Hey everyone, just so you know, Jeff and I held out as long as we could, hoping that someone

would sign Jose Batista before we recorded, eventually we couldn't delay any longer, so we talked

about it as if he was going to go to Toronto on a one-year deal, which just after we hung up

is exactly what happened. So as you undoubtedly know, Batista signed with Toronto for a guaranteed

one-year, $18 million deal with various mutual options, investing options, and buyouts. This

doesn't change anything we said about Batista or the Blue Jays, but you can feel slightly superior

while you listen to us and know more than we did, and now that you know that, we can continue.

Hello and welcome to episode 107 of Effectively Wild, the podcast from FanGrafts presented by

our Patreon supporters. I'm Ben Lindbergh, a wringer joined by Jeff Sullivan from FanGrafts,

hey Jeff? Hello, now that you're back in the country, there's all sorts of baseball news. It's

nice for you. You have to write about things because it's the right about. So we're going to get into

the news that has happened or that has almost happened. I feel like nearing has been a big theme of

this week so far in terms of MLB trade rumors headlines. Lots of people are nearing extensions or

nearing deals and some people actually have some. So we'll get into all of that stuff, but I believe

you've brought some sort of banter before we do. Yeah, yeah, I'm not familiar with the established

protocols, but I did want to bring something up. In the last podcast, and I guess my first is

as the official co-host here, we talked a little bit about Lenny Harris. Maybe I talked a

little bit about Lenny Harris, and things were discussed in less than flattering terms. Just to

remind everybody, Lenny Harris, you know who Lenny Harris is or was a fear baseball fan. I think

he's he's been around enough that even if you don't know much about his career, you have a

familiarity with the fact that he was the pinch hitter. He was sort of like West Helms before West Helms,

I guess, and also sort of at the same time as West Helms, but Lenny Harris batted more than 4,000

...