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2019 Pre-Winter Meetings
Pre-Winter Meeting News:
Transactions:
December 1st – The Cardinals offered a decent infield prospect for Justin Williams... we will get bombarded with offers like that, and since we could not find a deal for a disposable player, we ended of leaving the offer behind.
December 10th – Texas landed one of the more coveted young players in free agency today as 2B Jorge Castellanos(23, 1.5/3.5*) signed a minor league contract with a $1M MLB option and a release clause if he is not on the 40-man 30 days into the regular season.
In Other News:
December 3rd - 3B Nolan Arenado(28, 4.5*) will join our division as he signed a 6y/$156M deal with the Angels today. He is a 7x Gold Glover, 3x Silver Slugger and 4x All-Star.
December 6th – The World Series Champs retained one of their core players as 1B Paul Goldschmidt(32, 4.5*) signed a 5y/$100M contact with the . He is a 7x All-Star, 4x Gold Glover and 4x Silver Slugger.
December 10th – The one pitcher we had an eye on is gone... as RHSP Gerrit Cole(29, 3.5*) quickly signed a 6y/$160.2M contract with the LA Dodgers. That is most definitely out of our current budget range this year.
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Winter Meetings
It was a comfortable hotel room I was sitting in. Las Vegas Convention Center. Winter Meetings. Myself, assistant GM John Mozielak, scouting director Logan White, and peanuts from the mini bar that cost approximately $10 per peanut. The Winter Meetings will start tomorrow, and we will be looking to make value trades.
"I think we should move either Brandon Lowe, or Thairo Estrada to make room for Castellanos. Rays and Cards have interest, and they will offer us something tomorrow right away, I promise you," John told us bluntly. His instincts will come in handy here... I personally liked the idea of trading Lowe if he is worth something as he is a left-handed hitter, something we got more than enough of.
However, I wanted to dip into a different market, and it was time to shock my guys. "Logan, honest opinion. 155 games of development at the MLB level, who will be the better, more complete player in 2021. Castellanos, or Odor?" - "Castellanos, he gives us another base stealer, he is a right-handed hitter that fits better into our lineup and he is a dynamite defender that will help us out tremendously." - "Then, we will try to move Odor this Winter meeting." Silence. Shock. Agreement.
"Risky, but it is the best baseball and business move we can make here," Logan said... and John disagreed. "Give away a guy that hit .289 with 36 home runs and close to 100RBI's for an unproven kid? Nah, don't like it at all, why not wait?" - "Because Odor is only getting worse defensively. Honestly, he is a dark hole, and we don't have unlimited DH slots... AND we have Chris Seise in the minors who has been doing WORK in Winter Ball and could be ready soon" The discussion went on, but I had my mind made up. I want to trade Odor. Period. It would be interesting Winter Meetings.
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