Gunner, Adley, and Anthony S 10th best trio in baseball

[Roll Tide]

10. Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman & Anthony Santander(Orioles)

In a time of heightened prospect awareness, Henderson and Rutschman had the difficult task of living up to the hype. But they’ve done it. Rutschman had a 128 OPS+ in his first full season, and Henderson had a 125 mark despite an early season settling-in period. Rutschman will play 2024 at age 26, and Henderson at 24. By year’s end, we might be talking about the star trio they have formed with MLB Pipeline’s current No. 1 overall prospect, Jackson Holliday. For now, Santander is a fine stand-in, having slashed .249/.322/.464 with a total of 61 homers and 65 doubles over the past two seasons. But he has been mentioned in trade rumors, given the O’s overcrowded position-player pool.

 

 

 

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/best-trios-in-mlb-for-2024

[Oriole1940]

I do not know the ages of the other 9 ahead of the Orioles trio. but when Holiday shows what his hype says he  will show, I would take our trio over most any group, esp. when you figure their young ages.  Let us keep the talent pipeline going for  many   more years.

[SpOkane]

They got one thing wrong. Gunnar won't be 24 until 2025.

[TommyPickles]

This is why we need to hang on to Santander in 2024. He's too important to our offense.

[interloper]

4 minutes ago, TommyPickles said:

This is why we need to hang on to Santander in 2024. He's too important to our offense.

He's not going anywhere.

Hays, though, I would love to see a trade there to free up room for Cowser/Kjerstad/whoever. 

Edited December 12, 2023 by interloper

[DirtyBird]

45 minutes ago, TommyPickles said:

This is why we need to hang on to Santander in 2024. He's too important to our offense.

We need better. 

[Roll Tide]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

He's not going anywhere.

Hays, though, I would love to see a trade there to free up room for Cowser/Kjerstad/whoever. 

I think both are going. However I don’t know why with my lack of faith in him completing trades..

[Frobby]

I spent a bit of time looking at the top 10 trios.   Here’s what rWAR each produced in 2023 and what they’ll be paid in 2024 (using Cot’s arbitration estimates for players with open Arb cases).  No deferred comp adjustments here, it’s too much work to figure out who has deferrals and what the economics are.

1.  Betts/Freeman/Ohtani: 24.8 rWAR, $127 mm salary in 2024.

2. Acuna/Olson/Riley: 21.5 rWAR, $60 mm.

3.  Alvarez/Tucker/Altuve: 12.7 rWAR, $51.8 mm.

4.  Soto/Judge/Torres: 12.9 rWAR, $87 mm.

5.  Seager/Semien/Garcia: 18.5 rWAR, $66 mm

6.  Harper/Schwarber/Turner: 7.7 rWAR, $75 mm.

7.  Machado/Tatis/Bogaerts: 12.8 rWAR, $91 mm.

8.  Diaz/Paredes/Arozarena: 12.9 rWAR, $20 mm.

9.  Carroll/Marte/Walker: 14.1 rWAR, $29 mm.

10. Henderson/Rutschman/Santander: 13.5 rWAR, $13 mm.  

The O’s trio actually had the 5th highest rWAR of the 10 in 2023, and they are by far the least expensive of the 10 trios.  Of the 30 listed players, 20 are playing under long term contracts, 8 are going through arbitration, and two (Henderson and Rutschman) are pre-Arb.  Of the 20 who have long term contracts.  10 were signed as free agents and 10 signed extensions.  
 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Frobby

[Earl Buck]

So, why aren’t the Os trio ranked 5th, since they produced the 5th most rWAR? And at the lowest cost!

[Rbiggs2525]

In terms of age and cost there is no better trio than Henderson, Holliday, Rutchman. Diamondbacks and Rays are the only teams competing in that aspect.

[CP0861]

mlb.com "lists" are garbage. They just put out a "list" of the best 2b post 1947. Utley was 5 and Alomar wasn't even on the list.

Robinson, Morgan, Biggio, Sandberg, Utley (whoever made the list is from Philly I guess), Grich, Whitaker, Cano, Kent.....in that order.

https://www.mlb.com/stories?s=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlb.com%2Fstories%2Fprime-9-second-basemen

Edited December 13, 2023 by CP0861

[Pickles]

Shouldn't Mullins be considered our third best player?

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, Pickles said:

Shouldn't Mullins be considered our third best player?

It’s subjective.  In 2023 he wasn’t.  Over any longer period, I’d say he was.  The Braves trio left out Bregman even though he was much better than Altuve in 2023.   

[Pickles]

7 minutes ago, Frobby said:

It’s subjective.  In 2023 he wasn’t.  Over any longer period, I’d say he was.  The Braves trio left out Bregman even though he was much better than Altuve in 2023.   

I guess if I was projecting 2024, I'd take Mullins over Santander.

[interloper]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

I guess if I was projecting 2024, I'd take Mullins over Santander.

I think I agree with a caveat. Mullins has a lot more ways to accumulate WAR but has also had a 3-year decline in WAR (5.9 to 3.8 to 2.8).