I'm stepping in for Tim Dierkes on this week's MLBTR Mailbag once again. In this week's post-deadline edition, we'll look at the Giants, Blake Snell, some likely offseason trade candidates, the Orioles' bullpen decisions at the deadline, some of the Athletics' latest trade returns, the Pirates' deadline moves, the Marlins "everything must go" sale, Emmanuel Clase's Cy Young chances, the Angels' deadline deals and more.
Adrian R. asks:
Why does Farhan Zaidi continually nibble at the margins, like at this trade deadline, and not cash in valuable trade assets for a pending free agent/opt out like Blake Snell? Is Farhan Zaidi really the smartest guy in the room as he likes to think of himself?
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Good gosh the Rangers traded Clase for 1 inning of Corey Kluber. That’s crazy.
I’m surprised to see Devin Williams listed as a “longer shot” trade candidate. I’d honestly be very surprised if he’s a Brewer next opening day.
Megill really stepped up in that role, Hudson was even better than Megill until injury/fatigue knocked him down to earth and to the IL.
With arb increases, buyouts, and a likely Hoskins opt in, Milwaukee is going have a payroll just about matching their current payroll, and will have to replace Adames production to break even.
TL;DR The Brewers can use Williams 10.5 mil salary more efficiently, can spawn high end relievers out of thin air, and will almost certainly trade the airbender.
None of the Brewer relievers have the Devin Williams changeup, in fact, nobody else in MLB does. To treat him like another relief arm the Brewers can spin up is sort of absurd. Megill and Hudson were good in small sample sizes, but not great their entire careers like Williams. 10.5 million isn’t that much for an elite closer. To your point though, the Brewers might not be very good next year therefore an elite closer might not be essential.
That’s because it’s really not a changeup but rather is a screwball, and you’re absolutely correct that nobody has one like that in MLB right now too.
Nowhere did I say they had, or will have anyone on Devin’s level, hes arguably the best reliever around. He would fetch way more than 10.5 on a 1 year deal in the open market, which is a big reason he will have decent trade value.
The Brewers can absolutely make a pretty formidable high leverage unit out of Megill, Hudson,Yoho, and whoever pops out of nowhere. They currently don’t have a 3B, or enough power, and converting Devin’s surplus value & freeing up that money will go a long way to shoring that up.
Plus, it’s what the Brewers always do. They don’t let valuable pitchers walk in free agency with just a QO.
Snell threw a no hitter tonight with 11 k’s and 26 k’s the past 2 games. Sometimes the best moves made are ones you don’t make.
Blake Snell could go 10-0 with 10 no-hitters; if the Giants miss the playoffs by 10 games it will have been a dumb move. They’re 4 games back with a losing record, 4 teams ahead of them, and the Cubs and Reds still somewhat in the hunt. 12.6% chance to make it. And it appears as though he will be opting out if he finishes the year like this.
Some other times the best moves are the ones you do make.
Good luck.
You ever notice how good organizations rarely have fire sales… they try and lock up talent instead of giving it away?
Personally I’d rather go for it and maybe extend Snell, than trade him for the 20th best player in the Astros farm system.
Not so much the “good organizations” alone, but also the largest markets. Lot easier to secure young talent with a well funded operation like the Giants than, say, the Orioles of 2017-2022.
I do notice that the teams that find themselves competing more often tend to have fewer fire sales.
But you have it backwards.
Being good leads to fewer fire sales. Not the other way around.
Obviously they didn’t get the offer they wanted for Snell and decided to keep him rather than throwing in the towel on the season. It’s all about competition and not whining about how many teams are ahead of you also TRYING to make the playoffs
Math and probability became “competition” and “whining” to you somehow, and that’s okay. We’ll see what happens.
You’ll note that while the 12% chance wasn’t enough to move snell for what was offered, it also wasn’t enough to really buy anything noteworthy. Someone is doing the math somewhere.
Looking pretty smart tonight. It was gonna take 3 prospects with 1 top 5, 1 6-10 and one more in the 20’s prospect to get Blake Snell and nobody was willing to pay the price.
Snell would’ve have more no-hitters if Cash hadn’t taken him out so soon.
He’s played for multiple other teams though.
First of all, congrats to Snell on his no hitter.
The failure of Reds management at the deadline was on full display. I’m sure they were proud.
In this week’s post-deadline edition, we’ll look at the Giants, Blake Snell …
Huh, interesting timing there.
As far as “Smartest guy in the room” goes, Farhan Zaidi takes a back seat to Adrian R.