The offense has been so bad that it felt the need to make a couple of deals to shake it up:
First the big one:
We needed a thumper in the lineup and Bell fits the bill, on pace for a 5-WAR season this year and a switch-hitter we don't have to platoon. This is a rental as he's a free agent at year's end. Fan favorite Brett Phillips goes the other way, and while he created many indelible memories for the club (especially in the 2020 World Series), the fact remains that for all his defensive prowess, he just can't hit. Barnhart and Molina were second-tier (really third-tier) pitching prospects whom the scouts think will be lucky to be spot starters, and we have a lot of minor league depth. My assistant GM didn't like the deal, and it will cost us nearly $6M in salary leaving us $7M to play with, but that's why I get paid the big bucks.
As a result of this deal it was time to swap another fan favorite:
We get a few bucks back by dealing Ji-Man, but most importantly Josh Bell took his 1B job so he was expendable. There wasn't a tremendous amount of interest in Choi around the league, but Seattle's offer of Toro jumped out at me as I've always liked him (traded for him in my 2020 save) and he can play some middle infield as well. For now though he goes to Durham as we're awash in corner infielders with Yandy and Bohm already present. Lars Nootbaar is coming back up from Durham where he hit well to give us another outfielder, and this trade makes Manuel Margot the full-time CF with Randy Arozarena available to slide over when Margot needs a day off.