Chitownfan92’s Offseason Plan – Will mediocrity strike again?

ByChitownfan92
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PREAMBLE

What happens when you have too many Indians and not enough Chiefs? As is the case with the Sox heading into the off-season with the loss of Jose Abreu and no manager in near sight, where do you turn now for leadership? Alot of questions have to be answered but let’s see if we can answer some of them here.

ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS

  • Lucas Giolito: $10.8M – TRADE (Trade details are below)
  • Dylan Cease: $5.3M – TENDER (If an extension can be worked out somewhere around 7 years at $20-25mil AAV, you do it.)
  • Reynaldo López; $3.3M – TENDER (Reclamation project has found a home in the bullpen)
  • Adam Engel: $2.3M – NON-TENDER (His defense will be hard to replace, but his bat won’t)
  • Michael Kopech: $2.2M – TENDER (No reason to look into a long-term extension at this time)
  • Kyle Crick: $1.5M – NON-TENDER (Didn’t stand out enough to warrant bringing back)
  • José Ruiz: $1M – NON-TENDER (You can find guys to fill mop-up roles anywhere these days)
  • Danny Mendick: $1M – TENDER (Unfortunate end to his season but valuable enough to bring back on a $1M deal)

CLUB OPTIONS

  • Tim Anderson: $12.5M ($1M buyout) – PICK-UP (Is there really any explanation needed?)
  • Josh Harrison: $5.625M ($1.5M buyout) – DECLINE (Turned it around in the 2nd half but didn’t do enough to earn the starting job for ’23)

PLAYER OPTIONS

  • AJ Pollock: $13M ($5 million buyout) — EXERCISED (Veteran presence with pop, slot him anywhere from 7-9 in the order and you could honestly do alot worse.)

OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS

  • José Abreu (Made $18M in 2021) – LET GO (This hurts, in more ways than one, but the man deserves a title and unfortunately won’t do it here.)
  • Johnny Cueto ($4.2M) – EXTEND (1yr – $5mil deal with a club option for ’24. Back-of-the-rotation guy who can bridge the gap for Crochet when he eventually joins the rotation.)
  • Vince Velasquez ($3M) – LET GO (Did exactly what his career numbers indicated, a ‘meh’ season.)
  • Elvis Andrus ($14.25M) – LET GO (One of the few bright spots for the Sox once he was acquired but was nothing more than a rental.)

MANAGER

Going to go out of the box here but this guy has had a previous stint as a manager, albeit in a small capacity, but succeeded. Sandy Alomar Jr is that guy. He’s been linked to manager roles for a few years now and with Francona returning to the Guardians, I think this is the time to pluck Alomar away from Cleveland. He has filled in for Francona and managed to a 28-18 record in 2020 and although was swept in the playoffs, proved his ready for a full-time gig.

FREE AGENTS

No. 1: Sean Manaea (2yr, $22mil). (The market is thin on LH SP’s unless you want to pay an arm and a leg for one. Manaea had a rough season so his value should stay even keel with his current contract, but he’s a good candidate to have a bounce back year based on career numbers.)

No. 2: Michael Brantley (1yr, $8.5mil) (Eh, what’s another oft-injured OF anyways? Left-handed veteran hitter that can bridge the gap to Oscar Colas. Guy has tons of playoff experience and won’t be needed to play 150 games.)

No. 3: Trevor Williams (2yr, $11mil) (Above-Average Long-Relief/Spot-Starter that can provide stability in a multitude of ways in the bullpen or in the rotation.)

TRADES

No. 1: Trade Lucas Giolito to Arizona for Ketel Marte. (This trade may require more pieces but the idea is there. I feel as if both guys need a change-of-scenery so this trade almost makes too much sense. Ketel can revert back to his role at 2nd and won’t be relied on to be one of the only offensive threats in the lineup.)

SUMMARY

The team has a good mix of veterans with young guns and plenty of bounce-back candidates to make a another division title run, or at least a wild-card run.

LINEUP/BENCH

  1. Tim Anderson – SS
  2. Michael Brantley – LF/DH
  3. Luis Robert – CF
  4. Eloy Jimenez – DH/LF
  5. Andrew Vaughn – 1B
  6. Ketel Marte – 2B
  7. Yoan Moncada -3B
  8. Yasmani Grandal – C
  9. AJ Pollock – RF

Seby Zavala – C
Gavin Sheets – RF/1B/DH
Danny Mendick – UTIL
Jake Burger – 3B/DH

PITCHING STAFF

  1. Dylan Cease
  2. Lance Lynn
  3. Sean Manaea
  4. Michael Kopech
  5. Johnny Cueto

 

  1. Trevor Williams – Long Relief/Spot Starter
  2. Jake Diekman – Mid
  3. Garrett Crochet – Mid (Jimmy Lambert holds the position until Crochet returns)
  4. Joe Kelly – Mid
  5. Reynaldo Lopez – Mid
  6. Aaron Bummer – SU
  7. Kendall Graveman – SU
  8. Liam Hendriks – CL
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Chitownfan92

So I just realized that I left Leury Garcia out of this, to be honest, with Romy and Mendick handling utility roles, he becomes expendable and can be traded for a low-level prospect or international signing money.

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a-t

Giolito for Marte doesn’t work for Arizona. Gio has one year left, Marte signed an extension through 2027. They won’t be contending next year, either.

Last edited 1 year ago by a-t
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