It's not about the exact players, but the idea of young, affordable, controlled, high end talent at every position.
One thing they could accomplish if they traded Lindor, CC, and Hosey in the same off-season would be to acquire a number of young players who would immediately slot in as top ten prospects in the organization. Combine that group with the top prospects we already have and it would create a huge wave of emerging talent that are all within a three-year age range who would not be arbitration eligible for years.
What they've had so far is their top talent at the major league level being spread out in terms of age. They have a good season, win 90-95 games, then Brantley walks. They have another good (but not great) season and they have to trade Bauers and Kluber. Another solid year and they have to trade Lindor and let Santana and Hernandez walk. A pandemic comes along so they trade Clevinger. It's like they can never get over the hump because every year they have to jettison a top performer. They're running in place.
On top of that you have top performers who just get old and lose their effectiveness; Cody Allen, Kluber, Shaw, Andrew Miller, Otero, etc.
So the proposal is to trade three of their four stars (all except Bieber) at the same time instead of one each year as they've done in the past. That would create a wave of similar age prospects that can grow together and they would not have to trade or let anybody walk for 3-4 years. That's an interesting idea and a different approach to holding onto them until there's one year left or one-half year left and trading them.
But I agree it would create some inefficiency. If the #1 prospect in your organization is a 22-year-old third baseman, for example, why trade for a 3rd base prospect? If we were to do this we should insist on outfielders, a catcher, and pitchers in return. We have a lot of middle infielders in the system.
However, it might be better to trade only CC and Lindor, especially if they can get the right pieces in return to complement what we already have.
I'm wondering if this is the best time to maximize the return given the huge financial losses incurred by every team last year. OTOH, it might make JRam even more attractive. He'll make only $35 million the next three years combined. He's almost a sure thing to be an MVP candidate all three years. Teams who are not flush with money could afford that contract - we wouldn't be limited to the Yankees, Dodgers, or Mets.
You might find a team with a modest budget and a closing window of opportunity who would really shell out to get an affordable star. I doubt that a player of Ramirez's ability who is this young (28) and inexpensive with three years of control left has EVER been on the market.
Normally we try to suck as much juice from the orange as possible before throwing it away, but in this case it might be worth considering. They could consolidate ALL the organizational talent in one 20-23 year old age group instead of having it spread out so they can never quite get over the hump and always have to move a key piece or two after every season.
