Time for another direction. I am very happy that Ben is gone. He got lucky in 2013 but most of his decisions since then have turned out bad. When he took over, we were paying too much for certain players who were not earning their keep. (Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez). He didn't really change that, he just changed out the players (Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, Rick Porcello) are just as bad. The one thing that I will give him credit for is that he did not let the prospects go. Mookie, Xander, Blake Swihart could be all-stars down the road. Looking good are Henry Owens, Eduardo Rodriquez, and maybe Brian Johnson. Jackie Bradley Jr. and Rusney are beginning to play well too. Based on Dombrowski's past record, he will trade one or more of the players mentioned above for some top of the line starter. We'll see.
I agree although I don't think anyone in the world thought that those 3 would perform as poorly as they did this year.
Take away the salary of all three of those guys and it's really surprising that all 3 have dropped like they have. Porcello has lost command of his sinker and is giving up moon shots. He's only 26
Pablo has gone from gone from a solid offensive and defensive player to hideous at both this year. He's only 29.
Hanley's OBP has plummeted and his defense has been epically bad. You would assume that a SS - even a bad one - would be able to adjust to playing a short LF. He's only 31.
The only bright spot is these guys are only here for another 3-4 years after this year. Thank god he didn't give some comically stupid 6 or 7 year deal to any of these guys.
The minor league has a lot of bright spots, especially in the lower minors where they have an all-star infield worth of prospects and the OF they just drafted is lighting up the competition.
The thing DD has gotten credit for is he's done very well in trades. His FA record has been bad - although lets hope that's only because he had pressure to sign guys for old man Ilitch and he will change his ways here.
But I hope he doesn't start trading every young player. You see this past week where Owens, Rodriguez, Bradley, Shaw, Betts, Bogaerts, Swihart - they are all playing well and are all 25 and younger. I hope he shows discipline in keeping most of these guys here unless he can spin a couple for a really good young arm.