Ray

You don't get younger through free agent signings. You get younger through prospects. I think it's a more well rounded lineup. Full year of Travis hopefully. Bautista and Pillar (offensively) bounce back year hopefully. Donaldson-Tulo-Martin should be the same as they always are. Morales as DH will hopefully do some big damage at Rogers Centre, and I think Pearce is a thousand times better than Colabello, plus more versatile. If the rotation is Top 5 in the AL (I think that's a reasonable expectation), we'll contend. Maybe we'll see Ramirez and Gurriel later into the season as well. We really need to shore up that bullpen though. No more taking flyers on Gavin Floyd types. We were extremely lucky that Grilli and Benoit worked out for us, otherwise we would've been screwed. Too many games unnecessarily blown last season because of our shaky bullpen situation. Give me 2-3 of Blevins, Zieglar, Dunn, Logan, Manship, Holland and Feliz and thats a good bullpen to add to Barnes, Grilli, Osuna, Dermody. We obviously have no Andrew Miller, Chapman or Jansen, but we don't need to overpay for them to contend. Pillar for Inciarte. That's literally robbing Peter to pay Paul and gets us nowhere. We'll still need an outfielder or 2.

Travis Bautista Donaldson Morales Tulowitzki Pearce Martin Dyson/Upton Pillar I'd say thats a pretty good lineup. I'd rather our next signing be able to play atleast some outfield. I'd rather have Jose back than Edwin at this point.

Get excited. Blue Jay Bruce is coming into town. Double-barrelled and on a horse.

I mean, I knew Bautista never liked the management, but this is business. I'm sure when it comes down to it, he'll choose money over management he doesn't like. It wasn't long ago that Bautista's agent was going around saying he'd be very interested in returning to Toronto. Plus he's running out of options now. Yankees, Astros, Red Sox, Mets, all seemed to have filled their needs. Give him a good enough offer and I guarantee you he'll look past the "s***** management" he doesn't like.

Why are people so adamant that Bautista won't be coming back? Give him $50 million over 3 years with an opt-out after the 1st year. I bet you he'll be all over that. Especially when there's rumors EE will be getting $60-$70 million. Sign him, hope he doesn't get injured and puts up another 2014-2015 season. If he does, his s***** defense will be worth it. And there's ways around putting him in RF everyday now that we have Pearce and Morales.

Maybe he'll surprise us like Edwin did this year.

Trade for Jarrod Dyson (or sign Moss to platoon with Upton) for LF. And at this point, I would seriously consider resigning Bautista. 3/55 with an opt-out after the first year. Its gonna pain me to watch his fielding and his base running, but I guarantee you he'll provide value for us still. Hope he puts up another 2015 season. Shatkins probably thought Bruce was a salary dump. They thought they could pull the same type of deal they could for Upton. Not the case. Mets renewed his contract for a reason. They want something from him. But they're gonna have to move him since they resigned Cespedes. We might be the only ones willing to deal at this point.

Can we atleast see what Fowler signed for before we start criticizing? I'm as bummed as anybody we didn't land him. But I don't exactly know if I'd like the idea of signing him for 5 years $90 million + a draft pick.

So the question is, who do we get back now? Edwin or Jose?

I could legitimately see him getting $18 million AAV for 4-5 years.

For what it's worth, he did say that he "confirmed with "the Cardinals", meaning he's confirmed it with the club. Interesting that he's doing the physical before it's even confirmed that he's signed with them. Maybe that means he hasn't. But things aren't looking good.

Probably right. Plus he's the type that will age better compared to Chapman as well. With Chapman, there's always a worry what would happen to him if his arm explodes.

Man, how much money would Andrew Miller have made this offseason if he was a free agent. Probably around Chapman territory.

$17 million dollars for a dude who's gonna throw ~70 innings at most. I guess Chapman is probably worth it though.

Please.

That's an insane price during the trading deadline. If I were the White Sox, I really would've pressed more for Benintendi or Devers instead of those other two prospects.

Fair enough. I just thought they might've utilized Greene in the same way they used Sanchez in 2015. Bullpen guy making spot starts here and there with the eventuality that he'll start in the following season.

Well then....Wildcard bitches!

What's the chance we see Conner Greene opening day as a bullpen guy?

Good post. Ideally, I would've loved Jose back to DH full time for us. I don't think anyone can deny he's the superior hitter. And his eye is just tremendous, even in a down year. That being said, I feel like Morales for $11 million will give us value. 3 years is a little too much for my taste, but they can always flip him later down the line if he's doing well.

I could get behind a Seth Smith/Upton platoon in LF. I think that's a solid LF combo. Also, our offseason basically hinges on Fowler at this point. I don't even know what we'd do if we don't get him. Trade the farm for Eaton?

This thread is everything I expected it to be.

Why haven't we looked more into Luis Valbuena? He fits what this front office wants to a tee.

Guessing the two NL teams are the Marlins and Rockies. The Rockies especially need a 1B. I could see them going after him now that the price has dropped on Edwin.

It's weird with Carrera because I have such fond memories of him during this season. Yet you look at his stats, and he's not really that good. But I always remember him coming up with hits when we needed them the most.