Joe Musgrove is the type of pitcher I think AA should target. A decent back end of the rotation guy to give us some innings. I think he's a guy the Pirates might move as he's entering arb next season and the Pirates are nowhere near being competitive. He's struggling a bit early this season, but in a way you wouldn't expect, as his control is usually pretty good. Actually, the Pirates have a few options that might be worthwhile.
There's just nobody out there worth giving up anything of value for right now.
The Pirates will want SOMETHING for Musgrove - they're not going to give him away because they're worried about what he might get in arbitration, and he's struggling.
The Rangers are dialing back Minor's innings - he may well be hiding an injury AND he's a rental.
Ray got shelled yet again yesterday - even if he's not hiding an injury (as another rental), he may have already thrown in the towel following the MadBum news AND he's pitching for a contract. Do you really want to give up anything for someone with that many questions at the moment when you need to feel like you can count on him to start games in the playoffs?
The same questions that everyone had about Boyd at the deadline last year haven't been answered. If AA didn't feel good enough about giving up anything for him in 2019, how can he now (even though he's not a rental)?
This is the year you cycle through the kids and find out what you've got. The decision on Newk has finally been made (although it took a little too long for some of us) but we just don't KNOW that any of the names that have been floated as potentially "available" at this point are for sure better than Touki, Wright, Davidson, Wilson, or Weigel if you're only counting on them for short stints. AA has shown that he learned how to juggle guys like that on the shuttle when he was in LA. You've got two guys in Gwinnett that you know are better than Minor/Ray/Boyd when they're right in Hamels and Folty, and 6 weeks to get them ready to give you 6 innings, plus the absolute wildcard that Anderson represents.
If there's not a difference-maker out there to be had (does Luhnow see all their injuries as the writing on the wall and decide to pull the plug and make Greinke available?), trading the potential upside in this system for mediocre starting pitching would be a huge mistake IMO. No one's better suited to utilize a piggyback/Opener system than we are - the DH is likely here to stay, and having Soroka back plus plenty of money to spend in 2021 leaves us set up perfectly.