Bertz

That's a hell of a rotation. Weird to see a Rangers team with great pitching and a questionable offense.

I'm less apoplectic about trading Bryant than most, but man trading KB and then using nearly all of that money on a square peg like Castellanos would be real tough to get behind.

Yup, as long as they’re willing to shuffle through stuff a little more aggressively when guys suck I think there’s a workable and good pen in there. Plus I’d assume we get a bullpen arm in one of these trades that sounds like will happen and/or bring back Strop for cheap or some cheap 1 year vet that’s hanging out there right before ST. I think the reason they weren't aggressive was because no one in the opening day pen besides Carl had minor league options. For that reason I don't want a cheap one year vet holding a roster spot hostage (I also don't want Mills and Chatwood to both make it to ST). Get one more setup type arm from one of the trades, and roll into 2020 with this: Kimbrel Wick Ryan New Guy Chatwood/Mills Megill/Underwood Iowa Shuttle x2 (likely Wieck/Winkler initially)

I continue to think they make a ton of sense for Willson, even with Zunino. Zunino probably sucks, so Willson would be their everyday guy. If Zunino does bounce back, they could use Willson for ~50 games at C and as a good RH bat cycling in at 1B/DH to balance out all those lefties the rest of the time. I also imagine they think they could fix Willson's framing, which is fair since they're really quite good at fixing guys.

He projects via Steamer to a 3.78 ERA in the majors so he might not be nothing?

Trout-Ohtani-Rendon is a fun as hell middle of the order

Rendon to the Angels and Donaldson to the Rangers has to be viewed as the most likely scenario at this point

And would likely cost one of their catchers. Wonder where they'd turn to for a replacement...

I imagine this is the only thing moving because it's a move they're going to make regardless of how their trades go. Like even if they bring in a Margot or a Pache you'd still probably like to have an Akiyama if the price is not prohibitive. You could say the same thing about a bench 2B bat as well, but since there's a dozen of them out there that's likely being back-burnered.

I'd imagine that Rizzo is looking at Paul Goldschmidt and understandably expecting a 9 figure deal. I bet the Cubs are looking at other 1B who have signed extensions two years prior to FA like Ryan Howard and Miggy Cabrera and understandably saying "nah." If Rizzo stays a Cub long term I expect it to be an Aramis Ramirez situation where he hits FA, makes sure no one is going to blow him away with a contract, and then resigns with the Cubs for a slightly team-friendly rate.

I think there are implications for Chatwood as well. I'd rather have Gausman than Chatwood, but it's not a total slam dunk. Especially since we've seen teams pay out the nose for spin and velocity with guys like Pomeranz, I wonder if this is a sign that Chatwood is not *that* far underwater contractually.

I'll say I'm less offended by the idea of trading KB than I am about getting under the luxury tax. If the FO wants to trade KB and Willson and still run a ~$240M payroll via short term FA's and extensions (Javy and Rizzo?) I can understand that thought process. I would likely disagree with it, but I get it. It's a step back in 2020 to significantly improve the long term health of the roster. But trading KB to cut payroll forces a huge step backward this year for nothing more than lining PTR's pockets. Just incredibly gross.

I highly doubt that. The only way they stay favorites after trading those guys is if they get back quality major leaguers, and if they get back quality major leaguers they aren't getting the prospects necessary to vault into a top 10 system. I'd imagine to TT's point they get guys in the upper minors who can make some level of contribution this year. For example guys like Christian Pache from the Braves or Adrian Morejon from the Padres. They've got a ~5 win projected head start on the division, which is basically what they're giving back in trading those two. As long as they don't just settle for a bunch of A ball kids, the 2020 bump from the new guys and reinvesting the ~20M saved from KB helps offset any remaining moves from the Reds and Cardinals.

They should absolutely not blow it up, but if they did I think they could probably clean the slate and fully stock the farm. There's only 4 guys with guaranteed money beyond 2020: - Heyward - Darvish - Kyle - Kimbrel Heyward's contract is way underwater, but now down to four years left he's probably dealable if you ate ~half. Kimbrel's contract looks bad right now, but I think the industry is willing to give him benefit of the doubt for last year. If he had a good first half he'd be valuable again by July. Darvish and Kyle have positive value (Darvish a little, Kyle a lot). From there looking at trades, it would look a lot like when the White Sox blew it up. I would guess Javy would bring back something akin to the Quintana deal, and Bryant a little less than that. Willson and Rizzo would each net a top 100 guy plus another prospect or two of note, and Schwarber a couple guys in that "just missed" area. All together that's probably a #1 farm and and basically clean books after 2020. That being said I still wouldn't do it. If Theo deals KB and Willson, the Cubs are probably the slight Central favorites in 2020 with a top ~10 farm and Heyward as the only really bad money on the books. A disappointing place to be, but still a pretty good one all things considered. Much better than signing up for 2-3 years of horsefeathers ball IMO.

Ken Rosenthal: This is not the first time Rosenthal has connected the Dodgers to Bryant

https://twitter.com/ByMcCullough/statuses/1204187410361225218

Lawyers are the one profession who procrastinate more than Baseball Executives

Anyone else getting logged out pretty regularly? Today's been especially bad, probably happened a half dozen times.

Do the statheads on this site prefer fSWAG or bSWAG? I like Baseball Prospectus' SWAGP personally