OK, you've likely seen the report:  Segura and potentially another player to Philadelphia for JP Crawford and (get this, if you haven't seen the reports) Carlos Santana, a slow 32-year old-ish man of the 1B/DH variety.  The M's are reportedly "resistant" to getting Santana in the deal. No matter, we will.  At least we will get to hear a whole bunch of "Black Magic Woman" as he comes to the plate.

Move one thread to the right and you'll see my feelings about a straight-up Segura for Crawford swap. Basically we would give up a guy who projects to keep hitting, just like he is (or maybe better) for the next five seasons, or more, and get in return a guy who walks but doesn't project to hit.   In 2021, when DiPoto's plans that we contend, Sudden Segura would be a heck of a MIF to have, considering we don't have any others who can hit.  Crawford, btw, has never hit above .265 in any AA or AAA season or portion of a season.  

Santana is evidently the salary balance guy in the deal:  He's owed $41M over two seasons, Segura $59.5 over four seasons.  Somehow saving $18M means that Segura is expendable.  Seriously, Servais must hate the guy.

So we get a large lumbering switch hitter, who walks a ton (.363 career OBP) and will hit 25 HR's. Oh, he's real expensive.  And we get him for two years when DiPoto has no intention to compete (Don't get me wrong:  Santana has had some fine years.  It's just that he would have been nice a few years ago, or this year...if we weren't selling the farm).  Take a look and you will notice that we have quite a few of those large lumbering guys to fill 1B/DH already. To wit:  Healy, Bruce, Vogelbach.

Adding Santana means that we have to dump Healy or Vogs; you can bet on Vogs.  This is really weird, considering Vogelbach just might be a bat to have around in '21....when we're supposed to compete.  But how would we really know....because Servais won't play him.

It wouldn't surprise me if we add an OFer (which could mean Gamel).  Dumping Santana means Philly can move Rhys Hoskins to 1B and get his atrocious glove out of the OF.  It would also make them a player in the Harper sweepstakes.  But they don't have an obvious LF sitting around, considering Aaron Altherr has started to K at an alarming rate and completely crashed and burned in '18.

Perhaps we resist getting Santana, but that just means we get somebody else expensive and not any better way down the road when we want to compete.  Maybe that would be a RP like Pat Neshek.

All the same, this one smacks of brain-addled crazy to me.  That is, unles Segura is a total dillweed in the lockerroom or unless we really think JP Crawford is an All-Star about to explode.  Lay your bets down on that one.  But if it isn't one of those two, then we're trading away an All-Star bat, at a MIF position, for a few future bucks.

Now we get a whole bunch of Gordon at 2B this season, but weirdly, we can't play him a whole bunch in '20.  His contract states that if he gets 600 '20 PA's or 1200 '19-'20 PAs, then he's guaranteed for '21.....for just pocket change less than we would be paying Segura.  So there is the real possibility that we get Gordon for three seasons (I suppose we can just let him go in '20) and Segura for zero.  And for all that, we would save just under $15M in '22 dollars, which might be sort of like Monopoly money.  

What was it Hunter S. Thompson said?

Edit:  It looks like Nicasio might be the other guy we send that way, balancing out the salary cost of Santana over Segura.  If it is Nicasio, we may have to send $5M or so to make it right.