Effectively Wild Episode 1944: The Christmas Socks of Free Agents
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2022
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the differences, if any, between a two-year deal with an opt out after the first year and a one-year deal with a player option for a second year, then discuss the Dansby Swanson signing, the destinations of the winter’s top four shortstops, and the state of the Cubs, the spending of the White Sox, the AL Central, and the trajectories of Andrew Benintendi and Joey Gallo, Atlanta depending on Vaughn Grissom to replace Swanson at shortstop, the Dodgers and Red Sox essentially swapping DHs in J.D. Martinez and Justin Turner (and Boston’s confusing competitive stance), the Orioles’ unexciting signings and the Marlins’ lack of moves, the Padres and Mets continuing to add players and payroll and whether Seth Lugo is like socks, the Astros re-signing Michael Brantley, Kris Bryant being on the Rockies, and more, plus Stat Blasts about this winter’s unusually long contracts and Rich Hill’s gap between 30-start seasons (1:03:35), a Past Blast from 1944 (1:15:28), and a Hall-of-Fame follow-up.
Audio intro: ABBA, “Two for the Price of One”
Audio outro: JD McPherson, “Socks”
Link to Wendy on mutual options
Link to article on tweet length
Link to Ben Clemens on Swanson
Link to Dan Szymborski on the Cubs
Link to Laurila on Benintendi
Link to Baumann on Gallo
Link to Chris Gilligan on Lugo
Link to team payrolls
Link to SP depth charts
Link to Battery Power on Grissom
Link to Esteban Rivera on JDM
Link to Justin Choi on Turner
Link to Baumann on the Red Sox
Link to article on Bloom buying/selling
Link to article on Boston’s deadline
Link to Dan on the Orioles
Link to Hill Stat Blast data
Link to 1944 story source
Link to story on Phillies rebrand
Link to SABR on team nicknames
Link to Jacob Pomrenke’s website
Link to Jacob Pomrenke on Twitter
Link to latest Ringer-Verse episode
Link to first Ringer-Verse episode
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you dream of the girl who told you and called us again too |
| 0:08.0 | A bright young boy with a feeling like Sir if you feel so close and get too |
| 0:17.0 | A bright young boy with a feeling like Sir if you feel so close and get too |
| 0:25.0 | A bright young boy with a feeling like Sir if you feel so close and get too |
| 0:33.0 | A bright young boy with a feeling like Sir if you feel so close and get too |
| 0:35.0 | Hello and welcome to episode 1944 of Effectively Wild a baseball podcast |
| 0:41.0 | from FanGraphs presented by our Patreon supporters I am Ben Lindbergh of the Ringer |
| 0:45.0 | joined by Meg Rally of FanGraphs, a low-mic. |
| 0:48.0 | Hello! |
| 0:49.0 | So here is a discussion topic that came up in our Patreon Discord group |
| 0:53.0 | and it's kind of a pedantic question but not purely pedantic. |
| 0:58.0 | I think it's also semi-consequential. |
| 1:01.0 | Okay. |
| 1:02.0 | How do we decide on the terminology of a two-year deal with an opt-out after the first year |
| 1:09.0 | versus a one-year deal with a player option for the second year? |
| 1:14.0 | Because we're seeing a whole host of these deals get signed. |
| 1:18.0 | I think Seth Lugo, Josh Bell and Jr. Heaney, Adam Adevino, Omar Narvias. |
| 1:23.0 | There's just a lot of these two-year deals that have an opt-out after the first year. |
| 1:29.0 | And you could in theory describe those as a one-year deal with a player option. |
| 1:35.0 | It's sort of the same thing either way. |
| 1:37.0 | You know that they're there for the first year and then the player can decide |
| 1:41.0 | what they want to do with the second year. |
... |
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