December 9, 2009 - Crazy Trade Idea

Let's see what everyone thinks of this - The Marlins are looking to deal Dan Uggla, and, in classic Marlins fashion, are looking for little to no salary coming back to them, including some prospects who will at some point be able to fill in for Uggla. Estimates I've heard for his likely salary for 2010 range around $7M, up only a slight amount from $5.35M in 2009 due to a relative off-year from Uggla. If we eat all but $2M of Snyder's salary for next season (or however much we need to shed to fit in Uggla), and all of Snyder's salary for 2011, perhaps the same with Eric Byrnes, or deal one of the Roberts/Ryal/Ojeda trio as a cost-efficient replacement for the Marlins, perhaps lure in a third team, etc., could we spin a way to get Uggla? For $7M, we're not going to find a much better bat on the market, and we could easily move the guy to first (since his D at second is suspect at best anyways). For example, the Rangers have one of the most loaded farm systems in all of baseball. Theyre not going to give up a Smoak or Feliz, or even an Andrus, since they're not going to be the team getting the big name player, but something like this could ensue:

D-Backs get:

2B/1B Dan Uggla from FLA

Marlins get:

2B Ryan Roberts from AZ

RHP Michael Main from TEX (ranked #90 prospect in baseball before '09, had miserable '09 season at Hi-A, but will be just 21 for all of next season)

LHP Tom Layne from AZ

OF Collin Cowgill from AZ

Rangers get:

C Chris Snyder from AZ (D-Backs eat entire salary for next two seasons except $2M total, preferrably both for this season).

Fringier prospects from AZ

The Rangers desperately need a catcher, and Main's massive struggle year, combined with Arizona's eating of a huge chunk of Snyder's salary (just enough to fit in Uggla, as a matter of fact) would be a way to get a cost-efficient catching option for a team needing a catching option desperately (perhaps, if necessary, we could give Texas another prospect of marginal value, a Cesar Valdez or Taylor Harbin). For Florida, They shed lots of salary, get three good prospects, one in Main who has high upside, and two in Layne and Cowgill who are more low-risk, and a cost-efficient replacement for Uggla in Roberts who plays better D and can mash LHP. If they want more upside, perhaps we could give more to Texas and pray that we could pry a better prospect from them to give to Florida. We give up even more prospects, but isn't Dan Uggla worth it? Seems like the perfect bat that we're looking for, and he fits our budget nicely if we can shed that $2M or so from Snyder. We could even condition the deal on a negotiating period/extension with Uggla.

Don't worry, I know this is more than a little bit fantastical, but this is why I love winter meetings. Let me know who you think blinks at this deal.