FanPost

A bit of trade therapy after the heartbreak......

So now that’s the season over, and despite feeling that I’ve just had a bad break up with a skydiver – In other words feeling that I’ve just been shat on from a great height….

But as with all of life’s kicks in the downstairs, you writhe around in pain for a bit, try to metaphorically untangle anything that may have got twisted in the trauma, and try to move on as best you can…..

And for me it’s now about focusing on the positives (it was a surprisingly good year which far exceeded my expectations, I thought we would be a 76-78 win team), and focus on next year and how we can look to improve……

So let’s look at area’s we need to improve….. Starting pitchers, Catchers (I’m putting plural, cause I would prefer an upgrade over Phegley) a left handed reliever and a couple of relievers to replace Familia and Kelley

Well obviously SP…..

As with going into this year, our ability to follow and press on from this amazing year, will depend a lot on what we get out of out of SP rotation.

Either through good luck or good management we managed to cobble together a solid rotation from broken old (if not age, MLB arm old, and with EJax both – love you EJax) players, who all have all had bounce back years.

So, what I essentially mean is, our rotation looked to have the strength of a 2 dollar shop condom, and I to be honest I didn’t trust it about the same to hold together, once the grind and pressure of the regular season was applied…… But it did, and it turned out to be amazing!!!

But I wouldn’t trust it to work again next year, so I would like a bit more of an upgrade….. that’s all I’m saying……

Especially as we have also been decimated by injuries, leaving us with less depth than when we started in 2018.

At this stage our rotation is Friers, Bassett, Mengden and Montas ?Brooks ?Naile… With maybe Cotton and Puk to help out of the pen mid-year ……

Saying, that I fully expect Cahill to re-sign with us on a 1 year 6mil (ish) deal, as after testing free agency he’ll find a lot of teams to be put off by his home/road splits this year…. Who knows, maybe he’ll find a stupid team like the Orioles did with Cobb and give him a 2-3 year deal….I just don’t think so…. Even so I won’t include his as a SP…..

Jackson and Anderson, I don’t know I doubt they we will re-sign them, maybe, could do….But, they had pretty ordinary peripherals.

Anderson had a terrible strike out rate K/9 5.27 HR/9 1.12 LOB% at 55.6 and a BABIP of .307.

EJax if anything was slightly worse believe it or not with K/9 3.62 HR/9 1.17 LOB% at 79.2 and a BABIP of .240

Which tends to suggest they were beneficiaries from a bit of good luck, and our amazing infield defence. I think they will go free agency where they may get a 1/3 type deal if they’re lucky, and then we might get them back on a minor league deal…. Don’t know just guessing but I don’t know….

Regardless, by my reckoning I think we will need at least 3-4 starters by opening day, and ideally a TOR starter…. The problem is those are expensive…..

So how will we get one? Are the FO office going to go in on a top FA like Corbin at 6/130ish… probably not…..

Will they try for Wainwright or another old ex TOR guy with massive question marks like Harvey or Buchholz and cross our fingers, and hope they can find their old form and defy the reaper for one more season before it comes for their career….. Maybe, but I still think unlikely…. And I’m not overly keen for that option either….

Will they try and pick up a couple of bargains, like Tomlin or Jamie Garcia at 1/2-3 or even on a minors deal…. That seems more likely for mind (and I wouldn’t mind getting as they both strike me as potentially profiling as another Friers).

Maybe at a stretch if he’s cheap enough a Lynn on like a 2/10 bounce back deal.

Even mid level talent like a Gio or Eovaldi who will probably be in the 2/16-20 or 3/30 price range, and so will probably be out of ours….

As for relievers, I really like Tim Hill (I’m a sucker for a side armer/submariner) who throws mid 90’s heat and it’s from the left side….. Yes he finished with a 4.53 with negative WAR but I don’t think it would of helped playing with that god-awful Royals team. And his peripherals weren’t to bad K/9 8.28 BB/9 2.76 HR/9 0.79.

I also wouldn’t mind picking up Bud Norris on a 2/10-12 type deal, another high leverage arm to essentially replace Familia (who I don’t think we can afford)…..

I like him so much in fact I would beat his minors deal he got this year and give him a 2/3 deal with a club option……

However, that/those bargain type of pick up’s, aren’t going to be the TOR guy we would want to lead our rotation through the season.

As for Lucroy, I don’t think we are going to get him back, a lot of teams websites were lamenting that picked him up (for cheap) and the great job he did. So I imagine he will get a deal (I’m guessing with the Nationals for something like 2/20…

If we’re lucky we might get a McCann on a similar 1yr deal as we got with Lucroy last year, but I would like something a bit more permanent through a trade….

So, for me how we are going to fill those needs are through trades…But to do that we need to work out who’s tradeable (now I know from last season, for some of you this will be tough as your favourite player/prospect may come up, or you may believe that no-one is tradeable ever) However this is just cathartic speculative fun, so deep breaths and relax…..

Righto, players I think are tradeable…..

Start off with the biggies…

First up Fowler, so my reasoning is when we traded and got Fowler he was to be our CF of the future, very valuable, and if he was still that he wouldn’t be tradeable for me….

However, he has now been surplanted by Laureano, which means he will be relegated to a platoon corner outfield spot with either Canha or Pinder, with a plethora of corner OF players coming up in our system…. Not so valuable to us anymore, and replaceable ….

However, to a team without a CF, or wanting a high ceiling guy who could be that CF for them in the not to distant future…. Very valuable….Hence tradeable….

Secondly either Canha or Pinder, we are currently carrying 2 super utilities nice to have but essentially doing the same job. As they are both cheap and controllable it’s not a necessity to trade either, but feasible……

Pinder can cover more positions and has more raw power, but Canha can cover CF well enough if need be and for me offers a better at bat – Pinder’s pitch recognition sometimes…ughhhh….

Others: Martini, Boog, and anyone in our farm outside the top 5 (after Beck), I consider fair game for trade speculation

Right so who can we trade with….. Most likely its teams rebuilding or retooling, or teams looking to open up some cap space or who are facing a roster crunch…… So I’m look forward to reading who your targets will be this off-season……

With that in mind… Let’s trade!!!! Whooooo!!!!