I think it's possible they do want Minor as a reliever, or they like having both options. But the question remains, what does it take to get him? If he's a reliever can you just get him for Alvarez and one of the AAA starters and something else small?
They have hardly missed on all the other SP options. Anyone frome Keuchel to Gio to numerous righthanders are out there. If the idea is that Corbin and Happ were both upgrades with no trade price and Minor isn't a big enough upgrade who does have a trade price, I get that. But at the end of the day if they are going to make a trade for a solid starting pitcher, they probably are going to have give up one of last year's three SPs in the deal, and if they are going to add an SP and a late-inning reliever the 40 can't really carry Eickhoff and Eflin and all the other AAA guys as just insurance starters.
I mean, sort of. They got Nola (and Hoskins) though of course they weren't actually trying to lose in 2014. Then Kingery. The jury is out on other players and years, they have obviously been disappointing but the draft position and $ is bigger than just the first-round guys. Given Randolph and Moniak were high school players they weren't necessarily going to be answers this quickly (though of course it'd be nice to have one of those 20 year-old all-stars).
Rebuilds are also about the trades and while they could have done it better and sooner there as well (and there have been some major disappointments) 3/5ths of the current rotation and 25% of the current starting eight are still from that process. (3 of 8 if you include Herrera who probably doesn't get the opportunity if it hadn't been a rebuilding team, plus they picked pretty high in the Rule 5).
They are still paying for the failure to produce anything from before the rebuild, really. Franco, Cesar, Knapp, Altherr, Quinn - still not necessarily a single long-term keeper there, no starting pitchers, and no stars. Quinn might be the only one who ever plays in a postseason game.
