I agree about Vazquez unfortunately. I want to see us do a responsible retool, more or less in line with what Huntington has repeatedly been trying to do, except to tap into the core a little bit more in order to get better pieces back. The Dodgers have the talent depth to be attractive, especially if you can pry guys like Stripling away as part of a package. Stripling, Smith/Ruiz, and a couple pitchers from lower down on their list would be a nice haul.
The trouble is, Cleveland is in just as bad a situation as us, and should be making Brad Hand available, who is arguably more appealing than Vazquez in a trade.
While there's still going to be 1% of me that holds out for the miraculous, i.e., a long winning streak that starts today (let's say 9 games, win today, sweep the Fish, then run the table on the homestand), the rational part of me is fully acknowledging the fact that signifiant changes need to be afoot. Vazquez is probably the best trading chip that we have in terms of risk/reward and how volatile closers can really be.
Marte is a good trading chip too, although I think his detractors are going to be in for a rude awakening with what life looks like without him. The Phillies are the obvious fit, but I do not like any of their prospects well enough to want to move Marte. Marte is a dominant CF with an almost unparalleled skillset across the league, outside of perhaps Cain, and he's going to look that much better on a team where he doesn't need to be the 1st or 2nd best guy in the offense all the time.
At the end of the day though, Huntington maneuvering for a bigger deal like this is just utterly depressing to me. I have the confidence that he can probably fix some current holes by nibbling around the edges, moving a guy like Cabrera, and give the team another shot to have everything work out perfectly, multiple guys play well at the same time, no injuries, etc. in 2020. But beyond that? He could tap slightly into the young core here and get 6-8 players back. If he gets the right mix, we're a division contender by this time next year. If he doesn't, we're a cellar team with Josh Bell on the block.
So I dunno, maybe rooting for the winning streak is the only sane option. I guess the "middle ground" position here to what I'm thinking out loud about is move Vazquez + Cabrera, Dickerson if anyone will have him, and perhaps Frazier, and then anoint Crick the new closer and let the rest of the bullpen guys see if they can figure it out, which has the side benefit of padding the L column to get a better pick. Then you hope to head into 2020 with a better bullpen and the pieces from the Vazquez deal, and if that's not going to work, you have Marte and Bell to think about moving next summer. But I think as tempting as it is to just say move Vazquez and Marte, I don't see the team emerging that gives you good value for Marte this summer.