[Pelican]

Totally enjoying your accounts - primarily because I have also taken on the challenge of reviving the Pale Hose. In my case, I ask the question "what if the White Sox had as much money to spend as some of the top MLB teams?" Not Dodger or Met or Yankee money, but plenty of room for free agent contracts. Long story short, I now have the 7th highest payroll, at $197,631,500. This massive spending (see below) has gotten Chicago to third place, with a 13-15 record, on May 3rd.

Yup, signed Bieber for $12M for one year. He is 3-1 with a minuscule ERA.
His ratings are 44/57/76 on a 0-100 scale.

Profar for $3M for one year. Hitting .358. Money.

Gleybar Torres for $6.8M for one year. .250, 5 HR, 14 RBI.

H.S. Kim at SS for $3.960M for one year (seeing a pattern here with one year contracts). He is hitting .208.

Somehow traded Braden Shewmake for Marcell Ozuna in a contract dump for Atlanta. Smart move for the Bravos. Ozuna has been awful.

OF Dominic Fletcher to LAD for Clayton Kershaw, another huge contract dump. He is 0-3 and 4.10 and of course flirting with injury. Bad move.

Overpaid for Danny Jansen at $11.5M for one year. .239 hitter. But solid behind the plate.

Signed Carson Kelly for $1.9M. .107 hitter.

Anthony Santander for $31.8M for three years. And he is pounding the ball at .333 with 5 HR and 18 RBI.

SP Frankie Montas for $2.6M for a year. Already 2-2 and 3.70 and eating innings.

Thairo Estrada at 2B for $7.2M. Hitting .290 with 3 HR and 8 RBI. Solid.

Overpaid for RP Steve Okert at $6.8M. But needed a lefty in the pen.

Foolishly traded Miguel Vargas [.381] to the Pirates for Bae [.000].

Minor league deal Jon Cannon to the Orioles for Dylan Beavers. Beavers is tearing up AAA and will be in Chicago soon enough.

Traded Drew Thorpe to KC for Hunter Harvey. Harvey does not have great ratings.

Claimed Pierce Johnson off waivers from the Braves, and he has pitched well out of the pen.

Signed Verlander to a $2M deal, and he is 0-2 and 5.66 and presently on the IL. His contract incentives are unlikely to trigger.

After all those moves, I really need more production from holdovers Luis Robert [.184 4 13] and Andrew Vaughn [.253 1 9] to compete. Garrett Crochet is 3-1 and 3.03 ERA.

As a further study in masochism, I also have 2025 sims with the Gnats and the Pirates. Again, assuming a wealthy Silicon Valley type or bitcoin mogul has bought the team and provided funding. None of these teams will be the Dodgers, but I am learning that, with comparable budgets, MLB would be very competitive.