Your Offseason Plan in 3 Moves or Less

[RollyInRaleigh]

Agree. Great post, Cooper!

[Kc61]

Upton, Ziegler and a medium prospect for Corcino, Stubbs, Cozart, and Leake.

Crisp and Sean Doolittle for Heisey, Arredondo, Lotzkar, another decent prospect if needed.

Righty hitting SS who can spell Gregorius is third important pickup.



Crisp, Phillips, Votto, Upton, Bruce, Frazier, Hanigan/Mes, Gregorius.
Bench: Mes, HRod, righty shortstop, XPaul, backup righty CF with plate discipline.
Rotation: Cueto, Bailey, Latos, Chapman, Arroyo.
Bullpen: Hoover, Marshall, Doolittle, Ziegler, Lecure, Simon, and either Masset or Ondrusek.


Doolittle and Ziegler beef up the pen. I'd let Hoover close to begin, but with Marshall, Ziegler, and Doolittle also late inning guys.

Crisp is a stopgap for Hamilton.

Letting Ludwick go and trading Stubbs saves some money. Arroyo will be off the books following year, will help offset Upton salary.

Crisp is a short term fix.

Yes, I'm trading both Stubbs and Heisey and seeking a new righty backup CF. Somebody with some contact skills.

[REDREAD]

1. Empty the farm system to acquire Choo from Indians. Extend him.
Failing that, acquire another solid LF or 3b.

2. Sign CF Shane Victorino to a perferably 1 year deal to play CF. (maybe 7 million/year)Go two years if necessary.
Hope for a bounceback.. surely, he won't be worse than Stubbs. I like the upside.Nice stopgap until Billy H is ready.

3. Sign FA LH Reliever Sean Burnett (Nats) for 2-4 million
Gives us a second lefty in the pen, and gives flexiblity to put Chapman in the rotation.

[Vottomatic]

1. Trade Bailey to KC for Wil Myers to play LF and bat cleanup. (I've come around on this one). Chapman to rotation.
2. Bolster the bullpen and closer through free agency or trade.
3. Sign Youkilis to play 3B. Relegate Frazier for pinch hit duty and backup because you know they'll be injuries.

CF B. Hamilton
2B Phillips
1B Votto
LF Myers
RF Bruce
3B Youkilis
SS Cozart
C Hanigan

[_Sir_Charles_]

1. Trade for and extend Shin Soo Choo. Stubbs, one of Corcino/Cingrani, and some lesser prospects. I'm certainly open to ideas concerning what would be required to trade for him. But no to any of the 5 current starters. Also no to Hamilton, Stephenson & Gregorius. Everybody else is fair game in the minors IMO.

2. Chapman to rotation. This will necessitate the following changes as well. Marshall becomes full-time closer. Leake heads to Louisville to maintain a regular schedule as a starter. All the other relievers move up a spot and if we need to backfill, do so from the Louisville bullpen not from their starting rotation. When Aroldis reaches his innings limit, replace him with Leake.

3. Leave Hamilton in AAA until we're sure he's ready. Do NOT rush him. Phillips can cover the leadoff slot. CF is manned by Heisey/Stubbs if they're both still here. If not, an extended audition for Heisey might be worth a look. While I like Stubbs as a person, I think we've all seen that he simply has too many flaws to be successful. I'd LOVE to be proven wrong about that though.


Hanigan/Mesoraco C
Votto 1B
Phillips 2B
Cozart SS (Didi makes the club as a UT)
Frazier 3B
Bruce RF
Heisey CF (if Stubbs is still here...defensive substitution for late innings)
Choo LF

Cuteo
Latos
Bailey
Arroyo
Chapman/Leake

Marshall
Massett
Arredondo
Hoover
LeCure
Ondrusek
Simon

Some of the minor leaguers could certainly fill in some holes (CF, Bullpen, Bench as needed). I'd rather not see us as players AT ALL in the free agent market.

[RadfordVA]

1. Leake, Cozart, Lotzkar, LaMarre to the D'Backs for Justin Upton
2. Koji Uehara, 1 yr/$4MM to be the "closer" so that Chapman can start
3. Make Dusty Baker write "I will not put guys with a sub .300 OBP at the top of my lineup" 10,000 times on the chalkboard (or add Nyjer Morgan as a platoon partner for Stubbs, assuming they deem he's not too insane)

Was going back to look at what kind of talk there was about Koji last offseason as I did not remember much. All of MLB seemed to miss on this guy too. His underlying numbers were not that out of line with his previous career numbers which were terrific. Really surprising he did not get more attention last winter.

[757690]

Was going back to look at what kind of talk there was about Koji last offseason as I did not remember much. All of MLB seemed to miss on this guy too. His underlying numbers were not that out of line with his previous career numbers which were terrific. Really surprising he did not get more attention last winter.

IIRC, RMR has been ahead of the curve, or at least us knuckleheads here in Redszone, most off seasons. Early on after the 2011 season, he argued the Reds should go after Latos, when no one even considered him as a trade target. And before that, I believe he was high on Kuroda before he was an established MLB starter.

I think we need to send his ideas to Walt

[*BaseClogger*]

I'll take a shot at this (sorry, I need four moves):

1) Trade Brandon Phillips to the Kansas City Royals for Wade Davis and Kelvim Herrera.

2) Trade Homer Bailey to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Adam Eaton, Cliff Pennington, and a B prospect.

3) Re-sign Shin-Soo Choo to a back-loaded 6 year/$100M contract. Re-sign Bronson Arroyo to that rumored team friendly 2 year/$24M contract.

4) Trade (outfield?) prospects to the Seattle Mariners for Dustin Ackley.

The overall offense and defense is improved.

The outfield is now a three-way platoon of Choo, Eaton, and Ludwick. This allows Billy Hamilton to return to AAA until one of Ludwick/Heisey/Paul proves ineffective or he explodes onto the scene.

The bench has been improved since one of the outfield bats will be available, in addition to Pennington as an upgrade to Izturis.

Chapman begins the season in the rotation, with Cingrani in the bullpen, available if needed. Davis can act as a swing starter until Stephenson is ready in July. Davis was very good a reliever in 2012 and hopefully can return to that form in the Cincy pen. Herrera has bene very impressive in his young career, and their addition to Broxton/Marshall/Hoover/Cingrani/LeCure/Simon would make for formidable depth.

If you figure the combination of Phillips/Bailey would cost $20M in 2014, and the guys coming back in trades cost ya $9M, that's enough savings to afford the Choo increase...

[kpresidente]

Bailey, Phillips, Ludwick > LAA > Trumbo, Kendrick, Taylor Lindsey (AA)

-Not really a huge fan of Trumbo but he's available, gives us a RH bat in the middle of the lineup and doesn't cost much and my thought is he could hit 40 HR in GABP in a good year. Phillips for Kendrick is basically straight up. I like Phillips a little better but Kendrick is a little cheaper. Taylor Lindsey could platoon with Frazier in 2015 and possibly replace Kendrick when his deal is up. We get our RH bat and get out of Phillips and Ludwick contracts. Angels get their pitcher, better defense and Trumbo to Ludwick is only a small downgrade. This deal saves us $18M this year and $30M over the next several years.

Sign Choo

-6 years/$100M. Because of my earlier deal you can probably front-load the contract some, saving money to extend Cueto or Latos in later years.

Sign Eric Chavez

-1 yr/$3M. Same contract he had this year. He'll platoon with Frazier.

Hannahan > ATL > Janish

-Janish can't hit a beach ball but he's got a good glove and cheap. I like Billy Hamilton in a semi-supersub kind of role where I can pinch-run him once a game (puts him on base as much as if he started), but his infield D would be suspect so thus Janish.


LINEUP
Choo, CF
Kendrick, 2B
Votto, 1B
Trumbo, LF
Bruce, RF
Mesoraco, C
Frazier/Chavez, 3B
Cozart, SS

BENCH
Hamilton, IF/OF
Janish, IF
Paul, OF
Hanigan, C

STARTERS
Cueto
Latos
Bailey
Cingrani
Chapman

PEN
Broxton
Marshall
Simon
Hoover
Lecure
Ondrusek
Parra

[*BaseClogger*]

Bailey, Phillips, Ludwick > LAA > Trumbo, Kendrick, Taylor Lindsey (AA)

-Not really a huge fan of Trumbo but he's available, gives us a RH bat in the middle of the lineup and doesn't cost much and my thought is he could hit 40 HR in GABP in a good year. Phillips for Kendrick is basically straight up. I like Phillips a little better but Kendrick is a little cheaper. Taylor Lindsey could platoon with Frazier in 2015 and possibly replace Kendrick when his deal is up. We get our RH bat and get out of Phillips and Ludwick contracts. Angels get their pitcher, better defense and Trumbo to Ludwick is only a small downgrade. This deal saves us $18M this year and $30M over the next several years.

Sign Choo

-6 years/$100M. Because of my earlier deal you can probably front-load the contract some, saving money to extend Cueto or Latos in later years.

Sign Eric Chavez

-1 yr/$3M. Same contract he had this year. He'll platoon with Frazier.

Hannahan > ATL > Janish

-Janish can't hit a beach ball but he's got a good glove and cheap. I like Billy Hamilton in a semi-supersub kind of role where I can pinch-run him once a game (puts him on base as much as if he started), but his infield D would be suspect so thus Janish.


LINEUP
Choo, CF
Kendrick, 2B
Votto, 1B
Trumbo, LF
Bruce, RF
Mesoraco, C
Frazier/Chavez, 3B
Cozart, SS

BENCH
Hamilton, IF/OF
Janish, IF
Paul, OF
Hanigan, C

STARTERS
Cueto
Latos
Bailey
Cingrani
Chapman

PEN
Broxton
Marshall
Simon
Hoover
Lecure
Ondrusek
Parra

I like your's better than mine but think my trades are a little more realistic. I would also be uncomfortable with the lack of SP depth with this squad. Good effort though...

[PepperJack]

Bailey, Phillips, Ludwick > LAA > Trumbo, Kendrick, Taylor Lindsey (AA)

-Not really a huge fan of Trumbo but he's available, gives us a RH bat in the middle of the lineup and doesn't cost much and my thought is he could hit 40 HR in GABP in a good year. Phillips for Kendrick is basically straight up. I like Phillips a little better but Kendrick is a little cheaper. Taylor Lindsey could platoon with Frazier in 2015 and possibly replace Kendrick when his deal is up. We get our RH bat and get out of Phillips and Ludwick contracts. Angels get their pitcher, better defense and Trumbo to Ludwick is only a small downgrade. This deal saves us $18M this year and $30M over the next several years.

Sign Choo

-6 years/$100M. Because of my earlier deal you can probably front-load the contract some, saving money to extend Cueto or Latos in later years.

Sign Eric Chavez

-1 yr/$3M. Same contract he had this year. He'll platoon with Frazier.

Hannahan > ATL > Janish

-Janish can't hit a beach ball but he's got a good glove and cheap. I like Billy Hamilton in a semi-supersub kind of role where I can pinch-run him once a game (puts him on base as much as if he started), but his infield D would be suspect so thus Janish.


LINEUP
Choo, CF
Kendrick, 2B
Votto, 1B
Trumbo, LF
Bruce, RF
Mesoraco, C
Frazier/Chavez, 3B
Cozart, SS

BENCH
Hamilton, IF/OF
Janish, IF
Paul, OF
Hanigan, C

STARTERS
Cueto
Latos
Bailey
Cingrani
Chapman

PEN
Broxton
Marshall
Simon
Hoover
Lecure
Ondrusek
Parra

I think this will be hard for Homer to pull off. Unless we have mastered cloning, and no one told me.

[WrongVerb]

Part 1:
Phillips, Bailey and Guillon(or another lottery ticket) to LAA for Trumbo, Kendrick and Kole Calhoun (1.017 OPS in AAA)

Part 2:
Sign Choo 4+1/$72M+$5M

Part 3:
Make Chapman a starter

Other around the edge moves would be strengthening the bench and further development of Hamilton, Stephenson, Ervin and Winker.

[*BaseClogger*]

Part 1:
Phillips, Bailey and Guillon(or another lottery ticket) to LAA for Trumbo, Kendrick and Kole Calhoun (1.017 OPS in AAA)

Part 2:
Sign Choo 4+1/$72M+$5M

Part 3:
Make Chapman a starter

Other around the edge moves would be strengthening the bench and further development of Hamilton, Stephenson, Ervin and Winker.

That would really hurt the team's defense...

[Kc61]

I think this is a relatively easy exercise if you can begin with "Sign Choo." If that happens, then Walt will have a more readily achievable job.

If only it were that simple. I'm afraid that the Reds won't be able to sign Choo. Then this exercise becomes much more difficult.

I can't guess moves yet, no rumors available, but I can envision something like this:

1. Add a couple of relatively inexpensive free agents, Pierzinsky and DeJesus. Pierzynski teams with Mes. DeJesus teams with Hamilton.

2. Consider a trade for Sandoval. Not sure who Giants would want, but maybe Ludwick or Frazier along with a Heisey or Hanigan gets it done. Maybe a prospect too.

3. Try to sign Bailey, if he won't, package him and a couple of other players (Ludwick, Hanigan, a prospect, whatever) for a LF, Kemp or Ethier or Bautista perhaps. Others would be in the deal.

4. In these trades try to get a couple of relievers so Chapman can move to the rotation.

5. Add a depth pitcher for the rotation. Bruce Chen? Somebody cheaper than Arroyo who can camp out in the bullpen while awaiting the returns on Chapman as starter.

6. Salary flexibility provided by loss of Choo, Arroyo, maybe Bailey, Ludwick in these deals.

[malcontent]

5. Add a depth pitcher for the rotation. Bruce Chen? Somebody cheaper than Arroyo who can camp out in the bullpen while awaiting the returns on Chapman as starter.

Capuano?