The state of the team is pretty good, although it'd be a lot better if we'd managed to win Game 7 of the World Series. As alluded to in the previous post we're returning most of the team with two glaring exceptions: catcher and the bullpen. David Morales is a free agent and while he's served us well the last several years his bat has really dropped off (.622 OPS last year) and he's now on the wrong end of the age curve at 31. Somebody will give him the $22-24M/year contract he wants but it won't be us. The other big concern is the bullpen where we lose Berumen, Cid, Flores, Guardado, Sanchez and swingman Tim Johnson. Here's what we're looking at for the returning players in terms of salary:
This totals $126M and we've been given a payroll of $160M. Not everyone above is coming back either so we'll probably have about $40M to play with.
The position-by-position outlook:
C: Morales is gone but we still have Dave Gonzalez, who had a great year at the plate serving as the DH against righties and the backup catcher. His defense is slightly below average so we'll take a hit there but he could definitely be our primary catcher. We're going to have to find someone to team with him, preferably a RH-batting option who's also a good defender.
1B: Vinny Colon had an impressive rookie season and a fine postseason and will continue to platoon with Angel Gonzales, who was really good as well against lefties.
2B: Aaron White is a fine all-around player, no notes.
SS: Dantel Chinchilla has been our old reliable and while he's not a great defensive SS, he's good enough and he nearly drove in 100 runs last year out of the 9-hole.
3B: Paul Mayes is a rookie of the year candidate and was outstanding.
IF: Alex Brown will probably be back as the IF backup as he's a superior defender.
LF: Joel Bland missed a good chunk of the season with injury but is a real talent.
CF: Henry Dominguez was everything he hoped for as a rookie after coming up mid-season, giving us quality D and hitting well.
RF: Jesus Avalos enters his last year of team control and our resident superstar is coming off a down year by his standards (3.2 WAR after 8.6 and 5.5 in the previous two seasons, so the decline is a concern).
OF: Brian Whittaker will likely be the primary OF backup, a RH bat who can spell the lefty starters and play a good CF. Jose Lozada is also a good RH-hitting backup but he's due for $6M in arbitration and may be traded to clear some payroll room. We also still have Emmanuel Jervis, who was terrible after being claimed on waivers and hitting two homers in his first game with us.
DH: With Gonzalez becoming the primary catcher, this opens the job up everyday for Jose Machado, who had a nice year last year and can also back up at 2B. Gonzalez may also play here some when not catching.
Others: There are several players at Durham who can hit in the bigs and some who have been up with us at one time or another (1B Manny Mendoza and Takayuki Tsujimura, 1B/3B/DH Xavier Bush, RF Dae-Sung Park) but the real hitting phenom is 1B Ruben Brown, with 65 contact/60 power/55 eye who hit 305/388/593 with 37 HR and 113 at AA Montgomery last year. We already have two young 1B but Brown could figure into our DH plans or if we trade one of the 1B.
Rotation: It returns intact with Rose/Whitaker/Swords/Barraza/Mastropietro coming back. Rookie Julio Mattila is next in line and should make the team as a long man, replacing Tim Johnson.
Bullpen: And here's what it gets barren. Devin Tadlock is the closer right now and he's capable, but there's nobody that really looks like a setup man. Victor Boria was pretty good in middle relief and will return as will Erik Witten, who's technically a free agent and isn't shown above but will be signing a modest 2-year, $3M total deal to return. We also claimed veteran middle man Joe Rose from the Angels on waivers as the season ended and he'll help out, but that's about it. Aside from potential longman Mattila, we also have no lefties. We'll kick the tires on extensions for some of the free agents but I wouldn't expect too much.
So in summary, here are the two main offseason goals:
1) Find a RH-hitting, defensively-responsible catcher.
2) Add at least 3-4 relievers, one or two which needs to be a lefty.