Would really like them to try for Mancini. Baltimore is so bad and probably will be for a few years so I am assuming some young pitching may work. I like the fact first he is a right handed stick and plays OF & 1B. Just turned 27 and can't become a free agent until 2023. I agree that Adam Jones would have been a good signing. He is having a solid year and only making $3M. I would not say no to Gallo either, but another lefty. His best year average wise this year.In your opinion, what are this team's biggest holes, and how would you like to fill them?
My take:
- DH. The biggest hole on this offense, and perhaps the easiest to fill, is a big stick at the DH spot. There should be a lot of bats on non-contending teams to pick from. Maybe at the top of the list is Joey Gallo, who still has 3 years of arbitration left, is OPS'ing at 1.050 and has a career high OBP of .411. Other top options for this spot would be Vogelbach, Mancini, or perhaps bringing back Shin Soo Choo or Edwin Encarnacion. I think that giving Bobby Bradley MLB at bats this season is a potential internal solution.
- Outfield. We have so much depth, but very little quality right now. Martin, Zimmer, Allen, Luplow, Bauers, Mercado... I'd love to see CarGo and Naquin be done with this organization, and instead just sort through the rest of these guys to figure out 2 positions. I want to go get a third OF to play every day. This is a bit harder to fill, but Gallo and Mancini are both repeat options here. The Mets have a bunch of intriguing guys I'd be calling about. Seattle has Haniger and Santana. Another potential move would be something like going all-in on Matt Chapman, and moving Jose back to LF rather than moving him to second base. I really wish we were able to sign McCutcheon or Adam Jones... not sure we'd be having this discussion if one of those guys was in the outfield for us every day.
- Bullpen. Here's where I'm willing to go dumpster diving. Our bullpen has been good, but come playoff time, you can never have enough weapons back there. I'd love to see some of our internal options get MLB time--but I'd also be on board bringing in some bullpen arms from teams that are out of the running