Andy007 said:
My point is that the Jays were in a situation where they had Gregg as a FA and had an option to re-sign him. Instead, they let him go and sent Napoli to Texas for Francisco, a guy arguably worse than Gregg. Then, after Francisco flamed out, we flipped NESTOR Molina for Santos. So in relation to the actual train of events, I would have much preferred to keep Gregg for another year, which allows us to retain two valuable assets.
I think that's sort of ignoring both the complexities of what AA was doing as well as the long-term goals of the club. Let's say the Jays did things the way you suggest, right now(assuming they didn't retain Gregg for this year) they'd have:
Mike Napoli
Nestor Molina
However, because they took the approach they did they have:
Sergio Santos
Kevin Comer(compensation pick for letting Gregg walk)
Pick #50 in the coming draft(compensation for Francisco)
Pick #58 in the coming draft(Compensation for Rauch)
Personally I think that's more or less a wash, if not a bit of an edge to the approach they took. Yeah, they'd have Napoli but Napoli loses a bit of value if you move him to DH/1B full time and the Jays already want to make room for D'Arnaud. Add in that they'd still be looking for someone to close out games and that Napoli can't really be judged entirely on what he did last year and I'm not sure they're that much ahead even without knowing who they draft.
But more to the point I'm not sure that if they'd decided to hang on to Gregg necessarily it means that they hold onto Napoli rather than flipping him for Francisco. Francisco was acquired in part because of the draft pick he'd yield and it's not like AA wouldn't be interested in upgrading the bullpen even if Gregg was around. I think it's probably more likely that the Napoli trade still happens and either Dotel or Rauch are the moves AA doesn't make.