A José Ramírez Extension & Taking Shots at the Expense of Contact
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 875 Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2026
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eno, DVR, and Trevor discuss José Ramírez's extension with the Guardians, that should keep him in Cleveland for the rest of his career and wonder if the Guardians will be able to draft, develop and find enough core pieces around Ramírez to bring World Series to Cleveland in the next seven years. Plus, they discuss Harrison Bader to the Giants, Seranthony Domíngez's chance to close with the White Sox, how zone contact rates can be misleading for hitters, and a few moves they would like to see as the offseason winds down.
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Rundown
6:42 José Ramírez Gets a New Deal with the Guardians; Will They Win a World Series in the Next Seven Years?
15:23 Harrison Bader to the Giants
18:31 Seranthony Domínguez: A Chance to Close with the White Sox
25:06 Low Zone Contact% Leaders & Trading Whiffs for Damage
37:08 Did Mark Vientos Make the Opposite Tradeoff?
43:50 A Few Moves We Would Like to See Before the Offseason Ends
56:35 Buying a Zac Gallen Rebound in 2025?
Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social
Follow DVR on Bluesky: @DVR.bsky.social
Follow Trevor on Bluesky: @iamtrevormay.bsky.social
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Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris
With: Trevor May
Editor: Jason Potere
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to rates and barrels. It's Thursday, January 29th, Derek Van Riper, Trevor May and Enosairis here with you on this episode. |
| 0:20.1 | We dig into some baseball news that's been happening over the course of this week. We have been focusing on our position preview series. So today is a break from that. We got a Jose Ramirez extension, new deal for Harrison Bader with the Giants, a new closer for the White Sox. Our big picture topic today, we're going to take a look at the tradeoff between doing damage but losing zone contact percentage. |
| 0:40.0 | We were looking at that leaderboard a little bit earlier in the week, and it led to a few |
| 0:43.8 | follow-up questions that we're going to try and tackle over the course of this episode as |
| 0:47.4 | well. |
| 0:48.0 | Time permitting, we'll talk about a few moves we'd like to see before the end of this |
| 0:51.4 | off season as well. |
| 0:53.6 | Trevor, how's it going for you on this Thursday? |
| 0:56.2 | I'm great. Everything is outside of my nanny having COVID. Everything else is great. |
| 1:03.4 | They've figured it all, I guess. Yeah, I can't have it all. But to be honest, |
| 1:07.8 | the in-laws are coming in big this week so it's it's been great unfortunately |
| 1:13.5 | i wish more would happen in the baseball side but hey we're two weeks away from uh report so this |
| 1:19.6 | usually happens right how you guys doing good world baseball classic participants can report |
| 1:25.1 | next week too so it's already already here almost. |
| 1:29.4 | You know how's the Thursday treating you so far? |
| 1:31.7 | I thank you, Trevor, without you being here for the experience of, you know, bringing the kids |
| 1:37.4 | to Eric Sim and you and the bat bros and, you know, having Felix throw off the mound and all that um and i'll thank |
| 1:45.8 | you again with you here have you posted that episode yet can i ask you who won the olympics |
| 1:54.6 | because when we were there we were watching you run the 60 yard dash throw you through the i can i hope i'm not speaking out of turn you |
| 2:03.6 | you won the vilo contest uh off the video is up it's it's actually a bad pros video so it is |
| 2:09.4 | it was it went up yesterday so you're not spoiling anything people can go watch it right now all right |
| 2:13.3 | all right so it was fun watching because um you were sort of old man grown in about body parts for |
... |
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