This is pretty much the root of all my annoying and long-winded rants of the past week. Perhaps Iām wrong, but I agree here that there just didnāt seem to be any sort of cohesive plan to construct the roster for 2023. Iām not suggesting any sort of major overhaul, but signing a 1B, bringing back an injured, 1-dimensional vet, and overpaying to retain a reliever and calling it an off-season seemed somewhat negligent, and taking our sweet-ass time to hire a GM reeked of problematic hubris.
But you knew you were losing the pitcher who had the best season in MLB. You knew the McCullers was an injury wild card. You let your only offensively-competent utility guy walk. You sign Brantley, who is also an injury wild card. The depth suffered.
I think they hired a good GM and agree that long-term, things are in good hands. The problem is that it feels like they failed to maximize a championship-caliber teamās odds of adding another title this year, again, due to their hubris. Thatās frustrating because, great as this team has been for a long time now, you donāt always have these opportunities.
(And yes, Iām willing to allow for the possibility that Iām wrong and the org did have a plan that included Hensley and Meyers and Julks and Diaz and Brown at the depth Iām saying is missing. I hope this is true. Iād still question the rotation depth even if I assume Brown will be a good pitcher across 150 innings, which I donāt. Thereās still no margin for error.)