In today's mailbag, we get into a potential offseason plan for the Cardinals, the impact of managers, third base in Seattle, whether the Yankees should sign Juan Soto, NL playoff rotations, and much more.
Sam asks:
Hi Tim, imagine your phone rings and it's Bill DeWitt Jr. he says, "Tim, I've always liked your work at MLBTR and I've decided that I want to focus all my attention on acquiring as many Arby's as possible. 63 just isn't enough. So I've decided to gift you the St. Louis Cardinals and enough money to maintain the team's current ranking in payroll among the other 29 teams for the next 3 years, effective immediately." How do *you* Tim Dierkes go about fixing the Cardinals?
I generally support efforts to put more Arby's into the world.
The Cardinals' current competitive balance tax payroll is about $216MM, so I'll just stick with that. That gives me about $92MM to work with. Key arbitration eligibles include Ryan Helsley, JoJo Romero, Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, and Andre Pallante. I'm pretty sure those guys will cost less than $20MM, so if I tender them contracts I'll have about $75MM with which to work.
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BigV
Loved the Cardinals breakdown. Pretty clever
Youkilyptus
Great content, thanks for the write-up
Captain Dunsel
I think that Hoffman is staying in Philly, especially if they don’t sign Soto. . It’s far from stupid money.
Gary Templeton
Disagree regarding the Cardinals 1st base situation.
What they will probably do is resign or give qualifying offer to Goldy.
What they should do is platoon their perfectly good players they already have: — Luken Baker against LHP and Alec Burleson against RHP.
That combo is better, younger, and cheaper than Diaz or whomever else they might trade for.
You can’t have both Burleson (mediocre) and Walker (bad) in the same outfield.
Tim Dierkes
I think a Burleson/Baker first base platoon might be fine, though the short side of a platoon is often not a great use of a roster spot.
I wouldn’t have Burleson or Walker in a starting role on next year’s team, but certainly I can see that happening.