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Chapter 1: What bold offer did the Mets make for Tarik Skubal?
Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring.
You don't get bored by baseball. Okay, one thing the game needs is more people like you. You. You. You. You. You. You.
You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You.
Welcome to Baseball Isn't Boring. Here's your host, Rob Ratner. There are few people on the planet I would want to be talking to more than Sammy from Play Tessie. But I know this. Actually, I take that back. There's nobody on the planet I'd rather be talking to than Sammy from Play Tessie. And there's certainly nobody on the planet and beyond all the way to Mars.
If I was stuck on Mars like Matt Damon, right i would say just give me yeah thank you the martian and i can do that with you unlike your co-host to play tessie who uh gordo who i had quizzed said hey gordo a photo was taking of katie perry and justin trudeau do you know who those people are what do you think his response was no come on he knows what do you think his response was
Did he think Justin Trudeau was like an artist, some sort of singer or something? Close. Baseball player?
I mean, he wasn't that far off. He knew who Katy Perry was, or at least he said he did. He said Justin Trudeau was the Prime Minister of England. And then he said, to make matters worse, he said, it sounds English. No, it sounds French.
Hey, to his credit, at least he got the he's a politician aspect correct.
And he got Katy Perry, so we're making progress. He also didn't know what the word guffaw meant.
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Chapter 2: How did the Mets' decision impact their 2025 season?
Yeah, it's like manure.
Thank you.
Yeah. You think Gordo knows what manure is?
No. He would have to look it up, but he would spell it wrong. But as I told him, I said, this is what I love about him, that this guy, all he knows is baseball, how to make his wife happy, and his family. The big three. That's it. That's all that matters.
He knows fantasy football because he helped me with my draft, and my team, for the first time ever, is doing well because I'm not a good football mind. But Gordo really – we're not great, but he helped.
Okay. Well, all I know is this. You are good at a lot of things. But I know this. You are good at fake trades. And we went back. We actually talked about this. The Tarek Skubal, which is the fake trade that we're going to do, the who says no we're going to do today. Tarek Skubal, people forget. And I didn't even remember this until I started jogging my memory, Sammy, about it.
People forget that Tarek Skubal was a fake trade guy during the All-Star break of 2024. You know how I remember? Because I went up and asked him about it.
And everyone was out on the Tigers at that point. They hadn't eaten up yet.
Right. And so I asked him about it. And think about that. He was still a couple years out. That was when you should have traded for him. If you were a smart team, you would have been like, I'm going to blow you away for Tarek Skubal back then. Now, too late. Too late. You're going to have to blow them away at a whole other level.
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Chapter 3: What trade package could potentially bring Skubal to the Mets?
I know that I hate saying that, but forget about contract. Tarek Skubal for Paul Skeens.
I was about to ask you before I proposed the trade that we can have a mutual agreement before I get going that Scooble, Skeens, and Crochet are in their own class. I would include Wheeler if he wasn't hurt, but those three right now are in a class of their own. And I think if I had to pick who's number one, I would put Skeens by the slightest of margins.
Yeah, so this is basically power-racking pitchers right now.
Yes.
So you would put Skeens number one?
Skeen, Scooble, Crochet, and they're separated by barely anything. They're very, very close.
Okay. All right. All right. That's how I should have phrased it, power ranking. All right. But my point is that Derek Scooble is really good. He has a year left on his contract. And, yeah. So it is worth the conversation of a who says no because this is the thing, Sammy.
You have to, if you're the Tigers, and we say this about every team, if you're in this situation, you're the Tigers, you have to say, Terry Skubal and Scott Bores, this is the absolute best we can do. Right?
Contract-wise.
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Chapter 4: Who are the key players involved in the proposed trade?
Anyway, New York Metropolitans, you have the money. Steve Cohen's your owner. He says, I'm sorry, Met fans. We won't let you down. We have Juan Soto. We're not going to waste him. We have these young pitchers. We have what it takes. All of it. We're going to come get your guy. All right.
Go ahead. So the issue here is that the Tigers, less than a week ago as we speak here on Monday, October 13th, were in the playoffs. So they're a good team. They're a young team that's probably going to be even better in 2026. So the idea of trading Tarek Skubal probably revolts them entirely. So please keep that in mind. And by the way, the Trade Machine app page, I love it.
It does not apply at all for this trade. So here it is. The Mets get Tarek Skubal. Nothing else. The Tigers. You ready for this? Yeah.
Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold it. Does one of the guys rhyme with McMain? Yeah. Go ahead. We're going to end the conversation if it didn't.
Honestly. You know what's tough is actually there's two names in this trade that I'm going to struggle with. First one, Nolan McLean. Nolan McLean. McLean. Okay.
Yeah, I say McLean. It rhymes with McLean.
Nolan McLean. All right, so Nolan McLean, great pitching prospect. This year, 48 innings, 2.08 ERA, 10.7 K-9. Nasty, nasty. Very young, too, 24. Along with him, Jet Williams, who a lot of people think is the Mets' number one prospect, 21-year-old shortstop. He's going to be MLB ready next year, most likely. Great defense, great speed. He can hit a little undersized, but it hasn't stopped him yet.
next one, Carson Benje, B-E-N-G-E.
Benj, Benj, Benj.
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Chapter 5: What makes Tarik Skubal a valuable asset for the Tigers?
It'll peek behind the curtain. Bradford wanted me to come up with multiple trades, multiple trade partners. The only one I could think of is the Mets because they're nuts and they operate like they're nuts. So one more time, Tarek Skubal to the Mets, shortstop Jet Williams, starting pitcher Nolan McClain, outfield Carson Benj, and starting pitcher, 30 years old, David Peterson.
to the Tigers who says no.
All right. I'm applauding you because you understand the spirit of the thing. Got the assignment. This is go hard or go home. It's going to get uncomfortable. And it's going to get unrealistic. And you're right. Mets fans will be like, that's too much.
Can I say something real quick? Hold on. Real quick. You said it's going to get unrealistic. Unrealistic is the only realistic scenario for a Tarek Skubal trade. I just had to get that cool quote out there. Thank you.
Hold on. Let me write that down. I'll put it on the stickers. Okay. Marking timestamp. Okay. Unrealistic. Unrealistic. So the Mets people will say, Oh, look, we have our Tarik school, but we haven't been Nolan McClain. Right? No, no, no, no, no. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I'm telling you, this is what's unrealistic about this. Right? And then you're going to give up all these guys.
You're going to give up the top position prospect. And Jet Williams is going to give up Carson Bench, who is potentially another guy who is going to be a really, really good major leaguer. And you're going to give up David Peterson, who, by the way, was an all-star. All-star. Give up all those guys for a guy with one year. One year.
And they're going to say, I'm just telling you what they're going to say. They're going to say, this is a deal that maybe you do if you have two years of control. Not one, two years. This is the original Juan Soto deal. This is the crochet deal. This is it. But one year? Ooh, it's too much. But to your point, to your point,
And obviously, a lot of this hinges on you have to say, hey, we're going to blow you away, and we're going to sign the guy. You have to be able to sign the guy. It hinges on that. But what you have to understand is that, and you said it yourself, and I think I TM this so you owe me $5. The goal is to win the World Series. Let's not lose sight of that. The goal is to win the World Series.
And to have that guy, that alpha, the guy who is unlike almost anybody else on the planet. And I said this to Gordo. In this day and age of pitching too, Sammy, you can't say, well, I worry about what's going to happen. Because it's impossible. Guys are throwing 100. Something's going to happen. Usually something's going to happen. You have to accept that.
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Chapter 6: How do the Mets plan to negotiate with the Tigers?
Where do the Tigers end up in payroll? Middle of the pack this year, I think?
I would imagine so, yeah.
I don't have it in front of me. But you do have controllable guys coming up. You have, like you said, Jackson Jobe. You have Mack Clark. You have McGonigal. You have controllable guys, so that helps you. But if you're going to spend on one guy, it's going to be this guy. There are certain guys you spend on. It's going to be this guy. And maybe they take the tack the Mets are taking.
And that's the problem, maybe. Maybe that's the biggest problem of all. Like we say, well, if you're going to get one guy, get this one guy. The Red Sox understood that with Crochet. Other teams have understood that. The Mets have, to this point, Sammy, done the exact opposite. They've been the poster boys for we don't need to do that. We can piece it together.
We can get the Shamanayas and the David Petersons and all these guys. Maybe they're going to continue going down that road because they believe in it that strongly, or maybe they learned their lesson. Because there was a lesson to be learned. There was a lesson to be learned, right?
Yeah, I was going to say, like, I agree with you. They believe in that, but it hasn't worked. So are they going to change course? They should.
So the lesson to be learned was they thought they were smarter than everybody else coming off of their run last year. Then they get to June and they have the press conference. Oh, aren't you smart? Oh, look at you. And then it completely falls apart for that exact reason.
And you almost were able to salvage your season because you came across a guy in Nolan McClain who represented that, but you need more than him. Mm-hmm.
Anyway, I thought the Mets plan going into 2025 was completely insane. Like Soto signing. Awesome. Ten out of ten. You do that every time. I don't care how much he's getting paid. He's unbelievable. But how do you do that and then go into the season with Clay Holmes, a reliever, as now your number two starter?
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Chapter 7: What are the potential risks of trading for Skubal?
And because you didn't allow him to be that, then you have to lean on your Savage. And he's not equipped to be that guy, 70 pitches. And then you have guys after that. And this is my overall point was, if the Mets got to that point, they could have said, oh, Nolan McClain. But what would they have done? They would have done exactly what Toronto did. 70 pitches.
At some point, you have to look. When you have a guy like Crochet, like you mentioned, you think, what is this guy's job? It's to get on my back. I am the horse. I am the ace of this team. Let me win this game for you. And Cora understood that assignment. And I'm not saying it's always the right move to let a guy go like that. But if you're the Mets... You can't do that. You don't have that guy.
So that's why you do consider a crazy... I'm telling you, the trade idea I have is crazy. It is unrealistic. But that's because Tarek Skubal is that good. You don't see guys like that get traded hardly ever. And credit to the Red Sox, by the way. That's how you acquire an ace. You identify a guy with ace upside.
You acquire him for a reasonable price and then let him become the guy you think he is. Like, that was perfect.
Yeah, but here's... And I'm with you about everything. But let's not also underestimate what makes this trickier than the crochet deal. It's because you have one year left.
Oh, absolutely.
Crochet had two. And Scooble was that much closer to free agency. And the last time we saw this, this level player, a Scott Boris level player, do this, execute this, get traded to a team. They wrote it out. The Yankees, like they wrote it out. They weren't able to sign them and they lost them. I still say it was a good trade for the Yankees.
I said this to Gordo and I've said it a million times. There's been no bad deals with Juan Soto. Every deal he's been involved in, every team has done well. Every team.
There's like a small, small class, small caliber of guys that you kind of throw aside all your... not values as a franchise, but your internal rules and stuff where you kind of throw... And it's not apples to apples, but it's a good example of kind of like throwing out all the beliefs of a franchise. And this is when you told me, it's when the Rangers acquired Max Scherzer.
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Chapter 8: What lessons can the Mets learn from their past mistakes?
Do you know that pitching baseball cards like rookies are less valuable than hitting baseball cards for the most part because hitters are so much more projectable?
Do they still give out gum in baseball cards? I don't think so. I don't think so. It is amazing. It was the most disgusting gum of all time. It was still part of the payoff. You still chew that gum no matter what. You still chew that gum no matter what.
You see the video of the guy from a few years ago who found an old pack of baseball cards in his attic and he chewed the gum and it was like chalk. I'll send it to you. I'll send it to you.
Disintegrated in his mouth?
Yeah, it was funny. The guy has a very thick Boston accent, which made the video funny. He's like, dude, this is gross, man. What are you doing? I'll send it to you.
It's kind of like with Cracker Jacks. The thing that they give like in a Cracker Jacks, it's like they could basically give, I don't even know, like a piece of paper. That's what it is, right? Well, it could be anything. It could be a compass. They used to give compasses. It didn't matter. It was like, oh, you got this for free. It's awesome. What a treat. A compass?
Yeah, a compass.
I got a compass. It was definitely worth paying all this money for this massive amount of sugar because I got a compass too.
Yeah, you got to go to the dentist, but you can use the compass to get to the dentist.
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