Reds claim Jose Lopez; DFA Finnegan

[Strikes Out Looking]

I still think we'll end up with Cueto next year as the Giants dump salary.

[Tom Servo]

Cutting ties with Finnegan seems like a very good way to start a new season fresh. Solid juju move.

Adding Lopez is sweet too.

Yeah I think there’s something to be said for setting new expectations, because if you put aside the prior history and look solely at performance Finnegan was an obvious cut candidate. Like, at least BobSteve could still get outs in Triple A when he was there, something Finnegan couldn’t say.

[JaxRed]

I still think we'll end up with Cueto next year as the Giants dump salary.

I can't imagine that Reds would be interested. He has 22 million due in each of 2020, and 2021, and 5 million buy out for 2022, and he's 33 now, will be 34 on opening day. Giants would have to eat about 75% of that before I'd even consider it.

[terminator]

When weighing the results of that trade, don't forget that Cueto was very poor the rest of the regular season for KC (although he did well in the ALDS and WS I think).

[Wonderful Monds]

You get good MLB player back for someone like that or don't trade and eat the losses. These minor league prospects rarely work out.

Nobody trades major league players for 2-3 month rentals.

Hell they barely trade halfway decent prospects for them anymore.

[Kc61]

The KC package, including Finnegan, was good. But Reds should have traded Cueto in the 2014 off-season after his 243 inning, Cy Young runner up, 20-win, healthy, magnificent season.

Cueto was retained deep into 2015, perhaps because of the All Star Game in Cincy, He had some elbow concerns that season which couldn’t have helped his trade value. The package received from KC was good, but Cueto should have brought a great return.

Reds knew Cueto was leaving, he was an impending FA, they were heading toward a rebuild. Finnegan was a good young pitcher but - many thought ultimately a reliever, and eventually injuries hurt him.

[Sea Ray]

Honestly, who cares at this point if it was or wasn’t? They got really good assets at the time and they didn’t pan out.

Welcome to pro baseball.

C'mon now...At the time of a trade like this we're told "you can't judge the trade now. Wait a few yrs and then we'll see."

Now we've waited a few years and we're told "Who cares? Welcome to pro baseball."

At some point we ought to be allowed to judge a trade.

[Kinsm]

Reds rebuild failed because of Stephenson and Finnegan, three years ago the Reds anticipated them making up 40% of the 2019 Reds rotation.

[Sea Ray]

So what should have done with Cueto?

The trade winded up crapping out, but it was still the correct course of action.

The correct course of action is to get better players. The correct course of action was to trade Aroldis Chapman but the idea was to trade him for Gleyber Torres and not Rookie Davis

[Sea Ray]

David Price:


Boyd is a 4th starter at best, Norris is a walking injury bug, and Labourt is out of their organization.

I can't say that trade was a ringing success either.

The Tigers gave us an All Star 3B for Alfredo Simon. Why are you suggesting we look to them as how to run a franchise?

[Tom Servo]

The correct course of action is to get better players. The correct course of action was to trade Aroldis Chapman but the idea was to trade him for Gleyber Torres and not Rookie Davis

That's perfectly fine criticism, but the post at hand suggested the mistake was in trading Cueto at all. That's supposed to be a better plan than getting back a top 100 prospect like Finnegan and a guy who became a top 100 prospect like Reed?

Unlike the Chapman trade where the talent in return was substandard, I actually don't think the problem in the Cueto trade was the talent itself but rather the development of the talent.

[Kc61]

That's perfectly fine criticism, but the post at hand suggested the mistake was in trading Cueto at all. That's supposed to be a better plan than getting back a top 100 prospect like Finnegan and a guy who became a top 100 prospect like Reed?

Unlike the Chapman trade where the talent in return was substandard, I actually don't think the problem in the Cueto trade was the talent itself but rather the development of the talent.

From the outset, many thought Finnegan was a reliever. He was a very good prospect, but I wouldn’t call him elite. The Reds should have obtained elite for Cueto, they waited too long and for no good reason IMO.

[Tom Servo]

they waited too long and for no good reason IMO.

Agreed, that's the plain and simple fact for nearly every deal during that 2015-2016 selloff period.

[corkedbat]

What happened to Finnegan (other than the injury and a prolonged bout of pout)?

[NeilHamburger]

What happened to Finnegan (other than the injury and a prolonged bout of pout)?

Always had control problems. And if you're walking guys like crazy it probably means you're also wild inside the strike zone. The only way you can succeed like this is if you have unbelievable stuff.