Carlos Santana Ryan Zimmerman conundrum

[dannahann]

12T 7 by 7 mixed keeper. Extra cats are Hits and OPS by HR allowed and L.
We only start 1C and don't utilize MI or CI.

We use contract years (CY) as our keeper currency. One CY buys one keeper year on a player. Players coming off expiring contracts become restricted FA (RFA) and are bid upon each winter. We just started the bidding process which takes about a month via email to process everyone.

I won last season so I have the fewest keeper units to spend this off season. After meeting my carryover obligations on players with time remaining on multi year deals I only have two units remaining. I had planned to spend them signing Granderson and Santana at one year each prior to our March draft of all remaining players not on contract.

The conundrum came about with a trade last week in which one of the assets I acquired was the matching rights to Zimmerman (he is RFA). My question is would I be better off matching Zimmerman if he is only bid to 1CY or keep Santana with that final CY?

My carryover keepers include Tulo 4CY, Pedrioa 2CY, Prince 2CY, and Crawford 1CY. We also keep 2 free rookies. Mine will be Pineda and Harper.

The following 3B are either already signed or I expect them to be bought during RFA or as rooks: Bautista Longo Beltre Wright (Zimm) Lawrie Youk Sandoval A-Roid Aramis Reynolds and Moustakas.

For catchers the signed (or will be signed) group includes (Santana) Napoli McCann Posey Mauer Wieters both M and J Montero Avila Arancabia Ramos and V-Mart (someone is stuck with his final yr)

Do I match Zimm if I can get him at 1CY or do I sign Santana with it?

[joncarlos]

I think I'd take Zim. I love them both, and Santana ranks higher at C than Zim does at 3B. But in a league that is only starting 12 catchers, your catcher will end up being OK. It looks like there are only about 3 owners chasing catchers, and if I'm reading this right Santana would go back in the pool for you to draft on draft day anyway?

What I'm saying is I think I'd rather have Zim + 13th best C instead of Santana + 13th best 3B.

[chancellor]

I'd take Zim without hesitation in a 1C league.

[dannahann]

I think I'd take Zim. I love them both, and Santana ranks higher at C than Zim does at 3B. But in a league that is only starting 12 catchers, your catcher will end up being OK. It looks like there are only about 3 owners chasing catchers, and if I'm reading this right Santana would go back in the pool for you to draft on draft day anyway?

What I'm saying is I think I'd rather have Zim + 13th best C instead of Santana + 13th best 3B.

Thanks for your responses JC and chancellor. That's correct, Santana would go into the open draft. There might be a few other owners chasing catchers as one guy is keeping Napoli, McCann, and Ramos as a rook; the guy on the hook for the CY on V-Mart will need a healthy C; until Yahoo opens I'm unsure if the Jesus Montero owner will have the option of starting him at C? On the flip side the guy with Miguel Montero has Avila too so he could cut one.

To be clear your recommendations to keep Zimm only apply if he gets bid no higher than 1CY, correct? I only have 2 to spend and plan to use one to sign Granderson for a year. I could also opt to lock up Granderson for 2 years, get into the draft a round sooner and kick both Zimm and Carlos back. It's tough to know how many players others will be keeping (hence where they enter the draft) until we finish up our RFA bidding season. Verlander Ellsbury Braun Cliff Lee Votto Bautista and Weaver have processed in the past several days but there are still about 30-35 good keepers coming to bid.