First baseman

I'll be really curious to watch that one, given that he has a plantar fasciitis situation.

And if we sign Ty France to a four-year deal or whatever to finish out his career as the Padres' first baseman, that kind of leaves Gavin Sheets as just a DH bench option, and I am not that set on spending $6.5 million on a left-handed DH bench option that has a plantar fascia issue.

outfielders Jace Bowen Dustin Harris both pre-arbitration I so here for getting cheap value out of both of them Ramon Laureano will be a very interesting one he had his hip surgery it was like that's not a his fault that he missed out on the season he was having an okay year he had a really good year for us the year before he is a veteran righty bat kind of I think if we can get a good, cheap, you know, show-me-prove-me kind of deal and mix those three guys, Jace Bowen, Dustin Harris, Ramon Lariano, maybe Samad Taylor, as our backup rotational outfielders, I'm super-duper fine with that.

Merrill, nine-year deal.

Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins.

At first base, also from the Twins, batting number five in the batting order, Bob Allison.

Allison at first base.

From the Baltimore Orioles, Brooks Robinson, batting sixth and playing third base.

Robinson at third base.

Mays in center.

Also from the Giants, Orlando Cepeda.

Cepeda at first base.

Kaelin Culpepper at shortstop.

Second base and first base are maybe a little bit in flex.

Cody Clemons, Royce Lewis sharing some time there along with some others.

The big spots where there seem to be urgent needs to address are first base, where Royce Lewis just did not produce enough to be the everyday first baseman going forward, at least unless he can find another gear.

DH, where Josh Bell carries a $10 million mutual option, I believe it is, for this year and doesn't seem likely to be back.

And Ketcher, where unless you're going to re-sign Ryan Jeffers, there's going to be a hole there because Von Lackey's not going to be ready on March 1st or whenever the season gets going.

So those seem to be the areas of focus.

It's where I think all three of us were drawn to as we were looking at some of these options.

First basemans have a reputation for kinda having conversations with base runners in between pitches and all that kinda stuff.

Who were some of the funniest guys you talked to over there at first base?

Oh, man, it's a lot of...

Uh, remember Orlando Hudson?

Yeah.

O Dog, he was, he was funny.

A- as far as first basemans, Sean Casey was probably the best.

You know, you get down there, he, he knows your whole life story by-

Let Gets figure out the contract.

Signing Austin Hedges, First Baseman Ty France, right fielder Seiya Suzuki.

Starting pitcher, Sonny Gray.

Starting pitcher, Michael King.

... batting fourth.

But if they would settle into where Salvy is just a backup catcher and relief over at DH and first base, then the catching is gonna be an A for a long time, right? Like, I mean, his power threat alone when he's in there, it ...

Like, if he's your Sunday afternoon catcher, great.

You know, that, that is-

Yeah.

Um, and, and that looks really bright with Carter Jensen, so, uh, they're in a good spot there.

How about first base? Vinny Pasquantino, little bit of Salvador Perez, some Jack Hagglon when Vinny Pasquantino was hurt.

Uh, overall, where do you go with first base?

Now let's talk about the infield corners.

Nolan Arenado is a Hall of Famer, but who is playing first base alongside him?

Well, you got Pavin Smith, Lou James Groover, Tim Tawa, and Ildemar Ovargas.

That's a crowded logjam.

Is that a problem?

It's a valid concern.

But in the modern game, offense often trumps defense at first base.

If Smith keeps hitting .300 with decent power, the gold glove consideration doesn't matter as much.

I think the other thing, um, the other thing too is, like, we pay him A money but the Yankees of old, like, if, if this was what Bellinger was and it's like, all right, it's pretty clear he's not a s- number three hitter in the playoffs, he's gonna hit five through seven, um, like, it wouldn't cripple them.

But now it kind of cripples us because we paid Bellinger to be the 1B guy, right? Like, that's what we paid him to be.

Like, if you look at us and the Dodgers, again, I'm not saying go spend 500 million like the Dodgers.

They're under, like, investigation for it.