Washington Yanks/Minnesota Cards Trade

[Deleted]

Washington sends:

LF: Bryce Harper WAS 16:$5m 17:$6m 18:$7m

CI: Chase Headley NYY 16:$13m 17:$13m 18:$13m

Prospect:
P Reynaldo Lopez WAS

2016 4th Round Draft Pick

Minnesota sends:

2B Brian Dozier MIN 16:$1M, 17:$2M, 18:$3M

3B Miguel Sano MIN 16:$0.5M, 17:$0.5M, 18:$0.5M, 19:$0.5M

OF Eddie Rosario MIN 16:$0.5M, 17:$0.5M, 18:$0.5M, 19:$0.5M

Prospect:
P Marco Gonzales STL

Very tough to trade Harper....but I wanted some young quality players with not much salary impact and hopefully Sano becomes the stud he should be! I got to shed Headley salary. Now I have a strong and deep Infield to go along with my other moves. I will also have a lot of cap space to spend on some top free agents to complete the roster!

[Commish Emeritus (Scott)]

I agree.

OK, where to start? I can certainly say I did not anticipate moving Sano and Dozier at all as both of them could be key cogs in any team's lineup for the next several years. But then Rich mentioned something about @bharper3407 potentially being available but he'd need a huge return. So I got to thinking...

First off, I think Gonzales and Lopez kind of wash each other out here. They're both arguably the #2 pitching prospect in each system (Lopez behind Giolito in Washington; Gonzales right behind Reyes in STL), although I think Gonzales actually has a decent chance to crack the Cards' rotation this year while Lopez is likely still a year or two away in DC. A nice swap of top pitching prospects to say the least.

That leaves Dozier, Sano and Rosario for Harper, Headley and a pick. I may have taken this deal of the 3 young bucks (although Dozier has a few years on the other two) for Harper, period. But Rich insisted on moving Headley's salary (which I did not want to take on) so to get the deal done he threw in the 4th round pick this year.

Harper is an MVP at an affordable 5/6/7 the next 3 years, and then if I want to I can Franchise Tag him for 2019 and beyond. We'll see how many more HR titles and MVPs he has under his belt in a few more years. Headley is a serviceable 3B/CI option with a somewhat hefty price tag for 2016-2018, but a necessary piece of the deal to bring young Harper to Minnesota. Dozier is a stud and gets plugged in right away to Rich's lineup. Sano should continue to improve and will likely be adding OF eligibility this coming season. Rosario is interesting as he has eligibility at several postions and he put up some decent numbers in 2015. Will be interesting to see where he fits into the Twins lineup in 2016, but both Sano and Rosario at $500K for 4 years was what helped get this deal done.

[Cleveland Braves (Drew)]

Commish approved.