Kiley McDaniel: Hello from FG ATL HQ where there’s a staggering amount of leaves in the backyard, but it allows Scout to run laps like she’s in the snow, leaving a trail when she pulls a tight turn

Kiley McDaniel: Lots of stuff happening with rumored trades, one big one done, free agency, prospect lists and a fresh draft rankings update coming next week

Tommy N.: Thoughts on Dan O’Dowd’s trade proposal yesterday on MLB Network of Thor and d’Arnaud for Hedges, Lucchesi, and Paddack?

Kiley McDaniel: It’s not terrible, but I don’t think that will get it done. We also don’t know if the Mets
1) won’t trade Thor/deGrom and are just listening
2) want to trade them both this winter
3) will consider only overpays, likely waiting at least until the summer to have a clear idea

Kiley McDaniel: So the price for option 2 and option 3 are probably different, since option 3 either gets an overpay or no deal

Kiley McDaniel: And until the BVW administration makes some moves, we don’t really know where they stand or how they value players, etc.

Meg Rowley: Good morning (afternoon) and welcome to the chat!

Sad Mariners Fan: If Dipoto does the right thing and trades Diaz, what would a reasonable return be? I saw an article recently in the atheltic saying they wouldn’t be able to net two top 100 prospects and I initially dismissed it as wrong. Is it?

Meg Rowley: Two top 100 guys feels like too much. A top 100 guy and a guy with promise feels closer. Diaz is amazing and has a bunch of team control left, but he’s also a reliever (albeit a really good one!) who throws hard with a delivery that isn’t exactly relaxing.

And Now, This: If you were one of the other 29 GMs, would you ever trade for one of Van Wagenen’s former clients on the Mets roster? If it was me I think I’d always be wondering: “What does he know about the player that I don’t?”

Meg Rowley: I think it’s an underreported concern in all of this. As Sheryl wrote this morning, the Mets and Van Wagenen’s answers to questions surrounding his potential conflicts of interests don’t fully address the issue.

Meg Rowley: It’s quite surprising to me that this hasn’t been a bigger issue just generally, particularly with the union.

Dan Szymborski: Noonish: A time for chats, chatting and chaterations.

Darragh: Russell Martin for Jason Vargas and/or Anthony Swarzak? Is this close to being plausible for both teams?

Dan Szymborski: Meh, not really interested in that return from the Blue Jays side.

Dan Szymborski: If you’re not getting a more interesting piece in return, I’d rather just keep Martin around as the veteran backup to Jansen

Pog: Can we assume that players not on the trade value list have less than the ~$40M that the guys at the back of the list do?

Dan Szymborski: That would be a good assumption!

Kiley McDaniel: Here I am, a bit ahead of schedule given the vagaries of holiday family blah blah blah

Kiley McDaniel: I wrote up the Paxton trade prospects yesterday here: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/updating-the-prospects-in-…

Kiley McDaniel: Eric wrote up the CLE/TB trade: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/cleveland-swaps-teenage-athlete-for-pi…

Kiley McDaniel: and we have the STL list up, PIT list is already done, coming Monday and here’s the primer on the changes to THE BOARD: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/the-board-updated-for-2019…

Tumbler, Whiskey: You were brilliantly composed on MLB Network yesterday. Nice job. That is all.

Kiley McDaniel: Thanks! Yes, I also did that.

Meg Rowley: Hello, and welcome to the chat! A moment while I communicate with a writer of FanGraphs dot com.

Meg Rowley: Ok, hello, here I am. A Meg ready to chat!

John : How worried should teams be about harper’s defense?

Meg Rowley: I think anytime you’re going to give potentially $300 million to a free agent, you worry about everything. It has been identified as a weaker part of his game, and defense declines over time, but I don’t think it will alter the eventual value a tremendous amount.

Meg Rowley: The evaluation of defense is one of the places where the gap between public side analysis and team’s internal stuff is the biggest. Which isn’t to say that the assessment of Harper is wrong. But it is a place where they know a lot more than we do.

Nate: Are you on record with where you think Harper winds up?

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody!

Paul Swydan: Doing some polls. How is everybody doing tonight?

Paul Swydan:

Paul Swydan:

Paul Swydan: So, OK, we’re talking about Russell’s book tonight. This is the first of the three books we’ve done for the Book Club that I didn’t review for THT. But I loved this book. My favorite part was how Russell weaved in personal stories.

Paul Swydan: I thought it kept the book grounded. It also had the trademark touches, sharp wit about what people get wrong about the book without being acidic or bitter.

Dan Szymborski: GOBBLE GOBBLE

ChiSox2020: If White Sox don’t get Machado or Harper, should they pursue Grandal? How much should the loss of a 2nd round pick factor into any FA signings?

Dan Szymborski: Honestly, I think the White Sox should be in a go big or go home mindset. Unless they get players who are build-arounds that will be around for the rest of the rebuilding process, I think they should mostly chase deals. Those mid-market FAs are better fits for the actually competitive teams.

Tony Kemp is religion: Would you ever make your long-term forecasts available? I’m sure a lot of people (including myself!) would pay a small sum to access them. Free is also OK! I really want to see Soto’s long-term forecasts with “really really big numbers!”

Dan Szymborski: I’m a bit of a data hoarder. You’ll start to see more things come out at FG, but still figuring out what’s best to make public and what’s best to greedily save for articles and such.

Jackson C.: Mondays start to get a bit depressing for me as winter approaches. Any tips for remaining sane in this cold, baseball-less time?

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Matt : Bartolo Colon is objectively better than Nathan Eovaldi change my mind

Jeff Sullivan: I neither want to nor have to

AJ Preller: Have you figured out how I can get Syndergaard yet?

Jeff Sullivan: Well, you have the most valuable farm system in baseball

Eric A Longenhagen: Good afternoon from Tempe. here are some links to things:

Eric A Longenhagen: I wrote up the Luplow/EGon trade here: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/cleveland-and-pittsburgh-swap-surplus-…

Eric A Longenhagen: There’s been a ton of prospect stuff on the site this week. Short of linking all of it, I’ll just point you to the prospect land page where you can find all of it. https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/

KW: What’s currently keeping you from hanging a 50 FV on Nico Hoerner? Would you need to see more power out of his bat to justify him inevitably moving to 2B?

Eric A Longenhagen: He might move up when we do the Cubs list

Eric A Longenhagen: The power he’s shown here in AZ has been surprising

Jay Jaffe: Hi folks, and welcome to today’s chat. I’ll be along in a few minutes after I dot the final i’s and cross the final t’s on my Lee Smith Today’s Game profile. Apologies for the delay…

Jay Jaffe: Ok, I’m back! Let’s get to this.

Hi Jay!!!: Hi Jay,  Among the southpaws, would you rather have Keuchal, Paxton, or Corbin?

Jay Jaffe: They’re all a bit imperfect, aren’t they? If we’re talking for a single game today, I’d take Corbin, who’s coming off a strong, robust season of 200 innings. If we’re talking for the next few years via trade or free agency, think I’d lean Paxton, who despite being fragile is the one who misses bats with the most consistency, giving him the most margin for error as he ages.

stever20: So Fox reups for 7 more years.  About another 200 million per year- so a good 6.5 million more per team.  Some rights bubble heh?

Jay Jaffe: Reports of baseball’s death have again been greatly exaggerated.