Sorry for the bait and switch. I promise I'll have more fun with the Joe Mother lore as time goes on. For now this is just a boring "Why we made this trade post".
So, why did we make this trade? Why not. Big teams do big things. We have a lot of money and not a well regarded farm system. The theory of trading cash for assets is something we definitely should be in on. Usually teams are more into buying prospects than established players. Sure, prospect Phillip Warner was included in the deal, but he was far from the the dealbreaker. This is more a situation of the players offered matching our needs. So let's break it down.
Joe Mother
What can't be said about yo momma? This guy is a legend. On top of being someone who will be really fun to write about, he is also a popular fan favorite. He is going to put asses in the seats. With all the talk about budgets on Discord lately, some are lost to the fact that you need to make money to increase your budget. The way you make money is really simple. Field a good team and have players that fans want to see play. So while Joe Mothers contract ($10.6-11.6 mil over next 4-5 seasons) is far from a bargain for a DH, He checks both of those boxes. What he brings to the team in revenue will offset much of that contract with new money. How much? That's impossible to quantify.
On the field, we needed a big lefty bat to sit between "Mr Clutch" Mathew Malone and "MVP" Raul Gallehos. We thought that guy was Max Shepperson. But Shepperson hit .227/.321/.470 since being traded to Twin Cities and .184/.283/.368 in the playoffs. He also refused to negotiate with us. F' that guy. So when Mother hit the trade block for just $1, we saw him as a free agent signing.
Some might say Mother is lumping and washed up. That's fine. Twin Cities is in the business of buying low. While I can't guarantee this deal will work out in our favor, I am very confident it will. Yo momma hit .312/.387/.501 VS RHP just last season. He is not an everyday player. He needs a platoon partner and we have just the guy in the form of Parker Clontz who hit .367/.391/.658 VS LHP last season. Those two also provide depth for each other. If one struggles... he will sit. We are not going to run out a replacement level DH under any circumstance.
Juan Cabrera
Cabrera was a really important key to this deal for us. Our backup CF Joel Woodroffe lost his range late last season. Lumping to 8/8/5 with 7 CF rating. While he still posted a positive ZR, that's just not good enough for a team trying to compete with Nashville year in and year out. So we needed a new CF. That in and of itself is not cheap. There is nothing available in free agency. So to see a 26 year old 10 range, 10 rated double digit zone rating CF available for $1, you go get it. And we did. I understand he is 40 potential and can't hit. That's fine. We feel we have built a solid lineup 1-8. If you are going to go all defense at one position, CF is a good choice. Pairing him with Victor Frazier gives us two young-ish Zimmer quality CF who provide injury insurance for each other and will be a lock down late game defense when whoever doesn't start subs in for one of our corners.
Eric Wagner
Wagner is the meh player in the deal for us. In weighing the pro's and con's of the deal I just assumed I will cut him at some point. Though he isn't terrible and we do have some flexibility to add a left handed corner outfielder. Like yo momma, Wagner was plagued by splits. With out getting too technical, OOTP 25 kinda blurred player splits. Just cause Wagner has 5 contact both VS LHP and RHP doesn't mean they are the same. It's just more difficult to see. I doubt that Wagner's .311 /.388/.525 line VS RHP will be duplicated. But he does have that in him.
I guess what I like about Wagner is that he mostly fits the mold of the River Monsters way. Works counts, runs well, is a good clubhouse presence, won't mind platooning. Obviously wish he played better D and hit a little better, but we'll see. He enters the LF mix with Octavio Sanchez, Juan Serna, and Darren Wearne for now. We will continue to monitor the corner outfield market. Maybe a rock solid player falls to us in the draft for the 3rd straight season..
Phillip Warner
Warner was the prospect dangled in the package. We probably should have tried to haggle a different prospect in the deal as we already have Felix Ramos and Cartwright hero Jose Perez platooning at 3B. We also traded for Warner's doppelganger Pepe Gonzales at the trade deadline. Not to mention Abdul-Rafi bin Sayf, another 3B who is our top hitting prospect by default. But we respected Phoneix's offer and wanted to keep a strong trade relationship with them. So we will kick the 3B situation down the road. Keeping an eye on prospect for prospect trades or maybe a deadline splash.
So to put a bow on it. This trade pretty much aligned with our needs. Adding players like Mother and Cabrera were on our offseason checklist anyway. So I view them as a two for one free agent signing. Then, I assumed I bought Warner for $3 mil(1/2 of Wagner money) and then signed Wagner to a 2 year $1.5 million give it a shot contract that I'm ok eating if it comes to it.
