Teams are starting to move away from putting there best overall hitter up 3rd. Studies show it is wrong to put the best there, but I do think most managers still put the best up 3rd.
Maybe Swihart beats out Leon. That would create another slot. If not, we have 3 slots for 6+ players (Hernandez takes Pedey's slot until he returns, then another squeeze happens):
Brentz (hard to think of him as the only lock for the bench)
Swihart (no options)
Marrero (no options)
Holt (~$2M arb)
Lin
Quiroz
Travis
IMO, Travis won't make the 25 man roster. Swihart & Marrero are out of options and Brentz will be the 4th OF'er.
When Pedey comes back, Hernandez will be squeezing someone. Then, there's 2 million dollar man Holt to deal with.
Although a .365+ OBP is not always transferable to MLB, I think there is hope. He is still raw, so maybe late 2019 is the earliest we could hope for.
(I realize Chavis offers a better hope, but I think Ockimey has more upside than Travis.)
Anybody have any high hopes for 22 year old Ockimey making a splash in late 2018 or 2019?
Josh has 32 HRs in 859 ABs over the last 2 years.
If we sign JD, is signing a 1 year 1Bman a better idea than locking up Santana or Hosmer to 4+ years?i
Abreu is projected to make $17M in arb this year. He may make over $20M the following year. Two years of team control. That's about $38M/2.
Santana might make $48M/3 or $60M/4.