With Ahmed Out, What should the Back-up Shortstop Plan Be?
According to Steve Gilbert, Ahmed has been dealing with soreness in his right shoulder, the same injury that hampered him throughout the 2021 season and caused him to miss the final two weeks. He has recently received both a platelet-rich plasma injection as well as a cortisone injection. Neither of them have alleviated it. Ahmed said a recent MRI did not yield a clear diagnosis and he is going to continue his rehab for now. The injury bothers him more hitting than it does throwing.
I don't know about you, but that does not sound encouraging. He has had this same injury since last season, and instead of having surgery to repair it, Nick decided to rehab it. He reported to Spring Training with the same injury and now (I do realize that he could not speak with the team during the lockout) it is not any better. He finally had an MRI, but it was inconclusive and now less than two weeks before Opening Day he is getting a second opinion and is continuing the rehab that has not worked so far. Yea, that about sums it up.
Is Sergio Alcantara the answer? Not unless you are fine with a guy who grades less defensively at short than Nick and batted .205/.303/.327 with five homers and 17 RBIs in Chicago last year for the Cubs. In other words.......NO!
What about prospect Geraldo Perdomo? Well, first of all he is only 22 years old. He has been in the minors since 2017, and we all know he lost significant playing because of COVID. To give you some numbers for his minor league career, he has had 1130 total at bats (minus his 218 walks, but only striking out 230 times) with 117 total RBI's, 14 home runs, 15 triples, 39 doubles and a .267 average. This spring he has had 19 at bats with 3 hits 5 RBI's and is batting .158. I won't say he is ready, his numbers don't say he is ready, but he is a better option than Alcantara.
But, what I suggest is making a trade with a team that needs to shed some payroll, who has some good young players, and can reunite us with an old friend. Click next and get the details.
Did you know that the Philadelphia Phillies have four players they will be paying over $20MM to this season? Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler each get $26MM while J.T Realmuto will receive $23.9MM and newly signed Nick Castellanos will get an even $20M those four guys make up over 40% of their total team payroll. And they are in a tough division with both the free spending New York Mets and the defending World Series Champion Atlanta Braves. In 2022 the newly negotiated CBA has the luxury tax at $230MM and the total team payroll according to Sportrac for the Phillies will exceed that number and come in at $232MM. I am sure they don't want to go over that tax, and I am sure that they would actually like to have a little financial flexibility to be able to add payroll at the trade deadline and also not go over the luxury tax. The Diamondbacks can help themselves and the Phillies with the following trade.
The Diamondbacks would agree to take Didi Gregorius and his $14.5MM (the Phillies can pay his $750,000 bonus) . His Philly years have not been the kindest with a slash line of .237/.295/413. But if you dive deeper into his batting numbers his strikeout rate is only 16.4% which is 5% better than the major league average, his walk rate is still a respectable 6.1%, and almost half his balls are hit to center field. The number that really stands out is his BABIP (batting average on balls in play) which means those almost 50% of his hits that predictably go up the middle, they shift on him and have defenders waiting. In my trade senero, I would take away some more money from the Phillies and try to make the common baseball term "change of scenery" work for the Dbacks. Do you remember Scott Kingery? Philly thought he was going to be the next big thing and on March 25th 2018 signed him to what they thought would be a team friendly $24MM contract with 3 club options. With his contract this season he is owed $6.25MM, next year $8.25MM and his 3 club options the following 3 years of $13MM $14MM and $15MM. Now, before you get scared and stop reading those are club options, so the club decides if they pick them up or not, so if the Diamondbacks decide to decline the 3 options they only have a $1MM buyout.
Kingery debuted for Philadelphia in 2018 in so doing hit 23 doubles, 8 home runs, stole 10 bases and collected 35 RBI's and 55 runs all while being asked to play shortstop, center field and third base. Then in 2019 all of his numbers increased to 34 doubles, 19 home runs, 15 stolen bases, 55 RBI's and 64 runs. Then he fell off the face of the earth and only played a combined 51 games between 2020 and 2021 batting .159 and .053. In June of 2021 it was so bad he was placed on waivers, which he cleared, he was then sent to AAA and then had to have shoulder surgery. One last note is that Scott was born and raised in Arizona, played his college ball for Arizona University where he won Pac-12 Conference Player of the Year in 2015.
Now, before some of you again start freaking out saying that is almost $30MM worth of contracts Arizona is agreeing to take on and they get one year of Didi and a change of scenery guy and question my logic, just wait. The Phillies have a couple of young players who can fill places where we have needs, and they are young, cheap, and controllable. Click next and see what else I would ask for in the trade.
The reason the Phillies would be willing to part with Didi is they have a a quick rising superstar in Bryson Stott. They have a young controllable third baseman that they are seemingly loosing confidence in as well in Alec Bohm and they have Ronald Torreyes who spelled Alec late last season when they sent him to AAA. In 2020 in 180 plate appearances he slashed 338/400/481 and was runner-up for Rookie of the Year. Then 2021 came and so did the slash line of 247/305/342. He is not great defensively, but if the change of scenery can get him somewhere between 2020 and 2021 considering he will not become a free agent until the 2027 season, he would fit into the rebuilding window of when some of the other talented minor leagers would be ready as well.
The Phillies have a ton of interesting prospects at AAA and I would ask for two of them to complete the trade. Both of these prospects were also in the Arizona Fall League this past season and both looked and performed well. The first is a guy who can be either a starter or a reliever in Hans Crouse. He was acquired from Texas where Texas felt they got first round talent in a second round signee. He could be a starter because he has four legitimate pitches that all get high marks from scouts, but he has a wipe-out slider that got a 65 grade from MLB.com. That pitch could literally be a put away pitch for a reliever, especially a closer. Hans is ranked as the Phillies 6th best prospect. The other young AAA prospect I would target is catcher and 5th ranked ranked prospect Logan O'Hoppe. Logan has a great make-up and work ethic. He was selected in the 23rd round of the 2018 MLB Player Draft and has worked his way to a highly regarded prospect. He got his strikeout percentage to 17.4% and in the Arizona Fall League actually walked more than he struck out. He also won the Dernell Stenson Sportsmanship Award while in the AFL for his work ethic and how much the AFL pitchers liked working with him.
I know both of these guys are great prospects and some of you may be shaking your head thinking I am asking for the moon, but they are desperate to unload Kingery's contract, they have a young high ceiling guy in Stott to take Didi's place and they get out from underneath his large contract. Plus, the Phillies rotation of Eflin, Gibson, Nola, Wheeler and top prospect Coonrod recovering from Tommy John and throwing ahead of schedule. The catcher position is going to be manned by J.T Realmuto with Sands and the Phillies have 4 catchers on their 40 man roster, none of them are O'Hoppe.