Bleacher Bums Forum

Yeah, but the Angels signed Madson.  That probably takes them out of the market.

Can't believe Hendry couldn't have talked ownership into over slotting in the draft for Weiters or whomever...ridiculous.

If the Leader of the operation can't persuade the owner to spend a relatively amount, he hasn't made a good business case...almost certainly the case with Hendry, who always was intent on signing the next FA and never prioritized building the foundation.

He was a very likeable, very good guy, who knew a lot about baseball and scouting, but was rather clueless about how to leverage statistics, build an organization or lead one in the modern era.

It all sounds like revisionist history to me.  Throw the old guy under the bus as much as possible.

Marmol might not stick around, but if he is traded, it will be because Hoyer gets a good deal for him.  I doubt that they will give him away cheap, while they have need of good arms in the pen.

I agree with dave, Marmol is a guy who could get traded if they think value is good.  And given his age, impending free agency, and chronic control challenges, his long-term value to us is limited, so of course he'd be available.  He's not that valuable to us, so if somebody offers real value, of course it makes sense to a rebuilding team. 

But like deeg said, I just don't see where the trade value is.  He's not that valuable to us, but he's not that desirable to other teams either.  Are super-powers making so wild a pitcher a premium trade target, and eager to pay a serious prospect and his $9 million salary to rely on him as their closer?  That ship has sailed.  The other team could go for Soria, or could have gone for Madsen or Fuji, or for that matter Grilli. 

My guess is that if you were able to trade him, it will either be for a high-risk overpay, as in the Haren crumble.  Or some pretty modest prospect, more like Brigham than Vizcaino.  And maybe you'd need to pay many of his millions even for that.  He just doesn't pass the reliability test. 

If he does go, I think it will be for somebody who acquires him as a late-inning depth guy.  A setup person, as he was when Dempster was closing.  Or just another possibility, in case their intended closer doesn't work.  Madsen, old Rivera, Detroit, there are some teams who can't assume their desired closer will be good. 

I hope he gets traded, because if so that will mean Hoyer thinks he's getting a value and I'm all for replacing short-term expiring assets for younger longer-term possibilities.  But that's probably more wish than expectation. 

I do think there could be value for his career to reorient to a setup guy.  It seems like there is a much longer record of setups who are really wild than closers.  In closer role, if a guy goes into a slump it's hard to live with.  If you've emptied your pen getting to the 9th, you've got to live-or-die with the closer, whether he's on or not.  But in 7th inning, if a guy is struggling for a while you can reduce his usage some until it gets better, or be quicker to pull him.  Marmol may well have many inconsistently productive years ahead of him in that role, if his arm holds up. 

Grilli had an incredible year last year, and has been excellent these last two. If he could continue like that, he'd help some team win some games.  If he could reproduce that again, he could have some nice trade value in June.  I hope we sign him, but I'm not sure whether that rumor has any substance, or remains of interest after getting Fuji.  (Maybe the Cubs were pursuing both, and now the motivation for Grilli is reduced?) 

Still, I don't see the motive from Grilli's side.  It would have to be one of four things:  much better dollars; a perceived chance to become closer; some personal connection/comfort-level with Hoyer or Sveum or something; or perhaps a very conscious expectation of getting traded to a contender later.  Get a good-dollar deal now, but be sure to get trade to a contender later?  Not sure a lot of guys feel that way.  Grilli sure a weird career, not much to anticipate the year he had last year. 

Anyway, we'll see. 

I think all of this fits very much with the win-as-much-as-possible now without losing sight of the long-term Hoyer approach.  It's hard to find good outfielders and 3B, and it's hard to sign them to short-term contracts.  But relievers get used all the time, so between adding rotation and relief, anybody effective who can pitch will help win more games.   

When I talk about trading Marmol. I assume that the Cubs would pay essentially all of his salary.  Without doing that, we would certainly get very little, since he is overpaid.

But if we pick up almost his entire salary, he suddenly becomes a reasonable trade chip.  Teams that did not want to sign Fujikawa to a 10 million dollar, two year contract might well see Marmol as a cheap way to go over the top in the last two months of the season.

Dave, I think you underestimate Marmol's trading chip status.  Surely he isn't where he was a couple years ago, and he isn't worth the money they're paying him, but "to pay all of his salary" doesn't compute.  In that case, keep him and use him for setup.  He'd be better than, say, Coleman.