Shout - moethedog - 1/19/16 11:43am
<p>From MLBTR: Mariners catcher Jesus #Sucre suffered a fractured fibula this weekend playing in the Venezuelan Winter League, the Mariners confirmed to Bob Dutton of the Tacoma #News Tribune.</p>
Country Capital
<p>From MLBTR: Mariners catcher Jesus #Sucre suffered a fractured fibula this weekend playing in the Venezuelan Winter League, the Mariners confirmed to Bob Dutton of the Tacoma #News Tribune.</p>
<p>Grizz...let's do the math, shall we? King Felix: 25 M, Cano: 24 M, Cruz: 14 M, Lind: 8.0 M, Seager: 7.5 M, Benoit: 7.5 M, Smith: 6.8 M, Miley: 6 M, Aoki: 5.5 M, L. Martin: ~4.5 M arb, Ianetta: 4.2 M, Furbush: 2.0 M, Gutierrez: 1.5 M (with performance bonuses), Bass: 1.2 M arb, DeFratus: 0.8 M, Scribner: 0.7 M arb, Zunino: 0.5 M, Paxton: 0.5 M, Clevenger: 0.5 M, Walker: 0.5 M, Taylor: 0.5 M, #Sucre: 0.5 M, Karns: 0.5 M, Aro: 0.5 M, Zych: 0.5 M, Marte: 0.5 M, Montero: 0.5 M, #Montgomery: 0.5 M, Nuno: 0.5 M...THUS FAR that is 115.7 M. Give or take a few hundred grand.
<p>The Clevenger empty OBP is still a massive upgrade over what we had at C last year. Zunino was OPS+ of 49 while #Sucre was even worse at 20. Iannetta in one of his worst seasons last year was 78, Clevenger and his 99 can spell him. Dipoto has turned a black hole into something resembling respectable, with a chance to be average or even slightly above. For very little #Money or assets. Now Dipoto can turn his attention to doing the same with the bullpen and hopefully get around to the OF.</p>
<p>BTW, Rick, I had suggested Elias+ for Ozuna last year too. ;-) ! Now that Ozuna has shown his abilities in CF and then gotten into Loria's doghouse it may come about this time. I also wanted Rob Brantly and Mark Canha in that trade - Canha turned out quite nicely for a late bloomer - too bad it was for #Oakland! Brantly ended up as the #3 catcher for the White Sox. Having him around as a LH-hitting catcher might have helped ease the strain on Zunino. We'll never know.
<p>My proposal for a to-do list: Re-sign Iwakuma and Gutierrez, sign Mark Lowe and David Aardsma for the bullpen, and then sign Doug Fister for rotation depth. Then get a catcher that won't demand #1 status, but is capable if Zunino needs more time off. If the Astros wouldn't trade Hank Conger, I'd make a run at Avila if there is no QO, or perhaps Brayan Pena. I'd also trade for Sandy #Leon from the Red Sox, an excellent defensive catcher who hit in the minors, and let Edgar and Dan work with him as an alternative to #Sucre as #3.
<p>Would be funny if the M's seriously challenged for the wildcard, like into the last weekend, after the entire front office basically gave up on the idea, selling at the deadline, firing the GM, packing Zunino away to go with #Sucre-Baron. What kind of statement would that be? And what is Felix smelling more? 20 wins, or a one game playoff?</p>