Bleacher Bums Forum

Agree re: the Jays. Truth is, they held on to their top prospects, IMO. d'Arnaud is the cream of the crop, no question about it. And I'd much rather have Syndergaard and Sanchez than Nicolino. Marisnick is very similar to Jackson - great talent if it all breaks right, but there are major questions about his contact ability. Escobar is a nice SS, sure, but you only have control of him for 2 years.

Torii Hunter signs with the Tigers for 2 years, $26 million.  probably smart of him to sign early...outfield is the one place this free agent market is fairly deep, and I think anyone who holds out for too long is going to end up accepting a much smaller contract than they wanted.

Curt, that comment was only half serious because it makes so little sense for the Marlins to trade Stanton.  That said, if (hypothetically) the Marlins decided to listen to offers, I think the Cubs should be willing to trade anyone in their system for him.  Other than Castro, I'm not sure they should hold anyone in the organization back--it might even make sense to trade Rizzo for him.  Stanton just turned 23 last week and is already one of the top 10 or so players in baseball.  He has four years of control left, and there's no reason the Cubs wouldn't have the money to extend him past that.  The likelihood of Baez (or any other prospect in baseball, for that matter) ever being as good as Stanton is now is almost zero.

Stanton is a truly elite, very young, MVP caliber player with several years of control left--for someone like that, being close to competing is irrelevant because he becomes the #1 core piece in your long term plans.  It's likely that acquiring Stanton would put the Cubs closer to where the front office wants them to be than developing any one prospect ever could.

But again, I don't think it makes any sense for the Marlins at all so it would never happen.  So this is all probably a pointless discussion.

True, nothing the Marlins do ever makes sense.  For example, they're apparently trying to trade Logan Morrison:

The Marlins aren’t done yet. One day after agreeing to a blockbuster trade with the Blue Jays, they’re shopping outfielder/first baseman Logan Morrison, according to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post (on Twitter). Furthermore, several general managers expect Ricky Nolasco to be traded as well.

Morrison makes the major league minimum, finally has his natural position (1B) open in Miami, and is coming off a bad year which has crushed his trade value.  It makes less than no sense to trade him--sending him away right now would be actively working against the Marlins' best interests.  At least if they traded Stanton, they could argue that his value is greater now than it'll be in 2 years when he starts to get really expensive. 

I had a lot of interest in Morrison last year before the Cubs got Rizzo, but now I'm not sure he's worth it.  He'd be a nice buy low opportunity if they're not asking for too much.  But he's only an option at 1B and LF--they're not moving Rizzo out of the way for Morrison, so that would require moving Soriano.  If they did that, the lineup would then be devoid of proven RH HR power, and Castro would be the only RH hitter you could count on getting anything out of.  I guess the Cubs are going to lose a lot so that doesn't matter all that much...but games vs. LHP would be really ugly next year if Castillo doesn't develop.

I'm assuming Nolasco is going to be a salary dump and taking his full salary would make it easier to acquire Morrison.  So I'd have some moderate interest in a Nolasco/Morrison package.  Nolasco is intriguing to me because he always underperforms his peripherals--that makes me think he might be someone who could really benefit from a change of scenery and a fresh coaching voice.  He has also turned into a pretty strong ground ball pitcher the last two years, so he may benefit from the Cubs' positioning strategies.  At the very least, he's a reasonably cheap (in trade cost) innings eater with 1 year left on his contract who could gain value by midseason. 

br, I agree with everything you say about Stanton. And so I wonder why do you advocate holding back Rizzo or Castro in a deal? Stanton is vastly superior to either of them.

I'd hold back Castro just because he plays a harder position to fill and his contract situation is settled.  He's going to be in Chicago through the end of the decade, while Stanton would only be around for about half as long.  I think the settled contract situation puts him over the top.  I can see the argument the other way (Stanton is a better player), but Castro is good enough, has a high enough ceiling, plays SS well enough, and is under contract long enough that I wouldn't deal him for Stanton.

On Rizzo, I probably wouldn't hold him back.  But I can see the argument for taking 6 years of him over 4 years of Stanton, especially if you think there might be some trouble extending Stanton down the road (for example, if his agent is Boras).  I'd have to think about him for a few minutes.  But I don't hesitate on anyone else in the organization (including Samardzija).

Stanton is a truly elite, very young, MVP caliber player with several years of control left....

Yes.... but....

The guy last year hit .290 with 37 HR and a raw OPS of .969, but he only has 86 RBI.  And with men on in his 3 year career he has an OPS of .825, compared to .962 with runners on base.

After 3 years, it would seem we might not be talking about sample size and might be talking about problems performing under pressure.

Stanton doesn't do much for us.  br, you've suggested a number of possible trades, but, though they improve us short term, it creates the same old problem long term.

Despite my comment above in response to br, I have to agree with his obvious point that Stanton just turned 23, and there are not many guys who enter a full season at age 23 with 93 career HR and a career OPS+ of 140 after close to 1500 PA.  The guy should be around for another ten years, and he has already established himself as a top hitter in the league.  He certainly is someone the Cubs could build around for years.