, I do not have enough evidence to just say he's a declining player.

Will he eventually decline?

Sure, as you get into your 30s, that's usually what happens.

But no, they're not better off getting rid of him.

You tried to use baseball things.

I disagree with it.

I don't think there's evidence that they would be better baseball-wise getting rid of him.

And the second part just feels like fan fiction.

Like, wow, they don't like each other.

And so he's not determined.

What makes you say that besides a few mental mistakes yesterday?