casimir

The opt out possibility makes trading for him a bit trickier, too. I don’t really see him, elsewhere this season. But who knows, maybe San Diego find themselves in a pinch for a SS?

To my wholly unqualified eye, Cunningham seemed to have a bit more aggressive play offensively this season than he did last season.

He had a couple more seasons in Seattle, but he was a better pitcher in Arizona.

Mullet etched on the plaque. Seems like they should have attached real hair in its place.

Damn, .... pwned.

The other thing about the pick being that far out is that the draft system might look completely different by then. Remember when they brought up the 30 season rotation idea? Sure, it seems far fetched. But so does a mid season tournament which keeps getting brought up right after it seems to die down.

Randy Johnson seemed to manage fine with a mullet.

Respectfully disagree, that mullet looks to have good flow.

Trading with the Lakers makes sense because they are going to be in desperation mode to win now. Trading with the Lakers doesn't make sense because they don't have much in the way of youthful capital that is playing above middle school basketball right now.

I'd have been fine with keeping Candelario and releasing Schoop. I would assume some improvement for Greene, but given his youth and generally positive showing in his rookie stint, I'm not sure how much improvement there will be in 2023. He just turned 22. He can be a regular but still have some learning to do, too.

This is not much different than the happy wife, happy life principle. Essentially the only differences in the scenarios are a ring and some vows.

What could this team be next season if they win the Wembanyama sweepstakes and the rest of the cast and crew are healthy?

It was kind of ridiculous last night. He was whining before the tip and didn’t stop.

And attempts at dialogue are idiotic.

But I also think you can’t assume some of what we saw repeats itself. Granted, Cabrera is in decline, so I wouldn’t expect much out of him. But I think Baez, Meadows, and Schoop underperformed so much that there’s reason to expect a recovery to closer to career norms (I’d add Candelario to that, but he’s gone). I also think we’ve seen the absolute worst of Torkelson. So right there, that’s 4 everyday players that we should reasonably expect better things out of in 2023.

Cunningham is done for the season, will have shin surgery.

Per season?

I guess the other thing would be can you trade LHH OFs for something of use? Can you get the LHH IF or a RHH CF in exchange of a Baddoo or Carpenter?

Are we talking $100M to add for the 2023 season, or $100M in total salary commitments? Mitch Haniger's deal would fit nicely into the $100M budget and addresses an area of need. I like the timing of the salaries given the timing of Cabrera off of the books as well as possibly Baez and/or Rodriguez also off of the books. Haniger as the everyday LF/RF*. This might not be popular, but I would have kept Candelario and rolled the dice on a bounce back season. That's another $7M-$8M. Candelario as the everyday 3B. I'd also go after one of Wil Myers or Trey Mancini as a RHH OF to platoon with Meadows and offer insurance at 1B. *So, this might need to be accomplished with Mancini in LF and Haniger in RF vs LHPs or Haniger in LF with Myers in RF vs LHPs. Either way, the RHH bat plays vs LHPs while Meadows sits. What I don't like about this acquisition is that it doesn't bring a natural CF to give Greene an occasional day off, but that can be accomplished elsewhere. What kind of contract are they going to require? I would think they could be had on a one year deal, max out at $7M-$8M? I'm curious what happens with P Chris Bassitt. I suspect he becomes the forgotten SP, so to speak, this offseason. I think teams will look at his age (34 next season) and back away a bit. Does this keep him at a 3 year deal, maybe with a team/mutual/vesting option for a 4th? What's his AAV line up at? This one is tricky, probably goes back to whether we're adding $100M total or $100M in 2023. My guess is the former, so Bassitt might not happen. We've got $43M for Haniger, $15M for Candelario and one of Mancini/Myers, so that's $58M. Its probably unreasonable to expect Bassitt to agree to 3/$42M. So maybe go back and start with Haniger and Bassitt, get the Jace Pederson 2/$10M deal and have him platoon at 3B with Kreidler, and try to scoop up a RHH OF that can play CF on the cheap. And I know this isn't a popular idea, but he's a RP and RP arms can go poof pretty quickly, so what is Lange's value on the market? Can the Tigers plug a major league position player roster spot that way, young player for young player?

This is probably not a good look.

I agree. Its just going to be a matter of how much of a rebound they have.

There are some issues for Harris to deal with, sure. I don't know if I'd say his hands are tied behind his back. The salary situation could be pretty minimal next season. If Baez & Rodriguez decide to opt out, everybody that remains (from the current roster) is on the cheaper end. As far as prospects go, I still think Greene & Torkelson are everyday lineup cornerstones. If the pitchers can get healthy, I think Fetter can get that side of the ball in pretty good order. Shorter term they'll need to add some offense for sure. But again, with a bit of a blank slate as far as salaries go, there should be ample opportunity from the roster/demand side to add to the mix. And I'll go back to the beginning of the Harris era (which probably includes the offseason) being more about getting systems in order rather than cutting all players that don't fit the mold and replacing them all with players that do fit the mold.

He had to sign off on the Baez and Rodriguez contracts last offseason, didn't he?

Somewhat the same with you about flu shots, although that definitely changed with kids. The adage about, "well, if I die, I die". Yeah, that's great selfishness for those with dependent children.

I am not convinced Baez opts out unless he proves 2022 was a bit of a fluke. But if he rebounds, I think he's gone. Rodriguez also has some things to prove in order to do better than 3/$49M that he would be walking away from. Given the price tags that we've seen this offseason, it might not take much, but right or wrong he also has a bit of baggage attached to him. Cabrera will finally be off of the books. The early read on the 2024 payroll at this point is a bunch of arbitration or pre arbitration players. Figure out a way to hit on those players, and maybe it wouldn't take much in the way of additions to compete in the division. And with the low payroll, there should be ample resources to augment the on hand talent.