I mentioned this in another thread, but I don’t want to trade-off all of our high-end assets this offseason. Burnes would be it, because the timing is right that, imo, he can go and we can still contend this year, we just need to replace his innings with a veteran starter like Quintana.
We are a year behind Cleveland as far as young talent at the big-league level AND farm system depth. They contended with rookies and youngins all over the field, with strong veteran pitching. So can we.
Our only real weakness in our organization is a big-one — big-armed starting pitching prospects at the upper-levels of the farm. This can be solved with trades of Burnes this offseason and Lauer next offseason and a Woodruff extension or trade, next offseason.
I’m confident in the continued pipeline of amateur talent procurement systems this team has, so once the big-arm upper-level prospect deficit is fixed, this franchise should be set to contend for a decade plus.