I meant to include this in yesterday's Game Wrap. As I watched Josh Naylor over the last three games I got to thinking he would look great in the middle of the Giants lineup. A legitimate left handed power bat between Adames, Chapman and Flores. As you all know I don't have much patience for revisiting trades that should or shouldn't have been made and I'm not going to belabor it beyond this post but Naylor sure looks like a missed opportunity for Buster Posey and Zach Minasian. Yes, he's a 1 year rental before free agency. Yes, he will probably command way more in free agency than he's worth, AND.....the D'Backs didn't give up a whole lot for him. I went back and looked up my Hot Stove League Update from that trade and here's what I said at the time:
The Hot Stove is sizzling today. No sooner had Christian Walker signed with the Astros and Paul Goldschmidt with the Yankees than the D'Backs moved aggressively to fill their hole at 1B with Josh Naylor in a trade with the Guardians. The DBacks send Slade Cecconi RHP and Competitive Balance Round B draft pick to the Guardians.
D'Backs get:
Summary: Assuming Josh Naylor was going to leave in free agency, the Guardians may have actually upgraded 1B for 2025 by trading him and signing Santana. Again the question is how much longer can Santana keep up this level of play? Santana has also been discussed in blogs as a possible bridge option at 1B for the Giants. I think Buster has other priorities and is likely to stick with LMWJ and a RH platoon bat for 1B until Bryce Eldridge is ready.
The one thing the D'Backs gave up in the trade the Giants couldn't match was the Competitive Balance Draft pick which the Giants did not possess. Was that what the Guardians really wanted in the trade? As I have said several times, those draft picks are not just about getting an extra player in the draft but they come with Bonus Pool money which can be used to upgrade the entire draft. Otherwise it looks like a deal the Giants could easily have topped for a guy who would be a huge difference maker in their lineup.
In context, back then we were also looking at projecting Encarnacion to a 162 game schedule and I think Encarnacion and Naylor would have been about the same defensively. Naylor has more power and probably slightly better average. As you said, the difference was probably that the Diamondbacks could offer a competitive balance pick and bonus pool money. Since the initial post, three things went wrong: Encarnacion was injured, Wade experienced hitting problems, and Eldridge was injured. If one of those three things went right, we probably would not be revisiting the possible Naylor trade right now.
ReplyDeleteI see the advantage of Naylor over Encarnacion is the lefty power which the Giants are woefully short of. I don't think the plan was ever to have Eldridge be a factor at the MLB level this year. The advantage of Naylor over Wade Jr was power. Of course during the Hot Stove League season we didn't know LMWJ's BA and OBP would crater too.
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