We take the first steps in trying to get our legs back under us, fairly positive ones on paper at least but a lot of whether we can get things right for '81 will depend on the Draft, always an iffy proposition. Very much looking forward to those lean IRL times hitting the club to push us up the pick list for a while to hopefully allow us some restocking.
As I said, I think we've done well on both counts here, firstly with a strong corner man and an everyday SS who was briefly with us previously but never played for us in the bigs:
Then, a solid replacement for Ed courtesy of the Tribe:
So the plan is for Oberkfell to start at 3B and Reynolds at SS with Derrell Thomas and Dale Berra the backup IFs. It was a toss-up between Dale and Bill Almon in the latter trade; Cleveland would take either but we just felt Dale being 4 years younger and currently able to cover 2B / 3B / SS makes him more indispensable right now.
Two of Candy Man, Larry McWilliams and Tudor will be in the rotation, with the other in the BP and in all likelihood they'll rotate those roles throughout the year depending on form etc.
That only leaves one trade ticket and we're on the hunt for a cheap FA. Like I said, the Draft will be key and almost certainly where we'll spend our third ringer slot as money is tight and FAs are out of our fiscal league for the most part.
If, however, we can swing a deal for Garner and Henny for a strong CF then that's also on the cards but we'll wait until after the Draft to make that call.
EDIT Scrap that (pun intended...), we found our trade:
Boom! Literally, as we pick up a huge bat to tide us over. The Draft strategy won't change and if we do pick up a suitable CF replacement we'll just have to keep them at AAA this year and move them up when GT goes. Hate to lose Henny and also to have spent all of our trade passes with Opening Day still months away, but desperate times yada, yada, yada...
This trade also pushes our free cash up above $1m so we'll now see if we can find a FA on which to spend some of it.