moonslav59

I'd like Bichette for 2B, but he hasn't hit 25 HRs since '21 and has never hit 30. We really need a bigger power bat than him. I guess we could improve our power by 10 at 2-3 positions rather than by 25 at 1 position, but I just don't see 2-3 positions being rolled over with major improvements, this winter. We can be pretty certain that Brez, Cora & Co. are counting on Mayer to play 2B or 3B, so there is one non add position, and if it's 3B with no Bregman return, expect less there. That leaves 2 positions where major upgrades can occur: 1B and 2B/3B (wherever Mayer is not playing.) 2025 Position Numbers: 1B: .244 16 76 (.691 OPS) 2B: .241 12 56 (.670 OPS) (3B was .265 22 77 and .777.) I doubt we look to upgrade on offense by trading Rafaela. Upgrading Wong might help, but Narvaez was better than the average catcher on offense. To me, we need a major power bat and it almost has to be 1B, 3B or 3B. Two significant power bats could do the same thing. 2024 ISO Leaders of available/possibly available players who can play the 3 positions we need: .281 Schwarber DH (1B?) .323 in '25 .256 Suarez 1B/3B (.298 in '25) .251 K Marte 2B (.233 in '25) .235 Alonso 1B (.252 in '25) .224 B Lowe 2B .201 Moncada 2B/3B (.214 in '25) .198 C Walker 1B .196 Willson Contreras 1B (C) .195 Hoskins 1B, .191 Naylor 1B .188 Polanco 2B (.229 in '25) .187 S Murphy C (1B?) Our top ISO's: .214 Abreu (one reason not to trade him: the other is GG in RF) .198 Refsnyder (Need to bring him back) .190 Casas

Don't expect Cora to ask him to move.

You ask why not, then say we need 4-5 players, so you admit we can't just bring back Breg and Gio- we need more. Yes, we can once again hope and pray for better health and upswings from our mostly pre-prime team, but we have a window open wide, and I'd like to see a plan based on more than hopes and prayers. We need to improve on paper. Bringing Bregman & Gio back is fine. At best, we can hope they don't decline, and we'd still be even. Okay, we lost Anthony for over a month, but we lost had Devers for two months and won't next season. Can we expect Chapman, Whitlock and the pen to be as good? One could expect Bello to not be as good, as well as Romy, Story and some others, too. I happen to think out returning players will be better, overall. I'm not pessimistic about 2026, but we need some serious upgrades along with possible (but not likely) stay-evens by returning Bregman & Giolito. Alosno, Breggie & Gio would be okay. Add a solid pitcher in a trade, and I'd be happy bringing B & G back. I am far from being down about our future, but most teams who win, improve on paper during the previous season or two. Our plan needs to be to add a bigger power bat than Bregman. We need to replace Buehler with a solid pitcher. Then, we need to break even on Bregman and Gio, either with them of replacements in kind. Even doing this, we will need a few hopes and prayers, but you can only have so many of those to realistically expect a strong change at a ring.

Go JAYS!

SP Outlook MLB: 26 Crochet (6 yrs) & 26 Bello (5 yrs), 29 Sandoval (1 more year) Crawford (3 arbs) & Houck (IL '26 & return '27) 23 Harrison (pre-arb), 25 (all pre-arbs) Dobbins & Fitts, 28 Criswell (pre arb) MLB Ready Prospects: 23 Early, 22 Tolle, 22 Perales, 26 Uberstine, 26 Drohan Maybe 2027: 22 Clarke, 23 Holobetz Maybe 2028: 21 Witherspoon, 19 Valera & Fajardo, 21 Paez, Phillips & Eyanson plus Aita, Monegro & others 2029> 18 Travieso, 17 Delzine, Cason & others

Probably won't know until he throws a bunch of innings. I'm really pumped up about the future outlook of our pitching pipeline. We seem to have a lot of quality pitchers that are spread out from ML ready, near ML ready, 1-2 years away and 3+ years away.

They won't hand him away, but they may be looking to cut some salary. Sean Murphy would be a nice pair to trade for. He could catch and maybe DH some or learn to play 1B. I'm not sure what they'd want, but it won't be easy or cheap.

Funny one.

I don't do Duran and Early, either. (I'd give any 2 others not named Crochet, Bello, Tolle and early. instead.)

It doesn't matter saying it. It accomplishes nothing. It sounds like offering false hopes- like if JH just reads this, he may spend more, or if more of us say it, it will make a difference. Of course, it matters. JH & Co. could spend more, and so can every other team. Yes, we make more than almost all the other teams, which justifies spending more, but it does nothing to me to hear people say hundreds of times, "but he CAN spend more."

The injury could very well be an "ender." You read stuff like that but also "Casas has progressed on schedule and expects to be ready in Spring Training." (mlb.com) I would not trade him due to both his upside (assuming he might get better) and his current low trade value (due to the fact that every GM knows about this type of injury and the doubts associated with it.) I would not plan on him to be our FT anything, but I still have hopes he can return to .800 and 30+ HRs/650 PAs

Who is doing that? I have zero expectations on his spending. I'm thinking he won't go over the tax line, but he may do it, or get $1M below or $20M below. He used to spend in cycles. He spent a ton, last winter, along with several significant extensions, then dumped Devers and watched Breggie opt out. We are at square one and don't know what square one is. There is no "standard." I keep hearing "He can spend if he wants," but that rings hollow, to me. It's true, but so what? It matters little.

I'm not sure why that is your chosen projection, but certainly it is a significantly possible outlook. I have no idea what to expect. I do still think a healthy Casas can hit over .800 and hit 30+ bombs. Projecting health is near impossible.

Nothing to celebrate. The reality has been that JH is not opening his wallet as wide as others. It does no good to keep saying "He can..."

I don't think anyone gives us real return value for Casas. We'd be selling low on someone with very high potential, but also a very low floor and a DH only profile, when you look at just how awful his 1B defense is. I think we should add a 1Bman and keep Casas as DH competition/back up 1Bman. Just dont count on him as a FT'er. I know, just how many of those sorts of players can you have on the 40? We already have... Yoshida- who we should try to dump. Campbell- the man without a position (another DH?) Mayer- the man who cannot stay off the IL. Hicks- the man that would have been cut if not for his $12M x 2 still owed. Others like DHam or Grissom, Kelly or Guerrero, Wink or Criswell can easily be traded or even DFA'd with not tears shed, but we need to switch from quantity to quality mode, this winter.

You can say that all you want, and it is true, but the reality is, there will be a budget limit, this winter.

I get the idea of not trading away one of your top 3 offensive, when you then say we need to add offense. Moving Duran to 1B is cheaper than signing one, and it makes room for Anthony in the OF and improves OF D. Having more money can help us sign a better player or another one (3B and 2B or P)

He's a hard one to project. He could hit 30-40 dingers, if he can get 650 PAs. He could hit .725 with 20 HRs. He could get hurt again and give us nothing.

Skubal has one year left and will take an extension much higher than Crochet's. I'm not sure I'd so a trade for him, unless he extends, first. You rarely see those deals anymore. Crochet had 2 years left and was able to be extended at a reasonable rate.

Yup. Nobody seemed to care.

Duran, yes. Abreu is a GG RF'er in a difficult park.

His final OPS was very close to the league average in 2025, as it is.

How about the fact that Manny missed ST'ing time due to 7 grandmothers dying.

Agreed, and Alonso a age 34-35 might outhit Suarez at age 34-35. (Note: Suarez just turned 34, so 2 yrs would be ages 34-35 not 36.) Suarez would be better on D at 1B and would provide the 3B depth we need.

I love Rafaela, but I'd trade him for Greene or even Lodolo straight up, but I think Cincy wants offense. I'm not sure they view Casas, Campbell or Garcia as the offense they need, but I'd add one of them to Rafaela to get Greene. Trading two RHB OF'ers might not look right, but Rafaela is not a good batter and actually has slight reverse splits. We could bring Refsnyder back to bridge to Campbell or Garcia- whichever we keep. Rafaela + Campbell + Clarke for Greene would do it for me. (Keep Garcia- the better defender) LF: Duran- Refsnyder/Garcia CF: Anthony- Garcia (Duran) RF: Abreu-Refsnyder/Garcia (Anthony)