Keep Dom. His hitting is improving and defense matters to the pitchers and especially to CJ. Send Call to Rochester. Trade Dickerson soon: he will not return much because he would be a half-season rental, but then bring back Call. Or maybe Hill, if Hill can hit major league pitching.
And remember that Robles over his career has not hit that much better than Call has. Maybe Robles has found a way to hit -- he had a couple home runs last night, but every Red Wing Was hitting last I looked. I'm feeling "prepared to be disappointed, but, wow, if Robles has become a real ballplayer..."
His "improvement" was a .733 OPS in May. So far, in June, he's at below .600. Dom Smith is what we thought he was: A taller version of Lombardozzi.
CJ needs to be sent down. Keeping a poor hitting first baseman because he might keep your shortstop under 40 errors is pretty terrible player development. CJ is clearly not ready for MLB ball and it shows. It was extremely telling that San Diego thought Tatis was better defensively, and moved CJ to CF and 2B
After the deadline, available playing time needs to be given to potential future parts of this team. Jake Alu and Darren Baker should be getting reps/at bats in LF. Time to see what they got, if anything.
Robles spent the offseason working on hitting. He showed marked improvement during the early part of this season. His metrics and peripherals indicate that its not luck, but that he is genuinely picking better pitches to swing at and hitting them harder when he does. By all measurements, hes a better hitter than Dom Smith. And even if he werent, elite defense in CF is far more valuable than good defense at first.
Smith needs to go. He has no trade value. If you're so worried about CJ's throwing errors, then its time to send CJ down and let Vargas take short.
