Dan Szymborski

I don't think he's ever going to be a great defensive player in a corner outfield or anything, but I think there is some hope he can improve.

He has made some strides in plate discipline.

That's a lot to like.

And, you know, if Pascottino is healthy and hits better when he comes back,

I mean, there's plenty of room in the lineup for both of them.

The Whirls are not so stacked where they say, oh, we don't have enough spots in the lineup for all our good hitters.

They're not in that position remotely.

Well, one of the things we've learned in the last 10 to 15 years is that teams are less willing than they used to be to spend big money on players in their 30s unless they're mega superstars like Aaron Judge.

And we've seen this increasingly even in the last few years

where there's always been a couple laggers in free agency who don't sign until a few weeks before the start of the season because they didn't get the offers they hoped.

And by changing the draft rules, by teams not being able to draft college players until age 20, sign international free agents until 18, well, it would be draft free international free agents at this point,

MLB does see a process where there are even fewer players still hitting free agency at 25, 26, because that's a big reason Juan Soto gets those big bucks.

Juan Soto at 30 would still get paid very well, but not anywhere near to the same degree.

And if you start adding a year or two to everybody, then you're going to start to see a lot of guys hit free agency for the first time at 31 and 32 instead of 29 and 30.

And teams are going to be less likely to bid for those players because the reality is that

You know, time always wins and teams do not want to pay for the best part of a player's career if they don't get it.

I don't think this is going to go through in the end.

I think the players and owners have a lot more to fight about.

But this is really wait and see because I still have no idea where we're actually going to go after the lockout starts.

Other than there will be a lockout.