Farmer1906 said:
Ag_07 said:
The argument for doing that trade would be that's not selling the farm.
Luis is part of the rotation. Chas is as expendable as they come. Lee is a backup catcher. Moving Brown would sting.
That is your #1 and #2 prospect along with a young controllable arm that's well above average.
I think you've got to look at it as how much do you improve with Soto vs. whoever's place he's taking vs. how much are you likely to lose with who replaces who you trade for him.
Soto can't play CF, so it's not like you can roll into the postseason with this amazing Mike, Soto, Tucker, Yordan OF/DH combo. You're still playing Jake and one of those guys is on the bench (which is criminal).
Lee is a career .258 minor league hitter and it's not even certain Lee will be an everyday player. His prospect ranking is more of a result of the C position sucking across the league than him being a stud. Anyway he's certainly no Sal Perez or Realmuto and I don't think we'd cry over losing him.
I agree that you can't give up Brown and Luis. Odds are that's 2 bona fide top of the rotation guys. Assuming Yordan can keep playing a good bit of LF, does Soto over whatever other corner OF we can pick up improve us more than whatever 2 SP take the place of Luis and Brown? I doubt it. Zero guarantee that JV comes back to the Astros and/or that he'll still be insane CYA JV if he does. I think a lot of factors have helped him this year, but the bottom line is that he's old and what he's doing is a miracle. He's going to get paid a ton and will fall off the cliff at some point. I'd rather gamble on the futures of Luis & Brown at bargain basement prices.
PS - I think Chas is underrated. He's gotten Dustied and should have never had to fight Siri for playing time. I think he's a legit MLB CF who can hit 25 bombs and play solid defense. We can afford to lose him, but I don't think he's the scrub he's made out to be. He's a WAY better player than Marisnick, who somehow everyone loved. I seriously think there's a lot of latent homosexuality towards Jake. If you look at his numbers, would everyone still love him if he had more of that Chas UPS driver look to him?