Mark Polishuk's NL Central comments

[mikechamp]

These comments came from a chat with MLB Trade Rumors' Mark Polishuk that occurred on March 15.

The same amount of questions as last week. There are 4 bonus questions: one about the Olympics, one about the Challenge System, one about World Series predictions and one about a 154-game schedule. Enjoy the read!!

The link to the entire chat can be found here: https://live.jotcast.com/chat/mlbtr-liv ... 24116.html
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Is Triolo really going to be the starting 3B in Pittsburgh? His defense is great, but three months of hitting shouldn't have won him a job when his track record suggests far less.

Mark Polishuk
Nothing wrong with devoting one position over to a premium defender, as long as the rest of the lineup has enough bats to make up for it. The issue is whether the Pirates truly added enough hitting this winter to get away with having Triolo in there on an everyday-ish basis.

Ideally, the Pirates probably would've preferred to get another third baseman and used Triolo in a super-sub role. But hey, maybe Triolo has a breakout in him at the plate. And, his glove is good enough that if that "breakout" if even just in the 100 or 101 wRC+ range, that bat in combo with his glove makes for a fine everyday player
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Do you think it likely the Reds make a trade for a starting pitcher before the start of the season?

Mark Polishuk
The Reds' budget is slim enough that Giolito (even at a discount) probably isn't realistic, plus Cincy has a decent amount of starting depth on hand already. Losing Greene for half the year is brutal for the team, but the Reds might feel they have enough pitching to tread water until he's ready to pitch.
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Will the Angels, Rangers, Athletics or Cardinals employ a full time closer or committee this year?

Mark Polishuk
The plan for all of that group seems to be a committee to start with, and if one pitcher really stands out, they may be properly anointed "closer" at some point in the season.
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It’s only spring training but I can be excited about Matt McLain right?

Mark Polishuk
Go for it! McLain getting back to 2023 form would be a gigantic boost to Cincinnati's season. Maybe karma owes the Reds some balance after Greene's injury.
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I know the Cards are going for a kids movement. They have more tee ball players than ever before. However, this team has the possibility of being super bad this season. Defense, offense and pitching could be at historic lows. Will they regret not adding even some passable major league experienced talent?

Mark Polishuk
Adding a more reliable veteran arm than Dustin May would've been beneficial to the rotation.

Overall, however, St. Louis is a bit different than other recent rebuilding teams. A lot of the Cards players aren't "kids" in the sense that most of them have at least a couple of seasons of MLB experience, and with some success at the big league level.
While the Cards aren't going to be good this year, I don't think they're staring at some ugly 100-loss record or anything.
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Is there any chance the Cardinals will send Walker to AAA since he has been bad for 2 years and bad this spring?

Mark Polishuk
In keeping with the youth movement, this is Walker's year to show what he can do in the majors with the Cards. He doesn't turn 24 until May so I hesitate to call it a "last chance" or something, but if Walker continues to struggle against MLB pitching, Bloom might consider trading him or demoting him.

What's interesting about Walker is that his career Triple-A numbers aren't particularly good, either. Injuries have played a role in this, but perhaps giving him another extended look in Triple-A can be beneficial if it gets Walker a chance to be dominant.

And, if he can't hit much in Triple-A, that's another red flag.
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Are the additions of O'Hearn, Lowe, Mangum, and Ozuna just a random mishmash of hitters and the Bucs will be lucky to be .500, or is this a brilliant overhaul possibly resulting in a playoff berth?

Mark Polishuk
O'Hearn and Lowe alone should make the lineup better. Ozuna and Mangum are more fliers, but given how bad Pittsburgh's lineup was in 2025, in a sense there's nowhere to go but up.
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What do you make of Suzuki's injury in the WBC last night? Think he'll be back in the Cub's line-up soon?

Mark Polishuk
No word yet on any testing, as Suzuki likely just got back into the Cubs' camp today. Too early to tell at this point, so Cubs fans will have to keep holding their breaths for at least another day.
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Hoerner, Suzuki, Happ all up for FA. Do the Cubs get any of them extended?

Mark Polishuk
For as much as Hoerner has been in trade rumors, I have a weird feeling that if the Cubs extend any of this group, it could be him? I'd still lean towards this trio all hitting free agency next winter, however.
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Do you think MLB players will be in the Olympics? Will that be part of CBA negotiations or separate?

Mark Polishuk
It has to be addressed in the CBA since it would naturally involve an adjustment to the 2028 season's structure. Presumable the All-Star break would be elongated and the ASG maybe skipped altogether.
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I’m enjoying the extra layer of strategy the Challenge System brings to the game (how about you?) but shouldn’t teams get at least 3 challenges? Baseball is about 3 strikes and you’re out.

Mark Polishuk
I do like that symmetry. I think the league wants to prevent teams from getting too carried away with challenges, so two seems like an okay number for now.

And as for my take on the ABS in general, I like it. Always a good idea to strive for accuracy.
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World series predictions?

Mark Polishuk
Gather round, one and all! It is time for Mark's official preseason World Series prediction, which I believe has never been correct in the six years I've been doing these chats.

Mariners vs. Dodgers is my call for 2026, so apologies in advance to the Seattle/LA fans for jinxing at least one of your clubs.
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Think there's any chance of revisiting a 154-game season? Has seemed impossible since the owners wouldn't want to lose any money but as time passes, playoffs are getting bulkier, WBC is getting popular, Olympics could become a thing, and MLB games are being played internationally. I wouldn't be in favor of it personally but, seems that those 8 games could be repurposed into the global events?

Mark Polishuk
I'd say this scenario is quite unlikely, yet not zero.

You're right that a lot of owners would balk at losing four home games, plus players would balk at having salaries reduced if eight games were cut. But, in the hypothetical world where Olympic baseball happens, and moving the WBC to midseason also becomes a possibility, then suddenly you have a big mid-year interruption two of every four years.

Some kind of reduction to the 162-game sched would be almost inevitable, unless the league was willing to eat the weather issues that would arise in starting earlier in March or extending the playoffs deeper into November.
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