Third Basemen in the System

nsacpi

nsacpi

Expects Yuge Games
Here is what they have produced so far this year:

Garcia age 32 .222/.259/.321

Ruiz turns 23 in May .213/.263/.320

Valenzuela 23 .284/.324/.418

Demeritte 22 .243/.333/.378 (playing second, but could probably move to third)

Riley 20 .239/.286/.391

Yepez 19 .316/.357/.500

We came into the season without an obvious internal solution at third for the next few years. And nothing has changed. A couple guys have hit well in April. Valenzuela is one but profiles more as a utility bench guy. Yepez is the other but is very young and several years away, and it is unclear he can stick at third.

And of course there is Maitan who is even younger and at least four years away.

This is going to be a position of need for the next few years. I suppose Rodriguez could take over the position next year, but he would be a one-year stop gap.
 
JohnAdcox said:
The sad (sadder?) thing is, I have a hard time even thinking of one available outside the system.
Click to expand...

Kind of funny how the Braves being terrible/mediocre ruins my interest in following other teams around the Majors like I used to before. Kudos to those here that still follow everything despite these rough times.
 
JohnAdcox said:
The sad (sadder?) thing is, I have a hard time even thinking of one available outside the system.
Click to expand...

Have been big on Moustakas for a good while - whether we trade for him and extend him or just "buy" him this winter. 4 years and $64 million to $72 million ought to get it done, and I just don't see Ruiz developing enough pop to keep from needing to go ahead and spend that money. No reason not to really - with Big Sexy's deal off the books and a cheap replacement for at least one of the rotation vets there should be plenty of money to cover that. Royals can't match that, and I'm not sure who else would want to get in a bidding war over him since nobody stepped up to make it any harder for the Dodgers to keep Turner last winter.
 
I know Coppy doesn't believe in trading for position players, but I'd like to buy low on Ryan McMahon from Colorado... coming off a down year and is blocked, may be able to get him cheap.

Off to a great start this year though.
 
nsacpi said:
Here is what they have produced so far this year:

Garcia age 32 .222/.259/.321

Ruiz turns 23 in May .213/.263/.320

Valenzuela 23 .284/.324/.418

Demeritte 22 .243/.333/.378 (playing second, but could probably move to third)

Riley 20 .239/.286/.391

Yepez 19 .316/.357/.500

We came into the season without an obvious internal solution at third for the next few years. And nothing has changed. A couple guys have hit well in April. Valenzuela is one but profiles more as a utility bench guy. Yepez is the other but is very young and several years away, and it is unclear he can stick at third.

And of course there is Maitan who is even younger and at least four years away.

This is going to be a position of need for the next few years. I suppose Rodriguez could take over the position next year, but he would be a one-year stop gap.
Click to expand...

Updating the numbers:

Garcia now at .234/.256/.355 a little better but not good enough

Ruiz at .250/.303/.429 better but not there yet...not walking as much as in years past

Valenzuela .292/.330/.434 not much change...solid

Demeritte .265/.344/.436 numbers moving up...not bad

Riley .288/.345/.477 has heated up...right now looks like our best third base prospect (other than Maitan)

Yepez .289/.324/.412 has cooled off...overall numbers still look decent

Overall comments: Nice to see Riley step up. Would be great if one of these guys established himself as a bona fide prospect.
 
Imo, the most likely transaction we make for a third baseman over the next year is a trade for Prado. The fish will be looking to reduce payroll. Prado is owed 13.5M in 2018 and 15M in 2019. My guess is Moustakas will get a higher AAV for four or five years. So there is less risk with taking on Prado for two years.

He's been on the DL twice this year, driving down his value. With his contract, there is little or no surplus value. So we don't have to part with a significant prospect. Something like a straight up swap of Prado for Adonis Garcia might work for both teams.
 
I think the right call is to bring Ruiz up.

I said before this year Garcia last year was a pumpkin. And even as a pumpkin wasn't that great. Ruiz probably won't be good. Could easily be worse than Garcia, but who cares? Garcia is sucking, might as well try out Ruiz and see if something clicks.
 
Updating

Garcia is out a while. His last numbers were .247/.282/.351. Slightly better but not good enough.

Ruiz in the majors is at .209/.312/.343. Only 77 ABs. I projected he could produce a .700-.750 OPS in the majors in a platoon. He isn't there right now but he should be given the opportunity to show what he can do.

Demeritte is at .252/.328/.453. Not much change.

Valenzuela is at .275/.312/.402. That's down some.

Riley is at .254/.317/.405. Down quite a bit.

Bottom line. No one within the system (unless you want to count Maitan) projects as a regular major league third baseman.

The best internal option probably involves Ruiz as part of a platoon. With Garcia, Santana or Camargo in the short run. With Demeritte in a couple years.

A good case remains that we should find an external solution. Moustakas. Prado. Solarte. Longoria. Those are some options. Some more ambitious than others.
 
I think the plan was always to have SRod get the most ABs at 3B once Albies was ready to take over 2B.

That has to still be the plan if he heals up.
 
nsacpi said:
Moustakas. Prado. Solarte. Longoria. Those are some options. Some more ambitious than others.
Click to expand...

If we are spending the type of money to pay for Moose or Longoria we'd be better off just waiting and signing Donaldson after 2018. We aren't going to be a playoff team next year anyway, so we might as well wait until 2019 to fix it when we will likely have Folty, Newk, Allard, and Soroka in the rotation and have a chance to be a pretty solid team.
 
auyushu said:
If we are spending the type of money to pay for Moose or Longoria we'd be better off just waiting and signing Donaldson after 2018. We aren't going to be a playoff team next year anyway, so we might as well wait until 2019 to fix it when we will likely have Folty, Newk, Allard, and Soroka in the rotation and have a chance to be a pretty solid team.
Click to expand...

Donaldson will be 33 in 2019. I don't think I'd go that route.
 
Garmel said:
Donaldson will be 33 in 2019. I don't think I'd go that route.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't either really, unless we could get him on a high dollar 3 year deal. Assuming Maitan is the real deal he should be ready to start at 3B at the beginning of 2021, so I'd rather go for a shorter term player. I'm just saying going after Donaldson on a shorter deal is immensely preferable to signing Moose to a 5-7 year deal or trading crazy prospects and dealing with Longoria's crazy long contract. I'd probably see if we could get Solarte from the Padres, depending on cost. He seems like a perfect buy low candidate, and his contract fits perfectly with our timeline since it's options for 2019 and 2020 and would all us to both cut bait if he sucked and allow us to let Maitan come up when ready.
 
auyushu said:
I wouldn't either really, unless we could get him on a high dollar 3 year deal. Assuming Maitan is the real deal he should be ready to start at 3B at the beginning of 2021, so I'd rather go for a shorter term player. I'm just saying going after Donaldson on a shorter deal is immensely preferable to signing Moose to a 5-7 year deal or trading crazy prospects and dealing with Longoria's crazy long contract. I'd probably see if we could get Solarte from the Padres, depending on cost. He seems like a perfect buy low candidate, and his contract fits perfectly with our timeline since it's options for 2019 and 2020 and would all us to both cut bait if he sucked and allow us to let Maitan come up when ready.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't go past 4 years on Moose. There are no ideal options. We can go limited risk/limited upside with guys like Prado or Solarte. Or take on some risk/upside with the others. For the next few months, lets kick the tires on Ruiz.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top