It's been a little bit, so let's take a quick holistic look at the squad before we make any decisions.
C Eddie Rodriguez (.209/.265/.296)
Solid defender, and only 25. Contact ratings are decent and he played well in his rookie and sophomore year in Georgia, but obviously has declined to get to this pretty dreadful slash line. K% keeps rising, BB% keeps diving. Hope he's a backup.
1B Justin Chandler (.265/.308/.437)
This was Chandler's fourth season with us, but it's first first time getting through a full season. Over 607 PA he hit 17 HR but his walk rate has dropped down to just above 5%. He's entering his final season.
2B Chris McGinnis (.330/.388/.511)
Called up mid-year after torching AAA, McGinnis finally got the call at the age of 26 and three years after we added him in a trade. He didn't disappoint, slashing the above numbers over 209 PA.
3B Dave Magby (.250/.315/.456)
Magby swatted 28 HR following up on his 30 HR campaign in '59. But the walk rate dropped to single digits (8.7%) for the first time since his rookie season. Everything else looks pretty good and consistent.
SS Jonathan Tandy (.250/.331/.453)
Already having a great glove, Tandy followed up his stellar first fill season with another fantastic season, despite dropping slightly across AVG, OBP, and SLG.
LF Manuel Cardenas (.335/.378/.542)
Picked up at the deadline, Cardenas is a high-contact guy with some pop who played really well over 217 PA with our squad this season. Currently listed as the #13 prospect.
CF Hector Araiza (.235/.289/.377)
A defensive outlier, Araiza is one of the best CF's in the game, and a full season of playing time showed he wasn't a complete black hole on offense. While the average wasn't great, he hit 32 doubles and 14 HR along with 22 SB for 3.1 WAR.
RF Tony Serna (.254/.321/.494)
Serna led our team in homers with 36. We accepted a team option to bring him back this year and have another for next year, but I don't see any reason to believe his upcoming age-30 season won't be another solid one.
DH Alex Dominguez (.269/.360/.407)
Dominguez played his entire rookie season in the majors, getting 542 PA. His 12 BB% as a rookie looks incredible, and he struck out just 18.8% of the time while hitting 13 HR. While coming up through our international complex as a 2B, his defense isn't good but it could certainly play at 1B and he doesn't
need to be stuck at DH. With Chandler in his final year, we'll have to explore that as an option.
BN/OF Jorge Zermeno (.223/.343/.410)
Zermeno was the key piece that we received back in the OF Guilleromo Rodriguez trade:
Quote:
We make a deal with Detroit, sending them DH Guillermo Rodriguez, SS prospect and defensive wizard Kellen Almond (unranked, our 55th prospect), and SP prospect Matt Shaffer (#348, our #21 prospect), and $14M to cover Rodriguez's salary.
The return is headlined by LF Jorge Zermeno, the one-time #3 prospect who just graduated off the list this season. He's a right-handed bat that can definitely play in the corner outfield, with massive power and a tremendous eye (both 7). The contact is a little iffy (5) and he has no speed or baserunning ability, but the power/eye combination could be huge. He has less than a year of service time, so he's under team control for the next six seasons.
Additionally, 2B Chris McGinnis comes over in the deal. He's the #327 prospect and #13 in Detroit's system. Our scout like him a bit more than that, and Detroit picked him with the 21st overall pick last summer. He can play 2B. 3B, and fill in at SS if needed, and the 6/5/6 bat profile works if he develops.
Finally, two relief arms who just hit arbitration come over in the deal as well. Each is a high stuff, low control arm. Neither is overly expensive, but these guys helped make the financials work and I'll have a couple spots in the bullpen open with some guys from last year moving back into the rotation.
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I mentioned McGinnis above, and interestingly, one of the relief arms I didn't even name here is our recently-departed closer Jerry Johnson. But Zermano was supposed to be the big return. We even signed him to a long-term contract. While his season wasn't horrible, he's in a part-time role, just starting against LHP. His PA per year have plummeted each year down to 198 last season.