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Taking on the entire contract is fine, and I bet the Cardinals would do that in a heartbeat if that's all it took. Taking on the entire contract and sending a bunch of talent to Miami on top of it is not fine, and I'd imagine that's the sticking point with Moe. The Marlins are counting on finding one team being desperate enough to do both (and they probably will) but I'd be shocked if it's the Cardinals.

The Giants will almost definitely be sending their top two prospects, if/when this thing goes through. I think at that price point, and knowing what we know about Stanton and the preference for California (in general terms at least), I am mostly OK with losing on this one. Not because I don't think he's worth Reyes+X and most of that contract, but just because it's not a matter of shaking hands with Jeter. It's going to take a lot and the Giants parting with Beede and Shaw and effectively closing any chance of backups from the farm for the next few years is a steep price, one I think the Cardinalss should be able to answer, but will likely, and maybe wisely, balk at. And that's without going to get on hands and knees and ask for the signature from Stanton.

Thinking again about the question of taking on the full contract. I still don't think that the Cards are going to do it and I'm not convinced that the Giants, up against the Luxury Tax, will either.

That said, I wonder if part of the reason we are hanging in on the Stanton deal is the thought that if he goes somewhere else, we will already have the framework in place to move immediately onto Yelich or Ozuna. It's not that I think our interest in Stanton is fake. It's definitely not. I just think we don't want to miss out on this Marlins firesale -- and that's what it's going to turn into -- like we missed out on the White Sox.

We didn't miss out on the White Sox, because we wanted any of Sale or Eaton, and they didn't like our package. We missed because we valued our prospects more than the return, AND other teams are motivated to take chances. See; Eaton looks like a fail, while Sale looks like a steal. The same could happen this time too. But now there's an arseload of $ to finagle too.

MinorLeagueGuy wrote:We didn't miss out on the White Sox, because we wanted any of Sale or Eaton, and they didn't like our package. We missed because we valued our prospects more than the return, AND other teams are motivated to take chances. See; Eaton looks like a fail, while Sale looks like a steal. The same could happen this time too. But now there's an arseload of $ to finagle too.

Completely agree.

Well... did we try to acquire WS players? Yes. Did we land any? No. We missed out on getting them. I'm certainly not making any arguments here about why we missed out and definitely not interested in debating the nuances of our failures last year.

All I'm saying is that we've had chances to land the kinds of impact players that we covet in the past and we didn't land them. Mo is definitely interested in Stanton. And he's also probably trying to position himself to have a great shot at other players he desires this time. I don't think he's going to let the Marlins move their OF'ers without us getting one.

MinorLeagueGuy wrote: Eaton looks like a fail

Heh... Eaton was not a fail for the Nats. They have him under contract at super cheap prices for four more years. In the meantime, Giolito pitched poorly in AAA, then pitched deceptively well at the MLB level for 7 starts. The underlying stats shows that he pitched fairly mediocre for the White Sox, and his perception as a prospect is far less today than it was when the deal was made. Reynaldo Lopez also had mixed results- better in AAA but worse at the MLB level. Dane Dunning may end up becoming something, but he's several years away from that.

Yeah, Eaton will still probably be really good, though I don't think he made sense for the Cardinals at the price Washington paid. He made a ton of sense for the Nationals. He'll provide great value if he's moved back to a corner where he can actually play.

Pretty much. That was a whopper of a price. The equivalent at that time would've been something like Reyes, Weaver, and Delvin Perez. There's a time and a place to make that deal, but not when you also have Fowler on the market and you can keep all of the prospects.

I understand why the Nats made that deal, and they were better equipped to make it than most. But it also made a ton more sense for them than it did for STL and others.

Fat Strat wrote:Well... did we try to acquire WS players? Yes. Did we land any? No. We missed out on getting them. I'm certainly not making any arguments here about why we missed out and definitely not interested in debating the nuances of our failures last year.

All I'm saying is that we've had chances to land the kinds of impact players that we covet in the past and we didn't land them. Mo is definitely interested in Stanton. And he's also probably trying to position himself to have a great shot at other players he desires this time. I don't think he's going to let the Marlins move their OF'ers without us getting one.

I really don’t see this happening. It’s not Stanton or bust—at least I hope not—but I don’t think Ozuna or Yelich is the backup.