65 cents is better than zero. I have no delusions that Mitchell will be a lifer. Having Donovan past his current deal is not even a possibility I’m considering because I find it so unlikely. So two things can happen. We can have Donovan for the duration of his contract and get nothing when he leaves or we can trade him. In reality, Don will likely make that decision for us by demanding a trade.
Rudy could be a lifer if we keep paying him max deals. The rest of the league does not value him and I agree we won’t get much back if anything in a trade. It will be a rude awakening when we choose Don…but that’s another inevitability in my mind. There is no discussion in ownership/FO between Rudy and Don. If it comes to that point, they are picking Don. I would go as far to say that Rudy’s future with the team is almost entirely tied to Don’s opinion on him. The FO/ownership might really want to keep Rudy, but they would cave in an instant if Don wants him gone. That’s just how I see things and I don’t consider alternatives where we go against Don’s wishes as realistic. Maybe Don wants to keep Rudy around….but the fact is that if he doesn’t Rudy is gone and Don will be gone a year after he realizes he can’t win without Rudy on this roster.
I don’t even go into the details if these moves are bad or what the correct decision would be. Like I said, it’s just inevitably. Don will leave at some point. And if Don doesn’t want Rudy here, Rudy is gone. If he laid down the demand this summer, Rudy would have already been gone.
Truth is that we badly missed on our opportunity the last few years. We likely won’t have a better opportunity to win in decades…which is why I scoffed at the idea of tightly holding onto a 2028 pick or whatever it was during trade deadline. Having both Don and Rudy on the same team is incredibly rare. It was never going to last forever, so we have to win while we still have them.
