Offseason AL-Only Keeper League Trade

I was invited to take over a team in an AL-Only keeper league a few months ago, and it took me awhile to respond due to various reasons, but I finally decided to join the league last Monday. Half of the owners in the league participate in the UBA NL-Only league, where I have been an owner for the past 5 years, so that made my decision easy. I just had so much going on at work, and I participate in 4 other money leagues, so I wanted to make sure I had enough time to devote to this league before joining.

I am taking over a team that finished in 10th place and has no minor league roster that could help via trades or promotion, so the idea of blowing up the team was my first consideration.

The best keeper on the team was a $17 Jon Lester who will be in the last year of his contract in 2012. A few of the other possible keepers on the roster include:

$11 S1 Matt Capps

$10 S0 J.P. Arencibia

$23 S0 Howie Kendrick

$27 S1 Alexei Ramirez

$10 S0 Austin Jackson

$25 S0 Adam Jones

$5 S0 Alexi Ogando

After contemplating what to do with this roster, which took about 5 minutes, I decided to blow it up, and am willing to deal anyone on the roster. Before I could even inform the league that was my intention, I got a text from Fake Teams reader thomasps3 asking for Jon Lester. He is a Red Sox fan, so I expected to hear from him. Actually, he was one of the guys who kept asking me when I would make my decision to join the league. Did he have an alterior motive?

The details of the deal are after the jump:

After about two days of text messages, I finally traded Lester, and in return I received a $10 S1 Eric Thames and the 2nd pick in the minor league draft. There were several offers discussed, and I pushed hard for Jurickson Profar, but he wasn't budging. One of the offers included Anthony Gose, Hak-Ju Lee and Eric Thames, which I thought long and hard about. I almost accepted that offer, but liked some of the guys that would be available with the 2nd pick more.

I now have the 2nd and 5th picks in the MLD, and here is a list of players available:

Xander Bogaerts

Danny Hultzen

Bubba Starling

Travis d'Arnaud

Jake Marisnick

Cheslor Cuthbert

So, I would be very happy with 2 of these guys.

I am currently looking to deal Adam Jones, and have made a few offers to other owners, but am waiting for their response. I have received offers for Austin Jackson as well, and he will probably be dealt within a day or two.

The 2012 auction draft will be loaded with hitters that I can use to deal or build for the future, including Dustin Pedroia, Alex Rodriguez, Carl Crawford, Victor Martinez, Robinson Cano, Ben Zobrist, Mike Napoli, Alex Gordon and some guy named Albert Pujols, among others.

So, how did I do with my first AL-Only league deal? Profar would have been nice, but with Lester in the last year of his contract wasn't enough. There will be other opportunities to trade for Profar after draft day, as thomasps3 has a roster that could complete in 2012. I think he knows his phone will be buzzing once the draft is over and the season is in full swing.