June 25, 200917 yr Playing against the Orioles and watching Emilio Bonifacio make another error tonight...it kinda got me thinking. We need a 3B and one would say we need a closer. The Orioles are a non-contender and they have both. Melvin Mora is having a down year, but career-wise he's a near .800 .OPS guy. George Sherrill (2.20 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 15 saves) has been a solid reliever in his career, with closing experience (50 career saves). I know the Marlins wouldn't overpay/make dumb decisions giving up prospects, so I decided to take a look at their contracts. http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/baltimore-orioles_112321768568552760.html It seems like they're both free agents at the end of the year. I really have no idea how the Type A/B FA works (I assume Sherrill with saves alone falls into one of the categories)...but assuming we can get draft picks at the end of the year for them once we let them go, why not take the chance? The Marlins are 1 game over .500, despite basically no production at 3B, and a bad closer (yes, literally, Lindstrom has only cost us 1 game, but it's clearly been a struggle). The NL East seems to be weak. We are 2 games back. Considering we're hanging in there with really bad production from these 2 positions, I think a move like this could really make an impact. Any thoughts?
June 25, 200917 yr I'd love to go out for another 3rd baseman if Gaby shows struggles when he gets called up. I would rather try to get another solid reliever then a closer though.
June 25, 200917 yr Management will probably wait a while (how long is anyone's guess) to see if we are still in the race in a few weeks or so. If we are, trading for a closer or 3B will probably be looked at. If not, I don't expect a guy like Dan Uggla to be here past the trade deadline.
June 25, 200917 yr I'd rather see what we can get from Gaby when he gets called up. Our front office seems dead set that he could be a fixture on the lineup for a long time, its time to see what he can do at the major league level soon enough. As for Sherrill, I believe we had this discussion around the trade deadline last year, still seems like a great idea, it could possibly become close to the Urbina kind of deal, but getting a stable end to the bullpen may be well needed.
June 25, 200917 yr Don't mention about trading for someone, because the first thing to come up will be money, we will hear the number one thing, we can't afford them, you can't get something good for nothing.
June 25, 200917 yr Sherrill would be eligible for 4th year arbitration. We'd have his rights for the 2010 and 2011 seasons basically. No draft picks here. As for Mora, the way draft pick compensation works is after the 3 years of mandatory arbitration (a player's 4th-6th year in the league), a team can offer salary arbitration to a player and the player can either accept it and go through the process, or decline arbitration and become a FA. A team must offer arbitration to get the draft picks. This isn't a problem if you're say a Matt Holliday who is good enough to get a substantial contract from another team, but this could be problematic with someone like Mora who is currently in a down year, and not a premium performer even when he is healthy. The first question is, if you trade for him, would he accept arbitration (and thus killing our 2010 payroll) versus walking and getting a contract somewhere else. If there is any chance he'd accept arbitration, he's not even a trade candidate to consider. Or, the Marlins just wouldn't offer him arbitration and he'd be a strict rental. Which I don't like the idea of either. This is why if we are thinking trade, we still have to go young, or go big. We either get people we can keep and/or trade after the season, or, get someone like Holliday where it is basically guaranteed draft picks. Sherrill works, Mora is iffy. He'd be a threat of accepting arbitration. Same team, Aubrey Huff works. He'd certainly get a contract offer after the season so we could recoup draft picks.
June 25, 200917 yr In my mind, it is usually foolish to trade for closers (or sign FA closers). The premium they command is usually not commiserate with the value they bring to the ballclub.
June 25, 200917 yr I'd rather have Aubrey Huff. His name has been going around for a while. I wouldn't mind the team trading for Huff, trading Uggla away, moving Coghlan to 2B and calling Maybin back up.
June 25, 200917 yr In my mind, it is usually foolish to trade for closers (or sign FA closers). The premium they command is usually not commiserate with the value they bring to the ballclub. Agreed. At most, I'd rather get a stud middle reliever and shift one of the current Marlins relievers into the closer spot.
June 25, 200917 yr How about Adrian Beltre? Ehhhhhhhhh.... no He's a great defensive third baseman. He's going to at least give you a .780 OPS, even though he's struggling right now. He's in his last year of his contract, so he's a free agent at the end of this year. He won't cost much. A big upgrade over Bonifacio, offensively AND defensively. I want to give Gaby Sanchez a chance, but If we're going to trade for someone, I would like Adrian Beltre. Or maybe even Nick Johnson.
June 25, 200917 yr How about Adrian Beltre? Ehhhhhhhhh.... no He's a great defensive third baseman. He's going to at least give you a .780 OPS, even though he's struggling right now. He's in his last year of his contract, so he's a free agent at the end of this year. He won't cost much. A big upgrade over Bonifacio, offensively AND defensively. I want to give Gaby Sanchez a chance, but If we're going to trade for someone, I would like Adrian Beltre. Or maybe even Nick Johnson. Adrian Beltre makes 12M dollars this season, by comparison, Nick Johnson makes 5.5M and Aubrey Huff makes 8M... all in the last year of their contracts, all on losing teams. Beltre WOULD cost a lot in order to make SEA pay most of that albatross.. and yes, he's an astronomical improvement defensively and a good improvement offensively, but again, the contract is an issue.
June 25, 200917 yr How about Adrian Beltre? Ehhhhhhhhh.... no He's a great defensive third baseman. He's going to at least give you a .780 OPS, even though he's struggling right now. He's in his last year of his contract, so he's a free agent at the end of this year. He won't cost much. A big upgrade over Bonifacio, offensively AND defensively. I want to give Gaby Sanchez a chance, but If we're going to trade for someone, I would like Adrian Beltre. Or maybe even Nick Johnson. Adrian Beltre makes 12M dollars this season, by comparison, Nick Johnson makes 5.5M and Aubrey Huff makes 8M... all in the last year of their contracts, all on losing teams. Beltre WOULD cost a lot in order to make SEA pay most of that albatross.. and yes, he's an astronomical improvement defensively and a good improvement offensively, but again, the contract is an issue. Beltre is making 6.7 million for half the season, so I think we can do that. Hell, we can probably make Seattle eat some of that If we give them a good return. Not saying we are, just saying we could. BTW, what are we doing staying up this late?
June 25, 200917 yr How about Adam Laroche? LaRoche is interesting, and he usually gets hot in the second half... I think Lou did a post about LaRoche not too long ago
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