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But I hadn't thought about agents.
The way I see it is this team shouldn't trade any of them at this point unless its bringing back a Stanton or someone at that very upper level of offensive player. Zduriencik said the other day about trading Felix "I've got lots of prospects, why would I need yours". That's still going to be true in a year or two. There's very little that this team doesn't have within a couple years away. Maybe an elite leadoff hitter, but I have trouble identifying any of those in the game right now. Now that we've got MOTO going into this season I think the need there will be lessened a bit to where the bar will be higher for what an upgrade is. That's assuming there's development between Smoak, Saunders, Seager and Montero mainly, but its hard to imagine all 4 stagnating this year. Stanton may be the only player potentially available that's a clear upgrade for the middle of the lineup once the season has played out, whereas this year even a Swisher type was. That doesn't mean they can't improve the #6 or #7 spot, just that it's not going to feel so necessary to make that move as it did to legitimize the lineup this year.
Moving forward I have no concerns that there will be difficulty adding an arm or 2 every year. It really looks like they'll be constantly on the "pitching surplus" lists and at the same time have less needs elsewhere on the field with added maturity to the core that's here and more position players getting opportunities as they mature as well. I felt there was some desperation to do a particular thing this year, where I don't think it will get to that depth of need anymore for a long time in this franchise. With this pipeline it's hard to imagine it ever getting there again with anything.
So if they decide to trade a pitcher in the next couple years, it should be because there are too many to use or because it's helping acquire rare talent maybe even both.
I'm excited for the season to start, more so than in a long time.