Hold up, they gave away Giancarlo Stanton for the Yankees #9 prospect and Clint Fraiser, and now they want Kyle Tucker for JT Realmuto? We all know the marlins never plan to compete again, (as seen by the Ozuna trade), give them a few weeks and they'll dump him for Jon Singleton.
Got some swiss holes in that logic, sir. Not an apples to apples comparison when you look at the amount of money owed to Stanton v. JT. Better comparison would be the Yelich return.
Yankees did agree to pay something like $250 million of Stanton's contract if he doesn't opt out. If the Yankees were willing to give the Astros $250 million for Tucker, Tucker would be a Bronx Bomber. Luhnow could do a lot better than Tucker with that much money.
I don’t fault the Astros for starting a conversation. A franchise catcher is very difficult to find. Look at what McCann brought to the Astros. Having an elite catcher is truly a game changer, and a super boost to any team. At this point I would not trade Tucker, though his trade value is extremely high. McCann is here another season, and I could see the Astros inking him for another season or two afterwards. Tucker is in the same mold as Correa, Bergman, Springer. An Elite prospect that is developing and growing into his perceived value.
I think the Astros would be looking more for a Gerrit Cole price for Realmuto. None of the top 4, because at least one of them will be as good as Realmuto, and then you've got 5-6 years of control instead of 3. I don't see us as being locked in to a "win now" mode of thinking, meaning we surrender the future to increase our odds today. We are already the best team in baseball, and are set up for years to come. Like the Cole trade, we will move guys that are blocked or don't show huge upside. To me, the that means an offer of something like Paulino, JD Davis, Stubbs and a 4th guy outside the top 10.
Hold up... that's NOT who Miami landed for Stanton. Beyond that, Realmuto is an infinitely more valuable asset because of money: Stanton is guaranteed * a lot*; Realmuto is not.
McCann was not elite and, if anything, undermines any idea that you need an elite catcher to win. He posted a 1.2 WAR, ranking 13th among catchers with at least 399 PAs (McCann just missed 400). And the Astros still won 101 games and the World Series. I'm sure he brought intangibles to the table that had a positive impact. But in term of on-field impact, McCann was..... fine.
McCann though no longer an all-star level guy, still had a swagger to him from when he an elite catcher. And I think that, that leadership role elevated the pitching performance. But you are right, he isn’t an elite catcher anymore. But he was a franchise level one for his career. Our last catcher, Jason Castro seemed too salty and had too many holes in his offensive game, Which is unfortunate because I was hopeful he could have turned it around and been a stalwart for the next 8 seasons.
Please disregard the other thread, I completely missed this post. I am embarrassed. But....Ken Oberkfell? Pete Incaviglia? Doug Jones?
Incaviglia would clearly be the DH. With all the inning eaters at SP and iron man Mike Marshall in the bullpen, you can replace Fernandez with Pete.
As a homer, I'd hate to lose either prospect, but in the scenario that the author painted they would also get Gattis and get rid of Castro's contract. So its more than just the two prospects. Personally, I believe our GM would offer something besides our top 4 prospects, but if any of them go it could be Buskauskas. With Martes looking good in Spring Training, he could be another target for the Marlins. Realmuto is almost an embarrassment of riches, but given McCann's age, he would give us a great catching duo to work on another title. Our GM may be trying to package some of our high upside B-prosepcts like Paulino, Armenteros, JD Davis, G. Stubbs, etc. around a Martes, Tyler White or even Fisher package to get the Marlins to bite. Although done of these guys may get the Marlins super excited, they all could be solid major league players (or not Lol). A Fisher, Martes, Paulino and Stubbs package gives them a ML-ready OF and SP, with mad potential in Paulino and solid defensive skills in Stubbs with some hitting potential. I'll put down the pipe and see if any body ardently disagrees.
I take responsibility for the omission. I knew there was someone I forgot. The gloriousness that was Eddie Taubensee clouded my memory.
I wouldn't be so quick to trade Martes or Fisher. Martes has ToR potential...you don't trade that for an albeit good, but not great catcher. Trading Fisher would create a hole. Here's mine: Paulino, Stubbs, JD Davis and Hector Perez. That's 4 top 10 prospects, but none of the top 4. Paulino doesn't really have a clear path to playing time, Davis is blocked, Stubbs would be blocked if we got Realmuto, and we have 3 other pitchers ranked higher than Perez.
I would definitely like your offer better than losing Martes or Fisher, and if we can pull that off I'd be very happy.
The Astros would have done that trade ages ago if that's all it took to get a top 10 catcher with 3 team years left. The Astros have 6 prospects who I imagine could be foundation pieces to a big trade (Whitley,Tucker,Martes,Fisher,Alvarez,Bukauskas) one of them is gonna have to go out. After that group there is probably an interchangeable grouping of about 10-15 players. People look at the Cole tarde and forget how highly regarded Moran, Musgrove and Feliz were not too long ago. Musgrove and Feliz have both shown flashes of MLB dominance. It wasn't just some grouping mediocre prospects.
