I agree with you on everyone but Birdsong (parts of it). He def needs to prove that he can go the 2nd time through the order and reduce his BB/9, but neither of those need to be done this year… he was called up as a complete emergency, far from ready, and held his own better than one could expect based on where he was on his development process.
Maybe his “I’m a ML starter for good” year is 2026, not 2025, but i don’t think there’s anything he can do on those last 3 starts will be enough for us to know it for good. I think he’s 100% a starter, don’t see him as just a bullpen arm at all, but with just ~80 innings between AA and AAA in his life, maybe he does need an extra half season or so fine tuning at AAA.
Just to wrap it up… we need 2 extra SP (or Snell + 1) for next yr. We can’t pretend we’ll compete with Webb, Ray, Hicks, Harrison and Birdsong and nothing else behind them.
I agree with you on everyone but Birdsong (parts of it). He def needs to prove that he can go the 2nd time through the order and reduce his BB/9, but neither of those need to be done this year… he was called up as a complete emergency, far from ready, and held his own better than one could expect based on where he was on his development process.
Maybe his “I’m a ML starter for good” year is 2026, not 2025, but i don’t think there’s anything he can do on those last 3 starts will be enough for us to know it for good. I think he’s 100% a starter, don’t see him as just a bullpen arm at all, but with just ~80 innings between AA and AAA in his life, maybe he does need an extra half season or so fine tuning at AAA.
Just to wrap it up… we need 2 extra SP (or Snell + 1) for next yr. We can’t pretend we’ll compete with Webb, Ray, Hicks, Harrison and Birdsong and nothing else behind them.