I don't believe either he or Wilhelmsen will get out of the pen this year. That's not necessarily a bad thing - it SHOULD mean that we are letting Paxton/Hultzen/Erasmo roll out there every 5th day.
As with Pineda, however, there's no guarantee that those starters all stay with us after this year. Jack has lamented how little his minor league prizes were worth, and that in the current market it's better to get a performing major leaguer still under club control (even if that performance is average) over a hyped minor leaguer with no experience.
Which should make a guy like Seager our most valuable trade chip - and of course also one we do not want to trade. If Franklin has to move to 2nd or 3rd, though, or Miller does, or Romero, then we have other internal options and maybe we decide to cash in Seager's trade value.
Same thing if Paxton or Hultzen start off well, but we need to use one of them in a Stanton-type deal. That's when I would think we might "take the risk" and drop Capps or Wilhelmsen into the rotation to compensate.
It's not like baseball is going to a 30-man starting roster any time soon - gotta cash in.
What I would hate to do is move a "reliever" like Capps or Wilhelmsen in a deal like that, since you're essentially giving someone else another starter if they'd like to use the chip that way. I doubt that's the plan, though.
~G
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