Guti comes back, absolutely. $5M ought to be about right. He'll want a multi-year deal, of course. Why wouldn't he? I'm good at 2, maybe 3. Maybe. With the understanding, of course, that he isn't Hank Aaron and this year's numbers won't be around next year. That's regardless of the chemical mix in his tummy meds. OK, I'm happy with 2 years.
As to Marte, his last 28 days look a bit different than his first 21, or so. The difference isn't large, but they don't have to be large to have significant impact on a guy like Marte. For the last 28 days he's .247-.308-.333. That's a 10% OPS drop from his 1st go-round. His eye has been 9-22, vs. 9-10 prior.
Combined, he's still a very pesky SS with a nice glove. But at .700 OPS he's a pretty fine offensive player. At .630 he isn't. He's a better-bat, worse-glove Brendan Ryan.
Agreed, the chemistry thing has real value. Agreed, he's even passing my eye test right now. But it is entirely possible that he is, going forward, the player he's been for the past month.
Statistically, he's been nearly identical to BOTH Taylor and Miller in Fld%. Taylor and Miller are both .973 at SS in the bigs. Marte is .972. the kid has shown a 4.41 Rng/9, bs. 4.24 and 4.16 for Taylor and Miller. Over 160 games, will he really get to 40 more balls than Miller? If so, that's pretty significant.
And, reiterating, the chemistry thing is something of value.
All in all, I am less concerned that I was but not yet convinced.
(Doc, Freddie Patek was .242-.309-.324 over his career. That's a near twin-type performance to Marte's past month. Patek had (understandably, being 5'4) a .66 career eye. He got to 5 balls per 9 over his career with a .964 Fld%. 5.04 RF/9 is a lot. Ozzie S. was at 5.22 (!!!) and Ozzie G. at 4.70. Patek was an underrated gloveman. If Marte is "only" Freddie Patek that still isn't bad, realizing, of course, he dosn't have that range...yet. But if he's worth 40 balls a season more than Miller, he's the better choice. Doubley so if his bat is better than Flea Patek's.
Montero has 62 AB's vL this year at .596; He's not hitting lefties very well right now. He had 242 AB's against them before this year; He mostly smoked them to the tune of a .300 avg. I'm not worried about his vL abilities going forward.
Go team.