Official official offseason thread
- Thread starter Hudson2
- Start date
zbhargrove
Well-known member
Can we just get Gurriel Jr from AZ now?? Can’t see how they need him. Would be a good fit.
tululush
New member
4.5 million this year and 5.4 million next year. Would be perfect for us but I doubt we have the prospect capital to make that move work. Also he’s 29 so I’m not sure how or why he fits in Arizona’s current plan.
He’s a cheap average LFer, and shouldn’t be too expensive to acquire. That’s a good way to fix the position for this season.
tululush
New member
If we were interested wouldn’t we have been pulled in for a 3 way with Arizona and Toronto? I mean I’d love to acquire him but my guess is it’s not happening.
CyYoung31
Shift Leader
How many wife beaters do we need on this team?
MadduxFanII
Swallowed by Mark Bowman
This would have been a much easier offseason if Shewmake hadn't gone all busto on us.
Hudson2
Well-known member
He can be Ozuna’s sponsor
bravesnumberone
Well-known member
I mean I thought it was understood that dude wasn’t squat from the beginning. Never understood that pick.
Wasn't necessarily a trash pick.
The logic was it was one of AA's first drafts. We had all sort of restrictions from the penalties from Coppy, as well as no international picks.
I think AA coming from the LAD front office, saw Shewmake as like the super utility guys that LAD has developed like a Bellinger or Taylor or Lux.
Figured he could make it to the bigs sooner and have an impact. Didn't work out well as hoped obviously.
Southcack77
Well-known member
A Ferrari is a luxury item that is the opposite of good investments. That's a good metaphor.
It's hardly AA's fault what his budget constraints might be.
50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
The sanctions were clearly a large lump of coal in successive Christmas stockings. Two of the forfeited contracts--Soto and Bae--played in the majors last season and both are middle IFs. Soto will probably be the Angels' starting SS in 2023 if he has a good spring training. Severino is probably a year away and he's another middle IF. If all those guys are in the system, my guess (and it's only a guess) is Anthopoulos passes on Shewmake. One can never tell, because MLB draft picks are seldom based on the relatively immediate needs of the major league club, but it's important to remember that there were questions about Swanson's ceiling back then so that they had to get someone in the pipeline.
Only edit is that it was Anthopoulos' second draft. The 2018 draft was the Carter Stewart draft.
Trying to be positive here, it’s going to be much more fun following our SS’s in the minors this year.
Tavares, Benitez, or Nacho Alvarez may be the long term answer at SS.
We’ll have Shewmake in AAA and 3 SS in MS Conley/Waddell/Bunnell. None of these guys are going to be stars, but any one of them could get hot for a month or two and get a cup of coffee in the majors.
Tavares, Benitez, or Nacho Alvarez may be the long term answer at SS.
We’ll have Shewmake in AAA and 3 SS in MS Conley/Waddell/Bunnell. None of these guys are going to be stars, but any one of them could get hot for a month or two and get a cup of coffee in the majors.
All baseball players and baseball itself is a luxury item. Let’s all stop acting like anyone doesn’t understand these humans aren’t “worth” what they are paid in terms of true value to society. We get it, pro sports salaries are ridiculous. Can we stop bringing up that aspect?
It is absolutely AA’s fault if he can’t afford to shop in the FA market. He signed Rosario and Ozuna. He extended every player on the roster and blew the salary cap. He signed Will Smith and turned him into Odorizzi that cost $10M this year. He very possibly misread the FA market and didn’t understand what players would cost while budgeting for upgrades. AA did all those things, and all those things are why he can’t afford FAs.
Now he has to talk about “value” as if the “value” of FAs isn’t determined by what other teams are willing to pay for them. So yes, not being able to afford FAs this year is 100% on AA.
Ozuna and Rosario are big mistakes.
My hope is that AA saw it was going to be a silly FA market and chose to dole out extensions increasing the luxury tax salary payroll, so he had an excuse for not overpaying in this market. The extensions no doubt are worth it, but short term painful.
Something doesn’t have to be a mistake to be at fault. The extensions are probably net positives (still open for debate taking on all that risk and restricting flexibility), but those moves are 100% the cause for the luxury cap number being so high. And AA is 100% at fault for those extensions, good or bad.
Folks love to applaud the extensions, but they forget about the massive risk the Braves just took on leashing themselves to this core. We are already seeing how little flexibility AA will have this decade to attune the roster, and this inflexibility is now locked in for many years.
This core IS the Braves for the foreseeable future, win or lose, continued success or unexpected decline. There is very little money to pivot from the contracts AA has shackled to this franchise. No option to drop players during arb years. No option to send players down to save service time. We are seeing the results of that reality already…right now.
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NYCBrave
Well-known member
I agree with everything you're saying, including the numerous mis-steps that AA has made. I'll just say this. While the extensions do not come without risk, I think we have to acknowledge it allows us to keep the majority of our core long term and even extend the contention window beyond the originally thought time frame. Would be impossible to achieve the same with the payroll limitations shopping majority through free agency.