And our non-tenders are...

I want to make one thing clear.  The Guardians' front office has been excellent over the past two years, especially with the cards they have been dealt.  

• Their rostering of 11 prospects last November was astute and gutsy.   I wrote that at the time. 
• Their incremental rostering of prospects during the season while removing the dead wood was excellent, as well, as they were simply using players who they intended to roster in the off-season to plug temporary gaps on the ML team during the season.  This was not a usual move as teams tend to plug these gaps with their veteran minor league signees.

This off-season I wrote that I thought they faltered a bit.  

• They traded the flame throwing Carolos Vargas for a much lesser prospect (in my opinion) in a move that cleared a roster spot
• They made a (in my opinion) ridiculous trade to obtain Juan Brito, who had to be rostered and will clog the 40-man for 3 years while burning all 3 of his minor league options leading to him either having to be on the 26 before he is ready or the organization giving up on him and DFAing or trading him for less than equal value because they have run out of those options.
• They rostered Tim Herrin over Peyton Battenfield (and probably prompted the trade of Vargas), although the former is just "all stuff, no performance" as he has only produced when his age is above league average. Twenty-six year old minor league relievers make the team as minor league invitees to spring training.  They don't take up a valuable roster spot in the winter as losing them to the Rule 5 is not generally not considered a great loss.  This move smacks of the gamble with Tobias Myers last year that failed miserably.

So, it was with great interest that I waited to see what they did at the non-tender deadline.  So, much to my dismay, they did, indeed, non-tender someone, Luke Maile.   This was, at first, frustrating to me as they could have just DFA'd him when they did the same to Gose and McCarty and saved a roster spot that we could have used to save Battenfield or Vargas.

Then it dawned on me.  If they want Maile back this move is actually a good one:

• DFAing Maile would mean he had to pass through waivers where another team could claim him even if he and the Guardians wanted to keep him.
• Non-tending Maile allows the team to negotiate with him as a free agent and roster him at any time between now and ST if they can work out a deal.  He also is not subject to the Rule 5, being a free agent and all. 

So, even though I dislike the idea of the Guardians losing other players just to keep their options open with a fungible asset like Maile (bad hit, veteran catchers are not hard to find), I get how it is a savvy move predictable for the executive of the year and his staff.

Not saying I like it as it is a treading water move and, in the short term, cost us a roster spot and forcing the team to make moves I don't agree with, I get that it is, at the moment it was done, a low-risk option that may give us some insurance on our catching situation if it is as I described above.

Still pissed over the Jones/Brito thing as I think the move was a terrible one both on paper in terms of talent and in process by what it does to our 40-man roster situation and how we likely get screwed out of the asset we obtained down the road 3 years.

However, I applaud the Maile non-tender.  It makes perfect sense to do it right now as it gives us flexibility with him if we need it, which I hope we don't, if we actually SOLVE the catching situation and not just try to put bandaids on it.

Now if we could just get our front office to not screw up any more trades this winter and get us Murphy, Puk, Abreu and maybe Haniger, we could call it a winter and look toward spring training with renewed excitement.