First thing I did was trade Trout for... j/king
First thing I did was trade for a team captain. I chose Longoria because his age made his an easy target and I didn't have much to work with. I needed his captain skills long term more than his game skills. I set out to make a trade:
Traded 32-year-old third baseman Zack Cozart, 32-year-old third baseman Luis Valbuena, 18-year-old minor league center fielder Jordon Adell and $5,000,000 in cash to the San Francisco Giants, getting 32-year-old third baseman Evan Longoria in return.
Players where happy to see the new leadership in the clubhouse. This made me happy. Next I set out to get a top notch closer. This is a position I feel is critical to a playoff caliber team. I already knew I wanted Chapman and had an inkling he'd be easy to get. He's a handful but that's Longoria's job. Sure enough:
Traded 28-year-old minor league right fielder Jabari Blash to the New York Yankees, getting 30-year-old closer Aroldis Chapman in return.
Finally we had to have a passable catcher. I knew this one would hurt but I tested the water on a few catchers and got a hit on Tyler Flowers. They wanted Andrelson Simmons in return so I told them I would need to add Dansby Swanson to the package to replace Simmons. After a bit of haggling I got what I wanted:
Traded 28-year-old shortstop Andrelton Simmons, 20-year-old minor league second baseman Leonardo Rivas, 22-year-old minor league first baseman Matt Thaiss, 20-year-old minor league second baseman Jahmai Jones and 29-year-old minor league second baseman Jose Miguel Fernandez to the Atlanta Braves, getting 32-year-old catcher Tyler Flowers and 24-year-old shortstop Dansby Swanson in return.
My final lineup ended up looking like this:
I feel pretty good about it but before I get my new year started I figured I see what the hive mind had to say,