Vic Caleca: Look, Brad, I don’t know what to tell you. How could we have predicted that Vincent Powell would have this kind of disastrous year? Or that Clark Snow would get hurt? Or that we couldn’t sign any of the free agents we’d targeted … or on and on. It was a perfect storm – a perfect shit storm, if you will.
Brad Kern: Uh huh. I don’t want to hear excuses, Vic. I want to hear what you’re doing to fix this.
Caleca: Well, I am going to fix it, but I don’t think you’re going to like how I do it.
Kern: No? What do you mean?
Caleca: I’m going to fix it by getting rid of some of our best players.
Kern: Pardon?
Caleca: Look, Brad. When I came in, the team had some veteran talent, we had some kids on the major league roster who were just waiting for their chance – and we had a farm system almost completely empty of talent.
Kern: That’s an exaggeration, isn’t it?
Caleca: Is it? When the league releases its ranking of farm systems, we are routinely at the bottom – with 0 points. Zero. That’s why we’ve concentrated on free agency and trades to build the lineup – we had nothing at all in-house. And that approach worked for a couple of years. But other leagues have started competing for talent, and prices are through the roof, so that does not look to me like a sustainable path any longer.
Kern: So what does, Vic?
Caleca: We’re going to adopt the “Dragon’s Hoard” approach – the “Smaug” philosophy, if you will.
Kern: Smaug? Have you had a stroke, Caleca?
Caleca: Ah, you don’t know your Tolkien, do you?
Kern: Tolkien? What are you talking about?
Caleca: Well, in Tolkien’s classic, The Hobbit, there’s a dragon named Smaug, who plundered a mountain full of treasure from the dwarves, and then … sat on it. And that’s what we’re going to do. We are going to try to amass talent in our system, throughout our system, and then we are going to systematically hoard it until we reach a point that we can renew our major league roster each year with a minimum of reliance on free agency or trades that strip our minors bare. We won't trade draft choices, we won't go after expensive veterans in trades or free agency, and we'll grow our own damn talent.
That likely means trading some good people as they’re reaching their prime - before they get too expensive - to help restock our pool.
Kern: Frugality, then?
Caleca: Well, frugality of a sort. We’ll try to steer clear of rich long-term contracts …
Kern: Like the one you gave to Orlando Barron, for instance?
Caleca (sighs:) Yes, like that one.
Kern: So, give me a for-instance. Who would we trade to help re-stock our system?
Caleca: Naomi Honma, for one.
Kern (shocked): Honma? He’s our best player!
Caleca: Exactly so. And he’s starting to get expensive. We’ll trade him now, get some value for him, and start our hoard.
Kern: I don’t know about this … is this something you dreamed up?
Caleca (laughs): Hardly. I learned it from a GM in another league you’ve probably never heard of, and he learned it from countless other GMs throughout history.
Kern: But … but what will this mean until we reach this ‘golden era’ of sustainability you’re talking about?
Caleca: It means we’ll lose. It means we might be looking enviously at Yuma’s place in the standings for a while. It means you’ll be sending me more shitty emails like the one you sent me at the All-Star break and that I promptly recycled …
Kern: I could just fire you, Caleca.
Caleca: Huh. Really, Brad? Well, if I’m unemployed, I’ll have plenty of time on my hands to send out those photos of you at the 2028 Wild Card celebration …
Kern (sighs): Well, we wouldn’t want that.
Caleca: Relax, Brad. Send me all the emails you want. You’ll be saving money on long-term contracts, and one of these days you’ll look up and realize we’re winning again. In the meantime, you can catch up on your reading.
Kern (scoffs): Uh huh. And what would you suggest?
Caleca: If I were you, I'd start with The Hobbit …
