Shame, embarrassment and another three years of 70 win seasons.
cajunrevenge (09-10-2017)
Ender is roughly a league average hitter whose defense has already entered its decline phase. He is currently a 3.5 win player, and that value will probably level off and start declining.
That means he could be projected for ~13 wins over the next 5 seasons at a cost of $36M. Surplus value in the $90M-$100M range.
Happ for Inciarte is the type of trade the Braves would have to make if they want to avoid pushing the rebuild back another couple years. However, that all assumes Acuna is adequate in CF, and I'm not sure where that notion came from.
If Mallex were still in the organization, trading Ender for a player at another position of need would have made some sense. In fact, it's a move I suggested. Now that Mallex was traded for even more pitching, trading Ender isn't really an option any longer.
They already chose between them and traded the odd man out for what they thought might be a front line starter / leverage reliever at a minimum.
Those two guys were not going to play together. It's valid to question whether they chose the right guy. Probably chose the surer bet that they got a good deal on an extension for.
Ending the rebuild will to some degree mean leaving a core a place. Maybe they should have kicked it down the road a bit and chosen to see if Mallex worked out. The return on Ender maybe would have been better.
I guess he could still be moved, but I wouldn't expect it to happen until Pache was closer. Pache is being rated the best CF in the minors from what I read and maybe a best in baseball candidate. If his offense plays up a little Inciarte will be very expendable. But not until then, I don't think.