Marshall Law needed a 1Bman and has a bunch of prospect bullets collecting dust, so he fired one off to add someone that will actually score points. Voit’s been a great hitter for the Yankees and he’s cheap to keep at $9, but there are some concerns. The Yankees traded for Edwin Encarnacion (who is a pending free agent) and then left Voit off their ALCS roster, though that may have been injury related. They also always seem to be in the rumor mill for 1Bman help. I have some slight concerns about playing time. If Voit’s a part time player, he’s still valuable given his skills and price, but that value comes down a bit.
Nolan Jones is a prospect I really like but there are concerns with him too. Can he hit for power? Can he show more aggressiveness and cut down on the strikeouts? Who knows? Personally, I’d rather have him than Voit, but I generally just think it’s fairly easy to find suitable 1Bman production and happen to like this one prospect. In a league where Austin Riley, a semi-comparable 3Bman prospect to Jones, was inexplicably traded for Mookie Betts, at least this Jones-for-Voit swap seems somewhat in line with the prospect’s value. If it were a similar but different prospect than Jones here, I might just prefer the Voit side.
In closing, congrats to Marshall Law for pushing a chip and making a concerted effort to compete in 2020. Also congrats to Hustle Loyalty Respect on improving probably the strongest farm in DG without having to tank multiple seasons to do it. Loaded, more than loaded………………………. If you’re looking to trade for prospects HLR is the place to go. Beware HLR is a hustler and values his prospects and in a few years his team is going to be killing it. Hustle is going to win many championships if you believe in building from the bottom up. Truly inspiring stuff here.
WYH sends: LF/RF David Dahl ($3; cost controlled), LF Christin Stewart (minors), CF Estevan Florial (minors), 2019 2nd Round Pick, 2020 1st Round Pick TL sends: LF/CF/RF Adam Eaton ($26), two 2019 3rd Round Picks, 2020 2nd Round Pick
Andrew’s thoughts: I think at first glance this might look like a big overpay for Haddy, just because prospect value seems to have skyrocketed so much here. But upon closer inspection, I don’t think it is.
First of all, Haddy easily gets the best player in this deal, though he comes with a lot of risk. Adam Eaton has only logged 178 plate appearances since coming to DC via Chicago before the 2017 season, seemingly suffering one injury after another. They’ve been fairly serious injuries too, not just bumps and bruises. But in the three seasons from 2014-16, he was sturdy and steady, posting wOBAs over .340 each year. In his limited action in DC, he’s running a .374 wOBA and 134 WRC+. That is very, very good. He’s also only 29-years-old, can play all three outfield spots, and will start at $28 to keep, which for his production is more than reasonable. Sure, he’s risky. But he’s a proven producer and even with the injuries, I’m not convinced he’s more risky than the meh prospects Haddy got rid of here.
Of the guys going back to Trumpa Loompas, I actually think I like Christin Stewart the best. He’s murdering minor league pitching this year and I’ve read some Khris Davis comps on him. He walks a bunch, has crazy power, and this year has cut back considerably on his strikeouts. I’m not sure he should be the best guy you get for a player of Eaton’s caliber, but I like him.
The other two players are a mixed bag. David Dahl is way more injury prone than Eaton and despite a .367 wOBA over 237 plate appearances in 2016, he hasn’t really done anything at the major league level in more than a season. He doesn’t walk, strikes out a bunch, and the Rockies seem really bad at integrating prospects into their team. I get that any halfway decent hitter at Coors is enticing, but I’m just not a big Dahl fan. Wasn’t he at one point part of Haddy’s return for Mookie Betts though? His star has really faded.
I guess Esteval Florial is the biggest name prospect, and the guy who appears highest on lists, but I’m not that into him either. I guess FanGraphs did slap a 60 on his raw power, but he’s hurt now and has yet to play past A+, so he’s a ways off from contributing, and I don’t recall reading any gushing reports about him. For sure, his minor league numbers are good. I don’t know. I won’t pretend to know a ton about him. Suffice to say, I’m not drooling over this guy as a fantasy prospect right now.
Maybe I’m just blinded by my overall love of Adam Eaton here, but I like this for Haddy overall. He absolutely had to improve his offense and did it for wildcards. Yes, the guy he got back is risky, but his age, salary, and eligibility make it feel worth it. The only real problem I see is that he sort of fired all his bullets in this one deal, unless he wants to flip Austin Riley. I don’t know what he’d fetch. Probably a good piece in this league, actually. I guess we’ll see. For now, given where Haddy’s team is in the standings, I’d be pretty happy getting Eaton, and then just hold my breath that he doesn’t break again.
Hustle’s toxic $0.02:
Bailey wrote a lot of words, I’ll write a lot less. I agree with most of his point.
I like this trade for both teams. T.L. got some intriguing prospects with upside who have a chance to become regulars for him at a low cost while upgrading a few draft picks. On the flip side, he has a lot of salary to work with next year, so a healthy Adam Eaton wasn’t likely burning a hole in his pocket.
This trade simply comes down to whether Eaton can stay healthy and perform like a healthy Eaton has performed. If Eaton can be that guy, Haddy’s team add a very solid offensive bat and one that is keepable for a few years. If he can’t stay healthy, Haddy lost some wildcard prospects. If one of the three work out as being a good contributor for multiple years, then T.L. probably makes out great, because even if Eaton is a monster R.O.S., T.L. is out of the playoff hunt most likely anyway. That’s really the scenario they are both betting on. If T.L. somehow manages 2 long term assets here, well then, that could make the Trumpa Loomps great again….finally.
I also agree with Bailey’s assessment on the spects. I like Stewart the most, and he’s potentially a guy much better suited for our point scoring than a 5×5 league, so perhaps he’s been underrated on some fantasy lists and his lack of defensive prowess probably made him underrated on other prospect lists. Florial is injured right now and struggled a bit this year, but is only 20 and seems like he’s due to pick up value at some point. Dahl hasn’t been good since 2016, but an every day regular in Coors is always intriguing.
Bottom line, this is a good gamble for both sides.
Andrew’s thoughts: All else being equal, I’d probably take Abreu over Carlos Santana. It’s not a slam dunk though. And things aren’t equal.
Santana is $35 (!!) cheaper than Abreu, outscored him by 106.9 points last year, and is projected by Steamer and ZiPS to finish with a higher wOBA in 2017. (I know it’s easy to poo-poo projections systems because “OMG they aren’t 100% right all of the time and sometimes they get a player really, really wrong,” but data is data and data is valuable, so…) Even if Abreu’s better, he has to be pretty significantly better to justify the extra $35 in cost. To date, Abreu has a career wOBA just .018 higher than Santana.
I’d much rather have Santana than Abreu straight up at their respective prices.
Plus, HLR added a cheap innings eater in Ervin Santana. He’s not awesome, but he was above average last year and definitely has standalone value. And because the cap savings between Abreu and Santana is so big, he’s basically just a free player for HLR. Even with Santana, HLR’s netting $26 against the cap with this deal, which means buying himself the option of keeping a guy like Garrett Richards.
The other two pieces, the pick and Riley, are whatever. Riley’s interesting and Haddy’s a Braves fan, so I get it. The pick is forever away. They don’t matter much in the grand scheme of this trade.
Jordan’s thoughts: I’m really going to disagree with Andrew on the main point. I’d rather have Jose Abreu, even with the higher price tag. While his points still ring true and make a certain amount of sense, I think Abreu’s ceiling is significantly higher still, and that’s worth paying for.
However, I do think Ervin Santana on top of the price tag difference, makes the trade a little sour to me. I really enjoy watching Jose Abreu, I like the potential, but its hard for me to part with a useful starting pitcher as well. I like the trade for Haddy, but the price was high.
I feel like Haddy bailed out Iosim here, and paid to do so. Come August though, it is not hard to imagine seeing Haddy as a clear winner here.