For Vlad, there are two ways to look at it.
On one hand, some players’ peak are short and early at age 20-23 in Vlad’s case (although less common) — this is likely due to maturity which leads to lack of drive to get better, and the league just passes you by (i.e., Yasiel Puig)
On the other hand, you have players still figuring it and their stats fluctuates during early seasons of their career — this is where players are figuring out how pitchers are game planning against them and how to make in game and season long adjustments (i.e., David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre)
I’m going with the latter since Vlad is just too talented, but we never really know what goes on in his head on his approach for his career.
For Bo, his numbers are solid across the board. Remember he’s a SS, and although not perfect (defense, clutch hitting), he still someone you can count on day in and day out.
To put it all together, I think this core is still good to work with, but we need to get A tier players while we wait for Vlad to put it together.
That’s how AA builds his team, he never waited for Colby Rasmus to figure it out, or Adam Lind to find his stroke again, he actually builds the team with more A tier players.
How to actually bring in more A tier players? Well that’s where Ross Atkins “suppose” to shine.
AA was always creative, I see that Ross Atkins lost his touch in trades from his 16-17 successes. Atkins has been solid in finding good FA that finds their way to stardom after down years, but this usually takes 1-2 years after signing them and it’s not really a sustainable way to build more A tier players when you’re not in control of the FA market’s supply.
