Ok, so this one's probably even more insane than my boneheaded Manny Machado idea.  But I'm gonna lay it out there anyway: if they M's acquired Clint Frazier, they could *probably* land Chris Archer.

As noted in that Fangraphs article, Clint Frazier's got something like $40mil of projected surplus value.  Archer, by my hasty-back-of-the-napkin math, was worth $35mil last year and there's not a lot of reason to believe (barring injury) that he'll be worth less than that going forward.  His contract costs about $34mil for the next four years, so we're talking about ~$100mil in surplus value for him over that period.

How do you get to $100mil from the M's side?  Well, Frazier would likely be the biggest piece at ~$40mil by himself.  But guys like Ben Gamel have a bunch of surplus value, as well.  He just turned in a ~league average season, which means his own contributions are worth $10-15mil/year, depending on if he continues to produce at his 2017 level or if he improves to sold 2 win player territory.  But, again, my back-of-the-napkin math would put him worth something like $25mil over the next two years, and (again, assuming you buy him as a 1.5-2.0 win player) maybe half that during his arb years.  So he's $35-40mil, too (*IF* the Rays think he projects to be at or near ML-average value).

That's the bulk of Chris Archer's surplus value, in two players who are both at the beginning of their careers (essential for any rebuilding team).  Obviously you could get even more aggressive, swapping Gamel for Haniger and you're probably pretty much there in terms of surplus value (I'd be surprised if most FO's don't consider Haniger a 3 win player--and if they don't, we'll happily keep him and reap those rewards).

The more likely scenario is one where the M's largely stand pat, but if they wanted to make REAL noise, they could do it with a pair of moves (acquiring Ellsbury + Frazier, then flipping Frazier++ for Archer) that wouldn't detract anything significant from the club's current talent level (Ellsbury would stand in really well for Gamel or Haniger, though the former more so than the latter obviously) while Archer would give them a legit Ace to go with Paxton--and that would make the M's a force to be reckoned with for years to come.  There would be more moving parts to the trade(s) than the named players above, obviously, but it seems like they could form the principles for a reasonable deal.  Probably the Rays don't like our players that much, but if they did then there's the potential for a blockbuster trade there.

Or maybe I'm crazy.  Probably just that ;-)

The easiest thing to do if they want to contend is to just go out and get Darvish, but it seems like that's not in the cards for whatever reason.  If they're not going to make another serious addition this offseason (Gordon's going to be a big help, but he CAN'T be the headline acquisition for a club that wants to win in 2018) then they really do need to take a good, hard look at tearing it down and auctioning off players like Cruz, Paxton, and even Seager.  If you don't push all-in THIS SEASON, the next would-be contending M's ballclub is probably going to materialize after Paxton's already pitching in Fenway or NY, after Robbie's no longer a major contributor, and after Felix has been deposed.