Your Offseason Plan in 3 Moves or Less

[kpresidente]

1. Cueto and Ludwick > TOR > Bautista and Rasmus
2. Hanigan > TBR > Beckham

Fills the holes convincingly (CF, RH power) and still leaves a strong enough rotation, IMO. I look at the pitchers I can see trading Cueto as well as any of them...

Cueto - Ace of the staff but also biggest return and some injury history
Latos - Good contract and dependable, can't see trading him at all.
Bailey - Everybody says he's an ace in the making. Comes with a pick at the end of next year
Leake - Middling, but his GB% fits GABP better than other places and showed real improvement in his peripherals.
Cingrani - Excellent so far. Questionable future but you can't trade him on the rookie contract
Chapman - If he dominates you'll regret moving him with years of control left.

[kpresidente]

Updating my last one:

1. Cueto, Ludwick, Hanigan > Bautista and Rasmus
2. Sign Stephen Drew > 3 yrs/$30M [$8/$10/$12]

- The Toronto deal breaks even salary wise in the 1st two years, which is why I have the money to sign Drew. I think I'm around $115M total.

That gives:

LINEUP
Drew, SS*
Phillips, 2B
Votto, 1B
Bautista, LF
Bruce, RF
Frazier, 3B
Rasmus, CF
Mesoraco, CA

- Nice, balanced (R/L) lineup all the way through. No easy outs.
* See Drew's splits batting leadoff.

BENCH
Schumaker, OF
Heisey, CF
Cozart, IF
Hannahan, 3B
Pena, CA

- Adding Cozart makes it a strong bench. Paul > Lousville

ROTATION
Bailey
Latos
Leake
Cingrani
Chapman

- Losing Cueto hurts but Bautisa/Rasmus > Choo/Paul defensively so the rest of the staff should get a boost.

BULLPEN (in order of innings)
Marshall
Simon
Hoover
LeCure
Broxton
Parra
Ondrusek

- Except for Parra/Ondrusek as LOOGY/ROOGY, forget the whole "roles" thing, just pitch whoever's rested and ready to go.

[Will M]

1. Three way deal with Rockies and Royals. Royals get Brandon Phillips and Daniel Corcino, Rockies get Aaron Crow, Tim Collins, Emilio Bonifacio and Chris Heisey. Reds get Dexter Fowler and Josh Rutledge.

2. Mike Leake to the Angels for Howie Kendrick

3. Ryan Hanigan to the Red Sox for Brandon Workman

Fowler CF
Kendrick 2B
Votto 1B
Bruce RF
Ludwick LF
Frazier 3B
Mesoraco C
Cozart SS

Pena C
Schumaker 2B/OF
Rutledge IF
Paul OF
Hannahan IF

Latos
Cueto
Bailey
Cingrani
Chapman

Hoover
Marshall
Broxton
Lecure
Parra
Simon
Ondrusek, Workman, et al

The Rockies:
1) want relievers
2) have shown interest in Hanigan
3) want to trade Fowler
4) used LeMahieu instead of Rutlegde down the stretch

The Royals:
1) have relievers they want to trade
2) have shown interest in Phillips

It seems like this situation is ideal for a 3 way deal. Getting Fowler & Rutledge for Phillips, Heisey +/- Hanigan would help the team a lot. The stumbling blocks would be if the Royals didn't want BP's salary and/or if the Rockies didn't want to give up Rutledge.

I'm not sure about trade #2. Couldn't the team use Rutledge at 2B & spot start Schumaker if Rutledge falls into his old ways (hacker) & needs a couple of days off.

[MoneyInTheBank]

GABP is a hitters park too. If I was The Padres, Dodgers or Giants I might worry about it more. But that's another thing. A large portion of his "outside of Coors" is played in SF, SD and LA, three places that are not hitter friendly. I don't think the switch to GABP from Coors will hurt him much at home and the mix of road parks should be much more favorable outside of the NL West.

Even if he suffers a bit from a move out of Coors, he should still be exponentially better than any of the in house options. I don't see Choo, Ellsbury or even Granderson signing with the Reds. One of the Dodgers (Kemp or Ethier) is probably too expensive. The alternatives are scrap heap guys like Gutierrez and Schumaker or staying with Heisey and Hamilton. I'll take Fowler all day, every day in comparison to those alternatives.

I'm not worried about it either, but I've been a bit gunshy to talk about Fowler after I was in favor of it over in the Sundeck last offseason and you would have thought I insulted the entire board's mothers

[OneManBand]

Sign Corey Hart to a one year deal w/ incentives: This move has a sub move involved as it would see Bruce move over to CF.

Chapman would move to rotation

Sign Omar Infante to a 3 year deal for 24 Million over that time. Would sign him to play 3rd base/ 2nd if a deal for Phillips were to actually happen. Frazier would be a backup Infielder/OFer

[Old school 1983]

I've thrown out a few already but it's getting slow so why not try to generate some discussion.

1. To Twins:
Choice of Cueto or Bailey
YRod
Choice of Travieso or Lively
Ryan Hanigan

To Reds:
Sano
Meyer
Rosario

The Twins get a top of rotation starter with a probable draft pick attached when they depart and two low to mid minors high pay off potential lottery tickets.

The Reds get salary relief, and three quality prospects at positions of need in the high minors.

2. To Royals:
Brandon Phillips

To Reds:
Yordano Ventura

Ventura is Major League ready and can bring the heat. If Chapman starts, close Ventura or vise versa.

3. Sign Carlos Beltran and Rafael Furcal

Solidifies the lineup with a top notch bat that won't require the commitment of a Choo. Adds a real SS backup with the ability to start in case of injury or low production.

I think this would cover the present with solid veterans who are under short term deals as well as brings big time prospect talent into the system that could replace the veterans when their contracts are up.

Lineup:

Hamilton CF
Votto 1B
Beltran LF
Bruce RF
Mesoraco C
Frazier 3B
Cozart 2B
Furcal SS

Rotation:
Latos
Bailey or Cueto
Cingrani
Leake
Chapman/Ventura

Bench:
Ludwick
Heisey
Shumaker
Hannahan
Pena

Pen:
Parra
Simon
Lecure
Hoover
Marshall
Broxton
Ventura/Chapman

But by the end of the year you could have Stephenson or Meyer or both rotation ready or maybe Sano or Rosario ready for the lineup. Winker and or Ervin may be close as well. In the mean time you'd have veteran depth in the bigs that wouldn't cost many years or commitment and block prospects.

[mth123]

Rosario just got busted for PEDs. Get Dozier instead

[Old school 1983]

Rosario just got busted for PEDs. Get Dozier instead

Wasn't aware, but I totally agree with you.