Offseason plan
With payroll not being a concern why not buy a prospect. In particular Clint Frazier.
Ellsbury contract is three years and right now he's no more then a 5th outfielder for the yanks. Fangraphs indicates he was worth 12.8 million last year. He's obviously a declining asset. So if you assume over the next three years he's worth somewhere in the neighborhood of AAV of 9 milllion. You get 27 million.
That makes his total value of the next three years -41 million or a top 20 prospect. Maybe, with the injury along with the injury concerns of Ellsbury you can pry a top 100 prospect as well if you sweeten the pot. Something along the lines of adding Sanchez and receiving Acevado.
Then from there you move Abreu. You look at the Redsox who are desperate to keep pace with the Yankees and cannot afford to be patient with Sale and Kimbrel set to become FA. So you ask for Groome, Chavis, and Houck.
Then you move onto Garcia. He's a guy who probably doesn't have the ability to draw a top 100 prospect but maybe you can get someone like Beede who is just outside the top 100 for a desperate team like SF in need of OF help.
All these moves essentially make the addition of Ellsbury payroll neutral until the last year and you are adding Groome, Chavis, Houck, Beede and Frazier. Basically it's the same offseason as last year. You maximize the assets you have and tear things down to the bone until 2021 when you can buyout Ellsbury.
Hahn has already admitted the timetable for Abreu doesn't really matchup. That means likely more then two years at which it doesn't matter how he plays compared to Ellsbury because it's a sunk cost as far as the season goes. Also these are the type of moves Hinkie used to do all the time. It's time for the CHW to embrace it's own MLB version of the process. No halfsies.