Harry Dunne said:
Passing on CFM was a big mistake. Passing on Marwin at 2 yr/$21M was probably a mistake, considering how much he'd be playing this year. Passing on McCann at 1 yr/$2M was a mistake too. Passing on Keuchel TBD but I think was good.
The Brantley, Chirinos and Miley signings were A+, but overestimating White and not having a backup plan was a big mistake.
I think the CFM thing is the only one of the above that might be impossible to overcome. Those pickups were great, but if we had signed everyone above and just run it back I think we'd be better off.
We will see.
CFM wasn't gonna come back because he wanted to be closer to his family. He was very clear about that. I think they jumped on the Diaz trade too early. If they had it to do over again, once Marwin's price came down, I think had they not made the trade, they would have signed him. As far as McCann, if we were going to keep him, we would have had to pick up his $20M option. The $2M he's making now is a hometown discount for the Braves, and we would have had to pay way more than that to keep him. Plus, I doubt anyone could have predicted he'd come back from knee problems to have this kind of season. Not sure what to make of Keuchel.
I imagine White is dealt with either during or not long after the all-star break. I kinda get the feeling that they're holding on to him desperately hoping they can package him in a trade somehow just so he's not given away for nothing. Same idea with Kemp.
I wonder who they're going to look at for trades. Stroman got hurt yesterday, and he doesn't seem to have a pitch-set that plays well with the analytics-driven focus of Strom and the Astros. Bumgardner is hard to read since he hasn't had a great season, but he seems like Verlander in 2017 where a change of scenery could re-energize him. However, the Astros are on his no trade list and the Twins aren't, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him go north. That leaves Matthew Boyd among the big names, and I'm not all that impressed with him.
I wouldn't be disappointed to see them go after somebody like Robbie Ray from the d-backs. LHP, ERA around 3.90, still has another year of arbitration left. Throws 4-seam fastball, slider, curve, and sinker.
http://www.brooksbaseball.net/landing.php?player=592662https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rayro02.shtml