I’m just a little surprised here.
The Bombers had a bunch of young guys ready to go to the minors, so it’s a bit interesting to see that not one of his minor spots were used on pitching heading into the draft.
He did the absolute right thing in drafting Jose Quintana No. 1 overall, but it’s shocking to see that he didn’t add a Chatwood-Davies-Corbin — all pitchers who went in the second round after his pick of Jesse Winker — or Odorizzi-Newcomb in the third — both pitchers who went after his selection of Jeurys Familia.
Does Quintana-Chatwood-Odorizzi make him a playoff team?
No, I don’t think so — and thankfully for my team’s sake he didn’t go that route — but I do think it gets his name into the conversation if a few things go right.
Instead, Bombers has a very small starting staff which will make it tough to compete in 2018, and I’m sure he understands this completely.
It’s the rebuild he needs.
The Bombers figured this out midseason last year when it was clear his franchise was on its way to a second straight losing season.
This comes after five straight years in the playoffs from 2011 to 2015.
The 2016 season was a rough one and 2017 was even worse, culminating in the worst record and the No. 1 overall draft pick.
We’ve seen in years past, teams fish that No. 1 pick for a great haul — both World Series contenders from 2017 have done it.
The Bombers, however, held on to it and selected the best pitcher to be in the JLB draft in a long, long time.
Still, that didn’t mean Quintana was a sure-fire No. 1 overall pick this year because the rebuilding Bombers had some younger players in mind.
“Drafting first was difficult,” he said. “It was picking either the best available pitcher or minor leaguer for me. While looking at it all, at the end of the day I want to compete. So I went with Quintana. He was the best pitcher and it gives me a solid four.”
That “solid four” includes Rich Hill, James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka, and he also added Alex Cobb and Brandon Woodruff in the draft who will all look to make sure the Bombers meet the required starts each week.
Four other starters have green flags next to their names, including Brent Honeywell, who is now out with Tommy John surgery, and a fifth starter is Miles Mikolas.
Mikolas is 29, but he is returning to the United States after reviving his career in Japan. That helps make him still franchise eligible, so I really like this pick for the Bombers. If Mikolas pitches really well, the Bombers struck gold. If he doesn’t, then there’s really no harm or foul for a team that is going to be hard-pressed to finish higher than fifth this year.
And that’s just fine. It’s all about the rebuild — a process that started last July and one that Kyle believes is going fairly well at this point.
“I think I’d rate it a 5 or a 6 right now,” he said, on a 1-to-10 scale. “I have some decent pieces for the future especially in pitching, but it’s still a year or two away from seeing if they are decent. Losing Honeywell to Tommy John this season was a killer for me, but there is nothing I can do about it now. You can save this question for next year too when I'll have a better answer for you.”
He also may have a better infield as soon as next year.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr. could be the cornerstones of this franchise starting as early as 2019. Both prospects are just 19 years old so even next year might be too early to see them make an impact, but I can’t rule anything out based on how well these guys have played.
Guerrero will begin 2018 in Double-A and Tatis was already up in Double-A at the end of last season.
We all see Choo’s infield with Arenado and Machado. Well, Guerrero-Tatis could be the next great shortstop-third base combo in the JLB.
“I think I’m more excited for Vlad,” Kyle said, “especially coming into this season to see if he can handle being at a higher level in the minors since he smacked his way through the lower levels last season.”
That may be what happens to the Bombers this year, a bit of getting smacked around, but the promise is there for when his team reaches a higher level in 2019/2020, he’ll be the one doing the smacking.
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