Originally Posted by
notin
The Notin Plan
1B: Dalbec. And eventually Casas is he makes a case for himself, which he is very capable of doing.
2B: Kike Hernandez. CF defense will suffer, but 2B defense will improve
3B: Devers
SS: Bogaerts. Opt out is a concern, but after the Great Shortstop Re-Shuffling of 2021, Boston might still be his ideal landing spot anyway.
LF: Schwarber: He won't exercise his part of the mutual option, but he can still come back
CF: Verdugo: Not my favorite for CF, but if Kike plays 2B, he is the Last Man Standing for the job
RF: Renfroe
DH: Martinez. I know there is a chance he opts out, but for now I will assume he doesn't.
BN: Plawecki, Arroyo, OF capable of CF (Jeisson Rosario? FA?)
SP: Sale, Eovaldi, Pivetta, and 2 acquistions that can include ERod either via QO or extension.
BP: Houck, Whitlock, Barnes, Brasier, Taylor, Sawamura, Valdez, Davis, DHernandez
Darwinzon and Duran might be adequate trade bait to fill a pitching role or two. I know Oakland will be trying to move a bunch of arbitration eligibles, although Sean Manaea and Chris Bassitt each have one year. Montas has two, but Duran probably isn't an attractive enough piece to get him. Pitchers with roughly the same BTV value as Duran include Sonny Gray (Cincinnati), Casey Mize (Detroit), Kyle Muller (Atlanta), Chris Flexen (Seattle), Joe Musgrove (San Diego), and Cal Quantrill and Aaron Civale (Cleveland).
I don't see Detroit moving Casey Mize here. Atlanta, San Diego and Seattle are both largely all set with young outfield talent either in MLB already or beating down the door. That leaves Cincinnati (30th in fWAR for CF last year, but is Duran the solution?) and Cleveland. Per Roster Resource, the Cleveland 2022 OF features Harold Ramirez, Myles Straw and a Bradley Zimmer/Oscar Mercado platoon. Very, very weak. Now they are far more likely to move around the middle infield depth problem to solve the OF as opposed to dealing Civale or McKenzie, but it's not the most ridiculous solution, either. And clearly BTV would call it fair, not that theyare the end-all of trade value. But they do better than I could on my own.
And at the very least, arbitration eligible closer Lou Trivino (Oakland) needs to be on the radar in another potential deal. His BTV trade value is actually very low, at a surplus of $1.1 million. So either he is undervalued or is expected to get a substantial raise from last years's $912,000 salary...