The FO is now at the point of the Fram oil filter commercial....
Pay me (prospects) now, or pay me later.
Over the next 14 months, we have so many prospects that need to be protected, that we will lose some if we don't trade them.
A reasonable case can be made for protecting about a dozen this year...which can't be done, if the FO plans to contend in 2022.
A reasonable case can be made for close to that many next year. Some of the names...
Martinez
Naylor
Brennan
Hankins
Curry
Gaddis
Battenfield
Rodriguez
Torres
Stubbs
Sanquinton
Plus anyone that survives the R5 this year.
It makes absolutely no sense to acquire and develop young talent to the point that they look like they can play in MLB when you can't fit them onto a roster, then sit on them until they either lose all value or end up playing against us, without getting anything in return.
I'd much rather overpay for a productive MLB bat than to give talent away. Every young player/prospect we lose for nothing, due to inaction, is an overpay.
The price of inaction is often higher than the price of overpaying. The price of bold action is often a lot less.
Which was the better deal?
Frazier, Sheffield, Heller, and Feyereisen for Miller?
Never trading Zimmer, Chang, and Greg Allen for anything?
Never making a decision on Aguilar, Haase, and Guthrie until they had lost all value?
Ever wonder what we could have gotten for Zimmer, Chang, Bradley, Haase, and Allen when they were prospects?
Going into 2017...
Zimmer was a 55 FV and MLB ready.
Allen was a 50 FV and MLB ready.
Chang was a 45 FV and two years away.
Bradley was a 45 FV and two years away.
The next year, Bradley and Chang were 50 FVs. Haase was a 45 FV and MLB ready.
Thats a total of one 55, three 50s, and a 45 for which we received 2.4 fWAR combined.
The cost of not trading high end prospects when there is no room for them is extremely high. You can compare them to any set of prospects we have now.
