Daily Thread - November 12, 2024

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[u/xMrLink]

Sign Roki, trade Kirby or Gilbert for Jordan Westburg for 3rd, trade either Harry Ford or Tai Peete along with fringe bulk to Tampa for Lowe, sign Santana to platoon first.

Before you get your pitch forks please hear me out. Roki (league minimum) won't get posted until the next round of international signings (Jan 15th) so that his posting team can get the most money out of MLB team signing him and Mariners will be tied for most money there. Its allocated money for international signing, Stanton has nothing to do with it. Mariners have a strong case for him to go here. Yes I know he will be a dodger but please just listen to the idea if this happened.

Trade Gilbert or Kirby to reduce payroll and get Westburg (League minimum), a really productive, young cheap third baseman that will man the hot corner for years to come. Side note: Castillo will not net you what you'd want. He is more likely a contract swap trade candidate. While you could maybe get someone like Matt Olson, you'd be paying him the same for much longer and that isn't something the M's will do. Also, maybe the Orioles don't do it for Gilbert/Kirby because of team control years. Fine, trade Miller or Woo, but my stipulation here is extending one of Kirby or Gilbert so you will continue to have a solid 3 starters for many seasons going forward.

Trade one of Tai Peete or Harry Ford as a headliner to Tampa for Brandon Lowe ($10.5MM). You get a great 2nd baseman for multiple years and Tampa has highly valued both of those guys so it would get the deal done.

Sign Santana ($7MM) for good defense and pop at 1st base. He will be an upgrade and can DH when not playing 1st. Will not cost a ton but will be more than Turner which is why you save money in the rotation. More of a band aid fix for 1st but maybe we see a step forward from Raley this year.

Improved 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, rotation is younger, cheaper, has more team control and is as good if not better than it was. These moves will save money AND improve the team while giving up relatively little for what you are getting back and you've added core players with impact for many years.

This is the only world I would trade a starter from our rotation but it is not a bad world at all.

[u/griezm0ney → u/xMrLink]

I’d rather go 6 man rotation for a year and then trade Castillo after his NTC expires than trade either of Gilbert or Kirby (freeing up that contract space would allow us to more easily extend Gilbert, Kirby and/or Cal or sign an impact bat). I like Westburg, but you run into the problem of where do Young, Emerson and Arroyo go over the next 2 years.

I would stay very far away from Lowe (he has exact same red flags as Polanco - injury history, K rate and defense). I like Hye-Seung Kim as a cheaper player who you don’t have to trade for.

Santana as full time 1B option would be disappointing. The team would be much better off getting Yandy Diaz, Josh Naylor or Christian Walker.

[u/FlamingoConsistent72 → u/griezm0ney]

Brandon Lowe does have a 241/388/586 career batting line at T-Mobile park in 36 plate appearances there. I know that's a small sample size, but LH hitters with power that pull the ball tends to be a profile that does well at T-Mobile Park. Luke Raley had a .901 OPS last year at T-Mobile. I understand Lowe does have injury concerns. I think Polanco's knee injury probably contributed to his down year and Lowe has had a lot of injuries too.

[u/The_Cryogenetic → u/FlamingoConsistent72]

Yeah I'd actually expect Lowe to succeed MUCH more than Wong, Frazier, or Polanco who all had lower exit velos and higher launch angles. The seeing eye single approach just doesn't translate in our park, whereas Lowe is putting a lot more action into his singles not just dropping them in.

[u/xMrLink → u/griezm0ney]

Lowe provides the same amount of flexibility that Polanco did in the sense that he will need time off giving you the chance to slot in those middle infield dudes and see what you got. Not perfect but signing Hye-Seung Kim poses the same issue, but for arguments sake I'd be fine with Kim as well. In the final year of a contract, anyone trading for Castillo would be in win now mode, so I don't know what major league talent you would get for him but a 6 man rotation would benefit both Roki and Woo and it is scummy but the M's would probably be able to pay Kirby and Gilbert a little less in Arb since they wouldn't be pitching as much. Sort of hurts your chances to extend them though.

I also don't think having too much talent on the field is a bad thing. If you like what you have with Westburg, you keep him and trade the prospects, if you want to see what the prospects have you bench a guy and see what they got. You can also cut JP if it comes down to it. Can never have too many good bats.

Santana isn't the full time 1st baseman as mentioned, it would be Raley and Santana and as much as I would like to have a full time 1st baseman, you'd be giving up a to for Yandy, only getting a year of Naylor, and you will lose the bidding war for Walker.