I hope we land Tanaka. With that said what about this for plan b.
Plan B.
Trade Aybar to the Mets for Jonathan Niese and prospect.
Niese is signed for 3 more years plus two option years for 10 and 11 mil. We would net about 3.5 mil this year. Now we have 18.5 mil to spend and we can go sign Balfour and Maholm. Probably have 4 mil left over.
Now we have Niese, Mulder, Richards, Skaggs and Maholm all battling it out for the 3,4,5 with Santiago as a possibility but is flexible and can go to the pen. We strengthened our pen by adding Balfour and possibly Santiago if he doesn't make the rotation and added depth and competition to our starting rotation with out hitting the tax. Thoughts?