If Edwin is on the team he probably hits 30 and 100. That's good. If we trade him and use the money to resign Brantley then I'm for that. Not a fan of trading him for bullpen pieces though. Yes our bullpen sucked ass last year and we need new arms. But bullpens are very unpredictable no matter what you do. Why spend big money and trade good players to repair a part of the team that is a crap shoot anyway. No matter what resources we put into fixing the pen it's still going to be a question mark anyway.
Honestly moving EE may not be as bad as you think depending on how we relocate the money. I would bet that Kipnis and EE are on the move, which will free up the money to resign a Brantley/sign Marwin and also maybe sign another solid bullpen piece or two. I personally don't feel we should 100% dump EE, so as long as we get a piece who can help this team in the next year or two. I personally had us trading him for a guy thats like a AAA pitcher ready for the bigs/a bullpen arm with years of control. I know thats not ideal, but I have faith in this brass since they seem to have been making the right moves in the long run. Gomes to me at the moment is still debatable but we did get a piece back that can help us this season, plus we freed up like 6 mil to spend elsewhere. IF moving EE and Kipnis happen, even for just borderline MLB guys, then my guess is they are going to allocate that money to sign guys in the holes we have.
Trading Kipnis, leaves Ramirez for second base, leaving guys like Diaz and Chang for third base. It isn't hard to find replacement hitters for the DH position and likely can find some less than 5 mil. Edwin was a 1.9 WAR last season, he is at the end of his career, while a guy like Marwin had a 2.5 and easily could be had for half the price and can play multiple positions with average to above average defense.
Moving Gomes, EE, Kipnis by themselves creates like 30 mil in spending money, so we have a guy like Marwin (projected 8 mil) maybe a guy like setup/closer Herrera (projected 8 mil) then signing a few veterans arms/players to major or minor league contracts, we can create the same level of production with the same cap space. My guess is at least two trades at winter meetings, one getting rid of Kipnis/EE and one that is another deal adding controllable talent by trading a minor leaguer/package of minor leaguers.
Essentially we would be trading EE and Kipnis for a pitcher plus a second pitcher and/or position player. Then we would be signing two-three free agents to replace them, which in return our team would actually be more flexible long term (having better controllable assets/younger talent) and likely have at least the same production overall.
Also it seems like te team is okay with trading a couple younger prospects for guys who are more ready to be in the pros as well. The Mercado trade, plus the Luplow trade showed that they are willing to move from the minors to acquire better players with years of control. Who knows maybe Bauer will end up with the Mets and us getting a guy like Nimmo back, helping solidifying the OF while we replace a Bauer with a Buchholz/solid free agent starter to help round out the rotation. This is a make or break offseason for the organization, if we fail to make the right moves its time for a fire sale, if we make the right ones, we can make it to the world series.
