steveno89

I don't necessarily agree with that. Top prospects get traded all the time, it is just a matter of what the deal is. Rental players will always have a lower cost than multiple years of control, but given the right situation you absolutely could see a club go all in on a major piece like the Cubs with Chapman. The Yankees had a major 40 man roster crunch coming up and would likely have to leave multiple prospects unprotected in the rule 5 draft. It was smart to cash in on them now, rather than likely losing then in a few months for nothing.

Beeks got torched in his mlb cup of coffee this year. Small sample size, but not many 5'11" pitchers make it as starts in the majors. A worthwhile deal regardless for each side.

I would do those two for Soria and Avilan all day, but I doubt Seattle would trade both of it's most promising young prospects like that

For Soria? No way we are getting that much for him, even with Lewis' stock being down. Soria is a two month rental. Think more along the lines of a Seth Elledge and/or Wyatt Mills type prospect

Teams seem pretty willing to move 24+ year old AA/AAA players who have performed well, but aren't necessary high ceiling guys, i.e. Cordell, Beeks that just got traded, etc. I'd rather take a swing on a young player that is far from the majors and see if we can develop him

Seattle has one of the worst farm systems in the major leagues unfortunately. After their top 5, the talent level really falls off a cliff. I'd much rather trade with other contenders have have more depth.

Bleacher report just suggested Soria to the Braves for LHP Kyle Muller and C Brett Cumberland. Interesting proposal, I’m not sure we can do much better than that, although I would hope so.

The Astros farm is so deep, there are many deals that could be formed for Soria. I have a feeling attention will turn towards him once Britton gets dealt. Holding steady until the deadline should help us get a decent piece.

To our benefit, Soria has certainly pitched well enough to be dealt by the trade deadline. We almost certainly are not getting anybody in an organization's top 10 prospects, but we still should be able to land a decent prospect. I would think that asking for one or two of a team's #15-30 range prospects would not be crazy

Pretty weak return in my opinion. Surprised they couldn't squeeze more in a deal.

If we can package some combination of Leury Garcia/Jace Fry/Joakim Soria to get a top 100 prospect, I absolutely do it.

https://sodomojo.com/2018/06/23/seattle-mariners-trade-day-joakim-soria/ This article suggests the Mariners trade minor league reliever Matthew Festa for Soria. It would be a decent, but unexciting return. I would hope we could do better.

I'd take Julio Rodriguez all day for Soria. He's far from the majors, but there is big upside with his bat.

Not horrible ideas, but I doubt the Phillies/Red Sox/Rockies would be willing to part with those prospects in the proposed deals. The price won't be anywhere near that high for Soria, as Welker is a legitimate top 100 prospect. I'm thinking the return will be along the lines of what we got for Swarzak, maybe slightly more.

Soria will get moved, but I don’t think we will get offered enough to want to deal Fry. If a solid offer came across I wouldn’t hesitate to move him, but his track record is too short to warrant a sizable return. Abreu is likely to stay put.

Way too much going on in that deal in my opinion. Braves aren’t giving up Allard, Riley, Contreras and Waters for that package, and I don’t think it’s close. Soria could get us a solid piece, but Shields, Fry and Davidson aren’t all that valuable

All of those seem like far too high of an asking price for Soria.

Given his position, Rutschman will likely be the first or second player off the board based on what we know right now. Catching is so valuable to an organization.

Cubs don't have a prospect like Yusniel Diaz to dangle in a trade package, which pretty much takes them out of the running in my opinion.

Guys like Jordan Guerrero, Jimmy Lambert, Bernardo Flores, Jordan Stephens, etc. are flying below the radar, but all are having fairly strong seasons without much fanfare. Guerrero's FIP/xFIP indicate that he has pitched better than his numbers suggest, and I would expect a strong second half finish. Stephens has been solid all year, and Flores/Lambert have really emerged as future rotation options. I would not be surprised if one or two from that group end up making important contributions in the coming years to the mlb squad. Organizational depth is key to winning championships.

Baseball is still a business first and foremost, and I can understand the hesitancy to absorb bad, fully guaranteed, contracts. Teams generally are not willing to part with high quality prospects just to shed salary, and tend to ride them out instead of trying to deal them.

I'm not sure Harper wants to hit free agency off a 3.0 WAR season (roughly) either. He could take a one year deal high salary deal, mash, and cash in next offseason with a big contract.

I like Keuchel, but his declining K% rate gives me some pause. He's all the way down to 6.7 K/9 (8.4 in his CY Young season in 2015). He will likely get paid this offseason, but I'm not sure he will continue to be a TOR guy for the next 3-5 years. Not sure Gray has been healthy enough to warrant that sort of package. If Cease can finish 2018 strong in AA, he could be knocking on the door of the majors mid-way through 2019. Adolfo has continued to improve in 2019 and is still a young player that I'm not sure I want to ship out just yet.

White Sox know exactly what they are doing and offering to each of these players. Doubt that gets either of those guys done, but I could be wrong. We certainly do not want to lose draft pick(s) in the future.

Maybe he's signing for less than we think? If so this seems like a great draft haul with the Bush and Martin signings