Headley is a very mediocre baseball player. So much so that the Yankees just traded for the 3b version of Chris Carter to replace him.
Mediocre is putting it lightly.
I'm not (and never have been) against "buying" prospects. The problem with adding someone like Headley is that it just continues kicking the can down the road. It's time to start finding out what some of these kids can do so a decision can be made whether or not to move on from them. Everyone here complains (rightfully so) when the brass and/or Fredi and now Snitker plays the guys with big contracts. The surest way to get them to stop doing that is to quit having them around.
If you ever want to know whether Ruiz might eventually be able to play, you have to do just that - play him. Don't give Snitker another option to put in front of him. If you think Andujar could be the long-term guy and you have Headley here to cover 3B in Atlanta next season, where in the *ell are you going to play Ruiz? I certainly don't think he's the answer, but you're sure as *ell not going to get anywhere platooning he and Andujar at 3B in Gwinnett in 2018. If the organization was willing to take the contract back and then instantly DFA Headley (or even do it this winter) so they could see what they've got in these other players, I'd be all for it. The problem is we all know they won't eat that money - look at how long they continued running Big Sexy out there.
Again, I'm more than fine with taking on a bad contract to get Andujar, but upping these "packages" of vets that everyone wants to make to obtain a better prospect has limits. You want me to take on Headley's contract AND give you Garcia or Dickey? I get Andujar. What's that? You want Adams too? OK - I'll be happy to do that AND take Warren's money off your hands. I want one of Tyler Austin, Florial, or Nick Solak.
I'm not asking for their top guys to not only fix their roster AND take care of their accounting problems - these are secondary guys. All the "number-crunchers" need to factor in that we're taking back that bad contract when they decide what FV level prospect we get in return. You want me to eat Headley's contract too? The level of prospect I want in return goes up.