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SB Nation GM Sim 2020-2021: Day 3 Recap and Final Roster/Thoughts


If anyone missed my Day 2 recap where I traded Josh Hader, read all about it here...

There were some stunningly good free agents still available on Day 3 of the sim, but with most trades completed we decided to wrap it up at 12 EST/11 CDT today. In league news, the now cash heavy Mets signed Ryan Braun to a 1yr, $3MM deal effectively ending his time as a Brewer :(

But I wasn’t quite done slingin’ in my David Stearns costume I've been wearing since Halloween, so…

Free agent signing:

Didi Gregorius – 1yr, $12MM with a second year player option at $12MM

With the market on shortstops going nuts, I kept tabs on Didi throughout. He wasn’t getting much interest at all as the Giants shelled out $90MM on Ha-Seong Kim, the Reds gave Andrelton Simmons 3 years at $36MM and Marcus Semien went to the Mets at 4/$56MM. My plan to lay in the weeds finally paid off, by getting Didi at what I consider a steal for the prices of Top-50 FAs in this thing.

Basically what happened is, Simmons set the bar pretty high and then the Mets and the Giants got into a bidding war on Kim, Semien and Gregorius – each driving the prices up. When the other two signed, everyone else who had irons in the fire thought the price tag on Didi was in the 4/$68MM range. I had a one year deal on the table the whole time and things broke my way. It took a second year on a player option to get it done, but I will put this up there as one of my best moves in my four years of doing this thing.

Anyway, this effectively ends Orlando Arica’s time in Milwaukee. He does have a MiLB option remaining, so if I can’t trade him I’ll send him to AAA for depth. Logically, I think the Brewers would cut him before Opening Day and only pay 25% of his $3.8MM salary. I will keep him rostered for now, but he won’t be on the OD roster.

MiLB Signings:

It almost feels anti-climactic to list them, but Manny Pina, Ryon Healy and Jarrod Dyson (shruggity)

Actually, not a complete shruggity. Pina is excellent depth in case Narvaez or Nottingham get hurt in ST. Healy gets another chance in the organization to prove he really can be a leadoff guy. Dyson is probably a disaster CF options (a la Keon Broxton) but he's at least a speedster who can steal a bag and play some defense.

26-man roster (* denotes MiLB options remaining):

C – Omar Narvaez, Jacob Nottingham

1B – Dan Vogelbach, Jedd Gyorko

2B – Keston Hiura*

SS – Didi Gregorius, Orlando Arcia*

3B – Eduardo Escobar

OF – Christian Yelich, Tommy Pham, Hunter Dozier*, Derek Fisher, Tyrone Taylor*

SP – Corbin Burnes*, Brandon Woodruff*, Adrian Houser, Corey Kluber, Jeff Samardzija

RP – Josh Lindblom, Freddy Peralta*, Brent Suter*, Joe Smith, Brandon Kintlzer, Nate Jones, Devin Williams*, Keone Kela

40-man roster:

(all of the above)

C – Mario Feliciano

IF – Mark Mathias, Luis Urias

OF – Corey Ray, Cody Thomas, Billy McKinney

RHP – Justin Topa, Drew Rasmussen, Alec Bettinger, Eric Yardley, Phil Bickford, Anderson Espinoza,

LHP – Angel Perdomo, Eric Lauer

Non-roster invitees:

Ben Gamel, Erik Kratz, Junior Guerra, Manny Pina, Ryon Healy, Jarrod Dyson

Top 15 prospects:

Garrett Mitchell - OF

Brice Turang - SS

Ethan Small - SP

Michael Busch - 2B/1B

Mario Feliciano - C

Jordan Brewer - OF

Antoine Kelly - SP

Jacob Amaya - IF

Eduardo Garcia - SS

Hedbert Perez - OF

Corey Ray - OF

Freddy Zamora - SS

Luis Medina - OF

Alec Bettinger - SP

Anderson Espinoza - SP

Final payroll number = $92,308,000 (this includes buyouts on Braun, Sogard, Smoak and Holt)

Overall, I feel like I’ve put together a pretty solid team and gained a lot of financial flexibility down the road. By shedding Cain’s deal and keeping all of the player’s I acquired to one (possibly two in Didi’s case) year agreements, I feel like I won’t pay for anything I’ve done next winter. If anything, I’m probably in a better position to extend guys like Burnes, Woodruff, etc. I also feel like I did a pretty good job of injecting some talent into the upper minors. Busch, Brewer, Amaya and Thomas all could emerge as key pieces in 2022 and beyond.

On the field, I think this is a better team than the one we rolled out in 2020. Our lineup vs right-handed pitching should include between four and six left-handed bats. Against lefties, we also have plenty of options. Guys like Escobar, Dozier and Gyorko give me a lot of flexibility in late game situations (as well as Urias, who is probably on the OD roster instead of Arcia). I would also note that if we were to get the full-time DH in the NL for 2021, I feel really good about things and probably keep Arica and move Hiura to DH.

Pitching wise, I’m relying a lot on Burnes, Woodruff, Williams and Peralta – but that was basically a given. Keone Kela was a low-key great signing for the bullpen as another power arm. And I’ve got plenty of reinforcements for guys like Smith, Jones, Kintzler if/when they burn up. I realize some comments will be focused on why I chose to go with such a veteran ‘pen instead of giving spots to Topa/Yardley/Rasmussen, but I envision every pitcher on the 40-man roster playing a part over 162 games. There will be a shuttle with this club.

If I had one area where I feel like I may have regressed, it’s probably defensively. Shipping out Cain, Pina, Arcia (probably) and Garcia is going to likely lead to a worse team D overall. It’s also looking like Vogelbach and Hiura re the right side of the infield, so…. Barf. But again, that was pretty much a given.

I think this is a playoff contending team. The Cubs shipped out Kris Bryant and Ian Happ and replaced them with Justin Turner and Jackie Bradley Jr. I think their rotation after Darvish and Hendricks is going to be rather bad. STL added some marquee names in Chris Sale, James Paxton, Chris Archer and brought back Adam Wainright and Yadi Molina – but those guys all come with serious question marks on either age or injury history (or both). CIN lost Bauer (to the Padres, Jeezus…) but added Dylan Bundy and Andrelton Simmons. I think they are still in the mix as well, but Moustakas, Votto and Iglesias are another year older. I thought they could have done much better.

The fake-Brewers should be above average offensively at three of the four IF positions (and Vogelbach could surprise) and both LF/RF. C and CF are a bit up in the air, but Narvaez and Pham are decent bounce back candidates with good career track records and Nottingham and Taylor are young enough to improve and at least provide surplus value on a pre-arb salary. On the mound, Kela is a decent replacement for Hader, all things considered. He holds a career 3.24 ERA and 11.0 K/9. Kluber could be an impact TOR player for 120-150 innings if he’s healthy and can be managed effectively. Ultimately though, we’ll be relying on our young arms to continue to develop and fill the most critical roles. Hopefully an improved offense will take some of the pressure off the staff to be perfect.

We’ve got a deep 40-man roster and should see at least 1-2 players emerge from that crop if others falter. If Kluber is healthy, I think this team can make an NLCS. If he’s not, we’re probably looking at a Wild Card.

Last year, the guys over at Royals Review did a nice league-wide recap, so if they do that again I will post a link to it. Things go too crazy last night for me to keep up, but you can see all the transactions in the thread here.