The elephant in the room: What would Walker bring in trade?

[imetsatchelpaige]

OK, maybe not an elephant. But I have not seen this discussed.
We know what he was before this season.
We know what he was this season until the All-Star Game.
And we have seen him regress to 2025 standards since. (Small sample size, perhaps, but there it is).
And like you, I have no idea what happens from here.

But let's play the game. What would he bring at the deadline? Could we lock up a killer future rotation with the return?
Discuss, please...

[TraveledLessRoad]

Sloan or Anderson + someone else, if we are talking to Seattle

[JohnnyMO]

BTV isn't a big believer in Walker apparently. They have him at 19.2. 5 more than Herrera but not even close to someone like Zack Neto who sits at 60.

[Futuregm2]

I wouldn’t even entertain it. And anyone basing anything on his post AS break is kind of ridiculous. He’s been taking good ABs still and he’s had similar slumps this year and come out of them fine.

[JuanAgosto]

Satch, I think this is an incredibly interesting topic. Walker is having a great year. But I think his return (at this point), may disappoint. If he can put together a full season, it would undoubtedly improve the return.

[imetsatchelpaige]

BTV isn't a big believer in Walker apparently. They have him at 19.2. 5 more than Herrera but not even close to someone like Zack Neto who sits at 60.

Wow. Surprising.

[RamFan08NY]

I wouldn’t even entertain it.

Why not? For years the Pirates have been trading their top players for prospects, and it seems to have worked for them! Wash, rinse, repeat. the Pirates have been in year 2 of a 3 year plan since Y2K

[casey1024]

OK, maybe not an elephant. But I have not seen this discussed.
We know what he was before this season.
We know what he was this season until the All-Star Game.
And we have seen him regress to 2025 standards since. (Small sample size, perhaps, but there it is).
And like you, I have no idea what happens from here.

But let's play the game. What would he bring at the deadline? Could we lock up a killer future rotation with the return?
Discuss, please...

Why I oughta...........

[icon]

I wouldn’t even entertain it. And anyone basing anything on his post AS break is kind of ridiculous. He’s been taking good ABs still and he’s had similar slumps this year and come out of them fine.

I guess it's the elephant in his room, but not in my room or a lot of other people's rooms. Recency bias shows up again in CT.

[JohnnyMO]

BTV isn't a big believer in Walker apparently. They have him at 19.2. 5 more than Herrera but not even close to someone like Zack Neto who sits at 60.

Wow. Surprising.

Surprised me too. If his trade value was 60 or 70 I might actually consider trading him because I do have concerns he can be a consistent 30/100 guy moving forward. At around 20 there is no way I'd trade him.

Herrera on the other hand? I have a feeling his trade value is as high as it will ever be.

[imetsatchelpaige]

I wouldn’t even entertain it. And anyone basing anything on his post AS break is kind of ridiculous. He’s been taking good ABs still and he’s had similar slumps this year and come out of them fine.

I guess it's the elephant in his room, but not in my room or a lot of other people's rooms. Recency bias shows up again in CT.

"Recency bias" since the break, or over the last three years?

[Pura Vida]

He has shown his potential now and teams will be interested. But I also think they will be cautious as his consistency in the past, and since the ASG, are worthy of treading slow.

[Cardinals4Life]

BTV isn't a big believer in Walker apparently. They have him at 19.2. 5 more than Herrera but not even close to someone like Zack Neto who sits at 60.

BTV is a joke!!!!

And honestly, so is how trades are made really. GMs trading contracts (years of control) instead of actual talent. I understand that years of control, $ made, etc. ae all factors, but it seems gone are the days when we actually look for real TALENT. Give me TALENT!!

[Alex Reyes Cy Young]

I think it would be a solid move if they could get a co trolled positional can’t miss. SS or 3rd baseman.

[C-Unit]

BTV isn't a big believer in Walker apparently. They have him at 19.2. 5 more than Herrera but not even close to someone like Zack Neto who sits at 60.

BTV is a joke!!!!

And honestly, so is how trades are made really. GMs trading contracts (years of control) instead of actual talent. I understand that years of control, $ made, etc. ae all factors, but it seems gone are the days when we actually look for real TALENT. Give me TALENT!!

You must have a hard time whenever you hear... "baseball is a business"

Whenever there is money involved, there has to be a way to assign monetary value to the talent. Of course, the goal is to receive value out of a player in a trade that exceeds how the other team valued the player. And, to have the most value created by your roster for the money spent. That's what every team is trying to do.

[C-Unit]

My impulse would say the return for Walker would have to come close to the Soto deal...

That might be a bit beyond reason. But I'd have to lean towards thinking that way if I was in the seat deciding to listen on him.

If we talk about whether or not we should trade him, you have to start looking at the rest of our outfielders. They all have questions. Baez (contact), Nootbaar (probably gone), Scott (can't hit), Chase Davis (overall offensive production), Church (pretty solid can improve but is he a fulltime OF or more of a 3rd/4th OF), Cho (further away), Peete (same with contact questions). Picking out of that group to form next year's outfield would make the rebuild a lot harder imo.

It goes a long way to have one outfielder who looks like a fixture.

I'm not pinning down the OP, but it seems like with this recent losing streak the pulse of the fans is switching towards blowing everything up even further. That isn't where we are. The core of the team is in place and it's primed to naturally get better very soon just on our farm system. Trading Walker would be getting way too cute imo. He's the closest thing you have in the entire organization to being a proven middle of lineup run producer, recent slump notwithstanding.

Listen on trades before 2029 if there's no extension. Still, I'd hate it. Lock him up!