Official Offseason Thread

Well, we were stupid enough to give JD 1/$23 in '19. So I think 3/$75 we should have no trouble matching but I would not go any further than that
 
Sure, You offer to get the pick but if you are waiting to meet or exceed the biggest offer he gets why bother? The way I read it is AA is letting JD field offers and then make a counter offer and hope JD takes less money than Rangers or whom ever offered to stay with his "favorite" team. Dont think there is much chance he takes less than the best offer from a contender or not.
 
PawPawMaxwell said:
Sure, You offer to get the pick but if you are waiting to meet or exceed the biggest offer he gets why bother? The way I read it is AA is letting JD field offers and then make a counter offer and hope JD takes less money than Rangers or whom ever offered to stay with his "favorite" team. Dont think there is much chance he takes less than the best offer from a contender or not.
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Exactly. Because if he is going to sign with another team then offering the QO was just dumb.
 
PawPawMaxwell said:
Sure, You offer to get the pick but if you are waiting to meet or exceed the biggest offer he gets why bother? The way I read it is AA is letting JD field offers and then make a counter offer and hope JD takes less money than Rangers or whom ever offered to stay with his "favorite" team. Dont think there is much chance he takes less than the best offer from a contender or not.
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Even if you plan on making the highest offer to JD at all costs, you still extend the QO in an attempt to dissuade other teams from trying to sign him.
 
BeanieAntics said:
I think that its probably working like this:

-Donaldson would ideally want to stay in Atlanta, but only for the right amount of money
-We let him shop his services with the understanding that he'll come back to let us negotiate against whatever offers he has
-We make a decision on whether to match the best offer he has gotten, or offer him enough to tempt him to stay.

I don't "know" that Donaldson wants to stay in Atlanta, but that is the feeling I get. At least enough to work with us in negotiations and be more transparent than another free agent might be. I also get the feeling that he doesn't want to stay here bad enough to take a significant discount in order to do so, given that this is his last major payday. So if he gets offered a 3/75 contract or whatever it is, its just going to be a matter of us matching that offer or getting close enough that Josh is willing to stay.

My sense is that he is likely going to get priced out of Atlanta and ultimately I'm okay with that. I'm starting to approach this offseason from the standpoint of building quality depth, rather than going after massive names that require significant risk to sign. There are several older players who are solid pieces and who would come relatively cheaply. I think it might be a good idea to go after several of those names to fill out a quality roster, rather than committing all of our money to one or two "impact" signings.

We have a very strong core of "stars" on our team and I think it'd be a perfectly valid approach to fill out the rest of the roster with ~1-2 win players, including the bench. Some of those guys' value could be enhanced by smart roster management and platooning and end up giving us a really solid roster to work with. Obviously AA would have to basically command Snit to deploy the roster correctly, but I'm thinking that this might be the most effective way to navigate this offseason. There seems to be an abundance of 1-2 win types that should come cheaply and fill our needs, while the "big name" guys seem to come with significant risk or commitment attached to them. The one exception to that might be Moustakas (or Grandal if he could be convinced to value AAV over the amount of years).
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This would have been an absolutely understandable approach if this was November of 2017 - or even arguably November of 2018. AA and his lieutenants are paid (well, by the way) to pick the right time to "stand on the gas". The problem is, if you're not going to do it when you still control Freeman for two more years AND control Soroka, Fried, Folty, Acuna, and Albies cheaply - AND are coming off of consecutive division titles - exactly when are you going to push at least some of your chips in?

I don't think he should blow his budget by getting into a bidding war and sign Donaldson/Grandal/Ozuna/Moustakas/Bumgarner to what very likely turns into a really bad contract that hamstrings the organization within two years, but I'll ask the same question I asked tons of times last season (as well as after JS didn't add a Pitcher after he traded for Tex) - why in the *ell did you waste all that money on Donaldson and Keuchel last year??? Why didn't you just target 1-2 win guys to surround your core with last winter and save all that money if you weren't convinced they'd push you over the top?

Fans are impatient - we all understand that. The problem is, you take the chance of alienating them if you signal to them that the rebuild is over by adding the pieces they did last year and try to back off now. You can't sell many tickets to people after teasing them for two years and then deciding to say "we'll ACTUALLY be ready to win in 2022". Lots of fans understand that AA isn't dealing with a bottomless checkbook, but if he replaces Josh Donaldson with Todd Frazier he's going to *iss a whole lot of people off needlessly. If the money they gave Donaldson/Keuchel/Mac and would've paid Julio is better spent on Moose/Grandal and someone you feel gives you a better chance to win in the playoffs than Teheran (even if it's Hamels and one of the young arms), you won't have to deal with tons of blowback, but if you replace those four guys with Cervelli, Frazier/Gyorko/Orlando Cabrera, Drew Smyly/Alex Wood, Tanner Roark/Ivan Nova/Rick Porcello and a couple bench upgrades you're begging for a fan revolt.
 
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AA: “We need someone to pair with (catcher Tyler) Flowers, with Brian McCann retired.”

I may be reading too much into a single line, but that sounds less like Grandal and more like Castro.
 
Enscheff said:
AA: “We need someone to pair with (catcher Tyler) Flowers, with Brian McCann retired.”

I may be reading too much into a single line, but that sounds less like Grandal and more like Castro.
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Castro very well could be who we get, but we should know by now to not believe anything AA publicly says or even take it as a slight indicator of plans.
 
PawPawMaxwell said:
Sure, You offer to get the pick but if you are waiting to meet or exceed the biggest offer he gets why bother? The way I read it is AA is letting JD field offers and then make a counter offer and hope JD takes less money than Rangers or whom ever offered to stay with his "favorite" team. Dont think there is much chance he takes less than the best offer from a contender or not.
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You make the offer because it would be idiotic not to. Its possible that JD has a change of heart and wants to leave regardless of the money and in circumstances like that you are protected. There is absolutely nothing to infer from AA offering him a QO other than our GM isn't completely incompetent.
 
BeanieAntics said:
You make the offer because it would be idiotic not to. Its possible that JD has a change of heart and wants to leave regardless of the money and in circumstances like that you are protected. There is absolutely nothing to infer from AA offering him a QO other than our GM isn't completely incompetent.
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Right. There is absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by offering the pick. That’s why I was so confused by the question.
 
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