Yeah, Rendon apparently wanted out and there was probably no way to counter that but ... got a feeling if Rizzo and the Lerners were gonna pay one, it still woulda been Stras. To my mind, too many pitchers (at least these days) are just so "fragile."
Pitchers are "fragile" because what is being asked of them is stuff the human body just can't hold up doing long term. You don't see guys coming up throwing 85 mph, pitching complete games, and having 20 year careers. The game shifted to throwing harder and harder, and even though genetically each generation seems to be able to have more and more guys who can throw that hard, the wear and tear on throwing that hard with nasty breaking stuff breaks the body down way faster than throwing 85. I think we are way past the point of going backwards, and we all have to accept that pitchers are going to fail, and their careers are going to be shorter. Then again, position players seemingly have shorter careers than the previous generations as well. Call it "cleaning up the sport" or what have you, but it's probably a combo of degrading bat speeds and mounting injuries.
