The good thing is that I think this team becomes better if we keep much of this core together next year as well, maybe even get Chipper around the guys. I stick by the reasoning for this team's incredible struggles being related to lack of leadership.
But I think we need too:
1. Resign Bonafacio as a solid ulitity guy to not over take over for guys who get off days but to solidify our awful bench.
2. Get rid of BJ. I know how much money he's owed, but he's absolutely killing this team. Whether it's with his bat, his attitude or his lack of hustle. He's just hurting us.
3. Bring up Peraza to play OF. Let him work out in the outfield to see what we can get out of him. If he's efficient enough, put him in left, Jason in center and Justin in right. Peraza can give us a very solid leadoff guy that'll keep the lineup balanced as well.
4. It's been said, but we need to offer the QO to Santana and see if we can keep him. I love seeing Teheran/Wood/Santana...
5. Sign another quality arm because we can't expect that Meds comes back and is the guy who had a 3.13 ERA last year. If Meds does work out, then we'd have Teheran, Wood, Santana, Minor, Medlen and that's solid.
6. LH reliever and a few more bench pieces. I'd look into 3B to see what we can get. Someone mentioned Headley, I'd look there... maybe even Ramirez?
7. Don't ever bring up trading Simmons or Kimbrel again. These last fews games have shown me just how important Simmons is to us. He's just not replaceable... even with his offense sucking. And for Kimbrel, he's just too dominant. He makes mistakes, but he's by far the best closer in the game, so please stop.
8. This is a good team without any leadership and little to no direction. They're pretty much just kids still... you've got to be patient.
9. I'd keep Gattis at Catcher. Bethancourt will be much better defensively, but this is only Gattis' first full professional year at catcher. It's not exactly an easy position... give the guy some time. lol
Maybe we'll be lucky to see something more like this next year:
1. Peraza LF (R)
2. La Stella 2B (L) (I have an incredible amount of faith in him)
3. Freeman 1B (L)
4. JUP RF (R)
5. Heyward CF (L)
6. Gattis (R) Catcher
7. Chris Johnson (R) 3B
8. Simmons SS (R)
9. Teheran/Wood/Santana/Minor/Meds-FA