Balta1701

I don’t think the Astros will do this until they actually know if they’re losing Bregman.

People have been trying to imagine a rotation with Crochet, Smith, and Schultz, but if we think of it this way - a rotation with Smith and Schultz as the actual team stars, combined with a lineup that at least has several good players in it rather than a complete black hole 1-9, is at least a start. You actually have to turn those pitchers into 5 WAR+ lefties and many other spots matter, but at least if you turn these guys into big league regulars, its a start.

I'm sorry about 2020 through 2023. That really had to hurt. A lot.

If the Astros are actually able to get good value for Tucker from The Cubs I’d almost guarantee they’d trade Valdez as well. That’s the kind of reliable, playoff experienced, innings eating arm Baltimore could use, and the Astros really need 1b help.

A couple replies. First, although Quero is listed as a switch hitter, his OPS in the minors against lefties is like 300 points higher than his OPS against righties. So on paper, this actually sets up a decent catching platoon, and you could play around with the DH and pinch hitting a lot to make matchups work if you’re willing to risk losing your backup catchers. Second, I will grant you Montgomery is a risk. I’m not sure he’d be as available without the injury, so there’s a risk reward here, but yes we are hanging a lot on the White Sox’s ability to evaluate injuries having improved. We can leave this open until the season starts, as an early IL stint or a lot of struggles could be a real red flag in an organization where other prospects with the same last name may also be having unacknowledged physical issues.

If Lee hits well enough to hang on a big league roster next year, backup catchers are always in need at the trade deadline, you’d at least get something, some minor league pitcher for him.

You're right, development isn't linear. But how many guys with Zavala's profile are going to never even make AAA? It's a majority right? That alone makes it a weak return for a guy like Cease, having so many steps that he has to go through where things could go wrong.

The Cease trade looked bad at the start, Thorpe was all right but the other two didn't look that great at the time. Zavala had a long way to go and a lot of things that could go wrong, and Iriarte seemed like a wild card. That trade looked much weaker than this one at the start, and that's not even considering that Thorpe might have gotten the "Yankee prospect boost".

Yup, it literally took me one godd*mned post using only his last name before my brain glitched on which Montgomery was being talked about. Motherf***er...

This may be the most mind-breaking concept I have ever seen presented at Soxtalk.

While I understand this, I've also reached a spot where if they decide to move on from him, I won't be outraged. He won't return much, he won't return anything near what he's worth if he's healthy. However, I think he has developed several serious issues with coaching and health, I think he is nearly uncoachable right now at least for the people in this organization. If the organization has decided based on last year that they can't coach him, then is he likely to have a better season this year? The likely end result would be him released for nothing at the end of the year by having an option declined. In that case, you might as well take something for him as opposed to nothing. For Cease, there was a clear backup plan if offers sucked - hold him to the trade deadline. For Crochet, there is a clear backup plan if the offers suck - hold him to the trade deadline. Selling low on either of those guys was and would be dumb because there's a backup plan. If Robert's offers are "some pieces", and the White Sox think they can't coach him, then there's no backup plan better than "Some pieces".

I think "Some pieces" is a fair return for Robert right now, but that doesn't change the mess the White Sox are in, particularly if they have a $75 million payroll limit for the near future.

https://www.mlb.com/news/best-rule-5-draft-picks-past-10-years Santander Canha Garret Whitlock Odubel Herrera Brad Kelly a bunch of people I've barely heard of except one of them was a DeShields.

Who is trading solid pieces for Luis Robert right now?

I continue to have zero complaints. Convince the other team to do this.

Eh I'd just start off with the label "Swingman/Long reliever". Let the roster sort out where he winds up, if he winds up looking like a starter great, if not then a reliever, and if someone gets hurt or gets shelled early he's stretched out for 4-5 innings.

This wasn't either of the top names people were mentioning/guessing, right?

Straight up question, with all the outfielders they've added, and Ramos being OF'd, you really think both Robert and Benintendi remain on this roster?

Is there any obvious reason for "Vargas to be ahead of Ramos" other than "Getz acquired one of these and not the other, so Getz needs to be made to look good"?

Wouldn’t Ramos benefit from this too?

Every decision on Vargas is being made on hope. He showed no signs of being a tolerable hitter, but we hope he will suddenly become one. He showed no signs of being a good infielder but we hope he will be, so they make decisions based on that assumption. After all, if the White Sox traded one of their only assets for a guy who was an immediate bust, some unfair people might judge them for that.

Teams don’t want to trade that kind of talent, but teams don’t want to have obvious rotation holes either. When they don’t have ways to fill them other than trades, they have no other choice. This market is rapidly moving in that direction.

Who the hell complained about this being inactive?

After today and Eovaldi I kinda have the opposite feeling. On FG, out of the top 11 free agent starters, 7 are now signed. Last year it was obvious that Snell was going to be stuck out for a while, this year he’s already signed, and I think everyone expects Burnes to have someone meet his price. The only thing that seems like it might slow down the market might be Sasaki, but if you need reliable pitching the FA options are almost gone.

Cease is totally going to the Orioles.