Hitch

I'm concerned we're going to go for Murakami, I know that much.

I see a lot of excitement around FSG selling the Penguins, that they'll have a lot of money to plow into the Sox now. I'd hold back on that excitement. It's well known in soccer circles that they're trying to buy a second European team to build into multi club ownership that all the big beasts in European football are doing.

Marte is still my no1 choice in a vacuum, but all depends on what we have to give up. Which sounds hefty right now.

Yes, I feel the exact same way.

Of course. That's what the whole conversation is predicated on. The $14,7m LT hit leaves room for another power bat. It's what I'd like to see happen, but I understand the negatives of it. There's no prefect way to build this team right now.

I don't think Diamondbacks do the second offer. We don't even know they want Mayer, either. There's been some noise around it, but the word on the street seems to be they want starting pitching and a lot of it.

But nobody is saying that all the chips should be thrown in. You're having this conversation with only your own head. Trading Mayer is not throwing everything in. Trading some pitching for Marte is not throwing everything in. This hyperbole is not helping the discussion at all. We will likely have to move some prospects on as that's the rub, and the time to go for the win is now. What that looks like or whether it should even ultimately be for Marte is harder to work out, but it's certainly not going to be a gutting of the farm. Bregman came back three weeks early from that injury. Merloni says this a lot. You stay out until you're absolutely ready - you get hammered. You come back early to help the team and so you're not firing on all cylinders - you get hammered. It's more likely after his blistering start that he just got hit by the injury rather than he is already starting to fall off the cliff. But as with everything it's guess work. Personally, I'd rather we had Bregman and Marte for the next two to three years over any of the options including Mayer at a base. But as I keep saying, I'm not as high on Mayer as others (I mentioned weeks ago that if the plan was to platoon him - trade him now) and he certainly doesn't help with our power problem. The possibly best situation is he's stored at AAA and is given time to improve his hitting and show he can stay healthy. The issue is, if he can't do those two things we just lost the opportune moment to trade him.

Did not know that about Bo. He's been my kind of no1 want. But that certainly puts a worry in my mind.

I'll be worried about it, but it's looking the most likely course of action. I'm good with Romy starting there against lefties for sure.

The hyperbole was your comment about not wanting us to send away all our prospects. Something nobody at all is advocating for. Hell, nobody wants even most of them moved. I don't think you read my post correctly. I don't see Mayer as plugging up a hole. I don't think he's proven himself to be good enough or healthy enough to be given a starting spot. My feeling is we're making one big move (either Marte or Bregman), and likely get a secondary player so will either need Mayer manning 2nd/3rd, or a Casas/Romy platoon at 1st. I'd far prefer the second option right now.

They're not going to give him away after paying him a lot of money for nothing last year. I don't see them getting much back so I'm highly doubtful of your summation, Masa is going to be VERY hard to move unless we eat almost all of it. Nobody wants him or Hicks.

I'm becoming more and more convinced they're going with Casas/Romy platoon at 1st, and will get a bat at either 2nd/3rd.

Well yes, we may as well throw Hicks in there, too! We're not going to get anyone to take those off our hands.

I'm probably someone that could be more described as a 'prospect lover'. I'm certainly loathe to lose them most of the time. But as I, and you also, have said over and over, now is the time. We just signed one of the best pitchers to an extension. Don't waste him - try and win now. Dealing prospects is always painful, but you have to roll the dice. Deal from strength and go for it when the window is open. It's blowing in the wind right now.

They should be doing everything. They have a ridiculous amount of pitching depth - they should be trading some. They should also sign free agents. It's not either/or.

Okay first of all, let's take the hyperbolic language out of it - nobody is saying we should trade away all our youngsters. But when you build a good to great farm, which we did, you need to spend some of it at opportune times and and keep the players you want to fill holes. We're at that time now. I think a probable road block in this discussion is that you likely see Mayer as someone to depend on next year, like he is ready to man either 2nd or 3rd. I don't. Right now I see us needing two bats. If we go out there with Mayer on a base I think we're asking for trouble. So if he's there or not, I still see us needing the same. So I don't have much issue in including him in some deals. My personal preference would be to keep him and leave him develop further in AAA, but I'm fine with trading him for our needs too.

It frees up almost $13m for this year alone, and will be even more next year with Duran's arb raise. Add that to the $46m we have before hitting the 2nd bar and we'd have a better rotation with plenty of firepower ($59m) to get the two big bats we need.

Certainly a possibility. Improves infield defence, sorts out the outfield roster crunch, and then we only need one bog bat for 3rd/1st. I've been thinking more and more of it as a possibility.

One trade that keeps coming to my mind - Duran and Bello to the Royals for Ragans. Frees up more money to put into the offence and significantly improves our pitching

Another point to all this - we know Breslow has a type when it comes to pitching. What's his 'type' when it comes to hitters? Does anyone know what sort of a hitter/player he likes? Other than young and cost controlled? Because I can't see a pattern unlike with his pitching acquisitions. Which makes it a lot more difficult to figure out what player he will even target/value.

Well I don't have a crystal ball, so hard to know, but the point is, if we're only spending $14,6m on Marte there WILL be extra funds to make the team better. Who says we can't get Bregman, too? We currently have $26m in space before the first line. Another $20m before we hit the 2nd line. So $46m in total for a hard cap. Only spending $14.6 on Marte leaves a lot of room to still get a Bregman/another. Who they'll go for is guess work, but as much as I really like Bo, I think we both assume that we aren't going the 7 x $30m it'll likely cost and that narrows your options considerably. I don't even think we should trade Mayer for Marte, as in the way the roster is constructed. But if they demanded it (unlikely as they seem to be all about the pitching), I'd do it and work out the rest, because it's all well and good talking about the average 100 Mayer's v 100 Marte's (again don't disagree with the logic in general), we are close to being able to win now. So you make the move that helps you win now. For the next 2/3 years Marte likely helps you a lot more than Mayer. A lot more. At some point we have to stop worrying about the future and try to win right now. We've lived in the future as fans for the past 6 years.

Which is all well and good in a vacuum. And I'd agree. but if we spend the $30m on Bo, we're pretty much done as it'll leave very little money to spend elsewhere. Whereas if we sign Marte there's still room on the payroll (14.7m on the LT) to get better.

General reports on the trade seem to be - Red Sox have got the certain starter with higher floor. Nationals have got the possible starter/possible bull pen piece with higher ceiling. Feels about right.

Mayer is incredibly difficult to value. He's shown next to nothing so far outside of good D and injury problems. He's lumped in with Anthony but is nowhere near his level. Could he be the next Yoán Moncada? Quite likely. But could he be a star? Also quite possible.

Rosenthal is reporting that with deferrals, Marte's contract is actually $14.7m on the LT.