Gomez for Bryce Harper?

[LouisEly]

Harper has kind of worn out his welcome in WAS as he has rubbed plenty of people the wrong way. He's obviously younger, but Gomez had superior production this year (similar last year) and is a superior defender. While Harper won't be arby eligible until 2016 he's about to get very expensive, and WAS is on the hook for three more years with Werth @$21M/year and five more years and $74M owed to Zimmerman so those guys are going to be much more difficult to trade than Harper and the return would be much less.

 

Gomez is kind of at his peak right now. All-Star, Gold Glove... but we're getting kind of tired of his baserunning errors and constantly swinging for the fences, and in the second half of the season he only has a .716 OPS. Brewers take a little step back defensively but Harper would help provide some balance from the LH side. Washington gets something in return to help them compete for the playoffs the next two years; if they buy out LaRoche or Span they get nothing in return and would likely get little for Zimmerman or Werth in trade.

 

Or, even better, LaRoche + Harper for Gomez + ?

 

LaRoche is in the same situation, almost exactly, as Ramirez. Last year of deal with mutual option of $15M. If LaRoche declines, WAS makes him a qualifying offer and then no team wants to sign him and give up a draft pick so he sits and makes nothing like Drew and Morales this past season. So it is unlikely that LaRoche declines his option. But if Washington buys him out to make room at 1B for Zimmerman they get nothing in return. Washington's system is pretty barren because they've traded their prospects for Gonzalez, Fister, and Span so they could use some of the Brewers lower-level prospects to take over when those contracts are up.

 

Not sure who the Brewers need to package in the trade (Wagner? D. Williams? T. Williams?), but this helps WAS get something valuable for Harper, rids them of LaRoche's salary, makes room for Zimmerman, and adds prospects they need in their farm system.

[3and2Fastball]

Lord have mercy I'd be all over Gomez for Harper. I cannot in my wildest imagination see any scenario why Washington would do that trade but I'd love it!

 

We would have Bryce for 4 seasons before he went off to be a Yankee in 2019.

[torts]

I love Gomez but i LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Harper. I'd so be into this.

[Roderick]

Any way that Parra can play CF all season? If he can, we don't have to trade for an OF, we can hold out for the best haul of prospects if we do a teardown or you can target a corner infielder that will start in 2015 if you want to try to remain competitive.

[sheetskout]

Bryce Harper is a national brand now, with extreme-early-career endorsements to multinational companies. There's no way he's going to give that up at present and neither will the Lerner family.

 

(I would love it too, though)

[TURBO]

Harper had a very disappointing season, but I'd take him for Gomez in a heartbeat!

[vegasbrewcrew1993]

i'd do it in a heartbeat. harper is already very good at an extremely young age. this is gomez's prime right now. brewers need a new face of the franchise. would be very excited if somehow harper and donaldson ended up as brewers. why would the nationals do it though? harper is huge for marketing purposes. it would be a tough sell. he's still very young. gomez doesn't come close to creating the buzz that harper does. harper is much more than a player. think of him as baseball's mini version of the johnny manziel. both bring a lot of attention to their organizations. hard to trade away a cash cow. harper doesn't play at an elite level, but gets the attention of an elite player.

[TURBO]

If Harper doesn't start playing like an elite player soon, he will lose all that elite player attention he is getting undeservedly...

 

I get that he had a lot of hype coming into the league, but so far, he has failed to even come close to meeting that hype...

 

Maybe a change of scenery would do him some good.

[jerichoholicninja]

If Harper doesn't start playing like an elite player soon, he will lose all that elite player attention he is getting undeservedly...

 

I get that he had a lot of hype coming into the league, but so far, he has failed to even come close to meeting that hype...

 

Maybe a change of scenery would do him some good.

 

The guy's got a career 121 OPS+ and is only 21 years old. That's not Hall of Fame numbers but that's still pretty darn good.

[vegasbrewcrew1993]

If Harper doesn't start playing like an elite player soon, he will lose all that elite player attention he is getting undeservedly...

 

I get that he had a lot of hype coming into the league, but so far, he has failed to even come close to meeting that hype...

 

Maybe a change of scenery would do him some good.

strasburg hasn't lived up to the hype either. to be fair though the hype was ridiculous. i agree that the attention is undeserved at this point. coming to milwaukee would be good for him. if braun can go back to being braun, then all of the attention would be on braun and not harper.

[And That]

I would guess that, at minimum, the Nationals would also ask for Peralta or Nelson, Taylor and Coulter. If not more. Gomez is only signed for a few more years while Harper won't be a free agent until at least 2019.

[3and2Fastball]

Harper is going to completely light up the postseason. He was 2 for 4 with a HR today. The Nationals aren't going to trade him

[LouisEly]

The rumblings I hear are that he has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and they don't particularly care for his attitude. Not quite the immaturity of Lawrie but not that different either. Supposedly he's got a bit of the "entitled young athlete" syndrome and a number of people in the organization won't be sad to see him go. He's not particularly healthy for a young player either, having missed 106 games over the last two seasons.

 

Both of those things lessen his value a bit. While not a FA until 2019, he is arby eligible in 2016 and will get expensive quickly. Gomez right now is the better player, and if they are in win-now mode then they might be motivated to move him to make their run over the next two years.

[trwi7]

This is a 21 year who through his age 19-21 seasons hit .272/.351/.465 including posting an .854 OPS in his age 20 season, higher than Gomez has ever posted. The Nationals laugh the Brewers off the phone to be quite honest.

[TigerUppercut]

This is a 21 year who through his age 19-21 seasons hit .272/.351/.465 including posting an .854 OPS in his age 20 season, higher than Gomez has ever posted. The Nationals laugh the Brewers off the phone to be quite honest.

 

As others have pointed out relative to Harper's attitude, there usually is more to a trade than just the black and white. While you seem to disagree, how often do we hear the phrase "addition by subtraction" bandied about? While I think the Nats would shoot a bit higher, I don't think there'd be any giggling going on behind the scenes.

[vegasbrewcrew1993]

The rumblings I hear are that he has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and they don't particularly care for his attitude. Not quite the immaturity of Lawrie but not that different either. Supposedly he's got a bit of the "entitled young athlete" syndrome and a number of people in the organization won't be sad to see him go. He's not particularly healthy for a young player either, having missed 106 games over the last two seasons.

 

Both of those things lessen his value a bit. While not a FA until 2019, he is arby eligible in 2016 and will get expensive quickly. Gomez right now is the better player, and if they are in win-now mode then they might be motivated to move him to make their run over the next two years.

Their status as a contender might be the only reason why they'd listen to a trade offer. I'm hoping they fall short this year. Maybe they'll start to lose patience and look for an immediate upgrade.

[Outlander]

Well they fell short but Harper impressed me and he looked like their best player so I don't see this happening unless someone up high really dislikes Harper.

[monty57]

If they were trading him because they don't like his attitude, I don't think their target would be Gomez, whose style of play and attitude have received their share of negative press over his career.

[Slaket13]

The mayor of Toronto wouldn't trade Bryce Harper for Carlos Gomez. Gomez would return either a top pitcher with an expiring contact (ala Lester for Cespedes) or a decent cache of prospects.

[LouisEly]

The mayor of Toronto wouldn't trade Bryce Harper for Carlos Gomez. Gomez would return either a top pitcher with an expiring contact (ala Lester for Cespedes) or a decent cache of prospects.

Bryce Harper (BR) WAR last two seasons combined: 4.5

Carlos Gomez (BR) WAR last two seasons combined: 13.7

 

[sarcasm]Of course the mayor of Toronto wouldn't make that trade, he's high on crack.[/sarcasm]

[HiAndTight]

This is a 21 year who through his age 19-21 seasons hit .272/.351/.465 including posting an .854 OPS in his age 20 season, higher than Gomez has ever posted. The Nationals laugh the Brewers off the phone to be quite honest.

 

 

So what? One's an elite defensive CF'er, the other is a subpar defensive RF'er.

 

One has a WAR of 5.2 the past two years, the other has a WAR of 13.4.

 

Hell, Gomez is also a superior base runner to Harper.

 

Now obviously one is a 21 year old left handed power hitter who's yet to hit his prime and the other is under club control for a shorter period of time, but to try and use their performances since Harper has come in the league and suggest THAT is the main reason the trade wouldn't happen is extraordinarily flawed.

[TURBO]

 

Hell, Gomez is also a superior base runner to Harper.

 

 

I wouldn't even call him a "good" base runner, much less superior... He does idiotic things on the base paths that little leaguers are taught NOT to do.

 

He is a fast base runner, I will give him that much, but the league is full of fast guys.

[DannoMac21]

I'd imagine the Nationals would still be able to get an insane return for Harper. This isn't realistic at all.

[danzig6767]

 

Hell, Gomez is also a superior base runner to Harper.

 

I wouldn't even call him a "good" base runner, much less superior... He does idiotic things on the base paths that little leaguers are taught NOT to do.

 

He is a fast base runner, I will give him that much, but the league is full of fast guys.

When evaluating any player, you have to judge everything. Clearly Carlos makes to many boneheaded decisions on the bases. On the flip side though, he has a 111-25 SB/CS ratio the last three years as an everyday player. There are also the many times he does take that extra base or score via his great speed where he doesn't get thrown out. The brainfarts just stick out way more.

 

So when i look at his overall impact as a baserunner, to me he's still clearly above average, just not elite like he would be if he didn't make those boneheaded mistakes. It's a little similar to him as a batter. While he can be incredibly frustrating at times when he swings at a bad pitch/pitches early in the count with runners in scoring position, he did finish with a .331 BA and .881 OPS in that situation.

 

His overall production at the plate for a CF puts him in the top 5 of his position. He's an elite defender at a key position. Loved by his teammates and seems like a genuinely good guy.

 

Gomez just is such a unique and polarizing player. Overall his positives on the field vastly outweigh the negatives, but some of his mistakes can be so dumbfounding it will leave me and other Brewers fans yelling at the TV, what the hell are you doing Carlos.

[captainluigi]

That's a clown question, bro.