The Stanton Watch

[60'sfan]

As much as I'd like to see the Sox get Stanton, there seems to be too much standing in the way. First, his salary is astronomical. Second, we would have to give up some really good young position players to interest the Marlins. Third, he has a no-trade clause and may not want to play in Boston. I think we need to set our sights a little lower.

 

[G0UCONN]

I'd like to get Hosmer who only costs money or Abreu if can get him for reasonable exchange.

 

[60'sfan]

I'd like to get Hosmer who only costs money or Abreu if can get him for reasonable exchange.

Either one of those would be good pickups. Hosmer is a free agent and we could get into a bidding war with someone over him but yes, the cost is only money. He is a four-time gold glover fielder and I love good fielding first basemen. He seems to be getting better each year as a hitter and would be a great addition. Abreu is perhaps more suited to Fenway with his right handed swing. But he is not as good a fielder and would certainly cost some key players. I would expect 40+ Hrs and 120 RBIs if we got him. He is not a free agent until 2020.
Ideally, if they could sign JD Martinez and Hosmer, they could use JBJ to find some more pitching. If they are serious about adding some excitement, this combo would do it.

 

[60'sfan]

Looks like Stanton is heading to the Yankees. What a scary lineup they will have. I wonder who they will have to sent to the Marlins to make this happen.

 

[Stainmaster]

Looks like Stanton is heading to the Yankees. What a scary lineup they will have. I wonder who they will have to sent to the Marlins to make this happen.

Starlin Castro and mid-tier prospects is what I'm hearing.

 

[G0UCONN]

Good grief what a lineup.

Jeter earned a second head on a rock in Monument Park.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskeynut]

Murderer's Row has returned. Judge, Stanton, Sanchez and Bird. You could also include DiDi in the mix.

 

[G0UCONN]

Jeter went from being all time great SS in baseball to the worst baseball exec.

Scary lineup in NY.

 

[G0UCONN]

 

[billythekid]

Jeter went from being all time great SS in baseball to the worst baseball exec.

Scary lineup in NY.

Had he really wanted to be the worst exec, he would have taken Ellsbury back instead of Castro. Castro is a productive, every day player at a premium position. He's obviously not equal to Stanton on terms of production, but he has been a solid player for the Yankees. Now Ellsbury I could live without.

 

[G0UCONN]

Had he really wanted to be the worst exec, he would have taken Ellsbury back instead of Castro. Castro is a productive, every day player at a premium position. He's obviously not equal to Stanton on terms of production, but he has been a solid player for the Yankees. Now Ellsbury I could live without.

Castro is good. But huge contract for 2Bman.

And two low level prospects?

Plus Marlins still pay 30 mill?

A robbery....

 

[Deadrody]

Castro is good. But huge contract for 2Bman.

And two low level prospects?

Plus Marlins still pay 30 mill?

A robbery....

Pretty much

 

[huskeynut]

Jeter went from being all time great SS in baseball to the worst baseball exec.

Scary lineup in NY.

The former Marlins owner Loria ran the team into the ground financially. For the Marlins to stay afloat they have to dump salary and rebuild. Jeter really had no choice. And the partnership of owners had to sign off on this. The Yankees were one of the very few teams who could afford Stanton's salary. The Dodgers could and the Red Sox could. But Stanton had the veto power. Stanton was in the driver's seat and he knew it.

If you judge Jeter on one trade as an exec, that's crazy. Time will tell whether he will succeed or not.

 

[ihatepants]

The former Marlins owner Loria ran the team into the ground financially. For the Marlins to stay afloat they have to dump salary and rebuild. Jeter really had no choice. And the partnership of owners had to sign off on this. The Yankees were one of the very few teams who could afford Stanton's salary. The Dodgers could and the Red Sox could. But Stanton had the veto power. Stanton was in the driver's seat and he knew it.

If you judge Jeter on one trade as an exec, that's crazy. Time will tell whether he will succeed or not.

Agreed. Jeter is taking the blame but he’s not really at fault here. They bought the team while it was $400 million in debt. Then Stanton used his no trade clause to full effect and controlled where he wanted to go. It wasn’t Jeter’s fault that Stanton didn’t want to go to either SF or STL.

Also:

 

[60'sfan]

Now we will see how good (or bad) Dumbrowski is. If Theo were still here, he would pick up both Martinez and Hosmer and the Sox would be competitive with the Yankees again. What will Dumbrowski do? Probably not enough.

 

[Towney007]

I want nothing to do with Hosmer to be honest. He's great one year, and barely replacement level the second year. I'd kind of rather go get the real deal and choke down the opportunity cost and trade for Abreu... or even kick tires of Freddie Freeman. With the Braves getting killed with sanctions, I wonder how big a role Freeman can realistically play in a rebuild. He'll cost a freaking fortune in prospects, but that contract and his age make me think he adds a lot and more or less kills two birds with one stone.

JD Martinez is worth exploring, but i'm interested to see how his market develops. The analytics say he's pretty much for real and his numbers have basically been Stanton's the last few years, so I dunno.

The one wild card at the Winter Meetings could possibly be The Orioles and if they decide to deal Machado or not. He's not resigning and realistically, they're a long shot for the wild card. I almost wonder if the Red Sox would flirt with the idea of moving Devers to 1st to make that work.

Who knows - but hard for me to fault the Red Sox for sitting out on Stanton. He just wasn't a neat enough fit. I mean I get he's Stanton, but ultimately I don't think they were serious contenders and they're just not in the position to financially take him on. The Yankees just are, so god bless 'em. Should be a fun pennant race next year.

I still don't think either team has enough to beat the Astros...

 

[Scoe]

I want nothing to do with Hosmer to be honest. He's great one year, and barely replacement level the second year. I'd kind of rather go get the real deal and choke down the opportunity cost and trade for Abreu... or even kick tires of Freddie Freeman. With the Braves getting killed with sanctions, I wonder how big a role Freeman can realistically play in a rebuild. He'll cost a freaking fortune in prospects, but that contract and his age make me think he adds a lot and more or less kills two birds with one stone.

JD Martinez is worth exploring, but i'm interested to see how his market develops. The analytics say he's pretty much for real and his numbers have basically been Stanton's the last few years, so I dunno.

The one wild card at the Winter Meetings could possibly be The Orioles and if they decide to deal Machado or not. He's not resigning and realistically, they're a long shot for the wild card. I almost wonder if the Red Sox would flirt with the idea of moving Devers to 1st to make that work.

Who knows - but hard for me to fault the Red Sox for sitting out on Stanton. He just wasn't a neat enough fit. I mean I get he's Stanton, but ultimately I don't think they were serious contenders and they're just not in the position to financially take him on. The Yankees just are, so god bless 'em. Should be a fun pennant race next year.

I still don't think either team has enough to beat the Astros...

Your probably right about the Astros only thing is their pen is awful its amazing they won it with that awful pen how often can your lineup pull out miraculous wins with your offense. Every team has to get lucky to win it all I guess, if the Astros wanna repeat they will most likely have to find a different way to win, last years recipe for success just won't last.

 

[G0UCONN]

The former Marlins owner Loria ran the team into the ground financially. For the Marlins to stay afloat they have to dump salary and rebuild. Jeter really had no choice. And the partnership of owners had to sign off on this. The Yankees were one of the very few teams who could afford Stanton's salary. The Dodgers could and the Red Sox could. But Stanton had the veto power. Stanton was in the driver's seat and he knew it.

If you judge Jeter on one trade as an exec, that's crazy. Time will tell whether he will succeed or not.

He had choices.

Could have waited....there was no rush.

To get that return for Stanton is embarrassing. Plus Marlins still paying 30 mill on contract....

 

[Deadrody]

He had choices.

Could have waited....there was no rush.

To get that return for Stanton is embarrassing. Plus Marlins still paying 30 mill on contract....

One of the other talking points is that Jeter's ownership group was cash poor, themselves. They REALLY had no choice. The team was deep in debt and they spent every penny they had to buy the team.

 

[huskeynut]

He had choices.

Could have waited....there was no rush.

To get that return for Stanton is embarrassing. Plus Marlins still paying 30 mill on contract....

I disagree. The sooner the move was made the better.

And in today's market, very few teams could take Stanton's contract. It was a buyer's market, not a sellers market.

When you are $300 million to $400 million in the hole, you do what you have to do.

 

[Towney007]

Yeah it's hard for me to fault their ownership group. This group isn't going to get it done, the best they can hope for is liquidation at this point, so that's what you do. The Stanton negotiations were mismanaged to a degree - but you're shopping $300 million and an asset that the buyer just doesn't have a ton of control over long-term. I'm not saying this will happen to Stanton, but how many high dollar acquisitions in their prime DO end up going south over 3-4 years? Plenty, in fact.

And your best case scenario is he plays well and then opts out after year 4 - and then you're out your superstar. If he doesn't, you owe him $265 million. I think that's what most people are just flat-out missing about this trade. The Yankees got a fantastic player. Absolutely fantastic. For now. But his contract makes him an enormous risk over the long run. Any contract with that amount of money attached to it is a risk. Period.

And then there's what you're trying to do long-term. The Marlins need to field a not entirely embarrassing team, focus on buy low/sell high flip pieces and pillow contracts and where they can - add a little continuity in premium positions so they don't end up wasting resources needlessly and they can bank as much cash as possible for when they need it - if they don't already need it to offset up front losses.

IMO - in baseball, unless you're in an enormous market, total rip-it-to-the-studs rebuilds are the only way to go. Yes, the Marlins probably could have done better given the circumstances - but it's really unclear what 'better' would have been. The Red Sox have some dead money and a lot of young guys to worry about locking up. And no prospect depth to boot. So they're out. The Cubs would probably rather take a run at Harper; but more importantly have some enormous pieces they need to think about long term. So they're really out unless you take some very specific bad contracts back on yourself. So there isn't much of a fit, there. The Dodgers are just completely loaded up with contracts, so forget a big deal there and the Giants aren't there to compete and Stanton didn't want to go there. Ditto St. Louis. SO I mean - how much dangling can you do?

I AM a little surprised the Astros didn't kick tires - they're contenders, Stanton fits, they can afford him AND even have the long term money to absorb the risk. I do wonder if they could have gotten something A LITTLE bit better.

But again - their hands were tied. That's why I have a hard time pig piling Jeter outside of the obvious bad looks of not being at the Winter Meetings, being a little too public in the behind the scenes stuff and perhaps benefitting from a little more patience.... outside of that - that's what they were going to get in return.