Farewell to Wood, Peraza, Jimmy Johns, and Avilans.

rico43 said:
Maybe I missed something in this rapidly expanding thread, but the MLBTR update on the deal, time coded at 12:46 Eastern, does NOT mention Peraza in the deal at all. I have pasted the relevant graf below. If true, deal seems to be much more in line with most evauluations.

From MLBTR:
The “basic” structure of the deal (though there’s nothing basic about this move) is as follows: the Dodgers will receive right-hander Mat Latos and first baseman Michael Morse from the Marlins and pitchers Alex Wood, Jim Johnson and Luis Avilan from the Braves. Atlanta, in turn, will receive Cuban infielder Hector Olivera, lefty Paco Rodriguez and minor leaguer Zachary Bird from the Dodgers. The Braves are also picking up Miami’s Competitive Balance Round A pick in next year’s draft (No. 34 overall). The Marlins will come out of this deal with three minor league pitchers — Kevin Guzman, Jeff Brigham and Victor Araujo plus the financial relief of shedding the remaining $14.3MM that is owed to Latos and Morse.
Click to expand...

Without Peraza it makes it a bit better... but an earlier update in the MLBTR and several different reporters all had Peraza in too. If he is out... the deal is a little easier to swallow. It still is tough to get over trading Wood when he is the type of young, controllable players a rebuild is generally about...
 
Not that my opinion matters but here it is anyways..

1.) First and foremost I am going to miss Alex Wood simply because he's a bulldog (see what I did there) on the mound and we knew that every fifth day when he took the ball we were going to get all of what he had. He reminded me of Maddux in the sense that neither had overpowering stuff yet found a way to get guys out and miss a lot of bats while doing so.

2.) Although I have said and still say that Alex should be traded for a bat, I think we overpaid (assuming there aren't other pieces) most notably by including Peraza. With that being said...

This trade achieves multiple things.

1.) It's no secret we coveted Olivera as an international free agent, but we supposedly "lacked the necessary funds" to acquire him via free-agencey. It's also no secret that the Braves plan to spend big on International Free Agents this coming period but had we signed Olivera we would have been prohibited to sign any as a penalty for the Olivera signing. Now, with the Dodgers enduring that penalty on top of paying Olivera's signing bonus ($28 million) we still get our guy PLUS still have the ability to sign as many (and for as much) International FA's as we choose.

2.) While I, along with most everyone else, badly wanted to see Peraza and his "80" speed at the top of our order and playing second base, he was/is blocked by Jace Peterson (who I think will be just as good -if not better- than Peraza when things are said and done (minus the blazing speed of coarse)) and not to mention the rather sudden emergence of Ozhaino Albies. Speaking of Albies, it appears he may be a better player than Peraza and is a few more years away, giving us time to thoroughly evaluate Jace at the MLB level. If and when Albies is ready (to play either SS or 2B), we will have a better grasp on how productive Jace can/is and if he is, gives us roster flexibility. I also think the emergence of Mallex Smith coupled with the re-emergnce of Cameron Maybin kind of left Peraza without a place to play (as silly as that sounds) as it would be hard-pressed (albeit fun to see at times) to have a lineup with Maybin/Jace/Peraza/Smith all in it together.

3.) With our surplus of starting pitching it made someone (we now see it was Alex and still possibly Julio (would be a massive mistake IMO)) expendable, although I'm going to bring up another point in a second. A relative -or major in some eyes- weakness in our farm system is power hitting OF'ers, a legitimate catcher (Bethancourt can still be this), and a power hitting third baseman (I'm not sold on Ruiz). Well, now Olivera -who's level of "Pop" is debatable- solves the third base portion of that, as I can see him hitting 15-20 a year from the right side (which we desperately needed).

4.) Lastly, we are -presumably- getting our third baseman of the future at a huge (in terms of finances) bargain of 6yr/$34.5 million or roughly $5.5 million per year. We already knew that the club should have plenty of available payroll to spend this offseason but with the excessive amount of SP's we already had on top of the market being abundant with SP options and relatively thin on bats, it didn't make a ton of sense for us to spend on a TOR starting pitcher. Well, now we can. I fully expect the club to make a run at David Price (or Grienke) this offseason on top of trading for one more power bat (Braun seems to make some sense with us taking on the majority of his contract to lessen the price we pay in terms of prospects) to fill out our lineup.

I know I'm always a glass half-full type of guy, and as bad as I think this trade was, it kinda makes some sense. I think a roster that looks like this below can be very competitive...

Rotation:

1. David Price

2. Shelby Miller

3. Julio Teheran

4. Manny Banuelos / Williams Perez

5. Matt Wisler

Bullpen:

Grilli

Viz

Paco

McKirahan

Withrow

Simmons

Winkler

Lineup:

Peterson

Maybin

Freeman

Braun

Markakis

Olivera

Simmons

Bethancourt/AJ/Catcher

Bench:

Ciriaco

Backup Catcher

Gomes

Kelly Johnson

*FA

Again, maybe I'm just been a optimist but there is a way that this helps us out. But most importantly...

See how this thing plays out before calling for people's heads.
 
Krovahn said:
Without Peraza it makes it a bit better... but an earlier update in the MLBTR and several different reporters all had Peraza in too. If he is out... the deal is a little easier to swallow. It still is tough to get over trading Wood when he is the type of young, controllable players a rebuild is generally about...
Click to expand...

No, it makes it a different trade. We go from getting hosed to, "that hurt, dealing Wood, but for the 34th pick and getting Olivera (whom they love) I understand it."

I'm in favor of dealing Peraza in a good deal, BTW.
 
nsacpi said:
I think this trade illustrates the strategic challenges involved in trying to convert a stockpile of pitching into hitters. Acquiring proven low risk hitting talent is going to be prohibitively costly in the current era. So you will have to take risks on guys like Olivera. There are certain things to like about Olivera. The scouting reports indicate he is a polished complete hitter. Certainly not a hacker.

But what we are seeing is that the approach the Cubs have taken to rebuilding (stockpiling young hitting talent) is much better strategically in the current era than the one we have been taking.
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You mean sucking so bad that you can get Bryant and Schwarber?
 
I wonder if Avilan will wilt under pressure in LA. It seems he does when he plays for the Braves.

Viz, you are up next to be the next Braves closer.....man up.
 
I think most reasonable people understand the Wood/Olivera part. We've all wanted to trade from our SP depth to add a potential big bat and we did that. A potential impact bat that is a 3B too. My problem is that in my opinion the deal should be Olivera, Paco, and the pick for Wood. Peraza, JJ, and Avilan make no sense in this. Olivera could be great but he's a giant mystery and is 30 already. That's obviously far from old but those questions combined with him having ZERO track record make him less valuable then Wood.

I have a lot of confidence in saying this time next year we're all going to LOVE Olivera. But we greatly overpaid
 
From first look, I don't love this deal (or even particularly like it). Really sucks to trade Wood. the NegaBraves who were down on Peraza will probably change their tune and declare him great, but if he is in fact in the deal, that obviously makes it worse. if he's not, it has a good shot of being a good trade (everything I'm seeing has him in it).

Getting Olivera on the super-cheap is kind of nice, though.
 
Here's the question I have, why did the Dodgers just trade away a player they went so hard after this offseason? Some people might try to say they have no position for him but if he's the kind of bat the Braves think he is then they would find a place for him to play. If he was going to be a guy who hits over .300 consistently, gets on base a ton, and shows a little power then they would put him at second and deal Kendrick. They gave this guy a contract worth over $60 million with a huge signing bonus and after 69 minor league ABs they're bailing. What's up here?

The elbow is undoubtedly a concern. It can't be so bad that it makes him untradeable but it has to be a concern.

What I think is a bigger concern is the fatigue element. There was talk before he signed that this guy's stamina is a question. He apparently showed signs of fatigue in workouts in spite of having plenty of rest. Since they signed him, he's only played 4 full games in a row once. If the Dodgers know this guy is not going to hold up playing every day it would make sense for them to bail before others figure it out.

I think the Braves are so enamored with the talent Olivera has that they're just completely discounting the red flags here.
 
For those who aren't aware, there is a conditional option in Olivera's contract regarding his elbow. If he has to have elbow surgery at any time during the deal, a $1m team option kicks in. The option is for Olivera's age 36 season, but it's another "friendly" aspect to his contract.
 
Ummm...so, the concern is the elbow? Just like five other players we've dealt for in the last eight months?

Why not just send him to Birmingham and get him fixed? Comes back for the last two months of 2016 as one of the last puzzle pieces of the Mukaki rebuild. Gives the board another year to bitch about Chris Johnson. Where's the problem?
 
dak said:
For those who aren't aware, there is a conditional option in Olivera's contract regarding his elbow. If he has to have elbow surgery at any time during the deal, a $1m team option kicks in. The option is for Olivera's age 36 season, but it's another "friendly" aspect to his contract.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reminder, Dak. I knew but had forgotten.
 
I have lost count of how many variations of this deal I have seen since it first appeared last night on all media. At this point I am gonna assume nothing, and judge the same, until I see what it includes and IF it actually happens.
 
Hurts to lose Alex, but to me this trade is a good one. Olivera can really play. Wonder why we drafted and acquired all these pitchers? This is why. Our club is high on Olivera.
 
Is this thing official, or even close to being completed? No one on MLB Network or ESPN are talking about this at all. Seems weird to me something that is suppose to be official or real close to being completed and the two networks are not even discussing it.
 
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