Ken Rosenthal: AL Wild Card madness, Shohei Ohtani IL aftermath, Phillies expectations, Volpe’s future

0:00Hi, this is Kylie Breakman, Angel Jaretana, Jeremy Cole, Hane, Patrick McDonald, and we're the hosts of the artists on artists on artists on artists podcast. The improvised character comedy podcast were each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? Hi, he winks on Halloween. He gets right up next to the microphone. You get up, I hear you get the bubbles here, the eyelashes hate each other. You never seen it least so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists every Thursday on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyson, host of the award-winning late-round podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off.

1:01Listen to the late-round fantasy football podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep, and break your heart. And that's why we make the Sullivan-Verbal College football show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubenstein. Every week, we preview the games that matter in the storylines that are going to ignite your group chat. And you can join us in the aftermath as we react to what happened, why it matters, and how the sport went completely bonkers yet again. Listen to the Solid Verbal College football show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's hit the inside scoop. Ken Rosenthal is here, our FT senior insider. Ken, I want to start with Shoei Otani. I don't think we got to go back and forth with you about this. And your colleague, Katie Wu, who was on with us the other day.

2:01And host Dodgers Territory has been writing about this frequently. How to handle Otani in his first full season as a two-way player with Dodgers. Obviously, he doesn't end up being that way. But it's difficult, the communication process, with the best player on the planet for this, right? It's often difficult with star players to get them to tell the truth about how they're feeling. And not always the case, but the Dodgers have been through this with Kershaw, with Freddie Freeman. They are great teammates, as is Shoei, but they're great teammates in part because they always want to play when they're hurt. And Katie Wu wrote a very perceptive piece in the athletic this morning, basically saying that nobody is blingless in what happened here. Certainly not the team, which maybe could have put them on the injured list earlier, or even taken more dramatic steps months ago to get him back to a better physical place. Otani, because he pushed and maybe did not communicate effectively how he was feeling,

3:02everyone kind of was operating an uncharted territory because, as you said, Scott, this is his first year pitching and hitting for the Dodgers. And at the same time, he looked back on it and said, well, man, they waited way too long. And now we're looking at him coming back five days left in the regular season. He's not going to be the same in the post season. Dave Roberts has acknowledged that. So you learn from it. And you learn from it going forward. And everybody will just try to do it maybe a little bit differently next time. Is there a point where show, hey, maybe he doesn't bounce back from this? A lot of a lot of the injured lists are precautionary for the Dodgers and Blake Snow comes back, Tyler Glass now comes back. And they take those times and they do a great job. Is it a fear that possibly now he's not going to pitch or from what we know he's not going to pitch and his hitting, it might be tough. Do the Dodgers have a spot to say, maybe his swing isn't ready or do they go with it? And maybe he's not

4:05effective in his first series in the playoffs. Eric, these are all good questions. And certainly the anticipation is he's coming back. And the question is at what level is he coming back? And they seem to be conceding that he's not going to be the show, hey, Otani of 50 Homer, 1000 OPS form necessarily. So once he comes back, then you got the five games in the regular season, then maybe you get more of a rest. Looks like they're going to get the number two seed and the buy that will give him more time to recover. But it is problematic because you don't know exactly what you're going to get from him. I imagine it'll be pretty good. It's been pretty good most of the year until recently. But at the same time, he's got a number of issues going on. The need, the bicep, the bicep issue that extends to the neck. You just don't know where it's going to lead. Earlier in the year, AJ and I both had talked about how pitching takes its major toll on any

5:08player, let alone a 32 year old player who is doing pitching and hitting at an elite level. Do you feel like the Dodgers take that allowed him to try to push for the Sai Young and now next year, take this and say, because it's the first time, like you said, with the Dodgers of him doing both and say, maybe we don't push for awards. Maybe we push for you being the best healthy player. Or is that a kickback that Shohei wants to push against? Well, the question here is how much control does Shohei actually exert? And what I was told this week is that whenever the Dodgers say we need you to do this, even if it's a step back in some regard, but it's for the team's benefit, he will say, yes, that's not a problem. He's good that way. Where it is lacking from when I was told is sometimes him communicating just how he's feeling physically to the powers that be. And again, this is not uncommon

6:09in star players. A lot of guys are like this. So the whole question of the Sai Young, it was clear and Dave Roberts invented this as well that Shohei did want to win a Sai Young. It was one of the last frontiers for him. Now looking back, maybe they pushed you hard and maybe this was too much. He's not 25 anymore. That's probably a part of this too. So entering next year, it's going to be a really interesting question for the Dodgers and for Otani, just how they want to approach the pitching aspect of it. And I anticipate I would expect that it's going to be a different approach than it was this season. Hey everyone, it's the Jonas Brothers with the Hey Jonas podcast. We've been catching up with some great friends Paul Rod, Michael Bubley, Seth Meyers, Nile Horan, Jake Shane, and making some new friends while getting into what's really like to have sisters, like Alex Nassian Earl. She likes to control everyone and tell everyone to do that. Okay, well control is a harsh word. I would say that's a harsh word. I am more outspoken, growing up a lot of the times

7:12because she was so quiet. I would speak for like the both of us. Now I'm working on like thinking a mom is really not good thinking before I speak. And Joey King. You know if you're like mom is yelling at your sibling and even if you're annoyed with your sibling, you just like won't let that slide. It's like you only can yell at your sibling. I'm like you can't do that here. That is not about her like that. I just like that. Plus we've been taking your calls listening to your voicemails and giving advice or at least trying to. So if you've got catching up to do now is the perfect time. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartReadyWap Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Kylie Breakman, Angel Jaretana, Jeremy Colhane, Patrick McDonald, and we're the hosts of the artists on artists on artists on artists podcast. The Improvised Character Comedy Podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of wellness influencers. What I try to do is foe journal. I don't know, I think I sort of foe journaling. Yeah, it's reading. It's called reading. So you're so we don't

8:15like to use that word anymore. Okay, a panel of New Yorker cartoonists. Have you guys done Terry Gross' Peloton class? No, I've been dying too. I'm so sorry. I'm seeing a reading of Sudako in the Thousand Paper Cranes by Auderman Donald at the Wonderland bookstore. That's crazy. I went to the Wonderland bookstore yesterday and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark 30. No way. Patrick of the last bookstore though, Kim Kertroll is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. A panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He, he winks on Halloween. It's right up next to the microphone. You can, I hear you'll get the elbows here. The eyelashes hate each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists on the I heard radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. By Asia Rather and our cell at least 70% have a phone. Middle school is a different world than the one

9:15we grew up in. I'm Dr. Joy and this is therapy for Black girls. We spent real time on it in our surviving middle school run. Bringing in a child psychologist and a psychiatrist who's raising two black girls of his own to talk about what's really going on with our kids right now. So it's literally physiological and neurological and psychological chaos, happening all this in time. We got into group chats and gaming, friendship and bullying, and how to tell the difference between healthy monitoring and the kind of surveillance that erodes trust. You can think of belonging as I can be myself and I can still be accepted and then they're fitting in. Spitting in says I have to change who I am in order to avoid rejection. Then we turn the conversation toward the fathers, sitting down with therapists, caregames on black fatherhood and what it means to raise a daughter through this stage. You don't have more shorts so you can't do flips, you have one to dress you up across your legs. That's the range of this run. From screen time to identity to the fathers doing the work at home. You have to get off her device. But the reality is there's a lot of light out there that we don't want

10:19you as your adult in the life to miss out on. This has been our surviving middle school run. Brought to you by the people who spend their careers thinking about exactly this. I'm Dr. Joy. Listen to therapy for black girls on the iHeartReneo app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. We talked a little bit about Anthony Volpi, about what's going to consist of him as he moves forward. Jazzy Chisholm went down. Do you have any inkling or do you suspect that he's going to be there for a long haul, making impact on the playoff? Do you see him being like a utility guy or is this just when Jazzy Chisholm is healthy enough to get back? We saw Sample Size again. How good he can be. Todd, it sort of depends on Jaz and how he recovers. If Jazzy recovers well, then do you have a spot for Volpi as a utility guy? I'm not sure they do. They didn't before when Jazzy was there. The good part of this story is that Anthony Volpi has seemingly come out of it

11:25offensively. It started in AAA. He was tearing it up down there. Of course, last night we saw what he did as well. That was a bit of a Yankee Stadium Homer, but it was a Homer nonetheless, and he had two other hits as well. What I loved about this was here's a guy who has been kind of beaten down by the game and beaten down by media and beaten down by fans. He didn't quit. He hung in there. He did his best to get back even though he felt there was no guarantee he was getting back. He didn't even think he would get back. Here he is showing that persistence again can really be incredibly meaningful for a player. I always love stories like this when guys are down and they get back up. Maybe Anthony Volpi in some fashion becomes the ultimate example of that. It might not be this year, but Jazzy is a potential free agent. Maybe Anthony Volpi is their starting second baseman next year. He has a homegrown infield or middle of the diamond least with Volpi and with Lombard Jr. A series starting tonight is the Braves vs.

12:32the Phillies. Essentially the two best teams in the National League East, possibly top five two best teams in the National League or baseball. The Phillies have shrunk that lead. In my opinion, I don't feel like they make it back. In your opinion, have the Phillies surpassed the Braves in creating a team that could go farther in the playoffs, which were arrayed around the corner. Because if you take the team that started poorly and now compared to the Braves team now, have they shrunk that lead, which is just a not a real lead. It's just something in our minds. I would say that the Phillies entire outlook for the rest of this season and in the playoffs depends on their offense. Now they've got bullpen questions as well, but you can shrink your pitching staff on the postseason, use starters and relief, anticipate they'll do some of that. We all know their starters are really good. The question is, is that offense that surged in

13:34August and early September and now has kind of fading again? Is that offense going to be there or is it not? Matt Gale brought about this in the athletic today. What they were doing is it sustainable. If it is, if they get back to that, they may be a better team than the Braves because simply their starting pitching is better than the Braves is. Now, I will say this, the Braves starting pitching beyond sale, it's been a question and an issue all season long, but Tyler Mali has been a great addition for them. He now looks like a legitimate number two starter for the postseason. Grant Holmes has been good, more team Perez has been good. They can put it together and if Robert Suarez comes back and is healthy and can add to their bullpen, their bullpen is really good as well. They too have had offensive issues at various times this year and right now, Olson is struggling and that's kind of dragging them down a little bit, but I can't tell you what I can't predict and I don't know which team is the better postseason team. They both have the

14:39potential to do really big things whether that happens and not remains to be seen. I try not to ask you for predictions, but one thing that you do do is you break down where they've been and what they're going to and then we make our own decisions. So I appreciate that Ken. The one thing I need you to comment on though is what Mark Fyneson wrote about how the Braves possibly had a trade for Jacob DeGrom to fill in what you said that number two spot in the rotation for Spencer Strider who was the number one before Chris sale had ever gotten to Atlanta. Is there, do you have anything more to add about that, but also does that show us where the Braves were trying to be in this trade deadline? Well, it definitely shows us that and I reported the day of the deadline that he had rejected a trade to Atlanta. Now the Strider element and I know Mark reported this a couple of days ago and others had mentioned it before as well. I was told that was not true. Now sometimes

15:43in a situation like this when I'm told that it's a matter of semantics and maybe it was discussed but not simply as far along as is being portrayed. Maybe it was discussed and it was far along and I'm being told kind of a half truth. I don't know but we do know for sure they tried to get DeGrom he rejected it and whether Strider was the guy going back yes that's been reported a few times now and though I didn't have it I don't doubt that there was some truth to that. So it turns out that DeGrom has had a less consistent second half though he was really good yesterday and Tyler Molly has been tremendous for them. So sometimes these things work out even though you don't expect them to work out in a certain fashion. Let's talk about Kurt Suzuki out in LA where obviously when he signs a one year deal it becomes his jobs and flocks already. He's a lame duck immediately when he signs the contract. Now the GM's changed and now the owner has changed.

16:46Can you kind of lead us to the path that you wrote in your article about how he possibly could be brought back for another season which we didn't think was possible when he put his pen to paper. Yes and I wrote this today with Sam Blum and it's an interesting situation so a couple of things just to give you the context. One the expectation is that the new ownership will not take control until early 2027. Now it might happen sooner and if it happens say in November okay then the new ownership does what it wants. It makes a decision on John Maselock it makes a decision on Kurt Suzuki. It's kind of clean but given that the ownership is not expected to take full control until January it's the very earliest and given that we have a lockout beginning December 1st there are decisions that are going to have to be made by the controlling owner right now who is already Marino who will remain a minority owner and Suzuki's contract is up. Maselock's

17:48contract extends through the end of the year you got to figure out what you're doing. Maybe it's Stan Kronke the new owner saying you know what let's just stay status quo for now until I get full control and until I see these guys performing their jobs and Maselock has spoken highly in our story spoke really highly of Suzuki so maybe that's how this ends and maybe Suzuki does get a reprieve of sorts simply because of this transition taking place and all of the uncertainty with the lockout and the ownership changing hands. It's hard to know and we just kind of were giving the landscape of where this stands right now but I would expect that Marino and Kronke will be kind of working hand and hand on this and will reach some sort of decision together even though Kronke won't have full control necessarily right away.

19:03I am more outspoken growing up a lot of the times because she was so quiet I would speak for like the both of us now I'm working on like thinking a mom is really not thinking before I speak. And Joey King you know if you're like mom is yelling at your sibling and even if you're annoyed with your sibling you just like won't let that slide it's like you only you can yell at your sibling I'm like you can't do that here that is not what I'm talking about her like that I don't know about her like that. Plus we've been taking your calls listening to your voicemails and giving advice or at least trying to. So if you've got catching up to do now with the perfect time listen to hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi this is Kylie Breakman, Angel Jaretana, Jeremy Colhane, Patrick McDonald, and we're the hosts of the artists on artists on artists on artists podcast. The improvised character comedy podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of wellness influencers. What I try to do is foe journal I don't know

20:05if you guys heard of foe journaling. Yeah it's reading it's called reading so you're so we don't like to use that word anymore. Okay a panel of New Yorker cartoonists. Have you guys done Terry Gross's Peloton class? No! I've been dying too! I'm so sorry I'm seeing a reading of Sadako in the Pousin Thousand Paper Cranes by Audrement Donald at the Wonderland bookstore. That's crazy I went to the Wonderland bookstore yesterday and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark Thirty. No way! I have to come to the last bookstore though. Kim Kutroll is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. A panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the pope dress up? He winks on a lowly. It's right up next to the microphone. I hear you get the elbows here the eyelashes hit each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists on the iHeard Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. By Asia Rather and or so at least 70% have a phone. Middle school is a

21:09different world than the one we grew up in. I'm Dr. Joy and this is Therapy for Black Girls. We spent real time on it in our surviving middle school run. Bringing in a child psychologist and a psychiatrist who's raising two Black girls of his own to talk about what's really going on with our kids right now. So it's literally physiological and neurological, air psychological chaos happening all this e-dial. We got into group chats and gaming, friendship and bullying, and how to tell the difference between healthy monitoring and the kind of surveillance that erodes trust. You're belonging. You could think of belonging as I can be myself and I can still be accepted and then they're fitting in. Spitting in says I have to change who I am in order to avoid rejection. Then we turn the conversation toward the fathers. Sitting down with therapists, cure gains on Black fatherhood and what it means to raise a daughter through this stage. You don't have more shorts so you can't do flips. You have one to dress you up across your legs. That's the range of this run. From screen time to identity to the fathers doing the work at home.

22:09You have to get off her device. But the reality is there's a lot of life out there that we don't want you as you're adults in the life to miss out on. This has been our surviving middle school run. Brought to you by the people who spend their careers thinking about exactly this. I'm Dr. Joy. Listen to therapy for Black girls on the iHeartReneo app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. No doubt. No doubt. So I'm looking at the standings here a little bit. I'm looking at the AL wild card considering red socks and Yankees pretty much set lock to get in there. Do you give me a give me a team. I guess I'm going to ask you that you think is going to make a big jump here. I know I'm going to like the Orioles or three games back. You got Toronto a game back. Is there a team that you see taking it to the next level and getting that third spot? I run out of time Todd. I still believe Cleveland is going to seize the third spot. They've got it right now and

23:09Toronto has these pitching issues. They really don't have a fifth starter. They're kind of in a funny place that way. Their offense has been up and down all year. They're right there. You can see in the standings. They're right there. But I just see Cleveland because of Williams and Mystic at the top of their rotation and the offense being better with Joe Adele and Nathaniel Low. They're still really young. They're still not all that great either but I wouldn't be surprised if they overtake the white socks. They're only a game and a half behind right now. I just kind of like what they did at the deadline. I like to vibe to that team overall. Baltimore know Texas. They're in Arizona this weekend. Big series for them. They have not played well enough for anyone to think, wow, they're going to go grab this. I just sit there and think Cleveland is the best of him. As Eric said, he doesn't ask me for predictions and he doesn't ask me for predictions quite nicely because I'm terrible at predictions. Things always seem to happen that I don't anticipate.

24:14It'll just be interesting to see how these final three weeks play out. Here's something you don't anticipate because nobody sees it coming. If the white socks young team gets tired and they miss the playoffs because the blue jays take the third spot and the guardians win the division, would it be considered a failure of a season for the white socks team? I would say no. Certainly it would be disappointing to have it in this way after they've really led the division for quite some time and had this tremendously inspiring season. But if you miss the playoffs, obviously you could say, well, we never expected to be here in the first place, which is the absolute truth. They did not expect it. You could also say, this is something to build on. We now tasted the bitterness of this disappointment. We go forward and we go forward knowing what needs to be done to get to the next step. All of that will be true and fairer points to make

25:15not simply rationalizations. But if that happens at the same time, chances of getting in the playoffs or opportunities to get in the playoffs are rare. You guys know this from playing. It's hard to do. And when that chance is there and you miss, that's things. Yeah. Division is one thing and they should get it. But you're right. Like we're talking about it. I just think I try and look back at the beginning of the season. If you told anybody in March, the White Tox made the playoffs. One sentence, that's it. Doesn't matter how they got there, even if they blew a lead, whatever. White Tox made the playoffs. Yes or no, do you take that for anybody with expectations? They would say yes. White Tox made the playoffs. That is an incredible turnaround from what they've done the last few years. So can good stuff. Good talk to you. Catch you soon. Thanks guys. And of course, you can hear Ken most Saturdays on Fox for whatever games they have this weekend. Obviously is NFL season getting fully locked and loaded.

26:16Then we focus on baseball again with playoffs around the corner and the Fox one app will have the nationally side of the equation for division series CS and then eventually they'll have the World Series exclusively on Fox and Fox one get your three day free trial started at Fox one.com. Hi, this is Kylie breakman, Angela Jaretana, Jeremy Cole, Heyne Cash McDonald, and we're the hosts of the artists on artists on artists on artists podcast. The Improvized Character Comedy podcast were each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants and we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on a low and it's right up next to the microphone. I hear you get the elbows here. The eyelashes hate each other. You never seen it least so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists every Thursday on the iHeart Radio app,

27:20Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyson, host of the award-winning late round podcast. Before your draft are players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the late round fantasy football podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep and break your heart. And that's why we make the Solid Verbal College football show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubenstein. Every week we preview the games that matter in the storylines that are going to ignite your group chat. And you can join us in the aftermath as we react to what happened, why it matters and how the sport went completely bonkers yet again. Listen to the Solid Verbal College

28:21football show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.