Offseason Priorities

[wallus]

Rank the offseason priorities for the team. Here's mine...

1. #2/#3 starter. I think the team was hoping Woodruff would be that guy last season but he got injured. That made them overpay for May. Ultimately it worked out but I am hoping the team will focus on spending any payroll money they have before the season starts. With the wildcard and so many teams not selling, the trade deadline is a mess as a buyer. 

2. Relief pitching. A number of guys will likely not be back from the WS team (sounds good to say that phrase). Senzatella, Romero, and I guess Woodruff counts on that. It would be nice to get another guy for the pen.

3. Catcher. I would be fine with an El Gary reunion or maybe pickup Tyler Stephenson. Stephenson screams Brewer as a guy that struggles with framing, can hit a little bit and actually has better away stats.

What say you?

[long ball]

1) Resolve first base. Maybe it’s as simple at Bauers accepting the QO. If he declines, the situation gets more interesting. I’m personally fine with transitioning to Vaughn and a lefty complement, but Bauers was our best hitter last year. Losing him would be a big loss. I don’t think I’d advocate for a multi year deal with Bauers though. 
 

2) I think we need to add a starter or 2. I kinda think there’s a non-zero chance Sproat gets Tobias Myers’d. If he does, we definitely need 2 starters. I wouldn’t go so far as to say we need to add a guy who can start playoff games though. Maybe it’s a veteran starter in the Brett Anderson or Jose Quintana mold. Or maybe it’s an undervalued minor leaguer like Drohan. Or maybe a former prospect whose star has faded like Harrison. I know we have 9 SP on the 40 man already, but who knows what you’ll get from Priester and Gordon/Crow are more depth guys to me. And if they want to try Ashby, hall, or Patrick back in the rotation then it’s shifting the hole to the pen. This might involve trading guys off the big league roster like Ortiz or Mitchell, 
3) extend Made. It won’t be cheap, but I’d just love to have him locked it. I know he will basically be on the same time frame for team control as Chourio, but it would be nice to have him stretched out a little longer (assuming no change in the 6 full years of service time to reach free agency)

 

I’ll just mention it, I’m not interested in extending Contreras, but I also don’t want them to trade him. Let 2027 play out and be ok with losing him in free agency