Quote:
Originally Posted by BigRedChief
Yelich wasn’t going to be traded at the time. Miami was going to keep him long term. This is revisionist history. Also they gave up a shit ton for him. 2 top prospects in baseball. Flaeherty and Reyes to start for sure as part of any deal. We gave up spare parts for Ozuna.
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That's the shit that Goold keeps trying to sell, yes.
There's absolutely nothing that supports it. This is the same Goold that will begrudgingly confess to facts known to him after they become publicly revealed even if he has argued against these things in the past in protecting the Cardinal brand.
According to many folks, the Marlins got less for Yelich than we gave for Ozuna. I don't really agree because I don't have much faith in Alcantara and the rest of that package was rags, but the Brewers didn't give up much for Yelich. Brinson's prospect stock had started to fall pretty precipitously after his brief MLB spell when he appeared to be all tools and no approach. Suddenly he looked like a guy that had a looooong learning curve still in front of him.
Harrison and Diaz were essentially fungible; guys like Mercado, Arozarena and Adolis Garcia.
As soon as the Marlins decided to deal Ozuna, the fire-sale was on. And evidently the Marlins had several suitors for Ozuna so the Cardinals could've easily pivoted to Yelich if they wanted to.
There's no way to review the record there and conclude that Yelich wasn't available. Goold is running cover for his bread and butter again and if anyone else ever reports otherwise and it becomes publicly accepted, we'll hear Goold do the same thing he always does and sheepishly acknowledge some sources he's been sitting on in a chat.
But as I said at the time, the problem wasn't that they just got Ozuna, the problem was the same as it always is with Mozeliak - he stopped one step short of going far enough. I wanted a deal built around Reyes+ to get Ozuna AND Yelich because those guys are perfectly complementary players. Then when Ozuna had fallen on his face last off-season you could've just non-tendered or traded him and still put together the package to get Goldschmidt. Now you have the 1-2 punch of moves that we keep needing to make.
Instead we're still dragging what Ozuna's 'supposed to be' around and we're still a move short of being truly dynamic, even after the Goldy deal.