{"id":12940,"date":"2016-10-20T10:57:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T14:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12940"},"modified":"2022-11-17T10:03:18","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T15:03:18","slug":"nats-post-2016-gm-for-a-day-off-season-priorities-for-filling-roster-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12940","title":{"rendered":"Nats post-2016 &#8220;GM for a Day&#8221; Off-Season Priorities for filling Roster Holes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12899\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/RamosWilson-pointing-up-via-wp.com_.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12899\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12899\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12899\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/RamosWilson-pointing-up-via-wp.com_-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Ramos may be the toughest off-season decision the team makes. Photo via wp.com\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/RamosWilson-pointing-up-via-wp.com_-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/RamosWilson-pointing-up-via-wp.com_.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12899\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramos may be the toughest off-season decision the team makes. Photo via wp.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Another year, another playoff failure. &nbsp;Beat it to death already. &nbsp;Time to move on.<\/p>\n<p>Lets talk about the post-season &#8220;To Do&#8221; list is for the Nats. &nbsp;We&#8217;ll have eventual posts to talk about other stuff, like Tender decisions, 40-man decisions ahead of the Rule5 draft, etc.<\/p>\n<p>In this post, we&#8217;ll squint at the overall roster, look at blatant holes that will need filling, and discuss how they might get filled. &nbsp;Call it the cliche&#8217;s &#8220;General Manager for a day&#8221; post for the Nats this coming off-season.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Pending Free Agents<\/strong><\/span> we are waving good-bye to and the holes they thus leave (as per the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseballprospectus.com\/compensation\/cots\/national-league\/washington-nationals\/\">invaluable Cots site<\/a> at BaseballProspectus):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mark Melancon:&nbsp;<\/strong>though i&#8217;d love to re-sign him &#8230; see later in the post.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wilson Ramos:&nbsp;<\/strong>his injury is a shame for both player and team; he likely lost $50M in guaranteed FA money and the team lost a clear QO-compensation pick. &nbsp;He may not even be able to catch again, which dumps him to the AL, where his market is significantly cut thanks to the lessening of demand for bat-only DH types. &nbsp;Ramos is in serious career jeopardy right now; would he decamp back to the Nats on some sort of minimally guaranteed deal with performance incentives?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stephen Drew:&nbsp;<\/strong>also one I hope re-signs; see later in the post.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chris Heisey<\/strong>: one who I think is replaceable; look for another cattle call for RH bat options this coming spring training.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Matt Belisle:&nbsp;<\/strong>despite not making the NLDS roster, he was great for Washington&nbsp;this year and is worth another contract.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mark Rzepczynski<\/strong>: He&#8217;s been very effective for us,&nbsp;and overall had a good 2016. &nbsp;His 2015 was awful, but he was good before that. &nbsp;Such is the life of specialist relievers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sean Burnett<\/strong> and&nbsp;<strong>Mat Latos<\/strong>: both given Sept 2016 tryouts; neither seem likely to be retained.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jonathan Papelbon<\/strong>: worth mentioning if only for the payroll flexibility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Total <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1Qnj9Q4We5v21V75jy1E0wtnoNYAlST9wBt_IiT3lXmo\/pubhtml\">payroll &#8220;savings&#8221; from these FAs<\/a>: roughly $22M. &nbsp;Papelbon&#8217;s $11M, Ramos&#8217; $5.3M and the rest total about $6M.<\/p>\n<p>Guys who I think are clear <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Non-Tenders <\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">(probably a topic worth its own post).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Yusmeiro Petit<\/strong>: $3M option with $500k buyout for 2017; pitched poorly in 2016, didn&#8217;t make the post-season roster and should be replaceable on the roster by any number of our AAA starters.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ben Revere<\/strong>: $6.25M salary this year, due an arbitration raise for 2017; struggled badly in 2016, lost his job to a guy who had about 2 week of CF experience and didn&#8217;t make the post-season roster.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Aaron Barrett:&nbsp;<\/strong>as heartless as it would be; he&#8217;s arb-eligible, still hurt, not likely to be ready by opening day and is completely replaceable as a RH middle reliever).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Total savings from these non-tenders: roughly $10M<\/p>\n<p>Guys who I think its <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><b>Time to Trade<\/b><\/span>&nbsp;and the holes they thus leave. &nbsp;This also may be worthy of its own whole post.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Gio Gonzalez<\/strong>: I think the Nats can take advantage of a historically&nbsp;weak FA market for starters and Gio&#8217;s very friendly contract (two $12M options for 2017 and 2018) and move him. &nbsp;Yes he struggled this year, but if you look at what middle rotation innings eaters like him are getting these days, $12M is a bargain and he should fetch something we value. &nbsp;Moving him lets some of the guys who are clearly biting on the heels of a deserved rotation spot earn it for 2017 and thus the Nats &#8220;save&#8221; $11.5M in salary for the 2017 roster.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Danny Espinosa<\/strong>: As much as I have argued against this, his 2017 playoff performance has solidified in my mind the need to move him. &nbsp;He has his pros (a plus defender range wise, perhaps the best SS arm in the game, and serious power for a SS) and his cons (he hit just .209 this year, he strikes out at about a 30% clip, and his switch hitting capabilities are really in question). &nbsp;Nonetheless, there has to be some demand for a 25-home run capable plus defender SS in a lineup that can afford one crummy batting average at the bottom of the order. &nbsp;Perhaps an AL team that doesn&#8217;t have to also bat a sub .200 BA pitcher.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Total savings from these guys getting moved (not counting payroll received in return of course): $15-$16M.<\/p>\n<p>So, adding up all three lines, assuming a steady payroll ceiling similar to this year&#8217;s and not counting arbitration raises (or <strong>Strasburg<\/strong>&#8216;s new contract), you&#8217;d have roughly $47M with which to work. &nbsp;Not bad. &nbsp;Strasburg&#8217;s new contract will take $5M away from that flexibility (he made $10M last year, will make $15M next) and arbitration raises for <strong>Harper<\/strong>, <strong>Rendon<\/strong> and <strong>Roark<\/strong> will cost some cash, but that&#8217;s a post for another day. &nbsp;Lets call it $30M in available FA dollars when all is said and done.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>So, assuming you&#8217;re even reading this far and havn&#8217;t already started commenting and arguing about that list of players, here&#8217;s the presumed holes that losing these 10 players leaves (in order of mention above):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Closer<\/li>\n<li>Starting Catcher<\/li>\n<li>Backup Utility Infielder<\/li>\n<li>Backup RH bench bat\/corner outfielder<\/li>\n<li>6th\/7th inning RH reliever<\/li>\n<li>Loogy<\/li>\n<li>Long Man\/Spot starter\/7th guy out of the pen<\/li>\n<li>Backup Outfielder (CF capable)<\/li>\n<li>Another&nbsp;6th\/7th inning RH reliever<\/li>\n<li>#5 Starter<\/li>\n<li>Starting Shortstop<\/li>\n<li>(and not really counting the &#8220;loss&#8221; of Burnett and Latos for this discussion)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If we just filled these holes internally, what would it look like?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Closer<\/strong><\/span>: Make&nbsp;<strong>Shawn Kelley<\/strong> the closer and move up&nbsp;<strong>Treinen<\/strong> and&nbsp;<strong>Glover<\/strong> to be 8th inning guys. &nbsp;This leaves a hole later on in the pen for the middle RH relievers (see below)<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Starting Catcher<\/strong><\/span>: promote&nbsp;<strong>Lobaton<\/strong> to starter and install&nbsp;<strong>Severino<\/strong> as the backup. &nbsp;Or switch them; honestly I like Severino&#8217;s at-bats; he looks confident. &nbsp;I don&#8217;t think&nbsp;<strong>Kieboom<\/strong> is ready for the show, so it makes sense to tender Lobaton for one more year.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Backup Utility Infielder<\/strong><\/span>:&nbsp;<strong>Difo<\/strong> becomes the first go-to guy to backup <strong>Turner\/Murphy<\/strong>, but we&#8217;ll still need another utility guy.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Backup RH bench bat\/corner outfielder<\/strong><\/span>: not much internally to go to; both the 2016 AAA and AA rosters are basically bereft of decent hitting prospects who might be candidates. &nbsp;We&#8217;ll be trolling the FA market here for sure. &nbsp;See the next section.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Two 6th\/7th inning RH relievers<\/strong><\/span>: We have <strong>Gott<\/strong> and <strong>Martin<\/strong> on the 40-man; they could step up to replace these two guys like for like. &nbsp;Right now we have five RH relievers under contract for 2017 (Kelley, Treinen, Glover, Gott and Martin) to go along with two lefties (<strong>Solis<\/strong> and <strong>Perez<\/strong>); that&#8217;s not too bad of a bullpen to start out with, but could be improved. &nbsp;And this lineup doesn&#8217;t &#8220;really&#8221; have a long man, so you&#8217;d have to think one of Gott or Martin is in AAA to make room for a long-man (likely Martin at this point).<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Loogy<\/strong><\/span>: its arguable whether we need another lefty with both Solis and Perez under contract, but they went most of the year this year with three. &nbsp;<strong>Matt Grace<\/strong> is still on the 40-man and would be an internal option.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Long Man\/Spot starter\/7th guy out of the pen<\/strong><\/span>: loser of #5 starter competition (see below)<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Backup Outfielder (CF capable)<\/strong><\/span>:&nbsp;<strong>Michael Taylor<\/strong>, in what likely is his ceiling from here forward.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>#5 Starter<\/strong><\/span>: have Sprint Training 2017 tryouts for the #5 starter between <strong>Lopez, Giolito, Cole<\/strong> and even <strong>Voth<\/strong> (who I&#8217;m assuming by that time will be on the 40-man, protected ahead of this coming off-season&#8217;s Rule-5 draft). &nbsp;The winner is #5 starter, and one of the losers could be the long-man (well, if the loser is someone like Cole or Voth, who aren&#8217;t nearly as &#8220;big&#8221; of a prospect as Giolito). &nbsp;There&#8217;s also the distinct possibility that Lopez&#8217;s arm is turned into a closer at some point if he can&#8217;t turn over lineups. &nbsp;Check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/split.cgi?id=lopezre01&amp;year=&amp;t=p\">Lopez&#8217;s 2016 splits<\/a>, specifically SP versus RP and specifically the &#8220;Times Facing an Opponent&#8221; during the game; as a starter he struggles with the first time through the order, but not as a reliever.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Starting Shortstop<\/strong><\/span>: move&nbsp;<strong>Trea Turner<\/strong> to his natural position, leaving a hole in Center.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, with my &#8220;all internal&#8221; fill-ins, your 25 man roster for 2017 looks&nbsp;something like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Starters: Scherzer, Strasburg, Roark, Ross, Lopez<\/li>\n<li>Relievers:&nbsp;Kelley, Treinen, Glover, Gott, Solis*, Perez*, Cole<\/li>\n<li>Catchers: Lobaton, Severino<\/li>\n<li>INF Starters: Rendon, Turner, Murphy, Zimmerman<\/li>\n<li>INF backups: Difo, Robinson<\/li>\n<li>OF Starters: Werth, Harper<\/li>\n<li>OF Backups: Taylor, Goodwin<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And we&#8217;re missing one-two spots that don&#8217;t really have natural in-house replacements: another backup infielder and a starting Center fielder.<\/p>\n<p>So, looking at that 25-man roster, where do we see areas of need? &nbsp;This feeds directly into the Off-season Priorities in the next section.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Quick diversion: Notice I didn&#8217;t say what position&nbsp;<strong>Bryce Harper<\/strong> is playing. &nbsp;Honestly, if Turner is vacating CF and we&#8217;re waving good-bye to Espinosa, then I think you have to put Harper in center. &nbsp;Here&#8217;s my main arguments for putting him in center (most of which are &#8220;anti-arguments&#8221; for those who for some reason think he cannot play center):<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>He&#8217;s young. &nbsp; He just turned 24 for crying out loud; there&#8217;s no reason he doesn&#8217;t have the youth or athleticism to handle center. &nbsp;<strong>Mantle<\/strong> did it while hitting for power. &nbsp;So did&nbsp;<strong>Mays<\/strong>. &nbsp;So did <strong>Griffey Jr<\/strong> and <strong>Aaron<\/strong> for the early part of his career. &nbsp;<strong>Trout<\/strong> plays center.<\/li>\n<li>He&#8217;s got the arm (he has the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/leaders.aspx?pos=all&amp;stats=fld&amp;lg=all&amp;qual=0&amp;type=1&amp;season=2016&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2016&amp;ind=0&amp;team=0&amp;rost=0&amp;age=0&amp;filter=&amp;players=0&amp;sort=19,d\">2nd best statistically rated arm<\/a> in the majors in 2016), he&#8217;s got the speed (21 Stolen bases this year). &nbsp;And now he has years of OF experience on which to depend.<\/li>\n<li>He&#8217;s played there before and played well. &nbsp;Here&#8217;s his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/statss.aspx?playerid=11579&amp;position=OF#fielding\">career fielding stats<\/a>&nbsp;from fangraphs.com: He had more than 700 innings in CF in 2012 and played it to a fantastic UZR\/150 figure of 19.1 and 13 DRS. &nbsp;He was also great there in more limited sample sizes in 2013 and 2015. &nbsp;I leave out 2014 since that was his injury season and its clearly skewed as compared to his other seasons.<\/li>\n<li>By putting Harper in Center, you vastly open open up the roster possibilities on the FA market. &nbsp;Look at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2015\/03\/2016-17-mlb-free-agents.html\">pending FA last at mlbtraderumors.com<\/a> and compare\/contrast the available options at CF versus LF\/RF.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Top FA\/Trade Priorities in 2016-2017 Off-season<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Fantasy<\/strong><\/span>: I view these as not really possible but are listed as &#8220;fantasy&#8221; wish lists. &nbsp;Both fixate on moving unmovable contracts, so they&#8217;ll probably remain fantasies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Upgrade&nbsp;1B<\/span><\/strong>: dump Zimmerman and upgrade offensively at that position.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Upgrade LF<\/strong><\/span>: dump Werth and the last year of his deal and find a LF-capable bopper.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Acquire a leading CF<\/strong><\/span>: back up the farm system and dump it out for a leading center fielder. &nbsp;<strong>Charlie Blackmon&nbsp;<\/strong>or&nbsp;<strong>Andrew McCutchen<\/strong> are names often mentioned thanks to the precarious position their teams face. &nbsp;<strong>Mike Trout<\/strong> is the funny name you also hear since he&#8217;s so good he&#8217;s virtually untrade-able. &nbsp;Unlike&nbsp;<strong>Tom Boswell<\/strong>, and as discussed in comments here before, re-signing&nbsp;<strong>Ian Desmond<\/strong> to man CF poorly would not be my first choice either. &nbsp;I&#8217;d rather go with my &#8220;Bryce to Center&#8221; plan as laid out above.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Reality<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Corner Outfielder<\/strong><\/span>. &nbsp; See above Harper-&gt;CF logic. &nbsp;If you want to splurge (and hurt your #1 divisional rival) sign&nbsp;<strong>Yoenis Cespedes<\/strong>. &nbsp; Or you could make a big splash and sign&nbsp;<strong>Jose Bautista<\/strong> to a 3-yr deal that ends the same time Harper hits FA. &nbsp;Werth remains serviceable in left, where he is mitigated defensively while Bautista still has value in RF. &nbsp;This is where I could see a big chunk of the $30M of FA dollars going. &nbsp;Lord knows we could use another clutch hitter in the middle of the order.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Closer<\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">: Above I said i&#8217;d love to re-sign Melancon, but more and more it seems like he&#8217;s going to be the 4th prize in a 4-closer musical chairs race. &nbsp;And he&#8217;s gonna get paid. &nbsp;And I&#8217;m not sure that the Nats are going to pay him. &nbsp;Per the same <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2015\/03\/2016-17-mlb-free-agents.html\">previously mentioned FA list<\/a> there&#8217;s 5 &#8220;active&#8221; closers hitting FA: Melancon, <strong>Wade Davis, Aroldis Chapman,&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Kenley Jansen <\/strong>and<strong>&nbsp;Sergio Romo<\/strong>&nbsp;There&#8217;s a whole slew of guys who are FA who are former closers though, names like&nbsp;<strong>Andrew Bailey<\/strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Joaquin Benoit,&nbsp;Santiago Casilla,&nbsp;Neftali Feliz,&nbsp;Jason Grilli,&nbsp;Greg Holland,&nbsp;J.J. Hoover,&nbsp;Jonathan Papelbon<\/strong> (haha, just making sure you&#8217;re still reading),&nbsp;<strong>Joe Smith,&nbsp;Fernando Salas<\/strong>, and <strong>Brad Ziegler<\/strong>. &nbsp;There&#8217;s probably even more frankly; these were just the ones who stood out as I read the list. &nbsp;Now, i&#8217;m not saying most of these guys are legitimate options, but some of these guys were perfectly good as closers and got &#8220;layered&#8221; by better closers. &nbsp;Take Ziegler for example: he was just fine for Arizona for a while, then got moved to Boston where he got demoted to 8th inning duties. &nbsp; I&#8217;d take him as a late-innings bullpen option. &nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Bullpen arm: middle reliever<\/strong><\/span>:&nbsp;Now, all that being said about Closers, I think maybe what the team does is install one of their existing options as &#8220;the closer&#8221; and then maybe &nbsp;hire one of these former closers to be an 8th inning\/emergency closer kind of guy. &nbsp;That&#8217;s essentially what they got last year with&nbsp;<strong>Shawn Kelley<\/strong> and that&#8217;s worked out ok. &nbsp;I&#8217;d go after some of the ex-closer guys listed above, try to get them on an affordable deal (like halfway to closer money maybe) and that&#8217;d help off-set the losses of Melancon and Belisle.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Veteran utility infielder<\/strong><\/span>: as noted above, there&#8217;s not much in the farm system here. &nbsp;If you keep Espinosa and put him in this role, then this is moot .. but we&#8217;ve read over and again about his disposition when he&#8217;s not playing. &nbsp;This is kind of why I think we need to move him. &nbsp;He&#8217;s more valuable in trade than he is in this bench role. &nbsp;I hope the team re-ups with&nbsp;<strong>Stephen Drew<\/strong> honestly; he was solid, can cover all infield positions as needed, and can probably be had for a similar deal as last year. &nbsp;I&#8217;d be happy with Difo and Drew and wouldn&#8217;t be opposed to perhaps another veteran utility guy to pair with Drew and compete with Difo if we don&#8217;t think Difo is up to the task.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Less Likely<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Backup LF\/IB bench bats<\/strong><\/span>: While I like Robinson and I think Heisey did a good job this year, one struggled and the other is a FA with no guarantee of returning. &nbsp;I absolutely expect to see another spring training cattle call of veteran bats of the LF\/1B type to compete for roster spots. &nbsp;I&#8217;m appreciative of <strong>Goodwin<\/strong>&#8216;s completely unexpected line at the plate upon his call up; do we think he&#8217;s a better lefty bat option off the bench than Robinson? &nbsp;I&#8217;m not sure. &nbsp;I also sense (based on anecdotal evidence read over the years) that Robinson is a clubhouse and teammate favorite, which might make it tougher to cut him when the time comes. &nbsp;Especially with a player&#8217;s manager type like&nbsp;<strong>Dusty Baker<\/strong>. &nbsp;I know this is where MartyC will cry about&nbsp;<strong>Matt Skole<\/strong> (likely to depart in MLFA this coming off-season) and I understand; its all about potential versus production and Skole never produced enough during these annual spring training &#8220;tryouts&#8221; to win his spot.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Catcher<\/strong><\/span>: Here&#8217;s where the most arguing may occur. &nbsp;I&#8217;m of the belief, after watching&nbsp;Severino down the stretch, that he could slide right into the starting spot right now. &nbsp;I thought he looked good at the plate, took confident at-bats, never looked over matched, and (here&#8217;s the kicker) *puts the ball in play!* &nbsp; This lineup has too many strikeouts; Severino struck out just 3 times in his 34 PAs down the stretch. &nbsp; That correlates to about 50 punch-outs over a 600-plate appearance season; that&#8217;s awesome. &nbsp;He was known for years for his defense, not his bat, so if he can provide even competent ABs he could be a starter. &nbsp;So i&#8217;m up for saving money on the FA market (where the catcher ranks are thin and the prices will get bid up badly as a result). &nbsp;Now, I could absolutely see us re-signing&nbsp;<strong>Wilson Ramos<\/strong> to an incentive-laden deal to keep him in house and hopefully get a good second half out of &nbsp;him. &nbsp;Why not? &nbsp;If he signs for $5-6M (basically his salary this year) and then has games played incentives that could take him up to $7 or $8M why wouldn&#8217;t he do that here instead of elsewhere? &nbsp; We go into the season with Severino and Lobaton with Kieboom in AAA and when Ramos shows up we (finally?) cut bait on Lobaton and have the two remaining guys platoon. &nbsp;I&#8217;d be onboard with that plan.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Loogy<\/strong><\/span>: Why spend money here? &nbsp;Solis and Perez ably fill the need. &nbsp;Do we need a third lefty in the pen at the expense of one of the aforementioned righties? &nbsp;I liked Rzepczynski this year; would he re-sign for reasonable dollars? &nbsp;Would you want him back? &nbsp;There&#8217;s several interesting names on the FA list; maybe one of them can be had for cheap.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">What can we get in Trade versus buying on the FA market? &nbsp; Payroll implications?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I suspect that Gonzalez can fetch some seriously valuable resources. &nbsp;He&#8217;s an innings eating 4th starter who probably thrives in a pitcher&#8217;s park and is significantly less expensive at $12M\/year than what something comparable costs on the FA market this year. &nbsp;So can he fetch maybe one MLB-ready player that fits a need above plus maybe one decent&nbsp;prospect? &nbsp;Is that too much?<\/li>\n<li>Espinosa probably fetches less, unless you can get a GM to fall in love with his power\/defense combo and somehow miss his BA and his K rate. &nbsp;By way of comparison,&nbsp;<strong>Yunel Escobar<\/strong> (a lesser defender with less power but more contact) fetched us two upper-level pitching prospects in&nbsp;<strong>Trevor Gott<\/strong> and&nbsp;<strong>Michael Brady<\/strong> (by upper-level I mean AA\/AAA level, not top 100 prospects). &nbsp;I&#8217;d guess that Espinosa could fetch a bit more since he plays a premium position. &nbsp;So that could end up being more of the needs above plus maybe an additional prospect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But who knows what we can and cannot get. &nbsp;In&nbsp;<strong>Mike Rizzo<\/strong> we trust when it comes to trades; no matter how much we bitch about prospects heading out the door, you&#8217;re really hard pressed to find a trade where Rizzo got the short end of the bargain or &#8220;lost&#8221; the deal. &nbsp;So lets see what he can do.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Payroll implications<\/strong><\/span>. &nbsp;I think we could get a $20M\/yr corner OF slugger, a former closer at like $6M\/year, resign Ramos at $5M, find a utility infielder in the Drew $3M\/year range, and then sign a couple of guys to $1.25M conditional deals like what Belisle and Heisey got and fit right into the $145M payroll budget, even after arbitration raises.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Well; that&#8217;s a lot to argue about. &nbsp;Maybe I should have split this up. &nbsp;But let the discussions&nbsp;begin!<\/p>\n<p>(did I forget anyone?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another year, another playoff failure. &nbsp;Beat it to death already. &nbsp;Time to move on. Lets talk about the post-season &#8220;To Do&#8221; list is for the Nats. &nbsp;We&#8217;ll have eventual posts to talk about other stuff, like Tender decisions, 40-man decisions ahead of the Rule5 draft, etc. In this post, we&#8217;ll squint at the overall roster, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4559],"tags":[916,17,661,424,185,569,1815,498,1693,3326,257,164,2595,2095,2729,1859,135,845,812,385,814,978,114,1828,115,2371,2749,3325,452,404,2239,607,2676,2827,852,662,1035,586,3137,1228,733,1037,3056,708,161,129,456,288,78,2000,69,1875,36,19,2750,108,1052,3277,2759,1014,38,77,125,2426,3067,240,279,2650,147,393,1569,2313],"class_list":["post-12940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral","category-non-tender","tag-aaron-barrett","tag-aj-cole","tag-andrew-bailey","tag-andrew-mccutchen","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-aroldis-chapman","tag-austin-voth","tag-ben-revere","tag-blake-treinen","tag-brad-ziegler","tag-brian-goodwin","tag-bryce-harper","tag-charlie-blackmon","tag-chris-heisey","tag-clint-robinson","tag-daniel-murphy","tag-danny-espinosa","tag-dusty-baker","tag-fernando-salas","tag-gio-gonzalez","tag-greg-holland","tag-hank-aaron","tag-ian-desmond","tag-jason-grilli","tag-jayson-werth","tag-jj-hoover","tag-joaquin-benoit","tag-joe-smith","tag-jonathan-papelbon","tag-jose-bautista","tag-jose-lobaton","tag-ken-griffey-jr","tag-kenley-jansen","tag-koda-glover","tag-lucas-giolito","tag-mark-melancon","tag-mark-rzepcynski","tag-mat-latos","tag-matt-belisle","tag-matt-grace","tag-matt-skole","tag-max-scherzer","tag-michael-brady","tag-michael-taylor","tag-mickey-mantle","tag-mike-rizzo","tag-mike-trout","tag-neftali-feliz","tag-oliver-perez","tag-pedro-severino","tag-rafael-martin","tag-reynaldo-lopez","tag-ryan-zimmerman","tag-sammy-solis","tag-santiago-casilla","tag-sean-burnett","tag-sergio-romo","tag-shawn-kelley","tag-spencer-kieboom","tag-stephen-drew","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-tanner-roark","tag-tom-boswell","tag-trea-turner","tag-trevor-gott","tag-wade-davis","tag-willie-mays","tag-wilmer-difo","tag-wilson-ramos","tag-yoenis-cespedes","tag-yunel-escobar","tag-yusmeiro-petit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12940"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17898,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12940\/revisions\/17898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}