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 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

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