Calling Doctor Bombay!!
I know we have our own Doc on call, but I've gone outside the house this morning and consulted with a good and famous Witch Doctor (whom we old guys remember): This is his Rx for the M's.
He points out, by the way, that Austin Jackson isn't going to make us any better, but he will soon be up, anyway: AJ is The Skip's guy, after all. When Jackson is up, he will most likely be batting at the top of the lineup. Oh goody!! His .300 OBP and Eddie Gaedel-like power will fuel our offense, certainly.
If Willie Bloomquist is the guy who is released then we have the weird situation of having Jackson, Weeks (didn't play a game at 2B in ST), Ackley, Smith, Ruggiano and Cruz who are OF's. Miller, too, it looks like. 6 of 13 positional guys wear OF gloves, fulltime. Add two C's and a 1B; now you have 4 guys who have IF gloves. That isn't very flexible. OK.....Weeks could go to 2B in a pinch, but it is a poorly structured roster. WB brings flexibility, which is what a #25 is supposed to do.
Back to Doctor Bombay's prescription: When Jackson comes up, Doctor B. would like to see Weeks leave. At the same time, I.....er, he.....would let WB go and bring up somebody else. Kivlehan, Romero, Rivero, and O'Malley have all played multiple positions in Tacoma. Rivero and O'Malley are utility players by template. O'Malley is actually a decent bat vs. LHP (he's a switch hitter), .323 this year and .340 last year (including 2-5 in LAA) but he may or may not be an upgrade over WB. Well he is, let's just leave it at that. Kivlehan gets more Tacoma time. Romero, who has played both 2B and 1B recently, makes the most sense, likely. Exploring a trade? Then the swap move the Doctor and I recommend is trading Ackley to a foundering Orc team for Zobrist, who is soon to be called back up (2 Rehab stars in Stockton). Oakland won't resign him, likely, and Ackley is a Billy Beane kind of guy.
To tell you the truth, I would bail out on Jackson, too (he has something like 380 ABs in an M"s uni--ST included--and 2 homers) and call up Montero. So there is my/our wish list. Dump Weeks, trade Ackley (a trade that might be doable: Ackley + for Zobrist?? The Orcs need a 2B), put WB out to pasture and tell Jackson, "Thanks for the memories."
If we dump Weeks, Willie, Jackson and trade Ackley, making a full bucket of moves, you could get Montero here and have LoMo/Montero at 1B, (Morrison is currently the not good Morrison) Cano/Taylor/Seager around the IF. Miller in LF/Rugi in CF/Cruz/Smith in RF. Romero and Zobrist (who you mostly DH to begin with) rounding things out. You would have to be comfortable with Ruggiano in CF fulltime, until Miller is ready. If you keep Jackson, then Romero is the odd man out. Or, when you release Jackson, you could bring up Guti instead of Romero, if you thought Guti had the odd CF game in him before he breaks. Guti as a vL partner for Miller in LF (Miller is .300-.360-.560 vR and it doesn't look too flukey) is a nice thing.
A question: Would Billy Beane see full years '16-'17 of Ackley as equal to 100 games of a slightly tweaked Zobrist...in a year when it looks like the Orcs will not contend? There is some lost opportunity cost for Oakland to trade Zobrist now, of course, as he will look nice to a bunch of teams as the summer heats up. M's would have to bid accordingly. Ackley + what gets him now?
Anyway, there's Doctor Bombay's Rx. He reminds us that Jackson has not been missed, not one iota. Has anybody really complained about our CF defense since he went down? Jackson was good with the glove in '11 but is just decent since. His glove certainly does not pack his Wee Willie Winkie-weight bat.
Weeks out, Guti in. Ackley out, Zobrist in. Jackson and Willie B. out, Romero or Montero in. I'll even take O'Malley in place of WB. If we can't trade Ackley, I'm doing the other moves, anyway.
Sometimes you have to get rid of dead weight to get better.
Now if we can get Samantha to wiggle her cute little nose and make it happen.
Go team.