Welcome to the third annual installment of the “If I Were Perry Minasian” series. In order to rosterbate responsibly, we will use the following guidelines.
- Payroll is to be $210 Million so you have $38.4 Million to spend.
- No trading Ohtani
- No contracts longer than three years
- Use either MLBTR’s estimated free agent salaries or their counterparts at Fangraphs
- You can clear roster space by non-tendering players
- Run all trades through the trade simulator at Baseball Trade Values dot com
I am not writing an article called what Perry Minasian actually did. I set out to do something about pitching, shortstop, and corner outfield. I am presuming that the Yankees cannot retain the services of Aaron Judge. Otherwise, they won’t feel any need to get outfield help like Ward.
My Trade
This trade gets the Angels a player in Jon Berti who can play most of the infield plus left field. He can also bat above the Mendoza line. It brings a competent but not great starting pitcher on board in Frankie Montas and a relief pitcher in Michael King who was real good until he was injured last year. He is projected to make $1.2 Million. We lose Taylor Ward and so there is still a hole in the outfield. The Marlins get a shortstop in Roderick Arias who is currently in the DSL and they get relief from Berti’s projected salary of $2.4 Million.
The Yankees took on Taylor Ward’s projected $2.9 Million salary while the Angels took on the projected $7.7 Million for Montas. The Angels added about $8.4 Million in obligations when you juggle these arbitration guys. $38.4 Million minus $8.4 Million equals $30 Million still burning a hole in my pocket.
Free Agents
Michael Conforto, Right Field 1 year at $15 Million. $15 Million left to spend.
Jose Abreu, First Base, 2 years at $40 Million. I am now $5 Million over my limit.
Non-tenders
I have to make up for my $5 Million overage by non-tendering Griffin Canning ($1.1 Million), Jaime Barria ($1.2 Million), and Jared Walsh ($2.7 Million).
Lineup
- Jose Abreu 1B .304/.378/.824 (He gets on base)
- Mike Trout CF .283/.369/.999
- Shohei Ohtani DH .273/.356/.875
- Michael Conforto RF .255/.356/.824
- Anthony Rendon 3B .229/.326/.706
- Jon Berti SS .240/.324/.662
- Luis Rengifo 2B .264/.294/.724
- Jo Adell LF .223/.263/.635
- Max Stassi .180/.267/.571
Rotation
- Shohei Ohtani
- Patrick Sandoval
- Reid Detmers
- Jose Suarez
- Frankie Montas
- Janson Junk
Bullpen
- Michael King
- Jimmy Herget
- Andrew Wantz
- Ryan Tepera
- Aaron Loup
- Jose Quijada
- Chase Silseth
- Chris Rodriguez
Bench
- Logan O’Hoppe C
- David Fletcher UT
- Mickey Moniak OF
- Matt Thaiss C/1B
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Thanks for the article. I know these things are hard. It was obviously done before the recent moves. Abreu would help — unsure what the price tag would be. Conforto at $15 million is pricey. You can keep Ward at a lot less.
I don’t know why everyone has fallen so hard off on Walsh. Yes, he struggled last year but he was clearly hurt. He can play OF as needed and you can platoon if you don’t like him against lefties.
I don’t want to see Adell in LF or Moniak. I don’t see Junk in the rotation. Montas is ok when healthy and assuming there isn’t another PED issue coming.
In general, you are being creative. I don’t like the bottom of the lineup save for Rengifo if he hits. But who knows. How good is King in the pen?
I don’t understand the Walsh hate either. He was good at the beginning of the season and was on pace for another 2+ WAR, 20+ HR season (1.0 fWAR, 13 HR through June 21). Then he tanked, had 4 good games after the all-star break, then tanked again until he was shut down.
That seems like a sure sign he was playing hurt since late June. According to the following study, 74% of players that have TOS surgery are able to return to play without a reduction in performance: Performance in major league baseball pitchers after surgical treatment of thoracic outlet syndrome – PubMed (nih.gov)
Thus, it seems like there is a good chance Walsh will be an average to above-average hitter again next year.
Totally agree on Ward & Walshie. With the trade for Gio, we now have a viable RHB backup plan if Walsh has any problems returning to form. With Thaiss being out of options this would also give us another back up at first (and catcher) if Perry doesn’t trade him.
If Walshie is back to 100% , he also becomes a viable option to back up in left field and right field if need be.
WTF?
You realize we still need a SS and more power in the lineup or should we rely on David Fletcher? Maybe at that rate the entire western hemisphere will reconnect to Western Africa first, or you are trying to ignore the pink polka dot Godzilla in the room?……GOOD GAWD UNBELIEVABLE!!!
100 percent on LF, I don’t see anyone on the this current roster as the starter.
Walsh is not going anywhere. He is cost controlled but is becoming pigeonholed into a guy who can only start versus right handed pitching. That’s unfortunate. One more year is my guess.
Thanks for the read. I’m going to throw some hopefully constructive criticism at the process. The non-tender deadline is well before the deadline to sign players, so I don’t think it works well to decide who to sign and then to retroactively make non-tenders to slide in under the budget. Deciding who to non-tender should be done before looking for free agents because a GM would never non-tender Canning, Barria and Walsh in anticipation that Conforto and Abreu are signable at those salaries.
Hooo! Abreu traded in for Walsh! Bold move! This is indeed a gambler’s roster, but they pretty much all will be at this point. The Berti pick up was a creative pick. If Soto goes to AAA/AA and does well having seen the elephant and Adell sucks we can move Berti to the OF along with Moniak and play Soto at SS…. as is the case with pretty much all of these attempts, if Rendon/Trout/Ohtani play well and Bert/Abreu don’t hit the wall this should be a fairly solid roster. Conforto the big power ball gamble. If he blows up to norms then we have a line up stacked enough to not worry to much about Stassi/Adell. You can see that because there’s actual talent and ability on the bench.
Perry: “It’s why they pay me the big big bucks.”
I know I wouldn’t pay him anything….
He should be given a push broom and told to sweep the parking lot….. 😡 😡
I find it personally hard not to include the moves that have occurred. But I truly appreciate the effort.
My only comment is that Canning, Barria and Walsh have trade value but I understand you had to non-tender them due to budgetary issues.
I am torn on that because Anderson I actually signed in my first go at this and trading for Urshela was a better idea than what I did to get a versatility guy.
As much as I am for creativity, I think, personally, I’d rather see ideas for the remaining 17 million.
Unfortunately the non-tendered ship sailed yesterday.
Walsh, Barria and Canning all have value, and I hate to see them going. They should at least be traded for minor league talent.
Thanks for taking the time to do this – nice job!
I do have to admit seeing Mr. Junk in the starting rotation has given me a visible twitch. 😝
Very true. The jump in ERA after Montas was greatly troubling. Out of Silseth, Junk, Davidson; Junk seemed least bad. Rodriguez was in that mix but we still don’t really know what he can do under the big lights.
Interesting moves, SS is a move I did not foresee as on my note pad have kept Soto there. I am Fletch fan and like Rengifo as Utl. as his arm at SS and 3B is better and Fletch is a marvel at fielding 2B. Your pen really looks good. The bench is a hope and prayer for all of us. I would miss Walsh though. Great Job.
Walsh was hard for me. TOS freaks me out, though.
I agree with Fletch staying at 2B… I flinch whenever I see people just pencil him in as our regular SS, as that plays him out of position. Honestly, though, I feel that I can accept Fletch as a Util role nowadays, which is something I never would have thought 3 years ago. His bat just isn’t solid enough… whereas I want to give Rengifo more of a chance to break out.
So I’m thinking give Soto a shot at SS, and let Rengifo at least have 2B half of the time, with adjustments as needed as streaks come and go.
Why not Rengifo, well, he can’t field.
Here. Why not actually know some stuff about what you’re saying…
Fletcher
Rengifo
Now, if you remove the desperate need to just be right, and act like you don’t know these players names, is the choice really all that clear?
Player #1 is clearly a better fielder, but he’s also had some ups and downs over the course of his career. He had one really good season. Player #2, on the other hand, has been a little under league average at many positions. He will never be mistaken for Ozzie Smith or Jose Oquendo, but neither will Player #1 actually, and he is far from a disaster at any of the infield spots. It’s also notable that his fielding stats improved as the season moved along last year and he may wind up league average.
Player #1 hit well for one season and has largely had numbers that we would call “bad” otherwise. Player #2 got his first dose of consistent at bats last year and produced slightly above average offense with some power. Both players are not slow and steal about the same number of bases.
Both players have value. In fact, with the same # of at bats and innings in the field, they would have generated pretty much the same WAR.
One difference is that Player #1 was injured. So he may see an uptick at the plate. At the same time, Player #2 showed a lot of improvement as time goes on and, if these positive changes remain in place he will eclipse player #1’s value because he can hit for at least some power.
It’s just not THAT obvious that Player #1 is THAT good a fielder, nor is it obvious which of these guys is a better player. The good news is they both have value and we have both.
Also, for what it’s worth, both these guys are as good or very slightly better than Eckstein at SS. Less sure glove but more range. But the team can survive with them at the position if need be.
But Player #1 has that G-R-I-T (!), is an overachiever that makes us all warm and fuzzy for the days of Eckstein, and of course is a “fan favorite” with a catchy nickname.
Player #2 is only here because of mean cheap impatient Arte.
Fletcher is a winning player with a skill many of the other Angels hitters don’t have. He makes consistent contact. He does many of the little things also.
Rengifo had a nice season last year. It gave evidence of potential and a possible ability to be a real MLB player and a nice addition to the team. The hope is Rengifo can be again what we was last year. Clearly he deserves the chance. We will see as to the results.
Having both players plus Soto and now Urshela rescues the need for any other SS. You can keep Squid as a late inning defender if you want.
Don’t forget that the Dodgers were willing to give us Andy Pages and Ross Stripling just to get their hands on Rengifo! And Arte recognizes even more than we do just how valuable Rengifo is, so he nixed that trade!
😉
“Winning player?”
Wow them are pretty harsh words there Gitch. The problem with your admonishment is defensive metrics are still somewhat subjective depending upon which stats you are using. For example Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) is a combination of different metrics which if you are interested are explained much better here: https://fieldingbible.com/
According to Fielding Bible’s DRS calculations over the last 2 years, no matter where Fletch plays no matter how bad his hips or hernia is , his defense is Elite . The only negative with Fletch is when he’s hurt and can’t play anywhere. Relative to Rengifo. So far no matter where Luis plays his defense has , at best been , meh. Not horrible, not bad but just meh. Here check it for your self:
https://fieldingbible.com/DRSLeaderboard
So it seems, according to this source, Grandpa knows exactly what hes talking about and you, my friend, Not so much.
I also looked at the fielding bible and bref (I usually do). You bring up what is basically my point. Throwing around a word like “Elite”, or a term like “no glove” are both over exaggerations. Fletcher is good, and had one really good year. Rengifo is meh, but is far from “no glove” to the point that it flabbergasts the mind to start him ahead of Fletcher, especially because Fletcher doesn’t really hit and is a lot closer to being Squid than Pedroia. Which is why I said they’re a wash, there actually is no obvious winner between the two as it stands now…. if you look their stats up. It’s not the no brainer Gramps was pushing, which is why I said to actually look at the stats.
What’s worse (or actually better) both COULD actually get better. Fletch could remember how to hit over .300, Rengifo could continue to get better with the glove and the bat… or one or the other or both will just get worse… sigh.