I think it is a reasonable debate to have. I am one of those in the camp that I'd have liked to see up keep Khris Davis. He was our best power hitter last year by a wide margin. 27 HR in 392 atbats. In a "normal" year, without injury assuming 550 atbats, that shows up as 38 HR. I realize that it is never that easy to project like that, but he sure was our best hitter the 2nd half of the year. And, playing in one of the worst hitters' parks in the majors this year, he is already at 12 HR, 27 RBI in 147 atbats. Likely, on this team and in this park, he would have a legit chance at 50 HR. At least 40 for sure. You just don't find those kind of guys these days of diminishing power. Now, let's look at his contract - important, because we know the Crew won't be competitive for a few years. Davis was not even eligible for full free agency until 2020. So, we could have had his services at a "reasonable" cost for 2016-2019. They sure as heck better be competitive well before then. So, we moved one of the better power hitters in baseball to open a spot for Domingo Santana. At this point, we have a good idea of what Santana is - a decent OF, a little power, low average, with a TON of strikeouts. Yes, he is 23 years old so he COULD improve. But he has never had a strong prospect pedigree.. not even making the top 100 list by Baseball Prospectus in coming into 2015 (he had lost rookie status coming into 2016). I don't see a lot in his profile to make one think that he'll come close to the production of Khris Davis. Santana now has 290 ML atbats. He has hit 11 HR. But he has struck out 122 times already. 42% of the time. This just doesn't project success. I'd rather have 390 atbats with 27 HR that Davis gave us last year. Yes, we got Nottingham. Who has struggled in the early going. He has reached #66 on the BP list - not bad, but obviously not a top guy (yet?) But I don't think the Crew trades Lucroy. They'd be crazy to. He is a perfect Milwaukee guy - and the type of guy you want to build around. I think the Crew would have been much better off, this year and through 2019, in keeping Lucroy and not trading away Davis. Of course, if the organization doesn't feel that they can compete until 2020 at the earliest, then the trade makes sense. I do get a kick out of folks dissing Khris Davis and his strikeouts and ignore all his HR he hits and they say "he sucks". Of course, Davis only struck out 31% of the time - so he is a contact hitter compared to Santana. Yet Santana strikes out 42% of the time and people say he is going to be a great hitter and they like him better than Davis. Strange. I guess sometimes people just like to see change, even if it means watching a worse hitter. I know some people will say "what about OPS!"... yea, Davis crushes Santana in that too. You can debate if Davis would have been our future, sure, but certainly Santana is not. Even Trevor Story, a noted strikeout guy, is only doing it 35.8% of the time. And Story has pop in his bat and plays an important defensive position. Bring Back Davis!
