BIG TRADE INCOMING!!
The rationale behind this trade is that we've become way too lefty-heavy in our offense. The young players we've added to the lineup in the last year and upcoming this year are all lefty hitters who have somewhat pedestrian ratings against lefty pitching (Danny Ayala, Jon Jimenez, David Vasquez). Plus we have Buitrago essentially on our bench as a lefty and outside of Omar Rodriguez there's no righty bat to platoon with any of these guys. Thanks to Buitrago's talent and the fact he makes the minimum he was in high demand when we shopped him for a righty bat and boy did we get a righty bat. Titcombe is one of the premier power hitters in baseball as you can see:
He can play 1B or RF at a 50 rating so he's not going to hurt us when we play him in the field but he'll mostly DH, platooning with Vasquez and then filling in elsewhere. He's not going to play every day, but he should manage 400 ABs or so. We just need someone to mash lefties. And in the deal we get a cheap player back in Peters, who was ranked the #40 prospect before falling off the list as he went on the 40-man (I've noticed a few players do this). We're fairly well-stocked at 3B with Bo Angeac entrenched for a few more years and Jim Gebers at AA. But I couldn't pass up the value and I may flip him, especially after finding out afterwards he's kind of a malcontent (I never look at that stuff in the first place). Portillo made the deal work but he's considered a future bench player at best. The deal also worked because the Phillies appeared a bit cash-strapped; we got them to retain 10% of Titcombe's salary but we're taking on about $6M in the deal. Also we made this deal to make room on the 40-man:
December 1: Traded OF Marco Abrego to the San Francisco Giants for OF David Barrera.
Abrego was way down the totem pole for CFs in the system especially with the Daniel Malone acquisition so he was the easy choice to go from the 40-man as he would been waived if we had to. But I shopped him and got the modest return of Barrera, who has some pop but not much else, he'll more likely help Montgomery or Durham.
December 3: In the first big free agent signing of the winter Wander Franco inked a 5/138 deal with Seattle. He too is now "wrecked" so it will be interesting to see how much he'll stay in their lineup.
December 5: The White Sox made a big free agent splash by signing former Rays slugger Joe Barker to a 5/167.5 mega-deal. Barker hit 130 homers over the last 3 seasons for Washington after we dealt him, including 56 in 2033.
December 6: Since free agency began in the late 70s no team has signed more aging veterans than the Angels, and they did it again by signing Vlad Guerrero Jr. to a 3/97.5 deal, which is pretty reasonable in terms of length. Plus Vlad isn't really slowing down as he went .335-25-91 for us last year despite missing about a month. Thinking we'll be seeing him in the postseason.
December 7: JJ Bleday, once a Rays property, came to terms with the Dodgers on a 3/80.6 contract while Juan Soto tested the free agency waters and pulled his toe out, re-signing the only team's he's known, Washington, for 2 years at $37.5M per.
December 9: Veteran starter Jack Little, who survived his first big free agent contract which landed him 5 years in Coors Field, signed a nice 3/69 deal with the Cubs.
December 11: Every once in a while Oakland makes a free-agent splash and today they signed one of the better catchers in the league, Francisco Alvarez, to a massive 4/108.8 deal. Alvarez of course spent a half-season with the Rays in 2032, became a free agent and signed a 4/68.8 with San Diego which he opted out from this winter and that decision paid off.
December 12: Bobby Witt Jr. has come full circle by signing for the team he came up with, the Kansas City Royals, to a 4/90.2 pact. Caveat emptor of course as Witt is "wrecked".
December 13: Ricky Widmar has found a new home, inking a 5/141 deal with the Cubs, and again we'll see how many games he plays. We get a compensation draft pick after the 1st round for him.
December 20: Another former Ray is on the move as Toronto traded Dane Ayers to Pittsburgh. Ayers hit 20 HR last season in his first shot at full-time play, but unfortunately it was accompanied by a .189 batting average.
December 22: Added OF Jeff Hayes, P Vinny Willard and P Rayhmer Costa to the 40-man roster, traded P David Sanchez to the Texas Rangers for OF/P Jim Harrell.
I'm convinced we're going to get hosed in the Rule 5 draft, there are several good-looking prospects eligible of ours. Every year I usually worry and either nobody gets taken or it's someone taken I didn't expect, but this year I'm convinced it's different. Hayes had 43 HR and 111 RBI at Montgomery last year and was our #1 pick in 2031 so he gets kept, and Willard is considered a top 30 prospect. Costa is the guy I made room for with the Sanchez deal, I've mentioned his 80 control and 55/60 stuff before and his 25/30 movement. There's no spot for him on the big club right now but at some point I'd like to see what he can do in the majors. Sanchez of course was up briefly in 2032 and 2033 and he's a hard-throwing lefty reliever but he's replaceable. Harrell is interesting, he's eligible for Rule 5 but doesn't have to go on the 40-man, he has good power and the scouts like him as a RF prospect and he's also a decent relief pitcher.
December 23: Lost 3B Stan Melton to Atlanta in the Rule 5 Draft.
Should have known better, we had a guy taken I wasn't worrying about. Not that I'm pleased to see Melton go, and I remain skeptical he'll make the Braves and not be returned. But we have plenty of 3B in the system.
December 23: Kumar Rocker signed a 3/30.6 deal with Atlanta. You can probably tell from the muted numbers that Rocker isn't the ace he was before, his stuff has diminished to average and he's coming off a 5-15, 5.13 season with the Tigers.
December 26: 42-year-old Mookie Betts re-upped for 1 year with the Angels at $17.8M. He's showed no signs of slowing down except for the part where he missed most of last season with injuries. Speaking of injury-prone players, Victor Robles, who spent most of the last five years on the Yankees' IL, inked a one-year-deal for $11.2M with the Cubs where he and Ricky Widmar can have a race to be the first put on the IL.
December 28: A couple of all-star 2B signed big contracts today. Former Ray Connor Kirkley heads to the Pacific Northwest on a 4/72.8 deal with Seattle, while former Columbus standout Auggie Ziegler joins the Phillies for 5/57.3. One of the better starting pitchers on the market, former Red Sock and Angel Nelson Berkwich, went for 4/68.5 to Atlanta.