Finally! Official Hot Stove League Thread

[ice99]

The Rays 40 man roster is full but they need to add some players before the rule 5 draft. It should be interesting. I can see one or two nontenders, and there will be trades.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/11/ ... maier.html

[bpj]

Dansby Swanson and Andrew Benintendi are the two red flag options (Like Trevor Story and Nick Castellanos were last year) that I hope Dipoto will avoid like the plague.

[ddraig]

So would we move JP to 2B because he has the bat of a 2B, or because he doesn't have the defense a SS should have. If he doesn't have the bat, or he plays bad D, then why in the hell do we keep him?

[D-train]

lol. Jim Bowden is a moron.

So we sign the best defensive SS in the game and move him to 2B to appease a guy who was one of the worst? On what planet would that ever make sense?

Again... Swanson's value is tied to the fact that he's one of the premier SS's in the game defensively. He's going to get a contract based on that metric and the M's are not paying that premium just to move him to 2B.

And this guy used to be a GM. Unreal.

In all fairness, he said at the beginning of his article that some of his predictions would be more serious than others. I think he is poking fun at the fact that Dipoto is so adamant at keeping Crawford at SS. I will agree though, I'm not an overly huge fan. But I thought this tidbit at least belonged here.

Ha. Great point. Would be hilarious if he was! Yes, absolutely. Any predictions or rumors belong here.

[D-train]

So would we move JP to 2B because he has the bat of a 2B, or because he doesn't have the defense a SS should have. If he doesn't have the bat, or he plays bad D, then why in the hell do we keep him?

The suicide rate of his homer groupies would sky rocket resulting in bad PR....

[D-train]

Dansby Swanson and Andrew Benintendi are the two red flag options (Like Trevor Story and Nick Castellanos were last year) that I hope Dipoto will avoid like the plague.

He is now hyped up on OBP so I'm guessing AB is a target...

[Big_Maple]

Not that this has any teeth whatsoever, but here is what MLBTR predicts the M's will do. I offer it for your edification, and because things are glacially slow lately.

Sign SS Xander Bogaerts
Sign 1B/DH Jose Abeau
Resign RF Haniger
Sign OF/DH JD Martinez
Sign RP Andrew Chafin
Sign 2B Jean Segura

Obviously that's a LOT of signing, and Jerry hates signing FAs. Also, no one expects the M's to sign all of these dudes - they were just mentioned by at least one of the four guys who predicted the landing spots the 6 free agents listed.

As I say, nothing really new here except I haven't seen Segura mentioned by anyone here as returning to the M's, and we haven't talked a lot about relievers either.

[ice99]

The Rays 40 man roster is full but they need to add some players before the rule 5 draft. It should be interesting. I can see one or two nontenders, and there will be trades.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/11/ ... maier.html

Maybe the M's can trade a couple of their low level prospects for an upper level prospect that needs protection, from the Rays or any other team that is facing a roster crunch for the Rule 5 draft.

[D-train]

The Rays 40 man roster is full but they need to add some players before the rule 5 draft. It should be interesting. I can see one or two nontenders, and there will be trades.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/11/ ... maier.html

Maybe the M's can trade a couple of their low level prospects for an upper level prospect that needs protection, from the Rays or any other team that is facing a roster crunch for the Rule 5 draft.

Yeah another example of dealing from surplus to balance out an area of scarcity. Usually its position players for pitchers or vice versa but that is a good idea too.

[Pharmabro]

That's possible too. Who u got in mind?

I would like Nimmo but won't be surprised if is one of the other 3

Jim Bowden predicts we will get Dansby Swanson and move him to 2B.

Bowden sucks and Dansby has the same career OPS+ as JP. Not interested at all.