dhunoway's Offseason Plan

Arbitration-eligible (with projected salaries from MLBTR):

• Tyler Flowers, $3.5M Tender
• Avisail Garcia, $2.3M Tender
• Nate Jones, $900K Tender
• Zach Putnam, $800K Tender
• Dan Jennings, $800K Tender

Contract options (pick up or buy out)

Alexei Ramirez: $10M for 2016 or a $1 million buyout Absolutely

If we are in win-now mode. Giving the reigns to Saladino now just gives us another hole.

Impending free agents (re-sign, let go, or qualifying offer?):

• Jeff Samardzija: $15.8M qualifying offer Offer sheet, pray he doesn’t take it

• Matt Albers: Made $1.5M in 2015 No, going to be too expensive for a likely back to reality year

• Gordon Beckham: Made $2M in 2015 Hell no
• Geovany Soto: Made $1.5M in 2015 Just didn’t show enough chemistry with the staff to give a need to resign him. Robin also didn’t know how to use him which negates his value

Free agents

None. Let’s not forget that this is a good team and needs tweaks at critical positions. No need to over pay to get decent production. I would much rather make a big trade and save the big money splash for when we really need it in the coming years. We also don’t have a ton of money to work with, next year once Danks and LaRoche come off the books we can spend heavy.

I am an advocate of signing Buehrle to a 1-day contract and making him a special assistant/ambassador. My all-time favorite player, I don’t think he has anything left in the tank and from a fan standpoint I am shouting to sign him. But from a front-office perspective this is the only role he can have sadly. His knowledge to spread on would be ideal to work with all of our lefties in spring training.

Trades

Avasail Garcia, Tyler Danish, Micah Johnson, Frankie Montas, and Courtney Hawkins for Todd Frazier and Brandon Phillips

Let’s be honest, is Micah Johnson a reliable fielder anywhere on the diamond? –no Do I want to give away Montas and Danish? –not at all. To get something you have to give up some good things.

What we get: The prime of Todd Frazier; a reliable power bat and glove, a veteran presence, and a still very solid Brandon Phillips which gives us a huge lift defensively, offensively, and in the clubhouse.

What they get:

Garcia- toolsy prospect who hasn’t panned out for us (boy he reminds me more and more of the tank) maybe Cinci can get what we couldn’t out of him

Johnson- See above

Danish- Love him, want him, need him. But unproven

Montas- Very interested to see what he can do, but how much can he help us with the time we have with our core?

Hawkins- Just hasn’t been the guy we hoped he would be when we drafted him, same boat to an extent as Garcia

Line-up (I smell production and OBP!)

1 Eaton CF

2 Phillips 2b

3 Abreu 1b

4 Frazier 3b

5 Cabrera LF

6 Thompson RF

7 LaRoche DH

8 Flowers C

9 Ramirez SS

Bench: I would like to see sanchez/saladino get some work in the OF to have more versitility

Shuck OF

Brantly C

Sanchez MI

Saladino INF

Rotation (Coop Magic with Danks one more year and get by with Johnson?)

1 Sale

2 Quintana

3 Rodon

4 Johnson

5 Danks

Bullpen Pen did a nice job last year, wasn’t our weakness, these guys can do the job.

CL- Robertson

SU- Duke

SU- Jones

LHP Jennings

RHP Putnam

RHP Webb

RHP Petrika

Summary

In short we make one major block buster trade and solve a good chunk of our problems! I realize this decimates our farm system, but aside from Danish and Montas I don’t fret losing any of them. We haven’t had production out of the hot corner since the Crede days and that one week of Kevin Youkilis. This gives us that at a fair price for the prime of a player while also getting sound defense, obp, and leadership from Phillips. Will Thompson stay solid? His opportunity to play was too short to tell, but it did impress enough to give him the shot. At worst he plays good D which is more than Garcia gave us. The bench is thin, and one could argue that a bullpen arm could be traded out for a more veteran bat. That could be addressed by the trade deadline. If this doesn’t work, then hell we have 2 outstanding candidates to trade at the deadline that most teams would want to have on their roster which could then restock the system. The major piece to this could be LaRoche turning back into the player he once was (or even half). I only wish I could trade the manager in this…

Final Financial commitment: $128,516,667