Farhan Zaidi's Media Availability Following the MLB Trade Deadline

yeah no go ahead you guys we have um if you have a question for far raise your hand faran can you just kind of explain the overall thought process between behind the trades you guys made the last few days sure um you know I I think as we looked at how this season is unfolded uh so far couple things really stand out you know one which people talked a lot about and it's certainly how we feel internally is it's been a long road to get our rotation to uh the place it's in now um and we feel like we have the best rotation in baseball so uh you when you have starting pitching like that it can get you on a roll um and you know for us uh to keep that group together seeing how we played this past weekend uh was you know really high priority and obviously we had to be open uh to things that might come up but that was really you really our Central philosophy going in to the deadline is we have a rotation that can carry this team down the stretch and and get us on a roll um the other thing is this season for us really I think has been about about some breakthroughs by Young Players uh and often times those breakthroughs don't happen until you give a guy a real opportunity so Robin's opportunity came after Lee got hurt we released Nick Ahmed uh and traded Austin's Slater at you know kind of difficult times to give Luis Matos and Tyler Fitzgerald an opportunity obviously Fitz has has uh you know been unbelievable for us and you know Luis is still obviously a guy we believe in and think he'll be here down the stretch at some point as well Hayden bird song at a time when our rotation was beat up you know really accelerated his timetable and you know a lot of the Alex cob deal was really just about creating a spot for him uh the deal last night was a lot about creating at bats for Luciano who's really come a long way offensively I think we have seen his trajectory over the last few years and we talked a little bit about how he can get put under a microscope because he's been such a highly thought of prospect from the time he signed at 16 uh sometimes you lose the zoom out big picture of how much progress he's made and we've really seen that over the last month so uh so I I I I think this you know the first couple CHS were really about creating opportunities for young players uh which has been uh you know the Catalyst for some of our best play so far and you know then kind of here at the buzzer um you know Bob got a hold of the car keys and brought another one of his guys so um you know Maran is just like a perfect fit for this roster with uh you know his uh versatility ability to play the corners play first base uh start come off the bench you know we've got we're very left-handed in the corner so he fits that perfectly and I think the relationships he has in in the clubhouse which obviously Bob can speak more to and really this city in this region just a a great fit for us and I know people are excited about it so uh yeah that's kind of uh our thinking in a nutshell um you've already seen this year Farhan just how you can never have enough p ing depth um with what you had to go through in the first half um was it difficult to give up some of that depth with Cobb even though like you said you are making a space for bird song um because you do have two more months to get yeah no it it was tough uh partly because of the guy Alex is and we know how hard he's worked to get back to this point you know between the surgery and some of the setbacks he had along the way and to move him right at this point right as he's ready to take the mountain for us is tough because of the guy he is and kind of to your point bag's like you don't know if someone's going to get hit by a line drive there you know first inning out there so uh it you know creates some risk but for us the job Hayden's done and for us to kind of really believe in the role that this group of five starters can get on you've got to sort of take a little bit of a chance and a leap of faith that they're going to pitch they're going to be healthy and uh if something happens we'll we'll have to figure out another plan I mean we've got a couple guys in AAA that we think can come up and do the job for us and we've had to sort of improvise at different times this year obviously that's not plan a but if it happens we'll figure it out but uh it's always nice to have that safety net but sometimes again when you're talking about creating Pathways for young players uh that's some of the discomfort you have to deal with is when you're young player your optionable player is the best option and the guy who you know might be in front of him has to you know uh you've got to make a move with that person yeah you you'd love to sort of have your cake and eat it too but that's that's often not how it works so hi Faron I imagine you received a bit of calls for Blake Snell what would have taken for another team to to for you to trade him away yeah I look I think a cha tra trading him would have changed the course of this season where we still believe in what we can accomplish and again um you know leaning into our youth leaning to our rotation is really the plan um so someone really came to us with something we thought could really change our future you know then and you're making that sort of trade off of uh the present versus you know 2026 2027 um you know that that's challenging but uh again I think the way things have come together this rotation it was really going to have to be something that we thought would do just that just like really change the course of future years for this organization and not just be sort of a package of prospects that you know would slide into this slot and that slot on your baseball America list you know and uh and that just that just didn't happen Farhan when you trade a guy like Solair who's less than a year into a three-year deal and he just signed do you have to consider what impending future free agents might think about that I think it's a fair question look Jorge was a total Pro we loved having him here um you know he he's going to a team he's played for before has relationships I know he's happy about it even though um I think anytime you get traded there's some degree of sadness or disappointment um so you know we we do take that kind of thing into account understanding that there are places that a player is going to be more comfortable getting traded um to place where he's been before I mean you even look like a guy like Alex Cobb you he mentioned to me when I talked to him earlier today that Steven vote and Alby Craig alurn asor his two first catchers in pro ball so you know uh uh look you can always prioritize that and execute on that but it's important to us and um so again I I think any player you sign up one-year deal multi-year deal you understand this is part of the game and I mean he was just a total Pro while he was here I know um it's always tough when we're talking about our belief in what we can do down the street it's always tough to trade out out of your major league Clubhouse um but obviously bringing Mark in helps getting a chance to give Marco Luciano some at bats is something we're all excited about so um I think it's a totally fair question but uh again it's it's it's part of the business and I still think on the grand you know in the big picture guys are really happy here really enjoy playing here and that's um I think a reputation we want to see continue one real quick one then another longer one a quick one is Luciano going to get any short stop time you think yeah I I think it's possible um you know obviously this is really about getting him at bats in the8 spot I don't think we're kind of putting in ink that he's a career DH now obviously he's young we've talked about his defensive progress um so there may be spots where he moves around the infield but this is the role for him right now and secondly I know I mean you've got a season weeks months left in the season you don't want to look entirely big picture but you do you have to look big picture when you're looking at the trade deadline six years into it Farhan I mean where do you think this franchise is do you think it's significantly moved forward from when you took over do you think there's been a stall where are you at with yeah I mean look our our our record is we're two games under 500 so and uh to your point Tim that's you know we've had stretches in 22 and 23 where we um got some separation from 500 we in really good playoff position and weren't able to sustain it and so I think that's why it was so important for us in this case to really just leverage the strength of our team and keep the rotation intact you know when I look at um the progress that's being made to me it's uh breaking young players in we've talked about that a lot uh this year between Ramos Fitzgerald bird song uh I think those are things you can really hang your hat on as you know something that represents long-term progress for the organization players who've been drafted and you know that part of you know this you I know you get to this time of year and frankly whenever you're a little bit on the comp com competing bubble like we are we're you know three games out uh in the Wild Card race there's a notion of you know let's let's just make let's sell and let's enhance the farm system but you know you can have all the prospects you want it's not going to matter until you actually create opportunities for them right so you can go out and get a bunch of guys but if you're not willing to do some of the things we did over the last couple days to create opportunities for those guys it's just not going to have a chance to impact your major league team so you know really to answer your question I would say I think what fans want to see I think what we can hang our hat on as an organization is the progress of of young players coming up and impacting us and I I named three guys and that's not including you know guys like Eric Miller and Brett wisley that were acquired into this organization but are young players who have a chance to be here for a long time so the more of that you know the more we have guys coming up establishing themselves you know like a pat Bailey did last year I think that's that's where the progress is coming from hey faren um was there for you A F line that you had to cross between um you know slashing payroll versus being Allin on this year H how was that measured yeah there's no you know I mean for us these were all kind of baseball decisions and like I mentioned John you know they were decisions that had to do with creating opportunities for young players um you know very specific young players and um you know again we're trying to compete we have this rotation that we think can carry us and um you know I mean we're making an organizational decision a baseball decision for these um you know that that we believe some of these young guys can can can help us get to where we're trying to get to and you know that's a responsibility that we have to sort of be right about that that's not a responsibility that they carry so um um so yeah I don't know if that answers your question well you you talked about the best rotation in baseball what what about the offense which has been very inconsistent why not bring in a big-time hitter to help support that rotation yeah I mean yeah I I guess you'd like to have the best rotation in baseball and the best um offense in baseball but um you know that's I guess something to Aspire to um yeah again I I you know kind of mentioned this before I I think for us the you know upside that we saw was you know giving it bats and opportunities to some of our our own guys you know there are um you know always certain group of players out there in the trade deadline they're players that I think were rumored out there that wound up not getting traded a lot of those guys so you know some of it is is just really hypothetical and not really a function of availability so you've got to kind of make decisions based on you know what's real and what's attainable and um you know like I said seeing the success of some of our other young players to kind of continue in that direction um and try to give them the opportunity to build on that momentum and again I think that's what fans want to see it's what we want to see we want to see these guys who are going to be here for a long time get opportunities and and hit their stride and I don't you know from an organization standpoint from a fan standpoint I don't think any thing you know gets people more excited than that and again I for us you know bringing in a guy like Marana who I think is going to be huge for our clubhouse and um and just the functionality of our roster you know you're hoping those are complimentary to you know homegrown players young guys who are really doing the heavy lifting and so that's kind of the vision we we hope to see do two to three more questions um just kind of playing off that farh Han um at our radio station we take a lot of calls from fans who are kind of I guess they're they're frustrated over over what they perceive to be as a lack of Direction with this team um what would you say to those fans who are feeling frustrated and who have maybe kind of lost hope to kind of get them excited about the future of this organization yeah I'd say you know we're we're kind of leaning into our young players I mean we have heard a lot from our you know uh I mean look development is not a straight line right I I I think when we're talking about guys like Ramos and Fitzgerald they're perfect examples of it you know Ramos been triaa for three years and you know was getting hot and got an opportunity and you know now we see where he is Tyler Fitzgerald you know was a fourth round pick for us back in 2019 went a level at a time had a nice minor league career got a opportunity to come up last year did a nice job and uh you know we kind of kept the short stop position open open hoping hoping that somebody from our group of young players could you know take the Reigns and and he did it so I think that's going to be the fun of the rest of the season is uh it's we're going to continue to bring guys up we you know um you know Marco Luciano's here today we want to see him get the dhf bats and and see if he can run with those you know we've created a rotation spot for Hayden bird song and I know people are really excited about what he's doing so um you know I I think that's to me that's kind of baseball it's most exciting when you're playing competitive baseball meaningful baseball and you've got young guys coming up who can be part of it um and then you said back in your intro pressor that you believe that the giant should be the best at everything I'm just I'm curious you know in your six years here what do you think you know you and in this organization have been the best at during that time yeah look uh uh we don't have the best record so I think to your point anything I say is not um you know uh it's not manifested in the bottom line so I think for us it's you know continuing to build a culture of players who want to be here um players who are proud of the city of the organization of the uniform uh I think we have that we have a manager who guys love playing for um you know we saw that this past off season in our free agent recruiting uh the excitement that guys had about coming here being part of this organization and again I think we you know farm system rankings are going to be farm system rankings but for us to you know I think we've really hit our stride the last couple years and guys actually coming up and becoming contributors and being part of this team and I think sometimes there's been frustration at you know guys that didn't get over the hump or maybe didn't become part of that but you know every organization goes through it and I I think over the last couple years the examples of players we have um you know is is is getting us there look we're we're not going to be you know if you look at like rookie production War whatever we number one I I don't there's no team that's number one in that every year but that's I think what we want to see okay two more I haven't looked at the fan graphs playoff percentages for you today I I would imagine they're not great they weren't great even you know two days ago three days ago would you be disappointed if this team is not right there at the end do you expect to be there do you expect the playoff or where do you take your chances really we expect to be there I mean you know I probably look at the playoff odds um uh you know a little too much as probably a lot of Baseball fans do because it's hard to really interpret what they mean beyond the number you know at some point it's it's not really about the probability it's a discreet question of Do you have a 10- two 14 and three running you um to get to where you need to be you know because uh you know it's just like any individual game a win probability goes from 0.1% and someone hits a grand slam and suddenly it's 90 95% so you know is it 20 is it 70 is it 33 I think what what our playoff odds are telling us is we've got to have a big run in us and if if we do we'll be there and if we don't we won't you know so um that's where I think the pitching and the fact that I think when you look at the starting pitching matchups almost every game the rest of the season we're going to look at it and believe we have an advantage there it's a pretty good place to start any baseball game and again it's going to it's going to take that run our guys know it you know we know it and um and again the I think the Common Thread when you see teams get on a run is just pitching that gives you a chance to win every day M sort of question in a similar vein do you see this roster as constructed as a team that can make the playoffs or is there's more looking towards the future yeah 100% I think we can I mean we have felt that way since the start of the season and our roster looks different than it did at the start of the Season we've had guys come back we've lost some guys um but um 100% I believe that and like I said I I can't sit here and guarantee it it's going to take us getting on a rooll and you know two weeks from now we may look at those playoff odds and they may look very different they may look the same I mean at some point here between now and the end of the season um you know we're going to have to have a one week or two week stretch where people are really talking about us um being as hot as any team out there that's what it's going to take