MARCO’S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2022: THE TRADE DEADLINE...GOOFS, GUTS AND GLORY
There are 30 teams in MLB. 7 out of the top 22 offensive players in
those 30 teams (based on OPS) now play for the L.A. Dodgers and San Diego Padres. One third of the main offensive stars in the game play for just two of the teams!
The Dodgers have Betts, Turner and Freeman and the Padres have Machado, Soto, Bell, Drury and …Tatis Jr. coming back soon from the IL! Three of those guys were just traded to the Padres in some of the great deals in baseball history. And that’s not even the full story!
Padres President/GM A.J. Preller started his hot streak at the table with an inexplicable trade...the Padres recently ineffective closer, Taylor Rogers, Dinelson Limet (ERA 9.49 and currently on the injured list) and two fairly good prospects...Esteury Ruiz (an outfielder with great speed) and a leftie pitcher Robert Gasser. The Brewers gave up Josh Hader...THE BEST CLOSER IN BASEBALL.
Then the Brewers released Limet outright! Released him right after trading for him! And Rogers is a Free Agent after the season! What were the Brewers thinking? Did somebody slip some ayahuasca into their beer? So they save a bit of money by not paying Hader. They were in first place! They think they don’t need a shut-down closer in the playoffs?
This deal went over like stale cookies in the clubhouse...Brewers players were just coming right out and expressing appalled amazement.
The Padres really needed a star closer and they just got the best in baseball for... prospects. Outrageous! And Preller was just getting started!
Everybody knows the set-up: The Washington Nationals won the World Series in 2019 in glorious fashion. Then they started losing their stars and the Nats started losing games. Now they are the worst team in baseball. They lose and they lose ugly. And yet they still had one of the top players and probably the top hitter (even at age 23!) in the game...Wonderful Juan Soto. So they tried to start rebuilding around Juan with an offer of 15 years for $440 million dollars. Soto refused the deal and he has three more seasons before free agency.
So the Nats could either keep him for three years and then watch him leave or trade him now.
Soto’s worth would never be higher. Whoever got him would get a 23 year old superstar with 3 years left on a really cheap contract before free agency. Then his new team could trade him or pay him.
Several teams were trying to work out a deal but the field finally thinned down to St. Louis, San Diego and the Dodgers (probably) .
St. Louis didn’t have enough players and the Padres couldn’t stand by and let the Dodgers have Soto so they offered the entire top tier of their farm system plus injured leftie Mackenzie Gore and disgruntled first baseman Eric Hosmer for Soto...and first baseman Josh Bell who has been hitting almost as well as Soto this season!
A major hiccup...Hosmer’s contract let’s him veto a trade to several teams and Washington was one of them. No sweat...Preller switched Hosmer out for another first baseman, Luke Voit. The Nats said yes and we have an epic deal. But still not done.
Now the Pads needed a right handed power bat to help Machado out.
They pick up Brandon Drury ...a top twenty hitter in MLB...for 18 year old shortstop Victor Acosta. Acosta will be a great shortstop...in five years. But by that time Preller will be long gone ...if he doesn’t win a bunch of playoff games before Soto’s Free Agency.
So now the Padres will be soon be sending a lineup something like this out to face the enemy:
LF: PROFAR batting switch OPS .770
RF: SOTO batting left OPS .903
3B: MACHADO batting right OPS .881
SS: TATIS JR. batting right OPS .965 (career)
1B: BELL batting switch OPS .880
2B: CRONENWORTH batting left OPS .740
DH: DRURY batting right OPS .855
C: ALFARO/NOLA batting right OPS .731/.633
CF: GRISHAM batting left OPS .654
Barring injury, the Pads look quite competitive with the Dodgers and their superb lineup. They don’t have anybody left in the minors who can help them much if their stars get hurt. And the Padres starting pitchers have a lot to prove...(Snell ?, Darvish ?, Manaea ?) but they now have a much stronger back-end of the bullpen.
So what does the real world say about this fantasy ball wet dream of an offensive juggernaut that is the new San Diego Padres?
In the last 19 games the Padres and the Dodgers have played, the Padres have lost 17. Maybe you watched some of the games this weekend between the two teams? Well the Angelinos won the first one 8-1 and the second one 8-3. They won the third game 3-0 on a two hitter.
It looked a lot worse for the Pads. The Dodgers seem to own them lock stock and fish in the barrel. You know what I saw? (Well, I’m telling you anyway…)
The Dodgers look loose, relaxed and totally confident. They’re playing good defense and that helps. But offensively the Dodgers are running the pitch counts up way too fast against the Padre starters. The Bluebloods foul off twenty or thirty foul balls it seems like and by the fourth inning the starter has thrown 70 pitches. It doesn’t help that walks and hit batters turn into runs when the Dodgers deliver clutch hits and at least move the runners up fairly regularly. L.A. just looks like the well-oiled machine they’re being advertised as. The startled herd of deer that is the Padres pitching staff has no answer for the Dodger’s plate discipline. They just try to throw harder and get even more behind in the counts. The Dodgeheads are in their heads.
The Padres looked terrible in the field...bad errors by normally steady Manny Machado...usually a defensive stalwart. And the running game! Not that the Scampering Rabbits really need a running game with all the clutch hits and doubles off the walls. But Mookie Betts looks like he can steal whenever he cares too and it won’t even be close. And Taylor stole third on Manaea ...that was embarrassing. But not as embarrassing as L.A. catcher Will Smith walking into second late in the game.
But by that time the Padres had turned in their time cards. They gave up in the fourth inning of Game 1 and the fifth inning of Game 2.
The Padres finished 28 games behind the Dodgers last year and blamed it on injuries. So they fired the manager. This year they have injuries again. Boo Hoo. So do the Dodgers and most of the other teams in baseball...it’s the new paradigm.
Maybe Tatis Jr. will finally come back and get hot. Maybe Manager Bob Melvin will quit being polite to the blithering blind umps that are miscalling games so heinously. Get your ass thrown out of a couple of games, Bob! Somebody has to fire this team up and get them some attitude. Their new players did okay against L.A. Soto had some hits and played well in right field. In fact he made a couple of terrific throws from deep. I didn’t realize he had such a strong arm.
What the Padrinos need right now is strong guts.
And the real world opinion of Preller’s coup d’etat? Congrats A.J.! Spectacular! But remember…
The Padres have almost zero chance of keeping Juan Soto from going into Free Agency. That’s because Juan is still going to rate a $400 million contract in 3 years, and the Padres will still be paying Manny Machado (32 mil a year) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (20+ mil a year starting in 2025). They get to watch Josh Bell go to Free Agency next year. They have a bunch of other $10 million + per year contracts on the books. They can’t sign ‘em all. That means they have to go for it and they’ve got two or three seasons to do it.
But why not try? Fight on Taco Men! San Diego has only been to two World Series in their entire history. The Padres are the only San Diego major league sports team. Win something, Baby!
OTHER TRADE HEAD SCRATCHERS:
The New York Yankees knew what they needed...outfielders and starting pitchers. The former because Giancarlo Stanton is hurt...a fairly common condition for Mr. Hammy… and they’ve had to use Aaron Judge in centerfield which is putting too much workload on their superstar. Hicks has sucked at the plate. And remember when Joey Gallo could hit? Neither can he. And Matt Carpenter, while having a phenomenal season...is more of a DH at this point in his long career. So they went out and got Andrew Benintendi to play one of the fields. Good deal. They also got starter Frankie Montas and closer Lou Trivino from Oakland for prospects (not their top men).
They should have stopped there. Instead, they inexplicably sent Jordan Montgomery..one of their few healthy hurlers… to St. Louis for outfielder Harrison Bader. Now Bader is a gold glover who can run and play a mean center field. BUT HE’S HURT FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR! No help for 2022! And now the formerly considered- brainy Yankees have reversed their depth protection in the rotation.
I count Gerrit Cole, James Taillon, Nestor Cortes and Frankie Montas. That’s four. Montgomery is gone. Severino is out for 60 days minimum. Are they counting on Domingo German again? What if somebody gets hurt? They aren’t even getting any value from Bader...they need to go for it this year while the team is hot….bad trade alert!
Not to worry Yankees! The Boston Red Sox are helping you out by goat roping their team into some kind of hideous gnarly mess. “To the rear... March!” ...now Charge!” “Win at all costs but only after Surrendering.” “We have nothing to Fear but Fear and Success!”
The Sox were in last place in the East at the deadline...okay, so sell.
But they were only a couple of games out of the wild card...rally the troops, fix the bullpen and try to make the playoffs. Your fans will dig it.
So President Chaim Bloom trades catcher Christian Vazquez to the Astros …...the Astros...let me repeat that… for two prospects. Now Christian is one of the most popular Red Sox and a team leader that everybody loves. He’s hitting .287 this year. That’s pretty damn good in the post Mendoza wasteland of sub .200 averages amongst our catching contingent currently extant. In other words...he’s great. Clutch hits and plays some first base when he’s not being ONE OF THE TOP FIVE DEFENSIVE CATCHERS IN BASEBALL!
Was he making too much money? Not really...$7 mil a year. Is he going to be a free agent? Yes….and every team besides the five that have a catcher that good are going to try to get him.
Much like the opinion of the Brewers clubhouse on the Hader trade, the Red Sox as a team were disheartened by the trade of Vazquez. You don’t trade a Christian Vazquez if you’re trying to make the playoffs. The Sox will probably lose Xander Bogaerts to Free Agency because of it. You just don’t trade a guy like that who knows your pitching staff and knows the league and produces at the plate and keeps the team going with his positive attitude and defensive know how. Christian never, never quit on this team. All his teammates recognized that...why didn’t Chaim Bloom?
But that’s okay… Bloom is the genius who traded Hunter Renfroe for Jackie Bradley Jr. Hunter just let us know how he felt about that trade by busting multiple homers against the Sox on his last trip here with the Brewers. Jackie just got released from Beantown… bye Jackie. You played great defense and some of the time you didn’t suck as an offensive player. Boston has had a no-hit outfield all year. First base too. You can’t win when you don’t have production from those positions. So trade your hitting catcher and go get Tommy Pham and Eric Hosmer to save the season.???? What about the bullpen? Take it from Preller in San Diego...you can’t tip toe around in a pennant race. Trying to remain playoff viable while still positioning the team for long term success...Good Luck!
Did you notice who the Astros got for the stretch? The aforementioned Christian Vazquez to catch with Maldonado...that’s two warrior backstops for the Houstons. Also Trey Mancini from Baltimore to help Gurriel at first base. (He needed help.) But why the Orioles, who are threatening to take a wild card, let Mancini go I can’t comprehend. He’s one of their two best hitters and the team inspiration. Maybe the Orioles didn’t notice that they are now a .500 club with OPPORTUNITIES.
Houston also got another leftie for the pen in Will Smith. Good work Stros. Two regulars and a bullpen arm for prospects. That’ll help them get over Michael Brantley needing shoulder surgery.
Houston vs. the Mets in the World Series? With Scherzer, deGrom and Verlander all lathered up? Altuve vs. Lindor? Pete Alonso vs. Yordan Alvarez? Some tasty matchups in there.
Well….plenty of season left and the Dodgers and the Yankees are still strong.
Guess we’ll know in October!
Vaya Con Dios!
