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By Tim Dierkes | at
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Mickey Koke
Josh Byrnes, B+ man.
Amish_willy
Going into this off-season, my biggest issue was how to proceed with Latos. With the thinking that going into next year on a one-year contract (doing nothing) was the worst outcome, as his cost would shoot up from the 5yr/30m level to possibly a guy with little incentive to sign, as top arms like Hernandez & Verlander got 5/70m-ish deals by waiting another year, so if they were going to sign him, now was the time. If they weren’t willing to give him that 5/30m, I wanted to see them shop him.
Thinking more about Latos from the team’s perspective, you can imagine the risk in giving him 30m this early in the game, and not because of injuries like with all pitchers, but the fact your making an immature ballplayer filthy rich at a young age, which is a pretty potent combination. Personality is rarely given much consideration when considering who should and shouldn’t be given contracts early in their careers, particularly if they pitch as well as Latos did. Would love to read someone’s study on how Latos first 2+ seasons faired to all other homegrown types. At the same point in their careers, Latos’ results were I’d say far superior then Peavy’s.
In Latos case I think trading him was rather smart. Giving him the money right now is playing with fire, which is a shame because his talent more then merited it.
I give Byrnes a lot of credit for having the cajones to deal Latos when he did, I can’t see many teams doing that.
jeffmaz
Balls indeed. However, Cincy and SD both won on that deal. Latos is a star, with some of the nastiest stuff I have ever seen. He makes batters look silly. Cincy is obviously making a run at a championship while they still can.
The Padres have tons of young arms that can pitch now, like Luebke and Bass…and very soon, like Wieland and Kelly. So the Latos trade was less risky than it seems.
I have never been a big supporter of dumping stars for prospects – but both Hoyer and Byrnes have done a great job of procuring quality players.
Mickey Koke
Couldn’t agree more!
HerbertAnchovy
I like what has been done thus far. I think for the medium-sized market they’re in they made some very shrewd moves.
padresfuture
Forget the Catcher the Padres signed in the international market for $1.1m, Ruiz.
R.D.
I love what the Padres did this offseason but with their catching(Hundley, Grandal, Baker) and first base(Alonso, Guzman, Blanks) depth they have really left a lot of blockage on their team in those positions with a still-shallow middle infield and rotation. They have a lot of potential but this team could be a whole lot better with another trade or two in my eyes.
Phenomenal Smith
If my understanding of the new CBA is correct, the Quentin and Street trades were not confusing at all. Compensation draft picks can still be acquired if a free agent is offered a one-year contract for the average of the top 125 salaries in that year, and that free agent turns it down. After this season, Quentin and Street are likely to be offered a one-year contract in the 10-12M range, and they are likely to turn it down and explore the market for multi-year deals. The Padres will then get more draft picks to further stock a dramatically re-built farm system.
The catch is that this only applies to players who have been with the team the entire year. That is, you can’t trade for players like these at the deadline and get draft picks. This is a truly savvy move by Byrnes; this is straight out of the Billy Beane playbook in trading for impending free agents for draft picks, only it’s before the season starts instead of at the trade deadline.
rizdak
…except Quentin is injury-prone and plays lousy defense. He’s already going to miss half of April with knee surgery. Very risky signing in my opinion.
Amish_willy
The Padres aren’t going to offer Huston Street arbitration and risk paying him 12m or so in 2013. The pick would be nice, but with that kind of risk, forget about it. Unless Street agreed to decline beforehand, why wouldn’t he simply accept if it meant getting 3-4m more then K-Rod or Masden got this year?? I’m not expecting the demand for his services to be there for the Padres to go that route. Quentin produces and is still a Padre, he would likely be offered. Between his health & Petco, I wouldn’t put those odds any higher then 25%.
Beersy 2
I think the most important off season move will be to see who ends up owning the Padres. In my opinion the last thing the Padres need is another ownership committee. I truly hope Stan Kroenke shows some interest in buying the team. He would have to put the club in his sons name because of some crazy NFL rule, but an owner who stays out of the daily business of the team and has deep pockets would be great.
Shane McCullough
I think Drew Macias is with the Angels, not the Padres.