With a couple of teams announcing their entire rosters were now on the trade block the San Fernando front office took action to improve a few weaker aspects of their BBA roster.
Trade 1
San Fernando acquires 3B Felix Ramos from Twin Cities in exchange for 2B Niaz Minhas, 3B Jose Perez, LF Hector Garcia, 2B Jorge Reyes, and P Antonio Garcia.
Lifelong River Monster Felix Ramos is a potential HoFer who has already amassed 40 WAR before his 31st birthday. He used to have some positional flexibility but we view him purely as a corner infielder these days. What he'll bring to the team is a left-handed bat to help balance the lineup and getting on base in front of our thumpers. We recognized that we were limited by having all right-handed hitting starters in the infield.
The return to Twin Cities is four young players who either already have BBA experience or are close and Niaz Minhas to make the financials work. Minhas stabilizes TWC's 2061 infield and plays great defense but his bat has disappeared. At least the team option at the end of his contract allows the River Monsters to buy it out a year sooner than Ramos becomes a free agent.
Jose Perez is our starting third baseman so he became expendable if that's where Ramos will play. Perez was worth 3.1 WAR last year but that was slightly BABIP fueled and he's struggled out of the gates in 2061. Perez saw his ratings lump over the offseason. I think the former first round pick will bounce back to being an adequate starter long-term but that may not be this season and we want to maximize our competitiveness now. Hector Garcia was given the starting left field job in 2060 and played ok but he also lumped over the offseason. He's mostly been relegated to hitting the cover off the ball in AAA. Reyes, another former first round pick, still looks like a good player but more of a league average starter than star. He's a switch hitter which is neat. Reyes could play several spots on the infield. FInally, Antonio Garcia is a young starting pitcher with two elite pitches that might push him to the bullpen. He was taken in the rule 5 draft but returned by Calgary. We're not high on his stock so we were relieved when he was one of the prospects identified by Alan.
Trade 2
San Fernando acquires RP Samir Qasim from Austin in exchange for P Karajala Sangeeta.
Qasim is a veteran left-hander without much of a track record of success. Indeed, Austin acquired him off waivers just last August. What we liked about Qasim were the bumps to his potential ratings and his 2061 FIP being much better than his ERA. Southpaw depth was needed after the recent injury to Michael Sullivan which might be a blessing in disguise based on how he's pitched.
Sangeeta has been bumping and I was surprised to see he is up to 45 POT. But even if he fully develops he's going to need help with his control and he'll turn 23 soon. Ultimately he's a high upside/low floor guy for Austin.
