RealGM

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/anthopoulos-addresses-deals-that-couldve-been/

According to SN, Kinsler wouldn't waive his no-trade to come here, and we backed out of the Anderson for Santos deal at the end due to injury concerns.

Doesn't say what we had going to Texas for Kinsler.

Kinsler, traded from the Texas Rangers to Detroit Tigers for Prince Fielder in November, would have been a significant coup, given the upgrade he would have represented at second base and the dynamic tandem he would have formed with Jose Reyes up the middle.

But a potential deal was scuttled by the three-time all-star’s no-trade clause

My guess is Rasmus + reliever/prospect

That's too bad - Reyes and Kinsler 1-2 would have been pretty fantastic

Watch Anderson win NL Cy Young next year.

zong wrote:My guess is Rasmus + reliever/prospect

Depends on what Texas' motives were, I suppose. They were looking for at least a couple big bats, and it's also possible that their initial expectation was in acquiring that player through free agency before the Fielder deal presented itself, at which point something like Santos + prospect could have been more enticing than Rasmus (especially with the defensively-sound Leonys Martin in CF). Shift Kinsler's $16m on and they might perhaps have been players for Ellsbury/Cano.

Schadenfreude wrote:

zong wrote:My guess is Rasmus + reliever/prospect

Depends on what Texas' motives were, I suppose. They were looking for at least a couple big bats, and it's also possible that their initial expectation was in acquiring that player through free agency before the Fielder deal presented itself, at which point something like Santos + prospect could have been more enticing than Rasmus (especially with the defensively-sound Leonys Martin in CF). Shift Kinsler's $16m on and they might perhaps have been players for Ellsbury/Cano.

Based on them getting Prince with serious salary relief, I don't think I would've liked what it would've cost for Kinsler. I absolutely loved him as a player, but I think he is 100% in a declining age curve and it will not get better. Sure, there's still room for blips and a weird season, but actual skills, actual ability, I think the Tigers will be lucky if it's just 0.5WAR per season curve. And here on turf, it would've been worse.

I know the common wisdom is Prince was a salary dump at least to some extent, but TEX got him on a 7/138 deal for a guy still short of 30, that's not bad in today's market for his skills. And unlike Kinsler, I don't think Prince is actually all that regressed. His power has gone down a couple years in a row, but watching the guy I can't see what's stopping him from getting back to .500-.550 SLG on .200+ ISO at least for the next couple years.

Obviously it's impossible to judge what was lost without knowing what was offered. If it was JBau, then **** no under any circumstances. If it was salary relief, I likely would've been happy. If it was Rasmus/Santos stuff, I doubt I would've been super happy about it, but that's mostly 'cause I am no longer a believer in Kinsler going forward, but YMMV obviously so I could see how some would've been ecstatic with that move.

Rosenthal is saying it was Santos and Romero being offered (according to one of his sources) but he doesn't think that would have been enough based on what the Rangers ended up trading him for. It's possible the Rangers initially just wanted to unload his salary for cheaper contracts until the Fielder option became available to them.

Michael Bradley wrote:Rosenthal is saying it was Santos and Romero being offered (according to one of his sources) but he doesn't think that would have been enough based on what the Rangers ended up trading him for. It's possible the Rangers initially just wanted to unload his salary for cheaper contracts until the Fielder option became available to them.

It's interesting to think of Romero being used in a transaction. I was wondering earlier this off-season if there would be a team out there that would move a longer/more expensive contract for Romero with the hopes of saving some money and the small possibility that they could 'fix him'. The one team that came to mind was the Braves and Uggla. I thought something like Uggla for Maicer and Romero. It seems Uggla has fallen deeply out of favour with the Braves (his .179 avg last season doesn't help). They're paying him $13.2 mil per year. Maicer wouldn't be completely useless for them as he is versatile. They'd also save about $5 mil over the next two years. For the Jays, they seem to have no hope for Ricky so he's 7.75 mil of deadweight. Although we'd be adding $2.5 mil each year over the next couple of seasons, we'd be taking a chance that Uggla rebounds to a 2.5 3.0 war player. Projection systems have Uggla worth about 0.5 war more than Maicer as is (or about $3 million RTV).

I think it would all depend on how comfortable ATL would be with Pastornicky/Izturis/La Stella at 2B.

Graham's Cracker wrote:

Michael Bradley wrote:Rosenthal is saying it was Santos and Romero being offered (according to one of his sources) but he doesn't think that would have been enough based on what the Rangers ended up trading him for. It's possible the Rangers initially just wanted to unload his salary for cheaper contracts until the Fielder option became available to them.

It's interesting to think of Romero being used in a transaction. I was wondering earlier this off-season if there would be a team out there that would move a longer/more expensive contract for Romero with the hopes of saving some money and the small possibility that they could 'fix him'. The one team that came to mind was the Braves and Uggla. I thought something like Uggla for Maicer and Romero. It seems Uggla has fallen deeply out of favour with the Braves (his .179 avg last season doesn't help). They're paying him $13.2 mil per year. Maicer wouldn't be completely useless for them as he is versatile. They'd also save about $5 mil over the next two years. For the Jays, they seem to have no hope for Ricky so he's 7.75 mil of deadweight. Although we'd be adding $2.5 mil each year over the next couple of seasons, we'd be taking a chance that Uggla rebounds to a 2.5 3.0 war player. Projection systems have Uggla worth about 0.5 war more than Maicer as is (or about $3 million RTV).

I think it would all depend on how comfortable ATL would be with Pastornicky/Izturis/La Stella at 2B.

That's an interesting deal to consider. I remember people here being interested in Uggla when he was a free agent. Romero is the forgotten man these days, but there are worse contracts than him out there and I'm sure there are teams that believe they can get him back to his best.

Relentless88 wrote:

Graham's Cracker wrote:

Michael Bradley wrote:Rosenthal is saying it was Santos and Romero being offered (according to one of his sources) but he doesn't think that would have been enough based on what the Rangers ended up trading him for. It's possible the Rangers initially just wanted to unload his salary for cheaper contracts until the Fielder option became available to them.

It's interesting to think of Romero being used in a transaction. I was wondering earlier this off-season if there would be a team out there that would move a longer/more expensive contract for Romero with the hopes of saving some money and the small possibility that they could 'fix him'. The one team that came to mind was the Braves and Uggla. I thought something like Uggla for Maicer and Romero. It seems Uggla has fallen deeply out of favour with the Braves (his .179 avg last season doesn't help). They're paying him $13.2 mil per year. Maicer wouldn't be completely useless for them as he is versatile. They'd also save about $5 mil over the next two years. For the Jays, they seem to have no hope for Ricky so he's 7.75 mil of deadweight. Although we'd be adding $2.5 mil each year over the next couple of seasons, we'd be taking a chance that Uggla rebounds to a 2.5 3.0 war player. Projection systems have Uggla worth about 0.5 war more than Maicer as is (or about $3 million RTV).

I think it would all depend on how comfortable ATL would be with Pastornicky/Izturis/La Stella at 2B.

That's an interesting deal to consider. I remember people here being interested in Uggla when he was a free agent. Romero is the forgotten man these days, but there are worse contracts than him out there and I'm sure there are teams that believe they can get him back to his best.

I think the whole appeal for ATL would be if they given up on Uggla at 2B for them. If so, the cost savings would be the most attractive piece they'd be getting. Izturis would work for them off the bench as an NL super(and I use this in the loosest sense of the term)ulitilty guy.

I don't really see Uggla 'rebounding'. However, it would seem that he'd be an upgrade over the internal options at second. He does a couple things well, take a walk and hit for power. By moving to Rogers Centre he might find a few more deep flies at Turner become HR's (his batted ball distance #'s were good last year). At the plate he's pretty much JPA with a better ability to walk. I don't think we all would have griped as much about JPA if he walked at a 12-15% rate.

Helluva of an offseason.

that would have been sweet!

Schadenfreude wrote:

zong wrote:My guess is Rasmus + reliever/prospect

Depends on what Texas' motives were, I suppose. They were looking for at least a couple big bats, and it's also possible that their initial expectation was in acquiring that player through free agency before the Fielder deal presented itself, at which point something like Santos + prospect could have been more enticing than Rasmus (especially with the defensively-sound Leonys Martin in CF). Shift Kinsler's $16m on and they might perhaps have been players for Ellsbury/Cano.

Wasn't the Santos deal called off - allegedly - because someone failed a physical?

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-bas ... ll-through

dagger wrote:

Schadenfreude wrote:

zong wrote:My guess is Rasmus + reliever/prospect

Depends on what Texas' motives were, I suppose. They were looking for at least a couple big bats, and it's also possible that their initial expectation was in acquiring that player through free agency before the Fielder deal presented itself, at which point something like Santos + prospect could have been more enticing than Rasmus (especially with the defensively-sound Leonys Martin in CF). Shift Kinsler's $16m on and they might perhaps have been players for Ellsbury/Cano.

Wasn't the Santos deal called off - allegedly - because someone failed a physical?

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-bas ... ll-through

Different deal was, yeah, and apparently the person who failed the physical wasn't Santos. That's part of the reason I wondered whether they might've been interested in him as one of the main parties in a deal for Kinsler.

The Rangers apparently like Santos, I'm happy to trade the risk for risk and take Neftali back in exchange.