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Chapter 1: Who is Jeff Passan and what insights does he bring to MLB?
Husband, father, Elmo impersonator? Yeah! He wrote the arm and is currently writing its follow-up, the leg. He has everyone's phone number, even yours. He's MLB insider Jeff Passan of ESPN. Only on the program.
It is the program here on Sports Radio 810 WHB. Fourth quarter of the program begins right now. We finish strong talking to our man Jeff Passan. Our Major League Baseball insider is one Jeff Passan. He is with us here in the program. Jeff, how are you, sir? I'm doing well, Saran. How are you? I'm doing great. Doing great.
And, you know, loving that we're at least trading ideas when it comes to the players and owners. I have wanted, going back to even before you worked for the Kansas City Star, an international draft and international draft. And that proposal's been there. Of course, the players said, that sucks, no, which is kind of where they are at this point, right? But at least we're putting it on the table.
I think it's two things about it, the proposals that are out there. One, you basically have two drafts. You'd have your local draft, and then you'd have your international draft. 12 rounds each, cutting from 20 down to 12. And it cuts in half the amount of money that's being put into the local draft. And it forces kids to go to college.
You've got to be 20 on the American-Canadian-Puerto Rican side before you're eligible. They go from 16 to 18 on the international side. I think all these things, I understand that the players right now at this early juncture are going to say no to everything, but all these things, I think, You know, many of these things, let me say, are good for the game. Yeah.
You know, they are clearly... If you're going all, I still don't get the high school rule. I think baseball is a completely different sport than football, for example, where the pipeline is through college than basketball, which... Frankly, I think high schoolers should be eligible for the NBA because they've proven at 18 and 19 years old that they can be very good in the NBA.
And in baseball, it's not like you're getting drafted at 17 or 18 to go to the big league club. This isn't David Clyde back with the Rangers in the 1970s. No, you know you're going to be bacon in the minor leagues forever.
uh you know best case scenario with connor griffin like a year and change uh but you're gonna spend some time developing and my issue with it is more saran about what we talked uh about when you know i was in studio and we were talking about johnson county community college yeah how good it is and how they're sending 20 kids to division one and why do they have so many d1 players because
college coaches want maturity they want guys who have seen really good pitching not just the sort of stuff you're going to get in high school or on the showcase circuit in the summer but consistently top-notch pitching and they want that physical and mental maturity to be in their lineups they're gravitating more toward older players look at oklahoma right now in the college world series like
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Chapter 2: What are the proposed changes to the MLB Draft?
And they're just trying to have somebody else pick up their costs. But the mistake, I think, is as good as some college programs are at developing players now, Saran, At the end of the day, what is the ultimate goal if you are a major league baseball team and you have a young player? It's to get him big league ready. If you're a college coach, what's your ultimate goal?
To win baseball games so you can continue to remain employed. And those divergent perspectives, I think, illustrate why this would be a bad idea. Now, I'm on board with you with the international draft, but less because of the age issue and more because of the corruption. Latin America is... just an absolute disaster when it comes to young baseball players.
Everything from kids dropping out of school when they're 10 years old to focus on baseball full-time, to players being recruited at 11, signed at 12. And the incentive system that's in place there when kids are signing at 12 makes it much more commonplace for trainers down there to feed performance-enhancing drugs to preteens. And that's not an exaggeration.
That is the literal truth of what's happening there right now and what this system and the lack of oversight and penalties that MLB has put in place has caused.
Would the draft, would drafting kids internationally, would that end all that?
I think it would certainly help because the reason that kids get fed the drugs as young as they do is because there's a system that's called pre-acuerdo, which means pre-agreement. So even though you're not eligible to sign until you're 16 years old. Right. a lot of these kids have been in agreement with teams on signing bonuses for three, four years down the road.
Like, that's how early these deals happen. With a lack of early deals in place, there's no incentive for trainers to say to scouts, hey, look at this 12-year-old. Look at how good he is. Look at what he projects to be. No, teams aren't going to care about Latin American players until they reach 16, if the draft age is at 18. So At very least, it delays that.
And I think that some of the suggestions that MLB has in place disincentivize it, too.
Yeah, that's interesting. So do you think that the owners really want this hard and they're going to make it something that they stand firm on? Or do you think they put some thought into it, they'd like to get there, this is the first salvo, but they'll cave on it to get other things?
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Chapter 3: How do players react to the proposed international draft changes?
We're talking to Jeff Passon here. You mentioned this last time that you were working on it, you and Kylie McDaniel, putting out the top 100 picks. players when it comes to targeting them, and there were a lot of Royals on the list. Now, part of it's, you know, you've got to be a team that's out of it, so we know that it's not like every team was in this, but nine Royals.
97, Sterling Marte, 87, Alex Lane, 73, Lane Thomas, 69, Matt Strom, 61, John Schreiber, 42, Chris Bubich, 35, Daniel Lynch, 22, Seth Lugo, and number 18, Michael Wacca. Um...
I also had Cole Reagans and Vinny Pasquitino on the list before they got hurt.
And then you guys bumped up a couple from the bottom, and so they would have been there as well. Interesting. Well, I mean, is Bubich, should he have been replaced too then?
Maybe so, but I think because he is an impending free agent, it's a little bit different calculus. Like, whatever the Royals can get for Chris Bubich, they're going to. Like, as long as ā even ā you know what? I think he's going to be back, right? But even if he's not ā I still think there's a real possibility that he could get traded.
And not for much, but I don't think the Royals are planning on giving him a qualifying offer at this point. Right. Just because of the injuries over the last two years. So you're going to try and salvage as much as you can get.
I mean, does him being hurt maybe create a path to him being back, right?
Like, I mean, before it was like he needed to be great to where ā but not too great to where they wouldn't mind giving him a $21, $2, $3 million, whatever the number ends up being for next year deal, but not so great that it was a no-brainer to turn it down and walk away with a team knowing that, fine, we'll give you the draft pick because he's that great, right? That was where it was.
But now could there be a ā if he's not healthy ā you know, a one for five plus or whatever the number is. Don't hold me to the five. But one for a base amount with some incentives on a prove-it deal and he could be back next year. Does that open that door that maybe wasn't there beforehand?
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Chapter 4: What challenges do college baseball players face compared to high school players?
So what? Where are you going this year? Why mess with it?
You know, when it comes to that, there are situations where guys' injuries do get mismanaged. I think it is way too early in the process to suggest that would be the case, particularly considering that it looks like he's going to be back soon.
Does Vinny coming back, is any trade value that Vinny Pasquantino would have, even if he comes back before the deadline, pretty much gone because the hammock bone usually robs you of your power for at least like a year?
Yeah, I mean, that's the ā and let's not forget this is the second hand injury he's had. He had one back in 2024 during the playoff run. So I'm not saying that this is recurring or anything like that, just that ā
You know, guys who have had multiple hand injuries, it tends to be the sort of thing that could scare a team off, and the Royals are going to want a lot back in return for Vinny Pasquantino. They're not going to sell low on him. That's the thing. He is not having a good year this year. Nobody's frustrated about that as he is, but...
It just doesn't make sense when you're a team like the Royals in a market like Kansas City to have a cost-controlled guy who you sell when he's at his nadir in value. Those are the guys that you wait until they're at their peaks to sell them, and it's painful. It looks like you're just a saloon door that's swinging in and swinging out. Guy walks in, guy walks right out, but...
Doing so right now, I think, would go against the philosophy of what the Royals are trying to accomplish. And even though it opens up a spot for Jack Caglione at first base, I still think in the end the Royals are a better team with Pasquantino at first and Caglione at right.
Why?
Because I think Pasquantino is better than whatever right fielder they're going to get to replace him.
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Chapter 5: How does the injury situation impact the Royals' roster decisions?
We're two years separated from the postseason spot. We're a year away from a disappointing 2025. But 2026 has been a nightmare. Because, listen, I'm not the only one who thought that the Royals were going to be a playoff team. they are decidedly not that. And you get only a finite amount of time to turn a team around.
And the Royals need to do something and fix what they've got right now because it ain't working.
Yeah, I'm okay with them not being on that list right now. But, you know, especially when he comes to John Sherman and says, this is the path I want to go as we move into this next offseason. It's going to be pretty interesting because, listen, they've been ā it's underrated how devastated they've been by injuries.
I mean, their top three relievers have battled, you know, Erseg's been a mess, whatever's wrong with him. Strom has been hurt, I think is still hurt. Estevez down for the whole time. Top two ceiling pitchers have been down for most of the year at this point where they are. And Vinny's hurt now, and Bobby's hurt. I mean, it's just, you know, Mikel was out for six or seven games. The injuries are
an easy explanation but they were already kind of struggling before some of those came about and I do think it'll be I think on paper it looked good but then there needs to be the one thing that doesn't look good is that two years in a row you have not hit to start the year now they're hitting better of late and so it's looking like it's going to be just like last year but that doesn't mean it's fixed because
That means you've got a massive first 70 game problem with your offense. And that part, if I'm John Sherman, I need a real plan on how this isn't going to happen again. I think you're exactly right. Final four time with Jeff Passan, our Major League Baseball insider. Let's start with this. How much of the draft, the NBA draft, will you watch? When is it? It is tomorrow night.
Probably like the first five picks. Five picks? Okay. That's pretty good. I like that. All right. Do we get an international draft out of this next CBA? Yes. Oh, nice. Will we have a work stoppage? Yes. Okay.
I'm more confident in the work stoppage than I am the draft.
Oh, that's unfortunate.
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