Justin Turner leaving opens up a pretty big hole in the roster in my mind. A good right-handed bat with the ability to fill in on the corners was pretty much exactly what we needed this year (and now need again). So what's the best way to replace that?
In-house options:
Masataka Yoshida
Raphael Devers
These are our good hitters who were terrible on defense this year. Both just going into the second year of their sizable contracts, it feels a shame to give up on their fielding entirely, and neither can give us the RHB or the 1B backup we're missing. Masa could be replaced easily enough cause we kinda have too many OF as is, but Raffy would create another hole that would be expensive to fill well unless we want to have Pablo Reyes, starting 3B (we don't).
In-house option (AAA):
Bobby Dalbec
He's a RHB under control who can spell the corners, but he's bad defensively and even worse as a hitter. This would be a terrible outcome.
In-house option (the bench):
Refsnyder/Reyes/Abreu/McGuire/Rafaela?
This is less than inspiring.
Justin Turner:
Justin Turner (MLBTR projection: 1/$16)
He's kind of exactly what we need, he's shown he can thrive in Boston and was seemingly beloved in the clubhouse. The obvious downside is he'll be 39 next year and showed some signs of slowing. The upside of his age is we probably aren't competing against teams willing to give him full time position player money. His MLBTR projection is exactly what he got this year after the buyout and incentives, and I think the $14-16m range is fair.
Other FA:
Mitch Garver (3/$39)
Rhys Hopkins (2/$36)
Jorge Soler (3/$45)
JD Martinez (2/$40)
Garver is interesting to me; he's been a bad backup catcher but a very good hitter with a career 123 WRC+. He also had a few starts at 1B in his Minnesota days, though obviously they'd need to be comfortable with him doing that on a more regular basis if we're talking the main Casas backup. But the idea of a DH/backup 1B/keep us from ever fielding an Alfaro if one of the catchers goes down role is pretty intriguing. That seems well worth $13mm. The issue with him is that he just can't stay on the field; he hasn't played more than 100 games since 2018, averaging about 71 per (non-2020) season for his career. He'll be 33 so it's hard to project him for better health, but maybe they could wring more out of him by pulling him off C almost entirely?
Rhys Hoskins is another very good hitter (126 WRC+ career) and bad 1B. He'll be 31 so not old, but I also think he's a guy somebody pays as a primary 1B for more than he's worth as a primary DH.
Jorge Soler is probably the worst hitter (112 WRC+) of the FA I'm listing, plus he he's a bad outfielder instead of a bad infielder so that doesn't really fill the corner backup role, but I also wouldn't be sad to have him hitting for us if his market craters and we get a bargain on him. He was DHing about 3/4 of his games this year, which corresponded with a nice offensive uptick (126 WRC+, after 3 straight years of just about average).
JD is a known quantity who obviously had a big resurgence in LA, but doesn't back up anything, lost even more time to injury this year than last and showed an alarming jump to a 31% K rate. Will he be a good hitter? Probably. Is he worth the projected $20mm/year for us as a pure DH? I can't see how.
How do you all see them filling the spot?
Are there trade targets that make sense?
In-house options:
Masataka Yoshida
Raphael Devers
These are our good hitters who were terrible on defense this year. Both just going into the second year of their sizable contracts, it feels a shame to give up on their fielding entirely, and neither can give us the RHB or the 1B backup we're missing. Masa could be replaced easily enough cause we kinda have too many OF as is, but Raffy would create another hole that would be expensive to fill well unless we want to have Pablo Reyes, starting 3B (we don't).
In-house option (AAA):
Bobby Dalbec
He's a RHB under control who can spell the corners, but he's bad defensively and even worse as a hitter. This would be a terrible outcome.
In-house option (the bench):
Refsnyder/Reyes/Abreu/McGuire/Rafaela?
This is less than inspiring.
Justin Turner:
Justin Turner (MLBTR projection: 1/$16)
He's kind of exactly what we need, he's shown he can thrive in Boston and was seemingly beloved in the clubhouse. The obvious downside is he'll be 39 next year and showed some signs of slowing. The upside of his age is we probably aren't competing against teams willing to give him full time position player money. His MLBTR projection is exactly what he got this year after the buyout and incentives, and I think the $14-16m range is fair.
Other FA:
Mitch Garver (3/$39)
Rhys Hopkins (2/$36)
Jorge Soler (3/$45)
JD Martinez (2/$40)
Garver is interesting to me; he's been a bad backup catcher but a very good hitter with a career 123 WRC+. He also had a few starts at 1B in his Minnesota days, though obviously they'd need to be comfortable with him doing that on a more regular basis if we're talking the main Casas backup. But the idea of a DH/backup 1B/keep us from ever fielding an Alfaro if one of the catchers goes down role is pretty intriguing. That seems well worth $13mm. The issue with him is that he just can't stay on the field; he hasn't played more than 100 games since 2018, averaging about 71 per (non-2020) season for his career. He'll be 33 so it's hard to project him for better health, but maybe they could wring more out of him by pulling him off C almost entirely?
Rhys Hoskins is another very good hitter (126 WRC+ career) and bad 1B. He'll be 31 so not old, but I also think he's a guy somebody pays as a primary 1B for more than he's worth as a primary DH.
Jorge Soler is probably the worst hitter (112 WRC+) of the FA I'm listing, plus he he's a bad outfielder instead of a bad infielder so that doesn't really fill the corner backup role, but I also wouldn't be sad to have him hitting for us if his market craters and we get a bargain on him. He was DHing about 3/4 of his games this year, which corresponded with a nice offensive uptick (126 WRC+, after 3 straight years of just about average).
JD is a known quantity who obviously had a big resurgence in LA, but doesn't back up anything, lost even more time to injury this year than last and showed an alarming jump to a 31% K rate. Will he be a good hitter? Probably. Is he worth the projected $20mm/year for us as a pure DH? I can't see how.
How do you all see them filling the spot?
Are there trade targets that make sense?
