Well this is insightful. Looks like our prospects are safe, for now. Who are our free agent options at third now, Rendon and Donaldson? Anyone else?
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The Braves being out on Bryant makes absolutely zero sense. They may be out on him at the current asking price, but they can't be out on him altogether.
Defining an "impact bat" as 125+ wRC+, here are the MLB players who reached that mark or higher last year in 400+ PAs while playing 3B or the OF:
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/s...ayers=&filter=wRC+|gt|125,PA|gt|400&sort=16,1
Of those 29 players, only 7 are potentially available (defined as being rumored even once):
Rendon (huge $$)
Pederson (will require a RHH platoon partner)
Betts (will earn $30M)
Turner (if the Dodgers sign Rendon)
JD (less huge $$)
Bryant (~$50M surplus value)
Blackmon (huge R/H splits)
I suppose we can throw Braun in there since the Brewers will potentially do anything, but there just aren't many "impact bats" available.
We have been focusing on RHH, but simply moving Acuna behind Freeman makes it entirely possible to acquire a LHH as the impact bat.
Logically, the best options are JD and Bryant, and nobody else is even particularly close.
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