Why trade Hech? Why pay all that money for Chapman?

 

I'm guessing because of Rojas

 

 

Why trade Hech? Why pay all that money for Chapman?

 

I'm thinking that Hechavarria is limited offensively. This is still the same Hechavarria that the sabermetric community hated a year ago. Now that his defensive metrics have caught up to his skill level defensively, everybody loves him. I like having him too, but he's a piece that could net the team an MLB ready SP. I don't think we can say the same for some of the other guys being mentioned. Ramos might or might not bring back an interesting piece. Koehler would bring back nothing. Hech would bring back something at this point, and I think Rojas could be a similar player if given a chance. 

 

As for Chapman, spending money on him is cheaper than the unrealistic idea that we're going to spend money on good free agent SP's. Our SP is probably going to be mediocre so it'd be cool to have an elite bullpen to compensate for that. A backend of the bullpen of Capps/Ramos/Chapman qualifies as elite, not to mention some of the other pieces in the pen. It would be a top 5 bullpen in the big leagues at worst. 

 

I don't know what it would cost to get a guy like Chapman, but I'd have no problem giving up any of our young pitching to get him, starting with Nicolino. Since they seem so eager to trade Ozuna, I'd rather trade Ozuna to get a guy like Chapman than sell low and trade him for some nobody. 

 

The Reds aren't anywhere near contending and Chapman is a year away from free agency so I'm thinking it wouldn't cost as much as people think. And if the season goes wrong, we can trade him at the trade deadline.