Athletics Nation 2017-18 offseason plan project

One of the best parts of this little pocket of the internet is that it’s a bona fide community. Most comment sections are hotbeds for hot takes and ignorance. On this blog? There’s baseball knowledge and smart ideas galore in a comment section filled with great conversation.

And hot takes.

Each year, we call on you to construct different plans for the A's offseason. We get some great participation year in and year out and it’s always a blast. We’re doing it again this year, and we’ve already gotten a few great submissions! So join us: do your best to come up with a viable offseason strategy for the A's via FanPost.

To write a FanPost, simply click this link or click on the “write a FanPost” button once you’ve logged in. Here are some examples from last year for you to draw inspiration from, but feel free to make it yours! You’re the GM, you decide the moves!

A few resources:

• Here’s the A’s Cots Contracts page for payroll obligations for 2018. The general rule of thumb is keep it under $100 million for the season, but the choice is yours on how to do so.
• Here’s a list of this offseason’s free agents courtesy of MLB Trade Rumors. It’s good to be realistic on who the A’s actually have a chance with, though again, make it your own!

What follows should be a good guideline that you can copy-paste into your FanPost and edit where necessary.

[Your name here]'s Offseason Plan

Arbitration Eligible players (using MLBTR's arbitration estimates)

Write tender or non-tender next to each name. You can trade before tendering a contract.

• Khris Davis - $11.1 million
• Marcus Semien - $3.2 million
• Kendall Graveman - $2.6 million
• Blake Treinen - $2.3 million
• Chris Hatcher - $2.2 million
• Liam Hendriks - $1.9 million
• Josh Phegley - $1.1 million
• Jake Smolinski - $700k

Free Agency - who do you want to sign?

Peruse the list of free agents, name the ones you would pursue, the max offer you would extend to them, and explain your reasoning. As many as you want, but remember to keep payroll and roster size in mind.

Trade Proposals

Propose any trades you think sound reasonable for both sides. Reasonable is key here – we at AN love our fantasy trades, but try to keep it within the realm of possibility – the exercise is useless if we just get a bunch of "Canha for Trout" proposals. Explain your reasoning for both sides of the trade.

Summary

If you end up with a coherent 25-man roster, feel free to list it. If you don't, that's cool, we don't expect you to fully plan out a 7-man bullpen or the end of the bench. What's more important is how you've filled out key positions – at least list potential lineups, the rotation, and the top of the bullpen.

You can go as realistic or outlandish as you want. If you want to try to predict the A's 2018 roster, that's fine. If you want to trade literally everyone and come up with your dream team, that's cool too.

Here are some plans that have already appeared:

• Pro4pro32polishA’sfan
• BWH
• Taj Adib

And here's a list of plans that we'll be updating constantly. In a few weeks, we'll take a look at some of the trends and what we've learned about what the fanbase wants and expects.

Have fun!