I think you need to step back and let things play out before you start this thread. I will be watching two things over the next 7-10 days.
1. Gorton better not let Lindberg get away.
2. Stepan cannot be on this roster come July 1.
I have a lot of faith in Gorton, but that can change quickly if he fails on either of those two objectives.
On the Stepan front, according to multiple tweets there is serious interest in Stepan. Unless that interest equals interested but not willing to make a good legit offer, Gorton needs to pull the trigger. He cannot afford to overplay his hand and say top pair RD or bust. You can take a good legit offer for Stepan that brings talent back, and then still resign Smith and sign Shatt to complete the D, or maybe flip the Stepan return pieces for a top level dman. We'd have a lot of payroll flexibility if we move Stepan with Girardi gone and Klein retiring. Gorton cannot get greedy with Stepan and let him get to July 1 here.
Gorton is under pressure right now and needs to produce. He did a real solid job last summer getting younger and making some good fringe moves like Holden and Grabner. He got off to a good start by buying out Girardi. Now he needs to get work done over the next week or so.
