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For the past three years, the guys at Royals Review gather up 30 guys across SB Nation baseball sites to represent their team and shrink the hot stove season from four months, to four days. Good news for you Chris Sale fans out there. For the first time ever, I didn't trade him.
Here are the moves I did make:
- Non-tendered Dayan Viciedo and Ronald Belisario
- Traded Daniel Webb and Rangel Ravelo to the Phillies for Jonathan Papelbon and $3 million.
- Signed Andrew Miller to a four-year, $45 million deal.
- Signed Edinson Volquez to a two-year, $15 million deal with a $10 million option or $2 million buyout for 2017.
- Signed Melky Cabrera to a four-year, $40 million deal.
- Signed Adam LaRoche to a one-year, $12 million deal.
- Signed Dayan Viciedo to a one-year, $3 million deal.
- Acquired Ryan Raburn for cash considerations
Behind the moves:
I struck a deal for Papelbon pretty early. I know some of you guys don't like paying for bullpen help, but when the team puts up a performance like the bullpen did last year, you have to spend some money and get some nasty bastards on the team. Papelbon is a perfect fit here for me. He has gotten the job done in two of the most scrutinized places and brings a little bit of that attitude I was looking for with him.
I signed Miller to a 4/$45M deal. I normally wouldn't go that high, but when you have 29 other guys bidding with Monopoly money, the spending can get a little out there. In any case, we need a lefty and Miller is easily the best one available, if not the best one in the league.
Volquez is a target of mine. He comes cheaper than guys like Brandon McCarthy and the results will be similar. 2/$17M is what is guaranteed here, so for $8.5 million a year, you get an experienced righty that fits nicely into the rotation. I also believe that with Dr. Herm and Cooper here, they may be able to bring out a little more in Volquez.
I really wanted Nick Markakis. I started the bidding at 4/$44M. I was asked if I would do 4/$48M, which I did. I went up to 4/$58M (again, I normally wouldn't go this high, but you have to in the sim). After that, though, I was unwilling to match the 4/$62M offer he received from St. Louis. My fallback option was Melky Cabrera. He was given the qualifying offer, so I did surrender my second-round pick, but for $10 million a year, Cabrera can fit into the role I had pegged for Markakis.
I still wanted a designated hitter, so I signed Adam LaRoche to a 1/$12M deal. He also came as a qualifying offer guy, so I surrendered the third-round pick for him. After I got rid of the second for Cabrera, I saw no reason not to hold back on LaRoche.
I added Ryan Raburn just because I'm sick of seeing him tee off against us every damn year. He was horrid last season, but had a real nice one the year before. He can be a bench guy and if not, we will cut him and take pleasure in doing so.
Other news from the sim:
I tried to get rid of John Danks, but there were no takers. B.J. Upton was the one guy I got offered in return, but I figured I'd just keep Danks at that point.
Jose Quintana, Alexei Ramirez and Chris Sale were asked about quite a bit. I didn't discuss names with any of these guys because teams were just throwing out prospects at me. I'm trying to win it all dammit, I can't go trading one of these guys without a significant return. I did, however, exchange names with the Cubs who wanted Quintana. I was shot down after saying it would take two of Kris Bryant, Addison Russell or Jorge Soler.
I inquired on Brandon Phillips, but the Reds weren't willing to take Danks back in return, so I'd have to take on most of his contract, which I would have done if it was only two years. It's three though, so I couldn't do it.
I asked the Pirates GM about Andrew Lambo and he responded with Marcus Semien or Carlos Sanchez. Before I was able to contemplate a deal though, Lambo was shipped out elsewhere.
Wednesday morning, before the sim ended, I had a deal worked out that would ship Matt Davidson to the Brewers for Martin Maldonado. Unfortunately, I had to leave and it never became official for whatever reason.
I asked about Yoenis Cespedes, but the Red Sox were only interested in adding him to a package for Sale.
In the end, it gave me something to do. As usual, the dollars for some of these players went way higher than I was comfortable with. Things on the trade market happened quickly as well. There were a ton of trades finalized before the thing officially started this year, so I didn't have a chance at Matt Kemp.
I think that I improved the team in all three areas. The starters are stronger with Volquez on hand, the bullpen has two legit back end stoppers and the offense adds two left handed bats in Cabrera and LaRoche. I would have liked to get a little more done, but it wasn't happening.
Here is the full breakdown of the ridiculousness that was the 2014-15 SB Nation simulation.