Yeah and I think it’s a futile exercise until we know if JDM opts out. Can’t guess anything until that’s settled.
He’s almost surely opting out. JDM rebounded so well the potential for a trade is much higher than previous years’ opt-out decisions. Especially if the Sox can get a deal done with Schwarber, who’s suddenly a fan- and clubhouse-favorite and certainly seems to enjoy it here.
I don’t think the return would be huge or anything, but JDM at 1/$19M would interest a lot of teams, fringe ones as well as contenders, especially with 15 new hitter positions potentially opening up. We can see some cracks starting to show, but he’s still a top 8-10 percentile hitter in baseball. His agent should know that, which is why barring some deep desire to retire a Red Sox I think he opts out.
Re-allocating JDM’s money to Schwarber locks in the same .380 wOBA guy in the lineup to someone 5 1/2 years younger, and more likely to sustain it.