Just one more acquisition...

[allpurpose]

In his last 440 innings as a cub Strop had a sub 3.00 ERA, but sure, he sucks and nobody wanted him.

One pitch away from either the Cy Young award or a pitch away from being crowned the new 2019 David Hernandez? It may be a tad soon to jump to conclusions, but what the heck, nobody ever merely crawled to a conclusion.

[mth123]

In his last 440 innings as a cub Strop had a sub 3.00 ERA, but sure, he sucks and nobody wanted him.

He sucked last year and he's older now. IF he's so good, why was he so easy to sign? Maybe the other 29 teams that didn't think he was worth a 2 Million guarantee know something.

He might be good. I hope so. I wouldn't trust him in a close game at the beginning of the year. The Reds need somebody else they can trust.

[Todd Gack]

A lefty reliever at the trade deadline would cost peanuts for us. We can always upgrade that later.

[Kc61]

Reds will make a number of more moves. Some may be small, even waiver pickups. There’s the potential for a big one if the Lindor/Seager thing happens. Or a medium one if Holt can be signed.

Reds have much more position player talent than last year, but the team doesn’t fit together all that well. They will try to rectify this to whatever extent.

On the pitching side, Reds will probably add more lefty bullpen depth. Again could be a minor league or major league roster move. Agree that the bullpen part could wait until the deadline when contenders often seek pen help.

[RedTeamGo!]

He sucked last year and he's older now. IF he's so good, why was he so easy to sign? Maybe the other 29 teams that didn't think he was worth a 2 Million guarantee know something.

He might be good. I hope so. I wouldn't trust him in a close game at the beginning of the year. The Reds need somebody else they can trust.

Please link to a story in which it says 29 other teams were not interested in him. I’ll wait.

[NeilHamburger]

Does the one more have to be a reliever? As I would feel a lot more comfortable with Brock Holt as the backup SS/2nd/3rd over someone like Blandino.

[RedTeamGo!]

27 teams were not interested in signing Anthony Rendon. Clearly the dude sucks.

- - - Updated - - -

My last acquisition is Holt, agreed with Neil.

[Bourgeois Zee]

My last acquisition is Corey Seager or Francisco Lindor. (Senzel for Seager, straight up or Senzel, Aquino, and a lesser guy for Lindor.)

If not one of those, Chris Taylor. (Tyler Mahle, straight up)

If not Taylor, Franklin Barreto. (Jesse Winker for Barreto and RP JB Wendelken)

[mth123]

Please link to a story in which it says 29 other teams were not interested in him. I’ll wait.

Don't need a story. He signed for scrap heap money. If anyone was really interested, he'd have signed elsewhere or he would have cost more. The market speaks volumes. Its obvious there is a lot of demand for bullpen help, but not many buyers for Strop. Hence the low price point. It's like any other market. Seems obvious to me.

If you don't agree, fine. Put me on ignore.

[Bourgeois Zee]

Don't need s story. He signed for scrap heap money. If anyone was really interested, he'd have signed elsewhere or he would have cost more. The market speaks volumes. Its obvious there is a lot of demand for bullpen help, but not many buyers for Strop. Hence the low price point. It's like any other market. Seems obvious to me.

If you don't agree, fine. Put me on ignore.

We object to your reasoning because it doesn't make much sense.

There are a variety of issues why teams don't spend money on free agents, as you well know.

Some teams aren't interested because of the expense. Strop provides a certain amount of value even if he's very, very good. Finite budgets mean making tough decisions.

Some teams aren't interested because they aren't interested in competing, or they have young arms they want to see in those roles.

Still others have roster and option issues that make signing anyone an issue.

Others may feel fine with their guys as already constructed.

Finally, others may be interested in signing him and offer contracts, but he didn't want to sign with them.

[RedTeamGo!]

Don't need a story. He signed for scrap heap money. If anyone was really interested, he'd have signed elsewhere or he would have cost more. The market speaks volumes. Its obvious there is a lot of demand for bullpen help, but not many buyers for Strop. Hence the low price point. It's like any other market. Seems obvious to me.

If you don't agree, fine. Put me on ignore.

You could have just said “I don’t have a link because it’s an assumption.”

He signed an incentive laden 1 year deal with a club who has a very good shot at making the playoffs.

But, hey, I’ll help you out...

This article is from 2 weeks ago:

Free-agent righty Pedro Strop is mulling offers from multiple clubs, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (Twitter links). The longtime Cubs setup man has three offers in hand at the moment, Nicholson-Smith adds, citing the Marlins, Brewers, Cubs and Rangers as teams who’ve been showing interest of late.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/...s-rangers.html

But hey, who cares about facts?

[GAC]

So he went with the lowest bidder......

"And you want to be my latex salesman!" LOL

[RedTeamGo!]

So he went with the lowest bidder......

"And you want to be my latex salesman!" LOL

One of my favorite quotes of all time. I say this all the time at work.

[MoneyInTheBank]

We disagree on Strop, for sure. He had a poor season last year, but was outstanding until then. Small samples and injuries affect relief numbers a great deal, and he dealt with both. Late in the year, his fastball was back to normal, and so were most of his numbers.

I'd also argue that because Reed and Sims have great arms, great peripherals, and no options, they need to show their stuff. If you don't want them to face high-leverage spots until June, that's fine. But they need to be on the roster.

You can absolutely put Jones in the scrap heap pile, but the Reds have a ton of those. Typically, there are three or four of them (per team) who end up providing league average numbers and about 15 - 20 who put up All-Star level numbers.

I like the Strop signing although the fastball velocity worries me. It was up a tick at the end of the season but still down from 2018. Hopefully it was just injuries and not a sign of decline

[mth123]

You could have just said “I don’t have a link because it’s an assumption.”

He signed an incentive laden 1 year deal with a club who has a very good shot at making the playoffs.

But, hey, I’ll help you out...

This article is from 2 weeks ago:



https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/...s-rangers.html

But hey, who cares about facts?

So he chose to play for the Reds for such a low amount because other teams were high on him? Maybe he had a lot of offers for scrap heap money. Some may have been minor league deals. The fact remains that the market for a reliever that people are counting on fixing the pen is way more than the Reds signed him for. Teams get bargains all the time. I hope that is the case here. Still, if the word around baseball was that he was a strong option to fix their pen, he would have cost more than what the Reds paid. I think that collective knowledge should be listened to.

I hope you guys are right. I think the Reds have done enough this winter to legitimately contend. I'd hate to see that undermined because they went cheap on the bullpen. This team lost a ton of games in the late innings last year. Some of that was on the offense which they've addressed pretty well IMO. A lot was on the bullpen. I don't think Strop is viewed as a guy who really addresses that based on how the market reacted to his availability.

You are free to think what you want. But get all pissy with other posters will ya.