drewski6

I agree 100%.

I think this is a good point. I want to go back to soemthing I jsut said because i think it adds to your point here, that being that maybe 2 months ago, it was decision time, but right now, its "no rush" We made the decision, to let Refsnyder walk. That alone might save Masas bacon (for now). Because to your point, our OF starts looking more complete with Ref, and its one less spot for masa and one more person in front of masa.

WE have two elite bullpen pitchers and 9 good starters. SOme of them will become good bullpen pitchers. We could use maybe one more established pen arm, but I wouldnt call it a glaring weakness that went unadressed. We resigned Chapman. Signing one of hte best closers isnt exaclty not addressing a glaring weakness if that weakness is back half of bullpen.

Im not in a rush to trade our fifth best bat (per you) because he doesnt have a spot right now. If Masa accepts a AAA role, there is no reason to trade him at all. But if he doenst accept that, and we have 4 obvious bettter bench players, we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

In the WBC

Casas will have to do more than get healthy enough to play a game. But I more-or-less agree. Theres also other dudes who can emerge and challenge his spot on the 26.

Thats fair. My real point is that if Masa can be sent down or agrees, great. If not, any decision on him cannot be undone. Like if we trade him for 4m of salary relief. And we ended up kind of needing him last year. So Im not in a rush to send him out, but I may depending on the twists / turns of the season. I dont like making decisions that cant be undone when I dont have to make those decisions as a general rule. But that doesnt men there arent exceptions. But even once the games start counting, the auditioning and jiggsaw pieces falling into place continue. The guys will find their roles, and if Masa is outside of the top 26 and wont get sent down, and it makes sense lets say in mid-may or something to ship him out based on so many variables , then do it then. The rush isnt right now. Maybe a couple months ago because there was opportunity cost (not signing Ozuna for example). So in free agency you kind of have to project ahead a bit to know who to sign. But right now, Im not seeing a huge rush to project ahead.

This is a good post, but this year feels different because it feels like our starting 5 is a starting 6 in crochet, ranger, gray, bello, early, oviedo....and then you have like 2-3 more guys that could be most teams #5 starter. So its not as black/white to me in 2026 who you are talking about when you say starting 5. I guess we'll know by game 6 who started the first 5, but Im not sure its a settled "this our 5" (being the 5 pitchers who start each of the first 5 games). I think that the battles for #4 and 5 can continue into the season. For example, right now, I think that Bello may not be a top 5 SP on this team ,but he might start game 4 due to not willing to make the swap yet (bello out, early in). You can send Early down and have him make a couple starts in AAA just to buy you time. ANd its not necessarily an ominous sign if he ends up getting 20 starts despite not getting one of our first five spots.

Im not in a rush to trade our fifth best hitter on March 5th, regardless of who plays where / positionally. Now if we get everybody back from WBC healthy, and stay healthy and our bench is Eaton, IKF, Wong, Masa and Romy comes back...I may take action with Masa at that point, but it depends on things like is anyone in AAA screaming call me back (ward, monasterio, kc)....how is eaton doing? How does the offense look overall. If Story start the year on fire, im more willing to trade Masa for example. Because positions aside, im trying to avoid a situation where we get to the playoffs but have a couple injuries, and we're like ...we're gonna have to hit masa clean up again like we did last year....oh shoot we sold him for 4m salary relief and now we have to hit a lower ops+ bat fourth. Its not all about position to me , its about getting enough runs from somewhere. This is why I always say the value of a great DH is underrated and improves your defense. Becuase having a stud DH allows you to play more glove first players at other positions. For exmple, in a hypothetical world where we have prime manny, ortiz, story, ikf (on bench) - then story gets hurt.....because of manny/ortiz , im more fine with plugging in ikf because we'll get our runs elsewhere. So im not really looking at our outfield rotation and our infield rotation and dh options completely separate from each other.

What major weak spot is glaringly unattended?

This is a good point, but the Romy injury buys us time because now we can bring Eaton AND Monasterio/Ward/Sogard (one of the latter into camp). Im not sure if Eaton cooled down but hes kind of earned it, even his what .287 batting average last year? Granted, a "quiet" .287. I think you have a good point, but I think that Eaton can be a righty outfielder if he stays hot. Now when Romy comes back, we may not have a bench spot for him, and we may be forced to ditch one of Eaton/Monasterio/Wong/IKF/MASA...Or someone else might be hurt. But if not, Masa may get jettisoned at that time, with Eaton taking his spot. But we'll see who is healthy, how we are playing, and make a decision then. And it will also matter if Masa will agree to be sent down (but I dont think he would, and we may force to trade him like Hicks, and Moon will be thrilled).

If you can count 12 hitters better than Masa, Im okay with cutting him today.

When it comes to positonal player depth, like our fourth outfielder or next man up in infield, you are like nice to have but I flip it if we have a need. But if it we had 6 good starters would that 6th one be thrown in as many trade offers as you do Duran? Its fine to be a pitching guy. Im jsut saying that positonal player and hitting depth is more than "nice" or a luxury. Its critical too. To win in MLB you need 8 good starters (expect to lose half, so youre guaranteed to have 4 good ones and thats prob enough). Also, to win in MLB you need 12 good hitters (expect to lose half, so youre guaranteed to have 6 good ones and thats prob enough). I dont see Masa as "in the way" for the same reason you dont see Sandoval as "in the way" , with above average injury look we prob wont need them and thats a good thing. But I dont want to find myself saying I wish we had Masa in the playoffs after weve traded him. And that scenario happened last year when he hit clean up for us in the playoffs and was probably our third most productive hitter in last years playoffs behind Story and Bregman.

Thats not fair to KC or really Duran. Duran is a below average corner outfielder, above average center fielder who happens to be the second best centerfielder on the team. So if hes pushed to corner outfield, he may make most sense at DH, but its not fair to say hes a DH. 28 teams would love to have Duran as CF. Hes better than "okay on D- maybe" and I know you say "im the guy who says more value elsewhere than here because we have Cedanne" and I get that. But Duran is "okay on D- maybe" as a LF, but not overall because hes much better than that at CF. At CF , Duran is plus defensively (but not plus-plus like Cedanne)

Correct, having versatility is good. But not every "slash" player (someone who can play multiple positions) is good at every position they play. That doesnt mean , however, that they should never play those positions. It does mean, however, that they probably shouldnt play that position full time, forever. I dont hate seeing KC get some 2b in Woo. Maybe it gets better his 2b d. Maybe thats where an opportunity opens. Mayer and Story arent particularly durable. But I dont think KC should get more games at 2b than in the OF, however. And I dont think you are hurting him by moving him. But I know you think that, and I dont think its like an unreasonable belief. I dont dismiss it entirely and I can see the logic. Let him focus on one position and hitting, why clog up his brain. But Im not on board that keeping KC versatile defensively is doing more harm than good. I think he continues to get better at 2b, OF, and hitting. And I like that he can be depth to so many positions nad be kept in minor leagues.

Why do you think white rice is popular? Or spaghetti or Vodka.

Sure, but after not being able to land the bigger fish in Marte/Bregman, they went out and got Durbin and stated that one of the reasons they were attracted to him was that he could play multiple positions. Because versatility is an asset. Why do you think SUVs are popular?

I dont correlate all this. My point is depth and versatility are good, regardless if its on the pitcher side or on the positional player side.

We have 2 players who should be a DH, Casas and Masa. Most firstbaseman and LF are probably better suited to be DHs. But Duran is probably a better LF than most (defensively) and Contreras is certainly a better 1b than most (defensively). Maybe in the past, this was the case. BUt we are looking strong and versatile defensively, a good thing.

He looked good in a different game I watched :)

A good defense that isnt versatile isnt a good defense.

My point is simply this: versatility and depth are good. Having guys who can only play one position, and assigning every player to one position only = bad. We went out and got Durbin because he can play more than 1 position. It was like one of the first things Bres said that attracted him to the guy. Positions are suggestions. Versatility is great. We will use it.

Good thing we have so much defensive versatility.

But when its pitching, 8 starters isnt enough

I think if its July, and KC has been playing LF in Woo all year and has a .950 OPS. Then Story gets hurt (significantly), I think the obvious move will be to call up KC and to play either KC or Cedanne at infield and live with the defensive drop off. But I agree lets cross the bridge first. Its not like I think hes going to hit .950 OPS at Woo. Just that if he is, you find a spot for the bat, and I dont care where he plays. Put him at Catcher, dont care.