Gio Tracking

Hah!   He begins with a play on words but where will he go from there?

You know, in the old days I would have gone ballistic over the loss of Gio Urshela.   However, with age comes perspective.  So let's think about this.

First, let's look at the negatives:

Last year we DFA'd Jesus Aguilar.  Aguilar has made that move look very shortsighted but look at what we had at his positions (DH and 1B).  Edwin Encarnacion and Carlos Santana.  There was no place for him AND he failed in many opportunities, albeit small sample size opportunities in the majors and he looked like he might be topping out at AAA.

Now we DFA'd Gio Urshela.  Again, the guy had gotten chances in the majors but didn't latch onto them, showing a great, versatile glove but not much with the bat.   Yeah, he could have been a great utility guy but we had one and, with Urshela's hitting woes, it made the choice between him and Erik Gonzalez a difficult one.

What's the bottom line?  Many organizations have guys who just can't make it to the majors as they are not sound enough in all aspects of the game, especially when their hitting or hitting for power is suspect. The term thrown around is AAAA player, not quite good enough for the majors but great at AAA.   I don't think either Aguilar or Urshela are AAAA players.   I think they are major league players for mid- to low-level ML teams.  We are not either of those so if you have to lose Urshela because you can't keep him on your 25, well, then you are destined to lose him.

Could we have done a better job preparing for this and maybe getting something more than cash for Urshela and, before him, Aguilar?  Probably.   However while I would love to have Aguilar and Urshela on the team I still think I would rather have Gonzalez and Encarnacion.

Don't think it stops there, folks.  Yandy Diaz, Yu Chang, etc. are right on the heels of Urshela.  We will have to deal with them next as, hopefully, Francisco Lindor is not going anywhere for a while.  Ditto for Jose Ramirez.

However, unless one of these guys develops into a solid major leaguer, we will lose them, too.  

The goal is to have the fewest Brandon Phillips, Jesus Aguilar mistakes as possible.  I would love to tell you that Urshela won't be successful anywhere else but I think he will.  The goal then shifts to getting something for him, which we didn't do, either.

The point is, Urshela wasn't successful here and we had no room for him and his lack of success made trading him difficult.  In my opinion a great GM gets value for guys like Urshela.   He didn't get any value and Urshela is no longer here.  I hate it but I get it.