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Zimmer

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Speculate all you want, but the FO is gonna add offense, and its gonna cost prospects.

If we are still debating the likes of Harold, Mercado, Johnson, Chang, Zimmer, Miller, Clement, Jones, Kwan, and Gonzalez in March, we will be looking at the same thing next season.

Not one of them is an answer to our offensive woes.

There are a lot of trade possibilities out there. Reynolds is far from the only one.
 
Speculate all you want, but the FO is gonna add offense, and its gonna cost prospects.

If we are still debating the likes of Harold, Mercado, Johnson, Chang, Zimmer, Miller, Clement, Jones, Kwan, and Gonzalez in March, we will be looking at the same thing next season.

Not one of them is an answer to our offensive woes.

There are a lot of trade possibilities out there. Reynolds is far from the only one.
I’m not the one filling up a thread with endless trade speculation. I agree the players listed above will not move the needle on offense. But expecting a rash of significant acquisitions by trade is just not realistic. The Reynolds reference was just one trade idea that has been subject of multiple posts yet there is zero evidence it has been discussed by the team’s management.
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I would expect payroll to rise a bit next season, but to expect some big offseason spending spree is going to be unrealistic. I'd expect us to sit around $65 million or so next season.
 
$65 mil would mean a pretty fair spending spree for a franchise like ours.

On August 29th Meizel reported that the Indians had made inquiries about both Reynolds and Winker as possible deadline acquisitions.

Lots of players that have been considered untradeable in the past have ended up being traded. Our FO has made lots of trades without making a peep before they were announced.

Almost every team covets young pitching and prospects, both upper and lower level.

We have both in spades.

The FO will acquire a significant bat this winter. It wouldn't surprise me if they acquired two.

Knowing this FO, my guess is the foundations for several trades have already been laid.
 
1. Obviously the best choice is to bring in a couple of free agent bats that are upgrades over the "shit show" that we have at the corner outfield spots now. If that's feasible, great. But if the money isn't there or if the available funds are all sucked up by a Jose or Bieber extension, then it's on to Plan B.

2. Plan B is to trade prospects for immediate outfield bats. You'd rather not lose top prospects, but in this case the Jose/Bieber window is closing if we can't extend them and we have prospects we could lose in Rule 5 anyway if not traded, so this could very well happen. It might be Plan A.

Maybe we don't get a Bryan Reynolds but we target players who are upgrades over what we have now and are gettable.

3. Plan C is somebody from AAA like Oscar Gonzalez, Jones, or Kwan to emerge from the phone booth and save the day. Jones is hitting .238 so I don't see him as a realistic possibility - yet. The other two seem to be possibilities.

4. If A through C don't pan out then, yes, we are left with the same shit show. But what you do in that case is set it up so you exploit the strengths of these players (and they all are good at something) and minimize their weaknesses. We're talking platoons at the corner spots.

That would involve keeping five outfielders in the roster. Against RHP's we play Naylor and Zimmer. Against LHPs Mercado and Harold. I've written off Daniel Johnson.

Too many outfielders? I don't think so. Next year I expect the starting pitching to be outstanding with the result being one of the lowest workloads in the league for our bullpen. If you've got Beiber, McKenzie, Quantrill, Civale, and Plesac going 6-7 innings consistently, you don't need eight relievers. Not when you have a huge problem generating offense from the corner outfield spots.

It's not like you can keep a couple of lefties in the pen to come in and get one guy out anymore.
 
$65 mil would mean a pretty fair spending spree for a franchise like ours.

On August 29th Meizel reported that the Indians had made inquiries about both Reynolds and Winker as possible deadline acquisitions.

Lots of players that have been considered untradeable in the past have ended up being traded. Our FO has made lots of trades without making a peep before they were announced.

Almost every team covets young pitching and prospects, both upper and lower level.

We have both in spades.

The FO will acquire a significant bat this winter. It wouldn't surprise me if they acquired two.

Knowing this FO, my guess is the foundations for several trades have already been laid.
I sure hope you’re right.
 
A $65-70 million payroll would almost have to include an extension or two. Otherwise we would be adding somebody with a paycheck equal to about one third of the rest of the team. The Ind, err Guardians have never had a player salary out of whack with the rest of the roster.
 
IMO, plan A is to trade prospects for a significant bat.

Plan B is to sign a significant bat as a FA.

Not executing Plan A is failure. Not executing either is an Epic Fail.

Executing both is an A+.
 
A guy like Zimmer would be a solid 4th OF type on a fair amount of ball clubs honestly, so it would be strange for him not to have a job in 22...

I though also think, the paperwork has been started for a young OF who is MLB ready that can make a difference with the bat in 22, whether it would be a Reynolds type, or a top 50ish prospect out there... I think the Guardians will make some type of move for someone, but with the FO being tight lipped, we may never guess who...
 
Get one major league corner OF bat in a trade for Rule 5 eligible prospects and sign another in FA, assuming the payroll will increase enough to allow it. Another Eddie Rosario type signing.

Both moves would increase the payroll and we also need to augment the bullpen. I'm not sure both a trade and free agent signing are doable under the current salary structure.
 
A $65-70 million payroll would almost have to include an extension or two. Otherwise we would be adding somebody with a paycheck equal to about one third of the rest of the team. The Ind, err Guardians have never had a player salary out of whack with the rest of the roster.
if we dont get an extension or two done....
 
Get one major league corner OF bat in a trade for Rule 5 eligible prospects and sign another in FA, assuming the payroll will increase enough to allow it. Another Eddie Rosario type signing.

Both moves would increase the payroll and we also need to augment the bullpen. I'm not sure both a trade and free agent signing are doable under the current salary structure.
If a team believes the Rule 5 roster will expose good prospects for virtually no cost, why would they trade a MLB corner bat to acquire the prospect?
 
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If a team believes the Rule 5 roster will expose good prospects for virtually no cost, what would they trade a MLB corner bat to acquire the prospect?

Milwaukee traded for Mathias so they could get him for their 40 man roster. My point is a team could make a move for a player so they guarantee that they get that player. A guy like Oscar Gonzalez who we have been debating back and forth on, could be one of the targets for a team. Plus it gives that team minor league options rather than having to keep them at the big league level. I wouldn't be surprised to see a prospect swap or two that we saw with Mathias going to Milwaukee..
 
If a team believes the Rule 5 roster will expose good prospects for virtually no cost, what would they trade a MLB corner bat to acquire the prospect?
yes - tho the answer would be how much team A wants said rule 5 player, where team A sits in the draft order and what team A thinks teams ahead of them will do
 
I think two offensive acquisitions...one by trade and one thru FA...may be doable, even with only a modest increase in payroll.

A trade for a younger vet in first or second year arby will raise payroll about $5-6 mil tops...about the cost of Hernandez.

A FA, depending on if we signed him for one, or two, years, would cost in the $6-10 mil range...about the cost of Eddie.

Eddie didn't work out for us, but similar type signings did. Going into last offseason, everything about Eddie looked good, but it didn't work out.

Signing vet corner OFs is a crap shoot, but there will be a lot to be had in the $5-$10 mil range...and the track record isn't too bad.

The good last offseason...

Grossman...$10 mil for two years.
Duvall...$5 mil
Renfroe....$3.1 mil with two arbys left.
Schwarber...$10 mil w/ mutual option.


The bad...

Peterson...$7 mil
Eddie...$8 mil
 

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