Effectively Wild Episode 2252: There’s Gold in Them Thar Bats

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about their obliviousness to Juan Soto signing rumors, what should count as a team claiming to have tried to sign someone, a rash of recent real signings, the strength of the free agent market so far, the Dodgers’ accounting tactics and misperceptions about deferrals, the decline in therapeutic use exemptions to MLB’s joint drug policy, and (44:17) the pros and cons of the controversial “golden at-bat” idea that was recently mooted by Rob Manfred. Audio intro: Cory Brent, “Effectively Wild Theme” Audio outro: Alex Glossman and Ali Breneman, “Effectively Wild Theme” Link to Passan’s Soto tweet Link to MLBTR’s Soto stories Link to The Athletic’s Soto report Link to MLBTR’s top 50 FA Link to FG’s top 50 FA Link to We Tried Tracker post 1 Link to We Tried Tracker post 2 Link to We Tried Tracker Link to FG post on Montas Link to FG post on Boyd Link to Cubs spending rumor Link to FG post on Higashioka Link to FG post on Edman Link to Becker on Snell Link to Becker on Edman Link to 2009 TUE story Link to 2016 TUE story Link to Russell on TUEs Link to 2024 testing stats Link to Bluesky bot Link to pudding expression Link to Delilah wiki Link to Manfred pod appearance Link to Stark article Link to Bananas rule Link to EW gift subscriptions Link to Secret Santa sign-up form  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Email Us: [email protected]  EW Subreddit  Effectively Wild Wiki  iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)  Spotify Feed  Facebook Group  Twitter Account  Bluesky Account  Get Our Merch! var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source