Is Jed really safe?

[Jason Ross]

13 minutes ago, Bertz said:

This is exactly the problem.  Every GM in the league except Preller and Dipoto is too far up their own rear worried about min/maxing and not overpaying and just let moves pass them by.  Then they do the Flanders "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" routine.  It's not exclusive to Jed for sure, about 25 teams act like this, but that doesn't mean we can't criticize our guy for it.

The Cubs have traded like a dozen walk year relievers over the last 5 years.  The best return was probably Palencia for Chafin?  There's just not a lot of ceiling for a reliever trade, just pay full freight and get it over with. 

There's always this "ohhhh we can't make a trade in May the prices are outrageous" and then whenever we do see trades made in May (Arraez, Willy Adames, etc.) the prices are fine.  Like I'll buy the inflation argument for teams still vaguely in contention, but I don't buy that teams with 0% playoff odds on Memorial Day are spitting on offers 10-20% over market rate.

Yeah, I don't think we disagree on the overall premise. I did say, "I think it's a bit silly" in my original post you quoted; it does feel a bit crazy. And it's not that I'm not trying to defend Hoyer, but when the market seems as frozen as it does (Arraez is the only even medium trade out there), it's hard to throw it on the feet of Jed and suggest he could have ripped this cord on his own. It would seem based on the Arraez trade that Bendix is willing to deal, but kind of like how the A's were pretty unrealistic on Esuery Ruiz, they might have been super high on like, Dillon Head or Mortorella comparative to the rest where as they might be less enthused with like Alexander Canario or Michael Arias. It's just really hard to pin point how one team views a prospect versus another. 

I just think there's more to it than an easy button push. Perhaps Jed Hoyer is being too scared to make a trade. But it could just as realistically be other teams setting prices too high. As of now, with Assad also hitting the IL, it may be a slight blessing in disguise that the Cubs haven't made a Scott-type trade, because they're getting to a point where the team is so hurt, and so far out of it, that I don't think a Tanner Scott could have saved this mess they find themselves in. Maybe the hole would be less deep had they gotten Scott 45 days ago, but maybe not. Lot of what if's here that are unknowable.