The problem is we're waiting and seeing how the young kids develop instead of believing in them. Yes, the lawrie's and Snider's are out there and one of these young kids could turn out to be a letdown. Sometimes players eventually become great but it takes a couple years, but lots of guys who are truly great are great from the get go. You look at Soto, Acuna, Lindor, Betts, Trout. They were all studs very quickly. Vlad, Bo, and Cavan could develop very quickly. Gurriel and Hernandez have already had more time. If we come to season's end and we're top 5 in runs scored and bottom 5 in runs allowed in the AL it's going to be bitterly disappointing because we could have addressed the pitching.
We should be focused on competing in 2021 at the latest and could have given ourselves a shot this year. I've heard it's going to be 2 more years and even probably 4 more years on this board. Are there really people out there willing to wait 4 more years to grow some balls and make some real moves to compete?
We could have traded for Kluber. The salary commitments would have only been 2 years. You sign Ryu and that's 34 to 37 added to payroll. You sign Edwin to a 1 and 10, Betances to a 1 and 10. You could have probably got wood for 1 and 8. Shun would have been 4. That would have brought payroll in the 120 range. You would have had a shot at competing for a wild card. Your only long term commitment would have been Ryu.
Instead we added Anderson and Roark and have a payroll sitting in the 80 mil range. We're going to win 75 games assuming the young guys actually develop.
If we had spent the money and been aggressive and we got hit with injuries or the young guys didn't take a leap forward we could still be a 75 win team and you spent 40 mil more. That's the kind of thing that gets you fired. You have to have balls to make moves and go for it. The upside is a team that can contend for a playoff spot. A rotation of Kluber, Ryu, Wood, Shoemaker and Thornton with Pearson added in has a tremendous upside, but also has a big downside as well. It's both scary and exciting.
We're on path to not making any significant push until 2022. Most of you are tickled pink about this. I'm just more of a risk taker.