moonslav59

Yankees trade Cortes and Durbin for closer Devin Williams.

I think it is possible for him to be a 2.0+ WAR guy, but 1.5 seems fair enough. Factor in adjustment to the culture and injuries, and he might have been a 2.0.

Broken record- I know.... Corner Infield Defense 2023-2024 (250+ attempts): 3B: Devers: T40th out of 41 in OAA (-8)/ DRS 32nd out of 32 at -18 (next worst is -13!) 1B: Casas 34th out of 36 in OAA (-10)/ DRS 24th out of 33 at -15 One way to really help our current and future pitching staff is to greatly improve our defense. 2023-2024: 26th in OAA and DRS I think we'll be better at middle IF defense with no Valdez as our leading 2Bman in innings. DHam was a plus on D at 2B. Campbell should be a plus. Story needs to stay healthy. An OF of Duran, Rafaela (FT) and Abreu is excellent. Adding Anthony will not hurt. Our main issues are Catcher, 3B and 1B. We can fix all three by playing Narvaez more and moving Devers to 1B/DH and Casas to DH/1B and adding a decent 3Bman (Bregman or Arenado or go with Campbell of Grissom/Story/Mayer at 3B.) Just do it. So what, if Devers doesn't like it.

Does Brez & Co. think Narvaez is the ML solution to tandem with Wong for 2025, or are we still looking, and Narvaez is just AAA depth?

The "realistic" part was directed towards the money. Flaherty would be way cheaper than Burnes.

I'm only for doing a Yoshida dump, if it forces Casas/Devers to share the 1B/DH duties. That would be a huge plus to every pitcher on our team. It would be like adding a pitcher. It would also allow both Casas and Devers to "rest" as a DH and play more games and get more PAs, than if they played 150-155 games at corner IF. That is one big plus. Opening up a 40 man and 26 man roster slot for Campbell or Anthony would be another major boost, although the 40 man part can be done in other ways. The money saved part could help us improve at another slot. It's not just about prospects lost, although I get your point. Maybe trading Casas (and others) for pitching, moving Devers to 1B and just going with Yoshida-Ref at DH is better, although losing Casas and O'Neill's bats could be a major blow.

He is the worst or close to it. Framing, blocking, throwing... Statcast: Blocking 64th out of 66 at -13 Framing 56h out of 58 at -7 Throwing 22nd at +1 (33rd in "pop time.") Put them all together and he's the worst or very near it. DRS -14 (2nd worst in all MLB) They score him 71st out of 72 in their overall score.

Realistically, the most likely good pitcher we sign might be Flaherty. I think he's better than Bello, Gio and Crawford, and pushing one to the pen would help there, too, but the upgrade is not worth the cost. I'd rather we signScott or Hoffman, or Tesocar and trade for pitching upgrades. I'd say Bregman and trade for pitching, but apparently we won't move devers off 3B in 2025. Ho hum.

I agree, but we need one more "bold" move- maybe two, and I'm with Hugh and others: we need to take a big FA plunge. The money was there for Soto. We can afford anyone else still on the market- maybe even two. I'm not a big fan of anyone left, but certainly a few would be a big help. Burnes at maybe $240M/8: Not only would he gives us a powerful top 3 starters punch, but squeezing Crawford to the pen and spot starter role would be a big plus to another weak area on our team- the pen. Bregman at maybe $200M/7 only works for me, if we can get Devers to be okay with moving to 1B/DH. I do NOT pay him this money to play 2B. Teoscar might cost $75M/3 or $95M/4 and would give us the big RHB we need, but we already have a glut of OF'ers. If we could get a decent pitcher for Abreu, or a real good one for Abreu + Arias/Romero, he'd be a better add. Santander at about $90M/4 or $110M/5 is a nice switch hitter who would be fine in LF. Flaherty at about $125M/5 might be a second tier FA, but I like him more than Pivetta, and Manaea would cost us a comp pick. Pivetta would surrender the one we have coming, if he signs elsewhere. Pivetta or Manaea at $70M/3 to $90M/4 would be better than Crawford, but is that kind of money worth a small upgrade? (The comp pick issue, too.) Man-O-man, Kikuchi at $63M/3 looks like a steal, now. Tanner Scott looks like a long shot signing, since we already signed a closer-type lefty in Chapman, but I'd still love to get this guy for maybe $64M/4 Possibilities: Alonso at about $$130M/5 works only if we can dump Yoshida or trade Casas and others for a real good pitcher. He's a great RHB, but he'd keep Devers at 3B until he's a DH. Walker at less money than Alonso might be the better choice, here. Maybe he gets $70M/3 of $90M/4. He plays better D. Hoffman at maybe $48M/4 might be a good choice, but if he's all we get, I'll be bummed. Next tier: Estevez $30M/3, Quintana $22M/2, Buehler $16M/1, Yates $15M/1, Morton $10M/1, Kittredge $16M/1, Jansen $10M/1, Martin $8M/1

You don't make a trade like this, if you don't believe in the guy. We gotta go with the guy, risk and all.

Exactly. They may trade Mitch Keller. Maybe Reynolds.

It took a long time for Sale to have that injury, after 5+ years of hearing, "It will pop, anyday, now."

Saying "below average" is doing Wong a big favor. He sucks on D. He's maybe the worst of all MLB catchers with that much playing time. I do think he can improve. Many of the best defensive catchers in MLB got there after age 28-30. VTek took a while, but he was never this awful to begin with. I think we can keep finding Sandy Leon types to compliment Wong, and hope he can improve to "average" of slightly below, but how long can we wait for him to get to near average? Our pitching and infield defense is already suspect, and having an awful defensive catcher has a multiplier effect.

Skenes would take two of our top 3 plus more. I'd be okay with Mayer, Cespedes, Bleis, Perales and Fitts, but I doubt PIT considers that.

If that happens, so be it. Anyone can get hurt, and I do think Crochet is more likely to get hurt than others, but we need to take the risk on the 25 year old. If the guy was 28-30, no.

Yup, and IMO, Devers should be moved to 1B, yesterday.

3 left-handed DH types plus a DH only RHB in Refsnyder. That makes 4 DH types not just on the 40, but on the 26, as well. That is already 2-3 too many.

I've read of a couple suggested offers for Arenado that do not include Yoshida, but they do include STL including hefty chunks of cash that could be subbed out for Yoshida, assuming STL is interested. Here is one: Cespedes and Fitts for Helsley, Graceffo & Arenado + $15M. (COL pays $5M x 2 for him, as it is.) I don't see why STL would give us Helsley, but I'd do this trade by giving Yoshida with no Helsley. I'd offer Arias, Cespedes, Fitts & Yoshida for Helsley & Arenado and no money. Arenado is owed $32M, $27M and $15 or $74M/3 - $10M COL pays= $64M/3 ($25.5M AAV for 2 years.) We owe Yoshida $54M/3. STL "saves $10M plus what Helsley will cost. SI reported this possible offer: Bleis, Fitts & Yoshida for Arenado They go on to say this, and I agree, "However, to this point, Boston has stayed strong that they're not moving Devers off of his position. If that's the case, the trade doesn't much sense. "

Mayer, Casas, Abreu & Sandlin for JJ? I don't do that. Skenes, yes.

If we get a decent pitcher for Casas, I'm okay with signing a RHB 1Bman with power.

IMO, you don't make a trade like this for 2 years of anybody. Of course, two is better than one, and history is full of examples of major give aways for 1-2 years of good players, but we cannot let this happen, here. I get the big risk involved with extensions, but this guy is just 25. From Pedro to Schilling to Beckett to AGon to Porcello, our history shows we lock up the players we trade many prospects to get. I realize many of those extensions were long ago, and the MLB landscape has changed, alot since then, but I really think this needs to get done. The bigger risk is trading away 5-6 years of control of 2-3 major prospects for just a two year window player.

Soxprospects,com has a take on the trade: http://news.soxprospects.com/2024/12/trade-analysis-scouting-prospects-dealt.html

I think the best time to trade Yoshida may be this summer, but he will have to be showing he can hit near .800 to make a difference over trading him, this winter. Either way, we will have to pay more than half of his remaining contract, and maybe 70-80%. Finding a taker is the toughest task. Taking on a big or bigger contract might work, if we get back an overpaid pitcher who still has some hopes of being helpful. The problem with that is, when a team is looking to dump a grossly overpaid player who still has some value, they usually want a full dump. They are not looking to just save a couple million a year. To me, STL might be our best hope, and getting Arenado back to play 1B (NOT !B!!!!) would greatly improve our defense and our offense vs LHPs. He is clearly in decline, and may drop off a cliff, at any moment, but Yoshida at DH for us, forces Casas and Devers to play a position. Plus, I'm not sure Yoshida is any better than Anthony, Campbell and others who are looking for a position to play. Also, Refsnyder hits LHPs better than anyone on the team, right now, and his best position is a DH platoon. I'd offer STL some secondary prospects, and maybe even Crawford, if we add another SP'er like Burnes, Manaea, Flaherty or Pivetta. Arendao is owed more, but COL pays $5M x 2 years of his deal and his third year is $15M vs Yoshida's $18M. Just get it done! I'd try to keep Arias, but if the plan is to keep Mayer and Romero, I'd be okay with making Arias part of the deal. We might offer Bleis, Cespedes, Romero or JH Garcia, instead. I'd hesitate to trade 2 of these guys, especially if one is Arias, but I might offer two from the others, with one being Romero. I'm not sure that gets it done. We might have to add Fitts, Dobbins or Sandlin to the list of who STL can take.

If we "wait" until he has a great year, his price will double. The best chance to extend him is in the next few months.

Bregman will cost more than Alfonso, but for good reason. He plays very good defense. My worry is the talk of playing him at 2B. I'd rather have Alonso, if that is the plan. Just play Campbell at 2B and use Bregman's money, elsewhere- like on a pitcher or two.