Beantown Butchers gets : Mookie Betts $98
Marhsall Law gets : Andrew Vaughn, Emerson Hancock,
Jairo Pomares, 1st round pick
Herm Edwards famously said ” You play to win the game!”. Its refreshing to see Beantown Butchers take those words to heart as he makes his 2nd win now move, picking up a 2nd core piece. He has suddenly shored up his offensive lineup adding Chapman and Betts to a core of Lindor, Albies, and Jiminez. What does that core have in common? They all had a disappointing 2021. Albies not so much, but; the rest of them performed well below expectations for various reasons. Betts was nagged by a bad hip and put up a pedestrian slash line of .264/.367/.487. His September/October slash line of
.239/.336/.381 wasn’t helping. Did he come back too soon from injury or just come back rusty. He should be fine, just ask Cody Bellinger.
Marshall had to shed salary and had a glut of outfielders, so dealing Mookie makes sense as it sheds a lot of salary and restocks the cupboards. I’m guessing Andrew Vaughn was the main attraction here as he is the only proven asset coming back. He also was fairly disappointing in his first year in the show . And digging into the numbers shows some troubling splits. His 2nd half OPS was .613. He didn’t hit RHP at all. But kids 24 has a reputation as a masher and you kind of just have to trust the pedigree that he is going to hit, but i can see the reasons Beantown was willing to part with the former top pick. The other assets are personally ones i think are great trade pieces, Emerson Hancock is a nice looking prospect, but pitching prospects in general are such a gamble , cash em in when you can. Look at the previous top 2 darlings Nate Pearson and Mckenzie Gore to see how easy the shine can come off. Pomares is pretty meh…in my eyes. A fine 3rd piece.
To evaluate these money trades properly i think you also have to look at what that money gives you. Top auction spends from last year Corey Seager ($120),Syndergaard ($104) Ohtani($102), Sale ($86) and Goldschmidt($81). So you take on 98 bucks your basically giving up one of the top 5 players from the auction. This year maybe that’s Clayton Kershaw. Its usually going to be an aging veteran who got too expensive or an arm coming off injury etc. It can be a crapshoot, and no reason to think you spend the money wisely, but factor it in.
To wrap up I like this trade for both teams. Beantown gets better, Marshall gets salary relief that had to come from somewhere while picking up a cheap cost controlled MLB bat who could be just an adjustment or two away from reaching his ceiling and a nice prospect and pick.