Eric Longenhagen 2025 Trade Deadline Prospects Chat

Eric A Longenhagen: Hello hello from the kitchen counter in scorching hot Tempe, AZ.

Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s get right into it.

Jeb: Can you please enlighten me and everyone what the hell the Pirates are doing? None of yesterday made sense whatsoever

Kevin: Cherington has to be gone by the end of the year, right? Right?

Eric A Longenhagen: Lots of Pirates fan discontent in the chat. I am curious what their best offers were for IKF, Santana and Heaney during the last couple of weeks, I know they like Stafura more than I do, I think they got a couple short term role playing pieces (Flores, Devanney) and I think we need to see these guys, Yorke, etc. the players they’ve acquired in these seemingly always medium deadline deals actually be given the opportunity to do something

Eric A Longenhagen: I’m not about to call for anyone’s job when I know they’re underfunded.

Hazmat Corntail: With Cortes out in Milwaukee, is that good news for us Henderson owners? Any chance of a shorter path for him back to the rotation?

Eric A Longenhagen: It’ll probably take someone getting injured for that, given how well Preister has been pitching.

Tim: Florentino continues to rake. What is his upside now compared to the beginning of the season?

Eric A Longenhagen: He’s good, doesn’t have crazy raw power right now but he’s hitting for plus contact despite having a high-effort cut, and his swing is actualized to get to the power he does have. I think he’s going to be a good player and had him stuffed coming into the year, but I’m clear-eyed about his timeline.

Eric A Longenhagen: The thing I need to do is sit and watch him play CF and see how that looks, if he can actually do that then we’re talking about an star player instead of just a good one

Southside Sal: Could we look back on the Houser/Mead trade in 5 years as the biggest win of the deadline? Mead was consistently a T100 prospect that never got runway in Tampa given they have Caminero, Aranda, Yandy, and B Lowe. He has good bat speed, has drastically cut his chase, still doesn’t whiff, and plays a serviceable 3B, 2B and 1B. After a bad April he’s run a 119 wRC+ in the majors all without consistent playing time. 5 years of this for a rental backend guy like Houser feels like the types of moves this FO should be making.

Eric A Longenhagen: Yep, take advantage of the teams with depth where you can the same way they did with Meidroth. Mead is talented but flawed and hasn’t had a chance to iron out those issues with extended playing time. They got depth arms in Davitt and Peoples, too.

Josh: Based on who was traded the last few days, how do you think teams are valuing prospects compared to past deadlines? Padres notwithstanding, it seems that not as many “top” guys moved compared to recent years.

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s now about getting depth and trying to coax ceiling out of that depth via development.

Eric A Longenhagen: Or it’s about trying to get in on the ground floor before a guy has broken out, with Junior Caminero being the Platonic Ideal example of this.

Mike: You aren’t nearly as high on the Twins Duran trade. Thoughts? Also, if a team believes in ERod and Jenkins, why acquire three high minors, majors, OF? Outman? Really? Sorry for the rant questions.

Eric A Longenhagen: I really like Tait, just because he’s not on my top 100 or whatever doesn’t mean I dislike him. He’s very, very chase-prone. That can have profound long-term impacts on your output. Look at Michael Harris, look at Jeremy Pena, look at Jorge Alfaro… there’s year-to-year variation in their performance in part because they swing so much. That’s likely to apply to Tait, too. So it’s hard to windmill slam him into my Top 50 or whatever when I’ve been burned by doing so many, many times in the past.

J36T: How much stock do you put in to a prospect like DeVries getting dealt?  Is this Preller doing what he does and ultimately trying to keep his job, or do the Padres see something in DeVries that lowers their range of outcomes compared to the rest of the evaluators? Asking this specifically because you are a touch lower than others on his ceiling.

Eric A Longenhagen: I think it’s probably some of both. The Padres are happy to tell the prospect-writing world their players are great and knowingly have the Robby Snellings of the world overrated as a way of inflating their value in the public consciousness. They’ve also traded James Wood. I think they like Leo a lot, they invested a ton of time into landing him and I think learned from the way they pushed Ethan too much and hurt his dev.

Jim: What is your take on the Braves farm systems and failure on the international side? I know they are good at developing pitching but something is missing with their positional prospects. All of their big signings have been a disaster(Perdomo, Tavares, Guanipa, Benitez, Glod, Tornes).

Eric A Longenhagen: They put too many eggs in one basket every year.

Eric A Longenhagen: Cool your jets on Tornes, though.

Scioscia: Who are your favorites to keep an eye on from the ACL champs Angels team?

Eric A Longenhagen: Trey Gregory Alford

Eric A Longenhagen: After him Anyelo Marquez (can hit) and Hayden Alvarez (huge projection), then little sleeper Marlon Quintero

Blerg: Any info on why Josue de Paula was put on IL?

Eric A Longenhagen: Not off the top but I’ll work on getting that as chat progresses.

Archer: Max Clark moved up FV in your midseason rankings but didn’t get a blurb, has he made notable leaps or has he just performed long enough to warrant the bump?

Eric A Longenhagen: The latter, he’s just proven it over and over again. Power still isn’t totally actualized but he sizzles it enough I don’t care.

Will: What are your thoughts about the Orioles’ deadline acquisitions? Should they have hung onto Laureano or was the deal with the Padres worth the loss of a potentially valuable contributor for next year?

Eric A Longenhagen: I’m fine moving him, Father Time has gotta be creeping there, right? Baltimore I think now has the deepest farm system since I’ve been doing this, with 70+ guys who I think could have major league value. I think it’s interesting they got players from a place with a poor dev track record and now can try to apply what seem like better methods to a huge group of players.

Eric A Longenhagen: If I have one gripe it’s that basically all of these guys are far, far away from paydirt.

Eric A Longenhagen: Like, you wanna tilt with the big clubs next year, right?

Guest: I saw Trey Gregory-Alford got moved up quite a bit in the Angels list- what’s he doing differently?

Eric A Longenhagen: Totally remade his body, sat 96-99 for seven innings in his ACL playoff start, threw strikes, threw a couple 90 mph sliders, touched 99 in the 7th, was stomping all over the mound and absolutely shoved.

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll try to get video up this weekend.

Jaygray007: Would you say that an 80th-ish percentile outcome of Rafael Flores is something like “Gary Sanchez’s career rates”?

Eric A Longenhagen: That’s more like 95th%

Eric A Longenhagen: His arm is like 3 grades worse than Sanchez

Aldo Rayne: Agree or disagree: the Mets paid a higher prospect price by a significant margin for Tyler Rogers than they did for Ryan Helsley

Eric A Longenhagen: Agree

J36T: What’s your take on Taj Bradley?  I know pitcher’s development is not linear, but Bradley seems to be pitching more to contact, more of a ground ball tilt than previous years, and quality of contact seems to be down.  I wonder if that was intentional, and if that changes with the Twins?

Eric A Longenhagen: I think Lance Brozdowski has written about Taj making changes multiple times this year, there’s definitely been tinkering there. I’m not sure what the Twins plan to do there, specifically.

Pinstripe Perry: Know you said you were deep diving him after the chat last week so anything you can share that kept Spencer Jones off the hondo? Contact and CSW %s looks similar to Xavier Isaac who is on the list despite less of a defensive profile to fall back on. I’d throw Eldridge in that group as well from a swing and miss standpoint but understand his numbers look to be a grade better than both the former guys and he’s obviously way younger so more room to project him forward.

Eric A Longenhagen: Jones’ contact rate is well below those other guys. Isaac’s is closest but at least north of 60%, Spenny’s is 58%.

Big Buckston: Twins are now flush with prospects and recent graduates who are candidates for the back end of the rotation next year: Zebby Matthews, David Festa, Taj Bradley, Simeon Woods Richardson, Mick Abel, Andrew Morris, Marco Raya, and heck, maybe even AA guys like Connor Prielipp and Ryan Gallagher. Who of this group do you like to emerge from the fray and claim rotation spots next year?

Eric A Longenhagen: Zebby, Festa, Taj, Abel, Morris, SWR all in the mix, maybe Culpepper and Kendry Rojas should be in the mix too since I think he needs to go on the 40-man this offseason

GA Blood: I thought there were some trades made that indicated that teams are valuing prospects drastically differently than I would have expected. The Eugenio Suarez deal, for example, felt really light. In this market I thought he’d net a couple 45s. Do you have any examples of deals where you might want to go take a second look at guys to double-check your view of them because of the players they were exchanged for?

Eric A Longenhagen: The Geno trade was one and I took another pass at Locklear and think his hands have changed enough to move him. I don’t think he’s a 2 WAR guy or anything, but he’s a nice fit with Pavin and Del Castillo. For that one I also wondered whether they’d try to stretch Burgos out as a starter. He’s small but athletic enough and has a deep mix.

Eric A Longenhagen: The Littell trade made me look at Feduccia again just o make sure I wasn’t missing something. I like him but this trade indicates the Rays think he can have like a Jonah Heim window of relevance?

Jaygray007: Stafura seems like hes going to be a real SS who can hit a little.   You seem to be worried about strikeout issues.   His K rate is under 24 percent this year which, to me sounds totally fine.  Has that concern been alleviated, or is there whiff data that remains concerning?

Eric A Longenhagen: 70% contact (MLB average is 77%, average at SS is 79%) in his second year at Low-A

mario: Florentino and Eduardo Quintero tore up A ball and getting a lot of buzz. Since they don’t make the 50FV cut (yet) ,what’s your take on them?

Eric A Longenhagen: Watched Quintero play CF when I updated the hondo and don’t think he can do it

Eric A Longenhagen: Josue De Paula it’s a strained hammy btw, I was told it shouldn’t be long, like two weeks.

Dust in May: The Dustin May trade has to be the biggest overpay right? I don’t even think the prospects are that good, but for an injury-prone 5 ERA pitcher who blew past his career high in IP two months ago, it’s an amazing haul. Wow.

Eric A Longenhagen: I think the optics of it are weird because of Tibbs/Devers.

Eric A Longenhagen: Dusty is talented

Eric A Longenhagen: More than Tibbs, imo.

Nathan: This prospect didn’t get traded but he is moving… to the Show. Luis Morales is getting called up today per Martin Gallegos. What led to his FV going from 50 to 45?

Eric A Longenhagen: Just that he moved to the ‘pen, basically has to be an elite reliever to justify being a 50.

Eric A Longenhagen: Still good, have a set-up man grade on him.

My Name: Cam Smith came up as a 3B. Instead of the Astros trading for 3B help, why did they not just move Cam to 3rd and get OF help? Did he not have a great glove down in the minors? Is he actually a better defender in the OF now?

Eric A Longenhagen: You could argue his size would be prohibitive over there, long term. I likened him to Bohm when he was drafted. It’s not good there now, but he’s athletic enough (and has the arm) that it could get better. They’re contending, I think it’s fine to want to limit how much change you’re subjecting your lineup to this late in the game.

Rob: What’s your general take on AJ Preller’s philosophy to team-building? Net positive, negative?

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s fun as hell. I don’t think it can truly be sustained without eventually having to knock the entire thing down, and he puts himself at risk of being let go when the time comes to do that, but also who would you rather root for: Sustainability Core Team X, or the Padres?

Eric A Longenhagen: I’d be frustrated if I were a Guardians fan, we’re always just fine. They have great people working there but at some point your approach needs to lean toward urgency more than value.

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s easy for me to say that from my kitchen table, of course.

Perkins: How much variability do you understand to exist with teams internal grades of prospects? Are there essentially always simultaneous 45, 50 and 55 grades on the same guy if you could peer into every FO? Would there often, or ever be a 40 and 55 grade on the same guy?

Eric A Longenhagen: In some cases there is quite a bit of variability. I’ve had scouts or execs read my reports (not verbatim, just the grades) from two or three different scouts who aren’t on the same page at all. I’ve had people tell me the public rankings are a much bigger part of their model than we realize because teams view it as a crowd sourcing exercise since (especially BA and pipeline) we’re collecting opinions from a bunch of scouts and publishing it.

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s why pro cross checkers can be important, to settle on which one is right.

Lord Thunder: When will you next update the international players list on The Board? The current No. 1, Shunpeita Yamashita, has only pitched a handful of innings all season.

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ve got 2026 draft scouting to do for the next couple of weeks, then will turn my attention to NPB.

Jace, The Mind Sculptor: Would love a plug for any podcast appearances you’ve done re: the draft

Eric A Longenhagen: I only did Effectively Wild, which you can now listen to on the FanGraphs Youtube channel, btw.

Stan Lee: Hi Eric! KLaw said the reports he was receiving suggested Leo De Vries defence at SS was bad. Are you hearing the same? Do you think he moves to 2B?

Eric A Longenhagen: I agree with Keith that it’s a mixed bag, he’s not a lock to stay there.

Guest: Just as a reminder, how soon after the deadline do you do your “ranking all traded prospects” post? Looking forward to reading it

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s in progress, I’d guess late today or tomorrow depending on how much juice Meg has to edit an enormous article on her Friday night.

Guest: Does a prospect getting traded multiple times in succession (such as James Tibbs III) raise any red flags about internal evaluations or can it be chalked up to circumstance?

Eric A Longenhagen: Given the Devers of it all, this one feels like a weird situation, and I don’t think differently about Tibbs because of it.

JerryD: Do any of my prospects that I’m holding on tightly to make a difference for my major league team next year?

Eric A Longenhagen: Is Michael Arroyo Diet Marcus Semien?

Eric A Longenhagen: Him and a leap from Cole Young are the things that might really impact 2026.

John B: Do you think any of the prospects the Giants traded for will be impact players going forward?

Eric A Longenhagen: I like Yunior Marte. The pieces of the Doval trade are some of the last few I have to get to for my “All the Traded Prospects” piece, I don’t have anything on Carlos De La Rosa as we’re sitting here, aside from his data.

Jace, The Mind Sculptor: Can Royce Lewis play SS?

Eric A Longenhagen: Man, I’m not sure he has the arm talent for that. He looks awkward at 3b a lot of the time, too. I suppose it’s worth a shot, it jsut seems like he has to overhand throw everything, no off platform throws for that guy.

Jackson: When does Crawford get the call up? They hinted at bringing him up, but also said they’d want him to get regular at bats which seems hard unless they move Rojas/Kepler/Marsh around…I guess the alignment of the outfield is just very confusing to me after the Bader trade

Eric A Longenhagen: I could see them bringing him up late to be a runner and defensive replacement, but that guy’s going to get worked by big league velo if you ask him to hit every day.

Kevin: How far has James Tibbs’ stock dropped? He’s been traded twice in a few months

Eric A Longenhagen: Still a platoon OF, no change.

Gronch: what have we learned about the Posey Giants approach to talent acquisition over the draft and trade deadline?

Eric A Longenhagen: Their draft was super weird, I don’t know that I can see any kind of strategic thru line yet.

Eric A Longenhagen: I betcha we see them move on from Luciano, Matos, etc this offseason

Tully Blanchard: I like the Christian Franklin return for Soroka. Interesting player. Do you see real improvements in 2025, given that he was passed over in the Rule 5 this Winter?

Eric A Longenhagen: I do, think he’s a good part time OF, mash lefties, plus glove in a corner, can play CF okay. I thought Washington had a great deadline, pound for pound.

Guest: How do you feel about overly optimistic (to put it mildly) comps that young players tend to get? It seems like every switch-hitting shortstop is Francisco Lindor (we’re seeing this with De Vries right now), every catcher with a great hit tool is Buster Posey, every weird-looking leftie is Chris Sale. A lot of casual fans take the comps at face value and it kind of makes it exhausting to talk prospects with them.

Eric A Longenhagen: I agree. People wishcast. The gap between the quality of play in the minors versus The Show is enormous, there’s really no way to truly replicate the talent environment of the big league level in the minors, and that creates volatility in each player’s forecast. It’s so hard to impart that understanding to people, even the ones who care about prospects a lot because they’re buying cards or collecting autographs or in a dynasty league…

Eric A Longenhagen: I was once in a card shop (Dragons of Tarkir era) with a scout and guys were buying the Bowman set and I asked them whose card they wanted to open and why. And basically, they were trying to be finance bros with Jasson Dominguez cards not knowing anything about how bad his defense was.

Guest: Thoughts on the various prospects the Pirates got back? Seems like they got fleeced on the Bednar deal, no?

Eric A Longenhagen: i don’t know what their other offers were

Punk in drublic: what are you hearing about Mets prospect Elian Pena?

Eric A Longenhagen: He’s looking pretty good, you can watch that guy everyday ya know.

Eric A Longenhagen: He’s playing right now Angels vs Mets Orange (2025.08.01)

Brian: Does Jordan Westburg for Bryce Miller (assuming he’s back and healthy) in the offseason seem too obvious for both clubs?

Eric A Longenhagen: Baltimore hangs up the phone

H: Would I be right in saying it seems like teams value Yankee catchers, especially defensively, more than the general public prospect consensus?

Eric A Longenhagen: I think they’ve been excellent at developing them and are properly valued.

Eric A Longenhagen: Like, Agustin Ramirez is a real piece.

Eric A Longenhagen: Jesus Rodriguez I think is an awesome bit player

Eric A Longenhagen: Flores has real power

Eric A Longenhagen: Narvaez is good

Tom Yost: How much are you buying LaGrange’s development he flirting with the 100 or still think he is a reliever?

Eric A Longenhagen: I’m skeptical he can throw strikes consistently but at least some of that’s because he was god awful during my Fall League looks.

Ken: Are you surprised the A’s didn’t move more of their rental players and relievers: Urias, Urshela, Kelly, and Newcomb? Other than maybe Urshela, I would have thought each could have brought back a lottery ticket if not more?

Eric A Longenhagen: Kelly I thought would have been moved

Guest: Is there reason to still have faith in Edgleen?

Eric A Longenhagen: Yeah, but less than 12 months ago just because of the way his contact profile is coming into focus versus better pitching. Guy can’t turn on anything.

Eric A Longenhagen: Can really play defense, though.

Ro: The Nats acquired a bunch of mid range prospects at the deadline. Which of them has the best chance of being a legit contributor?

Eric A Longenhagen: Franklin should be a nice role player soon, Swan has upside if he grows into controlling his body better than he does now, Ronny Cruz has big power projection.

chooch: Crawford isn’t ready for the majors, correct?

Eric A Longenhagen: Arrow way up on defense for me, but as a hitter I think not.

Eric A Longenhagen: Maybe if you want a nine-hole hitter creating some slash and dash action, fine.

Ken: Do you think the A’s move Soderstrom, Severino and/or Springs in the off-season?

Eric A Longenhagen: Severino seems feasible, Soderstrom I’d have a tough time moving unless it was in a huge trade. He’s taken a step forward at age 23 and feels reasonable that another is looming even though he plateaued in May

Russell: Any update on Alejandro Rosario? I know he was asked about in a previous chat and you said you’d check with sources or something

Eric A Longenhagen: I haven’t confirmed the specifics, but there’s a rumor he has a separate medical issue that complicated the timeline of his surgery.

Astros DSL All-Stars: How much weight into prospect evaluation is taken from the DSL. I’m an Astros fan and see fellow fans buying immediate stock into Kevin Alvarez and Anderson Areinamo as a result of their All-Star selections.

Eric A Longenhagen: I think it’s fine to be excited, just don’t assume they’re both Yordan yet. Think of it like you would hearing your favorite director has started to make a new movie.

Guest: Any thoughts on the ACL Giants prospects that were recently promoted to single-A?

Eric A Longenhagen: Johnny Level is a dude. Smaller guy, might not have hge power-hitting ceiling, but he can hit and has enough arm for shortstop.

Eric A Longenhagen: Who else went up, Keyner?

Eric A Longenhagen: I added his report to the board this week if you go to the Giants list. I like him and Cayama but don’t think they’re mid-rotation starters or anything.

Nathan: Wei-En Lin just got put on the Lansing IL for undisclosed reasons. Do you what happened and why the inconsistency on listing the nature of injury?

Eric A Longenhagen: Teams don’t usually publicize their minor leaguers’ injuries.

Eric A Longenhagen: I ask people who know and report it, usually just in the guy’s blurb. Wei-En I don’t have off the top of my head.

Nervous Flyball Pitcher: btw, would it still be possible to get the Esteban Mejia metrics? unfortunately a rain delay scuttled his start yesterday, and they don’t play at another ballpark with a broadcast radar gun iirc

Eric A Longenhagen: Oh yeah, as promised last week. I have them…

Eric A Longenhagen: Sitting 98, 2175 spin, 8 inches of vert, 15 horizontal, 6ft1 extension, 49% in zone, as of last week no hitter had barreled his fastball all year which is hilarious. looks like he has 4sm and 2sm, 4sm shape isn’t great…

Eric A Longenhagen: Slider sitting 90 mph, 22450 spin, gyro style, 20% swinging strike rate against (comfortably plus), chase 25 below average.

Eric A Longenhagen: He’s thrown like 60 changeups all year, sitting 92

Eric A Longenhagen: more tail than sink on the cambio

Eric A Longenhagen: good prospect

champdo: Could  McGonigle be a 4-5 war player at his peak?

Eric A Longenhagen: Yes

Cz: Is there a comp to Lazaro Montez as a successful major leaguer.

Eric A Longenhagen: Yes, many, just with volatile year to year performance.

Jim: Will Dustin May be a better 5th starter this year than Harrison, Tolle, Criswell, or Sandelin?

Eric A Longenhagen: I’m not sure how his innings limit will interact with the rest of this year.

Dan: Obviously yesterday was a crazy day for prospects on the move, but I found it interesting when I looked at The Board for each team that Seattle has signed or drafted everyone on their prospect list (ie: no trades for prospects). This seemed pretty unique, but wanted to see if I maybe am just overthinking the rarity of this

Eric A Longenhagen: Yeah, that is weird. Been buyers most of the last couple of years.

Loourn Michaels: Jhonny Level, Juneiker Caceras, Ronny Cruz, Dauri Fernandes all have arrows up on the board. How meaningful are those upped grades? Is it just 1st year state-side guys proving the tools in a more competitive environment? More looks to lay a foundation of confidence in them? Or have they shown meaningful development that wasn’t on display as teenagers?

Eric A Longenhagen: Hit tool confidence up for everyone but Cruz, who has gotten stronger already since high school.

Jasper: You seem lower than most on De Vries than the rest of your peers, though 50 FV for a closer with an injury history still seems like a good value return. What kept you from rating him higher?

Eric A Longenhagen: Mostly just crude SS defense compared to the Griffin/Made/Walcott group. He’s good.

John: If Roden was still a prospect, would he still be 50FV?

Eric A Longenhagen: 45

Eric A Longenhagen: Power didn’t show up like I hoped

CM: You mentioned that the Orioles acquired a lot of guys that can’t help very soon, but those same guys can also be used to trade for guys that can help.  Maybe that is part of the Orioles thinking?

Eric A Longenhagen: They’ve shown basically no inclination to do that, though.

TooDamnTall: Thoughts on Misiorowski? Is he showing he can start long term?

Eric A Longenhagen: He’s a freak

fuz: What did Khal do to jump to the 50 tier?

Eric A Longenhagen: Multiple years of 90+ innings with plus command of three pitches playing average or above. He’s at Double-A, he’s close. Proximity is important to me, especially with pitchers.

Chicks Dig the Fundamentals: Looks like the Twins are assigning Kendry Rojas to AAA. Seems very aggressive to me for a guy with less than 20 IP in AA. Thoughts?

Eric A Longenhagen: He’s a postseason 40-man add, challenge him.

PCG: Hi Eric! If you had to pick a MIA youngster for overall production ROS in a 5 x 5 redraft, would you pick Heriberto or Marsee? Thanks a lot!

Eric A Longenhagen: Take Marsee, he’s going to play, and I got some minor league defensive metrics (okay, Kiley got this batch but I’m pouring over them) that are gaga for him in CF and I’m going to have to re-evaluate.

Eric A Longenhagen: Heriberto is my dude, I love him, but realistically he’s going to play only some of the time. Marsee’s D might get him in there every day if this is correct.

Edouard Boolean: The Tigers are apparently moving Melton to the pen after they got Morton (although as of now he’s still listed as the starter for Sunday night). Think he goes there long term so he can really hurl his fastballs, or do they stretch him back out next spring?

Eric A Longenhagen: I imagine he’ll get stretched out again. Too much value in optionable starters to ‘pen them right away

DF: Thanks for the chats! Longer term concerns w/Aroon Escobar, or just normal prospect volatility?

Eric A Longenhagen: I like him, don’t know if there’s enough power for him to be an impact guy, have more of a stable 45 on him right now. Good player, guy you win with, not a star.

Rip Calken: What would you argue as the optimal use case for Basallo when he gets called up (assuming Adley is around)? Back-up catcher who spends the rest of his time at 1B/DH? 1B/DH available to be a third catcher as needed? Closer to 50/50 split at C?

Eric A Longenhagen: Limit him to one or two SPs consistently on debut, let him DH against arms he’ll succeed against and expose him to matchup lefties in-game as a way of soft-launching him versus LHPs

Eric A Longenhagen: Okay, I’ve run the light here big time and need to go. There are still 300 of you here and that makes me want to keep going but I’ve gotta get this prospect omnibus piece out the door. Everyone come back for next week’s chat, there are so many great questions this week and people seem to have been invigorated by the deadline (same).

Eric A Longenhagen: bye for now, i’ll be in Long Beach for Area Codes next week but will still try to find time to chat from the field.