How much could the Red Sox get if they used the following players as trade pieces:
AA
P Kevin Brahney
P Tyler Lockwood
P Mike MCcarthy
C Adalberto Ibarra
SS Nick Natoli
OF Drew Turcoy
AAA
P Scott Achison
OF JC Linares
OF Dan Nava
OF Nate Spears
This assumes they stay on these levels. My criteria: the AA guys are already 22 y/o, AAA already 25 y/o. I’d also include: Guys in their second year of high A-ball, and MLBers in their walk year (not including guys on new 1 year deals).
Not much, it seems. Keith Law is one of the better prospect analysts, and none of those players are in his list of the Sox’s top 10. Link.
Yeah, you can’t just throw out a Pupu Platter of marginal prospects and hope to get much return for them. You could probably throw one in a deal for a player with an unwieldy contract.
Here’s a offer - I’m sure the Cardinals will give you Jake Westbrook or Kyle McClellan (if you pay the contract) for any single person on that list.
I’ll add, a AAA player that is 25 is nearing the end of his “prospect” life. Elite prospects (the kind that actually get you players) are settling into the major league careers at that point.
I had no illusions of elite guys comign back. Also, I didn’t say ALL the guys had to go in 1 trade.
Then you’re just going to get other spare parts. I mean, that’s what you’re going to get if you trade away replacement-level players. Daniel Nava, for instance, is already 28 years old and is basically a fifth outfielder. I don’t know why anyone would even bother trading for him unless he was part of a larger deal. Every team has a guy in AAA who can do the same things.
Linares is 27 and coming off surgery and his North American career high in games played in a season is 34. Nate Spears is 27 and is regarded such that he was actually a free agent this offseason and nobody else wanted him. Why would you trade anything for these guys when you could just sign guys like this to minor league deals?
Great analysis Rick! So trading these guys would be like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?
Those are the kinds of guys you toss into a package with actual prospects or actual MLB level players if you want some kind of return.
You wouldn’t get a bucket of baseballs for Achison.
Exactly. Every major league team has players exactly like this (with the same, or perhaps different, flaws).
The only way you see these guys move is if they’re cut and re-signed to a minor-league contract by another team or traded as part of (a) a salary dump or (b) as throw-ins in a larger deal.
Sometimes clubs will exchange crappy non-prospects as a favor to their AAA affiliate, if they have five outfielders and no AAA-level shortstops or whatever.
Good point Tom - easy to overlook because nobody except the AAA manager really cares (well, them and the guys that run the prospect blogs that have their “pets favorites”).
Did the Sox sign any new players to 1 year deals? If so, move them along with the guys above, and/or guys languishing in high A-ball.
Well, that’s kind of the wrong metaphor in that it implies deliberate pointless action while disaster is happening. It’d be a bit more apt if we were talking about the Pirates.
I guess my point is just that unless your minor league system has some sort of gaping hole in it - like you’ve got eight outfielders and only nine pitchers at the AAA level - there’s no point trading guys like this because you are trading things everyone already has. (As Tom Scud points out, the AAA affiliate will get angry if they’re holding a bag of crap for long.) Daniel Nava is a replacement level player; by definition, players like Daniel Nava are more or less freely available off the waiver wire and in free agency.
If you look at a Triple-A roster, especially, a shocking percentage of the players there are fringe players, guys who’re filling out the roster and just praying that something goes right so they can get a 3-week stint in the Show. The 22-year-old prospects are vastly outnumbered by the 28-year-old no-chancers. All 30 teams have a Daniel Nava. They don’t need Boston’s.