Finally! Official Hot Stove League Thread

[desbcoach]

Ms in on Japenese pitcher

[GL_Storm]

Getting in on Senga would be pretty interesting. I wonder if the idea is to improve 1-5 in the rotation or 1-4 and then move a young pitcher in a trade to get something else. Teams would pay a lot for one of those guys.

[desbcoach]

Getting in on Senga would be pretty interesting. I wonder if the idea is to improve 1-5 in the rotation or 1-4 and then move a young pitcher in a trade to get something else. Teams would pay a lot for one of those guys.

It certainly provide trade chips , whether you are moving Hancock, Miller or Dollard along with potentials of Marco or Flexen maybe even Ray if weren’t happy with him

[Big_Maple]

Ms in on Japenese pitcherC2A00C8B-1729-4E82-BCBB-989E8B50BE42.png

This excites me - I think one more solid arm in the rotation would be awesome, especially if we can jettison Marco and/or Flexen. But…..

a) what if we can’t jettison Marco and/or Flexen?
b) what if this is Yusei 2.0? When the M’s signed him they did their due diligence and said “He is an exciting young pitcher with the ability to impact the Mariners”…




https://www.mlb.com/news/yusei-kikuchi- ... c302277548

[bpj]

Ms in on Japenese pitcherC2A00C8B-1729-4E82-BCBB-989E8B50BE42.png

This excites me - I think one more solid arm in the rotation would be awesome, especially if we can jettison Marco and/or Flexen. But…..

a) what if we can’t jettison Marco and/or Flexen?
b) what if this is Yusei 2.0? When the M’s signed him they did their due diligence and said “He is an exciting young pitcher with the ability to impact the Mariners”…




https://www.mlb.com/news/yusei-kikuchi- ... c302277548

All good points.

I think a guy like Matthew Boyd is about as close as they'll get to the "starting" pitching market.

Stranger things have happened though. I'm fully on board the add-a-starter train. I think adding a guy like Rodon over Marco is probably an 8-10 win swing, despite only being "5 WAR difference".

Replacing (trading) Marco and Flexen ($14.5M total) then adding a guy like Rodon ($25M) would bring the highest return per dollar they could get at any position this offseason imo.

Marco was 10-15 in 32 starts on a team that went 90-72.
Rodon was 14-8 in 31 starts on a team that went 81-81.
Flexen was 7-9 in 22 starts.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx? ... 2022-12-31

[GL_Storm]

Getting in on Senga would be pretty interesting. I wonder if the idea is to improve 1-5 in the rotation or 1-4 and then move a young pitcher in a trade to get something else. Teams would pay a lot for one of those guys.

It certainly provide trade chips , whether you are moving Hancock, Miller or Dollard along with potentials of Marco or Flexen maybe even Ray if weren’t happy with him

I meant Gilbert or Kirby.

[Optimistic Ms Fan]

Why would we get rid of one of them at that point? Our rotation would be locked down for the next 4 years. Might as well trade from the farm and ditch Hancock and dollard etc for hitting. We have plenty of time to draft the next wave and might as well trade from a position of strength. Least I would....

[GL_Storm]

Why would we get rid of one of them at that point? Our rotation would be locked down for the next 4 years. Might as well trade from the farm and ditch Hancock and dollard etc for hitting. We have plenty of time to draft the next wave and might as well trade from a position of strength. Least I would....

The idea would be to get something of comparable value. I'm not saying this is what I think they should do, but if you are adding to your area of strength via free agency, maybe trading one of the cost-controlled young guys makes sense to bring in a really great position player.

[Optimistic Ms Fan]

I get what you are saying but I don’t see how it makes sense. I’d take Kirby or Gilbert over him as is and put the money to better use. If u are going to keep your pitching strength then I get it. I’d rather add him to what we already have and trade off Flexen and package him with Lewis for whatever else we can get

[GL_Storm]

I get what you are saying but I don’t see how it makes sense. I’d take Kirby or Gilbert over him as is and put the money to better use. If u are going to keep your pitching strength then I get it. I’d rather add him to what we already have and trade off Flexen and package him with Lewis for whatever else we can get

But maybe you can't put that money to use directly because your team is located in southeast Alaska and your ballpark has a reputation for being difficult to hit in. But you do have a reputation as a good team and location for Japanese players and your difficult-to-hit-in-ballpark actually works in your favor when recruiting pitchers. So you lean into that advantage and bring in another elite pitcher, and then trade for that other type of player that is more difficult for you to recruit.

Again, I'm not saying this is what they should do, but this is what I meant when I was wondering if they're thinking about pitchers 1-4 or pitchers 1-5. I would probably favor the 1-5 strategy myself because it plays to the homefield advantage.

1-4 strategy
1. Castillo
2. Robbie Ray
3. Gilbert or Kirby
4. Senga
5. Marco, Flexen, Dollard, Hancock, etc.

In this scenario, one of Gilbert or Kirby is dangled in trade talks. Marco and Flexen could also both be traded and the fifth starter slot goes to one of the prospects.

1-5 strategy
1. Castillo
2. Robbie Ray
3. Gilbert
4. Kirby
5. Senga

In this scenario, Marco and Flexen are both on the trading block and the prospects likely start the season in the minors but are available as injury replacements.