Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
Anthopoulos is going to have to move some arms from within their tremendous depth of Starting Pitching prospects to supplement the bats now.
Albies , Swanson, Acuna, and Freeman are a nice grouping, but they need another guy or two around that group to really make a run over the next 5-6 years.
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The problem is that Swanson may not actually be that good afterall. I like Albies well enough but you always get a little wary when someone performs a lot better over a small sample as you expected (then again, not falling flat on your face as a 20 yr old in the big leagues is pretty damn impressive either way).
Honestly, if they could move Freeman they would be wise to do so. This whole thing puts their rebuild behind Freeman's prime. They need to re-set their clock to 4-5 years away because if nothing else this costs them a ton of organizational capital that could've been flipped to help the big league roster now.
I know you don't want to rebuild right after a rebuild, but if they could flip Freeman and Inciarte for the kind of hauls that Eaton returned, they could get their age/service time all lined back up for a push in 2022 or so.
I don't see a path forward for a team centered on Freeman and I think Inciarte's contract makes him too valuable to hold on to for a 90 loss team. When the Cardinals inevitably strike out on Stanton due to organizational cowardice/hubris, they would be well served to package some of that prospect/pitching depth and make a call to Atlanta to see if Reyes/Freeman gets some traction. Freeman's probably worth about $25-30 million more than his contract over the next 4 years which isn't a ton of surplus value but it certainly carries some weight. Reyes comes with 5 years of control, though one of them will be hampered by his rehab next season. 4 'full boat' years of Reyes at pre-arb/arb levels is probably a pretty nice return for 4 years of Freeman at an 80% discount.
And if Inciarte could be moved to a team like the Yankees who could use a table-setter and longer term answer in CF. If they can get Otani, they may well be willing to make a move like Sheffield and Acevedo for a nice young CFer with a ton of under-valued team control like Inciarte.
Suddenly the Braves would have a hell of a lot of young arm talent in their system and have freed up some payroll to make another move in a couple years when their rebuild will have clearer picture. I know arms were already their strength but I think that's how you have to operate if you're rebuilding. Get the pitching, find out what your foundation is (due to the attrition rate of arms) and then if needed, supplement with trades.
Things are just too hazy for them to move arms right now, IMO.