I think his ceiling would be that of a guy who is, as you say, a fringe core player.
So, I would agree that he has an outside chance of becoming that player. However, he is most likely “just” a solid role player capable of carrying an offense for a week or so. While he is making little to no money (basically for the next 2 seasons), that is quite valuable. No denying that.
But there isn’t risk there and you can replace him within the organization and since you don’t care about winning, just do that.
He's an interesting guys as well, just didn't know much about his control/command or the mechanics so it would e tough for him to jump on the scene unless he show up in the GCL and is pitching lights out with great stuff. then again, he's probably in the same class as Ortiz overall, just a lot of unknowns.
And the way they do it is the way the Orioles have to do it to be relevant. Good international scouting every year and effective domestic draft modeling so they consistently have a decent farm system (in addition to their money).
I think Valdez makes the opening day roster.
On a different note, what happened to Chandler Shepherd? I know the O's cut him, but did he rejoin the organization? Sign on elsewhere? Despite the inflated ERA in 2019, I thought he had some potential as a long reliever. 8.1 SO9/2.8 BB9
This is the crux of the argument I've been having with SG.
I don't believe it's easy to find a guy as valuable as Santander, and I think the argument that you can replace his production through the rest of the roster is a fallacy. If you can do that, why not keep him and still improve the rest of the roster?
I actually think we kind of agree about the type of player that Santander is. Somewhat less than Jammer's opinion of him, but a good guy who can be valuable even if he's not your Machado type of value. Eventually maybe not affordable at that level of production for a penny-pinching team.
The relevant question then about trading him is about whether you can replace him, because I don't want to trade him and create a hole in our lineup when we're on the cusp of being competitive (which I believe starts late this year and next).
So all of that argues not to trade him now unless you get that Bleday-like deal. REAL value back. If not, I'm not moving him unless/until I have confidence in our other internal options.
Finally, I don't buy the cost argument for two reasons. First, he will be getting expensive when the rest of the roster is the cheapest it'll ever be. We should be able to cover arb prices. If they go really high, that means he's producing. Second, if we don't have that replacement internally that means to me that we'd have to pay free agent prices in hopes of replacing him. That's the most expensive route of player acquisition.
So we find a team that wants to win now and is willing to overpay for a cheap alternative, perhaps like the Marlins, or we wait until we know more in July and reassess. That's my take.