"not worthy of its own thread" offseason thread

[cardsfansince82]

The Dodgers are nearing a trade that will send lefty Scott Alexander to Los Angeles, Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star reports on Twitter. Righty Trevor Oaks will go to the Royals while lefty Luis Avilan will land with the White Sox, according to Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). Clearly, there are some other elements of the swap that aren’t yet known.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/01/ ... e-sox.html

Joakim Soria also went to the White Sox.

Sounds like the Royals put Soria out by the road with a "free to a good home" sign.

[Magneto2.0]

[MrCrowesGarden]

There’s a real chance they’re done.

[Fat Strat]

There it is! I was waiting for it and there it is. You could see it coming since the Winter Meetings when we left with no deal in place for Colome.

Not chasing more offense is one thing. I can understand that becuase you really have to try hard to make someone fit, especially if Donaldson is not really available. But, what gets me is the fact that we're not going to sign a closer or at least a second reliever. A competition for closer is actually a fine approach, but you want that competition to include a couple guys who look prepared for such a role. We have no one on the club who looks prepared to close. And the bigger irony is that's the exact role that cost us the playoffs last year.

I'm also going to suggest that if this is who we are, I'm not certian that we are actually improved over last year. The gains from Ozuna could easily be balanced with the drop from Lynn to Mikolas. And the bullpen is definitely worse right now that it was at this point last year, with the same high chance of volatility and injury.

Edit: Also, we did very little to clear up the roster jam in our OF. We moved perhaps our best potential OF'er -- Piscotty -- for spare parts and we're blocking the development of Bader and O'Neil with a guy we don't need or want in Grichuk.

Truly, we have not changed our philosophy at all. If we can upgrade at a relative discount -- and Ozuna represents that -- then we'll do it. But, if we have to pay full price for players, even at a position of need, we pretty much refuse to do it if we have some kind of plan B that might be workable. Again, we're satisfied making a run at a 2nd playoff spot rather than really challenging a vulnerable Cubs team.

[Jocephus]

pretty weak

[letsgocards89]

pretty weak

#PukePoint

[cardsfantx]

it's why i started the roster thread...it sure "seems" like we're done/this is the team we go into the season with.

they've prob been told no on donaldson, so the offense is pretty much set...

the price for a reed may be higher than they like, so they'll roll with what they have in the bullpen...reyes comes back in may, and they've shown they're not afraid to go with a rookie closer before, so i can see them letting him go/see if he establishes himself for high leverage situations.

if TOR changes their mind, or Reed's price drops, then that could change everything i guess...

But IMO, the roster thread, has the roster they'll roll into 2018 with (prob swap out voit for a RP though, now that i've thought about it...and that RP going back down when reyes is activated in may)

[Fat Strat]

the price for a reed may be higher than they like, so they'll roll with what they have in the bullpen...reyes comes back in may, and they've shown they're not afraid to go with a rookie closer before, so i can see them letting him go/see if he establishes himself for high leverage situations.

While it's true that we've not been afraid to throw a rookie into a closer role in the past, we've had more success placing them as firemen before the closer. That's what Lynn did, Rosenthal, Martinez. That's the role that makes the most sense for Reyes, behind an established closer and a wily veteran (Gregerson).

While Reyes has the fireballing K's, he also has an obscene BB rate. Command is always the last thing to come back for pitchers rehabbing from TJ. It seems foolishly risky to trust that Reyes will be able to come back on time and maintain the control/command he needs to fit into the closers role. It really feels more like setting the kid up for failure than anything else.

Additionally, throwing him into the closers role now hinders his overall development. He still needs starts. He still has stuff to work on. He still has a future with this club and that future is in the rotation. He's not the finished product that Wainwright or Lynn were when they interned in the pen. If we plan on Reyes being the closer this year, then we're planning on him being a spot starter next year because he won't have the work on his arm to handle 150 innings in '19. It will be 2021 before he's ready for a full workload.

The fireman's role for Reyes would allow him to still get, say, 80-100 innings starting in the minors before finishing out the season in our pen -- a total of 120-140 ip's next year. Bullpen alone maybe nets him half that. Get him 130 innings in '18 and he's ready for a full time 5th starter role in '19.

[MrCrowesGarden]

pretty weak

Letting good stand in the way of great.

[baseburglerlou]

They won't compete this year. Maybe next.

http://www.bnd.com/sports/mlb/st-louis- ... 28164.html