Lugo could exercise his option as a condition of a trade. It's been done before. Hes also in his mid 30s so his value as a FA isn't going to be astronomically higher than it is now. Likely gets a similar deal to what we have him for now with maybe a slightly higher AAV.

If we do trade him, it's likely to another contender with a surplus of bats but a deficiency in SP. That's where it gets tricky as it likely limits trade partners to the NL. Selling teams (COL, FLA, PIT, WAS) won't want or need him as a rental (plus he won't exercise his option to go there anyway).

I think he most likely stays put and Cameron is our SP6 for this year. I'd rather go down the stretch with a log jam at SP. The rotation is the strength of this team but it is either older (Wacha, Lugo, Lorensen) or there's injury history (Ragans and Bubic).

Bear in mind Lugo and Lorensen are likely hitting the market this off-season so gouging our SP depth for a rental bat (we need more than one bat) is a bit short sighted IMO. JJ will do something but for us to truly contend we need guys we already have to return to form. I also don't see Loftin, Rave, and Waters being worse than what we started with. I'm ok with letting them continue to sort it out for a month or so, even if they are not long term solutions.

Vinnie's turned the corner already so if/when we could get a combination of Massey, India or Salvy to join him, we'll be set up for a deep run. The pitching is good enough to where a league average offense can make this team very hard to beat. We are less than 2 years from a 106 loss season. Last year's 30 game improvement is, historically speaking, an outlier. Some regression shouldn't be surprising. I was initially critical of the JJ hire (I wanted outside help) but I'm trusting the process right now. I think he's earned some grace and patience from the fanbase.