Now that
The Nation is all 'comfy-cozy' with the notion of unloading
Jackie Bradley, Jr. (
plus prospects) for
José Abreu, along comes that pesky
Dave Cameron of
FanGraphs.com. Cameron makes a very compelling argument that
Bradley and Abreu have essentially been the same guy over the last three seasons—at least according to that quirky "WAR" stat. In fact, JBJ outpaces Abreu 9.7 to 9.1. Now, we here in the
GeekSquad section of FenwayNation don't put all of our "evaluation eggs" in the WAR basket—but Cameron
does make a good point. Why get rid of perhaps the best CF defender in baseball for a slugger who is two years older and just "OK" defensively at first base? We would argue that Abreu needs to be
augmented in the lineup with free-agent
J.D. Martinez—effectively adding a total of 75-80 HRs over 2017. Martinez could play a serviceable LF, while
Andrew Benintendi would give the team a
very solid defense in center (not JBJ-like, but still pretty good). Cameron argues, however, that—going forward—JBJ will be just as valuable (
if not more so) as Abreu—and cheaper! It's a lot to think about—just when we were getting excited about this deal.
