My primary objective this winter was to get rid of Jose Altuve's salary, which we did before the '21 season ended. Doing so gives us roughly $20 million to spend this winter, with four major holes on our roster:
Hole #1: Starting Pitching
This past year, we tried the strategy of building a world-class starting rotation filled with all-stars and Cy Young candidates. Needless to say, that strategy failed miserably. I can't help but notice the success of teams like the Great Lakes Sphinx, who consistently win 90+ games per year despite having mediocre -- at best -- rotations. The key is having a great bullpen. You could make a great argument that our bullpen won the 2019 championship for us. I'd like to get back to that place in '22.
Rather than throw a bunch of money at ace starting pitching this winter, I think that we will fill our 360-inning void with two serviceable inning-eaters instead. After his recent signing with the St. Louis Cardinals (who seem to have the Midas touch with pitchers), we feel that Steven Matz would be a perfect fit this winter. I don't think he will be expensive to acquire, but I've been very wrong about that before.
Hole #2: First Base
There are several free agent options to fill this hole, which would solve our 2022 problem nicely. The problem is that all of those options involve future risk on aging veterans pushing age forty. Joey Votto (age 37, .266/.375/.563) would be a tremendous asset against right-handers, but he would be an extremely expensive platoon player. He would likely cost around $7 million to sign, which means a guaranteed $15 million in 2023 and 2024. No, thanks.
Yuli Gurriel (age 38, .319/.383/.462) would also solve our problem this year, and doesn't have the platoon issues that Votto has. But again, he would cost around $6-$7 million, and has a very inconsistent track record.
C.J. Cron (age 29, .281/.375/.530) is practically a kid compared to those other two, but he comes with the Coors Field Factor. Deflate those numbers by 20-percent and suddenly he's rather useless. At the other end of the spectrum is Brandon Belt (age 33, .274/.378/.597), who plays in a drastic pitcher's park in MLB, and would be a perfect fit for us...but he had only 381 PA's.
Those are the only real free agent options, although some semi-useful platoon players like Ji-Man Choi will be available in the draft. As far as trading goes, we reached out to the new Allentown owner to see if he would be willing to move Matt Olson. He shot down that idea before even hearing an offer.
Chicago has placed Anthony Rizzo on the Selling block, but he is far too expensive for a platoon player, and comes with ballpark-factor baggage as well. We briefly spoke to Chicago about Tyler Stephenson, but those talks ended abruptly. Likewise, we made inquiries to Kansas about Max Muncy, but as usual, the asking price was far too steep.
South Loop would seem to be the ideal trading partner, as they own both Freddie Freeman and Jose Abreu. Unfortunately, their owner is impossible to deal with.
Where does that leave us? Probably Band-Aid mode. A patch here, a patch there, and we'll somehow patch together a first baseman when all is said and done.
Hole #3: Catcher
It really would be nice if the Baltimore Orioles would stop dicking around and just promote Adley Rutschman to the big leagues like he deserves. Instead, we have to wait for them to finish playing their little games with his service time. It's absolutely ridiculous that snot-nosed 19-year-old Wander F'ing Franco is mature and experienced enough to get a full-time MLB gig (with a multi-billion-dollar contract), but the 23-year-old Rutschman has to wait yet another year to get his shot.
In any case...Yan Gomes (890/634 splits in only 375 PA's) may be the only catcher in the auction, and I wouldn't want him, anyway. On the trading side, there aren't many palatable options. The catching position this year is a bit of a wasteland, so we're hardly the only team in this position.
We did reach out to Bobby Sylvester of the Highland Freedom to see if he wants to do something crazy by trading Salvador Perez. You never know. It doesn't hurt to ask!
Hole #4: Right Field vs. Right-handers
Regardless of whether Diamond Mind gives Shohei Ohtani a rating in the outfield, we would be insane not to play him there. He will kill us with his defense -- again -- but his bat simply has to be in the lineup. Unfortunately, so does Andrew Benitendi's bat. He isn't great, but we're paying him too much to sit, and we need the warm body to fill that spot against lefties and righties. Ramon Laureano can't hit righties, and is limited in playing time overall, but he can fill the void against lefties.
That leaves one glaring hole for us in the outfield against right-handed pitchers. There are so many decent options in the auction that we are bound to get one for a decent price. The best of the lot is A.J. Pollock (872/902 splits), who is coming off a career year at age 33. In other words, it is the worst time possible to buy A.J. Pollock.
The Budget, As It Stands
A lot can happen from now until January, but if the auction were to begin today, here is a rough outline of what our budget would look like:
Steven Matz: $6M
Brandon Belt: $6M
Starting Pitcher: $3M
RF vs. RH: $3M
Two catchers: $1M
Seven scrubs: $700K
That would be $19.7 million, total, which is under our $20.2 million budget. The problem is that if we execute this budget perfectly, we're left with a team that isn't nearly good enough. We're going to need a little good fortune to fall in our lap over the next four weeks or it will be another long season.
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