It is no secret (unless a guy blogging on the internet expects his posts to be secret) that I think the Guardians should bring in an experienced lefty reliever who could spell Sam Hentges and lessen his regular season load. It would help if he had some late inning experience, as well, as you can never have too many setup and replacement closer guys, can you?
It was not surprising when I saw that Detroit had traded Gregory Soto today. It wasn't even surprising to see that they traded him (and utilityman Kody Clemens) to the Phillies. What was surprising was the return that Soto brought back to the Tigers.
Matt Vierling (OF) - 26 years old (part-time player in 2022 after debuting in 2021 - Rated as Phillies #8 prospect before 2022 by Baseball America. Had 23 postseason ABs in the Phillies playoff run this past season, going 2-13 with 1 2B and 1 RBI.
Matt Sands (C) - 26 years old, first time in the majors in 2022
Nick Maton (Utility infielder) - 26 years old - has 216 plate appearances over the last two seasons for Philly.
Not that these guys are terrible prospects, but, really, a backup catcher, a utility man and a part-time outfielder for Soto? Really?
Plus, the Phillies even cleared a roster spot by getting 2 40-man guys (Soto and Clemens) and giving up 3 40-man guys. Plus, none of these guys Philly gave up had a clear path to playing time this coming season.
Clearly, unless they have a bump in performance, none of the 3 guys the Tigers got in this trade will be any more than inexpensive complementary players for a team in a deep rebuild this coming season. Plus, as complementary players they will be clogging the roster for the next 4 years with little chance of offering any significant change to the Tigers performance over that time. Again, this is considering that they don't have a significant bump in performance.
Looking at the Guardians roster there are no comparables to Maton, Vierling and Sands. None. But I can't believe that the Guardians couldn't have put together a package of their 2nd tier prospects that wouldn't have beaten the Phillies package in terms of future projectability.
The questions is were the Guardians in on Soto and, if so, who did Detroit ask for. Remember, given that Oakland asked for Daniel Espino and others from the Guardians and ended up with an inferior package from Atlanta/Milwaukee, putting on my conspiracy theory hat I wonder if teams are only willing to deal with the Guardians if they can get a much better haul than they can get anywhere else.
Now, it is interesting that with 30 saves and 2-11 record Soto was deemed to have pitched at replacement level in 2022. Don't know how that works but it points out what others have pointed out about the issues using WAR.
Still, to Cleveland I think we would have been worth at least 2 WAR this season, if not 3, all things considered. I don't know why Gregory Soto is not wearing a Guardians' uniform tonight. I just don't. We had more than enough prospect capital to get him and not hurt our depth. I don't know the Guardians' FO plan but losing out on guys like Gregory Soto who came pretty cheap is NOT how I would be handling my off-season.
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