The Sunny Side 2018.2: Teague's First Steps

[cheekimonk]

The Sunny Side
1 March, 2018
Marquette, MI
**********************************

Continuing our email exchange with Marquette Suns' GM Ben Teague, we asked him to elaborate on the trades he executed before the 2017 trade deadline immediately after returning to the franchise. To recap, Teague pulled the trigger on three deals:

21 July 2017
To Louisville:

28yo SP Dan-sing Nancies (6/8/7 Ratings, 86 - 87, 4.40 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 764 K)
23yo OF Francisco Ruiz (8/6/2/1/10 Ratings, .299/.303/.377, 3 HR, 60 RBI)

To Marquette:

28yo OF Adrian Vega (6/7/7/6/5 Ratings, .243/.313/.449, 75 HR, 232 RBI)
22yo SP Shawn O'Neill (5/9/6 Ratings, 3 - 12, 4.87 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, 52 K)
21yo C Ricardo Ochoa (5/5/3/4/7 Ratings)
$2 million

From Teague: "For a baseball franchise it really boils down to one thing: you're either competing or you're rebuilding. If you don't know which of the two you're franchise is currently doing then you're failing. We still weren't competing when I came back onboard, but we weren't rebuilding either. The farm system was pathetic and the budget was in the red. To restock a minor league system, a GM needs every option on his table, and being in the red takes a load of options off that table. So, yet again, first task is to make money. Though Nancies' salary was not a concern ($4.8 mil per), he was too old to help us rebuild and in the last year of his deal with us having no money for extensions. So, you get what you can for him from a team he can help. Getting the $2 million has obvious benefits, but we also had no catchers - as in zero - that had any business in AA or higher and a starting catcher in Eric Melton (7/5/6/6/9 Ratings, .310/.380/.480, 145 HR, 584 RBI) who was 30yo and pulling $14.5 mil per...a prime (#1 really) target to ship somewhere. So we grabbed a young catcher who at least had superior defense and a young SP in O'Neill who was a warm body to fill the rotation and maybe surprise by being half decent (landing in the bullpen long-term if nothing else). Vega was taken on simply for cap reasons on Louisville's side."

21 July 2017
To Carolina:

31yo CL Paul Mullins (8/6/7 Ratings, 28 - 36, 4.69 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 494 K)

To Marquette:

19yo CL Dave van Dongen (7/5/3 Ratings)
21yo MR Juan Castillo
19yo SS Francisco Moreno

From Teague: "Here we had a decent ballplayer in Mullins who, though his salary was low at $1.5 mil per, was even older than Nancies. We knew he would be snapped up quick and bring a pretty good return. That's exactly what happened as we got a potentially top-shelf closer prospect in van Dongen, a shortstop prospect with excellent defensive skills in Moreno, and a young MR in Castillo who was almost ready for the majors."

1 Aug 2017
To Tucson:

25yo 1B Michael Nelson (5/8/8/4/5 Ratings, .253/.305/.485, 98 HR, 294 RBI)
19yo 2B Rashawn Maurilos (5/8/3/2/4 Ratings)

To Marquette:

21yo C Chad Lawrence (5/6/5/4/4 Ratings, .250/.283/.341, 1 HR, 4 RBI)

From Teague: "This one was a headache, but it happens. We were in talks with Tucson to land Lawrence, again with us having absolutely zero catching talent and Melton soaking up huge $$'s, while talking with Louisville regarding Nancies. Those talks stalled and so the Louisville deal was structured to include Ochoa. But Tucson came back around again and, with Ochoa definitely not being a long-term solution as a catcher in the bigs, we still needed Lawrence. Nelson was a tough player to lose, he was leading the team in HRs at that point in 2017, but the team is not ready to compete and a slugging first baseman is easier to hunt down when we are than a catcher of the quality Lawrence will hopefully become. Overall, this deal hurts more because it lowered the return on the Louisville trade."

[trmmilwwi]

Love the recaps. Good stuff!

[felipe]

You forgot to add

"Louisville bent me over on this deal and slammed me hard"