Next Move?

[Warfarin]

Well, with our starting infield secured, what's our next move this offseason?

Per Jeff Fletcher's payroll sheet, we are roughly 24mil under the luxury tax limit.  If we trade Cron, then that saves another 2.5-3 mil.  I'm guessing the FO will want to maintain some wiggle room and leeway for mid-season moves as well, so let's assume that we have only about 18-20mil left to spend this offseason.

What's the next move?  We still likely need a 4th OF, but the rest is fairly flexible.  We could sign a SP (Sabathia?  Darvish?) or could sign a 1B like LoMo to provide more left-handed presence/pop.  Another possibility is a LH reliever like Watson to add to the pen.

[Dave Saltzer]

My bet is a starting pitcher and another bullpen arm. They are very committed to a 6-man rotation, and that would help us the most. 

[ettin]

Depending on which way they decide to go I could see the Angels grabbing a C that can play 1B to help soak up some of those at-bats as I mentioned over in the Roster Building thread.

I could easily see a trade with a team like the Rays or maybe the Indians where we swap one or more big league pieces.

For instance we could send C.J. Cron for Wilson Ramos with the Rays. Cuts salary for them by about $5M and they get more years of control over C.J. vs. the one year left of Ramos. We slot Ramos in as backup C and slot him in for some 1B duty.

Or perhaps we send Cron to the Indians in exchange for Cody Allen (3 years for 1 year). It would save Cleveland about $7M in payroll and would give them a 1B they are looking for. Gives us 1 year of a good reliever. I'd prefer to expand the trade to include a guy like Yandy Diaz and send another piece or perhaps prospects.

[Billy_Ball]

Greg Holland or Wade Davis

[Second Base]

Cron's gone, so that's 27 million under. The return won't be great as he's borderline DFA given the amount of 1B available. The Angels won't be chasing top tier pitching and have enough starters.

As far as bullpen help, something will have to give. We have Parker, Bedrosian, Middleton, Johnson, Wood, Bard, Paredes, Alvarez, Ramirez, Tropeano and Bridwell.

If Eppler wants to keep 7, that means we need to move 4 of them. Paredes and Tropeano will likely go to AAA to start, and Bridwell can work in as the 6th starter.

We'd need to lose one more. Can't be Alvarez, he's our only lefty. So it comes down to Wood, Bard and Ramirez. JC can cover multiple innings and is the best reliever. Wood was already tendered a contract. Bard has exactly what you're looking for in a reliever. 

Hard decision to make. Hopefully they make it a very hard decision.

[arch stanton]

Yeah the lineup hole right now is someone who can play 1B when Albert is DH against a leftie. If he can catch also it’s great 

[laagamer]

Pitching, pitching, pitching, and more pitching. At least that's what I'd prefer. 

Relievers are cheap, we can look for one with the Cron trade. I'd say finding a back-end SP or maybe even a middle rotation guy like Sabathia if we can get him on the cheaper end would be great, but it's probably not going to happen.

Bullpen arms, a 4th OF, or a C like ettin said is who I'd expect. 

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

On days when Ohtani is pitching or on the days before and after he pitches Albert will be the DH. Who plays 1B if we're facing a LHP? Valbuena can't hit LHP. Cron hits RHP better than Valbuena and can hit LHP as well, just saying...

[Rico]

I want an everyday first baseman.  Pujols should be very limited at how many games he plays at first. (If it were up to me it would be zero)  Valbuena should not be penciled in as starter.  Give me someone that can actually hit at first.

[tomsred]

I know many of you think Hermosillo can be our fourth outfielder, but I would be more inclined to keep him at AAA one more year.  I’m leaning more to signing Revere for 2018.  That would give us another shot with a lefty hitter.  I have no idea what that would cost.  Then I would use Valbuena as the infield backup, and Perez as the second catcher. 

The final moves would be a veteran starter, followed by one or two bullpen arms that could swing between AAA and the team.  I would leave about $10-15M for in season moves, hopefully at the trade deadline.  If you can’t get another starter, then consider Holland or Davis.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Kind of weird that Cron is odd man out. Hes one of the few home grown position guys weve brought up in a long time...which is sad in itself.

On the one hand, the fixes weve done have been fairly cheap. So the instinct is to spend some more. But like Warfarin said, i assume theyll want to keep payroll flexibility. This is the first year in awhile where were going into the year as contenders. We likely will tsrget someone during the year to fix something.

[bloodbrother]

Cron is the odd man out only because the other option is making $24 million. In a perfect world they'd be able to keep Cron and remove Pujols from the roster

[ten ocho recon scout]

True.

If we make one more move? Id like tonadd another moto bat. But where? Only place would be C, or replace Calhoun. So not sure its doable.

A bonafide starter would be nice. Insurance for richards/skaggs/heaney. Pushes one of the back end guys to long relief. 

But maybe the smart move is a plus reliever, then sit on the excess money.

[TroutField]

15 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

True.

If we make one more move? Id like tonadd another moto bat. But where? Only place would be C, or replace Calhoun. So not sure its doable.

A bonafide starter would be nice. Insurance for richards/skaggs/heaney. Pushes one of the back end guys to long relief. 

But maybe the smart move is a plus reliever, then sit on the excess money.

How about Calhoun/Skaggs/CJ Cron/ and Jahmai Jones for Christian Yelich. Then sign Darvish to replace skaggs. Jones wouldn’t really be needed because our outfield is set for the next couple years and Adell and Marsh are good prospects. Cron can be a buy low candidate for the marlins. Maybe add somebody like Chris Rodriguez to sweeten the deal and get a reliever back from Miami. 

 

EDIT: I’m perfectly okay with the offense as is, just throwing something out there. Yelich is a stud 

[Docwaukee]

The lineup is solid.  The pitching staff is solid.  While there are some tweaks that could be made like a legit closer or another mid to low range starter, the next step is the true next step.  

When is it time to go to the next level?

So far, we managed to significantly improve the team without only minimal prospect outlay.  

Personally, I would say to stay on the current path which is incremental improvement over the next couple years.  

But there could be an argument for going all in at this point and moving some of our top end prospects for a top end starter.  

[WeatherWonk]

3 hours ago, TroutField said:

How about Calhoun/Skaggs/CJ Cron/ and Jahmai Jones for Christian Yelich. Then sign Darvish to replace skaggs. Jones wouldn’t really be needed because our outfield is set for the next couple years and Adell and Marsh are good prospects. Cron can be a buy low candidate for the marlins. Maybe add somebody like Chris Rodriguez to sweeten the deal and get a reliever back from Miami. 

 

EDIT: I’m perfectly okay with the offense as is, just throwing something out there. Yelich is a stud 

Yelich would be nice, but that's way too much to give up. Heck, we simply cannot give up bonafide starters until we find out more about Shoe, Trop, Richards.........even Heaney and Skaggs. None of them have pitched more than 100 innings since 2015 except Shoe. And what to make of Ohtani's recent PRP injection?

If anything, we should add another starter. Who is the innings eater on this staff? 

Our outfield is set for the next two years. I believe. Let's hold onto Adell, Marsh and Jones for another year and see which one emerges...............

Personally, I dont think the Marlins move Yelich. They have to have some semblance of competitiveness. This isn't Jeffrey Loria's team anymore. Jeter has to have some pride in the club in his first year.

[gurn67]

Right now, Cron is only guaranteed 30 days pay which would be somewhere around $450,000. He's guaranteed 45 days pay if he's cut after the 16th day of Spring Training. Basically, if they hold onto him until the last day of Spring Training as an insurance policy if Pujols and/or Valbuena get injured, it's only going to cost them around $650,000. So, keeping him around as insurance is only going to cost them about $200,000. He only gets whatever the arbitration number ends up being if he makes the 25 man roster on Opening Day. There's a glut of first basemen on the market and I honestly felt he should have been non-tendered. So, I think the odds they get anything at all of value for him is very low. Especially since, there's a good chance he becomes a free agent at some point before Opening Day.

[jordan]

3 hours ago, WeatherWonk said:

Yelich would be nice, but that's way too much to give up. Heck, we simply cannot give up bonafide starters until we find out more about Shoe, Trop, Richards.........even Heaney and Skaggs. None of them have pitched more than 100 innings since 2015 except Shoe. And what to make of Ohtani's recent PRP injection?

If anything, we should add another starter. Who is the innings eater on this staff? 

Our outfield is set for the next two years. I believe. Let's hold onto Adell, Marsh and Jones for another year and see which one emerges...............

Personally, I dont think the Marlins move Yelich. They have to have some semblance of competitiveness. This isn't Jeffrey Loria's team anymore. Jeter has to have some pride in the club in his first year.

For what it's worth @Jeff Fletcher said yesterday on MLBnetwork radio that Ohtani has been throwing.  So that is definitely a good sign. 

[jordan]

Perhaps a Matt Adams to get the bulk of time at 1B, and he would be cheap compared to LoMo.   That saves some money for a SP like Sabathia.

[Ohtaniland]

It’s been a great offseason.

 

[bloodbrother]

I'm not sure if the Angels are looking for another SP but if they are, it likely would be Sabathia or Darvish since neither have draft pick compensation attached to them. Lynn/Cobb/Arrieta all received QO.

[wopphil]

Eppler has had an amazing off-season. But now I'd like to see him complete the team. Make it a "finished product" as Scioscia likes to say. I think he can do this by adding another starting pitcher and an established reliever. Or maybe a MOTO bat like Morrison.

[floplag]

I for one am not convinced hes done with the offense.  But yes we need RP badly IMO. 

[Warfarin]

7 hours ago, TroutField said:

How about Calhoun/Skaggs/CJ Cron/ and Jahmai Jones for Christian Yelich. Then sign Darvish to replace skaggs. Jones wouldn’t really be needed because our outfield is set for the next couple years and Adell and Marsh are good prospects. Cron can be a buy low candidate for the marlins. Maybe add somebody like Chris Rodriguez to sweeten the deal and get a reliever back from Miami. 

 

EDIT: I’m perfectly okay with the offense as is, just throwing something out there. Yelich is a stud 

There's zero chance that'll happen, because the Marlins want to decrease payroll.  Taking on Calhoun, Skaggs, and CJ Cron will significantly increase their payroll vs just keeping Yelich.  We'd have to trade them a package like Adell, Jones, Caning, which IMO is way too much.

[Ohtani&Trout]

Darvish please.