Quote:
|
1. Making Castillo the #2 catcher leaves you with two HUGE question marks at one of the most important positions on the field, not to mention most likely well below average production.
|
Fair enough, I probably wouldn't be comfortable with that combo. But there are a handful of mediocre backup catchers out there who we could sign for less than the salary we took on and we would not have had to trade anybody. I guess it comes down to what sort of offensive numbers you expect from Hernandez; you're basically paying for the outside shot that an aging, declining catcher recaptures his youth.
2. Freel and Co. were not going to be primary trade chips to focus anywhere else. There is no reason why you can't "focus elsewhere" beginning now.[/QUOTE]
Nearly every trade needs bit parts. I won't sweat the loss of any of those 3, but that doesn't make them completely valueless. I'd hate for the Reds to drop out of the bidding or a trade for a real impact player because of the money we took on here.
I guess the fact that I keep posting makes it sounds like I'm more "upset" than I am. This is more of a verbose shrug than anything else. I guess more than anything else, I'm just hoping that this the tip of the iceberg instead of another "hey look -- we brought in some proven vets who know how to win!" type of offseason.