Undersold on this board is the fact that Toronto is a VERY large market with VERY rich ownership. At least that's my recollection. We're really going against 3 financial juggernauts and the most efficient franchise in the sport. Tough division.
And I don't get the idea that he's so easy to replace. I've seen this team run out enough stiffs in the outfield since Markakis left to not take that position for granted.
The international guys are most interesting to me. In theory one or two could come stateside and be top 10 prospects quickly if the hype matches the eye test. The few guys I wouldn't be surprised to also see added are:
Cumberland - could be our future backup catcher, which has value. Could see him in the 20-30 range at the end of of 2021 with a good year.
Mattson - another arm from the Bundy deal. We haven't seen him much yet. Wouldn't surprise me if he turns out to have Zimmermann like production.
The headliner in a Cobb/Santander/Mancini trade.
I just don’t get the idea of why you think he is so hard to replace unless you think he is going to be healthy and a lot better moving forward than he has been so far in his career.
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 is 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.