Trade Retrospective: The Devil’s Rejects

Last year, my new year’s resolution was to join a dynasty league. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept, but it’s challenging to find the right league. Generally, you need 20 very competitive, knowledgeable owners. Too often, attempts to form dynasty leagues include too many weak links and fall apart.

Luckily for me, fellow RotoGraphist Chad Young wanted a partner in his league – The Devil’s Rejects. Other owners include Eno Sarris and representatives from a variety of the top fantasy services.  The majority of teams are run by at least two owners.

My plan is to cover a variety of dynasty topics on Fridays. Today, I’ll analyze the nine trades we made from the time I joined the team through the end of the season. Chad and I are both hard at work lining up more offseason trades so it’s a good time to check our past performance. For those who are curious, we finished sixth of 20 last season. The top five spots pay.

Preseason Swaps

1/24
We Acquire: Stephen Piscotty
We Trade: Matt Moore

1/31
We Acquire: Dan Haren and Casey Kelly
We Trade: Draft Picks (exact picks not recorded in trade log)

3/23
We Acquire: James Paxton
We Trade: Stephen Piscotty

Chad made four trades before I joined the team. He added J.D. Martinez, Jose Quintana, Russell Martin, Bradley Zimmer, Dalton Pompey, and Moore while dealing away Brian Dozier, Michael Cuddyer, and Lance Lynn. A few other players and picks were involved in both directions but they were inconsequential. Overall, he did very well but I can’t claim any credit for these moves.

The slow draft began in early February. It takes about a month. Prior to the draft, we did a fantastic job acquiring Piscotty for Moore. We felt pitching depth was a possible weakness and ultimately swapped Piscotty for Paxton. That move was a mistake for several reasons. We’re going to regret not having Piscotty in our lineup next year.

The other swap dumped a couple extra picks we had for a back-end starter. We keep 28 players (40 player rosters). Regrettably, the acquisition of Kelly helped to push Alex Rodriguez out of our top 28. Kelly and Ryan Brett occupied our 27th and 28th spots. Cutting Rodriguez may have ruined our season.

Ultimately, these preseason moves got a little too cute. I’m happy upgrading from Moore to Paxton, but I do wish we stopped at the intermediate step. As you’ll see in a moment, Haren was a great pickup for us, but Kelly really hurt.

In-Season Swaps

4/22
We Acquire: Santiago Casilla
We Trade: Dan Haren

5/12
We Acquire: Zack Cozart
We Trade: Scott Schebler

5/15
We Acquire: Kendrys Morales, David Robertson, and Freddy Galvis
We Trade: Prince Fielder and Kyle Kubitza

We made six in-steason trades. They occurred in two sets so I’m going to break up the analysis. This first trio were the big moves. Haren turned into our first closer – Casilla. At the time, it was a mediocre starter for a mediocre closer swap. Casilla went on to have a great season. Haren? Not so much. Now Haren has retired while Casilla ranks as an easy keeper.

We’re also happy with the Cozart trade even though he spent most of the year on the disabled list. You see, we also kept Eugenio Suarez so we benefited from holding both Reds shortstops. We’re hoping Cincinnati escapes from Brandon Phillips and Suarez moves to second base. Meanwhile, Schebler will be available in the draft if we want to give him another try.

The blockbuster sent away a BABIP-fueled Fielder for Morales, Robertson, and Galvis. The last player was actually important to the deal. At the time, we needed some middle infield depth. Meanwhile, Morales outperformed Fielder plus we also added Robertson.

Of course, future considerations are important too. We figured Fielder and Morales would be similar last year, but the Rangers first baseman is younger. Robertson had a mixed season, but he’s still a top closer and easy keeper.

6/29
We Acquire: Anthony Gose and Andre Ethier
We Trade: Steve Pearce and Jedd Gyorko

7/4
We Acquire: Ben Zobrist and Tyler Clippard
We Trade: Dalton Pompey

8/5
We Acquire: Michael Bourn
We Trade: Nellie Rodriguez

This second trio of deals was all about category management. When we made the first trade, Pearce wasn’t playing and Gyorko was in the minors. We may regret selling low on Gyorko, but I think this was a solid return. At the time, we needed outfielders and stolen bases. Unfortunately, it’s a weekly league so Gose wasn’t a viable start for much of the second half.

I’m a big fan of the Pompey trade. One owner engaged on him from the moment I joined the league, but we kept rebuffing his overtures. I compare Pompey to Jackie Bradley Jr. He has a long path to walk before he’s a viable major league player. Meanwhile, we got a core performer in Zobrist. We knew Clippard would lose his job soon after he was acquired, but there’s still a chance he signs as a closer before our keeper deadline.

There isn’t much to discuss with this last one. Eno owned Bourn. At the time, he was coming off a hot week with something like four stolen bases. I thought there was a teeny tiny chance he was back to vintage Bourn. Rodriguez would rank somewhere around 39th on our keeper list (remember we keep 28). It ended up as a nothing-for-nothing swap.

Overall, I think we accomplished two things very well. We improved our core with players like Zobrist, Casilla, Paxton, Morales, Cozart, and Robertson. Along with better production, we now have much better keeper depth than last year.

This time, we aren’t debating keeping a Kelly or Brett-type player. Instead, players like Byung-ho Park, Jae-gyun Hwang, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are on the bubble. Both Korean players have a chance to make noise in the majors next season while Guerrero Jr. may be a generational talent.

As for shortcomings, we have to be a little more careful about selling low. We got lucky with Fielder in that his owner was also selling low on Morales. Nobody had fully bought in on either player’s solid start to the season. We may seriously kick ourselves for dumping Gyorko, Piscotty, and Pompey. I’m already upset about Piscotty.

I foresee more trades ahead of us.