#532: Winter Meetings recap

December 12, 2025·51 min·5 clips

Diamond Baseball Holdings now owns four dozen minor league teams after acquiring three Astros affiliates.

This episode of The Show Before the Show, the official Minor League Baseball podcast, recaps news from the MLB Winter Meetings. Hosts Tyler Vaughn, Benjamin Hill, and Sam Dykstra discuss recent franchise ownership changes across the minors. Diamond Baseball Holdings acquired three Houston Astros affiliates: the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys, Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks, and High-A Fayetteville Woodpeckers. The Prospector Baseball Group, led by John Abamundi and Ben Boyer, purchased the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp and Akron Rubber Ducks from Ken Babby's Fast Forward Sports. On Deck Partners, a new private equity group, bought the Visalia Rawhide and the Montgomery Biscuits, the latter previously co-owned by boxing promoter Lou DiBella. The hosts note these seven transactions represent significant movement among the 120 affiliated teams. Sam Dykstra highlights the creative, community-oriented legacies of the Jacksonville and Akron franchises, setting a high bar for their new ownership. Benjamin Hill shares an anecdote about former Visalia owner Sam Siegel picking him up from a train station in a hot dog suit over a decade ago. The conversation shifts to a listener correction about holiday calendars, clarifying the difference between a traditional Advent calendar and the Lake County Captains' sold-out "12 Days of Captain's Cheer" promotional calendar. A fun fact reveals Hall of Fame electee Jeff Kent and Carlos Delgado were teammates on the 1989 St. Catharines Blue Jays. The hosts then analyze recent Major League transactions, including Pete Alonso's five-year, $155 million deal with the Orioles following Kyle Schwarber's re-signing with the Phillies. They discuss the trade sending catching prospect Harry Ford from the Seattle Mariners to the Washington Nationals for reliever José Ferrer. Sam Dykstra details the 2025 Rule 5 Draft, where 12 of the 13 selected players were right-handed pitchers, including first overall pick R.J. Petit to the Colorado Rockies. Other notable picks include the White Sox selecting two pitchers with no upper-level experience, Jettix Andrade and Alexander Alberto, and the Nationals taking Griff McGarry from the Phillies. The Blue Jays' selection of Spencer Miles, a pitcher with only 14.2 professional innings, is highlighted as a high-risk, high-reward move based on raw stuff. The tone is conversational and insider-focused, blending business news with lighthearted banter and historical trivia. This episode is ideal for dedicated Minor League Baseball fans and industry watchers interested in franchise economics and prospect movement. Listeners seeking pure on-field game analysis or Major League-centric talk may find less relevance here.

As heard by us

A loose, lived-in winter meetings recap with real offseason gravity.

This winter meetings recap keeps its feet on the ground, following baseball people as they try to make sense of an offseason that has not settled yet.

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For when you want the winter meetings mood from the official podcast of Minor League Baseball.

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