Which Position Should the Jays Acquire Prospects For?

[augustine]

Assuming the Jays are going to be sellers at the deadline (Happ, Estrada, Donaldson, bullpen pieces, etc...), which position do the Jays need prospects in most?

3B is full for a few years with Guerrero/Smith
SS is full for a few years with Bichette/Warmoth/Smith
2B is full for a few years with Travis/Bichette/Biggio/Urena/Gurriel
C is full for a few years with Jansen/Pentecost/McGuire.

OF has Pillar/Teoscar/Alford/Pompey + a couple of other possibilities. It seems we could use an elite OF prospect.
1B is pretty empty. After Smoak goes, it is Tellez, or Guerrero moves over. It seems we could use an elite 1B prospect.
SP has Sanchez/Stroman and we will probably legitimately fill in a couple of spots with prospects Pearson/Borucki/SRF/Zeuch. It seems we could use one or two elite SP prospects.

So, if we are buying prospects, is seems like we need OF, 1B, SP for our next contending team. Thoughts?

[vaff87]

Pitching and outfielders.

[Schad]

Pitching if we can, but I'm not too concerned about acquiring prospects at positions where we have depth, either. Take the best asset you can get, and make a trade in the future to consolidate assets if need be.

[augustine]

Pitching and outfielders.

No needs at 1B? You must be assuming that Guerrero moves over, as Tellez does not seem reliable right now. It would be fine if Guerrero moved over, as that may fit his ability, and there are excess 3B in the system. But, I haven't made the assumption that he moves over so quickly.

[vaff87]

Pitching and outfielders.

No needs at 1B? You must be assuming that Guerrero moves over, as Tellez does not seem reliable right now. It would be fine if Guerrero moved over, as that may fit his ability, and there are excess 3B in the system. But, I haven't made the assumption that he moves over so quickly.

It’s just an easy position to fill.

[So_Fresh]

Pitching. Can never have too much pitching and there is no guarantee any of them will pan out. Like Schad said, "take the best asset you can get, and make a trade in the future to consolidate assets if need be."

[North_of_Border]

Best Prospect and young players available.

I don’t care if you are loaded at 3B or SS or anything else. You never know what the picture will look like a few years down the road. Just cause our young guys look promising does not mean they could not be a bust. In that case we need Depth. Elite depth is preferred.

Though I agree. Pitching is a weakness

[OGLife]

Pitching. Can never have too much pitching and there is no guarantee any of them will pan out. Like Schad said, "take the best asset you can get, and make a trade in the future to consolidate assets if need be."

That theory wouldn’t apply. Isn’t s pitchers value usually stronger than any other position in baseball? We would need to attach more assets in any trade for a pitcher

[dagger]

BPA

[Tanner]

Just get the best prospects you can get. Don't worry about what position they play. I'm biased when I say I hate pitching prospects (they fail at too high of a rate) so I don't mind continuing to load up on position players and then signing/trading for vet Sp's when the time comes to add pitching, but if pitching is the best they can get in a trade, then do it.

[Schad]

Just get the best prospects you can get. Don't worry about what position they play. I'm biased when I say I hate pitching prospects (they fail at too high of a rate) so I don't mind continuing to load up on position players and then signing/trading for vet Sp's when the time comes to add pitching, but if pitching is the best they can get in a trade, then do it.

While it's true that highly-rated pitching prospects are, in the aggregate, less valuable than hitters, the injury risks that make prospects risky also apply to veteran pitchers, with the added element that good veteran pitchers are expensive. At least if the young pitchers break, you aren't going to be stuck paying them $20m+ a year for many years to come.

[vaff87]

Just get the best prospects you can get. Don't worry about what position they play. I'm biased when I say I hate pitching prospects (they fail at too high of a rate) so I don't mind continuing to load up on position players and then signing/trading for vet Sp's when the time comes to add pitching, but if pitching is the best they can get in a trade, then do it.

While it's true that highly-rated pitching prospects are, in the aggregate, less valuable than hitters, the injury risks that make prospects risky also apply to veteran pitchers, with the added element that good veteran pitchers are expensive. At least if the young pitchers break, you aren't going to be stuck paying them $20m+ a year for many years to come.

I feel with acquiring pitching prospects, using a higher quantity of lesser resources might be the way to go. IFA is a cheap way to acquire talent, in general. While I would rather take a position prospect with premium draft picks, after that, I would take a bunch of pitchers. Some guys will get injured, others will just be bad, and some will surprise, and you won’t be wasting premium resources.

[Schad]

I feel with acquiring pitching prospects, using a higher quantity of lesser resources might be the way to go. IFA is a cheap way to acquire talent, in general. While I would rather take a position prospect with premium draft picks, after that, I would take a bunch of pitchers. Some guys will get injured, others will just be bad, and some will surprise, and you won’t be wasting premium resources.

Yeah, my feeling is that the better option is the scattergun. Don't rely on one or two pitching prospects making it, but instead try to acquire a bevy of arms with upside. That's where a lot of our trades this season could come in...we're not going to be getting any 70 FV guys back, but if we can get a handful of second-tier guys the odds aren't bad that one or more will be refine into a solid starter.

I'm not against doing that with higher draft picks though, for the simple reason that (despite higher draft picks being crazy valuable relative to cost) they already go boom enough that there's not much safe about them.

[johanliebert]

Outside of vlad jr and maybe bo those are all unproven prospects. No position is “full”.

I’d try to move pillar tho and replace him with grich

[emptytheclip]

Let’s do a deal with the devil, NY Yankees. JA Happ for some prospects? They have some young arms in their system

They mentioned on At The Letters, Happ + a bullpen guy for Clint Frazier from the Yankees. Cleveland drafted him 5th overall in 2013 and was traded to NY in the Andrew Miller deal.

It would add a young controllable outfielder that Shapiro office drafted with real upside, that is currently really blocked in the Yankees depth chart. He was the Yankees #2 prospect in 2017 before graduating from the list.

Pitching prospects are nice but this would be a great pickup

[Brave new world]

Guys what would you guys need to see for a Donaldson & Stroman package from Atlanta.

Maybe begin with this and see where it takes us.

Braves get: josh Donaldson & Marcus Stroman

Jays get: kolby Allard, Ian Anderson, Max Fried, Kyle Muller, Alex Jackson, & Israneal Wilson.

That’s Atlanta’s #5,6,8,12,14, & 21st ranked prospects.

#46, 51, & 75 on MLB Pipeline. I think this really builds the system back for the Jays who are top heavy with position prospects but not much pitching. Allard & Fried can go right into the MLB rotation s now if needed good shot all the way around.

Thoughts.

[emptytheclip]

Don’t think Stroman gets dealt until his trade value recovers to the point of a frontline starter with control. Which means it won’t happen this year.
If Gohara is untouchable, Soroka will probably need to be in the conversation before Ross Atkins even picks up the phone.

[Skin Blues]

They'd probably rather have Soroka himself in the rotation than Stroman, at this point.

[phillipmike]

Guys what would you guys need to see for a Donaldson & Stroman package from Atlanta.

Maybe begin with this and see where it takes us.

Braves get: josh Donaldson & Marcus Stroman

Jays get: kolby Allard, Ian Anderson, Max Fried, Kyle Muller, Alex Jackson, & Israneal Wilson.

That’s Atlanta’s #5,6,8,12,14, & 21st ranked prospects.

#46, 51, & 75 on MLB Pipeline. I think this really builds the system back for the Jays who are top heavy with position prospects but not much pitching. Allard & Fried can go right into the MLB rotation s now if needed good shot all the way around.

Thoughts.

If this was offered to Shapiro and Atkins i think they take it run. Not because it is robbery but its just what they would be looking for. Projectable arms they can work with to build up depth.

If this is the best offer i would have no problems trading 0.5 years of Donaldson and 2.5 years of Stroman for 3-4 arms likely to make it to the MLB barring an injury. Im sure they would try for Gohara but if that doesnt work you have to like the Jays chances of turning at least 1 of these 4 arms into at least a mid rotation guy. I think you likely could get 2 of them to be something.

Im not to crazy about Jackson and Wilson. Pache and Tarnok would be the guys i would want instead of them.

[emptytheclip]

A lot of pitchers don’t workout in the AL East. You factor all the premium hitters and small ball parks—Stroman is a proven commodity and AL East certified. And you really never know with pitching prospects. They can dominate in the minors and completely flop in the majors. If we had 10 pitching prospects it would be fortunate to get one mid rotation guy that can pitch in the AL East, the rest will either become failed starters and bullpen fodder, or injury ridden. Even Aaron Sanchez isn’t completely cleared despite winning the 2016 ERA title.

I wouldn’t bank on any pitchers till they have a few years track record in the majors.