37.14. Offseason Planning

[agrudez]

In order of "most stable" to "least stable".

C - Barrera was a stud once again and Hernandez has been as steadily consistent a backup catcher as I've ever had. There will be 0 effort to do anything at this position this offseason.

3B - While not manned by a superstar like Barrera, we still feel really good about 3B going into next year. Bedolla came in post-trade and put up an .806 OPS within the LF-friendly confines of the Opera House and Rivera was a revelation all season long as a RH'd platoon option - ending the year with a .916 OPS against LHP. Just as with C, there will be 0 effort to do anything at this position this offseason.

Bullpen - Despite poor defense and lots of rookie arms in the 'pen, we managed the 5th ERA in the JL as a unit. It's easy to see 21 year old Brinson (whom is still developing) and 20 year old Diaz improving on their 'meh' '37 seasons. Alfonzo, meanwhile, was steady and it's not hard to imagine top prospects Imai and Archer taking another step this offseason and breaking the opening day unit, too. Ultimately, it's going to be an exceedingly young bullpen (the average age of Imai, Archer, Alfonzo, Diaz and Brinson is a pretty astounding 21.6 years old), but it has some great potential. You *might* see a vet signing to replace Martinez as the "token old man long reliever". It's probably more likely that upgrades to the rotation will push some of those guys into the 'pen instead, though.

Outfield - In LF and CF, the team is completely (and excitedly) locked in with Reyes and Torres. The latter continues to be one of the top CFers in the league and the former was one of the most exciting rookies in the league last season that we can't wait to see over the course of a full year. RF is a little more up in the air, but we feel good about our internal options of Young and Bender whom had .828 and .823 OPS' against RHP last season respectively. We may look for a new RH'd platoon option for RF after a relatively disappointing rookie campaign from Alonso (a .763 OPS against LH'd bats), but with him only being 23 last year and not fully developed we won't prioritize the upgrade, either - assuming some progression from him over the summer. Beyond that, the 6th OFer slot (ie. the utility glove guy spot) will be among the most hotly contested for the Phantoms this spring training with Anastcia, Cleide, Crisci and Gasco all being basically the definition of what I want from that spot. And I even have Barber lurking in the background to boot. The only resources I can imagine devoting to the OF would be an opportunity to massively upgrade RF with a superstar talent, but even then it won't be a priority in acquisition.

1B, DH - Offensively, the combination of Rutledge and Hall fits this team like a glove. The fact that Klein (just 1 season removed from a 111 OPS+ year) is their backup is pretty crazy, too. Not to mention prospects like Lugo and Cochrane chomping at the bit. It's probably no secret, though, that I am leery about sending Rutledge back out to man 1B defensively next year - seeing his play there as the lowest hanging fruit to explain our poor team defense. Of course, if Rutledge is our DH, then that moves Hall (a career 121 OPS+ bat) to the bench which is in itself untenable. So, we'll be exploring the trade market for Hall with an eye to moving Rutledge to DH - with keeping both in their current spots as a pretty damn solid "Plan B". Other than that, I don't foresee resources being devoted to these spots any time soon.

SP - Aside from Nicto we were pretty disappointed in our SP as a whole last year - as evidenced by their 10th in the JL finish. Tong, in particular, had a very concerning season - though we still believe he has the talent to bounce back. And beyond that our rotation is mostly patchwork pieces. Soto, Castillo and Charles all availed themselves well, but really would all look better as a #5 as opposed to a #3-5 - and the best of the trio is set to be a FA. There is some imminent help expected from Reyes whom we think could be as good as a #2 in a solid rotation at full potential, but he probably won't break camp in the rotation (both because of cost control concerns as well as him still needing to develop some more). Beyond that it's a pretty distant ETA for Moelling and then more back of the rotation types like Rivera, Salduar and Ischade. With all of this in mind, we are probably going to be actively pursuing a top of the rotation type this offseason - with the goal being to have a rotation in June next year of Nicto/FA-FA/Nicto-Reyes-Tong-Charles/Soto.

2B - This is by far the most "in flux" spot on the team as of this writing. Currently, Yelainen is the incumbent, but it still remains to be seen whether we will even offer him arbitration or not (and, if we do, whether or not we want him starting at 2B anyway). At a minimum, we need a weak side platoon to pair with Yelainen and a competent backup (ie. much better than Kouda/Navarro) in case Yelainen shits the bed - again. If we drop Yelainen then we need to completely rework the position. For the RH platoon option Cruz may get a look in ST, but it would be our preference to look outside the organization.

SS - The combo of Navarro and Kouda was pretty brutal last year (-0.5 WAR aggregate) so it shouldn't be surprising that we already - before the season was even officially in the books - made a move to bring in Morales. Still, even though he was solid against RHP last year, we are looking at him as a platoon option and/or backup SS, ideally - as it seems he has largely been used throughout his career. There is currently no one in the system to compete for the strong side platoon spot, so any further upgrade we get at this spot will need to come from either trade or FA. If Morales is our opening day, every day starting SS we'll be disappointed - so look for a lot of attempted activity at cleaning up this spot this offseason.

tl;dr:
-We will be aggressively trying to get a LH SS platoon option (or an everyday SS option if one presents itself)
-We will be actively trying to get a top of the rotation SP
-We will be actively trying to get a RH'd 2B platoon option (but will explore starting 2B options, too)
-We would like to deal Hall so that Rutledge can slide to DH (at which point acquiring a 1B would become high priority), but it isn't a prime directive
-We wouldn't mind getting an upgrade for our corner OF RH'd platoon option
-We wouldn't mind getting a veteran middle of the 'pen arm

Available cap space (+9.5M declining Workman's TO and +5.6M from Guzman opting out of his PO): 40.9M if we keep Yelainen and 49M if we don't.