The time to pounce is now and the division is for the taking. No more treading through another year hoping the prospects continue to grow and gathering a high draft pick. My plan is a little extreme, but with a lot of upside - plus we corner the market on Cuban players.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Alex Colomé, $10.3M - Non Tender (we can spend that money better and he's coming back to earth next year)
- Yolmer Sánchez, $6.2M - Non Tender
- James McCann, $4.9M - Tender
- Carlos Rodon, $4.5M - Non-Tender (can't stay healthy and see Colome above)
- Leury García, $4M - Tender
- Evan Marshall, $1.3M - Tender
- Josh Osich, $1M - Tender
- Ryan Goins, $900K - Tender
CLUB OPTIONS
- Welington Castillo: $8 million/$500,000 buyout - Decline
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
Try to retain, or let go?
- Jose Abreu (made $16M in 2019) - Resign 2/$25M with 3rd year option
- Iván Nova (made $9,166,167 in 2019) - Let Go
- Jon Jay (made $4M in 2019) - Let go
- Hector Santiago (made $2M in 2019 on split contract) - Minor league contract
FREE AGENTS
No. 1: Yasmani Grandal (three year, $60 million (20,20,20)). We get our guy.
No. 2: Dallas Keuchel (three year, $40 million (12,14,14)). He'll eat up innings and provided a left handed starter that are both sorely needed. I also believe he'll age well.
No. 3: Will Smith (three year, $35 million (5, 15, 15)). Now that Colome is gone, we'll need a dependable closer. I'm deferring his contract for when Herrera falls off the books.
No. 4: Lonnie Chisenhall (1 year, $1.5 million). Bounce back candidate and left off the bench and can play either corner outfield position.
TRADES
No. 1: Trade Nick Madrigal and Luis Basabe to the Mets for Noah Syndergaard (don't laugh yet) and Yoenis Cespedes (and his $29.5m salary). The trade simulator agrees with me...so must be okay. Plus Brodie Van Wagenen wants to free up some salary. Cespesdes by all accounts is going to play next year and with his cuban homies, he may actually have a motivated bounce back year. Plus we get Thor for two years to plug into the rotation.
No. 2: Trade Aaron Bummer and Reynaldo Lopez to San Diego for Luis Urias. I'm trusting my scouting department to tell me that Urias is going to turn out to be a solid 2B. The Padres could use a cheap controllable starter and reliever and they have Edmonds in the minors to take over 2B in the foreseeable future.
SUMMARY
My back of the napkin math (including $9.9m for Thor) equates to approximately $122,000,000 in payroll for 2020. The rotation should be pretty solid and there is a ton of upside with lineup. The bullpen is a little weak, but hoping herrera can bounce back a little and we can find another cheap arm.
Lineup:
1b Abreu
2B Urias
SS Anderson
3B Yo Yo
LF Eloy
CF Robert
RF Cespedes
C Grandal
Bench McCann
Bench Garcia
Bench Engel
Bench Goins
Bench Chisenhall
SP Giolito
SP Syndergaard
SP Keuchel
SP Cease
SP Kopech
Closer Smith
RP: Herrera, Cordero, Fry, Marshall, Osich and a cheap wild card.
