Extension Talks With Swanson Reportedly Underway

[Hudson2]

Replacing him wouldn't be easy and if Anthopoulos envisions negotiations similar to Freeman's, I would hope he would pull the plug earlier in the off-season as opposed to painting himself into a corner.

That may be why we are hearing stuff come out now by Dansbys camp so that it doesn’t drag out into the offseason. Dansby has had a good season and like you said won’t be easy to replace.

[clvclv]

Replacing him wouldn't be easy and if Anthopoulos envisions negotiations similar to Freeman's, I would hope he would pull the plug earlier in the off-season as opposed to painting himself into a corner.

I'd think "easy" is the relative term here.

Dansby's really solid - at times spectacular both defensively and offensively - but is far from irreplaceable IMO. The Freeman situation was different because you needed to replace him with a legitimate middle of the order bat, and given their ages Alex probably HAD to replace Freddie with Olson if the plan was to lock the entire core up (as it appears now to have been). Dansby's different - for as good as he's been in his career year, this is still the first time he's had much success hitting near or at the top of the lineup, and you've already locked up a potentially better fit for the #2 hole hitter in Harris. An Acuna/Harris/Riley/Olson top of the order is just about as dynamic as it gets, and having d'Arnaud and Contreras available to split time behind the plate and at DH while having Ozzie return to hit between them makes this group arguably as dangerous as anyone offensively.

I'm as old-school as it gets at times, and think having Dansby in the clubhouse is a BIG bonus - just not one I'd substantially overpay for. Aldemys Diaz and the other SS we're watching in this series will come MUCH cheaper - Diaz is as good on offense as Dansby, and Iglesias is still a defensive wizard who doesn't have the contact issues Dansby has exhibited many times in his career. Either of those guys would be perfectly fine as replacements hitting in the #8/#9 hole (which is probably where Dansby belongs when his bat regresses) if Alex would prefer to avoid another $100+ million deal that would give him more flexibility to spend on arms as he potentially has to replace Jansen and Morton.

[50PoundHead]

I'd think "easy" is the relative term here.

Dansby's really solid - at times spectacular both defensively and offensively - but is far from irreplaceable IMO. The Freeman situation was different because you needed to replace him with a legitimate middle of the order bat, and given their ages Alex probably HAD to replace Freddie with Olson if the plan was to lock the entire core up (as it appears now to have been). Dansby's different - for as good as he's been in his career year, this is still the first time he's had much success hitting near or at the top of the lineup, and you've already locked up a potentially better fit for the #2 hole hitter in Harris. An Acuna/Harris/Riley/Olson top of the order is just about as dynamic as it gets, and having d'Arnaud and Contreras available to split time behind the plate and at DH while having Ozzie return to hit between them makes this group arguably as dangerous as anyone offensively.

I'm as old-school as it gets at times, and think having Dansby in the clubhouse is a BIG bonus - just not one I'd substantially overpay for. Aldemys Diaz and the other SS we're watching in this series will come MUCH cheaper - Diaz is as good on offense as Dansby, and Iglesias is still a defensive wizard who doesn't have the contact issues Dansby has exhibited many times in his career. Either of those guys would be perfectly fine as replacements hitting in the #8/#9 hole (which is probably where Dansby belongs when his bat regresses) if Alex would prefer to avoid another $100+ million deal that would give him more flexibility to spend on arms as he potentially has to replace Jansen and Morton.

I can't speak to overall draft strategy (and you can never really draft for a replacement for a specific player), but I suppose one can posit that the reason Shewmake was drafted was to hopefully have an in-house replacement when Dansby came up for free agency. Hard to tell, but the odds are that's not going to be the case.

I guess my primary concern revolves around this issue being settled early in the post-season. Two years in a row, negotiations with two key guys (Ozuna--at least at the time--before the 2021 season and Freeman before the 2022 season) seemed to drag on and the market--at least in Ozuna's case--kind of played Anthopoulos. I just hope we're not scrambling again.

[Hudson2]

I can't speak to overall draft strategy (and you can never really draft for a replacement for a specific player), but I suppose one can posit that the reason Shewmake was drafted was to hopefully have an in-house replacement when Dansby came up for free agency. Hard to tell, but the odds are that's not going to be the case.

I guess my primary concern revolves around this issue being settled early in the post-season. Two years in a row, negotiations with two key guys (Ozuna--at least at the time--before the 2021 season and Freeman before the 2022 season) seemed to drag on and the market--at least in Ozuna's case--kind of played Anthopoulos. I just hope we're not scrambling again.

AA should know by now exactly what Swanson will cost. What he doesn’t know yet is what the other SS will cost at how many years. Correa and Turner would both be upgrades but at what cost?

[50PoundHead]

AA should know by now exactly what Swanson will cost. What he doesn’t know yet is what the other SS will cost at how many years. Correa and Turner would both be upgrades but at what cost?

That's true, but I would rather do a slight overpay for Swanson early in the off-season instead of risking landing Correa or Turner and coming up short at the last minute. You're right in that they are upgrades over Swanson, but there are ownership groups that ignore the luxury tax but I somehow don't think Liberty falls into that category.

[clvclv]

AA should know by now exactly what Swanson will cost. What he doesn’t know yet is what the other SS will cost at how many years. Correa and Turner would both be upgrades but at what cost?

I'd go so far as to argue that replacing Dansby with one of Diaz/Iglesias is the way to go if you're in Alex' shoes.

If you're REALLY looking to upgrade the offense and overall flexibility of the entire roster this winter, there's little question Ozuna will be dumped whether or not you can find ANYONE that will take even a piece of his money. Given that potential $18 million sunk cost, splurging on Dansby would really hamstring you financially even with the payroll boost. Dropping Ozuna and replacing Dansby with a less expensive option would allow you to eat Ozuna's money much easier without taking much of a hit.

Replace Ozuna on the roster with Pina - this allows you to have Contreras become the everyday DH and emergency Catcher. If you want your strongest offensive team on a day d'Arnaud needs to be off his feet, have Contreras catch and Travis DH - you wouldn't have to worry about losing the DH if Contreras happened to get nicked up since you could replace him with Pina. Send Grissom to learn to play LF in winter ball so he can become a true super utility guy - platooning with Rosario in LF and available to give Ozzie/Riley/one of Diaz or Iglesias a blow when needed. Hoping Rosario bounces back enough to be the strong side of that platoon is probably a better bet than having Ozuna bounce back since Rosario won't kill you defensively. That would mean you don't wind up with BOTH of them making a ton of money on the bench.

[Enscheff]

The move may be to sign someone like Iglesias early. Then if a star falls into your lap late in the game, dump Arcia and use Iglesias on the bench.

[clvclv]

The move may be to sign someone like Iglesias early. Then if a star falls into your lap late in the game, dump Arcia and use Iglesias on the bench.

And at the end of the day, that "star" could potentially even wind up being Dansby.

Let him go see what he can get in the open market. If it turns out none of the fringe contenders/teams looking to take the next step are willing to go big for him, there's always the chance things could really work out in your favor and you wind up getting him back for 5 years/$90 million.

[GovClintonTyree]

AA should know by now exactly what Swanson will cost. What he doesn’t know yet is what the other SS will cost at how many years. Correa and Turner would both be upgrades but at what cost?

75% more. Not quite double.

[Chico]

If we can get a LH power bat who plays a passable LF and can DH, it wouldn’t matter who we ended up with at SS hitting 9th.

I think that guy may be cheaper than a gold glove SS in a market where SS are being overpaid.

[Enscheff]

If we can get a LH power bat who plays a passable LF and can DH, it wouldn’t matter who we ended up with at SS hitting 9th.

I think that guy may be cheaper than a gold glove SS in a market where SS are being overpaid.

Iglesias plus Conforto and someone like Grossman would be an acceptable off season.

I'm sure there are also trade options out there we aren't considering.

[Carp]

The move may be to sign someone like Iglesias early. Then if a star falls into your lap late in the game, dump Arcia and use Iglesias on the bench.

That has been my plan for awhile now. Right him or trade for Amed Rosario.

[The Chosen One]

We want two Iglesias and two Rosarios on the same team!?! Did we not learn from the Upton experiment?

[thethe]

Still would like to know if Grissom can play a passable SS. His arm seems plenty strong but the time to release scares me

[Hulavol]

I don’t know much, but defensive wizardry at SS is what we need. That literally wins games. Gimmie somebody like young Simba, put him in the 9th hole, and blow that money on the back of the pen.

[cajunrevenge]

I am so weary of giving Swanson a long term deal. Mich rather overpay for 3-4 years than commit 20+ million a year to him for 6+ years. Swanson gives me very bad Jeff Blauser vibes. I wish MLB had a franchise tag.

[Chico]

I don’t know much, but defensive wizardry at SS is what we need. That literally wins games. Gimmie somebody like young Simba, put him in the 9th hole, and blow that money on the back of the pen.

The “young” part is the key. Put a young guy out there til he loses a step, then trade him and repeat.

[Southcack77]

I am so weary of giving Swanson a long term deal. Mich rather overpay for 3-4 years than commit 20+ million a year to him for 6+ years. Swanson gives me very bad Jeff Blauser vibes. I wish MLB had a franchise tag.

Swanson has quite literally improved every season of his career to this point. You'd expect it to peak soon but it's very unlike Blauser.

[Southcack77]

I consider Dansby below star level and I think they'd better have some roster flexibility somewhere.

So if they piecemeal SS to give themselves room to correct for roster problems elsewhere I'll not be upset.

I don't think it is too hard to find cheaper options that won't kill you.

[Russ2dollas]

I consider Dansby below star level and I think they'd better have some roster flexibility somewhere.

So if they piecemeal SS to give themselves room to correct for roster problems elsewhere I'll not be upset.

I don't think it is too hard to find cheaper options that won't kill you.

DOB on the athletic seems to describe Grissom as a "natural SS" everytime he mentions Grissom. I'm not sure I've seen anyone else say that. DOB seems to get all his info from the team, so maybe the team actually believes Grissom can play SS.

If Grissom can be Dansby with the bat (overall, not with the insane highs and lows) and be avg on defense, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to spend 100+ million on Dansby.

It would make more sense to sit back and just look to see how you can score an impact bat at LF, SS or DH.