Trade Bait 2021

[UMDTerrapins]

2 minutes ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

We have a lack of quality infielders in the system (not counting 1B). We have a lot of OF. You trade from your strength to help your weakness. If we are competitive in 2022 or 2023, we do not have the IF to do that. So trading one of those OF or 1B is a good idea. Right now, Mullins should bring back a good return, if he keeps up this streak. Just a thought. 

I actually really like our IF depth (other than 1B).  If I’m looking to fortify weakness in our organization, I’d focus on pitching at the lower levels. 

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, waroriole said:

What do you think a team will give you for Mullins if he has a .900 OPS in July? A Top 100 player? Maybe 2? Wouldn’t it be better to just keep the guy who’s already producing at the ML level with 5 more years of team control?

I will worry about that if Mullins has a .900 OPS in July.    I’d put the odds of that below 10%.

Just as a reminder, Pedro Severino had a .979 OPS after 22 games last year.   I like what I’m seeing from Mullins, but like anyone else he’ll have his hot and cold streaks. In fact, I’d say his history is that he’s more streaky than most.   

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Cedric Mullins isn't going to return back enough in value to make a trade worthwhile with his track record up to this point in his career.

Harvey will get traded if he keeps pitching like this over the next couple months. 

[bpilktree]

Two teams to watch are the Angels and Braves both have high expectations to get to playoffs.  So far they are the two worst pitching teams in baseball if they continue to struggle that are teams I am looking to move Harvey, Armstrong, and Valdez too.  The Angels farm system is very weak but Braves had lots of depth and not  lot of holes at major league level for positional players.  They were expecting Soroka to be back from Achilles injury but has been shut down twice with arm issues already in rehab.  They might be interested in guy like Harvey and have few arms that are close to ready.  

[HowAboutThat]

If we are going to trade an outfielder I would much rather trade Stewart. He’s doing quite well right now on both sides of the ball, but I actually agree completely with @Beef Supreme Who is complaining about how Clumsy he looks out there.

I don’t think we will get a very good return for him, because he probably looks clumsy to everybody else, too, but he’s the guy I would be happy to see depart for sunnier climes.

[HowAboutThat]

9 minutes ago, bpilktree said:

Two teams to watch are the Angels and Braves both have high expectations to get to playoffs.  So far they are the two worst pitching teams in baseball if they continue to struggle that are teams I am looking to move Harvey, Armstrong, and Valdez too.  The Angels farm system is very weak but Braves had lots of depth and not  lot of holes at major league level for positional players.  They were expecting Soroka to be back from Achilles injury but has been shut down twice with arm issues already in rehab.  They might be interested in guy like Harvey and have few arms that are close to ready.  

Harvey’s going to have to give us more and consistent production before he has any kind of meaningful value, I think the Braves would be much more interested in Mr. Means.

[survivedc]

Cesar Valdez anyone?

[Beef Supreme]

12 minutes ago, survivedc said:

Cesar Valdez anyone?

I was thinking about him being traded at the deadline during last night's game. I can't imagine what a re-tread like him would bring back. But if Valdez brought back something of value, it would be like alchemy; the trade would be a coup!

[Bahama O's Fan]

2 hours ago, UMDTerrapins said:

I actually really like our IF depth (other than 1B).  If I’m looking to fortify weakness in our organization, I’d focus on pitching at the lower levels. 

I think our aim to really be competitive is 2023. Who do you see starting in our IF then, just from bringing up through the sytem? No FA.

[UMDTerrapins]

7 minutes ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

I think our aim to really be competitive is 2023. Who do you see starting in our IF then, just from bringing up through the sytem? No FA.

Jones and Vavra don't get a ton of attention, but I like them. Jones will probably be here this year, and Vavra before 2023. Henderson and Westburg are probably breaking in around that time frame and you certainly don't want to block either of them. And Hall, Bannon, Nevin, McCoy are all guys who could contribute. I think we tend to write off anyone who isn't in our top 10 because we're accustomed to having a pretty lousy farm system after our top guys. There's some quality depth now, and some of these guys who we think of as fringy or AAAA-types haven't had a chance to show tangible results since 2019.....they may step forward and become useful. Everyone had Mullins pegged as a 4th outfielder at best....some guys break out. Additionally, we have a bunch of infielders in our lower levels who are worth tracking. Hernandez is years away, but you gotta like what you see there. Elias clearly has a thing for drafting athletic middle infielders and figuring out where to put them later. Most of our lower level talent fits that description. Anyhow, that's why I don't see infield particularly as a position of need. 

[survivedc]

1 hour ago, Beef Supreme said:

I was thinking about him being traded at the deadline during last night's game. I can't imagine what a re-tread like him would bring back. But if Valdez brought back something of value, it would be like alchemy; the trade would be a coup!

I keep thinking he is going to be figured out, but by this point I’d think there is some pretty good info out there on what he does and no major setbacks. Yankees and Sox for the third time next month should be a good indicator.

[Paganosfan]

Is anyone else starting to get a little skeptical about how effective this process is of annually flipping solid starters for prospects who have the future upside of being fringe to average players?

 

Don’t get me wrong, it was fully necessary over the past few years to restock a depleted farm system. But other than Means, who might be our best trade chip since Machado, I don’t see anyone on the roster returning any top 100 prospects.  Id expect Harvey and Valdez could fetch us a package of top 30 guys in the caliber of Akin, Vavra, or Jones.  Those types of guys may turn out to be solid starters on our next winning team, but that is probably their upside and the more likely scenario is that they are a “cup of coffee” type player.  The problem i think we have now is that we have a log jam of similar quality OF and IF prospects, but not enough playing time to go around.  

If our competitive window is in two years, what are your thoughts on keeping/extending the quality starters that we have now and using the depth in our minors to start trading for other teams’ Mancini’s, Santander’s, Means’, etc.?  Teams don’t trade prospects for prospects, so that way we could send a package of our top 15-30 guys and return proven starters for the next several years. As ive gotten older ive had to accept that prospects are exciting due to their potential. But the chances of any top 30 prospect turning into even a Gausman, Bundy, Castro, Schoop, Santander, etc. is not as high as we like to believe.  I’m thinking it might be a good idea this season to trade begin trading certain prospects while we can and try to get a few solid starters in areas of weakness so that we can more quickly compete when Rutschman, Rodriguez, Kjerstad, Hall, and Henderson are ready. Thoughts?

[Can_of_corn]

A lot of the flipping is about payroll trimming as much as it is player acquisition.

[sportsfan8703]

18 hours ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

I think our aim to really be competitive is 2023. Who do you see starting in our IF then, just from bringing up through the sytem? No FA.

I think we will have a little bit of a clearer picture after this milb season, but we are really thin on IF depth. Sadly, I don’t think we’re going to find stop gap options for 3B/SS as good as Galvis/Franco in 2022/2023. 

Our long term SS is likely going to be drafted on July 11th. 

[Frobby]

18 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

I think we will have a little bit of a clearer picture after this milb season, but we are really thin on IF depth. Sadly, I don’t think we’re going to find stop gap options for 3B/SS as good as Galvis/Franco in 2022/2023. 

Our long term SS is likely going to be drafted on July 11th. 

I don’t think we’re thin on IF depth at all.    But the depth doesn’t have much AA/AAA experience.    Highest level played by O’s IF in the OH top 30:

5. Henderson - GCL

8.  Westburg - hasn’t played

13. Vavra - high A

15. Mayo - hasn’t played

19. Hernaiz - GCL

21. Hall - low A

26. Servideo - hasn’t played 

29. Bannon - AAA

30. Nevin - AAA 

Jahmai Jones probably would be on the list if he’d been in the organization when Tony did his rankings (and Nevin would be out).