David Stearns

And everyone was very frustrated by it.

I think Juan and Francisco are two elite baseball players who care a ton about winning, who show up and work incredibly hard, and play very well together.

And from my perspective, that's what's most important.

And they go out and produce, and I think they're going to help us win a lot of games.

Yeah, this is something that really probably gained steam last week after the GM meetings.

I think throughout the offseason, Texas had looked at Nimmo as a very attractive fit for them, and we had looked at Simeon as a potentially really good fit for us.

But we didn't really line up and really start making progress on this, I think, until towards the tail end of the GM meetings into last week.

These are difficult deals to put together.

You're talking about two very established players.

You're talking about two players who are embedded in their organizations who have had success there.

And clearly in Brandon's case, you're talking about a player with with no trade protection.

um and and yeah i'm gonna keep the specifics of the conversation with brandon i think between the two of us but but brandon's brandon's a pro um he's the ultimate pro um he was very respectful um considerate uh and considered i think uh throughout uh this process

He took time to digest everything, took time to speak with his representation, took time to speak with his family to determine what was best.

And ultimately, he decided to accept the trade.

It was something we had to think about, no question, both in terms of...

man reality and the fan relationship with Brandon, but also we have real relationships with Brandon and our players have real relationships with Brandon, coaches do, front office does.

And so that is a part of this.

And that certainly makes decisions like this a little bit more challenging than they otherwise would be.

But at the end of the day, I still felt like this was the right decision for the organization.

I think the good thing about the players who maybe have played second base for us over the past couple of years who are a little bit younger or who may be coming or infielders, there's a ton of positional versatility with all of them.