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Chapter 1: What recent developments occurred in MLB labor negotiations?
All right, welcome back to Blair and Barker. We got tickets to give away to see the Jays and the Mets.
I met a couple of people, too, at the field that won those tickets that loved those seats.
That's great.
And I said, I will thank Jeff because he reads those all the time and I make fun of him for it. Good job, Jeff. You are a man of the people. They could have said thanks to me. Well, you weren't there.
Oh, that's right. I'm not there.
I don't get to go there. Well, you were at the field. I saw you.
I don't get to go there anymore.
I saw you at the field.
I was not at the field.
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Chapter 2: How has social media influenced MLB labor negotiations?
Way up. But, John, I mean, at the end of the day, does this, it doesn't seem to me that this represents an incremental increase or decrease. It's just kind of out there. Right.
I basically agree with that statement, Jeff, because this is a new era of bargaining in that this is the first time that I can recall in my years of covering baseball and when labor negotiations have come up where every round of bargaining is followed by almost an immediate press release as to what each side has put out there. That's new.
and i do believe to go big picture on this there's a couple things that work number one mlb and this came out in the last agreement uh in the last negotiations mlb does not seem entirely confident that the the benefits to the lower wage earners if you will or those that are making in the zero to three years of service time and and as the the proposal pointed out today
an increase to the minimum salary affects way more people and way more players than to say that if you are a superstar and you're hitting the open market that you're limited to a five-year contract.
A player who's a reliever, a middle reliever, which again, relievers account for roughly a third of your roster, they're not going to get a five-year deal more than likely in the course of their career. They would much rather say, yeah, give me the better starting salary because I'm never gonna be Juan Soto. I'm never gonna be Shohei Ohtani.
I don't need to worry about what's happening at the top end. And so as a result, MLB, I think, reading between the lines here,
is communicating this via press release because they want those relievers to understand what's going on as opposed to waiting for the almost by definition wealthier and more veteran pitchers who are at the top scale, who are the team representatives, if you will, for word to filter from MLB to the union leadership, to the team union rep, and then back down to the reliever.
They want the reliever to know right away, hey, the proposal that we're making right now for you will actually stand to benefit you in a very material and significant way.
The other piece is, and I think this speaks to the larger conversation, Jeff and Kevin, and where we're at, is that this right now is a battle for the hearts and minds of the fans and who they are, if not necessarily siding with, who they are sympathetic toward. And obviously, it's the age-old question, billionaires versus millionaires.
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Chapter 3: What are the players' main demands in the current negotiations?
And MLB is... banking on the notion that enough of the players will see these details as they have been released publicly and realize that, hey, for the most part, these are all positive changes for me. And, Jeff, a final note on this before I send it back to you on the topic is you mentioned the old briefings and how they used to exist. That used to be the necessary way that ā
That Bud or Donald Feer or Gene Orza would have to call up Jeff Blair of the Globe and Mail to have this conversation at a newspaper. Now they release it on social media and that's it. And it's a fundamentally different way of communicating their message than was the case in the halcyon days of newspapers.
Yeah, it's a long way to go. It's not going to be easy for sure. I wouldn't think trying to separate players is never an easy thing. Well, that's the thing.
That's for sure. I keep thinking of ā we'll move on from this, but I remember Buck Martinez tells a story about ā and Buck was involved in a lot of negotiations. And Marvin Miller telling Buck as they were walking away from a meeting
uh one day marvin miller saying to buck keep this in mind they always want to drive a wedge between the players and i just i've always every meeting we used to have in spring training and things always would be ended by all hands in baby you know rah we're all together you know we're stronger all together it's gonna be tough for them to separate the players for sure
One quick point on that, though. Remember, Kevin and Jeff, it was a difference of opinion between the executive committee of the union the last time around. What finally got the deal done was the executive committee. Again, prominent players were obviously on that.
Those that have been in the game for a long time and have earned big salaries for a while, they voted no on what is the current CBA, and the rest of the membership voted writ large, voted yes. So by definition, we can argue semantics here.
There was a difference of opinion between the big group at the top and the body at large last time around, and that's exactly what eventually got the deal done.
Yeah, it'd be interesting going forward. I do want to ask you about the Blue Jays now because there is a lot of talk about who you trade for, what's their need, what's the best fit for them. I think it's an offensive player. I think it might be an eighth inning guy. What say you, J.P. ?
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Chapter 4: What are the Toronto Blue Jays' needs before the trade deadline?
But that's, to me, just being realistic, I'm not sure how many other places around the field you can look at and, and meaningfully upgrade this, the spot that we're talking about, that, that consistent hitter, the, the Victor Martinez type bat that was there for a long time on Nelson Cruz type, these are DHS. If you look at a team that's, that's a legitimate middle of the order
presence, it's often a DH. It's the Shohei Ohtani of your team. It's the Jim Tomei of your team. It's the Frank Thomas of your team. These are the players. And so if your DH is having to hit at the top of the lineup or somewhere near the bottom and is not driving in runs, That's the spot that you can improve upon. And again, Nathaniel Lowe, look at his numbers.
He's been driving in more runs than a lot of other guys that have had the DH role at different teams this season. So it's that type of a guy. So the answer is yes, but it's going to be painful if it ends up impacting what George Springer's role is on this team going forward. Very interesting. Yeah, speaking of the Rangers, they will get Corey Seager back tonight. He's coming off the IL.
What are the Rangers, John? I mean, I think a lot of us looked at them. I expected more from them in some ways. You know, their record's close to the Jays, and in some ways they kind of look like the Jays as well, although I would think that maybe their starting pitching is a little more settled. The Jays, to me, are a better team than the Rangers.
The Rangers, short sentence for me on them, they are a mediocre team in a mediocre league. That's what they are. The American League right now is... I'm not going to call it the land of mediocrity, but it is probably the land of opportunity.
If you get going, which is why I've been saying for a long time with the Jays, if you just put together a good week, and darned if you find a way to get above 500 for the first time in what feels like years, you're all set. You're on your way to the playoffs. And so the Rangers... are among many teams in this league. I'd put the A's in the same conversation. The Twins are another one.
The Tigers are certainly another one. Where if you're not making progress in this American League, what are we doing here? If in a very mediocre American League, if you can't find a way to be one of the teams that's at least within a game or two of 500... probably not good enough. And so for the Rangers, yes, getting Seager back is important. You start looking up and down their lineup.
Again, a matchup like tonight against Gaussman. What are your lefties doing? Well, Nimmo's numbers against Gaussman, not terribly good in his career. Peterson, same thing. So the lineup just, for me, has not done quite enough. I think pitching-wise, there are still enough players building blocks to dream on there.
But if you look at the comparable teams in the American League West, I would actually say the Astros rotation has gotten to be, in the last couple weeks, especially since Brown has returned, a bit more impressive. Seattle, we know, has arguably the best rotation in the American League. And so Texas... Again, average, very average.
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Chapter 5: How does George Springer's contract situation impact the Blue Jays?
There's a seat here for you.
Yeah, right here in the middle.
Thanks.
Thanks, guys.
See you, buddy. Bye. Take care, John. Thank you. See you, man. John Marossi, the MLB Network. Have my seat, if you want. I can have this seat.
Oh, said he could have mine first.
I can have mine first. Now, see, now people are going to be saying that Blair and Barker are getting a little tired of it. That's not the case.
That's no chance. No chance. No, no.
We like getting it down, getting it singing. Mm-hmm. I like getting it down, anyhow. We've been giving you the chance to win Blue Jays tickets all season long here on Blair and Barker. All you have to do is text the correct answer to our daily baseball trivia question to 590-590. Standard message and data rates may apply.
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Chapter 6: What insights does Evan Grant provide about the Texas Rangers?
So, um, confident that he'll be the earning that we all know.
Max threw off the mound today through a pen. He's going to fly to Dallas and get a cortisone shot in his back to help try to alleviate some of the other stuff going on. Um,
soft tissue wise kind of on his left side and um you know he'll be down from throwing for a couple days but see how he feels when he gets back and formulate a plan for him hoping that that kind of alleviates some of the stuff he's been dealing with and with garcia still dealing with some neck nerve issues kind of down into his bicep a little bit so
He's kind of on hold right now in terms of what we're doing going forward.
Weird. Yeah.
He's a pro. He understands there's going to be good outings and bad. Even going back to Chicago, talking to him after the second, he's like, hey. I'm physically good if you need me. I'm just really frustrated, you know. And it just speaks to his awareness, you know, what's going on around him. But he knows he's still pretty damn good.
He knows he's still one of the better pitchers when he's on his game. And I think that a little chip on his shoulder the last five days is a good thing for him tonight. When you're talking about consistency, I mean, he is the model of consistency. So when you have a little hiccup like that, you don't really worry about it.
You expect Kev to come out and have a good performance. Maybe take us through his process. What is he doing to try to get back? I know that he's hitting after games. Give us a sense of how much effort he's trying to get back.
Yeah, I think people see what they see, right? And they understand how good Vlad is and the talent that he has. Where he is now compared to even a few years ago in his career in terms of his understanding of his swing, his understanding of how he's being pitched,
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Chapter 7: What challenges are the Rangers facing this season?
I know he's had the last couple weeks, you know, he's been hitting the baseball pretty well. He's had some home runs. He's driven in some runs. What do you make of his year, Evan? Well, you know, Jake has always been kind of a streaky hitter.
And I do think that this year, like Josh Young and like Ezekiel Duran, he has started to cut down on his chase a little bit. And we've seen the walk rate go up. And that makes for a player who's not an absolute zero when he's going through one of these kind of down periods.
The second thing that I've noticed is, and Jake and I talked about this yesterday in Miami, he, a couple weeks ago, was able to really kind of better, I don't want to get too deep into the woods here, but better able to distribute his weight. And so he's not stepping in the bucket and pulling off of pitches quite the way he was really for all the last year and for the first month of this year.
And since then, I think he's got, since the first of May, I think he's got like an eight 28 30 OPS. He's been much more consistent. He's been much more productive. And if he can stay in that in that in that area, he's got a chance. He's obviously got great power. He's got a chance to be a really productive player. And it's been a nice stretch here for six weeks.
Again, the Rangers just need to see all of this for a longer period of time.
Evan, what do you make of Nathan Ivaldi? You know, it looks to me like he's been a little up and down. Obviously, he's thrown a lot. I mean, he feels like he's been around forever since I was a kid. Now, you know, I'm pretty old, but just seems like he's been around a lot. You know, his year looks like it's a little in and out. What do you make of him? And where do you think he's at in his career?
Yeah, I mean, look, Nate is the ultimate gamer, and he is a guy who never stops trying to learn, never stops trying to teach. He is... I've covered baseball for 33 years, and among the pitchers that I've covered, this guy is in the top five in terms of being a teammate and a pro.
Now, he's had some issues this year where he's not getting swings and misses at the top of the zone like he once did, and that has caused him some issues. But the great thing about Nathan Ivaldi is this continuing evolution of morphing into a pitcher who can get you out in so many different ways because he's got so many different pitches.
He's having to rely, but when you do miss out on getting those swing and misses on a fastball up, you know, you do have to rely more on other pitches. And when you do rely on a splitter as much as he's relying on a splitter right now, it can lead to some predictability. And so those are the straights that I think Nate is kind of navigating right now, but Let me just say it this way.
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Chapter 8: How are the Blue Jays and Rangers positioned for the upcoming games?
It's going to be the fifth time in six years that they've had a sub-500 record at the halfway point. And if they lose tonight, they will be three and a half under. And this kind of tells you about... the American league in general, they lose tonight. They will fall a season high three and a half games under 500.
Sorry, Texas needs a win tonight to avoid potentially falling a season high three and a half games under 500. They've held third place after eight of the last 12 days. They've trailed in the West for 60 consecutive days, but they've been within three games of first place during that entire span. So that's how mucked up. And we talk about this division. That's how mucked up the West is.
That you can hold... you know, trail in the division for 60 consecutive days, but still stay within three games in the first place.
Yeah, American League's not very good. The West hasn't been very good. You know, you'd think the Mariners would take off the big dumper being hurt and underperforming. And we kind of thought two weeks ago the Mariners were going to take off, but I mean... Looking that way, right? Now they're not so much...
You know, it's a bunch of teams that are trying to find their way that are really having trouble doing it, and you wonder why that is, right? It might be the sort of the MVP of one of these teams or maybe a couple, multiple. GMs. Boy, boy, you nailed it.
No, listen, listen, they're going to be. They're going to be five or six GMs in the American League. All wanting the same thing. All wanting the same thing. They're going to earn their money this year. Oh, it is. And this is, you know, something... And I didn't talk to Ross. We didn't talk to Ross about this yesterday. But I really do wonder if...
I'm trying to figure out the fact that the American League is so down and everybody's so close. Does that mean teams will be more aggressive early? Or does that mean it'll be hard to be aggressive early because everybody thinks they have a chance? Like,
I think your problem is what your problem is. The sooner you can fix it, the better off you'll be. You know, the Jays' problem is not going to go away. No.
Fair point.
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