I'm most pessimistic about Bell. He still looks like he'll be a solid player, but I just don't see the impact, and we could really use impact at that position. We'll see, maybe a power surge will come, but the whole lineup has basically fallen off a cliff with power.
I think Polanco has looked much better since making the adjustments at the plate. Mainly, this has meant less of him getting under balls and/or fouling them off, with some falling for hits.
The young player I want to see ASAP the most is probably Newman. He's hitting like crazy, although not for a lot of power. But if he can field the position well, then maybe he returns to the under the radar talent that so many people liked a while ago. I can see the rationale in continuing to get him regular at-bats, but we need to do some housecleaning. DFA Sean Rod and that already opens up a utility spot. I wonder if the first shoe to drop in terms of trades might be Harrison. He won't garner a ton, but it's probably the final symbolic nail in moving on from the last era, and it would open up many more at-bats for Newman / Kang.
Nova might actually be the strongest trade chip we have, if he keeps pitching this well. Even relapsing somewhat, he's great value for a team that needs innings down the stretch. If we fall a little bit further out of the race, then I'd like to see us aggressively shop him so that Kingham can get an even longer look, and maybe some starts even open up for Glasnow. But assuming we bounce back a little bit here and are nominally hanging around (7 or so games out), I'm not sure what the best route forward is. There's no sense just moving guys, but some of it might come down to basically attempting to add by opening up spots for some younger players, which has the added benefit of continuing to build for the next couple years.
