People outside our league wouldn’t have had occasion to notice, but there’s a new low price for Trout in season-long FGPts: $53 (previous low was $56). Here’s the story for anyone who is curious (League 653):
Earlier this week, $80 Trout was cut. I had $8 in cap space (last place team in the middle of a major rebuild). To make a play for him, a team with $29 in cap space traded Arozarena for additional cap space (it brought him up to $42), which made it seem like him getting Trout was inevitable. No other team had that much cap space except the team that had just cut Trout, but he was obviously on the sidelines for this one. So it seemed pretty likely that the team with $29 in cap space would get a very cheap Trout, particularly since he had a couple of other cuts.
I spent a good deal of time trying to line up my own trades for cap space and I actually had a really great offer on the table that would have netted me more than enough cap space to afford Trout, but I ultimately chickened out because I didn’t want to lose those players and not wind up with a cheap Trout. The players I would have traded were an $18 Tucker and a $12 Buxton. I literally had the trade offer open at 3am last night, but just couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger.
Flash forward to 3am this morning: the team with $29 in cap space only bid $52, so I won Trout for $53. To clear cap space, I had to cut the $18 Tucker and $12 Buxton plus $12 Plesac, $5 Verlander, and $2 Giles. Basically, had I made the trade for cap space, I would have wound up being able to keep Plesac, Verlander, and Giles plus some leftover cap space. But I was willing to sacrifice Plesac, the injured pitchers, and the extra cap space to hedge against losing Buxton and Tucker while not winding up with Trout.
I should note that this is in the middle of a major rebuild effort (I probably have the lowest performing team in FGPts that is being actively managed, lol), so looking forward to having the cheap Trout for a bit to anchor my offense in future years. Or possibly trade him once he’s healthy for a package that is better than $18 Tucker, $12 Buxton, and $12 Plesac. Even if he gets arbed a bit this offseason, that will just mean my other high surplus guys are spared some (namely my current $21 Guerrero) or Trout retains his surplus.
I have a number of high level OF prospects (and SS who might get moved to the OF), so I think consolidating Tucker and Buxton into Trout makes sense. FWIW, I view Trout as .400 wOBA for 2022+, while Tucker will probably be around .350 and Buxton around .340 or so (although who knows–he was hitting the ball great before he got hurt again). I think Plesac is solid but replaceable. While Verlander is old and Giles is just a RP coming off of major injury.
In hindsight, I obviously wish that I had taken the trade offer for cap space since I wound up losing Buxton and Tucker anyway. I anticipate that Buxton, Plesac, and Tucker will all be claimed (not sure about Verlander or Giles) or renominated shortly after they pass through waivers, probably by the team with $42 in cap space since he has top priority among the teams with open cap space. If they’re not, then I’m screwed.
So that’s how the story of how there came to be a $53 Trout in Ottoneu FGPts.