Originally Posted by
lollipopcurve
Or wherever.
No, I don't think teams put plans in place to trade particular players in a year. There are too many unknowns involved. Mainly, how will that player perform between now and then? What will the trade market offer? And, in this case, how will the prospect perform between now and then?
The plan re: Alonso and his major league deal needed only to establish a timetable by which he could reasonably be seen to get major league ready. As for what moves might be made to facilitate his staying in the majors, assuming he has shown the talent to deserve a spot, the team is going to keep its options open (trade Votto/trade Alonso/move Votto to LF). It's not going to decide way ahead of time which of these moves it will make.
That the scout, or whoever, would talk as if such a plan had been hatched is really somewhat weird, but probably par for the course on the periphery of the game's inner sanctum.